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!

NOTD: Revlon Perplex

Hello and good afternoon :)  This is my NOTD, Revlon Perplex.  I would trumpet my wearing of this awesome and coveted polish more, but I don't want to hurt or offend my fellow Canadians who are unable to purchase this.  This is the celebrated dupe of Chanel's Paradoxal.  Obviously, I was forced to swap for this, as - did I mention this? - this is NOT available in Canada, for some unfathomable reason.  Do I sound bitter?  Hmm, why would that be?  Seriously, though, I just don't see why they couldn't sell this in Canada.  I mean, how to they decide these things?

Anyway, please excuse the laughable mile of gap I left between the polish and my cuticle :S  I've been making a pathetic attempt to shape my nails square (which for some reason, my nails just do not want to do - they refuse to deviate from their natural oval shape even just a bit), and in an even more pathetic attempt to highlight that, I tried to square out the cuticle line... yeah, I went a bit overboard.  It looks silly, I know.  Just ignore it :p

So here's Revlon Perplex:

My previous favorite dark mushroomy colour like this was OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, and this would completely replace it as my favorite mushroomy of all time, were it not for one thing:

Check out my middle finger!  It goes through an entire day of wear just fine, then I go to sleep and wake up and I have these stupid creasey thingies on my nails :(  GRRRRevlon!  Revlon is always, always, ALWAYS such a fail on me!  Remember this post I wrote back in the dark days of my blog, when my photos were beyond crappy (even more so than now, if you can imagine that) and no one read it? (Of course you don't, cuz... no one read it.  Derr.)  I said I was never buying Revlon again.  The Top Speeds are okay, I think, although I've never really worn any of those beyond swatching them on one nail (hmm... maybe my next project? swatching all the Top Speeds?), but this is just a normal Revlon, thus the suckage.  The colour really is fabulous though.

It's the purple shimmer.  I'm in love with the purple shimmer. It's just so visible!  It's like YDKJ with an extra layer of gorgeousness added!  I definitely will wear this again, when I want a nice neutral with a bit of added dimension (like an Essie Demure Vixen).  I'll have to try it with a coat of Gelous under my Seche Vite, instead of with SV alone.  The creases aren't visible IRL, but it's enough to bother me.

Anyway, that's all for now.  If TD will ever put up those darn China Glaze Crackle Glaze polishes, I'll have another haul to post about :p  Also, waiting on my FB Zoyas still and Ebay Nubars.  Anyone else still waiting on their Zoyas?

Some More Recent Wearings (Wearings?)

Okay, worst title ever, but I have to fire this off pretty quick...

I've been away lately because I've been super-busy, not because I've been sick this time.  Yay!  So that's good, right? 

Okay, yeah, quickly.  Quickly.  I can do things quick.  I think.

Oh yeah, warning in advance: THIS POST CONTAINS FEET!!!!  Just don't bother reading this if a picture of toes is going to make you toss yer cookies or something.  You've been warned.

I'll start off with a mani I can't believe I didn't include before.... my First Snow Of the Year mani:

This is an attempted glitter gradient using Revlon Powder Puff topped with Icing Glamorous, which is a medium-sized holo glitter.  I wanted to do something wintery-looking, because my yard at the time looked like this:

Yes.  Oh yes.  It sucked.  I hate freaking snow.  But I loved the mani :)

Next is a fail:

I don't even know why I'm including this, since it's a horrible picture, but it was a horrible mani, so... This is LA Girls Rock Star Crowd Surfing.  Crowd Surfing is pretty, a light green with gold  and orange flakies, but it's super, super sheer, and I have no idea why I thought it'd be a good idea to try it over white...  Try this over a darker colour, if you have it.  Which you probably already know, if you have it.  I have no business giving people advice with this once, because, as you see, I thought THIS ^^ was a good idea.  Um, yeah, no!

Next, I was gettin experimental:

Do you like this polish?  Do you honestly?

It kind of ate topcoat.... I put on two coats, I swear.  It's like, where did they go...?

The colour is most true-to-life here.  This is actually a nail art pen that I dumped into a regular polish bottle!  It's Jordana Artsy Purple.  It is very pretty, a purple with strong red shimmer, but I have no idea how it manages to make two thick coats of Seche Vite completely disappear.... hmmph....

Next, a crowd favorite:

OPI The Show Must Go On.  This was the last of the Burlesques I acquired.  I freehanded two tips with  OPI Man Of La Mancha on the ring and middle finger, just to see what it looked like - ignore them please :)  This has been shown a million times, so I'm just going to shut up and show the pretty:

In case you didn't know (but you probably do), TSMGO is a really pretty reddish-pink-gold duochrome.  It's similar to MAC Bad Fairy, but a touch lighter pink. 

Okay, foot warning.  FOOT WARNING!!  Didn't you hear me??!?  FOOT WARNINGGGGG!!!!

I hate posting pictures of my feet, and I really, REALLY hate to say this, but you should probably click on the picture to blow it up so you can see the AWESOMENESS that is Inglot 207!!  Seriously.  Just ignore my toes. This is a medium-sized gold holo glitter, and I have two coats of it on here over Orly Luxe.  It.  Is.  Gorgeous!!!  I wore this for days, around lots of people, and I got tons of compliments :)

 

Next, this is an unnamed Love & Beauty polish from Forever 21.  It's a medium forest green shimmer with fine gold foil-y glitter.  It's pretty.  Application was kind of annoying, though. Very thick.

And last, the first in a series of Christmas manis!!!  Yaaaaaaaaaeeeeeey! (Oh come on, they're fun!)

You like?  Ees preety?  I think so :)

This is another Love & Beauty polish, a dark jelly green, topped with Wet N Wild Prancer.  I kinda stole this idea off a Nail Boarder named beclee :)  Prancer is a clear with small and larger hexagonal red glitter.  It's awesome for layering to create a Christmas mani :)  I wish it came in every colour!  As far as the Love & Beauty polish goes, it's application was a lot better than the other one - I had no real problems, aside from a lot of buildup (like, a lot more than the usual amount) on the lip of the bottle from me wiping the excess off the brush.

Okay, that's all. Expect a lot more Christmas manis coming up soon.  Plus I got a bunch of new RBLs, some Inglots (inlcuding the above 207) and Illamasqua Jo'mina, and a huge Cherryculture order that I haven't even dug into yet!  So many untrieds!  Talk to you all 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.