Quirius The Arabian Nights

I should save the best for last but what the heck, I want to share so heads up ya'll, this is a must have in my book!

Another of my favorites from my QRS Beauty order The Arabian Nights is an awesome holo glitter in a black jelly base. 

These pictures do NOT do the rainbow-y goodness justice, but I'm working with fake light at night and the colors wanted to hide a bit so just trust me on this.  Here's a blur shot so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

The black is pretty saturated as far as jelly goes and two coats is pretty opaque.  This is three for good measure.

 The finish when dry is pretty smooth and you could easily get away with not using a top coat.  I put one on just because I could.  

 

I love how this looks on my shorter nails.  

Quirius Cresskill Eve

I just got an order from QRS Beauty this weekend and again, I am beyond thrilled with my polishes.  Honestly, if you don't have any of their polishes in your collection you are seriously missing out. 
I don't have a deal with them (although I wouldn't mind) and am not getting any reward off of recommending them so this is my honest opinion. 
They have a great selection of colors and finishes. The prices are quite simply amazing ($3.99 for .5 fl oz),  They are one of the quickest companies I've ordered from, and they ship to ensure that your polish arrives safely, boxes, bubble wrap, the works.  Love them.  (And it doesn't hurt that they send a  gift with your purchase, free polish is always a good thing.)

So one of my three favorites from this order is Cresskill Eve.  The first thing that came to my to mind is a highly patinaed bronze but the easiest way to describe it is a dark olive green with gold shimmer. 

  

I haven't been able to catch any of the brief moments of sun for pictures so all of these pictures are taken via an Ott lamp in the evening.  For some reason my camera is picking up red in my skin so I look horribly sun burnt and the high contrast is making my cuticles look much worse than they are so please pardon. I swear I don't look like this in real life. 

I love the consistency of this polish.  It pretty much painted it's self onto my nails.  This is three coats although two would have probably been sufficient.

 

Here you can really see the lovely olive green  that is the base color.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  

 Another thing I really like about these polishes is the smell...or rather the fact that, at least to my nose, it's not as prominent as it is with some other polishes.  Don't get me wrong, it still smells like polish, but just not as strong.

I picked up 8 colors so plan on seeing more QRS polishes.  Thanks so much for stopping by, until next time, take care. 

China Glaze Atlantis

I would have loved to have featured this as a Worth Repeating polish but it may be getting to be hard to find.  My regular online spots and Amazon are both out of stock, get it now if you can because it's well worth it. 

Check out the holo of that glitter.  

When Atlantis first came out (Specialty Collection 2009)  it was a big hit and it's completely understandable why.  The lovely ultramarine tinted base is punctuated with a large quantity of holographic glitter and builds up beautifully. 

Like a rainbow in a bottle isn't it.

Since it requires building up for a more opaque look it's suitable for using as a top coat or as a stand alone polish.

 

Over Ulta Envy 

If you're using it as a stand alone be prepared to use at least four coats.  I've got four thin ones here and you can still see a visible nail line.  You may prefer to use a coordinating base color under it for easy opacity.  It does have a rather grainy texture when dry so have a nice thick top coat on hand to smooth things out.

Removal is standard for glitter I didn't have any problem using the acetone and foil method, although I've heard some say it was a beast to remove. 

The diamonds are of course my own addition  and were such a perfect color match I couldn't resist.  I got mine at a local beauty supply but you should be able to find something similar online.  These need a pretty strong top coat to keep the corners from coming up and snagging.  

Lady M is having a give away

If you read my blog you know that I usually post give away info in my side bar rather than in a blog post but Lady M at Intense Color was ever so polite in contacting me and asking if I would let my readers know about her first give away that I'm breaking with tradition.  Actually I really like the idea of spreading word for first give aways so I may make that a tradition.

She's giving away a bottle of O.P.I's Who the Shriek Are You! from the Shriek collection. and Nicole by OPI's Love of Life...Photo from her site.

She's been nail blogging for less than a year and I'm sure you can recall how it was when you first started so stop by and show some of the love that we nail bloggers are famous for.

**Her give away is open internationally and will go until April 9th.

Worth Repeating?

I'm going to start a series called Worth Repeating where I will highlight polishes that had their moment in the spotlight in the not so distant past but have somewhat fallen to the wayside.

I intend for these to be polishes that are still easy to get your hands on and and well worth adding to a collection if you don't already have it.  I am hoping that this will be beneficial to those that are just catching the polish bug and looking for polishes to add to their collections.   

I also intend for these to comply with my nothing over $12 rule for those that may find it difficult to justify more than that on their income. 

If all goes as plan I will highlight a Worth Repeating polish at least a couple of times a month, maybe more if applicable.  If anyone has any suggestions on polishes that they feel should be included please let me know, I think it would be great to have some guest blogs and my own collection has it's limitations.

So dedicated readers (you know who you are)  what think you on this? I'm wanting to start it this week and seeing  how it flies. 

New Polishes

I thought I'd share some new polishes that I picked up this weekend.

S.H. Insta Dri in Slick Slate and China Glaze Pelican Gray.

Nicole by OPI in Let's Get It Star-ted and Piggy Polish Daylilly's and Music.

Ulta Blue for You and OPI Houston We Have a Purple.

Can I just say how much I adore the name Daylilly's and Music.  It makes me think of a Victorian Drawing room, wallpaperd in pale green, sunlight streaming through sheer curtains and in the center of the room is a piano, decorated with a vase of lilies and strewn with sheet music.

I wasn't really planning on getting HwhaP (Ok, that abbreviation makes me laugh, let's just call it Houston.) until I saw it on Danielle's Polished Obsessed post.    It was just too pretty to not try myself.  I think I'm glad I did get it.  We'll see once I try it on my nails.  

Pelican Gray was just too pretty a gray to pass up, and the others were on clearance so what the heck.  Love clearance polishes!   

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Until next time, take care!

S.H. Slick Slate and Some Nail Art

I like this color.  I think it falls into the Taupe category more than the Greige.  There are definite hints of Pinkish/lavender in there. 

 And it looks great with teal.   I used my 2 way nail pen by Nail Star to create the outline and dots. 

 Then for fun I took Blue Moon Lagoon and filled in the flower and added a couple of little bits of flair. 

 I think it came out simple but pretty darn cute.

 What do you think? 

Thanks for stopping by, until next time, take care.

In Spite Of...

Like mega ick.  7/31/10 

I am human, therefore I am far from perfect.  I do my best and my best is better some days than others,  but frequently I don't conform to the ideals for nail blogging.  In my world there are snagged cuticles, I sometimes miss some cleanup, my nails are different lengths since they no longer have acrylics to lend uniformity. And we already know how notorious I am at dinging my polish before it's dry. 

 

Overestimated the  speed of a quick dry top coat 8/17/10

Oh, and I could care less whether or not blog links are posted in my comments, I can choose whether or not to click on them. I'm not going to delete the post or rant about it in my next entry.  
 

Uh...yeah, Fail! 8/30/10

But you know what...to hell with all that.  Bottom line is that I love nail polish, nail art and all things nail.  THAT is what I'm here to share with you and that is why you're here reading right now. (That or morbid curiosity over the train wreck pictures.)  I do my best without being OCD about it, and while it has completely taken over my kitchen table and the floor around it, it has not taken over my life.

  A hot pink mess!  Check out that gap! 11/16/10

 But I really don't care for my fellow bloggers to be bullied by the judgments, snide comments and derision of those that take it upon themselves to tell it like it should be from the very public platform of their blog.  The same end can be reached sans rudeness  and just because you can doesn't mean you should.  And that includes those that by agreeing with said comments, condone such behavior. 

Lawd, check out those cuticles and dry skin!! 

We're all human and we all have our off moments (days...weeks), nails can be a fickle thing, but we're here for the love of it and the love of sharing that with others.   It's a learning process and part of the beauty of it is the journey, not just the destination.    If you're here for perfection you should look elsewhere, if you're here to join me in striving for it, welcome. 

The Wearin' o' the Green

I'm getting on the St Paddy's wagon, after all, green is one of my most favoritist colors.

These are based off of some nails I saw on Nail Art by Tartofraises  a while back but I can't find the exact post now.  I tried to get mine to have more of a shamrock appearance while hers were big, somewhat mod styled flowers.

 I used OPI Gargantuan Green Grape as the base color, China Glase Outta Bounds for the shamrock outlined in OPI Black Onyx  .  The glitter is Color Club Object of Envy . 

I'm pretty sad about the state of my nails. I'm horrid about wearing gloves for house and yard work my cuticles look...well, pretty craptastic.  My almost sewing through my finger didn't help either.  *sigh*

You know though, they never look this bad until after I hit the "Post" button.   I think it's like the tv camera adding 10lbs, the "Post" button adds 10 cuticle snags and polish glitches. To the cuticle police out there I promise to do better next time.

Ok, enough whining.  Thanks so much for stopping by and reading, you all take care.

I've Got a New Crush - Colored Foils

Honestly given my track record with foils I didn't think these would turn out.  Imagine my happy dance when they did!!

 

This is Tanzanite Fire foil that I got from Dollar Nail Art.  I applied it over China Glaze Side Saddle and finished off with Sally Hansen Clear'd for Take Off .  These lasted for three days before the foil layer on my right hand started rubbing off.

  

While the top coat did dull the finish a bit it obviously didn't have the nasty, discoloring, wrinkling effect I have had in the past.  I wonder if it's because it's a colored foil rather than the silver I've used in the past.   I am over the moon with how it came out.  I ordered some other colors so I'm excited to try them. 

*please excuse my nasty cuticles and shorty nails.  I've been doing a bit of housework and they've suffered, unfortunately I'd removed the foils already when I went to post these pics so pretty retakes weren't an option.

Yodel-le-hee Yodel-le-hee Yodel-oh!

I'm having a bad nail day.  You know, the ones where you detect a snag and instead of leaving it alone until you can fix it you pick at it until you end up ripping your nail to the point where you can't save it.  :(  Yeah, that was me last night...On FOUR nails!  We're talking down to the quick, itty bitty nubbins.  This is one downside to my new gel nails.  So sad. 
So I'm trying to determine how bad it is.  I certainly don't want the rest of my nails down to the quick, that would just be silly even for the sake of consistancy. So for the next few days I'm going to be working on them to see if I can get them back to the point where I'm not ashamed to show them to blog land. and for the next few posts you're going to be getting back photos.

Just so you know, I have to sing the title of this blog entry like they did in the Sound of Music. Yodel-le-hee Yodel-le-hee Yodel-oh!  And if I just gave you an earworm and you're going to be singing this throughout the day...well so am I so I'm not sorry.  :) Don't you just love me all to pieces? You can thank me later, lets move onto the star of this show.  Which I'm sure you've figured out is OPI's Yodel Me on my Cell.

I wasn't expecting this polish to be as sheer as it was. In the bottle it looks really rich and opaque but alas, it took three/four + touch up coats to get complete coverage. Totally worth it for this beaut though if you ask me. The color reminds me of the ocean when I was in Hawaii years ago. In this landlocked state of mine I rarely see it outside of screen savers.

Application was super smooth though, no streaking and since I took my time between coats no dragging either, exactly how I like it.

This is from the Swiss Collection which was kind of hit and miss with me.  This was for sure a hit.  If you have a thing for lovely blue's and don't have this, I highly recommend. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading.  Until next time, take care.

Guest Nails - Crackle Mani

Allow me to introduce my lovely daughter and her gorgeous long fingernails.  She was really excited (like really, made me proud) when I brought home the crackle polishes by China Glaze so she worked up a full mani using them and OPI's Black Shatter.  I think it turned out really cute.  We didn't get pics of it until she'd been wearing it for a few days though so pardon the wear and tear.  (I helped with application and clean up but she even took her pictures herself.)

First we applied a coat of Orly Bonder then two coats of Orly Dazzle

Then we applied China Glaze Crushed Candy to all but her accent fingers.

