An experiment that works!

I should wait. I know it. I get way too excited about things before they're finished, then I tell everyone and the surprise is ruined. But I'm halfway through the first set of these, and I think I can share my test nail without ruining too much of the surprise. So, humor me, will ya?

Yesterday, my husband and I went walking through a variety of shops- hobby stores, craft stores, etc. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love wandering through a creative-type store, because I never know exactly what's going to catch my eye, or what I'm going to go home with.

Thanks to this wandering I get to show you a preview of my next set of nails. They're for halloween ... they're spooooky monster nails! Be afraid!

Ok, maybe they aren't exactly scary, but they're monsters! Monsters with googly eyes! The nail in the picture is the second to smallest size nail tip, so most have more room for painting and detailing. Thankfully, I've got all sorts going.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this set. I was painting last night in a room alone, giggling to myself about how silly and cute some of these monsters are. There are no details yet, but personalities are already starting to show. I cannot WAIT to finish this set!

So, what do you think? Have you started thinking about halloween at all? Am I the only one who starts thinking about halloween in August? Talk to me!

No H8- my inspired reaction to the overturning of Proposition 8.

I'm not even sure what to say about this, really. When I heard yesterday that Proposition 8 had been overturned, I was so overwhelmed. I sat and smiled, feeling history being made, and wondered what had taken so long to get to this point. I told my husband, my son. My online friends and I talked and laughed, happy for some good news for a change.

Then last night before I was heading to bed, I found this post- the Daily Nail's post about her No H8 manicure. I love rainbows as you may have noticed in my past blogs, but even more so I love the idea of the No H8 campaign. I also absolutely agree with every word she said in her blog. So when I saw her manicure, I knew I wanted to do my own spin on the idea. But be aware that this one came directly from the Daily Nail.

I immediately pulled out all my stuff and got down to business. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails base coat, then I mixed custom colors for the rainbow in acrylic paints*. For some reason, I like my rainbows with brighter colors, rather than the traditional red, so I used Medium Magenta, Brilliant Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue straight from the tube and mixed the purple, green, and orange from these. For my left thumb, I used 2 coats of Fantasy Makers** white, then used a dotter with Fantasy Makers black and Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff in Red Forever Creme to do the lettering.

I took the picture to the right before I'd even finished cleaning up. My fingers are so messy... don't judge me, please! At that point, it was something like 2:30 am and I was absolutely crashing. I shoved everything back into my polish box and tried to sleep some. Once I got up, I realized that I didn't like the way the colors looked, so I decided to top the rainbow fingers off with a holographic top coat. I grabbed my Milani HD and did a thin coat over all the rainbow nails, leaving the NO H8 thumb alone.

I did another round of cleanup and scrubbed my hands nicely and wound up with this, and I think I'm pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, no one has noticed my nails yet. But it's ok. I know what they mean... they sum up my belief that love doesn't discriminate between color or gender, and that our laws shouldn't either. I have no problem with churches refusing to marry couples of the same sex, because that is their right. But there is a difference between marriage in the church and a legal marriage, and the church, in my opinion, has no right to step into legal matters.

Be happy, be safe, and be kind to each other. Those are the best suggestions I have for this life...

*I use Liquitex Professional Acrylic Artist Color in Heavy Body for my acrylic paints.
**Fantasy Makers polishes are distributed by Markwins Beauty Products Inc.

Sally Hansen- Rockstar Pink: My Unbirthday Nails

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't gotten around to putting together a lemming list. It's not that I don't have polishes I drool over, polishes I have planned for when I can squirrel away a few dollars that aren't going toward school supplies or school clothes or kiddo's needs. But with life being what it is, and my somewhat limited amount of energy, that lemming list has gotten pushed to the back burner.

However, for my birthday, I was happy to snag one of the polishes I've been eying every time I pass a Sally Hansen display. This time, I picked up Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink.

I'm not sure where the "rockstar" in the name comes in, but let me say how much I adore it. This polish is truly a glitterbomb of happiness! Overall, it seems to be a cool, rather dusty pink at first glance. Almost a lavender, really, although it seems a bit mottled when you first look.

But when you look more closely, you find absolutely insane amounts of glitter! Not just pink... no, there are lots of colors: pink, lavender, purple, blue, red, gold, silver?  It's hard to tell, because they're so small, but it's so amazing. The picture to the right is 2 coats, and despite the photo, it's basically full coverage with those two coats. I swatched briefly to see what I thought, before doing all my nails.

