OPI Designer Series - Coronation

Hey guys! I've been really posting a LOT of the OPI Designer Series, I'm sorry for that but I can't stop myself. The Designer Series are my favourite OPI polishes ever and like I said to a fellow nailblogger on Twitter, it's almost like Pokémon: you gotta catch 'em all. I'm not fond of the pinks and reds but the other ones are definitely my kind of thing.

One that is more than my kind of thing is Coronation.


I love silver polishes. People who don't care as much about polish as I (and you!) do will say: 'why do you own six of the same colours?' but to me they are all different. I rarely show them but finally, the day has come to show off a very pretty silver.

Coronation isn't a regular silver polish. It's more of a glitter top coat: the base is transparent and stuffed with silver holographic glitter. The glitters are very dense but I still needed three coats for this one to be opaque. Is that a bad thing? NO! This way you can also use Coronation as a glitter topper over other polish. Win! Another plus: the polish isn't gritty.


The sun wasn't liking me taking pictures so unfortunately I wasn't able to catch the holographic effect that good. I will repost this one in summer, I promise! This week I showed you two pretty holo's: Glamour and Original, both from the Designer Series, but Coronation has a different holo. It isn't that 'rainbowy', it's like the glitters are working individual. It's gorgeous.


Coronation is still available at TransDesign and, I believe, in stores.

By the way, have you heard the news about OPI? Yesterday it was announced OPI was sold to Coty. Now this is for most people not a matter of life and death but it does feels strange that a cruelty free brand is bought by a company that still uses animals for testing. To me anyway.

How do you feel about OPI being sold to Coty and does this affect your liking?

Take care and thanks for visiting!
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Original

Good morning chicas! I could write a whole post about my lemmings but because that doesn't sound that interesting to me I'm only showing you the ones I have been able to get. I'm lemming a lot but mostly it sticks to 'very interesting - if I can get it I'll get it' instead of putting a lot of effort in getting it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good polish hunt but there aren't a lot of polishes around that are really a must-have for me.

The one I'm showing you today was a lemming but not a must-have. I looked on eBay for it but the crazy prices were a little too much for me so I decided to not buy it. Now that was a good choice! OPI DS Original became available on TransDesign - and became a must-have, easy to get, you know what I mean? - and I scored it for $7.25. Ha, no crazy prices for me! :-)


OPI DS Original is a cool lavender polish. In lowlight it looks like lavender infused with some kind of silvery sparkle, very pretty. The picture above is taken in the shade, you can see there's a little bit of holographic action going on but of course not that much as in the sun (ya rly!).


Ahhhh, there is the action. Original has holographic sparkles, a little scattered around and definitely not as dense as my Nfu.Oh's or, another example, China Glaze OMG. Do I mind? Hell no! It's absolutely gorgeous and I am very happy this one belongs to me now.

Like the other DS polishes Original was a little thin, not watery though. I needed three coats to reach a smooth and opaque result, and for the impatient ones (like myself): it dries pretty fast. I'm not wearing a top coat because it already is a very shiny, glossy polish.


Original is discontinued but you can always check eBay - some sellers don't ask a lot for this one. TransDesign stopped selling Original but maybe other etailers still do.

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend and take care!
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Glamour

Hi all! The weather was great yesterday, when I woke up the sun was shining and kept shining the whole day. In fall and winter I appreciate these sunny days much more - not only because it really lights up my mood, the sun is a great source of light for pictures. I think everyone is familiar with the craptastic pictures you make when the lighting is low but thankfully this wasn't the case yesterday. One thing that comes to my mind when the sun is shining is holographic polish. I think most holographic polishes are bland and boring without the sun, the sparkles must be seen and therefore I decided to rock OPI DS Glamour yesterday.


OPI DS Glamour is a medium blue holo. The blue is very intense, even in the shade (like pictured above) it isn't boring at all. The holographic effect is scattered and not as intense as the Nfu.Oh holo's but dude - who can refuse a gorgeous blue polish like this one?


I know, I said not as intense, but Glamour really shows the holo great.

Applying this one was easy, I like my DS polishes because the formula is good: not too thin but certainly not too thick. Very easy to manage. I'm wearing two coats without a top coat. Top coat tends to make the holo a little less vibrant but to be honest, the one time I did apply top coat on Glamour I didn't notice the difference. Drying time is fast.


I was lemming this one for aaaaages. Finally there was an opportunity of getting it and not pay ridiculous amounts of bucks for it and now I can call myself the proud owner of Glamour. It's absolutely in my favourites because why would a sucker for blues like myself not like Glamour?!

