My Superbowl-Themed Nails

I don't like the Giants and I don't like the Patriots. But both teams have the same colours - red, blue and white - so I couldn't miss either way :). I don't even really like football, tbh - I like it more than baseball, which isn't saying much - but the game turned out to be way more exciting than I anticipated. I actually watched it. Now that's saying something :p

Sorry I haven't posted in forever. I'm aware of how lame this is. My computer still is having problems though and, well, YOU try blogging from your phone. It doesn't work very well. I'm using the Blogger app right now, because the BlogPress app - that I paid for :( - isn't letting me publish anything. It says "it seems like your network is not ready for posting.". Wtf. Why the hell not?

I hate this Blogger app. It sucks. I can't even post a picture in the middle of my post - it appears at the end. How shite is that?!? Truthfully I don't even know if this will publish. But you c here for nails, not bitching and moaning, so here it is.

The red nail is Zoya Sooki topped with OPI Crown Me Already. The blue is Essie Mesmerize topped with the same OPI, and the white nails are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White topped with LA Girls Glitter Addict Animate and Jostle.

Hope you had a happy Superbowl weekend!

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 Random Swatches

Hello all.  This time, I didn't post much because I was having troubles with my camera - I oculdn't upload pics onto my computer for the longest time :(  Now that I can, I'm all backlogged again.  Boo.  I'll probably end up doing two or even three posts.  Then again, I probably shouldn't get ahead of myself  :p

Anyway, here's some recent NsOTD from the past week or so....

OPI Tickle My France-y.  I was working on a certain show about the adolescence of a certain superhero who wears a cape and flies, and needed a very neutral, office-appropriate polish.  This was recommended to me on the Nail Board.  Forgive the chips - it was a long day :p  I'm not sure how this looks on my skintone, either... it is a pretty, soft-looking neutral, but I'm just not drawn to "blah" shades like this....  I kept wanting to jazz it up with a black konad pattern of some sort.

Zoya Pinta.  One of the Zoyas I ordered recently.  This is a gorgeous and very pigmented (two coats here) dark blue-ish eggplant creme.  Yes, it is similar to OPI Sapphire In The Snow, but this one is much easier to find, and I honestly like the application way better.

This is Winmax Diamond Nail Enamel in Black.  Another one of the polishes I got at Daiso.  This one has a TON of silver, pink and blue shimmer.  It's a black polish where the shimmer is actually very. very visible - it almost gives it a metallic sheen.  Like hematite, but with tiny blue and pink flecks.  I don't have another black like this - it's absolutely gorgeous.

Wet N Wild Grey's Anatomy over black.  Gorgeous, gorgeous silver-purple-green duochrome.  I couldn't get the best pics of this - oh well.  I heard this is a dupe to Lippmann Wicked Game, which I'd been lemming for a while.  I think it's hilarious that the only dupe that exists to this $18 polish costs $1.79 :D  Anyway, we just started seeing this collection in Canada, but I'm glad I swapped for this one and Party Of Five Glitter - every display I've seen has been stripped clean of all the ones I wanted already :(  I'll show you the ones I did get in the haul post I'm gonna do next.

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul.  From the SpaRitual Truth collection (remember that mini 4pack and the two others I got back in January? or February? Or two posts ago?  Three out of six of them are now tried :-/ ).  Anyway, this is a standard taxicab yellow creme.  I was hoping for spectacular application, as it's what I usually get and have come to expect from SR, but no.  As you can see from the second, outdoor pic (which is the more colour-accurate pic, btw), it's streaky as fuh :(  But that didn't really matter because...

I was planning on putting China Glaze Crushed Candy overtop of it anyway :D

Did I mention I got the Crackle Glazes?  CUZ I DID :D :D  It took a bit of scouting, an inside tip and my BF almost killing me as I dragged him around looking for this tiny nail supply store, but I FOUNDZ DEM!  Sorry for the caps, but I LOVE crack polish and these are so freaking awesome!

More coming up about the new stuff I've gotten in my next post! :)

Another Spam Post

I told you I had a ton of backed-up NOTDs to post, so I'm getting it over with.  I hope you don't mind.  I'd just really like to get caught up to date with these so I can start just posting my NOTD almost every day...  yeah, good luck with that, Lex...

Anywho, these are sort of in order from oldest to most recent...

This is Hard Candy Frigid.  Droool, old Hard Candy.... please excuse the hideous tipwear.  This polish was pretty sheer, but buildable... I think I used four coats here though.

A konad I did with plate m57, Color Club Warhol and L'Oreal French Tip White.  Tacky, but I kind of loved it...

Barielle Elle's Spell over Essie Limited Addiciton.

Indoor shot.  Look at those flakies!

The gold flakies in this flash to green at certain angles.  I loved this.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  Wish Barielle was more widely available here :(

Another konad - fauxnad actually - using the L'Oreal French Tip White and Illamasqua Jo'mina.  Jo'mina isn't as blue-toned as it looks here - it's acutally much warmer.

Claire's Venomous.  I couldn't really get a decent picture of it, but this one shows most of its tones.  I didn't really find it to be as close of a dupe for Orly Space Cadet as I'd read.... the base in this is much more green. 

This was something I'd lemmed for a long time, but I was kind of disappointed in when I finally tried it on: OPI Sand-erella.  This is sort of HTF, so I feel bad saying it disappointed me... but I dunno, it just looked frosty under most lights.  I didn't really get too much of the holo sparkle you see in the bottle in the 2nd pic.

