Happy LAMB-oween!

Good day!

Happy Halloween, y'all. I wasn't going to dress up this year but...how could I not?
Luckily, I had a costume that my mom purchased for me a couple of years ago from Value Village that I never got to wear.
It's totally not "me" and it was kind of funny for anyone who knows me. There's even a strange coincidence that comes with.

Without further ado, I give you...

Cheerleader Lamby!

 Yay team!

Beat 'em, defeat 'em!

I know, I know. It is kind of cute. Here's where the coincidence comes in: I googled the school to find out where it was from and what their mascot was. Turns out it's St. John the Baptist school in West Islip, New York. My mom was born in West Islip. Right??? How perfect that she bought me this then.

Why isn't this costume me? I was a drama geek and a headbanging heavy metal girl in high school. All that's changed now is that I'm older and I'm not performing in plays. I do love the oxymoron of it all.

On a sidenote, holy shitballs is my kitchen dark. I gotta do something about that...

I did not forget my nails though. You know I had to coordinate!

Index is: Orly Star of Bombay, WNW Mad Styles on tip and Essie Lollipop polka dots.

All others: Essie Lollipop, WNW Mad Styles on tips and Orly Star of Bombay polka dots.

I do not know what possessed me to try a chevron tip. Other than trying to match the top of my costume. It was not as easy as I thought it would be. Oy. However, it turned out okay for a first try. Did I mention that I free-handed it? That's probably why it's not so super. But it did match exactly and overall, I'm quite pleased.

Boy am I glad I finally got to wear this costume. I felt like a freak every time I mentioned that I owned a cheerleader uni in spite of never having been one. Yeah, you know. 

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a pleasant evening. I plan to gorge myself on CANDY!!!

Like a phantom in the night

Good morning!

I'm back with something a little bit different. I have a "new" brand to show that I picked up at Macy's a couple of weeks ago. I was doing some dress shopping when I spied it. I speak of the Macy's exclusive line, Material Girl. If you hadn't heard, Madonna and her daughter launched a line of clothes at Macy's and have now expanded in to beauty and skincare. This includes nail polish and I knew I had to have it.

Phantom

two coats over Gelous base coat

There is a very small selection of colors at the moment but this black called my name.

It's a basic black creme with subtle red and gold micro-glitter. It's REALLY hard to see. This was my best pic. I keep getting suckered by polishes like this, hoping for a glorious blackened glitter party on my nails. Not so much.

The good news is that the formula is sublime. This applied so smooth and two coats really did the trick. I was really surprised!

Let's move on to the bottle. It's a nice square bottle with removable cap. You know, kind of like Butter London bottles. Yeah. So I'd heard random chatter about the bottles being a rip-off design wise. Oy. I have both this and Butter and I will say that Butter has a bottle and cap that feels sturdier than Material Girl.

Otherwise, eh. Who cares???

Phantom, three coats over Gelous base

So this final pic is when I decided to add a third coat later in the day. The glitter is only slightly more apparent but not by much. You really had to be looking for it.  Nonetheless, I adore the formula on this and I always feel I can never have too many black polishes. 

I definitely want to go back and get some more colors. There was a gorgeous blue and outrageous pink metallic glitter that I must have in my life. What say you? Would you buy Material Girl?

Material Girl can be found exclusively at Macy's for $7.00.

Thanks for coming by and have a lovely day!

My house is haunted by wrong desire

Good day.

I have a touch of the inexplicable melancholy so no nail polish. Instead I have a playlist of depressing music. The most amusing part is that it's not all metal, either. I have range...

1. Carina Round - For Everything A Reason
I heard this song on "American Horror Story" and I found it to be well...haunting.

2. The Cure - Bloodflowers
I love this band so much. And, they've always been at their best when they are truly depressing.

3. Antony and The Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
The vocals are definitely different on this but, oh, does this song just break my heart.

4. Crystal Castles featuring Robert Smith - Not In Love
This is a cover song, originally performed by a Canadian band I had never heard of. This has a full on 80's vibe, very stark and cold. I adore it.

