Just Peachy......

What's your first thought when you hear the word "peach"?  Fruit, right? That's normal, most people would say the same thing.

I'd like to bring your attention to something else you should think of when you hear the word "peach". Think of Uterine Cancer Awareness. Yes, it has it's own color - it's not pink. PEACH is a gorgeous color.  And thanks to the combined efforts of some indie polish makers and bloggers, this is just one disease that we are hoping to bring more awareness to.

Samantha Rigge of Gothic Gala Lacquers is new to the polish making world, but you'd never know it by looking at and trying out her polishes.  I told Samantha my story when I was searching for a pretty peach polish to wear. You see, I've been diagnosed with uterine cancer, twice. Most recently, I had surgery, chemo, radiation and cyber knife. The cancer has shrunk but it's still there, it will never go away. We just have to keep a close eye on it......that little fucker.

Samantha graciously decided that "Lost My Lady Bits" would be just one of the awareness polishes she would be making.  When you purchase "Lost My Lady Bits" at a cost of $9.00 a bottle, $2.00 will be donated to "Be Bold Be Bald". Polish will be available beginning September 1st at her Etsy shop, which you can find here http://www.etsy.com/shop/gothicgalalacquers.  But you don't have to wait, go now and check out her other beautiful polish. And please, let me know if you purchase a "Lost My Lady Bits" so I can personally thank you.

My polish to review arrived in the mail today and I didn't want to waste much time trying it out. This polish has a sort of fuzzy peach as a base color, pretty in itself. But then, add the copper, rose and irridescent glitters and WOW !  Not too much, just enough to make it sparkle. I absolutely LOVE this color and will be wearing it often.

I also have to commend Samantha on her packaging. What a beautiful surprise inside the box.  Multicolored shredded paper along with a multi color spiral shaped confetti - pretty ! She also includes a home made deep purple lollipop. The polish itself was wrapped in a beautiful tissue paper. She left nothing untouched by her obvious caring hands.

Thank you Samantha, I am proud of you and I thank you so much for being one of the indies to take on this challenge. I thank you all.

Favorites........

I don't usually play favorites, but sometimes, just sometimes,  you can't help yourself.

Case in point - Essie's Jamaica Me Crazy......not a new color but one of my favorites. Essie polishes all apply so smoothly and easily, the polish just glides onto my nails. Just LOVE how the color crosses that line between pink and purple so beautifully. I used 2 coats of Jamaica Me Crazy on all but two of my nails. I used one coat on my accent nails, followed by Julie G's Secret Treasure, another beautiful cross between pink and purple but this time, sparkles ! I used one dabbed on coat of Secret Treasure. I followed all of this with one coat of Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength, Diamond Flash, my go to quick dry top coat and another favorite of mine.

I really love the combination of these 2 polishes......subtle yet noticeable.  And the fact that I have a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A Peel - my newest favorite under the accent nails assures me of easy removal.

What are some of your favorites that you'd recommend to other polish lovers ? Go ahead, I won't tell ;)

More dupes......or are they?

When I look at my racks of polish, I tend to see a lot of polishes that appear to be duplicates. While I realize that there are slight differences I wonder if I could do without those that are so similar.

 I'm like a moth to a flame when coralish (that's not a word, is it?) colored polishes are around. On the rack, these all looked like corals to me. When I actually tried them side by side, there's one that appears to be more of a red.

The color on my pinky, Essie's Hip-Anema, clearly is more red than the rest. It's such a rich, beautiful color !  The remainder, from left to right.....all Essie's - all 2 coats - Sunday Funday, California Coral and Come Here !  They're all gorgeous colors and I love all of them.

I really do think I NEED to have all of these colors......don't you agree ? :)

Inspiration...........

Here is the inspiration picture

I'm not a huge fan of gold.....but I love Silver. So when I found Milani in Silver (yes, that's the only name on the bottle) I bought it, hoping to recreate this somewhat.  

Here's my manicure using Glitter A Peel by Nail Pattern Boldness, Cool Gray by Sinful Colors, A silver holo from Nails, Inc. and Silver by Milani. This pic was taken indoors.

And here's the outdoor pic....I LOVE that you can see some reflections on my hand.

Where do you get inspiration from? 

Glitter A Peel is very appealing..............

Well, I can tell you honestly that Glitter A Peel is a must have for anyone that uses sparkles.  One nail had chipped yesterday and the polish was beginning to peel on its own so I pulled at it just a bit and had to stop myself. It felt like the entire nail would have peeled off if I continued but I wasn't ready to remove it all.

Today I sat down with my cuticle pusher and began to remove my polish......sometimes it was tough to get it started, so I used the sharper end of my cuticle pusher just to get the polish up off the nail a bit, but once I got started it came off with ease. Granted, I did not use a lot of sparkles, but I just know this would work even if I did.

I would recommend this base coat to anyone that used sparkles. I think that I just may use it for all of my polish applications.......would save my cuticles from all the polish remover.  http://nailpatternboldness.blogspot.com/  

Sparkles and Glitter A Peel

I have to admit my fear of sparkles.  They've been so hard for me to remove in the past, I felt like I was ruining my nails. I did have success using 2 coats of Elmer's Glue as a base coat once.....but if I can find a polish to act like my Elmer's I much rather have that.

A friend gave me a bottle of Glitter A Peel by Nail Pattern Boldness. I'd read great things about this product so I'm willing to give it a shot.

I put on one coat of Glitter A Peel followed by 2 coats of OPI in I Have A Herring Problem and then 2 coats of Sephora by OPI in Beam Me Up Hottie.  I must admit, I still don't get how to have a decent amount of sparkles appear on my nails, sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.

