Good Lord

OK. I have some stuff to show you but I've been working ALL DAY on getting all the swatches moved to an internet base and putting my little mark on them. This has taken hours. It's taken so long that I stopped and made dinner in the middle of it. Quite a project. I still have a little clean up to do, but overall...it's not in bad shape. I hope I will be able to keep my pics at that source. We shall see. It has a limit. Oof.

Some things of note that my fellow talon hounds will want to know:

Deborah Lippmann is having a 15% off sale. Of course I hit that.  You need the code. Try signing up for her email offers on deborahlippmann.com and see if you can get one.

OverallBeauty.com is now carrying limited amounts of Glitter Gal polish. This is an Australian brand, I did some snooping and they appear to be cruelty free. I placed a pre-order. Right now she is ordering from them on a very limited basis and based on the orders she is receiving. I suggest checking it out! I have no swatches here, but google them and see what you come up with. Some of the other bloggers have been able to get a hold of them before now. The holos are amazing! They are primo priced, though, so I only got a few. I did some damage today and I really can't continue.

If you are reading this on the night on 7/27, go straight to rescuebeauty.com and sign up for her updates. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Just trust me. You want to do this. K?


I also checked out manglaze.com on a whim and guess what? The guys have been busy and have a Royal Wedding polish out: Mattrimoaning. Hilarious, as usual. It's royal blue, what else? I nabbed that bad boy. You might want to take a look. I'm sure I'll post at least a bottle shot when it arrives. They are admittedly taking a little time off to "torture their livers" so it will be a bit before I get it.

Hmmm...did I have any other news for you guys....I don't think so...

I'll be a bit before I swatch again, unless I do my toes. I could, I guess...I had my regular mani last night and forgot my colors. Yep. Way to be a dork. So I am wearing OPI. I have mixed feelings about this as I paid for it indirectly but OPI is about all anyone uses in a salon around here so you're kind of stuck with it. So I won't swatch it. It's a standard coral, really. It's pretty. **shrugs**
That does NOT mean I won't be posting, however. I have the rest of the A England Mysticals! Yeah, I finally just broke down and did it. Also, I have the Get This Party Started Lippmann Collection from the Nordstrom anniversary sale. (I will not buy those Uggs. I will not!) Also, I need to email Kim at OverallBeauty because I have a BB Couture haul coming. It's supposedly shipped and normally I get that stuff within a few days. The confirmation to USPS just says it was accepted at some facility in California and should be shipped by...yesterday. *sigh* Important to note, this is not OverallBeauty or BB Couture's fault. Post office has it! Somewhere!!

I've been bad.

One more haul and I'll be good. I promise.

Deborah Lippmann Fall Collection

I hit the vile Nordstrom anniversary sale. I hit it something like 3 times because as we know, I'm stupid. I did get some pretty great stuff, though. Like the Deborah Lippmann fall collection and the party set, which hasn't arrived yet. I didn't have the iconic Happy Birthday yet and the set of 3 was on sale for a bit less so I went for it. I had a little total no buy fail this week, to be perfectly candid. I fell off the wagon and landed on my head.

I haven't swatched any of these yet as I tend not to swatch so much as wear it and let you know how it performed over all. Here they are, though:

Looking at Stormy Weather up there...I think I should have shaken these first! Also, fascinating to notice, Billionaire there on the bottom right is displaying a shimmer quality that I assure you is not present when just looking at the bottle. Interesting. I wonder how that will translate? Hm. What I see in the bottle is a nearly black olive green. It takes Army Drab to a whole new level. These are, left to right, Stormy Weather, Single Ladies, Brick House (LOVE) and Billionaire.

Interested to try these but I'm not quite ready to give up Summer colors just yet. I am sitting here day dreaming about Billionaire with butterLondon's fall offering Wallis over it. Oooo. I think that might happen.

Brick House is giving me Illamasqua Shrapnel thoughts...might have to do a comparison swatch there. Hm. Let me dig that out and see how the bottles compare while I'm at this...

Hold please...

Hm. In real life, Shrapnel is really much more orange and lighter. I need to figure out how to eliminate that glare. Then I think you could see the difference quite plainly. They are from the same color family, no mistake, but they are very different. Both gorgeous. I think they are different enough to have both if you like this type of color. 

Any thoughts on this collection? I think it's nice. Two brighter colors but still very Fall in feel, and two darker moodier colors. These don't really relate to one another but I don't think they are meant to. Deborah Lippmann doesn't do the coherent collection theme, really, like most companies do. I think there is something here to fit every mood and every outfit!

Happy Talons!

LCN Magnetic Green Temptation...GRRRR!!

