flashback friday: shattered mint

Hey everyone! Hope you're doing fine on this Friday evening.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the handy app TimeHop, and how it sends you down memory lane basically every day. Two days ago, it reminded me of this post and how obsessed I was with OPI's Black Shatter (and every other shatter for that matter.)
It gave me the sudden urge to play with that old forgotten shatter again, and I decided to go full-flashback and recreate the mani!

This is OPI - Black Shatter over China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint.

When I pulled out my main bottle of Black Shatter, it was a sad sight because it had dried up into one little piece inside the bottle. I'm not sure if it'll come back to life, but I put in a bunch of polish thinner and had my boyfriend shake it for a while. I'm still letting it sit, but hopefully it can be revived.
I happened to have an untouched backup that was totally fine, and all the rest of my OPI shatters were fine as well. (My China Glaze ones bit the dust two years ago).

I totally still dig the look, its edgy and easy.
How long has it been since you played with shatter? Shake those babies up and give it another go!

OPI Hello Kitty Collection - May Pal Joey + Charmmy & Sugar

Hey everyone! You may have seen my Instagram post hinting that a long-overdue blog post may be necessary thanks to the unbearably cute new Hello Kitty collection from OPI.
If you've been following me for a few years, you definitely know two things:
1) I love Hello Kitty.
2) I love OPI.
Which brings us to the conclusion that clearly I need this collection. Bad.

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on Feb 7, 2016 at 8:33pm PST

For whatever stupid and disappointing reason, my local professional beauty supply that carries OPI is not getting the collection. Which makes me real sad because I was hoping to pick up the entire thing there (including the little display that they all would come in.)
Wait a second... I wonder if my Sally Beauty supply would have the display and let me have that one? Hmmm.....

Anyway, I promptly hopped onto my favorite trusty polish website, Nail Polish Canada, and I picked up the Collector's Edition set that comes in the little pop-up box, with six polishes inside. (I also totally want the little train case type thing I've seen around but I'm sure that's out of my current polish price range. But a girl can dream?) So that set is on the way to me now, but in the meantime, I also hit up my local Winners and found a huge full display with 3 of each polish. How did they get it right away? Who knows. But I picked up the two I wanted most that weren't in the 6-piece set!

OPI - My Pal Joey
Now, this isn't an original color or anything, but it is a really great royal blue with a dreamy formula. It takes two smooth coats to get it perfect, and I experienced no staining which can sometimes be a problem with blues this pigmented.

OPI - Charmmy & Sugar
This is a cute and girly shimmer/glitter polish best used as a topcoat. The shimmer is pink with a duochrome flash and the bigger glitter bits consist of pinks and silver and a blue/green.

I brought it home thinking I had nothing like it at all in my collection! But upon arriving home, I realized I had something practically identical. You'd think this wouldn't happen to me after I've weaned off my polish buying so significantly, but no. I perused a few other people's reviews of the collection, and googled their names together but couldn't find anyone else who made the connection between these two polishes (probably because not a lot of people buy MAC nail polish besides MAC hoarders, who aren't necessarily also nail polish hoarders).

OPI - Charmmy & Sugar vs MAC Just Jewels
As you can see, these are basically identical. The MAC one has slightly less of the larger glitters throughout, but not enough to really make a difference so if you already own it, you don't need the other. The MAC shade has been long sold out though (it was in the Heirloom Mix collection for Holiday 2014) so if these glitters are catching your eye, pick up the OPI! It's cheaper, anyway.

Jeez, I guess posting so rarely causes me to ramble on and on when I do get around to posting! Hope you guys don't mind!
After noticing that I only scrounged up 7 posts in 2015, I've decided that I'm gonna try to come up with something to post at least every 2 weeks for the rest of the year. It might not happen, thanks to grad school, but I'll give it a shot! Got any suggestions for things you might like to see around here?
Until next time!

ILNP - Party Of Four

Okay, when it comes to indie nail polish, I am totally out of the loop. Like way out of the loop. So far out of the loop that I don't know if I could ever get back in.
I had a couple of pretty bad (read: awful) experiences in the early days of the indie craze. Stained nails, awful polishes, poor quality. And while I'm sure there are still things like that going on, holy crap, some of the brands have stepped up their game.

