OPI Sand-erella

Hello jerkfaces... just kidding. Just seeing who is reading this. If you're reading this, you're no jerkface! Today's post is very near and dear to me, because it features a linear holo - and one I grabbed at STEAL of a price. (Remember my OPI haul of 85 bottles for $50? Yeah, it was in there.) I didn't even know about Sand-erella until this haul but it's definitely the gem of that whole polish hauling extravaganza.

So, basics: Sand-erella, three coats, kind of sheer, builds up well, glorious linear holo, pale purple. Top coat added, did not dull.

In the artificial light with none shining directly on it, no flash. Good shot of the color of the polish.

 Then, BAM, flash!

Pros: everything. Cons: my bottle was only about 1/2 full (see, I'm an optimist) and I'm hoarding it in case there is ever an apocalypse and I actually use an entire bottle of polish (has never happened, except with top coat).

More cons: CHINA GLAZE AND OPI Y U NO MAKE MOAR LINEAR HOLOS?

xoxo,
Amanda

Amanda Does Fauxnad

Hi all! I know a whilleeeee ago I asked you all what you'd like to see more of, and the resounding answer was nail art and stamping. I've slacked on that, but this mani reminded me why STAMPING IS AWESOME AND YELLING ON THE INTERNET IS NOT. Sorry for your little virtual eardrums.

My base color was two coats of Orly Frisky which I snatched up on clearance at Ulta recently. My nails are little nubbins here which always means my cleanup process suffers... sorry. I just hate to look at them so much I avoid thorough cleanup, I guess ;) Anyway, so, yeah... Orly Frisky. A lovely blue creme which is sooooo much more mint green than it shows up here.

Then I thought, "Oh! My readers! They want stamping!" and so I found the single Bundle Monster plate sitting within reach - BM210. (hey, how did he get out of his dungeon?!) I used my favorite design from the plate and Icing Chrome Teal and voila! My favorite mani of the longest time was born. (it's a newborn here, that's why the cleanup is so messy. see how I made it work?)

xoxo,
Amanda

Thank Blue to my Lovely Readers ;)

Hello there... *sheepish*. I know, I know. I've been MIA a lot lately. So much going on in my personal life, blah blah blah. Onto the polish and I won't bore you with the asinine details of my existence.

Anyway, this mani is sort of an homage to all my readers and followers. Despite my often prolonged absences recently, my followers have been increasing! Hello of you out there, and thank you for being my inspiration again.

I started off with Ulta Alter Ego. I definitely thought this was green, I don't know why. This is clearly a blue metallic polish and it was super easy to work with. Here's two coats and top coat.

Now, once I realized it was, in fact, blue, I decided it needed some freshening up, so I added some of my favorite stuff... glitter! And thus, my Lynnderella Thank Blue! mani came to be.

I used two coats of Thank Blue! and it was blingtastic. The metallic and glitter combo was perfect (IMO) and I was in love with this mani... however, I'm also a Lynnderella addict (evidence? See my last ten posts and the percentage of which contain Lynnderella - they are my antidepressant).

Just for good measure, I wanted to show you all the bottle from which Thank Blue came. You can really see all this polish has to offer in this shot!

Anyways, this mani can be summed up in one word: Sexual. Amanda knows what I mean.

xoxo,
Amanda

Sparkle Sunday: Wet n Wild Sugar Coat + Some Magic

Hello there! How's everyone doing? As I write this, I'm waiting for my nails to dry since I've smudged and redone them about three times now. Sighhhh, nail blogger problems! It seems like every time I paint my nails, everyone calls or texts me, I have tons of doors to open, my bed needs to be made, etc.! 

Anywho, today I have a lovely polish I bought from Steph's blog sale (I've been blog sale hoarding lately). I got lots of goodies from her, so it's kind of surprising that the light pink is the one I picked, but I digress! You'll see the rest soon! (Hint: one of them is what I'm waiting for to dry ... that was an awkward sentence. Sorry.)

This mani was what I wore for my friend Cath's birthday at Hibachi. I wanted something fun and pretty, so I put on Wet n Wild Megalast Sugar Coat. This is a sheer-ish light pink, which built up decently. Below is three coats and there's lots of VNL but I don't care because I had bigger plans for it ;) (Ignore the poor cleanup on my pinky, I forget that it has a side sometimes...)

