Stand By Your Manny - Nicole by OPI

Hope you are all having a lovely Easter break. I have to say the long weekend is super needed for study reasons etc. Today I have a polish that my most wonderful polish fairy Mimi (from Makeup Withdrawal) helped me to get. This is Nicole by OPI's 'Stand By Your Manny' from the Modern Family Collection...

I AM IN LOVE!! I am at my polish happiest when I have periwinkle polish in (on) my hands. This is no exception. It's so wearable and so pretty. I love that it's seems like a sort of pastel-leaning blue, but it's actually quite bright. So eye-catching. The silver shimmer is gorgeous in it too. It just adds that bit of extra dimension to the polish.


'Stand By Your Manny' was ever so slightly sheer but nothing too difficult to work with. I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Thanks so much Mimi for helping get my mits on this beauty!! You are amazing!

Polish Days: MAN-icure

My first Polish Days! I'm very excited to have finally joined up with this awesome idea. This months theme is MAN-icure in tribute to Movember. I instantly knew what my MAN-i would have to be, as it is something that I get teased about loving, due to its manly nature (according to my friends). One of my big loves in life is Formula 1, namely Sebastian Vettel.

For those of you that don't know, Vettel is the current world champion, having won the championship for the last two years in a row, so he is car number 1. The 1 on my ring finger is the one on his RB8 (car) this season. The water marble is taken from the Red Bull colours (his team).

This is a quick snap of my Red Bull cap. Unfortunately I got this before Vettel won the championship the first time so it has number 5 on it. Anyway you can see the colours of the team there nicely.

The final MAN-i that you have just seen was actually attempt number two... I originally wanted the bright yellow from the nose cone of the RB8 in the water marble, but it didn't quite work as I had wanted...

As you can see, the colours all sort of muddied together. Much as I don't hate this, I am glad I redid the two nails. I love how the F turned out in the top one anyway.


I used a whole lot of polishes for this MAN-i...
a-england - 'Excalibur' & 'Camelot'
OPI - 'Red Lights Ahead... Where', 'I'm Not Really A Waitress', 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue', 'No Room For The Blues', 'The 'It' Color'
Nicole by OPI - 'Listen To Your Momager'
Sally Hansen - 'White On'
Konad - Special White

If you have any questions about what I used where, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to tell you more :)

For the middle finger I used LeaLaC XL - B stamping plate and for my ring and pinky finger I used striping tape to get all the lines nice and straight.

I had lots of fun doing this MAN-i and it actually served as the perfect distraction to take my mind of the pain in my tummy while I was sick :)

If you want to sign up for the next Polish Days, hop over to Polly Polish for information.

Inspired by... Jean Paul Gaultier

I have something a little different today and it's something that I quite like. We all know that I'm a little lacking in the art department and to be honest the thought of it scares the living daylights out of me still. I think a main problem of mine is that I'm not a very creative person and so I think to myself, I should do some sort of nail art today... Then I'll sit for an hour desperately trying to think up a brilliant idea, meanwhile I've thought up a million reasons why I shouldn't do it and I end up painting my nails with one plain colour... So here's what I am trying to do now - I'm trying to find inspiration from what's around me, which is where todays mani comes in.

Sitting up on my bookshelf was one of Dan's old empty Jean Paul Gaultier bottles and for once I was hit with inspiration. So I grabbed my bottle of the same summer edition for Women (I think 2006?) and got painting.

Please excuse my over-zealous top coating, will I ever find the key to not smudging stamping?
I used Color Club 'Wicked Sweet' as the blue base (over white) and Nicole 'Paparazzi Don't Preach' for the peach accent (also on my thumb). I then used the saran wrap technique to dab on the clouds using OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls'. I added OPI 'Stranger Tides' to tie in the green of the kites with a tiny piece of sponge, then stamped using Konad Special Red polish. I used BM02 (I only used half of the image).

Alright, laugh it up!! I'm still getting my head around holding polish bottles and not looking terribly unco. Let's just say holding torso shaped bottles is not one of my best skills!

I love how this turned out and I think this inspiration thing is the way to go. Between The Boy and Me, we have a fair number of different editions of JPG perfume bottles and I am so much in love with every single one, so you will be seeing some more of these for sure.

Go Luigi! - Dollish Polish & One Big Happy Fame-ily - Nicole by OPI

I have another polish from the box of happiness that Mimi sent me. Today, it's 'One Big Happy Fame-ily' from Nicole by OPI. This is another Kardashian Kolor and this one is a CVS exclusive. If you follow me on instagram or twitter (@PinpointPolish), you may have seen that I received my Dollish Polish Super Mario Bros. Collection in the mail the other day. I originally wasn't planning on adding anything to this mani, but with the Mario polishes winking at me, how could I resist and 'Go Luigi!' seemed the perfect glitter to go with 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'.

