Over the Top & Simmer and Shimmer

For the first time in the history of nail polish blogs EVER, I'm fairly certain that this first picture is a perfectly accurate picture of what my nails looked like in real life! Amazing, yes?

Anyways, I put on two coats of Essie Over the Top, and that apparently wasn't enough glitter for me so I put a coat of OPI Simmer & Shimmer over that (from the Burlesque collection, so it's a really thick, awesome glitter with red and blue and gold specks). The OPI over the top (lolll, totally didn't mean to do that) of the Essie meant that you couldn't really see the glitter of the Over the Top, it just kind of looked like a grey, but I still loooved it.

Big Apple Red

I can't believe I haven't used this polish before! As the name of my blog suggests, OPI Big Apple Red is my favorite polish of all time. Yes, other colors may be sparklier and more flashy and interesting, but Big Apple Red is my first love. It's the only bottle of polish that I've ever finished, and I'm on my second bottle of it. If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

For some reason my camera kind of hates this polish and wouldn't give me an entirely accurate picture of what it looks like, but the color is in my blog banner!

This is two coats of OPI Big Apple Red with a coat of SV on top. Love!

Harry Potter nails!!

Alright so I'm a bit of a Harry Potter nerd. Figured I'd rip that band-aid off right away lol. That's why not only did I go see the last (*sob*) movie at midnight but I had to do theme nails!

I know they look a little messy here, but I was actually quite proud of them! I did Gryffindor colors on four of my nails and then I kinda wanted a magical something on my pinky so I used Sonia Kashuk Starry Night (and then added Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty on top for a bit of extra sparkle, which actually backfired a bit because the silver glitter is so thick that you couldn't see the sparkles in the Starry Night, which is actually quite gorgeous. Guess I should've left well-enough alone.).

For Gryffindor, I painted two coats of Rimmel's Burgundy Flirt and then put a coat of SV on top. After that had completely dried, I put two pieces of tape on each of my nails and did OPI Bling Dynasty for the gold. I was kinda going for a scarf-y look, but I'm kind of proud of it!

Anybody else do Harry Potter nails??

First Time & Bling Dynasty

I am so ridiculously proud of this manicure loll. I've tried a few times before to do a french manicure with a twist and they always turn out absurdly bad. I've finally discovered the secret to scotch tape manicures though: you can't be too eager. You have to wait for the base coat of polish to actually dry before you stick a piece of tape on it. Fascinating, isn't it?

Anyways, for this one, I used Pure ICE First Time as the overall color (another one of my acquisitions from when my mom was in town lol). Even though the polish was only $2, it went on a little weirdly. It was streaky at first and then it was thick...I don't even know how to describe it. It ended up looking kinda cool, but kinda like I was wearing green aluminum foil on my fingers. And then OPI Bling Dynasty is the gold on the tips. I'd been wanting this color for quite some time, and I finally found it! And of course the gold went on seamlessly. It is OPI after all.

Am I delusional, or is this an awesome combination?

Also, a quick note: I'm going to see Harry Potter at midnight tonight (!!!!!!!!) so I probably won't be posting tomorrow as I shall probably dead lol. But expect some sort of Gryffindor-themed mani on Monday!

Moon Over Mumbai & Coconut Kiss

I am so proud of this manicure. I know that I just did one with a corner of color, but I loved it so much, I couldn't help but do it again. And seriously, this one turned out so much better. I used OPI Moon Over Mumbai as the base and then China Glaze Coconut Kiss for the corner. I had to do about four coats of Moon Over Mumbai to get it to have full-on coverage, and even at that you could still kind of see the nail line. It's okay though, because the color is gorgeous and oh-so-summery, I think. And then Coconut Kiss is basically just a glittery royal purple, but it worked so well with Moon Over Mumbai, which is kind of a grayish-purplish color.

And then I covered it all with a coat of SV. Super simple, but I'm just in love with it!

Moondoggie & Not Like the Movies

OPI Not Like the Movies is from the Katy Perry collection (obviously), and it's a really cool color, it just takes so many coats to get it so that you can't see the nail. I figured I'd try to layer it over a color this time. I put it over Orly Moondoggie, which may not have been my best idea ever, as it is already a fairly shiny color, and you really can't see the OPI very much. But it does give it a cool purple-ish glimmer.

I just love the name of the Orly color, and it was a lovely surprise to see how nicely it turned out considering I got it for a dollar or two at Ulta a super long time ago!

Anywhooo, this is two coats of Orly Moondoggie under a coat of OPI Not Like the Movies.

Thoughts? I'm thinking next time I'll put Not Like the Movies over a lighter, less shiny color. That way you'll probably be able to see it better.

You Don't Know Jacques!

My best friend and I looked for this polish EVERYWHERE. Basically all she wanted in the world was grey nail polish, and we knew that OPI You Don't Know Jacques existed, we just couldn't find it to save our lives. I finally broke down and bought her two bottles of dollar nail polish from that kiddie brand, Essence, which is much more grey than You Don't Know Jacques, but the bottles barely did two manicures loll.

Anyways, irrelevant side note aside, I do happen to love this polish. Now that I look at it, it's kind of a greige like the Essie Chinchilly, but this is much darker. It only took two coats to make it look presentable, and it goes on very well, as does most OPI polish (sorry, I'm a bit of an OPI snob, if you haven't noticed already!).

The polish is actually much more grey than it looks in the pictures. It looks more brown in here. I think it might just not photograph well.

Lincoln Park After Dark & Frost Peacable

Yayyy for trying new things!

I really wanted to try something fun like this, but every time I use Scotch tape to tape off my manicures like I read about on other blogs, it ends up an incredible and spectacular disaster. But my mom used to do this kind of manicure for me with just sideways tips and she did it just with natural talent, so I figured I'd try it.

Long story short: I LOOOVE IT.

I put on two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark (one of my favorite polishes, by the way), which is this amazing rich-looking brown-ish purple color that's really dark and gorgeous. Then I free-handed the sideways tips with this MAC Frost Peacable (I'm not sure if that's what the actual name of the color is, but that's what I'm going with, I think you'll see why I was stumped when you see the bottom of the bottle). I did two coats of the MAC color too because it's kind of opaque. But it's also super shiny, which is awesomee.

Assuming I can ever re-create this, I think this may be going on my list of favorite manis ever!