Haulin' it - OPPA bargain styyyle!

Y - I - K - E - S!!!!!!!!!!! 

I thiiink it's safe to say I've become a bit of a beauty addict... 

And I am going to enter a plea of insanity under the defense: THE BLOGGER MADE ME DO IT!

My dear nail blogger buddy, Liesl of Liesl Loves Pretty Things has been true to her "resolution" of sorts to branch out into more beauty and fashion posts this year.  And I'm clearly loving - & influenced by them!  ;)

I have to mention, I've wanted white aviators for years now, but typically, they're of course metal frames with the actual nosepieces. Which get firmly tangled in my hair. So when I saw these, I was exstatic!!! They're not bad at all for $1 sunglasses! I hope they have more because I would like to pick up a backup or two in case these break. :)

e.l.f. is a brand that was not even on my radar at all really, until Liesl started showing us so many of their wonderful and affordable products!  I was definitely intrigued, but had never seen them in my area.  Then one day on a rare stop at my local K-Mart (in hopes of scoring the much-posted-about clearance Essie polishes), much to my dismay and pleasant surprise, what had appeared in the revamped beauty section but e.l.f. products?!  And as if that wasn't enough, our Wal-Mart got a square aisle display shortly thereafter!  So I umm... went hog wild.

1) e.l.f. Professional Total Face Brush - $1, Wal-Mart

2) e.l.f. Eyeshadow "C" Brush - $3, K-mart

3) Plastic aviator sunglasses - $1, Target dollar section!

4) OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around - ?? (roomie brought it home for me just today!)

5) Burt's Bees Herbal Blemish Stick -$8.49, Walgreens

6) e.l.f. Smudge Brush - $1, Wal-Mart

7) e.l.f. Small Angled Brush - $3, K-mart

8) e.l.f. Concealer Brush - $1, Target

9) Burt's Bees Hydrating Lip Balm - $2.99, Target

10) Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Red Velvet, - $5, K-mart

11) Woven plastic zipper clutch - $1, Target dollar section!

12) e.l.f. Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in purple - $3, K-mart

13) e.l.f. High Definition Undereye Setting Powder - $3, K-mart

14) L'Oreal Infallible 24-hr eyeshadow in Sultry Smoke - $7.99, K-Mart

15) L'Oreal Carbon Black Pencil Perfect eyeliner - $3.99, K-Mart

16) L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Excess - $8.99, K-Mart

17) L'Oreal Infallible 24-hr eyeshadow in Endless Sea - $3.99, K-Mart (they were having a buy one, get one 1/2 off deal on L'Oreal eye products, so I splurged and got some fun & dramatic new stuff!)

All of that for just a HAIR under $50!!!!  In the words of Vector from Despicable Me: "OH YEAH!"  :D 

I realized just a moment ago that it would've been more appropriate to include the L.A. Girl Sand Blast polish (Sands of Time, GREAT sub for Zoya Tomoko!) I picked up today at our Thrifty White drugstore, and the Cover Girl polish (Salt Water Taffy) that was also BOGO half off at Walgreens -- INSTEAD of the OPI since that is clearly not bargain, nor drugstore, but I was just sooo excited to finally have DBNMA that I threw it in my arrangement!  Oh well!
Also not shown here are the e.l.f. blotting sheets I grabbed at Target last weekend.  Just used one this afternoon and they work very well on my extra-oily teenager-like skin. :P  ...I'm 28. -_-
Oh, hence why I decided to give the Burt's Bees blemish rollerball a try!  I've tried every other  over-the-counter product, so why not?!  Some people might find the very strong herbal scent repulsive, but I rather like it.  It's got tea tree oil, juniper oil, willow bark, and a whole lotta alcohol! ...which I did not realize when I bought it, hence the BURN, but I can handle that.  Especially since it does in fact seem to be helping zits heal/disappear faster!

So far, I'm absolutely, positively pleased as punch with all of my purchases!  All of the L'Oreal eye products are fabulous - I use the mascara & liner almost every day, and I did play with the colors when I had a flexible amount of time to get ready for the day. ;)  Oh and they really DO wear all day... not 24 hours, by any means, but I got a good 12 hours out of the below look I did with Tarte Amazonian Clay primer as a base, and using Cover Girl and Victoria's Secret neutrals to temper the boldness of the colors.  LOVED it!  And I feel it came out pretty well considering my limited knowledge when it comes to all things beauty-related.

So there you have it, folks!  My first insane infusion of beauty products and well, this would've been posted on Saturday in the fashion of Liesl's "Happy Caturday" beauty posts, but I was multitasking and doing other things while writing this.  And now it's Sunday!  I guess that IS  how the days of the week go!  LOL  Yup, overtired goofiness is settin' in.  :)

Have a fabulous remainder of your weekend, and if you want to know more about any of the items shown here, feel free to leave a comment.  I read & respond to all of them!

L'Oreal Eva's Nude

Ohh L'Oreal, how I love thee, let me count the ways!!  Haha, although it is  true... I've said a few times that L'Oreal has to be my favorite drugstore polish brand.  The brushes are my ideal kind of brush, rounded to fit perfectly in the curve near the cuticle with little effort (squared off brushes always lead to either messy spots on my cuticle or extra concentration to make sure I don't touch the sides), the formulas of the cremes I have are lovely one or two coaters, and I am a big fan of the bottles themselves.  They're pretty and easy to store neatly, and I especially love the labels on the new Collection Privée!  Gosh, when did I get to be such a packaging junkie?!

Indoors, daylight bulb

Despite my usual scorn for "celebrity endorsements," I like the glamourous feel of this collection.  In high school speech class, we learned about advertising ploys and that was one of the biggest, of course.  "Buy this product and you too will be rich, famous, and look like said larger-than-life persona!"  Personally, it just rubs me the wrong way, for some reason.  BUT that said, I am really digging all of  Les Nudes polishes and even the looks of the lipsticks!  Check out L'Oreal's site for some lovely, drool-worthy photos. :)

Outdoors, full sun

Here we have two coats of Eva's Nude with Alcatraz...Rocks! as an accent and a heart. :)  You can probably tell I initially used a berry red polish (Julep Joan) but decided I wasn't feelin' it and went with this instead - right over the top.  I like!!!  For the heart, I took Scotch tape, made it almost unsticky by putting it on & pulling it off my palm several times, folding it so two thirds of the strip overlapped (leaving a tail so I could more easily pull it apart), then took a cosmetic scissors and cut out a tiny heart like I used to do as a kid to make paper hearts. :)

Outdoors, shade (aka the sun is behind a cloud!)

 Technically, Eva's nude is not the polish I should've chosen as I am not Hispanic and have decidedly white skin!, but I think I'm in love.  I'd been eyeing butter LONDON'S Tea & Toast, fancying a caramel-toned brown/tan/cream polish, and this has satisfied my craving!  It seems significantly lighter than T&T, but I like it - especially with that beautiful  rosy copper shimmer that is so evident in the first photo. :D  I think Julianne is actually the correct shade for me and I would buy it too (not to mention I like the actress whose name it bears) but I think my ChG Below Deck is quite similar.  Maybe I'll bring Below Deck on a rare field trip with me the next time I go to Wal-Mart and do a bottle comparison! ;)  hehe

P.S. just kidding about satisfying my craving - completely, that is.  I just now found Tea & Toast for $7 on 6pm.com!  Talk about coincidence... or fate!!

Pushing Black The Curtain

This is going to be suuuper quick, mostly pics for now, but I was so excited to show you guys what I did last night that I couldn't wait. :D

Let's just say: Sinful Colors Whipped + OPI Designer Series Extravagance + striping tape = pure AWESOMENESS!  (IMO, anyways...I'll let you decide for yourselves.)

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Whipped on all fingers but the pinkie which got two coats of OPI DS Extravagance, and after they were thoroughly dry (or so I thought), I used striping tape to create a V & carefully filled in said V with a medium-thick coat of Extravagance and quickly whipped (haha!) the tape off. ;) I just LOVE the contrast of the sultry, sparkly magenta with its beautiful scattered holo glitters on top of the sexy matte black. Oooh!  Aaah!
Whipped applied very  easily, aaalmost a one-coater, but I really wanted it to be an intense black.  Dry time was average, about 15 mins.  I thought it would be faster since mattes usually are quicker drying, but oh well.  I'm so prone to getting bubbles in my polish, I probably wait longer than necessary between coats now.  I'd rather do that than end up with polish acne, I can tell you that right now!!!  I hate those darn bubbles with a passion!

OPI DS Extravagance was a birthday gift from my roommate last year, I purchased Sinful Colors Whipped at Wal-Mart for $1.99, and a friend of mine ordered the striping tape from Amazon as part of my Christmas present.  I think there are like, at least 10 different colors in that pack and I'm sure it came from China or Hong Kong because she was freaking out about it getting here in time.  Good thing we had our Christmas in January!   :P

Challenge #10: Re-creation

Good evening, lovelies!! :)  Today was my 3rd 12-hour work day in a row, hence why no post "on time" last night... I managed to get the 1st coat of base colors on & promptly fell asleep.  Somehow I found the strength to complete the mani tonight - huge thanks go out to a homemade Big Train chai latte. ♥  At long last, I have re-created this fabulousness from the queen of glitter placement!  Mine is of course not nearly as good by a long shot, but for my very first attempt at what she does, I must say I'm rather pleased. :) ...mostly with the fact that I persevered!

I used: SinfulShine My Kryptonite (2 coats), Zoya Noot (2 coats), and OPI The Living Daylights (meticulously placed with an orange stick!), Duri Rejuvacote (base & topcoat), plus a thick layer of Seche Vite to seal and smooth the accent glitters.  I know, this is highly atypical of my lengthy, wordy posts but honestly my eyelids are about to close!  I promise I am going to come back and expand on this mani and probably add another pic or two, as well as discuss my finds & follies and with this technique. ;)

Challenge mani #5: Nature

For quite some time now, I've been fascinated whenever I see someone's galaxy mani post, and just the other day as we passed a rack in Rue 21, a friend of mine commented on how cool the "new" galaxy leggings look.  SO when the "nature" theme rolled around in this challenge, I decided why not attempt my very own nail galaxy?!

I dare say it turned out pretty well and I have no idea why I waited so long to try a galaxy mani!  This was surprisingly easy and FUN.  Choosing colors definitely got my creative juices flowing and really, the sky IS  the limit! hehe

According to one blogger who will remain anonymous, you have to use a black creme base for it to look realistic, but I think my alternating Zoya Ibiza and Skin Food 05 (darn Korean brands!) create a lovely dark blue shimmery space. ;)
This mani made me like Ibiza more than I did at first application a few weeks ago, but I still had some pulling/dragging issues and re: drying completely... let's just say galaxy manis are GREAT for covering up slicing gouges and sheet marks!

This may be a bit of a "wild" and colorful galaxy, but whatever... I think it's purty!  And boy did I ever use a plethora of polishes for that prettiness:

Top row, L-R: OPI DS Extravagance, Cameo Colours Lacquers The Glass Slippers, Zoya Ibiza, Cult Nails Tempest, Hits Cha Cha Cha,
Bottom row, L-R: OPI Solitaire, OPI The Living Daylights, NOPI Just Busta Mauve, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Venique Galoshes Glow, Skin Food 05

My favorites were probably The Glass Slippers (amazing super sparkly white yet not white; it's made of tons of tiny pink, blue/green, and gold flakies) and Just Busta Mauve.  :)

Using tiny chunks of makeup sponge and a tweezers, I pretty much went to town; a dab or two here, a smoosh (no, not a smooch !) over there, swipes of flakie glitter, and dots of Tempest with one of my dotting tools.  I also used the dotting tool to place The Living Daylights "glequins."

Yup, I officially L♥VE it and foresee many more nail galaxies in my future. :)  I think next time, I want to try making actual constellations on them; hearkening back to my adolescent years with my little friends, studying books on stars and learning as many of the constellations as we could. :)  "What is life but a collection of memories, made and yet to be made?!" - uhh, ME!