First of all, I will gloss over that my stuff arrived with half the bottles open part way. MESS. I had started to attribute this to the fact that we're having record high temps and I don't believe that UPS trucks have a/c.
Which, speaking of, the other morning at work a package arrived being borne by the seriously cutest UPS guy. I never really bought into the UPS guy adoration thing that was going on...decades ago **suddenly feels very old**. I mean...I just didn't. Those little shorts are really kinda dorky. However...this one Was. Cute. He gave me a couple big smiles and if I wasn't an old bat I'd think he might have been flirting with me a little bit. **insert Cougar roar here**
Anyways. Where was I? Oh yeah. I had got the magnetic starter set, which was hella expensive, and even more so once I realized I got minis. Are all LCN polishes minis? I honestly do not know. This is my first experience with their stuff. It's a little bit better than that when you take into consideration that $40 was wrapped up in the two magnets, which was why I went the starter set direction. It contains minis of all 8 magnetic polishes, the two magnets and comes in a cute little bag. The bag really is cute:

However, when I opened mine:

This was the kind of mess I had and no, that's not all of it. I'm not out to get the company here. I am just relating my experience. These were plainly made in Germany, as you can see there, and I'm wondering if something weird happened in the shipping process. I spent much time, cotton and acetone cleaning this up:

And am now just hopeful I can open the bottles without a pipe wrench as the lacquer was squishing up into the caps. Ick. We are hoping for the best. I did write them a note to alert them that they may have a production problem thing happening but I've not heard back yet. I offered these pics if they request them, as well. If I were supplying this product, I would want to know this had happened, you know? I'm not wanting anything for my time in writing, but if they offer, I will request new caps so I don't have a total freeze up when it all dries up in there and I can still use those bottles.

Know what I'm sayin'?

So I tried the green temptation, in case you didn't catch the title here. It really is very pretty, I'm pleased with it. The problem is the magnet process. You know I have the mad drunken monkey skills, right? Yeah. I created a big ole mess!! This takes practice, lads.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Check that out! They're all over the place, and uneven as all get out. It IS a super cool look, though. It looks like you should be able to feel bumps, like it's 3-D, but it's smooth as silk, seriously. And it dries like NOW. That was part of the challenge. I was thinking about that as I struggled with it and it makes so much sense for these to be quick drying because, honestly, those metal particles creating that look could just swim elsewhere. So, after reading up on some other blogs with peeps who have done this I did as they recommended and only did one nail at a time. Ideally, you'd have three hands, to be perfectly frank. I do my lefty first so the right hand does look better. I will show you as I write here.

Here's the trick to this. Work fast and I mean FAST. Thick coat of lacquer, grab the magnet and position it. I did a couple practice runs on my thumb, one requiring a total do over and I shmeared the polish all over WITH the magnet...my advice is keep a cotton swab and acetone near by for the first attempts because you're gonna need it. To clean the magnet. I actually contemplated creating a little bridge with the magnet and something, like a couple unopened packs of post-it notes or something, just slide the nail under there. I may yet try it because I do love this so much that I will try again. It IS a learning curve, though. You will botch them a couple times, just gird your loins and suck it up. Look at what happens when you get it right:

K, mostly right. that star like thing in the middle? Yep. Tapped it with the magnet. This was maybe my third try? Even though this became a contact sport, you can see that this isn't bad. The design is centered and clear. With a top coat over this that shmear isn't so obvious.

My other advice is...rarely did I find that shmacking on another coat of shellac did a damn bit of good. I think there is a too thick point. Maybe the particles just can't slug through too much paint because this stuff is thick. I suppose it has to be. You're only going to get one good crack at it.

I did improve, here's a shot of the righty:

Please don't mind the over spray there. I hadn't cleaned this up, just shot the swatches. Check the ring finger...that is how it should look, if you get good at this. It's really not hard. You just need to move fast and practice so you get a feel spacially: how far to hold the magnet from your nail, where to center your nail under it....the magnets are small, so I appreciate the cute bag all the more because it gives me a way to keep everything all together.

I applied this Wednesday night. The ButterLondon wasn't doing too badly wear-wise, but in cleaning up all the bottles that arrived leaky I basically removed the butter in the process and was SO excited about these that I just finished the job up and did a do-over. I did a full mani like I always do:

Mechanics:

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
1 coat (in most instances) LCN Green Temptation
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

I had read on CultNails (have her collections coming as well! YAY! They look amazing!) where she had tried it there and found that putting top coat on too fast will drag the particles and mess your magnet look up so I didn't risk it and waited. I had no problems. Thanks for the advice!

I also have the star shaped magnet but I thought the lines were tiger like. Rower!

