November Rain

Oh my gosh, best music video EV-AH!  It’s so ridiculously excessive (though still not as overblown as Estranged, another Guns N’ Roses video, that one nearly exclusively featuring shots of Axl Rose to the rest of the band at about a 20:1 ratio.  He also jumps off an aircraft carrier and swims with dolphins, and the entire thing ends with him smiling smugly and palling around with an animatronic dolphin backstage, wut-wut! The rest of the band is occasionally there.  Shame, Slash’s leather pant game was/is tight, in oh so many ways.)

Also, this is some quality nail art punnage right here.  Come on, it made you smile, you can admit it. Sometimes lame is (very) funny. 😉

Chromatic Nail Powder: A Review

As a reminder that not all nail products are created equal, and that sometimes a completely gimmicky item is just precisely that, I gave a trendy nail product a go today, with regrettably disastrous results.

I had super high hopes for the Mirror Chrome Magic Powder I purchased back in the spring.  I pre-ordered my little pot from Daily Charme, but there are a number of nail supply shops offering their own variations.  If you spend any time hanging around the nail art corners of Instagram, you’ve seen the positively hypnotic videos of nail techs applying this powder.  Functionally, it’s supposed to break down like this – paint your nails to opacity, top with a gel topcoat, let dry/cure, buff Mirror Chrome Magic Powder onto nails with a simple eye shadow applicator, and finally, stand back and be dazzled by your efforts.  The videos I’ve seen show the most pristine chromatic manicures, perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

But this product in practice?  I won’t mince words – it’s garbage.  First, compared to my beloved Seche Vite, gel topcoats are quite terrible.  This one from Sally Hansen bubbled fiercely on its first use and took over half an hour to fully dry.  Ain’t no one got time for that.  Secondly, contrary to the very information given about how to use this product, I don’t believe an air-dry gel topcoat like the one I used will get the job done – I think it’s UV-cured gel topcoats or nothing.  Because this topcoat was no tackier (to the touch) than my regular topcoat.

Because, thirdly and ultimately, the powder would not completely adhere to my nails.  To my skin, to my hair, to my keyboard, to my sofa, to my t-shirt and to my cat, yes, absolutely – all of the above is positively spackled with pixie dust.  But I could not get it to stay on my nails where it supposedly belonged, each feather light – and not so feather light – touch swiping off that which I had somehow managed to pat down before, particularly around the edges of my nails.  It was also next to impossible to photograph, perfect for a nail blogger, of course!

Which raises an interesting question that I had not thought of before now. You’re not to apply topcoat with this powder, either of the gel or regular variety.  So how precisely are you supposed to keep it on your nails for any longer than, say, one two-hour holiday party where you touch nothing and no one and don’t wash your hands?  Even still, your gracious hosts will be finding sparkly, glittery stuff from one end of their home to the other for the next six months – micro glitter gets in your everything.  You’d do just as well to go to the craft store, purchase some fine gauge glitter and sprinkle it over your not-quite-dry nails. Or purchase a proper chromatic polish outright and save yourself a bundle of trouble!

And so I apologize for the lack of pictures of the entire patchy outcome, but there wasn’t much to see – just a nice manicure I otherwise ruined with a product whose cons (or implausibilities) I should have seen coming from a mile away.  Eh, no harm, no foul, but I definitely won’t be jumping on their new holographic powder, that’s for sure.

Fall Fun Series: Hand and Nail Care

I’ve mentioned on previous occasions that, quite oddly for a nail blogger or just, you know, a human, I’m not much for beauty stuff on my hands.  Lotions?  Hardly use ’em.  Masks and treatments?  Only every now and then.  Hand creams?  Whazzat?  So when the most recent prompt in the Fall Fun Series called for the participants to highlight a favourite body care item, I was flummoxed – my hands-off approach to nail, skin and body care effectively means I have none!

Then I remembered that I still have a number of seasonally-scented items from a themed box I purchased from Sunny’s Body Products two years ago, and best of all, they’re all in perfect condition – the fragrance oils haven’t gone skunky, the creams bear no discolouration and a patch test raised no red, bumpy alarms.  I’d say these oldies, but goodies, are all cleared for takeoff, to slightly muddle my metaphors.

