NOTD: Orly Mysterious Curse Swatches & Comps

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is from Orly's Dark Shadows collection. Mysterious curse is actually a repromote of Orly's Royal Velvet. Mysterious Curse is a purple based polish with tons of blue shimmer. I noticed the formula was a little watery and thin but not unmanageable. I needed three coats to reach opacity.

Indoors

Flash- look at that shimmer

I decided to check my stash for dupes. The closest I could come up with was OPI Glacier Bay Blues. Glacier Bay Blues is a blue based polish that's packed with purple shimmer that sometimes flashes green. 

You can see from the picture above the difference in the base colors. 

NOTD: Teal Glitter Gradient

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The NOTD I have for you today is a glitter gradient using all OPI polishes. After applying my CND Stickey Base Coat, I applied 2 coats of OPI Ski Teal We Drop. I then applied OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise to about 2/3rds of my nail. If you look closely you can see the turquoise doesn't go all the way to my cuticle area. Using OPI Simmer & Shimmer I created a gradient effect with the densest glitter at the tips of my nails. I topped everything off with a generous coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

Have you tried a glitter gradient?

NOTD: OPI Buenos Aries Iris

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The polish I have for you today is, I believe, the oldest polish in my stash. The color is Buenos Aries Iris and it is from the Spring / Summer Collection in 1992. That's right! This polish is 20 years old. I didn't collect polish in 1992, in fact I was still in grade school in 1992. I picked up this beauty about 7 or 8 years ago at a garage sale. I am so glad I did. I remember at the time thinking how obnoxiously bright pink it was. I mean who wears retina searing hot pink nail polish? I think it's funny now because the color is actually very tame compared to other neon pinks that I own.

Buenos Aries Iris is a hot pink polish with gorgeous blue shimmer. I'm sure she has many dupes or close dupes but I'm not drawn to pink polish very often so she's original in my collection.This lovely did require a bit of thinning but c'mon she's 20 years old, I think that's to be expected and she thinned out so beautifully for me. The picture shown is two thin coats. Personally I would have liked a third but I want to conserve this polish. I highly doubt I'll ever find another bottle of it. Please excuse my cuticles. It's been horrendously hot here and I've been swimming almost everyday. My cuticles are paying the price for that. 

Have you ever found polish at a garage sale? What's the oldest polish in your collection?

NOTD: China Glaze Fast Track

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The NOTD I have for you today is from the new China Glaze collection for the upcoming Hunger Games movie. I know people rave about the books but I have not read them, nor do I even know what they're about. I will admit I am intrigued, but the truth of the matter is I couldn't even tell you the lat book I read. It's been THAT long ago.

On to the polish!

This is Fast Track. Fast Track is a beige base packed with golden shimmer. It really is a lovely color but I have so much trouble with nude type colors looking silly on my skin tone. I've been working on finding my HG mannequin hands color for a while now. I was hoping Fast Track would be a cool mannequin hands with a little pizzaz color for me but I just don't like it with my skin tone.

Picture shown is three coats over CND Stickey and topped with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

NOTD: Essie Sew Psyched & Essie Kisses & Bises

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The NOTD I have for you today is a layering combination. I really love layering my polishes. I'm amazed sometimes by the combinations. I am very guilty of being very safe when layering. I tend to stay very monochromatic when I layer. I've decided to push my own limits and force myself to think outside the box. You don't have to put a red glitter over a red polish. Why not put that red glitter over a purple polish or a silver polish? The fact of the matter is, you never know what's going to work together if you're too afraid to experiment. In the spirit of thinking outside the box I came up with this mani. I really like how it turned out.

Essie Sew Psyched is a very dusty "army" green. The opacity of this polish is unbelievable! Sew Psyched was almost a one coater for me. I always have trouble stopping at one coat. Sew Psyched went on as smooth as can be and was incredibly self leveling.

Kisses & Bises is a lovely sheer polish with pink shimmer. Quite frankly I haven't found a polish I haven't liked Kisses & Bises over. Be prepared to see more layering combinations with Kisses & Bises.

