Untried Polish Challenge - Number 14 Ugliest

This was hard at first because I love every polish I have, but after looking at all my untried OPI My Pointe Exactly stood out for being ugly, I thought 'Ew grey and sheer, that is going to look horrible'. I'd even saw pictures before and thought it looked pretty bad.  

Also sorry about the pictures, it was either huge or weirdly stretched out. My blog is being mean.

Natural Light - Shade

Although when I tried it, it really changed my mind, maybe it just looks better in person, but I love the way it looks just for when I want to give my nails a break.  It also looks so classy with the colour and the shine on it. 

 Natural Light - Sun

Because it was sheer, and I have had streaky sheers I was a little worried, but the application was flawless. I used four coats to make it at least fairly opaque, just because I wanted to hide most of my nail line.  This is without a top coat, so it is just that lovely and shiny without anything helping it.

Natural Light - Shade

My Pointe Exactly is from the OPI NYC Ballet collection, and I personally think it is a nice pretty sheer grey. I am now really glad that I ended up getting it, and I will for sure use it for work, and for days when I want to give my nails a colour break.

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 13 Most expensive

I am somehow behind now, so I am going to do a few in the next few days to catch up!

I feel like this one is misleading since I always use ones that cost me a lot right away. So I picked two OPI that I bought in the town I live in, since it's a small town and it's 11.50$ a bottle here. Which is why I normally get them in the city that is actually very nearby for between 5$ and 7.50$. But at the time both of these I loved so much I had to get them right away. I used Kennebunk-Port as the bright red under, which is way more red than it looks in the bottle, and Royal Rajah Ruby for the darker red.

Natural Light - Shade

I didn't have huge plans for this, I did one coat of  Kennebunk-Port and man is it a pretty red, I was going to throw on a few gems and be done, but it was actually so much brighter than in the bottle that I felt I needed to darken it down a little for when I'm in class. The formula was amazing and I felt pretty good about my nails with one thick coat. I ended up using the other red that I could actually remember paying full price for which was Royal Rajah Ruby to cover most of it though. 

 Natural Light - Sun

Royal Rajah Ruby is wayyyy more pretty than in the bottle, the red is so deep, and it has a shimmer that you don't really notice that much when you aren't looking at close pictures of it. 95% of the time it looked like the top picture, but when the light catches it you can see that pretty shimmer. I really like gold so I threw a few gems on top just to give it a little extra.

 Natural Light - Flash

See that awesome shimmer?!? I loved both of these polishes, even if Kennebunk-Port did turn out to be a really vampy red. That means I will just use it on days off rather than on days I am teaching class. I would recommend both of these colours if you like reds, they both treated me so nice.

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 12 Glitter

I actually ended up doing this early because I am going to be out of town, and so I can post it on the day without having to worry about typing it all up and taking pictures while I am not at home. So this mani is like 3 days ago.

I saw Glitter and I knew I wanted to do Orion Syndicate nails as my last Star Trek nails. I wanted green to match Orion skin, so I picked Green Meadow from Quo by ORLY which is such a pretty green. I then picked Greed by GOSH as my gold pressed latinum sparkles. 

Natural Light - Sun

I did two coats of Green Meadow and I was pretty impressed by how lovely it was. The brush is nice and thick and it's short enough that it is super easy to apply. The formula was also really nice, it was thick and fairly opaque. One coat you can see though, but two coats were good although I did do them pretty thick. I also adore this colour.  

 Fluorescent Light

Over Green Meadow I put one very thin coat of Greed, trying to avoid getting too much glitter in the first coat. I really like greed because it is large gold hexes, medium gold hexes, small gold circle glitter and small rainbow glitter in clear base with gold shimmer. It's very pretty. 

 Natural Light -Shade

To get more glitter at the top I put a swipe on a sponge and sponged it on to the polish. I also placed the rhinestones on the accent nails and I ended up really really liking this look. 

 Close up so you can see the glitter

Natural Light - Shade

After I hung out with my sister and I couldn't resist taking a picture with our hands together. I love baby hands.

Me and my sisters baby 

one normal coat of Greed (I was careful not to get much glitter at the top)

You can really see the gold shimmer in Greed here I and how it looks when light is catching it, and when it isn't. Both polishes were awesome, and easy to work with. I have had this polish on for the last three days now and I don't even want to take it off. That never happens to me, I can't stop looking at my hands.

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

I am obsessed with Hannibal lately, so I did a Hannibal theme on my nails!

I have been horribly obsessed with the Hannibal TV show since it came out, I pretty much just watch the show right away and then re watch it until the new show comes out. Since today is Thursday and it's on today, I decided to do my nails with the theme. Even though it puts a break in my startrek inspired nails, I just had to!

