Please haaalp

Photo courtesy of Google

I don't know how many of you have seen The Fifth Element but it's an all time favorite in our house. When the heroine (Milla Jovovich) meets the hero (Bruce Willis) she wins him over with those two words...Then goes on to kick serious boo-tay and save the world. What's not to like?

Hopefully those two words work for me too. :)

Here's the sitch. I was at Ross and saw this great collection of Color Club polishes, none of which I had for $7.99. So I think to myself, "Self, 7 full size polishes for $8...Um yeah, you are so not going to find a deal like that at a beauty supply." So I grabbed it and clutched it to my chest all the way to the registers.
So I get home and go sit down at the table and with all the grace of a kid at Christmas tear into the box, only to discover...(GASP) None of the bottles have name lables!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooo!!

How could they not lable the pretty colors and leave them with no names? Not on the container, not on the cardboard holder/insert, not on the bottles. I went onto the Color Club website. but half the swatches they provide look exactly the same and this "collection" isn't listed. I think the blue may be Trippy Hippy but not sure on it.
Here's where I'm hoping my wonderful readers can help me. Have any of you run into this collection and already chased down the colors? Or do any of these jump out at you screaming "I'm such and such color!"
Any assistance offered would be super much appreciated. I'll even put you on my Christmas card list!

Thank you all and until next time take care. Ciao!

And the Winner Is!!

With the help of my lovely assistant daughter and slips of paper (yes, the old fashioned way) a winner for my Teensy Weensy give away was chosen. Drum roll please!

SayAnythingBrooke, Congratulations! I will be contacting you via email to get your address so I can send off your Color Club With Abandon and Mystery Item.

To everyone that entered, thank you for being my awesome followers, I really appreciate you and your comments.

Until next time, thanks for reading, ciao!

Give Away Count Down

Just a quick reminder, my teeny tiny give away ends at midnight tonight. So if you haven't entered yet there's still time.

Much Needed Maintanance and Mulberry Madness

For the last week my feet and hands have been sadly neglected and abused. My poor feet have been stuffed into combat boots for 14+ hours a day with no further consideration and I told you about my poor abused hands already.
With today being cold, gray and rainy I figured it would be a great time to rectify the neglect. After I took off my old polish I hopped in a nice warm shower for a long soak and at the very end when everything was softened up I grabbed my Mr Pumice bar and took it to the soles of my feet, sloughing off all the built up nastiness. I love the way my feet feel so soft and smooth when I'm done, I swear by my Mr. Pumice (available at Sally's).
Next I took cuticle oil (by No Lift Nails with Avocado, Almond & 'E') to my fingers and toes and let it sit for a few minutes before using an orange stick to gently push back my cuticles and scrap the nail around the cuticle areas and under the nail as well. after that I used cuticle nippers to cut off any skin snags from my torn up cuticles and the cuts I sustained during the week. It was a hot mess!
Then it was time for lotion, Curel Intensive is my go to of choice and m poor hands were so dry that I actually had to do this a couple of times for my hands to feel right again.
Lastly, I rubbed in some Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. Yummy! Don't you just wish that you could find a pastry that tastes like this stuff smells?
After letting that settle it was polish time, I used a q-tip and acetone (so as not to dry out my newly moisturized skin to clean the nail and applied my new Orly Ridge Filler, let that dry and applied two coats of Finger Paints Mulberry Madness followed by two coats of Seche.
You'll have to forgive the pictures, as said, it's a gray day, not a smidgen of sun to be seen so these pictures are taken under my Ott lamp.
Any unhappiness I had with Mulberry Maddness' lack of shine is resolved by the two coats of Seche. There is still a little texture from the glitter but other than that...I wish you could see this in real life. It just glows. Sooooo pretty and sparkly! It's my second favorite after Holly Good Times. It's drying out way too fast though, I've had the bottle open three times and it's getting kinda goopy and in need of some thinner.
Ahhhhh, I feel human again!

Thanks for reading and if you haven't already entered my little give away you only have until tomorrow to do so. The winner is announced on the 11th. Until next time, ciao!

