Two Chartreuses (Chartreusi?)

Here are two very similar polishes that my eye always passes over whenever I’m scanning my collection for a polish I feel like using, because – well, they’re kind of ugly. They’re just so bright and not really me. They’re both very old also – notice the slightly different bottle on the Pure Ice one!

Wild Thing is a yellowy chartreuse that took four streaky, draggy coats. Yuck.

Twist And Shout is much greener than Wild Thing, and I like the color much better. Still four coats, and still streaky and draggy, but it applied better than Wild Thing.

Small Haul

I picked up some polishes this weekend!

From Sally’s:

• China Glaze Flying Dragon
• China Glaze Strawberry Fields
• Orly Blue Suede
• Nina Ultra Pro Leaf Me Alone
• Nina Ultra Pro In A Tiff

Still didn’t manage to hit the $25 mark for the 15% off coupon next month, but I’m kinda OK with that because I think that except for basics like files and Orly basecoat, I’m kinda done with Sally’s. I mean, the selection of polishes is so very limited, and I’ve pretty much gotten the ones I really want…I think I’ll have to get the rest of the China Glazes that I’ve been wanting online. Plus, my Sally’s never seems to have the new collections that I keep hearing about other people getting in there. Like, I STILL haven’t seen Orly Pixie Dust. Also, WTF is up with the China Glaze Matte Magic? I went in there prepared to buy it but…it’s $6 for a MINI?????????? I can stick with Matte About You, thank you!

From Walmart:

• Pure Ice Kiss Me Here (I adore gray polishes)
• Pure Ice Cheatin (damn damn damn, this is a dupe)
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear In The Navy
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple

From the Halloween Store:

• Fantasy Makers Black Magic (had planned to pass on this one, but I weakened)

I also got something else fabulous in the Halloween store, plus I recieved my awesome package from Sasse, coming in future posts!

I’ve got lots of plans for posts coming up, I just hope to be able to find the time to actually do them soon! My nails have been neglected lately. I’m also totally behind on organizing, I’ve got polishes everywhere, tried polishes mixed up with new ones, and none of the new ones have been catalogued. 😦

Pure Ice – Gold Mist & Iced Copper

These are two colors that I don’t really see myself ever enjoying or wearing, so I figured I’d get them out of the way in one post. Like most Pure Ice colors, they’ve got beautiful shimmer. Buuuuut, the colors are just kind of blah.

I should really get rid of the polishes I don’t like…

I did three coats, just for the heack of it. I could have stopped at two on Iced Copper.

Pure Ice – Twinkle

This is a little too orange for me, I think. It’s a nice light orange/coral color that is totally me, but it has gold shimmer, which ruins it for me a little.

flash

no flash

I tried to capture the gold shimmer!

this is a sickness – multiple hauls

I seriously cannot stop myself from picking up a few polishes everywhere I go. Now lately, most of them have been drugstore polishes, so at least I’m not spending a zillion bucks on them, but still. This is stuff I’ve gotten in the last two weeks.

First, a trip to Walgreens:

L-R: Mercury Rising, Boogie Nights, Serena And Chloe, Pink Forever, Gorgeous, Cloud 9, Pearl Harbor, Bali Mist

These are my first Sinful Colors polishes, and they were on saaaaaaaaaale! Buy one, get one free! I have this horrible habit of buying things I don’t need just cause they’re bargains. I haven’t worn any of them yet but from the bottles I’m most excited about Boogie Nights, Pink Forever, and Cloud 9. I think Pearl Harbor might be my first glitter polish that isn’t tinted, so it should be great for layering.

Bijou Blue, Caribbean Frost, Lightening, Green Glow, Cyber

Wet n’ Wild Bijou Blue – WnW polishes are so cheap that I just can’t justify not buying any of them that strike my fancy ever.
Wet n’ Wild Caribbean Frost
Sally Hansen Instra-Dri Lightening – my first yellow! But I can’t stand the spelling of the polish name
Milani Green Glow – greens are so hard to find, and my collection was severely lacking in greens. Also it’s a brand I’ve never tried before.
Sally Hansen HD Cyber – I’ve heard good things about the HD collection, and I needed a dark purple

Late night trip to Walmart (I was good this time):

NYC Charming Rose Crème & Pure Ice Excuse Me

I like Pure Ice polishes! This is my second-ever yellow, and it’s shimmery. A shimmery yellow? Hmmm. Not sure I’ll like that one. The N.Y.C. pink appears to be a shimmer also.

