Hello Berry Patch!  So after my failed attempt at a Cal Bears themed mani a couple weeks ago, I wanted redemption!  I still went with something pretty simple in terms of technique, but much more true to the UC Berkeley colors.  And this is now officially my most expensive manicure to date, haha.

Cal’s colors are a darker Blue and Gold.  So this time I used OPI’s Dating a Royal for my blue base.  And even though the color worked out perfectly, I am not a fan of this formula.  It’s almost like a mix between a creme and a jelly polish.  The first coat was extremely thin and streaky, but after the second coat it was opaque.  Then I went with something extravagantly perfect for a blue and gold manicure – my Rococo Nail Apparel real 24K Gold Leaf Lacquer!  What could be more perfect, right?  This is basically a clear topcoat with flakes of gold floating in it.  If you let this polish just sit, all the flakes sink down to the botton.  So I was constantly shaking this polish upside down in between nails.  And there is a lot of fishing required to get those gold flakes out.  But the work is worth it, because it is just so awesome and luxurious.  And of course, when I finally gave up and just wanted to smooth things out with some of the clear, I got tons of gold haha.

I LOVE the way this manicure turned out!  It totally achieved the look I was originally going for – redemption accomplished  In terms of wear, the free edges didn’t do too bad.  But I did have two big chunks flake of the side of my thumbs around the 5th day.  Overall it did ok (though not as good as other OPI polishes).  And I don’t know what it was, but I had a bit of a difficult time removing this polish.  Not like you would with a glitter mani – the gold flakes weren’t a problem – it was almost like the clear part of the gold leaf polish was super thick and it took a while for the nail polish remover to eat through it.  So if you feel like treating yourself to something special and golden pick up one of the trendy gold flake topcoats that are out now (Sephora by OPI and Zoya both have one now).  Unfortunately I had been on a wait-list forever for this polish and of course it came in stock right before all the other versions came out in the US :/ (But at least the gold flakes are much larger in this brand and they are 24K instead of 18K – justified right, haha?)

Products used:

• Zoya Anchor Basecoat ~ average $5.00
• OPI Dating A Royal ~ average $7.50
• Rococo Nail Apparel Gold Leaf Lacquer ~ 35 Euros (only available online at Cult Beauty)
• Seche Vite Top Coat ~ average $4.50
• **All prices base on current Amazon prices unless otherwise noted.

Thanks for reading, I post every Sunday, Wednesday and occasionally on Fridays.  And please don’t forget to “like” my Facebook page for extra news!  I also have a Tumblr and a “nail ideas” board on Pinterest.com under the user name “berrybear”.

~ A. Berry

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2012 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Creme Finsih, OPI, Rococo Nail Apparel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.