OPI Opening Night Gold

I borrowed this from a co-worker. I wish I started collecting earlier!

Butter London All Hail The Queen

Oh, hello there. I was dealing with a federal court deadline on Monday (and dealing with the aftermath yesterday), but here I am! I've made it out alive. I've been (slowly) taking care of all the things I've had to push aside for the past week. Now that I'm not so insanely busy, I feel... off. Ever feel that way? Things are back to their normal pace but it feels extra-slow in comparison.

Let's check out this baby:

Yowza.

I think this was probably three coats. Also, what the hell is my problem for only taking ONE picture?! And a cell phone picture, at that.

AHtQ is one of those work-safe polishes I love. The scattered holo really keeps things interesting. It's not intense and in your face though, which is great for looking professional.

Butter London is a brand that doesn't really grab my attention. Sure, they might have a great formula, but at $14 a pop, I'm extremely picky with what I purchase from them. They just seem a bit basic to me.

China Glaze Visit Me in Prism

Sup yall. Let's rock & roll.

Apparently this is a light lilac/lavender/whatever holo, but I don't see it. It's hard to see a base color when there's so much awesome going on. I think this is probably 2 coats. Or maybe 3. I don't remember. I don't remember anything technical or remotely helpful. Whoops.

I've been watching a ton of Ally McBeal lately. I remember knowing it existed when I was a youngster, but never watched it because I was like, 10 years old when the show was in its prime. Also, there is no way I would have gotten any of the jokes. Anywho, I had forgotten about it until I started reading Portia de Rossi's autobiography (which was great, by the way) and as luck would have it, the entire series is streaming on Netflix. Really the only reasons I was interested are 1) Portia and 2) it's a show about a law firm and I work in one. I can't help but criticize the errors in the legal system, even though I know it's all fake, but seriously, all of those attorneys would be banned from practicing law if it was real life. Other than that, it's not a terrible show and I rather enjoy it now, save for the fact I think Ally is annoying. But, I'm still in season one, so maybe I'll come around. There's like 25 episodes per season...crazy. The 90s were a different time.

Speaking of law...
I was in Vegas at the end of July-early August, and when I came back to work I found out that we had been set for trial on TWO(!!!) cases. The fuh. So I've been pretty busy. That's the explanation for my most recent hiatus. I'm also supa dupa backlogged. I've been trying to schedule as many posts as I can on the weekends, but that doesn't always work out because I'm the biggest procrastinator. Most of my posts will probably not be this wordy, but I'll try to toss in some updates here and there. If you're into fancy technology, you can follow me on Instagram where I sometimes post manis and mostly post pictures of dogs/cats, food, and weird things I see in Chicago. My username is fooliescraper, which also happens to be my Twitter name, too *wink*

Nicole by OPI Make A Comet-ment

2 coats of holo glitter blingy goodness.

A Very Strategic Haul

I normally don't blog about my purchases, but this one I just had to share. Swatches soon!

top row: ulta
layla flash black, china glaze sun kissed, china glaze love's a beach, china glaze custom kicks
$36.50
less $13 in ULTAmate rewards
new total with tax $25.62
less $25 amex gift card
out of pocket total $0.62

bottom row: sally's
china glaze ride the waves, china glaze flirty tankini, china glaze orange you hot, orly be brave (bar glitter!)
$20.96
less $10 from june birthday coupon
less $1.64 from june 15% off coupon (bless my sally's SA for letting me keep the coupon, too!)
new total with tax $10.16
less $10 sally's gift card
out of pocket total $0.16

grand total at both stores $0.78 for 8 polishes

Love My Nails Envy + China Glaze Fairy Dust

2 coats of Envy
1 coat of Fairy Dust

Zoya Trixie & China Glaze Fairy Dust

2 coats Trixie
1 coat Fairy Dust

So shiny!

China Glaze DV8

DBF and I are heading to the Shedd Aquarium today, so I thought I'd post something blue.

Two coats. Horrible pictures of DV8. My nails are uneven and I have tipwear. If I remember, I wore this during a big sale at work. Needed something gorgeous to distract me. I found this at a dusty. My first and only dusty hunt. I haven't mustered up the courage to go again.

P.S. We're going to the beach on Thursday and I plan on wearing a holo. Which one??? I have many, so make a wild guess!

The Evolution of a Mani featuring Essie Shelter Island

I don't get to change my mani as often as I'd like to. I'm a full time student and have a part time job, so needless to say, I'm usually pretty busy. During the school year, I typically change my polish once a week. In order to keep my nails looking good and prevent me from getting bored, I experiment with layering. I'd like to take you on a journey through my latest layering mani, which occurred during my last week of summer school.

Essie Shelter Island. It's slightly sheer/streaky, but nothing outrageous, so I used three coats. It has that half creme/half jelly finish going on that Essie loves to do. I love it, too. It's a gorgeous, dusty light blue. I have no dupes for this. SI is from the popular Northfolk Collection, which also includes Greenport & Sag Harbor.

A few days later, this happened...

I added one coat Essie Kisses & Bisses. I apologize for the terrible picture; I took this at work under my fluorescent office lights. K&B is a very sheer (think topcoat) shimmer polish. In the bottle, it looks mostly red, but over the blue of Shelter Island it pulled more purple. At first I thought it was similar to CND Amethyst Sparkle, but the CND is sparkley (duh) and K&B is shimmery. Kisses & Bisses came out this spring in the French Affair collection.

And finally...

One coat of OPI Servin Up Sparkle. You can see how terrible my outgrowth is. *shudder* SUS has small silver holo glitters and large silver holo hex pieces in a clear base. It was recently released in a Serena Williams duo with Grape... Set... Match (the one I got) or that silver foil who's name escapes me.

Thanks for reading this giant post. Speaking of posting, I hope to be doing more of it now that summer school is over. I have less than a month til fall semester. We're having a huge sale at work this weekend, I'm helping DBF move two weekends in a row, and he's taking a week of in between those weekends, so I'll still be busy, but it'll be "free time" busy, not "I have so many cases to read" busy.

Sky + Revvvolution

I added Color Club Revvvolution to HC Sky a few days later.

Revvv looks like a dud, but I swear it's not. These are just terrible pictures, but they are the only ones I have. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Revvvolution is a black/charcoal holographic polish. Unfortunately, there have been "duds" emerging recently, most notably with the Color Club holos. Some say the holo pigment is becoming more rare and therefore more expensive. Lucky for me, none of my CC holos are duds.

Nfu Oh 61

Hope nobody in Chicago melted over the past two days. The thunderstorm last night was way cool, though. Some of that lighting was so bright, it lit up our entire room! On Tuesday, some friends and I went to the beach (I know, are we nuts or what? It was about 100 degrees) and I figured it was a perfect time to pull out a holo.

This is Nfu Oh 61, a silver linear holo. I used one coat of Nfu Oh Aqua Base underneath this to make application smoother. I then applied two coats of 61 and China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. The TC seemed to have killed the holo a bit, so I added another coat of 61. I had minimal patchiness and the polish dries very quickly. The manicure is pretty wrecked now because of the sand and water, but I also didn't use a normal base coat, so it's partially my fault.

You can buy these at fabuloustreet.com. Nfu Oh's are $12.50 a bottle, but there's free US shipping, so it evens out. The holos are a hot commodity, though, so they're usually not in stock, and when they are, they sell out fast. Nfu Oh makes lots of other great polishes though, including flakies and jellies. Those will have to wait for another post.
Edit! Awesome bottle pic: