Spams, Spams, Everywhere the Spams

This isn't really a full-on spam, just a little bitsy mini spam.  I just wanted to prove to you that even though I've been working a ton and not really allowed to wear anything interesting on my nails (and when I am, I'm not allowed to change it), I am still diligently photographing what I do have on, and obsessively changing it in my spare time every chance I get :p  Yup.  This is me.

I'll start with what I have on tonight - my Freehanded Cloud Mani That Didn't Turn Out As Nearly As Cute As I Pictured It In My Head:

It looks a lot less messy IRL :-/ I swear it acutally looks half-decent - here in macro it just looks smudgy and sloppy. I wanted to do a cloud design but my cloud Konad plate walked away on me :( So I freehanded them by just doing a bunch of dots close together, but I didn't think they looked like clouds (my bf said they just looked like smudgy white blobs) so I outlined them in WnW Black Creme using a toothpick. Like I said, it looks better IRL. The base is SpaRitual Sky's The Limit.

This is the Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers mani I had on for three days straight due to work.  I used two coats of China Glaze Lubu Heels as a base, then followed it with three coats of RRS.  One coat of Gelous, one thick coat of SV, and a coat of Barielle Mani Extender applied 24 hours later, and there you have it - it stayed on for three days on set :)  There was some tipwear, as you can see, but no chips whatsoever!  I couldn't capture on camera how sparkly this was.   I know I've worn and reviewed this before, but I just want to say again how pretty this looked under the bright studio lights... The glittery red was was very noticeable and just popped against the black.  I got compliments on it from girls and guys alike!  .

China Glaze Ahoy!  I had this on for exactly 20 minutes before I got bored of it and had to change :S  It's pretty - like Strawberry Field's darker cousin - but I just wasn't feeling it today for some reason.  Which I don't know why, because as I said, pretty.

My attempt to dupe SH Frock Star.  You know those nail stickers that they charge $9 a box for?  Yes, well, I refuse to pay that for something that similar-looking to polishes I already own.  And yes, I know, this isn't really a dupe, but it was close enough for me.  Glittery and loud.  I used CC Magic Attraction, Milani Gems and Wet N Wild Party Of Five Glitters.  There may also be some Zoya Gaia underneath all that as a base - I really don't remember after all that glitter :p  And yes, I do own the SH Girl Flower nail stickers, but those are a different story - you try duping those.

This is a new Revlon, called Blue Lagoon - a delicate baby blue creme with really noticeable glass-fleck shimmer.  It's part of their Summer collection, which also includes a peach and a yellow with the same glass-fleck shimmer.  I really liked this polish, for a Revlon - application was great, smooth and even in two coats, and the pretty glass-fleck shimmer is just as noticeable on the nail as it is in the bottle.  Very ethereal and icy-looking.

China Glaze Electric Pineapple.  Neither pineapple-coloured, nor electric-looking.  Maybe like a greenish, chartreuse pineapple?  Yeah, sure.  I swatched this on one finger when I reviewed the Island Escape collection, and I said it looked odd - as you can see, I was correct.  It changes from greenish to yellowish depending on whether I'm indoors or out, too.

Another glitterbomb mani.  Sometimes I'm just in the mood for glittah.  And I know I'm not alone *looks around at all of you*  This was H&M Lavender Sky, topped with one coat each of Paris Couture iridescent blue-green glitter (a dollar store glitter, similar to Inglot XL4), Fasino purple hex glitter (another dollar store polish that smells like absolute death) and WnW Party Of Five Glitters.

And this was the mani I did to match my blue-grey dress they put me in at work. This was Orly Pixie Dust, OPI DS Sapphire, some no-name Goldie holo and ChG Fairy Dust. It was a gorgeous match for the dress... and then they ended up putting long white opera gloves on me :p Go figure.  I did take my gloves off quite often, though (as would anyone - gloves are a pain), and every time I did I was like, "Oooh!" :)  Polishes always look so good under the bright, hot studio lights - especially glitters and holos! :)

Alright, that's all for right now! :)  Will be back later!

Oh, and PS:  Would you guys be interested in seeing more stash pics?  Maybe my China Glaze drawer, or my HE drawer?  LMK!

Some Spam While I Wait For The Evil, Sadistic UPS Truck.....

Okay, I have to put this up quickly because my TD order should be here any minute....  The UPS page says "Out For Delivery"  and I'm sitting here waiting and watching for the truck.... I know, I need a life.  Whatevs.  Come on, truck.....  I'm going insane.  They're doing this to me on purpose, I swear....

