Restoring Polish: Quite Possibly The Most Important Post Ever

I want to talk to you guys about the shelf life of polish. How long does polish last? Do I have to throw it out after a certain amount of time?

To put it bluntly, the polish will outlive you. Seriously. There is no reason to ever throw away polish. It doesn't spoil, it doesn't get moldy, it can't 'go bad.' It can separate, but that is fixed by shaking before use. It can thicken or, in some strange cases, thin. That doesn't mean you have to throw out your polish.

I want to show you how to fix a completely dried polish. This will come in handy some day.




I saw this poor bottle of L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Shocking on a store shelf and thought it would be the perfect chance for me to demonstrate this point. Look at it. It's completely dry. People would never buy this because they think it's garbage, but it's not! It's just a wilted flower, waiting to be watered.


Tip it over- it's so dry, it stays put. That's a solid mass of dried polish in the bottom. The brush is embedded in the dried polish. Tug gently to remove it.




My secret weapon: Seche Restore. I am in love with Seche Restore. I've gone through bottles and bottles of this stuff. Most people will tell you that it doesn't make a difference which polish thinner you use. While all polish thinners will thin polish, Seche Restore contains Toluene- a wonderful, magical substance that turns finicky polish into smooth, quick-drying chemical loveliness. This is especially handy for restoring older polishes because it's the toluene that has evaporated from them. Adding Seche Restore can also improve the texture of gooey three-free polishes. No, I don't work for Seche- I just freakin' love this stuff.


All you have to do is pour in some Seche Restore. I don't bother with a dropper when I'm using this much, but if you have some disposable pipettes, those work quite well. I try to add as much Restore to the bottle as I can- I try to picture where the polish would be in a full bottle and I add Restore to create that amount of liquid. Place the cap back on the polish.



You can see that the the Restore starts to dissolve the dried polish immediately. Once the cap is on tightly, shake the polish vigorously. Don't be alarmed if some Restore leaks out of the bottle. It's much thinner than polish and can sometimes make it out of the bottle. And to all of you out there who are gasping in horror when I say to shake your polish: Don't worry. It's okay to shake your polish. It absolutely WILL NOT HARM your polish. The worst it can do is cause bubbles, which settle on their own within five to ten minutes of shaking. So please, be kind, shake your polish. Much safer than rolling, because without a firm grip on the bottle, you could potentially drop the bottle and break it. I speak from experience.



If the polish is completely dried, like this one was, you may have to loosen the dried polish from the bottom of the bottle. I use a toothpick to pry the dry polish lump away from the bottom and sides, and then I stir it a for a little while to break up the dried lump.



After a little while of stirring and shaking, voila! Good as new. The texture is perfectly smooth- or it would be if it didn't have so much glitter in it!- and all of the dried polish has dissolved. You would never know that this was a reconstituted polish. It goes on smoothly and dries quickly. Now you have a full bottle of amazing polish that someone would have thrown in the garbage!


Here's the polish on my nails. It applied like a dream. However, I can't say I really like the color that much- streaky silver metallic and loads holographic glitter don't play well together. If you want a holographic silver metallic, it's best to use a holo topcoat, like China Glaze Fairy Dust or Piggy Polish Sunshine On Snowflakes on top of a silver polish to avoid the lumpy look that mixed-in glitter causes.



Here's another bottle that I revived from a dried clump of polish. It's CND Pucker Up. I ordered it online and when it arrived, the bottle was actually open and the polish was completely dried. I don't know how they didn't notice that when they packed my order, but somehow it did. I wasn't worried, I knew how to fix it and now I have a perfect polish that would have otherwise been trash!

Here's my message to you: DON'T THROW OUT YOUR POLISH! It can be fixed. I wonder how many old, rare, wonderful polishes have been chucked in the bin because they had thickened, separated or dried. The thought of it breaks my heart! To me, the older the polish, the better.

I hope this was helpful for you. I consider this to be very valuable and useful information. When I was younger, I never knew that polish could be fixed and I threw away so many bottles of gorgeous polish that I really regret getting rid of now. I wish I had them. Beautiful, unique, irreplaceable polishes that had separated or thickened. I am positively kicking myself for not holding onto them. Don't be like me!

