Hi guys! I hope you had a great weekend and start to the week! My husband and I took a quick drive to the mountains on Sunday afternoon. I needed to pick up some postcards for the latest round of Reddit Gift exchanges, and we wanted to see some of the fall foliage. He had a blast driving my car (as I kept telling him to slow down)! Then the past two nights we watched the Cubs beat the Cardinals (GO CUBS GO!). Pretty awesome start to the week!
In August, four indie makers (Digital Nails, Indigo Bananas, Literary Lacquer, and Octopus Party Nail Lacquer) teamed up for the Crème à la Mode box, a new collaboration centered around creams. Creams can be a rarity with indie makers, and I'm not entirely sure why. I love a good cream polish! As soon as I heard about the quarterly box, I knew I'd be purchasing it. Today, I want to share the polish from Indigo Bananas.
Hi guys! Last night was the season premier of Supernatural! I'm still catching up. I've got seven episodes of season nine to finish, and then season ten, but I'm still super excited! I just can't believe I waited so long to watch it! I was always scared it would be too scary for me (I'm a big ol' chicken), but other than the first season, it's not been too bad.
In celebration of last night's premier, I want to share a polish from Frenzy Polish's TV Frenzy collection - Winchester!
Hi guys! I hope you had a great weekend! It didn't rain the entire weekend here!! It did rain insanely hard for most of Saturday, but the sandbag in front of the garage worked like a charm! Sunday was cloudy and it drizzled a lot, but it wasn't a bad day. I'll share a little more about my weekend at the end of the post, but for now... let's get to the polish!
During the July 4th sale, I picked up quite a few Azature polishes for my birthday, and one of them was Opal Diamond. All of the swatches that I could find online showed it as a pretty pinkish light gray polish, and I knew it would be something unique for my collection. I'm not sure if the formula changed or what, but when I got the polishes, I noticed that my Opal Diamond didn't look anything like the bottles that I saw online.
Happy Friday! I'm so glad it's the weekend. I've been waiting for this day since... oh, say Monday! I don't even care that the weekend is going to be a complete washout due to Hurricane Joaquin. I'm just praying that my garage doesn't flood too much. My husband moved some sandbags out in front of it. When he went out and checked it this morning after a night of rain, he came in saying "There's not as much as I was expecting".... so fingers crossed!
Today, I've got the second polish from the Unicorn Cahoots collaboration between Ellagee and Digital Nails. Yesterday, I shared "Sir Twinkle Toes" from Ellagee, and now it's time to share "Unicorn Soup" from Digital Nails.
Hi guys! A few months ago, two of my favorite indie makers, Ellagee and Digital Nails, released a collaboration box. Their collab boxes never disappoint, and this was one was no different. The theme was unicorns, so it was a complete must-buy for me. Today, I'm going to share the polish from Ellagee with you.
Happy New Doctor Who Day!! It's the best day of the year! I've been eagerly awaiting the new season since Christmas! And it's finally here!!!!
In celebration of this wonderful day, I'm going to share some of my favorite Doctor Who themed polishes! Doctor Who inspired polishes are what got me into indies when I first got into polish!
Yay! It's Friday!! I'm soooooo glad! This week has been so long with both me and my husband sick with whatever this crap is that's going around. We're on our 2nd big box of Mucinex with no end in sight! At least I can take it fairly easy this weekend. My only plans are watching the season premier of DOCTOR WHO on Saturday!!!!! I cannot wait!!!!!!!
Today, I want to share a polish from Azature with you. I'm sure you've heard of Azature, the maker of one of the most expensive nail polishes created. Since not everyone can be millionaires, Azature also created a line of polishes that can make you feel like you are. I'd previously picked up a bottle of Azature Black from a blog sales, and have been lusting over the swatches of several others. Over the 4th of July weekend, Azature had an amazing sale, and I simply could not pass it up. I called it an early birthday part to myself. One of the polishes that I picked up was Azature White.
Hi guys! I hope you all are doing great! Sorry for no posts last week... I ended up catching a cold or something, and spent the week in a cold medicine fog. I'm doing much better this week!
