Quick HAUL from today!!

Just wanted to put this up there so I don't create a huge backlog of haul posts again.  Which, don't get me wrong, is fun and does give me a little jolt of glee to go through, but isn't really the best format as far as clarity and organization goes.  Ha! *snort*  If you've read more than one post of this blog, I'm sure you're surprised to find that both those words are even in my vocabulary :p  

I'm still really sick by the way, but I had to go to the mall today to go see a doctor, and I felt well enough for about an hour to comb through the mall a bit.  This is a really really crappy pic, since I'm in bed and can't move about to get proper pics (not to mention it's like 4 am :s) but here's what I got at the mall today.  I know you can't see anything, and I'll post proper pics later, but I'll describe it all to you.

A whole whack of stuff.  :) 

Top row:

•  Revlon Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum (for a swap)
• Some new kind of Voluminous mascara that I convinced myself to try (all I ever use is regular waterproof Voluminous, ever since I was 13 - it's my HG)
• Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover, since Sally's is so far away and I can't get out there to get some Blue Cross.  I know you're all sick of seeing my disgusting ragged cuticles.  I plan on really trying to improve my pics.

Middle row:

• Cover Girl City Lights (for frankening, I think - this is so similar to Fairy Dust.  People say they're different enough to own both, but I don't know if i agree...)
• Sephora by OPI Sparkle Me Silver glitter topcoat.  I went into Sephora on a whim, and saw a whole "Nails" setup and display, where they were obviously doing a promo for their polishes earlier (which I missed - boo!  I have no idea what it actually was...), and what immediately caught my eye was an empty display stand labeled "Glitter topcoats".  there were five or so empty slots.  I got excited and went to the $OPI display stand, and saw they had the Sparkle Me Silver and Gold For Me topcoats!  Well, they didn't have any more Gold For Me left, but the tester looked strange - just like ChG Treasure Chest, except with Solar Flare-size hex glitter, and the gold is more beigey than TC.  It didn't immediately call to me, but if I see it next time I'm there I'm grabbing it.  Anyway, Sparkle Me Silver is medium-sized bar glitter in a clear base.  The bar glitter is larger than the AliSha one I got from the Dollar Giant, which is the closest polish I have to this... I know not everyone loves bar glitter, but I do. 
• The L'Oreal "North Fork" collection dupes!!  YAAAAAY!  I have been looking for these for a while!  I can't find the Essie North Fork collection anywhere, and these three are supposed exact dupes.  Which makes sense since Essie IS L'Oreal now.  This is Water's Edge, Ocean Breeze and High Tide, aka Greenport, Shelter Island, and Sag Harbour.  I'm wearing High Tide right now (and got Blondie stuck in my head, inevitably), and it's so gorgeous... if I owned the Essie it would instantly be one of my favorite Essies.  I'll still proabably pick up the Essies if I ever see them.  Yes, I'm stupid  :p  I hope these wear as well as Essies do... we shall see.
• Two from the Maybelline Salsa Sun collection - which we just got in now.  Pathetic, no?  The only two I picked up were Coral Cabana and Summer Splash.  I'm really drawn to bright corals lately (even though I haven't worn my RBL Coral yet *hides*), and Summer Splash was a no-brainer... although it is reminding me of both OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue and ChG Shower Together/Aqua Baby.  Must go check bottles....

And the bottom row:

• I went crazy with the Wet N Wild Craze polishes!  These are from the new summer collection - the one with the picture of the brightly coloured Skittle-looking candy on it :)  I was so excited to find these - I got every one in the display.  The two at the far left are two Nocturnals I plan to use for frankening (copying someone's Chanel Ciel De Nuit recipe - hells yes! wish me luck!  I still need to find a couple more of the polishes she used...) but then after that are the new ones.  L-R: Bora Bora (pink flakey shimmer), Cabana (orange shimmer w/ red and gold microglitter), Cozumel (sunny yellow flakey shimmer), Kauai (sky blue flakey shimmer - almost foil-looking...), Maui (bright blue creme), Aruba (medium pinky-purple creme - like $OPI Domestic Goddess?) and Barbados (purple flakey shimmer, with the same almost-foil finish as Kauai).  These are minis, too - the Nocturnals and the regular Craze line are all 10 mL, while these are 6.5 mL.  I know they're cheap, but that's pretty small...  I really don't care though.  I love these fun summer polishes.  I can't wait to swatch and review them all, since the best kind of lemmings are easily fulfilled, 99-cent lemmings  :)

I'll post later with pics of L'Oreal High Tide, and about my previous haul :)

Konad Attempts: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Mainly the Latter Two.

