Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme with Sephora by OPI Naughty is the New Nice and OPI Simmer and Shimmer (accent)

A mani I did recently...2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme, and on my accent nail, 1 coat of Sephora by OPI Naughty is the New Nice and 2 coats of OPI Simmer and Shimmer. I really liked this combo! The orange and blue really go pretty nicely together.

Lara's Theme is great as ever, still one of my all time favorite polishes. Definitely the best orange I've ever used. Last time I used Simmer and Shimmer, I didn't use a base color, and that helped sooo much this time. Naughty is the New Nice looked great under it.

So, pretty sure I'd say this mani was a success!

Sincerely, Cat

Franken -- Heavy Metal

Eeeee!! Look at one of my newest frankens! I'm in love with it :)

I named this baby after Lady Gaga's song Heavy Metal Lover, one of my favorite songs at the moment. It just seemed so fitting, cuz I mean...look at it! The glitter, the shimmer, the base color...it's crazy! I adore this.

I don't even know how to describe the color of this. I used two coats, and it's like a dark charcoal, multi colored foil, filled with every shade of shimmer, some random glitter, a couple flakies and some larger silver holo glitter. In the right lighting you can see the almost-duochrome-ness of it, and in certain lighting, it even looks a little holo-y.

This is so ridiculously random with the shimmer and everything...I'm in love with it. I can't even stand how much I love it. Ah!!

Sincerely, Cat

Essie Pretty Edgy w/ OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air accent

This is an oldie from this summer that I found in my drafts! Here's Essie Pretty Edgy with an accent nail of OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air.

Obviously since these pics were taken a couple months ago, I'm not positive on number of coats, but I do remember that Pretty Edgy had a great formula, so I'd assume I used 2 coats, and Fresh Frog was not so much a great formula. I used at least 3 or 4 coats of the glitter, if not more. It wasn't actually the formula that wasn't good, it's just that it's one of those glitters where full coverage is nearly impossible. That's fine with me, though.

I really like this combo. Pretty Edgy is so gorgeous. I can't believe it was still in my untried pile! Crazy!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue w/ OPI Servin Up Sparkle w/ Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!

Another of the Germany collection...I felt the need to spice this one up with some glitter, lol! Also, as you can see, my long nails are long gone...time to break out the short tips again! Nothing wrong with that of course, but it does feel weird to adjust to short nails again. Ah well.

This is 2 coats of OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue, 1 coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle, 1 coat of Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. Excuse the tipwear...it looks a LOT worse in pictures. I didn't realize how bad it was till I started looking through these pictures, ha.

Unfor-Greta-Bly was a good polish, if a little boring. The formula was great, the finish is nice, it's just that the color's not all that unique. Pretty much your basic blue shimmer. I mean, it's obviously a great polish if you don't have anything like it in your collection, but looking through my few hundred polishes...yeah, I see some very similar ones just at first glance. SUS is great as always, but I thought my nails could use a little something more...so I added Beam Me Up Hottie (hahaha I absolutely love that name...that's basically what I bought it for, but it is actually great), my recent glitter obsession. BMUH is all glitter of the same size--large holo silver hex in a clear base. It's seriously awesome and looks good over anything, but it goes especially nicely as an addition to SUS. So nice.

So, I guess that's basically all for now!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest

Here's a polish from OPI's gorgeous Germany collection this fall! Seriously, I've fallen head over heels for this collection. It's pure fall perfection. This is actually, I think, the 3rd or 4th of the Germany polishes that I've used, but I didn't photograph all of them. Hopefully soon, lol!

Look at this! This is so vampy and pretty. Hard to describe, which makes it all the better. It looks like a red/brown/purple vampy shimmer. Really, though, it's more of an indigo-purple with bright red shimmer at first, but it builds up to a vampy wine shade.

Two coats here, and one of Seche Vite. It's super shiny, smooth...great formula, brush, everything. Seriously, this fall collection is phenomenal. Of all the polishes in this collection I've used so far, everything's been pretty much flawless. I'm in love.

And I'm so happy that this year's fall collec is awesome, because for the most part, I didn't like last year's collection at all. (Except for Roadhouse Blues, but that's a different story.) This collection sorta reminds me of the Swiss collection a few years back, which I also adored. Not really totally similar, but they're alike in some ways. I don't know. Anyways.

Sincerely, Cat

Incoco purple glitter gradient polish strips!

