Meteor Shower in a Snow Shower!

China Glaze's "Meteor Shower" I wanted to love this so much.

It's such a pretty deep dark navy blue with all this awsome sliver, blue and teal glitter in it.

I read the stories about how lumpy it was, but I thought I could fix it with some top coat.

The lesson? You can't fix lumpy polish. No matter how many layers of Seche Vite you use.

Sigh..

Thankgiving Week manicures!

This was my favorite of the week. I don't think I have ever loved a metallic (or Khrome as China Glaze calls it) this much!

I have to say though, it chipped like a bitch. Thankfully it was quick to dry and only needed one - two coats to look decent so I didn't mind some minor repairs. I wore this to our second Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday. Don't ask.

Armour, "Central Park Autumn" made it to the main event. I hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the very first time and I have to tell you this held up amazingly well! Nit a nip or chip. Just a little bit of tip wear at the end of the night.

MMMM...Dark Cinnamon. I wore this in the beginning of Thanksgiving week.

Gorgeous!

Golden Wine looks great here, but I wasn't really a fan.

Happy Thanksgivng!

Today, I have some more "lost" files. These were taken over the summer, but I don't think I ever posted them. OPI - "Barefoot in Barcelona" my favorite nude EVER! This made my top 20. I love it!

This was Essie "Greenport" with Nfu-Oh "40" on the tips. I wasn't crazy about it for some reason, but now I think in the pictures it looks kinda neat.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with good food and good company. I am hosting my first Thanksgiving, and I'm a little nervouse about how things will turn out! My sister-in-law traditionally hosts Thanksgiving and she has set a very high standard!

A trip to Ulta

I went in search of the Ulta Exclusives. Visons of Sugarplum. I wasn't sure if I realllly needed another purple, but once I got there, it's so pretty! I also got Dazzled by Gold from the Ulta Exclusive OPI's. Dreaming of Red was there and was also pretty, but I wanted Sapphire in the Snow from the Holiday OPI's. Plus the holiday displays were picked over! I got the last bottle of Sapphire in the Snow. OPI was on sale buy 2 get 1.

Visions of Sugarplum (inisde with flash)

VoS (outside)



Dazzled by Gold!


Ring finger has one coat of Misa Dirty Sexy Money with Dazzled over it.

DbG reminded me a lot of Wet n Wild Craze "Shield" because it has very fine glittery copper and silvery bits. But it's a much deeper, richer gold than shield. It's really gorgeous. Perfect for the Holidays!

There are no pictures of SitS because I can't get the bottle open! I guess there is a reason it was the last one there! I left it on my husband's end table, but so far he hasn't taken the hint.

Contests! Yay!

http://paintedtips.blogspot.com/2009/11/giveaway100-followers.html

One of my favorite nail blog, Painted Tips is having a giveaway to celebrate 100 followers!

Congratulations!

One of my Top 20, I have never posted!

Top 20 day!

These aren't in a particular order, that would make my head explose! But this is the polishes listed left to right. Don't know why the picture came out so tiny!

1. China Glaze – Thunderbird
2. OPI – Manicurist of Seville
3.. $OPI – Never Enough Shoes
4. OPI – Barefoot in Barcelona
5. Color Club – Revvvolution
6. Obsessive Compulsive cosmetics – Dangerous
7. OPI – My Private Jet
8. OPI – Merry Midnight
9. Cover Girl –Boundless Color – City Lights
10. Barielle – Slate of Affairs
11. Hard Candy – Mr. Right
12. Nfu-Oh 52
13. New York Summer - #34 – Poppies
14. Entity – Blue
15. Diamond Cosmetics – Drift Away
16. Nubar – Moonshadow
17. China Glaze – 2Nite
18. LA Girl - Rockstar – Punk
19. Essie – Chinchilly
20. Sally Hansen – Pat on the Black

Passion vs. Plum

Not Your Hum-Drum Plum is on middle and thumb, Midnight Passion on the rest of my fingers.

Midnight Passion is more metallic purple, while hum drum is all creamy goodness.

Hum-Drum Plum (I love saying that for some reason) is FREAKIN' GORGEOUS! It's such a deep, creamy, loud, perfect blue-purple, that's bright but not too bright. I love it! I wish my camera had captured the rich color a little better. So awesome. Diamond makes some kick-butt polishes for $2.00 polish!

Diamond - Midnight Passion

The Lost Archives!

OPI - Merry Midnight. I got this and the mini 4-pack from Aveyou.com.

I didn't do the polish justice though. It probably should have had a third coat.

And I used OPI's quick dry top coat over it, which really sucked. It went on kinda dry and sticky.

But even with those issues, this polish is TO DIE FOR! I absolutely love it. It's in my "already worn but must wear again soon" basket which sits on top of my untrieds box. Yes, I'm a little nutty!!

OPI Shim-Merry Chic. This was one of the mini bottles. I loved this too. It's fascinating!

Plus I felt it was nuetral enough to wear to work. Hehe.

This monstrosity was taken before I broke my nails. :( This was Wet-n-Wild Craze "Lust" with Cover Girl "City Lights" on the tips.

A little over the top, but I think I wore this somewhere at the end of August? So, it felt very summery and pretty. I did not wear this one to work.

Here is lust all by itself.

AND again with City Lights.

I love the blueish flash Lust has. I was looking for a fuschia JUST like this! For my toes though, I don't usually wear colors this bright on my fingers!

Zoya "Pasha". I wore this to kick off a week-long trial. So, I got out all my boring nuetrals for the week and lined them up. Pasha went first. I shouldn't call this boring. It was actually quite nice. Wore well too.

