Tuesday 31 May 2011

OPI Pirates Of The Caribbean Week Part 1 - cont Steady As She Rose with Silver Shatter

Here is how OPI Pirates Of The Caribbean: Steady As She Rose looks with the Silver Shatter on top:

OPI Steady As She Rose with Silver Shatter (No Top Coat)



OPI Steady As She Rose with Silver Shatter (with Top Coat)


Adding top coat definitely brings out the sparkle in the silver shatter, although I do like the effect I think the Silver Shatter would stand out more over a slightly darker base polish, as the effect is quite subtle over Steady As She  Rose, it is however stunning, and a very appropriate addition to this collection as it makes all the polishes look like jewels. Looking forward to seeing how it looks over the other colours!

OPI Pirates Of The Caribbean Week Part 1 - Steady As She Rose

This week is OPI Pirates of The Caribbean Week, the collection comprises of 6 lovely pastel creme shades and a special Silver Shatter Top Coat Polish, First up is Steady As She Rose, this collection is definitely going to have some fun names :) I really love pastel shades, so I have a strong feeling I'm going to enjoy this collection!

OPI Pirates of The Caribbean - Steady As She Rose

Steady As She Rose is a very light pink creme polish with lilac undertones, opaque in 2 coats, this one dries with a lovely high gloss finish, and applies like a dream, although I wasn't completely enamored with this one from the bottle, once applied it was love at first sight. 



Next up: Steady As She Rose with Silver Shatter Top Coat


Tuesday 24 May 2011

NOTD Fiercely Fiona From OPI Shrek Collection

When I tried Electric Pineapple from the China Glaze Island Escape Collection, it instantly made me think of OPI Fiercely Fiona from the OPI Shrek collection, and I realised I didn't have any photos of it to compare, so here is how OPI Fiercely Fiona looks on:


I have to admit I did find China Glaze's Electric Pineapple a lot easier to apply than Fiercely Fiona, which went on a tad streaky and really needed 3 coats for a nice even coverage, colourwise though they are indeed very similar, somewhere between pastel yellow with a hint of murky green, and I have to admit I personally love this colour, I find the cool green tone makes this a lot more interesting than a typical yellow toned polish, here is a reminder of what China Glaze Electric Pineapple looks like, you can click the link below to go to the original post:

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

 OPI - Fiercely Fiona


Monday 23 May 2011

Wedding Nails Contest Entry - First Toast Manicure

I did this manicure for a Dare to be: Wedding Nails Challenge on Make Up Talk's Nail Talk forum. I wanted this manicure to celebrate the "champagne toast" and as I'd received OPIs Spark de Triomphe today, I simply couldn't resist using this gorgeous glittery polish to achieve the champagne look I was going for with this manicure. So here it is:

First Toast Manicure

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat
OPI Step Right Up (From Femme de Cirque Collection) 2 coats
OPI Spark de Triomphe (Serena Williams Collection) for Gradient tips
Konad Special Polish in White and Konad Plate M67
Top Coat: Seche Vite (5 mins after Konading)

Here is the manicure before I added the Konad design:



And now for a few more pics of the finished Manicure:



This is first Konad Manicure I've done for a while, I must say I really missed it, had a lot of fun with this one, hope you enjoy it :D

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 6 Senorita Bonita

It's time for the final polish from China Glaze Island Escape week. Here is Senorita Bonita


Senorita Bonita is a very shimmery Purple Shade, It's like Amethyst packed with pink micro shimmer, which really gives this purple a gorgeous multi tonal effect! This was opaque in 3 coats, so not as sheer as the glass flecks but a little more sheer than the cremes from this collection. This is definitely one of my favourite shades from the Island Escape Collection!



Sunday 22 May 2011

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 5 Blue Iguana


Today in China Glaze Island Escape Week I have polish number 5 for you: Blue Iguana:


Blue Iguana is the second glass flecked polish from the Island Escape Collection. It is a medium toned blue, and actually applies a little more turquoise on the nails that you would initially think from looking at the bottle, there is a slight hint of purple shimmer at certain angles with this polish, but the effect is very subtle. Much like 108 Degrees, the glass fleck shimmer in this polish really gives it a 3D effect. Another sheer polish this was 3 coats and although there is a hint of VNL in the photos, it was less apparent in real life :) Another gorgeous blue!


Saturday 21 May 2011

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 4 Cha Cha Cha

Here is China Glaze Cha Cha Cha, for part 4 of China Glaze Island Escape week:



China Glaze Cha Cha Cha, is a gorgeous emerald green polish packed with micro shimmer, it flashes light and dark shades of green as it catches the light, makes me think of apples which is certainly keeping with the fruity summer theme, this was 3 coats, and much like 108 Degrees it is a little sheerer than the cremes from this collection. Cha Cha Chas has a more yellow/golden toned green than Zoya's Apple (pictured below from the Sunshine Collection)
Zoya - Apple

Cha Cha Cha has a very jewel like quality to its finish, and as an avid lover of green polish, I absolutely adore this one, and it's not like any other greens I own.



Friday 20 May 2011

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 3 108 Degrees


108 Degrees is the next polish from China Glaze Island Escape Week.


108 Degrees is a gorgeous bright pink glass fleck polish. Having absolutely adored the three glass fleck polishes from the Anchors Away collection (Ahoy!, Lighthouse and White Cap) I was very happy to see another gorgeous one in this collection. 

China Glaze Ahoy!


108 Degrees is a little lighter than Ahoy, and has a strong blue undertone to it, it looks absolutely gorgeous on, and the glass fleck effect gives a stunning multidimensional shimmer which simply sparkles like crazy in the sunshine! Another winner from this awesome summery collection. This was 3 coats, and like most glass fleck polishes this is slightly on the sheer side, but I was certainly satisfied with the opacity after 3 coats! Here are more photos :)



Wednesday 18 May 2011

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 2 Papaya Punch

Here is the second polish from China Glaze Island Escape Week: Papaya Punch:


Papaya Punch really is a great name, makes me thirsty every time I write it lol. A vibrant light orange creme polish, Papaya Punch is sure to be an instant hit with all lovers of orange polish, I must confess I'm not a massive fan of orange shades, but I actually really like this one, although it applies a little thick, it has a perfect even coverage and was fully opaque at 2 coats. I'm loving these fruity summer shades, just wish there was some sunshine outside to enjoy them in :(
Papaya Punch is quite similar to Zoya Jancyn, just a touch lighter:

Zoya Jancyn


Tuesday 17 May 2011

China Glaze Island Escape Week Part 1 Electric Pineapple

This is going to be China Glaze Island Escape Collection week, I will be featuring all six polishes in this awesome collection for summer 2011, First up is one of my standout favourites: Electric Pineapple

Electric Pineapple is an awesome bright yellow creme polish with green undertones that make this colour a lot more interesting. At a first glance Electric Pineapple reminds me a little of OPI Fiercely Fiona from The Shrek Collection, I will try get a swatch up of that one soon to prove this theory :) the colour in the bottle is a lot more true to how this one actually looks on the nails, for some reason my camera made it look a little more yellow on the nails, but captured the exact colour on the bottle, *strange*. This colour is absolutely gorgeous and very summery, I'm really in love with the name as well, I have a feeling I'm going to love this collection, very bright and very summery! This was a little on the thick side but easy enough to apply and completely opaque at 2 coats :D 

Blog Award - and 10 random things about me

Thanks to the Lovely Banana for this awesome Kreativ Blogger award! Here are 10 blogs I'm passing this award on to, apologies if you've already been tagged for this! It's very hard to narrow it to 10, as I love reading all your blogs!

1. The TraceFace Philes
2. Chloe's Nails
3. Gotham Polish
4. Ice Queen's Nail Parlour
5. Doing My Nails
6. My Travel Diary
7. DIANA
8. That's So Fresh
9. Katie's Beauty Blog
10. Let Them Have Polish

So here are 10 random things about me!