Today I want to share Philly Loves Lacquer's contribution to the February Beauty Quartet Box. I know it's been awhile since it came out, but the latest Beauty Quartet box launches today so I thought it would be a good time to share a polish from a previous box!
Hi guys! Yay, it's Friday!! And if you live in the US, then you've got a long weekend coming up! Today I have the final polish that I picked up from the Definitely Not Cute collection from Digital Nails.
Hi guys! I'm still feeling quite fatigued, and still haven't narrowed down exactly why, so it's going to be a super quick post again today. I've got another polish from the Definitely Not Cute collection from Digital Nails to share with you today.
The nail polish community, especially the indie polish community, has had a rough week. Thanks to a bad seed, indie nail polish has been drawn to the forefront of several viral news sites. As I feared, there is a lot of misconceptions being fueled in the comments of these posts, and there is trepidation about indies in general right now. I've been wearing indies almost from the time that I started getting into nail polish in 2012. I like mainstream polishes too, but there's just something about the level of customer service you get from almost all indie makers. Most of them are active in fan groups of their brands, and they put everything they have into making sure their customers are happy!
I've joined with other bloggers to share some indie love. I'm going to share a couple of my favorite indies. This is by no means a complete list, but just a small showcase of some of my favorites! Not all of them are currently available, but I've linked each shop (as well as my review) for you.
Hi guys! Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've been insanely tired when I've gotten home from work. I'm still suffering from fatigue (and I wish I could figure out why!), so this is going to be a pretty short and sweet post. But I really wanted to share another polish from the Definitely Not Cute collection from Digital Nails with you!
Hi guys! I hope you're having a great Friday! I'm still over here fuming about of my blog being singled out by a bunch of bullies (you can read all about it here if you missed my post on Tuesday). I don't get mad very often, but when I do, it seriously takes me awhile to get it out of my system! I had a small victory when I was successful in having the bullying post removed from Live Journal since they were using my photos without permission.
At the end of June, Raph from Digital Nails launched the Definitely Not Cute collection. This collection is a seven polish set that was inspired by "Bee and Puppycat." What is Bee and Puppycat you ask? It's an animated series of shorts about a 20-something girl who can't seem to keep a job and her strange new pet. I will warn you, it's freaking addictive. I've become obsessed with it. Sadly, there are only a handful of episodes but they are awesome!! You can watch the episodes here!
I picked up four of the polishes from the collection, and over the new few posts I will be sharing them with you! The first polish that I want to share is "Use The Sword AS A SWORD."
Today, I've got a slightly different post, and I'll warn you now that it's gonna be be text heavy. There might be a little rambling, and I'm sorry, but I'm trying to not edit my thoughts much on this subject. I want to talk about bullying... mainly cyberbullying.
You see, this morning I woke up to an email box absolutely full of emails and comment alerts. My little blog doesn't get that much traffic, so I was a little shocked by the sheer number of messages. I quickly glanced at my stats pages on Blogger, and saw that I was getting a lot of traffic from a Russian Live Journal page (I'm assuming that it was Russian since that's where the bulk of the traffic was coming from). I had to get to work, so I didn't think anything of it. When I took a break, I started to read the emails and comments, and my heart just started breaking. The things that people were saying were so mean... asking me if I knew how to do proper clean-up, why do I bother taking pictures of polishes when my nails are so bad, that I should stop painting my nails (something that I love) because I shouldn't draw attention to them.
I took a look at the Live Journal page, and it was basically an article that crucified my blog. There was picture after picture, taken from my blog, with increasingly disparaging remarks. Worse than the article itself were the comments from their readers... comments saying that they thought my nails were toenails at first... that I must be poor if I can't afford a proper manicure, yet I can afford expensive polish - what a paradox!
I was so hurt; I sat at my desk and cried. I deleted the emails, deleted all the rude comments, and I might have deleted the entire blog if it hadn't for the wonderful ladies in Hobby Polish Bloggers. I vented there, and the comments of support really did make a world of difference (not to mention some very creative ideas of what they can do with their opinions). Over the course of the day, I went from sad to just mad. Didn't anyone teach these people that if they can't say something nice, they shouldn't say anything at all? DIDN'T THEY FREAKING WATCH BAMBI?
