The rest of the Blush minis, skittle style.

I REALLY ought to work on my cuticle care and overall hand care ... I'm increasingly embarrassed over the shape of my hands. Blah. :(

Anyway ... here are the other 5 colors in the jelly Blush set I posted about a few days ago. From thumb to pinky they are: Stayin' Alive, Can U Dig It?, Pychadelic [sic], Hustle, and Boogie.

Indoors, natural light

Outside, bright sun

OK, so, overall? I guess I got my money's worth ($3.99) ... Blah. The red is nice, the green is just ok, the rest pretty much suck. The formula on these was just as bad as the first one I swatched. Got super glumpy and thick right away, streaky, etc. The purple was the most disappointing polish of the bunch. Look how boring!! It was more sheer than the yellow and green too! I used 4 coats for the purple and 3 for the rest.


These are definitely going into Miss M's collection ... DNW for myself.

Some Claire's bargains = NIGHTMARE!!! (pic heavy)

Sooooo, Miss M and I got the head's up that Claire's would be having their 10 for 10 clearance sale over the last weekend. Since she had a birthday giftcard burning a hole in my wallet (not a mistake, lol. Her gc, my wallet), we were in there bright and early Thursday morning when the sale was set to start. We hit the proverbial "jack-pop." She got about a gabuhjazillion pairs of earrings to play with once her ears heal from piercing, a neon orange "pearl" necklace (she insists it's her birthstone, just orange. Don't ask me! LOL), tons of crap with "Awwwww, kitties!!!" on it, lots of "lickstick" and of course mommy made a bee line for the polish ...


So, I thought I had scored BIG when I saw this set:



Cute, right?!? A set of 7 mini creme brights for a dollar?!? Weeeeelll ... maybe not such a hot deal ... When I applied the first one, I noticed an odd smell. Is that Elmer's Glue?!? But I stayed the course and continued with my skittles ... As the first coats dried, I noticed that even though they applied opaque and creamy, they dried sheer and had sparse glitter. OK. Whatever. It could be interesting. So I carried on. Three coats later, and still smelling glue, I wondered if maybe these are peel off polishes.

Here's the red, blue, orange, purple and pink.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

The next pics have the yellow and green on index and middle, but thumb, ring and pinkie have my other finds; Emerald City, Fire and Magic. I'll comment on those three later.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

OK, speaking JUST about the 7 polish set, they *are* cute, but definitely weird. They would never have built full opacity. I was relatively certain by the feel of the finish that they were peel off paints. Sooo, I started peeling!

OMG!!!! WTF?!?!?! That shit STAINED!!! BAD!!!

Thank goodness, the stains have since faded (remover and acetone didn't touch it, but each time I applied another polish and removed, they got a little lighter. You know when you get gum stuck to your face after blowing a big bubble, and the only thing that can get it off is a larger wad of chewed gum, the bond between the bits of gum is stronger than the bond between skin and gum? I think it was like that concept), and I'm now just a little bit yellowed, but DAMN! That was the worst dollar I ever spent!!! I'm not passing these on, I'm throwing them OUT! BOOOO Hiiissssssss ...

Onto the other 3 ...

OK, this will be short and sweet because I don't have a lot to say about any of them, lol. Let's see the full sun picture again.




Emerald City (thumb): Foil/metallic style with bits of silver and green. Similar in concept to the Orly Foil FX line, but no comparison formula-wise. Thick, goopy application. Good coverage though (pictured is one coat) and it evened out fine. It's a nice color, just not my type. For a buck though, it's a win.

Fire (ring): Neon pinkish orangish red. Pretty sheer. 3 coats shown. Nice smooth application. My pic is no where NEAR coloraccurate, it's a neon. It's just not possible for a $50 camera to do, LOL!!! If you're used to looking at pictures of nail polish though, I'm sure you can see that one stripe of neony goodness on my ring finger and imagine this one stopping traffic. I want to wear this one as a full mani soon.

Magic (pinkie): Sigh. I don't really have anything *bad* to say about this polish, but I don't have anything *good* to say either. I know a lot of people really like this one, and some people even have it on their lemming list, so I feel bad for not loving it, but ... It's a darkish blurple jelly with golden shimmer. It's a fine color, but it's just ... not my thing, I guess. Here's a pointless close up indoors:







The end!

