Polished Casual

Saturday, January 28, 2012

OPI Super Bass Shatter

Dude - I read SUCH good reviews of OPI's Super Bass, their newest shatter that's a gorgeous purple jelly with shimmer in it. It's a pretty pinkish purple though, leaning on fuchsia. Anyway, seeing everyone's pictures, it cracked really really well. Mine didn't! I'm not willing to give up on it yet. I'm thinking that either the thickness of my coat is off or maybe because by base (OPI's Metallic 4 Life) wasn't flat and smooth. The color and the shimmer is just awesome though, I really love this shatter. Reminds me a lot of the Turquoise Shatter I loved so much. I also LOVE that it is a jelly. Especially over Metallic 4 Life, you cant still see the glitter underneath and makes for a really interesting texture rich manicure. One thing to note is that Super Bass dries VERY matte and kind of white-ish (at least over my current mani). Once you put on top coat it goes back to shiny goodness.

OPI Super Bass Shatter over Metallic 4 Life

In my opinion, Super Bass is a must have, even if you are over the whole Shatter movement :). You can get it at Ulta or online e-tailers for $8.50.

Friday, January 27, 2012

OPI Metallic 4 Life

So the last time I was at my salon the had the Nicki Minaj OPI collection polishes. I new I wanted the two glitters and the shatter, but I was pretty undecided about the cremes. I had Fly in my hands and kept putting it back, picking it up, putting it back. I'm glad I passed now that I have Slapper.

For my first polish from the ones I picked, I decided on Metallic 4 Life. This reminds me a lot of Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, except with silver glitter instead of fuchsia. Metallic 4 Life is a black jelly base with lots of silver glitter, in a variety of shapes and sizes. It is mostly small glitter, but there are some larger hexagons in there. This went on pretty easy for a jelly glitter, but I did need 3 coats. And I still have bald spots! I didn't care because I plan to top this with the Super Bass Shatter tomorrow. I think this one just needs undies!

OPI Metallic 4 Life

This would be a fantastic polish for a night out! It just screams martinis and dancing to me. These pictures again, aren't great. I think I'm going to give up on the SLR for glitters! OPI's Metallic 4 Life can be bought at Ulta or online for $8.50. Do you have to have this one? No, but I like it anyhow. I'd say pick it up if you don't have anything like it.

Stash Swap, Part II: Orly La Playa

Yup, you read that right! The time was right for Rach from stuff i (s)watched and I to do another stash swap! Man, time flies! Can't believe it's already been almost six months since the last one! (If you missed the last go-around, you can check out my posts on OPI Conquistadorable Color, American Apparel Butter, and BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan and her posts on Butter London Wallis, OPI Russian Navy, and China Glaze VII.) Rach and I figured out that this was a great way for us to try out some polishes we've had our eyes on or that may be out of our usual comfort zone, without having to dump the cash on them. The last stash swap was so fun, and I was super excited for Part II!

The first polish of Rach's that I decided to try out was Orly La Playa, a navy blue creme. If you've been with us for a while, you may remember the debacle that was Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm. I wanted to love that polish, but it just wasn't for me. I still needed a good navy creme in my stash, but I've been a little frightened to try any new ones. Thankfully, La Playa applied (and cleaned up) much easier than Dead Calm, so we were moving in the right direction already. I seem to have a hard time applying Orly polishes sometimes. It's like I can't really get the polish to MOVE on my nail. That being said, it wasn't too hard to work with, and two easy coats later I was set. So, is La Playa my perfect navy creme?

(click to enlarge)

YES, YES, YES, and no. The color is to die for. It's a bit brighter than Dead Calm, but I liked that. It's vibrant, but definitely still dark enough to be a navy blue in all lighting. Never black, though. I was DYING to add a copper glitter or shimmer, but alas, I don't own one. D'oh! I was SO ready to chalk this one up as a total win. But then...it chipped. And chipped. And chipped. It chipped so much in less than 24 hours. Rach, I loved me some La Playa, but boy, it did not love me. HUGE sad.

I did recently change my base coat/top coat combination, but as I mentioned in my last post, I've used it before and since this manicure with no problems. Maybe it just doesn't jive with Orly polishes? I have no idea, but I'm not quite ready to give up on La Playa just yet. I think I'll have to snag a bottle for myself, and find a combo that will work for it. Yeah, I loved it that much.

