Getting older.

I decided a couple weeks ago that it was time to break down and try some nail stamping.  I went with the Bundle Monster plates from Amazon (which you can find here).  At twenty-one plates for $17.99, it was definitely worth a shot.  My first few attempts were pretty disappointing, but I think that's to be expected.  And then I got this:

Thankfully this particular manicure worked out very well.  I love houndstooth.  It wouldn't be a stretch to say that it's my favorite pattern. :)  This was two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out (I believe that's what it's called) with a stamped coat of Studio M French Tip.

 

You can tell that I didn't clean the plate before doing the index and middle finger on the second picture.  I know better now, hehe...  I stamped every finger vertically, and then stamped each thumb horizontally.  Since the stamping color was white, cleanup was the easiest thing. :)

I adored this manicure!  I believe that I wore it for three full days before I forced myself to take it off and put something new on, just so I wouldn't get out of the habit.  It hadn't even chipped, though. :)  A definite success, if you ask me.

As for the title of this entry, I am getting older.  Today is my birthday. :)  I don't yet know how I feel about turning twenty-five.  I don't feel like I've achieved the accomplishments that I thought I would have by now.  Shouldn't I have an actual profession?  Some sort of road map detailing the plans for the rest of my life?

Though I'm not always sure of where I'm going, I am always certain of this:  I love the life I've been given, no matter how uncertain I become.  I am blessed every single day, even when I'm being too self-absorbed to see it.  The good in my life outweighs the bad in an outstanding way.

I have parents that love me, and sibling that I connect with, and family that looks out for my well being.  I have friends that always listen and persevere, even if I'm the one that's made things hard.  I have an amazing man in my life that overfills my heart with joy every time I see his smile.

Even if twenty-five is uncertain, I do know.  If this year to come is as richly blessed as the year that's passed, I am fully ready for it.

 

:)

Thank you for reading!

Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray

Hey all!

It's been, what?  Twenty-two, twenty-three days?  Sheesh.  I wonder if they make sheepish emoticons?  I'll have to check sometime. :)

Unless there was serious drama brewing, I was never very good at keeping a well-updated personal blog.  I had hoped that having a blog that others could read would motivate me to write more, but that's not always the case.  Clearly. ;)  If only my endless polish-related buying and hoarding would screech to a snail's pace along with my blogging!

I wore Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray a little while back.  I have a few of the Complete Manicure polishes, but this is the first one that I've worn for an actual manicure.  (Outside of Hidden Treasure, of course.  Everyone knows that you slap a coat of Hidden Treasure on almost everything!  Psssh!!!)

Oh yes, I love me a heavily blue-based gray. <3  Is there any better color to mix into your gray?  I don't think so!

This was two snappy coats (plus base and top coat [Out the Door]).  Not being a huge fan of OPI's wide brush (gasp! shock! horror~!), I thought that I would hate this one.  It's almost the complete opposite, though.  The consistency of my polish was great, and the applying it with that brush meant that I could practically do it in my sleep.  I also love how bottom heavy these bottles are.  I'm often a Clumsy McDropsalot, and painting my nails rarely escapes my blunders.  It was relieving to have a heavy, sturdy bottle and a very manageable applicator. :)
 

And there you have it: Gray by Gray.  Love!


Here's hoping, once again, that I can beat out this laziness and keep writing!  Thank you for reading!

Sally Hansen - Mystery Polish SOLVED!!

So I was at Meijer today, doing that cosmetic aisle stalking thing that I do, and I came across something... rather odd.

Observe.

Excuse the sloppiness, as usual.  But seriously.  What is this?!  It was in a gift pack, rather than the normal display, but it's not a new polish...

No label...  And if I remember correctly from my teen experiences with Sally Hansen polishes, the white cap signifies that it's an older polish.

No label on the bottom, either.  I've never known Sally Hansen polishes to have a bottom label, but it was worth a check.  The bar code is covered because it was part of a holiday gift pack with some lip inflation products.

Look at all the sparkle~!!! :D

This polish is tiny holographic glitter suspended in a sheer gray base.  To get the opacity on my nails, I needed four coats.  I didn't have application issues with it, though, and with a sheer base like this, four thin coats dries quickly and doesn't feel excessive.  I absolutely LOVE the pencil graphite gray, though.  And as if that wasn't good enough, they stuffed it full of itsy glitters.  If this were a flawless two coater, I would be in POLISH HEAVEN!!! :D

Krisinphilly (more readily known as the author of My Lucid Bubble!) informed me that it's called Night Lights.  Thanks, K!


