Pink Wednesday - Sorta, Kinda, Maybe?

Hi folks! Sorry for being MIA for the past few days. I'm on a long stretch at work without a day off and clearly it's been affecting my polishing ... I actually went to work with my nails bare today! *gasp*

I had a good friend of mine come over a couple weeks ago and I did her nails. When I told her to choose her colours she said I had more polish than a store and then took an exceedingly long amount of time choosing. She ended up with: Sinful Colors in 'Dream On' & 'Timbleberry' as well as Color Club's 'Starry Temptress Top Coat'.

Let's take a peek. PS: Let's pretend that this can fit into 'Pink Wednesday' after all, purple and coral are rose-based tones ... right??? ;)

My poll has now closed so look out for my OPI Polish Collection in upcoming posts!

How many OPI's do you own?

I Love Duo Chromes

Today I am very excited to show you a polish from the Victorious 4pc nail polish kit I purchased in the last couple weeks. (Click here to see the haul post.) These polishes came without names so I named the polish featured in this post as "Oil Slick" which I think you will find is quite appropriate. I layered 1 coat of Oil Slick over 2 coats of Wet'n'Wild's Everybody Hates Chris. Maybe next time I will try two coats and see what happens.

This is the first time I have shown a duo chrome on my blog and what a beauty she is. I couldn't decide which photo's to post so you get to see them all. Every photo shows something beautiful about this polish.

Love this one.

... and this one ...

This photo was a complete accident & it looks like crap, I know, but the green flash on the nail is glowing!

... can't forget this one!

...aaaaand this one, too.

Wow, right? The last two photo's are my swatches of Ebony Hates Chris, just for good measure. I'm trying to post swatches of every polish I own (432 bottles and counting!) so I had to include them, even though they don't compare to Oil Slick.

I feel like these photo's turned out really nicely; the lighting, etc. I'm in no way a professional photographer but it seems as though you can fake it by having nice lighting. (The background in my photo's is just my bedroom wall which is an off white and the way the lighting was done it made it look like a backdrop of some sort ... Or maybe that's just me?)

I am very impressed with how strong the purple to green flash shows up, especially on camera. I could stare at my nails all day long. Duo chromes get major love from me, especially if they are darker, vampy ones. *stares wistfully at nails*

Quick note: my poll (over on the left now) is ending soon. Please go vote before it ends! Thank you.

What is your favourite duo chrome polish?

Pink Wednesday: Sally Hansen Fuschia Flare & Revlon Grapefruit Fizz

Happy Pink Wednesday! I have to say, it feels really good to be blogging again. I finally got my rhythm back and posts lined up rarin' to go. It's nice to be a head of schedule rather than battling it every day. Leslie from Nail Polish Art Addiction did a post in August called "How do you blog?" (click to read her post) and I found it very interesting to hear how she tackles blogging. I'd love to hear how you blog - comment below and give me the 411! ;)

All right, mani time. Ever since I got the Revlon polishes in my haul I have tried 3 of them. Pineapple Fizz was in my last post, Grapefruit Fizz in this post and Colada Fizz in my upcoming Blue Monday post. (I told you I was ahead!) If you can find these in your local Wal-Mart, drug store, etc you seriously need to pick these up. I am missing a couple of them and will be scouring various places to try and complete my collection. Yes, even though I am on a no-buy which I am turning into a "low, low buy" because I am intending to cheat.

Without further ado, my Pink Wednesday mani.

Sally Hansen - Fuchsia Flare, 2 coats. This polish tends to get a little thick
when applying so I had to shake it after every couple nails.

No topcoat, shiny!

Revlon - Grapefruit Fizz, 1 coat is layered over top.

Click to see the mini flakies and glass fleck; beauty!

One thing I didn't mention in yesterday's post was the fact that these polishes are scented. Pineapple Fizz was very sweet smelling with a vague scent of pineapple. Grapefruit Fizz was mostly just sweet; I'm not sure if I actually smelled grapefruit or not but it was quite pleasant. I'm a hand-talker and my husband said he could smell it when I was flapping my hands around while talking to him. (Isn't that a lovely image? Haha.)

Do you own any of these Revlon polishes? Scented polishes: fad or fun?


PS: Do you like my new layout and "look"? I think I might actually keep this. ;)

OPI's Fiercely Fiona + Yelleen Grellow?

