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Monday, January 21, 2013

Takko Lacquer Kiss The Sky

Ok, So I had wanted Takko Lacquer... any color, since I had seen swatches from Mei Mei's Instagram. For all of you unaware, sometimes you can get hard to find, hard to get, indie polishes from this site in Singapore... The prices are in $SGD and google can convert for you pretty easy. Shipping is relatively cheap, considering where its coming from. AND as I am writing this she has what appears to be the full Enchanted Polish Beatles collection and quite a few Takko Lacquers.

I didnt get this one from her though... This is Takko Lacquer's Kiss The Sky. I bought it during the last restock of 2012... when I say I bought it, I mean that I called my boyfriend every half hour on the day of the restock, from work, making sure he knew where to go and what to buy and what to buy in case what I wanted was sold out, and which was most important(this one), and explained all about cart jacking... and I still only got one from the restock: THIS ONE!!! Yippee. The other one I really wanted was Wanderlust... but he ended up feeling so bad (because despite all of my calls and warnings he forgot and got to the restock 10 minutes late!) that he bought me Kaleidoscope Eyes from Mei Mei. I will do a post of that later, it just got here yesterday!



I LOVE this color... I think the reason I had wanted it so badly is because it kind of looks like Max Factor Fantasy Fire in the bottle... That being said, If you have been lemming Clarins 230  you should go get it on Ebay (eek I know, I know, evilbay) HERE because that is the best price I have seen in forever...
I want to buy one for myself because, come on... its unicorn pee for fu**'s sake, but my grandma is super sick and I have spent all my moneys on a plane ticket back east... le sigh. That is actually the reason I painted my nails this color... it makes me really happy, what a pick me up! It is also the reason I haven't posted anything lately or shipped out any of the things I said I would (Cynthia, I am looking apologetically at you, I have a package here on my desk just yelling at me to get off my lazy behind! I'll post it before the week is through, PROMISE!)


This is three thick coats of squishy awesomeness. It does flash orange red and green but I suck at taking photos! I love the color, love the consitancy: it could be considered a bit thick... but I like the way it applies.This picture is less fantastic but shows that there is not so much VNL as my camera flash would have you believe! These are not the best pictures of this polish, you should google it... then sit in amazement of its glory, then go to Mei Mei's and buy it. This is a polish I will use again and again this year. LOVE IT!

What do you think? Like the color? Have you used Takko before? Whats your favorite color from them?

})i({ -Amy



...and sorry I rambled so much, I am just so scatter brained. I wasnt the closest with my grandmother but this whole situation is one big deja vu for when my father passed two and a half years ago. The same kind of phone call from my sister... when my father got sick and went to the hospital I refused to acknowledge that it was something major (he had been in and out of the hospital for years and in my mind was going to be around forever), so I didnt fly out when I should have and he had a stroke. He died while I was stuck between flights... and I never got to say goodbye. He called me just two weeks before that... but was so loopy from all his medications he probably didnt remember the call. He told me I didnt call enough and that he wished I lived closer and could see him more often... super sad stuff. So when my sis called and told me Meme (short for grand memere) was sick I felt like the universe gave me a do over. I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and I fly out next Sunday. The  good news is that she is feeling a bit better, I hope she will make a full recovery!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Enchanted Polish Magical Mystery Tour

So this one was super hard for me to get... I bought it a little while back from meimeisignatures.com for a a bit of money... more than I should have. It was the only way for me to have a polish I had been lemming. Since I bought it, I never used it on myself, just on my co-worker. Well today was as good a day as any to pop this one on!


EEK! So pretty!!!


This polish changes from purple to blue to teal to green to red and gold. It has so much going on... its also a scattered holo. This is two buttery coats over two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark... All my black polishes were packed away so I could paint my bestie's nails,  (I was being lazy and didnt want to unpack them). AND here are her nails:


She's got little midget-y fingers... so no art, just mattes, glitters, stickers and studs. They came out pretty damn hot, if I do say so myself!

After all that we went to the Mexican Rodeo at the National Western Stock Show!!! So much fun!!!



 This was so cool!!! I have never been to a rodeo before... much less a Mexican one. The matador was very skilled... had a nice tight bum too!



There was bareback bronco riding and bull riding... This guy won the bull riding by a TON he was on there for way longer than anyone else!

It was a pretty good day filled with polish, adventure and good food... only drawback? I found out that I am pretty damned allergic to horses!

SO, what do you think of Magical Mystery Tour? Its pretty fab, right? I'm in love!

})i({ - Amy

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Serum No. 5 Day Glow

I have been wanting to get this stuff for forever! I love glowing polish and this is the best stuff I have ever come across, its like... radioactive


But first I want to show you my favorite white polish. I have probably talked about this before... now its time to see pictures.


I would never wear this as one coat on its own, and you can see why. But for layering under things this is the best! Why would you want to waste two layers of white polish under something you might need two or three coats of on top... with base coat and top coat, those are layers I just can not afford. This is pretty decent for one coat... am I right or what?


... not the best pictures, I know. My camera did not want to do its thing tonight. However, I think you can still see the one coat awesomeness that is American Apparel's Tee-Shirt.

Anywho... On to tripping the light glowtastic:


This is Day Glow...


 I didnt think it looked as yellow as it looks in the pictures...


More muted like this


and boy does it glow like a MO FO


This is where it gets its name... it glows in lowlight DURING THE DAY
I LOVE this polish. I am so happy I broke down and bought it even though I am not much for yellow. It looks great and I am having so much fun with it!
Sorry about the poor cuticle clean up, I am getting super lazy...

Do you have any fun glow polishes? Maybe a better color? Do you want this polish? Go get it HERE, do it now. You're welcome.

})i({ - Amy

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps Fishnet

So this morning I was supposed to get ready to go hang out with my brother Andrew... but I was reading nail blogs and losing track of time. I still hadnt done my nails yet and they were bare! I couldnt leave the house like that and I was in a hurry. I had just read Nailed It's post about wraps and it inspired me to put on OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in Fishnet I had bought at Beauty Brands two weeks ago...


They were SUPER quick and easy to apply but I left the top protector on while I applied and then removed it to finish the tips.


I also used a topcoat when I was done... additionally, these pictures were taken after I came back from a busy day of activities.



They are a bit more iridescent then they look in the pictures... and a bit on the sheer side. I was very pleased with this experience.

They held up quite well through the Pompeii exhibit at the museum






 It was a very interesting exhibit, this is just some of what we saw.
This is my "baby" brother contemplating the mysteries of the universe as he is known to do on occasion. I bet he'd love to know that this made it to my blog!

Anywho, we went to the museum then to the mall then to a bunch of other places to just wander around... it was a busy day, and I bought tons of polish as per usual: Nails Inc Baker Street with the bling cap, Essence Out of my Mind, Essence Hypnotic Poison, and Zoya Arizona. The Essence were .49 cents each, Arizona was 4.99 and Baker's Street was 10... I got another wrap for 2 bucks (for another emergency) and some ornaments for next Christmas. Biggest plus of all? Boyfriend got me this sticker to put on my helmer... who will now be known as Helga (because "my helmer" sounds so impersonal for something so magnificent, and it makes her sound like a powerful beast of a lady).
HOW COOL IS THIS? I would love to think that applying polish may one day lead to super human powers... maybe like getting a batch of radioactive lacquer.


Anywho... what a busy day. I am so pumped full of energy and rearing to go, but I really need to be gearing down now. Goodnight all!

})i({ - Amy

Monday, January 7, 2013

Untrieds photo heavy... (more like another Photo Dump)

Since I have only recently started my polish addiction... I have a lot of additions to my collection that I havent tried yet... mostly cause I like to buy polish more than I like to apply it... too much nail care to worry about. I have a couple days off and not much to do except probably go hang out with my little brother tomorrow. So today I exercised for the first time in a bit over a year... it was pretty tough even though it was only a half hour of running up and down the stairs (because last night when I ran up and down once I was so out of breath I disgusted myself), le sigh. I thought it would be a good idea to sit at my desk and paint my nails for hours, and I cant really move if I wanted to. Please excuse my nails in some of these pictures, the acetone really dries out my skin and cuticles. click "read more" to see the photos

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Revlon Coconut Crush

Ok, I love these scented polishes! Coconut Crush was a no brainer for me: I love coconut!

Even thought this looks pretty white, its actually off white. Its got just a bit of buttery color to it. This is three coats, they go on pretty thin and the formula is cuticle-flood prone so be careful! The coverage is much better than I thought when I was painting!


I did use a topcoat although maybe next time I wont because although a topcoat did not kill the smell, I bet it does dull it like it did with Raspberry Rapture. I LOVE THE SMELL OF THIS. When I smell this I am trasported back to Noosa Heads Beach. We used to rent a house on the canals for a week, canoe, swim, eat, and just relax. My favorite part was the beach (or the shopping) and there was a snow cone cart on the northeast side where I would get coconut snow cones everyday, the perfect treat in the heat. Le Sigh, this polish reminds me of how I want to go back now! For the rest of you without imagination it really smells like coconut conditioner... I guess. 
I'm ready for summer!

What polishes transport you away? Any that bring you to summer even on cold winter days like today?

})i({ -Amy

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Photo Dump

This is where all of my late posts go to die... stuck in dumps without their own posts, le sigh.

If I could be bothered to take a bit of time and draw this better it would be my header on my blog... But I cant draw on computers very well

This was a Christmas Nail that didnt make it. If I could, I would go back and replace one of the earlier ones with this one... meh. Its Urban Outfitters Holo Pink with some of my stripers in red, gold, and green.