Anywho, here's some more spam while we're waiting.... yes, I said we... You're waiting with me  :p

Lippmann Razzle Dazzle.  Really quite pretty.  From the Lippmann All That Jazz set, came with Some Enchanted Evening and Lady Sings The Blues.

Obligatory Blogger-flipped photo  :(

I liked this a lot more than I expected to.  It was kind of what I wanted WnW Night Prowl to be....

This is Kiko Cosmetics 270 over Sephora by OPI Read My Palm.  I know it looks like crap here - I couldn't photograph it properly for the life of me.  But trust me when I say it's an awesome glitter topcoat - it's comprised of tons of multicoloured pailettes that shimmer and reflect tons of different colours depending on the light and base colour....  I know they look yellow here, but overtop of this colour they mainly reflected blue and green... It looked very mermaid-like...

Aaargh.  This photo is blurry and bad, but your can sort of see the blue it reflects IRL...  It looked gorgeous, anyway.  I received this in a swap, but you can order Kiko Cosmetics through their website, I believe.  It frustrates me that I can't show you this topcoat properly though, so.... moving on.....

This was a recent KOTD.  It's the Barielle Blackened Bleu from the other day stamped with China Glaze Sci-Fi, and a konad plate..... I can never remember the names of the plates.  I fail at life.  Sorry.  But I did like the way this looked.

And this is my current KOTD.... current up until about ten minutes ago, that is, when I took it off in anticipation of my TD order arriving.... which still hasn't shown up, btw..... I'm seriously starting to get cold sweats....

It's like a "Still-Trying-To-Squeeze-Some-Use-Out-Of-My-Summer-Polishes" mani.  I'm kind of in love with it.  The base is an awesome polish from Claire's....

And yeah, its definitely hot :)  It's like a neon orangey-pinkish red.... ish.  It shifts between these three colours, depending on the light.  But it's definitely neon.  So bright and unique.  I don't own another neon like it, and I own a lot of neons.  This is probably the closest thing to a neon red that I have.... much closer than, say, China Glaze Rose Among Thorns, or something.  But it's beautiful.  And the application was seriously awesome - pigmented and not thick or gooey at all.  I did three coats but two would have been fine.  Three was easy to apply though - this polish is pretty thin.

Oh yeah, and I stamped overtop with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Expres-so Yellow... my favorite polishes for konad :)  Other than the Chromes and Romatiques of course.  Seriously, though, I've picked up so many of these just for konading - I find they work better than the actual Konad polishes!  I tried doing this mani with the yellow Konad polish, but it just would NOT transfer to the nail at all, and the bit that did transfer barely showed up.  So I tried again with this and got much better results :)  If you're looking for some good colours to konad with, I highly recommend picking up a couple of these - especially the primary colours and the pastels.

Okay, the UPS guy still hasn't come by.... If he doesn't come today, I'll have to wait until Monday to get my order!  The page still says "In transit" though.....  I'm going to quietly have a meltdown in the corner.  Hopefully I'll be back later.

Haul From August, Long Overdue

Morning.  Afternoon.  Whatever.

So all I have to show you today is a bunch of stuff I've gotten in August.  I got this stuff over the course of this month from TD, swaps or stores.  And I'm just gonna jump right into it this time  :p

Most of this stuff you will have already seen before and will be totally boring.  Sorry :(

First of all, my China Glaze Vintage Vixen set.  I got Goin' My Way, Riveter Rouge, Classic Camel, Emerald Fitzgerald, Midnight Mission and First-Class Ticket, and then I also ordered Ingrid.  I'm liking most of them, but to tell the truth I wasn't horribly impressed with this collection.  The colours just don't seem that unique.  I don't really like Goin' My Way (brown is probably the one polish colour I'm really not a fan of - I probably only have like three "actual" browns :p), and Classic Camel is guaranteed to look like puke on me.  And I'm kind of blah about First-Class Ticket as well.  Another blue-purple shimmer?  :-/  The rest look good, though.

Next, OPI's fall Swiss collection.  My selection from the collection, anyway.  I got Glitzerland, Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, The Color To Watch, Yodel Me On My Cell, Ski Teal We Drop, Cuckoo For This Color and Color So Hot It Berns.  CSHIB was a last minute addition.  I found these all at the same B&M salon I got the Shreks at a few months ago - they seem to get OPI collections faster than anyone else, and it's awesome. 

May as well continue on the OPI tangent... This is what I've amassed so far of the Holiday On Broadway collection.  L-R: Movin' Out, Rent, Mamma Mia, Man Of La Mancha and Thoroughly Modern Millie.  I got some of these from swapping, and some from TD (they're out of MOLM, though).  Notice anyone missing, anyone very important?  Yeah.  But I'm not paying $40 for it on ebay.  I really can't justify that :(  Maybe for Christmas.

