Fairy Dust Feng Shui

I've been a very bad blogger lately, not because I don't love you all haha it's just been a little crazy lately. I've steadily been taking pictures, swatching, and polishing so I have plenty of stuff to share with you :) Thanks for bearing with me during the unintended absence!

So what I have for you today is a layering combination that I la-la-love. Perfect for fingers or toes! This is 2 coats of OPI - Suzi Says Feng Shui and 1 coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. It's glittery but not overwhelmingly so; colorful but not in your face because of the dusty quality of Suzi Says Feng Shui. It also makes me very happy that the glitter in Fairy Dust lays flat, I hate bumpy glitter.



outside, sunlight


more sunlight outside (the pictures were too pretty to just pick one)


outside, shade

inside

There's just something about the dusty blue color and the light hitting the holographic glitter that makes me very happy. I need to wear this combo again ASAP! Do you have any colors or combinations that have that an effect like that for you?

Demure Vixen vs. Venus di Violet (comparison)

Every now and then I post spam on MUA (MakeUp Alley) of random polishes, and in one of those posts I had OPI - Venus di Violet (which I showed you earlier here) Someone asked to see how it compared to Essie- Demure Vixen. So here we go!

Three coats of each color, Venus di Violet on index and ring fingers and Demure Vixen on middle and pinky fingers.


sunlight

shade

indoors

bottle shot!

The Verdict? Obviously they aren't dupes, Demure Vixen is darker and more mauve, but they are relatives. Demure Vixen is somewhat of a darker version of Venus di Violet. The shimmer in DV is a little more "secret" and VdV is a little more obvious. Also the shimmer isn't 100% the same, although it is very similar. It feels almost identical but VdV is a little pinker, more of a purpley-pink shimmer.

If you like one you'll probably like the other polish, I hope this helps :) Are there other comparisons you'd like to see? Tell me in the comments!

Venus di Violet

So, it's been a while, eh? Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and as much as I wish this could be my number one priority, realistically other things have to come first. But everything has settled down (or at least as much as it's going to haha) so I'm back! I never intended to go on that hiatus, so sorry for no heads up.

Today I have OPI - Venus di Violet to share with you. This is a polish I had put on my wishlist early on in my nail polish addiction and never really got around to getting until one day I found it on sale at a Trade Secret store. I was pleasantly surprised by it!


sunlight

shade

indoors (and apparently a little rough on the clean-up, sorry!)

This is a soft and sophisticated color, kind of a palette cleanser if you will. The application was good for such a pale color, sometimes they can be streaky and tough to work with but this wasn't. I used three coats in these pictures. Venus di Violet is a pale pink with pretty shimmer that is purple-leaning pink. I'm glad I ended up picking this polish up, because I ended up really liking it :) I'll do a comparison with this in my next post, so check back for that! What do you think of Venus di Violet?

Just a couple of other little notes - I will be notifying the winner of the crackle polish giveaway hopefully this weekend. I have some new reviews coming up as well as another giveaway very soon!

When Nail Polish And Jewelry Come Together...

I've been a little MIA this week, sorry about that. I've had a ridiculous amount of work to do and my back is not playing well with the rest of my body. But I'm back! Get excited because I have some incredible necklaces from GingerKitty Designs to share with you! I seriously can not get enough of her jewelry, it's phenomenal. My biggest problem is trying to narrow down what I want from a wishlist of, well everything haha. At the end of November I finally got my act together and ordered a necklace from Tracey and then a few days later, I won a second through the Overall Beauty Scavenger Hunt!

I'm going to show you the one I originally ordered first. It's even more stunning in person than in pictures, but I tried to capture it as best I could in the late afternoon sun


look at it sparkle in the sun!

more sun

a deliberately blurry indoors picture to show the holo and glitter sparkle

Holy moly, how insanely pretty is that?! It's made with China Glaze - Octa Gone Wild, China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle, OPI - Ink, and OPI - Purple With A Purpose.

Okay, the second necklace I won through the Overall Beauty scavenger hunt at the beginning of December and it's so perfect for the holidays and Valentine's Day!

quasi-sun haha

inside, so you can see the design

inside, blurred some to show the sparkle!

