China Glaze Salsa - The perfect red.

I love this color. It's the perfect, perfect red for my skin tone. The formula is wonderful...thin...but surprisingly opaque. It's older, I picked it up in a bargain bin...so I don't know how easy it is to find.

The thing that makes this color awesome is how it makes you feel. For some reason, red nail polish feels powerful. It's classic. For all of the weird colors and designs I wear regularly...simple red is something I need to remember to wear more often.

Picture credit: Sally's Beauty Supply website.

Trendsetting Snakes

Hello everybodies!! This week was present week. I got my taxes back...got a bonus for working for my company for so long...paid off some bills early so I had some extra money...so I've been rolling in it for a bit. That's how I was able to buy this computer so I could get back to blogging! I've also purchased an external hard drive and have taken on the arduous task of ripping all of my CDs to it so I can get rid of some of the STUFF I have accumulated over the last 31 years. This is the second time I've moved and it is getting to be a big pain in the butt. I bought a Kindle...so hopefully I won't accumulate as many books as I usually do when I'm living in a comfortable place. I'm systematically getting rid of the paperbacks that I don't need to keep in my personal library. I haven't given up on the printed word just yet...but seriously...nobody needs to KNOW that I read the ENTIRE Twilight Quadrilogy. *serious face*

Ok...enough jibberjabber. On to the goods. The nail polish presents.

First off...since I'm balls deep in Konading again...I decided to pick up the 25 pack of Bundle Monster plates that I've been seeing around. For $21.99 you get 25 plates that might not be as wonderful as the Konad brand but they certainly give you a giant variety (AND THEY HAVE SKULLS!!!!!!). The etchings aren't as deep, so I've been using a thicker polish but I experimented quite a bit last night and as long as you are patient, there are really some great designs...it was totally a worth it purchase. Shipping was reasonable and timely and the website is easy to use to boot.

I also mentioned in a previous post that I ordered from Head2Toe. I mainly got some stamping polishes but I got a couple that were just plain pretty. I will link to some other wonderful bloggers' pictures if I can find them. They are obviously their own work, and not mine...I am just linking to them for reference. These are some of the blogs I frequent and go to when I need to see what polishes look like so I can order them online. Or I just follow them and ogle nail polish...you know...so follow them!!

China Glaze Trendsetter - my picture is below.

China Glaze Adore

Color Club Nothing But Truffle
Orly Country Club Khaki
Orly Lollipop

As always, don't mind the mess...this was pre-stamping so I didn't do anything too neat. I love this color though...it's REALLY UGLY! but it's one of those ugly colors that are so pretty. Click on this picture and look at it closely because it's got these gold and bronze flakes all through it...and oddly enough it compliments my skin so well.

So, last night, on a random nail polish shopping trip to Walmart, I decided to try some of the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry...they run a little thicker than normal so I thought they might be good. I figured, I'd be "that guy" and return them if they didn't...but they were all beautiful. All of the colors I picked up made nice, crisp images. Here's the colors I tested:

Lively Lilac - a light purple
Lightening - yellow
Lickety Split Lime - lime, duh
Brisk Blue - turquoise
Chinna-Snap - deep red
Mint Sprint - not mint at all surprisingly, it's teal

I also picked up Hard to Get, a regular old Hard as Nails white polish because I forgot I had the Konad special white...and that streaks anyhow so screw it.

And now we have arrived at the Nail Stamping part of our blog post. Sorry if it's been a bit long winded...but I love Nail Polish Present time.

I used:
China Glaze Trendsetter - base
China Glaze Hi-Tek - stamping
Sally Hansen Lightening - stamping
Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime - Stamping
Bundle Monster plates BM-125 and BM-211

I used the snake skin pattern (with all three polishes mixed together)  on BM - 125 and the skull on BM-211. The skull didn't pick up terribly well, even when using the China Glaze metallic polish, but it ended up coming out kind of distressed looking and I like it. I did a few on each hand using the different polishes. Here's a better picture:

Ok! I think I've got that all out of my system. What do you guys think? Let me know if you would like to see something like this as a picture tutorial or video in the future.

The end!!!

Dirty, Sexy, Glitter!

Got your attention? Ok, good. Don't get all hot and bothered though...it's just more nail polish. Of course, if you're like me...nail polish is enough to get you hot an bothered, in which case...I'll give you a few minutes of alone time...

All done? Good.

Here's what I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money
China Glaze Millennium with Konad plate m63
Pure Ice Spitfire (pink glitter)
Wet & Wild Kaleidoscope (silver/holo glitter)
Seche Vite Fast Drying Topcoat

And look! I even cleaned up my cuticles a bit for ya!
Enjoy!

Good Morning Konad!

Hey guys! I have a little nail post for you today! There was a bit of time when I wasn't doing anything with my nails...but I've gotten back into it recently. Today I decided I was going to mess about with some of my Konading stuff...you will have to excuse the horrible execution. It looks cute...but if you look close...it's pretty messy.

Cleanup? What's that??

Anyhow, here's what I used:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Sinful Colors Soul Mate (bottle shown)
Konad Special Polish Black with plate m57
China Glaze Millennium with plate m66
Nubar Diamont Top Coat (I find, with the Konad polishes at least, that this one streaks the least.)

Let me know what you think!

NOTD - For Audry

An oldie...but definitely one of my favorites: China Glaze's For Audry. It's very hard to get a good picture of this color...it always comes out too green. It really is the perfect Tiffany Blue, and I think this photo caught it.

The backdrop is my shower curtain...I thought it matched quite well.

The End!

Valentimes!

This isn't really a Valentine's manicure...because I don't really go for that thing. I just can't be arsed to come up with looks for every single holiday. Really, I just felt like red glitter. I needed something warm because it's so bloody cold in NY right now!

I got this Wet n Wild polish in that skanky clearance bin in Walgreens. You know...the one everyone stares at you for rummaging around in. It's called Under Your Spell. It's a dark blackish brown with red shimmer. Unfortunately, it wasn't glittery enough for me...so I put a layer of Ruby Pumps on top.

Dear Ruby Pumps,
You suck so badly on your own, but on top of other polish...you make my life complete.
Love, Me.

Here's another shot to show the awesome sparkle:

Too pretty!

The end!

I've got the biggest Konads around...true story.

Forth day straight at the gym. My body should be comatose right now but I figured that since I had about a half hour before work claims my soul for the day...I'd post some of the Konadding I've been doing. Pardon if my brain seems a bit addled (like you aren't used to it). We've already gone over how much I love the name. Deep down, while I'm just about licking 30...I still act like I'm 12.

I only have two plates right now. M51 and M57. I have two more on the way from WowSoCool. I've ordered from them before and the shipping is always very quick and very cheap...plus they are always running a 30% off sale if you put either xsparkage or sayanythingbrooke in the cupon code box.

Picture time!

First off, we have Claire's Dream Catcher with a little bit of China Glaze's Wagon Trail (a polish I lovelovelove to wear all on it's own). I've heard that the Dream Catcher is a poor girl's Chanel Jade...but I wouldn't know. I'm too poor for that shit. (Last I heard, bottles were going for $150 on eBay.) I'm not usually one for flowers, but this was simple enough that I decided to give it a try.

Next up is Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes, a half moon manicure with Misa's I Will Survive and a bit of Konad with the black special polish. This manicure lasted me almost a week before it started to look a bit haggard. I'm not sure if it was the cocktail of top and base coats I used or not, but...I was tired of it by the time I took it off. As you can see from the polish spots all over my fingers (I swear it gets in the strangest places), I'm not a very neat Konader. I got the idea for the half moon manicure from Plasma Speedo's YouTube.  I recently found her channel because somebody posted it on the Nail Board (which I frequent, Concertina3) of Make Up Alley. I love that site so much. I pretty much just stick to the NB, with the occasional foray into the FOTD and Makeup boards. Everyone is so nice and helpful on there, even when I have stupid questions. It has definitely become my favorite porn site as of late.

Enough of my verbosity. Last picture.

This is Essie's Mesmerize (a new favorite methinks) and Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. I hate this one. I posted it on the NB and a lot of people said it looked good, but I can see all the tiny mess-ups and how uneven it is...and this is my GOOD hand! The other one looks like a real shit-show.

Pause for more coffee. Good lord I love my Keurig and my giant Guinness coffee mug.

I used the same cocktail on this last manicure as I did on the previous one - China Glaze's Strong Adhesion Base Coat, China Glaze's No-Chip Top Coat and Seche Vite, so we shall see how it lasts. Although, as soon as my new plates come in...I'm taking it off. It's kinda gonna be like that owl eating the Tootsie Pop...

The end.

Quickie Manicure - Glitter at Tiffanys

Here's a nice quickie manicure for you. I've been rolling this idea around my head for about a week now. The base is China Glaze's For Audrey and the glitter is Sinful's All About You.

