OPI Malaga Wine (and craptastic pic)

My friend (and co-worker) gave me some polishes that were "too dark" for her, one of them being today's O.P.I. Malaga Wine. It is a very deep, dark red creme that won't photograph to save my soul.

I did this mani Saturday using three coats of color and a topcoat. And I've been trying to at least get a photo that would give a color-accurate representation of the polish since then... In real life, the polish is actually a bit deeper and darker than my photo is going to show. Of course, this would have to be the worst photo of the bunch, too.



I'm really liking this color, and I realized that I just don't have enough cremes in my collection! I'm hoping that this mani will get me to Wednesday, but we'll see...

NOTD: Ulta Beach Bunny

I bought this polish about three months ago on clearance at Ulta and am just getting around to actually wearing it. I'm guessing it was a summer '09 shade, and I picked it up for a buck (well, $1.06 after sales tax to the fine state of Florida). If you like blue-based deep pinks, this is a good polish to own. While it's nothing special in the color department, it is an excellent polish for the price.

The pictures won't show it, but the application was easy. It dried fairly quickly as well. I really hate how these close-ups show every tiny bit of polish on my cuticles, though. I don't see it with the naked eye, but when I see the photos...wow.

Anyway, this is it, both in natural light outside.

Yesterday's mani with China Glaze The Ten Man

I'm still making an effort (albeit not a good one) to try to keep my polish on for more than one day before I change it. Sometimes it seems like my attention span is a little too short and I tire easily of the polish and just want something different; other times it's because my job causes my polish to chip so badly that I have to change it. Either way, I'd like to steer clear of changing it daily because I don't think daily acetone is a good thing for my nails and cuticles. I had a tiny chip from yesterday's ChG DV8 mani, so I thought I'd try to cover it up with a little something.

I chose my newly acquired China Glaze The Ten Man (got it at Sally's on clearance for $2.99). I used one coat, and I really like what it does with DV8. It turned it into this beautiful icy blue.



I'm looking forward to trying The Ten Man over some of my other polishes to see what they turn into!

China Glaze DV8 (and a Red Sox mani fail)

This collection was introduced by China Glaze quite some time ago, but I just got my first ChG holographic polishes about a month ago. I was somewhat disappoited by the first two I tried (FYI and TMI), so I wasn't in any special hurry to give this one a go.

Last night I was a little undecided about today's mani, and I pulled DV8 from the bin. I've got to say I'm sorry I waited so long to check it out; I LOVE this one.

In regular lighting, it's what I was hoping O.P.I.'s Suzi Says Feng Shui was going to be; a lightly dusty blue. Here it is, in natural lighting, but not direct light.



In direct lighting, especially sunlight, this polish becomes absolutely stunning. My pics really don't do it justice, but they're the best I got, so here goes. All taken in various degrees of sunlight.







What can I say, other than I absolutely adore this polish.

And for a good laugh, here's a mani I *actually* wore to a Red Sox game yesterday. I'll give myself an "A" for "Intent to display team spirit", but I think it's a giant fail for execution of said effort.



A bit much, huh?

Orly Snowcone (and why you shouldn't hurry)...

I had to get this done fast today, and I chose to use Orly Snowcone. As I've said before, I love Orly, and this color was no exception. Easy to apply, could have done with one coat but went for two.

Unfortunately, I'm also experimenting with a new nail treatment, Nail Magic. It said to put a coat on as the base, and then another coat as topcoat. All was well with the base, and the color, but the topcoat caused a bit of a problem. I'm used to using Seche Vite, and didn't let the color dry before I put on Nail Magic. I swear the color and coverage looked great BEFORE topcoat and stupid nail art.

Anyway, I have no time to redo it, so here's Orly Snowcone, two coats, in sun and in shade, with my toddler-like nail art.





And yes, that's supposed to be the sun peeking through the clouds....

Dirty Red Bandana

Now that St. Patty's day has come and gone, I am a bit relieved that I don't feel obligated to wear green. I like being able to choose whatever color moves me at the moment, and that color would be red.

For today, I thought I'd use one of my Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed mini bottles for my red (actually, it was sitting on my desk as opposed to having to get up, go in another room, and search through the reds to pick out one, so I guess laziness won out and this mini bottle it is...) I got it in a cute little five pack for $2.00 at Big Lots, and I find them perfect for travelling (or in this case, perfect when I'm just too darned lazy to get up and get anything else).

Anytime I combine black and white nail art on top of red polish, I call it my dirty red bandana. The design, as you can see below, doesn't look anything like the design on a bandana.

My nails are peeling badly, and this Barielle Growth Activator stuff seems to make alot of my polishes misbehave. I'd like to start the mani over again, but alas, I have no time, so I'm stuck with it at least for all day today.



