Sunday, February 24, 2013

on 16 comments

A little bit of this and that

Just a few random things tonight.

First up, a comparison swatch for a reader who asked me to compare Picture Polish o'hara, vegas and OPI The spy who loved me.  Here are two photos, one in natural overcast light, the other in artificial light.  The colour of o'hara is more raspberry and the scattered holo bits look pink toned.  Vegas and The spy who loved me are actually very similar.  TSWLM was more opaque that vegas and the red/gold shimmer in vegas is slightly finer, but otherwise they are very close.



Next, check this out.  This is the break I have been nursing on my left hand ring finger now for 10 days.  I've decided not to use the silk wrap or tea bag method with nail glue, because in the past I've not had much luck with it.  Usually I find it too thick and I end up with a big fat lump at the side of my nail where the wrap is.  I also find that it is so stiff and ridged, with no 'give', that I inevitably break it the very next day.

I've only been holding this break together with soak off gel polish - Gelicious in my case.  I put a little dab on my break and lift the nail a bit to get it in the crack.  I then line it up carefully and cure.  Then I apply the base gel coat to the full nail and usually two coats of gel top coat.  So far so good.  I usually remove the gel polish and redo it every three days or so.  I know it will eventually break off and leave me with quite a round looking nail, but I hope by then I have enough length back to file them even again.


Lastly, aren't these the cutest rocks you've ever seen?  Mr 4 and Miss 4 really love playing with nail polish, and they take any opportunity to paint stuff with it.  My solution was to grab some small white stones from our backyard and let them loose with my stash of franken polishes.  All piled together they look absolutely stunning.  In fact I'm thinking of painting a whole bunch of them myself and putting them into a glass fish bowl and putting it at my desk at work.  It would be a great talking piece and would allow me to look at my pretty polishes all day long.


Do you guys do anything with your nail polishes, other than paint your nails with them?  I recently saw a press release from OPI about Australian artist Jen D'Arcy painting a portrait of Julia Morris using only OPI lacquers.  She used 1071 bottles (16 litres of nail lacquer) apparently.  When the photos of the portrait are released later this week, I post a copy of it.

16 comments:

  1. I love the rocks and I think they're SO pretty. I'm also not trying to be rude at all but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to put nail polish rocks in a fish bowl and put fish in it (assuming that's the case).

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    1. Ha ha, no I didn't mean with fish, just a nice large round glass bowl full of sparkling polish covered gems, no water, no fish.

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    2. Glad to hear no fish were involved. :)

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  2. Thank you for the comparison shots!!! I've been wondering on these myself. Ouch for the break but at least gel polish is helping you out! I need to get buying some stuff as I'm totally sold on the idea :D

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  3. I would love to paint a paint-by-number in nail polish!! I love those rocks :)

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  4. Great comparison

    The coloured rocks are pretty & I'm looking forward to seeing the nail polish pic of Julia Morris

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  5. I love the idea of the rocks in a bowl and how neat to actually do some art work using nail polish .. I just might have to give it a go!
    That is a nasty break and for someone who does as many swatches as you it must be really frustrating.

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  6. Love the rocks - never thought to do anything like this - just fab! Cannot wait to see the picture done with 1071 bottles of OPI!

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  7. I love your idea about how you've been nursing your break. I might have to give that a try soon. It sounds very sturdy.

    Also the rock idea is wonderful!

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  8. Oi flor vim te convidar para participar do sorteio que tá rolando lá no blo, será um prazer te-la lá conosco, te espero lá.
    http://esmaltesdedivas.blogspot.com.br/2013/02/sorteio-nectar.html
    Beijinhos

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  9. I use my glitter polishes to paint my lighters! The men always steal mine so I put glitter on it because they wont touch it! haha

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  10. Hi, can you tell me how you do the gel base and top coat with regular nail polish? I'm still trying to figure out the steps, I know gel base coat comes first but i'm a little fuzzy as to which comes next gel top coat as you mentioned above or regular polish then gel top coat... thanks so much!

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    1. For patching a broken nail, I'm going gel base x2, gel top coat x2, then normal polish colour and regular top coat. Then I use non-acetone remover to remove the top layers and just leave the gel protection.

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  11. Gorgeous swatches, as usual! Thanks for the comparisons :-) Your idea with the rocks is brilliant--my Mr 3 loves to play with my polishes as well, and he will love painting the rocks and putting them in a bowl.

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  12. A great way to patch a split like that is with the Soak off gel and a little piece of a silk wrap, fiberglass wrap or tea bag even. It will hold longer. I do complete soak off gel, so I'm not removing regular nail polish often over top of it, but these hold for me for a full two weeks, and then I just redo it when I redo my manicure.

    I use the self-adhesive silk wraps (just my personal preference) from Sally Beauty Supply. I just cut a small patch to fit over the split, and stick it on. I scrub my Soak off gel basecoat into it and apply all over the nail, then cure. Remove the sticky layer and buff it smooth if necessary, then apply a second layer of basecoat, then finish the soak off gel manicure as always (color, topcoat, or just topcoat if you are not using any color). The repair is invisible and holds great! I've never had one fail this way. I used to use nail glue on the silk wrap, but found the gel base just works better and holds better. I have some more info on my blog:

    http://ferretkingdom.blogspot.com/2012/02/different-and-maybe-better-way-to-patch.html

    Hope that helps a bit with splits! I hate them but at least I can salvage most of my nails until they grow out this way. Love your blog! :)

    -ferretkingdom

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I live in Canberra, Australia with my husband, Mr Ten and Miss Eight. My blog is all about nail polish, and a few other bits in between. You can contact me at morenailpolish@iinet.net.au