Gargantuan Green Grape

From: OPI Brights Collection

 http://olivianneshop.multiply.com/products/listing/10662/OPI_NAIL_POLISH_GARGANTUAN_GREEN_GRAPE

            Last night I attended a Paint Party, I wasn’t able to go to dayglow and this wasn’t 50 dollars, so it was a win in my books. It was extremely fun and worth the casualties I suffered. These casualties include, a pair of old tennis shoes, sequin spandex, a bruised knee, and, to my horror, my nails. While my 40 minute shower and Foam party I crashed after cleaned off almost all of the paint from my body and hair (I did find some paint in my ear this morning, but to be expected) it did not help my nails. Paint tends to stay on nails, and unfortunately it wasn’t a cool splatter effect but rather globs of yellow on my pink nails (ewh). So this morning as I was leaving, I grabbed some nail polish remover and a bottle out of my nail polish drawer.

            I grabbed Gargantuan Green Grape. It’s a light green color with yellow undertones, so not super minty. It is perfect for this nice sunny weather, and I’ll admit I was feeling a little colorless this morning. My only problem with this color is it needs 4 coats, which is a little excessive. But other then that it really does remind me of big, juicy, green grapes. Italy is the number one producer of grapes, with the US coming in third behind China. Now, I was born in the beautiful Napa Valley, California, which is wine country and covered in vineyards. So it might just be me who loves grapes and everything to do with them. I grew up next to vineyards, which is where grapes are grown, mainly for vine making. The Roman Empire invented the techniques for grape growing that we use today, though cultivation of grapes started much earlier then that.

            So while I was sad to see my nails destroyed, I love the new color on my nails, and its connection to my birthplace. Whether or not you’ve been to Napa Valley or even a vineyard hopefully you can still enjoy some grapes with this new nail polish shade!

Dulce de Leche

FROM: OPI’s Classics Collection

When I first heard this color I though of Lychee. My mom loves Lychee, and she must it in her fruit salad, which is apparently a dessert. I really am not a fan of Lychee, the taste isn’t half bad but it is the texture that I just can’t seem to get past. Lychee is a subtropical fruit found in South East Asia and China. It has an outer red skin with a white fruit inside. They are a good source of vitamin C.

After some more research, I was pleased to find out that Dulce de Leche, actual has nothing to do with the Lychee fruit. It actual means candy of milk, or milk jam. It is a jam popular in Lain American, it is also called manjar or cajeta. The French have their own version known as confiture de lait. It is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a jam, which is basically caramelized sugar. It is extremely sweet and is often found in an ice cream flavor.  

I was excited about the sweet history of OPI’s Dulce de Leche, which is now part of their classics collection.  It’s a nice nude that goes on really well and will forever remind me of this sweet treat. I’ve attached a recipe for Dulce de Leche so you can enjoy some sweet jam, which goes well on baguette with your new OPI shade!

           

Ingredients

4 cups (1 quart) (1 liter) whole milk (cow's or goat's milk)

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put the milk, sugar, corn syrup, baking soda and salt in a large, heavy-duty 8 quart (8 liter) saucepan or Dutch oven. Place over medium to medium-high heat and bring just to a boil. Watch carefully, and as soon as the milk begins to foam up, stir with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, and reduce heat until the milk is just at a low rolling boil. (If the milk foams up too much, remove the saucepan from the heat until the foam starts to subside. Then return to heat.)

Continue to cook the milk, stirring the bottom and sides of the saucepan frequently, until the mixture becomes very thick and sticky and caramel colored. The more you cook the Dulce de Leche, the thicker and more caramel colored it will become. Once the Dulce de Leche has been reduced to about 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) it is ready. Remove from heat and strain, if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract. Let cool before covering and storing. The Dulce de Leche can be stored in the refrigerator for at least a month.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/DulceDeLecheRecipe.html#ixzz1rqnk3RK6

My Pointe Exactly

From: OPI’s New York City Ballet Collection

           My mood for once has nothing to do with choosing this particular color.  I just really liked the name. OPI came out with six new soft shades that make up their new New York city Ballet Collection. “My Pointe Exactly” is a blue gray that is very sheer. All of the colors in this collection are sheer. Three coats are needed and you can’t have old nail polish on underneath.

