Pale to the Chief by OPI: NOTD

Dislcaimer: I purchased this. And there may be ramblings about the election outcome below.

I think it's rather ironic that I wore Pale to the Chief for the past few weeks, in light of our recent election cycle. It wasn't a conscious choice, but more because this pale beauty was the one I was most drawn to out of the Washington DC collection. Plus, I had a meeting scheduled with the top dogs of my organization, and I thought this would be a good "work appropriate" color to wear.  

However, the first day I wore it, the polish peeled completely off my index finger. In one piece, mind you. So, I reapplied using the same base coat (Julep's Oxygen Bonding), and it happened again, the day of my meeting with the top four people of my organization, all white middle aged males, by the way. Obviously, my recollection of the meeting is being shaded by the outcome of the election. The meeting went fine, although I did have some thoughts along the lines of how our society is still so patriarchal in structure. And yes, perhaps I shouldn't have started it by saying "I'm very blunt".  But I am, and I'm not good at pretending otherwise, because I'm also an INTJ female.

At the end of the day I preceded to peel off all the polish from the remaining 9 fingers. Clearly, something was wrong. Kind of like this week, if nail polish could ever be compared to, I don't know, the outcome of the election? Which of course, it can't.

I reapplied with no base coat for round two three, because I didn't have any other brand to use. This time Pale to the Chief wore beautifully, and what you see in the pictures is after 5 days of wear. If only all problems had such easy solutions. But, they usually don't. I'm sure my natural optimism will reassert itself at some point, but right now? I'm sad, and I'm not sure I'll be watching anything other than DVDs in the near future. I think I'll start with Detectorists.

NOTD: OPI's To Be or Not to Beagle and Julep's Florence

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

To Be or Not to Beagle is one of the Halloween Peanuts collection glitter toppers from last year and was part of the Lil Peanuts mini set I picked up.  It is composed of predominantly black multi-glitter with matte pale blue, pale yellow, pale orange, pale green, red and blue glitter.

Interestingly, not a single red glitter showed up in this manicure and I did two coats to boot.  I was suspicious that there was any red glitter even in the mix when I read the description online.  But there is red glitter in the bottle, at least.

The pale almond cream is Florence by Julep, and it's a bit thick but applied easily enough.  I love a good nude polish as a palette cleanser and I'll be revisiting this one again.

NOTD: Today I Accomplished Zero by OPI

 Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

I may be wearing Today I Accomplished Zero by OPI on my nails, but I've been pretty productive on my staycation, which has only 3 days left.  Even more impressive is that these pictures were taken after 7 days of wear - days that included lots of cleaning and yard work.  I do have a small chip on my thumb, hence why I'm hiding it in the pictures.

Today I Accomplished Zero is part of OPI's Coca Cola collection polishes.  It's a lovely black jelly with dark pink glitter, but my eye translates the glitter as red.  Really, a great Halloweenish polish, as it reminds me of vampires :-)

I used 3 coats of polish but I probably could have gotten away with 2, and then topped it with Gelous.  I don't know if Gelous is why I'm getting such good wear time, but it's a great topcoat if you haven't tried it yet.

NOTD: Jinx by OPI

I was looking through my polish collection for late summer transitional colors but Jinx was the one that jumped out at me.  Probably more of a spring or early summer color but I had yet to wear it.  Plus, I love how easy and fast drying textured polishes are, so there ya go.

Jinx is a flamingo pink with gold shimmer, and application was a breeze. This is one coat over basecoat, just so easy. Jinx was one of The Bond Girl minis released in the spring of 2013, and the three I've tried so far have all been great..

Jinx made for a nice last summer splash before I start gravitating towards the moodier colors I associate with cool weather.

NOTD: OPI Designer Series Classic

Now if this isn't a beauty, I don't know what is.  I've had DS Classic by OPI for several years now but this is the first time I've worn it, and I'm smitten.  A smitten kitten.

