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.

Claire's Dream Catcher

Word around MakeupAlley's nail care board is that Claire's Dream Catcher is a dupe for that limited-edition-insanely-priced-on-eBay Chanel Jade nail polish. I don't own the Chanel so I can't say if its true or not. What is true is that Dream Catcher is quite pretty.

Three coats in full sun. This is actually about 3 days wear. I thought my pictures of this were gone for good when the computer threw a fit, but I found these on my camera. Yay for forgetfulness and taking too many pictures! Loving the subtle shimmer.



And for fun, another picture when the sun hid behind some (heh, more like a whole lot of) clouds.



After seeing this polish so much on MUA and other blogs, I really wanted to try it out but my local Claire's didn't have it. I checked almost every week and finally I gave up, deciding I must have missed it completely. Then last week I stopped by to look for the new mood-changing polishes (which they didn't have) and lo and behold, there were tons of Dream Catcher in the clearance bin. I know for a fact those were never on the regular shelf. Go figure. But I got my lemmng and I'm happy =)

KOTD: Icing Awkward + China Glaze L8R G8R

Heh, I ended up wearing Icing Awkward for almost a week. Really L.O.V.E. that color. The third day I wore it my new Konad plates from OCNailArt arrived in the mail. Naturally I had to test one out immediately. Just to make sure it was working properly, of course. At least that's what I told my husband. Heh heh.



The weather has been nice, so I pulled out China Glaze L8R G8R from the OMG! collection for the stamping. The design is from Konad plate M66.



Pics are clickable for larger images. Apologies for the tip wear, work has been taking a toll on my nails lately =(

Icing Awkward

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts. My computer had a hiccup and it took a little while to figure out the problem. Sadly, I lost a few sets of photos, but happily I backup my files frequently.

Today I'm wearing a green that I love, Icing Awkward. Greens have a tendency to make my skin look redder in photographs than is true in real life, but the polish color is accurate. This is 3 coats, outdoors, but slightly overcast. Application is fair. I had a little bit of cuticle drag on the first coat, but it evened itself out.




This is, to me, a perfect moss green. Unfortunately I couldn't find any of the moss I'm thinking of to show it to you, so you'll just have to trust me. =)

Diamond Cosmetics Metallic Blue

Well I meant to post this earlier, but got sidetracked with life (and a tsunami!). Today I present to you Diamond Cosmetics Metallic Blue.



This is 3 coats (2 would have been fine) with no base coat or topcoat. You can see some brushstrokes, but overall its a very nice polish and reasonably priced at 2.25 per bottle.





For fun (and because they were still sitting on my table) I layered one coat of the new versions of the NYC polishes I showed you in my last post.


Index & Middle: NYC Wing It Wine Creme (new version)
Ring & Pinky: NYC Love Letters (new version)

What's up, N.Y.C.?

N.Y.C. nail polish is great. They've got some nice colors, I can find them in most drugstores and they're only 99 cents. So its no surprise that I often swing by the N.Y.C. display to see if there's something I don't have yet.

A few weeks ago, I was in Walmart and I did just that. I saw two colors that I didn't remember having at home so I bought them. Even if I did already have them, what's a couple bucks. Cheap thrills, that's me, lol. One was a purpley-gold duochrome sheer called Wing It Wine Creme (how its creme, I have no idea) and the other was a pink-gold-turquoise sheer shimmer (bad description, I know) called Love Letters. The name Love Letters started to nag my brain on the car ride home. I knew I had another polish by that name. But I also knew I didn't have an N.Y.C. that was that color.

When I got home, I immediately started digging through my stash. And found out I was right. I did have Love Letters.


Old version on the left, "new" version on the right.


What the heck!?

Then it got worse. I checked my nail polish spreadsheet...

...Darn.

Wing It Wine Creme was already on there. Still, I had a sneaking suspicion that led to further digging through my stash...

Yep. N.Y.C. did it again.


Old version on the left, "new" version on the right.


What's going on N.Y.C.? I understand slight changes in batches. But in opinion it should be New Color = New Name. And I'm not even going to mention the lack of creme in Wing It Wine...

So I did some quick swatches so you can see just how different the old versions are compared to the new version. All are three coats plus topcoat except for the old version of Love Letters. That bish is five coats and still not as even as I would prefer. I know it should probably be on the sheer side since it is for french manicures, but at three coats it was streaky and still showing my yellow stained nails. I couldn't handle it and had to add more layers. Sorry about the bubbles.


Outdoor shade. Index to Pinky: Wing It Wine Creme (old version), Wing It Wine Creme (new version), Love Letters (old version), Love Letters (new version)


Outdoor late afternoon sun. Pinky to Index: Love Letters (new version), Love Letters (old version), Wing It Wine Creme (new version), Wing It Wine Creme (old version)

So whats up, N.Y.C.?