Sinful Colors San Francisco + Kleancolors Afternoon Picnic

San Francisco by Sinful Colors is a dark emerald green glass fleck.  (The smile line is not visible in real life like it is in the picture.)  This is two coats.

Then I brushed on some glitter!  I used Kleancolors Afternoon Picnic, a joyful hullabaloo of multicolored, different sized hex glitter.  I used one coat on all my fingers except for the middle, which has two, to illustrate how the glitter accumulates with each layer.  The only thing I didn’t like about Afternoon Picnic is that the edges of the larger hexes tended to turn up, resulting in a fragmented nail surface.  Kleancolors also smell kind of funky, but I’m used to it.  You will definitely want to use a quick-dry topcoat with this level of mega glitter going on.

What a fun mani!  San Francisco reminds me of grass so an addition of an Afternoon Picnic only seemed logical 🙂

~ Allison ~

OPI DS Bold & Temptation For Fall 2011

Here are the latest OPI DS polishes for Fall 2011, two glitters in red (Bold) and purple (Temptation).

Bold is a pale silvery pink glitter in a red base.  The base is darkly tinted so it builds up nicely on its own.  While this polish is OK, I’m not really thrilled about it.

Temptation is a deep purple glitter with specks of blue and silver in a blue base.  I found this to be the more appealing of the two since I’m a sucker for purples.

Apologies for the non-existent cleanup – that glitter did not want to budge from my skin.  That was a turnoff.  Maybe I was just having a bad polish day, but I couldn’t for the life of me get a clean gap.  Although these colors are OK, I don’t have too much to say about them.  The glitter was very gritty and needs about 2+ layers of topcoat to even out.

I purchased these up from Ricky’s (an NYC beauty retailer) for $9.99 a bottle.  What are your impressions of this new DS series – will you skip them or scoop them up?

~ Allison ~

OPI Simmer and Shimmer, Fingerpaints Vintage Velvet

Last night I popped into CVS last night to pick up some last minute hurricane supplies, along with three-fourths of the rest of New Yorkers.  Of course, with my CLIF bars, batteries, and beef jerky in hand I couldn’t resist wandering by the cosmetics section.  Although this CVS rarely updates their OPI’s they happened to have Simmer and Shimmer from OPI’s Burlesque collection.

This was my existing mani – Vintage Velvet from Fingerpaints Fall 2011.  Love this subdued greyish teal so much.  It’s just the right balance between teal and hunter green, in my opinion.  I would love a vintage velvet blazer in this color.  And yes, I tried a little Cracked Concrete China Glaze crackle as an accent nail but that didn’t show up too well.

Then I glitterfied it!  This blue-toned glitter dried in a flash and covered completely in two coats (on top of my existing color – not sure how it would fare on a bare nail).

Closeup you can see the rainbow colored glitter, even though blue is predominant.

Then I shattered it!  Used China Glaze here but any other black crackle would do the same thing.  Any glitter under crackle = beyootiful.  I used a goodly coat of Seche Vite on top to even out the surface and add glossiness.

Hope my peeps in the East Coast will stay safe this weekend and weather Hurricane Irene without event.  Hopefully I won’t have to paint my nails by candlelight!

~ Allison ~

Sally Hansen Problem Child + Sephora by OPI Traffic Stopper Copper

Problem Child is anything but.  I am in love love love with it!  So much so that I bought two bottles.  Call me crazy, I can handle it.  Anyway, it is a deep eggplant purple shimmer with firey copper flakies that add depth and show themselves when the light is right.

In low light it looks like a deep, almost black, royal purple.

Oooh pretties!

Inspired by the copper flakies, I had to add some Sephora by OPI Traffic Stopper Copper on top.

It was very good.  I’d been looking for a copper glitter for quite some time.  This one has large hexes and fine glitter in a clear base.

~ Allison ~

Random Multicolored Lacquer Swatches for You

I am so behind on my swatches.  Enjoy six quickies!

Milani Totally Cool

Royal purple jelly with rose gold foil.  I found this one in the K-Mart 99 cent clearance bin!  Although this polish is really pretty it’s a bit sheer.  Even with the 3 coats I used here my nail line is still peeking out – boooo.  Still, that color.

Milani Feisty Flames

Cutest name!  Another K-Mart 99 cent wonder.  It’s a basic tomato red creme with a jelly’s squishiness and major shine – how do they do that?  Although I don’t buy much red polish this color was fun to wear.  A great choice to coordinate with your 50’s pinup looks.

Rimmel Lava Red

I am a sucker for these “blackened” colors.  Although this metallic red pearl looks almost burgundy in low light, in the sun it appears lit from within!  And look how glossy.  This one is sure to make you feel vampy and seductive.

Rimmel Hard Metal

Dark pewter metallic frost.  The formula was creamy – a pleasure to apply.  This is 2 coats.  I appreciated the fact that even though this is a frost-leaning finish my brushmarks didn’t dry streaky and visible.  Again, pretty shiny on its own.

Pure Ice Spitfire

This is a mauve-pink holographic glitter in a clear base.  Naively I hoped this could be worn on its own for discoball impersonation nails, but that wasn’t happening.  Next time I will layer it over a base color, for sure.  Anyway, this baby was very holographic and reflective in the sun.  Let’s do more glitter, shall we?  We shall!

OPI Uh Oh Roll Down the Window + Milani Gold Jewel FX

UORDTW is from OPI’s latest collection, Touring America.  It’s a dark olive green creme that reminds me of camo.  I like the fact that OPI included some off-the-beaten-path green/beige/brown shades along with their pinks and peaches.    My bottle is so strange – it looks like the pigments got separated, but no amount of shaking will mix them up again.  I don’t think that affected the application, though.  The color looks darker in the nail than in the bottle.  Then I decided to glam up this puke green with glitter!

This is Gold from Milani’s Jewel FX collection.  Sure enough, it’s big gold hex glitter that’s pow, in your face.  Very easy nail art.

No more for tonight; I must eat dinner.  Thanks for viewing/reading and I’ll catch up with you soon!

~ Allison ~