My week in nails

Welp, another week has come and gone with nary a post from yours truly. Sad and triflin' I know. I want to be able to post more but, the only way I'm going to accomplish that is if I either get rich enough to afford hired help or miraculously stumble upon human cloning technology and make enough mes to go around. As always, though,  I have been taking pics of my manis (well, the ones that lasted long enough for me to get pics of, that is) and I have a few of those pics to share with you today.

The mani above is brought to you by Maybelline's Color Show Line. They have recently released a set of limited edition kryptonite glitter polishes called 'Sequins.' Of course, whilst out running errands, I happened upon a display of said polishes and 3 of them somehow found their way into my cart (go to the store for diapers, come home with diapers....and several bottles of nail polish. Story of my frickin life). This pretty is known by the name "Sapphire Masquerade." It consists of multiple sizes of blue-violet glitter (I wouldn't consider this a true blue) with some larger bright purple glitters thrown into an inky blue jelly base. Freakin LOVE. Easy to work with. GREAT coverage and it actually managed to not feel like sandpaper despite being a glitter bomb. Pictures are 2 coats of Sapphire Masquerade with 2 coats of Seche Vite on top. Moving right along......

This is the crazy ass mani I came up with to celebrate the fact that, after last week's election,  gays can get married in even more states now!! YAAAAAY!! Granted I intentionally keep politics off this blog because I want it to be simply about the awesome escapism that pretty shiny things bring into our lives BUT  I have no problem publicly stating that I am all for equality for ALL human beings, no matter what they look like, what they have between their legs,  how much money they make,  where they live, what they believe or who they take to bed with them. And where else is a nail polish fiend supposed to express her happiness over more victories for gay rights than on  the tips of her fingers??

 This mani was done with Wet N Wild black creme., then came a coat of an old and unfortunately pretty impossible to  find Fantasy Makers rainbow bar glitter polish from a few years back called Black Magic (yes the other OTHER version of that polish). After that,  I  free-handed some half moons with Essie No Place Like Chrome, glitterfied the half moons with a silver glitter Kiss nail art striper, stuck on a rainbow combo of rhinestones &  Badda-boom badda-bing, ya got some Yay for the Gays nails. 

After I used Essie No Place like Chrome for those half-moons, I decided I needed even more of that awesome shiny in my life. And, to shiny it up even more,  I reached for Color Club Platinum Record (from last year's insane Backstage Pass glitter collection). The above mani is 1 coat of No Place like Chrome with 2 coats of Platinum Record dabbed on & 1 coat of Gelous + Seche Vite to finish. Gotta love BLINDING disco ball nails. Trying to get pics of this was pretty much im-freakin-possible. Seriously, my camera was about to jump out of my hands & walk out the door it was so fed up (us nail bloggers always put our poor cams through such hell). 

So that's all I got for ya this time. Thanks to those of you who actually still bother to stop by!  I like to think I will be able to post with some semblance of consistency one fine day--like maybe 20 years from now when all my boys are all grown up... Until next time,  Peace and pretty things to all!

Depression Awareness

October is depression awareness month. Green is the ribbon color. Being that I have battled severe clinical depression pretty much my whole frickin life, I felt compelled to do a green manicure dedicated to raising awareness of this most insidious, relentless and ubiquitous disease.  

Mani consists of:

L'Oreal Project Runway The Muse's Attitude

Color Club Kiss me Under the Mistletoe

Bundle Monster image plate 

Seche Vite

For me, depression is very much a physical disease. Chemical imbalances (yes, friends, chemicals are physical things) cause it. For me, that is every bit as REAL and tangible as, say, a tumor is for a cancer patient. Depression has never been "all in my head." It's not simply a matter of "cheering up and getting over it." When those chemicals shift and I feel myself going down, there isn't a whole lot I can do. It's as if someone turns the volume up on gravity. My bones are suddenly made of lead. Getting up becomes pretty much impossible. As does concentrating. The space between my ears fills with static and even when I force myself out of bed & try to make myself engage in some kind of activity, I catch myself standing & staring into space. I hate it. It wastes me and there is nothing I wouldn't give to be rid of it. Depression has been with me since I was a small child. I can't remember ever being without it. And, no matter how many pills or hours of therapy I throw at it, it still remains with me and probably always will. I'll spare you the worst of the details; suffice it to say I am lucky to be alive right now because I know so many people do not win the battle that I stubbornly fight to keep going each day and there were too many times that I, too, came dangerously close to losing. 