MMMMMMMMManicurist of Seville. This TOTALLY STOLE MY HEART. I have never liked a red nail polish before, but this was true LOVE! It is the perfect crimson with a touch of pink red to it. I wish I had taken better pictures of it. This does not do it justice at all. I wore this for about a week and never got tired of it. I also worked as an extra on a film set in the 1930's and the makeup artist and wardrobe lady both complimented me on what an awesome color it was! This is also in my basket "to be worn again soon". It's going on my top 20 list as well!

Here is a shot of Heirloom Organza next to my coffee. Hehe. I was being silly. Loved this polish. I felt quite sophisticated with it for some reason.

China Glaze "Thunderbird". Another AWESOME RED that I did not get a worthy picture of. This is more shimmery and orange-toned red, but gosh is it pretty! My husband and I used to go to a lot of antique car shows and this definitely reminds me of the paint jobs on some of my favorites.

What I've been wearing lately...

Metallic Illusions - "Heavenly Body" I am planning to post all the pictures I have on this later, but this was a fascinating polish to wear! I applied smooth and easy and wore really well.

Ignore the mess I mde on my thumb...Mystical Knights is one of those lovely Diamond Cosmetics polishes.

This is such a gorgeous, deep-steely blue. It's not navy, it's not grey, and it doesn't appear black in low light.

It's got a really silvery, pretty shimmer to it. It also wore very well and didn't leave me with smurf fingers when I took it off.

Essie "Damsel in a Dress" I have a hard time getting excited about Essie polishes. This was pretty, it wore well, it also has a sort of silver shimmer to it, bit it's a pretty standard plummy-burgandy color.

China Glaze "Short and Sassy" from the Retro collection. I loved this color, but then I forgot I had even worn it, until I found these photos on my camera. It's beautiful, but I guess it wasn't very exciting.

Essie "Mink Muffs". This is kind of neat. The formula was fantastic. The wear was very durable. I love the color, but it's also been done a few times by now.

No name Rusty, shimmery color by Goldie. I liked this. This is the first Goldie polish I have worn. The finish was really pretty and shimmery. I got a lot of compliments on this. It only held my attention for one day, so I can't speak to the durability of it.

Comparison Swatches!

Here we have 4 lovely shades of blue-green gorgeousness! Sinful "See You Soon" WnW Craze "Morbid" Barielle Shades "Blackened Blue" and Sinful "What's Your Name".

Similar...yes, but you can see they are all very different. Morbid seems to have more green. "See You Soon" and "Blackened Blue" are the closest, but the Barielle has way more shimmer to it, (even though it's hard to tell from my unholy slopped on mess -sorry!) "What's Your Name" is very thin and watery. This is probably 3 coats.

Then for fun, I added some flakies, cause let's admit it, flakies make everything prettier!

All of them in the sun.

The Barielle Swatches I Promised! (well, most of them!)

I am torn. Misbehaving Mistress and Lava Rock are tied for 1st place in this collection!

I've never seen another color like this! It's brown-taupe-silvery, smooth, glossy goodness!

Slate of Affairs.

Slate of Affairs...swoon! I love this color! It's a very unexpected vibrant slate blue with tons of shimmer to it.

Gorgeous!

Get mauving. I like this one a lot, but it's no a knock-out.

My poor fingers were starting to suffer from all the swatching! Sorry about that!

THIS LITTLE STUNNER IS LAVA ROCK! MY FAVORITE OF THE BUNCH!

It's got a deep-brownish-plum-smoldering-shimmery thing going on. Very unlike anything I have ever seen. I was just mesmerized by this!

Hidden Hideaway vs. Lava Rock

Hidden Hideaway. Gorgeous purple. But not something new and different.

Secret Encounter. Really pretty, but it reminds me of other colors I already have, like...China Glaze "Short and Sassy" comes to mind. This has really pretty shimmer to it though, very delicate.

I didn't swatch Swizzle Stix or Grape Escapre. I got tired of swatching and was losing sunlight. Plus they are spring colors and I was feeling very FALL!

First Barielle Order!

I have never had any luck finding these at CVS. Well, once I found one on clearance randomly. But, I was really excited about the new fall colors. Espcially Lava Rock and Slate of Affairs. I dove in! From the website, they were buy 2 get 1. At a certain amount you get free shipping AND I had some sort of "welcome" coupon code. So, I think with shipping, these ended up being about $4.00 each. Not too shabby in my opinion.

Swatches coming soon...I swear!

Halloween Mani

I'm getting over the flu. Don't judge me.

Wild at Heart

I really like Color Club polishes. They're relatively cheap. The brushes are a decent size the polishes I have tried glide on effortlessly and don't make too much of a mess. Even for a spaz like me!

I thought this was going to be a more holographic purple along the lines of China Glaze's LOL but without the horrible chipping.

But, it's a very sublte holo. Still really pretty though. It wore great, not a single chip and came off with ease.

Who wants a little Hard Candy!?

Searching through Wal-Mart's website, I determined there are two in my area that are carrying the Hard Candy line. I made my way to the closest one...and lo and behold!

I practiced a bit of self-restraint, and limited myself to the two polishes you see here, a liquid eyeliner and a gloss. All of it so far is AWESOME!

I like both of these. They applied awesomely! The brush is the right length and fullness. I like Mr. Right, but it's really similar to other colors that I have, namely NYC West Village. Mr. Wrong is neat, I don't think I have anything like it.

My first mani with the famouse Emerald Sparkle...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pretty!

Sally's Exclusive - I found it!! Fortune Teller...

