OPI How You Bluein?

This is one of OPI's Limited Edition Ulta exclusives.  I got it as a free gift with my purchase of some other OPI polishes.

In the bottle its a dark bluish teal with the tiniest teal microglitter/shimmer.  It translates just a little darker onto the nail than the bottle color.  I think it looks like a deep evergreen or blue green, but in low light it looks almost black.  It applied very well, went on smooth and even, and dried fast.  I've included some flash or bright sunlight pics even though they wash my skin out, because they most accurately reflect the polish color.

Shade pics...

And direct sunlight...

I wanted to konad over it, and decided on a french tip pattern because I hardly ever use those.  I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep.  This polish is really nice for konading if you've never tried it.  I find the french tip konad patterns the hardest to use, because it's so hard to get them straight on the nail.  I think next time I might use a tape guide.  My tips are crooked, but at least they are consistently crooked on all my nails!

Revlon Carbonite ruffian

While browsing in Meijer on my lunch hour on Thursday I found a display of this special limited edition Revlon polish.  There were only two left.  So I picked it up along with a bottle of something else I had specifically stopped for and came home with my treasure.  And - OMG girls! - treasure it is!

Carbonite is A-MAZ-ING!  I fell in love with this one instantly.  It's smooth, well pigmented and covers in one coat.  It applied like a dream, dried fast and is everything I think a polish should be.  Way to go, Revlon!  This was a pleasure to work with and has shot straight to the top of my favorites list.

This is 2 coats.  (yes I know I said its a one coater and it is - I just dinged a couple nails and was too lazy to remove it so instead I applied another coat.)

Love this.  love Love LOVE!

For the ruffian I started with a small brush to set the ruffian cuticle line and Pure Ice Superstar, because its a nice opaque white.  The 2nd coat was Superstar with the regular bottle brush.  And then I used a coat of Sally Hansen Polar Bare on top just to smooth out the brush strokes, as it's a nice sheer white.  It's weird.  And bizarre.  And so offbeat.  Amanda says it looks like robot fingers.  But I like things that are off the beaten path and I like expressing myself through my manicure.  I don't want to be like everyone else! :)

The only thing I regret on this mani is that the white polish covered up the beauty of the Carbonite.  I plan on doing another manicure with Carbonite that will really showcase how pretty it is. 

Oh, and before I go, I have to tell you all about the weird dream I had last night.  I'm sure you all will appreciate it and find it funny.  I'm being held captive in this locked room in this underground city.  Fast forward to me finally finding the key to the locked room and escaping as the time bomb is ticking down to detonation.  As I'm running down the long hallways and corridors of the underground town there are these displays of nail polish and cosmetics like what you'd find on the endcaps at drug and discount stores.  I keep stopping at all these displays and scooping all the different colors of nail polish into my purse saying "if this place is gonna blow up they won't be needing these".  Then I continue my escape out of the city.  Someone is trying to tell me something, aren't they? :-/

Obnoxious Punktastic Nails

I've had two job interviews the past two days. As much as I would've loved to show up with zebra nails, I figured it was probably appropriate to change my nail polish to something tame. I used Essie Topless and Barefoot (sidenote: I STILL hate Essie's formula. Am I the only one?!) for my nude nails.

Well, I sat down today and after having boring nails for two days straight (oh the horror!) I decided I had to do something fun and obnoxious. I've been wanting to do some sort of mani with hot pink and black for a long time, just never really knew exactly what.

I decided to do a "punky" typed theme. If you know me in real life, you know this is TOTALLY  not me. I like girly things...but this is a lovely combination of both I think! Makes me feel like a rocker chic ;)

I started with a base of Zoya Lolly on all but my ring fingers. I really don't like these Zoya mattes. They're hard for me to use -- streaky and they dry too quickly for me to get even coats. On my ring fingers, I used China Glaze Liquid Leather. I topped the black with OPI Teenage Dream which gives this mani some BLING! On my thumb, pointer, and pinky fingers I used plates m57 (zebra), bm225 (skulls), and bm19 (houndstooth). My poor pinky fingernails are the only nails the small BM plates fit on :( On my middle finger I tried to do a double lightning bolt a la nailside but I failed pretty miserably. The sparkley glitter on the bolt is OPI DS Coronation. It doesn't look TOO bad, but it's way harder than I thought. I struggled getting the tape lined up.

What do you think? Obnoxious enough for ya?? :)

-Amanda

Sinful Verbena

Ok first off - oops.  I uploaded my pics last night and in my haste to get a post up this morning before work, I realized that I forgot to actually type out my post.  So, to those of you wondering where my post went - sorry for the confusion. 