I decided to use a base coat of pink, something to give it a bit more depth, I guess. I didn't realize just how full coverage those two coats would be! I used a single coat of Nail Fantasies in Peppermint Patty, a beautiful hot pink creme that is almost neon, but not quite. If I were wearing it alone, I'd need two coats, but for this one was sufficient.

Then I layered two coats of Rockstar Pink on top, and realized that the pink didn't show at all. I could have saved the drying time, but next time I'll know. I topped it off with a layer of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails quick-dry topcoat, and enjoyed their glassy smoothness.

Now I have to be honest- while this polish is amazingly fun and glittery, it's also the worst glitter I've had to remove. I've never had a problem like this removing glitters! I felt like trying to sand off my fingernails with a belt sander before I was done! Honestly, it took me a full hour to get this stuff off, and by the end I was cursing up a storm.

Gorgeous color, freaking lousy removal. Plus it was chipped all to hell after 2 days. Maybe it's a problem with the bast coat, I don't know, but I wasn't amused.

Still, I know it's just a matter of time before the glitterbomb bottle sings its siren song to me once again, and I've lacquered my nails with the juicy, glittery goodness of Rockstar Pink once again.

Thank you all for the happy birthday comments. You have absolutely no idea how much they meant to me. I had quite a roller-coaster of a day, complete with laughter and tears, freakouts and unsolicited hugs, and I even got to make a little boy in the middle of a meltdown feel better. Overall, it was a good day.

We went walking at Whole Foods last night, looking for Bacon Salt of all things. I was sure I'd seen on their website that Whole Foods was one of the places you could get it. It isn't, at least not anymore. But it was fun regardless. I got to see Zoya polishes in person (gorgeous!!) and even swatch a few, and that's where I made the little boy stop melting down. It's a great technique, actually. For small children in the middle of an actual breakdown, where they're not just being whiny or whatever, if you ask them a random question and can catch their attention, it interrupts the meltdown cycle and just stops it cold. It was beautiful, and the father was SO impressed.

The little boy was around 2, and looked absolutely exhausted. He was sobbing, huge tears rolling down his face, and his father was trying to get him to stop crying but seemed at a bit of a loss. So I stepped up and said, "Hey buddy, what's that in your hand? Is that a phone?"

He looked at me through the tears and just... stopped. The tears stopped, the vocalizing stopped, and you could clearly see what was going through his head: "What the hell is this weird lady talking about?" I talked to him for another 10-15 seconds, just to make sure the cycle had broken, then I smiled at his dad, who was looking at me like I was working magic or something. I told him briefly that when you can distract kids with a question the way I did, it can stop a meltdown. The kid was fine after that, for the next 10-15 minutes at least. :D

So overall it was a good day. I splurged for my birthday and got 3 nail polishes- woo! (Awesome $5, if you ask me!) I got Sally Hansen RockStar Pink (a $2.50 crazy glitter mix of pink, red, purple, blue, gold, silver... and who knows, maybe more!), Wet N Wild Wild Card ($1 for a shimmery lavender gorgeousness that defies pictures, apparently!), and Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost ($1, oddly not a frost but a deep blurple shimmer that is to DIE for!). I then came home and put on 2 coats of the glitterbomb, and now my nails are like... maybe radioactive candy? I don't know, but I love them!

Of course, we stopped off for groceries on the way home (because really? Us? Buy groceries at Whole Paychecks? Don't think so...) and of course, husband looked at me wrong and I had to fight off sobbing in the store the whole time we were there. Seriously, days like yesterday make me convinced I'm still PMSing. I tracked it for a while, and I swear it even happens fairly regularly every 4 weeks or so. Explain that one to me?

Then this morning I was off looking at blogs and went to make a comment. This particular blog had word verification on for commenting, and I cracked up at my particular word. It even inspired a cute little slogan. Some of you may appreciate it... and if not, bite me. It's my not-birthday.

So yea, blah. I've been up all night once again, and I'm just tired and moody and ... blah. But hey- I'm not dead yet. :D

Birthdays kinda suck sometimes.

A rare, picture-free post. It's my birthday, humor me.

Speaking of, birthdays sometimes suck. I've decided that I'm not actually having a birthday this year, so to speak. Instead, it's more of a I'm still not dead, so bite me day. Yea, I like that...

That doesn't mean I'm not going polish shopping for my not-birthday. :D

Sunday Sweets- Fun Manicure Items

Ok, maybe I'm too easily amused. But I saw these and I couldn't help but giggle. Did you realize that there are monkeys who will blow on your fingernails to dry them? I can just imagine having one of these. Who cares if it works, it's adorable!

