OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps Fishnet

So this morning I was supposed to get ready to go hang out with my brother Andrew... but I was reading nail blogs and losing track of time. I still hadnt done my nails yet and they were bare! I couldnt leave the house like that and I was in a hurry. I had just read Nailed It's post about wraps and it inspired me to put on OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in Fishnet I had bought at Beauty Brands two weeks ago...

They were SUPER quick and easy to apply but I left the top protector on while I applied and then removed it to finish the tips.

I also used a topcoat when I was done... additionally, these pictures were taken after I came back from a busy day of activities.

They are a bit more iridescent then they look in the pictures... and a bit on the sheer side. I was very pleased with this experience.

They held up quite well through the Pompeii exhibit at the museum

 It was a very interesting exhibit, this is just some of what we saw.

This is my "baby" brother contemplating the mysteries of the universe as he is known to do on occasion. I bet he'd love to know that this made it to my blog!

Anywho, we went to the museum then to the mall then to a bunch of other places to just wander around... it was a busy day, and I bought tons of polish as per usual: Nails Inc Baker Street with the bling cap, Essence Out of my Mind, Essence Hypnotic Poison, and Zoya Arizona. The Essence were .49 cents each, Arizona was 4.99 and Baker's Street was 10... I got another wrap for 2 bucks (for another emergency) and some ornaments for next Christmas. Biggest plus of all? Boyfriend got me this sticker to put on my helmer... who will now be known as Helga (because "my helmer" sounds so impersonal for something so magnificent, and it makes her sound like a powerful beast of a lady).
HOW COOL IS THIS? I would love to think that applying polish may one day lead to super human powers... maybe like getting a batch of radioactive lacquer.

Anywho... what a busy day. I am so pumped full of energy and rearing to go, but I really need to be gearing down now. Goodnight all!

})i({ - Amy

OPI Liquid Sand Stay the Night

I saw these just after Christmas at Ulta and thought to myself: "Hmm, that might be interesting." It kind of is...

This is three thick coats, one was kinda interesting after it dried. It has a lot of dimension... like it sorta sparkles more than the pictures show. I cant tell if I like it but I am happy that I took a picture before I put a topcoat on...

It really changes the look with topcoat. Before it had almost a leather kind of look. This isnt bad, but it's something I could have achieved without sand.
The formula on this is thin despite having sand in it. I needed almost four coats to get the opaqueness of this. Its a black jelly with sand and red glitter in it basically. I think I like it... I chose this one over the other colors in the set because it looked a bit more my speed... I just dont know

What do you think? Have you tried the Liquid Sands yet? Should I get a different color?

})i({ - Amy

Twelve Nails of Christmas: Day 8

So I knew I had to paint my nails last night.... but it was also an incredibly stressful day at work. When I got home my boyfriend had bought me some Woodchuck Hard Cider. I dont drink very often (and the boyfriend NEVER drinks and NEVER has - he's mormon) but I love hard ciders. I used to live in Australia and developed a huge taste for Strongbow cider (among a taste for ALL other alcohols... which is kinda why I dont drink much anymore - long story) and then I moved to Vermont where they make Woodchuck. In a time where Strongbow was hard to get Woodchuck became my go to drink. Anywho, their Fall flavor put me back in the mood to do Christmas nails (I will be perfectly honest I wanted nothing more to do with these damn Twelve Nails of Christmas posts). As described by Woodchuck: "There are few things as spectacular as fall in the Green Mountains that surround our cidery. When you add cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of American white oak, you either have yourself some mighty fine cider or your standard Vermont tourism cliche." It tastes like Christmas to be perfectly honest. (RAMBLE RAMBLE RAMBLE- My apologies)

So keep in mind that I had two too many of these when I was painting; I dont know why I thought that would be a good idea... my cuticles hate me

Anywho this is two coats of OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress with a thick coat of Sation I Love Miss Self. INRAW is a mini bottle from a big sample set I bought CHEAP from Ulta, and I got ILMS at Marshalls recently for $2.99!

I LOVE this glitter; its a mix of mini holo silver hex glitters, small red gold green and holo silver hexs, and medium silver holo hexs. SUPER GLITTER! It goes on very well, and I really only thickened it up where I thought it needed more greens... they are kinda sparse. Very nice formula though, and you might be able to build it up on its own, but it would probably be chunky, it dries very smooth in one coat though so I dont know why I think that.

I wish I could capture it better on the camera... it is SUPER sparkley and the small green hex glitters really pop against all the red.
I've never really been much of a red gal, so I had no idea that I even had INRAW...
Here it is on its own:

What a pretty red! I didnt know I would like this so much... but I totally do. I may have to start wearing red.


What do your Christmas nails look like? If I get any emails with pictures I want to post them on a "day after Christmas" post.

