Golden Toes!

It's that time again...to show you what's on my feet! (Without showing you my feet...)

They look kind of crazy on my hands (read: yellow and icky) but on my toes they are golden and glorious!

Index & middle: Orly Glitz & Glamour

Ring & pinky: SpaRitual Reflection

Gold is by far my favourite colour for my toes (closely followed by navy). In winter especially, I love removing my socks and boots to find sparkly gold tootsies! It's a little surprise for me at the end of the day.

What is your favourite colour for toes?

kittytokaren

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Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

(2 coats)

I've worn this as a mani twice now. Once last year and once this year. I've been bored both times. Goodbye MMUtM.

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Another Taupe Love! - Orly Country Club Khaki

You know how much I love taupes, and this one is a very welcome addition to my collection! Light, creamy, milky...

Orly Country Club Khaki

I'm discovering that I really really like Orly polishes. The application and wear on this one were both excellent! Taupes are definitely my most-worn colour family, and it's one of the few areas in my stash where my mentality is "the more the merrier"!

What's your favourite polish colour family?

kittytokaren

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A couple of Owls!

I have a bit of a bird phobia, but these are two owls I can appreciate!

Orly Nite Owl (pointer and middle finger) is a lovely taupe with shimmer - quite similar to Essie Mochachino, but more flattering on me as it seems a little warmer on the nail. Definitely one of those polishes that is appropriate in most situations, but isn't a complete snoozefest. I love having polishes like this in my collection!

L'Oreal Owl's Night (ring and pinky finger) is truly gorgeous . It contains the most beautiful gold shimmer - that is very apparent on the nail - in an olive-y green-brown-grey-something base. It's unique, murky, mysterious, but the gold shimmer is so fantastically vibrant! A winner.

That's all for today - short and sweet! I hope all of you lovely PoP readers are doing well!

kittytokaren

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Trying New Things - Orly Pure Porcelain

I've been feeling more adventurous lately - maybe not with colour, but with brands! I recently tried a SpaRitual (long story - you will see it soon!) and loved it. This inspired me to finally break my 'brand rule' and order a polish I have really really wanted for a long time from Orly - Pure Porcelain! (SpaRitual and Orly happen to be sister companies as well, which is neat.)

You're seeing my new, more oval, shape here again! This polish is amazing. It pulls more pink on me than it does on other people, but I just love love love love love love it! The formula is fantastic - not difficult to apply like other pale colours. It's a beautiful combination of white, pink, creme and grey. (Trust me, it looks more dusty when I compare it to my other pale pinks.) One of those perfect "any occasion" polishes and the wear was amazing!! Minimal tip wear and no chips for 5 days! I switched polish after that so no telling how long it would go...

I will *definitely* be trying more from Orly. I'm a huge fan so far! I just wish the bottle was prettier. Oh well, it is very functional.

Any Orly recommendations for me? What are your favourites?

kittytokaren

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Orly Pure Porcelain and Ancient Jade (Precious, Spring 2011)

Orly Ancient Jade

Ahh Orly. You of the lovely formulas since everyone became B3F (unusual because the first B3F polishes seemed like they were kinda wonky... or maybe just China Glaze?). I love mint greens but I have a thousand mint greens by now. It's a great color if you don't own one like it -- and it went only very smoothly in two coats. Like, but not love. I think I'm jaded. (haha, get it?)

Orly Pure Porcelain

I don't know why my fingers look so lobstery in this photo. It IS a fairly stark pastel pink (and if you're careful, you can do two coats instead of three -- which is awesome for stark pastels) but it didn't look so bad in regular indoors lighting. (Both these photos were taken in my lightbox during one of the more dreary winter days a couple of weeks ago.)

I need something to do. I mean, I guess I could do work? My research is starting to look like one big fat bust at the moment. (And SPSS is being a bitch so I'm kind of teaching myself R. I used SAS in the past so R's utter lack of drop down menus and little boxes to check isn't as daunting... but it still took me half an hour to figure out how to run a multivariate correlation analysis, which is easy-peasy in SPSS. Frickin' SPSS.) I could put together a lecture on probability for the intro stats course I'm TA'ing. I could do the dishes. I could continue making jewelry out of leftover beads and wire that I found in my closet (from previous jewelry-making ventures). I don't feel like doing my nails. I HAVE to do something or else I'm going to go crazy. My grandfather, after many months of weaving in and out of a coma, passed away this morning. Even though he and I were never close, I'm still kind of devastated. So I need to keep busy. Very, very busy.

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Orly Luxe

A few months ago, I went on a quest for a perfect gold polish. Not a blingy gold, not a yellow gold, not a rose gold, but a shiny cool-toned gold. This, my friends, was the winner-winner-chicken-dinner: Orly Luxe.


As part of the Orly Foil FX Collection of 2010, this was the true gold in the collection that contained all of the metallics (well, not ALL) that a girl could ask for. It's a light true gold with a subtle shimmer and wonderful opacity in two coats. This has become my go-to gold; it's got some attitude but can also fade into your skin tone enough to not be too in-your-face. It wears well, too.

The whole Foil FX Collex was full of awesome, wasn't it? Who doesn't like shiny tips, I say? WHO?

Happy day, all!

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A Couple of Wine-y Red's: Napa Valley Red & Galaxy Girl

BB Couture's Napa Valley Red

(2 coats)

I had been lemming this one for a long while. Finally got it and it turned out not be quite as jelly-ish as I had hoped. Oh well!

Orly's Galaxy Girl

(2 coats)

Eh cute but I'm good.

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I Love Accent Nails!

I love doing accent nails.  It's actually my favorite way to wear those super glittery polishes that are a huge pain in the butt to remove (even with the foil method).  I love wearing a plain creme or jelly polish as my main color and then a coordinating glitter bomb on my ring finger or thumb.  This is super easy since you don't have to be very creative to do it.

Here's a recent accent manicure I did with Orly Orange Punch and OPI Extra-Va-Vaganza ring fingers.  I used four coats of the Orly and three of the OPI.

I got a close-up picture of the glittery ring finger for you.

 
Another recent accent manicure I liked consisted ofOPI Lincoln Park After Dark with OPI Mad As a Hatter thumbs.  I went with three coats of each for this one.

I even went with an accent nail manicure for Christmas last year.  I loved this one.  I went with (I think?) three coats of BB Couture Fairy Blood for the red and three coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle for the green.

This was one of my favorite accent manicures.  I went with four coats of Essie Marshmallow and four coats of Pure Ice Strapless.

Another favorite of mine is Essie Licorice with OPI Mad As a Hatter ring fingers.  I went with three coats of the Essie and four of the OPI.

Another one I did around the same time is OPI A Grape Fit! and Mad As a Hatter.  I did three coats of each.

I also love this combination and I've done it several times since.  This is three coats of OPI Dating a Royal with four coats of OPI Absolutely Alice.

And last, but not least, is a manicure I did with three (maybe four) coats of OPI Do You Lilac It? and Mad As a Hatter.

I know accent nails are everybody's cup of tea, but they sure are mine!

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Colors I knew I wouldn't like but bought anyway.

I think all of these polishes are beautiful. They're just not my style. Does that stop me from falling prey to the peer pressure? Hellz no.

Lunar Eclipse

(2 coats)

So prettyyyy. I even like my own swatch of it! But I remember I couldn't wait to get it off me.

Royal Navy

(2 coats)

I don't actually mind this one. It's just that the swatch doesn't look like reality at all. I feel like nobody else stressed that this is not what Royal Navy actually looks like in person! It's so much darker in person (at least on me). The sun somehow really lights this one up. I find that it's almost 119-esque indoors. I own plenty of dark blue jellies. So this just wasn't one I needed.

Space Cadet

(2 coats)

Isn't the duochrome effect cool? Amazing?? Too bad I hate duochromes. I'm an idiot.

