OPI DS Opulence & Stamping

I recieved this OPI as a gift from a girlyfriend from my forum.  I put it away in my OPI drawer and had forgotten about it but I am so so glad I decided to dig it out.

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I'm not sure exactly how to explain this one.  It's somewhat of a scattered holo, almost but it has more sparkles than that. Some of the Designer Series polishes are difficult to explain, this is certainly one of them.

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This is two coats of Opulence over Orly Bonder and sealed with OtD.

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See the pretty sparkles?  It's got a lot of silver flecky particles, too.

Flash

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I used BM201 for this design, with WnW Black Creme.  My nails are so curvy sometimes it's really hard to get a full image design to transfer, but I filled the space with gems to attempt to make it look on purpose.

OPI My Pointe Exactly and Crown Me Already!

I've seen swatches of the OPI NYC Ballet collection and the only one that caught my eye was My Pointe Exactly.  It is super ultra sheer grey.  At three coats it was barely visible but there is something lovely about it.

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Like I said, 3 coats was super sheer.  I swatched it real quick when I got it and decided to jazz it up.

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What you're seeing here is 3 coats of My Pointe Exactly, one coat of Crown Me Already! and then one more of MPE.  This is all over Orly Bonder and sealed with OTD.

Macro Nail Shot

I had spectacular wear with this combination! Granted, I change my polish almost daily but I'm able to discern when something isn't working on me.  I had no chipping and I wasn't able to pick it off and it was a pain to remove.  I suppose I'll have to incorporate my glitters like this so at least I can get some wear out of them.

Flash

You may have noticed my thumb is not in any of the pictures.  Have you ever seen the 3rd Lord of the Rings? You know how the last what seems like 45 minutes is all cutscenes that wrap up the story?  My professor did that to use for over 20 minutes Monday evening and I evidently chewed the length of my thumbnail off.. so it's ULTRA MEGA NUBBIN right now.  I don't even remember doing it.  I'm NOT, nor have I ever been, a biter - always a picker.  I don't put my fingers in my mouth ever, I'm a germaphobe about that stuff. I'm not even sure how it happened but my left thumb will be taking a short hiatus.

Seaweed vs. Da Bush vs. Stranger Tides Comparison

I noticed I had a few of these murky, washed out greens so I decided to do a side by side swatch comparison only to realize they're really almost identical.  The pictures really do speak volumes so the comparison is between Sinful Colors Seaweed, Essie Da Bush and OPI Stranger Tides.

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This is three coats of each over Orly Bonder and sealed with OTD.

Flash

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 The OPI and the Essie appear to be dead on dupes; Seaweed appears to be the slightest more green. Maybe. I can't tell what the difference is but it comes off more.. vibrant?  If you own one, you don't need the others. All three formulas were fine; they needed three coats but my coats were thin. Hope this helps!

OPI Pink Friday & Zoya Chloe

I'm such a sucker for a pink creme.  That has got to be my ultimate color and finish combination, closely followed by pink holos.  I was pretty bummed out when it was revealed that Pink Friday was a creme and not a holo as anticipated.  But nevertheless, I still love a pink nail polish.

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Flash

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If you're noticing the lack of smoothness, you're right.  This is with no topcoat because I wanted to add Chloe without adding too many layers to avoid chipping.  This is three coats (sigh, kind of one too many) over Orly Bonder.  It was splotchy in some parts, touchdown marks were hard to avoid.  Not the greatest formula on this one.

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I finished this mani with one coat of Zoya Chloe and sealed it with OTD.  It sparkles a lot more in real life; I've never been good at capturing flakies and I'm scared to alter my camera settings for fear of never getting them back.  I think Chloe helped turned what may be considered a boring mani into a fun one.  What do you think?

OPI DS Passion

This is one of those bizzaro polishes that looks amazing in the bottle, amazing in photographs but sucks in real life.  Ok, that is a bit unfair, it doesn't suck by most standards: it's beautiful and has a strong linear holo effect, but it falls very flat against my personal skin tone.  It's a personal grievance.  It's a bit close to my skin tone and I don't think holo mannequin hands are.. good.  But I do love it regardless.

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This is 3 coats of OPI DS Passion over the Jessica holo basecoat, topped with NYC Grand Central Station.  NYC GCS really doesn't kill holos!  It may dull them a little, but I couldn't notice a difference.  My manicures feel incomplete without a topcoat, so I'm glad I now have one for holos!

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Flash

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You really can't even tell what I'm talking about with the skin tone dilemma, but it's quite apparent in real life.  She is quite the knockout though!  Thanks for reading (=

OPI Wing It & Color Club Fame and Fortune

I was at the mall this weekend and went into Essentials and saw a few of the Color Clubs left that I had been wanting, I hadn't seen them anywhere else so I grabbed Fame and Fortune as soon as I saw it.  I wanted to incorporate it into a mani so I layered it with OPI Wing It that was given to me by a friend from my nail polish forum; the result was fun!

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Flash

This is 3 thin coats over CND Stickey, no top coat.  Even with three coats there still is some VNL, but the coats were super thin so that may have a hand it it.  This polish is crazy.  It's really glowy and was a pain to photograph.  The flash picture is further away from its true color, it doesn't quite lean that red in real life. It's hot pink with a neon-y orange undertone and shimmery and maybe even some micro glass flecks.  It's unique is what it is, and I love it, really.

