OPI - Die Another Day (Skyfall, Holiday Collection 2012)

It has been a long time.....I know!
I haven't stopped wearing polish or making nail pics, it's just that there are just 24 hours in a day and that is sometimes not enough to do everything I would like to do.
I'll try to post a bit more frequently but I don't know if it's going to work: let's say I'll try.

To start I came upon these nails I did some months ago; OPI Die Another Day.
A lovely glowing red with a hint of orange.

OPI Die Another Day

OPI - Super Star Status (Holiday Starlight Collection 2015)

After a few days I had some tip wear with my OPI Umpires Come Out At Night so I decided to add some festive tip covering glitter to solve the problem. I used OPI Super Star Status from the Holiday Collection.
To achieve these shapes I used some french nail tip guides from the Born Petty Store.
Super Star Status is a very dense glitter: the base is transparent with tiny silver glitter and there is a liberal helping of bigger pale gold glitters in the mix as well.
This is just one coat: I can totally see this covering the nails completely in two coats, so it is very wearable on it's own!

OPI - Super Star Status

OPI Ce-less-tial Is More & OPI Cosmo With a Twist (Holiday Starlight Collection 2015)

OPI Ce-less-tial Is More, is a rose gold foil heavy with holo glitter.
2 lumpy coats gives a opaque finish (no top coat here): it is very, very gritty (like a rough liquid sand).
It is OK, but I am not a fan of the glitter in foil look.......

OPI Ce-less-tial is More

OPI Cosmo With a Twist, is a dark raisin purple-blue, with colour shifting glass flecks.
The flecks shift from turquoise to blue to bright violet, depending on the light.
The polish is watery (watch out for flooding) and prone to make bald spots (I needed three coats to make it completely opaque). For me the base colour is just too dark and too brown......love the shifting glass flecks though!

OPI Cosmo With a Twist

OPI Give Me Space (Holiday Starlight Collection 2015)

Well, it has been a while......
Life got the better of me: we adopted a puppy named Echo (a Portuguese Podengo mix found in a trashcan), I started a serious study (Law), the summer holidays, helping the kids with school etc. etc.

Echo, 12 weeks

So I am now trying to find a way to fit blogging into this picture: it needs to be quick and easy, so the next few weeks I am going to figure out how to make this happen! But it's going to be less pictures, less text and just once a week on monday.

Here we go!

OPI Give Me Space

OPI Give Me Space, from the Starlight Holiday Collection 2015.
This is one coat over one coat of Essie After School Boy Blazer: I wanted it to be less jelly blue and more midnight sky.
And LOOK: Give Me Space is a scattered holo >ieks< !!!!!
It is a sister of Zoya Dream, but that one is more blue and the holo is more fleck-like (read: bigger).

Orly - Mirrorball (Sparkle Collection, Holiday 2014) and China Glaze - Party Hearty (2010)

A bit christmassy, but beautiful non the less!
Orly Mirrorball with a lick of Party Hearty in between.

Both polish are a charm to work with, Mirrorball is opaque in three coats and Party Hearty is a topper that gives a nice amount of glitter with just one coat. I love that Mirrorball has a fine silver holo base with some small holo glitter thrown in the mix for extra fun.

Orly - Mirrorball & China Glaze - Party Hearty

Party Hearty is from the China Glaze "Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice Holiday 2010 Collection.
Orly Mirrorball is also from a Holiday Collection and is one of the best Orly polishes they gave out in the last years I think......!

NYC - Ruby Queen (Crystal Couture Collection, holiday 2014)

A few weeks ago I bumped into NYC Ruby Queen when I was strolling through the city looking for Sinterklaas presents. It is such a nice mix of glitter that I couldn't leave Ruby Queen standing on the display.
There are pink glitters among the red ones drifting happily along in the red jelly base: love that colour combination. Stephanie from Short 'n Chic blogged about this colour the same week I bought it and she mentioned a green glitter in this collection as well. Having enjoyed this glitter as much as I did I went back to the store...but unfortunately, The Netherlands only have the red, purple, gold and blue one >sigh< and those didn't speak to me very loudly..... *can't have it all*

NYC - Ruby Queen

It was hard to get it photographed right: the polish isn't jam packed with glitter, so it looks like strawberry soup most of the time in my pictures! In real life it sparkles and glitters much more, this makes it look like there is much more glitter in there then there really is.
To round things up: Ruby Queen is a lovely polish and because of the pink glitters a bit different and wearable (not only at Christmas).

Essie - Belugaria (Holiday 2013 Encrusted Treasures Collection)

Well, Essie Belugaria.....I couldn't make up my mind: to buy or not to buy....?!
Then I saw it in a sale and I caved, so here it is.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised! It is a bit edgy and not for every day but I like the overall effect of it.
I looks indeed a bit like caviar on your tips, or perhaps more like a big crust of tar with some glittery stuff mixed in. It is hard to apply unlike other liquid sand polishes, you sort of have to dab it on the nails in two coats. While wearing it you might lose a piece here and there but this is very easily refilled with a firm blob of polish where needed. And although it is not easy wearing, nor very practical I like the stuff!

Essie - Belugaria

So conclusion: this is not a polish for the faint of hart!
But if you want to wake the rock chick in you try this polish: you'll hit the groove fast :-)

OPI Sand In My Suit (OPI South Beach Collection - Spring/Summer 2009) and OPI The Living Daylights (OPI Holiday 2012 Skyfall Collection)

Well....it has been a while.....
I totally wrecked my hands/nails/cuticles and I needed some time to heal!
How did I do that (the wrecking, that is)? I restored an antique mirror that we bought in an auction.
The end result is beyond what I imagined it would be, everything I did worked out very, very well >happy happy, joy joy<

The end result of the restauration project

I had to remove layers of brown stain off the goldleaf ornaments and I had to make stems with clay for a lot of the leafs, those were gone missing in action over the years.

The top end during restauration

The top end fully restaured

To get all this terrible, terrible staining off I had to use more then 1 bottle of aceton! I very much enjoyed the whole proces but my hands were hating it all the way.... The were cracked and completely dried out within hours!
So no nailpolish or any blogging for me for a while, was the conclusion.
I still have one thumb that is less than happy, but he is not an actor in de blog pics so I can start polishing again >YEAH!<

I will start on a conservative note with OPI Sand In My Suit.
SIMS is a very soft sandy peach nude with subtle silver pearly shimmer. It is opaque in two coats!
The shimmer really lifts this polish out of the boring zone.

OPI - Sand In My Suit

While loving the colour I thought it would be a good base for my OPI The Living Daylights. TLD is a glitter that is lovely in the bottle but I just have the hardest time to find a canvas for it that works. Perhaps SIMS is The One???

OPI - The Living Daylights

Yes, I do like the end result: I topped it off with Essie Matte About you and I guess that did the trick. Mattified glitters are so much more sophisticated!