Essie The Perfect Cover Up

As I've said before, my favorite Essie collections are from the fall. I snapped up all but the red (I have way too many) and the camo green (we all know my relationship with greens), but the other four brought out the grabby hands in me. I can't even handle how awesome this color is. Black wishes it was this chic. 

I'm not entirely sure what I'd call it...lets say a very deep, inky grey with evergreen leanings...maybe a touch of blue too? Whatever it is, everything in my life needs to be this color. Rrrrvrything. 

And as if the color wasn't enough, the formula is something you dream about; smooth, no dripping or pooling, and opaque in one coat. I did two because I really just wanted to keep painting. Bonus: super shiny finish. You could skip top coat if you wanted to. 

The weather here has been bananas, and I love it. It's nice and crisp, rain at night, and I can finally wear my cozy sweatpants without fear of sweating to death. Hooray for fall!

Halloween 2014: No Nails, Just Vincent.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. Mine, sadly, was quiet and uneventful. I ate too much pizza and candy corn, and my Malamute got me up at regular intervals from midnight to 4 a.m. pretending he had to pee, but really just wanted to go outside and romp in the rain. Can't say I really blame him though...when it started raining last night I ran out into it and just sort of savored it. All the weather reporters here say it's going to be a dry winter, but...naaaaah. El Nino is coming.

I did carve a pumpkin this year, a tradition I try to keep up no matter what my Halloween plans are. I don't know if this is just me but that burnt-pumpkin smell you get from jack-o-lanterns is one of the most exciting smells I know...it's up there with snow-covered pine trees, Old Spice deodorant, and pure vanilla extract. I get all tingly when I smell it.

This year, my pumpkin featured Vincent Price. Oh Vincent...

Definitely the most intricate carving I've done, it took me close to four hours to complete.

Then this little monkey got scared when it started to rain and climbed into bed with me (but not after barking at the open window to see if that would make the rain go away)...

So I guess now that Halloween's over, it's officially the Holiday season, right? Isn't that how it works?

Essie Take It Outside

Halloween's only a day away, but I'm just not really in the spirit of it this year. I should be, since I go basically ape shit over Halloween, but I'm just sort of tired. I've decided not to decorate or hand candy out, which was a tough decision because I really hate to be that house, but it's just too much money and effort right now. Instead, my boyfriend and I are opting to eat pizza, drink cider, and watch old horror movies. If there's one thing my friends and loved ones know about me, it's that I love love love old movies. I keep the t.v. in my bedroom on Turner Classic Movies almost all the time. He's not the biggest fan, but he's sweet enough to indulge me. Pretty cuddly too.

I'll try to rustle up something for the 31st, but for right now I needed a soft, quiet color. I always look forward to the taupes in fall Essie collections, and Take It Outside is, in my opinion, the best taupe Essie has done since Miss Fancy Pants. It's like nothing I have, and I've got a LOT of neutral, taupe polish. It's very greyed out, with a bit of a pink-white undertone. It's perfection. 

The formula was perfect, I only needed two coats for opaqueness, and it self-leveled beautifully. 

M.A.C. Love & Friendship (and my best friend's wedding!)

I have a natural aversion to large milestone events; I didn't even want to go to my own graduation last year. Dressing up and doing my hair and makeup is a daunting task for me, and when I have to make an effort not to be shy and asocial, I get emotional hangovers. But yesterday none of those things happened, because I got to watch my best friend marry the love of her life and the father of her child, and I was surrounded by people that might as well be my family.

The event was low-key and no-fuss, two of my favorite hyphenated words. I did the bride's makeup and hair at her house, and helped her get dressed. We went to the courthouse, they got hitched, and then we ate massive amounts of pasta at Maggiano's Little Italy. I only snapped a few pictures on my phone, the good pictures are on her husband's camera, but I like to think I captured her glowing bridey-ness:

Oh yeah, bride-glow factor is like 10+ here.

My godson made an adorable (and hilarious) ring bearer. The entire day was full of squeals and squeaking and asking if I was going to get married.

At Maggiano's. Where your fried cheese is served with melted cheese on top. 

We ate so much food, I'm still dealing with the carb coma. But when you're celebrating the marriage of a girl who may as well be your sister, what's a few hundred pounds of pasta and tiramisu and the subsequent tummy ache afterward?

So what did I wear on my nails? Only the most appropriate polish in my stash:

I'm sorry for the slightly worn look, this manicure is a few days old. Love & Friendship works on several different levels for us. First, the particular shade of dirty pinky-lavender is her favorite color. Second, the name. I mean come on, it doesn't get more perfect than that. Lastly, it's from the Rose Romance collection, a collection that is very dear to our hearts. It was our first favorite. 

Rose Romance was from 2009 I believe, so even if you can track Love & Friendship down, it probably won't be priced reasonably. Luckily, Orly Petit Four is a close, if not dead-on dupe. It is the same soft, dirty lavender with grey and pink undertones. I used three coats for the photos above.

