Aaaaaaand I Got Sick

I posted last week about how my boyfriend was sick.  I thought I just might get away without contracting whatever it is he has, but alas.  I'm couch-ridden.  I went to the doctor this morning (in a blizzard) and I've got a lovely sinus infection.  My only solace is that it's Friday and I don't have to go anywhere for at least two days.


I wanted to post because I was planning on starting my Coral!Polish series, but I won't be able to until I'm feeling a bit better.  Because I know you're all looking forward to Coral!Polish SO MUCH I wanted to give you my apuppogies.

"Apuppogies" was a term coined by my friend Amber--an apology coupled with an adorable picture of puppies.  I find apuppogies to be very effective in almost all circumstances, and so I wanted to extend them to you all.

Here's hoping I'll have made a recovery by Monday.  Make sure to have good weekends so that I can live vicariously through you. 

I Got My Hairs Did!

I finally got my hair cut!  And people actually thought it was longer than it was before when they saw me because my hairdresser straightened it, haha.  Here's some before and after, as requested.

Lots of split ends :(  Lots of hair.  I like my hair long and my boyfriend does too, so here's how it came out when I told my hairdresser, "Get rid of the icky stuff and layer it."

Still long as hell, but it looks, y'know, healthy.  Also, yes, that's my natural hair color.  I have little chin-length bangs!  I like it.  I also wore this shirt in honor of my shopping trip to Ulta to check out the OPI Texas collection.  I emerged with two polishes from the collection that looked practically identical in the bottle...and that's why I got them both!  I was curious.  I got Guy Meets Gal-veston and Big Hair...Big Nails.  Both are coral-ish.  My hairdresser was wearing Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em and it looked great on her.  This Texas collection looked boring to me, but I have to admit that it's got a few winners.

I think I might actually have a coral week to showcase my coral collection, since it's my favorite color.  Or maybe I'll devote one day of the week every week to coral.  Would you guys be interested in that?  I feel like it was only a matter of time before I'd want to show you all of the coral polishes I've accrued in the past couple years.  Thanks for making some new ones for me to horde, OPI.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop in to show you guys my hair that looks exactly the same only better.  Thanks for putting up with me!

NEW American Apparel MacArthur Park

Good morning, everyone.  I'm getting a slow start this morning; I snoozed my alarm about six times and right now I'm sitting in my bed with coffee.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  I'm getting a haircut at 2:15 and I'm really excited.  I haven't had one since October and my hair is getting unruly.  Anyway, I have another new-ish American Apparel to show you this morning.

MacArthur Park is a weird murky, wasabi/pea soup green.  I don't know what it is about colors like this, but they look amazing on me.  I forgot to take a picture of my whole hand, but you'll have to trust me when I say that this polish looks incredibly elegant despite its ugly-pretty color.  Also, sorry about my cuticles.  My nails have not been faring well lately.  I slammed two of the fingers on my right hand in a door yesterday afternoon and it tore those two nails pretty badly.  Just my luck.  Aaaaanyway, the formula on MacArthur Park was okay.  Kind of thick and a little difficult to work with, but nothing you can't handle.  This is two coats.  I did an experiment yesterday.  I don't get a lot of wear from AA polishes, typically, so I did two coats of color, one coat of Gelous, and then a coat of Seche Vite over that to see if the Gelous extends the wear at all.  I'll report back as to when this chips.  

I know that a lot of these AA polishes are named after places in Los Angeles, and I had absolutely no associations with MacArthur Park UNTIL about two weeks ago.  Two weeks ago I watched an episode from season 4 of Six Feet Under where David gets carjacked.  He gets carjacked and then a crazy man makes him smoke crack IN MACARTHUR PARK.  All I could think was, "Hey, I have a nail polish named after that place with all the crack dealers!"  So now I'm scared of MacArthur Park.  By the way, I only have one season left of Six Feet Under!  Disc one of season five is on its way to me and I can't waaaaaiiiit.  What will I watch when I'm done with this show?  

One more thing:  yesterday I wore my favorite red lipstick.  I wasn't feeling particularly sassy; actually, I was feeling particularly shitty and that's why I wore it.  

MAC Lady Danger.  It's so funny...whenever I read blog entries about red lipstick Lady Danger is always the example of what's an insane red lipstick that no one ever really wears.  Relatively, I wear this one a lot.  In fact, I'll be needing a new tube in the next couple months.  The problem with Lady Danger is that it's a high maintenance lipstick.  I need to apply it with a lip brush, which is a pain in the ass.  And I need to touch it up throughout the day.  It's also matte so it's drying...not something to wear every day, if only for that reason.  But I love it.  It's definitely my favorite lipstick of all time.  Even if I wasn't feelin' sassy, I sure was lookin' it.  