Miss M's birthday money nails ...

MEOW!!!!

Betcha can't guess how long these bad boys stayed on ... LOL!!! Oh well, it was good fun for the 80 cents she spent on them (thanks to mama and her bargaining ways!!). And how jealous are we of all those silly bands??? Very.

All grown up, my brave girl

Last night, The Divine Miss M was treated to dinner by her Nan as a belated birthday treat, and it just so happened that she chose a restaurant in the mall ... I also work in the mall, so I joined them when I got finished up. After our ice cream, we headed over to Claire's to see if they had anything good to spend her birthday gift card on. M immediately headed for the clip on earrings, because, at 7 years old, she had not yet worked up the nerve to have her ears pierced.

When I saw the price for the clip ons, I was appalled. $12 for 3 pair of crappy plastic 'lost in 5 minutes' clip on earrings is crazy! I couldn't, in good faith, let my poor daughter get hosed for that! Soooo, I said "Hey, I bet you can get your ears pierced for the same price as the bunch of clip on earrings you want! You could spend your bday money on that instead ..." She looked at me with eyes that showed the wheels churning in her head. "But it's going to hurt!" she said. "It's only a quick pinch, baby. I bet it hurts less than when I snag a tangle combing your hair," I replied. She said "Nah, " and shook her head.

THEN, Nanny came in the store (she had been at Hallmark). When she heard that I had suggested M get her ears pierced, she shrieked "M, baby, if you get your ears pierced tonight, I'll buy you any pair of earrings you want ..." I then said "I bet they have your birthstone ..."

I think we convinced her!

Click to enlarge to see her pretty purple tourmaline earrings! They didn't have pearl, her true birthstone, tourmaline is the alternate I guess. Once they heal enough to switch out the earrings, I'll get her pearls.


She didn't cry at all. The first ear, she had tears well up in her eyes, but I think it was more nerves than pain. The 2nd ear was easy peasy because she knew exactly what to expect. Within 2 minutes, she was skipping through the mall singing "It doesn't even hurt one bit!" That's my girl ...

iNOTD: Blush Funkadelic (ETA better pics)

As if I have an iPhone ... HA! No, these pics are instead coming from the worlds SHITTIEST phone, the Motorola W490. Oh well. I'm sure you understand.

So, I have this teeny little set by the brand Blush that I picked up last summer at Ross for 3 bucks that I LOVE. Great colors, all jellies, great formula, great price ... So when I saw ANOTHER Blush set at Ross with similar, but slightly different jelly colors and slightly bigger bottles for 3.99, I was ON it! I did not HESITATE to spend my coffee money to obtain these pretties. LOL!!

So, first up, a sideways bottle pic. YAY! (FTR, I took these at work, which is also where I completed this mani, LOL, so, that's why you can see the random things like my tote and a industrial blow dryer for glasses, lolol!!)


From top to bottom, you see Boogie, a boring in the bottle dusty mauvey pink. There's always a meh in collections, right? Next is Stayin' Alive, a BRIGHT orangy red. You'll just have to trust me that it's super bright because it looks pink in the pic. Funkadelic is next, a bright but dusty aqua turquoise teal jelly. Could you DIE?! I could. After that is Can U dig it?, bright spring green. YAAAYYY!!! Next is Pychedelic [sic] which is a hot sunshine yellow jelly. Last is Hustle, a dusty medium-dark purple. The only one I couldn't care less about is Boogie. The rest are exciting! :)

Ugh, I hate that I'm posting such terrible pictures, but I'd rather post something than nothing at all. Here goes ... First pics, then review.

Funkadelic under fluorescent light ... 3 coats with Borghese Presto top coat.




Outside, overcast light.




SUN!!!! I got SUN!!!! ;)

OK, so it's photographing a little on the light side and slightly dustier, but overall, the color in the pics is pretty good. The first one is the best in terms of color. It's slightly neonish, so I'm not sure I would get better results with my real camera ... but I'll certainly give it a shot. At the very least, they won't be blurry, lol.

