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

2013 Roundup

Good morning 2014! Nice to meet you, I hope we have fun together!

I figured right around now would be a good time to look back and see if there was anything interesting over the last year or so.

So, let's start with my 10 favorite new polishes in 2013 (in no particular order):

WOW 427- This dries to a satin-y kind of finish, but it looks even more stunning fully matte. I love how unique it is, it's like a blue jeans color. It is also impossible to photograph. I had to play with dozens of combinations of settings and lighting to get it to look right. For some reason my camera kept reading it as a much brighter blue.

Ga-De Gold Sugar- And really, texture polishes in general this year. I'm not a gold person usually, but this one really blew me away.

???- 104- I'll be honest, I don't know what this brand is called. The bottle just says "Mirror effect" on it, and the other finishes from this brand all just have the name of the finish too. But I have a few of them, and they all look pretty awesome.

Autodidact- Not to toot my own horn here (well, technically yes), but I've been playing around with frankens, and I'm really quite happy with how some of them turned out! I would love to try out mixing polish from scrap, maybe this year I'll pull together the funds to actually buy supplies!

GlitterBunny- You Can Do It, Brucey!- Speaking of Indie polish, GlitterBunny! I have never bought indies before, and now I have a bunch from  GB and Indigo Bananas. I use this one constantly, it's an awesome glitter topper.

Born Pretty Store Holos- 12- This year also marks the year I could finally start ordering stuff online. And look at this sucker! Both the color and the holo quality are amazing.

Ciate- Beach Hut- This one scrapes in just under the wire, I bought it on December 29. I know Ciate has shown a really crappy attitude towards bloggers (with the "caviar nails" fiasco and all that), but I couldn't resist this glowy glittery orange.

Orly- Star Spangled- My picture doesn't even come close to doing justice to this incredible polish. It's a beautiful red jelly packed with microglitter, and it has incredible depth and finish. Basically, it's amazingness in a bottle. 

Inglot- 202 and 203- This one is a tie, because I couldn't choose between these two incredible duochrome flakie toppers. I mean, just look at them! (this time I do think the picture did them justice. I'm usually terrible at catching color shift but this one was nice and cooperative)

L'oreal Paris- Mysterious Icon- Last but not least, a brown-gold-taupe-indefinable-SOMETHING that seems to not quite fit into any category. It even has purple undertones, to make things more confusing. I love that I can't quite quantify this.

Since most people get bored once the photos end, the rest goes under a cut!

NOTD: Interview Nails 3- Son of the Interview

Another day, another interview. Job hunting can be exhausting, especially since I don't get to buy any new polish until I have a salary once again. As sad as it is, groceries and rent are more important than buying nail polish (but only by a little).

This one was for yet a third company, with an interesting twist- this would only be part time. If I got this, I'd probably just barely make enough to get by, so I wouldn't have to get another job, but I might. I might not, because something cool occurred to me if I get an offer for this one. I could use the extra time to get certified as a nail tech! Then I'd A- be an expert on nails and probably pick up tons of new skills I couldn't even imagine, and B- I'd have a viable alternate source of income, in case working in the high tech industry doesn't work out in the long run. I guess we'll see if/when I get this job.

Polishes used:

Orly- Au Champagne (base color)

Chic- White Flag

GA-DE- Black Orchid

Dalia- medium grey

This one is a little festive, because the interview was actually on Christmas (you see what I mean about people not even noticing it here? It's just a regular business day!). Later on I took it off and put on the Christmas Nails I posted a little bit back.

You know what's odd? In both of the previous interviews, there was a lady interviewer, but neither of them noticed my nails. In this interview it was a man, and he did notice them! Funny how these things work out.

NOTD: Interview nails 2- The Journey Continues

Indeed, I am still on the hunt for a new job. The first place I interviewed did not work out, sadly, but I landed this interview and got super excited- they are a great looking company, and not too far from where I live, either! For this one I water marbled, although it once again went unnoticed.

The base colors are all various purple shades from WOW, so I'm not going to list them by number (unless someone asks). To get the shimmer on top, I put a drop of Color Club Wild At Heart on the water and let it spread very thin, and then put all of my already marbled nails in at once. The result was a nice subtle top coat, and I'm definitely going to be using this technique a lot! I'd kept thinking of trying it and then forgetting, but this opportunity practically offered itself to me on a silver platter.

I actually got called up today to go in for the second interview for this place, so fingers crossed that it'll work out!

NOTD: Christmas nails!

Merry belated Christmas everybody! I don't celebrate it, and it's not even really noticed in Israel, but the internet's been so festive lately that I couldn't resist.

Pinky: Orly Au Champagne with Konad stamping polish and BM Plate 205
Ring: Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe with China Glaze Twinkle Lights
Middle: same as pinky, but with BM plate 208 and a dotting tool
Index finger: Golden Rose 122 (from the Jolly Jewels collection) with China Glaze Twinkle Lights
Thumb: a poor attempt at candy cane stripes where I was too lazy to get up to get my striping brush so I used the bottle brush. Hence not taking a photo of it :P

Last year I also did Christmas nails, it was what I have on my ring finger but on the entire hand.

I have newly short nails, because I just recently went to do some work in a recording studio! And in order to play the harp, I need short nails. There were plenty of pictures taken, so hopefully when they finally remember to send them along I'll make a blog post about it.

I also had two more job interviews (one on Christmas!) so I'm queuing up two more Interview nail posts as well

I hope your holiday was fun and you have a great new year!

Swatched: Maybelline Colorama Polka Dots collection

Maybelline Colorama is a funny animal around here. They're found in most pharmacies at reasonable prices, but virtually every pharmacy has a different range of colors. It actually took three different pharmacies to track down this set- I didn't do it consciously, I just compulsively buy this kind of polish. And as long as I have them, I might as well swatch them!

Without further ado, allow me to present you with:

okay so bottle shots aren't my forte shhhhhhh

For 200, 201, and 202, each shot has three coats alone on my ring finger and pinky, and two coats over a similar base on my index and middle fingers.

Swatches and reviews under the cut!

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.)