OPI Chopsticking To My Story + Shatter

Howdy friends. I had planned to keep my last manicure for a while, but it was a rough morning and I needed something fun and relaxing to do this afternoon. So I put on Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and did my nails.

OPI's Hong Kong collection was one that really drew me into nail polish. It contained so many great colors like Suzi Says Feng Shui and Jade Is The New Black. One that I always had my eye on was Chopsticking To My Story. It's one of those ugly/pretty shades, a burnt orangey brown. Well I held off on buying it until Ulta no longer carried it, but one of my dear friends had it and was willing to part with it! So here it is now finally, on my nails. Well, under a coat of gold shatter, since I've been on a big shatter kick lately.

OPI Chopsticking To My Story, two coats with OPI Gold Shatter

I Looove this color. It complements my skin tone nicely. It seems perfect as part of a Hong Kong themed collection too, reminds me of orange sesame chicken and yes, chopsticks. 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue with Turquoise Shatter

Hello y'all. It's a rainy rainy day, and after a great morning rehearsal I was looking forward to some frito pie, Psych, and a new manicure. With all the gloomy weather today, something blue seemed appropriate, so I chose OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue and OPI Turquoise Shatter.

Yoga-ta Get This Blue is a velvety navy with a turquoise shimmer. It's one of my favorite blues and I just have to show you.

OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, two coats

For extra depth, I layered OPI Turquoise Shatter on top.

OPI Turquoise Shatter over OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, with top coat

OoOoOoOoh! The turquoise shatter looks iridescent and having the navy underneath ads extra drama. The shatter had a cool chrome effect before top coat too, so I could see wearing it both ways. 

What do you think? What colors would you like to see under Turquoise shatter?

L.A.K.E.

Howdy friends! This is an exciting weekend coming up: Tomorrow I fly to L.A. for 24 hours, then it's off to Austin for a weekend lake-house retreat with my boyfriend and our friends. I haven't seen him for 3 weeks so I'm quite excited :-)

It seemed too soon to part with my Coronation mani, so I kept it on my index finger as an accent nail. Then I used L'OREAL Waters Edge, a serene aqua creme, and a coat of OPI Silver Shatter.

L'OREAL Waters Edge, OPI Silver Shatter, Coronation Accent Nail

The result: something suitable for California and the lake! Now hopefully it will be sunny this year :-)

Do you have any fun weekend plans?

OPI Pink Friday with Glitter Blizzard Accent Nail

Howdy friends. Today I had a little fun with Pink Friday from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection. This is the last polish from this collection I have to show with you. It's a bubblegum pink creme with a hint of pastel to keep it from being too girly. Don't get me wrong, it's still very girly, but with that Nicki Minaj knock-you-out edge. On my ring fingers I added OPI Turquoise Shatter, then topped it with OPI Save Me, the holographic bar glitter.
This is two coats of Pink Friday with Turquoise Shatter and Save Me accent finger.

OPI Pink Friday, two coats with OPI Turquoise Shatter and OPI Save Me on ring finger

OPI Pink Friday, two coats with OPI Turquoise Shatter and OPI Save Me on ring finger

 

OPI Pink Friday, two coats with OPI Turquoise Shatter and OPI Save Me on ring finger

Looking at the accent nail is kind of like looking through a blizzard of glitter, but I kind of like the effect. You can't see the cracks but the light catches the holograph and the pink and blue make a good effect underneath.

As far as Pink Friday goes, look at how shiny it is without top coat! It self levels and dries in minutes, making for a very east and fast pink manicure.

Bahama Breeze Nail Art with Lippmann and OPI

Howdy Friends.  Showing you guys the OPI shatter polishes rekindled my adoration of them.  That being said, while browsing through Pinterest, I was inspired by this picture to create a multi-color shatter manicure.  I used one coat of Deborah Lippmann It's Delovely, one coat of OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui on the bottom half of my nail, and then one coat of OPI Black Shatter over the whole thing.  Finally I sealed it with one coat of OPI Top Coat to give it some shine.  I will tell you, this is the first time I've used OPI's top coat and I'm very impressed by it.

my Bahama Breeze manicure

"I'll have another, please."