I'm not sure if La Playa is in the core collection or not (anyone know for sure?), but it is available for a mere $4.25 on www.nailsupplies.us, if you're interested in it for yourself! It really is gorgeous!

Also! Be sure to check out Rach's stash swap posts on Butter London Victoriana and China Glaze Swing, Baby (both of which look completely amazing on her!). :-D

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Speciallità Hits no Olimpo Dionisio

Holo Love Number 2!!!!!!! (See number 1 here) I have to admit, Apolo is really the best, but Dionisio is pretty amazing. It's a beautiful grape holo. The formula is a little thick, but still easy enough to work with. Apolo is better formula wise. It's definitely worth the small amount of extra effort needed. And I do mean small. I ended up using 3 coats here, but I probably only needed 2. They were all very thin coats and they dried pretty fast. Top it all of with OPI DS Top Coat and you get this holo-goodness. I tried really hard to capture this when it wasn't shining in all it's glory so you could see the base color but the holo just didn't want to hide. I kind of went crazy with the pictures....

Speciallità Hits no Olimpo Dionisio

If you haven't gotten any of these Hits yet, you really need to. They are small but mighty! Get them for $10 from L larowe or you can order these direct from Brazil for pretty cheap, around $5 each (not including shipping though).

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Another Look: Lynnderella Love Potion No. 99

So I'm sitting in the airport writing this post. Courtney showed us Love Potion No. 99 by Lynnderella not that long ago and I had not intended on wearing it or showing it to you so soon. However I got a new purple polish that I had so many issues with I had to cover it up! It was such a warm purple and it apparently didn't agree with my new favorite base/top coat combo. So it refused to dry and was getting smugged and dented hours later. So what better way to cover up any issues than top is with an amazing purple, violet, fuschia and holographic glitter!!! Soooooo much better. So this is two coats of the lovely and sparkly Love Potion No. 99 over 2 coats of "mystery purple". :)

Love Potion No. 99

Love Potion No. 00

Can you stand how awesome this is? You can get Lynnderella's polished for $15 from Llarowe's website. Also can anyone guess what my mystery base polish is?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Julep Maven November Box #2

You guys!!!! :( I missed a freaking day!!!!!!!! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I was actually pretty disappointed when I woke up this morning realizing it. I found out pretty late last week that work needed me to travel for a conference and trade show and demo one of my products at the exhibitors hall M-W. So late Sunday night I uploaded pictures for the week so I could write my blog posts remotely. Then Monday morning at 6am Chris took me to the airport and I spent the day traveling, checking in (to the hotel and conference), setting up, demoing for hours, and then going to a networking dinner. By the time I got home it was after 10pm and I literally passed out.

So let's just pretend this blog post went up yesterday :) for my sanity :).

So my second Julep Maven Box in November was awesome. I got another makeup bag which I gave to a friend, another plumping lip gloss, and Maggie!!!!! They even included a cute note to let me know that they messed up.

Julep Maven November Box - Bombshell

Here is the lip gloss, an amazing shade called Ulta-Violet which is gorgeous and I'm also allergic to. I has a sad :(.

Julep Ultra Violet

And then there is Maggie. I LOVE her. A deep blackened purple with beautiful silver shimmer. This is the perfect Raven's game day polish. LOVE LOVE LOVE. This is 2 coats and it's super shiny on it's own. The shimmer isn't as prominent on the nail as it is in the bottle, but it's certainly there.

Julep Maggie

Julep Maggie is available from Julep.com for $14! If you don't have her and have some Julep credits saved up, this would be a great way to spend it.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

So last week before I took off Deborah Lippmann's I Know What Boys Like, I slapped Across the Universe over it to see how the combo would look. I really really love this polish and it was my first Lippmann. It's a dark blue jelly with blue and green glitter in varying sizes. Total mermaid nails. You definitely want to wear this over another polish, because building to opacity is tricky. I usually wear it over OPI Dating a Royal, but this works too!

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

Check out that sparkle. Mr. SLR hated photographing this one. The light just goes nuts. This polish will set you back $18 but is always available at Zappos.com or Nordstroms.com with free shipping. This is a must have Lippmann, so if you don't have it and love it start saving up :). Once I figure out how to take better SLR pictures of glitters, I'll redo these to get some zoomed in shots of it's awesome! What do you think?