Lavender Mint

Hey there! Today I have a mani that's been sitting in my "Nails" folder for way too long. It's actually from late October last year, and while I had almost started to think I should just not post it, I'm working on the Zoya summer collection right now, and since it's going to take me a little while to get through, I thought it'd be good to post something in the meantime. However, just because it's been sitting on my hard drive for several months doesn't mean I didn't like it - I honestly don't know why I haven't posted it before now. I used Icing Mint 2 Be for the mint green and Zoya Malia with Sephora by OPI Only Gold for Me for the accent nails.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

I realize that Malia isn't a lavender, but when I was thinking of what to name this post, I thought of Paul Mitchell's line of lavender mint hair products (they smell wonderful, of course - what of theirs doesn't?) and decided it was about as interesting a title as I was going to come up with. I need to start doing accent nails more often again, I think...I haven't done any lately, and it's one of the easiest ways I can think of to give your nails a little more pizzazz.

Now I have a question for you all - would you rather have me split Zoya Beach and Surf into two parts, or four? I kind of like doing it in four because I feel like I can devote a little more description to each polish and because I can post more often that way, but I've done Zoya collections in two posts before, and I can certainly do it again if that's what you prefer. Please leave a comment telling me if you'd rather have two posts, four, or if you don't care either way. Thanks!

OPI Steady as She Rose + Layering

Happy June, happy hump day, and happy Pink Wednesday! Today I have not only a  Pink Wednesday pink for you, but some layering, as well. This was my first time using Steady as She Rose, and I was very pleased with the formula, application, and opacity - I used two coats here and couldn't see any VNL, even under the extremely bright light of my desk lamp.

indoors, artificial light

Steady as She Rose is a dusty pink that pulls a bit grey and a bit purple on me, though not as much as it appears to in that picture. I would've taken one outside to see if it photographed better in sunlight or shade, but I honestly didn't think to (where was my brain?) until after I took it off. Oops. But before I took it off, I added glitter! I used one coat of China Glaze White Cap, two coats of Ulta After Party (a silver and rose glitter), one coat of Sephora by OPI Traffic Stopper Copper, and a coat of Essie Matte About You.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I like the combination a lot, though I think the warmth of the copper glitter sucked all the rosy tones out of Steady as She Rose, because by the time I finished the layering, it hardly looked pink at all. Do you think Regina would still approve, or would she ban me from their table? ;)

Graduation Mani

It seems weird to think that I'm now an alumnus of the school district where I've gone for 13 (long) years...I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it. What you see on the left is the right thumbnail of my graduation manicure - my high school's colors are red and white (but silver's cooler, so I used that) and our mascot is a lightning bolt. So, I used Finger Paints Curator's Crimson for the red base, then did all but my thumbs with a coat of Sephora by OPI Flurry Up. On my left thumbnail, I wrote "2011," and on my right thumbnail I did a lightning bolt, both in Sally Hansen Celeb City. Here's my left hand:

indoors, artificial light

I like it! I'm glad my thumbnail grew out a bit, though; otherwise I'm not sure I could've gotten the whole year on there. I used a toothpick for the thumbs because I knew I would be able to do finer detail with it than with my dotting tool. I'll be in St. Louis tomorrow, so I may not have a post up, but I do plan to post Sunday. I'm really excited about my graduation party, which will be then, because I'm going to plan and cook the whole meal - I may have to show some pictures of that as well! :)

Pink Wednesday: Pink & Gold

I almost forgot today was Pink Wednesday, but fortunately I managed to pull something together for a pink post. I painted my nails with three coats of Milani Pink Out Loud, a bright hot pink with pink and gold glass-flecked shimmer, and then I added one coat of Sephora by OPI Only Gold for Me on top.

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

Neither of these pictures shows Pink Out Loud accurately - I think maybe that's because the gold glitter overpowering enough to throw my camera off, but I'm not sure. Anyway, you can still get the general gist from these pictures.

