Friday, February 13, 2009

Valentine's Day Manicure Ideas from Nicole by OPI

Tomorrow is Valentine's day... Have you decided on your Valentine's Day mani yet?

I haven't! I'll probably do something really cheesy with hearts and cherubs and glitter, but I can't decide!

If you're still looking for ideas, Nicole by OPI released some really cute colors for Valentine's Day.


Have A Heart, Love Your Life, I've Got The Power, Keep It Real


I apologize in advance for the quality of these swatches. It was rainy and dark when I took these pictures, so they're a little dark and blurry. The colors are still accurate to real life.



Keep It Real. A really pretty metallic bright red. The metallic finish on this polish makes it look really glowy!

And, for a little more fun, layer it with Have A Heart!


Have A Heart over Keep It Real. Have A Heart is a clear base with a slight reddish tint, but it's loaded with iridescent pastel glitter and red heart-shaped glitter. This is one coat, but if you want more glitter, you can build the amount with additional coats.


I've Got The Power. A metallic magenta! Super hot, and very similar to the discontinued Urban Decay polish O. I love metallics. This is quite flashy.

Not cool enough? Try layering it with Love Your Life!


Love Your Life over I've Got The Power. A clear base with pink tint packed with iridescent pastel glitter and baby pink heart shaped glitter. Yes, I know this picture is very blurry, but it shows the flash of the glitter better that way! You can see that it changes from orange to blue to light green, purple, pink, whitish... So pretty. The glitter in Love Your Life is a lot more dense than in Have A Heart, so just one coat is necessary for a twinkly, fairy-like glitter look.


Now, there is a trick to applying these. First, apply as many coats of the polish as needed to achieve the glitter look you want. Some of the hearts may transfer onto your nail, but most likely they won't.

Next, take a toothpick and go fishing for hearts. It is much, much easier to pick them out of the bottle with a toothpick or an orange stick than it is to try to paint them on with the brush. Get the heart onto the end of the toothpick and gently press it onto your nail. You can play with placement a little bit, but if your polish is wet I wouldn't try to move it around too much.

Repeat with as many hearts as you want and then seal it with your favorite topcoat.

I think these are super cute and I adore the fun shaped glitters. I wish they would do more of these! How about a green shamrock-shaped glitter for St. Patrick's Day? Maybe little Christmas trees or stars for winter?

Anyway, metallics plus iridescent glitter equals totally eye-catching nails!

31 comments:

  1. those are pretty Scrangie!!

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  2. Scrangie you are a manicure genius. I love both and I couldn't decide which I loved better.

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  3. OMG I love these. They look so cute!
    Can I ask where can I get these Nicole by OPI polishes? ^_^

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  4. Thank you so much for the tips!

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  5. Where did you find these? I've been looking and can't find them. :(

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  6. OMG thank you for the toothpick idea!! I have been beating my head against the wall trying to get the little hearts out of the bottle. Great idea.

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  7. I love it!
    I had a bottle of nail polish from Maybelline with Hearts like that a few years ago and I couldn't figure out how to get them out on my nails and threw the bottle away in frustration. I am soooo happy you suggested toothpicks! I feel like a dork for not thinking of that.

    I think I've seen Nicole at Target, I'll have to go look for these metallics. I'm a metallic fan :)

    Thank you for your swatches!

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  8. Ditto what Katee said. Thanks!

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  9. Very pretty! I picked up a cheaper version of this from Wal-Mart, Love my Nails and they work pretty well.

    P.S.I gave you an award in this post. B/c u r awesome and you helped me come about in this crazy blog world! Thank you.

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  10. My local Wal-Mart has these as well. From a lot of online chatter, it seems like a lot of people are having people finding them.

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  11. I have the Maybelline ones already and the Nicole hearts are on the way. I have been having great fun with the hearts. I seriously was thinking about shamrock polish today. Blingy brain sharing!

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  12. Very hot! Thanks for doing what you do! Happy Val Day. I'm diggin' I've Got The Power. You got the power.

    Scott

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  13. Hi Scrangie!
    I love these; the colors are really pretty and the layered glitter coat makes the mani really cute.

    I was also wondering if you've tried Nubar's Moodies? What do you think of them? They sound pretty cool to me but I want to know if they actually work. :)

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  14. These are soo pretty!! :) I am loving the colour of the metallic polishes, but can't get Nicole in UK, do you know any sort of dupes for these?..

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  15. Very cute! And I loved the red one all by itself! Great glow in it!

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  16. Very pretty. I just went to Walgreens and bought some shamrock polishes that were on display for sinful colors. One is a really neon green called Irish Green and a glitter polish with(kinda chunky) green, purple-blue glitter together. I think it will look very nice on top of the Irish Green.

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  17. Oh...the glitter polish is called Green Ocean.

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  18. So pretty:)
    Happy V-day my dear<3

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  19. hey! LMN makes star glitter t/c :)

    It's at walmart

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  20. how cute! Those heart glitter polishes are just perfect for Valentine's day

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  21. I really love the metallics, I live in the UK so don't know where to get nicoles.

