OPI Nicki Minaj Collection: Metallic 4 Life and Save Me

Nicki Minaj teamed up with OPI and created a collection of new colors, very reflective of rap superstar herself.  The six piece collection colors are inspired by songs from Nicki Minaj:

Did It On 'Em - fluorescent lime green
Fly - neon sky blue
Metallic 4 Life - shimmery gunmetal gray
Pink Friday - iridescent Barbie pink
Save Me - rainbow glitter-infused light blue
Super Bass Shatter - deep plum, shatter polish 

The Nicki Minaj collection is due out early January 2012.  I actually came across the display at a local beauty supply store the day after Christmas.  I'll be quit honest and say that when I first saw the promotional pictures for this collection, I wasn't really excited by it.  Colors were nice, but I didn't feel like they were really my style.  I may be young at heart, but I'm not young enough to pull off these colors.  Once I saw the display, I sort of changed my mind.  I'm all shattered & crackled out, so although the new magenta purple Shatter was pretty, I passed.  The bright colors were very fitting for this collection, but they were just that, a little too bright for me.  Plus, they didn't seem totally unique to me, and somewhat dupe-able.  I did end up grabbing two colors that I found to be interesting and more unique from the collection.

Sally Hansen GEM Crush Cha-Ching! & Featuring "Rudolph"

First off, I have to say that I am not a nail art person.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy looking at them, and I can appreciate all the time and hard work it takes to create them.  But that's just it... Time...  I don't have it, and I have very little patience.  The attention to details I've seen are just amazing... I'm in awe at their talent.  Yes, I'm lazy that way.  But really, just the mere fact that I'm taking care of my  nails and I keep them trimmed and polished is already amazing enough for me.

With that said, I will sometimes dabble a little... on certain occasions.  Themed manis can be fun, so I will challenge myself here and there, and try explore my nail creativity.  Well, it's the holidays; and since I'm helping out at my son's classroom holiday party, why not do something fun?  I got the idea after seeing a very fun mani posted by khuuphoria on Copy That, Copy Cat.  If you haven't seen her nail art, you must.  She's so creative!  I actually discovered her blog pretty recently, but I have been enjoying all her manis.  I also need to mentioned that my nail art only extends to one finger.  That's pretty much all can handle. :)

I started off with doing a full mani (minus ring finger) using Cha-Ching! from Sally Hansen's new Gem Crush collection line.  This is based with bright cherry red fine glitter, mixed with some silver glitter.  It most definitely screams "holiday" to me.  In case you're wondering, it does look very much like a dupe to China Glaze Love Marilyn, from winter 2011 collection called Eye Candy 3D Glitters.

For my "Rudolph", I used:
Sinful Colors Nirvana - top half of the face
OPI San Tan-Tonio - lower portion, snout area
OPI Vodka & Caviar (one of my favorite reds of all times) - nose
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On - eyes
Wet n Wild Wet Shine Black Crème - eyes

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  Either way, the second graders loved it!