I had enough bullying when I was a kid. I was the shy kid, the smart kid, and worst of all, the fat kid. I heard the comments said behind my back. I acted like they didn't bother me, but God knows that they did. Thank God for my friends is about all I can say about that time. They took the time to see past the shyness and insecurities to get to know the real me. It wasn't until I got to college that I was able to break out of that self-imposed prison of shyness and found my voice.
As bad as it was... we were kids. And let's face it, kids can be dicks sometimes. But we grow up, right? Apparently not. For whatever reason, these women (and maybe men) have nothing better to do with their time than gossip about lil ol' me. You know what, FINE, GO AHEAD! I won't let you hurt me any more.
I'm going to continue to post my nails. I am proud of my nails, even those "terrible" photos from when I first started blogging (and even before that when I was a microblogger on Facebook and Instagram). They show me how far I've come ... with my nails, my photography, even my writing. So...
If I want to color outside of the lines a little, so be it!
If I have a rough day when I'm filing at work and break all my nails down, oh well you might be seeing some nubs.
If the nubs bother me, and I want to pop on some fakies and go with that, that's fine too.
If my nails are uneven, I'm sorry, but that's freaking life.
And it's my life, and polishing my nails is something that I love, and it's something that I truly love sharing. I love helping people discover a new polish that they fall in love with. I love getting emails asking me for tips to stop biting their nails. I love the interaction with other bloggers.
I just want to see the bullying stopped. It's not just me that gets bullied. I want to stop seeing the "Eeewww" comments on Instagram. I want to stop seeing the "WTF was she thinking?" when a talented nail artist posts creative and outside of the box designs. If I see these comments on my blog, they'll be deleted. If I see them on fellow bloggers Instagram, Facebook pages, or blogs, I'll report them.
Remember.... If you can't say anything nice... just STFU!
Hi guys! I am soooo glad it's Friday! My husband and I have been watching Deep Space Nine, and we're coming to up to the end of the series. I think we have like 5 more episodes left. I didn't watch it when it originally aired, but I'm really enjoying it. I always hate the ending of series... it's so bittersweet. I don't know about you, but I tend to grow to care about the characters!
Today, I've got Quasar from Nerd Lacquer for you which was part of the Spaaaaace collection. I picked this up in the one of the more recent restocks.
Hi guys! I hope you had a great weekend, and a fabulous start to the week. At least it's no longer Monday!
In May, Pahlish launched Through the Looking Glass collection - a collection based on Alice in Wonderland. I only picked up one from the collection, despite them having the most adorable custom labels. The collection was heavy on the pastels, and for some reason I just wasn't feeling in a pastel mood. But aren't these labels so cute?!
Hi guys! I recently participated in my first RedditGift exchange. I'd been wanting to join, but kept missing the deadlines, but when I saw that one of them this round was Nail Polish, I knew that I had to join in! I've been seriously stalking the gallery page to see what my giftee says about her gift!
So a few months ago, a certain ugly dress swept the internet. Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with with debates over its color - blue & black or white & gold. I personally saw it both colors, and that drove me crazy!
As all of the craziness was going on, Raph from Digital Nails created two polishes that resembled the dress. She'd initially made them just for herself, but shared swatches of them in a fan group, and most of the members wanted to buy them! She ended up mixing up a batch of each color, and I was lucky enough to snag them both. Today, I'm going to share the white/gold version of the polish.
Hi guys! I hope you had a great weekend! We went to see the new Mission: Impossible movie, and then since I was able to get today and tomorrow off work, we headed down to see my husband's family. Gotta love looooong weekends!
Today, I have a polish from Pahlish's Wood Between the Worlds collection from last year that was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia.
Hi guys! One of the questions that I get asked the most when people find out how many nail polishes I have in my collection, is how do I pick one to wear. Most of the times I pick my nail polish using my spreadsheet and a random number generator! You know me... I am not one to stick to the rules of wearing things in the "right" season!
Today I want to share a polish from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer's 2013 holiday collection - Newborn Solstice Sun, made to celebrate Yule.