Revlon Knockout & Hard Candy Jubilee

I am not a patient person by nature, so  what was supposed to be a full manicure of swampy Halloween goodness turned into a hurried accent nail. 

The first coat of Jubilee behaved fairly well; subsequent coats put up a fight. I blame the bar glitter. Several cotton pads and practically an entire bottle of nail polish thinner (slight exaggeration) later, I gave up and carefully painted on an accent nail. 

Jubilee is a swampy green jelly packed full of black micro glitter, larger black hexes, holographic silver hexes and long, thin orange bar glitter. I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate bar glitter in any form, but the polish was just too unique to pass up.

3 coats of Jubilee, 2 of Revlon Knockout, which is a basic black.

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

I spent last evening catching up on my Once Upon a Time, and since I think Zelena was an AH-MAZING villain, I wanted to wear something worthy of her. Rebecca Mader portrayed her so, so beautifully.

Emerald Sparkle is a pretty iconic polish, and although discontinued, the good version is still fairly easy to find on eBay. I was wild to get my hands on a bottle a couple years ago and ended up giving in to eBay; later that year I came across a HUGE cache of them at a swap meet...it took all my willpower to walk away with just two back up bottles. I wanted to buy six, but my best friend looked at me like I'd lost my mind, so I put them back. 

It is the blackened green version of Ruby Pumps. It's lots of vivid emerald micro-glitter suspended in a swampy, almost-black, green jelly base; it is wicked and magical. These types of micro-glitter jellies are a China Glaze specialty, but pictures never do them justice. It's deep and multi-layered in real life, and while it would look far more spectacular on long, pointed talons, I'm satisfied with how it makes my perpetual nubs sparkle (will I ever go more than two weeks without a nail break?). 

Of course it could double as a Christmas green, but I've got Zelena flying around in my brain, so it's a Wicked Witch green to me. 

This was three thin coats, plus top coat. I'm finally starting to get in the Halloween mood, so get ready for some appropriate manicures.

American Apparel Berry

I forgot that when you wear dark colors, any little smudge will show up. Boo.

I was in the mood for something dark and moody to go with my nubs, but I didn't want anything overtly Halloween yet. Enter Berry.

American Apparel Berry is a purply, berry-red color. It's nice and rich, and really comes to life in sunlight. Inside it comes dangerously close to becoming a garden-variety dark red, but there's enough purple in it to keep it from being boring. All I needed was two coats.

They must have improved on the brush because it wasn't nearly so floppy and long as the other American Apparels I own. I had great control, and needed barely any clean up.

Revlon Parfumerie Autumn Spice

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.

Zoya London

To the small few who read this blog, sorry for the hiatus. September has been a weird month for me. I've been in a sort of meditative state for most of it, and haven't felt the need to paint my nails. There have been some definite positive changes, namely my grandmother's increasing mobility, and something inside me has been telling me to slow down and just enjoy each day-even if the day is bad. There are a lot of things that will be happening soon; my best friend is getting married on the 6th and I've been asked to be witness, etc. Then some October birthdays to plan for (bestie again, and my godson), and I'm beginning to research teaching programs. 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen; after many long years of confusion about what I want to dedicate my life to, I have finally figured out that I want to teach. Ideally, I'd go in for between kindergarten and second grade; I love children and I feel that they're really the most fun during those years. I vividly remember my second grade teacher, and she was an incredibly caring and nurturing woman, and if I could be half the teacher she is/was, I would consider myself very fortunate.

Anyway.

I've actually enjoyed having bare nails, but I found London while I was *trying* to organize my poorly stored polish, and couldn't resist putting it on. It's a lovely, sparkly, medium grey texture with a classic Zoya formula. Three thin coats, sans top coat, and I was good to go. It is my humble opinion that Zoya textures are the best out there. 

Oh. And it's also fall. Excuse me while I go do some muppet-style freaking out. 

China Glaze Release

Oh my god guys, it's SEPTEMBER. The exciting precursor to that magical month of pumpkin spice everything, sweater weather, and extricating my fall/winter polishes from the overstuffed shoe boxes I have stacked in my closet. I may be stranded in Southern California, but you can bet I've got my boots and scarves on standby. One day I'll be living in the October Country with Ray Bradbury though; one glorious day. 

So let's start off this month with a color from China Glaze's Giver collection. I ended up buying 3 polishes from it, and am considering going back to Sally's for a fourth. The English teacher I had in the sixth grade assigned The Giver as required reading, and I ended up loving it so much that it launched my love of dystopian society novels. I'm SUPER eager to see the movie at some point this month, not only because I love the story, but I may or may not have a huge crush on Jeff Bridges. 

Anyway, here's Release. It's a lovely greyed-out taupe-y lavender, with a literally perfect formula. I used two coats. I'm normally a 3-coater by habit, but I just didn't need a third on this one.I added some little gold studs for some sparkle. 

I didn't notice this until now, but my thumbs look HUGE in these pictures...I promise I don't look like The Hitcher in real life. 0_0