I'm a terrible, neglectful blogger

Hi girls! I'm so sorry for my absence. You've heard my runaround... grad school, boyfriend, job, internship, the whole bit. No excuses! Here's a post. First up, can I make it up to you with an INCREDIBLE giveaway? ThePolishAholic is having a blogiversary giveaway. Lots of stuff up for grabs, including Misa's new collection, the Beiber collection, and the whole OPI Texas collection. Go enter!

Okay, on to some nails. I haven't been doing my nails much lately, and even when I do I find that I'm not picking very blog-worthy colors. Maybe it's my subconscious preventing me from feeling disappointed with myself when I don't post... maybe I'm spending too much time thinking in psychological terms.

First up, this is Nox Twilight Poseidon. I got these from a lovely lady on MakeupAlley (if you're reading this, I still love you! thanks again!) and I am not disappointed. This is the first one I wore as a mani and I was impressed. It had great wear, even though the formula was a little runny. It was a nice robin's egg blue, but looked gray in some lighting. I find this season I've been trying lots of light blues, so maybe I'm making my own personal trend?

This one is OPI DS Reserve, a beautiful light pink holo that I had been avoiding because a) it wasn't sunny for holos and b) it was the DS color I liked least. But man, I regret that now. Beautiful! Loved every minute of it. This is after about two days of wear, so excuse the tip wear and cuticles.

Finally, some ELF polishes! I was scoping these out online and wanted to try this brand (big 3 free and only $1!). Luckily, Target started displaying them so I picked one up. This set was $4.99! All the colors are great but I'm especially enthusiastic about the light purple (creatively named Lilac). I'll let you know what I think once I try them out.

So, that's all she wrote for today! I also got the Zoya spring collection with their Women's Day promo, so I may show you guys that at some point, although I'm sure you're swatched out over those right now. I'm wearing Dannii and it's gorgeous. I thought it would be my favorite, but I'm really tempted to try Dove and Caitlin tonight...

xoxo,
Amanda

Some more excuses

Hi girls,

Just wanted to check in and say I'm alive. I've been working, interning, and schooling (learning?) a lot so life has been super busy, so I'm sorry the blog is suffering. The other reason I haven't been updating recently is that my nails just haven't been very inspired or inspiring lately. I've been picking mostly the "blah" colors from my unused bins and nothing has been thrilling enough that I urgently wanted to share it. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things but it's just been hectic, so my apologies for my absence and I'll be back as soon as I have something not snooze-worthy to show you guys.

xoxo,
Amanda

China Glaze Crackle!

Hello again! As you can see, I use the weekends to catch up and this long weekend was perfect because I got China Glaze Crackles in and I couldn't WAIT to show you guys! I swatched each shade (yes, I got all 6) on a nail wheel over two different colors to show some diversity of what you can do and I think I was inspired for my next mani!

First up are the three "basic" colors: white (Lightning Bolt), gray (Cracked Concrete - whoops, called it Cracked Pavement in my last post!), and black (Black Mesh). I decided to show these over colors to highlight what they can do. Here they are over Petites Figi (for you researchers or people who had to take a research class, you might notice I used a "convenience sample" of my revently used polishes for these swatches).

Secondly, I layered them all over Revlon Rock. (Sorry, the right side is coming out dark for some reason. It looks fine on my camera but on my computer they came out dark?)

Next I used the three colored crackles: pink (Broken Hearted), blue (Crushed Candy), and purple (Fault Line). The first picture shows them layered over Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go, a really nice, bright silver:

And in other strange things my computer is doing news, this picture is rotated and I can't get it back... mostly because Blogspot tilted it so I can't fix it! But anyway, here they are over Sinful Colors Show Me White.

So what do you guys think? I personally love them, but know they aren't for everybody or every setting. I'm going to wear them today to play around with and maybe when I'm in class but they will have to come off for work! Which ones did you like most, which color combinations worked best, and are you getting this collection?

xoxo,

Amanda

Past week of manis

Hi girls! Sorry I went another span without any posts. I figure you'd rather wait for the real thing than read excuses. Here's my past week of manis, starting with my Valentine's mani inspired by Danielle's Valentine's mani. This is Zoya Reece with Sinful Colors Show Me White, Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go!, and Zoya KI layered over each other on the accent fingers with Bundle Monster plate (I forget the number, but it's the three hearts!):

Next up is Color Club Gossip Column. This is about 12 hours of wear and there are huge chips all over. I forgot a picture earlier in the process, so unfortunately this is all I've got! Sorry. Formula was good on this and I loved the color, but wasn't impressed with the wear (obviously).

Next up I have two Milani Holos, Hi Def (purple) and Digital (pink). They were scattered, beautiful, pigmented holo and I adored them. 

