Sheer Mani? Let us evaluate.

This is totally not me but I was lusting after Essie's Ballet Slippers at the drug store the other day and though that rather than spending, I'll shop my stash!

I ended up with Essie's Vanity Fairest on my nails.

It did NOT help my Ballet Slippers craving. The sheer polish was three coats, and bubbled in some places. It didn't dry fast at all(I smudged it and took it off promptly) and it looked bad on. Plus, some brush pieces (you'll notice on my pinky nail) embedded itself in my polish. What?!

Anyway, so this mani sucked. I don't mind the sheer nail thing but three NON-DRYING coats isn't worth it. Catch you another time sheer mani!

Oh the other hand (PUN!), I did sport a french manicure all week. I was pretty different for me.

The tips were freestyled (!!) China Glaze's White on White and the top coat was China Glaze's Diva Bride. I quite enjoyed wearing this since it didn't wear out (or didn't appear to) as fast as a regular mani. I'd probably do this again if I know my week is too busy to take care of my nails.

Hmm, what else?

A painting taking shape?

A smug Billie watching over me?

Billie says: have a great week meoow!

Effects?! Yes sir!

I bet you can't tell what color of nail polish I have under CND's Effects in Copper Pearl. That's how good the CND's Effects polishes are. The glittery topcoat is so densely packed (but clear!) that you only need one coat for a full on "effects" look.

See below for evidence:

Above with no flash, below with flash.

I'm kind of surprised they called it Copper Pearl. Even in the bottle, you can kind of tell that it's a bit more leaning towards a red. Nevertheless, it's pretty stunning. The pink polish is Snog by Butter London. Any excuse to wear that polish, I use.

Deborah Lippmann is doing a new thing

Well sort of.

Because I can't remember the last time I've seen a dark green like this.

This is Deborah Lippmann's Billionaire and it is beautiful. Sorry, my pictures are horrid. But only because I'm getting a hang of the new lighting. The next few posts will have decent enough pictures.

With flash to show the green:

What the polish actually looks like:

Like how many times do you see a dark green creme that glows from within? I firmly believe only the Lippmann can do it. I don't know what it is really, so I must conclude that it has to be her formula. This is two coats (with Seche Vite), and as usual, it dried incredibly fast.

While this isn't necessarily a polish for the neutral friendly, it is still quite tame. It isn't bright, still qualifies as vampy, and looks black but not quite. Which, in my opinion, makes it more work appropriate than, say, something like purple. I wore it to work and well... nobody noticed! Except my cousin (she works with me) who basically said she didn't like it. Oh well! You can't please everyone (and besides, why would you want to when it comes to nails).

Anyway, bottom line, this is one for the shelf. Pick it up if you can - I definitely do not regret buying it.

System break down

My system has broken down. Because there is so little sunlight now in the mornings (and at night), I am not able to take decent pictures of my nails. You'll see what I mean in the next couple of posts. Unfortunately, that's the only time that I'm able to take pictures and do my nails. So, I think I'll have to manoeuvre some kind of lightbox system for picture taking. We'll see.

I picked up Malvala's Silk nail polish partly because it was only $1 like Pitchpin but also because I thought it might be a darker neutral than Deborah Lippmann's Naked. It definitely is, and its formula is just as lovely as Naked.

See what I mean by the lighting issues? It's not good. But ya get the picture - nude polish.

I also did way too much nail polish haulage. But that also means more swatchage for you!

I'm so excited about these CND Effects! They look amazing on the nail - there is a post coming up soon for Copper Pearl!

My day is going by in a haze. I made a Lipton Sidekick for lunch and put three cups of water instead of 1 1/2. My noodles were already in the water so I proceeded to ladle out the excess water. Man, I'm lame.

Edit to add: MY BAD. I also burned/melted my MARGARINE plastic cover on the stovetop. KLASSY.

The struggles aren't in vain

Boy oh boy, I'm having a rough go.

I'm so grateful to the wonderful people in my life for supporting me.

Let me come right out and say it - weaning off anti-depressants is not easy. It's draining, frustrating, exhausting, you sweat a lot and you feel like shit. I'm extremely lucky that some people understand the effects. Hugs to yall. I know this isn't beauty/nail polish related but there are other of you out there that love makeup/nail polish, I'm sure of it. You will get through it!

Meanwhile, I picked up this Malvala polish called Pitchpin for $1 at Lawton's. The name Malvala totally reminds me of a character in Asterix called Falbala ...  Anyone? Ah, the damnedness of being French! Nobody ever catches my references!
 
I quite like the mini bottles. I never ever use up a whole bottle of polish so might as well buy some for cheaper that have less in them eh? And the quality of the polish is quite good as well. I remember Lisa Eldridge wearing a Malvala polish in one of her Youtube video - hence why I bought mine.

Cute right? The color is most similar to my last two fingers in the last picture. It's more bronzey than orange really. It seems like it would be a great color for a night out.

Picture of my current favorite mug:

Goodnight! I shall be back with Malvala and CND!

