A Magnetic Attraction to Mercury

7:57 PM Laura 10 Comments

Hellooo ladies. If you're ever in Fayetteville, West Virginia (which happens to be one of the coolest small towns in the country. No seriously, it says that on their welcome sign) you need to go to the Secret Sandwich Society. It is phenomenal. I had the Garfield (fried chicken with marinera sauce and provolone on a hoagie) and it was TO DIE FOR. I'm not joking. I'm dead right now. Dead as a doornail (I don't even know what a doornail is, but I hear they're pretty dead). Anyway, you should also go to Pies & Pints (home of the best pizza in the country. That's not their slogan, that's just the cold hard truth right there) and probably just EVERYWHERE. Why yes, I am pimping Fayetteville like crazy, but it's AWESOME. You can go white water rafting and one day a year (the 3rd Saturday in October, I think) you can jump off the New River Bridge (if you're OUT OF YOUR MIND). So yeah. Pimpage done.

I forgot to take bottle pics, yaaaay. Anyway. This is Aldo Mercury, inside.

Outside

I think it looks better in these pictures than it did in real life. I dunno. I just wasn't really feeling it. I thiiiiink this is two coats, but it might be one. But I'm pretty sure it's two. Like, 87%. Yeah. That's about right. The formula was muuuch better than the first Aldo polish I tried, Circus Elephant.

Anyway, since my feelings about this polish could accurately be summed up as "meh," I decided to try out the Icing Duo Stick that I've been itching to use.

Force of Love and Magnetic Attraction (that's the one I used).

Voila. Outside.

Aaand this elevated my feelings about this manicure from "meh" to "meh, it's okay I guess." Magnetic Attraction was so pretty in the bottle but for some reason the beauty didn't translate to the nail. I think maybe it would look better over a silver base. It's got big silver hex glitter, and small blue, gold, and black glitter. So it's an interesting combo. I hate black glitter, btdubbs. It just looks like specks of dirt to me.

So since overall today was a resounding "meh," I have something that is totally un-meh to show you.

That's right. I didn't warn you about a feet pic. DEAL WITH IT.

Okay, admittedly my feet look super fat. It's not my fault, I just have wide feet! They don't look that bad in real life, I promise. Anyway, the reason this is super anti-meh is because I have HOLO TOES.

Yes. That's right. Go click on the picture. That's Icing Glamorous right there, that is.

So. Much. Awesome.

So much awesome, in fact, that my camera couldn't handle that. It's at least 77 bazillion trillion times more holo than that in real life. I'm going to wear this on my fingernails on my birthday, because it's obviously super duper special.

And look at my cute little new Vera Bradley sandals! Yay, happy day. My feetsies are stylish indeed.

Well, that wraps us up for today! I am feeling refreshed and back to myself again, as you can probably tell. Life is so wonderful! It's amazing what holo polish and new flippy floppies can do for a girl.

10 comments:

Yay comments! Whenever you leave a comment, a triple rainbow happens.

**I don't like having to say this, but I must: Do not link drop! I don't care if you tell me you want to send me a million dollars, if you leave a link in your comment, I'm deleting it. I work hard for any and all traffic I get, and stealing it is a major no-no! Follow blogging etiquette, please.**

In the Mood for Icing

8:26 PM Laura 5 Comments

Today I bring you Icing Mood Swing in Stormy/Serene.

Okay, so I'm pretty sure everyone knows that mood-changing polishes don't actually change color with your mood. For anyone who didn't know that, just kidding. Now go back to sleep and wait for the tooth fairy to come.

I started off with one coat, no topcoat. The formula was "eh." I don't have anything good to say about it but I don't really have too much bad to say about it either. It dried matte/satiny as most mood polishes do, and from what I've heard, matte polishes are typically difficult to handle, so I think that may be part of it.

Inside

Outside (I think)

My hands are pretty cold most of the time, so obviously cold = stormy. It's a really pretty purple with a turquoise shimmer (love!). I went and ran my hands under hot water to get it to turn "serene." These next pictures suck.

It was a lighter blue than these pictures show, and still had the turquoise shimmer although it didn't show up as much against the blue. I had to try it with topcoat, of course.

Inside

Outside

In the end it settled on being a kind of blurple color. It was really pretty with the topcoat, I love the shimmer. It's a really unique color. I put a second coat on since my ring finger was dangerously thin, here's what it looked like:

Look, the sun finally decided to come out!

