Admittedly I wasn't very excited about this collection when I saw the press release. Honestly, I have so many pinks that it is hard to find a new gotta-have-it shade. Nice Stems is made up of three base polishes, all in pretty pinks and a gorgeous top coat. Keep reading to see if these rosy hues are worth a look...

I loved these colors together so I had to figure out a way to wear them all, since I couldn't decide between them. I used Orly Pure Porcelain as a base, on all nails I layered Coquette Cutie and my highlight nails are topped with Ancient Jade.

Natural light

You may remember a little while back I showed you a little bit of a franken I made- Chaos. I finally made myself a big bottle of this and wore it as a full mani. And then I went to work and saw we had gotten in the SH crackle polishes and I snapped up Fuchsia Shock.

...it's like a gluey consistency and won't seem to break down even with pure acetone. It happened to 2 Seche bottles, I've used them before with no issue so I thought this was weird! Any guesses?

Anyways, back on topic...

I quickly applied a coat of Fuchsia Shock over the polish I already had and was kind of disappointed. When I picked this up I have grand visions of it over so many colors- in my opinion pink goes with nearly any color. So when I brushed it on and the pink barely had enough coverage to go over pale blue, I was a little disappointed. I mean, you can see the glitter in my base polish THROUGH the pink. No Bueno!

So on my other hand I decided to try a thicker coat. Now, I want to say that this is not easy. The brush this polish comes with is small (think Essie) and I can only coat half my nail before this stuff starts to dry. Sometimes if you take too long to apply it it gets mad or something and doesn't quite work right- so you have to move fast. The small brush makes this really annoying and I think that OPI has it right (can't comment on others) with the mop like brush that covers (albeit somewhat messy) in one quick coat.

Just to be sure, I did a bunch of swatches on paper. Which, I have photos of but they are kinda on my dead camera at the moment so I will upload them tomorrow and link later. Among them I tried both dark and light colors and decided that this was one polish I would be returning- which I have never done before. Over dark colors it was pretty much useless. You can't tell that it is pink because it takes on the color beneath it. Even over lighter colors (think pink would look awesome over yellow? SO DID I) it takes on the tone of the base (over yellow it appears orange). If you apply it thick enough this isn't so much of a problem- but I had issues getting it to be consistently thick on each finger.

While I haven't tried the other colors, I have discussed the silver one and have seen it used and it also seems to be more on the sheer side (on her nails it went on more like a metallic top coat and had minimal crackles).

As for how it crackles, I can't put my finger on it but I just don't care for the way it does- both thick and thin. I was over all unimpressed. These retail for $6.99 and can be found in most drug stores.

I recently had the chance to review some nailpolishes from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. I have heard a literal ton of reviews on their Lip Tars but barely anything about their polishes. Today I have half of the shades I tried, I'm saving my favorites for last so look out for the second part on Saturday :) So how does OCC polish stand up?

Most of these polishes took 2 coats, and for the majority they had a great consistency. The thing I really want to mention about these polishes though is wear time. I put one of these on after swatching and it went CHIP FREE for 6 days- no touch-ups. I didn't even use top coat! Just a slathering of Seche Clear as a base. Instead of top coat I decided I would be cruel and put a matte coat over- knowing perfectly well that I've never had a matte mani hold up longer than a day. Just wait- I'll show you proof in my next post! And this isn't a freak occurrence, my mother tried on a shade and found that she couldn't even pick it off- with no base or top coat. To me, that says something.

Flawed- described on their site as "SANDSTONE WITH A GOLD/BRONZE OVERLAY (METALLIC)". I find this shade to be a little hard to describe, but I think they do it well. This isn't a standard gold polish- a little bit dirty almost. Not the kind of metallic I was expecting, when I think of metallic I think of China Glaze Tronica- but maybe that's me. I do think I like it better with this finish though. The formula on this one was a little thinner, so I used 3 coats. There is still a little bit of VNL at some angles, but don't let that scare you!

Hush- described on their site as "SOFT, ANTIQUE PINK - SATIN" This is so pretty! Perfectly girly, dusty rose pink. I really really love the dusty antique tone, and this is super shiny on it's own. While not the most exciting color this is a perfect work-safe option. The application was great- 2 coats.