I warned you this was coming.  If you don't want to see ugliness and horror, look away. 

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So let me say again, I really love konad.  It's really fun - it gives you a lot more freedom to be creative than just nail polish on its own, and is easier to get neat-looking results with than nail art pens.

That being said, while its not the most impossible thing on earth to use, it comes close.  It's a bit dificult to get the full-nail designs on properly and without smudging.  It is for me, anyway.  I even consider myself somewhat artistic, and I originally got this set from someone who became frustrated with it and decided not to bother with it at all anymore, thinking that surely I'd have better luck than she did.  Well.... let's just say that I am still getting used to it.

I refuse to give up.  I refuse.  Gorgeous breathtaking detailed konadicures will be MINE.  I swear.  So from now on, anytime I can get a decent pic of a half-decent konad I did, expect to see it with much fanfare :p  After this post, that is.

Oh, and did I mention my BundleMonster plates came in today?  :D :D  How fast was that?!  I didn't get a pic of them, because I know you've all seen them by now, but between my ocnailart order and these, I think I'm set for plates for a while :).  And yes, I heard about the BM plates after I had already placed my ocnailart order.  I'm slow  :p

So here are some of my past FKAs (Failed Konad Attempts):

I think this is one of the first ones I ever attempted.  This is a base of Orly Glitz, with China Glaze Unplugged for the spots, using plate m57.  It was messy-looking, it would have looked MUCH better with a darker, creme brown, and I had to double-stamp some nails, which was clearly a bad idea.  It looked cute enough for my boyfriend to notice, though, so I would classfiy this as simply BAD.  One I must retry.

This one I actually liked.  This is a base of Sally Hansen CSM Thinking Of Blue, stamped with China Glaze Cherish and Emotion.  I used a Fauxnad plate - don't recall which one.  I said before this reminded me of cloisonne.  I thought it came out pretty, epsecially since I was just playing around.  This is the sole GOOD for me.

Alright, here's one of the reasons I felt the need to warn you.  This is just fugly beyond belief.  All of these are perfectly nice polishes on their own, but I piled them all together into this hideous combination.  Plus there's a massive chip on my thumb.  Man, I suck.  This is Essence Pool Party, topped with Pure Ice Heartbreaker on the middle nail and CND Raspberry Sparkle on the ring.  I then stamped on Fauxnad flowers with China Glaze Metallic Muse, and got through two vines stamped with Orly Glitz before I discovered that a.) Glitz is not the best stamping polish, and b.) it looked horrible.  This mani is just a giant mess.  It gets a big heaping UGLY from me, with a hefty side of FAIL.

Remember I told you I effed up Orly Cotton Candy with a tacky konad?  Feast your eyes  :p  Sorry for these pics, too - I was never going to post these, but I figure I've put enough warnings on this post that I don'thave to feel bad.  And I'm also aware the polish looks two different colours in these pics.  Thank my crappy camera and try to ignore it  :p  I used another Fauxnad plate (I get these at the beauty supply place, btw) and an old L'Oreal Steel Colour in French Tip White for the flowers.  This is the best white polish for stamping, I find - whites that are intended for french mani tips.  But I just got Konad's White polish, so I'll have to compare.  And I used an Art Club pen in yellow for the dots, which I clearly suck at.  I wanted this to look cute, but it just looked oh so tacky.  Verdict: UGLY!

