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Water marble win!

Water Marble win!

Hi polish lovers!  I HAD to share one of my favorite, and most successful manicures to date!   If you're unfamiliar with water marbling, but want to try, I suggest you tubing a video before you begin. 
For this one, I used a base color of Color Club's "Sweet Pea" from the blossoming collection released this spring.  The turquiose is Zoya's "Wednesday", also from this Spring, and the blue is Barry M "Indigo". 

The real win here is the accent dots, in my opinion.  I first saw this in a facebook group called "Polish-aholics Anonymous".    I couldn't find the original, but this just elevates the look so much.   I will probably almost always dot my marbles from now on. 

Thanks for reading!

OPI Black Spotted - three ways

If you aren't an avid nail blog stalker, chances are you don't know about this little beauty.   Originally only released in France (though now appearing in some Holland Sephora stores), Black Spotted replaced the crackle polish that came out with OPI's Spiderman collection.   My friend Candice in France was kind enough to snag one for me, and I am obsessed, to say the least.   

Let me show you why:

This is OPI Black Spotted over Zoya Poppy.   

Like "shatter" or "crackle" effect nail polishes, it is meant to be applied in a single, quick layer over completely dry polish.  The spotted effect is random and mesmerizing.   Black Spotted paints out almost like a watercolor, not like traditional nail polish, and a very thin coat is suggested. 

This one is pretty addictive, so of course I had to explore other layerings.  I googled, and couldn't find a single image of OPI Black Spotted over glitter.   So I dug out a really sparkly one - Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe.   It took four coats to get good coverage of that one alone, but the effects were worth it.  

 (Sorry, my camera likes to be cruel.  "Oh, you thought your cuticles were moisturized and that you did a good clean up job?   Suckaaah!)

(detail)

The most recent way I've worn it, though, is over a good duochrome.  I'd love to have painted it out over OPI's green Just Spotted the Lizard, but I don't have it.  So I pulled out one of my precious favorites, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Amber Ruby.   This polish shifts depending on the light, from a golden saffron to a crimson fuschia color.  

Observe:

I painted in different directions on my left hand, to see if altering the brush stroke would change the spotty effect.   It did, but not enough to warrant the mess it made IMO.  But, if you'd like to try, here are the results - with arrows indicating the direction of the brush stroke.

I hope that OPI chooses to release this in the US, and that they release it in more colors as well.   Do you love it?  Which layering is your favorite?  Thanks for reading!