OPI- Done out in Deco

Here I have OPI- Done out in Deco. It is from the 2009 Spring/Summer South Beach collection. It is a lilac pastel purple creme and it has a dusty look about it. I'm The term "dusty" is literal since I actually found this polish dusty-hunting. Done out in Deco is pretty hard to find now, so if you ever come across one, snag it! 

Application was flawless. It went on opaque with two thin coats. It is such a smooth creme. I cannot even remember the last time I wore a creme alone! I usually layer glitters or crackles on top of cremes. It was kind of nice having a break from polishes with gritty textures. Removal was a breeze also.

This polish wore very well too. There was a small chip on my middle finger, and I just did a quick touch-up. 

Revlon- Starry Pink

I'm wearing Revlon- Starry Pink. This was first released around last fall. Since then it has been re-released under the name "Popular". I have seen Popular at drug stores recently and it is the exact same shade.

Starry Pink is a one-step jelly sandwich in a bottle. It has medium hex and small silver glitter in a light pink jelly base. I am wearing three coats of it here. I just love the way the glitter looks suspended in the base! This also looks wonderful on my new short nails. If your workplace has a strict dresscode, and you love glitter nail polish, you might be able to get away with this one.

 Some new OPI's I've acquired: Glacier Bay Blues, Go on Green!, and Pooltime Lime

I also came across some Essie's for $4 each at Marshalls. I got Da Bush, Brazilant, Your Hut or Mine, Main Squeeze, Absolutely Shore, and Glamour Purse

Some Red Mani Combinations

I have not updated for a few days because I had a busy week, but I have two manis to show you that both feature red!

 Here's China Glaze- Oxidized Aqua over an unnamed Sally Girl red mini. Oxidized Aqua is part of the Crackle Metals collection that came out last summer.

 These colors went pretty well together. The red leaned more orange, so blue and orange are definitely contrasting colors. I was impressed with how much Oxidized Aqua crackled. You could see a lot of the red through it. 

I feel like I've been wearing crackles like they're going out of style. No pun intended.

This particular combination reminds me of this:

Here is the unnamed red by itself:

 With the flash (pre clean-up) it almost resembles a coral. It's between a coral and a red-orange. I wish that it had a name!

Here it is without the flash. It looks more orange here and this is probably more accurate to how the shade looks in real life. Those Sally Girl mini bottles are so awkward to hold because they're teeny tiny!  It was also rather difficult to tell if this polish was a creme or a jelly because it was somewhat sheer. I am only wearing two coats of it here, so it leans more towards a creme.

On to my next red mani!

 This is OPI's Double Decker Red topped off with Crown Me Already! I also cut my nails, so the nubs are back yet again.

 I did a gradient of Crown Me Already over Double Decker Red. Crown Me Already is from the Summer 2011 Miss USA collection. For the first coat I went about 2/3 down the nail, and then put three coats of Crown Me Already on the tips so that it was opaque.

I love doing gradients with glitter and I enjoy the way this combination looks on short nails; very classy and elegant.

Here's Double Decker Red on it's own pre clean-up with the flash. It is from OPI's 2003 British Collection. This one is a black label. The formula was a little thin and runny but with 2 coats it was opaque.

I've been pretty good with my hauling lately, but here are some new additions:

Revlon- Sparkle Aplenty, 2Chix- Chucky Finster, Maybelline Boho Gold and Avante Green

Misa- Embroidered Emerald

I have a special vintage gem today. This is Misa- Embroidered Emerald. It is about 11 years old. I was lucky enough to snag it in a blog sale! I don't have many Misas, but I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw pictures of it floating around in the nail blogging world.

 The color is somewhat difficult to describe. It's green shimmer floating in a dark, almost brick red base that leans towards brown. The base also sometimes looks like a plum. The shimmer looks blue in some lights and green in others.

 In natural daylight, you can see how beautiful the shimmer is!

