Or maybe not xD
I'm sure most of went through a phase as teenagers, or made a whole lifestyle change, that's commonly referred to as Goth. Me, I never got that chance, since my parents would have had an absolute fit, and didn't like the little changes I made when I was 19 >.>
I never wore the black polish, or dyed my hair black, or wore all black, or any of that........ at least until the last few years. I have had my hair black (LOVED it!!), and I use black polish more.
Most people can't pull off black polish, it washes their hands out alot. For some odd reason, my coloring allows me to do many colors most of my friends never could lol. I can wear black, but I prefer something with a shimmer over a flat black creme.
Today's feature, however, isn't either of those, but a glitter: Metallic 4 Life from the Niki Minaj collection from OPI. I was set on passing this up because it looked so much like like How's It Snowin'?, also from OPI, and China Glaze's Tinsel Town. I was wrong though; HIS and TT have charcoal bases with mix sized glitter while M4L has a black jelly base with multi sized silver glitter. You certainly don't have to layer any of them, but for this mani I did.
I started with my usual one coat of Nail Envy followed by one coat of Seche Clear, since I know how badly two coats of Black Onyx can/will stain, lol. Let that all dry, of course, then applied two coats of Metallic 4 Life with a final coat of SV. I'm not gonna love taking this off, but I do like the look. I'm lucky to have a boss that doesn't care what's on my nails :P
Also, I am so close to finishing up my swatches, yay!! Hopefully, I'll have that all finished up this week this and I can really start editting andposting them here.
At least that what I think my mani today looks like. I was swatching my Nicole by OPI colors yesterday, when I came to the one I used as my base color, Iceberg Lotus. I had picked this up at Target a few weeks ago, and hadn't tried until yesterday.
Have to say, I was a little disappointed on the first 2 coats, it was so sheer and streaky. BUT the first two dried alot faster than I expected, so by the third, I good to go. Topped with SV and let it dry before applying Super Bass Shatter from OPI followed by one more coat of SV.
Now, I don't normally mix two colors like this, but this came out so cool looking. It really does look like how I picture dragon scales to be. On to the pics!
Well, today's post was almost about flakies, lol. But, I did pink flakies last week, so I decided to do something different.
It being Pink Wednesday and all, my mani is, of course, pink and black. For my base color, I'm featuring a new color to me and a new color for OPI. It's called Pink Friday and it's from the Niki Minaj collection that was released this month. It's one of three colors that I have picked up so far from that collection. I'm still on the fence about the two glitters (one a bar glitter, the other a normal glitter that's really similiar to two others I have) and the lime green. I was kinda iffy about Pink Friday as well; it's not my usual kind of pink and I'm still not sure I like it on me or not.
The formula for this color was kind of hard to work with. It really reminded me of how my China Glaze Lemon Fizz applied: streaky, dried too quick during application, and just not as easy to apply the other creme I have from the collection, Fly. I was a bit disappointed with that, since I have just one other from OPI that's a total nightmare to apply. PF is a pretty color, so I may just have to live with the formula/ application.
For this mani, I had to use 3 coats. Two might have been fine if I hadn't wanted to do stamping, but I did 3 anyways. For the stamping, I used BM plate 05 and Color Club's Revvvolution, all topped with SV.
I'm almost done with my swatches. I have about 20 colors left to do, and of course a bunch of pics to upload and edit. I plan to start posting them on the appropriate swatch tab this weekend, but I'll let you guys know for sure. I've also added links to my stash lists, if you wanna take a peek at that.
Because I have more flakie goodness for today's post, with two new bottles that came in today's mail! I do think I'm done with buying any more, since I now own 8 different flakies :P
For this post, I'm featuring FingerPaints' Twisted. This flakie has multicolored pieces of mylar suspended in a milky base that dries clear.
That pic doesn't really do it any justice. It's so pretty even in the bottle.
For my base color, I started with 2 coats of OPI's Road House Blues, which is dark blurple, lol, and let that completely dry. Then I added two coats of Twisted, topped with SV, then one final coat with Hard Candy's Mattely in Love. I'm seriously on the matte flakie bandwagon. Making a flakie matte seems to show it off better than the normal topcoat, but I suppose that depends on the flakie. Here's Twisted over Road House Blues.
And today's mani just didn't want to be done. What I pictured in my head is so not what ended up on my nails. I started last night, and it was nice and dry before I went to bed. Got up this morning and was just not happy with how it turned out. I wanted to stick to what I had planned, pink and flakies, but decided to change up the colors, so off with the original mani and start over.
Got the Nail Envy and the Seche Clear on, and got as far as the second coat of my base color when I see..............
Somehow, without knowing how the f*** I did it, I manage to chip the nail on my right ring finger x.x Needless to say, I was mad. Start over on that nail, and actually managed to finish the whole mani without any other incidents. It still didn't come out quite the way I pictured, the flakies are a little too subtle with this shade of pink I used.
What I did was 2 coats of OPI's Shorts Story, let that dry, two coats of FingerPaints' Asylum (which is full of bluish purple and light orange flakies), topped that with SV, then one coat of Hard Candy's Mattely in Love. I think I found me a new matte coat <3 I think it's nicer than the Essie matte coat I've been using, and it's lesser expensive.
I've been working through what I need to get swatched and am making some progress. I've got a ton of pics to edit and upload here, with still more polishes to swatch. I'm also working on a stash list, which is slow going too, but I'll have that up when it's done!
Today, I wanted to show off one of my newest babies, OPI's DS Signature. I've been wanting a pink holo for awhile now, but so many are bright pinks (which normally isn't a bad thing, just not what I wanted in a holo). I found mine on Ebay, and am quite happy with the purchase.
Now, you may or may not know, but may people recommend layering these precious holos over other colors in order to extend them, since it usually takes 3 coats to achieve some opacity. I don't always do this myself, but I chose to this time just to see if I could make it a little darker. I had swatched Signature on its own a few days ago, and it came out a little lighter than I expected. Again, I think many of the pics I saw online were of it layered.
I chose one of my lighter pinks, Sparrow Me the Drama from OPI. One coat of that and let it dry. Yeah, it was a little streaky, but I figured I wouldn't be able to notice in the end. Then 2 coats of Signature, letting the first one dry before applying the second, and topped with SV.
The result is rather pretty, if outside of my usual brights and darks. My pics don't do it justice; the first two are outside, with a flash since the weather was/still is very crappy. The third was at work under fluorescent lights with a flash.
Good morning! I'm a little late in posting this mani; I did it up for Friday, but just couldn't get it posted until today. I hope you enjoy because I certainly loved it!
Flakies/fleckies has taken the nail polish world by storm! Last year, OPI released one with their Nice Stems! collection, called I Lily Love You. Since then, they have been popping in other brands' collection, most noteably right now FingerPaints with 5 of them and Zoya at three. Just one of these polishes can change your polish wadrobe, as you can them over just about everything as well as using a normal topcoat OR a matte. These are just a few brands that have the flakies; you can find flakies in almost every brand at the moment, so you don't have to spend a ton to own one.
What is a flakie? Normally, a flakie is made of a base, be it clear or tinted, with mylar flakes suspended in it. These flakies can range in color and size, for example, I Lily Love You has both large and small pieces, but the FingerPaints flakies are all small.
For Friday's mani, I started with 2 coats of OPI's Funky Dunkey, which my new camera made look it's true color! I let that dry completely, then applied 2 coats of FingerPaints' Motley, which is just beautiful. Now, instead of my usual SV, I used Essie's Matte About You. I just love the look of matte flakies, I think it brings out the colors better than normal topcoats would. I let my pics speak for themselves!
