Purple...Drug Store...Jelly? BRING IT.

Oh my giddygod's trousers. Milani Rad Purple. First, a word to Milani.

Dear Milani,

Even though you used these stupid opaque bottles for your neons and your distribution seems to be almost on par with that of Sally Hansen (read: sucky) I love you simply for creating this "Rad Purple" business. Thank you.

Love,

Steff

Are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING ME, Milani? This is awesome. I can't remember where I saw this first, but as soon as I did I wanted it. Then I got it. Then it sat on my bathroom counter for two weeks. After the first coat I was thinking, wait, why did I want this again? By the second coat I remembered why. I did three coats here, topped with a generous amount of Sally Hansen Mega Shine. I think the problem was that because it's a "neon" (it's not, really; it's just vibrant) it was drying matte. I didn't really LOVE it until I put on the topcoat. Look at how juicy it looks! Juicy and squishy! Aaaahhhh I love this! You must all own it! I don't even like purples like this that lean so red, but I can't help myself.

Edited to add: Hey, I really do think this looks kinda like grape jelly...

No?

Also, a note on Grape Pop, which I posted yesterday. I absolutely adore it. I was kind of meh about it when I put it on, but after wearing it for a day it skyrocketed into my top 5. Wait, do I have a top 5? Hm. Anyway, I know I'll be wearing it again because it rocks face. Get that one too if you don't have it.

What else, what else...oh! Yesterday I dug my car out of fourteen inches of snow (while I was wearing a flouncy dress and tights; what the hell is wrong with me?) and went to the movies all aloney on my owney. I saw Crazy Heart, and if you haven't seen that yet you need to. I love Jeff Bridges because of The Big Lebowski, so when I heard that he had done all of his own singing for Crazy Heart I knew I had to see it. The movie is incredible. Jeff Bridges' performance is incredible. The music is incredible. Plus I was the only one in the theatre because everyone else in this area was sane and stayed indoors, so it was just supremely relaxing and lovely.

I have been saying that I don't want to post on weekends, but you know what? I love this blog. I love posting. I love babbling. I love you guys. I'm just gonna keep doin' it. This is the last time I'll talk to you in February though, and on March 1st I'll be posting my giveaway details. Stay tuned! Lastly, I think pop won in the soda vs. pop comments yesterday. Very interesting indeed.

Happy Saturday!

Grape Pop? Or Grape...Soda?

I wasn't going to change my polish today because, surprisingly, I was really loving OPI Vodka & Caviar. I could not stop looking down at my hands like, all day. Unfortunately at work, my hands were submerged in water for like...a long time. The polish chipped a little bit and if there's one thing I cannot stand it's chipped polish. Sigh and a half. The other reason I wasn't going to change my polish is that I'm out of cotton balls. Like two weeks ago I bought a whole new bag from Walgrizzle and it has DISAPPEARED. I've looked everywhere and I can't find it. I have to buy new ones now. It's a pain in the ass to remove polish with a paper towel or something. I guess I'm just complaining about this now because the weather is awful so it's tough to go out, even just to Walgreens. Stupid February.

After laboriously removing Vodka & Caviar with a paper towel :( I chose to use Grape Pop. I was really excited about China Glaze Up & Away when I first saw Scrangie's swatches. Then everyone and their mother was posting the colors so I was going to wait a while. Alas, I just could not resist Grape Pop. As I'm sure you all know, purple completely freaks out cameras. This polish photographed way bluer than it actually is.

I used flash in the last picture and it kind of helped, but it's still too blue. In real life Grape Pop is almost equal parts blue and red, but it leans just the tiniest bit blue. Basically, it's the perfect mid-toned purple. It's really, really gorgeous. If you love purples, get this. The application was actually kind of difficult for me. I found the polish to be really, really thick. On the bright side, it was almost opaque in one coat. Key word being almost. I got weird bald patches on some nails so I ended up using two coats. Maybe I'm just used to runnier formulas or something. Who knows. I love, love, love the color, though.

And the name. Is it onomatopoetic, like Grape *POP*!, or is it like grape soda? Here in Cleveland we call carbonated soft drinks pop instead of soda. When I started college in Chicago this was a hotly debated subject. Soda or pop? For a while I stuck with pop, but I was made fun of so mercilessly that I switched to soda. Even after moving back to Cleveland I still call it soda. Now I get made fun of here because it's pop territory. I just can't win.

