Blast from the Past...I'm in the mood for a bit of Heaven!

I love this polish, it totally helps cheer me up! I
need a backup of it!!

Have you ever had one of those days when you're just moody as heck for no real reason¹, and every time someone speaks to you, you either want to scream at them or curl up and cry? Yea, me too, only mine seems to be one of those weeks. Very frustrating!

I'm taking a new medication for my fibro, and unfortunately it's got a list of side effects that's pretty unnerving: simple ones like blurred vision, dry mouth, weight gain, and drowsiness; and more upsetting ones like back and forth eye movements, chest pain, fainting, loss of coordination, memory loss, speech changes, twitching, and worst of all- "new or worsening mental or mood changes (eg, depression, agitation, anxiety, panic attacks, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, irritability, hostility, exaggerated feeling of well-being, restlessness, inability to sit still)."²

Now, normally I wouldn't be too concerned about this. There's just one little thing... I took another drug that's very similar to this one and ended up having extremely bad "mood changes." I won't go into it, but let's just say the doctor got me off of it really quickly after we explained what happened. Knowing that, my doctor and I discussed whether I should even try this drug, and we're in the process of slowly building up to a theraputic dosage of this drug. Right now, I'm taking the dose they'd give an unwell 80 year old woman. My doctor said that I won't notice positive results yet, but hopefully if I do react badly, it won't be nearly as bad as before.

Unfortunately (it seems I'm saying that a lot in this entry... ah well...) my doctor left the clinic two months ago. My last visit was with the nurse practitioner (whom I absolutely adore), and Monday I'll get to meet my new doctor. I'm a bit anxious about this, bu I'm optimistic, and if it doesn't go well, I still have options. I'm just afraid I won't be taking this medicine any longer, and I really was hoping it would work well for me.

That's a heck of a long introduction to explain why I'm in the mood for happy things!! However, between overdoing it on our little vacation the last couple of weekends and this new medicine, I'm one grumpy camper. I'm working very hard not to snap at the people around me and not to be a total pain in the butt. To help with this, I'm finding myself doing little things to cheer myself up.

For example, I am writing this blog wearing my pink penguin pajamas, with the absolutely adorable patch on the shirt that has a sweet little penguin dressed in a lime green scarf and hat and absolutely covered in green microglitter! The glitter doesn't even come off, it's mixed into a clearcoat, so it's not scratchy or anything! I love these PJs more than I should, probably, considering I'm a thirty-something mom!

Also, I've been experimenting with nail colors. I've been a bad blogger and not taken photos, but you'll have to forgive me. With the fibro acting up, I've had a hard time carrying the camera, much less dealing with Photoshop. You'll have to make do with photos from the archive and vivid descriptions, sorry!

Two days ago I painted my nails again. I was in the mood to experiment, so I started with Sally Hansen Salon Reddy to Mingle. It's a sheerish red with a very slight shimmer that's really intense, and slightly on the warm side. Absolutely gorgeous, and one coat did all I needed. I decided I wanted to warm it up even more, so I added a coat of Sinful Colors Let's Meet, a sheer shimmery yellow that I absolutely adore. Between the two, my nails were a very nice slightly streaky orange that I really liked. I wanted to up the sparkle factor, though, so I added a coat of Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Grapefruit Glimmer.

The final result was a gorgeous reddish-orange with super sparkle. I don't think I could have gotten any more sparkle without adding glitter! I liked the way the color was built up of sheer colors, because it wasn't that flat opaque look you sometimes get. There's nothing wrong with that, but this was interesting, and you should know by now how much I like interesting!!

Today has been a busy day, and I managed to twist my knee while I was out and about. I'm icing it now, and I decided I wanted a bit more ... more. So, I dug deep into the polish vault and dug out one of my all-time favorites- Ruby, by Heaven Nail Lacquer. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff Nail Coor in Red Forever Creme. This polish is super-old, I don't even remember when I bought it! However, it's still a fantastic polish, and one coat is all I need. I topped that with two coats of Ruby, and oh my goodness, does this sparkle. This is definitely doing the trick, although I've got all sorts of other ideas now for glitter polishes.

And of course, I topped them off both times with Seche Vite. I'm starting to twitch, because I'm almost out! Looks like I really need to get those Etsy listings up! C'mon brain, you can do it!!