            I was debating telling you guys about the history of pointes for this blog post, but I decided not to. Mainly because I still have scars (emotional and physical) from my pointes. Needless to say my ballet career ended very early on in my life.

            But instead I decided that I’d educate you all on the New York City Ballet. They are one of the best dance companies in the world and they train artist as well as create their own shoes. They perform in the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. They were the first ballet institution in the world! The company has 90 dancers as well as a school that has 350 aspiring dancers. The idea behind the company was to breed dancers from the US. They opened the doors of their theater in 1948.

            So whether you are like me, and scarred from adolescent ballet lessons, or you’ve never danced a day in your life you can still enjoy OPI’s New York City Ballet Collection  

Did you 'ear About Van Gogh

From: OPI's Holland Collection Spring/ Summer 2012

         http://addictedtoallthingspretty.com/2012/01/opi-holland-collection-for-spring-summer-2012-review-and-swatches/

   I’ve been in a very neutral nail polish mood for this week. It might be due to the cooling whether, an increasing workload, or the fact that nudes are pretty. Regardless, I was looking through the OPI nail swatches collection online (online they have a studio where you can test out different nail colors and you can change your skin tone and nail length!) and I found this little gem called Did you ‘ear about Van Gogh. Being somewhat of an art nerd I had to laugh. Van Gogh is from the Netherlands so he is right at home in OPI’s Holland Collection. But even more funny is the fact that they used the word ‘ear to obviously stand for hear. This is rather clever because Van Gogh cut off his own ear. I love witty humor.
            Any way, Van Gogh is a famous post- impressionist artist. He is noted for his harsh brush strokes, strong emotions, and bold color (ironic that OPI would choose a nude color, oh well you can’t expect them to be art historians). One of his most famous pieces, Starry Night, can be found in the MOMA (museum of modern art) next to another one of his paintings The Olive Trees. My personal favorite painting of his is Café Terrace at Night, which is unfortunately located in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands. Today he is one of the most famous artists known around the world. He created over 2,100 pieces of art. However his fame did not come till after his death. Van Gogh suffered from depression and killed him self at the young age of 37 from a self inflicted gunshot wound, though the gun was never actually found.

Café Terrace at Night

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_015.jpg

            Van Gogh was still an influential painter and an icon and hero for the people of the Netherlands. So throw on some nude Did you ‘ear about Van Gogh and hopefully you can channel the artsy spirit of Van Gogh 

Royal Flush Blush

From: OPI’s 2003 Las Vegas Collection

            I may have chosen this color so I could show you this scene from the Parent Trap, one of my all time favorite movies. I can recite almost every line. Though I’ve never actually played poker before, I don’t think they played it right either. I pretty sure it is a little more complicated than just dealing five cards and pouring your money into a circle, then again they are only 11.

            Focusing on the nail polish for a second, the color is a light pink that is perfect for spring. It is part of OPI’s permanent collection. Most colors come out as part of a specific collection and then due to popularity get placed into OPI’s permanent collection. Colors not placed into the permanent collection are discontinued, meaning OPI stops making them, rather quickly.

            This colors name obviously comes from the obvious poker connection. After some Googling I’ve come to understand the following (I think). A flush is 5 cards of the same suit; they do not have to be consecutive. A straight flush is 5 cards of the same suit that are consecutive and a royal flush are the 10, jack, queen, king, ace of the same suite. Obviously a royal flush is better than a straight flush, which is better then a flush. The probability of getting a royal flush in spades, which is the highest possible hand that can be dealt to you, as Halley gets in the Parent Trap, is 1 in 2,598,960. So while your chances of every getting a royal flush are slim you can very easily get your finds on some Royal Flush Blush nail polish! 

