The Sugar Cube

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer - My So-Called Lacquer Layered Swatches

2012-03-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

Wow! Saturday's sales day was a record. Almost all of the lacquers I had sold out within 5 minutes! Crazy!

Remember when I said that the original swatches of the My So-Called Lacquer collection sucked? Well, today I was able to get much better swatches of them. These are all layered though. Tomorrow I plan to do swatches of them on their own so that you can see just how jellyish they are :)

Here's 2 layers of Jordan over Volts from Funky Fingers, which is a royal blue creme.

Here is 2 layers of Angela over Lacquered Up from Essie.

And 2 coats of Rayanne over Verbena from Sinful Colors.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer: My So-Called Lacquer On Sale NOW!

2012-03-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

The My So-Called Lacquer collection is finally up! Go buy them now!

The swatches I took of these are awful. I was under the impression that today was going to be nice and sunny out, but I was clearly wrong. I will absolutely be taking many more swatches of them once the sun decides to shine over Boston again though, because I promise you that these are far more impressive than the photos show. I'm looking at them on my coffee table next to me and at the risk of sounding like I completely self congratulatory jerk- I am pretty impressed with myself ;P The photos though? I am not impressed with.

As I stated in my last update, this release is very limited due to a lack of bottles. My shipment of those is due in on Wednesday though, so I expect to have more of ALL of my collections in stock next weekend.

Thank you! And happy shopping :P

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer: My So-Called Lacquer release date

2012-03-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hello :) I finally got my act together and all of the My So-Called Lacquer shades are in their bottles and ready to go. The only problem is that I don't have legit swatches of them yet, as the weather has been pretty crappy the last couple days. My weather dashboard widget tells me that tomorrow is mostly sunny though, so I'll get shots of them then.

The set time for them to be up in the shop is tomorrow, Saturday March 17th at approx. 3pm EST. I'll make an update here at that time to let you know they're up, and I'll also announce it on twitter.

I have to warn you that this release is VERY limited because I am dumb and ran out of bottles. I tried to order them in time but something funky happened with Paypal and my order ended up just going through last night. So...no bottles til probably mid-week. But once those are in I will be restocking with all of my current shades.

I am still working with a really small amount of base as well. I am anticipating a response from the supplier soon though. Please keep your fingers crossed that any hiatus I will be forced to go on is a short one!

In Unfortunate News...

2012-03-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

So...

The unfortunate news is that the supplier I use for the nail lacquer base has become overwhelmed with orders and does not have enough to supply everyone. I suppose this was bound to happen, as many new indie nail polish brands have popped up over the last few months and this supplier is pretty much the only one anyone knows of.

The semi-good news is that I received a very brief email response from the owner of the supply company and I do have some hope that I will be able to continue buying the base from her. I'm just not sure of how much I'll be able to buy...or when. All of us chicks on facebook are trying to come up with solutions should this supplier not be able to supply us any longer though. Hopefully a solution will be found.

Something will pan out. I'm not giving up on this. I worked too hard and I love it too much.

I have a limited supply of base right now. About enough to make 200 bottles or so. I'm not sure what to do with it at the moment, as I really really want to get the new collection out and I also want to make sure that the people who email me asking about current sold out shades can get them. I'm thinking of making a poll where you guys can vote on the shades you want me to make most and I'll do my best to churn those out in accordance.

On the bright(?) side of this-

If by chance I am forced to take a hiatus from selling the lacquer due to base shortage, it will give me some time to do a ton of experimenting and come back with some more badass shades for you :P What's that saying about lemons and lemonade...?

Ode to a Redhead

2012-03-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hello! Good news! About half of the orders placed so far are being picked up by the post today. The other half will be shipped out on Monday :)

There are still some lacquers left so go buy em!

Once everything is shipped out I can get to work on mixing the new collection and I'm pretty sure they will be up by/on Friday. The red toned one that is coming out? Her name is Angela and she is the one. She is seriously so damn beautiful and different and just...it. I've been wearing her on the regular for the last month or so and I'm not blowing smoke up your ass when I say that everyone notices her. The lady at the post office freaks out every single time I wear it. I have to give her a bottle this week for all of her hard work and patience with me :P

Something you might have guessed by now is that I'm obsessed with redheads. In fact, *I* am a redhead. Or at least I have been for the last 15 years or so :P I'm fascinated by red hair and the women who wear it. Molly Ringwald (obviously!), Claire Danes circa 1994 (again, obvious), and my absolute favorite- Shirley Manson from Garbage. This shade is certainly inspired by it and I hope that it shows!

One of the things that's so rewarding about making these lacquers is that I get to work off of concepts like that. I never go into my "lab" with no idea to work off of. I always have some kind of inspiration in my brain that I try to put into a shade. It's like art therapy (or not? I don't really know exactly what art therapy is, ha!). The downside to this is that I have SO many ideas that it's difficult to get them all out. If I made a lacquer for every idea I had, I'd likely have 50 collections :P

I've decided to work toward retiring a few shades in the near future because of this. I want to keep on making new things while keeping things manageable at the same time. The collection AFTER the My So-Called Lacquer collection will also likely be limited edition. This is just a heads up, as well as me kind of thinking out loud. I'll give everyone a fair warning before I make any final decisions on the matter though.

As always, thank you to everyone who has purchased my lacquers! Words cannot express how thrilled I am when someone tells me how much they love them.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer - Officially RESTOCKED!

2012-03-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

My balls came and I will be adding them to the bottles this evening :D As of now, the shop is open!

Click here to buy

Please keep in mind that processing may be a tad slower than usual (up until now I was shipping all orders within 2 business days) because I still have a bit of shaking to do and I do have a back injury that I am nursing so I'm trying to take things slower than normal in order not to aggravate it.

If the shade(s) you want are sold out by the time you get a chance to check the new shop out, fret not. None of them are limited editions and if I decide to discontinue any shades in the future I will give you plenty of notice.

Again, if you are planning to buy more than 7 bottles of lacquer, please email me first. Thank you!!!

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer: Restock Tomorrow

2012-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

So the balls did not arrive today like I was hoping, but in the worst case scenario, I WILL have balls by Thursday at the latest. Aside from that, the lacquers are made. All I gotta do is give them a few shakes and add balls. So tomorrow is going to be restock day anyway.

You will find the lacquers at NostalgicNailLacquer.com at approximately 4pm EST tomorrow (Tuesday March 6th).

Please read the following, as some of it is important:

- There are no more "sets" of lacquer. Each lacquer is being sold individually.

- Shipping rates are still the same, HOWEVER...

- If you plan to buy more than 7 lacquers, the appropriate shipping charge of $11.00 will not show up in your cart. It will still show up as $5.15. So if you are going to purchase more than 7 lacquers, please email me first? :) I promise I will accomodate you even if all of the lacquers show up as sold out. I make sure to keep a small amount of materials on hand in case of emergencies and situations like this.

- Please bear in mind that this is the first time I am using this new store, so I'm not 100% sure of how it spits it's information out on my end. I've heard great things about it from another girl in the nail community who gets a TON of sales though, so I don't anticipate any nightmares happening. I'm just giving you a heads up in case I start going crazy and you all wonder why ;) Seriously though, I *probably* won't go crazy.

A small note about the lacquers themselves, and The Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle collection in particular:

Without giving any of my secrets away (just kidding...they aren't really that secret) I will tell you that each lacquer is made in the bottle that it's sold in. They're made of matte pigments, suspension base, and white base (and glitter!). Because the pigments I use for them are deeply concentrated I use very little of them in each bottle. The tiniest scoop sold by TKB? Too big. So measurements are not exactly the same per bottle. I will promise you that I have never noticed a difference in shade once the lacquer is applied to my nails though, and I have tested to make sure this is true many times (although not with the bottles I send you of course).

I am telling you this not because I have ever had any complaints about the slight variations, but because I like to be 100% honest about my product. You, as a consumer, deserve that.

And with all of that said, I will see you tomorrow ;)

All of your questions...answered!

2012-03-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

I keep getting convo's on Etsy regarding when and where my lacquers will be sold, so I figured I'd make another post with a rundown on all of the info.

When can I buy your lacquers?
Hopefully on Tuesday (March 6th). I will make a blog post and update on twitter at least 8 hours in advance so that everyone has fair warning.

Where can I buy your lacquers?
As I stated in a previous post, I have decided to stop using Etsy for the time being. The new location of the shop is: Nostalgicnaillacquer.com. You will see that it's not functional yet, but I will take it out of maintenance mode as soon as the sale begins.

You promised you would set aside an order for me. What now?
The 2 or 3 of you who I promised orders to will get reserved listings on Etsy. I will message you on Etsy with the link to your listing. I didn't forget about you :)

What if I don't catch your sale? Will you reserve something for me?
Part of what makes Etsy difficult for me is the reserved listings issue. It makes it a bit difficult for me to keep track of inventory and sometimes people ask for reserved listings and then never purchase them (which costs me money). So at this point I cannot reserve anything for people. Perhaps when this learning curve is over for me I will be able to though!

Why are you leaving Etsy?
I'm not "leaving" per se. I am trying out a different method of selling my lacquers that appears to be much more cost effective. It's also easier for you to purchase my lacquers this way because you don't need an Etsy account to do so. We'll see how it goes :)

When is your new collection coming?
I know I have been teasing with the new collection FOREVER! But I swear they are coming next week. I have a whole bunch of base coming on Friday and all of it will be for the My So-Called Lacquer collection. After that I will make bunches of everything all together. I may even discontinue a few shades... But I will let you all know well in advance should I decide to do that.

If you have any other questions you can email me :D

I also want to let you guys know that some of my lacquers are now being sold at Overall Beauty. They're out of stock at the moment but I'm shipping a box of them off to Kim this week. So bookmark it and while you're waiting, buy some other badass indie brands ;)

I have no balls

2012-03-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Oh, hello. I am behind again. Shocking, right? :)

This time it's not my fault! Okay, it is a little my fault. I ran out of steel balls and I need them before I can ship anything out. And because I *try* to be meticulous and organized before I put the lacquers up for sale, I've delayed the whole thing until they arrive. I must admit though- I am getting antsy. I've got all these bottles filled and ready to go! If only I had those little balls...

I expect to see them by Tuesday though. I hope???

Theoretically, I *could* put them up for sale and just let you all know that processing will take a tad longer than usual. What do you think???

I'll give you all a 8-12 hour heads up before I put everything up though. I want you all to know exactly when and where you can get them ahead of time.

Oh, I have something to show you though. This will give you an idea of what the new collections theme will be.

Moving shop

2012-02-25T13:38:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of packing all of the orders up to ship out on Monday. I haven't gotten a chance to answer questions/requests via convo's yet but I will by tomorrow (I swear!). I just wanted to take a break (is it a break if I'm blogging? ;)) and give you some updates.

Firstly, I am leaving Etsy. I do love Etsy and they run a great service, but the fees they charge cut into my profit margin more than I'd like and I found an alternative that is far cheaper and best of all, easier for all of you to purchase from. You won't need to create an account in order to buy from me anymore and you can purchase with your credit card and not have to go through paypal if you don't feel like it. I've talked to a few girls who use this service and they assure me that it's great, reliable, and trust worthy. Yay! I will give you all the link to the new shop location as soon as my DNS is sorted.

Secondly, I really need all of your input on something. I'm trying very hard to roll my new collection out but I'm completely overwhelmed with how much people want my existing shades and it makes it impossible to make enough of those + a reasonable amount of the new collection shades at once. My idea is to create one more batch of my existing shades later on in the week for those who have been trying to get them. THEN I will create a batch of JUST my new collection. Does this make sense? I always feel like my thoughts make no sense when I write them :P What do you all think? I already have 2 more collections thought up in my head. So many ideas, so few hours in the day!

Oh, I will have more lacquers ready for you to purchase by Friday btw :)

Lastly, I am still floored/amazed/over the moon about the response my lacquers have gotten! Thank you for making my dream a reality and supporting my humble little business. It means more than you know!

xoxo

Sneak Peek #2

2012-02-13T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few (crummy) pics of what I'm working on. What do you think?

Updates! Stock! OMG!

2012-02-12T20:14:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, what a crazy few weeks I've had. I mentioned on Etsy that I was in a car accident a few days ago. I didn't mean to alarm anyone. I was mostly just mentioning it so that if I was unable to mail orders out right away then you'd understand. Luckily I did get to mail everything out yesterday but I did have to bum a ride to the post office due to my car being FUBAR. Well, okay...it's not really FUBAR. But it does sound like a 1957 mustang now and I'm not sure how safe it is to drive yet. And there is a spot on my back that keeps going numb and tensing up. Beyond that, everything is fine.

As a side note-
The fireman who responded and held my head in the brace was a guy I got drunk with on a couple occasions. Friend of a friend of a friend type deal. That was interesting...

Anyway, onto REAL news. I'm waiting for a batch of bottles to show up. I expect to have them no later than Friday. I have all shades except for the Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle in stock now. And holy hell! I didn't realize those were so popular!!! I will have to make much more of those from now on. Until now I had been making an equal amount of all shades. I guess I know now that my beloved Andie, Duckie and Blane deserve a little more attention ;)

I'm also thinking of releasing all of my stock on one designated day per week. So for instance, I would make 200 bottles of lacquer, put my entire stock up for sale on Friday, and then start shipping on Monday. I highly doubt I would sell 200 polishes in a single day btw, but if I put them up for sale on the same day each week then people would at least have a very concrete idea of when they could score them. I get soooo many emails and Etsy convos asking when and how and where they can get my lacquers after they've sold out. I think this would probably be my best bet. Does this work for everyone???

As far as my new collection goes, I'm not super sure of when that will be rolled out. I made a huge order for base a few days ago, but I'm pretty sure that TKB is really swamped with orders so I'm not even sure when my order will be processed, and it takes a full week for me to receive it anyway. Hopefully you will see the new collection for sale within the next 2 weeks though! I think you are going to really love it :)

If I promised you some samples to review on your blog, I swear they will be mailed either tomorrow or Tuesday. At this time I'm no longer looking for people to review, but if I change my mind I will absolutely let everyone know.

