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Sation Violet Sapphire

Posted on 13 October, 201213 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I don’t remember when I first purchased Sation Violet Sapphire…I actually don’t remember purchasing it at all! Does this happen to any other nail polish enthusiast out there? I must have hundreds of polishes that I have never used–even for swatching. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame, but I know that some of you out there understand!

Violet Sapphire is such a girlie color. When I first looked at the color in the bottle, I was afraid that it would be super brush stroke-y, but it really isn’t. It’s has a pearlized shimmer that makes it look delicate, but I’m not going to call it the dreaded F-word…FROST!

For this final mani, I used Konad Special white polish and a design from image plate MASH 39. I like this fish scale design, but I don’t really like the colors I used. I think that the white looks too harsh against the base color. I am imagining something much more delicate like maybe a pastel with this pattern stamped in silver.

So a couple of my girlfriends and I are trying to motivate each other to work out (hopefully we can start going to the gym together) and eat better. So what did I do today? I didn’t eat anything all day and then I went out and got this:

I don’t know how big and widespread the Chipotle chain is, but that is where I got this massive burrito. It is full of cilantro rice, pinto beans, grilled steak, cheese, sour cream and salsa. If you’re wondering if I ate the whole thing….well, a girl with a gullet the size of the grand canyon would never eat and tell. haha!

Are you excited about the weekend? Do you have any plans? I don’t have much going on except maybe doing some more polish organizing since I acquired over 100 bottles in the last month or so. I know…it’s a sickness. All I have to say in my defense is that I got a bunch of them for free and some as gifts. Speaking of gifts, once my nails grow out a bit, I’m going to start featuring the lovely polishes I received for my birthday.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my little pyscho corner of polish addiction…and massive burritos. Talk to you soon!

China Glaze On Your Knees!

Posted on 12 October, 201211 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Is it just me, or were polish names a little more risqué in the past? I seem to keep running across a lot of older polishes with very interesting names, and today I have another oldie but goodie. China Glaze On Your Knees! was part of the 2002 Winter collection called Crown Jewels. Lately I have been on a total old polish buying binge–the older they are, the more excited I get. You can blame all the dusties in my area for my recent obsession with older polishes.

Behold the Fall beauty of China Glaze On Your Knees!

This polish has a glowing cinnamon aspect to it so it reminds me a little bit of Jessica’s Cinnamon Kiss. This polish is definitely not 3-free and I found the formula dreamy: it is a little sheer but it’s super easy to control and apply. These are the type of colors that I look forward to wearing every fall and winter.

And because I’ve missed my stamping…

I really don’t like the Essie Mirror Metallics as regular polish, but I love them for stamping. Look how gorgeously crisp the stamping is with As Good As Gold! I used a design from Mash plate 41 for this design in case you were wondering. Doesn’t it remind you of a chain link fence?

I might have asked this before, but does it annoy you when I feature polishes that are discontinued and are probably hard to find? I have found so many amazing polishes (some even pre-2000) lately so I’m super excited to share them on here. Let me know what you think about this and about my latest mani. I love hearing all your opinions. Thanks again for stopping by–your feedback keeps this blog fun for me. 🙂

Zoya Kimmy

Posted on 6 August, 2012 by Cynthia

I really want to get through all my Zoya polishes and swatch them all, but I seem to acquire more bottles than I can keep up with. Last week I bought a few new Zoya babies and this is the first one that I decided to try. Kimmy is such a bright red with gold shimmer and I was instantly attracted to it despite the fact that I don’t usually like metallic-looking colors. You want to know the best part? This is a one-coater!! I used two here, but you can get away with one thickish coat.

Since I was in a MASH plate binge, I decided to use plate 45 for this design with Konad special polish in black.

And the last three pictures are just of my latest binge. I can’t wait until I get to play with all of these colors, especially the a-englands!!! I am going on a no polish week and giving my nails a chance to grow and recover…hopefully I will be able to stick to it and not freak out about a whole week sans polish.

So how was your Monday? I think it’s still the most dreaded day of the week for a reason. Thanks for stopping by my lovelies!

Stamping Sunday: Silver, Gold or Bronze As An Accent

Posted on 5 August, 2012 by Cynthia

I seriously feel like I need to tone it down. This is the second week that I create something for the group Adventures In Stamping and it’s a big fat fail again. I don’t know what it is about challenges, but it seems that I come up with the tackiest ideas ever. I don’t even know what I imagined anymore when I came up with this monstrosity, but at least it wasn’t as bad as last week’s look…at least in my opinion.

