You can't have it both ways...

caviar


...or can you?  So it's no secret that the hot new trend in the polish world is texture.  With flocked, sandy, caviar and leather effect nails popping up everywhere, it's difficult not to notice.  While I love trends like crackle and spotted and now texture, I also hate that they're just that; trends.  We all end up buying tons and tons of these and let's face it: those 15 bottles of crackle polish you bought last year are just sitting in a drawer now getting zero use. Who wants last years trend on this years nails? I've tried to find new and exciting ways to use these effects polishes but this go round I thought it might be more prudent to find ways to get in on the trend without shelling out a lot of cash.  So here's a little experiment I did for you. :)  Above you see a combination of both Models Own Coral Reef and Zoya Godiva.  I chose Godiva for this experiment because she is a neutral color and therefore seemed the least likely to interfere with the color of the Coral Reef.  On the index, middle, and pinky finger I used two coats of the Coral Reef followed by one coat of Godiva on all nails but the middle, and two coats of Godiva on the middle finger.  As you can see, there is no texture.  On top of a flat polish Godiva simply looks like a gold glitter.  A pretty one, but a flat one.  So then I decided to turn the tables. On my ring finger we have two coats of Godiva (allowed to fully dry) and then a single coat of Coral Reef.  Bingo. Now we have a flat color with a textured look. This is similar to the look of the Milani's, Barry M's, and Nails Inc textures which have no glitter, but rather, a flat tone effect.  Here's a close-up comparison:



Again on the left here we have two coats of Coral Reef topped with two coats of Godiva. I'm guessing this is why they tell you not to use a base coat because it just looks like glitter on my polish. It was not raised in any way.  On the right we have two coats of Godiva followed by one coat of Coral Reef.  See how it's textured but the color is there?  Now you can turn any polish into a textured polish without ruining your bottle by mixing it or shelling out for a million different colors of polish! Magic!  If any of you try this with different colors, I'd love to see the results!!

What Wizardry Is This?

avant garde


Well I visited my local beauty store today in search of some new pretties for my collection.  I came up sadly short handed. The China Glaze Avant Garde collection display was full. No surprise there. It's basically your standard creme Spring colors with some shimmer haphazardly thrown in.  Then there were a few of the OPI Euro Centrale collection leftover. I keep eying It's My Prague-ative but I just don't see myself really wearing it.  All in all the new collections have been really underwhelming for me.  Then I turned a corner and caught the OPI Oz The Great and Powerful collection. Most of the display was wiped out which is lame. I really wanted the glitters but upon finding that they still had the swatch panel I have to say I was really let down again. When Monkey's Fly, the glitter I had my eye on is basically just large hexes and the other two: Lights of Emerald City and Which is Witch, are really pretty overplayed as well. I may still grab Lights of Emerald City when it's back in. Square glitters are hard to find. Anyway as I was getting ready to leave empty handed I spotted this gem.  It's called What Wizardry is This and it's a new Liquid Sand polish. It. Is. Stunning. It reminds me of a deeper toned Warm & Fozzie.  It has SO many gorgeous sparkles and it's just amazing on my nails. It almost looks like sparkly stone.  It's MUCH prettier in my opinion than the previous liquid sands and I love that it doesn't have larger glitter chunks in it which ruin the effect somewhat. This is two coats and it's absolutely flawless. It could be one of my favorite polishes of the year!  I feel like this one is really a must have!

Do you have any polishes from the OZ The Great and Powerful collection? Witch (teehee) is your favorite?

Win my favorite OPI Liquid Sand!!

Blog giveaway


So you've seen all the OPI Liquid Sand polishes now and you all know that my favorite is the purple one! Well if you loved Can't Let Go too, then today could be your lucky day.  I'm going to give you all a chance to win a bottle for yourself!  I'd love to have given away the set but rising shipping costs have limited me and I want to keep this available for my international followers too!  Find details about entering below! This is a BRAND NEW full size bottle.  The winner we be drawn on the 24th of February and I will contact them via email.  You will have 48 hours to claim the prize or I will draw again. International entries are welcome. Thanks for following and good luck!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

OPI Stay The Night

Glitter
It's time for another OPI Mariah Carey swatch!  This one is called Stay The Night.  It's another liquid sand polish.  This one sort of reminds me of lava.  It has a black jelly base and then red glitter throughout.  This is two coats and no top coat or base coat.  I know they suggest using a base but I didn't use one for any of the liquid sands and had no issues with them.  Here's a close up shot of Stay The Night:

 

I could have probably used one more coat on this one, you can see it's still a little transparent on this close shot.  In reality though, it wasn't noticeable at all.  

Did you pick up Stay The Night?

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