Birthday Blog Dump!!!

Hey Y’all!!  What’s up my B!tches???  Hey it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday, gonna party like it’s my birthday!  Drink Bacardi like it’s my birthday!  Yeah, about that, I’m not gonna party but I am not working today and will be eating steak tartar and drinking X.O. beer (cognac infused!!!) at Le Select today instead of not telling anyone one that I work with that it’s my birthday and choking back crybaby tears at my desk all day!  That’s just how I roll!!!

So me and my twin sis will be turning 45 years old today and even though I can pretty much say that my life completely blows, I can at least say “At least I look good for 45!”

Really, Really Good!

So today, I’m just going to bleat about nail polish and nonsense because what is life about if not nail polish and nonsense, which is totally going to be my new band’s name... 

Gareth Pugh for Mac

I know, I know.  This post is long overdue to the point that it’s not even worth mentioning now but I’m going to anyways.  I like this guy’s work because the stuff he makes and what he wears is almost exactly like what me and my friends wore back in high school. I dig the the goth/expressionist/Klaus Nomi vibe he has going on.  I picked up Hyper, a really nice dark blue shimmer which I liked a lot...

But not as much as I liked Ascension because it looked almost completely different every time you looked at in a different light.  For example, when using a flash, it looked like a light purple shimmer.

Photographed in the shade, you can see it’s a light purple, green gold duo chrome...

But in direct sunlight, it looks like a mid-toned silver shimmer.   

They should have named it Enigma as far as I’m concerned.  It may not be the flashiest of polishes but I don’t have another quite like it.

Hidden Treasure 2 from Sally Hansen

I bought this polish strictly to compare it with the first Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure named Hidden Treasure.  HD1 certainly lived up to its name by being a great flaky polish with a strong orange and green reflective tone.  HD2 could stay buried.  It’s not a bad polish.  Its blue based pearl finish is nice enough and I had no problems with the formula.  It just doesn’t look super special.

Petra Haden Goes to the Movies

I’m a huge fan of Petra Haden’s unique covers using overdubs of her own voice to take the place of musical instruments.  I loved the sh!t out of Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out and I’m just as excited with her latest release Petra Haden Goes to the Movies.  Her version of the main theme from Psycho is awesome.  Seriously, listen...

Also great on this album is her version of It Might Be You from the film Tootsie.  I had never liked this song until now.  When she sings it, I cry every time.  When I hear the original by Stephen Bishop, I feel nothing!

Essie’s All Tied Up

It’s been so long since I bought this polish that I can’t even remember which collection this polish came from but I can tell you that it is a nice and dependable, mid-toned pink with a subtle gold shimmer in it.  My favourite kind of pink!

 

Hey Look!  Some Nail Art!

I would try nail art more often if I had the time to wait for all the different layers to dry.  I was trying to get the feel of a match burning in the dark...

I used Maybelline’s Black Onyx as the base, and then dotted China Glaze’s Cruisin’ at the end of my nail and multiple coats of Essie’s As Gold as it Gets for some sparkle.  I know I’m no Leonardo of nail art but I like it.

Ski Day

I went on my employers’ annual ski day trip this February and bizarrely, I had a lousy time!  Nobody would talk to me at the house party the night before so I bailed and went back to my hotel room and drew for the rest of the night.  This was the result:

The Bride of Frankenstein

 At least I didn’t waste my time completely!

OPI’s SkyFall

This is just my opinion but Skyfall is the best Bond movie with the second worst theme song ever!  Yes, I said it!  I hate Adele’s Skyfall theme. It’s just so boring. I don’t care it won an Oscar, so did Crash.  If you’re wondering which Bond theme is the worst, the dishonor goes to Jack White & Alicia Keyes’s Another Way to Die from Quantum of Solace.  I imagine that the sound they make is identical to the sound of a bag of cats being tossed into a river and is the only time peanut butter and chocolate did not taste good together.

OPI’s Skyfall polish just might be one of my favorite polishes ever.   

Yes, yes it is a burgundy crème polish that leans towards a brownish tone but I just love it as much as the film’s highrise punch up and that scene is so amazing, it makes me cry too!

The Tears Are Coming!!!

Tom Hiddleston All the Goddamn Time

Yes I’m still bonkers over Captain Jazz Hands.

And last but not least, Thanks to my latest follower Lizelle for giving me a chance!

Silver Anniversary by Sally Hansen

I picked out Sally Hansen's Silver Anniversary because it looked so pretty in the bottle but how could I be prepared for how blah it looked on my nails.  Seriously, I'm not even seeing good top coat potential here.  That's three coats of polish and yet somehow it makes my nails look even more yellow than they actually are!  Funny thing is, the formula for this was pretty great!  It went on smoothly, dried super fast and didn't get a nick in the finish.  Go figure!

