Tag Archives: OPI

Nail Art Tutorial: Fried Egg Nails

Egg Nails Tutorial, Pictures & Swatches If you follow Swatch And Learn on Twitter, you’ll know that a few days ago, I woke up in the morning with a strong craving for chili. Very unusual considering I like having eggs for breakfast.

Today, I decided to pay tribute to one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast…because sometimes I’m a bit of a goofball. Normally I like scrambled eggs, but I thought that a fried, sunny-side-up egg would look cuter and less like polish poo-poo. (Yes, I am also apparently very mature, which is why I said poo-poo. And which is why I also said it a second time.)

Hope you have fun looking at my silly Fried Egg Nails! It was really simple to do, and I’ve explained it all step-by-step alongside visual aids in case you’d like to try it, too.

If you try your hand at it, maybe you could also add some bacon! (With all the scented polishes out there, it’s too bad there isn’t a bacon-scented one…although I’m not sure if I would want to smell like bacon all the time. The neighborhood dogs might chase after me…) Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Strawberry Nails

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Easy Strawberry Nail Tutorial For a long time, I’ve been wanting to create Strawberry Nails. Not only am I a huge fan of the fruit, but I am a child of the 80s and was in love with Strawberry Shortcake!

Then on Tuesday, I came across an absolutely adorable strawberry manicure on one of my favorite nail blogs ever – Steph’s Closet! (Steph is a real sweetheart & I’ve followed her blog for years.)

She makes everything look easy, and she is the Queen of Polka Dots…hehe! (Check out the link to her strawberry nail post at the bottom of mine. If you stop by, tell her that Mary sent ya!)

For these strawberry nails, I wasn’t sure which pink polish to use. But then the Nail Polish God spoke: China Glaze Strawberry Fields! (I love it when lacquer makes the choice obvious for me…hehe!)

Then, for the dots and leaves, I used a mixture of OPI, Zoya, and Konad polishes.

Further along in this post, I’ve included a tutorial with step-by-step instructions and photos in case you want to put your own spin on this.

I’m having a lot of fun doing fruit nail art. What do you think of my strawberry nails? Would you like to see me attempt other fruit-inspired manicures? I’d love to try more! Continue reading →

Canada Day Nails: Using OPI Red Shatter, OPI White Shatter, OPI Alpine Snow & Nubar Sensual Red (Review & Swatches)

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Canada Day Nail Art Swatches Using OPI Red Shatter & OPI White Shatter Polish Today is Canada Day – our country turns 144 years old! (That’s a lot of candles on the birthday cake!) What better time than to have Canada Day Nails?

Swatch And Learn is proudly a Canadian blog, but we get more visitors from the United States than from Canada interestingly enough!

And we also have many wonderful visitors who reside outside Canada and the United States.

We’re very grateful that you turned to Swatch And Learn for honest reviews, makeup swatches, and funny little anecdotes sprinkled throughout.

So, wherever you are, let’s celebrate the holiday together!

Since red and white are the patriotic colors of Canada, I thought that this was only fitting to finally crack out my bottles of OPI Red Shatter, OPI White Shatter, Nubar Sensual Red, and OPI Alpine Snow. Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Rainbow Crackle Konadicure (Using Bundle Monster Image Plate BM-208, Konad Special Nail Polishes & OPI Alpine Snow)

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Rainbow Crackle Nail Art Tutorial A lot of people are over crackle polishes because every company is putting out the same colors. It’s becoming a game of copycat.

But I’m still on the Crackle Caboose! Although, I did feel the need to do something different by creating this Rainbow Crackle Konadicure.

I made use of Konad Special Nail Polishes, Bundle Monster Image Plate BM-208, and OPI Alpine Snow.

This is the first time that I’ve used more than one stamping color on the same image. And I’m pleased with how it turned out, even though it’s not perfect. Reminds me a bit of a painting because of the way some of the colors bled.

What do you think of this rainbow crackle manicure? Still sick of the crackle trend? Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Watermelon Nails (Using Nubar Fire Sparkle, China Glaze Watermelon Rind, OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Black Onyx & Orly Nail Guides)

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Summer Watermelon Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches My past 5 consecutive blog posts have all been about nail polish, and this lacquer train isn’t stopping yet!

Whenever nail polish is concerned, I find it incredibly fun and creative. Hope you do, too. Have you done any nail art?

Since we’re entering summer soon and since I wanted to bust out several colors I bought a long time ago, I thought it was a good time to share my Watermelon Nail Art with you.

I almost didn’t post it because it turned out verrrry sloppy. But, y’know what? It’s not about having the perfect manicure. It’s about having fun and realizing that as long as you enjoy wearing it, that’s all that matters. 🙂

Sure, it’s definitely not the neatest. And I had to use a dotting tool instead of a proper striping brush or nail-art pen (hence the shaky white lines and crappy black seeds). But the results still brought a smile to my face and made me want to eat some watermelon.

If you try this, please share your photos of it with me. I love seeing other people getting creative!

Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the tutorial section where I show you step-by-step how I created this look. And let me know if you have some tips and tricks to share. I’m always trying to improve. Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Archie Comic Nails

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Archie Comic Nail Art Swatches When I was in elementary school, I enjoyed reading Archie comic books. Veronica Lodge was my favorite because she was a snotty, wealthy woman with an extensive wardrobe. And she was the drama queen! Of course, she often had to be taught the lesson of humility and generosity.

My least favorite character was probably Moose because dumb jocks never appealed to me. And I really didn’t like Betty Cooper because she was such a goody-goody who often got upstaged.

Who’s your favorite and least favorite Archie character?

So when I came across a comic nail tutorial on YouTube by cutepolish, I was excited to try my hand at it. Unfortunately, my Archie Comic Nails didn’t turn out well. But I’m still sharing my failure with you because it could help you achieve better results after learning about my mistakes.

I’ve also included my comic nail tutorial and cutepolish’s YouTube video at the end of this post in case you’d like to try it yourself! Continue reading →

OPI Vodka & Caviar Swatches & Review

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OPI Vodka & Caviar Swatches smaller As many of you know, I tend to wear more reds around Christmas, but hardly any during the rest of the year. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some reds that make my heart beat faster and my pupils dilate.

Even though OPI churns out a lot of reds, OPI Vodka & Caviar is one of the few that I’m highly impressed with because it has a glossy, perfect formula.

I’ve worn this a few times, and the strange thing is that I keep forgetting how awesome it is. Then I’ll wear it and think, “I should wear this more often!”

Aside from festive red glitters, OPI Vodka & Caviar is my favorite red. Why? There are tons of red creme polishes out there, but this, my fellow nailphiles, is a saturated red jelly polish!

Maybe it’s because I don’t wear many red nail polishes, but whenever I wear Vodka & Caviar, I think it looks very classy…traditionally feminine.

Plus I get a kick thinking that I have ‘vodka’ and ‘caviar’ on my nails. How absolutely decadent, dahhhling! Hehe…but no, I’ve never eaten caviar. Fish eggs are too rich for my blood. Nail polish is not. Continue reading →