piCture pOlish "Aurora"

Hey everyone!  I'm just going to gloss over the fact that I've been off for two whole days and haven't posted yet...I've been swatching, so there are posts to come!  Today I have the first polish that I put on after a week of nudes and nearly-nudes; piCture pOlish "Aurora":

"Aurora" lives up to its name!  It's an intense blue to purple to green duochrome with some holo shimmer thrown in for good measure.  This is two coats over a black base.  These first two pictures are in the sun.

And these next two pictures are in the shade.  Yes that's the same polish!

This is definitely one of the most intense duochromes in my collection!  I'll have to get the rest of this collection from piCture pOlish!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wing Dust "Coral Leaf"

Hi everyone!  Quick post before I'm off to bed!  I've been keeping my nails very neutral on my current rotation (not that I think anyone would actually notice or care), but I decided to branch out a little more by wearing Wing Dust "Coral Leaf" the past couple days:

"Coral Leaf" is a pale coral creme-jelly hybrid with some dark microglitter (that didn't really come out in my pictures, but is there in real life!) and gold foil flakes.  The gold foil just pops against the coral background and make this polish special!

This is two thin coats here.  You can still see a bit of VNL, but I liked the way it looked.  If you did thicker coats, you probably wouldn't have the VNL.

I've been wearing nudes so far on this rotation, so I'm going go wild tomorrow and wear a color!  Crazy!

Thanks for reading!

OPI Designer Series (and an explanation for my absence)

Hey guys!  Long time, no blog!  Now that my fifth year of pharmacy school is over, I'm starting clinical rotations, and my hours at this first one are LONG.  I'm doing 7 days on/7 days off for a total of 2 1/2 weeks on, so this past week was my half week on and this weekend has been my half week off.  I'm not ready for 70 hour weeks yet! 

Anyway, since I've been working such long hours I haven't been changing my polish as often and I haven't been following the NPC prompts, which is why I haven't been posting.  I've been waiting til I could catch up.  But I don't like not posting, and with my hours what they are I don't think I'm ever going to catch up, let alone keep up!  So I've decided I'm going to take a break from the NPC for now.  It goes through the beginning of July, so I'll probably be back and maybe I'll even go back and do some of the ones I missed!  But for now I'm just going to post whatever I want whenever I can.

With that said, I'm going to try to start doing more swatch posts instead of just Nail of the Day-type posts. I recently got some older OPI Designer Series polishes from a blog sale, so I decided to start with swatches of all my DS Polishes!  See what I have below the jump!

NPC: Blog sale AND Discontinued!

Hey everyone!  Look at me, getting caught up!  Wednesday's NPC prompt called for a polish from a giveaway or blog sale.  I never win giveaways (booooo), but I have been buying quite a bit from blog sales recently, so I grabbed one from someone's Storenvy sale.  After I had this on, I looked to see what today's prompt was.  It's "Discontinued", and I realized this polish works for both!  Here is Ozotic 515:

515 is a bright blue linear holographic.  It's much stronger in real life than in my pictures.  Unfortunately, the whole Ozotic line has been discontinued, so I'm glad I grabbed this in a destash!

There are two Inlinkz below since this belongs to two prompts.  Be sure to checkout everyone else's manis from the past couple days!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC: Texture

Whew!  I'm getting caught up!  Mondays NPC called for texture, so I decided to use some new "Liquid Sugar" polishes I got from Icing.  I ended up with a pretty pastel rainbow!

From cuticle to tip, these are "Dreamsicle",  "Peppermint", "Lollipop", and "Pixie Stick".  I love the sugary names!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC: Glow In The Dark

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the absence.  My finals are over now!  Now I have a few days off, then clinical rotations start Monday!  I'm excited, but I do kind of wish I had a little more time in between to relax.  Oh, well, I guess I'll never get a break in the "real world"!

Here is my NPC from last Friday, "Glow In The Dark":

I started with a base of Elevation's "El Cap" and covered a couple accent nails with Ozotic 902.

 "El Cap" is a beautiful bluish purple with pinky-purple shimmer.  Unfortunately, the original formula is not available anymore.  There are two versions of "El Cap II", each more blue than the last.  They are great too, of course, but I loooove the original.  Ozotic 902 is a purple shimmer with a bit of blue duochrome effect.  This is part of the "Sugar" collection, and I love them all.  They look great no matter what you put them over.

For the glow in the dark effect I added Contrary Polish "West Bottoms".  This adds just the smallest amount of green with some glass fleck shimmer.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to show up in the dark!  I don't know if I needed more coats or what, but here is the best I could do.  You can see the bottle glowing at least!