 In indoors with the flash, this polish looks much different. You can see the dark brown of the base and the shimmer isn't as apparant. The formula on this was a little thin, so I used three thick coats in order to achieve opacity.

Indoors without the flash, it just looks like a plain brown shimmer- but it's definitely more special than that. 

There are a couple dupes to this polish. There's the coveted Urban Decay- Bruise that I do not yet own but would love to. Also in ORLY's Cosmic Fx collection released a couple years ago, Galaxy Girl has the same idea with the color, but instead of a shimmer, it's more of a glass fleck finish. MAC also makes a pigment called Blue Brown which I have that reminds me of this. I will have to add a swatch of it eventually.

OPI Spark de Triomphe and White Shatter Glam Slam Set

 I decided to FINALLY wear the OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam set with Spark de Triomphe and White Shatter. This was released early last year! I did pair the White Shatter with some other shades before, but I really wanted to wear it with Spark de Triomphe because it was intended with the duo set.

 I don't really have that much to say about White Shatter. It's just your standard white crackle. If you don't want to pay the $8.50 for OPI Shatter, there are plenty of brands that have it for much less. It worked very well for a crackle. Since I used my White Shatter a few times already, I was expecting it to be goopy but it wasn't too bad. Goopy, thick crackles will be as good as new with a few drops of nail polish thinner.

Although these two polishes were meant to be paired together, I think that the White Shatter takes away from the glittery goodness of Spark de Triomphe. On it's on, Spark de Triomphe looks like a silver, but next to the white, you can see that it is a very light gold.

Here are some pictures of Spark de Triomphe on it's own:

 With the flash. There are teeny-tiny micro glitters and some small hexes. This is three coats. You can still even see my nails a little bit under it.

Without the flash you can see my nails less.

Purple with Pink Flakies!

 I layered Covergirl- Pink Twinkle over Essie- She's Picture Perfect. I really liked how this combination turned out. It's very girly! 

 Currently Covergirl doesn't make nail polish. I'm really hoping that they start again. This bottle of Pink Twinkle is a few years old. I got it from a blog sale. It has flakies in a lightly tinted pink base. I applied two coats of it over She's Picture Perfect.

It was very reflective! This mani wore pretty well too! It lasted three days without any chips.

 Here's Essie- She's Picture Perfect with the flash before I added Pink Twinkle. I am wearing two coats of it. The formula was perfect! It was a little thick, but it was perfect for even application. It is from the 2012 Resort Collection.

There is a VERY subtle iridescent pink shimmer and it was kind of hard to capture. Here is a picture of it without the flash. In person it looked like more of a creme.

Here are some new additions:

Top Row: OPI DS Sapphire, OPI- Keep off the Grass, OPI- Fiercely Fiona, and Zoya- Frida
Bottom Row: NYC Haunted and Enchanted, Happy Hands Lacquer- Flowers on the Highway, and Candy Lacquer- Honey Bee

Pretty & Polished- Dalmatian Nation

 I'm wearing Pretty & Polished- Dalmatian Nation. This polish also reminds me of cookies and cream! It consists of tiny pieces of black matte glitter in a white jelly base and a few gigantic circular glitters. I am wearing three coats of it here. The larger glitters came out of the bottle without much fishing. I like the random patterns in which they formed on my nails.

 Just looking at this polish, it doesn't look like it would be that difficult to remove, but it definitely was! I didn't use the aluminum foil and acetone method, so it took me about four cottonballs with acetone. Those large glitters are hard to remove. I had to pry them off with a cuticle stick. Overall I really enjoyed this polish. I don't have anything else remotely close to it.

I scored some goodies from the recent Urban Decay sale:

 Here's the mini nail kit from last holiday season. The shades are Barlust, Mars, Wrecked, Ziggy, Gunmetal, and Hot Mess. I got such a good deal on these that I couldn't pass them up. I was reluctant to purchase them at full price. These are also my first Urban Decay polishes!