If you are not familiar with OPI's Designer Series, they "combine dazzling diamond dust with pigments so saturated with color . . . they glow."  It looks like a lovely beige/tan scattered holo to me.  These differ from regular OPI polishes in both price ($12.50) and in the color the bottle caps (silver).

Classic is the perfect nude with oomph for me, I just love it.   The formula was a breeze to work with and this is two coats over OPI's base coat with butterLondon's top coat.  I feel happy every time I look down at my hands.

This little guy makes me happy as well.  He's been enjoying hanging out in an abandoned planter, and every day I take pictures in the yard I look for him.  Love turtles.  Now, one last blurry pic of DS Classic to show you it's gorgeous shimmer in the sun....

NOTD: My Signature is "DC" by OPI

Well if this wasn't a pleasant little surprise:  an easy one coater with no brush strokes to speak of.  Wasn't really expecting that, but considering I was feeling less than inspired with no desire to invest time/effort in a manicure, My Signature is "DC" hit the spot.  I can see a few bald spots on my ring finger, so two coats is probably the way to go for those that are not feeling lazy/uninspired, but hey, it didn't bother me. 

My Signature is "DC" is part of the Coca-Cola by OPI limited edition set of polishes, and this particular color is in homage to the silver canned Diet Coke.  I've drank a few of those in my day.  I was tempted to mattify this just to see what it looked like, but was mesmerized by the silver sparkle enough to just let it be.  Next time, next time....

This silver motivated me to select a gold for next week, and now I can't get this refrain from Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues out of my mind.  Love me some Ryan Adams.

It ain't no easy life but it pays pretty good,
Keeps her out of the cold
It ain't no easy life
But it's silver and gold
Silver, silver, silver and gold

NOTD: Pussy Galore from The Bond Girls

James Bond: Who are you?
Pussy Galore: My name is Pussy Galore.
James Bond: I must be dreaming.

Here's something I didn't know, having not read Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger:  Pussy Galore and her organized crime girl gang were all lesbians.  Of course the movie did not explicitly go there, and of course James Bond managed to seduce Pussy Galore despite her having told him "You can turn off the charm.  I'm immune."  It was 1964, and he is James Bond, after all.

So, I find it ironic that the polish in honor of Bond girl Pussy Galore is an uber feminine light pink, although the liquid sand texture does give it some grit :-)  What is not captured in the photos that is evident in person is the darker fuchsia microglitter that gives a bit more complexity to the light pink. I'm wearing two coats and I do love how quickly textured polishes dry, although I've got a small chip after 3 days of wear.

The Bond Girls liquid sand mini-set was released in spring of 2013 and Pussy Galore is the second one I've worn.  I'm still partial to Solitaire (see here), although Pussy Galore is definitely the more interesting of the Bond girl characters, IMO.

NOTD: Pink Polka Dots with OPI, Sally Hansen, and Julep

Something about this look reminds me of the symbol used to ward off the evil eye, albeit rather loosely translated. 

The base polish is the sheer peachy pink jelly Isn't That Precious by OPI.  The lighter pink dots are Poetic Peony, a now discontinued beyond Perfect Sally Hansen polish.  The center dot is DeAnn by Julep, which looks distinctively more purple in the bottle than it does in this look.

These pictures were taken about 4 days into wear and is holding up quite well after a week, making it an easy winter to spring transition look.  Hopefully it's warding off the evil eye as well :-)

NOTD: Autumn Goodness with Julep, Zoya, and OPI

After over a week of bare nails due to laziness, I gravitated towards colors reflected in the turning leaves here on the Gulf Coast.  We don't really get the spectacular colors other areas do, but this year has been one of the better ones, no doubt due to a some early (and unusual for this area) cold snaps.

OPI's Orange You Fantastic from the Coca-Cola collection just slays me.  Gold and red glitter in a sheer orange tint, this is fall in glitter form.  Julep's Sheila was a bit of a revelation in that it's an easy one coater, and Zoya's metallic gold Ziv rounded out the trio and helped tie it all together.

