Unknown Blogger Award!

The Lovely JQ of Frippery Digits  has given me an Unknown Blogger Award.  Thanks so much!  I get to tell you a bit about me. 

Questions:

1. When and how did you start your love for polish?

One of my earliest polish memories is of me at some tender age painting my mothers nails blue as we were driving to attend a very formal wedding.  She was busy chatting with a person who was getting a ride with us and didn't notice until we'd arrived.  She was furious!  I couldn't understand why, it was a lovely blue and matched her outfit.  :)  When I was older I worked next to a professional beauty supply but the manager let me sneak over and make purchases.  That was my first OPI polish.  I've been going strong ever since.  Finding a like minded community in the blog world has just been icing on the cake!

2. If you could choose to do anything in the world, what would it be? (Eg. Ski in the Swiss alps, fly in a fighter jet, create a unicorn etc.)

I dream of world travel. Not just a quick holiday here and there, but of settling in for three weeks or more at a time and really saturating myself in the local flavor.

3. What's your favorite love story?

My own.  I had to kiss a lot of frogs and wait for my wonderful man to come around but it happened.  My girlfriend would always smile at me as I sat dreamy eyed and say "Someone has to live happily ever after."

Here are the rules:

Answer the questions then choose 3 - 5 Blogs you would like to tag and link them too. Leave them a comment on their blog that you've linked them.

Important: This award is for unknown blogs, so don't tag some 3000-Reader-Blogs! :)

The blogs I would like to tag are:

Beauty Shades 

Dancing Phalanges

More Than Just Pretty Nails

 

100 Followers!

You know what that means right?  Sure you do. 
I'm plotting it as I type.  Don't go far, I'll be back with details soon.  :) 
Thanks everyone for thinking my wee blog is interesting enough to follow!!!

STOP...Shimmer Time!

I must be in a musical mood as of late because a lot of my birthday polishes are making me think of songs.
This is Savvy's Shimmer Time which was part of their holiday collection. I know for sure there was another color but my three local Sally stores only had Shimmer Time so I've no clue on the rest of them. This is three coats of polish. Isn't it pretty?
There is a lovely copper current running through it. In the bottle it looks almost like a duo-chrome. Unfortunately none of this wanted to come out in my pictures so you must take me on my word.

Thanks for reading, have a lovely day.

Blue Glitter

As part of my birthday pressy to me I got the rest of the glitters from the Burlesque collection so now I have the complete shimmer and glitter collection! AAAAwesome!
Oh how I love me a bit of blingy bling! Check this awesomeness out. This is OPI Simmer and Shimmer over Orly Viridian Vinyl and truth be told my opinion is that the VV if much improved with all the glitterfullness (I love making up words)
Simmer and Shimmer is a silver and blue glitter in a clear base, it's a little heavier on the silver I think but there is also trace amounts of pinkish/purpley glitter and an even tinier amount of yellow glitter in there as well. I've tried to capture the effect but it's been gray as all get out here so I'm taking pics at night by Ott light.

Here you can see the pinkish/purpleish glitter

I got this coverage in two coats and it dried amazingly quickly. Like really dry, not the I can touch the surface but it will dent like mad if I bump it dry.
It's also fairly smooth. There's not a lot of texture to it and a top coat like Seche would take care of that really easily.

In other blue glitter news, I also got China Glaze Dorothy Who? I used that to bling my toes. I lost count of how many coats it took to get this glitter saturation after the fourth coat. Yeah... Still a bit of VNL too, love-ah love it though.


I'm amazed at how smooth this is, really no need for a top coat at all.

Yeah I know my toes are a bit rough...but ask me if I care at the moment...Mmmm, not so much.


So there's my blue glitter run down, I hope you enjoyed. In other news... Joy! 95 followers. This means that I should start thinking about my 100 follower give away huh? Thank you so much for following and commenting. I think I have the hang of this reply thing so please keep the comments coming !

Viridian Vinyl

So this is what Wikipedia has to say about Viridian.

