LONG Overdue

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I hope you're not melting away in to a little puddle in all this heat!  It hasn't been *so* hot here the last few days, but it's still hot.  Hurry up Fall!!!

I have a post for you today that's LONG overdue.  Waaaaay back in April, as you may remember, Zoya kicked off their annual exchange program.  The bestie and I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered a lot of polish.  A lot.  Good thing they were 50% off!!

This is what the bestie got, starting at the top left.  Robyn, Indigo, Julienne, Sloane, and Jacy.  On the bottom, starting on the left: Kelly, Delilah, Isla and Paige.

She picked out some gorgeous colors!!  She got two more but they were on back order, so they didn't get pictured with their other sisters. 

I had a harder time deciding because I already had quite a few Zoya polishes...it was difficult to decide which colors to add to my ever expanding collection.

I ended up with a lot of reds, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  And I can't *really* tell which red is which, so I'm going to tell you the two I know for sure: Diem (nude) and Gemma (green).  The other reds are (I think): Divincia, Nidihi, Blair and Quinn.

I adore all the reds I got...and I especially love Gemma.  And I'm counting Quinn as a red because she shows up much more red in the picture - she's really a berry creme.

We both ordered a few colors that were on back order...and they got to us pretty soon after the large lot, but not soon enough for them to be pictured all together.

Here are the triplet that were separated at birth: Dannii and Raven were ordered by both of us.  Now this is where I must've lost my mind when I was labeling the pic because that's not Quinn...that's Drew.  *hides head*  I don't know what I was thinking.  Anyway...


There's our Zoya haul from the polish exchange back in April.  What colors did you pick up?

Mani Spam

Good afternoon, Kitschies!  OK.  I have a love/hate relationship with the time change.  Now that it's the afternoon and I'm getting closer to getting out of the office, I can say I like it.  Ask me in the morning and I'll tell you I hate it.  I especially hate driving to work when it's still dark.  And the boys are a PITA to get up and going when it's still dark.  But, we're planning on taking a walk after we get home tonight, so I guess that'll make up for the grumpiness in the morning.  Right?

I couldn't decide what to share with you all today, so I decided to do a little mani spam.  Ready?

Zoya Aria.  This isn't that accurate as far as color goes.  It's not quite as bright, but the sparkle/glass-fleck is right on.  Very pretty color, but it didn't make the cut because I envisioned something else for this mani.

Zoya Barbie.  Gorgeous bubblegum pink with just a slight bit of blue shimmer.  This was also a great color but wasn't what I was looking for for that particular mani.

Cover Girl Crackle over various colors.  I found this bottle at the Dollar Tree and swiped it faster than I could let out a squee!  I think the blue was ChG Sky High Top; green was Zoya Ivanka; orange was ChG Orange Marmalade; red was Zoya Alix; purple was ChG Coconut Kisses.  I liked how this Crackle was different depending on what color I used.  Oh...I did learn something with this older Crackle.  It does not work over top coat (it flakes right off) and it doesn't work over matte (doesn't crack - same with the new ChG Crackle and the OPI Shatter).

Confetti Blue Bombshell over SH Midnight in Manhattan.  My son wanted me to do half blue and half black and I didn't feel like doing all that so we compromised.  I liked this because it really glowed, but when I layer any color over black, I always have shrinkage at the tips.

NYC Love Letters over SH Black Out.  I had that weird layering shrinkage again, but it wasn't quite as noticeable.  I think I hadn't shared this mani because I didn't get any good pictures.  I must've worn this when the weather was crappy and didn't get a good outdoor pic.

Essence Colour and Go in Everybody's Talking About.  The bestie picked this one up for me when Ulta first opened in October.  It's a pretty color, but the color in the bottle didn't really match the color on the nail.  It looks like a bright berry here, but IRL, it was almost like a fluorescent red.  Kinda weird.  I was going to use this as one of my Two Weeks of Pink, but it turned out too red to be counted as pink.

So...there ya go!  I'll have a St Patty's Day water marble for you later this week (probably Wednesday).  In the meantime, check out THIS POST for a coupon code good for a FREE Hello Kitty stamp plate.

I Think I Need An Intervention

Good evening, Kitschies!  I hope you enjoyed your day - I know I did.  The day started off as usual and then I remembered I had seen something posted on a blog that got me all excited last night.  I enjoy looking at the hauls you all bring in, but I don't usually like to share haul pics because I don't want to show off what I got, but I've got to this time!

I have been waiting on the ChG Tronica collection for what seems like FOREVER!  I'd periodically call Sally's to see if they'd gotten their shipment in and I was usually met with "What?  What is that?"  So disappointing!  C'mon people!  You work in a store centered around trends - would it kill you to keep up with them?  Seriously.  Anyway...I called Sally's this morning and OMG they had Tronica!!  I grabbed my lemming list I had tucked away in my purse and I sped away to Sally's on my lunch hour.  I was a little disappointed when I got there because they didn't have all the colors out, but one of the girls who worked there told me she had them all in the back.  WOOT!!  Wanna see what I got?

I was so excited!!  I was seriously giddy!  These are, from left to right: Hologram (silver), 3D Fantasy (coral), Techno Teal* (teal), Laser Lime (green), Electra Magenta* (pink), Hyper Haute (raspberry), Virtual Violet* (purple).  And there's one missing, but only because NEITHER Sally's I went to (yes, I went to two stores at lunch) had it: High Def (blue).  The colors with * are colors I also picked up for the bestie (because I rock).

Look what else I found!!  The first Sallys also had the Crackle Glaze.  I picked up Broken Hearted for the Bestie and Cracked Concrete for myself.

Oh, and I got impatient for Tronica to come out, so I placed an order with 8ty8beauty.com and got CC Revvvolution and Worth the Risque.  In case you don't know, those are both holos, too, but they're hard to capture with flash.

Here is everybody swatched.  Click on the pic to make it bigger to view the awesomeness of my instantly expanded holo collection.  1 and 2 are Color Club; the rest are ChG (in the order pictured above).

This is Cracked Concrete layered over CC What a Shock! and Broken Hearted layered over ChG Jitterbug. 

I can't wait to use all of these!!  I had to change my mani tonight anyway, so I decided to go with Techno Teal and Hyper Haute as an accent.  Pics of those will come later because I need some direct sunlight to get the goods!

So...are you going to pick up any Tronica?  What are you favorites so far?

Randomness

A bonus entry for the day.  The hubs is playing Star Wars on the Wii with Nate and Mason is napping.  I was going through my pending and pics folders and realized that I had a couple manis I hadn't shown you.  Why?  Maybe because they only had a pic or two or because they just weren't all that great (in my mind).  Either way, in an effort to start the new year off right and a bit more organized than when I left it, I'm going to show you some randomness.

I did this one for a black & white challenge on FAB UR NAILS.  I didn't really care for it, so I never submitted it.  Therefore, I never posted it.  Til now.  This is SH Black Out, Maybeline Express Finish in Shooting Stars (the glitter) and Finger Paints Papier Mache (white) with light blue rhinestones.  I'm still meh about this one.  I really like the glitter but it's PIA and takes FOREVER to dry - even with FDTC.

This is another FAB UR NAILS challenge, but I submitted this one.  I really do like this one; I don't know why I didn't post it on my blog.  This is ChG Foxy with gold and green acrylic paint and a gold rhinestone in the corner on the ring finger and thumb.

Love. Love. Love this color but it's super PIA to capture accurately.  This is OPI DS Extravagance - a GORGEOUS berry holo.  I think I didn't post this because I wasn't happy with the pics.

Another OPI.  This is Rumples Wiggin.  I like the color and the stamping (Color Club Wild At Heart) is cute, but I only got two good pics out of the mani.

OPI again.  This time it's William Tell Me About OPI.  I loved this color in the bottle because you can actually see the super dark plum color, but once it dried, it was darker and it was practically black unless you were in bright sun/light.  I think I wore this mani plain for a day and then added SH Hidden Treasure over top.  I liked it a little better after that.  Again, the pics aren't the greatest.

