My Sister's Nails: A Simple Spring Skittlette

Hi everyone! First of all, thank you so much for all the kind words regarding my blogging milestone yesterday. I really enjoyed reading all your comments, both your responses to the blog post and the responses left in the Rafflecopter. And thank you everyone who has participated in the contest so far!

I have another instalment of my sister's nails. If you missed the last post you can see it here. I'm thinking that this will be a regular series, that is, as long as my sister wants to come over and have me do her nails! I was only able to get iPhone photos, and it was starting to get dark, so they are not as clear as I would like. But I enjoy showing you photos of nails I've done on someone else. And it's a nice change of pace. :)

Simple spring skittlette

Since neither of us were up for a marathon manicure session, we decided on a simple skittle manicure with a lighter spring palette. It was fun to discuss ideas with her and pull out polishes to see what she liked, didn't like, etc.

Simple spring skittlette (right hand)

Simple spring skittlette (left hand)

For this design, I used OPI My Vampire is Buff on all nails except the accent nails. For that I used Zoya NYX (from the Pixie Dust collection). The glitter is Lumina Lacquer Anything, and the freehand painting was done with OPI Suzi's Hungary Again! and You're Such a BudaPest.

I love how simple and fun this was, and I can't get enough of mix and match nails! :)

What do you think? Hope you don't mind the change of blog format every now and then!

Pysanky Anyone?

Hi everyone! Pysanky (or singular pysanka) are Ukrainian Easter eggs. I was hoping to get these done sooner, but I've been marking papers all weekend. But technically it is Easter Monday, so I guess I'm not too late. :D

Ukrainian Easter egg (Pysanky) nail art

Ukrainian Easter egg (Pysanky) nail art

I'm not Ukrainian, but I love the art of Ukrainian Easter egg decoration. The motifs come from a book that I checked out from the library, which has a lot of information about the art form and the symbolism of the motifs. What's interesting is that every single motif has a particular meaning, and a lot of the symbolism predates Christianity. So I hope I got the designs right and am not culturally offending anyone! I decided to stick to some of the simpler designs, but maybe next year I'll try the more elaborate ones. ;)

Ukrainian Easter egg (Pysanky) nail art

I don't have a lot to say about this design, and it's rather late here, so if you have any questions let me know. All polishes are from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, with the exception of the white, which is Sally Hansen White On. All of it was done freehand with the same detail brush.

Ukrainian Easter egg (Pysanky) nail art

What do you think of this design? Did you do anything special on your nails for Easter?

OPI Euro Centrale, Part Three

Hi everyone and happy weekend! I have the third and final instalment of the OPI Euro Centrale collection. I can't believe I've shown an entire 12 part collection. I know for many bloggers it's no big deal, but for me it's a blogging first. And of course after doing two posts on this collection I realized I spelled the name of the collection wrong (it's centrale, not central)! Talk about blogging nightmare! *facepalm*

In case you missed it, you can see parts one and two here and here.

There's some seriously gorgeous cremes and one vivid shimmer in today's post, so let's get to it!

A Woman's Prague-ative is a vibrant gold/burnt orange duochrome shimmer. The polish has rose undertones that I found very unique and unexpected. It's very shimmery and bold, for me this is more of a night out kind of polish. I used three coats for full opacity and the formula was perfect.

OPI A Woman's Prague-ative

OPI A Woman's Prague-ative

OPI...Eurso Euro is royal blue creme that leans towards purple. It has a somewhat jelly-like consistency. It applied perfectly in two coats, and I found it very smooth and completely self-leveling.

OPI OPI...Eurso Euro

OPI OPI...Eurso Euro

Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! is a bubblegum pink with a very, very subtle shimmer that is noticeable in the bottle but not on the nail. The formula was okay, a bit thin, so three coats were needed for full opacity. The colour is so fun, and I can see this being popular in the spring/summer.

OPI Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!

OPI Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!

You're Such a BudaPest is a pale lavender creme. Like the other lighter colours in this collection, it was a bit thin and streaky but levelled out nicely. I used three coats here.

OPI You're Such a BudaPest

OPI You're Such a BudaPest

What do you think about the polishes in this part of the collection? Any favourites?

