A few updates!

Hi all -
I know most of you follow through Google Reader, so you probably haven't noticed the few little updates to my site.  In the sidebar, I'm now linking to my Spreadsheet, Wishlist, and Swaplist (though that one is still a work-in-progress).  My Spreadsheet hasn't been updated since late July (yikes!!), but feel free to browse and if you see something you want swatched, either leave me a comment or hit the Contact Me button.  Sometimes I'm not sure what to try next - the current thing you are seeing everywhere or something totally different?  Let me know what you want to see!

Also, I'm trying to get into Twitter.  I just don't get it though.  I mean, I do... but how the heck do you keep up with everyone?  I'm only following 22 people, but I can't keep up!  Suggestions?

I don't have a Facebook account, but I'm trying out Google+ to see how that goes.  You can add me by email I think... it's threnodynx @ gmail . com.

While I've always been a big fan of technology and being social on the web, for some reason I am really struggling with all this social media!  I hated MySpace (only had one because a friend made me, I deleted it 2 years ago), I don't like Facebook (I'm a boss - I don't want my employees to know all about my personal life, mmmkay?), and Twitter is just like WTFBBQ?!!>?! when I start looking at my stream.  However, it's important in this day in age to be visible on something, ya know?  Email just isn't enough!  *shakes head*

It's been especially different since the whole MUA Nail Board split thing.  I think I moved to the new one.  I say think because I don't really feel like I'm a part of either community now.  I don't lurk on the new one as much as I did on MUA, but I also haven't developed that close bond that so many others have.  I'm leading a Lynnderella group order though, so maybe that will help?  I haven't posted on MUA since the split, and I haven't even read the board in a few days.  Trolls galore and the community has just changed.  A lot of lovely ladies I have gotten to know are not posting on either board, and I think that is part of the problem for me.  I can't keep up with all the different subforums on the new one, but I don't like MUA anymore.  *sigh*  So now I need some kinda social media to stay connected.  *grumbles*

My blog turned a year old Labor Day weekend, and I also hit 100 followers the week before.  Plus I turned 30 two weeks before that.  I promise, I am going to do something to commemorate such a special occasion, I just haven't gotten to it yet.  What would you guys like to see in a giveaway?  BN or swatched once?  HTF or LE seasonal collections?  I have access to Meijer, which usually gets LE drugstore collections when they are HTF throughout the rest of the country.  Frankening supplies?  Makeup?  I'm actually quite makeup-addicted, though I don't feature it on this site.  I have A LOT to learn about applying it, so don't worry, you won't be seeing it here.  Foreign polishes?  I would appreciate any feedback you might have.  I'm always broke, so I want my one year giveaway to be something special - there won't be another one for a long time!  :D

I want to say THANK YOU to all my followers - it means so much to see your little pictures in my sidebar.  I especially want to thank those early supporters who inspired me to keep going - Jaybird, Kris in Philly, Lindsay, Cilucia, and many others.  If those of you who had blogs hadn't followed, a) I wouldn't have any followers, and b) I probably would have given up early on.  I know what I have here isn't top-notch, but I am proud of it and the work I've put into it.

In personal news, today is Daniel and I's 7th anniversary!  He has to work all day today though, so not much fun.  We are going to see Elsinore tonight, which is an amazing band, plus they are local, so it's the best of the best.  And I got the tickets free through my work!  We are both on vacation starting Monday (well, mine started Saturday), so yay for no work!  Daniel is taking me on a mystery vacation from Tuesday-Friday - I have no idea where we're going!  If you knew Daniel, you would realize this is totally out of character for him, but I'm loving it!  I know that we're staying in the state, that we haven't been there before, there will be wine there, and he expects us to be able to walk wherever we want to go.  ?!?!?!?  I'm totally clueless!  I was assuming we were going to the bed and breakfast we stayed at on our honeymoon and we were going to hit the wine trails of Southern IL, but he said we'd never been to this place before... and we can walk everywhere.  That is definitely not Southern IL, as he lived there for 5 years, we visit often, and there is no way you can walk to anything down there.

Sooo... I won't be posting or anything until at least Friday.  That shouldn't be a big deal, considering I go weeks without posting!  lol  I will try to check emails, but it might only be once a day, so if you do send me feedback on everything I asked for up there, please understand I might not get back to you until I return.  I thought about scheduling a post while I was gone, but I don't think I will have the time.  I put the Google+ app on my phone, so if you are interested in finding out where I'm going, add me - I'll be updating on my way!

I hope you all have a great week.  Thank you all SO much for your support!  *hugs*