OPI Alpine Snow, GOSH Nero, GOSH Miss Mole, GOSH With a Twist, 

Zoya Trixie, Sally Hansen Wine Allusion

My thumb was the antlers from the first episode when the hunter was hanging the girls on the deer horns. I used Miss Mole mixed with Nero to make the brown for the antlers, and used a small nail brush to paint the mixed polish onto Alpine Snow. Once I was finished I used a brush to add a 'blood' affect to the nail.

My pointer is based off the latest episode in which Hannibal starts collecting body parts for a dinner party and it shows the lungs on the breadboard. So I used Wine Allusion mixed with alpine snow in different amounts to draw a mini lung on my pointer. 

 Natural Light

 For my middle finger I drew mushrooms growing on top of each other, like the mushrooms that were growing from the murder victims in the show titled 'Amuse-Bouche'. I used Miss Mole and With a Twist both alone and mixed with different amounts of Alpine snow to get the colours, although it ended up mostly covered by the blood splatter on top.

Natural light

On my ring finger I did the Hannibal mask from the movie. I did this by  starting with one coat of Nero, and then used With a twist to draw the mask. On top I used Miss Mole to add the darker shades  to the mask and another mix of Miss mole and Alpine Snow to do the lighter parts. I used Zoya Trixie and a fine brush to add the bars to the mask, used my dotting tool with Nero to add the holes in the mask in the right spots.

My pinky is just a blood spatter using two different brushes.

Fluorescent light

-

Anyway, I really had fun with this, even though they aren't 'pretty' nails. I just hope that this show gets another season!

- Anna

 

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 11 Cheapest

 I actually bought Maybelline Pink Cosmo for 1$ because I thought it was the right colour for my nails if I ever finished my Cardassian uniform, and since I never finished it, I have yet to try it. So I get to keep my hidden Star Trek theme for a little bit longer. Which I am trying to go through with until I hit the end of the month, but I might have to just be satisfied with the end of this week.

Pink Cosmo is a sweet light pink and greeny-gold duochrome shimmer, which is a very is a nice, but slightly odd colour. Although the colour is ideal for what I bought it for, it is not my favourite polish to work with. It was a little streaky and so sheer it took about 4 coats before it covered my nail line, but if I held my nails up I could still easy see though them. At least I know that now so if I wear this again I know how long it's going to take to do.

Natural Light - Maybelline Pink Cosmo, and Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity

So here it is at four coats, I did my accent nails with a scales to match with Cardassian skin and I was pretty happy with the results.

 I used a stamp of Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity which is a magnetic polish, but also it's a dark colour and that was what I needed. It also fits under cheapest as my second cheapest at about 1.50$. It was surprisingly fantastic to stamp, and it was enough off an off black that it matched with the colour. 

Natural Light 

I added black gems to top it off since I think of studded black plastic when I think Cardassian. I also threw a topcoat of GOSH Matte on the nails that I did the scales on and I think I actually like this colour better when it's matte. 

Fluorescent Light

Here you can see the duochrome, which I think is constantly growing on me. Also there is a little wear on my nails at this point since I wore these to work yesterday.

Natural - light shade.

I am not in love with this colour, or at least for normal nails, but I do like it enough for what I bought it for. If you love this colour I would wear this over another colour so that you don't have to do 4 or more coats.

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 10 Three Colours

 Since I am still feeling Star Trek, and I just started watching a few episodes again today. I decided to do my nails off of one the outfits T'pol wears in ST Enterprise.

I used a base of two coats of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, and once it dried I stamped on GOSH Blue Balloon for slightly darker strips. For the tips and light strips I used Lofes 613, and after it all dried I put a strip of tape on the line.

 Natural light

T'Pol on the left

 I got the Lofes as a gift from a friend while I was in Taiwan, so I don't know the name of the colour since it's in Korean, only the number. The Lofes was a little bright for the uniform, but it was close enough for me.

 I also love blue, so this gave me a chance to use up a few of my unused polishes.  Blue Balloon is a very pretty colour and I am for sure going to use more of it the next time I do blue nails.

The Lofes has a cute little rose on the lid so I had to take a picture. The polish went on really well on the tips and was easy to work with, so I would like to try more of this band and see how it is if I ever get the chance. 

All three polishes were easy to work with, the OPI was a dream to put on, and got great coverage in two coats. I felt that all three polishes were a dream this time. 

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 9 Cool

I did this a few days ago, but I wanted to save it for the cool challenge and then I somehow missed the posting day!

