I'm Actually Posting Finally (And It's A Long One)

Hey everyone (and hello to all of our new followers; thanks for following our blog!.).

I have not been motivated to post in a while just because work has pretty much drained all of my life force out of my body. I've been working overtime since I last posted, and I've filled the time I have left in my day when I'm not working 10-11 hours with eating, sleeping, showering, and doing a wicked quick nail polish change. Last week I worked almost 50 HOURS. I wanted to hurt someone so bad when I had to get up for work last Friday;  I actually cried because I didn't want to go in because I was so tired and I had a pounding headache. Lets just say I spent a good portion of Saturday and Sunday sleeping to make up for getting up at 5:45am everyday last week. Don't get me wrong, I do really like my job and I have fun with my co-workers (I work with my dad so I get to spend time with him which is pretty cool); it's just I hate getting up that early during the summer. But Thursday always make it worth the early hours when I get my paycheck and I have money in my pocket : ) Sorry, complaining portion of this post is over now. On to better things!

For anyone who is reading this outside of the U.S., this weekend is Fourth of July Weekend for us Americans. I decided to go out on my nails last night and get a little fancy with them (I've only been painting them in shades I've already worn for work since I work with acetone quite a bit, and it still manages to seep into the latex gloves and ruin my polish). I went with Zoya Isla (an absolutely GORGEOUS ruby red polish that is a must have for people who have cool skin tones. Trust me, it's amazing!!!) and Zoya Tart for an accent finger on my ring finger. To top it off, I pulled out my OPI Silver Shatter and put it on over Isla and Tart. The results were pretty patriotic, at least that's what I thought:

(had to cut my nails last Friday; I had screws getting lodged underneath my long nails and they wouldn't come out! How sad and pathetic is that?)

And since Transformers: Dark of the Moon was released today (seeing it Friday and I'm pretty pumped for it!), this can also double as a Transformers mani idea as well since Optimums Prime (head good transformer for those who haven't seen the movies or hear of Transformers at all) is painted red, silver, and blue. So it's a dual purpose mani then? You guys can tell me if it's stupid or not in the comments.

Also I got my Zoya Charla/Ivanka promo two weeks ago (see how behind I am on posting, I got that package two weeks ago and I'm finally talking about it now!). Here are a few pics on what I got:

Armor and Anchor

Emme, Rica, Sooki, Faye, Julieanne

And Charla and Ivanka

I immediately tried out my new bottle of Anchor that I got. I love this base coat by Zoya. I've tried a base coat from Sally Hansen and it was horrible. It never wanted to dry, and when I would put it on, go to class, and then come back more than an hour later and start to paint my nails, it would prevent the first coat from going on smooth. This base coat however, dries very quickly and does what it says it's supposed to do which is bond the color to the nail. And it also has proteins in it that help to strengthen nails and I've felt that my nails are stronger in the two weeks that I've been using it. It's also helped to keep my nail color on longer which with my job and the high mortality rate of my manis since coming back from school is amazing since instead of lasting a day and a half, now my nails are lasting 3+ days in the last week! The reason the polish comes off now is because I don't want to be wearing that color anymore!

I then did my toes in Charla because well, it's Charla man! Warning, a pic of my toes is right below this!

And on my fingers I did Faye (my new exam taking nail polish color since I wore it during my three finals last semester and I did really well on them) with a coat of my new top coat Zoya Armor. The corner of my thumb got a little weird some how, I forget how now, but I wore Faye for five days with Anchor and Armor on and it didn't chip once (and three of those days were spent working)!

I have to say that I like Armor much better than Seche Vite now. I've been having major cuticle shrinkage problems with Seche Vite; it made it look like my nails had been painted for a week when it had only been about a day. Also, the smell with Seche Vite is qutie strong. My parents don't even want to be in the same room as me as soon as I open the bottle and then they avoid me for the next hour after I put it on my nails. So I tried Armor to see if I'd like it better. And I do! I have to say it smells a million times better then SV does and it actually smells a little fruity to me. It's also glossy when it dries. Sure it takes a little longer then SV to dry, but the durability, smell, and non-cuticle shrinkage makes up for it big time. So yes, I've become a Zoya addict and I've got no shame in admitting it.

