Withdrawal

arlings. I want new nail polish so very badly. I have had to be unbelievably good for the past few months and refrain completely from nail polish, seeing as I have to spend my money on boring practical things. It's awful! :( Thankfully, I will be able to spend about $50 on nail polish soon, and it will be glorious. I literally have not bought new nail polish since spring break. Horrible thought! In order to somewhat abate my withdrawal symptoms, I thought I would show some of the new collections/some of my lemmings.

'm sure y'all have seen swatches of the new RBL collection by now; isn't it lovely? I wish they had done all of Henry VIII's wives, but I know that RBL doesn't do collections larger than 4 polishes. Here are Scrangie's beautiful swatches, if you haven't seen them yet.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/07/rescue-beauty-lounge-fall-2010.html

atherine H is calling to me. Such a beautiful soft blue! Catherine is gorgeous as well, and seems so very Spanish and regal! I have always felt terribly sorry for poor Catherine - her first husband died after less than 6 months of marriage, while we all know how abominably the second treated her.

PI is coming out with a Swiss Collection for Fall, which I was at first disappointed with, as it seemed very samey and boring. However, upon seeing All Lacquered Up's swatches, I have recanted. The non-red part of the collection is wonderful! I don't like The Color To Watch, but then I've never liked pearly colors like that. The rest are gorgeous and I need them in my life.

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2010/07/opi-swiss-collection-fall-2010-part-1-swatches-review.html#more-3342

As for the red half, Scrangie has pictures up of them. They look very pretty, but I doubt I'll be buying any.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/07/opi-swiss-collection-fall-2010-swatches.html

ssie has also released a couple of fabulous shades for summer that I will most definitely be buying. I want want want the green, and the bright peach/coral is very nice as well. Yum yum, summer colors.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/06/essie-summer-collection-2010.html

p In The Air by China Glaze is completely to-die-for as well. I want pretty much the entire collection, but I think I will settle for Grape Pop, Re-Fresh Mint, Peachy Keen, and possibly Four Leaf Clover and High Hopes.

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-3.html

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-1.html

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-2.html

p.s. I might have gone a little overboard with the drop caps this post, eh? But they were so pretty, and this post was so boring with no pictures! Isn't the owl-ie O just the cutest thing ever though?

Summer Polish!

Hola dolls! Guess where I am? The beautiful state of Colorado. :) We come here every summer on vacation and it is so lovely to escape the Houston heat. I'll put up some pictures of las montañas later on in the week.

Now for the polish part of the post. I've never been one for only wearing light colors in summer and darks in the winter, but lately I've been craving bright cheerful colors for summer. I just want things that will make me think of popsicles and happiness. :) So, here are a few of the ones that have particularly calling to me lately (that sentence sounds terribly incorrect, but I'm too lazy to fix it, sorry. ;)) Here are some warm colors.

Now this is a dreadful dreadful picture, but you can get the general idea. The purple is OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not. This bright shimmery purple is a good way to go summery but not leave vampy colors totally behind. The other OPI is Cajun Shrimp (I know it looks pink in the picture, sorry), which just screams summer to me. I am aware that coral carries bad associations of old ladies with matching hand bags, but believe me, this color is completely not old lady. ;) Next is China Glaze Orange Marmalade, a glass-flecked orange that doesn't hurt the eyes. Finally we have one of my favorite pinks of all time, Essie Status Symbol, a carnation pink jelly. My normally pink-disdaining self adores this juicy color. :)

And now cool colors. As y'all know, I cannot get enough of sky blues. I want them ALL! Sally Hansen Blue Me Away is a perfect balance of bright yet not neon. Teals are very in for summer, and Essie Greenport is a great example, with it's slight dustiness keeping it from being boring (p.s. in my review of this color I complain a lot about the formula - I have worn Greenport several times since that review and have not had nearly the trouble. I think most of the blame should go to my dying topcoat). Finally, for those times when I want something easy to maintain and calming to look at, OPI Time-less Is More is a classic sheer white.

What are some of the colors y'all have been craving this summer?

Toes!

I don't think I've ever talked about feet on here before, have I? Probably because feet just aren't very beautiful. ;) Yet I feel completely naked and just plain wrong if I don't have polish on my toes - I can bear without polished nails for a few days, but plain toes? No. I don't do that.