I took a trip down to Orange County/Middletown. While I was there, had my GPS search for Sally's, the first one I found had a full display of Fortune Teller! Yay! I couldn't find it any where near me.
I like it. It's certainly different from anything else I own. It looks very "halloween". Black with firey orange flaky/glitter. My only issue is that it dried very rough. I used Seche Vite over it, which usually seems to smooth things out, but it's still very bumpy and rough. It's wearing really well, so far....wondering how hard taking it off will be!

Shiny, Glittery Stuff!

Milani "Fairy Tale"

I fell in looooove with this, the first time I saw it at CVS. I want to get all of the Halloween Milani's, but, damn! They are $4.49 at CVS. Seems a bit much...

I'm sure this is similar to a ton of other blue glitters, but it's still really preeeetty!!

TOXIC SEDUCTION with a layer of CHINA GLAZE "GOLDEN ENCHANTMENT"

Misa - Toxic Seduction

I have heard a lot about this green. It's not bad, but I am not all that excited about it. it applied really well though. This is two coats. There's a deep shimmer to it, but it's still subtle. It's pretty but I find Misa polishes take forever to dry! Even with Seche Vite. Wear has been pretty good.

Let's take a stroll, shall we?

From China Glaze's fall "Retro" collection...Stroll:

I was afraid it would be a little TOO glittery red, but it's not! It's a darker red with a nice strong shimmer.

Hard to capture it just right...weather has been gloomy so no good sunlight either...

Wearability hasn't been the greatest. Started to see tipwear pretty quick. It's also very sheer. This was 3 coats. Probably could have used a 4th.

I thought I should post a picture after 4 days of wear...after the initial tip wear, it actually held up really well. Not a single chip! I would have kept it, but I needed a switch!

Craze!

I'm so ashamed of myself! I've had the Wet n Wild craze polishes for awhile, and I don't think I have posted them yet! Sorry! It was a long, difficult search to find them!
Here's Morbid: It's pretty, but not as HOT as I expected it to be.

Durability was decent.

It was hard to capture the green/blue color j u s t right, but I tried!

Tickle me ouchy!

Behold the "before"


and "after" one of my dogs' leashes got wrapped around my finger and snapped my nail clean off.
That hurt. But mostly, I am just sad I had to chop all my beautiful nails down!

I considered "repairing" it like I've read about, but both my thumb nails ended up splitting really far down, so i just gave up and I'll start all over again!

Tips are OPI DS Chiffon.

MY BIRTHDAY MANICURE!

For my birthday this year, I chose OPI DS Glamour with a topping of NFU-OH Flakies. This was so pretty!! It made me happy all day. Too bad I had to remove it for "tickle my france-y" for trial that I was in all week. :( Maybe I'll do it again soon!

Let's compare two hot fall browns!

Barielle's "Two Timing" vs. Wet n Wild Craze - "Rustic"

Index and Ring = "Two Timing"

Both were really pretty!

How I finally found my WnW Craze polishes is another story...

I almost didn't buy Rustic because I was worried it might be too similar to "Two Timing"

But I think they are different enough!

More from Diamond cosmetics

I know this one is sloppy, but I was so excited about this rich vampy shade I had to snap a pic!
This is "Darkest Desire"


Then we have "Hue are you?"

It seems to have a slight holo shimmer to it. Great rich color for fall!

Colors I can't wait to wear in the fall...

Station's "Golden Wine". From the measly swatch on Transdesign, I expected this Wine to be more Merlot with a golden shimmer to it, but this more....pumpkinish wine color is actually pretty too.

I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but there is almost a duochrom effect going on, where this goes from gold to orange-red shimmer. It's pretty. Another polish I think I'll be looking forward to in November!

Ahhhhh Entity. I love Entity so much. I mean, I might take down this blog and start a new one called something-to-tell-the-world-how-great-this-stuff is (I'm not feeling really creative this morning). Anyway, take a look at "Dark Cinnamon"

I mean, have you seen another color like this?

It's brown, but it's got this deep, shimmery, fire thing going on

Whoa!

Gorgeous!

AMOUR AUTUMN

This is a brand I found on transdesign. In my mission to try every nail polish brand out there, I added it to my last order.

I am not super-crazy about the color. But maybe because it's still August and this feels like a color I would wear around Thanksgiving.

It's a rich caramel color with little glittery flecks in it.

Application was fantastic. Very smooth and even. The brush was neat and precise. I can't speak to the durability of this because I only swatched it quickly. Definitely a brand I will check out again, especially since it's only $1.99.

Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees and a little extra...

I've been eagerly awaiting OPI's new España collection. Especially Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees.

I thought it was going to be a grayish-smokey blue

But on me, it's really just a dark, charcoal black. I got a lot of compliments, but mostly from people thinking it was black nail polish!

It needed a good three coats to be opaque. I decided my new Nfu-Oh flakies would make a nice tip. What I ended up with was what I think is my favorite manicure EVER.

Nfu-Oh 52 is awesome. It is my favorite of the three flakies I bought. It shifts from royal blue to green and purple. It reminds me of mermaid skin! It's so pretty. Add it onto a dark gray background it is stunning!

Wedding Fingers

My husband and I went to the wedding of two of our friends. My dress was actually this color:


Not being a fan of matching nails to dress (this is Diamond Cosmetics "Drift Away" by the way) I thought I would add a little "pop".

Weeeeeeeeeeeee! China Glaze "OMG" with sprinkle of Cover Girl "City Lights" on the tips!

I really loved how this came out. Especially since I am usually so sloppy!

Then today, my Nfu-Oh polishes arrived! WOW! What lightening fast shipping and great customer service they have!!

I added #40 flakies to my blingy mani:

LOVE!

West Village Punk

I started with NYC "West Village" which, for some reason was a total pain in the ass to apply.

It's pretty on its own, but it needed something more...