If you suffer from depression, I'm sure lots of this rings true for you, too. If you don't, please take the time to educate yourself and please don't ever assume that someone who struggles with this disease does so willingly.

who doesn't love a crazy animal print?

I luuurves me some leopard and zebra print--especially when they're in wacky colors and they're on my nails.

Awwwww yea!! This mani consists of:

2 coats of Color Club Electro-Candy

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Posy lightly dabbed onto the nail with balled up Saran Wrap (the effects of which is pretty much invisible in these photos)

leopard print is from a konad plate stamped with Wet N Wild black creme

skully decal by Fing'rs

Seche Vite top coat

And I even got the chance to do nails that aren't mine for the very first time. I only wish my nails were as naturally long and strong as hers are. She asked for blues and purples and zebra:

Base color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blue By

Stamp color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Orchid Express

zebra image from a Cheeky plate

Seche Vite top coat

NOTD: Pink pick me up--plus glittery goodness (of course)

There is a direct correlation between sparkly pink nails and an overall sense of happiness--at least there is in my world. Whenever I'm feeling "blah," I inevitably put something like this on my nails and then think to myself "yea junk sucks but at least my nails are pretty." What can I say, I am shallow and easily amused. 

This particular pink prettiness was brought to you by Barry M Flamingo Pink and Color Club I Love You (or Rose, I Love You). This Color Club glitter is part of a mysterious Limited Edition Japanese glitter line that I've only ever seen on Victoria Nail Supply. Every time I place an order, I throw one or 2 of these in my cart for good measure. (See my swatch of Under the Mistletoe,-NOT to be confused with Beyond the Mistletoe--another one of these mystery glitters.) I Love you (or Rose, I Love You, as it is listed on VNS) is a warm pink sheer jelly polish with iridescent microglitter. Since it looked so sheer in the bottle, I decided to layer it over Barry M's Flamingo Pink. Flamingo Pink was pretty much the perfect match shade wise to get I Love You to look the way it does in the bottle. The formula was pretty easy to work with, which I was happy to see since sometimes Color Club glitters can be on the goopy/thick side (I had to majoryly thin out every last one of my Beyond the Mistletoe polishes). 

The above swatches are 2 coats of Flamingo Pink with 2 coats of I Love You and 1 coat of Seche Vite on top. Accent nail is courtesy of a chunky pink-flashing yellow glitter that I happened to have around and some pink half pearls I recently picked up off of Amazon.com. I just free-handed a half-moon shape on my ring finger with a bit of Gelous, sprinkled the yellow glitter over it, and then used the half-pearls to define the shape. Then I coated the whole thing with some more Gelous. 

Do you have a certain color you reach for when you need a pick-me-up?

NOTD stamped neon skittles!!

I'm sure you noticed by now that this summer, it's ALL about the neons. Neon clothes, neon accessories, neon nails--hell I'm even rockin neon hair. For my NOTD, I decided to make the most of the neon trend with this:

NEON SUPER-NUBZ! 

For this mani, I used 5 of 6 polishes from Color Club's Electro-candy collection, which is, pretty much, my favorite neon polish collection EVER! Super bright colors and awesome shimmer--what more can a girl ask for??  As usual, my camera can't even come close to catching the true color & shine of these. Thumb is Tangerine Scream; pointer finger is Pure Energy; middle finger is Ultra Violet; ring finger is What a Shock (my favorite from the collection--neon green with awesome aqua shimmer!; pinky is Volt of Light. All polishes are layered over white and topped off with a coat of Seche Vite

The stamping is done with Wet n Wild Black Creme. I can't remember the plate I used, though. I think it was a Red Angel plate. I didn't really like the way the stamping turned out. My nubbins are so nub-tastic that not enough of the image got onto my nails, so it just looks like random black markings. Oh well...

