OPI 18k Gold Top Coat

Ok so I know The Man With the Golden Gun came out last year, but a friend of mine recently gave me the OPI 18k Gold flakie top coat from the James Bond Skyfall collection, and I absolutely love it!  I especially love the fact that it sits in an extra-thin suspension base so you can add several layers of gold flakes to your manis without it getting to thick or clumpy.

 

It comes in a fancy box AND a fancy bottle!!  Isn't it just so glam?!  So I tried it out last night over 2 coats of Zoya's Louise and I am very happy with the results.  I used my Northern Lights holographic top coat in gold to complement the design

This picture doesn't even do it justice.  Being actual 18k gold flakes, it's a lot shinier and more sparkly in person.  I know it's decadent and you could probably find a cheaper dupe, but it sure is nice to say that you have solid gold nail polish :)

I'm thinking this would look especially gorgeous over a deep turquoise.  I think I'll try that out when it's seasonally appropriate.

So what do you think of the 18k gold top coat?  You think it's worth the current retail price of $69?

2013 Holiday Nails #2

I love this Holiday color from OPI.  It's called Wondrous Star and it's from the 2013 Mariah Carey Holiday collection.  It features a micro glitter base that is somewhere between silver and gold with chunky black glitter throughout.  Love the formula and the outcome!

Disney Villains Polish Set by e.l.f.: Maleficent

At Walgreens the other day, I picked up the Disney Villains polish set by e.l.f.  The collection comes with twelve different polishes divided into threes (the four villains include: Maleficent, Cruella, Ursula, and the Evil Queen from Snow White).  These 3 polishes are from the Maleficent collection:

The colors include:
"Maude Mauve" (pointer and pinky finger)
"Bubble Gum Pink" (thumb and ring finger)
"Gina Girl" (middle finger)

I really love all the colors in this collection, and each of them applied with a smooth, creamy, and rich texture.  I probably could have only used one coat on the pink and mauve, but I went ahead and did two.  The glitter color in the middle took about 4 coats for full coverage, but it wasn't clumpy or goopy at all, which is nice in a glitter formula.  It's kind of hard to tell, but the glitter has a brownish-purple base with purple, gold, and orange mixed glitters.  I never would have thought to pair these three colors, but e.l.f. did a great job with this combination!  Can't wait to use the other three villainous collections.

You can purchase this set at Walgreens for $9.99 USD, which is a great deal for 12 polishes.  They're not full sized bottles, but they're not as small as minis either.

Coral and Gold Stamped Mani with Glitter

Shot of the Day: Metallic "Chevron" Nails

We all know the chevron look has been really popular this summer, so I decided to try out one of my chevron stamps a little while ago to keep up with the trend.  Unfortunately, I did not evenly line up the stamp on my first couple of tries so I just decided the stamp the chevron pattern from a bunch of different angles instead.  I think it still looks pretty cool:

Sorry it's a little blurry...guess I just did not have a steady hand that night.  Anyway, here's a swatch of the base color without the stamp.  I used Sally Hansen's Gilty Party for this look:

And let me just say, I absolutely love this polish.  Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes are some of my favorites, and this one is a perfect cross-seasonal shade.  It has a tiny bit of bronze that makes it perfect for summer, but the overall shimmer and color could be great for a Christmas/wintery look, too.  See how the color shifts somewhere between silver/bronze/gold with the two different lighting settings in the photos?  It's basically a must have polish.

Shot of the Day: Magic Carpet Nails

Base color is by Urban Outfitters, and I believe the stamping polish is from the China Glaze Romantique collection:

After I did this design, one of my friends commented that it looked like a magic carpet or something from Aladdin.  What do you think?

Shot of the Day: Gatsby Inspired Nails

Have you all seen the new Gatsby movie yet?  I haven't had a chance so far, but I'm a big fan of the book!  Anyway, I am loving all the Gatsby nail trends I'm seeing these days, so I thought I'd do a Great Gatsby manicure of my own! I wanted something very deco but also super sparkly, so I used Urban Outfitters Smokin as my base color:

This picture doesn't do it justice.  This polish is so glittery and sparkly, and it keeps that wet look, which really makes it shimmer in certain lights.  It usually looks like this champagne-gold color, but in certain fluorescent lights it looks more silver.  This polish also had one of the best applications of any glitter I've ever used, so guess what I did!  I went back to Urban Outfitters and bought a bunch more of their glitter polishes.

