Neon Jelly Jam

Good day!

Today I have some swatches from a 7 piece polish set I picked up at Forever 21. I feel really dumb because I forgot to take a pic of the box and it is not on the website. Good job, Lamby.
Oy. Lately, I am so frazzled and scattered. I do not like it.

So let's forget that happened and move on.

 Love & Beauty No Name Purple

Three coats, no base or top

I think this is what people hoped Milani Rad Purple was going to be. As usual, purples are ridiculous to photograph and this was the closest I could get to accurate. It's a snotch darker but really vibrant.

This is a very fluid formula that applies nicely, dries fast and dries satin. Once you hit it with top coat, you get the perfect squishy. This is my total fave of the set but purple is my favorite color.

 Love & Beauty No Name Pink Jelly

Three coats, no base or top

This is super sheer, yo.  Again, this is really fluid. You really have to be careful with your application because it is very easy to get big ass blobs. This dries very quickly and is super shiny.

 No Name Green

Three coats, no base or top

This applies a little more opaque and dries slightly satin. Those are not bubbles on my nail. I got some divots thanks to the peelies. Yay.  This will never top the best green jelly ever, (New York Summer Amaranth, FTW.) but it is a very welcome addition to the family. This has a slightly thicker consistency and is a little easier to apply than the others.

 No name neon blue jelly

Three coats, no base or top

Now you can really see my sad, dinged up nails. Le sigh. 

This was as fluid as some of the others and also dried to a satiny finish.

 No name orange shimmer

Three coats, no base or top

This has lovely golden shimmer. It is almost as sheer as the pink but it is a fab, juicy orange. I will most likely use it for layering but I liked it a lot on its own. This is also where we go into the oddities of this set.

 Gold? Really?

Three coats, no base or top

It's a gold, sheer shimmer. Very pretty, not terribly exciting though. It seems such an afterthought in this set. You could totally layer over the others with it, I guess. There's no way it's gonna build up into something wearable on its own though.

Check it:

Macro shot of three coats

This is strictly for layering. The end.

Finally, we have the biggest head scratcher:

 No name gunmetal grey

Three coats no base or top

I love this. It's very me. However, I do not understand its place in this set. It's like they were worried they weren't including enough colors in the set. I get wanting to have a nice range or perhaps an even number. I just don't understand why it had to be a gunmetal grey. But that's just me. What the hell do I know?

Anyway, this is a bit tricky to apply. It is really fluid and if your previous coat is not completely dry, it will leave a bald patch. At least it dries fast.

Overall, I am loving all of these polishes. All dried very quickly and all but the green have a very fluid formula that the brush handle loves to hold on to. Hence, the blobs I cautioned against. 

That will do it for today. I'm off to the store to buy goodies for homemade pizza tonight!

Beauty Blogazon Round Up 6.19-6.25

Presenting your weekly dose of fabulous reads from the beauty blog world!

Lip Tar and MAC Surf Baby Lipstick Give Away Winner on Cosmetically Challenged

Hard Candy Beetle on the Life and Polish blog

500 Follower Giveaway 6 winners on Midnight Manicures

Zoya Touch Swatches on Kewtified

Animal Manicure on Bright Lights Big Color

My First Nubar on A Day in the Life

PritiNYC Summer Day Kit Swatches on Polished to the Nines

Multidimensional Mani on Nailderella Nails

You're Moody, Bish on Lambchop Mobile

Home Laser Hair Removal Guide on Beauty and Fashion Tech

Review: Mary Kay Love Lash Mascara on Style Eyes

A rainbow tape mani from Let Them Have Polish

Are You Down With OCC? Polish Insomniac is.