And last, and perhaps least, this is what I have on my nails at this very moment.  Why I've left it on so long, I do not know.  Probably because I've been busy and I've been able to get away with it.  This is OPI What's With The Cattitude, with Sally Hansen CSM Thinking Of Blue (yes, again) stamped overtop with the argyle pattern from plate m60. The sad thing is, I would have liked this if I didn't SUCK at konad so bad and could actually do it neatly.  I could not, for the life of me, get the argyle pattern to go on straight, especially on my thumbs, and I smudged the polish while transferring it on almost all my nails.  It was so bloody frustrating.  I'll have to try again, with different polishes, because I really like this pattern.  Verdict: BAD!  But how cute would this look with a baby pink or pale yellow base, and the pattern stamped in ChG Recycle?  I just love pastels and greys together...

Okay, that's it.  You've suffered enough.  I promise I'll do my best to only bring you nice konads from now on  :p  If I collect enough material for another konad FAIL post, I'll consider swapping it away  :p

In other news, like I mentioned, I got my BM plates  :)  Man, they have some cute patterns.  I can't wait to start playing with mine  :D  Also, I saw some new Nicoles the other day at SDM.  I passed at the time because Nicoles are a ripoff, and none of the shades seemeds that unique, but there were three (Nail Ya Azalea, A New Kind Of Blue and Traffic Cone) that sort of caught my eye.  I saw bottle pics on some blog, but I've yet to see swatches...

Also, in depressing news:

1. I have a feeling Canadians might never see Hidden Treasure.
2. I'm scared we might not even see the new Sally Hansen HDs (DVD, Byte, etc.)
3. Sinfuls seem to have the same CRAP selection at all London Drugs' stores.  I've been to three now and they have the same ones at all of them.  And I visibly cringe whenever I see the $5.99 - Low Price Everyday! sticker displayed beneath them  :(  I want Bali Mist (the only one I don't already own that looks even half-interesting) but paying that much for them makes me feel like such a fool when there are things like Cherryculture in the universe...

On the other, not-as-depressing hand, I found some polishes that are "Twilight" brand...?  That's what they said on the bottle, and they had some weird metal disc on the side of the bottle.  It looked really cool.  Still, I've never seen Twilight, and although the first book was given to me when they very first came out and came highy recommended, I was only able to get through about a chapter and a half of it before gagging and gifting it to my boyfriend's 12-year-old niece.  So I have no idea if these have anything to do with the movie, nor do I particularly care.  There were a couple that looked interesting, a pink with gold shimmer, a shimmery beige, an opaque-looking baby pink creme, and a blackened-blue shimmer... but my boyfriend was doing the huffy slouch dance, and I didn't have time to look at the price before I was ushered out of London Drugs  :p  I'm already planning when I can sneak back to the mall by myself and pick them up, muahahaha....

I find myself getting bored with the existing polish supply in this city.  I SO wish drugstores in Canada got collections in at the same rate as the US, and I SO wish we had Dollar Tree here  :( 

Anyway, I sound so mopey.  Time to go play with my BM plates and cheer myself up!

I'll try to swatch some of the new Icing polishes for you next... I haven't seen those on any blogs yet.  Also, I want to swatch my Princessas!  :)  In the meantime, what new polishes has everyone got lately that they're really excited about?  I need inspiration!

Massive Buildup of Hauls Post

I have so much to show you guys - I've been letting this stuff build up, and I haven't told you about any of it!  I'm going to try to keep this as brief as possible and spare you from my rambling.

I've been swapping a lot lately, so I have swap hauls to show you.  Usually I have to mail my end out first, and as a result I have about 5 billion things I'm waiting for in the mail... but I have gotten a few so far.  Also, I ordered some Zoya stuff from spaboutique.ca - a 32 oz. Remove+, the Reverie collection 6-pack, and Indigo - but when my package arrived today, no Reverie!  And that's what I was most looking forward to - it's why I made the order in the first place!  Well, initially I wanted the Sparkle collection, but of course they never have the lastest stuff in Canada, so I got Reverie to tide myself over....  They stated on my invoice that they will ship it as soon as it becomes available, and that I should have received an email informing me that it was backordered.  Which I didn't.  Ugh.  I'm obviously going to have to call them.  I want my Reverie collection, and I wanna know when I'm getting it.  Not impressed, spaboutique.