Sorry for not posting half of this post last week, and that it was really long, but I am really sorry and I feel bad for neglecting my posting duties. I am going to post this weekend about the nail polish I'm going to actually wear for the Fourth so I hope you check in then to see what it is! And thanks for reading this really long post!

-Amanda

New Sinful and Pride Pedi

Hello!

Sorry there was no post yesterday. My aunt has moved into the apartment in my family's house and she hired me to clean out her old apartment. That's what I spent all day yesterday, from 10 AM to 4 PM doing. Vacuuming 2 bedrooms, cleaning a bathroom, kitchen, all that good stuff. Needless to say, I am exhausted. Surprisingly, I didn't break a single nail! Plus, I get a lovely chunk of cash to spend this weekend when I meet up with Amanda. We're going to the largest mall in our state to check out the brand new Ulta! Neither of us have ever been to an Ulta so we're both really excited!

So when I got home this afternoon from finishing up cleaning the kitchen of the apartment, after I took a much needed shower, my nails were... well, they looked like I'd had the same mani on for weeks. Yikes!! So definitely had to redo my mani. My toes were looking pretty shabby too so I decided to do them too. Plus I had been meaning to do something rainbow this month for Pride Month. Better late than never I guess! So I used the new Sinful that I got the other day, called Open Seas. Its from that new collection that's supposed to be a dupe collection of the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection. This one is supposed to be the dupe for Mermaid's Tears. I was going to get the dupe for Stranger Tides, but once I saw it in person, it just looked too icky too me. If I'm being honest, I would probably only wear it to swatch it and then put it under Fractured Foil to see what it would look like. And then it would probably never be worn again and put in my swap pile (if I had a swap pile...) And in case you're interested, because I know people have been having a hard time finding this collection (as well as that damn Wet n' Wild Mermaid's Cove... but we won't go there) I found it at Rite Aid but didn't see it at Walgreens or CVS.

So here's what it looks like,

This actually had a great formula! I think Sinful has done some work on their formula because this is unlike any Sinful formula I have! Its not runny at all but its not thick either. Its just pure creamy, pigmented, perfection. This was very easy to apply, and shown is only 2 coats. This is no top coat either, so its quite shiny. This also dried surprisingly fast as well! I was shocked! Usually Sinful has an average dry time but this had a dry time of something like a SH Insta Dry.

I don't know how closely this compares to Mermaid's Tears, but it looks a lot like the pictures I've seen of it. I don't know if anyone's done a comparison of the two yet (I haven't looked... *EDIT* All Laquered Up did one here and they're basically identical) but I bet someone will eventually. But, I think its safe to say, if you don't have MT and want a very cheap close alternative, look for this collection and pick this color up. Heck, pick this color up anyway because its a gorgeous color and and a kick ass formula for $1.99!!

Here's how this color compared to similar colors in my collection,

Done on my pallette (lid of a plastic bin) so please excuse the dried on polish. Very top is SH Barracuda, on the left is Essie Turquoise and Caicos, middle is Open Seas, right is Orly Gumdrop and very bottom is Sinful Mint Apple. I actually think Mint Apple is the closet except for the shimmer in MA. T&C and G are both too bright and B is too light.

And finally, here's my pride pedi. This is for my gay cousin and gay friends I've had over the years. Also just showing my support!

As always, enlarge at your own risk, because this is not cleaned up. I won't list polish colors because I'm sure none of you are really interested in reading a list of 10 polishes. If you want to know what a specific color is, just leave a comment asking! :) Oh, and I did this this way because I didn't want my big toes to both be green, I wanted at least one big toe to be purple, so I did it so when I crossed my feet, there would be a rainbow.

I hope everyone had a good Tuesday and a good Wednesday and I'll talk to you tomorrow (hopefully!)

Thanks for looking, commenting, and following!

Fiona

Sinful Colors Love (pic and word heavy)

Hello!

Look! Its me! Posting at a normal hour! WOW! This is a first in a while, haha! I actually got up at a normal hour today too: 9 AM! I've been getting up every day for a few weeks at 2 PM or later.

