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.

The Drugstore That Time Forgot.... Plus A Couple Swatches

Sorry, I'm not having a lot of time to post lately - my bf's cousin is in town and staying with us for a week.  She expects to be entertained.  So I'm having to go out and actually do stuff instead of hauling and blogging and sitting on my ass inhaling polish fumes.  Tough life.

So this morning I was killing time waiting for my boyfriend to come out of the Medi-Clinic (he hurt his knee while we were on this BRUTAL hike yesterday.... yes, I actually exercised :p  I know, I know - pics or it didn't happen.  See the end of this post :)  Oh, oh, wait, before I say anything else, I want to mention that I wore Del Sol Rock Star on this hike, and had the direct, scorching hot sun on the damn stuff all freaking day and - nothing.  It didn't change colour.  I was so disappointed, since Ruby Slippers had worked so awesomely :( I SO wanted it to turn that gorgeous aqua green colour that I've seen in pics, but nope - nothing! And then it chipped badly while I was hiking :( So I just got pissed off and took it all off without taking a pic. Which I really should have done to prove that it didn't change at all :p Oh well - I'll probably give it another chance, and I'll show you then. But I mean, I'm not really surprised - Scrangie took down her reviews of Del Sol because a lot of people got "defective" bottles that don't change colour, but the company was hard to deal with when these people wanted refunds or replacements. Oh well. Lesson learned - not all Del Sol polishes are made equal. Buyer beware.

Anyway, where was I... oh yes, I was waiting for the boyfriend to get his knee looked at when I suddenly noticed/remembered that the Dr.'s Office that I have been going to since I was an infant has a drugstore just a few doors down from it.  An ancient, ancient drugstore that had been there since before I was born and I haven't been in since I was about five, when my mom would occasionally bring me in for a fifty-cent can of Coke after my Dr.'s appointments.  It's like, how can I not have gone in here by now?  Especially with the frequency of my doctor's visits  =/

Anyway, I'm building up to nothing here.  I went in, looked around - they didn't have much.  I did manage to find a couple of things, though...

L-R: Old SH Xtreme Wears in Midnight Navy and Down Pour Blue, Old SH Hard As Nails in Radish and Beet Red, and Wet N Wild Shameless and Wild Orchid.  The good part was everything was either a dollar or a dollar-fifty.  They had all been marked down multiple times.  But still, for how old and decrepit this place was, I was kind of expecting their entire store inventory from 1995 or something.

Close up of Xtreme Wears.  They look identical but are slightly different.  Down Pour Blue, on the right, is slightly darker than Midnight Navy, as you can see.  I have a couple of older Xtreme Wears with the white cap like this (Lemonhead, Marine Scene and one other one...)  Why'd they change the colour of the cap three times?  First they were white like this, then silver, now they're black...?  Anyway, they'll both likely end up as frankens :)  I'm thinking I'll add some clear to thin them into jellies, and add silver and dark blue glitter.... yes, I'm always searching for that perfect SSN/CDN franken, lol.  If anyone has a really good recipe, please share it with me.  Please?

Close up of Radish and Beet Red.  Now that I know these old Hard As Nails polishes are being discontinued (as are all SHs except the current Xtreme Wears, CSMs and Insta-Dris, so I'm told) I have a soft spot for them.  I kind of like vintage polishes in general, and vintage SHs are some of the best.  Some of these old bottles don't fit in my Helmer drawers though - they're too tall.  So they spend their whole lives lying on their backs.  Whores.

Close up of Wet N Wilds.  I've wanted Wild Orchid for a while now, but could never find it - weird that I found it in this ancient drugstore.  And Shameless looked interesting - pale blue with a purple flash.  It's not really showing up here, but it has a purple shimmer.  And it had a "New" sticker on the cap.  I've never seen this shade in any stores around here either (I thought it was Rain Check at first), but I'm guessing it's probably not "new" :p

Anyway, moving right along, I have some random polishes from the past couple of days to show you as well.

First, I'd like to introduce you to a dear, dear old friend of mine - Hard Candy Sky  :)

Isn't she gorgeous?  She has a secret shimmer, but it doesn't really show up on the nail....

