Nicole by OPI Sand in My Shorts

Bear with me, I've got a leftover spring/summer polish to share with you today. Sand in My Shorts was my favorite of the Nicole by OPI Roughles polishes and so when I saw these at a local drugstore, I decided to grab it. Yay textured polish! Sand in My Shorts is a yellow texture polish with orange flecks in it.

I used two coats here and that gave good coverage. In fact, this polish was almost good in one coat (surprising for something with a yellow base!) but it's true. I needed two to eliminate visible nail line. This didn't seem to dry quite as quickly as some of the other textured polishes I've used, but maybe I was just being impatient. I have a ding on my index finger due to that-- because I almost had a polish disaster; I grabbed the bottle and the top wasn't screwed on all the way and it almost spilled all over my living room. Disaster averted, thankfully, but it was a scary few seconds.

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Natural light (shade):

Natural light (sun):

This polish is so cheerful; I can't help but smile when I look at these pictures. What do you think of this polish? Did you pick up any polishes from the Roughles polishes? Which was your favorite?

Football Friday: Pac-12 opener

Sorry there weren't Football Friday posts the last two weeks. Busy, tired, unmotivated... yadda yadda yadda. I'm back! This weekend conference play starts and we are playing Stanford. This week is our "blackout" game, where fans are encouraged to wear black. This usually occurs for night games, but our game on Saturday is at 1, so it seems a bit silly. Oh well. I'll be out there in my black jersey, cheering along!

I decided I wanted a bright polish for the game, so I pulled out one of my favorites: Illamasqua Prosperity. This polish has a "rubber" finish and dries to a shiny semi-matte finish. I love it! Prosperity is a vivid purple with magenta tones, though of course my camera hates it and makes it look very blue toned. I'm pretty sure I used two coats here (sorry, no notes) and was incredibly easy to work with. Definitely a winner for me, whether or not we win the game on Saturday.

Artificial light (flash):

Artificial light:

I want to show you what a little chameleon Prosperity-- in real life it's much brighter as well!

Go Dawgs! Have a great weekend everyone!

Sally Hansen Mint Tint

Today I have Sally Hansen Mint Tint, a polish from their "Sugar Shimmer" line, which I believe is permanent-- at least, I have seen these polishes in the regular displays in the drugstore. I bought this on a whim (and maybe also because I thought it was LE, haha whoops) and because I liked the idea of the gold shimmer in a mint base. Magpie, that's me! I had high hopes for this polish-- but did it live up to them?

Mint Tint is a minty green textured polish with gold shimmer. Sadly, though, the gold shimmer doesn't really translate onto the nail and gets lost in the textured finish. The green also leans a little yellow and I wasn't in love with the way it looked on my nails. I used two coats here (no top coat, of course!) and I didn't have any issues with the formula.

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Natural light - shade:

Ok, guys, this is going to sound ridiculous, but here it is: I don't love the texture of this polish. I know, what a silly thing to say about a textured polish, right?! Well, sort of. Textured polishes have a wide array of finishes, and Mint Tint has a very scratchy textured that I'm not in love with. It did wear down eventually, but I wasn't thrilled by it.

In the end, this polish was a bit of a disappointment to me. I think the idea was a good one and I would love to see another version of this but I don't think I'll be wearing this again. 

Football Friday: EWU Edition

After eeking out a win last week against Hawaii, the Dawgs open up play at home and will hopefully have a better outing (fingers crossed, otherwise it will be a long, grim football season). The weather is supposed to be beautiful and in the low 80's and nothing says September like a crisp breeze, sunshine and football! We're playing a lower division state school this week, but make no mistake, this is no cupcake game!

This week I decided to pull out another of my Ozotic polishes, Ozotic 624. This has a similar base to Ozotic 513, but instead of linear holographic this has a more scattered holographic finish. This polish has also been discontinued, but the piCture pOlish brand has been bringing back some of these polishes, reformulated and renamed-- so this one might make a second appearance in the future! Here I used three coats and no top coat.

Artificial light - flash:

Natural light - sun:

I couldn't let this polish languish any longer, especially since the weather is supposed to be so nice! I actually love the scattered holographic finish and the glow it gives this polish.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Eagles! 

Sally Hansen CSM A New Hue

Today I have one of the polishes from Sally Hansen's summer collection; these are limited edition so this has probably already come and gone from a drugstore or Ulta near you! Sorry about that! A New Hue, while being a misnomer because there's nothing "new" about this hue, is a gorgeous, appropriate for summer red-orange coral. I'm a sucker for these colors, big time. Everytime I see one in a display, it's like discovering nail polish for the first time! I immediately think "I.MUST.HAVE.THIS!!" and plunk down my money and run away with my pretty new polish. Not even kidding. There's something about this color that just screams summer to me and every summer I must have a new bottle of this color. It's a personal weakness.

Anyhoo... A New Hue was super easy to work with-- good formula, easy to apply. No issues there. I am terrible about taking notes these days so my best guess is that I have two coats on here, probably with a top coat. With polishes like these, there always seems to be a hint of visible nail line, but it's nothing too annoying.

A New Hue isn't groundbreaking or reinventing the colorwheel in any way, but it's a good summer staple and a polish that's hard to go wrong with. I ended up giving this one to my mom because she was looking for a new color and I have plenty of polish as is. And as Labor Day typically marks the "end" of summer (I'm not ready!), I hope you enjoyed A New Hue as a last little piece of summer!