Quick post today, folks. This is the mani I promised to show you the other when I posted about my mini-haul of 2 Sally Hansen polishes. I did this mani last week and it stayed on for 3 full days. Yes, you heard (read) me correctly. I added more photo's than I usually would because my camera didn't want to play nicely with this mani colour. C'est la vie ...

If I remember correctly this was 3 coats of OPI's Fiercely Fiona which I picked up in my haul last week.
It looks very 'buttery' in this photo but it is much brighter and leans more green than it shows.

(Indoors with ceiling light; see below for the true colour.)

I added Revlon's Pineapple Fizz which consists of a sheer yellow base with very small flakies and
glass fleck shimmer. I added Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the dots.

One coat of Seche Vite sealed everything in & dried it in under 2 minutes. (Outdoors at sunset.)

(Half shaded/sunrise.)

I think I'll call this kind of yellow "yelleen".

Yellow + Green = Yelleen

Green + Yellow = Grellow

Hahaha ...

Shade.

Shade, again. See the mini flakies & glass fleck? Maximize by clicking!

Gotta run, hope you enjoyed this bright mani!

Is anyone else anticipating the fall/autumn as much as I am?

Blue Monday: L.A. Colors - Radiation & Sinful Colors - Pearl Harbor

Today I decided to grab a polish from a brand I haven't used in months: L.A. Colors. These polishes regularly retail at $1.99 however I purchased my collection of them when they went on sale for $1.49 and I have to say I am quite impressed with them. They have a good colour range and some pretty finishes. If you have this brand available near you be sure to check them out! 

I have mentioned a couple of times in the past week that one of my favourite colours is teal/turquoise. Radiation with Pearl Harbor is practically bliss on nails for me: I love the combination. I can't wait to try Pearl Harbor over darker shades of blue and black.

Onto the mani ...

3 coats of L.A. Colors in Radiation with 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Look at that pretty green shimmer! (Click to enlarge.)

Then I added a coat of Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor & a coat of "TOP SECRET Ultra Fast Dry TopCoat".

Click the photo to see the pretty glitters!

Radiation
I used 3 regular coats of polish: the first was quite sheer but the second and third coats helped to build opacity. To remove VNL 3 coats were enough IRL but the camera picks up a little bit so you could add a fourth coat if that bothers you.

Pearl Harbor
I love this glitter polish. I'm not sure that 'glitter' is the correct term for this polish though because they are so small and smooth; perhaps 'micro-glitter' is a better description. I added a thin top coat and that was all that was needed for it to feel completely smooth.

What is your favourite turquoise polish?

It's Official: I Have Zero Will Power

I am not posting this because I want to but rather because my husband said he would be upset unless I admitted defeat, publicly. (In a teasing manner, of course. He isn't a tyrant.) That said, here are the pictures to show my shameful lack of willpower in regards to my polish no-buy until 2012. I made it all of 72 hours before claiming defeat. *sigh ... smirks*

Sally Hansen "Gilty Pleasure" - lemming, complete!

Sally Hansen "Yellow Kitty" - another lemming, complete!

The bottle tops showing the names. 

My thumb is the mani I will be posting after my Blue Monday tomorrow! ;)

Another bottle shot for good measure.

That's it, ladies. What were you expecting; another haul with 15+ polishes? I don't want to give my husband an aneurysm now do I? 

Do you own either of these polishes? Let me know in the comments! 

Butterfly Award & Poll Request

Apparently I have nothing better to do than to type up posts at 1:15am in this morning because here I am doing just that! ;) I have an award to share with you that the lovely Meghan from Pinupcherrymakeup tagged me with eon's ago. (July, oh the shame ...) Thank you Meghan, you're a doll! 

Can I just point something out really quickly? "For the coolest blog I ever know".
Y-eeeeeeah. About that... anyway, moving along.

The Rules:
1. Link back to the person who awarded this award to you.
2. Share 7 Random things about yourself.
3. Answer the following questions.
4. Award 15 blogs.

Seven Things About Me:
1. I have purchased 400 bottles of nail polish since March 14th 2011.
2. My iPod had over 12,000 songs on it until it mysteriously died. (I used my iPod as an external harddrive for my music so I lost everything because it wasn't saved on my computer.)
3. My nail polish "hobby" is my longest running hobby besides playing musical instruments. I usually get bored and move onto something else to fill my spare time. My polishing ways are staying! I'm hooked.
4. I play brass, guitar and am trying to learn piano.
5. Makeup was a huge obsession for me for years until I found polish. I still love my makeup (and have a ton of it) but it takes second place to my love of polish.
6. I own over 60 lip products. (Lipgloss, lipstick, lip liner, lip balm...)
7. I was a serious, SERIOUS nail biter since I was a very young child (I'm talking like 3-4 years old) but have not bitten my nails for over 2 years! :)

Questions:
Name your favorite colour – Purple & turquoise but if I HAD to choose just one it would be turquoise (my favourite shade is charcoal).
Name your favourite song – Is this serious? Uhhh, I'll just go with the current song I've been listening to on repeat for the past 4 days straight: Stars Go Dim - Like You Mean It.
Name your favourite dessert – Tuxedo Truffle Cake. Delish!
What is pissing you off? – Lack of time spent with my husband because of conflicting work schedules.
When you’re upset, you? – Clean with a vengence.
Your favourite pet – My dog.
Black or White? – Black.
Your biggest fear? – Unexpected loss of loved ones.
My best feature is – My "people skills".
Everyday attitude – Content.
What is perfection – Knowing my family is healthy and that I am loved.
Guilty pleasure – Night time snacking & excessive polish purchasing.

15 Bloggers I Award:
I am going to be incredibly lazy & tag everyone - YES, YOU - to do this. If you do this tag please let me know by telling me in the comments; I want to read your 7 facts and read your answers to the other 12 questions! I love getting to know everyone.

Also, just a quick mention about my poll (on the right side of my blog below my contact information). I would love it if you could give me your vote! I'm considering a few ideas for future posts and a little direction is always nice.

Are you going to do this tag/award? You should! ;)

OPI "Funky Dunkey" with Accent Nail

Happy September 1st! I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned it before but purple is one of my favourite colours. (Teal/turquoise is my other favourite colour and charcoal is my favourite 'shade'.) That being said, my mani today showcases my love for purple with OPI's Funky Dunkey. I picked this polish up the past week and am so glad that I did. Two coats for opacity and HIGH SHINE. Seriously folks, if I wasn't so in love with my Seche Vite I could have worn this polish by itself. Itself! Coming from me ... well, that's crazy. ;)

2 coats of OPI Funky Dunkey with no top coat. So shiny! (Indoors)

Outside. Ergh, bubbles on my index finger. Human error, the polish is perfect.

I decided to have some fun! Beads, black striping, gold glitter, ouuu.

Please continue to excuse the state of my cuticles...

I love adding a little something extra to my mani's and thought this was rather fun. I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be, I kind of just went with it. *shrugs* Abstract. That's what it is. 

I have a question. If you are reading this and have used the Two-Way Nail Star Nail Art Polishes (*whew* long name ...) from eBay do you find them hard to use? I have had to add a few drops of polish thinner to mine and I'm still not loving it. Sure the polish is opaque; maybe it's the brush I don't like. My lines always seem to ... meh. I am always surprised when it looks how I intended. Perhaps I should invest in some detailing brushes. Any recommendations?

One thing I want to mention about this mani: the metal beads on my accent nails tarnished. I wore this to work and about 6 hours in I noticed them starting to look rusty. I don't think that my Seche Vite wanted to play nicely.

What's your preference: one polish mani, accented mani or full blown designed nails? Let me know!

Haul: OPI, Revlon, Victorious & I'm On A Polish "No Buy" Ban

It's official. I'm not buying any more polish until 2012. After doing my haul on Monday night I realized that there could be a ton more OPI colours on clearance at different locations that I might have missed on Monday night. At $4.99 a pop I couldn't quiet the polish voices in my head saying "You can't pass up this deal!" ... so, I went to another store and found more. By more I mean 15 more. Plus 5 Revlons ($1.62 each on clearout) ... aannndd a 4 pack of polishes from Wal-Mart ($5).

Like I said. No more polish until 2012.

An overview of the OPI polishes I purchased.

Way too lazy to type out the names. If something catches your 

attention comment below and I will let you know!

L-R: Colada Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Orange Fizz, Watermelon Fizz, Grapefruit Fizz

This set I found at Wal-Mart for $5, what a deal! The only name I can 

seem to find is "Victorious" so that's what I will brand them as. They 

didn't come with names so I have named them; see picture below.