Then I added Lynnderella's One Nutty Fruitcake (oh, me and my multicolored glitters...) which is a mix of basically every color glitter except silver in a million shapes and sizes. Basically, it's pure love! I added two coats over Sugar Coat and this magic happened:

Pre-topcoat

With topcoat

With topcoat

Ahhh, do you hear that? Birds singing, angels getting their wings, miracles happening... no? Just me living in glitterland?

xoxo,
Amanda

Nfu Oh 63

Hi gals! I have a very special polish for you all today, a Nfu Oh I got from Jacqui's blog sale! I don't have too much to say since the pictures speak for themselves! This is Nfu Oh 63, which is the nude colored holographic one. I used two thicker coats and still had some bald spots which weren't very noticeable (even in pictures). These pictures are without topcoat yet, but I did add it and didn't notice it dulled the effect.

Sigh... I need to wear this again when I'm not sporting nubs :(

xoxo,
Amanda

Coming soon to a glitter addict near you...

Hi, quick announcement and sneak peek!

By popular request (meaning, like, two of my followers on twitter and myself) I'm going to update you all with my rainbow glitter collection! This will affectionately be called Sparkle Saturday (or Sunday, depending when I get to posting it next weekend). I have a bottle shot of one of my lovelies, which I picked up at The Icing. Nevermind the rainbow glitter, I would have bought it just for its name: Birthday Beyotch.

Anywho, be on the look out for those! I'm just waiting on one coming in the mail and then I can start photographing! Let me know: should I just do bottle shots, swatches on a nail wheel, or swatches over black or white? Also, anybody have any guesses on exactly how many bottles of rainbow glitter I'll be showing you?

xoxo,
Amanda

Pink Wednesday; Vidanail Sugar Peach

Happy Pink Wednesday! Today's post is an old NOTD using this polish I got on Amazon.com. The brand is produced in Korea (I believe, it's an Asian country but don't quote me on Korea...) but sold from California. It was $2.99 with free shipping, so I bought this and a purple one! Here's one coat of Vidanail Sugar Peach:

Upon closer inspection, I really should have done two coats, but one did just fine to the naked eye. As you can see, Sugar Peach is a pale peach-pink creme. The formula was good, although I should mention that it didn't smell B3F. I've been really into colors like this lately, and this was no exception! Shiny, cheap, good formula, cute writing on the bottle - I'm sold! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Chick Nail Polish Gr8 Gray Owl + Lynnderella Happy Holo-daze!

Hey gals. I'm showing you a brand that's fairly new to me that I ordered from online: Chick Nail Polish. I'm a sucker for grays, so I'm showing you the gray polish, which is called Gr8 Gray Owl (although I don't know the reason for the Gr8 part?) Anyway, here's two coats of it alone:

And then I added two generous coats of Lynnderella Happy Holo-Daze! on top for some sparkle, and wore this for a Christmas mani :) (Yikes, I am REALLY far behind...)

And there you have it! I love my Lynnderellas like children. What do you guys think?

xoxo,
Amanda

My New Year's Eve Mani

Hey guys! New computer is here and I'm back to blogging! Weeeee! Also, I've noticed my follower count is increasing steadily, so I want to say hi to all my new followers and thank you for suggesting my blog, adding me to your blogroll, or whatever you're doing so your friends are finding out about me :)

I feel so behind, but this is what I wore on New Year's Eve. It's basically The Polishaholic's Flakiegasm :) (Although I swear, before I even saw her swatches, I thought of it!) ;)

Anywho, so this is Sinful Colors black creme (I don't know the actual name, but you all know what I mean) with the Finger Paints flakies layered on top, although I forget what order I went in. I know I put Twisted on top because that one is my favorite :)

Artifical lighting

Up close to show the beauty, not just my cuticles' state of dishonor

More artificial lighting, boo!

Beautiful, no? It went really well to be a subtle pop of color with the LBD I wore :) Thoughts?

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Seven

Day seven! Last day of our discussions! I really liked this series, I can see why Steph does this frequently. It's fun to get different perspectives. I'll be picking some random commenters today or tomorrow, so make sure I can find a way to contact you (although I know many of you on twitter!)

Last question: if you had your own nail polish line, what would it be like? Have you thought of names? What types of polishes you'd have, what naming scheme you'd use, etc.?

I've joking come up with a few nail polish lines. I've thought up Super Dupe-r which would basically be a line of HTF dupes, definitely starting with the OMGs haha! I also thought of a line of crackles called Laughter, which would all be colors named for expressions: Laugh Lines, Crack a Smile, etc. - but the crackle trend has died and so this idea is more of a funny thought now. :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Six

Eeeek, Friday the 13th! Hope you all have a safe day ;) I'm not gonna lie, I'm slightly superstitious, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Alright, we're almost done with our discussion week! I hope you guys are enjoying it!

If you blog, what do you like best about it? If you don't blog, what keeps you from doing it?

Since I do blog (duh), I'd have to say the people are my favorite part. I'd have my collection regardless, but I love showing you guys and getting reactions, and just getting to know you all on a personal level. It makes me feel really connected (and also, not so crazy for having so many polishes).