OPI Euro Centrale, Part Two

Hi everyone! I have the second part of the OPI Euro Centrale collection. If you missed part one, you can find that here.

The polishes in this grouping include two gorgeous warm shimmers and two rich cool cremes. I'm really happy with all of them and definitely plan to wear them again sometime.

Can't Find My Czechbook is a beautiful pale blue creme. In person, it is slightly more muted than you see in these photos. It was a bit runny and thin so I needed three coats for full coverage. But otherwise the formula was good and it was perfectly self-leveling. Just make sure you don't load your brush too much or you'll flood your cuticles.

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

Hands Off My Kielbasa! is a peachy nude shimmer. I know that a lot of people don't like this polish, some calling it "dated", however, I really love this one. Yes, it is a bit conservative, but sometimes conservative is what I am in the mood for. It also has a beautiful shimmer - almost iridescent. The formula was perfect and it was an easy two coats.

OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa!

OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa!

OY-Another Polish Joke! is a sheer gold shimmer. Like HOMK the shimmer has an iridescent quality to it. It can be worn on its own with 2-3 coats, but I've layered one coat over Vant to Bite My Neck? I love this combination, the polish takes on a gilded or baroque look when layered over a dark colour. I suspect it might also be very pretty over some of the lighter polishes in the collection like Can't Find My Czechbook or Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! The formula was great, and there were no issues.

OPI OY-Another Polish Joke!

OPI OY-Another Polish Joke!

Vant to Bite My Neck? is a dark eggplant purple creme. It is not so dark that you can't see the colour, so I really like it for that reason. It's heavily pigmented and almost a one-coater, but I used two coats here. It smoothed out really nicely and I had no issues with this one at all.

OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?

OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?

What do you think about these? Any stand out for you?

OPI Euro Centrale, Part One

Hi everyone! I managed to get my hands on the new OPI Euro Centrale collection last week, and after a weekend of movies and polishing, I managed to get pictures of all of them. But to make it more manageable, I've decided to break it up into three posts of four polishes each. So watch out later this week for parts two and three!

Last year in spring, OPI came out with the Holland collection, which (IMO) was absolutely gorgeous and had some of the nicest colours. I wouldn't say the Euro Centrale collection is better or worse, it's just different. I think some of the colours in this new collection are very interesting, others are very conventional, but there is definitely something for everyone. If you've already seen pictures of the collection, I'm curious to hear - what do you think of it? Have you gotten anything, or are you planning to?

With that, let's get to the polishes!

My Vampire is Buff is the hands down standout of the collection. This is one of my favourites, and a favourite for many others as well. It's an off-white creme, and seemingly unassuming. However, I don't come across colours like this very often. It's the perfect base for nail art when you don't want to use white but want something lighter than a nude colour. It would also be nice layered under many sheer indie polishes. I needed three coats for full opacity, but the formula was good and self-leveling.

OPI My Vampire is Buff

OPI My Vampire is Buff

Polka.com is a clear-based glitter with tiny lavender glitter and small lavender, pink, and sky blue hex glitter. This is one coat over You're Such a BudaPest. It's not a terribly dense glitter so you might want more coats depending on your taste. This reminds me a lot of some of the glitters that NOPI put out earlier this year like Inner Sparkle from the Selena Gomez collection.

OPI Polka.com (over You're Such a BudaPest)

OPI Polka.com (over You're Such a BudaPest)

My Paprika is Hotter than Yours! is an orange-red creme with a very, very subtle silver shimmer. This has an amazing formula, it flows smoothly and is almost a one-coater! But I used two coats here. I didn't think I was going to like this one, since I'm really not into orange colours and they tend not to be very flattering. But surprisingly it didn't look too bad on me. I think this will be a fun toenail colour when the weather gets warmer. :) It's a bit more red than these photos show.

OPI My Paprika is Hotter than Yours!

OPI My Paprika is Hotter than Yours!

I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw has the worse name to type out! You know I love midnight blues (I only have like seven of them!) so this was another favourite, even though it's not particularly unique. It's a gorgeous navy creme with teal undertones. What I like is that it has a perfect formula with two coats, and is very smooth and completely self-leveling. Only downside is that this one stains a bit.

OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw

OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw

So that's it for today. Come back later this week for the rest of the collection! What do you think of these? Are any standouts for you?