Roses and Pearls

Hey all!  Sorry about the lack of posts these days.  I really thought things would slow down during the second week of school, but I am still as busy as ever. T_T  However, I will try to post more regularly.

Today I have a nail art I did for my back-to-school mani.  For my base I used my franken, Susie's Cup of Tea, and layered a coat of China Glaze Sea Spray over it.  Then I added white dots (pearls) and hand painted the red roses.  This was my first attempt at drawing roses.  I think it's okay, but I could definitely use some more practice.  Once I perfect my method, I will post a tutorial for those who would like one. :)  Also, please be sure to click 'read more' to see more pics of this mani and read my latest updates and reminders. ^^

Friday Food and Nails (FFAN) #4

Sorry it's a bit late, but I really hope you enjoy these!  Don't forget to visit these bloggers and give them some love! :)  If you'd like to participate in next week's FFAN post, you can find more info *here*.  Also, as you can tell, I am still pretty busy with school and clubs.  I'll get things up as soon as possible!  Thanks for being patient! :)

Nails Made Simple!

"caramel is my "comfort" food. i add it to milk. to toast,ice cream..pretty much anything! so why not wear nails that remind me of caramel :D"

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Musings of a Fashionista

"Watermelon toes:  This is freehand nail art.  The colors I used are Essie Pretty Edgy, Sally Hansen Racey Rouge, Art Deco black (with super small brush) and OPI Start to Finish top/base coat.  My nails are posed with a watermelon.  Watermelon is so fresh and tasty for summer, so I thought that would be a good concept for nail art."

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Good Lack, Nail!

"I'm wearing Zoya Malia, a beautiful summery purple, which clashes wonderfully with the Mango I'm holding. In the background is my blackbord where I note down the shopping that needs to be done - luckily, I still have a mango to eat before I need to go to the supermarket again!"
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OPI Muppets Collection!

This holiday season, OPI pays homage to America’s favorite Muppet friends as they hit the big screen in Disney’s The Muppets.  With an all-star cast including Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the entire Muppet crew, the family comedy opens in theaters nationwide on November 23, 2011. 

Inspired by the film’s namesake lively and colorful characters, OPI launches twelve limited-edition Nail Lacquers for Holiday 2011. “OPI is so excited to work with Disney to celebrate this long-awaited movie release,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.  “Not only do The Muppets characters inspire fun, bright and joyful colors, the fashionable Miss Piggy lends her name to three high-shine pink-based hues, ranging from bold red flecked with silver to a multi-dimensional strawberry shade.”

This line features six shimmery reds and neutrals, as well as six glitter-packed shades, including:

Care for a cup of tea? Or maybe some franken polish...

Hey all!  A few days ago I was at Ikea when I spotted something that made me do this.

My Recent Haul

 Left to right: Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud, Milani Totally Cool, Milani Jewel Fx Gold, LA Colors Sparkling Diamonds, LA Colors Sassy Sparkle, LA Colors Jewel Tone, LA Colors Treasure Island, Art Deco Silver

Left to right: From the OPI Serena William's Glam Slam duo Pros and Bronze, Love is a Racket, OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster, Sephora by OPI What's Your Poison?, China Glaze White Cap, China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

I'm also on a no buy until December after my fall semester ends!  My only regret is not having the polishes I wanted from China Glaze's Metro collection and Orly Fowl Play.  Hopefully, if I played my cards right, I'll get polishes from the Metro collection without buying them.  As for Fowl Play, it was sold out every where- at both my Ulta and my Sally's!  I hope one of the two will still have it in December...since my Sally's just got the Fx collection.  They should've ordered two Bird's of a Feather displays instead!  I also wanted Finger Paints Cordur-Orange, but that was the only one sold out at Sally's as well.

Ah well, I need to save money for all the amazing upcoming winter collections anyway.  I seriously want to buy them up by collections!  I also have one swap in progress right now, so I'll have those polishes to show sometime next month I'm guessing.

