Kimber’s Challenge A-Z Letter X

Ok, so this is Ximena from Julep.  Julep calls it Simone but Simone is the English version of the name Ximena.  So, I thought figure that is an “X”.   I have a friend whose name is Simone and at times have heard her referred to as Ximena.  Ximena is a very popular name in Latin America and since Spanish is spoken in the world more than English I feel I am justified in saying this is an X.  If you don’t agree then I failed this challenge letter but I really tried.   I am dying to see the other creative ways the rest of the girls came up with X and very curious to see if anyone was able to hit the nail one the head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well there is my offering. 

 

Ciao bellas,

Patty

Crumpet’s Tri- Color Challenge

This month our colors are red, pink and purple.  I decided to use all Zoya polishes.  I am using Zoya, Shelby, Suri, and Ariel.  I did  a braided manicure.  I  left the pinkie and thumb pink.  Sometimes doing all the fingers overpowers and I think the three just balances the whole manicure out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is my entry for Tuesday.  Sorry it is late but at least it is here.

 

Ciao for now, bellas,

Patty

Northern Star Sunburst

Sunburst is bling for your nails! It consists of a clear base with as much gold glitter as be could packed into it - gold, gold holographic, organge, neon yellow, plus a dash of silver and pink for added excitement. Layer it over black or your favorite color for shiny, shiny nails!  I initially tried it with Zoya’s Goldie and while it looked nice it photographed terribly.  I decided to go with black.  It reminds me of Deborah Lippman on steroids.  I can’t wait to try this with a white or neutral in a jelly sandwich. because of the different colors of glitter it opens the door to several different polishes.  This polish is just blingtastic!  I am really excited to experient with it because the possiblities are endless.  Northern Star can be found at Etsy store.  So, go check it out if you like gold glitter there is always a reason to wear gold glitter and in my honest opinion this has been the best chunky gold glitter I have ever used.  Dry time was fast and spreading the polish was done with so much ease.  I really like this polish.  So, check her out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what do you thinik?  I junst really think it is kind of great!

 

Ciao bellas,

Patty

My Polish Problem

I am finding that one of the reasons I am not being so productive is because of the sort of organized mess I have.  See polish keeps coming in but nothing goes out.  So, I am reaching out to you on even one thing that might help me 1) decide which polishes to sell and 2) what do you do to make sure that you swatch and post your polishes?  I know I don’t have to swatch every polish but it would be nice to be able to show most of them.  Ok, and maybe it is not that bad but I think my biggest problem is what to sell.  Do I go by brand or color.  I have a few items on my blog sale but I could have a lot more.  I know I need to sit and update price that means lower but maybe I need to make a promise that for every polish I buy I sell one.  Like today I bought 8 beautiful Juleps they are having a warehouse sale and they were $3.00 and $4.00.  I can’t pass that up.  So, suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Ok, I am ready to show you my embarrassing secret.

 

All OPI’s holds 96 polishes

 

 

These shelves were to hold untried but it hasn’t turned out that way.  I have Essie’s, Hard Candies, Nubars, Pretty Serious OPI’s, Periperas,Juleps, and China Glazes.  I got these shelves at Ikea and they hold one polish in front and one behind and since they have a flat surface at the back I can put more polish there as you can see on the lower left side.

 

This shelf has indies, butter Londons's, and the top shelve is China Glaze.

 

If you order the whole collection from Transdesign sometimes they sell the display with the collection.

 

 

 

This is a Zoya stand I picked up on eBay for about $4.00

 I was at Ulta one day and they were going to through this display out so I asked if I could purchase it, they gave it to me.

 On the left is the whole OPI James Bond Collection.  On the right display is the Dutch one.

 These are random indies I have ordered.

 This is another group of shelves with Essie's, China Glaze, OPI, Nubar, Orly and Color Club.

 These are my Jades and Ludrana's they are too small and fall off the shelves.  Gotta figure something out for these ones.

 

 Oh, yes just when I thought I was done I remembered my Essence's and Klean Kolors that I use for stamping or for top coats.  There is about 30 of those.

 And this is my messy work area.  Not at all me.  I have always had a desk job and had the neatest desk in the office.  This is really where I am going to start.

