Hiatus.

I’m not going to be around for a while. My grandmother, whom I love more than anything, suffered a stroke on November 8th. She is in the hospital, and whatever time is spent trying to keep myself from falling apart is going to be spent at the hospital with her. She is improving every day, little by little, and our family goal is to have her make a complete recovery and be home around Christmas.

Nothing on this earth is more important to me than her.

I cannot say when I will be back, so if you get fed up and want to unfollow, I understand. I hope you won’t, but this is is an incredibly stressful and scary time for me right now, so nail polish is really low on my list of priorities.

Halloween 2013! China Glaze Fortune Teller, Revlon Streetwear Trick or Treat, & Revlon Knockout

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween? I’m throwing a little shindig tonight and have so much decorating to do, so I’ll try to make this quick.

I wanted this to be a little more elaborate than it is, but my freehand skills are limited to polka dots, and I don’t have any stamping materials (yet), so this was what I came up with for my Halloween manicure. The orange is one of the rarest polishes I have in my stash, Revlon Streetwear Trick or Treat. I have scoured the web and can’t even prove its existence! It’s a gorgeous shimmery medium orange with fine orange and gold shimmer-in the right light it looks almost candlelit. I have a hunch that Revlon Haunted Heart that came out last year is a similar color, but since I don’t have it I can’t compare. The black creme is Revlon Knockout, a nice basic black. The glitter is another one of my rarities, China Glaze Fortune Teller. It has a semi-opaque black base and is filled with different sizes of orange glitter hexes. The rhinestones I got at a swap meet a few weeks ago. The polka dots on my thumb were made with a bobby pin.

I’m going as Little Red Riding Hood this year, hopefully I can snap a picture of it before the night is through. These nails certainly don’t match my red cape, but really, how could I not wear my favorite Halloween polishes?

Have a great night everyone!

Edited to add: I didn't get a shot of my costume in full, but at least I snapped a phone pic of my most radical, amazing Wet n' Wild false eyelashes:

Do you see the little deer head and antlers with the butterfly resting on them? I wish I'd bought a backup pair of these!

Essie Sand Tropez & China Glaze Harvest Moon

I needed a little break from all the Halloween stuff I’ve been wearing, so here’s a manicure inspired by a sweatshirt I just bought:

image from Old Navy

Super cute, right? I used three coats of essie Sand Tropez for my base, which is a great sandy/beige/taupe and added dots of China Glaze Harvest Moon with a bobby pin to mimic the rose gold sequin dots. My hands were pretty shaky last night so the dots aren’t perfect (hence why I’m showing you the nicer of the hands)-I pulled a muscle in my neck while I was sleeping the other night so my head is at a weird angle until the muscles loosen up.

I love this manicure. It’s so girly and chic. Don’t worry though-I’ve one last Halloween post to share with you-and it’s amazing.

Till next time!

O.P.I. Vesper

Vesper is the only Liquid Sand polish I own at the moment. I was positive I’d hate the trend, but the more I see them the more I like them. I decided to start with Vesper since it’s a vamp (so it’s in my comfort zone), and I’m so glad I did. I bought it back in August and have grown to love the way the texture feels.

My pictures do this polish no justice (as per usual). The base of Vesper is a deep, inky purple, neither red nor blue toned-just perfect. After three coats the polish can look black, but around the edges you get flashes of purple. There’s no glitter in this one and that is one of the reasons I love it. While I have many glitter textures on my wishlist now, the finish on Vesper gets me so excited. The polish retains its shine, and even under the dullest light the bumps will catch it and sparkle like marcasite. SO. GORGEOUS.

There is one drawback to this polish: it stains like you would not believe. The first time I wore it, I left it on for six or seven days, much longer than I normally leave polish on (terrific wear, by the way…only minor chips on day six). When I removed it I was greeted by pinky-yellow staining. So double up on base coat with this one. Triple up.

This was three coats, no topcoat (it’d be sacrilege in my opinion), so that the gorgeous marcasite finish can shine.

Wet n Wild Creepy Pumpkin & Nubar Black Polka Dot

Here’s an intentional Halloween polish! I don’t know why it took me so long to wear this!! It was from the Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers from last year, and I just never got around to wearing it. Shame on me.

Creepy Pumpkin is a draw-dropping, glass-fleckish orange shimmer that catches the light no matter if you’re outside in the sun or under florescent bulbs. There are occasional flecks of bright green and yellow that sparkle in between the orange and really make it look like a pretty pumpkin patch. It’s a bit sheer, so I layered two coats of it over a Fantasy Makers from this year called Ghouls Rush In, which I’ll show a swatch of a little later on.

And of course I slapped Black Polka Dot over it to give it even more of a Halloween vibe.

Can’t stop looking at this!!