This next picture is in the dark with flash, which okay, doesn't show off the GITD effect, but I really liked the way it turned out!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

Update

Hey everyone, I just wanted to apologize real quickly for not posting in quite a few days.  I've gotten a number of new followers on Bloglovin (thanks!) in the past few days, and I feel bad that they don't have any new posts to look at.  My pharmacy school finals started last Thursday, and I also threw a bridal shower for my best friend over the weekend, so I've been super-busy the last week!  Luckily tomorrow is my last final, and then I should be able to get back to my regular schedule.  You might even get two or three posts in a row since I'm behind in the Neverending pile challenge! 

Thanks for sticking with me! :)

NPC: Holo

Hi guys!  Not much to chit chat about tonight, I'm still in finals mode and I just wanted to get this up on time for once!  Today's NPC prompt it "Holo".  Holographic is pretty much my favorite finish.  They just glow!  In the sunlight, and some even in dark light!  So today I have for you KBShimmer "Pretty in Punk":

 "Pretty in Punk" is actually a duochrome holo.  It's light green with a purple shift, but these pictures are in dark light, so the color shift doesn't really show up.  But look at those rainbows!

KBShimmer's duochrome holos are AMAZING!!!  I wish I had gotten some sunlight pictures, but I stamped over this right after painting.  I didn't end up liking the stamping though, so you don't get to see it!

Okay, I haven't linked to any brands/stockists while doing this challenge, but I have to give a shoutout to KBShimmer.  I love all the polishes I've gotten from her, and they're such a great price for indies.  AND she has great bath and body products too!  I've gotten samples of her scrubs and soaps which were great, and I always add on a bath bomb to my polish orders!  KBShimmer is a great place to start if you're just getting into indies!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC: Vampy

Hi girls!  Late again, what can I say?  It's finals week, so I've been kind of distracted.  Hopefully I'll get back on track once finals are over!

Yesterday's NPC prompt was "vampy", so I chose Revlon "Vixen":

"Vixen" is a deep burgundy red with slight brown undertones.  I feel like this is a very classic shade.  I'm sure I will be wearing this on rotation a lot come fall!

Thanks for reading!  Hopefully I'll get the next prompt up tomorrow!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC: Most Untrieds in One Mani

Hi everyone.  So I'm late again, is anyone surprised?  Yesterday was such a long day, and I realized that between school and work, today is my first full day off since Easter!  No wonder I've been so tired!

Yesterday's prompt was "Use as many untrieds in one mani as you can", so I started with a base coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge "Insouciant" and then just started grabbing randomly and went at it with a dotting tool!  I ended up using 18 polishes total. Here is the result:

Close up on ring finger:

Close up on thumb:

I forgot how quick and easy dotting is!  I'll have to start using my dotting tools more!

Here are the polishes that I used:

 L to R : Julep "Missy", Jade "Vestido de Gala", Ethereal Lacquer "Ember", Nailtini "Champagne", Deborah Lippmann "Million Dollar Mermaid", Deborah Lippmann "Defying Gravity", Colors by Llarowe "Gizzards & Lizards", CND Vinylux "Gilded Pleasure", Butter London "Thames", and Ozotic 915.

L to R again: Nails Inc "Kings Road", Dance Legend "Sulley", Colors by Llarowe "Love You Forever", Arcane Lacquer "Peace of Mind", OPI DS "Mystery", Julep "Reece", Colors by Llarowe "Smooth Criminal", and RBL "Insouciant".  Whew!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 11: Least Expensive

Hi everyone!  So I'm a day behind again, but only because I posted my Mean Girls mani yesterday instead of this one!  Yesterday's nail polish challenge prompt was "Least Expensive".  Well I definitely have a few that were gifts or gifts with purchase, but I thought I'd do one of the cheapest that I actually paid for.  Sinful Colors, Wet n Wild, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear are all great brands that can be found for about $0.99, so I went with a couple unused Sinful Colors.

"Song of Summer" is an avocado creme.  This was such a great formula for 99 cents!  This is one coat here.  I've been really into greens lately, which is odd for me.  Green and yellow are usually my two least favorite nail colors.  But I feel like this is actually neutral enough that you could wear it to work. 

My ring finger and thumb have a coat of Sinful Colors "Rain Song", a pale purple to green duochrome.  I thought this would turn out more purple, like it is in the bottle, but I guess since I layered it over green, it pulled more green.  Next time I'll have to try it over purple!

Sinful Colors can be found at Walgreens, Walmart, and other pharmacies I think.  It's usually $1.99, but Walgreens often has sales for 99 cents.  What are some of your favorite "cheap" brands?