A letter to my lovelies…

Hi gals -
First off… I’m pretty sure I’m the worst blogger on the face of the earth.  I’m constantly gone for LONG periods of time and come back and say “I won’t do that again!”, just to follow it up with another long absence.  How the heck do you guys find time to blog?!  I know most of the other bloggers out there have jobs and families and lives – how do you do it?  Do you do everything on your days off and then schedule for the rest of the week?  Please, let me in on your secret, because I am really struggling over here!
Secondly… I finally got around to making a light box.  I was so excited and spent a whole afternoon swatching and taking pics.  I just uploaded all of them today and wow… they suck.  There are hardly any pictures that came out ok since I started using the light box.  They are all darker than they should be, all polishes look matte, everything is a little fuzzy and grainy.  Do you guys have any suggestions?  It looks great IRL, but when I take the picture, it looks like not enough light is getting in.  I thought about poking some holes in the top, but I have hesitated – seems like that would just make the light weird, ya know?  Kinda spotty?  Those of you that use them – do you just have your light from the top or do you do side lights too?  I just have one OTT light, and I put it at the top.  The light looks fine when I’m looking at it, but my camera won’t pick it up.  I’ve tried adjusting the white balance with no significant difference.  Apparently until I get this figured out, I’m going to have to ditch the light box.  :(
And finally… wow, my hauls have been out of control recently!  I have been using gift certificates, Groupons, codes, etc., so it doesn’t seem like I have spent that much at once, but overall, it’s killer.  And my desk is almost completely covered in polishes I have received in the last month.  I have a few more on the way too!  *hangs head*  I had a couple of fab swaps recently – one from Canada (hello if you’re out there!) and one from the UK (to get a US polish!  Crazy!), plus there was that AveYou flash sale, I finally used my BeautyBar Groupon, I won an awesome giveaway over at Polished Pirate (*hugs Jaybird*), I used my Apothica gift certificate I won at My Lucid Bubble (*hugs KrisinPhilly*), finally pulled the trigger on my Essence haul at Ulta, plus there are all those random polishes I keep picking up!  SO MANY PRETTIES!!!  O.o
Anyway, I am a bit overwhelmed right now – with life, blogging, polish, all of it.  *sigh*  My schedule is going to be changing a bit in the near future, so I might actually get two days off in a row… which means I *might* get to spend more time swatching and such.  When you never have 2 days off in a row, it’s really hard to spend time doing stuff like that.  Especially when Daniel is home.  He does not understand my nail polish obsession and never will.  He says they all look the same, but they are just different colors.  He sees no difference between shimmer and glitter, crème and jelly.  *sigh*  I love that boy to death, but sometimes… lol.
So, yes, overwhelmed – where do you start when you begin to feel like this?  I looked at my spreadsheet and nearly died when I saw the total (which is missing a ton of new stuff) and the % untried.  Do you go on no buys?  Can you stick with it?  I have no self control or will power when it comes to NOT buying stuff.  Even low buys don’t work out that well.  I start off ok, and then someone has a code and all hell breaks loose.  Those of you who have had blog sales to get your stashes more manageable – did it help?  How did you go about purging?  Any regrets?  I’m not sure I have the time / energy for a blog sale (hell, swapping is almost too much for me sometimes), but I’m willing to look at whatever might help. I’m not sure how well I’ll do at culling the herd – I have a hard time saying no!  I have been seeing a lot of people on the NB talking about purging and how if they don’t LOVE it, they aren’t keeping it, but that is hard.  What if you LOVE the color, but the formula kinda sucks?  What if it isn’t your fave, but it does work great for when  you need to look like a muggle?  What if it was a gift?  HTF?  The only one from a collection you don’t LOVE?  Blargh – stressed out even thinking about it!
Please let me know what you do when polish mania starts getting you down… I really need to know!
And, since I can’t leave you without swatches, here are pics of the American Apparel neons.  I took these in my light box, so they are sux0r! 


Bottle shot – woo woo!  I felt fancy taking this one!  ;)


This is Neon Red.  It’s not really red – much more pink / coral.  I really like it though.  Best formula of the collection.  It does dry matte (they all do), so I’m wearing a topcoat here.  I actually think I took this one outside the box, so it isn’t too bad.  More pink than China Glaze’s Flip Flop Fantasy.


Neon Yellow.  I’m just going to be honest here… this one sucked.  Big time.  I have been searching for a neon yellow and I knew they were troublesome, so I shopped around quite a bit before finally purchasing one.  AA is known for their excellent formulas, so I though this one would *have* to be better than the usual neon yellow.  I guess I’ve only tried one… but if the others are worse, I would say they were unworkable.  This was thick, gloopy, streaky, gummy, and never dried.  It also flooded my cuticles even though it was so thick and left my skin super-stained.  It doesn’t self level.  It almost seemed to be… chunky?  Is that possible?  I’m wearing a topcoat in this pic to try to even it out, but it didn’t help, plus you can’t tell because of the weird light box problems I’m having.  I think this was something like 5 coats.  I tried thinning it quite a bit and starting over, but it still took 5 coats to get close to even.  I guess I’m still looking for a neon yellow.  Suggestions?


Neon Green is also not the best example of what a polish should be.  Thick and goopy, unable to self-level, streaky, and not all that opaque.  I think this one is 4 coats.  Again, topcoat didn’t help.  Such an awesome color, but SO hard to work with.  It’s like… the opposite of China Glaze In The Limelight.  I mean, they both kinda suck and look similar at the end, but where Limelight is so hard to control because it’s so thin and watery, Neon Green is so hard to control because it is so damned gloppy.  Again, thinning didn’t really help.  This was one of the really grainy pics, I tried to clean it up as much as possible, but I know it still is pretty rough.  :(  Brighter and yellow-er IRL.

Neon Violet… ugh, this picture is so bad it is embarrassing.  I will eventually re-swatch this one and replace this hideous thing.  Fuzzy because of the box.  I didn’t realize my clean up sucked so bad until I started editing.  Anyway, the formula on this one was much improved from the previous two, but not as nice as Neon Red.  I believe this was 2 coats.  Pretty smooth and easy to work with, though still a bit streaky.  This is brighter IRL, you know how neons are.
I didn’t get Neon Orange and Neon Coral, I might try to get those sometime in the future.  Vampy Varnish didn’t have nice things to say about Orange, so I dunno if I’ll get it.  And… wait, there is a Neon Blue now?!  Where the heck did that come from?!?  I’m not crazy, right?!  That wasn’t in the original press photos?!  *sits on hands to keep from ordering*
Thanks my dears.  I really appreciate all of you.
<3 -
Rachel

Essie Braziliant Collection… and a long update… ermm… thing!

No, no, I’m not dead… life has just been kicking my ass lately!  Let me give you a little recap of my world since I last posted:

May 2nd – Went back to work, which was killer.  We were super-short-handed, so I worked a ton of hours this week and absolutely wore myself out.

May 4th – Our car wouldn’t start in the evening when I went to pick Daniel up from work.  He had to find a ride home and my dad had to come down to look at it.  They eventually got it started, and everything seemed ok, battery and alternator were both working fine… couldn’t figure it out.

May 5th – Car almost dies when I stop at a stoplight on my way to work.  I had to floor it to get it to go, which then caused a ton of smoke to shoot out of the back and it overheats.  Then again at the next stoplight.  All in the < 7 minutes it takes to get to work.  I made it there, but car was smoking and the temperature was way too high by the time I got parked.  Checked it out after work and sure enough, the coolant is leaking into the oil.  Looks like a chocolate milkshake.  This explains why it wouldn’t start the night before, and why it had been giving off white exhaust instead of the normal exhaust.  Had to find a ride home and Daniel’s parents loaned us their van.  Car needs a whole new engine – about $2000.  Car’s value is less than $1500.  Car becomes a permanent fixture in the bank parking lot and we begin looking at our options for financing another vehicle.

May 9th-13th – I have jury duty – yay.  :P  Pretty much the worst experience of my life.  I have absolutely no desire to judge anyone or hold their fate in my hands.  I had to attend every day, much to my dismay.  Fortunately, all but one of the trials I was in the jury pool for settled, but I did have to go through the selection process for one.  I was hoping they would choose their jurors before calling my name, but no, they called me.  I think I would have been excused either way – the prosecutor questioned me first and I was excused based on our close friend who is currently in prison (and I had visited the week I was on vacation), but I think the defense would have excused me based on my husband’s best friend being a police officer, my dad working for the police department for 15 years and me being around cops my whole life and some of them like family.  So, I never ended up on a jury, but I was so stressed out by the whole thing that I basically came home and hid for an entire week.  Also wore the same polish for 7 days straight – OPI’s Hot & Spicy.

