Sally Hansen Grape Going

7:45 PM Laura 9 Comments

**You have until September 10th to enter my contest/giveaway if you haven't already. I've gotten some faaabulous entries so I know you all can do it!

Today I have another polish that Meg gave me. It's Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Grape Going. I wish Sally Hansen didn't have like 5 kabillion lines of polishes because it would save me a heck of a lot of typing. I forgot the bottle shot ughhhh. That's really annoying. Let's just move on and pretend like I don't have the memory of an 80 year old. In fact, most 80 year olds probably have a better memory than me.

sun (click for shimmahhhh)

sunnish/shadish

inside

lamp

It's sheer, so this is one coat over 1 coat ofAmerican Apparel African Violet. Sorry those aren't very good pics of it, it was way back when I hadn't figured out that square nails look best on me and how to take nice pictures. I'm thinking about going back and reswatching some of the earlier stuff I did, would you guys like to see that? Like a "Look ma, I'm a real blogger now!" kind of thing? Let me know! Maybe I'll make a poll for that. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

Anyway, where were we? Okay, right, yes. So despite its unexpected sheerness, it's really awesome and pretty. It's mainly purple but has a not-so-subtle blue flash. At some angles the flash is kind of a duochrome between blue and reddish/purple, but not in all lights.

The formula was easy to work with, no problems there.

It also kind of reminds me of the infamous Scrangie. In case you are not familiar with Scrangie, it is a polish that was created by the badass blogger Scrangie for RBL. It's only fitting to show you Scrangie's own swatches of Scrangie. Confusing, eh?

I think they're pretty similar, except Scrangie is a more blue-based purple than Grape Going, but that could be fixed by layering Grape Going over a more blue-toned purple than African Violet.

In my opinion, it's a GRAPE substitute! (See what I did there!?)

9 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.**

Sinful Dream On

8:24 PM Laura 17 Comments

**Blah blah blah contest/giveaway blah blah blah. You get the point, right?**

You might know my lovely friend Meg from the comments she leaves. Well, she recently gave me a very, very, very, very, very belated birthday present:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Grape Going, Essie Little Brown Dress, Sinful Colors Dream On, Revlon Emerald City, Essie Midnight Cami, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-Bolt Blue

So thank you, Meg! Meg likes bright colors and wanted me to wear this one first, so that's what I'm doing.

Sinful Colors Dream On

sun

shade

inside

lamp

2 coats. Mmmm. Juicy, eh? Like a... squishy... ball... of juice. Like Jell-O? It reminds me of when we used to go to Luby's and I would always get red Jell-O. I don't like any other flavor of Jell-O. Just red. And I would always get fried okra too. I like fried okra. People think that's weird. It's good, though.

Aaaanyway, this is a fabulous color. I thought it was going to be super sheer since it's almost neon, but it was actually super opaque! It's that cremey jelly type finish that is super awesome. You get the juicy, squishiness of a jelly but with no VNL. Amazing.

Dream On generally looks like fuchsia, but sometimes it looks more pink and sometimes it looks more purple. It is always bright. Much brighter than it looks in these pictures. Aaalmost neon. Like, you're at a rave, but you're wearing slightly tinted sunglasses. Like that.

The formula was wonderful and smooth. It just makes me mad that if Sinful can make great colors with nice formulas for $1.99, why the heck are we paying $25 for Chanels? Crazy world, people.

Oh, I almost forgot!

Don't tell me this didn't pop in your head when you saw the title, because I won't believe you.

17 comments:

a-england Tristam

7:45 PM Laura 14 Comments

**Click here to enter my contest/giveaway if you haven't done so already. You've got until September 10th!**

Every once in a while, you see a polish that you know is meant to be yours. You can't imagine not holding it in your hands one day. And today I will be showing you a gorgeous lacquer that set my heart a-flutter.

a-england Tristam

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sun (blurred for sparkly holo yum-ness. Click on it!)

sun sun sun click click click

the holoooooo omgggg

2 coats. Soooo pretty! Tristam is a fantastic holy-bananas-how-have-I-lived-without-you dreamy indigo with fine scattered holo particles. The overall effect is not very strong but definitely stunning. Tristam is my knight in shining armor. I love him. I want to run away to Camelot and get married to him.