So far this is performing very very well. I have been doing tons o dishes lately, lots of cooking. I got it in my head I needed brownies so I did that and cleaned the kitchen. Then we were starting to get what looked to be a storm so I went out and picked veg for dinner because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back out there if it stormed and had 3 gigantor zucchini to use so I cleaned one and cut it, made dip, cleaned the kitchen up again....so that's 2 sinks of dishes. Then I decided...zucchini bread...yeah....so I made zucchini bread...and cleaned the kitchen. One more HUGE sink of dishes. Get the breads in the oven and then...time to make dinner. Cooked dinner, ate...yep. Cleaned the kitchen. I can't stand a dirty kitchen, can you tell? Sum total, 4 sinks of dishes, plus the water involved in cleaning vegetables and I made fried yellow squash as well, so that's egg and stuff, plus all that hand washing....my skin is feeling drier just thinking about it. Here is what the polish did for all that:
Left hand

You can see a hint of tip wear, a little bungle there on the inside of the index finger...

Right hand

One teeny chip on the index and a little tip wear on the middle finger. Here's another shot:

 I don't know about you guys but I can pretty much live with that for a couple days. The really amazing thing is that after round 787 of dishes today, the middle finger was almost bubbling, like the lacquer wanted to peel up but it didn't and once my hands were out of water for some time, it looks normal. If that were still there, you should see evidence of it in these pics because I took these just a short while ago and it looks normal. That is pretty awesome.

Overall, I am reserving judgment on whether or not LCN gets any more of my money until I hear from them on the leaking issue. I don't expect a new set of polish or anything like that. I'd just like them to acknowledge the problem and offer to make it right. I sent an email, which probably wasn't the right thing to do, but I wanted to let them know ASAP and it was after their customer service lines are closed so I emailed their info address. Probably I should have called today to follow-up.
Otherwise, the polish went on easily and well, it is completely opaque in one coat and even if you didn't want to bother with the magnet, this is a really pretty color. The black in it gives it a certain...sinister gleam that I love and I think this green is really pretty on me. I had compliments on it already at the drug store. The chick loved it and wanted to know where I got it, she'd never heard of anything like it. It is pretty striking but not in an in-your-face way. These pics are really large because I was able to reformat the blog layout to allow me to use much larger pics and on my monitor at least, these are NOT life sized! LOL You'll catch the effect if you're watching me do something with my hands but it's not going to reach out and smack you.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else tries this!! It's really pretty cool.

Happy Talons!

butterLONDON Mehbeth with Rosie Lee

K, you know I wasn't overwhelmed with love for Macbeth...it's pretty...it looks good on me...meh.

Well, after ruining it cleaning up the LCN mess (see the post after this) I tried one nail with some glitz:

Ah. Maybe that's what I wanted it to do. This is butterLondon Rosie Lee, which is a lovely clear pink with dense pink glitter. I only did this one nail because it's the only one that wasn't trashed from the acetone but I think it's kind of fun. I don't know that I'd actually wear them like this....I might do.

Here's another pic:

The glitter in Rose Lee is kind of chunky and has a lot of color, as you can see here. It looks almost gunmetal, doesn't it? It gives Macbeth a little glamour!
I feel bad. There really is nothing at all wrong with Macbeth. It's very appropriate and will get you through any occasion. It just doesn't make me do the happy talon dance.

Here's one last shot:

Hmm.


Any thoughts?

Happy Talons!

The Rabbit of Nail Polish

 
In the immortal words of BMWWU, if you could have an orgasm from nail polish, this would be it.


 
Chanel Peridot:

BMWWU took this pic right after she put this on. It might not even be really dry yet.

It's green, it's gold, it's greenish gold, it's goldish green. It can't seem to decide. It shimmers, it dances, it plays in the sunlight.

LOL, this was in the pedi room at the salon. That is not an age spot! I burned the back of my hand on a wood stove when I was a child, maybe about 9 years old? I've born that scar ever since. And no, that's not a mood ring! It's some sort of dark green stone. I love it.

I tried so hard to accurately get the color of Peridot and I think stupidly forgot in the process to get a swatch of this while wearing my peridot and jade ring. I just don't know that there is a way to accurately photograph this. It's a chameleon, it's illusive, it will not be caught!

This is not bad, actually. This is pretty close. I believe this is sunlight from the window. I cannot deny it's gorgeousness. It's kind of indescribable. It's too many things.

Oooo. Yet another shot of it's changing colors. Where did I take this? That looks like a refrigerator! LOL, I guess it could be. You never know where or when you'll get just the right lighting. Look at that bad boy. I promise you, these are all the same polish. This is the closest to what it looked like most of the time on me, but it is changeable. Check the pinky, though...that is Peridot, too!

Sunlight in the car….getting better with the new phone. None of these seem to capture the shimmer of this. I wish I'd known, I'd have done a blur shot.

Last one:

K, that's all I've got.

