NOTD: Purple gradient x2

I'm baaaaaaack!

I've been gone for ages. Between Passover, the convention, and moving to a new apartment, I've been super MIA from this blog. I've been on Instagram and Facebook a little, but I slacked off there too. I've been making tons of new nail polishes though, and I'll share them here over time!

Recently I made two different nail arts on a similar purple gradient base. They're not identical, but because of their similarity I decided to put them both in one post.

This one is from shortly before I moved:

For this one I used a Golden Rose Color Expert lavender (which I have since broken so I can't remember the name), and Color Club Disco Dress in the gradient. I can't remember what I stamped with, but the colors I used to fill in the squares are Color Club Eternal Beauty (purple holo) and Cherubic (beige holo)

This one is from just recently:

For this mani I used OPI You're Such a Budapest and Golden Rose Color Expert 59. The music decals and the treble clef accent are both from the Born Pretty Store (if you go and buy them use my discount code to get 10% off! It's in the sidebar, check it out)

2 Year Nailversary Giveaway!

Okay so I'm about a day late, but April 9 is the anniversary of my very first nail polish post! I actually started this blog in June 2010 as a jewelry post, but after three dinky posts I let the blog gather dust for over a year, and in 2012 my nail polish obsession had reached the stage where it needed it's own blog :)

It's been a bumpy ride, since I have been alternating between extremely busy and extremely broke for the past four years of my life, so I've only made ~115 posts in two years, but hopefully things will be looking up soon! I have a convention coming up, some new polishes and techniques to try, a functional camera, and most importantly, a job. True, the job does take up a LOT of my time and I have very little time for proper nail art, but I'm slowly learning to balance things out.

On to the giveaway! Since this is mainly a nail polish and jewelry blog, I will be making two prize packs.

Prize Pack 1: $50 credit at my Etsy store + free shipping

I have used a collage of some of my existing jewelry to show what you can get with it, but if you want you can also commission an original piece just for you! If it's within my skill set, I'm happy to do it.

Since there are a LOT of pictures, the rest of the giveaway (and the rafflecopter) are under a friendly readmore cut :)

Logo! Part 2!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled beauty blogging for the following announcement:

I AM REALLY REALLY EXCITED RIGHT NOW

BECAUSE I HAVE A PROPER FEDORAHARP LOGO

LOOK AT MY LOGOOOOOOOOOO

This adorable thing was commissioned from my talented friend Emilie, you should check out her art blog. I don't know what magic powers she has but she managed to take a pencil sketch I made four years ago and turned it into a bona fide professional looking logo.

I don't really know how to end this, I just wanted to share my hyperness and excitement with you.

Your regularly scheduled beauty blogging will now resume.

NOTD: First day of work

So! Starting a new job at a really professional company, being their youngest employee, I should make my entrance with something simple and mature, right?

WRONG!

Polishes used:
WOW Cosmetics- 304 (teal base)
Maybelline Colorama- 135 (purple base)
Glitterbunny- Don't Be Such a Guppy (glitter topper)

I actually got a work phone, and all of the photos have been taken with it. This camera is EXCELLENT! My previous camera was pretty decent, but the lighting had to be exactly perfect and you had to adjust the zoom a bunch of times. Here I can get the same results with much less hassle, which means I'm free to take pictures over the course of the day! Hooray!

I have more to write about, but it's pretty late here and I'm going to sleep. I do, however, have my next two posts planned out, so I hope you enjoy them!

Guest post at Flight of Whimsy!

Hey guys! I put together a guest post for Eva from Flight of Whimsy a while back for when she was going to be abroad, and it just made it's way through her queue! Go check it out :)

Back over here, I want to tell you about a funny thing that happened while I was making the post.

See, since Eva is coming here to Israel, I decided to use the guest post opportunity to showcase some of my favorite Israeli polish brands. That means bottle shots, which I don't do very often. See, I don't really have a lightbox per se. I have a lamp and my harp stool with a piece of black cloth draped over it. Most of the time that works just fine for nail shots, but for bottle shots it's a little more complicated.

My cat makes it complicated.

I think Simon (my cat) might have a burrowing rodent somewhere in his ancestry. You see, any time there is an opportunity for him to hide under something, he runs towards it. Usually he ignores my lighting setup because it's on the floor, but when I moved it to my bed to get a better angle on the bottle shots, this happened:

(please excuse the mess on my bed! If I'd known the bed itself would end up in a post I'd have tidied it up a bit...)

