Wow!

Popping by quickly today to say: wow! Thank you guys! I'm up to almost 200 followers (193 at publish time) and I'm astonished. I know every blogger says this, but I never expected this many people to encounter, follow, and (hopefully) enjoy my blog. It means a lot to me that you all take the time to follow and comment, and I appreciate each and every one of you and your support.

I do read all my comments, but since blogger is blocked at work now, it's taking me extra time to reply, but I always will. I'm thinking of installing an alternate comment system to make replying and commenting easier.  If you have any questions or if you're following me and I haven't checked out your blog, please email me at az270890@yahoo.com. I love getting feedback, questions, and just talking to my readers, and I can still check my email at work ;) So please let me know what I'm doing right, what I could be doing better, questions you have, whatever it may be - but it's important to me that I'm always accessible to you guys because, after all, a dialogue with no audience is a monologue.

Again, thanks to all of you again, and another giveaway to show my gratitude is in the works. :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Cult Nails Awakening + China Glaze Snow Globe

Hey guys, I'm back again! Are you confused by my regular posting? I know, I know. I was a neglectful mom... er, blogger. But I'm trying to be good again :) Today I have two polishes: one I like and one I adore! See if you can figure out which is which (it's not hard if you pay attention at all :P)

Cult Nails Awakening is a gorgeous green leaning blue, or blue leaning green creme... I can never tell. I don't like labels! It applied easily in two coats, but it could have used a third if I was applying it solo. However, I never leave well enough alone...

So I added China Glaze Snow Globe, a perfect addition for the first of December! Which is perhaps one of my favorite glitters ever. It works with everything.  Yes, all these italics are necessary.

Snow Globe contains medium sized iridescent glitter which shows as different colors depending on the base color. I put two coats of Snow Globe over Awakening, and magic was made...

I love Snow Globe over dark colors, but I recently saw it over pastels and white (!!!) and I kind of love it that way too. Either way, I need another bottle (even though I'm sort of afraid since Steph told me her bottle dried up when she had it originally :( and I'd be so sadddd).

xoxo,
Amanda

Pink Wednesday: Nicole by OPI Wear Something Spar-Kylie

Hey everyone! Happy Hump Day, hope your week is going well! It's weird being back to work for a normal work week after Thanksgiving break, but in a good way I guess - I need to make that moolah! Anyway...
Today I have NOPI Wear Something Spar-Kylie from the Kardashian Kollection (ew, I hate when people change letters to look cutesy like that). This is a lovely, medium pink which leans a little orange/coral. I used two coats and it was pretty easy application. Removal, however, was a nightmare, as you can all probably imagine. The pictures below are before top coat; this one was a top coat eater so it needed a few to get rid of the grittiness, but I don't mind some grit so I left it at just one :)

So there you have it! A glitter... how unusual for me ;)

xoxo,
Amanda

My Camera is Suspected of Fowl Play...

... in the slaughtering of photography of Orly's Fowl Play.

(Yes, corniest title ever. You should know to expect these sorts of things from me by now!)

Anywho, I have some swatches of Fowl Play for you today... it didn't play nice with my camera. It just couldn't capture the depth and gorgeousness. FP is (for those of you who don't know and may or may not reside under a granite stone) a deep red-leaning purple with all sorts of fun stuff going on: glitter, small flakies, more glitter... *ahem* My swatches below are three coats. Lots of people complained this formula was tricky, mine wasn't bad at all! I think I get lucky with these things sometimes :)

Sorry for the shadow... it only shows up in pictures sometimes once they're on my camera and I don't want to edit it out and make it color inaccurate :P

So there you have it! I hope most of you have picked this up but if not, I noticed my Ulta has a spot for it in its core line, so maybe it's here to stay!

xoxo,
Amanda

Cult Nails Living Water

Hi ladies! My first real NOTD in what feels like forever... it's kind of strange to be posting nails again. What did you all think of BFF week?! I have some pretty talented, amazing blogger ladies in my life, right? I'm pretty blessed!

Today I have a Cult Nails polish that I received a while back during a promotion... I forget what it was. Living Water was one of the original nail polishes Maria made, and I loved it on other people but I don't love it on me. For some reason, it reads more vampy than I'd like it to and the glitter gets lost in translation... but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Below is two coats of Living Water, which is a very dark blue with lighter blue microglitter. These swatches are pre-topcoat to show you the true finish. Runty (my pointer) is making a guest appearance in the first picture so you can see just how short it is :(

Like I said, this is a gorgeous polish but on me it just gets lost IMO. Maybe you all like it on me more than I do; I'm my own worst critic! It's one I plan to hold on to and try again when I'm tanner, or thinner, or a little older, or in a certain mood... you never know when these hidden gems will suddenly strike you and look gorgeous!

xoxo,
Amanda

Adopt A Polish

Hi girls, today's post is a little different... I was contacted by Nikki at Adopt a Polish asking me to help bring awareness to this site. You may have seen similar information on other blogs, but the gist is they post polishes, or even families of polishes, up for adoption and you can submit an application to adopt them. It's a fun site where you can win some great polishes and have a little fun. Here's the press release if you're interested in more information:

WORLD’S FIRST NAIL POLISH ADOPTION AGENCY: PARENTS NEEDED 

Adoptapolish.org announces the world’s first adoption drive for in need nail polish, available for U.S. and Canadian applicants. Every day, thousands of nail polishes are abandoned or abused. They are not sticky or old, they are fine new polishes, stuck on a shelf because they are forgotten or out of season. All they desire is to be used, and maybe taken for a night on the town in return. 

