The Addict has Returned

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Hey guys I am back from some fun in the snow. What did I miss most? Blogging and my darling dogs of course! I'm going to have to play catch up on the polish world too because I had no interwebs for a full week, arggghhhhhhhhh...

Here's a swatch of  Orly Sea Gurl from the Birds of a Feather Collection in a Farmer's store near you now:

2 coats Sea Gurl indoor lighting

with flash

I got this one in a 3 piece set (the only way of getting any of the Birds of a Feather polishes at the Papakura Farmers) for $39.95. I was quite pleased with the deal really, considering that 1 Orly sets you back $20-25. Sea Gurl (obviously a play on seagull!) is a shimmery graphite colour. Lots of silver microglitter in the medium-dark grey base makes this bird alright in my book. I wouldn't have bought this one if it wasn't in a set with Fowl Play cos it looked a bit boring but I think it is quite flattering in real life - must be a hint of yellow in it rather than blue! I didn't have any other colours like it in my collection either so that's a bonus. 

The next pics are me trying out different top coats

indoor lighting

with flash - i think :p

Thumb - Pinky: 2 coats of L.A Colors Color Craze in Star Light, OPI Black Shatter, China Glaze Cracked Concrete, OPI Silver Shatter, 2 coats of China Glaze Glam

I really liked how Sea Gurl looked with Black Shatter & Glam. I was trying the whole colour on colour look with the grey & silver crackles - clashed with Cracked Concrete because it's too blue & it doesn't pop enough with the silver, sadly.

Now I'm off to bed with my lovely Charlie. He's already snoring away and barking in his sleep (probably having some puppy dreams!!!). I think I need a boyfriend, snoring dogs on my bed make me sound like a crazy dog lady... hmmmmmm :p

Jelly Sandwich Attempt #1

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Greetings faithful readers,

Everyone seems to be doing jelly sandwiches lately so I had to join in & try it out. BTW a few weeks before I started the blog I wanted to see what putting a glitter under OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y? would look like (without ever seeing or knowing what a jelly sandwich was) and my sister talked me out of it. I'll have to tell her it's actually all the rage. Ha! Shum-a-lum-a-lum, kiss my bum! Oh primary school, how sophisticated our comebacks were!

Here's 2 coats of OPI Last Friday Night sandwiched either side with 2 coats of BYS Blue Bang & China Glaze Broken Hearted on my thumb and ring fingers as an accent. I topped it with Seche Vite which accounts for the tip shrinkage - I always get that when there are too many layers of polish under the SV. It's not usually too bad if it's a 2 coater or a thin 3 coater.

sunlight

flash - shows the glitter more clearly

Click the photos for a better view. It's not the best first attempt, ideally I would have just put one coat of Blue Bang on top; but I had to put 2 layers over Last Friday Night because I did an extra thick coat on my of my fingers and it looked stupid, so I had to add another layer to all the rest. I love how awesome LFN is for layering, whenever blues need extra POW! I added the Broken Hearted crackle cos my I buggered up the left thumb and didn't want to start over on it!!!

Hope your weekend was full of scrummy food. I just had some heavenly tiramisu!!!!!!!!!!!!

Misa Paradise Shore Blues & Color Club Tattered in Gold

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Not Sunday! The best and worst day of the week is nearly over...
So if you are experiencing Sunday melancholy here are some blues that may indeed improve your mood!

Misa Krystal Water is a deep sky blue glass fleck shimmer. There is an aqua/cyan look to it when the glass fleck is sparkling. It is a beautiful bright colour which applies like a dream - as I have found all Misa polishes do. In two - three coats it got to the opacity you see below & I think if you were to use ridge filler it could be opaque. Very fit for summers at the beach!

Krystal Water 3 coats - flash

Misa Mermaid Dreams is the darker of the two blues from the Paradise Shore Summer Collection 2011.  It is a medium or true blue glass fleck shimmer that leans aqua/turquoise like Krystal Water. The two shades look quite similar in my photos but in person MD is much darker than KW. Application was beautiful here too, but using 3 coats meant that it stayed tacky a lot longer so I recommend using a quick dry top coat like Seche Vite or Nubar Diamont.

Mermaid Dreams 3 coats -indoors no flash

I wore Mermaid Dreams as a mani and decided to try out Color Club Tattered in Gold from their new Fractured Collection.

I layered one coat of Tattered over MD & sealed it with 1 coat of Seche Vite. Some nails crackled better than others clearly. I think I used too little polish on my ring and pinkie, but I liked the effect on my other three nails. At first I was worried it wasn't going to fracture much but after leaving it to dry for a minute I got quite pleasing results. I prefer this kind of crackle effect to the really thin brush stroke cracks you can end up with using OPI Navy Shatter or China Glaze Cracked Concrete etc.
The shade itself isn't that special, I was hoping for it to be a bit more yellow but at least it's not overpowering. I like my shatters to make the most of the base colour and TIG certainly does that. It also has a very pleasing formula like a normal polish, not at all thick/gluggy & very spreadable on the nail.

What do you think? I purchased these lacquers from Transdesign, now Nail Supplies

xxx NPA

Hi My Name Is NPA And I'm A Polish Addict...