Her accent fingers (ring on her left, index on the right) were done with a top coat of OPI's Black Shatter finished off with two coats of Seche Vite. 

She was really excited for me to share this with you and any comments will be passed on to her.  Thanks so much for reading and have a great one.

And the Winner Is...

Ok, I'm posting this a little (lot) later than I planned but hey, it's still Monday right? 

I want to thank everyone for entering my give away.  Welcome to all my new followers, I hope you stick around. 

Ok ok, I'll stop stalling.  Without further ado, the winner of my 100+ Follower Give Away iiiiiisssssss

Sharon!!

Congrats, I'll be contacting you via email for your mailing address. 

Scented Polish, Fabulous or Flop?

Can you believe that we're almost done with the first week of March already??  Time does fly.

I want to thank everyone for entering My Katy Perry Collection give away.  (If you haven't entered it ends tonight at midnight my time (mountain standard time).  Find out more here!)  I'll be counting entries this weekend at work and will announce the winner come Monday. 

Now on with the polish post

I remember as a kid having a scented polish.  While I don't remember the specifics of it I'm sure it was supposed to be some fruity bit of fluff that was especially for the younger kids.  Of course it didn't really smell as good as the hype painted it but it wasn't quite as chemically as the regular stuff...which, not to date myself was back before the three free so was pretty darn stinky.
I haven't really taken note of any scented polishes until recently when I saw the Revlon line.  While most of the scents and colors didn't appeal I couldn't resist the temptation and have picked up a few.

 Here is Beach, a really nice yellowish green and we know how I love green.  Green beaches...not so much.  I did NOT love the scent on this one, not pleasant at all and while it wasn't the chemical smell of regular polish what ever beach they were basing the smell off is a place I don't want to visit. I wish they'd gone with a lemon, lime or green apple for this instead, the fruit scents are far better in my opinion.

 Super sheer, I stopped counting how many coats after the third.  Pretty sure I've got at least five here and check out that nail line.

I probably shouldn't have shaken it, bubbles are bad!

 Not So Blueberry has a distinctive fruity scent that while not exactly what I'd call blueberry, I really liked.  I'd be tempted to keep my fingers up my nose for this one. 

 Not a sheer as Beach thankfully, this is three maybe four coats.  That shimmer gets all over the place when you go to take it off though.

 The hearts came from Nicole by OPI's Step to the Beat of My <3

Finally Grape Icy (which was swatched awhile back on longer nails)

 This is my favorite color of the three.  Unfortunately the scent wasn't as strong as the other two but it is a very yummy if not cliche grape scent. 

All three have had a very thin consistency, which cause puddling around my cuticles and took several coats to achieve good coverage with Beach being the worst. 
I grabbed Grape Icy and Beach  a while back and just recently got Not So Blueberry, The scent can last up to two days which is as long as any of these lasted on nail. On my nail wheels the scent has lasted over a week but that's obviously not with hand washing, dishes, cleaning etc so I can't say much on that. 
These would be great for kids or anyone with a sensitive nose.  I know there is a Cherry and Raspberry scent with colors being what you'd expect as well as a blue, orange and a couple of other colors/scents as well.  If you have a problem with the smell of regular polish you may want to look into these as an option.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading.  Wishing you a great day!

Color Club and OPI - A Dynamic Duo (pic heavy)

I wanted to have a little bit of fun so I grabbed Color Club's Volt of Light.

 Holy Moley, that's bright!!!

 Truth be told, I stopped counting how many coats this is after I reached the fourth one. 

 It applies quite nicely but it looks a bit sparse. 

It has a lovely green shimmer to it though that I just adore.  It doesn't like to come out for pictures though, this was the best I could get, you may want to click it bigger.  

Let's add a little Black Shatter to the mix now!

 Zinggggggggggg!!!

 It makes me think of the new school crossing signs they have now. 

 I'm loving the way the Shatter worked on my nails. 

 Can you see that green shimmer coming up through?  

Hope you liked.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Take care!

Have you entered my Katy Perry Collection Give Away yet??? It ends this Friday.