I was going through some old pictures I had never gotten around to posting, and came across these swatches of an old ILNP shade from back in the day. Looking at the pictures just now prompted me to check out their website. OMG. Cue the drooling. Ultra chrome? Ultra chrome flakies? Holographic ultra chrome flakies? What even. Someone get me one of those, stat.

Anyway, in case you ever stumble upon some older ILNP shades in a blog sale or what have you, here's a nice one to check out!

ILNP - Party of Four
This polish is a glitter topper with pink, blue, silver and black glitters. Lots of different shapes and sizes but it forms a cohesive look that I am super into.

I can't tell you for certain what base color I was wearing, but I thiiiink it was OPI - The Violet-ter, The Better.

I also made the whole look softer and milkier with a coat of OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu. I like it even better this way!

ILNP is definitely a great example of an indie brand that is 100% on par with the big brands, if not even better. I'm glad I have a couple of the old shades but I need to grab some new ones!

So tell me, what are some of your favorite tried-and-true indie brands? Anything I am hardcore missing out on?

I'm off to draft some more posts. Until next time!

31DC2014: Day 30

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial and I had noooooooo idea what to do, so I had to last-minute spook Instagram for something cute! I spent the whole day doing two assignments for school and then I worked for eight hours unpacking beautiful new Toms and had just enough time left to do my nails. Phew! Assignments done, nails done, post almost done. Here we go!

I chose these nails by Bad Girl Nails on IG to recreate. I saw her tutorial for the chains the other day and I thought they were stamping at first, but they're actually freehand so I wanted to try them out myself too!

The only crappy part about my recreation is that my matte topcoat has ~apparently~ become too good for me and refuses to dry fully matte. UGH. I swear I had like three different ones at one point but I must have given some away.

Excuse my fresh Toms shoebox wound there on my knuckle... Is there anything worse than a cardboard paper cut?!
Here are the polishes I used:
OPI - Black Onyx
OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I should have used a more nudey shade but I couldn't think of one light enough for what I wanted so I grabbed this go-to shade.) 
Urban Decay - Mrs. Mia Wallace
China Glaze - Mingle With Kringle

If nothing else, I am super pumped that I did these nails because I had totally forgotten about the CG polish and now I am excited to use it in more nail art!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 30 designs:

• 2013: Cartoon Nails
• 2012: Herringbone
• 2011: Cherry Blossoms

31DC2014: Day 29

Today's theme is Inspired by the Supernatural, AKA (for me) it is inspired by the wonderful and amazing and beautiful Supernatural TV show. I've done SPN nails 2/3 years so far in the challenge and today will make it 3/4, and these are definitely the best so far.

The new season starts next week and I am already giddy with anticipation. I decided to go for a design that is definitely appropriate for what's to come in the next season.

Dean Winchester, a man marked by both heaven and hell. 

If you're not a Supernatural fan, you may not recognize the symbols. The hand print is the mark left by Castiel on Dean's chest, and the other symbol is the Mark of Cain. I wanted to make it look like they were drawn in blood, and I think I did a really good job! I'm especially impressed with the hand.
I accented the symbols with some blood smears, you know, for effect. Ha!
I decided not to add topcoat because I liked the texture of the brush strokes and splatters.

The nude base is (surprise) OPI - Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?
The blood red is Color Club - Killer Curves. 

OMG I'm totally geeking out over these. Please tell me you are too!!!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 29 designs:

• 2013: Supernatural Shirt
• 2012: Goosebumps
• 2011: Supernatural Title Screen

31DC2014: Day 27

Hi! The theme for today is Inspired by Art. I've done Warhol-inspired nails twice before for this challenge prompt and today I decided to make it three times. (Actually I think this is four times technically now including the bananas I did for a yellow theme day.)
I chose one of my favorite Warhol prints to emulate and I am super pumped with how it turned out!