 

 

And

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course we can't forget the rings. There are some in a box under the desk.  Plus, Charming Charlies had a BOGO sale on clearance items and I found 6, I just had to have. 

So, I love my polishes but some have to find a new home where they will be loved.  So, my question is do I sort them by color or brand?  What would you do?  And do you think that for every polish you buy you should get rid of one?  Hard thinking.

Ciao bellas,

Patty

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Northern Star Celestial Lullaby

Celestial Lullaby is a jelly polish with purple white moon and star glitters.  Now, I did you undies, I used Essie's She is Picture Perfect and then two coats of the polish.  The only thing that I found a little hard to work on with this polish was making sure that the positioning of the moons were not on top of each other.  On the first coat I did notice that one of the moon glitters looked thick and there were two on top of each other and on the second coat you need to make sure that again the moons are not on top of each other and that they are not in the corner of the tip of the nail otherwise you have a half moon hanging off the tip of your nail.  If you do notice that a little bit of glitter is hanging you can use a nail file to gently file it down.  The lilac color is really pretty and once you can learn to make sure the placement of the moons are not on top of each other you get a beautiful polish.   I wore it to a meeting I had on Monday and my friend who only likes to have her nails buffed actually liked this one a lot.  So, that says something to me.  I think when people who don't wear polish tell you they like your polish it really means it is special.  Oh, but I did buy this perfume and another friend of mine screamed saying it was too strong.  Oh, well you can't please everyone. This polish has not been released yet but it will be released June 24, 2013. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Stars can be found on Etsy.  The great thing about Northern Star Polish is that you can buy smaller bottles so you don't have to commit to a large amount of polish or you can just buy more without spending so much money.  So, check the shop there are a lot of great polishes from jellies to glitter toppers.

 

Ciao for now,

Patty

 

This sample was provided to me for my honest review

Northern Star Galactic Memories

 Hi, today, I have Northern Star's Galactic Memories.  It is a glitter topper.  It has star glitters red,  silver glitters and gold glitters.  It could be used on top of any color.  I used OPI's I'm Austinatious.  I wanted it to look like a twilight sky.  You could also do a gradient and that too would look great.  I am planning to wear this on 4th of July with all the stars and red and blue glitters it does appear patriotic.  Overall, the colors of the glitters are very versatile.   The formula is like a lot of glitter toppers.  I patted it on although, I find putting it on a sponge works very well also.  I only used one coat.  I did wait about five minutes before I put a coat of top coat, seche vite on it.   I really liked that I only needed to put one coat of topper on my nails even though the wait time was a little longer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Stars can be found on Etsy.  The great thing about Northern Star Polish is that you can buy smaller bottles so you don't have to commit to a large amount of polish or you can just buy more without spending so much money.  So, check the shop there are a lot of great polishes from jellies to glitter toppers.

 

Ciao for now,

Patty

 

This sample was provided to me for my honest review

Kimber’s Challenge A–Z Letter W

 

Today the letter is W.   W stands for Wallis from Butter London.  This is a great polish that never fails to look nice.  It is a very good neutral.  It is also provides a good palette to stamp so I went ahead and stamped I haven’t done any stamping in a while so I stamped some bamboo and little elephants using DRK plate C.  I have ordered 3 plate sets last month and I am going to order the new Pween set also the DRK-D plate will be making it’s way to the states soon.  So, I want to do a lot more stamping but I also can’t stop ordering polish with so many out right now.  We have just the regular polishes, holos, then great indies and now texture.  My head is going in circles.  I totally need to get my she_t together and do a blog sale.  I have some indies to post tomorrow and I am going to show you my polish room just so you can see what I am dealing with.  I need a professional organizer which luckily I am getting next week, my 6 year old niece.  My daughter will also be her mid July.  So, by then I will need to revamp again.  It is crazy but I love painting my nails and coming up with new designs in stamping.   I have also been trying new products on my hands that I feel are really working.  And I know there is a new challenge coming up and I can’t wait for it to start.  I hope everyone is going to be taking the challenge also.  So, here is my W.  Wallis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that is all for today.  I wish everybody luck for next week.  I know I missed last week but not because I didn’t have a V, my time was just being monopolized and I truly hate that because I enjoy doing this blog so much even if just ten people read my posts.  This blog is very important to me and I am now just going to have to be selfish with my time and say no.  I remember when I used to do 40 posts a month it felt good last month I only did 29 so, making sure that I post my X is going to be very important.  I might still post my V even though the inlinz code is expired.  I want the complete alphabet for my pinterest page.  So, you might see that post this week.  That is about it.

