Nail of The Week: My Valentine's Day Manicure

This is what I did as a Valentine's Day manicure. I wanted to do something that I would be able to live with all week. I knew that if I did the hearts and pastels I would have drove myself crazy. I like girlie things but I am not that girlie.

Nail Polish: O.P.I Black Onyx, China Glaze Heli-Yum (2 Coats)

Base: Nail Tek, Orly Bonder

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

It is not my best manicure. I love OPI's Black Onyx nail polish. But it is always such a pain to work with for me because of the little air bubbles that always happen when I use it. Does anyone know how I can avoid this?

As for the pink color, I used Heli-Yum from the China Glaze Up and Away collection. It is a very pretty raspberry pink color. But as much as I liked the color this was the wrong polish to use on this manicure. It was pretty difficult to work with because it was really runny.

I will be trying this manicure again. But with different nail polish colors.

What do you think?

Nail of The Week: Dottie Tips

We got a record 30 inches of snow in the DC area over the weekend. The power went out last night in my neighborhood making everything very dark and very dangerous.

I wanted to work on my sewing projects again today. But after my breakdown yesterday, I was just not feeling it. I also need to get a new zipper for the skirt. But since we are currently in lockdown, I will not be getting a new one for a few days.

So I decided to turn it into a beauty day. I gave myself a pedicure and manicure and watched the Supernanny marathon on the Style Network.

Here is my nails for the week:

Nail Polish: O.P.I Big Apple Red, LA Colors Black and White Art Deco

Base: Nail Tek, Orly Bonder

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

As a bonus here are some pictures I took from my balcony yesterday.

Look at how high the snow is!

I was just watching the news and the roads and highways are really bad. The metro bus is not running, the underground metro train is running on a limited schedule, but the above ground train is not running at all.

Our roads have not been cleaned out and today we tried to get the car out and couldn't. It is looking like we will be home bound for at least one more day.

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail From Last Week: Thanks So Muchness!

This is the last polish from the OPI Alice in Wonderland collection. This is a really pretty red polish. I like this one much better then Off With Her Red! This time I did my manicure early enough to photograph it in natural light.

Over all I enjoyed this collection, the only thing I wish is that instead of two red colored nail polishes, they would have given us a purple nail polish or a glitter polish with purple in it. I think I am going to have to make myself a purple franken to go with this collection.

Natural Light:
With Flash:

Nail Polish: Thanks So Muchness (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail From Last Week: Absolutely Alice

I thought that the Mad As A Hatter nail polish from the O.P.I Alice in Wonderland collection was my favorite but Absolutely Alice is giving it a run for its money.

Nail Polish: Absolutely Alice (2 Coats)

Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Everyone that has seen my nails today has commented on how pretty the polish is and I couldn't agree more. It is absolutely pretty!

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

PS: These pictures are a bit late. This was my manicure from last week. Tomorrow I will be posting the last manicure featuring a nail polish from the Alice in Wonderland collection.

Nail of the Day: Off With Her Red!

Since the Zoya nail polish I spoke of here was a total fail. I decided to continue trying out the Alice in Wonderland inspired nail polishes from O.P.I.

The next one I am wearing is "Off With Her Red!" It is an orange toned red colored nail polish. Not my favorite of the collection. It is not a bad color, it is very nice, I just prefer blue toned red polishes instead.

I wanted to take a picture of the manicure in natural light. But I go to work when it is still dark outside and when I leave work it is already dark. :-(

Nail Polish: OPI Off With Her Red! (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Day: Mad As A Hatter

I got my Alice in Wonderland for O.P.I. nail polishes and as soon as I got the package and I took a look at the polishes I knew that the first one I had to try was Mad As A Hatter. I LOVE this polish. I tried to take a good picture of it, indoors, outdoors but nothing catches the beauty that is the glittery goodness. Is like a party on your nails. LOVE IT!