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I slipped up last night. And again today. I had a wee ebay splurge late last night buying 6 polishes (can't wait for these!!!!! 3 from the new Essie Braziliant Collection & 3 out of 4 in the yet to be released in NZ OPI Nice Stems Collection). Then while just 'having a browse' at the chemist I indulged in some rather expensive impulse purchases. I bought 3 OPIs & an Orly top coat. I am feeling sufficiently guilty though, rest assured.

The upside of this of course, is that I have new swatches for you! I bought the OPI Silver Shatter as well as the Navy Blue Shatter & Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry Collection because it looks so cool under the Black Shatter. So here they are:

Navy Shatter (flash)

Navy Shatter (indoors)

Navy Shatter (thumb close up)

I'm not sure why I got the navy because every swatch of it I have seen shows it shatters really crappy - it's so thin looking (jelly like finish to start with and a tad see through) and cracks straight down in very thin brush stroke like lines :(. But for some perverse reason I got it anyway and sure enough I don't love it, haha, I knew I should have got the Blue Shatter (the turquoise which is sooooooo beautiful and bright looking was sold out :p ). I applied it pretty thinly ( and over the top of China Glaze Sci-Fi which is chrome like and pretty light/bright, therefore navy looks much lighter than I've seen it on other blogs) because when I had tried it thicker it didn't shatter properly. The only one I like is the thumb - the cracks are a bit chunkier. I think it might grow on me, maybe...

Silver Shatter over Mermaid's Tears (flash)

Close up

Indoors/Shade

Silver Shatter is quite pretty. Much easier to wear than the other shatters because it is sparkly and light - not as overpowering and gothic like the Black Shatter. From a distance I'd guess it was just a foil-like top coat or something. I was quite surprised how dark the silver looks in the bottle compared to on the internet but the outcome was still the same. This had a much better formula than the Navy and Black Shatters (which get quite gluggy) thin in a good way and applied like a dream! I definitely recommend this the most out of all the shatters in my collection (CG Broken Hearted & Cracked Concrete, OPI Black & Navy, La Rosa Crackle White).

Teenage Dream - indoors/shade

Sunlight

flash

 

 Teenage is cute with the pink tint, micro glitter & holographic chunkier glitter but I would not wear it all on its lonesome. I think it would be a great layering polish over pinks especially. It looks pretty awesome under Black Shatter though - see the pics below: LOVE IT!

Black Shatter over TD (indoor/shade)

Black Shatter over TD (sunlight)

So what do you think? Has anyone tried Turquoise Shatter yet? I think that will have to be my next purchase... once I pay the credit card bill that is!!!!!!

NOTD: OPI Sparkle-icious + LaRosa Crackle White

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I did this mani last night while a wee bit silly on sleeping pills, just thought it'd be fun, I love playing with crackles but I'm not so good at keeping them on my nail for long, it might just be my colour combinations but this one is fun I think. Not work appropriate but good for summertime!!!

flash

no flash

close up without flash

So this is 3 coats of Sparkle-liscious, a very thick coat of Seche Vite and 1 layer of LaRosa ( you can see some layers were thicker than others! The index is far thinner than the ring finger - the thinner the more cracked), and to top it off another layer of seche vite. FYI Glitters give an uneven surface and to get the crackle to work right it has to be applied to an smooth surface.

So what do you think? BTW in case you are unaware you can click on the photo to expand it, I recommend because my camera isn't at all special so seeing them bigger only helps!!!

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection

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Yay! It has finally arrived! Six cremes for Autumn (for us and I guess Spring for the US, which makes sense when you see these pastel-y colours)I have gotten my hands on OPI Stranger Tides - the green/grey color of this new collection (my amazing mum bought it for me in Australia 2 weeks ago). Sadly, I haven't swatched it yet but here are some promo pics for you:

OPI also released a new shatter -silver and glittery - to coincide with the collection. Here's what it looks like over some of the cremes

I found the black shatter pretty hard to work with. I got ok results once or twice but now its gotten too thick and either applies way too brush stroke-y or it doesn't shatter at all :( All the bloggers have been saying how much better this shatter is though, it's thinner and has a better application so if it appeals to you I say go for it.

The above colours run fairly true to the pictures (well from the swatches I've seen online and my personal experience with Stranger Tides they do). Mermaid's Tears typically is a bit of a sell out but it is apparently a dupe for Orly Ancient Jade (of the Precious Collection) that which is in stores now too. Ancient Jade is also more pigmented then Mermaid's Tears so if you can handle the thin Orly brush go for it!

I really want Planks A Lot ( a pretty dusky light/medium purple) and Sparrow Me the Drama (dusky pink creme), but I don't LOVE LOVE the formula, to be fair it's pretty good but all pastel cremes have an annoying streaky/thick application in my opinion, though I'm sure a qualified manicurist could make it work a lot better than me. And it doesn't stop me from buying them every single time. I just hope my skills get better.

Skull and Glossbones is a dirty pale grey creme which I like but I don't need right now because it's fairly similar to essie Playa del Platinum, which I already have, (plus I suit warm/neutral colours and its a bit too cold for me and my mum keeps tut-tutting at all the amaze-balls colours I wear that don't suit me...). But this is what it looks like:

Lastly, Steady As She Rose looks pretty but I'm not that into pale pink cremes so it's a bit of a snooze.

Anyway, I'll get a swatch up of Stranger tides on my nails in the exit couple of days because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to steal these images from other people's blogs... I never took i.t. or copyright law at uni so i'm in the dark there.