Sinful Colors Works Like A Charm

It's the week of St Patrick's Day, so I figured we'll go with a green theme this week! I picked Sinful Colors Works Like a Charm on a whim a week or so ago-- not that I need any new polish, but I've been jonesing for a mint and gold combo recently and for the reasonable price of $1.99, I decided I couldn't go wrong with this. Works Like a Charm is one of the St Patrick's Day collection Sinful Colors put out this year. There was another green I am wishing I had grabbed as well, but this was definitely a good choice.

The formula was ok, but not great. It's a little thick and prone to dragging, unfortunately. That said, I did used a light touch and used thinner coats and that made the application ok. Honestly, it could have been much worse so I'm pretty happy. After two coats I still had a uneven patches so I used my typical third coat and I think it looks great.

I got several compliments on this, which of course I always love when I wear a polish. I love the combination of mint and gold; it's so pretty! The formula wasn't perfect, but is acceptable for the price. I loved wearing this!

Hope everyone had a good weekend and that your week is off to a good start!

Girly Bits Peach Slapped

Let's start the week with something simple and sweet! Today I have the other polish from from the June COTM duo from Girly Bits: Peach Slapped, which is a hilarious name. As the name implies, the color of this polish is peach, and I would call it a borderline neon peach creme. It's bright but definitely not a true neon.

Given the color, it's probably not a huge surprise that I had a few issues with this. I found it went on a bit streaky-- I used a light touch and needed three coats for my manicure below. Even at three coats I still had some streaks, though they weren't too obvious to the naked eye (or even my camera, though maybe you can see a thin spot on my ring finger). After with Here's Lagoon Atcha, the other half of the June duo, I had high hopes for this so it was a little bit of a let down, but I'm not majorly disappointed-- I was kind of expecting it just based on the way these colors normally are.

I like Peach Slapped a lot! It's the perfect summer color. I wish the formula had been a smidge better, but really, it wasn't too terrible. I enjoyed wearing this and look forward to seeing what future duos bring us!

Wet N Wild Beat of a Generation

Sorry I've been AWOL the last few weeks! I just haven't had the time I needed to really sit down and blog; the summer has been busier than expected and blogging took a bit of a back seat. Hoping to get several posts up this week and get back in the groove. I have also been enjoying the Olympics. So to get started, here's a sweet little polish to get the week started! Today I have Wet n Wild Beat of a Generation. This was from a collection that appeared last summer (I think) but of course, it hasn't received until love until recently. I would call Beat of a Generation a bright fuchsia pink creme.

 The formula of Beat of a Generation was pretty good in terms of formula; I felt it could have been a bit better because it didn't level out as much as I would have expected for a color like this. Otherwise, though, it was easy to apply and I didn't have any issues (aside from the minor leveling issue).

It's a pretty, cheerful pink. The formula could have been a titch better, but really, for the price tag, it's not bad at all! Sometimes it's nice to just have a cute, simple creme and this definitely fits the bill. Happy Monday!

Throwback Thursday: OPI Damone Roberts 1968

Oh man, the end of July has really thrown off my posting, which was not my intent. I'm just busier than anticipated and we have had a lot going on and I'm just not on the ball-- in fact, I even wore one polish for FIVE days because I just had no time to change it! That's very unusual for me! I'll try to get some posts scheduled this weekend so I can get back on top of things; it's already August and I have a ton of summer colors that I have been planning on wearing and blogging. Oh, so many things to do! Today I have a fun throwback polish on the blog! Damone Roberts 1968 has actually been released three times that I'm aware of; I got my polish from the third release (second re-release?!) so I can't say how it compares colorwise to the other two, but I *think* they are all pretty close. Has anyone actually done the comparison? Anyway, Damone Roberts 1968 is based on the color of paint used in his salons in CA and NY, and which Roberts describes as "a unique pistachio... a different green with undertones of a soft grey, and a warm brown that works well on every skin tone." Personally, I see a lot of yellow tones in the and more than pistachio, this polish gives me soothing jade vibes. I'll be honest, I'm not even all that familiar with Damone Roberts, but I guess he is an eyebrow guru! I do love a well maintained brow-- mine grow crazy long so I have to have them waxed and trimmed on a regular basis.

