My Son, the Artistic Genius

Ah, blogging hiatus with no foreseeable solid continuance...

Bought lots of polish/sold lots of polish. Also, my nails are ALL GONE, really. The nubbiest of nubs you could possibly imagine.

In other news, my due date is 62 days away.

In more other news, my 2 year old drew me a picture (upon my request) of me (also upon my request) and it's fabulous. Every non-mom out there is rolling her eyes right now, ha ha.

I've labelled my parts, for your convenience:

Like, I know it's a seismic mess but EYEBROWS THOUGH. Sigh!

Anyway, I miss you guys. Hope you're all well. I truly haven't turned into a "mommy blogger" (I guess I'm not any sort of blogger, at the moment) but mommy-things are just kind of at the forefront of my life, obvsss.

<3

Rainbow Honey - October 2014 Mystery Bag

Well hi!

I picked up Rainbow Honey's mystery bag this month because *mysteries* but also because I haven't gotten one in a while and I missed it. I went with the $10 mini version because *broke* and still made out like a dang bandit.

Included in this month's mini mystery bag:

Cafe Con Leche 5mL - Basically couldn't have been named anything more appropriate. Super creamy nude with gold and silver shimmer: the perfect polish for my skin tone for mannequin hands! Smooth, easy formula. 2 coats + topcoat under OttLite.

Zi 5mL - Purple jelly packed with blue, gold, magenta and silver micro glitter. It almost looks like a glass fleck, but like, a micro glass fleck, if that makes sense. A bit on the thin side color-wise, this guy built to opacity in 3 coats. The first picture is under OttLite, the second is under crappy kitchen light to show more accurate color/shimmer (both swatches are with topcoat).

All Your Base base coat 15mL - Full size! Yeah girl! I, uhhhh, very rarely wear base coat (scoff!) because of how often I change my polish, but this one apparently has pretty good reviews. I actually got the mini size of All Your Base a few months ago and HAVE used it, thank you.

L'orange Ganache nourishing lip balm .15oz - I can never have enough lip balm during the winter. This one smells like chocolate with maybe a hint of orange, but I mostly just get chocolate. And it tastes kind of sweet, which is nice, because nothing is more disappointing than a yummy smelling lip balm that tastes like nothing. :( I have it on right now, and it feels, you know, nice. My lips are happy.

Sweet November Eu de Parfum Rollerball 4mL & Shimmer Soap .5oz - I loooove sweet scents, so this couple is perfect for me. I'm glad RH includes an info card detailing the products or I would have described this scent as 'Um... sweet... there's like, vanilla and maybe, like, some caramel notes..?' Officially, Sweet November is "a warm sweet musk with notes of coconut and vanilla sugar". It makes me want to wrap up in a big, warm blanket and lay in front of a fire surrounded by Christmas lights.

Like, I HATE winter, mind, but I really love feeling cozy. This smell makes me feel very cozy.

So heck yeah, right? I'm never disappointed with these bags, especially for the price. I love how much of a variety of products are included, too. It's nice to see an October mystery thing that isn't specifically Halloween-related.

Remembrance Day

Hello, my little lovely friends.

October is, and I wasn't aware of this until two years ago, Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month with the 15th being Remembrance Day. I know today is the 17th... I'm always late to everything, okay?

Before June 27th, 2011, I didn't know what an ectopic pregnancy was. I had my very first surgery that day, the removal of my right fallopian tube, and it sort of changed the way I thought things worked. I wasn't confident, for the first time in my life, I would actually be able to conceive naturally (especially without any solid idea as to why the fertilized egg got stuck in the tube to begin with). My fears, thankfully, were completely unfounded as only four remarkably short months later I was pregnant again with my now two-year-old son.

Most days are Remembrance Day, for me, because I look at my little boy and wonder about the life that could have been, if only she would have kept moving just an inch and a half more. I think about the strange emptiness I felt in the weeks following my surgery, even though I had only been pregnant for two months, and how the whole experience altered my moral foundation -- what were my priorities before then? All I had wanted, after seeing that blue cross magically appear on the little white stick, was to be "mommy". I hadn't felt like I had a real identity before then, and suddenly I knew my place in the world, and then it was gone.