Enter LA FLARE Rockstar in "Punk" for the tips:

And a nice gloppy coat of Seche Vite

Oh yeah! That's better!

And...there you have it! What I like to call the "West Village Punk"

Diamond Cosmetics Haul

This is Plum Pie in the Sky

I couldn't capture the color right, but it was gorgeous!

Diamond has great little bottles, a perfect brush and their polishes are only $2.00!

I probably bought way too many! But, I think the whole order was like $48! That's the price of 2.6 Rescue Beaut Lounge polishes!

Customer service is also great. Shipping was a wee bit on the slow side, but communication from the company was good, so it's okay! Diamond polishes can be found here: http://www.diamondcosmetics.com

More fun stuff...

Sally Hansen, Extreme Wear in "Purple Potion". I loved this shade of purple and it has these blue glimmery, shimmery particles in it that I was able to capture a little bit. I have seen these at CVS for 50% off, which is like $1.25. Great polish for the price!

Nubar "Greener". Sorry it's so sloppy, but it seems to be the only picture I took of it. I didn't love wearing this one as much as I thought I would! So sad. It also chipped and came off pretty quick. Boo!

China Glaze "DV8". I wanted this for quite awhile and then when I finally wore it, I felt kind of "blah" about it. It's pretty for sure. It also didn't chip like LOL did on me. It wore really, really well.

MMMMMMMMMM....Gussied up in Green. This was HOT. I love the name, I love the shade of green, I loved the wear of this. Everything about it was just AWESOME. Plus, I got tons of compliments on it.

Seriously Slacking

I know I've been slacking lately. I've still been taking photos, just been too lazy to put them up.
But, here's what I've been up to:


Orly, Cashmere Cardigan
Loved this! Very shiny. Pretty lavender/periwinkle type color.
It chipped a little quicker than I would have liked, but I still loved it.


This was Misa "On the Edge" with LA Girl Flare Platninum Record over it. It was a lot prettier in person than I could capture on film. I promise. It also wore insanely well AND was a breeze to remove. Pretty crazy!

Before the glitter. Really cool blue color. Unfortunately, I only got an indoor shot.

And then there was China Glaze - Wagon Trail. A really gorgeous deep-olive greenish color. Unfortunately, I broke/chipped one of my nails down really low while wearing this and had to chop them all down. Boo.

NEVER ENOUGH...NAIL POLISH!

It's a shame I only had my crappy camera with me, because Sephora by OPI's "Never Enough Shoes" is quite glorious.

It looks black, but it's got coppery colored sparkles in there. It applied like a dream and wore really well. I'm definitely going back for seconds soon with this one and I promise to get better pictures.

Entity - Blue

Above is what the color swatch on transdesign looks like. The actual polish is below. Not quite what I expected, but pretty darn gorgeous, none the less.

It's almost opaque in one coat. This is two coats to be safe. Entity polishes are Big 3 Free. I didn't realize this and used Seche Vite over it, and it hasn't caused any problems so far. In fact this polish is wearing the best of any that I have worn in awhile.

There's a lot of depth and shimmer.

It's a true deep, dark, blue. Doesn't appear black even in low light.

This is the first polish I have tried by Entity and I have to say it's Good stuff! I would definitely pick up some more of these. They have some other colors in their Metallic Enamel Collection that sound intriguing, like Brown Plum, Burgundy, and Dark Cinnamon. They also have a Pearl Enamel Collection with some interesting brights like Violet and Turquoise.

Blue Creams

Misa "On the Edge", Essie "Mesmorize" Orly "Calypso Breeze", Essie "shelter island" and Essie "Greenport"

Ah...I remember a time when I didn't have any blue nail polish. What a sad, colorless life it was. Fortunately I have ramped up my little collection...

Misa - Heartbreak

This is the first Misa polish I have ever worn. I thought it was more work-acceptable, which is why I chose it over Fatal Affair, A Sin Worth Committing and some other beauties.

This is such an interesting color! It's greyish, but it's got this amazing lavendar/purple shimmer to it, so you can' really tell what color it is!

I had some tipwear at the end of the day. Most noticeable on my index finger. But I am not sure if it's the result of me mixing B3F base coat with Misa and Seche Vite as a topcoat, so I don't want to blame it on the Misa.

I love this! Looking forward to trying the rest of my Misas!

Dark Glittery Blues

More goodies from my excessive TD haul!

Pinky - Index, OPI DS "Fantasy", Misa "A Sin Worth Committing", Orly "Bombay Sapphire" (actually I received this in a swap a few weeks ago) and Entity "Blue"

Entity Blue, Bombay Sapphire, A Sin Worth Committing and Fantasy.

Entity Blue, looks nothing like the pictures I saw on TD, but it's still pretty. As you can see none of these are dupes. Entity is slitghtly lighter and more shimmery than Bombay. Misa is lighter than both and Fantasy is it's own glorious shimmery blue. I can't decide which one to try first!

Orly - Country Club Khaki

I ordered an obscene amount of polishes from Transdesign about two weeks ago when I started to hear that all the etailers were jacking up the price of Essie. I had been planning a TD order anyway, but figured I should go ahead and grab the Essies while I could. I also wanted to get some more discontinued CND polishes before they were all gone. While I was at it, I tossed in a bunch of Misa polishes I wanted to try since I can't find them here, and a whole bunch of other ones. The last two I threw in were Country Club Khaki and the periwinkle one...Cashmere Cardigan? I wasn't going to get them from TD because I found them easily at Sally's, but they are so much cheaper on TD, no tax, etc. Boy am I glad I did!

Looking for a work appropriate polish I came up with two pink Essie's and this one. I let my husband pick from those three, and to my surprise he chose Khaki. Who knew he was so chic and sophisticated!?

