Valentine's Nails!

This was my mani before Valentine's day. It was Candy Lacquer- Pinkie Pie layered over OPI- Orange Curacao

Pinkie Pie is a gorgeous red and pink mix of glitters suspended in a clear base. The hexes are medium sized- and there is a mix of colors.

This mani almost looks like a jelly sandwich, but it's actually just the red glitter layered on top of Orange Curacao.

Pinkie Pie was packed with glitter and it only required one coat.

OPI- Orange Curacao is an old gem. It's a black label and I couldn't even find any information about which collection it was from. It is in one of the older OPI bottles. I was very impressed with this! The formula was very thin, but it was practically a one-coater! I added a second coat out of habit. It's very shiny, but too opaque for a jelly. I believe it would be categorized as a crelly. I took this picture without the flash.

Indoors with the flash. It looks much more red than orange to me, but I can kind of see it being a red orange.

I got one new polish this week! A friend of mine traveled to the Philippines, and he brought me back a red crackle. I never heard of this brand!

On Valentine's day, I had an opportunity to go to a Pittsburgh Penguins practice, so I wore Pittsburgh colors! This is Candy Lacquer- Honey Bee layered over NYC- Enchanted. 

Honey Bee is loaded with glitter! It has various sizes of black hexes, black bar glitter, medium yellow hexes, and giant flower-shaped yellow glitter!

I wore this mani for three days because it didn't chip that much, and I didn't want to take it off!

NYC Enchanted is a unique polish! This picture was taken without the flash. This was released sometime around Halloween of last year. It is a champagne frost- leaning white filled with gold glitter! Application was a little bit streaky and it required 3 coats, but that's the nature of frosts. I didn't mind as much since it was being layered.

With the flash, you can see the distribution of gold glitter. The gold glitter looked amazing combined with Honey Bee! This wore very well also.

Recent Manis and a Glorious Haul

I have a few more recent manis as well as some new polishes that I've purchased.

First up is Amy's Nail Boutique- Cherry Blossom layered over OPI- Pooltime Lime. 

Cherry Blossom is packed with various sizes of matte hexes in hot pink, light pink, and white. The glitter was so densely packed, that I only needed one coat. I dabbed it around a little bit.

The sun was out when I took these pictures! I really like how the glitter in Cherry Blossom ends up arranging and laying on top of other particles. With the green, this reminds me of cherry blossoms and bamboo.

I took a picture indoors without the flash so that the sun wouldn't be as blinding. 

Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased through Amy's Etsy Shop.

Here is OPI- Pooltime Lime by itself taken indoors without the flash. This one is a black label oldie from 2004's Summer Splash Collection. Although I really liked the color, it was a streaky brushstrokey mess. I needed three coats and you can see that there are some bare spots. It dried to a shimmery, frosty finish. It's a yellow-leaning green.

Here it is without the flash. The dry time on this took very long. It was denting/smudging hours after I painted my nails. I still love OPI black labels and greens though!

Next is F4 Polish- Granite is just gorgeous. Just a disclaimer that these pictures do not do it justice. When I did my nails with Galaxy, I was in a bit of a hurry. 

Granite is a gorgeous dark blue/gray shimmer filled with various colors and sizes of glitter.

I used three coats of this just because the base was a little bit thin, but it built up to opaque coverage. I used the Elmer's glue base coat with this, so it was a breeze to remove. F4 Polish can be purchased in the Etsy Shop.

Here's a combination that I absolutely love! This is Utopia Polish- Paint Splatter layered over Etude House- Dear Darling Nails 43.

I just love the way these transparent neon glitters look. Unlike it's sister, which is Utopia Polish- Gumdrops, Paint Splatter has various sizes of the transparent glitters minus the blue and green. 

This combination reminds me of funfetti! Paint Splatter was so packed with glitter that it only needed one coat dabbed around.

This is Etude House- Dear Darling Nails 43 taken indoors without the flash. I purchased this one in a blog sale a while ago and I don't know much about the brand Etude House, just that it's foreign. Dear Darling Nails 43 is a white shimmer filled with pink shimmer particles.

Here it is with the flash. Dear Darling Nails 43 was a little bit on the sheer side and needed three coats to be opaque. It was still slightly streaky, but Paint Splatter hid that well.

Now on to new polish!

My order from my Zoya New Year's promo finally came in. It took a while because I wanted to wait until the Pixie Dusts were available to ship. The three free shades I chose were Jo, Suvi, and Indigo. The Pixie Dust collection includes: Dahlia, Chyna, Godiva, Vespa, Nyx, and London.