Mostly, I look at my son and I am just so freaking overwhelmed with awe that it worked out. I know all parents say this about their kids, but he is amazing. Like, amazing. And also a maniac. And I am so thankful, because it doesn't work out so brilliantly for everybody. I remember how lucky I am.

I haven't done nail art in about 6546938368 years, a lot of it having to do with my nails looking like total crap, but I figure if there was ever an occasion for it, it would be the one that changed my life. I used:

Lilypad Lacquer - Baby Boy Blue
CoverGirl - Peek-a-Boo Pink
PinkDipsyBulle - Indian Ocean

some striping tape
and a little heart guy.

Sinful Colors - Splatter Spell, Cauldron Couture and Mystery Moonshine Swatches & Reviews

Firstly, these swatches suck large amounts of horse hineys (autocorrect wants to change "hineys" to "chimneys" which, if horse chimneys were a thing, these swatches would be sucking those as well). I wouldn't even pretend to be mad if somebody told me so, either. I agree with you, friend. Such suck.

But it's what I have, soooooooooooooooo...

Found these bishes at Walgreens a couple weeks ago on an un-built display, still in their boxes. I sneakily snuck one of each out, even though I'm pretty impartial to glitter toppers. I figure for Halloween maybe I can get into it a little bit.

Bleh.

The problem with drugstore glitter toppers, I've found, is that the ratio of glitter to base is pretty weak. I mean, obvs I'm not looking for a full-coverage glitter, but as thick as these polishes were, I would have liked to have gotten a better payoff, you KNOW? I had to do some fishing for an even layer of glitter. All swatches were taken under OttLite (even though it's a beautiful day out and likely one of the last of its kind this year :/  ).


First up is Splatter Spell which is a metallic orange shard/hex and various-sized black hex glitter mix in a clear base. Shrug. I kind of wish the orange was more saturated, I guess.

Shown below is two coats plus a few dabs over Sinful Colors - Enchanted.

Cauldron Couture is similar to Splatter Spell but it's, oh you know, metallic green and black instead. There also seemed to be a much higher glitter concentration in this one, making it my favorite of the three, and I still don't really even like it that much.

Shown below is two coats plus a few dabs over Sinful Colors - Innocent.

I thought Mystery Moonshine was going to be my favorite because of the lack of black hex glitter, but this one can just go straight to heck. It was a goopy nightmare with very little glitter payoff, plus the super-thick base was tinted pinkish (though I don't know if it was intentional or because of glitter bleeding).

Shown below is two resentful coats plus countless dabs over Sinful Colors - Cool Gray.

I'm only keeping these guys because I collect Sinful Colors and they look pretty in the bottle, but I very highly doubt I'll be actually using them anytime soon. Whatever, they were $2 a pop (because somebody didn't just wait until Walgreens was having their $.99 Sinful Sale...).

Whatever, I say. Hey, Halloween isn't until, like, a month from now. I have time to find successful Halloween polishes, right?

PinkDipsyBulle Franken Polish - Queen Conch, Golden Apple, Nebula and Lady of the Lake Swatches & Reviews

GUYS HEY!

I'm 23 weeks pregnant yesterday and I can no longer bend over without grunting. So, anyway...

I actually have some swatches for you today! That is your reward for still subscribing to my junk... you get to see some stuff sometimes. Quality blogging, right there!

*Hallelujah Chorus interlude*

It's no secret that I'm a total PinkDipsyBulle fangirl, and I could not have been more excited to review some polish at the request of The Shimmer Wizard herself (which I'm going to call her from now on... sorry). If you'll recall, my first favorite indie polish ever was Indian Ocean and it continues to reign as champion of my heart; it's also the only polish in my entire (kind of pathetic, comparatively) 300-ish bottle collection that I have a backup of. That being said, my fanatic raving is completely genuine and honest.

