Baby did a bad, bad thing

So when I got home today, I had a package waiting on me.

Today I received what is now my most expensive polish. I've always resisted, but I finally gave in and ordered this one.



It's so pretty. I can't wait to try it over a dark color. But, true to my word, I'm sticking to nudes/taupes/browns this week. Not to say that I haven't already slapped Illusion D'Or on over the Zoya Dea I wore today. But that wasn't too impressive. Still, have a look:


My light wasn't the best, but I LOVE the little blue flaky... things... in this polish. Ooooh.

Ranting and rambling (no pics)

I cannot find that stupid new Sally Hansen collection ANYWHERE and I NEED Hidden Treasure.

I went to the one Walgreens here in Athens yesterday, and they had:
- The new pastel Revlons
- New Maybellines
- Scented Revlons (Heather, FYI -- I'd only ever seen them at Rite Aid, and I know you don't have Rite Aids in your area)
- The new L'Oreals

BUT NOOOOO NEW SALLY HANSENS. DAMMIT.
Ok, so I did pick up four polishes there. Two of them are Sinfuls, which were buy one get one half off. Listen to my justification of my spending habits!

I am wondering if I should just go in there every single freaking day to see if they ever show up.

Oh, and I have a confession.
I bought a bottle of nail polish that costs more than any bottle of polish I've ever, EVER bought. I swore I'd never do it. But I did. And it should be arriving at my house today. What could it be? Muahaha.

China Glaze Poolside and random babbling

So yesterday I actually swatched the three colors from the Poolside collection that I picked up at Sally's, despite clouds, rain, and general weather ickiness.

I found that ALL of these colors required a coat of white polish underneath in order to make the colors pop (glow is more like it) and to eliminate visible nail line.

I started with Sun Worshipper, and actually used three coats with no white polish underneath at first. The nail line was bothering the hell out of me, though, so I removed it without taking pictures. Here it is with a basecoat, a coat of Sally Hansen White On, and two coats of Sun Worshipper. This color is actually on my toes right now. :)




And this is Pool Party. Same routine with the white as Sun Worshipper. Both of these colors are very, very, very bright. Pool Party is, I think, my favorite of three neon pinks I have in my collection. It doesn't go all orange like the other two do!




The last one I got was Towel Boy Toy. It's not really neon, but it is very bright. I also applied it over a coat of white. It's a nice, bright aqua blue with some shimmer. I had a really hard time accurately capturing the color. The second picture I think most accurately captures the color.





In other news, I made a hand scrub last night! I was pissed off because all the hand scrubs I've found are way too expensive for what amounts to oil and sugar/salt/some scrubby substance. So I melted some coconut oil, mixed in some water and a bunch of sugar, and dumped in some scent from one of my million BPAL imp's ears I have lying about. It works! It leaves my hands feeling soft and smooth and, honestly, they feel as soft as they have when I've used an actual expensive "hand scrub." So there!

The red was also fading super fast from my hair, and I wanted to go back darker, but still have SOME red, so on the advice of a friend, I dyed it "Dark Mahogany Brown" using L'Oreal Color Gems. This is the result. I really like it!


Also, I think I'm going to stick to taupes and light browns this week. I'm feeling rather reserved, and these polishes don't get nearly enough play from me. Holy crap, I'll actually be wearing work-appropriate polish to work! Here's the lineup:



And in other OTHER news.... I think I'm going to close my destashing post and just send all that stuff to Zoya to take advantage of the polish exchange. Ohhh yeeeeah.

Revlon Scented Polishes

Okay, so I picked up a couple of the scented Revlon polishes. I only got two of them, since I'm not a huge fan of Revlon polish in general, but I'm a sucker for a gimmick.

I got Peach Smoothie (smelled like... fake peaches) and Ocean Breeze (smelled like every "ocean scented" candle or incense I've ever bought). The scents actually do last and are discernable even through topcoat.

