Franken, Static

Back from Acapulco! Had lots of fun; it is very beautiful there.  :)

I'm sure that's not the reason why you're all here, so:  I finished a bottle of Barielle Hydrating Ridge-Filler (Goodbye, Ridge-filler; I will miss you D: ), cleaned it out, and decided to franken with it (as per usual). I'd seen a ridiculously beautiful spilled-from-the-bottle image from Polish or Perish's banner contest and thought "hmm." It was a mixture of OPI's Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter.

Sounded like a good idea, so I put in half of each into half of the bottle and ended up with this beauty. Here's how it looks on the nail:

Indoors. A tad green, but there's so much little detail!

Outdoors, direct sunlight.

Side view

Slanted.

This is as SPARKLY as all get-out, and so incredibly, incredibly lovely.  It took three coats for full coverage and I did not experience any difficulties in application.  I decided to call it static because it reminded me of the multicolored, pixellated mishmash that a screen looks like when it isn't working properly... just incredibly sparkly. I put it on today, since it's the first day since that I've gotten proper sleep after my long trip back (btw, Almondine wore impressively well on my six-day vacation out in Mexico. Also, it was fun to watch it  look increasingly paler and paler as I got tanner and tanner), so I can't tell you anything about its wear.  I am wearing two thick (and goopy, ugh) coats of Poshe and it is no longer gritty. No shrinkage, either! :D

Did I mention that it looks like multifaceted jewels glistening in the light? Yep. :) I'm not looking forward to removing this thing, though. Maybe it'll just wear like iron and I won't have to for a while? I hope...

Borghese Almondine

Whoo! A new polish! Whoo! End of finals! Whoo! Spring break!

This is quite possibly as un-spring break a polish could possibly get, but y'know what? I love it. Say hello to Borghese Almondine, which is without doubt the strangest polish that I own. It looks like a very elegant cool-toned nude from far off, but its coolness is made wearable by this incredibly secret pink shimmer (yes, it is there--on the nail AND in the bottle) and little tiny black flecks.  Grunge had secret shimmer, but no, not black flecks. Almondine is Grunge's undead zombie sister, back from the crypt.

Terrible horrible brushstrokes, right?  I'm beginning to wonder whether it's the brush or it's my sleep-deprivation or the caffeine or the stress or the formula or seche (gah, it thickened on me), but this polish was very difficult to apply.  I did better on the left hand (total anomaly for me, since I'm left-handed) because I'd decided to apply the polish very, very lightly. It helps. Do that.

You can kind of see the secret shimmer hanging out at the left over there.

Hmm. Is it just me, or is that last picture kinda wonky?  These last three pictures, btw, are taken indoors next to the kitchen door, which is why it seems a little stark. The color is true to life when one is indoors, however.

Anyway, I'm going to be off to Acapulco with a couple friends until Thursday.  Out of the four polishes that I was allowed to wear (and I figured I'd never actually have the time to paint my nails anyway when I'll probably be doing whatever tourists do in Acapulco), I figured this is the one that wasn't going to clash with everything I wore (I REALLY wanted to wear a coral or a turquoise or a hot tamale red, but they're not in my four.

Speaking of my four, they are currently:  1) Butter London Billy No Mates 2) ChG Emerald Sparkle 3) Borghese Almondine and 4) Sephora Blue Sapphire. I finished both of the OPI minis, using a little of both of them to create two different frankens.

Oh yeah! I have three frankens I want to show you guys! Soon, I hope--two weeks till easter, and then I can swatch again. :)
And oh boy, are there many, many untrieds...

Gradient NOTD

Haha, I totally did this last week when I had the time and the energy to do it, but here is my first ten-finger gradient manicure!

Want another looksee?

Of course you did.
I used OPI's India Mood for Love as well as Butter London's Billy No Mates. The leftmost pinky is pure India, then I kept adding a drop of grey into a little dish (fine, the lid of a plastic water bottle) and mixed it with an orange stick gradually until I ended up with the dusty grey-pink color on the opposite pinky. The effect is very, very cool when you're holding your hands precisely as shown in the images above. However, once separated:

(This pale hand is like five times more damaged and goopy, I know, but it got really thick really fast. Work quickly, or keep thinner around).

On separate hands, the effect is very subtle. A little too subtle, perhaps? It makes me laugh how the eye perceived a huge distance in color difference between the two thumbs, so I looked like I was wearing hot pink on one hand and dusty pink on another. Nobody could tell what I'd done until I put my fingers together.

Note to self: next time, do separate gradients on both hands.

I've been surprisingly busy lately--want proof? I'm wearing two colors of nail polish right now, and four fingers are massively chipped.  I do not yet have time to change it until I finish the final tomorrow morning, and I have a little breathing space while I work on the final essay I'm writing--which is just about half-cooked, but I'd like it to be further developed.  I'm a mess. I pat myself on the back when I eat food. I just want this to be over. D:

On the other hand, I've used up both Princesses Rule! And India Mood for Love! And half of Billy No Mates. I've replaced the two (I did say I have to keep using four, hah) with Borghese Almondine and ChG Emerald Sparkle, and I'd love to show swatches soon.