First up is Queen Conch, a cool-toned bubblegum pink with electric blue flash. Good formula on this guy; the brushstrokes are much less apparent in person than the OttLite picture would have you believe, so don't let that deter you. The blue flash is also more flash-tastic in real life, of course.

Shown below is three thin coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Sunlight

Next stop: Golden Apple, a soft mint green with bright golden flash that seriously glows on the nail. The way this dude looks in the bottle makes me want to eat it... it looks as though maybe it would taste like the best, like, magic taffy in the universe. Can we just pretend there's any amount of sense in that? Thanks. So, uh, yeah... I've always wanted a shade like this but none that I've found that were similar (mint base/golden flash) had enough oomph, you know? Another good formula, also less brushstroke-y in reality.

Shown below is three coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Sunlight

OttLite

Now we're at Nebula, one of three recently released multichrome toppers. This guy shifts between violet to blue to teal, and has gold to green shifting glitters. Pretty much bottled divinity, if you wanted to know how I really felt.
A bit on the thicker side but not in an unreasonable way, which made for an easier application as I only needed one steady coat to achieve righteousness. If this polish doesn't make your extremities tingle even a tiny bit then I don't even know if we can be friends anymore.

Shown below is one coat with topcoat over black.

Sunlight... kinda

OttLite

OttLite

Shade

Shade

OttLite

And lastly, we have Lady of the Lake, a grape-violet jelly base with bright blue shimmer. Reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie, except with a cooler, jelly-er base. A bit less opaque than the first two, I was still able to build to opacity in three coats. Lady of the Lake is a limited edition polish (read: she's only going to make a handful so I suggest jumping all over that noise if you want it). The blue shimmer in this is effing glorious -- it almost reads as a duochrome in some lights, and it has this sparkle that is just so yes.

Shown below is three coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Shade

Sunlight

Sunlight

So, right? And she has a whole shop full of polishes like these -- here! Each goes for $6 for 10 mL and they're 3-free. She's also releasing two other limited edition polishes along with Lady of the Lake and they're also gorgeous, and that's all you get to know.

On a side note: my pinky nail snapped in half the day after I was asked to swatch these, so I kept the nail in order to glue it back on for swatch purposes, but then I lost the damned nail. So I'm wearing a false nail for the photos which is why it looks kind of bizarre compared to the rest of my nails, in case you noticed that. Poor little freak-nail. 

Well maybe I'll see you around soon, you know? I'm still buying crap-tons of polish, just not swatching them so much these days. I've been workin' from home, with two endlessly energized children and the third in my belly, making not taking naps pretty much not an option if I get the opportunity. 

Oh, by the way, he's a boy. A little boy without a name yet and he's currently kicking me just to the right of my belly button. THERE IS A SMALL HUMAN BEING LIVING INSIDE OF MY BODY. It seriously doesn't get any less freaky the second time around. Pregnancy is SO WEIRRRRDD.

I used to seriously get gaggy thinking about just having organs. A HUMAN. Anyway. Hope you're all well. I miss you. XOXOX

Orly - Just Peachy Swatch

Don't go getting used to this two-days-in-a-row crap. Der Boyfreuden is working late tonight, the kids are asleep and I only have like 20 more minutes of the finale of Top Chef Season 10 so I was all like, "Oh I know, I'll swatch this polish that I've had for-ehhh-ver".

I put up a DISO* post in a nail polish facebook group I'm part of, basically begging for Orly - Just Peachy. Remember that whole thing, like six months ago or whatever? A darling babe actually sold it to me, under the conditions that I would neither 1. resell it for any sort of profit and 2. not love it. Cool man, right?

