Saturday, June 20, 2015

Blue and Gold Key Mani

Nail stamping manicure featuring blue polish stamped with gold key motifs on middle and ring fingers.

Today's manicure continues my recent habit of quick and easy 'minute manis'. I like the finished look, but there really isn't a whole lot to say about it. As a result, I think I'll make this blog post quick and easy to match!

Polishes Used
Plate Used
Deborah Lippmann ‘On the Beach’
 Vivid Lacquer Plate VL028
Sally Hansen Color Foil ‘Liquid Gold’


Deborah Lippmann ‘On the Beach’, and Sally Hansen Color Foil ‘Liquid Gold’

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Black and Silver Simple Stamped Mani

Nail Stamping Manicure using silver glitter polish base stamped with black floral patterns on 2 accent nails (middle and ring fingers)

Polishes Used
Plate Used
Nicole by OPI 'Scandal Secrets & Sparkle'
Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A03
Konad Special Polish in Black


Today I have a very simple nail stamping manicure to share. I modified my last nail look by adding a few stamping details as accents.

Overall, I like the way that the black details completely refresh the look by adding a bit of sophisticated edginess! 
Scandal Secrets & Sparkle Nicole by OPI and Konad Special Polish in Black
Polishes Used

Monday, June 8, 2015

Scandal Secrets & Sparkle by Nicole by OPI

Today, I have a swatch of a nail polish that I've had for a few years:

Mani swatch of Nicole by OPI nail polish - silver glitter in a milky white translucent base

This is 'Scandal Secrets & Sparkle' from Nicole by OPI. This polish was part of their 2010 'Gossip Girl' Collection. I purchased it a couple years after it came out, on clearance for 2 dollars at a drug store. It's a silver glitter polish in a shimmery white translucent base.

I love the way that the white base softens the look of the glitter, and helps give the polish an overall etherial, fairy-dust sparkle look .

Bottle of Scandal Secrets & Sparkle by Nicole by OPI

I've been sticking to a lot of simple, quick manicures lately due to time constraints, so this is the perfect type of polish for a nail art lover like me with very little time on her hands. There's shimmer and sparkle to make the look pop, but it's a neutral colour with a toned down base so it works with a lot of outfits, and is that perfect mix of casual, and blingy! I just love it!

Monday, June 1, 2015

OPI Color Paints Leadlight Mani

Today I have a nail stamping manicure created using the 'leadlight technique' to share with you. For this mani I used the new OPI Color Paints Collection that has recently been released for summer 2015:

nail stamping manicure created using the 'leadlight technique', and OPI Color Paints: OPI Color Paints ‘Pen and Pink’, OPI Color Paints ‘Magenta Muse’, OPI Color Paints ‘Chromatic Orange’, OPI Color Paints ‘Primarily Yellow’, OPI Color Paints ‘Landscape Artist’, OPI Color Paints ‘Turquoise Aesthetic’, OPI Color Paints ‘Indigo Motif’, OPI Color Paints ‘Purple Perspective’, and OPI Color Paints ‘Silver Canvas’

It's been a while since I've done a manicure like this. I usually try to avoid doing full-hand leadlight manicures, since they tend to be very time-consuming. However, I was really excited to try out the entire line of OPI 'Color Paints', so I made an exception!

I first found out about the 'Color Paints' collection sometime in April, and learned that it was supposed to launch in early May. I was so eager to try these polishes, that I actually began hunting for them in different beauty supply stores near the end of April (just in case they were put out early!). I had no such luck. In fact, compared to other OPI collections, these polishes were relatively hard for me to get a hold of. A lot of the places that I usually go to buy OPI polishes don't seem to have them (...yet?). Perhaps that will change as we get a little further into the season.

Around the first or second week of May, I finally saw them on display in one of my favourite beauty supply stores. At the time, they only had a small display featuring only one each of the full sized colours, and 4 bottles of 'Silver Canvas'. Unfortunately, the one bottle of 'Magenta Muse' was sold out, so I could only purchase the other colours, and continue the hunt for the missing bottle. Funnily enough, that same colour was also sold out at the only other place I was able to find these at the time - and their display originally contained 3 of each colour! It took about another 2 weeks for me to finally be able to acquire that last polish - I ended up getting it when the first store I went to eventually got the larger '3 of each' display.

OPI Color Paints ‘Pen and Pink’, OPI Color Paints ‘Magenta Muse’, OPI Color Paints ‘Chromatic Orange’, OPI Color Paints ‘Primarily Yellow’, OPI Color Paints ‘Landscape Artist’, OPI Color Paints ‘Turquoise Aesthetic’, OPI Color Paints ‘Indigo Motif’, OPI Color Paints ‘Purple Perspective’, and OPI Color Paints ‘Silver Canvas’. Below: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Celeb City', Konad Special Polish in Black, and OPI 'In True Stefani Fashion'

Polishes Used
Polishes Used (Cont’d)
OPI Color Paints ‘Pen and Pink’
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear ‘Celeb City’
OPI Color Paints ‘Magenta Muse’
Konad Special Polish in Black
OPI Color Paints ‘Chromatic Orange’
OPI ‘In True Stefani Fashion’
OPI Color Paints ‘Primarily Yellow’

OPI Color Paints ‘Landscape Artist’

OPI Color Paints ‘Turquoise Aesthetic’
Plate Used
OPI Color Paints ‘Indigo Motif’
Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer Plate A06
OPI Color Paints ‘Purple Perspective’

OPI Color Paints ‘Silver Canvas’


As for my first impressions, I am quite pleased with the collection as a whole. The polishes worked really well for leadlighting, and that was the main use I had in mind when getting them. Also, I really like the 'foil wrapper' look that you get when you layer these translucent colours over a silver base. Normally I would use a white base for leadlighting, so this is a new idea for me, and I love it! My favourite colour in the collection is 'Turquoise Aesthetic' - it's a gorgeous shade, and it looks absolutely amazing layered over the silver base.

The only colour that I have a minor complaint about is 'Purple Perspective'. I find that it is almost a little too highly pigmented so you have to be really careful to not use too thick of a coat or else the purple doesn't 'glow' as much over the silver base, and reads almost as black. 'Indigo Motif' was the second trickiest one to work with due to the intensity of the pigment, but even with a slightly thick application, it still reads as blue, although it won't 'glow' as much.

Collage showing nail stamping manicure created using the 'leadlight technique', and OPI Color Paints: OPI Color Paints ‘Pen and Pink’, OPI Color Paints ‘Magenta Muse’, OPI Color Paints ‘Chromatic Orange’, OPI Color Paints ‘Primarily Yellow’, OPI Color Paints ‘Landscape Artist’, OPI Color Paints ‘Turquoise Aesthetic’, OPI Color Paints ‘Indigo Motif’, OPI Color Paints ‘Purple Perspective’, and OPI Color Paints ‘Silver Canvas’

And as for the manicure, I like how it turned out. It's colourful and fun, and again, it's something new for me because of the foil look that the silver base gives. The manicure is really busy, because the driving force behind my colour selection was to use all 9 colours from the collection, however, due to the success I had with this trial mani, I can't wait to start experimenting with these polishes using smaller colour palettes, and less intricate designs!