I am going to zap you with my laser

I would LOVE to have a laser. It would be really cool. I would zap people all the time. Oh how that would come in handy when idiots are testing nail polish they have no intention of buying. I could lurk behind a display and point my little laser at them and zaap. Oh I can just imagine all the fun I would have with a laser. It would be a low dosage laser though, maybe just a little zap, nothing too harsh.

Today's mani, if you haven't guessed it already is China Glaze Laser Lime. Laser Lime was part of the much anticipated (and apparently much of a disappointment to many) Tronica collection. The only other holo I own is a KOH polish and holo glitter polishes so I honestly don't know the difference between say a Gosh and Tronica. In pictures I can see how someone expecting something really holo would be disappointed but I am quite happy with these polishes. The holo is very subtle but I am loving the lime green color.

I used Wet n Wild Shine Blue Moon for the stamping.

Ok, this picture I used solely to capture the color and shine in these polishes. Unfortunately Laser Lime didn't want to show his holo. Blue Moon however was all about showing the pretty shimmer.

I used one of the plates from my Shany set BM03.

The sun was being difficult this morning. It kept playing hide and seek with me. Once it would come out I would turn on the camera and before I could get the picture it would disappear again. This top picture is one I actually got in partial sun. Of course the holo is never visible because being cooperative would be too easy.

I want to say you can see a tiny bit of holo in this picture but I am not sure if that is just wishful thinking.

This picture was once again in partial sun. I figure even if I could get the sun to stay out long enough to take a picture it wouldn't show the holo anyway. At least thinking that makes me feel better about it.

These pictures are at my desk. I love the vibrant lime color. It is shimmery and fun to play with if nothing more. I keep holding my hand up and bending my finger slightly so the light catches in the polish. Yes, I am bored.

Blue Moon stamped well but was lighter than I thought it would be. I had another idea for a totally different mani but then asked the bf to pick a color and he picker Laser Lime. He only picked it because it had laser in the title. Boys!

That's all for now :)

One day without shoes and blues. caution feet picture inside

Good day! It is Tuesday, two days left before I fly. I think I am more anxious than I thought because I had a fitful night of sleep and woke up with a sore jaw. I think i was clenching my teeth really hard while sleeping because my mouth was sore. I usually don't do that. A really sweet nail boarder sent me a link to some videos to calm my nerves so I am going to watch them later. I am trying to remain focused on the nail polish shopping I will do when I am up there. If anyone knows of any good places to check out in the Raleigh/Greenville area of NC please let me know :)

Today is Toms' One Day without Shoes event and I am not wearing shoes to work. I did wear my super tall flip flops to drive this morning and obviously if I go to any stores they won't let me in barefoot but otherwise no shoes for me. I would go without shoes all the time if I could, I hate them! So this will probably be the only time you ever see my feet. I must warn you look away if you don't like feet. I personally don't like pictures of feet, especially mine, and unless something radical happens you won't see the chubby things again. I am only posting this picture to support the One Day without Shoes event.

I just decided while I was uploading this picture that this post will not include the nail of the day. I don't want to make people look at my feet unless they want to. So I have my Essie One day without Blues (the free polish Toms sent out for the event) on my feet and shoes are off.

The end of the icky feet post.

That's all for now :)

Custom Kicks

My Monday mani didn't last but a few hours. I found a chip this morning when I was drying my hair and my nail snagged on my towel. It showed me a nice little nail peel. By lunchtime I had more chipping on another nail and my thumb nail had a nice little split in the side of it. I nubbinized my thumb and middle finger but my nails like to play games with me and I anticipate the rest slowly breaking over the week. As I type this five of my ten fingers has quite a significant percentage of polish missing. It is driving me nuts! One day I will learn to bring remover to work!

The momentary mani was China Glaze Custom Kicks. I purchased this baby from a blog sale. It is a nice turquoise color with a ton of gold shimmer. The turquoise is bright but dusty at the same time if that makes sense. Oddly I looked at the back of one of the polish chips that has peeled right off my nail and it is very yellow green back there. My thumbs (the polish has decided it doesn't want to play with them anymore) are showing some yellowing but my other fingers are not. I can't say for sure if this one stains (half of my nails are still polished) yet but I thought the other fingers were showing a little yellow at first too.

The formula on this one was great. I love China Glaze polishes. It went on smooth without any issues. I used two coats to even everything out and had no problems with application.

The pictures were taken in the car so they are in sunlight. The picture above is in direct sunlight while the other is in a shadow. The polish looks on the green side to me especially when I look at it real close.

Hopefully next time I wear this polish it stays on for longer than it did today.

This is a picture at my desk. That is pretty close to the true color of the polish. I wish I could capture the gold shimmer a little better.

