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!!!

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

I have a bunch of cool stuff that I got today to share with you! Hot Topic had a bunch of makeup and nail polish on sale for $1.99. Now their makeup is pretty good so I snagged a few things. The thing I'm most excited about are the MAGNETIC NAIL POLISHES!!!! WOOO!! They are made by Color Club...so I'm pretty excited about that, and I got three colors; a grey, a red, and a blue. I will have pictures up of those soooooon!

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!

Nail Art Super Order!

I bought myself a present. I went to Bundle Monster and got the 25 piece stamping plates. A couple of them are going to be dupes for what I already have but a lot of it is new! It seems that I am on a nail stamping kick again. I get addicted to this stuff...but hey! You get to benefit. I promise I won't show you all the real janky manicures I do...like the one I have on right now...it's just awful.

I also went to Head2Toe and ordered some new polishes that I can use for stamping...and a couple that were just awesome. I know I've talked about this site before...but for any newbies, this is where I get all of my nail polish. They ship fast and everything is pretty cheap. $3 for China Glaze, Misa and Color Club...my favorite brands of polish. Orly is just $6. The Essie polishes are still $8 but there is really nothing they can do about that...it's expensive polish.

I will post an update when I get my packages. It's the first time I've ordered something to be sent to the new address so we'll see how it goes.

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!

Acronyms-a-Go-Go and a Love Letter

I'm amused by all the beauty acronyms that are used...so I have prepared three for you today. Today's looks come in the form of one of my Love Letters...this time to the Youtube makeup guru Sokolum79. As always, the link is in her name. Go check her out and subscribe to her Youtube channel. She creates some of the most colorful looks and I always learn something from her videos.

Learn something...steal something...whatever. I prefer to call it homage. Anyhow, my eyeshadow and nails were inspired by here newest tutorial, Pearlized Turquoise.

First up: NOTD

This isn't exactly like what she's wearing in her video...just similar. I used Sinful Colors, as you can plainly see. The base is #322, Let Me Go and the topcoat is #115, Pearl Harbor (a favorite). You can't see the turquoise glitter from the Pearl Harbor but the picture picks up the subtler effect; it looks like I sprinkled sugar on my nails. I love it...I want to lick them. It's frowned on in public FYI.

And the FOTD:

I had a tired. But here's what I used.

Wolfe Bro's metallic water activated color for a base.
Sugarpill's Poisoned Plum in the crease.
Makeup Forever Diamond Shadow #302 on the lid.
Wet n Wild Color Icon Palette: Blue Had Me At Hello...the dark blues mixed a bit also for the crease.
Cheeks: e.l.f. Studio Line blush in Peachy Keen (I looooove this blush! But more about that later.)
Lips: e.l.f. Minty Lip Gloss in Nashville
Plus my normal foundation/powder/eyeliner/mascara concoctions. You can find those listed in older posts.

Here's a close up of the EOTD (like how I worked that in there??):

So thus ends my Love Letter to Sokolum79! Please...go watch her videos and let me know what you think! I would love to hear what some of your favorite looks are.

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!

Question - comments needed!

Would you guys like to see picture tutorials for some of my make-up/nail looks? If there is enough interest, I will do them.

Let me know what you think!

NOTD - Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray

Oh boy, I really love this color. A customer commented on it while I was ringing her up..."It's so...so..." and as she searched for a word to describe it...I stared at it lovingly and just said. "Odd". And she agreed.

It's not quite a green/blue...like Misa's Dirty Sexy Money and it is definitely not gray as the name would have you believe. It's the perfect, dusky and dusty blue. Like...old corduroy.

These re-released Sally Hansen polishes are ridiculously expensive at around $8 a bottle so I only picked up the colors that I just HAD to have. It's definitely good polish...it lasts a long time and really makes my nails strong, so I shouldn't complain. I'm just cheap I guess. All around though, I would say that this one and Commander in Chic are must-haves. ( I can't believe that I didn't take a picture of Commander in Chic...it's my favorite taupe EVER...ah, next time. )

The end!

WOOHOO! 50 Followers!

Just minutes after my last pimping...I got the one follower I needed (pause to stare at weirdo loud trucks freaking me out down the street).

So! The Giveaway is on! You got a sneak peek at the mini-jellyfish in my last post post...and if you didn't...go read it!! He will be Item #1. Aw hell, I'll just put the picture up again.

The next four items will be some of my new (ok, and one old) favorite nail polishes.

From their Collection de France - Parlez-Vous O.P.I by (duh) O.P.I

From their brand spankin' (hehe I said spankin') new Hong Kong Collection - Bling Dynasty by O.P.I

Now for an old favorite. I had backups of this nail polish before backups were cool. I wore it almost religiously in high-school back when Sinful used those cheapo squat round bottles and this one didn't even have a name.

Show Me The Way by Sinful

And my newest favorite. I have TWO backups of this polish because it's just so freakin' awesome.

Mint Apple by Sinful

This is now the fourth bottle of this polish I have purchased. My first, the two backups (I think one is going to my sister though...) and the one for you guys. If I ever run out, I will seriously cry. This is even better than the Claire's Dream Catcher. Here's a swatch picture just for added awesomeness.

<3 !!! I considered photoshopping little hearts around this picture, but you get the idea.

Next up, the winner of this fabulous package will get 3 Glittersniffer pigments! Here is where I get to show a little love to my DIY girls. These are in the process of shipping so I am just going to provide the links to each shadow.

#1 Brooke - This shadow is named for one of the most badass mommas around. Go check out her Etsy Shop - BrookeVanGory Designs and show her some love on her blog - BrookeVanGory. Her pigment is a CRAZY acid green.

#2 Angry - Oh man...there are not enough numbers for me to count the ways I love Miss Angrypants. I want to squish her to pieces...although she'd probably give me the death look for saying that. We got to hang out last summer and the few days we had were totally not enough. Go check out her totally frigging awesome clothes at aNGrYGiRL Gear. Her pigment is blackest black with a splash of evil purple glitter. Totally her.

#3 Lexie - Let's talk about girls I wanna squish...Lexie makes the most awesomely rad jewelry ever. Check her out at Headless Tess DIY. Her pigment is a superbright shocking pink.


There may also be some other goodies in store...I might want to keep some of it a surprise.

And now for the rules.

1) You must be a follower of my blog.
2) Make a comment on this blog entry with your email address for contact purposes.  I promise I won't send you late night emails all hopped up on sugar.
3) Tell your friends! If you think they would be interested in hearing me ramble, have them follow too! Then come back and comment with their name and that you sent them! (Remember, I can't see anyone who isn't publicly following my blog, and thus can't verify it...so make sure you guys do it in public *snicker*.)
4) Follow me on Twitter...and make another comment saying so.
5) Become a fan of The Concertina Shop on Facebook! That gets you one more comment and thus one more entry!
6) This may be the most self serving of them all but hey...you don't ask for what you want in life, you don't get it right? Make a purchase from The Concertina Shop on Etsy and you get to make another comment! The best part about this is that everything is still 10% off until I hit 50 sales! (50 must be my magic number...)

Um, since this is my first giveaway...that's it. I'll be picking the winner using Random.org so we'll see how that works. That's a total of five entries possible...feel free to lace your comments with flattery. It won't help you win, but it gives me a warm fuzzy. The contest will run until March 31st. That's a Wednesday...it's the weekly equivalent to a nice even number.

I'm kinda nervous!!
The end!

Giveaway Sneak Peek!

Alright kids, I'm at 49 followers. 49!!!! I need one more bloody person to follow this blog.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the items I've already gotten together for this shindig!

Don't you just wanna pinch it's tentacles???