Sorry my post is kind of bland today. My family and I have been helping my aunt move houses, and it's pretty exhausting work. Of course, this did not interfere with her cat Bear's attitude.

Look at his smug little face. Where does he get off being so full of himself?

...Oh. Because he has ninja skillz. Well played, Bear. Well played.

5 comments:

Blue Monday

6:16 PM Laura 8 Comments

Hi chicas. I haven't really been in a blogging mood the past two days. I was hoping more people would respond to the Sunshine Award that I gave out. The reason I gave the award to the people I did was because they were people who had commented on my blog fairly regularly and were followers (with the exception of a few) and so I assumed they would see my post and know that I had tagged them. However, only four people that I tagged responded to my post, which leaves me feeling a little, well, blue.

I am by no means a popular blog. It takes time to work your way up in the blogosphere, and I've only had this blog since the end of March. Some people manage to grow their blogs up to 100 followers seemingly overnight, but I don't know how to do that. I try my best: I comment on other blogs regularly, I try to lend my opinion on MUA, but beyond that I don't know what more I can do.

I'm sorry for sounding bratty. I was going to have to let it out sooner or later so I figured I might as well do it sooner, especially because it's Blue Monday and it seems fitting. Well now that's out of the way!

A Polished Touch recently introduced the idea of Blue Mondays, inspired by the ever-popular Pink Wednesdays. I haven't done Pink Wednesdays because I don't have that many pinks, but blue is my favorite color and I have plenty of varying shades to share with you all. Today I've got H&M Deep Sea.

It's tiny, only 3.2 mL.

Outside

Inside

Two coats. I was hoping it'd be a one coater since there's so little of it, but that wasn't happening. It's a nice color, just a standard medium blue. I personally don't have anything like it, and I can't imagine how there wouldn't be a dupe since it's just a straight creme, but you never know. The formula was nice too, although you can see I neglected to do any cleanup.

It's been raining every day since we got to West Virginia, and since it was raining when I did this I decided it was a good opportunity to do some nail art.

Urban Outfitters Grey 1, Milani Gold Lamé, and Urban Outfitters Purple 6.

I only did an accent finger because I thought doing all my fingers would be a little over the top. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, though I do wish my raindrops were more uniform.

Anyway, that's all I've got for you on this Blue Monday. How ironic, it hasn't even rained today. Sorry for the semidepressing post, I'm in a little bit of a funk, but I'll be back to myself in no time after I eat some Chinese takeout and watch the Bachelorette. Laura, out!

8 comments:

Good Day Sunshine

3:53 PM Laura 14 Comments

Oh look, another Beatles song applies to my post! I'm going to work them in whenever possible, just so we're clear.

I got an award yesterday!

Rules:

Thank & link back the person who gave you the award.

Write a post about it.

Pass it on to 10 bloggers you think really deserve it.

Added by me: Name at least one everyday thing that makes you happy. (NOT the subject of your blog or this award, we all know that makes you happy!)

This award was given to me by the lovely Vintage Makeup. She is wonderful and you should all go over there and check her out or I will kick your butt. Kisses! :)

I'm writing a post about it. Right now. I'm not sure what exactly this award is for, but I'm pretty sure it's just being generally sunshiney and awesome.

Okay, I hope nobody minds me taking a little liberty with this award. I mean, it's a nice award but the tag is a leetle boring. Most awards have you list (insert number here) random facts about yourself, but since this award is all about sunshine and happiness, I'm going to ask everyone I pass this onto to list one everyday thing that makes you happy that isn't the subject of your blog or receiving this award, because of course those make you happy.

Personally, I have a few things that make me happy. Perfectly playing a piano piece makes me happy. Eating healthy food that tastes good makes me happy. Watching football makes me happy (Go Saints!)

Passing this award on to these people makes me happy! I'm giving this to some gals who have left comments on my blog, because sometimes I get a little lonely out here and it is so sweet and amazing of you guys to drop a little comment every once and a while and let me know to keep on truckin'.

Stompy

Phew. That was rather difficult. Not a lot of people take the time out to leave a comment so I appreciate each and every one of you who do. :)

14 comments:

L.A. Colors Sea Siren

7:47 PM Laura 11 Comments

I'm going to try to get back on my daily posting schedule. I've been buying like a rabid addict lately and I can't really justify buying any more unless I start making a dent what I've acquired. There's just something about being on vacation that makes ludicrous spending seem so... acceptable.

Anywho, today I bring you a lovely dollar store find, so I don't feel too guilty about this one.

L.A. Colors Sea Siren

Okay, I just have to say that these pictures are a little off. In real life it's about a shade darker and just a touch more green. I wish I had Photoshop or some other way to color-correct pictures, but for now you're just going to have to change the colors WITH YOUR MIND.

Outside, no sun.

Outside, sorta sun.

Inside maybe I think.

Definitely inside.

Outside again. I think you can see the hidden shimmer in this shot if you cleeky cleeky cleeky on it. (I was saying that with a Russian accent, FYI)

And here you can definitely see the shimmer if you cleeky. Mm-mm-good, right?

One coat! *Breaks out the royal trumpets* This is awesome. For a dollar store? Really good stuff. The formula was great, obviously the opacity was of rock-your-socks-off quality, and it's a nice color. It wouldn't have stood out to me if I didn't notice the shimmer, which I wish was more prominent on the nail. Of course it wouldn't be hidden shimmer if it was easy to find.

I don't really like hidden shimmer. It's like that annoying kid you can NEVER FIND when playing hide and seek at a birthday party. Everybody else has been found and you're all just sitting around and this little twerp is being a complete loser and everybody's yelling "OKAY SERIOUSLY, IT'S NOT FUNNY ANYMORE, YOU WIN OHMYGODPLEASEJUSTCOMEOUTALREADY!!!!!" because you want to eat pizza and cake already and this idiot thinks he's so cool since nobody can find him but really you're all secretly planning to TP his house and give him wedgies at school.

Yeah. No one likes that kid. So that's why I don't like hidden shimmer, because I have to bring my hand up really close to my face and move it all around and it makes me look dumb. So.

Anyway. I went to Rite-Aid today and left with this:

Borghese Stellar Notte, Jesse's Girl Firefly, a no-name City Colors (it's mint green with a slight golden shimmer), Oke-Doke Steal This Teal, Jesse's Girl Confetti, NYC Midnight Amethyst, and Scherer Chameleon Calypso.

About the last polish. There were two Calypsos left except they looked like completely different colors. One is just completely indescribable (is that a word?). It's a multichrome and flashes nice and rainbowy, I think the base color is kind of a metallic taupe. The other one was also a multichrome but didn't have the full rainbow and was a light purple. I got the awesome one, of course (do you expect anything less from me?) but the brush is really weird. It's like all dry and crusty. I'm not sure how this will affect application but the color was so unique I couldn't NOT get it.

All right, I'm done. I've noticed that I tend to talk a lot. Do you like my intelligent witticisms or would you prefer that I just shut up already?

11 comments:

Strawberry Fields Forever

3:31 PM Laura 10 Comments

Ah, the Beatles. Was there ever a band so fantastaradicapsychedelamazing? I think not. So when I saw China Glaze's Strawberry Fields at Sally's I promptly "squeeeeee"d and bought it without a moment's hesitation.

I was so excited for this. Like, ridiculously excited. I really shouldn't build my expectations up so high, but I can't help it! If you're going to name a polish after a Beatles song, it has gotta be crack-a-lackin'. I took a lot of pictures trying to get the shimmer to show up accurately.

Inside, artificial light.

Inside, no lights (other than windows, of course)

Outisde, sun.

Outside, sun.

Outside, shade.

Um. Inside by a window, I think.

I did two coats, but really one coat would be okay. I actually kind of liked the way it looked in just one layer. The shimmer seemed to just... emanate out of the polish depending on the angle. With two coats, the shimmer was more all over and didn't really radiate the way it did with one coat. Weird, I guess, but that's what happened. I also used the Quick Dry Top Coat that I bought at the dollar store. It doesn't have any kind of brand, but it works okay. It's not really very quick drying, but it's not slow either. Ah well, it was only a dollar.

So I really loved it at one coat, but I put the second one on for good measure. Then I was feeling a little crestfallen because it wasn't really stunning me. I mean, I wanted this polish to be positively slapping me in the face with it's awesomeness. I mean, it was pretty and all, but as Tyra Banks would say, "You are a model, but you are not a TOP model." (I have been watching WAAAY too much of that show).

But wait... Take Strawberry Fields out into the sunlight, and BAM! It sucker punched me right in the gut, I must say. Goooorgeous! There is just no way that beauty could translate into photographs. So I'm happy with this one. We're going steady now.

Oh, and the reason I chose Strawberry Fields as my nail polish today is because my hair is now, well, strawberry-colored.

Voila. I should have picked a better shirt to wear, bleh...

So that's exciting! It's a bit of a shocking change, I must say. I'm naturally blond and this red is a lot brighter than I'm used to. I feel kind of a like a rock star!

So, it's always nice to kill a lemming, and I was able to do that today! Are you as in love with Strawberry Fields as I am? (but keep your hands off, SF and I are together, kay?)

10 comments:

Nerds for President!

8:50 AM Laura 9 Comments

Okay. I'm having a bit of a Napoleon Dynamite moment here. I entered in Leslie's (of Nail Polish Art Addiction) nail art contest. The challenge was to do a manicure inspired by food, and I chose to do Nerds (the Wonka kind, not the kind that get wedgies) because they have a lot of personality. So here's the mani I submitted!

Starting at thumb and going clockwise: superhero nerd, skateboarding nerd, nerd with propeller cap, lazy nerd bouncing beach ball, and nerd catching frisbee.

Aaand another view of superhero nerd because he's my favorite (don't tell the others!)

I had a step-by-step tutorial, but that's on my home computer so I'll have to put that up later. This was my very first attempt at completely freehand nail art, and it was really nerve-wracking! I know they're not perfect, but hey, they're recognizable, and I think they're pretty darn cute!

Okay, back to Napoleon Dynamite. Basically, I'm Pedro, and you're Napoleon. I need you to mercilessly lobby for people to vote for me. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell random people on the street!

Okay, okay, there are a TON of other people entered in the contest, and I know you might not think mine deserves a vote. If you truly believe that my Nerds are stupid and lame, then don't vote for me. I understand. (What's that you say? Am I trying to make you feel guilty? I would never do such a thing...)

BUT, I would REALLY appreciate it if I could get even a few votes. I am so bad at drawing things you don't even know. I think my depth perception or something is broken, because whenever I try to draw something it turns out all weird and out of proportion. Anyway, so I was really happy with how these guys turned out, and I'm hoping you like them too!

So... if you would like to vote for me, just go here, scroll aaaalll the way to the bottom, and vote for me :) (I'm number 9).

Okay. I feel really awkward asking you guys to vote for me because I don't like to push myself on people. So. Yeah. I would appreciate your vote if you think I deserve it, but if there's someone else you want to vote for, I understand.

And. Yeah. I guess that's it. If you vote for me, thank you so much. If you don't, I guess that's okay too (but my heart will be broken and it will be all your fault and how will you live with yourself then, huh?). Yep. Totally okay.

9 comments:

Rock Star From Mars

1:18 PM Laura 5 Comments

So I wanted to do something glittery today and there's never a bad time to use a Charlie Sheen glitter polish, am I right or am I right?

Icing Rock Star From Mars. I think this is kind of a "fluffy" polish, which means that a lot of polish is used up in just one manicure. I had to do pretty thick coats to get it to any kind of opacity.

Outside, shade.

Outside, sunny.

Inside by a window.

Inside, just... in the middle of a room... yeah...

This is three thick coats. I know it looks pretty VNL-y, but it doesn't look that bad in real life.

Seeee?

I think this is really pretty. I thought I was going to wish I had done underwear, but I actually liked the squishy light blue effect, which was even prettier with the gold glitter. It's not extremely sparkly but it's really nice. I can't recall ever seeing anything like this before.

And I made a small haul yesterday, I'll go take pictures of it right now and edit them in! Do you think this Charlie Sheen glitter is hawt? I am totally digging it.

EDIT:

From the dollar store I got a nail buffer, LA Colors Sea Siren, and a quick dry topcoat. From Walmart (ick) I got Wet n' Wild Blue Moon and Night Prowl (I thought this looked like Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance minus the bigger glitter, we'll see how it shakes out)

From Sally's I got nail polish thinner, China Glaze Strawberry Fields (I've been lemming this forever, I LOVE the Beatles so I had to have this), two little Sally Girl cuticle oils (they were on sale for 39 cents, I might have to go back and grab a bunch more. They smell a teensy bit like orange).

Why yes, that does look like hair dye... I guess you'll have to stay tuned.

Okay, I'm done fo realz this time. Over and out!

Laura's Lacquers

A Magnetic Attraction to Mercury

10 comments:

In the Mood for Icing

5 comments:

Blue Monday

8 comments:

Good Day Sunshine

14 comments:

L.A. Colors Sea Siren

11 comments:

Strawberry Fields Forever

10 comments:

Nerds for President!

9 comments:

Rock Star From Mars

5 comments:

Search Laura's Lacquers

About

Follow Me

Popular Posts

Previous Works of Genius

Tags

Followers