OPI Wing It! (with glitter gradient)

Here's OPI Wing It! 2 coats and 1 coat of Seche Vite. Thought about using 3 coats but I kind of like how it looks with just a tiny bit of VNL. Such a pretty color...I use this a lot. Makes a nice pedi. Beautiful pink/red/almost orange at certain angles, with blue-ish glass fleck shimmer. Hard to describe, but just gorgeous. Wish this was still available, my bottle's running pretty low. Hard to believe this was released 2 years ago...seems like it was just the other day. 2010 was a good year for OPI. What was it, Hong Kong and Swiss collections? Alice in Wonderland? Shrek...yeah, that was a good year. Maybe not Burlesque. I wasn't a huge fan of that collection. It wasn't terrible, though. Speaking of which...

Right before I took this off, I decided to mess with it a little. I've always wanted to try a gradient but all the ones I've done have turned out really bad...this time I tried a glitter that totally contrasted with the base color and it turned out kinda cool I think. I didn't actually wear my nails like this (I took it off right after I took these pics), but I would consider doing this type of mani for real. For this, I used OPI Bring on the Bling, from the Burlesque collection (see, I think the Burlesque glitters are actually better for layering, not for wearing by themselves). I like the contrast between the pink and gold...I think it'd look cool using like silver with green glitter, or blue with pink...I think I'll play around with combos sometime. Then maybe I can actually get good at this kinda stuff...I suck at nail art. Haha.

Sincerely, Cat

Mall haul!!

Went shopping this past weekend for my birthday! Finally got up to Sephora and Nordstrom...and I found some happy surprises!

Butter London Macbeth. My very first BL! Saw this at Nordstrom and because of the name, I HAD to have it...I love Macbeth. The color's good too, haha...it's a nice coral. The flash really distorts the color. It's a lot less pink in real life. Ah well. Very excited to try this out.

Nordstrom also had a shitload of new Lippmanns. I guess I can't complain about that, lol. One of the new collections I found was the metallic/prism/whatever they're called polishes...I really like Private Dancer, but that one was all sold out. Swagga Like Us looks pretty much exactly like Chanel Peridot, so skip. That leaves Sugar Daddy, which I was kinda unsure about, but since I read Scrangie's rave about it, I figured it must be pretty good. So of course, I picked this one up! And it is really pretty. Again, can't wait to try this one!

Mermaid's Dream. Oh lord. I put this on my nails a few days ago and I still haven't stopped drooling over it. Freaking perfect. I swear, even though I usually get bored with a polish after 2 or 3 days...I think I could wear this for the rest of the summer and be perfectly content. I don't think I've ever seen a polish this unique and gorgeous.

Another new collection I spotted was the dance-themed glitters...well, I found Flash Dance and Just Dance, but my Nordstrom didn't have Dancing in the Dark, which is one I was looking forward to. Ah well, this is Flash Dance, and it's stunning. Gorgeous mix of pink and purple glitter. Super excited to put this on my nails. I love glitter.

And an awesome surprise...my Sephora has COMPLETELY revamped their nail section, and started carrying tons of new brands. Julep, SpaRitual, Dior...Illamasqua. YES. This is Illamasqua Phallic. This is my second Illamasqua, Baptiste being my first, and I was sooo impressed with that one. So happy that I can now find this brand in store instead of only being able to get it online.

And of course, I can't leave Sephora without a little bit of Urban Decay. The Stash liner that I got in my 15th Anniversary set a long, long time ago (like, a year and half!) was defective, so I only got a few uses out of it before giving it to my sister (haha). I had a mini sample size of it which had run out, so I figured I needed a full size of it. I've never tried Graffiti before, though, so I figured I needed that one too, lol...I didn't have a bright green like it. I wanted to get Deviant also, but I have soo many UD liners already. I'm totally getting that one someday though, ha.

And of course, no trip to Sephora is complete without some Philosophy. Usually I'm good with one set, but I totally needed both of these sets this time. Top pic is the Cabana Girl set, bottom pic is the Italian Soda Shop set. One word: YUM. Not a weak link in either set. Every summer, I ALWAYS have to snag Philosophy's newest coconut set...last year it was Aloha Girl, which was vanilla coconut and was pretty good, but this year Cabana Girl is guava coconut and it's AMAZING. Smells sooo delish. Philsophy's 3-in-1s are good as always, lotion is top-notch like usual, and lip gloss is delicious and perfect amount of color. Pretty sheer, which I like, and nice formula. Not too sticky or anything.

