Vacation Spam featuring Eel Skin and Metallic Muse

Hi guys,

Just a little picture spam while I'm on vacation..

First up, OPI's Eel Skin:

Pre-3 free formula, which makes me uncomfortable since I hate the smell of Toluene and I'm pretty paranoid about health issues that can arise from overexposure. Also very, very sheer. I did 3 thick coats of it since I didn't want to spend a lot of time breathing it in by doing several thinner coats. Interesting colour though, it has a bit of red shimmer at certain angles in the sunlight.

China Glaze - Metallic Muse

This one is very pretty- I love the super shiny, smooth finish, and it's fantastic for stamping. I wish I could have picked up the whole set when it was available.. I think I would stamp a lot more.

Thanks for reading everyone <3


-Marisa

Mid Vacation Update

Hi everyone!

I just realized I completely missed a day while I was scheduling posts.. so I'm writing this now to make up for it!

I'm picking up a huge haul of nail polish here, so I'm going to share some pictures of it with you!

And a few more close up shots of all of the Zoyas..

When I get back I'll put the names down. There are also more OPI polishes, but I didn't manage to get any pictures of them.

Okay, well I'm going to go off now.. I need to pack since we're going to NYC tomorrow. I'll be gone for 2 days, but you'll probably hear from me if I can manage to get some free wifi somewhere.

Hope you're all enjoying the last few days of Summer!

-Marisa

OPI - Honk if You Love OPI

Morning everyone!

Today we have the second polish I purchased from the Touring America Fall 2011 collection from OPI, Honk if You Love OPI!

HIYLO is a gorgeous smoky plum creme. It manages to be dark and look really close to black but avoid making me feel like I'm wearing black. Two coats and this is perfect.

I actually had to redo this one, because all of my pictures the first time around came out looking like this:

If you look really close, you can see the side of my house reflected in the polish. Isn't that impressive?

Have you picked up any colours from the Touring America collection? If so, which ones?

-Marisa

Essie - Your Hut or Mine

Good morning everyone!

This is a scheduled post, since at this very moment I'm probably going to be flying across the continent to Washington D.C.!

The featured polish in today's post is Essie's Your Hut or Mine, from the 2011 Resort collection!

Your Hut or Mine is a rose-pink with lots of gorgeous shimmer. I suppose this could be classified as a "grandma" colour, but I still think it's super cute and totally wearable. 

Usually I'm not really a pink person.. but I'm really digging this colour! The shimmer it has makes it stand out to me instead of getting stuck in that pink void..


That's all for now.. I hope you guys are all doing great!

-Marisa

Nubar - Moon Shadow

Good evening everyone!

Just another quick-ish post, I just got home from a back-to-school shopping expedition. I finally got a new camera! :D

Today's featured polish is Moon Shadow, by Nubar.

Moon Shadow is probably my second favourite duochrome from Nubar. It's a gorgeous maroon purple-orangey-gold colour shifter, depending on the angle you have your nails at.

Just in case you're wondering, my number one favourite Nubar duochrome will be featured in a few posts in the future (actually in 3 posts).

That's all for today, I have to start planning out our trip details.. I love travelling, but I really hate doing itinerary stuff. :(

-Marisa

OPI - Guy meets Gal-veston

Hi everyone,

I've been doing some prep for some scheduled posts while I'm away (we're leaving on the 25th), and yesterday was my swatching day. I was going to post a lot earlier, but I finally got around to editing all of the future post pictures (there were a lot) and now I'm too tired to talk much.

Today I have OPI's Guy meets Gal-veston from the Texas collection for y'all! This is the only polish I picked up, but I've always been meaning to get more.

Guy meet's Gal-veston is a yellow based red sorbet (i.e. jelly) finish polish. This was 3 coats. There is a little bit on visible nail line in the picture, but it isn't really as noticeable in person.

I really love jelly polishes.. I love their squishy look and smooth feel, so because of that I may go out sometime and pick up some of the other "sorbets" from the Texas collection.

Hmm, I'll also include this picture I snapped of a moth.. it landed on my lamp while I was reading and it looked like it really belonged there! I love the detail in the picture, so I purposely left it really huge.. I think it's super pretty, but Jen thinks it's gross. :P

That's all for now everyone, thank for reading! <3

-Marisa

Guest Post - Chanel Peridot by Jennifer

Hi everyone! 


My final exams are finally over! Hurrah!


After my exam today I decided to pop by the Sephora on my way home to see if they had any of the Peridot dupe, Diving in Malaysia. Unfortunately they didn't have any.. but I went to the nearest Chanel counter to see if they had any Morning Rose (was thinking about getting that as a gift) or Peridot.. just to oogle. Anyway, something must have happened, becuase if it didn't this post wouldn't be here. ;)


Jennifer wanted to guest blog this one, so (me being the nice sister I am) I'm letting her do this one. I hope y'all enjoy!

