Wizard of Ooh Ahz

I was in Sally's Thursday, and they were having a special--$1.00 off of China Glaze. That, coupled with the discount from the discount card, meant pretty good prices. I'd originally planned to order some more CG polish online, but this totally beat online prices, since I didn't have to pay for shipping! I got all six from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection, and I ALSO copped a bottle of CG Emerald Sparkle, because I feel this color DEFINITELY should have been included with the collection. And plus, Emerald Sparkle was on sale for only $1.99. For less than twenty-six dollars, I got seven bottles of polish! I think that's a great deal for this brand.



I wore Dorothy Who? today. In the bottle, it looks like a pure blue. On my nails, however, it looked like it had teal undertones, like it was even sort of greenish. Also, the photo below doesn't do it justice. The flash makes the color appear to be sort of transluscent, but on my nails, to my eye, it looks opaque. This is three coats:

Big Lots Haul

A week ago I went to Big Lots. I occasionally find stuff there for good prices. I've bought video games, books, craft supplies, and cleaning supplies there, but I've generally stayed away from the food and cosmetics. However, upon finding out that nail polish doesn't really go bad, I decided that this store might be a good place to shop for polish.

This is what I walked away with: two blister packed two-packs of Revlon polish: Power Walk Pink, Twinkled Pink, Wine With Everything, and Rose Zing. Each bottle is the standard half-ouncer. I also picked up some Sally Hansen polishes--four packs of minis. Unfortunately, the colors are not labeled. Each package comes with a mini nail file. Since Big Lots sells discontinued merchandise, I know these polishes haven't been in "regular" stores for quite a while. The back of the packages say copyright 2008, so I figure these are at least two years old. The blue package claims to be from the "Xtreme Wear" line. There is a metallic rust orange, a metallic royal blue, a metallic silver, a metallic deep red, and a metallic teal. There is a purple package of polishes from the "Xtreme Wear" line as well: a shimmery pink, a shimmery fuchsia, a shimmery purple, a shimmery dark turquoise, and a shimmery jade green. The pink package contains colors from the "Diamond Strength" line. There is a lighter shimmery pink, a fuchsia creme, a shimmery wine-red, a shimmery mauve, and a shimmery light tan. And finally, in the black packaging, there are polishes from the "Lacquer Shine" collection: a shimmery magenta, a shimmery dark purple, a shimmery blue, a shimmery red, and a shimmery reddish-black.

Quite an assortment. I'm a big fan of Sally Hansen polishes, so these will be fun to eventually use. There are twenty unique colors, all miniature sized (.13 oz). The Revlon polishes pictured are the only Revlon polishes that I own, so I'm not sure how they will perform on my nails!

I spent maybe twelve dollars, including tax, for everything purchased. Big Lots frequently puts their own price tag on merchandise, even though they leave the original price tag intact.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

I did a lot of reading about this product before I purchased it. I waited until it went on sale, and then I got two bottles at the buy one, get one 1/2 off price. Still, it was $12 for only two bottles of polish, which I consider on the pricey side.

Lots of people don't seem to be a fan of the brush, but I LOVE it. It's wide and thick, and it does a very good job of covering my nails in one swipe. While their color selection isn't that great (too many browns, pinks, and reds as usual), I ironically picked two neutrals for my first purchase. I got colors that I can wear to work or to play, Choco-Latte and So Much Fawn:



For the past couple of days I've been wearing So Much Fawn. This product claims to have a base coat and top coat built in, and I didn't put on a base coat before painting my nails, but I did top with Seche Vite. As with any other polish I've used, it started to chip around day two, so I consider this to be pretty good.

I would like to buy four more bottles of this in different colors, simply because I love the brush so much! I have my eye on Commander in Chic, among other colors!

So, I completed my L.A. Girl Disco Brites collection on Thursday--YAY! I now have all 23 colors plus the clear coat:



That is a LOT of polish. Sometimes I think I have too much, but I know that, compared to others, I don't have many polishes at all. So I keep buying them.

When I was at the store buying the Disco Brites, I saw a 2 for $.99 display, so I looked and bought an L.A. Girl Rock Star polish, and a NYX polish:



On Friday, I got a couple of polishes from Walgreens, neither on sale:



I must say that I LOVE this line by Sally Hansen. The colors apply great and they wear very well. Most importantly, the prices are VERY reasonable.

