Swatch and Review: OPI Grape Set Match and Serving Up Sparkle

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post... it has been a stressful day at home!

Today I have a duo that I searched for, to no avail, last year, but managed to find at TJ Maxx on sale, along with another duo I swatched a nail polish from earlier in the week, OPI Love is a Racket. So here is the Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo: Grape Set... Match and Servin' Up Sparkle!

OPI Grape Set... Match is a gorgeous royal purple nail polish with blue shimmer that gives it the appearance of a blurple! When pictures of these duos were first released, I knew this was the one I wanted more than anything. And I'm SO happy I got it!

The application was a dream and with two coats, I could not have asked for better opacity.

 

OPI Servin' Up Sparkle is definitely a nail polish meant for layering. If you want to build it up to see if you can ever get it opaque, you are a far braver soul than I am. It was a little tough to take off, but was not the worst I've ever seen. (I'm looking at YOU, Nubar Night Sparkle). Zoya Remove + got the job done. That being said, I imagine it would be very difficult to take off after 8 coats for opacity's sake. *Shudder*

The glitter was a little too sparse for my personal taste (above was one coat), but I loved the inclusion of hexagonal glitter. Hex glitter seems to be very on-trend this year, so OPI was ahead of the curve in 2011.

Overall, I'm glad that I finally managed to get the duo and would definitely recommend Grape Set... Match.

Hump Day Holo: Color Club Wild at Heart

Hump Day Holo is back with my first Color Club swatch on the blog. It's a gorgeous purple holo called Wild at Heart.

This was borrowed from a friend of mine, so I do not have the bottle. But it looks much nicer on my nails than in the bottle!

Depending on how you look at your nails, the nail polish looks either like a super scattered holo or a linear holo. Sometimes, it even looks like both. But do I care which one?

New York Sports Water Marble

It was a weekend full of water marbles for Princess Polish, having rocked the Relay for Life Water Marble Friday and Saturday and a new water marble Sunday and Monday.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of sports. I love it all. But my two biggest loves in life are the NY Knicks and the NY Mets, the latter of which I am fortunate enough to call my employer. So with the Knicks clinging tightly to a spot in the playoffs and the Mets off to the best April start since I was in high school, I thought it was time to break out the blue and orange.

Selecting the actual polishes to work with was much harder than you would think it'd be. The shades used by both teams are very similar and vivid. So I couldn't choose something too pastel in the orange family and it was difficult to find a blue that wasn't too light or too dark on the spectrum.

The orange was easier to select, since I only have a handful in my orange polish drawer. But the blue... well, it's the heaviest of the drawers. That should pretty much spell it out for you.

In the end, I went with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It and Essence Wake Up (more on that shade a little later in the week).

I found out that blue and orange are hard colors to marble together because if you're not careful, they'll blend together to look brown. But I figured that out only one nail in and was super careful after that.

This is my right hand all marbled up. Unfortunately, I thought my left hand came out nicer, but managed to crack a nail shortly before I was ready to take a picture. The whole hand looks like my middle finger. So you're stuck with my right for now. Sorry, everyone. This was (Daniel?) Murphy's law at its best. (Mets fans will get that joke)

Now here is the ultimate problem: REMOVAL.

Essence Wake Up applied like butter and came off as easily as it should have. Sally Hansen Blue it made me want to cry. It stained my cuticles to the point I had to take a shower, use cuticle remover, and then soak my hands in warm water. And that was before I even tried to take the polish off. (Confession: I got a manicure so the nail tech had to do that for me. Bless her heart.)

While I love my Mets (Oh hey, David Wright!) and my Knicks (Oh, welcome to the party, old Carmelo Anthony. So nice of you to join us with 15 games left in the entire season.), I don't think I would ever do this again. It was too much of a headache to remove and clean up. I'll just stick to my good, old-fashioned Metsicure.

Although, if the Mets make it to the World Series, I'll double barrier with tape and Vaseline. May this be my problem come October.

Until tomorrow!
Princess Polish

Relay for Life Water Marble

On Friday afternoon, as I sat down to do my nails for that evening's Relay for Life, I was stuck trying to decide what I wanted to do with my manicure. I couldn't pick a shade of purple, the color of Relay. Should I go dark or light? Glittery or creme?

And then I could have smacked myself. Duh. DO ALL OF THE ABOVE!

I picked out Essie Bangle Jangle for the light, Orly Fowl play for the dark and glittery (FLAKIESSSSS!),  and Zoya Mira for the in-between.

After doing a quick coat of Bangle Jangle for opacity's sake, I got to work.

 

And this was the end result. I was really happy with it overall. 

First and foremost, Bangle Jangle was a nail polish dream and applied beautifully. The other colors seemed to play off each other rather nicely and make an impact. My nails were the talk of relay, especially once word got around that they were the reason I was the #2 fundraiser.

I was a little upset at the event, truth be told, because in years past, they had recognized the top 3 individual fundraisers and top 3 teams. This year, they only recognized the top individual, while doing all three teams again. My team, the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Club (hey Pebbles!), was the top team. And that was awesome. But I was a little sad they skimped out. I really wanted them to mention that I had raised the money in honor of my dad. 

But at the end of the day, the good of what this money did far outweighed my minor disappointment. It only lasted a few minutes. I just hope that the nearly $80,000 raised overall at the Rutgers event really makes a difference in people's lives. I know a lot of you donated in honor of a loved one lost, currently battling the disease, or a survivor. And I thank you for allowing me to honor them on your behalf that night. It was truly a wonderful experience that I will treasure.

Much love and appreciation!

Princess Polish