Chinese Giant Salamander

Hi guys! So today's animal is definitely not a good-looking one. I know I said that about the condor yesterday, but even it had its redeeming features, like the bright colors on its head, its glossy black feathers, and the cuteness of its babies. But today's animal really doesn't have anything that people would like to look at, unless you like big slimy things that creep about in the night. However, ugly creatures should not be wiped off the planet just because they are ugly. They deserve help too. So the animal we're gonna look at today is the Chinese Giant Salamander:

I wonder why this one is peach-colored. I also wonder why it's smiling like that.

    The Chinese Giant Salamander is kind of cool because it's actually the biggest amphibian in the whole world. It can grow up to six feet, although most adult salamanders today only make it to about 3 feet and 66 pounds. Which is small for the species, but still scary big for a salamander. They spend most of their time underwater in mountain streams, are nocturnal animals, and eat insects, frogs and fish. But sadly for them, they  are coming awfully close to extinction because they are losing their habitats due to pollution and development. This has forced them into smaller places, which is partly why they never really grow into the magnificent giant salamanders that they are supposed to be. They are also seen as a delicacy in China, so people will overhunt them to use in presumably delicious dishes. They actually can't see and hunt by feeling vibrations, which makes it extra unfair, because people can just kind of run up on them and snatch them up before the salamander even knows what's happening. It's like kidnapping a blind person. Poor salamander, right? :(

So here are my Chinese Giant Salamander nails. I tried to replicate the splotches on the salamander's skin:

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Ottlite, no flash.

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     To do this, I started with two layers of OPI Bling Dynasty. Then I used Sally Hansen Sequin Scandal and a dotting tool to apply random splotches and dots to my nails. Last thing was to carefully apply topcoat, so the pattern didn't smudge and that was that. 

    Overall, I like how it came out. When the design is supposed to be random, it's easier to get away with stuff lol! My only thing is that I wished I had done a few more splotches and maybe made it matte. It would have looked really cool matte.

P.S. If you're wondering what happened to my nails, I broke a large chunk of corner off one of them in a horrible collision with my desk, and in a fit of rage and maybe madness, I filed all the rest of my nails into pointed nubbins. It's weird not having square nails anymore since that's been my nail shape for the past...three years. But it's cool too, and I kind of want to see what happens with them as they grow out. 

But that's all from me today!

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud

     Hi folks! As some of you may know, I have a slight problem when it comes to rare polish. After painfully lusting after them, hunting them down to the ends of the Earth and finally acquiring them, I can't bring myself to wear them. Instead, I keep them locked tightly in my polish drawer, only taking them out to gently caress them and make sure that they are okay. For today, I have one such polish, Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud.

Opulent Cloud is a silvery-lavender base with lots of golden shimmer.

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  Opulent Cloud is just okay for me. I like the slightly fuzzy finish the shimmer brings to it, as well as how Opulent Cloud seems to shift colors according to the lighting. It just has this really nice ephemeral and soft feel to it that I enjoy. But I don't like the actual color. It seems kind of dingy, and I don't think it flatters my skin at all. I'm still going to keep Opulent Cloud though, because it's not ugly and I put in way too many hours hunting it down. Letting it go would be like capturing a unicorn and then setting it free because it kicks you. Just silly, you know?

   Opulent Cloud's formula was also okay. It needed three coats to be perfectly opaque, and went on pretty smoothly, without bubbling, dragging, or brushstrokes. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Labor Day!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie vs. Sally Hansen Grape Going!

        After the post about Sally Hansen Grape Going!, I received a couple of emails asking about how it compared to Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie. I know there have been other comparisons of these two, but I  was curious to see them side by side myself, so I put together a little comparison of my own.

L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

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L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

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L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

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L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

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And some closer shots:

L-R: SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie

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L-R: SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie

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   Okay, so these two are not dupes and really are not even that close, so anyone owning both is perfectly justified. Like I said earlier though, I actually like the Sally Hansen better. I think it looks better on me and has a much better duochrome than Scrangie. And of course, Grape Going!'s price is much more palatable. 

    But with that said, I'm still going to keep Scrangie. It's pretty and unique (if overhyped), and I am fond of the iridescent shimmer that Scrangie has. It also has the better formula...both needed three coats before I was satisfied, but Scrangie wasn't as runny as Grape Going! and dried faster, so I can see wearing it again. 

Also, I've installed a widget at the bottom of the page that is like...a search engine for beauty professionals, and was created by betterfly.com.  I generally like to keep this space ad-free, but since it may actually be pretty useful for somebody, I'm letting this one in. 

And with that, I am all done for today! Thanks for reading and have a happy weekend!

Lazy Person Nail Art (n_n)

        So today's post is going to be really short, since I was too lazy to remove Sally Hansen Grape Going! last night. I didn't want to leave it the same either though, so I used some of this mountain of nail art stuff and made a little spring-y nail look for myself.

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    So this was really easy to do and took all of like three minutes. I just used some decals from God knows where...maybe Rite Aid, and a fimo butterfly. I wish I had done some sort of stamping on the background and it's a bit late for spring nails, but overall, I like it! 

Oh yeah, unrelated to this polish, but I wanted to let you guys know that I'm going to be extending my Lady of the Lake Giveaway for an additional three days. I won't be able to get to the post office over the weekend anyway, so I figured why not. The new end date will be June 20, 2011, so if you'd like to enter that, you have a little more time. 

And that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading!

Sally Hansen Grape Going!

         For today, I've got another Sally Hansen polish. This time, it's Grape Going! (damn unnecessary punctuation) from their Insta-Dri Line.

Grape Going! is kind of hard to put into words. I guess it's a violet purple, metallic-ish looking base, with bright blue, iridescent shimmer floating on top of it. The shimmer also has a duochrome shift to it, where it goes from blue to purple. 

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    I think Grape Going! doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, because it's truly a lovely polish. And I know I'm gonna get beat up for this, but it's really what I hoped RBL Scrangie would be. In sunlight, the blue shimmer catches the light and stands out so beautifully from the base, but it's in regular light where Grape Going! really shines. With every movement of my fingers, the shades of blue and purple in the polish shift and flow smoothly over my nails, and the shimmer floating above it all gives Grape Going! this dreamy, fairytale-like quality that I just love. It's just so pretty, and especially if you can catch a sale, the price is really quite good.

   Formula-wise, Grape Going! was okay. It was a bit thin, but the Insta-Dri brush actually helped me with controlling it. It took three coats for full opacity and depth, which was fine, but unfortunately didn't dry as quickly as the bottle would have you believe.

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a happy hump day! n_n

Sally Hansen Distressed Denim

    After enjoying Diamond Cosmetics Hot Summer Pink by itself for a bit, I topped it with Sally Hansen Distressed Denim, from their recently released Crackle Overcoat Collection. 

Distressed Denim is a cracking (haha I almost wrote crackhead) cobalt blue jelly.

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lmao at how my skin goes back to normal with the crackle shielding some of the pink insanity. 

Natural light, no flash.

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     I really like Distressed Denim. The bold shade of blue is really pretty to look at, and I am loving the jelly finish. Obviously, the jelly does have its limitations...over darker colors, Distressed Denim completely disappears because it's so transparent. But it looks amazing over sparkly things...I tried it over A-England Merlin and it was like O__O. Hopefully, I can show you it with glitter in a future post.

    In terms of formula, Distressed Denim is tricky tricky. The tips that I can give are to shake it up every few fingers, load a little more on the brush than you think you will need (because Distressed Denim is thin and the brush is skinny as hell), and to not worry about correcting bald spots or unevenness. And don't give up after one try! The first time I tried this, I was like wtf is this shit because it didn't really do anything. But after practicing with it a bit and getting a feel for how to apply it, it actually worked really nicely. 

  And the last thing is that I would not recommend that you buy Distressed Denim (or any of the Overcoats really) at full price. I paid $7.99 for this one at Walgreens and it's not worth that much, partially because it's not foolproof. So wait for a sale or coupons or something and you'll probably be much happier. 

And that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Saturday!

Sally Hansen Problem Child

     For today, I've got Sally Hansen Problem Child, from their Complete Salon Manicure Tracy Reese Fall 2010 Collection. 

Problem Child is a dark, red-based purple base with purple, blue and red shimmer and multi-sized copper flakies in it.

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     Problem Child is a really pretty color. The base color is flattering, and it does a little bit of the bright in the center, dark in the corners thing that I like. The shimmer and flakies also add quite a bit of interest, although you'll probably have to click through the pictures to see them. Although I have something similar in OPI Merry Midnight, I'm going to keep Problem Child. It's like Merry Midnight's twin brother, who decided that instead of doing crack all day like MM, he would get a job and buy a house like a motherflipping adult. Which is ironic, given its name. 

  Further compounding the contrariness of Problem Child's name was its formula. It was quite smooth and only needed two coats for opacity, which is not very problem child-like behavior. I'm okay with that though.

And that's all from me for today! Thanks for reading! ^_^