One more OPI for good measure.  This is Yodel Me on My Cell.  I do like this color, but it ended up be quite a bit more sheer than I expected it to be.  This was the standard 3 coats, but you can see on my thumb and pinkie that it could've used another coat.  Oh, and the stamps (stars done with Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go) didn't show up as much as I would've liked.  That's my big fat fatty kitteh, Sol, in the first pic of this set.

Zoya has yet to let me down and this one is no exception.  However, the pics aren't great and that's why I never showed you.  This is Gloria from the Fire & Ice Flame collection.  It's a really pretty light raspberry pink glass fleck.  The pictures aren't great (are you noticing a trend here?) and so it stayed in my blog pics file.

Zoya Mimi.  Beautiful medium purple glass fleck.  This is the *only* pic I have of this one for whatever reason.  This is more purple than blue as it shows here.  Why are purples so hard to capture accurately?

So, there ya go.  I get to clean up my folders a bit and you get to point and laugh at the horrible pics.  Which one is your favorite out of this?  And the worst?

Challenge Accepted - Part 5

It's the weekend!!! I hope it's cool where you are, because it's not here in Albuquerque. I'm hiding out in the house with all the shades drawn and the cooler on high and it's still super hot in the house. All I want to do is lay on the couch and veg, but two little kids make that a little more than impossible.

Today I bring you Polish Hoarder Disorder's weekly challenge. This week, it's Fashion Inspiration: Betsey Johnson. She gave us a link to Betsey's collection and we had to pick a dress we could replicate the pattern or style of one of the dresses. Hmmm...for me, this was going to be a little more difficult that the others because I don't have a Konad. After going through page after page, dress after dress, I finally decided on a dress. I *almost* didn't want to do this challenge because I loved the mani I had on at the time. But once I got into this one, I really liked it. The dress and the resulting nail design really remind me of the 80's. So do most of Bestey Johnson's designs. LOL

I started with Loreal Waters Edge as the base on all my nails. It's a pretty minty blue creme that applied really easily. I had initially tried this over white because I felt the blue wasn't quite light enough, but with all the decoration on top, I think it really was the perfect blue.

To make the splashes of color, I used a fan brush and randomly brushed on acrylic paint in Canary Yellow, Licorice and Valentine Pink. Since the dress is made of jersey material (ie: t-shirt material), I opted to use ChG Matte Magic to dull the finish. I had just gotten that in the mail from 8ty8beauty.com earlier in the week, so of course I had to play with my new toy!

And here's the finished product. I was really happy with this one. It's actually a design that looked just as good on my nails as it did in my head (that doesn't happen often).

This is my submission collage. After seeing all the great entries, it made me realize that I need to take a little more time with the collage because there are some great ones this time around. Like every week, I'll be anxiously anticipating PHD's next polish challenge - they're so much fun!!

As always, thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Challenge Accepted - Part 3.1

WARNING! Geek alert!! This post has a lot of explanation (reading) and pictures. I won't be offended if you don't read it all. After all...comic books aren't for every one. *but don't tell the hubs I said that*


I was so inspired by Polish Hoarder Disorder's latest challenge (the "book" challenge) that I submitted two entries. The first look was inspired by the Twilight series (specifically New Moon). The second look was inspired by Brightest Day Green Lantern The New Guardians (how's THAT for a title?!). With the artistic help of the hubs, I was able to put this one together.

A little background before I get in to the whole look. The hubs is a big follower of Green Lantern. I've even made him a flower pot with the Green Lantern symbol painted on it. Anyway, a while back, the geniuses over at DC Comics decided that one Green Lantern wasn't enough, so they came up with a whole range of Lanterns that we'll call The New Guardians. Each Lantern has a specific power or drive (which I'll get in to in a bit). I thought this would be a great way to combine something that both the hubs and I love: comics and polish. I had to ask the hubs if I could go through his comic collection - I think he was hesitant for me to do that so I started thinking. I remembered the cool color rings he brought home over the last couple months and thought this is perfect inspiration. I asked the hubs if he had a Green Lantern book with all of the different spectrum of Lanterns on the cover. Luckily, he did (of course he did)! This is the cover.


