OPI Designer Series: Signature

Hello Lovelies!

Continuing on with the OPI Designer Series today is another classic holo: Signature.

Signature is a lovely rose pink holographic that is definitely more cool toned than warm toned. It's very understated in low light, looking a bit plain and mauve. It has one of the strongest holo effects of all the old DS polishes.

Now, I'm not really a girl who likes pink polishes... in fact pretty much every other polish color outnumbers pink in my collection, but this is a really pretty one. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI Designer Series: Glamour

Hello Lovelies!

Alright, today I have my absolute FAVORITE of the OPI Designer Series... Glamour. My amazing mother got me this polish for my birthday 2 years ago and I've been head over heals with it ever since.

*swoon*

It shouldn't really come as a surprise that I love this color so much, its a rich royal blue holographic polish that appears a bit indigo in low lights and applies like a dream in 2 coats. This is definitely high on my list of favorite blues, and it would probably make the list for favorite polishes.

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI DS Diamond

Hello Lovelies!

Continuing the OPI DS swatches today is Diamond. Diamond is a bit of a holographic ugly duckling. It's too silver to be a purple, too purple to be silver, too dusty to be lavender, with a touch of taupe in certain lights... I've determined it's probably best to call it a thistle color. The holo is strong, but not super linear, and it really doesn't show well in the bottle.

 Initially when I bought this color I was sort of underwhelmed. Yes, it's a fairly strong holo, yes it's unique, but it was sort of... safe? Something about the kind of dusty thistle color of it didn't really appeal that much to me, so into the drawer it went, never really brought out again until it needed swatching. Then something odd happened... I put it on, and it was like a completely different color than I remember. It suddenly seemed chic, and a little edgy with it's dusky looks. I honestly didn't take it off for about 3 days, and so many different people commented on how pretty it was. I sort of love when a polish surprises me like that.

Have you ever had a polish that deserved a second look?

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI Designer Series: Desire

Hello Lovelies!

So I have decided that I want to start off 2013 swatching all of my OPI Designer Series polishes. I have already shown you Sapphire, but I may redo that one. As I mentioned, I collect the old school DS polishes, with the really linear gorgeous holographic details. I have a few from the second series with the more scattered holo and metallic effects, but I'll be saving those for towards the end.

To kick-start, here is Desire... and what a pretty thing it is. Desire is a milk chocolate-y holographic brown shown here with 3 coats. I usually layer this over a brown creme like Essie's Little Brown Dress, but I wanted to show it to it's full potential on it's own. The first photo below shows it in shade to give you a better idea of it's color.

*Please pardon the beagle hair... I didn't see them until uploading.

 *sigh* So pretty. I really hope with China Glaze and Color Club releasing new holographic collections that OPI will do the same.

Until next time!

HeatherS

That 70's Mani.

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have my last manicure from 2012. It's another gradient mani using China Glaze Westside Warrior, a very 1970's drab avocado green creme, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, a deep navy creme, and Zoya Kelly, a stormy dark grey with bluish undertones. I then stamped it using Color Club Lumin-Icent and Cheeky XL Plate A.

It was a fun look, but under low light the gradient is almost impossible to see. I may try this again sometime in the future with lighter colors and see how it turns out.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. Please feel free to leave feedback about what you'd like to see more of... I love suggestions!

Until next time,

HeatherS

Sunset Hounds-tooth Gradient

Hello Lovlies.

Today I have another bright nail design that would probably be more appropriate for summer. I decided on a color scheme that reminded me of the sky at sunset, and I think the results turned out really pretty. I'm still sort of getting used to gradient manicures, so until I'm really comfortable I think I prefer to stamp over them.

This is a combination of Wet & Wild Megalast in Club Havana, a bright sorbet orange, China Glaze Surreal Appeal a pretty coral leaning pink, and Wet & Wild Megalast On A Trip, a super saturated lilac purple stamped using Konad plate m63 and Wet & Wild Root of All Evil, an ultra-saturated royal blue with beautiful shimmer. The second photo is the most color accurate, the first makes Club Havana look too dark orange. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

Gothic Lolita + DV8

Hello Lovelies!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season, whatever you may celebrate.

Now that the obligatory Holiday nails are done with I wanted to bring you some out of season brightness. For some odd reason I always tend to gravitate towards nail colors that are the opposite of the season, i.e. vampy colors in summer, neons and brights in winter. It's an odd quirk, but it leads to some pretty combinations like today's.