This was 3 coats of the mini red, Fantasy Makers black polish used with a dotting tool, and a little fauxnad with Konad special polish in white.

Thanks, as always, for taking a look.

St. Patty's Day Fauxnad, Part II

Even though I haven't done a lot of green manicures lately, I've got to admit that I'm a little tired of the color already. I've seen so many swatches of greens, so many reviews of different greens that I feel as though I've been wearing them.

St. Patty's Day is the day before my birthday, and for as long as I can remember I've associated all things St. Patrick's Day as sort of my pre-birthday celebration, so I can't let this holiday pass without a little painting O' the green. Today's mani is two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing (I'd call it chartreuse creme), with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League on the diagonal of the nail. I used a fauxnad plate with Konad special polish in dark green for the design.





I have to admit that I really like Ivy League over Wild Thing. Ivy League is pretty sheer, and it would take several coats to build it to any sort of opacity, but it has such a pretty gold shimmer that's hard to resist.

Just in case I don't get in another mani before the holiday, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Some St. Patty's Day Fauxnading....

Piff over at the Polish or Perish recently blogged about RBL comparisons, and in the course of that blog post, reminded me of my love for Orly nail polish. I'm a big fan of their polish -- the brushes, the brush handles, the formula, and the overall quality of their polish is extremely good.

So, with that being said, I decided to break out Orly's Enchanted Forest and use that as a base for today's fauxnad. The rich, deep green creme is great to work with, but it did seem to have a bit of a smoothing out issue over my Barielle Growth Activator base coat. That stuff has made several manicures difficult...maybe it creates too much drag on the brush? I don't know, but I don't like it and this bottle of Growth Activator will definitely be my LAST bottle of the stuff.

So here's two coats of Enchanted Forest, with a four-leaf clover fauxnad done with China Glaze Cherish. I topped off the ring finger with a small rhinestone.





I heart you, Orly...and so does Piff!

Polka Dots

Apparently, I have too much time on my hands. I wanted to do some nail art(?) that would match the blouse I wore today, (not in pattern, but with the same colors) so I broke out my dotting tool and played around. This is after work, and my job is b-r-u-t-a-l on my polish, so try to excuse the chipping.





My right hand has been more densely dotted than the left. I think I like the less-dotty left hand better. I used Maybelline Express Finish in Dreamy Taupe as the base, and Finger Paints Cobalt Cardigan/Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed blue mini bottle for the dots.

If you don't own one, go out and get yourself a dotting tool. You can purchase them at Sally's, or extremely inexpensively on e-bay. (I got a set of 4 for 8 different sized dots for $7.00 bucks with shipping off of e-bay). It's a lot of fun to do, and the possibilities are endless. I just put a bit of polish on a piece of aluminum foil and dipped the dotting tool into it. I would just caution that if you're using polish to dot with (you can also use acrylic paint), just pay attention because the polish will thicken up as it is exposed to the air (as evidenced by that goofy line on my middle finger...thanks thick polish).

Revlon Glimmer Gloss

So far, I'm keeping up with my strategy of not changing my nail polish daily. OK, so I'm only into it for 24 hours, but the first 24 hours seem to be going well...

Anyway, to liven things up a bit, I decided to apply two coats of Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Grapefruit Glimmer over yesterday's mani of Sally Hansen Salon Shrimply Devine. I did not paint my index finger with the gloss, so you wouldn't have to flip to yesterday's post to see the before and after. Here's the pic:




I like the subtle, very work-appropriate shimmer this gloss gives the polish. And for a buck at Big Lots, it was well worth it!

SALLY HANSEN SALON SHRIMPLY DEVINE

Today I am sporting a polish I picked up at Big Lots for a buck, Sally Hansen Salon Shrimply Devine. Again, I don't get this name...it's certainly not the color of shrimp swimming here in the Gulf of Mexico, nor is it the color of cooked shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps it's the color of some type of shrimp I'm not familiar with, from some far away place I've never been. Or perhaps, it's the color of a type of shrimp that is now extinct. But I digress....

I must say, while I like looking at other people's pink polish, I'm generally not a pink polish kind of a girl. I'm making a concerted effort to work my way through my stash, and try to get used to seeing my fingers in colors I don't normally wear.

This applied pretty easily. I used two coats, but kind wish I had gone for a third. It has a slightly long drying time, so I used a coat of Seche Vite to help speed things along. Without further ado, here she is:





I have issued myself a personal challenge to try to wait at least three days before changing a mani, instead of my usual change-it-daily routine. So tomorrow, unless I take a visit to chip city, I will probably just layer something sparkly over it, and the day after that I'll probably break out the ol' Konad. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get used to this color!