OPI Silver Shatter + Mermaid Tears (Special Guest Too Faced Mirror Mirror Lip Gloss)

At long last I've finally got my OPI Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides polishes! I only got 2 so far though, of course I got Silver Shatter and naturally I got Mermaid Tears. Next time I'll get Sparrow Me The Drama and that's it, none of the other colors really wowed me in person. I was already wanting Silver Shatter a lot, but I actually like it even more than I was expecting when I put it over Mermaid Tears, it's just the perfect combo!

Silver Shatter, Mermaid Tears

Too Faced Mirror Mirror Lip Gloss in Damn I'm Hot

A couple pictures of the combo on my nails. I really like it. Silver Shatter is much better than black shatter in my opinion. Less bold and "punk".

NOTD: Colorful Pastels For Spring/Easter

After much redoing of my nails I finally settled on one for the rest of the week (or at least until Saturday night). These are all from Color Club's "Reveal Your Mystery" set from their Spring 2011 Alter Ego line. When I first swatched these on the fake nails I thought it was going to be be disappointingly sheer, but they are nicely opaque after 3 coats! I am very pleased since I like the colors a lot. My favorite out of the ones I am wearing here is the lilac. The pink is nice and the orangey shade is alright (nice because it has some subtle shimmer though) but the lilac definitely wins. On the pink and the lilac I layered OPI I Juggle...Men so the cremes wouldn't be too stark with the shimmer. And just because it's lovely.

Click to enlarge both pictures to better see the shimmer/sparklies.

NOTD: NYC Sidewalkers + OPI I Juggle...Men

Last night I tried my theory on how to fix OPI I Juggle...Men and it seems to have helped, I didn't get any weird wrinkles or fissures although I still got some minor shrinkage but I am starting to think that this is more because of the Poshe top coat than anything, I think though that when I put I Juggle...Men over the not completely dry (but dry to the touch) polish yesterday it just amplified the problem. I am glad I was able to work out the issues with I Juggle...Men because I really really think it's lovely.

As for the color underneath that I used, it's NYC Sidewalkers a medium "elephant" gray creme. It's not bad for the price although I found the formula a little watery (maybe due to this being a 60 second drying formula) and the brush a little stiff. But I mean you get what you pay for so I don't think it's too bad if you want a gray creme, I wouldn't pay too much for this color otherwise just because it's so boring on it's own but I wanted a gray for some reason so I figured why not, generally NYC polishes are pretty passable if you want a cheap polish that is pretty decent although I think my favorite cheap polish is probably Essence just because it was so opaque and creamy, but you don't really get a lot.

Click on the picture to see detail, it's hard to see the pretty sparkles unless you do. PS. Don't mind my hideous cuticles~.

NOTD: Orly Terra Mauve + OPI I Juggle...Men

The colors are a bit off for the Orly Terra Mauve in these pictures but the main point of this post is really OPI I Juggle...Men, which is a really beautiful sheer sparkle which is somewhat duochrome pink/light blue. My only issue with it is that it seems to hate me by causing the most bizarre issues to the color below it such as; fissures, crinkling and intense shrinkage. I thought that this was caused by Poshe last time but it appears to not be the case because all these things except maybe the shrinkage happened before I applied it. Don't get me wrong though I've still had issues with Poshe in the past and will still not be repurchasing it. Apparently I am the only one having issues which is baffling me. I am going to try it over dry polish w/ top coat and see if that helps at all because I really love I Juggle...Men and am desperate to make it work. I do want to say though that Terra Mauve went on like butter and was perfectly opaque in 2 coats although if you aren't picky and are pretty careful you could probably get away with one coat.

Sorry I did such a messy job, again I did it rather late and I had no patience for it, not that it mattered in the end but yeah...I am going to aim for an earlier time so I can be a bit neater!

You can see in these pictures some of the shrinkage although it's not easy to see, but on my ring finger and my thumb by the cuticle you can see as good of an example as I can capture but it's also pretty mild compared to some of it. The crinkles and fissures are really hard to capture, especially on a darker color like this, so just try to imagine it...

OPI Sorbet Layered Over Glitter

So, this is my 1am polish emergency solution (yes, my China Glaze Atlantis on my thumbs decided to peel around 1am). OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y over Urban Outfitters Afterhours. The very sheer jelly formula of the OPI "sorbet" is perfect for layering over glitter, as they suggested on their Twitter. I think it made a world of difference, since the glitter was very gloopy and gritty this made it much more palatable for me, but I had to do a layer of a thick top coat (Poshe) before I used the "sorbet" to make sure it wasn't absorbed by the glitter and went on smoothly. It's a really nice effect.

Artificial light, no flash.

Artificial light, with flash to show sparklies.

OPI "Do You Think I'm Tex-y" Sorbet

I was interested in trying a "Sorbet" (which is essentially just a jelly but renamed...) from OPI's Texas collection after seeing some swatches. Not feeling the other colors I decided to go for Do You Think I'm Tex-y, which I'd describe as a strawberry red in artificial light and fuchsia in natural light, it's very pretty and I don't usually wear red...this might even be my first/only! My only beef with it is that although my nails are very short I still get VNL after 4 coats...and any imperfections left from my last manicure (in this case a bit of blue I missed when removing my old polish) are starkly viewable...

I wouldn't say I'd never wear this polish again, it IS very pretty and I like the jelly effect a lot (aside from the VNL) so I am sure come summer this will make it into the rotation since it feels very "fresh" and "juicy" in a way that makes me understand why OPI decided to call it "Sorbet" but I don't think I'll be buying more in the future unless it's a need-to-have color like teal or sea-foam green. Or maybe if they made it a bit more pigmented/opaque.

Because I didn't do an accent nail and I can't leave well enough alone (didn't want it to look weird since I don't really have any other jellies) I decided to try a little splash of sparklies (from Essence) and use my silver LA Colors Art Deco polish to make a little line....it doesn't look bad but I'm not in love with it, oh well...I'll just redo my nails tonight!

Also it was rather late, and the formula of the sorbet was a bit runny so don't mind my paint job, I didn't have the patience to leave a gap between my cuticle and the polish this time.

The bottle.

In direct artificial light.

In natural light.

NOTD: 80's/Early 90's Crackle

This isn't exactly my most original manicure ever, but I have been dieing to try it since I saw Scrangie do it on her blog. The accent nail however was my idea. Originally I was just going to do it plain, but realized that the black crackle would tie it together more and really go well with it. I chose that color combo because I wanted to do something showing the neon aspect of that era, but as I hate/don't own neon polish I chose something that captures the electric feel. And the polish IS from a neon collection, so it's close enough for me!

Here is what I used:

Accent nail - Color Club Ultra Violet (luminous purple with a bright blue flash) + OPI Black Shatter.

All other nails - Essie French Affair + China Glaze Crushed Candy + China Glaze Cracked Concrete.

I just have to say I love this manicure! Retro is awesome!!

NOTD: Orly Sapphire Silk + China Glaze Ingrid

Finally felt OK enough last night to do my nails...I figured after having something pretty loud on for a while I'd tone it down a notch with Orly Sapphire Silk from the Precious collection for Spring 2011 on most of my nails and China Glaze Ingrid from the Vintage Beauties collection on my accent finger. These colors are both beautiful!

I am glad I decided to get Ingrid for my brown (I was looking for a brown for a few weeks), since it has a really pretty gold shimmer to it that I had a terrible time getting to show up in pictures, since it's rather subdued. Which is what I like about it really, just shimmery enough to be interesting but not so much that it's "blinged out". I think I've found the brown I was looking for! I do want to try some more browns later on though. The formula for this one was a little on the runny side, and I ended up making a mess on my right hand since I had even less control, and had to do like 3 coats just to even out mistakes, but otherwise it's very nice and opaque. I actually painted over 1 coat of Sapphire Silk with it because I forgot I wanted to do the accent nails, and aside from tiny little bits on the sides and tips you can't tell at all. Even then you'd have to look really closely to tell at all.

Sapphire Silk is a very pretty jelly-ish green toned teal, it actually matches my new purse...well, nearly. It's actually a good deal darker, but it's along the same vein. My camera doesn't pick up the green so much, but this is pretty darn close. I really love this color, if I "have" to wear a creme then I'll probably gravitate towards this one. At least if I want something a little on the darker side. The formula was really nice too, I probably could have done with 1 coat but I did 2 just to be on the safe side and even out any mistakes.

Also does anybody know if Sapphire Silk is similar to OPI Ski Teal We Drop? It looks very similar in the bottle, and I want Ski Teal We Drop but if they are as similar as they seem then I don't need both.

All in all a rather "safe" manicure (well my right hand would disagree, I was so messy this time) but I wanted a bit of a change from all the crackles etc. for a little bit. Besides, I think next time I'll probably do OPI DS Signature with Hard Candy Beetle as the accent so I think it makes it more fun to have a bit of a break from "gimmick" polishes in between, to make it more special :)

Nail Haul!

I got a few other nail polishes recently, of varying degrees of awsomeness.

