NOTD: Milani's Gems over OPI's Ski Teal We Drop

I am definitely in the Christmas spirit - I LOVE this season! And this year I am going all out on my nails as much as possible. So when I went to CVS a week or so ago, I picked up Milani's Gems polish. I heard that it's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday polish. All I know is it's gorgeous - and as soon as my current polish started to chip and I had a free moment, I knew I had to use this polish!

I wanted to layer it over something, and chose OPI's Ski Teal We Drop. I don't know about you, but I think it works beautifully :) But still, tell me what you think!

Gems was fairly easy to apply - with one coat you could still see a bit of the color underneath. With one swipe of the brush it laid down a lot of the pieces. I had to keep dipping the brush back into the bottle to get more of the glitter since - and I hate this about the Milani polishes - the brush is SO thin. You do have to do a bit of placing the brush in the areas where it's lacking glitter, but they drop down easily and in large bunches - which I like a lot :) Overall, I would definitely use this polish again. Next time I'll probably just use it on it's own and layer it a few times. Love it!

What would you layer this over? Or would you wear it on it's own? Thank you so much for stopping in to read this! :)

NOTD: OPI's Ali's Big Break (Burlesque Collection Holiday 2010)

Last night I painted my nails with OPI's Ali's Big Break. What a gorgeous, refreshing color!




Pardon the crap paint job - I painted my nails in an hour cause I really just wanted to see how quickly I could get it done - which was quite amazing actually. Thank you Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat for that!




The polish went on like a dream. So opaque - if I were really in a rush, I would have been satisfied with one coat. Yes, it was that good. My favorite thing about OPI nail polishes is the brush. It's a nice, wide brush which makes painting each nail faster and easier. Love it!



Overall I am very satisfied with this nail polish :) What do you think?

Review: Orly Sec N' Dry Quick Deep-Dry Topcoat

As far back as I can remember, I have had one main issue with painting my nails - bubbles. Yes, that's right. Bubbles. No matter how long I wait to let each coat of polish dry, I will have at least 3-5 bubbles on each nail. And I will \wait for hours between coats. No luck! A picture to show you the infamous bubbles below (I am wearing "Awakening" from China Glaze)



So, if you were to take that into account and then I were to tell you I found a top coat that.. wait for it... actually will erase any bubbles in my nail polish AND dry my nails in 20-25 minutes, you must figure that was a good day for me! ;)

Obviously, by the title you know the product I'm talking about is Orly's Sec 'N Dry Quick Deep-dry Topcoat. I got it from my local Sally's Beauty for about $6.99.





This weekend I was at a friend's house and we bought some new polishes. I wanted to test the topcoat's drying abilities. I did 1 coat of my Nail Tek Maintenance Plus I basecoat. Waited 5 minutes. Next I applied 1 coat of Sinful Colors in Fried Rice. Waited 5-7 minutes. No bubbles showed up, so I then applied another coat, waited 5 minutes. Again, no bubbles yet. Then I applied the Orly topcoat.

We all go through the odd claw time when we are waiting for our nails to dry, haha. I do the same and even when my nails were dry even down to the base coat after 20 minutes, I am so used to being careful with my nails I kept my claws going. Ah, oh well. They were so dry that I even opened a can of soda - NO DENTS. I then intentionally clicked my nails on top of each other, pressing very hard - NO DENTS. And the best part? I woke up the next morning with no pillow impressions. Here it is after it dried:



So clearly I am in love with this topcoat. But there is one thing that I hate about it. I painted my nails Saturday night, and I had my first chip on Monday. So the topcoat doesn't seem to protect against chipping. But I think next time I'll try putting down my Nail Tek before the Orly topcoat to see if that helps to make it last. Why go through so much trouble? Because I seriously love not having to worry about painting my nails and dealing with the bubbles.



I'll be honest though, this is the first fast dry top coat I've tried. I MIGHT try another one if and when I run out of Orly, so I'll try to keep my options open. I know tons of people adore the Seche Vite fast dry topcoat, but I think I've found what I've been searching for in a topcoat! :)

Thanks so much for stopping in to read this - tell me what you think! :)