So, I thought I would share some of my favorite polishes for toes. There are three polishes that are my fallbacks for toes; China Glaze For Audrey, Essie Buy Me a Cameo, and any red polish (although OPI Comet Loves Cupid has been a favorite recently).

I love a classic red on toes and think it looks put-together and polished. The light aqua of For Audrey (which I can't BELIEVE I've never posted on... what is wrong with me? I thought for sure that I had!) is funky enough to be different, yet still looks lady-like on the toes. And I absolutely adore Buy Me a Cameo on my toes. I hate it on my nails and get ineffably bored every time I wear it on my nails, but somehow this polish turns into a wondrous thing on toes. It is a nude metallic, so it is like wearing a nude polish on toes, except that it is metallic. If you don't see how awesome that is yet, it makes my whole foot look clean and well-cared-for, as well as keeping my toes presentable without drawing huge amount of attention to them. Just realized that I made that sound like I have really ugly feet. I don't, but I do love Buy Me a Cameo.

Of course, I don't just keep it to those 3, but those are my standards... I probably wear one of these 3 at least every other time I give myself a pedicure.

What are y'all's favorite toe polishes?

Ruby Pumps Re-Do

Mkay dolls, I'm giving y'all better pictures of China Glaze Ruby Pumps today. I did post about it before, but I failed miserably with the pictures, and didn't give a good representation of what the polish actually looks like.

If you're going to wear a red glitter, Ruby Pumps is the best way to go. It is a gorgeous red jelly absolutely packed with red glitter. Since it is a jelly it takes about 3 coats to get rid of VNL, and since it is a glitter it chips within 3 days. However. Ruby Pumps is unspeakably beautiful. I want to swim in it. Here's another look.

Look at the depth in that stuff! And it is pretty much the perfect shade of red too.

China Glaze Atlantis

Ok dears, these are truly terrible pictures. Please excuse them. I had no sun for days, and by the time I reconciled myself that I wasn't going to have sun for awhile, my nails had chipped pretty terribly. So... try to concentrate on the polish and not on the state of my nails? *embarrassed face*

This is China Glaze Atlantis, from the specialty glitters collection. As the name implies, these are pure glitter polishes, and therefore wondrous polishes. Atlantis is especially lovely, as it contains smallish medium holographic glitter in a teal/aqua jelly base. I was surprised that the base contained so much pigment... I was expecting it to be weaker. As it is, I love love love the way the rainbow-ed glitter hangs suspended in the watery aqua, evoking exactly the sort of images that the name implies. It is a perfect Atlantis, conjuring up visions of rainbow scaled mermaids and silvery spires piercing deep waters.

Here's another gross-shiver-inducing picture, but I was trying to capture the way that the holographic glitter looks. Aaah, love it. This took about three coats, and chipped pretty quickly. But so worth it. SO worth it.

China Glaze Dorothy Who?

DARLINGS!

I'm here. Alive. Done with school. Back from a week long trip to Florida with a group from Trinity. Florida was fabulous, and I will post some pictures when I finally stop being lazy and upload the pictures from my camera. :) Right now I have something unheard of, something scandalous. Pictures of nail polish. I know! Strange. But here they are.

Today I've got the last of the Wizard of Ooh Ahz for y'all; Dorothy Who?

She's truly lovely. Dorothy Who? is a blingtastic silver glitter in a medium blue jelly base. Gorgeous. The glitter is heavily dispersed and creates a stunning effect. It is, essentially, a blue Ruby Pumps.

You can see the glitter better in this picture. Dorothy Who? had the same problem as all the other polishes in Wizard - it chipped like none other. I'd say I have chips within 2 days with this polish. Sad face! But it is so fabulous that I think it's worth it. :)

Even though the base of this is a jelly and therefore rather sheer, I found that I didn't need too many coats to get it opaque. I believe I used three coats, but I could have stopped at two - I just wanted maximum intensity of glitter. :)

My Life = Homework

Hallo dolls. Guess what? I only have one week of regular class left, then 10 days of finals, then I'm DONE and regular posting will resume. I know that I said in my last post that I would aim for twice weekly posts, but you see, I forgot that it was the end of the semester and that my life was going to be sucked up into the vast, black abyss of homework. I am so paper-ed and exam-ed out that I think I am going to die, and I still have 2 weeks to go! I can do it, I can do it. Thankfully I'm doing really well in all my classes this semester, so I don't have to worry about pulling up any of my grades. It's amazing what not taking a science class can do for your grades. ;)

Anyways, I'm sure y'all want to see some pretty pictures. So here you go.

Ok, so maybe I didn't do any clean-up before I took this picture, but it shows the pretty polish, and that's all that counts, right? Right...

This is C-C-Courage, from China Glaze's Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. It is fabulousness itself. It is a medium purple (kind of lilac-y, but deeper) with small round purple and pink glitter in it. Sounds disgustingly girlie, but it's actually quite lovely and edgy. Edgy isn't the word I'm looking for... hmm. The word-maker in my brain just decided to shut down. This might be because the library is about to close. Anyways, I was mesmerized by my nails the entire time I wore C-C-Courage. It took me awhile to wear, since I was like, "meh, just another purple." But I was wrong! Don't ignore C-C-Courage in favor of Dorothy Who?, since this is a gem.

Um, and did I mention my brain hurts from the amount of homework I've done lately? Yeah. Please excuse the horribly-written-ness of this post. I'm blaming it all on homework. My roommate and I are quite indignant that no one warned us of the sheer amount of homework involved at college.

p.s. I forgot to say that, like most of the polishes in Wizard of Ooh Ahz, this one chips pretty quickly - I'd say 2-3 days. But don't let that discourage you.

Chine Glaze Cowardly Lyin'

Hallo, darlings. I go back to school tomorrow! It has been a good break, and I plan to try to post about a few things that happened, as soon as I get the time, and upload the pictures. :)

Here is Cowardly Lyin', from CG's Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. Lovely, eh? CL is a very yellow light gold, with gold circle glitter. It is a very quiet gold glitter, meaning that it does not lend your fingers the appearance of flashing gold foil, but instead prettily adorn it with gold that is, on close look, a glitter. Fascinating.

I believe that I used 3 coats to get opacity. The one thing that has given me trouble with the all of the polishes from The Wizard of Ooh Ahz is the wear and tear of the formula. It invariably chips within two days... which isn't a problem if you change polish that often, but since I started school I find that I don't have enough time to change my polish more than about every 4 days. However, the colors are so fabulous that I think they will overcome any objections about wear.

Yet More Wizard of Ooh Ahz

Alright dearests, here we have another Wizard collection polish - Ten Man. It took me awhile to figure out why in the world it was called Ten Man, but then I realized; ten fingers. Ohhhh.

Ten Man is a wonderful light silver with lots of small round silver glitter stuck in. It sparkles like snow. It reminds me a bit of Zoya Ginessa, but is, of course, silver instead of white. And I don't much like Ginessa, whereas I love Ten Man. New favorite glitter silver!

I think it is interesting how these polishes have their glitter just lightly dotting the formula, instead of the glitter overtaking the polish completely - it is like it is simply accenting the pretty polish. :) There are 4 of this kind of glitter in the collection, and then 2 all out in-your-face glitters - Ruby Pumps and Dorothy Who?.

The only problem I had with Ten Man (and Good Which?) is the wear and tear of the formula. Both polishes chipped on me within 2 days; kind of annoying. However, they are pretty enough for me to forgive that. :)

More Wizard of Ooh Ahz Goodness

What's that you say? 2 posts in 3 days? Scandalous!

Today I've got China Glaze Good Which? for you, obviously named after Glinda the Good Witch. It is a fluffy pink with round pink glitter interspersed throughout the polish. And here's the thing. Normally I would be bored with a color this pink and girly - but I loved every minute of it! I'm pretty sure that this is a color my mother will love, which generally means that I don't like it... but not in this case. It is just so Glinda that I have to love it. :)

This was taken in natural light, but unfortunately, it was cloudy, so you can't quite see the glorious sparkles. You can, however, see the pretty pretty color. :) This might actually be a pink I'll wear again.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Good Monday, darlings! Guess what I have? RUBY PUMPS! I have been wanting this polish ever since I discovered the world of nail polish. Now it is finally mine!