Catching Up

OhMyGosh, Thank god it's Sunday and my 8 day work week with 12 hour shifts if finally over! I was getting up at 2 in the morning to be to work by 4, talk about tired.
My poor hands haven't looked this bad in ages. Between the charcoal from chem suits, physically inspecting gas masks and airmans manuals and just the overall grit and grime my hands were a mess, my cuticles got so torn up that I was applying nu-skin every other hour or so.
The whole week was absolute hell. It was a huge inspection so everyone was freaking out and over reacting. I got yelled at for doodling in a notebook, Locked my keys in my car, had to get shots, one of which was tetnus which left my arm really sore for a couple of days...Just one of those weeks where one thing after another hits you.
Thursday I called my boyfriend and asked if I could buy myself some nail polish to cheer myself up. He laughed and said I don't have to ask permission (which I don't, but if he says yes, which he always does, I don't feel guilty about spending money on polish) and that if it made me happy to go for it. Wheeeee! Love my guy! Here's what I got.

I've been using OPI Ridge Filler and love it but want to see how this works. And I'm constantly in search of a perfectly awesome quick dry top coat.

I'm sure the Orly Holiday Collection polishes need no introduction, I used Winter Wonderland and Meet Me Under the Mistletoe to create a French on my daughter. Looove love Winter Wonderland but was kind of disappointed by MMUtM, the green isn't quite what I was expecting from all the pics and it's goes on pretty sheer.
I'm not sure how familiar people are with Velvet Rope. I understand that it's from the Hot Stuff Collection but other than that I've no clue. It's a lovely purple with silver glitter though.

My absolute FAVORITE polishes for the season here!!!
There's nothing terribly exceptional about the Sparkle Top Coat, It's exactly what the name implies and doesn't bother going any extra distance.
Holly Good Times on the other hand is my all time personal fave and I think the star of this little show with it's red and gold glitter.
Mulberry Madness is pretty in bottle but in a quick test, appears to dry to a satin finish which I think detracts from the effect. Maybe some people like sparkles in an un-shiny polish (think CG Flying Dragon) but I'm just bummed because I was expecting two things from the holiday collection, glitter and shine and that just doesn't translate onto the nail even with a clear top coat.
Where Holly Good Times is Holiday Barbie, Winter Wishes is Skipper, (you know, the cute one.) It reminds me of the cardamom & sugar mixture that I make to sprinkle on toast. It's a nice neutral sparkle.

Last but not least, some Color Club & Savvy. I'm just going to say it...Coverd in Diamonds (my bottle at least) is for lack of a better word, craptastic. The formula is painfully thick and doesn't apply well at all, the bottle I purchased has a frayed brush and the flakes don't lay down well at all. I was left with ragged edges and pokey parts.
Wild and Willing is gorgeous! A lovely copper duo-chrome, it shifts in bottle through shades of pink, green, yellow and copper. Pretty pretty!
Savvy's Mango is a pretty cream that I'm currently wearing. I'm debating taking pictures because of the state my hands are in but we'll see.

Stay tuned, swatches to come and if you haven't already, join my give away!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, ciao!

A Teensy Weensy Giveaway (Closed)

Hey, I have a bottle of Color Club 'With Abandon' and a mystery item to give away to one of my wonderful followers. Since it's so weensy I'm just going to run it for a week for followers only and it is open internationally. And to keep it simple, just one entry per follower. Just leave me a message with your info and I'll let you know who gets it sometime on the 11th.

Until next time keep your head up!
Ciao!

Color Club 'With Abandon' (Giveaway?)

Pardon my pictures, they were done in late afternoon sunlight. I'd finished painting them late in the day and knew I had to take pictures while they were still pretty or they'd be hammered by the next day. I don't know what I do, but my mani's never stay pretty past the first hour or so.

A rather quick post today. I may have mentioned that I have military duty this week so my nails are being neglected. I was proud of myself for managing to rub some Burt's Bees cuticle cream in this afternoon while I was standing around. They really needed is, I've had to trim off three hangnails in the last couple of days. Since I'm not polished I pulled this out of my un-posted archives that I keep just for such occasions. So, on with the show.

I just wanted to bring your attention to a lovely fall color. With Abandon is a black jellee with tons of brown/copper/gold micro-glitter. This is actually one of the polishes that I got for giving away because I liked mine so much I had to get some lucky reader their own bottle. Aren't I just a sweety?

Application was quite easy and although the first coat was a wee bit streaky, it all balanced out though and looks just lovely if you ask me.
I hope you enjoy this polish, if you don't already have it, stick around and you'll have a chance to win it...

Hmm, Since I probably won't be able to post to much this week shall we have a teeny tiny give away this week?...say for this polish and a surprise item? What do my readers say?

Until next time have a great day! Ciao!