Midnight Mambo!

Thank you Sephora!!!!! I got OPI for Sephora's Midnight Mambo! It's online only and I'm so glad I got it!



So awesome! 2 coats and a top coat on this one! Super sparkly and so much fun! I'd call it an electric blue with silver hex glitter and smaller silver glitter. Catches the light beautifully! It reminds me of OPI for Sephora's Worth my Weight (the gold sparkle they put out last Christmas). Similar consistency and the base color actually shows up unlike It's Bouquet with Me that they released with the Modern Flowers collection. It was a little on the thick side but still controllable. Now that I know OPI for Sephora can put on polishes like this consistently I want more like it! A purple with sparkles would be amazing!! This is one I'm waering right now, I just hope it'll last 'til the weekend so I can wear it to the beach with an electric blue bikini!

Illamasqua pastels!

I got in a super fun order from Sephora today!! I'd been wanting the Illamasqua pastels since I first saw them months ago. But I couldn't justify paying the extra money to get them from the UK when I knew they'd be at Sephora this month. Well they were worth the wait. So beautiful! All of these are perfect in 2 coats and I used a base coat with them. Illamasqua is quickly rising to the top of my favorites for nail polish!



First up is Blow. Interesting name.....but pretty color. I thought this one would wash me out but it didn't. Perfectly pretty pale yellow. Not streaky at all. Can't wait to add some Konad to this one.



Next up is Caress. Also, amazingly pretty. Reminds me of a paler Carolina blue color. And different than the other pale blues that have come out this season. Not like the OPI in the Shrek collection or the new one from Sephora OPI. It's a little bit more blue in pigmentation. Super pretty!



Next is Wink. Love this one! Perfect in consistency. Goes on smoothly. Is perfect in color too :) Not streaky at all. It's amazing! This is the one I was most looking forward to but I think it takes second to the last one.



Last up is Nudge. It's a seafoam green creme. Super pretty! Absolutely love it :) It's my favorite of the bunch and I'm sure it's gonna be a hot and fun summer color!!

So overall this collection is amazing! Love it and it's the best present I've gotten in a while!!

Chanel Nouvelle Vague

My Chanel showed up today so I did a full manicure with this one after swatching the Havana Nights. And let me just say, this polish is ah-mazing! Here's a picture...not the greatest lighting since it's raining out, but I wanted to post this. I'll update tomorrow once I get some better lighting, hopefully the sun will come out!



I understand now why everyone raves about Chanel nail polish. The consistency was perfect. Great in two coats! The color is fabulous! Dry time is great. This is more about Chanel in general but I like the bottle and the brush size. Easy to control and it goes on great. The shimmer is so subtle inside rigt now but I'm pretty sure it's going to pop in the sun tomorrow.

Word in the nail polish community is that this color is similar to China Glaze's For Audrey. The colors are definitely similar, but For Audrey doesn't have the shimmer. And the finish is a little bit different. For Audrey is more of a creme and Nouvelle Vague is shinier. I absolutely love it though :) So beautiful and I completely understand why it sold out as quick as it did. Grab it off eBay if you still can!!

Sephora OPI Havana Nights collection

I hope this works because blogspot is being all weird and just posting html code and not showing my pictures. So here's the colors I got from the Sephora OPI Havana Nights collection. I passed on Rumba Romance and Caliente Coral when I purchased these because I don't like orange nail polishes and I thought the bronze would look weird. However, I've seen swatches of Rumba Romance and it's so beautiful so I'm hoping I'll get it for my birthday soon :)



Teal We Meet Again. This was a basecoat and 2 coats. It's got a pretty shimmer in the light and it's a perfect summer color. And it's green so that ranks it pretty high in my book :)



Read My Palm. Basecoat and 2 coats. Such a fun color! I'm loving it! It really reminds me of a palm tree and sitting on the beach with a tropical drink in hand. Another good summer color but I feel like it can be worn all year round too!



I was hesitant to get Read My Palm because I thought it was similar to Ocean Love Potion but they're not! Index and ring are Read My Palm and middle and pinky are Ocean Love Potion. You can see they're pretty different and I love them both :)



Havana Dreams. This one I was less impressed with. This is basecoat and 3 coats. And it still looks like it needs a fourth coat. It's on the thin side too. It didn't want to stay put on my nails- I noticed on my thumb that when I held my thumb with the nail perpendicular to the floor while I was painting the other nails that the polish pooled up on my thumbnail. But it's so pretty I think it's worth it so I'll definitely use it again!



Caribbean Cocktail. Great name! Basecoat and 3 coats. Nice silver shimmer too :) This one was also a little on the thin side. Probably would be okay in 2 coats but I added the third and it shimmered more!

