wl gift!

From the first RBL fan collection--a polish that had eluded me for sometime until a very dear polish friend surprised me with it! It was certainly one of my best finds (though I didn't actually find it) of last year/this year. While I've heard about many having issues with the formula, I found this to be one of the best RBL formulas for me. 

The shimmer particles are fairly big and fleck-like and are copper, but also look pinkish in the sun. Sometimes the sage/succulent/dusty green of the base color looks grey and sometimes slate blue--I think this color could be flattering on many people. Absolutely a permanent in my collection, I love it!

New Year's Resolutions

These are really the kind of resolutions I should be making--the kind that involve avoiding my homework and spending more money on more nail polish. Surely the people in my life will be relieved when they hear of my healthy new outlook on life.

I want to do a couple of new year posts and this will be the first as I already have a few (unstable) leads!

Welcome to my list of polishes I am going to get this year. Inspired by a tradition of one of my biggest bloggess inspirations: pretty-random!

Without further ado:

9. China Glaze. Crocodile Lounge.

8. L'Oreal Future Jade

7. Maybelline Electric Apple

6. Enchanted All Love Garden
(not too htf right now, but expensive. 
I really want Green Goblin, eventually, 
but I am not there yet!)

5. Enchanted Presto Magic--again,
not that hard to find, but I refuse
to pay $50+ for it.

4. Illamasqua Nurture

3. Finger Paints Twisted

2. Lilypad Lacquer Frogs Alive 
This may show up on
Llarowe eventually, but I'm unsure of 
where to get it as of now.

1. OPI Real Teal (or Yosemite) Real Teal maaaaagic,
along with Rainforest and Jasper Jade, has been my
lemming for many years. However, I refuse to even 
mention the *other* OPI polish which from this point 
forward shall be referred to as thee which shall not 
be named, because I will not lem this polish. I just won't. 
And while I've never seen Real Teal, even on eBay, a 
blog sale, or anything it's not like thee which shall not 
be named, which appears on eBay for hundreds. So 
Real Teal, this year, I think we will be friends :)

This is my first new year list and I'm excited to get started. I didn't want to get in over my head and put totally impossible polishes on it, but some of these I've hunted for the past year and never come across. Some are just in a price range I refuse to pay. 

I've also had some great fortune in my finds this year and some amazing, generous gifts from friends as well as swaps and I'm excited to share those! 

PS Yes, I do see that over 60% of my list is green. Hey, it's a small list.

Photo credits:
9. Polished Claws Up
8. Babyness on Flickr
7. The Scholarly Nail
6. Polish Me Up!
5. Unsure, grabbed from pinterest :/
4. Swatch and Learn 
3. Scrangie
2. Rockjewel Nails
1. Pretty-Random

Moving on...

I might as well just get all of these out of the way. Holiday disappointments happen every year, what would the holidays be without them? You think your SO is getting you something special. Or anything. And you get...a laser pointer. Or nothing. You get a perfectly wrapped box and inside is...oh, what is it, it's heavy...is it that...nope. It's a GPS. Well, it's the thought that counts, really. Surely you don't hit the nail on the head every time either. 

This liquid sand was one I was looking forward too, but it turned out oddly bling-y and in these colors it looked sort of like an overdone Chanukah celebration or maybe a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader uniform. It took me about a month to realize the name, "Kiss Me at Midnight," referred to New Year's Eve. Soooo I guess bling isn't entirely inappropriate. 

Kiss Me at Midnight. 
Ring finger has one coat of It's Frosty Outside. Outdoor.

Closeup of Texture.

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I truly thought that during my break I'd have more time. As it turns out I've had significantly less (or so it seems). I still love you, bloggy! At least I have had enough time to take more pictures, AND I finally got my good camera back, YAY, I just need to work on getting them cropped and posted. 

Here's a polish I thought I'd love, but I hate you, polish. HATE. It chipped overnight. It took FOREVER to dry. It still was streaky in three coats (no one else seemed to have this issue). And it was super ugly on me. Swatches of Turn it Around had made it a lemming, but it was a no go.

Also, a pinky nail broke while wearing it. I can't ever in my life remember breaking a pinky nail. So it was just a bad experience.

Speaking of turning things around, I know I could turn my attitude around here, but it's been a tough past month. However, I do have about a dozen awesome polish-y things planned what with all of the amazing generosity and good fortune I have experienced over the holidays <3 (tada, turned!)

Turn it Around. Outdoor semi-sunlight.

Turn it Around. Sunlight.

Turn it around. Close up of magical shimmer. Sunlight.

Turn it Around. Bottle.

Another quick one from CbL in the original bottle (the full size one), though you can't tell because I forgot to take bottle shots on both posts--good job. Hopefully I'll remember to add some. 

Bad is a chrome metallic duochrome shimmer that morphs from multiple colors--grey, blue, violet, even a bit of green with fine pink and turquoise sort of and maybe other colors of shimmer, check closeups for shimmer. Both time this polish chipped on me overnight, I've found wear on most metallics to not be great, though. 

Bad. Sunlight.

Bad. Sunlight.

Bad. Sunlight.

Woman from Tokyo. Sunlight.

Finals are over and I'm looking forward to to having some downtime to take pictures and posting.

I made two orders from Llarowe (though only one went through) and came away with some of her beautiful holo polishes. 

First up is Woman from Tokyo, a beautiful, dark eggplant-ish purple with a deep linear holographic finish. 

Woman from Tokyo. Sunlight.

The formula was a bit thick on this, but the staying power was pretty decent and the effect is dazzling.

Woman from Tokyo. Indoor light.

On the rocks

After an unintended hiatus for midterms and finals (this class has a lot of tests!) Here's a new liquid sand that I didn't like as much as I thought. It chipped a little too quickly (though maybe it's me and the dry weather) and lost its texture, or did I imagine that? 

The sunlight brings out more shimmer depth (golds, pinks, and other colors). I'm wondering how others are feeling about recent OPI collex...I'm not sure how I'm feeling about a lot of the recent OPI collections including San Francisco and Holiday (so much red), but I am really wanting to get the holiday sands! PS. Is this my first "blurple?" I think yes.

Alcatraz Rocks. Indoor Sunlight.

Alcatraz Rocks. Indoor Sunlight.

Alcatraz Rocks bottle.