Wish me luck.

Milani Totally Cool

This is a swatch I'd recorded but never actually captured before my 'I only use four nail polish colors' Lenten insanity.  How's that going? Well... other than my one discrepancy (birthday), I haven't deviated from it. Which is nice. :)

My no-buy is shot to hell, though; I think it's safe to say it's not actually happening anymore.  For example. Today I went to Ulta to check out whether or not they got the Essence stuff yet. They had. It was nearly empty, which was somewhat frustrating for me because I had put off visiting Ulta for a week--who could say what would have happened if I had gone earlier?

Anyway.

I'm under the impression that there's -quite a few- polish collectors in my area.  Anything that the nail board or the bloggers have fixated on for some time is near gone.  Example:  essence stamping kit. Empty, as were all of the purples and rainbow of colors--the only ones left were a couple of the brights and black and white.  The space for Nicole by OPI's 'Imagine If...'. Empty.  Any Mad as a Hatter space on any OPI display? Empty. The first thing to go when Opulent Cloud was floating around?  Opulent Cloud. Jade is the New Black? Empty.

I couldn't find Purple Pizazz for MONTHS before I found the one sole bottle in Ulta. I also considered myself lucky to have found a full display of Borghese, from which I picked up Stellare Notte and Almondine. I also picked up one of the last two bottles of Essence Pool Party--

And then I dropped everything but the Borghese polishes.

(God I love this bottle pic.)

I dropped Purple Pizzazz cause it reminded me of Totally Cool, which, clearly, I already own. Not entirely, since it was warmer, but I've been trying not to buy polishes that are, at least, kissing cousins. That way lies a dark road from whence none return. Besides, TC is gorgeous--opaque in three coats, admittedly, but beautiful nonetheless. See that depth. The glaring pink shimmer which turns bronze in direct sunlight and at angles.

I'd love to layer this over various other colors to see what they turn into. I would, that is, if I could. I can't. Not yet. Gah.

I miss variety, you guys. :<

And the Winner Is...

Congratulations, Bellaluna221!

I will be e-mailing you very shortly. : ) Thanks, everyone, for participating! I hope to hold another one of these at 250 followers.

An Apology, Some Nail Art, And Some Giveaway Updates

I've been working a lot more than I'd intended to this week, including training a new girl. Mostly because she's the new girl and I suffer from Older Sibling Syndrome (i.e., anybody who I am responsible for, I treat as though they don't know how to do anything by themselves), I ended up doing a bunch of the grunt work mostly reserved for the Clean Guy who just happened to take the day off.

While hauling around boxes, grinding coffee, and tossing out trash, I broke three nails.

They weren't badly broken. I figured, hey, I'll just go home, repaint my nails, call it a day, etc. So I did. I didn't re-file them down, or at least smooth out the rough edges so they wouldn't catch on anything, or some sort of logical endeavor that'd help you from exacerbating the condition.

So now I have one badly broken nail, and a couple of other raggedy little fingernails due to bleach. And tears.

Please, please, PLEASE be nice to my current NOTD:

Please ignore the finger frazzle, and that break on that finger...

(Sunlight)

Just don't let it distract you, yeah? D:

that said, this is two coats of billy no mates, with little drops of Indi-a Mood for Love over the nail, swirled by a T-pin. If you like I can make a tutorial over the weekend; it's really not very difficult!

 

 I imagine that using this technique would also be cool after screwing up a French, or a diagonal, or a moon mani, actually. Just blur the edges in a tendril-like manner! Awesome. 

Okay, the giveaway updates:   I realized that I hadn't really specified the bits and baubles that I'm giving out! Here they are: 

  

  

  

Two Pa glitter polishes, and one lilac holographic Sally Girl. Am I awesome? I'm totally awesome. 

International readers welcome, just want all the information I ask for two posts below (or here, if you like), etc. etc. etc. 

Oh. The China Glaze Outta Bounds and Essie Outrageous Orange do not have pictures yet, sadly, because I left them at my parents' house. I hadn't realized I'd hit 100 followers so soon, so I thought they'd take up less space and would best be left there.  I was wrong, clearly, but I'll have them sent to me asap. For what it's worth, Outta Bounds is an emerald green frost/shimmer that has a whole lot of pictures over the internets, and Essie Outrageous Orange looks like a neon but is in truth a very bright and sexy coral jelly. 

So, yes! Carry on. : )

First Water Marbling Attempt

Note to self:

 

 Shade.

 

I think I need two coats of Princesses Rule! before I cover it up with marbling attempts. 

I marbled with Princesses Rule! and Indi-a Mood for Love, in case anybody's curious. I quite like the pattern--there's something weirdly cherry-blossom and kimono-patterned about it, but it needs to be more opaque to be impressive. 

It's my second day wearing this mani, and I still have good wear, by the way. 

Giveaway post below! :)