The formula of Damone Roberts 1968 was good! A bit on the thin side, but nicely pigmented and easy to apply. I used a light touch to avoid any potential streaks and it covered well in two coats, though I did use a third for good measure to make sure there weren't any thin spots. I didn't have any issues!

Like many of my polishes, I'm not really sure why I let this one sit around for so long because I really liked it! OPI was pretty much my start into "serious" nail polish and even though I actually don't reach for many OPI polishes these days, picking up a bottle is like running into an old friend. I feel like this shade of green is very soothing and very flattering; while I don't normally gravitate towards greens there was something about this that I loved. I was actually sad to remove it after wearing it for a couple of days! It's such a lovely, soft color.

 I bought my bottle on Amazon for $10 (and I had rewards points so I actually just had to pay shipping) and it says it's from Damone Roberts, so I'm pretty sure it's legit. It's also still available on the Damone Roberts website if you'd prefer to buy it direct.

Wet n Wild Reject the Mainstream

I feel like I have a really random bunch of polishes I am blogging this week! Today I have a polish that is actually from last spring, I believe. This is Reject the Mainstream, which was part of the Silver Lake collection. I think I say it every time I post, but I really enjoy the Wet n Wild Megalast line of nail polish-- they are cheap and generally have decent formula, and I like both those things! Affordable and easy to work with is always a winner!

Reject the Mainstream is a soft lilac creme. Even though pastels are considered more of a spring trend (if you pay attention to those, which I don't really) but sometimes I just want something soft and gentle and this color really fits the bill. The formula was pretty great-- on the thinner side, but nicely pigmented and it went on smoothly. I used a light hand and didn't have any trouble at all. I did use three coats to make sure it was even, but probably could have gotten away with two!

I was pleasantly surprised at how good the formula of Reject the Mainstream was! This was really lovely all around: color, formula, all of it. I loved this polish and I shouldn't have let it sit around for so long, but I'm glad I pulled it out now! This may not be the most original color out there but I still like it!

Sinful Colors Koko-Nuts

Listen, I am no Kardashian fan, by any means, but that hasn't stopped me from liking some of the polishes they have released. I don't have very many but I love that there are a bunch of matte polishes so I'll probably be picking some of those up. Today I have Koko-Nuts to share with you, which is a polish from the King Kylie collection. 

Koko-Nuts is a white creme with a strong gold shimmer; it definitely has a glass fleck quality to it. Formula was pretty standard for a white creme; ok but not amazing. It's on the thick side and goes on a bit streaky-- I found it difficult to get thin coats and this does not want to self-level. I used three coats and it's not too bad; maybe not quite as even as I wanted but not terrible. If you are a careful polisher you might (maybe) be able to get away with two coats. 

I do like this shimmer, but I'm not head over heels in love with this polish. I saw some swatches that I loved and which lead me to pick up this polish in the first place, and while I do think it's pretty (love the shimmer!) I wish my nails were a but shorter because I think it would look cleaner. Sadly, Koko-Nuts is kind of just "meh" on my nails but I may try it again at a different time. I do want to try some of the matte polishes that have been put out, though! 

Two-fer Tuesday: Essie Find Me an Oasis and Resort Fling

My posting will be a little sporadic this week... there's a lot of upheaval currently going on in my house and I haven't been able to find the time (or have been too tired) to get any posts ready for this week. I will try, though! Today I have the last two polishes from the 2014 Essie Resort collection, Find Me an Oasis and Resort Fling!

Find Me An Oasis is a light sky blue pastel creme. Sadly, the color is probably the best part of this polish-- the formula is pretty terrible. It was thin and wanted to streak something fierce. I used three careful coats here (I had read other reviews of this not having the greatest formula-- they were right) and that definitely helped, but there is still some unevenness on my nails and I didn't feel like doing four coats to see if I could make it better.