I leave you today with a picture of Raven leading his difficult life. I just don't know how he survives. He sleeps. Then he poops. Then he drinks some water and eats some organic cat food. Then he goes back to sleep. Poor guy. So much stress.

Alright, that's all for today. In the comments let me know if you say soda or pop to refer to carbonated soft drinks. Also let me know in which region of the US you live. I am always genuinely curious about this subject. Thanks for reading!

No Caviar For Me, Thanks. Never Did Like It Much.

It seems that while everyone else is journeying to Hong Kong with Suzi I am going back to Russia. At least it's sort of the same continent, right? I don't remember when the Russian collection was released--maybe 2007? There are a lot of beloved colors that came out of this collection: Midnight in Moscow, Russian Navy, Boris & Natasha, Catherine the Grape, Siberian Nights...I could continue. I decided today was a red day, so I reached for a red that's pretty much as blue-toned as I'll go, Vodka & Caviar. First of all, I loooove the name of this polish. It makes me want to say, "I'm so posh." The quote in the title of this post is from Titanic, which I'm sure most of you picked up. I actually do quite like caviar, but mostly just on sushi. Ah, sushi. My no-carb diet has made you but a distant dream.

Ooo, shiny.

The normal OPI problems applied here. I find that with OPI reds the first coat for some reason only brings out the pink tones. It's bizarre. Had I left it at one coat I would have had a bright magenta and not a red. At two coats, the bottle color comes out but there is still visible nail line. This is three coats over Nail Tek II and topped with my dying bottle of Seche Vite. The formula was super thin and runny. It wasn't too terribly difficult to work with, just enough to be annoying. I love this color anyway. Like I said, I'm not usually drawn to reds that are this blue (even though this isn't that blue at all), but this one just speaks to me. Did you guys read yesterday's post on The Manicured Manatee about OPI? It had me laughing out loud.

I wasn't even going to post a polish today, but I figured I should. Instead my post was going to be about the Triumphant Return of the Flower. What the fuck is that, you ask? You see, I realized a while ago that when I am in a good mood, I wear a flower in my hair. I could show you dozens of pictures of me all over Europe and the US with a bigass flower in my hair. Barcelona? Check. Brussels? Check. Paris? Check. Rome? Check. Chicago? Check. Seattle? Check. Cleveland?...not so much. Or at least much less. When I was working at this locally owned coffee shop (from September through December) I always wore a flower. I liked the job, believe it or not. I was the barista with the flower. I hardly ever left the house without a flower. Then I left that job because I wasn't being treated well and that's when the flower left too. Yesterday, for the first time in two months, I wore a flower.

Now, I can't say that I'm truly happy right now, but I think this may represent a bit of optimism on my part, which is kind of uncharacteristic. I have a new job that I think I like, winter is almost sort of over (please Cleveland?), and I got together with a good friend the other day. All of these things combined to make me feel less shitty than usual. Here is my flower collection.

I actually have a magenta one that I can't find. That was the one I wore most often in Europe. Maybe I left it there. Who knows. The coral one is the newest. I bought it the same day I bought my coral trench coat, because I am insane. It's my favorite one right now. Why?

It kind of matches my Starfish Patrick!

I'm working later in the afternoon today. Even though there is a snowstorm happening right now, I'm still planning on a flower. It's nice because I usually wear all black; a flower provides an unexpected and pleasant pop of color.

That's all for today. For those of you being buried in snow, my condolences. Solidarity. I hope everyone's having a great Thursday so far.

Cleveland Dollar Tree...Success!

Well, yesterday I posted a Chanel polish and today I'm posting a dollar store polish. It aaaaall evens out in the end, doesn't it? Usually all the Dollar Trees I venture into kind of suck, makeup-wise. There is a Dollar Tree that my grandmother loves and after we had lunch yesterday she asked me if I would take her. When we walked down the cosmetics aisle I practically squealed with glee because there were polishes! Not uber-fantastic-lovely-amazing polishes, but polishes! I think I got five of them. My grandma insisted on buying them for me because she saw how excited I was. Oh, can I just take a second to tell you that my grandma is the cutest thing in the world? She bought herself some of that confetti-type nail polish, those big silver stars suspended in clear polish that most of the time you have to place with a toothpick or something. She's 86 and she's putting stars on her nails. Ah, I love her. Anyway, pictures.

I think this is called Plum Moment. Near a window, natural light.

I kind of thought it might have a slight duochrome to it because it looks goldish-greenish on the edges of the bottle. No such luck on the nail, though.

