Gold glitter gradation

Gold glitter gradation

This mani looks so much better IRL than in my pictures... *sigh* Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow so I can show you the glitz! Here are the polishes I used:

L'Oreal Shine & Resist - 735 (the base)

Gallery Colours - Gold Sparkle

Color Club - Gingerbread

Milani Jewel FX - Gold

OPI - Heart Of Gold

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston & OPI I Lily Love You

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston & OPI I Lily Love You, 3 + 1 + 1 coats

Confetti Blue Bombshell & OPI DS Glamour

Confetti - Blue Bombshell, 4 (possibly 5) coats

Confetti - Blue Bombshell & OPI DS - Glamour, 4-5 + 2 coats

Wild and Crazy Sagittarius & OPI DS Perfection

Wild & Crazy - Sagittarius, 1 coat

I find myself currently craving for these vampy red/wine coloured polishes, but I own very few of them. I grabbed Sagittarius since it was only 2,95€ and I've found Wild & Crazy polishes pretty darn decent quality-wise. Even though the brush handle of this particular brand is very bulky which makes application somewhat difficult, I'd like to praise Sagittarius' excellent pigmenting - this is just one coat! There were a couple of almost unnoticeable spots close to my cuticles which *may* have warranted a second coat, had I decided to wear it own its own, but since I had already decided on layering OPI DS Perfection over it...

Wild & Crazy - Sagittarius & OPI - DS Perfection, 1 + 2 coats

I was afraid that DS Perfection and MAC Bad Fairy would be dupes, but (at least to me) they are different enough. Yes, the differences are subtle, but still they're there... oh and I also just HAD to have Pinky Brown by Models Own - what can I say, I'm a duochrome hoor. :3

OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue! & Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue!, 2 coats

I got this particular OPI from a stock elimination sale for peanuts (3,5€ vs. 15€), but I ended up being quite disappointed in Yoga-ta Get This Blue as it's not nearly as duochrome on the nail as it appears to be in the bottle. Indoors, it's near black and even in direct sun the shinmer is somewhat lacklustre. At least the formula was your standard OPI quality, but I doubt I'll ever reach for this polish when I want to wear a dark blue.

OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue! & Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe, 2 + 1 coats

I had already made my own Across the Universe/Lady Sings the Blues franken but I desperately wanted to lay my hands on the real thing. Luckily I found ATU and Happy Birthday on eBay for a reasonable sum (around $15 each plus shipping), and this was my first layering experiment with Across the Universe. I didn't use the foil method so removal was a major bish, but look how pretty she is... :)

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender & animal nail art

OPI - Lucky Lucky Lavender, 2 coats

Lucky Lucky Lavender - a beautiful lilac (not lavender) creme with near-perfect formula. Again, I struggle to find anything to say about this polish that hasn't been said before - the OPI formula glides on effortlessly, dries fairly quickly and there is little to no bubbling. Just scroll down to see the cute little nail art I did. :D

 OPI - Lucky Lucky Lavender, 2 coats & animal nail art

Klaus the Penguin, Gösta the Hippopotamus, Ruben the Pig and Raimo the Frog. And then there's Yrjö-Ahmed the Panda on my thumb. (I was IM'ing with a friend and asked him to provide me with a couple of really ugly names. Hence - Yrjö-Ahmed. Yrjö = George in Finnish, but it's also an euphenism for vomit. I came up with all the other names by myself.) I used ordinary polishes to paint these guys, but I should look into making an investment on acrylic paints.

Oh, and... notice anything different? (About the site, I mean.) :p :B I spent the last two weeks putting this baby together, and I must say that I'm very happy with the results... or, as Nubar puts it, the resluts. ... Okay, I might be a little drunk by now, but I think I deserve to have a drink or two after finally finishing the new layout. Woo, posting while drunk, that's a first for me!

GOSH Milky Way, OPI Passion & funky French w/ nail art stickers

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I didn't take a picture of Milky Way - a neutral light beige with a strong pink flash - on its own, but it was quite streaky after two coats so I put a single coat of OPI Passion - a nude jellyish creme - over it. What I got was a pretty subdued pink colour that looked lovely against my pale yellowish skin. :) I could still see where the free edge starts on all my nails and thus decided to do yet another untraditional French mani. I drew the smile lines with a black striper brush and filled them in with Wet 'n' Wild Black Crème, slapped on some floral stickers and added a little extra bling with a silver glitter striper.

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I felt that the daisy stickers I used on my left hand were a tad too big, so on my right hand I switched to smaller rose decals. In retrospective, I think that I should have painted a tiny white leaf or two next to each rose.

OPI Windy City Pretty & funky French with nail art stickers

OPI - Windy City Pretty, 2 coats

Here is Windy City Pretty from OPI's 2005 Chicago collection. In the bottle it's a pinkish dusty mauve with beautiful golden shimmer, but on the nail it dries darker and the shimmer pretty much disappears. As with all the older OPIs the formula was fantastic. However, I wanted to spice up this one since I thought it looked too grannyish on me.

OPI - Windy City Pretty & funky french with nail art stickers, 2 coats with sponged tips

I sponged the tips with Nubar Pink Crème and dug up these super pretty nail decals from my vast nail art stash. I dabbed a little bit of fine silver glitter onto the centers of the flowers, and voilà! From drab to fab in minutes!

OPI Coney Island Cotton Candy vs. Sinful Colors Subdued

OPI - Coney Island Cotton Candy (index, ring) & Sinful Colors - Subdued (middle, pinkie), 4 + 2 coats

Perhaps a slightly dull comparison of nudes, but hey. Coney Island Cotton Candy and Subdued look relatively similar in the bottle, but on the nail CICC is much more yellow and Subdued definitely appears to be very pink. The Sinful Color is a nice self-leveling creme but it's way too pink to be a perfect match for my skintone. I guess the OPI can be classified as a jelly and as such takes tons of coats to be even remotedly opaque - I did four coats and you can still see my VNL. I think there are two versions of this one floating around - mine is from the newer batch.

OPI Catherine the Grape & Lumene Magical Moment

OPI - Catherine the Grape, 2 coats

Catherine the Grape is a muted red/brown purple with shimmer what I think is a sort of an orange colour. It's quite chic, methinks. Formula was okay but not quite on par with most of my other OPI's.

OPI - Catherine the Grape & Lumene - Magical Moment, 2 + 1 coats

Magical Moment might be too sheer to be worn on its own, but layered over another polish is when the real magic starts happening!

H&M Kitty Queen & OPI Wing It!

H&M - Kitty Queen, 1 coat

Glass flecked. One coater. Cost less than 2€. Me likes! Kitty Queen is a raspberry coloured pink creme that has silver glass flecks in it. It's super thick and needs to be thinned before use or it'll be a pain to apply.

H&M - Kitty Queen & OPI - Wing It! 1 + 2 coats

Don't these two make a lovely couple? I'm sorry I didn't get any pics showing the duochrome nature of Wing It! but the glass flecks in it change from pink to yellowish orange. I've fallen a bit behind on posting but I should be able to catch up soon, I'll post another NOTD tomorrow and hopefully yet another on Friday.