OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Hey everyone!

Today I have a swatch of OPI's My Vampire is Buff. I've actually used this polish quite a bit since I first bought it, but I never swatched it until now. I have a love/hate relationship with this polish, but it's more love than anything lol. Let's take a look!

My Vampire is Buff is an off-white creme. It looks like a vanilla color in certain lights to me. This is three coats with a top coat.

I love this color. Usually, I don't go for light colored nudes because of how it looks against my skin, but My Vampire is Buff is an exception. This polish is great for all everyone, which is why I love it. I also love it because it's great as a base for nail art. It can literally go with any color and not look bad.

The application and formula is what I hate. Well, I should say dislike. This polish is very streaky and even though it's a creme, it's a little on the watery side for me. You can't really see from the photos, but I can see some slight balding as well on some nails. The streaking smooths out after the third coat, but that's my main problem with My Vampire is Buff. Everything else I love about it.

Overall, I like this polish. I hate the streaking, but I would recommend buying this polish. It's great for nail art and it's very work friendly as well. I can see this as my go to polish if I have any interviews or just wearing it in general.

What do you this of this polish? What's your favorite nude polish?

Thanks for reading!

Flowers and Dots

Hey everyone!

I've been kind of uninspired lately when it comes to nail art, so when in doubt do polka dots. I used my dotting tools to create this cute flower and polka dot design. If you don't have dotting tools, there are many different items that you can use such as toothpicks, pens, pins, etc.

I started out with three coats of OPI's My Vampire is Buff as the base color. For the flowers, I made four small dots with a dotting tool using Sinful Colors Nirvana. I used Sinful Colors Black on Black for the center of the flower. Finally, I placed small black dots into the remaining space on the nail.

I really love how this design turned out. It was simple and quick to do, which is what I love about the dotting tools. There's so many designs that you can do with them, I should use them more often lol.

What do you think of this design?  

Thanks for reading!

OPI-Stay the Night

Hey everyone!

Today, I have a swatch of OPI's Stay the Night for you. This is a part of the Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Collection that came out last year, but I recently paid a visit to Marshalls and bought Stay the Night and Get Your Number (both were in the OPI Holiday Duo Pack) for only $7.99 compared to $18 for the pack. If you're looking for these liquid sands, I would visit Marshalls to see if they have the rest of the colors.

Stay the Night is a textured black with bright pink glitter. This is three coats without a top coat. The formula was quite sheer with the first coat, but leveled out with the second and third coat. I had no problems with the application, it was easy to work with. The texture is gritty, but it's very subtle. 

I wanted to see what it looked like with a top coat, so I slabbed on a thick coat of top coat. As you can see, the glitters are more prominent and pop out more with the top coat. Also, you can still feel the texture but it's much smoother than without.

I only used one coat of top coat, but if you want more of a glossy finish, I'd recommend using a couple more coats. I honestly prefer this polish without the top coat, but I also love the way it looks with top coat.

What do you think of this polish? Do you like textured polishes?

Thanks for reading!

Simple Autumn Nails

Hello everyone!

I have a simple fall manicure using two popular nail art techniques: the saran wrap and the fishtail braid. I originally wanted to do something more complicated, but sometimes simple is better. This is also my first time doing the fishtail design and I think it brought out the design even more.

For these nails, I first started off with one coat of OPI's Schnapps Out of It! on all the nails except the accent nail for the base color. Once it dried, I painted one coat of Sinful Colors Nude over it. With a piece of plastic wrap (you can use a plastic bag as well), I dabbed the plastic wrap onto the nail. If you have some bald spots on the nail from the base color picking up, use a detail brush and dab each color together on the spots.

For the accent nail, I used the fishtail braid technique. I used one coat of Sinful Colors Nude as the base color. Once it dried, I made a stripe across the nail using OPI's Schnapps Out of It. Next, I made another stripe with Sinful Colors Nirvana over the previous stripe. I continued this with Sinful Colors Nude and the rest of the colors in an overlapping pattern. 

I really love this manicure. I think that all the colors go great together and it really reminds me of fall. I think my favorite is the accent nail. I love how it makes the nails pop.

What do you think of this design? Does this remind you of fall?

Thanks for reading!

Horizontal Fall Lines

Hello everyone!

Today I have a really simple manicure to show you using lines. I also wanted to incorporate some fall colors into these nails. I don't really know what to call these to be honest. My girlfriend said it reminded her of corn, so she wants me to call it corn on the cob haha. What do you all think I should call this design?

For this design, I painted two coats of OPI's A-Piers to be Tan as the base color. With a detail brush, I created small horizontal lines using OPI's My Vampire is Buff. Finally, I finished the design off with a top coat.

You can make the lines any size and length that you'd like. I mainly created smaller lines, but on some of the nails, the lines are a bit bigger so it really depends on your preference.

I think that this is a good nail art design if you're in a rush and want some simple nail art on your nails. It's simple and visually appealing, which is what I really like in nail art. I'm definitely going to try this with other colors in the future.

What do you think of this design?

Until next time!

Bordered Newspaper Nails

Happy Monday everyone!

I almost didn't post these nails today, but I'm actually starting to like them the more that I look at them. 

For today's mani, I created bordered newspaper nails. If you follow me on Instagram, I bought OPI's My Vampire is Buff and I thought it would be the perfect color to go with newspaper nails.

I wish I did a better job with the newspaper part though. I thought it would be pretty easy to transfer the newspaper onto the nail, but I had some difficulty with that part.