May 16th-20th – Work is basically kicking my ass again.  Hired someone based on a phone interview because I never could actually meet her face-to-face – too busy!  :P  She had been interviewed by two other managers though and was hired both times, but on the first they had an internal application at the last minute and it is nearly impossible to turn those down (no training!), and the second upper management decided to split the full-time position into two part-time.  So, she comes well recommended, but it’s still a bit scary.  I run a drama-free zone, and I explained that to her – hopefully she doesn’t mess that up!  Also currently training a new employee, and having to issue verbal warnings to others, based on that new sales program I have mentioned before.  And looking at cars every evening when I get off work.  Realizing that they are EXPENSIVE!  My mom keeps telling me I can get her car (2002 Chevy Impala, 84k miles) for $5000, but that is absolutely not true.  The only Impala I found under $6000 had 175k miles.  Have one hopeful, but everything else has been a bust.  Stressful week!  I did manage to wear a different untried every day this week though!  :D

May 21st – Go to visit hopeful car in a town about 30 minutes away.  Very short on time – have a wedding to be at early in the afternoon.  Test drive car, ask lots of questions, decide to buy.  2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue, 104k miles.  Silver.  Good price.  Try to hurry very nice salesman as I now have less than an hour before the wedding starts.  Eventually get papers signed, hand over check, and tear out of the lot, flying to get home.  Have to stop for gas because, of course, no car on a sale lot has any gas in it.  Have less than 15 minutes to get ready for wedding.  We did make it, and we weren’t the last couple into the sanctuary, but it was close.  Thank god there was a long line at the guestbook, so the wedding did not start exactly on time!  So stressed about buying the car and trying to get to the wedding that I get a little bit drunk at the reception – just the nice buzzy drunk that doesn’t make you do stupid things or have a hangover!  Collapse on couch at 10pm.

May 24th – My brother and sister-in-law welcome their new baby, Bradley!  This is baby #3 for them.  They already have Nathaniel, 4, and Lorelei, 2.  Planning on another baby in the next 2 years – yikes!  We also have a nephew from Daniel’s brother (Sam, nearly 2), so this makes nephew #3!  Hoping there is at least one more girl so poor Lorelei doesn’t grow up being a complete tomboy – and I need someone’s nails to paint!  ;)

Soooo… yeah.  Thank you for reading all of that, if you made it through.  I won’t hold it against you if you scrolled down to pics – it was a loot to read!  ;)  I have lots of polishes photographed and lots more to swatch, so hopefully I won’t be taking such a huge break again!  Are you ready to finally see some swatches?

I fell in love with the Braziliant collection as soon as I saw promo pics.  I love bright oranges, and who can resist perwinkles and pale greens?!  This one did not disappoint.  Fab summer collection!

Absolutely Shore is a gorgeous pale green – it’s almost white with a green tint.  I really see this more as spring than summer, but I love it either way.  Didn’t really love the formula though… streaky, streaky, streaky!  This was 3 coats, and the last one was rather thick.  I’m pretty sure I used topcoat on this one to even out the application.  I don’t have anything in my stash comparable to this, but it might be similar to Nubar’s Baby Sprout, from the Spring 2011 collection.  I think it’s less white and more blue tinged.

Braziliant is a deep orange with a really dense pink shimmer that I have found nearly impossible to photograph.  I swear, it’s not a crème!  The shimmer is so dense that it doesn’t show up well unless you hit the right light… so kinda secret shimmer-ish?  If you really want a good look at the shimmer, check out Temptalia’s post here.  She really captures it in the last 2 pics she took.  I’m jealous, I never could capture it!  It is a gorgeous color, I went looking for it specifically when I started searching for this collection.

I LOVE Meet Me At Sunset – I am a sucker for these reddish-orange jelly-ish things!  This is the most color accurate pic, most of them came out more red than it actually is.  I have seen others refer to it as a red, but it’s orange – orange, I say!!  Similar in base color to Braziliant, just a touch more red.  Actually, when I bought these, the clerk thought they were the same and looked at the tops to be sure they weren’t.  To any polish-a-holic, they aren’t very comparable (hello?!  one is a shimmer, the other a crème!), but muggles just see orange.  The formula on this one is incredible.  It’s a little more opaque than a jelly, but sheerer and shinier than a crème.  Two coats to perfection.

Here you can see how amazingly shiny it is – no topcoat!!  :D  I really do love this one, but it is the one I have something quite similar to.  I compared it to OPI’s A Good Man-darin Is Hard To Find because I thought they looked close, but as you can see in the pic below, they really aren’t that close.  AGMIHTF (wow, what an acronym!), middle, is pinker and more crème-like than MMAS.

Once it was on the nail, I realized that MMAS is pretty darned close to Revlon Top Speed in Chili, which is one of my faves.  They aren’t quite dupes, but very very similar!  Chili is in the middle again.  It is a bit redder, but the finish is the same, and both polishes had fabulous formulas.

Finally moving on from Meet Me At Sunset… ;)

The finish and formula of Too Too Hot is the same as Meet Me At Sunset, so this was an instant love for me.  It’s an orange based pink that will look lovely on tips and toes.  It reminded me of Essie’s Watermelon, which I don’t actually own.  However, I do have Essie’s Rose Bowl, which is almost a dupe, just slightly warmer – I compared them in store before purchasing Rose Bowl and I could barely tell the difference.

So, Too Too Hot is not as close to Watermelon as I thought, seeing how it is warmer (and oranger) than Rose Bowl, which is a warmer version of Watermelon.  I have been loving Rose Bowl lately, even wore it as a pedi for over a month, but I think I prefer Too Too Hot after comparing them!

Super Bossa Nova was the hardest one for me to track down, which seems so bizarre – it’s a shimmery pink, I never dreamed it would be the first to go!  I went to 4 different stores before I finally found this one at Target.  Every other display I found, Super Bossa Nova was the only one gone!  I can see the allure though – a bright shimmery pink that will look great on almost all skin tones, plus it is super-pigmented, so you can get away with one careful coat.  I’m wearing 2 in the pic, but not because I had to… but because I’m weird and always do at least 2 coats!  It has a purpley/blue shimmer that is quite dense, but like Braziliant, it doesn’t always let itself be shown.  It isn’t quite as subtle, but she really sparkles when in the spotlight.  Because of the color of the shimmer, I thought I’d compare with China Glaze – 108 Degrees, middle.

