Saturday, October 29, 2011

Halloween Part Two: Hits Zeus

Hey everyone! So, today I have a polish I'm going to classify as Halloween, but really it's only because: a) it's black and b) I was dying to wear it because it was holo :P I got Hits Zeus from llarowe and it's straight from Brazil! This beauty was $10 plus minimal shipping, and I also got Hera and Hestia, which I'll be showing soon!

Zeus is a gorgeous dark gray/blackened holo. I layered two coats over a layer of a black creme to conserve it, since the bottle is small (only 6 mL). However, it was totally worth it, in my opinion! Since I use polishes so infrequently (since I have so many), this is a perfect size for me, in all honesty: it's small enough that it doesn't take up a lot of room, it's enough that I will still probably never use it all, and it's perfection. Behold:




Zeus was a bugger to photograph, which I think is because it was a dark holo, but you can definitely see the sparkle and the linear holographic-ness, especially in that bottle! *drools* Now I'm off, it's my Halloween party tonight and I'm so excited! I'll be showing you guys my costume nails, but would you be interested in seeing my makeup too?

xoxo,
Amanda

Friday, October 28, 2011

Halloween Part One: Cougar Attack!

Hi ladies! With Halloween being my favorite holiday, I'm shocked I have yet to post a Halloween mani! All the posts I show you guys are NOTDs so for a while, I thought it was too early for Halloween... then the end of the month snuck up on me! I'm having a party this weekend and I'm so excited! And that is why this post is scheduled: I totally slacked on preparation and I'm spending the day prepping! haha

Anyway, here's my homage to Halloween part one, Wet n Wild Cougar Attack, which was part of this year's hard-to-find On the Prowl collection. This applied kind of awkwardly, this is three coats which was perfect for opacity but some nails were okay in two. The brush on Wet n Wild is perfectly sized to cover my whole nail in one stroke but that means sometimes I get pooling on the edge of my nails from the brush pushing excess over there, if that makes sense? On to the polish.... first, without topcoat.



And with topcoat...


In my opinion, this absolutely requires a great topcoat. It will dry on its own fine, but it will be dull and lack dimension. Once I added topcoat to this, I LOVED it (I usually take my pictures pre-topcoat so you guys see what it actually looks like, not what the topcoat adds). Very Halloweeny, no?

xoxo,
Amanda

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

More Blue: Nox Twilight Talon

Hi ladies, I have more blue for you today! It's Nox Twilight Talon, which is a deep navy blue that glows from within. It looks black in some lights if you look quickly, but most always is noticeably blue. This was two easy coats and the formula was great. I also love the brush, which made it really easy to contour around my cuticles - this is following minimal cleanup (which, in retrospect, could have been better).

In my room, which is what I typically call "low light"


In sunlight
So I'm a big fan of this polish. Even if it wasn't Twilight related (yes, I'm a Twi-hard... I'm even going to see the next one at midnight. Don't judge me... move on! haha) I would still love it for its formula. It was a really nice, wintry/fall color and it really glowed. I caught myself staring at it during sessions with clients haha. What do you think? This is my last blue for now, but do you like these themed weeks?

xoxo,
Amanda

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Blue Week Continued: Models Own True Blue

Helloooooo! I have another pretty blue for you today, a color that actually kind of surprised me. You see, when I saw True Blue on the Models Own website, I assumed it would be a squishy creme/jelly, and really (as you'll see soon) it's like a neon finish. A little matte, I guess I'd call it satiny? Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Ahhh pre-cleanup picture! Don't judge! Don't judge!