})i({ -Amy

Twelve Nails of Christmas: Day 7

I had to have an easy lazy day right??? This was a super easy mani that is a little less CHRISTMAS-IN-YOUR-FACE: just a bit more subtle.

I love OPI Live and Let Die from the recent James Bond collection; it is a deep forest green with golden flecks. I paired it with Julep Demi... I dont usually like Julep much... their formula doesnt work well with the "way" I paint my nails. I must drag too hard or something. BUT this color is amaze-balls. I love this red, its rich and deep... but not really a burgundy. It reminds me of red leather. If you love red, you should have this! I even like the formula on this one. This is two coats of each with one coat of OPI Gold Shatter over Demi.

I like the understated Christmas-ness of this one... The gold really sparkled once I put the top coat on, which is good cus it looked a bit dull before then.


What do your Christmas nails look like? If I get any emails with pictures I want to post them on a "day after Christmas" post.

})i({ -Amy

OPI Live and Let Die

So in an attempt to have my hands and nails look a little better I've put in a little effort. I bought a "rescue system" from the brand Jessica. It contains a Hydracreme lotion, a Phenomenon oil, and the Nourish therapeutic cuticle formula. I put the lotion on and then put the oil on my cuticles, then put on some gloves from Earth Therapeutics and went to bed. In the morning I used Revlon's gentle cuticle remover, then used the Jessica cuticle cream, and then painted my nails with OPI's Live and Let Die.

It shows in the pictures how much better my hands look after using this system just once. Plus I bought all this stuff discounted. The Jessica set cost me $10 bucks... and the gloves were $3. But the nail polish wasn't on sale, it's from the new Skyfall collection.

I LOVE this color. Its now my favorite green. It's a deep forest color with golden flecks. The formula goes on smooth and could be a one coater (I had a little difficulty with application over the cuticle cream). These pictures are two coats, fully opaque. I think at Christmas I will use this color with Zoya's Toni for a good subtle Christmas mani.

The color is lovely, the application was easy, and my hands have never looked this good!

What do you think of OPI's Skyfall collection? How about favorite fall green polishes?

})i({ -Amy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

What an ordeal!!! I have my nails painted all Halloween-y and am super excited about it. Today has been a bit of a post dump this is my third, but I did these nails last night and just in time for Halloween.

I used so many polishes for this mani. Since I am no good at nail art on my own fingers I went for a mix of finishes and textures. Nail polishes in order from left to right:

Mini OPI Alpine Snow

Essence Grey-t To Be Here

Essie Matte About You (for a matte topcoat over a matte polish)

Piggy Polish Nocture-Nail

Illamasqua Nurture

Cult Nails Deal With It

Urban Outfitters Tiny Shorts

The New Black shimmery orange

China Glaze I Herd That

OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?

OPI The Living Daylights

Butter London Gobsmacked

OPI Black Shatter

China Glaze Liquid Leather

LA Colors Art Deco black striper

ManGlaze Matte Is Murder

So I know that there are more polishes here than I have fingers, but the effect I was going for required it. Every nail is different, and they mostly came out the way I wanted.

On my right hand from my pinkie to my thumb:

• I used TNB orange shimmer with CG I Herd That. This is the first time I've used the CG orange glitter. I think its a nice fall orange glitter.
• I used CG Liquid Leather and a nail sticker. I LOVE LIQUID LEATHER. It is by far my favorite black. Its really like a black jelly, which is why I think it goes on so well
• I used Illamasqua Nurture, I literally just posted a swatch of this but I really used it like a week ago... you know how I feel. I used my Seche Vite over the top so it was shiny
• I used ManGlaze Matte Is Murder. I think ManGlaze has the best matte polished I've ever used. I love the application, they don't dry too quick when applying and they look great even with a shiny top coat. I used Essie's Matte About You as a topcoat over this. I really value the use of top coats
• I used Tiny Shorts on the thumb. I swatched it a while back and I like the color a lot.

Left Hand thumb to pinkie:

• I used Butter London's Gobsmacked. This has to be one of my favorite polishes. If I were stranded with one polish for the rest of my life, this would probably be it. Its super sparkly but deep and dark.
• I used Cult Nails Deal With it and OPI's Black Shatter. I did these nails a while back but didn't post about it ( I literally so my nails everyday, I don't have time to post about it.)
• This is OPI's Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? from their Texas collection. This is a very thin orange jelly despite looking very opaque in the bottle. I made a jelly sandwich with OPI The Living Daylights which I also posted about today. Its a nice combination, I may do it for a big Denver Bronco game because the blue glitters stand out over the orange (and I'm in Denver.)
• I used Essence Grey-t To Be Here. This is my first Essence polish, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to my polish. I dont like to buy a lot of cheap stuff, but the color is phenomenal! It's a light grey with pink micro flaky things in it. Its gorgeous! At .99 cents GO BUY IT! I used the LA Colors black striper to make it look like a tombstone EDIT: I also used Julep's Meryl cling wrapped over the top to make it look like stone.
• I used the mini bottle of OPI's Alpine Snow to make the base of a ghost and then used the LA striper to make the outline and actually used a dotting tool with CG's Liquid Leather to make the eyes and mouth.