Free Nail Polish from Misa! A gift to my readers.

Good morning everyone! I have an awesome present for you all.

Misa, one of my favorite nail polish companies, is giving you a free nail polish of your choice. All you have to do is pay shipping- a flat rate of $3.00 and you can choose any polish you like.

If you can't make up your mind on which polish to choose, you can order up to eleven additional polishes for a discounted rate of $1.50. If you choose to order more than one bottle, shipping will be a little more, but won't cost more than $7.00. If you decide to go with twelve polishes, you'll pay $23.50, and that includes shipping. Rock on!!

This is an awesome gift from Misa to my readers!

All you have to do is contact Misa and mention my blog to get your free polish. The contact information is:

PHONE: 1-888-733-6472
EMAIL: info@misacosmetics.com

Or, alternately, you can email me and I will pass the information on to them. This promotion will run until the end of January.

You can browse Misa's website for pictures of all the colors, or you can use the search function on my page so see the Misa swatches I have posted so far.

One of the things Misa does best is duochrome polish. The have some really cool duochromes, like Bo Jangles, Decadent Drifter, Embroidered Emerald, Foxy & Folksy and Road Warrior, just to name a few.

Bo Jangles


Decadent Drifter


Embroidered Emerald


Foxy and Folksy


Road Warrior


They also have some of the best neons around! My favorite neon color from Misa is Pour Me Something Tall and Strong:




Misa doesn't just have duochromes and neons, they have my other favorite formula: GLITTER.

And hey, if you're not into any of those, Misa has some of the nicest cremes, shimmers and vampy colors around. Remember the Poisoned Passion collection? Oh yeah. You know what I'm talking about.

I'll be posting some Misa swatches soon in case you need help deciding which free polish you want. I am so excited!!!


Thanks MISA!!!

OPI Need Sunglasses?

OPI Need Sunglasses?

So... why am I posting a picture of OPI Need Sunglasses? I have no idea. I just really love this color. Isn't it pretty?

Yellow polish rocks!

/random

15% Off Essie!

I just got this email and I thought I'd share it with you!

15% off Essie

Still more expensive than the etailers, but hey, a discount is a discount, right? ;-)

Swatches: Barielle Shades

When I first saw these in the September issue of Nails Magazine, my heart skipped a beat. Green and purple!!!!!!!

I looked all over for these polishes and finally gave up- I was never going to find them. It was all a cruel joke. I put them out of my mind...

...Until people started talking about them again! It was so mean, waving those lovely green and purple polishes in my face, knowing that I can't get them.... BUT! Some kind soul emailed me to say that they're available at CVS of all places! I know! CVS, can you believe it?!

They're also available on Barielle.com, but they cost $8 there and $6 at CVS.

I didn't get the whole collection because I'm on a polish budget right now, but the other two didn't really excite me that much. One was a pearly white, and one was a slivered brown that reminded me of Misa Earthward. Very pretty but possibly easily duplicated.

Enough babble, on to the swatches!!


Date Night. The undisputed star of the show and quite possibly one of the most perfect greens in existence. Please excuse the tipwear, I was wearing this for three days before I took the picture. This is a rich, deep, true green. No blue hints. It's lush and extravagant. I haven't wanted to wear anything but this color since I got it. If you like greens, you NEED this.


Hidden Hideway. Another unbelievably spectacular color from Barielle. A vibrant purple that's just a bit blackened. It's one of those lit-from-within colors that I love so much. The best thing about this is that it always looks purple in the middle, but blackish around the edges. I hate purples that look black, and this is not one of those! It's like Zoya Yasmeen's older, naughtier sister.


Secret Encounter. I keep wanting to call this one Random Encounter, heh. Another perfect purple shade. This one is much brighter and more on the red side. The color is made more beautiful by the incredible smooth shimmer this polish has. It sparkles with microscopic multicolored particles in full sunlight. So beautiful.


Two Timing. A beautiful shimmering coppery fall leaves type color. It reminds me a little bit of OPI Music Hall Curtain Call. It's not as red as Music Hall Curtain Call, more ambery copper, but the gold shimmer really brightens it and makes it flashy. This just screams FALL to me. Love.