Yesterday (Saturday) DH sent me to Tarjay to get the 3D glasses for the Grammys, and while I was there, I helped myself to a few inexpensive polishes. I got these N.Y.C. polishes, and they were all only a dollar:



I promised myself that, after buying these six yesterday, I won't buy so much polish for awhile. I will just concentrate on the ones I have, and doing nice manicures. BUT--and there is always a but--there are just a few more items on my "must-have" list. I hate to say it, but I need a few more China Glaze polishes. So far, this is my China Glaze "collection":



I only have forty or so China Glazes, so buying seven or eight more won't be THAT reprehensible of me!

Still Buying Polish

I bought two new polishes tonight, inexpensive ones. However, I don't have pictures of them right now, so I'll have to post them tomorrow, I guess.

What I DO have is pictures of my latest China Glaze acquisition! I bought the entire Up and Away collection, and I also got a bottle of GR8 and Solar Flare. First up is the gold polishes--a holographic shimmer and a chunky glitter:



I just noticed that I inadvertantly saved the above image as a .jpg and not a .png. Unfortunately.

Next up is the Up and Away polishes. They are all cremes and they are all so gorgeous! I was a little stumped by Four Leaf Clover, as it looks (to me, at least) more teal than true green. But I put it on my toes this morning (this was the first of the collection that I tried) and against my brown toes, it really does look like a bright green. I took a picture, but my toenails looked BLUE in the photo, so I'm not going to worry about posting it. But here are the China Glazes:



From left to right, they are: Something Sweet, Re-Fresh Mint, Flyin' High, Grape Pop, Lemon Fizz, Sugar High, Happy Go Lucky, High Hopes, Heli-Yum, Peachy Keen, Four Leaf Clover, and Light As Air!!!

New Polishes!

Yesterday I stumbled upon a display of Sinful Colors at a local beauty supply store. I helped myself to two: Well Prepared, a dark mauve creme, and Show Me the Way, a dark lime-green shimmer.

Today was even better, though: I went to a different beauty supply store and came across a display of NYX lipstick! This was so thrilling to me because my favorite--my absolute favorite lipstick of all time--is NYX Chaos, a creamy, pigmented red with lots of staying power. I think I first bought it four or five years ago, and a couple of years ago it became very scarce and hard to find. They changed the packaging, and now the brand can be found in places like Ulta, but Chaos was either not carried or not in stock. This store tonight had SIX in their display, so I'm horrible, but I bought four of them. I mean, at $1.49 each, I couldn't resist!

I also helped myself to eleven new polishes: another bottle of Kleancolor Firework and ten more disco brites:



From left to right, top row then bottom row: Disco Fever, Funkadelic, Chic, Retro, Disco Ball, Hustle, Turntable, Stayin' Alive, Boogie, and Dance Craze.

I now have twelve of the 24 Disco Brites! I hope to buy the rest of the collection soon!

I'm off to swatch these in my spiral-bound index card notebook. It small and I can throw it in my purse, so that when I go shopping, I'll have the brands, names, and colors of polishes I already own. I won't accidentally buy duplicates, or two colors that are too close to each other!

Top Coats Galore

So, I went back to Sally's and bough a few polishes. I got China Glaze's Fairy Dust and Golden Enchantment. These are supposed to be holographic top coats. I also got a duo; the sticker price said $3.99 but it was sold to me for $1.99. Two Orly polishes for $2.00! And since Nars Zulu will never be mine, Orly Enchanted Forest is as close as it's gonna get. That set also came with a "prismatic" top coat. I wish I could switch them tonight, but it's almost 3 in the morning, and I'm just so tired!

Found!

I'm going to create a new tag, or category, called "Found." I'm doing this because I found four bottles of polish in a back room. Two were on a table underneath "stuff" and I obviosly haven't used them in MONTHS, if not YEARS. I found two more in a bag of candy in the same back room. I'd bought the candy from Disney World five months ago, and I was so glad to find these two because one of them is my long-lost China Glaze Chiaroscuro! I'd always loved the color; I bought the bottle of polish some time last year. I have only used the polish two or three times, so the bottle is still full. I recently ordered a bunch of China Glaze online, and I turned it over and over in my mind, whether or not I should buy another Chiaroscuro. I finally decided NOT to, convinced that I'd find my original bottle eventually--and I did!

