I Believe The Medical Term Is 'Burnout'.

Okay. So. Things are still pretty crazy around here. I really thought I'd be able to settle in faster, but this is taking forever. I feel like I can't even catch my breath, I'm just so busy with work and taking care of Jericho (he had to stay at the animal ER for 36 hours this week, poor guy) and trying to get this house clean little by little and people are coming and going and I'm just like O_O.

(Sigh.)

I did finally get a chance to paint my nails, though. It's already been several days, so they're all chipped and haggard looking at the time of posting. And I haven't found the time to paint my toenails in, like, a week and a half.

(Siiiigh.)

I don't know how regular people function. How the hell to people get up, get ready, work for eight (or more!) hours a day, then come home, take care of their house/family/errands, and still find time to, like, shower or put on pants or feed themselves? Because I'm trying so hard and I am SUCKING at it. : (

One good thing did happen recently, though. I got my very first raise ever yesterday. So that's pretty rad. I can definitely use the extra money.

Anyway, the color I'm wearing right now is Wet n' Wild Fast Dry Greys Anatomy; a lilac to pale mossy green duochrome. My eight (nine?) year old brother, Efin, picked it out for me on his own for Christmas. He did an awesome job. (Thanks, Ef!)

The duochrome action with this polish is pretty subtle in real life, and my camera had a bit of trouble picking it up. Also: Can you tell I've been doing a lot of scrubbing lately? My hands have been screaming for lotion lately.

This polish does go on pretty sheer, and I needed four coats to get to pretty opaque. It probably could've used another coat, but it was taking a while to dry, despite being a quick-dry formula, and I had other things to do.

Mmmmmmcolorshifty.

I can't remember what day I put this on--the past two weeks are pretty much a blur in my head--but I know i got pretty good wear out of this because, as I mentioned, I've had it on for several days now, and it only just chipped last night.

Then, because I can't resist accent nails, I added two coats of  Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Ice Queen, a clear base with holo glitter and pale pink and cyan large hex glitters, that my sister's boyfriend, the amazing Phil (the guy's a goddamn puppeteer and writes poems about my sister--how awesome is that!?) bought me for my birthday.

When you look at this from the purple angle, the pink hex glitters look kind of blah, but from the green angle, they really pop.

I feel like I haven't rocked a duochrome in ages, so this was fun.

And, just because I only have one picture of this manicure, here's my shot of Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet, a fuity, peachy-orange that shows shimmer in the bottle that's almost invisble on the nails (which I don't necessarily mind).

This makes me want dreamcicles soooooo bad.

I'm usually not a huge fan of oranges. I own a few, 'cause I feel like I have to, to round out my collection a bit, but I'd contemplated buying this polish for weeks before I actually did it, 'cause I was pretty sure that, unlike some oranges, this one would flatter my skin tone. And I'm glad I bought it, because it did flatter my skin tone. And it makes me happy to know that I have an orange that I like to wear.

Oh, and I suppose I should mention that I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat and Quick Dry Top Coat for both of these manis.

So yeah. That's it. Sorry I've been so slow lately. I don't know when work's going to slow down, and it really does feel like it's taking forever to get this house to where I want it. But I do think about you guys and miss reading your posts--I haven't even had time to sit down and catch up on all the blogs I follow. WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I BEEN MISSING!?

Plus the very sweet Stacy of Wickless & Polished helped me add the new, fancy buttons to my sidebar, and was so friendly and patient with my slow replies (I think I never even responded to her last email--Eek! Sorry, Stacy!). I really appreciate it!

But, uh, yeah. It's getting close to midnight, so I should go eat something and get ready for bed. I'm trying to get myself on a better sleep schedule, and it hasn't been easy. Ah well, if at first you don't succeed, bitch about it on your blog, then eat something weird while standing at your kitchen counter in your pajamas. That's what I always say.

Night, kiddos.

Sometimes I'm Willing To Settle.

