Gonna try to get back into this, but now that I'm in grad school (probably should have thought that through a little more, but I'm in and I'm working hard) I have next to no time to paint my nails. I miss it though.
Why Zoya discontinued Julie I have no idea. It's gorgeous. Bright, spring-y, sparkly, and perfect. This was 3 very thin coats. It's going on my toes this upcoming weekend.
How about another shimmery pink? It's not the most exciting polish choice, but I like the way it makes my nails look.
I've had Glass Pink for a few years but I've never had the urge to wear it until a couple days ago. It's gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but just one of those colors that you have to really be in the mood to wear.
I layered one coat of Glass Pink over 3 coats of Essie Tying the Knotie, which was from the 2015 bridal collection. I'm not sure if I've shown in on here before but I really should. It's a gorgeous, creamy neutral pink and set off the golden shimmer in Glass Pink perfectly.
I ended up not wearing anything for Galentine's Day/Valentine's Day-bf and I just weren't feeling it this year. We don't usually make a big deal about it, but I spent the better part of the 14th in the emergency room so by the time I got home all I had energy for was a pizza and a couple episodes of Naked and Afraid with him. When we are feeling particularly silly we just watch and laugh at the butt shots, and at the contestants in general.
I feel like my pink craving is running its course, so we'll see what I come up with next.
I am off to such a late start this year. What with working and the embarrassing amount of television I've been watching, I just haven't had time for nails. I signed back up for Netflix on a whim early last month and I really haven't stopped watching. I'll take breaks to sleep, and work, but I find my butt parked and Netflix on for the rest of the time. I'll generously call it a 'nesting period'.
I've had Nails Inc. Victoria on for most of January, and even some of February. It's just that good. A long time ago I would have promised to take pictures and put it up here, but let's be honest. That probably won't happen until *maybe* October. Realistically speaking. But I did have a craving for something girly and sparkly (everything Victoria isn't), so I thought I'd see if Bicicletta would indulge that.
The lighting today wasn't very good-winter lighting never is, so it's photographing much warmer than it is in real life. It's what fairy wings and princess dresses are made of: a shimmering, glimmering pale pink with silvery, sugary sparkle. I tried to blur the last photo to show how gorgeous the shimmer is in this polish; didn't turn out quite the way I hoped, but you get the idea.
I used three coats since it's a bit on the sheer side and I'm still growing out the damage to my nails. I almost wish I'd saved this to wear on Galentine's Day, but again, I have no idea if I'll even be motivated to wear polish then.
There is one thing that is my favorite so far this year. It fuels me when I'm down and makes me laugh like a hyena when it catches me off guard. It is this incredibly derpy picture I took of my sister's dog a few weeks ago:
Look at this doofus. Lounging around like he's the King of Chins. My sister and I were having a Trailer Park Boys marathon and I looked over and he was giving me this totally blissed-out face. Every so often I'll send it to my sister with some cheesy OKCupid pick-up line. It passes the time.
Till next time. Hopefully I'll get my butt in gear and wear polish more, but it feels like an uphill battle with my nails in such a crummy state.
I am going to be honest guys...most of the holiday polish collections I've seen from major brands this year are incredibly disappointing. I will concede that there are a few pretty ones in the O.P.I. Starlight (I think that's what it's called) collection, but nothing I'm desperate to get my hands on.
If I'm honest, my tastes run towards the classics. Rich, decadent red cremes, sparkly silver and gold, emerald anything...that's what I like to see. And since I didn't get it, I'm looking at past polishes for my fix.
In my humble opinion, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is probably one of the most beautiful polishes ever made. Ever. And this is coming from someone who doesn't wear a lot of glass fleck. It's a beautiful, deep green that can look straight up emerald, or more teal (or blue spruce as I like to think of it) depending upon the lighting. On top of this, there are flashes of gold glimmer. It is just explosive in the sunlight. I come off as a vain idiot because I literally hold my nails to the light every chance I get.
I took these pictures after about 5 days of wear. FIVE. I did this because I'm putting the new Essie Gel Setter top coat through its paces. And it's good. I love my European Secrets Rock Top Coat, but about a third of the way through the bottle I notice it shrinks my tips, which is incredibly annoying. However it does mask any and all bubbling and imperfections so I'm not eliminating it permanently from my top coat line up.
3 coats of Christmas goodness, and Essie Gel Setter top coat. Y.U.M.
So July wasn't a great month for me. Highlights include 4 weeks of such intense heat and humidity that my bed sheets have not been properly dry since June, stress eating, staying up till 5 a.m. watching X-Files and actually yelling at the screen when Mulder, Scully, or Skinner enter dark room and refuse to turn on the lights, depression and anxiety running rampant, and worst of all, a cancer scare with one of my dogs. Luckily she is cancer-free and very healthy, but the waiting period between the biopsy and the good news was the the worst week of my life. Constant. State. Of. Terror.
But it does put a lot of things into perspective. Between having a bad day, gross eating habits, and sheets perpetually damp from sweat and the disgusting atmosphere, and having to come to terms with the fact that a beloved pet has cancer, I will choose the former any day of the week.
