Don't Worry About It, That'll Buff Right Out.

I'm sick today. I had plans to go visit my sister, but woke up feeling like a bag of smashed ass, so I had to cancel. I'm freezing cold, but sweating; my joints hurt; I'm sniffly; and I just generally feel like crap.

Plus my doctor's office called me today with the results of the CT scan I had last week. They confirmed that I had a big, ol' stone in my bladder (when I told the doctor I had passed it on my own on Monday, he actually said, "Dang!"), and that I have another stone--much smaller at about 1mm--still chillin' out in my right kidney.

Plus I got a bonus health update: Apparently, I have multiple cysts on both of my ovaries. Multiple cysts. On both ovaries. Because when I do something, I fucking go all out. S'how I roll.

So, in an effort to take my mind off of my health issues--which obviously isn't working, since I'm sitting here posting about them--I decided to do another blog update.

So, in a way, my shitty health is actually benefiting you guys. Way to take advantage of my pain. I thought we were friends... *glares*

...

...

... *still glaring*


...

Anyway.

After this post, I'll be all caught up with the pictures I've taken, so unless I start slacking off and give myself time to build up another store of pics, you'll be getting posts as I update my manicures from now on. In fact, I'm actually still wearing the mani in the pics I'm posting today. It's been about four days, though, so I think I'm going to take it off tonight.

First up, a nudie pic:

*wolf-whistles*
Artificial light, no flash

Normally, I wouldn't post a picture of my bare nails, but they've been in really good shape lately, so I'm feeling proud. Plus I needed a new nail buffer the other day, so my boyfriend went to the store and picked me up a Revlon Crazy Shine Nail Buffer, which boasts that it will make your nails 400% shinier.

At first, I was like, "Pffff, yeah, right. A two sided buffer is totally gonna work that well. *rolls eyes*".

Then I tried it. And holy friggin' shiny, Batman! A couple of swipes with the rough side and a few back and forths with the smooth side, and I'll be gosh darned if my nails weren't exactly 400% shiner.

Okay, so I have no idea how they actually measure just how much shinier nails get after buffing, so I can't say for sure that my nails were 400% shinier. But they were CRAZY shiny, as you can see. Like, shiner than any nail buffer has gotten them before. And it was super easy and fast. Plus I'd buffed away all the staining (even with base coat, my nails still end up all yellow and funky looking), so my nails looked all clean and nice. So clean and nice, in fact, that I was compelled to take--and share--a nakey nail picture!

So yeah, if you're in the market for a good nail buffer, I'd totally recommend giving the Revlon Crazy Shine Nail Buffer a shot.

Once my nails were buffed smooth, I threw on a coat of my new base--Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat (my NailTek II has gotten all gooey and chunky and weird, and I haven't had a chance to order a new bottle yet, so I'm currently working with what was available at my local drug store)--and then slapped on two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Flight.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This is my favorite black polish EVER. Love that it's teal-based.
Artificial light, flash.

Then, because I can't seem to stop layering with glitters lately, I added a coat of Kleancolor Shooting Star, which is silver glitter with larger orangy-red, warm yellow, and aqua blue hex glitters in an orange-tinted clear base, on nine nails.

Over black, you can't see the orange tint of the base, but you can see it in the bottle.
Artificial light, flash.

The colors in Shooting Star make me think of circus clowns. Except that clowns scare me, and this polish does not.
Natural light, full sun.

On my accent nail, I did a coat of Kleancolor City Never Sleeps, which is the same makeup as Shooting Star, except in different colors--aqua blue glitter with larger pale orange, pale lime green, and magenta hex glitters in a very pale purple-tinted clear base.

For some reason, the base of this polish looks and photographs as a weird, mucky brown in the bottle. I promise you it's, like, a lilac-tinted clear base, though.
Artificial light, flash.

It was so cold outside when I snapped these pictures. I literally just stuck both arms out the front door and took pictures blindly, since I didn't want to stick my head out to see what I was actually shooting. Luckily, I'm pretty good at aiming!
Natural light, full sun.

Natural light, combo full sun/shade.

My boyfriend said that he likes the Shooting Star better than the City Never Sleeps. I'd have to disagree with him. While the colors in Shooting Star are pretty fun, I think the colors in City Never Sleeps are even funner. And funner is always better.

While fun, this isn't my favorite combination. I mean, it's cute, and if I ever go to the circus, I'd totally wear this mani again, but I crave manicures that leave me gazing at my fingers in awe and wonderment, and unfortunately, this mani fell just a wee bit short of that.

