Nails of the day and good news

First... I got bored with Icy Iris last night, so I did this to it. I like it. :)
I used my Art Deco nail art pen in silver glitter on the tips, and used a Nailene nail sticker on the ring finger.


I got official word today that I'm being promoted at work, so I bought myself something I'd been wanting.
Ohh yeeeah, it's the Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows. I can't WAIT to play with it. :D

Some randoms

Here are some randoms I've just had lying around. Stuff I picked up for a dollar or two, stuff I've been meaning to try out but just hadn't. So I swatched it all today. Yay!

Wet N' Wild Caribbean Frost. It's a teal frost. It's ok. I think I got this on clearance for 50 cents someplace, so I don't feel bad saying I'll probably never wear this again. It's not a bad color, just way frosty for me.


L.A. Colors in Amethyst. This is actually a really nice glittery purple. It's a medium bright purple. I think this was three coats. Please excuse my ring finger, clearly I banged it into something. :D I picked this up at Dollar General one day.


Orly Blue Suede. My love of all things matte is fading fast. I do like this a LOT better than OPI Russian Navy Matte, but the OPI mattes were generally crappy anyway. This is a good navy that doesn't look *black*.


Pure Ice - Magic. WOW! I've read numerous times that Pure Ice is a great drugstore brand, but I'd never actually bought any of it before. This will be changing. I picked this up on a whim last night and I love it! The formula was great, the color is interesting, and it was only $2! Sweet! I had to take a bunch of pictures of this.
Natural light:


With flash:


In direct sunlight - OMG THE SPARKLEZ!!!



Finger Paints Icy Iris is last.
Holy mother of God, I love this color! It's a dark eggplanty-purple with teeny tiny lighter purple glitter in it. This is actually my current mani. I hope to leave it on til Tuesday... if I have that much patience.




And that is all until I get my Claire's pastels swatched. I really am excited to use those, I have no idea why I wanted to get everything else outta the way first. :)

Two Sally Hansens

So, I already blogged about the Borghese I bought when I got these two SH polishes.


Now I want to talk about the SH's.
It's funny -- I only picked up Grape Going because I could get it half off and it looked sorta neat, but I think I might like it better than the other two!

I've read a lot of buzz in the nail polish blogosphere about Opulent Cloud, so when I saw it just hanging out at Walgreens, I had to grab it. I do like this color. It's hard to put your finger on what color it is, exactly. Sort of a gray/lavender/taupe with gold shimmer?? But it's almost metallic?
In this photo, it definitely looks more grey.


In this one, you can distinctly see the purple in it.



Now... ahhh, Grape Going. I'd passed this color by numerous times. I'd picked it up before and put it back down, thinking, "Ehh..." I am so glad I bought it! It's awesome! I couldn't photograph it accurately because you just can't photograph awesome. It's a nice bright violet shade with electric blue shimmer. It's so pretty!
This is in natural light:


This is indoors:


Also indoors:

Claire's stuff

So, I swatched all the colors I got from Claire's EXCEPT for the pastel set. I still haven't ripped into that one. I'm planning a slight shopping excursion tomorrow, so maybe I'll do the pastels on Tuesday. We'll see. ;)

Anyway, out of the other three polishes I picked up at Claire's, I found one that I absolutely LOVE! It's awesome! The other two weren't bad either, but that one...

To refresh your memory (and since I just saw this in my Flickr), here's what I got:


l-r: Matte Green, Yel, Dream Catcher

Here's matte green. It's a nice deep green. Kind of goopy on the nail. Finish is definitely satin and not really matte. This was pretty "meh" to me.


Next up is Yel. YEL IS AWESOME! It's a turquoise with a bluish purplish pinkish shimmer and holographic glitter. It dries matte like a neon, but I wouldn't consider this a neon shade at all. I couldn't get the shimmer to show up in photos, and had a hard time with the holo. These pictures are with a coat of Seche Vite on top.

Indoors, with flash:


Natural light:


Indoors, no flash:


And then we have Dream Catcher, another mint green. I like this one more than the Love Bites mint green from the other day. Dream Catcher has more shimmer in it, but it's still very subtle.
Natural light:


Indoors:

Stellare Notte

I actually kept this mani on for two whole days trying to get adequate sunlight in which to photograph it, but it never happened! Ahh!

Anyway, this color is sort of like a purple/charcoal duochrome with some teal shimmer and sparkle to it.

In most lighting, though, it just looks like a shimmery charcoal. The duochromeness doesn't show up on the nails as much as it does in the bottle, either.

Another thing -- the wear on this polish is not so good. I got a chip the first night (I repaired it) and I had some horrible, horrible wear at my tips by the time I took it off today. Remember folks, I just put this on Friday afternoon.

This is indoors. You can sort of see the purpley-ness here:


Indoors with a flash. There's the teal I was telling you about. :)


By a window - natural light.


Also by a window.