Warhol's iconic dollar sign prints are very recognizable, and the fun colors always stand out to me. I chose this version's color palette to work with because it's basically all of my favorite colors.

I would love to have this exact painting hanging on my wall, but the original print was sold at auction for over $339,000. That's definitely above my pay grade. So I did it on my nails!

I started with a base of OPI - Steady As She Rose.
I did the dollar sign using a small brush and the following polishes:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - S-teal A Base (teal)
OPI - Vant To Bite My Neck? (purple)
China Glaze - Dance Baby (pink)
The rest of my nails I just covered with some abstract dry-brushing and the same three colors.

What do you guys think of this look? Hope you like it as much as I do!
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 27 designs:

• 2013: Watercolor Tattoo
• 2012: Warhol Flowers
• 2011: Warhol Bows

31DC2014: Day 26

Hey everyone! Today's theme is Inspired by a Pattern. I had an amazing idea for these nails however the nail strips I needed to use were crap stickers and they did not stay on my nails and I was very mad because it would have been great. I'm going to have to bank that idea for later and do it a different way.

So I had to last-minute change my idea. I was sitting at my nail table and decided to do the pattern from my polish drawers!

You may remember that back in the day I did a tutorial on how to Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto your Melmer drawers to dress them up. A lot of people did theirs too! After a year or so I decided to redo mine after finding this amazingly cute wrapping paper. Much less obnoxious than my last choices. Haha!

Now that I am looking at this I feel like I did it before! But I can't remember and I don't want to look. LOL.

I started with a white base and did the leopard with China Glaze - Exotic Encounters and OPI - Mermaids Tears.

What do you guys think? It's leopard, of course you do.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 26 designs:

• 2013: Hairbrush Leopard
• 2012: Notebook Dots
• 2011: Retro Turquoise

31DC2014: Day 23

Hey everyone! Happy Autumn... Even though it makes me sad because it means winter is on its way. I'm just not built for the cold. Remind me again why I don't live in Florida?

The theme for today is Inspired by a Movie. A couple weeks ago I got the new Pulp Fiction nail polish from Urban Decay so I knew I'd have to use that and do Pulp Fiction nails!

I was inspired by Mrs. Mia Wallace and the smoke always billowing out of her lush lips!

I added a bandaid on the thumb for Mr. Wallace, which definitely brings the look together.

Here's the polish on its own:

Urban Decay - Mrs. Mia Wallace
This is a beautiful red with tonal shimmer, and the formula is dreamy. It takes 2 thin coats for full coverage, and as always the UD formula is so easy to work with.

I did the smoke with Color Club - French Tip using the watercolor technique. I have a (slightly old) tutorial for that technique here, and I was inspired by these nails by Chalkboard Nails to turn that technique into smoke!

The bandaid was painted with OPI - San-Tan Tonio and OPI - Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

The lip print stamp is from Bundle Monster plate BM-303 and Konad Black special polish.

Still in love with the Urban Decay bottles. I've got all of these new polishes now... Haha. Oh and good news for Canadians, the Shoppers Drugmart locations that carry UD stocked this collection, including the polish! They never had any of the polishes before so I was really surprised to see it there.

What do you guys think of these nails? Can you see the Mrs. Mia Wallace inspiration in them? I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 23 designs:

• 2013: Legally Blonde
• 2012: Juno
• 2011: The Little Mermaid

31DC2014: Day 11

Hi! Day 11's theme is Polka Dots and I am suuuuuper stoked about this manicure!!

Tada! Neon glitter dots! I had a lot of fun putting this together and I could tell right away that it was gonna be awesome.

The base color is OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls, the perfect slightly-off-white.
The neon glitters came from Born Pretty and they are so cute. It was time consuming and mildly frustrating at times, but I picked up each glitter individually onto my smallest dotting tool and applied them into the polish when it was still tacky (and added some topcoat when I needed to for better adhesion.)
I added two layers of topcoat to the full glitter nail and just one on the others. They're all still bumpy but not hitchey or anything.

Can't stop looking at this nail. I'd do a whole manicure like it if it wouldn't take aaaages. 

