OPI DS Sapphire

This week I've been wearing OPI DS Sapphire (DS 010). This is part of OPI's older DS series, which has a bunch of rare-ish holos. I found my bottle randomly at the CVS near my school. It was priced just like any other OPI ($8.50) even though it sells for double that or more on eBay. Yay for surprise discoveries!

DS Sapphire is a very light steely blue linear holo. In the shade, it has a slight pink duochrome. In direct sunlight, the holo explodes and makes it look silvery. The formula was a bit sheer but smooth and easy to work with. I used only 2 coats but probably could have used a third for complete opacity...oh well. Another note: this smelled pretty chemical-y since I think these were made before OPI went 3-free. Oh well, again. It's a happy color. And as with all holos, it's better in person!

4th of July Skittle Mani

Double post! Today (or rather yesterday) I decided to try a skittle design for 4th of July. I knew I wanted to use red, white, blue, and silver but the other details were pretty hazy. In the end...I came up with this amalgam.

I painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all my fingers as a blank canvas. Snow Me White is a basic stark white creme; the formula is okay but pretty chalky/not self-leveling. The polishes I used for the designs are: Forever 21 Silver glitter (I don't think this has a real name...), OPI Russian Navy, a mystery red OPI mini, and Zoya Trixie. Using Scotch tape as a guide, I made the chevron design on the ring finger. Using striping tape, I did the red and white stripes on the middle finger. The index finger is a coat of Russian Navy plus a very thin coat of the Forever 21 glitter. The thumb is a solid coat of Trixie. And finally, the pinky has a gradient tip using the Forever 21 glitter.

The colors used

It didn't turn out as neat as I would have liked. First, I guess I globbed on too thick of a layer of the OPI colors since they tended to pool out after I removed my tape guides. In other words, those crisp lines weren't so crisp anymore :(. Second, my CND Air Dry top coat caused the red OPI polish to streak. Uuuugh. It looks alright from far away at least? So far, I do like my CND Air Dry, but I have to keep in mind that it tends to cause my polish to streak, especially red pigments it seems. Overall, it looks messy and random. I probably should have done one or two types of designs, rather than having all five nails be different.

Coral Sparkle: Zoya Cassi

Last week, I chose to go with the pretty and feminine Zoya Cassi, one of the first Zoyas I ever got. Cassi is a coral pink with very fine whitish silver shimmer. In some lights, the shimmer even looks gold. I love corals, and I know they look good on my yellow-toned skin. It's perfect for summer (even though it's been raining here for literally 2 and a half weeks straight).

Cassi's formula was good, but not as good as what I've come to expect from Zoyas. It's slightly sheer so I needed 2-3 coats for full opacity, depending on how thick the coats are applied. The polish glided smoothly so I didn't find the sheerness to be a huge problem.

I'm into rings lately.