Blue Iguana

Hello!

How is everyone this lovely (?) sunny Sunday? I'm in a much better mood than I was in yesterday, although my post titles haven't gotten any more creative...

In case you didn't already guess, I'm going to show you all today China Glaze Blue Iguana from this summer's Island Escape collection. Unless you don't follow a lot of blogs or are new to nail polish, you have probably seen this color about a million times already. I'm sorry. But in truth, I don't really care. This is (in part) my blog and I'll show what I like. :) I don't have a lot of money and our blog is not huge so we don't get to sample collections before everyone else so we get polishes when we get them even if they've been out for a while and people have already shown them and discussed to death. End rant. Sorry about that... I get a little fired up sometimes. Annnyyway...

Blue Iguana is an absolutely gorgeous bright, medium blue glass fleck shimmer that almost has a metallic finish. It also has a slight purple flash that is not visible in all light and is very hard to capture on film, but I tried like hell. It is kinda sheer and I was going to layer it since my nails are so badly stained and my nail line is kinda wacky but before I did that I tried it on its own first just to see if I could get it opaque. And I'm so glad I did wear it alone!! Layering it over itself gives it so much depth that layering it over an opaque color wouldn't do. I was able to get it opaque in 3 thickly applied coats. The good thing was that I was able to apply it thick since the formula was fantastic, not gloopy or runny or thick either, just perfect and easy to control, plus it dried relatively fast. I was able to apply a thick first coat to all 10 of my nails and by the time I finished my 10th nail, the first nail was dry! Even on the second coat, the same thing happened. I didn't even have to use any of my limited supply of SV to dry it before going to sleep. I didn't wake up with sheet marks all over either! Very happy with the formula of this! Even more happy with the color! Its beyond gorgeous... *sigh* There's so much depth and complexity and the hidden purple flash is so fascinating when it comes out! Okay, enough babbling, here are the pictures.

Please excuse my slightly blue toned cuticles. I did this mani at 3 AM and that's also when I did my clean-up. It looked good to me then but I guess maybe I shouldn't do clean-up at 3 AM. And like I said before, I'm working on moisturizing... it won't happen overnight. This first one is in the shade. The next three are in full, bright sunlight.

These next few pictures are in tree shade where I'm trying to capture the purple flash.

Then I gave on holding the bottle and capturing the purple...

Here it is (look closely and use your imagination a little...) at the top edges...

Grrrr... I swear its there!!

And here are some more bonus kitty pictures, I know two posts in a row!! But Marley was being extra photogenic today, like he was begging for his picture to be taken!!

Here's one of him sleeping on the couch last night just being the cutie-patootie that he is!

And these are from today. I think I got a few really good ones, if I do say so myself...

And my favorite ever I think...

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!!

I'm expecting some super awesome nail mail tomorrow so hopefully there will be a super amazing post tomorrow!! :) *EDIT* There won't be a post from me tomorrow because I just found out my family and I are going to the beach!

Thanks for looking, commenting and following!

Fiona

Uninspired...

Hello!

Hey, sorry guys that I missed a few days. I've been feeling really lazy lately due to the super hot weather we've had here and as a result that makes me rather polish uninspired. Since my 4th of July mani, I put on Orly Royal Velvet which I meant to take pictures of but it was just always too hot to make myself go outside to take them. :( I wore that alone all day Tuesday and then Wednesday morning I layered on top of it Sally Hansen HD Laser which looked super amazing. But I couldn't get myself to take pictures of it. It looked about the same as it does on black so you can just Google pictures of that if you're curious. I will most definitely be wearing both again soon so I will get pictures of them eventually. I wore that combo all day Wednesday and Thursday (rare for me, but I was lazy and I loved it!) and then Friday I put on the current mani I have on which I will show you today.

I've been wanting to try China Glaxe Crushed Candy ever since I saw the press release pictures of the collection months and months ago. I was finally able to get to get in my Ulta haul and spent a good amount of time swatching it under a bunch of colors on my palette (plastic container lid) to decide what it looked best over. I finally decided I liked it over Zoya Jolene so that was my mani for Friday. I haven't taken it off since then like I normally do; I normally change my mani daily.

This is 2 thick coats of Zoya Jolene with China Glaze Crushed Candy and SV. I'm sorry if you're sick of seeing crackles and I realize I'm late to the party on showing this one, but I really don't care! This is day 2 of this mani so excuse any minor tip wear.

This is indoor with flash so the colors look a bit more vibrant than they actually are and my skin is definitely not that color!

Outdoors in the setting sun. My skin is a little dry looking because I wash my hands so much and spend a lot of time in the A/C... sorry. I'll have to try to be better about moisturizing.

And here's some bonus pictures because I feel bad about slacking on posting. My kitty Synyster was outside overseeing his territory while I was taking pictures so I took his picture as well.

He's a 5 year old part Maine Coon and weighs about 18 lbs!!

Here he is watching over the chickens in the yard.

I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend and hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a post!

Thanks for looking, commenting and following!!

Fiona

WnW Gray's Anatomy, party nails and pedi, and animals being cute

Hello!

Sorry for the completely uncreative title... First off I am finally up to date in reading blogs so this explains why I have just today commented on some of your posts from days and days ago. I'm so happy to be up to date because, truthfully, it was really stressing me out being behind. I have spent pretty much all day today in front of the computer just reading posts... 5 hours or more!! I'm so unproductive! But I am posting today so I think that might make up for it (in my own world it does!) I'm also in talkative mood today so forgive me if I babble on and on. I'll just bold in what's important and you guys can choose to either read the long or the short version!! I hope you guys don't mind. As my friend's mom said yesterday (she's also kinda my second mom!!) "Fiona can't tell a short story!" Haha, so true!

First off, as you've probably gathered from the title is some swatches of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy. I was too lazy to go and get the bottle upstairs (its REALLY hot and humid here, like 91 degrees F) so here are some awkward bottle-less swatches. Sunlight pics, woooo whoo!!!

I'm gonna apologize right off for any weird dents, bubbles and some polish on my skin that I swear I didn't notice before taking this pictures. It was a bad mani night last night. :(

This is 4 ish coats of GA, a semi-sheer silver with lilac and cool green flashes. Definitely a multi-chrome. I know this was popular a few months or so ago and everyone was swatching it then, so I'm kinda late. Better late than never. I'd wanted this one for a while now, but it was always sold out at the WnW displays. Supposedly, this is a close dupe of Lippman's Wicked Game and very similar to OPI Not Like the Movies from the Katy Perry collection.

I'm wearing 4+ coats because like I said it was a bad mani night. Its opaque and looks fine at 3 coats, 2 if you don't mind some VNL. I was watching I Am Number Four last night with my mom while doing my nails (I don't suggest do a mani on the couch while watching a movie. It never comes out very well) so I was rushing because she had already started the movie and I didn't want to miss it. Its an awesome movie by the way, I recommend seeing it!! Anyway, I did 3 coats and sat to watch the movie. Now, I'll admit I tend to fidget a lot while watching movies, I can't just sit still!! So I was picking the dried polish on my pallete (plastic bin cover) and ended up ruining the tips of some nails. So I did another coat to fix it. Then it was too thick and goopy and not drying, so I gave in and used SV, even though I'm trying to conserve it, and let that dry. I continued picking at the dried polish (its fun to peel it off!!) and the SV wasn't playing nicely with the 4 goopy coats of GA so I ended up with dents still. :( GA also bubbled a little (or a lot...) so that didn't help. Moral of the story is not to do too many coats because it may not dry right and you'll end up with a crappy mani.

Its still super pretty though so I don't mind all the trouble it cost me. This is one the most subdued manis I've ever worn on here and I kinda like it. I still was tempted not to put either pink, gray or black crackle on it or stamp some skulls or something, lol!!

I also totally LOVE the name of this! I love all the bad TV show puns from this collection! They're terribley fantastic! I used to love the show Grey's Anatomy and used to watch re runs of it on Oxygen (I think) all last summer, starting from the beginning. My absolute favorite character was George as I have a thing for baby-faced guys with shaggy hair. After Googling the actor who played him, I learned that his character was killed off (spolier alert!!) in the second or third season, which depressed me to no end because I really only watched the show for him (his name is T.R. Knight if you are unfamiliar with the show) so I watched up until the episode before he dies because I couldn't bear to see him die (I know, I know, its only a show!!) and then I stopped watching it.
I also hated watching the opening credits of that show because at the time last year I was going through a break up with a guy named Patrick Dempsey (for real!!) and was really sad about it. It wasn't so much of a break up, but I don't know what else to call it because its a very loong story and I've already babbled so much. Basically he wasn't answering my facebook messages and being an @$$hole in general. We'd had a "thing" and gone on at least one date but we never really in a relationship so he's technically not my ex. So, seeing his name so much in the opening credits was actually making me sadder so I always avoided the opening. I'm okay with posting this personal info because he would never ever be reading this since he cut himself off from me completely.


Speaking of subdued (or not subdued), here's the mani I wore yesterday to my really good friend's graduation party (let's call her "J" since I call her that too!!) These were taken after the party so I apologize for the major chipping and the gross yellow nail tips!

This is alternating in between 1 coat of Orly Gumdrop with WnW Kaleidoscope (holo glitter for 99 cents!!) and 2 coats of Nicole Nicole's Nickel with Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Fuchsia Shock with SV. Apparently, this combination of polishes didn't hold up too well because this chipped off, as you can see, in less than 24 hours. After the pictures, I was able to peel this all off in sheets. I should also mention that the first time I wore NN with SV, it all peeled off in sheets as well after about a day. The same thing happened with the combo of Nicole One Less Lonely Glitter and SV. I don't know if this is just my body chemistry or the combination of these opaque Nicole glitters and SV. It weird and I am not a fan of it.

Also, as you can also see the SH crackle didn't want to crack so well. I tried it over tacky polish but I think the coats were too thick. I did them thick because I wanted it to be opaque, but then I decided I like the effect of the glitter shining through it after the fact. I think I will do thinner coats next time over tacky polish because it definitely doesn't crack very well over completely dry.

I do like the way it cracked on my index though, as seen above. I kept these small because the yellow of my tips and peeling skin.

And here's the pedi I wore to the party with my matching shoes. Here's the picture of the shoes I posted on here when I first got them a few months ago, in case you didn't see it then. This is off the Khol's website.

Here's me in the shoes and my matching pedi. You can see my dog Cocoa's paw behind my feet, she insisted on being in the picture!!

Small because my toes are kinda ugly and red!! Please ignore my messed up left big toe. As I mentioned before, I had a procedure done on it to remove an ingrown toenail and kill off the nail so it wouldn't grow back. Its small and skinny now as compared to my chubby toes!


For this pedi, I used 1 coat of Orly Snowcone, which I wanted solely for the purpose of matching to these shoes, I promise its the exact same color, it just looks bright here. I also attempted to stamp one of my about 50 flower images from my fauxnad plates using Konad white. I was not having a good stamping night and its quite difficult to stamp on toes anyway, so it came out pretty terrible.

Out in the sunlight! Yeah, I have cankles... boo. And suuuuuper pale legs and feet which I pretty proud of. I embrace my paleness!!

And finally, my dog Cocoa wanted to be in the indoor pictures of the shoes so I decided to take some pictures of her and my cat Marley who was just hanging out. Some of them came out pretty cute so I decided to share them! 

She is TOTALLY posing for the camera here, look at that sassy eye roll!!

Here I was trying to get a picture of Marley, but Cocoa stuck her giant head in the picture at the last second!! Hahahaa!!

Here's Marley!!

Cocoa intruding on the picture again!!

Marley being a fat lazy and HOT! cat. I mean hot because it was so hot out today!

Thanks for reading my lengthy novel of a post if you did and I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day (our American readers) and Monday for everyone else!! 

Fiona

Zoya, Zoya, Zoya!

Hello!

I'm sorry this isn't up sooner, like a few days ago sooner. I had a busy weekend with no time to post. I meant to, because I took pictures... but yeah. Enough excuses.

Let's get right to the Zoya pictures, shall we...

Fist up is one you've already seen on me as a pedi but here is this beauty as a mani.

Zoya Ivanka, 3 coats I think, with SV. There was definitely not this much VNL in real life, I swear!

Please excuse my gross stained nails and wacky nail line... just focus on the color!! :) I wore this for Green Wednesday last week... (yeah, thats how behind I am) but never posted it...

Next is Thursday's mani, the gorgeous Dannii.

Zoya Dannii, 2 coats, I think, with SV, this is super opaque!

This was pretty hard to capture, its not as bright or as pink as the first picture shows. Its not pink at all!! This is pretty accurate.

And last is Friday's mani, Faye. I know you've all seen this one a million times recently, but its worth another look!

This is so NOT accurate!! It showed much more gold on me than plum/mauve. I liked it, because it was different, but I kinda wish the purple tone had showed more.

THIS is what it ended up looking like. Stunningly sparkly!! This is 3 coats with SV. However, later that day, a piece almost the size of my whole nail on my index finger started to peel up and when I peeled it, it took almost all the polish off in a sheet!! :( So on Saturday I redid that nail and did an extra coat on all my nails and found that the SV kinda dulls the sparkle a little because the new coat was so incredibly sparkly. Either that or the initial crazy sparkliness started to dull as I wore it. Weird. (Wow, how many times did I say "sparkle" or "sparkly" in that last sentence?)

Please excuse what looks to be tip wear. I think I need to start wrapping my tips now that my nails are getting long. I did just break my index nail on this hand though so its a little shorter. :(

I hope you guys liked that!! Sorry again about the delay!

I'm also giving you guys a heads up that I will probably need to go on a short blogging hiatus starting either at the end of this week or next week that will probably last all next week, except for a birthday mani post! :) I have finals next week and will be quite busy so... yeah.

I hope you guys enjoyed your weekends (Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!!) and enjoy your Monday! Thanks for looking!

P.S.
Bonus pics!! We got a new dog! Our beloved dog that we had for 8 years passed away last week so we decided it was time for a new addition!

Her name is Cocoa, she's 3 1/2 and is a Lab, Golden Retriever and Springer Spaniel mix. So far she is fitting in well! She's so full of love and energy!

And here's Marley, checking out one of our chickens! :)

Fiona