January 2013

I'm not announcing my comeback, I'm just going to say...I have some pretty polishes to share with you.

With everything I have on my plate, I just can't blog like I used to.  I still do my nails (all the time) and I usually take pictures of them, but I rarely get the time to sit down and edit the pictures.  My plan, right now, is to compile my manis over the month and share them with you, in bulk, at the end of the month.  Sound good?  Here we go.  And, like always, all pics are clickable to make bigable!

This was my New Years mani.  It's kinda Christmas-y and it's all Winter.  I started with a base of Milani Juno.  Then, using BM14, I stamped snow flakes using ChG Designer Satin and a random white.  To finish it all off, I applied a layer of ChG Snow Globe for a little extra sparkle.

I picked up this gorgeous polish at Ulta while on a "we gotta get out of the house NOW" trip with the bestie.  I don't usually even look at the Layla polishes because they're pretty pricey, but this happened to be on sale (and I had a coupon).  Layla Ceramic Effects Green Galaxy (CE 54) is a gorgeous, gorgeous deep green jelly with green micro glitter, small round green glitter and big green hexies.  This polish wore like iron - definitely worth the money!

I was feeling in a nail funk when I did this and it snapped me out of it right away!  I started with a base of Revlon Royal (probably one of my top 10 fave polishes ever).  After that, I stamped the pretty flowers using Orly Snowcone and BM224.  I added pretty purple rhinestones in the center of one flower on each nail.

I did this one originially for a "glitter" challenge for a FB group I'm in, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  You can't go wrong with a classic red nail!  This is Zoya Alix with Milani Glitter FX in Red.  The Milani claims to be "one coat" but for this much coverage, I started with a coat of Alix and then layered 3 layers of the glitter.  That's not what I'd call one coat!  I wore this for 4 days and love it.

This is what I ended up using for the glitter challenge.  Let me tell you...this is a mess polish!  I started with 3 coats of Orly Fowl Play then added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted (I loves me some flakies!).  And because that wasn't enough, I ended up using a coat of Milani Jewel FX in Twilight.  I am NOT looking forward to removing this (can you say "foil method"?).

So...there's January.  Maybe...if you're lucky...I'll post a review of a couple manis from last year later!

Royal Jelly

No, not *that* kind.  Sheesh...get your mind out of the gutter!

It's Wednesday night and I'm prepping this post for Thursday morning.  I have a very short fuse tonight thanks to a sore toe (the same toe I broke *way* back in October) and it's been a really exhausting week at work, so I'm going to keep this one pretty short.

Earlier in the Summer, I finally got my first jelly finish polish and I loved it way more than I thought I would.  And a little while after I found that one, I discovered the jelly sammich.  I had been eyeing this polish for a while because I loved the color but as soon as I found out it was a jelly, I went out the next day and picked it up.

This bright, bold blue is Revlon Royal.  It's a royal blue (hence the name) jelly that is great alone but I was in a glitter sammich kind of mood and threw in some silver holo bar glitter.

Yeah, there's some VNL, but it's a jelly...and that's part of what I love about a jelly.  It's full coverage but it's still a little transparent.  The bar glitter is Rush UFO.  I don't even know if you can get it anymore...I've had it since before I moved to New Mexico (so that means at least 13 years). 

I love the concept of this, but the end result didn't live up to my expectations.  You can't see any of the holo-y goodness of UFO so it just looks like white bars of stuff stuck in my polish.  LOL  As a side note, I already don't care much for bar glitter, so maybe this mani was doomed from the start.

Have you done a jelly sammich?  Which polishes did you use?

OK.  I'm done.  It's been a long day.  I hope Thursday is better because Tuesday and Wednesday left a lot to be desired. 