I concur: Alcatraz...Rocks!

Good evening!  Brr, it's gettin' cold in here, so put on lots more clothes! :P  ...yet another frigid fall evening here in Minnesota...  I really hope that perhaps some of you are lucky enough to live in places that aren't the closest thing to another ice age! ;)
Okay, it's not quite that  bad at the moment, but come January I can assure you I'll be yelling on a daily basis (as I clean a mountain of snow off my car for the millionth time): "Why on earth do I live here?!?!"

So I think that besides the ever-plummeting temperature (and the fact that I watched The Day After Tomorrow  over the weekend), this mani has me thinking about snow and ice.  See what I mean?

I hate winter, but I LOVE this!! :D  I do have to admit however, that I got the idea from Polished Elegance.  Her post confirmed that I needed Alcatraz...Rocks.  It really is a gorgeous texture polish with soooo many pretty sparkles!  Here's AR "naked":

The base has more purple in it than is showing up here, for some odd reason.  I used two coats, no base and of course, no top coat.  Although I really did want to try some over this polish because I've seen a lot of people show the other side of a texture polish once it's transformed by a glossy top coat. :)  

Compared to my Zoya & Julie G textures (and even OPI Jinx), I must say AR did not wear quite as well (4 days vs. 7 or so) before I got some noticeable tip wear and a couple decent sized chips.  Maybe next time I'll use some Orly Bonder under it.

Dry time was average, maybe 7ish minutes for it to get completely textured.  GAH those sparkles get me every time!  They're by no means holo, but oh so purty!

After wearing nakey AR for a couple days, I knew I had to try the stamping thang over it, so I busted out my Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Bundle Monster plate 214.  Although I really like the full-size image that Polished Elegance used, this design is one of my favorites from the set I have, and it's got a similar aesthetic.  

Several of my blogger buddies have insisted lately that they could never do stamping, so I also wanted to add this to show how pretty and easy it is!  Seriously took me 10 minutes, start to finish to do both hands.  I wish I could say I have a tutorial video to show you the process, but I have never tried making one and wasn't about to start at 12:30 in the morning!  So you'll hafta settle for watching this one; the video that sparked my addiction to all things nail related. ;)  For reals!

Oy, speaking of 12:30 am, it's nearly that time again so I really need to get to bed before my under-eye craters get any deeper & darker - if that's possible! :-/  For everyone's sake, I sure hope not! :P

I leave you with a parting shot:

Have fun, be merry, and stamp like your life depends on it!!

Birds of a feather flock to...Orly fOWL Play!

I did this post as a guest post a number of months ago for Guilty As Charged in her absence, but she had some issues with the scheduling feature so I just figured I might share it here on my own blog as well, in case you guys missed it, and because I will be out of town this weekend with positively no  time to do a post. :-/  So I really hope this isn't considered "bad blogger form!"  I just l♥ve this mani and could share it over & over again! LOL


My original mani plan ended up having an element that just would not work, so after going back over the ideas I'd had for this post, I decided this one was much more fitting anyways, since Haleigh's blog features such great nail art.  I hope mine is worthy of being here!  I give you Fowl Play:

I cannot even tell you how excited I was to find out that OPI's Merry Midnight has an almost exact dupe.  I wanted MM after seeing only one photo of it, but when I discovered it was going for upwards of $25 on eBay, I was quite sad.  Then along came a comparison post (or several!) with Orly Fowl Play, and with some trepidation, I headed back over to eBay.  This time however, I was overjoyed to find I could get my dream polish for only $5!!!  Mmmm...just feast your eyes on that vampy purple, flaky, sparkly, rainbow-y goodness!  

Being a huge fan of plays on words, I had a "liiiightbulb" moment and realized that freehanding an owl as an accent nail would mean I could entitle my post Fowl Play! ;-) hehehe

Isn't he a cute 'lil guy?!  :-D  I think he needs a name...any ideas?  