And I actually planned this color specifically to support a local team, so I added some random polka dots with my Migi pens (what I affectionately call "nail art" because it's about all I'm capable of so far) once that was dry and attempted some cleanup:

With topcoat and nail art :)

Warning: this polish stains ya! (For evidence, please see my middle finger in the picture above.) You gotta be careful, but it's a pretty polish! I'm not sure it's one of my favorites, but it was worth trying out and I didn't hate it (although the team lost so that was a bummer). What do you think of True Blue?

xoxo,
Amanda

Monday, October 24, 2011

Blue, Blue, and More Blue... Lex Cosmetics Atlantic

Hi guys! I have a confession. I think I'm addicted to blue polishes. I uploaded my pictures from last week and like four of them are blue manis... so... it's officially blue week! Or at least blue 5 days, or until I run out of blue manis ;)

Anywho, today I have another Lex Cosmetics polish: Atlantic. This is a medium blue-green creme polish that was a snap to apply. Seriously, Lex makes some great formulas with these polishes. Below is two coats and topcoat:

In low light

In sunlight (!! yes, contrary to popular recent belief, we do get sunshine in New England)
So I realize this is between blue and green but give me a break, let's call it blue-ish and let it count for blue week/few days ;) What do you think of Atlantic?

xoxo,
Amanda

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Giveaway Winner!

You guys, I totally forgot to tell you the winner of my 128 follower giveaway! Emma of Whimsical Glam from Canada! Yayyy! Congratulations, Emma! I just sent her package out Friday and it just occurred to me that I never announced it. I'm sorry! Also, I compiled most of the answers for all of your favorite things and put them in a list:

The most popular answer was, of course, nail polish, to nobody's surprise. It was really great reading all these answers; it made me so thankful for the little things in life, the things I might not necessarily notice even though they are special to me (spaghetti, homemade chicken soup, childhood pictures, etc.). So thank you all for giving me these little things to appreciate, hopefully you read the list and it points out something you're thankful for too! And especially thank you all for reading and supporting me <3

xoxo,
Amanda

Saturday, October 22, 2011

First Giveaway Winnings and Boyfriend's Pick: Zoya Noel!

Hello dear readers, I have great news! I won a giveaway from Mommy Does Her Nails and the prize was a Zoya of my choice! I picked Zoya Noel (I have a bad habit of ordering every polish I ever wanted from Zoya during their promotions, so naturally I had to pick a newer one!) and it came in recently.  She also sent me a Burt's Bees set for being so patient while the Zoya shipped to her :)

Here blogger goes flipping my pictures again...

I put Noel in my untried bin and asked my boyfriend what I should wear, and he picked it immediately. It was a good pick, too. Behold:

Zoya Noel, 2 coats in low lighting and no flash


I saw it in the bottle and thought "a metallic?" but when I put it on, it had so much depth. It reminded me of the consistency and look of the new magnetic polish trend we're seeing: lots of small bits of silver and blue within the color. It was truly gorgeous and I was very thankful my boyfriend picked it and MDHN sent it on to me! Thanks!

xoxo,
Amanda

Friday, October 21, 2011

Quick Comparison: China Glaze White Cap vs Orly Winter Wonderland

Hey hey hey! How is everyone out there in the interwebz?! It's Friday, which is always great anyway but my one client of the day canceled - so I'm pretty pumped to have the day off now! :) Today's post is a quick comparison. I recently bought China Glaze White Cap, thinking it might be a backup bottle for Orly Winter Wonderland, which happens to be one of my favorite polishes for lightening up or refreshing a mani. Here they are layered over a black creme, in front of their respective bottles:


Immediately you can see that, nope, they are totally different (well, to a nail polish addict; my boyfriend thought they were comparable). ChG is much more sheer than Orly, and Orly pretty much takes over the scene. (What an attention whore!)

Bottle shots; Orly has much larger chunks of glitter, it seems


And up close, you can really see the difference: ChG has a golden glow whereas Orly is all silver. I prefer Orly, but that's because I prefer silver; but both are pretty! Which do you like?

xoxo,
Amanda

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Lex Cosmetics Seashell

Hi ladies! Sorry for my lack of posting, I'm lazy lately! Today I have Lex Cosmetics Seashell, which is inspired by the inside of a conch shell: oil slicky. This is a blackened base with scattered, sparse holo and it's a beaut!

