Nailed: A Nail Polish Blog

Friday, February 26, 2016

Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise

I'm dying for spring to get here, but we keep getting snow! So I decided to channel some spring vibes with Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise, the cutest pistachio creme. This came out as part of Deborah Lippmann's Footloose-inspired collection to celebrate the 2011 remake of the film, but I believe I picked it up a few years after that through Ebay. I was in the pit orchestra for my high school's production of Footloose (NERD, I know) so this polish brings back a lot of fun memories from that time.

If you're a fan of either the original or the remake, then you may notice this shade was inspired by the VW Beetle in both films. The formula is pretty much your standard pastel: a little streaky, but opaque in three coats. Sorry again for the jank cuticles. I dunno what is going on with them lately, you guys! I think it's this cold and windy weather.

I love this color. It brings me to a happy place of lying out in the grass with a good book and the sun shining down. If you can still track it down on Ebay or through a blog sale, I recommend it! Alternatively, DL did another shade for her spring 2014 collection called Spring Buds that is quite similar.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

OPI Show Us Your Tips!

For my money, this is the best polish from the New Orleans Collection. I had to have it for the name alone, but the color itself is pretty fan-freaking-tastic. Take a look at this beautiful periwinkle shimmer!

Sunlight:

Shade:

Please ignore my dry-ass cuticles. Anywho, the formula on this was disappointly streaky. The consistency itself is really easy to work with, so it's got that going for it, but it took three-and on a couple nails, four--coats to build up opacity and cover some bald patches. It wasn't a bad formula overall, just finicky.

I picked up two polishes from the OPI New Orleans Collection (this and Humidi-tea), but my wallet was greatful for the reduced haulage after snagging all of the Hello Kitty Collection. What's on your list from this set?

Saturday, February 20, 2016

OPI Look At My Bow!

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. I was battling a nasty stomach bug for most of the week, so I wasn't in the mood to blog or paint my nails. But I'm pullin' one from my backlog for you today, with OPI Look At My Bow! This is a cute bubblegum pink creme from the Hello Kitty Collection.

This has got a nice 'n easy formula. Above is two coats.

Like a lot of the Hello Kitty shades, this isn't a color we haven't seen before from other brands, but it's very well-executed for what it is and definitely worth picking up if you don't already have a similar shade in your collection--or if you're like me and just nuts for all things Hello Kitty. :) If you'd like to see more of Look At My Bow!, take a gander at this past Twinsie Tuesday post, where I used it as a base for glitter.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Butter London Stroppy

It's been a while since I've featured a BL polish on here. I used to be obsessed with the brand but they seem to be emphasizing their foray into makeup much more than their polish lately. But I had an urge to wear some purple polish over the weekend, so I pulled this one out of my untrieds.

Stroppy is a purple shimmer with a slight pink color shift. The shift looks very intense in the bottle (you can even see some gold in there too) but is considerably more subtle on the nail. I won't lie, it was super disappointing, but when you consider Stroppy for what it actually is instead of what the bottle teases, it's still very pretty. It has beautiful red flecks that helps make up for the lack of shifty goodness.

The formula was average--nothing much to report. I used three coats here.

Would this polish be even prettier with that fantastic color shift? Of course! I hate vanishing shimmers and shifters. But it's still a lovely purple, so long as you know what to expect.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Twinsie Tuesday: Essie Hot Coco

This week's TT has us doing coffee-inspired manis. Personally, I'm not a coffee fan. I don't like the taste and it hurts my stomach. I'm much more of a tea drinker. I'm also not much a fan of brown polish, which is what this prompt made me think of. However, one of the few browns I really like is, coincidentally, named after another beverage (and one that I love): Essie Hot Coco. This color could pass as coffee with creamer, yes?

Hot Coco is so creamy and cool-toned that is almost verges into taupe territory. I think that's one of the things I like best about it is how it straddles the line between the two shades. I wear Hot Coco often during the cold weather months. Something about it just seems so cozy to me! I received this beautiful brown from the lovely Rach over at Stuff I Swatched, so a huge thank you goes out to her! :)

So that's my coffee/quasi-hot chocolate-inspired mani, hahaha. Hope you enjoyed and be sure to take a look at what my fellow Twinsies are up to this week!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Essie Resort 2016 Preview

You guys seem to love the Essie resort collections. Year after year, they're consistently one of my most popular preview posts, even more so than some of the major OPI releases. They're a favorite of mine as well.

So without further ado, let's take a look at this year's colors! For 2016, Essie is taking us on holiday to India with four new shades.

Nama-Stay The Night

Going Guru

Delhi Dance

Taj-Ma-Haul

Source

Essie's bright blues are serious business (check out Strut Your Stuff if you need further convincing) so I've definitely got my eye on Nama-Stay The Night. I'm liking the look of Going Guru, but I'm pretty sure I'll have a dupe for it already. :-/

I was pretty disappointed by the preview pics for Essie's spring polishes, but I think this is a step in the right direction. I'm not sure of an in-store date for these, but I'd guess we'll see them in late March or early April.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Twinsie Tuesday: LynBDesigns Benedict

We're doing a romantic theme this week, so I decided to bust out the heart glitter! I actually only have one polish in my stash that prominently features heart glitter and that's LynBDesigns Benedict. Benedict is a glitterbomb with small blue and holographic silver glitters and then of course the aforementioned hearts in shades of holographic blue, silver and red. I layered Benedict over OPI Look At My Bow!, a bubblegum pink.

Benedict is a cute polish, but I honestly feel like the glitter is too dense. I usually can't get enough glitter, but since this is designed to be a layering glitter, I think the overall look would benefit from allowing the base polish to peek through more. I wiped down my brush for each nail and I still felt like I was getting a ton of glitter each time. The end result can get a little crowded-looking--and this is with only one coat of Benedict. Oddly enough, I really had to fish for the heart glitters. There's so much small glitter that they get kind of buried.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I like it, but I don't love it. Anything with glitter is never a total loss. ;)