Randomnesss...

So this is a rambling post of mostly thoughts... I have a bit of time to kill, dont feel like painting my nails, have a giftcard to Sephora and am browsing through their website looking to be inspired for next month's giveaway.

Here are my thoughts:
* I am 27 years old and do not find myself around black lights often enough to justify buying anything from Illamasqua's Paranormal collections... is this polish for the club goer?

* Ciate does not have colors or the formula fabulous enough for me to justify buying their $15 dollar nail polish. Dont get me wrong, I love their sets... I "like" how they take trends, simplify them and then multiply the cost by 3. Also, their chalkboard thing intrigues me... not enough to buy it, but the idea of washable marker for nails has got me thinking about buying some of those milky gel pens I used to use in high school and seeing if I can re-create this look... anyone know where to get those pens?

* Why do I need to wear a ring with a fake nail on it (Pantone, I am looking at you)? I have nails... does it look cool? Do people like this? Are people wearing this? Send me some links to you guys wearing this so I can see if this is something I should legitimately be looking into.

* Why am I looking for an excuse to try Dolce and Gabanna nail polish? WHY? I dont need it, none of the colors are that unique... am I such a brand whore that I think $23 bucks for a nail polish brand I have never tried before must be justified purely because I like their sunglasses? and most of their perfume... and most of their clothes. They are not aiming their products at me, I can tell you that much... I am not their target demographic... le sigh. I would get Shocking or Fire... and Stromboli sounds unique.

Lastly:
* Do I love Hello Kitty because I am Asian, or am I more Asian because I love inexplicably love Hello Kitty?

Also, here is a photo dump of all things I havent bothered to put on the blog...

This is Essie In the Cab-ana with my Sephora OPI 18kt top coat and a little ships wheel Hex Nail Charm. I liked how this came out... I have been in need of this color of blue for some time now.

This is Julep Clara with my new Koi fish stamp! I picked this up for myself for my birthday and was just trying to decide what color the fishies would look best as... Im thinking orange or teal.

This is my sweet baby Bandit!

I bought these interesting lip glosses at Rite Aid when I made the mecca like trip to the one nearest to me... these are pretty cool right? I slipped one into Rebecca's box of Julie G polishes that she won today!

and lastly these are my best friend's holographic cheetah nails!!! She has the stumpy-est little nails, they are so cute!

Oh well, that was just my rambling for the evening... maybe I'll go paint my nails now.

Talk to you all later!

})i({ -Amy

Ninja Polish Ambrosia

K, No time for banter

BLAMSKIES!!!

I really put some effort into this mani... 

Where to start my tales??? 

So I have a real problem with splitting... It was getting better when I wore gloves to sleep with moisturizer and cuticle oil every night, not cured but better... but I stopped doing that when I had to go back east and havent started up again. Then it got a little better when I wore Orly's Nailtrition but it says not to use it consecutively for more than two weeks... and THEN theres my other little problem. 

I see that little bit of lacquer covered nail lifting off the rest of the nail and I CANT HELP MYSELF, I have to peel it back slowly and a little at a time... It is so satisfying. Like squeezing a big blackhead you didnt know you had but catch site of in the mirror during your makeup routine, so big it looks like a mole. Yeah this is just like that for me. I cant help myself!

SO I peel the damn thing back and then paint my nails again and it leaves this unsightly ridge and it looks horrible and then just causes the next peel when it grows out.  YUCK circle of never ending manicure ruination.

So this time I used one of those nail buffer things... you know? The ones from the dudes at the mall who catch you and molest your hand with that huge nail file looking thing with four sides? All to leave you with that one shiney nail? NO? I guess nail polish addicts dont get subjected to this because we're always wearing polish... but back when i didnt wear polish my naked nails were molested in this fashion all the time... those damn sales cart people.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT

I buffed the crap out of all my split nails.... all of my nails really, even the non split ones, I smoothed down the edges where new splits were occuring and I buffed out all the ridges on my nails. HOPEFULLY this will prevent some splitting in the future FINGERS ARE CROSSED! But more importantly this occured to me to be the best way to treat my nails before I use chrome polish or others that show the shit out of ridges. And you all had to read through that crap to get that little gem of advice damn it! HAHAHA! 

Anyways, I went through all that work so I figured I might as well clean up my cuticles and then after I was done painting, clean up some of the mess in the beds of my nails and TADA! I think these might be the best my nails have ever looked for you!

Onto the polish:

So I really like this color, I decided I needed to put on something special after all that hard work and this was the winner! Thank You, Cynthia! 

It went on super smooth but a bit sheer. This is three coats of slightly thick shimmery perfection. It reminds me of Takko Lacquer, both in color and consistency  It has a slightly orange color in the shimmer but also some yellow and even green (in certain lights). It is so rich and glowey, it looks like wildfire on my nails! I am LOVING it!

What do you think? Anyone ever use one of these nail buffers? Am I just late in the game? WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME!!!!? Anyone have any suggestions how to stop the damn splitting??? 