I can't tell you how impressed I am with this collection. All of the colors are amazingly perfect, not a single dud in the whole collection; even the ones I didn't get were beautiful. It was like they hacked into my brain and created a collection they knew would make me freak out. And I gotta tell you, I freaked out over these!

Formula wise, I have mixed feelings. They are very thick but not difficult to apply. The thickness causes them to be mostly opaque in one coat, but a second coat is still necessary. The formula is smooth and not runny, and I like that, but they also take quite a while to dry. I always use Seche Vite on my polishes, and usually use Qtica Half Time drops on top of that, so manicures do dry quickly for me, but each polish tends to dry at their own speed.

CND, for example, takes the longest to dry because it doesn't ever actually dry. China Glaze takes the second longest, remaining dentable for a day or more. OPI is usually the fastest, mostly dry in 10 minutes and totally dentproof within a half hour... And so on and so forth. These polishes dry slower than OPI but not as slow as China Glaze. I was able to dent this polish after two hours, but by the end of the night it was completely dry. For the record, it was one coat of basecoat, two coats of polish and one coat of topcoat.


That being said, I'm still completely in love with this collection. I might even have to go get the other two polishes. I haven't been this excited about a collection in quite some time. It's perfect. Perfect! Bravo, Barielle! Great job! I didn't even know Barielle made polish, so seeing these shocked the hell out of me and made me giddy with polish-joy at the same time.

Rock on, Barielle.

Awesome color change polish!

I was at Big Lots the other day, hoping to find some old Sally Hansen or Maybelline polishes (no luck! Just some old Revlons) when I came across these awesome solar polishes!

They didn't really interest me until I noticed that the package said "color changing". Color changing?! Hell yes! Gimme!

These are like the Del Sol color change polishes which I've been meaning to post for months....

There's Christmas Cookie...


Christmas Cookie, before, indoors.


Take it outside and it immediately becomes this!! How awesome!!


Holiday Mint before...



Holiday Mint after!




Sugared Pear before.


Sugared Pear after.

I'm not sure if these are scented or not. The names lead me to believe that they are, but the ingredients don't list fragrance as a component, so I'm thinking they don't. I would love it if they were!

These change colors super fast. As soon as I stepped outside with these, BAM! Presto change-o. Awesome.

And the best thing? Each two-pack cost me $1.50. The label said the price was $1.87, but they each rang up $1.50 instead. Score!

So cool! I'd love to see a major polish company do a color change polish. Can you imagine all the color combinations that could exist? I even heard of a group of girls in England (I think) who came up with a polish that was clear indoors and colored when exposed to sunlight.

This is a really cool concept. Mood polishes, solar color change polishes, those old mood lipsticks that turned hot pink no matter what your mood was, that crappy Smashbox blush that also turns hot pink no matter what.... When I was a little kid, I used to have these gloves that would change color and show extra pictures when you played in the snow with them. I've been obsessed with things that changed color ever since.

I wonder what other cool color change cosmetics are out there waiting for me to find them...

Rihanna Smiley Face Nails!!!

OMG!

Look at this awesome picture of Rihanna I just saw on BellaSugar:



Smiley face nails! You may already know that Rihanna is one of the few celebrities I like because of her unique sense of style and complete creativity and fearlessness when it comes to her nails and makeup... Now I think I love her even more! (Even though I've never heard any of her music...)

She's one of us! How awesome!

Rumors about OPI South Beach Spring 2009...

Someone just sent me this description of OPI's Spring 2009 Collection (South Beach):

Done Out In Deco - Lilac
Clubbing Til Sunrise - Tangerine
Suzi & The Lifeguard - Pink
Conga-Line Coral - Orange-Rose
Overexposed In South Beach - Purple
Bronzed To Perfection - Brown
Party In My Cabana - Pink
Sand In My Suit - Nude
Paint My Moji-Toes Red - Red
Miami Beet - Violet
OPI On Collins Ave. - Red Orange
Feelin’ Hot-Hot-Hot! - Flamingo Pink

Hmmm... Gotta say, it doesn't sound very interesting to me.