Mr. Unnamed Owl is composed of Zoya Reagan, Sinful Colors My Buoyfriend, Zoya Arizona, and just any old black & white for the eyes, against a background of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook.  The color combos are truly endless, which is super fun!  :-)  I don't actually have a nail art brush set, but a detail brush from my roommate's set of craft brushes (from Wal-Mart) worked just fine.  I also used a pin - yes, A PIN - for the beak & the dots on the owl's body, as well as the black pupil & the teensy, infinitesimal, tiny, microscopic white glint on the pupil.

In case you were curious, I did end up doing my right hand because I really want to be able to wear this mani for a few days, so I had to at least attempt to make my hands match!  He's a tad...deformed, but still loveable. :-)  OH!  I almost forgot - the branches are China Glaze Ingrid.  Pretty much the only brown I have in my stash.  And of course, it has a fine gold shimmer in it, so my apologies, but Houston, we have a sparkly branch!

The application of all these polishes was really great.  Ok, yes, I used most of them in minute quantities, but I was glad to see they were all very opaque as there was a lot of layering going on!  This is only two coats of Fowl Play.  I think I would classify it as a couple-shades-lighter-than-eggplant purple jelly base, but it's highly pigmented, so the coverage is great - as is the drying time.  I've had SO many issues with bubbling cremes lately, so this was quite a welcome relief.

If any of you have read my blog, you know I'm very long-winded, and I'm sure I could continue on about this mani, but I feel I've kept you long enough, especially since this is a guest post!  I leave you with one final shot:

Thank you so much for reading!  I hope this inspires you to be creative & boldly go where you've never gone before...on your nails. ;-)  Or in life.

~ Emily :-)

Relax & de-stress with China Glaze Sea Spray

Oh.my.word.  I seriously can't believe it's been about 3 weeks since I posted. :-/  Bad me!!  As at least a few of you know, I was involved in an off-Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.  But let me tell ya, when I told my friend I'd help her out, I had NO IDEA just how much work I'd signed up for, and how much it was gonna take over my life for about a month.  There were four weeks of rehearsals, (each night going about 4 hrs + my 2 hrs of driving there & back) plus what I learned is referred to in theater as "hell week" - the week of the performances - we sold out the 4 planned performances & voted to add another matinee, just because we're nice. ;-)  YIKES.  It really was a fabulous experience and I have so many great memories that will likely stay with me forever (especially the songs that are permanently engraved in my brain...TRADITION!), but I will surely think long & hard about being a backstage manager/director's assistant if the opportunity presents itself again! :-P

The rabbi, the rabbi!  "May God bless & keep the tsar -- faaaar away from us."  Everyone: "ahahaha!" ;-)

The mani I have for you today is not current, as the production ravaged my nails like you wouldn't believe... I seriously have no idea how long it's going to take for them to get to a "presentable" point.  I was breaking them left & right (what with moving all sorts of set items in almost total darkness as fast as possible), so they're all nubbins (misshapen ones at that), I have hangnails that are running like your grandma's pantyhose, and lots of dried out, cracked cuticles. :-(  I've been using cuticle oil & balm like there's no tomorrow - even the occasional pure vitamin E capsule - but it is slow going!  Oh, and since many of the breaks involved the nails being bent quite acutely, the nail surface is flaky & choppy on quite a few nails. Aggggh! The HORROR! (think of that scene from the old, old movie The Pagemaster ;-)

So, that said, this is something I did during the first couple weeks of rehearsals as a simple, soothing mani. :-)

Two coats China Glaze Sea Spray, plus matte top coat (can you see the little "v" design I did on the middle finger? ;-)  I didn't intend to do an accent nail, but I hadn't tried OPI Solitaire yet, and it just seemed perfect!  I really like that with only one coat, you can kinda see Sea Spray peeking through.

This was my inspiration for the pattern with matte topcoat...
I think I'm gonna try it again sometime, except get more fancy with it. ;-)

Sea Spray has the faintest hint of  ultrafine silver shimmer. Just perfect.  I've really been loving the dusty grey blue shades lately!  The application was easy for both Sea Spray and Solitaire.  Just what I needed in the midst of the musical madness & difficulties. :-)

Just in case you were wondering - it really IS Sea Spray! (albeit upside down...oops :-P )

I'm not really sure why I hardly have anything to say about this mani.  If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm very long-winded and always have something to talk about. ;-)  Maybe I'm still recuperating from the "trauma of the drama!"  Seriously, if you ever think it's a good idea to only get 2-3 hrs of sleep a night for weeks on end - it's NOT.  Don't try this at home, kids!