I've also gotten some nail polish goodies rounded up. There are some surprise goodies on the way too! So tell anyone you think would be interested in my teeny little blog and I will love you forever. I have thought about the level of narcissism this contest entails...asking for more followers and such. I've come to the conclusion that I just needed a milestone...I love everyone that reads this blog regardless. <3

Some housekeeping notes...

So, I hate to be elitist like this, especially since this is a fairly small blog, but I had to change the settings to allow only followers to comment. I'm tired of the spam. Nothing is worse than looking at my dashboard and seeing that there are comments there, getting all excited, and then realizing it's an ad for penis enlarger. Nothing. Not even dead puppies. (Ok, maybe dead puppies but you get the idea.) Anyhow, let me know if any of the changes cause any problems with regular commenting. You can send an email to concertina@vaccarino.com.

And now for some good news. Seeing as everyone else is doing Concertina Shop giveaways...I thought I would like to do one myself, however, I need a proper reason. As of today, I have 41 followers on this blog. If I make it to 50, I will do my own giveaway! There will be some goodies from The Concertina Shop, and since this blog is mostly about makeup and nail polish, I am going to cook up something in that vein as well. So get started pimping me out kids!

<3

Goldie Swatches Part 1 of 2

Hello kids. I have two blog posts prepared, which is quite unusual for me. I usually want to post something...and have nothing prepared. But whatever, more for you!

This here is a Goldie swatch picture extravaganza. Occasionally, after our sojourns to the gym, my BFF and I go to Marshall's to kill time and spend money.When I heard they sometimes had nail polish, these trips became more frequent.

 

Lo and behold, I found Goldie. I believe they were sold by Bath & Body Works, but feel free to correct me on this. The polishes came in this super cute box, 8 each. I bought this pack for myself and the other for my sister's birthday. None of them have proper names so I've been calling them odd things; don't mind when my mind goes all loopy. Here is the first half of my swatches. 

Puke Pink. This one was very quick and extremely dirty. I hate these kinds of colors. It's too...normal...for me. I only put this on because I wanted to swatch all of them; see what I go through in the name of blogging?? I did notice, however, that this color has a very fine micro shimmer/glitter to it. It was kinda pretty, but I shall probably relegate this to the charity bin or only use it under excessive Konading.

Like Magma. Another quick and dirty, although I did wear this one for a few days. I love this kind of in-your-face color. Bright and nasty, that's the way to go. This polish was astonishingly close to China Glaze's Japanese Koi, but without the matte-ish finish that comes with that polish's neon-ness.

HOLY CRAP! Yeah. I called this polish Holy Crap. You wanna know why? Because I was very surprised to find a holographic (the awesomeness of which you probably can not even see in this picture) in a $7 pack of no-name nail polish. A GOOD holo too. All crappily taken photos aside, I will definitely use this polish again, and again, and again. It's fabulous. This was three coats.

And now, here is my favorite out of this side of the pack.

Pepto Pink.  This color is so not me. I would never pick this off the shelf. Having worn this, and loved it as I did, still will probably never pick out a color such as this one. But man, did it look nice. I was even more surprised by how much I liked it on me than I was about that gold holo up there. I will most definitely wear this again. It's just super pretty.

Hope you enjoyed.
The end.

MAIL PRESENTS!!!

I love getting mail. Especially when it's full of stuff I've been waiting for, and this week I went a little internet-shopping happy. There is still more coming, but here are the presents I got from my mailman today.

First up is a super rad polymer clay necklace from Miss Destry of Pet Zombie Creations. Destry is one of my favorite music twin, Golden Girls obsession sharing, DIY bitches. Go check out her shop...there is a ton of awesome stuff in there! I have a few of her pieces and I wear them all the time.

 

My Zoya order!!! Yayyyy. I took advantage of their "spend over $20 and get two polishes free" Twitter deal last week and ordered these four colors. Left to right: 

Ali 

Paris (currently wearing)

Reece

Adina

I can't tell you how awesome these all are in person. Zoya has some of the most unique and beautiful polish colors I have ever seen. I will have swatches of all of these (plus the ones I already own) coming up in a future post. (I like to compartmentalize).

