NOTD: Batman Nails!

 My husband and I went to a Batman marathon last Thursday so I had to do Batman nails. 

I drew inspiration from the movie trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. In the trailer they show the camera panning straight up through the skyscrapers of Gotham. In the negative space you can see the batman logo. That's the idea I was going for. 

I used CHG Jitterbug for a base, and topped it with OPI Pirouette My Whistle. My intentions were that the white glitters in  Pirouette My Whistle would look like stars in a night sky. I then used my Chez Delaney K plate for the Batman logo and stamped with WNW Black Creme. 

Have you ever done a movie themed mani? 

NOTD:4th Of July Mani

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is what I wore for Independence Day. It is a water marble using Wet n' Wild French White Creme, China Glaze Frostbite, and Essie Scarlet O'Hara.

What did you wear for your Independence Day mani?

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: China Glaze Harvest Moon Swatches & Comps

Hello Everyone!

The polish I have for you today is from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. The polish is called Harvest Moon, and I think it is aptly named. A long time ago when I was about 10 years old I went on a Halloween themed hayride. It wasn't scary but we did go through corn fields. I will never forget that night because I remember the moon was huge that night. I'm sure there is a name for that but I'm not sure what it is. Nonetheless when I saw this polish it took me back to that night on the hayride. That is why I feel this polish is appropriately named.

Harvest Moon is a copper foil polish. That seems simple enough, right? One would think so, but until you see this polish I don't think you can fully grasp how stunningly beautiful it is. I've seen plenty of copper polishes in my life, but this one, this one blows me away. The color of Harvest Moon is so rich. That's the best way I can describe it. On the nails Harvest Moon almost looks molten.  Pictures shown are 2 coats Harvest Moon.

Indoors

Flash

I have a love for foil polishes. I decided to go through my stash to see if I had anything close to Harvest Moon. The closest thing I could find was Revlon Copper Penny. Pictures Shown are 2 coats Copper Penny & 2 coats Harvest Moon.

Indoors

Flash

Do you like foil finish polishes? What are your favorite foil finish polishes?

NOTD: Teal Glitter Gradient

Hello Everyone!

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

Hello Everyone!

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: LA Girl Matte Lilac

Hello Everyone!

A few years ago we were hit with a matte polish trend. Personally I still love this look and I wear it quite often.  The polish I have for you today is LA Girl Matte Lilac. To my eyes this isn't exactly what I'd call lilac. I would say it's more of a blue based pink. When I think lilac I think of a color somewhere between pink and purple leaning more towards purple.

At any rate, Matte Lilac had very easy application. One thing I will note is that I let the first coat dry before I added a second. Mattes dry on the surface very quickly but if you use a thicker coat it will still be wet deeper in the layer so I like to let the first coat dry completely to prevent any dragging or bald spots. I used two coats of Matte Lilac over one coat of CND Stickey. I did not use topcoat for the picture below.  I had no removal issues.

I love the rubber like texture

There are many companies now that make matte topcoats that allow you to make any polish matte. With this in mind I decided to compare a few creme polishes I own to see if I had a dupe of Matte Lilac. 

From index to pinky- Matte Lilac (with topcoat), OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, Matte Lilac (with topcoat), Essie Splash of Grenadine.

Now that I'm looking at this I wish I'd swatched China Glaze Dance Baby along with these polishes. As you can see there are no dupes here but Splash of Grenadine is quite close.


How do you feel about matte polishes? Do you own any?