Maybelline Color Show Dotty

I broke about four nails at Disneyland, so I present this awesome polish to you on nubs!! I actually think it looks pretty good on short nails though.

Even though I don’t think this was an intentional Halloween polish, I mean…look at it. If this doesn’t scream “HALLOWEEENOMG!” then I don’t know what does.

Dotty is several sizes of black and white matte hex glitters suspended in a bright orange jelly base. I had to do a bit of placement with the larger glitters, but painting was not the hassle I expected it to be.

This was two full coats, and a bit of placing on a third. Don’t expect this one to come out smooth, I have two coats of Gelous and two of my regular Grand Central Station on top of it.

I just love everything about this. The orange jelly is bright, but doesn’t obscure the glitter, and I’ve had people complimenting my nails all day.

Maybelline Color Show Twilight Rays

It is overcast and rainy today, so I had to snap these pictures in between showers. On the one hand, raaaaaaaaaaaaain! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! On the other, less than stellar pictures. I’m not the greatest photographer to begin with, so anyone keeping up with this is truly awesome.

Admittedly, Twilight Rays looks less than remarkable on camera, which is a shame because it’s really beautiful. Its black base is chock-full of irregularly shaped, foil-y shimmer in orange and gold, with flashes of bright emerald green. It catches the light beautifully and is quite shiny and smooth without topcoat. This was three coats.

I’ve got two more Color Show polishes to show you later on in the month; I’m really liking the brush. It’s skinny and short, but not short enough to where you feel out of control.

Halloween is in full-swing over here. My best friend and I are coordinating costumes, planning a little party, and even my boyfriend is going to dress up!

Essie Power Clutch & Nubar Black Polka Dot

I wasn’t going for Halloween with this manicure, but it ended up looking like one, somehow. It reminds me of Edward Gorey, and old-school Tim Burton…those black on dark grey pencil drawings. Sort of?

Power Clutch is a nice, creamy, dark grey polish with the standard essie creme/jelly formula. It was opaque in two coats. Nubar Black Polka Dot is just different sizes of black hexagonal glitter in a clear base-a black glitter topper. I only did one coat. The base is slightly more viscous than other glitter toppers I own, but not enough that “placing” the glitter with the brush is impossible.

Feeling a bit under the weather today. It’s hot and I have a sneaking suspicion that my godson gave me a cold.

China Glaze-Ick-a-bod-y

Happy October! As far as I’m concerned, the next 29 days are Halloween. I’m even going to Disneyland’s HalloweenTime for my godson’s third birthday! I grew out of Disneyland a long time ago, and admittedly it’s not a lot of fun for me with a bunch of adults, but to have a little kid there would definitely make the visit worth it.

I’m wearing a polish I got on clearance back in July and have waited impatiently to wear. I’ve had my eye on Ick-a-bod-y forever. It’s a perfect Halloween polish. It has a murky, dirty olive base and is chock-full of coppery-orange glitter. Seriously, no one does glitters like China Glaze.

The brush was a bit odd-it spread out and was really fluffy so application wasn’t as easy as I would have liked. Clean up was a bit of a challenge too, which is why you can see sparkles on my skin. I imagine removal will be nothing short of a nightmare.

Still, I love it. It’s glittery and dark and fun. This was three coats of Ick-a-bod-y, one coat of Gelous, and two of Grand Central Station. Even so, it was somewhat bumpy-this is a very thirsty glitter.

Essie After School Boy Blazer & Sally Hansen Copper Penny

Short and sweet today, since I have a mountain of housework to do.

After School Boy Blazer was the only polish from the Fall collection that really caught my eye. I’m not a fan of duochromes, and I’ve had too much experience with Essie glitter bits to want to wrestle with Cashmere Bathrobe.

It’s a gorgeous, shiny, blackened navy blue creme. ULTRA-pigmented, easy-flowing, and quick to dry. And because it looked a bit plain on its own, I added a couple accent nails of Sally Hansen Copper Penny, one of my favorite autumn-y glitters. Navy and copper is such an awesome color combo!

Two thin coats of After School Boy Blazer, one medium coat of Copper Penny, and Grand Central Station. Not sure about the gap between the polish and my tips since I’ve thinned GCS. I’m wondering if I should start wrapping my tips.

Time for laundry and vacuuming. Woo.

butter LONDON Bumster

First of all, I apologize for the staining on my fingers from Screening Room. While it does not stain the nail at all, it reallyyyyyyyyyyyy likes to stick to skin. I mean, I almost want to commend that damn nail polish. I did everything short of clipping the skin off to get rid of it. But since I’m not willing to go that far it’ll just have to offset the yellow in Bumster.

I know Bumster has a reputation for looking like baby poop, but when I asked my grandmother (who dealt with five rounds of diaper duty, plus a couple of honorable mentions for grand children) if it was a similar color, she laughed and said, “Oh heck no!”…so I’m going to describe it as a sophisticated autumnal goldenrod.

It’s one of those ugly-pretty colors that became big around 2009, when every hipster wanted an over sized cardigan in the color. It’s not especially flattering on me (at least I don’t think it is) but every time I see it in the bottle I get excited. Will I ever learn? Probably not. Do I care? Nope.

A bit streaky on the first coat, but subsequent coats evened it out. It has a pretty thin consistency, so it wasn’t especially forgiving to my various nail imperfections.

This was the usual 3 coats with Grand Central Station.

MAC Screening Room

I was perusing the MAC counter with my best friend last week and came across the Indulge offerings. I used to keep track of MAC collections religiously, but have since cooled on them. While I’d still love to come across a By Candlelight Skinfinish someday, makeup isn’t really my game anymore.

Naturally when I saw a new nail polish collection with the makeup stuff I got very excited. I zeroed in on Screening Room as the crown jewel. I mean, honestly…LOOK AT IT! GORGEOUS!!! It’s so bright and lovely!

Under the MAC counter lights it looked really blackened in the bottle, and I immediately snapped it up, but on the way home I began to worry that it would look too much like NOPI’s Khloe Had a Little Lam Lam (what the hell does that even mean!?) but am happy to report that KHaLLL is MUCH greener and darker.

Screening Room is a deep, vivid, blue-based teal; it’s reminiscent of the blue in peacock wings, actually. It’s a creme finish and dries brighter than the color in the bottle. I absolutely love it. I love it to the moon and back…a million times. In fact, I’m seriously considering booting someone out of my top 5 favorite polishes and adding this one.

In the past, MAC nail polish hasn't been that great in terms of quality. The formula was horrible and the brush left a lot to be desired. If you still have this opinion, NO. JUST NO. Screening Room had the most well-behaved, shiny, pigmented, smooth formula of any nail polish I've come across. The brush is a little firmer so you have better control. They've really amped up their game.

Although I think $16.00 is a bit steep for the amount of polish you get (.3 oz), the beautiful color and great formula made it worth it for me.

And naturally, couldn't resist seeing what Boom Boom Pow looked over it. Awesome? Yes.

This was 3 coats with my newly thinned Grand Central Station.

Sula Paint & Peel Merlot (and a review, I guess?)

So this tiny blog of mine is more about what I wear day to day, rather than reviewing polishes in depth. Admittedly, the latter is far more helpful,but I have fun with what I do. However this post will be a bit different, since there are only a couple other posts in the blogosphere about this particular polish, and I’d like to add to it in case anyone else is interested.

I’ve seen this brand in Sephora and Ulta several times and they have the cutest packaging, but I picked this polish up at Big Lots for something like a $1.50. It was the only shade they had, sandwiched between some Revlon sheers and a bunch of magnetic polishes.

The idea is that you don’t need nail polish remover to take it off, you simply peel it off when you’re sick of it (and no, it won’t damage your nails, that was my first question. The polish just sits on top and peels away without stripping the nail surface). I’m game for anything like that, since I use Zoya Remove + and it’s really, really expensive (but at least no skin irritation from it, yay!).

I had two reservations; first, that I wouldn’t be able to clean up afterward with acetone like it do with regular polish. I’m not the messiest painter, but I’m never able to get the area near my cuticles 100% perfect. Second, that my topcoat wouldn’t work with it. Happily I was proven wrong with both of them.

The trick with these kinds of polishes is to take your time. They can be prone to streaks so be sure to go nice and slow. My advice is to load the brush (which was great, by the way-nice and compact and medium-firm) with just a little more polish than you normally would and carefully apply-if you run out of polish halfway on the nail, you’re going to get weird little stringy lumps. I went slow with three coats using a more-than-normal amount of polish and my manicure was perfectly flat. It is also important to apply it without base coat, like those texture polishes.

I did have a bit of pulling at the tips but I’m not sure if that was from the polish itself or my Grand Central Station. It is getting a bit on the thick side, so I think it may be time to thin it out. I actually didn’t really need topcoat, but I added it out of habit. While the polish isn’t mega-glossy on its own, it does have a nice sheen to it that I think is enough to forgo topcoat.

It feels a bit tacky for a long time afterward, and you have to avoid hot water for four hours after application; I would say after about an hour they’re fully dry and you can do non-water related things without fear of denting. And bonus…no chemical nail polish smell! It smelled almost exactly like Elmer’s glue, but more subtle.

And as aforesaid, cleanup is possible, although it takes a little longer with this polish than with regular polish.

So overall, I love it. The color may not be exciting, but it’s perfect for autumn. Application takes a little more care than with traditional polish, but not enough to be a hassle…I hope Big Lots eventually gets more colors! Or I might just break down and go to Sephora.