Oh, weekends, why do you go by so fast? Oh, yeah, because I have to work seven days a week to keep up with all the customer support emails that have been coming in lately. Greaaat. (Sigh.)

Anywho, back when I first started getting more serious about nail polish, I came across a bunch of reviews and posts about Essie Starry Starry Night, and instantly fell in love.

This was also right around the time I learned about matte polishes and matte topcoats, and I desperately wanted to do a mattified manicure with Starry Starry Night, so I scampered off to buy Essie Matte About You (plus a backup bottle), since I figured it was way more cost effective to buy a topcoat that I could use to mattify all my polishes, instead of investing in just a few matte polishes.

Sadly, I was not able to procure a bottle of Starry Starry Night, since it costs about a zillion dollars on Ebay, and I draw the line at right around $60 (hellooooo, Clarins 230).

So, when China Glaze came out with its Metro collection, I spotted Skyscraper, and immediately thought, "Close enough!".

Now, I know there are some people out there who are kind of sticklers about dupes, and I'm definitely not claiming that Essie Starry Starry Night and China Glaze Skyscraper are dupes by any means. But they do both have silver glitter in a darkish blue jelly base, and are similar enough that Skyscraper has sated my lemming for Starry Starry Night.

I mean, if I can ever get my greedy little mits on a bottle of SSN for a reasonable price, I'd for sure snatch it up, but as long as I've got Skyscraper, I won't be totally heartbroken if that never happens.

China Glaze Skyscraper is chockablock full of tiny silver glitters in a dark blue jelly base. I'd almost call the color a dark denim blue. Application wasn't great. The first coat went on streaky as all get-out, and even the second coat didn't go on as smoothly or easily as I'd hoped, but three coats was enough to even it out and build it up to opaque.*

You can just barely make out my nail lines in this picture, so I guess three coats wasn't 100% opaque in extremely bright light, but for all intents and purposes, three coats works.
Artificial light, flash.

To my eyes, this is the most color-accurate picture. This polish seems to photograph slighter lighter than it is in brighter lights.
Artificial light, no flash.

Kinda blurry, sorry.
Indirect natural light.

I had the same ol' problem with this polish shrinking after I applied my topcoat. I'm thinking it might be time to just bite the bullet and buy myself a new bottle. I don't think I've ever actually finished a bottle of topcoat. They always get too stringy and globby about 2/3 of the way through. What's up with that, topcoat!??

Anyway, about twenty four hours after I did this mani, I decided to slap on my Essie Matte About You, and finally rock that matte "starry" manicure I've been craving for ages.

That's some serious shrinkage, right there.
Artificial light, flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Indirect natural light.

I can never really decide if I like matte manicures. When I'm planning them, I always think, "This is going to look so awesome and tuff!", and then, when I actually have it on my hands, I'm like, "This is falling way flat.". Of all the polishes I've mattified, though (all, like, three of them), this is my favorite so far.

Now that I've got these pictures up, and I'm looking at them in all their gigantic macro-shot glory, I'm kind of grossed out by how much of my tips are showing, so I think I'm going to go take this polish of right now.

What are your thoughts on matte polishes and matte topcoats? What's your favorite matte polish, or your favorite mattified manicure?




*I'm still using Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat for now.  Still gotta order a new NailTek II.

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.

I'm Sorry That My Titles Are Often Non Sequitur-esque. Okay, I'm Not, Really, But... (Also Known As: The Longest Blog Title I'll Probably Ever Have)

I apologize in advance for the quality the pictures in this post. Usually the macro setting on my camera works pretty well, but I'm still figuring out the best lighting for nail shots (probably full sun), as well as how different lighting affects the clarity and color of the pictures. Unfortunately, none of the pictures that I'll be using in this post came out quite as clear as I'd like. Oh well, you live, you learn.

Anyway...

