OPI Sparkle-icious

I don't normally buy or wear glitter.  Last week, though, the beginning of my week was just...terrible.  I was totally emotionally wrecked by Thursday afternoon.  Wrecked enough that I literally wanted my mommy, so I drove back to my parents' house to stay for the weekend.  On my way there I went to Drug Mart (a northeastern Ohio drug store) and I was shocked at their OPI selection.  It was bananas.  They had a whole huge display of discontinued and newer colors, and for some reason I was really attracted to sparkle.  Maybe it was because I was sad and wanted to feel pretty; I don't know.  But here's what I came away with.  Oh, and the nail on my index finger completely ripped off one day at Coffee Inc., so that's why it looks so sad.

My boyfriend picked me a tiny flower.

Someone at the museum was wearing glitter nail polish last week and I thought to myself, "Well, that doesn't look too terrible!  Why don't I wear glitter, again?"  I'm sure when I try to remove this I'll remember.  OPI Sparkle-icious is from the Burlesque holiday collection of 2010.  It's just many different colors of glitter suspended in a clear polish, the predominant colors of which are gold and purple.  Throw some green in and it'd be a good Mardi Gras polish.  I do really like this.  Three coats shown here.  It's nice and sparkly and it does kind of make me happy.  But I hate the name.

Anyway, any thoughts on this one?  Does anyone have a favorite glitter polish that I should definitely own or try out?  Let me know :)

Forever 21 Light Grey

Yesterday I was apparently strolling around a Forever 21 blissfully unaware that there was a scary maybe-tornado raging outside.  I'm thankful for this because if I'm aware of any even sort of severe weather I completely freak out.  While I was there I got myself a new little polish (and a necklace.  and also some earrings).  

As I'm sure you can see, Light Grey isn't gray at all.  It's a metallic silver with gold shimmer.  Normally metallics really aren't my jam, but in the fluorescent light of the store the gold shimmer really jumped out at me as unique and I decided that I just had to take it home.  The formula was fine, if a little sheer; I used three coats.  There are visible brushstrokes, but that's par for the course for a finish like this.  It's a pretty polish...and for only $2.80 how can you go wrong? 

So I'm totally exhausted.  Every Wednesday my boyfriend goes out with friends and then usually comes in between 1 and 2.  I wait up for him, all anxious and excited to see him and hug him, every Wednesday.  But last night I had to call him and ask him not to come because I just couldn't bear the thought of falling asleep and then being woken up.  Now of course the first thing I thought when I woke up this morning was, "...Where is he?!"  Then, "Oh yeah.  Not here."  I am just absolutely mentally and physically exhausted and I'm not quite sure why.  I have a good idea about the mental part (I've had a long week; a really long week), but I don't know why my body is so tired.  I'm afraid I may be getting sick.  One of my co-workers at Coffee Inc. was sick last week and she put her sicky hands all over EVERYTHING.  I tried to sanitize stuff when I got there but I probably didn't do it well enough.  Also another girl I've been obliged to be around lately has been coughing a lot, often times in my face.  This does not bode well for me.

Day off today, though.  Taking my grandma to lunch and maybe stopping at Ulta, so that's a bright spot, yes?  Opinions on Light Grey?  Are you into the gold shimmer like I am?

Coral Fixation: Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick

I have had a deep and intense love affair with Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick ever since it came to me in the mail in December of 2009.  It's hard to capture on camera because of its squishy, luxurious jelly quality, but I do my best whenever I wear it.  Yesterday was particularly sunny here in the CLE, which allowed for better-than-usual images.  Behold.

The truth is that I wasn't so into coral before I met Sfish P.  After I used it for the first time, though, I decided that everything in my life needed to be coral; hair accessories, outerwear, eyeshadows, lipsticks, dresses, tights.  I now own a plethora of coral things, and it's really all thanks to Sfish P.  

As I mentioned, this polish is a jelly.  It's not really meant to be worn opaque, but I like to get rid of as much visible nail line as possible so I wear it with four coats.  It's nice at three too, but I prefer to use the extra.  The downside to this is that it takes a while to dry and, of course, my precious bottle gets used up more quickly.  But look at the results.  This is my very favorite Rescue Beauty Lounge polish (and I own a lot).  I would buy this one again in a heartbeat.  If you want one too you can get yours for $18 here.  Is it worth the money?  I think so...but I think all of my RBLs are worth what I've paid for them.