EDIT: Pics!!




Aw man.... How lame! I like one of the colors- Done Out In Deco- and that's about it. What the hell, OPI? The crappy 90120 collection was bad enough, but now this? Haven't you released these colors about 50 times already?

*sigh*

Special thanks to the lovely Emelie for letting me use her pictures!

Swatches: China Glaze Romantique Spring 2009 Collection

If you noticed, the other day (on Twitter) I said these were ugly and disappointing, and I didn't even want to swatch them.

Well, the sun was out yesterday and I got around to swatching them and I think I've changed my mind!

In the bottles they do look pretty ugly. Bland, boring, would never catch my eye on a shelf among other more interesting polish collections.

However, on the nails they're actually really cool. They're a frosty metallic texture. Not really chrome or reflective, but a smooth shimmery type of metallic. Sort of futuristic looking. Not all of the colors are 'my thing', but there are a few that I'm seriously digging.

These are sold in two halves like past China Glaze collections, a warm selection and a cool selection. I don't remember which are which, so I'll present them alphabetically.

As always, please click on the pictures to view them full size- I try to leave them really big so you can see the detail of the polish :)


Admire. See? Isn't it cool? Admire is a cool silvery pinkish color. For once, a pink that is flattering on me!


Adore. I don't know what color this is. I want to say blue, but it seems more... teal? Is it turquoise? I say it's blue. This is one of my favorites. Spaceman blue. (... Cause you're the one that I adore... We must never be apart....We must never be apart... )


Awaken. Awaken, take the land that must be taken! Okay, sorry, had to do it. Ten points to anyone who gets the joke :) Aaaaanyway, it's a gorgeous blued-charcoal metallic. Looks really similar to some of China Glaze's other charcoal metallics, but the texture of this one is superior. Smooth and opaque, very lovely.


Cherish. A frosty mint green. This one was disappointing to me. How many light mint greens do we need, honestly? I can think of four other polishes I have that look like this. Nail polish companies: stop making light greens. We want rich, deep, saturated forest greens!!! Cherish the thought of always having you here by my side...



Delight. Kind of a bronzy brown with a reddish mauve tint to it. This is one of the ones I thought looked really ugly in the bottle, but once I put it on my nails I decided that I liked it. (Uhh... sky rockets in flight??)



Devotion. Sweet devotion, it's not for me... Just give me motion and set me free.... Seriously, all of these names are reminding me of songs. Maybe they did that on purpose. Devotion is a gorgeous frosty silver. Right up my alley, I'll definitely be wearing this one.


Emotion. Sweeeeeet emotion.... Metallic medium warm-ish pink. Plain, but pretty. The color doesn't wow me but I like the finish. I would probably never wear this, but I'm sure it will be a popular color. But I need some time of from that emotion, time to pick my heart up off the floor...


Harmony. Unforgettable harmony. Holy crap, did I just sing Barry Manilow lyrics?! I'm embarrassed for myself. *ahem* Harmony is a drop-dead gorgeous metallic purple. I really love this one. It's bright and shiny and PURPLE!!! .... together in perfect harmony...



Joy. Have I no control, is my soul not mine? Am I not just man, destiny defined? (That's one of my favorite songs ever. Anyone know it?) Joy is a really stunning muted purple metallic. This might be my favorite of the entire collection. Truly lovely. Joy to the world...


Magical. There's not too much magic in this one. It's a pretty yet bland pinkish silver. Kind of... champagne? It's not really gold, but it's too pink to call it pure silver. I can't think of a song lyric for this one.


Passion. Wow, I can't think of a song lyric for this one either! Totally gorgeous light gold metallic. Might be tied with Joy for my favorite. I would wear this all the time. It rocks.
(Ooh, I think I have a song. Amy Rose's theme in Sonic Adventure is called My Sweet Passion...)


Poetic. I'm not sure what to call this color, either. Light metallic dusty rose? Mauve? Pretty but again, not anything special. It doesn't wow me, but I still like it.


