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?

Mirror Nails: Day 4 Review

Well, I'm back from Disneyland and I wanted to let you know how my mirror nails are holding up!  (Good news - not one single nail came even close to popping off!)

Here is a picture on day 4:

Nail Bliss Silver nails w/ Elegant Touch Super Adhesive Tabs (Day 4)

If you remember, I applied them Friday mid-day and wore them throughout my Disneyland vacation. I must say, they still look nearly as perfect as when I first applied them. You can see a tiny bit of wear in the gel top coat on my middle finger near the cuticle, but I have a feeling I could touch that up with another layer of clear gel easily. Also, the gel has become a TINY bit scuffed on most of my fingers, but it's not noticeable unless you're looking at them up very close. Scrangie shows the chrome finish wearing off and being very scratched after five days of wear, so I think the gel top coat helped IMMENSELY. I would recommend ALWAYS putting some sort of protective top coat over chrome or mirror nails to protect the finish. It seemed to work wonders in my case!

The second half of my review is actually of the Super Adhesive Tabs that I bought at Ulta. They claim to be water resistant and can last up to 7 days. In this case, I've only had them on for 3-4 days, but I really don't see any deterioration at all yet. These nails are stuck on good! Granted, the fake nails I'm wearing are filed down to nearly my natural nails' lengths on most fingers, so there's not much of a "free edge." If they were longer they might have more of a tendency to pop off, I don't know. I also like that there is not much "give" in the adhesive. They pretty much don't budge, so you don't get that weird feeling of the nail getting pushed into your cuticle when you press on something (if you've ever worn fake nails, you probably know what I'm talking about). Right now as I'm typing, they feel like my natural nails to me.

So here is my overall review of this mirror nails effect:

Pros:

• Awesome quick fix for when one of my nails broke WAY down right before my vacation
• Mirror finish is super eye-catching and fun.  Very Star Wars or Tron -esque
• Super Adhesive Tabs by Elegant Touch are nice and strong and make the nails comfortable to wear
• Wore for at least three days easily - would probably be good for up to a week with no problems (perfect for a vacation!)
• Nails are long but can be very easily clipped and filed to your ideal length without any damage to the nails
• No glue needed!

Cons:

• Fake nails are still a bit "bulky" and don't look completely natural
• The adhesive tabs create a tiny bit of a gap around the edges (between your natural nail and the fake nail) where lint can get stuck.

I guess my only wish is that they could make both the adhesive tabs and the nails themselves a bit thinner to give a more natural look.  Other than that I loved these SO much and have ordered more because they were so fun!  I was surprised the adhesive lasted so well, even through showers and dishes and Splash Mountain!

Here are some tips for a longer lasting manicure that I picked up from trying these out:

• Adhesive that claims to be easily removed with "warm water" will NOT last and won't hold the nails in their proper place very long (they seem to "slide" around on the nail quite a bit).  Be sure to get ones that can handle multiple days worth of wear and are water resistant. An alternative is to use nail glue, but it can be more difficult to remove, especially if you'd like to keep the fake nails for future use.
• Mirror/chrome finishes are VERY susceptible to scratches and wear and it's very important to put a clear top coat over the nails to protect the perfect shiny finish!
• The adhesive tabs are somewhat long and can be trimmed with clippers to the length of the natural nail before sticking on the fake nail. This makes it so there's not too much exposed adhesive to gather dirt and lint, etc.

For more info on the products reviewed in this post, see my original Mirror Nails post.

Mirror Nails

No, this isn't a polish. Yes, they are fake nails.

If you remember, I tried one of these fake "mirror nails" on the other day and compared them to other mirror-like finishes. These are actually a different brand than the one featured in that post.

Nail Bliss - Silver Chrome Nails

These are the same nails that Scrangie reviewed in her post here (although hers were the "Platinum" color, and these are the "Silver"). They are a bit thick, and don't look too incredibly natural (they're a little too wide), but I love them all the same. I also had the same problem I have with most fake nails which is that most of the sizes are too large, so I have to use the smallest sizes available and hope they look ok.  Because Scrangie remarked that the chrome finish was easily scratched, I decided to put a layer of my SensatioNail UV gel top coat over them to protect the finish and keep it nicer longer.

I attached these with Elegant Touch Super Adhesive Tabs because I didn't want to fuss with nail glue but still wanted them to stay on for a few days while I'm on vacation. I'll comment on the wear after I have them on for at least a couple days.

The nails featured in this post are here on this site, though not available for purchase. I found mine at Sally's, though I looked for them recently in the local store and didn't find them.

At Ulta I was able to find a similar brand (that actually fit my nails even better) called Elegant Touch. The metallic ones I found can be ordered from their site here. They are a little closer to the "Platinum" color of the Nail Bliss nails (the color in Scrangie's post).

Milani Jewel FX Re-swatches

I swatched these last year, but since then I've acquired two more and I wanted to show them all together.

Here are all of the Milani Jewel FX polishes:

Milani Jewel FX - Gold

This one feels so very Christmasy because of the rich mirror-like gold finish. Granted, this look is a bit of a PITA to achieve. This is two "coats." For the first coat, I sort of just dabbed on the glitter and tried to push it around to form nice edges, and the second coat was more or less brushed on with a little coaxing here and there. But the effect is wonderful!

I did have an issue with wear on this one though. When I wore it for a full mani, it ended up peeling of in sheets pretty much the next night. Oh well.

I've seen this one at Target even recently, so it's readily available.