I had high hopes for Funkadelic based on my previous experience with the Blush brand of polish, which of course means that I was disappointed. :'( I LOVE the color, but this formula SUCKS! It was SO gluey and stringy, it felt like I was using decades old white out on my tips or hot glue or something. Coverage was pretty bad, these pics are all 3 THICK coats, I had no choice. I had to lay it on thick or deal with a huge, impossible mess. Even after 3 coats, it's still sheer in spots, but Presto did a decent job of evening it out. The worst part? Bubbles. I can see them down there ... lurking ... just waiting till I go to sleep tonight to rise to the surface and make my nails look STUPID!!! EEEK!!! As if they don't look doofy enough all filed waaaay down to make the 3 nubs (left pinky, right thumb and middle) look like they belong ...


*grumble grumble* Now my excitement for the other colors has turned to dread. I'll do a skittle swatch to see if any of them are salvageable, and if not, The Divine Miss M will love playing with them. Le sigh.


The End

ETA: Decent-ish pics

This was in my bathroom ... a little too blue.





This one was taken in the living room under regular, indirect CFL lighting. The white CFL washed the color out BIG time, but this is pretty close. It's just a tad more 'vivid' IRL.

Dollar Tree find: Maybelline Boot Leg

I'm kind of embarrassed to show these pictures because I've had this polish on since Saturday (so, as of today, 5 days), and it still looked pretty good this morning ... however, throughout the day, I got a ton of chips on my picture hand, lol! So I took some cruddy right hand pics tonight. *shrug*


So, this is one of the colors polish addicts have been scouring their dollar stores for, and I was lucky enough to find it last week! Woot!


True color was hard to capture on this one, at least under artificial light (I think it's just the nature of the purpley blue though, I haven't seen any color accurate pics elsewhere ...). Imagine a deep dusty blue with a vibrant purple flash loaded with silver shimmer ...



This one shows the purple off a little, aaand shows off my crooked middle finger. It was an owwie break. I'm working through it.


Can you tell I chew my thumbnail a little as a nervous habit? LOL



Ugh, hands are icky. Handwashing dishes + allergic to most lotions = dryyyyyy LOL! But let's talk about the polish. I used this over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap (don't want any stains! My niece's wedding is SATURDAY and she expects her bridesmaids to have sheer tips. Her auntie will comply even though it hurts ...), and topped it off with Seche Vite. So, what you see is 2 coats base, 2 coats color and 1 coat top. Boot Cut was THICK, but relatively easy to control. I had some glumpiness issues on the 2nd coat, and it was tricky wrapping my tips, but I managed. This wasn't going to dry all that well on it's own. You know how you can just TELL? Yeah. It was like that. However, after I added a thick coat of SV, it dried hard as a rock. Killer! All of these pics were taken on the FIFTH day of wear, and my 'hard on my nails' days are Sunday through Tuesday, so they took a beating. I am happy happy happy with the performance of this mani. I will definitely be scooping up a few more from this line (they had some bronzes I would have liked to have, just didn't have the muneez at the moment, so I'm going to go in with crossed fingers that the ones I wanted are still there tomorrow afternoon) if I can!

Anyway. It's 2:30 in the morning ... I just got finished baking The Divine Miss M's cupcakes because she was born this day at 6:54 PM 7 long years ago. *sheds tear* Tomorrow I'll have to devote a post to her to show you what I scored for the little lady off of FreeCycle tonight and what I found on my camera several weeks ago when I came home from work one night. It's so stinkin' cute, I guarantee you'll squee!

Night!

DOOOOOD!!!! KILLER giveaway at Painted Lady Fingers!!

Wish me luck! And good luck to you if you enter! This is probably the most ass kicking giveaway I've run across in a while. I don't often feel compelled to enter, much less do the blog entry part, so please check it out!!

Painted Lady Fingers

I've lost yet ANOTHER glass file, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, SH Insta-Dri opinions and Guess What I Found?!?!

And I can't justify spending the money on another. I SWEAR it was either in my purse, work tote, or on the coffee table. WHERE could it have gone?!? This is the 3rd one I've lost too. They may be better for my nails, but they are pricey to replace. Now where did I put my emery files???


Onto a not so recent NOTD, China Glaze Lemon Fizz!! I have no idea how long ago I took these pictures. Probably late February because I know it was before I went to Chicago/Indy in March ... Aaaannnyway ... These pictures also represent the first time I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri quick dry top coat, which I'm not all too happy with, but more on that later.