I also got the Skull eyeshadow palette. I couldn't get a good picture of the front of the palette because it was too reflective. The shades are: Cherry, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, Grifter, Vert, Oil Slick (OPI Sparke-licious dupe), Shattered, Blunt, Chopper, and Twice Baked.

A $5 off coupon was included in the package, so I went back and ordered the vegan palette. It was on sale for $13, but the coupon pretty much covered the cost of the shipping.

KB Shimmer- The Square

 This is KB Shimmer- The Square. This is from the Clique Collection released in May but it has recently been discontinued. It has a ton of glitter packed into a medium purple jelly base.

 It was very easy to get opaque coats with this because there was so much glitter! I used three coats. More glitter came out of the bottle than base. Mostly all of the pieces of glitter are square. There is gold, blue, white, and tiny particles of blue glitter.

 This polish devours topcoat! Usually with most polishes, I'm fine with only using one coat of Seche Vite, but even with two coats of it, this polish was still gritty from the glitter. I definitely needed to utilize the aluminum foil and acetone method to remove this, and even with that it was rather tricky!

 I got my Cult Nails order from the recent sale. Here they are wrapped in the lil burritos!

 Here's: Happy Ending, I Got Distracted, and Deal with It

I was waiting for Utopia- Gumdrops to become available again, and it FINALLY is mine! It was so worth the wait and I cannot wait to use it!

Pittsburgh Nails

 I have a pretty epic mani to show today! This is a Pittsburgh-themed one! I went to a Pirates game last night so I thought this would be rather festive. The Pirates lost, but I still had a good time. I am wearing Sinful Colors- Pull Over topped off with Wet n Wild- Tangled in My web.

This mani lasted for a long time! I wore it for three days and it had NO CHIPS! I probably could have worn it for a couple more days, but I was ready to change my polish. Tangled in My Web was released as part of the CVS exclusive On The Prowl collection around fall of last year. It consists of medium-sized black hex glitter in a clear base. I am wearing two coats of it here. It is kind of hard to find now, but Nubar- Black Polka Dots would be a good substitute. It was somewhat tricky to spread out the glitter to make it even. There were no problems with having it come out on the brush though. I just sort of had to dab it around in thick coats.

Here is Pull Over before I layered Tangled in My Web over it. It's a yellow creme with some orange to it. The formula was a little thin so this needed three coats. I purchased this recently and it was part of a new Sinful Colors display, but I don't know if it's a brand new shade or a re-promote.

Another Job Interview Mani!

I recently had another job interview so I decided to go with something safe. This is Essie- Imported Champagne. I was unable to figure out which collection this was from. I got it at Trade Secret for $2 when my local store was going out of business. It is a champagne frost just like its namesake. This took three coats. It was somewhat streaky and it had some air bubbles.

 It's really shiny! These next two pictures are with the flash. From what I could find, Imported Champagne is discontinued, but Essie has a shade available called Imported Bubbly and the swatches look very similar and could possibly be dupes. I'm wondering if they just kept the same shade but updated the name?

It's so bright. Although it is very elegant and conservative, it wasn't really my color. I was eager to change to something bright and glittery as soon as my interview is over with. I think everything went well and I will find out later this week if I got the job :)

I did go to ULTA for a premature celebration and in honor of the OPI Germany collection:

Germany OPI's: Every Month is Oktoberfest, German-icure by OPI, Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine!, and Don't Talk Bach to Me

New Essence Color & Go's: Walk on the Wild Side, Gorgeous Bling Bling, Party Princess, Oh My Glitter! (But there's no glitter in this one!), and Chic Reloaded.

I'm liking the new Essence packaging but since it holds much more polish than the older bottles, the price doubled. They used to be $1 and now they're $2 each. They are still relatively inexpensive compared to most polishes that I buy, but part of the allure of Essences are that they are so cheap and you can get a few colors without paying a fortune. I noticed that the brushes in these new bottles are double the size also!