Sephora by OPI Metro Chic Dupes

I'd describe Metro Chic as a muddy grey-ish purple--it really depends on the light, as you can see in the different pics above.  At first I didn't understand the hype about Metro Chic, but once I tried it out I loved how it was subtle and work appropriate.  It matches with almost everything and it's a little more unique than the traditional neutrals.

Unfortunately, I was less than thrilled with the streaky application, which I thought was atypical for Sephora by OPI polishes.  I don't know if it was the formula or the super skinny brush, but I got so frustrated I decided to go on a quest for a drugstore dupe with the same color, smoother formula, better brush, and lower price.  More details after the jump.

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Pink & Red Valentine's Day Mani

I wanted to try out some of my new polishes in a Valentine's Day look so I used two Confetti colors, Crimson Cutie and Party Hearty.  Crimson Cutie is a bright shimmery red and Party Hearty is hot pink with a touch of gold shimmer.  To get the half red / half pink look, I painted my entire nail with the pink first and then layered the red on top of one side.  Then I stamped the heart design from fauxnad plate M21 using white Konad polish.

Zig Zag Tape Manicure Tutorial

Here's another mani using U-Concrete-Me:

I created the zig zag pattern by using tape and included a step by step tutorial after the jump:

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shades U-Concrete-Me with Ribbon Tip

For the look above, I used U-Concrete-Me from shades (Barielle).  It's a nice medium dark grey that dries a little darker than the color in the bottle.  For the black and white ribbon accent, I painted layers of overlapping black and white. This would have been a whole lot easier with striper polishes but I couldn't find mine at the time.  The black is Misbehaving Mistress from shades and the white is China Glaze White on White.  Here's a step by step wheel if you're interested in trying it out:

Hope that helps!  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions / comments.