OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston

Galveston.. is a place in Texas, right?

I'm sorry for the quiet weekend here but I was waiting to put this on AND take pictures, which I couldn't do until my crackles arrived because I wanted to try the crackles on OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star. And crackles.. Crackles. Oh my god crackles. They are like drugs. Oh man.

Yeah, I might be a bit addicted :/

Anyway, this is one of those "sorbet-like" finishes that OPI claims to have created. I'm pretty bad at identifying finishes because I can never differentiate between metallics and foils, frosts and pearls, shimmers and flecks and sometimes jellies and cremes. This just looks like what I imagine a good jelly to be like.

It's supposedly a coral shade, but again, what is coral? I'm pretty sure the underwater corals aren't this color. Or are they? Someone should check my temperature. This just looks yummy. It looks like candy. It looks eatable. Yes, eatable is a word. Willy Wonka said so.

This is really really bright. It's sometimes really pink and sometimes orange-y looking. But it's bright. Almost neon. Almost like a.. neon jelly. My mom picked this one out online and was disappointed with it because it's too bright for her, especially to wear to work. It's growing on me though.

The formula was.. brilliant. Effortless. I did 3 coats with top coat (not that I needed it). Despite still being able to see my half moons and nail line at some angles and in some types of lighting, I love it. I'm often unable to paint evenly, but it's almost like this had a mind of its own. It just flowed into the right evenness. If only all polishes did this.

The only problem I had was.. capturing it. I just can't get the color right. Too red, too orange, but never the right amount of pink. Argh. I tried editing some of the photos to get the pink shade and um.. I got annoyed and gave up. So I apologize in advance. You'll see.

 

Unedited. Looks more orange than it is.

 

Unedited.

 

Unedited.

 

Edited. This is how pink it can look.

 

Unedited.

 

Edited.

The rest of the photos have been edited except the last one. I don't have lobster hands.

 

Comparing the coral against Eyeko Coral Polish. The OPI is more orange.

The Eyeko is not for myself, it's for a friend ;)

I'm not really happy with this post but I want it to be posted before I change my mind about posting it and end up keeping it hidden forever. Um.. I think I might have over-pinked the edits but they honestly looked like that to me when I was editing. Am I turning color blind? ):

Okay gonna close this and schedule it for publishing later. I keep going back to look at the pictures which reminds me of how unhappy I am with them! At least I'm finally relatively recent now. For now anyway.

PS: I hear there is a problem with the images. Let me know if they're not showing up and I will write an angry email to Imageshack. Maybe. Apparently I have to register my domain, which I did, after reading the comment.

OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star

I honestly don't get the first half of the name. What is "I Vant"? I know it's supposed to mean "I want", but I don't get the pun :/

Reading the comments from the previous post almost gave me diabetes, you guys are so sweet! Haha. I've been wanting to say that for awhile.

For once I'm posting something that is actually on my nails at the time of posting. Usually I'm a mani or two ahead but because I wanted to show something current for once, I brought this one forward.

I Vant To Be A-Lone Star is a pale blue with bit of dustiness/gray in it, and it has very fine pearl shimmer. I want to call the shimmer silver but it appears slightly pinkish in the sun (or at least in my pictures). It's definitely not for everybody. I had doubts about whether or not I liked this myself, but I think it's growing on me.

I did 3 coats. The first coat was pretty good, the second was okay, but by the third coat it seemed pretty thick. I don't know, the application wasn't great but not impossible. The brushstrokes are slightly visible, especially since I can't seem to paint in a straight line :S

Excuse the bumps/nicks on my nails. I didn't use a fast drying top coat and.. you can guess what happened. On  the second day I added another layer of top coat to make it glossier but after taking pictures I nicked a big one in my index finger nail and had to re-do it. All pictures taken in daylight.

I made the pictures clickable, they will go to their full sizes. I've started using smaller sizes on my camera when taking photos because who needs a photo that's almost 4000px wide?

This is really pretty but my mom questioned its beauty. Haha. She sticks to pinks, reds, coppers.. You know.

