Picture Dump

As promised, here's my picture dump. Not as many as I thought I had. Sorry!

This is a failed attempt at Sally Hansen's Crackle in "Ink" over Savvy "Ruby Slippers". The Ruby Slippers had chipped and I didn't touch it up before I slopped the Crackle on it, so this is a hot mess. No, actually, just a mess.

My hubby and I enjoy spending our Sunday afternoons walking around the local flea market, Trader's Village. I believe it's the largest outdoor flea market in the Southwest. The last time we were there was the first time I was greeted with this huge display of I.C.E. polish. I've never heard of it and never seen it anywhere else. The bottles look a lot like Fingerpaints bottles. All this gorgeous color for $1 a bottle!

I bought two, Neon Yellow and Neon Purple. No swatches yet. I've only worn the purple. I liked it, it was a nice cream (my favorite formula).

My tiny polish stash. No Helmers or anything around here. One thing you will find about us, Hermoine is all about the good, high-end polish, while I'm cheap and stick to Sinful Colors and drugstore stuff. That's why we're a good team; if one of us doesn't buy it, maybe the other one will!

Speaking of Sinful Colors, this is Serena and Chloe. I've had it for years and didn't know it; I found it in the back of my under-sink storage in the bathroom. Don't know why I didn't remember it,  because I sure do like it!

This is OPI "Don't Mess With OPI". I love this one. Oh, the story behind the blackboard note: My workplace had a Mardi Gras party...on March 17...which is St. Patrick's Day...and a Thursday...and was 8 days after Fat Tuesday...and they asked us all to dress and decorate in green...but it was definitely a Mardi Gras party, not a St. Patrick's Day party, because I asked. So after my head exploded from the stupidity, I looked up the French word for Thursday, and wrote that on my message board. Because I am a smart ass. The other background stuff on my wall is because I'm Catholic. So there's your warning. Look out, Smart Ass Catholic with loud nails coming through!

I found these cute glitter polishes and squealed like a fangirl and bought them for my birthday. Got home and did a skittles with them--and discovered they are a kids' play dress-up polish and they were a peel-off polish. Not a total fail, because I love to peel things. But not a polish I can wear, because I'm hard on my nails and use them as tools.

And finally, my Holy Grail last season. OPI San-Tan-Tonio. I looked all over for this thing. Every display of the Texas line I found, they had every color but this one. Which is weird, because I haven't seen people around town wearing it. You'd think if it was always sold out, I'd run into it out in the wild somewhere. My notes on this one say "Sinful Colors base, 2 coats of color, Sinful Colors top coat."

--Leisa

Hello from the absent Other Person

Howdy howdy howdy! I'm Leisa, the other person on this blog.You know, the one who never posts. (Hermoine, I don't know how to update the "about us" part, so please move some or all of this there, or tell me how and I'll do it!)

Like I said, I'm Leisa (I'm not cool enough to think of a good pseudonym). I'm 44, live in Texas, been married 20 years as of Sept 14, and a servant to 3 dogs and a cat. I work in the wireless industry, doing Tier 3 tech support for corporate and government accounts (I won't mention the company, but one of their logo colors is one of the streakiest polish colors known to woman).

I've known Hermoine (that's so hard to remember to write!) for almost 9 years. We met on another message board and became friends when she started a private board for our little group of friends who shared being on a weight loss journey with the need to be snarky about people who would eat 3 pounds of cheese in a sitting then whine that they didn't lose any weight. (OMG, longest sentence EVAH!) We met in person in 2005 (butt-a-FOO-co!) on a girl's weekend at the beach where there was so much awesome in one place that even Katrina and Rita couldn't keep us away!

Right now I'm off work while I battle a recurrence of cancer. I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer in Nov, 2008 (that's the "butt" reference H mentions in her "About Me" post). By the time it was discovered, it had spread to my ovaries and appendix (both useless organs, so no great loss). My last blood test showed a tiny fall in my CEA (tumor markers), so I'm hoping that's a trend that will continue.

