Stampabilities # 017: OPI

Hi all,

First of all: Happy New Year! I hope you all had a nice New Years Eve and you still have all your fingers :)

This weeks Stampabilities consists of similar colors instead of different colors.


Stampabilities 017: OPI with from pinkie to index Malaga Wine, Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not, Overexposed in South Beach and Purple-Opolis. I decided to do similar colors this time, to see if you would be able to compare which one you'd better pick for stamping! Three of them are purple, the fourth - Malaga Wine - is a red jelly. Again, they all show up nicely, but in this edition of Stampabilitites, Malaga Wine stands out in my opinion. It's the most pigmented in terms of stamping, which I found surprising, since it's a jelly.


If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.


And now something completely different. You may have noticed (or not, of course) that I'm not on Twitter anymore and I haven't updated my blog in a couple of days. I'm not feeling very well at the moment and I'm on the verge of having a breakdown, so I'm also using this post to tell you that I'm taking some time off of blogging and being online in general. I don't know how long that'll be, but I expect to be 'gone' for at least a week and a half to straighten things out. Let's just say 2010 was a sucky year for me and it has taken it's toll. I want 2011 to be better, so I'll have to work at that and start off with a decent base.

I hope I will be able to pick up blogging again after that. I hope you understand. I have scheduled some posts for the next couple of days and next week's Stampabilities, so you will still have something to read while I'm taking my break.

I wish you all a very happy new year and hope 2011 brings you love, happiness and health.

My Favorites Of 2010

Hi all,

Today I have my favorites of 2010 for you! It contains the polishes I've loved the most in the past year, so that means they're not necessarily 2010 releases :) I'll link my original post of the polish underneath the picture! I've sneaked in some favorite mani's as well. Be prepared for a lot of pictures and a lot of variety in my nail length!



Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers
(shown over Chanel Gondola)


Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe


China Glaze Party Hearty
(shown over OPI Smitten With Mittens)


China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic


Chanel Paradoxal


Paint Splatters Everywhere


Frankenstein Watermarble


OPI Espresso Your Style!


ManGlaze Matte Is Murder


CND Night Factory Set with
Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle


RBL Orbis Non Sufficit
(shown with China Glaze Ink stripes)


OPI Merry Midnight
(shown over OPI Funky Dunkey)


OPI Damone Roberts 1968


BB Couture Grenade


Orly It's Not Rocket Science


OPI Smitten With Mittens


Diamond Cosmetics Never So Evergreen


OPI DS Glamour


OCC Blackboard


OPI Catch Me In Your Net


RBL Scrangie


Chanel Gondola


Orly Shine


OPI Mad As A Hatter


OPI DS Extravagance


Lace Illusion


My First Watermarble


Nfu Oh 051 and RBL Bruised


Whew! That's a lot of favorites.. And there's a whole bunch of polishes that I really liked, but *just* didn't make it on the 'list'..

So tell me! What are your favorite polishes of 2010? And what will you be doing in tonight to celebrate the New Year?

OPI Chapel of Love

Hi all,

After all the Christmas colors, I have a very nice pink for you today! I wasn't really fond of OPI's reds and pinks - not unique enough, I thought - but I've changed my mind. I'm discovering more and more lovely reds and pinks and those colors are rapidly multiplying in my helmer...


OPI Chapel Of Love, four coats in daylight. Yes, four coats, as it isn't opaque at all, but I love the soft shade of pink and the lovely (almost hidden) silver shimmer it holds.


Chapel Of Love, four coats, with flash. You can see some of the shimmer here. It's the same kind of shimmer A True Ab-Original has and it's quite subtle. I really like it - I think it's a nice variation on all the bold colors I've been wearing lately!

Application was good, although the polish was sheer. I usually only apply 2 - 3 coats and leave it at that, but I wanted this one opaque before I took pics. I should really get me a bottle of underwear..

Anyway, I love this color and I think I will make this my new pedi color - it's so sweet to look at!

Christmas in a Bottle!

Hi all,

Today I have China Glaze's glitter wonder for you: Party Hearty! I wore this last week over OPI Smitten With Mittens and it looks SO festive! I love the glitters.


One coat of China Glaze Party Hearty over OPI Smitten with Mittens with one coat of FFWD topcoat - I was also wearing this as a mani. I love love love this! Aaaaah glitter!! It looks like Christmas threw up on my nails.. Or something. Haha! Party Hearty is a clear base, packed with big red hexagonal glitter, smaller green hex glitter and tiny gold glitters.

If you like glitter, this is a musthave if you ask me! Now if you'll excuse me.. I'm going to stare at the glitter awesomeness. Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Just Bells..

