Sally Hansen - Concrete

When I was wandering through Ulta a while back and saw this brand new, completely untouched display of fresh Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes, I flipped out a bit.  ...well, it looked a bit more like a shark ravaging a helpless surfer.  I had a bottle of each polish in my basket before I took a moment to look.  What...?  What was going on with half of the polishes?  Pearly, with such sparse glitter that it seemed pointless to put it there in the first place?  Weird, random bar glitter?  So like a shark discarding chunks of surf board, I quickly replaced all of the polishes that I'd deemed unfit for purchase, which ended up being about half of the collection.

Granted, looking at swatches online now, there was one in that group of polishes that didn't make it that I might have considered purchasing, but it's not a polish that I can't live without.

The half of the collection that I did buy, though, was grand slam.  There's some pretty awesome polishes from that lot, and if you haven't already gotten your grubby little mitts on them, you should do it very soon before they disappear.

Today I have the polish Concrete for you.

I adored this color!  This was two coats of polish, with a base and top coat, of course.

I think that this super smooth, very grayed out lavender would look gorgeous on anyone.  I really think that if you liked Wet Concrete, you're going to love Wet Concrete's pretty little sister.

So gorgeous!  This lasted two days without chips for me as well, which is almost unheard of considering the work I do.  Beautiful creams like this don't usually last the day, but this one held fast and looked amazing the entire time.


A word of caution to those that may not have experienced it, though, don't paint your nails with cold polish.  Concrete wasn't in the refrigerator by any means, but it certainly wasn't at room temperature when I grabbed it.  Of course, I wasn't thinking.  When I realized how cold this one was as I was painting it on, I had some definite uncertainties as to how it would actually look.  Thankfully, it turned out great. :)  If you find your polish cold, though, I'd suggest putting it on your pocket for a while before you paint to let it warm up a bit.  Has anyone else noticed problems in painting with polish that isn't at room temperature?


Now I'd like to share something a little personal with you.  Every week without fail, I read PostSecret.  People around the globe send anonymous postcards sharing their secrets... fears, desires, hopes, and disappointments... to a man named Frank Warren.  He posts select postcards on the website, but also takes a lot of them around the country to different universities and art museums.  These postcards are a living testimony to the fact that everyone holds things inside that can make them feel disconnected from others.  Sharing these secrets, even in such an anonymous way, can begin to repair the bridges with the outside world that our secrets can sometimes burn.

I found a postcard in this week's installation that touched me in particular.

My family is the most important thing to me in the entire world.  When friendships and relationships crumble away, my family is still there, always supporting me, loving me, and guiding me.  I've never had many problems with my friends treat my family, as I tend to feel that I've been blessed with many good friends over the years.  But I haven't had the same luck with boyfriends.  Until Bradley, every boyfriend I've had has avoided my family like the plague.  I excused many of these guys, being a rather young and defiant thing. ;)  When these relationships broke away, though, I could always return to my family.  Looking back, I can't help but feel ashamed at how I've treated them in the past.  I can't change the past, but I can certainly make better decisions for the future.

The last relationship I was in before I met Brad, I put my family first.  It amazed me how clearly I was able to see my relationship with R when I looked through a different lens.  I brought R home for dinner one night, and he stopped to watch my brother (fourteen at the time) playing Halo on his XBox.  My brother got frustrated when someone killed him and did the typical "What!  That's so unfair!" thing that everyone does when they die in a video game.  Instead of letting it go, R took it upon himself to tell my little brother that he just sucked at the game, and that if he was better, he wouldn't get killed like that.

I was mortified.  What a jerk.  He even brought it up in a conversation he and I were having later, which really grilled my goose.

R did not respect my family, therefore R did not respect me.  My feelings for him quickly grew cold, and R did not last long after that.

I guess what I really want to say is, take your families seriously.  In the end of it all, they will be the ones that are there for you, and even when you don't feel them, they're always behind you.  Even if they don't particularly agree with the life you lead or like the choices you make, they will always love you.  Nothing you can do will change that.


I'm sorry for rambling so much, so if you've made it this far, thank you for hanging in there!  I hope that you ladies had a wonderful weekend!