Mommy Manicure Monday

Essie "Playa Del Platinum" with a little watercolor inspired flower with Essie "Geranium" and "Turquoise and Caicos".

China Glaze "For Audrey" and Incorrect Descriptions Thereof...

I see a lot of people online talking about how "For Audrey" is a "perfect Tiffany blue!" or "the exact color of a Tiffany's box!"

BULL HONK!

Now, you may or may not be aware that Tiffany & Co. actually own that color blue. As in, no one else may replicate that exact color. But the moment I saw "For Audrey" in person, I realized that no way, no how, was it in danger of infringing upon their trademark.

In the interest of science (nail polish can be science, right?) I thought I would put "For Audrey" to the test:

In the bottle, they look pretty close. Let's compare on the nail. More accurately, on the nail wheel:
Next to those other blues, it looks pretty close. Still, you can really see how much darker the color is than actual Tiffany blue.

There was really only one way to see the difference without a doubt. I had to put the polish on the box:

See? This is dry, so it's not like the moisture darkened the color or anything.

I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "Mommy, that polish came out in 2007. You're just figuring this out now?" Well, no. It was just brought to my attention today, because R.E.I.T. and I needed to find a new solution for storing our stash:


What better place to store our precious jewels than a Tiffany & Co. box?

Wear Purple.

Today is Spirit Day, also known as Wear Purple Day. In memory of the young people who have recently committed suicide after being mocked and harassed because of their sexuality, people all over the world are wearing purple. This is a no-hatred household, so today, R.E.I.T. and I are showing our support with our nails:

R.E.I.T. is wearing "Frenzy" by Studio M...

and Mommy is wearing Orly "Charged Up" with Sinful Colors "I Miss You" layered over the top, with a fimo slice butterfly.

Show your support, and wear some fantastic purple today. You never know how a simple gesture like that could affect another person.

L-R: OPI "Licoln Park After Dark" (suede), Sinful Colors "Fiji", Studio M "Frenzy", Orly "Charged Up", Nicole by OPI "Show You Care"

For more information, and other ways to help (that are a little bit more helpful than just wearing purple), visit glaad.org.

Hey, You Should Visit This Other Blog!

Toes That Twinkle is having a giveaway to celebrate her followers! You should totally go check it out!

Barielle "Shades of Argyle"

Okay, I have a confession to make. I left the following comment on Frazzle and Aniploish when she shared her photo of the "Shades of Argyle" collection display:

I can't think of anything more boring than Argyle to base a nail polish line off. They should do, "The colors of Formica" next.

Okay, so, based off a picture of the internet, they really did look super boring. But at Ulta today (I had some money left on a gift card that just had to be spent, and they had a buy two get one sale) I saw them in person. And I had to have them.

First of all, if you're into flash bang whizz zoom colors, this is not the collection for you. But if, like me, you occasionally want to wear what I call a "grown up" color, you won't be disappointed in these. They are gorgeous.

Because my nails and cuticles are still horrorshow, I spared you the sight of them swatched these on a spare nail wheel:



Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do them justice. No matter what lighting I used, I just couldn't get a completely faithful representation. But anyway, from the left,"Wool You Marry Me", "Tight Knit", and "Cashmere Or Loose Me".

"Wool You Marry Me" is a dark (but not as dark as the picture) berry red cream with a slight brownish cast. The closest shade I have in my collection is Essie's "Wicked", but this is a shade or two lighter and leans closer to brown than purple.

When I first picked up "Tight Knit", I thought it was a brown. Then, when I swatched it, I found it was a muddy rose. I have nothing close in my collection, so I'm glad I picked it up.

"Cashmere Or Loose Me" (did they mean "lose"?) is a golden brown cream with very subtle gold shimmer.

All the colors dried super glossy without a top coat, and I'm sure they'll look amazing with my boring and extensive collection of sweaters and turtlenecks.

I tried to enlist R.E.I.T. to help me swatch, but she took one look at the colors and said, "No. No more brown!" So, I guess she'll be on board when we swatch something else.

We Got An Award!

We are so flattered to have been given the Sunshine Award (look to your right!) by Karen D at Frazzle and Aniploish, we just had to make a thank you video! Please note that R.E.I.T. does not have two black eyes, she just made a very dramatic eyeshadow choice this morning. Also, there is a lot of lag between the audio and video. No idea how to fix that, but the sentiment remains the same!



Now, the rules of the award are:

1. Post the image on your blog
2. Link the blogger who gave it to you
3. Pass it on to other bloggers and link to them
4. Let them know you've tagged them by commenting on their blog

So, I'm going to give this award away to a blogger that always make me smile (besides Karen D, who tagged me, of course!):

Bronwyn's Blog Bronwyn Green is an amazing writer of steamy, romantic stories, but her blog is full of wonderful stories about her very funny, sometimes hectic, life. Check her out, and read her books!

R.E.I.T. says: "Hi babies! My babies! Thank you babies! Want kiss!"

So, yeah. Thank you, babies, for reading our blog! We're so happy, we could kiss you!

A Little Nail Art

Nails belong to my BFF, Jill. She painted her tips pink, and I just had to add something to them!

Awesome Deals and a Swatch!

This weekend, I got some awesome deals! First up, my local Ulta had almost their entire collection of Borghese on clearance for four dollars! I hope this doesn't mean they plan on discontinuing the brand in their store, because I would love to see another super deep discount like that in the future. I snapped up "Mezzanotte Blue", which is a deep navy. It reminds me quite a lot of Hard Candy "Mr. Right", minus the shimmer.

Over at Sally Beauty Supply was the really exciting find, though. For some reason I always miss the good stuff on their clearance tables. I get there when it's really picked over and all that's left is scented cuticle oil and unbranded base coats. This time, though, I found two colors from Finger Paints's fall collection, marked down to $1.99. Not bad. And then I got to the register and found out that all their clearance merchandise was 50% off! So, I got two Finger Paints polishes for one dollar each! I absolutely loved their fall collection, so I was excited to get two more colors, "Harvest Hues", which is a shimmery dark green, and "Autumn Moonlight", a gray-blue with silver shimmer.

Now, exciting deals aside, the big find of the day was Borghese "Vigneto Berry". I had seen this polish swatched on a ton of blogs and read rave reviews, but none of the Meijers in my area seemed to have the limited edition display out! I thought for sure I'd find it at Ulta, so imagine my disappointment when they didn't have it, either. I had three OPI polishes in my hand, due to their buy two, get one sale ("Who The Shrek Are You?", "Rumple's Wiggin", and "Suzy Says Feng Shui"), along with "Mezzanotte Blue" and went to stand in the longest line ever. Luckily, the line wound right past the Borghese display with their fall colors! Excitement!

Unfortunately, the four dollar sale didn't extend to this one tiny little display (boo), but I was so excited that I didn't care. In fact, I was so excited to find this one that I asked them to put back all the OPI that I had picked out. It just didn't look as "must have" next to "Vigneto Berry."

I had to wear it immediately:



Pardon my messy fingers. Borghese makes very wide brushes, and it's a bit hard to get used to. This picture kind of highlights the problems with the polish. I love that it's matte. I love matte finish polishes. But I took this picture literally five minutes after apply the second coat, and it's already cracked. I think this must be due to the crazy shrinking the polish does while drying, so I would recommend waiting until the first coat is absolutely dry before apply the second coat.

However, just look at it. Matte magenta, with glitter. It's ridiculous that anything should look so good.

Another thing I noticed on the blogs was that this is a very versatile polish. It looks completely different when you put on a glossy top coat:



And again with the messy fingers. Chalk it up to my excitement. I couldn't wait to get it on my hands. This is with one coat of Seche Vite. Look how completely different it is! It's like I bought two polishes in the same bottle. I did one hand with top coat, one without, and the results were shocking. The hand without the top coat looked elegant and very "high-fashion". The hand with the top coat looked fun and funky.

R.E.I.T. absolutely loves this polish, too, but she prefers it without the top coat. Or, "bumpy", as she calls it. It's actually the first polish that I think she's worn twice in a row!

Munchkin Manicure Monday!

Since the past few Wednesdays have been crazy, R.E.I.T. hasn't shared her nail looks. And since I just took off my lovely acrylics and cut my nails super short to recover, I will mercifully shield you from the sight of my stubby nails. Wednesday has been wearing some pretty inventive Skittles looks lately. Today, though, she came up with a real winner (and one I'm actually thinking of trying out, myself):

She decided to try out China Glaze "Solar Powered" under Studio M "Gold Glitter". Don't you just love the Studio M names? Does what it says on the tin, I guess.

Anyway, I was pretty impressed by her choice. And she was so happy with it, she wore these colors on all ten of her fingers! Quite an accomplishment, from this kid, who usually goes through four colors in one manicure.

Mommy: "Do you have anything you want to say on the blog today?"
R.E.I.T.: "Yes. I paint. A mommy paint. Watch!"

So, I guess she thinks this is something I would wear. And you know, it wouldn't be a bad look for New Years!

This Blog Is Having A Sick Day!

Due to R.E.I.T.'s horrible cold, we're taking some days off to snuggle on the couch and watch videos. We'll return with fresh polish on our fingers and toes when the little bean is feeling better!