OPI - DS Design: Swatches and Review

I'm such a sucker for nude/gold holo polishes lately, and I was lucky enough recently to get OPI DS Design at an incredible price!

OPI - DS Design

Design is a perfect nude base with tons of sparkly holo pigment, just like the others in the DS series. For some reason, the rainbow colors seem a bit more subdued in this one, but it's still very stunning in the sun. In the shade, it matches my skin tone PERFECTLY.

Unfortunately, DS Design is discontinued (along with all the other holo DS polishes) and can be tricky to find. I found mine in a blog sale, so keep your eye out and you might just get lucky!

4th of July Nails

Happy 4th of July!

Right now I'm missing my family in Michigan because we usually have a huge party that lasts all day/night with tons of beer, food, and fireworks. I LOVE family parties!

These are the nails I did to celebrate (I DO get to go over to my grandparent's and have a little party with them and my aunt and uncle). I used Revlon Royal for my left ring finger, China Glaze Phat Santa for my right finger and OPI You Callin' Me a Lyre? for the base on the rest. Then I layered All That Glitters Glitter Glory over the ring fingers and sponged it on in a gradient French over the others. It is very easy to apply with the brush, but I had a little trouble sponging it. I do love the result, though!

I bought Revlon Royal in a drugstore a few months ago, so I think it's readily available. Phat Santa was part of the China Glaze 2010 Christmas collection, but there are a lot of red creme/jellies like it. Glitter Glory was purchased from the All That Glitters Etsy shop, but it doesn't seem to be in stock at the moment. Hopefully it will return!

OPI DS Desire

DS Desire is a beautiful brown/tan holo that I've been eyeing around the blogging world for a long time, but haven't been willing to spend the high price for it (I planned on trying to make my own frankendupe with some spectraflair). It's funny, because pictures of this polish tend to give the effect of all different colors: some pinkish-brown, some dark brown, and some golden. Here is the best representation of the color that I could get.

(sun)

(shade)

OPI - DS Desire

In my eyes, DS Desire is a light brown holo that leans a little mauve in some lights, but has a golden cast as well (You can see it inside the rainbows on the sun picture. It looks fairly neutral on my skin tone, and is incredibly flattering.The holo is typical OPI DS holo: very bright colors in a "grainy" linear holo.  This type of holo is lost in dim lighting as shown in the second photo, but shines beautifully in the sun.  I tried layering it over a dark brown and a gold as well, and it was awesome!

Now I'm not one to drop a lot of money on a nail polish unless it was really worth it, but the reason I ended up with this one was because the money from my purchase was going to go to leukemia and lymphoma research.  The girl I bought it from, Christine, lost her brother Derick to leukemia and was raising money through her nail polish sales.  I was very honored to get the chance to contribute and support Team Derick!

OPI NY Ballet Collection: Swatches and Review

This was an unexpected love for me. I'm not usually the sheer/pink/nude type, but something drew me in: these are beautiful, elegant JELLIES! I've been crazy about the glitter/jelly sandwiches lately, and I have a feeling these would be perfect for them!

OPI - My Pointe Exactly

This is my favorite. My Pointe Exactly is a light grey jelly that is semi-opaque at three coats (shown). Even with a bit of VNL, I still loved the look of this. Elegant and edgy at the same time!

OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu!

Don't Touch My Tutu is a nice clean white jelly. Along the same lines as Essie Marshmallow but a little bit more sheer, I think it would work even better for the glitter sandwiches. I love the way white jellies make glitter look like sprinkles on a cupcake.

OPI - Care to Danse

Care to Danse is a light purple jelly. The bottle looks more purple than it appears on the nail.  I'm not sure, but this may be my second favorite.

OPI - Barre My Soul

Barre My Soul is a very nice peachy beige jelly.  This would be a lovely base for a French manicure!

OPI - You Callin' Me a Lyre?

You Callin' Me a Lyre is a a peachy pink jelly that's more saturated than the others in this collection. Again, it'd be a great base for a French manicure base.  I think of the collection this was the most opaque at three coats.

OPI - Pirouette my Whistle (over each of the colors above)

Pirouette My Whistle is a clear base with silver micro glitter and large white/silvery pearl hex glitters. Most pictures of this at one coat didn't have too many white hexes, but my bottle seemed to be packed with them. I had to actually TRY not to get too many because I wanted a sparse look. Either way, it's quite elegant for a glitter. I think I like this even better than Nubar White Polka Dot.

All of these applied very nicely and easily in three coats, although it seems easiest to avoid streaks by using medium-thick coats. I suggest waiting a few minutes between each coat to prevent bubbling as well. They do kind of self-level though, which is a plus.

OPI is available at Ulta stores as well as in JC Penney Salons. I prefer JC Penney because if you buy two or more, they're only $6 each instead of $8.50 at Ulta.

OPI - Crown Me Already! Swatch and Review

Just like I have polishes where I wonder WHY I bought it in the first place, I also have ones where I can't figure out why I DIDN'T buy it immediately.

This is one of them. I passed it up in the store many times only to buy it on ebay about a week ago because I couldn't stand it any longer.

OPI - Crown Me Already

Crown Me Already is a mix of super shiny silver micro glitter and all different sizes of hex glitter. The biggest hexes are probably about 2mm wide and they look like tiny little mirrors or coins amongst the micro glitter. It is truly eye-catching and bling-tastic, and I love it. I have a coat of Gelous and Seche Vite over it and it's not completely smooth, but you can't really tell because of how extremely reflective the silver is. I'm so glad I got this one, and now I wish so badly that OPI would make a nice, rich gold version of this! The formula was great as well; it's opaque at two coats and not lumpy or thick at all. It's also not one of those where you have to "place" the glitter to make it look nice.

This one made me realize just how much I appreciate almost every brand of nail polish because each one has it's own "gems" that are particularly wonderful. I'm not at all an OPI fan girl (I can't stand all of the "Suzi" names... and I actually don't like the name of this one much, haha), but every once in a while they bring out a beautiful doozy of a polish that really wows me.

I was only able to find this one on ebay (at a reasonable, typical OPI price - $8 with free shipping), but it may be available at other online retailers as well.


Another quick question. Which do you prefer: pics with the bottle or without? I've automatically done them with the bottle because that's what a lot of bloggers do, but think I like how I can "pose" my hand a little better without it. Thoughts?

More Jelly/Glitter Sandwiches

After my successful black and white jelly/glitter sandwich I really wanted to try more. Here are some that I came up with:

Deborah Lippmann Yellow Brick Road and Spoiled Trust Fund Baby

I now have a reason to LOVE Yellow Brick Road (if you remember, I didn't care for it too much on its own). This is a coat of YBR then one coat of Trust Fund Baby (close to Wet n Wild Correction Tape, except the black glitter is hex instead of square), then two more coats of YBR. It looks like candy or sprinkles or Easter eggs. So springy and pretty! This is my favorite sandwich I've done so far

New York Summer Hot Baby Blue and Milani Jewel FX Gems (with purple)

This one came out looking a LOT like Deborah Lippmann's candy shop except in a light sky blue. Great if you want the look but don't care for pink (although it's fairly easy and cheap to franken a dupe or a similar effect with whatever base color you like). I liked the overall effect a lot. One coat of HBB, one coat of Gems, one coat of HBB.

OPI Too Hot To Hold 'Em and Love & Beauty unnamed (red, silver, and black hexes)

I'm not usually one for pinks but I do love the hot pink jelly base of this polish, and I like how the silver and red hexes all turned to shades of pink. Very Valentine's-ish. One coat of THPTHE, one coat L&B (which is similar to Spoiled Shuffle the Deck except that StD has slightly smaller black glitter), two coats THPTHE.

Deborah Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible and Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd

This one didn't wow me so much. The Glittering Crowd is such an eye-catching, stunning combination of glitters (the best multi-colored glitter EVER in my opinion), and the purple over top just seemed to wash it out a little. Maybe some top coat would have helped but I'm not sure. It still looked pretty, just disappointing compared to what I'd hoped for. One coat CMI, one coat Glittering Crowd, one coat CMI.

Remember you can always try adding depth to the sandwich by doing and extra glitter coat then another jelly coat.  It's really fun seeing the different effects with various glitters and jellies!



Remember to enter my 500 Follower SensatioNail Starter Kit giveaway if you haven't already!

OPI The Show Must Go On and Orly Rock It Swatches

Today I have a couple of pink/red/orange duochromes for you. I like these for fall, but they seem like they'd be fitting for summer as well. I put Orly Rock It on today and it reminded me I had pics of OPI The Show Must Go On to post as well. Both of these seem to have lots of pink/red/orange duochrome foil flecks in them but with different base colors.

The first up is OPI The Show Must Go On.

OPI - The Show Must Go On

The duochrome in this one is quite strong and beautiful. While I'm not much a pink fan, I very much enjoy this one.


Next is Orly Rock It from their current fall collection:

Orly - Rock It

The duochrome in this is much less pronounced and (unfortunately) is a lot harder to catch. I love the orange end of the spectrum in this one, but it can only be seen at certain angles. Nevertheless, it is still gorgeous. A beautiful rich dark magenta that turns crimson and a kind of burnt orange.

