It's My Birthday Tomorrow! (NOMB)

Nail of my birthday (NOMB) does that make sense? Not really. I dont think it will catch on.

I think I will be too busy too post tomorrow so here is what I have on my nails for my 25th Birthday tomorrow.

This is OPI Designer Series Temptation from 2011.

OPI DS Temptation - natural light

OPI DS Temptation - sunshine

This is 3 coats. when you apply the first coat you can see that the glitter is an ugly dark blue base. However once you build up the layers it is amazing! Its so complex. Its purple mainly but also has pink and blue glitter, with tiny bits of other coloured glitter (green and iridescent) scattered throughout.

Three coats gives perfect coverage. Its a bit rough, so mine is topped off with a top coat in these pictures. But I have a feeling this may be a tad hard to take off, being a glitter.

OPI have stared more and more away from the Designer Series Holographic polishes of years gone by. Quite a shame really as OPI haven't made any holos in a while now. they seem to be focusing more on glitters. Fine by me beacuse here in New Zealand DS polishes retail for around NZ$35, so as you can imagine I look elsewhere for my holo fix.

Unfortunately I don't get tomorrow off work. So not only is it a Monday, but yes I will be at work on my Birthday :(

Lots of Love
Lisa

Coral Peach Holo Comparison

Taking a step back from the Neons today (there will be more later in the week) and here is another Holographic Comparison for you.

Left to Right: OPI Bay Bridge Sunset, China Glaze TTYL, OPI DS Reserve

First up is OPI Bay Bridge Sunset. This is one of the very sought after polishes from the Japanese Exclusive Yokohama Collection. I am working on getting more from this collection, but when they are asking for US$30-$40 for each bottle on ebay, I have to say No. That is flat out ridiculous, and I hope they stay on there forever and never sell, because no polish is worth that much. Luckily one of my bridesmaids is going to Japan in November so fingers crossed she can find some then. :)

OPI Bay Bridge Sunset - sunshine

OPI Bay Bridge Sunset - sunshine - closer up

This has a scattered holographic effect. 2 coats, that went on perfectly. It looks like it is full of glitter dust, and is very pretty.

Second is China Glaze TTYL. Now I don't actually know what TTYL stands for (naive I know - sorry) But if you know what it means please let me know :)

China Glaze TTYL - sunshine

As you all know by now I Love the China Glaze OMG Collection. This is 2 coats, which apply easy and dry fast. The holographic is this is linear (straight lined) and appears to make each finger look like a little rainbow in the sun. This one has the strongest holographic-ness of the three polishes (but that may just be because it is easier to see because it isn't scattered out).

The final polish is OPI Reserve from the Designer Collection. I saw some of these on ebay going for quite high prices as well, I think I bought most of mine a year ago and I paid regular prices for mine, so I'm not sure why this is happening.

OPI DS Reserve - sunshine

Designer Series polishes are said to have "Diamond Dust" in them, creating the holographic effect. This is again a scattered, slightly muted, holographic appearance. I thought it might have been a bit pinker than the other too, but it isn't really. Again 2 coats, that applied easily and dry time was average.

Finally is the side by side comparison:

You can clearly see the difference between the China Glaze linear holographic and the scatter holographic of the other two OPI polishes. DS Reserve has bigger glitter and holographic particles than Bay Bridge Sunset. All three have a very similar colour appearance.

My recommendation would depend on how holographic you want your polishes to be. If you want the in your face holographic - you would go for the China Glaze (this is still the easiest and cheapest of the three to get). DS Reserve may be easier to get than Bay Bridge Sunset, so eiter is fine if you can get it.

I hope this helped :)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Lilac Holo Comparison

Hi all,

Ive been working on this for a while now but everytime I went to do it the sun would disappear - finally on Sunday we had a day full of sun!!!!

Left to Right - OPI DS Original, China Glaze IDK, OPI Sand-erella

China Glaze IDK - sunshine

China Glaze IDK - close up

First up is China Glaze IDK. As you all know by now the China Glaze OMG Collection is my most favourite collection ever. This is two coats but if your in a hurry 1 coat is ok, but two evens it out perfectly. The holographic-ness of this polish is almost always visible (although not so much when you look at the bottle). It glides on the nail so easily and requires no clean up. I LOVE IT

OPI Sand-erella - sunshine

OPI Sand-erella - up close

OPI Sand-erella is from the Summer For Shore Collection from 2003. I looked on ebay and they are selling for around US$18 each and is classed as a HTF (Hard to find) polish. This here is 4 coats! The fist few coats are very sheer and to get the colour darker and more like it is in the bottle you need more coats. The holograhic effect of this polish is more spread out and looks more like little scattered bits of glitter. This bottle does show the holographic-ness all the time.

OPI DS Original - sunshine

OPI DS Original - up close

This is OPI original from the Designer Series. This is 3 coats. It is slightly darker than Sand-erella. Again the holographic-ness is scattered and spread out. One problem I had was while I was trying to open the bottle the silver coating on the handle all started rubbing off onto my hands - not cool. now my bottle lid is a patchy silver and black :(

And a side by side comparison:

Left to Right - OPI DS original, China Glaze IDK, OPI Sand-erella

IDK is more blue toned than the two OPI polishes. The glitter apperance in DS original is slightly bigger than that of sand-erella. Both of these have a scattered appearance where as IDK seems to make a cute smooth rainbow of holographic-ness (like all of the OMG collection does).

IDK is the easiest to get a hold of out of these three polishes, and takes less coats to apply. Sand-erella and Original are HTF polishes and will cost a bit more (I think this is due to the fact that they are older polishes than IDK is and therefore rarer).

My favourite is always going to be China Glaze's IDK.

Hope this was helpful.

Lots of Love
Lisa