All in all a good collection. I can't wait to get Rumba Romance so I can try that one out. I've heard good things about it!

Some Konading!

I didn't even know Konad existed until about 2 months ago. Now I love it! I first saw it on Siobhan's NailPhile blog and was so impressed I had to try it. Started off with the M3 plate and progressed from there. I've got a few plates now and I'm working on it. I'm still getting the hang of it so it takes forever for me. But it's so worth it. Everytime I do it I get so many compliments. People can't believe I did it myself and it works as a great conversation starter with some of my patients. It's always nice to have an in with people.

This is Essie Splash of Grenadine with OPIs Funky Dunkey. It's the swirly pattern from plate M73 and then I just free-handed the tips. I'd started to use M19 but it wasn't quite thick enough so I just free-handed. Thank goodness I've already done my Surgery rotation- made my hands steadier. And I wasn't allowed to wear nail polish while I was on that rotation! This one was so pretty! Looked perfect out on the beach!

I did this one to replace the previous mani because on one finger all the polish just popped right off! Weird, but it gave me a chance to do this. This is OPI's Rumple's Wiggin' with Funky Dunkey used to Konad. And it's plate M64- the little bow with ribbons! Super cute :) So Rumple's Wiggin' worked a million times better with this application and it was only with 2 coats. I used Sephora OPI's base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat and then drying drops. Love it. Can't wait to wear it to work tomorrow. Hopefully my Chanel will come tomorrow so I can change it up a little bit!

OPI Shrek collection!

I forgot I'd taken pictures of this. This was my first OPI collection...I passed on the Shrek color because I knew I'd never wear it. That one wouldn't look great on my skin. I have mixed feelings on the collection. I'll discuss with each polish. But in general- good colors but I'm not a big fan of the brush. Really big and kind of hard to control or maybe a learned thing. I'll get used to it!

What's With the Cattitude. This one did not want to photograph well. It's lighter in person. Pretty, but hard to prevent streaking. This was three coats.

Rumple's Wiggin'. This was the one I was most looking forward to. At the time I thought eh. Three coats and again hard to keep from streaking. I don't know if it was the humidity or what but it smudged really easily and didn't want to dry. Thankfully, I tried this one again later for Konading and it was a million times better! I'm hoping it'll be the same story for What's With the Cattitude. I'll try that out soon!!

Fiercely Fiona. This one didn't photograph too well either. It was late when I swatched this collection and I didn't want to wait to do it. It's a little bit more yellow-green than shown. Still pretty. An odd green but I kind of like it! Two coats with this one.

Ogre the Top. I was iffy on the collection until I got to this one. Amazing! Love love love!! It's pretty true to color. Two coats again. Perfect summer blue. I can't wait until it's slightly warmer. I've got a blue bikini that'll match this and look perfect out on the beach!!

Funky Dunkey. Again, amazing!! Perfect purple creme. Two coats. The photo is pretty accurate to color. And it's awesome! I love it!! I've also used it a couple times to Konad with- you'll see in the next post and it works quite well :) Great color!

So all in all, it's a great collection! I really like all the colors. Not a huge fan of the brush but I've already used it a couple times and I'm getting used to it. And I really think it was just the humidity of the day that gave me problems with the pastels. Or maybe because I'd just gotten back from a run and was all sweaty still. Looking forward to getting some more OPIs soon :)

Essie colors :)

I only have a few Essie polishes. But from what I do have I really like them. I have three from the Summer Resort collection. I passed on the sandy gret one.

Turquoise and Caicos. Great in two coats. And very very pretty! I love this one :) Can't say enough good things about it.

Splash of Grenadine. This color is amazing! I get so many compliments on it when I wear it. It's great on my fingernails and toenails. And good to Konad over. Perfect for the beach too!

Lapis of Luxury. Another great one. Similar to Secret Periwinkle by China Glaze but a little bit lighter. Perfect in two coats. This whole collection was amazing. And I'm very impressed with it!

China Glaze colors!

Here are the China Glaze colors I've got. I don't have too many yet but I love some of these colors and I'm bound to get more.

Here's Turned Up Turquoise. It's 2 coats and has a matte like finish. It wasn't like I was expecting but I kind of love it.

Tempest- this is 2 coats. Very pretty!

Strawberry Fields- 2 coats. It has a gold shimmer that is so pretty!

Refresh-mint. A pretty mint green :) It's actually a little bit greener in person. Beautiful!

Peachy Keen. Really pretty. I didn't think I'd like it on me, but it's actually nice on. Good coverage in 2 coats too.