They only thing I did not like about the polish is that it was hard to apply. There was so much glitter that it made the polish very thick and made application very difficult. But small price to pay for wonderfully fun looking nails.

Here is the polish in natural light:


Here is the polish in indoor light:


Nail Polish: OPI Mad As A Hatter (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What do you think?

Tomorrow I will try out another color from the collection.

Ciao!! xoxo
~ Dissolved Girl

PS: Excuse my dry hands. It is so cold here that there is not enough lotion in this world to keep my hands moisturized.

Alice in Wonderland for OPI Polishes

Today on Transdesign they released the Alice in Wonderland for OPI Nail Polishes that I spoke of here. I had been stalking the site since I walked into the office at 7 AM, waiting for them to become available for purchase. They became available about an hour ago and I am happy to report that those babies will be mine in a few days time. I am all about glitter nail polish even though they are a pain to remove.

While I was on the site I also noticed that the Essie spring collection will be released tomorrow. I am not a huge fan of Essie but I saw that they will have a lilac and coral colored nail polish as part of the collection. I really love both of those colors in a polish and I am really tempted to try them out. But those will have to wait. I will see if the ladies of some of my favorite nail blogs do a review/swatch on the polishes so I can see what they look like and then decide.

Now I am just waiting for the China Glaze spring collection to come out so that I can get my hands on the two yellow polishes in the collection. I am a little obsessed with getting the perfect yellow polish. Last year I got a yellow polish from Sephora as shown in this manicure. But it took so many coats to get it to look decent that it took forever for my mani to dry.

Will you be getting any nail polishes from the collections that are coming out?

Ciao!! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Shim-Merry Chic

Best Buy still has my camera hostage. I have a temporary camera and it sucks, so I apologize in advance for the not so great manicure picture (such a shame too because it really is a pretty color). Once I get my camera back, I will update this with a proper photo.


Nail Polish Brand: O.P.I
Color: Shim-Merry Chic (2 Coats)- This is the only color I got from the O.P.I Christmas Collection. None of the other colors caught my attention enough to buy. It is a very pretty bronze color with glitter. Love it.

Base: Nail Tek and Orly Bonder. I put a thin layer of Bonder over the Nail Tek. Just cause I did not like the matte feeling of Nail Tek. I know, I know, I was going to apply the color polish. Just humor me.

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. I am wearing two top coats because my Seche Vite is almost at the end of it's life. So instead of doing 2 coats of Seche, I am doing one coat of each top coat. Yes, I should just buy a new bottle but I am trying to finish the other top coat polishes I have.

I had to cut my nails yet again. This time it was a little upsetting because I finally had them the length that I wanted and the shape that I wanted. But as luck would have it, in the last week two off them broke. So I am back to square one.

I have also noticed that my nails are really dry and a little brittle now that we are going into the cold weather. After doing a bit of research and reading other nail blogs, I found out about a product called Nail Tek. They have several products that target different nail problems. From all of them I think Nail Tek Foundation III is what I need. Here is the description from the website:

"Nail Tek III: Protection Plus
for dry brittle nails

Protection Plus provides extra conditioning for nails that are hard and brittle. This special formulation replenishes the natural moisture content of the nail. Applied daily, Protection Plus helps nails regain the healthy balance necessary to resist stress and enhance survivability.

Nail Tek III: Protection Plus
replenishes, moisturizes, protects"

I ordered myself a bottle and I started using it with today's manicure. I will give you guy's updates on how my nails are looking. I only wish I took a picture of my bare nails before I cut them off and painted them.

Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

PS: Wow, this was long.
PPS: I have not forgotten my weight loss update. It is coming, I have a lot to say and I did not have a camera for pictures.
PPPS: How awful does my nails look short? eeeeew..... Ok, that is it with the PS's.

Nail Polishes I am looking forward to....

Since Best Buy is still holding my camera hostage everything I have had planned for the last two weeks has been placed on hold. Now I am scrambling to come up with what to blog about and not bore you guys to death. Since I cannot bring you a nail of the week, I will bring you the nail polish collections that I am looking forward to.

