China Glaze Recycle - amazing swatch! (Julie)

After a long day of shopping with my dearest Erika, I arrived home to find a little package in the mail from eBay. My China Glaze Recycle! What a great color! I was going to wear this alone, but I think i might have to add some sparkles to it to see how it looks. But for now, here is this amazing cream gray color in all its glory.

A Little Bit of Cash Went a LONG Way Today - Sally Sale Haul! (Julie)

I'm still quite high off my Sallys sale haul today. And mind you I had no idea they had their markdowns out today! I was just visiting starbucks and I saw that beloved table of markdowns out and packed full of sparkling bottles of goodies...so I ducked in, and the prices were infreakin'credible! They were practically GIVING the stuff away. The sale was an additional 50% off the already marked-down price.

First I went to see what kinda nail polish they had on sale - not all that much left, I'm sure all the good colors sold out immediately. But I did get the stragglers. They had China Glaze Xmas sets for $4.99, then 1/2 off....so 3 China Glazes for $2.50 (wow!) and peppermint cuticle oil for .99 and 1/2 off that price. There was so much stuff to buy! I also found a super cute caboodle marked down to $10, and half-off that price.

Now for the list - my haul-

2x - Mummy-May-I by China Glaze (Cus it's super pretty!!) for $1.00 each
1x - Ick-A-Bod-y - by China Glaze for $1.00
1x - Peppermint Cuticle Oil by China Glaze for $1.00
1x - Savvy FC *my first of this brand* in Tinsel swatch for $1.00
1x - caboodle carry case in Hounds tooth for $5.00
1x - Green hologram stars nail art for $1.50
1x - Sally Girl Pink Loose Glitter for $.40 cents
1x - Sally Girl Red Loose Glitter for $.40 cents
1x - 5 second Manicure (nail/cuticle oil) for $2.50
Oh, and nail polish remover cus I needed it (not on sale!)

Zoya "Crystal" From Fire And Ice Collection AND Second Attempt At Winter Nails (Julie)

I bought my first Zoya! The color was so irresistibly beautiful so I thought i'd give it a shot. It's called Crystal, and is from their Fire & Ice collection which I believe was released for their winter 2010 collection. I think it looks a wee bit better in the bottle than it did on my nails. It's a gorgeous color though. It's an aqua with golden sparkles in it. It took 3 layers to show the true color, and applied a bit sloppier than most, I would recommend allowing each layer to dry fully before applying the next. I was in a rush so I didn't, and kind of ruined the whole application. But here you go. Zoya, Crystal. (on a side note, I switched my top coat over from seche vite to Quick & Slick by Prolana. My Seche Vite started to apply really crappy and it's too expensive to keep buying new bottles!)

And as I promised myself, I was going to give the winter sparkles thing another try. I think i did better this time, but it still needs more work and different colors. I really want to try this in all silvers. But for now, it's a rainbowy mess :) But a good one!

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! (Julie)

I saw this amazing tutorial from a new blog on make up/nail polish/everything wonderful and I was immediately drawn to all the sparkles! It's SUCH a beautiful concept, but I just wasn't able to execute it like Audrey was on her demo. Maybe because my nails are too short, or I'm not coordinated enough...or perhaps because I had to improvise with most of the swatches she used! Either way, it was disastrous....but you can't blame a girl for trying.

Here were my choice swatches - It's a lovely little group of colors, they just don't work together! Too much going on -

1- Essie in Pink Glove Service
2-OPI in Sparkle-icious
3-Hard Candy in Hot Pants
4- (the only one I did have) - Golden Enchantment by China Glaze

I am not going to show you my entire hand today, because I haven't cleaned all the excess glitter and my fingers are an absolute mess. But I think this'll give you a good idea. And I think if I had to give this little concoction a name, it'd be fairy diarrhea. YUM!

An Amazing Christmas, New Deborah Lippmanns, and SNOW! (Julie)

Christmas was a success! Spent the eve at Dad's, and dressed my shih-tzu Abba up as an elf--- I normally don't subject my pups to that kind of torture but she just looked so damn cute.

Spend Christmas day at moms, the back home to exchange with my boyfriend, Liam. He bought me new car speakers for my jeep, 2 new Coach bags, The "magic bullet" (no, that's nothing perverted!) - and his Godmother bought me 2 Deborah Lippmann swatches that I picked out at Nordstrom. Ruby Red Slippers, and Across the Universe. I only got around to swatching Across the universe because I have been dying to give it a try, and I'd like to keep it on for a day or so :)

Then I woke up this morning and HELLO snow! We are expecting anywhere from 8 inches to 16 inches in NY. It's looking like a winter wonderland outside. It might not have snowed on xmas day, but this is the next best thing :)

Here is Across The Universe -
Initially, I applied 3 coats of DL's Across the Universe and it was too chunky and I removed it. What a waste! I then decided to apply 1 coat of DL's Across the Universe on top of 1 coat of black NP by China Glaze. That is the best black np I've had so far! It only needs one coat, applies with no mess, smooth, and evenly. So here is Across the Universe as photographed this morning.

Here are my 3 Debora Lippmann's together...all that sparkle! So pretty!

I will swatch Ruby Red Slippers either this evening or tomorrow. But for now, here's a close up of the swatch inspired by Dorothy, herself ;)