My “free” Zoyas have arrived:

L-R: Jo, Ali, Harley, Malia

I had such a good time picking out these polishes from the Zoya website! I simply couldn’t pick just 3, though. The site is so well designed for easy browsing and filtering for that certain perfect color, they have good descriptions of each polish, and suuuuuuuch a huge selection! Anyway, I am extreeeeeemely happy with what I got – these polishes are gorgeous. Ali looks radioactive in the picture, and Jo and Harley are shimmers!

Rite-Aid, I think?:

Wild Orchid, Emerald City, Gunmetal

Wet n’ Wild Wild Orchid – purple base and holo glitter? Doesn’t look especially sheer, which is odd for a glitter but I’m cool with it!
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Emerald City – THESE WERE ALSO ON SALE.  darkish shimmery green, ohhhhhh yeah
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Gunmetal – my collection was lacking in greys, and this one is dark, blueish, shimmery – I love it.

I recently had a ton of time to kill in Sally’s:

Naked, Ravishing, Dahling, Fifth Avenue

China Glaze Naked – light, bright pink. The name makes no sense, but I like the color a lot.
China Glaze Ravishing, Dahling – I wanted a vampy red, and got a pleasant surprise when I wore this for the first time…IT’S A JELLY! The only one I own, I think – it can be so hard to identify a true jelly.
China Glaze Fifth Avenue – my eye is immediately drawn to this one every single time I walk by a China Glaze display. This color is so “me,” it looks like a dirty mid-pink.

contents of the box

sheer pink, white, basecoat, topcoat

Orly French Manicure Kit in Rose – I’m excited about this one! I love french nails!

Also at Sally’s that day I saw part of the Orly Once Upon A Time collection, which I didn’t think was out yet…but they didn’t have all of them! I’d have gotten the green and the gray (OMG I need Pixie Dust) in a heartbeat, with no thought (which I never do), but those were the ones that were missing. 😦 I didn’t even see a place for them in the display – are they releasing that collection in parts?

I don’t actually intend to have thousands of polishes, and I don’t see much need (for me) to have like 70 pinks – they’re not going to be different enough to justify that, IMO. I think there’s a point where I just have to say “You know, I’m happy with my selection of 3 black polishes – I have a glitter, a sheer, and an opaque…I’m good now!” But I’ve been trying to fill in gaps in my color collection lately – I didn’t have a single yellow, I was low on greens and purples, no dark vampy reds, etc. I’m by no means DONE…but for now, yeah, I’m done.

I am declaring a strict no-buy policy. I have bought so much polish lately, and I only have one set of fingers! Even if I change my polish every day, it would take like two months to go through all the new polishes I’ve gotten in the LAST two months, and that neglects all of my old polishes! So my resolution is to get through these before buying any more polish at ALL. We’ll see if I can manage to stick with that though. 😀

* Except I am snapping up Orly Pixie Dust whenever I see it. I’m new to polish collection buying and I don’t know if it’s a permanent collection, and no WAY am I letting this one become an Essie Starry Starry Night or a China Glaze Dorothy Who? for me

Pure Ice – Splash

OK, first we have Pure Ice Spash:

I like the Pure Ice bottles

It’s the prettiest baby blue color. I love the Pure Ice polishes, they’re all very shimmery. So shimmery, in fact, that they’re a bitch to get a good picture of. This is three coats.

artificial light

I took this one on my phone at work today. I think this one shows the actual color better. Man that’s a messy polish job.

cellphone pic

Pure Ice – Celestial

This one was hard to get a good picture of.

bottle

And I only put it on my toes, which poses a problem for me because closeup toe pictures are kind of scary. Also, I’m not one of those people who thinks that their toes/feet are ugly, but I do have wonky pinky toes – they’re not in these pictures because they have barely any toenail and they’re always sort of hidden under my other toes. One of my theories though is that my shoes have caused that over the years: my feet are kind of short and wide, and I think that over the years I’ve become accustomed to having my toes squished in the heels I like to wear. So my little toe is always squished, like a very small and unintentional version of Japanese foot wrapping. Anyway, two coats:

sloppy job/artificial light

I should really be taking my pictures outside in the sunlight. I took this one on my phone at work today. My feet look dirty.

cellphone pic