Okay, enough bitching.  Here's my stuff!  I'll try to do it in the order I got it.... try.

This is Milani Cyberspace, which I mentioned in my last post, along with the extra I received - Love My Nails.... I forget the shade name.  It's a gold-shimmery corally peach colour - it's very pretty.  Thanks again, akk23!  :)  I'm doing another swap with her for another Milani holo - this time I'm getting the purple and green ones.

Zoya polishes I got from sparklingnails on ebay.  L-R: Nina, Bijou, Lexi, Zara, Ki and Midori.  I got Nina for my sister, and Lexi cuz, duh.  Smart markerting Zoya, those names.  My Zoya collection is steadily growing - I looove their polishes.  So far I've only worn Bijou and Zara - I'll show you pics.  I'm swapping for as many of them as I can, not to mention I was supposed to get Reverie.... grrr...  I'm getting mad thinking about Zoya.  Moving on...

Nfu-Oh flakies!  L-R: 44, 51, 52, 56 and 60.  I got these from ManateeMama, before all the drama with her on MUA happened.  It's kind of weird, because I got these from her with no problems whatsoever, and she was actually very nice and helpful and shared her MUA discount with me and basically sold me her konad kit for $20....  But what happened with her is horrible.  Whatever - it's been discussed to death and I'm not gonna get into it here.  If you wanna know more email me or leave a comment or something.  Ahem.  Anyway... yeah, Nfu-Oh's!  They rule, as you already know.  These are kind of old news, but I think I need the rest of them now.  Next!

Some drugstore goodies:

This is Nicole Midnight Madness, Revlon Minted, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, and NYX Silver Blue.  This what I have to say about these:  1.) MM looks like a less-sparkly, not-as-nice version of another Nicole I own, Blues In The Night.  2.) I have purchased Minted several times now, but keep opting to swap it to MUA memebers in the States who don't have access to it yet.  That's right, a collection was released in Canada before the US for once.  Also, hell froze over  :p  So this is seriously about the seventh bottle I've bought of this.  3.) I hate the Insta-Dri brush, with a fiery flaming passion, but I'll deal with it for this colour.  And I do like how fast they dry and how opaque they are.  I now own two - Grape Going and this.  And I intend to get Brisk Blue, Uptempo Plum (looks similar to ChG Stroll), the dark blue shimmer (Blazes of Blue?) and the dark forest green shimmer (can't remember the name).  4.) This is pretty, but sheer.  My nail wheel swatch needed like 8 coats.  5.) This is silver glitter with blue bar glitter.  tweet! :)

L-R: Milani Key Lime Shine, Milani Totally Cool, and Sally Hansen Project Runway - another Canadian exclusive that I've swapped away in the past.  The Milanis I found at Superstore!  w00t!  I've worn Totally Cool, and it's totally cool - purple with gold and red shimmer, similar to Claire's Magic.  I forgot to take a pic of it though before I took it off, which is like the first time I've ever done that.  Boo stupid me.

I actually forced myself to go into Walmart, and I found some goodness I've been lemming for awhile!  L-R: Wet N Wild Night Prowl (yay!), Blue Moon, Carribean Frost, Kaleidoscope and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (yay!). 

These are the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicures I own.  All acquired within the past month.  I'm so bad.  L-R: Commander In Chic, Lavender Cloud, Kook-A-Mango, Calypso Blue, Shrimply Devine, Thinking Of Blue, Fairy Teal, Midnight in NY and Gray By Gray.  The brush is annoying but not as bad as the Insta-Dri one.  So far I've only worn TOB, and I LOVED it.  I'll show you a pic, I promise - too much haul to get through now.

Now for the Claire's and Icing stuff:

Icing Roger That and Laura's Fave.  I've worn Laura's Fave - it's a very nice aqua with blue shimmer.