This is Peach Smoothie, which is a slightly shimmery pale peach. I actually liked this one more than I was expecting. It was a little watery, so this is three coats.


This is Ocean Breeze, which is a frosty blue-green. It's not as vivid on the nail as it is in the bottle. This is also three coats. I liked this one less than I thought I would.

Black Holos

My fiance had surgery Thursday, so I'm caring for an invalid. He tore his left achilles playing soccer last weekend. He will be hobbling down the aisle in a boot at our wedding in two weeks. Poor guy! He came home from the hospital today and is slowly trying to get around with crutches. That has nothing to do with nail polish, just thought I'd mention it.

Ok, so if I had a favorite type of nail polish, it would probably be the black/charcoal holographic, since I keep buying them. I never have owned the original OPI MPJ, and probably never will (I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to track it down, but if I happened to see it someplace - HAHA - I'd pick it up).

I do own a few black/charcoal holos. I know I don't have Diamond Cosmetics' Chainmail Charm. I need it. I really should grab it since it's only a couple of bucks or so on their website, and I've liked the swatches I've seen of it. One day I will.

When I was out and about trying to track down the new Sally Hansens (I just want the flaky one... but nowhere here seems to have it), I saw the new Petites Color Fever line. They have a color called Black Diamond, which is really pretty close to Color Club Revvvolution. I was skeptical about paying $4 for a Petites nail polish, since their quality hasn't really been the best, and their original line costs what? A dollar, maybe two? However, I was really pleasantly surprised with Black Diamond. Observe!

The holo effect is fairly weak with this one, but it IS there. This is in indirect light. It didn't really come out much better in direct light. :/


You can at least see the effect a bit here.


Then I decided to do a comparison. Then I ran out of time to remove it, so I've actually been rocking a black holo "skittles" manicure for the last two days.. LOL.
Here's what I compared:
L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious, Color Club Revvvolution, Icing Blackout, and Petites Color Fever Black Diamond.
Icing, your brush sucked. I love this shade, and the formula isn't bad, but the horrible mop-like brush makes this polish nearly impossible to use. I have some spare clear polishes lying about, and I think I'm going to try dumping the clear polish out and decanting the Icing polish into a bottle with a less shitty brush.


I had a terrible time trying to get a good picture of these four. Part of this is because I've been at the hospital a LOT in the last couple of days and just haven't had time.
My observations are this. The L'Oreal polish is probably my favorite of the four. It is the sparkliest. It isn't a "smooth" holo, but is a dark, dark grey that is interspersed with a TON of holographic glitter.
The Icing polish is the only one of the four that is actually BLACK. It also isn't a smooth holo, but is interspersed with holographic glitter.
Color Club's polish has the smoothest holographic effect and also the hardest to capture.
The Petites polish isn't technically a "smooth" holo, but it is smoother and the glitter is finer than in either the L'Oreal or the Icing polish. It is REALLY close to Color Club Revvvolution, and I think that if a person owned one, they wouldn't need the other.

Now for the pictures! Clicking on any of these to get a larger image might be helpful.
On my thumb and pinky are Petites Color Fever Black Diamond
On my index finger is L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Rebellious
On my middle finger is Color Club Revvvolution
On my ring finger is Icing Blackout


And again... this one shows the holo-ness a bit better.



Also, I had to run to Sally's this afternoon and found that they now have the China Glaze Poolside collection. They also still have all polishes buy 2, get 1 free. So I picked up half of the collection. I got Pool Party, Sun Worshipper, and Towel Boy Toy. The yellow and green didn't much appeal to me (neon yellow looks icky on me), but I was torn between the pink and the coral. I might go back later this weekend and pick up the other three, but I'm going to sleep on it first. :D


Our Sally's hired a new girl to work there, and while I was talking polish to the cashier, she butted in and was trying to inform me of the "new mint green trend" in nail polish. I wanted to LOL. "Excuse me, missy, but DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how many nail polish blogs I read?!?" Also, mint green is SOOOOO last season. I dunno, it was just funny. But I'm not a bitch, so I said, "Yeah! I have a bunch of mint greens and I really like them!"