Which meant that any time I tried to place polishes in any kind of neat formation, the little bugger stuck his paw out from under the cloth and knocked them over! I eventually got a decent enough shot of the bottles, but man, who knew having a cat would affect my blogging this much? :P

NOTD: Interview Nails

It seems my life has decided to continue being... interesting. My health has more or less evened out, thankfully, but now my company has closed *weary smile*. On the bright side, being back on the job market means more time for blogging! Last Wednesday I had my first job interview, and the company looks really great, so I hope I get it. Can't say I have any idea how I did, but I think I'll at least get a second interview. Wish me luck!

Figuring out what to wear on my nails to interviews is always tricky. Do you go for something mature and conservative, so you look professional? Or do you go for something interesting and unusual, so you possibly have a conversation starter to help forge a personal connection with the interviewer?

I decided to go for a compromise, a simple blue gradient that matched my shirt so it looked put-together, but blue isn't a color you see every day, and neither are gradients. The interviewers didn't notice in the end, but there's always second interview to look forward to! I confess, after the interview I had a busy day and ended up chipping my polish before I could photograph it, so this is a recreation.

Colors Used:  (top to bottom)

Perfect Chic - Out of the Blue

GA-DE - Dazzling Cobalt

GA-DE - Blue Blood

This may actually be my favorite gradient ever. It's definitely the most gradual color transition I've ever managed! I will probably adopt this idea into later designs.

Once the interview was over, I decided to spice it up with some stamping and glitter. The glitter may have been too much, but overall I like how it turned out:

For the stamping I used the Konad blue polish and a design from the QA27 plate which I bought from the Born Pretty Store. The black and white is from the Maybelline Polka Dots collection, all four of which I have swatched for my next post. (yay planning ahead! Haven't done that in a while.)

Swatched: GA-DE Liquid sands

Whoo, I haven't written a post on here in forever! I am really sorry :( I will put a tl;dr explanation at the end, but first, swatches!

So Israel has finally jumped on the liquid sand bandwagon and I am ecstatic. I mean... well they jumped on that like two months ago, I've just been really delinquent in my swatching duties. Sigh.

Both Chic and GA-DE have released lines of liquid sand, and I will probably swatch a number of them here over time. Although most of them will be redundant since I'm super late to the party. Whatever, I like swatching things!

50- Gold Sugar

With topcoat:

This one is definitely my favorite of the collection, although the next one is a close second. It's so shiny that the topcoat barely makes a difference to the appearance! In person the difference is somewhat more pronounced, but it's soooooooooooo sparkly.

55- Blue Sugar

With topcoat:

Can we talk about how much I love this color? Because I love this color so much. It is basically the perfect TARDIS blue (besides for, y'know, the sparkles. and the texture.) and the difference between with topcoat and without is so dramatic that this is almost two different polishes.

Overall, I highly recommend picking up a few of GA-DE's liquid sands if you have the opportunity.

Now for the tl;dr, under a cut for your convenience.

Coming up next: ICON

We interrupt your regularly scheduled nail art to bring you some other nail art!

I actually have a few other posts queued up with photos from earlier, but I wanted to share this right away: My logo for this year's Icon! It's going to be on their website, I'll put a link on here once it's up.

I sized this one much smaller than usual, for two reasons: One, it hides the bumps and flaws in the nails, and two, this is approximately the size it'll be on the con website.

So what do you think?

Also: I got my bornprettystore order!!! I already have an NOTD queued up, although a few other things come first. In the meantime, I've drawn the batman logo with one of the products from the order, and the TARDIS and the Starfleet Insignia are both done with acrylic brushes from the order as well.

Also: newly shaped nails! They've finally gotten long enough to be shaped once more. Happy!

My stash

So! There have been a couple of requests that I show you guys my polish collection. So here it is:

I don't have much to say about this, except you can see that I've clearly been hoarding Orly, Chic, and GA-DE polishes. Sadly, it looks like they've stopped importing Orly and are only selling off what's left on the shelves, so I'm scrambling to find as many untried Orly colors as I can (of those that I'm interested in) and buy them all up. I also bought a few backups, fingers crossed that I'll get all the backups I want! (still on the lookout for a spare of Smolder especially).

Also, yes, that is a massive Linux tome on the top right, next to my franken bottles. I don't claim to have read it, but it's on my reading list of "things to consume on my quest to expand my technical writing skills and become super employable". XML and Visual Basic are definitely going to happen first, though. That thing is scary!

NOTD: Butterfly wings- and a comparison!