I bought Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink, which is a glitter-beast consisting of magenta-y pink, red, blue, and gold microglitter in a clear base, on the same day that I bought Wet n' Wild Party Of Five Glitters. So late August. And it's just so sparkly and pink and sparkly and glittery and sparkly that I knew right away that it was the polish I'd be wearing on New Year's. So I swatched it on my nail wheel, and then tucked it away for four months.

I was so excited on December 31st when I finally got to pull it out and use it. At first, I thought I would probably have to throw on a base color, so I tried swatching it over a few of my Kleancolor metallics, but in the end, I just ended up using my regular basecoat, four coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink, and two coats of topcoat to even things out (since the glitter is super fine, it's not terribly rough, but it does eat topcoat more than a non-glitter polish would).

Mmmm, blurry.
Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

I'm pretty sure this was after the first coat of topcoat, so you can see that it's still looking not-quite-smooth. Much more color-accurate than the first picture.
Indoors, artificial light, flash.

Mmm, blurry again! A close up, so you can see the glitters better. Not great, but better.
Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Rockstar Pink gives pretty good coverage with four coats, as you can see. But, with that many coats, (plus two coats of topcoat) it also ends up chipping like crazy after about three days, as I mentioned in my last post.

Removal was tricky. I could've peeled most of it off in chunks by the fourth day, but I don't like what that does to my nails, so I tried the foil method, and I think this is the first time the foil method has ever failed me. So, in the end, I ended up having to scrub the crap out of each nail with two or three cotton balls soaked with remover, and got little, tiny glitters all over the goddamn place. This is NOT my favorite polish to remove.

It is very sparkly (and glittery and sparkly and pink and sparkly), though, and even though I'm not a super pink-y type of girl, I really liked it. At one point, I think I described it to my boyfriend as "Barbie diarrhea". But you know, in a good way.

Will I be wearing it again any time soon? To be honest, probably not, 'cause it was a pain to take off. But it looks so pretty in the bottle and on my fingers that I can't swear it off completely.

Now, usually, I feel so guilty for not posting more often that I end up cramming multiple manis into each post. But I'm cutting myself off at one today. That leaves me with two manis in my "Ready For Blog" folder, so hopefully I'll feel more motivated to post again soon. Hopefully...

Any of you wear any good glitter-bombs lately?

Today’s Post Has Been Brought To You By The Letter Teal.

Some of you may be saying right now, “But Aren, teal’s not a letter!”, and to that, I say, “Well, neither is toast and jam. Let’s move on.”

Today I’ve got three manis for you. I can’t recall exactly how long it’s been since I did two of them, but I’m currently wearing one of them, and I like it. Anyway, I do know the order I wore them in, so I’ll post them in that order.

First up, we have Nicole By OPI My Lifesaver with three coats of Kleancolor Puppy Love and a layer of Essie Matte About You on the accent nail.

My Lifesaver is one of my favorite polishes. I think, overall, teal in general is probably my favorite color for nail polish, and while I have a bunch of similar darker teals, My Lifesaver is the only pastel teal I own. I bought it forever ago, after my boyfriend and I agreed that it was the best color in the Nicole by OPI display at our local Jewel-Osco. At first, I was a little disappointed, because it dries darker than it looks in the bottle. In the bottle, it looks like a kind of soft  50’s teal. Once it dries, it reminds me more of a mix-me-with-pink-plastic-flamingos-wearing-sunglasses teal. (I just realized that that description may only make sense to myself, but just go with it.) But then I realized that I love it even when it's dry, so who cares if it's a little darker than I thought it would be? It's bright and fun and the first time my dad's girlfriend saw me wearing it, she immediately said, "Oh, Aren. That is so you.".

Annnywho, I was kind of just looking for an excuse to give Puppy Love, which is turquoise glitter in a clear (maybe verrrry slightly turquoise-tinted) base, a try, so I did an accent nail. And the combination didn’t thrill me. So I thought that maybe adding a matte topcoat would help, since I usually like the way mattified glitter polishes look, but no. That actually may have made it worse.

Artificial light, no flash. The three nails with just My Lifesaver on them make me so happy. Then the accent nail kills it for me.