I can't speak to application, BMWWU put this on and surprisingly chose it over the more sedate Quartz. Being a victim of Polishmaniacal Obsession Syndrome, I bought the whole stupid collection at the stupid Chanel price. Because I'm an idiot. This is well covered territory, even in the relatively youthful age of this blog. Ruby Pumps pointed out that I could have several pairs of my much coveted Louboutins for the money I've shelled out on polish. I said ah yes, the difference being I WEAR the polish. Where am I going to flaunt the red soles of Louboutins in this cowpoke town? The local Legion? A pool tournament? I know, a euchre competition. Right. No one would even appreciate them. I have some gorgeous shoes and mostly I just take them out of the box and admire them from time to time. My Stuart Weitzman's have been worn once. The Bruno Maglis have made a couple weddings…Nail polish though….THAT I get some enjoyment from. And it doesn't hurt my feet. :D


Mechanics…We did an experiment here, one that I failed to complete. We did ButterLondon Nail Foundation, 2 coats, 2 coats Peridot and ButterLondon top coat. I was supposed to do the Horse stuff….crap. What's it called? Horse Power Nail Fertilizer (ButterLondon) but I had those motivational issues. (not being helped by my blog being unreachable at this moment. What was going to take me a couple hours has taken 5. FIVE! Fighting with it. I'm writing this in Word. Hello.) Plus…I wasn't sure I wanted to mix formulas. I want to give Horse Power a chance to work with its own stuff, at maximum optimization. Or whatever. So….I didn't do it. Plus, I sort of forgot. Oops.

Wear wise…psht. What do you want me to tell you? It's Chanel. For Chanel it did great. I got through a sink full of dishes with no problems, but about a day later…issues. It wore roughly 4 days without any major chippage, but after that? Fuggedaboutit. It crapped out. I wasn't surprised. I was pleased it made it that far. Chanel isn't known for wear and I generally avoid it but when a polish screams at me from 20 feet away and every sales girl in the department is herding me towards it because they know me, know I'll love it AND wear it…you can get some hard to find Chanels in this town because people here aren't that adventurous. If they are, they're not affording Chanel, they're selling starving artist work in a hotel lobby. The girls know. I'll wear it. I'll rock it. I might even flip you off wearing it.

Not to give you the wrong impression. I am a lady. But I have a 'tude and sometimes it shows. What do you want? I'm a redhead with an ancestry not notable for submissive turning of the other cheek. The best I can offer is that I don't say even a percentage of what goes through my head, not even on here. 


So there you go. It's gorgeous. Worth the price tag? Only you can decide that. It was a flame I was drawn to like a helpless moth. Right now my hands down fave polish is A England Tristam…but this is in the top 10. 


Happy Polishing!

butter LONDON [Mehbeth] Macbeth

I love my butters, RaptorJesus knows I do. They're wonderful and so much fun, plus the customer service is pretty damn good from their website, which is interesting and fun as well. I think it really reflects the character of the company.

I've had Macbeth in my stash for awhile. For my last manicure I was still in a Summer mood but I wanted something more sedate than the in your face sunshine of Zoya Tanzy so I figured...hot pink or coral...not cray cray, but bright and cheerful. BMWWU and I chose this one. She said the other two I'd brought her, which I'm not sure now which ones they were, combined would make Macbeth so here we are.

I didn't get my swatches taken right away so I apologize. These are a few days old and about a thousand sink loads of dishes later. I had already repaired this mani once from all those stupid dishes, though I have to say, considering the torture Macbeth endured, it wore SO well. Only minor wear and chipping but it's such a bright color that I had to fix them.

Meh...I definitely bungled the cuticles there, and the Seche Vite I sealed up the repair with did its thing as well. I would have used a different top coat as we know Seche doesn't like dry lacquer but...well, I just didn't.

Here is another shot of it:

As you can see, Macbeth is a red coral creme. And...it's a red coral creme.

I have had a lot of compliments on it, it's very pretty. It's very Summery. It looks great on me and...meh. One makeup artist told me THIS is my color. And I find it so tame! It has great shine, it's a lovely color and I'm so Meh on it I could slap myself. Maybe it's just that after the more avant-garde colors I've been wearing it just seems ordinary to me right now. In fact, in these swatches, it looks red. It kind of is red? But there is definitely a coral taint going on. I'm not talking about Finding Nemo colored coral but the pinky red coral that they made jewelry from. My mother has a very old coral necklace from back before it was illegal to use it and it's exactly this color. It's not the orangeish shade we tend to think of as coral. 

Regardless...

It really is pretty. Maybe I should slap some glitter on it. Bedazzle it. It seems so...sedate. Meh. **shrugs**

I am a dork.

So, the BMWWU did this mani...you're getting the updates all out of order. Chanel Peridot will be next up and this came after that, but...whatevsies. That isn't the important part, is it?

The mechanics:

1. 2 coats Orly Nail Armour

2. 2 coats butterLondon Macbeth

3. 1 coat Poshe quick dry top coat dried under UV.

Then I repaired it: 

a swipe of Orly Nail Armour over the damaged tips, which I had smoothed down with nail lacquer THINNER

a swipe of Macbeth

Seche Vite top coat

This has worn really pretty well. As I mentioned I did do a quickie repair on the tips but this manicure is now a week old and for the most part is still intact. The formula was solid, I could tell, and was completely opaque in two coats. There is no phantom VNL here. It's covered. Nice and thick, she didn't have any problems applying it, though you can see I clearly did...**rolls eyes at self** and it's richly pigmented.