More polish strips! Yay! This is my first time trying out Incoco because I won these strips free in a giveaway from Seventeen magazine! Haha. I think they're called "Perfect Prom Purple" but I'm not really sure so I just refer to them as purple glitter gradient strips lol. It's funny though because I wore purple to prom this year so when I saw the name of these I was like "perfect prom...hmm." So I compared them to my dress still hanging in my closet and they truly are the perfect purple to match my dress...what a coincidence. Anyways.

Application on these was like all other polish strips I've used: pick your strip, peel off the clear layer, peel off the backing, smooth onto your nail, file off the excess. I found these to be the complete opposite of the Sephora by OPI Trend Tips I tried a couple weeks ago in my last post--the excess was really difficult to file off and my tips ended up really rough because of that. I'm guessing that's because these are glitter strips, which I've never tried before. I've only ever used shimmer polish strips, I'm pretty sure.

That was one downside...the rough edges cause A LOT of tipwear, like HUGE tipwear by the next day. There was no way I could keep wearing them without touching up my tips, so luckily I found that OPI Grape Set Match was a PERFECT match on the tips of these. Sigh of relief! I ended up doing a touchup every day that I wore these (5 days total...I can't handle keeping the same manicure on for much longer than that!) and it really needed it every single day.

Besides that issue, I think these are extremely gorgeous, especially on longer nails. I wanted to use these while my nails were long (I've since cut them down completely :( ) and I'm serious, it looked stunning in person. I got a lot of people asking if I did these myself...ha, I wish! The one thing about the design is that I can't decide if I love it or not that it's not a very gradual gradient..it goes from super light, pretty much clear at the bottom, to dark purple right in the middle, with not too much in between. On the one hand, I wish there was more mid-toned purple in the middle, to make it look like more of a true "fade" look. But on the other hand, I looove that they basically look like glitter-fied purple French tips. I never wear French manicures, but when they're done right, I think they can be one of the prettiest things in the universe. These strips? Totally gorgeous. Love them.

It was nice to get to try out a new brand...I did really like these, but if I use Incoco strips again, I'd probably go for more of the shimmer finish ones. But, I can put up with the hassle of glitter strips if they're as beautiful as these ones!

Sincerely, Cat

Sephora by OPI Trend Tips in Feathers

Polish strips have been my jam lately! One of my friends gave me a box of the Sally Hansen ones for my birthday and I really, really liked them, so when I found these ones at Sephora, I had to try them out. How cute is the design?!

These pictures were taken one week after I put the strips on. I think they held up really well, considering how long my nails are and how harsh I am on my nails, lol. Aside from a little tipwear, I had no chips or any damage after a week. The only sort of wear I noticed was along my cuticles. On the nails where I didn't press the strips on quite as well, the strips started to lift a teensy bit, but none of them started peeling or anything like that.

Application on these was like other polish strips I've tried. Start with bare nails, find the strip that fits, detach it, peel off the clear part, and peel off the backing. Then of course smooth them onto your nail and file off the excess. I find application on strips is easy but fairly time consuming. I love not having to wait for them to dry, though. I also liked that it seemed especially easy to file off the excess on these...on some thicker strips I've tried, it seems like it's more difficult to file off the ends, and they end up all ragged and catching on stuff...not these. I was disappointed though that the tiniest strip was too skinny for my pinky, but the next size up was too wide. I ended up using the smallest one, and since there was a huge gap between the strip and my skin, I cut off a little of another strip and put it on the gap. It blended in perfectly and surprisingly it worked out pretty well.

Another thing I don't like is that there's 16 strips in here, enough to get 2 manicures out of if you work carefully, but they're all packaged together, so you have to use them all at once or they'll dry out. I only used 10 or 11 strips (if I tried, and if my nails were shorter, you'd only need 5 for a full manicure) so I was left with 5 or 6 strips, and they were all the bigger sizes. Perfect for toenails, but I'd already done a pedicure. I ended up putting them back in the foil wrapper and taping it shut so maybe (I'm hoping!) they won't completely dry out and I can use them for a pedicure soon. If they do dry out, oh well. I still got a week's manicure out of it.

I don't feel like the price on these is too bad. They were $12, but I imagine if I had the patience to keep a manicure on for more than a week that these would last AT LEAST 2 weeks. Sadly, I can't even imagine keeping a manicure for more than a week...I get way too antsy. I need change, lol! Seriously, I start getting anxious to change my nails if I don't do them at least every other day, if not every day. Sad but true.