Resort Fling is a summery cantaloupe coral crelly. Again, I love this color family for summer, but I feel like the formula could have been better, though honestly, as I reflect on it, was not as bad as Find Me an Oasis. The first coat was pretty darn sheer, though after three coats the visible nail line is pretty minimal. It is still a little bit streaky and didn't self-level very well.

Sadly, I find it hard to really love either one of these polishes-- I like the colors a great deal but  the formulas leave a lot to be desired. Certainly not the worst I've ever used, but definitely not great and will probably prevent me from reaching for these polishes again in the future, which is a shame! But you can't win them all, and there are similar colors out there with better formulas.

Girly Bits Here's Lagoon Atcha

It's Wednesday! Hump day! And a the perfect day to have nice break, a breath of fresh air and enjoy the simple beauty of a gorgeous creme polish. Today I have Girly Bits Here's Lagoon Atcha, which is the one of two polishes from their new Colors of the Month series. These polishes will only be on sale for a limited time at the beginning of each month for preorder-- unfortunately, this was one of the June releases and is not currently available.

Here's Lagoon Atcha is described as a " bright aqua crelly" and even though this seems like it doesn't work with my whole teal theme-- to me, this polish looks way more turquoise/light teal than aqua, which to me would have a stronger blue tone. To my eyes, Here's Lagoon Atcha leans green, though some of that might be skin tone dependent (though personally I think it leans green in the bottle too). Being that this is a crelly, is does have a slightly thinner formula, but is still well pigmented. I found my first layer to be a bit streaky, and ended up using three thin coats to even it out. But no complaints, as it went on smoothly, dried quickly and didn't give me any real issues.

Personally, I loved this polish! I recently wore this on vacation and it lasted a full five with only minor tip wear! Technically seven days because I was too tired upon arriving back home to take it off, hah. So this is definitely a winner in my books, all the way around. I love a good creme and the color is beautiful, so I'm in love. Definitely looking forward to seeing more COTM duos from Girly Bits! Happy Wednesday all!

Throwback Thursday: Essie Under the Twilight

Another Throwback Thursday post and another Essie polish, also from the Resort 2014 collection. Today I have Under the Twilight, which was definitely one of the highlights from this set. This polish is described as an "intensely provocative smokey plum." In the bottle it looks blue (to my eye anyway) but on the nail you can definitely tell where the smokey plum descriptor comes from.

Under the Twilight had an excellent, moreso than the other half of this collection-- I'll get to those polishes later. This was nicely pigmented and went on super smoothly. It was very nearly a one coat wonder, though I did have a few thin patches so I used a second coat. Excellent!

I wish this had a bit more color to keep it from looking so close to a near black, but the formula was excellent and it's still definitely not black, despite being so dark. Even though this is/was a resort color, I think it will be very wearable in the fall and winter. Under the Twilight is a very chic twist on a black manicure, especially if you don't want a true black.

Throwback Thursday: Essie Cocktails and Coconuts

Hey look, a Throwback Thursday post! Mostly unintentional but when the stars align...! Essie Cocktails and Coconuts had been kicking around unloved since the summer of 2014 so it's time it got a little love! This was one of the polishes from the Resort 2014 collection and I bought a mini quad of the four polishes that made up this collection. This quad has been sitting in a place where I pass by it every day and I kept thinking "man, I should really use these polishes" and yet there they sat for two (!!) years. I finally pulled put these polishes for an HPB challenge; mostly because I needed a neutral and I knew exactly where this one was! 

Cocktails and Coconuts is a yellow leaning beige neutral that also has a subtle silver shimmer. I was actually impressed with the formula and how easy it was to apply. I did have to use a light touch to avoid dragging the polish but while the formula was a little thin, it went on easily. I have used two coats here and it looks pretty good! Probably if I had not been using this as a base for nail art, I would use three coats, but it looks pretty good with just the two! I'm also not wearing top coat here, so you can see it's fairly shiny even without it! 

You can even see the subtle shimmer here! Woo! While yellow-leaning neutrals aren't my favorite, I think this looks pretty good! I was really happy that the formula was good and I can see myself coming back to this again in the future! 