An InLinkz Link-up

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Mean Girls 10th Anniversary

Hey girls!  Today, April 30th is the 10th anniversary of Mean Girls premiering in theaters (and I checked IMDB, it actually was April 30, 2004), and it just happens to be a Wednesday, so a bunch of nail bloggers are wearing pink manis today in celebration!  I certainly have plenty of pink polishes, but one sprung right into my mind when I read about this.  Interestingly, this polish is from a collection based on another cult classic, The Princess Bride.  Here is Dollish Polish, "Wuv, Twu Wuv":

 "Wuv, Twu Wuv" is a pepto pink jelly (it looks a little orange here, but it's bright pink IRL!) with pink and red shimmer, hex glitter, and square glitter, and there are even some red circles, though I didn't manage to get any on my nails.

I got this polish in a mystery grab bag and it's nothing I would have picked out myself, but I'm loving it today!  It's so bright and happy!

Are any of you wearing pink today?  Feel free to fill my comments section with Mean Girls quotes!  It'll be so fetch!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 10: Most Expensive

Hi girls!  Okay, I kind of love and hate this prompt.  Love it because otherwise I probably wouldn't have dared to use this precious, but hate it because I don't want to admit how much I paid for it!

Here is Enchanted Polish "Ciao Milano":

Unfortunately it was rainy and overcast when I took these pictures, so the true beauty doesn't really come out.  "Ciao Milano" is a blue-teal-purple duochrome glitter.  This is two coats over a black base.  I have a bracelet from Gosia with this polish on it and I've had people ask if it was a mood bracelet because it kept changing colors!  That's what actually started my lemming for this polish, and like other Enchanteds, it's super hard to get.  It was restocked a couple weeks ago, but I missed out on it and no one knows when the next restock will be, if there even is one!  So I bought this unopened bottle from someone in a Facebook group...for $35! :x   Worth it though!  This color is so much prettier in person!

This next picture is a little blurry, but it shows off the color-changing glitter a little more!

What's your most expensive polish?

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

Had to Have It, Still Haven't Worn It.

Hi everyone!  Okay, so I lied last night.  I didn't get my second post up.  We went out to dinner with my parents and I was so tired when we got home that I went straight to bed!  I'm exhausted today too even though I got plenty of sleep last night.  I'm not sure what's going on, but I hope it's just allergies so that when I go to the allergist on Monday we can get it sorted out!

So yesterday's NPC prompt was "Had to Have It, Still Haven't Worn It".  When I saw that, I immediately thought of the first Zoya Pixie Dust collection from last spring.  This collection came out shortly after I had a bad experience with Zoya's customer service, so even though they were available on the website, I didn't want to order them from there and risk something going wrong with my shipment.  So instead I called Ulta over and over again asking if they had the Pixie Dusts in stock yet! When they finally did, I went by and picked up most of the collection and the girl at the checkout asked if I had been the one calling about them!  Well, after wanting them so badly and having them for over a year, I've only worn one of them.  So here's Zoya "Nyx", which I had to have, but never wore:

"Nyx" is a textured grey-blue base with tons of silver shimmer.  This is two coats.  While there's a little bit of VNL in my pictures, it's not visible in real life.

I love how this sparkles and shines in the sun!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 8: Boutique

Hi everyone!  I'm behind on my Never-ending Pile Challenge!  I don't even have a good excuse, I've just been really tired this week.  So this post should have gone up Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get another post up tonight.  Two posts in one day for you!

Today's (or Wednesday's) Challenge called for a boutique polish brand.  The definition of a boutique brand changes a bit depending on who you talk to, but to me it means a brand that is not a large wholesaler (so not OPI, Essie, etc), but is larger than an in-house hand-poured indie brand.  So some examples are I Love Nail Polish, piCture pOlish, and Rescue Beauty Lounge, which is what I used!

Here is RBL "Abi":

 "Abi" is a chartreuse creme with a hint of silver shimmer, which did not come across in my pictures.  I was surprised by how much I liked this on me.  I could not get a color-accurate picture of this.  It's much lighter and more yellow-toned than it looks in my pictures.

I decided to add some stamping with MoYou Landscape Collection plate 06 since I haven't done any in awhile.  I used Butter London "Lillibet's Jubilee", a lilac foil.  "Abi" is a bit closer to real-life color in this next photo:

Thanks for reading!  I'll try to get my next post up later tonight!

An InLinkz Link-up

It's My Birthday!!!

Hey guys! I wanted to post my birthday Mani, because I decided to wear a special polish today.  Here is Enchanted Polish "Magical Mystery Tour":

This post is quite picture heavy, so I'll explain why this is special after the jump!