Paradoxal

(2 coats)

Ugh. I KNEW I didn't like this one. Why? WHY?!

Nouvelle Vague

(2 coats)

I actually don't mind this one. But For Audrey is on my middle finger, so... I really didn't need this.

These are all gorgeous colors! They're just not my style. I hope you ladies are enjoying them!

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The end of summer blues: Illamasqua Phallic and Orly Royal Navy

The last week of summer. How did it all go by so fast? I had so many grand plans for my summer and now, it is over. Sob.

Illamasqua Phallic

I've actually come to the conclusion that my nails grow somewhat fast (which is bad news for filing-averse me, as I'm trying to keep my nails at a shorter length lately). This wasn't taken that much after I nubbinized the first time during the summer... was it? I don't even remember. Summer feels very far away already! Either way, this was one of the Illamasquas I got from eBay (3 for $16!). In the bottle, it looks like it should have purple shimmer but on the nail, all I got was this gorgeous dark blue with light blue shimmer. Two coats, lovely application.

Orly Royal Navy

This was sort of an It polish this summer, thanks to Scrangie's gorgeous swatch. Unfortunately, it was a huge fail on me. I actually hate the way this looks on me (and these photos), I'm not even sure why I'm posting it. Just to have it, perhaps? (Though I think extraH posted this awhile back already...) This is four coats on me and this is nowhere near opaque. It's a royal blue jelly with teal shimmer -- which sounds like it should be a hot combination -- but this definitely has to be layered over something or else it's just far too sheer.

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Four polishes from the Orly Holiday 2010 collex!

I was so pleasantly surprised by these polishes. I thought they'd be a bit dull -- you know, red, green, gold, silver, holiday bells are ringing, tralalala, tis the season to go shopping, etc -- but I really like Orly lately and I felt like hauling from VNS. So I got four and I do not regret any of them!

Orly Glitz and Glamour

It almost looks like it belongs in the Foil FX collex... which is a good thing. This warm gold metallic foil beauty goes on a bit thicker than the Foil FX polishes. I used three coats here but probably could have stopped at two. Super gorgeous and burning bright.

Orly Rockin' Rocket

I don't really get the name of it. Like "rocket's red glare"? Either way, another gorgeous polish that I didn't expect to like at all. I thought it'd be a normal red shimmer but it turned out to be really lovely, understated and unexpected. It's a muted burgundy red that is shot through with warm gold shimmer. It's a very autumn-y color to me. A bit dull indoors but once the sunlight hits it, the gold really shines through and enlivens the red and gives it an orangey glow. Three coats.

Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

This one is the hands down star of the collection. OMG. You HAVE to click on these photos to see them full sized. I posted this on Nail Board a week ago when I swatched it because I thought it was just so excitingly pretty and people kept asking me if this is how it really looked, since other photos didn't make it look this exciting. My answer is: YES, this is how it really looks! Shimmering emerald amazingness. Three coats but would probably be good for most people at two.

Closeup of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

LOOK AT IT! SO GORG.

Orly Winter Wonderland over Meet Me Under the Misteltoe

This looked awful on my bare nails but it's a sheer white shimmer that brightens up any other mani you might want. It gives it a icy, frosty (in a good way) look that is ridiculously bright. I just decided to layer it over Meet Me Under the Mistletoe here but I'm sure there are better combinations out there for this.

In other news, I have a research fellowship for this coming quarter which means I don't have to TA (for this quarter)! I can concentrate on my research (for just these ten short weeks)! I have so much planned and am totally psyched to really aggressively pursue a more diverse research agenda. The only thing I feel really bad about is that there isn't a huge long waiting list for TAships in my department this quarter which means that the psych department might have to get TAs from other departments... which means underqualified TAs for the undergrad psych classes.

