Great Gatsby Manicure

I have been a big fan of The Great Gatsby ever since I read the book in High School and I recently went to see the new movie and loved that as well, so I decided it was only fitting to try my hand at 

my own Great Gatsby manicure. I used 2 colors from OPI's Skyfall collection: Golden Eye for the gold and Live and Let Die for the darker color. I am in love with both of these colors and think they were a good choice for this manicure. My design however missed the mark quite a bit I'm afraid and looks more like an egyptian design in my opinion. I had a really good time doing this look however and really want to try again sometime for a better outcome. If you haven't checked out any Great Gatsby manicures I highly suggest you do so because there are some amazing ones out there. Thanks for reading! -Gina

Nail Polish Lottery Club Week #20

Hello! Today I have a post I am very excited about because it is the start of a little series I will be doing on my blog. I have joined the Nail Polish Lottery Club which is a club that offers nail polish lovers a fun way to use up their untried polishes. Every week, a number is drawn from 1 - 365 and members paint their nails with whatever color they have on their untried list that corresponds with the number chosen. Then everyone shares what color they got either with a blog post, pictures, or a video on the Facebook page. Here is a link to the official Facebook page if any of you want to try it out. ( They also explain it better on there than I did here). I would also like to explain that the colors I put on my list are not just my untried polishes but also my unswatched polishes because I am using the club as a fun way for me to get more swatches up on my blog of colors I might not have thought to swatch before.

 Nail Polish Lottery Club

This week I ended up with OPI's Bright Lights Big Color. I do not think this was ever part of a collection but it is definitely comparable to OPI's Are We There Yet? which you can see swatched here. Bright Lights Big Color consists of a salmon color polish densely packed with golden glass flecks. The formula of this polish is good and shown is 3 coats although I did achieve opacity at 2 coats. I forgot how beautiful this polish was and am really happy with the end result of this manicure. Let me know if you plan to join the Nail Polish Lottery Club and what you think of the idea! -Gina

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Golden Eye - OPI

I'm back!!!! Thank you to all of you who were concerned and sent me kind messages, I'm sorry I was MIA for so long and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know this collection is probably long overdue, but today I have Golden Eye to show you which is part of the Skyfall Collection by OPI. I was excited to find this polish at a discounted price in a random store in my mall and could not wait to try it. In the swatches below, I have one coat of Golden Eye on top of Zoya's Evvie. 

The best way I feel I can describe Golden Eye is micro golden flakies suspended in a clear base. The flakes are so tiny and dense that this polish could definitely stand on its own if given a couple coats, I just chose to not too. The golden flakes catch the light, making this polish shine and look like liquid gold. It is absolutely beautiful and I would recommend this polish to you guys for sure. Thank you for reading and I hope to get my next post out to you much sooner than I got this one out! Have a nice day! -Gina

Lion Around - Essie with Teenage Dream - OPI

For today's post I have a beautiful sparkly pink manicure. I started this look with Essie's Lion Around. Lion Around is a medium toned pink with the slightest pearl finish that is basically lost on your nails. This does not detract from the polish however, the formula is great and the color is such a unique pink even without the shimmer. Next I applied OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry collection. This polish layers amazingly and I love how it looked on top of Lion Around. Teenage Dream is made up of hundreds of super fine pink glitters in a clear base as well as holographic hexagon glitter pieces scattered throughout. It is a dream to apply, so smooth and the glitters arrange themselves nicely with no extra effort from the brush.

I would however like to explain the reason and apologize for having only one picture of this manicure…
So I go outside to take pictures like I do for every swatch and at first everything is going great. But then, as soon as I find the perfect spot with perfect lighting, a bee comes and flies at my shirt. I swat it away and continue to aim the camera trying to get some more shots in this lighting. Right after though, the same bee flies at my face and I swat at it again and it doesn't go away. So I turn to run and while doing that somehow my feet got caught on themselves and I completely wipe out on the pavement. So basically I ended up with a gash on my right side and scraps all on my knees as well has my hands, all thanks to this picture. I'm fine now and at least on got one good picture before I ate it because my nails are all scraped up now thanks to the fall! I hope you enjoy and appreciate the picture more now that you know what went into it! -Gina

Has anything crazy ever happened to you while you were swatching your nails?

Fiercely Fiona Nail Art - OPI

Nail art time! I'm really happy with this design and even with the minor defects due to Seche Vite and the the dotting tool malfunctioning I think it turned out well! I started with a base of three coats of OPI's Fiercely Fiona. I then began the flower design using Rise and Shine, Aquamarine, and Innocent, all by Sinful Colors. I like using Sinful Colors for nail art because they are all super pigmented and super cheep so I do not feel bad when I am dripping it out of the bottle onto tinfoil. Thanks for reading and link me some of the nail art you are doing this summer down below! -Gina

Independence Day Nails

Happy almost Independence Day! The 4th of July is my favorite day of the year and I couldn't let it pass by without trying to do a themed manicure. The colors I used were OPI's Big Hair… Big Nails and Fly. I did not want to do the generic American flag colors so I thought these two looked nice together and pulled off what I wanted them too. Now comes the white.. I used and thin tip white from Sinful Colors and was not too pleased with it. The polish was gloppy and thick and the brush did not come to a point at the end so it was difficult to make the fine lines that I wanted too. This especially showed off on my star which was a disaster. Overall I like the idea of the manicure and with a little more practice and a little better fine tipped white polish I think I could have pulled it off really well. Anyway, let me know what you think and happy 4th of July! -Gina



EDIT: Make sure to head to Zoya.com today to receive a FREE America polish with the purchase of any other polish by using the code Freedom2. Offer is good until July 5th so hurry!

