OPI's The Show Must Go On

November 30:

I am much to tired to think of a more creative title for this post. After getting only 30 minutes of sleep the night before followed by a day of travel I was throughly exhausted and found myself going to bed (after napping) at 730 Chicago time and sleeping for 11 hours! Instead of feeling like I was loosing 2 hours switching to Puerto Rico time, I feel like I have lost 7 and am in Europe.

This morning I feel much better, apparently so, I woke up at 630 Chicago time.

Now to the nails! I am not actually wearing this manicure right now but I was looking around in my archives and this seemed to be a very vacation-y looking color. What I am actually wearing is four coats of Essie's Turquoise and Caicos but that is coming off today.

So I am not a pink/red person, but I do love a duochrome, so when I saw swatches of this color

was unsure. I decided to buy it because it was a collection color and thought I might regret it down the road. In the end I loved it!

The color looks pink to me with a gold duochrome to it, but everyone else who has seen it claims it is red. Either way it works with the gold. TSMGO has a foil like finish in my opinion and just seems to reflect light like crazy which makes the polish really glow!

The application was good, I used three coats of polish to make everything perfect, and it was completely opaque. It lasted the three days that I wore it with only 1 small chip on the side and was fairly easy to take off afterwards. Overall, I love this color and this collection. There are only a few colors that I did not buy because they seemed to plain to me. TSMGO is definitely not plain. It is so much fun to have on and definitely pops.

Up next I think I shall have a picture of my vacation manicure, if not more archive photos!

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Going Barefoot in Barcelona with OPI

November 23:

Alas, finals are upon us yet again. This has meant multiple manicures to stave off the desire to study, because thats what all sensible students should do...right? The end results have been fun, such as the Harry Potter manicure, and cheerful, like the Christmas manicure I have yet to talk about. This manicure, however, seems to be the perfect polish for my cold finals fingers. Barefoot in Barcelona, how perfect.

The color itself is from a previous OPI fall line and even if the name does not evoke images of crisp colorful leaves and chilled days, the color is just the right shade of beige to make me think fall.

There is just enough pigmentation in the polish to make it stand out against my skin, though I feel I could still place this in the mannequin hands genre. It is a sleek, polished, elegant color that makes me feel fancy and put together and I tend to dress up a bit more when I wear it.

Even though this is a "fall" color, I think the fact that it is a neutral will keep me coming back to it during Winter, Spring and Summer.

The formula of this color was great, only requiring two coats to be perfect, and since it was such a close color to my skin tone, the little bits on my cuticles were not noticeable.

Perhaps the best part about this color that it makes even nubbins look a bit longer. The neutral color extends the finger instead of drawing attention to the short nails (something I hated when I trimmed mine down). That does not mean that it falls flat as a color, it is simply perfect.

Well, I am off to pretend to review some more...the next time you hear from me I will be on winter vacation!

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Harry Potter: The beginning of the end...

November 18 9:14 pm:

We are in the final hours before the first part of the last Harry Potter is released! I ordered my tickets a week ago, but I've been counting done since the 6th movie came out. Even though I had my lucky Blackhawks mani on I decided that I should do a Harry Potter mani to celebrate the release of the movie. I knit myself a Weasley sweater and a house scarf, I think I should have a matching mani as well.

The whole day today I was planning out how I would paint my nails an after brainstorming a few ideas I decided on this one. This might be on my nails for only a few days but I love it, and it is a great way for me to use a few different polishes in one mani!

To paint the house colors I applied the base color (whichever was the lighter of the two) and then on half my nail I applied the other color. Then on my thumb I applied a base color and drew on a "H" with bronze polish.

Hufflepuff (Pinkie): 3 coats Sinful Colors Lets Meet and 1 coat of Wet and Wild Black Creme

Slytherin (Ring): 2 coats Orly Shine and 2 coats Orly Enchanted Forest

Gryffindor (Middle): 2 coats OPI Glitzerland and 2 coats China Glaze Phat Santa

Ravenclaw (Pointer): 2 coats Orly Shine and 2 coats OPI Dating a Royal

Hogwarts (Thumb): 1 coat Wet and Wild Black Creme and NYC Bryant Park for the "H"

This was pretty fast to paint and I applied 1 coat of Seche Vite to quicken the drying time.

Now I just have 2 hours and 34 minutes left to wait until I get to watch the movie! Well I'm off to the magical world of Harry Potter...

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Here come the Hawks...