Also, while I was out today, I ran across the new Wet n Wild Megalast holiday collection.  After seeing some pictures, I hadn't expected much, but I was more disappointed than I thought when I saw that...

...they've gotten smaller still!!!  For being a cheap polish, I really enjoy the Megalast collection.  Originality-wise, it's not much to write home about, but the colors are color accurate, reliable, and overall just a pretty decent investment, as far as drugstore polishes go.  But really?  SMALLER?  (0.30 fl. oz. to 0.22 fl. oz.)  For the same price?  Lame.  The store that I was at had a color for every reindeer but Vixen.  The majority of this holiday collection are very unoriginal, in my opinion.  The one pictured is the only one I'm hesitantly considering to buy.

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!

Nudies + Grab Bag

You read right.  Nudie nails.  It doesn't really ever happen anymore, so I thought I'd take a picture to commemorate the day.

They're short and kind of stained, but they're mine, and I like them. :)  There's not a lot that I can do about the length.  I'm always wearing strengthening base coats, but my nails always split and peel at the edges.  Especially my pointer and middle fingers.  When they peel, they're weakened, and when they're weak like that, they grow very oddly.  It's much easier to keep them short than be bothered by their awkward growth.  As for the stains, well...  All I have to say for myself is that my love for Four Leaf Clover (the only polish I've known to stain me) is greater than my love of perfect nails.

I actually went with nothing but a clear coat for almost eight hours.  And I'm proud to say that I wasn't sleeping ANY of that time!  Haha!  It was pretty distracting to let them go bare like this.  I found myself looking at my nails so much.  Awkward...

While I was cleaning out my old photo folder before The Wipe, I deleted a lot of old nail pictures.  I found a few pictures of random that I did save, though. :)  I don't think that it would hurt to post them.

These hands are clearly not mine, but I did the nail polish. :)  My mum's best friend's daughter (pretty much my adopted little sister) asked me to do her nails for prom this year, and this is what we came up with.  I was pretty proud of it, considering I'd never done a French manicure before.  The color we used for the tips was Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in (I believe it's called) The Real Teal.

This was two coats of China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise and one coat of China Glaze's Medallion.  I usually don't like gold, but I liked these two colors together.  If I did this again, though, I'd go with a base color that leans more blue than green.

I did this one while I was working long, ridiculous hours between the two jobs.  Two coats of China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint and two coats of China Glaze's Dollhouse.  I've had Dollhouse for quite a while, and just wanted to use it on something.  Ehhhhh... :)  And the green got all bubbly on me.  My coats were too thick, I guess.

I did this one quite a long while ago, but it was really pretty!  Two coats of Orly's Enchanted Forest and one coat (ONE COAT!) of Cover Girl's City Lights.  So stunning out in the sunshine!


What fun combinations have you found?  I love contrasting colors, and I'm open to suggestions! :)

Sally Hansen's "Purple Gala"

And we're back online!!

I'll say it a million times over, Bradley is amazing. :)  He wiped my whole buggy system clean and installed a fresh new copy of Windows 7 for me.  I'm still getting the hang of it, but I can understand why people love it so much.  I'm really just loving it right now for the fact that I can use my computer again!

I went to Ulta on Friday hoping to grab a few polishes from their new collection.  The new collection wasn't there (sadface), but while I was browsing around, I happened upon a new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear display.  I believe there were ten new colors, but only half of them appealed to me.  I bought Plum Burst (a medium plum cream), Concrete (a super grayed out lavender cream), Fireberry Red (candy apple red with what looks like tiny gold and red glitter flakes), Purple Gala (purple base with gold glitter flakes), and Mystic Lilac (very sheer lavender polish with tiny iridescent glitter).  I was very unimpressed with the rest of them.  They all appeared to be pearly colors with very, very sparse glitter.  Yawn!

The one that I just couldn't wait to try was Purple Gala.  Looking at it reminds me of Hard Candy's "Mr. Wrong."  (I confess that while I own Mr. Wrong, though, I have yet to wear it.  After the horrible time I had trying to remove Lava, I wasn't eager to go through the same experience with Mr. Wrong).

Swoooon.  Can you see the deep purple beneath?  I tend to dislike golds (they're related to yellows, after all), but the purple and gold are really beautiful together.

When everyone was fawning over Opulent Cloud, I was disappointed with it.  Why?  Because this is the purple and gold that really appeals to me.  Deep yet shimmery.

This was three coats followed by a top coat.  Two would have done the trick, but I messed one of them up and decided to just go a third round.

What do you think?  Will you be picking up your own bottle of Purple Gala?