1. This isn't the only blog I have, I also run a wordpress blog for my personal training business, you can find that here: http://nvpersonaltraining.wordpress.com/

2. I can't get enough of Zumba Fitness on the Wii at the moment, I'd never tried it before, but am completely hooked now :)

3. The most I've ever paid for a nail polish is £20 for OPI Standing Room Only. It's one of my favourite holo polishes of all time, mainly because of its sheerness, it's a great top coat to make any other polish holo, especially neons, yummy!

4. I currently have a big frankening addiction, current mission: to create a clarins 230 dupe, my first attempt wasn't too bad, I will post some pics of that soon :)

5. I'm currently doing the 100 pushups challenge on the Iphone, about half way through now, it's a really fun challenge!

6. I absolutely love photography, although I've not had a chance to photograph much other than my nails of late :(:(

7. I've absolutely destroyed my right thumb nail bowling the last couple of weeks, no matter how much nail envy I put on this nail it always seems to get destroyed :(

8. I really enjoyed doing my 100 follower GOSH holographic giveaway, and I'm hoping to do a similar giveaway soon!

9. I'm very into games, currently playing Final Fantasy Crisis Core on the PSP (it's a prequel to my favourite Final Fantasy game VII)

10. The Smallville season finale made me cry, I'm gonna miss it so much!

Finally, apologies for the lack of posts recently, I've been stupidly busy, but hoping to get back on track with China Glaze Island Escape Week, and fingers crossed some konading, my unfortunate thumb injury meant that I couldn't really do any nail art recently, so I'm really looking forward to that :D

Monday 9 May 2011

NOTD Franken No. 4 Nights on Cydonia

Here is another Frankened Polish, Nights on Cydonia, this was created using mainly China Glaze White Cap a deep red Rimmel Polish I had that was nearly finished, and a few drops of some Orly Cosmic FX polishes, and some Seche Restore. I'm very happy with the result :D

I called this polish Nights On Cydonia, because it instantly made me think of the planet Mars, and I thought it would be fun to play on the title of the Muse song: Knights Of Cydonia :) Nights on Cydonia is a deep rusty red polish packed with shimmer, it was opaque in 2 coats and definitely a unique colour for me, if you click on the pics you can really see how packed with shimmer this colour is!


Wednesday 4 May 2011

NOTD - Franken No.3 Lilac Sands

Here is my latest frankened polish, I've called this one Lilac Sands, its 60% OPI Alpine Snow, and a combination of OPI DS Sapphire, and pink and blue metallic shades from LA Colors, and a few drops of Seche Restore.

Lilac Sands

Initially I was hoping to create a holo polish, but holos don't play too well with opaque white polish, but I'd only tested a few drops of DS Sapphire to discover this, so no great loss, also the holo polish has given Lilac Sands a rather unique shimmery finish, almost like glass, which I really like! This was 2 coats, and I was very happy with the high gloss and even finish!

bottle pic


natural light
For some reason natural light makes this polish look a lot more blue, its actually more like the other photographs a pale lavender/lilac shade.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

OPI Absolutely Alice (matte) vs OPI Reflecting Pool

At a first glance OPI Absolutely Alice is far too glittery to be a dupe for OPIs Reflecting Pool, however the blue shade with golden glitter is definitely apparent in both polishes, so I added a top coat of Essie's Matte About you over Absolutely Alice, and the effect was actually really gorgeous:



The matte top coat completely smooths out the polish so you get a lovely finish, and I rally like this effect, it's still gorgeous but a little less bling (See previous post for swatches of OPI Absolutely Alice on its own). Now I can see why this polish is often compared to OPIs Reflecting Pool, here is the same manicure with OPI Reflecting Pool on the thumb (please excuse the mess I made)


The blue shade on Reflecting Pool is a little more dusty and not quite as "royal" blue as Absolutely Alice, but with the matte top coat, these two become a lot more similar in effect, I'm definitely tempted to try the matte top coat over more glitter polishes though, I didn't expect to like the results quite so much :)

Here are some swatches of the two polishes on their own:

OPI Absolutely Alice                          OPI Reflecting Pool