Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Emerald Greens: OPI, Ulta, and Zoya


Hey everybody!  Sorry for my absence during the past week...I've had a lot going on and not very much time to devote to the blog. :/  BUT I am back tonight with another green family post.  This time, it's those luxurious emeralds.  Emeralds were always my favorite gemstone...I got my very first gemstone ring, an emerald, the Christmas right before I turned 14.  It was pretty microscopic, but I still have it. :)

First up is a polish by OPI that I believe was created for Ulta as a freebie with purchase during the Christmas 2012 season.  It's called Skip the Gift Wrap, and it's a shimmery metallic emerald that's very nice even without a bow on top, thank you. :)


Skip the Gift Wrap is, in my opinion, a true emerald green.  It's not kelly, or hunter, or pine.  It's got an easy formula but is rather on the sheer side...I used 3 coats.  It's a touch frosty, but it's the good kind of frosty...no, not the one from Wendy's, but you know what I mean. :P


Next up is an Ulta polish that I am *cough* just getting around to trying out. :/  It's called Envy.  Ooooh.


Envy is a little more hunter green than Skip the Gift Wrap.  It's also a metallic shimmer, but it doesn't have as much shimmer as Skip the Gift Wrap.  It also doesn't have that frosty look.  I liked the application on this a lot.  It may have to do with the tiny Ulta brush that is more suited to my toddler-sized nails.  Sometimes, those wide OPI brushes make me feel like I'm using a spatula. :P


Last on our emerald tour is last year's Zoya Giovanna...loved my some, disliked heartily by others.



I was one of the ones who loved Giovanna.  It's got all that lovely blue in it!  It's not what I would call a true emerald green.  Maybe a created emerald.  No.  Make that a blue indicolite tourmaline.  Trust me on this one.  But YIKES...I look at my pics, and I should have used 3 coats instead of 2!  That is some bald-looking mess going on there.  Okay, if you're going to be out meeting people in macro, use 3 coats. :D  Giovanna has that pleasant frostiness about it too.


Are you an emerald green fan?  How about emeralds in general? :)  What was your first gemstone jewelry?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day. <3

14 comments:

  1. Nice emerald green comparisons! There all very pretty and shimmery.

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    1. While green is lovely, shimmery green is even better! :D

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  2. I love emerald green and emeralds! Unfortunately, I don't have any real emeralds to wear - yet!

    My first gemstone jewelry was turquoise since my dad is from Arizona and our family has always been really into Native American (Navajo especially) jewelry. I had a big squash blossom when I was just a little girl. One year, my sister and I dressed up as Indian Princesses for Halloween (right after the Pocahontas movie came out) and we both wore our turquoise jewelry. People kept asking if we were borrowing our mommy's jewelry and we told them it was our own, LOL!

    My first sparkly-type gemstone was a blue topaz ring - topaz is my birthstone and blue topaz is the state gemstone of Texas.

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    1. I bet you and your sister looked fantastic dressed up in real turquoise! :) I have a lot of gemstones...but these days I like costume jewelry just as much. One of my favorite rings was a big ol' blue topaz too!

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  3. What a family, each member as pretty as the other!!! Out of the three Giovanna is my favorite though, if Emerald comes with a shimmer than this blue please!! I like this shade as cream best though. My first gem stone? None - my mum decided I was a pearl-girl and I envied my sister to pieces who called a microscopic saphire her own - LOL!!! Later on it was a ring with tiny-winy garnets I got from my godmother, nope, didn't like that either, think I must have been 12 or so. Great post and thanks for asking xxx

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    1. Yeah...I love that blue in Giovanna! Wow, poor Christine...your mom decided you weren't a gemstone girl?? :( Oh well, pearls are great too! Garnet is my birthstone, so I do have a couple of varieties of those.

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  4. All three colors are gorgeous! I think the zoya might be my favorite, though!

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    1. I'm not sure why Giovanna didn't do it for some people. I know it's a color that's hard to capture accurately...I hope I did. :P

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  5. I'm loving your green posts... green's one of my favorite polish colors to wear and I love ogling them on others too teehee! :) All three of these are gorgeous on you! Giovanna's so pretty on others, but it's too cool toned for me, so it sucks every ounce of color out of my hands and makes them look dead. :( My favorite jewel-toned green is Zoya Holly. I'm just wow-ed by how stunning it is every time I wear it. :)

    ~ Yun

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    1. I'm so glad you like my green posts! I have a couple more in my head. :P And oh yeah...Holly looks so lovely on you it's criminal!!

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  6. Gorgeous post, Mo! I adore Giovanna, it is unique amongst emerald foils. That OPI, though... I knew I should have snagged that Christmas set while I had the chance. How special, your ring <3 My first gemstone was my birthstone, aquamarine, in a ring stolen by a "friend" or a friend of that "friend" back when I was 19. My parents replaced it when they could and that one's hanging on a chain in my jewelry box :)

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    1. I couldn't remember if you liked Giovanna or not...I think it is unique too. :) UGH...what an awful story about your faux friend, but how sweet of your parents to replace it! I love aquamarine. My engagement ring is an aquamarine in an antique setting. :)

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  7. emerald greens look so gorgeous on you! for some reason they don't look as good on me, I guess they call it complexion :P well, but I couldn't care less about complexion, So I own several emerald greens, but all of mine are a tad lighter and brighter. I wish I could rock that OPI like you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Oh I bet you do, Natalia! You rock every color you wear! <3

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