Overall, I was disappointed by this polish. The chipping and horrible tipwear, for one, and the fact that this looked way, way cooler in the bottle than on my nails. Granted, there were times that this polish looked grey to me, times it looked purple, and times it looked green/blue, and that sort of change is cool, but it was extremely hard to photograph it.

Indoor swatching, blah

So, it's been gross and gray and rainy all day long today. I got quite a bit of swatching done, actually, but they're all indoor photographs since I have better lighting indoors today than outdoors.

I did manage to get out this afternoon because I needed gas in my car. I am on a freaking mission to find those stupid Milani 3D holographic polishes, but I was foiled not once but twice today and decided to come on home. I've found the new Milani neons and nail art pens at K-Mart, but no holos. I went to Walgreens, where they have a whole section with a big "Milani" sign over it, but no Milani anything underneath it. I DID, however, find a couple of other polishes I'd been lemming at Walgreens -- Borghese Stellare Notte and Sally Hansen HD Opulent Cloud. I also picked up SH Insta-Dri Grape Going, since the SH polishes were buy 1, get 1 half off. And that is IT for my polish-buying for now. I swear.
See the pretties!


Anyway, after that, I ran by CVS, where there was a tag on the REGULAR Milani polishes that clearly read "Milani 3D Holographic polishes, $4.99." Which would be awesome if, you know, they actually HAD the polishes. Which they didn't. So I came home.

I put on Stellare Notte once I got home and went to photograph it and my camera would not focus on anything, which is usually a sign that the batteries are dying. We usually have freshly charged batteries in the charger, but not today. Oh well, it's supposed to actually be sunny tomorrow (although I have to work), so hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of it tomorrow.

Now that I'm done bellyachin', here's what I've swatched from my haul yesterday.

China Glaze Flying Dragon. How awesome is this color? It's Play-Doh purple with blue glitter in it! The formula was awful, awful, awful, though. It evened out okay in three coats, but it had me worried through the first two coats.


China Glaze Blue Sparrow. This is from the same collection as Flying Dragon, but the formula was 1000 times easier. This is just two coats. I also love this, but not quite as much as I love Flying Dragon. If I could get Flying Dragon's color with Blue Sparrow's formula, I'd be a happy girl.



After the China Glazes, I swatched the Sally Hansens I got yesterday. First up was Lacquer Shine in Glow. Meh. This is the third color I own that is very similar to this. It's a spring green with yellow shimmer. It's pretty enough, but I don't need three of these.


This is Lacquer Shine in Lustrous. It's a nice black creme. Seems as if it might have a greenish base, but it's definitely all black on the nails -- no shimmer or anything. This was two coats.


This was the first Fire Opal I decided to swatch. What is wrong with this picture?


Ummmm. Yeah. I guess that's Dollar Tree quality for you. Luckily, I am a crafty lady and I have all manner of paintbrushes in my house!
It figures -- the brushless wonder is my FAVORITE of all the opals I picked up yesterday -- at least, on it's own! This is Blush Opal and this is also three coats. I knew these were sheer, but this is the least sheer one I have.


This is the one Star Opal I got, in Red Opal. Does ANYONE know the difference between the Star Opals and the Fire Opals? They're all similar to me. This is a peachy sheer with some green shimmer in it.


And this was the other Fire Opal I got, in Royal Opal. It's a peachy sheer with gold shimmer. I guess the gold is what makes it royal?


Then I tried layering all of them over Lacquer Shine Lustrous. I dig it!
Index finger is Blush Opal, Middle is Red Opal, and Ring is Royal Opal. I LOVE Red Opal like this. Oddly enough, Red Opal over black becomes black with awesome emerald GREEN shimmer (no red to be seen)!

Love Bites

So that's the brand name of the polishes I picked up at Rue 21 today.

Sidenote -- I am getting to the age where I feel slightly ridiculous going to Claire's and Rue 21. I still wear chucks and put bright red streaks in my hair, but I am always super conscious of the fact that I'm actually thirty-something when I go into these places. I'm pretty sure that none of the clothes at Rue 21 would fit me -- well, maybe the biggest sizes would, but that's probably it. Not to mention I'd feel ridiculous wearing them. Every time I watch "What Not To Wear," I also notice that I dress like the "before" woman, more often than not. LOL. They would totally tell me it's time to grow up. Whatevah!

Anywho, I mucked up the mustard yellow, but since it was just for swatchin' and not for a real mani, I let it stand. I dig this color. It's different. It's a yellow that doesn't look like corn. It's actually more muted in real life than it is in this picture.


And this is the mint green I picked up. I'm actually wearing this now. I dig it! I dig it a lot! I did notice that I picked up three colors today that are all very similar -- this is one of them. Oops. This also has the slightest amount of shimmer in it. I don't think it makes my fingers look as red as this photo would lead you to believe, but I could be wrong.

Impromptu Haul

Oh lord, I really didn't mean to come home with all this nail polish. But it was all cheap! And I got my state tax refund today! It's ok, I swear!