Verbena is currently being marketed as part of the Adventure Island line, but is not actually a new polish color.  This is a remarket from a previous line.  My Walgreens doesn't have the AI line in yet, but had this color left over - so I picked it up.  It's being said that this is a dupe for OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean Planks A Lot, but it seemed a shade or two darker to me.

Did Sinful change their formula?  Because it's always been hit or miss with me in the past, but this polish applied beautifully.  I was really impressed with the coverage and the dry time.  It's a dark lavender, well pigmented and smooth.  The Konad was done with Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Grape Escape.

OPI Not Like The Movies

When I bought the mini set of OPI's Katy Perry collection this was my least favorite of the bunch.  I thought to myself "meh - not really impressed".  But lately I've been wanting to try it out and I actually really liked how lovely this looked on my nails.

How to describe it... In the bottle it's sort of a gunmetal duochrome that flashes both green and pink.  It applied well, but I thought the dry time was longer than most.  I ended up with a few small bubbles - but if I had been more patient, I think it would have been fine - so I'm going to attribute this one to user error.

I took pictures in the sun.  I took pictures in the shade.  I took pictures in my light box.  But try as I might, I just could not coax that lovely pink gleam out for my camera.  So you're going to have to trust me on this one, the pink is there.

I fully planned to konad over this with a black pattern.  But I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Maybe tomorrow after I've had a day to enjoy all the duochromey-ness that is Not Like The Movies.  I used OPI base for this and SV topcoat.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

See that green?  oh my!

If you look hard enough you can see a hint of pink?

Ok, so maybe I was wrong about you, Not Like The Movies.  I like you, I really like you!

And on day 2 I did decide to konad over it.  I chose a simple design to let the beauty of the base coat show through.

12 year old Barbie nails (pic spamalicious)

 Hello nail junkies! How was everyone's weekend? Mine was fabulous! I went to the circus! It was fun because it's all kids under 18 that perform. Really impressive!

Today I am showing you one of the girliest manicures I've done in a long time. Seriously. These could not be any more Barbie-licious.

I started with three coats of Wet 'n' Wild Dreamy Poppy. Is that a drug reference? Shame on you, WnW. Application on this one was eh -- a little streaky for me, but that very well could've been a user error.

It's funny -- I used to HATE pink nail polish. I thought it was too girly, and while it IS girly, I just think it looks good with my complexion. Plus, it's perfect for summer!

Then, I used two coats of Wet 'n' Wild Hannah Pinktana. I HATE THOSE BRUSHES!! I like wide brushes, but seriously.... these brushes get ALL over my cuticles and it's such a pain. I also almost am ashamed for wearing a polish obviously named after Hannah Montana....but I'll ignore that because it's pretty. It's a light purple base with teeny tiny holographic glitter in it. I tried really hard to capture it for you guys....but alas, I kind of failed. I PROMISE IT'S THERE! I could see it....but stupid camera couldn't.

I know it's girly..and it looks like something a 12-year-old should be wearing....but it's so pretty. Right? RIGHT?? Oooh.....ahhhh....

-Amanda

OPI Ink and Sally Hansen Ice Queen

Today's NOTD started with a base color of OPI Ink, which is a dark indigo violet shimmer.  Application is wonderful - it goes on very smooth, flows and levels well and dries relatively fast.  It's very similar to the new OPI Grape.. Set.. Match, but a shade or two darker.

Over the top I layered a Sally Hansen Hard as Nails polish that I picked up a few weeks ago called Ice Queen.  In the bottle, Ice Queen looks like a silver glitter suspended in a clear base with larger pink and blue hex glitters added in for an extra sparkle.  On the nail, the smaller glitter looks more like a scattered holo.

Oh, and check out the cute new bracelet I picked up at Charming Charlie, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite boutiques!

Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat and Blogs of Note

I've been hearing a lot lately about Revlon's Quick Dry Top Coat so I picked up a bottle for myself and a bottle for Amanda.

On the first usage, I didn't think this product was as good as Seche Vite. The product is thinner than the SV version and I wasn't sure I liked the brush.  It lacked the thick glassy, glossy shine I'm used to with SV.  A rather lackluster first impression. 

But.. first impressions can often be wrong...

I've used it several times since then and.. well.. I think my opinion is beginning to change!   I'm liking this product more and more.  I used it over my konading yesterday and had no streaks or smears.  I think the fact that this product is thinner is the key - you aren't dragging the product over partially wet stamping and smearing your design.

I still like the thick glassy look that SV provides, but I've decided this product is an acceptable alternative (with a smaller price tag) and I see myself gravitating to this top coat more and more.

Also I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to a couple blogs that I feel are noteworthy and producing exceptional work.  Both of these ladies have nice clean manicures with beautiful original designs and they are my favorite up and coming blogs.  Check out Vanessa at http://nailstoriesuk.blogspot.com/ and Lyndsey at http://pixiepolish.blogspot.com/ !