I'm still here!

...wherever here is! I promise I'll be back in proper form after the new year, but for now, I'm pretty figgin' busy with stuff. So here, look at some polish I scored! (The ten american apparel polishes were bought for $5. YES!)

also, that lovely box, the Ulta minis & the polish pen are from my sister. I loves her so much <3

yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy polish!

Franken friday #... I wanna say...9? 10?

Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid :-( This one is called Lipstick On Your Collar. Pretty boring... I'll figure something out to change it up a little :-)

Polish Days: BLING!

If you've read more than 3 of my blog posts, you might have noticed that glitter is a staple in my polish diet. (Ew, that sounds gross... there's a chick out there who drinks nail polish apparently, but I didn't have the heart to click on the youtube link when I saw it in the sidebar. Rest assured, I am not her! But, I digress.) I have a weakness for shiny, sparkly, seductive, ethereal glitter. The harder it is to remove, the more I'm bound to love it, and will want it on my nails at every opportunity. So today, I have out-blinged myself. I started with a base of Petites Midnite Frost, which is a black jelly with fine silver glitter, and originally planned to just put some NYX Frizz Spots on top & call it a day. But um, no... because this is a SPESHUL day! So then Pure Ice Strapless happened. But it kind of covered up the glitter below... so then I added Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor on top. To maximize the bling quotient, I then added NYX Spot Light on top. (Excuse my tips, it's not tip wear... I'm having top coat issues. Grr!) Is this obnoxious enough for you? ;-)

Franken Fr...uesday? #...armadillo?

Ok ok ok, I know I've been non existent here, but I'm back! With TWO frankens to make up for the two fridays I missed. Without further ado, here they be <3

Sweet November is a peachy orange shimmer, with medium silver and gold hex glitter. It was an experiment in bleeding copper glitter, dumped into a white shimmer base. It's pretty, but meh on me, so I'm sending it to my cousin. She'll like it I think. 

Celestial is a blue jelly with gold hex glitter, but it's the wrong blue! I'm going to try to fix the blue to get it closer to the royal blue I had envisioned. Oddly enough, I'm not in love with this. I think once I fix the color, I might like it more. 

Now, as a bonus, I present to you my boyfriend's nails:

He really likes having his nails painted now... I've created a monster, hahaha! But I'm happy to share my collection with him. This is Color Club Halo Hues, uh... Trumpet something. The silver holo. I'm too lazy to look for the bottle, sorry :-P

So, there you go :-) Can you forgive me? I'll be putting up another post soon for Polish Days, stay tuned!

I've been so neglectful!

and I'm sorry! But I'll be back soon, I promise <3 Hang in there!

Turkey Day is here :-)

This marks the third year in a row that I've happily chosen NOT to see my family, whom I've cut off all contact with, except for my brother & sister. From what I hear of the family drama via my sister, I'm ever more happy to not be in touch. Remember folks... you can't choose WHO you're related to, but you can choose HOW you relate, & I choose not to relate at all. Simple as that!

So this year, me & my fella (who has no family to celebrate with) are going to celebrate together. I'm going over to his place later, & he's cooking pork chops (We're rebels ;-). He's one of the people in my life I'm most thankful for... I doubt I've ever met a man with a bigger heart. Tomorrow or Saturday, someone's coming to pick up a blanket they commissioned, & I'm also giving him plants for his mom. I just did a HUGE re-potting & grooming of almost all the plants in my window, which is another thing I'm thankful for. I love my little garden of african violets, jade plants, geraniums, marigolds, my barely sprouting tulips, & my everlasting tomato plants.

I'll probably be late on Franken Friday, but I'm pretty sure I'll have another manicure on my fellas hands to show off soon, so stay tuned ;-) and Happy Thanksgiving!

Aerosmith nails!

My fella, being the generous loving man he is, bought us tickets to go see Aerosmith & Cheap Trick last night. I was so excited, I had to do a manicure to celebrate... they're seriously one of my favorite bands everrrr.

