Look who's back!

Hey! I'm back!! I'm not going to talk about my absence too much, but just quickly:

I was on my pharmacy school rotations last year which was why I never had time to blog. But now I've graduated, I've got my license and now I'm the pharmacy manager at a large retail chain pharmacy! I'm really going to try to get back into blogging, starting with this post!

Here is Darling Diva "Dream Walker"

Dream Walker is a beautiful blue holo, just what I wanted when it was starting to feel like fall!

I added some black studs to add a little something "extra".

I love this polish and can't believe I waited so long to try it!

I'm going to try to post at least once a week, so I'll see you back here next week!

piCture pOlish "Aurora"

Hey everyone!  I'm just going to gloss over the fact that I've been off for two whole days and haven't posted yet...I've been swatching, so there are posts to come!  Today I have the first polish that I put on after a week of nudes and nearly-nudes; piCture pOlish "Aurora":

"Aurora" lives up to its name!  It's an intense blue to purple to green duochrome with some holo shimmer thrown in for good measure.  This is two coats over a black base.  These first two pictures are in the sun.

And these next two pictures are in the shade.  Yes that's the same polish!

This is definitely one of the most intense duochromes in my collection!  I'll have to get the rest of this collection from piCture pOlish!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

OPI Designer Series (and an explanation for my absence)

Hey guys!  Long time, no blog!  Now that my fifth year of pharmacy school is over, I'm starting clinical rotations, and my hours at this first one are LONG.  I'm doing 7 days on/7 days off for a total of 2 1/2 weeks on, so this past week was my half week on and this weekend has been my half week off.  I'm not ready for 70 hour weeks yet! 

Anyway, since I've been working such long hours I haven't been changing my polish as often and I haven't been following the NPC prompts, which is why I haven't been posting.  I've been waiting til I could catch up.  But I don't like not posting, and with my hours what they are I don't think I'm ever going to catch up, let alone keep up!  So I've decided I'm going to take a break from the NPC for now.  It goes through the beginning of July, so I'll probably be back and maybe I'll even go back and do some of the ones I missed!  But for now I'm just going to post whatever I want whenever I can.

With that said, I'm going to try to start doing more swatch posts instead of just Nail of the Day-type posts. I recently got some older OPI Designer Series polishes from a blog sale, so I decided to start with swatches of all my DS Polishes!  See what I have below the jump!

NPC: Blog sale AND Discontinued!

Hey everyone!  Look at me, getting caught up!  Wednesday's NPC prompt called for a polish from a giveaway or blog sale.  I never win giveaways (booooo), but I have been buying quite a bit from blog sales recently, so I grabbed one from someone's Storenvy sale.  After I had this on, I looked to see what today's prompt was.  It's "Discontinued", and I realized this polish works for both!  Here is Ozotic 515:

515 is a bright blue linear holographic.  It's much stronger in real life than in my pictures.  Unfortunately, the whole Ozotic line has been discontinued, so I'm glad I grabbed this in a destash!

There are two Inlinkz below since this belongs to two prompts.  Be sure to checkout everyone else's manis from the past couple days!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC: Holo

Hi guys!  Not much to chit chat about tonight, I'm still in finals mode and I just wanted to get this up on time for once!  Today's NPC prompt it "Holo".  Holographic is pretty much my favorite finish.  They just glow!  In the sunlight, and some even in dark light!  So today I have for you KBShimmer "Pretty in Punk":

 "Pretty in Punk" is actually a duochrome holo.  It's light green with a purple shift, but these pictures are in dark light, so the color shift doesn't really show up.  But look at those rainbows!

KBShimmer's duochrome holos are AMAZING!!!  I wish I had gotten some sunlight pictures, but I stamped over this right after painting.  I didn't end up liking the stamping though, so you don't get to see it!

Okay, I haven't linked to any brands/stockists while doing this challenge, but I have to give a shoutout to KBShimmer.  I love all the polishes I've gotten from her, and they're such a great price for indies.  AND she has great bath and body products too!  I've gotten samples of her scrubs and soaps which were great, and I always add on a bath bomb to my polish orders!  KBShimmer is a great place to start if you're just getting into indies!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

It's My Birthday!!!

Hey guys! I wanted to post my birthday Mani, because I decided to wear a special polish today.  Here is Enchanted Polish "Magical Mystery Tour":

This post is quite picture heavy, so I'll explain why this is special after the jump!

NPC Day 6: Indie

Hi everyone!  Today's NPC prompt was an easy one: Indie.  I have TONS of untried indies, so I reached into my way-way-back pile and came up with Darling Diva "Space Beetle" and Colors by Llarowe "Black Gold, Texas Tea".

"Black Gold, Texas Tea" is a rich black holo.  The formula was great.  Could have been a one-coater, but I added an extra for more depth.

I don't even know where to start with "Space Beetle"; there's so much going on in this polish!  At it's base it's a silver holographic, but then there's added duochrome microshimmer, so in different lights it looks silver, brownish red, lavender, or green.

Two more polishes I'm glad I finally got around to trying!  Hope everyone out there has a good weekend!
Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

Superficially Colorful "Turbulence"

Hi ladies!  No tricks today, just a beautiful polish from a new-comer to the indie market.  Jin Jit of SuperficiallyColorful.com has been blogging for awhile, but she just recently released her first two nail polish collections, Remnants of Winter and Mood Swings.  "Turbulence" is part of the Remnants of Winter collection.

"Turbulence" is a reddish maroon with a strong purple and blue duochrome flash and some scattered holographic shimmer.  I was surprised by how much I liked this one!  The duochrome gives it so much depth!

I took photos at multiple angles so you could see the different colors that come out!

The formula on this was great.  It was a little thick, but I had no problems with application.  I borrowed this one from Gosia to try, and I'm definitely going to have to get some of these for myself!

Jin's new polishes can be found at SuperficiallyColorful.com!

Thanks for reading!

a england "Dancing with Nureyev"

Hi everyone!  I meant to get this post up last night, but I spent forever refreshing Llarowe.com trying to get a couple of her charity polishes.  I managed to get three of the four I wanted, so I did okay!  Anyway, after that I was so tired I didn't feel like typing up a post!  Sorry!

Today I have for you a england's "Dancing with Nureyev" from the new-ish Ballerina collection.  I had to google to see who Nureyev was.  He was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, and one of the most celebrated ballerinos of the 20th century.  He defected to France in the early 1960s, and sadly died due to complications of AIDS in 1993.

"Dancing with Nureyev" is a pale lavender holo.

I had a problem with my editing software, so I couldn't get my watermark to show up on the rest of these :/  Oh, well!

 I decided to add some little flower stickers to my accent nail.  I thought this went together really well!

The formula of "Nureyev", like all a england's formulas, was nice and creamy.  I used two coats here. 

a england can be found at llarowe.com.  What do you ladies think of this color?  I am definitely ready for springy pastels!

Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Chevrons

Hey guys!  Sorry I didn't get my St. Patrick's nails up yesterday :(  I've been taking this medicine the past few days that completely wipes me out.  I went to bed at 11:00 Sunday night and slept til 9:00 yesterday morning.  Then I ate breakfast and laid back down on the couch for an hour!  And after that I was still dragging all day at work, and when I came home after!  I was just didn't have the energy to take and edit pictures last night.  Luckily, this medicine is just an as-needed thing, so I'm going to stop taking it for now and go see my doctor again if I need something else.

Anyway, I went to bed early last night and got a good, restful night of sleep, and then I got so much done today!  I did my taxes finally this morning (got a nice big federal and state refund, whoohoo!) and then I cleaned and organized my office here at home.  I still had boxes to unpack from when we moved in last May!  I got everything sorted, and now you can see the floor!

Okay, sorry for all the talking, those were just two things on my Spring Break To-Do list, and I'm glad I got them done!

For today's manicure, I used some nail vinyls I got from Nail Vinyls on Storenvy.  I've used striping tape before, and I figured this would be pretty similar, but it turns out they're a little different!

 Nail vinyls are more substantial and way stickier than striping tape.  At first they would pull up the polish underneath when I tried to reposition them.  So I stuck the vinyl to my hand a few times to try to make it less sticky, but then it wouldn't still to my nail at all!  After some finagling I got it to work though!

This is one coat of RBL "Pause" over two coats of Butter London "Fishwife".   It was really hard to get accurate pictures of "Pause".  My camera kept wanting to make it blue.  For some reason, darker lighting (like the two above photos) worked better.  "Pause" is a grape purple shimmer, and "Fishwife" is a weak minty holo.

I'm glad I bought these vinyls; I'm already thinking of my next mani with them!  Have you guys tried vinyls?  Do you have any tips?

Thanks for reading!

Comparison: Jade "Deja Vu" VS KBShimmer "Whole Lava Lovin'"

Hi everyone!  How are you doing on this cold Sunday?  Is it cold where you are?  Yesterday it was about 75 degrees here, and then the temperature dropped all through the night.  The high today was 55 at 12:05 AM!  Just after midnight.  And then it was in the 30s all day and there was sleet and snow!  Urgh!!  When is spring going to come and stay for good??

Anyway, today I have a comparison for you.  When I was fishing out all my red holos, I realized that Jade "Deja Vu" and KBShimmer "Whole Lava Lovin'" looked pretty similar.  Here are a couple bottle shots:

Here they look pretty similar.

Here I think you can see that the Jade is a little lighter red, and has a slightly stronger holo.

And here they are on the nail:

Overall, I think you can see that the Jade has a stronger holo effect, and I think that's what makes it look a little lighter.  They're both beautiful though, and they're different enough that I can justify having both!