5. Moonspell - Mute
My favorite band and probably one of my most favorite songs ever. Without Moonspell, I am mute.

6. Katatonia - Inheritance
I could add so many Katatonia songs but I will narrow down to this only one. This was my theme song last winter. I had many, many inconvenient burdens.
(May I also suggest, Passing Bird, The Future of Speech, In The White, No Good Can Come of This, New Night and Departer? To name just a few...)

7. Deep Purple - When A Blind Man Cries
Oh, how I love Purple. Mark II is one of my favorite line-ups if only for Ian Gillan. His voice gives me chills.

8. Gary Moore and Phil Lynott - Parisenne Walkways
This is a classic weeper, yo. These two men were such a brilliant team together.

9. Amalia Hoje - Grito
This is from a tribute supergroup to the legendary Amalia Rodrigues. One of the members and the singer of this particular song is Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell. I found the most enchanting translation of the lyrics here: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/grito-scream.html
I hope any Portugese readers will let me know how good the translation is though.

10. Thin Lizzy - Still In Love With You
If you can't appreciate Thin Lizzy, we can't be friends. Phil Lynott and Gary Moore were so amazing together.

Grab your Kleenex and have a good cry. It can do wonders for the soul.

Many thanks to my beloved, internet sister, Ginger. You inspired me and this is not nearly as good as your playlist posts. I wish I was witty as you!

Dangerous when the sun goes down

Good day!

Today I have one of the only two WNW On The Prowl polishes I could find.

 Ready To Pounce

Three coats, no base or top in sunlight

You know I had to have this. It's a rich purple with lovely, subtle wine shimmer. It is a stunner and my very fave kind of vampy.

But...I think I got a bad bottle, yo. This is the second time I have ever received a WNW with a weird brush.

Mine is all choppy. It caused me some problems in application, leaving me pretty streaky.

 Shimmery...

 I thought it was all the brush and I was a little disappointed. Not enough to try again. I was wanting a rich, sexy color to wear yesterday while I was out and about with Matt, so this was my only clear choice.
I can definitively report that my bottle has formula issues.

Three coats over Gelous base and Out The Door topcoat

Indoor lighting

Taken after a hard day of shopping.

I found that this needs to be applied fairly thick. It dries so well and so quickly that it's not a big deal. But I found that after applying a second, thicker coat that I still had some streaky areas. I had to roll my bottle each time I went to apply because it felt so thick and dragged over the nail. Once I rolled the bottle, the formula felt much smoother albeit still thick and applied much more fluidly.

That really makes me sad. It was kind of a struggle to get to the final product. That's not what I expect from WNW. 

Will I be avoiding this again? No. I adore the color so I am willing to put in time and effort to sport this. However, it may not always be my first choice.

What do you think? Have you picked this up? Had any problems? I'd love to hear from you, I'd like to be sure it's just me.

I'm back to work today, y'all. Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

I get delirious whenever you're near

Good morning!

I have had one exhausting week so far and it left me feeling spun. Therefore, I needed a crazy pick-me-up.
I dove into some of my recent hauls and put together something so silly, fun and over the top girly.

Base is three coats Revlon Just Tinted in Desire

One thick coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter

One coat Love & Beauty neon pink jelly

Indoor lighting

This was a lot of look as well as a lot of polish. It's really not my usual kind of thing because I really don't care for pink but I will never say no to glitter. But to make myself feel better, I really needed to go for a seriously bold look and challenge myself to try something new.

Macro shot, indoor lighting

Starry Silver Glitter has lots of silvery-holo glitter in a clear base with scattered blue and pink octagonal glitter pieces. It's a little difficult to get much of the pink and blue glitter but a thicker coat managed to do the job. I love layering glitters under jelly. They look like little jewels suspended in jello. 

Taken in sunlight after a full day of work.

Matt said that this looked like bubblegum and I have to agree. 

This held up really well considering all of the things I did at work yesterday. Gratefully all of the polishes I used for this dry really quickly so this look came together for me in less than 30 minutes.

So, what do you think? Is it really silly or really fun?

That does it for me today. I have a lot to do at work to make everything nice since my boss will be returning from maternity leave on Friday. I'm so excited to have her back, I missed her so much! I'm a little sad that my schedule will change but I'm grateful to have a job I love and a boss I truly admire. 

Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

A thousand shards of voice

Good day!