Essie's Action & Sally Hansen's Bronze Yourself

I couldn't help agree with nail blogger Penelope PitstopYKD when she noted on her blog All Things Nails! that Essie's Action looked exactly like a creamsicle.  There's no better description for it than that so I'm not even going to try except to say that the only thing that keeps me from completely loving it is the large amount of bubbling that I experienced after applying three coats of the stuff.  Perhaps I was too hasty and didn't wait long enough between dry times.  Maybe when I do my toes with this it'll be better!

I don't know where Sally Hansen gets off calling this polish Bronze Yourself when that thing is so clearly orange.  Not that I'm complaining, I think that this colour looks fantastic but it is just not bronze!  Even coverage in two coats, no streaking and a good dry time.  If you can find this anywhere and you like a nice orange shimmer, then this is a good pick for you.

What time is it?  It's Tom Hiddleston Time, all the goddamn time...

It Would Be Nice if Someone, Hell, Anyone, Would Look At Me Like That.

Rock of Ages Nail Polish Strips from Sally Hansen

By now, Rock of Ages has been in the theatres for 2 weeks and has cemented itself as a colossal dud that people seem to be laying all the blame on Tom Cruise for its failure.  I don't know about you but I just sort of think that if you have a film that has two not so big names as the leads and then you pepper that same film with supporting actors that are a million times more talented than your leads, then you  film is going to have some problems.  Rock of Ages was one of the movies that I had actually hoped would have a polish tie-in, not because I was going to see the movie (never wanted to see it, probably never will either) but because I thought the polishes could be fun.  Instead we got the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips and some pretty uninspired designs.  I only picked up one of this said designs, Sticks & Stones.  Its name makes little sense to me unless it's trying to be the most half assed reference to the Rolling Stones that you can find.

 The better name for these polish strips would have been "Frankenstrat" since the designers had the good sense to literally copy the red, black & white paint job of Eddie Van Halen's most famous guitar called the "Frankenstrat" because he cobbled it together out of different guitar pieces but mainly out of Fender Stratocasters.  I don't see why they wouldn't go ahead and name it the right way...

link

 Yeah, well, this was my first experience with nail strips and I found that I wasn't too nuts about them.  The peeling, fitting, pressing and scraping just was so much of a hassle that it would have been easier to just slap on a few coats of anything else and be done with it.  I won't argue that for the price (I got them on sale 2 for $8) it's far cheaper than going to a salon and having a manicurist do this for you but don't print on the box that it'll last for over 8 days when I couldn't get it to last 8 hours...

You can see the obvious problem at the top of the pinkie & middle finger, those chunks just came off right away and many chips quickly followed on the rest of my nails that resulted in my removing S&S two days after application.  Tsk!  Well, here's Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat in action with Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away".  I hope that there's enough cowbell in there for you!

Emerald Empress by Sally Hansen

Christmas has come and gone, I am tired, tired, tired and the holiday season isn't even done yet as we still have New Years Eve to look forward to or contend with (depends on how you look at it).  I haven't had too much time for posting but I just had to take some time to drool over Sally Hansen's Emerald Empress from their Insta-Dri Line.  This polish straddles a fine line between blue and green but regardless of what your eye thinks it sees, it's still seeing a beautiful colour.  This deep shimmer polish had full coverage in two coats and true to it's name it dried very quickly.  It also had very good wear time as this picture was taken 3 days after application.  The Insta-Dri line is 50/50 when it comes to durability so it's great that this one lasts a bit longer than others.  The obvious downside to a polish like this one in the unavoidable staining of the nails that these kinds of colours cause.  So be prepared to take some extra time for removal.

Time to Shine by Sally Hansen

At first I thought that maybe Time to Shine from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Fall 2011 collection would be too flashy for work. As it turns out, despite the high amount of shine, this was actually a very workable polish colour.  Falling in between a champagne and a light gold, it's just the right tone to make it somewhat more of an everyday polish than if had been a more yellow gold.  Pictured here is two coats of polish but I think that it could use an application of three coats to really bring out the shimmer, especially when you can see some very nice red reflection in there.  A good choice for a small price.

Ruby Rush By Sally Hansen & Layla Graffiti Effect

I recently picked up Ruby Rush, one of the Fall 2011 colours from the Insta-Dri Line from what was a pretty full display at my local Pharmaplus.  I don't know if shoppers are not into the usual fall "go to" colours that always come out at this time of year or if it was the fact that the display was tucked away on a bottom shelf.  Maybe they're just looking for something different in terms of polish.

If you're looking for something different, you won't find it in this colour but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  This types of wine coloured shimmer polishes are usually a core type of colour.  Like a pure red or a nice clean nude polish, you should expect to find at least one colour like this in every polish lovers collection.

