Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A couple of holo comparisons

Hey gals! So today I have pictures from a while ago, when I first got OPI DS Sapphire and Original. I realized that I had two light blue holos and two light purple holos so I decided to swatch them on a nail wheel to show how similar/different they are. Here we go!


In order: China Glaze 2NITE, OPI DS Sapphire, China Glaze IDK, OPI DS Original


In order: China Glaze 2NITE, OPI DS Sapphire, China Glaze IDK, OPI DS Original


Top: OPI DS Sapphire, Bottom: China Glaze 2NITE


Top: OPI DS Original, Bottom: China Glaze IDK


Left: OPI DS Sapphire, Right: China Glaze 2NITE


Left: OPI DS Original, Right: China Glaze IDK

My conclusion:
-China Glaze holos are more linear than OPI DS holos.
-OPI DS Sapphire is a weaker, more sheer holo that took 4 coats to achieve what you see above.
-OPI DS Original is less linear than IDK...BUT it looks blingy-er. :)
-It takes more coats for OPI; Sapphire was 4 coats, Original was 3; whereas the China Glaze were only two coats each.

Hopefully you guys liked it :) Let me know which ones you prefer! :) Thanks for reading :D

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Re-Swatch: OPI DS Original

Hey gals! So today I decided to re-swatch OPI DS Original from a few posts ago. I love it, even on my shorter nails. OH! They're growing! I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to grow them out and she brought me Sally Hansen NailGrowth Miracle :) I guess I'm gonna use that since it's what I have. Thanks mom! Anyways, I promised a re-swatch and I delivered! Here is 3 coats of OPI DS Original, with a coat of Poshe.

Sunlight:



Here I tried to show a few faces of the polish in one picture:


Indoors + Flash:




Here's a close up of my ring, because I love it so so so much :)


I hope I took good enough photos for you guys! I used two different cameras to capture it as well as I wanted to. It's a really gorgeous polish and I tried my best to do it justice. Let me know what you think of the pictures, what I should have done differently, etc. :) Also, I used my mad photoshop skillz to watermark my images...what do you guys think? I was just playing around with it today, I plan on making a cuter one later on BUT I would looove if you guys told me if you like the idea of it or not. I tried to make it so that it didn't interfere with the images too much. Did I succeed? :) Let me know, I love feedback, even if it isn't praise. :) Thanks for reading! :)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

I Need Your Help!

Hey gals, just a real quick post. I'm looking for a good nail growth treatment and I thought, who better to ask then my readers? I know you all share this same passion, and I was wondering what your HG products are for growing out your nails. I already take biotin and vitamin D but I want something to put directly onto my nails. I was looking into OPI Nail Evy, Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator, and even Sally Hansen NailGrowth Miracle. Any of you guys use them? What do you use? Thanks in advance, you guys are great! :)

Hurricane Irene?! OMG I have to paint my nails!

Hey gals! So unfortunately I live in an area that will suffer the impacts of hurricane Irene later on today/tomorrow. I'm well prepared though! We have food, water, batteries, candles, matches, flashlights, first aid kits, and tons of books to read, because I'm a nerd and I need books haha...if evacuation is necessary, our site is literally 3 blocks away from our house. We're good to go.

BUT I realized that IF the power were to go out, I would NOT want to have to paint my nails by candlelight...that's not cool. And I had taken off my manicure to help my bf paint, so I had to paint my nails quick. I am in love with jelly sandwiches so I had to do another one...and with all this hurricane talk, I wanted something in a sky blue/aqua-ish color.

Not having any jellies in the color I had in mind, I had to use Essie Turquoise & Caicos. I used two different glitters, and I love how it turned out. I put on my base coat then did a layer of T&C, then a layer of OPI Crown Me Already!, then a coat of T&C, then a coat of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Twinkle, Twinkle, then a final coat of T&C, and topped it off with Poshe. I like how it turned out, it kinda looks like a bunch of stuff trapped under water...kinda like how we're gonna be if this hurricane is as bad as News 12 makes it seem! Anyways, Enough of my rambling, here's my mani:








I really wanted to capture how nice it looks, it really looks great IRL. ALSO, did you guys notice that my nails are rounded? I broke two nails in the corners while painting with the bf, so instead of filing them down again, I just rounded them...not sure if I like it much... what do you guys think? ALSOOOO did you notice that I got my camera back?! SOOOO excited. Anyways, let me know what you guys think! Do you like the jelly sandwich thing? How's this combo? Do you hate it? Honestly, I love feedback, it helps me improve :)

Also, if anyone else is in an area getting affected by this hurricane, please stay safe! I hope everyone stays safe and that we all weather this and go back to our normal lives...get it, weather it? Haha, I'm so punny. Okay, I'll shut up now. Enjoy your day! Stay safe :) Thanks for reading! :D

Monday, August 22, 2011

Jelly Sandwich ft my newly nubbinized nails!