 My sister had a little baby boy! So to celebrate I did my nail. I decided to do this as cool, because I was using OPI Alpine Snow (white). Also I wanted to try out Blu and Yummy from Zoya (I am never going to get to all my other unused if I keep buying stuff :p)

Zoya Blu, Zoya Yummy, OPI Alpine Snow - Natural Light shade

Yup, I chopped off my pointer while snapping him into his car seat, somehow my nail went in with the buckle, but it was well worth it.

His baby feet

I did twos coat of Zoya Blu, and man did it go on well. Although it is rather thick, and I had to push it to the side in one part I found that other than that it was pretty much perfect, I had no streaks and no bubbling at all. After I dotted Zoya Yummy on top for most my fingers.

Fluorescent light (I started filing my pointer down as you can see here)

On my accent nails I did a ombre with Alpine Snow and Blu. I used two coats of Alpine Snow to get that nice bright white and then I just used the old sponge way to make the ombre. When I was finished I used my dotting tool to make tiny little baby footprints on the nail using Yummy. And it is yummy, what a lovely blue, I am going to have to use this again in something fantastic. I loved all three colours, and was glad that I ended up getting them all. On my thumb I did the same ombre and stamped on some hearts using Yummy. 

Fluorescent light

Anyway I am delighted about my new nephew <3 and it was a fun challenge. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! 

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

It's that awesome time of the year!! Star Trek Into Darkness

So I don't often get a reason to wear my uniform, yes I have a uniform, so I needed nails to match. I spent the day running around and looking for a good matching polish. The problem is it's kinda a hard colour to match by what is in the bottle. Lucky for me the girl working at the cosmetics counter was willing to let me try every single Teal until a found my match and surprise surprise it was GOSH :p

( My next post will say why my pointer is so tiny :( )

So I started with GOSH Golden Dragon, which in the bottle looks almost green because it's got a mad gold shimmer to it, but when you put it on, it dries to the right colour.

Natural Light - Sun

I did two coats of Golden Dragon, and it went on pretty well, it did leave a bit of brushstrokes because of the shine it has to it, but I cured this by just using a thick coat on top and it went away as it dried. 

On top I used GOSH Nero, and GOSH Gold to make the uniform badge as it is the right colour of gold. 

I used the Sally Hansen Wine Allusion for the nurse symbol, and I threw a topcoat over it to finish it off.

Natural light - Shade

I was a tad hurried, but I am really super happy with how it turned out and how well it matches my uniform! Yay excited for tonight!

- Anna

OPI and Zoya Comparison

As requested, here is the comparison of OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke and Zoya Kerry. Both are a similar colour of gold, but I really feel that they are really different polishes. 

I would say OPI is like a gold shimmer in a sheer base, Kerry is more like micro foil in a sheer base. So Kerry ends up being very metallic, and OY- ends up with more of a layered glow.

 1 Coat.  Left- OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke Right - Zoya Kerry

As you can see they are both sheer with one coat, already you can see the differences. They are flecks of gold in a sheer base, but OY-- is flecked with a warmer gold than Kerry, and it also has less gold flecks in it. The shine is totally different as well, Kerry is a metallic shine and OY-- is is a warm glow. OY-- dries rough where Kerry dries smooth. 

2 Coats.  Left- OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke Right - Zoya Kerry

As you can see at two coats OY-- you can still see my nail under it, and where the light isn't shining on it you can still see my nail pretty clearly, where Kerry pretty much is opaque although I can still see though my nail at this point. 

3 Coats.  Left- OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke Right - Zoya Kerry

At three coats OY-- is just starting to cover the nail, but I can still see though it very clearly, and Kerry pretty much tops out. At this point Kerry is completely metallic and looks like gold all over my nail. OY-- is starting to really get some depth that Kerry does not have, and it also has a warmer shine.

4 Coats.  Left- OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke Right - Zoya Kerry

 5 Coats.  Left- OPI Oy-- Another Polish Joke Right - Zoya Kerry

I can see see through my OY-- nail if I hold it up to the light, but you can't really tell other than that. and look at that depth, and that glowy look to it. Oh yeah I love this polish.

Kerry is like having gold shining all over my nail, it catches the light in the best ways, and even without a topcoat is smooth.  Pure gold love.

I would recommend getting them both, even though they are a similar colour, they are so different and so very lovely.

But if you can only get one, I would recommend getting OY-- if you want something to go on another colour as when the light isn't shining on it you can see through it like almost nothing is on there. Or if you just really love the depth.

If you want something to go on as just a gold nail, or you want something for ruffian or other types of art where you are putting the gold under, or want something to look really metallic I would go for Kerry.

-Anna