I just feel meh about it. Any thoughts?

Happy Talons!

Learning Curve!

The good news is I learned to schedule my posts to show up. Now I can write several in advance and get them out here so there shouldn't be so much downtime with no posts. It was easy. I just needed to see instead of look.

I also figured out that I can write my blog in Word and it will post it over for me and then I need to just get in, add tags, and schedule. It didn't do pictures. I am still working on that. Pictures seem to be a problem for me every time. It does some weird formatting things as well, but I think I fixed some of that. It will take me a little while to get all the kinks out of trying to do this faster, easier and more efficiently.

The BEST news is that I'm caught up now! I have butter London Macbeth on and I have a couple pics of that. I need to write a post on it before I take it off and lose all inspiration.

Just thought I'd share the growing pains of a fledgling blog with you! It's been fun doing it so far and I look forward to writing. I find myself making mental notes all the time.

Oh. I still owe you guys a post on fixing chips...maybe I can get that written!

What are you all wearing today?

Zoya Tanzy – It’s the Sun!

WOW.

 
Fire for your fingertips.



This is…orange. It's the color of the sun. It's really very pretty, and striking.

 
This was outside on the railing of my back porch in the sun. This might have been the shade…but I think it's sun. Look at that. It looks like stained glass, but opaque. It's a lovely sparkly jelly kind of polish that was oh so sheer and scary when I put on the first coat. I was like…what is this hot mess I just wasted all those base coats on. Which, we'll get to that in a sec.



I loved wearing this. It's gorgeous. It's sparkly and rich and just a more sunshiney color of a tourmaline, which I know because I have tourmaline earrings. I think they're tourmaline….the tag didn't say, just that they were real stones and they're this color, or a hair darker.

 
Here's another one:

Ooooo! **does happy polish dance**


Check that out. Orange with a gold glitter? Heck yeah! And I have to say, on my cool/neutral skin tone it looks OK. A little lobster pawly, but nothing you can't handle.

I had fun swatching this. I was outside in the yard, I was enjoying the sun because it was bright but not hot…

 
Oh holy blurriness…oh well. Check out the color of that sparkle on the index fingie…see that darker rust sparkle? See the yellow and gold? This was just what I wanted. Something that screamed SUMMER like a heavy metal hair band singer. Ha…check the grass in the background there. Can you say "Drought"?

OOFA. I'm serious, this is the sun on my talons. It's the color of the sun…I thought that every single time I looked at it.

 
One more, just because we can:


 

Hm. The grass is lovely and focused. Check it out! I found some that's green!

New phone…new camera….I will have some faux pas, I'm afraid.



Obviously, this is sunlight. Look at how it lights up! It looks like fire. I love it.

Is the last one in focus? We wonder…

Oh, a dream shot. Now that is a true on swatch. It do'na get any better'n that, lass. Yes. This is it exactly.



OK, so…I got this for free on a Zoya promo. If you like Zoya's colors, want to try them, or have been wearing it a long time and buying it at Ulta or something…you need to know. They have the most awesome promos. Seriously. Get on their blog and subscribe or whatever you need to do. I just check them periodically, but if you love the brand you need to know about this. Maybe this wasn't a freebie…well, regardless, great deals. I hit the Buy the colorlock system for approximately $50 and get your choice of the sparkle or crème summer collections free promo. Not a bottle, the COLLECTION. So, you got the colorlock system and SIX polishes for $50, roughly. I was thinking no way. When it comes it will be minis of the colorlock. Nope. And it comes in an easy to tote little ziplock baggie. In case you were curious, it's full size, two basecoats, a full size remover…pretty awesome. (Sheilie, might send you the ridge filler. I don't need it and it might help you, plus it's vegan, which I know you support.) I went a little apeshit on that sale, I have to tell you. I picked up a bunch, which is weird of me as I don't have the best of luck with Zoya, and sadly, colorlock was no different in that regard. I did great until it came to dry time. Suck. Even with the drying drops, I wound up completely screwing one nail about an hour later and had to do it over from basecoat on up. After that, no problems and it wore well. This was an in-between mani for me, I put it on for a couple days before my real manicure so I didn't get to really test the wear but in that time, maybe 4 days, it wore beautifully. I did Seche it, though. After the not really drying drops didn't really dry it, I was afraid to leave it nekkid. Now, in it's defense, I did not use the colorlock system purely according to their specs. I did Nailtiques 2 and Rebuild and maybe that jacked it up. Don't know.


