It's been a long, long time!

I didn't want to abandon my little blog here, but life has just been crazy for the last six months. I moved at the beginning of May to Canada (my hubby's homeland), after finally celebrating our marriage (9 months after the fact). Moving was nuts. So much paperwork and physical work and waiting, oh, and driving 1700 miles. My nails got trashed, and I kept them short. Also, my lack of work has curbed the polish acquiring (a bit!!). I also, unfortunately, ended up leaving about half my stash (over a Helmer's worth) at home in NY. I went through and just weeded out everything that I didn't feel I *had* to bring, boxed it up and stored it in my closet there. It was a lot of drugstore/dollar store impulse purchases and vintage stuff I'm keeping out of sentimentality. but I also left all my backups. I plan to go through it at a later date. So far I haven't found myself missing too much of anything.

Living in Canada is strange for me. It's so like home and yet so... not! Though my lack of a job has curbed my polish buying, another thing has helped: lack of CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens! Oh my drugstores, how I miss thee! Drugstore stuff here is just hella expensive and hard to find exclusives (here's hoping Milani knocks off their awesome collections for a while). Anyway, it helps not being tempted. That said, I have an American Apparel a block away (uh oh, amazing polish), and OPI's are not exorbitant (~$8.95-9.95, though lots of places are 2 for $16). I made the mistake of buying one at a random beauty supply without asking, and it was $12.99 (Spark D'Triomphe backup), and uh no, never again. My husband, Chris and I are going to North Dakota this weekend and I CANNOT WAIT to go to CVS! Haha.

Enough rambling, here are a very few select NOTDs from the past few months:

China Glaze Crushed Candy over American Apparel Manila. Loved this combo.

Essie Mochachino. Didn't love the way this taupe looked on my skintone, but it was so pretty.

These are both OPI I Lily Love You over China Glaze Ahoy. I'm unfortunately not able to take outdoor pictures, and my lighting situation isn't ideal. So the first one is no flash, and you can sort of make out the detail. The second one is more color accurate, but the flash washes out the flakes and glitter. Not sure I love this one. It's pretty but...

These Sally Hansen nail strips are basically amazing. So pretty and fun. The only set I had any trouble with was the Frock Star glitter ones. They were a bitch to put on and stayed "tacky" and didn't seem to set. Oh well.

Orly Here Comes Trouble. I couldn't find Bubbly Bombshell, but this one is awesome. Love the different shapes of glitter and the color! Perfect spring green.

Love & Beauty. Stupidly labeled as "Blue." This polish is ridiculously amazing. It's probably got an LA Girls equivalent but I'm lazy and don't feel like looking it up. But seriously. Beautiful. Shimmer. Perfect application.

Super crappy iPhone4 pic! OPI Your Royal Shine-ness. Gorgeous, underrated. A warm, almost pewter silver foil. Seriously blingy. Love love.

Ohmygod. This is Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal over American Apparel Hassid. So, you'll all want to punch me after I tell you this, but I've had Turquoise Opal for years. I bought it and tons of other Prisms in 2 packs at Dollar Tree probably 3 years ago. Maybe longer. And I've never worn a single. one. WTF was I thinking?? Anyway. I got so many compliments on this. A sweet lady at the dollar store actually grabbed my hand. It wasn't creepy... yeah maybe a little. But seriously, I don't blame her.

And finally, a few crapalicious pics of today's nails... (I've seriously gotta figure out a new lighting situation. Basement apartment=not good.)

Kleancolor Holo Chrome with Chunky Holo Bluebelle on top. I'm also holding Bluebelle. Um, yay Kleancolor for amazing polishes. I don't hate the smell. It smells like chemical awesome. And Beautyjoint.com ships to Canada super reasonably. I'm gonna order more. Anyway, Holo Chrome had kind of a bitchy thick formula. Three coats. I shoulda thinned it. It's so beautiful. What you see above is mostly Holo Chrome. The Bluebelle you can't see in my lighting but in certain lights you can also see the effect in the bottle on my nails. The base color also sorta matches Holo Chrome.

More true to color.

Sparkle!

In the last few months, I have also grabbed the Serena Wimbeldon & French duos, hauled KleanColor's like crazy mad, got 2 Dare2Wear collections, all the OPI shatters, a couple Nice Stems, and got 3/4 of the Miss Universe collection. Also some Essies. My only leftover lemmings (until Christmas, fall isn't really doing it for me... maybe a couple China Glazes) are Chanel Graphite and Peridot, but I doubt my budget will be accommodating, at least to both. Maybe though :-)

What have you all been hauling/loving/doing lately? How's summer?

Also!! If any of you are on Pinterest, follow me! I post NOTD's and other things too.

http://pinterest.com/sarahrobo/ I'd love to follow you back :-)

OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue

More Shrek! I am thisclose to caving on buying the remaining three from this collection, even though I know Funkey Dunkey and Rumples Wiggin' are dupes for colors I already have. Oh well... I also sort of feel like a poseur because I've only ever seen the first Shrek movie, though, I did, as a child, own the original Shrek book by William Stieg (betcha didn't know Shrek was a book! Well it was, I remember because my dog ate the library's copy and we had to buy it from them. And if you did know... then extra brownie points for you!)

Anyway anyway: This polish, whose name is obnoxious to type out, is really nice. Gorgeous blue, bright and saturated. It is not a twin of No Room For The Blues, which is much lighter. It's not as dusty as Suzi Says Feng Shui. I even just asked my brother, who is a 22-year-old male with (almost) zero interest in polish if Ogre-The-Top-Blue and No Room For the Blues were the same color. I quote, "No, one is obviously lighter than the other." So no, you do not need to have expert eyes to spot the difference. (Disclaimer: My brother's girlfriend loves OPI. So much so that when I wore Fiercely Fiona, he looked at me and went, "Are you wearing Shrek?" It scared me a little.)

I'll shut up. Pictures:

Because I'm feeling nice, some comparisons between OTTB & NRFTB:

Left to Right: Ogre-The-Top Blue, No Room For The Blues.

Swatched on tape: OTTB, NRFTB. The difference is most noticeable here.

Lovely, no? I'm resisting the urge to put Hidden Treasure over it, because it's really just so nice on its own. Mmm, how I love OPI. I don't buy from them all that often (I don't own any Espana and only one Hong Kong), but when I do, I'm rarely disappointed. They just wear so well on me.

Bonus pic from the next day with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over it:

I'm chatty today. Forgive me. Thanks for reading :-)

Finger Paints Blissfully Blue

They say that hindsight is 20/20, and "they" are right. In this case, anyway. For two reasons, a little planning would've changed today's nails so much. First, I got bored this morning (a day off! Woo!) and had some Fing'rs Edge nails I'd wanted to play around with... and even though my nails are pretty nubby (in comparison to how long I've been able to get them recently), they were not fitting properly. So I glued them all on, for about an hour, only to take 45 mins to soak them off later. Fail. Then, I decided to try out Finger Paints Blissfully Blue, which, if I'd thought a bit harder about, I would've waited to try until my Bundle Monster plates arrived (they've shipped! Can't wait!). I love stamping over pastel cremes. Hindsight. I should've just worn Zoya Charla like I planned.

Anyhow. Finger Paints. The only Finger Paints polishes I've felt compelled to buy were the Christmas 2009 LE's (couldn't find last summers LE's anywhere). They are all gorgeous and perfect, and wore like champs on me. I remember wearing Icy Iris to visit my fiance, and any polish that can make it through a day of packing, hauling luggage through 2 airports and a cab ride, without any sort of wear is pretty much amazing. So I've had good experience with the brand. As you'll see a few posts back, I recently bought a few of the new ones with the B2G1 at Sally's, as well as Blissfully Blue. I think this is LE (not certain), with a collection of 5 or so blue polishes I found on an endcap at my Sally's. It's the only one I felt like grabbing. The rest seemed unoriginal. The only reason this worked for me is that I'm fairly certain I don't have a straight up pastel blue. I do have Color Club Blue Light, but that's much starker (neon). I can't believe with all the pastel madness this spring that almost no one released a straight up pale blue (except Color Club, I guess, Take Me To Your Chateau). The formula on this was good: 2 coats, not perfect, but pretty darn good. Dried quickly. We'll see how the wear goes, I seem to have less luck with cremes than shimmers.

Blissfully Blue:

And, for good measure, with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure:

Aaaand, well, I know I'm only in the fledgeling stages of this blog, but for those of you who are following, I've made a Twitter account! Add me, I'm @sparklypaints, and I will add you back. (See widget on the side, too). Also! I'm trying to scare up more readership, so do pass the word around. If we can get more followers soon, I have a pretty cool giveaway in mind.

Thanks for reading! :-)

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy & Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

First, friends, the nail polish gods have been kind to me lately!!

My Zoya exchange arrived today (minus Ivanka & Charla, which were backordered but are ALREADY on their way!). Last night, I found Hidden Treasure. Yesterday, I went to Sally's because my 15% off coupon was about to expire, and the SA allowed me to use the B2G1 promo on treatments: so I got Gelous to experiment with (I'm devoted to Instant Artificials but Gelous is cheaper by almost $3 and easier to find), a new Seche Vite (on sale for $5.99) and a lone Finger Paints polish in Blissfully Blue (my freebie, I have no true pale blues). This was all for like $10. Today, I got a NEW Sally's coupon for 20% off (check your mailboxes!) and on my way home from a meeting with one of my thesis advisors, I stopped at a Sally's I don't usually go to. Jackpot! They had China Glaze Poolside out AND the new Finger Paints (which was exciting because the B2G1 is only for April and I think these weren't supposed to be put out until May 1). So I got 3 new China Glazes (Flip Flop Fantasy, Towel Boy Toy & Sun Worshipper) and 3 new Finger Paints (Sketch N Etch, Scenery Greenery & Easel-y Entertained) for something like $14? SIX of 'em!

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure & Gelous.

L to R: Sun Worshipper, Towel Boy Toy & Flip Flop Fantasy.

My thoughts on the Poolside collection: I bought the three most unique to my collection (I'm satisfied with the pink/green/yellow neons I have now, so I skipped the other three). I hope Sun Worshipper is everything I wanted Color Club Explosive to be. Towel Boy Toy seems like it might be in the realm of Color Club Pure Energy or Zoya Tallulah (I got this one mainly because I like these bright shimmery neon blues). My thoughts on Flip Flop Fantasy are below.

L to R: Easel-y Entertained, Sketch N Etch, Scenery Greenery, Blissfully Blue.

The new Finger Paints look wicked! I'm glad they're permanent because that means I can get a few more and don't have to get antsy about it. LE's are a bitch. I swatched the cremes--so smooth and opaque. Shimmers look nice too. Not sure about the glitter but we'll see. I've never bought a "core" line Finger Paints polish before, only LE, so I'm glad for these.

L to R: Mimi, Alegra, Nidhi, Gilda.

The Zoyas, which I swatched on paper look INCREDIBLE!!! The only one that looks slightly lackluster (due to sheerness issues) is Gilda. Can't wait to get Ivanka & Charla. I'll be wearing these soon to show ya'll.

Anyway anyway anyway... PHEW after all that craziness, what did I pick to wear?? Well, obviously I wanted to try out Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure seeing as it's hotter than sliced bread lately. I found it the first place I went! And because I was itching for something bright, enter Flip Flop Fantasy--a neon pink that is slightly orange toned, like a neon salmon/coral. Unique, I think. The application on that one was about what I expected for a neon, but a GOOD neon... 3 thin coats (over 1 coat Barielle Natural Nail Growth Activator & 1 coat Gelous), didn't get gloopy. Topped with 1 thin coat of Hidden Treasure & Seche Vite. And it actually dried.

So, not to add fuel to the fire, but I really like Hidden Treasure... yes, more than my Nfu-Ohs. The consistency of the polish itself is so much better... I find Nfu-Ohs to be a tad gelatinous, even with thinner... and the flakes were so thin and not clumpy... gorgeous rainbow iridescence (though it pulls very orangey over FFF). Anyway... snap if up if you run across it.

Thanks for looking!

American Apparel Hassid & Nfu-Oh 49

The pictures and execution of this manicure are pretty subpar, but I just wanted to share something today.

I got a few Nfu-Ohs from fabuloustreet.com in the mail yesterday, 49 & 52, which joined 51 & 60, which already live at my house. I was itching itching itching to try 49 over black, because I'd seen pictures of it and it was AWESOME. Plus, I'd never tried the clear-ish based flakies, as opposed to 51 & 60 which have opaquer bases and shimmer and duochrome. 49 is one of these, orange iridescent flakies in a weird, sorta reddish/pinkish, but nearly clear, base. These are more your straight-up flakies. And, as it happened, since I wanted to try 49 over black so badly, it worked out well that I had American Apparel's Hassid in line waiting to be tried.

First, I didn't take photos of Hassid on its own but it is FANTASTIC. I know Illamasqua's Boosh is raved about as a rad, amazing black, but Hassid is wonderful. ONE COAT. I did one coat. Not even a question about needing two. The formula was awesome. It also dried (prior to topcoat) kinda satiny. Neat.

Then, I topped it with one/twoish coats of 49. Now, my disclaimer: I did this manicure while at my dad's house, without proper light, sitting on my bed, balancing badly. So, excuse the crap cleanup job that I did. Despite my lack of skill here, I had to take a few pictures.

No flash, for detail.

If the sun had been out, I would've have quite a show for you all today, but it did not. These don't capture the vibrance of the flakies. Super awesome. I bet this will look good over other colors too, I'm thinking like China Glaze Grape Pop or Rescue Beauty Lounge Teal. Something along those lines.

That's all & thanks for looking!

P.S.- As you probably know, the Zoya Exchange has been resurrected! So, starting tomorrow, in honor of this, I'm gonna go crazy on my Zoya stash because it's been neglected!! I acquired 85% of it during last year's Zoya Exchange. I don't have any of the new Zoyas (all the reason to plot an exchange), but I do have quite a few aside from the latest release, so hit me with a request and if I can honor it, I will :-)

Nfu-Oh 51

This is a glimmering, complicated, legendary little gem. I hadn't heard about these little things called "flakies" until about a year ago, when this came home to me. Basically, they're little irregular shaped pieces of iridescent plastic, like glitter but bigger and awesomer. Nfu-Oh is a Korean brand, and though I have not tried their other polishes, their flakies are *outstanding*. I need more. This one is one of their shimmery flakies, so there's flakie and shimmer, causing awesome overload, as opposed to just flakies (a cleaner look) which are also pretty awesome. Have I said awesome? So, 51. Not only flakie and shimmery, but duochromatic. It's actually more than duo. Quadro? Qunit...o? It shines all the colors of the rainbow and others not invented, all of this packed in a sheer blue-purple jelly base. WHOA. Can you handle that?

Well, sometimes I can't. Hah. The only drawback to this baby is that to get that base opaque it takes about 4 coats which I do not often have the patience for. China Glaze's Grape Pop, a polish I've worn in the past, gave me a little brainstorm. Oh!, I thought to myself, This Grape Pop color is just about the shade of the base of Nfu-Oh 51. Hm!" So I dug it out and slapped one coat on and I oohed and ahhed at its adulterated glory: layering it over Grape Pop really highlights the base color (as opposed to layering it over black [awesome] or a lighter purple).

Pictures:

These are with flash which really makes the Grape Pop pull through more than in real life. You can see the shimmer, sorta. But look at the bottle! CAN YOU EVEN! It also has boobs. But seriously, imagine the effect in the bottle on the nail, because it's happening, you just can't see it.

Here are a few without flash, under my lamp, which show the texture and the multichromaticness of it all. Excuse any bluriness.

YAY. Do you have it? Well, maybe you're not in Korea but it is available at fabuloustreet.com, an awesome website. They have all the Nfu-Oh shades, do look them up.

Thanks for looking!