Wedding Polish!

First!
If you haven't yet, go enter my giveaway here: http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/giveaway.html
And if you want some polish on the cheap (you pay shipping, that's it), go check out my destashing post here (there's still some stuff left!): http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/destashing.html


NOW.
I finally decided on a polish to wear to get married in. I wanted something neutral but still sparkly, so I splurged and picked up OPI DS Illuminate. It's a peachy-bronzey-nudey with holographic glitter. There is some green flash in the bottle but that did not translate to the nail.

I will not wear a full mani of this til I get hitched, but I swatched it this past weekend. OBSERVE!
This is outside, but not in direct sunlight:


And this is direct sunlight! Holo-y goodness!



My cuticles SUCK right now, but I'm working on them. Too busy to moisturize lately, but hopefully all will be well in 2 weeks and 4 days when I get married. :D


P.S. Holy crap, you guys. I have over 100 followers now. Muahahaha! I'm clearly on my way to world domination!

Urban Decay at Hautelook

Uhh, y'all need to go over to Hautelook and order the Apocalyptic Nail Kit that is no longer on Urban Decay's website. I just reviewed it, srsly. Look one post down. It's awesome. And it's only $13.

If you need an invite to join, go here: http://www.hautelook.com/invite/MTrammell722

Urban Decay Apocalyptic Nail Kit

DUDES.

I am so glad I picked this up on clearance, because now it's gone.

All of these were two-coaters. The brush and application was perfect on every single one of them. I am still kinda tempted to get their new Summer of Love nail kit, even though the colors don't really appeal to me, just because the formula and application on these were sooo good.

I just wish Urban Decay would do an actual nail polish line. Grumble.

The first color I tried out of the kit was White Widow. Which isn't actually white. It's a pale grey with slight shimmer in it. I wore this to work on... Tuesday? And I couldn't quit looking at my hands. I thought I was going to hate this color, but it's actually one of my favorites from the set.


The next color I wore was Meltdown, which is a nice bright purple with some shimmer. My outdoors photo wasn't at all color accurate, so I went inside and messed with some settings on my camera and got a picture where the polish is color-accurate, but my hands look jaundiced!
Outdoors:


Indoors:


Next up is Gunmetal, which is a sort of brownish-grey. I apologize for this photo -- I took it after 2 days of wear. I was busy last week. :)


THIS was really my favorite of the whole set -- F-Bomb. I love the name as much as I love dropping F-Bombs. I also love the color. It's a slightly dark, dusty red that looks fabulous with my skin tone. It doesn't lean orange, and I could not believe that I loved the red (of all colors!) best out of this whole collection.


This is Apocalypse. My least-favorite. It's a dark purple, which is evident on the first coat and in the bottle, but after two coats on the nails, it just looks black. No purple at all. Meh.


Big Bang. Bright metallic pink with silver shimmer in it. This is really pretty, but isn't my favorite.


Grunge. A dark, shimmery, grey-blue. Or is it teal? It looks grey-blue to me. I liked it but didn't love it. My outdoors photos were all too dark, so I took one indoors, too.
Outdoors:


Indoors:



So, yay! Urban Decay nail polish is great!

What a crazy week!!

I have been so busy this week, I haven't had time to do anything with this blog. And the thing is, looking back on the week, I have no idea what took up all my time. It just seems like I've been going, going, going!