'One Big Happy Fame-ily' is one super pretty polish!! I don't generally wear a whole lot of purple polish. I think I've said it before, it's not that I don't like purple polish (far from it actually), it just doesn't often call my name ;) Well this polish was not so much calling but screaming to be worn. The silver shimmer in it is so gorgeous and not at all shy. As for 'Go Luigi!'... let's just say I think I am in love with this combo.

'Go Luigi!' is a simple mix of bright green and blue hexes with some silver stars in there too. I was worried that the stars may be hard to get out, but these two fingers were my first painted and the stars just happened to come straight out of the bottle. My other hand doesn't have any stars on it, but that's ok too. On my ring finger is two thin coats and on my middle finger is one thin coat.

I love the finish in 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'. It's that same type of shimmer/fleck/...? that we have seen a bit of lately (seen in collections like OPI's Holland collection etc). Definitely one of my favourtie finishes.

In the macro, it looks like the glitters are curling slightly, but I have to tell you it's a trick of the light! They really aren't, I promise. The corners of the one of the stars is sticking up slightly but I really should have made sure it was stuck fast before letting it dry (I will know for next time), but this isn't a biggy at all. I just popped a couple of layers of top coat on and it was mostly tamed (the hexes were no problem under a couple of coats of my thin top coat). As you can see here, the stars are actually holographic (as if this polish needed any more to love).



'One Big Happy Fame-ily' was super easy to apply. It is a little bit sheer, but three coats give good opacity. The polish is not too thin or thick and flows on really easily. As for 'Go Luigi!', again nice and easy. I mentioned the stars earlier and to add to that, I think if you wanted stars on every nail, some fishing may need to be done, but there are lots in there so if you're happy to just get them when you get them (like I did), then you will certainly get some. The hexes applied perfectly, staying where they were put, but I did employ the dabbing method as the stars did want to stay on the brush a little. I did use fairly thin coats of it, this is the kind of glitter where it's really easy to get more or less glitter coverage depending on what you feel like. Overall, like I said earlier, I am absolutely in love with both of these polishes. Thanks again Mimi for sending me the loveliness that is 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'!!!

If you are wanting to get your hands on the Super Mario Bros. collection, you may be in luck as it will be on Llarowe today (Wednesday) at 1pm and 7pm MDT, though as usual they will fly out the door like hotcakes I'm sure.

Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam - Nicole by OPI & Heart Of Glass - Dollish Polish

I have been dying to try this Nicole by OPI polish since I got it so long ago but for some reason I didn't until now. This is 'Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam', one of the Kardashian Kolors released in 2011.

First up, apologies for the sorry state of my cuticles! I didn't realise they were so bad until I was going through these photos for this post! Anyway... 'Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam' is A-MA-ZING!!! This is without top coat and look how shiny! It's a gorgeous blackened tealy colour and oh boy do I just love it!

It can actually look quite green-y blue in certain lighting. The top photo shows the blackened side of it with this photo showing a bit more of the ocean blue/green. How the bottle looks in this photo is about as blue as it gets on the nail.



After I put this polish on, I wasn't satisfied and I had not long since received two more Dollish Polishes. I had seen 'Heart of Glass' on Nail Polish Anon over navy and knew more than ever that I needed that polish. So here I was with my new bottle of 'Heart of Glass' thinking I might have to go ahead and try it over 'Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam', seeing as it looked so perfect over navy on Michaela. By the way, if any of you haven't been over to Michaela's blog, you may want to get onto that :) She's a fellow kiwi blogger and her blog is awesome. She is possibly the most to blame for my new-found indie polish love!

It was such crappy weather the day I put this on and I took literally hundreds of photos trying to get even one that resembled just how freaking gorgeous this really was, but I didn't get any! You will have to take my word for it when I say this is a holographic glitter dream come true and even better in real life!

Isn't it perfect! And another reason why I love this, I have never really jumped on the whole bar glitter bandwagon as they make me think of something that I'm not going to get into here :p But I have to say the little bars in this are just right and I wouldn't have it any other way!

I just had to add in this macro. Don't you love the quirks that come with glitter polishes! Like that bunch of bar glitter where the cuts haven't separated them fully. It kept catching my eye :)

So there you have it, another post of polishes that I love! I promise I am capable of feeling other emotions, just not very often when it comes to polishes. It has become something of a challenge to me to find a polish that I put on and can truly say that I hate.

The formulas on both these polishes were also the stuff that dreams are made of! 'Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam' was so close to being a one coater and anyone with a steadier hand than me (not hard) could certainly make one coat work, I think. It's pretty thick but in the best way. Something else that I loved is that it was super forgiving. I was in such a hurry to get this polish on that I whacked it straight onto my strengthener without any base coat. The Essie strengtheners that I use have tended to make polish pull and do all sorts of weird stuff but this polish didn't care about any of that. It just spread itself onto my nails like butter on hot toast! As I said earlier, the photos up top are sans top coat and you can see just how shiny that bad boy is! 'Heart Of Glass' was also very easy! The shards did tend to settle pretty quick so make sure you give it a good mix. It was easy to get a good wash of the holo and bar glitter and all the glitters sat perfectly flat except one little piece on my thumb. I used a single coat of Essie 'Good To Go' on top.

