Hungry for Hunger Games?

Greetings from Disneyworld!  By the time you read this, I'll be hanging out at the Mouse's House.

I'll be at the World with my family, and while I'm gone, I hope to see "Hunger Games" with my sister-in-law.  We've both read the books and loved them.  (Who didn't?)  The China Glaze Hunger Games collection was pretty awesome; so awesome, in fact, that my Sally ran out pretty!  I only managed to get three of them.  In truth, the only one I still really want is Stone Cold.

Here we have Harvest Moon, which represents District 9:

 It's a delicious blend of bronze, brown and gold.  Quite lovely, really.  I don't follow "rules" about certain colors in certain seasons, but I still feel that this smacks SO hard of Fall, that I probably won't wear it much again until then.

Next up is Riveting, representing District 3:

 What can I say; it is...riveting!  It really is.  I feel like this sort of color should not look right on my pale, cool-toned skin, but I was VERY pleased.  I can only imagine that this would be flattering on most anyone, and that has GOT to be a rarity for an orange.

Last but not least, the "flaky" (more on that later), Luxe & Lush (District 1):

I feel that calling this a flakie is a bit of a misnomer.  I expect a flakie to sort of...blend into its basecoat, changing it and forming something totally new.  I compare this more to the randomly shaped mylar-type glitter topcoats that are becoming popular, especially among frankeners and independent lacquer mixers.  Flakie or no, it's captivating.  I've shown it over several different color families to show you what a versatile "effects" polish it can be, and unfortunately I can't remember what these base polishes are!  If you're very curious about one, let me know and I'm sure I can narrow it down.

All in all, I think this China Glaze did a fantastic job of coming up with colors that really represented the Districts of Panem.  This could have just been a random assortment of colors with names that were sort of reminiscent of the Hunger Games, but it isn't.  By the time you read this, many of you will have already seen the movie, and I hope it didn't let you down! 

May the odds be ever in your favour!

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Yes.  We have no bananas.



Today's post...bums me out.  I did this really cute mani, but the weather blows, so I could NOT get any decent pictures.  So, I threw all the lights in the garage on...they tend to be the best substitute in a pinch.  I took a few pics, was satisfied with what I saw in the viewfinder, and proceeded to remove the mani.  Fast forward a few minutes when I loaded the pictures up...and saw that they all sucked.


Sigh.  Forgive me.  I loved the mani, I ain't doing it over, so here's the crappy pictures.

Repeat after me:  This is a polish blog, not a photography blog.  This is a polish blog, not a photography blog.  Thank you.

I love this combination!  They're both Barielle beauties:  the brown is Make It a Latte, and the purple is Grape Escape.  Latte has a barely perceptible warm golden shimmer, so in that regard, purple really shouldn't be a good fit for it; but the shimmer is hard to discern, so it just looks like brown and purple to most viewers.  And brown and purple makes me think of...PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME! 

Funky frenches are SO dang fun...I love coming up with different color combos.  This is probably the shortest nail length I've ever worn a french with, but I kind of like it! 

Hey, guess what everybody...TOMORROW'S FRIDAY!  Make it count, y'all.

Colorama!

I just love the name of this brand of polishes!  Colorama...COLORAMA!  Wish we had them here.


I'm not sure where these adorable little Maybelline polishes are sold, but I was fortunate enough to pick one up in an import grab bag recently, and once I got around to trying it out, I went a little crazy!

Here's Maybelline Colorama Chili Chocolate with some black stones on the accent finger.  I picked those up in a rhinestone wheel set from the Born Pretty store.  I really did like this.  If I'm honest, I had to re-do the accent finger two or three times because it just wasn't working, and I was bound and determined to be proud of this.  It was the first time I'd tried to apply the stones in a remotely precise manner.  I found that tweezers worked, but it was still a frustrating process.  I took the stones off on the second day because I CANNOT resist the urge to pick them off.

Then I came up with this:

I really really liked this color combo, thus you have it in full sunlight and in shade.  (Please forgive my pointer finger...it broke off into the quick recently, and is still a bit wonky.  Takes damage easily.)  The green here is Zoya Shawn, one of my very favorite greens out of the multitude that I own.

I really had fun with my one and only Colorama polish, but it does suffer a bit for its color.  Cleaning it up made me feel like I'd been making mudpies or playing in poo.  (Why I'd ever play in poo is beyond me.)  I might also point out that this mani wore quite well.  I've been VERY industrious over the last few days, and only the right hand developed any chipping or wear.  My left hand looked just like day one by the time I removed it.

I have now moved on to a very fun, very not me mani that I look forward to showing you.  That'll have to wait, though.  Hope you're all having a LOVELY weekend!

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.

Half-Moon Half-Fail

I'd like to think that an artsy manicure is like a relationship.  Though you may fail at one, perhaps you'll learn something from it that will make the next one ever better.  Too philosophical?  Yes, it really is, but I tell myself that to make myself feel better about today's manicure.

 Baby's First Half-Moon Mani! This nifty little arsticure (yep, just coined that) is achieved through the clever use of hole-punch reinforcements and a pair of scissors.  Well, and nail polish, too.  I think you can figure it out from there - apply color, let dry, apply half of a reinforcement (or the whole thing if you're feeling wasteful), apply other color, let dry, peel, topcoat. 


For some reason, I thought this would work better if I applied the color to every single nook and cranny on and around my nail.  It didn't.  It just made cleanup nigh impossible.  Also, I'm impatient, and didn't let the base color dry quite enough, so when I peeled the reinforcement off, it took color with it on some nails.  My other problem with this would be the difficulty in aligning the reinforcements just so.  It irritated me when the apex of the curve was not perfectly aligned with the center of my nail.  (Remember those OCD-like tendencies?)

Left of center!!!  OH, THE HUGE MANATEE!!!

Anyway.  All in all, this was pretty easy (if time consuming) to do, and I definitely learned a couple of "what-not-to-do"s for the next one.

Colors:  OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Maybelline Express Finish Racing Rubies