More OPIs :)  L-R: Call My Cell-ery, Sit Under The Apple Tree, Rainforest (!), Glacier Bay Blues (!) and Sand-erella (!!)  The first two came from TD, the rest are all from awesome swappers :)  Soaper1 gave me Rainforest, and yelly21 is beyond awesome - I swapped with her for Sand-erella, which I'd been lemming forever, and she inlcuded another one of my all-time biggest lemmings - Glacier Bay Blues!! :D  I've never received something that's on my top ten biggest lemming list as an extra!  I was touched.  The NB is so awesome :)  I can't wait to wear GBB and Rainforest, but I'm trying to save them for fall...

Some Orlys.  L-R: Bailamos, Mirror Mirror, Royal Navy and La Playa.  I found Bailamos and La Playa at Shopper's Drug Mart, of all places!  I guess some SDM's have Orlys. now?  And free top/base coats!  Royal Navy was on my want list for a long time now - finally caved :)

Behold this beautiful sight...

Ahhh, my eyes!  OPI Need Sunglasses!!  Haaaaaaa......... I'm not funny. 
Srsly though, these are the coveted Lippmann Nordstrom exclusives.  L-R: Razzle Dazzle, Lady Sings The Blues, Some Enchanted Evening, Bad Romance and Across the Universe.  I love AtU, and I'm wearing Razzle Dazzle right now and I really really like it too.  I'll probably post a NOTD pic later on, so I won't go into too much detail now...  I've heard that LStB and SEE are both kind of disappointing... SEE kind of looks like a 99 cent Sally Girl polish.... but I'll try them anyway.  Since I can't return them :(  Hey, could Some Enchanted Evening be called Salmon-Chanted Evening?  Cuz...y'know.... it's pink?  OMG why am I actually making an attempt at jokes.  I should just hang myself for that one.  Or go work for OPI  :p

Wanna see another beautiful sight?

Okay, so these are not new, really, but I just noticed the other day that I've collected quite a few RBLs just from swapping.  Which is awesome.  Cuz these are spendy.  These are the RBLs I own: L-R: Lulu, Om, Starfish Patrick, Coral, Frugalista, Look Rich Be Cheap, Concrete Jungle, Dead Calm and Under The Stars.  I've only worn Starfish Patrick and LRBC.  I can't wait to try these others though.  UTS is one of those "night sky" polishes that I love so much - black with very fine blue and teal glitter.  Love.  Also, why are my bottles different heights?  :-/

Some Billies I got from Dollar Giant.  I like Billie polishes - pretty decent quality for a dollar each :)  They remind me of old WnWs.  The one in the middle is called Purple Haze.  The old man at the checkout at DG that rang them up for me said, "Aren't these three purple ones the same?"  "No.... they're.... actually slightly different...." I said, feeling like a certified lunatic.  That's pretty much the look he gave me, too.  Like, you have problems, lady  :p

And last but not least, I found the new fall Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears :)  In case you can't read the bottles, I picked up Purple Gala, Fireberry Red, Cosmic Blue, Concrete and Mystic Lilac.  These were the ones that appealed to me most.  I will admit, though, that after I bought them, I sat outside the store with my iphone searching the NB for any mention of these, just to see if there were any good ones that I should go back and get - hahaaaaa  <----------- iz dork.  I think my instincts are pretty spot-on, though  :)  I haven't seen any mention of Cosmic Blue, but it's the kind of polish that would probably appeal to me more that it would most people.  It's got bar glitter in it, ppl!  :D

Alriight, I will be back with a quick NOTD, and I know I promised you those stash pics, as well.  Also, expect another GIANT haul post in the next week or two :)  I have a huge, huge swap (huge.  like 100+ polishes huge :O) coming in the next few weeks here with all sorts of awesomeness in it that I can't get in Canada (she should get her end any day now, and should be mailing mine right after :)... and then there's the TD order I pulled the trigger on the other day with all the Halloween and Winter collection goodies coming in it!  :D :D  Good stuff like China Glaze Awakening, Orly Tis The Season, Color Club Untamed Luxury and (oh man) Orly Cosmic FX!  *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!  So yeah.  Lots of stuff in the next few weeks.  I iz excited  :)  And I plan on picking up Jade Dragon and Bad Fairy from MAC, but other than that, it's a no-buy until those OPI Burlesque glitters come out! 

