Saturday, April 30, 2011

Foxy!

This is Foxy.  She likes going for rides in the truck to the dumps, dog biscuits, barking at neighbourhood dogs, having her hindquarters scratched and pestering me while I'm taking nail photos.  She is not very bright, but she's incredibly sweet.  I should point out that she isn't technically my dog, but my stepmom/neighbour/landord's.  This means I get to enjoy all the perks of having a dog without actually having to claim ownership of her or find a place to keep her whenever I move.  Yay!


This is also Foxy.  She's a China Glaze color I bought on clearance at Ulta.  Admittedly, I only bought it because of the name, but now I see that it's one of the best colors I've put on in a while.  It's a gorgeous rusty garnet color with just the faintest touch of shimmer to it.  Application was fabulous (which is good because I didn't have my cleanup supplies with me when I did this mani), and wear is awesome.  I've gone through two full days with it and have only the tiniest chip on an index finger. 



By the by, Foxy is from the Fall 2010 Vintage Vixen collection, and I came thisclose to buying the entire collection that day at Ulta.  I may forever regret not doing so.  Do want.




Thursday, April 28, 2011

You suited up!

Quickie post, and I'll warn you:  this is not about quality, but design.  And I...LOVE...this design!  Zoya Gigi was just begging for some zhoozhing.  (Please tell me other people use this nonsense word.  I made up the spelling, but it means "aesthetic enhancement."  Tell your friends.)  So, I grabbed Ruby Kisses "Steel Magnolias," scotch-taped the bottom half of my nails, and applied the shimmery gunmetal to the tops.  Hmm...not quite there.  I grabbed a toothpick, placed my tongue firmly between my lips, applied my best concentration face and came up with this:

PS, I still can't find my camera.
I love this!  I'm so sad to see tipwear showing up already.  (I just type too dang much to keep long nails.)  It reminds me of a great women's business suit - feminine, but strong at the same time.  The dots even make me think of buttons!  I'm so glad I did this.  I really had to overcome my fear of dotting with household implements, but I'll be doing it so much more now.


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Oh my God, Danny DeVito, I love your work!

I admit, I had not seen "Mean Girls" in years, so I borrowed it from a friend for a refresher.  Ohhhh, Lindsay Lohan.  What happened to you?

Anyway, today's Pink Wednesday brings you the first of my Zoya Earth Day Swap haul...Gigi.  I used the Swap to up the pink in my polish collection, and I went in thinking I wanted to pick up Bela.  Then, I found Gigi!  She's like Bela's glittery sister!  This is a lovely pale pink with a sprinkling of silver glitter.  What you see below is three coats, and there's a bit of VNL (and a boo-boo on my middle finger), but I don't mind that at all.



Sorry about the crappy iPhone pic.  It's been raining so much here that my road is flooded and I can't get to work!  I've got a lot to do there, and I think my camera's in the office, but better safe than sorry, right?





Sunday, April 24, 2011

Don't be jealous.

Does it strike anyone else as sort of ironic that Sinful Colors named a color out of its OPI Texas collection knock-off "Envy"? 


I stumbled onto the Sinful Colors Lone Star collection the other day at Rite-Aid, and was definitely intrigued.  The only OPI Texas color I liked enough to spend the money on was Houston, We Have a Purple, so I can't say for sure, but I don't think the Lone Star collection is meant to completely imitate the Texas collection; just rip off the inspiration and branding!


Take Envy, for example.  Its closest Texas cousin would be Don't Mess with OPI, but Texas is not quite as grassy.  It's somewhere between grass and jade.


I decided to don a green since I was celebrating Earth Day at our city's Earth Day Festival!  Since I can't leave well enough alone, I put Nfu Oh 40 on the ring finger, which I didn't like...so I topped THAT with Black Shatter!  A guy working at Pinkberry complimented my nails, saying they were shiny.  That, of course, made my day.  Til ten minutes later, when I got in a car accident.   Yippee!  All are well, but what an eventful Saturday!

I hope everyone had a great, uneventful, SAFE Earth Day/Easter weekend!








Friday, April 22, 2011

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Essence What Do U Think.  Doesn't it make you want to head to the ocean and go for a swim?




***




Yeah, me neither.


Thursday, April 21, 2011

I love my, love my, love my Galaxy Girl!

Yeeeaaaaah, sweet Galaxy Girl!  Also, yadda yadda about Interplanet Janet. 


Okay, now that the pop-culture references from my childhood are out of the way (not that I'm old enough to have been around when Neil Sedaka was on the radio or Schoolhouse Rock first aired), meet Orly Galaxy Girl!


Outdoors, cloudy
Oooh, I love her.  Tipwear showed up really quickly, but other than that, I've got stars in my eyes for this polish.  (Wah wah.)  What you see above is two coats.  I like this polish so much that I came home and threw on another layer of color and another layer of topcoat so I can get another day out of it.  It really looks better with three coats, if you want my advice.




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Pink Wednesday: Shocking!

In my first week of making a concerted effort to wear pink on Wednesday, I came to a swift realization:  I don't own much pink polish.  This is not surprising; I am not a girly girl.  I have often been described as "one of the guys."  Nevertheless, I have this polish obsession.  However, given my lack of feminine inclination, most of my collection consists of colors from the non-pink spectrum.  I'm gonna have to remedy this, not only because I'm finding that pink really does look good on me (I'm not conceited; just pale) but so that I'll actually have something to show on Wednesdays!