Hi everyone, it's Jennifer again. Marisa came home today and begged me not to be angry at her for spending a pretty penny on Chanel's Peridot. Well... it's a nice polish, so I can't say that I was very angry. I had a lot of fun putting it on because it's a very pretty gold duochrome with a blue- green tint.

I'll start with the usual swatch of Peridot. It's not sheer, but it isn't thick, either. It took me around 2-3 coats (the usual) to have it look completely opaque. The only thing I can really complain about this polish is that it's a bit streaky, which reminds me of Mermaid to Order by Sephora by OPI. I think the colour and duochrome is nice enough to make up for it, though.

This is Peridot in the sun. I didn't really go outside for this, but I found a patch of sun in the hallway from the skylight, so... yes. It turns into a bright gold in the sun, which is nice, and you can still see the blue-green tint along the edges of my nails. 

This picture is just to showcase the blue-green/ gold duochrome of this polish. If you hold the bottle at certain angles I find that it's easy to mistake Peridot for a teal-green colour... or perhaps that's just me. The colour in the bottle in this picture actually kind of reminds me of oil in water... like an oil slick. Uhm, with that potentially unpleasant thought put to the side, Peridot by Chanel is a very nice colour and worth the pretty penny.

That's all for now, so Marisa will hopefully now be posting regularly. 

- Jennifer

OPI - Color to Diner for

Good evening everyone!

Just a short-ish post today, my plans for tomorrow are mostly to study like crazy (I'll be banned from technology, so I won't be tweeting tomorrow unfortunately). I'm really looking forward to my exam being over.. and then I can get along to doing the million things I have to do before I leave on my vacation (like type out a bunch of scheduled posts!)

Anyhow, onto the polish. Today's featured polish is Color to Diner for, from the new OPI Touring America collection! Out of all of the colours, I only picked up this one and Honk if You Love OPI.

Sorry the photo is so blue tinged, the colour itself is pretty accurate (on my monitor, for the lighting). The shimmer isn't really apparent indoors, but when you go outside in the sunlight it kind of pops out of nowhere.

Here's a close-up of the shimmer.. Isn't it gorgeous? I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get a good picture of this in the sunlight, but I'll put that on my to-do list.

Anyhow, I'm totally stoked about my upcoming trip to the East Coast, I also have a bunch of parcels I'm hoping will be delivered soon.. The Cult Nails Hypnotic Collection for one, and a package from Beauty Joint (more yay!)

Hope y'all enjoy today's post,

Marisa

Nfu Oh #64

Happy Saturday all!

Hope you are all having a fantastic Saturday. :)

I'm glad it seems like Jen enjoyed writing a guest post.. she does a lot more nail art stuff than I do, so I'm probably going to recruit her more often in the future when I'm super busy and don't have enough time to post.

Anyway, onto the nail polish of the day!

Nfu Oh #64 is a purple-pink linear holo (yay, shiny!), and is not to be confused with #63, which is a pink-purple linear holo. Admittedly, I actually find these two pretty similar.. to the point where I have to take them both out the box to compare them before I decide I have the right one in my hands.

#64 in the sun

#64 in the shade

I really love holographic polishes. #64 doesn't really look like much indoors (you can kind of see the holo, but it definitely isn't strong as some other holo polishes -- China Glaze L8r G8r is the one I have in mind right now) but when you go outside in the full sun, it's like a party on your nails!

A few notes about this polish before I leave you to go grocery shopping- if you're thinking about getting one of the Nfu Oh holos.. definitely consider getting the Aquabase. It was sold out when we ordered this, and applying these can be a pain in the rear. They have a tendency to leave bald patches when you do multiple coats and even with a light touch, it can still leave some pretty unsightly patches on your nails.

Another thing is that you may want to consider using ridge filler or buffing if your nails have lots of ridges (in the above pictures I didn't use any, and you can see some of my ridges).

Even though I had some trouble with application (I'm such a nub *sigh*) I think the finished product is definitely worth the trouble!

In other news: I'm planning on ordering some of the Glitter Gal Holographics (just 2... I'm limiting myself) when the new Dark Green holo (Lizard Belly) comes out, and I'm also getting the light blue one. I actually had a look at the list of polishes I'm planning on ordering within the next few months and the total is shocking. I have maybe 6 Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes on my list.. and of course I'm always looking forward to new Cult Nails stuff. I'm also going to get a new camera (not sure what kinda yet) and then I'm also going on a trip to the East coast in a week and a half.. so needless to say, my wallet is crying.

That's all for today folks, thanks for reading my rambling! As always, I really appreciate it!

Much love from the land of final exams and nail polish fumes,
-Marisa

Guest Blog - Jennifer, Marisa's Little Sister

Evening everyone, it's me.