What is your favourite holographic polish?
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Magic

Good afternoon everyone! Today I want to show you one of the two new Designer Shades from OPI. They brought out these two for fall and even though they're not the most unique shades around, they sure are pretty. I was in doubt to buy Magic because I thought I had similar shades in my stash but in the end I'm happy I got it, it's a nice addition.


Magic is a sparkly darker blue with a strong purple tone in it. At first I thought it looked a bit like OPI INK but this one is way more sparkly, glittery and has a stronger hint of blue. What I love about this one is that it also flashes purple on the nail. I had serious issues with capturing this but it really is there and it just shifts constantly from blue to purple. Application was good and I'm wearing three coats. Drying time was also fast.


I think Magic is very close to Orly's Lunar Eclipse. I'm not sure about that but I will compare these for myself once, curiosity always wins it from my wallet!

How do you feel about Magic? And what about the other one, Radiance? I might have to get that one too, it looks gorgeous on swatches. I'm such a sucker for silver sparkly stuff.

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

OPI - Glacier Bay Blues

Hey everyone! How is everyone's weekend so far? Hopefully you'll get some time to relax and reload your energy for the start of the new week. I have been cleaning my Helmer again - I do this once a week but today my cleaning was more thoroughly and I stumbled upon a few polishes I forgot about. One of them was this one, OPI Glacier Bay Blues.


Glacier Bay Blues is an old OPI, it comes from the 2004 Canadian Collection, but it isn't that hard to find. There are some bottles to be found on eBay and apparently there are a few etailers that sell this one (but I don't have experience with any of them). Enough about this, let's go on to the colour!

Glacier Bay Blues is a blue based shimmery duochrome. When the light changes the polish changes with you, giving you purple and teal flashes. It's very pretty (and hard to photograph haha).


Application was okay. I like the new OPI formula more than this old one but it isn't a pain in the ass to apply. I needed four coats for this one to be opaque and I know that I use really thin coats but this is kind of... meh! I will layer this one in the future, I am already thinking of pretty combo's with OPI DS Fantasy and Misa On the Edge.

By the way! If you dislike the big brushes that OPI now has you should definitely look out for these older ones, the brush is small and will be easier to handle for some.


I have to say that this one is gorgeous in the bottle. GORGEOUS. Even better when it's on the nail, I could stare at it the whole day and see the colours shift. Very cool.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Michelle

Quick note: I will tell you the winners of the giveaways the upcoming week!

I love you, Blue

Good evening all! Today I wanted to do some stripes but as you all know I always come up with the same stripe design. The lines are always vertical. Not that I mind, not at all, but sometimes I feel so cheesy doing the same thing over and over again. That's why I decided to do something different with my beloved striped design: I got myself striped, diagonal and in my favourite colour. Now how's that for a change?! ;-)


My base colour is Zoya Robyn, a polish that is in my closet for a loooong time. I finally picked it out today and wasn't disappointed! It's a very pretty bright blue creme and it applied good. I'm wearing three coats. After that I took out OPI Absolutely Alice, the famous blue and gold glitter polish, and started putting on stripes on my nails. These stripes are made freehand with a striper brush - everyone should own one! They are very handy when you want to put stripes on your nails.


I topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat. It evened out this manicure quite good so I was happy with that, I hate it when I feel uneven bits on my nails.

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Extravagance

Hey everyone! I like OPI because besides from their massive amount of red polishes they offer really pretty shades. One thing I like the most about OPI is their Designer Series line, full of 'special' polishes. They have one for everyone's taste and I am a real DS craver. I like the holographic ones but the ones that others classify as boring or not unique are also of my liking. Maybe it has something to do with the 'special' silver caps, maybe it's just a weird habit of mine but I can't help it. Designer Series polishes are always screaming to me that I should buy them.


This is one of my favourites, Extravagance. It's a super rich red toned purple with a huge amount of sexy shimmer in it. With sexy I mean holo that wants to pop out but doesn't, giving this a gorgeous depth. While writing this down I do realise I sound like a freak but really this is sex in a bottle. Not porn - loooooove making. You know what I mean?

One thing though, I can't STAND this tiny little thing about the Designer Series, you might have noticed in the picture above: the bottle caps suck.


The silver wears off. Not only with this bottle, all my bottles. This is super annoying because when the silver comes off it sticks to your hands and it's really hard to remove those little suckers so after opening a bottle, I need to wash my hands. Luckily enough the caps wear off after a few times so I'm not doomed to wash my hands every time I open them but it's just.. annoying. Excusez moi for the rant but I needed to get this off my chest. Do you also have troubles with the caps or is it just me and only a few others? And what's your favourite DS polish?