All my pictures look the same as the one I showed you above, so that's why you only get two. Oh, but here's a closeup of the bottle with flash.

Yay, sparkles! I bet it would look awesome in the sunlight. Oh Cleveland, where is the sunlight?

This applied well, and I'm sure it's from like a decade ago so it's probably full of all kinds of terrible chemicals. Yay! The brush was kind of weird. It was really long and floppy. Manageable, though. It's kind of a metallic so it ended up being a tad brushstroke-y, but it's not a big deal. The color itself reminds me a lot of Lasso My Heart from Rodeo Diva, which I posted here. I'm kind of tempted to go back to that Dollar Tree to see what else I could find given a longer amount of time to poke around. Except...it's in Cleveland. Haha, yesterday my grandma was like, "They keep raising the taxes for everything. It makes me wonder why anyone wants to live in Cleveland." I had to respond with, "...grandma, nobody wants to live in Cleveland." I'm sorry to post two YouTube vids in one week, but...this one just has to go here. It HAS TO.

Also, for anyone in Cleveland just know that I make fun of it with love (sort of), like all Clevelanders. I couldn't embed Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video: Second Attempt, so if you like the first one and you for some reason haven't seen the second one, YouTube it.

I'm sorry that this post has completely devolved into being about not polish. To get it back on track, I'll tell you that I went back to Ulta yesterday and picked up five more little Essence polishes. I don't remember the names of the ones I got, but I know I have two blues (Pool Party and Underwater) a red, a lilac...and I think a darker purple. Yay! Pretty excited. I also got one of their fauxnad plates because I figured I was really only half a nail blogger without at least trying this stampy business. We'll see how that goes.

I hope you guys are having a great week so far. It's Wednesday! That means it's almost the weekend. Unfortunately I have to work all weekend, but I am excited for those of you with a normal schedule. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far, haha. Love you guys!

Drat, It's True: A Chanel Dupe

Yesterday my friend and I took a little trip to Ulta and we noticed a brand new, completely full endcap of Essence Cosmetics. I was so excited at the prospect of nail polish I had never tried before, but I was trying to be good and just use my rewards thingy for a free salon nail polish (Essie Cute As A Button, by the way). Because Essence polishes are only ninety nine cents, I decided I could choose one. I picked a very "me" color, a peachy, pinky coral. It's called What Do U Think? (I hate it when makeup companies substitute letters for words like that. It's not cute). When I got home I told Ange-Marie what I had found. Our conversation basically went as follows:

Me: I got an Essence polish. I think it's called What Do U Think?

Ange-Marie: You know that's supposed to be a dupe of a Chanel, right?

Me: ...Orange Fizz?

Ange-Marie: Yep.

Me: ...crap.

Ange-Marie: *laughter ensues*

The thing is that I JUST BOUGHT Orange Fizz like two weeks ago. I had a Dillard's giftcard so I'm not really worried about spending the money, it's just annoying that there is a ninety nine cent dupe out there. But still, I was trying to be objective about it all, optimistic that the Essence wasn't truly a dupe.

So...which is which? You tell me. I'm not even going to bother telling you. I have Orange Fizz on two fingers and What Do U Think? on two fingers. At least my taste in polish is consistent. Right?

Here's one with flash, just so you know I'm not tricking you.

In real life I think that the Chanel is a touch pinker, but it's barely noticeable. Honestly. So, celebrate, people. If you've been lemming Orange Fizz, you could just buy four bottles of What Do U Think? for four dollars and be set. Or one tiny bottle. But it's pretty small.

The Essence is .16 fl oz, which is mini-er than a mini. Chanels are .4 fl oz.

I like the brush on the Essence polish. It's flat and kind of wide, at least for a mini. This was my first Chanel polish ever. I was amazed at how awesome the formula is. At least on Orange Fizz, the formula is comparable to my Rescue Beauty Lounge cremes; thick but not too thick. Application was a breeze. The formula on What Do U Think? was a touch thinner but still fine.

Here's a full manicure with Orange Fizz.

Oh, just to let you know every time I show you guys a creme I use a ridge-filling base coat. My preference is Nail Tek II. Anyway, this color is absolute perfection, at least for me at this moment, when I'm in a ridiculous coral/peach phase. I love it and I'm glad I have it. However, the Essence would be a suitable replacement since it's...*cringe*...a dupe.