Just Peachy is kind of a tricky polish in that it was never a part of any collection by Orly but rather manufactured without hitting the market and instead sent to discount retailers like TJ Maxx (or possibly only to TJ Maxx... I don't know that I've heard Just Peachy being spotted anywhere besides) which is d to the umb because it's freaking DANG. You've got this bright, warm pink base packed to heck with gold shimmer, right? And it's a texture polish too, which you and I both know that I am ALL about, girlfriend.

Shown below is two coats with topcoat under OttLite. I added topcoat because it brings out the color of the shimmer in photos.

Ughhh. I can't wait to use my regular watermark font again, side note. Pretty fabulous though, right? And I'm starting to really love the shape of my nails, now. Plus they're super good for scratchin'. Super happy I got my grabby-hands on this little friend without having to cut off my foot or whatever bizarre sacrifice I was willing to provide to the giver-of-the-polish.


*Desperately In Search Of, ya donk.

Sinful Colors - Eva So Bright Swatch & Review

1. We're all moved-in to our new house.

2. I'm using my old computer again which means the new font I downloaded for my watermark isn't, uh, in use yet (because, okay, my boyfriend is doing this really top-secret computer nonsense and has been for a few months now... He's not a big 'keep secrets from Brandy' kind of guy, so I have this inkling that it has to do with some sort of future proposal, but I'll keep you posted. Oh anyway I have my own user account or whatever on this computer, but my permissions are limited and we keep forgetting to have him edit them. Stuff's password protected so I can't go snooping around on his account. No, it's not porn related either, which I know you were probably thinking).

3. After three small tears on two nails, I decided to reshaped my tiny claws. I present to you:

Tah Dahhhhhh!

They're actually kind of the perfect shape for me regarding how often they tear, but also super bizarre because I've always been a squoval kind of girl. I don't know that I'm necessarily the type of lady to be able to appropriately pull off the sass, but whatevs. Better than nubs, riiiiight?

So I got my PinchMe box a few days ago and I was able to snag a Sinful Colors for it. That's how I got this polish, yeah? Free as heck.

Eva So Bright is a, uh, bright pink/coral creme with a surprisingly good formula -- no streaks, dawgs! My photograph sort of makes it look like it has a fine pink shimmer, but it really is just a straight creme. Self-leveling and super shiny, to boot! I wish all Sinful Colors performed this well.

Shown below is three thin coats (no topcoat) in direct sunlight.

Yeah, sorry about the one picture. I mean, you get the idea though. In other news, I'm starting to show a baby bump a little bit these days. Truth be, it's still mostly food-dependent, but at least I'm pretty unmistakably pregnant now and not just paunchy, which I'm generally pretty okay being anyway. This was taken after a delightful dining experience at a Hibachi restaurant called Yukiho which is located freaking four minutes down the road. They, soon, will know me by name.

You can't tell that well from the picture, but our bathroom wallpaper is this super-faded pink and metallic silver seahorse/shell print that I love and hate equally. I would like it more if it wasn't accompanied by a pink tile border, maybe. Redoing the bathroom is high on our list of cosmetic improvements for our little bungalow. Where did that name come from, btw? Bungalow.

All right, buddies. See you next time.

My Favorite Sandwich

Charlie can't say "french toast sticks" (what a dummy... I mean, he's two now for goodness sake) so he calls them boo-boo sticks, whiiiich is pretty cute. I eat three of them and I'm full, and he's going on number five at the moment. Baby Update: done.

My life has consisted of these three things lately:

...though I've not actually played the Zelda one yet because I'm still, you know, catching 'em all. My boyfriend-given birthday 3DS isn't going to waste, anyway! I may or may not have ordered a decal from eBay in the shape of the Hylian Crest for to decorate my 3DS, because just having the 3DS doesn't proclaim my legitimate nerd-ness clearly enough, being an almost 30-year-old woman and all.