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Five

Hellooooooooooooo! I'm back again, and I'm not running out of topics, surprisingly. I hope you all enjoy hearing each other's responses. I can't wait to pick some of you to win some fun stuff - I feel like Santa! Since I can't upload pictures, I can't show you what I have in store, but it's free and a surprise, which is sometimes better than knowing the prize ;)

So, today I want to know: what's your ultimate lemming/what are your ultimate lemmings?

I've been dying to get my hands on some of the OMG collection, I have BFF and TMI but I'd love LOL, TTYL, FYI, and you all know the "Amanda" colors by now - anything purple, blue, pink.. keep me away from taupes, beiges, yellows, etc. ;)

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Four

Hey, you guys sick of this yet? I hope not! I think it's kind of fun, actually! I miss posting NOTDs, though. I'll be back at the end of this series regardless of what I have to do!

Today's pondering: have you ever won any giveaways? What did you win? Have you ever had your heart set on winning a giveaway, only to have loved and lost?

I've won once, through Mommy Does Her Nails, and got a bottle of Zoya Noel! There have been quite a few giveaways I've hoped to win, mostly for the OMG! collection. I've loved and lost, but it's made me a stronger blogger (or possibly weaker, because sometimes out of disappointment I'll allow myself to indulge, and then I'm poorer, too...)

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Three

Hello again :) How's your week going so far? It's Tuesday, so it's almost hump day. Steph isn't having her Talk It Out Tuesday this week - but go check her out since she's my inspiration for this week. Love you Steph!

Today I want to know: what is your favorite and least favorite polish type and why? Jelly, holographic, glitter, duo/multichrome, creme, shimmer, metallic, frost, etc.

My favorite: any guesses? Come on, you should know this by now ;) It's a two way tie for linear holo and glitter. I love my work inappropriates! My least favorite is duo/multichrome, which might come as a shock to some readers, but isn't totally uncommon among nail polish fans, I've found.

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day Two

Hi all, back with some more opinion questions for you. Today I'm wondering: what's your go-to or favorite polish to wear? I know we all have our treasures (OMG collection, for example) but we don't wear those often to conserve them (or at least I don't). But what are your favorites that you wear often?

This is a tough question for me, since I won't let myself re-wear polishes until all my untrieds are gone (unless it's a color I need for nail art or an ombre, marble, etc.). I'd have to say, though, in general, I wear a lot of light pinks or purples. I usually find myself reaching for those, so I'd call that my go-to polish.

xoxo,
Amanda

Let's Discuss Week: Day One

Hi everyone! While I'm on (forced) hiatus due to crappy computer crapping out on me technical difficulties, I decided now is a good time to hear from you guys. Steph does this on Tuesdays, so I'm taking a page out of her book for a little while since I don't want you guys to think I've deserted you! (I have a tendency to stop doing things if I get out of the habit, so I want to keep myself in the zone, too!)

Bonus: I'm going to be giving away prizes to random commenters this week, so make sure you leave contact information if I can't find it from your GFC info page.

Today's question is: what are the classics to you? That is, what are polishes you think pretty much everyone in this community knows and loves?

For me, I think My Private Jet is one pretty much everyone in this community knows, and even recognizes by the acronym MPJ. Which ones do you think are classics? Which are lesser known but you think are still groundbreaking and should be better known?

xoxo,
Amanda

It's Worse Than We Thought

Words you don't want to hear from a tech guy: "You see these? Your motherboard is fried."

xoxo,
Amanda

Computer Update

Hi all! My computer has gone from bad to worse. Now it won't even turn on! I'm taking it tomorrow to get it looked at, which will hopefully provide some low-cost answers. In the meantime, yesterday was my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! Wooohooo! I didn't ever think I'd be blogging for this long or have this many readers, so thank you for all your support. I have a giveaway planned, I'm just waiting on one more thing to come in :)

xoxo,
Amanda

OPI Haul Part Two: The HTFs

Hello again! Today I have the second half of my OPI haul (well, really third if you count the unlabeled bottles). You guys better realize that I love you a lot. My PC is still broken, but I managed to upload these pictures to blogger, then go back on my laptop (where I am now) to type the rest of the post. That's dedication, folks. And it's alllllll for you ;)

This is a smaller group because they're much more special polishes. All of these bottles are discontinued, hard to find, or valuable in some way. A lot of them aren't exactly my cup of tea, but a few (namely the last one) will be in my stash forever!