    Lena-Elvira, OPI have released a whole valentine glitter collection in Europe which have the 2 heart glitters and four other glitter colours. lenawhite.co.uk and slapiton.tv sell them.

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  22. Dee, very pretty, even my Mom liked them :)

    Lucy, thank you! I love them both, the combo of metallic with the hearts is so adorable!

    Wei, my Target and Meijer grocery stores carry them, but sometimes they are in weird places in the store, not near the polish!

    Casey, you're very welcome!

    J, it's really hit or miss :( They are often on a display in a different department, near the pharmacy or seasonal section at drugstores/grocery stores

    Katee, haha you're welcome! It makes it *so* easy!

    Phyrra, oh I have some of those Maybellines, they were so cool! I have one with little flowers in it too :)

    Alex, anytime :)

    Nessa, the Love My Nails ones are awesome! and awwwwe thank you :)

    Deb, ooh thanks for the tip! Nicoles can really be hard to find :(

    Tarotbydiana, haha awesome! Great minds think alike :D I love all these fun shaped glitters, I'm always on the lookout for fun ones!

    Scott, thank you :) I wish you and your lady a very happy Valentine's Day :)

    Molly, I have quite a few Nubar Moodies, and while the colors and formula are fabulous, I haven't been able to get them to change colors :( I need to play around with them a little more to see what works. Great colors, even if they don't change :)

    Lina-Elvira, awwe I'm sorry! Love My Nails and Maybelline both have dupes (or at least similar style) polishes to these :) And I think you lovely UK ladies are getting that special OPI glitter collection like this!

    Sminkan, thank you gorgeous :)

    Rmcandlelight, oooh I just got those! They are so cool! I'm glad you were able to find them :)

    Sanna, happy Valentine's Day to you, darling :) *hugs*

    Raeyi, they are so awesome! I think I have all of them, they're sooooo cool! I wore the red white and blue one on 4th of July :)

    Stefanie, aren't they adorable?? I'm such a sucker for cutesy seasonal things lol

    Alison, I might be able to get a list of Nicole International retailers, I'll see what I can find!

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  23. Thanks that would be great, if you find that they aren't available in the UK then could you recommend any dupes of those gorgeous metallics? You're the best, many thanks!

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  24. Alison, I will see what I can find :) I can't think of any dupes off the top of my head, but in the meantime you should check the red/pink sections on NailGal to find similar polishes :)

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  25. Wow! Keep It Real makes a guy wish he could wear red.
    But it looks soooo great on your nails Scrangie!

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  26. Hi Scrangie,

    thank you for the wonderful swatches! I recently started taking care of my nails, trying to grow them and keep them beautiful, and I loooove your blog!

    Anyway, I am writing because I was just at Walgreens and they have a St. Patrick's day polish set by Sinful that has a plain, green creme, and a glittery one similar to the Nicole with hearts. I couldn't tell if the glittery one has shamrocks in it, but it looked pretty fun anyway!

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  27. Oops, I just read the comments and saw rmcandlelight and you already have those! Duh... Do you like them? Can you post a pic sometime?

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  28. Hi Scrangie:)

    Discovered you through Fifty Cent Head- I did this with the Maybelline polish with the glitter hearts. I posted a vid of how I got the hearts:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sctZhE6hsX4&feature=channel_page

    Love the blog, great pics!

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  29. I bought "love your life" within the past month and it's really nice and fun to play with, but REALLY REALLY goopy and gross :( I love it so much, but it's a pain in the ass to apply! it generally layers on my nail all nasty like and makes my nail obviously larger than it is D: do you have any tips to help me thin this out without buying nail polish thinner? hahahahaha is there anything I can do?!

    also, totally off topic- poupee! I've had mine for about two months and I'm in love with it. I'm sure you'd love website this too! you could get pretty far considering all the polish you have :D and what a great place to keep swatches! you make a little mini-you and dress it up :) here's mine: http://pupe.ameba.jp/profile/wpOP4oniT0FR/

    thank you :3

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  30. Jason, if you like red, wear it! Guys can wear anything :)

    Leticia, thank you so much! I purchased them and I like them :) I will post pictures as soon as I am able to!

    The Home Spa Goddess, I'll check it out :)

    Kristina, OMG that site is adorable!! I love it, thank you!

    As for the polish problem, well, hmm... You could try doing one extremely thin coat and then waiting a minute or two before doing the next one... But you probably do need some thinner if it's too thick :( You could try adding a little topcoat to the bottle- if the topcoat is really thin it will help thin the polish :)

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  31. do you have acrylic on in the nicole by OPI polish photos! if not then oooops!! you have such nice naturally thick nails... I am unfotunate to not be blessed with strong nails.. but I am working on getting there. I take prenatals (ttc our first) and my nails grow so freaking fast now!! it's nuts.. but a good thing.. Ihave tried ooodles of hardeners, from sally hansen, to opi.. and they did nothing for my naisl.. I keep em short, and let em be hw they want to be... ggggrrr! I have to deal with weak natural nails, on top of having trouble conceiving... ooh well,, at least I am alive!

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