Pink Glitter Mani on Bookworm Nails

Battle of brush cleaner on Purple Eye Diamond

Get to know JoElle Skincare on Creatively Yours By Ro

Continuing Education in Artistry on Royal Beauty Designs

Review: e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Plum Purple on Beauty Mamas

Essie Ruby Slippers on Nails and Noms

Walking the Plank on Polish Pauper

Get in the Mood for Friday with Tara's Nails

Real French Perfume from Fragonard on Reve Noir

Enter the Nicole By OPI Texture Giveaway on Addicted to All Things Pretty

Are you tired of the bandwagon trends? Glitter Gloss Garbage is.

We like butter

Good morning!

Today I have for you my first ever Butter London polish. My best friend, Pixie, got this for me for my birthday.

 Butter London Bumster

Three coats no base or top

This is definitely one of those ugly/awesome colors. I mean, it's mustard. That is not normally a pleasant color.

Yet, I really like it. I'm not certain why.

The formula on this is okay. I had my best results on my pinkie since it's so tiny. However I found this to be streaky-ish going on and a tad thick. This will level out with top coat.  I've worn this a few times already and mainly received quizzical looks. I refer again to ugly/awesome concept. 

This also shows just how well Pixie knows me. She knows I'm drawn to odd colors.

I'm not crazy in love with this but I am glad to have it in my stash. I'd very much like to get some more colors but dang, that $14 price tag gets me. I'm sure I'll find myself indulging at some point. Especially if I find those jellies...

That'll do for now. I'm about to meet up with Matt and do something...

Have a great day!

Not like the kvetching

Good morning!

Today I have some layering/half-assed gradient. I'm not madly in love with this because I think it needs refinement. Also? I was really annoyed with small, random things. But we'll cover that later. On to the pictures!

Base is OPI Not Like the Movies, FIVE coats

Half assedly applied Orly Galaxy Girl and Out of This World

Topped again wit one coat of Not Like the Movies

This refused to photograph nicely.

I finally broke down and bought an OPI at retail. (GASP!!)  I think I was smoking crack. However, I do love this. I cannot resist a duochrome and I love the little bits of silver glitter. I'm gonna be a little crazy and say that I actually love WnW Gray's Anatomy a little more though. The formula is a little bit better and wears on me better than this. OPI's win is the brush though. That brush is awesome sauce.

I tried to wear this alone but it did not stand up to a full day at work. I started over when I got home and threw on five coats only because I got distracted by Matt and Pooky. So I lost count. Oh well. 

I just wasn't satisfied and I don't know why but I did what I did. It looked a lot better in real life. My pictures absolutely suck balls. 

I'm not in love and it was not up to my standards. I think it's all because I was so damned annoyed.

My day was just a collection of small annoyances that built up into a flood of unpleasantness and left me feeling prickly.

Like? Whistling. I hate whistling. I think it's the most heinous sound ever visited upon the ears. It's like having a pencil jabbed into my eye. Which, come to think of it, I would prefer. I had so many people in the store whistling and it was making me crazy!! And I could not say shit. I just kept ducking my head and gritting my teeth.

Then, comes along the foot draggers. HOW HARD IS IT TO PICK UP YOUR FEET WHEN YOU WALK??? That is the height of laziness to me. Cannot stand it.

It was all shit like that and it frazzled me so much that I couldn't even stand being around people. Good thing I had a stack of paperwork waiting for me in the office. It may have saved my sanity and possibly my marriage.

Because Matt is not a fan of my kvetching. Oy. Sucks to be you guys! 

So there ya have it. I appreciate you listening to my cranky ramblings.

Tell me, what are your pet peeves? Does it ruin your day too?

1983 is calling

Good morning!

Holy bats, I have so much to do here. I've been on a spree to take pics, edit and schedule posts because I really want to have more to show here. I've been so damn slack. I just don't know why you guys invite me.

Today I have a bit of swatch/layer/nail art. I decided to see if I could make it through my last three days before vacation without completely changing my manicure. This is not an easy task.
However, I prevailed and as a reward I get to go polish shopping tonight.

