Review: OPI Liquid Sand Get Your Number

So I know every lady and her nails have reviewed the Liquid Sand OPI polishes but who would I be if I didn't jump on that bandwagon too?  There's no way I could pass up a matte sandy glitter!  It's just too out there.  Anway, let's take a look at the blue polish in the collection, Get Your Number.

Get Your Number is totally unique in my collection.  I don't say that lightly, I have a ton of nail polish.  It may not look like anything earth-shattering in the bottle - a medium blue thin jelly with holo and iridescent glitter - but it really does dry like sand.  It's a little too sheer for me to be comfortable wearing it on its own so I layered two coats of Sally Hansen Navy Baby on there first.  I then added the one coat of Get Your Number and look how interesting it looks!  I added a coat of Seche Vite to my ring finger to contrast the finish differences.  I have to say that I'm not the most fond of the rough finish but it's ok, I'll deal.  

The Verdict:  Get this polish, even for the unique factor.  Yes, it feels a lot kind sandpaper and needed underwear but LOOK at that macro shot.  If you've ever seen anything like that before, good, cos I haven't :)

Brace Yourselves, This is a Bright One!

Hot damn am I glad that Valentine's Day is over and I can finally stop staring at the collection of pink and red polishes on my desk that I never used.  Sure, it's nice to have all the holidays be inspiration for manis but it gets a bit old after a while.  Now it's all over and done with for, what, a month til Easter, I just had to have a go at a fantastic neon mani I originally found on Pinterest: Sparrow Nails' combination of China Glaze Purple Panic and Turned Up Turquoise Neon.  It's too blindingly bright for me not to!

To start, I painted all but my ring finger in Purple Panic, leaving it to be Turned Up Turquoise.  Two coats is enough with these frosty neons, which is nice.  I added a coat of Seche Vite to each finger because I'm impatient and it makes the taping easier.  I then used my striping tape, painter's masking tape, pinking shears and dotting tools to make the various patterns.  Once they were all done, I finished off with another coat of Seche Vite and a coat of Essie Matte About You.  I've been looking for it for months and months, always missing it but TBBS in Toronto FINALLY had it in stock.  So everything will be matte now because it's the best matte top coat I've ever used.  I've tried Joe Fresh, Nails Inc, American Apparel, all of them can't even a bit compare to how good Matte About You is.  It's just such a matte finish!  Totes worth it.

The Verdict:  I love how abusively bright this is.  It was a pain in the bum to photograph, as you can imagine, but it was worth the effort.  I'm also going to go on again about how good Matte About You is.  Cos it's really good.  Yay neons!

Overlaid Rainbow Gradients!

Oh man, it's getting super hard to keep coming up with ideas so I'm just going to keep on plumbing different techniques.  I'm super into sponge gradients these days so I thought I'd try my hand at overlaid gradients, in rainbows of course because they're the best.  And that way, I get to show off my giraffe ring!  We all win!  Well, we would have had I taken more care to remove the yellow polish stains from my fingers :/

To start, I applied two coats of my new white, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Everyone seems to be using it these days and I can see why, it's one of the nicer, more even whites I've used in a while.  Next, I loaded up a makeup sponge with stripes of China Glaze Pool Party and Surfin' for Boys and American Apparel Neon Yellow to create the underlying gradient.  I'm getting pretty good at gradients these days, I find that I just need the two coats of gradient.  Makes things quicker.  After a coat of Seche Vite, I applied my criss-crosses of striping tape and liberally applied China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard and Towel Boy Toy, with American Apparel Neon Violet.  I wasn't having much luck with getting opacity in reasonable time with the sponge (getting the tape off doesn't work well if the polish fully dries) so I cheated and just painted the stripes on.  Works if you don't look too close.  Finally, finally, a coat of Essie Matte About You because I'm obsessed with it.

The Verdict: Eh.  The underlying gradient didn't come out with enough colour delineation, the orange and green aren't great together and my clean-up job was terrible.  I want to try this again though, maybe with a black and white gradient over a strong red base colour.  Could be interesting.  No hate on Matte About You though. 

The Most Glitter Feasible to Fit On My Nails

I don't even know how to introduce these any more.  It's a lot of glitter.  Like, a lot.  I was showing off my glitter stash to instagram yesterday and realised I had more holo glitter than I thought, in the smaller size that fits with my matte and metallic rainbow glitter.  So of course I'm going to do something excessive with it.  Cue the pictures!

I know there aren't too many people out there that would spend so long gluing 150 pieces of glitter to each nail.  That's ok.  It's sparkly and that's enough for me.  To do this, if you're curious, uses my usual process.  Three coats of black polish, thin strip of cheap top coat down the centre of your nail, line of glitter - this is the place you want to focus on getting everything evenly spaced and straight - then build out each side.  Top with a top coat and you're done.  Sure, there's a lot of time in there but rainbow sparklies!

