Last Summer Manicure

With Fall fast approaching (September 23rd) this is may be my last summer manicure of the year. I do not paint my nails as often as I used to due to the horrible shape that they would be in from continuous use of nail polish and nail polish remover. I am wearing a nail polish by Essie, I do not know the name since the tag fell off the bottle. If you know it please let me know and I will update this post. The flower was made using Kiss Nail Art Stencils and Kiss Nail Art Polish.

Ignore my cuticals, lately nothing that I do seems to get them hydrated enough. Base coat bottom coat is the usual.

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Better Late Than Never

I was downloading pictures from my camera, when I happen upon a few pictures of my birthday manicure that I photographed in order to share with you guys the awesomeness that is Bring on the Bling and Rising Star from the OPI Burlesque collection. Of course I forgot about it, but that does not mean I cannot share it with you now. Right?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Earth Day and Zoya

For those of you that are nail fanatics like me. Zoya is having a special deal. Send in 6 unwanted nail polishes (that are not Zoya products) and they will send you six Zoya polishes of your choice. Just pay shipping. I know I have not had the greatest experiance with this brand. But I can get free nail polishes and get rid of the ones I do not like? Bring it on!

Here is the link: Zoya Nail Polish Exchange

So if you are a cheapo, nail polish fanatic, want to get rid of nail polishes you do not like, like the Zoya brand or want to try out the brand for the first time, this is as good a time as any to give them a try.

Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Delce de Leche

I wanted this nail polish for a while. I kept seeing the nail polish pop up on other nail blogs, dangling in front of my eyes like a carrot.

I finally got it. My nails are a mess at the moment, so I have not been painting my nails as much, trying to give them some time to breath. But I got tired of looking at my plain nails so decided to do a manicure using the polish.

Sorry for the crappy picture. I really need to take some time out and learn how to use my camera properly.

Nail Polish: O.P.I Dulce de Leche (3 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek, Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Hello.. Spring

It is officially Spring and it feels like Summer. I am sitting here on my sofa feeling like I am melting. I did my nails tonight with a Franken I did a few months ago with Spring in mind. I do not remember which nail polishes I used to mix it, but as soon as I remember I will update the blog.

Here it is in the bottle:

Here it is on my nails:
The Franken reminds me of O.P.I's Hey! Get in Lime! but with a more yellow undertone, which only leads me to believe I used a yellow nail polish to mix this. I tried to get a little creative and did a few stripes with white and silver Art Deco nail polish.

Speaking of Spring, another thing that screams Spring to me is Sakura (Cherry Blossoms). Here are some pictures by my wonderfully talented photographer boyfriend Mr.P (yes, I am a little biased but come on, look at those pictures!):
He woke up at 4:30 AM on Saturday to take those pictures. Now if only I can get him to blog and post more of his wonderful photos so that I can brag more about him.

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of The Week: Jade is the New Black

I ended up only with this nail polish and Suzi Says Feng Shui from the OPI Hung Kong collection. After looking at the swatches of the polishes on other nail blogs I decided I could live with out them.


My manicure did not come out that great. I messed up my nails twice on the table I do my nails on. Also my Seche Vite top coat is at the end of it's life and for some reason when it is finishing it clumps and bubbles and just plain makes my manicure not look all that great.


But even with all that, Jade is the New Black is a great color. I love the forest green with blue undertone color of the polish. It went on really smoothly, not too thick or thin. My nails look like jewels. I love it and highly recommend it. I am going to see about buying a different top coat and redoing this manicure in the very near future.




Nail Polish: OPI - Jade is the New Black from the Hong Kong Collection (2 coats)
Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat


What do you think?


Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl


PS: Do not forget about my giveaway.

Nail of The Day: Sugar High

This is the manicure I did while snowed in on Wednesday. This nail polish is called Sugar High from the China Glaze Up and Away collection.

It is a very pretty creme pink nail polish. It is a very bright, almost neon pink. So far I am really loving the nail polishes from this collection.

Nail Polish: China Glaze - Sugar High (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Ciao! Xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl

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 of the Week: Lincoln Park After Dark

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark nail polish is by far my favorite polish ever. In the picture below it looks brown. But this color is a deep rich burgundy, it almost looks black in real life. I will try and take a picture of it in natural light tomorrow and see if I can capture the color better.

Nail Polish: Lincoln Park After Dark (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

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 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 Week: Raven

During Thanksgiving Zoya had a sale on their nail polishes. I had never used this brand of nail polish so I thought this was a good of time as any to try them out. Well, so far I am disappointed.

This is Raven:

Per the Zoya website Raven is described as:

"Black with subtle cool shimmer metallic"

Here is my manicure:
What is wrong with this picture?

There is no shimmer. It is BLACK. No shimmer, no glitter, not a hint of any sort of sparkle. Oh, and they state on their website that:

"Zoya is the longest wearing nail polish on natural nails"

Well, they are WRONG. At least this particular nail polish is not long wearing. I painted my nails a few hours before I went to bed one evening and by mid morning the following day while at work I noticed that it was already chipping. I should really be calling this nail of the day not week since it did not even last 24 hours.

See the Chips?
How disappointing. Hopefully the other Zoya polishes I got will be better quality.

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: My First Franken

My first manicure of the new year is a nail polish mixed by me. For it being my first time I loved how the color turned out.

Here is my manicure:

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Polish made with these colors:
What I learned from this experience is not to put too much of the clear polish. Because I put so much it was really runny so I had to add more of the other colors. By the time I got it to the consistency I wanted I had practically used up the other two colors.

The only thing left to do is give it a name. Any ideas? I was thinking of calling it 2010 since it is the first Franken I have made and also the first polish I used this year. Does it sound too corny? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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

Nail of the Week: Swizzle Stix

Nail Polish Brand: Shades by Barielle
Color: Swizzle Stix (2 Coats)

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

I know this color is more of a color for Spring. But I was really in the mood to wear a nice baby blue. I also wanted to try out one of the Konad plates that I have. For my first time using Konad I did not do too bad.

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

PS: Tomorrow there will be a post about my first giveaway so make sure to stop by my blog tomorrow.

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