Good evening!
I've got a couple of textured polish swatches I want to share that have just been sitting, waiting for just that :)
First up is OPI's Alcatraz...Rocks. This gorgeous color is from the San Francisco collection and is, I believe, the only sparkly one. Thus, it was the only I wanted. In the bottle, Alcatraz has a purple cast that doesn't translate to the nail. Instead, it dries to kind of a greyish blue with gold sparkles. I haven't seen a color quite like it and think it's rather pretty. My swatch only needed 2 coats over bare nails.
Next is a color from OPI's retail line, Nicole by OPI. They released their own line textures a few months ago, called Gumdrops. Really, there was just one that called me and that was A-Nise Treat. This is a true black, not charcoal grey, texture with silver sparkles. The formula was very good, unlike other colors I've tried from NOPI. Two coats over bare nails for this one as well.
Lastly, I have one from Sally Hansen's line of textures that debuted over the summer. I had passed on them when I first saw them, because all I kept seeing were the cremes. It later came to my attention that there were two sparkly colors, one being Royal Icing. In the bottle, Royal Icing is a pretty, icy blue with pink flashes. However, this one was a bit of a disappointment. Out of all the textures I own, this one is the least opaque, making me recommend undies for it. My swatch shows it with 3 coats on its own and 2 coats over 1 coat of Zoya Blu. You really can tell the difference, and I think it looks better with undies.
It looks so boring by itself, but it really pops over Blu, and is still sparkly with the pink flashes :)
Good evening!!
So, I know it's been pretty obvious that I love the whole textured look trend that's been popular, starting with Shatters/Crackles (which I still have plenty of), and has crossed over to the whole textured glitters (I can't stand the textured cremes). I own three of OPI Liquid Sands, 6 of the Zoya Pixie Dusts, and just one of the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops. Those numbers are, of course, subject to change, and most likely will in the next month or so with the release of the fall collections. It certainly doesn't look like the textured trend is fading out anytime soon.
Tonight, I have 3 of the summer Pixie Dusts to show you. I wanted to give them a little before the fall collections come out lol. I'll start with yesterday's mani, which was simply 3 coats of Stevie over my bare nail. I highly, highly recommend not using a base of any kind, even a glue base, to avoid chipping or tip wear. That seems to be best for me, even with my chipping problems.
Stevie is a gorgeous, light purple matte glitter with some silver thrown in. I could have probably been all right with two coats, but three made it appear more....... even, I suppose.
I know the third pic is a little blurry, but it does show the sparklieness of the matte glitter :)
Today's mani was a little more colorful. I got the idea from a pic Zoya had posted from the CosmoProf show in Las Vegas. I don't have the colors in their pic, so I chose my own, Liberty and Solange.
Now, I'll be honest, Solange isn't a color I would normally choose for myself. It's gold. and gold is not a good color for me. However, Solange is very yellow gold, not a regular gold. I found the color, for me, very wearable. Kerry from the Irrestible collection is the same in a sparkly foil.
I applied Solange as accents on my middle and ring finger, per the Zoya pic, and Liberty on the remaining fingers. Can I just say how much I love Liberty? Three of my textured polished are blue, and they're all different. Anyways, 3 coats of each over a bare nail and done. I will note that Liberty did take longer to dry than Solange, since I think the formula for Liberty is the same as the first collection of Pixie Dusts, like Chyna. It's worth it, though :)
I don't know why that last pic came out so dark, it wasn't anything I did in Picasa O.o
