The polish that started it all! + invite

 Hello Everyone! Today is a polish related post! yay! I want to apologize in advance for the low quality photos. I went in my bedroom to ask my fiance if I could borrow his phone (he was sleeping) to take photos and I was met with this conversation:

Me: Hey babe, can I borrow your phone?
Him: mumble mumble pick the red one, it's better.
Me: *laughs* what?
Him: you were asking about colors, the red one is better.
Me: I asked if I could borrow your phone.
Him: Oh. yeah.
Me: Where is it?
Him: What? You asked about colors...
Me: No, I need your phone.
Him: What for?
Me: Pictures for my blog
Him: You don't need to take pictures *rolls over and stops responding to me*

Gotta love half asleep conversations. My future mother in law once said "we have a bunny problem" in her sleep.

Anyway! So I get a new camera in about 30 days, so I chose to use my camera phone instead. It's old...so sorry if the pictures suck. But I wanted to talk about the polish that started my obsession with polish.

Essie Cocktail bling. I had already had a few polishes, I think I had a few from the Muppets Collection, and China Glaze For Audrey, among other drugstore polishes. But I wasn't full on into painting my nails. Then, on break at work I saw an ad for the Cocktail Bling collection, and I went into full on hunt mode. I searched high and low for this polish, and when I found it, it was love. I bought nearly the whole collection (except Brooch the Subject and Size Matters) and I've been obsessed ever since.

I still love this color, it's not my favorite, but I love it. It goes perfectly with my skin tone, making me look less red, and less tan. I'm weird...I like looking pale. I wish my skin was paler actually. It's a perfect shade of grey-blue. Above is 2 coats plus topcoat.

Now, I invite all of you to email me YOUR "polish that started it all" and a little blurb and I would like to do a series of guest posts chronicling our decent into obsession. If you have any friends who collect polish, have them send it to me! I want hundreds of these things!!! ok...maybe not...but the more merrier!

My email is roflbertz@gmail.com 

I thank you, and have a great day.

Challenge day 13: It kinda counts!

Hello my friends! Today I have deemed animal print day. I did not want to do traditional animal prints, just like most of the other bloggers I have seen do this challenge. So what did I do? Koi print! I imagined that it was like taking a fabric that had animals on it (technically would be a print no?) and slapping it on my nails. I originally saw a similar design on google and found it here. I don't know how I found it, but I did. I did this once where I used a more water-esque type background. Also, I filed my nails into a slightly different shape, and this is the longest I've had my nails in...honestly I think ever. I'm trying to see how long I can go without a break. I had a minor one on my right hand but that's while I rounded out my nails more. Kind of hard to tell on my middle and ring fingers because they are so wiiiiide.

I used Essie Turquoise and Caicos for the base color. On top of that I sponged a whole lot of teal-y seafoam-y typeish green blues that I have. I have 17 different ones....I honestly can't remember which. I think I used: Julep Daphne, Zoya Wednesday, Essie Mint Candy Apple, and....one other one...maybe not. eek. Bad blogger is bad.

For the Koi I used a white acrylic paint, black acrylic paint, Essie Action, Essie Orange, it's obvious! , and China Glaze Orange you hot? Ha the big koi on my pointer finger is all bug eyed. He's my new friend Krazy Eye. Say hello!

Here's a picture with Mr. Thumb fish and his cut off friends. This was my favorite one. Sadly, I did not take a better picture.

And as a super bonus! on the Polish-aholics Anonymous facebook group page we were talking about what brings traffic to our blogs. My most common search was Essie Action vs China Glaze Orange you hot? and the other two compared to Essie Orange, it's obvious! So, I did a swatch-y swatch on my nail wheel!

From L-R China Glaze Orange you hot?,  Essie Action, then Essie Orange, it's obvious! Two coats, no top coat. As you can see the China Glaze is just a tad lighter than Action and has shimmer and Action dries to a pure matte finish whereas the China Glaze has more of a plastic-y finish. and Orange, it's obvious! is darker and less yellow. I wanted to to include Essie Fear or Desire but forgot. But that color is somewhere in between, leaning more towards the China Glaze and Action.

Another one bites the dust! Do you like Koi? Every time I see them I think of the bridge at the koi pond at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo where everyone throws the food in and watches them fight over it. They are some crazy fish.

What is your favorite animal or animal print to paint on your nails?

Challenge day 20 addendum.

Ok. That was rude. I apologize to you fine ladies for my rudeness, but still! First I will tell you the polishes I used: Essie Mojito Madness  and OPI Siberian Nights. All fine and dandy. The first nail I did was my ring finger. I'll post another pic here so you don't have to revert back to my other post.

Ignore the black outlines for now. So I figured that that did not work so well because I didnt have enough purple, so each time I did a bullseye after this I added two drops of Siberian Nights to every Mojito Madness (Sounds like a fun night in Siberia to me). Ok. I enjoyed the psychedelic kind of flower patter on my middle finger, and the pattern on my pointer is also nice. I had an issue taping my nails this time. I taped too close to the actual nail, and the white of my base color was visible. So I thought "add an outline! it'll be somewhat on trend AND it will cover your mistakes" wrong. I ended up with this jumbled mess. FKLDSFKJG. So. I then decided to do some stamping using RA 107 using the same colors and using the same outline technique thinger.

I did have some frustration with the water marbling aspect of this mani, but the problem was with the outlining. It was imposible to clean up...agh. Stupid orly striper.

What are your thoughts on water marbling?

Challenge Day 20...water...marble....

 Screw water marbling.

Challenge day 7: Pink and Purple

Hello Ladies! Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, I'm actually running a bit late today too...but I had a massive swatchfest today and I want to make sure you get the swatches of my favorite pinks and purples. But first, bottle spam! I love these pictures!

Mmmm...purple. Me likey da purple.
More after the jump!

Episode 5: Return of the..Yellow?

Hiya ladies! Today is blue day, but I'm not feeling blue. Annoyed maybe...but that is because of the lingering pain in my stomach and other real world problems, but you don't care about that! Only two days remain of Lacquer Dream's Rainbow themed week of favorites. Today I'm going to spam you with blue bottles! yay!

Army of blue! Looks so peaceful. Blue is very calming for me. I have so many bottles (this barely dents my blue collection) but I rarely wear them. Do you have any like this?

In this photo is Essie Bikini So Teeny, Essie Bobbing for Baubles (looks great with Fingerpaints Motley fyi), Deborah Lippman Let's hear it for the boy, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams, Julep Jessica, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, and China Glaze Aquadelic (try mattifying this! is GORGEOUS).

and my Mani after the break!!