Sneak Peek + Shipping Stuff

2012-02-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

I've been toying around with some new shades here and there over the last week or so. I have the concept for the collection down and one shade that I think needs little to no tweaking for it. Here's a peek:

The macro on my camera leaves a lot to be desired, but I think you can get an idea of it from this photo. It's a reddish orangish pink jelly base with fuchsia, red, orange, and burgundy glitter. I'm hoping I can get a recipe together for a yellow based lacquer for this collection as well. All of my previous attempts have failed miserably, but I'm expecting a new yellow mica in the mail that I *think* might work this time around.

In other, not so fun news:

I am rather certain that I'll have to up my shipping prices on single lacquer orders. Not because I want to make money off of shipping costs (I lose money on them, tbh) but because I am losing TOO much money on them.

Here is a breakdown:

It costs roughly $2.80 to ship one single bottle of lacquer via first class mail (the cheapest and slowest method). It costs another $.75 - $1.50 for the bubble mailers that I use to ship them (depending on where and when I buy them). So no matter what, it's costing roughly $4 to ship them. The issue is I only charge $3...

I'm really considering just shipping everything via the flat rate boxes and having the shipping price obviously reflect that. It's much easier and is a much better way to ship nail polish in general. We'll see :)

As always, I'm waiting on another shipment of lacquer base. I still have some Into the Labyrinth collections available, but everything else that I currently have is being doled out to those who contacted me for reserved listings. I am continuously amazed by how fast these lacquers sell!

Giving Thanks

2012-01-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

I am less than 24 hours in from my restock and have sold approx. 35% of my current stock already. I guess that means I should try and stay ahead of the game and order some more of that base that seems to take 50 years to arrive on my doorstep ;)

I'm always surprised by how quickly my lacquers sell. I have some bloggers to thank for that though.

Nicole of Nightly Nails, who has what I consider to be one of the best nail blogs ever, agreed to review my first 2 collections and she did some beautiful swatches and lovely reviews. Thanks, Nicole! I'm sure you already know Nicole's blog but if by some slim chance you don't, I suggest you check her out immediately. Hers really is one of the best and I read it every day no matter how busy I am.

Another blogger I want to thank is Traci from Trace Face Philes. She's been incredibly helpful in getting the word out about my lacquers, and did some of the prettiest and clearest swatches of them. She also has a giveaway going on right now that is entirely made up of indie polishes from everyone from Lynderella to Pam's Girly Bits. One of the winners has the chance to win 2 of my lacquers of their choosing! Thanks again, Traci! You've been a very big help to me.

And of course, I would like to thank all of the incredible ladies who have purchased my lacquers thus far. I'm shocked and thrilled by the response they have gotten. I hope it continues to grow!

I'd also like to thank everyone for their kind words in regards to my last post. I am taking the next 2 days off from Nostalgic Nail Lacquer to be with family and friends and remember a great lady. So if you happen upon my store and see that something is out of stock, fret not. I will renew all listings and ship all of the orders that were placed today on Tuesday morning.

I don't even know what to title this...

2012-01-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

The next batch of Nostalgic lacquers is due to go up for sale on Saturday. The plan was for me to run all of my millions of daily errands very early tomorrow morning and then mix 100+ bottles of polish up for the remainder of the day and likely into the wee morning hours.

But without getting into too many personal details, I will say that someone VERY close to me and my family has unfortunately passed on today. And I don't want to say too much about it because I just feel like I'd be making it about me and it's so NOT about me. She was a fucking awesome lady and will be very missed. (And believe me, she would not care in the least that I said "the f word" when talking about her either.)

I am only writing this to let everyone know that while I do fully intend to work as hard as I can on producing the lacquer, getting it up on Etsy, and shipping any orders that come in, I do highly doubt that I will be as present over the next week or so as I have been thus far. I normally try to ship within 2 days (or in most cases, the next day) of receiving an order and answer all inquiries promptly, but those things may be slightly delayed this coming week and I wanted to give you all a heads up about it.

Thanks for bearing with me through the numerous stock issues and everything else thus far. I appreciate your patience.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer NEW Collection + News

2012-01-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, the shop is currently quite bare. But that will change tomorrow when I bestow upon you my newest concoctions: The Truly Outrageous Collection.

Here is a sneak peek:

4 glittery lacquers inspired by my personal childhood hero, Jem? Yes. That's exactly what these are.

A *very* limited amount of these, as well as the Into the Labyrinth shades will be available tomorrow. I spent all day swatching and will print off the labels for them tonight. Tomorrow I'll add them to the shop. I ordered a much larger amount of base over a week ago and it only just shipped yesterday, so the bad news is that once these sell, they won't be back in stock until next Saturday. The good news is that...well, they'll be back in stock next Saturday and in greater quantities ;)

*Just a quick note- No longer am I using the square bottles that I've been using. The new bottles are much nicer actually, and are round and a bit stout. They look a lot like the bottles that Seche uses :)

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer RESTOCKED!

2012-01-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

The shop is open again!

Sadly, stock is once again low. If you were hoping to get one (or several) of the lacquers, I would urge you to act now.

In the next 1-2 weeks I expect to have much more in stock and will likely sell mini sets of the shades as well.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Update

2012-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've spent all day mixing polish, packing polish, being amazed at how many people are interested in my polish. Polish, polish, polish. And I am just about sold out again. This is good, but it's also bad.

The good news:
- I have created something that people seem to really like :)
- I have 2 more shipments of base on the way and the first one will arrive on Monday.
- I already have some very good rough drafts for my next collection. Minimal tweaking needed! So those should see the light of day within the next few weeks.

The bad news:
- I have seriously underestimated just how much base I will need to keep this thing of mine afloat.
- The 2 shipments of base that I bought will only make 60 bottles of polish combined!
- TKB (the base supplier) will only ship via ground. They are located in California... I am located in Massachusetts. It takes a while :(

Tomorrow I will be ordering a larger amount of base, as well as more bottles. Once those shipments arrive I think I will be able to stay caught up with everything and can stop these "out of stock" disasters from happening.

I also bought a paint shaker today that should help keep my raging carpal tunnel syndrome from becoming unbearable as well as cut down on the time it takes for me to make each polish. Let's hope it works as advertised!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has blogged about Nostalgic Nail Lacquer, facebooked it, favorited it on Etsy, and of course, especially to those who have purchased it. I hope that I can continue to make cool shades that people are interested in and that you will all stick with me through this learning curve :)

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer - Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle Collection

2012-01-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

They're done! Finally!

This is the Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle collection. And if you understand the double meaning in the title then you and I can be best friends. If not, we can still be friends, just not the kind who rock out to really good music together.

Each of the 3 shades were inspired by the iconic 80's film, Pretty in Pink. They are all named after the characters in the movie. They're semi sheer and provide a nice and subtle look on their own, but are really good for layering as well.

Check them out.

This is Andie. I'm not a punny person so I'll refrain from calling her "Pretty in Pink", although that's a pretty accurate description. I used 4 shades of pink glitter in a baby pink base for this. I wanted this not only to represent Andie's iconic fashion sense in general, but to specifically represent her custom prom dress.

Note- Andie is NOT vegan friendly due to small amounts of carmine used in the formula.

Duckie. Soft, sensitive, but with a unique flair. This has 3 shades of glitter in a pastel teal base. Chartreuse, holographic teal, and pastel green. All of the glitters in this are different sizes as well. This is the only one that has any holographic glitter in it. Duckie was, after all, one of a kind.

PS- If at this point you are wondering what happened to my index finger, I purposely hid it because the nail broke to the quick on Christmas morning and it looks ridiculous. I just can't bring myself to cut the others down to size :P

Blane might be my favorite. I wanted it to be kind of moody, so I used a purple base and added 2 different blue glitters and a deep purple as well. It's also a tad more concentrated than Andie and Duckie, so you may be able to get away with just 2 coats of this.

You can purchase any (or all) of these at my Etsy shop. I'm waiting on some more supplies to come in the mail and will be sending out samples to bloggers soon after. If you are interested in doing a review for me, feel free to shoot me an email and let me know.

*There was a 4th addition to this collection named after the character Steff. I spent literally months trying to get a formula together for it that matched the picture in my head (pastel yellow with orange glitters) but after trying everything I possibly could and coming pretty damn close to what I thought was perfection, it just didn't work out. I got to a point where I thought I had it and it looked really great on it's own, but once I tried layering it something strange happened and it appeared to have tiny black flecks in it. I believe it had something to do with one of the pigments not dispersing in the base properly. So I chalked it up to the higher powers of polish telling me that Steff was just not meant to be :(

I'm currently hard at work on my next collection ;)

Ohi...

2011-11-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

Wow. This blog seems so foreign to me now, and it's only been about 2 weeks since I've updated. The truth is that I just haven't had the time. Between Thanksgiving, having family in from out of town, and doing work+research on my big "project"...I've just been unable to do swatches. In fact, I haven't even changed my mani since Wednesday. That's completely unheard of for me!

I do want to try and do some swatching and real blogging this upcoming week though. But I can't make any promises. With Christmas coming and everything else I have going on, it just might not be possible. But I swear I am going to try!

I just wanted to write something here quick to let people know that I haven't given up on this blog or.....died or something. I will be here with some exciting things eventually :)

Blasts From the Nail Art Past

2011-11-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to show off the amazing teal glass flecked Glee from Jessie's Girl that I'm wearing today, but the weather just won't permit it. I'm also a bit under the weather today and that seasonal depression is coming on pretty strong lately. On top of all of that, I'm still trying to pursue a really fun "dream" of mine and have not been able to get started quite yet. So I'm anxious, feverish, and descending into depression all at once. It makes writing these blogs a bit difficult, tbh. But I'm trying!

Anyway, because I have no new swatches to show you, I figured I would compile a few of my favorite nail art manicures from the last year or so. Some of these you may not have seen yet.

Half moons with What's With The Cattitude as a base color.

One of my many floral designs. This one matched a dress that I bought that ended up being 3 sizes too big for me :(

Yet another floral design

Watermelon nails!

leopard print nails with hearts

You can see all of these on my Tumblr blog, which is where I store all of my nail art photos that I for one reason or another don't post here.

It's strange to see the evolution of my nails. They really have grown a ton!

Ombre Nails

2011-11-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

I've seen a ton of ombre manicures out there, but for some reason or another I never thought to try it out for myself. But today while I was trying to figure out what to do with my nails, I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did!

I used Wet N Wild's Through The Grapevine for this. I started out by pouring a bit of it onto a piece of aluminum foil, and added a drop of white to it after every nail I painted.

I liked this so much that I tried my hand at it once more just to see what it'd look like with a different color.

This is Yoga-ta Get This Blue from OPI. I used the same technique as I did with Through The Grapevine. I love this, but it's a bit of a fail for 2 reasons. One being that I used a shimmery base color and the shimmer was diminished with every drop of white creme that I added. In hindsight I should have used a shimmery white. The other issue is the fact that by the time I got to my pinky nails the polish had begun to thicken and it applied kind of shitty because of that. I still love it though. I'll just have to tweek the technique for next time.

A Lack of Updates

2011-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting my blog for the last week or so. There are a few reasons for that. Number one, I'm a bit bored by the same old polish colors and am doing some research on a project I hope to start that will remedy that. I've also been running a lot of errands (it took me 2 hours to drive across the city to pick up one of my dogs medications yesterday...) and doing some things elsewhere on the internetz.

I've still been keeping up on my daily manis, but have neglected to photograph them.

I swear I will have some more posts up soon. There likely won't be one tomorrow, seeing as the weather is supposed to be shit. But I promise I'll work overtime on swatching once the sun comes back out. Until then, here's a look at what my nails are wearing today. It's 2 coats of OPI's Rumple's Wiggin with 1 coat of Color Club's Starry Temptress topcoat over it.

Naked Nails aka Jaundice Claws

2011-11-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

My nails have come a long way since I started this blog. They used to be short, prone to breaks, splits, and peels, and were about as appealing as a gynecological exam. Months later, they're a lot stronger and have grown significantly. In fact, I had to file them down a bit the other day because they were making it impossible to dial numbers on my cell phone.

That said, they should still never see the light of day without being polished.

That ugly callous on my middle finger is a burn from the oven. I am a clumsy cook.

Obviously they are stained beyond belief. I do try to wear a base at all times, but the truth is that I'm pretty lazy and do "forget" to use one sometimes. I think they'd still be stained even if I did wear one 100% of the time though. I have yet to see a polishaholic whose nails aren't at least a little bit yellow. It's just the price we pay for our addiction.

I also have a strange dark dot right above the smile line on my middle finger. I've tried to buff that bitch out, but it's completely embedded in the nail. I have no idea what it is or where it came from.

Aside from those issues, I am happy to report that I don't currently have any splits or peels for the first time in my whole life. In case you are wondering how I managed to rid myself of those problems, I will now tell you about the changes I made to my nail care routine.

1. I filed my nails so that they were square. I *think* I read that square nails are more resistant to breaks at Loodie Loodie Loodie. If you have never read that blog, I suggest you go there now. Her posts are mostly nail care related and she has a lot of great tips.

2. I take care of my cuticles as best I can. I apply Burts Bees cuticle creme and push them back every day before I change my polish. Not only are messy, dry, unruly cuticles bad for the health of your nails, but they also look horrible. Buy a cheap cuticle remover and spend a few minutes grooming them. Your nails will instantly look 150% better and your nail polish will apply much better in that area as well.

3. I never use my nails as tools. If I need to open a soda can, I make sure I'm using the flesh of my finger and not my nail (does that make sense???). I also noticed that I would get splits and breaks when I did laundry, so I now pay extra close attention to how I handle my clothes when I'm taking them from the washer to the dryer. It takes longer, but it's worth it.

4. I file them when they get too long. Some girls love their uber long nails. I prefer a sportier length for various reasons. One being that they're just easier to work with, and another being that when they get too long they're more apt to break.

5. I keep them polished at all times. While it's true that nail polish has "ruined" my nails in one sense (the staining), it's also true that it's strengthened them over time.

That's it. That's my whole routine. I have thought about using treatments like Nail Envy (which I hear is really good), but if it aint broke, why fix it? I would like to find a nail whitener that doesn't have any adverse effects though. I'm scared that they're make my nails brittle and I'll have to start from square one. Does anyone have any recommendations for that kind of thing???

Accessorize Review and Swatches

2011-11-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

I've been lucky enough to get my hands on quite a few of Britains more popular drugstore brands of polish. One of the brands that was on the top of my "UK Polish Wishlist" was Accessorize. After perusing the Super Drug website, I was completely smitten by the brand. So did Accessorize meet my expectations? Hmmm....