The funny thing is that I actually read a post not too long ago on Little Music Boxes about how What Do U Think? is an Orange Fizz dupe. Not only did I read it, I also commented on it. Ange-Marie brought this to my attention last night. I am a moron. I didn't recognize the Essence polishes when I was staring right at them. Oh well. I'm taking my grandma to lunch today and she basically lives on top of Ulta, so I'm going back to haul more Essence. It's cheap. Really cheap. Want. If all their minis apply as well as the...*cringe*...dupe, then I want...a lot of them. Plus they're only a dollar. How much damage can I really do? :D

Alright, who has found Essence displays in the US? Does anyone have a favorite color that I should for sure check out? Or a favorite product? Let me know! I'm practically an Essence virgin!

Oh Baby, Baby, It's All About the Moon

Happy Monday! I'm feeling ramble-y today, I can already tell. This weekend was so uneventful for me. I feel like I didn't do anything. That's fine with me, generally, but I think I'm starting to get all cabin fever-y. I got a card from this gym nearby in the mail and I think I might join. I am an elliptical fiend when I can actually get to an elliptical. Ack, I just feel lazy. Usually I love winter but February in the midwest really wears on a girl. Plus I have this new trench coat that I promised myself I wouldn't wear until spring. Yes, I want spring to come not so the snow will melt, not so the flowers will sprout, but because I want to wear a new article of clothing. I can't help it. It's coral you guys. I will have to post a picture sometime. Oh, speaking of trench coats, if anyone wants to buy this for me from ModCloth I would be eternally grateful.

Darling Duck Pond Trench, modcloth.com

I LOVE THAT COAT. Everything on ModCloth is so overpriced. Unless I can sweet talk my boyfriend into buying it for me as a gift for...being awesome?...then I think I'm out of luck. I just realized that I make it sound like I only keep my man around to buy me stuff. That's not the case. Generally :D Just thought I'd clear that up.

Yesterday I decided to do something totally out of character and paint my nails yellow. I had only done this once before, during the summer, with a taxicab yellow type of color. I remember when I finished the manicure all I could think of was that I had American cheese on my fingernails. Eww. I kind of stayed away from yellow after that. If you'll remember, the pastel set that I got from Claire's contained a yellow. It's the nice, soft yellow that reminds me of Easter and baby ducks. The bottles in this set are really small. I think they're .25 fl oz. For reference, here is my Duckling Yellow next to Wet n Wild Craze Nocturnal, which is .33 fl oz.

Pretty tiny.

I really like this! It's so bright and look-at-me-look-at-me, but it's soft at the same time. Like whipped butter or something. Formula-wise, this polish had three things going against it: 1.) It's yellow 2.) it's pastel 3.) it's a creme. It was actually almost good at two coats, but I had a little streakiness. I used three coats here and I think it looks great. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I've been wanting to try one of those half-moon manicures, where you use those little sticky paper hole re-enforcers (or as I call them, paper assholes) for patterns.

I don't think my attempt turned out that awful for a first try, but I still wasn't too thrilled with it. I ended up taking it off shortly after I put it on. I don't like spending a lot of time on my nails. That probably sounds kind of weird coming from a polish blogger, but I like to slap on the color and be done. This is why I'm not into Konad or other forms of nail art: because I am lazy. There, you know my secret now. I felt this was a tedious process.

Sorry for the weird claw hand. Yes, this is my right hand. I don't know why it turned out better than the left. As you can see, when I put on the topcoat it kind of smudged the black onto the yellow bit on my pinky. Ack. I even waited for the black to dry.

Next time the half-moons need to be smaller. Oh well. Worth a shot, right?

The entire time I was doing this all I could think of was Regina Spektor's Small Town Moon, one of my favorites of hers.

It's non-album, as all of her best things are. WARNING--OBNOXIOUS INDIE MOMENT COMING...NOW: I liked her so much better when she wasn't all mainstream-y. There. I said it. Her newest album, Far, is...not as good as her old stuff. 11:11, Soviet Kitsch, and especially Songs are genius albums. If anyone reading this is not familiar with her older stuff, e-mail me and I will send you some. I like spreading the gospel of Re-jay-jay. That video up there is her playing it live in concert. It's not a fantastic recording, but it's pretty near and dear to my heart because I was at that concert, at the Riv in Chicago. It's only 2.5 minutes long so you should totally watch it. Pretty...awesome.