I've been up to my old tricks with the polish layering again. Before we get to the photos though, I apologize in advance if the quality is not so good. Matt took my camera with him on business trip so I had to use my phone camera. Hopefully, you'll like my layering enough to forgive me.

Revlon Facets of Fuschia, two coats

layered with two coats Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black

Oh, boy. Don't you just love trying to clean up glitter? It's swell.

I love how this came out. The holo hex glitter looked fab with the fuschia hex glitter. 

Wow...I'm still overwhelmed by this.

I wore that for a day and the next morning, I layered some more rather than spend some time removing all this glitter. Also, I really didn't want to remove it. It's so pretty.

 ChG  Fault Line with Revlon Just Tinted Victorian

before top coat

Two coats of Out the Door

and AMAZEBALLS!

I wish I had my camera so I could've really captured this. It had gorgeous depth and fire. I tried sharpening this a bit more so you could see it all. I just know I have to do this again and take proper photos.

That will do for now. It's a grey, misty day and it's making me so lethargic. I think I will just lay on the couch and listen to Katatonia all day. At least until Matt gets home!

Have a great day, all!

Chic, C'est La Vie

Good day!

Today I have something from my most recent trip to Ulta. I went at a good time since their salon brand polishes were on sale for $2. I picked up a lemming AND found something a little more sophisticated and appropriate for fall.

Let's take a look:

Ulta Salon Party Chic

three coats, no base or top

I admit this was a bit of a disappointment for me. It was merchandised in the purple range and looked a teensy bit purple in bottle. But it is not purple at all. Party Chic is more of a brown with lots of champagne shimmer. It's rather sheer as well. Three coats was fine but I'd probably prefer four. The good news is that this dries quite quickly so it's not a big deal. The formula was better than I expected and the brush was okay. I was worried the round bottle cap was going to be an issue but it was not.

I really like this now that I've resigned myself to it being brown. This will do nicely for work meetings.

So, what do you think? Is it chic or weak?

That does it for today. I'm going to catch up on some reading tonight since Matt is out of town and can't bug me about it! Have an enchanted day!

Ain't no walk of shame

Good morning!

I'm bringing yet another Essence polish for you today. I adore these little Colour and Go polishes. 99 cents and you have a great choice of color and it dries super fast? yes, please!

Essence Colour & Go Walk of Fame

two coats, no base or top.

This is another polish I bought to go into my "work appropriate" arsenal. Granted, I can wear whatever polish I want but sometimes I feel it best to have something that looks a little more professional. (Like when the CEO tours my store.) 

This is quite similar to the other taupe/greige shades out there but what drew me in was a slight hint of purple.I also knew this look would lovely layered with a metallic shimmer or glitter. My swatches were a little rushed so I'm not happy with how the ring finger looks. This one is a snotch thicker formula than the others but nothing to be concerned about. I found slightly thicker coats can get you opacity in two coats but I always prefer three coats.

What do you think? Are over the greige?

That does it for me, y'all. I'm off to work and dreaming of the yummy dinner I will make tonight!

Daytime Moon

Good morning!

Today is my Monday and I'm back to work.
I had such a lovely weekend with Matt and I didn't want it to be over. Alas, he has to go out of town on business. Which is okay because that means I can do some things that I can't when Matt is home. (Yay for reading books!) This is also nice for Gus because he gets to sleep on Matt's side of the bed.

Since I'm feeling a little blue, I thought it appropriate to show you a swatch that fits:

Essence My Boyfriend's Jeans

Three coats, no base or top.

This came in the TE Denim Wanted last Fall. I skipped it the last time I went to Ulta only because I had limited funds. I figured that I would never have any of the polish from this collection. Imagine my surprise to walk into Ulta nearly a year later and spy this in the clearance bin for 99 cents. 

This is a perfect blue creme for me. Sadly, my nails are misbehaving yet again. Le sigh...

Moving on to the happier side of things, this applies very nicely and dries really quickly. Essence has quickly become a favorite for me. I have yet to buy a polish that I didn't love and the makeup is really fabulous. (Loving the lip glosses and the liquid liner!!) Of course, the price suits me to a tee. I'm so glad this brand has come to the U.S. 

That does it for me. I have to kiss Matt goodbye and hop on my bike for another week of work. Hope everyone has a lovely day!