First, I have mailed out five packages from my destashing post. It is now updated and current, as far as what I have left. Please go check it out here: http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/destashing.html

Secondly, I am keeping an Excel spreadsheet of all the entries in my giveaway. I've discovered some new blogs this way -- it's pretty cool! If you haven't entered, go here:
http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/giveaway.html

THIRD, I ordered some stuff from Urban Decay's Friends-and-Family 30% off sale. If you haven't shopped it yet, it ends Monday. Use code 1SFNF. I ordered a couple of things that were on clearance. Clearance + 30% off = dirt cheap. I got the Apocalyptic nail kit (of course), which appears to be gone now. I also got the Hall of Fame set. I'm debating placing another order to get their new nail set, but I'm not sold on the colors in it. Maybe I'll just wait til it goes on clearance... :D

Anywho, now that all that's been said... I actually do have some pictures to post. Oh yeah, and I chopped my nails off. After trying to get them to be long and pointy, I decided that I actually hate the way that looks, and shorter and squarer is just easier to deal with. So now they're just barely past my fingertips -- you'll see in the following pictures. :)

First of all, remember how I said I got that black glitter set at Icing for $5? I actually hate these polishes. The first coat is super sheer. The second coat drags and leaves bald spots. The third coat has to be really thick in order to cover up the mayhem left by the first and second coats. Then you have to deal with glitter removal, which I'm starting to really hate. Like, it's not even worth it to me to wear glitters because I hate removing them so much. Even with the cotton balls+tin foil trick, it's just a pain.

So I only ever wore three of these. Maybe I'll wear the other two one day, but I'm going to go ahead and post what I've got because I have a feeling that'll be a long time from now, if ever.


First up is the purple glitter, which I immediately gouged the hell out of by removing a power supply from a computer at work. This one is really pretty.


Then I wore... yellow? I guess? Or is that gold? Or a very light lime-green? It's sort of an ambiguous color.


Then blue, which I actually really liked, too.


The two remaining ones are orange and green (teal?), and yeah. Maybe one day. But not today.

This is China Glaze Strawberry Fields. I saw this on someone (a blogger, not IRL) recently and realized I had to have this polish! I couldn't seem to get a decent picture of it, but it's really pretty. I approve. I really like the tiny gold glass-flecks in it -- it makes it a very unique pink, in my opinion.


This was another of the Butter London polishes I got. It's called Teddy Boy, and it's a brownish-pinkish-mauvish color. I really liked this. However, those bottles suck. I found the application to be really difficult because of the way the cap is shaped. Then I read somewhere that they've changed their bottles (and obviously, the ones I got so dirt cheap were the old bottles... dammit). Maybe one day when I feel like shelling out too much money for nail polish, I'll try some of the newer ones. I just don't really like the idea of paying more than $10 or so for a bottle of polish. I've done it, but it's very rare for me. I am lemming Chanel's Illusion D'Or right now, though, and that's WAY more than I care to spend on polish, ever.


This was a polish I picked up at Sally's. It's Finger Paints "Magenta Mood." It's a pretty, foil-y, glitter-y magenta. Actually, it seemed to go back and forth between bright red and magenta. In certain lights, it looked magenta. In others, red.


I decided to do some fauxnading last weekend, and did this using China Glaze Light as Air for the base, and China Glaze Grape Pop for the stamping. I used a fauxnad plate that doesn't have a plate number, but these were just flowery. This is the last manicure I did before I chopped my nails off.


This was the first mani I did after chopping my nails off. This is China Glaze Grape Pop with Colorama Sonic Sunset (holy crap, I am loving the Colorama flakies!) on top. Later this day, I got my Urban Decay order in the mail, so I have only been wearing those colors since then. :)

Giveaway!

So... now that I've figured out what to do with the used polishes in my house, here's what I'm going to do with the unused ones.... give them away!

Actually, I've been keeping an eye open at Sally and at the Dollar Tree and at Big Lots for the last month or so, picking up things here and there in order to give them away.

Here's what I have:
Four random LA Colors I picked up at the Dollar Tree. They HAD names, but I took them out of the packaging and there are no names on the bottles. Lame.


Orly in Star of Bombay (with ring!) and Monroe's Red.


Sally Hansen Salons in Can't Bare to Know, Wine Not?, and Moonstone:


China Glaze in Cherry Pie and For Audrey, with a mini bottle of Matte Magic Topcoat.


