OPI Pamplona Purple and Nfu-Oh #56

I didn't post my last mani with Nfu-Oh #56, mainly because I was house-sitting at the time and did not have access to my uploader cord until after I got back, and by then the mani was a chiptastic mess.

Anyway! So the other night I put on Pamplona Purple, which I lemmed for a while and then found in a tiny salon in town. Now..I hate to say it, but I just don't think Pamplona Purple loves me the way I love it. It's such a gorgeous purple, but it makes my skintone go all crazy.

I so did not want to completely redo my nails, though, so I slapped on a layer of Nfu-Oh #56, and oh my goodness. Match made in nail polish heaven, if I do say so myself! I totally feel ready for Halloween with this slightly witchy combination, but I don't care! Mainly because I love Halloween, but also because this combo is just so awesome. The Nfu-Oh turned Pamplona Purple into this crazy browish purple bruise color. Love!

I really wish I could have gotten some sunlight pictures of this mani, though! Those would have been pretty amazing.

Needless to say, I think I need to get more Nfu-Ohs.

ETA: I forgot to mention, Nfu-Oh has my favorite brush/handle combination ever. The handle is really long and curvy, because, you know, corset. This means I can hold it kind of like a pencil, which makes for really precise polishing.

Diamond Cosmetics Amethyst & Diamonds

So, so, so gorgeous. I really don't know why I've waited so long to try this! It's a very pretty grape purple  with holo glitter. I decided to stamp a butterfly on my ring fingers using a mixture of China Glaze Ruby Pumps and L'Oreal Lady Luck.

Please click to enlarge this picture so you can see the beautiful holo sparkles. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of this polish! So pretty.

OPI You're A Doll!

This polish is perfection. If I had to pick only five polishes to wear for the rest of my life, this would definitely be one of them. Thank goodness I don't have to be limited like that, though! I'd probably go crazy, haha. I don't think I could ever pick just five polishes!

 You're A Doll! is such an interesting color. It's a weird taupey lavender pink creme that sometimes leans gray. Oh, and it has strange red flecks in it. Odd, right? But it's so pretty!

I definitely encourage you to enlarge the pictures to see the fantastic red flecks.

So, tell me, what are some of your Desert Island Top 5 Polishes? (Honestly, though, who could ever wear only five polishes? Crazy!)

Nail Polish Stash: Part Seven

Click here for the rest of the series.

Taken from Part One: I recently decided to reorganize my polish, since I no longer know how many I own, what colors I own, etc. So, in a way, this series of posts is to help keep me organized. But it's also for you all! If you see anything in these posts that you want to see more of, let me know, and I'll swatch it for you. :] (EDIT: Some photos are clickable, some aren't. I'm not really sure why this is happening, and I've tried to fix it, but nothing seems to work. Sorry!)

Dark Blue

Note: This picture is horrible. I really, sincerely apologize. I did my best to color-correct it, though, so the polishes should be accurate, for the most part.

Essie Aruba Blue, Sonia Kashuk Space Cadet, Nina Ultra Pro Sailor, Sephora Brand Blue Sapphire, MAC Blue India, Finger Paints Cobalt Cardigan, Zoya Kotori, Revlon Midnight Affair, Covergirl Midnight Magic

Medium Blue

Color Club Pure Energy, OPI Sea, I Told You!, NYC East Village, China Glaze Frostbite, OPI Absolutely Alice

Light Blue

OPI Give Me the Moon!, Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, No Miss Boynton Beach Blue, China Glaze For Audrey, Zoya Yummy, China Glaze Rainstorm

The Ones I Accidentally Forgot

Oops! I left these out when I was taking pictures, and I really, reeeeally didn't want to go back and retake pictures, ha. So they get a separate picture!

Charlotte Russe unnamed magenta, Milani Garnet Gems, Orly Tiara

And that's everything! So, what's my grand total, you ask? 215 polishes! Whoa. That's quite a bit, eh? I honestly thought it'd be much more than that, though, but I guess I forgot to take into consideration the fact that I recently gave away/got rid of at least 20 polishes.

Anyway! Again, if you saw something you liked and want to see a better image of it, just let me know and I'll swatch it for you.

Nail Polish Stash: Part Four

Click here for the rest of the series.

Taken from Part One: I recently decided to reorganize my polish, since I no longer know how many I own, what colors I own, etc. So, in a way, this series of posts is to help keep me organized. But it's also for you all! If you see anything in these posts that you want to see more of, let me know, and I'll swatch it for you. :] (EDIT: Some photos are clickable, some aren't. I'm not really sure why this is happening, and I've tried to fix it, but nothing seems to work. Sorry!)

