OPI Alcatraz...Rocks

Before we get to the good stuff, I have a teeny tiny rant.  Does anyone else hate Google+?  I mean like really dislike it?  I have had this polish swatched for the longest along with a few others and couldn't post them because I didn't know Google+ had an auto-enhance feature that was automatic when you signed up.  Lame.

I'm so glad that I had someone tell me about it or this would have gone unblogged probably for many years to come.  It's way to gorgeous for that.  This is an OPI sand from the San Francisco collection called Alcatraz...Rocks.  It's like a navy/purple sand with steely silver shimmer in it.  Of course it dries matte  and I only needed two coats for full opacity.

Water Marble Wednesday - Blue

This week's Water Marble Wednesday is brought to you by the color BLUE!  I really thought it would be fun to do one the color of water since it happen's in water.  I used four different types of blue but all the polishes are cremes.  I honestly don't think I've ever done one with all cremes before.  It was different.

I started with one coat of the lightest blue which is the periwinkle color and then I started my design.  I just made the bulls eye in the water and then made "stripes" in by pulling the toothpick in opposite directions.  I guess it's more of a chevron type design...I don't really know what to call it.

I did screw up my pinky a bit because I thought I had cleaned up all of the excess polish from the water.  However I didn't see the tiny bit on the other side of my finger so when I took my finger out, there was a huge glob stuck there.  Gross.  lol  I would have redone it, but honestly it was 10pm and I was super sleepy.  Besides, I'm only human so I'm bound to screw up.  I like to think that's why you all keep coming back.  Because of my quirk and honesty about my imperfections.  (:

So don't mind the dirty looking cuticles either.  It's actually just the navy polish I used.  It stained my cuticles just a bit and I could not for the life of me get it cleaned up properly.  Sorry!

WHAT I USED:

Julep Eloise - navy

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover - teal

Color Club Blue-ming - light blue

Color Club Hydrangea Kiss - periwinkle

Now I have to get ready for work so I will talk to you all later.  Have a great Wednesday!

Russian Navy x 4

Good Afternoon everyone.  I have been having a crazy swatch party all morning trying to get rid of some untrieds.  Unfortunately for my stash, I brought home yet another polish that would have been left untried if I hadn't been so impressed with the nail wheel swatch.  Also I own the suede version so I wanted to see how they compared.

Here we have the original Russian Navy.  This is my favorite version of all I think.  It was very strange to me how the bottle shot looked very purple, but then I realized that the finish was navy with a gorgeous purple shimmery flash.  This covered very well in one coat, but I did two just for good measure.

Here I just used Hard Candy Mattely In Love to mattify the original Russian Navy, and I hate it. The crazy thing is that when I apply the matte top coat, it looks almost identical to the matte (not suede) version.  It takes the shimmer away almost completely.  There.  Done!  Now I don't have to look at it anymore.

Wow!  I have swatched this before, but I know my photos were pretty crappy, and I guess I just forgot how awesome it is.  This is the suede version of Russian Navy, and I love it.  It dries matte and has super sparkle!  This is 2 coats.

And then I applied a top coat to the suede version of Russian Navy, and it certainly raises the wow factor.  I'm really in love with this one.  I think if it were this color with a holo sparkle, it would be even more AAAHHH-mazing!

I feel like I'm pretty good at not buying dupes and/or polishes that are way too similar to one another so I'm glad I get to keep both of these since the finishes are so completely different.

I also want to tell you all that you have just over 24 hours to enter my 12 Days of Christmas giveaway so do that if you want to win some awesome prizes including Fever Lacquers, a Sephora gift card, and a special one of a kind Alter Ego polish.

Thanks for stopping by and happy blogging.
D

October Julep Maven Box

I haven't posted a Maven box opening in a while, and I thought this one was a good place to start up again.  I haven't been excited about one in a while too.

First of all, I love crackles so I so happy I got an ORANGE ONE!!  I don't even like orange, but I don't have a crackle that color, and it's pretty damn awesome.  Second of all, I see a little sneak peek of some candy corn in there.  I hate candy corn too, but I sure did eat it.  lol.

Here is what came in the Maven box:  Julep Eloise, Julep Sabrina (cute!), Quick Dry Polish Drops, orange and black glitter, and a baggie of candy corn.

This is Sabrina.  It is a shimmery orange crackle with the cutest name.  I mean, who doesn't love Sabrina?  I particularly like the old school comics best, but Melissa Joan Hart did a good job too.

I forgot to get a photo of Eloise before I put the crackle over it, but this is one coat (I used one coat on the above swatch as well).  It applied very easily, but the color reminds me of Zoya Cynthia.  I'm pretty sure they are not dupes, but I guess I could give it a go.

I did order an add-on polish, but I'm a little disappointed to find out that the add-ons come in a different shipment.  I think that's stupid, but whatever.  I know this wasn't as exciting as I could have made it, but that's the box.  I mean, I don't know what else to show you.

D