Moody Purple

Ewwww!  Nubbin alert!  Haha.  I hate that all my nails broke off while I was vacationing.  Some of them were painfully short.  Thank goodness it's been about a week now and they're starting to get better.

I went shopping over the weekend and stopped by Claire's for this much-raved-about Mood Polish!  I have to say, I wasn't expecting greatness... but I was pleasantly surprised!  I used 3 coats of Claire's Mood Polish in Calm/Wild.  Then I added 3 dots of Sephora by OPI It's Bouquet With Me.  I like the simplicity.  Topped with 2 coats Seche Vite.  Ahhh, back to my HG, hehe.  This bright purple seems to be how my nails have looked most... my hands are usually cold.

I will say that the application was not fantastic with the Claire's polish.  I had cuticle drag issues.  But overall, it provides good coverage in 3 coats.  I wasn't expecting it to be wonderfully opaque, so that is a good bonus!

I ran some hot water over my hand to take some pics, but by the time I got outside, the tips started changing back, haha.

It's rainy and gloomy, so the light is still pretty low.  The middle finger is the most pink still.  I kind of like this ombre effect and would love it if it stayed like this, but it doesn't seem too.  Especially since I have nubbins and there's virtually no free edge on the majority of my fingers at the moment.

Indoor with Ott light.  My hands were cold, they were changing fast!  Haha.  Really interesting and fun to watch!  All day I caught myself checking out my fingers to see what color they were.  Endless entertainment!

Orly: Snowcone

I had to do my nails before my trip to Colorado and I wanted something snowy... so I picked Orly Snowcone!  I have to say this is a lovely Robin's Egg blue.  However, the consistency of mine is very strange.  It's almost oily.  Has anyone else had that issue?  I rolled mine in my palms for a good while and there was still a ring on the side that looked not-completely mixed.  I started painting it on and it totally dragged off in the center of a few nails.  I've never come across this problem before.  This is 3 thickish coats with 2 coats Poshe on top.

And yes, I tried Poshe again.  And yes, I still don't like it.  My nails started chipping after a day and after 3 days, the TC peeled off!!  What the hell!!  And on top of that a bunch of my nails broke off so now I have nubbins.  Very disappointing.  I'm seriously considering going to get gel nails.  I hear they can do them fairly natural looking and thin.  Anyone out there have gels?  Opinions?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!  I am not really celebrating much this year as I'm leaving in the morning on vacation.  Just a few drinks, I'll be fine, right?  I'll find out in the morning, haha.

I read a few reviews of the little Essence polishes they brought to the US via Ulta.  None were good concerning quality.  I didn't have my hopes set high.  And I wasn't impressed either.  I used Essence Check me Out as a base.  This is 3 coats and some glops to fill in bald spots, lol.  I still had VNL so I used China Glaze Watermelon Rind to add a french tip.  Then to make it more festive, I added a 4 leaf clover on the ring finger with OPI Jade is the New Black.  Topped it all off with 2 coats of TC.

I will say, on a side note, I actually used Poshe for this mani.  I've read that a lot of people like it and some say it's just as good if not better than Seche Vite (my HG).  I'll be honest, I never tried Poshe before this mani.  However, I did this mani on Sunday.  By Monday, I had small chips in the corners of two nails which I was able to fill in with some extra Watermelon Rind without drawing too much attention to it.  I added a third coat of Poshe on after the touch-up.  By Tuesday night I had to fix two fairly large chips on two nails and a couple more small chips.  Touched up and added a forth coat of Poshe.  I thankfully made it through work today without chipping, just slight tip-wear.  However, at some point since I got home a few hours ago, I've chipped off a large chunk of the left thumb.  I can usually make a mani last a week with Seche, so I have to say I'm extremely disappointed.  And I am blaming Poshe although I've never used the Essence polish either.  I suppose it's possible that the Essence just didn't want to stay on.  I won't complete banish the Poshe just yet, but I'm putting Seche on my vacay mani so I don't have to worry!

Orly: Cotton Candy

So after my mani fail, I wanted something that would definitely look cute.  I looked at my recent haul and pulled out the super cute Orly Cotton Candy.  One of my fav colors is pink, so I just had to.

This is 4 coats of Cotton Candy with Seche Vite.  It looks more peachy in the pic than it does IRL.  It truly is a nice pink creme.  It's fairly bright, but still pastel.  The formula gave me some trouble tho.  I had some intense cuticle drag and it was pretty streaky.  I can still see some vague streakiness after 4 coats, but it's not that apparent, especially since most people look from a little further away, hehe.  I started off doing thinner coats, but had to move to thicker coats for better coverage.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased.  I think the color is worth the hassle.

After all that, I figured I wanted to do an accent nail, so I added a little art to the ring finger.

I drew a horizontal line at the "tip" line with Stripe Rite Pink Glitter.  Then I made some tiny polka dots with Borghese Plumaggio Purple on just the tip.  (I will say I may as well have used black for this because you can't tell it's purple).  I added a large pink rhinestone to top it off.  I nearly forgot to take photos of this.  I thought I had when I first did the art.  I was getting ready to take it off and ripped off the rhinestone on my left hand when I had this pang... did I take pics?  I checked and... nope!  Ooops!  So I quick snapped a few of my right hand, lol.  Please excuse the dry cuticles and tip wear.

