Seriously, OPI?

I was in Ulta yesterday looking at the Pirate's display, and I said to my husband, "Um, that's not Planks a Lot." I picked it up, and yes oh yes, it certainly WAS Planks a Lot. My DH whipped out his iPhone and proceeded to run all over Ulta trying to find the best lighting to get a picture of this. He finally settled on the sunglasses display, and so this photo was made possible.

Now, obviously this is not the best picture, but it's still really obvious that we're looking at two different versions of this color. The one on the right looks more like what I've seen posted on MUA and various blogs, and it is the color that the majority of the bottles in the display were. I have no idea if the one on the left is a single batch aberration, but here we are yet again looking at two different versions of an OPI polish. This is getting more and more ridiculous. Seriously, do they not have any quality control over there?! *sigh* Rant over. For now.

Wet n Wild NERDS Need Love Too

I would totally have bought this polish just for the name, but it has the bonus of being a color I adore!

Look at that sky blue gorgeousness! And this was... 69 cents! Normally 99 cents, but it was on sale! This is part of why I love polish. It really does exist at all price points!

I must admit, I was slightly disappointed because there is shimmer in there, but you really can't see it on the nail. I'm about to call the shimmer police. All my shimmers keep disappearing lately!

But still... for 69 cents... and a color this beautiful... I'll forgive a lot! =D

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Nail Polish... Jewelry?

Sooo... yeah. I'd been seeing nail polish jewelry around the web for a while. I'd done reverse glass painting as a kid, so I understood the concept from the get go. Then when my friend Kittentoes over at MUA posted her awesome tutorial for us, I finally decided to give it a try.  Here are the fruits of my labors. =)

Nfu Oh 51, Zoya Mimi, Dark purple I can't remember

Another shot of Nfu Oh 51, Zoya Mimi, forgotten purple

Finger Paints All You Need is Color, Orly Bailamos

Nfu Oh 53, Finger Paints Laugh My Art Off, China Glaze Towel Boy Toy

I got most of my supplies from Beadaholique, but Kittentoes also posted a supply list. These are really, really fun to make, and the possibilities are nearly endless. Thanks so much, Kittentoes, for sharing your knowledge with us! =)

Polish Memories - Love & Beauty Jade

It's funny how polish can evoke a memory of a time or a place. The first time my husband came to visit me, we went to the mall the last day he was here. Our goal was to find a necklace (which we did), but we also stopped in at Claire's and Forever 21. This polish, Love & Beauty Jade, was the first polish my husband ever bought for me. =)

Bright, shimmery green, insta-love! It dries super fast and almost to a matte finish like a neon, but while this is bright, it doesn't seem like a neon at all. Of course, top coat fixes it right up anyway.

The reason that this polish is so important to me isn't simply because he bought it for me, but because of what buying it for me represented - acceptance. He has always accepted and encouraged this kooky hobby of mine, and that means the world to me.

So thank you, honey. This one's for you. =)

Essence I Like

Part of the limited edition Essence spring collection, Blossoms Etc., I Like is a mint green with a very, very subtle blue shimmer. So subtle, in fact, that I can't even see it! It's a lovely polish, kind of a dusty mint. The formula is great, I love the brush. I'm just pouting because I'm getting tired of polishes with shimmer that dies on the nail, or other polishes that look great in the bottle and are just ho hum. /rant off

Where oh where has my shimmer gone, where oh where can it be? *sigh*

Another batch of swatches - FingerPaints

One part of theme week over at MUA this week is FingerPaints, so I spent some time swatching mine over the weekend. Hope these help someone. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by! =)

Tiffany Imposter

All You Need is Color (over Orly Bailamos)

Pretty as a Portrait

Avante Garde Green

Carnation Creation

Chrysanthe-mum's the Word

Holly Good Time

Laugh My Art Off (over Towel Boy Toy)

Mistletoe Mischief

Red-brandt

Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal

Sally Hansen first introduced the Nail Prisms line in 2002. I remember seeing them back then and thinking they were pretty, but I was distracted by other things, and so I didn't really realize just how incredible they are. Fast forward to 2010. I regain my love of nail polish and become active on the nail boards over at MUA. When I saw my first photograph of Turquoise Opal, my breath caught in my throat a little bit. Some polishes do that... like you just can't believe you've seen something that beautiful.

The Prisms have long since been discontinued, but they started popping up in Dollar Tree, of all places. For over a year, I checked Dollar Tree every chance I got, and never, ever saw a bottle of any of the Prisms, much less Turquoise Opal. I was just about to cave and purchase it on eBay, for a price far higher than I would have ever thought I'd pay for a single polish. Just as I was pondering the cost difference between ordering Turquoise Opal from eBay and ordering a couple of Ozotics from Australia, I got a PM from my friend Aleksandra (Nola) over at Hedonism, Ltd. She and I had done a swap/custom purchase for each other a few months ago, and it was a completely delightful experience. In this PM, she told me not to spend eBay prices on Turquoise Opal because she had an extra bottle that she wanted to send me as a gift. After I regained consciousness, I told her that I would be happy to graciously accept such an incredible gift.