I started out innocently enough with China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I don’t know how many times I have said this, but the On Safari collection blew me away. I was really excited when the promo pictures came out and after I got them, they were everything I had hoped for and more. Kudos, China Glaze. “Well done. Whoo, whoo, whoo !” à la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

Beautiful color, right?

The next step was taping off my nails in a diamond pattern and I used plate MASH 46 for the design and Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight for the stamping polish. I should have taken a picture of that before I went ahead and added the glitter but I spaced out and forgot. It actually looked interesting before I added the glitter. This Dare To Wear glitter called Disco Ball and it is full of different holo glitter shapes. I think it will look very pretty over a dark base. Once again, I’m not thrilled with this manicure, but I like it a little better than last week’s.

And for Sunday’s food porn, here is my breakfast: a delicious egg and chorizo breakfast burrito. Yes, it was heavenly!

Hope you’re having a nice Sunday! Let me know what you think of my stampicure.

Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise

Posted on 4 August, 201227 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I finally got around to using another one of my Deborah Lippmann beauties. This is one of the 4 Deborah Lippmann polishes I got on major clearance on HSN, and I love them. Yes, they are expensive but I think the formula is pretty freaking dreamy. I think these would be a perfect splurge for a special occasion like a birthday, Christmas or Saturday night…hee! I don’t see myself splurging too often on DL polishes, but I think I will really be on the lookout for special and unique colors that catch my attention.

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this polish is key lime pie. Hmmmm…who doesn’t like that?! Just the sound of it sounds decadent with a refreshing citrus punch. Have you ever had key lime cheesecake? Enough food talk; can you tell I’m hungry right now?

This is such a pretty color! I wasn’t sure it would suit my skin tone, but I actually really like it. Since cremes are my favorite polish finish anywhere, this was a no-brainer for me. The first coat was streaky, but I wasn’t expecting any less. The second coat evened it all out perfectly

It’s official: Insta-Dri polishes are awesome for stamping. Doesn’t Blue By! look amazing over Almost Paradise? I used plate MASH 43 for this design.
I think my stamping mojo is 100% back! Let me know what you think of this design.

Hope you’re having a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Thank You!!!

Posted on 1 August, 2012 by Cynthia

When I first started this blog, only about 2 people knew about it and they were my only readers because I was writing mostly personal stuff. I needed to get it out of me so that it could stop torturing me. I started writing about my issues here about 6 months after being released from a psychiatric hospital, and it turned into a cathartic exercise since I was still resisting any kind of therapy. Since then, I have met some of the most caring group of women I could ever hope to meet. Not only do they listen and offer advice, but they share their own experiences and make me feel like I’m not alone.

Once I started blogging about nail polish more regularly, I would get so excited every time I got a new follower or a new person who would comment on my posts. I slowly started to see my readership grow each month and this made me feel like people were actually interested in my opinions and thoughts about nail polish, make up and just random topics. I saw a nice jump in blog visit for the month on June so I told myself that I would LOVE to reach a few milestones for the month of July:

1) Reach 300 published blog posts

2) Reach 100 followers

3) Reach 10,000 views for the month

Well, I managed to reach all of those thanks to all of you who take time out of your day to check up on what craziness is going on in my head. The most exciting part was that not only did I reach 10,000 blog views in July, but I actually got a little over 16,000! For a little blog such as mine, I feel like that was such a huge accomplishment. Nicole from Polish Me Please! had been encouraging me to use twitter and when I finally did, that’s when I started seeing an increase in traffic. So thank you Nicole and thanks to all the lovely twitter ladies who always make me laugh!

I was so happy to have hosted 2 giveaways last month for 2 sets of the Wet N Wild Saved By The Nail, Saved By The Bell inspired nail polishes. I would have loved to give out more sets but they became pretty impossible to find as a lot of you noticed. If I randomly find more, I will be sure to add them to my next giveaway. I am planning to hold another giveaway in the near future as a thank you to all of you who have made me feel so welcome in this lovely nail blogging world. Once I figure out what the prize will be, I will let you all know.

I posted last night how I received my MASH plates and how excited I was to try them out today. I am happy to report that these plates are awesome!! I used a few of the designs to see how well they stamped. I have to say that Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight is my favorite silver to stamp with. Look how great the designs turned out!

My brother is taking me out to dinner tonight (for once!) so we’re headed out in a little while. I hope I can control myself and not stop at any place that sells nail polish on the way back home. Uggghhhhh! Wish me luck!