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!

layering experiment

(yep 2 whole posts in the same day--crazy, I know!)

I'm seeing so many polish swatches popping up in the blogosphere that involve a white  base be-speckled with colorful glitter. Since I haven't been able to get my hands on any of these polishes as of yet, I thought I would 'shop my stash' to see if I could create a similar look by layering some polishes I already have. This is what I came up with:

This mani consists of 2 coats of Revlon Powder Puff (a matte, white shade with a pink sheen), 1 coat of LA Girl Glitter Addict in "Celebrate" (red, blue and silver glitters in multiple sizes) and then another thin coat of Powder Puff fo' da sammich effect. I absolutely love the speckled effect the layering created. It totally looks like Funfetti cake or something. I also love how the silver glitter in  Celebrate looks white under the layer of Powder Puff. I will definitely be trying more layering experiments like this! 

Are you a fan of layering/sandwiching polishes?

I actually kinda love this...

Here are 2 other polishes I picked up during my recent epic 5 Below haul. This is Funky Fingers Teal Scales over Mrs. Mint.

Yep, that's right--more crack. I've seen Teal Scales on about 7000  blogs and loved it every time, so when the chance came to finally have a bottle of my own, despite my professed "overness" of crackle polishes, I still snatched it up and I'm glad I did. My stupid craptastic camera does NOT do this pretty polish justice. It's a gorgeous gold glitterfied teal jelly polish with an amazing gold flash that almost sends it into the duo-chrome realm. I just wish I could find a shade like this that was a solid (i.e., non-crackle) polish cuz it is freaking amazeballs on-a-stick.

Mrs. Mint--despite the stupid name (why is this particular mint married?) is nothing to sneeze at either. Yes it is yet another one of those pastel mint green polishes that we've been seeing EVERYWHERE--but this one has the prettiest subtle gold shimmer that is actually APPARENT on the nail (I always hate when the shimmer never makes its way out of the bottle it's in). Once again, my camera is anti-awesome and refused to see any of the true uniqueness of both of these polishes--but hey, that's what I get for being a broke-ass cheap-skate and not shelling out for one of those DSLR joints...

BTW, stay tuned for my massive Glamour Doll Eyes swatch post. 23 shadows and eye-lights long--busy cropping and sifting thru the 5 zillion pics I took. Will hopefully have the post up by tonight...in the meantime, marvel over the cuteness that is the GDE label: 

nails on crack from your favorite bimbo punk

I totally thought I was off the crack, but then they came out with glitter crack and I had a massive relapse. According to the flood of China Glaze press releases in my Google Reader app this morning, China Glaze is coming out with a line of glitter crackle colors and so is Nicole by OPI, but I won't be buying any of those those. Why you ask? Because I found a bunch of glitter crackle polishes that look JUST like the China Glaze ones at Five Below (a brand new MASSIVE Five Below that they opened a few towns over)...here's what I did with a few of them:

This is Funky Fingers Blue Glitter Scales (what they call their particular incarnation of crack--everybody's gotta have their own snazzy little name) layered over Fuchsia Glitter Scales layered over NOPI's It's All About the Glam.  

(please ignore gnarly cuticles and sloptastic polish application, k? thx)

I confess, the idea to layer one glitter crackle over another is not my original idea. I saw it on one of the other bazillion nail blogs that I follow and I would TOTALLY link to that blog right now if I could only remember which one it was (if I DO find it, I will def edit this post and put the link in). Damn faulty brain and its inability to remember junk!

These crackles are much more subtle than their non-glitter cousins. I discovered (after completely jacking up the first hand I did) that you should definitely use a thicker coat for these or it won't crack well--you'll just end up with what I call "canyon nails" (one massive crack down the center of your polish). Also, if you apply it over slightly wet polish, it will crack your basecoat (a problem I never had with regular crackles). 

Anyway, in the end, I'm glad I only paid 2.50 per bottle for these (they were 2 for $5) because, honestly, I'm not a fan. Glitter crack is whack...

