October & November Hauls

I've lost track of exactly how many hauls this was ... So I tried to just break it up into logical groups LOL.  First group is Claire's polishes - I went with the intention of getting some of the new mood changing colors, but when I saw them in person I wasn't impressed.  But I found these 2 on clearance:

 

 

Left to right:  Daisy, Kelly Green

 

I also hit probably 8 Dollar Trees - but I only had luck at I think 2 of those stores:

 

 

Top:  NYC 225, NYC Molten Metal, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Reddy to Mingle.  Bottom:  Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Purple Diamond, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Diamond (I don't know what's up with these 2 little stumpy bottles BTW, I actually already had both of these colors but they are in bottles like the third one), Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lavender Pearl.

 

I had a 20% off coupon for Sallys.  And I took full advantage =)  A few Finger Paints:

 

 

Holly Good Time, Merry Mittens, Just Plum Fun.

 

Some Orly:

 

 

Top row, holiday colors:  Candy Cane Lane, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.  Bottom row, I lucked out & found half of the Cosmic FX collection on clearance:  Out of This World, Lunar Eclipse, It's Not Rocket Science.

 

They also had most of the China Glaze Christmas collection ... I tried to restrain myself, but now I'm wishing I'd picked up that dark green shimmer, the dark red, maybe the blue ... LOL I'll try to be happy with what I have:

 

 

Left to right:  Mistletoe Kisses, Cheers to You, Midnight Kiss, Peace on Earth, Sugar Plums.

 

Enough polish?  No, not yet!  While scouring Sallys looking for the rest of the Cosmic FX on sale (no luck unfortunately ...) I stopped at a nail shop I'd always just driven by ... and picked up some dusties:

 

Top - out of the 3 OPIs, only one actually had a label, so...:  Have You Seen My Limo?, ??, & ?.  The middle one gets 2 ?? because not only is it not labelled, the bottle claims it's OPI Acrylic Base Coat - which, as I've already worn it, I can assure you it is not.  It might not even be OPI, but I don't care because it went on like butter & looked awesome on.  Bottom row, all China Glaze:  Rapture, Vertical Rush, Orchid Shadow & Whimsical.

 

So, those are my hauls over the past couple weeks.  I feel closer to being caught up posting this, although I'm still like 4 NOTDs behind.  But they're on the way =)  Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

NOTD: Purplish Marble

When I do one marble, it always makes me want to do another with other colors. So I gave in to the urge. I could see these 3 colors sitting next to each other in one of my unworn shoe boxes (everything gets put away properly in the Helmers after I use it), and it wasn't until I actually pulled them out that I realized it's actually only two colors. Observe:


The Jean-Michelle polish on the left (which I've never heard of this brand before my mom picked this bottle up for me at the thrift store) is called Cassis. The 2 NYCs are both labelled as #239 (no name), but you can see they're obviously different. Either mislabelled or part of very poor quality control between batches.

The marble actually did not turn out great in my opinion, but wonderful thing about marbles is that doesn't matter too much LOL, they're always cool even when not what intended. Unfortunately, I was quite a clutz, and got quite a few dings into this before I managed to get pics, so I do apologize but that's why I didn't take that many pics, just enough to show the pattern. This is over a base of China Glaze Liquid Leather:


I now feel the need to redeem myself with a SUPER COOL marble, so I think I'll see what I can come up with =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

1st TOTD

I decided I'm going with TOTD instead of POTD (Toes vs. Pedicure). I know the poll isn't over yet, but it's leaning pretty strongly towards "yes" & I don't have anything else to post about today so here we go. I can't say I'm exactly happy with how my feet look, but I guess they're not too bad. Just about everything looks horrible when you zoom in so close

I've got 2 disclaimers before the pics though:

#1 - Excuse my right foot, I got a little too intense & wounded myself scrubbing at the callus on the top of my foot (which is, might I add, the DUMBEST place I've ever heard of to get a callus. Seriously, WTF?). I'm a delicate flower & I don't even have to necessarily break the skin to get a scab.

#2 - Also excuse the piece of lint on my left toe that I obviously didn't catch before the taking picture & now after uploading & seeing it larger than life, I'm too lazy to take off my socks & take different pics without lint.

So, disclaimers aside, here's my current pedi; New York Color Fifth Avenue (those are Frisky's feet in the bottom shot ... not exactly in the way but certainly in my business =) as usual):

If you didn't know, by the way, it is really hard to get a good photo of feet! I initially was going to try & prop up my feet on my desk to get them under the "natural" lamp & try to get the bottle in there too - then I (brilliantly) realized my lamp is on a clippy-clamp & I could move it from my shelf to the edge of my desk & just prop my feet on my little footrest. Worked pretty well, although I think I'll have to find something to drape it with & make a more neutral background LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD & Impulse Buying

Well, actually Impulse Buying is coming first. (And be forewarned: there a LOT of pics coming up here.)

Is there a word, like kleptomaniac, except for nail polish & I pay for it? If so, that's what I am. It's like I had a compulsion on me ... it was undeniable. I had to buy nail polish.