Dark Purple

Zoya Savita, Zoya Yasmeen, OPI Ink, OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry (which is much darker and more, you know, purple in real life), Rimmel Deliciously Dark, Zoya Mimi, Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl, OPI Merry Midnight, NARS Tokaido Express

Medium Purple

Diamond Cosmetics Amethyst and Diamonds, Rimmel Climax, China Glaze Grape Pop, Nina Ultra Pro Purple X-ing, OPI Pamplona Purple, CQ 151, China Glaze Flying Dragon

Light Purple

OPI You're A Doll! (which is actually sort of pinky-purple), Icing Lilly, Essie Lilacism, Revlon Gum Drop, Zoya Zara, Covergirl Luxe Lilac, Orly Cashmere Cardigan (more of a periwinkle), Revlon Not So Blue-berry (also more of a periwinkle)

Purple with Blue Flash

Sally Hansen Grape Going!, China Glaze Reggae to Riches, Milani Purple Passion, Rimmel Violet Metal, Color Club Ultraviolet

Duochrome/Crazy Purple

Milani Dot Com, Rimmel Zeitgeist, OPI Mad As A Hatter, MAC Toast Of the Town, Zoya Adina

I think I have a purple problem, ha.

Rimmel Violet Metal.

Ha, whenever I go to write about this polish, I accidentally type Violent Metal. I guess that's an accurate description of how I felt when I wore this polish, though: violent. Because, even though the color is beautiful and the application was pretty decent, the wear was HORRIBLE. 10 days my foot! It barely lasted a day before it was chipping off in huge chunks! I was so, so mad. I normally don't have issues with Rimmel polishes! But this one was seriously a disaster.

OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry.

This polish is so, so beautiful. It's a wonderful plummy purple with slightly holographic (!!) shimmer. This is from OPI's spring 2010 Hong Kong collection. Honestly, when I first saw this one, I wasn't all that interested. But then I started seeing it more and more, and I fell in love! I'm so happy I was able to win this one from PolishSWATCHES.

So, so pretty. I realize that in these two pictures, the polish looks to be a different color. But that's the thing about MMOTSF! It shifted in different lighting! Goodness, I love this polish. Application was a dream, and wear was pretty good, too.

Double Review: Orly Prim and Proper and OPI Absolutely Alice

First up, Prim and Proper.

This polish..oh, this polish. I wanted to like it. I really, really did. But it just looked weird with my skintone, and it was brushstrokey, and it just was weird overall. I put it on because I was really in the need for something girly and feminine. I think this was almost too feminine, haha. It's a light, light, light metallic lavender frost. The formula was pretty good, and it dried well, but it's just too..something. Not my style.

I don't know. I guess I'm just not really into this finish of polish. It was pretty, sure. Just..not for me. (By the way, the pictures are color-accurate.)

Next, Absolutely Alice.

Sadly, I only have one picture for you. This polish is so gorgeous, but I had so many problems with it. First of all, the formula was gloopy. I expect that with glitter polishes but this one was overly gloopy. Dry time was amazing, though I had to use three coats for full coverage. I needed this polish to last for a week, since I wanted to wear it for the Alice in Wonderland midnight premiere. Now, I'm not stupid. I knew I'd have to touch it up a little bit before going to the premiere. But this polish.. It peeled off in huge chips on the second day. By the fourth day, it was even worse. I had to touch it up so many times, sometimes having to completely redo some nails. I ended up just chipping it all off on Friday morning. It's frustrating, because it's so pretty. My picture really does not do it justice.

It's a gorgeous cobalt blue glitter with gold glitter dispersed throughout. First of all, I'm sorry about the state of my cuticles. Second, I'm sorry about the fact that I'm only showing three nails. I had already started chipping if off by this point. Third, I'm sorry for the raggedy edges on my nails. In addition to the polish chipping off, my nails also started breaking like crazy. It was just not a good week, haha. So, overall, love the color, hate the formula. But it's a glitter. What can you do?

NOTW/Review: Orly Cashmere Cardigan with OPI Mad As A Hatter

This was my NOTW from several weeks ago, and I absolutely loved it. Seriously, it was just so pretty and girly and shiny. I got the idea from Little Music Boxes, who did it with OPI A Grape Fit! I thought that this had the same vibe, just a little lighter.

Blurred to show glitter.