 

Ciao bellas,

Patty

May Favorites

I have some time so I am going to share my May favorites.  I did not have that much time to post as often as I usually do.  May was pretty chaotic.  But I do think I have some things I did like about May.  These are not in any particular order but just a few of my favorites.  I looked at my posts noticed that I did not feature much nail art but for June I have a lot of manicures featuring nail art I just have not posted so you will see more nail art in June.  These pictures are in no particular order.

 

 I think this was one of many people's favorites because it was such a beautiful color.  I have not worn it since I swatched it but I will be using it this week as I do have a busy week ahead.

This was one of my favorites because of the beautiful shine that came with it.  It was absolutely gorgeous in direct sunlight and I did wear this one for a couple of days.

Another one by Whimsical Ideas.  Like I said daisies are my favorite flowers and if you read the whole post and saw the shirt that I wore with this polish it was a no brainer.  They were meant for each other.

I am not always the glitter girl but this one was too cute.  I love Pretty Serious Polish and had to help Daphne celebrate her birthday which just happens to be in April just like mine. I wonder if she is an Aries also?

 

Before this post, I reviewed Revlon's Charma Chameleon and said I was disappointed with the lack of duochrome but had confidence that the next go around would be improved.  I said this is what I want and Hits Mari Moon collection never fails to put out some outrageous duochromes which I love.   So, as long as Mari Moon is around.  They have a loyal customer.

 

I know this one is a little ordinary but if you read the post it explains my obsession with rings and why I just love putting them in my manicures.  Sometimes I hit the nail on the head but others, well, I kind of deal with what I have.  But this post tells the true reason why and when my obsession started. 

 

So, I hope that you enjoyed these posts as much as I enjoyed writing them and of course wearing the polish that went with them.  If there was a post that you particularly liked let me know if there was one you hated let me know that too.  But for now, it is late and I must get my sleep as I am taking care of a child tomorrow and not a four legged one.  A 10 year old boy, my nephew, and I know I will need all my energy to answer all his questions because that is all he does is ask quesions.  His parents are scared to have the sex talk with him, I told them I would do it.  Maybe that is why he is coming over. Yikes. 

 

Ciao for now, bellas,

Patty

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

A very long time ago there was only one way to get music in your car, through a radio on an AM channel.  I actually remember when FM radio came to be in the 70's.   It was really exciting to hear Led Zepellin coming out of the car radio.  Anyway there was this really kind of silly song called "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" by BJ Thomas.  They always seemed to play it when  it rained and as I swatched my nails with this polish this song was just in my head. 
Yes, I was so excited to score both the blue and pink Illamasqua Raindrops.  I really like these polishes.  I don't know which one I like better but they do seem to have a different formula and I have no idea why.  The pink one was a little thicker but I think the reason for this is that the blue one has more of a jelly feel and the pink one has more of a cream feel.  I did need three coats for the blue and only two for the pink.  That is the only difference I could tell.  Come to think of it the blue is a jelly it did take a little longer to dry in between coats but not to the point where I was ready to throw it against the wall and when it did dry it was a firm dry not one of those gooie ones. NOtice the small white flakes in the bottle shots.   I got these at Sephora.  I just made sure that when they sent me a notice that they were back in stock I bought them right away.  Right, now Sephora has a special offer that you pay $25.00 for a year worth of free shipping.  I decided I am going to go ahead and purchase.  Even though, my Sephora is about two miles from where I live they don't always have what I want in the store so ordering is just easier and less disappointing.  I do order on line because I hate going to a store and they don't have what I want and I have to go home and order anyway.  I will give you all the code and post it on facebook as soon as I go through my email and find it.  Now for the swatches.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

And now the pink one.

 

 

 

 

 

Which is your favorite.  I don't know.  I just know that the pink is very lady like and the blue makes me feel like a baby.  Either way.   I am glad I was able to purchase these.

 

Ciao for now,

Patty