The Italian Soda Shop set...damn, these smell good. I can't pick a favorite. The limoncello is the perfect mix of tart and sweet. To me, it smells exactly like a lemon Pez candy tastes. The strawberry is also really good. And black cherry...I know I had some other Philosophy black cherry scent back a couple years ago and this smells pretty much like that. I love the scent of black cherry. Yum.

Anyways, I guess I'd say my shopping was pretty successful! Now I'll have a couple new polishes to tide me over for a few weeks at least...lol. I'm going on vacation to Cali again this summer (soo excited!) and we're leaving in just a couple weeks, so I'll most likely be picking up some more polishes then. Woo!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Into the Night w/ Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

My second Spiderman polish...I thought this one needed a little something extra, so of course glitter was the answer ;)

2 coats of OPI Into the Night, 1 coat (I think...maybe 2? No, I think 1) of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I'm so glad I thought to use this glitter over Into the Night, because I think it looks amaaazing.

Into the Night is an interesting polish...personally when I was wearing it, I thought it looked purple most of the time, except for in certain lighting. In pictures though, it looks really blue...I like that though. Keeps you guessing! It's a pretty color though...I guess I'd consider it a metallic blurple. I like that it's not too dark, though. It's so bright and...shiny. I like it a lot. It reminds me a little of China Glaze Tempest (one of my absolute favorite polishes!). I think Tempest is more purple though, with a brighter blue flash. I wonder if I've posted that before? I don't think so...I'll have to. I wore it as a pedi for a month and half once. It's just wonderful. Anyways.

Formula was really good. I got a teensy bit of drag towards the cuticles, but that's probably my bad...I have a pretty heavy hand in application. And Some Enchanted Evening is good as ever. I love that glitter. Oh, Deborah. You can never do wrong.

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Number One Nemesis

First Spiderman polish I tried! Gorgeousss!! This is OPI Number One Nemesis.

2 coats with one of Seche Vite. Super good application, great formula and brush as always. It has that nice kind of foil-y look to it. It's like a green/grey shimmer with tons of little different-colored speckly shimmer particles. Weird description, I know, but that's what it looks like...lol. To me, it's like the perfect combination of silver, gold, and green. I think it's just stunning.

Apparently this is super similar to Chanel Graphite which (thankfully) I didn't splurge for. I'm still a little mad that they put a dupe of Peridot in this collection...whatever. I love my Chanel. And I love this polish, too!

On an unrelated note, I had my last day of classes yesterday! So I'll probably be posting a lot more now, lol. I guess that's all for now...

Sincerely, Cat

Tiny weekend haul!

Just a few polishes I picked up this weekend! From left, Icing After Party, OPI Number One Nemesis, and OPI Into the Night.

I saw After Party at Icing and I knew I couldn't leave without it. Look at that glitter! I don't own any other glitters like it. It's a mix of mostly pink, orange, blue, and gold shattered-looking glitter...it's full of different sized shards of glitter. It is so, so, cool. I've worn it once and I wish I had it in a million other colors, because I know I'm gonna be using it a lot.

My Trade Secret also just got the OPI Spiderman collec in...these were the only 2 that really stood out to me. I thought about getting the orange one, but it didn't look unique...like, at all. It had a cute name, but it looked super familiar. Pass.

Anyways, just a short little post! I'll hopefully have swatches of these up soon!

Sincerely, Cat

Franken -- Odair

Franken of the day: Odair, one I made almost two years ago...hadn't gotten around to wearing it! Glad I decided to...it's pretty. I really like it.
Started off as plain black from an old OPI Halloween mini set or something...I added a little bit of all of the holos I own and some other random glitter and stuff. And I got this! I love it. It's dark and shiny but not too over-the-top with the glitter.
Used 2 coats and 1 of Seche Vite. Probably could've used another coat of SV, but whatever. It worked out fine. Application was fine, even with the mini brush.
And yes, the name of this came from the Hunger Games. I made this right around the time Mockingjay came out, so...yeah.
I really, really, love the square nails on myself. Depressingly, my nails kept chipping and breaking, so I cut my nails really short and they're rounded again...boo. I'm definitely growing them out again, though. I just wish my nails were stronger...pretty sure I just don't take care of them good enough. Ugh. I'll try harder, I guess.

Sincerely, Cat