Boyfriend bought me some last minute Christmas gifts the day after Christmas. This is Butter London's British Racing Green!!! I have heard on the grapevine that deep green will be the color of 2013, IM READY FOR THIS ONE!

I bought myself the documentary Nailgasam and it kind of inspired me to screw around with patterns and neons... these are unnamed Color Club colors and my  Sally Hansen art pen. I may have to develop this idea further.

I have been listening to this song non-stop for two weeks now... Im not really big on hip hop or rap or whatever, but this is my jam! I am kinda messing around with ideas for inspired nails.... if I ever do a challenge you can bet your ass I will use this! The "thumb" and "pinkie" are the color of blue like the polish they close up on :14 seconds in. The "index" is his sweater on 2:42, the middle is the dress from 1:40 and the "ring" finger is the suit on 2:57. I LOVE THIS SONG RIGHT NOW!!! WARNING: Explicit Language

Finally, I have been dying to show off my Helmer.


I really love stickers, but since I dont put any on my car I end up saving a bunch of them... like the "I Brake For..." I just end up collecting them. So when I decided I needed a Helmer I began buying more stickers! A lot of them came from RedBubble.com mostly the nerdy ones!

These little gems came from 23 Madison Studio She draws and makes these cute little stickers. The one I bought had 20 little different lacquer bottles.

 OK: Now on to the contents This is the top drawer. I keep my dotting tools, gems, stickers, filmo, orange sticks, nail art pens, magnets, cuticle scissors, nail clippers, flocking powder, striping tape, tweezers, oils, files, falsies, and nail wraps in here... among other things

 Drawer two has my base coats, topcoats, glitter top coats, cuticle remover and stripers.


Drawers three, four, and five have my polishes in them... semi color coordinated. The pictures have most of them... a few empty spots are stuff I havent put away and then there are about 7 new ones I havent made space for yet.



The last drawer has boring stuff in it, random cuticle care kits, business cards, lotions, acetone free polish remover (for jewels and stuff) extra cotton balls (I keep my cotton balls in a nice glass jar with lid that I picked up at Hobby Lobby... kinda decorative) and my favorite lotions, oils, polish remover pumps and jar scrubs are on top of my desk. Its a pretty good set up because my desk has a glass top, so when I want to do nail art or dotting I just dab the lacquer right onto my desk and clean up is super easy!

Yippee! So that was what I really wanted to show off... I think its pretty cool. This has been my favorite photo dump yet!

What's your favorite way to store polish? Any good products I should know about?

})i({ - Amy

OPI Liquid Sand Stay the Night

I saw these just after Christmas at Ulta and thought to myself: "Hmm, that might be interesting." It kind of is...



This is three thick coats, one was kinda interesting after it dried. It has a lot of dimension... like it sorta sparkles more than the pictures show. I cant tell if I like it but I am happy that I took a picture before I put a topcoat on...



It really changes the look with topcoat. Before it had almost a leather kind of look. This isnt bad, but it's something I could have achieved without sand.
The formula on this is thin despite having sand in it. I needed almost four coats to get the opaqueness of this. Its a black jelly with sand and red glitter in it basically. I think I like it... I chose this one over the other colors in the set because it looked a bit more my speed... I just dont know

What do you think? Have you tried the Liquid Sands yet? Should I get a different color?

})i({ - Amy

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Striping Tape!!!

So I have been admiring the effect you can get by using striping tape for a while, and I finally bought myself some and used it in my last post (but that was weak sauce). I really wanted to do something bright and fun... but this wasnt as easy as I thought it was going to be...



I have learned to take pictures part way through a mani because there is a great chance that I will mess up... there have been many a failed manicure that couldve been posted if only I had documented the journey... anywho. This is one thick coat of American Apparel T-Shirt. I have been on a mission to find a one coat white, and after hearing everyone rave about their black I thought "what the heck?" Glad I did because I like this so much more than OPI Alpine snow or even  Konad's white. I used two rows of striping tape to make a thicker line here and the black is my favorite Liquid Leather.


The pink is some random Color Club. I hate how their huge sets from Ross never have names on them.
This was a pain and the pictures look so messy... This took forever and you have to wait for everything to dry before you apply the tape URGH!!!! I hated doing this, but it came out kinda pretty! However, I feel like manicures are supposed to be fun, not a pain in the ass... so I only did these four fingers then wiped it clean and went with a solid. If I was doing this on someone else I think I would have enjoyed it more, and probably would have done a better job. I have more patience for other people than I do myself. It did come out really nice for a concept. I think if I did it again I would only use one row of striping tape when I got to the pink layer, so that the black and white was just peeking through, and maybe diagonal stripes.

})i({ -Amy