November 16:

So let's just say that I enjoy hockey quite a bit. In reality I am obsessed with it! My favorite team has been the Chicago Blackhawks since my friend invited me to a game for her birthday. It was exciting to watch the players in the Olympics but more importantly watch them win Lord Stanley's cup!

The Blackhawks are actually what got me into my nail polish obsession because I started painting my nails with their colors to support the team.

This manicure I did on Sunday after having my previous manicure on for only 12 hours or so

because the Blackhawks were on a losing-streak. I figured to try and change their luck I'd paint my nails. It worked! They won, in over time, with a goal from Stalberg!

Here is how I painted my nails. The two jersey's are Jack Skille #20 and Viktor Stalberg #25, both of whom scored this weekend! Lets go Hawks!

To paint the feathers:

Pinky: 1 coat NYC Tangerine Creme 1 Coat Sinful Colors Cloud Nine for the base. NYC French White Tip for the lines.

Ring: 3 coats Sinful Colors Lets Meet for the base. OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue for the lines.

Middle: 3 coats Sinful Colors San Francisco for the base. Sinful Colors Lets Meet for the line.

Pointer: 2 coats NYC Madison Ave. (notice that I chose a red that is called Madison Ave. since the Blackhawks play at the UC on Madison Ave!) for the base. NYC French White Tip for the lines.

Jerseys:

2 coats of OPI The Thrill of Brazil for the base. 2 coats NYC French White Tip for the white. 1 coat Wet and Wild Black Creme for the lines. NYC French White Tip for the number.

Viktor Stalberg on my right hand. (1 goal against Anaheim Ducks)

Jack Skille on my left hand. (2 goals against Nashville Predators)

And the players themselves:

Viktor Stalberg:

http://detnews.com/article/20101115/SPORTS0103/11150332/1128/Blackhawks-edge-over-Ducks-in-overtime

Jack Skille:

http://bleacherreport.com/gallery/Chicago+Blackhawks+v+Nashville+Predators

I have so much pride in my team, lets hope they do great on their road trip!

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Belated Birthday Manicure

November 14:

Wow, where has this month gone? My classes end next week!

My birthday was in October, but I have not gotten around to posting a picture of my manicure so I figured today was the perfect day to do so. With the help of new stamping plates I was able to come up with a manicure that I absolutely loved. Unfortunately it did not last very long on my nails seeing as I had a bunch of events the following week and wanted to do separate manicures for them.

I painted two coats of OPI's Obscurity from their Go Goth! collection. This is a black matte and I am in love with it. Too bad the bottle is so small or I would use it more. Then I used Orly's Shine (a silver foil) for the stamp and the end result looks like chain mail!

I like the look of OPI's mini bottles but I hate the brush. Funny since I don't care for their pro-wide brushes. Actually the mini brushes have made me like the wider ones more. And of course I have nothing bad to say about Orly's bottle, brush or the like.

Since the base color was a matte it chipped a lot easier than normal polish but since I wore this for only a day that was fine with me. However, this was kind of messy to remove. The matte seemed kind of chalky and got all over my fingers.

All in all, I would do this manicure again! I love everything about it. I just need to find a black matte polish to replace this small bottle.

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Simmering and Shimmering with OPI's burlesque

November 9:

After days of searching in stores and calling Ulta repeatedly I finally got my hands on the 6 polishes from the Burlesque collection that I wanted. At first I bought only four--Tease-y Does It; Simmer and Shimmer; The Show Must Go On; and Show it and Glow it-- along with Parlez Vous OPI and Done Out in Deco but the woman at the register rung up all the polish as 2 for $10 instead of just the last two that I mentioned. Ulta had a sale on last chance OPI colors but when I realized I spent half as much as I had planned on I decided to grab the other two Burlesque colors I had been eyeing: Sparkle-icious and Glow Up Already.

This manicure today is of Simmer and Shimmer, the glitter that I wanted most from this collection. I had just painted my nails the day before with OPI's We'll Always Have Paris but that came off as soon as I got home with my haul.

Seeing as it was my first time working with OPI glitters I had a few things to learn. The polish itself applied great and was quite smooth for a glitter but I put three layers of Seche Vite on top to smooth it out and the next day all of my polish popped off. Yes, it literally popped off. So I decided to try something new.

Reading through some article and blogs online I remember someone mentioning that putting a layer of a gel base coat over glitter before you put on the top coat helped to smooth everything out without requiring tons of layers of top coat. To my delight it worked. So today I am rocking Glow Up Already on my nails and I'll have pictures for that up soon.