Anyway, back to nail polish. Haha. I think I will use Claire's Duckling Yellow again because it's just so cute. I will try another Small Town Half-Moon manicure in the future and attempt not to suck as much. Oh, the black I used was Rimmel Black Satin, by the way. It's a one-coat black so it's kind of my go-to. So, what do you guys think of the yellow? Do you prefer a darker, taxicab yellow, or are you feeling the pastel yellows being released, like the one from Up & Away? Spill. Also...anyone else love them some Regina?

Thanks for reading my rambles! I love you guys!

No Bueno, Ill-uh-mask-uh

Last night I decided to use Phallic, the other polish I got in my package from Ange-Marie. It's a deep navy with a really pretty blue sparkle to it. I did my manicure in the bathroom, where I usually do it, and by the light of my bathroom lightbulbs, the polish looked fine at two coats. I was quite enamored of the color, actually; a deep, dark navy blue. In the morning when I woke up I stuck my hand is some sunlight and was kind of appalled to see what a streaky mess it looked like.

You can kind of tell that I didn't really get satisfactory coverage. It's a pretty color, but for the price and its high end-ness I kind of figured that it would apply better. I don't want to have to use three coats. With Rampage I understood because it's a jelly. This is not a jelly. Also, in the morning I had...I don't want to call it tipwear, but like...tip-chipping. And I hadn't done anything the night before with my hands. Seriously, nothing. I sat on the couch and watched ice dancing. That is all. I tried to touch it up, but I just got so irritated that I ended up removing Phallic entirely. Love the name, love the color, but something just wasn't right. I even tried to save it by adding a coat of my beloved OPI Pearl of Wisdom.

It's pretty, huh? I was too pissed off at Phallic to keep it this way, though. I had to take off everything.

I'm also getting a little sick of pastels and brights. I'll probably be over that by like, tomorrow, but after I removed Phallic I was looking for something else kind of dark. To make myself feel better I chose a polish with a pleasant name, Sinful Colors Overjoyed.

Now this is a really interesting polish. It's different colored glitter in a sheer, charcoal-colored base. This was three coats.

My ring is from American Eagle, by the way. I've been wearing it for five years now and I never take it off. I think it has kind of an antique-y feel to it. It has also weirdly misshapen my finger the way rings do when you wear them for ages. I will have to wear it on my right middle finger when [if?] I ever receive a ring to wear on my left ring finger. I can't stand having rings next to each other. Okay, this has completely devolved in a jewelry talk. Look at the polish.

Here's a closeup. I'm seeing...turquoise, pink...maybe darker blue glitter. It's really, really nice. My cuticles were stained a little blue at this point. Sorry.

I had never heard of Overjoyed before and I'm glad I picked it up. Unfortunately I just wasn't feelin' it and I took this off within ten minutes too. It was just one of those days where nothing was working for me. I even considered having my nails go naked, but in the end I slapped on two coats of Starfish Patrick and called it a day. Usually I use four coats, but I quite like it as a sheer. I have quite the dent in my little bottle.

Kind of a blah day today. I went back to Dry County CVS to get the pink milani holo, which I believe is called Digital. They were still BOGO 50% off. I had all of them except the gold, so I got that one for $2.50. Ange-Marie made a good point by saying I could use it for Saints manicures next season. Good call, lady. Good call indeed. Now I've got all six of them. Kind of ridiculous. I also picked up Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, the book on which the movie is based. I'm such a wimp when it comes to scary movies. Boyfriend has already decided that we are going to see it in March when he somehow gets here, so I figured if I read the book first I would be less freaked out by the movie. And if you've seen it or read it don't tell me what happens. Kthx. Dennis Lehane also wrote Mystic River, which is a kickass movie. God I love Sean Penn.

So that's all. Oh, I got my Ulta rewards thingy. Level 2. That means a free polish. Yay! Last time I was at Level 6 or something ridiculous like that, so I think this is a good sign that I have curtailed my spending a little. At least at Ulta :D K, have a good weekend, guys. Thanks for reading!

Milani Holos!!!! Hi-Res

So yesterday after I posted I was looking around on some blogs and decided that I had to have Sinful Colors Mint Apple. I figured I would just run up to my nearest Walgreens, grab it, and come home. I was talking to Boyfriend on Gchat and I even said, "I'll be back in 15 minutes!" I got in the car and headed up to Walgreens. When I got there I was delighted to see that they had put out the new Sinful Colors permanent displays! Yay! But...but...the Mint Apple slot was empty. I looked around to make sure one of the polishes wasn't displaced, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I got irritated. I got back in the car and drove to another Walgreens that wasn't too far away. That one didn't even have the new permanent displays yet. Okay, now I was actually pissed.