This is China Glaze Gothic Lolita stamped using China Glaze DV8 on Cheeky XL plate C. In low light the design is really subtle, but I love the combo in the sun. Gothic Lolita is a pretty hyacinth purple with a lovely blue shimmer, and DV8 is a super linear holographic teal that works so wonderfully for stamping.

Until next time!

HeatherS

The Zombies Are Coming...

Hello Lovelies!

Well for the "End of the World" I wanted to do a manicure for my favorite sub-genre of apocalypse: Zombies. I was planning out a nice, normal zombie manicure when I looked up at what my mother was doing on her computer... then it hit me... PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES.

If you aren't familiar with PVZ, it's a super addictive tower defense game available for tablets, smartphones, and computers. The point is to plant plants in your front and back yard to keep zombies out of your home and away from your brains.

Here is the result of that brainstorm:

Left Hand: Brain, Peashooter, Sunflower, Torchwood, Wall-Nut 

Right Hand: Potato Mine, Flaming Pea, Flaming Pea, Flaming Pea

Right Thumb: Zombie

These took a long time and a lot of polishes to do.

 For the left hand the brain is Zoya Areej stamped with China Glaze Something Sweet. using my Cheeky XL Plate D. The base of every other nail is either China Glaze Starboard or Essie Mojito Madness. The Peashooter is OPI Who The Shrek Are You dotted with Wet N Wild Black Creme. The Sunflower is OPI San-tan-tonio, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, a mix of Who The Shrek Are You and Starboard, and Black Creme. The Torchwood is China Glaze Mahogany Magic, Happy Go Lucky and Papaya Punch for the flames, Happy Go Lucky and Merry Berry for the  eyes, and Wet N Wild Black Creme and French White Creme.The Wall-Nut is San-Tan-Tonio, Black Creme, and French White Creme.

For the right hand the bases are also alternating Starboard and Mojito Madness. The Potato Mine is OPI A Taupe The Space Needle, San-Tan-Tonio, Sally Hansen Complete in Dorian Grey, and China Glaze Hey Sailor. All the Flaming Peas are Black Creme with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Papaya Punch. Finally, the zombie on the thumb is Sinful Colors Seaweed, China Claze Merry Berry, and Black Creme and French White Creme.

For the first really detailed freehand nail art I've done in a long time I'm really happy with how these turned out... Especially the zombie, considering I wasn't using my dominant hand to paint him!

Until next time,

HeatherS

March of the Penguins

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have a cute little design for winter. If I'm being honest, I really don't like Christmas that much. I have some strange aversion to red and green together, I never know what to get people, and I hate Christmas music. That being said, this year I have been trying to be more festive, so I came up with this cute design for winter.

This mani consisted of Essie One Day Without Blues (aka Coat Azure), Wet 'N' Wild White French Creme for the snowflake stamping (using a Shany plate if I recall correctly), with Color Club Lumin-Icent dotted in the center of each snowflake. For my little penguin accent nails I used Wet 'N' Wild French White Creme and Wet 'N' Wild Black Creme for the body, Essie's Vermillionaire for the beak and feet, and Essie One Day Without Shoes for the scarf.

Overall I was really pleased with this design. Free-handing the penguins was not as difficult as I expected it to be when I thought up these.  I am also finding I really like the wear time of Essie polishes (the above was after 4 days with only a little tip wear).

Until next time,

HeatherS

I'm Back!

Hello All,

It has been a crazy year for me. Between opening and subsequently having to close a business, family issues, and a vast array health issues it's not surprising that I haven't been able to keep up with my blogging. I am very happy to return to it though, and I have lots of lovely new manicures planned to show everyone!

Today I have a pretty combination of two of my favorite OPI's... What's With The Cattitude from the Shrek Collection and  You Don't Know Jacques.  WWTC is a beautiful bright sky blue that covers in 3 coats, and YDKJ is a rich chocolate-y taupe that's perfect in two. To get the design I used the Cheeky XL Jumbo Plate C which I got in a 3 pack available on Amazon. I have had the XL plates for less than a week and I'm already so in love with them... I've become very addicted to full nail images, and these have so many different patterns, and I never have to double stamp because the images are considerably bigger than Konad or Bundle Monster.

Are you a fan of nail stamping? If so, do you prefer subtler combinations or in-you-face contrast?

Let me know!

Until next time,

Heather.