I just loved this combination. The beautiful periwinkle creme Orly really brought out the purple glitter in MAAH. The formulas on both of these polishes was great. The Orly dried super-fast, and it only took two coats for a smooth finish. The OPI also was only two coats, though if I was going to wear it on a bare nail, I'd probably want to go with three coats. It dried quickly, as well, which is a plus to glitter. I only did one nail of this polish, though, because I didn't want to deal with having to remove a whole manicure's worth of glitter, haha. It wore fairly well, and like I said before, it was so pretty.

Review: Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl and mall haul.

This is my first Sinful Colors polish. I actually bought it over a month ago, but I never got around to swatching it.

Daddy's Girl is a really pretty dark blurple (purple-blue) jelly with purplish magenta glitter. Application was just okay. It was insanely sheer, and took about four coats to get it to a decent level of opaqueness. Wear was not good, though. I started getting tipwear on the second day, and it's been chipping a bit around my cuticles since day one. It's pretty, though! It's a fun color, and I really enjoyed wearing it.

Gah. My cuticles are horrible. I really, really apologize for this. They've been destroyed by this crazy weather we've been having. And these pictures are horrible, too. My hands look orange! The lighting in my bathroom has been all wonky lately, so I am blaming the horrible pictures/orange hands/awful pictures on that. These pictures were as close to color-accurate as I could get. This polish is seriously impossible to photograph.

I went to the mall today to shop for birthday presents for my brothers (One has a birthday tomorrow; the other's birthday is on Tuesday.), and sort of got a bit sidetracked, haha. I went into Trade Secret to see if they had gotten the Alice in Wonderland collection yet, and they had! They were all out of Mad as a Hatter, though. I put my name on a list to be called when they get more in, though. I did pick up Absolutely Alice, though. Based on pictures I had seen, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I do! It's so pretty.

(Oy. I apologize for my horrible counter. Daddy's Girl is pretty thin, so it was dripping off the brush like crazy. I haven't had a chance to clean it up yet. The gold you see is Zoya Richelle, from New Years. Heh, I haven't cleaned in a while.)

Trade Secret had also gotten Essie's spring collection, and I was going to get a few full-sized polishes from the collection, but I decided to get the little box instead. I think I am going to buy a full-sized bottle of Lilacism, though. And Van D'go. I wish this one had been in the box instead of Nouveau Red, but whatever.

I also stopped into Bath & Body Works, because I wanted to use the rest of my gift card from my birthday. I saw the Scent Bug on Linds' blog, Polish, Platforms, Perfume, and I decided to finally get it. I've been eyeing it for a while, but I was wary. I'm so glad I bought it! I got it up in black, and I got a bottle of Nectarine Mint home fragrance oil. It works really well, and the scent is nice and gentle. Not strong enough to overpower you, but strong enough that you can smell it. I love it, I really do. I think eventually I'm going to get the Eucalyptus Spearmint fragrance oil, and probably several more. (I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!)

Oh, and my (technically my mom's, but it's a birthday present, so it's mine, haha.) order from Lush came in today! It took forever, but I guess that's because it came all the way from Canada. I'll do a post on that tomorrow.

Oy, this post was long. I guess that's what happens when you don't do a real post in over a week, haha.

Review: China Glaze Flying Dragon

Whoa, crazy. Two posts in one day! I really hate being behind on posting my manicures, though. Actually, I might have had three posts today if my pictures of Essie Very Cranberry had turned out. And if my nails were cleaned up a bit more, haha. By the way, this post is going to be a bit long. Sorry about that!

ChG Flying Dragon is, in a word, spectacular. Beautiful true purple with blue and reddish purple microglitter. It's a neon, so it dries fairly matte. I didn't really like the finish, so I did two coats of Poshe (Which I'm actually loving a lot more than Seche Vite. We just get along much better.), and it became shiny and pretty. I did two coats of polish, though I really should have done three. I have major, major VNL. I let it slide, though, because the polish is just so gorgeous. I picked up this polish the other day (I talked about it in one of my haul posts) from one of the local Sally's, along with ChG Japanese Koi.

(Click the pics to enlarge and see the fabulous glitter.)

I've never been a huge fan of purple nail polish (Shocking, I know.). It's always too sheer or t0o thick or something. The formula is usually just weird in some way. This polish was practically perfect, though. Definitely one of my favorites.