'Khloé Had A Little Lam-Lam' is available in NZ at Farmers, Smith & Caughey and a bunch of pharmacies. 'Heart of Glass' can be purchased from Dollish Polish website, though not currently. I think Dolly is having a restock soon but unfortunately this won't be one of the polishes in this round.

Per Suede Me - Nicole By OPI

I have another one of Mum's polishes to show you all today. Another slightly less heard of polish from Nicole by OPI. This is 'Per Suede Me'.

'Per Suede Me' is a metallic grey/purple polish. It's a real chameleon! The colour ranges from looking quite silvery through a dark grey to purple. I didn't think I'd like this one as much as I do.

In bright sunlight, 'Per Suede Me' gives off a silvery/grey metallic look. It's still dark enough that it's very wearable though.

Yes, this is the same polish! This is 'Per Suede me' indoors in indirect sunlight. Everything becomes deeper and darker and gives a real purple look to the grey. The cooler tones really become the focus. This is how I like 'Per Suede Me' best.

In this close-up, you can see just how densely packed the tiny little sparkly particles are. There seems to be a whole rainbow in there! Isn't it amazing?


This was such a pleasant surprise for me. I'm not a huge lover of metallic looking polishes generally, but if I found more like 'Per Suede Me', I may well just change my mind! I was also pleasantly surprised by the application of this beauty. I thought brush strokes might be an issue, but that wasn't really the case at all. I did 3 coats and I think it needed it, as with 2 coats you could see just the smallest sign of VNL. Plus the third coat gave this polish a bit more depth and it all came alive that little bit more with that little extra opacity.

Nicole by OPI - Wear Something Spar-Kylie

When I first started collecting nail polish seriously, I never would have chosen a full-on glitter. But here we are about one year later and I'm showing you 'Wear Something Spar-Kylie' from Nicole by OPI's 'Kardashian Kolors' collection.

I love this polish! It's a little like the colour of watermelon flesh (thanks for that description Mum!). This is two coats of 'Wear Something Spar-Kylie' and it is very close to looking opaque. There is a very slight VNL (visible nail line) but I'm fine with that as it wasn't particularly obvious in person.

In indirect light, the polish appears a little more opaque and the colour deepens significantly. The pink becomes a lot redder and much richer.

Indoors and slightly more shaded, my nails now have become little disco balls! The larger glitter pieces are reflecting every bit of light they can find. The glitter appears much more silvery than in the previous photo where it seems more pink.

Finally, some macro goodness... You can see that there is plenty of medium pink hexagonal glitter along with small pink glitter. The glitter is all within this gorgeous pink jelly-like base.

Every time I look at this polish, I just end up thinking about candy! But for now lets think about the formula... The polish wasn't too thick but it was thick enough in that it was easy to get an even spread of glitter on the nail. One problem... I applied this in the afternoon and didn't do anything too drastic with my nails that night, but when I woke up in the morning I had a chip! I'm not ready to say this is a problem with this polish - I'd like to give it another chance. I have a feeling I may not have used the best top coat for a glitter manicure. I used Essie 'Good To Go' and it's a fairly thin top coat. I had to use two coats of top coat and it still was super gritty to the touch!! I think next time I might try a thicker top coat, maybe something like Sally Hansen's 'Insta-Dri'.

Nicole by OPI - Sea How Far You Go

My first nail polish swatches and review had to be something that I love and 'Sea How Far You Go' is definitely that. Nicole by OPI polishes were almost impossible to come by in New Zealand (except for the Justin Bieber collection) and had to be ordered online, but to my absolute delight (not so much to my wallet's delight) they are now available at Life Pharmacy and Smith and Caughey for $19.90. I picked up this beauty yesterday.

'Sea How Far You Go' is a beautiful gold and blue duochrome. Dan has named it "baby Chanel 'Peridot'" and I love that description. This polish has instantly become one of my absolute favourites!

This is 3 coats of colour and in some lights it is still ever so slightly see-through (though you would have to be peering at it with very beady eyes). You can notice the duochrome effect quite well here with the blue and gold shining through.

I love how subtle this polish is, yet when you actually stop to look at it, you see so much more than you'd ever have expected. I just keep looking and looking at it!

You can see here with backlighting that the gold is much more prominent than the blue, though the blue still peeks out from behind the gold, not wanting to be forgotten.

Finally for some close-up action of this beauty! I can't find a single thing not to love about this gorgeous polish.

As for the formula, it was a dream to apply even though the brush was so odd and will take a little getting used to. I should mention the 'New perfect stroke brush' that is in this polish is now in fact the "old perfect stroke brush". Any of the newer Nicole collections (like the 'Kardashian Kolors') have a much smaller and more normal brush. This brush is huge and paddle shaped and holds SOOO much polish that it's ridiculous. I have seen so many bad reviews of this brush and it was not actually anywhere near as bad as I was expecting, just different. For these swatches I used Essie 'Millionails' as my base coat and Essie 'Good To Go' as my top coat.