Have a Blingtasticly Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just some quick pictures of my NYE mani, the franken named Happy Unbirthday. Click the pics to see them bigger for all the detail.


Blurred to show sparkle:

Happy Unbirthday - Preview of my NYE Mani

I'm an all or nothin' kind of girl when it comes to my glitter. My rule is either glitter is all you can see or there should be none at all. So when I saw Lippmann's Happy Birthday it was love at first sight. But I have 2 problems with Lippmann. The price and the condescending designer Lippmann herself. I'm not about to pay $18 for a polish when you're going to tell me I'm applying it wrong. So I went to the craft store and picked up about $8 in multi-colored and multi-shaped glitter and dumped it in some clear polish. This was my first franken and let me tell you I was flying blind. The end result... well, check out the picture. LOVE.

A dupe? Not even close. I think the nail polish wore off some of the colors in some of the glitters, so there's a lot more silver than I originally planned on. No problem! I haven't picked a color to wear under it, but I'm thinking a dark green or teal right now to highlight the colors in the smaller glitters. The amazing saga of the making of Happy Unbirthday, plus the end result NYE mani, will be posted tomorrow!

Neon Horror - Why I'm Never Listening to an Elf Again

Christmas Eve day I took a journey in a lull of a snowstorm to the least popular mall in town, the only mall that has Claire's. The mall had been open for an hour but there was no one there, and in the hallway stood a mid-30's aged elf. I wondered what she was doing so far from the Santa picture booth, but she followed me in to the store and asked if I needed help. "I'm in search of a nail polish!" Oops. So wrong to say. She was apparently an expert, though from what I could tell it was only in all things neon. "Get this!" she exclaimed. "If only I had your youth, I wish I could wear these neons!" She had so much Christmas cheer that I couldn't resist maybe just trying the neon teal that she had insisted would look great with my skin. The color was interesting and I figured since it was a teal that it wouldn't be glaring on my skin. Wrong. So, so wrong. Don't look directly at my nails, you may go blind. Maybe I could try it with glitter? I don't know. It's scary and in my sock drawer. I don't want it to frighten my other teals.


Claire's Marine Blue

A love affair with a fugly green

This morning I had a secret tryst is Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War. I cheated on my other greens, and it felt so right. Teals and I will make up by Wednesday, Mints may hold a grudge till the weekend, but that's okay, because today I'm in love with my fugly green.




This is my first time trying out RBL and it was fantastic! The application was smooth, and this color only took 2 coats. I'm hearing a bit of a buzz about more fugs, mostly in the avocado family, for next year. I do hope more fugly greens come out, they are so fantastically unique and really unexpected to wear.

Dorothy Who... cares?!!

I wanted to like this polish. A lot. In theory it were perfect, in execution... meh. This was 3 coats and still a VNL. The blue wasn't dark enough for me and there was too much silver. I'm hoping OPI's Absolutely Alice can be everything that I wanted this to be. I swapped this polish for OPI Parlez Vous OPI? I hope it comes in the mail soon, because I have a little confession... I've never even tried OPI!



Also, since I don't feel this was a satisfying post due to the sub-par polish, here a pictures of my puppies with their holiday bandannas on. They're so cute!!

Snowflakes & Ruby Pumps

I hope everyone had a happy holiday and they got every NP they wanted! I've been very busy playing with my new iPod + Nike equipment, along with a few new RBL's and other NP's. My Christmas NOTD was Ruby Pumps and I took pictures outside in a snowstorm while holding a snowball. When I downloaded the pictures, this one had a single snowflake captured in the flash! It's so cute! Maybe not the best picture of Ruby Pumps, but who hasn't seen that a million times?

I have many more NOTD's coming up, including the Jade-knockoff from Claire's!

American Apparel Nail Polish

I've never really shopped at American Apparel before, but after seeing their new nail polish line I was in love. The shades are hip and cool and very workable. So I took a chance and ordered three nail polishes hoping they'd be okay. And guess what? They're better than that. Much better. They applied so smooth that when I was doing comparison swatches with RBL, I kept thinking, "Wow, these $6 polishes are on par with ones 3 times the price!" The polishes are so pigmented that you can get away with one coat easily and the lacquer flows over the nail in a few seconds without any manipulation from the brush. I think I'll be picking up a few more!