First order of business, thank you all so much for all your great comments on my last post on my splatter nails! I really appreciate it and loved hearing what you guys had to say! Your comments make my day! :)

My mom's party was really fun last night, she was really surprised at all the people that were there! The only bad part was right around cake time I started to get my blurry vision which meant a migraine was coming on and then This is me editing myself because I feel like sometimes I talk too much about my personal problems and unnecessary information. I would love it if you would please leave a comment telling me whether you prefer edited, shorter posts or you enjoy the long posts. Or if you simply don't mind (or care) either way. Thank you! the worst migraine I'd had in months slammed me. I spent the last half hour of the party lying in the back seat of my parent's car, feeling like the world was spinning and like my head was going to split open. The car ride back home from my aunt and uncle's house was hell, especially since my 15 year old brother drove (my mom was in the passenger seat instructing him; don't worry!) I went straight to bed when we got home at 9 PM and went right to sleep after taking my migraine meds. I feel much better today, thankfully!

Today I was bored since I have a lot more time on my hands than I'm used to since I got up so early so I decided to do some swatching since its a nice and sunny day. Its also quite warm (80 degrees F or 26.6 degrees C... haha, I just used my phone to convert that!) but it feels warmer because of the humidity. I really don't like the heat (I know, I'm abnormal, my family reminds me all the time) so I'm holed up here in my nice and air conditioned room. I love A/C. My parents finally caved and bought me an A/C unit this year and it so nice!

So today's swatches are all of a brand that I love, as if you couldn't tell from the title, Sinful Colors, or simply Sinful as I always call it.

 My Sinful collection (top, middle) where they live in one of my polish drawers.

Sinful is a brand that I think it underrated because a lot of people don't like it simply because its a drugstore brand. It also gets a bad rep because some colors are known to be runny and sheer, which is true. Sometimes their formula sucks. And their colors are usually not unique. But this is also true of the majority of nail polish brands (drugstore brands, anyway.) I've also heard that Sinful has been known to have a poor wear time and staining issues, and I won't dispute this either. But as someone who usually changes their polish daily, wear time is not something that I'm concerned with. But for ladies that want their manicures to last for several days, I do not recommend Sinful because in my experience their wear in not good. So why do I love it if I've said so many negative things about it? They're cheap! $1.99 is their regular price and you can often find them for 99 cents on sale. They're also readily available at Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS (I think) and some Targets. They're great for people just starting to get into nail polish collecting and who want to build a core color collection because they have every color and every finish. If you know what to look for and what to avoid, you can get some great shades by them. Shades I would recommend by them are: Let's Talk (my favorite color ever! Glowy purple/blue, opaque in 2 coats, gorgeous), Why Not (pretty bright blue, opaque in 2 coats), Happy Ending (gorgeous yellow toned green with gold shimmer, opaque in 2-3 coats), Boogie Nights (very flattering coral jelly, up to 4 coats for opacity but its a jelly) and 24/7 (bright, bright neon pink, sheer but can get by in 3 coats, 2 over white. A tip for this one: leave up-capped for 10 minutes or so and it will thicken up so you can do 2 coats) And then these 3 I'm going to show you!

Okay, enough babbling... onto the swatches!

Daddy's Girl. This is a gorgeous deep purple with pink glass fleck jelly that reminds me of grape jelly. This one is quite sheer but that's typical of jellies. This is shown at 4 coats. You could do less if you don't mind as much VNL or have horribly stained nails like me (I'm always saying I have "horribly stained nails" and here's the proof in the swatches of this color and the next color. I need to invest in some Bubble White or something.) Oh and ignore the bright pink flash at the bottom of the bottle in these pictures, that's my red camera! While there is a slight pink flash because of the pink flecks, its not that strong! You can also see my reflection in the bottle and nails... sorry!

IRL, I didn't have this much VNL and the color is richer more depth. Its more like the bottle. This color is truly gorgeous but not super flashy and will look like a dark dark purple indoors. Highly recommend this one, my pictures DO NOT do it justice. I suggest you Google this one and look at pictures of it.

Also, I should mention, I tried to do a proper clean-up of my nail, cuticle and "gap" area with a brush and acetone and actually put effort into it. I still need practice, as you can see I smudged my side of my pinkie in the process, but I tried. 