It came on Saturday, and I used it for the first time this morning. It took my breath away, just as it had in the pictures I'd seen of it. I will always, always treasure this polish, not just because of the color, but because of the kindness that was shown to me receiving this incredible gift. The girls in this nail polish community of ours really are incredible. 

And if you made it through all that blah, blah, blah, here's the beauty in action. Thanks for stopping by and for indulging me in my story of this most incredible polish!

These are all two coats of Turquoise Opal over one coat of American Apparel Peacock. Enjoy!

FingerPaints Red-brandt

This is another of the new FingerPaints polishes in the same collection as Tiffany Imposter and Avante Garde Green. I'm not sure if these are new core colors or if they're a separate LE collection. The SA I talked to said she thinks they're core. I hope they are. 

On the shelf, this just looks like your typical dark blue-leaning red creme. Then you pick it up and give it a second look. What's that there??!

Shimmer!!

I struggle to put into words how much I love this polish. It's just about perfect for my skin tone. It's got that beautiful shimmer going on.

Seriously, it doesn't get much more perfect than this. This may have unseated my previous love, OPI Malaga Wine, as my favorite dark red ever.

The formula is great. No complaints! FingerPaints can be a bit hit or miss at times, but this one is definitely a hit!

*sigh* So pretty!

Orly Bailamos

This beauty is from Orly's Summer 2010 Collection, Viva! When this polish was current, I must have picked it up and put it back down a dozen times. I don't know why I was waffling on it; the color is right up my alley, a rich teal with teal shimmer. Finally it disappeared from stores, and I have been pouting ever since. It was still available from some e-tailers, but I just never could quite seem to pull the trigger.

Orly re-did their core line a couple of months ago, and imagine my surprise when I walked into Sally's and Bailamos was sitting there in the core display! I felt like I had been given a second chance, and I snapped it up immediately. (It helped that it was during the B2G1 promo at Sally's too. ^_^ ) I wore it for the first time today, and it is amazing. I love Orly. I love the rubber grip on the brush, I love the brush itself, I love the big heavy bottle. The formula is superb on this one, no pooling, no dragging, no anything, full beautiful coverage in two coats.

I love that the shimmer is evident on the nail. So beautiful!

I hope that your week was a good one and that you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Ulta Concrete Evidence - My Second "Conservative" NOTD This Week

As I mentioned here, this week at MUA some of were flip flopping what we normally wear to get out of our comfort zones a little bit, and my job was to do more "conservative" colors. My first was Ulta Haute Stuff, which truly is a lovely berry shade, but it was making me crazy after two days. Last night at Ulta, I picked up Concrete Evidence, which is a light grey creme polish.

I know it isn't really unique, but this is the first grey I've owned that's quite this light. I absolutely ADORE this shade. It's neutral and conservative while still being modern and a little edgy. The formula was great, as is usual with Ulta's house brand of polishes, two easy coats. Perfection.

Hope you all are having a great week!!

Oops. OPI Green-wich Village and Ulta Limelight

I went to Ulta last night armed with my handy $5.00 off a $10.00 purchase coupon. Ulta polishes were Buy2Get2, so I ended up with 5 polishes total for $7.62. Yay!

This morning, however, as I was admiring my purchases, one of the polishes made me think, "Hmm. Where have I see that before??" Well, here's where I've seen it before. It's basically identical to OPI Green-wich Village.

The OPI looks a hair darker here, but seriously? They might as well be the same polish. The formula even feels exactly the same. The saddest part of this is that Green-wich Village was already in my swap pile, so now I have TWO of these shades to unload at some point. Oh well. At least it wasn't an expensive mistake!

I hope this comparison helps someone. Thanks for stopping by!

Ulta Professional Haute Stuff - My "Conservative" NOTD!

One of my buddies over on MUA (finch96) presented us with a challenge this week to step outside our comfort zones. If we normally like things like glitters and holos, we're to wear more conservative colors. If we're the girls who like more conservative shades, we're to bling it up! This was a big challenge for me because I have precious few polishes that could be termed conservative. I don't always wear glitter or holos, but I do like the more atypical shades like blues and greens. So, this polish has been sitting in my pile of untrieds for many months now. Honestly, I'm not even sure why I bought it. 

Ulta Professional Haute Stuff is a deep berry shade, not quite pink, not quite red. The formula is what I expect from Ulta polishes - this is to say creamy and easy to work with, two easy coats, no problems. Here she is:

I plan to swatch more of my Ulta polishes for you guys soon. I see a lot of questions about them, and there's not really much out there as far as swatches. I love all the ones I have, and I look forward to sharing them with you all!

China Glaze Hyper Haute

When China Glaze announced their Tronica collection earlier this year, we were all atwitter with the news of a new holographic collection. Then, the first pictures started to appear, and we pretty much universally reacted like this:

But after we wrapped our heads around the fact that they weren't super, duper linear holos, a la China Glaze OMG or the Nfu Oh holos, many of us came to realize that they were really, really beautiful. One of my favorites is the pretty baby that I'm wearing today, Hyper Haute.

I'm not sure how to describe this color. I guess I would call it dark pink or perhaps deep rose. The scattered holo gives the polish a lot of depth and texture.

And here it is in full sun. You can really see all the little holo bits in the sun. =)

I love it. =) As always, thanks for stopping by!