Peacock is a lovely super blue teal. This is one coat.



Office is a dusty mint shade that was instant love. I'm wearing it now and it's subtle but so pretty!




Hunter is a deep dark slightly muddy green. Dried darker than the bottle and is near black in some lights.


And for fun here are some comparison pictures. Peacock next to RBL teal. Teal is much deeper and Peacock almost looks like Muse, but I've seen a few other swatches and Peacock is much bluer.



Here's Office in the middle with RGB Minty on the left and Essie's Mint Candy Apple on the right. Though Minty still reigns as my fave, I love office for it's dustiness! Great addition to any mint collection.


Hunter is a million miles away from RBL's recycle. It's very opaque so it's nice if you want a non-jelly deep green. It has a bit of a bluey-browny quality to it too.

If you have a store near you, I know they sell these for 3 for $15 rather than $6 for an individual. And if you can only order online, do a quick search for coupon codes! They often have free shipping or 10-15% off.

Silver and Gold Glitz

I'm saving my untried Ruby Pumps for December 24th but have been trying out my other Xmas glitters! First picture is two coats of Tinsel. I really needed like one or two more coats, but it was a rush job and I knew I'd be taking it off in less than a day so I made due with two. The next morning I put on Cowardly Lyin from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collex, and while I loved the yellowy gold color, the glitter was really lacking. So this morning I added three coats of 5 Golden Rings and it was pure love. Well, it only lasted a few seconds because the mail truck came with a bunch of new polishes for me to swatch! But I snapped a pic anyways, mostly for reference because I think this would look great on me in the Summer when I'm a little bit tan. On to the pics!

A Perfect Polish - Emerald Sparkle

There isn't much I can say about Emerald Sparkle that hasn't been said. It is one of those perfect polishes that is just so unbelievably pretty that you won't want to take it off. My camera could hardly capture all it's qualities; with the deep emerald green shade, the jelly qualities, and of course all the sparkle, I could only get an average amount of each crammed in to the picture. The full effect in person is memorizing! I highly recommend it to anyone to pick it up, and although I got it really just for Christmas, I know I'll be pulling it out from time to time through out the year. This picture is with 2 coats Emerald Sparkle 1 coat Seche Vite. You'll need a great top coat to bring out the sparkle in this polish!

The beginning of my mint obsession

As a flavor, I hate mint. It makes me gag. I really like chocolate cake but if I see it garnished with a mint leaf I turn my nose at it. Yuck. But mint nail polish? That's a horse of a different color. I'm obsessed with mint. Yesterday I received Essie's Mint Candy Apple in the mail with my latest TransDesign order. I hadn't tried it yet but today RGB Minty came in the mail. Of course the mail came 5 minutes before my German final and it's all I could think about during the entire test.

RGB intrigued me when I saw some of their early swatches. They have common colors but unique hues, and I've been quite interested in Cognac, Steel and Slate, but Minty was something I had to have after seeing it on a few blogs. The formula was thick, but it applied amazingly well. It was self leveling and I am amazed to say that these pictures were done with one coat of polish. I've heard they wear well, which is good, I don't plan on changing my polish again until Friday. And the color. Well, I'll let the picture speak for itself. It's wonderful. A new favorite!

I also took a comparison picture with Mint Candy Apple and the only other similar color I currently have, which is For Audrey. You can see that MCA is a bit more blue than Minty, but it's still nice. I am looking forward to trying that too.

Minty on my first two fingers, MCA on the ring finger and For Audrey on my pinkie.