I used Sally Hansen Ion as a base, then painted on the logo in black & silver glitter. I stuck a star from Wet n' Wild Star of the Party in the middle. On my pinky & thumb, I used GOSH Lambada and a variety of stick on studs from KISS. My left hand had three black nails (WnW Ebony Hates Chris) in the middle with Lambada on pinky & thumb, and studs on all nails.

Not only was the show fucking rad, but the meal afterwards was DIVINE. Korean bbq, mmm mm mmmm! It was a feast, I tell you. He really does spoil me rotten <3

Needle Marbling & Zebra Stripes (on my boyfriend!)

Here's more needle marbling, done with WnW Metallica, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Raisin The Bar, & SH CSM Gilty Pleasure... It kind of reminds me of Jupiter's colors, especially with the reddish spot on my pointer :-) I topped it off with NYC Matte top coat.

But you know what's waaaay cooler? My boyfriend let me paint HIS nails! :-D

I used SH CSM Pedal to the Medal & painted the black stripes on with a striper polish, & finished with the aforementioned matte top coat. He wore it all last night, & out to dinner tonight. He'll keep it on for a while... he loves them! He's pretty much the coolest guy ever <3

Franken Friday numbah 9!

always a bridesmaid :-) I put too much glitter into it, & it's a little lumpy. But... that's what polish thinner is for ;-)

Snakeskin Manicure!

Real (shed) snakeskin, courtesy of an old friend from NC... no snakes were harmed in the making of this manicure, I promise :-P

It took a few different tries to get it right, but finally I settled on a base of Rimmel Bare Naked. While the second coat was still tacky, I laid down the snakeskin bits. Everything is sealed in with top coat.

The plastic centipede I'm holding here came with the snakeskin. I was told it's name is Cumbersnatch... hahahahaha!

So far so good, but I think the texture of my nails is going to drive me nuts before long... What do y'all think?

Needle marbling!

My first successful attempt! Not as good as the original though... I took my inspiration from the magnificent Tartofraises:

She is friggin' amazing, no?!

The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Ion, Cover Girl Forever Festive, L'Oreal Jet Set to Paris, Sinful Colors Firefly, & Sinful Colors Smoking Hot.

It was so much fun, & although some nails came out radically different from others, & NONE of them came out as even as hers did, I really like the effect and I'm totally going to do this again soon! What do you think?

Franken Friday, #8!

I present to you, Unicorn Girl!

Pretty simple, a purple jelly with gold glitter. The story behind it however, is long & complex... When my mother died, she left me all of her knitting needles. Now, I was NOT a knitter at the time... I was a stubborn crocheter, & insisted that you could crochet anything that could be knit. (This is NOT true; each craft has their strengths & weaknesses. Truth be told, I was afraid to learn how to knit beyond garter stitch. Now? I'm addicted!) Finally, one day I decided to bite the bullet. So, while visiting my sister upstate (who had the majority of my mom's stuff in her attic), the night before we went to get matching tattoos of our mom's symbol, we cracked open some beers & decided to sort the needles. There were a gaBILLION. Naturally, we wound up getting a little tipsy, & I decided to sing a song about the first thing that popped into my head. I saw a pair of purple needles, & a pair of gold needles... and kablammo! "Purple & gold, that's the color of the unicorns... & some people like it tooooooo!" My sister nearly drowned on her beer laughing.

So of course, I had to make us singing it my voicemail... and then when my friend Ash Gray heard it and the story, he loved it so much that he wrote a pretty amazing song, using it as the inspiration. (You can buy it on iTunes, I think.) I'm credited on his album as "the unicorn girl", hahaha. So when I had a desire to make a purple & gold polish... well, what else could I call it? ;-)

Sinful Colors Rainstorm

I did promise you, so here it is :-) I couldn't find this polish anywhere, in any of the thousand drugstores in Manhattan. I looked in Brooklyn & Queens too. Nada. But then, a beautiful soul on Ravelry sent it to me as a random act of kindness! I'm super pleased with the gloves I'm wearing too... I spun the yarn & knit the gloves myself.

This could easily have been a one coat creme, but I chose to do two. It's seriously the loveliest grayed out blue I think I've ever had the pleasure to paint with. The formula was wonderful as well. No issues with drying time or streaking or anything. I highly recommend this!

Do you own this color? If you're a SC junkie like me, raise your hands! :-)

Polish Days MAN-icure :-D

Well, because I love my fella very, very much... I decided to honor him today. I let him choose the color for my nails, & he said gunmetal. (He's genuinely interested in my nail endeavors... I don't know how I got so lucky!) I sponged a gradient of Wet n' Wild Venomous Vixen & Metallica over Sinful Colors Rainstorm (separate post on that coming soon) and mattified it with NYC Matte Me Crazy. Because I'm a cheese ball, I went a step... ok, like, 5 steps... further... and, well... take a look :-)

Hearts were made with NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost & KISS silver glitter. Our initials were done with KISS white eventually, after trying several different looks. (You can still see the purple underneath, but I think it looks pretty cool!)

Words can't express how much I love my fella. He's handsome (looks like a tattooed depiction of Zeus), he's strong, he's intelligent, he could easily be The Most Interesting Man in the World from those Dos Equis ads, he's kind almost to a fault, he's sensitive (yet totally not in a whiny weenie baby way!), he's a damn good cook (& LOVES feeding me ;-), he loves all my odd hobbies & interests that all other men in my history have found irritating or strange (growing plants, knitting, nail art, writing, dyeing yarn, spinning yarn, etc etc etc), he's got the most beautiful tattoos all over his body (many of which he drew himself), and he loves me so wholeheartedly it's astonishing. I've never been loved, or loved someone else like this before. I am so, so, soooo lucky to be with him. He is the bacon of my heart and soul <3

 Don't forget to check out the other awesome entries as well!

Hurricane Mani, as Promised :-)

First of all, I just want to say that I'm astonished at the way Sandy devastated the lives of so many people... less than a mile from me. I'm truly convinced that nothing less than a nuclear attack will knock Harlem down. My heart goes out to all those whose lives were changed for the worse because of Sandy. I am one of the lucky ones, as all I lost was a significant amount of income from not being able to work for a few days. Rent is late, but that's all. I still have a home. May the universe bless those in need, with what they need as soon as possible.

So, onto the nails I got to stare at while I was shacked up with my fella for 5 days. They started out with CoverGirl's new Outlast polish in Forever Festive. It's a deep, glowy, candy apple red that can best be described as pure sex on one's nails, hahaha.

The last photo is after I added about a gabillion coats of glitter, all various types. My nails resembled mini Klimt paintings actually, & it was kind of nice... except for the killer tip wear/ shrinkage which just drove me batshit  insane! The polish was literally begging to be peeled off... which I'm ashamed to say I couldn't resist :-( My nails look terrible at the moment now, so I'm going to keep polish changing to a minimum for a while. Never fear though, I've got some more manis to show you soon, including the ugliest color to ever find itself on my nails!

To close this on a totally unrelated note, I'm just gonna go ahead & say that  Glass Houses by Billy Joel is one of the best albums ever. Cor.

Franken Friday #7! (right?)

Dream Warriors! Yes, named after that Dokken song. The polish itself is like painting with rice krispies... it's surprisingly thick with glitter, but even more surprisingly easy to remove. Really pretty though, in a murky, misty sort of way.

and here's the song, in case you don't know it.

Enjoy! Coming up soon, I'll show off the mani that lasted through hurricane Sandy. I really hate the bitch right now, ugh. More on that later, though... ;-)

quick update!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm fine, but I won't be home until tomorrow, so no pics until then. See you then! Xoxo

Franken Friday #6

I think this might be the most boring one so far. Instead of Raindrops on Roses, I should have called it, "The Embodiment of Meh."

I'd describe it as a rosy crelly with subtle glitter. It sounds prettier than it looks though... What do you think?