I Loves Me a Glitter Sammich

Happy Wednesday, Kitschies!  I was catching up on my blogs this evening and I came across a pink Wednesday post and it made me realize that it was, in fact, Wednesday.  I've been MIA the last few days because we had our first official Winter storm blow through New Mexico between Sunday and Monday.  As a result, the schools were closed (which is good because the roads were not in good shape) and I stayed home with the boys.  Then we heard that the schools were going to be closed on Tuesday.  OK...the roads are still a little icy, so I guess I can agree with that.  So, I stayed home with Nate and the hubs took Mason to daycare.  I ventured out of the house and the snow and the roads weren't that bad - especially once I got down in to the valley.  And *then* I got a text from a co-worker telling me that the schools were going to be closed again on Wednesday because of "hazardous road conditions on secondary roads".  Seriously?!  WTH?!  Luckily, my MIL agreed to take Nate so I could go to work (for the first time in 4 days, which I'm not *really* complaining about).  The roads were fine this morning - a 2-hour delay would've been fine.  ANYway...Nate had fun with his grandma and he got to go to Explora with his cousins and I got back to work.  It has been a long and short week all at the same time.

Speaking of pink Wednesday posts, it was THIS post by Ice Queen's Nail Parlour that made me realize it was Wednesday.  And it reminded me that I have a similar mani to share! 

I'm not gonna lie.  I have *no* idea when I did this mani.  I can tell you it was in the Summer, but beyond that...no clue.  What I *can* tell you is this is OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y, a really pretty raspberry jelly.  And sammiched in there is Milani Gems.

This was my first glitter sammich mani and I'm impressed that it turned out the exact way I'd hoped.  That doesn't happen very often.

I can't remember *when* I did this one, but I *do* remember getting compliments on this mani.  I remember "this is your prettiest one yet" being thrown around a time or two.

If you've followed my blog for a while, you probably already know I'm not the biggest fan of chunky glitter, but when it's in a glitter sammich or mattified (like I did HERE), I like it a little more.  In fact, I liked this so much, I ran out and grabbed Revlon Royal.  I had been looking for an excuse to pick that one up for some time and I finally found the excuse I needed! 

Now a question for you, my lovely readers.  What is your favorite jelly polish?

Have a great day!  See you again on the other side.

On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink

Well...at least us nail bloggers do!  A couple weeks ago, the nail blogging community started "On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink" a la Mean Girls.  So, this is my first entry (the day is full of firsts) to Pink Wednesdays.

Not that I'd consider myself a mean girl by any means, it's fun to play along every now and then, right?  Here we go...

This, my dears, is OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y.  Ugh.  I don't get the whole "cute" name thing with OPI.  I mean, I get it.  I just don't like it.  Anyway...this is from their Texas collection that was released in February and it's one of the "sorbet" finishes (read: jelly).  Yes, I know, it's a little different from the usual jelly finishes, but I don't really care know/can't really tell the difference.

I miss my long nails!  This mani was super bright raspberry color that wasn't so bright as to be obnoxious.  Does that make sense?  And it was super shiny, too.  This pic was taken indoors with flash.

See how shiny that is?  Seriously.  If it hadn't been for the plaid design I did on my ring finger, I probably wouldn't have used a top coat.  This was indoors without flash.

OK.  I know this pic is basically about the same as the one just above it, but look at the insane shininess!

Direct sun.  I love this color.  I've picked this one up and put it back in to its home more than a few times.  I didn't buy in to the hype that surrounded the release of OPI's sorbets, but I did pick up this color because it was so pretty in the bottle - it did not disappoint. 

As a side note...Zoya's annual Earth Day polish exchange started today!  So, between now and April 27th, you can exchange your old, ugly polish for new, gorgeous Zoya polish.  Check out the Zoya blog for more details. 