Today (yesterday actually, but anyway) I chose from my thin collection of rosy tones Maybelline's Pink Shock.  That bored me just a bit, so I topped it with a recent purchase from the blogsale of Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes - Spa Ritual's Shower the People.  Shower the People is a very, very faint opalescent sheer ivory with a smattering of pixie-like purple glitter.  If you look reeeeeally closely at the pictures below (you may have to enlarge it), you'll catch a glimpse of that purple shimmer.  Other than that, the addition of Shower the People did not much alter the truly shocking pink of Pink Shock.  Enjoy!






Sunday, April 17, 2011

Mannequin Hands

I may have missed the boat on this one.  I usually am a bit behind when it comes to trends and technology, but that doesn't stop me from trying to catch up just as quickly as I can!

As best I can tell, mannequin hands were on trend a couple of years ago.  The goal is to find a nude shade as close to your natural skintone as possible so that the finished manicure gives you what look like...mannequin hands!  The color quest is not unlike trying to find just the right foundation.  I think I came close here, but I'm not totally convinced that this is my perfect match.



 This is Essie Sandy Beach.  It's probably a good three coats to achieve opacity.  I also topped it with Essie Matte About You.  Mattifying the color REALLY contributes to the mannequin look. 


I tell ya, I have a lot of fun with the out there colors, but this color really made me feel very put-together and professional.  It's a very clean look.  I love it! 

 What do you think?  Is it dated?  Is it timeless? 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I've got the blues, so bad, uh huh.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky folks to get a free bottle of Essie "One Day Without Blues" courtesy of Essie and TOMS shoes, as part of the recent "One Day Without Shoes" drive to draw attention to the less fortunate around the world.

I've seen a few reviews around of this lovely cornflower blue, and apparently it's the exact same thing as Essie "Coat d'Azure," so don't freak out of if you didn't get it.

It struck me, though, as very similar to a certain Zoya I have, Jo.  So, in trying to cram gardening AND swatching into the waning daylight this afternoon, I hastily slapped on a couple of coats of Jo next to my (terrible) Essie ODWB mani for your comparing pleasure.


 

That's Essie on the left, and Zoya on the right.  Excuse the pseudo-baldspots on the Zoya; that should give you some indication of how much more sheer it tends to be than the Essie.  Jo is much more shimmery, too.  ODWB is almost a total creme, if it weren't for the faintest hint of shimmer.  You can really see a shimmer in the bottle, and a slight flash of purple, but this effect is greatly reduced on the nail...you probably can't even see it in the picture.  Long story short, these are definitely not dupes, and I can never have enough cornflower blues!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Weekend Haul!

I recently discovered that my friend Kristy shares my lacquer obsession, so of course we HAD to make a run to Ulta together.  She'd never been, and as predicted, her jaw hit the floor.

Wanna see what I got?  Of course you do!

Essence What Do U Think and Choose Me.  Love these little bottles!


Essie Sandy Beach and Ulta After Party
Piggy Polish You're Blue-tiful
OPI Houston We Have a Purple, ORLY Galaxy Girl, China Glaze Foxy
I only had two goals in going:  Essie Matte About You and a dotting tool.  Turns out, they don't carry much in the way of art supplies (that's okay since Sally does), but I DID grab the Essie matte coat (not pictured).  I was really pleased, though, to get a little bit of something from lots of different brands, including some I hadn't tried yet.  I'm also excited about Essie Sandy Beach.  I'm hoping it will be my mannequin hand color.

To wrap up the day, Kristy and I chose which manicure we would each do first from our selection.  Here's what she chose, and I LOVED it!


This is an OPI Houston We Have a Purple matte/shiny French.  I'd have to say that this color isn't really very purple, but it IS gorgeous.  It's is my first jelly finish, and I can already tell I'm a fan.  (Although it dried with LOTS of bubbles...is this common?)  I can also already tell that I'm gonna have lots of fun playing with the matte finish.  I've said before that I'm not totally on the matte train, but it DOES make for a really fun accent.



Wednesday, April 6, 2011

More Intimate!

I have decided that I don't care for swatching entire collections.  It takes too long!  I just lack the time and patience to swatch and remove, just for the heck of it.  When you guys see swatches, I've worn that color for at least one full day, and hopefully more.  So at that rate, it takes me at least a week to get through a six-color collection...longer if I wear polishes for more than one day, like normal people do.  Anyway, it's been a whiny, complainy week and I'm gonna stop now and show you some more pretty from the Zoya Intimate collection.

This would be Jules, an excellent reminder of why I don't wear gold.  I got lots of compliments on it that day, but it just struck me as "off" with my skintone.

Here's Dove.  I'm loving this color.  I know Sally Hansen has a grey that really IS called Concrete or something like that, but this color really and truly reminds me of concrete.  Weird to consider that pretty, but I do.  And it seemed extra concrete-like when it ended up bubbling like crazy!  Grr.

Gemma.  Terrible pictures, lovely color.  A green very similar to Essie Sew Psyched, but with the coolest faint blue flash.  Seriously, google it and look at somebody else's pictures.  Excuse the wear and chipping on the second picture...I kept waiting for some daylight to snap some photos.  These came about in the last few minutes of daylight on the third day!  Speaking of the third day, I'm surprised by the wear I got from this.  As you may have read, I'm not impressed with Zoya's durability.  I didn't do anything different with this manicure to try to make it last longer.  It just did!

Another reason you likely won't see many more full collection posts from me?  They cost too much to get the whole thing!  Thanks to Zoya for running a promo on the full Intimate collection.

Monday, April 4, 2011

I don't feel well.

Know how you can tell?  My nails are naked, and I don't care.