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!

Ready for a triple play?

Instead of beating myself up over not posting every single day, I'd rather be happy that I can post two nails every other day.  I originally wanted to paint and post in a way that would let my pictures be posted a day after I wore the polish.  In the case that I royally mess up my polish at work (which is not at all unheard of), I wanted to have a slight cushion of time to put up my next pictures, instead of feeling pressured to repaint my nails to make my daily post.

And part of even wanting to post daily is to show that I can stick with something and be consistent.

Would you like to laugh with me? :D  HA HA HA HA!!

Well, I feel much better now. :)  Onto the polish?  Today has some good ones!!

Parlez-vous OPI? by OPI

Don't mind the little bubbles.  I'm still working out the tiff I've been having with top coats.

This was two coats to opaque.

Looking at it in the bottle, I expected a boring taupe.  It was rather un-boring, though.  Though it was still somewhat taupe-y, it leaned more toward a lavender greige.  If it were slightly more taupe and slightly less lavender, it would remind me of the frilly underside of a mushroom cap.

Parlez-vous OPI? is ultimately rather pretty.  Very workplace friendly as well.  It's not my personal cup of tea, but a) lots of bloggers rave about it, and b) it was on sale.  And let's not forget c), everyone needs a "grown up" color or two in their collection.  This is one of mine.

I still have some problems with OPI's wide brush.  Not all of my nails are wide, so it does pose a problem sometimes.  The polish's formula is pristine, though, which completely makes up for the big ol' brush.

Next up is Orly's Wild Wisteria!  Honestly, sometimes I just buy a polish because I love the name.  Once I put on Wild Wisteria, I adored the color.  I originally bought it, though, because I spent a lot of time writing for an online group with a character I created that I named (any guesses?) Wisteria.  Even though I don't have the opportunity to write with her in that forum setting anymore, I still can't help it that I really enjoy a persona I created.

This is the most recent picture I would have used for her. :)

(I do not own the pictured character.  Don't sue me. :P  She just looks so much like the Wisteria in my head for me to pass her by.)

So, without further ado, Orly Wild Wisteria

Hardest time ever capturing the deep, beautiful purple as anything other than blue.  The pictures I'm posting are the best I did. :(

This one would have been perfect in one coat, but I did two to ease my mind. :)

Also, I'm not wearing topcoat in these pictures!  Look how shiny it is!! <3

The polish in the bottle isn't far from the actual color.  My nails are just being stubborn.

I really liked this polish.  I have yet to try an Orly that I don't like, but for some reason, it's rarely my first polish brand choice.  Maybe it's because most of the colors I see are safe?  Not sure.  The ones I have are lovely, though, and the application is perfect.

Collectively with my now!:  "Oooooooooooo...!!"

I couldn't stop staring at them!

This is a Cosmo polish called "Lords of the Bling."  The name is ridiculous, I know.

BUT JUST LOOK AT IT!!! :D

You can see several of the different flashes in this picture.  Brilliant greens, teal, royal blue, shimmery purple.

Even when it's not shimmering other colors, it's pretty!

The only visual thing I didn't like about this combination was that it turned Wild Wisteria's deep purple into a navy blue color.  It was still lovely.  Just much less purple.

Orly Wild Wisteria and Cosmo Lords of the Bling

Until I started hitting up salons, I'd never seen Cosmo polishes.  I've only bought two so far (Lord of the Blings and I Found Nemo), which are both shimmery topcoat polishes, so I'm curious to see how the rest of the polishes look when applied.  I had some issues with this one, though.  First off, it smells like chemical death.  Secondly, the dry time on this is very, very long.  If I remember right, I got impatient and just put a speed dry top coat on it.  This didn't keep me from having to wait for the first coat to dry, though.  (This is two coats of Lords of the Bling, by the way.)

Critical application flaws aside, I really adored this look.  I kept them like this for at least two days (which is forever for nail polish, in my world) and was still flicking them around in the sun to see that glimmer.

What do you guys think?  Any Parlez-vous OPI? fans out there?  Any ladies ready to stalk their salons for Cosmo polishes?

-E