Sinful Colors Glass Pink

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.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bicicletta

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. 

O.P.I. Chiffon My Mind

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. 

O.P.I. Act Your Beige! & Petal Soft

MOAR FLOWERS!

I make the mistake of letting the Soft Shades go by me every year, then around six months later regretting it and scrabbling around trying to get my mitts on them. Not so this year...I bought them ALL. Even the frosty silvery gold that everyone is complaining about (spoiler: I LOVE it). One I even bought a back up of. 

Here's Act Your Beige! and Petal Soft. I've noticed flower glitter is becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. It's freaking adorable. I did one coat, and the flower glitters came out in a huge glob. On my honor. I've been reading reviews about how people have had to fish them out and anyone who says it's easy to get them out is a liar...I can only assume that I've had dumb luck a couple times. I wore it about a week ago over one of my favorite O.P.I.'s ever and got lucky then too, as you can see on my Instagram...3 flowers just came out in one huge glob. I'm curious whether I will get lucky a third time...I'm going to try layering it over Care To Danse? later this month. 

Act Your Beige! isn't a unique color, but gorgeous nonetheless. It looks like a white/beige in the bottle, but seems to read more pinky-white on me, though perhaps it's the pink glitters in Petal Soft bringing the pink tones out. Either way, lovely combo. And I could wax idiotic about the brush. It's the same size all the O.P.I. brushes are, but somehow softer and more pliable, which you need with sheers and jellies to avoid streaks. 

I did four coats of Act Your Beige! and one coat of Petal Soft, which has soft, slightly satiny hex glitters in pink and white, in addition to the cute white flowers. Probably my favorite Soft Shades glitter since Pirouette My Whistle. Nothing could ever top PMW for me, but Petal Soft is giving it a run for its money. 

China Glaze Pinking Out the Window

Suddenly I want to flower all the things. 

I've been wearing a lot of pink and coral lately, and this one is fast becoming a favorite of mine; it's been on my nails most of May. 

Pinking Out the Window is a bright, cheerful carnation pink with just a drop of coral. It can look more pink or more coral depending on the lighting, and is not photographing as bright as it is in person. For whatever reason, it wants to photograph like a neon. 

Application isn't amazing, but it's not horrible. The first two coats are somewhat streaky, but a third seems to even everything out fairly well. 

I added some flower decals I bought at Daiso Japan. They're not the best quality, but they're so darn cute I just couldn't resist them. They came on a sheet with these cute little orange starfish that I'll try once I am in a blue mood.

The next manicure I show will be flowery as well. Bring them on!!!!

Essie Hubby For Dessert

I would say sorry for the hiatus, but I'm pretty sure only one or two people even know of this blog's existence. To those one or two, sorry. Life just got in the way. February was a rough month-sister left for Seattle and I only got to have a couple days of empty nest, sorry-for-myselfness before I had to take my grandfather to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, and was in the hospital for well over a month. We now have a caregiver for both my grandparents for the day and I can get some much-needed rest from taking care of them. I got a new (enormous) bed, and my friend and her husband installed a 40-inch TV onto my wall, and I spent like a week in bed just watching movies. Oh.Yes.

March was another bad month though. One of the caregivers came in with "allergies" and gave my bedridden grandmother an upper respiratory virus which turned into pneumonia in a day. She was in the hospital for a week and a half. To say that I was enraged is an understatement. And terrified. But she pulled through fine, though she was on oxygen for a few weeks afterward. After she came home, I finally bought myself an Ikea Alex for my nail polish (I'm starting to notice a pattern here...family member goes into the hospital, I make a furniture grief purchase...) and spent an aggravating evening putting it together, and a glorious day organizing my babies in it. 

So we'll see how I do at getting back into blogging. I've obviously forgotten how to take pictures, because these look awful. I really need to stop thinking that taking pictures a few days after wear will look okay. 

Hubby For Dessert is a lovely lilac jelly. It's cleaner and brighter than O.P.I.'s Care to Danse?, which looks almost grey by comparison. I layered 3 coats of it over one coat of Go Ginza, because it is quite sheer. Go Ginza gave it a bit of a pink cast, alone it's pure lilac. This was after 4 days of wear, not bad right!? I've been using O.P.I. Nail Envy and it's been making a big difference in terms of my nail strength. 