Artificial light, flash. I love my nails this length.

 On their own, I think both colors are great. This particular mani didn’t do it for me, though. I hate it when that happens...

Next up is two coats of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie over two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint.

Now, I almost never go to Walgreens. My pharmacy is at CVS and I do my grocery shopping at Jewel-Osco, and those are pretty much the two stores I buy my polishes from (or I just order them online—so much easier). And I don’t even remember what I’d gone to Walgreens for. Iodine, I think? Anyway, as I was walking to the back of the store, I decided to take a detour through the cosmetics section to see what kind of pretties they had. And lo and behold, they had a giant Sinful Colors display! I haven’t seen Sinful Colors in yeaaars (I have three or four of them that I bought about six years ago), and immediately one polish caught my eye.

Nail Junkie is a teal jelly with gold/teal duochrome microglitter and multicolored iridescent glitter. And it’s called Nail Junkie. I wanted it. Badly. (Junkie has a sister--Hottie-- that looked like it had a deep periwinkle jelly base, and I wanted that one too, but not as fiercly). Unfortunately, funds were a bit tight, so I had to put them back and ended up leaving empty handed, since Walgreens was charging an arm and a leg for a tiny bottle of iodine.

I’ve never been one for willpower, though, so a few days later, I scraped together a few spare dollars, and sent my boyfriend back to Walgreens to get me my Nail Junkie.

For the first two days I owned it, I didn’t use it. I just stared at it in the bottle. It’s seriously gorgeous. I hate seeing my nail lines, though, and I’d seen another reviewer say that she needed something like six coats to build it up to almost opaque. And while her nails looked absofuckinglutely beautiful, I didn’t really want to have to do a basecoat, then six coats of polish, then a topcoat. I mean, come on…

So instead, I decided to just layer it over one of my many teal polishes. I realize this takes all the depth out of jellies, and that’s sad, but it kind of had to be done.

Natural light, shade (indoors). I totally forgot to do a bottle shot. Lame.

A closer view of the glitters. Ohhh, my God, my cuticals were so ragged. I'd just pushed them back and, as usual, forgot to moisturize.

The combination of Mint Sprint and Nail Junkie was pretty alright. I think next time, I’ll probably go with a more blue-based teal as a base color. Mint Sprint leans toward green, and I just didn’t feel like it was the ideal combination. Still pretty as heck, though!

And lastly, we have another mani with Mint Sprint as a base. My New Year’s mani (which I'll post in my next entry) was chipping like crazy by Wednesday, and since I had to go out of town that day to see my sister, I didn’t have time to take it off and redo my nails. So instead, I texted her to meet me at the train station with nail polish remover and cotton balls, and I threw my bottle of Mint Sprint in my purse so I could to a quick mani on the fly.

Once we met up, I took off my chippy polish, and threw on a coat of Mint Sprint. No basecoat, no topcoat. Just something to keep my hands from feeling naked. Then my sister presented me with a belated Christmas/Yule gift from her boyfriend ex-boyfriend... it’s complicated. He’d picked out (with my sister’s help) a bottle of L.A. Colors nail polish for me. D'awwwww! I don’t see a name on the bottom of the bottle—it’s just marked BCC 556—but man, oh, man, did he pick a good one (thanks again, Alex!).

L.A. Colors 556 (I’ll just assume that’s its name, though if I could rename it, I’d call it Gaia) is grass green and turquoise microglitter in a clear base. I. Fucking. Love it. I don’t have any other glitter polishes with this combination of colors, and it just makes me ridiculously happy to look at. And, just my luck, the colors look pretty great over Mint Sprint! There I was, thinking I’d have to go around with some half-assed mani for the day, and I ended up with a really cool teal and glitter mani. Sweet!

Natural light, shade (indoors). Mmmmmmm glittery goodness.

Natural light. Why do I not take more pictures in full sun? Possibly because I'm usually nocturnal. But damn they come out nice.