This is the nail that started all the trouble. I really wanted to use this picture to show the difference in color of the polish. You can kind of see the green/yellow hue in the middle of the pinky and index nail. If you look closely at the middle finger nail (sorry about the ugly macro cuticles) you can see where the chip pulled off some of the top coat. Under the top coat the polish is much more blue. I really like that particular color. You can also see where my nail is yellowed a little bit. This polish is an interesting color and this last picture is most accurate to what it looked like on me.

Adding to my day my boss thought it was funny to ask what airline I am flying and when I responded with Southwest he said never mind. About two minutes later he thought he needed to tell me about the plane that had a five foot hole ripped out of it in flight. He knows that I don't watch the news (because of things like this) and the man also knows I am terrified of flying. Apparently he thought it was funny to talk about it for the rest of the afternoon. I texted my brother immediately (he works for Southwest) and he basically just laughed at the whole situation. Needless to say I was almost in tears.

No surprise that after that whole ordeal one by one my nails broke. I was not in the mood to deal with them so I filed them down to nubs. Unfortunately I will be sporting nubs until they grow out (and decide to break again). I am running out of ideas of what to do to keep these nails happy and cooperative. I was thinking of trying Essie Feed Me.

That's all for now :)

I can tell it's Monday

Happy Monday. I can tell today is Monday because I did NOT want to get up this morning. My son is off of school and for some reason I am always running late on no school days. As I was getting ready for work my nail snagged on my towel and I noticed a nice little chip on the side of the nail. The nail was actually peeling which is not cute. I probably could have saved it but nubbinized it instead. I refuse to nub the rest of the nails for two reasons. One, they are getting longer and I just don't want to. Two, they are breaking one by one anyway. Later in the morning I looked down and my thumb nail had a micro split on the side. Grrrr. I nubbinized that one too.

Luckily I took a few pictures of my mani before this whole nail revolt began so I can post about China Glaze Custom Kicks without having to show you pictures with a horribly chipped mani. So of course I then realize I left the card reader at home. I know where it is too, right on the stair case waiting for me to grab it as I go out the front door. It is still waiting. DUH!

Oh yeah, it's Monday! I will have the Custom Kicks post up later today. I will write it now so it will be ready for the pics and I can post it pretty quick.

That's all for now :)

Tales of Turquoise

Sleepy Sunday! I love Sundays, more so when it is football season, but it is the day for sleeping in! Today I got to sleep in and then go see the greyhounds at the greyhound rescue. They are so cute and I want to take all of them home with me but unfortunately I can't. The bf starts work there tomorrow and he went over today to meet everyone and get an overview of what he would be doing. I tagged along to see all the pretty dogs.

My mani today is from the Texas Collection OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise. I was not impressed enough with the Texas collection to run out and purchase any of them when they came out. I am guessing the Ultas in my area assumed they would be huge sellers because they had massive displays for the collection. My son picked out Austin-tatious Turquoise for me when I had the reward coupon from Ulta. It is a really pretty turquoise with blue shimmer and micro glitter.

I wanted to spice it up with some stamping. I used the bf as my random.org and had him pick a number for the plate then pick a number and I used that design on the plate.

Austin-tatious Turquoise was a lot more sheer than I anticipated. It looks nice and dark in the bottle but is far from it. I used three coats and still see visible nail line. VNL doesn't bother me mostly so it isn't a factor for me but I would consider layering this over something else next time. I think that would deepen the color.

I used Jesse's Girl Blackout for the stamping. The left hand didn't come out as good as the right with the stamping but it was late and I was tired. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this image (it was the one that I was hoping he would not pick) but I thought it looked pretty good as tips.

I took these pictures in the car so that I would have some sunlight. The polish looks a lot brighter and lighter in the sun but then again I guess a lot of polishes do.

Stamping left handed made my image a little uneven and further down than I intended. I still like it though. It reminds me of those studded belts that I see the kids at my son's school wearing.

The formula was thin but I had no issues with Austin-tatious. I forgot to add in my post about Black out that the rectangle top is quite difficult to work with. I ran into more issues with it last night. I was trying to be quick with the black for stamping purposes and that top just gets in the way. Black out worked great for stamping though.

I finally got the shoes I need for the wedding today. The bride basically gave me no indication of what she wants us to wear so I picked up a bargain prices pair of strappy heels at Payless. I was excited because they were only 10 bucks (I probably won't wear them again). Now I need to decide on what my mani will be for the wedding day. The dress is black. I am open to suggestions :)

Now I better go supervise as the boys are arguing over making Shirley Temples (my son's favorite drink).

That's All for Now :)

Saturday Blackout

Happy Saturday!! I love Saturdays because there is no work! Woo hoo. This Saturday is even cooler because I have hit 10 followers! Super cool. Welcome to all, I am very excited to have you here :) I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I enjoy doing it.

