OPI: Barre My Soul

You know, if someone had told me when this collection came out that it would be one of my favorites I would have told them they were delusional. Really, what could be so awesome about a bunch of delicate nail polish colors, other than the fact that they're jelly finish polishes??

Of course, the entire Soft Shades Ballet collection is AMAZING! I can't explain why I like them so much, but I do, and I have them all. Today I've got some swatches of Barre My Soul. This polish is a pinkish-beige color. It's not PINK exactly, but there is a pink tinge to it that doesn't make it a solid beige/tan. It looks pinker in my pictures but if you compare it to the actual pink in the collection, You Callin Me a Lyre?, the difference is obvious.

All the polishes in this collection are very sheer. This is 4 coats and you can still see visible nail line. Fortunately the dry time on this is very quick. I think if you REALLY wanted it to be opaque you could add one or two more coats, but I have also seen some swatches where it looks opaque in as little as 3.

Last one just because of the different tone. It makes the polish a little more pink, as mentioned above. 

I really, REALLY like this polish! No clue why! I should hate it just because it seems so... girly? I've never been one for pinks or dainty/delicate things but I just love this polish. If I had to rank the top 5 polishes in my collection by number of times worn this is probably #2. 

This polish is part of OPI's Ballet Soft Shades Collection seems to be pretty standard at any beauty supply store that stocks OPI polish. 

OPI: Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hello everyone! I hope your days are all going well! Today I have for you a polish from the OPI Germany Collection. I didn't get very many of these. Not many colors stood out to me so I only picked up Every Month is Oktoberfest and the odd yellow that I can't remember the name of. It's across the room so I'm not going to go grab it. >_< Haha.

Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO?) ha, anyway, EMIO is a deep red-purple with subtle gold and purple shimmers. It leans more red to me than purple, but the base has a definite deep purple tinge to it. I was actually hoping for a smidge more purple than what there was, but it's still a really pretty polish anyway. I thought the formula was great. It went on smoothly with two coats. I topped it with Seche Ultra-V, a UV topcoat. (The lamp was on sale.)

And please forgive me some for slight swooning. I am still on my new-camera high and these pictures are TONS better than ones I could have gotten with my old camera or, heaven forbid, my phone! *drool* haha! You can also click on them to make them bigger if you want to check out the shimmer!

I don't know what is going on with my ring finger! I think it's just the way the light is glaring off of it. There isn't anything smudged on it at all but I had a hard time getting a picture without that smudge/dirt looking thing there!  

I started using the UV topcoat to see if it lasted any longer than a regular top coat. I didn't notice much of a difference in wear time between this and regular Seche Vite. I use my nails a lot and regardless, I always have a chip or two within a day with either one. When I remember, I plan on doing a test with alternating fingers. My main reason for sticking with this is that the curing with the lamp takes a few minutes  longer, but there isn't that slight fear of bumping something and getting a dent or a scratch in your ALMOST dry mani. Maybe that's just me, but with this you are pretty much good to go when you're done curing unless you hit something REALLY hard or sharp. That seems to work better for me!

Have a good day/night everyone! 

***Disclaimer: all products in this post were purchased by me

Girly Bits Hocus Pocus (aka the best polish ever if you love holos like me!)

Hey everyone! Today I've got for you what is probably one of my new favorite polishes! Girly Bits Hocus Pocus! Hocus Pocus is a really simple holographic top coat that can be used with any base polish. I wanted to try and show you all exactly what that means with a bunch of before/after-type photos!

First though, this is what I actually ended up wearing for a few days. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite genius enough to take any pictures of Zoya Yasmeen before I added Hocus Pocus. Oops.

Over Zoya Yasmeen

Over Zoya Yasmeen

Over Zoya Yasmeen

Over Zoya Yasmeen

 If that wasn't enough to make you swoon, check under the jump here for more pictures with different colors!

NOTD: My first jelly sandwich!

Hey guys! Just a super short post for today. Yesterday I tried my first jelly sandwich mani! It's definitely not the most awesome thing in the world -- compared to others I've seen -- but I thought it turned out pretty neat!

I used Don't Touch My Tutu! from OPI and a random Orly glitter I picked up on my last trip to Sally's called Can't Be Tamed. (It's got small purple hex glitters with black microglitter in a clear base.)

The results:

It reminds me of those candies that come out during Easter that are the speckled egg chocolates. Anyone else see that or even know what I'm talking about?? Haha 

Coming up this week I have another creation from Pam at Girly Bits that I'm in love with! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Polka Dots - Matte!

Right, so I think I said yesterday that I don't usually like the matte look? Polka dots are definitely an exception! They are cute glossy or matte! Behold!

Although, I did learn that you should scrub your hands very well after making bread.... I got flour under my topcoat. Oops! (From the cleanup, no less. I was DONE making the bread and had washed my hands once already.)

(See the line of white? Flour.) 

Polka Dots!

One of the things I am not very good at yet is polka dots. I run a little OCD and tend to over-dot to the point of silliness. I also have a hand tremor which makes it HARD to get those cute little round dots. So I practice. This didn't turn out too bad! (That's Amy-code for "I think it looks awesome!") Haha

I have been playing with OPI Planks a Lot. I picked it up because purple is my favorite color so I can never have too many purple polishes, but I hadn't really used it. The teal is OPI Fly from the Nicki Minaj collection.I own a couple different teals, but this one is by far my favorite! The formula is fantastic, and it covers in two easy coats. I used a large dotting tool for the dots.

Sorry for the nasty dryness around the edges of my nail. We just got snow and the cold killed my hands a bit. Ick!

Halloween!

I figured I would get in gear and actually post some picture stuff! This is what I did for Halloween this year. I KNOW I saw this done somewhere else when I was busy just looking over other nail blogs, but I can not remember where it was. (If you happen to read this, please let me know so I can mention it?)

Anyway, being new to this nail-picture thing, I did the simplest design I could find. So here is what I ended up with!

Candy corn! I started with OPI Nail Envy for Sensitive and Peeling nails as a base coat, then started with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. I taped off that color with scotch tape (P.S. there are some awesome tape mani designs HERE) and then used a coat of China Glaze Solar Power, followed by a coat of Papaya Punch, also China Glaze. For the dots I used a dotting tool. I topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite!

As a general disclaimer, please be nice for the horrible pictures and probably glaring issues with my nails/cuticles/clean up efforts! ^_^ This is quite a lot harder than it looks! I hope to do swatches of things someday, but until I get some finer points down I think I will stick to random nail art!

Hopefully there is more to come!