So, I broke my no-buy. Again. I know, I know. This addiction is getting bad. But, hey. This isn't as bad a vice as I could have, right? Right! I posted the other day about my Sally's haul, so I don't think I need to repeat myself. Anyway, yesterday I went out shopping a bit with my mom, and we hit up some drugstores. We've got so many Walgreen's and CVSes in town, it's crazy. We only went to one Walgreen's and one CVS, though. At Walgreen's I picked up Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Grape Going! and Revlon Mad About Mango. MAM is one of Revlon's new scented polishes! It totally takes me back to my childhood. I had all these scented markers, and it smells exactly like one of them. I think I had some scented polish, too. I think that's why I've been seriously lemming the Revlon scented polishes. They remind me so much of the 90s, and it's awesome. I almost got Coconut Crush and Mon Cherry, as well, but backed out at the last minute. Afterward I was upset that I didn't get Mon Cherry, and my mom told me today she's pick it up for me! Hooray!

I also finally convinced my mom to buy colored polishes. She's been addicted to these barely there frosty pink colors for practically forever, and I got her to get Sally Hansen Plum's The Word and Milani Cherry Pie (which is actually from the CVS haul). These polishes look great on her. CVS is having a sale right now, by the way, where you can get Milani polishes and cosmetics for buy one, get one 50% off (I'm not getting anything for posting this. I just thought it was a great sale.) Because of this sale, I picked up Milani Garnet Gems, Milani Blackberry Baby, and Milani Key Lime Shine. Such pretty colors.

We also went to the mall, where I went in search of Claire's Dream Catcher. Sadly, my Claire's did not have it. I've been trying to find a dupe for Chanel Jade, and the closest I've come is L.A. Colors Green Satin, which is pretty close, but Dream Catcher seems almost identical. I did pick up Icing Marine Blue and Icing Blackout, though. I was so excited to find Blackout. It's so pretty! And it was the only one left!

I went to World Market, too, and picked up a bunch of random foreign/weird snack foods. I've been having serious cravings for crazy things lately. I picked up a box of milk coffee (??) flavored Pocky, a box of Chocolate Crunch (basically a stick of Pocky covered in chocolate cookies and then dipped in chocolate) flavored Pocky, Chili Lime dark chocolate (So, so good.), some crazy maple candy in the shape of a maple leaf (It tastes exactly like brown sugar. Heavenly.), and a box of lemon mint Turkish delight, which is amazing (I had to throw out my last box of Turkish delight, which was actually lemon and rose flavored, because my brother's dog got into the box. Both flavors are to die for, though.). I also got a really pretty wool cream and tan houndstooth scarf that I plan on wearing quite often in the next week, since our temperatures have dropped immensely. It was 19 degrees last night! In the South! This is madness.

Oh, and for Christmas I got a gift card for Bath & Body Works, which is probably one of my favorite stores. I love indulging in wonderful-smelling bath products. Well, B&BW has a huge sale going on right now, too. It's amazing. I was able to get one of their huge candles (in Fireside. This smells exactly like a fireplace. It's absolutely amazing.), two foaming body washes (in Black Amethyst and Japanese Cherry Blossom), and two bottles of their Aromatherapy Stress-Relief Eucalyptus and Spearmint Volumizing shampoo (which is great. I used it last night, and I felt so relaxed after using it. And this morning when I woke up, my hair had body and volume, which it desperately needs.) all for only 22 dollars. That candle alone would have been 20 dollars if it wasn't on sale. Oh, how I love after-Christmas/New Year sales.

My mom is also currently indulging my obsession and is polish shopping for me. I can't wait to see what she brings back! I know she's getting Revlon Vixen and Revlon Frankly Scarlet. I think she's getting OPI My Private Jet (!!!), too. (EDIT: My mom brought home Revlon Vixen, Revlon Frankly Scarlet, OPI My Private Jet (It seems to be the latest version that's sort of brown and duochromy. Not exactly a holo, but it has holo glitter. Hey, I'll take it! I'm still on the lookout for the elusive original, though), and OPI La Paz-itively Hot (They apparently didn't have the matte version. Oh, well. This version's super pretty! My search continues for the matte version, though. I want an 80s prom dress for my nails!). A lovely early birthday present indeed!)

Gah, why do I keep breaking my no-buy? It feels so good at first, but then afterward, I start regretting it. I know it's going to get better, though, now that I'm starting school again, because I'm not going to have any time to shop, haha. I justify it, though, by saying that nail polish is like an accessory. You can't just have one or two. You have to have a lot, to fit your mood and the season and whatnot.

Have you picked up any great polishes or products lately?