Anyway, I loved this. The color is just really pretty. It came out very shiny. I wasn't crazy about the longish-skinny brush Orly seems to be using now, but otherwise, thumbs up. Except I think I am falling out of love with my Seche Vite. It seemed to drag and mess this up in a lot of places. Boo. I have a coupon for $5 off at Sally's so I think I am finally going to give Poshe a try.

Family Secret

I first saw this awhile ago while browsing on Trans Design. When I went back to purchase it, it was gone! I found out CND discontinued a lot of their colors and just have a boring core line now. This color is cool...plus I am working on a movie right now, by the same name, so I had to have this color!

I finally tracked it down and it's even better in person than I expected! It's a gorgeous brown color, that shimmers and flashes reddish and copper. I've never seen anyting like it before.

It's a little on the thin and watery side, but I don't know if it's because the one I got ahold of is a little old. Once I got a few coats (this is 3 or 4) it was fine. It dried quick, wore nicely and came off really fast.

It's such a beautiful polish, it's a same that Creative discontinued it.

Close up...

Not so Wild about Wildlife

This is a very interesting duochrome. It came out of the bottle a lot thicker than Moonshadow did. Application was a little sloppier, but that could have been me. The color is unique that's for sure, but I am not sure how I liked it with my skin tone. It flashes mostly an antique gold, with some reddish pinkish, brown, and in low light an olive green. It was hard to get pictures of all the different things this does, but I tried...

Crappy cell phone picture, but it kind of captured the green tone.

Then I started reading about half-moon manicures, and decided to give that a try. This is OPI "Over the Taupe" over Wildlife:

I didn't do nearly as sloppy a job as I thought I would (I'm usually pretty klutzy with this stuff) but it isn't exactly red-carpet ready either! But I think it's pretty cool for a first try.

OMG! An award for ME!?

I'm so flattered that
1) people are reading and following this blog and
2) that someone gave me an award!





Thank you Velvet!





Velvet has a pretty sweet blog found here: http://bringonthebling.blogspot.com/





The Adorable Blog Award rules are as follows:–Include the logo in your blog or post–Nominate as many blogs which you like–Be sure to link your nominees within your post–Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog–Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received this award
Here are my nommitees.





http://polishpixie.blogspot.com/ Is my favorite, because it is one of the first nail polish blogs I started following!

http://thenailphile.blogspot.com/

http://nixxysnails.blogspot.com/


http://lookatthispolish.blogspot.com/

Blacks, Greys, Glitters, Holos, Yippie!

$OPI "Never Enough Shoes", $OPI "212", OPI "My Private Jet", Color Club "Revvolution" China Glaze "OMG"

"Never Enogh Shoes" has been so far in my "untried" pile. I really need to fix that, it's gorgeous! MPJ and Revvolution remain two of my favorites, and I am feeling better about 212. OMG is of course, OMG awesome!

Ah, greys, gorgeous greys! Thumb - Pinky we have: Zoya Freja, China Glaze Recycle, Obsessvie Compulsive Cosmetics, "Dangerous", Zoya "Harley" and China Glaze "OMG".

Recycle and Dangerous are quite different, which is a relief. Recycle is thinner and lighter in color. It's still untried except for this swatch. Waiting for inspiration.

Rockstar BABY!

God love the UPS guy who showed up at like 7:30 tonight. He brought some beauties with him all the way from California...

Groupie, Punk, Rockstar, Double Platinum

Thumb: Groupie


Index: Punk (my favorite!)


Middle: Rockstar


Ring: Double Platinum

Punk

Rockstar bottle

(double plat is over nubar moonshadow, it is a clear background, not the plummy you see here)

Double Plat

Swooning for Nubar Mooooooon Shadow!!!

This color is positively GLORIOUS! The first duochrome I have ever worn. It goes on kinda thin and is very watery, but don't get discouraged. This took 4 coats and is perfection now! With diamont and then Seche Vite on top it took maybe an hour to be perfectly dry. A small price to pay for nails this pretty! The color is like a wine-purple-bronze. It's too hard to describe, so just enjoy the pictures!!

Told you I love Purple!!!

Thumb to pinky: Rimmel "Night Before" Color Club "Electronica" SH "Spark" OPI "Ink" OPI "Lincoln Park at Midnight"

I love Purple!

Left to right: Essie "Huckle Buckle" SH "Purple Potion" NYC "China Town" Nubar "Moon Shadow" and Sinful Colors "Daddy's Girl"

Colors go thumb to pinky. Pinky is "Daddy's Girl" on tip with "Hucklebuckle" as a base.

Purple potion (index) is really neat. It's a little on the lavender side and it has these awesome blue-toned sparkles when you look at it in the light. I found it for 50% off at CVS, so I don't know if it is being discontinued. "Moon Shadow" (ring finger) is of course a real stunner, look how it goes to golden-ish to plummy-so pretty!!!

"Moon Shadow" totally reminds me of the color of this velvet shirt I had in highschool. It used to be my "first date" shirt. I loved that shirt!

"Huckle Buckle" is so pretty! I saw it on a MUA-er and really wanted it, but couldn't find it online anywhere. I ended up paying full price for it! :( Then today, I noticed that Transdesign has it for like $3.60. Boo!

You don't think that is all the purples I have do you????

Happy 4th!

I attempted a french manicure for the 4th. I haven't done one in years. I'm not thrilled with it, but it's fun. Tips are Orly Star of Bombay, and WnW Red glittery something, with CG City Lights. I know the tips look black here, but the blue does show in better lighting.

Anyway, Happy 233rd Birthday America - you're just a wee one!! :)

I love Blues!!!

