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! 

Don't Mess with Me

 

I borked a nail.  In my defense, I did so changing my oil.  "Don't Mess with OPI" and don't mess with a girl who changes her own oil.  I thought it would be fun to take a nail pic while my hands were still all dirty and I hadn't yet fixed the nail.

The OPI Texas collection was one of those that really didn't blow my mind when I first saw it, but a good year after it came out, I find I now own four of them!  I stumbled onto a buy-one-get-two free OPI clearance at the Wal-Mart salon the other day.  Score!  I added the above "Don't Mess" to my collection, along with the below, "Guy Meets Galveston."  They join "Austin-tatious Turquoise" and "Houston, We Have a Purple."

I luuuuuuurv jellies.  (Oh, 'scuse me, Suzi, "sorbets.")  Has a nail polish collection ever sneaked its way into your stash like that?

First Pink Wednesday of 2012!

I should have made a bigger deal of this, but I didn't even realize it until I'd posted.  Y'all, my previous post was not only the first post of 2012, it also was my HUNDREDTH POST!  I...I actually stuck with something!  OMG!  Now that's reason for celebration!


Moving on now, we have ANOTHER momentous event:  the first Pink Wednesday of 2012! 

Zoya Alegra!  She's a pretty fuschia with what strikes me as an unusual finish that's almost a mix of foil and glass fleck.  Zoya is really good at this finish, I gotta say.  I just can't think of any other company that matches it. 



Random question:  why is it that every time I've just finished a mani, I have to go pee?  Does this happen to anyone else?


Yep, that's me.  Ringing in the new year with more random thoughts.  Happy 2012!

Sparkles a Go Go - Pink Wednesday

Greetings from the Caribbean!  Well, actually, greetings from my desk chair, on account of it's actually the Tuesday before I leave for my cruise.  Yes, this is one of those Pink Wednesdays where I'm not actually wearing pink on Wednesday.  Sorry!  I'll be kind of busy being on a cruise ship.  Yeah.  As you're reading this, I probably have a fruity drink in my hand.  I'm probably in a deck chair.  I can't be bothered with wearing pink polish.  Don't hate.


A couple of weeks ago, though, I donned a pink mani I REALLY loved. 


(Sidebar:  Please don't judge me for the state of my nails and cuticles.  This blog is not here for me to overshare details of my personal life, but I'll just tell you that sometimes I may have a hard time prioritizing the care of my hands.  That's happened a lot lately, but things are looking up.  Hopefully my fingers will be in better shape soon!)

Love this!  This is China Glaze Go Go Pink with Mattese Nail Art Polish in Black Glitter. 

Go Go Pink is available as part of a package at Sally Beauty with Seche Vite Top Coat to support breast cancer awareness.  If your Sally still has this combo package, PICK IT UP.  Not only is it for a good cause, it's a bargain!  The total price for the combo is only $1 more than the usual price of a bottle of Seche Vite, so your Go Go Pink is only $1! 

The Mattese polish was part of my recent NYC haul...it came from Ricky's NYC, a beauty store that can only be found in New York, New Jersey and Miami.  I'm really loving this stuff.  I didn't know at the time that it had a nail art brush, but I'm really quite happy that it does.  Great stuff, huh?  Lookit the shiny!!!


I'm pretty pleased with this, my first attempt at doing anything besides cleanup with a nail art brush.  It's quite abstract, no?  Are they palm fronds?  Claws?  I don't know!


Hope you're all having a great week!

Blingy Pink!

How's everyone's weekend so far?  Mine's been a bit of a mixed bag, if I'm honest, but at least I've been rocking some nice nails!


My best friend recently gave me the most awesomest Bag of Awesome ever as a thank you gift for being there through the process of her wedding and delayed reception.  Well, wouldn't you know, she channeled my brain PERFECTLY and picked out a China Glaze pink that had been on my lemming list for a while...Strawberry Fields.

We went out for a deeeelicious Japanese dinner last night, so the night before, I did my best to make Strawberry Fields look as good as I could.  I blinged it out with some gold stars, to bring out the gold shimmer in this gorgeous polish.  In full sun, the shimmer hides a bit.  It's easier to see in shady outdoor or flourescent lighting.  How backwards is that?  Nevertheless, Strawberry Fields did NOT disappoint.  I looooove it.

