30% Off EVERYTHING!! GET THERE ASAP!

Holy cow, Urban Decay is having a friends and family sale now through the 19th. 30%off everything NO EXCLUSIONS. Use coupon code 1SFNF.  Things are going fast and shipping is getting backed up so RUN DON'T WALK to their website now! I just ordered the 24/7 eyeliner sets that are on clearance for $20 and even they were an additional 30%off!

China Glaze ~FYI ~

outdoors natural light

 

in the shade no flash 

 

I am so bummed that these pictures didn't come out well. I don't think they in any way show the holo awesomeness of FYI. I'm not really into gold but this is a gold I like. Not to yellow, not too brown. It's a perfect truly neutral light gold with incredible holographic shimmer in the sun..... Lame sauce that it didn't show in my pictures... Whatev, definitely recommend this one.

Essie's Lilacism and randomness...

Hello Nail Polish Lovers,

It feels like I haven't posted in forever. What can I say? I've just been so damn tired lately. And for no good reason, I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary...whateva. I recently purchased Essie Lilacism on a trip to the nail mecca. They are now carrying the Essie line. 

  Wearing my new ginormous ring ( i love gaudy costume jewelry) 

This last picture was taken indoors with flash. The other photos were outside no flash. I would say the color is less blue and more purple in real life. It took 3 coats to even out the streaks followed by 1 thick coat of Poshe. My nails are super nubby because a few broke so I had to cut them all down : (.

And now for some randomness.

I am HORRIBLE at putting things together but I found this bookshelf I wanted and a small desk and I put them together with my daughter Sara. No help from the hubby, and I bought my own screwdriver set. Go me.

Just because....

I decided to wear way too much makeup to work today just because I felt like it, and it was spring-ish out. Time to wear more color so well, here's the result:

I was like WOOOSH POW here's my eye makeup! (why does my left eye look squinty?lol)

Rockin' the China Glaze Purple Panic, my ginormous new yellow glass ring.

Spring is in the air.....

MAC & Liberty of London's Blue India

I was out shopping with a friend Saturday and I stopped by the MAC counter at Macy's to check out the new collection. The packaging is beautiful and all of the colors look like spring! It was a sunny day here today and it almost feels like winter is over. I can't wait to start wearing some bright colors. Not that I don't love my vampy colors too....

Anyway, this polish does not look like any other color I have, based on swatches I have seen it looks like it might be close to a RBL color but I don't have any of them so I'm not sure. (Lemming for Grunge and Stormy...) On to the pictures:

This is my first MAC polish. I was worried about the application because of all the things I have read on other blogs about MAC polishes being a streaky mess. After the first coat I was worried. I had massive bald spots and  the color was unevenly dispersed. I added the second coat a little thicker than the first and it evened out perfectly. I LOVE THIS COLOR! It looks blue in some light, gray in others. I would call it a dusty teal blue. Tip wear is showing in these pictures and I have only had the polish on for about 24 hours, and I got a small chip last night before I went to bed so that sucked but the uniqueness of the color makes it worth it. I know I will be wearing this one again and again. 

China Glaze Moulin Rouge

I bought Moulin Rouge when I drove out to the nail mecca in San Jose. It wasn't one that caught my eye when shopping online but when I saw it there in person I needed it! It is a hot reddish pink with multi color micro-glitter. Unlike some of the other China Glaze glitter polishes, it is not chunky or rough in finish. Don't get me wrong it is a glitter so the finish is not smooth but one coat of Poshe and the bumpiness was gone. I normally have to do two coats of Seche Vite to make the glitter polishes smooth. 

 

These bottle pictures were taken indoors, hard to capture the true color. 

This is outdoors, natural light, no flash.

I don't think these pictures do this polish any justice. It is so summer looking, I bet in full sun it's even more amazing. I think this was one of the 50 special glitters collection but I'm not sure. If you are not a glitter lover you may still want to grab this one. It's not an "in your face" kind of glitter. It's sparkly enough to be fun but tame enough to wear even if you like a more conservative look. Personally, I love glitters, creams, holographic polishes and everything in between, each for their own reasons. What do you think?

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Konad Success!

I decided that I love yellow, that being said, I have yet to find a yellow polish that was not a royal PITA to apply. While I LOVE the color of Happy Go Lucky, it was thick and difficult for me to work with. I was disappointed because I  read so many other blogger's posts about what a great formula this was and it was so easy for them to apply. I used 3 coats and there were still a few nails that did not look even to me. I'm going to try to add some Seche Restore to it and see if that improves the application. The color is so pretty I think it's worth a try.

Also, I decided to try my Konad stuff again. I did order some of the special polishes to see if they worked better and I'm to say that it was my first Konad success! Granted I only did it on my thumbs but I was so pleased that I was able to get the image onto the stamper and then onto my nails. I do still think it's a lot of work, but maybe with practice it will get easier for me.

 

The yellow is taxi cab yellow. I love that it is so different from all of the pastel yellows out right now.

 

**Ta-Da**      My first successful Konad stamp!

I also took advantage of yesterday being the last day to order Konad stuff with a discount code so I'm looking forward to playing around with stamping a bit more when they arrive.

Short  but sweet post for you today. Have a great Friday night!

