OPI Windy City Pretty

My computer is dying. It takes about 20 minutes to finish booting up and then is horribly sloooow at doing certain tasks. Dear Husband says its not worth trying to fix anymore due to how old it is (dinosaur!). *sigh* He put together another computer for me as a temporary measure until we can decide on a what to get next. I was really hoping my computer would hold out until the system requirements for this is released. Oh well...

OPI Windy City Pretty, sun


I picked this up at a nail salon in the mall that I've been afraid to go into since they opened last year. My one foray into another salon to inquire about purchasing polish did not go well and I never tried again. But a few weeks ago this salon had a display at the entrance with a sign proclaiming a "Sale" so I gathered my courage and dug through what they had to offer. (I ended up with this and China Glaze Party Hearty.) I even managed to ask the owner if he would sell the used polish in the racks on the walls. He looked perplexed but said Yes. I think I'll go back soon. Mmm, black label OPI.

OPI Windy City Pretty, shade


This is 3 coats without a base or top coat. Slightly streaky but it evened out well. The third coat was necessary to reach opacity. The shimmer you can see in the sunlight is less noticeable in the shade. For some reason I find this color soothing. Maybe it's the association of a good memory chasing away the bad nail salon experience. =)

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I bought OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous because it looked so pretty in the bottle.



And in the sun it does sparkle. Very sheer though, this is three coats and you can see through it under strong light. I'm not loving it on me.



In the shade I loved it even less. The sparkle dimmed to a muted shine and under the fluorescent lights at work it looked downright dull. Bah. Hmm, my nails are approaching "talon".



So I chopped them off! Surprisingly, this made me like Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous more. But not enough to say I love it. Dry time and application were fine, I'm just not feeling it. Maybe its too similar to something I already have...anyhow, I felt a need to layer...



...and ended up with this! (Which I promptly smudged.) That's one patchy coat of Claire's Fresh Water (another extremely sheer polish). Fresh Water is very glowy, but the camera wouldn't capture that. The picture shows patchiness yet in real life its not so noticeable. Sort of vibrantly distressed and foil-ish. It lasted all of a day before I felt the need to change it. Which you'll see next time!

OPI Flit A Bit for Halloween

I just wanted to show you something I did for Halloween!

OPI Flit A Bit, overcast


I love how even though its a grey-grey day, Flit a Bit still shows up a rich orange!Flit a Bit is from OPI's 2010 Summer Flutter collection. Three coats plus Poshe and the nail art was done with Konad special polish in black and white using the Bundle Monster plates (BM13, to be exact). See you all next time!

OPI Show It and Glow It!

A quickie post before I'm off to work! My dear, darling brother assisted me in getting an order from Transdesign without it costing me ridiculous amounts of money. *love him to bits*

OPI Show It and Glow It!, morning sun


This was actually from last week, I just haven't had time to edit pictures. Two coats of Show It and Glow It! over OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (I couldn't be bothered to take it off in my excitement to try out the new glitter baby, lol). Application was decent (hey, it's a glitter) giving sufficient coverage in two coats. If I didn't have a base color underneath, I think I would have used three coats.

How did I like it? Outdoors Show It and Glow It! is wonderfully sparkly. Indoors, I wasn't as pleased. The different colors of glitter didn't seem to work as well together and the sparkle was much diminished. However I have to add I'm basing this on where I spent most of my time while I was wearing Show It and Glow It!, which was at work under blah-blah fluorescent lights. Indoors at home had a nice subtle shimmer. So your mileage may vary. I also think a different base color (or none) will affect the overall result. The red creme probably wasn't providing the proper contrast. I will definitely be giving Show It and Glow It! another try. (After I try my other new polishes, of course!)

Next time: water marbling, yay!

OPI Red My Fortune Cookie

Today is the last day to enter the Revlon Glitter giveaway! I can hardly wait to pull a name. Until then, nail of the day time! From the Hong Kong Collection, OPI Red My Fortune Cookie...

Bright morning sun


From another angle


The color is richer than the picture shows. I think the sky was reflecting off my topcoat too much and caused the color to appear washed out. Red My Fortune Cookie is a beautiful red creme, but hardly unique. Still, if you're looking for a good red, this one applied well and required only two coats.

OPI DS Fantasy

Once in a while I curse myself for missed opportunities and have to resort to eBay. I've been putting if off, but I finally caved and bought OPI DS Fantasy a few weeks ago and I'm glad I did. I have some other manis from the past couple weeks, but I really wanted to show you this one today.

OPI DS Fantasy, morning sun


Two scrumptiously easy coats over Nailtek II Foundation and topped with Poshe. I could have done with only one coat of color but did two out of habit. I actually did this at night and waited to take pictures until morning. I don't know what I did in my sleep to cause that teensy chip on my middle finger. *iz puzzled*



I saved this to wear today because I wanted something special for my wedding anniversary. And blue is my favorite for nails! Did you know today is also Talk Like A Pirate Day? I was tickled when I learned I was getting married on Talk Like A Pirate Day. =)



Ah, I cannot get enough of this polish. The way it is ever so faintly holographic. The richness of the blue. Pictures are nothing compared to the real thing in sunlight. DS Fantasy is gorgeous even in the shade.

OPI DS Fantasy, shade


Positively heavenly. Anyhow, that's it for today! Coming soon, a contest, those skipped manicures I mentioned above & a few other surprises.

OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast

Yesterday at work we held interviews for a new student helper. I was a good girl and removed my darling teal creme for a more work appropriate color. I'm the temporary (2 months and counting *grr*) manager so I must set a good example for impressionable young minds...*sigh*

I have a surprising number of "work safe" colors and unsurprisingly, they're almost all untried, lol. Most of them are OPI's that I bought on clearance (usually 75% off) at Trade Secret. I really need to stop doing that. Especially with sheers! I don't usually wear them. I have Stained Nails. Defiantly so. Lol.