If you guys ever have any comparisons you want me to do, post them in the comments and I'll do them if I have the polishes!

Thanks for reading!

Jade Holografico "Deja Vu"

Hi girls!

How was your weekend?  I'm going out after work tonight to get sushi with some friends!  I'm so excited; it's been a long time since I've had good sushi!

Today I have another practice kitty manicure:

This is Jade Holographico "Deja Vu".  When I pulled out all my red holos, I noticed this one and KBShimmer "Whole Lava Lovin'" are very similar, so look for a comparison on that soon!  This top photo is the most color accurate, "Deja Vu" is not quite as maraschino-red as the next two pictures.
 

I added a couple little paw prints on my accent nail with some new dotting tools I got off Amazon.  I'm loving these paw prints!  I think they're super cute :)

Jade is a Brazilian brand that can be found, like almost everything, at Llarowe.com.  These are a bit cheaper than most holos tend to be, and the formula is great!  Could have been a one-coater, but I did a second coat just to deepen the color.  If you're looking to try your first holo, and don't want to spend too much, I definitely recommend Jade!

Thanks for reading!

Colors By Llarowe "Dirty Diana"

Hey girls!  I meant to get this up last night, but then I got caught up in the excitement of having the Purina people over (more on that in a second!), and then Ben and I went to Office Depot later and we ended up being there longer than we planned on.  Some shit went down guys, lol.  Basically the manager wouldn't let us use a coupon from the website even though we were making a LARGE purchase (Ben's re-doing his office).  Whatever, we went home and ordered everything online and the manager missed out on a big sale that probably would have helped him make his plan for the night.

Anyway, the people from Purina came over yesterday to see how Tumnus was around strangers (he's a little shy, but he comes around), to discuss what the video will be about, and to see what the lighting is like in our house.  It turns out the video is for an ad that will be on their website and on their banner ads on other websites!  We'll be celebrities! 

I've been trying to think of ideas for manicures that will be a little eye catching, but not distracting on camera.  I don't even know if my hands will make it on camera, but I want to be prepared!  Here is my first test-mani:

This is Colors By Llarowe "Dirty Diana" with a little kitty tail on my pinkie!  I don't think you can tell it's supposed to be a cat tail though; it just looks like a squiggle :-P

More beautiful pictures after the jump!

Alter Ego "Beach Comber"

Hi girlies!

I'm so glad this week is halfway over!  My test today wasn't too bad, and we have a quiz tomorrow, but I think it'll be okay too.  I got some exciting news today!  I'm participating in a market research study about cat food, where the company gives me a bag of food to feed to my cat for a month and record any changes in his behavior, health etc.  It's been a week so far, and Mr. Tumnus really like this brand!  It's one that I haven't bought before cause it's a little too expensive.  Anyway, there are different "levels" of the study, and we got a call today that someone from the company is going to come out to our house to see how Tumnus does around strangers, and if all goes well, we'll be video taped next week!  I haven't asked what exactly they're taping for, but Ben is convinced it's for a commercial.  That would be awesome!!  My kitty could be a star!

Anyway, on to the polish!

Alter Ego Nail Enamel is a new brand to me.  I had never heard of it before picking it off of Gosia's polish wall, but I love aquas like this, so I had to give it a try!
Here is "Beach Comber":

"Beach Comber" is a beautiful aqua with a scattered holographic shimmer.  It dried to a satin-matte finish, but I really wanted the shimmer to come out, so I added a coat of Seche Vite.

Beautiful shimmer!!  The formula on this was a little sheer-it took 3 coats for full opacity- but it flowed wonderfully.  Hardy any clean-up needed!

I know I've said on here before that my favorite color combination is aqua and purple, so I decided to add some stamping with Julep "Morgan" and MoYou London Suki plate 06.

Alter Ego Nail Enamel can be found on Etsy and Storenvy.  She has some really awesome colors AND a "Three Spree" where you can pick any three full-size colors for $19.99!  I'll definitely have to take advantage of that once my no-buy is over!

And now, so you can say you knew him before he became famous, is the star-to-be!

This is his "Treats?" face :)

Thanks for reading!

Contrary Polish "18th and Vine"

Hi ladies!

I have another test this week, so sorry for the lack of posts the past few days!  My test is Wednesday, so after that I'll be back to posting a bit more.

Today I have the first polish I've tried from Contrary Polish, "18th and Vine".  Carrie, the maker of Contrary Polish, is from Kansas City!  I didn't realize this until she put out the No Place Like Home collection, which this polish is from.  Each polish in the collection is based on an area around Kansas City.  18th and Vine is the Jazz District, which is home of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, and it's working jazz club, The Blue Room. 
I have family in friends in KC, so I've been there many times, but I've never been to the Jazz Museum.  I'll have to visit next time!

Here is "18th and Vine":

 Beautiful!  This post is a little picture-heavy because I love this color so much, so I've put the rest under a jump!