When compared to 108 Degrees, the already kinda subtle shimmer in Super Bossa Nova looks almost invisible.  The base colors are similar, but the blue shimmer in 108 gives the color a blue cast Super Bossa Nova lacks.

I almost passed up Smooth Sailing – it’s gorgeous, but I was just sure it was a dupe for RBL’s Catherine H.  I picked it up and put it down about 5 times in the store before I finally just grabbed it and went to the register.  It’s a bright periwinkle / cornflower blue with tiny little flakes in it – the finish is the same as Mochacino from the retail collection.  I love this finish and hope Essie keeps using it!  It reminds me of little rain drops, all irregular shaped.  It might even be similar to the little flecks in Illamasqua’s Raindrops, but I have only seen pics, so I’m not positive on that one.  I’m lusting after it big-time though, so if anyone has it available, please let me know!

Back to the real question… is this a dupe for Catherine H?  Sorry to be a bummer to those of you who didn’t get your hands on the RBL before it sold out, but they aren’t that close.  Depending on your level of obsession, it might hold you over until Catherine H is available again, since it did get chosen in the Bring it Back vote, or it might kill your lemming altogether.

Catherine H is much deeper, dustier, and has a pink shimmer that is quite a bit different from the little flakes in Smooth Sailing.  However, the flakes in SS seem to have a bit of pink and blue in them, so it’s almost like a toned down version.  I love them both, but will probably not wear the RBL in the summer, since it is dusty and kinda murky looking.

Overall, the formulas on this collection were outstanding – the only one I had any trouble with was Absolutely Shore, and we all know how those white-based shades are.  I used 2 coats in all the pics above, except AS.  I love them all, but my top pics are Smooth Sailing and Braziliant for originality and Meet Me At Sunset and Too Too Hot for formula and perfect summer shades.

This collection is being spotted in Walgreens and Targets across the country, but Cilucia heard from Essie that they won’t be available at Ulta and other salon retailers until June 1st.  For those of you who need your e’s on the caps, there is still hope!  ;)

What do you think of Braziliant?  Any favorites?

Basecoat: none
Topcoat: none, except for Absolutely Shore – Beauty Secrets Fast Finish
Number of coats: 2, except for Absolutely Shore, 3

Zoya Sunshine Swatches, plus updates

First off, thank you all so much for your kind comments about my dear Sydney. Apparently my mom had a change of heart and decided she couldn't go through with it, and is trying a couple of different things to deal with Syd's issues. Of course, my parents didn't tell me they had changed their minds until after I found her a loving home, so then I had to tell the kind individual "thanks, but no thanks." grrrrrr! I guess the important thing is that she is currently alive and well and I know I have a place for her to go if my parents again decide she isn't worth the trouble. I have lost quite a bit of respect for them over this, even though they didn't do it. The idea of it just sickened me. I have only spoken with them once since this whole thing happened, and it seemed a bit awkward. I'll see them this weekend, so we will see how that goes.

Again, thanks so much for the comments - I truly appreciate them. I am so sorry that I was unable to respond until now - I lost my beloved computer last week! ;_; I was infected with a nasty malware/rootkit and was unable to recover. I have never seen anything like this one - it had installed itself and had taken control of my system before I even realized there was a problem. It's called Windows Fix, in case you see it... very similar to Windows Repair, but more invasive! It blocked my administrator access, hid all my files, and made it impossible to run any executable files, except for Internet Explorer. It also redirected all Google searches to crap pages, ran non-stop IE scripts, and tried to bring up advertisements every couple of minutes. Like I said... I've never seen anything quite like this one! My hubby always says that the antivirus companies are the ones creating this stuff to keep themselves in business and I've always rolled my eyes and told him he was paranoid, but after all the things this one did... I'm a believer! No random person could create this - it was too good!

I was so frustrated at losing my computer... I have had a lot of problems over the years, but I never had come across something I couldn't fix - I've NEVER had to reformat, and I've had a computer since 1987. *sigh* I felt absolutely defeated, especially after consulting with a colleague and coming to the conclusion that it was my only option. It was a rather easy transition - my external hard drive was up and running, so I was able to easily transfer files and save everything that was needed, but still... ugh. I'm still running Windows Vista (yeah yeah yeah I'll upgrade when someone gives me extra $$... well, actually, I'll blow that on polish and stay with Vista!), so it took FOREVER to get from factory condition to the current updates. 100+ updates to SP1, another 40+ to get to SP2 and then a bunch more from there - took all day!! But, everything is up and running now, possibly a bit better than before! My other PC does work, though it is around 10 years old and slower than I would prefer, but Disqus won't load on it. Same with my work PC - Disqus just says it's loading forever, but nothing ever happens. Weird, eh?

Anyhoo... onto the swatches!

Zoya Sunshine totally caught my eye, once I saw Temptalia's swatches, I had to have them all! Fortunately, Zoya ran a BOGO on their summer collections, so I was able to pick up the ones I really wanted for minimal cost.

Apple is a beautiful spring green sparkle polish, like the springy sister of Ivanka. The finish on these is the same as the Sparkle collection, though Summertime is a bit more sheer. This was 3 coats of Apple and it went on very smoothly, dry time was great. I swatched without a basecoat though and this little minx stained me in the 10 minutes I wore her! :P

Tanzy is a medium orange, so blingy and sparkly! Three coats here. Reminded me quite a bit of one of the new Wet 'n Wild FastDry's, 9021Orange.

9021Orange was a bit brighter and more sheer - I think I used 4 coats in this swatch and it still has some VNL. I don't really know why they call it a FastDry... cos it definitely is not! You probably don't need both of these unless you are an orange fiend. The Wet 'n Wild is pretty danged cheap, but if I were choosing, I'd get the Zoya. It has a MUCH better brush, is more opaque, and actually dries!

I think Reva turned out to be my favorite, though I'm not usually a pink person. The formula was TDF, absolutely flawless, and the warm berry color looks great with the gold sparkle. 3 coats, but I think I could have gotten away with 2.