First I discovered a Dollar Tree practically right next door to my job that I had somehow overlooked:

L'Oreals & Maybellines - my favorites are the 3 on the end: Celadon Shimmer, Jaded Blues & Blue Riders.

Then I needed to pick up a couple things at Target. Who can go to Target without at least glancing at the nail polish?

Rimmel Cat Fight & Scene Stealer. Both of these are considerably more sparkly in person.

Then, a friend at work gave me a coupon to Ulta. There is not one that's exactly convenient for me, but I was game to hunt a location down. The coupon was $3.50 off $10.00 or more - I didn't think I'd have a problem getting to $10, and I was right. I mean, I could go broke in that place! I managed to kinda-sorta restrain myself.

My very first Piggy Polish, Mermaid (which reminds me a LOT of Urban Decay Shattered), NYC Green with Envy, & then OPI Russian Navy, My Private Jet, & Significant Other Color.

So, that really should have been enough polish for the day, right? Well, except I'm still on the hunt for those Barielles, and there were 2 CVSs on the way home from Ulta ...

Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Flash & Spark from CVS # 1 & from #2 Milani Lemongello, Ms Milani, Cloud 9 & ... Cloud 9.

Weird huh? Yeah, that's what I thought. Not sure if it's mislabelled or what but these are obviously 2 different colors & I'd like to find out what the purple is really called. I'm assuming the blue is the "real" one because the name makes more sense for a blue.

So, that leads to my NOTD, which is the SH Flash:

And yes, that's a little bit of non-Konad nail art on my pinkie. I didn't have time to Konad & hadn't used any rhinestones in a while so I busted them out & am apparently a tad rusty since it turned out a little crooked. And they're a much brighter pink than shows in the pic. Not bad though. I also wish I'd stuck it on my ring finger instead of the pinkie, but oh well. I also usually use a little Cina to glue them down & I lazied out & just pressed them into semi-wet polish & then put on top coat.

One more thing before I really have to go to bed:

This was the sunset as I left the last CVS & headed towards home. I probably have my mom to thank for my love & appreciation of nature, and I stopped to take a pic because it really was gorgeous. After rushing from place to place it was good to take a moment, slow down, and savor something beautiful. Another simple little pleasure.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Sometimes less is more

With Konad sometimes it's easy to get carried away. Especially after last week's manicure gave me a false sense of confidence regarding my double-stamping skills. I love my base color, I haven't worn red in a really long time, and I like the black over top, but I am disgusted & disappointed with the final design. Even if I'd managed to get everything even (which is tricky if not impossible since my nails are varying lengths) it ended up reminding me more of upholstery than anything.

Nubar Unfaithful Red from the Liquid Metals collection, Konaded with black special polish & plate m4. I even did a pretty good job of painting neatly & cleaning up everything with an orange stick.

Usually I do my nails once a week, but I don't know that I can stand this for that long. Right now my intention is to sleep on it, see if somehow I miraculously love them in the morning & if not redo everything after I go to lunch with my parents. Like I said, I love the red & the black so I may stick with the same colors and a more moderate hand with the stamper.

Anyway, the moral of the above story, as the title says: Sometimes less is more. On the other hand - sometimes more is just more & great. And while my day ended on a somewhat sour note with a manicure that did not live up to the image I had in mind, the rest of my day was a lovely polish-buying happyfest.

Here's my cat making room for herself in between my purchases & haul from the library. She's old (17) so she does whatever & goes wherever she pleases.

I stopped several places, a couple Sallys to pick up more of the Romantique collection, where I also ran across a few clearance items that needed to come home with me, and a few cheapos at Target that were lonely. Best bang for the buck was at Dollar Tree, though. Another thing to thank my fellow bloggers for, I had never been in a Dollar Tree but so many people said they had oldie-goodie polishes I put it on my to-do list & this is what I turned up at my first stop (there are 2 other stores I know of to raid at a later date):

Top row is some nail art rhinestones, and some Cover Girl. Nailslicks: Chocolate Mint, Galactic Green, Sunrise, & Midnight Metal. & Mattalic (which I think have to be about 10+ years old because I remember purchasing a couple when they first came out) Pink Zinc & Silver Violet. Bottom Row is Sally Hansen Super Shine Naturistics Aura Pearl, New York Color Cozy Cottage, and Loreal: Brave (Bijou Crystals), B. Strong (Bijou Gems), Shocking (Crystals), Hopeful (Bijou Facets), B. Rebllious (Crystals), B. Adventurous (Crystals), Sweet (Facets), B. Impulsive (Crystals), & another B. Hopeful. Almost none of the 3-packs had the same set of colors, so I counted myself lucky to only end up with 1 duplicate. I have no idea when this line originally came out, how old they are, but you can see a couple of them are pretty separated.

So, with all the shopping I did not get around to doing anything with my existing stash except add to it. I think that's like a step past procrastination, not just putting off the task but making it a larger task at the same time! Oh well, the perils of being a nail polish addict I suppose. It's hard to go anywhere that has polish without looking, and finding at least 1 thing to pick up.

Thanks for Reading.

~Colette