OPIs Bling Dynasty Swatch

I had to chop off my nails because I broke two of them! But I got to swatch a new color that I got for Christmas. It's OPI's Bling Dynasty. A rich golden shimmer. I used two coats here, but should have used a third. I really like it but I'm always skeptical of metallics and shimmers because they come out streaky often times. This only had minor streakage due to shaky cold fingers, I suppose. But looks festive for the holidays. My favorite now of all my golds.

Essie School of Hard Rocks Swatch

Ahhh I've had this polish for a few weeks now and haven't gotten a chance to swatch it out because my crap long acrylics and my 30 day challenge. But here's the scoop: School of Hard Rocks from Essie's Winter 2011 Collection is a creamy, slate blue/green/grey polish that glides on smooth and opaque in just 2 coats. I was sorta worried as it's been sitting upright in its drawer for at least 3 weeks and it had already settled at the thin liquidy stuff rose to the top. I gave it an extra few shakes and it was good as new. The first coat was transparent and streaky, but it coulda just been me, as my hands are very badly sore from 3 straight days of crocheting Xmas presents. I love the color, it is such a new shade of blue/grey/green (lol) that I really haven't seen before. I instantly felt like it was winter and it made me feel very warm inside. The only problem I have with this polish: when I was applying top coat, the polish started to rub off onto the top coat brush!!! And I'd had my nails dried for nearly 45 minutes! Maybe it was just this top coat, I'll let you guys know next time when I use a different top coat. But my review stands: this is a great new color!! I love it, and can't wait to try the other Winter 2011's from Essie!

Henna Inspired (NATURAL) Design!

For those of you TV junkies like myself, you know that the season finale of the first season of Outsourced was last week; Rajiv got married and they had a big long Indian wedding episode with a segment where all the women did henna on their hands and arms for a day! I was so inspired I almost started drawing all over my hand with a brown marker.

I started with Sinful Colors "This Is It" gold nail polish with two coats, then painted swirlies, leaves, flowers, paisleys, and dots all over the gold leaving enough room to see the background color.

If you can't already tell, I have pulled off my acrylics and posted my natural nails for the first time...prolly ever on my blog. If you see natural nails on here, they are probably Chrissy or Oddrey's hands.
The most recent set of acrylics I had put on during Mardi Gras, so they had grown out quite a bit. When I pulled the acrylic (carefully) off my nails, they were perfectly squared tips , so they look just like they did with the acrylics on, only thinner!

As you can see in the bottom picture, I angled my nails to show you how thin they are after pulling the acrylic off. I just painted on one coat of white for ultra original French tips for the photo, and 2 coats of Seche Vite Dry-Fast top coat!

Let's see how long I can go before applying a full set again.