What do you guys think? I have a feeling this might be one of the favorite manicures for the month!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 11 designs:

• 2013: Jelly Dots
• 2012: Fading Dots
• 2011: Kitty Dots

31DC2014: Day 10

Day 10's theme is Gradient. Even though I did a gradient yesterday too. Whoopsie!
I decided to put the focus on an effect topcoat rather than the gradient to stop it from being two gradients back to back.

What better effect topcoat to use than OPI - Black Spotted!
I did the pink gradient with China Glaze - Something Sweet and China Glaze - Rich and Famous, two oldie-but-goodies I used to use a lot.
Buuuuut I forgot to take a picture of it before I slapped on the Spotted! It looked super cute though, take my word for it.

It's a fun look! But I kinda wish I had time for something else. (It's Monday night as I am writing this because I had to have this all ready in advance of my surgery yesterday in case I wasn't up to painting nails afterward.)

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 10 designs:

• 2013: Ciate Gradient
• 2012: Jelly Gradient
• 2011: Glitter Gradient

31DC2014: Day 8

It's the second week of the 31 Day Challenge and the theme for Day 8 is Metallic!

The base color for this manicure is the deep purple OPI - Vant To Bite My Neck?
I used a fan brush to layer colors to create this splattery/stripey/whatever pattern. I used four China Glaze metallic polishes for the effect:
China Glaze - Harmony (purple)
China Glaze - Adore (blue)
China Glaze - Emotion (pink)
China Glaze - Millennium (silver)

It's so freakin' reflective I had to take a billion pictures to get some good ones.

I'm diggin' it! I'm sad I can't wear it for longer.
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 8 designs:

• 2013: Rainbow Foil
• 2012: Metal Swirls
• 2011: Rock Solid

31DC2014: Day 7

Day 7 is Black & White! I happened to be cruising around Instagram and saw some black and white nails from @misspopnails that totally caught my eye and I just went for it!

Do you like the black and white Rainbow Loom bracelet I am also modeling? Haha!
I used OPI polishes for this manicure, OPI - Black Onyx and OPI - Alpine Snow.
I did the striping with black and white nail art pens/stripers from Simply Spoiled Beauty. I'll post a review of these sometime soon but I really like them! (And you can get 40% off your purchase on the site with code "Rebecca".)

When I glance quickly at the white nails they remind me of those cute storm trooper nails, HA. Shoulda done storm troopers.

One week down!
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 7 designs:

• 2013: Thug Life
• 2012: Checkered
• 2011: Dotty Dalmation

31DC2014: Day 6

Hey everyone! Today's theme is violet and it's one of my favorite days of the challenge because I just love everything purple. I put together two great purples and added a cute new stamp!

The gradient is OPI - Do You Lilac It and OPI - Funky Dunkey.
The stamp is from Sugar Bubbles plate SB 020, stamped with Konad White.
I used China Glaze - Fairy Dust for some added sparkle. (Anyone else find their Fairy Dust has gotten unusually gloopy? I feel like I've barely used mine and it needed a lot of shaking to be usable.)

I am lovinggg this diamond stamp, and the plate has a couple more great ones too. Definitely going to do another diamond mani or two in the future!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 6 purples:

• 2013: Warning
• 2012: Let's Go Crazy
• 2011: Dannii

31DC2014: Day 3

Day three is yellow! There is only one yellow polish that I am a fan of and I've used it the past two years... And right now is no exception. Yep, doin' it.

For this year's challenge, I decided to kinda pay homage to two of my favorite designs from past challenges and do another fruity pattern! (Check out my apples and bananas, too.)

Tada! Pop-art pineapple print!
I am loving this manicure and I'm super stoked about it.

Here's what I used:
Color Club - Almost Famous (yellow)
OPI - My Vampire is Buff (nude)
Color Club - Not Just For Kelly (green)
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! (brown)

I didn't realize until after but I used the same base color as last year too! Haha.
I used a small paint brush to paint the details, and at first I wasn't happy with how it was turning out because it wasn't very neat, but once I kept going, I really liked the way it looked! It makes it more pop art where it isn't perfect and it's more cartoony. Into it!