I simply LOVE Lemon Fizz from China Glaze's Up Up & Away collection! The color is a super creamy and rich pale yellow that reminds me of lemon icebox pie and Georgia in the summertime (I live in NJ now, but grew up outside of Atlanta, Ga ... I tend to reminisce). If I recall correctly, this was 2 coats with a base and a top. It *may* have been 3, but I rarely have patience for more than 2 coats, and it dried super thin, so I don't think it was. I was satisfied with the coverage, which was a pleasant surprise considering yellows tend to be quite difficult to work with. Dry time was excellent with the SH Insta-Dri, but ...








WTF is THIS SHIT?!?! I'm sure you noticed it in the first set of pics, the weird bumpiness, but the close ups are horrific! I always paint at night and then take pics the next day (or several days later), and this time was no exception. I was SO upset when I woke up to this crap. There was cracking on every single one of my nails, and they only got worse as the day went by. I was afraid it was the polish, but after consulting with the MUA nail board, apparently SHID is known for cracking on some people. It's a body chem thing I guess. I have since found that if I use SHID with dark colors, I'm ok because you can't see the cracks, but it straight up ruins light colored manis. Bummer caz it dries polish super duper fast!



And last but not least ... GUESS WHAT I FOUND (at Dollar Tree)???


Maybelline Boot Cut! Awwwww yeaaaaahhhh!! I'll post pics tomorrow. :)



So there you have it.



The end ...

Crappy cell pics of OPI Lazy Daisy/Dazy Pink

Sooo ... I have all these pics of polishes at home waiting to be displayed here, but I am a TERRIBLE blogger, so I make no promises. I have been absent for a few reasons, the main one being sloth. I also have long periods of the blahhhhs, one of which I have been in for the last month and a half or so. :( Anyway, in late March, ALL of my nails broke off, and then I just stopped caring for them altogether. A couple of weeks ago, I decided enough was enough and stopped chewing on them and started painting with light colors to keep them from staining (my niece's wedding is coming up, and she requests us all to have a french mani or light/sheer color). I still haven't gotten back into my moisturizing and cuticle care routines, so I'm very much rough around the edges, but I figured if I was painting, I may as well snap some pictures and throw them up here.

Which brings me to my NOTD! I found OPI Lazy Daisy (or Dazy, I can't remember what's on the label, and the internet hasn't been much help) Pink at Ross a couple months ago for 3.99. It wasn't a color I would normally wear, but I thought, at the very least, my daughter would like it. Annnd, it was only 3.99!! I couldn't not. Turns out it's pretty rare these days, as it was part of a limited edition set in 2004 or 2005! Yay for rares!!!


Sooo, I snapped a couple pics on my terrible cell phone a few minutes ago, and here they are:








Picture 2 is the best. LDP is an opaque light pink with a pearl finish with a little frost. Frosts usually suck, but this isn't too bad. I think this would be a universally flattering color, and I kind of wish I was still ghostly pale to see what it looks like against super white skin. I have a bit of a driving tan (lol) on my hands and arms, and it looks REALLY nice against my sun kissed skin. I'm betting it would look equally nice with my pale winter skin, like pink on ice.


LDP has the tell tale black type on the bottom label, which means it is NOT b3f, but I didn't get any of the usual application benefits of chemically polish. It was pretty streaky (I did 2 coats, wished I had time to do 3), sloooow drying even with a quick dry top coat (I watched tv in bed for over an hour after painting/before falling asleep and still had sheet marks in the morning), has a few bubbles, and is still really dentable the next day. :( Oh well. Thems the breaks. I love the color.

March: In like a leprechaun, out like a lamb.

I have 2 full plastic shoeboxes of untried polish in my stash, so I have decided that my March polish activity will be "In like a leprechaun, and out like a lamb." All manis up to St. Patty's Day will be green (I have 14 untried greens!), and all after will be light, baby, soft, lamby colors (not exclusively white though).


I have already done my first green mani, and will get that up tomorrow night. I can't get the pics uploaded and posted tonight. It's already after 12, and I'm taking a big risk typing this up with still squishy nails, lol.


*yawn* Ok, nights.