 

Faye was the one I was most looking forward to, and she didn't disappoint. I saw a lot of negative comments on her around the nail community, that the purple base was washed out by the gold sparkle, but I didn't think it was all that bad. The bling is rather blinding on the nail, but it also looks fabulous against that mauvey-purple base! And Faye always makes me think of Faye Valentine... any Cowboy Bebop fans out there? ;)

Rica is a pink-leaning coral that surprisingly, doesn't look as horrid on me as I imagined it would. I did waffle on this one, but finally decided to just get it and complete the collection. I'm glad I did - she'll look great this summer, especially on toes!

Finally, here is Kimmy, a gorgeous orange-based red. She's not quite as flashy as the others in this collection, but that doesn't mean much - she's still really lovely. A stainer though... don't forget your basecoat! 3 coats here, but definitely could have been ok with 2. Kimmy reminded me of Hard Candy's Lava, so I compared the two below.

The base colors are similar, but the finishes are different. Lava is a glitter, though removal is pretty easy compared to most glitters, but Kimmy definitely has that different foily shimmer common to this whole collection.


I really like this collection and can't wait for summer so I can wear them! I could start now, but our lack of sun would make it kinda pointless. :P I love the sparkle finish - it's all the fun of glitter, with none of the painful removal. These come off easily, though they do leave some sparklies on your skin. Application is great on all, and the dry time is good. My only complaint is the staining I got from Apple and Kimmy, but if I had been wearing basecoat like I *should* have been, I doubt it would have happened.


After I took off Tanzy, Reva, and Faye, I looked down at my little cotton round and it was beautiful - check it out!

It's like a sparkly butterfly! :D


As everyone knows by now, the Zoya Exchange has started and will be running for a week. My list is kinda huge... Dovima, Ali, Renee, Loredana, Robyn, Pinta, Jo, Paz, Purity, Irene, Perrie, Dana, Ki, and Yasmeen. It's pretty much my entire wishlist - yay to not lusting after any more Zoyas!

Are you participating in the Zoya Exchange? What are you ordering? What are you sending in?


Basecoat: none
Topcoat: none
Number of coats: 3

Zoya Intimate Swatches & Comparisons... and a plea for help

So... it's been 2 weeks since I've posted.  I don't want to constantly be saying "sorry 'bout that", but umm... sorry 'bout that.  I have been so stressed out with work and life that I really haven't felt like blogging.  I have been painting my nails, but only every 4-5 days or so, and I haven't been taking pictures.  I'm having a bit of trouble with my camera - it is suddenly refusing to capture light correctly, as you will see in these pics.  I almost didn't post them because they are all kinda dark and not what I prefer, but I haven't felt like re-swatching everything either, so I hope they are helpful to you.

Work has been just... terrible lately.  I really need to find another job.  I have been there nearly 10 years, but things have changed so much and it's just not a place I am comfortable working anymore.  :(  It's really sad, but it's the truth.  I had mentioned before that we switched our focus from service to sales, and with that came a daily sales requirement that is... well, I won't say it is unreachable, because it isn't impossible, but it isn't likely to happen.  My department started off very well with the new program and put a lot of effort into it, but then the bank decided to change the rules of the program and did not reward for the hard work like they had promised they would.  As a result, most of the department quit putting in the effort.  Since I am responsible for them, if they don't do it, I lose my job, so everyone is breathing down my neck.  I am basically begging the staff to put some effort into it, with hardly any improvement.  I asked the other day what would motivate them to their original efforts again, and was told nothing was going to do that.  Um... so basically, they have gotten me fired, along with themselves.  *sigh*  I love my staff and I absolutely understand their feelings, but they don't seem to understand that if they don't follow along with the program, we are all getting fired!!

In other life news... anyone in Illinois (or anywhere else that we can get her to!) willing to take in a very sweet and loving cat?  Sydney is my parents' cat, she is around 13 years old, black and tan tiger-striped and will be your very best friend.  She has had a few potty problems lately and my parents have decided to put her to sleep, even though otherwise, she is healthy and happy.  Recent vet visits have proven she has no diseases, but my parents do not want to deal with the inconvenience of these litter box problems and are going to have her put down.  I have begged them to let me have her and they refuse, same with taking her to the local humane society.  They claim they don't want her to be anyone else's problem, but that is not fair - someone else could love her and understand that there are potty issues with age.  I am so angry, hurt, disappointed, and disgusted with them.  I'm also not speaking to them, which does suck because we are normally very close.  I am hoping if I can find her a loving home, my parents would be willing to try that instead of killing her because she is inconveniencing them.  I wish I had a good picture to show you - if you look in her adorable little face, it is impossible to not love her. Sydney is tiny, weighs maybe 3 lbs?, has a tiny short tail that is all wonky and weird at the tip (we believe it was caught in something when she was young - we picked her out at the vet's office when she was a couple of years old, they found her roaming the streets), and is missing a bottom tooth (not sure when that happened, I just noticed the last time I was there that it was gone!).  She is extremely quiet - she actually is unable to make sounds!  When we first got her, she made little creaky sounds instead of meows, but within the last few years, she has lost the ability altogether.  She still tries, but no sound comes out.  She has the biggest green eyes and the sweetest little face.  Sydney wants to be everyone's best friend.  She will do anything for attention, including walking on her hind legs just trying to get you to pet her!  She currently lives with another cat and they get along great - he thinks she is his mother and she treats him as her own.  If anyone has any suggestions for anything else I can do to try to help her... please let me know.  I am heartbroken over this.  Here are a couple of blurry pics of Sydney with my hubby... she adores him and as much as he hates to admit it, the feeling is mutual:

So... moving on now to what you came here to read about - Zoya Intimate Collection.  I've had this for awhile... basically, since Cilucia at Spaz & Squee posted swatches and I HAD to have it!  She has a great post with them and great comparisons - check it out here.  I've done different comparisons than her, so hopefully between the two of us, you'll figure out what you need and what you can skip!

Dove is a light grey creme that leans neither blue, brown, or green - just a true grey.  Not too many of those around!  Similar in color to China Glaze's Pelican Gray, Cilucia compared them - PG has shimmer.  I tried another pale grey I had, Avon's Urban Grey.  Definitely not a match!

Compared to Dove, Urban Grey looks off white!

Marley is a shimmery lavender that is surprisingly opaque in two coats.  I dunno if I would classify it as a shimmer... it's more like a hidden shimmer, but it's not so hidden as, say, Essie Sew Psyched.  I don't have much in the way of lavenders (lemming Rumples Wiggin' bigtime!), but I do have this, Avon's Luxe Lavender.

Umm... again... no match.  Not even close.