There were no issues with application and it did dry quickly as advertised but the formula was a bit thin.  It ended up chipping by the end of the first day of wear, so if your looking for something that will last more than a couple of days, then Ruby Rush is not for you.

As for polish buyers wanting something new, I can't help but wonder if we're reaching the end of the crackle craze.  While at the same Pharmaplus, I found a completely full display for a polish line called Layla.  Their take on crackle nail polish is called a Graffiti Effect topcoat but it just adds up to the same thing.  I decided to give the purple colour (the polish didn't have a name) I bought a try on top of Ruby Rush right before I removed it.

If you look closely, you can the problem with the polish right away.  When I polish my nails, I start with the pinkie and work my way over to my thumb.  That way I don't accidently bump or smear a wet nail so you can see that while the polish is cracklingly very well on my pinkie but by the time I got to my thumb, it wasn't doing so well.  If you're wondering, I dipped the brush for a new sweep of polish for each nail.  I guess I can't grumble since it was under $4 CDN but that was the mark down price:  It was originally priced at $15 CDN!  So if you live in the GTA and you want to try out a crackle polish, $4 is fairly reasonable.

Pumpkin Spice by Sally Hansen

I've been seeing Sally Hansen's Pumpkin Spice on a lot of blogs in the last few weeks and I thought it looked pretty cute for a glitter polish (glitter is not my favourite).  Maybe I should have read their posts as opposed to just looking at the pictures!  Then I would have realized that I needed to put a black base coat in order to make this polish really look its best.  That's why that despite the fact that it looks pretty terrible in this photo (that's 3 coats)  I don't have anything negative to say about it's thin black base colour and orange glitter because I know that if I take that step, it will look great!

My Tummy is Growling with Food Inspired Polishes

Despite having recently lost over 40 pounds, I still find myself spending a lot of time thinking about food.  Now, don’t start thinking that I’m depriving myself of the foods I love because I don’t do that.  I just eat less of it while forcing myself to do one of the things in life that I really hate to do: exercise!

If you’re someone who’s dieting or trying to lose weight then you know how difficult it can be since food is everywhere.  Even in nail polish names:

 

Now that Fall is just around the corner, people are going to be consuming a lot less of these slushy coffees in a cup.  Sally Hansen’s Iced Coffee from their Complete Salon Manicure line looks like a nice creamy neutral in the bottle but once you get it on your nails, you can see how watered down it really is.  This is two coats but it’s streaky and with plenty of bald spots in its application, this one’s a real disappointment unless you want to try for three coats.

Sometimes it seems like I can’t start my day without one of these to get me going in the morning.  Espresso from Joe Fresh is a dark brown shimmer that in a weird sort of way, reminds me more of raisins than coffee. The formula on this is pretty good but as usual, the wide and round bottle cap makes the nail painting a little awkward but it was good in two coats. Maybe if I would stop doing my nails in the dark, I might get a sleeker application.  If you are looking to buy this polish, I would suggest that you head out to your local Joe Fresh now.  Espresso has been discontinued and it currently selling at $1.74 CDN, so once it’s gone, it’s gone!

If there was one thing I cut out of my diet, it was truffles.  Not because I ate too many but because the chocolate ones usually retail at $2.00 and up and the fungal variety can start at $55.00 per pound!  When you’re on EI, truffles are not on your grocery list.

This truffle I could afford to spring on as it’s going to last a lot longer than the 30 seconds it would take me to eat a double chocolate raspberry from Godiva’s.  Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails Truffle isn’t really a brown as you would expect but is a dusky pinkish crème.  In fact I find that the colour is a bit difficult to define but I do know that I like it.  The Hard as Nails line is not really known for trendsetting colours or textures but I find its good value for your money as the polish itself is quite durable and the formula is thick without being goopy.  That’s two coats in the photo and it’s smooth and shiny even after a couple of days of wear.  Maybe this week I’ll treat myself to a couple of rum truffles!

Frozen Solid By Sally Hansen

Seriously, just look at the quality of that photo!  Terrible, just terrible it is!  Well despite that, you can still see how super shiny and very sheer Frozen Solid from Sally Hansen's redesigned bottle for their Hard As Nails line.  Even though Sally Hansen products were on sale at the place I picked this up, I only ended up buying this colour as I found the others in the display were too similar to ones I already had.  Although I like how this polish looks, I think that it just may be a little to light for my skin tone.  Some how it seems a little washed out to me.  If you want to achieve bottle colour with this one, you're either going to have to apply four or more coats (that's three coats in the photo) or you are going to have to start with a similar base colour. 