So let me show you what happened:

On Monday, I chose to wear Orly Snowcone

Orly is my favorite brand. BUT. This was so hard to work with. It's thick and chalky. It s richly pigmented so I got away with two coats. Gratefully, Out The Door smoothed things out and I was a happy Lamb. It's a keeper, no doubt because the rewards were well worth the effort.

This wore exceptionally well for me which was a huge surprise. When you're constantly reaching into wheeled tubs for plates, tools, sporting goods, laundry baskets, picture frames, etcetera, etc. it effs up your nails pretty good. Not this time! And this is one reason why I'm such an Orly fangirl.

On Tuesday, I repaired the tiny bit of tip wear and decided to layer:

This you have to click.

It is one coat of Claire's Mermaid over Snowcone.

Terribly subtle, so I had to add two more coats.

Mermaid is a sheer, soft blue duochrome that throws a pink and green flash. I did a swatch in this post here so you can see what it looks like on its own.

The pink really shone over this but  the base color is too close to Snowcone and it takes too many coats for a good effect. Still pretty though.

Yesterday I wanted nail art. Snowcone is a great base for it. I really want to try the splatter nails look that the PolishAholic did a tutorial for. I did not have the time and necessary tools so I busted out the Konad.

Konad Plate m21

ChG Grape Pop and Four Leaf Clover

Orly Lemonade

Color Club Warhol

All finally covered with another coat of Mermaid.

Four Leaf Clover didn't show as well as I would have liked. 

Overall, I was super happy with this. It is snazzy. I think it's a bit of 80s nostalgia I have going on. 

I was reminded of the time me and my girlfriend decided to paint splatter our sunglasses. We set up in her garage and I remember being so stoked that her parents were going to let us use paint because mine sure the hell wouldn't! Of course, we were in the third grade at the time and her mom hovered around with this terrified expression. End of story, we both walked away with paint splattered sunglasses that we could hardly see out of. But we were on trend for super cheap so...WIN. They paired very nicely with our rubber bracelets and jelly sandals that summer.

That does it for now. I have loads more blog work to do, a house to clean and a shopping list to make.

Have an amazing day!!

Everybody loves a parfait

Good morning guys!

It's my FRIDAY!!! Holy bats, I'm so ready. I just don't even know to do with the free time I'm going to have.
Oh, right. I'm going to clean house and do laundry. Yay. Maybe I can talk Matt into having sushi Thursday....

Today I have a snotch more of layering because I found some cool combos and well, it's what I do a lot.
Let's take a look:

 From left to right:

Index: Two coats Essie Lollipop with two coats Pure Ice Rosebud

Middle: Two coats Essie Lollipop, one coat Sally Hansen Wavelength and one coat Rosebud

Ring: Once coat Sally Hansen Black Patent Leather with two coats Rosebud

Pinkie: Two coats ChG Recycle with two coats Rosebud

All are without top coat

Same as above with top coat

I swear, Rosebud is my newest favorite layering polish. I absolutely adore it over Lolipop and Recycle. What I did with my middle finger was exactly the pedicure I was sporting. (Yay, no feet pics!) It had a pretty, shimmery and squishy look that was fabulous with my gold leather sandals. Just sayin'.

Rosebud was really nice over the black but a bit streaky. I think this could work if I took the time to carefully apply. This was a quick and dirty. BUT do you love this over Recycle? I think it is amazeballs. Who knew this could work together? 

I feel so proud of myself. ;)

Sadly, this a quick one. I have to get ready for work and make some lunch.

Have a great day!!!

You're moody, bish.

Good morning!

I loaded my sister's ipod the other day and I was just appalled with the list of songs she wanted on it. Nickelback, really? No. A million times no. It's bad enough my husband likes them.
What really made my blood boil was her request for Buckcherry - "Crazy Bitch." I hate that song with an outrageously fiery passion. Why is that song so popular with women? It is so insulting.
And this is coming from a woman that listens to extreme metal. Oy. I could go on and on, cite my women's studies classes and make the distinction between shock value and just plain tastelessness. But I won't. I would bore you.
However, the good news is that I had pretty much none of the music she requested. So I loaded Avantasia, Liv Kristine, Portugese Fado music and other good stuffs on there instead. To sum up, I win. I will improve my sister's taste in music.

