Snap Crackle Pop

I've jumped on the crackle polish train! My brother's adorable girlfriend Nina gifted me OPI's Black Shatter and I couldnt wait to try it. This is a coat of Shatter over two coats of one of my favorites, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Results? Pure awesome.

Brown

It's been a week of crazy!! Sorry I've been MIA guys. Missed you all! 

Would you believe that my Nars Jungle Red manicure lasted a full five days with nary a chip? The pros to that polish just keep adding up - I'm definitely going to have to put out for the full size (pay for it, not put out - get your minds out of the gutter!)

Today I'm talking about a polish I bought over the weekend, one that I didn't have very high hopes for. It's from Love&Beauty, a cosmetics brand that you can find at your local Forever 21. I really like these taupey brown colors, but in the store it looked to have almost a greenish tinge and I thought on the nail it'd fall as flat as it's name: Brown.

They couldn't come up with anything better?? It's a shame because I actually really really like this. I have to apologize for my bad cuticles and scratched up polish - I did this mani yesterday but the weather was so bad I couldn't get a single good pic. My hands are disagreeing with this weather and just withering up - I need to moisturize every 5 seconds! Le sigh.

So you may be looking at this saying, "This is looks mighty close to a little polish by OPI called You Don't Know Jacques...". I agree! It does look very close. I did a quick swatch just on a piece of paper and they're looking almost identical. YDKJ might be just a tiny bit warmer while Brown leans more toward grey, but I won't know til I try it on the nail. What I did notice was that, surprisingly, Brown's applications was wayy way smoother and more streak-free than YDKJ. I'm wearing only two coats at the moment, while I distinctly remember having used three of YDKJ in the past.

Besides that, application was really easy, as was cleanup. Brown dries really shiny on it's own, and is gorgeously glassy with Seche Vite. My pics are color accurate but don't do the shine justice. If you see it, grab it!

What's your favorite taupey-brown? 

Welcome to my 24th and 25th followers, Jen of Jenilee's Beauty Blog, and Jessica Vaquiant! Honestly, I'm blow away that there's even 25 of you who have read let alone follow my blog. I appreciate every single one of you and love all your comments! Hopefully we keep growing - I want to have a big giveaway for 100!

<3

Marble Monday!

Finally, an on time Marble Monday! I've been slacking guys, I know. But here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Not my very best marbling work, but I do love the colors together! This is E.L.F. Royal Purple marbled with OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender over a coat of Royal Purple. The bast coat of RP is definitely necessary as it's relatively sheer with just one coat. The base coat plus the marble gave royal purple that depth of color.

 

I'm still using the vaseline method and I'm really quite please with how easy it makes clean up. I've started putting a little vaseline on the tips of my fingers during regular manicures as well so that any polish that gets on my skin when I wrap my tips will wipe right off. Works like a charm!

Weather's terrible today, so these are just a few quick shots I snapped at my desk. Hope you like :)

Welcome to some new followers! Christine of Randomness, a la Mode, Cydonian of Turtle Beauty, and Sissy of the hilarious My Kids Might Be Martians. Check them out!

Keys To My Karma

I've been wearing a lot of reds lately, which is so out of character! Dunno what's going on with me! But with a red like OPI's Keys To My Karma, I don't know how anyone could blame me.

In natural light

KTMK is a beautiful bright red jelly. The jelliness of it is what makes me love this polish so much, and what sets it apart from other reds I have, like Nars Dovima. If you guys remember, I really was not feeling Dovima at all on me. It's a touch more orange than KTMK and also a creme, and it made all the difference.

Indoors

This, on the other hand, I like a lot. It's so chic and classic, and might be my perfect red. The fact that it's jelly makes it that much better in my eyes. It's a little softer and less severe than a creme like Dovima. 

What do you guys think? 

Marble...Wednesday

Finally! A marble I like and am actually wearing! Woot woot!

I give you my uber-posh taupe marble!



Bask in the glory, readers. Bathe in it.



Aaaand the other hand. I was going to save this for Monday, but I was so excited about it, plus I've skipped Marble Monday the last two weeks or so, so I just had to put it up today.

 And thumbs. Excuse my cuticles please! For this marble, I used H&M Grey Sky, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, and OPI Glamor Game, which is the shimmery gold. First I put on a coat of Color Club High Society. Because Grey Sky is such a tiny bottle, and the colors are so close, I figured it'd be fine as a base. This marble was pretty easy to do, all three colors spread well in the water and were easy to swirl. I did notice that when my AC kicked in it got a little more difficult as the polish started drying quicker on the water. Little things like that make a huge difference! Also, I used a different method of protecting my skin this time. Usually I wrap my finger in tape to keep the polish off my cuticles and fingers. Though this works well, it's a HUGE pain in butt. This time, I used vaseline around my cuticles and on my fingers. It's very easy to do with just a Q-tip, and once your nails are dry you can wipe the vaseline along with excess polish right off. I got this tip from a fellow blogger, but can't remember who!! I know I commented how great of an idea it was, so if it was you, please let me know so I can give you the proper credit!