Let's start with the good.

Indigo

Accessorize makes a good variety of colors that aren't typical of those found in American drugstores. For example- how often do you find a soft peach creme shade in your local CVS? It's probably never happened. I can't think of a single one. But Accessorize not only produces those kinds of shades, but they also have a line of really incredible duochrome glass flecks. I am sad to report that I have not had the chance to try any of those out though :(

Coral Flair

Accessorize polish is also very pigmented. The colors are rich and opaque in 2 thin coats. The only one that I had an issue with was Apricot Crush, which requires FOUR coats due to streakage.

Now for the bad...

Apricot Crush

The bottle size is a buzzkill. Being an American, I'm used to the standard .5oz bottles of polish, but that is not the standard in Europe, as I've noticed. Accessorize polishes are 10ml, which is small. This also means that the brush is small. And on top of that, the top of the bottle/brush is as wide as the bottle itself, which makes application a bit awkward. So in short, the packaging is not ideal.

Pillar Box

Accessorize retails for £4.00 at Super Drug in the UK. If you have the opportunity to try this brand, I would urge you to go for it. But be prepared to receive a tiny amount of product in an awkward bottle ;)

Sally Hansen - Pumpkin Spice

2011-10-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to all of you who actively celebrate it. I rarely do anything special for Halloween myself. Last year I went to a party and drank almost an entire Heineken mini keg that was strapped to someones back (he was dressed as a scuba diver). Each time I went to fill up my cup, I'd ask if I could "tap that ass" (Get it? Hur hur derp). I spent the entire next day hating myself and nursing a hangover. This year I'm curling up in bed with some Real Housewives instead. There's slightly less self hatred involved in that. Slightly.

I know I promised some Halloween nail art but the truth is I just wasn't feeling inspired. So instead, I give you Pumpkin Spice from Sally Hansen.

Color:

Greenish greyish jelly base with orange glitter. A close dupe of ChG's Ick-a-Bod-Y.

Application:

Meh. It's incredibly sheer and required 4 coats for opacity, which I wasn't happy about. But each coat dried pretty fast so I guess that's a plus.

Downside:

It's sheer as hell, as I just stated. You might want to just layer it on over a coat of black.

Bottom Line:

This is a pretty good dupe for Ick-A-Bod-Y (which I LOVE), but there are some major differences in the formulas- both good and bad. First, Ick-A-Bod-Y is much more opaque than Pumpkin Spice. It's a 2 coater. So in that aspect, Ick-A-Bod-Y wins. But Ick-A-Bod-Y is also very very gritty and eats top coat in a matter of seconds. Pumpkin Spice is actually quite smooth and has more depth to it because of that.

So while Pumpkin Spice is a real pain in the ass in regards to opacity, it's also a keeper. I still love my Ick-A-Bod-Y though, and would probably choose it over Pumpkin Spice if I had to make a decision.

And just for the hell of it, here is Pumpkin Spice with a layer of Hard Candy's Mattely In Love over it:

Fantasy Makers - Vamp Red

2011-10-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

It's winter already here in Boston. Last night it snowed, and I had to turn my heat up to 75 degrees this morning. I now have to do swatches between the hours of 12 and 4pm due to the dwindling daylight hours.

If you don't already live in New England, I would not suggest you move here. It wreaks havoc on your mental and emotional states. I can only imagine what it must be like to live in Alaska or Scandinavia. Just thinking about it makes me want a xanax.

I suppose the one good thing about the colder weather coming in is the influx of new polish collections. I still wish that mother nature had held off on the snow until after Halloween though...

Speaking of Halloween, I should probably stop yapping and complaining and show you todays polish. It's Vamp Red from Fantasy Makers and I was lucky enough to find it at CVS. Normally the CVS near me is a total flop when it comes to nail polish. They never even got the Sally Hansen Halloween nail strips. Basically, they're lame and there isn't a single polish in the place that I don't already own. So when I saw that they had a Fantasy Makers display, I was pretty happy. No Creepy Pumpkin though :( Sucks. I really wanted to buy a backup of that.

Color:

They don't call it Vamp Red for nothing. It's an incredibly deep dark wine color. It looks a lot like a creme but it has a tiny amount of shimmer in it that's mostly invisible to the naked eye.

Application:

Not bad at all. Drying time is a little slow though.

Downside:

There's some color bleed around the cuticles. Not a huge deal, but not a positive either. And again, the top to this does not align properly when you twist it as tightly as it should be. Why the hell didn't they fix that problem???

Bottom Line:
Vamp Red isn't a totally unique color or anything, but I'm glad I bought it. Application is better than many other wine shades I've tried, and it only costs $1.99. Plus it comes in that cute tombstone bottle.

Sinful Colors - San Francisco

2011-10-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

I took some photos of a few more Halloween polishes that I bought this week, but I'm really unhappy with the pictures and will have to re-swatch over the weekend. *sigh* I was all set to make 3 posts and schedule them to post all weekend and then my shitty photography skills ruined everything. To be fair though, it's half my cameras fault. It hates red :(

Luckily though, I did manage to get some decent photos of Sinful Colors' San Francisco. If you're looking for a cheaper alternative to some of the holly jolly Christmasy greens coming out, just head on over to Walgreens and pick this up.

Color:
An emerald green super shimmer.

Application:
It's a bit sheer, but easy to control. Requires 3 coats for opacity. Dries a little slower than I would have preferred.

Downside:
Brushstrokes, brushstrokes, brushstrokes! Some people don't mind them, but I absolutely loathe visible brushstrokes. To me, it ruins the whole look. And as you can see, San Francisco is plagued with them. This is a classic example of why I normally steer clear of shimmers. HOWEVER...something about this color makes the brushstrokes more tolerable. Maybe because it's so festive looking???

Bottom Line:
When it comes to Sinful Colors, it's basically a hit or miss. Some of their polishes are fantastic. Others get thrown in the untried pile and remain there for months and months because they just don't measure up. But hey, what can you expect for $1.99?

San Francisco is a hit rather than a miss. Yeah, I dislike the brushstrokes, but it's still a stunning color. I do think it's a color best left to the holiday season though.

Petites - Utopia

2011-10-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took a quick trip to Rite-Aid while I was out running some other errands. I was searching for the pumpkin polishes, but they were nowhere to be found. All was not lost though, because I finally found Sally Hansen's Pumpkin Spice and was able to pick up a few other polishes as well. One of which is called Utopia from Petites.

Color:
Bright teal green that I guess could be classified as glass flecked, but the effect isn't quite as strong as most of my other glass flecked polishes. I suppose it just has more regular shimmer and less glitter than some others.

Application:
Very smooth and easy to control. It's pretty sheer though, so I used 4 thin-medium coats. Drying time was a tad longer than I'd have liked. The wrinkle you see on my index nail is due to the top coat I used (Revlon Quick Dry), but that's a story for another day...

Downside:
This actually has a duochrome effect. Or...at least it DID have a duochrome effect. In person you can see it in the bottle and again when you first apply it to the nail, but for some inexplicable reason it disappeared after a few hours. I know I'm not imagining things. It's a really pretty purple flash and I planned on having beautiful pictures of it. What the hell happened?! Where did it go?!

Bottom Line:
Jessie's Girl (also sold at Rite-Aid) has a much better teal glass flecked polish. It's called Glee. I'd recommend that one over Utopia due to it being much more pigmented and blingy. The reason I bought Utopia was due to the purple flash it had in the bottle...but, as I said, it disappeared. Not a bad color though. It's just not what I expected it to be.

China Glaze - Weekend Warrior + Awesome Blogs

2011-10-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm wearing another great shade from China Glaze's Metro collection today. This time I'm wearing Weekend Warrior. I can't get enough of these rich greens this fall. And at this point I probably have more greens in my collection than any other color, which is weird since I'm not a super fan of the color green in general. I just enjoy it on my nails for some reason. Oh well. Onto the review and swatches!

Color:

Very rich dark olive green creme. This is the perfect shade for your Army camo nail art.

Application:

Again, China Glaze has a superior formula and Weekend Warrior reflects that. It's smooth, non-streaky and opaque in 2 coats. Many colors that are this dark and pigmented are tough to control and can bleed around the cuticle, but there are none of those kinds of issues here. Excellent.

Downside:

Absolutely none.

Bottom Line:

Westside Warrior is a perfect fall shade and a great addition to any polishaholics collection. I may have to learn how to do a camo design just so I can utilize this to it's full potential. I also think it'd look nice in a french mani. Add those to my list of future nail art designs.

-----------------------------------

I wanted to share some links with you guys, because although I subscribe to quite a few blogs, the truth is that I normally only have time to visit a handful of them on a regular basis. That said, I do make it a point to check out all of my commenters blogs. In fact, A few of my regular commenters have some really cool manis going on at present and if you're looking for Halloween inspiration, look no further.

- Midnight Manicures has great nail art on her blog. I especially love the blood spattered skull design.

- Fellow Bostonian, Alexisaurus, has the coolest zombie nail art up right now. Can we get a tutorial, Alexisaurus? :)

- Fingers did an intricate spider web design that makes me a little jealous.

- Rin doesn't seem to have done any Halloween designs just yet, but she's super nice and has great swatches.

Deborah Lippmann's Footloose Collection

2011-10-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Have you guys seen this?

Dancing in the Sheets, Footloose, Almost Paradise, Let's Hear it for the Boy

Apparently these are being sold on HSN in pairs. Sadly, the two I want (Almost Paradise and Dancing in the Sheets) are not sold together. Isn't that always the way?

As much as the mere thought of the new Footloose makes me want to claw my face off, I really love the names of these. Lippmann always names her colors after songs, and she usually does a great job of assigning the right song to a shade. How great is "Let's Hear it for the Boy"?

Because they are sold in pairs like that, I likely won't be getting these. Or I at least won't be getting them immediately anyway. Besides, I still need to get Stairway to Heaven!

Will you be ordering these? If so, which set do you like best?

Plaid Dress and Nailart To Match

2011-10-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Look what I did to match my dress today:

I'd write more but I'm exhausted from running errands and I have an Opie and Anthony show to listen to ;) Hope you're all enjoying the unusually warm and sunny weather around America.

China Glaze - Trendsetter

2011-10-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

When the new collections come out I usually don't feel compelled to buy every single shade. ChG's Metro Collection was no exception. But there were a few in there that I had to have. Trendsetter was #1 on the list. Every swatch I saw made me freak out in anticipation. It did not disappoint.

Color:
This is a mustardy pea soup green with golden shimmer. Normally a pea soup green polish would come off looking funky and "alternative" (for lack of a better word). This doesn't because it has a lot of warmth to it.

Application:
China Glaze almost always hits the mark when it comes to formula, and Trendsetter is certainly no different. It applied like a dream. It's super easy to control, not streaky, and opaque in 2 coats. Drying time was average.

Downside:
None here.

Bottom Line:
I'm not sure what else I could say about this that I haven't already covered, so I'll just tell you that everyone should have this one in their collection :)

I went ahead and took everyones advice concerning watermarks. The reason I never added them before is because I feel like they ruin the photos. They just don't look as nice with text running through them. Not that my photos are awesome or anything. But I suppose it's a lot like locking your door at night. You aren't required to do it, but it's a good way to protect yourself.

Fantasy Makers - Creepy Pumpkin and Black Magic

2011-10-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

I think I might be the last person to do a Halloween post. I love reading everyone else's and I especially love the nail art I've seen. I have yet to come up with any fresh ideas for Halloween nail art, but when I do I'll post them. Until then, I do want to share these 2 colors from Wet n Wilds Fantasy Makers line. I actually took these photos over a week ago but never got around to posting them.

This is Creepy Pumpkin:

Color:
Orange jelly with golden shimmer. I am really impressed with this. I've never seen such a true jelly turned into such a true shimmer before. Usually those turn out to be glass flecked, but this one isn't. Does anyone know of any others like this? I'd love to have more in my collection with this type of finish.

Application:
When I called this a "true jelly", what I meant by that is that not only does it have the high shine and sheerness of a jelly, but it's also on the thick side with a slightly gel-like consistency. So it creates a pretty thick layer on the nail, which obviously adds to a slow dry time. BUT, because it has all that great shimmer added in, it's not streaky like it otherwise might be.

Downside:
These don't close properly. When you screw the top back onto the bottle, the tombstone shape no longer aligns with the bottle the way it should. Not a huge deal, but an issue that I would have thought they'd have remedied. Maybe mine are defective?

Bottom Line:

Creepy Pumpkin is awesome. It's unique to me and I wish I'd thought to pick up another bottle. Hopefully they're still available by the time I go back to the store.

This is Black Magic:

Color:
Black creme base with a strange array of glitter added. There's orange (which actually turns out to be more of a peach), green, and I think I might spot some blue in there too.

Application:

No issues to speak of, really. But...

Downside:
I'm not sure if this will make sense to anyone else, but this polish just feels cheap to me. I don't necessarily think that it looks cheap, but the formula is very reminiscent of an old Wet n Wild that you kept in the bottom of a junk drawer, and by the time you get around to giving it a nice shake and applying it, the pigment had already separated and it's just a big fail. That's what this reminds me of.

Bottom Line:
I could take Black Magic or leave it. It's not bad, but it's not great either. When I slapped my SD card into my computer and loaded up iPhoto I had a better appreciation of it though. In person it just wasn't dazzling. In the photos it actually looks a lot nicer.

I look forward to doing a few more Halloween posts before the 31st. For some reason none of the drugstores in my area are carrying most of the halloween polishes though. I haven't even managed to track down any of the Sally Hansen nail strips, and I really wanted the skull printed ones. Perhaps I'll make a trip to my sisters house this weekend and use it as an excuse to raid the (much better than the one near me) Rite-Aid that's on the way. If not, I guess I'll have to come up with some nail art!

OPI- The Muppets Collection (full swatches and review)

2011-10-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend bought me The Muppets Collection from OPI last Friday, and to my surprise it arrived at my doorstep early this afternoon. I was anxious to try them all out and show off my swatches, so I spent pretty much the entire afternoon swatching the hell out of this collection.

Some of these colors didn't strike me as being amazing in the bottle, but it turns out that those same colors actually ended up being my favorites. This is a collection that is full of fun finishes and tons of glitter. I'm really pleased with it.

