It's St Pat's! And other various musings

As a redhead with a diabolically Irish name, St. Pat's has a special place in me heart.. Even a middle name composed of a suitably Irish Catholic saint and no, I won't tell you which one, I hate it. I was convinced for years my mother had concocted it from her imagination just to torture me. And an Irish grandmother of whom I have only vague memories except she bought me a set of bone china which I loved because it quote had horses on it end quote, and that she smoked like a chimney. I love Irish cooking, mainly because it boasts the advantages of things like cabbage and scones, dream of visiting the place, and rarely bother with green on the special snake free day because, let's face it, I'm a redhead with an Irish name. I never feel I need to prove a thing. But for some reason this year, possibly because I am so completely unhappy a lot of the time because of my job and other things, I have embraced the holiday with open arms. I have green toes, green nails and a corned beef in the fridge just waiting to be paired with some cabbage. Yes, I still eat meat. I struggle with being at the top of the food chain, but also feel I have to accept the working of Mother Nature, but that does not mean I think animals are here to be tortured so I can sparkle and shine. That's just silly to me. Trust me, the meat thing is a struggle more than you know, but I live with omnivores and vegetarianism isn't a viable option. Regardless...I have a very pretty and I think perfect green for the holiday to show you. Then I'm going to go watch movies like Intermission and Boondock Saints. And that one about the matchmakers...maybe it's called that, I don't remember, it's hiding the massive DVD library I've built over the years, but I'll find it! It's set in Ireland! Everything is green and gorgeous and given that winter here has decided to hold on like grim death, green and gorgeous is what I need to see.

So, I give you Swinger from butterLondon!

This is a lovely grass green jelly base with a very dense glitter. The glitter is green, sporting some larger green particles of glitter, and with some gold thrown in for good measure. This is the leprechaun, the pot, the gold and the amazing shimmer all in one little glass bottle.

This took awhile to get where I was thrilled with it as far as coverage. It's dense, but I had VNL until three coats, which is what this is. It's so sparkly and pretty and I think the perfect green for St. Pat's.

All of these were taken in natural sunlight through the window. It's a bit overcast, but bright enough the flash never tried to go off. I let the autoedit thing on Picasa fix just this one picture. It's darker than the real thing, but it shows the glitter so nicely I left it. This really is more like the other shots in true color. As you can see, I had no trouble controlling this, it went on nicely and wanted to build up. I wanted thinner coats to help suspend the glitter and it worked well. Two coats may have been just fine, but I'm glad I did three. Look at the depth, here! The gold in it really is what adds that special feel, without it, it wouldn't have nearly as much dimension, I don't think.

I was trying to get you a close up of the glitter, which sort of succeeds here. You can see some of the larger pieces and the gold.
So pretty!

I dread removing this, but hopefully that's a week away. Here's the mechanics:

1 coat Nailtiques 2 Extra (I am fighting a peeling problem right now)
1 coat Growth Spurt base coat from the fine people who bring us Gelous. I'm liking this base coat a lot. Like the price even more.
3 coats butterLondon Swinger
2 coats Gelous top coat, Swinger was a top coat eater
1 coat Seche Vite to dry it all up

That is probably my one complaint about Swinger, it ate top coat. However, Gelous is perfect in those situations and I am finding that if I put on two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche to force it to fdry (Gelous doesn't like to dry, lads. Doesn't like it a'tall.) then I can get 7-8 days of wear. The last manicure I did, which was Models Own Zest A Peal, which I didn't swatch for some reason, I will some time, I promise cause it's pretty! lasted approximately 7 solid days. I had to take it off to go to my manicure and it had just chipped. I actually got tired of it.

So I'd like o thank all of you other bloggers out there who introduced me to this little $5 wonder and to Kell who found out they're bunny safe.

Swinger, the St. Patrick's Day for your nails!

Or whenever, really...but I found it perfect for my Irish roots.

Happy Talons!