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

Inspired By

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well, I sure am. Recently I thought of a manicure that was posted a long time ago on my blog for a bugs nail art contest. Michèle did this gorgeous manicure that was inspired by a Monarch butterfly, you know, the butterflies that are all gorgeous and royal. I keep seeing this picture on the internet, it jumps up all the time and I decided to do one as well.


I picked a red as my base, OPI Friar, Friar, Pants on Fire! The outlines are made with a black striper and the white dots are made with H&M Love at First Sight and my friend the dotting tool. I added some sweet baby pearls to the dots, one per nail, and that was it.

This nail art was really a pain in the ass because I do not have that much patience. I'm also a neat freak so the lines have to be perrrrrrfect or I'll be bummed. Can you imagine how I sat there?! It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure.


Do you have any favourite nail inspirations? By that I mean sites (f.e. Tumblr or Wah), persons, idols, photos? I like to look at different kinds of fabrics to make up a pattern but unfortunately it has never worked out that well. I hope it will work out once, I love those kind of inspirations.

Take care and thanks for visiting!
Michelle

OPI - Princesses Rule!

Hey everyone! Today is the first of October which means the breast cancer awareness month has started and therefore I'm showing you my favourite pink polish! I know, it's strange - me liking a pink polish?! - but there's much to love about this one.


Princesses Rule! is a pale pink shimmer. It's sheer, I'm wearing three coats and there really is a visible nail line but I can't be bothered! Besides being sheer, Princesses Rule! is also very sparkly and soft at the same time, I love that. Application is fine, I had no issues at all.

It might be taste but this one is definitely a winner to me when it comes to pink polishes.

What is your favourite pink?
Michelle

Halloween Themed: Graveyard

Good afternoon all! I have a themed nail art for you today, something I really enjoy doing. Because it's almost October I thought it was fun to start off with something for Halloween.


When I think of Halloween I think of spooky and scary things so I decided to go for a graveyard. This really was an easy design, I wanted to make a tutorial but I did this in the evening so it was too dark for pictures so I might do this some other time.

First off I started by painting my nails with Misa On the Edge, a gorgeous dark blue. I wanted it to look like night time and a little foggy so I decided to sponge a little. I used Misa On the Edge, H&M Love at First Sight and OPI DS Fantasy for this. After that I topped it with Essie Silver Bullions.


Second part of this manicure, using black and create outlines for the graveyard. I used a black striper but this is probably easier when you use a nail art pen. After creating these, you can colour them in. I didn't want it to be perfectly neat because with the black and blue a little mixed it looks like it's being lit by the moon or something, I think it's a nice little touch. The ghosts are created with a white striper.

Creating a tiny graveyard is fun, you can add pretty much everything you want. I added trees, different tombstones, crows and ghosts.


When you're done with the graveyard just top it off with a top coat and you're done!

Are you creating something special on your nails for Halloween?
Michelle

WAH!

Hey all! I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you'll have a good day this Monday. We all know that the start of the week can be a little tough sometimes! :-) Today I want to show you a manicure that I absolutely love and is inspired by WAH Nails. WAH Nails is a British nail salon and they come with awesome new designs every time!


This is the one I tried, the 'POW!' manicure. I love these cartoon like designs in all their versions.

What's even better is that these designs aren't that difficult to recreate but you got to have some patience. First I painted my nails white using H&M's Love at First Sight, the most fantastic white creme ever(!) except my pinky, that one was painted with OPI's OPI Red. After that I used OPI Red on my middle and thumb nail to create a white pointed area (hmm, you know what I mean) where the text would come in later. I used the OPI brush and held it sidewards - this gives you a smaller stripe.

When that is done I took out the Essence Nail Art Pen in Solid Black and accentuated the pointed areas. After that I wrote the words 'WAH' and 'BOOM' in them. And then the fun part starts: dotting! I used a dotting tool with a very small tip because I wanted my dots small. I used the same colours for the dots as my base colours.


Here's my thumb. I didn't wait long enough for the polish to be dry so the Essence pen dragged a bit nail polish - told you this manicure wasn't for the impatient types. ;-)

I topped this off with INM Out the Door top coat, I'm testing that one right now. To me, red is like THE stain and smudge colour so I waited 30 minutes before I applied the top coat. I applied the top coat in a floating way because I was still scared of smudges but it didn't help, it still smudged. Was it me, was it the top coat or the awful red? I don't know but this got me bummed!


