LEMMINGS ACHIEVED! (and new ones acquired)

Merry Jewishmas to me! I had a great day, how was yours?

As a rule I try to avoid lemmings. Most of the polishes I see swatched by my favorite bloggers are brands that are impossible to get in my country, and my budget is too limited at the moment to do online orders. (I've yet to see anywhere that charges under $24 shipping alone.) For example: OPI, China Glaze, and Color Club are available if you look reeeeally hard- I found one shop about an hour away from where I live that carries all three, and their selections are limited (plus OPI and CG go for ~$15 a bottle, so no way I'm buying those, at least Color Club is only ~$6). I can get a limited range of Orly at my local pharmacy, which has quickly elevated them to my favorite polish brand. Even Orly has a limited range, but what they do have is really pretty, so I'm not complaining!

Now, MAC is an interesting story- we do have a MAC store at my local mall, and I know they're pretty expensive to begin with, so the prospect of shelling out $11ish isn't as insane. And unfortunately, they also hold Mean & Green, which is a dupe for Orly's Space Cadet, which I have lusted after from the moment I laid eyes on it. But every time I went to try and buy it, they were out of stock.

Until today. I lucked out. They had it. THEY HAD IT. I have fulfilled my longest-standing, most desired lemming ever! GO ME! *flailing around*

My friend Hannah came over to spend the day, and of course polish hunting was on the menu. We meant to stay at our local mall, but after getting high off the success of snagging Mean & Green, we decided to head out to Tel Aviv, where the one store that has other brands is located. Plus, I've been looking for purple hair dye for a month or so with little luck, and Tel Aviv is a great source for finding weird things that no one else seems to have.

To our delight, we found a teeny little cosmetics store practically straight off the bus. And not only did they have a wild range of hair colors with the most delicious purple, but they had something I didn't even know I'd been lemming- Seche Vite topcoat! I had become resigned to the fact that what everyone else considered the industry standard was something I could never obtain. And there it was. It was fairly pricey, but that I had to give a shot.

I'll probably do a SV comparison post with my current default topcoat (a domestic brand called Giora Sharvit). It'll have to wait until I find myself a proper desk job though- working in a coffee shop is a real nail killer. Especially when I'm working kitchen shifts and have to wear latex gloves. Did you know that the powder inside latex gloves is completely ruinous to your polish? I do.

Unfortunately, when we went to the store with the big name brands, I found something both wonderful and awful: They have the new OPI Skyfall collection. And man if I didn't immediately start craving three of them on sight. I mean, I've seen swatches for them all over the place, but in person- WHOA! I want to buy Live and Let Die, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and The Living Daylights. As if that weren't bad enough, I finally saw Just Spotted The Lizard in person for the first time. I know that nearly every single company has a dupe for that these days. I even thought after seeing a hundred and one swatches of the thing that I was pretty over it. But in person, hot damn! I need this in my life.

So now I need to save up $60 to buy lots and lots of OPI polish. Sigh. Too bad I'm too old for Hannukah gelt!

I haven't died, I promise!

...I just have no time frame in which to take pictures these days. And my manis generally don't last very long because of my job. I'm usually working 6 AM- 3 PM these days, and by the time I get home it's too dark to properly take photos.

Hopefully some time soon I will have at least one of the following: A job that is not minimum wage, a job that does not ruin my nails, a job that pays enough for me to buy a camera which takes good quality macro shots, or all of the above.

This December has been "greenicure month" for me, I've been wearing nothing but green. I might make this an annual thing :). To be fair, mostly it's just plain polish, no designs, since I have to replace it pretty much every day. But this week I did a marble and managed to stretch it for two days before it chipped off! And tonight I'm doing newspaper nails. There's even a minute chance that I'll have time to grab a sunlight photo before work, since I'm starting a little later tomorrow.

Anyhow, since I've done nothing in this post but complain, I'm going to wrap it up here. Hope to be blogging more frequently soon!