Hawaiian Orchid by OPI plus random spamfest of pictures!

I'm assuming the makers of OPI were thinking of this when they made this polish:

Because basically, all the orchids that came up in my Google search were fuchsia colored.

I actually quite like this polish. I love the pink - it has a blue/purple flash in it that I couldn't capture because apparently, there is no more daylight when I wake up in the mornings. This is three thin coats of the polish. It dried reasonably fast and lasted 3 days without chips on me. For you soft pink lovers, this is for you.

The other day, I was in such a crabby mood that my boyfriend basically ordered me to take a walk and bring the camera. The result was a better mood and pictures!

Yup, these are pretty lame. But it's okay because it was just for the fun of it. But I also haven't used Photoshop or edited them in any way. That probably would've helped.

Also, I'm painting now. I used to be decent as a teen but totally stopped painting when I moved out because I didn't want to bring all my supplies with me to school. I'm still not happy with the colorful one, at all. Hopefully, the painting falls into place.

The other one is finished (not like in the picture), and is now hanging in my bedroom. And I'm quite happy with it! Oops, my slipper is in the picture. Sorry!

I'm off for a little day of adventure. Some traveling, some chimney sweeping and horse races! Should be pretty exciting!

Nina Ultra Pro Take 2: Royal Purple

I have had this polish in my stash of untried for months. I basically only picked it up because it was something like $2 at Sally's and, well, $2 polish usually does it for me. Even if purple is never my first pick.

This was a true surprise. I expected this to be super boring duochromy looking at it in the bottle but it's really nice! This is three thin coats of the polish.

I feel like I've grown bored of blue/purple and pink/blue thing. But duochrome is making a comeback in my nail polish tastes. And glitter as well. This means DANGER.

Pretty eh?

I think this polish may be discontinued though. I'm not sure since I'm in Canada - the Sallys here is weird.

Billie is bathing herself, in her own cat way, as I write this. She says hellos. 

Fall is a-coming

As yes fall, my favorite season. Sure, summer is nice but it is nothing compared to the changing color of leaves, the crunchy noise when you walk in them, the smell of the air in the morning, and, most importantly, my birthday. I love fall.

However, weirdly enough, I'm not a huge fan of "fall colors" in makeup, clothes or nail polish. I get bored of them as soon as I see the magazines with the "jewel tones" section. Barf. Still, I though it seasonal and kind of cool to review another fall polish for Joe Fresh called Pumpkin.

This is two coats of the polish. It is much murkier and yellow toned than in the pictures. However many times I changed the settings to my camera, changed the position of my hand or window I was taking my pictures at - nada, it would still picture as a bright orange. Oh well.

At the bottom of the bottle in this picture, the murky orange color is what this nail polish truly looks like.

No complaints about this polish. It applied well, wasn't streaky, and dare I say, is a very original color. Well done Joe Fresh! - pretty much, as usual at this point. But work on those names please!

Now, nail art - I'm interested. Any suggestions as to where I should start? I don't like rhinestones and Hello Kitty. But anything else and I'm game! Lay-em on me!

I'm up way too late at the moment (painting my nails, go figure) so bedtime for me. Billie is even sleeping - if she's sleeping I HAVE to sleep or else she wakes up again and runs around and makes noise. I gots to hurry!

Below Deck, please.

Lemme tell you, this week has been hell. The only good thing about this week will be that I can wear jeans to work tomorrow.

But at the same time, I think I learned something this week. Things are only as bad as you make them out to be. Even if I had a crap week, looking back on it, I was angry at really silly things. Like my lack of moolah at the moment,  my completely unfulfilling job that makes the moolah not worth it, the cat worries (Billie is getting skinny!!! AHHHHH) and friend drama - in the end, I can only change what I think of these things and how I deal with them. What's the point in dealing with difficult things in a difficult way - better to take things with a grain of salt no? Besides, I'm lucky in a lot of ways - I have first world problems syndrome bigtime. I'm a stressed person by nature I think and I need to learn how to breeeeaaathe.

Blog face back on. 

So today, I will show you the exceptional regularness that is China Glaze's Below Deck. I was so pissed when I got this in the mail because I had also ordered, at the same time, freaking Essie Merino Cool which looks like its doppelganger. FML.

HOWEVER, Below Deck dried WAY darker than it looks in the bottle so it may not be a dupe. We'll see because I'll be posting a comparison soon.

It's pretty. Nothing unique or unseen. People couldn't decide if it was gray or purple. Sometimes I wonder if everyone around is colorblind. I think it's a taupe/mauve. Right?

The wear time suuuucked on this one - one day gave me major chippies. 

Aren't my cuticles doing so much better!? Be warned though, this picture was taken before the start of the week. Stress = cuticle picking/damage. I can't help it! But I do my best for you, moisturizing profusely, faithful 19 readers.

On another note, I'm not doing a "What's in Your Bag" post anytime soon since I'll probably get my legs shoved into a meat grinder à la LipstickRules. How lame people are nowadays eh? Geesh.