Next was Petites Figi. I imagined from the bottle this was holo too, but instead I got metallic. Highly disappointed by that! It was pretty easy to use and lasted forever, but I didn't like the color on me so it didn't last long. Into the swap bin!

And finally, I got in my China Glaze Crackles (!!!!) and couldn't resist. This is Cracked Pavement over China Glaze Ahoy! which I forgot to take a picture of on its own. This was amazing all in all, even though I didn't expect to be layering over this color since it was beautiful on its own.

More crackles are in for the next post as I made some swatches, but I have to run for now! What did you guys think of my manis? My nails are naked right now, so perhaps I could use some advice for the next mani?

xoxo,
Amanda

Last week of manis!

Hi ladies, sorry for falling off the face of the earth! I'm back in my last semester of grad school which is crazy in itself, but my internship decided they'd like to hire me when I'm done, so I'm building up my case load gradually... meaning lots of paperwork and new clients to meet. Also, my fellowship started up at school again so I'm doing that two nights a week. So life has been a bit hectic and I've been doing lots of 10 hour days... yikes! Anyway, here's my manis from the last weekish, although for two whole days, I didn't wear any polish (GASP) - not even a top coat!

First up, Zoya Ki. I liked this color... didn't love it. It's a purple duochrome that flashes olive. I wore it for about a day and felt iffy about it, plus this is tipwear from wearing it literally about an hour, so I took it off pretty quickly. This is two coats:

I splurged at a beauty supply nearby and got myself 4 new Color Clubs. I love them... their formula, their cruelty-free-ness, their price. Everything. From left to right: Alias, Alter Ego, Magic Attraction, and Gossip Column (a color I've been craving for a long time now!)

Last Saturday at work (we're a former nail salon, with lots and lots of polishes to use!) I tried an OPI Dim Sum Plum from their not-too-distant Hong Kong collection. It's actually more purple in person but I couldn't get my camera to capture it. Another one I liked, didn't love. This is two coats plus OPI top coat.

Next, I had a couple days off from my professional life so I knew I could be a little crazy with my polish. Well, more than a little crazy, I suppose. I decided to do straight up Color Club Magic Attraction and the results were incredible. Three coats, not completely opaque but since it's nearly nude anyway you couldn't see VNL very easily, and it's a glitter bomb. But wait, not just any glitter bomb... a HOLO glitter bomb. It was enough to make me wear it two days and well worth the pain of a removal process. 

Finally, Zoya Reece. As you can see, I did a very sloppy clean up job for this picture. My excuse? This polish took FOREVER to dry. And I kept repeatedly smudging it... not just part of it, but the lower layer of polish would completely shift leaving wrinkles. Not okay. So this is about my third time painting them and I was thinking "If I don't take a picture of it looking like this, I'll never take a picture because I'm taking it off!" Hence, terrible application. This is two coats... but if you want to count all the previous coats, this is coat probably 10 and 11. Ugh. I decided to give it a chance and I'm currently wearing it with some Konad... a feat not yet featured on my blog! That's up for next post to see my Valentine's Day mani!

So what do you ladies think? Favorite and least favorite? Issues with polishes not drying and driving you nuts? Valentine's manis or plans?!

xoxo,
Amanda

Update

Hi everyone! No nails today but just wanted to confirm I'm alive and more nails are coming soon! This week has just been crazy since we got even more snow here in Massachusetts! lots of narrow roads and roofs collapsing so perhaps tomorrow you will see some new nails! :)

Xoxo,
Amanda

Claire's Poison Apple, in honor of my mom

Hi ladies, today I have a somewhat somber post as it's dedicated to my mother who passed away 8 years ago today from emphysema. But I don't want it to be depressing, so we're going to focus on the good things and the polish! Okay? Okay!

I picked Claire's Poison Apple out at the store not long ago because I heard it was a MAC Bad Fairy dupe. Since I can't afford MAC, nor do I really want to pay that much for polish, I thought it was worth a try. It was sitting in my unworns bin when I realized I wanted to do a special mani for my mom. Red was her favorite color, and I have a feeling she would have picked this color out herself for me to wear, so here we have it, Claire's Poison Apple:

This polish is a nice, glittery red-orange duochrome that I was at first afraid was a mistake. The first coat went on really yucky, and it came out looking like a sheer, reddish gray mess. But I decided to stick to it because if it looks like that in the bottle, there must be some way to make it look like that on my nail, right? Right! After about 3 coats it looked good, but I decided to do a fourth coat just to even out some bald spots and make sure it was even. I topped it with Seche Vite, and voila!

I hope my mom's happy with my choice, it seemed like a color she would've liked and I like it too. I feel like I need to personally rename it since "Poison Apple" as a name of a polish to remember your mom is a bit off-putting. So I'm renaming it for my own purposes to "Mom's Tulips", because tulip was her favorite flower. Hopefully I did a solid tribute to ya, mom!