Now onto the swatches...

Designer, De Better!

Designer, De Better! is a silver based foil with flecks of copper added into the mix. I wasn't excited about this until I put it on. It ended up being one of my favorites. Like most of the polishes in this collection, it required only 2 coats for opacity and was easy to control.

Warm and Fozzie

Warm and Fozzie is a bit hard to decipher. I'm fairly certain that the base is a sheer tan/brown shade. The shimmer particles are a combination of gold, bronze, and a hint of a duochrome(?). Whatever it is, it's nice. This took 2 coats for opacity.

Pepe's Purple Passion

Pepe's Purple Passion is a strong, super pigmented burgundy creme with reddish pinkish flecks. Great color, but the formula is kind of odd. It dried in a patchy fashion and I got some dragging when I applied the second coat. It also ate my top coat. Worth the headache though, because it really is an exceptional shade. Requires 2 coats for complete opacity.

Animal-istic

Animal-istic almost borders on a vermillion color. It's definitely red, but it's got a good deal of orange in it as well. And that makes sense, considering it's the color they named after Animal. Animal was one of my (short lived) nicknames in junior high, by the way. And then my friends decided that while my personality was "Animal-istic", I looked more like Prairie Dawn because I had long straight blonde hair that I parted down the center. But I'm getting side tracked now. Animal-istic, like I said, is a bright orangey red jelly with glass flecked shimmer. It applied extremely well and again, required only 2 coats for opacity.

Wocka Wocka!

Wocka Wocka! is a pretty standard cardinal red shimmer. For some reason my camera hates the color red when shimmer is added, but these pictures are pretty color accurate- they're just a little distorted. Not a super unique color. This is 2 coats.

Excuse Moi!

Excuse Moi! is a rose colored jelly base that's dominated by rose colored glitter, but pieces of green, silver and gold glitter are thrown into the mix. A very odd combination. I think I might wish they hadn't added the multi colored glitter because the rose color by itself is nice, but the extra glitter is just strange. That said, I can't say I dislike it. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. It kind of looks like vomit, and I'm not sure if that's a bad thing! This is 2 coats.

Divine Swine

Divine Swine is a clear base packed with small particles of magenta glitter and larger pieces of silver hex glitter. It's much more sheer than I think it ought to be. It took 4 coats to get it to be as opaque as it is in these photos, and it could have used another coat...and a magenta base.

Gone Gonzo

Gone Gonzo is identical to Divine Swine (and Fresh Frog of Belair), only the dominant glitter is blue instead of magenta. This is actually the only one of the glitters that I ended up being really happy with. For some reason it applied a little better than the others and the color is nicer IMO. This was also the one I declared as my favorite before even trying any of them out. This is 3 coats.

Fresh Frog of Belair

Fresh Frog of Belair is just like Divine Swine and Gone Gonzo...only it's kelly green. This has the cutest name out of all of the polishes in this collection. It's also a cute color. I'll just be sure to layer this over a more opaque shade of green in the future. This is 3 coats.

Gettin' Miss Piggy With It

Gettin' Miss Piggy With It is a little different than the other 3 glitters of this type. It's a tad more opaque than the others and in addition to the red and silver glitter, it also has some larger pieces of hot pink hex glitter added in. This is a good holiday polish, but again, I will likely use a red base before applying this for a full mani. This is 3 coats.

Rainbow Connection

Rainbow Connection is a clear base with silver, red, magenta, gold, green, blue and orange glitter of varying sizes. This appears to be the breakout star of this collection. Personally, I would have liked to have seen this without the silver glitter. Or at least not as much of the silver glitter. We've seen quite a few versions of this from other companies and everyone gushes over them. The way I feel about these kinds of polishes is similar to my thoughts on the crackle/shatter craze- I just don't get it. It's okay, but it doesn't stop me dead in my tracks. Again, if they had made this without the silver (or replaced the silver with stark white!) then I think it might have stood out more among the other versions we've already seen from other brands. This is 4 coats.

The only polish from this collection that I left out was Meep-Meep-Meep, and that's because the photos I took of it were not color accurate at all and although I currently have it on as a full mani, the weather does not permit me to photograph it again today. I certainly have plans to take more photos of it though and do a full swatch/review of it because it turned out to be one of my favorites. So look for that sometime in the near future :)

Look What Came Today...

2011-10-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

OPI Muppets Collection!

So the question is: Do I tackle these all with one big post of swatches, or post them one by one with more detailed reviews?

Color Club - Object Of Envy

2011-10-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

I've had an ~~interesting~~ busy Sunday and now that I've stuffed myself with Chinese food and am finally able to relax with a glass of Skinny Girl margarita, I can show you all one of my favorite polishes. I know I use the words "favorite polish" a lot, but I can't help it. As my collection continues to grow more and more out of control, the favorites pile up, and Object of Envy from Color Club is one of the many greens and glitters that make my polish collection a bit brighter.

Color:
A fantastically dense kelly green glitter in a clear base.

Application:
No real issues. It takes 3+ coats for complete opacity but that's alright by me since it has a nice consistency that isn't goopy in the slightest- which is sometimes hard to come by with a dense glitter polish.

Downside:
The main problem is that it remains pliable long after it's dry to the touch, which is typical of this kind of glitter. So don't go loading your dishwasher for a good couple hours after application because you'll just get dents. Other than that it's fine.

Bottom Line:
I love kelly green and glitter. When you combine those 2 things you get Object of Envy. And it's beautiful. It twinkles like hell and it's a color/finish that people definitely notice. And if you're looking for the perfect St Patrick's Day polish- look no further. This is the one.

You can find Object of Envy and most other Color Club polishes for a sweet $3 at 8ty8beauty.com.

Rainbow Tie Dyed Nails (RIP Steve Jobs)

2011-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that by now we've all heard the news that Steve Jobs has died. It isn't exactly a surprise, but it still sucks. I use Apple computers exclusively and became a big fan of Apple's technology over the last 5+ years. Jobs will be missed.

This mani started out as an idea that is far different than what it became. Initially I was attempting to create a small rainbow apple just like the vintage Apple logo. Well, I'm simply not that skilled with a paint brush and I had to abort the mission. I always think of how good my sister would be at doing nail art. She's very artistically gifted, and is really meticulous and able to get the tiniest little details to look perfect on whatever she makes. Sadly, I do not have the same gift as she does. But she has short stubby fingers and bites her nails to the point where her hands look deformed. So I suppose we're even ;)

But as I was saying- this mani started off with Steve Jobs memorial aspirations and ended in this faux tie-dyed situation that you see here now. Not what I originally wanted, but still kind of cool.

It's also not the cleanest mani I've ever done, but these marbley type designs are a real bitch to clean up. You should see my right hand....

Barielle - Aura Angora

2011-10-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

I will preface this post by saying that Barielle is not my favorite brand of polish. They have a few really nice shades but the 5 or 6 Barielle polishes I have seem to be problematic. Part of it could be my body chemistry, but I know that their formula could use some work as well. So this is not only a review of Aura Angora but it's also partly a review of Barielle polish in general.

Color:
Aura Angora is a delightful shade of Ochre/Bronze. Creme finish.

Application:
Streaky, but pigmented enough that only 2 coats are needed. It's also on the thick side and will probably need thinner added to it sooner than later.

Downside:
Okay, here it comes. I almost never talk about chipping issues because chipping almost never occurs for me. This could be due to the fact that I change polishes every day, but occasionally I do get chips with really cheap polishes like Wet n Wild or the random no name polishes that you can sometimes get in sets at dollar stores. Almost never do I get chips with mediocre-good quality polishes. Barielle is the exception. This chipped within HOURS of wear on my right hand (which is not pictures in the photos) and I used a nice thick coat of Seche Vite as well. Aura Angora is not the only one of their polishes to do this for me.

Bottom Line:
I love the color to death. Anything mustardy is a win in my book. But the formula definitely needs some work. And at $8 a bottle I'm just not sure it's worth it for their other colors. I would still shell out another $8 for Aura Angora if and when it should run out on me, but will likely never buy any of Barielles other colors again (yes, even Elles Spell!).

Color Club - Wink Wink Twinkle

2011-10-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

Have I told you guys about the nail polish plaza near me? It's got a Five Below, a Dollar Tree, a Bed Bath and Beyond, a Sally's and a TJ Maxx. All in one plaza. I went over there with my mom a few days ago and couldn't find anything to buy (shocking, right?) until I went with my mom through the checkout at TJ Maxx and saw a Color Club Starry Temptress set for $10. 7 Color Clubs for $10? Yes, please.

I was going to swatch them all for you but I know you've seen them all before by now. I'm the one who's late to the Starry Temptress parade. But today I'm wearing Wink Wink Twinkle from the collection and wanted to share. I will warn you though that my camera HATES neons, so not only are these pictures not completely color accurate, they're also not all that sharp.

Color:
Neon purple/fuchsia with holographic glitter. The glitter in this is strange though, because instead of giving off a twinkly effect, it just makes the polish look speckled. I chalk this up to the base color being more of a creme and not a jelly.

Application:
This polish is thick. Much thicker than I anticipated, which turned out to be not such a bad thing. I only needed 2 coats for opacity and that's pretty much unheard of for a neon. Easy to work with but will no doubt need some thinner added to it in the near future.

Downside:
It's gritty. I used 2 coats of Seche Vite on top and it's still not totally smooth.

Bottom Line:
Wink Wink Twinkle and all of the colors from the Starry Temptress collection are really unique. It's not the colors that are original (they're not). It's the weird speckled effect that they have that makes them totally different from anything else I have in my collection. Wink Wink Twinkle is a really pretty color too, although I'm disappointed that it looks a lot more pink in my photos than it actually is. If you can't score a set of these for a cheap price like I did, try buying them at 8ty8beauty.com.

Rainbow Candy Nails (for lack of a better title)

2011-10-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my lack of posting for the last 5 days or so. It's getting colder and I'm trying to hibernate through the wave of depression that wants to swallow me whole. (That sounds really emo, doesn't it?) I am one of those people who gets incredibly lethargic and down when summer ends, and in my head it's got nothing to do with the weather, but it must considering how often history repeats itself.

I only mention this because it's affected my desire and enthusiasm for blogging. "I'll post it tomorrow" or "I'll take pictures later" have been my attitude. But I'm determined to push through it and get back to a regular schedule. Which is why I got myself an iced coffee the second I woke up this morning and started on this blog. Feeling sorry for myself only wastes time.

Here are some (bad) photos of a design I did a few days ago. I've been wanting to do a sweet rainbowy design for a long time, but couldn't put together anything that looked presentable until now. I love this and plan to do many more renditions of it in the future. But I have to make a note to buy some more polish thinner, because the silver striping polish I used was waaaaaaay too goopy.

I told you that the photos were bad. I have some swatches lined up for later today or tomorrow, depending on what the sky looks like, and I promise that the photos of those will be decent.

Sponged Shatter Nail Art

2011-09-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today I have some nail art to show you. This isn't typical of my normal designs, mostly because I almost never use shatter/crackle. It's not that I don't like it....it's just that I don't love it. But the trend shows no signs of dying anytime soon, so i may as well embrace it to the best of my ability.

Here's the result of a sponged nail using 4 different colors with a thick coat of black shatter over it.

What's your favorite backdrop for a crackle polish? I'm trying to find some new and interesting techniques to use since I'm not a huge fan of the "standard crackle look". Any advice or tips?

Color Club - Revvvolution

2011-09-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Color Club's Revvvolution is one of my favorite polishes for all of the most obvious reasons. It's a holo. It's a "black" holo. It's a relatively linear holo. And it shines like a million rainbows in the sun. It also makes me think of one of my favorite songs, 12 Black Rainbows by Type O Negative (hey, don't judge me. We all like a little bit of metal).

"Idle hands may be the devil's work

Unbridled minds you see are so much worse"

Color:
A "black" (more like gunmetal) linear holo!

Application:
Almost perfect, except for the fact that it's extremely easy to flood your cuticles with this. Which ultimately means that it's a *tad* watery. Requires 2 coats for complete opacity and dries rather quickly.

Downside:
There are actually 2 versions of Revvvolution out there. One that is full of holoy goodness, and the other which is a supposed "dud". Seeing as I only have 1 bottle of this, I couldn't even tell you which version I have for sure. But I do know that it holo's like the best of them in the sun. Indoors it's not nearly as impressive, but there's still a distinct holo effect going on there.

Bottom Line:
I think the pictures speak for themselves! But it is unfortunate that there's a version of this that isn't as amazing as the other. So with that said, if you decide to buy it online you take the risk of purchasing something that may not be as spectacular as you were hoping for.

Hard Candy - Beetle

2011-09-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on my new workspace. Actually, to tell the truth I didn't do anything to it today, but I put such a huge dent in it last night that it's okay. I'm hoping to get it all done by Monday and will have pictures of it up shortly after that. But while that's being sorted, take a look at Beetle by Hard Candy.

Beetle was the color that I was really hoping would be sent to me, and thankfully it was. It looks like a puddle of gasoline on a hot pavement.

Color:
Multichrome glitter. Flashes purple, orange and green.

Application:
No real problems there. It took 3 coats for opacity though. Drying time was average.

Downside:
Believe it or not, this actually falls flat in average lighting. I'm also not entirely sure that I like it with my skintone.

Bottom Line:
Beetle is a truly amazing multichrome polish that you could look at forever in the sun. The fact that it's a glittery finish only adds to it's charm. This is certainly a Hard Candy shade that you don't want to pass up, and since it retails at $4 a bottle at Walmart, you really ought to pick a bottle of it up.

Hard Candy - Fabuluxe

2011-09-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

I am bound and determined to finally get my shit together, sort through all of my polish, and organize them the way that I have been envisioning it in my head for the last month. So this weekend is dedicated to doing that, which means that I better hurry up and post something now before I get entangled in a web of organization that I can't pull away from. So with that said, here are some swatches of Hard Candy's Fabuluxe.

Color:
Dense hot hot hot HOT pink foil glitter in a hot pink jelly base.

Application:
Not bad at all. It's easy to control and pretty opaque (2 coats) due to the glitter being so dense. Of course it's a total pain in the ass to remove, but that comes with the territory. Drying time is average and my only qualm is that it's a topcoat eater. But again, that's the way it goes with these glitter polishes.