Just to let you all know, I may not be posting every day for a while. I still love blogging and plan to continue Never Unpolished for the forseeable future, I just don't feel like doing a post every day right now. I do still plan to post at least every other day, if not more often...I guess the point of this is just to tell you not to expect a post every day.

That's all for today - and guess what? It's getting closer and closer to Friday! :)

Spaced Out

Before I get into the polish, let me point out another spreadsheet I made listing the Essie polishes sold at Walmart, as well as treatments that will be coming in February 2011. As well as being linked in this post, the spreadsheet will be linked with the others in my sidebar.

This is officially my favorite layering manicure ever - at least out of those I've personally done. I wanted something similar to this, but I wanted something a lot more complex and "deep." Over two coats of Rimmel Night Before, I put one coat of Sally Hansen Laser, one coat of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie, one coat of NYC White Lights Glitter, one sparse coat of Sephora by OPI Only Gold for Me, and two coats of Rush to make it shine. I have to say, I'm absolutely thrilled with the results. One of the reasons I love nail polish is that you can do stuff like this with very little effort or skill:

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I can't entirely capture the gorgeousness of this combination on camera. There is still visible purple (though you can't see it in the picture), but with a blue flash thanks to Laser, and the green, blue, and gold glitter makes it look really stellar. I really hope this doesn't chip quickly, because I know that once it does, it'll have to come off - I can't stand chipped polish on myself.

I also have a tag to share with you today. I was tagged by Nail Polish Addiction Anonymous for the Stylish Blogger Award.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers to tell them about this award!

My seven things:

1. My mom's birthday is June 5 (6-5), and mine is May 6 (5-6). I think it's nifty. I also think that nifty is a weird word, and I'm not sure why I just used it.

2. I'm one degree of connection away from Bradley Whitford, who played Josh Lyman on The West Wing, my favorite TV show ever.

3. My first ever nail polish was a red The Little Mermaid nail polish that washed off with soap and water.

4. I am running out of interesting facts - that is, if I ever had any to begin with.

5. I have an entire (large) mug full of Sharpies. See #4.

6. I'm not anywhere near making up my mind, but I'm thinking about majoring in political science in college.

7. I love historical fiction and period movies.

And now, for my recently discovered bloggers. These were SO hard to pick...there are just so many great new blogs out there. ;) All of these blogs have existed for less than one year. In no particular order:

1. Colorful Bottle's Blog

2. The Brrrd's Nest

3. The Polished Perfectionist

4. Kiss My Acetone

5. polish polish polish 

6. Acetone and Old Lacquer

7. The Nail Experiment

8. The Nailtress

9. Katrina's Nail Blog

10. Enamel Girl

11. GildedNails

12. The Phalanges Files

13. Cel's Deconails

14. Confessions of a Polishaholic

15. For Your Nails Only

One of my friends was talking last week about how she wished she had some glittery nail polish, so I offered to bring some of mine to let her borrow. I'm taking my most glittery glitters and glitter top coats: OPI Mad as a Hatter, OPI Glow Up Already, Nicole by OPI One Less Lonely Glitter, Hard Candy Mischief, China Glaze Atlantis, OPI Extra-va-vaganza, OPI Simmer & Shimmer, $OPI Only Gold for Me, OPI Sparkle-icious, Simpli teal glitter, OPI Show It and Glow It, a Bon Bons blue bar glitter, Sinful Colors Nail Junkie, Finger Paints Holly Good Time, China Glaze Mummy May I, OPI Absolutely Alice, Icing Glamourama, Finger Paints Romanticism Ruby, Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope, NYC White Lights Glitter, $OPI Flurry Up, Sally Hansen In the Spotlight, and a mini of Orly In a Snap to smooth all that glitter out. Think she'll have enough to choose from? ;)