They all look a bit dull because I used the Piggy Polish glow in the dark Nocture-nail over the top of everything. To get a good glow you have to use like 4 coats of it. So it distorted a lot of the colors. VERY sad on the CG Liquid Leather with skull and crossbones nail... it was so richly black before I put the glow on... le sigh. This is also why I was obsessed with top coats on this mani: Piggy Polish uses formaldehyde in their polish and I put my fingers in my mouth a lot. 

It looks pretty cool and I am going to try to keep my nails like this until Wednesday... TRY is the operative word there. We'll see.

I want to see your Halloween nails! Email me at drama.ocelot@gmail.com and I will post the pictures I get before Halloween!

})i({ - Amy

>(/ / /)<  (candy)
[¬º-°]¬  (zombie) 

Zoya Toni and OPI The Living Daylights, feat. The New Black Navy

This is my quintessential fall mani! Before a couple weeks ago I didn't have very many fall colors. I mentioned a couple posts back about buying some new Zoya and this is one of them. The color is a rich deep burgundy and as usual for Zoya, the application was really smooth. This is a great color for fall and would be good in an understated Christmas mani, (which I'm totally going to do!)

For this mani I used my new Zoya Toni and The New Black navy color. (As a side, TNB doesnt name their colors, so I dont know why groupon had names for the ones in the runway series. From now on I will just describe their colors instead of naming them!) I also bought a new glitter! I dont use much glitter, I hate removing it and I dont really want to soak my fingers in acetone to get it off easily... that being said, I did pick up a glitter when I went to check out the new OPI Skyfall collection. To be perfectly honest I went to check out The Man With The Golden Gun specifically, and after clutching the last one to my bosom and wandering around Ulta for an hour I decided to put it back... It wasn't worth it in my opinion. But I did pick up The Living Daylights and Live And Let Die (along with some other stuff, lets face it I have a bit of a nail polish problem.)

I like the way this mani came out. The Living Daylights is a really good fall glitter. It has copper, gold, silver and teal hexagonal glitters, so they go with most fall colors. It goes on really concentrated too, shown is one coat!

Please excuse the messy cuticles!

I couldnt decide what the best camera shot was, but I have the better camera back, so there's a plus.

These colors are great for fall! Do you have any favorite glitters you use in the fall? Or do you have any favorite fall colors? By the way, what is a good fall orange color? That is what I'm really after!

Let me know what you thought!

})i({  -Amy

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

So... I should've done this at the beginning of the month, but better late than never right?

Please excuse the lack of clean up!!! I usually fix the spill in the shower the morning after I do the mani (I do them at night because I don't move much when I sleep and SV dries pretty quick.) Anyways, I take an orange stick or manicure stick and rub the excess off in the shower after I've soaked for a bit!

I thought this would be a really good color scheme for a breast cancer mani. I think it came out pretty nice (even on my right hand!)

I used the mini OPI Bubble Bath for the base on all the nails save the ring fingers. Then using Color Club's Jackie-Oh! (which I am OBSESSED with) I painted the whole of the ring fingers and then the tips of the rest of the fingers (using the hole reinforcements for guides.) I painted thick tips so that I could use the Art Deco white striper to paint white tips on the pink ones, then used the striper to draw the ribbon design. After that I used the Art Deco blue small glitter striper to stripe between the pink and white tips and to outline the breast cancer ribbon. Over the top I used Essie's Kisses and Bises to add shimmer over every nail. (BTW I totally picked the Kisses and Bisses up at Marshall's for 3 bucks!!!) I top coated with SV and voilà!

I picked up a decent camera... from the boyfriend's junk pile aka: his house. He always has the newest and best electronics so when he replaced his small point and shoot cannon with 12.1 megapixels and 14x optical zoom, with a DSLR, I took the Cannon. I used it to take pictures of the revisited Two Fingered Salute mani but then it died and he doesn't know where the battery charger is... probably somewhere in the junk pile. I both praise him and damn him simultaneously... BOYFRIEND!!! (*shakes fist at the heavens*.) So I'm back with the cell phone camera for now... le sigh. It's decent enough, but I want the cannon to swatch some of the new polish I got in and am getting in... Stay tuned!!!

What did you do for breast cancer awareness? I've realized that you may not be able to upload photos to the comment box but I would be happy to post anything I get in an e-mail!

Let me know what you think!

})i({  - Amy