})i({ -Amy

Ahem... Sorry for my absence

Yeah... So I have been doing my own thing recently. Still feeling a bit blue but went to look at apartments yesterday and finally feeling like I am getting over this freaking cough! YIPPEE!!! I went to the outlet mall yesterday with a girl from work and we did a bit of retail therapy... then she told me that she will be having another baby!!! I dont want to judge or anything (who am I kidding? I am a Judgey McJudgerton!) but she just went through bankruptcy, they had to move out of their apartment into a TINY TEENY WEENY one to save some money... and all along they were planning to have a baby. I just think that maybe they should have thought this one through... I'm also wickedly jealous, le sigh. I have baby fever SO bad! Everyone I know has children, I dont have a single girlfriend who doenst have kids... and i would love some bebies some day. Thats one of the reasons I am leaving the boyfriend; he doesnt want kids ever, but thats not what he told me when we first met. I am 27 this May and I just want to live a life where there is potential for me to have kids. I will never have them if i cant financially support myself PERIOD. BUT in an ideal world I will meet a good guy, date him for at least a year if not two before we marry, be married for about a year having selfish fun before we have kids, and have kids before I am an old lady! That doesnt leave much time, and things never go according to plan. What am I going to do? Well it hasnt been my nails, I'll tell you that! I did my best friend's nails about a week ago, they came out super cute but my phone camera is pretty crap!

Thats China Glaze Liquid Leather on thumb and pinkie, Calvin Klein Tutu on the pointer, Nails Inc Leather Effect Noho on the middle and Jade Holografico Mystic Gold on the ring. There is some foil on the thumb, a gold skull and crossbones sticker on the pointer, some studs on the middle, a mustache sticker on the ring, and SOPI 18kt topcoat on the pinkie.

On the right hand middle finger I did a small Hex Nail Charm (I am obsessed with these lately, go buy them here!) that says Bitch! How cute? Right???

I got special nail mail the other day and it was a SUPER pick me up!!! That is Ninja Polish Ambrosia, I cant wait to paint my nails with it... it looks so squishy and shimmery!

I have been toying with the idea of painting falsies for a while... I dont need to wait for a friend to have some free time for a free mani, I can do them at my leisure and I can do WHATEVER design I want... unfortunately this one looks like crap. I should have stuck with the Rocky Mountain sunset and not tried to fade in a galaxy nail... it looks terrible and there isnt enough room on the nail for it all. But that being said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bottom half that I didnt butcher! You can catch a bit of the pinkish shimmer in the clouds, Thats SpaRitual Its Raining Men, which I should do a mani with sometime... maybe.

These were my St. Patties nails... I did these after MANY MANY attempts at a water marble shamrock like mucking_fusser on instagram... DAMN HER AND HER GLORIOUS WATER MARBLES!!!!!!!!!! ... bitch... not really, but im in a hater mood today.

 SO these were my practice water marble a week before St Patricks... and I thought I was all bad ass because I made a heart... I cant really do the marbling .. i suck at it and its messy, and it ruined my Cutex Twist and Scrub Sponge... which I LOVE for removing messes and mostly glitter. Go buy one of these. DO IT!

And I may have shown you this already, but this is Sephora + Pantone Universe in Evergreen... This is another long story for you: I love digging through the clearance bins at Sephora and a while back I found Kat Von D's Mad Max.. I really wanted it but all they had was the tester left. So I asked the woman if I could buy the tester. I told her I would pay full price for it and that I really wanted it and pretty please and all that crap... but she said no, Sephora cannot sell their testers and then she ran away from my crazy... Speed up to a couple weeks ago and Im in a different Sephora digging through the clearance bins... then i spot the Pantone Jewel Lacquer set and all the pretty colors and I find a tester for the Evergreen and a Tester for the Parachute Purple but no product for them!!!! NOOOOOO! So I did a bad thing and slipped both testers into different boxes... because they were all in completely enclosed boxes, and I bought the testers under a different guise. EEK! I was sweating and thinking "God I hope they dont open those boxes and see that I am essentially stealing their testers!" But I was successful in my endeavor and I bought two awesome Pantone polishes!!! ... and I hardly feel bad about it anymore... hardly... just a bit. I'D DO IT AGAIN THOUGH!!!!


SO! Thank you for reading my novel today! I have one last thing to ask of you: Since I have not been posting lately I was thinking maybe I should do some guest posts! Maybe? I have never done this... but was thinking that maybe someone might want to show off their nails... maybe that someone has a blog, maybe they dont! Maybe they just want to help me fill my space? I think guest posting is probably more appealing for more popular blogs... But lets put it this way: Youd be my best friend? Id let you use my crayons at recess? What can I say to get some of you to volunteer some of your time and do some posts for me? If you want to... send pictures and basically a blog post to my email: drama(dot)ocelot(at)gmail.com
Yeah?
Maybe?
DO IT!!!