I am also a huge abuser of parentheses (look, here's another one!)

OH! Forgot to mention polish--DUH! I got hooked on polish and polish blogs the beginning of this year. I don't wear make up, not because I don't like it, but because 1) I'd rather sleep later than get up early enough to "do my face" (I have a 45-60 minute drive to work) and 2) My eyesight is so bad that even using my 10x magnifying lighted mirror, I still have problems seeing well enough to apply my makeup. Plus, with all the fabulous, unorthodox polish colors out now, I can be loud and rowdy and express myself through my nails!

To get started, I'm going to do a picture dump of some old photos I have taking up pixels on my FB profile. That's coming in a few minutes, so stay tuned!

--Leisa

The Bride was Happi!

I went to northern Ohio this weekend. Why? Because my favorite sister-in-law got married! And since I live 10 hours away there wasn't much I could do but offer advice and provide some phalange assistance.

Ron and our kiddo drove up on Wednesday, taking nine of my polishes with them. Eep! Not my OPI Nice Stems! I also sent along OPI Princesses Rule!, Zoya's Gilda, China Glaze's Naked and Good Witch, but ultimately the Bride and I chose Zoya's Happi.

Hello, Kitty!

I'd also found Hello Kitty nail appliques at Sephora the weekend before...how could I pass those up? The Bride love Hello Kitty (as do I!). She had HK on her wedding ring finger and a butterfly applique from the same pack on her other hand. This was also The Bride's first professional manicure! hence the little bit of nail art. Thank goodness the technician didn't get too crazy. Nail art seems pretty big in northern Ohio along with nose piercings and lots of boobs. Seriously, the cleavage display was off the leash, including mine!

I changed my mind.

I was wearing OPI's Wing It! the day before but my thumb nail chipped. Grrrr. So while Ron was running about delivering cakes to the hall, I was back at the hotel painting my nails. This is two coats of Princesses Rule with two coats of I Lily Love You. Not my best polish job but it was fun and festive for a joyous day.

Happi's really zooming up my personal charts. It's such a versatile pink! It looks good on my pasty hands, on Miss M's hands, and now on The Bride's hands. We're all different skin tones (The Bride got a spray tan the day before!) but it look great on everybody. It had enough fun and funkiness for the big day without being too far out there.

Hyper Fairy Overdrive!

Oh, it's been rainy and ugly here in SE Virginia. My pictures have been crummy; I prefer to get polish shots in natural sunlight since I don't have a light box. Yesterday I wore China Glaze 2NITE, the yummy medium blue holo, and there was no sun. GAH!

I felt the need to wear something pink today after a series of yellow, purple, and blue nails. I pulled out my first Butter London I bought at Christmas time, Fairy Lights. It was part of that kit that includes a tiny bottle of their Powder Room remover. The remover's long gone but the polish isn't.

I know you've seen Fairy Lights and might be thinking, "Wait a minute, why is there sparkle?"

Look at the holo-sparkle! Edward the Pillow-Biter's got nothing on me!

Because I can't leave well-enough alone. Fairy Lights is a pretty silvery-pink foil that totally plays up my ridgey nails, even with a base coat of Bridge the Ridge. I needed at least two coats of ridge filler. So of course I had to slap a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top of the Lights!



Ugh, the ridges in my thumb are driving me nuts!

Fairy Lights is very very pretty! However, I didn't like the way the brush felt in my hand. The handle is stubby and it wasn't comfortable in hand. I prefer something a bit longer; that seems to give me more leverage. The handle I do like? The Poshe' top coat!

Anyway, I don't think I like this for me. Foil polishes are gorgeous in the bottle by on my nails it looks like hell. The ridges are very visible even after a good base coat. And it kind of screams Grandma to me and even though I know there are women out there who are grandmothers at age 43, I'm not one of them! Once I get around to doing a giveaway (sometime in August due to my crazy travel ahead) I think I'll put this one up for the contest.