You simply place your fingertips on top of his little bananas there, and he blows and blows on your nails til they're nice and dry. Now, I realize that they'll probably dry just as well without our little monkey friend, but HELLO, it's CUTE!!

Fine. Maybe you don't like monkeys. Maybe a monkey ate your grandmother's pet skunk or something. It's cool, you don't have to love monkeys to read my blog. It helps, but you don't have to or anything.

So, for the monkey-haters we have the Duckie Dryer! Isn't he CUTE? Now, he doesn't have a plate of whatever-it-is-duckies-eat, so you'll just have to wave your wet nails under his little beak and hope he doesn't decide to nibble one of them. I think it's worth it. And hey, he's by KONAD!

Seriously, I'm beginning to think all my nail tools should have googly eyes. Can't you see it? Dryers with googly eyes, nail files with googly eyes that wobble back and forth as you shape your nails, clippers that frown at you because their eyes don't get to move? (Clipping nails is bad, y'all!)

I decided to go hunting to see what other sorts of cute manicure tools I could find. You know, there's a ton of stuff out there! Who knew? I pulled a few of my favorites to share with you, because that's how I am. I share...

So I've stated that clipping your nails is bad, but if you absolutely must, then at least use the cutest clippers you can find. Hello Kitty is loved throughout the entire world, and also tends to be a bit of a brand slut- if you make it, you can put Hello Kitty on it. Don't believe me? Go googling one day with things you'd never expect to find with Hello Kitty on it. I have, but that's a different post entirely...

Back to Hello Kitty. Maybe you want to use her to do more than clip? Not a problem. Hello Kitty has her very own manicure set, complete with a battery-operated rotary tool for shaping and buffing, as well as a nail brush, a "cuticle lifter," and a nail dryer. Unfortunately, it's more of a toy than a manicure set, because from the reviews I've read the rotary tool doesn't have enough power to actually use. But it's cute, it's pink, and it's got Hello Kitty on it.

Oh yea, this kitty gets around.

 Last but not least, I give you this dainty little ice cream cone manicure kit. It's tiny, it's cute, and it contains everything you need for a quick manicure on the go. You even get your choice between strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla, and they all have sprinkles!

So talk to me- tell me what your ideal cute manicure kit would be? Are you partial to sweets? Animals? Cartoon characters? Leave me a comment and let me know what you'd love to see!

Til next time!
♥ Laynie

GOSH Holographic- Beauty and Sadness...

The colors of GOSH Holographic- rainbows weep with envy.

Most polishes are the same. They're pretty enough, they're nice enough, but they're nothing terribly special, and you wouldn't cry if you lost one. How many pink or red cremes are out there, almost alike, almost identical, and nothing exciting. You've had red cremes in the past, you'll have red cremes in the future, and it's one thing that you can always find with no problem at all...

But every now and then, you find a polish that's different. A polish that stands out from the crowd, that excites you and makes you want to own several- one to wear, one to save, and one to put away just in case. For me, GOSH Holographic is my special polish. It's not all that special, I suppose. There are lots of holographic polishes out there, it would seem. But this one is among the best, from what I've read.

When it's on my nails, I can't stop looking at them. Inside, there's a hint of holographic beauty, but in the sun this baby shines like magic. There are rainbows hidden in this polish, and sunlight brings them out to play. It's like having a bit of magic on my fingertips, and it makes even the worst days a little bit brighter.

So where's the sadness come in? Unfortunately, this beast wears horribly. Getting a nice even coat is tricky enough without a base coat. I haven't managed to apply it using a base coat, unfortunately, because it goes all goopy and disgusting. And without a base coat, this polish wears off in no time flat.

Forget tipwear. You can see in the photo that this is full-fledged chipping and wearing away. And the more it wears away, the sadder I get, because I know I'm that much closer to having no more of this gorgeous lacquer for my nails, and that the magic is that much closer to running out.

It's become my special occasion polish, my special pick-me-up. What makes it even more special is that a great friend of mine sent this polish to me as a pick me up. Every time I see it, I'm reminded of how special she is to me, and how lucky I am to have her as a friend. I'm tempted to paint a set of artificial nails just for myself, so that I'll at least be able to look at them once it's all run out. What can I say, I'm a sentimental wuss.

So tell me, what polishes do you find yourself hoarding, buying backup bottles of, and hoping you never run out of? What makes a polish sentimental to you- the color? The person who gave it to you?