Boom Boom Pow accents for reasons.

Zoya Portia

Not a particularly exciting shade, but like I've said before, it suits me just fine. 

Portia is a cool-leaning, soft, creamy pink. Like most light pinks, it can look different in different lights, and runs the gamut from sweet and pale to classic pink and polished. I know I'm not describing it well, but rest assured this shade will look good on every skin tone. It's so flattering. And the fact that it's not white-based makes me so happy. 

Application was a breeze too. If you're light-handed and you like your pinks a little sheer, two thin coats will get you what you want, but I wanted a more opaque look, so I did three. I didn't have a problem with streaks because of the creme-jelly formula. 

Birthday Mani: Maybelline Neutral Statement & O.P.I. My Favorite Ornament

Sorry about the lighting in these pictures. Sadly it will only keep getting worse, so I have no idea how I will do any of my holiday manicures justice. 

I'm 28 today!! Since I didn't even acknowledge my birthday last year, I'm making up for it this year. I'm going to spend the day with my family today, have an amazing dinner tonight, and tomorrow night I'm off to downtown L.A. with my boyfriend, bestie, and her husband. We'll eat at Canter's, squeal over Christmas decorations at the Farmer's Market, and more than likely I will buy bon bon's from See's and possibly a very expensive pair of shoes. I will also wear a freaking amazing bow in my hair. 

I also worked up the courage to try a ruffian accent nail, which I think I nailed (heh). If I'd known how easy they are to do, I'd have been wearing them constantly. I used a base of Maybelline Neutral Statement, which looks better in real life than it does in the pictures-the sun sort of warmed up the color too much-there's less beige and more pink-white in it. There's also some sparse deep coppery-gold sparkle that you can detect close up, but fades into the background at arms' length. 

My Favorite Ornament is one of my favorite pale gold glitters. Expect to see it over and over in the next month. 

The formula on Neutral Statement wasn't the greatest-a more patient painter could have gotten away with 3 coats, but I did four to even out the streaks. My Favorite Ornament was flawless (no surprise there) at 2 thin coats. 

Finger Paints Paint Me Happy

I've been frequenting Sally's about once a week (it's a little treat I give myself after therapy) and a couple weeks ago purchased my first Finger Paints. I went with this pink (surprise surprise) and a goldy-pink glitter concoction (again, surprise).

Paint Me Happy is a warm melon-pink. Like most melon-pinks, it wouldn't photograph properly. In fact, I hate every single one of these pictures. My cuticles are dry, the nail polish looks lumpy because I woke up with sheet marks courtesy of a new top coat I'm trying that doesn't seem to dry EVER, and I have no idea why my fingers look so bloated and weird. Love the color though.

Here's a picture I got on my phone that's way more color accurate:

Much better. 

I did four coats (it's a little sheer) plus the nasty, evil top coat that just can't pull its pants up and dry like a top coat should. 

I'm just trying to get through the days lately. I haven't really felt like polishing my nails so I thought a color like Paint Me Happy would help. 

Maybelline Pretty in Polka

Who knew pink was going to be my color this year? I'm as shocked as you are. 

Pretty in Polka was part of my birthday gift to my sister last year. She's a pink fiend and I thought it would be a fun way to wear it, but it just sort of sat in her small polish collection and I just couldn't help myself. Turns out she didn't really like it, and just didn't want to hurt my feelings. Puh-lease. Gimme. 

I'm now pretty much convinced that I need this entire Polka Dots collection. They're easy to apply, super glossy, and surprisingly easy to remove. Pretty in Polka is a bright, cheerful pink jelly full of black and white matte hex glitters in different sizes. Effortless nail art. 

I think the pink jelly is my favorite part. It's just so bright and glossy and transparent. Michelle from ALC referred to it as lip gloss for your nails, and that's dead on; it's just a nice wash of glossy pink color. 

This was three thin coats. I actually liked it at two, but I had a lot of gaps where I thought glitter should go, so I dabbed a third coat on. Even though it was super glossy on it's own, I top coated out of habit. 

I can't believe it's June already.