This now takes us to the polish.  ;)

I went on a little trip to Claire's and ended up picking up another mood polish and their black crackle.
Check it:

 Three coats happy/earthy

no base or top

Earthy is the warm look.

Happy/earthy after running my fingers under cold water.

Not the best pic because I was pretty warm so it was

difficult to keep the polish green.

I liked this green/yellow combo quite a bit. I'm a sucker for neons and I love that this yellow is a highlighter kind of bright. I do believe this is going to be super fun for Duck Day manicures!

Anyway. This applied really nicely and dried super quick. I was surprised it dried matte because my other two mood polishes do not. However, once I saw this went neon I got it. And I like it.

Then I decided to use black crackle over this and this is what happened.

 Three coats happy/earthy topped with black crackle.

Randomly applied on index and middle to see how it would crack.

Same as above in natural indoor light.

Neon yellow and black are such a classic 80's combo. LOVE. This is how I shall segue back to music, for reals.

So, this made me think of the Misfits and their Crimson Ghost mascot. I used to have a Misfits t-shirt that had the same color combo. And once that thought came to me, I made the family listen to the Misfits. Good thing Matt likes them!

So there ya have it. What bands/songs make you irrationally angry? I have a long list, myself. You prolly should never ask about it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific day!

Stylish Blogger Award

I was tagged for this by the adorable and super sweet, Monique of Forever '92.

I'm to share 7 facts about myself and pass this along to seven other bloggers.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'd like for anyone to participate if they so desire. Frankly, there's so many cool and interesting people out there, that it would be so hard to narrow it down to just seven!

So here we go:

1. I HATE, HATE cold weather and feeling cold. My childhood in Nebraska made me despise snow and cold. I live for summer.

2. Matt and I have decided that we will move to Mexico when it's time to retire. Specifically, the Yucatan Penisula. I has to be warm.

3. I adore my job. It's challenging and stressful but it's makes me so happy.

4. I should have found a job in the music industry since music is my life and I CAN'T play any instrument.

5. My favorite metal band is Moonspell. My favorite punk band is Social Distortion. My favorite pop singer is Lady Gaga. And I adore Air Supply. I'm a delightful ball of eccentricity. 

6. My all time favorite shade of nail polish is OPI Midnight In Moscow. 

7. I adore my husband. He is so amazing and gorgeous. I'm still crazy, madly in love with him 12 years later. I wish all my friends had a lover like him. He is that spectacular.

Thanks for stopping by and finding out a few things about me.

Hope everyone has a glorious day!

Beauty Blogazon Round Up

Presenting your weekly round-up of fabulous reads from the Beauty blog world!

Beauty Supply Haul from Royal Beauty Designs

Essie Braziliant from Kewtified

Zoya Rica from Midnight Manicures

A day at the races with Bright Lights Big Color

Lights, Camera, Nail Polish with the Polish Pauper

Millions of Peaches for the Polish Insomniac

Lots of Deborah Lippmann from Nails and Noms

Cosmetically Challanged asks are we abusing our mentors?

Ruby Kisses Red Romance with Creatively Yours by Ro.

Forever 21 Friday with Tara's Nails

A new kind of Jelly Sandwich with Lambchop Mobile

Nufo 52 and Zoya by Let Them Have Polish

Giveaway Win Nail Art with Getting Girlie

Korres High Drama with Beauty Thesis

Nail of the Day with Song of Hope

Sam Fine Interview with Eye Adore Pretty

Orange Plaid by Painted Pixies

Springtime Lippie colors with Purple Eye Diamond

The Makeup Show Chicago+Haul with Killer Lipgloss

Kayla's very first Franken

Free Hand Nail Art with The It Color

L'Oreal Infallible Swatches with Glitter Gloss Garbage

Nicole by OPI 6 Piece Shatter Giveaway with Addicted to All things Pretty

A new kind of jelly sandwich

Good morning guys!