CoverGirl Speed of Light

And here's the last of my polishes inspired by the Millennium Falcon, CoverGirl Speed of Light. Ok, honestly, I don't know if Speed of Light was inspired by the Falcon, but here's my reasoning: this shade of grey reminds me of putty grey color they used for all the ship models back when they were making the original trilogy in the 70's and 80's. One of which is the Falcon... ok, maybe it's a tenuous connection at best but that's my story and I'm sticking to it! You can't tell me otherwise!

I'm pretty sure my feelings on the CoverGirl x Star Wars collaboration are well-known, but can be summed in a word: disappointing. The colors they picked didn't see very special or unique (at least with the nail polishes) and honestly, given what indie makers have been able to do with the Star Wars theme, it lacks any sort of creativity or originality. Lucas pushed the boundaries of movie making back in the 70's when he first made Star Wars and this whole collection is just blah! Not that it stopped me from buying a few things with the Star Wars logo on them, but overall, this was a collection that could have been amazing and groundbreaking and instead was completely lackluster. Wasted opportunities!!

But I'll spare you my ranting; let's get back to Speed of Light! This polish is what I would call a putty grey creme. It's a little bit of a chameleon-- in some lights it looks more grey and in other it takes on a putty beige tone. The formula was just ok-- it's a little bit on the thin/watery side, though was pigmented well enough. It did want to streak a bit as a put it on, though it seemed to level off ok if I used a light touch. I ended up using three coats.

I'll be honest: I'm not terribly overwhelmed by Speed of Light. It's an ok neutral and the only thing that really makes me love it is my nostalgia for the old models in the original trilogy. I'm not quite sure why CoverGirl picked this color, but they did. I don't think it looks great with my skin tone, which doesn't help either.

And with that I will have a one day break tomorrow and be back on Monday with some polishes based off famous quotes from the Star Wars movies! 

Chanel Vibrato

Yesterday I brought you a manicure I wore awhile ago-- today I have a more recent manicure (I wore this for Easter). Technically, the polish did come out awhile ago, but I am only just now wearing it. My Easter dress had a lot of coral in it, so I wanted something that contrasted. I decided that a bold, bright blue was the perfect remedy. The first polish that came to mind for what I wanted was Chanel Vibrato, which is one of two polishes from the Blue Rhythm collection released last August. Vibrato is a bold, vibrant cobalt blue creme.

Vibrato has an excellent formula. It goes on very smoothly and easily-- the formula was just perfect and very easy to work with. It's not quite a one-coat wonder; I didn't have completely even coverage on the first coat, but most people could probably get away with two coats. I added a third for good measure, though I didn't really need it but wide nail beds yadda yadda yadda.

Soooooo gorgeous! I could just stare at this blue for hours. Blues, and cobalt blues in particular, are my favorite, so this is just perfect on so many levels. For some reason my top coat looks a little scuffed up here, though in real life Vibrato was pretty shiny all by itself.

Sadly, Chanel just revamped their entire polish line and most of the really cool polishes they had are gone now (maybe to return one day, we can hope). Vibrato was a limited edition in any case, so it's probably going to be hard to find these days, as the more "out there" Chanel shades seem to be snapped up very quickly.

Two Random Seahawks Manicures

This is going to be a totally random post because I did these manicure back in January for the NFL play-offs and then the Seahawks lost (womp womp) and my laptop was dead and so of course they weren't posted. But if I don't post them now, even though it's not football season, you'll probably never see them! So this will be short and sweet! 

Up first I have a manicure I did using solely Lucky 13 Lacquer polishes! I picked 12th Woman as my main polish, and it's a deep navy blue crelly polish. I'll have a review later! I then used a Born Pretty Stencil and added Unleash the Beast, a blue/green duochrome flakie for the pattern.  

The second manicure I have to share with you is one I unfortunately I didn't love. Not because the polishes were bad, but because the colors were off from what I had imagined in my head and I just wasn't really thrilled with the whole look. It happens, right? I used Pahlish Winds of the Cloud City and Fairytale Finish Turning Over a New Leaf for this manicure.

I'm just going to call this my retro Seahawks mani and leave it at that, because the colors match better with the retro (aka 70's and 80's) Seahawks uniforms. Both polishes were great but it wasn't the look I was going for. Ah well! 

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend! 

Twin Mani with Polished Lifting: Spring Flower Dotticure

Whew, I've been gone a long time! Technically, my computer is still being worked on (ugh ugh ugh) but I'm tired of waiting, so I'm commandering my husband's laptop to post again! Today I have a special manicure to share with. A while ago, Courtney of Polished Lifting posted on the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook group asking if anyone wanted to do twin manicures, and I said I was interested-- so here we are finally doing it! What's really cool is that Courtney is in Portland (OR), so we actually might be able to meet up in real life as opposed to the blogosphere or email! I'm probably the worst collaborator ever-- it took me forever to get my shizz together because February was a freaking terrible month for me but we made it! My whole reason behind wanting to do a twin manicure is because I want to work on my nail art skills, but use techniques that I feel are achievable given my time and resources. Courtney does a lot of really great stamping (beyond me at the moment!) and agreed to stick to some simpler nail art! To this end, I ended up requesting to do a flower dotticure, something that I have wanted to do for months now but haven't actually attempted yet! 

I have had the colors I used in this mani picked out for months (let's be honest, probably since last year, ack). It's a bunch of Julep colors, which wasn't really planned, but I think they look pretty and springy together. And I am definitely ready for spring! For my base I used Julep Moni, a bright robin's egg blue. I think used Julep Shelby (dark blue), Denise (lilac purple), and Marcella (pink) to make my flowers. These are all cremes and worked really well for the dotting technique.  

Artificial light (flash): 

I've been wanting to do a dotticure flower manicure for awhile-- and I was surprised by how difificult it was! Placing the dots just so to get the look I wanted sounds simple and straightforward, but actually isn't as easy as it might seem! However, for my first try I'm pretty happy with the way mine ended turning out! Do I need some more practice? Sure! But it was a fun first try! I'm particularly proud of my index nail, which I think is my favorite! 

And that's it! You should go check out Courtney's manicure here! My posting going forward is still going to be sporadic because I am still waiting for my laptop to be fixed, but I'm really tired of this enforced hiatus! I have been wearing a bunch of awesome polishes and I need to share them with you! (Though you should check out my Instagram [@catray] because I've been busy posting Nail of the Day pictures!)

Also, I'd like to say-- if there's anyone else out there who would be interested in doing twin manis (either a one-off or an ongoing series); I would love to collaborate! Courtney has a rotation of bloggers she is going to be posting twin manis with; I hope to collaborate with her again in the future! 

Purple Friday: Cover Girl 300 and Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop

Hey all!! We're back at Friday, woo! I feel like I did not get much of a weekend last week, probably because I didn't get near enough sleep. Hopefully this weekend will-- helped by the fact that the Huskies have an away game this week. They are down in the Bay Area, playing Stanford. It was a tough (and close) loss to Oregon last week and this week will be an even bigger challenge. I don't really expect a win, though you never know, right? I also didn't expect us to beat USC and that happened. Maybe something equally miraculous will happen this week! (Fingers crossed.) But despite my lack of optimism, of course I will supporting my Dawgs. I was debating about what polish I wanted to wear. Initially I thought I wanted to wear Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop, which is a dusty medium purple loaded with gold flakies, but it ended up being more sheer than I wanted, so I cast around for a purple polish to layer it over and settled on CoverGirl 300 (boo numbered only polishes), which I received in my Christmas stocking last year. 

CoverGirl 300 is a blue-leaning grape purple creme, which was a little on the thin side and wanted to streak. I used two coats here, though the second coat was pretty thick. It seem to do the trick, though! Then I layered one coat of WnW Happy Hour Hop on top of it. Confession: I did buy my bottle of Happy Hour Hop from eBay, and while the swatches I have seen online seem to indicate that HHH was more opaque, but mine was definitely not. When I initially swatched it, I did have longer nails, so maybe it's better on shorter nails.

