Chi Sultry Nights

First Monday back to work.  K ended up with pink eye over the weekend and I thought for sure that today I would have to try and entertain a 19 month old while getting my room ready for the school year.  Luckily we have probably 18 bottles of drops at home, since the boys get it so much at daycare.  He woke up this morning looking MUCH better.

Another Chi polish!  Sultry Nights is a dark, dark blue with a bit of shimmer.  In certain lights it could even be mistaken for black.  I bought this WAAAAY back in 2007!

I used 3 coats in these pictures.  It's so highly pigmented that I could have gotten away with 2 thicker coats, though.  I didn't do that because I have a problem with this one bubbling.  I have to be careful to use really thin coats and give them a minute to dry before I apply more.

You're able to see a bit of the shimmer in this shot. 

My birthday is coming up next month, and I thought it would be fun to do a little giveaway for it.  It took me some time to come up with something, but I made a surprising find the other day, so hopefully you all will enjoy it when I post it!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by.  I appreciate all of my readers!

Color Club Worth the Risque

I was back to school yesterday.  The first day back for teachers is a little daunting (at least for me) because I'm trying to figure what I should be doing first.  There's the big teacher breakfast, meetings, etc....and them I'm in my classroom wondering where I put everything in June!  lol

Worth the Risque was released in Spring of '09 with the Femme Fatale collection.  I'm embarrassed to say that this is my first Color Club polish that I've ever worn!

You can't tell in the above picture, but Worth the Risque is a densely packed holo polish.  It's so pretty!!!  The next picture shows the holo a bit more (remember to click for a bigger image), but if I had some sun it would be even better!

I used 4 coats for a nice, even coverage.  There was a big of a drag for me when I applied, so you'll have to be careful there. 

Sorry for the lighting in these pictures...I've had very little sunlight the past few days and had to make do because I was in desperate need of doing some swatching!

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Shine

Orly Shine was another one of my Ulta purchases last month.  Our local Sally's didn't have it, so I was thrilled to find it.  Shine was released as part of Foil FX collection this past spring. 

Orly marketed this collection to be "minx-like".  I could see them passing for that from a distance.  Up close you would be able to see the metallic particles that make these a foil.  Shine is obviously a silver foil...VERY shiny.  Probably one of the shiniest silver's I own.  Unfortunately it's another polish that my camera doesn't like.  I edited the hell out of these.  My hands were orange and the camera had a hard time focusing, probably because of the shimmer...I don't know.  I could just suck at taking pictures too.

I used 4 coats to get even coverage.  It was a bit patchy before that.  I haven't tried the others from this collection yet, do I don't know it that's a common thing with them.  I also have the other two polishes from this collection, Rage and Luxe.  I'll swatch them soon hopefully so that I can complete it on here.

See you soon!

Ulta Chic Peek

When I was in NY visiting family last month I visited my very first Ulta store!  It was so wonderful...lol  There were about 20 polishes in there that I wanted to buy as well as other cosmetics, but I limited myself because I'm sure the hubby wouldn't have appreciated me spending $100 on cosmetics.  When his cousin found out I was going there, she texted me and said "You + Ulta = lots of nail polish!"  How true...lol

The Ulta polishes were on sale when I was there, so I picked up a few.  I LOVE this one. 

Chic Peek is a brown base with lots of tiny silver shimmer.  It was hard to get a good pic because for some reason my camera would pick up the brown and turn my hands orange.  I've been having that problem a lot lately with the camera...I may have to think about getting a new one.  hmmm...  (or someone needs to tell me what I'm doing wrong...lol)

I used 3 coats.  It had such a great, even coverage that if I used slightly thicker coats I could probably have gotten away with 2 coats.

Thanks for visiting!

Chanel Paradoxal

Well...here it is!  Any of you who follow me on twitter witnessed my excitement when I bought this.  I think I was more surprised that I found more than anything.  I know you've seen picture after picture of this...but you know what...I'm posting it anyway!  :)

Other this, I only have one other Chanel nail polish (Kaleidoscope).  I have a problem paying $20+ for nail polish, but I kept seeing more and more pictures of this and wanted it more and more.  I went into Macy's (and hour away from me) and figured, well if they even have it, I'll think about it.  I stood there looking at their nail polish display and there was no Paradoxal.  I was with my cousin and my boys at the time...I was about to walk away when the Chanel lady said "oh we have these as well".  I looked at my cousin and told her that I was weak....as soon as I found out they had it, I knew I would get it.  lol