Grape Juice. This one's a little bit more purple in real life. Very nice purple with a silver shimmer! Quite pretty :)

For Audrey. This one is amazing! I initially bought it because I read it was similar to Chanel's Nouvelle Vague. I'll compare once I get it in this week. I know that Nouvell Vague has a little bit of shimmer to it so I added Sephora OPI Untarnished Image to it to make sparkly...

I really like the China Glaze polishes I have and I'm looking forward to getting some more of them!

Nail Polish Fun :)

My friends are always joking with me about my obsession with nail polish. I can't help it! It's so much fun :) Since I'm constantly in the hospital I can't really go too bold on my clothing choices but I like to have fun with my nail polish!

I became obsessed with nail polish a little over a year ago. Sephora's OPI nail polish line rolled out the Mermaid collection and I had to have Mermaid to Order. This started the craze...I have most of OPI for Sephora colors, I've passed on some colors since they look weird on my skin tone, but I'm branching out more. I've finally gotten a chance to get some sun and I have a decent tan for the first time since I was about 16 and things look a lot better when I'm tan! Anyway, I loved the OPI for Sephora brand. I'd finally found a nail polish that didn't chip off immediately. It was amazing! I didn't wear nail polish much before then because if it chipped at all I'll peel it all off. So I'd stopped bothering to paint my nails. Turns out, it was just because I wasn't using the best quality nail polish.

About 2 months ago I was doing a Google search for the new OPI Sephora shades to see which ones I wanted to buy and I came across several nail polish blogs. I was amazed...this opened up a whole new world to me. Turns out I could wear other brands too. And Konad?? I was so amazed, I had to have it.

Now I've started my little collection and even bought a Chanel the other day. (Yup Nouvelle Vague, had to have it! Now just waiting for it to show up!) I figured I could post some pictures on here. Please excuse the crappy paint jobs on some of these. I just recently got better at painting my nails, though I've still got some issues!

Here's my Sephora OPI reds. From thumb to pinky: Shopping Frenzy, Le Beau, Madame President, Personal Shopper, and I'm with Brad. All of these are 3 coats, though I think all of them would have been good in 2.

Pinks Sephora OPI Thumb to Pinky: Arm Candy, Set the Mood, Miss Can't Be Wrong, Screen Test, and Curve-aceous. Again, all 3 coats. Screen Test is one of my absolute favorite colors. I layer Too Good for Him over it all the time and adore it. Sparkly is better for me and I can't get enough of that combination. I can't believe I don't have a picture of that to post...I'll have to do that combination again soon :)

More pinks! From pinky to thumb: Dear Diary, A True Romantic, Wardrobe Change, Handpicked for Me and Techno Girl. Another one of my favorite color combos is Dear Diary and Techno Girl. I do it like a french manicure with Dear Diary as the base and Techno Girl as the tip color. Super cute!

Some of the more interesting colors! Pinky to thumb: Charge It, Worth my Weight, Let's do Lunch, Cover me in Petals, and Go With the Flow-er. This picture really doesn't show how sparkly Go With the Flow-er is. Oh and all are 3 coats. Worth My Weight is one of the best polishes Sephora and OPI have come up with. It's a chunky holo glitter that I absolutely love!! I'm so upset that it was a limited edition. Hopefully they'll have some amazing colors this holiday season too!

Purples from pinky to thumb: Don't Go There, It's Bouquet with Me (over a coat of A-ha! Moment), Iris I was Thinner, What a Broad, Too Good for Him (again, over a coat of A-ha! Moment).

Silvers and whites from pinky to thumb: Untarnished Image, How Many Carats?, A-ha! Moment, Run With It, and Queen of Everything. All 3 coats. Another of my favorite combinations is 2 coats of Queen of Everything with 2 coats of Untarnished Image over it.

Blues (love blue nail polish!) Thumb to pinky: Lagoon-a Beach, Skinny Jeans, Underwater Fantasy, Blue Grotto, Opening Night.

And some greens (another one of my favorites!) Index to pinky: Ocean Love Potion, Mermaid to Order, Leaf Him at the Altar, and Absinthe Makes the Heart. Ocean Love Potion is a great one and I've already mentioned how much I love Mearmaid to Order. All 3 coats!

And finally the silvers and blacks, from thumb to pinky: Fancy Schmancy, Just a Fairy-Tail, Social Climber, 212-Sephora, and Never Enough Shoes. All three coats. I have a tendency to do 3 coats even if it doesn't beed it, just to be sure I have even coverage.

So that's the Sephora OPIs that I have swatched. I have most of the Havana Nights collection but I haven't swatched them yet. I'll get around to it this week once I get some other colors in (The Illamasqua pastels are finally at Sephora and they're on the way plus the new Sephora OPI sparkle blue!! Super excited for that one!)

That's it for this post- I'm about to post some China Glaze pictures and some Konad manis I've done!