This one is red and silver, made with Color Club - Art Of Seduction and Zoya - Trixie

Ever since I got these pretties in the mail, I've worn them a couple of times a week, I can't get enough of them! They add a pop of color and sparkle (without being over the top) to everything from jeans and a t-shirt to dresses. I seriously cannot say enough about how much I love these and they are even more stunning in person.

You have to go check out the GingerKitty Designs Etsy Store and you can read her blog too. (You definitely want to do that, she has great giveaways!) Tracey has a huge list of polishes that you can have her make pretty much any kind of custom piece for you, or you can pick from some of the gorgeous ones she's come up with. Lately a lot of pieces with crackle polish has been ordered I believe.

What polish (or polishes) would be in your dream piece of jewerly from GingerKitty Designs? I want more holo ones!

Catherine The Grape

Today I have an older OPI polish to show you! It's OPI - Catherine The Grape. This isn't easy to find, but it's not incredibly hard to find either... kind of in between haha. It's not readily available in stores, but you can find it online still I believe. I got this with a few other polishes in a swap with a really sweet MUAer and I'm so excited to finally have my hands on it! I also like the name, it fits the polish. The color absolutely reminds me of a grape, so I have pretty nails that also make me a little bit hungry for fruit haha!

sunlight
shade

inside

As you can see, Catherine The Grape is reddish-purple with soft gold shimmer. Depending on how the light hits this on your nails, it's going to look a little different, which is fun. Like in my shade picture it seems like a slightly darker purple, but indoors you can see the shimmer and it picks up more of the red in the color. I really like how this has character but is still a somewhat subdued color, you know what I mean? This feels perfect for fall to me right now, just fits with the weather :)

First Ever Franken! - Stormy Waters

If you follow me on twitter, you probably saw that yesterday I finally got my courage up and made my very first franken! I'm really excited about what I ended up making and can't wait to share it with you. I also took some pictures of the supplies I used to put it together so hopefully I can help inspire some of you to get your franken on :) This post is picture heavy, just giving you fair warning!

Okay first some pictures of the franken, which I've lovingly named "Stormy Waters" and then I'll tell you how to make it!

sunlight

shade

inside

bottle picture

The bottle shot is color accurate for the base color, it's a teal with scattered holo. I like scattered holo better than linear holo, so I like using the Milani holographic polishes for frankening purposes. I'm going to make a second bottle of this I love it so much. Stormy Waters is a sibling to China Glaze - DV8 and China Glaze - Atlantis (only holo instead of glitter, obviously) So it's similar to other polishes out there but still fairly unique. Remember the franken I showed you a few weeks ago that Alexandra made for me? This is basically a teal version of that!

Now for how I made it... It's about half a bottle of Milani - HD (silver holo), maybe a fifth of a bottle of OPI- Ski Teal We Drop (pigmented dark teal), and 5 drops of Milani - Hi-Res (purple holo). You don't really need to use Hi-Res, I just thought it gave it a bit more depth. Very easy and inexpensive to make haha, just how I like my polish. It's totally opaque in two coats and was very easy to apply!

you can see in the picture exactly how much of HD and Ski Teal We Drop I used, they were both brand new and never used bottles, I bought them just to make this franken with. Ski Teal We Drop is super pigmented so you don't need much of it.

If you want to take the foray into making your own franken, I suggest you pick up some ball bearings for mixing. I'd recommend stainless steel, anything else is going to oxidize in your franken and ruin it! Here's what I use:

And I hit up my local Dollar Tree (a dollar store) and got a few 2-packs of old style NYC bottles, because I like the shape of them and the labels peel off easily. But you can buy empty bottles online - places like ebay or polish e-tailers as well. Also you can clean out old base coat/topcoat bottles or polishes that are old and you won't use again. Here's a picture of my NYC bottles before I cleaned them out:

I like the shape of these a lot

I also used a small glass bowl and orange stick to mix to figure out an idea of the ratio before I make a whole bottle. All very easy to find things! I couldn't be happier with how Stormy Waters turned out, I'm wearing it right now and honestly can't take my eyes off my nails :) Do any of you franken or are you planning to in the future?

Suzi Says..