I decided to go to one last Walgreens in a small city north of here. This is a city that is really cute and scenic because it's right on Lake Erie (I mean, that's kind of as scenic as it gets in Ohio) but there isn't a lot of industry there so the property taxes are obscenely high and people always complain about living there. It's also a dry city so you can't get booze anywhere. Basically, it's a little sad. I once had luck finding new Sinfuls at their Walgreens, so I drove on over. On my way I passed a CVS that I had totally forgotten was even there. I made a note to stop there on my way back. I did find Mint Apple at the Dry County Walgreens, so yay!

When I walked into Dry County CVS I wasn't really expecting to find anything...but holy shit, the Milani holos were there. I've been searching high and low for them as I'm sure many of you have. I had enlisted bestie Angela to search in Texas and Ange-Marie to search the southland. I was about to put out the bat signal on my blog because I was so desperate.

Cyberspace, Hi-Tech, HD and Hi-Res

I passed on the gold and the pink (3D and Digital), but I think Ange-Marie is right; I need them all. Ah, the thrill of the ridiculously unnecessary hunt. This morning when I woke up the sun was shining. Yes! Perfect holo weather!

Here's Hi-Res. It looks awesome in sunlight and, I think, still really pretty in indoor lighting. Kind of a soft, glittery lavender. I'm so ecstatic about these. I only owned one holo before, the "good" version of OPI My Private Jet. Judging by pictures I've seen of the China Glaze holographic polishes, these are more akin to the Kaleidoscope collection. The holographic effect is more scattered and less linear than in the OMG collection. I'd call this one a mix of Visit Me in Prism and Octa-Gone Wild. You can see swatches of those on Scrangie's blog, as usual. Let me remind all of you that Milani cosmetics are buy one get one 50% at CVS right now. Milanis go for about $5, but I got four of them for I think $15-ish. It's a good deal. The formula on Hi-Res was a little thin, but I still only used two coats. I think it looks fine that way.

Before I'm done with this post I have to bitch about the names first. The Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color series came out in the summer of 2009. These Milani holos share a lot of names with the SH HDs (Cyber vs Cyberspace, Hi-Def, Digital, Three D vs 3D, and Hi-Res). Come on Milani. I know you were going for a futuristic vibe on these, but you should have gone a different route if you were just going to use the same names as the SH HDs, another hugely popular drug store line. I dunno. I just feel like it's kind of weird.

Okay, so who has found these? Who is still looking? For me, these went from lemming to obsession very, very quickly. I'm really glad I found them. For reference, this post on Steph's Closet shows you what the display should look like. Most of my local CVSs have the neons already but don't even have slots for the HDs. That was so disheartening. But they exist! I swear it! Thanks for reading!

Milani Techno Red(?)

Hey guys. Kind of a quickie post today. Thanks for the lovely kind words about car theft yesterday. I was feeling crappy. Today was good. I had fun at work and the sun is sort of almost out. Also, the men's figure skating finals are on tonight and I'm kind of psyched. The whole boys jumping about in spandex thing is...how do I say this...pretty awesome.

As you all know, I have about a billion polishes to try out. What to choose, what to choose. I ended up choosing Milani Techno Red because I was really curious about the color. As I mentioned yesterday, the bottle is opaque (read: stupid) so I had to open it up to get an idea of the color. It looked like a jelly coral to me, so I was all about it.

Weak, weak sun. My cuticles look kind of dirty but they aren't. They are stained a little green from Rampage.

Indoors near window.

I actually really, really like this color. These images aren't really color accurate. It's a touch lighter in real life than it probably appears on your screen and also way, way brighter. I'd definitely call it a coral. When I was in high school I was completely obsessed with neons. When I painted my own nails they were usually highlighter neon pink. When I got manicures I got this color in between a neon orange and a neon red...and it looked just like Milani Techno Red. I guess I have some nostalgia attached to the color so maybe I'm biased. The formula was good. A jelly [squee!]. I used two coats here.

Stephanie got my art trivia question right again yesterday, so props! It was a detail of Ingres' La Grande Odalisque. No trivia today because I don't feel like digging through iPhoto to find another image. I'm kind of tired right now. I think I may be getting sick. Oh well. Time to relax! The week is almost over!

Thanks for reading, guys!