As you can see in the pictures here, this polish is amazing. I did not have anything like it in my stash and that is saying something. These OPI glitters are so unique and fun that I have considered going back for the other two that I did not buy, but I just don't care for those colors. The glitter in this polishes seem to be one color at a quick glance, such as blue green purple etc, but actually they are made up of tons of different color and sized glitter. The effect is amazing and they sparkle like no other. All I can say is that I am in love with these polishes. Thank you OPI.

So I'll definitely be rocking burlesque manicures for the next week or so, and it has been decided that my sister, mother and I will go see the movie Burlesque with OPI Burlesque manicures. I think after this manicure, I want to try out one of the shimmers from the collection.

Until next time,

Happy Painting

The Nailventuress

Back in the day with my long nails

November 6:

Hello dearest friends. Today I have a picture of a manicure I did a few months ago. This was the last manicure I did when my nails were this long and the next time I squared them all off. This color is "Just a little Rosti at this" by OPI and it was one of the first polishes that I bought during my nail splurge. I did not own any reds and this one looked absolutely gorgeous so I went to Ulta and bought it. This is a berry red which seems to be bland for many people in the nail polish world but I loved it a lot. It applied well in two coats though I could have used a third and it lasted three days without chipping.

I used this color once more after I bought it but I think I will be pulling it out again soon, I have not done a red on my nails for some time now.

This was a quickie but I think that the next post will be longer. I am hoping to obtain some of OPI's Burlesque collection tomorrow so perhaps I can blog about that!

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

Once upon a time a raven called Nevermore...

November 5:

After a week of illness it seems I am finally on the mend. I was so sick/exhausted that I did not paint my nails at all since my manicure on Monday (this is the longest I've gone in months) and I bought a bunch of new polishes. It was awful.

This manicure, however, is from a week ago when I went to a concert to see Seattle progressive metallers Nevermore. I decided it would be a wonderful idea to paint my nails with OPI's

"Nevermore" from their Go Goth collection seeing as the band and the polish had the same name. The novelty of it was too much so I hunted down the collection and bought my polishes! In the end I also bought OPI ink which is a dupe for Nevermore (a mini) so I could have just used that but I wasn't going to see OPI Ink perform, I was going to see Nevermore.

This color ended up being even better than I thought it would. It was definitely a purple with a bit of blue/black but Nevermore (the band) has a song called "Dreaming Neon Black" (my favorite) so I walked around calling it neon black. Silly, yes, but so much fun!

I like the OPI minis because the are cute and let me test out a color to see if I like it before I commit to the bigger bottle, if there is one, but the brushes are downsized and something about the formula is different. For some reason every mini that I have used has chipped a lot earlier than the OPI polish in the full sized bottles. I used Obscurity (the black matte) and that chipped the same day but I let it pass seeing as it was a matte. Sanguine chipped within a day and so did Nevermore, but I love the colors and the cute bottles so I can ignore this. Plus I got dupes for Nevermore and Sanguine already. All I need to do is find a black matte polish that I love as much as Obscurity.

The little brush in the minis was something that I thought would be a nice change but I ended up hating it. It was hard to get enough polish and I had to double or triple dip and then the polish on the nail started to dry and the manicure was uneven. I am surprised to say that I like OPI's wider brushes better. Oh well, since Halloween has come and gone, I think the minis will be used less frequently, well from this collection anyways, I got some for my birthday that I have yet to try out.

Up next I think a trip back in time to the days when my nails were much longer and stronger is in order. Perhaps the OPI polish that spurred me on my nail polish binge, or maybe just a fun manicure from my knitting collection.

Until next time,

Happy Painting

The Nailventuress

A delicious "Mint Candy Apple" treat!

November 4:

Yes I am blogging once more hurrah! This is my third post in a few hours so I am quite proud of myself! I think that my blogs may get a titch shorter as I've reviewed many of the brands of polish before, but each color is a new adventure, so that shall not change!

Speaking of colors, I finally decided to splurge and get Essie's "Mint Candy Apple." Oh my goodness this is such a fun color. At first I had shied away from this color because it seemed too pastel for my taste but after looking at many many swatches, I decided it was a color I needed to add to my collection. I was even more delighted when I swatched it on my nail and the color came out slightly darker than in the bottle, and with three coats it was perfect!!!

