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.

FingerPaints: Sarong So Right Swatch & Review

Oh, hey guys.
So, I broke three nails on my right hand during a garage sale I had. My thumb looks weird and gremlinish because of it. I seriously never in my life thought I'd prefer how my hands looks with nails versus without.

Sooooooooooooo.
I went to Sally Beauty today just for funsies, mostly to check out the clearance, not having any real goal in mind. Besides picking up both Orly FX Matte Flakie topcoats, I also got this lovely gem.

2 coats, natural light

Crappy artificial light

Sarong So Right is the dreamy brainchild of Michelle Mismas of All Lacquered Up as part of her A Pair Affair collection. It's a coral jelly with subtle bright pink shimmer and scattered holo glitter. Basically, it's this: <3

The formula is a bit thick which makes for a much more opaque application than I'm used to in a jelly. Honestly, I wouldn't immediately have called it a jelly (although it is quite squishy looking) because of the slight texture it dries with. It almost looks like it could be a glow-in-the-dark polish by texture alone, but the color is much more saturated than a glow-in-the-dark.

I happen to love coral, jellies AND holo glitter so this polish is right up my alley and it definitely doesn't disappoint. Plus it's a 5-free polish so your fingers won't fall off and/or sprout freaky finger-fingers or anything. Pluuus it was dreamt up by quite possibly one of the nicest nail bloggers on the internets and I'm not even saying that to be a kiss-ass because I'm about 99.97% sure that Michelle will never see this, ha ha.

Striping Tape & Gradients: NOTDs

In the midst of the moving madness, I still find the time to paint my nails. I guess you can probably see my haste, hahaha. Not the best cleanups in the world... Not that it matters. My nails have been chipping like maniacs what with packing and all. No breaks yet! Knock on wood.

First up is a little striping tape action. I don't love striping tape when left on the nail because no matter how careful I am to make sure to cover up the ends with top coat, they always start to peel within like, an hour. But using striping tape to make line designs with layered polish is definitely my currently favorite technique.

Orly - Glitz & Essie - Sunday Funday, sunlight

I've been using the Essie quick dry top coat and I must say, it's a nice change from my insanely gloopy almost-empty bottle of Seche Vite. It's not as, hmm, sturdy (?) feeling as SV, but it still leaves my nails super-shiny and it does dry rather fast.

Barielle - Berry Blue under Hard Candy - Bity Blue & Essie Naughty Nautical, sunlight

I mean, I really love that design, too. It was a Julep NOTD a while ago and she used gold and army green which is really quite lovely too. This got messy, however. Besides my wonky pinky paint-shape, my cuticles were, indeed, blue. Berry Blue is a gooorgeous deep blue, but it bleeds like no other during cleanup. 

SOPI - Is It Payday Yet?, Salon Perfect - Robin's Egg Blue & OPI - Parlez-vous OPI?
Zoya - Maria Luisa (awesomeeee) on my ring finger, sunlight

I joined a new facebook group called Nail Polish Challenge the other day and one of the prompts was pastel gradient. As you can tell, I suck hard at gradient. I understand the technique, but I'm not patient enough to let the first coat dry all the way before sponging on a second layer and it gets all sponge-marky. I like the color combo, though. I'll try this again around Easter, I think. Maybe I won't be so bad at it by then!

I bought Charla and Maria Luisa from Zoya.com a couple days ago. As a new registered user, I got one polish for free which was pretty great. Plus shipping was free too (I think because of a promotion that was running...?) Also, I've discovered pinterest nail polish sales/swaps! Oh nooooo! That just took this obsession to a whole new level!

I also recently did my first swap with the most lovely lady in Canada. She writes a darling fashion blog that you should check out here: bluecollarredlipstick.com. She was super patient with my complete cluelessness about swapping. Plus, she swapped me some really spectacular and HTF polishes!! I can't wait for that package to come. Friendliness really seems to be a trend in the nail polish community. It feels like everybody's rooting for each other and trying to help locate lemmings and things like that. That's not very common on the internet, I've noticed.

Well, have a good weekend, everybody ever!

  

Barielle Orange Parfait & Pure Ice Heartbreaker

Hi friendos.

I was thinking about doing an ombre mani... gradient mani... that mani where a dark version of a color blends delightfully into a light version of said color. But I didn't. Instead, I painted a layer of Heartbreaker over Orange Parfait and ended up with this:

This was in the sun, I swears. 

Orange Parfait looks like a creamy coral in the bottle but actually dries a bit darker and brighter on the nail WHICH I didn't get a picture of. I dug it as-was. However, Heartbreaker rules hard, especially over orangey polishes I've found. It's all, oh I'm so shimmery and green!

Two coats of Orange Parfait, one coat of Heartbreaker except on ring finger which had 3.

The formula was Orange Parfait was just a touch thick but not so much in a bad way. I didn't think I was going to like this color much until I swatched it for my never-ending swatch book.

Shade. Heartbreaker duo-chrome-ness.

I bought Heartbreaker long before I was super into the, you know, polish lifestyle. I tried wearing it by itself and was pretty confused by its inability to be seen except for in bright light. I guess it was maybe kind of obvious that it's meant for layering anyway, despite being new at nail things. Whatever. I know now, okay? I learned. I learned the ways of the sneaky topcoat. 

A story:

I hate spiders. I have this insane irrational terror of the little bastards. It's bad. It's considering-going-to-a-hypnotist-about-it bad. SO, I'm cleaning my apartment yesterday and I notice this piece of cotton-looking fluff on one of my kid's sandals. I go to remove it and BAM this seriously blink-fast spider (that was by no means small) jumps out from under a sandal-flap and basically I unloaded a can of bug spray onto it which was real dumb because then I had to barricade that area so my put-everything-in-his-mouth child wouldn't insecticide to death. Spiders are THE WORST. I don't even like seeing the word. Have you seen those? The kinds that make these webs with holes going into them that they crawl out of. Heebie to the jeebie. I can't stop shuddering. I'm from Ohio, okay. I know Ohio spiders are little sissy spiders compared to, say, Texas spiders. They're still just awful.

What is today, even? Friday? All right, well, do have a wondrous weekend!