Flash

Low light
For some reason, this polish didn't play nice with my topcoat and the "tip wear" you see is actually shrinkage :( it wasn't noticeable in person though, so I wore it for a few days! This is two coats and it was really easy to apply. I love Lex's polishes and this one was amazing. I love the caps, especially. If I wasn't crap at nail art, I'd attempt the pattern!

xoxo,
Amanda

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Some Fall Hauls *pic heavy!*

Hey ladies... I know I've been a really irresponsible and unreliable blogger lately. I'm so busy between work and friends and boyfriend and tweeting the Crazy Cat Ladies that I have been neglecting my blog, I'm sorry. I plan to get back to it soon! Meaning... NOW! And when I come back, I come back in a big way. Here's a million recent haul quickie (hehe) swatches.

China Glaze BFF (someone on MUA included this as an EXTRA! fbasjbfjajkfhkj), Nicole by OPI Sensational Scarlet, piCture pOlish Sparkle, piCture pOlish Jealousy

China Glaze BFF, Nicole by OPI Sensational Scarlet, piCture pOlish Sparkle, piCture pOlish Jealousy; one coat each

Lex Cosmetics: Atlantic, Seashell, Sweetie Pie


Same order as above, one coat on Atlantic and Seashell, two on Sweetie Pie

Color Club: Otherworldly, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe

One coat each of Otherworldly, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe; Insiders tip: I ordered the latter two on Transdesign. They aren't listed as a collection, but you can find them alphabetically in their A-Z page... go forth and order, my fellow addicts!

Color Club Foil Me Once (I kinda love that name haha), Lumin-Icent (don't love that one), Perfect Mol-TEN

One coat each of Foil Me Once, Lumin-Icent, Perfect Mol-TEN

China Glaze: Ring in the Red, Tinseltown, CG in the City


Two coats each of Ring in the Red, Tinseltown, CG in the City (which, by the way, I thought I'd love and I don't)

Amour Black Glitter, New York Summer Multi-Glitter, China Glaze Snow Globe, China Glaze White Cap

Black Glitter (two coats on its own), Multi-Glitter over Lex Cosmetics Seashell, China Glaze Snow Globe over Lex Cosmetics Sweetie Pie, China Glaze White Cap over Color Club Otherworldly
I actually have gotten quite a few things since I took these pictures, including lots of swap goodies! I have Absolutely Alice coming my way soon which is exciting! Anyways, which ones do you guys want to see more of/full swatches?

xoxo,
Amanda

Sunday, October 16, 2011

China Glaze Haunting

Hi gals! I have one of China Glaze's Halloween polishes for you today, the only one I bought from this collection (yep, didn't even buy the glow in the dark one - gasp!). This is China Glaze Haunting, a black base with silver microglitter throughout.


I only took one picture because it kind of showed all I had to show for this polish. This is two coats, and cleanup was kind of difficult because it's not only black, but it's glittery too! It's pretty basic, and I felt like some of that pretty silver glitter disappeared in the base. I may thin it a little bit to make it a bit more jellyish, but we'll see. I think this polish is very Halloweeny, and a great way to wear a black polish without it being boring. What do you guys think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Cult Nails Let Me Fly + Color Club Covered in Diamonds

Hi! How are you all doing? I hope all is well with you guys :) Today's post is pretty quick because it's a lovely polish and I don't want to ruin it by talking too much! Here's two coats of Cult Nails Let Me Fly:

Yes, I cropped my pointer out. The cleanup was baaaaaad.
 Then, because I got bored, I added two coats of Color Club Covered in Diamonds...

