Giveaways Galore!

I have some more giveaways that I have recently entered.

Polish & Konad is giving away winner's choice of 3 deborah lippmann polishes! This giveaway ends 9/6.

Enamel Girl is having a 400 Followers Giveaway. There will be 3 winners! This giveaway ends 9/9.

A Beauty & Nail Art Blog is giving a way a great Konad nail art kit. This giveaway ends 9/13.

Alice in Polishland is giving away these 3 mini sets. This giveaway ends 9/15.

In other news, the monitor of my year old laptop died last night. I also ruined my nails trying to fix it and it was all to no avail. Grrrrr. I probably won't be posting much just because it's a pain to hook the laptop up to an external monitor. The setup is not ideal, and I need to order a new laptop asap. :( I'm seriously bummed out.

Ta-ta for now!

NOTM: OPI Diva of Geneva & Konad

When I first saw the promo pics of the OPI Swiss Collection, I wasn't that excited by Diva of Geneva at all. But when the swatches started coming out, it actually became my favorite one. Then when I got the bottle yesterday, I was kind of letdown again and it didn't look as pretty as it did in the pictures I had seen online. Luckily, on the nail, it is just as gorgeous as I had hoped. It really glows out in the sun! I don't have a picture of it alone outside though but I'm sure there are about a billion swatches out there. :p

indoors

After I posted yesterday, it suddenly hit me that Icing Fiona may be dupish with China Glaze Harmony from the Romantique Collection, which is one of the polishes on my wishlist. I put it on one finger last night and it did seem to match the pictures that I saw online (but who knows if that means anything since I know purples are notoriously hard to capture accurately). I figured that it was close enough colorwise but I wanted to test its Konad-ing abilities, so I used the little cherry blossom like flowers on m66. I'm not crazy about the way this turned out. It's a lot more subtle than I had pictured, so I didn't even bother doing my left hand. Fiona is a good stamping polish but I'll have to pick a different base color next time. From the pictures I've seen, I think Harmony comes out crisper and darker so I may still pick up a bottle when I finally get around to placing an order at an etailer.

outdoors sunlight

outdoors shade

Sorry my pictures aren't that great today. I'm not used to taking pictures at this time so the lighting was throwing me off big-time.

Ta-ta for now!

Some New Polishes

I'm still wearing my franken, so no new mani yet. It's wearing really well with only minimal tip wear so I've just let it be. I was going to change my polish today but my neck/upper back has been killing me all day so I'm going to have to put it off.

I do have some new pretties to show you that I picked up here and there recently.

From L to R: Nicole by OPI Party in the Penthouse, OPI The Color to Watch, Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous, OPI Diva of Geneva and Icing Fiona.

Above: without flash

Below: with flash

I've been looking for the Nicole by OPI Gossip Girl Collection ever since I saw swatches of it online, but I couldn't find it in Target or WalMart. Then on Thursday, I was by a Walgreens and decided to go in to have a look around and there was a full display just sitting in the cosmetics aisle! I was absolutely shocked because I have never seen Nicole polishes in Walgreens before and the store didn't have any other Nicole polishes.

I got the 2 Swiss OPIs and the Sephora by OPI on Bonanzle for only $10.50 shipped! Woohoo! The only downside was the seller took a week to ship them out, didn't answer my message inquiring about my order and didn't package them well. I was so nervous opening the package but they all made it safe and sound. Whew! I've gotten some pretty good deals on Bonanzle. I would definitely recommend taking a look at the site if you haven't before.

My local mall doesn't have an Icing store just a Claire's, but today my mom and I went to a mall that's farther away and when I saw that they had an Icing I just had to pop in to take a look at what they had. They didn't have anything exciting on clearance, but I thought Fiona was really pretty and there was only one bottle left so that's the one I chose to get. I know they're buy one, get one 50% off but nothing else was calling to me. It's a light metallicy, shimmery purple.

Hopefully, I'll have a new mani for you all tomorrow or Monday.

Ta-ta for now!

My First Franken

I'm in total awe of people who are able to mix up beautiful frankens from 2, 3, 4 or more colors or with loose powders. I am not such a visionary and don't think I'll ever be. However, last night I decided to try my hand at mixing two polishes together.