Downside:
Nope. Aside from the minor application/removal issues that I mentioned above, I can honestly say that I'm thrilled with this polish!

Bottom Line:
Of all of the Hard Candy polishes I have (including a small handful of vintage shades that they no longer make), this is the one. The color is seriously bold, and the blingyness is out of control. This is the perfect party girl polish. I'm not even totally sure what I mean by that, but I know that I can picture Cyndi Lauper circa 1985 rocking Fabuluxe 7 days a week. In fact, I'm surprised that something like this wasn't what OPI created for their Katy Perry collection, because it definitely feels like a shade she would wear.

StyledOn and Hard Candy: An A+ in Consumer Relations

2011-09-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Note: If you didn't catch my rant about the StyledOn nail art contest last week then you might wanna go ahead and give it a quick read before perusing this post. Otherwise you'll just wonder what the hell I'm talking about ;)

It Came! My package from Hard Candy arrived early this afternoon, which was shipped overnight via FedEx. The package itself is beyond impressive, but before I start gushing about the contents I would like to give a sincere thanks to both StyledOn and Hard Candy for their incredibly professional and friendly approach at turning my negative experience into a very positive one. Beauty companies take note, because this is how consumer relations should be handled.

As I stated in my edit last week, an editor from StyledOn contacted me and apologized for the delay in shipping. What I didn't tell you, and what I'm still not totally sure I should tell you is that they also sent me an eCert to Sephora for the inconvenience. I'm not sure if all of the winners received one, which is why I'm wary of posting about it. I'd hate to start a "But why didn't I get one too!?" campaign for StyledOn to have to deal with, but I do think it's important to mention because it's a testament to how much they cared about making my experience with them a better one. So kudos to StyledOn for really turning it around and going the extra mile. Ms. Kropp is fantastic at her job and I thank her personally for reaching out to me in such a professional, yet warm manner.

Soon after being contacted by StyledOn, I was also contacted by a PR rep for Hard Candy. They too apologized and promised to send along some samples of their other products to help make up for the shipping delay. Again, their rep was courteous and professional. And not long after she contacted me I was sent an awesome package by the company.

Inside the box was this cute mesh sack full of 8 of their nail polishes and an absolutely impressive variety of some of their newest products. When they told me they would be sending "a few samples" I wasn't expecting this.

All of the products they included were full size and came in an awesome array of colors.

The polish that I received (from left to right): Splendid, Frenzy, Fabuluxe, Matte Top Coat, The End, Beetle, Sky, and Mushroom.

crappy pic taken with flash :/

The addition products I received are (from left to right): Mouthing Off sheer lip shine in Drama Queen, Lash Tinsel glitter mascara in Starstruck, Walk The Line 24 hour lash grow/liquid eyeliner duo in Midnight Black, Eye Def metallic eyeshadow in Electric, Stroke of Gorgeous felt tip eyeliner in Nautical, Stay in Line mechanical eyeliner in Luminous Sparkle, and Tinted Lip Balm in Bridal Blush.

I'm most excited to try Walk the Line. And I'll likely review at least some of these here at some point, in addition to the nail polish that I will definitely be reviewing.

So the moral of the story is this:

Sometimes it pays to be honest and share your frustration about something. Companies don't know how we truly feel about something until we speak up. And the only way they can rectify the problem is if we let them know. Hard Candy and StyledOn took what I said seriously and they took all the right steps to correct the problem. Not all companies do that, and not all companies go above and beyond like they did either. So again, thanks to them for turning something bad into something really good.

You can expect to see swatches of the Hard Candy polishes I got in the next few days. Until then, check out StyledOn and the wide variety of cosmetics that are available from Hard Candy :)

Jordana - Brand Review and Polish Swatches

2011-09-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

Whilst perusing my collection of polishes, trying to find something suitable for a swatch post, I realized that I have quite a few Jordana polishes and I don't believe I've ever swatched or reviewed any of them. Odd, because I'm fond of the brand. In fact, I am so impressed with their polishes that I went ahead and bought a few of their other cosmetics. Their liquid eyeliner is awesome and their eye shadow base, while quite different than some of the more popular and upscale primers, is really good and I use it daily.

But...today I'm here to review their nail polish. Perhaps I'll save their eye primer for another day :)

Color(s):
Jordana has a really impressive range of colors to offer. Since I am definitely partial to creme finishes, most of my Jordana polishes are cremes. But they have a lot of glitters, shimmers and a couple jellys, as well as a new range of crackles. All together, they produce over 90 shades of polish(!).

Rich Green - 2 coats, no top coat

Application(s):
The only one of my Jordana polishes to ever give me an application issue was Mellow Yellow (a true yellow jelly). But a. it's yellow and b. it's a jelly. So I really can't hold the bad application on that against them. Other than that they are all extremely easy to work with, are deeply pigmented, and most don't have any tendency to bubble. A few of them can appear streaky until a top coat is added, but a good coat of Seche Vite never failed to remedy the problem.

Lavender Fields - 2 coats, no top coat

Downside(s):
Honestly, there aren't any. These don't apply as well as most OPI polishes, but they only cost a fraction of the price. And the huge range of colors can't be beat!

Boy Oh Boy - 2 coats, no top coat

Bottom Line(s):
I haven't quite gotten to the best thing about Jordana- the fact that each of their polishes retails for $1.99. Yes, a line of super pigmented, easy to apply polishes in awesome shades for just $1.99 each. If I haven't sold you Jordana yet then I never will. But I suspect that if you didn't know about the brand before reading this post that you are likely interested now that I've let you know how much they cost. So where can you get them? I buy mine at CherryCulture.com, which is a fantastic resource for super cheap makeup and their shipping rates are really good too. I think I ordered something ridiculous like 13 items a few months back and all together with shipping I paid $25. It's like E.L.F.....with some variety ;)

Note: I was not asked to review Jordana, nor was I compensated in any way for this review by the company.

Icing - Tiger's Blood

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Remember that meltdown that Charlie Sheen had a few months back? The one where he started saying hilarious and bizarre shit like, "I have tiger's blood" and "WINNING!"? Well, Icing decided that Charlie Sheen and his "epic" meltdown would make for an excellent nail polish collection. And to tell you the truth, I think it's kind of brilliant. Well, it would be brilliant if everything else about it aside from the names didn't suck.

Behold the bottle of shit that they call Tiger's Blood.

Color:
Sheer vermillion jelly full of silver, orange and translucent glitter.

Application:
A complete nightmare. Seriously, the formula is shitty beyond belief. It has the consistency of glue and even with 4 horrible goopy coats, I still have slight VNL. Drying time? Well, I hope you have an extra decade to spare, because this stuff NEVER dries to a hard finish. It's pliable for life. If it ever did dry you can bet your life it'd peel off with the force of a light breeze.

Downside:
See above, but read it in an angry voice.

Bottom line:
Okay, the color is decent. It's not a stunner but it's not hideous either. But considering how pretty much everything else about it sucks ass, it really SHOULD be a stunner. The name of this must be the thing that people love so much about it. I can't think of what else people would like about it.

China Glaze - Dorothy Who?

2011-09-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today I'm wearing Dorothy Who? from China Glaze's Wizard of Ohh-Ahz collection. It's a keeper and belongs in your glitter loving collection. If you don't have it yet then I suggest you shell out the $3-8 (depending on where you buy ChG) and treat yourself to some blue sparkles.

And as you can see, I had to file my nails down a bit. My index nail chipped a few weeks back on one side and then the other side chipped yesterday :(

Color:
Royal blue jelly base with dense dodger blue and silver micro glitter.

Application:
Stellar. Very easy to control and none of the goopiness that is a big problem with many other glitters. 3 coats for opacity. Not a top coat eater!

Downside:
It's obviously a bitch to remove if you don't use the foil method, but that's to be expected.

Bottom Line:
Just the color alone is really beautiful. But the fact that it twinkles like hell makes it that much better. It's one of the easiest to apply glitters I own (and I own a lot of glitters). I also love that it dries to a relatively smooth finish despite it being so chock full of glitter. For me, Dorothy Who? is a must have.

Hard Candy and StyledOn: A Rant (Warning- profanity in abundance)

2011-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Edit 9/16/11:
Who would have thunk that my little rant would have drifted over to the eyes of StyledOn's editor? Not me, to be honest. I don't have that many followers and when I posted the link to Polishaholics Anon on fb, only a few people acknowledged it. But they found it. And they responded.

I received an email from the community editor of StyledOn (as well as a blog comment) and in it she was professional, apologetic, and even gave me her direct phone number in case I wanted to call and discuss the situation. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. Most wouldn't have cared enough to even send an email. But the fact that she posted on the blog and gave me her number? That was going above and beyond. And I appreciate that a lot.

Let me just say that I'm one of those people who has a hard time not accepting an apology. I will long for an apology, and sometimes I'll even demand one (just ask my boyfriend). But once I get one I feel...silly, overdramatic, and petty. And to be honest that's kind of how I feel now. Like I made a big deal out of nothing and even worse, I did it publicly, and to a community that depends on it's followers in order to thrive. So basically, I feel like apologizing for being apologized to. But I'm not doing that. What I am doing though is giving credit when credit is due.

StyledOn saw my post, heard me out, made no excuses, and took responsibility for the error. As of writing this, I still do not have my prize. But they swear it's coming and this time I actually believe them. And when it finally does get here I will be sure to make a post about it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About a month back I posted about a nail art contest from StyledOn that I had entered. I also posted after that telling you all about how I was one of the 10 winners of said contest. I was psyched. I never win anything and to win something based on whatever talent I have was really cool. Even though it wasn't exactly a huge contest and my nail art skills aren't professional or anything, I was still kind of proud of myself.

As soon as the winners of the contest were announced, I received an email from StyledOn asking for my mailing address because my prize (a nail polish set from either Hard Candy or China Glaze) would be mailed the following week. I received this email on August 10th.

About 2 weeks later I saw a few of the other winners posting pictures of their China Glaze gift sets that had arrived in the mail. "Cool. My prize must be coming any day now" I thought.

I thought wrong.

I waited and waited and waited. Still no gift set. So on September 1st I posted a message on StyledOn's facebook wall saying that I still hadn't received my prize. I received the following email in response:

Hi there!

I just spoke with the folks over at Hard Candy and they had a delay in their shipment so it looks like they will be sending out your prizes on Friday! Sorry for the inconvenience!

I appreciated the timely response. I still do, actually. And although I knew that the "delay in shipment" excuse was a load of bullshit, I was optimistic enough to believe that I'd probably still get my prize. Hey, shit happens. They probably just forgot about the contest. After all, Hard Candy is now a very big company.

It's now September 14th. Still no Hard Candy gift set in my possession.

What the fuck.

Part of me feels like a stupid asshole for even having the audacity to complain about not getting something for free- especially when it just isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. But a bigger part of me feels like this is bullshit. StyledOn is now hosting a "sweepstakes" where the prize is a fucking Chanel handbag. Seriously, guys? All I have to do is give you my info, press enter and make a status update about your facebook page and I might win a handbag that costs more than some people make in a week while me and several others actually put real work and skill into your last contest and still haven't received our relatively inexpensive prizes for it? Sorry, but that sounds a little ridiculous, does it not?

The thing is, I don't blame StyledOn for the fact that Hard Candy obviously doesn't give a shit about the winners. That's on them. But you would have thought that StyledOn would have made sure to make this right before going on to promise people yet another prize in a different "contest".

I probably sound like a whiner here, but it's not the lack of free nail polish that bugs me about this. I have plenty of nail polish. That's not the point. It's the principal of this ordeal that bothers me. I made my friends join StyledOn's facebook page. I linked them on this blog. I linked them on a popular nail polish community. I promoted them. For what? The sheer fuck of it? Apparently so. Because that's what I got out of it. Fuck all.

Tutorial: Poppies Nail Art

2011-09-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

I took some time last night and finished the tutorial I told you guys about yesterday. Because it was dark out and my apartment is so old that there is virtually no overhead lighting in it, I had to make due with the flash on my camera.

This is a really simple design that even nail art beginners should be able to master. If you decide to try it out, please show me your work. I'd love to see what colors you've used :)

Poppies Nail Art Tutorial

Step one:

Compile all of your materials. You'll need:

- A base color. I like to use a muted color so that the brightness of the poppies really pop (no pun intended). For this mani I used Virtuous by Me Me Me.

- 2 bright colors in similar shades. For example, if you chose to go with blue poppies, you might want to use a royal blue and then maybe a teal blue. I decided to use 2 shades of red. One is a deep burgundy shade and the other is a true bright red.

- An orangey yellow or mustard colored polish. You could probably get away with using a true yellow, but I think an orange toned yellow looks best.

- A black striping polish OR black polish and a striping brush. Doesn't matter. Essentially they're both the same.

- A small-medium sized dotting tool.

Step two:

Paint your nails with your base color. And please, pardon my messy paint job.

Step three:

Add a small dollop of polish to your nail. Try to visually plan out where your poppies are going to be and add your dollops accordingly. Using your dotting tool, gently manipulate the polish to create an imperfect flower shape. These do not have to look identical to one another. In fact, the less perfect you make them, the better the outcome. And don't forget to alternate your poppy colors!

You should get something that looks like this:

Step four:

Once you have all of basic poppy shapes on your nail, start adding centers to them using your yellow polish. Honestly, I just use a light touch with the polish brush for my centers. But if you aren't feeling confident enough to to that then you can always use your dotting tool. Just make sure that the yellow centers aren't perfectly round. They should be slightly ovaled and off center, and again- imperfect.

Step five:

Using your black striping brush, add (imperfect) black centers to the yellow and random stems.

Tips and tricks:

- Be imperfect. I know I am being redundant about this but it's worth stressing. I've done a lot of floral designs, and the reason they look good and are fun to do is because you have a lot of room to screw up. They actually don't look good if they're perfect.

- Mess around with colors. Sometimes colors that you wouldn't expect to look good together end up working well in this type of design.

- Do one nail at a time.

- Have fun. Tweak the design to your hearts content. There is no wrong way when it comes to nail art.

Essie - Pretty Edgy

2011-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I love green polish. I especially love rich, bright, green cremes. Pretty Edgy from Essie falls into that category quite nicely, and that is why it's hands down one of my favorite green polishes.

Color:
A pigmented dark spring green creme.

Application:
Pretty good. I got some bubbles but they were very faint and barely noticeable to the naked eye. Easy to work with and opaque in 2 coats. Drying time was average.

