31 Day Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print (Fail!)

Hi Everyone!  So yes, as the title suggests, I tried to do an animal print, and failed. Go me!

So...I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm not a big animal print kinda person.  I've probably only done animal print nails once. Or twice. I don't really own animal print clothes...but admitedly, I <3 animal print bags.  Not just any animal print: Snake Print.  In hindsight, I should've just done snake print nails.  Instead, you have this sad look to my left.

So what I did was use O.P.I.'s I Don't Give a Rotterdam as a base color, and used my Art Club Nail Art Lacquer in Black to do the design.  What is it, you might ask?  It was supposed to be a Koala face.  I thought w/ some eyes and a long tear-shaped nose, it would be totally recognizeable.  Sadly, that is not the case.  I would need cute fluffly ears, and a little baby koala in the pouch.  So yes, it's a fail.  Seriously, I have no idea what I was thinking!  If it was a challenge that I liked, I might be tempted to do it again, but since it's Animal Print, I'm going to write this off as a fail and move on.  Someday...if I am so inspired...I will post a better animal print.  I have an idea for a snake print one that I want to try out...my last snake print idea did NOT work out.  At all.  Bleh...

Here's that challenge:

So...Flowers is next.  Hmm...my Summer Flower mani is pretty popular...I should try to make a new version of it. =)

Till Next Time!

Disclaimer:
1. Every product I used for this blog was paid for with my own money.
2. I am not affiliated with any of the companies who's products I used.
3. I am not being paid for this blog.
4. These are my honest opinions.

O.P.I. Shatter Polish (and Significant Other Color) Review

Hi Everyone! I hope you've all be enjoying my sudden wave of posts.  I know that I haven't posted this much since 2009 (crazy to think that I've been doing this for so long!), and I've really enjoyed it.  On the days I don't work overtime, I feel a nice amount of relaxation from doing my nails.  I probably won't be able to keep changing my nails so often, but I'll try to keep the posts coming. =)  So, I'm taking a short break from the challenge to give you this review. Hehehe, but don't worry, I'll be back working on Stripes soon enough!

Anyhoo, I got a chance to use Significan Other Color, which is a light pink, shimmery polish, along with Pink Shatter (both from O.P.I.). 

I actually a good amount of pics, although not all of them are the clearest.  As a total sidebar, I just wanted to let you know that the MyTouch 4G slide (with a boasted 8mpx camera) was what I had been using to take all these pics recently.  At first, the pics I took were amazingly clear.  And then, for some reason, the quality started deteriorating.  And also, it wouldn't focus on the right spots - for instance, I would try to focus in the middle of the screen, but it would focus on the outsides.  STUPID THING!  I was getting so frustrated!!!  But anyhoo, my contract is up in a couple weeks, and I will be getting the Samsung Galaxy S2.  Its camera is supposed to be good...and I guess you all will get the chance to see it for yourselves. =)  Kk, back to the review....

Here's Significan Other Color with 2 coats.  If I was going to wear this color without the shatter/crackle on top, I would definitely use another coat.  Although it's hard to tell from the pic, every finger has 2 coats, except the middle finger has 3.  Can you see the difference?  It's a little more opaque and more even.  Another O.P.I. polish that needs three coats from the haul!!! LOL  I suppose it's not a big deal...like I said, 2 coats works for the most part.  I just like having a more even look.

As for the Pink Shatter, I actually like it alot!!  Okay, so this pic on the right is how it turned out on my left hand.  The crackle is pretty gross, right?  Well...this is because I used a very thin application.  I was just testing to see how it would turn out...and (obviously) it turned out badly!  Once again, it looks like I just did a bad job of putting on polish, hahahaha.  This makes me want to go back and re-try the China Glaze one that's been giving me issues.  I'll prolly go with a really thick application and see how it works.  At this point, I believe that this pink crackles better than China Glaze's pink, but China Glaze's black crackles better than this Pink Shatter.  I will try more tests and confirm, hehehe.

Moving on to my right hand.  I did a semi-thick coat on my thumb, and progressively got thicker towards my pinky.  I definitely think this is the "trick" to this polish.  Just lay it on thick enough that you can apply polish to the whole nail with it starting to separate (crackle).  Also, try to swipe only once per part of your nail...sections where I overlapped didn't crackle as nicely.