So I'm going to take a break from all the black and dark colors I've been wearing (the bubbling doesn't show up as much...plus, I'm re-acquainting myself with how awesome black polish is) to showcase a polish from the RBL Bloggers Collection 3.0. I own quite a few RBL's, but for whatever reason, don't blog about them much. They are sort of the pretty jewels of my collection. I take them out and stroke them, and admire them, but don't want to sully them by putting them on my nubs.
Morning Light is a pale, powdery, periwinkle blue with lots of golden-green shimmer. It's really soft and ethereal and makes me think of nice, calm things. Like maybe life won't be a horrible shit show always.
This was 2 perfect coats, no top coat (because weather). I'll see if I can put up a couple more posts before September, but I make no promises. Here's to the end of summer.
Here's another from the O.P.I. spring collection, and I tried so, so hard to get pictures to show the shimmer in it, but of course failed miserably. I'm just not a good photographer.
Chiffon My Mind is an ethereal pink-tinged white with lots and lots of multi-colored shimmer. It's pretty subdued under artificial light, but really twinkles and pops out in the sunlight. Unfortunately though, the formula is a bit difficult to work with. The consistency is fine, not too thick or thin, but it applies pretty sheer and streaky. A better and more patient painter (with less ridges) than I probably could have gotten away with 3 coats, but I got to 5 before I was happy. Now I don't mind multiple coats of polish as long as the end result looks good, but 5 coats doesn't come without complications...slow drying, bubbles, lumps...ugh. So I turned my stash upside down looking for a good base. Which was harder than I thought, considering it isn't that unique of a polish.
Luckily I own Orly Cake Pop, which is perfect. It's a pink-tinged white creme from their spring Sugar High collection. It should still be readily available, and hopefully I'll remember to show it on here later because it really deserves its own post.
So. You're looking at 2 coat of Orly Cake Pop and two of Chiffon My Mind. Dry time was great for both polishes.
Well I'm almost a month into 2015 and haven't managed to get pictures of what I'm wearing until today.Up until last night I've been wearing the same Nails Inc. manicure...there wasn't much left of it, but it was sooooo pretty, and I was also sooooo lazy. I'll probably have it up here next month.
Sansa is all kinds of gorgeous, but unfortunately the weather was a little spotty, so I can't show it to you in all its glimmery glory. You get the idea though. It's a rich purple base, slightly red-based, and is full to bursting with different colored rough shimmer. I hesitate to say glass fleck, so I'm saying rough shimmer, because the pieces are large and you can sort of see where they begin and end. The most prominent is the gold-lemon shimmer, but I also see pink, purple, green, and coppery-orange.
I did two coats (probably should have done three, I see a bit of balding in the pictures, but in real life two is more than enough) and topped it with the O.P.I. top coat. It's an okay top coat, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have a coupon, but my CVS Extrabucks were stacking up and I thought why not? I'll probably use it when I do my toes.
I thought October would never get here. I've been waiting for it since February; it's my favorite month. Good things happen to me in October-spending time with my bff roasting pumpkin seeds and watching terrible horror movies on Netflix, reading Dracula and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow late at night and enjoying what little color change occurs where I live. So it stands to reason that the first day of this fabulous month is a day of grumpiness, fatigue, and general malaise. I hate everything right now.
Still, gotta keep up appearances. I thought I'd crack out some nice, autumnal polishes, and Autumn Spice is as good as any. It's got a rich, warm brown base, and is full of bronze, gold, and green shimmer. There is also a pink shimmer cast that I was unable to capture on camera, but really adds depth to the polish.
The scent is really nice; it's sort of a warm, buttery, spicy-sweet smell. It makes me want cinnamon rolls.
You could get this opaque in one coat if you used a medium-thick layer, but I did two thin layers and it was more than enough. I also made the mistake of using an old NYC Grand Central Station top coat that was VERY thick and gooey, so I have some shrinkage on my thumb.
I'm so happy it's August. That means it's only two months till October, and everyone knows October is the best freaking month ever. Just knowing that fall is on the way gives me a little hope; this summer has been such a struggle.
To celebrate the end of the horrendous season of summer, have a summer manicure! I've got a ton of polishes lined up that I want to wear before I bring out my fall/winter shades (yes, I am that anal retentive); here's the first.
Look Hot Feel Cool is from the What's Hot Now collection. My bff bought me the set from Costco for my birthday last year; I was so overwhelmed and depressed from everything that happened that the polishes didn't really register until well into the following spring. I used the pastels in my disastrous Easter mani. The pastels were streaky, but with some TLC I managed to make them behave. Look Hot Feel Cool was a much easier formula to work with.
It's a rich, shimmery teal that can look straight-up emerald in some lights. I have nothing like it (although that's not really a surprise since green and I don't always get along). This was three coats, though two would have been more than sufficient. I just have a three-coat problem.
It dries to a rubbery finish, so if you like shiny nails, top coat is required. It photographed a bit brighter than it is in real life, but the intensity is still there. Even in the shade, this color is luminous.
Hello friend, do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, Maleficent, today?