OCC polish is available on their website and retails for $8 a bottle.

Have you tried any OCC products? See anything you'd like to try?

*this post contains products provided for review, this in no way alters my review.

With the new Texas collection OPI is trying to introduce a new finish, Sorbet. Most people are just sticking to calling them jelly and they are very very similar. The sorbet has a slight creamy touch to it and it does remind me of sorbet (think specifically of when it is slightly melted, like after you scoop it with a warm spoon). Is it enough to call it a new finish? That's for you to decide. I did find these to all be a little on the runny side, so please excuse pooled cuticles- I'm really horrible with that! I did find these less streaky then similar polishes, although I found they all worked best at 4 coats (though you can get away with 3). They were also super shiny!

One thing I didn't think of before swatching these is how much my camera hates these kinds of

textures. I shoot nearly all my swatch photos with flash- I find for me with my camera this gives me the best true to color swatches. But when it comes with anything anywhere near sheer this becomes a problem. While these polishes do give you some VNL (don't be afraid of VNL- it's not always a bad thing!) my flash will exaggerate how bad it is, so please keep this in mind!

And because I know you've probably seen swatches of these a lot by now, at the bottom I layered them over white and how it looks coat by coat.

Now that we have that out of the way...SWATCHES!

Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?- delicious bright orange. This is a shade that would be great nearly all year round.

From thumb to pinkie- Houston We Have A Purple, Do You think I'm Tex-y, Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em, Big Hair...Big Nails, Guy Meets Gal-veston- and in the corner is Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?

Talk about sexy neons! Over white really brings out the true colors and makes them look super neon!

All in all, I liked these a lot. I'm a big fan of jelly finishes (despite how my camera feels) and these are no different. They remind me of summer and frozen delicious treats, and they make me long for my vacation to come quicker than ever.

I don't quite get the name on this one. Orly Supernatural is a beautiful dusty pink full of shimmer and I almost want to say it's kinda mauve. It's very pretty and for some reason was a lemming for quite awhile, then after I finally got my hands on it I left it sitting in my untried pile for months. I finally put it on and I remember why I wanted it so bad. It's just simply a beautiful flattering pink that is still in my opinion work appropriate. Here is 2 coats.

Katy Perry...I don't particularly care for her. But I can't help denying that these polishes are both an awesome collection and totally remind me of Katy Perry.

Nicole by OPI recently released four polishes exclusive to Walmart. There isn't any real theme between these colors, they all feature the new Perfect Stroke brush once again. More details under each polish...

Got Style?- I wasn't expecting to like this polish from the bottle but after I put it on I really like it, especially for the fall and winter. It's a hard to describe color: kinda red, kinda brown, kinda pink. 2 coats.

Today I have swatches of the 4-piece Liquid Metals collection. These polishes are all a high-shine foil like finish. I was surprised there wasn't a silver polish in these but also glad to see some more interesting colors. These all featured the new Perfect Stroke brush and were very nice to apply. I did 3 coats each out of habit (and maybe a little bit of OCD) but could have probably gotten away with 2. I can't wait to try stamping with these babies!

If you haven't tried Funky Fingers yet I recommend them! They are 3 for $5 at Five Below.

As promised, I'm getting off my lazy butt and posting! One thing I have learned is I just can't swatch a bunch of polish and post- I never get around to it. You should see my backlogs, if I wanted to I wouldn't have to do my nails for months but I just can't motivate myself to post any of them :(

Onto the nails, I picked up Claire's Rose Petal (which for some reason I always think is called Ballerina until I look at the label) which is a softy dusty pink. I used 3 coats and it applied pretty decent. Over my pointer I layered some Orly-silver-glitter-I-can't-remember-the-name-of and over the middle I used a konad image that I had previously had problems getting right. If I don't get this konad image just right it looks horrible...but I managed to succeed and can I say I love it? And on the pinky I added a couple little pearls. I liked this manicure a lot- it's very spring but hey, we haven't had any snow yet (and I'm not complaining). I managed to wear this about 4 days with very minimal chipping.

I even tried to take a photo of both of my hands for you! I think I've posted my right hand on here maybe twice before? I just think my right hand is ugly- mostly due to the "writers bump" I acquired in school. But they are a little shorter than my right hand which kinda drives me crazy...