Do you have any of the Color Club Electro-Candy neons? Originally, I thought the new China Glaze neons would compare to these and possibly steal my heart away from them but, when I finally got the China Glaze polishes, I found the Color Club ones to be much better. I'm working on a comparison post of some of the shades, so stay tuned for that!

Spam on the cheap!!! Cleaning out the 'To Post' folder, the NOTD edition!

Here's a ton of NOTDs that have been collecting dust on my hard drive. aaaaand GO! (click on pics to enlarge--and there's a ton of them)

Up first is a series of lousy shots of a gorgeous mani. This was Essie No More Film topped with Essie As Gold as it Gets topped with (oh yea I'm talkin triple decker layering) Ozotic 529 Elytra. I couldn't get a good shot because the sun decided to fall out of the sky for like a week straight....yea I really need to fix my lighting situation cuz when you live in New England, you can't depend on the weather to give you the light you need!

Shifty shifty...

 Next is a Love and Beauty polish called "Dusty Blue" stamped with Color Club Gingerbread Man. Love and Beauty polishes are sold by Forever 21 for $2.88 a pop and they have an endless selection of beautiful colors (with annoyingly generic names), many  of which are dupes of much pricier brands (I'll have to do a post on the Love & Beauty dupes I have). Also, LA Girl makes Love and Beauty polishes and you can sometimes find the exact same colors marketed under the Love and Beauty name--but for a few bucks cheaper. Score!

 Here we have the lovely Zoya Apple (which, incidentally, Love and Beauty has an exact dupe of called "Yellow Green"---see what I mean about those names)...this is one of my favorite greens ever, yet somehow I didn't get a single good shot of it here...Love those gorgeous gold flecks!

 Next is that Cos Bar for Target polish I mentioned yesterday. It was, unfortunately, a let down. That fun, tangy lime green went gold on the nail--which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't already have a ton of gold polishes that look like this. Also, the formula was annoyingly thin--a 4 coater. Worse yet, I noticed bubbles allover my nails, so I decided to stamp it with a leopard pattern and add some nice, gaudy bling. Bimbo nails!!

 I saved the best for last. This beauty is "Holy Cow" made by F4 Polish, an awesome trio of polish-frankening sisters whose shop can be found here on Etsy. Holy Cow is made up of fine black glitter, slightly larger square white glitter and a healthy sprinkling of holographic microglitter. I layered a thin coat over NYC Sidewalkers for this mani but it can easily be opaque all by itself in a few coats. It was a smidge on the thick side, but a few drops of Beauty Secrets thinner solved that.

Looks like granite!!

Hope you enjoyed my spamathon! Hooray for the 10 little canvases at the tips of our fingers!

Five Favorite blues in honor of Autism Awareness Month

image source

As many of you know, April is Autism Awareness month. This is a cause very near and dear to my heart, especially because I have family members who have and live with Autism. Blue is the official color for Autism Awareness, so I thought in honor of the month, I would do a post about my 5 favorite blue nail polishes.

From left to right: Revlon Royal; Orly Stone Cold; Color Club Otherworldly; Barielle Falling Star; China Glaze Dorothy Who.

sun

shade

Here's why I love 'em:

Revlon Royal: It's a beautiful, easy to find cobalt blue jelly! And an affordable one at that! What's not to love?!

Orly Stone Cold (from the Mineral FX collection): This is basically blue polish perfection. The formula is impeccable and the finish is to die for! It's almost like a micro flakie or something (the particles are too large to be  called "glass fleck" in my mind)--the shimmer is insane and it has this amazing depth to it. Definitely one of my top 10 "most awesomest polishes ever'!

Color Club Otherworldly (from the Starry Temptress collection): I am in love with all the Starry Temptress polishes. Otherworldly has that odd but awesome sparkle-less glitter that gives the polish this unique speckled look that I am absolutely obsessed with. I also love the nearly neon shade!

