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.

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.

Some Ladies Purple Their Fingernails.

...So much for not slacking. *dies*

Well, I've painted my nails a few times since my last post, and I only snapped pictures of a few of the polishes (shame on me!). And then I totally lazed out and didn't bother editing the pictures, and then I was all "Ughhhh, whyyy?" about having to put any effort into writing a post, so, uh, I didn't.

But I am now. So at least there's that, right?

Anyway, today I bring you pictures of Kleancolor Holo Chrome. I bought the whole six piece Holo set on Amazon (it's labeled as the Starry Spring collection). Five of the six Holos are jelly based (Holo Yellow has a more metallic finish than the others) and all of them fairly packed with holographic microglitter (read: RAINBOW SPARKLIES!!!!!).

Now, there's a bit of a pattern to this collection. Holo Pink is a pastel pink jelly with holo microglitter. Holo Blue is a pastel blue with holo microglitter. Holo Orange and Holo Green follow suit. And even though Holo Yellow has a slightly different base, the actual color of the polish is... you guessed it: yellow.

So it stands to reason that Holo Chrome would be a some type of chrome polish with holo microglitter, right? WRONG! It's purple. But it's called Holo Chrome. Because just calling it Holo Purple would've been stupid.

Anywho, Holo Chrome is one of the two polishes in the collection that have a second, more subtle glitter added to the mix (the other polish is Holo Orange).  Holo Chrome not only has the standard holo microglitter, but there's also some tiny iridescent blue/violet glitter in there. You can't really tell unless you really look for it, but when combined with the purple jelly base of this polish, that subtle iridescent glitter really helps this polish to pop.

Artificial light. You can kinda make out the iridescent blue glitters in this picture. Like I said, super subtle, especially paired with all the holo glitter. But it's definitely in there.

Artificial light. A little blurry to help show the glitter.

Artificial light. And angles! Because it's always good to have some perspective.

 Application was fine. Because of the jelly base, these polishes take a few coats to build up to opaque. I think I used four coats* for this one. The polish dries pretty quickly, though, so that kind of makes up for the need for so many coats. The finish is a bit gritty, and it took two coats of topcoat to even out the surface (and, as you can see in the pictures, it still wasn't quite glass-smooth).

Flash. Holo Chrome is the least pastel of the collection. All the other polishes are quite a bit less bold.

Flash. Oh, holo glitter, I love you so. I seriously just sit and stare at my hands all the time when I use the polishes from this collection.

Some people have complained that Kleancolor polishes have a horrible smell to them. I haven't noticed this with any of mine. They may smell a bit different than some of my other polishes, but it's been my experience that different brands and different formulations have slightly different chemically smells on a fairly regular basis. The smell of Kleancolors doesn't strike me as particularly strong or offensive.

Natural light, shade.

Natural light, shade. Again. And now I'm getting distracted and just want to finish this post, so I'm not going to think of a good caption for this one.

I really like this color. I'm like a four year old. Anything that sparkles--especially rainbow sparkles--is going to score huge points in my book. And ever since I read the book 'Hailstones And Halibut Bones' by Mary O'Neill when I was, like, seven years old, purple polish has had a special place in my heart. So yeah, this polish is chock full of win.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (I paid $12.95 for the six piece set)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 5/5

 And, just 'cause it still makes the little kid in me happy:

What Is Purple?

by Mary O'Neill

Time is purple just before night

when most people turn on the light--
but if you don't it's a beautiful sight.

Asters are purple, there's purple ink.

Purple's more popular than you think...

it's sort of a great Grandmother to pink.

There are purple shadows and purple veils,

some ladies purple their fingernails.

There's purple jam and purple jell

and a purple bruise next day will tell

where you landed when you fell.

The purple feeling is rather put-out

the purple look is a definite pout.

But the purple sound is the loveliest thing

It's a violet opening in the spring.

*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.