Natural light, shade (indoors). A close up, so you can see my precccccious

I’ll probably wear this mani for a few more days, just because I love this glitter so much. In the meantime, I’ll try to motivate myself to edit the pictures I have waiting in queue to be posted (I think there’s only two mani’s worth of pictures in my To Edit folder right now—I better get crackin’ on wearing more of my untrieds. Maybe work a few oldies but goodies in there, too.)

So, which one of these is your favorite? Did you do anything fun for New Year’s?

Santa & The Unicorn Princess...

(Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.) Keeping up with a nail blog is harder than I thought. Especially when you have other areas of your life that are demanding more of your attention these days.

I'm trying though. I may procrastinate and almost-but-not-quite bother to make posts on a fairly regular basis, but every week or two, I let the guilt of letting down my legions of loyal fans get to me, and I finally upload all my pictures and edit them in Photoshop (oh, God, even just describing this process is exhausting...), and then come here and write some amazingly clever post that leaves you all in googly-eyed awe for the rest of the day, because my posts are just so worth the wait...

So anyway, let's get right down to pictures.

First up, we have a layered mani that I did... uhh... a while ago. But not too long ago. After I got my Clarins 230. Which was right around the same time that I got my first Kleancolor haul. And as soon as I saw Kleancolor Neon Purple next to Clarins 230, I knew it was Unicorn Princess love forever.

 

With flash. This is the most accurate picture of the bunch, color-wise. Can you see why I wanted to pair these colors?

Without flash.

A different angle, to show off some of 230's rainbowy goodness.

Then I was like, "Well, a Unicorn Princess would probably have, like, glitter too, right?", so I added a coat of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell.

Holyglitteringunicornprincessofdoom!

This picture kind of makes me lose my mind with unicorn-induced euphoria. So many colors.

One thing I noticed that I didn't anticipate is that adding the Chunky Holo Bluebell kind of obscured the Clarins when viewed from an angle. From straight on, I could still see the reddish shimmer, but at an angle, all I saw was the Kleancolor. So that was kind of sad.

Still, it was kind of nice look. I think if I was going to do this manicure again, I'd probably skip the Chunky Holo Bluebell (even though I think it's very pretty--especially in the bottle *drools over that picture again*), and I'd only do one coat of 230 over the Neon Purple instead of two. Two coats was pretty, but it turned the Neon Purple darker and gave it more of a red tone than I had really wanted. Plus I spent sixty dollars on that bottle of polish, and I fully intend to make it last!

And, because it's already five days after Christmas (and eight days after Yule--and I flaked out on BOTH holidays this year!), I figure I should probably post my holiday mani.

I was originally planning on doing all ten fingers with Kleancolor Metallic Red and a coat of OPI Fresh Frog Of Bel Air, but like, two days before Christmas, I painted my nails with Kleancolor Silver Spark and decided that I liked it's simplicity so much that I was only going to do a single holiday accent nail. This mani pretty much summed up my feelings about the holidays this year.

Okay, guys, everybody squeeze in for a group shot! Silver Spark, stop making that face!

Here's me during the holidays this year: Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Oh, it's Christmas today? Blah.

A close up of my accent nail. My dad and his girlfriend kind of loved this nail, I think. It makes me so happy that they get excited about my manicures.

Let me just say this: Kleancolor Silver Spark is a BITCH AND A HALF to remove. Foil method next time, for sure. I didn't think I'd need it, but dang was I wrong.

I dunno. Much like the actual holidays this year, I don't have much to say about this mani. It happened. That's about it.

I've got more manis to post, but, to be totally honest, I hate editing pictures to get them ready for posting, and two mani's worth of pics is all I'm willing to edit in one sitting. But just know that there are more where these came from...

Anywho, I'm running out of steam. It's been a long year, and I'm kinda tired tonight. Hope you all had a happy Yule/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Festivus/whatever, and that you all have a safe and happy New Year's!

For 2011, Aren OUT!

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.

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. 

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.