Side note.  My dad is adorable.  Last night when I left my parents' house I texted him from a gas station:

Me:  Gas is $3.59 at Bradley and Detroit!

Dad:  Go girl!

LOVE HIM.  He empowered me as a woman because I found cheaper gas.  <3

So, opinions on Starfish Patrick?  Is this one on anyone's list for RBL purchases?  Does it not appeal to you?  Let's hear it.  It's my opinion that the praises of this polish have not been sung nearly often enough.

OPI Silver Shatter: Confession

My confession is this:  I have kind of thought that shatters are stupid.  I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I haven't paid the trend any heed since it became a thing last fall or winter.  To me the crackle nail polishes look really dated and 90s, but not in a good way.  I was all set to not buy any crackle polishes, ever.  Nope, not for me.  The other day I was over at the hospital visiting my friend who had just had a baby (I held this tiny, warm, sleeping baby for a while and fell in love a little), and that hospital HAPPENS to be near an Ulta.  So I stopped in.  I stopped in and was greeted with OPI Silver Shatter.  It said, "Oh hey!  I'm shiny!"  And I bought it.  And then this happened.

I was skeptical at first.  I put it on and thought, "This isn't that great."  Then I watched it separate and thought, "Okay, this is kind of neat."  Then I saw it in the sun and I fell in love a little.  This is Silver Shatter over OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow.

I reeeeaaaally like it.  I think it's the combination of the shimmer and the shatter that has me salivating; the solid colored shatters don't appeal much to me.  If OPI released a gold shatter I'd be all over it.  Can you imagine how it would look over China Glaze Wagon Trail?  Or over any olive green?  B-O-N-E-R.  

Anyway, I wouldn't call myself a trend convert just yet, but I will say that I'm enjoying this look.  I'll probably experiment with it a little more and then eventually get tired of it, but for now it's pretty cool.  And now, a question I've been dying to ask, what're everyone's opinions on shatter or crackle polishes?  Are you on the band wagon or are you just kind of meh about them?  

PS Last night I found out that finding the Twitter accounts of people in your professional life is truly horrifying.  TRULY HORRIFYING.  That is all. 

NEW Tracy Reese for Sally Hansen Salon Delphinium

Last year I hunted for the Tracy Reese polishes like no one's business, as I'm fairly certain we all did (Hidden Treasure, anyone?).  The other day I was in Walgreens buying some bobby pins when I spotted the spring 2011 Tracy Reese display.  Hallelujah, that was easy.  I only picked up one, but I'm fairly certain I'm going back for another one now that I've seen a few swatches.  So here's my first pick, Delphinium.

There are some sheet marks on the polish, so for that I'm sorry, but you've got the idea.  Delphinium is a lovely, slightly grayed out lavender.  I'm not crazy about purples, generally, but throw some murky gray in there and I'm all over it.  I think this will be nice on my toes too, since I like to wear muted colors with my crazy sandals.  The formula on this was really great and I only needed two coats.  I always lament about the brushes on these Sally Hansen polishes, but the more I use them the more I really get the hang of them.  All in all, this was worth $6.99 to me...and I'm glad I didn't have to hunt for it ;)

Oh, and just for fun, these are delphinium flowers (I had no idea what they looked like)...

Really pretty, right?  I actually made this my desktop (the image is from delphinium.co.nz).  

Well, I had exactly one week off from all the pressures of...everything.  Starting this week I went back to work at Coffee Inc., began an internship, was officially given the position of co-chair for a big symposium that'll happen in February 2012 and I'm starting my responsibilities as a graduate liaison for yet another symposium.  In between making lattes, phone calls to donors and work for the internship, I'm also writing a proposal for an exhibition that would potentially go up in January or May, depending.  I also found out that I'm a TA for Art History 101 in the fall, which I think will end up being a lot of work...but at least I don't have to think about that until August.  I thought that summer would be a nice respite from the stress of school, but it's turning out to almost be, dare I say, worse.  I had to take a lot of deep breaths yesterday while I was in a traffic jam on my way to work and try to tell myself that I am capable of getting everything done.  I hope it's true.

BUT at least it's getting warmer.  Here's the view from my little balcony.

Everything's greener, but it's still a little chilly.

Anyway, that's enough complaining from me.  What do you guys think about Delphinium/the rest of the spring 2011 Tracy Reese polishes?  Some look really pretty and some look kind of meh, but I feel like this pretty grayed out lavender is a total win for me.