Otherwise, who knows? Maybe I'll start feeling back to normal and do my own posts again... I have enough freaking nail polish that I havent tried out yet... jeez. Lol

})i({ -Amy

NOPI Kim-pleatly In Love and Lush Laquer Clowning Around

UGGGHH! I am super sick today, on the plus side it was already one of my many days off of work (I get like 3, the store doesnt have enough hours for me to work... its really sad). This is the FIRST Nicole by OPI that I have ever bought... It was in the clearance bin at Ulta and it is the shade of pink I have been keeping an eye out for.

Plus it has blue shimmer in it! This is four coats though... makes for some thick nails. But the application is smooth, so there's a plus.

I had to buy Clowning Around after I saw it on Chalkboard Nails post about Hex Charms which I also had to buy some of... Actually this is the last polish I have bought. I am currently on a no buy... I am trying to save my monies so that I can pay off my credit card debt and possibly move out, things have not been going so well with the boyfriend.
I am going through so much crap with my grandmother passing, and then my mother and I getting into quite an argument, all to discover that I may not be very happy in my relationship either. Its been kind of a downer couple of months, my friend says I should go see someone about it, but I am not much of a sharer (this doesnt count because I dont know any of you!) On top of that my friend and I havent been seeing each other at all... I dont even remember the last time I saw her. She has a new boyfriend, who in my opinion isnt much of a winner, and she keeps blowing off our plans to go be with him. So I'm kinda floating here. I missed so much school when my Meme passed that I had to drop the semester because I couldnt keep up, I REALLY have nothing to do... except work. I like work (I guess). ANYWHO...

Enough of that! What do you think of Clowning around? Its pretty cute, it reminds me of something Jindie might put out.
GAHHHH I want some Jindie polish too!!! I have a list of polishes I want to buy as soon as my cards are paid off... but not all at once because that might defeat the purpose.

PLEASE let me live vicariously through you guys, what are some polishes that you have bought recently? Anything super exciting or that you have been lemming?

})i({ -Amy

Takko Lacquer Kiss The Sky

Ok, So I had wanted Takko Lacquer... any color, since I had seen swatches from Mei Mei's Instagram. For all of you unaware, sometimes you can get hard to find, hard to get, indie polishes from this site in Singapore... The prices are in $SGD and google can convert for you pretty easy. Shipping is relatively cheap, considering where its coming from. AND as I am writing this she has what appears to be the full Enchanted Polish Beatles collection and quite a few Takko Lacquers.

I didnt get this one from her though... This is Takko Lacquer's Kiss The Sky. I bought it during the last restock of 2012... when I say I bought it, I mean that I called my boyfriend every half hour on the day of the restock, from work, making sure he knew where to go and what to buy and what to buy in case what I wanted was sold out, and which was most important(this one), and explained all about cart jacking... and I still only got one from the restock: THIS ONE!!! Yippee. The other one I really wanted was Wanderlust... but he ended up feeling so bad (because despite all of my calls and warnings he forgot and got to the restock 10 minutes late!) that he bought me Kaleidoscope Eyes from Mei Mei. I will do a post of that later, it just got here yesterday!



I LOVE this color... I think the reason I had wanted it so badly is because it kind of looks like Max Factor Fantasy Fire in the bottle... That being said, If you have been lemming Clarins 230  you should go get it on Ebay (eek I know, I know, evilbay) HERE because that is the best price I have seen in forever...
I want to buy one for myself because, come on... its unicorn pee for fu**'s sake, but my grandma is super sick and I have spent all my moneys on a plane ticket back east... le sigh. That is actually the reason I painted my nails this color... it makes me really happy, what a pick me up! It is also the reason I haven't posted anything lately or shipped out any of the things I said I would (Cynthia, I am looking apologetically at you, I have a package here on my desk just yelling at me to get off my lazy behind! I'll post it before the week is through, PROMISE!)

This is three thick coats of squishy awesomeness. It does flash orange red and green but I suck at taking photos! I love the color, love the consitancy: it could be considered a bit thick... but I like the way it applies.This picture is less fantastic but shows that there is not so much VNL as my camera flash would have you believe! These are not the best pictures of this polish, you should google it... then sit in amazement of its glory, then go to Mei Mei's and buy it. This is a polish I will use again and again this year. LOVE IT!

What do you think? Like the color? Have you used Takko before? Whats your favorite color from them?

})i({ -Amy



...and sorry I rambled so much, I am just so scatter brained. I wasnt the closest with my grandmother but this whole situation is one big deja vu for when my father passed two and a half years ago. The same kind of phone call from my sister... when my father got sick and went to the hospital I refused to acknowledge that it was something major (he had been in and out of the hospital for years and in my mind was going to be around forever), so I didnt fly out when I should have and he had a stroke. He died while I was stuck between flights... and I never got to say goodbye. He called me just two weeks before that... but was so loopy from all his medications he probably didnt remember the call. He told me I didnt call enough and that he wished I lived closer and could see him more often... super sad stuff. So when my sis called and told me Meme (short for grand memere) was sick I felt like the universe gave me a do over. I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and I fly out next Sunday. The  good news is that she is feeling a bit better, I hope she will make a full recovery!