Forget Now (such a stupid name!) is a beautiful raspberry pink glass fleck jelly. Pictured is 4 coats but again, if you don't mind VNL and don't have stained nails, 2 would been fine. The formula on this one is a little bit more problematic than Daddy's Girl, I will admit. Its a little runny and thin and has a longer drying time, but with a color this gorgeous, I think its worth it! This color was VERY difficult to properly capture and after about 50 pictures I think I got it (third pic) This is the color that I mentioned a few posts ago that reminds me very strongly of China Glaze Ahoy! or China Glaze 108 Degrees or OPI Be A Dahlia Won't You? (any of them, because to me all 3 are very similar) so if you're lemming any of those and are on a budget (like me!) or simply can't find them, Forget Now may be a good substitute.

A bit brighter than it actually is, but my ring nail shows the insane glass fleck shimmer. Oh and that's my pool in the background. Its still being cleaned so it looks kinda green...

This is the most accurate picture I could get of this. Please be kind to my stained nails!

While I was outdoors swatching, my cat Marley and doggie Cocoa were just inside the screen door wanting to come outside... both are indoor pets! (Cocoa also wants to play, but doesn't understand the concept of fetch so she just carries her toys around in her mouth!)

Cocoa says, "I'm a good girl, I'm a good, good dog, see!?" Marley says, "Psshhhh... no you're not. Moron." And I just noticed the white thing attached to either her collar or toy dog... I think its a wrapper of some kind on the floor next to her and its an optical illusion.

Last is Midnight Blue (creative, huh?) which is a glowy, dark (though not in this picture) metallic (ish) shimmery blue. This was my problem child today. I took about 50 pictures of this one as well and not one is color accurate. Oh well. This is not the most unique color, for sure, but its surprisingly unique in my collection (if anyone knows of a dupe, please let me know!) The formula on this one is just okay. There are bubbles in this mani because I did this with the A/C on. Shown is 2 coats and it went on smoothly and dried pretty quickly, standard for my "good" Sinfuls. The formula was a little runny but not thin. I'm wearing this as a full mani today and I really like it. I've worn it before and I liked it then too. This is a pretty standard color for me as I like to wear dark shimmers and duochromes (though this one isn't a duochrome.) I recommend this color as well if you like these kind of colors and because its one of the "good" Sinfuls (IMO, of course)

Closer to accurate color although it looks strangely frosty here (its not frosty at all!) and brushstrokey (which its not!) Looks like bottle color here.

Closest to color accurate though you can my crappy clean-up job and application (I really did try!) and you lose the shimmer/metallic-ness.

Finally this is my Sinful collection again:

It bugs me how some have the little "SC" on the cap and some don't. Now here are the names, from memory (I'm so pathetic because I can do this...) 
Top Row L-R: Daddy's Girl*, Let's Talk*, Fiji^, Midnight Blue*, Love Nails*, Rise and Shine^ and Open Seas (from the new OPI Pirates dupe collection, the supposed dupe of Mermaid's Tears, untried)
Middle Row L-R: Mint Apple*, Envy*, HD Nails^, Happy Ending*, Irish Green^, Green Ocean^(flakie), and Unicorn^
Bottom Row L-R: Let's Meet^, Boogie Nights* (jelly), Gogo Girl* (jelly), Sugar Sugar (untried), Forget Now*, Pink^, (24/7* would normally go here but my sister has stolen it again and I don't know where it is...) Cream Pink* and then all alone in the very bottom row is Social Ladder* (sparkly, sheer nude, good for French manicures).
* = "good" one (good formula/color), recommend checking out
^ = crappy formula, don't recommend

So, I hope this post was helpful for at least someone (even if it helped one person, that would make me happy!) and I hope the rest of you who didn't find it helpful (are hopefully already Sinful fans!) had a great weekend and have/had a great Monday or whatever day you read this!

Thanks for reading, looking, commenting, and following!!

Fiona

Splatter Nails

Hello!