Viridian is a blue-green pigment, a hydrated chromium(III) oxide, of medium saturation and relatively dark in value. It is composed more of green than blue. Specifically, it is a dark shade of spring green, the color between green and cyan on the color wheel. Viridian takes its name from the Latin viridis, meaning "green".

Consider yourself edumicated . :D
I picked this up on clearance at Sally's. I hadn't been terribly interested in the vinyls when they came out but for $1.99 I thought what the hey.

This is two coats and those two coats went on really nicely but it seemed to take a lot longer than my regular polish to dry even for a surface dry. I didn't want to use a quick dry top coat and ruin the vinyl finish so I got a few instant dings.

I'm not quite sure about this vinyl finish although it wears well, this is day four I believe (lost track of time) and I've done a ton of cooking/cleaning. The "vinyl is pretty satin-y to begin with but gradually "shines up" with wear so you're not getting the full effect in these pics...sorry.
It's a pretty green...uh blue...mmm, viridian creme though and worth what I spent on it. I think I'll use a top coat on it though.

Oh Sugar...uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.

Oh honey honey... You're totally going to be singing this for the rest of the day!! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Back to sugar, Spun Sugar that is by Nina Ultra Pro (NUP). A lovely little flesh toned number that I'm pretty darn fond of. It's just so sweet!
Just so you know, these pics make it a bit more apricot than it is in real life where it's pretty darn neutral. If it weren't for the shimmer you could almost say it gives the mannequin look. Is it just me or is mannequin one of those words that just looks wrong?
Spun sugar isn't what I'd call sheer, but it probably takes four coats to get a perfectly opaque look. I say probably because this is three coats and looking closely I can see some visible nail line (VLN).
As far as light neutrals go, I'm going to have to put this in my top 5. It's got enough shimmer to keep it from being drab, it works well with my skin tone so no ruddiness or sallowness. It's easy to apply and dried fairly quickly and it has a nice shine without a top coat.
All these things make it very professional and for me a perfect military polish. I recommend it if you're looking for something a bit more toned down.

thanks so much for stopping by and reading. Until next time take care and have fun!

Cause it's a Bittersweet Symphony That's Life...

As per request by a lovely follower Beauty, I'm going to be showing you the Nina Ultra Pro (NUP) Polishes that I got for my birthday as my first swatches. Stop by her blog, she's just getting started but I love her posts, they're very well thought out and informative. Now, on with the show!
One of my favorite songs is The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. I saw the name on this polish and had to get it based on that along. Silly yes, but luckily it's a pretty polish so it came out well in the end. NUP's Bittersweet is a lovely rosy pink that leans to the dusty side.
It's a straight cream, not a hint of shimmer to be seen but really pretty. I think it would actually be on the granny side if there was shimmer to it. I notice that it brings out a bit more red in my skin tone than I would like but it's not terrible.
It kinda looks like my nails have water spots and that's cause I used Orly Spritz Dry drying spray...I don't think it did much as far as drying and I certainly don't like what it did to my nail surface. It washed off, but I only wash my hands when I was good and sure my nails are dry and I usually take pictures right after I paint so I don't have to worry about dings.
This was three coats polish, and they applied very smooth and nice. I really like my NUP polishes, they're almost always a joy to work with and are very reasonable as far as cost. Win win!

Thanks so much for reading. Any comments are welcome. Until next time ya'll take care now hear!

The embed function was disabled and I don't know how to get around it so if you want to hear Bittersweet Symphony via YouTube click here.

Wanna see what I got...

For my birthday? Yeah I know you do.

Nail stickers and pretty blue glitter. Who doesn't like lady bugs, and check out the pandas, one of them looks like the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) mascot. I have a ton of stickers, I really need to incorporate them into my nail art more often.

Orly Viridian Vinyl, Nina Ultra Pro (NUP) Bittersweet, NUP Spun Sugar

Savvy Shimmer Time , Color Club Resort to Red, China Glaze Dorothy Who?

Ok, saved the best for last here.
Oh yes, look at all that glittery goodness! OPI Bring on the Bling, Extra-va-ganza!, Simmer and Shimmer, and a non-Burlesque color, Friar, Friar, Pants on Fire!