A short note on the condition of my nails. Playing piano at university requires nails to be extremely short - I used to keep mine short just because I dislike excessive clicking on the piano, but now my professor hands me the clippers whenever there is the faintest click. Thus, my deplorably short nails. Secondly, this is a bad picture because I had to take it indoors and because it is blurry. Sorry, it was cloudy and cold outside. Oh, and that random ugly thing on my ring finger... yeah, just ignore that. Sorry to assault your eyes!

Now, past the apologies and on to the polish! :) Ruby Pumps is part of China Glaze's permanent collection, but was originally released with the Wizard of Ooh Ahhs collection. As I'm sure you all know, the Wizard of Ooh Ahhs was just rereleased. Yay! Ruby Pumps is a chunky-ish red glitter in a clear red base with some golden glitter interspersed. It is gorgeous. Before I got this polish I couldn't really understand why everyone went just so gaga over it, but now I know. Ruby Pumps rules the world. I don't want to wear any other sparkly or shimmery red ever again because this one rocks so much. Love at first sight. :) All the girls on my hall think so too... my roommate is quite pleased that I own this color now.

I plan to get more pictures of this next time I wear it, so that you can see just how awesome it is. I mean, its not like you can see it on any OTHER nail polish blog. Haha!

The Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns!

Guess what Faithy got for Christmas from her loverly friend Libby? AHHH, NAIL POLISH! You can never go wrong with nail polish - especially nail polish that is full of glitter! Hooray! I've got Ruby Pumps on now, with a review to shortly follow. I'm so excited about new nail polish, cuz I've been extremely good while I've been at college, and have only bought perhaps 1 or 2 new polishes. Now, SIX! :)

OMG, y'all!

It is very weird that I haven't posted about OMG yet ... I have no idea why. I've worn it several times, but never deigned to take a picture of it. Whatever. OMG is from the China Glaze OMG collection of 2008, an entire collection of holos. It is a very fantastic collection. The holo is very fine, you can't really see the particles at all. OMG is, as you can see, silver holo. There's a huge amount of holo packed in there ... it's almost blinding in the sun. Awesome.
My only complaint with the OMG collection is that the formula is weird. You have to wait for each coat to dry completely before adding another coat, and then you have to work quickly and without mistakes, or else the polish comes off instead of going on. Ooops. ;)

Better Pictures: China Glaze Caribbean Blue

Annnd, another Better Pictures post. Today we've got CG Caribbean Blue, from the Winter 2008 collection, Bahama Blues. It was a fabulous collection, made up entirely of blues. You can imagine how delighted this blue lover was when it came out. Caribbean Blue is, in my opinion, the star of the collection. That may just be because I lurve, lurve, lurve sky blue. This particular sky blue isn't boring at all, seeing as it is filled with silver glitter, giving it more of a punch than other, creme, sky blues. In my original post I complained about gloppiness in the formula. However, I've worn it several times since then, and haven't had any problems. Here is my original post.

Better Pictures: China Glaze Watermelon Rind

Hello from the mountains of Colorado! It is absolutely wonderful weather up here, 75 or 80 degrees, and very dry. That's 20-25 degrees cooler than it was in Houston! :O Needless to say, we're loving it. :)

Today I'm starting the Better Pictures series, a series where I will, shockingly, post better pictures of polishes that I might not have gotten such great pictures of before. Today I have for you China Glaze Watermelon Rind, from CG's Summer Days spring '09 collection. It is a wondrous blue-leaning green , flecked all over with silver glass flakes. It's pretty stunning.

WR applies a little sheer, so I have to use 3 coats.

Here's the original post, where I gush quite a bit about this polish.

China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic

Well, this is the first China Glaze I've posted in a while! I guess I got a little burnt out on China Glaze after wearing them for like 2 months solid. Haha!
Rodeo Fanatic is from the Rodeo Diva collection of last fall. It is a slightly blackened, shimmery mid-tone blue. For some reason, it's just not working for me. I have no idea why I don't like it ... I mean, it's blue! When do I ever not like a blue polish? Maybe I'm going crazy. I just didn't like the slightly blackened affect, it turned me off for some reason. My sister, however, loves this color. I'm giving it to her, as I obviously am not giving it the loving home it deserves.
I was super excited about this color when I ordered it, but once I saw it I didn't even want to put it on. Weeeird. Oh, and here's another weird thing. I've been lemming nude polishes like crazy lately. What's up with that? I want to find the perfect milky, chic, mostly opaque white/ivory. We'll see if I can come up with anything. Do y'all have any suggestions?