I'm not sure if this is why she chose it, but when we were seniors in high school, said best friend and I went to NYC for our senior trip.  One day we had a full day's bus tour of the city, and it just so happened that our guide was a Beatles junkie.  What a coincidence; so were we!  Our guide chose to show us the part of Central Park closest to the Dakota, where John Lennon was shot.  This section of the park is called Strawberry Fields.  It has a lovely mosaic in the walkway, and people leave candles and flowers on it.  We were so pleased to get to experience that.

Do any of you had good experiences with friends picking out the perfect polish for you?  Do tell!

Sparkles, sparkles everywhere!

Another Sunday night, with another Monday morning just around the corner.  Boooo!


This week has been a sparkly one for me!  I didn't set out to have this happen, but it just happened that I had an awful lot of glittery polishes sitting in my untried pile that I decided to give a whack this week.  This also means that I've got a full-collection post for you this week!  Let's get to it...


I'd been really keen to try out Revlon's Impressionists collection, so when I found them at a Target recently, I snatched each and every one of them up.  This week I wore all three for at least a full day, but the results had a tendency to dictate my urgency to photograph.  See if you can draw your own conclusions:

L to R:  Blue Mosaic, Starry Night, Facets of Fuschia

 Blue Mosaic was an absolute model to photograph.  Gorgeous, shimmery, reflective...lovely.  It leaves bald patches even after about three coats that are really only noticeable in macro-shots.  Good coverage for what it is. 

Facets of Fuschia is equally lovely.  I know a lot of people are swatching this over a black creme, since technically it's a jelly, but I don't think that's necessary.  It has adequate coverage with two coats, superb with three.  I don't own Lippmann Bad Romance to do a dupe comparison, but luckily I no longer feel the need to own it!  This is beautiful.  It only gets minimal photgraphic coverage because it did chip pretty quickly.

The bummer of the bunch is Starry Pink.  I'm gonna give Revlon the benefit of the doubt and hope that I got a bad bottle, because this thing was a hot gloopy MESS.  Silver glitter in a delicate pink...file this under "Lots of promise, fails on follow-through."

All three were a NIGHTMARE to remove.  No other way to say that.

I also decided to try a technique I'd wanted to have a go at for awhile...a glitter sandwich!  Below you'll see one coat of Butter London Pink Ribbon, one coat of SOPI Traffic Stopper Copper (a real favorite of mine lately) and then another coat of Pink Ribbon.

Sorry for the lighting.  Sunsets are very pink around here!

This is one of those great, subtle work looks.  Most people aren't going to see it as anything but a simple nude mani, but you'll know there's that extra something going on.  Love that!

After having spent SOOOO much time removing glitter from my hands this week, it's apt to be cremes and holos for me for awhile now, but it was fun being blingy this week.

Polish for a cause

Happy Wednesday!  It has been decreed that from henceforth, the first Wednesday of every month shall forevermore be...PINK WEDNESDAY!  Huzzah! 


Today I've got one for you that I recently picked up at our (for lack of a better way to put it) local hippy grocery store.  It's like Whole Foods only not corporate.  Also, easier to get in and out of.  This here is Peace Keeper Paint Me Stunning. 

 Peace Keeper states on their bottle that, "All distributable profits, after taxes, support women's issues."  Their website also goes on to list a lot of specific information about the ingredients that they do and don't use; as you would imagine with such a line of cosmetics, they're very aware of the impact their ingredients have on the environment and on our bodies.

In my hand above, I'm holding Peace Keeper Paint Me Luminous.  To be honest, you'll probably never see me swatch it here.  I wasn't terribly impressed with either of these polishes.  The formula was fine and it dried VERY quickly, but they were incredibly sheer and the colors weren't terribly unique.

I'm really not much of a tree-hugger, and while I give mad props to Peace Keeper's ethics and mission, I'm the sort that would rather just give my money straight to a cause than filter it through a product I don't need and don't care for.

I'm pink with embarrassment

I don't know how many of you have paid any attention to my raison d'etre, but I started this whole thing out of a desire to STOP ruining my hands with my incessant picking.  Well, you wanna see what happens when I get busy and stressed and don't take the time to take care of my cuticles?

The sorry state of my fingers does not do this lovely OPI justice.  This is Pink Flamenco, a hostess gift given to me by my best friend Rebecca.  It's gorgeous, one of the most flattering pinks I think I've worn so far. 

Now that I'm done jetsetting and entertaining for at least a small number of weeks, I've already begun to pay better attention to my hands.  Guess what I got in New York to help me do that?  LUSH Lemony Flutter!  Awwwww, yeah.  It's everything it's cracked up to be.  That reminds me...I owe y'all another haul post!