One Lovely Blog Award

Tara, owner of For Your Nails Only, gave me a blog award.  I'm flattered and honored.

I love it that there are pink roses in this one.  Very pretty.
And talking about pretty, do visit Tara's blog.  She is a master of nail art.  I'm hooked into seeing what she'll come up with next.

Passing on the goodness, I award the 'One Lovely Blog Award' to:
Just Peachy
Jeweled Thumb
Lacquered Lizard

Thank you all for giving me inspiration and friendship.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

OK, so not many, anymore, can appreciate the movie, The Sound of Music.  But it was quite the movie in its day.   And the song from that movie, My Favorite Things, has become a Christmas classic.  Funny, since it wasn't Christmas in the movie.

I'm sharing a few of my favorites with you today.  What would life be without sparkles and looks of winter holidays.

This is a polish color that is like a brand, new penny...

From OPI's Burlesque collection, 'Rising Star.'  I got the Little Teaser collection to get 4 different colors for less than the price of 2 larger bottles.   Here the photo shows it looking quite gold, however. 

Outdoors shows a truer sense of 'Rising Star.'  For as cute as these little mini bottles are, there are some downsides.  One, the size of the bottle is a real pain to hold onto.  And second, it takes some getting use to the squaty brush.  Well, actually the stem part.  Yet, many of us will go through this just to wear OPI.  They have the reputation of polish that applies well and wears well.

Unlike a shiny penny, this copper has sparkles of copper within it...

And for my pedicure, I choice a color that looks like sparkling snow...

From their winter collection, Finger Paint's 'Winter Wishes.' 

Other bloggers that have reviewed this said that it is opaque.  After the first coat I was wondering what was wrong with my color, or my technique, because it looked more like an overlay. But the second layer give it the color depth I wanted.

I wanted it to look like this on my toes.  It's a beige colored base with silver micro-glitter.  But I think I see some iridescent glitter as well.  It's a new to me color and I love it.
Finger Paints are very affordable polishes and they perform quite well.  "Winter Wishes' was very easy to apply.  But it didn't dry as fast as I thought it would.  So, after some sitting around the house, I had to get out and get some errands done.  I put on my shoes.  I scrunched the polish on my big toes.

No problem, I just redid them.  However, I noticed something quite unusual.  When I first started to scrub off the polish, the color morphed and it began to look more like the color in the bottle.  Here you can see the color difference between a half scrubbed big toe next to the second toe produced from the original pedicure.

Nevertheless, I like this color.  It's frosty, chilly and a real winter color.

Granted, it doesn't seem like the holidays are coming up, being in Florida.  But I can create the feeling with my nail polishes.  Just a few of my favorite things.

Kitschy Suburbia's 150th Post Giveaway

Megan owns 'Kitschy Suburbia' blog.  She has reached her 150th post on her blog and she is celebrating it by having a giveaway.

Now, first off, I think Megan should get the prize because this is one busy chick!  Yet finds time to spend with her family, work a job in the medical field (been there, I know how draining that work can be), whip up some awesomely good meals and shares the recipes, and, on top of all that has her own blog sharing her love of nail polishes, along with family life.  Phew!  Seriously, I couldn't do all that AND still be as sweet as Megan.

Here is just a bit of the giveaway (and it's a sweet one!!!!)...

This photo belongs to Kitschy Suburbia.  I have been given permission to use it in this post.

This is a collection called 'Glitter Vixen' from Color Club.  Which, just happens to be one of my very favorite brands.  Put some glitter in it and O-M-G!!!  I don't have this one, but would love to add it to my collection.

In order to find out what you can do to get your entry in, go over to Kitschy Suburbia Blog, check out the rules for entering and do follow this blog.  It's all-around fun and Megan is a sweetheart.

Don't Taupe on My Gray Suede Shoes

I'm a firm believer that work should not get in the way of your hobbies.  However, I took on a new company to finance my hobby.  I'm sure many of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.  I've been able to read blogs but not post as much.  If you want to read some nail blogs, just take a look over on the side of the blogs I follow.  Each one of them are super blogs!  Really, add them to your blog list.

I have this bag I keep all my swatched polishes in.  I got through it and try to find the photos that match it.  I have got to find a better organizational method.  I did figure out to take a photo of the color's name to help me figure out which polish it is.  That's right; some of us have to stumble into our moments of brilliance. 

One I finally found a match for with photos and a bottle in the bag...*groan*
Here's Color Clubs' 'Positively Posh'.  This one is from the Untamed Luxury collection.