For Audrey is such a pretty Tiffany blue color...and while it looks fabulous on it's own...I've always wanted to pair it with something cool but couldn't decide what. While I was in Vegas, I picked up All About You at their VASTLY superior Walgreens (along with a ton of other polishes...). Right from the get I knew that this was THE thing for my plain For Audrey manicure. I attempted to do a nice fade...but as this was my first try at anything such...I'm sure there is much room for improvement. Please excuse the polish on the sides of my nails...I don't usually bother to clean up because 1) it comes off in the shower with minimal effort on my part and 2) invariably, I fuck up the polish on my nails whenever I try get remover anywhere NEAR enough to clean it up.




Enjoy! As always, I love to hear comments and suggestions! Give me some good ideas to write about!!

The End!

How do I love the...let me count the Glaze...

Those of you that know me, know what undying love I hold in my little black heart for China Glaze nail polish.

I change my polish every few days.
I buy new colors almost weekly.
I follow them on Twitter (@ChinaGlaze)...and yes I do respond.
It is, so far, my favorite in color selection and formula.

I have tried a few different brands, the ones most commonly compared with China Glaze being O.P.I and Orly...and I like them enough, but I crave bright...weird...and anything but normal colors. China Glaze delivers. I am partial to their glitters because I am by no means a good manicurist. I paint outside the lines and hope that my topcoat will help peel the excess bits off by my next shower. Glitter polish is so forgiving...I want to hug it.

As far as the formulation goes, most of the time it sits right in the middle of the two aforementioned brands. O.P.I tends to be very thick...more than one coat often leads to bubbling, although this may just be my impatience. Orly is the opposite...it tends to be very thin, and if more than two coats are involved, I usually mess it up. China Glaze is just right. Two coats max (unless we are talking about Yell-O-Neil) that dry quickly, so there's less time for me to forget that my nails are wet and smear them all over the place.

Since there are quite a few beauty bloggers that talk about nail polish exclusively, I won't go into too much more detail. I just feel that if you have strong opinions, in this case my undying love, you should back them up. And so I have. At the end of the post, I will link some of my very favorite nail blogs...please check them out! These ladies are amazing and whenever something new comes out...I scour their pages for hours drooling, listing, and deciding.

On to the collection: (colors are listed left to right with collection info if I know it)


For Audrey - lovely light turquoise cream
Shower Together - deep turquoise cream - ecollection
Rodeo Fanatic - dark blue green shimmer (notice a trend?) - Rodeo Diva collection
Blk-Bila-Bong - black with teal glitter (no, no trend or anything) - Surf collection


Ruby Pumps - red with TONS of red glitter
Yell-O-Neil - bright yellow with glassy flecks (very sheer) - Surf collection
Treehugger - light green with light turquoise shimmer - ecollection
Watermelon Rind - a king of teal/forest green with green glitter - Summer Days collection


Wagon Trail - black with dark gold glitter - Rodeo Diva collection
VIII - very dark eggplant purple cream (looks almost black on) - X collection
Strong Adhesion Base Coat
No-Chip Top Coat - these two together makes your polish last at least a week

And the two newest members of my polish family:


Cords - grayish taupe shimmer - Retro Diva collection
Stroll - burgundy with red glitter and glass flecks - Retro Diva collection

I was going to save the next two photos for NOTD posts...but I figured, since they are both China Glaze, I would include them here.

This first one is Yell-O-Neil. I really want to love this polish. The color is fantastic...it's the most gorgeous yellow I've ever seen. The glass flecks in it catch the light and are just so pretty. The only problem I have with it is that it's so very sheer. This is three coats...and as you can see, it doesn't cover completely. I was considering trying a very opaque white or cream color underneath to see if that would help.

This here is Stroll. I don't usually go for the more normal colors, reds, plums, pinks...but I picked this one up on three previous trips (to the ONLY place in my area that sells China Glaze), so I decided to get it. I love it! This one also has little glassy flecks in it. I see many days of distraction in my future.


See? Didn't I tell you that I suck at doing my nails? Maybe next time I should clean them up before photographing them! (Nah, too lazy.)

I took a small break in the middle of writing this...so what do I do? I order more nailpolish. Yes, I am aware that I am sad. (But you want to know what I got don't you??? *wickedsmile*)

Lubu Heels
Shocking Pink
Secret Peri-Wink-Le
In The Lime Light

In the same order I also got some Color Club and some Misa polishes, so I will review these as well. Sometime soon I should also be getting the Zoya polishes I "won" in the Zoya 5000 Twitter giveaway. I will post about all of them when I get them!

The end.

Ok, I lied. It's not the end. Here are some of my favorite nail bloggers. Show them love!

Scrangie
Vampy Varnish
All Lacquered Up (wins the awesome name award!)