I started off with a range of 9 colors: red, orange, green (of course), blue, indigo, purple, black and white; one on each finger with an extra of green for good measure. Remember, you can clicky click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

Left hand colors

What I used (L-R): Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in white, Sinful Colors HD Nails, Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, China Glaze Vertical Rush and HaKen Whirlpool.

Right hand colors

What I used (L-R): Pure Ice Black Rage, Sinful Colors Let's Meet, Nail Savvy African Violet, Zoya Lianne and Sinful Colors HD Nails.

Pardon what looks like healing hamburger there on my thumb. That's a thumb vs cheese grater accident leftover from Father's Day (OUCH!).

I wore these colors like this for a full day! It drove me crazy. You don't know how many "what's up with your fingers" comments I got that day. Instead of getting all TMI on them, I usually just said it was a work in progress. On Tuesday night, I decided to put some symbols on the left hand.


Each Lantern has it's own ring with a unique symbol.

Red Lantern: Rage. The ring feeds on the rage of their users; charged by the blood of those users killed.

Blue Lantern: Hope. In order for the blue ring to work, it must be near green. When near green, the blue ring has the power to neutralize negative effects/powers of other rings.

Green Lantern: Willpower. When active, a green power ring will encase its user in a protective, life-supporting force field. This force field allows the user to fly, travel through inhospitable environments, and enter hyperspace in order to move vast distances quickly.

White Lantern: The effects of the white power ring isn't fully known but so far it has been able to do everything the green power ring can do in addition to being able to restore life.

Violet Lantern: Love. The violet power ring can protect it's user by creating an aura; it can create crystals that can be used to trap their enemies.

The hubs wasn't home to help me (he was at Planet Ego) with the right hand symbols and I wasn't about to attempt them on my own. So, on Wednesday, I wore a hand of symbols and a hand of plain color. Nobody asked about it this time. LOL Wednesday night we threw on an episode of Tosh.0 and he did the symbols on my right hand.


Black Lantern: Death. This power ring is worn by the deceased. Kinda like zombie Lanterns! LOL It has the power to partially regenerate an injured body part. It also allows the wearer to read the emotion of the other Lanterns.

Yellow Lantern: Fear. Yellow is the nemesis color to Green Lantern. The yellow power ring can only be powered by fighting Green Lantern. Yellow Lanterns are collectively known as Sinestro Corps.

Indigo Lantern: Compassion. Collectively known as the Indigo Tribe, members carry carved, lantern-like staffs in order to power their rings. The Indigo Tribe can perceive compassion in others and force compassion onto those who feel none.

Orange Lantern: Avarice. The orange power ring has only been owned by Larfleeze (aka: Agent Orange). Larfleeze is the glutton of the group. He is driven by insatiable hunger that is never quelled regardless of how much food he eats. When Agent Orange isn't stuffing his face, he can absorb the identity of the people he kills, creating duplicate evil identities of those killed and they are all driven to kill and absorb those identities. This guy's gotta have it ALL.

Here's the finished product

I wore both hands completed through Thursday. By Thursday night I had had enough of the skittle mani. I really liked the symbols, but all the colors were tiring. I was really happy the way this one turned out, but I was kinda happy to have all one color on Friday. And I think that's the longest I've had one mani since I started into this whole polish business.

My submitted pic


And some other pics with the book

There ya go. Yet another reason I'm a dork. Well, the hubs is really the dork. In this case I'm just the dork by proxy. LOL

PHD has posted her Book Challenge Gallery - Check it out HERE!!

Listening to: Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes (what's up with Pandora being so eerily accurate?!)
Mood: mellow

Lantern descriptions are paraphrased from Power Ring (DC Comics) Wikipedia article.