Boo!!

            Boo to global warming and to Mother Nature for unleashing this horrible heatwave upon my little corner of the United States. Why is it 92 degrees at 9:38 pm?!  And boo to me too, for neglecting my poor little blog. It's just been so busy around here...there's no time for anything anymore. But since I'm about to remove my current mani (I put it on for the Fourth of July), I thought I'd take a quick picture and share it. But be warned...I've been wearing it for three rough days, and it looks a hot mess by now. 

Indoors with lamplight, no flash.

The base of this mani is Orly Poison Apple, and I painted the tip with Orly Star of Bombay. Then, I fixed one clear star gemstone to each nail. I sealed it all over with one coat of Poshe, and that was it. It looked better right after it was done, and then I tried to refresh it the next day with another layer of Poshe. That one bubbled like mad, so now it just looks gross. 

     ...and that's all I got. I know it's lame as hell, but hopefully, I'll be back on a normal posting schedule soon. I miss painting my nails and writing stuff. Meanwhile, I hope everyone is doing well and staying cool and healthy if it's hot in your neck of the woods. And if it's not, then consider yourself envied. By me. :(

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

           Good morning everyone! It's been a long time since my last post, huh? What had happened was, our icemaker broke down, and my mom enlisted me to fix it, because she didn't want to pay a handyman. Idk why she asked me...I'm not Bob the Builder. But she did, and like a fool, I fixed it, breaking about three nails and causing injury to one of my fingers in the process. I didn't want to put any nail polish remover on my fingers, so I've been au naturale for the past week. I think it's a little better now though, so I'm back! Don't everyone cheer at once. Since today is a lovely day and I'm happy to be with my precious nail polish again, I wanted to wear something bright and cheerful. China Glaze Blue Sparrow (which I purchased after seeing it on Impefectly Painted) fit the bill, plus it was new, so I slapped it on. 

Blue Sparrow is a vibrant azure blue jelly base, with a ton of lighter blue microglitter. I think China Glaze tried to tout this as a neon, but it's not. It's just bright. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Sorry for the chip...I took it after I finished washing my hair, and it was a jungle in there. 

Natural light, no flash. 

    Times like this, I'm glad that I can be easily influenced. Blue Sparrow is so beautiful! In the sun, my nails look like little balls of joy, although the glitter isn't the kind that really sparkles. It more...shines. But that's okay, it still looks gewd. My only disappointment with the color is that I expected it to be...brighter. It's bright already, and I don't want it to be neon, but I think I just expected a little more. Next time I wear it, I'll probably try it over a white, to see if that can get the color to pop a little more. 
    Application was nice and easy. The formula wasn't too thick or too thin, and went on smoothly...no dragging or streaking at all. It took three coats to be fully opaque, and dried rough and matte. I wasn't really into that look, but the situation was easily remedied by two coats of Poshe.
   I think I'm going to try some konading or something on top of this...I've been in such a konad-y mood as of late. But this is all I have for now. I hope everyone is ready for an awesome Fourth of July weekend (I think I'm going to be forced into barbecuing again) and if you don't celebrate The Fourth, then I hope you have a great weekend all the same! ^_^

Wet n Wild Nocturnal + Ooglayness

           Yesterday was such a bad day. My aunt and uncle wanted to go to a couple's night thing, and I had to watch their children while they were gone. I love my little cousins, and they are so cute and cuddly, but it was rough. I was with them for ten hours and they did such naughty things the whole time. ;_; I was sad. 
           When I woke up this morning, I was still feeling a little down and wanted to paint my nails something dark and somber. I chose Nocturnal, from Wet n Wild's Craze line. 

Sunlight, no flash.

I don't have an close picture (I forgot) but Nocturnal is basically a blackened midnight blue creme. In most lights, it will look black. Although you can tell that it's blue sometimes.

 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

    As a color, I do like Nocturnal. Even though it is a little pointless (you might as well wear black), I enjoy the deepness and richness of this shade. I think it looks sexy! 

    But I didn't like the formula or packaging at all. The formula was a little gloopy, and it bubbled and was kind of streaky. And the bottle and brush was horrible. The top was hard to hold onto, and it kept on banging against the table that I lean my hand against to paint. The brush was moppy, and I had to cut quite a bit of it, because it was all crazy. On the upside, Nocturnal is highly pigmented, and can be opaque in one coat, with a really careful application. I wasn't careful, so the pictures are with two coats. Even though I probably won't be wearing this again because I don't want to deal with putting it on, I think it will be good for konading. And if anyone knows of a dupe-y color, please let me know in the comments? Thanks!! ^_^

 Then, I was bored, so I did some ooglay decorations on top of Nocturnal. I wish I had left it alone. 

Shh, don't tell nobody. 

It looks like Beetlejuice. :(

Have a great evening, everyone!!

Happy Nails for a Sad Day

          Yes indeed...this is a sad day. It marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's untimely death, which as far as I'm concerned, is a sad. It's true that he sometimes acted in bizarre ways and had some personal issues, but nobody can deny the incredible talent he possessed or his huge influence over music and dance. There are so many modern musicians who have built entire careers off of MJ's stuff. I'm looking at you, Usher. At you, Ciara. And at all of you, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Ne-Yo. And for decades to come, people will still be gathering inspiration from what he left behind in this world. 
      I personally owe MJ a debt of gratitude, because when I was a little kid visiting relatives in Nigeria, he saved me from going outside, laying in the main road, and waiting for a car to run me over. That's how damn bored I was. We had been there for two months. There was one more month to go, and I was getting to the end of my rope.  I had exhausted every book I brought with me. I colored in all my coloring books, traced the pictures on fresh paper, and then colored those too. I played Ludo and cards until I wanted to die. I chased my grandparents' goats and chickens until my mom made me stop. The only thing that still held my attention was a collection of Michael Jackson videos on VHS. I watched that tape over and over again, and I thankfully never got tired of it.  That tape legitimately saved my life,  and if not that, then it certainly saved my sanity.
       I don't have any nice Michael Jackson themed nails today, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The stuff I attempted came out ugly, and I didn't have the right materials to execute some of my other ideas. I do have errands to run today, so I had no time to keep on trying, and settled for a sucky konadicure. Here it is:

I started off with three coats of Milani Hi-Res. First, I used Color Club Groove Thang to stamp the floral full nail pattern (the one with the stems) from Bundlemonster plate BM16. Then I put on the white leaf flower things from Konad plate M20, using Wet n Wild French White Creme.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     I don't really think this is sucky. It just wasn't what I wanted. But objectively, I like how this looks, especially because I've never tried any like...layered stamping before. I would have liked to go a little further with it too, but I didn't know what else to do, and was too scared to try any more experimenting. Maybe I'll try more later, when there's more time. 

    But at the moment, I've got to poof,  so I'm just going to finish this by posting my five favorite MJ videos. 

And of course,

Bow in the presence of greatness, ya'll.

RIP, Michael!

Brucci Swatches Part 2

           Good morning, everybody!! Happily, the weather cooperated with me yesterday and I was able to finish swatching my Brucci polishes. So for today, I have Amelia's Amethyst and Grape Galaxy. Three cheers for alliteration!

Amelia's Amethyst is a rich, deep, purple polish, with lots of violet and blue shimmer.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Amelia's Amethyst is so pretty. It's such a lively and royal purple, and I can imagine it looking good on pretty much any skin tone. It also went on very smoothly, was easily controlled, and is well-pigmented, only needing two coats to achieve full opacity.

   My only complaint about Amelia's Amethyst is that once more, it's not a unique color. As I was admiring it, I couldn't help but feel as if it were a dead-on dupe for China Glaze Let's Groove. So I did a little comparison.

L-R: Let's Groove, Amelia's Amethyst, Let's Groove, Amelia's Amethyst

It turns out that I was wrong, and that they are not exactly the same. Let's Groove is a teeny bit redder and deeper than Amelia's Amethyst. But the shimmer is identical, and even the difference in color is so negligible, that I don't think anyone really needs both. 

~♥~

Grape Galaxy is a blackened blue-based purple, with a ton of silver shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash. 

    I love love love Grape Galaxy! It's like...Explosive Meteor's older, sexier brother, right down the pink and green shimmer that shows in the bottle and not on the nail. I love that Grape Galaxy is a deep purple, but never looks black, and the contrast of the shimmer against the base is lovely. And best of all, I don't own or even think I've seen any colors quite like this. The formula was really nice too...it gave no trouble, and was opaque in three coats. 

     Overall, I still feel kind of meh about Brucci.  Grape Galaxy is a thang of beauty, but it's not enough to overcome my slight disappointment with the other colors I have. But meh is better than blech, I guess. Have a great day, everyone! 

Parokeets Summer is Here Giveaway

          I just wanted to announce a really awesome giveaway going on right now at Parokeets!
In honor of gaining 300 followers, the lovely ladies who run that blog are giving away all of this to one lucky duck:

The rules are as follows:

1.  you have to be visible follower on our Google Friend Connect to enter this giveaway;

2. leave us a comment bellow this post saying you would like to be part of this giveaway with your email and nick in Google Friend Connect along with information for additional entries (link to the post/forum, FB nick);

3. if you publish link to our Summer is here! giveaway in new post on your blog along with the photo of the prize, you’ll earn additional 2 entries OR you can publish link to our giveaway on one of the cosmetic forums along with the photo of the prize and receive 1 additional  entry;

4. 1 additional entry can be earned if you click Like on our Facebook fan page (don’t forget to mention you FB name in comment along with your email address);

5. there will be only one winner (if we don’t get a response in 48 hours after we send you email, the second picked will be contacted and given opportunity to receive the prize …)

6. giveaway is International;

7. computer program will pick the winner.

They'll be taking entries until midnight on July 18th, so go enter!

Brucci Swatches Part 1

           With nothing much to do yesterday but sleep and watch the little delinquent who lives down the street get arrested (da-raah-ma!!), I got a chance to swatch a few of my Brucci polishes. The sun went home for the day before I could finish, so there'll be a second part tomorrow, weather willing. But for today, I have Explosive Meteorite, Christian Court, and Donna Mite.

Explosive Meteorite is a dark grey base, with lots of silver shimmer. In the bottle, the shimmer is more multi-colored...there's green and pink along with the silver. But only the silver stuff really makes it to the nail. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash. 

     Explosive Meteorite is gorgeous, but I definitely do not see why they would call it Explosive Meteor. It is a....space-y color, true. It has that...cold, devoid of life look that makes one think of deep space. But it doesn't make me think of any kind of exploding meteor. Maybe more of an asteroid or moon rock? I also don't think it's a very unique color, but formula-wise, Explosive Meteor was pretty good. The polish was well pigmented, and was opaque in two coats, although I used three in the pictures. It was a tad runny, but nothing too horrible, and it applied very smoothly. 

More after the jump!!