METAMORPHOSIS

Although my computer is still in the shop, I have figured out a way to continue to post over spring break. Right now I am requisitioning my friends computer for a monster post, and over break I will steal my amazing boyfriend’s (who is coming home to SF to meet my parents! So so so so so so exciting! And nerve-wracking.) computer.
The other morning I did China Glaze “Sunset Sail” from the Anchor’s Away Collection. I tried really hard to convince myself that I loved it, but it really looked like I had slightly sparkly flesh colored band aids for fingers, as you can see here:

SO… I did what any self respecting nail polish blogger who is also a stingy/broke college student and doesn’t want to waste nail polish and has to get to class in 10 minutes would do… I mattified it! And golly gee I liked it:

Matte just reads spring to me. Right now, as I’m typing I have “Sea Spray” from the same collection mattified on my nails, and its so calm and springy. While I was trying to explain this to my roommate, I struck upon the idea that flower petals are matte! So are eggs! Like robins eggs, which for me are a constant symbol of spring. But then my colorblind boyfriend told me that they were freaking him out because he couldn’t tell the difference between my nails and my fingers (I though to myself… victory??...) and I had an hour to kill, so I decided to make them match my shirt. Just as a little background, I’m a Northern California girl born and raised, and you can take the girl out of the land of hippies, but you cant take the land of hippies out of the girl. So I was wearing tie-dye. And if you’ve kept up with my posts recently, you can probably sense my crackle fever! So… I started with smeary polka dots of China Glaze “VII” (god, I hate badly named nail polishes. I would think that the joy of nail polish naming comes in cleverness, not laziness!):

Then I added China Glaze “Crushed Candy” once that had dried, and then re-mattified it:

You can see on some of the nails that I didn’t let it dry enough, so the crackle around the polka dots are sort of funky. It didn’t turn out exactly like I wanted it to, but it had a cool effect. The nail that turned out the most like I envisioned was my left pinky:

And here is the shirt nails comparison! I think… Mission Accomplished!

Love, Frida
p.s. have a good weekend!

OPI "Don't Mess With O.P.I." (A.K.A. my dusty little friend.)

Okay, can I tell you all a secret? I have an obsession with the south. I love the south south best, but the southwest is near and dear to my heart, seeing as it’s my neighbor, home in California!
So I was too excited for words about the OPI Texas Collection. But then… tragedy. It sucked. Everything was so… boring. But there were three polishes that interested me, and so I bought them, and enjoy two out of the three! Here’s the first one, “Don’t Mess With OPI.” If you’ve been a reader for a while, you’ll know that I can’t resist a green crème. I got this one at the same time as I got “Jade is the New Black.” When I opened the box, my roommate thought they were exact dupes, but being the eternal nail polish optimist that I am, I refused to believe that I had an irrelevant nail polish in my collection! And I discovered (drum roll please!) Not a dupe on the nail! It is much dustier, with none of the blue that JITNB has.
Here are the beauties!

China Glaze "Lifesaver" (A.K.A. a flower from home on my nails)

Just to be clear, I hate orange nail polish. I actually hate the color orange. But I don’t feel like it’s fair to call lifesaver an orange nail polish, because it’s the EXACT SAME COLOR as a California poppy, a blast from my home state. I didn’t want to take it off for that reason. It’s muted but still beautiful. It’s a calm but bold color. Like a poppy.
In case you hadn’t picked up on it, poppies are my second favorite flower (next to sunflowers) and hopefully I’ll be posting a picture of my huge tattoo of a California poppy on my back.
The formula on this was delightful. After one coat it was opaque, but I’ve never really been a one coater. I enjoy two whole beautiful coats. And this one gives me two whole coats of beauty on this one. It’s a little thin, and I hate the China Glaze brush, but it’s worth it.


It’s not a very springy color shiny, but combined with a mattifying top coat it looks cheery and springy. And I feel like an idiot because I have lost my pictures of it, but I put “Lightning Bolt” on top of it, and it looked like a dreamsicle. I’ll have to do it again to post a picture.

And just an update about the crackles, they look SO AWESOME matte. Right now, as I’m typing my nails look like dinosaur eggs, because I have sea spray on under cracked concrete. And it’s matte. And beauteous. And I want to wear crackle all the time.
On a side note, I’m sorry that I haven’t been up on posts, my life is cacophonous.
I will figure it out.
Love,
Frida

OPI "Cuckoo For This Color" (A.K.A. why do i like you?)