And I'm moving into dorms this weekend!  I've been thinking of only bringing my newest polishes, as well as the ones I use the most with me, but now I feel like I should just haul the entire thing down to campus. -_- My stash is actually pretty small in comparison to other polish bloggers because I started collecting this spring.  I think I have around 110-120 polishes, although I'm not sure.  I stopped counting after I reached 100.  What do you guys think I should do?


Liz

Friday Food and Nails (FFAN) #3

Yay, the third installment of FFAN!  Check out all the great submissions sent in this week.  Don't forget to visit all these wonderful blogs! :)  If you would like to be featured in next week's post, you can find more information here: FFAN entry guidelines.

Khuuphoria

"My favourite drink of all time, Assam Milk Tea from my local asian grocery store! I'm wearing China Glaze's Nova and Ulta3's Snazzle with stuck on rhinestones. Absolute shine factor!"

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Gotham Polish

"Last Saturday at Summer Streets in NYC, I was given the most random free sample ever - Go Go Squeez Applesauce! It was really tasty. I'm wearing American Apparel Neon Coral on my nails :)"
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Talon-ted but tawdry

"These are homegrown green beans and a mani I did with Essence I'm a Berliner, Konad special polishes in white and different shades of green, and stamping plates BM224 and m20. I also added some green micro pearls and NfuOh Ultra Shine topcoat. I'm not completely sure if these count as food, because you don't eat the beans as they are, but boil them and toss in some butter. I'd rather hold them in my hand for the pic raw, than dripping with hot butter, though :)"

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Nail Newbie

"For FFAN this week I took a picture of my nails sporting a splatter manicure with some iridescent glitter over the top with some tomatoes that I'm growing in my garden :) They are delicious, but I'm not getting to eat many as my son keeps eating them straight from the plant!"
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Musings of a Fashionista

"I used: Austin-tacious turquoise (index), Essie Smokin' Hot (grey), and OPI Turquoise shatter.  They are posed with home made banana bread."

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Olivia Frescura

"This week I decided to try out my first Glitter Sandwich, or how I like to call it, a Glitter and Jelly Sandwich. I used OPI's Coney Island Cotton Candy and Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters. I'm wearing this for my birthday which is on Friday, the 19th! And I am turning 19 :) I am surprised I liked this manicure because I normally like lots of color, and this has a subdued gorgeousness to it that I really love."
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The Lacquer Room

"I'm wearing Ulta The Jungle Look and I'm holding a Pillsbury Funfetti cookie that I baked. It's apparent that I need some baking lessons. -_-"
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Liquid Jelly

"I decided to participate in this week's post!  I'm wearing Dr.'s Remedy Lovely Lavender with a floral accent, and I'm holding roasted almonds.  They're so addicting!"

Zoya Reva

Zoya Reva is described as a "cool-toned strawberry red with glowing golden metallic sparkle," which I think describes it pretty accurately. :)  It's opaque in 2 coats, but I did 3 for pictures.

NOTD: Jewelled Mani

Lately I've been wanting to do something super sparkly and jewel-like.  So here's what I came up with.

Nude, Glee, Glitter, and Sequins

Hey all!

Here's a pretty combination I came up with while swatching Dr.'s Remedy polishes!

Nicole by OPI Texture Collection Review

I got a request for swatches of the Nicole by OPI Texture collection, so here it is!  I was literally racing against the sun, so application and color combinations aren't stellar, but I hope you still find my review helpful! :)

I think the Nicole by OPI textures are similar to OPI's shatters, if not the same.  I don't own all the OPI shatters so I'm not positive, but I think I read somewhere that they are.

Black texture, creme:  The formula for this one was way better than my OPI black shatter.  My black shatter is so gloopy it clogs the mouth of the bottle when I use it.  I didn't have that problem with black texture.