What do you guys think of this combo? Yay or nay?

Revised Marble

Here's the marble I tried over Gianna's "Rockin" Blue. I wanted to go for really subtle so I used GRB in the marble as well so only OPI Go On Green would really show up on the nail.

I actually really like how this came out and would do it on my whole mani - it's a classy way marble with this color without making the already bright mani too obnoxious.

On an slightly unrelated note, can we talk about how last time I tried to swatch GRB, it took me HOURS to get a shot that was even CLOSE to the real shade - this time, it comes out no problem!! The color on this photo is right on; and its gorgeous!

On a very unrelated note...

Look at my charge for the week! I'm babysitting my sister's BF's doggie for the week, and she is just the cutest, roundest, fattiest little mush ever!!

Marble Monday!

Well, now that I'm Shellac free, on to a Marble Monday!

 

My first in a while, but not really my favorite. I did this marble on bare nails, and I think it would have looked better if I did it over a color. This is Brucci Gianna's "Rockin" Blue marbled with OPI Go On Green.

I think this nail came out the best of all. I took this marble off after I finished taking pics and put on Brucci Gianna's "Rockin" Blue on all my nails, so I think I might try to marble again tonight but this time over the color. We'll see how it goes!

Inaugural Marble Monday!

Hey everyone! This is the my first official "Marble Monday" post. I first saw this technique on Sarah and Jason's blog CrystalPolish, and I've been obsessed ever since! 

This was my second ever attempt at a marble, using Essie Midnight Cami, a deep, deep shimmery blue (which, by the way, is perfection in a bottle - but that's for another day), and OPI Go on Green, a sheer, irridescent blue-green. MC is also on the rest of my nails in these photos. 

The next day I decided to take the plunge and do my whole mani marbled. It's surprisingly not as BAM, OUT THERE as I thought it would be, it's actually sort of subtle. I used the same colors, Midnight Cami and Go on Green, but oddly enough they came out a lot lighter than the first time. Not really sure why? The colors seems like they were spreading more in the water this time, but I couldn't give you a reason for that. I guess as I do these more and more I'll get the hang of the quirks. Both mani's have Seche base and top coat.

A lot of people have asked my how I did this, and I know it's hard to explain with just words. One of these Monday's I'll post picture step-by-step instructions, or maybe even a video! (eek!)

Until next time :)

The Lone Holo

Ok polish fanatics, prepare yourselves for the statement I'm about to make. Ready?.....OPI's My Private Jet is the only holo I own. NOT ONLY THAT, this is the first time I ever used it. EEK!

For those of you that haven't left yet, Here's My Private Jet, a dark grey/black holo, no top coat. Wow, I can see why people love holos so much! Look at the sparkle on this bad boy!

Application was...long. This is four coats to get near bottle color. The first coat was so sheer it was almost hard to see - The good part is that the coats are so thin and dry so fast it's no issue to do four. This could be interesting to layer over another color, I'll need to try that in the future. I even liked how it looked with 2 coats...it was a softer shade, almost brown, which is nice if you're not looking to go too dark on your nails (it is summer after all). Besides the sheerness of it, the formula was good, and the wide OPI brush gave really nice control. I definitely see more holos in my future!

FYI, my cuticles look like that because this one was of the last polishes I swatched of five. Unfortunately none of the other photos are usable  because my blackberry's interpretation of them were not quiiiiite correct lol. I need a new camera and STAT!

To New Beginnings

Welcome fellow nail polish fiends! I decided to start this blog after coming across so many others run by women such as myself (and yourselves) who are obsessed with polish! After moving home from college and unpacking countless boxes, paired with a thorough dig through my room and a fight with the sister (don't ask how that resulted in me acquiring MORE polish, but it did), I realized that I have a freakish amout of nail polish! What better way to showcase them (and what better excuse to buy more?)! So let's get into it!

I know that looking down at my hands and seeing a pretty color makes me smile, so I'm going to start with an old hard-to-find favorite of mine.

This is OPI's Loyal Island Lilac. This polish is from the 1997 South Seas collection, and it's a gorgeous soft shimmer gray with teeny tiny silver sparklies and just a hint of lilac when the light hits it a certain way. My bottle is more than half empty so application was a little thick, but still good. This is two coats of a pretty sheer polish, so it's not totally opaque, but for a color like this that works for me. 

Funny enough, I had no idea JUST how hard to find this polish was til recently! To be totally honest, I don't even know where I got it. Did I buy it? Did I swipe it from my sister, mom, or a friend? Did I dream this polish into existence?? I've no clue, but I do know it's been a fave for years. I was doing some Googling recently in search of a new bottle, and imagine my complete anguish when I found out it was from 1997 and discontinued!! I'm going to have to stalk eBay and probably spend a pretty penny to get another one :(

Hopefully my pics will get better soon as I'm out a camera right now and working off Blackberry pictures. Bear with me! Thanks for reading :)