CoverGirl 300:

My photos make this appear brighter than it is in real life. It's 

Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop:

 You can see that HHH does leave some visible nail line. It's not terrible, but it's also not my favorite. I don't know if something was done to the bottle I purchased, but it is what it is. I could have worn this alone

Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop over CG 300:

Because HHH is on the sheer side, the finished product does take on a more blue-leaning aspect thanks to the base color, but again, these photos are brighter than it actually appears in real life. I really love the gold flakies in the purple base. It's soooooo pretty. Next time I might try to find a base color that is slightly closer to the base of Happy Hour Hop, but it looks great regardless.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Cardinals!

Julep Suse

For some reason I though I had already written a post on this polish but I guess I didn't! Whoops. Julep Suse is described as a "coral blaze creme" and that description is spot on. I've had this swatch sitting around for awhile-- I actually think Suse was released in the June "The Deep End" Maven collection. Of course, in June, a coral creme was the perfect way to get summer started. Now it's October (and we're already in the second half, noooooo) so it's not really seasonally appropriate anymore. But I feel that you can wear whatever colors you want whenever you want, so who cares!!

As a polish,  I find the color of Suse to be great and perfect for summer. However, I did find the formula left a little bit to desired. It's not terrible, mostly just okay. It was a little thick (which might have been aggravated by the hot, humid weather we were having when I swatched this) but was also streaky, which is highly annoying. It wasn't so terrible that I was exceptionally bothered by it, just mildly annoyed. The fact that it's my favorite summer color makes up for a lot, haha!

Artificial light (flash):

It's not quite the color of the season, but still a very pretty color! It was a little bit streaky but not too terrible-- I don't think it's very visible in real life. I wish it was a bit better, but overall I still like it! Hopefully this bright little coral brightened your Hump Day!

Sinful Colors S-cool

Let's get the week started off right! Today I have Sinful Colors S-cool from their fall collection to show you! Sinful Colors had a huge fall collection that was broken into several smaller ones. S-cool is from the Play It Cool group. At first I passed this one by, but after seeing some swatches, I decided I needed to have this one (along with a few others). I love anything blue, so it probably won't come as shock that I love this one.

S-cool is a light turquoise-leaning sky blue creme. It's bright, but not too bright. And even better, the formula on this is fantastic. You can't really ask for anything more from a polish that costs $1.99! It went on smoothly and without issue. I used two coats here (I'm pretty sure) but I definitely don't recall having issues. I love it when a polish hits a home run like this: great color, great formula, great price!

Artificial light (flash):

S-cool is so gorgeous! I love this polish. Great formula, great color. The only problem is the fact that this wants to stain upon removal. Not necessarily your nails, though I would probably double up on base coat. This definitely will stain your cuticles-- Smurf city. Annoying, so just be careful upon removal! Otherwise, though, I have no complaints! Happy Monday all!

Purple Friday: OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm and Zoya Gilty

Not going to lie, I took the lazy route out this week and modified my manicure from last week. And speaking of lazy, I totally forgot to write up this post before Friday and schedule it! Ugh, sorry! I don't know how it slipped my mind, but I totally forgot. One of those weeks! Let's get to the post!! This week the Huskies play Oregon, one of our most better rivals. The last time we beat Oregon was 2003... 11 years ago!! So long ago my husband and I looked like this:

OMG BABIES!! Where are these people now?! Hahaha, anyway... we hate Oregon. For a variety of reasons, but now mostly because they have beat us 11 times in a row and seriously, could we just freaking beat them already? Oregon is floundering right now, so there's hope for us. I mean, we did beat USC last week! That was a pretty amazing game.

As for manicure, we were out of town last weekend and I decided that I didn't have to time to come up with something super unique. So I pulled out OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm?, which is still an amazing purple (and I feel like I've got a handle on applying it now) and then pulled out Zoya Gilty, which is an 18K gold topper that I've had for at least two years. I have too many polishes (haha said no nail polish addict ever). I did have to do some fishing for the flakes, and definitely had to dab them on my nails. My photos are a bit sparse-- the actual manicure I ended up with has a bit more as I got better at getting the gold out.

