Orly Preamp

While fall is slowly creeping up on us, the fall nail polish collections are doing the opposite: lots of fantastic colors and finishes coming out already! Orly recently came out with a relatively tiny fall collection comprised of only four shades after that massive collection of glitters called Glam FX (22 glitters to, at least I think, rival the offerings of the indie nail polish movement). To be fair, they covered the usual fall colors, including a cobalt blue jelly and a medium grey. Now, if my fashion sources are to be believed, both are going to be huge colors in fall. That was a good call on their part. There was also a duochrome shade that I thought I wanted. But when I saw the display at my local Sally Beauty, there was really just one stand out shade: a shimmery pink. Yep, I passed on the blue (*gasp!*), grey and duochrome (which turned out looking horrible, really; sorry, Orly) to get a pink. I doubt that's ever happened before. This one's a special one for sure, just take a look:

The best part is that I have absolutely nothing like it!

Models Own Beetlejuice Collection: Pinky Brown

So last week, we talked about how duochromes aren't always as amazing as their promo photos can make them out to be. Well, today's polish initially was something of a disappointment as well. I don't know what it is about promo photos, but I now feel that I can't completely trust them anymore. I say, give me a great swatch from a nail blogger any day. Chances are, the nail blogger will get it closer to what I'll actually get. Now, don't get me wrong; that's not to say that major brands are now selling under the guise of false advertising. I'd like to think of it as something akin to staging a house that someone is selling to make it look the best it possibly can so that a potential buyer can say, "hey, this looks like something I can see myself living in". As it were, while this particular polish seemed (and I can't stress that word enough) to be another disappointment, it turned out to be so exactly what I wanted, after all.

Really, how can you be disappointed with this?

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Hopeful featuring Mahogany Magic, Dress Me Up, and Smoke and Ashes

Before I go all fangirl crazy and start flailing about in excitement because today is big movie day, we're continuing with the second installment of the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection. If you haven't caught on yet, I've grouped the polishes specifically based on the traits of the key characters I've chosen to represent each district. Last post was about the Martyrs and Freedom Fighters who gave up their lives and fought for a cause they strongly believed in. In this installment, we'll highlight the Hopeful among them, those who had a knack for finding the silver lining in every grey cloud.

Without further ado:

Earthy and grounded colors for the optimists.

Nail Art Wednesday: Girly Graffiti Nails

You know how sometimes you envision something in your head but your execution leaves much to be desired? This may be one of those instances where I had a completely different idea for where this design was going. I was inspired by Carolina's impeccable double stamping over at Colores de Carol so I wanted to give it a go myself. Unfortunately, I learned that as easy as it looks, finding coordinating colors that don't clash and picking a design that will work double stamped wasn't as easy as I thought. I was about to write this one off as a failure and go back to the drawing board, seeing as it just looked..messy to me. But Mr. J (strangely) ended up liking it so much that he dubbed it a "girly take on graffiti". So here it is in all its busy patterns:

With Mr. J's penchant for chunky glitter, I think that's why he liked this design.

Color Club Hot Like Lava

I hope you're not tired of seeing pinks yet as I have another pink stunner to show you today. See, when I embarked on this Valentine-esque mix of colors for the entire month of February, it didn't dawn on me till much later that pink is not the only shade I should be focusing on. (Well, there's red, for starters, but after all the red I wore during the holidays, I'm all red'd out. So no, you won't find more red this month. Sorry!) There actually are a whole lot more colors to V-day than just pink, red and white. No, this is not blasphemy. You'll see what I mean in the next couple of weeks. Anyway, let's get on with this in-your-face pink metallic:

Shiny and hot pink. Everything a magpie of a hamster could ever want in life.