L-R: Claire's supposedly scented polishes in Key Lime, Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum, and nonscented Kelly Green.  I don't know if they smell, but the SA at Claire's told me they do.  I own a lot of Claire's now:

The Claire's I own, not counting minis. L-R: Magic, Dreamcatcher, Mean Green, Fire, Green Confetti, Chunky Blue and Chunky Purple.  I want Chunky Green, and a couple others.

The unnamed mini shimmer set I got.  Sorry for the flash reflection.  Claire's mini sets are great, and this one is no exception.  I've worn the pink one (fourth from the left) so far, and it's gorgeous - dense glittery silvery shimmer, very glowy.

Another scented set!  This is Jolly Ranchers-scented.  L-R: Cherry, Grape, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Green Apple and another Cherry (I smell a swap extra for someone!)  I swatched Blue Raspberry on my nail wheel and yes!  It actually smells like a Jolly Rancher!  SWEET!  It was a pretty colour too, opaque in two coats.  I don't know what a top coat would do to these, but I hope they all smell as good as the one I swatched - Watermelon Jolly Ranchers is one of my favorite tastes/smells EVER!  I'm gonna be tempted to chew all my nails off when I wear these.  They also had a Hubba Bubba set that I think I'm gonna have to go back for...

Now the stuff I got at the mall that one day...

L-R: OPI Shim-merry Chic, DS Glow, DS Mystery, Lemonade Stand By Your Man, Parlez-Vous OPI?, Vodka and Caviar.  I got Vodka and Caviar because it reminds me of my boyfriend :)

L-R: OPI Do You Lilac It?, VaC again, DS Mystery again and Mad As A Hatter.  Finally got my hands on the full-size :)

I have no idea why blogger is deciding to rotate my pics.  But I don't know how to change it, so just deal with it.  This is GOSH Gypsy Blue and Nicole Mango Maven.  I guess this is more drugstore stuff, but whatever.  Mango Maven is begging to be on my toes.

Stroll and Street Racing.  With mini Seche Vites!  I found these at a small little random nail kiosk in the mall.  They had the whole Retro Diva collection!  I can't believe I paid retail ($9! ouch!) but I was so excited.  I may even go back and get more.

An army of Essies.  L-R: It's Genius, Tart Deco, The Cove Copper, Jackie Oh My! and After Sex. 

An old mini OPI set I found at the drugstore too.  L-R: Witch Arm, Glow-ink In The Dark, Tattoo You Want Candy?, and I Love Mummy.  Yes, I bought this set for the glow-in-the-dark one alone.  Glow-in-the-dark nail polish?  Hell yes please!  I'll probably never find the full-size one (although I've seen it on ebay for... way more than I'll ever pay), so I had to get the mini.  It works, too! (I tested).

Okay, and then one day last week when I was bored I wandered over to a little crappy nail salon down the street from my house to see if maybe they sold polish.  Not only did they sell it, they had a large selection of black-label OPIs!  I was overjoyed!  Even though they were selling the OPIs for ten bucks each (!) and the China Glaze for nine, I was so excited at stumbling across a whole cabinet of potential HTFs that I bought a few, including a strange No Room For The Blues that I thought was maybe something else that'd been mislabeled.

L-R: OPI Skinny Dip'n In Lake Michg'n, "No Room For The Blues", and My Fave Wave.

China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong and "Oxygen" (ha!)

I was so excited about my find, I went home and took pics and posted them on the NB.  Only to have a couple NB'ers politely point out that NRFTB and Oxygen had clearly been frankened - apparently its common for salons to do that.  :( :( I was so disappointed!  Stupid salon!  I don't want their failed experiments!  I know Blk-Bila-Bong, Skinny Dip'n and My Fave Wave are the unmolested real things, but I seriously just want to get rid of the two frankens.  Except I don't know what to do with them.  Maybe give them to the women's shelter?  Maybe my sister?  I don't want to give them to anyone who actually knows anything about polish, like as a swap extra or anything, because they'll be like, "Wth?  This is NOT Oxygen," or whatever.  Ugh.  So that was a half-fail.