For my Deco stamp, I used Winstonia plate W111, which applied really well!  This black is probably my favorite black stamping color and it's from the Forever 21 Red Carpet Kit.

This photo was taken under fluorescent lights, and it definitely looks more silver here than gold.  I got so many compliments on this manicure, and it really popped with the black and gold accent jewelry I wore.

For this look, I used OPI Nail Envy as a base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat.  So what do you think?  Pretty fancy, huh?

Stamping Success with MASH 26-50 Plates

If you follow Polish off the Bottle on Facebook and Twitter, then you know that I have been super pumped about getting started with nail stamping.  Well, my MASH 26-50 Plates arrived last week along with my Konad double ended stamper, and I have been having a ball!  It's a much easier process than I thought it would be, and there is so much variety you can do with your manicure.  I feel like I'm an all-star nail artist now thanks to nail stamping.

So my first attempt wasn't perfect, but I wanted to try a small design instead of a full pattern first just to get used to the application process.  Here's a pic from my first nail stamp manicure attempt:

Shot of the Day: Celebrating with China Glaze (Champagne Bubbles) and Gold Glitter

Well, I found out this week that I passed my comprehensive exams for my graduate program so I am celebrating the fact that I will have my master's degree in just three weeks!  I wanted to make my nails fit my mood, so I thought China Glaze's Champage Bubbles would be a perfect base for a sparkling celebration mani!

The gradient isn't perfect, but it sure does shine!  I used a base coat of OPI Nail Envy, then I used China Glaze Angel Wings as my first glitter layer toward the tips.  Angel Wings is a gold/green fine glitter with slightly holographic undertones. My second coat was Color Club's Gold Glitter, which is a slightly chunkier glitter that is very pigmented, and it has an amazing application.  It's very smooth and offers pretty full coverage.

The final coat I used for this glitter gradient look was Nicole by OPI's Kissed at Midnight.  It is a part of the Selena Gomez collection and it's one of my new favorite glitters.  The application is comparable to Essie's Luxeffects glitters.  It has a clear base with various sizes of gold round glitter, which are plentiful and easy to apply with the brush.  I seriously love this glitter and I will definitely be buying more glitters from the Selena Gomez collection!  It isn't goopy and thick like most highly pigmented glitters, and I think it added the perfect touch to my champagne celebration nails!

I used Seche Vite as my top coat.  I love this top coat with glitters because it makes your nails smooth to the touch, not grainy or bumpy, which happens a lot with glitters.  Anyway, I think it's time to get this party started.  I'll begin by mixing a pitcher of Sangria!

Shot of the Day: Scales Nails! Sally Hansen (Butterscotch) and Revlon (Posh)

I'm still waiting for my Konad stamper to come in the mail ( I have received my MASH 26-50 plates), but I felt like I couldn't wait for a little animal pattern.  So sans stamper, I made my own version of scales nails! I call them scales nails because they remind me of lizards, snakes, and dinosaurs.  But, before I applied the "scales" with my dotting tools, I took a quick photo so I could provide a swatch of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure polish in Butterscotch:

I love love love this color and I will definitely be purchasing more Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes in the future.  I did two coats out of habit, but honestly, it looked just as good with one.  It's very pigmented so I'm expecting a bit of staining, but still, this is one of my new favorite polishes.  It has a very creamy application, dries smoothly, and shines brightly.  I used Butterscotch over a coat of OPI Nail Envy.  I seriously cannot wait to try it out as a stamping polish.  It's thick and pigmented and not a quick dry so I'm thinking it might be perfect.

 And here it is under more natural lighting.  I took this picture in my living room when the afternoon sun was shining in, and it doesn't look streaky or uneven at all.  Most of my mistakes show up best in natural light and either I've gotten really really good overnight or this polish is incredible.  Maybe both.

So anyway, next I dotted on Revlon's Posh in a downward/upward alternating gradient pattern using 3 different sized dotting tools.

So up close it kind of just looks like a dot gradient, which it is, but from a little further away it gives the impression of scales....at least to me.

See what I mean?  Kinda scaly/lizard-z/dinosaur-y, huh?

So I know I've mentioned this before, but I adore Revlon polishes, and Posh is no exception.  It applied just as well as the Butterscotch, just with a thinner texture, which makes it a perfect dotting polish!

I topped it all off with a layer of Seche Vite and voila! My scales nails mani is complete! What do you think?

All products used today (minus the dotting tools).