Big Purple Monster

Oh, Kitschies!  I have a wonderful head cold that I picked up from my husband...or my son...or a co-worker.  I'm not dying, but I don't feel great, so this post is going to be pretty short.

I went to the Albuquerque ComiCon this weekend, twice, actually.  I went to represent Duke City Derby (of course) but I also went to see what all the hubbub is about.  Now, it's nowhere near as big as San Diego ComiCon, but for Albuquerque, it was a pretty big deal.  I picked up a couple beautiful prints by David Mack and I found a new artist that I liked a lot in Urban Myth Studios.  It's too bad (or is it a good thing?) I didn't have more money to spend this weekend because I could've come home with a lot of really cool stuff.  Who knew all my hubs' comic nerdyness would eventually rub off on me?

Anyway...I have a pretty, pain in the butt polish to share with you today.  I came way of this polish courtesy of my bloggy buddy Emily at Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?  I mentioned I was looking for Studio M polishes and she said she wouldn't mind picking some up for me.

Studio M Purple Medallion.  It's a red-based purple *full* of glitter, both pigmented and holo.  This polish is *super* thick and it eats top coat for breakfast, lunch *and* dinner, but the blingy payoff is worth looking past this polish's flaws.

She's not very pretty to look at in the shade, though the purple color itself is pretty.  But when you get her out in the sun and you see the holo sparkle, she lights up.

Blurry to show holo-y goodness.  This one is super thick (even after a few drops of thinner) so the wear was not great.  I only got to wear this for a few days without *big* chunks coming off.  Either way, sometimes a polish is too pretty to set aside. 

What do you think of Purple Medallion?  You can see her sister, Big Red Monster, here at THIS post.  Do you have any polishes that have such horrible formula but are too pretty to ignore?

Big Red Monster

Hey, Kitchies!  Isn't it amazing how life gets in the way of the best laid plans?  Here it is already Tuesday and my brain is still stuck on the weekend.  To tell you the truth, I barely remember Monday.  Geeze!!  Or maybe my brain has already skipped ahead to Wednesday because the hubs and I are going to a baseball game after work.  Either way, I'm already tired.  LOL

I have a beautiful but pain in the butt polish to share with you today.  I have yet to see Studio M in New Mexico and I just happened to read Emily's blog one day where she mentioned Meijer.  I got all excited and asked if she minded picking up a couple polishes for me and she said she would.  How awesome is that?!

This is Barry M Slamming Red.  It's a really, really pretty polish in the bottle: red base with holo glitter.

This polish is so pretty - these pics do not do it justice.  But.  And this is a *big* but...the formula was THE SUCK!  Thick.  Gloppy.  Nightmare.  And the finish isn't that great, either.  It's super bumpy and eats top coat.  However, like I mentioned in THIS post, sometimes top coat-eating polish is something I can overlook because it's so pretty.  This isn't really one of those polishes.   

I wore this polish to a kid's birthday party - it was a hit.  It's so sparkly under artificial light.  The wear wasn't all that great - maybe two days.  I think part of the problem was that it's so thick!  I tried to drop a little Zoya Renew in there, but it didn't do much (no fault of Renew). 

The blurry pic gives you some hint of how pretty this polish can really be.  I know I haven't worn this polish since (and I wore it back in April.  APRIL!) and I can honestly say that I'm not sure if I'm going to wear it again.  If I do, I might use it as a pedi color.  As with most chunky glitter polishes, this was also a pain in the butt to remove.  I had to resort to the foil method to remove all the chunkiness.

I don't mean for this post to be so negative, but it's hard to say completely positive things about a polish with so many faults.  With all that said, I do like this polish, I just wish it were...different...better.  Is that so wrong?

Don't forget!!  You have until 7/20 to enter my Summer Giveaway!  Check it out HERE.

Happy 4th of July - Version 1.0

Good morning, Kitschies!  We've made it to Thursday...how many of you have a 3-day weekend coming up?  I do!  It's 4th of July weekend but it's stoopid dry here and the governor asked us to please not use fireworks this year.  She said she doesn't have the authority to ban the sale of legal fireworks...if she doesn't, who *does*?  *sigh*  I know we're going to my MIL's house for a BBQ on Saturday and Sunday, we're getting together with our besties and our gaggle of kids for another get together.  Funny thing is, we don't have plans for the actual day of the holiday.  Who knows.  Maybe we'll get some rain that evening and it won't matter what we do because we'll be confined to the house. 

