The Vintage Gem: OPI- Arrivederci!

OPI- Arrivederci is a gorgeous peach-pink with some subtle shimmer. This is two coats. This is an oldie. It is from the OPI Italian Collection from 2001 and it's a black label. This would be considered a vintage gem. The application was very smooth also. I'm not really a fan of pinks in general, but I really enjoyed this one. I just love the old OPI formula! 

Barielle- Elle's Spell and Nail Mail

I'm so glad I finally purchased Barielle- Elle's Spell. It's an AMAZING red jelly filled with flakies! I love flakies in general, but when they're suspended in a jelly, the effect is gorgeous! This is three coats. The flakies flash orange, yellow, and green.

Here you can see the shifting colors of the flakies. I've seen pictures of Elle's Spell layered over other shades, but I thought I would try wearing it by itself first. This would look pretty over a red.

I then purchased a lot of nail polish from Polish or Perish. Here is what came into the mail today:

Sinful Colors- Daddy's Girl, Dream On (the old version), and Nail Junkie. The newer version of Dream on is a neon purple. This is a neon pink/berry color. I'm not sure when the formula changed. I wasn't able to find a lot of information about it.

China Glaze- Devotion, and Misa- Fire Coral and Forbidden Lust (My first Misas!)

Eyeko- Pretty Polish and Pastel Polish and Essie- Pink is the Link (my first Essie mini!) I was excited to get the Eyeko polishes because they no longer make nail polish.

CM- Lunar Plains (First CM polish!), Sally Hansen- Lightening, and Brucci- Daniella's Curve

Unfortunately, one of my new buddies did not make the trip. Sation- Silver Glitter. I'm just thankful that it wasn't one of the more pricey brands. I'm not too upset about it. I'll probably order some Sation polishes from Trans Design eventually.

Del Sol- Knockout and some Nail Mail Goodies!

Since we've been having some wonderful weather here, I thought I would try out one of my Del Sol polishes. This is Knockout. It is a sheer nude color and it changes a rosy pink in the sun. The outside of the sun color kind of reminds me of a more opaque OPI Bubble Bath. I discovered that these polishes only work in direct sunlight. The above picture was taken in my car, and it still remained the bottle color.

Here's another picture in my car, but this is after I stepped back inside it after standing out in the sun. My thumb was the most exposed to the sun, so this kind of looks like an ombre manicure. 

Here the color is shifted for the most part. This is out in direct sunlight. This isn't the best picture. The neighbors in my apartment complex were giving me weird looks, so I was in a hurry to go back inside!

Here is indoors without the flash. The formula was alright, but a little bit streaky. This took three coats for opacity.

Now on to the new additions!!!

I got some nail mail from Sandy from Dandy Nails. She had a blog sale and it included some of my long-time lemmings!! I got Dare to Wear- Disc Jockey, OPI- OPI Ink suede, China Glaze- Cyberspace and Gamer Glam, and Sinful Colors-Green Ocean. I now just need one more OPI suede to make my suede collection complete. I've wanted Cyberspace and Gamer Glam for a while, and I was really angry with myself for not buying them while they were accessible at Sally's so I was lucky to find them for a reasonable price. I also never was able to track down Green Ocean, so I'm happy I have it now!

My order from Trans Design came in. I ordered the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters collection as well as other polishes I wanted. Here is Riveting, Marry a Millionaire, Optical Illusion, and Polarized.

Here's Full Spectrum, Ray-Diant, Liquid Crystal, and Prism. These are so unique! I can't wait to try them out!

I also ordered Essie-Navigate Her and Barielle- Falling Star. 

Effie Trinket Inspired Mani

In honor of the Hunger Games, I decided to do a mani inspired from the mani that Effie Trinket wears during the reaping in the movie. I'm going to see it tomorrow and I can't wait! I used two coats of Sally Hansen- Red Ruby followed by a gradient of Julep-Oscar. This picture is with the flash.

Here it is blurred without the flash. I was really surprised how smoothly Oscar applied. Normally glitter this concentrated feels really gritty but it has a very smooth finish to it. 

Here's a more in-focus picture without the flash, but of course the lighting made it look yellowed.

Here is Sally Hansen- Red Ruby all by itself pre clean-up. My cuticles look HORRIBLE here!  This is an old one. I'm guessing it's almost ten years old! The bottle says "Chrome Nail Makeup". The polish isn't nearly as chrome as the bottle depicts it to be, but I thought it would be a perfect shade for this mani. Also the color doesn't remind me of it's name "Red Ruby". It looks more like a fuchsia. I have many polishes that have survived throughout the years and I'm planning on featuring them in my blog. I have purchased nail polish thinner and revived most of them. I am going to start a new tag and call it "the vintage gem". I'm going to try to incorporate these on a consistent basis.

China Glaze- Ultamate Holiday

I cut my nails down a lot! It feels good though. Today I chose to wear China Glaze- Ultamate Holiday. This was one of the holiday exclusives at ULTA. I really like it. It's a light green that leans to the gold side. It is super glittery, and has so much prismatic/holo glitter. It is not exactly a holographic though. I would consider this a glitter.

In this picture, you can tell how gritty it is. The formula was good and I applied three coats. From the other pictures I've seen of this, it looked very smooth. I'm only wearing one coat of Seche Vite, but I probably could have added an additional one if I wanted to. I really like this color! I just love when ULTA has exclusive shades. They're usually unique, and I try my best to buy as many as I can. This shade doesn't really look exclusive to the holidays to me, so it doesn't bother me one bit that I'm wearing it during spring.

Purple with Blue Flakies!

As much as I love green nail polish, after St. Paddy's Day week, I'm a bit greened out. I thought I would wear something more springy. Plus it's the first day of Spring! It was 80 degrees today in Pittsburgh! That's almost unheard of for March weather here. I applied two coats of Wet n Wild- On a Trip and topped it off with two coats of Zoya Maisie. This combination turned out beautifully! 

Here it is without the flash. I can't get enough flakies! I just love the new Zoya Fleck Effects! I have yet to wear them on their own, but I have heard that they look amazing alone, due to the tinted base.

Here is Wet n Wild- On a Trip on it's own. It is the perfect blue-toned purple creme. I've been searching for one of these for a while! The formula was really good. This was just released as part of the new Mega Last line. The brushes are also larger, and that makes application a little bit less streaky for me. It dried quickly too! My nails are super long! I'm thinking about cutting them very soon. They're beginning to get in the way.

St. Patrick's Day Part 2: Neon Green!

I have so many green nail polish to choose from, so I changed it up again! (Zoya- Rina still got 2 days of wear though!). This is a unique polish in my collection. It is from Fashion Bug and it is named "Green". "Green" is too generic of a name for this gem. Before seeing nail polish being sold at Fashion Bug, I didn't even know they had their own brand. I purchased this a long time ago and I can't recall the cost, but I believe it was $4 or less. Green is a true neon with a slight shimmery blue flash and some tiny pieces of multicolored glitter. It's the same kind of glitter in China Glaze's- Snowglobe, but I can't think of the term to describe that type of pastel-colored glitter. The formula was on the sheer side, so this needed three coats.

Here it is with the flash. See what I mean about this being a neon!? It's so vibrant outside in the sun and with the flash, but indoors it's more subdued. The glitter is difficult to see in this picture. I definitely enjoyed this shade!

This was taken before I added a topcoat of Seche Vite. You can see how it dries to a matte/satin finish because it is a neon. Unfortunately this chipped just hours after I applied it. Usually matte polishes don't last very long. It was pretty while it lasted though.