 
K, so the mechanics:


 

1. 1 coat Zoya Anchor
   
2. 1 coat Nailtiques 2
   
3. 2 coats Seche Rebuild
   
4. 3 coats Zoya Tanzy
   
5. 1 coat Zoya Armor
   
6. Zoya Fast Drops
   
7. 1 coat Seche Vite topcoat
   

I didn't wear it long enough to have need of the Zoya Renew, which is a renewing top coat. I also didn't take this off so I didn't get to try the Remove+ that came in the set.


 
Overall, gorgeous color, great sparkle, good wear. A little weird going on and definitely needs layers, I recommend 3, but see what happens when you do this on your own nails.


 
I hope you like it!


 
Happy Polishing!

A England Tristam Holy F***

**Is speechless**

I gave a little preview of this a while ago, because I’m that far behind. It didn’t take me long to try it, however.

It’s gorgeous. I’m sorry….this is spectacular. Just…look for yourselves.

Yeah…there’s a little tip wear here. Do you care? Really? Look at this! It shows more purple here than I would say that it actually is, but it’s not far off. This is a natural light through the window picture. This is a show stopper. It looks like a clear winter’s night.

I couldn’t stop looking at it. It’s backup worthy and I really don’t do that. New stuff comes out all the time and the chances of your remembering that spectacular thing that made you so happy last summer is not likely. This isn’t that easily forgotten, though. I no longer lemming Essie Starry Starry Night. I don’t have to worry about trying to find that on ebay (at the time it was for real cruelty free, not just pseudo cruelty free) and I wouldn’t be able to blog it anyways simply because it’s no longer available. I just don’t think that’s very fair to you guys. I will always try to be straight up about where I get what I get and if you can’t go buy it, you won’t see it here. BB Couture Dragon’s Breath? Amazing as it is, you won’t see it here because you can’t get it any longer. If I get a notice from OverallBeauty.com (Kim is a sweetheart and a big customer advo, I can tell you from personal experience) that they’ve made more, I will try to get it blogged and swatched. Until then…it will have to be a mani-in-between for myself that you won’t see until you can get it. I just won’t do it! No offense to the plethora of bloggers out there who do it, I love you all and have learned so much from you all, but…I can’t. I know how it feels to be the one who wants it and can’t get it.

BUT. Off on yet another tangent, we see.

I don’t want Starry Starry Night any more. I have this. I love this. I love this more. Check it out:

I could bawl, it’s so amazing. This is sunlight again, obviously. It would likely be prettier if I could bring myself to spend the bucks to wash my buggy. I’m sure more light could come through there. Look at the depth! Love. Love. Love. Lovelovelovelovelove. I feel like the tree in The Last Unicorn when she latches onto Shmendrick. (If you haven’t read it, READ it. If you haven’t watched it, WATCH IT. Fall in love. Then go to the Conlan Press Website (google it, peeps) and buy the signed editions from them because they give more schwag to the struggling and brilliant Peter S Beagle. Then read the Rhinoceros Who Quotes Nietsche and revel in his genius. You simply don’t get a bad story from Mr. Beagle.) TANGENT!

So…this is so gorgeous I want to eat it. I’m not kidding. Look at that. What more do you want me to say? It’s iced blueberry, it’s the Mediterranean under a full moon, sapphires on a bed of diamonds….or the opposite. It’s the deep deep blue of that guy I used to work with’s eyes. Say what you will about the Poles, but in my experience, there are some seriously gorgeous blue eyes that come out of that country. He wasn’t anything to sneeze at himself. **sigh** It’s holo glitter awesomeness of a level hitherto unmeasurable by the seriously lacking human technology we have to rely on. It’s off the charts.

 **cleans drool off keyboard**

Wear…it did OK. About as well as anything could with the amount of abuse I heap on it.  It did begin to chip, but not badly. It seems to me the reason I removed it was because the chips it did begin to form were catching in my hair. I hate that. It just couldn’t handle the amount of water my polish is submerged in and I can’t hold any blame against it for that.

This is super-saturated. Wear a basecoat. Maybe a couple coats of it, if you don’t apply any other treatments to your nails. If you don’t…I hate you. I hate you because I’m jealous.

It applied almost watery at first. I was shocked because as you know from a previous post, it covered yellow like it was nothing. I think possibly the other existing coats of polish really grabbed it. I’m not sure what the deal was. Maybe I just put it on lighter when I did the full mani. However, it straightened itself out OK. I can’t remember if this was 2 or 3 coats. I may have done 3 just to deepen it. I did try the base and top coats, adorably named The Knight and the Shield, respectively. It seems to me the basecoat did dry rather fast but the top coat didn’t? OMG, it’s hard for me to remember now. I need to take notes if I can’t blog right away. Derrrr. I’m sure I’ll be drawn to the other colors and I will try to comment because I have guilt.

I THINK what I did was:

1.      1 coat - The Knight basecoat

2.      1 coat – Nailtiques 2

3.      2 coats – Seche Rebuild

4.      2 or 3 coats A England Tristam

5.      1 coat The Shield topcoat

One more shot for posterity…I took a ton.