Overall, I do like this collection. As I said, my first impression of it was that it was really ugly and boring. It's not. The bottle color is very deceptive, because once you put these on your nail they're really fascinating. And the more I think about it, the more I appreciate China Glaze for doing different collections. I mean, look at some of the other collections that were released recently. Essie Winter, OPI La Collection de France and Holiday in Toyland, Lippmann and Rescue Beauty Lounge's recent collections... This collection is nothing like any of those. I'm not sure if it's because it's meant for a different season, but this is totally unique. Essie would have released red and pink cremes, OPI would have done maybe some interesting vampy shimmers, but China Glaze released pastel metallics. I like that.

The formula was pretty nice on these. It was still a little runny and goopy like three-free polishes tend to be, but these went on nice and smooth with minimal running or streaking and they were surprisingly opaque. The were a little quicker to dry than usual as well. I have no complaints.

The names are really hard to remember. It's like OPI's Designer Series with the one word names that aren't the least bit memorable or descriptive and they're all really similar. Design, Desire, Extravagance, Exclusive, Elegant... How am I supposed to mentally connect the name of the polish with the color? I need a cheat sheet or something.

I found it amusing that most of the names immediately made me think of songs. I suppose that the names are generic enough that the words are used in a variety of songs, and maybe they meant it that way. Maybe I'm just nutty.

So... what do you think? I say: Awesome finish, bland colors, but a very versatile and pretty collection.

Zoya and Qtica Holiday Gift Sets

Every year I say, "Oh, I'm going to get my Christmas shopping done early, I'm going to have everything all wrapped up weeks before Christmas! I'm not going to be one of those crazy people out shopping on Christmas Eve..."

And every year, inevitably, I end up being one of those crazy people out shopping on Christmas Eve. Every. Single. Year.

Instead of doing what I do, why not just shop online? No crowds full of hacking, coughing people and snotty-nosed kids running through the store screaming while their parents are busy elbowing you in the ribs to get the last insert popular item here off of the shelf before you do....

One thing I really love are gift sets. I've always been attracted to gift sets. The way they're packaged with special shiny paper, all the little products inside all lined up and pretty looking. I just love them! When the gift sets are filled with beauty products, it's even better.

Not very many nail companies do good gift sets (or any gift sets for that matter). OPI has some minis and little bottles of lotion, Essie does some minis, CND sometimes has special polish... Nothing impressive, really. Nothing even different than what they do the rest of the year.

So who has the best gift sets? That would be Zoya. They're actual, useful, jam-packed full of awesomeness, honest-to-goodness gift sets. I'll show you a few of my favorites (the ones I'd love to unwrap on Christmas morning instead of another pair of driving gloves.)

In my opinion, this is the best gift set of them all. It has all of my favorite things! The Holiday Nail Gift Kit has three of "my holy grail" products: Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator, Qtica Intense Cuticle Repair Balm and Qtica Half Time Polish Drying Accelerator, plus one product I like but just don't use all that often- Qtica Extending Topcoat. I would love to receive this gift, and I'd love to give this gift as well. At $25, it's a very affordable gift to give. It's also a great deal- it comes with full size products, and the Nail Growth Stimulator alone costs $20.

The Natural Nail Growth Stimulator had me skeptical at first, but after using it consistently for months, it's all I use now. I'm sold. It really does help my nails grow quickly! You can see the evidence just by looking at the pictures I post here. I really like this base coat. It helps prevent staining, it helps my nails grow, and even though Zoya says there aren't whitening ingredients in it, I feel like it really brightens my nails.

The Cuticle Repair Balm is just amazing. It's not greasy or liquidy- it might take a while to get used to because it's so different from the usual cuticle products. It's a thick, rich, heavy-duty balm that really hydrates and locks in moisture. It even lasts through hand washing. I use this when I've been neglecting my cuticles and doing heavy cleaning without gloves, and it pretty much fixes them immediately. It also has no scent, so it won't bother you if you're sensitive to scents.

The Half Time Drops are a total staple for me. I was introduced to them when they were included in my first Zoya order as a gift with purchase, and I've been hooked ever since. You apply it to your nails after you put on your topcoat and it helps the polish dry faster. I notice that when I don't use the drops, it does take longer for the polish to dry. I don't know how this works, but it does. It also has the added bonus of preventing dents while your polish is wet. The oil adds a layer of protection that you don't get with just a quick dry topcoat. It makes the polish a lot more forgiving- you won't be able to smudge them or dent them as easily while they're drying. Again, no idea how this works, but it does, and now I use them all the time.

