NOTD: Vday Water Marble + Tutorial

So, I thought I should do a Valentine's Day water marble (a couple days ago ... this was Tuesday's NOTD).  I'm pretty happy with the way the design turned out, but I really was not loving the pink on me.  Really not sure why but it bugged me a little bit all day.

I usually - but not always - stick with the same brand for all colors of a water marble.  It's not that different brands don't work together, more that when you stick to the same brand, they're more likely to have the same consistency, and therefore a more even spread .. but even then that's not always true.  The 2 main rules to great water marbles:  Practice & Experiment. 

For my base color I used Sally Hansen Petite Pink, then I marbled with that & Sally Hanson Beet Stain & Sally Hanson Tassel:

It was late when I finished this & apparently I forgot to take pics like I usually do when I finish under the natural lamp, so sorry about that ... but hopefully you'll forgive me since I did do a tutorial =)  When I polled if people would like to see more water marbles with different colors, or only new designs, the results were evenly split 50/50 ... so I guess half of you maybe don't care about this but for the rest, here you go:



More to come =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Poll & RBL

So, I am a couple days behind here, as the poll finished Thursday & I got my order on Friday ... but weekends are for catching up, right?

Lots of people actually not buying any, but personally I ended up in the "some of both" category. I posted my Barielle haul a few days ago (here), and now here is the most expensive polish I've ever purchased, the Resue Beauty Lounge blogger collection:


I can't wait to wear these, although my current NOTD is actually not one of these colors yet. I've got a Konad masterpiece on my fingers right now, but the sun is down so I probably won't post it until tomorrow when I can finish taking proper pics. But I've still got plenty to post up tonight. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Polls Coming & Going

It was fairly obvious from the beginning which way this one was leaning. And you may have noticed I'd adjusted my style a little in response.

On another note ... I have a very strong desire for the Blogger collection from Rescue Beauty Lounge ... on the other hand, I have a very strong aversion to paying $18/bottle for polish. Especially after a couple of other recent hauls of around the same price range that netted me a lot more than freaking 3 bottles of polish. Still. They're gorgeous! And kind of historic, like the All Lacquered Up collection by Barielle (which makes up a goodly portion of one of the aforementioned hauls). I mean, this is The Limited Edition Blogger Collection. I need this ... or do I?

Thus the inspiration for my new poll: How much of which collection will you be buying? Check it out & let me know your thoughts! Thanks for voting & for reading =)

~Colette

Results: Nail Length Poll

So, I managed to get quite a bit behind (again), and now it's later than I planned on posting & I'm not sure if I'll get everything done but I'll give it a try. Another Sunday post-a-thon =)

First up, wanted to just touch briefly on the poll that finished last Sunday:

I have to admit, that while "very long" won out, I was surprised at how close "fetish long" came - I guess it's just a matter of personal preference. I like them, and you guys seem to like them =) And I guess at least if you don't like them you keep your mouth shut LOL because I've never gotten a single disparaging comment or email.

The poll on post length isn't quite finished yet, but it became pretty clear early on which direction in was leaning ... I've been trying to break things down a little more, so with that in mind, I've got I think at least 4 more posts to squeeze in, TOTD, 2 NOTD & another guest NOTD, so I've got to get on to those =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Playing Catch-Up

I am SO behind. Behind on posting, WAY behind on replying to comments, and SUPER behind on reading everyone else’s blog. I keep telling myself this old comp is better than nothing, but I swear it’s slow enough to make baby Jesus cry. Today Internet Explorer crashed 3 times in a row before it would even stay up and running. Trying to do anything on it kind of puts me immediately in a bad mood because I got used to clicking on something & having it open right away, not having to wait 5 minutes … it’s only been 2 weeks but it honestly feels like so much longer.

I keep telling myself maybe they’ll finish early, maybe I won’t have to wait the full 3 weeks (if not longer …..) but I will not be happy until it’s back on my desk & everything is reloaded on it & things can go back to normal. Still, I’d rather attempt patience & fight the urge to pull my hair out in frustration than go totally AWOL & not post at all. So here we are.

Anyway, according to my poll (which finished like a week ago & I'm really quite late posting the results), the economy sucks. News flash, I know, but really, almost 1/3 of people who responded to my April poll on blogging at work were unemployed:

A lot of people seem to be under surveillance also - my sympathies LOL =) And more people than I expected are able to get away with as much as they want to.