Red HOT

Happy Tuesday, Kitschies!  I hope you enjoyed your day.  Things are starting to wind down here at my house and that's my favorite time of day.  The boys are in bed.  The hubs is at the grocery store and then will be at Planet Ego tonight.  I get the house to myself.  And it's quiet.  So nice!  Today was pretty busy at the clinic.  The front desk was a little short handed and I, being the good employee that I am, offered to lend a hand.  It was nonstop from when I got there until lunch.  To top it off, I managed to irritate my elbow playing Lightsaber Duels on the Wii with the hubs this weekend.  A couple adjustments and a kinesio taping later, it's feeling ok, but it's still bugging me.  See...this is why people over 30 should not play video games.  LOL

*ah hem*  Anyway.  It's anything but HOT here in Albuquerque.  It's 28* right now and it's just going to get colder.  I'm all for Winter, but this, my friends, is ridiculous.  To show you how utterly unprepared Albuquerque is for the cold weather...39 public schools had water pipes break over the holidays.  Yep, 39.  That's all but 3 of the schools in the district!  Good for you, Albuquerque!  Good for you.  However, this color is sure to kick it up a degree or two.

A while back, I decided I *needed* to find a red jelly.  I have very few jelly polishes and after seeing somebody post a knockout red, I had to find one.  But it couldn't be just any red.  It had to be a jelly.  I wandered over to Walgreens while on lunch one day on a quest to find *the* red jelly.  The checker at the cosmetics counter checked on me more than a couple times to see if she could help me find anything.  I told her I was looking for a bright red jelly polish and asked if she could recommend any.  She looked at me like I was speaking some weird foreign language.  You know, it always strikes me as odd when you ask a specific beauty-related question to somebody who works in the "industry" and they have no idea what you're talking about.  So, after opening I don't know how many red polishes, I found what I was looking for (in a place I wasn't really expecting).

This is Wet n Wild Caught Red Handed.  Love the name for this polish.  This is a super glossy red jelly, plain and simple.  I don't know why I have a tendency to look past WnW - they've come a long way since the early days.  The formula on this was great and so was the wear.

I LOVE this color!  Bright red.  Glossy.  Hot.  Sexy.  Ignore the VNL because it wasn't that obvious IRL.  I think most jellies tend to show more VNL when photographed with flash.  I wore this after the time change so getting a natural light picture is difficult.

HAWT!  This is the most color accurate photo out of the group.  I got lots of compliments on this mani.  It was so super shiny - I didn't use a topcoat until a day or two later.  The wear was really good - I got at least 3 days out of it.

Proof that some things should just be left alone!  What you see here is an attempt (and fail) at stamping.  Needless to say, I promptly took this off and started over again. 

This weekend, Chris from Lacquer Wear for Tips and Toes tagged me for a fun little fact session.

 

Here are the rules: Mention 15 facts and tag 5 other bloggers. 

 

#1 We have two cats: Sol & Luna.  Sol was "adopted" by my hubs when he lived in NC.  Luna was gifted to me for my birthday about 7 years ago.  They are the laziest things I know.

#2 One of my knees has a tendency to hyperextend.  Not fun.  It kept me out of the Air Force.

#3 I joined the Air Force but got kicked out (see interesting fact #2).

#4 My favorite big screen actor is Johnny Depp.  I love everything he's done.  Everything.  Except Secret Window.

#5 I love music.  Pretty much all music.  But I don't love my hubs' taste in music sometimes. 

#6 I used to be in marching band.  In "college" (jr college, but who's counting) I knew the music so well, I covered for other instruments (on my piccolo) when they'd drop a phrase.

#7 My favorite Christmas gift as a child was a record player.  Yes.  A record player.

#8 I've never seen the video of the Twin Towers falling and I hope I never do.

#9 I love to cook but hate to clean up.

#10 When I first started working in a doctor's office, we kept the schedule on paper books and didn't have a computer anywhere other than the billing office.

#11 I'm allergic to bananas.  And latex.  Did you know those allergies are related?

#12 My blood type is B negative; neither of my parents are Rh negative.

#13 I get in to phases where I'll do something hardcore and then I won't touch it for a long time.

#14 I made up a song to sing to my boys when they go to bed at night.

#15 I have 13 tubes of lipgloss/lipstick in my purse.  And they're all pretty much the same color.

 

And now...the tags...

Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?

Just Lu 

Makeup Zombie

Dancing Phalanges

Imperfectly Painted