Gemma is a dusty army green with a blue shimmer - totally unique, I haven't seen anything else like it!  I decided to try to make it myself with a similar colored polish topped with CND Ice Blue Shimmer.  Here are my results (resluts!):

From left to right: Essie Sew Psyched, American Apparel Army Jacket, and Gemma.  As you can see, Army Jacket topped with Ice Blue Shimmer comes close - if you have both of these, you might be able to skip out on Gemma. 

Caitlin is a beautiful periwinkle cream and honestly, I have nothing even close in my 700 +/- stash.  Others have said it is an exact dupe to Petites Periwinkle, but that polish is not available to me here, so I haven't gotten to see for sure.  All You Desire compared it to Spa Ritual's A World of Compassion and has stated they are dupes as well - check out her post here.  Then don't forget to come back - I know her, blog is AMAZING!

Dannii is a purple umm... I don't know what to classify this finish as!  Any suggestions?  It's kinda foily, but not a foil, and the little particles in it kinda remind me of a glass fleck, or something like Charla... but it's not really any of those things.  This is the one I was most excited for and I really love it.

In the bottle, the color seemed similar to Zoya Zara, but as you can see, totally different!

Finally we have Jules, another weird finish like Dannii, but this time in a gold/silver blend.  I like this one a lot more than I thought I was going to, it's pretty unique.  I heard rumours that it was dupe-ish to Wet 'n Wild's Shield and China Glaze's Swing Baby, but it really isn't... at all!

Left to right: Swing Baby, Shield, Jules.  The other two, besides being different colors, are way different in finish to the Zoya.

Overall, I was very pleased with this collection.  Nice range of colors, nothing is a total dupe to something in my stash, and application was great.  I think I did 2-3 coats on each (depending on color), which is pretty standard, especially for Zoya.

I've got to wrap this one up for tonight, as lots of other things are waiting on me (like hubby, who needs me to pick him up from work!), but please leave your thoughts in the comments.  I have switched over to Disqus because it is SO much better for replying to comments and keeping track of conversations, so please, comment away!

And any suggestions on the Sydney situation would be much appreciated.  *sniffles*

Basecoat: none

Topcoat: none

Number of coats: 2-3

I'm back!! and China Glaze - White Kwik Silvr

Mom went home from the hospital yesterday and is doing very well, but unfortunately she lives 30 minutes away, so I won't be getting to visit her much.  Thank you all so much for your kind words and well wishes - you have no idea how much I appreciate it!

So now that I'm back... omg, where to begin?  I have tons of pictures I haven't posted and I have been hauling like crazy because I've been stressed and that's what I do!  ;)  I haven't had the chance to swatch anything though, so there is a huge backlog of polishes waiting to be tried.  Hopefully I can get to them verrrrrry soon.  :)

I actually managed to wear the same polish for 12 days - yes, 12! with only one little touch-up, so that's what I'm going to start with today to ease myself back into this.  I wish I had taken shots of this before I took it off - I couldn't believe how well it held up after 12 days of me!  I normally have no luck with China Glaze - if I can make it more than 48 hours with no chips, I'm happy.  White Kwik Silvr only had a few small chips after 12 days (if you don't include when I hit my pinkie at work day 2 and chipped part of my nail off - that was my one touch-up).  I don't know if it was my basecoat/topcoat combo or if it was the non-B3F formula or what, but this one was like iron!

Even though I have Frosty from the 2010 'Tis the Season collection, I've been lusting after White Kwik Silvr forever.  I finally broke down and ordered it from an etailer a couple of weeks ago.  It arrived a couple of days after my mom got sick and it was perfect timing.  I was really down that day and it felt so good to get a big box of goodies in the mail!  I figured this was a great work-appropriate shade and *hopefully* it wouldn't show too much damage since I didn't know when I would get the chance to do my nails again.  I didn't expect 12 days!

It's a hard little bugger to photograph, let me tell you that.  It's not just a straight white shimmer, there are little bits of color in there, much like Sally Hansen's Fairy Tale Ivory and China Glaze's Knotty.  It's subtle, but it gives it a little something extra to keep it from being just a bland white.  I thought it would be a dupe to Frosty, but they are a bit different, and to be honest, I prefer White Kwik Silvr.  I didn't do a comparison, since ALU did - check out her post here (scroll down a bit). Fantastic photo - she really captured what I'm talking about - there is a warmth to WKS that Frosty doesn't have... which is appropriate, since it is named Frosty!  ;)

Sorry for the scary hand, but honestly, this was the best shot I could get of the glass flecks.  My camera freaked out on this one a bit and couldn't get a nice crisp shot no matter how many times I tried.  For all my raving about how well it held up to me and the hell I put my hands through, the best part was that I really loved the color.  It's elegant and classic, which are not words I usually use to describe anything about me, on me, near me, etc.  ;)

Now... onto the not-so-hot stuff... this is a really sheer polish.  It took 5 coats to get what you see here.  Dry time was great though, being old formula non-B3F.  It did stay on 12 days, but by day 9, I had some major tipwear and a couple of tip chips, plus my right index had a huge crack in it.  I was afraid I would hit it and the polish would all come off in one piece, but it stayed put, just looked awful.  Fortunately, only I noticed.  Polishes like this are great for those times when you don't have time.  Chips aren't very noticeable and this color goes with everything!

I think I'll be getting a backup of this one... and I only currently have 1 other backup.  It's Orly's Galaxy Girl, if you were wondering!  ;)  I think I am getting a backup of Barielle's Elle's Spell and possibly Urban Decay's Bruise (pretty sure it is my fave color, ever!), but I don't usually do backups.  I think that I will be wearing WKS often though and since it is long discontinued, I need to get it now while I can!

Basecoat: Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Basecoat

Topcoat: Essie Good to Go + Beauty Secrets Fast Finish

Number of coats: 5 

another quick update

Wow, I've gained so many followers since I've been away!  Welcome all!  :D  I promise, I will be getting back to posting ASAP!

My mom is still in the hospital, but it sounds like she will be coming home in the next few days.  It's been 2 weeks!  She was sent home after a week, but was back in the ER within 24 hours, so that doesn't really count.  She had an acute case of pancreatitis and has been very sick every since.  It hasn't been life-threatening, but lots of other complications keep coming up and she just isn't healing very quickly.  She has been on a clear liquid diet for the last week and was getting to move onto low-fat solid foods today - yay!  My mom is my bestest friend, so this has been pretty hard on us.  I really want to thank everyone for your comments and well-wishes - I truly appreciate it!