Please ignore the stupid effing flipped picture  >:(  Application was pretty awesome - thin yet opaque formula, nice-sized brush for a mini polish, dried pretty fast....  This was the first one in my Hard Candy set I reached for.  I wanted to save it for a post about the set, but I just had to wear it.  I love this polish.  It has such a soft spot in my heart.  I owned a bottle in 1996, and almost went through the entire thing.  I loved Hard Candy back in the day.  What I would do to get my hands on another full-size bottle of this... I stalk ebay, but never see it...

Ah yes, I wanted to mention this, as well - whenever I'm outside taking NOTD pics, my jealous, mouthy and possibly mentally disturbed cat is doing THIS on my window screen:

"MWOOOOW!  MOWOOOOOOOOW!!  MROOOOOOOOOOOORRRW! MWOWWWW!!"  Scratch, scrape, claw. 

My poor screens  :(  But really, he's an indoor cat - it's not like I can keep him off the windowsills.  I just don't want him to claw giant holes in my screen so that bugs fly in and I have to buy new ones  :p  So, I appease him by showing him what I'm doing, like this:

Sid loves nail polish, as we all know.  The sight of the bottle calms him  :)  Yes, that's what I'm telling myself.  So don't be surprised if you see pics like this every now and then.

Next, this is Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers.  It's pretty, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. 

I don't know why.  Maybe I'm just not into the whole Lippmann "deconstructed" look or whatever the hell....  Maybe I don't like the "sequins" she's so fond of.  Maybe I just prefer my China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  I don't know.

I mean, I still like it.  It still is pretty.  I bet it would look good on my toes.  I wonder what it would look like either underneath or overtop of Ruby Pumps.... hmmm....

STOP CLIMBING UP MY SCREEN YOU FREAKING PSYCHOPATH CAT!!!!

And last, my current NOTD: Nox Twilight Poseidon.

This is a very, very pretty blue - along the same lines as SH Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away! but lighter.  It's greener than OPI No Room For The Blues, and slightly lighter than LA Girls Disco Brites Funkadelic.  The closest polish I have to it is H&M U Must Have This, which is maybe a teeny tiny tinge greener... barely, though.  I really should have done a comp pic - sorry.   My stash is organized by brand, though, not colour, so I didn't really go through it all - just pulled out the ones I thought were closest off the top of my head.  I suspect I probably have a couple of other dupes as well, though - this seems highly dupe-able....

Sadly, for such an expensive, dupeable polish, the application was crap.  Thick, draggy, streaky, bubbly.... ugh.  It's a fairly opaque polish, but's it's so thick.  Needs thinner.  Badly.  And I hate polishes that need to be thinned on the first use  :(  And did I mention these were expensive?  London Drugs' regular price for these is $9.99  >:(  The couple of shimmer Nox Twilight polishes I have (the navy blue, the reddish purple and the rose-gold metallic - I don't remember the names.  they all have stupid, generic names) all apply quite nicely, but I'm wary of the couple of cremes I have now (this, the bright neon pink and the pale ballet pink).  I might see if I can return them.  I can't believe I spent so much money on this stupid collection.  I bought most of them on sale for three to five dollars each, but still - I've never even seen the movie  :p  But yeah, if you like this polish, I'd say try to get your hands on H&M U Must Have This instead - the application is much better.

And I'll leave you with a picture of what I was rewarded with at the end of our long, brutal hike yesterday:

Pwetty :)  Go to Vancouver, drive up the Sea-To-Sky highway and hike up the Stawamus Chief to the third peak.  Great assessment of your own fortitude :)

Wanna quickly hear what my week's like?  Today we're going to the beach.  Tomorrow I'm taking the bf's cousin shopping (ugh, but whatever - she'll have to put up with my polish stops, hehe), and tomorrow night we have to go to see the fireworks again ( doesn't sound like a big deal, but literally about half a million people show up to watch these things :p).  Thursday we're packing and leaving for my friend's cabin four hours away, and then I'm gone till Monday.  I'm so taking polish.  I just haven't decided which ones yet  :D  But yeah, busy week.  I'm going to want to shoot myself by the time I'm packing for the cabin.

I'll try to post, I really really promise I will.  Try, that is.