Milani Silver: has such potential but this mani was a mess...

...this has been the worst week. Every. single. day. someone let me down on something. Everyone was running late (if running at all!) and god... every day!

It's going to be raining all weekend during the trip to Napa with my SO and his mother. But that's not the sad part. The sad part is: because it's been so rainy... part of the Pacific Coast Highway fell into the freakin' ocean and now the romantic getaway that my SO and I had planned to Big Sur... it's no longer practical to go. :( I had been looking forward to this week for the last month. I know it's so bratty to bitch about this sort of thing given the physical and political turmoil of the past month across the world -- but gosh darn it.

Anyway. Enough bitching. Onto nails!

Milani Silver (in lightbox)

Milani Silver (with flash)

Bright silver hex glitter in clear polish and NOTHING else. It takes a lot of patience to pull this mani off effectively though: this was five coats. And I waited a couple of minutes between coats (which I never do -- and it's impossible to get a nice opaque layer of silver glitter without waiting). And then I had to shift around the pieces of glitter with a cuticle stick. And even then... I didn't do a good job:

Closeup of Silver

Argh. My eyes suck and I didn't notice how many gaping holes there were in this manicure until I saw the macro photos. :(

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More Lippmann: Waking Up in Vegas

This one was surprising. Wasn't expecting much from this light taupe-y putty color but it ended up applying very well.

Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas

As usual, my skintone somehow makes this polish look different on my nails than others. It leans a bit purple on me. I was expecting more of a yellow-ish tinged taupe but I like it much better on me like this. Two coats, applied beautifully (though I did shake the heck out of it beforehand).

This week has just flown by. I spent about seven hours straight cleaning yesterday. Yay for Diamont. I was able to do my nails in between two bathrooms and my mani was fine after twenty minutes dry time. (And I was scrubbing the hell out of the tub.) :)

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Lovely, dark and deep - OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow

A little something green for St. Patrick's Day!

Deepest, darkest dark green - with the most interesting texture! (Just like Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees.)

Flash:

No flash:

Sometimes you just want something dark and vampy that *isn't* burgundy/wine/dark red/plum. And this fits the bill perfectly. Plus I'm a total sucker for the pseudo-jelly-speckly formula. I just love it and I don't even know why!

This reminds me of running around in the woods late at night when I was a kid. I was never scared because I knew the woods so well - every tree, every little hill, every turn. Dark and mysterious, but familiar and comforting all at the same time. It's actually amazing how the colour of this polish evokes these memories to me. I can almost smell the air...clean and fragrant, but laced with the scent of pond water. I miss home so much it hurts sometimes.

Do you have a polish that reminds you of home or a specific childhood memory?

kittytokaren

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An old Lippmann: Call Me Irresponsible

Hmm... didn't get as much done on my blog to-do list as I wanted to yesterday. But today's another day.

I also wish it weren't so overcast outside: it's no fun to be restricted to using my lightbox. :(

Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible

Can't decide whether I like this one or not. It's very jelly. Three coats. Goes on pretty well. But I love the bottle color and the jelly-ness of the polish lightens it to the sort of reddish purple that I'm not the biggest fan of. Meh. I waited a long time to get this and now that I have it... I don't know if I regret spending the money or not.

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Lippmann Glitter in the Air over Avon White French Tip

It has such promise in the bottle:

I don't know what's worse in the photo: my cuticles or the polish (either of them).

Lippmann Glitter in the Air over Avon White French Tip

First, the white avon: three coats, still not opaque. Grr. Second, GiTA: if I had a LOT of patience and the perfect milky blue, this would be beautiful. As it is... this was a terrible mani.

Today is going to be a "catch-up-on-blog-stuff" day. I'm going to finally have time to respond to comments. Finally going to have time to swatch. Finally going to put the Inque contest results up for a vote (probably to be posted tomorrow). My spring break hasn't technically started but the majority of the work I've had to do for the quarter is complete. It has been a REALLY rough quarter and I'm so grateful that it is nearly over.

(Also: Misa sent me their two spring collections and China Glaze sent me some Crackles... but not the pretty purple or turquoise ones! That's alright though: I went ahead and bought them off of Amazon...)

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