Eureka! I Have Found it - OPI Merry Mignight

Ok so some of you know that I have been traipsing all over the city looking for Merry Midnight from the 2009 OPI Holiday Wishes Collection with zero luck.  I checked nail mecca.....nada, Trade secret...zip, Pennys and Ulta also came up big zeros.  I even tried stopping by some of the local salons and just asking, "Hey do you have a bottle I can buy, I don't even care if its new."  One lady told me to check Sally's.  SALLY'S!  Seriously?!  I had to tell the nice lady that Sally's doesn't carry OPI.

I was sad.  I made the decision to order it online and was really surprised to discover that I could only find a couple bottles on Ebay and 2 random online vendors that listed it.  I wasn't familiar with either vendor so I was dragging my feet hoping it would magically appear and had basically given up on it.  Luckily a fellow nail polish crack head reminded me that Victoria Nail Supply might have it....DUH.  So we set up an order of things we didn't need and prepared to send it in.  That afternoon we happened to be stopping by a store new to me that carries Zoya (I posted about that earlier this week) and the gods of nailpolish must have smiled down on me because there it was in all its purple, foil, glittery glory....Merry Midnight.

 

OPI Merry Midnight (3 coats) and top

The formula on this was perfect, even I was able to apply nice thin coats.  I had full coverage in 2 coats but the color was more pink than the bottle so I added a third.  Let me just say this...I love foils, they go on so nice and thin, and smooth, and holy nail polish batman...they dry in no time flat.  The glitter in this is really small also so there isn't any of the lumpiness of a normal glitter.

Can anyone recommend any other foils? I just picked up Orly Glam Rock and Iron Butterfly and I have Finger paints Icy Iris and Easel Come, Easel Go but I want to try some in other colors.

Not Nfu Oh.....Sad Panda

OK, I am seriously lemming for several of the Nfu Oh opal flake polishes.  When I picked up NYX Pink Ave earlier this week it was with the hopes that I could layer it over a duochrome and come up with something that has the same feel as Nfu Oh 51 or 52.  Along those lines I put together a really quick manicure.

Glacier bay Blues (3 coats), NYC Pink Ave (1 coat), and top

 

My pointer in this photo show a bit of the green in the Glacier Bay Blues.

I used 3 coats OPI Glacier Bay Blues as my base and put a coat of NYX Pink Ave on top.  Glacier Bay Blues is a fairly fantastic polish as it looks blue straight on but has both green and purple duochrome tendencies.  The Pink Ave is much less opal flaky and much more giant glittery, but it is still iridescent and I got several compliments on this for the 5 hours I left it on.

I had two problems with this mani.   The first was that the glitter looked lovely iridescent  right until I put a topcoat on, then it just looked rainbow, and frankly kind of dull even beneath a coat of Seche.  The second, and much bigger issue, was that this manicure never fully hardened.   Five hours later I was still having dents and fingerprints in my nails.  I am not sure if it was the combination of NYX and OPI or the Glacier Bay Blues itself.  About 2 months ago I used the Glacier Bay Blues with Color Club topcoat and had a similar issue.

Has anyone else had issues with either OPI or NYX not curing properly?

Mardi Gras

You know what the best part about a Mardi Gras manicure is?  I FINALLY got to use my week old bottle of OPI Jade is the New Black.  The entire week of Valentine's Day I had this green gem sitting on my nightstand taunting me.  I just couldn't bring myself to put it in the Helmer with the rest of my stash, it provided emotional support in a sea of red, pink and purple (and I really love red and purple). 

This color is simply luscious....I didn't know green could be luscious but this is.  Application was smooth, though it was a bit thin and required 3 coats.  This is one of those colors you just can't help looking at all day.

OPI Jade is the New Black (3 coats) with top

Initially I wanted to do something simple, a nice 2 color blended stamp on just part of the nail.  I choose floral cluster from plate M51 and painted Rimmel Night Before (purple) across the base of the design and New York Summer Hot Metallic Gold across the top and then stamped it at the end of my nail.  This resulted in kind of a striped effect...green. purple, gold.

The photo is complete crap and frankly I didn't really like the effect.  I think it would have been better with purple at the tip and gold in the middle.

Buried Treasure - OPI Bling Dynasty and CG Cleopatra

I am sure many of you have seen the swatches of the OPI Hong Kong Collection on other blogs by now.  Yesterday I snagged a few of the colors using gift cards from my mom (go mom) and rushed home to test out something I had been musing about... 

All Laquered Up described Bling Dynasty as a "burnished gold" that an "ancient queen" would wear, which by the way I totally agree with.  Its beautiful.  It looks a bit green on me, but I think with a bit of color this summer it will be fabulous.  This is a nice gold metallic shimmer that applies great and stamps for all you Konad fanatics. Also since this is the first OPI I have reviewed let me just say this....I LOVE the pro wide brush.

OPI Bling Dynasty (3 coats) and topcoat.  There hasn't been sunshine here in a week so excuse the crappy photos.  I am getting a light box.

Anyway, All Lacquered Up's description got me thinking about my other favorite ancient queen polish, CG Cleopatra. Cleopatra is gold glitter polish in a clear base, but this is no ordinary gold glitter.  Its an almost coppery gold...don't get me wrong its gold but in certain light it just looks deliciously tarnished, and it has holo glitter!  As soon as I saw Bling Dynasty for the first time I knew I wanted to layer Cleopatra over it.

 

One coat of CG Cleopatra and topcoat over Bling Dynasty.  This was taken the day after I did the mani, once the sun FINALLY came out so there is a bit of tip wear.

Close up of sparkly goodness

My nails are crazy sparkly!  The Cleopatra blends almost perfectly with the Bling Dynasty, its like they were made for each other.

Down the Rabbit Hole, How I Became a Nail Polish Addict

I'm still not sure how I came to be writing this. I mean what am I doing writing about nail polish, how have I become addicted to nail polish and nail art....I bite my nails.

Ok I don't bite my nails any more, but I did until two months ago. That's when a friend lent me a bottle of her OPI designer series and told me to paint my stubs. So there I am painting my bitten to the quick nails in this beautiful cornflower blue holo. They looked nice but no magic, no magic until the next day when I went to a football game....then BAM. The sunlight reflecting off the holo was enough to have me hooked.

OPI Glamour DS, you have to excuse the smudges,
my manicure skills are still in their infancy.

The next day I began my trip down the rabbit hole of nail polish addiction. Along the way I rediscovered my inner child, you know that four year who mixed all of the shampoos and conditioners together in the bathtub? Yeah well that kid is back with a vengeance....I love teal, cremes and frankening. Is frankening even a word? It is now.