Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Miss Sporty - 60

Today I will be showing you Miss Sporty #60.
The lovely Anček and Kvacka from Rainbows and Blues sent me this beauty along with quite a few others from Slovenia.  I'll show the entire bundle soon!

Natural Light
Flash
Direct Sun. (clicky for close-up)
LOOK AT THE CUTE BOTTLE!!

I'm still wearing this polish.  It's a beautiful blue-turquoise with a green shimmer.  It even had a wide brush in the little bottle for better application. *glee*  It was a little sheer but 4 thin coats later it's magic.  So worth it!  I love this polish and the cute little gumball bottle is comes in!


Now for a little whine session.
I trimmed my nails down (as you can see) because my index and thumb nails tend to warp when they get longer.  I'm not sure why, maybe I clench my fists in my sleep and it shapes them weird... but anyways.  I trimmed and filed them down.  It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't do such a poor job on my right hand.  I cut my index finger and thumb too short.  :(   Guess I'm all whiny because I loved the length I had going for me and now it will take longer to grow my nails out because of my blunder.  I wish I was ambidextrous.
 
world's smallest violin

I think I'm going to put silk wraps on my problem fingers to see if that reinforcement prevents them from warping.  Anyone have trouble with this?

Monday, July 26, 2010

China Glaze - Jitterbug

Time for another Vintage Vixen, Jitterbug!

Flash

Direct Sun (click to expand).

Jitterbug is a nice sparkly foil polish with a steel grey base and silver flecks.  It's was great to apply just like Swing Baby, but it also required 3-4 thin coats for full coverage.  The coats dried faster than your typical China Glaze polish and it allowed for the additional coats nicely.

I also found that in some lights the polish had a mild blue tint to it.  It made me think of blue steel with a thin layer of frost over top.  Very cool.  (pun?!)



[This polish was provided to me by the PR company to review.]

Friday, July 23, 2010

China Glaze - Hey Doll

Yeah I know I've been slacking in the post department but this 'real life' business is draining me dry.  I'm up at 11:20pm doing this post (past bedtime) and I'll hook it up for tomorrow morning when all you people are awake.

I present to you.... Hey Doll!
Hey Doll is yet another polish from the Vintage Vixen collection and it really surprised me.
Originally I thought, "oh, this one is nice... kinda girly... pinkish."  And when I was applying it in my computer room/second bedroom it grossed me out.  It looked like I was applying pink bile on my nails and contemplated taking it off and starting over with another colour.  I weighed out the pros and cons and decided it was too much work and that I'd continue with the mani and take it off the next day.  Glad I kept it on.  The minute I stepped out of my poorly lit computer room the colour became beautiful.  This goes to show just how much lighting can effect colours.  So ALWAYS bring paint swatches HOME when you are choosing colours to paint your walls.
ANYWAYS....

Natural Light

Flash

Direct Sun. (click for close-up of the shimmer)

Butt.

As you can see this isn't pink bile.  It's a rose pink with a slight warm brown tone with tiny silver flecks.  In some lights it looks closer to purple and others it radiates with the warm tones of Autumn mixed in there with what I consider an antique pink.  You can see in the photos just how much a simple change of light makes this polish morph into a different colour.  
Random: When I saw the colour in the bottle it reminded me of vintage silk undergarments.  

While I don't see me wearing this much in the summer months, I know I'll be sporting it in the Fall.

*Slides off her computer chair and crawls to bed*

[This polish was sent to me by the PR company for review]

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Misa Collection Preview - What I Like About You

Fall in Love This Fall With Misa Cosmetics’ What I Like About You Collection



July 19, 2010 – Philadelphia, PA. Sometimes it’s easy to know just what you want, but you’ll immediately know what you need when you lay your eyes on the Misa Cosmetics What I Like About You Collection, six new shades for fall that plumb the depths of color intensity. You’ve explored the dark side of romance with the Poisoned Passion Collection; now fall in love with the ecstasy that love can provide through these dare-you-to-look-away glimmering hues. Just like a budding affair, these colors will spark inexplicable emotions and near-obsessive thoughts. Go ahead—indulge your deepest desires!



Fall 2010: What I Like About You Collection

Quirky Smile: Something about his lilted smile lets you know he’s interested…and this shimmering Prussian blue is no less attention-grabbing. However, this rich shade invites you into deeper territory—what’s lurking beneath? In this case, you’ll discover a polish that evokes stormy skies and churning seas, a perfect metaphor for love’s mixed emotions.