Hi all,

Quickie today! I wore this on the last two days that I wore OPI Smitten With Mittens and it was Christmassy, so I thought I'd share a subtle Xmas mani :)


China Glaze 2030 stamped with M12 over OPI Smitten With Mittens. It's a really subtle, yes festive mani if you ask me.

I'm still working on sorting out the giveaway entries so please be patient with me! I'll do a post on what you'd like to see on Nailswatches more, too :)

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

It's Nailswatches' Birthday!

Hi all!

It's exactly a year ago that I went over to Nailswatches on blogger *yaaaay*! Which means that today is Nailswatches' birthday! I can't believe I've lasted a whole year with blogging.. On to the next year! As a treat, hot chocolate with whipped cream for everyone! ;) (or of course chocolate cake... hmm!)


Hot chocolate and whipped cream watermarble with OPI Suzi Says Da! and BarryM Matt White. I swear I only used those two colors (over a white base), the colors combined to an almost purple shade in between the colors! I love the outcome of it. It might not be perfect, but it sure is pretty in my eyes.


Bonuspicture! *walks round with a plate of mugs with hot chocolate and whipped cream* hehe! I really like this marble. I never thought it would turn out the way it did, but I love it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and buy myself some *real* chocolate cake to celebrate ;) Hope you all have a very nice Friday!

Because You Can't Have Too Many Pictures Of OPI Smitten With Mittens

Hi all,

In the tips that I asked you on the OPI Damone Roberts 1968 giveaway, there were a couple of people asking if I could do some more NOTD's. I'm really pretty boring nowadays with my NOTD's, because I find myself grabbing colors I've worn earlier. But anyway, I'm sharing my last NOTD from last week: OPI Smitten With Mittens. It's one of my all-time favorite polishes and I grab it so often that I'm seriously considering buying a backup for it. Anyway, here she is again!


OPI Smitten with Mittens, I believe this was two coats (I'm lazy). Can you guess what book I was reading while I was wearing this NOTD? Hehe! Nothing better than reading a nice book underneath a blanket with a pot of tea besides you!


And a picture to show the sparkliness of the polish. I absolutely love it. I think the Holiday Collection from last year was one of the best collections OPI ever did. Besides Smitten with Mittens, Merry Midnight is high up in my top-nameanumber.

I wish you all a very nice Thursday :)

OPI A True Ab-Original

Hi all,

Todays color is a little out of my box so to say, but I actually really liked it when I put it on!


OPI A True Ab-Original, four coats in daylight. A True Ab-Original is a coraly pink with silver and magenta shimmer. This isn't a color I usually pick out, but I saw it at a blogsale and thought I'd give it a shot. I actually really like this color! I think it's because it's not a straight coral or straight pink.


And a picture with flash to show the shimmer. Pretty eh? The polish itself was pretty sheer though, so I needed four coats for opacity, and I think that's a bit much.. So next time I wear this, I think I'll try some kind of nude polish underneath it as underwear (I learned this from L8B on MUA hehehe).

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Stampabilities # 012: Random OPI Pt 2

Hi all,

It has been a couple of days, but I had a migraine that came up on Thursday night and didn't want to lie down until Saturday morning.. I've been exhausted the past two days, but the migraine is gone so I guess I'm back :) I hope you had a better weekend than I did! *plans a shopping trip and sushi in the next week to make this week better*


This week's Stampabilities: Random OPI's. I randomly grabbed four from my Helmer and tried them for stamping. They all show up pretty good, but these are not "WOW" for me. They're all a bit muted on the nail and on the paper, but they are clearly visible and work for stamping. I was surprised that You Don't Know Jacques shows up this well!

I'm sorry the lighting isn't the best, it's been a bit of a pain to take proper pictures.. I hope there will be better light next week (although there are weatherpeople saying it will be snowing next week!) so I can get better pics :)


If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Recent Sparkle-y NOTD

Hi all,

A quick NOTD post today. I wore this almost two weeks ago, I think? I loved the look, even though most of my nails were green and I had blue accent nails, but anyhow, it was all sparkle-y hehe.


Orly Enchanted Forest with CND Teal Sparkle on my pinky, middle and index, and OPI Absolutely Alice on my ring fingers (and thumbs, but I don't have a picture of that). I thought it looked pretty nice! I have to admit that I hadn't worn Absolutely Alice till then, so it was about time *hangs head in shame*


I wasn't impressed with the wear of AA though, it fell off both my thumbs on the second day I believe, so no, that was a big downside for me.

I will do a seperate post on Absolutely Alice in the future :)

Damone Roberts 1968 Giveaway!

Hi all!

