NOTD: Shattered mosaic

I just picked up Fowl Play by Orly last night, and I couldn't resist the temptation to give it a whirl today:

So that's Fowl Play- don't think of this as a proper swatch, because it's not really. But for the lighting it's in, that's pretty much a true to life color!

Now, the design- there are a lot of colorful things going on in this design, I tried for a mosaic-y kind of look. Mostly it's nameless brand random things, although you can see a bit of Essie Pouf Daddy in there (love that color, hate that name).

It is WAY sloppier up close, now that I'm looking at it. But I still like it! And I learned a few lessons trying this out, next time I'll probably do better!

NOTD: Contrasting French fun

Hi everyone! I decided to try a bit of a style experiment here, and I have to say I really like the results:

Left hand

Right hand

Apologies for the sloppy right hand, I decided that doing cleanup would probably cause more harm than good.

The colors I used were WOW Cosmetics numbers 304 (the teal) and 315 (the purple)- I'm planning to do swatches and reviews on them pretty soon. Spoiler: I really like WOW Cosmetics! I'll probably get a lot of their colors, right now I have four.

See that dent on my left ring finger? Color me highly unimpressed with OPI top coat + drip dry formula. I feel like this is one of those lessons I have to relearn every once in a while. Usually I go with domestic brand topcoats, which work just great. But I've got this in my collection (cost me a pretty penny, too!) and every now and again I say to myself "You know, it's OPI, it's got to be good!" and then I regret it pretty soon after. Seriously, I did nothing for an hour, and somehow that still got dented on my way to taking the picture. The stuff I use normally is dry enough to function within two minutes and diamond hard in ten. Why, OPI, why?? You make such pretty polishes, why does your topcoat suck?

To end on a positive note: I really do love this manicure! I threw this together pretty quickly- took me about ten minutes tops, not counting dry time. I'll probably take the time to do it more neatly in the future, but this is a great way to have pretty nail design quickly, and I'll probably be doing this manicure again.

Chic Metallix, part 1

*waves*

It's my inaugural swatch post! Well, technically that was yesterday. But that was a disaster, so let's have some selective amnesia and focus on the actually good swatches!

Allow me to introduce you to Perfect Chic, another domestically-produced brand. It's actually manufactured here too, which cannot be said for Jade (or Life, which I'll get to in another post). A large portion of my collection is composed of Perfect Chic polish, for a couple of reasons. One- they're affordable, without being crappy quality. Two- they have a really nice range of basic colors. I've had to fill out the basics a bit with some other brands, but for a long time after I started collecting polishes, it was almost entirely Chic.

This particular set is from a line which they call "Chic Metallix",  although that might be a slight misnomer- they're not so much metallic as densely packed glass flecks (I'm going to say "microglitter" for the rest of the post, but I think they're really glass flecks), with varying levels of frosty finish. The end result is rarely metallic, although it is quite shiny. So far I only have four from this collection, although I plan to eventually get all of them, even the pinks! I think there are ten in total, although it could be a couple more.

Follow the white rabbit for swatches and reviews!

Fail! (...and one swatch)

Well, I spent a large part of the day swatching, and upon closer examination, my what a mess I've made! Behold the wreck I presumed to call a swatch:

 

So clearly, there are a few issues here: 

1.  Get hold of the camera manual (it's borrowed) and learn how to take proper macro images. 
2. Figure out lighting. This was taken indoors, with flash. Below the jump there's another one in sunlight, but that one didn't fare any better. 
3. Learn how to do freaking swatches! The polish is a huge mess, running everywhere, and I need to make it neater. So, as long as I'm posting this up, I might as well talk about the polish too, right? More swatch talk, as well as more fail after the jump!

Upcoming swatches + Konadlicious giveaway

Hi everyone!

First order of business: I have the next few days off because of a national holiday, so I finally have time to do swatches! Hopefully over today and tomorrow I'm going to take enough swatch photos for a good 6-7 entries at least, and we can finally get this party started. Who knows, I might even get the first entry up today! I've also been working on some new jewelry lately, so I'm going to get pictures of those up, I hope.

Second order of business: Konadlicious is doing a giveaway! She's another blogger who combines polish with other interests, in her case vintage clothing. I'm fairly bohemian in my own fashion choices, but I LOVE what she wears. Also when I want to get dressed up, I usually end up gravitating towards more vintage styles, so I love looking to her for ideas.

So an announcement to the echo-y silence that is my following: Go check out her amazing, AMAZING giveaway! It's over here.

See you soon! (should that be my official sign-off? Should I HAVE an official sign-off? Does asking this as I'm signing off make me sound silly?)

Delusions of grandeur

Hehe, here I was innocently thinking that by now I'd be so accomplished: I'd send out my Etsy orders, I'd make my post about the Olamot booth, I'd have lunch prepared for tomorrow, anything.

You know what I've done? I've finally put together an RSS feed for the polish blogs that I've been following for months anyway. So productive of me, huh? It's 3 AM and I need to make at least one bracelet by tonight becuase I've reached the deadline of when I can ship to her. I think that's all I'll do for tonight.

I already have at least six posts in mind to do "when I have time" which is basically going to be never. Not even counting the gajillions of swatches I want to post of all the Israeli brand polishes I have!

I'm "back"

This post is just here to reassure people that yes, it's really me, and yes, once the holiday is over you'll probably be flooded with polish posts and jewelry posts. Probably especially nail posts. *yawn* now I have to take a shower and go to bed (and possibly do my nails somewhere along the way) because I am getting up at stupid o'clock to go to work. Bye!