“We have so many polishes who need a good family to take them in” said AdoptAPolish.org executive director Nikki Smith. “All it takes is filling out an application form describing how you can provide a better life for one of our in need nail polishes. We select the best application and take care of all the expenses, delivering your newly adopted polish directly to your door.” 

One current nail polish, Charleston, held back tears well describing his life, “I spent two years of my life stacked in a dark room crammed together with thousands of others just like me, hundreds pressing down on my shoulders at any given time. I’m a shimmer and I have never seen sunlight in my life. Oh and don’t get me started on CND Shellac, I just can’t keep going as long, why would any women want me” he continued. 

Please don’t let the agony go on any longer than it has to. The first round of adoptions closes December 31st. Apply to Adopt a Polish at http://www.adoptapolish.org/category/current-adoptions/ 

About Adopt a Polish:
Adoptapolish.org is a not-for-profit organization funded by the people at Nail Polish Canada. We are grateful they’ve spent the time and money to set us up, but we know they only did it to look like charitable people. They are jerks! All they care about is selling you things. This entire organization was set-up by them to manipulate you. Don’t worry about us being influenced by them, we cash their cheque, move on with our lives, and get back to saving lives. We would never compromise out ethics by telling you to shop now at http://www.NailPolishCanada.com and take advantage of free shipping over $29.

xoxo,
Amanda

BFF Week: Amanda of MaD Manis

Hi gals! It's my last BFF week post and I'm a bit sad. :( It was so nice to see some manis that people thought I would love (and I did!) and see how tight-knit the blogging community can be when we aren't competing. Speaking of competing, the last post is by yet another blogging Amanda... but I love her anyway. Started BFF week with an Amanda, ended with an Amanda, all hosted on a blog by Amanda... go figure.

Hello nail polish enthusiasts! Amanda is letting me invade her blog for the second time in a few weeks! She must really love me a lot :) Amanda is one of my very best blogging friends and when she asked me if I wanted to do a post for BFF week, I said "As long as I don't have to leap into your territory and do glitter!" (Not really). But seriously. I'm leaving the glitter to her because she's like Kesha and would probably throw it if she could (she DOES eat it....).

Today I have something similar to glitter, but not quite. It's China Glaze Snow Globe! I know you've probably all seen a million snow globe swatches but I haven't used it yet because I've been swamped with my 31-day challenge!

I put two coats over Revlon Perplex. I picked up Perplex on a whim last year when I saw it sitting all alone in a corner of Ulta. I was surprised no one had picked it up yet! Everyone was trying to get a hold of it, and little old me found it without even looking :) So I picked it up and took it home to join my little polish family.

Snow Globe is a flakey glitter goodness in a clear sparkly base. It's pretty much like spreading glue all over your nails so if you want this one to be glass smooth, you'll want to use a few coats of SV or Gelous. I don't mind a rough texture (as long as there's not shards of flakey particles sticking off my nails to snag on things) so I just used one coat of Seche Vite. Voila!

That's all! Thanks again Amanda for letting me invade your blog....again :) Hope you all have a fabulous week and remember everything that you're thankful for!

Amanda #2   


Thanks hun, great post! I have this polish myself and I adore it! Love love loveeee! 

xoxo,
Amanda

BFF Week: Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail

Hi all, I'm blessed enough to have ANOTHER guest post this week and another girl I'm thankful for. Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail is new to blogging, but has such a big heart and presence, especially on twitter. She's such a doll to talk to, so I highly suggest you go check her out! I'm excited to bring you this post on Black Friday because this is exactly the opposite, and that's a nice reprieve from the crazy holiday shoppers!

Hi everyone! It’s an honor to be able to do a guest post for the Nail Polish Enthusiast! Amanda is a great friend of mine, and her blog is one of my favorites so I hope that you all enjoy what I have for you today!

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely LOVE snow! I live in Cleveland, so we definitely get our fair share here. My favorite thing about the holidays is waking up in the morning to a fresh coat of white, sparkling snow on the ground. I decided to base my manicure today on that experience.