The other three colors and brands that I came across this evening: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (unknown color name, but the polish is a shimmery pinkish-tan), Kiss Colors (unknown color name, but the polish is a french-manicure-type shade--a very very pale pinkish/orange creme), Tea Tango (this is a creme as well, a very deep burgundy shade). I find it interesting that most of these are neutrals. I guess that's what I mainly bought before I got into the brighter shades!

New Polishes!

I've gone kind of crazy in the last couple of days! I bought four new polishes last night when I stopped by Walgreens after work. Their Sinful Colors polishes are always $1.99, so I picked up Vacation Time, a mauve-ish creme, and Dancing Nails, a dusty rose shimmer. I put Vacation Time on my nails last night, and right now it's slightly chipped, even though I put the Seche Vite top coat on it. I only owned one other Sinful Colors polish prior to last night--Aqua. I didn't use it much, and I remember now that that is because yes, it is prone to chip. Sinful Colors and other polishes that chip easily are good for when I want my nails a particular color for no longer than a day. And since all polishes chip on me within two or three days, and since I change polish color frequently, it really doesn't matter.

Also from Walgreens, I picked up two Wet N Wild polishes from their "Craze" line. There was a sale on the $1.99 polishes--buy one, get one half-off. I got a color called Shield, which is a metallic cross between gold and silver, and a color called Goldmine, which is a mettalic shimmery true gold.

Today I went polish crazy at a beauty supply store that stocks a TON of inexpensive cosmetics. I'd bought a couple of Kleancolor eyeshadow sets from there before, but I don't think I've ever bought polish from there. They have the NYX polishes (I almost got a glittery neon yellow one), Milani, Kleancolor, L.A. Girl, you name it. AND they have a large selection. They had ALL of the Kleancolor polishes for $.99 each! I wish I could have bought all of them. But I did get six: Pearl Jungle, Neon Fuschia, Firework, Chunky Silver, Brown, and Green Grass. I also got two of the L.A. Girl Disco Brites polishes: Groovy (a purple) and Deejay (a blue). Both are cremes, and the bottle claims they glow under blacklight. The Disco Brites were only $1.99, and again, I wish I could have bought them all!

Celeb City Manicure

I like this color a LOT more than I thought I would. It's Sally Hansen's Celeb City, a shiny opaque silver, and it brushes on like a dream. It's very metallic, very reflective, and very bold! I put it on my nails three or four hours ago, topped by Seche Vite fast dry. The flash washes it out a bit, and to be honest, it mutes the color so that it looks more like a shiny gray than a flashy silver. I posted a picture of this polish in my previous post, and on my nails, it looks just like the bottle. Here is a picture:



This is the type of polish that I'd love to wear every day. It looks so much like jewelry! Alas, it is a bit too flashy for work, so I will take this off after a day or so. It will probably go back on next weekend, though, and it will remain one of my favorite polishes of all time!

For the past week or so, I've been going polish crazy! I'm going through some personal things, and my nerves are kind of bad, so I guess buying nail polish is a way that I've been trying to soothe them. My Sally's haul consists of China Glaze's Purple Panic, 3 bottles of China Glaze Matte Magic, China Glaze's Celtic Sun (neon), Seche Vite fast dry, and Orly matte topcoat for males. I took the Orly back, as I read on some other blogs that it is not as matte as Matte Magic, and I got three more Matte Magics in its place, since these were on sale for just $1.99. Later this week I went back and bought an additional three more Matte Magics for the same price at Sally's, and I have eight in all now. I'm sure I will have matte polish long after the trend has ended!