Like It Like That: You can’t avoid feeling upbeat when a relationship is going just right, or when gazing at nails that are the perfect shade. Just try to block this candy apple green out of your mind; when you like it like that, why deny yourself the pleasure?

Spinning Out of Control: Sometimes you just can’t control yourself—and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Embrace that euphoric feeling with a brooding cobalt blue-violet that says, “Don’t stop this merry-go-round; I’m enjoying the ride!”

It’s You!: Searching for the perfect mate is like searching for the perfect nail polish shade: When you find it, you know right away. Like a perfect-match partner, this multilayered iridescent hue offers the best of both worlds: a smoldering forest green shot through with copper ribbons that glimmer and twinkle perfectly in candlelight.

Perfect Kiss: Don’t blush! When you recognize a good moment, grab what’s yours: the perfect kiss. A well-planted smooch can provide material for days of daydreaming, and this vibrant fuchsia is equally fantasy-inspiring. An eye-catching color like this one will have any man’s lips quivering uncontrollably.

When U Say My Name: Chances are, your man has plenty to say, but nothing is sweeter than when he whispers your name while in a sweet embrace. Blissfully sink into the moment while donning this sultry rust, and don’t be afraid to demand, “Say it again!”

About Misa Cosmetics

Misa offers more than 230 nail lacquers that provide the richest and most intense coverage possible in nail color. An exceptionally high concentration of pigment, as well as mica, in a professional-grade formulation ensures that Misa colors last and last without chipping, wearing or fading. And unlike many polishes that can thicken with age, Misa nail lacquers stay perfectly mixed for a smooth, streak-free and even finish—even years after first use.

Misa Cosmetics’ Technology

Misa continues to upgrade products, including the use of revolutionary nanotechnology. This nanotechnology helps Misa develop polishes that are smoother, resulting in a surface that allows light to reflect evenly. Nail polish performance is enhanced through ease of application and removal, high gloss, higher abrasion resistance and better stability. Better adhesion allows for longer-lasting results.

Safety is also a prime objective; therefore, Misa no longer uses DBP, toluene or formaldehyde chemicals in any of its nail lacquers. A unique 230-strand polish brush fits in the hand—just right for a steady polishing job—while the elegant and sturdy base ensures the bottle won’t tip. Discriminating nail professionals and colorful people everywhere have requested Misa since 1996. Beyond seasonal collections, Misa offers an impressive array of frosts, sheers, French manicure and nail art colors for year-round indulgence.

Monday, July 19, 2010

SpaRitual - Flashback

Here is one of my new Summer favourites, SpaRitual - Flashback!
Honestly, I hate the name.  Flashback?  To what? Lighting forrest fires?  Something like 'Electric Orange' seems a little more suiting IMO.

Natural Light

Butt

Direct Sun

I didn't include a flash picture because the flash pulled out too much yellow and made it look wrong.  This neon is really awesome and really draws attention!  I will say that this took 4 coats and still has minor VNL.  Though you can only really notice the VNL if you are staring straight at it long enough to get over the shock of how incredible this polish is.  I am still on a search for my perfect nude polish to match my skin to put under semi-sheer polishes and in this case, neons!  This is my current mani and pedi.  ;)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

China Glaze - Atlantis

Hey everyone!
This is the manicure I wore on Mister and Misses Skulda had their first wedding anniversary!
We were married June 26th, Frigga's Day 2009.
Atlantis was a lemming of mine for a while and I finally broke down and bought it last month.

Natural Light
Even in natural light is it so full of win!

Direct Sun
Pardon the "lobster hand" and slight blurriness, but look at the chunky holo glitter!!

Bottle Butt!

Ahhhh... more blingy goodness.  Sooooo worth the money.

The hubby and I went out for delicious sushi and I tried hot sake for the first time.  Yeow!  It's good stuff!  When we got married I wore China Glaze DV8 on my toes.  I wore the same pedi with Atlanis for our anniversary and they matched pretty good.  My Mom bought the DV8 never hearing of China Glaze before to match my wedding dress.  I had never heard of China Glaze either, it it remained my first China Glaze for a long time until I finally came across all you lovely bloggers.