And last, but most certainly not least, my Glittersniffer haul. I have spoken time and time again to Lela's awesomeness. And this is just a very small sneak preview of the colors. I will have looks coming up soon. Many, many looks.

I ordered the four leftmost colors during her customer appreciation sale and she sent me the two on the right because she is so awesome. You might have to enlarge the picture to truly appreciate how cool the colors are. Left to right they are:

Button
Unicorn
Arjay
Jennifer Nazi (HOLY CRAP AWESOME)
Ruthless
Silk Sheets

PS - all of those freakin' awesome colors up there...NO BASE. Nothing. Not one little stinkin' thing but my arm skin. I seriously can't wait to smear these on my face.

The end.

Flaky Awesomeness Courtesy of Nfu-oh

Being a member of the MUA Nail Board is like being a junkie...with an awesome supply of temptation.

I submit for your approval...pretty pretty pictures (minus my favorite one because I went a little delete happy). Please don't mind Yorick, my cookie jar, he likes sparkly nail polish too.

After months of seeing these great manicures with awesome flaky glitter, I finally bought myself some of the Nfu-Oh polishes from FabulouStreet. I picked out (left to right) #52, #49 and the fabled #51. I was going to do swatches of them alone but I figured there are enough pictures around that you can look at. Instead, I tried to layer them over different colors than I had previously seen. The effect might be more subtle...but I already know that I will be getting more of these.

First up, #52 over an old Revlon Street Wear - Midnight. Midnight was my favorite rebel polish when I was a kid...it came out right around the time people were still shocked by blue nail polish. I've had the bottle ever since (we won't talk about how long) and it's still one of the best blues I've ever owned.

The #52 adds a slight sparkle to the otherwise frosty Midnight and if you look close you can see some of the green flaky.

Next, #51...as far as I can see the most coveted of all the Nfu-oh polishes.

 

This is over e.l.f.'s Royal Purple...that polish is a dollar on their site and is probably the best purple I own. I use it all the time because it flatters my skin tone so well. The #51 adds a blue cast to it that just makes it pop.

Alas, the star of my Three Polish Show #49, I somehow managed to delete pictures of. I layered it over Lubu Heels and oh man was it gorgeous. I literally did not stop staring at it for the week that it was on. The flakes shifted from green and turquoise all the way to gold, red and orange without missing a stop in between. The red glitter in the Lubu Heels added a subtle extra layer that was just so gorgeous. 

A note on the site...FabulouStreet was well, fabulous. The woman I spoke to was super nice and helpful. I also got my order very quickly. The only problem I had was sifting through the different polishes. I wish there were swatches shown with the bottles (they are there, just in a different part of the site) but really that boils down to my indecisiveness. There were so many choices...and since I was only getting three, I had to do a bit of legwork. All in all, that's not really a complaint so...

The end.

The Konad and the LIGHTNING!

Yeah...I didn't come up with the correlation between my favorite nail polish doohickey and Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! There is a blog out there called "Konad and Strife" which I thought was frigging hilarious and had to follow immediately. Sadly, the last post was in August of last year but there are still great entries to go through!

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my latest Konad creation. I got the two plates I was looking forward to and immediately needed to use them. The color combination was an idea from one of the Nail Boarders...although I don't remember which. When I posted this up there, I showed much love and adoration for their awesome idea.

I used:

Misa - I Will Survive

Color Club - Wild and Willing

Konad - Black Special Polish

Konad - Image Plate M64

As usual...excuse the mess. Even though I don't usually bother cleaning it up before I take my pictures, I doubly didn't want to with this...because I am a klutz. And I would have messed it up. And then I would have been pissed.

Not a lot of things in life make me angry. Fucked up nail polish is one of them.

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!