Hey gals! Second post today, I know, but something happened that I HAD to share with you guys... Well, if you knew me personally, you'd know that I'm a very...VERY spontaneous person. So today while watching TV with my sister, I decided that I was sick of long nails. So I quietly went to my room, brought out my clipper and file...and off they went! My sister was SO upset with me but I like them! Change is good :D besides, they'll grow back at a pretty quick pace if I let them so no worries. I'm embracing the nubs! :)

Anyways, to show off my new nubs I wanted to do something really girly. I didn't really know where I was going  with it so I just picked a light polish. I then remembered the jelly/glitter sandwich trend that everyone's doing and I decided to do it. I already had two coats of Essie Guchi Muchi Puchi on, so I put on a coat of Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, and topped it with a coat of Essie Pop Art Pink. The effect is more subtle than having just the glitter over the light polish...the milky squishy-ness of PAP calms the glitter down a bit. You can still see it, but it isn't as harsh as it would be if it didn't have PAP over it. I love it, it looks girly and delicate and pretty :) like sprinkles over pink frosting. Enough of my talking, behold my nubs with the cutest combination ever:






Soooo what do you think? Are you liking this combo as much as I am? I can't stop looking at my hands :D I think this is sooo cute :) Also, has anyone else tried the glitter sandwich trend? Any good combinations out there? :D Thanks for reading! :D

I'm a horrible blogger.

Hey gals, so I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I did my nails 36 hours after my last post, but I was too lazy to post. I'm sorry. Here's my last last manicure:




OPI DS Magic, 3 coats. It's one of my favorites...in the bottle. On the nail, the purple duochrome visible in the bottle is harder to see.

 Anywhos, today I got a package in the mail and inside was OPI DS Original and OPI DS Sapphire. I was SO excited to swatch...too excited. I removed my polish and looked for a good base...I saw China Glaze VIII and I thought it would be perfect... it was one of the worst ideas I had... it was REALLY runny. I would normally be okay with it except that I was literally racing against the sun to get good pictures and this was not working out. I put on two sloppy coats and then two coats of OPI DS Original... I cleaned up my cuticles and raced to get pictures. Here's what I got:






Some of the worst pictures of this polish you're ever going to see. I apologize. I also ruined my nails after this so I'm going to take this off immediately and do my nails again, with patience. So take this as an IOU. IOU guys better swatches of this color, because it truly is amazing. Sorry for the horrible pictures. Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

OPI Catch Me in Your Net + Daisies

Hey gals! So I cannot leave my manicures alone. It's ridiculous. Ten seconds after I finish a manicure, I think "I need to do nail art over this" and I start searching for ideas. Today, I fished out OPI Catch Me in Your Net, which is easily one of my top 10 favorite polishes of all time ever. It's gorgeous. But after a few minutes I thought...how can I spruce this up? And then I remembered this post by Kayla Shevonne (who is amaaaazing, btw), and I got inspired. I didn't want to do exactly what she did but I do have to credit her because I got the whole 'white daisies over sparkly blue background' thing from her post. Here were my attempts at capturing the awesomeness that is this color:







I know there are LOTS of dupes out there (Zoya Charla, Orly Halley's Comet, Essence Choose Me!, Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune, etc) but I love this color. I'm even thinking of getting Orly's version of this as a back up, considering it has .6 oz as opposed to .5 oz. Anyways, thanks for reading. Happy polishing!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I get bored too easily..

Hey gals! This is a super quick post, I literally JUST did this to my nails sooo sorry about that in advance. So I got bored with my last manicure but I didn't want to take it off quite yet...and I ordered OPI DS Sapphire & Original today, so I was in a holo-y mood...(holos are the BEST things EVERRRR) soooo I whipped out my bottle of OPI DS Signature and layered it over my leopard mani. Observe:







Anyone who's ever tried to take pictures of a holographic polish knows how hard it is to capture the holo effect...so imagine me, with a crappy camera and horrible weather/lighting. Just know that in the light, my nails look as amazing as the bottle looks in these pics. God, I LOOOVE holo polishes. We need more of them in existence. Can someone please please PLEASE make this happen? Thanks. Anyways, thanks for reading, happy polishing!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Pink Leopard

Hey gals! So I got a few compliments on my last nail art while it lasted. Everyone who saw them said, "Arizona Iced Tea!" haha. Anyways, I took of the mani and decided I wanted to go fierce. I wanted to use more than one color. I wanted something easily done with the tools I have. So I went with leopard nails. I'll def have more options after I get my nail brush set in the mail. I should be getting them soon. Anyways, below is a base of China Glaze Something Sweet, and the spots are China Glaze Sugar High, Flyin' High, and Grape Pop. I didn't plan it but these all turned out to be from the Up & Away collection. All topped with a coat of Poshe. Behold:








It is SOOOO difficult to take good pictures with this camera. I'll be getting my old one back soon! And maybe even a new one :) Anywhos, feedback? Did I do well? How could I have made it better? Thanks for reading, and happy polishing! :)