Scotch Flowers + Haul!

This is a ridiculously long post, guys. Just warning you. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Since my pictures of Leprechaun Lynch (posted about here) were pretty inaccurate, I went and took some more that I think are better.

 Inside

 Sun! It's so freaking bright in real life. It was almost GLOWING. It's awesome.

 Outside, shade.

 Look, it matched my shirt!

Then I figured I should spice it up a bit because I hadn't done anything fancy in a while, and I didn't bring my Konading stuff with me (I'm not THAT obsessed) but I did bring my cleanup brush and so I painted on some flowers with it. They're not the best, but I think they look sort of... rustic.



I used Essie One of a Kind for the petals and Milani Gold Lame (where is that flipping accent key) for the centers.



Removal was difficult. Here, I have a long story about it: I wore Nyx Frizz Spots on Monday (didn't take a picture since I posted about it here) and I didn't want to freak out my relatives by doing the foil method so I decided to go at it with just acetone and cotton balls. Well, that was a mistake. It was a total PITA to remove, and I had to pick some pieces of glitter off. Then, since I put the topcoat over Leprechaun Lynch I had to first use acetone and then rubbing alcohol, but then I did acetone again since the rubbing alcohol wasn't working very well. In the end, my poor nails hated me and I got some teeny peelies. :( I'm lucky enough to have pretty strong, healthy nails, and I've never gotten peelies. All the picking and scrubbing at my nails was not the kindest thing to do to them.

I don't have a buffer with me, so are there any other ways to get rid of peelies? Any tips would be appreciated. :)

Anyway, I didn't want to forgo nail polish and I'm the kind of person who has the attitude of "Do now, think later" so I figured I'd worry about the peelies later but for now I have to put two coats of basecoat on so that they don't mess with the polish.

SO. That brings us to today. I thought I should do something summery, and neons are all the rage. I don't own any neons since they look horrible with my pale skin, and the closest to a neon I own is AL 120. Again, I didn't take pictures since I posted about it here. I wanted to try my white crackle again (Lightning Bolt from China Glaze) so I put it on top. My left hand didn't turn out so well.

 The cracks are pretty stringy, which isn't my thing.

So I've heard that shaking up the crackle makes it crack better, so I shook it like a polaroid picture (Outkast, anyone? I always thought they were saying polaroid pigeon until I just looked it up ten seconds ago)



 So this is how it cracked after I shook it. I still wish the cracks had been bigger and less vertical, but it was better than pre-shaking.

And! My haul!

 Okay, so I guess nine polishes isn't really a big haul, but it is for me! Handling money makes me nervous.

 All from Icing. I haven't seen any Icings anywhere near where I live so I had to go in! I'd heard that Icing is a sort of offshoot of Claire's, and it honestly seems exactly the same as Claire's to me. I'm not sure why they need both, but they definitely have better nail polish than Claire's so I won't argue. From L to R: Icing Duality in Force of Love and Magnetic Attraction, Icing Mood Swing in Stormy/Serene, Icing Glamorous, and Icing Rock Star From Mars. Yes, I got a Charlie Sheen polish. So sue me. It's pretty. I thought about getting Tiger's Blood since it's a dupe for Cult Nails Captivated (here is a comparison from The PolishAholic), and Epic Winning was very pretty too, but I couldn't resist Rock Star From Mars. Come on, it so has the best name.

Force of Love, one end of the duo stick looks super similar to Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe (it's safe to say ATU is my #1 lemming!) so how could I NOT get this?

 I couldn't get a good picture, but the Serene/Stormy mood polish appears to be a purple/blue duochrome, or at least a purple with a very strong blue shimmer. It's super pretty in real life.

 I couldn't capture it on camera, but Glamorous is blinding in real life. It's so holo! I don't have any really awesome holos so I thought this would be perfect.

 Rock Star From Mars is a beautiful blue jelly with golden glitter. I love it.

The Icings were BOGO 50% off so how could I say no? I was going to get some of Icing's Black Shatter but apparently it wasn't part of the sale (WTH?) but it's just as well since I haven't heard how Icing's shatter works and this way I was able to get Glamorous!

Aldo nail polish in Mercury and Circus Elephant, Revlon Just Tinted in Desire and Victorian, and H&M polish in Deep Sea.

We went into Aldo after Icing, and even though they weren't on any kind of sale I was on a roll, no stopping me now! The Revlons were BOGO 50% off too, so I was like "Hey, why not?" and then the H&M one was cheap so I threw it in there. There aren't any H&Ms in Texas so I had to check it out. I like it! I am so jealous of how good the prices are. H&M, come to Houston!

Anyway! This has been a ridiculously long post so I'm going to end it now.