Nail Art Wednesday: Shattered Hearts Nails

Not everyone is a fan of Valentine's Day. For some of my friends, they've long dubbed the day as S.A.D.: Singles Awareness Day. For others, it's just a highly commercialized holiday that brings enough money to florists and chocolatiers to last them the whole year long. (Have you seen how much prices of flowers and chocolate boxes are jacked up during February? It's ridiculous!) I wanted to do something other than the usual cheesy V-day mani, as well as use the black shatter polish I got from the China Glaze Haunting set. I was going for a "broken hearted" sort of theme but my optimistic streak ended up turning it into something edgy and fun instead:

"You shattered my heart(s) but I filled it with glitter!"

CND Tutu banishes Monday blues with childhood nostalgia.

I used to own a bunch of tutus. Not the Halloween costume kind, but honest to goodness ones, along with the tights, leotards and ballet whathaveyous. See, my mom had me take up ballet when I was 6 but it was such a demanding activity that my grades started to slip. I enjoyed it, yes. But it got so tiring that when my very concerned parents asked if I still wanted to do it, it was an easy choice.  This is how my weekday schedule looked like: 7:30am - 3:00pm school, 3:00pm - 5:00pm academic extra curricular activities, 5:00pm - 7:30pm, even 8:00pm sometimes, ballet class. Looking back, that does seem like a pretty tough schedule for a 6 year old to keep. So by the time I got home at about 8:00pm, I would be so tired that I'd end up skipping dinner and crawl into bed. Suffice to say that I got no homework done, either. I ended up quitting when I was 10 and one step away from toe shoes level. I would have wanted to keep doing it, if only to finally get toe shoes, but I just wasn't that good (unfortunately, I lacked the flexibility required so no Black Swan here :P) and it was interfering with my academics. Besides, I'd be so tired that the prospect of more sleep seemed a better choice. No regrets, but I would definitely want my future daughter(s) to try their hand at it. Now, continuing in the vein of Valentine-esque colors, I whipped out this soft, pale pink that reminded me so much of the color of my tights:

A soft pretty pink!

Nicole by OPI City-Pretty Rose ushers in the month of Love

How is it February already? Last week, I was just playing with my über adorable niece and now the house feels so strangely quiet with just us two (three, if you count Hammie) again. It's so eerie that I've even taken to leaving the TV on for ambient noise. (Is that weird?) Anyway, things are slowly going back to normal so expect the Indulge without the Splurge posts to be back up by next week. I'll also try to mix things up a bit in an effort to diversify with various beauty products that I've accumulated over the holidays and have been dying to write a review on. Now, while that will definitely be something to look forward to, rest assured that the nail polish posts will keep rolling out as usual. For the entire month of February, I thought it would be fun to feature Valentine-esque colors all month long: pinks, reds, metallics and maybe a Tiffany blue. To get the ball rolling, I busted out one of my absolute favorite pinks:

A happy, cheerful pink to get you out of your winter rut!

Nail Art Wednesday: Black and Pink Ombre Nails

When the Spring/Summer 2012 shows took over the runways last fall, a few of the nail art designs that graced the models caught my eye. Some were gorgeous, albeit unreproducible without using gel/acrylics, like the pretty lucite and lace manicure that CND came out with to complement Joy Cioci's show. Lucky for us DIY nail art mortals, there were a handful of designs that looked easy enough to try at home. I tried my hand (pun very much intended) on the nails featured on the Jen Kao runway:

(Image Credits)

Aren't they just gorgeous?

My (humble) attempt at high fashion nails.

Nail Art Wednesday: Hello Kitty Nails

While you're reading this, I'm probably scampering off after my half toddling, half running slip of a niece. She's so adorable! Such an easygoing baby, she hasn't cried at all or had a tantrum since she's been here last Sunday. She lets you know when she's hungry (points at food!), says "dada" when she's sleepy (I've learned that her dad is usually the one who puts her to sleep so that's associated with him) and isn't a picky eater. I'm crossing my fingers this doesn't change even when she hits the terrible twos. And probably like every other little kid out there, she adores Elmo like no other. She has this singing Elmo doll that dances and plays music when you press a button (which she likes to do herself) and she dances along with him. I briefly had my own phase with Hello Kitty but I've since outgrown it. But in the spirit of favorite childhood characters:

Some subtle Hello Kitty tone on tone nails!