Hi guys! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was great! On Saturday, I hit the local farmer's market, and picked up fresh veggies for the week, and then later braved the traffic to go to Trader Joe's. I love shopping there, but I really wish they'd build another one here. I just cannot deal with the weekend traffic on the road that it's on; it's absolutely terrible! I can't imagine what possessed city planners to allow basically all new construction of shopping centers to be built on one road.
Today I have a polish from last year's Emily's Imagination Collection from Colors by Llarowe. When I saw that one of the polishes was named "That Bloo is Mine!" After all, how could I resist when I have a sweet lil' kitty named Mr. Bloo! Now I know many people have Instagram pages for their pets. I'm just too lazy to try to keep things separate, so he just has hashtag - #mrbloo_oninstagram. My new kitten, Penny, has one too - #penny_kitty!
Hi guys! Things with the new kitten, Penny, are going well! Our other kitty, Mr. Bloo, has finally stopped hissing at her, and she's gotten brave enough to stand up to him. They are actually playing together as I type this. I'm a big ol' sap and I started tearing up because it was my hope that she'd breath some new life into his routine.
Hi guys! Hope you're having a great week! I've been quite busy ... we got another kitten over the weekend! I have been asking for one for oh... about 2 years now, and he finally said yes! She's about 12-13 weeks, silvery black, and absolutely full of energy! I've posted a few photos of her on Instagram. We were a little worried about how Mr. Bloo would handle the new kitten since he's 13 years old, and hasn't been around another cat in 2 years. We couldn't do the recommended introduction because our house is too small to isolate her. There was some growling and hissing on his part the first day, but we're on the 3rd day, and he's starting to tolerate her better. They might not be best friends, but I think she'll be good for him. Someone that he can show the ropes to!
I'm lucky that at my job I can wear whatever polish I want; it's the one benefit of only have 3 people in my office. The downside is that my boss thinks I'm insane with how much nail polish I own! It's kind of funny... when I worked in call centers, my nails were too short for me to use polish (it was when I was still biting them). Now that I've bitten by the nail polish bug, I have no one to talk to about it. Not being able to talk about polish with others was one reason that I started this blog!
Many jobs require work-appropriate polishes, and today, I've got one of my favorites for you!
Hi guys! I hope you're having a great Saturday! I'm just vegging out and watching Supernatural. I'm a big chicken, and I can only watch it during the day when someone else in the house with me. It makes for something interesting to watch while I'm editing photos!
It's time for another Hobby Polish Bloggers link-up! This month's theme is "Starry Night Sky," and each blogger puts their own unique twist on the theme! As soon as the theme was announced I knew immediately what I was going to do! I had just received a bottle of My Ten Friend's Starry Night that I'd bought in a blog sale, and well, when I hear "Starry Night" I think of the Vincent Van Gogh painting. I thought it would be perfect!
Starry Night starts with a gorgeous shimmer blue base, and is jam packed with blue, black, yellow and white glitters, and black microglitters.
I wish I'd been able to snag this one from a restock when My Ten Friends was still in business. Since I got this one from a blog sale, the quality wasn't that great. It was very thick and gloopy. I had to add quite a bit of thinner to it, just to be able to use it. I used two thick coats for these photos; I couldn't have used thin coats if I'd wanted to! I've bought quite a few polishes from blog sales, and this one was the first that I'd gotten that was gloopy.
Starry Night (the polish) is seriously like Starry Night (the painting) in a bottle. Look!
The next time that I wear this beauty, I'm going to wear it over blue undies to conserve the polish since My Ten Friends is no longer in business, the polishes are pretty rare, and I want it to last!
Now that you've seen my take on Starry Night sky nails, be sure to go check out all the other participants in this month's link-up!
Hi guys! I hope you are having an awesome week! Today is a great day for me - it's my birthday! Last night, my mom took my husband and me to dinner to an amazing local steak restaurant. I had been initially hesitant to try it because of its slightly risque name (The Strip Club 104), but I'm so glad that I got over because they seriously have the best steak that I have ever tasted! They prove that it is possible that you can cook a steak well-done and still have it melt like butter in your mouth!
