Sweetheart Manicure

Hello lovely Ninjas!

Happy Wednesday and pre-Valentines day! I'm getting more and more nervous as my test to move up from blue-black to red-white approaches so I've been doing more classes than usual this week. Next week is test week, ahhhhh!

Tonight's manicure doubles for both Pink Wednesday and Valentine's day! This is two coats of OPI Care to Danse as a nice soft lilac base and one coat of Savina Hearts over top. I had originally intended to do a jelly sandwich with CtD but the microglitter looked so pretty in the light that I didn't want to over it up with another coat of polish. This is a very girly manicure and it kind of drives me crazy because it's not really in my personality to wear something to soft!

OPI Liquid Sand Stay the Night

Hello Ninjas!

This weekend is the 15th Anniversary Seminar at the Dojo where I work and everyone is pretty excited. We did a huge group photo today that I hope turns out well, it's hard to smile when it's that cold out and you're wearing a uniform instead of a winter coat!

Today's manicure is one I thought fit the Fireside Glow theme very well. This is one of OPI's new Liquid Sand polishes called Stay the Night. StN is a black base with lots of hot pink glitter throughout the polish. The sandy texture on this is really interesting and actually pretty fun to wear. I did three coats of polish here to cover up my VNL and make sure that the texture really stood out. I chose this manicure for Fireside glow because it looked a lot like burning embers to me :) Sorry for the different quality, I had to use my MiL's camera to take these pictures at her house so I didn't have my new light box with me.

OPI Meep Meep Meep

Hello Ninjas!

I hope you're all enjoying the newly begun holiday season and are having fun shopping for your loved ones. My favorite part of chrismahanukwanzakah is seeing the looks on peoples' faces when they open the gifts I got them, how about you?

Tonight's manicure is Meep Meep Meep frpm last year's Muppets Collection by OPI. I picked this and Pepe's Purple Passion up at a 2 for $12 sale Ulta was running on older seasonal colors a while page. MMM is a pretty magenta jelly base with pink glass flecks throughout. This can be a little on the sheerer side so people with longer free nail edge may need three coats but with my nails pretty short here, I only used two.

OPI Fall 2012: Germanicure by OPI

Hello darling Ninjas!

Now that I've finished watching all available Walking Dead, we're on to gladiators! Currently, we're watching Spartacus Vengeance. I'm still pretty upset about the actor Andy Whitfield's death, he was absolutely epic in his role. The new actor, Liam McIntyre, is a pretty good actor but it's just not the same. We're only three episodes in, I'm hoping I'll acclimate to the new face and voice soon. Until then, I'll be happy Crixus is still around and be freaked out by Lucretia.

Tonight's manicure is two easy coats of Germanicure by OPI from their Fall 2012 Germany collection. GbO is a dark brown jelly base with crimson shimmer that occasionally flashes gold at extreme angles. This is a great fall color and the second of my two picks from the Germany collection. A good warm compliment to the purple based Every Month is Oktoberfest, this is just an awesome polish.

OPI Fall 2012: Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hello darling Ninjas!

I've been feeling a little under the weather today which is sad since it was nice and sunny. Yesterday we had some scary storms! I was driving home from visiting my grandparents and it was nearly impossible to see in front of my car is was raining so hard. That was a little scary but about 3 hours in the rain let up. It's weapons week here at the dojo but it is also the first time in a while I've had to do a whole graduation prep by myself. Not to mention we have a large number of new students because the school year has started! Busy busy busy.

Tonight's manicure is a polish I got for .01 from Copious! It's a spiffy site where you can buy things that are hard to find or just unique to the sellers. It's a little like etsy without the use of paypal. This is one of the OPI Germany colors from their Fall 2012 line, Every Month is Oktoberfest. This is a inky purple base loaded with red shimmer. The shimmer gets a deep wine color because of the purple base and it glows on the nail with slightly darker edges. Two easy coats for this polish that is perfect for the coming Autumn!

Don't forget to enter my Blue Belt Giveaway!!

Peachy Glitter Gradient

Hello Ninjas!

Sorry this isn't the usual Scent of the Day post that I do every other post. I felt a little under the weather today and wasn't really able to create anything with my little ole mind. Hopefully the next post will have a new scent and a new story for you to read. Until then, here's a very springy/summery combination I did a while back.

