Sunday, January 31, 2010

OPI Gotta Get Pink!

This might be an Ulta exclusive from Valentines day 2009. I bought it last fall and I am pretty sure I saw it at Ulta over New Years. I thought it was a little boring, but after I applied it and wore it today I am in love with it. Its such a soft, sophisticated pale pink with a hint of lavender, like the pink of a candy heart. It is not as stark as Mod About You. It reminds me a bit of one of the Rescue Beauty Lounge pinks I have. Definitely chic. I'll try and get a pic in the sun tomorrow if the weather cooperates.


Thursday, January 28, 2010

CND Effects Crimson Sparkle

I love the CND Effects, especially the sparkles. This is the Crimson over a black. Please, pardon the tip wear, as I have been wearing this since yesterday.




Sunday, January 24, 2010

OPI Manacurist of Seville

This is today's NOTD. Its from the OPI Espana Fall 2009 collection.

Its one of those colors that looks different in different lights. Sometimes it looks very bright red, sometimes it looks like a dark wine color. I really like the OPI Espana collection. It is almost all highly pigmented creams, and I love shiny, smooth creams.

You can see some bubbling in my pictures, i think that was mainly from the Seche Vitae, which was probably too thick. I tried some new tips on clean up I read on Megan's blog Little Music Boxes . I had used most of her techniques already, but could never acheive the smooth, straight, clean gap she does. Her tip about the drying drops and waiting 20 minutes to clean up made a big difference.




Friday, January 22, 2010

Sugary Sweet Baby Pink

This is Nubar Baby Pink topped with Misa Sweet Pleasures and INM Out The Door Northern Lights. Sweet Pleasures is so much fun, it has a blue sparkle. Northern Lights is a tiny holographic glitter/sparkle. I love holo sparkle top coats, I have several kinds. I like Northern Lights, because the glitter pieces are very tiny and almost invisible and the clear base is not milky or cloudy, which doesn't change the color beneath.









Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Borghese Fashionista

I picked these up at Rite Aid. The Fashionista display features 6 full size polish colors. I liked these 2 the best.



Almondine is an interesting polish. It is a nude cream with small darker particles. It, also, seems to have a little pinkish shimmer to it.

This first picture is under normal artificial lighting.


This photo is under recessed spotlights.


This photo is under an "Ott type" lamp.


Stellare Notte is a duochromatic polish. It appears as a blackened green/purple/blue. I took several pictures to try and capture the colors. This mani is a day or 2 old, so you can see the tip wear and it doesn't look as fresh as it could.


In this photo the polish appears very green.


In this photo you can see the purple and blue shift.





This photo, also, features my 5 year old's mani. She wanted OPI DS Fantasy with OPI Mad As A Hatter over top. Very cute! She got 3 days out of it, before the polish "fell off" a couple of her nails, which often happens to her with her tiny nails. It looks blue here.



I am happy with the way the nails turned out, but application was difficult. The brushes were a bit wonky, with stray bristles jutting out. This is my first expirience with Borghese polish and I am not impressed. $8.00 is a little pricey for a drug store polish, especially one with such lousey application.

Here's a better photo of my little girl's OPI DS Fantasy + OPI Mas As A Hatter

Monday, January 18, 2010

My favorite blue polish

This is one of my favorite blue polishes. I might even say it is my #1 of all time. It is OPI Designer Series Fantasy. On this day, it wasn't enough all on its own, so I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top. Fine holographic glitter can make almost any mani better.

New Sally Hansen Extremes Pacific Blue

The new displays of Sally Hansen Extremes are popping up at Rite Aids and Walgreens, recently. This display has some amazing colors, including a bar holo glitter in a clear base! *swoon* I've been lemming something like this for a while now. I grabbed the glitter, Pacific Blue, and Going Green.





This is Pacific Blue. Its a wonderful cream and application was alright. I ended up with 3 coats, because it didn't apply as evenly as I'd have liked.

My First Konad Funky French

For Christmas I received a bunch of Konad supplies. I am still getting the hang of it. It seems as if I might have huge nails or something. The images for full nail applications tend to be a little smallish. The only thing that bugs me about playing around with my Konad is the fear of botching up a perfectly good mani with poorly placed stamps. Getting the image just so on the nail seems to be the tough part. Perhaps its best if I concentrate on doing each nail differently until I get the hang of it. Some day I can only hope I'll be good enough to do a flawless fishnet on all 10 nails.

This is OPI Bubblebath with Konad plate M41

Birthday Mani

Today marks the birthday of my nail blog! Let's celebrate!

My own birthday was month's ago, but I enjoyed this blingy mani for my *gasp* 36th birthday. I tend to avoid too much glitter when I am at work. For one thing, I am 36 and another I am a health professional. I worry what the little old ladies will think. Still, I challenge the notion anyone is ever too old for glitter! Some of the little old ladies tell me they wish they could paint their nails like mine. I tell them, "why couldn't you?". Really, by the time you're that old, if you haven't earned the right to tell anyone or anything to take a hike, because you'll do whatever you want, then you never will.

Sinful What's Your Name + China Glaze Techno






I adore large hex glitters. They are probably my favorite form of glitter. I think I just may need China Glaze Solar Flare, although, I am not really a gold sort of gal. I wish there were a larger variety of large hex glitter polishes. I have a couple Maybelline ones. One of these is like Techno and the other is bluish/purple glitter. These are the only 2 Maybelline polishes I own. I have been lemming Lippmann Happy Birthday, but I cannot bring myself to spend that much on that woman's nail polishes. If you're not familiar with the controversy over Lippmann and her Funky Chunky polish, search some nail blogs or MUA.