Royal + Flurry Up

I did wear Royal alone for a little while, and I will post a review on it by itself, but in the spirit of the New Year coming up, I thought I'd wait and do that after all the bling is over. So, I added Sephora by OPI Flurry Up, which has silver hex glitter and smaller silver glitter in a clear base. It's basically the silver sister of $OPI Only Gold for Me (which I used in my military bling manicure), which I adore and have used half my bottle of. I need to buy backups. Anyway, this is two coats of Royal and one coat of Flurry Up.

indoors, artificial light



Sorry for the crappy picture, awkward hand position, and random object in the background...I didn't manage to take a picture until I got to my grandma's house, so I was without my nail polish bottle and lightbox. That aside, I really like this combination, and I plan on adding a ton of additional glitter to it for tomorrow. My nails are probably going to be about ten coats thick with all that glitter...it'll be lots of fun to take off. :) Thanks for reading, and I hope your 2010 is wrapping up nicely.

Military Bling

After a few days of WASP, I decided to give it a little makeover with Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me. I need to get a backup bottle of this stuff...I love it!

Is that gorgeous, or is that gorgeous? In my humble opinion, Only Gold for Me looks good with just about everything. :) Happy hump day, and I hope the rest of the week is fantastic for all of you!

Domestic Goddess In the Spotlight

Very brief post again tonight...sorry, everyone, but I've been away from the house more than I expected today and actually got back when I was planning to go to bed. Obviously that didn't work out. Today I added Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear In the Spotlight glitter top coat over yesterday's $OPI matte mani. Aside from anything else, I like this layering combination because the names fit together really well. :)

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, cloudy

The sun was just not on my side today, so no sunlight pics, but I think you get the idea - In the Spotlight is a very straightforward holo silver bar glitter. The pictures are color accurate. Until tomorrow, when I will hopefully have time to do a "proper" post!

Sephora by OPI Domestic Goddess Matte

I have another very quick, one-picture post for you today...no proper excuse though - I just didn't take pictures until the sun went down. Oops.

This was three coats and, as you can see, I didn't do any cleanup today. I'm lazy, what can I say? Like most matte polishes, Domestic Goddess Matte shows application mistakes very, very well. However, it's a very pretty color, and one that I occasionally like to apply top coat over. Additionally, it photographs very accurately, especially for a purple - the photograph above is spot-on. 

Charlotte Russe Charcoal Holo and Mini Haul!

I got this unnamed Charlotte Russe polish about a year ago and had only worn it once or twice. Today, I decided to get it back out again. It's a charcoal holo, and this is what it looks like in the bottle:

This picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. In the bottle it looks like it's jam-packed with gorgeous holo glitter. On the nail...it's not. It's still looks great, but in most lights you have to look really closely to see that it has any glitter in it at all--it just looks like a charcoal shimmer. I had forgotten this since the last time I wore it, and was pretty disappointed. In an effort to make it more impressive and sparkly, I added a coat of Sephora by OPI Only Gold for Me glitter top coat. The results: 

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

Gorgeous! My pictures are kind of blurry and crappy, so sorry for that--I don't know if it's because I've been tired all day and can't operate a camera properly or if this combination is just too amazing and glittery for my poor camera to capture properly. Anyway, while it does look black in really, really dim light, the base in clearly charcoal, and it looks absolutely wonderful with the glitter top coat. The combination actually kind of reminds me of Ke$ha's album cover for Animal...totally unintentional. At any rate, I really love it, and I'm not sure I'll ever wear the charcoal alone again!

In other news, I went to Sally Beauty Supply today and then Walgreens, and I ended up buying five bottles of nail polish. The middle three had been lemmings of mine, and the other two were just really pretty. :) Here they are:

 
From left to right they are: Sally Hansen In the Spotlight, China Glaze Golden Enchantment, Orly Luxe, Orly Rage (both Orly polishes are from Cosmic FX Spring 2010), and Nina Ultra Pro Grin and Berry It. I was especially excited to find the China Glaze because I knew it was being discontinued and figured I'd never find it, but it was on the sale table for $1! I can't wait to try all of these and show them to you in more detail.