Today I have a little something I've been playing with. You've prolly seen the "jelly sandwich" look popping up all over lately. And damn, jelly over glitter is tatsy. So is jelly over crackle as evidenced by The Swatchaholic.
So what is it I'm doing? Just layering jelly over jelly.

 Revlon Just Tinted Mystical and Pure Ice Rosebud

Four coats no base or top

I alternated coats of  Mystical and Rosebud to achieve this. It had this perfect candy appearance and I was digging the satin finish my final coat of Mystical gave. Rosebud has this amazing shimmer and I feel it really was able to show through in this combination. This is a super quick mani to do because both dry so quickly. 

Now let's see what happens when you do add top coat.

Shiny squishy goodness.

(Clicky to make big.)

Check out the fire that Rosebud brings, yo. That's what I'm talking about.

Hope you enjoyed this layering experiment. I have another round coming up with Rosebud because it is so much more awesome than I would have imagined. Until then, my friends...

And now we take a Kitteh break.

Good day!

Here is your dose of kitteh cuteness.

Gus loves his bags.

Gus, my little stalker kitteh. He was hanging out with me in the sunroom on a rare warm and sunny day while I was swatching. However, he's not my usual company when doing my nails...

Dita is my constant companion when it's time to make those nails pretty.

Lest you think Gus is the only one who enjoys hiding out in boxes and bags, Dita finds them pleasing as well.

 Hmm... what's this?

Please to not recycle the kitteh!

At the end of a long day practicing tiger skills, stalking mom and being the most beautiful cat in the world; it's time to take a nice nap.

I love how Trixie and Dita cuddle together.

Thanks for indulging the crazy cat lady and I hope you enjoyed the kitteh break!

I can't smile without you

Good morning!

I actually slept in for once, guys. Normally, sleeping in for me is waking at 7 a.m. Today I woke at almost 9. Might have something to do with staying up late and making study notes for my sister. (Which is a whole other sad, sordid story...) BTW, reading motivational/managerial books is not much fun. Especially when you find them useful. Oy.

Anyway, I wanted to show some nail art that I have done recently.

Last week, I showed some layering over ChG Heli-Yum and mentioned I was going to be rocking that shade when I got back to work. This is what I did:

Base is three coats Heli-Yum

Purple stripes are two thin coats of Nina Ultra Pro Grin and Bear-y It

topped with Orly Bubbly Bombshell

White stripes are WnW Mad Styles

Used blue painter's tape to mark off the stripe.

So my clean up was pretty piss poor BUT it just so happened that Matt and I were getting snappy with one another at that point. So I gave up and took some pics.(Then I pouted and silently resented my hubs for being a prick. Y'know like you do on any "Friday" night.)

Point is, I didn't like how Bubbly Bombshell was going over Grin and Bear-y It so on my right hand I left out the Nina and only applied the Orly. 

I am really liking Mad Styles tho. It's a nicely pigmented white creme that applies nicer than most.

On Saturday, I decided to roll with some nice minty green. I used Claire's Dreamcatcher over Revlon Powder Puff but was dismayed by all the streakiness and bald patches. So I did this the next day:

Three coats Dreamcatcher over Powder Puff

One coat Sinful Mint Apple

One Coat Nina Ultra Pro Mermaid

Sponged with WnW Mad Styles

The original combo did not wear well and looked horrid so I layered. Also, didn't feel like giving myself a whole brand new look. I get lazy. So I didn't quite get my tip wear covered. Mint Apple gave me the opacity I was looking for. Mermaid gave some pretty shimmer and my sponging looked like little clouds. So...yeah.

Frankly, I  have done and can do better. 

That does it for now. I have to take some more pics of some layering that I hope you will enjoy.

Have a great day!