Cajun Shrimp

From: Gel Colors by OPI & The Classics Collection           

Classics Collection

http://www.sobeautymag.com/2009/07/confessions-of-a-high-maintenance-chick-primary-colours/

Gel Colors by OPI

http://imabeautygeek.com/2010/06/04/f-is-for-fingernails-another-opi-axxium-gel-nails-update/           

            For being March 15 in State College the weather is beyond beautiful. It feels like the days of summer are here. And though summer may still be several weeks away that doesn’t mean we can’t pull out the shorts, throw on some flip flops, get a little bit of a tan, and of course, the best part of summer, paint our nails bright colors. My favorite summer shade is Cajun Shrimp now a part of OPI’s Classics Collection. The word Cajun comes from the term Acadian. The Acadians were French speakers from Canada. They populate Louisiana and have their own vibrant culture. They speak Cajun French, a dialect of French and make their own unique recipes. They are predominantly Roman Catholic and responsible for the notorious holiday of Mardi Gras. The people as a whole embody the philosophy of “joie de vivre” or “the joy of living”. This color definitely embodies that fun and carefree attitude.

            A great new thing that OPI just introduced is their new gel line. It is called Gel Colors by OPI. OPI already has a line of gel nail polish called OPI Axxium.  However the old line came in a jar and it had to be applied with a paintbrush. It needed to dry under a UV light and it was next to impossible to take off. It wasn’t easily available to the public, other than nail technicians. OPI’s new line of Gel Colors comes in bottles like their regular nail polish. It still needs a UV light to dry, but comes off quickly. The color takes 30 seconds to dry under the UV light and last for 2-3 weeks with the same shine as the first day you put it on. This line launched with 30 popular OPI shades. This line really is for nail salons more than everyday use. A bottle cost upwards of $15 bucks, which isn’t that bad but you also need a UV light at home. So you might have to take a trip to the salon to try out the new line, but it does give you 2-3 weeks of beautiful color that might outlast this nice whether. If you’d rather do your nails yourself you can still get Cajun Shrimp, and all of the 30 shades in the Gel Colors Collection, in good ol’ regular OPI nail polish. While I keep my fingers crossed that this whether stays, take the trip and try out this new line and have the comfort of knowing that at least your bright summer nails will last. 

   

Pink of Hearts

From: OPI's 2010 special edition

            My sorority just had our philanthropy this past week. Zeta Tau Alpha’s national philanthropy is Breast Cancer Education and Awareness. So we teamed up with Pink Zone to put on “Mr. Think Pink”. We had boys from all over campus including Tim Frazier, Shane McGregor, Tommy Schanitz (2012 Hoss THON overall) and many others who competed for the title. They were introduced, had a swimsuit round, a talent round, and a formal wear round. I was an escort for the night and I’m proud to say the contestant I escorted Steve Huber, President of Nittany Nation, won! Steve and the rest of the boys did a great job and it was a huge success. 

            For the occasion I though it was appropriate to wear OPI’s Pink of Hearts. OPI came out with this shade in 2010 and a part of the proceeds went to breast cancer research. It’s a perfect pink to show support for women and men all over the world who are fighting, have fought, and have sadly lost their battle with breast cancer.

            Breast cancer makes up for a little more than 10% of cancers diagnosed around the world. Women are a hundred times more likely to get it, while the survival rate does not differentiate based on sex. There are several stages of breast cancer; stage 0 has a 100% survival rate. This is why early detection is so vital and promoted in the media. At stage IV there is a 20% chance that they will live 5 years after the detection. Breast Cancer affects everyone and does not target a specific race or ethnicity. 

            After becoming a member of ZTA I tend to buy everything I see that has a pink ribbon on it. Sharpies, headbands, socks, shirts, you name it I have it. I rarely feel guilty because it is for such a great cause. So enjoy your bottle of nail polish and know in addition to a great manicure you are helping fight breast cancer.