When I first applied SSFS, it looked really bumpy over the tip of my nail.  But as the polish dried, it evened out over It's Delovely and created this slight purple fade in between the two polishes.  My colleague at work asked what I call this manicure.  My first response was a hodge-podge of the impression it gives me: "Bahama Breeze on the Beach at Sunset."  Realizing this is too long for a catchy name, I've since trimmed it down to simply "Bahama Breeze." 

This picture is exactly the impression I get from this manicure

What color combination would you like to see under Black Shatter?

OPI Black and Silver Shatter

Howdy friends.  Today lets have a view at the two shatters I will be giving away in the Castinails Thankfulness OPI Giveaway.  If you haven't already, click here to enter.

Shatter is fantastic because it is an easy way to add fun art to your manicure.  There are so many color and finish combinations you can play around with, I don't think there's any way to get bored with these polishes.  Personally, I love the way shatter looks over bright colors.  Here is OPI Black Shatter over OPI Meep-Meep-Meep.


The way shatter works is that when applied over completely dry polish, the shatter breaks up as it sets.  Be sure to wait until your base color is completely set before applying shatter, otherwise you'll end up with a weird mess.

OPI Silver Shatter is the other shatter polish in the giveaway.  I think this one is absolutely amazing.  I can imagine how awesome it would look if you played around with wearing it on top of other metal sparkles like gold or copper.  I think over white or black too it would look completely stunning.  Or, over green it would look like tinsel on a christmas tree.  Aaaaah.




Well there you have it.  Good luck, make sure to enter by December 1st 12pm CST

Castinails OPI Giveaway

Howdy friends.  This has been an absolutely crazy week for me.  My car was stolen, I bought a new car, the Police found my car, Toyota returned my new car and gave me a complementary rental car while my old car is in the shop!  I'm amazed and so lucky for how it all worked out, and I'd like to now pay my thankfulness forward to you guys.  So here it is, my first ever giveaway.

Castinails OPI Giveaway

Prize includes OPI Silver Shatter, OPI Meep-Meep-Meep and OPI Black Shatter

OPI Meep-Meep-Meep 

OPI Silver Shatter over OPI Meep-Meep-Meep

OPI Black Shatter over OPI Meep-Meep-Meep

How to Enter: One lucky winner will receive a bottle of OPI Meep-Meep-Meep from the The Holiday Muppets Holiday 2011 Collection, as well as OPI Black Shatter and OPI Silver Shatter.  To enter, leave a comment on this post with one thing you are thankful for.  If you have a blog, you will receive one extra entry for blogging about this giveaway, just leave a link to it in your comment.

Rules: Only one comment per person.  You must be a follower of Castinails to win. Be sure to leave your follower name or email in you comment so I can contact the winner.  Winner must have a valid US mailing address (sorry international fans).  Contest will close on December 1st at 12pm CST.  Winner will be chosen through random.org and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Good luck! I look forward to hearing about what y'all are thankful for :-)

Kiss From My Shattered Black Heart

So I was serious when I said I wanted to do Valentine's Day heart manis all week.  After being frustrated this morning by nose-picking students who don't pay me, I'm in a don't-effing-mess-with-me mood.  OPI Black Shatter called to me, and I wanted to pair it with something strong to counterbalance the frivolity of the Bieber hearts.  Deborah Lippmann Kiss From A Rose is my favorite empowering merlot so I decided on two coats of that topped with Black Shatter and then S2TBOM<3.

Deborah Lippmann Kiss From a Rose, OPI Black Shatter, Nicole by OPI Step 2 The Beat Of My <3

Deborah Lippmann Kiss From a Rose, OPI Black Shatter, Nicole by OPI Step 2 The Beat Of My <3

 Since this is the beginning of my foray into swatching my left hand, I tried:

 A Useful Trick From Ji Baek, owner of Rescue Beauty Lounge.  

• First Prep nails and apply base coat as usual.
• From then on out, isolate each hand.  Paint left hand, let dry.
• Paint right hand, let dry.

This way there's less danger of smudging, and I could use my unpainted right hand to tidy up my swatching hand.

All in all I liked Kiss From A Rose best with just the shatter.  But for one day I can wear this.  Another exciting manicure in the works for tomorrow!