Sparrow Me the Drama and Navy Shatter

I used OPI- Sparrow Me the Drama from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection as a base and put OPI Navy Shatter on top. I just was able to find the Navy Shatter recently at ULTA and I was eager to try it.

I really like these two colors together and I like how the navy is darker and more sheer at the different thicknesses.

Here Comes Trouble!

I used Orly- Here Comes Trouble today. Please excuse that it's not cleaned up. I hate cleaning up after using glitter polish, and I'd rather just wait until it peels off in the shower.

I REALLY loved the way this looked in the bottle. I still love the overall color. This needed four coats and you can still see some patches of unevenness with that sheer yellow-y green base. I really like the shade of green and the different-sized glitter though.

In honor of the True Blood season 4 premiere tomorrow...

I thought I'd do a True Blood inspired mani for the premiere tomorrow, so I used Essie Red Nouveau under OPI Black Shatter

I love this combination! 

Two versions of Essie Hard to Get?

Today I went to a different Trade Secret to see if they had any more $2 Essies. They had quite a lot, but only a few that I haven't picked up yet from the other one. I got this really pretty pale pink(shown on the right in the picture) When I got home, I realized that it had the same name of one that I picked up previously. I wasn't able to remember the names of all of the Essies I picked up.

The Hard to Get on the left is so much more pink than the one on the right.

The labels look different. I wonder which one is newer, or if the labels mean the formulas are different.

Orly- Retro Red

Today I decided to go with Orly Retro Red from their Plastix collection.

I really enjoy the texture of this, but it takes much longer to dry than a typical matte, or satin polish. I keep getting little marks in it, and some bubbles show up. I love the color though, and these are long-lasting.

Zoya Midori

So I just HAD to change my last color, because I really didn't like the way it looked on me. I also cut my nails because my OCD really wasn't agreeing with all of my nails not being the same length. This color screams summer:

I really am loving Zoya Midori. Zoya makes some really nice greens and they last long too. I bought Apple from their Sunshine collection and I'm eager to wear that also!

Essie True Love

This is one of the Essie's I got for $2 at Trade Secret. It is called True Love. This is WAYY more sheer than I expected. I'm wearing three coats. I feel like my nails look dirty/yellow. They are stained pretty badly from the red I wore last week. I would like this better if my nails weren't so yellow.

I finally caught up!

I have a couple more pictures from the past few days, and then I'll be all caught up. The boyfriend brought a Macbook Pro today (with my convincing). He isn't the most technologically savvy person, so he'll probably only use it for his grad school homework, and then I can play on it :) That was just something eventful that happened over the weekend. On to the pictures! There is a haul, two combinations I loved, and two polishes I didn't enjoy very much.

Massive Essie nail lacquer and treatments haul. Plus Nic's Sticks and some OPI's. I believe that OPI has discontinued them. Trade Secret was selling every Essie product for $2 because they were discontinuing the line at their store. The OPI products were only $1 each. I took advantage of this sale, and everything here was about $60. It was worth the cashier looking at me like I was nuts. Plus Essies retail for $8 and the treatments were $15 regularly priced!

Essie Lacquered Up with an accent of Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold crackle overcoat.

This may be my favorite crackle combo yet! Essence Just Rock It! with China Glaze Crushed Candy on top. The Essence one I got at ULTA for around $1 and I only needed one coat of it. I just love how the crackle worked here.

Kleancolor Neon Purple. I am not a fan of this at all. I got it in a lot of polishes that I purchased from another blogger. It looked like it would be neat in the bottle, but the name "Neon Purple" doesn't exactly scream the color that it produces. Also, once I added the Seche Vite topcoat, it ended up looking really streaky. With the flash, you can see the redder tones separating it. Ugh. Excuse the umbrella in the background haha.

I just couldn't stand it the way it was so I added Out the Door Northern Lights holo top coat. It made it better, but you can still see the streakiness. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to do another color, so I left it like this. It also stayed tacky for a day an a half and it was really annoying. I have another Kleancolor that I haven't tried yet, so hopefully it produces better results.

It looks so much better without the flash.

OPI Alpine Snow Matte: I had this for a while and never tried it, so I figured I would today. It needed three coats to be opaque and it still looks really streaky and uneven. It was messy too. I love the matte look, but instead of buying this I wish I would have just put Essie Matte About You over the regular Alpine Snow. This also chipped right after I took the picture.

You can kind of see the texture of it. AND I discovered the close-up mode on my camera, so hopefully my pictures coming up will be of better quality!

Some OPI's that I photographed.