For a snow-inspired manicure, I knew that there was one polish that I absolutely HAD to use – Lynnderella Snow Angel, of course. Snow Angel is one of my favorite polishes that Lynn makes – by hand, might I add. What an amazing lady. Anyways, Snow Angel has small white square and hex glitter in a clear base.  I also added one of my favorite glitter polishes to add the sparkle, Cover Girl City Lights, an amazing micro holographic glitter in a clear base. Underneath it all, I used Essie Marshmallow, a sheer white.

This manicure has 7, count them SEVEN coats of nail polish! It’s probably the most coats I’ve ever used on a manicure before. I did two coats of Marshmallow, 2 coats of Snow Angel, 1 coat of City Lights, and 1 more coat of Snow Angel. I used a coat of Seche Vite on top, and I had no problems with dry time at all. In fact, I’ve had manicures with far less coats of polish have a hard time drying. They key here is that I used VERY THIN coats.

I just love how it turned out! So sparkly and ethereal, like a fresh bed of snow on the ground, untouched and perfect. All three polishes that I used in this manicure are sheer, so they were spectacular for layering. I am definitely going to do this again and again for the wintertime.

So here are the pics of my sparkling snow manicure! Don't forget to click on the photos to see the detail enlarged =)

These first three were all taken outside in natural light, to show the awesomeness of the glitter in Lynnderella Snow Angel.

The rest were taken indoors, to better show the holo sparkles lurking underneath.

Hope you all enjoyed and thanks so much for stopping by!

XOXO,

Jacqui =)

Thanks Jacqui! What a lovely polish, I may need to get my hands on this in addiction... ahem, addition, to the six other Lynnderellas I recently bought ;)

xoxo,

Amanda

BFF Week: Nicole of Nightly Nails

Happy Thanksgiving, American readers! Hopefully you're reading this while smelling some delicious food cooking... yum.... Today is another person I'm thankful for on this blogosphere, my good friend Nicole from Nightly Nails. Nicole is someone I was originally intimidated by; she's one of the original bloggers to me, but she never comes off that way. She's so happy to talk to you on twitter and be honest and helpful and sweet. Okay, I'm gushing, enough and onto Nicole's post!

Hi everyone! Amanda asked me to do a guest post for her, for her BFF week. *fangirls* Amanda is SUCH a sweetie! So I put on my thinking cap, but in the end it turned out to not be hard to come up with something awesome for her, since I know she's a glitter addict.

I recently got OPI Grape, Set, Match and Servin' Up Sparkle. I pulled this pair out and thought, well, Servin' Up Sparkle would make a great glittery tip for Grape, Set, Match. Right? Right!

Now, when I first saw pictures for this, I really wasn't that interested. I didn't think I absolutely needed Grape, Set, Match. It's pretty, but was it something I had to have? Probably not. So when I put it on, I was utterly astounded at how awesome it is. Let's see if I can describe it for you.

You know how China Glaze has the famous glass fleck finish? That's what this is, grape glass fleck goodness. This is a perfect mid toned purple jelly with glass fleck shimmer throughout. It has a blue flash. This is pretty opaque at three coats, too. After it dried, I dabbed a bit of Servin' Up Sparkle onto my tips and cleaned off the brush, and then dragged the glitter down my nail. I added a bit more at the tips for super sparkle effect. Servin' Up Sparkle is a clear based jelly with both small and large holographic glitter. The large pieces are hex shaped.

So, I hope this is suitably sparkly enough to grace Amanda's blog! Thank you Amanda, for asking me to be your guest. I hope you all enjoyed it!

This is, of course, perfect for my blog! Don't you all agree? Thanks Nicole!

xoxo,
Amanda 

BFF Week: Steph of Imperfectly Painted

Good morning or afternoon or whatever time it is as you read this! I have another one of my BFFs today for you: Steph from Imperfectly Painted. Steph is a shy but incredibly sweet girl; we talk just about every day and I cherish our time together... we even have nicknames, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you and I just like you too much. Anyway...

First off, I want to thank Amanda for letting me guest post on BFF week! Amanda and I have become good friends, and it means a lot to me that she chose me. One of the conversations we had recently along with some other bloggers was about the China Glaze OMG collection. I was able to get half the collection in 2009 before they acheived their HTF status. I'm kicking myself for not getting the other half then, but hindsight is always 20/20. I figured since it's BFF week it would be suitable to show you China Glaze BFF!

BFF

BFF is a medium pink linear holo.

One of the polishes Amanda mentioned she like was s China Glaze LOL, so I added it as an accent to my BFF manicure.


BFF + LOL

LOL is purple linear holo.

The cornball in me can't help but think that when you're with your BFFs you share many LOLs. I know corny, but true! I think this manicure is definitely fitting.  I hope you like this holo-rific post. Thanks Amanda! 

--

Imperfectly Painted

http://imperfectlypainted.blogspot.com

 

 Man, do my friends know me or what! Glitter and holo and purple all week and all the things and people I love; this is no exception. Thanks for this lovely post, Steph, and I'll forever be jealous of your OMG holos!

xoxo,

Amanda