The formula was lovely and fabulous to apply. I have nothing bad to say about this polish. At all. Only that I wish I could bathe in it.

14 comments:

Zoya Crystal

8:05 PM Laura 9 Comments

**Sorry guys, forgot to schedule the post! Don't forget to enter my contest/giveaway extravaganza if you haven't already!**

Today I have quite the hottie for you. A hottie for whom I have forgotten the bottle shot, so let's skip to the pics. This is Zoya Crystal.

shade

shade (click to see the awesome gold flecks)

sun

sun (you should most definitely click on this)

inside

lamp

This is either 2 or 3 coats. I think it's 3, I did them really thin, so you could probably get away with two thicker ones.

Anyway, Crystal is a gorgeous ice blue polish packed with gold flecks. I'm not sure about the finish, but personally I would say it's foil-y. She is sparkly and awesome in the sun. She's uber-flattering and very interesting.

Formula-wise, she was a little sheerer than I would have liked, but still beautiful. Other than that I had no issues with application.

I think that pretty much says it all. She doesn't require many words, her beauty speaks for itself!

9 comments:

Behind the Scenes

7:45 PM Laura 11 Comments

So guys. At some point in their career, many bloggers write some frustrated posts about whatever is or is not happening in regards to their blog.

This is not one of those posts.

I just want to tell you guys what's up because I'm afraid some of you guys feel like I'm not paying attention to you, and I am. So this post is going to consist of a lot of words. I'll try to separate it into sections to make this a little less HOMG HUGE BLOCK OF TEXT.

My Followers
You guys are awesome, first of all. Seriously awesome. Now, the only follower widget I have had on my blog for a long time is Google Friend Connect. I am well aware that not everyone has a Google account and might not be able to follow this way. A well-intentioned reader politely and rightfully brought this to my attention, and I added the ability to follow by email.

I know there are other methods of following, like Bloglovin' and all this other stuff that is complicated and that I don't understand. I don't know how to add these things to my site. If you tell me how, I will do it. I don't want to disclude anyone, and I know I'm frustrated when I come across a great blog that I can't follow because they don't have the GFC follow button displayed on their site, and then I lose them in the vast internet vortex and never find them again. That's sad. I don't want that to happen.

The People I Follow
When I first started out blogging, I would click on every new follower I got and if they had a blog I would follow them back. However, as you probably could have guessed, I ended up following a lot of people who have never demonstrated any interest in my blog beyond following it, probably with the very hopes that I will follow them in return.

Also, this positively flooded my reader with posts. So I went through and I unfollowed all the blogs that I noticed myself skimming through and never commenting on.

HOWEVER... if you DO care about my blog and you ARE reading this and you're thinking "Well why isn't she following me?" it's because when I get home and am able to check my reader I have like 85 items to read which is a heck of a lot, but I have come up with another option for you and that brings us to our next topic.

The BlogRoll
Now, I have been less than attentive to my poor little BlogRoll. I don't keep it updated of my own accord because I'm lazy and I don't know if anyone cares. However, if you would like to be on my BlogRoll, I would love it if you sent me an email and asked me to put you on it. I really would!

This is to make up for my not being able to follow back every person who follows me. So seriously! Email me! I wanna show you the love you deserve!

Your Comments
Comments are priceless in the blogging world. They make you feel like you're doing something right. I really appreciate those of you that leave me all these wonderful comments.

Now, I used to respond to every comment I got, but as I'm getting more lately I'm only responding to those who say something that requires a response, or that I have something to say to.

Also! I moderate comments, so these never make it onto the blog, but comments with links in them are ridiculously tacky. It is a long-established blogging faux pas, and yet people continue to do it. That is the surest way NOT to get followed back by whoever's wall you are spamming. Really not cool.

