Hauly Crap!

Well this post ranks right up there in my top 5 hauls for sure.  I was browsing Kijiji again and found some OPI Gelcolors.

L-R: Alpine Snow, Pompeii Purple, Princesses Rule, Strawberry Margarita and Pink Flamenco.

Bubble Bath, Kyoto Pearl, Bastille My Heart and Louvre Me Louvre Me Not.

Big Apple Red, Bogota Blackberry, OPI Ink, Malaga Wine (missing-top coat).

So 14 OPI Gelcolors for the bargain price of $95!!!  Many of them were unused and the ones that weren't were basically full anyways.  I paid $20 plus tax each for these at the salon supply.  Pretty awesome deal even if there are too many pinks lol.

So the first colour I tried was Louvre Me Louvre Me Not - 3 coats.  I also tried out the OPI Top Coat for the first time but I'm still using the Shellac Base since I've had such good luck with it.

And a flash photo to show the shimmer.

So here's my thoughts on OPI Gelcolor:
The formula is insanely fussy.  I don't recommend this brand for newbies to soak off gels.  It's the thinnest of all the gels I've tried which sucks.  It takes a lot of coats for opacity.  It requires a lot of shaking to mix it properly.  The biggest offender is the shrinkback and pooling.  It's nearly impossible to cap your edges due to the shrinkback.  The pooling made it hard to get a nice clean manicure.  These colours take a lot of care and patience.  The Top Coat was also super thin which surprised me and was full of bubbles but it wasn't that hard to get rid of them.

The good is of course the colour selection.  I love that these are colours from the regular nail polish line.  I suppose if I actually got a chip in it I could quickly cover it with the matching regular nail polish.  I can't comment on the wear time quite yet as I haven't had it on for even a whole week yet but so far so good at 4 days in.  It does feel more flexible and less thick than other gels.

And so just for fun because I've been slacking lately, I decided to holo it up with a coat of OPI DS Sapphire:

Later
P

Shellac Art

Time for a new mani.  I started with 2 coats of Shellac Hotski To Tchotchke.  It's more aqua-green than this photo.

Then I added a coat of Shellac Silver Chrome ruffian style and then took a dotting tool and carved out swirls in the wet polish before I cured it.  The left hand turned out pretty good but the right hand...not so much lol.

Now that I know how well this technique works I may try some more designs in the future as long as I can get someone to recreate it on my right hand :)

Later
P

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I was finally able to take a trip to the nail supply in Mississauga to see it for myself! And here's what I scored:

OPI Gelcolor in Thanks A Windmillion
Shellac in Iced Coral, Silver Chrome and Hotski To Tchotchke

Sation Most Hue-nique
China Glaze Sea Spray
OPI DS Desire and Passion

The OPI's were only $6 each!  I found them collecting dust hidden in a display on the counter.  They had several racks of OPI's, several racks of China Glaze for $3, several racks of Sation for $3.50 and several racks of mostly unheard of brands.  I'm not sure what the price on their regular OPI's are but $6 for a DS polish is a steal!

I actually walked out of there only spending about $110 but I know I'll be back.  For gels, they had every shade of Shellac, all the core OPI's plus some of the Holland collection, several shades of LeChat Perfect Match (but not the ones I wanted...boo) and they also had an unknown brand that I wasn't willing to try without researching first but now the name has slipped my mind...sigh.

I now officially have too many gel polishes and I've got to cool it for a bit.  The only colour that's glaringly missing from my collection is a nice sparkly forest green but I don't believe that colour even exists in gel yet.

So instead of trying out my new polishes I decided to keep with something fun and summery...

A Shellac french using a base of Negligee and Cream Puff and tipped with Gelish Amazon Flirt.

Again it's impossible to photograph but it's a super crazy bright neon green.  I'm actually enjoying it.

Later
P

A gel to cross off the list

I really loved wearing that ruffian soak off gel mani but I did paint over it once which ended up being a huge mistake in more ways than one.

I picked up Essie's Eternal Optimist and Chinchilly for $3 each at Rexall!  So I decided to use them both.  What an ugly colour Eternal Optimist is.  I thought it looked like a nice dusty rose in the bottle, but on my nails it's just a hideous greyed peach.

And just to make it even uglier I added a coat of Nubar's Black Polka Dots.  I actually like the black glitter, just not over that peachy colour.

And here's what happened when I took that mani off with my non-acetone remover as usual.  It took some of the Quo By Orly Gel with it!!!  I won't be buying another Quo By Orly Gel.  I have never had gel polish come off with non-acetone remover.

So since I've been doing things out of my comfort zone lately here's what I did last weekend...

1 coat of a random pink chrome and 3 coats of Essie's A Cut Above.  It's blingy as hell!

Later
P