Okay, that's all for today.  Time to get ready for my haircut!!  What do you guys think about MacArthur Park?  Is it too ugly for you?  Do you find shades like this elegant like I do, or is it just me?  I'm crazy about this one.

Helloooooo Sexy

Today I'm sharing with you one of my favorite vampies that never really gets enough love, OPI All A-Bordeaux the Sled.  It was from the 2009 OPI holiday collection and I can't tell you how many times I've reached for it in the past couple months.  

It's gorgeous, it's sexy, it's simple.  I've been wearing it for three days and it still looks like this.  It's shiny even without topcoat, it's easy to apply and the formula is great.  I did three coats here.  This is one of those almost-blacks that so many people dislike and bemoan the existence of.  Me, though, I love them.  Can't get enough of them.  This dark red-brown is just too perfect.  Yesterday my boyfriend took my hand and said, "Ooo, what's on your nails?" which seems to indicate that this polish is doing its sexy little job.  Good show OPI.  

This weekend my friend and I took a little trip to the Columbus Museum of Art and my parents' new house in the boonies.  We ate lunch at a place called "Allison's Finer Diner" in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.  I think you can imagine what that little town is like from the name of the restaurant.

Creepy small towns for the win.  It was a really pretty day.

Then we contemplated some paintings at the Columbus Museum of Art.  This is a George Bellows, one of my favorite artists.  He's from Columbus and I always forget that.

There were some cool installations.

I loved that when I called my boyfriend and said, "Babe, I'm going to Columbus for the weekend."  He replied with, "What's the exhibition?"  I didn't even have to tell him I was going to a museum, he just assumed.  How cute.  Incidentally, the exhibition was called "Shared Intelligence:  American Painting and the Photograph."  It's worth seeing.  The concept was good, the execution was less so.  But there was some amazing stuff from the period in American art I like the best (early twentieth century).  

Anyway, that's all.  I had a good weekend roadtripping all over the state (we made a sojourn to Cincinnati as well).  I hope Monday isn't agonizing as per usual.  Coffee helps.  

What do you guys think about All A-Bordeaux the Sled?  I'm sure you can all dupe it with something else, but admit, it's gorgeous.  What's your favorite vampy shade?

China Glaze White Cap and American Apparel Hunter: Layered

Someone asked me in the comments the other day if I could try layering China Glaze White Cap over a dark green.  My ideal choice for that would have been Illamasqua Rampage, but I don't have that one at my apartment.  My stash is sadly split in two, with most of it living at my house on the west side of the city.  I'm stuck on the east side until at least Friday, so I had to make do with what I have.  And what I have is American Apparel Hunter.  I used two coats of Hunter, one of White Cap and one of Seche Vite.  Here's how it turned out.

*dies*  And it's even more gorgeous in real life than it is in the pictures.  Trust.  I don't know what to say about this except...you should PROBABLY go buy White Cap if I haven't convinced you to already.  It was Ulmiel of the blog Did Someone Say Nail Polish? who asked me to layer White Cap with a dark green.  Specifically she said, "If that combination ends up being perfect I'm grabbing two bottles of White Cap for sure."  So what do you think?  Will you be buying those two bottles, or what?  I think even I need another one now.

It's like they were made for each other, no?

And here's Hunter on its own.  I don't think I've ever shown it before, so this was a good opportunity.  This image is pretty color accurate, but it's just a bit dustier in reality.  It's beautiful.

Another win with White Cap.  What do you guys think?  Any other layering suggestions?  Someone thought I should try a purple, so maybe I'll do that next.  Let me know if you want to see anything and I'll oblige.  I've been taking a little more time for myself lately and that's why I've been able to update as much as I have been.  It's good for my mental state, bad for my work.  But what's more important?  Anyway, let me know if you have any more suggestions!

China Glaze White Cap and RBL Grunge: Layered

This combination is to die for.  Grunge is one of my favorite polishes and I wanted to layer White Cap with a neutral.  Seriously, this is just gorgeous.  

Aw, look at my little loved bottle of Grunge.  I actually think it's getting thicker as I use up the polish, which is a complaint I've never heard from anyone regarding Rescue Beauty Lounge.  Anyway, what you see above is two coats Grunge, one coat White Cap and one coat Seche Vite.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm totally smitten with this combination.  The gold sparkles with the neutral polish...perfect.  I'm getting my money's worth with White Cap.

Someone in the comments yesterday asked me to layer White Cap with a dark green, so that'll be my next combination.  Then I'll have shown you White Cap by itself, over a pastel, over a neutral and over a vampy.  I'm determined to convince all of you that you need this polish.  'Cause you do.  

So.  Getting sick.  My boyfriend, who never gets sick, came home with a full-blown cold the other day.  We slept cuddled together all night anyway, and I woke up feeling not so hot.  I'm off to the drug store soon to buy some zinc (which always helps) and NyQuil.  And, let's be honest, probably a new lipstick.  Let's hope I don't fully succumb to illness.  I am such a pathetic sick person.  To cheer myself up I'm wearing my unicorn shirt today:

Hehe!  Anyway, what does everyone think about Grunge and White Cap?  Love it?  Feeling meh about it?  Spill.

China Glaze White Cap and American Apparel Office: Layered

You'll probably remember that one of my immediate ideas for the use of White Cap was to layer it over American Apparel Office, which is a mint green creme.  I've never shown that one on its own before, so if you have a burning desire to see Office unadulterated, then check out All Lacquered Up.  I don't like mint green nail polishes on me because they tend to make my skin look red, plus I'm not a huge fan of pastels generally, but for some reason I couldn't wait to layer White Cap and Office.

The outcome was rather enjoyable.  Office, however, applied terribly.  You see two coats here and it has already started to flake off weirdly after about twenty-four hours.  Anyway, this is two coats Office, one coat White Cap and Seche Vite.  It's really nice and sparkly and I think the gold glitter mitigates the effect of the green enough that my skin doesn't look red.  I'll call this one a win.

I wore this manicure yesterday with a new sweater I have that I'm PRETTY EXCITED ABOUT.  I have a total boner for animal printed things.  Not like tiger stripes or cheetah spots or whatever, but actual animals on clothing.  I've got a sweater with bunnies all over it, one with owls, one with unicorns and one with horses.  The one I've added to my collection most recently is pastel pink (an unusual color for me) with a giant fawn on it.  Observe:

...yep.  I love it.  I suppose it was inadvertently Valentine's Day-themed because it's pink and has a heart on it.  My boyfriend laughed in my face when I put this on yesterday morning, but come on.  How cute is it?  I love it.  I found it in the juniors section of H&M and it was $24.95.  $24.95 well-spent, if you ask me.

EDITED TO ADD:  Sonofabitch.  I just watched this week's episode of Glee and in the preview for next week Brittany was wearing THIS VERY FAWN SWEATER.  Just remember people, you saw it here first.  I also saw two other things I own in tonight's episode:  Brittany was wearing a heart romper from H&M (have it) and Rachel was wearing a blue and red button-down flannel shirt from Target (I wear that constantly).  Hey Glee wardrobe people, get the hell out of my closet.  Thanks.

So what do you guys think about the layering of Office and White Cap?  Any layering combinations you're itching to see from me?  I'm not quite ready to give up on playing with White Cap quite yet, so let me know.  And be honest:  don't you love my deer sweater?  :D

China Glaze White Cap (!!!)

I'll be honest with you guys:  Anchors Away did not wow me.  The colors in the set of brights looked pretty standard to me.  Of course Hey, Sailor! immediately drew me in because it's a warm toned red.  I resisted it because I have about a million of those warm toned red cremes (my favorite).  As for the more neutral set, Sea Spray, the pale blue appealed to me.  The more I looked at swatches the more I decided that it resembles Essie Sag Harbor, which I've had for a couple years.  I could be totally wrong about that since I haven't seen them compared, but that nagging feeling that I've seen Sea Spray before wouldn't leave me alone.  The one polish from Anchors Away I knew I'd have to scoop up was White Cap.  I got it yesterday and I am not disappointed.

It's a sheer white jelly with gold glass fleck.  And it is stunning.  I'm so in love with this polish.  I keep staring at my hands in different lighting, admiring the sparkles.  At two coats I could still see a little more of my nail line than I'm usually comfortable with, so I added a third.  The formula was wonderful.  I had no troubles with it.  I can't really rave enough about this polish.  I feel like it makes my hands look fresh and clean without looking boring.  I don't usually layer glitter over other polishes, but I think I'm going to love layering with White Cap.  I think I'll love it enough that I might need a back-up bottle.  Layering ideas include over Essie Marshmallow, over Rescue Beauty Lounge Bikini Bottom and over American Apparel Office.  I can't wait to try one of those out.  I suggest that if you like white, gold, jellies or glass fleck you run out and buy White Cap.  Trust me, you're going to love it.  Also, I'm pretty damn excited to wear this one on my toesies.  I love neutrals on my toes, and this one is a neutral with a little kick to it.  Yay!


It's the weekend and I'm happy.  This past week was taxing.  I've been really emotional and I can't turn my mind off.  Which of course means that I can't sleep.  Which is not good for my, you know, brain function.  My parents are out of town this weekend at their new house in central Ohio and my boyfriend is out of town too.  I'm all alone-y on my own-y.  And what will I do with my Steffie time?  I'll be reading Rembrandt connoisseurship case studies.  Probably as I drink cup after cup of coffee.  But you know what?  My nails are gorgeous and that does help.  Plus if I get enough reading done I'll reward myself by trying out one of the layering combinations I mentioned :)


So tell me, what have you guys thought of Anchors Away?  Are there any colors I overlooked that I should probably go buy?  Are you as smitten with White Cap as I am?  Lastly, does anyone know how close Essie Sag Harbor and China Glaze Sea Spray are?  I'd be interested to know.

Sephora by OPI Mash-Up (GLEE!!!)

Here's my history with Glee.  I don't like to like things that everyone else likes (perhaps one of my character flaws) so I resisted watching it for a very, very long time.  My friend Michele bought the first season when it came out on DVD and made me watch it with her.  For about the first five episodes I was apathetic.  Then all of a sudden Noah Puckerman got to me and I was hooked.  Rawr.  We watch it together every Tuesday, and usually have what is affectionately known as "Glee-Time-Nail-Time!"  The concept is easy to grasp:  we watch Glee and do our nails.  This week's Glee-Time-Nail-Time! was so much better than usual because I had a Sephora by OPI Glee polish, Mash-Up.  And here it is.

A very interesting polish indeed.  I want to call it duochrome, but it seems to have three colors visible.  There's silver, which I think you see most of the time, then purple, and then greenish blue.  The greenish blue is visible, but it was really hard to capture on camera.  There are also bits of glitter in this polish.  It reminds me of that polish from the Katy Perry collection (I didn't get any of those so I can't do a comparison).  The formula was pretty good, if a little sheer.  I did three coats just to make sure there were no bald spots.

Here are some bad pictures that I took in my bathroom.  The second one is particularly good at showing the chameleon-like qualities of Mash-Up.

Here's a terrible iPhone picture that I snapped right before one of my classes started.  The flash brings out the blue-green in Mash-Up.  The guest hand is my friend Michele's.  She's wearing Miss Bossy Pants, also of the Glee collection.  If any of you are interested in seeing that one on me, let me know.  Because I normally don't wear pink.

Mash-Up is great.  I like it a lot even though I'm not really that into metallics.  I think there was a slight price increase for this collection, $9.50 instead of $9.00.  Oh $OPI.  Why do you do this to my wallet?  Why?

That's all for today!  Are any of you planning on picking up some Glee polishes?  Which ones?  I love the names of them.  Also, my favorite moment of Tuesday's Glee episode?  Kurt's When Harry Met Sally reference.  HEART.

OPI Give Me A Coral Sometime

I don't really have a lot of polishes in my Helmer at my apartment.  Most of them are at my parents' house for safe storage in my other Helmer.  As a result, I'm aware of pretty much every single polish that I have at this apartment.  Last night while I was trying to figure out what to wear I opened my OPI drawer and stumbled upon Give Me A Coral Sometime.  I have no idea where I got it,  because I definitely didn't buy it.  I don't remember anyone sending it to me.  It's a mystery.

I do absolutely love corals.  Search "coral" on my blog and you'll come up with dozens of posts where I squee and tell you that coral is the best thing ever.  This one is too pink for me, though.  It's a nice sheer-ish shimmer with blue flash.  I prefer my corals to be an even balance of pink and orange, and if not I prefer them to lean orange.  I don't hate this color, it just doesn't seem very me.  It could be nice for my toes in the summer, though.  I think this was from OPI's 2008 Retro Fun in the Sun collection that brought us other classics like Lemonade Stand By Your Man.  As I mentioned, this polish is a bit sheer.  I did three coats.

Before Give Me A Coral Sometime you all might remember that I was wearing 212-Sephora.  Let me show you that manicure after five days.

Left hand

Right hand

After five days I had extremely minimal tipwear.  I've found that Sephora by OPI is the brand that seems to last the longest on me.  I remember wearing Metro Chic for like eight days in October without chips.  Regular OPI doesn't do as well, which is so strange.  I'd expect them to be the same formula.  The only place I got a chip was on my right thumbnail.

Hardly noticeable, right?  Maybe the fifty cents more that I pay for this brand is actually worth it.  

That's all for today.  I haven't been sleeping well at all lately and I just need to get through the rest of today without falling asleep while walking or something.  Unfortunately I have to go dig through a giant curatorial file right after lunchtime.  That will not be fun.  Actually, it probably will be.  But I'll be sleepy.  What do you guys think about Give Me A Coral Sometime?  Does anyone have a favorite coral?  I'll have to think about what mine is.  I have so many.