I'm not sure I should be sacrificing career advancement type activities so I can grade undergrad papers -- and have the inevitable grouchy undergrad that treats me like mud -- but I also feel bad that I'm not doing my part. Not that "doing my part" is going to do me any favors. Teaching is not often looked well-upon in a CV when going for an academic post (unless it's at a community college or a very small liberal arts college) and it's more impressive to have research fellowship to one's name. That and I need to build up my research credentials. I want to build up my research credentials. It's the best way to ensure I will have work after my PhD is done!

Also, it's a cool project that I will be paid to be on. I'm working with a computer science professor who is interested in natural language generation. Interdisciplinarity is awesome. Especially when the other discipline has more money to support research activities. :P

September 3rd (35m cardio), September 4th (35m cardio), September 5th (15m cardio), September 6th (30m cardio)... Went to physical therapy yesterday to hurry up the healing of the wrist. Getting SO bored of cardio with no significant amount of strength training with free weights.

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Orly Cosmix, Part II of II: the rest of 'em that don't have dupes that immediately come to mind

The rest of the Orly Cosmix... some taken in the sunlight, others taken in the lightbox and in the shade (because the sun doesn't necessarily show off these changeable polishes as well as the other two conditions -- which is rare for me).

Orly Out of this World

Three coats. Blue-purple (and sometimes gold) duochrome shimmer suspended in jelly that looks like it may be black. Probably my least favorite. I just feel like I've seen this somewhere else before but I don't know where.

Orly Galaxy Girl

This polish is brilliant. Burgundy jelly filled with teal-blue-purple shimmer. The teal is the most prominent shimmer color. I used two coats here but I should have used three.

Orly Space Cadet (again)

I raved about this polish here. A lot. With a lot of photos.

OK, off to pack for Chicago now. And to eat the delicious strawberries I picked today at an organic farm right off of the Pacific Coast Highway. And the olallieberry pie I bought at the farm.

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About a thousand pics of Orly Space Cadet (Cosmix FX collex)

I LOVE this polish. People around me love this polish. I have gotten so many compliments on this one. And I try to keep the number of swatch photos down (below ten anyway) but I feel like so many photos show different interesting facets of this beauty. So I'm posting, like, several dozen photos.

Orly Space Cadet (in sunshine)

Duochrome metallic. OMG. SO gorgeous. I can't even figure out how to describe it properly. It absolutely burns in the sun. It's this gorgeous dense duochrome shimmer (that is described as glass particles... but doesn't seem to be the China Glaze-esque glass-flecks) that shines magenta, gold, green and purple suspended in green jelly. Except there's more shimmer than jelly and I only noticed that it was a green jelly base when I looked at photo closeups. It did take four coats to become totally opaque but it was WORTH EVERY COAT. The primary shimmer that comes through in normal indoor lighting though is magenta, though there's always a little bit of green and gold flanking the edges. All the colors come out in the sun though depending on the angle of your fingernails: sometimes it looks like blackened metal and other times all the other colors come out to play!

It's like Orly bottled awesomeness.

Closeup of Orly Space Cadet (in sunlight)

Orly Space Cadet (in lightbox)

To show you how changeable it is depending on the light, I took a bunch of photos in the lightbox as well. Note: the lightbox does not simulate indoors lighting, it just shows what it would look like without the sun hitting it so hard, which made it look darker (as in the photos above). I have a couple of shots of the polish indoors, too...

Closeup of Orly Space Cadet (in lightbox)

The same nail at different angles.

Orly Space Cadet (indoors)

See what I mean by the magenta being more prominent indoors? (Sorry these are kinda blurry. Lighting inside my apartment -- without the lightbox -- is not great for photos.)

I just did a practice talk by myself in preparation for my talk on Monday. I've been rehearsing this all over the place: while pedaling on the recumbent bike with a PDF version of my PowerPoint, while washing dishes with my laptop a safe distance from me (with a paper towel over the keyboard), while standing up in my at home, while having a projected PowerPoint presentation in a room on campus. I'm going to do the talk with my labmate this afternoon for the last time, and then the next time I'll actually give the talk will be on Monday. I think I deserve the weekend off. :)

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