Today, I want to share a polish from ellagee's A Good Man collection - Sexy Old Girl. I thought it was a pretty good choice for today since I'm another year old (although not quite as sexy as the TARDIS).
Hi guys! I hope you all had a great weekend (and a great holiday weekend if you live in the US)! Mine was absolutely fantastic. My husband and I have different days off, so it's rare that we get a day off together. We got to spend Saturday and Monday together. On Saturday we went to the farmer's market and to the movies, and then yesterday, we spent the day at Riverbanks Zoo. It was a little too warm for my liking, but it was lovely walking around and seeing all the animals and flowers!
Back in February, I received the Beauty Quartet Box, and one of the polishes that was part of the box was "Emeralds are a Girl's Best Friend" from Love, Angeline. This was a new brand to me, so I was eager to try it out!
Hi guys! I've got a perfect summer polish for you today! Although, I tend to wear whatever color I want, regardless of the season... there is something about wearing a bright coral polish during the hot summer months. One of my new favorites is Hibiscus from Glam Polish.
Hi guys! One of my favorite flowers is the Stargazer Lily. I love getting them in arrangements, but I love them in my garden more! I have one placed right outside our front door so that I can smell them as I come in and out of the house. I know many people hate how they smell... but I love it! When I saw that Fair Maiden Polish had a polish named Stargazer, I had to buy it! And I am SO glad that I did! Fair warning, this post is a little photo heavy. I had trouble picking photos!
Hi guys! Earlier this year, one of my favorite brands, Cult Nails, announced that they were closing. I was saddened by this news because Cult Nails polishes were some of the first that I discovered, and I was never disappointed with the quality of them. About a month or so before the liquidation announcement came, Cult Nails released a LE Secret Collection. Of course I picked it up! The collection ended up being a shimmery blue, a waxy green, and the gorgeous glitter that I am going to share with you today!
Hi guys! Hope you guys had a great weekend! I had a nice lazy weekend. I played with some planner supplies, and on Sunday, my husband and I went to go see Inside Out. I absolutely loved it! It was super cute, and a pretty clever way to show how we are driven by our emotions. Just be sure to bring some tissues!
Today, I want to share one of the polishes that I won a few months ago from MakeUpMom123. I had heard about good things about Anonymous Lacquer, but I hadn't tried any of the polishes yet. I was really excited when I heard that I'd won 2 polishes from Anonymous Lacquer!
Happy Friday guys! I hope you are staying cool where you are! Luckily the temps here haven't reached as high as they forecasted earlier this week, but it's still way to hot for me!
While I tend to shy away from big polish boxes that are a complete surprise, I do like smaller surprises. There's a big difference between the risk of being disappointed over a $50 polish box vs. a single $10 polish. One of my favorite makers, Pahlish, often has mystery polishes on her site. Sometimes, it is mystery holos or mystery Bespokes. I have never been disappointed with any of the ones that I've received. Today, I want to share my most recent mystery polish from Pahlish that I purchased in March 2015.
Hi guys! Summer has taken up residence in South Carolina, and I'm not too happy about it. I'm more more of a Fall weather girl! The highs this week are going to be 99... all week. I am going to melt! I just hope this is just an anomaly, and not an indication of how warm July/August are going to be!
For June, the Hobby Polish Bloggers selected the theme of beach nails. Each blogger can interpret the theme however they choose - whether it is nail art or simply a beachy polish. My nail art skills are no where near as awesome as some of the ladies in the group, but I do like trying, and I use these link-ups to challenge myself to be a little more outside my comfort zone. Plus, I can't get better if I don't try! I wanted to be a little different and instead of doing a beach scene, I deconstructed the look a bit, and made each nail a separate part of the scene.
Hi guys! Today's polish, "No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me" from Lucky 13 Lacquer is inspired by Firefly - a fabulous little television show that was too awesome for its time, and was cancelled too soon (TOO SOON!) Luckily you can catch the episodes on Amazon Prime or Netflix (and if you haven't watched it, I really suggest that you do! It's a space western!)
