Bow In My Presence!

I have an alter ego.  Everyone should have an alter ego.  Mine is Sheba, Queen of the Desert.  I barely remember when or how she was born, but there you have it. 


This is a polish Sheba would love.

Wet N Wild Bow in My Presence over Sally Hansen Color Quick Pen in Turquoise Chrome

The Wet N Wild Be Jeweled collection (like the China Glaze Prismatics collection, a near dead dupe) is lovely to look at in the bottle, but frankly, not that impressive on the nail.  I thought the look above was pretty, but knock your socks off, you know?  If you DO like this collection, you should know that most Sally Beauty stores are currently clearing the China Glaze Prismatics collection for rock-bottom prices.  Check it out!

Green, memories and animals

Happy Saturday, all!

If there's one thing about blogging that I love, it's taking pics on a gorgeous Saturday.  Today I've ventured outdoors to bring you all Orly Lucky Duck.

 I've topped it here with China Glaze Luxe and Lush, a topcoat I have truly adore.  A green and a shredded glitter topcoat?  Yep, love this.

Whilst photographing, I realized you guys had never seen my wrist tattoo.

This tattoo is less than a year old.  I'd considered a wrist tattoo for a long time, but was always too chicken on account of my fairly corporate work environment.  At last, my workplace issued a policy on tattoos, and it mentioned that they were okay, so long as the tattoo wasn't vulgar and reasonable effort was made to cover it.  I figured a wrist tattoo was easily covered by a cuff bracelet (which I love anyway), so I went for it.  The design is a twist on a vintage Corelle/Pyrex pattern called Crazy Daisy/Spring Blossom that I grew up eating off of at my grandmother's house.  I inherited her kitchenware when she passed, and I continue to collect it.  In short, it's a design that means a lot to me, and which I'd considered getting tattooed for years.  It's my second piece of ink.

THEN, the day was so pretty that my dog and my outdoors kitty were really enjoying themselves and were happy to see me.  I took this fun little pic to show how well they get along.

Foxy loves her little playmate and Zaz really looks up to her gigantic friend.

I hope that everyone is having a lovely weekend, as I certainly am!

Quick Gunmetal Update

Hi all!  Wouldn't you know, after I wrote my last post, I finally found Revlon Carbonite!  For the first time, I had success finding polish at my Big Lots, which has a history of sucking.

Below, I've got a nail wheel comparison of Carbonite with the polishes I discussed in my last post.

L-R:  Revlon Carbonite, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, Ruby Kisses Steel Magnolia

The wheel pic is not 100% accurate, as it is much easier to see in real life that Carbonite and Just Spotted are NOT dupes at all!  Carbonite is nearly a one-coater, whereas Just Spotted definitely needs at least two coats.  Just Spotted also has a faint rainbow shimmer that is absent in Carbonite.  The only possible dupe I'm missing here is Chanel Graphite, but I can tell ya right now that it's just going to have to stay missing!  I hope this helps anyone else who, like me, is partial to the gunmetal family of colors.

Gunmetal Dupe Alert!

Check this shiz out, yo.  (I...I have no idea where that came from.)

A friend of mine recently left our company, and I was so proud and sad!  She was an intern when she first came to work for us, and I was her first boss at the company.  That girl was a sharp cookie, and I knew she was destined for greatness!  She was quick to learn of my lacquer obsession, and when she moved from intern to full-time employee, I congratulated her by purchasing a Butter London for her that she'd had her eye on (British Racing Green, should you have been curious).  So when she got a new gig outside the company, she said goodbye with a sweet note and a bottle of Sinful Colors "Secret Admirer."

Is this gorgeous, or what?  How did I not know this existed?  She did a great job picking a color for me; I totally would have picked this out myself.  Gunmetal has always been a favorite color of mine, so it only stands to reason that I already had a couple of colors in my collection that were quite similar:  OPI "Just Spotted the Lizard" (an alleged Revlon Carbonite/Chanel Graphite dupe) and Ruby Kisses "Steel Magnolia."  Below you'll see Steel Magnolias on the index finger, Just Spotted the Lizard on the middle finger and Secret Admirer on the ring finger.

Now, I suspect this may ALSO be a dupe for China Glaze "Stone Cold" from the Hunger Games collection (with a clear topcoat on account of Stone Cold is a matte.)  I kinda wanted Stone Cold, and indeed I saw it at Sally Beauty recently.  I came THISCLOSE to buying it to test my dupe theory, but man...I needs ta keep my monies.  (Anybody wanna verify this for me?)

