Midnight-Manicures

There has been a lot of talk about the OPI's Not Like The Movies from the Katy Perry Collection, so I wanted to try mine to see how I liked it.   As you can tell by my mani, I'm feeling a little better today, not quiet as messy.  (See my About Me)  One coat of Seche Clear base, two coats of polish and one coat of Seche Vite top coat.  All applied flawlessly. I have the one that is the p urple/green duochrome, the other one has been described by other bloggers as more silver, a gunmetal and/or frost.  The duochrome (right) has the starting lot #10 and the gunmetal (left) #11 (most of them that I've heard about).  The 2 photos below, courtesy of Donna McCrudden. This was OPI's answer on their facebook page when asked about the difference: OPI   Alright, here's the answer, they are both Not Like The Movies. OPI’s Katy Perry shade Not Like The Movies was meant to be a true gun metal hue. The preliminary batch released contained more green than OPI intended...

It's been storming here for what seems like a week now and since we finally had the sun break through for a few minutes today, I wanted to run outside and take pictures of one of the polishes I received from Cult Nail's Memorial Day Sale.  I purchased Living Water, Iconic, Always Winning and Let Me Fly.  They shipped and arrived very quick. This is my first polish from Cult Nails, so I really did not know what to expect.  With it being the Memorial Day Weekend, I started with Living Water (blue) on my fingernails and Iconic (red) on my toenails.  I knew when I started this I wasn't feeling my best which usually means messy for me, so please excuse my messy nails it's my fault, not the polishes...it applied perfectly.  One of my mistakes was applying too thick of a coat, I wanted to make sure it covered well, but I didn't need to worry about that.  Also, I was trying to catch the sun.  I will post another picture tomorrow (cleaned up) if we get more sun...

To enter go here: http://purrceptivevixxen.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-hell-of-it-giveaway.html

Everyone that follows me here and from the Polish-aholics Anonymous Facebook Group knows one of my favorite polishes is Deborah Lippmann.  So far I own 20 plus polishes and nail treatments of hers.  She is doing a giveaway when her twitter account  http://twitter.com/#!/deborahlippmann  gets 52 more followers.  You can also follow her on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1023334704  and her website www.deborahlippmann.com .  Stay tuned to my blog for some exciting news in the next week or so and more blogs of her beautiful and unique polishes.  Also if you would like to join the Facebook Group of Polish-aholics Anonymous, please send me an email and I'll add you, our group is at 300 members now.

MONDAY, MAY 23, 2011 Zoya Nail Polish announces three new full coverage nudes - Touch collection New for 2011  3 limited edition  nude nail polish  colors from Zoya TOUCH soft  sensual  sexy Zoya Nail Polish presents 3 new, full coverage nudes designed to coordinate with a variety of skin tones. Each softly kissed with a bit of metallic to make them ultra wearable. "It's not about finding a perfect match to your skin tone but rather about finding the one that coordinates.  Our color experts logged many hours creating the perfect full-coverage nude nail polish  shades!  Since then we've found that most people can wear one of the three new nudes in the Zoya Touch collection no matter what!" Zoya Media Relations  Zoya  TOUCH  Collection Minka  (ZP561) - latte beige cream with a metallic kiss Shay  (ZP562) - desert rose sand beige cream with a metallic kiss Pandora  (ZP563) - mauve beige cream with a metallic kiss  S...

A few weeks ago I started emailing with a fellow swapper from Poland on Make Up Alley.  I was looking for the discontinued Gosh Silver Holographic Polish that is of course unavailable here and on Ebay can go for $50 easily.  After several emails we ended up shipping each other 8-10 polishes, things that we couldn't get in our own country or were hard to find.  Below is a picture of what I received, I love getting packages from swaps, it's like having a Birthday or Christmas.  I will be swatching the polishes over the next week or two. I hope to be able to do more swaps like this in the future, it was definitely a positive experience.

Tonight I chose Zoya's Akyra to try.  I had been wanting this color for a while now and finally got it during their Earth Day Exchange.  Zoya describes this as a  Medium metallic teal shimmer in a dark smoky blue base. A dark aquatic shade for a hip and edgy nail look.  It is a 3 on their intensity scale of 1 to 5.  I used 3 coats for it to be opaque.  The application seemed a little thin but not really hard to work with.  As I get better with applying polish, I seem to be able to adjust to the different thicknesses.  Hopefully you and I will be able to see an improvement over time as I practice almost every day.  I love the color of this polish, I did find it to be more of greenish teal, but green is my favorite color.  Each time I use a new Zoya it never fails to move to my top favorites and Akyra is one of them. Zoya is one of the big 3-free and can be found in Ulta's, some Whole Food Markets and other natural food stores and fro...