Well, I hope I can keep up a better, more regular posting "schedule" now... I really did miss you guys and felt guilty every day of my absence. :-(

In closing, I share with you one more photo from a favorite scene of mine: The Rumor 

Seriously, this scene cracks me up, especially if you've gone over the dialogue as many times as I did to know the crazy (and true to life) distortion of "the town gossip." :-)  If you haven't seen Fiddler in any shape or form before, I would recommend renting the movie, or watching a clip or two on YouTube - although they are actually illegal (violating the UBER STRICT copyright - no performance can be videotaped or recorded at ALL).  But most of all, if you ever have a chance, get thee to a live theater performance of it!!

Ok, I'd best get to bed.  G'night lovely ladies!! 

A fairy tale on mah nails: Cameo Colours The Glass Slippers

Hello ladies!  I hope you're all have a lovely Saturday. :-)  I didn't expect to be able to do this post today, since I happen to be at my parent's house "in the sticks" where they just got DSL last year.  Yes, we had dial-up until then.  Well, it turns out my genius little brother who is home from college for the summer had the presence of mind to get a router that would convert the DSL into wireless, so he & I are currently chilling in the living room; he's playing Halo online & I'm blogging, ogling blogs, & listening to YouTube.

This has been a rather strange week...my shifts were all over the place and I had Wednesday off to celebrate a momentous occasion with my bestie, so although I intended to show y'all this mani much sooner, at the end of every day, the amount of work involved in a blog post made me just want to go to bed!  I'm sure all you fellow bloggers know what I'm talking about! ;-)  So, with many apologies & without further ado, I give you THE GLASS SLIPPERS:

Cameo of Cameo Colours Lacquers was uber-kind and sent me this one after I had an issue with one of her other polishes that I purchased a couple weeks ago.  So when I messaged her about it, she not only apologized for the weird polish behavior, but said she'd already prepared a package with supplies that should rectify the issue & a full-size bottle of TGS!!! :-O  I was utterly blown away by her amazing customer service - I really didn't expect such kindness & generosity!  And this is such a dreamy, fairy tale-esque polish.  :-D

As you can see, it's a fairly opaque white pearl? base (rather hard to tell as it's got SO much goin' on!) with pastel pink and green micro glass flecks and slightly larger gold flecks.  I'm sort of wondering if she was going for a semi-textured polish because as you can probably tell from the photos, it is somewhat bumpy.  Either that or it's just the nature of all those awesome flecks!  I wish it were sunny today so I could show you just how sparkly it and amazing it is in the sun.  

So, the beauty and the bottle/brush are top-notch, however the one downfall to this polish is that it was like trying to put on old glue.  SUPER hard to work with! :-/  That is why, much to my chagrin, my nails are a bit messy.  And cleanup doesn't do much, because this is one durable polish!  What you see here is two coats (plus Sally Hansen 4 in 1) and I've had it on since Monday. WHOA.  It definitely redeems itself in that!

I have no doubt however that once I get my manicured paws on some Seche Restore, adding a couple drops will make it much easier to paint with. :-)  But regardless & like others have said before, I'll put up with its spoiled princess attitude for a polish this beautiful and unique!  I am aware the above photo is blurry, and I was considering not using it, but it shows the sparkle when the sun can't be bothered to help a girl out.