I hope everyone is enjoying fall in whatever form it takes where you are at.  It's supposed to be in the sunny 70's on Sunday, so I'll be soaking that up while it lasts :-)  Linking up with The Nail Files hosted by Jennie Shaw:

NOTD: OPI's You're So Vain-illa and Where's My Blanket???

Disclaimer:  I purchased these.

Today I've got two OPI polishes from recent collections: the bleached bone cream You're So Vain-illa from Coca-Cola and the matte black, orange, and pale yellow glitter Where's My Blanket??? from Peanuts. 

You're so Vain-illa was streaky on the first coat but evened out with the second, as long as I didn't press too hard with the brush or bald spots would appear.  The glitter topper Where's My Beagle??? applied nicely, although I would liked to have seen more of the orange and yellow in the mix.  It did dry dull and needed topcoat for shine.  Wear time with this combo has been great, as I'm going on 5 days of wear without even any tip wear!

Linking up with The Nail Files hosted by Jennie Shaw:

NOTD: Wined Up by Sally Hansen, or Total Seduction

You know how sometimes a look just comes together and you go "oh yeah, that works".  Well, that's how this combo of Wined Up by Sally Hansen over the black polish from the OPI Little Peanuts set hit me.  Total seduction.

An added bonus was that I only had to redo my thumb and ring finger from last week's manicure with WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY???, and then top with Wined Up, leaving a small sliver of the black around the edges.  Super easy, and I love the minimalist look combined with the striking color combo.

I'm guessing Wined Up has been discontinued, as I got mine at 75% off a while back.  I'm seeing it on ebay and Amazon, however, so you can still get it.  First time I've used it, and it was a one coater with no issues I could tell.  I've had problems with fast dry polishes chipping in the past, but the below picture is after 5 days of wear, and I've got only minor tip wear.  Total love.

Linking up with The Nail Files hosted by Jennie Shaw:

NOTD: Little Peanuts by OPI

I found Little Peanuts, the mini set from OPI's Halloween collection, impossible to resist.  It wasn't because it has a black or a taxi-cab yellow polish in it, although I'm not opposed to them.  It was the glitters!  Oh, and the Peanut's themed nail decals!

Realistically, nothing about this set screams "Halloween" to me.  That's okay, as it actually reminds me a bit of another OPI Halloween mini set that I really enjoyed, 2012's So So Skullicious.   A disappointing difference turned out to be the decals in the Peanuts set, as they are not water decals but peel off stickers.  I found that out after I let them sit in water for 10 minutes.  Yep, I'm quick like that.  Now I'm wondering how different the yellows in the two sets are.  Hmmm.

Snoopy smelling the flowers

But's it's the Peanuts gang!  So of course I couldn't resist.  WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!? is a very nice black, and two coats provide glossy color.  The yellow Good Grief! was a bit problematic, and I needed 3 coats to get smooth color.  Like the color though!

Love the glitters and don't have anything like them, so they are really the stars of the collection IMO.  I used a dabbing method to place To Be or Not to Beagle on my ring finger. 

I don't remember the cartoons as particularly violent, but maybe memory is failing me.  Pow!  Bonk!  Oof!  Linking up with The Nail Files hosted by Jennie Shaw:

NOTD: Do You Have Have this Color in Stock-holm? from the Little Northies OPI Set

Little Northies is the mini-polish set from the OPI Nordic collection.  I love mini-polishes and prefer them to full-sized polishes, so if the colors are even semi-appealing I usually pick them up when OPI releases a new collection.  Fortunately, all of these appeal to me!

There is a nice mixture of bright, bold, neutral, and glitter in this set, and I can't say I've got anything quite like the vivid blue/purple of Do You Have this Color in Stock-holm?  So of course that was my first manicure color pick from this set, with the retro 1950's kitchen appliance green of My Dogsled is a Hybrid on my toes.  The formula on both was good, although two coats were a must for both.

I used My Voice is a Little Norse as an accent on my ring finger and quite liked how it turned out.  Just enough bling to catch your eye but not enough to overwhelm.  I'm going on day 7 of wear with no chips and some tip wear, most impressive!