day eighty eight, essie sassy satchel

apologies for the late late post...just squeezing it in under the wire at 23:49 here (London time!). my laptop power cable died (and has been sent to Acer for replacement) and the temporary one i was using (it was a pretty crappy one!) from ebay died as well...and then my battery ran out! so no laptop or personal computer at all which is a pain!!! then i had to wait for steve (boyfriend) to relinquish his computer to me...which took hours! :D

anyway! sassy satchel. it's really weird, i put this in on my big october polish order and for the life of me i can't remember why. usually it's because i see a swatch somewhere...but i can't find swatches of this anywhere! but even so...i'm really glad i bought it. it is a BEAUTIFUL maroon..almost a red so deep it's brown (if that makes ANY sense) and it has this red/gold shimmer in it. one of the pictures is a bit blurry but it helps show some of the shimmer better. definitely a beautiful polish that is eye catching without being too flashy or forward.

day eighty seven, sparitual stiletto

here's another from sparitual. i still adore the bottle handles...but some of the images i saw of this colour (not swatches but like...like colour whirls to demonstrate the colour) were WAY off base. i thought i was getting in for a deep dark red...and instead i got a more...pinkish red. i was hoping for another 'blackened' type colour (think zoya blair) because i just looooove how it looks. rather dark on the sides and full colour blast in the centre.

been on a bit of a red kick lately and i definitely prefer chinoise over this colour for my cherry reds. this is more pink whereas the RBL chinoise was a true true red. i tried to show some of teh subtle shimmer on here...but as usual...i failed! i've emailed a few other nail bloggers to ask how they bring out teh shimmer in all their images. though sometimes they bring out shimmer i never saw. so in that respect i like my pictures because they are very true...not full sunshine or flashed out (unless i'm trying to show something) what you see is what you get. and i think that helps in some cases...like with color club. beautiful images from others...but in my non-bright sunshine life (pouring rain all day in london today!) i don't always get that so. yes, enough of my ramble!

i definitely prefer can you digg it? over this one. i have...2 (?) more sparituals in my collection so we'll get to those eventually! i have some different things coming up, and hopefully a way to make this blog more interactive...or....something!

thank you for reading, 40 people...WOW!

day eighty six, obsessive compulsive cosmetics wasabi

this is one of my last obsessive compulsive nail polishes, it is definitely one of my favourites. wasabi is...well wasabi coloured!!! neon yellow (with green accents) and very eye catching. like all neons it's pretty chalky and dries rather matte. application was a bit streaky and thin and required about 4 coats to be even opacity throughout. but despite that..i love this colour. it's so different and fun!

day eighty five, orly pixie dust

here's another from the orly enchanted ....something collection. enchanted forest or enchanted tales or...something. i can't remember. it is a really nice grey glitter. the glitter is very fine...but it's actual glitter that means removeal is a bit of a pain.


in the bright light it looks really light but in doesn't reallllllllllllly look like this so i tried to show some more up close pictures. it's got a beautiful glitter...definitely like fairy dust! but...despite how much i liked the glitter i wasn't really as in love with this as i wanted to be. it's definitely a nice polish...just not an AMAZING one. i would've liked a different colour or better glitter for the pixie dust. like some sort of rainbow glitter or something more exciting.

day eighty four, rescue beauty lounge chinoise

one thing rescue beauty lounge do tremendously well is cremes. the application is always flawless, extreme pigmentation and a depth of colour often not found elsewhere. this is one of their many shades of red...i think i have 3 or 4 polishes with only the slightest variation in colour but it makes all the difference and they are each standouts.

unfortunately this ended up looking a little pink...in truth is a very bright red, not pink at all!! i swear i thought these pictures looked more red on the camera itself!

i have also stuck on some stickers given to me by the lovely people at nailene. i don't really know what to do with stickers...one nail? every nail? i just kinda guessed and put them on all except my thumb at all different positions on my finger. i will say that taking off the stickers is a bit more annoying than putting them on! still not quite sure how 'me' they are (maybe if they were skulls and graves instead of flowers??)...but i'm happy to try them out.


happy thanksgiving to all my american readers! as an american living in london thanksgiving is the holiday i miss the most! my mum is a fantastic cook.

day eighty three, zoya richelle

so here is a conundrum. i love zoya..LOVE. i also love this polish...i just...don't like it on me. i find a lot of these gold polishes (including champagne from nailtini) to be incredibly delicate and for someone who tends to abuse their hands a bit (anything from typing to just...i don't know. sitting or something. i can sit still and somehow manage to smudge my nails) it is just not as friendly of a combination. also this polish shows EVERY flaw in my nails, it didn't react well to the fading glue remnants..and it was important to put on more than 1 coat but each additional coat somehow just...wasn't working with the one below it. i WANT to like this polish...it looks amazing on other people...but i always have problems with the application that keep me from actually enjoying it.

day eighty two, lippmann collection dark side of the moon

you guys know i love lippmann collection...but i find it hard to appreciate a vamp. and dark side of the moon is a picture perfect definition of vamp. it's an extremely dark burgundy and it looks black except maybe in bright sunlight (which i don't have access to...at least not today...no sun here!). you can see in the edges of the bottle and around the base of my cuticles that it is actually maroon in colour...but it just looks black. i WANT to like these kind of vamps...it's one thing for a polish to appear black from far away but shows something completely different up close...but it isn't the case here.

if you like vamps...this is definitely worth the money. lippmann polishes are fantastic in quality and inherent shine. but this is far from a favourite.

it's important to note that lippmann isn't a polish that can be applied repeatedly in thick coats (like i could do yesterday with bermuda breakaway) so you can see the residual effect on my fingers from the acrylic glue

day eighty one, china glaze bermuda breakaway

so here is the amaaaazing bermuda breakaway from china glaze. i love it. it's a dark blue creme...but not navy in my opinion. it's just a bit too..bright of a dark colour to be navy (does that even make sense!?). it's very beautiful and never looks black. i tried to take a picture out of the bright lights of my bathroom to show how it looks in normal light.

i used 1 thin coat and 2 thick coats to try and even out the bumpy nail residue blah-ness from wearing fake nails (even for only a day!). even so the colour was great and didn't clump or go nasty from thick coats.

day eighty, nailene couture safari

here's another set of fake nails from nailene. i really liked the design so i actually glued it to my fingers. it's a fun...zebra with sparkles and that is cool.

i tried to use as little glue as humanly possible but i still had places where the glue was visible and made weird marks. i like that they give you pink glue and the base is tinted pink so it can look more natural...even though it's obviously fake.

i still had issues with the length and couldn't find a single nail to adquately cover my thumb...and that was anoying. it was either huge and impractical or i had to only cover 3/4 of my nail instead of all of it.

i am writing this after i took them off, i put them on yesterday evening and one popped off when i was doing some housework earlier so i popped the rest off (using a wooden cuticle pusher instead of soaking my hands in acetone) and as predicted...i have glue and uneven bits all over my fingers. if there was a way to combat this...i'd probably be more into fake nails. but it BOTHERS me! it ruins my nails until the glue bits go away. no amount of aceton seems to fix it and i don't have a professional buffer tool to get the bits off.

so basically...the nails are nice....but i don't know that i'll be actually sticking any onto my fingers again.

day seventy nine, nailene so real flex fit french (medium length)

okay. so the lovely people at nailene sent me some fake nails and stuff to review for my blog. which is awesome...i love freebies! this set is the 'natural' or 'so real' set...it's a french (obviously) and it's supposed to be very thin and more real because it has little half moons for the bottom of your nails. i used to have really pronounced half moons when i was a kid..but the older i got the more they faded. i think they're only visible on my thumbs...i honestly don't know. i'll have to check!!

my HUGE gripe with these nails is that they only come with glue and no stickers. the stickers are adhesive and allow for more temporary wear. i didn't actually glue these on my fingers, i just rested them on so they might look a little weird. they sent me another pack that i am probably going to actually glue on. i WISH they had sticker adhesives since i always have bad luck with the glue and getting them off is a total pain.

my other gripe is that i have really short nail beds. i mean...REALLY short. the medium length nails tower above the end of my natural nail and then some. they're probably longer than the longest i've ever had my nails. so it kinda bothers me. i havne't tried the short length so i don't know. but the standard length for most fake nails is medium and it is always too big for my fingers.

so...these are nice..professional. i always find it hard to use my hands with fake nails and i find myself gripping things awkwardly but these are nice. a great way to get an easy french without the effort.

day seventy nine, essie chinchilly

alright people...prepare yourself...for a RAVE. i LOVe this polish. i am really unhappy that i have to take it off (and truthfully it's pretty rare that this happens and i've mentioned it every time it has happened...to be so struck by a colour and adore it so much that you want to take it away to a desert island!). this is from one of the newest essie 2009 collections. not only is the name adorable (chinchillas are so funny and adorable..not to mention so fun to pet. they're quite clever animals!) but they capture the fur colour so wonderfully. it's grey, it's taupe...it's kind of milky all at the same time. it's not like any other grey/taupe i own. and i'll admit that greyish taupes are my favourite dirty neutral..they're just so much more interesting to look at than plain taupes (not that i mind...but interesting is always nicer).

this applied wonderfully. i was really worried i was going to get into a situation like i did with island hopping...that too many coats (3) would change the colour of the polish and it wouldn't match the bottle anymore. and that was frustrating since i'm a 3 coat kinda gal. but this one did not have that problem at all. it is just so NICE to look at. so different! oh i love it!!!!