Awww lookit the little bunny, just peekin' out from behind my thumb ;-)

The accent nail!  Ahh, the accent nail...I was planning on using my fresh-killed lemming: L'Oreal Creme Puffs - thanks to a kind lady from a polish group on Facebook - however, something was in the air on Monday night, and it resulted in a horribly bubbly creme puff. :-(  Realizing there is a fair amount of pink sparkle in TGS, I decided Mod About You would be a nice second choice.  I think this is 3 coats (patchy little sucker!) and I HAD to jazz it up for y'all, so thanks to the Llarowe package that arrived yesterday, I give you a french tip/wannabe gradient in Hare Polish Own Your Opulence. :-D
OYO goes perfectly with TGS: it's a glitter topper, jam-packed with small matte pastel pink, gold, black, and matte baby blue hexes, small black & baby blue (or maybe matte mint?) squares, and a microshimmery gold dust base (no, not real gold dust!). BEAUTIFUL!  I'm really excited to use this one for a full mani.  I got it on clearance for $5 in Llarowe's sale section.  Unfortunately, it appears to be gone, but What I Wore to the Revolution is still there for $5.

I hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I have THIS ENTIRE WEEK! :-D  Enjoy your 4th of July weekend, peeps . . . I'm off to an afternoon of pontooning & jetskiing!  . . . If it would just get sunny. Grr.

At long last! OPI Jinx - - you owe me a soda/pop!

. . . wait, I don't even like pop. ;-)  But I do like Jinx . . . and have been drooling over it forever!
My sister and I made a "quick stop" (yeah right!) at Ulta on Saturday when I was down visiting her.  I hadn't been in an Ulta since becoming addicted to polish about 5 months ago, so I was a tad nervous about being able to restrain myself from buying everything in sight!  I did well, I think: my "haul" consisted of: Essie Mojito Madness (I asked & got 20% off 'cuz there was polish spilled on the bottle & it was the last one), Zoya Frida (found it in the
clearance bin!!! :-D SCORE!), a tiny bottle of OPI Coconut Melon Avojuice (I wanted to try it & now that I have, I want a giant VAT of that scent! *swoon*), and at the last moment, I spotted the set of OPI Bond Girls minis.

I'd looked at various eBay listing for this set, and the price was pretty much the same, so I was like MEH, why not?!  Jinx was my first & forever love (in photos alone), but I've been wanting to try Vesper too, and everyone says ____ Galore is lovely, as well as Solitaire. :-)

BEEE.YOU.TEE.FULL!!! :-D
Sooo worth the wait (like other, much more important things in life)

My sister promptly put on _____ Galore when we got back to her house.  She loved it, and it really does look very pretty on.  But lordy, it needs to be renamed!!  Ideas, ladies????
It's a pale, crisp, blue-leaning pink (or maybe a "true" pink?) with light, delicate fuschia sparkles, and it of course dries to the sandy, matte finish.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with to take pics of her wearing it.  And my cell phone has the WORST camera EVER.  No high-tech iPhone for me.

2 coats of Jinx, no base nor topcoat

Jinx is described as a mesmerizing matte coral with lucky (gold) sparkle.  It is a great, summery, coral shade that I love, and the gold sparkle is VERY eye catching.  Lucky?  Not so much.

Why am I only showing 3 fingers you might ask?  And what happened to the long, (relatively) gorgeous nails from my previous post?  Both good questions.  And the answer would be: my brother's broken car door handle is what happened.  I had forgotten about that, so in our haste to leave on Friday night, I gave the handle a good yank, my hand slipped, and my pointer and middle finger nails broke into ragged smithereens. :-(  I used to think it was sooo stupid when girls were like OOOH, I broke a nail!  But now that I have a nail polish blog, and I finally HAD purty, long, nicely squared nails, it was quite sad.  I seriously felt my heart sink as I crawled into the car and we drove off.

And then I angrily proceeded to clip and file the remains and cut the rest of my nails down to match. 

Oh, the reason I'm only showing 3 fingers is because the pointer and thumb are chipped enough for them to be non-blog-worthy.

Yes, I realize it's out of focus . . .  bloggers are right - it is the best way to show glitter!

Speaking of out of focus, it's interesting how life events such as tragedies can bring things into focus.  AND how quickly things become fuzzy again.  For instance, I'm sure that when the Oklahoma tornadoes happened recently, many of us said and/or thought, wow, I'm soooo blessed to still have my home and my husband and kids, parents, family, and friends all alive and (maybe mostly) well.  I need to remember to tell these people that I love them, and be grateful for the many blessings (big & small) that God has give me.

