Monday, September 9, 2013

Manicure Monday

Wow, 5 posts in 5 days. Don't get used to it, folks––you know it won't last ;) Today, I have a couple of polishes I received from Z for my birthday, as well as another Turkey polish and an OPI.

Butter London The Black Knight
I have wanted this polish since it came out a couple years ago, and Z generously bought it (as well as the Nails Inc, below) for me for my birthday! It was waiting for me when I got home, though my mother had stuck it in her room so I didn't know where it was for the first couple weeks after getting home. Fortunately, it was found and worn and I LOVE IT.
It's a black base with varying sizes of pink/red, yellow, and blue glitter. They dance and shine under the light, and it's so, so beautiful. I found it to be a solid 2 coater, though perhaps if you used thicker coats it could be done in 1. It's very top-coat hungry; I did 3 coats the day I painted my nails, and then another the next day, which made it almost completely smooth. The wear is phenomenal; it lasted a full 4 days on my nails with no tipwear or chipping, and I actually wore it twice in a row since it went well with the dress I wore to the wedding. I am seriously impressed, and now I begrudgingly want to try more Butter London (begrudging because they're expensive, and the British names are stupid for a company based in Seattle). It has taken up residence on the shelf reserved for true love polishes.

Nails Inc. Baker Street and Golden Rose 52
Baker Street is as amazing as everyone says: pigmented, smooth, just gorgeous (though it does dry slightly matte, so a top coat is a must). I decided to top some fingers with Golden Rose 52, which is stunning in the bottle (it looks exactly like some of the water in Bodrum) but extremely sheer. They were very pretty together, though in some lights my camera had problems distinguishing between the layered and unlayered fingers––this is how they looked most of the time, but in some lights/angles the light blue sheen was much less obvious. (The light inside my bathroom was good for capturing the colors, even if it makes my hand look oompa loompasque.)
Baker Street also lives on the privileged shelf; even though I'm not usually a blue polish kind of girl, it's so lush and gorgeous, I couldn't help but fall in love. Thank you, Z!

OPI Alcatraz Rocks
Scrangie's swatches of this put it at the top of my fall polish collection wishlist, and when I happened upon it in a Nordstrom Rack in California, I snagged it. It's part of OPI's San Francisco-inspired collection; though I have mixed feelings associated with the city (through no fault of its own!), I couldn't resist picking this up.
It's a "liquid sand" polish, so it dries very, very gritty; I am not a particular fan of the textured finish (unless it's super sparkly), so I added a bunch of top coat to it. It's not as insanely glittery as I'd hoped it would be, but perhaps I was just spoiled by The Black Knight. Opacity is nice, needing only 2 coats, and it is chock-full of sparkles, but I noticed tipwear on the second day. I don't know. I'll have to retry it again in a few weeks––it seems like the sort of polish that I would go batty for, but I just wasn't quite feeling it.
out of focus to show some of the sparklies

Autumn fast approaches, at least in theory––it's still high 70s/low 80s here (and is supposed to be in the 90s tomorrow?! GROSS), but I look forward to pulling out my warm coppers and rich vamps once it gets here. Though clearly, I have no problem wearing dark shades in summer, if this post is any indication...

What do you think of these? What have you been wearing lately?
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