I've also noticed that some of my polishes tend to shrink after I apply my topcoat, which sucks. I currently use Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat, which I've thinned it with a bit of Seche Restore because it got kind of thick and gloopy. It doesn't shrink all of my polishes, but it does shrink most of them, at least a little. For some reason, it seems to shrink my Sally Hansen Instra-Dris worse than any of my other polishes, which means this mani ended up looking like it had a week's worth of tip wear after less than twenty four hours, and it's been bugging the crap out of me.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm thinking it might be the combination of fast dry top coat + Seche Restore. Maybe if I get a regular top coat, shrinking won't be as much of an issue. But (siiiigh) that means waiting for what seems like forever for my nails to dry, and I'm sooooo impatient.

Grrrrrr. My life is so hard. *fails and flops*

Anyway, I should wrap this up. My poor betta, Aldo, is staring at me right now, like, "Pleeeeaaaaase clean my tank, woman!", and I have to do that before I can take off my nail polish. I don't wanna get polish remover residue in my little buddy's tank!

So I'm off for now. I wonder what color my next post will be about. : )


1/20/2012 ETA: I was just uploading some new pictures (!!!), and I found a couple of pictures I'd taken a day or two after the pictures I posted here. You can see the shrinky tip wear, but it's such a good, clear shot of the glitters that I just had to tack it onto this post:

Indoors, natural light.

Okay, that's all.

Kleancolor? More like SPLEENcolor, Amirite?

Oh,  good grief, does it ever end? I finally gave in and made myself an appointment with a doctor a friend recommended, and now it's all, "You may have thyroid issues! Blood in your pee isn't good! I am a medical professional! Put down my stethoscope!".

Yeah. I see how it is, doctor. You sit there, all high and mighty, telling me how I might be able to not feel like crap all the time, and then you look at me like I've been purposely doing the opposite of everything you're advising.

See you in two weeks, motherfucker. And I'm taking one of those germ masks home with me this time... *glares*

Annnnnyway. I'm not feeling great at the moment, but I wanted to get a quick post up today, and show you all what I've been up to lately. No RCN ratings in this post. I don't know if I'm even gonna bother with them at all any more. They feel gimmiky. I think I'm just gonna ramble more in posts instead.

So, yeah...

I didn't plan this, but all three of the mani's I'm posting here involve Kleancolor polishes. I recently went halfsies on a 48 piece Kleancolor haul with a friend, so I've been playing with my twenty four new colors a lot recently.

First up is Kleancolor Neon Fuschia. Right off the bat, I want to say two things about this color:

1. In no way would I ever classify this color as fuchsia.

2. I'm pretty sure Kleancolor is just fucking with me on the spelling here.

Anyway, this is one of five neons that I bought. Like most neons, it dries somewhat matte, and would've required a lot more than two coats* and not been nearly as eye-popping had I not primed my nails with two layers of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White first.

See what I'm saying? How on earth is this considered fuchsia? Neon Vermillion, if anything. (Artificial light, no flash.)

Flash made this color look orangier than it is in real life. Color-wise, it's closer to the upper picture. Intensity-wise, it's closer to this one.

 Application was okay. Maybe a little on the streaky side, but after the second coat, it evened itself out pretty well. I wore this for three days or so (that's about average for me), and didn't have any problems with wear or chipping until I fell down running to answer the phone and ended up with chip all the way across my left index finger. Boo.

Aside from my Mood Struck polishes, which are color-changers, this is the second neon polish I've used (I used Kleancolor Neon Purple for a mani I'll post about... soonish), and I couldn't stop staring at my fingers. They were so bright! Like little highlighters! Way fun. : )

Next up is one of the colors I picked up on my last trip to Five Below with my sister. Fresh Paint Olive You is--you guessed it--an olive green. It has very subtle and also somewhat less subtle gold shimmer.

This was after a few days, so please excuse the tip wear. (Indirect natural light.)

I picked this color up mainly because, in the bottle, it looked like it could be an olive version on Funky Fingers Power Chord, which I absolutely adore. Plus I didn't have any neutral-y greens in my collection, and my sister thought the name was cute, so I figured what the heck.

On the nail, this color fell flat of my expectations. The gold shimmer just isn't as prominent as I'd hoped, and it has more of a pearly finish to it. Still an interesting color, and nice for fall, but not one of my favorites.