As I said yesterday, I reached 650 followers. I know I already thanked you for following me, but I decided to do a giveaway for my readers as well! This is the prize:


A brand new bottle of OPI Damone Roberts 1968. This color is sold out! But one (1) lucky winner will receive this prize. So what do you have to do to get a chance to win this pretty polish? Just fill in the form below! Please note: This giveaway is open only to followers of Nailswatches via Google Friend Connect (GFC).


This giveaway is now closed! I will announce the winner in the week of December 6th, 2010.


This giveaway will be open till December 6th 2010 23.59 GMT+01:00. This giveaway is open internationally, so everyone can join!

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post :) Entries in the comment section will not be counted.

Good luck!

OPI You Don't Know Jacques

Hi all,

A short post today since I'm having computer troubles and my laptop doesn't allow me to have more than one window open - which is really frustrating. I hope I can fix it tomorrow, I didn't have luck today. Ah well. Today I have a long time lemming for you that I finally picked up in August I believe.


OPI You Don't Know Jacques, three coats in daylight. You Don't Know Jacques is a taupe creme. It's loved by many, but I don't like it. Let me tell you why: the color is lighter than I thought it would be. I like 'darker' taupes like Catrice Lost In Mud and this one is lighter.. According to the swatches I've seen before, it should be darker than what I own.

Second: the formula was horrible. It was extremely watery at some points and it contained some lumps (I don't know a better word to say this, sorry), making it very hard for me to apply. Although the formula was mostly on the (really) thin side, the drying time wasn't quick so of course I dented the polish before I could snap a pic.

No, this one's not for me. How much I hate it to post something like this post, I want to get my opinion on this one out. Maybe I got an off bottle, who knows. I just know that I will probably not be grabbing this in the future to polish my nails with.

Frankenstein Watermarble

Hi all!

I didn't really realize that it's almost Halloween, and I still had a ton of things planned! I hope I can squeeze in some more before Halloween :) Today I have a watermarble for you! It's a 'Frankenstein' Watermarble; green and purple.


For this marble, I used OPI Funky Dunkey and Orly Gumdrop. The light, pastel green and the purple go really well together! I really like it. It does remind me a bit of some Frankenstein images; there are a ton of them out there with a green and purple thing going on.


There's not much more that I want to say about this - except that I really really like it!

Marbles still manage to surprise me, so I'm planning on doing a marble afternoon soon haha.

Are you planning on doing something Halloween-y with your nails? If so, what are you going to do?

Recent NOTD: OPI Espresso Your Style

Hi all,

Today I have another recent NOTD for you. I'm grabbing more and more of my favorites when I'm doing my nails, so it's not really a surprise for you when I tell you that I pulled this baby out to wear again, is it? My original review can be found here, my opinion on the formula and the color is still the same ;)


OPI Espresso Your Style!, three coats in daylight. Still one of the prettiest browns I own, will be pulling this out some more this fall!


The polish is darker on the nail than it is in the bottle, which I like :) Pretty eh?


I promise that I have some new (unshown) material for you tomorrow :)

Ruby Pumps and Smitten With Mittens Compared

Hi all,

A week or so ago, someone told me that OPI Smitten With Mittens looked like China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I thought it was way off, but when I pulled out both of my bottles, they seemed more similar than I thought. Time for a comparison to see how similar they really are.


Ruby Pumps is on my pinkie and middle finger, Smitten With Mittens is on my ring and index finger. Both were two coats.

As you can see, Smitten With Mittens is a darker, deeper red than Ruby Pumps. The base of Ruby Pumps is lighter and less pigmented than the base of Smitten With Mittens. The glitter in the two of them is different too, even though that doesn't show up in my picture. The glitter in Ruby Pumps is red, while the glitter in Smitten With Mittens is red and gold. It's a slight difference, but hey, it's there.

There two are not dupes, but have the same feel to them. I prefer Smitten With Mittens because the application was better, but if you're not crazy about red and you own one of these, you probably won't need the other.


If you want to read the post in which I wrote about these polishes,
just click on the name - Smitten With Mittens & Ruby Pumps

Stampabilities # 004: Random OPI Pt 1

Hi all,

Two days late, but here are this weeks Stampabilities!

I just grabbed a couple of OPI's of my helmer, and they all turned out to be pretty good for stamping. Damone Roberts 1968 is the lightest color, but still shows up very clearly!

And to make it complete; on the nails!


Left to right; Mediterranean Moonlight, Funky Dunkey, Damone Roberts 1968, Suzi Says Feng Shui. Except for DR 1968, they're pretty obvious, but they're all stampable. The base is H&M Love At First Sight and I use imageplate M60 for the stamping as usual.

Hope this helps!

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.