My second favorite gift set is this one. It's called the Holiday Mini-cure, but I call it genius. Genius! It's a mini color lock system, a mini bottle of Remove+ (the Cadillac of Polish Removers) and a mini bottle of Zoya Lacquer in Shiloh. It's like an Intro to Zoya set.

Two reasons I think this is a smart gift set:
1. Maybe you don't want to drop the $36 on the full-size Color Lock System because you've never used it before and don't know if you'll like it, but you still want to try it. This set is $15, comes with the entire system in mini size, PLUS a mini polish. If you don't like it you're not stuck with full size bottles that you spent a lot on. If you do like it, this brings me to my second reason...

2. It's a portable nail survival kit! Maybe you travel a lot, or maybe you're like me and like to always be prepared. This kit has everything you need in one place, but takes up very little space because it's mini! You can keep it in your purse or your car or your desk for a nail emergency.

Like I said, it's an Intro to Zoya. Great idea, especially for people who like to have long-lasting manicures. They also have just the Color Lock items- Anchor, Armor and Hurry Up- in a mini trio for $12.


And my third favorite gift are the Color Cubes. It's a cute little set with a full size Zoya Hot Lips gloss/balm plus a coordinating mini Zoya polish for only $8. It's a perfect stocking stuffer, or a good inexpensive yet still luxurious gift that I'm sure any girl would love. My top picks would be:

• Enchanted Evening which has Hot Lips in Starlet (which is drop-dead gorgeous) and mini lacquer in Evangeline. The colors would be flattering on most skintones, and the colors are not too flashy but still unique.
• Sugar Plum Party which has a Hot Lips in Visa and a mini lacquer in Casey. Casey is one of the most gorgeous vampy colors in existence. It's impossibly stylish and very sexy.
• Fairy Dust includes Hot Lips in Paparazzi and mini lacquer in Austine. Gold is hot for the holiday season, and these are two nice, wearable metallic gold shades.
  

Really, all of them are nice sets, but those are my favorites.

I'm really impressed with Zoya's gift sets. They're all practical yet lovely. For the price, you wouldn't expect something as nice as these. I'm on a super-tight budget this year, and the prospect of being able to give gifts that are affordable but still *nice* and useful makes me very happy. I might have a hard time giving these because I want to keep them for myself... Heh. *shifty eyes*

OMG...

I'm sorry, I just have to ask....

Who just hit my blog by googling "exploding hookers"??

Do I want to know? Maybe I don't want to know...

Exploding hookers. Awesome.

Blue Cross Holiday Polishes - Snowmen and Ornaments

I'm a huge fan of anything seasonal and festive- I wear jack-o-lantern perfume in October and I'm not at all opposed to wearing a kooky Christmas sweater in December, so , naturally, when I saw these little cuties sitting on a grocery store cosmetics shelf it was love at first sight. (Wow, that was one terrible sentence. Yikes.)

The first thing that caught my eye was a set of mini glitter polishes. None of them have names, but the set is labelled "Ornaments." My favorite of the bunch (and the only one I've photographed so far) is this purple jelly glitter. At first it seemed like a purple version of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, but it reminds me more of Zoya Roxy on the nail. I wish this came in a full size.



(That looks like a cat hair on my index finger... I have no idea where that came from. )


Slightly different lighting.

The other colors in the set are all jelly glitters- green, pale blue, red, and clear-ish with pastel glitter. I have heard rumors that there are sets with different colors, but my store only had one set.

Next to the Ornaments set was a display full of the cutest little polishes ever- Snowman head-shaped bottles with super awesome glitter polishes inside!

My favorite is this red and green glitter:


This lighting shows the red more...


But this lighting shows the green a little better.