Silver texture, metallic:  One thing I've noticed with these is that the color and formula separates if you don't use it for a while.  I had to shake some of these up, including this one.  It was literally one giant soft clump of silver floating in the formula.  When I shook it up, it seemed fine, but slightly clumpier than my OPI silver shatter.

Red texture, creme:  The formula was great for this one; it applied smoothly and cracked well.

White texture, creme:  So you're probably wondering what happened to this one.  You see, I swatched these as soon as got it on each nail (but didn't take pictures), just to see what they were like.  When I applied the white texture to my nails, it was equivalent to smearing thick sour cream to my nails...and looked like it too.  It was really thick and not pretty, although it cracked decently.  So I added boatloads of thinner to this one, and it looks like it messed it up.  I've added thinner to my black OPI shatter before and it was fine, so I'm not sure what happened here.  I'm thinking of leaving it open for a while to thicken it up and see if it returns to normal.  The white texture is my least favorite in terms of color, finish, and formula.  Oddly enough, I actually prefer this wispy look over the cracked sour cream look...

Turquoise texture, shimmer:  I know, bad combination of colors.  This one probably would've looked prettier over a different color.  Formula wise, it applied and cracked well.

Gold texture, metallic:  I'm guessing that the upcoming OPI gold shatter will be similar to this one.  The formula was a lot thinner for the gold compared to the other textures and OPI shatters.  It's watery, so you need to make an effort to do a thicker coat or it won't crack as nicely.  However, I prefer this formula to the thicker, clumpier ones.  I think this is one of my favorites from this collection, and it looks nice over China Glaze First Mate.

Overall, the collection isn't anything new from OPI, except for the gold texture.  If you don't own any of the shatters, you may want to pick some of these up.  Steer clear of the white texture though.

I'm personally done with the whole shatter trend now that I own these.  The only ones I may pick up are from China Glaze's metal crackle collection, since I prefer metallic crackles to creme ones.  However, I don't feel I need them.  They were pretty cool at first, but I actually don't reach for my shatters that often.  I think the only thing that would excite me would be holographic shatters.  Seriously, why not?  When shatters first came out everyone was layering them over holos.  Only it seems to cover up the holo, so I'd really like a holo shatter since we'd see more of the holo.  I don't think it's going to happen though. :P

What are your thoughts on the whole shatter/crackle trend?  Do you own any of the Nicole by OPI textures?  Let me know in the comments! :)


Liz

Dr.'s REMEDY Hot Hot Hot Summer Shades Review

Hey all!

I'm back and with a great collection to review as well.  I got Dr.'s REMEDY's summer collection in the mail today and was excited to swatch them right away.  The collection consists of two cremes and three metallic polishes.

About the Company
"Dr.'s REMEDY is a line of doctor-inspired cosmetics that is dedicated to using clean, hypo-allergenic ingredients.  Enriched with naturally occurring antifungal ingredients like tea tree oil, garlic bulb extract, vitamins C and E, and wheat protein, Dr.'s REMEDY Enriched Nail Polish is free from harsh toxins to promote healthier, stronger nails and the first-ever nail polish on the market approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association."

Friday Food and Nails (FFAN) #2

TGIF!  Hope you enjoy this week's submissions!  If you would like to be featured in next week's post, you can find more information here: FFAN entry guidelines.  Please don't hesitate to participate!  This post is a great opportunity to share your blog, especially those with new blogs! :)

DeyiMizu

  "This is my Dragonfruit Vitamin Water with Dr.'s Remedy's Bold Baby Blue. I'm trying to get healthier and whiter! I heard Vitamin C is great for whitening!"

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Hklinda

"I am wearing Lynderella's Throwing Water into the Ocean over Royal Navy and I am holding a Funyun! Yum!"
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Press Release: OPI Glam Slam! US

Grandstand Finale!

OPI Launches Sizzling Shades with Serena Williams’ Glam Slam! Series in Anticipation of Upcoming New York Tournament

 

OPI and tennis superstar Serena Williams announce the two final lacquers in the 2011 Glam Slam! promotion, timed in conjunction with the upcoming New York tournament.  Glam Slam! U.S. features a duo-pack with two high-shine shades: shimmering red, Love is a Racket, and glittering bronze, Pros & Bronze.

“OPI and Serena return to our home country for the final launch with two bright, feminine lacquers,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “Packed with red and gold micas for intense luster, the Glam Slam! series finishes with two classic, glamorous colors.”

“Whether worn alone or with Pros & Bronze layered over Love is a Racket for a golden glow, these two shades have rich hues that are perfect for transitioning from summer to fall,” adds Williams.

Serena Williams has received the World Number One in singles ranking by the Women’s Tennis Association on five separate occasions, along with being listed as sixth on the all-time greatest champions list.  Additionally, she has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles and has earned 27 Grand Slam titles to date. Serena is the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so.

2-2-2-2 OPI/Glam Slam! U.S.

New shades in the Glam Slam! promotion are introduced to coincide with each of the four major tournaments, including the upcoming New York tournament in August 2011. As with all OPI Nail Lacquers, Glam Slam! shades contain no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde, and each includes OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application.

Glam Slam! U.S. will be available beginning August 2011 at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for $14.95 ($20.95 CAN) suggested retail for each duo-pack. 

For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

 _______
 P.S. From Liquid Jelly:  Tomorrow's the last day to send in submissions for FFAN!  I haven't gotten any, so please send them in by 9pm US central time if you'd like to participate!  If there aren't any submissions, there won't be a post on Friday.  It's a great way to share your blog or nails for both bloggers and non bloggers. :)

Pure ICE Oh Baby! (Pic Heavy)

I'm not a fan of the name because it makes me think of a certain song.  So it's a good thing one look at this gorgeous duochrome will make me forget everything! :)

Sort of a housekeeping post

Hey all,

I know this is getting annoying, but today's the last day to vote for StyledOn's fb contest!  Please vote for my entry by clicking *here*!  Thank you. :)

Alrighty, now on to the fun part.  I don't have any swatches, but I did buy some polishes today and made an exciting find as well!  So if you're going to skip this post, at least see what I got!  You will want them!

NOTD: Clarins 230's Jealous Cousin (Pic Heavy)

Do I have your attention? ;)

2 more days to vote...pretty please? :)

Hey all!

I just wanted to post a reminder to please continue voting for my nail art entry!  We're now in the final stretch, so there are 2 more voting days left - until Sunday 8/7 at 11:59pm PST.  Just two more votes from everyone would really mean so much to me.  Of course, only if you want to.  ^^ I also want to thank everyone for supporting me so far!  I really appreciate every one of your comments! :)  You can vote for me by going *here.*

Also... have you seen? :)

These are screen shots taken from StyledOn's Facebook contest page (left) and StyledOn home page (right)!  I noticed my picture on the contest page when I logged in the first voting day and thought: "Oh, that's cute.  They made it so you can see your entry on the first page..."  I was wondering how they did that, when I decided to check out their website, and it was there too!  I just thought it was pretty cool. :P

Alrighty off to bed!  I'll definitely post up an NOTD later today. ^^

Liz

Friday Food and Nails (FFAN) #1

First FFAN post!  Everyone did a really lovely job!  I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.  Feel free to repost the entire post on your blog if you were a participant.  Don't forget to visit these blogs. :)  

Olivia Frescura

"These are my watermelon nails that I did. I decided to do something different by making the rind and the actual watermelon on different nails. I used Sinful Colors Fusion Neon for the pink watermelon and Ruby Kisses Lime Green With Envy for the base of the watermelon rind. I used a Santee Black Nail Art Striper for the dots and a Max 2012 by Cherimoya Crackle in Eternity, a dark green, for the other part of the watermelon rind. I got a lot of compliments on this look because it is very unique compared to other watermelon looks. I think the usage of the crackle really makes it shine."