Oh my.

Happy Polishing!

BB Couture Intake Valve on my Moms

My Moms has been really ill and I've been one of her primary care givers for months now. As a way to cheer us both up, I started giving her manicures and pedicures. Often she falls asleep, leaving her my hapless victim **muahahahahahaaaa!** where I put pretty colors on her that veer far away from her normal pinks and corals. She has a narrow color comfort zone and mostly I respect it while pushing the boundaries a bit. Her coloring is way different from mine so we wear colors differently. She tends towards her American Indian background (her father would never have said "Native American". He was Indian first and American second.) while I look more like her Irish roots and my fathers German, Scot and Welsh...in other words, Casper-like. In the summer I might approach not quite dead in my coloring. I'm pasty, OK?? In case you couldn't tell from the swatches. I can wear about anything. Oranges and yellows can be tricky but other than that...a bad color for me is difficult to come by. Moms on the other hand...some are just "oofa" bad.

So. I experiment.

I've done OK up to now, mostly choosing colors that work. I haven't run into anything I've immediately removed on her, which is good because her hands ache and it's hard for her to sit still. Intake Valve was no exception.

If you have been reading this blog at all, you know I'm a HUGE BB Couture fan. Great formula, edgy colors (and we know I'm all about the edge) and just fun stuff. Plus, I confess, Kim at OverallBeauty.com has made me secure that I will get personalized attention and great customer service. This helps! I'm tempted to try the mineral makeup but I'm afraid I'll get hooked on something else I can't afford. I'm a junkie, I'm tellin' ya.

Incidentally, that LCN order I placed yesterday has already started it's shipping process, I got a note from UPS today. Krikey!!! That was fast!

The moral of today's story is, though, that BB Couture for Men's Intake Valve looked AWESOME on my moms! Check this out!

Intake Valve is an odd color. Sometimes it's lavender-grey, sometimes pinkish grey...it's a Silly Putty kind of color. It turned out to be a very nice neutral on her but she tired of it quickly. This was helped along by her rather brilliant neurosurgeon taking a big jump back from it with a scornful expression and declaring "I like red" when asked if he didn't like it. Now her nails are red. Estee Lauder Jungle Red which I would show you but you can't get it any more. It looks really good on her, too.

Intake Valve performed well, just as I have come to trust BB Coutures will. It went on nicely, covered in two coats, was even and lovely. Mom's nails are really strong so I only need to do:

1. 1 coat Seche Base Coat
2. 2 coats BB Couture Intake Valve
3. 1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

She doesn't need any other help and for God's sake doesn't need a nail strengthener.

Here's another shot of it:

Hm. That could be better, but you get the idea. Moms loved having her picture taken, too! She used to be a hand and shoe model...You can see why.

I hope you like this one! I did!

Happy Talons!

Hard Candy Sky

K, this was weeks ago. I'm so far behind and I apologize again. I've just had a great deal going on. The Talons have been tricked out and I'm taking pics but motivation has been an issue and time...I'm a bad blogger.

If you're reading this, hopefully you're forgiving me already. Something I have a note to myself to figure out: how to schedule my posts...I know there is a way. Oh yes. It will be mine.

K, and the blog is a major fail on not buying any more polish front. I just did major hauls from the Nordstrom sale, foregoing the MAC brushes I thought about getting in favor of the 4 new Deborah Lippmann's and some Butters. Wallis, ladies and gentils hommes. Oh yes. Sparkly olive green glitter? Hells to the hell yeah. Am I picturing this over the Deborah Lippmann Billionaire (a hunter green)? Yep. Am I picturing it over black? Yahhuh! That is if it's a sheer jelly with sparkle and not opaque...we shall see. However, Wallis will be a while coming, she going to take a bit to ship. Then I hit up the BB Couture new limited editions...Not sure about some but the ones I AM sure about I'm super excited for so...I had to give up the men's wild west collection. Again. But it will be mine. **curses self for not picking up on the specials a month ago. Idiot.** I NEED Bandito. The SB would be proud. ... That would be a nod out to a friend who will never read this blog in a zillion years, unless I could figure out how to polish his Maine Coon Cat's claws in something...like Glampyre, maybe. No wimpy colors for a cat named Sandor!

Also...and yeah, I know, like that's not enough, I hit LCN Cosmetics. I had never heard of this brand but they're doing magnetics. You know, the fabled and impossible to get Lancome magnetics that came out a couple years ago? Yeah, like that, only cheaper. I went for the whole "Starter Set" which was mega-yen, but it also came with all 8 colors and both magnets. I can't wait. While you know I'm not a big fan of nail art, this is a whole other animal. I did a google on them and they were clear on the animal cruelty thing, though I have to admit, these are so awesome I had them in the cart before I checked. Only images of tortured bunnies in my head made me stop before I pulled the trigger.