I think it's funny though...I've had a lot of people lately ask if my nails are fake, but they think I did this manicure myself, when it's the other way around. My nails are real, but my mani's fake, lol! I wish I could do these nails myself. Ha.

Sincerely, Cat

Deborah Lippmann Flash Dance

Oh. My. Gahhh. How gorgeous is this?! Just...look at it. I could stare at this manicure for days, seriously.

2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Flash Dance, 1 coat of Seche Vite, and 1 coat of OPI Top Coat. Good coverage on this...two coats was great. The problem with it (as with many glitters) is that it's a total topcoat eater. It was extremely rough and bumpy after 1 thick coat, so every day I wore this I added another coat of the OPI Top Coat over it. Which helped, but it was still bumpy as heck, lol.

Seriously, it's stunning. It's kind of a purple-y, magenta jelly base, with tiny pink and purple glitter and larger hot pink glitter. I feel like I could just gush about this all day.

I can't wait to wear this again! I've been wearing a lot of glitter lately. I'm in looove with glitter, besides removal, but even that's not really that bad, because I've been using one of those little scrubby tub things lately. It's so convenient!

And I love the length of my nails right now, too! I've been growing them out just for fun to see how long they'd get before they broke, and they look awesome. I have to cut them soon and I'm gonna be so sad, lol! But they do get pretty annoying at this length. So, I guess I won't mind going back to super short nails soon.

Anyways, just wanted to show this extremely pretty polish off!

Sincerely, Cat

China Glaze For Audrey w/ Sephora by OPI Lagoon-a Beach

Here's one of my favorite combos that I've worn a couple times lately: China Glaze For Audrey and Sephora by OPI Lagoon-a Beach. Two coats of FA, one coat of LB, I believe.
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this layering because it looks super gorgeous! Lagoon-a Beach (which unfortunately isn't available anymore...and my bottle is running pretty low...eek!) is way too sheer to wear on its own. I did wear it alone once, and it took four coats just to look somewhat decent. So I was trying to find a color to wear under it...I thought maybe OPI What's With the Cattitude, but then I saw For Audrey and it just worked out perfectly. FA is bright enough to really make the shimmer of LB shine, but it's not so overpowering that the shimmer isn't noticeable...I don't really know how to explain it, but it looks really really nice, lol. Very summery and beachy...reminds me of the ocean!!

Sincerely, Cat

Tiny China Glaze/OPI haul!

Just a few polishes I picked up yesterday from Sally's and Trade Secret. Left to right: ChG Splish Splash, OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, ChG Beach Cruise-r, OPI Gone Gonzo, ChG Exotic Encounters, ChG Flip Flop Fantasy, ChG Hang-Ten Toes, and ChG Sun Worshipper.
The base coat, Flip Flop Fantasy, and Sun Worshipper are all backups of my current bottles...I started using the OPI base coat a few months back and I really, really like it. It's a lot better than the base I was using before. And FFF and SW are 2 of my favorite neons and they're running low, so obviously it was a good idea to get backups.
My Sally's didn't have much for the On Safari collection or the Summer Neons, but I did find a few...the only Safari that caught my eye was Exotic Encounters, which is a really nice dusty green. And the other 3 neons were super cute so I had to get those ones...there was really only a few blues and pinks left mostly, but I do like the ones I found.
And of course I got my base coat at Trade Secret, but I've been really into glitter lately so I decided I might as well pick up Gone Gonzo too.
So yeah...not too exciting but I was still glad I could pick these ones up! I can't wait to use all my new neons...I love neons so much lol!

Sincerely, Cat

Deborah Lippmann Private Dancer

I gave in and bought another Lippmann Mirrored Chrome (or whatever they're called) polish! This is the one I was originally eyeing anyways so I don't feel too bad...my Nordstrom got some more bottles of this shortly after I bought Sugar Daddy. 

I had issues capturing this one as well. The duochrome shows up so well in real life but terribly in pictures! This is a pretty metallic purple, with lots of pink tones as I can see, and with some great flashes of green and gold. It's not quite as duochromey as Sugar Daddy (the flashes in that one are CRAZY), but I still like this lots.

Application, not bad. A little bit of drag near cuticles, but then that's usually my fault. Used 3 coats here, was gonna go with 2 but 3 darkened it up perfectly. I wouldn't wear less than 3 coats. Perfect opacity. Very pretty! I like this, maybe not as much as Sugar Daddy, but I'm still impressed.

Anyways, I guess that's about it for now!

Sincerely, Cat