I'm a pretty patriotic person; I love red, white and blue.  My kitchen is painted red, white and blue and it's decorated with various America-themed trinkets.  So, as you could imagine, I have used red, white and blue in my share of manis!  This is my first 4th of July themed mani of the season.  And, actually, I did this for Memorial Day back in May.  LOL  I *told* you I'm behind in posting!

This is Orly Monroe Red (gorgeous red creme with subtle red shimmer), ChG Frostbite, Studio M Magic Attraction and white striping polish.  I first saw this on Sally Beauty's Eye For Beauty in January and then did my version in February.  I liked the design so much, I decided to give it another go...this time in red, white and blue!

I had a bit of shrinkage at the tips with the chunky silver holographic polish and some drag with the blue in to the white, but all in all, I really liked how this turned out.

While I'm thinking about it, I have my bestie to thank for Orly Monroe Red.  She asked me to pick up a "hooker red" polish back in the fall.  I liked it so much on her that I decided to snag a bottle when I saw it on clearance at Sally Beauty in April. 

This wraps up my first of at *least* two 4th of July inspired manis.  I did a RW&B water marble Tuesday night that turned out pretty great.  I attempted a tie-dye version but that didn't turn out so great.  LOL

What are your plans for 4th of July?  Do you get Monday off?

An American Holiday

Good Monday morning, Kitschies!  I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  Mine consisted of some time at the clinic (very productive time), a bit of time with the bestie and two of her kids and then cleaning and chores for the rest of the time.  I'm really behind on prepping pics for the blog, but I did manage to get one or two sets done.  This is one of them.

Last Monday was Presidents' Day here in the US.  I didn't get the day off, but I did a mani to celebrate!  Just a side note...my next holiday off isn't until the end of May. *sad Megan*


Here's what I used: Orly Royal Navy (after shaking and shaking and shaking for about 5 minutes), Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go, Studio M Magic Attraction and Art Deco nail art polish in red glitter and white.

A note on Orly Royal Navy.  This is one awesome color, but the fact that the sparkle *always* separates from the base color is the suck.  I don't know what the deal with that is, but if you take the time to shake it, the color pay off is worth the effort.  Blue jelly base with blue (almost teal?) sparkle is so right on the money!  On to the mani pics!

Full sun pic.  Ignore the tips - I had quite a bit of shrinkage with the silver for some reason.  The day after I did this, I filed down the tips a bit and got rid of the ugly shrinkage (my nails needed a little cleaning up anyway). 

I also got a bit of shrinkage along the edges, too.  I love Seche Vite, but I hate it, too, because of all the shrinkage I get (among other things).  I had been using ChG speed top coat (whatever the name is), but I picked up the SV top and base coats a few weeks ago at Sally's because they were BOGO, but ChG is my go-to/preferred brand.

If you click on this one to make it bigger, you can really see the gorgeous sparkle in the blue.  I loved this mani and I got LOTS of compliments!  I like it so much, I wore it for 4 days.  And without much tip wear and no chipping.  I'll definitely be doing something like this for 4th of July!

Oh, how'd I do it?  I started out with two coats of Royal Navy on the whole nail.  Then I took Easel Come, Easel Go and painted the outside corner.  It was missing a little something so I did one coat of Magic Attraction over the top of the silver metallic polish.  Once that all dried a bit, I took my red glitter striping polish and went along the edge of the silver polish.  Repeated that with the white and the red glitter again.  For the final touch, I took the red glitter striping polish and went from the inside edge, about 2/3 of the way down the nail and dragged it in a diagonal to the top.  Top with a coat (or two, I think it was) of top coat and you're good to go!

 So now that the awards show season is over, what shows are you looking forward to watching?

We Are Magic

There's a flashback for ya!

Happy Monday, dear Kitschies!  I hope you had a great weekend because I definitely did!  I took Friday off because the hubs was off work, too.  We decided to take the boys to Capulin Snow Play Area in the Sandia Mountains for a little sledding.  It was SO much fun!!  All 4 of us had a blast sledding (and tubing a time or two) and even Mason got over the fact that his little fingers were cold.  I took a couple good spills out of the sled, but I was having so much fun, it didn't bother me - til the next morning.  LOL  Let's just say that I'm not as young as I used to be.  Friday night, the hubs arranged a sitter (the first time a non-family member has watched the kids) and we escaped to dinner and a movie.  We finally got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - very good!  I can't wait to see installment 7, part 2!

So.  Why the magic?  Well...a while back, I asked Emily of Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?, if she'd be willing to pick up a couple polishes for me that aren't available here.  She said yes and I got 3 gorgeous polishes.  I finally got around to trying one of them out.  This is one of those car wreck (can't-stop-starring-at-my-nails) kind of polishes!