By the way, I'm going out of town for my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend. I sent along nine polishes for the bride-to-be to choose from, the OPI Nice Stems collection, a couple of pale pink China Glazes (I believe Bad Witch and Naked), a couple of Zoya's (Happi and something else). Chris loves Hello Kitty and I found HK nail appliques at Sephora, hehe! I'm wearing an aqua blue cotton sundress, multi-colored sandals, and a mustard yellow handbag. I'm getting my pedicure today with China Glaze's Blue Iguana and painting my nails with OPI's Wing It, the polish that screams ME!!!

Ridge Fillers: Which One's the Best?

I have horribly ridgy nails. I've read it's due to a vitamin deficiency so perhaps I need to pop some Flintstone's but let's face it, at 43 I don't think my nails are going to go perfectly smooth with tons of One-a-Day +Iron.

My nails in their natural state. Love the acetone stains!

I've been using CND Ridge-Out since All Lacquered Up mentioned it on her blog a few years ago. However, being the polish hound I am, I've branched out. I have four different ridge fillers and on Friday afternoon, while "The Sweetest Thing" was playing in the background (darn it, my Tivo'd version didn't have "It's Too Big to Fit in Here." The song's wicked dirty and totally hilarious!), I tested them so you don't have to.

Here's the line-up of all the products used:

Zoya Remove+ for nail prep, the fillers, Orly's Frolic, and Seche Vite

Each nail on my left hand received two coats of the following:

• Pinky: CND Ridge-Out
• Ring: Bridge the Ridge from Sally Beauty
• Middle: Orly Ridgefiller
• Index: Essie Fill the Gap!
• Thumb: Nothing

Here are my thoughts:

• Pinky: CND goes on smooth and dries fairly quick. CND decreased the amount of product though, from .5 fluid ounces down to around .37 fl. Ticks me off because it cost more for less product and more glass. It dries to a semi-matte finish.
• Ring: Bridge the Ridge's brush is all sorts of sprung out. It dried to a matte finish quickly, the matte-iest of all the fillers. The brush didn't affect the finished nail so don't be afraid to buy it. .5 fluid ounces.
• Middle: Orly gives you the most porduct for your money but I don't like as much. It seems to take longer to dry and if you're not careful it'll puddle at your cuticles It never dried to the matte finish that I was expecting. .6 fluid ounces.
• Index: Fill the Gap the best bang for my buck because I picked it up for $2.00 at a Trade Secret clearance!!! It's easy to apply and dries to a semi-matte finish fairly quickly.

You can see the Orly on the middle finger, all white and stuff. Ugh!

Polishing went fairly well with all four products. But putting polish on my un-treated thumb nail was interesting. It seemed like the brush dragged on my nail instead of flowing on smoothly. I used Orly's Frolic since it's a creme and I thought it would show the differences the best. Best thing about Frolic? It's a one-coater!!!

Taken before any clean-up.



Can you see the ridges on the right? I didn't realize it would be so blurry.

My overall thoughts?

• Orly Ridgefiller: It's okay. You get a lot of product for your money but it's not as easy to work with as their polishes are. Found at Sally Beauty, Ulta, and some CVS stores. Rank: #4
• CND Ridge-Out: It's the priciest for what you're getting. Plus you might have a hard time finding it locally. I can only find CND at my local Blooming Beauty Supply. Rank: #3
• Bridge the Ridge: I love how this dries to a matte finish so quickly. In my mind that lets me know my nails are ready for color. But the brush was wonky and sprung out. Found at Sally Beauty which is everywhere! Rank: #2
• Essie Fill the Gap: Even at the full retail price of what, $8.00, I think this provides the best base for color. Goes on smooth, dries quickly to a semi-matte finish, great brush. Now that Essie is found everywhere it's probably the most accessable filler around. Rank: #1!