I wanted to wait until my nails were in better shape (and longer) to wear this color, but since Maleficent came out yesterday and I bawled my way through it with my best friend and a hundred pounds of popcorn, candy, and soda, I thought I should put it on now and bludgeon whatever readers I have with my hysterical enthusiasm for the movie. I plan on going to see it again as soon as I have some free time. I haven't seen a movie twice in the theaters since Lord of the Rings.
Lately, I've been a movie fiend. Normally I'm perfectly content to wait until they come out on DVD (or even on Netflix)...what can I say, I'm a lazy loser. But lately everything coming out is something I'd practically pee myself to see in theaters over and over. Godzilla. X-Men. Maleficent. Guardians of the Galaxy. 2nd Sin City. Be still my beating EVERYTHING.
Maleficent was wonderful. I'm not qualified in the least to review movies and shows I watch because my suspension of disbelief is so strong and my innocence almost perfectly intact. I am that perfect, ignorant moviegoer. It made me laugh and cry and squeal and flail (quietly) and to be perfectly honest, is STILL making me tear up. All I have to do is think about Angelina Jolie saying, "Hello Beastie", and I'm off again.
I will say though, I was SUPER TERRIFIED it would end up like OZ The Great and Powerful. I cried in that one too, but only because I had to watch one of my favorite childhood characters get butchered by James Franco.
Maleficent is nothing like that; I would even go so far as to say it was better than Frozen, and is probably the best Disney film ever made. Frankly I'm surprised the critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes is only at 50%. I've never put much stock in film critics, but it's sad to see such a good movie with a strong female lead and an absence of unrealistic romance be so under-appreciated. The Evil Queen got her day in Once Upon a Time; learning Maleficent's back story was just as satisfying. And yes, it is NOT canon, but we knew that from the first line of the movie.
Uninvited is a beautiful nude beige with subtle, silvery, shimmer. There is some almost imperceptible green shimmer as well (I see what you did there MAC) that adds dimension. MAC labels it as a creme, but the shimmer is most definitely there. This is a color that is going to look good on anyone, no matter skin tone. It's universal, flattering, and natural-looking.
Formula was great, but a bit sheer, so you're looking at 3 1/2 coats of polish. Any imperfections you see (I'm looking at that damn middle finger) are not the fault of the polish, but the shortcomings of my nails. My middle nail is in a perpetual state of peeling and nothing I do seems to help it. Any new growth is really brittle and tears almost immediately. As a result, most nail polish looks awful on it. Rest assured that Uninvited is as smooth as butter.
I love fairy tales, LOVE THEM. They are my childhood and my comfort. And when I see them retold this way, it only makes me love them more. I'll leave you with the deliciously creepy and haunting version of "Once Upon a Dream":
I was worried Amazon...Amazoff would look similar to M.A.C. Screening Room...I was right. The only difference between these polishes? O.P.I. has blue-ish emerald shimmer. Booo. I mean look at this mani, then look at M.A.C. Screening Room. Pretty much the exact manicure, down to the Boom Boom Pow accent nails.
I guess I know what I like.
I think in real life, Amazon...Amazoff leans much more green than Screening Room, so I take solace in that. It's a super-gorgeous deep teal with subtle, tonal shimmer that, while not invisible, isn't in-your-face; it really deepens and enriches the base color. Screening Room, by comparison, is much brighter in person and a straight-up creme.
This manicure is something I'd wear in winter, but I was feeling something deep and moody today. And of course Boom Boom Pow because it's like, the best glitter top coat ever made.
Slowly getting over my cold. Yesterday helped a lot; I celebrated my two-year anniversary with my boyfriend. We ate at the restaurant we had our first date in, which was super lovely and romantic (in spite of the terrible jazz covers of 80's hits), played with Ripley and then went to a little bakery and bought French macarons, and mochi ice cream and feasted while watching Once Upon a Time. I seriously could not have a better boyfriend, guys. I basically spent yesterday eating awesome food and watching silly shows and cuddling with an amazing, handsome man...total dream come true. :D
Say hello to a naughty polish that has the cheek (hurr) to not photograph properly.
I spied this beauty on the nails of one of my favorite bloggers (please go by her swatches, they are MUCH more color accurate than mine), and seeing as it's a coral, well...I had to buy it.
It's bright, punchy and leans slightly more orange than pink, which I normally don't like, but I'm willing to overlook it because of the shimmer. Oh ye gods, THE SHIMMER. It is predominantly gold, but you get flashes of yellowish-green. It's not shy; it's delicious, in-your-face SHIMMAH.
Formula was where it got tricky. The consistency was smooth and even, but it did streak a bit. I got dragging on a couple of nails, and it took 3 1/2 coats to get it to behave. But I.Do.Not.Care. It's gorgeous, springy, juicy, and delightful. Upside was that dry time was excellent.
If you like coral, get your butt to Sally's and buy this.
Off to get the house ready for tomorrow. It's Nana's 88th birthday, and we're having a big celebration for it. It hasn't been a banner year so far, but we're fighting as hard as we can. And we're gonna win.