I just loooooove this polish! I've worn it three times since I bought it. It looks great on its own- these pictures are three coats- but it looks way more cool over black. One coat over black is super sparkly and festive, but since you're only doing one coat the red and green don't blend to make a brown look. Love it love it love it! I haven't tried this over white or other colors, but I'm sure it would look awesome. Maybe over gold too! The glitter in the red and green snowman is very fine, almost microglitter. It's nice and smooth and not difficult to remove.

The other colors I picked up were a hot pink shimmer and a red and silver glitter.


This is the hot pink...


... Which seems totally out of place among the wintery, Christmassy holiday colors.




This is the red and silver glitter....


... A medium sized red and silver glitter in a red jelly base.


These are only a few of the colors I saw on the display. I believe there was a black, a shimmery white, maybe a few others- but these were the sparkliest ones, so these were the ones that caught my eye and came home with me.

If you can tell from my pictures, they snowmen have little hats! How cute is that?

Another Random Nail Encounter

I was at Costco yesterday and the cashier -who was gorgeous to begin with- had awesome nails.

Very short but well cared-for rounded natural nails with a flawless and super-shiny dark blue creme polish. It looked a lot like Lippmann Devil In A Blue Dress, but it could have also been Sally Hansen Navy Baby. Beautiful.

This time I actually got up the courage to compliment her. She seemed startled that I noticed her nails! Awwwe.

Also, a couple weeks ago, the cashier at the coffee shop had some fantastic neon orange nails. It made me all giddy. I love seeing people with color on their nails. It's so refreshing to see a lovely girl without the cliche fake french manicure. Color OWNS!!!!!!

..And now I'll get back to the mountain of comments and emails that I should be responding to instead of posting.... Heh. Oops.

Failure

I've been debating whether or not I wanted to post this, but I think I should. So, here goes.

You all know how much I love doing reader requests, right? I do. However, I've gotten a few that I've just totally failed. Pictures didn't turn out right. My photography sucks.

If you've been waiting on a request from me that I haven't fulfilled, I didn't forget about you. I'm just a big freakin' failure! Arghhhh.

Here are a few of the requests I've totally bombed on:

China Glaze OMG collection along with the rest of the Kaleidoscopes: I lost them! I can only find the couple that I use regularly. I have no idea where they could be. I have re-purchased the whole set of both, so I should be able to finish this request soon.

Mood Polishes: I have a bunch of these, and one day I sat down to photograph them all. Problem is, only one of them actually changed colors. I must be doing something wrong. The one that changed colors is up on NailGal (I think it was Toma Green Glitter to Gold Glitter?), but the other pics ended up in the trash. Anyone have any experience with mood polishes? Do they just stop changing after a certain age, do they go bad? I even put my hands in hot water and cold water and nothing.

Dupes for CND AB Positive: This one seemed easy, but I haven't actually been able to find a bottle of AB Positive or even a picture of AB Positive to compare things to! And on top of that, I find it next to impossible to photograph reds properly- they end up all weird and radioactive looking. Does anyone have this polish, and if so, can you take a picture of it for me? Pretty please?

Essie Bridal Collection 2008: I have had this sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be photographed for months. I think it even has dust on it now. I have a hard time photographing sheers like those because they always come out looking white instead of whatever shade of off-white they are in real life. I'll have to try harder on this one.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms / Other Duochromes: These are just really hard to capture and I haven't been happy with any of the pictures I've taken of these. I'm still trying to figure out what type of lighting and angle works best to show the multichromatic properties of these. Right now I've only been able to get one color in a picture, and that's lame.

Neons: These are the hardest things of all to photograph. Orange and green are the most difficult. I have a few great shots of a variety of neons- the Color Clubs, the Misas, the Essies- but I think those were just luck. I've tried quite a few times to get entire hand (not just 'skittles') shots of the China Glaze neons, the New York Summer neons and all the other random neons I have in my collection and they pictures just come out bizarre and warped and freakish looking, like nuclear nails on charred black fingers. I'm still practicing photographing these.

There are a couple more requests that I haven't been able to get just right, but you get the idea.


So... there. I did it. I've admitted failure, but not defeat! I haven't been able to get these pictures right yet, but I'm going to keep trying until they're perfect! Thank you for all your requests and also for your patience. You guys ROCK!!!!!