Today I dragged the boys out and about to various stores looking for nail polish, shoes for the wedding (I didn't take into account when I said I would be a bridesmaid that I would need to wear nice shoes), clothes for the bf who got a job and starts Monday (YAY!!!) and nail polish. I found one store that sold OPI below retail which is cool but their selection was smaller than mine. I found another store that had an ENTIRE DISPLAY of Zoya! This display was taller than me and totally awesome! They had everything and I got to see Indigo in real life which is a new lemming. Unfortunately I did not buy it, I have no idea what I was thinking. The whole reason I brought this up is because I found a store that I have not been to in years (I totally forgot about it) that had not one, not two but FIVE whole displays of the Katy Perry collection. They were all full too! I am sure there were a few bottles missing but they were jam packed. WHERE was this place when I was looking for Teenage Dream? I already made sure they would have the Pirates collection and she said they would probably out at the end of the month. I am very excited about that! I didn't get much in my shopping adventures. Dollar Tree, Sallys, Ross and even Ulta were huge let downs. I picked up a couple Essence polishes at Ulta and a clearance Zoya and OPI but that is all.

Ok, on to the mani. Today I am wearing Jesse's Girl Black Out and the red glitter from a Color Club set I found at Ross that was mislabeled.

Random.org picked Black Out and I made my son pick a glitter so I could try a gradient mani.

Black Out had a great formula. I wasn't looking forward to using it after having such a problem with Crush but this one was great. I used two coats to even everything out. I probably could have gotten away with one thick coat if I had tried but I had a few thin spots. One coat had great coverage though.

I have never used a sponge for my gradients before. I would usually just paint coats of glitter on my nail and by the time I was done the tips would always be so thick from 5 coats of glitter. When I sponged Phoebe on the other day I realized that using a sponge is so much easier. DUH! I used an eyeshadow sponge and absolutely love how easy it is. Due to its shape I had great control and little mess. I am going to have to get some more from the dollar store or something. I wonder if I could "wash" them with acetone and use them again.

I took all these pictures outside but the sun is already going down so it wasn't very bright out.

I love gradient manis!

I had to add this picture because I was shaking my head when I noticed this. The city just recently gave us new recycle bins for our recyclables and as I was taking the bottle shots I noticed this part of the bin. I am baffled as to who or why one would put hot ashes in a recycle bin. Was this such a huge problem that they felt the need to put this warning on the bin?

That's all for now :)



Let's Play Ball

Yesterday I told you about the total failure of a baseball mani I attempted. Well, yesterday I decided I would not be defeated! When I was running my bank errand at lunch I stopped by Walgreens and picked up a Wet N Wild white polish to try again. I was convinced the OPI white was a good deal of the problem. It wasn't. It is the whole thing in general. The first time I tried using the pointy end of one of those wood sticks. Last night I tried a toothpick. I think I actually need a uber thin paint brush. It didn't turn out horrible enough to make me take it off so here it is.

I used the Wet N Wild Shine French White Creme that I picked up for 69 cents. I love sales! For the red I used this mini Essie I got on clearance. It has no label so I have no clue what color it is.

I had to use 3 coats of the French White Creme and even at that it was streaky. I would have used a fourth if I wasn't putting something over it. The formula was awful. It was so liquidy and streaky and bubbly. For less than a dollar it filled my need but I wouldn't buy it again. Maybe I will franken with it or just scrap it to use the bottle for a franken.

They are supposed to look like baseballs but I am not sure they do. I showed them to the bf who said they look the same as the night before. Um, thanks. They actually look better than the night before but not by much.

When I put the Seche Vite on top the red bled. Why does it do this? I used a thick coat on purpose so it wouldn't bleed but it still did. I don't even think the red was really wet anymore.

My poor cuticle is healing so I figured I would show the massacre that is my right hand. I am obviously not a lefty hehe. They look a lot better from afar!

I stopped by our local grocery store Publix on the way home from work and was completely baffled to find one lonely China Glaze polish hiding with the Milani. I have never seen a China Glaze in a Publix ever in my life and I have worked in the store and shopped in several. I took it to the register to see if it would ring up out of curiosity. It did! It was $4.99 and somehow it made it's way home with me despite having no intention of buying it and knowing that someone tried it. I checked it. I wanted to return it immediately upon exiting the line but the bf told me to just keep it or swap it. These polishes need to stop hitching a ride home with me! I don't even like pink! Talk about impulse buy. I am guessing it will look awesome under shatter though.

This was yesterday's haul. One of those Wet N Wilds I actually got at CVS before I realized they were on sale at Walgreens. Not worth my time and energy to return it though. They are China Glaze Shocking Pink, Wet N Wild Kaleidoscope, Wet N Wild Rain Check, Wet N Wild Blue Moon and OPI Teenage Dream.

That's all for now :)