OPI Hong Kong Collection:

First Row: A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find, Lucky Lucky Lavender, Meet Me on the Star Ferry.
Second Row: Panda-monium Pink, Pearl of Wisdom, I’m Chop-Ssticking to My Story.

First Row: Bling Dynasty, Red My Fortune Cookie, Hot & Spicy.
Second Row: Dim Sum Plum, Jade is the New Black, Suzi Says Feng Shui.

OPI Alice In Wonderland:


First Row: Off with Her Red!, Absolutely Alice
Second Row: Mad as a Hatter, Thanks So Muchness!

What do you think?

Ciao!! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Credit: P'ssion

Nail of the Week: La Paz

Nail Polish Brand: O.P.I
Color: La Paz-itively Hot (2 Coats) on nail tips; La Paz-itively Hot Matte on nail bed

Line: Art Deco in Black

Top Coat only on nail tip: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

It is fall and I am still wearing the bright summer colors. The funny thing is that I prefer dark nail polish but for some reason when I sit to do my nails I keep reaching for the brightest nail polish in my stash.

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Fall Nails

Here are swatches of my favorite polishes to wear during the fall:
From left to right China Glaze Recycle, China Glaze Unplugged, OPI Russian Navy, OPI Lincoln Park at Midnight, OPI Black Onyx

And here is my manicure of the week:


Nail Polish Brand: OPI
Color: Here Today… Aragon Tomorrow (2 Coats)

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: You Don't Know Jacques! - Matte

I tried out the OPI Matte nail polish for my manicure of the week.

I do not know yet how I feel about it. What do you think?

Nail Polish Brand: OPI
Color: You Don't Know Jacques! - Matte (2 Coats)

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: None

On other news, guess what came in the mail today?




Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Little Box of Happiness

Today I got my new nail polish shipment from Trans Design. The excitement I am feeling over my new package of happiness is so big that I just want to bust out of work and get home to do my manicure.

Mind you I just did my manicure (I will have the nail of the week up tonight, I forgot my camera computer cord to upload the picture), so there really is no need to do my nails again. But I really want to try the new OPI Matte nail polishes.

I have been waiting to try these since I heard about them. I only wish that they had a Matte black nail polish color. But I guess we can’t have everything. Or I can just go and buy the Zoya Matte nail polishes. Zoya’s collection of Matte nail polishes only has three colors. The colors are black, red and like dark grey color one. You can go see the swatches at the Nail Juice blog. I believe that MAC Cosmetics is also going to come out with their own black matte nail polish. But I cannot remember right now, I will look into that and let you know.

I do not have a picture of my little package because like I stated before I left my camera computer cord at home but I will add the picture of my nail polish haul later tonight when I get home.

What is your take on this new Matte Nail polish trend for the fall?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

My Nail Polish Collection

Here is my army of nail polishes:
ATTACK!

I was trying to take a picture of everything. I will see if I take smaller group picture's. Let me know if you want a closer look of something or if you want me to swatch anything.


Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Hey! Get in Lime!

Nail Polish Brand: OPI
Color: Hey! Get in Lime! 3 coats

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I totally missed out on MAC's Peppermint Patti nail polish from the Sugar Sweet collection. But I have OPI's Hey! Get in Lime! which I think is a very close duplicate. I also have Orly's Mint Mojito but in my opinion this OPI nail polish is closer in color to Peppermint Patti.

Want a picture to compare the two? Go to Nail Juice's blog and check out her swatch of the Peppermint Patti nail polish.

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl

Nail of The Week

Nail Polish Brand: OPI
Color: Big Apple Red (Two Coats)

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Base: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Base

Until next time, Ciao!! xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl

Nail of The Week

I decided to bust out with an OPI nail polish from their Russian Collection:




Nail Polish Brand: OPI
Color: Russian Navy (Two Coats)

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Base: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Base

Until next time, Ciao!! xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl