• Holidays,  Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday (Tuesday? Whoops): Christmas Edition

    I’m a day late for Mani Monday because I was hanging out at my parents’ place with Hilde and the Plooper (and my parents too!), but I do want to share my Christmas manicure with you guys before the year ends (like, holy crap, where did the rest of December go exactly?). Like last christmas, I went rather simple this year – mainly due to time constraints. Christmas Eve is always a hectic day for me, because in addition to prepping all my presents for others and packing a bag for my parent’s house for the next few days, I also have to prep myself for work (I sing at…

  • Movies and TV,  Nail Polish Love

    Star Wars Mani Monday

    So, we went to see Star Wars Saturday. I won’t be posting a review or anything here, because a) I can’t really talk specifically because of possible spoilers, and b) I’m not really cut out for the movie critic thing – I either like movies and want to watch them again and again and again, or I don’t. I don’t really have much more complicated thoughts than that. But if you’re interested in that kind of review/recap (and have either seen the flick already or don’t mind spoilers), Reenie over at The Fangirl’s Dilemma did a great one here. What I will say is that I was so happy about…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday: Butter London Aston

    Just a super quick Mani Monday here today with Butter London’s Aston. This polish is one of my tried and true favorites, and one of my favorite “professional but still fun” colors ever. I’m lucky that in teaching college I don’t really have to conform to any office standards regarding wild nail color, but occasionally I’ll have a meeting or a gig where, well, blue with multicolored glitter just isn’t appropriate. And when that’s the case (and I actually have my nails done instead of bare), Butter London Aston is usually what I grab first. I will admit the color works a little better on me when it’s not the…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday: Color Club You’re So Vain

    Today I have for you a Color Club polish I picked up out of a bin at The Christmas Shoppes called You’re So Vain. I was initially suuuuppppeeerrrr disappointed in this polish, mainly because I did not know at the time I used it that it was part of the Seven Deadly Sins collection, which is all textured polishes. So I judged it all assuming that it was a normal, smooth finish polish. I bought it because I was super excited about the lovely holo sparkle it had in the bottle – I’ve heard very good things about Color Club’s holo polishes, but have never actually seen one in real…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday: Butter London Bluecoat and Leccy

    Today we have two polishes that I got for Christmas, which I abolutely fell in love with, but which were downright IMPOSSIBLE to photograph: Butter London Bluecoat and Leccy. Bluecoat is a deep, rich blue with a great sheen to it, while Leccy is an opalescent shard topcoat. The combination of the two polishes is just gorgeous (even if my photos don’t show it). As with all Butter London polishes (at least in my experience anyway), the dry time on both these is rather quick, and the formulas are good. The formula on Bluecoat is just beautiful – opaque in two coats without being thick. The finish has almost a…

  • Holidays,  Nail Polish Love

    New Year’s Mani Monday

    Just a quickie for our first Mani Monday of 2015. Apologies for the slightly blurry photo – I had to use my phone for this one since I forgot my big camera over the holidays (although it shows off the sparkle quite nicely!). My manicure for the Christmas holidays was a simple one, with polishes that have been on my favorites list for years, so no untried review today. The main manicure is two coats of China Glaze Ruby Slippers (one of my absolutely favorite sparkly reds) and the accent nails are Funky Fingers Star Studded, which is a great gold glitter because it’s really dense and builds to opacity…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday: China Glaze Bat My Eyes (2013 Halloween Collection)

    On this Mani Monday (which is turning out to be a MANIC monday in every other way possible, but that’s another story all together), I’m currently wearing China Glaze “Bat My Eyes” from the 2013 Halloween Collection. I’m a little late on the uptake on this one – I didn’t actually buy this one when the 2013 collection was out – I only picked this one up last week at Ulta. They must have found a few strays in the back from last years collection and put them out on HEAVY discount (I only paid $0.97 for this!). That said, I’m not sure why I passed this one up the…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday: Zoya India

    Just popping in with a super quick Mani Monday, featuring my super short and stubby nails (cello gig season again!) and Zoya’s India. I picked this polish up in Ulta yesterday – it’s part of their new fall Ignite collection, and it’s seriously like one of the most perfect fall colors ever. It’s a deep red – really almost burgundy – with an absolutely gorgeous shimmer. And bonus? It’s seriously almost a one-coater. Downside is that I’m not sure about it’s staying power – I’ve already got some chips on my right hand. BUT, that said, I didn’t use my normal base coat, and the health of my nails on…

  • Life,  Nail Polish Love,  Pet Related Posts

    Mani Monday: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

    So last week I helped my mom take our big galoot of a labrador, Rusalka, to the vet for her annual check-up. She’s a lab, and she’s highly excitable and STRONG. It always helps to have an extra body on hand for these things, particularly if the vet ends up with an emergency and we end up having to wait a little bit longer than our usual five minutes. Well, guess what happened? The vet ended up with not one but TWO emergencies around our appointment time and we ended up waiting for almost an hour with our big, strong, and by that point completely cracked out blonde lab. She…

  • Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday – 4th(ish) of July Edition

    Just a quick look at the mani I did for the holiday weekend. It’s pretty much the accent nails from my Winter Olympics Mani, only on allllll the nails. Overall it was not a great idea – I’m clearly not as adept at keeping lines straight and making sure the tape is properly sealed when I have to do every single nail instead of just the accent nails. The colors I used also required much thicker coats to be opaque as well. Overall doing this mani was a MAJOR pain in the ass, honestly. And with the humidity and heat the way it’s been, took for-freaking-ever to dry. But in…