Hey linkdroppers, see all the people whose comments got published? Yeah, that's cause they're awesome and I love them and they don't drop links.

My Comments
When you leave comments on my blog, I want to leave comments on yours. Comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I try to comment on as many posts as I can every day, but I'm pretty busy right now.

I hope to have my schedule working smoothly pretty soon and then I will be able to comment obnoxiously often on all of your blogs and you will wish I had never freed up the time.

Your Requests
In the giveaway, one of the required questions you have to answer is what I could do to improve my blog. Here are some of the responses I have gotten so far:

An easier to read font (I finally got around to changing it!)
Write reminders to myself to take a bottle shot (this would probably be a good idea)
Change the motto because "buttload" is unappealing (I'm working on it, Meg)
Follow my blog back (As I said before, I can't follow every blog but I will put you on my blogroll!)
Tell which collection the polish is from (Good point. I will do this in the future, provided I know what collection it's from)
Tell how a polish wears (I change my polish every day, so I can't provide an accurate wear test beyond 24 hours. However, I am constantly messing with my nails, tapping them, and using them to pry things open, so I can tell you how a polish holds up through all that)
Do more tutorials/nail art/exciting stuff rather than just swatches.

Now, that last one is one that I think needs to be discussed. I want to do more nail art too. I like doing nail art, but sometimes I am busy and sometimes I'm lazy. Which are still not good excuses.

I am going to try to do more nail art, really. I'll try to make tutorials of it as I go along. I know seeing swatches all the time gets boring. One of the things I wanted to do to set my blog apart was to do more than just swatches! So I know I've been dropping the ball on that count. I will definitely put a bigger effort into doing nail art. I enjoy doing it and I know I enjoy seeing it, and seeing as there are so many inspiring, creative things to do, I have no excuse. I will be a better blogger (say that ten times fast)! I will listen to the will of the people!

In Conclusion

I think I've covered everything I wanted to say. Basically, the message I'm trying to convey is: I'm listening. And I want you to keep telling me anything you feel like I need to know, because I hear it and I appreciate your advice.

So I hope you made it this far, because I am not used to typing so many serious words and it was difficult!

Here's something funny and completely unrelated:

I know it looks scary, just watch it. Trust me, it's good.

**If you want to email me with questions, comments, encouragements, suggestions, or pretty much anything else, email me at lauram999@sbcglobal.net**

11 comments:

The Golden Apple

7:45 PM Laura 14 Comments

**Go enter the awesome contest/giveawaaaay! It's awesome! And free stuff! So dooo eeet!**

So I don't know if any of you know anything about Greek mythology, but I personally love it and this was the perfect title for today's post.

Because today's manicure features Zoya Apple.

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sun

sun (cliiiick!)

sun

shade

2 coats. Isn't she gorgeous? I know she's kinda VNL-y in the sun but I don't mind. The gold shimmer is ridiculously gorgeous. Before I was obsessed with nail polish, I thought green was a bad polish color. Don't ask me why, I just didn't like it. But I have discovered a deep love for green polish! It's actually fantastic. Especially Apple. She is full of gorgeous gold shimmer that lights up in the sun.

The formula was nice, and though she is lovely by herself, the VNL was bothering me and I thought that gold tips would be a lovely complement.

sun

fluorescent light

sun

Me trying to hand model... it looks better full size.

Juuust playin around. I think it would work better if I had someone else take the pictures. Lol.

And my elusive right hand, in the sun.

Ahh this was so pretty! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think those tips are pretty darn good for being freehanded. I used Milani Gold Lame (that's la-may, not lame) for the tips and it's sooo sparkleh in the sun. Mmm. That's good stuff.

14 comments:

Franken Fun

7:59 PM Laura 13 Comments

**Just your daily reminder to enter my contest/giveaway if you haven't already.**

So, because some people are unfamiliar with the frankening process, I want to put your minds at ease and inspire you to enter the contest! I'll try to break this down as best I can.