Random Awesome song:

I love Agalloch.  They are easily one of my favourite bands.
The name of the song is kind of related to the polish.  ;P

China Glaze - Swing Baby

*Thunder Claps*
Good evening, boils and ghouls and welcome to my third installment of China Glaze's Vintage Vixen Collection!  I am your Hostess, Skulda Blackheart and I am here today to show you Swing Baby!

Natural Light

Flash! Lightning!!  (j/k)

Direct Sun!  So much sun it burns your eyeballs!

Butt.
You got it, ladies.

This is one of my favourite polishes in this collection.  A light rose gold foil IMO.  It's not a yellow gold, it has more silver and a touch of... rose?  It reminded me of rose gold.  (ok, I'll stop rambling)
This foil is amazing.  Have you noticed how some foils magnify every imperfection on your nails, including ridges even if you use ridge filler?  This one doesn't.  It looks FLAWLESS!  It applied so smoothly I was able to get the polish so close to my cuticles without flooding them.  Swing Baby also dried fast, which was great because I needed 3-4 coats to hide my VNL.  I'm not bitching, this polish was a pleasure to apply, and wear.
Hope you enjoyed!

[This polish was supplied to me by the PR company for review]

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

China Glaze "Awakening" Promo for Halloween!

AWAKEN YOUR HALLOWEEN SPIRITS WITH GLAMOURISHLY GOULISH NAILS


China Glaze Introduces Three Limited Edition Halloween Polishes

Los Angeles, CA – (July 2010): Sink your claws into these three ghoulish glitters from China Glaze, perfect for a night of fright! Uniquely alluring and unlike any other Halloween colors before them, this collection is sure to entice. Colors in the promotion include:

· Zombie Zest: A mossy green shade with gold flecks of micro glitter.

· Ick-A-Body: A dark green base chock full of orange glitter.

· Mummy May I: Vampy, wine colored purple with flecks of hot pink glitter.

The 18 piece display will be available at Sally’s Beauty Supply Stores only and the 4 piece with free Fast Forward Top Coat will be available at all other beauty and nail supply outlets, stores and e-tailers.
China Glaze (www.chinaglaze.com ) is a division of American International Industries.

About American International Industries


For 35 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women. Our product lines include 5 Second Nail, Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Correctionist, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, One Touch, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Sweet Mary Jane, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra and Youthair. For more information about our full line, visit our new website: http://www.aiibeauty.com/
_____________________________________________________

I really hope I can get my hands on these!  I couldn't get any from last year and I don't live near a Sally's!

China Glaze "Fight Like a Woman" Collection Promo!

Find Strength in the Power of Pink


China Glaze Nail Lacquer Gets the Gloves Ready to Join in the
Fight Against Breast Cancer

Los Angeles, Calif. (July 2010) – Join China Glaze Nail Lacquer this October in the battle against breast cancer, one nail at a time! The professional line of nail lacquers brings on the fight with three powerful pinks. Inspired by the women who fight everyday and those that support them in their battle, these fabulous shades are sure to help you defeat the toughest opponents with style and class. China Glaze representative Rachel Schafer voiced that “in an industry dominated by women, for women, it is important that we strive to work together towards finding a cure.”

The three colors in “Fight Like A Woman” include:

Encouragement – A baby pink shimmer that brings on the cheer

Endurance – Power through the punches with this raspberry shimmer

Empowerment – Stand up tall with this cotton-candy crème on your nails

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization dedicated to the science of cancer and promoting international collaboration in cancer research.

The “Fight Like A Woman” Collection will be available at professional beauty supply stores and select salons this September. Availability will be very limited internationally.

China Glaze colors may change from season to season, but our formula remains the same amazing longwearing lacquer with hardeners. Designed with the professional in mind, our 220-strand brush is great for ease of application. Best of all, our non-thickening formula provides great coverage. For more information, please visit www.chinaglaze.com.


About American International Industries


For nearly 40 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women. Our product lines include Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s, and Youthair. For more information, visit our website: http://www.aiibeauty.com/
_____________________________________________________
 
So what do you think of this collection?
My Grandmother lost both breasts to breast cancer when I was younger, so pink always reminds me of her strength.  :)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

China Glaze - Foxy

Ok, polish number two in the Vintage Vixen collection!  Say it with me now...
FOXY!