Sorry I haven't posted in forever, but I've been really busy studying lately and I haven't had time to sit down and write a post. I know I mentioned that I would try to have a guest blogger (aka my sister) come in and do some posts, but I haven't really gotten that functional until now. I had my first final today, and my next (and last one) will be next Wednesday. I have a bunch of photos edited that I'll post up throughout the week, so we won't be going completely postless again anytime soon!

Okay, enough babbling. Here is my sister.. who is eager to tell you about lots of things. Smart things. Nail polish things. Maybe she'll throw in some facts about murderers from the Forensic Psychology textbook she's reading. Okay. I'm not going to edit this either, unless something really really bad happens. Okay. Sister time.

Hi everyone! My name is Jennifer and as you know, I'm Marisa's little sister. Okay, so just to introduce myself, I'll share some information about me.

I'm currently 14 years old and attend high school in Vancouver. I have many interests that include reading, doing my nails, baking, and playing sports... especially hockey and soccer. I'm a HUGE fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins (I know, I live in Vancouver where the Canucks are pretty much worshiped yet I'm loyal to the Pens) and hockey in general. Forensic psychology and criminology interest me and since I'm on summer vacation with nothing better to do, I sometimes accompany Marisa to school. My favourite part is borrowing books from the library because attending lectures where I haven't been educated enough (and not old enough, either) to comprehend what the professor is saying can, evidently, be extremely boring. I'm reading a book on forensic psychology and criminal law at the moment, and I must say that it can be quite interesting reading about the psychological profiles of psychopaths and other criminal offenders. Nail polish and nail art has never recently struck an interest in me as a hobby until recently, just like Marisa. I do have to say that I've been doing my nails extremely frequently now in the summer because I just simply have nothing else to do, but I thoroughly enjoy it. Okay, enough about myself. I have a tendency to speak a lot and go on and on about the most random things ever, which can be a good and bad thing, depending on the circumstances.

There will be various pictures in this blog post, so I'll start with my swatch of OPI's Grape..Set..Match from the Serena Williams collection.

 I have to say, this is a very pretty deep, royal purple colour with a nice shimmer to it. It's very pretty as well in the shade, where it appears to be a blue-y purple, and also in the sun, where it looks more like a purple-red.

Next up, I have some marble nails that I've done before. I actually quite like water marbling. I decided to try it when my friend asked me to do them, and I learned how by the countless number of tutorials for it on Youtube. The process of it all is extremely fun, but the cleanup is, in my opinion, the hardest part. I know that to make it easier that people will tape their fingers to prevent the polish from going onto their skin, but I am simply too lazy. Needless to say, I think the results are very cute!

These are coffee inspired marble nails. I used three polishes: Cult Nails' Cruisin' Nude, Espresso by Joe Fresh, and Snow by China Glaze. I always thought that those cups of coffee with those patterns stirred into the foam on top were really cute.

This was my first attempt at water marbling, and now that I look back on the pictures these nails remind me of old-fashioned lollipops. The colours are very cute and summer orientated. The colours I used were Snow by China Glaze (as a base), OPI's Japanese Rose Garden, and Something Sweet and Sugar High by China Glaze as well.

Next up:

These were nails that I decided to do on my nails on one of my 'creative' days. They're quite plain and simple, but the pastel colours add a cute touch. However, my friend (coincidentally, the same one who requested I do marble nails) commented on this photo on Facebook with slight discontent! He said, "you should have done blue dots on the pink and pink dots on the blue!" Oh well. Although he does has a point, I think it looks decent enough as it is. I used For Audrey and Something Sweet by China glaze, along with two fine tipped colour club polishes and In the Spot-light Pink by OPI as a base cover.

Last of all:

These nails were inspired after I was scrolling through my friends' Facebook albums and I came across a blurry photo of an acquaintance's that showed her nails after getting a 60 dollar manicure. I think 60 dollars is an outrageous amount of money to spend on a manicure, acrylic nails or not, when you can do something similar at home. That prompted me to do something similar to what she got. I never intended on doing these nails to say, "Ha! You got your nails done for 60 dollars and I did them myself for free!" but I've always wanted to do something nice and somewhat elegant on my nails and that picture was what got me to do it. The polishes I used were:

In the Spot-light Pink - OPI (as a base cover)

DS Sapphire - OPI

Gold - LA Colours

Fairy Dust - China Glaze

I Lilly Love you - OPI

Servin' Up Sparkle - OPI

There were actually a lot of polishes used on something that didn't look too complicated, but I did do a lot of layering to have something like a gradient sparkles effect. 

Well! This has been a very long post, if I do say so myself (from the eyes of an inexperienced guest blogger). You can say that I have taken a water hose and ended Marisa's posting-drought by guest blogging. I hope I'll be able to post more, as this has been quite fun to do.

Bye for now!

- Jennifer