1. You're going to need clear polish. Usually I buy Wet n Wild clear stuff for 99 cents a pop. It's cheap and then I can use the bottles for frankens.

I dump the clear polish in here. Not very pretty, I know. It's cloudy because I dumped a topcoat in it that wasn't completely clear, but it so far hasn't affected anything.

2. You're going to need funnels. They don't have to be fancy, just functional.

I just roll up index cards and tape them.

Voila.

Hey look! You can see through it!

3. Know what you're aiming for. It really helps to have an idea in mind.

One way of doing this is to gather up all the colors you're not really feeling anymore and then see what you can make from them.

Another way is to have an idea in mind and then go find the colors to make it.

4. Start funneling. I didn't take pictures from the beginning since it didn't occur to me until afterwards that I could make a tutorial of sorts.

I always start with a little bit of clear, just so that I use up less of my polish. Then, I add in the colors I want in the amounts I want until the bottle is about halfway full. Then, shake it like a polaroid picture.

The reason you initially fill the bottle halfway is because it's easy to make adjustments, but once the polish is in there, you can't take it out.

You can also add things like eyeshadow and glitter. They're really useful, and that's why I have two funnels: one for polish and one for glitter.

The funnel greatly reduces mess!

5. A few examples. Here are two frankens that I made recently. As you can see, the glitter on the left has settled. This is because glitter is denser than average clear polish.

If you want the glitter to be suspended, you need to either buy a suspension base or add in some storebought polish that already has glitter suspended in it, because it has a suspension base.

The franken on the right has just been vigorously shaken. I'm still debating whether I should spring for a suspension base, but for now shaking works fine.

By the way, these are Beatles song-inspired frankens. The left is Octopus's Garden, and the right is Her Majesty.

Here is all the glitter settled on the bottom. (sorry for the cat hair)

Here is Octopus's Garden after a vigorous shaking.

6. Swatch your frankens and make adjustments. Chances are it's not going to be perfect right off the bat. That's why you swatch it! Then you can adjust it to your liking.

Here they are swatched. As you can see, Her Majesty is too sheer and the glitter is too sparse.

So I added MOAR GLITTER

Aaand here she is again. Much better! I still think she could use a leetle more glitter, though.

Aaand that is your crash course in the art of frankening. It's really not difficult, it doesn't have to be messy, and it's really rewarding to be able to custom-make your own polish. I hope this has helped someone and maybe inspired you to enter my contest!

Happy mixing!

13 comments:

Orly Fowl Play

7:45 PM Laura 15 Comments

**All right guys! There is no good excuse if you haven't entered my contest/giveaway yet. I've got 4 contest entries and 16 giveaway entries so far. Pick up the pace, ladies! I know you can do it!**

If you are on MUA, you probably know that the nail world was freaking out about Orly Fowl Play because it is a supposed dupe for the much loved, discontinued OPI Merry Midnight. I don't have Merry Midnight so I figured I would go out and get me some Fowl Play!

I forgot the official bottle shot but I have this! Click on it... seriously... it's gorgeous.

sun

shade

3 coats. You should go click on these pictures to view the flakies and shimmer in further detail. It is a very complex polish. The base is a purple jelly, there is small silver glitter, slightly larger blue glitter, and oranges flakies that sometimes flash green. It's really gorgeous in the bottle, and while it is undoubtedly pretty on the nail, it can be a little much because of all the stuff it has going on. I think maybe if I had topcoated it it would have been smoother and nicer.

So... I like it, but I don't love it. What about you?

Laura's Lacquers

Sally Hansen Grape Going

9 comments:

Sinful Dream On

17 comments:

a-england Tristam

14 comments:

Zoya Crystal

9 comments:

Behind the Scenes

11 comments:

The Golden Apple

14 comments:

Franken Fun

13 comments:

Orly Fowl Play

15 comments:

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