So then. Once upon a time, Bruegger's Bagel Bakery used to have this bagel sandwich called The Mediterranean, back in the early 00s. It consisted of a, uh, bagel stuffed with muenster cheese, lettuce, red onions, hummus and this sundried tomato spread that I would have eaten with a spoon out of the dang jar given the chance. I'm pretty sure the bagel was a cheese-kind, too. Of course it was discontinued, liiiike every food that I fall madly in love with (other such delicious things include Jones Chocolate Fudge Soda, Doritos "The Quest" Mountain Dew Flavored Chips [which, to be fair, was just a promotional thing] and Taco Bell mother effing 1/2 lb Cheesy Bean and Rice Burritos). Jesus, a real picture of healthy cuisine over here. Whatever, food.

We're moving an hour north next Wednesday and I'm nervous and excited and nervous. The kid wants to play, which I can tell by his grabbing my hands and whining, trying to close the laptop and saying "pum on!!!" (translation: come on). We're gonna go play with cars, okay?

Happy Friday!

Enchanted Polish - May 2014, June 2014 and July 2014 Swatches & Reviews

Heeeyoooo.

I was in my first online semi-argument with a delightful gal in a CVS couponing Facebook group in which she suggested I stick coupon tearpads up my hindquarters and find a male chicken to entertain myself with (note: paraphrased for the younger readers). The thread was sadly deleted, but it all started when another member of the group called a fellow out for selling coupon tearpads which he very unlikely procured legally. Some members were saying there's nothing that can be done about it and that our having a discussion about it was a waste of time. Long story short, my whole thing was that regardless of HOW wrong what he's doing is, it's still wrong. Then we had the whole "there are murders happening and you're worried about THIS?" comments. I just... I guess I'm lucky to have been raised with a conscience and a clear outline of the difference between right and wrong. I'm not saying that coupon fraud is on the same level as murder, but it's still a crime, you know? Shoplifting something for $2 isn't a major offense, but it's still punishable by law, dawgs. 

I mean seriously. Hrrgrgg. The worrrrsssst are comments that are like "you're stupid for spending time arguing about it blah blah blah". Like, what are you LITERALLY doing right now? I just can't even.

So anyway, Enchanted Polish Monthly Mysteries versions May, June and July; editions 2014: I'm slightly underwhelmed.

May is this pumpkin orange jelly with some linear holo and that sparkle I always talk about that EP has, except in pink. It has a lot more dimension on the nail than my photos show; it almost looks like a glass fleck buuut not. This one had the best formula -- two easy coats and required zero cleanup. I like this one the best out of the three which kind of indicates my underwhelm-ed-ness since I'm pretty "meh" about orange in general.

Shown below is two coats without topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Shade

June is a plum-my purple/berry pink metallic duochrome with linear holo and that pink sparkle action. It reminds me of all those purple-toned multichromes except instead of going all the way to gold, this one stops at pink. The formula wasn't as smoothy-smooth as May but it was still pleasant.

Shown below is two coats without topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Shade

Shade

Shade

While this one is the most interesting in terms of what's going on in a nail polish, I'm not in love with it like I think a lot of people are. Some people, maybe. A few. I don't know if it's the shade of purple or what, but I was just kind of like, okay, neat. *shrug*


July 2014 is a metallic bright cherry red with linear holo and pink and blue sparkle which very barely shows up on the nail. Pretty basic and uninspired-feeling, which bums me right out since July is my birth month and I was hoping for something blam-tastic. I don't, like, LOVE rubies or anything, but I kind of wish this was a jelly instead of being metallic to emulate July's birthstone more. Deep cherry jelly with red shimmer and linear holo... that's a monthly I would campaign for, yo. I don't hate this polish, but I don't see myself reaching for it anytime soon. The formula on this guy was also pretty suck -- quite goopy compared to what I've become used to with EP formulas. Sigh for days.

Shown below is two coats without topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Shade

The shade picture definitely makes it look a lot more interesting than it actually is, just FYI. If it looked like that IRL I would be all about it.

Aaaanyway, that's that. Five more months of this mystery stuff and I kind of think I might be done with Enchanted Polish. Unless something in the next five months blows me right the heck away, I'd rather spend my dolla-dollas on polishes that I know I'll love.