You can see some of the purple shimmer in the bottle in the bottom picture.  And that's how it looks on your nails in the sunshine...inside it's a dark taupe and you don't see the shimmer at all.  In this next picture I used my flash to capture it...sorry for the washed out looking picture:

I found this a little hard to apply.  The brush seemed like it didn't want to listen to me and the formula was thicker that I would like.  I ended up using 3 coats to get even coverage, but they were three THICK coats.
In other news, I used Nubar Diamont top coat for the first time with this mani.  So far I really like it.   I felt it dried really quickly and it didn't give me the shrinkage that Seche Vite (my HG) does.  I'm going to give it some time and decide whether or not I'm going to switch...don't want to be too hasty about these things!

Well, this was the last full week of my summer vacation. What a busy week too. Tuesday we had some friends over for a bbq and video games...they were my husband's friends obviously, and yesterday we drove to Richmond to take the kids to see the Wiggles. They were so cute! My youngest, K, sat on Daddy's lap and danced to every song.  My oldest, R, was in awe of the whole experience. Next week, the kids will be back at daycare, and then on Thursday I go back to school. Teachers report on Thursday, but we don't get students until after Labor Day...so it won't be too bad yet. Hehe.

Thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze Cowardly Lyin'

Cowardly Lyin' is a part of China Glaze's Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection.  I was completely unaware of this collection when it was originally released in 2001.  I did not have my current level of obsession for all things nail polish at the time.  I lived in a town that was about 30 minutes from anywhere up in NY...had just gotten married and was sporting *gasp* acrylic nails.  I'm so glad that China Glaze listened to their fans and re-released it!

Unfortunately for me, Cowardly Lyin' just doesn't look that good with my skin tone.  I think it's so pretty though, and I'm not that much into gold nail polish (probably because they look like crap on me)!

Cowardly Lyin' is a very pretty, light gold with tiny gold glitter particles. 

It's quite sheer...I used 4 coats and still had visible nail line, although you can't tell as much in the pictures.  You'll want to click on the images to see the detail of the gold glitter.  Very pretty! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sally Hansen Laser

This past spring Sally Hansen released 8 more shades into their HD collection.  Laser was part of that release.  This color SCREAMS me.  It's blue, glittery and duochrome!  I wore this polish as a mani for about a week, and had such a hard time NOT looking at my nails!

Laser has a dark blue base, with glitter that gives flashes of purple.  In the right light it looks more purple than blue.  If you click on the images you can see a bit more detail.  I think I picked up the flashes of purple, although I wish you could see it more.  In my pictures you can only see it in the bottle, but in real life it's very evident on the nail as well. 

I needed 4 coats to get even coverage.  The polishes released in this collection are sheer, but buildable colors.  If you are into layering (I'm really not) then you'll love these! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sinful San Francisco

First off, I have to say, excuse my nubbins.  I mentioned the other day that in the craziness of doing the fair last week that I quite honestly just didn't take very good care of my nails.  They're very prone to splitting and breaking if I'm not constantly taking care of them.
I had heard so much about Sinful nail polish, but was never able to get them because we don't have a Walgreens in my little boondock-ish town.  Imagine my surprise one day when I walked into Rite-Aid and found a big display!  I was so caught off guard that I didn't even know which ones to get.  I ended up picking the one I had heard the most about, San Francisco.

This picture makes it look like it's a blue-based green, but it's not.  In my opinion it's more yellow-based...but leaning towards just pure green.  This picture is more accurate:

I needed 4 coats to get even coverage.  It was kind of streaky up until that point.

What do you have planned for your weekend?  The hubby is going on a man-date with some friends to see The Expendables, so his cousin wants to go shoe shopping with me.  I've never been a shoe shopper...bring me to a make-up store and I'm in heaven though...LOL

Have a great weekend!

Zoya Charla

Well, I was going through my pictures and found some that are pre-nubbin.  I admittedly didn't take very good care of my nails last week with the fair.  There was some labor involved and I was REALLY tired.  They're probably not going to grow fast enough for me to get them past my tips before I swatch again though.  I guess worse things have happened, right?  :-P

Charla is part of the Zoya Sparkle collection, released this summer.  It's been described as mermaid scales in a bottle.  I think it's pretty darn accurate.