Nubar- Indigo Illusion, OPI- DS Shimmer, Cult Nails- Coveted and Flushed

Sally's Haul! I purchased the new China Glaze Glitz Bitz n Pieces collection. I got Bling it On, Mosaic Madness, Graffiti Glitter, Glitz N Pieces, Razzle Me Dazzle Me, and Scattered & Tattered. I also got a free ORLY- Wild Wisteria because my Sally's was trying to clear out of their old ORLY bottles.

My very first Nfuohs! I got 51, 52, and 59

More Festive Combos

I had quite a busy week, but I've been keeping up with holiday-themed mani combos and just have to update with all of them! This one is a combination of Zoya- Electra layered over ORLY- Au Champagne

Electra was just released as part of Zoya's Ornate holiday collection. It is filled with micro silver glitter and prismatic silver bar glitter. It reminds me of tinsel!

I only wore one coat of Electra because I didn't want to cover up Au Champagne too much. I really liked how it turned out! It reminds me of a white Christmas tree. Electra would probably need about 3-4 coats to be completely opaque on its own.

Here's ORLY- Au Champagne by itself with the flash. This one was surprising. It had a semi-matte finish; almost like a satin. I was only wearing two coats, but if I were to wear this by itself, I'd go for three.

This is without the flash. You can see the satin finish and the white shimmer particles. Au Champagne was released in ORLY's 2011 Holiday Soiree collection.

This next combination is composed of Seche- Collage Overlay layered over Joe Fresh- Mallard. I took a picture of it by my tree because it blended in so well!

Collage Overlay was just released as a limited edition shade by Seche. I purchased mine at Sally's. It is absolutely stunning and I have seen nothing like it. I recommend picking one of these up ASAP! It's filled with giant matte white hex glitter, large pink prismatic hexes, and prismatic silver bar glitter. I am only wearing ONE COAT of this stuff! It's so concentrated with glitter. I only had to dab it around a little bit just to make sure it was evenly dispersed. I also just realized that I'm holding my Seche Vite bottle in the picture instead of the Collage Overlay. Oops! At least it's the same company.

 

Here's Joe Fresh- Mallard on it's own before adding Collage Overlay. This picture was taken without the flash. I do not know much about this brand. I purchased this one from a blog sale- on the reasoning that I love greens and mallard ducks! I was very surprised with how great the formula and brush were because it was a mini bottle. The brush conformed to my nails so well! It was almost like a mini OPI brush (regular size, not the mini OPI bottle brushes). It is a darker green creme leaning blue. I love everything about it!

Sally Hansen- White Veil over OPI- Ali's Big Break

Here's a fun Christmas combo! This is Sally Hansen- White Veil layered over OPI- Ali's Big Break. It reminds me either of Santa Claus, snow, or a Christmas ornament.

White Veil was released sometime earlier this year and it is white matte glitter with some gold hexes. It is packed with glitter! I only needed one coat of it. I dabbed it around a little bit in order to make sure it was evenly distributed.

With the flash, you can see how some of the white glitter is transparent. It had a neat effect.

Here is OPI- Ali's Big Break on it's own. This was part of OPI's 2010 Burlesque holiday collection. It is a bright red, with some shimmery glass flecks. These types of reds are somewhat difficult to photograph. You can barely see the glass flecks in this picture. It applied with two coats. It's somewhat sheer and a third coat would have worked, but since I used it as a base color for the glitter, it wasn't necessary.

Nails by Laura- Dani-Mite Limited Edition Charity Glitter

I have a VERY special polish here. This is Nails by Laura- Dani-Mite layered over OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. This polish was named after and created in collaboration with Danielle who has had a double diagnosis of a brain tumor. There were only 100 bottles of these made. Half of the proceeds from this polish will be donated to the National Brain Tumor Society.

There is such a beautiful combination of glitter in this polish. There are larger sheer matte lime hexes, medium size orange and blue hexes and micro prismatic glitter. Everything goes so well together! My favorite has to be the lime hexes. They look so awesome when overlapping the orange and blue glitter!

 Here is a picture taken indoors in daylight. Beautiful! I put two coats of Dani-Mite on just to get more lime glitter but it looks great with one too.

Here's one taken inside with the flash. I took this picture more to show off my bottle. I have number 37 out of 100 made. 

You can still get this polish if you HURRY! There are only 9 bottles left. They are being sold for $10 and you can purchase them at Nails by Laura's etsy page. If you're going to spend money on polish anyway, it might as well go towards a good cause right? :)

Also really quickly, I'll show you what OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls looks like on it's own

I apologize for the lack of cleanup, but I cleaned up after the mani was complete. My Boyfriend Scales Walls is from OPI's recent Spring Spiderman collection. It is a white creme, but not pure white. It has some gray undertones. It looks pretty white, but when I looked at it next to Alpine Snow there was a noticeable difference. The first coat went on rather streaky, but the second coat evened it out perfectly so there were no formula issues.

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.