Flying Dragon!

Ok, one more China Glaze and then perhaps I will start posting about other brands again. ;)

Here is Flying Dragon, from the Ink collection of last fall. First off, how awesome is that name? Flying Dragon? Hellz yes!
FD is a sparkly neon purple. Umm, sparkly + neon + purple? Hellz yes again! haha. It actually isn't as neon as I would have liked ... while it is definately bright and will never be mistaken for purple, I wish it was just a tad brighter. The sparkle is definately not lacking, it's full of hot pink and baby blue glittah. Makes it awful to take off, awesome to have on. ;) Oh, and one more thing. The neon and the glitter make this matte and bumpy. I've got a coat of Seche Vite on here; I wasn't feeling the whole bumpy thing. hehe.
I was all set to write a glowing review of this polish when I first applied it. But then after about 12 hours of wear, it chipped. Like, not a little oops-I-dinged-my-nail-extra-hard-on-that-bookshelf kind of chip, I mean like 5 big ones that made me sad. :( It seemed like it was cracking ... like that chocolate sauce that crackles when you stick it on icecream ... except this was my nails and I didn't want them to be crackly! hehe.
But if you don't mind either having to fix chips after a hours or only wearing if for a few hours before taking it off (like I did), then you should definately buy this. Actually, you should buy this just because of the name. And maybe the glitter. :)

More China Glaze ... I seem to be on a ChG streak, yes?

Here is Secret Peri-wink-le, from China Glaze's Operation Color collection of last Fall.
First off, the name irritates me. What's with all those dashes? I guess they're trying to be cute and emphasize the 'wink' part ... but that's just annoying.
The color's really nice though. :) It is, obviously, periwinkle. The picture above was taken in the shade, b/c I feel that that it shows the color more accurately than the pictures I had of it in the sun.
I think that SP has that same fantastic quality about it that OPI Done Out In Deco has which I love so much. I don't know what to call it - extra creamy? milky? Whatever is it, I really really like it. :)
The mixture of blue and purple in this periwinkle is just about perfect; not too blue, not too purple. Granted, in some lights it looks bluer or purpler than others. Here's a picture of it in dapply sun to show y'all kind of what I'm talking about.

Can you see it?
I used 3 coats to try and even out some streakiness. It was still a bit streaky after the 3 coats though. I don't know if that's a problem with the polish or a problem with my application skills. But even with the streakiness, I'd say that this is definately a very pretty color. :)

To Drink, Or Not To Drink? Ok, yeah, that was bad.

This is the last of China Glaze's Summer Days collection that I own ... I don't have either of the reds. I've contemplated Cherry Pie, but I don't think I'll end up getting it.
I of course had to buy Grape Juice. I mean, it's purple! How could I not get it? ;) And not only is it purple, it is sparkly silvery purple! Meaning that it is chock-full of silver sparkles. Or rather, silver glass-fleck thingys. This gives it an effect that is a teensy bit like a more laid-back version of Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore.
I do not think that this looks like actual grape juice. Grape juice is dark! Like a royal purple! This is light! To my mind, this is amethyst. Beautiful sparkly amethyst.
I used 3 coats in order to get maximum opacity. Excuse the tip wear in this photo, I had this manicure on for a few days before I managed to take some pictures!

I'm super late posting about this, but All Lacquered Up has swatches of China Glaze's Summer collection, Kicks. You can find them here and here. Scrangie has pics up as well if you want to compare swatches. I am loving this collection! It's not quite as amazing as Summer Days, but it's still pretty dang awesome. I lurve anything with multiple greens and blues. :) I'm lemming Breakin', Entourage, Sky High Top, Sneakerhead, and Style Wars. Strangely, I don't really want the purple one, Fly. I have no idea why, normally I am compelled to buy every single purple that comes out ...

What colors are you lemming? Any? All?

p.s. Isn't the nail art in the ad fun? I think I'm going to have to try my hand at that.