OPI Brand New Skates

I'm so upset that I couldn't get a decent photograph of this polish.  Trust me when I tell you that it's absolutely gorgeous, and if you don't believe me then click here to see a really awesome image taken in what I assume is direct sunlight.  Otherwise, here are my crappy, overcast, god-dammit-it's-the-middle-of-May-and-it's-forty-degrees pictures.

I only included the last image because you can kind of see the flat gold flakes that really light up in the sun.  I was ECSTATIC to find this polish at Nordstrom Rack the other day (along with a bottle of OPI At Your Quebec and Call...which I left there and didn't buy because I have one, but SERIOUSLY, how often do you come across treasure like that?).  Brand New Skates is from an OPI holiday collection of yesteryear, maybe 2008 or 2009.  It's small gold flakes and multicolored shimmer in a semi-metallic grayish slate base.  If you like gray polishes, metallics or just things that sparkle, look into picking this one up.  I don't think you'll regret it...I'm just sorry my images can't even begin to do it justice.

Edit:  The sun came out, but only a little.

Didn't really help matters though, did it? 

I started back at Coffee Inc. yesterday after not having worked a shift since December.  I'm so out of practice at this whole here's-your-coffee-smile-smile-have-a-nice-day stuff.  I'll be back into the swing of things by the end of the week, I'm sure, but for now it's a bit strange.  At least I didn't burn myself on anything!  I count that as a win.  Of course after I spent eight hours making coffee for other people I realized that I didn't have any coffee filters at home and I had to stop at the grocery store.  Isn't that just the cutest.

Any opinions on Brand New Skates?  I'm pretty smitten with it...you just have to see it in person, I promise!

OH HEY SHINY THINGS YAY

On Sunday evening I had to opportunity to go hang out at Legacy Village in Cleveland at a blogger event. White House, Black Market and Charming Charlie were generous enough to show us some dresses and accessories, and I got to meet some lovely ladies, eat tasty food and of course look at sparkly things at Charming Charlie.  My friend Amber used to work at the west side Charming Charlie, and she lovingly refers to it as Cha-Cha, which I've always thought was adorable.  I'm definitely addicted to all things sparkly, so Cha-Cha calls to me.  It also feeds my blingy ring addiction.  This blog definitely could have been called "Easily Distracted by Shiny Things" instead of "Short 'n Chic."  My skin looks crazy red in all of these pictures.  The lights in the store evidently didn't agree with me.

Blingy turtle friend.

YES.

A veritable cornucopia of owl rings.  Oh, how I love owls. 

This was my favorite ring that I tried on.  First of all, love double rings.  Second of all, adore owls.  I see only good things coming out of this union.

For myself, I bought a pair of sunglasses (you all didn't forget about my addiction to sunnies, did you?  I feel like I bombarded you with images of sunglasses last summer...) and a scarf.  Behold, new sunnies.

I love these because they have that slight cat's eye thing going on.  Also, they were under $15 ($14.97), which makes me happy on the inside.  I also love the color; not quite white, not quite silver.  Chic, modern and retro at the same time?  I think so.

And here's the new scarf ($9.97).  I'm wearing it with a black H&M dress (fall 2010) and a navy H&M belt that came with a different dress (spring 2011).

Here's what happens when a polish blogger tries to finagle the self-timer on a camera.  An interesting photograph ensued, so I'm putting it up. 

And I like this one for artsy reasons.  Plus you can see my MAC Heartless lipstick.

So, that's all.  The Cha-Cha event was fun and I was grateful for the invitation.  Today I start back at work at Coffee Inc., so I'm a sad panda...but I'll still have another polish to show you tomorrow!  Does anyone have any favorite accessories from Charming Charlie?  I have a nice long vest from there that I love, plus their fake pearl section is to die for...

MAC In the Buff

Ah, In the Buff.  My relationship with you has been long and trying.  First, I hear about all MAC collections either via one of my besties, Angela, or through Temptalia.  So I read about In the Buff before it was released.  Kinda wanted it.  Then I saw this post on my friend Nathalie's blog.  Made me want it even more.  Then when I actually dragged my butt to MAC and saw it in person I thought, Eh.  Is this worth the money?  I decided no.  But then my friend bought it.  And she let me use it.  And I thought, Sonofabitch.  Why didn't I buy this?!  I went back to MAC, but alas, I was way too late.  They were all gone.  So I was sad.  Until I saw this post on Also Known As.  I offered to give Kellie's bottle of In the Buff a really, really nice home and she is glorious and sent it to me.  Squee!  