Now, I have no idea why this pic's lighting is off, they were both taken outside in bright light >.>
But there you have it! I have more flakies that I'll be showing in the coming weeks. For now, I'll be taking a bit of a break to 1) get caught on swatches, I have alot to do!, and 2) my mom is having surgery later this week, so my work schedule will be uncertain after Thursday since she's one of my bosses :P Mostly likely, I will post something for Pink Wednesday this week, so keep your eyes peeled!
So, I don't know about y'all, but I'm definitely ready for the new year. So many horrible things happened in 2011, capping it all off with getting rear ended on my way to work last Friday. Yeah, not a happy camper. This year has seriously got to be better.
I'm sure most of you are ready for less glittery, easier on the eyes manis. I know I am :P Don't get me wrong, I love my glitters, but man, sometimes you just need a break. For today, I went a little softer with a teeny bit of sparkle. It was really very simple. I started with 2 coats of Got a Date To-Knight! from OPI, which ia light, candy pink jelly. I topcoated that with SV and let it dry completely, then taped off the tips as you would for a French mani. Instead, I used Congenality is my Middle Name, also from OPI. I picked that up while I was in Tennessee. CIMMN is, like, the slightly darker, less glittery, big sister of Let Me Entertain You from the Burlesque collection. Topped again with SV and done! So simple and pretty.
Next, is the mani I was rocking yesterday. It features a new to me color, although I have no idea how new it is, since I don't normally buy this particular brand. This was a stocking stuffer from my brother and his wife :)
The base color is Sinful Colors Bali Mist. While it is a pretty color, it's not one I would have bought myself. It's very sheer, and took 3 coats to get what you see in the following pics.
Pretty on its own but a little boring for my taste :P So, I added just one coat of China Glaze's Latticed Lilac Crackle Glaze. I know, I know, I keep hearing that everyone is over that craze, but I'm not. I love Shatters/Crackle because they're so easy to use, they're nail art in a bottle.
So, yeah. The last 10 days or so have been pretty busy/rough for me. I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. I got to go to Tennesse to see my brother and his family for Christmas, then got to fly home Christmas day in time to have a huge dinner with the rest of my family. Last week I worked the most hours I will see all year, then got sick xD Needless to say, I stayed home last night lol. This cold has been kicking my ass; it's not that I feel bad but it wipes me out.
BUT!!! I finally got a new camera today!!! However, the pics I'm about to post were taken with my cell. I promise my next post will have pics with my new camera!
I'm about to show you two manis, both using new, untried (for me) colors. First up is last week's mani, which lasted a surprising 4 days for me. On the one hand, it was a great thing, since I was sick and did not feel up tp changing my polish. On the other, I *did* want to change it but couldn't be bothered lol. I started with 2 coats of Essie Over the Edge, which is a pretty, dark (not charcoal) grey. Let that dry and added one coat of Essie Shine of the Times. I believe that's Essie's first and only flakie and it is just gorgeous. If you want a fun way to change up a mani, get at least one flakie. From what I can tell, there are going to be many to chose from this spring. I have five already in my collection.
Please excuse the somewhat crappy pics. They were taken at work under fluorescent lights and the only thing I had to hold was poor Sleighbelle.
Next is my New Year's mani. I kept it pretty simply since I'm still sick. For this, I started with 3 coats of China Glaze's Blue Year's Eve. Two things about this polish:
1) It's very similiar to my beloved Swimsuit... Nailed it! from OPI, it's just a tad darker.
2) I'm thinking, from the pics I've seen, it might be a dupe for China Glaze's Drinkin' My Blues Away. I could be wrong though.
This is a beautiful color. I want to say it's very jellylike, considering it took me 3 coats to get an even color. The glass flecks (I'm assuming) just make it sparkle. I'm sure it's gonna stain the crap out of my nails when I take it off tomorrow xD Once that dry, I stamped some stars over it with Special White ploish and BM plate 14, topcoated, and done.