What do you ladies think of "Mom's Tulips"? Do you have the MAC Bad Fairy, does it compare?

xoxo,

Amanda

China Glaze Virtual Violet (Tronica) & OPI Black Shatter

Hello there! Today I have another NOTD I wore from the China Glaze Tronica collection, Virtual Violet. I saw this in my unworn bin and wasn't immediately impressed; it wasn't my favorite of the collection. I thought "Well, I'm not really going anywhere, might as well get this one out of the way". Boy, was I wrong! Don't just a color by its bottle, ladies! I ended up loving this one. It showed the holo really well, even in normal lighting (which is perfect, since it's nonstop snow here in Massachusetts and natural light is out of the question). I also loved the color... so I ended up actually wearing it two days so I had a reason for someone else to see it. I used two coats (three if I did a shotty job applying on that finger) and no top coat.

With flash, to show some of the holo in the light.



 Well, right before I took it off, I decided to experiment with Black Shatter to see what it looks like over a holo polish. For some reason, it broke into very thin strips on every nail, despite different application styles. Maybe the holo polish has some quality that makes the Shatter do this, but I still thought it looked neat, although it really looked more black than anything so it's not a good idea if you want to show off a holo polish.



So that's it for tonight! I'll be posting my NOTD tomorrow since I have a snow day (my school canceled for tomorrow at noon today!) and maybe I'll even sneak a picture of the ridiculous amounts of snow we have here. It's about three feet right now, and we're getting almost another foot tonight!

xoxo,

Amanda

Poll and Award

Hi lovely ladies! I just noticed I was tagged for an award today, but first - I wanted to say hi to my ten followers! Almost a dozen people care enough about what I think to follow my blog and I'm so thankful! I hope it keeps growing, but I want to do a giveaway so I'm posting a poll at the top of my blog on the right. Please let me know your opinion and if you're following me, please say hi! I reply to every comment I get and I love to answer questions so don't be shy! :)

On to the award... the Blog with Substance Award! I was tagged by Danielle at Polish Obsessed, and if you don't already read her blog, I highly recommend you do so! She's thoughtful, honest, and thrifty, so she's a great lady to follow! Thanks for the tag, Danielle!

So on to the rules:

1. Link back to the giver - Danielle!

2. List five words to sum up my blogging philosophy: honest, fun, entertaining, interesting, and thoughtful.

3. Tag other bloggers with substance.

• Danielle, obviously.
• The Polishaholic
• The educated ladies over at Polish or Perish

Obviously, there are many more but I'm working 9-7 tomorrow, I didn't do any of my homework today, and I accidentally took an hour and a half detour with my best friend (hi Lindsey, if you're reading this!) in lieu of doing anything productive, so I have to go get some things done. Once again, thank you for reading, leave me a comment, and please vote in my poll! I have some other polls I'm planning to use after this one's over, so keep checking the poll section out.

xoxo,
Amanda

Three eh NOTDs

Hi ladies! Sorry for my three-day hiatus. I'm back in school now (last semester of grad school! woohoo!) but that means my time has been severely limited. I'll post as much as I can, but my goal is 2-3 posts per week at the moment. However, I'll try to have several NOTDs/hauls for each week, and crunch them into those 2-3 posts. So hopefully you won't lose quality, just quantity...

Anyway, these are three of my NOTDs for last week. The first up is Misa, Glitz, Glamour, Smile for the Camera.

This was my favorite of the three. I applied it in a bit of a hurry, but the color was pretty: a deep, royal purple with some shimmer in it to make it interesting. I really love Misa polishes! This is about 2 coats I believe plus top coat.

Next I decided to do Zoya Veruschka, with Seche Vite on top to de-mattefy. This color is gorgeous and I loved it, but for Zoya saying they're the "longest lasting" polish out there, I was surprised how quickly I chipped. This flaked off in entire strips, much like glitter usually does for me. Next time, maybe I need to try it with a sticky base coat. Still beautiful though!

Meant to show the shimmeryness, but instead also showcases my bad clean up job... yikes.

Finally, we have Revlon Rock, a $1 polish I found at Big Lots. I had high hopes for this purple but was sadly disappointed. Let me give you the pros and cons. Pros: it looked like a pretty color in the bottle, it was $1. Cons: watery, runny formula; pooled at my cuticles; weird color on the nail - looked black and gray half the time; terrible application, bald spots even after 3 or 4 coats; not only chipped easily, but entire pieces in the middle of my nail scraped off. (That's the reason you're getting a rare, elusive look at my right hand - the left hand was in bad shape after less than 24 hours of wear!)

What do you think? Do you own any of these colors? Any you think I should give a second chance before they go in my swap pile?

xoxo,

Amanda