Sation, Revlon and OPI come together

Some of you are also following my FB page NailPolishTherapy and saw that I posted a picture of the new Revlon color Sparkle Aplenty recently displayed at Walgreens. I was so excited to finally get it after stalking 4 different drugstores :). Yes I did stalk the stores and at the fifth Walgreens by my job I finally snagged the beauty! So needless to say I was over the moon. Revlon Sparkles Aplenty is a black jelly based with silver hexes and silver glitter. The jelly base is slightly more opaque than your average jelly but can still be worn as a jelly. With two coats it gives perfect coverage and while casting a wonderful layering effect. Te hexes look like they're suspended in some parts and laying on each other in other parts. So here is Revlon Sparkle Aplenty beside Sation Black.

I have to say that Sation Black is the shiniest, creamiest, jet black I've ever tried and for sure a 1 coater. I've heard that Cult Nails Nevermore is a great black but I haven't tried it. This Sation Black cost me $3 at my local nail supply store so I can live with that.

After having the Sation Black on for 1 day I decided to try the bagging technique that I saw on this post from NiftyBa. It looked easy enough and I liked that it wasn't messy or time consuming. I'm all about using everyday items to make quick and unique effects on your nails. I added OPI Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous and this is what I got: 

Below is a closeup of my thumb with natural light. I don't know if it's the combination of colors I used but this was hard to photograph, hence the reason I only have 2 photos to share. The others were so pix-elated and didn't show the difference in the two colors well. I will be doing this again since it was so easy to do and I have plenty of plastic bags I can put to use. I like the effect. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

China Glaze Safari Colors

I have loved all the creative braids I see on Pintrest and Tumblr and then I noticed some of the other nail bloggers making their own version on their nails and I thought how creative!! Leave it to us nail polish bloggers and connoisseurs  to come up with something like that. So I tried it free hand on just the ring finger of each hand. It was pretty time consuming keeping a steady hand, gauging how far down to go and which color to use next on which side. It was fun and I really like the results. I only bought 4 colors from the China Glaze Safari Collection, so I guess you can say I have a partial collection. I have never been one to buy every single color of a particular line because I don't fall in love with all the colors and most times I have other colors that come pretty close to being a dup. Soooo I picked Jungle Queen, Exotic Encounters, Desert Sun and Kahlahari Kiss. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Natural light featured above and below. 

The picture above features the Exotic Encounters bottle and if you notice in the bottle it's more teal green than on the nail. Against the other colors on the nail it looks like a forest green. That along with the consistency of this color made this one a little bit of a disappointment. I still like the color.

The bottle above is Jungle Queen. This is a gorgeous dusty purple plum with purple shimmer. Great for the Fall, and the formula was wonderfully creamy. A true 1 coater. 

The bottle above features Desert Sun. It's a perfect name for this color. The formula was consistent but not as creamy as Jungle Queen. 

Zoya Maisie and Sation Oh My Oceania

Still working on that Summer drawer, and almost ready to skip on to the Autumn drawer, I found this beauty in the back of the drawer. I forgot I had it lol! It's Sation Oh My Oceania and its a lighter version of Sation Miss McTeal. Oh My Oceania is much more creamy in consistency. It was easily  1 coater, but I was enjoying it so much I decided to do 2 coats. Then I added Zoya Maisie on top. I loved this blue-green, glassy flecks looking glitter. The glitter lays flat and looks like it's in shreds, but adds just slight bit of dimension to an otherwise flat creme. I like how subtle Zoya Maisie was because I didn't want it to compete with Sation Oh My Oceania. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Red Black and White

On August 11th my uncle threw my aunt a surprise 50th birthday party. It was a true surprise since her birthday is not until September! The theme was the Roaring 20's. I have no idea how women wore their nails in the 20's but I knew I wanted to mirror mine after the gangster suit my husband was wearing. So I added a half moon mani with white strips. Using the existing Zoya Nidhi, and Miliani White on the Spot and Black Swift. I wish I would have done it sooner because I could clean my cuticles and I did have some new growth, so it's not as perfect as I'd like, but it worked. Unfortunately I only got one picture :( . Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Zoya Nidhi

It's been a while but I'm back from my little vacation and ready to bring you ladies some more NPT :). Hopefully you like the new look. I figured the blog needed a little updating. I was fortunate enough to work with a wonderful graphic designer from over the pond Daniel Frampton who was so patient, accommodating and creative. I'm over the moon with the results and hopefully you like it too.

On to the post! A few weeks ago I was in the mood for a red that was not flat, that had coverage and shimmer (my favorite effect). I chose this gorgeous Zoya beauty Nidhi. This color is unique in formula because depending on how you apply it, it can work as a jelly sandwich or alone. I opted for a solitary look because of the manicure I had planned for the following week. As always Zoya doesn't disappoint and this formula was easy and consistent to apply. Nidhi is a firey red with gold shimmer throughout. This color can be used all year round, but I put it in my Summer drawer of colors of my helmer. So here she is...Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

China Glaze Mistletoe Me!

After the fiasco with the Nail Rock appliques I didn't want to leave my nails naked so I gave my husband 5 colors to choose from that were in my Summer drawer of the helmer and this is what he picked: China Glaze  Mistletoe Me!

 

This polish is definitely a 1 coater. I put 2 coats because I was enjoying the application so much. It's like a duo, frosted neon. When I finished applying my husband said: "Wow! I didn't know it was going to be so electric!" I love it!!

Look how gorgeous this color is in natural light. It totally lifted my spirits. 

Bad Kitty!!!!

For my birthday I wanted to do something wild and funky, so I went in my stash and pulled out the Nail Rock appliques that I had been saving for such a special occasion. They were the cutest leopard print appliques I could find. The reason being they looked like real fur and the graphics were so clean and sharp. They seemed like good quality in the packaging and since they were not nail polish strips like the Sally Hansen Salon Effects I've used in the past I thought they would be super easy to apply. They were cheaper than the Sally Hansen Salon Effects, so I thought I was winning all around. That is until I started to apply and realized that they reminded me of the Jamberry Nails that I had trouble with. Jamberry at least you could manipulate and reapply easily if you made a mistake. THESE WERE SO THICK!! Do I have to emphasize how THICK and non-pliable they were? I was so pissed off! My nail beds are curved all around, so it was hard to get them to lay flat. I wore these nails for my birthday dinner and came home and promptly took them off. This post will have only 1 pic because that's how mad I was, I couldn't stand to look at them any more.

OPI Nomad's Dream

School and work have kept me gratefully busy, and I was also extremely sick for about 4-5 days last week, so my blog was not getting the attention that it deserves. Once I got better, I felt like I wanted to do something neutral but with a beach feel. I picked this sandy beige by OPI called Nomad's Dream. I have no idea when or where I purchased it. I know when I did get it that I was in love with the slight silver shimmer. It reminded me of the sand on a really hot day when the sun reflects off it. The formula was good, but definitely needs 2 healthy coats, even 3 for max opacity. I could have gone light, but this girl likes coverage so I made sure I was heavy with the second coat. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

 VNL shown in the following pics despite 2 healthy coats. I was too lazy to add a 3rd coat and I knew I would smudge for sure since it was so late and I was going right to bed.