Barielle Falling Star: Gorgeous, slightly dusty blue with orangy-copper glitter. I mean, COME ON! Of COURSE this has to be in my top 5 blues. LOVE!!!

China Glaze Dorothy Who: There's a good reason this polish is a classic--it's frickin AMAZE-BALLS! It's also one of the first China Glazes I ever bought & the one that got me hooked on the brand. 

So are you a fan of blue polish? What's your top 5?

NOTD: Color Club UNDER the MIstletoe

This gorgeous lime green glittery gem is Color Club UNDER (not beyond) The Mistletoe. It's a green jelly base packed with lime green and silver micro-glitter. It is every green glitter lover's dream:  

(scuse the awkward thumb--I'm hiding a cuticle booboo)

Formula is very comparable to the Beyond the Mistletoe glitters--kinda thick but not completely unworkable. I did 3 coats plus 2 coats of SV as this is a typically thirsty glitter...

I found this curious little polish while I was on Victoria's Nail Supply hauling China Glaze Electropops & Hunger Games polishes. As you'll see if you click on the link, this polish is apparently part of a rather large limited edition Japanese glitter set. I really can't find much more info about the collection. I got this one and 3 others: Too Violet, Blue Hawaii and I Love You. So far as I can see, VNS is the only place that has these glitters...I'll post swatches of the other 3 shades later on.

Oh btw, this polish is NOT pictured in the recent Color Club stash porn post I did the other day because I just received it in the mail yesterday along with the rest of my VNS haul.

Does anybody else know about these mysterious polishes?

Yep, I'm still alive--and I got Color Club stash porn!

Aaargh!! This whole not-having-time-to-blog thing is killing me! Can't wait for the husband to get back home so I can post every day again!

While we all wait for my life to get back to normal (lol--using the words 'my life' and 'normal' in the same sentence--what a joke!), lets indulge in a little stash porn. Here's some Color Club for ya:

waiting for their close-ups...

Starry Temptress Collection. I love every last polish in this set. They are the oddest glitters I've ever seen. I can't get enough of their funky speckled-looking awesomeness.

Foiled Collection

Beyond the Mistletoe Collection

Backstage Pass Collection (I *THINK* that's what this collection is called...)...this collection would be awesome if it wasn't such a bitch to apply!

3 of the smelly Sally Beauty Supply Holiday polishes & Factory Girl--the only Color Clubs that I didn't get as part of a whole set...

So are you a Color Club fan?

Green nail polish is awesome...

Kermit might have issues with the color, but I LOVE me some green--so since it is March and St Patty's day is coming up, I thought I'd do a post about my favorite green polishes. I managed to narrow the list down to 10 --yes I said 10. At first I wanted to include pretty much every green polish I own cuz I'm excessive like that. Anyway, I present to you, crappily photographed in no particular order :::shakes fist at grey, foggy weather::::, my picks:

no flash

flash

1. Sinful Colors San Francisco--gorgeous forest green shimmer

2. Orly Here Comes Trouble--bright. green. glitter. need I say more?

3. OPI Jade is the New Black. It's like the Stairway to Heaven of green polishes. There's no denying it's a classic.

4. Zoya Apple. That gold shimmer gets me every time. 

5. Finger Paints Guggen-I'm Lime-Lime green is my favorite shade of green and this one is so lime, I can practically taste the zing just by looking at it.

6. China Glaze It's Alive--this spot in my heart used to be occupied by Zombie Zest but the multi-sized glitter in that murky base is just too stunning, so poor ol ZZ got pushed right off the top 10 list.

7. Pure Ice Wild Thing. Guggen-I'm Lime's creme cousin. Lip-smackingly tangy.

8. Nubar Reclaim. Green + holo = AWESOME.

9. Sinful Colors Irish Green-a near-neon green squishy-as-hell jelly. Perfect for jelly sammiches!

10. One of my favorite polishes of all time--Color Club Glitter Envy from their awesome Starry Temptress collection--so unique with its bright green base and that odd but awesome speckled glitter!

Yes, Kermit it IS easy to be green infact...if you're finger nails, that is. 

So what do you think of my picks? Did I forget any?