OPI - Stranger Tides

Hey guys!

I have an older polish to show you that I have been really enjoying this season.  Stranger Tides, a sage green from OPI, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spring 2011.  I love how soft and calm this color is.

Above is two coats, with top coat.  The formula is a bit thin, but workable. I just made sure the first coat was more on the dry side before applying the second coat.

I suffered a really bad nail break on my left hand, which is my more photogenic hand.  So you'll be seeing my right hand for a few more posts while my nail grows back out. *sighs*

Well, have a peaceful and relaxing weekend!

V: V-french with OPI Skull and Glossbones

Hey there!

Quick post... we are on V for the ABC challenge and I did a simple V tipped french, some call this a chevron french as well.  This is OPI Skull and Glossbones as a main color with China Glaze Call of the Wild for the tips.

I love grey and brown together, it's what I wear when I get tired of black.

I did this free handed but you can easily use tape if you want.  I did a tutorial on v-tipped french manicures a while back with tape.  Click here to see the tutorial.

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies in the challenge!

O: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, OPI vs Winter Wonder, Sinful Colors

It's Wednesday!  Like I need to remind you.

For the letter "O" I swatched OPI's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, from the 007 collection.  This is the only polish I bought from the set. OHMSS is a nice blue, grey, metallic foil with multicolored shimmer/micro glitter. Formula's a bit thin, but not problematic at all. Below is three coats.

I include the picture below because in the top two finger you can really see the small glitters sparkle.

A couple of weeks after I bought OHMSS, I found Winter Wonder from Sinful Colors, they are dead on dupes.

Below is one coat of each polish.

AND a bottle shot, for those of you who like to look at bottles, such as me!

Neither of these polishes are in stores anymore, but they are online. Online the prices are all over the place, but when they are in stores, OPI is $8 and SC is $2 here in the states.

Meet my cat, Demi. I woke her from a nap with the camera. She's my buddy. In the last couple of years has become quite attached to me and likes to sit with me while I paint my nails.

So that is it for today!

M: Mystery, OPI Designer Series

Hey ladies!

Sorry I've been missing for a bit, but life has just been a bit crazy.  First for today's ABC challenge, "M" I chose Mystery by OPI, part of their designer series, number 037 if your a collector.  I'm in the mood for pastels, but I don't have many M polishes so I apologize if this really isn't spring appropriate.  Below is two coats.

Mystery is a dark purple jelly with gold flakies.... supposedly this has "diamond dust" in it.... whatever, I'm NOT impressed.

I missed the letter L, last week.  I spent a few days in Montreal, Canada for my birthday.

View from our hotel room.  We stayed at Auberge du Morency, St. Hippolyte, Quebec.

Hubby and I in front of Notre Dame, Montreal, Canada.

Me at the biodome.

I caught a nice picture of two beavers swimming in the water together.  Also at the Biodome.  Here they come.

There they go!

Yes it was cold but we had a nice time. I've been back for several days, and it still feels like winter down here too.

How's the bedroom coming along? We are stuck at a stand still, waiting for miter saw parts. When it rains it pours.  Aside from going away, and working.... we have been distracted with a three broken toilets, (yes three), a leaking water heater and malfunctioning water pressure valve. The water heater and toilets are all 28 years old, so it was just a matter of time that they all stopped working, at the same time! Not to worry, we got a plumber in and he fixed everything, for $2400. So now I have three brand new toilets, and when ever I turn on a faucet, or flush a toilet, I don't hear a fog horn sound, and thankfully I have hot water too! Gotta be grateful right?

Plus my wireless router started to die and I did not have internet access for a few days. I bought a new router which took me 10 minutes to install and work, but the printers were not picking up the signal, so I spent four hours one evening to get every piece of technology in sync with the new router. Let's just say my patience has been tested the last couple of weeks.

I installed a Linksys N900 dual band router.  If anyone has that router, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  I went from a single band 802.11g to a dual band 802.11n, but I haven't noticed any improvement in speed or range. I'm thinking I should have gotten a cheaper one. ??

Well that's it for today!

Funky French with OPI Save the Gift Wrap

Hey guys!

Anyone headed over to Zoya today?  They are having a promo, buy 3 free with $10 shipping for US customers.  The code is zoya2013.  The sale is today until 1/13.  I found out about it here.

Well here's today's funky french.

The tips are Zoya's Dita, two coats, freehand.  It looks bumpy but it isn't.  I put a thick coat of ChG's Fast forward top coat and it is really smooth.  The best advice I have for freehand-ing tips is to lay the brush flat, lengthwise, paralleled to the free edge, against the nail and swoop across.  If you make small dabs across, the line won't be straight.

Dita isn't normally this dark, the green underneath is showing through the polish.

Here is Save the Gift Wrap by itself.  This is three coats, the formula was a bit thin, and I had to wait between coats to dry or else it would clump.  I'm not impressed with this one.  Save the Gift Wrap is an Ulta exclusive.  I got it as a freebie, with a coupon, and I had to buy two other OPI's.

Time magazine: Style & Design, Spring 2012, photo by Peter Hapak.

Above is the inspiration for this mani.  Emily Blunt looking fantastic.

That's it for now.  I'm going to zoya.com to see if this code works.  Let us know what you picked out, if you go to Zoya this week!

OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me

Happy 2013! - Hopefully....

I'm starting the year with an off-beat color, pale yellow leaning green - OPI, Don't talk Bach to me. This is really a pretty soft Dijon mustard color with a slight silver shimmer.  I paired it with Nubar's white polka dot glitter.

I decided to compare DTBTM with ChG's Trendsetter, from last fall's Metro Collection.  Trendsetter is one shade darker, richer and has a stronger shimmer effect than DTBTM.

For fun, I dug around in my fridge for some mustard.  See if you agree, they are pretty close analogies.

Looking at these are really making me hungry, especially the Maille mustard.  I'm going to go find a pretzel and I'll see you guys soon!

OPI - Unfor-Greta-bly Blue

Post Election nails!

I decided to wear blue to mark the occasion of President Obama being re-elected.  So here is OPI's Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, from the Germany Collection... a royal blue with blackened shimmer, along the same lines as Germanicure and Oktoberfest.  The formula is a little thin, but builds nicely, and dried uber smooth.  I did three coats.  The top coat is Out the Door.

Under florescent light.

Under halogen light.

A very nice, fall, wintery blue to have in a collection.

That's it for now!

Sandwich with OPI - Care to Danse?

How was your Monday?

I've actually worn today's manicure a few times.  It's become a staple work mani for me.  Nubar's White Polka Dot is the glitter in between layers of Care to Danse?.   Clean looking and delicate.

OPI's Pirouette my Whistle is a similar glitter to White Polka Dot but it has added silver glitter.  Which you can use if you don't have White Polka Dot. 

What are some of your favorite sheers?

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Hey guys!

I don't know why, but I keep running into random nail polishes from 2010 lately.  Here's another one. Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (LLM) from OPI's Swiss Collection.  LLM is a graphite, metallic foil polish with some nano-sized green and purple shimmer scattered in it.  I thought I was pushing it a bit when I wore this to work, but someone said "Hey I like your nails, they match your grey pants!"    ....Thanks!  I rarely, intentionally match my nails to my outfit.

Macro shot.   See the green and purple?

OPI's at Ulta, but not available from their online store.  Isn't that weird?

Well that's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

German-icure by OPI

I am totally smitten with OPI's Germany Collection.  I think I'm going to break down and buy the entire line, so far I have four out of twelve.  What do I love about this collection?  The "darkness, blacken shimmer, lit from within" as some other bloggers describe.  Without further delay here is German-icure by OPI.  Two coats, marvelous formula, topped with Revlon's quick dry top coat.



 

 

I went nuts with photos.  I hope you enjoy them.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Finger Paints - Fall of Surprises

Happy autumn equinox!  Fall is my favorite season, the weather cools, the haze and humidity leave us, the leaves change colors, we all have to get out of our flip flops and put our clothes back on... thank goodness!

Here is a spicy little manicure for fall... Finger Paints, Fall of Surprises over OPI, Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO).  Fall of Surprises is densely packed with a mix of copper hex glitters in a clear base, so this is just one coat.

In person the glitters contrast against EMIO more so than in these photos... I just couldn't reduce the glare without making the pictures too dark.  So I included these three at slightly different angles.

This week I'll be away at the beach, where I may or may not post anything.  I'm going to take my laptop with me so we will see how it goes.

I know I mentioned putting away our flip flops... I will be wearing mine for one more week, but I wasn't able to get anytime off from work this spring or summer.  Gotta squeeze a beach vacation in somewhere once a year right?  I am so, so grateful my boss let me go this week, she controls my schedule...

Have a great week and I'll see you guys later!

OPI - Every Month is Oktoberfest

Holy smokes!  I cracked and bought me some OPI!  Since OPI was bought out by Coty, I've been boycotting them, because of animal testing..... sigh! OPI does not animal test but Coty apparently does.  I use Burt's Bees products and later found out they are owned by Clorox, who are not eco friendly nor cruelty free.  So should I stop using Burt's Bees too?  I started to figure, if I continue to use Burt's Bees, and that division of the Clorox company has strong sales, Clorox might catch on that there are consumers out there who will buy products because they are eco-friendly and cruelty free....  I hope.

Well, I have to say this is not a simple issue with clear boundaries.  I have been doing a bunch of reading about eco-friendly, vegetarian and vegan products.  The more I read the more confusing it becomes and I don't even know sometimes if the information I am reading is even reliable.  One thing I have figured out is trying to go eco-friendly will compromise the use of animal products and going vegan will sometimes compromise being eco-friendly.  Trying to do both is damn hard to near impossible.  I'm not going to give up, I'm just going to make the best decision possible with the best information I have at hand.  The last thing I want to do is sound like an alarmist and send out the message that we are all going to die...   Also, I am far from perfect, I make mistakes, I have polluted the earth, eaten animals, used petroleum based products; yes my hands are covered in blood just like everyone elses'....  I'm just trying to do the best I can, and hope you do too.

Now, Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO) is the polish that made me break down. That says a lot!  It looks very close to ANNY's The Answer Is Love, which I can't get a hold of because I'm not in Europe.  EMIO is a nice dark indigo based polish with red/gold shimmer... dark and gorgeous!

Two easy coats and the formula is excellent.  EMIO is definitely one of my new favorite dark polishes.

Comments section is, of course, open to discussion!