I think the whole Texas collection is a big win. My mom and I bought the Lil Shooters set and I love every color in there! I would wear every single color from this collection. Or maybe not the tan colored one. Those don't really seem to like my skin tone very much :/ 

Also, I just ordered my China Glaze Crackles and am so excited! If I were a bubble I'd have burst already. I still want Sea Spray and Below Deck though..

I am really sleepy and I have a long day tomorrow. Also, I have about 3 Chemistry lab reports to finish. I hate Chemistry. Why do I need to know about nucleophiles and electrophiles? Argh.

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I felt like blogging today. Also I wanted to test a new photo-hosting site.

My mom's friend gave this to her for her birthday, since Black Shatter was already sold out then (this was in October) and said that even if my mom wouldn't wear it, I would. Damn straight. I like this one, but I'm not completely in love with it.

What sets it apart from the other gunmetal greys out there is the pink and green shimmer that are waiting to come out. You'll see it in incandescent lighting and in the sun. I don't have fluorescent lighting in my house (except in the store room and I hate going there). The only fluorescent lighting I get is at class, and the pink and green hide away in there.

I did 3 coats (although I only needed 2 when I painted this on my mom's nails) with top coat. The wear was so good.. you could've built a house and it would've held up (probably not). I don't know why it looks like there are bubbles.. I didn't feel any bubbles :/

 

Color inaccurate. I don't know why I didn't delete this one. :S

 

 Blurred to show the sparkles, green and pink.

Tell me how the pictures are.. Are they good? Bad? Are they loading okay? Do they look funny?

Nature Republic BL505

I went to the dentist this morning. I'm not one of those people who hates the dentist, but I don't love her either. I'm just kind of neutral. I used to get a free toothbrush or something like that when I went to the dentist as a kid, and she would let me choose the color of the toothbrush. No free toothbrush today ):

I have kind of completely lost track of when I wore what, but I remember wearing this polish before Chinese New Year, because I got a tear on my thumb nail while wearing it.

I don't remember how many coats I did, probably 2 or 3, with top coat. I can't be bothered to name this because I just had some rather devastating news.. But I'll get to that later. Anyway, nothing too interesting about this one. I only wore it because I wanted to show my aunt who gave it to me, since I was visiting her. It's a blue with fine green shimmer. The only difference between this and the others that I have is the blue base is brighter and more creme than the others.

About that news.. It appears that I am approaching the 200 photos limit on Flickr's free account (which I didn't know existed). After I exceed this limit, any photos older than the newest 200 uploads will be hidden from me and the public. They'll still appear on my blog and all but not on my Flickr account, which I think is the stupidest thing ever.

So, since I refuse to pay the $25 annual fee and I don't want the older photos to be hidden, I guess I'll just go back to uploading through Blogger. Maybe if I just do what everyone else is doing, the quality won't be too bad, right?

I really thought Flickr would be my solution. I wish this 200 photo thing didn't exist. From now on: less photos, smaller size. Stupid Flickr ):

Blackberry Bling: Models Own Sterling Silver & Juicy Jules

Hi. Again. I thought it would be a good time to finally clear my backlog on flickr, since I'm in a mood for celebration!

The post title says it all. For some reason I only have like 3 photos of this, and not great ones, but I really like Juicy Jules. It's round silver holographic glitter in a clear base. Very gritty. I took these photos under my desk lamp, I don't know why I didn't wait for the sun to rise or something. This is 1 coat of Juicy Jules (on my thumbs) on 2 coats of Sterling Silver.

What was going on in my mind when I took these? Hmm. Once I get over Mad As A Hatter on my nails, I'll probably try Juicy Jules on her own. I wonder how many coats it'll take to reach opacity.

I wonder why I'd never tried China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat on a black polish before. I've tried it on blue, purple, but never black. And it was a mistake to not have done that because it's AWESOME over black. I actually did this on my toes so just to give you an idea of just how awesome...

This was 2 coats of Color Club Black and one of Wireless Holographic. Color Club Black dried looking like a tar pit. Ugh. I needed to find something that would save it, so of course, China Glaze came to my rescue.

So much holo. I'm so tempted to gather all my holo polishes and put them all in one post. I love my holo (:

Models Own Sterling Silver

First of all, I logged in yesterday/the day before and saw that I have 51 followers! That totally made my day! Thank you guys! I'm giving each and every one of you.. a virtual hug! Haha (:
I wanted to post yesterday but I had a short presentation to do today so I had to work on that. I did horribly, but luckily, it's not being assessed. I would probably have put in more effort if it was.