Artificial light (flash):

Personally, I think the purple and gold combination looks incredibly royal! The gold flakes really pop against the purple base. It was a little annoying to get the gold flakes out of the bottle, but worth it for the final look.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Ducks!

Purple Thursday: OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm?

And for another switch up, we're having a Purple Friday on Thursday! The Huskies are playing tonight down in LA against the USC Trojans (and former coach) so of course it's a big game! And of course I have a purple mani to show you! It's a Husky game day! I'm not super optimistic about the game, but am hoping we play well and maybe, just maybe, pull out a win. That would be amazing!

This week I decided to go with a classic purple creme, mainly because I'm lazy and wanted something quick, but also because it's well, really, it's a classic! So is the UW-USC rivalry and we've had some awesome (and heart-breaking) games. So I grabbed a polish from the company that started my nail polish addiction: OPI. This is Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? and was released as a part of the 2014 F/W collection. This polish, which has an insanely long name, is a deep right purple with blue tones. The color is incredible. However... the formula leaves a lot to be desired. It's decently pigmented, but it's thin and watery and so goes on very streaky. Womp womp. It's workable, just not would I would have hoped for. I used three coats here and I would recommend using a light hand to avoid dragging and creating more streaks. I basically tried to "float" the third coat on there to make sure I got rid of all the streaks, because there were still there after two coats. On the upside, it did dry down quickly and does dry to a shiny finish (I'm not wearing a top coat here).

Artificial light (flash):

I wasn't thrilled with these photos with my photos-- you can tell it's purple, but it looks a little washed out. So I took a couple photos with my iPhone-- they're not great quality, but I think the color looks a lot closer to real life.

So that's it for this week! The color is fabulous, but the formula left a lot to be desired. Which is a shame, because I expect more from OPI in general and they generally deliver. Bummer! But... I'm willing to forgive them because this is a pretty fabulous purple. And so with that, I'm signing out!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Trojans!

HPB Presents Autumn Dry Brush Manicure!

Yesterday was actually my wedding anniversary so this was the manicure I was sporting (probably should have posted this yesterday instead of my downer post). But it is the first day of fall today, so that's appropriate, right? I had stumbled across a whole mess of untouched polishes that looked to be a perfect fit for a fall themed manicure. Initially I thought I would use the saran wrap technique to dry and create a manicure with layered fall colors-- similar to a pile of leaves-- but then I decided I wanted to branch out and do something new! So I decided to use a similar but new-to-me technique, the dry brush technique! Thankfully, it's pretty simple-- you wipe most of the polish off the brush and then lightly swipe across your nails, leaving little slashes of color. Sounded good to me!

I started with two coats of Julep Marsala, a rich red brown creme. Then I swiped on Lyn B Designs Whirled Peas, a yellow gold/orange duochrome holographic. Then I took Julep Ryan, a deep teal satin. This was probably a bit of mistake, because the teal is darker color than the gold, but it ended up being a sheer so luckily it worked out in my favor! Then I tried to use Loaded Lacquer Booze & BBQ, a shimmery orange on top, but it ended up being too sheer in just one coat, so it left sparkle behind, but no orange color. I didn't want to try and add another color at that point because I felt it would be overkill and make the finished product too messy.

Artificial light (flash):

There are things I like and don't like about this manicure. Even though the colors looked really beautiful spread out on my table, they turned out a little muted on my nails. I wish they had been just a bit brighter. I was also annoyed that the orange I used turned out to be more sheer than I anticipated-- it added sparkle, but not the color I wanted. Oh well! I do think the dry brush is a really fun technique and I love the rich, brocade look this manicure ended up having even if it wasn't what I envisioned initially! 

Hope you enjoyed my fall themed manicure! I'm really enjoying these monthly manicures as a way to explore my nail art skills and doing something different aside from just swatching! 

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