OPI Bling Dynasty

My first polish from OPI's Hong Kong Collection! Ooh, how exciting! :-)

OPI Bling Dynasty




I really liked this one! The formula was great, and the color is just outstanding. It's gold, but not a bling-y (despite its name), bright, annoying gold. It reminds me more of a mustard color, but with a kick of tiny multi-colored shimmer to it. It's gorgeous! My application wasn't wonderful, so please ignore the bald spot on my index finger. I was in a rush and really should have slapped another coat on that finger before I took the pics, but I ended up doing it AFTER I took the pics (of course, right??).

Milani 3D Digital

Hey everyone! I apologize for not having blogged for so long, but I desperately needed the short break :-) Now, it's back to business as usual!

Milani 3D Digital




Milani came out with a line of six holographic polishes a few months ago. I spotted them in my CVS and ended up picking up three of them. They remind me a lot of China Glaze's Kaleidescope Collection. The formula on this one was OK, and required three coats. It has lots of holo shimmer to it, and the wear was pretty decent as well. It is most definitely pink, but sometimes when I look at it, I feel like it leans a little toward light purple as well. Either way, super fabulous color!

China Glaze IDK

I loooove holographic polishes. They are simply amazing! Such as this beauty here...

China Glaze IDK




This polish is a part of the OMG Collection, from which I've mostly used just the blues and pinks. This color is a pretty light purple with a pink/blue holo effect. The formula was a little sheer, which I have found in other polishes from the same collection, so I'm wearing three coats. It also dries to a semi-matte finish for some reason, so you'll want to use a good top coat to get that "wet" look. Other than that, this is a great color and a wonderful collection!

Zoya Tori

Hmm... I don't think I've swatched a Zoya in a while, and since I have so many more now because of the polish exchange, I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to try out a new one!

Zoya Tori




Tori is a wonderfully opaque jelly-red glitter polish. The glitter is not grainy, so the polish isn't a pain to remove. The formula was excellent -- it gave great coverage in just one coat, but I am wearing two here. I love the color as well -- it really POPS and has a hint of silver to it. Well done, Zoya!

China Glaze X

This polish was released as part of China Glaze's Anniversary Collection. It was a series of 10 polishes, all named a roman numeral from I to X. After looking through the pics of all the colors, this one is the only one that stuck out to me.

China Glaze X




Formula and application were good. I believe I'm wearing two coats here. X is a dark burgundy/brown with multi-color shimmer. The color isn't terribly unique, but it's nice, dark and vampy, which is nice. Another winner for China Glaze!

Flowers to brighten up my day :-)

Just wanted to share a picture of the flowers that my boyfriend had sent to my office yesterday. Aren't they beautiful? I love the variety and mix of flowers, and the smell is just incredible! He is such a sweetheart. What a lucky girl I am! :-) No special occasion... he did it just because. I think that's what makes it even more special! :-D He's definitely a keeper!

Sparitual Hope Springs Eternal

This is my first venture into the world of Sparitual polishes. Check it out!

Sparitual Hope Springs Eternal




I absolutely adore this color. I think it's gorgeous. It is a rose-colored polish with a silver sheen to it. The formula was on the thick side, which made application incredibly difficult. I am wearing two coats here, and I had to be careful with the brushstrokes, because as you can see, they are quite visible on the nail. I love the little hint of shimmer in the polish! It's perfect for spring and summer. Wear was also very good with this. I think I wore it for over four days, and there was no chipping, and minimal tipwear.

I got my Sparitual polishes from www.skinstore.com. They had a Mother's Day sale which was 20% off your whole purchase, and they ship free when your order is over $49, so I bought several polishes since it seemed like a good deal :-) I have a few more to try out, including Fall in Love, which looks GORGEOUS in the bottle, so stay tuned :-D

China Glaze Dusk + Konad m54

I decided to pretty up my last manicure by adding a Konad pattern to it. Using China Glaze Magical (from the Romantique Collection), I stamped a floral pattern from plate m54. Voila!

China Glaze Dusk + Konad m54 using China Glaze Magical

China Glaze Dusk

Here's an older China Glaze for y'all... I know the older ones aren't B3F, but I love them anyway! They're so easy to apply and the colors are always gorgeous!

China Glaze Dusk




I looove the color of this one -- it is like a dark, murky eggplant color, and I swear that if I move my hands, I see a pink/light purple sheen. The brush was very thin, so application wasn't easy, but the formula was good, so it only required two coats (though I think I might be wearing three). Why can't China Glaze make more colors like this one?? :-)

China Glaze Moulin Rouge

I just changed the look of my blog using one of Blogger's new templates. I hope you like it! :-) I kept the pink because I like it, but snazzed it up a little :-)

China Glaze Moulin Rouge




outdoors, direct sunlight:




You'll have to be patient with me as I slowly make my way through China Glaze's Specialty Collection. Today's polish is another glitter from that line. It's called Moulin Rouge and it's a bright red polish with densely-packed microglitter in there. I had a difficult time taking pictures, because my nails look incredibly grainy in all the pics, but I promise the polish is a lot nicer than what my pictures reflect. The application was pretty good though it didn't "wow" me. It was a tad grainy and took a healthy slathering of top coat to even it out. This one wasn't too bad to remove, but it wasn't exactly easy.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Yay for Fridays!!!

Color Club Rubies & Pearls

I honestly can't remember why I bought this polish. I feel like I already have 50 that look exactly like it!