Lets get a better look at that glitter shall we?
Oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about!

Thanks much for stopping by and reading. I know the Burlesque Collection is a little bit yesterday but if you'd like to see them or any of these polishes I'll take requests as to which you want to see first. Let me know if you want to see the glitter layered or on it's own. I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next time you all take care!

Placement AND Consistancy

Hey, check it out, I'm getting better at this nail stamping thing!!
This is Wn'W black over China Glaze Bogie. Other than that, not a lot to say...

My birthday was lovely, I did get some new polishes. YAY!!! Just some clearance items really, I'll get more next weekend after payday. More on the new stuff later. Thanks for reading, until next time have a stuperlouper day!

Bogie

Tomorrow's my birthday! Oh yeah, it's ma birthday gonna party like it's ma birthday! Actually I have no clue what I'm going to do, maybe I'll treat myself to a *gasp* new bottle of polish!
*singing* We had it all, just like Bogie & McCall...
Whoooboy, I seriously just dated myself with that one. No you may not try and guess my age, it is no longer applicable for the moment. :P
So, I love me some Bogie on a black and white screen and I love me some China Glaze Bogie. ...um, I'm not loving the fact that I forgot to moisturize my cuticles after I used the acetone to do my cleanup, so pardon that. Why can't I catch it before I post?
I've had this polish for a while...Like since the Vintage Vixen collection first came out and I am ashamed to admit that this if the first time Bogie has been decanted and graced the surface of my nails. I'm feeling the idiot for it too because it's beautiful. Oh well it's perfectly perfect for my birthday manicure.
This is a deep, rich, plumy purple, actually I think it's a pruney purple, what do you think? Oh come on, you know what a prune is, this isn't a geriatric fiber joke, I'm not THAT old.

Given that it's been around so long there's probably not much I can say about it that you haven't already read so I won't wax too eloquent about it.
My usual two coats. The first coat actually made me worry about streaks but it was flawless on the second coat, sheer perfection to apply, so smooth, so easy...right up until I bumped my thumb and put a big ding in it. *sigh*

So do you ever sit on a polish and then kick yourself for not using it sooner?

Thanks so much for reading and commenting. Until next time, have a fantabulous day, I know I will!

Are the Stars Out Tonight?

So after my last little success with my faux-nading I figured I'd jump back on the horse and ride, Sally ride!
I have to kinda laugh at myself because while my placement is better, these things are angled every which way. I lost my consistency in there somewhere.
So, work on placement AND consistency!
I think my thumb and ring finger turned out the best.
Can you find the one oddball star? Yeah, was trying something...not so much.

Thanks so much for reading, until next time have a lovely, lovely day!

Color Club Rule Breaker

Ever just feel "meh" about a polish? I mean for no good reason. Not that it looks horrid or anything. Maybe it's just a mood thing but that's where I'm at with Color Club's Rule Breaker, just "meh".

It's actually a really pretty teal that leans more to the green side, and the application (two coats here) was nice and smooth, no streaks. This was the last polish I've bought in months! Ahheeeeee...polish purchasing withdraws!!!

Actually, the more I look at it, trying to figure out why I don't care for it, the more I'm liking it. :)

Yeah, it was just a mood thing.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Until next time, have a great day!

I'm Wired

I really like L.A. Colors polish. Like really like. The few polishes that I purchased at the dollar store (awesome polish for cheap, heck yeah!) have all been great to work with.

Today I'm wearing Wired which is a really nice true blue. This is my usual two coats, no streaks, no bald spots and my nails almost seem to paint themselves.

So I oiled my cuticles right before taking pictures and I swear it was as if I put a fur magnet on my fingers! I am just now noticing, and I'm just too lazy to go for retakes. So pardon the pet hair. Actually, let me show you one of my pet hair contributors. :)

This is Baby and she sooooo did not want to get out of bed this morning. :) Neither did I. how about you?

Thanks so much for reading, have a great day! Until next time.