Natural Light

Flash

I hope these images expand.  They're supposed to!
This polish is a very cool rusty red shimmer.  MMM!!  It just glows with that gorgeous orange-red tone.  I have seen at least one other blogger that has said that it appeared to be a red with a bronze shimmer, but I didn't see that at all in my bottle.  Maybe my formula was a bit different.  I don't have my "bottle butt" image for this one because the camera died but it's the same format of label in my last post.  I've also noticed that a lot of girls have a VV collection that has the sale stickers on the bottoms with bar-codes.  Mine do not, they look like they are strictly for promotion.  Maybe they ran out of promotional bottles and dipped into stock?  
I unno.


[This polish was provided to me by the PR company to review]

Monday, July 12, 2010

China Glaze - Riveter Rouge

So here is my first contribution of many for the Vintage Vixen collection by China Glaze.  To avoid being a photo spammer I'll be doing these by the bottle and not all at once either.  
All photos can be clicked to see the full-sized image.
Riveter Rouge:

Natural Light

Flash

Bottle Butt

This polish is a cherry red shimmer with silver micro-glitter scattered throughout.  It had a wonderful formula and I used 3 thin coats.  Drying time was good, as is with all China Glaze polishes.

[This polish was provided to me by the PR company for review]

Monday, July 5, 2010

Tra-la-la!

It's Monday morning and now that I have my wonderful green tea energy drink, all is right with the world!
I have a tonne of photo editing to do tonight including the BB Couture Saints of Ruin collection and a few others.  I hope the photos turned out ok because yesterday it was kind of cloudy.  If the effects of the polish don't show up I'll redo the collection on a sunny weekend.  I am also a few bottles into the Vintage Vixen collection and so far I am very happy with the results.  I won't be posting them in a huge glob, maybe polish by polish so people aren't overwhelmed.  I think I'll do a collection posting with all of them closer to the public release date for reference.  :)  Sound ok?

In health news my doctor doesn't have a solid reason why I've been weak, etc.  She thinks it's from depression and my "brain isn't getting enough 'good stuff'" meaning serotonin.  So she has doubled my Effexor XR dosage (for my anxiety attacks) which makes me a little unhappy since the side effects of the drug are irritating.  (Restless leg syndrome, ultra vivid dreams, sweats, weight gain  UGGHH)  I was actually attempting to get off the stuff a few months ago but the withdrawls were too hardcore to handle.  Wonder why I want off it... hmmm...Regardless, I think it might be working.  I didn't sleep all weekend like I have in weekends past and I didn't feel *as* weak as I normally did.  So dispite the fact that I hate this drug it's helping me so I'll deal with it a bit longer until life gets a bit easier and go from there.

In swap news!  I have sent off all parcels minus one headed for Slovinea and the wonderful girls of Rainbows and Blues.  One polish that I really want to include in their package is out of stock in all stores in my area and I've been hounding the HELL out of the beauty clerks to get their shippment in.  I mean serious, over a month?  Give me a break!  I also need to get a larger box for their phat lewts because all the goodies I have for them cannot fit in any of the little boxes that I have from previous swaps and orders.  So that is saying something.  *glee*

AND!!  I will be having a giveaway to my readers.  I am collecting odds and ends and will announce it soon.  But there is a catch....
I'm not making my giveaway public and it will not say "Giveaway!" in the subject line to attract new followers nu-uh.  It is meant for my loyal readers and it isn't going to be blogged about or advertised in any way.  In fact, that is going to be one of my very strict rules.  I'm doing this for YOU!  Not for people who join blogs for giveaways, and not to get more followers.  I plan to have it open for a week so people who don't check blogs out every day can read my entries and see it and get a chance to enter.
Sound fair?  Am I a big fat meanie?
Keep checking in to see when it starts!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Canada Day

Got a little dose of truth on Facebook regarding the G20 summit.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=397205503638&id=511491565
Read if you dare, it's pretty sickening.  This is how they treated hundreds of peaceful Canadians.
I wonder if people will continue to make fun of us or pity us for having such disgusting people in charge.

I removed my Canada Day manicure in disgust.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!
Well.... the mani looked better in my head... but not bad for painting with a cuticle stick!
I used China Glaze - Paint The Town Red for the flag, and Sally Hansen - White On for the white parts.  
I threw Klean Kolors - Firework on my pinkie and thumb for fun.  You need fireworks on your country's birthday!  :D




Flash                                   Natural Light
Some close-ups of Firework.