Color Club Rubies & Pearls




It's red. What else more can I say? Formula was OK -- I am wearing two coats, but I think if I had slapped another one on there, it would have darkened the red a little bit more. It still looks a little sheer and jelly-ish on my nails, but that's OK -- I don't quite mind it. I'm sure there are lots of more interesting Color Club colors out there, but this one was just "meh" for me. It reminds me a lot of China Glaze's Sunrise, which I actually like a little bit more.

OPI What's With the Cattitude + Bundle Monster BM20

Sooo... I couldn't wear yesterday's mani by itself because there was too much balding on my nails for my own liking, and I thought the blue stood out a little too much all by itself. So, I decided to break out one of my new Bundle Monster plates that I got in the mail! I used China Glaze's Joy as the stamping polish and the vine-looking pattern from plate BM20

OPI What's With the Cattitude + Bundle Monster BM20 using China Glaze Joy




I also have a special guest appearance by my left hand, since the pattern looked better on my left than right hand :-) While I'm not crazy about ALL of the Bundle Monster plates (I think there were 21 in total), I do like the allover nail patterns that they had. I did notice that the patterns on these plates were more narrow and shorter than those on Konad plates, so I specifically used them while my nails were on the shorter side. I'm sure I will probably still be able to use them when my nails are longer, but if your nails are REALLY long, you may not like them because you'll have to stamp multiple times to get the pattern to cover your entire nail surface.

I like using polishes form China Glaze's Romantique collection for nail stamping. They're all pretty thick one-coater polishes with just a hint of metallic frost, so they're perfect for stamping! I really think my mani looks much better now :-)

OPI What's With the Cattitude?

This is the first polish I'm trying out from OPI's recently-released Shrek Collection. Now, I must say that the Shrek franchise is one of all-time favorite movies. I love anything animated, and Shrek just takes the cake. I love it!!

OPI What's With the Cattitude?




I assume this polish is named after Puss in Boots. It is a very pretty light blue (kind of reminds me of a Tiffany box). The formula was incredibly thick and streaky on application. You would think that thick polish would mean opacity, but it doesn't. I'm wearing two coats here, and you can see that I have some balding on a few of my fingers. A coat of Seche Vite helped smooth out the streakiness a little, but it didn't make a huge improvement. I think this polish would be great for layering or Konading (which is what I eventually did with it), but by itself, I'm not all too thrilled. I'm hoping the rest of the collection is better, but from what I've read, it sounds like the formula is thick for this entire collection. Oh, boo :-(

Savina Black Pearl

Savina is a brand that I don't feature much because honestly, I only own two polishes from them. The only place I've ever seen them be sold is at Nordstrom Rack. Even though I only have two, they are two KICKASS polishes. This one here has got to be one of my favorites of all time!

Savina Black Pearl




I am really upset that my camera didn't take good photos of this polish :-( This is a GORGEOUS teal/blue/purple *duochrome* polish! Of course, in these pics, you see mainly teal, but depending on the lighting, it is also purple and blue. You can see it a little in the bottle, but it is much more obvious and apparent in person. The formula was also surprisingly wonderful. It's thick, but not too thick, applied very well, and only needed two coats. And, Savina only costs $4 at my Nordie's Rack :-) Does anyone else own Savina polish? What do you think of it? The only other one I have is Money Tree, which could be a dupe for the incredibly-hard-to-find China Glaze Moonpool.

China Glaze Rapture

I found this polish and saw that it was red/orange with tons of rainbow microglitter. So of course, I had to try it next!

China Glaze Rapture




(direct sunlight)




The formula on this polish was surprisingly sheer. I thought it would be a little thicker, sort of like the polishes from China Glaze's Specialty Collection. But, alas, three coats later, this is what it looked like. The color leans a tad more toward orange in real life. It looks a little too red in these pictures. Also, unlike some of the glitters in the Specialty collection, this one wasn't a royal pain to remove. I got some compliments from co-workers on this polish, and I think it's different enough from others in my collection that I will hang onto this one for future use :-)

OPI Russian Navy Suede

I was going through my stash of untried polishes, and noticed an OPI Suede in there! I was surprised because I could have sworn that I've swatched them all, but apparently I was wrong! So, here is the one that I found lingering in my stash...

OPI Russian Navy Suede




(direct sunlight)




I'll keep this short and sweet, since I've already tried the other five OPI Suedes already. This one honestly is not different at all in terms of application or formula. OPI is generally pretty consistent. The color is OK, but it doesn't quite "pop" enough for me. It is kinda plain-jane navy for me. I'm not a navy girl (I like blue though, which is strange), so I think I only wore this for a few hours before I decided I had enough and was done with it.

Speaking of suedes, I do have more coming up. After OPI released their original six suedes, I've noticed other companies and brands doing the same thing. OPI themselves released a new suede -- Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede, which I have and will be trying out soon. Also, I picked up a mini-pack of four suedes from Ulta that I randomly fond hanging out on a shelf. The colors look great, so I'm actually pretty excited to be trying them out :-)

China Glaze Latte

This is a non-glitter polish from China Glaze's Specialty Collection. I am going to guess that it's a shimmer :-)

China Glaze Latte




This is probably what would be closest to "mannequin hands" for me. However, it's mannequin hands with a kick because of the light shimmer in the polish. The color is nude, and the formula was a little sheer, so I needed multiple coats to get it to look like this. I'm not a big fan of the "mannequin hands" look, so while I like this color, I don't absolutely love it. I think OPI's Barefoot in Barcelona is a better alternative for me than this one.