Till later.....

Five Billion Swatches of What I've Been Wearing All Month

Hello all! Wow, I haven't posted in a month! I'm so so sorry... this obviously has been a really busy and hectic month. I know no one wants to hear my lame excuses or stories about what's actually happening in my real life. We just come here because of our mutual love/admiration/constant cravings for the polish, amirite? :D And for some reason, you look at my writing on my silly little blog here, and maybe identify with me? Or just feel superior. Either way, I hope you want to see five billion swatches of what I've worn this whole month - cuz that's what I'm putting up :p  Or most of it anyway.  There were a couple of days I didn't take NOTD pics.

Also, really quickly - I've gotten two requests to see some stash/collection pics, because y'all are thinking "my stash must be huge" and you "wanna see it!" I've taken a couple of photos, which I'll put up later, but here's what I'm thinking... yes.  You're right.  I have a giant np collection. Like, ridiculously huge. I usually stay away from those "How many are you at??" poll posts on MUA, because I see the numbers people post and I'm like, "wow.... maybe times that by five" :s and I don't want to seem like I'm some spoiled brat/hoarder.  Or rich.  I've been collecting NP since I was in 7th grade, but over the past two years my obsession really came about full-circle.  And I have... quite a lot now :p That's why I haven't posted collection or stash or storage pics before. But if I'm getting requests to do so, I was thinking.... would you watch a video of my stash and storage? It would be so much easier to follow. And I'll stay out of sight - you'll be forced to listen to my stupid voice, but that's all! Whaddya think?

I'll still post the collection pics I already took later.... wait, I already said that, didn't I...
 
Okay, enough talk.  Here we go - NOTDs from August:
 

This is Sally Hansen Spectrum, overtop of China Glaze Grape Juice. GJ was untried and Spectrum was new at the time, so I thought them a natural combination. I wish I'd tried GJ by itself, though, and I wish those SH's were opaque enough on their own.
 

Icing Chartreusely Yours.  This is the only true chartreuse I own, I think! :)  It's a bright yellow-green creme.  I fauxnaded overtop.  You probably saw that for yourself :p
 

Zoya Gwin....

OKay, blogger just decided to prematurely publish my post before I was done, so I lost all the pics I uploaded! I'm having to upload them all over again :(((( I seriously feel like throwing my laptop at the wall. Does Blogger ever do this to anyone else?? Lose their photos, randomly flip them weird ways, screw up your alignment...? It does this to me almost every time I post! Is it IE? It makes me not even want to bother writing >:(

Anyway... I think I can move on...  

This is Zoya Gwin after I coated it with OPI Significant Other Color.

The subtle gold/green flash in Gwin just wasn't doing it for me - I needed moar!

SIC is really one of my favorite layering polishes... it gives such a strong green/gold flash.  I was tempted to try Sonic Bloom over it as well, but I thought the blue tint would make it too murky.

This is Sephora By OPI Midnight Mambo. This was an online exclusive - not sold in stores. Which I think is stupid, because what if you don't have a credit card? This is such a gorgeous polish, everyone should have access to it!  I got this and 212 at the same time, and while I haven't tried 212 yet, I'm pretty sure that MM is my new all-time fave $OPI polish!  So pretty... a bright jelly blue base with very dense mulitsize and hex holo glitter.  What could be more perfect?  Well, one thing, but I'll show you that in a sec....

This is Toma Island Girl.  I got this in a swap, and it's an iridescent pearl colour with very strong blue and green flashes. 

Inside, it just looks like this most of the time:

But at certain angles, and in the sun, it's very opalescent and pretty. 

I couldn't really get all the colours to show up on camera :( of course, but I could see blue, green, purple, pink.... this is very very pretty.  It did take four or five coats to be opaque, though.  This would be nice on tanned toes, with a white underneath to help the sheerness.  Hmm... maybe I should try....

This is OPI Color So Hot It Berns, from fall's Swiss collection.  Sorry 'bout the chips.  I thought this would be a hot red, so I grabbed it at the last second when I first found the collection.  It's okay, a standard cherry-red creme.  I'm so bad at telling if a red is right for my skintone or not though.  I think they all kinda look the same  *hides*

This is Color Club Puccilicious.  Ignore the yellowness in this pic - the polish colour is the closest to real life in this pic.  This is a very blue-based purple.  It's not a blurple, it's definitely still purple, but with a very, very blueish tone.  Which = impossible to photograph.  Here were my attempts:

See?  Here in the sun, it appears very very blue.