I buy most of my polishes online sight unseen, except for swatches, so it's sometimes hard for me to get a sense of what the color is really like until it arrives. It's especially tricky if I'm looking at a polish that doesn't have a lot of pictures available online. This scenario led to me being the owner of both OPI Princesses Rule and Nicole by OPI Dream Maker. Both of these are sheer, pale pink polishes that are jam-packed full of shimmery goodness, perhaps glass-flecks. To me, they are dupes, and if they aren't, I don't see why anyone would need to own both. LOL.

I decided to change one so that I could enjoy both bottles. Since I like the OPI bottle and brush a lot more and had already used a bit of Dream Maker for a mani so there was a bit of room in the bottle, I decided to mix Dream Maker with something. I chose to use OPI Siberian Nights because it's way too dark for me to wear as is.

I ended up just adding drops of Siberian Nights to Dream Maker and periodically shaking it up until I was happy with the color. I ended up with a blue-leaning purple color that reminds me of blueberry yogurt or a blueberry smoothie. On the nail it is super sparkly, and flashes gold most of the time and I can sometimes see silver, red, blue, green sparkles spread throughout. It's just stunning and I was constantly looking at my nails today.

It was hard to photograph this color because it looks different under different lights. Sometimes, it looked mauve-ish, sometimes more blue and then sometimes a dusty purple. I decided to just post a bunch so you can see it in all its glory! :)

With Flash:

Artificial Light (taken last night):

Indoors Natural Light:

Indoors Natural Light:

Indoors Natural Light:

Close-ups to show the sparkly goodness:


Indoors Artificial Light:

Indoors Artificial Light:

I'm pretty happy with the way this came out. Changing the color of the polish really highlights the shimmery, sparkliness of the polish. Even in dim lighting, there's so much shimmer going on that it's amazing. I love that I was able to use 2 polishes that wouldn't have gotten much use and turned them into something that I'll wear again for sure.

I think I'll do a comparison later on with China Glaze Grape Juice (which I don't have yet), Sinful Colors Purple Diamond and Zoya Zara, but I don't think any of them will be dupes.

Ta-ta for now!

A Slew of Giveaways Going on Now!

There seem to be a bunch of giveaways currently going on. Here are the ones that I've recently entered:

JennWebb702 is giving away 2 OPI mini sets. One winner will get the Couture Color set and a second winner will get the Irre-Swiss-Ables set. Enter quick though, because this giveaway ends tomorrow, 8/23.

For Your Nails Only is giving away winner's choice of 1 bottle from Orly's new Cosmic FX collection or OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress. This giveaway ends 8/27.

Manicure Time is giving away some beautiful Catrice and essence polishes! This giveaway ends on 8/31.

Polish Freshie is celebrating 100 followers by giving away some Icing and SinfulColors polishes and nail art stickers. This giveaway also ends on 8/31.

Glamorous Geek Chic is giving away some polishes from the OPI Swiss and China Glaze Vintage Vixen collections. This giveaway ends on 9/5.

the perfect drug is giving away some essence product to 2 winners! This giveaway ends on 9/5.

Spooky Nails is giving away 2 sets of polish: 1 to a winner in Poland and 1 to non-Polish winner. The polishes pictured are those for the non-Polish winner and they are all Polish brands! This giveaway ends on 9/5.

Ta-ta for now!

NOTM: The Gray Anatomy of a Violet Slayer

LOL. Thank goodness I'm not responsible for naming polishes. :p

Today I have for you a mani that has both of the polishes I showed you in my last post - Wet n Wild Craze Buffy the Violet Slayer and Gray's Anatomy. I couldn't decide which one to wear so I decided to wear both!

inside

outside shade

outside sunlight

These 2 polishes could not have been any different in regards to application. It's amazing that they're from the same brand let alone the same collection. I was a bit worried about the large cap and short, stubby brush length, but that really wasn't an issue. The problem was that Buffy was incredibly thin and I had apply to 4 coats to get it opaque and truthfully, I probably could have done 1-2 more coats because I still see some bald/thin spots. Gray's Anatomy was almost perfect in one coat but I did 2 just to be safe. It does show some brushstrokes but I'm ok with that.

