Moondancing with the Duseldorfs

Today, I started with two coats of OPI Suzi and the Seven Duseldorfs.  I didn't get photos of this one and I'm not sure why.  It went on well and had that signature metallic shine the Oktoberfest collection is famous for.  I'll try to get this one alone some time in the future!

Then, I topped it with two coats of Deborah Lippmann Moondance.  This was part of the Rock this Town Trio.  I really liked the multi-faceted look of this, it has purple with teal mixed in.  It gives the polish a lot of depth.

I hope everyone is having a great week!  Don't forget to enter the Share the Love contest!!!

OPI can be purchased at Ulta, Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at Nordstrom.
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Nora Sings the Blues

Today I started off with one of the Julep Suedes, Nora.  Nora was a purplish-grey color.  I was pretty happy with the formula, I know some bloggers said they had issues, but I thought it applied well and had a nice finish.  This is similar to the OPI Suedes.

Since you don't top coat it, it quickly started to get tip wear (I'm very hard on my nails) and so I topped it with two coats of Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues.  A stunning deep blue jelly with glitters.

I loved both of these polishes and surprisingly Nora made a great under for Lady Sings the Blues! 

Julep polishes can be purchased at Sephora or through their Maven program. Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at Nordstrom.

 

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Bad Romance in Purple Haste

I have another beautiful purple mani today, I started off with two coats of Sally Hansen Purple Haste, a gorgeous purple with blue microflecks in it.  I despise the brush that comes with the insta dri, but overall it applies great and evenly, so I'm happy about the polish quality.

Then I put on one coat of Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance, with light purple glitter in a black jelly base.  You don't see as much of the undercoat as I had hoped showing through, but I still think it looked fabulous.   

Sally Hansen Purple Haste with Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance

Sally Hansen can be purchased at drug stores.  Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at Nordstrom or HSN.

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Reserved Party Girl Cuts Footloose

Today I have a two-fer for you.  The first is OPI DS Reserve.  Sigh.  I want to love this, but this color on me is crap.  It just blends in too much with my skin tone.  Not.a.fan.  The polish itself is very pretty though.  I have decided to send this baby off to a new home with someone who may appreciate her more.

Shade:

 Sun

Macro:

**Caution - Foot Photos Ahead**


For my toes I went with Deborah Lippmann Footloose (hahaha) with Candy Lacquer Party Girl on top.  It seemed beach bum appropriate.  Unlike its mate - Almost Paradise, Footloose was a great polish.

Candy Lacquer I'm over the moon for, great polish and easy wear to it.  I loved it!  My pedi application techniques suck, I know this, but I do the best I can!

Candy Lacquers can be purchased at their Etsy Shop.  OPI can be purchased at Ulta.  Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at HSN.com or Nordstrom.

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Cherry Blossom in Paradise

Sorry for the delay in blogging, I've been on vacation and haven't had time to get a post together!

Today I have a stunning polish to share - Amy's Nail Boutique Cherry Blossom over Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise.

I knew I wanted to do a green base for this polish to really show off the softness and beauty in Cherry Blossom.  Cherry Blossom also imparts a stunning shimmer to the polish below.  

Sadly, Almost Paradise wasn't even close to paradise.  It was a disaster.  It went on streaky and chalky and this is three coats and it STILL had bald spots.  UGH.  But the finished product is pretty, so I guess that is all that matters.

Cherry Blossom, like all of Amy's Nail Boutique polishes, goes on like a dream.  It is very easy to get from bottle to nail.  Cherry Blossom is easy to spread along the nail and distribute the glitter.  It has several shades of pink and white hexes in a shimmery base.  I loved this.  I can see this working over lots of different bases (I want to try red next)!  I finished it off with my standard glitter topping top coats - 1 coat of Seche Vite and 1 coat of Nails, Inc Kensington Caviar.

Full Sun:

Shade:

Argh, ignore the stupid bubbles.  I think those were from Seche.

Macro to show off the shimmer:

Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased at her Etsy store.  The entire floral inspired line is absolutely stunning!  

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Let's Go Crazy!

When the blogs and nail polish groups erupted with the news that Deborah Lippmann was making an exclusive glitter called Let's Go Crazy for the Nordstrom anniversary sale, I knew it would be mine.

But, I was in a quandary, do I wait until the sale goes live and hope to get it in Nordstrom in fear it would sell out?  That is too many maybes and hoping and stresses.  So I went with the sure thing, calling my mom and asking her to order me one (she is a cardholder and as such had early access)!  Even at 39 years, 10 months, and 2 weeks old, a baby girl can always depend on her mommy.  And, yes, I'm old.  You can close your mouth now! 