I figured I'd add a little interest by accenting some nails with a coat of Kleancolor 24 Carat, a color I picked when the seller my friend and I bought our polishes from didn't have some of the colors I'd originally wanted. And, let me say, for a color that I didn't really want in the first place (I'm not particularly fond of golds; I'm a silvery girl through and through), 24 Carat turned out to be one of my favorite polishes from the entire haul.

I could seriously stare at this bottle forever. Soooooooo sparkly. (Indirect natural light.)

 24 Carat is a clear base with warm gold irregular glitter--almost like microflakies--and holo glitter, with a few large diamond holo glitters scattered throughout (you can kinda see one under the 'u' in 'Lacquer'. The big glitters don't thrill me, so I tend to scrape them off the brush if I happen to catch one, since I prefer the look of just the fine glitters.

As pretty as I think 24 Carat is, this mani didn't blow my skirt up. I was just kind of meh about it. Which is why I ended up taking it off so I could try Kleancolor Metallic Green.

Oh.

My.

GOD.

Ohmygod.

I love this color sofreakingmuch, it's kind of ridonculous. The finish reminds me of anodized aluminum, and it has this crazy glow to it.

This may very well be my favorite green polish ever. In real life, the color is just a teeny smidge more yellow. If any of you have an Android phone, it's pretty close to Android green. (Indirect natural light.)

I did an accent nail with Kleancolor Golden Nightmare, which is black with gold shimmer and larger glitter in it. To me, the larger glitter looks silver, but based on the name, I assume it's supposed to be gold as well. Eh. Alls I know is that the gold shimmer looked awesome in the bottle, but was kind of lost on the nail. Still. Another gold-y color that I kinda like.

But back to Metallic Green. Have I mentioned yet how much I love this color? It's so bright and awesome. I don't have any other polishes with a finish like this one. Which is why I decided that, what with all my recent health issues, I needed a bit of a pick-me-up, and ordered myself another twenty four Kleancolors, including nine of the other metallics!

I already got Metallic Black with my first haul, so once this order comes in, I'll have all of them, except Metallic White, which I decided to skip 'cause it didn't look as awesome and pigmented as the rest of them.

Oh man, oh man, oh man. I'm so excited. Once I get this shipment (which they said would take 4-14 business days), I'll snap a few pictures of all of my Kleancolors. I think I'll have... fifty five of them? Dang! It's almost like I collect nail polishes or something. o_O

Anyway, that's really all. Just wanted to toss up a few pics and share my excitement over my order. I know this post is kind of blah, and I apologize for that. I, myself, am kind of blah, so I suppose that's to be expected.

Anyone else out there have experience with Kleancolors? What do you think of them? Got any favorite colors? What do you think of the smell of them? It didn't bother me with the first seven I owned, but all of the ones I got with my first haul have a really pungent chemical smell, unlike any of my other polishes. Very odd.

So yeah. That's all. And, as for the title of this post... I don't even know.

Because I'm A Bitchin' Rockstar From Mars.

Okay, just a little post today. And, really, I feel kinda guilty about that, 'cause I love this friggin' color so much.

I picked up a couple of Funky Fingers polishes at this great store my kid sister brought me to called Five Below, where (wait for it!) everything is $5 or less. And it's not all cheap crap like you find at real dollar stores--although, to be fair, Dollar Tree has some pretty good stuff sometimes. But I digress.

I guess the whole reason my sister wanted to take me to Five Below in the first place is because they have this giant table full of reasonably priced nail polishes, and she knows what a freak I am for polishes, so it was a great surprise. I ended up spending twenty five dollars in that store. But I walked out with super comfy, fuzzy, rainbow leopard print jimjam shorts, a mousepad with a wrist bump, clippy headphones, two nail polishes, and I bought us each one of those silly Japanese drinks where you have to pop the marble out of the top to open the bottle. Of course, my sister accidentally threw away her marble popper, and I'd already used mine, so we had to sit there for about fifteen minutes, trying to pop hers with a lighter. It was ridiculous, and I'm sure we looked like idiots. Which is why I love hanging out with my sister. <3

But I digress again...

So. One of the colors I bought that day was Funky Fingers Power Chord, which is a... well... I don't really know exactly how to describe it. Try this: Picture the most beautiful bruise ever, then add a pale gold shimmer. It's awesome. And pretty. And tough. And it looks soooooooo friggin' hot on short nails (which I figured this out the second time I wore it, right after I filed my nails all the way down--in the pics, my nails are about medium length).