Two Revlon Glimmer Glosses in Cherry Fizz and Blueberry Burst, a random NYC Nail Glossies in a sheer pink, and one of the new Finger Paints in Artistic Azure.



I am going to close this giveaway for entries on May 10, at which time I will pick a winner at random. I was going to do it on April 30, but I'm getting married May 8 and don't want anyone to have to wait 10 days to get their package mailed. So May 10 it is!

Enter by leaving a comment here with your email address. :)
You can also have one additional entry by blogging about this giveaway. Include a link in your comment here.

Good luck!

Destashing

So, I finally got up off my lazy ass and listed and photographed all of the polishes I need to get rid of. Most of these have only been swatched once, but I've worn some of them. I just really need to destash. My loss is your gain. :)

Anything striked out has already been spoken for. Sorry!

I really don't want to charge for used polishes, and most of these aren't must-have hard-to-finds, but I can't afford to ship for free.

I figure I can fit five bubble-wrapped polishes in a bubble mailer. I know from past experience it'll cost me a couple of bucks to mail, and a dollar or so for the mailer. I figure I can fit 10 or so polishes in a small, flat-rate mailing box. The boxes are free, but the shipping cost is $4.85.

So, for one to five polishes, your cost is $3.
For six to ten polishes, your cost is $5.
If you want more than ten polishes, let me know and we'll figure something out.

Email me at auntiesocial@gmail.com and let me know what you want. Then you can PayPal the money for shipping to me. Once I receive the money in PayPal, I'll ship your stuff to you. Sound good? God, I hope so. :)

So, here's what I need to get rid of. If you have any questions, please let me know, either in a comment here or by email!

Oh yeah... pardon my messy table, but there are WAY too many bees outside for me to be photographing this crap out there.

Sally Hansen
Beyond Perfect - Petal Paradise, Fresh Lavender, Cinnamon Incense, Bare Beauty


Lacquer Shine - Gleaming, Glow


Hard as Nails XTreme Wear - Lime Lights, Gunmetal, Purple Pizzazz


Maximum Growth Plus - Sweet Tulip



Orly
Poison Apple *** PENDING ***
Purple Velvet (Matte)
Blue Suede (Matte)



OPI
Russian Navy Matte
Gargantuan Green Grape Matte
Deer Valley Spice *** PENDING ***
Bronzed to Perfection



Wet N Wild
Crystalic - Heavy Metal, Sandalwood Frost, Jade Frost


Revlon
Iced Mauve
White on White
Sweet Nothings - Rendez-Blue



Claire's
Green Matte, Yel


Maybelline
Forever Strong + Iron - White a While
Wet Shine - Spiced Cider
Express Finish - Gogo Green
Salon Expert - Riveting Ruby



Petites
Rose Quartz, Cabernet, Ocean Breeze



Scherer Chameleon
Sunset, Dreams



Butter London - Swinger
Sephora by OPI - Never Enough Shoes
Finger Paints - Honey Handbag *** PENDING ***
Nicole by OPI - First Blush Crush
China Glaze - Tinsel



Tip Toe - Platinum
Goldie - ?? No name, shimmery beige
Icing - White Wedding
Borghese - Stellare Notte
Jesse's Girl - Neon Pink



NYC Metallic Nail Glossies - Molten Metal
CQ - Silver Violet
Sally Girl - Get Out! (mini)
Love Bites - ?? Mustard Yellow (used to be layered)
Snowman - Black and orange bar glitter in clear base



Pure Ice - Rio
Lay It On Me - Mostly Black
Cover Girl Boundless Color - Fuchsia Girl



I have probably swatched and posted pictures of most of these on this blog. Just look around. I usually tag by brand. If there's something you think you might want, but aren't sure about the color, ask me and I'll either find a photo of a swatch or I'll just swatch it and send you a new pic. :)