I really do think that Secret Admirer is what I wanted Carbonite to be.  I never could find Carbonite in stores to be sure, but if it's true that Just Spotted the Lizard is a Carbonite dupe, then Carbonite is greener than I thought it would be.  Secret Admirer and Steel Magnolia are pure shimmery grey/silver, which is what I expect true Carbonite to be.

See?

Thanks, former coworker!

Talk Nerdy to Me

At last!  A post!  A post I promised a month ago!  I was right; it was tooooo much of a hassle to wear and photograph all of my Nerd Lacquers right off the bat.  I'm sorry...these are some glitter-packed lovelies but, good GRIEF, what a royal pain to remove!  I could go on all day about how horrendous that process was, but such whining would detract from how yummy these polishes are in every aspect.  I mean, really; the colors, the branding, the names...I cannot help but love it all!!!

First up, "I Think You Call Me Sexy."  I don't know why this picture is upside down, unless Blogger decided that it would be fun to imbue this picture with some of the spontaneous, whimsical nature of the TARDIS?  Here you get an indication of what topcoat-eaters Nerd Lacquers can be.  I've got one coat of Seche Vite over this, which is usually enough to glass-over (yes, glass-over) some pretty gritty glitters, but I really wanted this to have a glassier finish.

"No Medal for Chewie."  Poor Chewie.  I just don't think they could find a medal in his size.  Either that, or they were afraid of the impact that a possible dismembering would have on the regal nature of the medal ceremony.  The logistics of placing a necklace on a Wookie notwithstanding, I'm not sure why a polish with this name isn't brown and silver?  I think that would be appropriate.  Nevermind that, this color is FUN!  I can never have enough green; add some golden-green and blue glitter?  Shut the front door.

Hope everyone has had a great Memorial Day weekend!  Tomorrow we trudge back to the grind.  I think the scene below will be me in the morning; feel free to join me.

Shaun of the Dead Opening Scene

Get outta here, ya ruffian, ya!

Good evening, all! I continue to be terrible at posting regularly. What has gotten into me?  Darned if I know.

Today I again reach back into unpublished manis to bring you a vampy Ruffian I did a few months back ago.  Presenting the ever-popular Ulta For Bitten topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Wined Up.

 I liked this look a LOT.  Most people who saw it only viewed it as red-on-black, but I knew about the lovely red sparkle in For Bitten. 

I tell ya, the Sally Hansen flat, tapered brush is PERFECT for Ruffians.  I did this free-hand, and that's quite an accomplishment for someone as shaky and graceless as myself. 

Recently, I was able to acquire quite a few Nerd Lacquers, and I hope to present those to you soon in a two- or three-part series.  Glitters such as Nerd Lacquers drive me NUTS to remove, so we'll see how long it takes me to get through them all.  Idiotic me has already worn some of them without photographing them, but today I'm rocking I Think You Call Me Sexy, and I've snapped a pic.  These are some seriously gorgeous polishes, and I can't wait to show them off. 

Happy Sunday to you all!

Barilla's Holland Opus

Hey, all!  Sorry it's been so long since I posted.  Things have been ducky, and Disneyworld was AWESOME, but my creativity has been just totally zapped.

I haven't taken any new mani pics in a few weeks, but I thought today I'd dig back and see what I hadn't shown off yet.  And lookie here!  My OPI Holland collection swatches!  I really liked this collection...way more than I thought I would.  I saw other girls' swatches and thought, "Meh.  Nothing earth-shattering."  But when I saw them in stores, I realized that I wanted so many of them!  They're all so very wearable, and the ones I chose have that little "ooh-aah" that you only realize is there when you look closely.

Gouda Gouda Two-Shoes

Pedal Faster, Suzi

I Don't Give a Rotterdam

Of these, I think Gouda Gouda Two-Shoes is probably my favorite.  This surprises even me; it's a work-appropriate taupey-y rose.  Sounds boring, right?  WRONG.  I can see this color looking great on pretty much any skin tone, and again, it's got that little special shimmery something that I just LOVE in otherwise boring colors.  I was torn between buying I Don't Give a Rotterdam and I Have a Herring Problem (which is similar, but with more green), and I'm glad I chose Rotterdamn.  I do so adore a cornflower blue.  Pedal Faster is a lovely pink, but it was a bitch to photograph!  It also drives me moderately nuts that it really ought to be called "Petal Faster, Suzi" if they're trying to play off of Holland's famous tulips, but whatever.  I'm gonna have to put it in third place just for that. 

I hope everyone is having a great time Spring-ing into April!