Downside:
None! Well, aside from the tiny bubbles that I was able to conceal quite easily. I'd prefer no bubbles at all, but with a color this profoundly awesome, I'll take them.

Bottom Line:
Pretty Edgy is one of the most kickass greens I own. It's simple but packs a punch. Today I've paired it with a really cool black a-line dress that is reminiscent of some of the less embarrassing stuff we all wore in the mid-late 90's, and it gives it that perfect touch of color that it needed. So if you're looking for a spring green that is a little richer than the norm, check Pretty Edgy out.

Side note that is completely unrelated:
A few of you expressed interest in a tutorial of the poppies design I did a few days ago. I haven't gotten around to doing one yet, but I do plan on getting it done sometime this week. I will warn you ahead of time that when it comes to tutorials...I think I might kind of suck :P But keep checking back because I will get it done in the next 5 days or so.

Purple Poppies

2011-09-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

My first love is nail art, and I haven't been posting enough of it lately. With the steady stream of new polishes being added to my collection, I put nail art on the back burner. But yesterday I did a design that I LOVE and I plan to do more renditions of it in the very near future. Here is my poppies design:

The base color I used for this is a really pretty lavender from Jordana called Lavender Fields. The 2 colors I used for the poppies are Funky Dunkey by OPI and Through the Grapevine from Wet n Wild.

Me Me me - Virtuous

2011-09-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

I just received a few packages from the UK (<3 <3 <3). One was full of polish and the other was full of my favorite sweet treat EVER- Galaxy brand chocolate. Those of you who do not come from the UK and haven't tried Galaxy chocolate are seriously missing out. It's like eating silk. You will turn your nose up at Hersheys forever after.

Anyway, enough about the 5 lbs I'm going to gain this week eating chocolate. I'm here to review one of the polishes that came in the mail. This one is from a brand called Me Me Me, and it's called Virtuous. I'm pretty sure that all of Me Me Me's colors are similar adjectives, like Delicate and Generous.

Color:

In the bottle it looks like a muted version of Fiercely Fiona. On the nail, it's a bizarre green tinted taupe creme. To say that they are completely different from bottle to nail is an understatement. Very strange.

Application:

The brush on this is really wide, like the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes, only maybe even slightly wider. The formula is very pigmented and surprisingly non-streaky. I used 2 coats for opacity. Drying time was slightly slower than average.

Downside:

I still can't get over the huge difference between the color in the bottle and the color that comes out of the bottle. It's not just a difference of it being darker outside of the bottle, but the entire shade is different. I'm not entirely sure that that's necessarily a bad thing though. The color isn't ugly. It's just not what I thought it would be. But I didn't pick this polish out for myself, so I can't say I'm disappointed in it.

Bottom Line:

Not a bad polish. It's inexpensive (£4.50) and the formula is pretty good. I also like the color, even if it's not what I expected.

China Glaze - Zombie Zest

2011-09-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Today I'm swatching one of my favorite polishes of all time- Zombie Zest from China Glaze's 2010 Awakening collection. There is so much about this one polish that I love. The color, the finish, the name. I definitely had to give it the recognition that it deserves.

Color:
A gorgeous olive green jelly base infused with millions of particles of green and gold micro glitter. There are no proper adjectives to describe how stunning this color is. So I'll let the pictures do the talking for me.

Application:
Easy to control, but pretty sheer. It takes me 4 coats to achieve the opacity and depth of color that I prefer. And because it requires so many coats, it's drying time leaves a lot to be desired.

Downside:
See above. When I use this polish I make sure I have a spare hour and a movie to watch. If you don't give this the proper amount of time to dry, you will end up with a mess on your hands (literally).

Bottom Line:
Just look at it. It's one of the best colors I've ever seen! If you love greens and glitters then you need this polish. It's also relatively cheap (I think I paid about $5 for mine) and perfect for Halloween coming up. The other colors from ChG's Awakening collection are pretty awesome too. If you have a chance to score the whole set, I say go for it. You won't be disappointed.

Tribal Nail Art

2011-09-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

My internet connection is FUBAR at the moment, so I haven't even attempted to make a post. But I did want to do a quick update to show you guys a tribal design that I did yesterday. Hopefully there's enough juice in my connection to upload this. If not, I'm basically writing this to myself...

The green is Jordana's Rich Green and the blue is Mesmerize from Essie.

Essie - Lacquered Up

2011-09-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

I don't wear red polish very often. I probably have less reds in my collection than any other color as well. Many reds look the same to me, and unless they have a unique finish, they just don't appeal. That said, I do have a soft spot for this bright shade from Essie.

Please click the image for full size, because this color becomes quite distorted when re-sized to fit on the blog

Color:
Lacquered Up is a super bright retro red creme. It's blue based so it looks great on us fair skinned chicks and reinforces the pin-up quality that it has going on.

Application:
This is a bit watery, but easy to control regardless. Does anyone know why these bright red shades are always bordering on being jellies even though they are supposed to be cremes? I mean, I guess it's a creme...but it's a jelly too. I know you guys know what I'm talking about! What is the reason for that???

Anyway, no bubbles, no streaks, took 2 coats for opacity and dried well.

Downside:
None, except that I'm not sure this will look great on all skintones. I imagine that it's best left to those of us who resemble the walking dead. But don't quote me on that because sometimes these bright shades can surprise you and end up looking awesome on everyone.

Bottom Line:
Lacquered Up is a great bright red shade. If you're looking for one as a staple to add to your collection, try this out. And if you're planning on going to any upcoming Halloween parties as a slutty sailor girl (this seems to be a popular option, no?) then this is your color.

I purchased this for $3.75 at Pink Nails, which is incredibly cheap for Essie. They have a whole slew of Essie shades at that price and shipping is reasonable.

Butter LONDON - Teddy Girl

2011-08-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is my final (well, final until I acquire more!) installment of the Butter LONDON series. This one is called Teddy Girl, and I'm not quite sure why they chose to name this, of all polishes, Teddy Girl. Maybe it's supposed to be ironic?

Color:
A very sweet shade of medium light pink. It's not a barbie pink, nor is it a bubblegum pink. I'm not sure what I'd classify it as. All I know is that it's a soft shade that went well with my (light, blue-based) skintone. Oh yeah, and it's a creme too.

Application:
A tad streaky. Just a tad though. And that's to be expected with a creme this light. I also got a couple of bubbles, but nothing extreme. Requires 3 coats for opacity but you might be able to get away with 2 coats if they are medium-thick. Drying time was average.

Downside:
This probably won't match everyone's skintone. I could see this not looking great on medium tones, but it might look kind of awesome on dark skinned gals. And again, the price is steep at $16 a bottle.

Bottom Line:

This isn't a "must have" since there are a trillion light pink cremes out there. But having said that, I still really like it. It looks good on me and is a really cute girly shade. And given that the application was better than most light pink cremes I've tried, I have to rule this one a keeper.

Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance

2011-08-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my final post in the Deborah Lippmann series that I've been doing for the last week or 2. This is Bad Romance, which is obviously named after the Lady Gaga song. I'm not a Gaga fan at all but that wasn't going to deter me from trying out this crazy, vampy, glittery jewel.

Color:
Bad Romance is a black jelly base with a hearty dose of both large and small pieces of magenta glitter suspended in it. Vampy and glittery and awesome beyond words.

Application:
I had no problems with this at all. It was completely opaque in 2 coats, was easy to control, and the glitter pieces were very easy to distribute evenly.

Downside:
None. Even the steep price tag is not considered a "downside" this time. It was worth every penny.

Bottom Line:
Bad Romance is badass. You need this right now. Forget that it costs $18. It doesn't matter. If you love vampy colors or glitter or anything that is kind of edgy and fun, then you need this immediately.

I will add though, that if you're really that tight on cash and you just can't part with the $18, then you might want to try out Wet n Wild's Night Prowl or China Glaze's Mummy May I. Neither are what I would call dupes, but they do consist of black jelly with fuschia glitter. The main difference between them and Bad Romance is that they do not contain any of the large pieces of glitter that make Bad Romance as awesome as it is.

Butter LONDON : British Racing Green

2011-08-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

I guess you could call this part 4 of my Butter LONDON series. As I started before, my boyfriend bought me large handful of these as part of my birthday present and I've been swatching and reviewing them as I try them out. British Racing Green was one of the many polishes on my wishlist and I'm happy to have crossed it off the ever-growing list.

Color:
A very dark hunter green shade with an almost perfect amount of green micro-shimmer. Very vampy.

Application:
The formula on this is a tad thinner than I prefer, which made it a little difficult to control around the cuticle area, but aside from that it was perfectly fine. It only required 2 coats for complete opacity which is always a good thing. Drying time was average at best.

Downside:
It costs $16 and I'm fairly certain that there are at least a few dupes available for much cheaper (although I don't own any of them if they do exist).

Bottom line:
It's a great vampy color that is perfect for the colder months that are coming up. I love greens and although this one isn't super unique, it's definitely attractive. The best thing about this polish is the shimmer. It's not overwhelming but it's still perfectly visible. Overall, it's another winner from Butter LONDON :)

"Jinx" Nail Polish Strips Review

2011-08-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Nail polish strips appear to be all the rage these days. Obviously Minx started this trend, but there are now tons of knock offs out there that people can do at home for a fraction of the price that Minx costs at the salon. Sally Hansen is probably the most popular option, as it's extremely accessible and relatively inexpensive. Personally, I was never very intrigued by the Sally Hansen strips because for $9 I can buy an OPI polish and keep it for years instead.

BUT...while perusing the nail polish section of Five Below yesterday, I came across these strips called "Jinx", which is obviously their attempt at a cute play on Minx. But whatever. They had some cute patterns and only cost $3. I snatched 2 packs. One houndstooth pattern and another with white stars on a baby pink base. I left the store expecting the worst.

Inside each pack (which I did not photograph because I wasn't really expecting to be writing this to begin with) is a small nail file, orange stick, the strip of decals, and a bizarre and seemingly useless strip of silver foil sticker. I still have no idea what the silver foil is for...

I tried the pink and white stars strips first and did a half assed job at applying them. I didn't bother to buff my nails first (which they instruct you to do) and didn't do a great job at evening out all of the air bubbles. Despite that, they still came out decent.

Not too bad...

Now if doing a shitty job applying these could give me okay results, then imagine what they would look like if I took my time and applied them carefully...

Awesome.

Jinx are extremely easy to apply. They're basically just stickers made of dry nail polish, and they were almost the perfect size for my nails. The most difficult part is smoothing them out so that no air bubbles get stuck between the sticker and the nail, and even that part is pretty simple. I wasn't sure if these worked with top coat, but I applied a coat of Seche Vite on top of them anyway and it worked out just fine. I'll definitely be buying these again. I hope to go back to Five Below next week once all of the trees and branches are cleared from the roads (and my car...).

I do have a giveaway coming up once I hit 100 followers, and I was thinking of buying a couple of packs of these for it. Would anyone be interested in getting these in a giveaway? What about Funky Fingers polish? They now have the FF crackles at my local Five Below, as well as the entire Island collection. Let me know!

Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe

2011-08-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Pools of sorrow

Waves of joy

Are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me...

I had to have this. Across the Universe is one of my favorite songs of all time, and hands down my favorite Beatles song. I probably would have wanted it even if it were hideously ugly, but thankfully that's not the case.

Color:

A murky blue jelly infused with royal blue micro glitter base, with large pieces of kelly green and sky blue hexagonal glitter. It reminds me a bit of a mermaids shimmering tail. Fucking amazing beyond words.

Application:

ATU applies about as well as any chunky glitter possibly could. It wasn't all that difficult to work with, but needed 4 coats to achieve complete opacity. It dries to a surprisingly semi smooth finish, which shocked the shit out of me. I was really expecting this to be as rough as sandpaper, but instead it's just not entirely smooth. Bonus.

Downside:

Aside from the fact that it takes 4 coats to look like it does in the bottle, I can;t find anything wrong with it.

Bottom Line:

Across the Universe is awesome. And like most of Lippmanns glitters, it's pretty unique. I know that I don't have anything else like this in my collection. It's definitely worth the $18.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a Friday Poll that's been going around the ole' nail blogs for a little while now. I decided to give it a try this week.

1. What’s a nickname only your family calls you?

- It's too embarrassing to admit here :) Which is stupid on my part, because most people would probably find it cute.

2. What’s a weird habit of yours?

Driving with the windows open, whether the AC is on or it's snowing. I cannot drive with the windows rolled up.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?

I'm kind of terrified of falling on the subway tracks. I get some pretty fierce anxiety just by watching people walk along the yellow line that you're supposed to stand behind on the platform.

4. What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?

All of them. I seriously sing constantly.

5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?

WHEN PEOPLE CHEW WITH THEIR FUCKING MOUTHS OPEN. I can't even explain the rage that this incites...

6. What’s one of your nervous habits?

My lip starts to sweat. It's pretty embarrassing.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?

Left (depending on which way you look at it...)

8. What was your first stuffed animal and its name?

It's a little wool brown teddy bear that winds up in the back and plays music. Never had a name. My grandmother gave it to me the day I was born, and I still have it.

9. What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?

I hate Starbucks. I'm a Dunkins girl. Iced blueberry with extra cream and 4 splenda.

10. What’s the beauty rule you preach, but never actually practice?

Don't smoke :/

11. Which way do you face in the shower?

Away from the water. How the hell can you build up a lather any other way?

12. Do you have any weird body skills?

Uh...what? I learned to put my legs behind my head from doing yoga. Does that count?

13. What’s your favorite comfort food that’s “bad”, but you love to eat it anyway?

Oh Christ. Tacos, chips, brownies, donuts. What the hell don't I love that sticks to the ribs?

14. What’s a phrase or exclamation you always say?

WHAT THE FUCK! / What a fucking idiot! / What a douche! etc etc etc

15. Time to sleep – what are you actually wearing?
yellow pj pants with rainbows on them and a fitted black t shirt.

Butter LONDON - Rosie Lee

2011-08-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Color:
A gorgeous pink foil glitter in a clear base. Very "blingy" and feminine.