Sorry I’ve been gone for so long, I’ve had a really busy life recently, lots of topsy-turvy-ing (including SEVEN HOURS of math homework) but I’m back!
And I’m back with a much loved color that by all accountsI should hate. Because I hate shimmer. And I hate teal. And I hate shimmer. Did I already say that? A shimmer has to be ridiculously special for me to like it.
And this really isn’t that special.
But for some reason, I sorta like it.
Onto the color, “Cuckoo For This Color” is a dark green leaning teal base chock full of light blue leaning teal shimmer and the occasional gold or silver speck. The formula isn’t exactly my cup of tea, in fact it’s sorta goopy and sad, but the color is enchanting, oddly.
Here are them pretty pictures!

I also just went on a huge nail polish shopping binge, so I will be updating with a haul post, and lots of Anchors away and Texas fun!

love,

Frida

Color Club "Gossip Column" (A.K.A electric blue patent leather pumps)

This is a beautiful color. I want to say it's the perfect blue, but I haven't had enough experience with blues to make that distinction quite yet. It’s a Royal but bright blue, clear and strong while not overpowering everything. I wouldn’t say that it’s dusty or dark, but it is slightly subdued. I don’t think that I could wear a blue that was too strong, I would feel like there were little oceans on my nails. Rather, I felt like I had a blue patent leather pump on each of my fingers. Classy, right? I’m pretty sure that it’s from the Rebel Debutante collection, and that really fits it perfectly. As does “Gossip Columnist” I felt like a rebellious gossip columnist while I was wearing it. Here are the pictures!





I didn’t want to take it off quite yet, so I put “Solar Flare” by China Glaze on top of it. I got SO MANY compliments on this manicure! It made it feel like the weekend, even though it was a Tuesday.





Love,

Frida

OPI Absolutely Alice (A.K.A. OMG AUGHmmmmhmmm yeah)

There is no getting around it, this nail polish is fantastically life changingly beautiful. I can’t even handle it! The thing that makes “Absolutely Alice” so wonderful is that it is not just glitter. Well, it is just glitter, but it’s so beautiful that it doesn’t seem like it. It seems like this beautiful top coat on top of beautifully shimmery nail polish. Lets get down into it. It’s bright but still wearable blue based blue and gold glitter. The gold glitter is interspersed with just enough rarity that it gives the impression of floating. It has a flatness (in a good way) so that it is not even handle-ably wearable and beautiful and amazing. It’s the kind of nail polish that causes you to get distracted in the middle of class, meetings, writing… of course it is gritty (though not as much as most glitters, a nice coat of Seche fixes that immediately) and chips quite easily (though it does not perform the surprise WHOLE FINGER DISSAPEARING thing that the burlesque polishes from OPI do.) but it’s so worth it. Enough! On to the pictures:



 

Love,

Frida

China Glaze "Calypso Blue" (A.K.A. the class-monster)

I got a huge Transdesign haul the other day, and the ration of blues to EVERYTHING ELSE evidences my exploration of my possible love for blues.

This polish affirmed my love, and will take me to the next level of my obsession.

This is China Glaze "Calypso Blue." Like Calypso (the nymph) in mythology, this polish brought me to it fairly innocently, but trapped me inside of it (not for seven years, but who's going to nitpick? not me!). It's so pretty. In the sunlight (which didn't exist in my life while I was taking these pictures) it's a dusty navy blue creme, that reminds me of these awesome corduroy pants that I had as a kid. The good thing about it, though, is that even in the lack of light, it doesn't turn completely black, it still has some light to it. I put in some flash photos so you can see the base color, even though it is never (AND I EMPHASIZE NEVER) that color. It's a beautiful polish. And I have to apologize for the chipping and tipwear, I've had this on for three days (GASP! I think that this is the longest I've worn one color of nail polish since the summer!!!!)

So here are the gorgy pictures!



love,

Frida

Zoya "Crystal" (A.K.A. sparklies for my flu brain)

So I’ve been struggling with the flu and also spending a whole lot of time staring out the window at the amazingly large mount of snow that is POURING DOWN FROM THE SKY!!! As a California girl snow is a new idea for me! I love it. So I got some nice icy nails for you guys! This is Zoya “Crystal” If you’ve been reading with any sort of regularity, you’ll know that Zoya is my favorite brand. I JUST LIKE THEIR SOUL, haha. And they’re three free, so I don’t have to feel bad about my passion. Zoya “Crystal” is a silvery ice blue oil with gold and silver bits, that occasionally flashes dark blue when the light isn't directly on it. It reminds me of a much paler and foil-er version of OPI “Absolutely Alice.” Either way, it looks like you should be doing ballet in the light flurrying snow. I have to say, besides my love for it, it’s not all that pleasing. I wore it for maybe half a day, because it was too cool of a color for me. It made me little cold every time I looked at it, even though it was very very beauty-full.





Love,

Frida