This is Zoya Erika.  This polish is really pretty, but I don't know how crazy I am about this colour on me - what do you think?

Milani Hi-Def.  This is really pretty, and my favorite of this line after Cyberspace (the blue one) - it's sort of a pea green colour, and very holo.  I didn't use a topcoat here, as not to diminish the holo.  Sorry about the blurry 2nd pic, btw, but the way my thumb looks in the first pic is how this polish looks 99% of the time :)

Last, we have Claire's Bright Skies.

Blue.  Jelly.  Holo glitter.

Do I really have to tell you what I think of this polish?  I think you can figure it out :)

Blurry to show the glittah!

Alright, that's all for now, I guess... I had another picture of Bright Skies, but Blogger isn't letting me upload it, and I just sat here for 10 minutes trying... so now I'm all bad-tempered.  Also, I've been sick for the past two days and haven't eaten ANYTHING - literally, nothing.  And I like food.  A lot :(  So I'm going to go try and eat a meal.  Wish me luck!  If Blogger stops being poopy I'll edit that pic in later.

Oh yes, my NOTD is Revlon Perplex, and I am in LURVE.  Whyyyyyy can't we get this in Canada??  Pics of this to come :)

Huge Swap Haul! Things I Couldn't Get In Canada

Okay, I told you about that EPIC swap I did awhile back... I don't want to bore you to tears, but I did want to show you what I got in the swap really quickly.

One of these days I'd like to start doing Youtube videos about stuff like this.  And then I could just link to the video.  I'm probably completely kidding myself thinking anyone would be even remotely interested in watching anything like that, but really, I think I would have so much fun doing it that I wouldn't really care :p  But then I get to thinking about why I'd have so much fun doing something like that, and I start to feel kind of narcissistic and insipid and decide against it again.  But then I watch videos like this and this and especially this and want to do it again.....  ugh.  Anyway, I'll try not to drag this on....

Okay, so this swap was courtesy of the awesome jn_woods.  I don't know if you're a follower, Jen, but if anyone is on MUA and thinking of swapping with her, I highly recommend it - the woman is a CP wizard, people! :)

Okay, so these are in no particular order, since Blogger is not letting me rearrange my photos right now:

This is Love My Nails Glory, Essie Pink Parka and Sinful Innocent, which I think is a dupe for OPI Who The Shrek Are You?  Oops.

Pure Ices in Beware and Strapless.  Both intended for frankening.  I think this is like my fifth bottle of Strapless :p

 This is Zoya Luna, Nova and Collette - obtained for me during Zoya's "LIPPY" sale earlier this year, which of course wasn't available to Canadians >:p

 Hard Candy Mr. Wrong and Lava.  My sister stole the ring from Mr. Wrong.  We have Hard Candy at Walmart here now, but of course, NO NAIL POLISH!  AWESOME!  THANKS WALMART CANADA!  >:p >:p

New York Summer Amaranth and Hot Baby Blue, and Sally Hansen HD Byte and Wavelength.  We eventually got these HDs in Canada, but not at the time I requested them.  I didn't want to wait 2 months till we got them here :p

 This is the Milani.... Hot Metal collection?  Liquid Metal?  Arrrgh.  I fail.  I know Milani had two collections of chromes (and then put out another with metallic reds and oranges....it's like, oooookay), and I got both of them, but I don't recall which was which.... to be fair, I never actually saw the display myself in person  :p  Anyway, I think this one is the Hot Metal collection.  I think.  These all have names with "melt" in them.... and they have been reviewed to death so I'mma move on...

 And here's the other collection.  These have computer-y names... and they look more like Liquid Metal, so I'm gonna guess these are those.  I don't remember all the names of them right now, and I don't want to go look, so.... oh man, this post sucks soooo bad, doesn't it?  :(  Sorry.

 These are Massinis, as you can see :)  They are super-pretty and blingy.  I'm so happy I finally got these, but ........ whyyyyy don't they sell these in Canada?!?  Sad face.

*EDIT - As I was reading this, when I read "as you can see", I looked up at the picture and saw.... that the bottles say "Studio M" on them now.  I IZ SMRT.....  Yeah.  Massini renamed itself Studio M a long time ago... and come to think of it, I may have seen the makeup in a store around here... so maybe we'll see Studio M polishes soon?

These are Essence Color & Go's.  Once again, not in Canada :(  I already had two of these from swaps - Pool Party and Underwater, and now I am the proud owner of Check Me Out, No More Drama, What Do U Think and VIP Appeal.  Stupid names, but whatever.  I read on the board that What Do U Think is a dupe for Chanel Orange Fizz.... really?  I dunno about that, but it's a cute colour.

LA Splash polishes!  The coveted Golden Seahorse, Sparkling Oceanspray and Sparkling Stratosphere.  Once again, never seen in Canada.  I feel like if I search dollar stores hard enough I'd find these one day, but I know it's a lie....

The entire collection of the summer LE Wet N Wilds!  Now, we have WnW in Canada, but we'd never, ever see new collections like this, let alone LE ones.  And I never thought I'd be able to obtain all of them, but I did!  :D 

Okay, I had a couple of more things to show you, like the names of the WnW polishes, not to mention the crown jewels of my swap!  :(  But blogger is NOT letting me upload photos right now.  At all.  I click on them to upload them, and nothing happens.  I realize this post really, really sucks, and I apologize.  Hopefully blogger will stop effing with me soon and I can go back and edit this.  If you're reading this before I have a chance, once again I'm sorry  :(  My next post will be better, i promise!

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.