I'll continue to alternate my fillers but I wish I could return the Orly. Sally's given me grief when I tried to return a crap polish since it touched my skin (HORRORS!). Due to the decrease in product I won't buy CDN again. I could trim the rogue bristles on the Bridge the Ridge brush but I'm not that worried about it. But I love Essie's Fill the Gap! I'm glad I took a chance on it. And if I run out I know I can buy it at Wags, Target, wherever I happen to be!

The Fail Files: Yellow Hates Me

Welcome back to another edition of The Fail Files! My failures are posted for your enjoyment.

I'm on this yellow kick. I bought Psychedelic Sunshine a while back and that was a horrid, goopy mess that was a complete and utter bear to remove. I had to use my opposing nails to scrape that crap off. I'd layered that over China Glaze Lemon Fizz...was that the problem?

I tried again earlier this week, using Lemon Fizz as the base for China Glaze's Sunshine, part of their glitter collection. Sunshine is a yellow semi-transluscent jelly with holo-glitter floating throughout. Oh, it's so pretty! But I believe yellow nail polish and I are enemies...

I look like I'm back in high school circa 1984 and I've painted my nails with Liquid Paper. The ultimate matte manicure!

Lemon Fizz is an awful, streaky mess from start to finish. Try to apply a thin layer and it's all bald. Try to go a bit thicker and it puddles up. Try to clean up the cuticles and it's damn near impossible. It's like the polish and this particular brush are conspiring against me. I believe Sunshine alone will be fine, just not as opaque as I'd like. The only positive I can say is, my nails looked like little lemon drop candies and oh, I love those sweet-n-sours confections!

So now that Lemon Fizz has rebelled and I can't pick up Zoya's Pippa easily (I'm waiting for another Zoya promotion!), I need a good yellow polish! I picked up Orly's Spark at Sally, a pearlescent yellow, but I haven't tried it yet. Since I've had good luck with Zoya's creme polishes I'm holding out for Pippa and the other yellow they have.

Layering Madness: Friday Edition!

So yesterday my evening was turned all askew. Instead of hitting the gym and wondering what was for dinner, I had to pull the Mustang out and head to the local airport. Bellatrix hadn't been driven in almost two weeks and I knew Ron would like to get behind the wheel after tooling about San Diego in a Hyundai Accent. His coworker even joked about the hamster on its wheel powering the car!

Instead of a full-blown polish change I did one of my layering jobs. I thought about my China Glaze white crackle but eh, not feeling it. OPI silver shatter? Nope. Crackles are feeling trite even though I've never seen it on anyone else around here. However, in my stash I found this gem:

Oo, shiny!

I picked up this Finger Paints "Private Collection" a few weeks ago at a Sally Beauty dust-bin sale. I believe Finger Paints usually retail for $3.99 before Sally Card discount. This had a red tag of $1.99 and that weekend all red tag items were 50% off, making this sucker $.99!!! I got this color and two others, one of which I have ready to review.

Put on your sunglasses!

Private Collection is a white frost. I can see some micro-flecks of color that come-and-go flash in the light. I think as a stand-alone polish it would yawn-worthy. But to shake up an existing mani? Heck yeah!

Natural morning sun against my car. You can see a bit of my car's tramp stamp. We have matching tattoos.

So pretty!

I applied two coats of Private Collection over Kiki to tone down the neon pink, just enough to change the overall look. PC went on like a dream, redeeming my faith in Finger Paints after the Psychedelic Sunshine fiasco. I used the Poshe' as the top coat.

Ooooo! I'm hitting up my local Sally for the China Glaze metalic crackles!!! I told the clerk that if possible to hold a pink and a lilac for me! I went yesterday but they were told not to put them out for sale until today. And does anyone know what today is?

!!!Happy Canada Day!!!

Hey, my bestie is Canadian (Hi, Amers!) and a long time ago I was granted Honourary* Canadian Status. I love The Kids in the Hall and Trailer Park Boys so, eh! So open a Molson and sing "Let's Go To The Mall"!!!