Nail Art Wednesday: Rainbow Zebra Patterned Nails

Whenever I see these pretty colorful nail art, I can't help but rave about them. It looks like so much fun! But you wouldn't catch me sporting them on my own nails. I guess I'm more of a "subtle nail art" kinda girl where I prefer tone on tone color combinations as compared to high contrast ones. I recently had a hankering for some rainbow goodness to combat the grey, dreary fall days and decided to go with high shine instead of high color saturation. I was thinking of layering it with a black crackle to tie it all together but remembered I've been meaning to play a bit more with the makeshift black stamping polish I discovered (thanks to stamper extraordinaire, Marta!). This is what I came up with:

Subtle but with enough oomph to pack a punch.

Nail Art Wednesday: Special Birthday Nails Part 4, Piggy Nails

The last week of October is finally here! That was fast. Halloween is right around the corner and we can finally get to the most wonderful time of the year (at least for me): Christmas! But before we get carried away (Hammie says: Speak for yourself. Okay, fine.), the last October birthday celebrant is by no means the least of the pack: my sister in law, Jennifer.

She is easily one of the strongest women I know. We might only be related by marriage but she feels very much like my own sister and I have a lot of respect for her. She learned Spanish so she can communicate with her husband's family, so now she speaks 6 languages, two of which are dialects. She kicked the big C in the butt and came out of the struggle more determined than ever. She's also a new mom to one year old Alena and their two dogs/babies, Bash and Shiva. I wanted to do something extra special and focus on one of her most favorite things that she collects: pig plushies!

I borrowed those coin banks from her.. :D

More photos and how I did it after the jump!

OPI Movin' Out and Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Ever read a book or watched a movie or tv series that had such a huge twist that you're left with mouth ajar and completely speechless? There was Darth Vader's classic line: "Luke, I am your father..!" Not so much oomph with that now since the prequels came out. Another classic is finding out that Tyler Durden and the Narrator (Hammie says: Don't you find it strange that Edward Norton's character doesn't have a name? No, really. Google it.) from Fight Club are the same guy. Before the last of the Harry Potter books came out, finding out that seemingly omnipotent Dumbledore dies before reading Book 6 would have a hardcore fan wailing in despair. (I've seen it happen.) More recently, protagonist Ned Stark dying and Daenerys Targaryen hatching dragon eggs from Game of Thrones were two of the bigger shockers from the first season. These huge twists often either justify what's happened so far or further the story to bring it to heights that it wouldn't have reached without the big shocker.

Oh Sean Bean, why must your characters always die..?

The same is true for the polish I have for you today. Its chameleon like quality makes it "must have" material despite being an older polish. Yes, the formula isn't 3-Free but when you see the magic it does, that doesn't really matter so much any more. Special polish for a special holiday! WARNING: Photo-heavy post after the jump!

Don't let that demure pink fool you.

Nail Art Wednesday: Special Birthday Nails Part 1, Pastel Skittle Nails

In our family, October is known as the birthday month with birthday dinners every week. It's always a lot of fun, family getting together and all that. Since each celebrant usually picks a different restaurant, it's also a great way to try some place new to add to the rotation. (Or they do a party at home!)This year, we're having one more birthday to celebrate: my niece, Alena, who's turning one on the 8th!

I did a skittles manicure in honor of the birthday girl in fun bright colors. I then stamped animals from the Konad S10 stamping plate in silver and added a holographic glitter layering polish as the final touch.

What I used:

Thumb: In the Mood Devious (cold color)

Index: Nicole by OPI City-Pretty Rose

Middle: Orly Snowcone

Ring: Revlon Garden (from the Spring 2011 mini set)

Pinky: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lemon Dash

Silver stamping polish: Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Pure Silver

Glitter polish: Sally Hansen New Lengths Ceramics in Silver Slightblade

More photos after the jump!