Application:
This requires no less than 3 coats for opacity. So it's dense, but obviously not as dense as glitters that have a colored jelly base. The upside to this is that you could definitely layer it for a unique look. Drying time is kinda meh, but I've definitely had worse experiences in that department. It dries to a very rough and gravely texture, which is par for the course with this type of glitter polish. So don't bother wasting more than one coat of SV on it. It will just eat it repeatedly.

Downside:
Rosie Lee is super dupable. In fact, I can think of 2 identical twins just off the top of my head. Milani Disco Lights is almost an exact dupe, and I believe that Petites (found at Rite Aid) makes one as well. And like all other Butter LONDON's, this costs $14.

Bottom Line:
It's beautiful, and it makes a bold statement. But you could easily get away with buying the Milani or Petites versions instead for a quarter of the price. That said, I'm sure you wouldn't regret buying Rosie Lee if you decided to splurge. It really is a great color, and sometimes it just feels nice to wear a more upscale polish.

FYI:
For those who are confused by the name, Rosie Lee is British rhyming slang for tea. But if tea looked like Rosie Lee I would probably drink it a lot more often.

Butter LONDON - No More Waity, Katie

2011-08-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Here's another polish from Butter LONDON that my boyfriend recently bought for my birthday. I'd seen quite a few swatches of No More Waity, Katie before deciding I wanted it for myself. And quite honestly, I wasn't totally sold on it at first. I'm not normally into deeply muted colors, and a lot of the swatches I saw looked really sheer and blah. Despite that, I figured I had to have it based almost solely on the fact that it's a limited edition and has that cute Royal Wedding theme going on with it. In the end, I was glad I acquired it.

Color:
NMWK is a smoky grey jelly base with lavender micro glitter.

Application:
This wasn't all that easy to work with. The formula was a tad thicker than I anticipated, and I got a couple bald spots because of it. It's opaque in 3 coats. Drying time was average.

Downside:
As I stated, it wasn't an easy application.

Bottom Line:
It's really pretty without being flashy and in your face. It has a sophistication about it even though it's infused with glitter, and now that I think about it, it's probably the perfect color for a Royal Wedding inspired polish. Kate Middleton herself is pretty, sophisticated, and subtle about it all at once. So kudos to Butter LONDON for creating a color for her that embodies all of those qualities.

Would I buy this again? Yes. Because although I'm definitely partial to bright, bold colors, this is still a welcome addition to my collection. I likely won't wear it often though, because it is a limited edition and strikes me as a color that is best worn on special occasions.

Deborah Lippmann - Glitter in the Air

2011-08-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Glitter in the Air is probably one of the most lusted after polishes out there. Every place I look, there are girls talking about how much they love it, want it, and have tried to produce their own version of it. Truthfully, I have seen some pretty damn amazing franken GLITA's out there. But seeing as I am franken challenged, I went with the real thing.

Glitter in the Air, 3 coats with no base

2 coats of Glitter in the Air with 2 coats of Barry M's Blue Moon as a base color

Color:
Glitter in the Air is a sheer baby blue creme/jelly hybrid with semi sparse (round) pink and blue glitter in multiple sizes. Sounds intricate, doesn't it? I suppose it kind of is...

Glitter in the Air, 3 coats with no base

2 coats of Glitter in the Air with 2 coats of Barry M's Blue Moon as a base color

Application:
GITA has "application issues" written all over it. But it actually goes on quite well. But don't even entertain thoughts of this becoming opaque. You'd probably need about 8 coats for that to be even remotely possible. That said, if it wasn't as sheer as it is then the glitter wouldn't stand a chance at sparkling. Drying time sucked. Period.

Glitter in the Air, 3 coats with no base

2 coats of Glitter in the Air with 2 coats of Barry M's Blue Moon as a base color

Downside:
This is sheer beyond words. It's essentially a really souped up top coat. And at $18 a bottle, it aint exactly cheap as chips.

Glitter in the Air, 3 coats with no base

2 coats of Glitter in the Air with 2 coats of Barry M's Blue Moon as a base color

Bottom Line:
It's unique. It's cute. It's "coveted" by many. The sheerness of it is easily remedied by using a similar sky blue as a base color, and the result is really nice. Personally, I think it's worth the $18 just because there isn't really anything else quite like it out there (unless, as I stated earlier, you are skilled at frankening).

Butter LONDON - Minger

2011-08-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

I am fortunate enough to have a generous boyfriend who fully supports my nail polish addiction. For my birthday he purchased me an insane amount of polishes, including a whole slew of Butter LONDON's. One of my favorite things about Butter LONDON are the names of their shades. They are all named after British cultural icons (ie Pillar Box Red) or British slang terms (ie- Snog). I once went through the entire collection asking my boyfriend what they meant. But one that I was already well acquainted with was Minger- and not because I am one ;)

Color:
A very warm, rich orange creme that is probably subtle enough to wear at the office. Absolutely perfect for autumn.

Application:
Pretty good. 95% opacity in 2 coats, so I added a third just to be on the safe side. Minimal streakiness. Dried in an average amount of time to a nice glossy finish.

Downside:
It costs $14, which imo is a pricey polish. It's also not super accesible, although it's not exactly hard to find online.

Bottom Line:
Minger means "ugly person", but this polish has nothing particularly ugly about it. Regardless, I think the name is pretty fucking cool anyway. This is an autumn staple and well worth the $14 price tag.

You can purchase Minger and other Butter LONDON shades at beauty.com.

Batman Lightning Bolts

2011-08-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterdays birthday celebration went well. Cake, cheeseburgers, and cards full of money were in abundance. If I weren't so lazy and tired today, I would have gone out shopping. But instead I have been laying in bed recovering from the 1 too many glasses of Skinny Girl Margarita that I poured myself last night ;)

I haven't even mustered up enough energy to paint my nails yet. But I do have something from the vault to show you all. This is a mani that I did using one of Nailside's tutorials. If you haven't given her blog a look yet, you have to immediately. She does the most creative scotch tape manis you've ever seen.

It looks a little Batmanish, right? That's completely accidental, but a welcome outcome nonetheless. This took forever to finish and by the time I was done with my right hand, I had no energy or patience to do my left hand :P

I have loads and loads of nail mail coming my way. I couldn't even begin to count just how many bottles I'm expecting this week. Let's just say that this blog is going to be in swatch overload for quite some time.

Dripping in Chocolate

2011-08-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

I'll be 29 years old on the 23rd. That may or may not sound old to you, depending on your age. To me, it is a reminder of the fact that I'm still not married. I like to think of myself as the type of broad who doesn't really care about societal norms, but the fact is that I did always envision myself being married by now. The good news is that I can still pass for 21. At least that's something.

Anyway, I am celebrating my 29th tomorrow and wanted to do something kind of....sweet to celebrate my descent into old maid-hood. And given the fact that I have sworn off chocolate for the last 2 weeks in anticipation of birthday cake, I chose to drip my nails in chocolate. Okay it's not real chocolate. But it kind of looks like it!

I've seen a lot of these "drippy" manicures going around, and I was surprised at how easy the look is to achieve. I may even do a tutorial on it, as a few girls on tumblr have inquired about it. And speaking of tumblr, I'd love to be bff's with you on it if you have one of your own. Just let me know your url and I'll be sure to follow you. If you don't have one yet, you should consider signing up. It's proven to be an excellent tool for driving traffic to this here blog :)

Cherry Blossoms In Bloom

2011-08-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

Todays design was done using Kaylas cherry blossom tutorial. Hers looks much neater than mine, but shit tends to get a bit funky when you do a gradient background. They're not *that* bad, right? :)

Sadly, this was just a quick post to show off my current NOTD. I may have some swatches up later on, so stay tuned.

Tanzy the Tiger

2011-08-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Zoya's Tanzy is gorgeous. Much more gorgeous than I expected it to be. Full of a rusty muted orange micro glitter that applies like a dream and dries in record time (for a micro glitter...). As soon as I put it on, I knew that it needed tiger stripes. It's the perfect color for this nail art. Don't you think?

Tanzy required 3 coats for complete opacity.

I'd never done tiger stripes before. It was very quick and easy to do. I still prefer leopard print though ;)

Zoya Pippa Review and Swatch

2011-08-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I took advantage of a promotion that Zoya was having, where you got 2 free polishes of your choice with any purchase. A pretty incredible deal considering each Zoya polish costs $8. In the end I bought a 2 oz. bottle of Remove + for $4.50 (I think?) and my total came to $11.50 with shipping. The 2 free colors I chose were Tanzy and Pippa. I'll swatch Tanzy another day, because I could not wait to try Pippa.

Pippa is a super bright yellow creme. A true yellow. A smiley face yellow. The type of yellow that makes me proud to say that yellow is hands down my favorite color in the spectrum.

Application was iffy, as with all yellow cremes. It required 3 coats, not so much for opacity, but for streakage. I am happy to say that it's no worse than any other yellow I've tried in terms of application though. It's certainly far better than Hard Candy's Splendid (which I think is probably a good dupe for this).

Drying time was excellent. I never expect any creme that requires 3 coats to dry quicker than 30 minutes at the least. This was dry to the touch in 10 minutes with the help of Seche Vite. Awesome.

Overall, I would say this is in my top 3 yellow cremes. I'm still looking for the holy grail yellow creme that requires only 2 coats with minimal streaks and dries just as fast as Pippa does. Any suggestions?

Oceanic Gradient

2011-08-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

My mom used to collect these really cool blown glass pieces. Most of them are globes filled with awesome patterns and colors, and others are in the shapes of animals like fish or frogs. They're knickknacks, yes. But they're also really pretty and perfect as nail art props.

This piece went perfectly with my NOTD, which is a subtle blue gradient made with OPI's What's With the Cattitude and Ogre-the-top Blue with Last Friday Night layered over it. I probably should have skipped the layer of Last Friday night, because it created a weird dimpled effect that kind of pissed me off.

I have a zillion little props to use, and I always forget to include them in my photos. I'm in the process of reorganizing (ok, more like organizing PERIOD....) my stash and will likely gather all of this up and store them right along side my polish. They may even serve as some inspiration :)

"White on Black on White" Half Moon Mani

2011-08-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

To me, half moon manis are chic and a good way to use nailart to achieve a unique but simple look. But, as you can see from this mani I did for today, it's quite easy to "jazz them up". This is 2 coats of China Glaze's White on White and the black I used is Sinful Colors' Black on Black. So essentially you could call this a "White on Black on White" half moon mani. :)

If you're interested in how I did the basic half moon look, you can head on over to Painting Rainbows and check out the tutorial I did as a guest blogger.

"Last FriDaze" ...plus I WON!

2011-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

So a month or so back I came across a nailart contest on Facebook from StyledOn. I figured I had nothing to lose by entering, but didn't have high expectations for winning. As a rule, I'm simply not a lucky person as far as contests and things like that go. I can't remember evert winning anything...ever. This is why I hardly ever enter giveaways. But by some strange shift in the universe, I actually won this contest!

Well okay, I didn't win first prize or anything. That went to a girl who did a really cute manicure with penguins. But I was one of the 9 runners up who get a nail polish set from either China Glaze or Hard Candy, and i love both brands. So no complaints here. Just the fact that my nail art was one of 10 out of 200 submissions that won is pretty cool!

If you voted for me, thank you. I definitely appreciate it and this made my whole week. Now, onto some layering I did for todays NOTD...

This is 2 coats of Petites' Daze, which is a pea soup colored micro glitter. To be honest, I love the color in the bottle but it just doesn't look right with my skin tone. But I wanted to wear it because it's pretty, so I added a coat of OPI's last Friday Night over it. This was the outcome. Last Friday Night did a decent job at muting the green a little and obviously adding the holo glitter effect. Again, it's pretty....but not on me :(

In other news, I've been experimenting with the "jelly sandwich" and I just cannot. get. it. right. What's the trick, girls?

Oh, and I did a guest post for Painting Rainbows. It's a half-moon mani tutorial. So go check it out!

NOTD: Vintage Rose Garden

2011-08-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

I love me some floral nail art. It's my go-to nail art design when I'm running low on inspiration or try something new that didn't quite work out as well as I'd planned. I really love this mani, although the cuticle drag from the base color leaves something to be desired. Still, it's a win in my book. How can you go wrong with yellow and purple?

The yellow I used is Lemon Icecream from Barry M. As I mentioned before (and as you can see), I did get a good deal of cuticle drag with this one. The consistency on all of the Barry M Icecream colors is a bit odd. They're kind of a combo of a jelly and a creme, which ends up being sort of....milky? They cover exceptionally well though and the colors are fantastic. The purple I used for my ring finger and as one of the colors on the roses is Cheshire from Funky Fingers. It's a gorgeous color with a neon finish, which makes it difficult to photograph. The lighter purple color that I used on the roses is Berry Icecream from Barry M.

Are any of you partial to the floral manis? Show me some links of your work! :)

Nailspiration (from Japan!)

2011-08-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

The biggest inspiration for me getting into nail art was Japanese nail art. Nobody does it quite like Japan. They have the most talented, creative, and hardcore nail techs over there, and to say that I'm jealous would be an understatement. But despite being jealous, I'm also appreciative. I've gotten many ideas from looking at their creations, and even more hours of enjoyment just by looking at pictures of these awesome nails they decorate.

I was lucky enough to find a steady stream of Japanese nail art magazine scans about a year ago and have been collecting them ever since. There are some pretty badass nails within those scans, and I figured I would share the wealth (and inspiration) with you all. Even if you can't replicate any of these exactly (and really, who can? Not me...) you should definitely be able to take something from them and make it your own.

As always, click the image to view the full size.

I love the dainty girly 2 tones black/pink french tips

yes, they even have mini tutorials!

Note: The the nails second down on the far left are remarkably easy to create using scotch tape :)

These are all so. fucking. amazing.

Pseudo heart shaped Pucci print. Awesome.

Where can I get those little round pieces of glitter? I love that look, and it looks extremely easy...although very monotonous to achieve.

I literally have hundreds of these on my hard drive and I'd love to post more of them if anyone else loves them as much as I do :) So let me know! And please, if you use any of them as inspiration in your nail art designs, let me know so that I can check them out!

NOTD: Tequila Sunrise Gradient

2011-08-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Summer is sadly coming to an end in a few weeks. It never lasts long enough for me. Someday I will leave these 9 month long New England winters behind and head west. But until then, I'll have to prolong my love of the sun with manicures like this one:

try to ignore the little white baby hairs on my thigh in this one...