I recieved some wonderful stamp plates for my birthday so I decided to use those and chose a flower-like design to add onto the ring fingers. At first they were stamped on with Essie's Lapis of Luxury but this color did not have enough contrast to the base color so I grabbed the bottle nearest me and tried it out. That just happened to be OPI's "Ogre the top Blue." It was the perfect addition to the manicure and the blue design made the mint green seem more blue!

This one is definitely one to keep in a nail polish stash because it is very different and fun. After a whole month of dark colors with the occasional bright manicure, I felt like I needed something different and Essie did not fail. Seeing as this was a previous winter collection color, I figured it was the perfect time of year to wear it since all of the new winter collections came out around November 1 anyways!

That is all for now on this manicure, but I think the next post shall be about my past manicure that I've done to try and do a quick catch up. Perhaps this post shall just be a short description and a pictures of a few manicures. Whatever it is shall be fun!

Until next time,

Happy Painting.

The Nailventuress

N.Y.C. and the belated Halloween manicure...

November 3:

This is a short post on my halloween manicure. This was fun and the nail polish I used with rather inexpensive, coming in at a whopping .99 yet it lasted the three days I had it on without chipping!

I used N.Y.C.'s "Times Square Tangerine Creme" which applied opaque in two coats. I loved the color so much I would break it out again for accents, stamps, and summer manicures, but I think that it might have seen its first and only use for 2010. On top of the orange I painted two layers of Sally Girl's "U Glow" to make it more festive. This polish is also .99 but it comes in a tiny bottle. On the plus side, it is incredibly glowy. The bottle starts to glow in shade and the nails polish definitely glows in the dark!

To top it all off I added some bundle monster stamps. I used the bats on my ring fingers and spiders and spider webs on my thumbs. I think the plate is bm13. Originally I was going to stamp with Wet and Wild's Black Creme but for such a thick polish it was not transferring to the stamp at all so I ditched it in place of OPI's "William Tell me about OPI" I ended up loving the purple on top of the orange quite a bit!

Overall I am happy with the cheap nail polishes and of course with OPI. The NYC and Sally Girl applied well and they lasted which is great considering they are not salon quality polishes.

Well that's it for this manicure but up next I think I shall sail back to Essie to taste "Mint Candy Apple." This is my first actual manicure for November and it is a fun break from the darker shades I had been sporting in October.

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress

OPI's "Cuckoo for this Color"

November 3:

Yes, it has been a while since I have last posted, ah how time flies at the end of October. I promise many exciting manicures to be posted tonight to try and catch up. Perhaps since I've talked about Essie and OPI so much already, I'll just review the color :)

As for why I have been absent, a hockey game, birthday, knitting and midterms are to blame, but now I am back and oh how I've missed writing about my nail polish adventures!

Today I have an entry about OPI's "Cuckoo for this Color". This is a color that got a lot of hype online but wasn't exactly something that I would have tried on my own. For one it is a shimmer, and at the time that I saw it I was going through a Anti-Shimmer phase. I have since made up with shimmers, having realized that it was really frosty polishes that I hated.

CFTC is a really gorgeous blue based green with amazing shimmer to it. Even after seeing it multiple times in the store I was not convinced but decided to buy it anyways since it was on sale and as it turns out I was pleasantly surprised!

This color was so jewel toned that it really popped on my nails although it was a darker shade. Also it seemed to change between blue and green. I found this color to be very unique. I dont really have any jewel tones in my collection, though I have added some recently now that I think about it. This picture is sloppy and from a skittle swatch I did right after I bought the color, but it really shows how gorgeous the color is!

This next pictures shows the polish in the sun and it is still just as gorgeous. Sadly this manicure only stayed on for a day because I went out and bought Orly's "Space Cadet" and it begged me to paint it on my nails.

Over all I love love love this color. I have painted it on my toes since the manicure, and with a layer of China Glaze's "Fairy Dust" on top it seemed like a whole new yet still lovely color. I can totally see this being one of my winter shades as well because it reminds me of pine trees! Perhaps with China Glaze's Peppermint Cuticle Oil on top I can have a very Christmas smelling manicure. Yes, it is only three days into November and already I am excited for Christmas. Blame the beauty shops for having the holiday collections out...and gingersnap scented lotion!

Up next I will steal a bargain with a belated halloween manicure and N.Y.C.'s "Times square tangerine creme" and some stamps!

Until next time,

Happy Painting!

The Nailventuress