Jesse's Girl JulieG

I will start this off by saying that, under normal circumstances, I have a natural aversion to neons. They sear my retinas, make my skin look muddy, and just all-around bum me out. They are bold and bright and summery and cheerful, and I am the opposite of all these things most of the time (except cheerful-I do try to keep that one up as much as I can). But I'm not sure if JulieG is a neon, or just extra bright...it looks quite different in the bottle. Oddly enough though, I like it. Like, a LOT.

It's a bright coral creme, nothing special, but a real pick-me-up. The formula was smooth, but streaky, so it took four coats before I was happy (habitual two-coaters aren't going to like this one), but the color makes up for it for me. You know I love me a coral. It seems they only sell Jesse's Girl at Rite Aid, but they're super cheap-I picked up JulieG for about 3 bucks.

I have one other neon to feature here, I'll probably space it out a bit, though. I found a summer Maybelline collection at Bed Bath & Beyond back in April and bought the coral one. I've already worn it, and it's not hideous on me, so I'll probably pull that out in a month or so.

Easter 2014: Pastels Till Ya Puke featuring Jenna Hipp & O.P.I.!

There's really only one thing you can say about a manicure like this:

Frankly though, I had a blast. I sat down last night with a bag of pretzels and some M&M's Bunny Mix and decided that I was going to do nail art. NAIL ART! And it was going to be the most fabulous, Easter-y nail art there ever was!!! 

Many pretzels, pastel M&M's and two glasses of Arnold Palmer spiked with a little whiskey later, this was what I came up with. Maybe it was the chocolate or alcohol, but I forgot along the way that I can't do nail art...or do it well, anyway. But I had some good, quality time with myself, had some delicious snacks and a really good drink (I rarely, if ever, drink) and it was a lot of fun. Plus I watched The Desolation of Smaug while I was doing it and I never, EVER say no to Jacksonian Tolkien. I won't get into how different the movie is from the book and all the liberties Jackson took, blah blah blah, because I don't care. The book is amazing. The movie is amazing, in a different way. I grew up on Tolkien and I think Jackson's interpretation was a lot of fun.

ANYWAY.

Obviously, I tried to do Easter egg nails. The thumb and ring finger sport polka dots, my tried and true stand-by. On the pointer I attempted to make those little Charlie Brown zig-zag chevrons with some intermittent dotting. Middle sports a flower (I think?); pinkie...STRIPES! 

On to the colors!!!

Lavender: O.P.I. Rumple's Wiggin': a nice light lavender with a DIVINE formula.

Yellow: Jenna Hipp Tweet Me: bright, lemony yellow.

Pink: Jenna Hipp Damage Control: a bright, saturated pastel pink; in the same color family as Pepto Bismol, but not nearly as intense.

Mint: Jenna Hipp Freshmaker: a really bright, intense minty blue/green.

Peach: Jenna Hipp Hashtag: creamy peach, pretty basic.

I'd read reviews on the Jenna Hipp pastel formula and the consensus was that at best it was temperamental and at worst a streaky nightmare. I actually had very little trouble with them! I can honestly say I've used much, MUCH worse. Sure, they streak, but that's par for the course with pastels. I did three coats for all of them and they came out nice and smooth and streak-free. If you do less, you will have a bit of streaking. 

Of course the one that was most striking and fun was Freshmaker, but my surprise favorite? Hashtag. Other than Van D'Go (or do I have Tart Deco...one of those anyway) I've never ventured into peach polish because I was sure it wouldn't look good. I'm pleasantly reminded that it actually looks quite nice on me! You can expect more peach manicures from me in future. 

So there you have it! If I have a stamper next year I will probably go with that, but if I get a set of good brushes, nail art is definitely something I'd like to practice more. :D

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I thought posting an actual bunny would be cute and also help me with my fear of bunnies. And yes. You read that right. I'm slightly afraid of bunnies. More specifically, holding a bunny. I'm not afraid if they're near me doing bunny stuff; I actually think they're super cute and will squeal. But when I'm asked if I'd like to hold said cute bunny, I get nervous. Why, you ask? The short answer is I read and watched Watership Down a lot as a kid, and if you've never read or seen it, all I can say is those are some brutal ass bunnies.