New England Nutmeg, Glamor & Glitz, Whole Lotta Seoul

Skinny Dip'n in Lake Michigan, Loyalty Islands Lilac, At Your Quebec and Call

(The order of these may be off since I didn't label the picture in any way and I'm going from the bottles and comparing to the picture... and, frankly, these all look pretty similar) Mat-adore Red, Edin-burgundy, Marooned on the Subway

Vampire State Building, 20 Candles on My Cake, God Save the Queen's Nails

Budapest Paprika, Changing of the Garnet, 3 Plums I Win!

Black Tie Optional, Glacier Bay Blues (which was one of the unlabeled bottles, too), Movin' Out

And the crown jewel (in my opinion):

OPI Sand-erella!!

Look at that holo goodness! 

These were some good finds! I plan to keep some of them, we'll see if the rest stay in my stash for a rainy day or go to a new home. Any you guys want to see? Any lemmings of yours?

xoxo,
Amanda

Of Course

So, as always happens once I'm back to blogging regularly, something comes up. This time, though, it's my computer's fault. The graphic/video card or my monitor is going, so every so often it starts having these thick wavy lines (think of when a TV show is going into a dream sequence...) and it's impossible to type or even see what's going on. I haven't been able to finish typing my HTF post, and my pictures are on my PC. I have my laptop, but it's mostly for work (they paid half) so I don't want to start putting blog pictures on it right now. *sigh* We'll see when I'm able to figure out the problem and fix it!

xoxo,
Amanda

OPI Haul Part One

Hi girls, gonna get to the point quick today because I'm writing this live and I have to go to work in 40 minutes. Eeek!

So I only did bottle shots for these. If you'd like swatches of certain colors, leave them in the comments. Also, some of these will end up being for sale here. I'll let you guys know when that happens, but if a certain color interests you please email me and I can let you know if it will be for sale.

Now, on to the awkward class photos...

Ms. Neutral's Class: Top: Alpine Snow, Cream of Crete, Ti-tan Your Toga, Van-couvered in Snow, Calling All Goddesses, Galapa-ghost
Bottom: Casa Blanca, Amazing Lazing Lilac, Will You Mari-achi Me?, Bare it in Trafalgar Square, Mod Hatter, Pistol Packin' Pink, You Cannoli Imagine, Venus di Violet

Ms. Outlier's Class: Top: Polar Bare, Royal Flush Blush, Argenteeny Pinkini, Aphrodite's Pink Nightie, Blushingham Palace, Basque in the Sun
Bottom: Tangerini Bikini, Niagara Falls for OPI, Mamma Mia, Mauving to Manitoba, Los Cabos Coral, Lighten Up You're Two Pence, Rent, Coral Reef (HOLO!!)

Ms. Redorange's Class: Top: Nice Hand...Great Nails, Atomic Orange, Apricotcha Cheating, That's an "EL" of a Color!, Cara Mia Crimson, Friar, Friar, Pants on Fire
Bottom: Magnifico Mexico, Double Decker Red, London Bridge is Falling Down, Red Red Rhine, O'Hare & Nails Look Great!, Vould  U Like a Lick-tenstein?, Nice Color Eh?, Man of La Mancha

Ms. Purplepink's class: Top: Kimono'ver Here, Fee Fi Fo Plum, You Ottaware Purple, Yukon Do it!, Fee Fi Fo Plum (again)
Bottom: Can You Dig It?, Bogota Blackberry, ChicaGo Get a Manicure, Purple-opolis, Outback Aprodisiac, My Auntie Drinks Chianti

So here you go, these are the "less HTF" ones. Coming up next are the HTF/VHTF ones :) Which of these are your favorites? Which do you want to see swatches of?

xoxo,
Amanda

Mystery OPIs

Hi all! How's 2012 going so far? I'm off to a great start! Lots of you heard on twitter that this lady was getting rid of her old OPIs from her salon... So, of course, I scooped it up even though it was a blind deal (I had no idea what any of them were, although she assured me there would not be many, if any, duplicates). Here's what I got:

Not too shabby, right?! Over the next couple days, I'll be showing you all this haul up close. For today, I have the bottles that were unlabeled. I'm hoping some of you guys might know the names of these, perhaps you can help me out! There are about ten, so here's the nail wheel and the individual swatches and bottle shots will be after the jump!

The polishes in question, all at 2 coats

New Year's Resolutions

Hi all! Happy 2012! How did you all celebrate? I had friends over my house for appetizers and drinks and then we went out. I'm not one for resolutions, but there are quite a few things I hope to accomplish: blogging more frequently, eating healthier, setting better limits at work, moving out, and paying off as much of my student loans as humanly possible.

Anywho, I'll hopefully do some nail blogging today/tomorrow and have posts for the week for you! What are your resolutions/hopes for 2012?

xoxo,
Amanda