Above we have Thumb to Pinky: Zoya Yummy, Zoya Jo, Zoya Kototi, Ring finger is Sinful "What's Your Name" because with the first coat of Kotori I thought they were very similar, but as you can see after three coats, side by side, they are quite different, pinky is Kotori layered over Yummy.

Below we have from Thumb to Pinky: Nubar Peacock Feathers CC Naughtycal Navy, Lippman Devil in a BLue Dress, SH In the Navy Sinful Midnight Blue

Index finger is Color Club Naughtycal Navy, Middle finger is Lippman Collection "Devil in a Blue Dress" They are wicked close!

Thumb to Pinky: Milani Antique, Essie Sag Harbor, Essie St. Barth's Blue, SH Gunmetal, Zoya Jo

Of course the day after I swatched these I got Orly's Bombay Saphire in the mail! Now I have to compare it to Naughtycal Navy and Devil in a Blue Dress!!

July 1st Swatchfest - Greens

Just so you don't think the Nubars got no love, now that the Zoyas are finally here...I spent the last 4 hours of my life swatching madly away. Totally worth it.


RECLAIM IS AMAZING! I knew it would be, but WOW!

Quick, sloppy swatches of Nubar Greener, Wildlife, and Reclaim

Pinky: OCC Blackboard

(this is the sum total of the greens in my nail polish collection, sad isn't it?)

Holy heck, just how gorgeous is Reclaim!? It is a stunner! Goes on like a dream too! Dries quick, I can't say enough good stuff about it!

Here I added China Glaze 2Nite to my thumb, just to compare the two holos. They are both awesome!

I was afraid Greener would be too "Christmassy" but it's really not. It's a beautiful deep, green shimmer. Wildlife is just amazing. I couldn't capture all the cool effects and colors. I'm really psyched to wear all my new Nubars! I've got more swatches to share, but I am getting tired, so tomorrow!!

The Zoyas are here, the Zoyas are here!

I feel like I have aged 10 years in nail polish years since I chose my Zoya exchange polishes sometime in May. Apparently I was in a pink way...

Left to right they are: Sachi, Moxie, Vivi, Dita, Caprice, Marcella. Kate, Piper, Sweet
Yummy, Jo, Kotori, Malia, Heather, Gretchen, Pasha, Christina, Snowsicle, Harley, and Freja

I'll admit that I chose a few of them because of the names! Sachi is my dear kitty who passed away last year at the age of 19.

Moxie was my sweet little frenchie who passed away a couple of years ago:

And Kate is the name I go by IRL, and I think it's also my favorite of the bunch.

Index to Pinky: Marcella. Kate, Piper, Sweet

Thumb to Pinky: Sachi, Moxie, Vivi, Dita, Caprice

This is what I sent in to exchange:

Most of these had to be at least 10 years old, so I am glad to be rid of the old chemical filled polishes an have a whole bunch of new ones to play with!

My Nubars are here!!!

Holy Green Beauties!! I was SO excited to find this package on my doorstep yesterday!

They are: Diamont, Pharoah's Purple, La Seine Shimmer, Peacock Feathers, Moon Shadow, Wildlife, Reclaim, and Greener. These are the first Nubar polishes I have ever purchased! I love the bottles, the brushes and the smell is not as offensive as most other polishes, so far. I'm dying to try Reclaim and Greener. I have been from the moment I saw them on Scrangie's blog. But, I have a full week in court, a lot of conferences, etc. and I don't think it's the time to bust out the green holos. Which, sadly means I probably won't try them until Sunday, since I want to do a July 4th mani. The shame and sadness of it!

Yesterday I was wearing Essie "Not Just a Pretty Face".

It's quite pretty, although a little on the sheer side. It felt a little "blah" though. So I dressed it up with La Seine Shimmer. This color is to die for! It's such a sheer pink with a subtle blue flash to it. Really gorgeous. Exactly the type of pink I was looking for to layer and to maybe try a french mani with.

This is it over the Essie. And the picture just does not do this pretty Nubar justice. Horrible rain and thunderstorms all day stopped me from getting a nice daylight picture. I have a feeling I'll be using this one a lot, so better pictures to come!

Color Club - Catwalk Queen

The big mall near me has this store I haven't ventured into a lot over the years. "Beauty Plus Salon" boasts that it has the "lowest prices on all hair products" but any time I have gone in there, the prices seem outrageously high. But, in search of some new nail polish, I took another look. Their nail selection is actually quite large even though it only occupies one aisle of the store. They have a huge selection of Essie, Color Club (which I haven't found anywhere else) OPI, Orly minis (which again, I have never seen before) and all sorts of other nail products I never knew existed. Desperately looking for another topcoat to go over the chiptastic China Glaze - LOL, I searched their shelves and came up with "Out the Door". Because I had such great success with Color Club's Revvolution, I picked up "Catwalk Queen", "Electronica" and "Naughtycal Navy" as well as Essie's "Huckle Buckle"

I tried "Catwalk Queen" first. It's pretty gorgeous, but it's probably similar to some other polishes I already have. It took three coats to look pretty and so far has been wearing very nicely. Both of these pictures are outside in daylight.

Revvvolution and Rhinestones!

Color Club Revvvolution. This stuff is AMAZING! It goes on like a dream, wears like iron and even comes off pretty easily. Plus it's GORGEOUS on the nail. I got tons of compliments from complete strangers and my husband while wearing this. Oh! It also works well with Konad. I really need to look for more Color Club polishes!

Indoors

Outside

Then I got a little silly and added some Konads and rhinestones.

A few days later I added a little Piggie polish over it in "you're blue-tiful" gave it a neat effect!

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE COSMETICS - DANGEROUS or DOLPHIN SKIN?