As well as here, in the shade.  Oh well.  It looks IRL most like the first pic, and it's a gorgeous creme.  If you like purples, I'd highly, highly reccommend this one.  This is one of my very fave purple cremes.  I even like it better than China Glaze Grape Pop/OPI Funky Dunkey/RBL Mismas!  I just love the blue tone.

Okay, remember how I just said it doesn't get any better for me than $OPI Midnight Mambo?  Ahem.  BEHOLD!!!!

Yeah, I know everyone's seen it by now, but I can't help it.  I.  ABSOLUTELY.  LOVE!!!!!!!!!!

It was like Deborah made this polish just for me.  Blue.  Glitter.  Green tinges.  Gaaaahhhhhhh......  Yes, the hex glitter (or "sequins", as DL calls them) are big and chunky like in Ruby Red Slippers, but this combined with the jellyness of the dark blue and the glitter give it a gorgeous depth that really does make me think of space and night skies.  Awesome.  Automatically in my top 20 of all time.  Probably even top ten.  Oh yes, in case you don't recognize this, this is Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe.  Came in a set with Bad Romance, which I haven't tried yet.  I also got the All That Jazz trio with Lady Sings The Blues, Razzle Dazzle and Some Enchanted Evening.  I might post all that later as well, along with my stash pics.  Anyway, this was sold exclusively at Nordstrom's stores, I think... or so I was informed.  Now, we don't have Nordie's in Canada of course, so I believe you could also order them online through the store's site, but if you want this polish, I suggest you hurry up and pony up the twenty-something bucks (yes, I know) and grab it, because I'm not sure how long these will last...  I'm loving these high-end glitters, though.  So fun!  Owning them, that is.  Not the paying for them part :(

Sorry for my dry cuticles here.  This is a polish from Ardene's, called Royal Blue. I topped it with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure here. It's basically a dupe for SH Pacific Blue... which is, for some reason, kind of htf where I live. I did have it already when I bought this... but I wanted it for comp purposes. Besides, they often have 10 for $10 cosmetics sales at Ardene's. So Canadian gals, if you can stomach the obnoxious 12-yr-olds the store is usually filled with, it might be worth ducking into Ardene's to check out their polish, especially if you can't find SH PB. Other than this and a bright orange, though, a lot of their colours looked like dupes.

This is LA Girls Disco Brites Hustle.  Sorry for the crappy pic, but it was the only pic I could get the colour to show up purple, not blue!  This is another blue-based purple, but this one's a jelly.  So pretty.  Competing with Dance Studio to be my favorite from the Disco Brites line :)

See how outside here it looks way more blue?  It's not this blue.  It's a dark purple jelly.  Yeah, that was not very helpful, was it  :p

Here's one of my FAIL-of-the-days!  ChG Blue Fox topped with Revlon Galaxy. I should have put Galaxy over something else - I thought this just kinda looked like dirt on my nails. Blue Fox was brushstroke-y as fack, too :/  It's a very old, non-B3F polish though - the writing's all rubbed off the bottle completely - so I'll forgive it.  It's like seeing your Grandma with her lipstick applied outside her lip lines, or something.  You love her, and her little faux pas somehow make her more endearing :)  I'll give Blue Fox another chance, and try Galaxy over something else - something darker.

This is a Jolly Ranchers polish, from a set I got a Claire's.  This is the Watermelon one.  Ugh - my cuticles are really really bad here. Sorry. I had to wash my car and dog, and although I used Cuticle Eraser and Lemony Flutter, they're back to looking like this within a few hours. Bah.

Yay!  It woudn't be Blogger without a flipped photo!  (goddamned son of a... #$%^&!)  Anyway, this is a warm pinkish-red with very fine pink shimmer. Is it unique? No. Does it smell? Not really... it kinda does at first, but it doesn't really smell like Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Which sucks, cuz that's one of my favorite scents in the whole world, and basically why I bought the set. Maybe the Blueberry or Sour Apple polishes will be better?

So since it didn't smell, I decided to layer over it!

I layered it with HT, which looked ok and I should have left it, but then, since we all know I never know when to stop, I decided to put a coat of Sinful Green Ocean (because I've wanted it forever and recently RIS as an extra from an awesome, awesome lady) overtop... which did not look ok. The polish looked orange after I topped it with HT, and green and orange? Ew. It looks better in this pic than it does on my nails.... but now it's 10000 layers thick and it's gonna take me forever to remove it :p I have a day off today - maybe I'll just not leave my house instead :p

So that's it for right now.... back later with a small haul post, and later than that with some collection pics!  And let me know what you think of me making a stash/collection video!

Sid and his thumbs bid you adieu.