L-R: Oil Slick, Black Shimmer, Red Velvet, Navy Shimmer

The polish I named 'Oil Slick' reminds me of Orly's Space Cadet and Gosh's Purple Heart which, sadly, I don't own. It also reminds me of a darker version of Wet'n'Wild Gray's Anatomy (Fast Dry) which I do have in my collection.

Lastly, before I go run and hide from my receipts and bemused husband, I just want to point over to the right where I have posted a new poll. I'd like to swatch all of my polishes and I'd love to get some feedback from you as to what you would like to see first. Since I am on a "no buy" until the end of the year (we'll see how that goes...) it seems like a good time to go through all my untrieds. Go ahead, vote, and let me know!

What percentage of your collection consists of untrieds?

Pink Wednesday: Revlon 'Tulip' Gets Dotty

Good morning! Today I have my Pink Wednesday mani for your viewing pleasure. Lately I haven't done anything "extra" to spice up my nails so I whipped out my 2-way nail art polishes and decided to get dotty all over Revlon's 'Tulip'. This polish was released in the Spring 2011 three pack's. I reviewed the blue (Waterfall), glitter (Sparkle) and green (Garden) 3-pack here, here and here.

Please excuse not only the copious amounts of saturation (this colour was difficult 

to photograph) but the band-aid and the white smudge on my index.

This picture is the most colour accurate and was taken after 2 full days of wear.

I really liked having the dots predominantly in one corner of my nail. I thought of it as a cousin of the funky french manicure. ;)

If you follow Pink Wednesday what shade of pink did you wear today?

Haul: OPI, ACO, Sinful Colors, Essie

Last night the hubby (he needs a nickname people, any ideas?) and I went shopping. Translation: I wanted to check out some of my favourite nail polish places and so we went. I reasoned with him that I haven't purchased any polishes in July or August, up until yesterday, so he saw that as a fair enough assessment and so, with a smile, we shopped. Boy, did we ever. I say 'we' because in all honesty, I think he likes giving me his opinion. Some of my favourite purchases were the polishes that he picked out! Gotta love him. :) Anyway, onto the haul.

OPI

Coney Island Cotton Candy, Heart of Gold, Clubbing til Sunrise,
Apple Of My Eye, That's Berry Daring, We'll Always Have Paris, Funky Dunkey,
What's With The Cattitude, Skull & Glossbones, Fiercely Fiona

ACO

L-R: Blue Glitter, Faded Jeans, Blizzard, Day N Night,
Electric Chic, Fairy Dust, Confetti Glitter, Rock N Glitter

Sinful Colors

L-R: Glass Pink, Jasmine Jazz, Nail Junkie, Happy Ending, Lioba, Patrika.

Note: For whatever reason I seem to have forgotten two other shades that I purchased which
are "Out Of This World" and "Agaci". If you would like to see them posted let me know!

Essie in 'Maid To Honor'

Twenty seven polishes later, I was quite the happy lady. I have a terrible time putting polishes back especially when the OPI's were on for *GASP* $4.99 and Sinful Colors were on a BOGO sale. I couldn't pass them up. Plus, I had a gift card for some of it so I felt justified. I'm not sure what to swatch first so feel free to leave a comment if there is something you would like to see.

What have you hauled lately? I'd love to know!

Blue Monday: Sally Hansen "Blue Away"

As promised, this is my Blue Monday post. Before I took my "summer vacation" I used Sally Hansen 'Blue Away' which I had been wanting to try ever since I saw it at my drugstore. I have a thing for sky blue polishes, it's almost a disorder. (Shame I don't have more...) I did this manicure June 24th (2011) and I loved every minute of it. See below! Also, please ignore the quality of the photo's, the only opportunity I had was while out driving. (In the backseat. *laughs*)

I 

I believe this was 2 coats with my Seche Vite top coat.

I think this might be the longest my nails ever got. (Except for my wedding last summer, which was my first real attempt to grow my nails.) Sadly they aren't this long anymore. Soon though, soon.

I really enjoyed this polish and a bonus which I wasn't expecting: it dried shiny! I love when polishes dry shiny, even though I always use a topcoat. To answer my own question from my previous post, this was my favourite summer polish colour.

Nail shape preference: rounded, square, rounded square or pointed? Let me know in the comments!