I have to be honest, I hate how many OPI polish names have Suzi in it. I get that it's her company, but I find it a little obnoxious how often it's used. That being said, I do love the color of Suzi Says Feng Shui. I've been wanting this color ever since it was released but never got my hands on it. Last week I got a mini of it as an extra in an awesome swap I did, so I finally got to try it! Now I know for sure, I absolutely positively need a full-size bottle of this ASAP - I loooove it.

sunlight

shade

inside

I didn't mind painting with the mini brush and holding the mini bottle as much as a lot of people seem to. I also think it funny how similar these three pictures ended up looking - almost identical hand position, that almost never happens for me :) I just really like everything about this color, I think it looks good with my skintone. Must get the full size!

Frankens are fun for everyone!

I really love when people post pictures of their frankens. I've always been intrigued by the idea of making a totally unique polish, but the idea of figuring out what works and what doesn't stresses me out. Crazy? A little bit, but I'm working on it. So anyway, Alexandra (who does the awesome nail art posts here) posted pictures of a couple of frankens she did on MUA one day. And I fell soooo in love with this one I'm about to show you. I messaged Alexandra begging her to make me one haha. I sent her the ingredients to mix, thanked her roughly a thousand times, and now am the proud owner of two bottles of this gorgeous franken!


sunlight

more sunlight (too pretty for just one picture)

shade
inside

The sunlight pictures are pretty accurate; it's a darker purple holo. This is one of my top five favorite polishes EVER! It's a mix of Milani - Hi-Res (the purple holo) and OPI - Lincoln Park At Midnight. So it's easy to make, which is excellent because I feel like I need a few more bottles... I wear this a lot! I think it would be fun to use all of the Milani holos to make frankens... I want to make a dark blue holo! Any suggestions on what to mix with it?

Have you made any frankens? What are you favorites?

I'm Watching You, Color.

Today I have OPI- The Color To Watch to show you. This is also from the Swiss Collection, just like Diva of Geneva which I showed you the other day. Now this is the color I was most excited about when the info for the collection first came out, mainly because I love me some purple. But it's just not doing a ton for me in person. I like it, but I don't love it; you know what I mean? Check out the pictures and see what you think.


sunlight

shade
indoors

It's a pretty purple with heavy blue flash. I love the base color of The Color To Watch, but the blue flash is just too heavy for me to love this polish. If it were toned down a little I think I would like it a lot better. Many people on MUA said this was really sheer, but my bottle was fine. This was three coats. I did try to see if it would layer, but it wasn't sheer enough in my opinion. I put one coat over two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Concrete and it was exactly the bottle color.

Well, The Color To Watch...I'm a little bummed about you. Pretty, but didn't wow me. Not too crazy about the name of the polish either. I think I'm going to wait a few weeks and try this again to see if I feel differently about it.

What do you think of The Color To Watch? Have you had a polish you were excited about not wow you in person like this did for me?

Diva of Geneva

I had a ridiculous amount of things done to my back today (injections, acupuncture, physical therapy) so this is going to be short and sweet. I've got a gorgeous polish to show you today, OPI - Diva of Geneva from the Swiss Collection. I like a number of the colors from this collection but so far only have this and The Color To Watch (which I will be showing you soon). There are a few more that I'm looking to get my hands on ASAP though!

I love Diva of Geneva. It feels very rich and fall to me and is pretty for fingers and toes. Check it out below and tell me what your favorites from the Swiss Collection are!

sunlight
shade
inside

Busy Days and an Interesting Polish

I feel like I have 800 things happening all at once right now. Ugh, I am not a fan of that haha. But one thing that de-stresses me when I get really busy like this is painting my nails...or just rearranging my stash! It's nice to have some pretty on your nails to look at during the day too :) One thing I did get to do though is help someone fulfill a long time lemming! (A lemming is something you really really want) She had posted about trying to find an older China Glaze color that I recently saw in a nearby nail salon, so I'm going to pick it up for her and send it to her tomorrow. I love doing this!

Today I have a really pretty OPI nail polish for you, called "Sheer" Your Toys. Oddly enough, it's not a sheer polish at all haha. It's a very wearable gray color (even on my ridiculously pale skin tone!).


sunlight! (looks longingly out the window while it rains.. when will the sun come back?)


Shade.. see how shiny it is in the shade? That's without top coat!


Indoors


Here's a different angle outside to showcase the copper pieces that are in this. (click and enlarge to see it better)

Amazing how shiny "Sheer" Your Toys is without a top coat! From some angles this looks like just a creamy gray color but then you can see the copper bits when you move your hand. It's really nice, I was actually suprised how much I liked this. When I first got it from a blog sale, I was kind of meh on the copper part, and waited to try it for a couple of weeks but then voila! Magic! In my opinion, this is a color you could wear year round and to a myriad of different events. What a versatile little polish this one is haha. So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? And how weird is it that the name Sheer is in it when it's actually a really opaque color? Pretty, but strange haha. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Nail art, a tutorial, Paradoxal swatches.. oh my!

Hello lovelies! I'm all kinds of out of wack today. Why you may ask? Well, I've been up since 4 am (on purpose!) to watch golf. The Open Championship in Scotland started today and TV coverage started at 4 am EST, so I'm rocking 2 hours of sleep and have happily been watching golf all day. Yes, I am very aware that this is insane behavior; but I love it! My sports addiction might be a wee bit out of control haha.

But since I knew all week I was planning to do this, I figured today was the perfect day to introduce you all to my friend Alexandra and show you all the wonderful things she has in store for us. First up Paradoxal swatches! I asked Alexandra if she would mind taking a couple of Paradoxal swatches inside because, 1) I can't get enough of this polish! and 2) I feel like every picture highlights the shimmer in Paradoxal, but most of the time the shimmer isn't very visable. So Alexandra indulged me and took pictures of Paradoxal to show us what it normally looks like :)




Ahhh, I can't get over how pretty this nail polish is!

Are you up for some nail art? Alexandra provided an incredible step by step tutorial to create some really really pretty flowers. Here are her instructions:

Basic Flowers
Level: beginner
Materials: Rhinestones, tooth pick and 2 small bottle caps. If you don’t have rhinestones choose another color for the center.

Steps:

1) Start by getting a table lamp or getting close to a well illuminated place. Add 1 coat of the nail polish you like to all of your nails.


2) Add a generous second coat to only one nail, it is costumary to start with an average size finger, because you can get a sense of the layout.


3) Fill a little container with water and dip the toothpick, this will help for picking up the rhinestone, although you can also get a “picker-upper” at a beauty supply store.


4) Place the rhinestone on the nail while the polish is still wet, and press slightly.


5) Make sure the rhinestones follow a curved pattern, and not a “/” or an “L” pattern, a “moon” shape looks more subtle.


6) Place a drop of a contrasting color of nail polish in a small container, I use a bottle cap. Dip only a tiny portion of the toothpick and “touch” the surface of the nail, the color will transfer much like a refrigirator magnet, there is no need to press or sink it in. Some people use dotting tools and press on to make an effect, but usually for bigger flowers. Nail art brushes also work well, some even come within a bottle of nail polish.




7) Work each nail one by one, or add the rhinestones to all your nails and then start the dotting process. Add top coat.




One last thing, don’t be afraid to try it, the previous picture was made very cautiously to show the detail, but the following ones show flowers made really fast and not so perfect. The big picture is what matters, the overall look is still very good, even if the close-up shows some flowers are missing petals and some dots are bigger than others.




Tips: - to keep a more together look, draw flowers on the outside corners only, meaning the flowers on the right hand will be on the right side and the ones on the left hand will be on the left side.

- try on one nail first, with just clear base/top coat, or on a fake nail, so you can get a sense of the separation of the rhinestones.

- the polish used for dotting dries really fast, since it is just a drop, so you must work fast and use a new drop when it does. However, when I first pour the drop it is too watery, not optimal for dotting, I wait about 20 seconds. It takes practice, but it’s a good idea to always try the first flowers on a piece of paper.

- when in doubt, make very tiny dots first and put your hand about two feet away to see the overall picture, and if the flower petals need to be thicker, just dip in the polish again and dot over it.

Colors used for this tutorial: Chanel 509 Paradoxal and OPI Alpine Snow.

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How pretty is that?! Thank you SO much for the tutorial and swatches Alexandra! What do you guys think? Are any of you going to try this? I think I am, hopefully soon. I'll be sure to post pictures when I try it. I think it looks so classy and professionally done... I hope mine turns out just as nice!