If you're interested in seeing more WAH designs you definitely should check out their site, they use Tumblr and they update it every day with lots of awesomeness. You can see the goods here!

What's your take on their designs? Do you use them for inspiration?
Take care!
Michelle

How to look good naked

Hey everyone! A while ago 'Mannequin Hands' were a little hype - if you don't know what I'm talking about: it means that you pick out a nude polish that matches your skintone. I don't like nude polishes very much but I do own one that matches my skintone a little.


It's OPI Sand in my Suit. I must have bought it while I was half asleep or bored because I really really don't like it. Sand in my Suit is from OPI's South Beach Collection (Spring/Summer 2009) and it's a shimmery nude. It looks good on others, I just don't like the way it looks on me. Makes me feel naked.

There is one thing I do like about these nude colours: stamping.


Here is Sand in my Suit stamped with Color Club Revvvolution and Konad imageplate M71. There are no special thoughts about this design, I just love the lace pattern and because I don't use this one enough I picked it. The pictures are made in the shade so the holo effect is a bit lost, but it looks really nice in the sun. Sparkly. :-)


What is your take on nude polishes like this one? Do you wear them a lot or completely avoid them?

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

Contrast Marble

Hey everyone! Lately I've been really lacking inspiration for nail art and I'm also into contrasts soooo I did a watermarble just to give you a little bit of artsyfartsy stuff.


I prepped my nails with OPI Damone Roberts 1968 - also used for the marbling as well as Eyeko Punk Polish. I really like the way these bright and soft colours mix.

Again no pattern! I am such a neat freak that I really dislike it when patterns aren't the same so I always marble quite random. Silly silly silly, I know but I also know I'm not the only one haha!

What is your favourite contrasting colour combo?
Michelle

Ciaté - Snatch

Hello readers! How are you doing today? I hope everyone is well! :-) Today I want to show you Snatch by Ciaté. Ciaté is one of my favourite nail polish brands. Every single polish I've tried so far, from creme to glitter, rocks my socks off. I was very pleased when I received this pretty in the mail!


Snatch is a very bright tomato red creme, and when I say very bright I mean very bright. This is the kind of red that I call 'porn red' - though this one doesn't feel tacky on me.

Application was good, the formula had the perfect thickness. Not too thick and certainly not too thin. Snatch dried fast and super glossy so there's no need for a top coat (f.e. when you're in a hurry). I needed two coats for Snatch to be opaque.

I get bored easily. I wanted to do a wear test and after two days I started to get the itches and I changed the manicure.


Told you it was a red that screams for a fishnet pattern. ;-) I used Konad Imageplate M57 and OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees as my stamping polish. I topped it with a top coat. First I wanted to use a regular black creme for this but it looks wayyyy better when sparkly.

And that wasn't where the fun stopped!


I added China Glaze Matte Magic. The suede stays glittery and Snatch is matte. It looks absolutely awesome and the design seems so well fit for the colour. I will wear this again.

Ciaté is available on their website. They ship internationally so it's definitely worth of having a peek. A bottle of Ciaté contains 13.5ml polish and costs £9.00.

Have you tried polishes from Ciaté and what is your experience with them?
Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

The product in this post is provided by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration.
For more information please read my disclaimer.

OPI Go Goth Set

Hey guys! Yesterday a nice package arrived, Kris was so sweet to send these to me. I know I'm superduper late to show you these but I'm still going to because they are awesome.

OPI's Go Goth set contains four mini polishes (Unripened, Nevermore, Sanguine and Obscurity) and one free cuff bracelet. I'm not using the cuff bracelet but I'll be definitely using the polishes! The packaging is nice, it comes in a nice designed small box and on the back of the box there are nail art tips. Very simple so everyone can do this, big plus!





But the most important thing of this post, the swatches!


First up is Unripened, a black based glitter. The glitter in the bottle looks blue and purple but on the nail it comes out like a greenish blue, very nice. The formula was really good and it was opaque in two coats. This shade is also available full size but I haven't been able to get my hands on it. If you have one and don't like it, think of me, pleaaaase? ;-)


Meet Nevermore, a purple based polish with purple and blue shimmer. The shimmer is leaning towards glitter but is too fine for me to call it glitter. Also this one applied nice, I used two coats and it was completely opaque. Now this one is reaaaaaaaally familiar but I'll tell more about it at the end of the post.