Absolutely Alice paired with my festive folder. I took this before heading to class. I missed out on the Alice in Wonderland collection and luckily I found Absolutely Alice on AveYou for the regular price of $8.50. I can't say the same for Mad as a Hatter. I splurge when it comes to nail polish, but I can't see myself spending $50 on one bottle on Ebay.

Shatter party! My friends an I woke up early and went to ULTA on Sunday morning to get the Katy Perry collection and shatter. My hand is on the left and I'm wearing Teenage Dream under Black Shatter. I am still in a quest to find the blue shatters from OPI. 

Don't Mess with OPI. I <3 greens! I don't own Jade is the New Black, and I've wanted it for the longest time. I saw pictures comparing the two and they looked rather similar except for Don't Mess with OPI is slightly lighter and more yellow-toned. I'm sure eventually I'll cave in to my "collector" (hoarder as my bf says) tendencies and buy Jade is the New Black.

Do You Think I'm Texy topped with China Glaze Dollhouse. Originally I wasn't going to buy any of the "sorbet" shades from the Texas collection, because I didn't think I'd be a fan of the sheerness. They ended up growing on me, and now I enjoy jelly polishes. Also the Dollhouse looks like I took the time to put individual blingy polka dots on my nails. 

Don't Mess with OPI again topped with Funky Fingers- Erin for St. Paddy's day! It was a very festive one!

Funky Dunkey from the Shrek Collection. It's a bit darker when it's not photographed with a flash.

Funky Dunkey topped with Thrills in Beverly Hills topcoat. I've gotten some comments asking if I was a Laker's fan. Nope, I don't pay attention to sports except for Pittsburgh Penguins hockey. I'm a Yinzer :) My boyfriend actually picked out this combination and he later told me that these were his hometown elementary school colors haha

Gift of Gold.. it was an ULTA holiday exclusive from last year. And yes, I'm wearing my polar bear pajamas. I cannot type in words how much I LOVE this. I wish I would have gotten more!

Green-wich Village. I really enjoyed this one. It's kind of like a jelly and I'm a huge fan of greens.

Candy Mani with Bring on the Bling under Guy Meets Galveston. I think I added one more coat of Guy Meets Galveston later.

Phone pic: Here Today Aragon Tomorrow Suede after 2 days of wear. This is my favorite OPI suede!

Hey Get in Lime! With Maybelline Colorama flakies that you can barely see and Essie Matte About You. Hey Get in Lime! is my all time favorite OPI mint green. It's a shame that it's discontinued and hard to find now. I may just buy a back up on Ebay before it gets to be too expensive.

In the Spotlight Pink 3 coats. This may be my go-to job interview color since it's very subtle and safe. Hopefully when I actually get an interview, my nails won't be as stained :(

I Vant to be a Lone Star. I love the shimmer/pearly look to this.

La Pazitively Hot matte topped with Black Shatter. I then added a coat of Essie Matte About You

Melon of Troy with Glitter Bit of Music top coat. This probably wasn't a good shade to put Glitter Bit of Music over. It blended in and got lost in the shimmer.  It would probably be the most noticeable over a darker cream shade.

Sephora by OPI: Mermaid to Order. This one lasted a long time without chipping! This is the only Sephora by OPI I own, but the formula was awesome, and I hope to buy more someday.

I don't have the original My Private Jet, so I tried to recreate it. First I used a coat of black, and then added 2 coats of the new MPJ. After, I added Out the Door Northern Lights holo top coat. It turned out pretty sweet! Sorry for the mess. Sometimes I get so excited about taking pictures that I forget to clean up beforehand.

Ogre the Top Blue with China Glaze Lightening Bolt on top. This was an amazing combo. Too bad the picture turned out so blurry.

Planks a Lot with Silver Shatter. ARghhH! (Imagine saying that in a pirate accent)

another angle

Plum Full of Cheer (another ULTA holiday exclusive) with Show it and Glow it on top!

This picture turned out terrible but it's the Serena duo: Rally Pretty Pink with Red Shatter

without flash

Zoyas

  
                                                                      Zoya- Adina

                                                      Breezi with Sally Hansen Snappy Sprinkles on top

Zoya Caitlin

Zoya Danni

Zoya Ivanka with flash

Ivanka without flash. It's AMAZING.

Zoya Kelly.. the first Zoya I bought, and this was taken with my phone.

After a day, I added China Glaze Solar Flare on top. It's another phone picture, so the quality is terrible.

                                                                               Zoya Mitzi

Zoya Phoebe

Zoya Rica