Butter LONDON Bezzie Mate

I love Butter LONDON. And not for their application, which is good. Not for the names of their colors, which are hilarious. I love them because of their tiny square bottles. I admit, holding the square brush head can be a little challenging, but these are the only bottles that I let sit out on my desk because they are so damned cute. BL changed the design on the new bottles so you can remove the square cap and paint like with a normal brush, so really, it's not an issue anymore. The only problem is waiting for a sale. When the next one comes on, I will strike with FULL FORCE and pick up the 11 lemmings that I have for them right now.

Bezzie Mate is one of 3 that I picked up from theFairest.com when they had a sale on them so they were very inexpensive, which was good because I had never tried them before. This color looks bright pink in the bottle and even tried matte like a neon, but after I added Seche Vite it dried super shiny and the color mellowed to a lovely vibrant raspberry shade. I've been wearing this for 3 days and have a little bit of tip wear and one chip, though I attribute that to lots of Christmas baking. The best part about this being a neon is that it will come off super easy when I'm ready to change colors.



On a side note to anyone reading this, don't forget about the Rescue Beauty Lounge sale on Tuesday! (which I'm sure you've heard about, and if you haven't, omg are you living under a rock?!!) I don't own any from them but I'm really excited to pick up somewhere between 3 and 6 colors for half price. My mom will be picking up the tab, hiding the package when it comes, and stuffing my stocking for xmas morning. My definites right now are Teal, No More War and Recycle, and I'm still considering Coral, Dead Calm and Bikini Bottom. I'm thinking I may get just 3 this round because last April they had a half off sale, so I'm thinking next April they will too... wishful thinking but it seems possible!

Sinful Nail Junkie

I picked this up to quench my thirst for Atlantis, which is still en route. It's quite a bit lighter but the glitter in it is wonderful! There are tiny flecks of pure blue and large chunks of gold, plus a fine sprinkle of aqua that gives it the overall color. The base is slightly aqua color but to bring it out, I layered to coats over a coat of Sally Hansen Honeydew from the Tracy Reese collection. With a coat of Seche Vite this lasted an entire 4 days without a single chip! I'm amazed! Overall it got me through the week but I'm still dying for my package with Atlantis in it.

Hello and NP Survey

I'm so excited to be starting my own blog!

Two days ago I was caught by my mom staring at pictures of the new Up & Away collection from China glaze. Then a few hours later she caught me staring at them again. Then the next morning, after she found me staring at Re-Fresh Mint for the 8th time, she suggested I start my own blog. You better believe that I'll have pictures of that collection up just days after it's released!

To start off my blog I thought I would start with a quick survey. Fill it out and add it to the comments so I can get to know you too!

Name: Andrea

NOTD: China Glaze Paper Chasing

POTD: none, between pedis

Favorite brand: China Glaze! I love their colors and I really love how they come up with new collections often, and they're always perfect for the season.

Favorite NP: China Glaze Sky High Top

Favorite finish: Cream! Though lately I've been wearing a lot of glitters.

Favorite top coat: Ever since reading this top coat experiment I've been trying new brands. So far I really like Seche Vite, but I'm hoping to buy some "David" soon!

Last NP you bought: I ordered ChG Wizard of Ooh Ahz, Love You Snow Much and a couple of the glitters last week, I'm very IMpatiently awaiting their arrival!! I almost jumped on the mail truck yesterday afternoon asking if there was a package for me!

Estimate # in your collection: around 50 give or take. I know, I know, I'm such a newb!

Current lemming: ChG Up & Away! Ah, such creamy perfection. At first I thought I would just be ordering Re-fresh Mint and Grape Pop, but then High Hopes, Heli-yum, and Lemon Fizz were added to my list... and after Scrangie's post, I decided I needed them all! I wish they were out now!

Wait time after mani before using fingers: If it's a polish I've applied before, about 10 minutes, but with brands I'm unfamiliar with I'll wait 30 minutes.

Fave NP blog: Scrangie! I love her no muss, no fuss, straight to the point style.

Most worn color: Tough one, but for 6 weeks I wore mostly Sally Hansen Night Hydrangea. It's a wonderfully true purple with a hint of sparkle. 2 weeks ago I picked up Sinful Frenzy and added that to the top, which I've now been wearing for 2 weeks!!