In low lighting

Flash
... which made me realize I hate mylar flakies. These just looked like giant chunks of plastic on my nails and I wasn't a fan. So I promptly sent it to live with Nicole. Hopefully she can give it the love I just couldn't.

xoxo,
Amanda

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors

Hi ladies... sorry for my absence. I got sick with a cold, so I gave myself one day off. Then yesterday, tragedy hit when I got the worst sinus headache/tension migraine of my entire life. My poor boyfriend on the phone with me and I'm yelling at him that he's talking too loud and crying because the street lights were too bright... anyway, all of you migraine sufferers know what I'm talking about. Not fun. Then today I was working all day. So ANYWAY...I'm a bad blogger, and you get this random night post.

Today I bring you one of the elusive Wet n Wild On the Prowl polishes: Behind Closed Doors. This one was my real lemming of the collection, and I've heard it's dupey for a Deborah Lippmann polish but I'm not rich enough to buy that one to compare... sorry. Anyway, it's a black jelly base with small red microglitter and larger red hex glitter. It's a true stunner.



For this mani, I layered BCD over a black creme (to conserve BCD, of course) and then put two coats of BCD over it. I could have just done one coat, but it didn't apply very consistently (which you can still sort of tell in my pictures) and it was not my desired look at just one coat.

Overall, I loved this polish! You have to shake it up before you use it to get the full glitter effect, but it's awesome, and perfect for Halloween! What do you guys think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Monday, October 10, 2011

Orly Rock Solid

Hi ladies! Wanted to post today since I missed yesterday due to hangover haha. I'm feeling really tired and I caught a cold, so this will be short and sweet.

I posted about Orly Rock Solid last night on twitter, and I'm actually still wearing it today. The verdict: unimpressed. It's a nice enough polish, but it's not really that interesting. For a Mineral FX polish they're pricing higher, putting it in the category of Halley's Comet and the previous FX collection, it's disappointing. I'm okay with this as a few dollar polish, something like Finger Paints or Nina Ultra Pro, but not for Orly retailing at $9 a pop. Anyway... Rock Solid is the blackened gray or black base with sparse holo glitter (and I mean sparse, you'll see below).

Two coats and topcoat. Natural light.

Blurry to show the sparse glitter.
So it's not a bad polish; application was easy, it's opaque quickly, and dried pretty fast. But it's just kind of... boring. I don't know. I already put it up for swap so if you're interested, contact me on MakeupAlley as az270890.

xoxo,
Amanda

Saturday, October 8, 2011

OPIs for Sale!

Hi everyone, one of my good friend's salons is going out of business and she's selling her OPI overstock. Most of these are unused, and if they are unused it still appears full. Here's a list of what she has, please let me know (via comment, twitter: amanda_npe, email: az270890@yahoo.com) if you are interested in any of these or if you have any information on whether these would be HTF and worth any money for her. Price is $6 (or make an offer) plus $1.50 for shipping, additional bottles would be $0.25 more shipping each.
  • Niagra Falls for OPI
  • Girls Just Want to Play
  • Red Hot Gift
  • Basque in the Sun
  • Suzi Loves Sydney
  • Yes I Can Can
  • Quarter of a Cent-cherry
  • Vanilla-zuela
  • Conquistadorable Color
  • Party in My Cabana
  • Vould You Like a Lick-tenstein
  • Little Red Wagon
  • 25 Colorful Years
  • Bastille My Heart (x2)
  • Suzi Says Da!
  • Charge it in Milan
  • Nice Color Eh?
  • Cool in the Pool
  • Mediterranean Moonlight
  • Paint My Moji-toes Red
  • Keys to my Karma
  • Chop-sticking to my Story
  • O'Hare and Nails Look Great!
  • Wine Me & Dine Me
  • Breakfast in Bed
  • Down to my Last Penny
  • Have You Seen My Limo?
  • Eiffel for This Color
  • Chick Flick Cherry
  • All Lacquered Up (x2)
  • Ruble for Your Thoughts
  • Met on the Internet
  • Pretty at the Premiere
  • Call My M-agent-a
  • Seasons Screenings
  • Lunch at the Delhi
  • I've "Red" the Script
  • Did Someone Say Party?
  • A Oui Bit of Red
  • Tickle My France-y
  • Crepes Suziette
  • Bogota Blackberry (x2)
  • Red Hot Ayers Rock
  • St. Petersburgundy
  • Boris & Natasha
  • I'm Not Really a Waitress (x2)
  • Dutch Tulips
  • Baguette Me Not
  • Vodka & Caviar
  • Can You Tapas This?
xoxo,
Amanda