Anyway, I've wanted a silver polish for the longest time ever and bought myself China Glaze Cheers To You. Then my aunt bought me Models Own Sterling Silver, which is really close to the China Glaze. I love silver and will probably find something cool to do with all this silver. I did try doing a comparison but the photos turned out like poop so I'll just do it again.

Sterling Silver is a basic silver foil. I did 2 coats with top coat. I loved the brush and the formula. If you're observant enough, you might spot a couple of bald-looking spots but it was completely opaque in real life. The first 4 photos were taken in the shade, and the two after those were with sunlight.

I felt a bit Terminator-like having this on my nails. Like the Terminator melted and I painted the liquid metal part on my nails.

 

I tried putting on a second coat of top coat on a couple of nails, which seemed to make the polish look grittier (although it felt smoother to touch) and more sparkly. I used my index and ring finger for this. I can't recall why I didn't use my middle finger. Odd.

Left/Index: Models Own Sterling Silver with double top coat

Right/Ring: Models Own Sterling Silver with single top coat

Left/Ring: Models Own Sterling Silver with single top coat

Right/Index: Models Own Sterling Silver with double top coat

Taken under my desk lamp.

Blurred to show the difference in sparkle.

I knew adding more top coat to a gritty glitter would make a difference but I didn't apply that to foils too. I'm guessing, from this, that if you don't put any top coat on, the foil would look smoother and less sparkly. I guess if you're a little bored of the foil look you could add a top coat and then make this a little more party-like.

Speaking of gritty glitters, I have OPI Mad As A Hatter on now! *happy dance*

Comparison: OPI Merry Midnight vs. Sasatinnie FCGL002

I don't have a Valentine's day mani to show you since I didn't do one (couldn't be bothered). My nails are blue with Models Own In The Navy, so.. definitely not Valentine's day themed.

I am so sleepy and I keep thinking that today is Friday (or Saturday, since it's past 12am) because tomorrow is a public holiday here. And I don't have to go for class! Yay! And my mom is going for her manicure and to get rid of OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous on her nails. I usually tag along and have breakfast. Breakfast is so much more enjoyable nowadays, since I have things to eat besides bread and biscuits.

I really need to clear this backlog of posts. My stash and untrieds keep getting bigger and the amount of un-watermarked/un-uploaded photos keeps increasing too. Hmm :/

Anyway, the other day, my friend and I went into Sasa, probably because I wanted to. And I remembered seeing these flakie polishes there, so I looked for them and found them! This one, FCGL002, reminded me a lot of one of my all time favourites OPI Merry Midnight and I had to buy it to do a comparison. There was a discount if you bought two bottles, so I chose a blue based flakie polish. I love flakies (:

What is with the name of this one? What does FCGL even stand for? Why couldn't they have chosen a shorter code name? They should've just given it a name name, not a number/code name.

If I'm not mistaken, I did 3 coats of the OPI and 4 of the Sasatinnie

 

Bottle comparison. Rainbows!

 

Pinky and Middle: OPI Merry Midnight

Ring and Index: Sasatinnie FCGL002

The OPI is more red-based than the Sasatinnie which is more blue-based.

A lot more silver glitter in the Sasatinnie compared to the OPI. The flakies appear to be smaller and more sparse too, but that could just be from the random picking of the brush.

Although in my eyes, the Sasatinnie doesn't beat the OPI, I think if you really can't find Merry Midnight (and for some reason FCGL002 is available to you), it's quite worth getting. The price isn't too steep and the formula was manageable. The only thing I didn't like was how there was so much silver glitter, like they were trying to make up for the lack of flakies, and the sheerness.

I love both (the OPI more) nonetheless. Not dupes, but none of your non-polish friends will know the difference.

Also, did anyone see Rooney's bicycle kick during the ManU vs. ManC match? I wanted to make noise in awe but I'm generally a silent viewer. AND I missed the match where Casillas got sent off in the 2nd minute of the match against Espanyol! What happened? ):

Okay, the bed is calling me. Goodnight (: