Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Hey all!

Hello!

Long time, no post from me, I know, sorry... I don't really have an excuse and I feel really bad about not being caught up on blog reading, commenting and posting. :( Right now I unfortunately don't have any batteries in my camera... I have pictures for you guys, including my first stamping attempts and I want to put together a haul post since I have hauled a substantial amount of polish in the past few days... :) I just need to find the undivided time to sit down and actually do a dedicated post. I was gone most of the day today, running errands and such. Then I will have another busy-ish day tomorrow, as I am attending an orientation on a LNA (licensed nursing assistant) course which is probably gonna be my new job. Hooray, wiping butts. Super. Anyway, hopefully Thursday I will be able to post. But I guess, don't count on it. :(

I guess I'll just let Amanda take over most of the posting for now until I can get my sh!t together. :)

Talk to you guys later, and sorry again for being a bad blogger. : /

Fiona

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

100th Post, Whoo! And my Brush has Scoliosis?

Hey everyone!

This is Ha Bisky! Nails 100th post on our blog! Wow, hard to believe that there's a 100 different posts here already.

So yesterday I was at Walgreens with my family when I found the display for the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat nail polishes. I thought that they were coming out next month, but there they were. They had plenty of Cherry Smash, Fuchsia Shock, and Distressed Denim. They only had one bottle left of the Antiqued Gold, Vintage Violet, and Snow Blast. They were out of Fractured Foil and Ink Splatter. I really wanted the bottle of Antiqued Gold, but I couldn't choose between Vintage Violet and Snow Blast. I finally choose the last bottle of Vintage Violet figuring I might be able to find Snow Blast again.

(from L to R) Antiqued Gold, Vintage Violet

I tried the Vintage Violet first because it was purple. Vintage Violet is the same color as Sally Hansen Xtreame Wear Purple Potion only in crackle form and a different name. It has blue shimmer to it so when you put top coat over it, you can see the shimmer come out in the light. This crackle went on nice and smooth just like any other non-crackle Sally Hansen nail polish. And unlike other purple crackle polishes (cough, China Glaze, cough) out there that don't crackle that much, this one really crackles. So Vintage Violet is a win, but my brush was curved when I pulled it out of the bottle. So does this mean my brush has Scoliosis? Here's a picture of it:


See? It's kind of curved, so I don't know what's wrong with it. It works fine though so that's all that matters! Here's what Vintage Violet looks over three coats of Sinful Colors Fly Away with a coat of Seche Vite on top of it all:




I put the crackle on in a somewhat thick coat and it crackled really well. You can put this crackle polish on in any thickness or thinness you want and it will still crackle really well. Love this crackle polish, it get's a Ha Bisky! (first time in a while a polish has gotten one of those!)

Today I played with the Antiqued Gold. Antiqued Gold is a pale gold foil-ish crackle. I don't like gold all that much because I think it can be tacky and gaudy, but Antiqued Gold just looks so pretty in the bottle. I like it because it's pale and light in color, not gaudy and loud like most gold colored polishes are. This crackle went on relatively well, but my brush didn't want to expand to cover my nail all that much. It does crackle, but it's more temperamental of how it crackles than Vintage Violet is. It crackles well if it's painted on in a medium-thick coat. I found that if the coat is too thin, then it won't crackle. Too thick of a coat and it won't crackle either. So you have to find that happy medium with this crackle. I still like it a lot though, it will just take some tinkering around to get the right thickness down pat.

Here's Antiqued Gold on top of two coats of China Glaze Skate Night. Sorry about the mess around my nails, there was a thunderstorm moving through and I was trying to take pictures quickly so I'd have light in case the lights went out. Once again, sorry!




As you can see it didn't really crackle that well on my pinkie or middle nails, but on the other nails it crackled pretty well. Like I said before, it'll take some tinkering around to find that right thickness. Also, this crackle works better for darker colors; I tried it with OPI Planks a Lot and it didn't show up that well on that light shade.

So I hope that this helps you in figuring out if you want to buy Vintage Violet and/or Antiqued Gold. I'm hoping that I'll have some more of the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat polishes in the rest of the colors available soon to review and show all of you!

-A

Monday, May 23, 2011

Ha Bisky! Nails is Now on Facebook

Hey everyone!

Are you the kind of person who spends hours a day creepin' on your friends' walls on Facebook? Still play Farmville and have to harvest your crops every four hours? Like to "Like" your favorite things for the world to know? Well, why don't you head on over to Facebook, or even better click on our Facebook button to the right and "Like" us right now! Yes that's right, Ha Bisky! Nails is now on Facebook so now you can keep up with us in your news feeds. So while you're creepin' on you hot crush's photos or waiting for your crops to grow, you can check us out to see what we have for new manicures, what we've discovered for nail polish in a store, what our animals are doing, or see what we have to say about the day. So what are you waiting for, "Like" us today!

-A

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Another Zoya Promo: This Weekend Only!

Hey everyone!

So if you haven't hears, Zoya is having yet another promotion this weekend only! Now Through Monday with any order on the website (some restrictions do apply though), you will get a bottle of Dove AND Catlin from the Intimate collection when you type in promo code ZB52! Two free bottles of polish, sign me up! Glad I got my Zoya spoons in the mail today, now I've got a reason to order more Zoyas this weekend!

Here's the full post from the Zoya blog:


Zoya Nail Polish Get Zoya Caitlin and Zoya Dove FREE with ANY** Purchase!

Limited time only - Get Zoya Dove and Zoya Caitlin FREE with ANY** purchase on Zoya.com


Special Promotional Offer*!

Try the Zoya "French Twist" manicure created by Haven Spa for theJoy Cioci presentation at NYFW! For a limited time with any** purchase (excluding Zoya Color Spoons) on Zoya.com you get Zoya Nail Polish in Caitlin and Zoya Nail Polish in Dove for free!! Just enter the code ZB52 when you check out! These trend setting spring colors are MUST have in any collection! This offer is only good until Monday May 23 (11:59PM EST)! Act now and try the "twist" everyone is talking about!

*Online only, cannot be combined with any other offer , promotion or coupon. US ONLY. Promotion ends Monday May 23 at 11:59 PM EST. Offer good for 1(one) open stock .5 oz bottle of Zoya Caitlin  and 1(one) .5oz bottle Zoya Dove with the purchase of any NON-SPOON item on Zoya.com. Art of Beauty Inc. will not honor promotions that are submitted after promotion has ended - No exceptions. No exchanges. No returns. Worst case scenario please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Comments, videos and pictures posted about this Zoya Nail Polish Exchange outside of Zoya.com or zoyanailpolish.blogger.com are not representative of the opinions of Zoya Nail Polish, Art of Beauty, Inc., Qtica and Qtica Smart Spa and we do not confirm the accuracy of any postings. Customers are responsible for maintaining active accounts. If username or password have been lost we (Art of Beauty, Inc.) are not responsible for restoring accounts or giving out any account information. S/H not included.
 
**offer excludes Zoya Color Spoons.  


© 2011 Art of Beauty Inc. All rights reserved


Hope that you can all participate in this promo! They might run out like they did with the St. Patty's Say promo so if you want to get your free bottles of Dove and Catlin act fast! Don't miss out!

-A

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Mmm, Lilacs

Hey everyone!

So I'm done with school now and I moved out of the dorm today. It was a bit sad to leave, but I'm home for the summer now which means I'll be figuring out what I need to pull out of my totes for the summer. I'm a little mad though because I bought a bottle of OPI Silver Shatter almost two weeks ago along with a bottle of Planks a Lot and Sparrow Me the Drama. The PaL and SMtD came last Thursday when they were expected to come, but the Silver Shatter hasn't come and it should have about five days ago. Grrr. If it does come to my college mailbox, it's going to end up sitting there all summer which sucks since I want to use what I bought! Okay, the rant portion of this post is over now.

Last week Fiona and I were tagged by The Kiwi With The Crazy Nails in a challenge post. What this challenge is is that you blindly pick three polishes out of your collection and with the three polishes you pick you have to come up with a nail design. We both accepted the challenge. When I picked my three colors, I got Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver, Sinful Colors San Fransisco, and Color Club Fashion Addict. I had picked a creme, a shimmer, and a holo polish. All I could think was 'what the hell am I going to do with these colors?'. I thought that I'd try doing some branches with dotted flowers on them, but them I ended up going a totally different way once I started.

I used My Lifesaver as the base color, and then borrowing Fiona's nail art design brush and painted San Fransisco on to make some leaves. I was going for branches, but once I started to use my dotting tool to try and make the flowers, I decided to try and make lilac flowers at the last minute. And I actually ended up liking it for three colors I thought for sure this wasn't going to work!





Close up of my pinkie nail, it really does look like a lilac flower!

And if you didn't know, the Purple Lilac is the official flower of New Hampshire. But now it's time to pick three other people for this challenge: Amber at My Nail GraffitiWhitney @ Elemental Styles, and Annelise at No Naked Nails!. Good luck ladies, and pick your poison well!

-A




I'm A Barbie Girl...

Hello!

Hey guys! Welcome new followers and thanks for sticking with us, to the existing ones! :) Yeah, I'm finally doing a post... sorry about my absence. I've finally got most of my work done and have a window of free time today since I got up relatively early, for me anyway.

So this is, of course, a past mani, since I am not up to date on things. This mani was from Monday night and I wore it all day Tuesday and Wednesday as well. I've been pretty busy so unfortunately I don't have time to change my nails every day like I usually do. May is definitely not a fun month for a college student, despite it being my favorite month because of my birthday (which is in 4 days... I made a countdown for it which I'm sure you've seen over in the side bar...) Anyway... I'm very stressed and burnt out on school and beyond ready for it to be over. I still have a homework assignment due Friday for Chemistry, a quiz for another class due Friday as well, 3 written finals to take next week, Chemistry on Monday, Biology on Wednesday, and Algebra at 8 AM on Friday. Then I have a final paper for another class due next Sunday. Yeah... I still have a lot on my plate. Plus I have to go to Bio lab in about half an hour and then Chem is pretty much right after that. *sigh* But enough about that, because thats boring and this blog is about nails.

This is the fun and bright Zoya Jolene, a creamy, candy pink. This was 3 coats because it does have a sort of a jelly-ish formula, but I wouldn't call it a jelly. Its not a super unique color, but the finish on this is unique for this color, its incredibly shiny without any top coat, in fact SV dulls the shine a little!!


I'm so sorry, I can't remember if these pictures were with or without SV... I know I put it on eventually but I'm not sure if its on in these pictures... I need to remember to write these things down.


I also can't comment on the color accuracy of these because its taken off now and I can't remember... I'm sorry. I fail at blogging. :( But now looking at the pictures all together, I think these first two are the most color accurate.


I know the flash pictures like this (the ones where my skin looks yellow) show it too saturated...




I think these last two make it look too dusty...


I also did a pedi with Jolene (Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jo-leeeene, I'm beggin' you please don't take my man...) Sorry, I had to do it. I apologize for the double earworm of Jolene and I'm a Barbie Girl...

I found these super cute Lisa Frank bandaids at Walmart on Saturday and the 11 year old in me squeed. I needed them.


When I was little, I used to LOVE Lisa Frank... still kinda do... and plus these come in an awesome little tin, and with BONUS STICKERS!! One of the sticker sheets is just regular stickers... rainbow butterflies and stars, but they're 2D. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of them. Then, the other sheet is 3D jewel stickers!! (Sorry a few are missing... I forgot to take a picture before I used them... I fail yet again)


This was VERY exciting to me!! I instantly had an idea for a super girly pedi involving Jolene and these jewel stickers. So I did.

WARNING: Feet pictures below...


See! Super cute! Sorry about the lack of cleanup... I didn't think to do any honestly...
So what I did was, paint my toes with 3 coats of Jolene and while it was still wet, very carefully peeled off some purple star stickers (which was super difficult because those mother f-ers are tiny!!!) and stuck them onto my big toe nails. I finished with 2 generous coats of SV. I've had them on for 4 days now without any problems so I hope they stay for a long time!!


Again, I do not suggest enlarging these photos, the SV bubbled very badly and it looks horrible with macro... plus the lack of cleanup is pretty bad too. Sorry.

So I hope you guys enjoy your day and the rest of your week in case I don't get around to posting again for a while...

Oh and I want to thank Kate my Mate for tagging us for the 3 polish challenge, since Blogger wouldn't let me comment on her post! I hope to get around to that this weekend... It sounds like a lot of fun! :)

Thanks for looking!

Fiona

The ABC's of Fiona!

Hello!

I had a little down time this evening and just saw this on Glitta Gloves and she tagged "anyone that wants to do this" so I decided I wanted to.

A. Age: 
I just turned 19 on Tuesday!

B. Bed size:
Currently, in school (for another day, lol) twin but full/queen (its somewhere in between) size back at home.

C. Chore you hate:
Dishes. Disgusting *shudders* I hate having soggy, wet hands and touching wet food.

D. Day:
I like Thursdays, I don't know why... I always have.

E. Essential start to your day:
I like to have some coffee but thats difficult at school...

F. Favorite color:
Purple!!

G. Gold or Silver:
Silver. Gold is tacky.

H. Height:
I think I'm about 5'6", maybe a little less.


I. Instruments:
None... I played the flute in 5th grade but I'm not sure I could anymore. I'd love to learn how to play piano.


J. Job title:
Student. I'm currently unemployed...

K. Kids:
Sometimes they're okay... otherwise NO!! I'm not sure I want any either!

L. Live:
New Hampshire... that key shaped state above Massachusetts and below Maine...

M. Mom’s name:
Jill.

N. Nicknames:
I don't really have any... there aren't many options for Fiona. I used to be called "Fe" in middle school or even worse "Fifi" in elementary school. I hate both!!

O. Overnight hospital stays:
Have I had any? No.

P. Pet peeve:
Oh I have sooo many. Number one... hmmm... spitting I guess. I also hate it when people talk on those bluetooth things in public, people who talk in the bathroom (on the toilet) and poor spelling and grammar. Yeah, a lot of things irritate me.

Q. Quote from a movie:
Oh jeez. The quote that was here before I deleted it (I copied this directly from Glitta Glove's site) was from Mean Girls and thats all I can think of now so... "I don't hate you because you're fat. You're fat because I hate you." - girl at the "venting" session.

R. Right or left handed:
Right dominant but I can use both hands for most things... I'm semi-ambidextrous...

S. Siblings:
Cullen (15) and Rowenna (13)

T. Time you wake up:
I don't like to wake up before noon most days if I can but it all depends on what's going on that day.

U. Underwear:
?? What about it?

V. Vegetables you dislike:
Peas and corn.

W. What makes you run late:
? What an odd question? Um... lot's of things. Not paying attention to time, oversleeping, being on the computer and losing track of time...

X. X-Rays you’ve had:
My hand and wrist a few times... my teeth a million times.


Y. Yummy food you make:
I make kick ass french toast, brownies, lasagna, barbecue chicken, carrot cake, all kinds of cookies... I'm a pretty good cook, but I don't always like to do it because I have/had to cook for my family a lot growing up. I think my mom asking (forcing) me make dinner when I was 12 and beyond, kinda squished all the joy for me...

Z. Zoo:
?? Uh, I like going to them but I have mixed feelings about them as well because I think its so horrible that the animals are locked up in cages.



Well, that was interesting... 

I also tag anyone who wants to do this!


I hope you all enjoy your Friday and weekend... in case I don't post until then. :)

Fiona