Orly Lemonade + $OPI Spark-tacular

Hi ladies! I'll be picking my giveaway winner soon! Thanks for everyone who entered :) I did this mani with my BFF on a Friday night. I had a tough week at work and needed to cheer myself up, so this mani is completely out of season and overly glittery but I. don't. care.

I used three coats of Orly Lemonade below to get it opaque. It was streaky, as most yellows are, but not difficult to work with. This is without any cleanup, so you can see it wasn't too hard to work with (and my painting skills are improving!). Then I added one coat of Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular for the glitter.



It reminded me a lot of a Deborah Lippmann polish, and I wanted to name it. So I'm naming this Happy Days Are Here Again :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Friday, October 7, 2011

A-England Lady of the Lake

Hello! I'm back, back again, Shady's back, tell a friend... sorry for the earworm. I had to! When it came time to go back to work, I needed a slow transition back from glitterbombs to work appropriate. My job doesn't have a work appropriate rule per se, but as someone's therapist I'd feel strange having super glitterbomb nails, especially since they usually think I'm in high school anyway... Okay, back on topic.

I decided to go for A-England Lady of the Lake for my back-to-work polish. It's a gorgeous deep purple with subtle holographic sparkle to it. Even without the sparkle, it'd be gorgeous but it felt a little rebellious to have some holo in there somewhere ;) Below is two easy coats, no topcoat yet (so shiny!).

Natural light


Flash
 Sorry for the lack of sunlight pictures lately. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much sun! I'm thinking of making a light box but those of you who talk to me on twitter might have caught on that I unfortunately still live at home so I'm working with one 14'x11' room, which is barely holding all my stuff in it anyway, nevermind a lightbox and good lighting. So for now, this is what you get :(

Also, excuse the messy cleanup, I think I was a little too excited about this one. Sigh.  I hope you liked Lady anyway!

xoxo,
Amanda

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Models Own Purple Poppy Updated

Hey, speedy post today. I didn't have any time to change manis this week because of work, so I wore Purple Poppy foreverrrr. I decided to add little dots with my Migi pens to spruce it up, but I wasn't overly impressed. I like the idea but the colors are very blah to me, but anyways... here's proof, I'm practicing my nail art!


xoxo,
Amanda

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

15 Facts Tag

Hey girls! I was recently tagged in that 15 random facts thing I'm sure you've seen around the blogs. I didn't do it then (I'm not sure why) but I'm doing it now to give you guys a glimpse into the world of moi. Also, I have no pink wednesday post so I felt guilty posting polish :/

1. What’s a nickname only your family calls you?I don't think it's that weird, except that lots of boys have this nickname too, but my dad and sister call me Manny. I'm not a Mandy, no matter how much I tried.

2. What’s a weird habit of yours?
I can't eat in the dark, except at movie theaters but I think that's because I have no choice. I also can't lay on my pillows I sleep on to watch TV, I have to put another pillow over them so they don't get warm because I like my pillows cold.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?
Hahahahaha I have phobias of everything. My mother-in-law-to-be-someday calls me Wanda Worrier. But when I was little, I had the best weird fears. One was glass eyes.

4. What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?
Really, anything with a vocal range that is out of my capability. Britney Spears, Rihanna, Katy Perry, etc. But right now, I'm really enjoying destroying the vocalizations of Adele, "Someone Like You".