Before you do these nails, you'll want to grab some newspaper and cut it up into small squares and you'll need rubbing alcohol as well. If you don't have alcohol, you can use water to transfer the ink onto the polish. I tried both and found that the alcohol works better.

For these nails, I painted three coats of OPI's My Vampire is Buff. Then, I put some rubbing alcohol in a cup and placed the newspaper into the alcohol. After the newspaper is wet, I firmly pressed the newspaper onto the nail for 10-20 seconds and slowly took it off. 

Next, with a detail brush, I created the border with Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Finally, I topped it off with NYC'S Matte Me Crazy for a matte look.

This was my first time doing newspaper nails, but I think they came out okay. I had to press on the newspaper a couple of times as you can see, but I think it gives the mani an unique look.

What do you think of this design? Have you done newspaper nails before?

Until next time!

OPI-Schnapps Out Of It!

Hello everyone!

I have a swatch of OPI's Schnapps Out Of It! for you today. If this color looks familiar to you, I used it as a base for one of my 31DC2013 designs. It's a really pretty color that I'll definitely be using during the fall season. I bought this polish for $6.99 at the Beauty Plus Salon. Originally, it was $8.50 but I believe that Beauty Plus sells their polishes at a cheaper price, which is great. This polish is also a part of the OPI Germany Collection Fall 2012. 

OPI's Schnapps Out Of It! is a burnt coral pink with a hint of silver shimmer. 

I used two coats plus a top coat for this polish. It could easily be a one coater though! The application was very smooth and easy. I had no problem with the formula and application. As I said earlier, this is a perfect color for the fall season and I hope to be wearing this a lot.

What do you think of this color? What's your favorite fall polish?

Thanks for reading!

31DC2013 Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

Hey everyone!

I'm really excited for these nails because it's inspired by one of my favorite movies: Kill Bill. I think I've seen the movie like 100 times already. In my sophomore year of college, I even did a monologue of Elle Driver's speech when she was killing Bud in the second movie. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. I based my nails on one of the movie posters for the first movie. I've actually never seen this one before, but this is an official movie poster for the film. It's pretty cool and basically sums up the movie, so I thought it would be perfect to do a design around it. Now onto the design!


Colors Used:

Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow

O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan

Sinful Colors Energetic Red

Sinful Colors Black on Black

Sinful Colors Slate

Wet n Wild's French White Creme

China Glaze Fairy Dust

For the pinky, I based it on The Bride's signature yellow tracksuit. I used one coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow as the base color. With a detail brush, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to make a thick black line near the end of the nail.

The ring finger is based on the background of the poster. I used one coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow and then with a piece of a makeup sponge, I sponged on Sinful Colors Energetic Red on half of the nail. With my detail brush, I wrote "Kill Bill" on the nail.

The middle finger is the Hanzo sword (or my attempt at the Hanzo sword haha). I used one coat of Mellow Yellow. With my detail brush, I made the sword's base using Sinful Colors Black on Black. The golden part of the sword I made a small square using O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan. Finally, I made the sword blade with Sinful Colors Slate and made a thin white line as a highlight with Wet n Wild's French White Creme.

The pointer represents blood splatter. I used a coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow. For the splatter, I used a cut up straw. I dipped one of the ends with Sinful Colors Energetic Red. Next, I blew into the straw to create the blood splatter.

The thumb represents The Bride's sleeve from her dress. With a very thin striper brush, I made a criss-cross pattern to resemble lace. Finally, I topped it off with China Glaze's Fairy Dust. 

I'm really proud of these nails and love how they came out! I'm still getting used to doing letters with my brush, but I think I'm getting better at it.

What do you think of this design? What's your favorite movie? Tomorrow is inspired by a book!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the late post, but my girlfriend came over today and we hung out for the day at my place. I showed her all the nail tricks haha. She was so amazed when I was showing her things, it was cute.

For today's prompt, it kind of confused me for a little bit. How can you be inspired by a color? I had a hard time with it to say the least.

I wanted to use one of my newer polishes that I bought for my birthday. I've been wanting to do a autumn manicure for a few days, and today was the opportunity to do it.

Colors Used:
O.P.I's Schnapps Out of It
Sinful Colors All About You
Sinful Colors Black on Black

For this design, I painted my nails one coat of O.P.I's Schnapps Out of It. Next, I made thin lines with Sinful Colors Black on Black with my detail/striper brush. Finally, I topped the design off with Sinful Colors All About You for a nice golden sparkle to give it that autumn feel to it.

We're almost to the home stretch with the 31 Day Challenge! I hope I can finish out strong because I'm sort of running out of ideas haha.

How's everyone doing with the challenge? Tomorrow is inspired by a song!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 13: Animal Print

For Day 13, I did leopard print nails. I've only done leopard print nails using bright colors, but this time I decided to use more of the traditional colors used when doing leopard print nails.

Colors Used:

NYC's Mulberry Street

O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan

Sinful Colors Black on Black

 For this design, I painted two coats of NYC's Mulberry Street onto my nails. After the polish is dry, I used a dotting tool and O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan to create the "spots" on the nail. It doesn't have to be perfect when you do this step, because you're going to be outlining the spots with black polish. Next, with a detail brush, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to outline the spots. Finally, I created mini circles and dots to fill in some of the empty space and finished off with a top coat.

Out of the leopard print mani's that I've done, I think this is my favorite one. The colors go great together. O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan is a great color and has a great formula. I'll be doing a swatch of that after the 31 Day Challenge is over!

What do you think of this design? Next up is flowers!