And... in case you didn't see it, I won the $25 Apothica gift card giveaway at My Lucid Bubble!  I'm so excited!!  I have really needed a pick-me-up after all of this, so I get a little shopping spree with no guilt!  :D  I will let you all know what I get and will definitely be sharing swatches!

Hope to see you all again VERY soon!  ;)

update and apologies

I just wanted to post a little update and say sorry for not posting.  My mom suddenly became ill last week and has been in the hospital since.  She isn't dying or anything *super* serious, but she still is there and won't be coming home for awhile yet, so I've been spending all free time there with her.  I have lots to post about, so when she gets a little better and gets to go home, I will be back!  Thank you for your patience!  :)

Revlon Top Speed - Violet, Sugar Plum, Grape

Ugh, sorry again for the lack of posts... crazy-stressful work + horrid winter weather = no Normal Girl!  Fortunately we didn't get it quite as bad downstate as Chicago did, but it still was not good!  Nothing was open here - even the University of Illinois closed and apparently they have only closed like 3 times in their 144 year history!  The stupid bank decided to open a few facilities at noon, but only the drive thrus, so, being the manager, I had to go in.  It was too dangerous for ALL employees to come in, but it was ok for the tellers - WTF?!  *grumbles*  My street had not been plowed of the 12+ inches of snow we got (not to mention the freezing rain we had the two days prior), so it took my husband doing a lot of shoveling and creative maneuvers with the car for us to make it in.  >:P

Anyway... you aren't here to listen to me complain. Since I have been so short on time lately, I think I'm going to do a couple of series of different lines of polish.  I'm going to start off with the Revlon Top Speeds that have come out in the last couple of months.  I don't have the entire collection, but I do have quite a few.  Walgreens was giving $5 Jingle Cash with every purchase of one of these, basically making them $1.99 each, so I acquired some that way, then Meijer put out a smaller display with $1.00 off coupons on it, making them $2.99 each... so I've ended up a bunch of them.  I'm sure by now you've seen a million pics of Royal, but have you seen the others?  I couldn't find swatches of most of them, so hopefully this series will be helpful to you.  Today we're going to look at a few of the purples.

First off is Violet.  Let me tell you, this beauty is very shy and doesn't like her picture being taken!

This was as close as I could get to true-to-life color.  It's actually warmer than this, but still violet, not pink-leaning at all.  Something about the color is kinda mesmerizing - there is some serious depth to what appears to be just another violet shimmer. 

This is Sugar Plum... and to be honest, I don't know how to describe this one.  It's purplish, but more burgundy than purple... is there a name for this exact shade?  Whatever it is, it's amazing.  I looked at this one numerous times before I gave in and finally bought it.  I was afraid it would be a little frosty and brush-strokey, but it isn't either of those - it is one amazing shimmer.  It's got little bits of pink and green shimmer in there.  I wore this one for about 5 days and could not stop looking at it.  I think this is my favorite of the entire collection.

And last today is Grape.  It's a deep purple shimmer, kind of a lighter/warmer version of China Glaze's Let's Groove.  The blue and red shimmer are there as well, but they aren't as obvious as Let's Groove.  My camera did not like this color and every picture came out slightly blurry, but you get the idea.  This one didn't wow me as much as the other two.  I wore it for just a couple of days before I was over it.

Application-wise, these are pretty danged nice.  I have to tell you - I LOVE the Revlon brush.  Not sure why - it seems pretty standard - but it is my favorite out of every brand I've tried.  The formula varies by color and finish - Sugar Plum was amazing and practically applied itself, while Grape was patchy and I struggled to get it even.  Violet fell in between - not great, but not horrid.  These are a fast dry formula and they actually do dry pretty fast - better with a fast dry top coat.  Some of these, like Sugar Plum, you can get away with one coat if you are careful, others will need at least two, if not three.

Do you have any Top Speeds?  What are your favorites?  I think retail on these is $6.99, but you can find them cheaper at discount stores like Meijer ($3.99) & Target ($4.99) - they haven't shown up at my Wal-Mart yet, but maybe they will soon and even cheaper than Meijer's?  Also look out for $1.00 off coupons on some of the displays!

Basecoat: none

Topcoat: Beauty Secrets Fast Finish

Number of coats: varies by shade, 2-3

Sally Hansen XTreme Wear - Purple Gala

I've been polish-obsessed for as long as I can remember - I honestly think the obsession is more about color than about actual nail polish, but it ends the same way - me with a huge collection of polishes!  I had 150+ in Jr. High and High School, but it seemed like I wore the same 10 over and over again - some Wet 'n Wilds called "Blackest" - there was Blackest Blue, Blackest Green, Blackest Red, and my fave, Blackest Purple.  I'm pretty sure I even wore it to prom.  (But to be fair, it perfectly matched my prom dress!)

I wore polish all the time until I started working at the bank, 8+ years ago.  I started off wearing it, but contrary to popular belief, working at a bank involves physical work!  I was tearing up my manis within hours of doing them, breaking nails constantly, and just plain making a mess out of my hands.  I finally got fed up with it and quit wearing polish.  (And unfortunately, threw away my stash!)

I met my husband a couple of years later, still in the non-polish phase, so he was completely shocked and floored when I began wearing polish again last year.  He thought it was something new, but really it was an old love that never died.  I became the manager of my department a couple of years ago and wasn't doing the same amount of physical work that I had previously been doing.  I had picked up a couple of new polishes for our vacation so I could have gorgeous pedis and it suddenly occured to me that I could start painting my fingernails again!  I have to admit... I did kinda go crazy.  There were so many beauties I had lost, I had to completely rebuild my stash!

One of the first polishes I bought when I started collecting again was Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong.  It's a gorgeous dusty purple with gold foil flakes in it, and a Nail Board favorite.  I loved the color, but the danged thing would not dry on me!  I tried it for 2 manis with no success, even with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Topcoat.  (Side note: I was totally obsessed with Hard Candy polishes in high school, but couldn't afford them - now they are at Wal-Mart?  Dirty, ghetto Wal-Mart, for $4 each?  *shakes head*  That makes me just a bit sad...)

When the nail board was all aflutter this summer/fall talking about the new Sally Hansen XTreme wears, I honed in on Purple Gala.  It's not an exact dupe to Mr. Wrong, it's a little bit brighter altogether, but I personally like it better.  I picked it up the first time I found it and have not regretted it!

I chose this picture first so you can see its bling!  It's shiney, sparkley, and catches every bit of light. 

