Nicole by OPI- Half of the Gossip Girl Collection

So the other day I was wandering through Marshall's and spotted, down on a very very bottom shelf, hidden sort of in the back, a handful of these Nicole by OPI double color packs.

Try one on your fingers and one on your toes!

I grabbed three packs and then decided they were all too similar- lots of dark tealy blues- so I went ahead and did some minor surgery and swapped a couple of the colors to create some double packs of colors that I thought I'd like.  It wasn't until I got home and looked them up online that I realized I had given myself 3/4 of the Gossip Girl pack... and had replaced the last one with a matte teal.  Whoops!  I now have an incomplete collection but that's okay.

I'm sure everyone knows by now that the real winners of this collection are Too Rich For You (blackened teal, shimmery, duo-chromey) and Nicole...Spotted! (teal based hexagonal/micro glitter).  Luckily, those are two of my three!  I swatched all of the colors and fell in love with the pairing... So I went ahead and did an entire manicure instead of one finger.  Voila!

These pictures are terrible.  I don't know why, but lately all of my pictures are looking just awful, and I'm not realizing it until 3 manicures later.  Oh well, I think you kind of get the idea.  

And Too Rich For You by itself?  Glad you asked.

Ugh, just look at it.  Gorgeous.

OPI Russian Navy Suede

I got Russian Navy Suede on clearance from Ulta back in April, but this is my first time using it.  It is awesome!  With no top coat, it looks a lot like denim.  It's a really lovely color.

See the pretty twinkles?  

Products used:

OPI Russian Navy Suede

Revlon Metallic

Bundle Monster plate BM10

ELF Purple Pleaser vs OPI Pamplona Purple

I was sitting at my desk trying to decide what to do with my nails.  One hand was painted, the other hand wasn't.  Do I want to remove it and do another swatch?  Do I want to work with it?  And as I sat and pondered, something caught the corner of my eye.  It was OPI's Pamplona Purple!  I picked it up and looked at it, and compared the bottle to that of ELF's Purple Pleaser and thought, EUREKA!  A comparison swatch!

So here we are, my very first comparison swatch!

Sunshine

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

Inside, with flash

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

So there it is.  They look less similar on my nails and in the sun than they did in the bottles in my shady house. You can see that Purple Pleaser has more red/pinkish tones to it than Pamplona Purple.  

I think I might prefer the ELF polish over the OPI even considering the fact that it needed one more layer.  I just think I prefer the color, and the cost is sweet too!  What do you think?  

Starting Over

So I was doing such a great job with my nails.  I mean, a great job for me.  I was painting them multiple times weekly, doing some fun designs, and they were growing!  It was working!

But I'm in grad school.  And doing my practicum.  And it got overwhelming, and the last two months of the school year I got so stressed out and it was over.  A few stressful weeks and I haven't been able to recover!

So I finally got fed up and decided to go get a professional manicure.  Which lasted for like three days.  But my practicum is over now, so hopefully this summer I will be able to recover and spend some time making my hands and nails look lovely!

My poor hands :(

Store mani

Fauxnads!  And a bracelet I made.

Products featured:
China Glaze in Sun Worshipper
Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Steel Grey
Nicole by OPI in It's Possible
Bundle Monster B19

Springtime in Matte Green and Pink

Well I tried to use both my new products, but the pink Essie did not show up well over the green, so I reverted back to my old faithful- Sally Hansen!

OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape Matte was, like most mattes in my experience, very streaky at first but dried almost instantly.  Shown in photos is about 3 layers.  I don't like the way my ridges shown through so visibly, so next time I would definitely use my ridge filler as a basecoat.  There is no topcoat used here.

Products Used:

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Flashy Fuchsia

Bundle Monster plate number BM16

Glitter Makes the World Go 'Round

THREE interviews this week!  THREE!  Which means absolutely no fun nail polish!  So as soon as I got home from my last one today, off went the neutral and on went the purple.  I've been wanting to use this glitter polish since I got it a few months ago.  And guess what- it's totally the Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber line.  For shame!  Truly though I can't be embarrassed because it's an awesome color.  I love it to bits and the only reason I didn't do every nail was because glitter is such a PITA to get off, and I've already got another mani planned for tomorrow.

As a side note, I tried out one of the new Revlon scented nail polishes and be forewarned-  the scent is STRONG!  I smelled grapes as soon as it went one, and I kind of want to eat my hands because they smell like candy!  I layered my Maybelline polish on top of the Revlon for two reasons: to try to mask some of the scent, and because I wanted the color to be more closely related to the color of the glitter, and the Revlon was more of a plum.  I can still smell grapes! 

Products used:

Revlon Scented Parfume: Grape Icy

Maybelline Express Finish: Goody Plum Drop

Nicole by OPI: One Less Lonely Glitter