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 Gotham Polish 

 "I'm rocking Essie Da Bush with OPI Silver Shatter and holding none other than a 7-Eleven Slurpee."

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ChiChi

"Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's. I was wearing Sinful Colors Bianca for Pink Wednesday."
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Fishing4Beauty

"Zoya Maya joined me for breakfast! She smelled the homemade Nun cakes baking in the oven & decided to stop by. According to Zoya.com, Maya is a "semi-opaque bright pink coral with tangerine undertones. A bright tropical coral for a translucent jelly-like finish on your manicure or pedicure." Nun cakes are actually supposed to puff up and split open on the top, but I'm still getting used to my new oven so it looks like a fail, but they tasted delicious!"

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Nail Newbie

"Hi! I'm Helly, and this is my entry for FFAN this week! The polish I'm wearing here is Aztec by UK brand Accessorize, which is apparently a dupe for Orly Space Cadet. Orly's are expensive here, so it's good to find a good dupe! I decided to show it with this mini bottle of tabasco sauce because it's little and cute, but also fiery - a bit like me!"

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Liquid Jelly

"An omelette I whipped up with my mediocre cooking skills and potatoes on the side.  Don't worry, I shared this with my mom and siblings.  On my nails I'm wearing the technicolor mani I did earlier this week.  The potatoes weren't really that burnt looking...  Ketchup ♥ for my readers. :)"
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If you'd like to participate next Friday, more information is available here.

Thanks for reading! :)

500 Follower Giveaway with piCture pOlish! *CLOSED*

Hey all!

So I bet you saw this one coming.  From the 60 bloggers who participated in piCture pOlish's Blog Fest, 15 were chosen for a sponsored giveaway.  My swatches also received special mention since it is now on their home page.  I was so pleased. :)  Luckily, the announcement was given a day before my blog reached 500 followers.  How exciting!  I'm so glad, because now this giveaway can be open internationally. :)

So what can you win?  You can win 3 piCture pOlish brand shades of your choice!  (*note: This does not include any of the Ozotic shades.)  The great thing is, since all the shades have been swatched, you can wisely decide on which colors you want. :)  I know I Came..I Saw...I caved and bought it has been collecting all the Blog Fest posts, so you can see them there.  They are compiled into several posts.

I personally would go for these 3 delicious new shades. ^^

To enter, you must be a GFC (Google Friend Connect) follower and fill out the form.  This will earn you one entry.
For additional entries, you can:

• Post this giveaway as blog post or in the sidebar.
• Go to the piCture pOlish site and tell me which three shades you would like to win.  It's not binding, but just for fun. ^^ 

Please do not enter by leaving a comment (they will not be counted), but fill out the form.  This giveaway will end on Friday 8/26 at 11:59pm US Central time and is open internationally.  Good luck!


Many thanks to piCture pOlish for sponsoring this giveaway!

Technicolor Nails & Tutorial (Pic Heavy)

Hey all!  I did a mani with this design as the accent finger for Polish-aholics' Monday theme mani yesterday.  A lot of people liked it and Janelle from Life. Love. Nailpolish. requested a tutorial so here it is. :)  I wasn't sure what to name this look, but one of the members said it reminded her of a technicolor version of Jem and the Holograms.  In the end I decided to call it a technicolor mani. ^^

Please vote for me!

Hey all!

I entered a nail art contest by StyledOn!  You can see my entry below.  Please vote for me by clicking this link and clicking "Vote": vote for "Mosaic and Flowers."

This design was done entirely by freehand painting and took around 4-5 hours to complete.  It is also composed of 81 different colored polishes.  :)  The contest is being held on Facebook so you will need a Facebook account to vote.  You can vote for my entry once every day, so if you remember please pop in to vote each day from 8/1 to 8/7!  There are 10 winners in total and one grand prize winner chosen by the judges.  I would be so thankful if you guys got me there.  Thank you so much! :)

Click "read more" to see more pics. :)