The Verdict:  I know a lot of you don't spend this long on your nails in a month.  That's ok too.  I like to be the one that puts the time in, is a bit crazy with the glitter.  Makes me happy.  And sparkly.  My preferred state of being.  Yay glitter!

My Nails Are Covered in Glitter and No Two Pieces Are The Same, I Checked!

When you've done as many posts as I have, coming up with new content gets really difficult!  You end up having to be creative, even if it means throwing on all the glitter you have on your nails.  Which is awesome, because I'm not the biggest fan of the more subdued manis.  If it hurts a little to look at, that's what I want.  Let's take a look at what it looks like when you cover your nails in glitter, with no two pieces alike on an individual, nail, shall we?

I got paid on Friday so of course that means I'm going to go to Sephora and choose another of the Formula X polishes.  It's getting a little harder to choose as I already have the more interesting polishes but Freaky Like Freud is so sparkly it just has to come with me.  I started by applying a coat of Sally Hansen Celeb City because I wasn't sure of how opaque Freaky would be.  After the silver, I applied two coats of the glitter.  It's worth putting underwear on this polish.  Next, I applied top coat all over a nail and went nuts with the glitter.  When you're doing this "random" glitter pattern, start with the big pieces and work your way down to the tiny pieces.  When you're done it's best to apply two coats of Seche Vite because you don't want your larger pieces coming off. 

The Verdict:  I really like how nuts and sparkly this looks.  So glad I have so many different shapes and finishes in my glitter, makes this kind of mani really interesting to look at.  I also love how sparkly Freaky is.  Definitely worth it.  Sparkly!

Year In Review: My Sixteen Favourite Nails of 2013

I know it's now 2014 but I've never been the biggest fan of doing things because the date says so.  I do, however, want to reflect on 2013 as a year.  I'm just so grateful to all of you for being so supportive.  I'd probably keep my nails sparkly even if no one came here but having such wonderful people constantly show their support through comments and views on all the various platforms....it's just great.  So thank you!  I love all of you.  You let me be myself and it's wonderful.

Enough with the gushing, fancy seeing my favourite nails for 2013?  I was going to do this whole thing where I just swatched all my favourite polishes but I lost interest and made it too complicated, so let's just look at sparklies, shall we?  Here are my sixteen favourites, in no particular order....

16. Essie After School Boy Blazer with Red, Gold and Silver 3D Glitter Cubes!

Let me tell you, it was quite the revelation when I realised you could put three diamond-shaped pieces of glitter together and to make a 3-D cube.  I don't do it often because I don't have that many colours because the glitter is otherwise a PINA.  I do have red, gold and silver though, so hence this:

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15. Blue and Red Harlequin Nails

This may be near the less favourite end of the list but I actually really like these nails.  Close up, you see the distinct red and blue pattern but from a distance it just melded into this purple look but with bright red flashes in the light.  It looked super awesome, despite that description. 

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14. Checkered Fancy French Nails and Not a Rainbow in Sight!

I love everything rainbowy and sparkly but sometimes I like to do the complete opposite.  I'd just received some black square glitter in the mail and I had to make the most of it.  Turns out, at the time that was to do a modified french tip over a white and grey gradient.  It kept catching my eye when I was wearing it because it's so very different to what I normally have on.  That!

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13. Sunset Mermaid Nails for My Instagram Meetup!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed that when I go to something that has people at it (good job wording, Laura) I like to show off with doing super fancy nails.  I can't help it, I love the attention, especially in person.  So when I organised an Instagram shopping trip, of course I had to do something with big glitter.  This isn't higher on the list because it was a rush job, and it was during my "grunge" photo period, so over a bit eh.  Was sparkly though!

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12. Teeny Tiny Glitter Quilted Nails

My mum makes a lot of quilts. That might just seem like a statement but it's relevant because as it turns out, that's where I get pretty much all my inspiration from.  I didn't realise it for ages but so much of the glitter work I've been doing looks exactly like quilts.  This is one of the times I decided to be more literal in my interpretation and make Bargello nails.  I really should have done all my nails - especially since I've lost two of these glitter colours - but it's awesome as it is.   

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11. This is What 640 Pieces of Glitter Looks Like On One Hand

Oh man, I wanted to like this mani so much more than I did.  I got full rainbow set of square glitter from Glitties.com - fantastic, because look how smooth that colour run is!  It was at this point I ran out of clear top coat and decided to use the glue from nail foils instead.  This just meant my glitter came out wonky and it just isn't as good as it could have been.  It makes the list here because it took so long :)

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10. I Can Be Subtle Sometimes

I love this mani so much.  Not because it's the most technically proficient, or that it took the most time, but that it feels like a secret.  From even a slight distance it just looks like textured white nails but close up, you can see how much work was involved.   I almost want to put it higher on the list but ten is good.   