Maybe I've been brain-washed from all the '80's and 90's office dress codes, however, this one would not have been 'appropriate' then.  Screw that!  I think this is the new office appropriate color.  If you want to wear a darker, somewhat vampy color, try 'Positively Posh.'  And if your supervisor complains, give her a bottle of her own.  She'll be rewriting the employee dress code before you can say 'Quick Dry.'

This polish color is hard for me to explain.  It's a dark taupe.  It's a dirty gray.  It's also a super muted gray/purple.  I'll pick a shimmer, glitter or sparkle over a creme almost any day.  But I will say, that I rather adore this creme color.

I've given up, almost, on those cuticles.  I went so long without chewing them.  Yes, that's gross.  And honestly, I thought I had the habit licked when I started nail blogging.  However, there is no hiding the fact in my photos.  Favorite place to chew cuticles; the car.  If I was a smoker, I'd be chain-smoking.

Moving on to something un-gross...Color Club has me by the heart.  I love their price, I love their quirky yet fun colors, the way this polish seems to glide on, I like the brush that isn't skinny and how easy it is to hold the bottle.  Only downers--There's only one place in Orlando you can get these and I have to order them online if I want to get them sooner.  Not anything hard to overcome, though.

I love it when I see a photo of a nail polish and the light shines off it.  The shine here looks like ripples in the polish however, it's just the reflection off the window. 

This is with a BC, 1 coat of Seche Clear, 2 color coats, 1 Seche Clear and then one Vite.  What's missing is an application of Lemony Butter by Lush!  No excuses because that container sits right on my end table in the living room.  It's handy, no less.

'Positively Posh' is a color I love wearing.  And if I was back in the corporate world, I'd wear this.  No questions or regrets.

Do you have a dress code that dictates what colors you can wear?  If you do, what color do you wear, if any?

Thanksgiving Nail Polish Tradition

This polish(es) are really old!  I can't even tell you how long I've had them.  You'll be able to tell by the bottle shape that these are ancient Sally Hansen's.

Every fall, around Thanksgiving, I fall in love with this combo.  However, I did some comparisons.
First...

I start off with SH's 'Bronzegold Frost.'  This will tell you how old this is; it says it's made with nylon.  Didn't nylon go out of fashion when spandex came on board?
Then, over 'Bronzegold Frost' I layer 'Gilded Pink'...

Bronze glitter.  Cool.  Since these are old SH's, they have that skinny brush that you just want to throw at a Claire Marie writer.  How in the world did we put up with those skinny, terrible brushes for so long?  And then, since I've had this since Cleopatra used henna for polish, it was on the thick side.  I'm not ditching these until I find some dupes!

That's some sassy bronze glitter.  After just two coats, it made a beautiful combo...

Damn!  I buggered up my middle finger.  And wouldn't you it, I didn't see it til I got a photo.  sigh

So, I got to thinking (why do people step back 3 feet away from me when I say that??).  What if I have another overlay that would sort of look like this one?

I've had this one for a bit, but not years like the first two.  This is Cover Girl's Boundless Color 'Ruby Dust'...

This is what it looks like over the SH 'Bronzegold Frost'...

This is still got that bronze look within.  The glitter is different sizes as well.  The large bits of glitter are iridescent and bronze.  The microglitter is bronze.

And now, a side by side comparison...

Not a whole lot of difference.  The 'Ruby Dust' just seems to have the chunky glitter where the 'Gilded Pink' is all glitter.  I did use 2 coats on both of these.  And, these are over 2 coats of the base, 'Bronzegold Frost.'

You may need to stand back three feet, because I started thinking again.
I would not have called 'Gilded Pink' pink.  It's bronze.  So to check for myself, I got out another pink overlay.  Here I'm showing Wet'N'Wild's 'Sparked.'

I have Sally Hansen's 'Bronzegold Frost' at the top.  Second row is Sally Hansen's 'Gilded Pink', then Wet'N'Wild's 'Sparked', last is Cover Girl's 'Ruby Dust.'  Does 'Gilded Pink' look more like bronze and, 'Ruby Dust' look more like pink than rubies?

This is my traditional fall/Thanksgiving manicure.  It's the polishes I use right after Halloween and have, for more years than I care to count up.  But as with almost any look, it's good to spice it up, update it and then call it 'Retro.'

Does anyone else have a Thanksgiving season beauty ritual?  Which do you like the best; Gilded Pink or Ruby Dust?