This is who knows how many coats of Maybelline Peach Petal with OPI Pirouette my Whistle on the tips for a glitter gradient. PP is a very sheer light peach polish with a pretty silvery shimmer to it. This probably took four coats to get to the opacity you see here. I love this color but after 4 coats there was still VNL which is why I added the glitter. This was a pretty manicure but not the easiest to photograph!

OPI Jelly Sandwich!

Good evening Ninjas!

Sorry about the late post again, just got back from am awesome day! After work, I went and did some archery practice with a group of friends then we had a dojo movie night! We watched the 36th Chamber of Shaolin which is a great Martial Arts Classic movie. I think Fists of Fury is the next up on our Martial Arts Essentials lineup and it will be fun to see what else I've been missing out on. I feel so uneducated in the classics of kung fu movies... Then again, it is a Ninja dojo ;-)

Tonight I've got a sandwich you've probably seen a dozen times by now, OPI My Pointe Exactly and Pirouette My Whistle from the New York City Ballet collection. I was initially skeptical about this collection because I don't like such sheer pastels. It was seeing the really pretty jelly sandwiches that convinced me. I also picked up Care to Danse because I'm a sucker for light purples.

This is two coats of MPE, one coat of PMW, and two more coats of MPE. This was a looot of coats and I probably could have done without the last coat of jelly. Actually, this would have been really pretty with just the first three layers but I had a mission to accomplish!

OPI Designer... De Better

Hello lovely ninjas!

Tonight I've got a super pretty manicure for you that reminds me of champagne and therefore New Years Eve :)  Designer... De Better is from the Muppets Collection for winter 2011 from OPI. This is a really awesome silver foil with flecks of pink/gold mixed in. From far away I think it looks a lot like rose gold which I adore! Seriously, I just bought a rose gold necklace from Kohl's that I'm in love with, it even has rose quartz. ANYWAYS, on to the gorgeous polish. I couldn't stop staring at the shiny reflective surface of my nails while I was wearing it, so be careful driving with it on, you might get distracted. I did thin coats so I needed three for full opacity but this was totally worth it. Since I only have the mini, I have decided I absolutely MUST get the full sized bottle if I can find it the next time I make it out to ULTA.

OPI MPJ

Hello readers!

Today I've got a swatch of OPI's My Private Jet. This is the new formula which is only mildly holographic and a shimmery brown color when you ignore the holo. Even though this isn't the black linear holo of legend, MPJ had a very easy to work with formula and I could have gotten away with one medium coat for full coverage. This polish wore very nicely and was pretty in its own right. However, I hated it on me. I don't know if it was the outfits I wore while I had it on or I just wasn't in the mood for the color but I didn't love it.

Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice

Good afternoon readers!

Today I've got a little layering mani for you. This is Sally Hansen Pumpkin spice, a pale brown jely base with orange glitter, over a nice dark orange, OPI Chop-sticking to My Story. I wanted to do this over orange instead of black or brown because I didn't want this to be too dark, I have customers at work who pick on me when my polish looks black! This is one coat of CsMS under three of Pumkin Spice.

OPI Ink

Hi again!

Today I'm posting an older manicure from before I became a nub queen. This is OPI Ink which I picked up from Ulta not more than 10 minutes after getting a pedicure in the same color. I love it! It's a very dark purple fleck type glitter that has some purple to blue duochrome tendencies. I'm thinking this was two coats since it was such a dark polish and not hard to get opaque.

OPI Miss Universe Collection

So, in a gift swap my dog forum does every summer, my swap partner sent me some great gifts. The one I was most excited about and jumped up and down when I opened it was the entire OPI Miss Universe Collection. Best gift ever to come back to after a loooong car ride home from NY.

I could not for the life of me get a good picture of the four bottles together but here's a quick run down of all of the colors. My absolute favorite was Swimsuit...Nailed it! and I got at least 20 compliments on it the two days I wore it. I don't really like Crown Me Already but maybe it was because I only did a quick (and messy) swatch of it.  Its My Year was great, I loved the gold glitter but I had a lot of trouble getting the shimmer to show up in Congeniality is My Middle Name.