Then these are some more things I've received in swaps: 

L-R: Zoya Verushka, Zoya Kotori, OPI She's Golden, China Glaze White-Kwik-Silvr (almost have all of the Surf collection!  Just need Pink-Rox-E), Nubar Angelic Glitter (my first Nubar! Now I need the rest of their glitters, the Prisms, and Peacock Feathers), and a mystery OPI mini extra.  Thanks sirducksus! :)  I loooove Kotori - shimmery complex aqua blue.  I haven't worn it yet but I'm gonna soon.

Zoya Irene, Zoya Envy and a L'Oreal Bijou Gems extra in B. Strong.  I have a couple of these old Bijou Gems already - a fuchsia pink, a neon coral and an orange.  Thanks SnapHappy!  :)

And I got these just this morning :)  L-R: Orly Glam, China Glaze 5 Golden Rings, Tinsel and Medallion.  Also included was some LifeSavers.  Thanks HelloKinky! :)  I plan to use 5GR and Tinsel to make my very first franken.  I saw it here.  I love that blog, btw.

Also received in a swap is OPI DS Glamour!  Which I can't find a pic of at the moment, sorry  :(  But I love it so much and I can't wait to wear it!  Thanks special12!

Also recieved this morning:

The half-complete Zoya order from spaboutique. Grrr.  32 oz. Remove+, Indigo, and the free OPI Mango stuff that I got.  Indigo is gorgeous, a deep sapphire blue with multicoloured glitter (reminds me of a certain HTF HG Essie...), but I want my Reverie set dammit!  I gotta finish up this post so I can email them.

And then, last but not least, look what I bought off a lady on Craigslist for $40!  I scored!

A bunch of old OPIs!  Almost all black-label too!  What is my obsession with black-label OPIs, you ask?  The formula, man!  The formula!  I wish they still made them like that - toxic, nasty-chemical goodness!  The lady used to be an esthetician, and was getting rid of her supplies.  I bought all of her good np's  :)

Blue Moon Lagoon (yay!), Merryberry Mauve Glitter Top Coat (yay!), and Jewel Of India.  Are there two Merryberry Mauves - a glitter top coat and a shimmer, like the Sugarplum Yum set?  Cuz they have one available on TD, and I may get it if it's different from this....  The SY set sells on evilbay for $35!

Can't-A-Berry Have Some Fun?, You Ottaware Purple, Amazing Lazing Lilac.

Sweet Heart, an unknown sheer pinky-beige whose label fell off - could even be another Sweet Heart, but looks a bit different (this is driving me crazy, btw), Alpine Snow, and an Acrylic Nail Base Coat that I said I didn't want because I have no use for it, but she included in the bag anyway. 

And guess what else was included in the deal?

Misa Decadent Drifter and Chanel Perle Rose!  DD is a blue-pink duochrome that I've been wanting ever since I saw it on Scrangie's blog.  And a Chanel?  Sure!  I'll take it!  I don't care what colour it is, I'll take it!  Yay, my first Chanel polish!  :)  And it's a shimmery tan colour with pink iridescence - very pretty.  I think this was a sweet score for forty bucks.  Compared to what I paid for those horrible nail salon frankens, I got a helluva deal here.  It pays to seach Craiglist for nail polish occasionally, as you can see  :)

Well, that's all the haul I have to show you for now.  I'm still waiting for my Reverie set, plus I plan on ordering the China Glaze Poolside collection as soon as stupid Transdesign decides to finally put it up >:(  and I have a lot of swaps I'm still expecting.  Orly Enchanted Forest, OPI At Your Quebec& Call, a bunch more Zoyas, some more Misas, some Pure Ice.... lotsa good stuff!  I gotta make a checklist, actually....  Also I want to go to Sally's tomorrow, and I'm planning on going to the States Thursday - here I come Sinful and Hot Topic!  :)  I wish I could go to an Ulta.