So, that's my day, and my nails for the next few days. Let's hope my mood improves, so I don't have to tell my new doctor on Monday that this medicine is making me do all sorts of awful things. Cross your fingers for me, ok?

¹ I don't even get PMS anymore, so I can't blame that!

² Side effects copied from http://www.drugs.com

³ This was well before my polish obsession, back when I didn't know how to properly clean up my nails, or how to use cuticle remover. And I wondered why I had trouble keeping my polish on!

Trying new medication sucks. I don't recommend it.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Heaven Nail Lacquer is waiting for you...

I got so many questions about where, exactly, I bought my Heaven polish. I felt a little guilty, because I was waiting til I could get there and snap a few pictures to tell. What can I say, I wanted to share all the colors, not just one! So... the big secret is out. If you're looking for lots of fun colors at completely affordable prices, go to . . .

You read that right. Go to the cosmetics department at your local Albertsons grocery store and pharmacy. I bet you didn't know they had an extensive cosmetics department! The only way I knew is because I have a family member who used to manage the cosmetics department in her local Albertsons. She would bring me the most wonderful things all the time.

The interesting thing is that the Albertsons cosmetics department isn't managed by any old grocery store manager. No, they realize that cosmetics are important to women, so their departments actually are staffed by cosmeticians! So you really should stop by and look to see what's there... you might be pleasantly surprised.

Oh wait, I did that for you! Now, let me preface this by saying that just because these were found at my local store doesn't mean they'll be at all stores, but I know that this is a concept Albertsons is proud of across the board, so I bet you might have more luck than you might expect. So, your mileage may vary, keep your seatbelts on, and let's see what I found!

Heaven Nail Lacquer, Ruby

There are polishes that absolutely everyone knows about- China Glaze, Orly, OPI, Nfu-Oh, the list goes on and on. They're fabulous polishes, don't get me wrong. But sometimes, it can be fun to find something new, something that hasn't been talked to death already. What can I say, if something's been shown on every other blog already, it makes me think maybe I shouldn't bother showing it?

Then there's the stuff no one talks about. I won't lie. I've been googling myself mad, looking for someone, anyone talking about this stuff. I wondered if the company squeezes live kittens into bottles, or tests their polishes on penguin beaks, upsetting their natural feeding cycle and killing millions every day. Because surely, if a polish was this good, someone would have blogged it by now?

Maybe not. Maybe I'm just lucky, and happened to wander into a place no one has thought to look for interesting new inexpensive nail polishes. If so? AWESOME!! I mean, do you see the polish on my thumb, here? And that, my friends, is without the benefit of a topcoat. This polish is something special, and I cannot say enough good things about it.

This polish is from Heaven Nail Lacquer, in the shade Ruby. You're looking at two coats, no topcoat, shot with a flash. I'm stunned, because honestly, this doesn't capture the beauty of the glitter, the depth of it. This stuff sparkles, with a depth that is absolutely insane. Add a topcoat to it and it's absolutely impossible to stop looking at it.

This bottle of polish cost a grant total of $2, give or take. I think it was $1.99, but I can't swear to it. I'm planning a blog fieldtrip soon, in which I take you all with me to the cosmetics department in which this sweet little beauty lived before it came home with me. This one is my precious, and I think it may be my favorite polish, at least for today.

Now, clearly this one isn't big 3 free. No, it's about as fulla 3 as you can get, but for $2, can you really complain? I wish I could compare it in RL to China Glaze's Ruby Pumps. From what I've seen, this could be very similar to it. It's a rich jelly polish with dense silver microglitter that shines up through the jelly for super depth and interest. I'm serious when I say that when I wear this, I can't stop looking at my fingers. Every time they catch the light, I get a wave of giggles inside, and I feel like I'm wearing Dorothy's ruby slippers on my fingertips!

Of course, I'm also a bit sappy, so it doesn't hurt that my husband got this for me for Mother's day. It's a long story, but a sweet one, and so it makes this polish just that much sweeter. Nothing like a bit of romance to make a great polish even greater!

Take care, lovelies. I've been up all night, and I think I need to curl up with my husband for the few minutes I can and appreciate how lucky I am. Give your honey an extra-loving hug this morning while you can, just because you can. :D

♥, Laynie