My lovely came to me via UPS yesterday and naturally I had to get it on my nails pronto.

I decided because most DL glitters are very sheer, to layer it over China Glaze Grape Juice.  This is a purple shimmer and I thought it would be cool because the shimmer would shine underneath the purple jelly base. It does in person, but it was harder to capture in photos.

This is 2 coats of Grape Juice with 1 coat of Let's Go Crazy on top.  As with all Lippmanns, the formula is fantastic and it has that wow factor.  It was top coat hungry, this has one coat of Seche and one coat of Nails, Inc Kensington Caviar on top.

Grape Juice was a little thin for me and I had issues with pooling.  CG is either perfect or runny, there seems to be no in between.  This was a runny.  Thus my application was soiled, but I really don't care!  


I just love it. 


Shade (look at the shine this baby gives off, you can see my reflection!):

Sunlight (for whatever reason, I always tend to be heavy handed on the glitter on my middle finger, coincidence or subconscious?  Hmmmmm):

See how nice and smooth (and on the right nail you can see the shimmer peeking through)!

Up close view of the pretty!

Deborah Lippmann polishes can be purchased at Nordstrom (and this was is a Nordstrom exclusive), but you can usually find GREAT deals for DLs at HSN.com.  China Glaze can be purchased at Sally Beauty Supply or Ulta.





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Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a woman walking through Nordstrom trying to figure out what to get the mothers in her life for Mother's Day.  She passed by the Deborah Lippmann display and thought to herself "Screw it, I'm going to buy MYSELF a gift too".  Now this woman has a husband who is fantastic in the gift giving department and she has no complaints on that end, ever, but she also knows he'd sooner stick a fork in his eye than drop $20.00 on a bottle of nail polish.

Sadly, his frugality has yet to rub off on his wife after 19 years of coupledom.  I think he has resigned himself to this being a lost cause at this point. 

In keeping with the fairy tale that is her life, she decided to purchase "Today Was a Fairy Tale".

As an aside on my fairy tale life - trust me on this, if Cinderella lived in a house with three men?  She would have ran away long before her prince ever arrived after cleaning the bathrooms on a regular basis.  That bitch had no idea how lucky she was to not have to be concerned about aim (or in reality, the complete lack thereof).  I used the following phrase (in a fit of despair) a few months ago "Why is it I am the only person who lives in this house who doesn't pee outside of the toilet and yet I'm the one always cleaning it up?"  This was greeted with the standard "That's Not FAIR!" response (from the king of course, the princes know better than to speak when mommy is cleaning the bathrooms).  

However, I have been blessed with many things from those three men in my life.  They have taught me how to love, how to be loved and how to enjoy life, which is why I can overlook such aim issues.  

I decided to celebrate Mother's Day with my present to myself.  I started off with 2 coats of OPI Light My Sapphire, a dark blue and then finished with 1 coat of Today Was a Fairy Tale.  As with all Deborah Lippmann polishes, it coated beautifully with a single stroke with a metric ton of glitter.  No fishing, no worries about coverage, perfection.  I regret picking such dark underwear and will try it with something lighter, but I got crazy amounts of complements on this though, so it was still a win in my book.

Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at Nordstrom or hsn.com.  OPI can be purchased at ULTA.

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Splash

This is two coats of Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream.

This really does remind me of a mermaid's tail and was simply gorgeous on the nail.  Yes, it does look a bit "bumpy" but that is what it is supposed to look like.  If you can't handle bumpy nails, this isn't the polish for you. 

I couldn't stop staring at it.  As with the other Deborah Lippmann polish I've tried, it applied perfectly.  These are expensive polishes, no doubt, but from my experience they are also three of the best polishes I own.  The colors in this are just perfect for spring. 

You can purchase Deborah Lippmann at Nordstrom and hsn.com.

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Across the Universe

I saw this gorgeous manicure on Nail Polish Wars Blog (click the link to take you to the far better original!) and decided to try it myself.

This is one coat of OPI Light My Sapphire with one coat of Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe. This was my first Deborah Lippmann polish and I thought it was outstanding. The glitter applied evenly and was easy to get out of the bottle. The coverage and application was a breeze.

Close up:

Then I sponged the tips with China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara. This was super blingy, almost too much so.

Close up:

Later on I ended up putting another layer of Across the Universe on top and it was perfect, but sadly I didn't get a photo!

You can purchase Deborah Lippmann at Nordstrom and hsn.com. China Glaze can be purchased at Sally Beauty and Ulta. OPI can be purchased at Ulta.

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