Okay, so the "nail of the day" thing is a bit of a misnomer, considering I took these about a week ago. I even have pictures for another entire post prepared, and I'm gonna try to get those up some time this week. A modest goal, hopefully, but we all know my track record.

Anyway! This is the first time I've used acrylic paint in a design on my own nails, so that's a milestone. Did I mention that acrylics are a dream to work with? They're not good for everything, but for this kind of picture they're so much better than regular polish. I do wish I had a better range of colors, I guess that'll add up over time like my regular polishes did.

Surprisingly, my right hand turned out quite well too. As you can see, I still need to work on my control over the paint when working on myself, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of  it quickly. I already work with it on other people/nail wheels much more effectively than I did with polish.

If you'll notice, the OPI I'm wearing (Sprung) is suspiciously familiar to GA-DE Tangerine Garnet, which I swatched in my last photo post. I did some comparison shots, click the jump to see them!

Haul of Shame swatch spam

Look look swatches!

Dear readers,

I have been a terrible blogger these days. I know this in the depths of my soul. Case in point: I committed a massive haul of shame about two weeks ago, and I haven't even mentioned it on here yet! Nor have I edited my third vlog (which I have recorded, and it sits there on my desk top staring at me accusingly). Also I am doing a convention this Wednesday and Thursday, and you've heard nary a whisper of that.

By way of apology, I've swatched five of the 22 (!) polishes I picked up in my protracted haul, which took place over several days.

Click the jump for closeups and reviews.

Vlog!

So, does anyone remember a while back I mentioned that I got a video camera and I wanted to start doing a vlog? Well, I made one!

When I first thought about doing vlogs, I had no idea what kind of theme I wanted. I knew that I definitely wanted to incorporate harp videos, but it didn't have to be a central focus. Once I started pursuing a diagnosis, I realized that having an adult voice on the internet for motivational disorders was a pretty important goal. There are so many of us out there, and not many people to speak for us. So here I am.

The video speaks for itself (literally!) so I don't have much to add, but a few general questions are in order:

How often do you guys think I should try to update? Should I even have any kind of rigid schedule, or should I just post when I have something to say?
What topics do you want me to talk about?
What things should I put up to decorate my wall? (I don't have any posters, so I'm really open to suggestions)
Is this the kind of thing you would watch on a regular basis?

Thanks for watching!

I also put up a nail art post today, you can find it over here :)

NOTD: Stripes and stripes

BAH FUZZY CAMERA, A POX ON THEE

Either way, I've decided that I'm going to share as many of my NOTD pictures as I can, because I love making things, even if they're simple. I'll probably recreate the best of them once I can take good photos.

My right hand actually came out better this time! Plus it's the hand that survived work with only a couple of minor chips. I suppose that worked out well. As you can see, this look was inspired by my stripey fingerless gloves- I can't wear them at work, but the idea was to wear the glvoes with the mani and make everyone's eyes cross.

I achieved this look using striping tape. Colors used:

Perfect Chic- Base Coat
WOW Cosmetics- 393 (basic black cream)
WOW Cosmetics- 350 (basic white cream)
Chic Metalix- Hot Fuschia
Chic Metalix- Peacock
Giyora Sharvit top coat

A cool thing happened to me today at work! One of my customers was so enamored of my nail design (and such a simple one, too!) that she actually took my phone number and wants me to do a nail design on her. I don't know if she'll actually call in the end, but it was really gratifying!

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!

The convention!

So I did it, and it went well!

This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was Icon, the biggest annual Israeli Sci-fi and Fantasy convention. I opened a nail art booth with all kinds of geeky designs. I posted a teaser last week with my superhero wheel, and now I'm back with the rest of my designs.

Sadly, I wasn't able to bring a camera with me to the convention, so I only have photos of my sample wheels. Hopefully next time I'll be able to get a camera! Especially since there were customers who had me do designs I didn't do samples of- one girl did all ten fingers with Disney princess themes- an apple for Snow White, a glass slipper for Cinderella, etc.

Two other things of note, before I begin the picture spam: One, I had plenty more ideas than I actually created, so if there are some gaping holes in my geekdom please forgive me! I'm hoping to have a more comprehensive set of geek designs by the time the next con rolls around. Two, this time I partnered with my friend Hannah, and some of her designs will be featured here.

Onwards!

Starting with the geek basics of course, Star Trek and Star Wars! I wouldn't be the geek I am today without these very powerful influences in my childhood. Plus my parents met at a Star Trek convention, so there's that! It's in my DNA and everything! 