Milani Jewel FX - Silver

Such a beautiful simple silver. VERY shiny mirror-like finish that would be perfect for New Years Eve!

This one is a bit harder to find. You can order it from Cherry Culture and from Milani's site directly, but I've never seen it in stores. Still, it's totally worth it.

Milani Jewel FX - Gems (w/ purple)

I believe that this is the most common version of Gems. I'm pretty sure it's the closest dupe I've seen to Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday (see this comparison). Very pretty, but it's not my favorite of the bunch.

Milani Jewel FX - Gems (no purple)

This, however, IS my favorite of them all. I LOVE this color combination for some reason. It feels like Christmas toys to me, and it reminds me of a train around the tree or of a nutcracker.  Last year, I wore this on my toes for Christmas and I decided that if I had to wear this one polish on my toes for the rest of my life, I'd be perfectly happy.

I wish so badly that I could find another bottle of this without the purple, but I haven't seen one like this since the first release of the collection I found at CVS. I actually like my swatch from last year better because it shows off the colors more.

So there you have them... ALL of the Milani Jewel FX polishes. All of them are shown at two "coats" (one "placement" coat and one coat brushed on almost like normal). They really are stunning, even if they are a pain to put on and take off. So fitting for the holidays!

Trying out Transfer Foils

After seeing all of Enamel Girl's awesome foil manicures, I wanted to try some, too! So I made my $25 minimum order from Dollar Nail Art and incidentally wound up with SO MANY foils to try! I'd never tried foils before, and was worried that they'd look terrible. Actually, it's very easy and comes out looking pretty awesome.


One problem with foil is that is crinkles when you put on topcoat, but depending on the topcoat, it usually smooths out once it has dried. Here I tried just clear Orly polish on my ring finger, but it never ended up shiny again, instead it looked just cloudy. Then I tried Gelous on my pinky and it worked very well! It looked crinkled at first, but dried to a mirrored finish just like the foil. Then on my middle finger I tried Gelous with Seche Vite over the top. This combination seemed to leave a few more wrinkles, but it still looked pretty nice. My index finger I left with just the foil and it dulled down within MINUTES from everyday wear, and I'm sure the foil would not stay on for very long this way. It needs a topcoat, it's just a matter of finding the right one.

From far away, these are so mirrored, it's amazing, but up close they definitely have flaws. If you're one that can't stand a couple bubbles, or a speck of dust , then you may not be as happy with the foils, because they don't come out perfect. But I think it's about as close to Minx as you can get without paying horrendous prices!

Have you ever tried foils before? Do you like the chrome/mirror look?

Milani Jewel FX Swatches and Review

After I saw this collection reviewed online, I knew I just had to have these crazy polishes! These are from the new Milani collection that includes One Coat Glitters and Jewel FX, and every single one is stunning!

Milani Silver Dazzle

The first is Silver Dazzle, and I think it's my favorite of the glitters. It is a cool-toned charcoal grey glitter that really sparkles with a topcoat. It actually looks pretty cool without a topcoat as well - it has a gritty, matte look which looks very wintry to me. It would also probably look neat with a topcoat and a matte topcoat (to get rid of the rough glitter finish). This is two coats shown.

Milani Gold Glitz

The other glitter I picked up was Gold Glitz. This is ONE COAT! I love warm-toned golds, as they tend to look better on my skin, and this one is perfect. It's a very beautiful holiday color! I didn't pick up the red, purple, or blue glitters because I have some similar, and I'm trying not to buy nail polishes that I have near dupes of (but the One Coat Glitter formula is pretty awesome, so it might be worth it!). If you'd like to see swatches of those, check them out here!

Milani Gems Jewel FX

There are two Jewel FX polishes in the collection, and the first one is called Gems. It is a whole bunch of multi-colored glitter in all different sizes. While the One Coat Glitters contain a whole bunch of microglitter, this has only larger pieces, and it makes it a little easier to clean up (though still hard to remove). It is rumored to be a dupe of Lippmann's Happy Birthday, but it's actually missing the pink/purple glitter (you can see a swatch of it here). Other than that, it's VERY similar with the different shapes, sizes and colors of glitter. This one reminds me of a nutcracker for some reason, and feels like a holiday color, though you could wear it year-round. This is three coats, though the last coat was more of a "touch-up" to cover any bare spots. The glitter in this has to be controlled a little to "place" it in the right spot, but it's not too hard to do.

Milani Gold Jewel FX

This is Gold Jewel FX, and I think this is as "mirror-like" as you can get without having Minx. It is truly spectacular in person. It's cool-toned gold, but luckily it still looks nice on me, and I will SURELY be wearing this one (I don't even care how painful the removal will be). This was two coats, and again it's best to push around the glitter to place it where you want it, especially on the second coat. It was SO easy to clean up (I took it off before it dried) because the big glitter pieces don't get EVERYWHERE like the microglitter does. Here's another pic to try and show off this "mirror" finish.




These could all be a horror to remove, but if you remember the foil method for glitter removal, then they shouldn't be too bad. Just soak a cotton ball in pure acetone or acetone polish remover (I usually split the cotton balls in half so I don't use as many), place it on the glitter polish and wrap it in aluminum foil (so that it doesn't evaporate). Wait for about 5-10min before pressing down and sliding it off. Be sure to moisturize your fingers after soaking them in the acetone!

I can't decide what to put on my fingers and toes now! I kind of want to do Gems on my toes because it'd go with anything I could think of to put on my fingers :o)

Do you like these new glitters? Are you willing to put up with crazy glitter removal for these beauties?