This is Sanguine, a dark red shimmer. This polish is lit from within, which basically means that you can see the colour really good on the center of your nail but it turns black towards the edges of your nail. I love shades like this! Application was good and I also needed two coats for this one.


Last but not least, Obscurity. Obscurity is a black matte polish. I'm not a big fan of mattes like this but it applied better than most mattes I tried. It was opaque with one coat but it showed little imperfections so I used two. I also used top coat over my index finger so you can see how it looks glossy - just like your regular black creme.

You've all seen the swatches, now I want to talk about Nevermore because it looked soooo familiar when I tried it. I took out the OPI bottle I was suspecting and guess what - they still looked alike!


The bottle I took was OPI Ink, and seriously, they are alike. I haven't read a lot in nail polish land lately because my laptop died but I haven't seen a comparison so here's one for you:


Well, they are alike. To me these are definitely dupes so if you want to buy yourself a full bottle of Nevermore (not there) - buy Ink. I'm quite sad about this really because if I worked at a nail polish company I'd create a new shade but hey, that's me, and hopefully I'll work there in a few years hehe.

What's your take on the Go Goth set?
Michelle

Shooting Stars

Hi guys! I still have some nail art stuff lying around that I've never used before and I decided to start using them. Now, I had some pink stars from Viva La Nails and you know I dislike pink so I started off with those.


First I painted my nails with China Glaze Something Sweet and I used my striper to add white (H&M Love at First Sight), pink (Ciaté Fun Fair), berry (Ciaté Main Stage) and 'reddish' purple (OPI DS Extravagance). After that I used white stars from the Essence Nail Jewels wheel and the pink stars from Viva La Nails. I topped this off with Nubar Diamont.

Well. How's that for a pink disliker! ;-) I took this off the next day because it really wasn't my colour but I'd like to try something similar with dark blue.

Thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Roses really smell like boo-boo

Hi guys! Last day of the weekend and hopefully the last day of that much rain! It has been raining almost non stop here and it's not only a mood killer, it's also kind of a swatch killer. So sun, please come back. I miss you dearly! Today's post is with a swatch that isn't the best evahhh but I want to show you anyway. I did another version of the roses manicure.


I used Color Club Uptown Girl as my base colour and Ciaté Main Stage and H&M Love at First Sight for the roses. The roses are swirled so if you want to do this practice on a paper first because you don't want to mix the two colours together into one. The leafs are swirled too, I used OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow and OPI Green-wich Village for them.

I see these designs coming up more and more lately and I really like them. Have you tried this once? If so, show me! I like seeing other versions of this kind of manicure. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

Nail Art Tutorial: Striped!

Hi everyone! As promised the nail art tutorial of my striped manicure. :-)


First of all, pick the colours you want to use. If you do this while working on this manicure (and you are terribly clumsy) you will have a chance of ruining your manicure and we don't want that to happen! I have used: Essie Pretty Edgy, OPI Green-wich Village, OPI Damone Roberts 1968, Zoya Ivanka and Zoya Veruschka. I'm someone who wants their colours to match otherwise I'll start to annoy myself but do whatever you like! :-)

The other thing you need for this manicure is a striper. You can use a small brush for this or a striper brush. Striper brushes can be bought apart or in a nail art brush set. Mine has gone to heaven a while back so I cleaned out a striper polish I never used and I took that striper brush.


Make sure you clean it right after you've used it, otherwise you'll mix up polishes. You can use a cotton pad soaked in polish remover for this.

Now, on to the manicure. After you have applied your base coat, apply your base colour. I chose OPI Green-wich Village as my base colour, a very fresh green. You can wait for it to dry but I'm always kind of impatient so I continue right away with the next step.

Before you start keep in mind you don't want too much polish on your striper. If so, than can turn runny and become a droopy mess on your nail. Is your line too sheer? Wait a minute and pull another line on top of the first.

1. Take a polish and dip your striper in it. Pull a vertical line from the bottom of your nail to the top. I've created one stripe on the left side of my nail with Zoya Veruschka.

2. Repeat step 1. I created two lines on both sides of my nail with OPI Damone Roberts 1968.

3. Again, repeat step 1. I created one line on the right side of my nail with Essie Pretty Edgy.

4. And for the last time, repeat step 1. I created two lines on both sides with Zoya Ivanka. After that you seal it with a top coat.

If you don't like to read, here's picture material. You can click on these for an enlargement:



And the result:


Done! Easy nail art that everyone can create. If your hand isn't that steady make sure your wrist rests on something, like a table. This way your hand doesn't shake that much. I hope this was helpful for you!

Have a great day!
Michelle