OPI Glints of Glinda

Today I have a semi-recently released polish to share with from OPI called Glints of Glinda. Even though I tend not to wear nude shades very often, but this one was calling my name very time I looked at it.  Glints of Glinda is from this spring's Soft Shade collection, which was based around the movie Oz The Great and Powerful. Confession: I want to see this movie because I have a huge girl crush on Rachel Weisz, but still haven't gotten around to it because a) I don't watch a lot of movies and b) I heard it wasn't that good. Maybe I'll get around to seeing it before the twins make their appearance! Glints of Glinda is a tan/beige jelly that just leans a little yellow and is a sheer. 

I'll admit that I tend to have issues with the OPI Soft Shade collections-- mostly because I feel like the formulas tend to be streaky and they bubble (on me, anyway). However, in the case of Glints of Glinda, I found the formula much easier to work with it. It is a little streaky, but if you use a light hand while applying it, it's really not too bad. I used three coats here, which might have contributed slightly to the streakiness-- but really, this looks good in one coat as a "your nails but better" look, especially if you need something clean and professional. It dries quickly and to a nice shiny finish.

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Surprisingly, despite the fact that I don't tend to be a fan of tan polishes because of the yellow undertones, I actually thinks this works pretty well with my skintone and I like the way it looks. It's not a perfect match, but it's certainly not terrible-- I would probably wear fewer coats, as I did buy this knowing it was sheer and intending to use it as such. I wouldn't waste the time making trying to make it opaque-- you can find similar nude shades with better coverage out there. I do like this, though, and I am glad to finally have a sheer beige jelly in my collection

Ozotic 506

Tonight I have another multichrome polish from Ozotic, 506, which is a multichrome that shifts from blue to purple with maybe just a hint of green. Similarly to 505, I decided to layer this over A England Camelot to bring out the shift. Personally, I had trouble seeing the green but the blue-purple shift is very strong. Here I used two coats of 506.

Not a lot of words tonight, but definitely lots of pictures!

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Gorgeous polish! This has also been discontinued, sadly, but you may still be able to find it out there.

Wedding Manicure

This weekend my husband and I attended the wedding of a dear friend-- my husband was one of the groomsmen and we've been looking forward to this wedding for awhile. In addition, we got to see our whole group friends and party, which is always fun! Shopping for a dress for a "formal" occasion when you're pregnant is a bit of a challenge, though-- it's pretty much just like spinning a roulette wheel and hoping whatever you get still fits by the time you need to wear it. Luckily, even though I bought my dress in June, I didn't have a problem fitting into it yesterday.

Since the dress had a print I decided I wanted to keep my nails simple so they wouldn't fight with it (though I'm sure anyone else would have cared or noticed). But given that it's summer and we've been having some beautiful weather, I couldn't resist a little bit of sparkle either! I decided to use Essence Cafe Ole as my nude polish (a review is coming!). To give it some sparkle I decided to use Cult Nails Mayhem, which is a sheer holographic topper that I conveniently just got. The result was a nice subtle manicure with the right amount of sparkle to keep it interesting! I love this look!

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I decided that I needed to get a pedicure for the wedding as well, mainly because I can't actually reach my toes anymore. And getting a pedicure feels great! With the colors of my dress, I decided that doing a mint or turquoise pedicure was calling my name. When I got to the salon, I pulled China Glaze For Audrey off the shelf. Why do I not own this? It's such a pretty shade and I love it on my toes. Such a soothing color! Here's a pic with the dress I wore to the wedding so you can see the print/colors (sorry, feet/toes!):

So we had a great time at the wedding yesterday and have spent today recovering (my husband from drinking, me from just being up so late). I can't believe it's Monday again tomorrow! Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend!

Nostalgic Lacquer Gluttony

Here's an oldie but a goodie. You've briefly seen this before, as part of my Thanksgiving Day manicure. But here it is! This is Nostalgic Lacquer Gluttony, which was a limited edition release as part of her Seven Deadly Sins collection. Gluttony is a rainbow glitter that contains a variety of glitter shapes and color in a clear base.

Here I layered Gluttony over Julep Alysson. You definitely need dab on Gluttony, because the glitters won't want to stay put if you try to play them like a regular polish. I ended up using two coats because I thought one coat was too sparse. While there is a lot of glitter in the polish, you do have to do a little bit of fishing for some of the larger pieces. But generally, it's fairly easy to apply.

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I love how this looks over the neutral base color-- I had seen other bloggers do this but I had done it myself. Definitely a winner in my book!

Ozotic 505

Hey all! Tonight I have another Ozotic polish for you-- one of their multichrome polishes, 505. This is a gorgeous polish that shifts from dark green to blue to purple. It's gorgeous in the bottle and luckily, just as gorgeous on the nail! For these swatches I layered 505 over A England Camelot, a deep shiny black, to bring out the color shift. I used two coats of 505 here.

Short on words tonight-- let's get to the pictures!

Under direct light, 505 is a gorgeous shade of emerald green.

In indirect light, 505 starts to shift from green to purple

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Unfortunuately, as another polish from the Ozotic 500 line, this polish has also been discontinued (why?!?!) and is sold out. Lame! This polish is so pretty and the color shift is gorgeous-- definitely moreso in person than in my photos!

It's a...

....BOY(S)!!

That's right, we're having two boys! We still don't know for certain if they are fraternal or identical, but it's for sure two little boys. Once you see it on the ultrasound, you definitely can't mistake it for anything else! I had another growth ultrasound this weekend (with twins you get to see the doctor every two weeks and have a growth ultrasound every four weeks) and the boys are looking good-- they are estimating them at slightly over a pound and a half each! Meanwhile we are busily working on getting our house ready for them (ack!), which means we're going pretty much much nonstop-- or at least my husband is.