Hi guys! A couple of month's ago, Pahlish celebrated its 3 year anniversary, and part of the celebration, they re-released some of their earlier polishes. I was super excited about this release because I love Pahlish's polishes, and I didn't discover the brand until the first part of 2014 (so I missed out on so many pretties!!) One of the polishes that I picked up was "Train Underwater."
Happy Memorial Day (or Monday to those of you outside of the US)! In addition to Memorial Day, it is also Geek Pride Day and Towel Day! What is Towel Day, you might ask? Towel Day is an annual tribute celebration of Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I couldn't let the day pass without some nail art for the occasion.
Hi guys! Happy Friday! I'm looking so forward to the weekend! We are heading down to Charleston tomorrow, I haven't had a day off (well, other than weekends) since February, so I could definitely use a little break
Today I've got a polish from the Cast A Spell Part 3: The White Witch Collection from Glam Polish. I am in love with this entire collection; it's so sparkly and perfect for Spring!
Hi guys! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I had to take Mr. Bloo back to the vet. He lost another pound, and his weight has dropped to just 6 pounds. His vet is completely perplexed as his kidney seem to be working fine, and his thyroid tests came back normal. Since he had his front teeth pulled, his weight has just been dropping. I'm hoping that it's just because he had to switch from dry food to wet food, and he cannot graze throughout the day like he has done his whole life. The vet suggested that I sit out a buffet of different foods to see what worked. He nibbled throughout the day on his wet food when it was fresh, a little dry food, and dry food soaked in water. (He wouldn't touch the bowl of chicken broth or dry food in chicken broth). So I'm going to keep the things that he liked out, and hopefully that will get his weight to stabilize. Otherwise, they are going to give him an appetite stimulant and do chest x-rays.
Enough about my sick kitty saga... Today I have an awesome glitter topper from Digital Nails - Timey Wimey. It is based on one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes (Blink).
Hi guys! I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day weekend! The highlight of my weekend was getting to see my 10-month old niece! My sister and her family live in Ohio, and with us living down in South Carolina, we don't get to see them as much as we'd like. We were able to go up when my niece was about a month old, but we've been watching her grow through videos and video chats. It was so great to get to see how much she's grown! She has such a big personality for such a little girl! And my kitty, Mr. Bloo, did so well with her. He's an older cat (13 years), and has never been around children. We figured that one squeal from her, and he'd been hiding for the rest of their visit. The squeals didn't really bother him, and he even let her tug his tail and pet his nose. It was only when she'd run after him that he'd go hide, but always came back out after a few minutes to try again!
Enough about my awesome weekend, and on to POLISH! The other week I showed you some lovely polishes from Cupcake Polish and Digital Nails (original posts here and here). As I was writing up the posts, I thought that they would make a pretty gradient so I tried it!
The bloggers over at The Nail Polish Blogger Connection have teamed up for an epic Spring giveaway! Readers have a chance to win one of two awesome prizes!
Prizes:
- $250 grand prize that can be sent either as an gift certificate to your favorite e-tailer or directly through paypal.
- $60 runner up prize that can be sent either as an gift certificate to your favorite e-tailer or directly through paypal.
- The giveaway is open internationally.
-The giveaway will run from today until midnight on Monday, May 18th. The winner will have only 48 hours to respond to my email claiming the prize, after that a new winner will be selected.
- You must be 18 or older to enter.
-No giveaway-only, empty or spam accounts, those entries will be disqualified. All winning entries will be verified.
- No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. Unfollowers will be banned from future giveaways. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Happy May 4th! If you aren't a Star Wars fan, it's just another day. But if you are fan, it's a special day indeed. I couldn't pass up the chance to do some Star Wars nails!
Hi guys! Today's post is going to be fairly quick, and I'll let the gorgeous polish pretty much speak for itself. If you've read my blog for long, you know that I am a huge Doctor Who fan. My husband got me to watch it, and after one episode, I was hooked. They always say that your first Doctor is usually your favorite Doctor, and in my case this is true. Even though I loved Ten, Eleven will have my two hearts. (And yes, I know none of that makes much sense to you non-Whovians!) I want to share a polish inspired by Eleven's catchphrase - "Geronimo" from Digital Nails!