Oooooh, it's just perfectly ugly, isn't it?  What is this color?!  I don't know!  Kind of a beige, but with a couple drops of green thrown in, I suppose?  Mustardy?  Kind of?  I don't know what color it is and I don't care.  Because I love it.  The application was great for me.  I did two coats; the formula was a little hard to level out properly, but it didn't take that much effort.  And the end result was entirely worth it.  I'm so excited to have this one.  I'm going to use it on my toesies soon, I think.  I've got OPI Dulce de Leche on my toes now and it's a little too close to my skin color to be entirely satisfying.  

So, to conclude:  YAY.  Thanks Kellie :)  I'll keep this bottle of In the Buff warm and safe.  Any opinions on this one, guys?  Are you into these "weird" or "ugly-pretty" colors?  Have you got a favorite one?    

Tag Time!

Gail of Today's Agenda tagged me for a little award, and since I love doing things like this I thought I would :)

Yay, thank you Gail!  You're so sweet.  I guess I have to share ten facts about myself, and since I've done things like this a myriad of times it's always a challenge to come up with new fun facts.  So here we go.

1.  I'm a huge baseball fan, which I told you about in this post.  When I was growing up the Indians were really good, so I went to a lot of games and spent my summers watching them kick ass.  Then, the year I went to live in Chicago the White Sox ended up winning the World Series, and I was all up in that milieu.  It was super fun.  I'm going to spend this summer watching the Indians kick ass again (from the bleachers, because I'm poor and I don't have a tv).

[image credit:  getthebigpicture.net]

Ah, Charlie Sheen in the good ol' days.  Wild Thing, you make my heart sing.

2.  My childhood room is painted the color of a green highlighter. 

3.  I wear jackets with elbow patches on (and pose awkwardly in mirrors). 

4.  My hair has been long and untamed since I was 15 or so.  It seems to drive my boyfriend crazy, since he's always telling me I need to condition it more.  Lookit that candid picture.

6.  My mom used to teach horseback riding and I rode in high school.  I miss it a lot.

7.  My favorite movie of all time is When Harry Met Sally...  It starts out at The University of Chicago, my alma mater, and I just adore the love story.

Loving that window sticker, Meg.  Lovin' it a lot.

8.  I am Irish and Czech, predominantly.  I think.  That's why I'm sooooo pale and northern European-looking.

9.  I am a loyal Apple consumer.  I can't wait to check out the new iPhone!

10.  I have what I refer to as "power songs."  These are songs that I listen to when I need to get pumped up, or even when I need to wake up.  Some of my power songs include:

Don't Bring Me Down, Electric Light Orchestra

Tik Tok, Ke$ha

Born This Way, Lady Gaga

That Thing You Do, The Wonders

Kiss, Prince

Pretty much all of Full Moon Fever, Tom Petty

I think I'm also supposed to tag ten bloggers to do this as well, but I haven't been keeping up enough to know who has done this and who hasn't, and I tend to be super behind with these things.  So I'll just say that you're tagged if you wanna be ;)  

OPI From A to Z-urich

There's something weird going on with blogger.  It's deleting random things like comments, but only certain ones.  I don't know what's happening and I'm bad with technology.  Is anyone else having issues?  


Anyway, the other day I was looking through my polishes and I picked up OPI From A to Z-urich from the Swiss collection (which is of course unused) and thought it was Miami Beet, which is one of my favorite OPIs.  When I saw that it was not in fact Miami Beet, I thought I'd better try it out.

There were a lot of reds in the Swiss collection, and this is the only one I got.  Although, I don't know that this can really be classified as "red" per se.  It's more of a berry, isn't it?  Well, it looks more berry in the shade and a bit redder in the sun.  In the bottle I was feeling kind of so-so about it, but on the nail I really, really like it.  It's elegant and sexy.  The formula was faaaaaantastic, too.  Not too thick, not too thin...just wonderful.  

The only other thing I have to share is this dress that I got to wear to a friend's wedding.  I found it at Target for $20, and I really like it.  Please ignore the fact that I look like I haven't slept in days.  The overhead lights in the dressing room totally exacerbate and tired-issues I'm having.  

Oh how I love Target.

To end, I'd say that From A to Z-urich is nothing truly special, but if it'll fill a hole in your collection it's a good one to have.  Opinions?