We've actually known for several weeks now and I had a manicure all planned-- I just haven't gotten around to posting it yet-- sorry! Initially I tried to do a sponge gradient, but I was really displeased with how it turned out in the end. Maybe I'll show it to you guys later, but I'm still a bit bummed it didn't turn out like I was hoping when I look at the pictures I took, so I can't quite bring myself to post it yet.

In the end, I had to go with blue because hello--boys! After my sponge gradient didn't work, I went for the next best option: ombré! I always love how these manicures look, yet haven't actually put one together yet. No time like the present, right?

For this manicure I used (from lightest to darkest): Julep Jessica, Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle, Julep Annie, Julep Gunta, and Cult Nails Time Traveler. 

Aaron and I are really excited to welcome our boys (how crazy is that?!) to our family-- maybe when they're still little I can paint their toes and they'll like it! Or, if they're identical, at least use nail polish to tell them apart, hah!

China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots

Continuing the theme, today I have China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots, which is from their Spring 2013 Hologlam Collection. I recently bought this on sale at Sally's and almost instantly had buyer's remorse while I waited for the bus home. I knew from the outset that the holographic effect of these was not what a lot of people expected, and while I don't mind a subtle holo effect, I was a bit disappointed when I couldn't even see the effect in the bottle. Luckily, on the nail, you can definitely see holo in Strap On Your Moonboots.

 Strap On Your Moonboots is a dusky blue that kind of has a demin feel to it. Unfortunately, I had some issues applying this polish. This polish wanted to drag because it dries fairly quickly, so I wound up with some thin spots and had to use three coats on most of my nails.

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I do wish the holo effect was a bit more prominent in the polish, but I do really love the base color. I also wish it had applied a bit better, but since I got it on sale I'm not too broken up about some issues. It is a really pretty polish-- however, if you want something that it really holographic, Strap On Your Moonboots is definitely not the polish you're looking for.

Ozotic 522

Sorry for the lack of posts-- this weekend has been really busy! We had a fun date night on Friday and then have spent the rest of the weekend working. We painted what is becoming our guest room (and the old guest room will become our nursery) and then cleaned the carpets. Next we have to move furniture, but that will probably happen this week after work. It's nice to have something accomplished! Still a lot to do, but this is a good step.

Today I have another gorgeous holo for you-- Ozotic 522! This is described as a copper pink linear holographic, though it looks rather red in the bottle and in my pictures. Apparently, though, while reds seem to be some of the easiest polishes to make (and use), making true red holographics is very difficult and they end up leaning pink. I did try layering this over a red polish base, but it definitely fades the base color a bit, rather than enriching the red of 522. This polish is a little on the sheer side, so I needed to use three coats to get good, opaque coverage.

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The bad news is that Ozotic 522 is currently discontinued and therefore might be difficult to get a hold if you like it. The good news, as I mentioned in my last post, is that a lot of polish makers out there have jumped in to the fill the void and while you might not be able to find an exact duplicate of this particular polish you can still find some awesome holos out there!

4th of July Skittlette Mani!

Hey all! Hope that many of you are having a good time celebrating the 4th of July-- and if not that you are having a pleasant Thursday! This post is a little late because we've been doing a lot of cleaning around the house so we can move furniture and prep for the arrival of the twins, and in doing so lost our internet connection for awhile, whoops!

For this 4th of July, I had a hankering to try out a skittlette manicure, as pioneered Marta of ChitChat Nails. She recently did a tutorial on how to create this manicure and so I took it for a test drive! I already had in my mind two polishes I wanted to use: Julep Fireworks, a red/blue/silver glitter polish, and Julie G Hot Cinnamon, a red texture polish. Because I was afraid that the glitter and the texture might be too much, I decided to just do glitter tips and not full accent nails. I pulled out Cult Nails Tempest and Time Traveler and viola! A 4th of July manicure was born!

And, in true Marta fashion, I'm using props to show off my manicure! For this I used my husband's challenge coin from the Navy job he completed this past year, and a navy/white striped skirt that I'm wearing today.

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I really like how this turned out. Since Hot Cinnamon has shimmer but not necessarily glitter, I don't think it clashes with the glitter from Fireworks-- nor does it look too busy. Part of me wishes I had used a lighter blue, given how close to navy blue Time Traveler is, but it's so easy to work with that I don't mind it, even if it is a little dark.

Happy 4th of July!

Ozotic 517

Given all the nice weather and bright sunshine we've been having in the PNW, I decided to pull out some old swatches-- but they're holographic, so let's just say I've been waiting for the sun to come out so I could show them off. Ozotic 517 is a silvery blue linear holographic polish. I used three coats here, but and the polish was a little on the sheer side, but I don't recall having any issues with it when I applied it. The blue does get a little lost when you apply this, but it's definitely not a straight-up silver holographic. While I did use a base coat (Cult Nails Get It On), I did not use a top coat so you see 517 in all its glory.

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Isn't this gorgeous?! The holo is very strong, even when not not seen under a flash or in the sun. I think the blue softens the overall look of the polish-- I like it more than just a straight-up silver holographic polish.

Unfortunately, this particular polish has been discontinued, but luckily there are tons of other polish makers who have stepped up to fill the void since Ozotic discontinued their holographic polish line-- Hits, Jade, FNUG, Dance Legend, etc. I would recommend checking out Llarowe, Harlow & Co, or Ninja Polish for large selections of holographic polishes.