Mani Fail

I don't know what I was thinking, but this mani is a FAIL.  :(   It looked good inside my head, but clearly something happened in the translation.  On with it...

Yeah, I don't know.  I used 3 coats of China Glaze Peachy Keen as a base and sponged Sephori by OPI Metro Chic on the bottom.  I tried to blend it with a coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment but it didn't do much.

It looks like I dipped my fingers in dirt or something... ewwwww.  Oh well, everyone fails sometimes.  I lasted like a day and then took it off.  Haha.

New Haul!

I need to rant for a sec...

So, I was going to this salon to get my hair cut and paying an arm and a leg each time.  I found out a co-worker of my mother's was also going to this salon, but left for a new place and totally loves it.  She told me I could save probably 60% and that the stylist was amazing.  Now, granted... this woman gets cut and color where I only get a cut.  However, she straight up lied.  I go to this new salon and it's set up like a chain place, but I don't think it is one.  There's no one at the front desk... when the phone rings or someone walks in the door, one of the stylists have to stop and go tend to them.  The girl puts me right into the shampoo chair without even asking me anything about my hair or what I want.  I'm used to having a "consultation" before a first-time cut so that they know what your hair is like and how it's cut when you come in.  She washes it and puts me in the salon chair and THEN asks me what I want.  I give her an overview of what I am willing to do to my hair (little to nothing) and the kind of cut I currently have.  She asks me where my part is and I tell her.  As she's cutting, she proceeds to part it the wrong way, so I point that out and she fixes it.  I have side-swoop bangs and when she goes to cut them, she pulls them the wrong way.  I tell her and she says, "Oh, right."  It's been months since my last cut and they had grown almost to my chin and she only cuts them to my mouth.  I tell her they need to be shorter and she asks where to.  I told her to cut them to eye level so when they are dry, they'll sit at eyebrow level.  So she cuts them to the bottom of my nose!  I gave up at this point.  She blows my hair out straight and gives it absolutely NO body what-so-ever and blows the bangs out the wrong way.  When she's done, she asks if it looks ok.  I tell her it's fine.  I pay my cheap bill and leave.  When I get to the car, I have a million tiny hairs on my face along with the frown.  I actually contemplated going to my regular salon which is only a few minutes away and telling them to fix it.  I decided not to because I felt guilty for not just going to them in the first place.

ANYWAY... I felt so down after all that so I decided to go to Ulta and pick up a few polishes to make myself feel better!!  I went a little over-board.  Hah.  On to the pics!

I remembered seeing Borghese Stellare Notte, a dark rainbow shimmer like an oil-slick, on someone else's blog and saw the same color.  I picked up it and Plumaggio Purple, a dark purple with pinkish shimmer.

I got Orly Luxe, a gold foil, and Cotton Candy, a baby pink cream.  I have a weakness for pink, so I couldn't help it.  And the gold foil - I mean, come on!

I loved my OPI DS Classic mani so much that I had to get a couple more from this line.  I picked up DS Opulence and DS Coronation.

My goal for the trip was to come out with a nice green for a possible St. Patty's mani.  I found these 3 greens.  The first is essence 18 Check Me Out, a Euro brand, which just recently debuted in Ulta in USA.  They only have the colour & go line, which I hear isn't the greatest, but at $0.99, I couldn't help it anyway.  The second is Ulta Limelight, which to me looks like a grass green.  The last is a brand I've never heard of, LA Splash Golden Seahorse.  This polish looks like China Glaze Audrey with gold glitter!!  This brand had only a few polishes, but it was a small display in general.  There were various make up goodies and I think I may have to get some in the future.

Much to my surprise, I got a free gift!  An OPI Spring Chic mini pack.

OPI Ink, Rosy Future and a Top Coat.  I love the minis.  Really, I love anything mini-sized.  They are super cute just because they are small.

WOW!  That was a lot of pics.  And a lot of polish, haha.  I'm not really one to do swatches just for myself... so if you want to see any of these alone, let me know.  I'm more of a swatch-of-opportunity, lol.  Like I need something on my nails for a couple days and so I throw something on.  But if you ask, I will do it!  ;)

OPI: Suzy Says Feng Shui

My last mani started chipping after a few days and I kept forgetting to throw on another coat of Seche.  By the time I was done work yesterday it just looked awful, so I took it all off and threw on OPI Suzy Says Feng Shui.  I have to say, I was wary about this one as a full mani.  I thought it would look better just as an accent.  But once I got it on, I'm in love!

Ooooo!  So pretty.

This is the most amazing bright true blue.  It's not neon.  It's a straight cream and gorgeous!  Application was a little iffy.  Super streaky with one coat and still had "see-through" spots after two.  This is 3 coats with 2 coats of Seche Vite on top.  I would definitely recommend it though.