I actually swore off gradients a few months ago because I did one that required literally over an hour of clean up. Fuck that! I love the look, but I'm just not patient enough to deal with all that. But then I remembered that I used a totally different technique that time and that my old trusty technique never left me with such a horrible mess to clean up afterwards. So I tried again, with pretty awesome results (if I do say so myself). The only real issue I have with this mani is the fact that I got extreme tip wear and lifting on my middle finger, which is likely due to the massive chip I have in the side of the nail.

I used Funky Fingers' Cayman Island for the yellow base, N.Y.C.'s Times Square Tangerine Creme for the orange overlay and a coat of Sinful Colors' UFO for the glitter. I then topped it off with 2 thick coats of Seche Vite.

My Very First Franken: Derple

2011-08-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

I made my first franken last night. I call her "Derple". If you don't get it, you're probably better off :) Check it out:

I couldn't even begin to tell you what I used to make this. I have no idea how some girls who franken a lot come up with specific recipes for them. I just kinda went crazy and added a bunch of colors until I got this.

I received some awards today from Angelique. I love these awards. They might not seem like a big deal but it always makes me smile to know that at least one other blogger out there thought that my blog was cool enough for a bit of recognition. Thanks Angelique!

Rules:
1. Thank the person that gave you the award and link them back
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass this onto 15 bloggers
4.Tell the people that you gave the award to

Facts:
1. I collect a fair amount of things. Nail polish (obviously), Sanrio merchandise, Doc Martens (when I can afford them), and headbands.

2. I'm known for having a brutally honest take on things.

3. I love all of Irvine Welshes books.

4. A bottle of Seche Vite lasts me no longer than 2 weeks.

5. I could only come up with 4 things :P

I'm tagging:

1. Nightly Nails

2. I'm Feeling Nail-venturous

3. The Nailaholic

4. Nails by Kate Vergara

5. Haute Pink Heels

Styled On Hard as Nails Contest

2011-08-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

I never enter contests because I never win anything, and with that sort of defeatist attitude it's really no wonder, right? :P But I decided to enter this one because I really do want the prize. It's a $150 gift card and a set of either Hard Candy or China Glaze polishes.

Soooooo, I need your help! Please vote for me every day from now until the 7th! You can vote once a day.

Here is the mani that I entered:

Special thanks to everyone who has helped me out with The International Polish List thus far. I still have some editing to do and some links to add. Please bear with me. It's a much more time consuming project than I anticipated! But I will get it completed and link all of you who have helped by the end of this week, and it will be added as a permalink. Thanks again!

The International Polish List

2011-08-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

The biggest "issue" that I have when perusing other nail polish blogs is coming across a polish that I need right now from a brand that I have no idea how to get my hands on, and come to find out, this brand isn't even sold in the US. Admit it. You have this same "issue" too.

Many girls have remedied this "issue" by doing swaps with other polish loving chicks in different countries. That's awesome. But you know what would be even more awesome? If we had an awesome list of awesome polish brands that are available in Country X but not Country Y (and vice versa). This way, when you get the hankering for a swap, you can check out said list and figure out what brands you have to chose from.

Likewise, whenever you come across those amazing polishes on a blog that are from a brand that you've never heard of, you could check the list to see what region they are sold in. Then you can try and find a girl from said region to do a swap with.

Does this sound complicated? I promise it's not.

So far I've come up with a list of mostly drugstore brands that are not readily available to countries outside of their origin. I'd love to make this list as definitive as possible and covering as many regions as there are polish brands. If you could help out by giving me the names and locations of any polish brands out there, I would be forever grateful (and happy to give you a link on this blog).

- 2true (list of products)

- Accessorize (list of products)

- 17 (list of products)

- Barry M (list of products)

- Models Own (list of products)

- GOSH (list of products)

- Collection 2000 (list of products)
- Miss Sporty (list of products)

USA
- OPI
- China Glaze (list of products)
- Orly
- Milani (list of products)

- Sally Hansen (list of products)

- Hard Candy (list of products)

- Funky Fingers

- Finger Paints (list of products)

- Sinful Colors (list of products)
- Wet n Wild (list of products)
- Essie (list of products)
- Claires (list of products)
- Pure Ice (list of products)
- Nicole by OPI (list of products)
- Color Club (list of products)

Canada
- Joe Fresh (list of products)

Brazil
- Hits (list of products)
- Risque (list of products)

Germany
- P2
- Catrice (list of products)
- Essence (list of products)
- Manhattan (list of products)
- Alessandro (list of products)

Korea
- Etude (list of products)
- Guppy
- The Face Shop
- Tony Moloy

Singapore
- Skin Food (list of products)

Hong Kong
- Misshaus (list of products)
- Sasatinnie
- Skin Food (list of products)
- GOSH (list of products)
- Canmake (list of products)
- pa
- Jill Stuart

Australia
- Bloom (list of products)
- Ozotics
- Glitter Gal (list of products)

Netherlands
- Catrice (list of products)
- Essence (list of products)
- Teeez (list of products)
- KOH (list of products)
- GOSH (list of products)
- 2true (list of products)
- Golden Rose (list of products)
- Mavala
- Pieces
- Hema
- Miss Sporty (list of products)
- Etos
- Collistar
- INGLOT

Finland
- Isadora (list of products)
- Lumene
- Depend (list of products)
- Mavala
- Makeup Store

Czech Republic
- Miss Sporty (list of products)
- Essence (list of products)
- Gabriella Salvete
- Max Factor

Japan
- Etude House (list of products)
- Canmake (list of products)
- pa
- Comme Ca
- Opi for Japan
- Jill Stuart

Denmark
- GOSH (list of products)
- OPI
- Essie (list of products)
- Wet n Wild (list of products)
- Pieces
- Depend
- Isadora (list of products)
- Viva la Diva

Austria
- Essence (list of products)
- Catrice (list of products)
- Look by Bipa
- S-he
- L'oreal
- MAC
- IsaDora (list of products)
- Anny
- Essie (list of products)
- OPI
- Mist Stockholm

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Clover and Black

2011-07-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

I ordered Chunky Holo Clover and Chunky Holo Black by Kleancolor a few days ago and they finally arrived this afternoon. I was psyched to try these out because from the swatches I'd seen online, they appeared to have a unique quality to them that reminds me a little of flakie polish.

Here is 4 coats of Chunky Holo Clover:

Clover has a very sheer kelly green jelly base. It's pretty but because it's so sheer it is lacking in wearability. However.....

it's quite charming when layered over a dark green :) This was 2 coats of Last Chance by Sinful Colors with 2 coats of Chunky Holo Clover layered over it. Not bad at all.

Chunky Holo Black was not even worth applying by itself. I tried, and it looked too gross to even take photos of it. So here you have 2 coats of it layered over Black on Black by Sinful Colors.

Beautiful. The base of this is every bit as sheer as Clovers and it's grey. Not black, but grey. I'm not even sure why they call this Chunky Holo Black, because even in the bottle you can see that the base is anything but. I suppose it doesn't matter that much since it's so gorgeous over a real black base.

My one question is why they made the glitter in Chunky Holo Black truly chunky with multi sized pieces of glitter, but left Clover (and presumably the rest of the Chunky Holo set) with just a standard medium sized glitter. I think Clover could have definitely benefitted from some of the super chunky pieces that are in Black.

Curious as to what Chunky Holo Black would look like over other colors, I decided to layer it over (from left to right) Ruby Ruby by Sinful Colors, Volts by Funky Fingers, Funky Dunkey by OPI, and Port Royal by Funky Fingers.

I will definitely be using this over Funky Dunkey in the future!

Mint Apple is Marvelous

2011-07-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Sinful Colors. They have gorgeous colors at a super cheap price, and they're constantly churning out dupes of the OPI collections. Every time I hit up a Walgreens I come away with at least one of their polishes, and last night was no exception. Mint Apple was one of the only colors that I didn't already have in my stash, so I figured I might as well add it to my collection.

Why didn't I grab this one sooner?! It's nearly perfect.

If you were looking at my nails from just a few feet away, you might think that this is a creme, but once the light hits it you get to see that amazing golden shimmer that makes it special. The first coat of Mint Apple is pretty sheer, but I was amazed at how easily it built up. This is 3 coats with a base and top coat. Drying time was also surprisingly fast.

NOTD: Lemon Lime Leopard Print

2011-07-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

All the chicks on facebook are doing fruit nails and they're awesome. I tried to do a pineapple mani, but my patience gave out and I decided to go for something more stylized. Here is what I came up with:

I love green nail polish and I just don't wear it enough. I also love yellow nail polish and I don't wear that enough either. So this was my excuse to combine both and use some of that striping tape that I love so much at the same time. For the green I used Who the Shrek are You? from OPI. The yellow I used is Lemon Icecream from Barry M.

Layering Experiments Pt 1: Yoga-Ta Get This Fire Fly

2011-07-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm bored of the same old nail art designs but still keen on doing something different with my manicure, I'll conjure up a layering experiment. This one is 2 coats of Yoga-Ta Get This Blue from OPI with 1 coat of Fire Fly by Jesse's Girl over it. It kind of reminds me of outer space.

Anyone who doesn't have Fire Fly is seriously missing out. It's absolutely perfect for layering and adds a unique touch to any nail polish in your collection.

What are your favorite layering combinations?

NOTD: Tie Dyed and Hot as Hell

2011-07-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

It's 100 degrees here today. Luckily I got my AC unit fixed last night, or else I'd be melting. And because it's so hot, I figured I'd try something summery on my nails for the day. Here are my tie dyed nails! (Excuse the messy cuticles. These are hard to do in a neat manner).

I used the following colors: Wild Child, Port Royal and Cheshire from Funky Fingers, and Fiercely Fiona from OPI.

EDIT: I wasn't able to find the exact tutorial that I saw on this a few weeks ago but I did find a really good one that should help you girls do this on your own. Here it is! If you try it out yourself, please shoot me a link to your blog so I can see!

NOTD: Ode to a Bee

2011-07-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

I went out to water my moms gladiolas last night with bare feet. I never wear shoes around the house and I'm pretty lazy, so if I need to run out to get something from my car or let my dogs out or whatever, I usually just go out with no shoes or socks on and brave the various twigs and tough gravel. So I grabbed the hose and walked over to where the flowers are and started thinking to myself, "I don't know why everyone thinks I'm dumb for coming out here in bare feet all the time. It's no big deal!" when all of a sudden I stepped on a bee.

Yeah. I stepped on a fucking bee and it stung the shit out of the palm of my foot. At least I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I didn't actually see this bee, but I can't imagine what else I could have stepped on that would create that same sensation and leave a tiny "bite" type mark. I'm in Boston. We don't get any crazy creatures besides buzzing insects that inflect that sort of pain.

Luckily I'm tough (ha) so as soon as it stopped stinging I was able to laugh about it. I was also able to create a mani to mark the occasion. Hey, that bee outsmarted me. It deserved a memorial!

I used 3 coats of Mellow Yellow from Jordana, Black on Black from Sinful Colors for the stripes and tips. The stripes were made with striping tape instead of scotch tape :)

NOTD: Harlequin Dots

2011-07-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today's NOTD is brought to you by....Rumple's Wiggin' from OPI's Shrek collection. It's a soft lavender creme that applies beautifully. For the dots, I used Black on Black from Sinful Colors. My middle finger was cursed with some black strings and my index finger is kinda funky. I really like how the other turned out though. I'll be doing this design again, for sure.

New URL + Funky Fingers Island Collection Swatches

2011-07-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

I mentioned something on my now old blog about wanting to make the move over here to blogger. This past weekend pushed me from wanting to move to needing to move. I don't know what the fuck happened on the blogs backend, but shit stopped working right...and other things stopped working completely. Big thanks to Amy for shooting me an email to let me know that my comments were no longer working.

I finally figured out how to transfer all of my followers over to this blog, so everything is fine. I do (kindly) ask that if you have me linked that you change it to this address to avoid confusion. And if I don't have you linked but you'd like to be, please shoot me an email or post your url in the comments.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I can show you the Island Collection from Funky Fingers!

Did you know that these smell? Well, all nail polish smells, but these smell like food. Fruit to be precise. I'll be honest with you though- these don't smell good. A few of them are downright nauseating. And this is coming from someone who paints her nails in an air conditioned room with no ventilation whatsoever (I know. I'm smart.). The colors are pretty cool though and most of them are worth the stench.

Port Royal is a super bright fuschia creme neon. (Remember that word neon, because I'm going to be using it a lot in this post). It applied about as well as a neon possibly can, and for that I am thankful. I had to use 3 coats for opacity and it was still a bit streaky, but again- what more can you expect from a neon? The shade itself is pretty awesome and looks badass with either black or any array of purples that you fancy. I likely won't ever wear this on it's own but I have big plans for it when it comes to nail art. Oh, and this one actually smells kind of nice. Like raspberries I think?

Cayman Island is by far my favorite, but yellow always is. This yellow is unlike any other color in my collection though. It's a bright dandelion (neon) shade with the most amazing teal green shimmer that gives it this odd kind of 3D effect. It's a total bitch to apply, but I was expecting that. It took 4 coats for semi opacity and is incredibly streaky. It also smells like something that crawled out of my ass. I don't even know if the scent is supposed to be banana or lemon. Can't say that I care though. I love this one to bits.

Curacao bored me to tears in the bottle, but when I put it on I was amazed. It's absolutely gorgeous! It's a bright turquoise blue and is infused with teal green shimmer. Stunning. This also smells the best- like blueberries :) This was opaque in 2 easy coats.

Tortuga is not a neon to fuck with. This sucker is so bright that it practically glows in the dark. I'm not sure I'd wear this one on it's own. It's a bit too much, even for me. It smells the worst out of all of them. It's obviously supposed to be lime scented, but it ends up smelling like that nasty green slime shit that they used to sell in gumball machines in the 80's. Come to think of it, it kind of looks like that stuff too!

Kingston is a very bright coral neon that applied really well and was mostly opaque in 2 coats, but you'd never know it from the pictures. I don't know what the issue is with this, but this color HATES the camera. I tried every angle and every type of light to try and capture this color accurately and nothing worked. For some reason it came out looking like a crazy shimmer even though it has no shimmer at all in it. Strange. These few pics that I did manage to get are not accurate either. It's much more orange than this. Sorry! :( I have no idea what kind of fruit this is supposed to smell like either.