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9. Rainbow Holo Mermaid Nails

Now we come down the manis that I'm always drawn to - the gaudy rainbow holo ones.  There's something about this one is particular that's a bit off.  Maybe it's the not-quite-perfect colour transitions, the spacing, I don't know.  It is sparkly!  I swear this list isn't just to pick apart my work, these are just the things that come to mind when I have to write a short paragraph about each mani.  WHY DID I PICK SIXTEEN, SORRY EVERYONE.  

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8. Real Mermaid Scale Nails with Overlapping Lime Green Glitter

I love the texture in this mani.  It makes me really happy how well I was able to realistically reproduce sparkly scales.  I think it's not higher up because I don't really like green.... yep.

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7. Real Mermaid Nails

You know what, I really really don't like green.  This mani took me ages to do, it was super sparkly - I have a million videos in the link to prove it - but it's still only my seventh favourite because it's mostly green.  If it was purples and blues, totes number one.  Hmmm... Sparkly?

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6. I Think This is it: My Sparkliest Nails Ever (So Far)

I love these nails, despite the complex emotions that come up when I have to face that I might not be able to produce sparklier nails than this.  Before this, there was always room for more sparkly.  When dealing with dazzle glitter - which is what I'm calling this - it's really sparkly and hard to know where to go next.  It's only not higher on the list as I feel I have to deduct points cos it's scratchy.  No one likes living in Scratchytown. 

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5. Ocean Mermaid Nails

Alrighty, number five!  This is the mani that landed me on Tumblr's Top Nail Art Posts of 2013.  I'm quite proud of that, I have to say.  That's why I'm putting it at number five, mostly so I can feel smug to myself.  I just wish I could go back in time and clean off some of the black that leaked out onto the glitter.  Then it would be better.  Orrrr I could do it again...hmmm. 

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4. Rainbow Circus Mermaid Nails! Cos naming is hard...

It's interesting how a good execution of an idea can make for a better mani.  This isn't the most stunning or original mani but the photos came out really well, I cleaned up properly and all the glitter is nice and even.  While I like the colours in #5 a lot better, this one is higher up in the list because it's nicer for me to look at.  I'm quite hard on my work and this is a good one.  Yay!  At least it doesn't have "mermaid" in the title - I'm not good at naming things :)

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3. New Year's Eve Nails!

Number three: my new year's eve nails! I love these because again, I'm really happy with how evenly I placed the glitter.  And, it really was incredibly sparkly.  Like, I-must-take-4,532-videos sparkly.  And sparkly makes me so so happy. 

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2. Rainbow Nails - Mixing Matte and Metallic Glitter

What I find interesting is comparing these nails to number nine.  It's basically the same thing, but this one works so much better because the colours are so much more harmonious.  Admittedly the metallic and the matte glitter can in rainbow pots from Etsy but who knew alternating the two finishes would look so cool.  And the spacing is even.  This is a classic example though why I get so upset when I break a nail :(

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1. Thirty Different Shades and Finishes in This Mani. So Sparkly!

Finally, finally, finally, we reach number one.  A large part of why I like glitter placements so much is that it takes patience rather than artistic skill.  You just have to sit there and nudge all the glitter into place.  It's relaxing to me, like knitting.  I feel like this mani is my crowning achievement because there almost a thousand pieces of glitter, all placed individually, on my right hand.  That may seem a bit cray to some of you, but to me it feels like victory.  Sparkly, sparkly, victory. 

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While I have you, I just want to say thank you to all those that have supported me and not just dismissed my glitter with a "ain't nobody got time for that" gif.  You're all wonderful and I love you all.  

xoxoxox <3 Laura

Sparkly Rainbow Indecision Nails!

Ever have those days where you just can't make up your mind?  Of course you have.  That's me with these nails.  This is the first time I've tried a glitter placement on pointy nails and it's surprising how much the shape can affect a gradient.  I was going to go with the gold-green-blue gradient but then the black and white was cool and then I'm like ooo purple and stuff whatever.  At least the glitter is good.  Let's take a look at Rainbow Indecision Nails, shall we?

Do you have any interest in a tutorial on how to apply and shape these kinds of acrylic tips?  It was a bit of a experiment initially to fix a broken nail but I actually super dig the length and shape.  It's not hard to do and there are drug store kits that work really well.  Let me know in the comments.  Once the nails were applied it's just the basic application for glitter I've been over a million times.  I really like the mix of holo and matte glitter so there's that.  Yeah.  Sparkly shiny matte.

The Verdict:  I very nearly abandoned this mani cos I couldn't decide but I'm happy I didn't.  Sometimes the chaotic mix works out.  Sparklies!  Woo!