LA Splash Golden Seahorse

I went to ULTA last weekend to browse for a gift for my friend's birthday ( i know a likely story..) and I found their new LA Splash display. They had several unique colors and they were on sale for buy one get one %50 off. I got 4. The first one I tried was Golden Seahorse. It's a light sea-foam green with bright gold glitter. The bottle is small and rectangular in shape. The brush is meh and the consistency was a bit thick but it was relatively easy to apply. I used two thick coats on my toes.

 

  

  

See the bright gold glitter? Love it!

  

Crappy  brush....

I really like this color, I'm imagining what it would look like with a tan. Come on Spring!!!

Swatches of more of the same collection to come....

They DO exist!!!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I stumbled upon a nail mecca on yelp. I read the reviews that said this place had OPI polishes for $3.80 and China Glaze for $2.75...not to mention the Orly's at $3.25 and New York Summers at $.75...yeah I was skeptical. I thought they might have a few, but nothing current and I anticipated it being disappointing but I was going to make the 30ish minute drive and check it out. So I get in my car and head over to the south bay. It was raining and I drove right past the shopping center, had to make an illegal u-turn and circle back in to this little Vietnamese shopping center. The store front looked small and I would never have thought to go in there had I not read about the place.

It was small but OEMMGEE it was nail polish HEAVEN! They had every current collection by OPI, Orly and China Glaze! The prices were unbelievable. China Glaze was $2.75 each but if you purchased 10 or more price dropped to $2.50. Yea that's right $2.50!!! I think I got 15(ish). OPI's were indeed $3.80, Orly's $3.00 and New York Summer $.75. The people were so friendly and told me to ake as long as I want, try anything out and they even gave me lists of all the polishes and where I could find them in the store! I was in there for well over an hour. I found some great discontinued colors (OPI Kinky in Helsinki!!!) and some hard to find colors like OPI Firefly and a China Glaze color called Doll House (squeee!)

They told me to come back next month because they were expanding and they would have even more polishes out! Needless to say I will be visiting regularly. On my next trip I will be taking the camera as they said they would love the free publicity. If you are in the Bay Area California or planning on visiting YOU MUST COME HERE.

                                                    Here are the pics from the haul:

This is New York Summer #48 Angel Dream

This is #45 Fushia Glitter

 From the new Orly collection I got Gumdrop, Cotton Candy and Snow Cone

  

OPI Significant Other Color, Dim Sum Plum (pic color not accurate), Kinky In Helsinki 

OPI Give Me The Moon and Brand New Skates

 

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, Paper Chasing, Moulin Rouge, Something Sweet, Mango Madness, Restless

China Glaze Wagon Trail, Millennium, Midnight Ride

China Glaze Doll House

 

.5 fl. oz. Posh top coat with 2 oz. refill bottle $10

I know I am missing pictures of some of the bottles, I will post them individually as I swatch them.

 

Total Haul: 13 China Glaze, 5 OPI, 3 Orly, Poshe Top Coat salon pack .5 oz and 2oz. refill, Poshe quick dry basecoat, Plastic Bottles with twist caps for dispensing liquids with lables for cuticle oil, acetone and alcohol, 2 New York Summer colors and OPI Skin Quenchers in Mango Juicie. Total Cost $82.00. NO SALES TAX IF PAYING WITH CASH.

What do you all think? Bring my camera in to the shop next visit?

Giveaway Winner!

 

Niki, I'm emailing you this evening for your shipping info. Congrats girl!

Thank you so much for all of your entries and for reading my blog. I appreciate it more than I can say. I am planning a new giveaway featuring Color Club's Love em' and Leave 'em as well as few other polishes I accidentally bought dupes of (time fore me to make a list or something so I can avoid doing that. It's gotten to the point I don't know what all I already have : ) )

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and look at my awkward hand pose pictures : )  You Guys ROCK!!

~Paper Chasing Mermaid In A Tiff~

Swatches of some recent purchases with names I could tie together in a funny way...

First up is China Glaze Paper Chasing

 

~ Love~

 

 

  

 This one is outdoors in natural light. I decided to add a coat of New York Summer Lime Glitter on the ring finger just to see how it would look. I flippin' love Paper Chasing and I can't believe I didn't buy it before now. It's a little bit brighter than primary green, super shiny and the formula on this one was perfect. Not too think or thick, two coats was adequate but I went with three cuz that's just what I do. 

Next up are Nina Ultra Pro in Mermaid and In A Tiff:

 

Mermaid is an odd color. It's extremely sheer and the color is a yellow green shimmer that flashes gold, green, yellow and pearl. I put 5 coats on my pinky.

  

 In A Tiff is Ultra Pro's take on the Tiffany blue polish trend.. It has a slight shimmer which makes it different from all of the other polishes I have in variations of the same color. This is 3 coats no top coat.

 

You can kinda see the shimmer and flashes of gold and pearl in this picture but it was very difficult to capture on the camera. 

 

 Ummm yeah, I screwed up the polish on my index finger trying to make my hand not look so damn awkward in this picture. I always feel like I don't know how to place my fingers on the bottle and  let's just say I'm not the most graceful of creatures so yeah, this is my awkward hand pose : )

There you have it, a paper chasing mermaid in a tiff!

PS. Don't forget to enter my giveaway open until Feb. 28th