Frozen Solid, it made me think back to 1998 when I finally became a Madonna fan.  Not that I was ignorant of her emergence in 1983, I just didn't really enjoy the work she was doing that much.  I liked a few songs (Dress You Up, Express Yourself, Like a Prayer) but frankly I was weary of her constant omnipresence in the media that you couldn't go anywhere without seeing her belly button, ratty hair and gap teeth under a pile of rosaries, lace and jelly bracelets.

And Don't Forget, a Truckload of Makeup!

I guess I got used to her always being around, because when she released Ray of Light, I was blown away by it and now it's one of my favourite records of all time.  It just seemed to me that on this album, she finally abandoned shock value as a method of garnering attention and embraced genuine emotions for inspiration.  So I'll leave you with one of my favourite songs from that album, the appropriately titled Frozen.

Sally Hansen's Blush Rush

I picked up Sally Hansen's Blush Rush since I thought it would be an inexpensive alternative in comparison to splurging on Nars's Orgasm.  Granted, Orgasm does have a lot more of a gold shimmer to it but just because I'm working now, doesn't mean I'll stop looking for a bargain!  It first glance, Blush Rush looks pretty good but this is one of the few I've purchased from the Insta-Dri line where the quality was just not really there.  It chipped within a day, the brush was wonky and I had to touch it up three times.  I guess that's fine since it does dry quickly but that doesn't mean I want to spend time retouching my nails every day.  So for Blush Rush, I say...meh.

In a Blink Blue with Captain America

This series of photos marks the last round of grainy, non macro images that I’ll take as I’ll be getting a replacement camera this week.  Yeah, digital photography has so many advantages (like giving me the ability to create this blog) but honestly, I still prefer a good old fashioned camera with film.  I felt more in control of the image somehow.  So until I pick up my new camera, enjoy these grainy and fuzzy images of Sally Hansen’s In a Blink Blue...

In a Blink Blue from the Instra-Dri line is a royal blue shimmer and to me it sort of looks like a superhero blue to me.  The formula was a bit thick and sticky and the brush so the polish dragged on my nails. Although the brush is wide, it wasn’t evenly cut so application was a bit of an issue for me.  The stickiness caused some bubbling on my thumb (which you can see in the photo) but it did dry quickly.  Despite the not that great formulation, I very much like it and I figure I’ll hang on to it.

Speaking of Superheroes, I went to see Captain America and I really enjoyed it a lot, almost as much as I liked Thor and that was awesome. When it comes to comic books, I’m a DC girl not a Marvel girl so it bothers me a little that Marvel Studios is pretty much kicking the ass of DC films (the Batman franchise is the exception) but Marvel’s decision to tie all their properties together and treat the films like the comics by keeping the characters in the same universe was a brilliant choice.  It makes you feel as if you have to see Iron Man, Thor & Captain America before the release of The Avengers.

But I Thought This Guy Was the Human Torch!

Basically it’s about an American 98 pound weakling who gains superpowers and goes off to fight Nazis during World War II.  Nazis!  Besides Neo-Nazis, who doesn’t love to see them get their asses kicked?  Nobody, that’s who!  So you pretty much can’t go wrong when they’re the main villains.  But you know what makes it even better?  When the main Nazi looks like this...

Dude, You've Got Something On Your Face!

What I really liked about this film is that it’s an old fashioned adventure movie, just like grandma used to make, or in this case, Steven Spielberg.  Because if you like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you’ll definitely like Captain America.  I don’t know what it says about me but I think I’m in the minority when I say that I liked Steve Rogers better before he had superpowers.  

Sure, he finally realized his potential and became a great leader when he gained superpowers but he was that person before all that happened.  He was so sweet and had so much heart I just wanted to punch anyone who was mean to him, especially since he was unable to punch anyone himself.   

I thought it would have been nice if his love interest, Peggy Carter, had shown him some real compassion, not politeness, before he became a Men’s Fitness cover boy.

How Do You Feel?  And By That I Mean, Can I Touch Them?

Sure, now she likes him!  If there’s one element that adventure films need, it’s a sense of humour and there are laughs in this movie, especially during a montage of Captain America and his Allied buddies run ram shod  all over Red Skulls operations:

HOOOOGANNNN!!!!!

I laughed so hard I could have wet my pants!  Hat’s off to Hugo Weaving for being so awesome that he can emote through all that latex.  

What was also nice was how involved the audience was with what was playing out onscreen.  They got mad when a trampy WAC hit on Cap and actually erupted into a chorus of “Woooooooooo!!!!” when Steve & Peggy finally kissed.  

You would have thought the scene was “filmed in front of a live studio audience”.  I don’t go out on dates that often, but I would actually call this a date movie...it’s got something for the ladies...and for a certain kind of man!