I am still rocking Orange Marmalade on my nails (since Monday!) and I am happy to say I haven't lost a single rhinestone & aside from some very minimal tip wear it's still looking quite fantastic, no chipping. I've found a couple of things that My Nails Look Like over the past couple days. The first was a pic of a sunset in the Controller's office at work I noticed when I was printing checks. It was kind of hard to get a color-accurate pic, it was covered in glass so I was getting glare no matter what I did:

The second was the shirt I wore on Wednesday ... I don't normally really try to match my outfit with my nails, but come on, I own exactly 1 orange shirt, how could I not wear it when I wore orange polish for the first time since Halloween?

Also (drumroll here) ... I finally got my mom to wear blue nail polish! & now she is hooked LOL. She kept asking me when I was going to take a pic of her nails so I got a shot the other day. Revlon Color Beam Sheer, Bright Sky:

That's all for now, but I've still got some more catching up & a lot of stuff on my plate for upcoming posts:

• I am rapidly approaching my 100th post! I hope I'll have something cool to post for it LOL but I'll just have to see exactly where it ends up falling.
• Fresh NOTD coming this weekend, I really can't remember I've had one color on for this long but it's been a busy week, I hung out with my friend almost every night before she left out of town for a few months.
• Books! I've got I think 5 or 6 more books & reviews to post up.
• Review of the Revlon products that I received ... I won't be actually wearing the fake nails, but I'll give them some attention in addition to the false eyelashes.
• My boss gave me a sample of a Mary Kay product called Satin Hands - I have an old version of it, but the new version is a little different configuration so I will be doing a review & comparison of the old set vs. the new set.

Thanks for reading!

~Colette

Polls

So, I'm a curious sort of person. And I'm curious about my readers =) And other bloggers in general.

I usually do my posting & replying to comments in the evening, either when I get home from work, or after dinner (or both LOL). Seems like a lot of the action happens during the day though, so this month's poll has to do with work: How much leeway do you have?

Check out the poll in the upper right & let me know: Can you blog at work? & if so how much? Personally, I'm lucky if I'm able to sneak a peek at my gmail to look at my comments, maybe post a reply or 2 if I know my boss is in a meeting & won't be back to lurk over my shoulder. But I fondly remember previous jobs I've had where I spent a good portion of the day browsing the web & reading forums.

Fulfill my curiosity! And feel free to leave a comment with what kind of job you have & if you love it or hate it. Personally, while I am grateful to be gainfully employed in our current crappy economy, I HATE my job with a passion. HATE IT. But I'm good at it. So I guess that should count for something ... right?

On to the results of my last poll (The cut-off first option was "Yes! The more polish the better!"):

I was a little surprised to see the margin was so large. More than 2 to 1. Which I guess is a good thing since I've already posted TOTD twice LOL. Plus! I almost doubled the number of votes from my first poll, which is awesome. Of course this one was up longer, but I kind of like having a poll going & a month seems like a good length of time for now.

Thanks for reading

~Colette

Poll #1 Results & Poll #2 Up

LOL, I feel a little slow on the uptake - it's been finished for a couple days now, but I kind of forgot about it. I don't know if there's a way to like embed the poll's results in a post for posterity (if you know, let me know!) so I'll just break it down generic-style with a screenshot:

Kind of a puny poll I know but on the other hand blogging has become such a part of my routine I have to remind myself I've only been doing it like a month & a half. And in that light I don't think I'm doing too bad with readership.

I know there's got to be code somewhere to change the color of the bars, this is so hard to read with this color scheme I'll really try to figure it out.

I was surprised how many chose "Sorted? Uhhhh....". If you can't read the text, it had 11 votes. Only 1 less than Brand which had 12, with Color coming in 3rd with 6 votes.

Now, on to the 2nd poll. My mom (have I mentioned she's cool? She only goes online like once a week & one of the things she does is catch up with my blog) says to me the other day, "Why aren't there any pictures of toes on the blogs?" to which my response was "Because feet are gross." She tried very hard to convince me that my toes are cute (will any mom ever admit that any part of their child is less than cute?) and so I decided I'd put it to the test ... errr, to the poll ... well, I though I'd ask what you thought.

So? Go & VOTE - are feet gross or would you like to see some POTD (Pedicure of the Day) ... or would that be TOTD (Toes of the Day)? After all, we call them NOTD (Nails of the Day), not MOTD (Manicure of the Day). Hmmm... enough acronyms. I'll leave this poll up a good while, since although I keep my toes painted all winter they don't start getting real attention until the sandals come out.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette