Decisions, Decisions

My birthday is coming up in less than a week. If you remember, last year I made a big announcement on my blog. No big huge announcement this time, just a decision to make - I need to figure out what is going to be my birthday manicure!

This year, the spitfire is no help, he's more interested in Wii than mommy's nails, although I'll try to get him to pick tomorrow. Here are the contenders:

Pointer - two coats of OPI Princesses Rule with a coat of OPI Teenage Dream on top
Middle - Julep Brooklyn, quite smudged at the cuticle, of course
Ring - Dior Aloha
Pinky - A England St. George

I have a feeling spitfire is going to gravitate to St. George, because it's green, but I'm leaning towards the pink.

Oh, the problems we face!

Glitter Gal 3D holographic polish in Green

Ok, I did it. I hopped on the Glitter Gal bandwagon. A few weeks back I placed an order on Llarowe for a bunch of holos. The first of which I posted about last week. Today's pick is Glitter Gal 3D holo in Green.

The color is a light green with a very lovely linear holo. Oh, how I love the linear holo. It is dangerous while driving in direct sunlight as one tends to stare at their nails - or maybe that's just me.

This polish definitely shows up better while using a flash, otherwise you just don't get the dancing flashes that you would in real life. Here is a picture in indirect sunlight (because the sun was refusing to help me out today).

Still pretty, though!

The polish was good. It was on the thin side, but not so bad that it runs into your cuticles. I did use three coats and there was still a faint nail line. Again, being that it is a holo - it wasn't enough to deter me from loving this. The brush did have a stray bristle, but a snip of my little scissors remedied that right away. The bottles are smaller than I expected. 9ml, so bigger than the tiny Le Metier de Beaute polishes, but smaller than most that you will find, especially for the price. But, from what I understand, holographic polishes cost a bit more to make, which is why recent holos have been on the pricy side.

This particular color is still available at Llarowe, as well as a few other colors in the holo line.

Wanna know how opaque a polish is? Check its balls!

Boy, oh boy, I can't wait to see the Google search that leads people to this posting.

Have you ever brought a bottle of polish home thinking you have this awesome bottle of polish only to find out that the color is so sheer that you need 7 coats just to get the color of the bottle? The opacity of many polishes will clearly be evident. However, if you pick up a bottle and are unsure, just check its balls.

The little steel mixing balls of course! Now, obviously, if your polish doesn't have the mixing balls, well, you're out of luck. However, it if does, hold the bottle up to check 'em out. With opaque polishes you will only see the little dot of the ball. Check out the pictures:

Looking at the two bottles above (China Glaze Mediterranean Charm on top and Zoya Jenine, yes I bought it just for the name, on the bottom), all you see are little dots. This are nice and opaque polishes, see:

Those are both only one coat of polish.

If you hold the bottle up and you can pretty much see the entire ball, you've got a sheer polish on your hands here:

With these two polishes, you can pretty much see the entire ball. Both of these polishes (Butter London Disco Biscuit on top and Revlon Grapefruit Fizz on the bottom), while pretty, are quite sheer.

These are both 3 coats of polish, and you can see how sheer the polishes are.

Now, granted, the opaque polishes I picked are pretty obvious, as are the sheer ones. But I have put down bottles based on the ball trick (one being a Deborah Lippmann, which is a brand that I love, but I wanted the color to be opaque, and it was just too sheer). As a rule, I just don't like sheer polishes, I'm way too anal about a visible nail line to futz with sheer polishes, and I never have luck with underwear polishes, I usually just avoid them. I did willingly buy Disco Biscuit after the ball trick because I just simply loved the color and couldn't resist.

I may be stating the obvious here, a thing that everyone knew and I'm last to the table, but just in case I'm not last - I'll repost it for those that are!

Between balls, anal and underwear, this blog is probably going to be placed on interesting lists. Weeeee....

The return, with holos! HITS No Olimpo Ares

So, I've been away for a bit, but I'm returning with a heck of a polish. I have been seeing the HITS No Olimpo collections make its way through the blogs, and there were so many that I wanted. I settled on the bright red Ares.

In Greek Mythology, Ares is the God of War, son of Zeus and Hera. He represents the brutality of war, so I guess it's fitting that this polish is a bright, blood red. But not only is it a bright red, but a bright red with a LINEAR HOLO. Sorry, I just get excited when I look at the bottle.

With flash

Unfortunately, this polish wreaked havoc on my camera, and Santa sent me a very nice upgraded camera and I still couldn't capture the lovely holo as good as I would have liked. It is definitely linear and actually looks like a silver shimmer, until it gets directly in light, then the colors dance off the nails. The polish smells a bit funny, and I doubt it's 3-free, so keep that in mind if you go to purchase this. Also, I have read that some people have had problems with the brush, however I didn't have any problems. The brush was on the thin side with respect to volume of bristles, but it was a bit wider than most brushes. The polish itself was on the thinner side, but not so thin that it was runny.

I do love a nice red nail, but adding a holo to a red - divine. This polish will most definitely go into high rotation.

In sunlight

I got mine at Llarowe, however it currently looks like Ares is out of stock, but there are other Greek Gods that are in stock that look just as lovely.

I promised this wouldn't turn into a baby blog, but I can't resist - here the reason I've been neglecting this blog:

My Little Miss - notice the lovely big drool spot under her chin, teething sucks!

Now, how can I focus on nail polish that that face staring at me?

Update

I know, I know... It's been awhile. Yeah, a loooooong while. I've been out of the baby game for a few years and forgot just how much time is spent with baby in arms (in fact, Little Miss is sleeping on me right now, making this one handed typing go very slow).

I'm slowly planning my return. I've got some holos (!) on their way to my home and a boat load of lipglosses to post. Don't write me off just yet!

Le Metier de Beaute King of Prussia Exclusive - All About Me

Today's post is brought to you by the word: multitasking. All the pictures you see were taken with a sleeping baby in my arms. The pictures may not be professional photographer quality, but I'm, pretty impressed at how I can multitask.

All About Me - please note my daughter's lovey as the background.

I am completely falling in love with Le Metier de Beaute. Everything I've tried so far (granted, not that many) I have loved. Most recently I've purchased a King of Prussia, PA exclusive Lip Creme called All About Me. This color was developed for the Neiman Marcus KoP counter by a personal Shopper.

The color is a lovely mauvey-brozne with a ton of sparkles. I mean this is sparkley. Really sparkley. However it doesn't make your lips look garish. It just gives them a lovely, neutral shimmer. Their Lip Cremes usually have a synthetic sweet smell to them, but no taste. I can't quite place this one - maybe some type of berry.

Look at those sparkles!

Here's the bad news. This puppy is Limited Edition. Limited Edition and only sold at the King of Prussia Neiman Marcus counter. Luckily KoP is 15 minutes from my house, but if you want one, I would call right now because as of yesterday, I think there were less than 25 left.

You can reach the Le Metier de Beaute counter by calling the store at (610) 962-6200 and asking for the LMdB counter.

I'm now having a hard time walking by the LMdB counter without making a purchase. I'm waiting to dive into a kaleidoscope, I just have to find one that really, really grabs me.

Why I love NARS nail polishes

See this bad, slightly blurry pic:

It's NARS Night Flight from the NARS Night Series. It's a lovely shimmery blue, yada, yada, yada... Scrangie and Vampy Varnish have reviews on this series. The reason I posted that picture? It's one coat. This polish is so lovely and deep that one coat is perfect, streak-free and opaque.

I also have Night Porter (the green shimmer). I can't wait to try that one, too. NARS is quickly becoming my favorite polish brand for their formula alone.