You can really see the gold foil flecks coming out here.  They really stand out against the purple in bright light, but in low light, the whole thing kinda takes a gunmetal/silvery look to it.  I wore it to one of the Illini games and couldn't stop staring at how different it looked!



I tried to replicate the lighting, but it didn't really work out... I do think it looks a lot less purple here than it does in bright lights.  The gold really came out in this pic too, which goes against what I said earlier about it looking silvery!  Anyhoo, you can really see the irregular flecks of the gold foil.

Overall, I loved this polish.  It held up really well and applied easily.  It's a bit sheer, I think this was 3 coats.  I generally like the XTreme Wear line (just hate the name!  SO EXTREME!  *snortle*), I just hate the long stick the brush is on, like so many other Sally Hansen lines.  When are they going to figure out how much easier application would be if the stick was shorter?!

I'm pretty sure Purple Gala was a limited edition shade, but it's still out there (and probably on clearance!), so pick it up if you see it!  If you prefer dustier hues, you might like the Hard Candy a bit better - it's a little more subdued.  Purple Gala is cheaper (even full-priced at $2.99) and you get more (.5 oz compared to .35 oz), so if you don't have a preference, I suggest it.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Purple Gala retails for $2.99 and can be found at a variety of retailers, including Walgreens, Target, and Meijer.

Number of coats: 3

Basecoat: Gelous

Topcoat: Out the Door

Ulta - Femme Fatale

YAY my first follower!!  :D  :D  :D  I'm finally not talking to myself anymore!!  ;)  THANK YOU!!

Ahem... anyway... today I'm going to show you Femme Fatale, an Ulta Salon polish.

Slightly funny story on this one... my husband absolutely does not care one slight little bit about my nails or my polish, except for the amount of money and time I spend on them.  I could not for the life of me decide what color to do my nails the other night and so I kept asking him for help, which of course, he refused.  Finally I narrowed it down to 2 - this and OPI Royal Raja Ruby.  I begged him to choose, but again, he refused.  I whined until he finally did it, after much eye rolling, and he picked Femme Fatale.  I was a little disappointed at first - have you seen RRR???  However, once I had this on, it was love!!  And I made my man finally get involved, though against his will!  ;)

I don't have a ton of stuff to say on this one... it pretty much speaks for itself.  The photos are actually pretty color accurate, even though it is a purple - shocking!!  This has a great metallic finish, but not brush-strokey at all, which I adore.  This is fantastic for fall and I will be wearing it often!!  Application was great - nice and smooth.  This was two coats, so pretty standard.  I like the Ulta brush just fine and the cap is great for my small hands.

I took these pics on Thursday... and started cleaning the house (which was a disaster, not joking whatsoever... I'm still not done!) immediately afterwards.  Not only did Femme Fatale not survive, but neither did my nails... I broke 4 between Thursday and Friday and ended up nubbinizing on Saturday.  *SAD*  My nails haven't been this short in awhile and I haven't adjusted.  I put on a vampy to try to make it better (Essie Wicked), but it still doesn't seem right.  You've seen the pics - my nails weren't that long to begin with, but now... my thumb nails are so short you can see skin after the nail ends!!  :(

I'm actually kinda glad for the nubbins though... I know it was for the best.  I had been using a basecoat that I suspect was causing many nail woes *coughOrlyBondercough* including peeling, brittleness, yellowing, etc. and my tips were in BAD shape.  I had two silk wraps on my left thumb, a patch on my left middle, left ring, right ring, and my entire right thumb was covered in Orly Nail Rescue.  I think it was time to chop them!  Now hopefully as they grow back in, they will be nice and healthy, not the peely mess I was dealing with.  I just need them to hurry up and grow - I'm a little embarassed to take pics of these!!

In other news this week, I made 2 e-hauls (Burlesque!!  CND Effects!!), so I have lots of new pretties coming!  I also bought an OTT Lite, which I am SUPER excited about!  I work during the day and unless I take pics before work (yeah right) or on my lunch, the sunlight is waning by the time I get home and there is no good light in my house.  With the OTT Lite, I should be able to take some great pics indoors, which will mean more posts more often with the added bonus of my neighbors not staring at me like I'm crazy when I'm outside trying to take pics of my hands!

In not-so-great news, since I spent my vacation cleaning (and breaking nails), I did not swatch like I planned on.  I still have a couple of photos I haven't posted yet, but I am a little disappointed I didn't get to play much.  I still have so much to do here at home, and I'm trying to force myself to do it by not allowing myself to play with the pretties until the work is done.  It kinda makes me sad, but then when I walk into my spare bedroom (which I have not been able to walk in since I moved into this house almost 3 years ago!) and look at how fantastic and functional it is now... it's worth it.

Not that you really care, but let me tell you a bit about my hubby and me - we are SLOBS.  Not joking at all.  We don't mean to be... we just don't really care about that kinda stuff.  We only care when it gets really bad and we can't stand it anymore... then we have to do a huge cleaning that takes forever.  Plus, both of us have short attention spans, are easily distracted and have no motivation.  Therefore, it takes us several days to do what a normal person could get done in a day.  Everytime we get everything all cleaned up, we try REALLY hard to keep it that way, and sometimes we do for a long time (we made it almost 2 months once!), but something always happens - one of us gets sick, we start working like crazy, Christmas comes and we have to drag out all the decorations and wrapping paper, that kinda stuff.  Before we know it, everything is a mess again and we have to spend days getting it back the way it should be.  It's mostly clutter - boxes (I hardly ever shop in stores, I do most everything online), old mail, clothes we didn't put away, that kinda stuff.  We're pretty good not to be gross... unless you consider dust gross, and then we're absolutely disgusting.  At first it doesn't  bother me, I don't even notice, but eventually it starts weighing on me everytime I come home and look around.  I just have a hard time getting started... and staying going.  So this time, I denied myself my nail polish.  The house still isn't where I want it to be... but I would say that the polish ban is working.  The spare bedroom is now functional, the living room looks pretty decent (does need a good vacuuming and dusting yet), about half the laundry is done and neatly folded (I need to finish cleaning out drawers to put it all away) and the kitchen doesn't look *quite* as bad as it did when we started.  It's going to take a lot more work, so I won't be swatching until I'm done.  Maybe my nails will have grown out a bit by then?

Back to the NOTD... Ulta Salon Lacquer in Femme Fatale retails for $5 and is widely available (and often on sale!)

Number of coats: 2

Basecoat: Instant Artificials

Topcoat: Revlon Extra Life + Seche Vite