Someone tell me, is there supposed to be more glitter on my nails after having used 2 coats? 

I will probably switch this up either tomorrow night or Saturday morning. When I remove it I'll post an update on how the Glitter A Peel measured up. 

Water Marbleing......

do you? have you? Water Marbled that is.  I used to do it more often and it would come out good on the first attempt. Lately I've been having tons of issues. I finally resorted to using room temp bottled water and I shut off the air conditioner and stand on my head.  Well no, not the stand on head part, but why are there so many variables as to how this effect comes out?

I did my two ring fingers tonight. First attempt was a no go......remove polish, re apply white polish, let dry, re apply scotch tape, drip polishes in water......DAMN!!! ugh, way too much came off the brush and splashed against and into my already concentric circles. New water and start that part over. Success on nail one !! The design is not as nice as I would have liked, but I'll take it.

So I get  both ring fingers done......quick dry top coat applied. Start to clean up and I smeared one of the nails - had to do that one over but it came out better than the first time. Now I'm done, it is what it is. Here's a pic of my left hand - I'm a righty so I can only take pics with my phone with that hand.

Colors used are all OPI - Ate Berries In The Canaries, A Roll In The Hague and Alpine Snow.
The marbleing on my right hand is a little more detailed.  I selected these colors because why?  See previous post of polish to clothes or clothes to polish. It's a tie dyed look black maxi. The water marbleing fits right in. Hope this lasts till Wednesday, going to see a concert in a park by a band called 45RPM that plays, as they put it "Cheesy 70's Music" - lots of fun at their shows :)

Dupes ?

Every time I think of using a lime green, I see three options in my collection. Essie's The More The Merrier, OPI's Who The Shrek Are You? and Pure Ice's Wild Thing.  It was finally time to do a comparison.........

Index finger is 2 coats of Essie's The More The Merrier. Went on relatively easy.....not too thin, not too thick.  Middle finger is 2 coats of Pure Ice's Wild Thing. Went on easily also and was slightly thicker than Essie. Could have gotten away with one thicker coat. Ring finger and pinky are 3 coats of OPI's Who The Shrek Are You. I was surprised at how thin the OPI was and generally I do not like using polishes that require 3 coats.  I can't decide if I like the Essie or OPI more, color wise......

I definitely think that the Essie and OPI are the most similar in color, and I think I'd go with the Essie if I chose between the two. Definitely not exact dupes so I suppose I'll keep all three. (If I asked my husband about this, he'd say they're all the same and that I should only keep one. And then I'd gently remind him why I needed the 2 storage units he made for me)

Bondi August Subscription

I was patiently waiting for my first Bondi New York Subscription box to arrive. This is the first month that they're offering this, and for $19.99, which includes shipping, you get 3 of their polishes and a surprise gift. They had also offered subscribers a chance to order an additional box for $15 - who was I to let them down ?  ;)

Here are my boxes - packed great by the way

They had assured us that they would make sure we did not receive duplicate polishes and they were all good on that count.  I wasn't expecting to get 2 of the same free gifts, but they're free so I'll save one for a future giveaway.

There were 4 beautifully colored cream polishes and 2 metallics in all.


Here are Blue Skies, Brick Road, Central Park Blossom and Fuschia-istic. These are all 2 coats except Central Park Blossom which required 3 coats to be opaque and not streaky. My 2 favorites are Central Park Blossom and Fuschia-istic. (oops, just noticed the smudge on my Blue Skies. There is a storm approaching.)

And here are the metallics, Fool's and City Slicker. I'm not a fan of metallics so these may be saved for a future giveaway also.

This was my first time trying this brand and I have to tell you, I LOVE how it applies ! The formula is nice and smooooooooth. Dries nicely and all of these pics were without a top coat. Their customer service is beyond compare !

I highly suggest that you sign up for this subscription service or try one of their polishes. 

clothes to polish or polish to clothes?

Which one are you? Do you match your clothing to the polish on your nails? Or do you put on polish to match your clothing?  I do a little of each, but tonight I matched my polish to what I'll be wearing to work tomorrow.  A new dress, horizontal stripes, and yes, I know what they do to you, but it was a gift so I shall wear it.

I love when I can do a rainbow manicure and use all one brand. It shouldn't matter, I just like to be able to do it.

So, here you have my Essie Rainbow Manicure - from thumb to pinky - Sand Tropez, Naughty Nautical, Sunday Funday, The More The Merrier and Mesmerize.

And this is the dress that I tried to match the colors to

Think I matched them pretty well. Which also means, new polish tomorrow night because I do not have anything else to wear that has all of these colors.

Welcome.........

A nail friend suggested that perhaps I should create a blog. Sure, why not ?

Here I am, first blog post and not sure what to write. Writing is not my forté so please don't expect a lot.

Quite simply, I love nail polish. Isn't that why we're all here? We have a "problem" with nail polish. Whether it's stressing about where to store our polish, putting ourselves on self imposed moratoriums of NO MORE POLISH, or trying in vain to get that one color that you just have to get!

I've been in all 3 situations. Besides the Bondi NY subscription that I signed up for, I'm trying my hardest to not purchase any polishes. My husband built me some amazing shelving units and there's literally no more room for any more shelves -  because that would also mean that I've gone overboard. (great movie by the way. if you haven't seen it you should).

My intention is to post my opinions about different polishes that I use. Of course it would just be divine if some polish companies began to send me polishes to review for them and who knows? maybe some day they will.

So welcome, welcome to my blog. Stick around and Get Nailed Here.