On Wednesday, I went to Walgreens and took advantage of a sale that had on Sally Hansen polish. I bought six; they were buy one (at roughly $2.80) and get the second half off! I couldn't resist, and bought: Rockstar Pink, a ton of what seems to be pink, blue, and silver glitter in a clear polish
Lime Lights, a pearlescent pale green
Celeb City, a smooth, shimmery metallic silver
Sun Kissed, a bright orange creme
Red Carpet, red glitter in red polish
Shooting Star, blue, silver, and purple glitter in a transparent blue polish

I wore Rockstar Pink over China Glaze Shower Together a few days ago. It was, IMO, gorgeous:



I picked up these polishes two days ago. I'm really feeling the chunky glitter movement.



This picture turned out tinier than I expected. All of these polishes with the exception of four were only one dollar each. They are, left to right:
Love My Nails Pretty in Pink, tiny pink and large pink hex glitter in a clear polish
Love My Nails Angel Baby, tiny and small iridescent colored glitter in a clear polish
Love My Nails Crazy For You, large red heart glitter in a clear polish
Love My Nails Glory, red and blue thin bar glitter and large silver star glitter in clear polish
Hard Candy Break Up, silver hex glitter in a frosted clear polish
Love My Nails Pink Surprise, fine iridescent glitter, larger silver hex and diamond glitter in a yellow tinted clear polish
Love My Nails Cosmos, fine iridescent glitter and large silver star glitter in a clear polish
Love My Nails All That, tiny glitter and larger square glitter in a purple tinted, clear polish
N.Y.C. Starry Silver Glitter, fine, dense, silver glitter and larger round blue and purple glitter in a clear polish
Sally Hansen Emerald City, deep green shimmer
Sally Hansen Wet Cement, gray-beige creme
Sally Hansen VIP Pink, fine pink glitter in a pink "jelly" polish

Quite a haul this past week!

Yesterday, I wanted to have some fun with my newest chunky glitter topcoats. So I painted my nails with Solar Power by China Glaze, and I topped them with two coats of Pink Surprise, which has tiny glitter and larger, round glitter pieces. The finished look was:



The picture ended up a bit blurrier than I would have liked. But I think the large glitter pieces look great with the smaller glitter infusion on that bold, bright yellow. I'm really into colors that just pop against my skin color, so I really like this! It was fun to wear.

That's all for now. I'm working on getting my polish collection in order, still. I have long way to go, but I'll be back soon, doing more looks.

More Nail Polish

My husband always says that, when he first met me, I was plain and didn't have a lot of stuff. He claimed I didn't wear makeup or nail polish, but I know that's a lie. The thing is I probably didn't do it often. He also claims that I wore only one pair of shoes (or that I only HAD one pair) and one purse, a black one. I won't get into my purse collection right now, but I can say, for the record, that I have a lot of nail polish.

I like nail color. I'm attracted to buying it as well. But as I have so many bottles, I need to catalog them so that I don't buy too many of the same style and color.

This is just something that I typed up after examining each bottle of polish closely. It took me in the neighborhood of an hour:

Blacks:

NYX Asphalt (multi-colored glitter in transluscent black polish)
China Glaze Black Diamond (shimmery black)
Wild and Crazy Belle Up (glossy black creme)
Konad Special Polish Black
Konad Special Polish Pearl Black

Blues:

Konad Special Polish Blue (full size)
Konad Special Polish Blue (mini)
China Glaze Caribbean Blue (shimmery dark powder blue)
Maybelline Express Finish (shimmery teal blue)
China Glaze Passion in the Pacific (shimmery light blue teal)
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear (shimmery teal blue)
China Glaze For Audrey (powder blue creme)
China Glaze Shower Together (deep aqua blue creme)
Sinful Colors Aqua (deep blue aqua shimmer)
Kleancolor Neon Sapphire (navy dark blue)
Kleancolor Blue Pear (pale iridescent powder blue shimmer)
Nicka K Turquoise (iridescent turquoise shimmer)

Browns/Darks:

China Glaze Platinum Gold (pale dark brown shimmer)
China Glaze Unplugged (rich dark brown shimmer)
China Glaze In Awe of Amber (light brownish/coppery shimmer)
Maybelline Express Finish (very dark brown creme)
Konad Special Princess Polish Chocolate
Maybelline Express Finish Quicksand (copper-like brown shimmer)
Kleancolor Dark Brown (deep flat brown creme)

Clears, Base coats, and Topcoats:

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Clear Violet
Kiss Non-Yellowing Topcoat mini
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (2)
China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
Ruby Kisses Garlic Strengthener
Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat (3)
Love My Nails Nail Dryer
Hard as Hoof For Slow Growing Damaged Nails
Hard as Hoof Repairs Dry Brittle Nails
Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails Strengthening Topcoat
ORLY Nails for Males Matte Topcoat
China Glaze Matte Magic topcoat (3)

French Colors:

Maybelline Express Finish First Date (2) (pale beige creme)
Love My Nails Candy Kisses (pale, pale, iridescent pink shimmer)
Love My Nails French Pink (pale, pale pink creme)

Glitter Coats

NYC White Lights Glitter (beige colored sheer polish with iridescent glitter)
Nicka K Snow Flake (beige colored sheer polish with iridescent glitter)
NYX Gold Sparkle (clear polish with lots and lots and lots of gold glitter)
Pure Ice Spit Fire (clear polish with lots and lots and lots of pink and iridescent glitter)

Grays:

China Glaze Platinum Silver (silver shimmer)
China Glaze Recycle (medium gray creme)
Milani Key Lime Shine (gray shimmer with a HINT of pale green)

Greens

China Glaze In the Lime Light (bright neon green) (2)
Ruby Kisses Neon Green (deeper true green, slightly bright/neon)
XO Hug and Kiss Spring Leafy (light "apple"ish green, shimmer)
Maybelline Express Finish Go Go Green (golden appleish green, shimmer)
China Glaze Tree Hugger (light appleish green, shimmer)
Konad Special Polish Green
Konad Special Princess Polish Green
N.Y.C. Big Money Frost (light forest-green shimmer)

Metallics:

Konad Special Polish Gold
Konad Special Polish Silver

Oranges:

China Glaze Jamaican Out (bright coral-colored shimmer)
China Glaze Japanese Koi (neon orange creme)
Ruby Kisses Neon Orange (lighter neon orange creme)
Konad Special Polish "pastel" orange

Pearls and Whites:

Maybelline Express Finish French Tip White (plain white creme)
Kiss Colors (flat white creme)
China Glaze (flat white creme)
Konad Special Polish White mini
Konad Special Polish White full size
China Glaze Platinum Pearl (shimmery opaque pearl color)

Pinks:

Maybelline Express Finish (pinkish coral shimmer)
Maybelline Express Finish (light bubblegum pink shimmer)
Wild and Crazy Jealousy (magenta/fuchscia deep pink shimmer)
Konad Special Polish Pink
Konad Special Princess Polish (bold, almost neon shimmery pink)
Pure Ice Flirt Alert (bright hot pink creme)

Purples:

NYC 120A (deep purple shimmery glitter)
China Glaze Coconut Kiss (deep purple shimmer)
China Glaze Purple Panic (purplish-pink neon creme)
Kleancolor Purple (purple shimmer)

Reds:

China Glaze Red Stallion (true red shimmer)
Milani Garnet Gems (lots of tiny red glitter in dark polish)
Konad Special Polish Red full size
Konad Special Polish Red mini
Konad Special Polish Red Wine
Wild and Crazy Colorado Spring (true red creme)
China Glaze Paint the Town Red (true red creme)
Maybelline Express Finish (true red creme)

Yellows:

China Glaze Golden Opportunity (rich yellow shimmer)
NYX Girls Marigold (paler rich yellow shimmer)
Ruby Kisses Neon Yellow (yellow neon)
China Glaze Solar Power (paler rich yellow shimmer)
Wild and Crazy Twilight (flat yellow creme)
Konad Special Polish Yellow
China Glaze Celtic Sun (neon yellow)

Neutrals:

China Glaze Golden Meringue (beige-tan shimmer)

This is all of my polish, albeit with inconsistent parenthetical comments. I realized that I have many similar shades, and way more of certain colors than I do of others. Now when I buy polish, I will try to buy polish in colors and finishes that I don't already own.

First Post!

This blog is just here as a way for me to toss around ideas I'd like to explore, things I'd like to make, makeup products I'd like to buy and use and review, and whatever else strikes my fancily. Hopefully you will be along for the duration!