Wing It! - OPI

Today I have a fun polish from OPI's Summer Flutter collection! A polish that got a lot of hype from this collection was Catch Me In Your Net, but one very similar polish did not get as much attention as it deserved and that polish is Wing It!. Wing It! and is the pink sister to Catch Me In Your Net and is just as eye catching in my opinion. This polish has a pink base with a blue/purple duo chrome which really flashes in the sun. I tried to catch the beauty of this polish in my pictures and I hope some of you will consider pulling this one out of the dust for a refreshing summer shade!

Are We There Yet? - OPI

On my nails today is Are We There Yet? by OPI. The base is a salmon orange color with little gold flecks throughout the polish, which are easier to see in the second picture. The formula was great and I think this color would look good on any skin tone. Thanks for reading!

OPI - Did It On 'Em

Did It On 'Em comes from OPI's Nicki Minaj collection. I love the bright cremes in this collection so after I fell in love with Fly (my previous post) I decided to purchase Did It On 'Em and I am so glad that I did. This polish is a bright lime green color that looks so great for summer wear! It's formula is a bit watery but that is to be expected from and bright green. By 2 coats I had full coverage and was very satisfied with the results. Take a look for yourself.

I then decided to add Essie's Matte About You to complete the mani. I loved how it looked and I hope you do too!

OPI - Fly

I was so excited when I spotted this color at my local supermarket. I knew I wanted Fly when I saw swatches online but I had no idea how beautiful it was in real life! I swear OPI gets better and better with each collection. The formula was flaw.less. It was almost like a jelly but not quite there. The color glided right on my nail as if it belonged there. I hope my swatches can do this color justice but I seriously advice you to get into a store and look at Fly in the bottle for yourself.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Here are my valentines nails which I think ended up really well! I started with a base of Easy Going by Sinful Colors which is a beautiful pale pink. It is a pretty thick polish and you have to work with it but it is worth the $2 I spent on it. Now starting with my pointer finger, I used OPI's Red Shatter, next would be Teenage Dream by OPI, then I used a stamping plate I got from The Born Pretty store, so it's not as good as Konads, but the color I used was City Siren by China Glaze. Finally on my pinky I used Excuse Moi! by OPI. Thanks for checking my nails out! I hope you have a good day!

No Room For The Blues - OPI

Hey guys! My first mani of 2012 and I am very proud of it I must say! I finally figured out how to stop my Seche Vite from shrinking my polish and I also got to use China Glazes Dorothy Who?. The rest of my nails are an old favorite I am sure many of you are well aware of, OPI's No Room for the Blues. It was one of the only OPI's I brought home for Christmas break and I'm glad I did because it goes great with Dorothy Who?. The application was pretty good. The formula was a bit runny but I got full coverage in 2 coats so I can't complain! Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a great new year!

Planks A Lot (Time Capsule)

It's been awhile guys! I've been away at college and do not have a camera there to take pictures of my nails, but I haven't stopped painting them. Anyway I was itching to make a new blog post and found these pictures I took in the summer that I never posted. So this is Plank A Lot by OPI, with some added Rumples Wiggin' (also OPI) flowers for fun. I personally love this look for the summer and thought it could warm up some of your cold winter days.

Rumple's Wiggin' - OPI

Hey guys! So today I decided to swatch a polish from OPI's Shrek collection because right now they are on sale at Ulta for 2 for $10! That is a really good price and these colors are gorgeous! So Rumple's Wiggin' is a beautiful soft purple but has just enough pigment to not qualify as a pastel. The formula is great, goes on smoothly and only used two coats to get full coverage! If you do not have this color already I suggest you take advantage of this offer and get it for $5 at Ulta! I will probably be swatching more Shrek colors this week because of the great price right now.

In the sunlight:

Close Up:

OPI-Crown Me Already

I'm back!!!! And I came with a new look and a new camera! :) So today I got OPI's Crown Me Already in the mail and I couldn't wait to try it out, I'm always ready for a new OPI glitter. This polish is absolutely gorgeous and is definitely an eye catcher, especially in the sun. The formula was what you would expect from a glitter and I needed 3 coats to build this one up to full opacity. However, because of the big hexagon pieces in this polish, the application was a bit tricky. I found myself reaching for my dotting tool more than once to get the bigger glitter pieces in the correct spot on my nail and not hanging over the edge. It was a little bit of a hassle but I think it was worth it because of the stunning results. If you're looking for a fool proof polish this cannot even compare to the Burlesque glitters, but if you're willing to take a little time and to deal with tedious glitter pieces, then I would recommend you pick up this polish! I believe it is worth the hassle!

In the sun light:

In the shade:

Close Up

Gargantuan Green Grape Manicure

This is one of my favorite manicures I have ever done! I used OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape for the base color and then Sally Hanson's Insta-Dry Whirlwind White for the flower designs which I made with the m64 plate from Konad. Finally I added a little sparkle to the flowers by using a dot of OPI's Glow Up Already in the middle of the flowers. I think it adds the perfect finishing touch! Oh and of course I finished the whole manicure off with the flawless Seche Vite.

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Review: When I first saw this polish in ULTA I was skeptical as to whether or not to buy it since I already had China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint which seemed similar. However I am so glad that I decided to pick this polish up. This green looks as if it is glowing on your nails and is much brighter than Re-Fresh Mint. If there was such thing as a Neon Pastel this would be it! I absolutely love this color and strongly suggest you pick it up if you ever see it in a store.