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

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!

Untrieds photo heavy... (more like another Photo Dump)

Since I have only recently started my polish addiction... I have a lot of additions to my collection that I havent tried yet... mostly cause I like to buy polish more than I like to apply it... too much nail care to worry about. I have a couple days off and not much to do except probably go hang out with my little brother tomorrow. So today I exercised for the first time in a bit over a year... it was pretty tough even though it was only a half hour of running up and down the stairs (because last night when I ran up and down once I was so out of breath I disgusted myself), le sigh. I thought it would be a good idea to sit at my desk and paint my nails for hours, and I cant really move if I wanted to. Please excuse my nails in some of these pictures, the acetone really dries out my skin and cuticles. click "read more" to see the photos

Revlon Coconut Crush

Ok, I love these scented polishes! Coconut Crush was a no brainer for me: I love coconut!

Even thought this looks pretty white, its actually off white. Its got just a bit of buttery color to it. This is three coats, they go on pretty thin and the formula is cuticle-flood prone so be careful! The coverage is much better than I thought when I was painting!

I did use a topcoat although maybe next time I wont because although a topcoat did not kill the smell, I bet it does dull it like it did with Raspberry Rapture. I LOVE THE SMELL OF THIS. When I smell this I am trasported back to Noosa Heads Beach. We used to rent a house on the canals for a week, canoe, swim, eat, and just relax. My favorite part was the beach (or the shopping) and there was a snow cone cart on the northeast side where I would get coconut snow cones everyday, the perfect treat in the heat. Le Sigh, this polish reminds me of how I want to go back now! For the rest of you without imagination it really smells like coconut conditioner... I guess. 

I'm ready for summer!

What polishes transport you away? Any that bring you to summer even on cold winter days like today?

})i({ -Amy

Twelve Nails of Christmas: Day 8

So I knew I had to paint my nails last night.... but it was also an incredibly stressful day at work. When I got home my boyfriend had bought me some Woodchuck Hard Cider. I dont drink very often (and the boyfriend NEVER drinks and NEVER has - he's mormon) but I love hard ciders. I used to live in Australia and developed a huge taste for Strongbow cider (among a taste for ALL other alcohols... which is kinda why I dont drink much anymore - long story) and then I moved to Vermont where they make Woodchuck. In a time where Strongbow was hard to get Woodchuck became my go to drink. Anywho, their Fall flavor put me back in the mood to do Christmas nails (I will be perfectly honest I wanted nothing more to do with these damn Twelve Nails of Christmas posts). As described by Woodchuck: "There are few things as spectacular as fall in the Green Mountains that surround our cidery. When you add cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of American white oak, you either have yourself some mighty fine cider or your standard Vermont tourism cliche." It tastes like Christmas to be perfectly honest. (RAMBLE RAMBLE RAMBLE- My apologies)

So keep in mind that I had two too many of these when I was painting; I dont know why I thought that would be a good idea... my cuticles hate me

Anywho this is two coats of OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress with a thick coat of Sation I Love Miss Self. INRAW is a mini bottle from a big sample set I bought CHEAP from Ulta, and I got ILMS at Marshalls recently for $2.99!

I LOVE this glitter; its a mix of mini holo silver hex glitters, small red gold green and holo silver hexs, and medium silver holo hexs. SUPER GLITTER! It goes on very well, and I really only thickened it up where I thought it needed more greens... they are kinda sparse. Very nice formula though, and you might be able to build it up on its own, but it would probably be chunky, it dries very smooth in one coat though so I dont know why I think that.

I wish I could capture it better on the camera... it is SUPER sparkley and the small green hex glitters really pop against all the red.
I've never really been much of a red gal, so I had no idea that I even had INRAW...
Here it is on its own:

What a pretty red! I didnt know I would like this so much... but I totally do. I may have to start wearing red.


What do your Christmas nails look like? If I get any emails with pictures I want to post them on a "day after Christmas" post.

})i({ -Amy

Color Club Neon Yellow

I still have no idea what this yellow color is called... but I still REALLY like it, which is weird cus I usually hate yellow. I wanted to try it again even after I had a semi-poor experience with it HERE. SO this time I tried it over the top of white polish and then used Essie's Kisses and Bises over the top of it to give it some shimmer... then used some grey Swarovsk crystals...

This was a really eye-catching mani. I love this color over white, this is actually only one coat!!! It couldve used a second coat but I had used two coats of white and wanted to use the shimmery Kisses and Bises over the top in two coats and didnt want SIX coats of polish before topcoat and not including base coat. EEK it was kind of weird to remove!

So what do you think? Do you like this color?

})i({ -Amy

Nfu Oh 51 Vs Layla Ceramic Effect The Butterfly Effect

So I was at Ulta poking around in the nail polish and on the bottom shelf of a woe-begotten fixture in the back of the store there was a small display of Layla's Ceramic Effects. The Ulta I go to doesn't highlight Layla very much; when I wanted one of the Hologram Effect polishes all of the people there said they didnt even carry Layla (but I had seen it a week before and just wanted to know where they moved it to!) When I saw The Butterfly Effect I lost my shit. I bought it because I wanted to do a comparison with Nfu 51 so badly... I didnt even realize it was 14 bucks (but thats ok cus I paid almost 30 to get my Nfu.)

Ok, here we go. Layla's formula is a bit thicker, BUT THAT MEANS IT GOES ON MORE OPAQUE!!! You can kinda see it in the picture with each polish at three coats. Layla has more flakies but Nfu has more pink shimmer.

Both are a similar color too; they have that shift from pink to purple to blue. 

Overall I like Nfu's smooth formula better but if I could go back in time I would probably get Layla's instead; it was cheaper for me, it goes on thicker, and I like the abundance of flakies. Is it an exact dupe? No, but it's pretty damn close.

What do you think? I have heard there's another dupe for 51, does someone know what its called, and where I can get it? 

})i({ - Amy

Calvin Klein Navy Sparkle

So I picked this polish up at Tuesday Morning, which was totally unexpected because I wandered the isles looking for polish and came across so much tacky stuff (I didnt go to a very good Tuesday Morning) and after finding some disappointing polish I found a bucket filled with Calvin Klein Polish!!! I had to limit myself to two so I bought Tutu which is a black with gold micro glitter and Navy Sparkle which is is Navy with super teal and gold shimmer!!! 

Look at how PURDY this polish is!!! Its a vibrant and complex color. It was a little streaky to apply but after three coats, it evened out. It had so much depth after applying the top coat and it just glistens!

 I really like this polish and cant wait to swatch Tutu! I hope it has the same kind of depth.

So what do you think? Do you like this polish? Have you tried CK polish before? Whats your fave color from them?


})i({ - Amy

KleanColor Blue Maniacs Set

I bought my first Kleancolors last night, I had only heard of Chunky Holo Purple before and I found the Kolor Revolution Set at Ross after I went to vote. There were a bunch of other sets too and they were all $4 bucks. I bought Kolor Revolution and Blue Maniacs. I have been looking at blue polishes lately and thought the colors would make a good ombre nail (like The New Black sets). The Kleancolor set came with six polishes but I used these five:

From the left: Lake Mist, Shining Sea, Kawaii Stuff, Cobalt, Peacock-a-boo. The formula is ok and the ingredient list is free of the big 3... so there's a win, but they smell terrible! The brushes are kinda stumpy so it makes for semi-difficult application and the polishes dry a bit dull. All that said, these colors are great!!! 

I put Lake Mist, a light blue shimmer, on the pinky. The ring finger has Shining Sea, which looked like a glitter in the bottle, but is more of a glass fleck. Kawaii Stuff is on the middle and it looks much darker than in the bottle, but I like that better; it is a rich blue cream. On the pointer is Cobalt. It is a rich deep blue shimmer, very intense (after top coat). On the thumb is Peacock-a-boo. I have no idea what this name means. Its not a peacock color, it isnt duo-chrome, and it doesnt have any peacock characteristics... Its beautiful though! These are two coats of each (sorry about the middle, I didnt do any cuticle clean up).

I'm not a huge fan of pastel colors, so Lake Mist isnt my fave. But I love the turquoise sparkly Shining Sea! Kawaii Stuff will be good in spring/summer, its as pale "pastel" as I'd like, meaning not pastel at all. Cobalt will be a regular, it's got a great saturated color, very good shimmer, and it's just electric in the right light. Peacock-a-boo is an intense navy color. I wouldnt call it a shimmer, more of a foil speckle kind of thing, its a great blue for fall so I will probably use it again before the season is over.

(By the way, I mentioned that the set came with six polishes, but I obviously only have five fingers... I left out Blue Pearl. Its very similar to Lake Mist but slightly different shades, Pearl is a bit more shimmery and slightly more periwinkle. I imagine it will come out a bit darker than it is in the bottle like Kawaii Stuff did.)

I liked the Kleancolor polishes... They go on well and have some great colors. The price was right, so that's always a win. What do you think? Have you used this brand before? Do you have a favorite Kleancolor color?

})i({ - Amy

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

So... I should've done this at the beginning of the month, but better late than never right?

Please excuse the lack of clean up!!! I usually fix the spill in the shower the morning after I do the mani (I do them at night because I don't move much when I sleep and SV dries pretty quick.) Anyways, I take an orange stick or manicure stick and rub the excess off in the shower after I've soaked for a bit!

I thought this would be a really good color scheme for a breast cancer mani. I think it came out pretty nice (even on my right hand!)

I used the mini OPI Bubble Bath for the base on all the nails save the ring fingers. Then using Color Club's Jackie-Oh! (which I am OBSESSED with) I painted the whole of the ring fingers and then the tips of the rest of the fingers (using the hole reinforcements for guides.) I painted thick tips so that I could use the Art Deco white striper to paint white tips on the pink ones, then used the striper to draw the ribbon design. After that I used the Art Deco blue small glitter striper to stripe between the pink and white tips and to outline the breast cancer ribbon. Over the top I used Essie's Kisses and Bises to add shimmer over every nail. (BTW I totally picked the Kisses and Bisses up at Marshall's for 3 bucks!!!) I top coated with SV and voilà!

I picked up a decent camera... from the boyfriend's junk pile aka: his house. He always has the newest and best electronics so when he replaced his small point and shoot cannon with 12.1 megapixels and 14x optical zoom, with a DSLR, I took the Cannon. I used it to take pictures of the revisited Two Fingered Salute mani but then it died and he doesn't know where the battery charger is... probably somewhere in the junk pile. I both praise him and damn him simultaneously... BOYFRIEND!!! (*shakes fist at the heavens*.) So I'm back with the cell phone camera for now... le sigh. It's decent enough, but I want the cannon to swatch some of the new polish I got in and am getting in... Stay tuned!!!

What did you do for breast cancer awareness? I've realized that you may not be able to upload photos to the comment box but I would be happy to post anything I get in an e-mail!

Let me know what you think!

})i({  - Amy