Anyway, I pulled out OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast from the Australia collection released in 2007. It was overcast and rainy on Friday (first picture) and beautifully sunny this morning (second picture).

OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast, overcast/shade


OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast, sun


I can't say this is one of my favorite colors because I really do prefer something bright and/or bold on my nails. But it does have a nice subtle pink and golden shimmer (you can click to enlarge the pictures). This was two thin coats. There is some visible nail line in the pictures that isn't as noticeable in real life. If you really wanted to be sure, a third coat would easily take care of that. I could see myself using this again if the need arose. I think right now I'm so worn out and anxious at my job that bright flashy colors are my quiet rebellion. I expect you'll be seeing more of them from me soon. =)

OPI Jade Is the New Black

I did manage to get some sunlight pictures in today, yay! So even though St. Patrick's is over for most of the world, I'm going to squeeze this in during the last few hours here in Hawaii. This is the other polish the nice ladies at Trade Secret held for me from OPI's Hong Kong collection.

OPI Jade Is the New Black


I had no cleanup tools with me when I did this, so I apologize for any stray bits o' green. This is two not-too-thin and not-too-thick coats plus Poshe topcoat. Somehow I managed to forget to apply basecoat even though it was sitting right there by my hand. Silly me. Smooth application, no issues with pooling, cuticle drag or streaking.



When I first put Jade Is the New Black on, I wasn't sure I liked it. But now that I've worn it all day, I'm rather fond of it. This polish is a bright dusty green creme, if that makes sense. It's making me think of old money. Not fugly, wrinkled, dirty dollar bills, but CLEAN old money. Like the first dollar bill taped into my baby scrapbook. Somehow I don't think that's the image Suzi was going for, heh.



And I'm really sorry about my dry cuticles. I didn't notice them until after I uploaded the pics *whips out moisturizer*

OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry

I want to show you another lovelie from OPI's Hong Kong collection. (I am wearing green for St. Patty's, but I'm waiting for some decent sun to take a photo.) Anyhow, I almost missed getting this one, but the kind ladies at Trade Secret gave me a call when they got more of the Hong Kong collection in and put it on the side for me.

OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry


I absolutely adore this polish.



I didn't want to take it off.



In the shade it was pretty, but when I went outside to take pictures BAM!...I was in love.



I would meet this polish on the Star Ferry any day. I don't even know what the Star Ferry is...but it sounds romantic. This makes me think of twilight and velvet chokers and Victorian dresses....erk, somebody stop me.

I had no trouble at all with application. This is three coats (because I'm overzealous) with base & topcoat. I don't know what else to say, I'm too dazzled just remembering the way it sparkled...I'm usually a blue/green/purple lover but I'm totally going to cheat on Absolutely Alice with this one.

OPI Suzi Says Fung Shui

Recently OPI released the Hong Kong Collection. I would have loved to get them all, but I'm trying to scale back on how many new polishes I buy (at least for a little while!). I couldn't resist picking up the blue in the collection though. I can never resist a blue!

OPI Suzi Says Fung Shui


According to OPI, Suzi Says Fung Shui is "A serene cobalt blue to balance your yin yang". I don't know about balancing my yin and yang or if I would call this cobalt, but I do like it! It's a sort of bright blue with a dusty cast that I didn't quite capture. Anyhow, this polish applied very smoothly, I only wish all my polishes would apply so hassle-free. Three coats out of habit, it really would have been fine with two.

Fourth of July Nails

I know, I know, it's not July. But I wanted to show you this mani from last year. Nice and simple, that's my kind of nail art. It would be even simpler if you have a star design Konad (or Fauxnad, the Konad knockoff). I didn't have one at the time so I improvised with a bit of Con-Tact paper and a craft knife.



(I originally posted this on MakeupAlley and don't have an unaltered copy handy right now to change the watermark. Oh well.)

OPI Mad As a Hatter

Yesterday I promised pictures of OPI Mad As a Hatter from the Alice in Wonderland collection. This is two coats, again layered over Chelsea Tropic of Cancer. If you want to know why the layering (and why the blue sleeve and the right hand) you can check out yesterday's post. Picture taken outside, morning sunlight.



My camera wouldn't focus properly in the sunlight for some reason. Because of that I tried taking a few more shots inside under an Ottlite.



Deliberate blur on the foreground to show the sparkle here. I can really see this polish being a New Year's Eve or birthday mani. Or maybe a Hey-its-sunny-let's-bling-out mani. =)

OPI Absolutely Alice

Today I have for you OPI's Absolutely Alice, from the Alice in Wonderland collection. A picture is worth a thousand sparkles, so here it is:



First of all, let me say I abso-friggin'-lutely love this color. Enough to go out and buy a backup the same day I bought the first bottle. So much I wore it four whole days. Five if I can't get it off tonight on account of it being glitter-tastic. But I digress. This photo is two coats of Absolutely Alice layered over my previous manicure, Chelsea Tropic of Cancer. I was so excited to finally get my hands on this color, I couldn't be bothered to take off my polish. Unfortunately, I also forgot to take a picture on Day 1. Please forgive me the slight tipwear. *cough* And the blue sleeve; I took this picture standing in my driveway in my pajamas, wrapped in my husband's sweatshirt because it was a cold morning, hehe. I chose the slightly out of focus shot because it shows the sparkle so well.

And a confession: I was so excited to swatch, my right hand bears the other glitter in this collection, Mad As a Hatter. I wore both colors for days and more than once I had patrons at work tell me "I can't decide which one I like more!" Pictures of MAaH will be coming soon!