(I don't know what happened with that Darth Vader nail... I'm gonna have to redo it for sure.)

Hit the jump for lots (and lots and lots) more designs!

Coming up soon: Convention, round two!

Hello dear readers!

It's been ages since my last post, mainly because I work at a cafe at the moment, and 99% of the time when I get home my nails are destroyed. Polish doesn't last more than a few hours in this line of work.

HOWEVER! I have managed to do some swatches, which I will be posting soon. And more importantly, I'm doing a convention!

This past Passover I opened a nail art booth at a Sci-fi convention, and now I'm going to do it again in a month or so from now. I've begun preparing nail wheels to showcase my work, and today I'm posting the first one.

This one is superhero insignia, predominantly Marvel because I'm kind of a Marvel fangirl :D I'll probably do at least one more comic-oriented wheel, although that'll be a mix of villains and heroes. We'll see if I even spill over into a third. In the meantime, there are lots of geeky but not-comic things coming up soon- I'll post them as I finish them!

What do you think?

NOTD: Crackle skittles

Hi all! NOTD and then a quick update.

Shade

Sunlight

So this is a set of Chic Metalix under a lovely black crackle that I've worn here before by a German brand called P2. Not everything in this picture has been swatched yet , but they're coming!

Life update under the jump:

Well, I just made a breathtakingly bad life choice!

Hi there, my darling nonreaders.

Let's skip over the "omg I haven't posted in aaaaages!!!1!!one!" formality and conclude universally that I'm a lazy failure at life, without the pretty words.

I might post some swatch pictures I have archived tonight. I might not. I hope so though. But that's not why I'm here right now (also I'm at work, so no access to those pictures anyway).

I bought a camera today. You see, apparently my credit card company was supposed to have been offering me all these deals for the past six years, but somehow I slipped through their cracks and never got any of the discounted crap they are constantly bugging their other customers about. So now all of a sudden they woke up and realized hey, in six years people rack up a HUGE amount of points even if they have pretty modest spending habits! And woah, most of those points are expiring soon! We'd better offer her something fast!

So offer they did. And stupidly, I accepted. Most of their potential offers were boring but practical things like towels and vaccum cleaners, but the camera was something else. I've always kind of wished I'd gotten in early on the whole youtube vlog thing, because back when that kind of thing was just starting out, I actually had an interesting life. It could have been a fun diversion.

Now? Now I'm almost 25 and I've done virtually nothing interesting with my life whatsoever. On the surface it seems like I should be cool: I have a harp, I make jewelry, I do nail art (even geeky nail art!), and I'm a geek, which is apparently what the cool kids are these days. But in practice I'm about as boring as dirt, because I get lazy or depressed and spend most of my time derping on the internet looking at all the interesting stuff other people do, instead of doing it on my own.

A camera could change that though. If I learn how to trick my own psyche well enough, I could actually guilt trip myself into having a life. I could start a vlog! Then if I actually stick with the commitment of posting once per (???) I'd have to actually do stuff worth talking about on camera. If all I have to say is "well, I got home today and read some fanfiction, then I scrolled through tumblr for a while, then I prepared some frozen shnitzel for dinner and went to sleep" then I won't be able to make a vlog. And if I don't make a vlog, then the money I spent on my camera will have been wasted. And that is just sad, considering it's A- a really good camera, and B- a really expensive camera. ($1,125 before the discount, $460 after. No I could not afford that even post mega-discount. At least it's in installments...)

Alternatively, I could guilt trip myself in practicing harp frequently enough to occasionally record and upload music. Or do tutorials in something, meaning I'd actually have to clean my room.

What I guess I'm trying to say here is: This blog will no longer be solely for nail polish and jewelry.

"But Leah," none of you say, "Don't you already have a personal blog?"

You're absolutely right, nobody! I do have a personal blog. But consider the fact that it is embarrasingly derpy and fangirly, and I'd like this one to be more of a thinking blog. Or at least a derping eloquently blog (fat chance). I might crosspost things now and then, if it's pertinent to both blogs.

It's entirely possible that this project will be abandoned within a week. Or a day. I can tell you that not having a life is freakisly boring, but it's so easy! I don't know if I have the willpower to stop being boring. But I'm sure as hell gonna try, or at least convince myself for the next few hours that I'm going to try. It usually goes right out the window the second I get home (fandom is really difficult to pull away from, you guys).

I have to stop rambling now. It's long over time.

Hey you! If you actually read this entire thing you are my new best friend. Have a cookie!

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!