My credit card is actually weeping, as will I be when I see the bill, what with a new smartphone on there, wifi for the house plus whatever stupidity I downloaded to my nook....I'm sorry. The slowly diminishing book clutter in my world makes me do these things. The nail polish thing...that's just psychosis. I seriously want the rest of the a England collection as well, but I need to make a couple payments before I do anything like that. Hello. And of course, the awesome Scrangie, who I turn to first for all things polish, has already got her talons tricked out in the Rescue Beauty previews. I will be pre-ordering just as soon as I get the email. **shakes fist at Ji Baek again. WHY do you do such fantastic colors/polishes? Why can't they suck?? *sigh* ** Check her blog on this very site to see.

So. With all that blather said, I'm getting caught up.

Hard Candy Sky. OK...if you've been reading this blog, you know that even though I can do cheaper polishes with a lot less hassle, I luvs my salon/premier brands. I just do. I find the colors are more interesting, probably because you have to work harder to get them. Only true devotees and rebels are going to wear some of the stuff I put out here, I think. At least in my small midwestern town. So, to find a fun and very cheap, relatively, cruelty free brand at my not even awesome local Wal-Hell? Yeah. Hand Candy is a Leaping Bunny recipient so we're all good there, and it has really great colors. I have tried some of the make-up and meh. The polish though....it's pretty cool. So I give to you Sky:

Which still looks green in this picture. I assure it is not. Pssht. Crap. I think I went through this in a post before. Let's try this yet again.

Still greenish and slightly blurry, but you can see the blue flash there...that may have been my idea with the blur to start with. It's really a very pretty pastel, and I'm not a big pastel fan.

Here we go again:

Yep, no. Still looks green. Crap. I have one last offering:

Poo. Well, trust me. It's blue.

I do not remember the whole of this mani, but knowing me, it was

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Vite Rebuild - which has transformed my nails with consistent use, I'm not kidding. Nail peelage? Gone. Now...I've been taking a vitamin as well, for healthy skin, hair and nails, so that may have done some of the work here.
2 coats Hard Candy Sky
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

I do remember that this was slightly chalky going on, which was weird, and that it was somewhat troublesome to apply. But the end result was just what I wanted: edgy, light and airy and pretty. I'm getting better at painting close to my cuticles, check it out....


So, I'm very sorry I didn't get a better pic of this. It was hard color to capture. I think the last one is truest to form, but...none of them are great. I believe this was sunlight through a window.

It wore...OK. I've seen better. My nails are getting a serious work out these days as I'm doing all the cooking and dishes and whatever bathroom cleaning is getting done. I've been slacking lately on that, which is gross, I know, but dammit, I get tired too! The kitchen is spotless as usual so shut up. Spend more time in there anyways. **grumbles**

If anyone would like to see a bottle shot, let me know and I will post one. You can either email me or leave a comment.

Happy Polishing!

Wow am I behind.

And I apologize. I have some great swatches and some great colors and I have things to say about them and...I can't get motivated. I am going through an odd time in my life. If I could be left alone to be a hermit, I'd be perfectly and sublimely happy. This is not strange for me, but strange for right now. I'm not sure how to explain that.

I have some swatches of BB Couture Intake Valve, which I put on Moms and it looked really nice! The swatches are of her talons so I really want to post them. She enjoyed having the pictures taken, which was really cute. But then...she went to see one of her doctors, she's been very ill, and he kind of snorted and when she asked if he didn't like it said "I like red". Hm. So now they are Estee Lauder Jungle Red, which I will not swatch on here because I've promised you not to show you colors you can't get any longer. It IS a great red, though.

I also have swatches of the mesmerizing Chanel Peridot. Cruelty free, Chanel. Who knew? I did a little digging and according to their website, they are all good. Though, I have to confess, I'm leaning more towards looking for the leaping bun simply because Leaping Bunny first of all, engages veterinarians in their decision making process and also because they are not politically motivated. Check them out: leapingbunny.org I think they may be a little strict and that's a good thing.

Then I have many many swatches of A England Tristam because it's mesmerizing and because I have a new phone and therefore a new camera and am trying to learn to do more than accidentally back out of the camera. Yeah. You should be wishing me all kinds of luck with that because I need it. It really is great polish and it really did go on beautifully, but that needs to go in the post when I finally get it written.

I am currently sporting Zoya Tanzy, which is a firey orange and looks way better on me than I would have ever anticipated. Gingery hues tend to be total rubbish on me but this one is working. It's gorgeous, truly. One day I will actually get in gear and show you.

I just wanted to let you know I wasn't forgetting you. I've just had motivational issues. I want to sit in front of my computer, for sure, but playing Dragon Age: Origins and the two Witcher games and otherwise being a total geekazoid, but not so much blogging. Which is a pity, because I honestly enjoy my blog...I don't know what my problem is. I'm in a slump.