Indoors, artificial light, no flash. 

Application is a breeze. The polish is a bit thinner than some of my others, so I went for three coats* for full opacity. Another thing I figured out the second time I wore this color is that I prefer it without a topcoat. I can't exactly put my finger on why. I think because it almost has a metallic finish on its own, and this polish just screams "tough little tomboy" to me, and a glossy topcoat kinda... I dunno... ruins that or something... O_o

Indoors, artificial light, flash.

I don't recall having any problems with chipping or wear with this color. And I'm pretty sure I wore it for a day or two longer than I usually do, because I love it so much.

I ended up throwing on a coat of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black just to see what it would look like. This combination didn't blow my mind, but goddamn, check out the rainbow in that bottle!

Removal is slightly trickier than most polishes, since the gold shimmer gets a bit gritty/rough, but it's not nearly as bad as removing glitter polishes. Just requires a little extra soaking time or elbow grease, whichever you prefer.

I seriously love this color. Like, for real. You know how I feel about "purpling my fingernails", and with my tough little tomboy attitude, this polish is just sososo me. Plus I really like the shape of Funky Fingers bottles. They kinda remind me of genie bottles. Or 50's cats (you know what I mean, right?). If I get a chance, and if it's still in stock, I'd like to swing back over to Five Below to pick up a backup bottle. And maybe a few other colors...


RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (I think I paid $2.50 each)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 5/5

Hey other bloggers: How would you describe this color? I see some great color descriptions out there sometimes, and I'm like, "Uhhh, it's... purple.". Thoughts?



*I always use NailTek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat to provide an even surface and prevent staining, and Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat for quick and easy shine.

Lost In The Blizzard Nebula.

Holy smokes, will ya look at that? Another post!

I think I'm just going to kind of rely on pictures to do the work for me for a bit, instead of writing my full-on reviews.

First up, we have the loverly Orly Space Cadet. I had wanted this color for soooooo long, so I finally ordered it through Amazon. When it arrived, I'll admit to being a little disappointed. It kind of reminds me of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby, which I've owned, well, since the Nail Prisms line was still in stores, but never really loved. I'm not huge on rose tones with my skin. And even though this polish has a very pretty teal jelly-ish base, once it's built up to opaque, it's predominantly rosey. Bleh.

I do love a good duo/multichrome, though, and Space Cadet is plenty of that. And although it's smooth and shiny on the nail*, it's really gritty when you're taking it off, so I recommend the foil method.

Indirect sunlight. I think this was... four coats?

There really is a lot of color shifting with this polish.

This polish is definitely pretty, but it's just not my favorite. Oh well.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (Amazon usually has pretty good deals on polishes.)
  
• Packaging: 5/5
  
• Performance: 4/5 (I hate when polishes are a pain to get off, so it loses a point for being so clingy and gritty during removal.)

And here we have my new favorite glitter topcoat, China Glaze Snow Globe over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Flight.

THE COLORS, DUKE! THE COLORS! (If anyone else remembers that commercial, they get a million cool points.)

With flash. This was also right after I applied my final topcoat, so everything looked super shiny.

Unfortunately, by the next day, this mani wasn't very shiny at all. Which was okay, since the matte-ness kind of helped to enhance the GLITTERSSSSS!

 So yeah, I don't even know what to say about this polish. I love it. A lot. It's like a sparkling cupcake wrapped in a bow with sprinkles and candy. On your nails. In glitter form.

It has small and medium iridescent hex glitters that, depending on the angle you're looking are cyan/orange, purple/yellow, or pink/green. It's friggin' amazing, basically, and I couldn't stop smiling at my fingers. I can't wait to wear it over white, which is a mani I'm planning for this winter. : )

As with all glitters, it's a bit tricky to get off, although it not as densly packed as some glitters, so it does break down a little more easily. Still. Foil method all the way.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (Again, check Amazon for some reasonable prices)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 4/5 (Loses one point for that weird matte thing it kept doing, even after I applied topcoat.)

 So yeah, in a battle between China Glaze Snow Globe and Orly Space Cadet, I'd be rooting for Snow Globe. What about you?



*I always use NailTek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat to provide an even surface and prevent staining, and Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat for quick and easy shine. 

The Fact That There Are Christmas Themed Pringles Containers Already Is Killing My Soul.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH.

I just wrote a kind of medium length entry about how I've been dealing with depression for the past few months, and how there's a lot of stressful stuff going on in my personal life right now, and how I feel like that plays a big part in me not having the motivation to update my blog more often, and I added a whole bunch of pictures, and then Blogger ATE IT.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!??!??