I know I am being silly, but I am totally LOVING this shiny grey polish. It reminds me of the beautiful dolphins we saw at Seaworld in January! It's so perfect! It was kind of streaky at first, and needed about 3 coats, but it's gorgeous and totally worth it! I'm loving this way more than blackboard. It's a totally rich creamy-grey. No shimmer or sparkle.

Daylight

Indoor lighting

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, seems to make simple, but stunning and unique products. "Dangerous" was exactly the grey cream I was looking for. The other ones that interest me are "Inky" and "Swamp Thing". But, I have a whole list of stuff I want to order before I get back to OCC. :)

The Devil Wears a Blue Dress and wears it well!

Devil in a Blue Dress is my first Lippman Collection nail polish. I received it from a wonderful MUA'er in a swap. The polish is a mini-size so the brush was kind of short and stubby. It took three coats to get it where it didn't look streaky and brush-marky. But then, boy was it beautiful! It's so dark it's almost black, but in the sun, it's this gorgeous, deep, inky marine blue. Totally creamy, no shimmer. It wore like freakin' iron too! I applied it Friday night and by Monday I only had minimal tip wear. There were no chips, nicks, and it was still as shiny as day one. It also didn't take a gallon of aceton and a boar bristle brush to remove. GREAT stuff!

I also experimented a little and compared Devil to Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear "In the Navy". Very different. Index is SH, middle is Devil.

As you can see, "In the Navy" is blue-er, with some shimmer . Devil is a darker, blacker glossy navy. Both are gorgeous on.

For funsies, I also experimented with my Art deco polishes. I'm still not getting this freehand french manicure thing down, but I had fun trying. The black is BB Couture "Cash Black" Brown is BB Couture "Animal Instinct" with Revvolution, FYI, IMG and WW - Carribean Frost on the tips.

BEHOLD:

Drugstore Finds

Sakky Hansen Xtreme Wear - 50% off at CVS made some nice Konad designs this color is "Flirt"

This is the one I am most excited about! NYC "Chinatown" it's a deep purple/grey color with a lot of depth and shimmer. It's on my index finger here. And there it is super-close up below. The other colors are Sinful -"What's your name" and "daddy's girl" and on pinky is Milani "Timeless".

NYC "Chinatown"

Pretty, right!?

Milani "Antique" with flash

This one was hard to capture indoors. It's a little more periwinkle than baby blue on. This is three coats. It's really gorgeous on and has a deep secret shimmer to it, barely noticable but really gorgeous!

Milani "Antique" with no flash

OPI redeems itself.

Ahhhh...that's better.

DS OPI in "Passion" is very pretty. I thought it was going to be a sublte, scattered holo, but it's very vibrant on! I only used one coat over the Venus di Violet, and it came out beautiful.

OPI - Venus di Violet, Color me "Not Impressed"

Very weird color. Looks so pretty in the bottle, and I have seen it on others on MUA and it was gorgeous (one of the reasons I bought it!). But it felt weird on me. Must not go with my skin tone. The shimmer is strange too. Plus it took about 5 caots to not be see-through.

Yuck.

Nothing like the smell of a broken bottle of polish spilled all over the place and copious amounts of remover used to clean up to make you want to barf.

:(

Party Time!

After seeing some lovely pictures at MUA, I was inspired to start trying to do a free hand french mani with some interesting colors.
Thumb is Piggy Polish - "You're Blue-tiful" Art Deco blue glitter with ChG "OMG"

Index: SH Hard As Nails - "In the Navy" CHG OMG with Piggy on tip
Middle: Essie "Sag Harbor" CHG OMG and SH Hard as Nails in "Gunmetal" on tip
Ring: Essie "Sioree Mauve: ChG OMG and Essie "not just a pretty face"
Pinkie: reverse of Ring.

Phew...that's a lot to type out!

I also layered some of the Piggy over Sag Harbor, which was kind of pretty (thumb).

This was the prototype: ChG "OMG" over $OPI Metro Chic

Still rockin the Metro Chic...now with Konadoodles

I'm still not so good with the Konad, but I like to doodle around with it. I can't manage to stamp the tips (or anything really) on straight. But I think being crooked gives it a jaunty look. Heh.

Still loving the Metro Chic though, it seems to be wearing quite nicely.

Going Metro Chic for the week

I have a busy week where I am going to be in court almost every day, so I pulled out my chic, nuetral colors...starting with Sephora by OPI's "Metro Chic". It's a nice putty-greyish color. Seems more brownish than the pictures show. I hope it's not too close to OPI Over the Taupe which I have also been waiting to try. I have been dying to try Metro for awhile, and finally ordered it last week. Man 212 a bitch to get off! That polish was clinging for dear life! Anyway, here is Metro.

I like it! This is 2 coats. It went on a little thick, but very smooth. The lighting in my office seems to have dulled it, but this is actually really bright and pretty on. Drying time seemed very long, even with Seche Vite. I am going to visit my Dad tomorrow too, hopefully it is not "too loud" and "Grown up" enough not to be commented on. We'll see.

212 - I can't decide

Sephora by OPI 212

(shouldn't it be OPI for Sephora?)

212 has had a lot of buzz. Sephora.com was sold out of it for awhile. It's only going to be sold in like one store or something. I am a sucker for a limited edition/hard to find, well anything. Plus, given the success of My Private Jet and Revvolution, this sounded like something I would like.

It's...interesting. It's kind of a brownish color, with chunks of coppery...stuff and other color glitter in it. I'm not sure what to think, so I will just show the pictures:

I slapped some Sinful Colors, "What's Your Name" over it and that is pretty nice.

Beware the Sephora

You know where else I should stay away from?