Anyway, I have another backup of NOTD's that I promise I'll show you, as well as the stuff I'm gonna get and the swap hauls as they come in.  So, that's all for now!  

Cloudy With A Chance of Spam: Some (okay, a lot of) Recent NOTD's. Also, I'm Sorry I Suck So Much.

Hai!  Yeah, so I've been really really inexcusably horrible at posting lately.  I'm lucky any of you follow me at all :p  But I'm glad you do!  If not, I'd be all alone in cyberspace, talking about polish to no one  :p

Anyway...  what's new with you lately?  Any good new acquisitions?  I've been slowly growing my stash (not 'stache, stash.  heh.)  and swapping like mad.... none of which I have received my end of, yet  :(  Oh, wait, I did receive one... Milani Cyberspace!  Thanks akk23!  :)

Right.  So now I'm going to share with you now a whole shiz-ton of NOTD's that I've been building up.... I mean to post these every day, but I am too lazy.  Or stupid, maybe its stupid.  Yeah....

Here they are, in chronological order.  Are you ready?  Get comfortable - there's a lot!

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, from the Pardon My French collection.  Pardon the cut on my pinkie - paper cut  :(  This is a gorgeous powder-blue creme.  This is definitely the lightest blue creme I own.  It's lighter than CC Blue Light.  I love it.

And this is after I topped it with China Glaze Glacier.  Very wintery and crystal-ly-looking.  Maybe I shoulda done Snow Globe instead of Glacier....

....Okay, can I just say, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE NFU-OH FLAKIES???  Oh mah GAWW!!!  I have never seen such fabulousness!  I know I'm really late to the party on these, and you're all like, Yeah?  And?  because these've been seen on every other blog already, but I can't get over 'em.  I almost never want to wear another polish again!  Just give me all flakies, all the time!  ....Okay, maybe not, but still, just look at it!  This is Nfu-Oh 44 overtop of... who cares  :p  I'm going to do a seperate post on my Nfu-Oh flakies.  I mean it this time! 
  (....okay fine, it's overtop of L'Oreal Resist & Shine 734, 735 and 736.  No, they have no names.  One's black with gold shimmer, one's black-blue and one's blackened red.  I was swatching them, and wanted to see how the flakies looked over all three.  There.  Happy?)

This is Essie Lilacism.  With some Konad experimentation on the ring finger.  I'm still getting the hang of Konad - I suck at the full-nail designs, but I like the way the small designs look as accents.  Lilacism is, duh, a light lavender creme.  I love Essie polishes - they wear and apply like a dream  :)  Now if they would just stop discontinuing all the good colours.  This was pretty, though - I got lots of compliments when I wore this.  Oh, blah, and for those who care, it was the flowers from plate m57 and I used Essie Watermelon, China Glaze DV8 and an old L'Oreal Steel Coloure in French Tip White for the flowers.  I knew no one cared. 

This is OPI Jade Is The New Black.  Medium dusty-looking green creme (by dusty I mean not really bright).  Yes, it took me this long to try it.  It just didn't really wow me in the bottle, and that's why I put it off so long, but once I got it on my nails I loved it, just like everyone else.  I think this was my St. Patty's day mani.

This is Claire's Mood Polish in Calm/Wild.  I know everyone's heard about these by now, and I was gonna do a seperate post on these as well, but here's one anyway.  This is a glass-flecked mauvey purple that changes to a light pink when your hands are warm.  It goes without saying that these polishes are TOTALLY EFFIN' AWESEOME and you should go get a couple as soon as you can!  You want a polish that's not boring?  How about looking down at your hands every few minutes and seeing a different polish?  Sometimes a two-toned effect?  SOOO cool!  :)

Next we have the aforementioned Milani Cyberspace, which is a light blue holo.  What can I say?  It's a holo  :)  Wearing this was enough to make me want all the rest of the Milani holos.  The glitter is larger in this than the China Glaze OMG holos - more along the lines of the Kaleidoscope collection.