(Sigh.)

Fine. I'll upload all the stupid pictures again. And come up with captions for all of them. Again. But I will not retype the post. I have my limits.

...I hope you really appreciate what I'm dealing with for you right now. No. Really.

*groans*

Okay, soooooo. Here:

To make up for not posting very often, here are a whole bunch of pictures in one post. We'll start with some old ones that my Facebook friends will probably recognize from my "I Love Nail Polish" album:

First up, a little snowman I did last winter, using just the nail polish brushes and a toothpick for the eyes, nose, and buttons. Unfortunately, I decided to wait several days before snapping this picture, and you can see how beat up it is. Still cute, though.

This picture was actually taken to show off my then-brand-new Bamboo Pen & Touch, but it features one of my very favorite polish combos: OPI Ate Berries In The Canaries and OPI Sun-body Loves Me!

My very first go at stamping using my Bundle Monster plates. I let my boyfriend pick the colors and design. He said he wanted it to look like a creamcicle.

He was a good sport and let me stamp his nail, too. I decided to play to his masculine side with a tiny tribute to bacon.

My first--and only--attempt at sponging. Not very pretty. Maybe I'll try it again someday...

I believe this was my second attempt at stamping. Plus freehand tips.

Oh my God, my cuticle line in this picture kind of makes me want to vomit. Still, this was one of my favorite stamped manis. The green really popped in real life.

I have a LOT more old pics, but I'm gonna save some, because I'm probably gonna need to to another of these picturebomb catch-up posts in the future...

So, on to more recent things!

A kind of lazy Halloween mani using this years Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers polishes in Black Magic and Spooky Pumpkin. Again, I waited until I was ready to take the polish off to snap the pics, so it's looking a bit rough here.

This is the mani I actually wore on Halloween. I was thinking out loud about what I should do, and my boyfriend suggested bats on an orange background, so that's what I did. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed with a coat of Wet n' Wild Fantansy Makers Spooky Pumpkin, and the bat stamps from my Bundle Monster plates.

Oh, Clarins 230. You whore. <3

And lastly, and certainly leastly, I figured I'd throw in a shot of yours truly, doing what yours truly does best: Not knowing what the crap she's doing.

This is how I roll...

Okay, then. I hope throwing all these pictures at you was enough to make you forget that I'm a crappy blogger. Come back next week. Maybe there will be more words and pictures to look at or something.

Slackers... In... SPAAAAAAACE!

Wow, I'm off to a slow start with this whole nail blogging thing. And I know giving excuses is super lame, but I'm not going to deny the fact that I've been feeling like a bag of smashed ass lately, and it's kind of been sapping my motivation to do... well... anything. I'll try to be better about posting, but, uh, I'm not making any promises right now. : P

ANNNYway, since I already had these pictures edited and sitting in my "Ready For Blog" folder, here's a layered manicure I did about a week ago that was a little bit girly and (to me, anyway) a little bit spacy. I don't have a name for it, although I usually try to come up with cute names for my designs. Maybe this one can be "PK Barbie". (Twenty five nerd points and a bonus twenty five cool points to anyone that gets that reference without looking it up.). Like I said, I'm feeling pretty "weh", so I'm not gonna get all frilly with my description.

Here:

First*, I laid down two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Flight (my favorite black polish EVAR), and let that dry. Which didn't take long. You know. Insta-Dri. ; )

Then I slapped on a coat of Sally Hansen HD Byte, which is pretty sheer, but added a pretty magenta/blue duochrome glass fleck effect. I wish my camera could capture the colors better.

Next up was a coat of Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor, which added subtle blue-green iridescent glitter.

Then I decided to add a coat of Essie Matte About You to bring out the glittery shimmery effect. In this shot, I have Matte About You on my middle and pinkie fingers so you can see the difference it makes in the overall look.

The final effect. Again, I wish my camera was better at capturing duochromes and glitters. Ah, well.

I had actually come up with the idea for this manicure about a month ago, when I was playing around with my nail wheels, and I really thought I was going to love it, but... I kinda didn't. I dunno. It just didn't do it for me once it was on my hands. I ended up taking it off after two or three days.

Eh, ya win some, ya lose some. 

What do you think? Any good advice or experiences anyone wants to share regarding layering?

*I always use NailTek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat to provide an even surface and prevent staining.