Orly Charged Up

Brighter and less red in real life.

Zoya Trixie

I don't know why I don't wear this more often: it's a two coat shimmer
ball of silver perfection.

Wet n Wild Wild Shine Black Creme & Color Club Lazer Pink

At the end of the day, I'm actually torn: keep this manicure or do my nails in Stellare Notte? The Borghese calls, but this one is so much fun...

Grow nails, grow!

So back in late November, we put a new floor in our dining room. Like any good DIY project, this one involved my hands taking their fair share of dings. And by hands, I mean nails.

Well, the damage to my nails finally grew out to the point where it was causing problems. Flaking, cracking, peeling, breaking as soon as they hit the end of the nail bed problems. So, being a practical person at times, I cut them. Short. Really short. To the quick short. And my nails are usually just one step past nubbin, so when I say short,  I mean it. My short is shorter than most people think when they think short.

I'm also not painting them right now, and it's driving me bonkers.

Clearly, this is a sign that I am never, ever, ever going to try mannequin hands. 

Milani 3D Holographic Hi-Res

When I first saw this while on my no buy, I wasn't all that impressed. But reviews on the blogs and the nail board said it was way better on the nail than in the bottle, so I picked it up this evening, and yes. Yes it is. Two coats over the Mirror Image base, but I don't think I needed it. Diamont top coat, no dulling of the holo. Happy day before cheap chocolate day, nails!

Pretty, isn't it?

Zoya Blair + LA Girl Rock Star Addict

The dim light does not do it justice. This combo is simply stunning.

OPI Romeo & Joliet

I'm not usually a brown girl, but yum.

Nfu-Oh 569 + Nfu-Oh 39

I think I have a new favorite combo.

Some polishes should not be matted. Ever.

No, seriously. It looks so much better in the picture than in real life. In real life, the color (about a million times brighter) just looked like some random rubber toy had melted onto my hands.

I'm a matte lover. I got my first bottle of matte polish in 1989 (this cerise Revlon that, wow, I still dream about -- I lost the bottle in my parents' house somewhere, found it again a few years later, only to have it disappear again, so perhaps some day, it will be unearthed, and I can hug it and kiss it and call it George), my next batch a decade later, lather, rinse, repeat. Matte About You had, until this point, made every faded mani a little better (I'm resting my nails and hands from frequent swatching, as I've been canning, and the constant contact with citrus rind is murder on my mitts), but ACK! I wish the picture captured the skin-crawling wrong, but trust me on this: it failed to work in a spectacular fashion.

Note  to self: next time you feel the urge to extend a BT manicure, just add a layer of See Ya Later Sailor or something.

Color Club Bizerk Turq + Essie Matte About You

Normal Bizerk Turq