NOTD: Nicole by OPI Party at 3AM! + Fauxnad

            Today, I'm wearing Nicole by OPI Party at 3AM! The exclamation point is their's, not mine. This is a pretty polish to be sure, but it's not thaaat pretty to where I'll be exclaiming over it every time I write its name. But it was lots of fun to photograph, so there are going to be tons of pictures.

Party at 3AM! follows the trend of the past two NOPI's  that I've shown on this blog. It's a black creme base, packed with shimmer. In this case, the shimmer is violet most of the time, but will occasionally show blue. 

Sunlight, no flash. We already know the deal with the bottle. There it is lurking in the corner.

I just need to post this bottle shot. Too bad it's not doing all this on the nail. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Sunlight, and flash. The picture is washed out, but this was the only light that would let me capture the color change. 

Sunlight, no flash.

        Party at 3AM! is beautiful. Full stop. 

        Although it does that annoying thing where it just looks black indoors, when the light hits it right, the violet shimmer pops right out. Sometimes, it even makes me feel like the base color is really dark purple and not black. But no, it is black.Anyway, if I was going to be indoors for the most part of the time, I wouldn't wear this. It's paradoxical, because this is not a summer shade, but really, that's the only time that its beauty can really be appreciated.

         The formula was great. No dragging or streaking, not too thick or too runny....it went on like butta. This is three coats, with a healthy dose of Poshe on top. The topcoat is really necessary to get it looking its best, because without it, the sparkle isn't that cute. 

       

    Then, I made a design over it with my B14 fauxnad plate:

I used the pattern right below my middle finger, in between the doggy and four flowers.

I stamped the pattern at my cuticle with Sally Hansen White On, and then I covered the whole thing with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. I need to learn to leave well enough alone though, because I think I liked it better sans Fairy Dust.

NOTD: Puppy Love

           This design was inspired by the wonderful girls in my dorm, who fight with and scream at their boyfriends at all hours of the night. 

      I used the puppy and the flower design in the center from this fauxnad plate. I need to take some good stock photos of these plates for future reference.

This looked much better in my mind's eye. I promise.

Close up of accent nail. I almost used the little hysterical girl from my fauxnad B11 plate, but then I decided that I'd rather have a cute, silent doggy/whatever this thingy is instead.

     The base polish is three coats of Orly Iron Butterfly. I stamped the flowers with Sally Hansen Celeb City, and the puppy was created with Brucci Snow White. The little heart came from a packet of decals from Rite Aid. Like I said earlier, this looked so much better in my mind, and I really should have only stamped the flowers on my nail once, but it's cute enough to wear for today. 

     My real problem is that I couldn't find any polishes in my stash that would work with the plates and show up against Iron Butterfly. This is why I need some chromes and holos from China Glaze.  Or some real, actual Konad paints. ^_^; Anyway, I may try this again with more compatible colors and less flowers. 

    Also, in the course of doing this, I had to use a shiny topcoat over Iron Butterfly, so I snapped a few pics. I'm usually a big proponent of wearing mattes as mattes, but this one looks way too good shiny. It really brings out the color...when Iron Butterfly is matte, the shimmer makes it look dark grey at times. But with the topcoat, it maintains its blackness.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, soft flash. 

And that's all!

Orly Iron Butterfly

           First, I need to have a moment of silence for my right thumbnail. I don't know what happened to it...one minute, I was quietly sitting at my file cabinet sorting mail (because my office is too cheap to give interns tables). Next thing I knew, my fingernail was torn and snagging on everything. I don't remember doing anything to it...it was fine and then it wasn't anymore. I put a piece of tape over it and prayed to the patron saint of fingernails that everything would be alright. Of course, when I got home, it totally wasn't. I had to cut it off, and then file it down to the quick to get rid of little cracks that had kind of...radiated inward. It was like filing my own heart out. 
So a moment of silence, I beg.  ;_;

Sank you very much.

       Hokay, so after filing, I tried to cheer myself up with some decals. I ended up taking it way way way too far and ending up with a flowery, rhinestone-y, glittery monstrosity. I couldn't walk around like that, so I had to take the whole shebang off. By then, it was like midnight, and I was too tired. I decided to throw a nice matte on and go to sleep, which is how I ended up wearing Orly Iron Butterfly today. 

Close look at Iron Butterfly. It's a charcoal black base with lots of silver shimmer in a matte finish. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

        I like this one. It's not super pretty or eye-catching, but it's easy and I think it looks good on me. The formula was good for a matte...it didn't dry ridiculously fast or anything, and was easy to control and spread. There was no shrinkage at the tip or crackling either. In these pictures, I have on two coats, with no topcoat of any kind. 

       The weather today is pretty rainy and dismal, so this color was a good choice for me to make. It's not reflective of my mood, because I adore the rain and am in pretty high spirits today despite my loss, but it works well with the current weather. It probably won't see much use in the summer, but I'd wear this more in the fall and definitely in the winter. 

       

    

Nicole by OPI Drama In The Dark

           Well...today is Saturday....the sun is shining...a breeze is blowing...spring is in the air...Nfu-Ohs are at the package depot waiting for me to pick them up....and I am wearing black nail polish. And it feels so gewd. This is another polish that I got from TJ Maxx, in a two for $6.99 deal. It's called Drama in the Dark, and while it doesn't quite live up to its name (no drama here), it is a lovely color.

Drama in the Dark is a grey-blue shimmer in a black creme base. The shimmer is very subtle, and although I see it in every light, I'm sure that most people looking at my nails wouldn't notice it. 

Sunlight, no flash. I know I'm not holding anything, but I couldn't do it with that damn bottle. Whose idea what that?!

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Shade, no flash.

Artificial light, flash.

     While I don't find this color particularly special, I do love it. The shimmer is fantastic and makes its presence known just enough to ensure that the polish doesn't look like a basic black color. It's not entirely noticeable, like the shimmer in LA Girls Heavy Metal is. 

    The formula on this was fine as well. All of these are three coats of color with one layer of Poshe. So while it isn't super-pigmented, I'm still happy with how deep, rich, and smooth the color came out to be in the end. No off-black here.

   I think that's all I have to say about this color, so I'm going to go and do the giant list of stuff staring me in the face at the moment. I hope everyone's weekends have gotten off to a great start!

NOTD: Nicole by OPI Blues In The Night

           Today, I'm wearing Nicole by OPI Blues in the Night. I tried to steer clear of Nicole by OPI colors because I hated the bottles, but some were on sale at TJ Maxx, 2 for $6.99. You can't beat that with a stick, plus some of the colors stole my little heart away, so I scooped them up. There was some drama at checkout (a clerk thought I had stolen something O_O), but inevitably, I brought my babies home. Depending on the weather (I try to save blackened glitter for sunny days) I should have pictures of the rest. But here's Blues in The Night:

Close look at Blues In The Night. The base is black and the shimmer is ostensibly teal. But in certain lights and if you look close, it does flash purple at times. If you look at the other side of the picture, you can see where the purple shows up in the bottle. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash

Bottle shot. The color-changing effect is way more obvious in the bottle (boo!). The shimmer closer to the neck is how it looks most of the time, but the purple and touch of gold at the bottom is what it looks like during those rare flashes. 

  Although I like this color, and had no issues with application, I was so mad! I hate when polishes don't live up to what you see in the bottle. Oh, the deception. ;_;