Nothing I can say can do Charla justice...it's SOOOO gorgeous!  I practically drooled over this color once I got it in the exchange.  I accidentally left it home when I went on vacation last month, so it sat here for 2 weeks waiting for me...such a crime! 

I used 3 coats.  Wear was great, as always.  Even though it's glitter, it wasn't a pain to take off...so greatness all around! 

Thanks for looking!

OPI Russian Navy

Hello all...happy Monday!  Today is my parents 35th anniversary...WOW!  You go mom and dad!  On the downside, it would have also been the anniversary of a couple that the hubby and I are friends with, but they are currently going through a divorce.  It's so sad to watch, but they both seem really happy and at peace with the decision, so I guess that's all we can hope for. 

Onto less depressing discussion...

I was digging around my untried box (or ONE of my untried boxes) and found this baby.  I can't believe that I've never worn it!!  I love blue for crying out loud!  This is such a DARK blue, but not one of those dark blues that would be mistaken for black.

Russian Navy was released in fall/winter 2007 in the Russian Collection.  It's a very dark navy blue, but with tiny blue/pink/purple shimmer.  In the right light you can see the sheen of purple.  So pretty!!!  The pigmentation is great, and it applies so SMOOTHLY. 

You'll have to click on these pictures to enlarge them to see the shimmer.  I tried to sharpen these up a bit so you can see it.
Beautiful, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Nubar Sale!

Very excited.  I've been DYING to try Nubar nail polish and they have a sale going on right now, so I took advantage. 
If you enter the code AUG2030 you will receive 20% off of your order of $30 or more.  You can still receive free shipping on your order of $75 or more after the discount is applied.  The sale ends today though, so hurry!!!!  You can purchase Nubar polishes at http://www.bynubar.com/

OPI DS Perfection

Ah...Friday....The last day of the fair is tomorrow.  It's been fun, but man, am I tired!!!  :)

Can we talk about how friggin' cool this polish is????  I didn't want to take it off when I was wearing it.  I LOVE the Designer Series polishes.  It is my secret (I guess not so secret anymore) wish to own all of them.  I'm thinking I missed out on some of them, because there have been discontinuations and such, but I'll do my best to find them all.  This isn't the only one I have by any means, I'm just not sure which ones I have right now.  hehe

*sigh*  I love it.  This is 4 coats...it's a little sheer at first.  It's dark pink with a foil/glitter finish.  It's a little duochrome too, look at the bottle and you can see the reddish/orangish color too.  In real life you can see it on your nails too.

I seriously couldn't stop looking at my nails when this was on them.  It's just so cool!!!  What do you think?

Have a great weekend!

Zoya Laney

The fair is doing well and amazingly I'm awake enough for a post!  I'm not getting in until 10:30 pm every night , don't get to bed until about 11:30 and the kids don't let me sleep in past 7 am.  Not good, as I need a decent amount of sleep to function.  It's only for the week though, so I'll manage!

I received Zoya Laney during this year's Zoya polish exchange.  It's another polish from this spring Reverie collection, like my previously posted Adina. 

Laney is a silver based duochrome.  You can see a little flash of green on my nails in the above image (click to see a bigger pic), and in the bottle there is also a slight flash of pink.  I did see the duochrome on my nails, but it just didn't translate into an image well. 

While the duochrome isn't as strong in this as in Adina, it's still pretty cool looking.  As you can see in my image, the polish is susceptible to brush strokes, so be careful there.  Obviously I had shaky hands putting this on (look at my middle fingernail!).  I used 3 coats...it was pretty streaky, so it was needed...I highly recommend it though!

Have a great day!

Chi Out on the Town Brown

Good morning, and happy Monday.  Today is the first day of that fair I was telling you about.  We set up over the weekend, so far so good.  Our only problem is that the building we're in is not air conditioned, and we sell wax that melts at very low temps.  Should be interesting.

Chi is another brand of polish that I can only get when I escape from the boonies.  I love it though, and it wears well.  But I only have 3 colors!  :-(

Out on the Town Brown is so not a color that I wear very often...plus it's not very summery.  It is perfect for fall though.  Like I said, I don't wear brown's very often, but when I do wear them, I love them.  It just looks so cool!  It's a nice chocolaty brown.  You need to wear 3 coats though, because it builds and looks really reddish with the first 2 coats.

I hope you all have a great day...wish me luck tonight!