Pictures shown are two coats Sew Psyched topped with one coat Kisses & Bises over CND Stickey topped with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

NOTD: Revlon Fire Fox

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Today I have Revlon Fire Fox. I don't normally gravitate towards red polishes. I guess it's just because of ALL the other amazing colors out there but this is not your ordinary red polish, it's matte. I'm a sucker for matte polishes. In fact the OPI Suede collection was the first collection I had to have all of. I think my love for matte polishes is that they dry so quickly so even when you don't have time to do a full mani you can do a matte mani. I'm also fascinated with the finish. They can range from matte to almost pleather like. The latter is the finish of Fire Fox. An orange leaning red with a pleather-ish finish with just a dash of shimmer to keep it from being too flat. Shown below is two coats of Revlon Fire Fox Over my normal Base coat, CND Stickey, no top coat.

NOTD: Essie Coat Azure

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The polish I have for you today is Essie Coat Azure. This polish has completely taken me by surprise. I shamefully admit I did not see the loveliness of this polish while it was sitting on my shelf in its bottle. I was looking for a winter mani without doing the Christmas colors thing just yet. It was then that I saw Coat Azure staring back at me and a light bulb went off over my head. Coat Azure was almost a one coater for me but I added a second coat to ensure opacity. I adore the medium blue color and, while this color was part of a spring collection, the subtle shimmer is perfect for winter. I think I might play around with layering ideas before I remove this one.

NOTD: Maybelline Cool Couture

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Today's NOTD is a drug store polish. Maybelline Cool Couture. Cool Couture was a limited edition polish. I'm not sure if its still available but if you see it you should definitely pick it up! Cool Couture is a grey creme polish that leans very blue and it is jam packed with bright blue-almost teal- shimmer. Absolutely stunning! Swatches shown below are two coats.

NOTD: Essie Dive Bar & Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal

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The NOTD I have for you today is Essie Dive Bar topped with Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal. I have to thank my lovely friend Evelyn for the fact that I own Dive Bar. Dive Bar is a dark shimmery blue with a purple duochrome. I did not see much of the duochrome on the nail. If Dive Bar had more purple flash I would be completely in love. I have to say I am a bit let down by Dive Bar. I appreciate and understand what Essie was trying to do, but I feel like they missed the mark. In all honesty I felt Dive Bar was a little flat. I topped Dive Bar with Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal which was also a disappointment for me. You see, I get quite upset when polishes are called holographic and they are not in fact holographic. Chunky Holo Teal is a teal jelly base with glitter that flashes green/gold/orange much like the flakies in Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure or Nubar 2010.

I did enjoy this mani and I am looking forward to finding more layering combinations to use Chunky Holo Teal. Normally removal of glitter is a pain in the butt but I found the removal of Chunky Holo Teal to be quite easy. I did use acetone as I normally do with polish removal and it was quick & painless.

NOTD:OPI Mermaid's Tears + OPI Go On Green

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Today's NOTD is a layering combination. I started with two coats of OPI Mermaid's Tears which is a slightly dusty mint creme. Mermaid's Tears came out with the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection in Spring 2011. The formula was incredible. I love OPI's cremes. They go on so easily and evenly and they're amazingly self leveling. I then added one coat of OPI Go On Green. Go On Green is a very sheer light blue polish flooded with tons and tons of mint green shimmer .I'm not a fan of sheers on their own but I really enjoy layering with them. Go On Green is a bit watery but I find that to be normal with most sheer polishes.

In lower lights I can see more of the blue from Go on Green in this mani but in natural light all that gorgeous green shimmer comes out to play. I don't care if this mani gives me "lobster hands" I love it!

May I also just rave for a second about the OPI ProWide brush? I think its my favorite brush. My nail beds fall somewhere between 'normal' and 'wide' and with the ProWide brush I can cover my entire nail in one swipe. It makes painting my nails so much faster.

OPI Designer Series Jewel Swatches & Comps

OPI Designer Series Jewel. Jewel is a goregeous polish. It is a duochrome. Depending on what lighting I'm in I see a heavily red based purple with cranberry shimmer, a cranberry base with coordinating shimmer, or a rich bronzey brown with cranberry shimmer. At the right angles, I can even see pink shimmer. I could not stop looking at this polish yesterday. I kept tilting my hand at different angles in the light to make the different colors come out. Jewel reminds me of the leaves changing on a red leafed maple tree, perfect for the Autumn mood I've been in

OPI Designer Series Jewel Comps. I had a heck of a time trying to find a polish to compare this too.  Jewel is really unique in my collection. I tried to comp the most prevalent base color, the rich bronzey cranberry color. Essie It's Genius on index and ring, OPI DS Jewel on middle and pinky. Not even close. Now I do think Jewel may be close to OPI Canadian Maple Leaf, but I do not own it so I cannot say for sure.