Anyway, now for the bimbo punk portion of this post. Here's my look of the day:

Bleach blond plus neon leopard and studded leather and chains--what ELSE would you call that but bimbo punk. Just remember, I'm the one who started the trend lol...anyway, enough over-estimating my impact on the fashion world and onto the products I used here:

Face:

The usual Almay Clear Complexion foundation, concealor and powder

L'oreal Project Runway blush in "accidentally ripped off the label and can't for the life of me remember the name" (DOH!)

Wet N Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow

Eyes:

NYX HD eyeshadow base

Glamour Doll Eyes loose eyeshadow in Jailhouse Jumpsuit and Aqua Foil (LOVING these shadows and yes I am STILL planning a mega swatchfest of all the GDE shadows I hauled about a month ago)

Wet N Wild creme shadow pencil in Pixie

Jordana Fabuliner in black

Milani Liquif'eye pencil in black

Wet N Wild Coloricon shadow single in Panther (my new go-to for setting my liner)

Brows:

ELF brow kit in medium

ELF clear brow setting gel

Lips:

Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Fruiti

Oh and here's a shot of the spider post earrings I made out of some Halloween craft button thingies I've had sitting around forever (I hoard halloween-themed craft supplies-well, I hoard halloween-themed ANYTHING really. It makes my little black heart happy)... Stay tuned to find out how you can win a pair (among other things)!!

Lemon Pepper nails

mmmm lemon pepper. Doesn't really taste that good as nail polish but I love the way it looks!

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Sunshine Pop from the Electropop collection and it's frickin gorgeous on its own--a perfect true yellow with a slight shimmer that doesn't lean green or orange or goldenrod or go all pastel on you--FINALLY!! And it goes on in 2 easy coats. Thank you China Glaze! Although I loved the yellow on its own (and yea I know I'm lame for not snapping a pic of it pre-glitter), I wanted to spice it up a bit (hellz yea for cheesy puns) so I added a coat of LA Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited (oh black glitter, how I love thee!!) and this is what I got.

Please pretend not to see any cuticle nastiness. Also, any rogue black glitter pieces are to be ignored as well.

Omnomnomnom....ok I need to make lemon pepper something for dinner cuz I can't stop thinking about it now...

NOTD & FOTD turquoise & pink & flakies (oh my)

Haven't done a NOTD/FOTD post in a while so I thought I'd kick one out. Here's what I'm rockin:

Nails = OPI Kiss Me on My Tulips (quite possibly the most perfect bright pink creme ever concocted) with Zoya Chloe on top. Oh how I luvzz tha flakies. 

(click to enlarge)

Yes my cutez be gnarly. Of course, they look even worse close-up. Thank God my hands aren't this inflated in real life!

Of course, I didn't even come close to capturing the awesome light-of-1000-suns, burning ember effect of the flakies on camera (the last darker indoor shot is the only one that comes close). It is freaking amaze-balls in person. Seriously, I've basically done nothing but stare at my nails all day long. 

 Well, that's a lie. I was able to stop staring at my nails long enough to paint my face:

Normally, I steer clear of blue & turquoise eyeshadows, mainly because I don't think those shades do much for my eye color. Also, every time I see blue eyeshadow, it always makes me think of Mimi from The Drew Carrey Show. Anyone remember Mimi?

image credit here :)

Oh who am I kidding, I look just like her...still, it was fun to play with a color I don't usually touch. 

Here's what you need if you, too, want to get the Mimi look:

face:

Almay Clear Complexion foundation, powder & concealor

Garnier Anti-dark circle eye roller

Milani Baked Blush in Dolce Pink

Wet N Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow

eyes:

NYX HD eyeshadow base

BH Cosmetics 120 palette, 1st edition (I'll make & upload a chart for this to show which shades I used)

ELF Creme liner in black

Jordana Fabuliner in black

Maybelline The Falsies Flared mascara

Brows:

ELF Brow Kit in medium

ELF clear mascara/brow gel

lips:

NYC Liquid Lipshine in Fashion Ave Fuchsia

Anyone else have a certain shade of makeup they avoid because of some kind of silly association they have with it?