This is Studio M Magic Attraction layered over a gunmetal gray color.  This is more of a glitter than a true holo.  Meaning?  It's pretty chunky and rough.

Blurred for maximum glittery gorgeousness.  Both of the above pics were taken indoors with flash.

 You can kinda see the holo-y sparkle in this picture without it being so blury.  And no matter what I did, I could not get a good pic of the polish in the bottle.

Inside in direct light, you can see the bling of this polish.  The thing about holos, at least for me, is that they're impossible to capture accurately.  This is about as close as I could get to magic that is this polish.

Don't you hear the angels singing?  Seriously this is one gorgeous polish.  The downside?  It's thick and it's chunky.  But...nothing that an extra layer of topcoat can't cure.

One more pic for good measure because who doesn't like to look at pretty things?  LOL  Oh, and I highly recommend the foil method to remove this polish.  Without that, I would've sat there forever trying to get all the glittery goodness off my nails!  Check out All You Desire's great tutorial HERE.

Now on to part two of my post...





Last week, I was reading Dandelion Wishes and I noticed a cute little button on her blog.  It has to do with replying to comments.   I love, love, love getting comments!  But, do you know what I love even more than getting comments?  Responding to comments!  It bugs me so much when I go to respond to a comment, get ready to push send only to realize that that person is a no-reply blogger.  That makes me has a sad.  So...what do you need to do?  Enable your email!  How do you do that, you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  Go to your "dashboard". Click "edit profile". Click the little box next to "show my email address". Click "SAVE".  It should show the same address that your comments are delivered to. If you want email sent to a different address you will need to change your address.  Please!  If you want to join the revolution, please add this cute button to your sidebar to let everybody know.

That's What Friends Are For

Good evening, Kitschies!  It's been a long day for me.  Got up earlier than my normal time to get ready because the hubs had to leave early to work.  I took the day off to give my MIL a break since it's her birthday, so it was boy overload!  We had family pictures this morning and they went pretty well.  We usually are able to pick up our prints the same day, but the printer broke last Friday, so they're a *little* behind in getting prints made.  No biggie.  I'll be on that side of town this weekend anyway because I have to go in to work on Saturday and Sunday.  After the pictures, I was planning on taking the boys to the mall, but Mason fell asleep in the car, so I just went home.  Mason went to bed and Nate and I played video games.  Well, I thought Mason went to sleep.  I went to get him up for lunch only to realize he had demolished his changing pad.  Yay!  After going to two stores to find said changing pad, we came back home and finished out our afternoon.  Now it's after 8 and I'm exhausted.  But, there's no rest for the wicked.  I'm making cookies for our office Christmas party tomorrow night.  Once that's finished, I think I'm going to crash!  LOL

So.  A while back, I saw Candy Coated Tips' post on Studio M polish in Slammin Red and Purple Medallion.  She mentioned that she got them at Meijers in the midwest.  I was bummed because we don't have Meijers in New Mexico.  But, one day, Emily from Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?, mentioned that she was looking for a quilt at Meijers and a light bulb went on!  I "met" Emily a while back when I was paired with her in a collection swap.  She sent me the best package!  So, on a whim, I asked if she'd be willing to pick up a couple polishes for me if she found them.  Emily said she went to Meijers at least weekly and she'd check it out for me.  Low and behold, she said she found all three that I'd wanted on the first look!!  Let's see what she picked up for me.

It was shipped in your standard bubble mailer.  Then once I opened it up I saw the best wrapped, cutest packed brick ever!  Hot pink tissue paper and black and white duct tape. 

And then within the hot pink, black and white brick, there were six individually wrapped mini bricks!  Wait.  I asked her to pick up three polishes for me.  Why are there six packages?

Look at these beauties!!  From bottom to top: Studio M Slammin Red, Magic Attraction and Purple Medallion.  These are SOOO pretty.  I haven't warn any of these yet, but I swatched them on a nail wheel and let me tell you.  This picture does not do either one of these justice!  The colors are pretty accurate, but the holo glitter is not represented very well.  I can't decide which to use first.

And then Emily sent me three additional polishes that she said would feel more at home with me.  Tip Toe is Lime Sublime, a lime green creme.  SH Complete Salon Manicure in Shrimply Devine, a bright pink creme.  I can picture a great Spring water marble with those two!  The third was also a Sally Hansen, but I can't find it.  It is a really pretty wine burgundy shimmer. 

See...this is why I love blogging.  If you want or need something, all you have to do is ask.  I love all the new bloggy friends I've made and all the great blogs I've found.  So, a BIG thank you to Emily.  YOU ROCK!!