Nail Junkie

It's what I am, & it's what this polish is called ;-)

Weekend Water Marble

Ehhh, I'm not terribly pleased with it, hence the lack of photos.

Halloweenish colors, but my execution, I feel, was lacking. I was super tired when I did it... yeah, that's my excuse.

What I was SUPER pleased with though, was this:

Mid meal photos, hahaha. We (me and my fella) went to this insaaaane Polish restaurant on Fresh Pond Road. The Polish name, I won't even try to pronounce, but the English translation is King's Feast. Let me tell you, it lives up to it's name. My fella had a pork chop, and I had pork & plum skewers. Oh, & the appetizers? Bacon wrapped plums. UNF. I'm hungry again just thinking about it... SO GOOD.

The water marble didn't hold up too well, & I was itching to take it off when I got home today. So here, I've got Milani Holographic in HD, with Color Club Covered in Diamonds on top.

& here's a flash picture, just 'cause I thought it looked weird in the flash:

That's all, folks :-)

In a Martini, update:

This is a much more accurate picture.

I loves it.

Franken Friday, the Fifth!

I first thought this had to be the ugliest color I've ever mixed. But upon putting it on my nails, fell in love. (This seems to be a theme with my frankens!) It's a little greener than it looks here, a true olive. (Hence the name.) So, here you go: In a Martini.

It complements my skin well... & not only that, looks fucking gorgeous with Sinful Colors Faceted:

Photos don't do this justice. I've noticed something funny about Faceted too- it looks best in low light for some reason. In strong light, the bar glitter seems to disappear, & the tiny purple glitters look like they do here, like dirt. I so love it though. I'm actually keeping this on till tomorrow, gasp!

Quick & dirty update...

WnW Root of all Evil, with Venomous Vixen sponged on top, Star of the Party glitter, & NYC Matte top coat. I combined the two, thinking the names were appropriate for my angry, angry mood last night. Having stars on my nails makes me feel a little better, though ;-) Doesn't change the fact that I'm tired of dealing with morons & assholes & getting kicked around all the time, but whatever. In the long run, I'm better off than they are.

Well, I couldn't decide on a color, so...

... I decided to do a mani for something I've recently decided to be a part of. Polish Days! I'm way late, since I just found out about it last night, but I decided to do it anyway. The theme was Sentimental, & i chose to interpret this as the polish that got me hooked. Enter OPI, Stranger Tides.

This polish, when I first saw it, I thought "Hmm, I bet that'll look nice on my pasty ass skin." I picked up the bottle, read the name... & came back to my senses. What a hideous color, I thought, as I scrunched up my face in disgust in front of the display. I'm glad I caught myself! But then... I decided I had to have it.

So it was that a week later, I was frantically searching through every Duane Reade on B'way from midtown to the UWS. I googled it as I walked, & that was when I discovered the world of polish blogs. I believe it was Liquid Jelly that I first found. The night I found Stranger Tides though, was also the night I found Just Spotted the Lizard... and it's all been downhill from there, ladies.

Weekend Water Marble!

I love this mani so much, I'm seriously reconsidering re-doing it on a set of fake nails, so I can have have nails like this whenever I want. I used Sinful Colors Vacation Time, SH CSM Gray by Gray, Wet n Wild White, Milani Holographic in 3D, & L'Oreal Safari Chic for the marble, a dollar store gold striping paint for accents, then WnW Star of the Party for the stars, & Sinful Colors Opal Glitter for the finishing touch. On top of all that is the matte top coat from NYC. Pure love!

Franken Friday #4!

I present to you, Birthday Suit!

In retrospect, I probably should have named it herpes ;-) It was fun to wear though.  

Gradient Nails, part the second.

Ulta Concrete Evidence, under Color Club Naughtycal:

Next up, Wet n' Wild Disturbia, mixed up with Maybelline Color Show amethyst ablaze:

with glittah, mattified:

Voila, there we go :-)