OPI Designer Series Amethyst

Because I am so far behind, here is a quick mani I did back in early May. Amethyst is a gorgeous mauve holo. It applied quite easily, with no dragging or cuticle pull. I really love the formulas of OPI holos, and how they aren't really affected by which topcoats are applied. Especially now that it's summer, I'm finding holos really delightful. So, on that note, here's a little picture spam of OPI DS Amethyst:

(all pictures taken in sunlight)

Until next time!

Strawberry Fields

Okay, so I have these two ancient Old Navy minis, and I'm trying to find a dupe for the pink one. I got Strawberry Fields thinking it might match it and it doesn't really, but it's still a pretty color. It's brighter and a little cooler than my mini, but I liked wearing it anyway. It's a very princess-y sort of pink, so I put little crown stickers on it.

Flash:

Natural Light:

This is three coats that applied pretty normally. Nothing unexpected for better or worse. Wear time was pretty average on this too--I think it got four days with minor chipping.

Also, I'm really sorry about the delay again! :( Both Lacquermuse and I started work this week and things have been really chaotic in the personal as well as job worlds.

Pure Energy!

This is one of my new favorite polishes, Pure Energy by Color Club!! I looove this color!! ♥ Check it out!

Natural light:

I tried it on back in late April on a whim and it really "blue" me away, haha. It's the brightest, neonest blue you could ask for and it applied like a dream! I think this is three coats, but that's in part because I do three automatically by now. Two probably would have been sufficient. I used Color Club's Vivid topcoat (really loving that one, too) and this lasted marvelously! I wore this for at least five days but could have gotten more wear out of it. I wasn't even tired of it when I decided to take it off. It was just that other people were doing their nails at the time and I didn't want to be left out, lol.

To really love this color, though, you need to see it in direct sunlight...

Wow! How blinding is that?! You can see that my camera was acting up a little with this picture, but it really was that bright blue. It was the same color as the swimming pool! :)

I did also put on a layer of OPI's Can't You Sea, but it didn't change the base color. Can't You Sea is an old (read: not Big Three Free) and very very sheer polish that Lacquermuse and I found when we wandered into this tiny mani/pedi place. They were selling a bunch of old polishes and Can't You Sea just looked too pretty to me to pass up, even if it has tons of nasty chemicals.

It really reminds me of OPI's And This Little Piggy..., especially in the bottle. They are similar tones of pink and blue and they both have the same sort of fleck glitter. I took a couple pictures of them side by side in natural and bright light for comparisons. If you enlarge these pictures, you can see that they both have the same yellow glitter mixed in with their pink/blue as well.

I brought both Pure Energy and Can't You Sea home with me and definitely plan on experimenting with them some more! :) They're just too much fun!

No More War

Sorry about the delays in posts! For some reason both Lacquermuse and myself have been having internet connectivity problems. :( I'm uploading a bunch of pictures all at once today, so hopefully updates can continue as usual for a while now! :)

Anyway, I wore No More War with a couple stickers for my birthday back in May. I really like this color and wore it once last winter. It's a very interesting swampy color and it goes on pretty well, although I realized after looking at these pictures that there are a couple places where you can see through the polish. It doesn't really dry, either, which was annoying. I ended up having to take it off the next day because it was just getting wrecked by packing up and moving out...

No flash, shadow:

Flash, shadow:

Another interesting thing about this polish is that it's the exact color of artichokes! I cooked a couple artichokes (trying to empty out the fridge, haha) and they really were the exact same color. I wanted to take a picture, but by that point they were in pretty bad shape and I didn't want to scare everyone. ;)

Flash:

I think I bought these stickers on a Sally's run. I like them! They're on the thicker side, though, so I had to choose fairly flat nails to place them on. They're quite long, too, so I was glad that my nails had grown out enough to be able to use them!

edit I just found out that RBL will be bringing back No More War soon and it's now available for preorder on their website. :)

Blackout

Lacquermuse and I agree that Icing's Blackout is one of the most awesome polishes ever! We have backups (yes, that is plural), because it is just that amazing. Blackout is a jelly black with holo glitter and looks great either built up by itself (3-4 coats) or layered over another black.

Unfortunately I didn't get the greatest pictures of it and the holo refused to photograph unless I used flash even though it's really very obvious in normal lighting.

Flash:

Lacquermuse and I actually made a special trip to a mall farther away than we usually go (especially when there are two malls much closer by...) just to stop by at Icing and search for backups of this! I'm so glad this isn't a limited edition! It's so cool, I thought that for sure they were just going to release it for one season and then snatch it away...!

SpaRitual Nail Lacquer Muse

It's my first SpaRitual Nail Lacquer in Muse!

I originally ordered Muse because I "had to make shipping worth it" for SpaRitual Optical Illusion, I liked the name, and I didn't have anything like it.

Full Sun:

Fading Evening Light:

It's an unusual plum-tinged bronze with rainbow micro shimmer. The purple tones don't really show up in these pictures, but I assure you they're there. :) I don't usually wear this sort of color, but I really liked it on me. It's very work-appropriate, very sophisticated. It sort of has an Greek/Roman goddess feel to it. I really can't think of a better way to describe it than that.

Flash:

This lasted for a whole week with only very minor tipwear. I had to take it off to patch my index finger (which I then broke properly today, grrr), but otherwise I'm sure I could have worn it several days more.

I'm curious: What are your favorite SpaRituals? What do you think of Muse?

Until next time! Thanks for reading!