I wanted to play off of a "jelly sandwich" and since Wing It is somewhat jellylike, I sandwiched Color Club Fame and Fortune in it.  This is two coats of Fame and Fortune with another coat of Wing It and then one coat of Instant Artificials and then sealed with OTD.

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The two colors play nicely as Fame and Fortune's base color is very similar to Wing It's base color (a hot magenta of sorts).  My only gripe is that the flakes in Fame and Fortune don't necessarily lay flat.  On two nails, even with IA and OTD, they stuck out and didn't lay flat.  I ran my finest grit buffer over it a few times and it seemed to fix it; good to know! Just make sure it's dry otherwise you'll botch the whole thing.

Thanks for reading! (=

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

I have one grievance about this polish and it is the way the name is worded.  It should be "I Mainely Eat Lobster" in my head, that's what I always call it. Suzi needs to fix that, it sounds unnatural the way it is.  Anywhoodle, I got this for my birthday and I can't figure out why I've never posted it as I've worn it a few times already.  Maybe I didn't tag it? I don't know, but here it is!

This is three coats of OPI over a coat of CND Stickey and sealed with Out the Door.  There is a super subtle gold shimmer in this polish which I just love even though you can barely see it.  I really love corals, I love this polish a whole bunch.

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 You can try clicking to enlarge to see the shimmer but it really is subtle. I like that it's hidden in there.

Flash

I'm not a fan of the OPI pro-wide brush.  It works on all my nails pretty decently except my pinky.  It ends up painting on square so I always have to fix it.  I think if the brush was maybe 8 or so bristles thinner width wise it'd be alright.  I have big hands and big(er) nails too, I can't imagine what you petite handed ladies have to do to get it to work with you!

Turkeys Are Brown

And so are my nails.  Well I should specify that COOKED turkeys are brown, some have brown feathers, too.. but I digress.  I like brown but I'm not loving the shimmery metallic nonsense that's going on.  That boils down to personal taste though as there is nothing wrong with the formulas.

This is two coats of Klean Color Coffee Addict with two coats of OTD.  One thick coat would've sufficed but I used two.  It's pretty, but not my style.  It took a little bit longer to dry than most polishes, too.

This is two coats of OPI Warm & Fozzie which runs in the same family as Coffee Addict but has some different qualities to it.  I had a hard time trying to photograph this one o.0

Halloween Shatter

Black Shatter is such a harsh looking finish; I really think it only works for Halloween.  I like my pink shatter, the rest I could do without.  I wanted to create a Halloween color scheme for this mani so I used Orly Green Apple and Orly Life's A Peach with OPI Black Shatter.  Topped with a coat of OTD TC, and this was a simple and quick manicure!

I used 3 coats of both Orlys to obtain opacity.

The green and black look inherently Frankenstein-y.  I removed this after about 12 hours of wear; I have a hard time loving the Black Shatter, really. Blarghork.

Halloween Dotticure

Some of my favorite holiday inspired manicures have more to do with color themes than more literal designs.  I love colors and I love playing with colors, so I decided to make somewhat of a Halloween dotticure for the occasion.

It's not deliberate in your face Halloween, but I think the colors give a nice nod to the holiday!  I started out with two coats of Revlon Royal Cloak. Such a pretty color, I really do think it could place in my Top 20.

Two coats of Royal Cloak, OTD TC.

I wore RC for a day before I added the dots, so there is a bit of tipwear.

For the white pattern, I used BM209 with Konad Special White.  After it dried, I used 3 additional colors and covered up some of the white dots.  I used Orly Green Apple, Orly Liquid Vinyl and OPI A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find for the dots.  Then I added another coat of OTD TC. I love my dotting tools. So much.

Breast Cancer Awareness Manicure

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!  It's been four years since my dad was diagnosed with male breast cancer.  Luckily, it was caught in time and he is doing just fine now.  I always try to buy the things that have pink ribbons on them, the packaging that says it donates to this or that breast cancer foundation.  I've never made a direct monetary donation but over the years I'm sure I've accumulated quite a bit in donations.  So many things I own have the pink ribbon on them. Every little bit helps.  I do have it tattooed on my foot too; that's more about awareness though, and in honor of my father.  I did a manicure for breast cancer awareness this week.

This is 3 coats of China Glaze Strawberry Fields with one coat of OPI I Lily Love You and I used a pink striper for the ribbon.

Stay safe and stay healthy.  Check your boobies. Have your doctor check them, too.  Early detection is key! Ladies, be sneaky and try to check your husband's boobies, too.  Men get breast cancer.  Breast tissue is breast tissue.  Most men dismiss any lumps; be sure to take them seriously. Don't check any stranger's boobies though. That's assault!

OPI Road House Blues + Klean Color Tiara Gold

I originally wanted to make this a jelly sandwich but then realized 1. OPI RHB isn't a jelly and 2. I don't even have a blue jelly.  So I decided on a simpler approach.

Seen above is two coats of OPI Road House Blues with one coat of Klean Color Tiara Gold.  Tiara Gold is somewhat of a crapshoot, as you can see.  My ring finger is covered in glitter while the rest of the nails are more sparse.  Once I got the glitter on my ring finger, I couldn't get it off without smudging, so I just left it as is.  The other nails looked much better in my opinion though.

And then! I made it matte!

Something nautical about this, amirite?

I used Hard Candy's mattifying topcoat; at the time of these pictures it already started to wear off.  I'll be sure to get pics at a better time next time.