I know sometimes (a lot of times?) I forget to comment on application. Honestly, it's probably because I don't much care how hard it is to put on. If I love a color enough, I'll go through hell and back to have it on my nails. I'll try to include the number of coats and a little comment on application if I remember from now on though. These were both two coats and had very easy, smooth application. Removal is a slight pain just because of all the sparkly particles.

OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake Swatch

I'm reluctant to take Icing Blackout off, so for now, here's an older swatch of OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake.  Nice palette cleanser in between the more crazy, bright or dark colors.

OPI - Let Them Eat Rice Cake

For Nihrida: OPI Ink and Finger Paints It's an Original

Here's a comparison for my dear Nihrida <3

OPI Ink and Finger Paints It's an Original:

OPI Ink (index and ring) and Finger Paints It's an Original (middle and pinky)

The finish is obviously different, with Ink having a slightly duochrome glass fleck thing going on, and Original is just a straight blue-purple shimmer. To me in person, the flecks in Ink make it look a bit more blue, which doesn't show in the picture. Both only take two coats.

And to refresh your memory, here is how Finger Paints looks alone (except a bit too blue, but this picture shows the vibrancy quite well... maybe it's because it has a top coat).

Finger Paints It's an Original

OPI The Berry Best Swatch and Review

This beauty surprised me. In the bottle, it looks like a red with some pink flash and gold shimmer, but on the nail it's a glowing magenta/fuchsia with a very slight duochrome of copper/gold. It looks somewhat metallic, and very bright and cheery for the winter/holiday season!

OPI The Berry Best

Do you have any of the Ulta exclusive OPIs? What do you think if this one?

New Nail Shape + Old Favorite

After seeing a post by the Polish Hoarder in which she rounded her nails down because of a chip, I decided I liked how her nice short, ROUND nails looked! Of course, I had to try it for myself, but this is WAY out of character for me... I've always had very square-edged nails and never really appreciated rounded tips. Funnily enough, it IS very flattering.

So here are my new rounded nails with an old favorite of mine: OPI You Don't Know Jacques. This is such a wonderful fall/winter color, and it was the perfect glossy creme to test out my new nails!


Because the rounded shape isn't very apparent in this picture, here's one that shows it a little better.


How do you shape your nails? Do you stick to one shape or change it up often?

Lincoln Park After Dark and Nfu-Oh 49 Matte

So for today, I figured I'd give the matte version a shot, even though the manicure is getting a little ragged at this point. I used China Glaze Matte Magic.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark w/ Nfu-Oh 49 and China Glaze Matte Magic

I really like the matte version! It looks even more like fall leaves! What do you think? Matte or shiny??

NOTD - Lincoln Park After Dark and Nfu-Oh 49

Today's NOTD is a pretty cool one, but one that you've probably seen before elsewhere. I used OPI Lincoln Park After Dark for the base, then one coat of Nfu-Oh 49 on top. I really like it, 'cause it looks a little like fall to me.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark w/ Nfu-Oh 49

And I figured I'd take a sun picture as well. I don't know how to feel about sun pictures, because sometimes they really don't show colors well at all. What do you think?? In this case, it shows a little better that it's actually dark burgundy and not black.

I may try it tonight or tomorrow with a matte topcoat as well.

A couple more NOTD and an excuse

This photo is actually a NOTD from a few months ago (who knows when). It's China Glaze Four Leaf Clover with China Glaze Medallion over the top. I actually got this idea from a post on All Lacquered Up (here). Isn't it awesome??

China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover w/ Medallion

And now comes the excuse... one of the reasons I haven't been posting is because my nails have been in transition. See, for the last four or five years, I've had gels on my nails, both to keep them strong and to not have to worry about painting them. Of course, one of those doesn't apply anymore (since I'm now obsessed with nail polish and like to paint them every couple days), so I decided to grow them out. Since gels cannot be soaked off with acetone (I think maybe some can, but not these), it was a VERY long process to grow them out. And of course, pieces chipped off sometimes and they wouldn't buff down perfectly smooth, so mostly they were NOT nice enough to photograph.

But now that the gel is completely gone, I'm having fun taking care of my nails and painting them often, as well as taking pictures of them! So here we are now, with nice new natural nails!

OPI - Visions of Sugarplum

Visions of Sugarplum was an Ulta exclusive for Holiday 2009, and since it was free with an OPI purchase, I didn't think much of it at first. But when I tried it on, oh my gooses, it was gorgeous! I think it's glass fleck glitter because it's easy to take off, and I think it's kind of similar to a blackened Zoya Mimi.