Sephora.

Or at least their website. Because I always get suckered by the free samples, free shipping and coupon codes for free goodies.

These bottles are...weirdly phallic shaped, what's with that?
Colors are- 212, Never Enough Shoes, Metro Chic, Call Your Mother and Special Request.

My package came while my niece was visiting, so being the good Aunt I am, I let her try 212 first. I don't have pictures because she's a teenager and hates having her picture taken even though I believe she has 417 photos on Facebook, so go figure.

More Blue

Remember how I said I had not worn blue polish in like 20 years? Well, I guess I am making up for lost time. From my trip to Wally-World is Sally Hansen's Spark. Honestly it is more like a blurple. It's beautiful. I thought it was a little weird on me. Not sure if it's toooo dark for me (is there such a thing?) It has an incredible shimmery depth to it. It was quite striking. It wore really well too.

Places I should stay away from

I should really stay away from Wal Mart. Nothing good ever comes from going there.

Behold:

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE - That's Me!

How great is a company that calls itself Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics? Because let's face it, collecting makeup is an obsession for quite a few of us out there. I like a brand with a sense of humor. Besides that, they have some fresh and interesting colors. While I have been branching out into the world of strange nail polish colors and finishes, I had a strong desire for a grey nail polish. No sparkle. Just a nice darkish creamy grey color. Maybe because one of my favorite suits is a grey pinstripe suit and I thought grey would be a funky polish but still wearable for court days. Then I saw Scrangie's blog and OCC's Blackboard, and I thought, what the hell, I gave blue polish a try, how about green?

I was oddly on the fence about this. I like the color, but I don't know how I felt about the color on me. Green is one of my favorite colors, but I have never worn green nail polish before. I caved when I saw it on Scrangie. It looked so perfect on her. But now I am not so sure. It’s interesting. It is a pretty green, but maybe too over powering for my skintone? I don’t know. It didn’t seem to wear well. I woke up with sheetmarks on my middle finger. I hate that. It’s one of the reasons I stopped wearing nailpolish. I had let the stuff dry for like 5 hours and a coat of Seche Vite before bed, so that was weird. Also seemed to show a lot of wear, scratches, “scuff” marks in the polish within just one day of wearing it. Defintely don’t like that. Hope Dangerous isn’t the same way, because I think I am going to love that color. Strangely, I didn't try Dangerous yet which was the grey polish I wanted so badly. Go figure.

As awesome as everyone says...OPI - My Private Jet

OPI - My Private Jet

Having decided the holographic goodness was something I now LOVE, I wanted something a little darker. I saw OPI - My Private Jet on I think Makeupalley's Nailboard Top 20 and I had to have it. Ordering it and waiting around for it to show up, was not going to suffice. I had to have it, so I made a trip to the mall. I hate the mall. Especially on a Saturday night. But a quick run into Trade Secret made me a happy girl. I not only found My Private Jet, but also some discounted Essie and DS OPI. Essie's St. Barth's Blue is now my first Essie and I picked up two Designer Series in Passion (by mistake so one went up for swap) and one in Chiffon which had been on my "had to have" list. I also found Color Club Revvvolution, but that is another story.

My Private Jet, is so pretty. It's glittery, but subtle enough that I wore it to work. My husband called it very classy and pretty, which was sweet, since he doesn't pay a lot of attention to nail polish. It goes on sheer at first, I think I used 3 coats and added another coat the next day. This is definitely love.

Moving on in the world of holographic polishes...2NITE

China Glaze 2NITE

Since I felt that FYI was a success, I dove right into 2NITE. My first blue polish since I was about 10 years old, and my second holo. Holy pretty polish! This was SO GORGEOUS, I couldn't stop staring at it!

Oh Good Golly! I did not want to take this off. It seemed to last longer than FYI, but I am not sure if that was because of my application or the polish itself. I got two full days of wear out of this before a few small chips started.

Since I loved it SO much, you would think I would have taken more pictures of it, but...apparently I didn't! So here is a picture of all the holos together that I have...so far. My two untrieds in this group are LOL (the dark purple) and OMG (the silver).

In case anyone is interested, I ordered these from Lotusnails and they were pretty awesome. My package arrived insanely quick. Since then I think I have seen them for a little less at transdesign and h2toebeauty.

My first holo polish

China Glaze - FYI

I realize I am late to this party, but I finally gave holo polish a try. A year ago when I saw them on the nailboard at MUA, I said "no way, not for me" but now I am loving this stuff! I went with something um, understated to start with...FYI

This was just a pretty introduction to the world of holographic nail polishes. It's nude enough to be wearable without feeling like your nails are shouting out at the world, but pretty enough to make you stop and take a look every now and then. It dried quickly, but needed about 3 coats. It did start to chip after about a day.

For Audrey - my first blue in 20 years

I'm a lawyer. I work for myself, but I am still in court a lot of the time. Besides that, even though blues and greens are some of my favorite colors, they never appealed to me as nail polish colors. But since I have gotten back into wearing nail polish again (thanks to Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri topcoat) I have been reading makeupalley's nailboard more (always bad for my bank account!) and somewhere between http://www.ocnailart.com/ and the polish addict I discovered China Glaze's For Audrey. Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of my favorite movies, so I loved the clever little "shout out" of the name and the tiffany blue box color. I had not worn blue nail polish since I was probably 8 or 10 years old, when I used to wear electric blue and hot pink nail polish in stripes. I loved color even as a kid! But I could not get For Audrey off the brain. SO I took a trip to Sally's and voila! They actually had it! I picked up some other goodies - naturally and went home to try it. Luckily my Konad kit came the next day, so I also experimented with that.

I think it's all down hill from here...