5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
People who can't drive. Drive too slow, too fast, swerve all over, pass people for no reason, cut you off, switch lanes a lot, etc. Life is too short for me to worry about speeding to wherever I need to be, and generally I run into those people down the road anyway and they must feel stupid.

6. What’s one of your nervous habits?
I'm a reformed nail biter. I stopped biting, but I still sometimes put my teeth under my nail, sort of like you would do if you were cleaning under it? I'm sure it's to blame for my nails weakening/breaking so I'm trying to stop.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
I have a twin bed, still. There are no sides. Generally, though, if my boyfriend and I share it (yes, this does occur, two grown people sleeping in a freakin' twin...) I sleep on the right side, if you are looking at it from the foot of the bed.

8. What was your first stuffed animal and its name?
I'm not really sure what my first stuffed animal was, I never had a blankie or a toy I was really attached to. Except maybe my Gloworm, which I liked a lot for a period of time and is the only thing that I'm really conjuring as I think about this question.

9. What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?
I don't drink coffee, or soy, or latte, or whatever... I save myself a lot of money and I order nothing, or I order a baked good, but not really a drink.

10. What’s a beauty rule you preach, but never actually practice?
I try not to preach anything I don't do myself, and if I mention it I admit I don't practice it. The aforementioned bad habit might be one of them. I also don't moisturize my cuticles as much as I should, but I'm working on that (just bought Hoofer's Choice and we'll see how that goes).

11. Which way do you face in the shower?
In general, back to the water. But my stuff is to the left of the shower head, so I do have to face the other direction to grab things or wash my face, rinse, etc.

12. Do you have any weird body skills?
Ummm, nope. I am not very flexible. My jaw used to dislocate and crack a lot because it was misaligned, but when I got Invisalign (hey, there's a weird fact about me! I had Invisalign!) it fixed it and I don't notice the cracking much anymore.

13. What’s your favorite comfort food that’s “bad”, but you love to eat it anyway?
Chocolate, oh my God, chocolate. I eat it basically daily even though I try not to.

14. What’s a phrase or exclamation you always say?
"Oh Lord", "Oh my God", you know, things that could probably be offensive but I stupidly say them anyway.

15. Time to sleep – what are you actually wearing?
Usually a big t-shirt or if it's not long enough, I wear shorts. I really like the feeling of sheets against my feet and legs, so wearing socks or pants to bed isn't my favorite even in winter (but it's a necessary evil sometimes).

Anyways, kudos to you guys if you actually read this! I'm throwing in a bonus kitty picture to make it worth your time :)


Here's Princess, she's a long-hair Russian blue. Her eyes look sort of cross-eyed in this picture but I assure you, they are not in real life. She's very very fluffy, I think I got her when I was about 13 from an animal shelter and that was what originally drew my attention to her. Then, I played with her and was like okay let's do this and my dad was like, "are you sure we shouldn't look at other cats first to be sure?" and I was like nope, her. She might remember this, because she's definitely my cat, she likes me best and since she's mostly petted by me, her fur is so soft from not being touched a lot... and I'm rambling some more. Yikes.

xoxo,
Amanda

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Models Own Purple Poppy

Hi hi hiiiii, today's post I don't have much to say about, so let's jump right in. Warning: ultra-nubs from here on out because of my many breaks. Starting from scratch could be good... right?

Models Own is a British brand, but I bought this when they had their 50% off for 50,000 facebook fans. I'm so impressed with their cremes! Purple Poppy is a red-leaning purple, which means every picture below will look slightly pinker/redder than it actually is. Le sigh. Below is one coat without topcoat, yet it's lovely and shiny and good. It could have done with a second coat, but I was just so excited to have a polish that could look nice in one quick coat that I left it at that.



Flash, which makes me see how badly this polish goes with my skin tone... eeeesh
I actually got a few compliments on this, so I take that as a good sign! What do you guys think of this polish or my unfortunate nubs? I think this length is actually growing on me (no pun intended) but I'd like them a bit longer.

xoxo,
Amanda