All in all, I think it was a nice crackle polish to work with.  Once I got the "trick" down, it seemd to work pretty well.  As always, with crackle polishes, make sure your base color is COMPLETELY dry.  I absolutely love this bold pink color (similar to Essie's Watermelon!) and I'm glad a part of the proceeds with to help fight breast cancer.  As for price, I paid $4.50, so I think it's totally worth it.  However, I know the regular price of O.P.I. is around $8-$10, and I would really have to put more thought into it if I had to pay full price.  I think I would get this anyway, because I like the color and it shatters nicely.

I didn't test how it worked/looked if you swipe the the crackle polish from side to side or diagonal.  I guess I'll have to do it sometime, to see how it turns out.  I've seen XSparkage do that in a video (I might look up the link to to post here), and the polish crackles in differen directions.  I think it's kinda cool, although (for some strange reason) I just like the classic verticle cracklet best.

I'll probably be working on the next challenge soon.  I have an idea or two...I think...LOL.  Anyhoo, till next time!

Disclaimer:

1. I bought every product I'm showing by myself (nothing was sent to me for free).
2. No one has paid me or compensated me for this video or blog.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.

31 Day Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots + O.P.I. Haul

Hi Everyone!  I have started on the second range of the challenge - Patterns.  I kinda don't do polka dots well, so I decided to go with polka rings? Lol...Just a random design I wanted to try out with the new polishes I just got. =)

Sorry this pic is kinda funky and you can't see the design THAT great.  Basically, I put on two coats of O.P.I.'s I Don't Give a Rotterdam, and then drew dots on my tips with O.P.I.'s Yodel Me On My Cell, and then put dots of I Don't Give a Rotterdam in the middle of those dots.  That way the have a ring-like effect. =)  I used my biggest dotting tool, but I think (if I ever attempt this look again), I will use the next size down.  I mean, my nails aren't that long, so I don't have the real estate for big giant dots, hahah.

Here's the challenge:

Next up is Stripes.  I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll try to have something up in the next few days.  Can you believe I've actually been consistently posting?!?  Hopefully I can keep this up (or at least once a week up) for a while. 

Now on to the Haul!  So I finally had a little bit of extra pocket money, and decided to update my nail polish stash.  Normally, I don't buy too much O.P.I. mainly because it's pretty pricey.  However, I got a pretty good deal on the 6 bottles I got ($4.50 each), so I decided to limit my purchases to O.P.I. =)  There wasn't too much new China Glaze or Orly polishes available that I was interested in.  The store had quite a limited selection for those...I think I'll have to go to the other local nail supply store to pick up the new collection items, if I want them.  But....I'm limiting myself to one more nail polish splurge, and it's kinda price ($25!!!), so I probably won't be buying anything else for my stash...for a short while. =) I miss the days when I could just go buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted...it's hard growing up! LOL  Damn these bills and responsibilities!

Okie, so here are the six polishes I got (mostly from the Holland collection) from left to right:  Yodel Me On My Cell, Pedal Faster Suzi!, I Don't Give a Rotterdam, Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous (get it? har har), Significant Other Color, and Pink Shatter.

So far, I've tried I Don't Give a Rotterdam, Yodel Me On My Cell, and Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous (on my mom).  I can't wait to try the Pink Shatter, and compare it to the China Glaze ones. =)

For I Don't Give a Rotterdam, I used 2 coats for a semi-even coverage.  If I wasn't planning on doing a design, I probably would've used 3 coats for a more even coverage.  The coats are pretty thin, so I guess it's not a biggie to use 3...just more than I'm used to.  Like I've mentioned in the past, I prefer 2 coats. =)  For Yodel Me On My Cell, I only used it to make dots, so I can't really comment too much about the polish.

As for Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous, I used 2 coats for a pretty even coverage.  It's kinda sheer, though, so a 3rd coat might make it a little more opaque.  I think it looked pretty with just 2 coats, and I plan to get a swatch out.  I didn't do any designs or anything this time for my mom...just a basic mani.  Maybe when this project is over and I have more free time...

Overall, I enjoyed using O.P.I.  The brushes are a lot thicker than I'm used to (with Essie, especially), so it only took a few swips to get full coverage.  However, the colors I've used in this batch have all felt pretty thin/sheer.  I'll let you know how the rest of the colors work out.

Till next time!!

Disclaimer:
1. I bought every product I'm showing by myself (nothing was sent to me for free).
2. No one has paid me or compensated me for this video or blog.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.