Wow, it feels like it has been forever since my last blog post! Well I’m not dead and haven’t lost interest in blogging. My husband got a new job, and we moved to Portland, OR. The past month has been crazy, but we are really starting to settle into our new home. My nails and cuticles are in bad shape from the move, but I am woking on rehabbing them. I have also picked-up a few polishes since we arrived here just before midnight on April 21st. I am looking forward to blogging again, and having fun with nail polish. Portland is a beautiful place, and hopefully it will provide a lot of inspiration! We have a yard now, and I am looking forward to trying my hand at some gardening. It is likely that I will start wearing my nails a bit shorter so I can better tend to my flowers and veggies. I will need to work on getting a photo tent though, because one thing it will likely not provide is a lot of sunny days for outdoor photo shoots. Anyway, it is so good to be back!

a few polishes I have picked-up since our move

Harvest Moon is another polish from China Glaze’s Hunger Games collection. It is also another not typically “me” polish that I am enjoying. It is a golden carmel brown shimmer/foil and it is lovely! I wore Harvest Moon to lunch with a friend yesterday, and she loved the color. In fact she mentioned it several times

China Glaze Harvest Moon in sunlight

Application was excellent. Two coats and a top coat shown.

China Glaze Harvest Moon (with flash to show shimmer)

It seems that I might be the only person who hasn’t read the Hunger Games books, or seen the movie. I wasn’t able to ignore the polish though! I just had to grab several polishes from China Glaze’s Capitol Colors Hunger Games collection. When I saw Riveting at Sally’s it struck me as being an autumn color. I am not feeling spring pastels at the moment, so although I generally avoid oranges this bright color seemed to fit the bill. It has been overcast and raining pretty much all week, so a pop of color is most welcome! I like it in the bottle, but this bright orange  and gold shimmer is even better on the nail. It is such a flattering bright orange that is totally on trend. There is not doubt that this fiery color is perfect for spring and summer. Based on the promos I have seen, some of the movie’s costumes are a real visual treat. Maybe I should go see it after all

China Glaze Riveting in natural light

Application was excellent. This polish really glides on. Two coats and a top coat shown.

China Glaze Riveting

I am always learning new slang terms from Butter London. In the 1970s a Disco Buscuit was a quaalude, but more recently it describes an ecstasy tablet. There you go – word of the day!   I bought Disco Biscuit on our recent trip to Portland. The salesgirl at Nordstroms seemed amused by the name. She had to dig for a while in their display to find it, but I had to have it! It is a bright pink jelly with purplish-blue glitter (click on the picture to see the glitter detail).

Butter London Disco Biscuit in sunlight

Application was good, but it went on quite sheer (what one would expect from a jelly finish). I tend to like my polish opaque, but this lovely jelly is still pretty even with VNL It is also quite thirsty. It needed two coats of top coat to achieve a glossy finish. Although it required too many layers, I think the payoff was worth it Four coats and two coats of top coat shown.

Butter London Disco Biscuit, Butter London Slapper & Butter London Knackered

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This week I have a final project and final project papers due, but I still wanted to do a green mani to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I just picked-up Zoya’s Bevin at Whole Foods a few days ago. It’s a pretty sage green crème from Zoya’s spring True Collection.  In some of the pictures I took of the bottle it looks similar to the walls in my living room, but in real life Bevin is a bluish-green and my walls are a yellowish-green.

Did you do a special mani or pedi for the holiday? What are your favorite green polishes?

Zoya Bevin in natural light

Application was very good. Two coats and a top coat shown.

Zoya Bevin

I have more holo goodness today Ozotic 533 is a “mishmash” polish that is both duochrome and holographic! This polish is pretty sheer, so I layered it over Nails Inc. Fashion’s Night Out. The color shifts from blue to a reddish-purple, and the linear holo effect is strong.This is one of those, ” I can’t stop staring at my nails” polishes.

Ozotic 533 in sunlight

Ozotic 533

Ozotic 533

One coat of Fashion’s Night Out and one coat of Ozotic 533 shown without a top coat.

Ozotic 533 with flash to show the holo effect

I have long admired the frankens I have seen posted by other beauty bloggers. Making your own polish colors? How cool is that?!?! I have been meaning to try it for a while, and I finally decided to take the plunge. I have a set of Color Club polishes that I bought at Ross, All About Color, for $7.99. I could not find any information online and unlike the other Color Club sets I have, the names of the polish were not printed on the box. I have had this set for a while, but never blogged about them as they were mystery colors. For my first franken, I decided to use a Barbie pink from this set and jazz it up with some holographic and pink cosmetic glitter. I added three small scoops of each to the base color and mixed it up. The result looked good in the bottle, so my hopes were high. I tried my new concoction on a nail wheel and was dismayed to see that I had some very bumpy polish that looked like it had a bad rash! Uggh. I though the polish was too thick, but I did not have any thiner on hand as I never finish a bottle. Since the bottle was already ruined I took a chance and added a few drops of polish remover. I again applied it to the nail wheel with disappointing results. I added a second coat anyway, and a top coat. The top coat smoothed the polish and made the glitter particles more visible! Although the polish was not amazing, it was pretty cute. Now the mystery polish is a Barbie pink with the subtle twinkle of glitter. I am calling it Princess Polish. I have ordered some polish thinner, and can’t wait to give frankening another crack!

Princess Polish in sunlight

Application was ok. The formula was a bit bumpy and uneven. Most issues were smoothed out with a top coat. Three coats and a top coat shown.

Mystery polish on the left, "rash" polish next to it and Princess Polish on the right

What do you think? Do you franken?

Princess Polish

Ahhh, I love holo polish! Glitter Gal’s 10 to Midnight is a dark grey linear holo polish. It’s a great color, and the holo is visible in most lights which is a big plus. The bottles may be small, but this is good stuff! So far all the Glitter Gals I have tried applied nicely and wore well.

Glitter Gal 10 to Midnight in sunlight

Application was very good. Two coats and a top coat shown.

Glitter Gal 10 to Midnight

Today I am sharing an article written by a guest blogger, Jackie Clark of the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. She shares with us how feeling beautiful can help a woman cope with cancer.

Feeling beautiful can help women feel better about themselves

Being diagnosed with cancer, such as mesothelioma can be emotionally devastating for a woman. Even though women who experience various cancer diagnoses’ can often find them depressing, there is no need for that to be the case. Not all cancer prognoses have to be bleak. Instead women need to feel beautiful in their own skin despite the hand they have been dealt.

Fashion and beauty are among the most powerful tools to boost a person’s self-confidence. They can give someone a sense of power and ability to tackle anything that the day may bring. For women, one of simplest fashion techniques is one of the most powerful and confidence boosting ones—Nails! For women, painted nails instantly gives them a feminine quality and makes them feel alluring and sexy. No matter what the nail color of choice, whether it be fire engine red, bright neon pink, or a classical French manicure, having painted nails can instantly add a sleek and polished look to any women’s appearance, thereby making her feel good about herself.

For women with mesothelioma cancer, getting their nails done is a great coping mechanism. Not only do manicured nails make a woman feel good about herself, the manicure experience itself is quite relaxing. What could be better than being pampered in such a manner? A manicure involves a complete scrub down of the nails and cuticles, and simply watching the nail art of the woman’s choice gives her a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with herself. When she sees the ending product, she feels good about herself despite any earlier emotions she felt that day. Many women find it a good stress reliever to get their nails done, especially after a bad hair day or a bad day at work. When a woman has perfectly manicured nails, even on bad hair days, she can just tell herself, “Well, at least my nails look fabulous!”

Getting your nails painted is also a good social activity. Women need social interaction. Groups of friends often go to the salon together and chitchat over this and that and enjoy simple gossip. A great idea for women with mesothelioma is to create a nail salon group. The group can meet up on certain days and discuss the trials and tribulations of their conditions and what they are going through, thereby giving each other the support they need.

Overall, it is important for women to realize that a cancer diagnosis doesn’t mean they aren’t beautiful. Beauty is an internal quality that pokes its way through to the outside world. What a better way to show off your newfound confidence than by having fabulously painted nails.

Knackered,  extremely tired or a horse that is no longer able to work being rendered into glue or dog food, is a lovely polish. It looks like neither of those things to me. You can be assured that I will not be sending my bottle off to be made into glue! The Butter London website describes it as, “a sheer, twinkling oyster shade flecked with micro glitter particles.” I have no clue why they would describe the color as oyster. To my eye it is a silvery duochrome that shifts from purple to a greyish-green. It is also infused with very fine holographic glitter. Me like!!

Butter London Knackered in natural light

Butter London Knackered in sunlight

Butter London Knackered in sunlight

This polish is quite sheer. I used five coats , and I still have some VNL. Other than being sheer, the application was very good. Five coats really is a lot though. It might be a good bet for layering. Five coats and a top coat shown.

Butter London Disco Biscuit, Butter London Slapper & Butter London Knackered