Then the days and weeks wear on, and those intense emotions and clarity of perspective are muddied by the demands of the daily grind.  It's easy to do, in so many ways, and I'm guilty of it myself.
I honestly don't know what the solution is, but maybe even something as simple as leaving a note for yourself on the mirror or in your car (or hey, smartphones are phenomenal tools!) to compliment your spouse on something, or do something you know they'll enjoy, and make some extra special one-on-one time with a child or parent or friend.  And most importantly: taking time to thank God who gave us (in one way or another) all of the people and things in our lives.  :-)

Yes, that was "off-topic," but my dear friend inspired me tonight and that is why the "n'stuff" is part of the name of my blog.  So thank you all for bearing with me!  I'm very thankful for all y'all!! :-)  Nighty night!

A LOVEly mani, "heart"-ing Darling Diva Polish

HEART-ing (instead of starring . . . get it?) hehe :-P  Yeah, I'm a dork!  Anyways . . .
If you read my post about Zoya Arizona, you know I was feeling rather down last week, so I decided to finally execute a mani that I'd been planning for awhile and that was completed by the perfect accent polish arriving from Llarowe.  This mani definitely cheered me up with it pretty pinkness and happy holo hearts!  I realize this would be a perfect Pink Wednesday post, but oh well!
Oop, therrre it IS:

Two coats OPI Mod About You + 1 coat Darling Diva Polish Rescue Me + some dabbing
Accent nail: one coat Mod About you + 2 coats Jade Delirio Rosa + pure love!
Oh, and two coats of Seche Vite over everything - hence the ever-present shrinkage.  Grrrrrr.

Sometimes Delirio Rosa looks deep like this, other times more Barbie pink
(see 1st photo)

Despite loving the color of Mod About You (perfect chalky pastel pink), its application is a pain in the rear.  The first coat is impossibly streaky, two coats are pretty good, but if I weren't wearing this with a glitter topper, I probably would've done three.

Rescue Me by Darling Diva Polish is a fairly complex glitter topper in a clear base.  It has a medium purply-pink microshimmer, small white satin squares, small matte white bars, small black hexes, large black bars, and large pink HOLO hearts!! WOW.  The base is rather "goopy," but it's not unmanageable, the hearts come out easily if you tip the bottle upside down for a bit before application, and as I said, one coat plus some fill-in dabbing gets you a really decent glitter distribution.  I love the randomness.

And another reason to love this polish: 100% of the proceeds go to Basset Buddies Rescue.  Awww!  I personally think basset hounds are sooo adorable, and helping suffering, downtrodden, helpLESS animals has always been near & dear to my heart.  

I must confess, I actually found this polish on a blog sale, but you can still get it through Darling Diva's Etsy shop that I've linked to above.

The flash is making the holo look more bold than it is IRL

Delirio Rosa is the vivacious pink in the Jade Holográfico collection of Brazilian fame.  I am glad I got it as the color isn't quite the same as any other pinks out there, however, it's not as holographic as I expected it to be.  And for a measly 8 oz. bottle, I think I'd much rather spend my money on one of the Color Club holos (twice the size for about the same price), which are insanely holographic.  The application was very nice and smooth, and since I layered it over Mod About You (to conserve), one coat was probably ok, but I was hoping to bump up the holo-ness with two coats.  3 or 4 would probably be necessary on its own.
You can get Delirio Rosa (and the rest of the collex here, or if you'd like to find Color Clubs on the cheap (around $7 or $8), I'd recommend eBay or Amazon.

If you'd like to see more of what I mean about the difference between these two brands, continue scrolling.  If not, you can return to your regularly scheduled programming!  Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Inside; standard incandescent bulb, no flash
SO weird that DR looks totally washed out, almost beige here!
(rest assured, it's NOT like that!)

Outside; cloudy skies, no flash
This is spot-on color accurate for DR!

Outside; cloudy skies, flash (to simulate the non-existent sun)

Outside; cloudy skies, flash - different angle
Oh, the CC is Angel Kiss from the 2012 collex, btw