Guest Post by RiaG Polishaholic: OPI Liquid Sand Nail Art

Hi there folks! If you didn't hear, my swatching hand is out of commission right now so I am having some of my lovely blogger friends guest post for a while. Today's post is from RiaG from the Polishaholic blog. Her blog name is close to my other gal pal Jen of The PolishAholic, but she is a separate entity so don't get confused. She hails from Finland and has gorgeous long, luxe nails. I'm mega jealous, I wish I had her beautiful nails! She put together a beautiful nail art post for your entertainment. Thanks Ria! Enjoy :)

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Hello everyone! I'm RiaG and I'm so honored to be doing this guest post for you today. Since I've mostly done swatches lately I decided to take this opportunity to do some nail art with OPI Liquid Sand polishes. I used OPI Pussy Galore, Magazine Cover Mouse and some blue masking tape to create this manicure.

I started off by cutting some pieces of blue masking tape and placing those on my nails. I made sure the tape was attached to the nail well enough and there was no wrinkles. I have a thin UV-gel layover on my own nails to protect them so I don't need to use a base coat. On natural nails you should always use base coat and allow it to dry completely before the taping part.

Next I applied two coats of OPI Pussy Galore and immediately removed the tapes. You have to be fast with removing the tapes or the lines won't look crisp. A pair of tweezers can be helpful. After I had all the tape pieces removed I allowed the polish to dry for a while.

Now the first part of this manicure was dry and I had naked parts on my nails where I removed the tapes from. So I took a small nail art brush, dropped some OPI Magazine Cover Mouse on a piece of foil and started carefully filling those naked spots. You need a steady hand and a fine brush to do this part :) I took a new, fresh drop of polish and cleaned the brush with acetone for each nail. After all the naked areas had been covered I let the manicure dry and I was done.

Very easy, quite quick and I really like how it turned out. When I first saw swatch photos of these textured polishes like OPI Liquid Sands I was feeling a bit meh about them. Then I decided to give one a try and I was hooked. I love how they look alone and they are also great for a lot of different nail art designs.

I had fun writing this guest post for you today and I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading :)

Love,

RiaG

Where to find RiaG Polishaholic

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OPI - What Wizardry Is This?

I showed you the OPI Soft Shades collection Oz the Great and Powerful a while ago, but omitted one polish from my post as I wasn't satisfied with the photos I had gotten of it. I have tried again and am moderately happy with the results so here they are.

OPI What Wizardry Is This is one of their texture polishes called Liquid Sand. It's crazy glittery, made up of olive, bronze, gold, and brown and some red bits. It dries down to an almost matte gritty sandy finish. The appeal of these type of polishes for me is that you don't have to be as worried about messing them up. This is two coats. 

Press Sample

Top coat totally changes up the look of these polishes, which is awesome. This is one coat of Seche Vite over WWIT. You can see the immense POW of the sparkle and the incredible depth that the shininess gives the polish. There are a lot of texture polishes that I prefer to leave alone but this is one that I definitely like more with top coat. 

OPI nail polish can be found in pro salons, Ulta, Dillards, JC Penney's etc. for $9. What do you think of the texture trend? Do you have this polish? Which way do you prefer it, matte/gritty or shiny/smooth?

Product samples were provided for consideration.

Coral and Golden Sand

This mani was inspired by a fellow blogger, HeartNat. It is Essie Come Here from their 2013 resort collection with an accent of OPI Honey Ryder from the new Bond Girl collection on my ring finger. The gorgeous bright coral of Come Here is incredibly hot and I think it's perfect for sunny weather. I used two coats of the gorgeous creme. Honey Ryder has a liquid sand finish and is a sparkling mid-tone gold that is blingy and gritty in an awesome kind of way. Two coats as well.

Press Sample

The combination of gold and coral and the juxtaposition of the smooth and gritty textures is exciting and quite pleasing to my eye. I picked up the Essie at my local CVS for about $8 and the OPI was provided for my consideration, but I believe you can pick it up at Ulta and other salon locations for around $9. How do you like this pairing? 

Some of the products pictured are samples provided for consideration.