Both of these are pretty polishes inside but they really shine under full sunlight. Inside Gray's Anatomy is a metallic silver, but under the sun, it really shimmers and there are small blue/teal shimmers throughout. Inside, Buffy is a pretty purple with reddish pink shimmer visible but under the sun, there's also some blue shimmer visible. The shimmer reminds me of OPI Purple with a Purpose. I took close-ups to try to show you what I'm talking about. Both pictures are clickable.

Because of the application issues, I don't know that I'll be using Buffy too often, especially since I have other more pigmented purples with red and blue shimmer. I'll definitely be using Gray's Anatomy again though. I'm so glad I picked it up just based on the name. It's actually a really pretty polish, at least to me. :)

Ta-ta for now!

No New Nails Today

First, let me say welcome to my 3 new followers! I was stuck at 11 for awhile but now have shot up to 14! Woohoo! :p Thanks to all of you for following my rinky dink little blog.

I don't have a new manicure to show you today. I just took off my crazy blue mani, and it was a pain to remove between the glitter and the super pigmented blue polish. I had to chop my nails down (and there wasn't much to begin with) so now I have nubbins. I also have a job interview tomorrow so I'm trying to decide if I want to put on some work-appropriate polish or just go naked. Err, I mean keep my nails naked. LOL.

I do have some new polish to show off, though.

Wet n Wild Craze Buffy the Violet Slayer and Gray's Anatomy

I have never, ever seen any of the limited edition Wet n Wild collections in any of the drugstores (multiple CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens) near me, so I totally missed out on those cute little Craze polishes that were named after the tropical locations. Then I started to see blogs mention the new collection with the polishes named after TV shows. Being a major TV junkie, I wanted to at least see the collection in person but of course none of the drugstores near me had it. I'd basically given up hope when I was in a grocery store, ShopRite, this weekend and what do I see but the Craze collection display just hanging out by the pharmacy! :o I couldn't believe it. I think the only polish that was missing was 90210range (or whatever it's called).

I decided to just get 2: 1 based on the color and 1 based on the name. I got Buffy the Violet Slayer because it's purple! I was never a Buffy fan but I couldn't leave the purple polish behind. And, I got Gray's Anatomy solely because of the name. I'm a huge fan of the show, so I had to have the polish named after it. I also thought Teal or No Teal and Saved by the Blue were pretty but since I've never tried any of the Craze polishes I didn't want to buy too many at once.

I can't wait to try these out, but my untried are piling up fast!

Ta-ta for now!

NOTM: OPI Ogre the Top Blue & Nicole by OPI Sprinkle of Twinkle

Wow, this color really pops in real life! When my mom saw my nails this morning she asked me if the color was called "Electric Blue". LOL.

Outside Full Sun

Indoors Natural Light

Indoors Artificial Light

The indoors natural light picture (middle one) is probably the most color accurate out of the three, but in real life Ogre the Top Blue is a smidge lighter and brighter than it appears on screen.

I'm wearing 2 coats of Ogre the Top Blue, but if you're careful, you may be able to get away with one. It's a beautiful bright blue color. Sprinkle of Twinkle has large holo hex glitter with small round glitter in a clear base. I put on one thick coat but it was a bit tricky to get the hex glitter to stay on the nail and in place. I kind of had to dab them on to get them to stick. Then I put on one layer of top coat to (hopefully) keep them on.

This is definitely an in your face color (and mani)!

Ta-ta for now!

Some Giveaways I've Entered

Hi all!

Here are some giveaways that I've recently entered and wanted to let you all know about.

The first is by AllYouDesire

She is celebrating her first anniversary by giving away the Cat's Meow set from China Glaze's Vintage Vixen Collection! The giveaway is open internationally and ends on August 31.

The second giveaway is by Lucy's Stash. She is celebrating 250 followers with a Big Nail Polish giveaway! Some polishes are swatched and some are new. The giveaway is open internationally and ends August 31.

The third giveaway is by Juicy-Nails!!! She is celebrating 300 followers by giving away beautiful polishes. She's broken them down into 3 sets for you to choose from, which also means there will be 3 winners. This giveaway is also open internationally and ends August 31.

The final giveaway I have for you today is by You nailed it!

She is celebrating 200 followers by having a giveaway. The winner will get her (or his) choice of a China Glaze polish available at Enchantra. This is open internationally and ends on September 1.

Ta-ta for now!

NOTM: Misa Dirty, Sexy Money & Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

Hi all! I'm back from my trip away and boy was it a doozie. It wasn't really a vacay per se. We went down to VA to spend some time with my brother before he moved to IL. The four of us plus the dog were living in a tiny hotel room, where one of the beds was a sofa bed (guess which one I got). Then the power went out on Thursday and we were staying on the 7th floor! The stairwell was dark and stuffy and I thought I was going to pass out on my way up. What an experience! I did get to spend some time at the National Zoo with my pandas though which was definitely the highlight of it all. :p

Anyhoo, my purple mani held up pretty well and I only took it off on Saturday. I'm in a glitter mood right now so this is what I have on now:

outside in shade

outside in shade

inside w/o flash

I have to say that the color in the pictures is not accurate. It looks more blue in the pictures but it's definitely green with just a hint of blue in real life. I only put on one coat of Dirty, Sexy Money and it was pretty opaque at that point. Then I layered on 2-3 coats of Nail Junkie, which is a green version of Hottie. Like Hottie, it's very sheer on it's own. I did have to use 2 coats of my top coat to even everything out. I'm loving how this looks!

Ta-ta for now!

NOTM: Purple Prettiness

This wasn't exactly what I had planned when I started doing my nails but I like how it all turned out.

Outside in the Sun

Inside with Flash

Inside without Flash (pretty close to the colors in real life)

On my ring finger, I used 2 coats of CG NailSlicks in Grape Ice and stamped the butterfly image from plate m36 with Color Club Wild at Heart. I've had Grape Ice for years now but haven't worn it in a while and I must say that it went on so smoothly. I could have gotten away with 1 coat if I was very careful with the application. I'll have to revisit it for a full mani soon.

On my other fingers I have on 2 coats of China Glaze Spontaneous and 1-2 coats of Sinful Colors Hottie. Even though Hottie looks blue in the bottle, the base is so sheer that it really didn't show up when layered.

I originally planned to use Spontaneous on all my fingers and stamp the panda face from s10 on the ring. Things changed when a) the panda face wouldn't transfer fully onto my nails again (I'm beginning to think that the plate is just cruddy) and b) the image didn't stand out against Spontaneous. I'm happy I decided to go with Grape Ice because I think it stands out but still fits in with the rest of my mani. :)

As I said in my previous post, I'll be going away early tomorrow morning and won't be back til Friday night, so this is it for me this week.

Ta-ta for now!

NOTD: My First Gradient Manicure

I've seen a bunch of bloggers with these gradient manicures and they sounded easy enough to do, so I thought I'd give it a try. It seems like everyone has their own technique, so I decided to use 3 shades of purple and a sponge (or packing peanut in my case since I don't have any make-up sponges).

The colors I chose were: Sinful Colors Purple Diamond, China Glaze Spontaneous and OPI Funky Dunkey. I put on 2 coats of Purple Diamond, then sponged on Spontaneous and Funky Dunkey. Then on top of it all, I put on 1 more coat of Purple Diamond to tie it all together. Here's how it all came out:

inside (no flash)

inside (with flash and artificial light)

There aren't any outside shots because it's raining.

I wasn't really happy with how this all turned out. It looks ok in the pictures, but in real life, it's kind of bumpy looking and the tips look really thick. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't use Purple Diamond. It's not really pigmented enough to be the first color in this gradient and layering it on top of the mani didn't really turn out how I had hoped either.

Even though I just put this on, it's coming off tonight and I'll be back with a new mani tomorrow. I'm going away on Tuesday for the rest of the week and this is not the mani that I want to take with me. :p

Ta-ta for now!