Next up, Zoya Bijou.  A bright pink glass fleck jelly :)  I love jellies.  They remind me of candy and jelly sandals and stained glass and summertime.  Yes this one is a bit sheer, what with the VNL and all, but you'll forgive it - it's a jelly  :)

Hang on, I gotta stretch.  And maybe get myself a snack.  This is a long-azz post.

Okay.  Are we back?  Phew.  Moving on...

This is OPI Manicurist Of Seville.  Dark wine creme.  This looks very similar in the bottle to OPI Miami Beet - however, I don't know about how they look on the nail, cuz I haven't tried MB yet  :s  I was just craving a colour like this cuz I saw a girl at the salon wearing something similar.  The colour is truer in the first pic.

I loved this so much I left it on for a day and a half.  Then I wanted a change, but I didn't really have time to do a whole removal and new colour, so I looked for something to layer overtop.  I almost went with ChG Rainbow, but then at the last second I grabbed OPI Significant Other Color:

BAM!  Oh man, so, so cool.  The SA at Trade Secret gasped and asked what polish it was.  I told her the combo, and she was like, "I've never seen a polish like that before!"  Me neither.  It reminds me of a beetle wing.  It flashes green:

Pink:

And gold:

If you don't already own Significant Other Color, I suggest you go pick one up.  Like now.  I heard it also looks divine over ChG Re-Fresh Mint...

Ooooh, more flakies.... drooooool... I was going flakie-crazy this one evening, so I decided to see what flakies look like layered over each other.  This is Nfu-Oh's 51 and 52 over L'Oreal Resist & Shine 736.  I didn't really like the end result.  Sure, it looks all cool and everything in this pic, all well-lit and close-up, but on the nail, it just looked like a big ol' flakie mess:

See?  I was underwhelmed by it.  It just looked too.... I dunno.  Murked out.  I couldn't see the flakies enough for my preference.  Next time I wear 51 or 52 I'm going to wear them alone.

Oh, you want to see what L'Oreal 736 looks like on its own?

Looks nice here, but more than one coat and it just looks black in most lights.  Very opaque.  Which is actually kind of nice.

Please ignore the application on this one - this is after two (!) whole days of wear, and a lot of dish-washing  :p  Nicole by OPI Yellow It's Me, from the new spring Nicole line.  I've really been into yellows lately, although they probably look gross on me.  But I just try to look at the colour on my nail, and ignore the strange things happening to the colour of my hands all around it  :p  This is probably the most unique yellow I own.  It's got pink shimmer!  Look!

So pretty!  And unique!  You might have to click on the horrible pic to enlarge it to see all the awesome shimmer.  Nicole's have a nice formula.  This was only three coats, and the opacity wasn't too bad.  If someone tries this over a nude or white, I'd love to see a pic...

Almost last, we have China Glaze Peachy Keen.  With more amateur Konad.  Or, this is a Fauxnad plate, I think.  Anyway, I love this shade on me.  Essie Van D'Go is too pale, but this is nice and warm-toned.  Looked very spring-y.  I think peach polish can look old lady-ish if its not the right shade, but this was pretty.  I liked the way it looked with a grey shirt.

See?  Also note Sid sleeping in the bottom corner.  Picture jacker  :p

Okay, and last, finally, what I'm wearing right now:

OPI DS Mystery!  This is so gorg.  Sorry about the mess, too- this is pre-cleanup.  I love vampy polishes, but I can't stand the way they look if my nails are even slightly too long.  Hence, I had to file my nails down after I took off Peachy Keen before I could put on this, but man, it was worth it.  This is a deep deep sparkly purple with gold and purple glitter - it's like the way a night sky would look if it were purple.  It's very pretty.  I haven't met an OPI DS I didn't like, although some are way nicer than others.  This is one of the nicer ones.  I have so many I haven't tried - DS Glow, Illuminate, Extravagence, Reflection and Sapphire.  Which one should I try next?  I have Glamour on the way from a swap too - squee!

Okay, I gotta go now.  That was spam-tastic.  Even though my pictures suck.  Hope you enjoyed!  I'll post again soon this time, I promise.