So my fiance is very particular about the socks he wears. He specifically wants Gold Toe "over the calf" socks. I discovered yesterday that there is a Gold Toe outlet in the outlet mall not too far from here, and that they were having a buy 3, get 1 free special. So I bought him 4 packs of socks.

Next door to the Gold Toe outlet was a Rue 21. I figured I'd stop in. I found these two polishes. The first one is a mustard yellow -- it apparently was one of those layered polishes, because I discovered the "Do Not Shake" sticker on it once I got home. I guess it was shaken, which is fine by me because I've been wanting a mustard yellow polish for awhile. I also picked up a mint green. Neither of these seem to have names.


So then I saw a Claire's and figured I'd drop in. Their cosmetics were all buy 1, get 1 50% off (I really didn't save a whole lot there, though). I'd been lemming the pastel set after seeing it swatched somewhere (too lazy to check where) earlier this week. I picked up the other three because they looked cool. Can you tell I dig blues and greens? Heh.


Here are the other three bottles up close. They are Matte Green, Yel, and Dream Catcher:


So then I figured I'd drop by Sally on my way home. I had a 15% off coupon, so I picked up these three. I got China Glaze Blue Sparrow, China Glaze Flying Dragon, and Finger Paints Icy Iris (on clearance! for $1.99!).


Next door to Sally is a Dollar Tree. So I had to stop in. They had a whole buttload of Sally Hansen that had to have just come in recently, since I go to that Dollar Tree fairly often. All of these were in 2-packs (although a lot of them just had a clear polish as the "other" polish, but still! 2 for a dollar! and I now have a buttload of clear polish!). I got a Star Opal in Red Opal, and two Fire Opals in Royal Opal and Blush Opal.


I also got two Lacquer Shines in Lustrous and Glow.


I also picked this up at Publix on clearance for $3. My nails are NASTY stained (that's what happens when you wear nail polish all the time, I guess, even though I always use a base coat). I can't wait to try it!


And now... I suppose I have my work cut out for me, huh?

Two manicures

So, oddly enough, I had no sheet marks when I woke up this morning, despite Castaway not being dry when I went to bed last night. So here's a decent, color-accurate, non-iphone picture. It really is a cute color.


And I never did post the other picture I planned to post yesterday. This was the Nfu-Oh 51 I borrowed on top of my favorite purple - Rimmel Art of Noise. I think I preferred it over black.

Essie Castaway

So tonight I broke down and did my nails with the cheapy bottle of Castaway I picked up at Trade Secret. I love this color but hate this polish! Streaky as hell, took 3 coats and there's STILL visible nail line, and it WON'T dry!! Not even with a coat of Seche Vite. I'm still denting my nails. Grrr...

I'm really tired and going to bed (actually posting this while lying in bed!), and I'm sure I'll have all manner of sheet marks in the morning.

Let's try posting a horrible iPhone-quality pic here... Never done this before, so wish me luck! :)




Ok, so this is actually a cute bubblegum pink. Pay no attention to the salmony shade in the photo!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Good morning!!

Has it really been four days since I've posted here? Man, I've been super busy. But! I do have two posts to make today, and hopefully some more in coming days.

I also created a new blog that has absolutely nothing to do with nail polish or makeup, but everything to do with Google's abysmally bad transcription of voicemails. Go check it out, it's sort of funny: http://googlevoiceisfunny.blogspot.com/

Now that my pimping is done...

I ventured to TJ Maxx last week and they had 4-packs of mini Essies for $8. I've bought a lot of Essie lately, since I keep finding it on sale. Funny, since I'm not really a huge fan of Essie.

Anyway, I picked up a 4-pack that had Funky Limelight, Showstopper, a glittery red polish that I'm pretty sure is actually named Ruby Slippers even though the label on my bottle says RUBIES Slippers, and a mini bottle of Trillionails. What an odd combination, huh? There were some other odd 4-packs, but this one appealed to me the most. :)

Here's everything but the Trillionails:


This is Funky Limelight. It's a neon yellow. Like, highlighter yellow. I can't remember if I used 3 or 4 coats in this picture, but there was still some visible nail line.


This is Showstopper. It's a pretty berry-red with gold shimmer. I was sort of disappointed in this one -- it looked much prettier in the bottle than it did on my nails.


And this is Ruby Slippers. Eh. I've used better glittery reds. The coverage on this was decent (2 coats), but I wanted MOAR GLITTER!


I also broke down and purchased the one polish I was coveting from Spring collection, Lilacism. I LOVE this color, and I never thought I'd be much of one for pastel purple. It makes my nails look super long! (Actually, they're getting fairly long because I can't seem to make myself file them down!)
The formula was a little streaky to me, and I ended up using 3 coats for decent coverage, but I love it anyway.





I ALSO picked up Essie "Castaway" at Trade Secret for $2! It's on my toes. I haven't put it on my fingers yet. I don't take pictures of my toenails because they are fugly, so, you'll just have to wait. It's a cute, girly bubblegum pink. :)