Pineapple upside down print. Ha!

Do you guys like my perfectly polished pineapple print?  How about that alliteration?

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 3 designs:

• 2013: Warhol Bananas
• 2012: Dots 'n Sticks 'n Stones
• 2011: Yucky Yellow Goop

31DC2014: Day 1

Here we go once again down this fun/insane trail called the 31 Day Challenge. This marks the fourth time that I have embarked on this journey, and as much as it may annoy and frustrate me over the course of the month, I can't wait to see where it pushes me this time!
If you're unfamiliar with the challenge, my pal (and fellow 31DC enforcer) Chalkboard Nails has posted a nice little FAQ here that sums it all up.

Usually something happens during the month that makes it very difficult for me to complete the challenge such as the blackout of 2012 that had me going to my dad's office for electricity so I could post, or 2013 when I went to Chicago and had to schedule like a week's worth of challenge posts in advance. This year's crisis is already planned: I have to have dental surgery on the 9th and I am already FREAKING THE HELL OUT so hopefully I can get some posts scheduled in advance. Thank you, tooth, for being too big and growing into my sinus cavity. I really wanted that.

Anywayzzzzzz, the theme for day one is red! I decided to try out a red polish I've been meaning to try since I picked it up in Florida, and I wanted to combine it with a trendy design.

OPI - Over & Over a Gwen
This polish was created by Gwen Stefani as her signature color. It's your standard cherry red with a formula that is on the line between creme and jelly. Not overly exciting but makes sense because I can't really picture Gwen wearing anything else! Red nails and red lips, that's her style.

I'm not usually one to wear straight up red (my hair has enough of that going on) so I combined the red with some pink for a fun gradient! I used OPI - Hotter Than You Pink because I knew the shimmer would really pop and make for a nice transition. Once that was done, I added a chevron stamp because chevron is always a good idea. The stamp is from Bundle Monster BM-423.

One down, thirty to go.
Are you gonna bravely accept the challenge? Can't wait to see everyone's designs!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 1 designs:

• 2013: Red Nails, Red Lips
• 2012: Apple Print
• 2011: Friar Friar Pants on Fire

spotted at winners - OPI Black Spotted!

Hey everyone! I've been in a bit of a nail-rut for the last 3 weeks, barely even painted my nails. But it's turning around... Especially with the stroke of luck I had at Winners last night!

Of course when I peruse the polish section at Winners, I obsessively read all the labels. I saw a bunch of black bottles and I was like, "Oh look a bunch of Black Onyx." But I picked it up anyway... And to my HUGE surprise, it was the elusive Black Spotted!
If you're not already familiar with this polish, it was released 2 years ago with their Spiderman collection, but only in France. What?! They deprived the rest of us because I believe it was not FDA approved, or whatever. Anyway. People on this side of the pond were paying obscene amounts of money to get their hands on it. I didn't bother to hunt it down, but I was curious to try it. And then I stumble upon it for $7.99 at Winners?! YES PLEASE. (The only downside being that they had none of the little Spotted hang tags on the bottles... But that's just my polish OCD complaining.)

Basically I've been dying to post about this all day since I did my mani with it this morning but I was working! Now's the time!

OPI - Black Spotted (over China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle)
As with other special effects polishes like shatter etc, you apply this over dry polish, and it works its magic instantly. I hear it can be a bit finicky to get the look you want, but I was really stoked with how it came out on the first try!

You need to apply a seriously thin amount, it should feel like you're not even going to get any on there at all. Swipe quickly, and then it applies perfectly! It is a little annoying to get off your cuticles, so try and apply it nicely.

I had previously tried the "bubbly" effect polishes from Layla and could not get any sort of effect at all. I'm not sure if I had bad bottles of those or what, but I'm so happy this one isn't a dud!

It is a really different look, and I'm diggin' it. Should I do a giveaway for one of these bad boys? Or has everyone who wanted this pretty much got it? Hooray for Winners! (And for those of you in the US, try your TJ Maxx stores, because they are the same company.)