As everyone knows, Deborah Lippmann is one of my favorite polishes.  It took me several tries to find the Limited Edition Superstar polish.  It's a Show Stopping Copper Flecked Fudge (glitter).  I paired it with Brown Eyed girl that is a Chocolate velvet glimmer (opaque shimmer).   These two colors truly go together IMO, but my camera picked up a more burgandy tint in BEG but in person it shows up the beautiful brown that I adore.   I loved Brown Eyed Girl so much that I sent one to my best polish friend (BPF).  You can find Deborah Lippmann polishes on her website at www.deborahlippmann.com ,  in some of the high-end retailers and online retailers.  The prices range from $16-20 and well worth it.  Many of her polishes have been created in collaboration with well known music, tv and movie stars.  My collection has grown from my first polish Happy Birthday to over 20. 

This is last night's mani of Nfu-Oh #61 with an accent finger polished with Juicy Couture Silver Glitter.  The Juicy Couture Glitter set came with Gold, Pink and Silver and it had different sizes in it including hearts and came in a pretty pink box.  I wish my camera would have picked it up better, it is beautiful in person.  I will try tomorrow with a different camera and in sunlight.  The silver glitter glows like rainbows which is perfect with the Nfu-Oh #61.  The set of glitters can be found at Last Call by Neiman Marcus.  Retails $28, sale for $18, which I had a coupon code and free shipping and paid $12.60 total! Juicy Couture Set of Three Glitter Nail Polishes   You can order from here and see much better pictures.

This is my first experience with Nfu-Oh and what a wonderful one to have.  I used Nfu-Oh Aqua Base that distributors suggest to use for your holos and Nfu-Oh holo #61.  I also used a quick dry top coat which may help it last longer but it's not necessary and may even take a little of the holographic effect away. The Aqua Base is a milky white color in the bottle, but as soon as it touches the nail, it turns into a super shinny clear base coat, application was flawless, I could have worn this alone.  The Nfu-Oh #61 doesn't look really holo in the bottle, and when I put the first coat on, it looked a dull grayish color.  As it dried the beautiful linear rainbow started to show.  Since I am not a professional and just recently jumped back into the polish world about 6 months ago after many years, my manicures are not always the best looking.  This polish and base coat made it easy, even with my inexperience.  The polishes and other products from this line...

I was so excited to see this in my mailbox today, this is my first Birchbox.  They pick the products to send you each month based on how you answered the questions on their website.  Here's what I received: 1.  Stila Eyeshadow in Twig, it's beautiful and a full size, it retails for $18. 2.  Bulgari Mon Jasmin Noir Fragrance. 3.  Erno Laszlo Transphuse Night Serum, I think us more "mature" ladies received this.  It retails for $190 for      one ounce, the sample is .10oz worth $19? 4.  Archipelago Pomegranate Soap 5.  Tiny Prints Card 6.  Oribe Beautiful Color Shampoo and Conditioner, received 2 of these. As you can see, you get a lot of value for your $10 monthly charge for the Birchbox.  You can read more about these products and how to get your own Birchbox subscription started at www.birchbox.com.

This is my polish haul from today.  First I received my 2 Deborah Lippmann polishes that I won on ebay.  Then I went to Ulta and used bunches of coupons and ended up spending only $35.  When I got home I had a box from Ulta for somethings they were out of at the store.  I'm sure my polish count is close to 600 at this point.  I have a Melmer and a Helmer to store my polish in and I really need to organize them again.  Once I get that done I'll show you some pictures of it all.  Still a 4 day count down until I post my first mani, waiting on the results of the poll.  Thanks to everyone who has followed me, please tell your friends about my blog.  We'll do a giveaway at 100 followers.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!  I am trying to figure out how to use all the features of the blog before I start posting.  I'm now looking for a great background to go with my blog name, if anyone has any idea's please leave me a comment, I had to post to try the comment feature out.  Thanks to everyone who has joined my blog so far, it means a lot to me :)