First up are the 2 polishes I got from Forever 21. They are Aqua and Grey respectively. Aqua is the one I really wanted, and I probably should have just gotten that one as after looking at a beauty shop in the mall I found OPI Ski Teal We Drop from the Switzerland collection that I have on my want list. But I was on a bit of a budget at the time, and didn't want to spend $9 after I spent $6 on these too...boo. ANYWAY, I hear these aren't the greatest but I've only tried them on the nail wheel so far and can't make any real opinions about it. Aqua looks quite cute and squishy however Grey is a bit boring, which is why I am regretting it...it's a different color to have but if I want a gray polish I'd rather use something duochrome like $OPI Mash Up. Maybe I can use this to layer under a crackle though... it was only $2.50 though so no harm done really, other than having to wait a while to get Ski Teal We Drop.

Now on to my more anticipated polishes, that I'd ordered and weren't impulse buys like the F21 ones... first up is OPI DS Sapphire. A really pale bluish nearly silver holo that is quite strong indeed...it took a lot of willpower to not use it right away, but when I got it I still had my Milani holos on and wanted to do something other than a holo. Not a whole lot to say about this one, other than how lovely it is. I am addicted to holos! Some day I'd like to have all the OPI DS polishes, as well as China Glaze's OMG series and of course Gosh Holographic.

You can see how pretty and linear the rainbow is here, sorry it's a smidge blurry.

Last but not least, I got a couple of China Glaze's Crackle Glaze series in Cracked Concrete and Crushed Candy. As everybody has said already, Crushed Candy looks exactly like ChG For Tiffany which is awesome as I love that color, and I was aching for a pastel crackle since although I love OPI Black Shatter black is really rather bold for me usually. Same reason I got Cracked Concrete since it's a pretty light color. I may get some more colors in this series eventually, but these were my favorite and I am very pleased with them. I really hope even more colors come out in crackles, it's just such a simple way of spicing up a creme or an aging/messed up manicure.

As always with crackles make extra sure to give plenty of time for your base color to dry, even with Seche Vite. I made the mistake of doing it a bit too quickly before with my army manicure and the results weren't so hot. They weren't TERRIBLE but I was not pleased with it. Also as usual these crackles dry matte, in the picture below I have Seche Vite on top.

Here they are layered over a dark blue Maybelline shimmer. It's a little crummy because I did it quickly since I was anxious to see it...but you get the idea.

OPI PotC Stranger Tides Collection

OPI is releasing a collection of nail polishes for the new Pirates of The Caribbean movie coming out in May, and while I am not so excited about the movie I am VERY excited about the nail polish collection!

At first I thought I'd like Mermaid Tears (sea-foam green), Sparrow Me The Drama (darkish bright pink) and Planks a Lot (purple) most but then I saw some swatches (@ The Beauty Bite) and realized they were a bit too bright for me but Steady as She Rose (light pink) is a really pretty pastel and Skull & Glossbones (A really light khaki) is also a nice light color that I don't have in my collection yet. I am still on the fence about Stranger Tides (kind of a mossy/murky green) because I have Essie Sew Psyched which is kind of an army/khaki green. I am just not sure how similar the two are, although Stranger Tides seems a bit greener/brighter from what I can tell.

(Top: Skull & Glossbones, Steady as She Rose, Planks a Lot.

Bottom: Sparrow Me The Drama, Stranger Tides, Mermaid Tears)

Of course my most anticipated one is the Silver Shatter, I already love Black Shatter as an easy way to spice up a manicure but a metallic is even better! To be honest I don't usually like dark nail colors, so once Silver Shatter comes out I'll probably use it even more (although probably before that I'll have the China Glaze crackles, so we'll see).

The wonderful thing about Silver Shatter is that silver goes with pretty much anything, so I think when it's released I'll have to get 2 bottles, I foresee myself using it a lot.

I also heard that OPI is going to release a White Shatter at some point, and if it's pretty opaque I might pick it up. I am just so obsessed with crackles right now, just because I don't usually have the time or patience to make pretty designs and I haven't picked up a Konad set yet (hopefully I will soon though) so when all you have to do is paint the crackle on as normal and voila you have an interesting design I am totally sold.

OPI Black Shatter + CG For Audrey

I am nearing the end of this manicure, even though it's only been a few days. I am just so flaky, I want to do another color almost immediately after doing my nails xD;;;

ANYWAY, I didn't have time last night (even with glorious Seche Vite) to completely redo my nails so I decided to just put some Black Shatter on top to spice it up until tonight when I will hopefully have time to do them.

The look turned out pretty cool, IMO. I might do it again at some point earlier on when I am not itching to change my nails so I can have it on longer.

Don't mind my hideous cuticles (and the polish peeling around them...)...some day I'll get around to fixing them.