Today I have for you guys (Hi new followers! Thanks for choosing Ha Bisky Nails!!) a mani I did the night before last. I was strongly inspired (okay, I copied) this post by Jen, The PolishAholic. I fell in love with the bottom one and knew I had to do it! To do it I used a combination of the two awesome splatter mani tutorials by Jen and the lovely Jessica at Jessica's Nail Art linked Jen's here and Jessica's here. Whew, I think that's enough links!! I used both of their tutorials because they're both the same basic idea but each with a unique way of explaining things and each offers their own helpful tips as well! I used Jessica's idea of using tin foil to put the polish on as I found that to work better than a paper plate/piece of paper because paper absorbs polish. I also found Jen's tip of "fast, quick puffs of air" to blow since I was having issues at first while I was practicing, getting any polish to come out of the straw. I could just see my doctor shaking her head at me because due to my slight asthma (I know, how can one have slight asthma...? I'm not sure, but its mild and mostly exercise-induced) This left me feeling a little light headed when I was done from all the puffing, but it wasn't too bad.

 Close up of the nail that came out best, my ring.

For this mani, I began with a base of WnW Black Creme topped with Pure Ice Rio, a combo which I posted on a while ago. This creates a magical purple/blue sparkly duochrome. Then, following the tutorial(s) instructions created my splatters. If you're interested, I suggest checking out one or both of the links above to see how to do it, because that's exactly what I did. Fair warning though: this is MUCH messier than I thought. And time consuming. And frustrating. For me, it was quite frustrating because, like I said, I had issues getting the polish out of the straw. I was like "WTF IS THIS SHIT!!? There is no way this is gonna work!!" But then it did. You just gotta keep at it until it happens, its like Konad, theres a learning curve, but once you get it, its so fun and easy and you get an awesome nail art design with not a lot of effort! This also requires no artistic skill whatsoever, and is almost impossible to f-up.

I splattered first using WnW NERDS Need Love Too, which I have posted on before, on all my nails and then did Nicole I'm A Belieber, which I found to splatter much better than NNLT for some reason. I topped it with SV, because the blowing through the straw made the polish dry weird, kinda matte, plus this was lumpy.

More crappy indoor lighting flash pics because its still raining here and we haven't seen the sun for days now. :( Please excuse the weird chipping around my cuticles (no clue how this happened) and the chips on my middle and index nails. My nails like the chip in the shower.

That's all for today. Now I have to get to work on my mom's birthday party stuff. She's turning 50 tomorrow and we have a huge party planned (shhhhh.... its a secret, she doesn't know how big the party is, she just thinks its a small gathering but there's really like 30+ people coming!) I have to make these posters with quotes on them about turning 50, type up the Jeopardy game questions (my mom LOVES Jeopardy) and make some decorations and sort through the bag of decorations my aunt gave me. Yeah, I've procrastinated because its tomorrow and I've had days and days to work on it... I'm also doing her nails tonight. I showed her the splatter and she loved it and wants it for her birthday. So I'm doing a splatter of fun, bright rainbow colors and accent ring nails on both hands, on one hand a birthday cake with candles and on the other a 50. This should be fun to do on the couch!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! I may post my mom's nails tonight if they come out well...

Thanks for looking, following, and commenting!!

Fiona

More crack... are you surprised?

Hello!

I'm a crack addict. I need rehab. As of now, I will put crackle nail polish on just about any manicure within an hour because I feel it needs it.

The good news is that I have many options. I managed to get the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Vintage Violet at Walgreens yesterday (SCORE!!) I wasn't planning on buying it. I went there because I needed white and wanted to try WnW French White to see if its as awesome as Black Creme (it totally is) and then I looked up and saw it. I had to be mine. So I bought it. Along with a SH HD that was on sale for $1.69 (originally $6.49) I got a pretty cobalt blue, appropriately named Blu. I almost got a coral and green from the same collection since they were such a great deal but I resisted.

So as you may have guessed, I have a mani for you today featuring my new pretty Vintage Violet. I know, I know, Amanda has already shown this one to you, and recently too, but I'm excited about this and this is the most recent mani I've done and taken pictures of (read: this is all I got for you.) Plus, this is a totally different color combination. Maybe even a color combo that most people wouldn't have thought to do.

Like she said, VV is a total win. It crackles perfectly over tacky and dry polish. Its totally gorgeous too. Its a pink toned purple with a slight blue-ish shimmer and flash, very interesting!!

I decided to try it over Zoya Rica because I saw on someone else's blog recently (I have no clue who, I read SO MANY blogs) a purple and orange combo and thought it was interesting and funky, totally my style. I really, really like how this came out!!

Look at that blue-ish flash in the bottle!! Oh and I should mention this is with SV over 2 coats of Zoya Rica. My index has 2 coats of VV because I messed up the first one. I like it but the crackle pattern is different and not as linear as I like. I like the color it makes it though!

Oh and I'm sorry for the sucky pictures. It was rainy all day so I couldn't get any outdoor pics so all I had to work with was indoor flash pics since the lighting situation in my house is terrible since I don't have a good desk lamp like I did at school. I could unpack it but I really don't have a place to put it. These are surprisingly pretty color accurate though. My camera likes orange and pink toned colors like this.

And sorry for the hairs on the bottle (I have a dog and 3 cats, its bound to happen!) I didn't notice them until now. And for my horribly shaped cuticle "gap" and what appears to be tipwear on my ring nail. I don't know what that is, its not present IRL. I think its just macro and flash picking up little imperfections.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week in case I don't post until this weekend and thanks for looking!

Please comment and follow!

Fiona

Top 10 Award

Hello!

First off, thank you to Whitney from Elemental Styles for tagging Amanda and I for the Top 10 Award!!

The rules:
1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

Okay so, my Top 10 cosmetics... uhhh... I don't use any cosmetics... *shifty eyes* I just don't... I have a long list of excuses... sensitive skin, no money, bad past experiences, can't find concealer/foundation in my skin tone, ect... mostly the extremely sensitive skin around my eyes which Whitney herself has suggested I talk to my dermatologist about which I am in the process of getting an appointment with a new one since derms are notoriously hard to get an appointment with. So, long story short, I don't wear any makeup... I know, I can hear the collective gasp. So instead, I'm going to list my top 10 products, not necessarily cosmetics or beauty products. Just products I like, use everyday and repurchase... These are also in no particular order since I couldn't even begin to go about ranking them...

1. Suave Professionals Humectant Shampoo/Conditioner The only shampoo and conditioner my sensitive scalp can tolerate. I've tried just about every shampoo brand and have had reactions of some kind to all of them. I like the humectant one because its a very unique smell (seriously, just smell it next time you see it at the store because I can't describe it) kinda coconutty, floral, musky, vanilla-y... plus the scent always reminds me of my mom because thats what she used when I was growing up. I have thick, naturally wavy, unmanageable hair and this stuff tames it so its soft and easy to work with. I just love it, period.
2. Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefruit Foaming Cleanser I really don't care for the smell of this at all. At first it smelled like grapefruit, but the more I use it, the more its started to smell like ammonia (cat pee) but its not overwhelming so I can get past it. This makes my skin really soft (I have weirdly really soft skin naturally anyway) but this keeps it that way. This has also cut down on the amount of blackheads on my chin and forehead and decreased the oilyness of my face dramatically. I have combination/problem/sensitive skin and this has helped keep it under control.
3. Cetaphil Daily Advance Moisturizing Lotion for Dry Sensitive Skin This lotion works really well for when my skin is irritated and itchy (I also have eczema patches) or sunburned. Its soothing and sinks in fast. Its a little greasy, but every lotion I've tried is greasy on me. Its also non-irritating to my skin so I can use it on the eczema patches at the outer corners of my eyes, where I have baby-sensitive skin.
4. Bath and Body Works Dark Kiss and Secret Wonderland Lotions These are my favorite scents from B&BWs. I like their products because their cruelty free with no animal testing. I find their regular body lotions to be very greasy even I just use a little bit but they are quite moisturizing so I don't use them if I'm going to be doing anything. I save them for just before bed in the wintertime so I wake up with soft, moisturized hands and arms. Plus, they smell so good and are quite strong so I even use them as a perfume by rubbing them on my neck and shoulders and the scent lasts all day! They do irritate my skin sometimes though (not my hands!) so I don't always use them.
5. Garnier Fructis Curl Sculpting Cream I don't use this everyday but when I do, I get good results! This makes my natural semi curls appear more curled and less like waves (its hard to describe!) and keeps my hair from being frizzy and poofy (amazingly!) My natural hair is a monster, its very voluminous, frizzy and wild-looking. I like it sometimes by other times I just wish it was naturally smooth and flat. The only problem I have with this product is that I have a difficult time getting the right amount. The "quarter-sized" amount it says on the back is not enough for my hair since its so thick and just longer than shoulder length as well. I always end up with too much which makes my hair crunchy and weighs it down. Thats why I don't use this everyday.
6. Jeez, I'm only at 6 and I've babbled so much and have almost ran out of products... Blistex Medicated Lip Balm Pretty self-explanatory I think. New England winters are harsh and you need a good chapstick and this is the one thats worked best for me. I like this one because its a little minty, but not overly minty and I'm not a fan of overly minty things. Thats the main reason I like it. Otherwise its a pretty standard chapstick.
7. Garnier Fructis 100% Color This is my absolute favorite hair dye. Unfortunately, its gotten harder to find in the past year or so and that makes me mad. My go to color always used to be Blue Black but I haven't been that color in a year or so. My natural hair color is... well... here's another long story. I've been dying my hair since I was 12. I've been every color you can think of, some a few times. When I began dying it all those years ago, it was a golden blonde color. My parents both have dark brown hair. I was born blonde and was blonde growing up... I looked like Shirley Temple with my curls... well actually I looked exactly like the little girl (young Drew Barrymore) in ET, or so people have said who've seen pictures of me growing up. Anyway, I have no idea what my hair color is now. My roots growing in are a medium mousey brown, so its probably that. But I will continue to dye my hair different colors my whole life, I believe. Anyway, this dye is the best one ever. It doesn't smell at all like hair dye, it smells fruity, it lasts months longer than other "permanent" hair colors I've used. It even outlasts the expensive stuff I've bought at Sally's. Try this stuff, if you can find it!
8. Degree Ultra Clear in Pure Rain Best deodorant I've tried and I can honestly say I've tried them all. Even the weird indie brands that smell like a grandmother. Even a medicated prescription one (that I was allergic to, haha!) I know everyone's body chemistry is different but I am only saying that this one worked for me and I no longer have a sweating problem (gross, I know!) Plus, I love the smell of this one, so pure and clean, mmmmm!
9. St. Ive's Oatmeal and Honey Shea Butter Body Wash EDIT: I checked the name and fixed it! At least I think that's what its called... anyway, I love St. Ive's because they're a vegan brand, with no animal testing or animal products and thats awesome. I'm not a vegan, by the way, I'm a cheating vegetarian. I eat chicken and occasionally cheat and eat pork or beef. I try though. Anyway, I like this body wash because its moisturizing, so its good for the winter so thats the only time I use it since I find it makes my skin greasy in other seasons. It has a light, subtle smell which is okay, not my favorite. I mostly like this because its vegan and is nice in the winter. It also lathers nicely.
10. Shick Intuition Razor This is the most genius thing ever invented! I have never, not ever, cut myself shaving while using this. It has the soap already on the razor so there's no need to use shaving cream and make it a whole ordeal. You can just shave in the shower and not worry about cream washing off before you get to that part of your leg. I love everything about this, except for 2 things. The price is ridiculous, and the reason I can only use it occasionally when I get the money. Its $9 for a starter kit: a razor, 2 refills and a shower hanger thing. Refills are like $12-14. Seriously. Its total robbery, and you only get 3 refills in a package! The other thing I don't like is how quickly you go through it. You can get maybe 4 shaves out of one soap head thing and than you need to replace it. So its not worth the money, but I still love it anyway because I cut myself with every other razor. Maybe I'm just inept at shaving without it.

So, those were my top 10 products. I hope I wasn't too boring (although I'm sure some of it was...) and at least some of you read it!!

Now its time to tag 10 more bloggers to do this. I apologize if you've already been tagged for this!! I tag:

1. Gotham Polish
2. Jessica's Nail Art
3. No Naked Nails!
4. The Kiwi With The Crazy Nails
5. The Nail Buff
6. Deez Nails
7. Nailstah

Whew... this is hard, so I think I'm gonna leave it there. The other 3 people I would have tagged, Whitney, Liz, and Amber were already tagged for the award...

I hope you all enjoyed your Wednesday!! (as much as a person can enjoy can enjoy a Wednesday, I suppose...)

I actually have a nail post to do today as well and was going to include it in this post, but this post has become so long so... yeah. I'll do another post right after this one. :)

Thanks for looking! Don't forget to comment and follow (please?)

Fiona

Glitter in the Haze

Hello!

I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend (sorry, I'm watching Country Strong... and I was born in Virginia, so its kinda a habit) Anyway, tonight I have some pictures of a franken I made a few weeks ago but hadn't tested it yet. I liked the idea of Deborah Lippman's Glitter in the Air, where the pieces of glitter "float" in a sheer polish due to the multiple layers. So after getting WnW Party of Five Glitters, I used a bunch of that to make this franken. The recipe is: about 1/4 bottle of clear (I used top coat and don't recommend using fast drying top coat like I did), about 1/4 bottle of PoFG, about 20 drops of Zoya Zara, about 20 drops of Nicole I'm a Beliber, about 10-20 drops of white, and about 20 drops of Nicole Make a Comet-Ment. I really like the way this came out although the formula is very thick and goopy like white school glue and dries really fast which is a good and a bad thing. Its a good thing because it allows me to layer it quickly without waiting a long time for each individual coat to dry. Its a bad thing because it dries almost as soon as I paint it on, so if I make a mistake, I can't just wipe it off, plus it makes application difficult. Also, the glitter pieces are very difficult to get on the brush and then to transfer enough pieces to the nail. So the application style tends to be similar to the way I apply PoFG on its own; sort of a dabbing type thing.

I didn't use top coat for this because it dried so fast.

Here's an extreme close up done by cropping in iPhoto where I edit. I didn't know I could do this is until now and I really like it. You can see all the pretty sparkle that MaC-M added to it. And the hex glitter shows really well.

Unfortunately, due to the 4 coats I put on, the polish was so thick that I was able to peel it off in sheets literally a few minutes after these pictures were taken, resulting in this:

Also, I cut some beautiful white and pink peonies from my mom's garden. Peonies are one of my favorite flowers, they're just so gorgeous to me. I took some pictures of them and posed a little with them. Enjoy!

This is my favorite

I hope you all liked that and have a great rest of the weekend!

Please comment and follow!

Thanks for looking!

Fiona

Wild Thang

Hello!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday! I know I said in my previous post that I would have pictures of Glitter in the Haze today, but I decided to do a leopard print instead. I know the animal print trend is very popular right now, and many of you are probably sick of seeing leopard print but I'm pretty proud of how this one came out, so I've decided to share it! This is the first time that I have used a dotting tool for the spots and a nail art brush for the "C"s.

I started with 2 coats of Orly Gumdrop, a bright, clean aqua which I really love. Its opaque in 2 but I smudged a few nails before they were dry, so I added a third coat. Then I used a mix of SH XW Lacey Lilac and Nicole I'm A Beliber to get a bright, light purple. IAB is too dark for what I wanted and LL is too light so I made medium color by mixing equal parts of each. It still came out a little lighter than I wanted; I was going for China Glaze Spontaneous. Oh well. Like I said, I used a dotting tool for the "blobs" instead of just using the polish brush. I think the key to making a good-looking leopard print is to space the blobs evenly, and not too close together. I need to work on that... Then, using a weird looking brush with a kink in the top of the handle so its like a bendy straw, which makes painting small details easier, I used WnW Black Creme to make the little "C"s and random dots. I finished with SV, which had some sparkles in it from my 3 AM franken so thats the greenish sparkles you can see.

Crappy indoor picture, but color accurate.

Outdoor, under cloudy skies, minutes before it started raining!

My nails look so much longer and nicer to me but then when I see pictures, they look stubby and gross... because macro picks up all the imperfections in the polish, like bumps and tiny chips, as well as in my skin. I guess you'll have to trust me that my nails look really good (to me) IRL.

My nails also match my outfit today, an aqua t-shirt from Aeropostale and a purple cami underneath. Gumdrop actually matches exactly with my shirt but the purples are different.

This is blurry, its hard taking a photo at this angle, but it shows the colors accurately.

Here's a clearer picture but the colors don't look as accurate due to the indoor lighting.

TGIF!! (I want to go out to eat at Friday's now...) I'll be back with another post tomorrow!!

Thanks for looking! Please comment and follow!

Fiona