If you’d like to see what I had to say about the Fall box in its original form, you can find that post here.  Of the remaining items – intensive cuticle oil in Caramel Apple, sugar scrub in Autumn Mums and cuticle balm in Pumpkin Crunch Cake – I’m most excited to press the cuticle balm into action as a super emollient foot cream. And the scent?  Divine. It actually reminds me very much of this white cake my grandmother used to make with hard boiled caramel icing – buttery, pudding-y vanilla.  Oh, yum.  And while I can’t say I loveity love love the scent of the Autumn Mums sugar scrub, it’s pleasant enough and quite tolerable.  And the dabber-topped cuticle oil in Caramel Apple?  A wonderfully-scented version of the only nail product I use with any regularity. A definite keeper.

New-ish this year is a KB Shimmer mani shot in Pumpkin Spice.  Tiny, fizzy bath bombs for your hands, feet and nails, mani shots were a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fad.  I received this little guy as a gift with purchase, which seems about right – I’m not sure I’d lay out money specifically for a mani shot, cute though they may be. But in years past, this is right about the time my hands and nails begin to suffer for my lack of a decent skincare regimen, so I’m willing to give this mani shot a shot, and indeed all of these “lost” Fall items, now on their second lives. 🙂

My Little Pony Butts!

I was a huge My Little Pony fan when I was a kid.  I can still remember the Christmas my parents bought me the Pony Palace, an ENORMOUS equine playhouse that folded out into three separate wings, including an indoor pool and an atrium.  That was the year my best friend got Castle Grayskull from his parents, and we spent our holidays gleefully imprisoning the baby ponies in the Castle’s trapdoor prison (when Skeletor wasn’t taking a dip in the pool, that was.)

So I was of course predictably horrified when, while researching these nails (I couldn’t for the life of me remember half of the OG ponies’ names) I ran across the new generation of My Little Pony figurines, half-horse, half-human abominations that stand on two feet, hands – HANDS!!! – perched on saucily cocked hips, giant, multi-coloured manes piled high.  Looking at them, I felt positively ragey, and brokenhearted for all that kids are barely allowed to be today – just kids.  Kids with plastic horse toys with huge butts and stubby legs and sweet, baleful eyes, not these sexy, anthropomorphized nightmares desperately trying to eye-bang me through the protective plastic on their boxes.

Tangent!  But a valid one.  Been to a toy store lately?  Your favourites – if they’re still in production – are not as you remember them!  So I thought I’d honour what used to be, the markings on the chubby haunches of the original ponies, from left to right, Bow-Tie, Applejack, Minty and Snuzzle.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Never having been one for ultra sugary, rainbow-hued cereals, MY complete breakfasts – even ones accompanying Saturday morning cartoon-a-thons – have never included anything bearing the suffix -ebbles, -arms or –ix.  I was totally that kid that willingly ate – and really enjoyed! – Grape Nuts and Fruit ‘N Fiber (miss you, Blueberry F’NF.)

But that hasn’t precluded me from scenting my home like those cereals.  Although…sense of scent and sense of taste being so closely linked, I’m not surprised that I’m really not all that fond of cereal scents.  To me, there’s an irritating note – literally; it kind of tickles my nose – that I presume is meant to mimic the sugary crunch of those high fructose cereals, and it’s not my absolute favourite.  But I received a number of cereal-scented wax chunks in some Rosegirls samplers I purchased this year, and even if they’re not my particular bag, they still smell pretty great.  Particularly when you tart ’em up a bit with the addition of some Mini Melters, for the ultimate in scent customization.

So what creations did I cobble together?  And did I actually overflow that one melter?  I did not, but hoo baby, it was close!

Top left: Fruity Pebbles blended with Strawberry Jam.  This one was pretty darn delicious, even before the addition of half of one of Rosegirls’ precious Strawberry Jam berries. It’s really just a whole lot of delicious citrus, with that tingly note well buried under layers of luscious lemon.

Top right: Strawberry Frankenberry, straight up.  Mr. Finger Candy, an actual Frankenberry-lover, asked me to leave this guy un-modded.  It was a pretty pleasant strawberry scent; quite true to the cereal in both scent and alarming pink hue.

Bottom left: Boo’s Spooky Castle blended with Berry Creme Brulee.  Boo’s Spooky Castle, a blend of Boo Berry, Vanilla Crunch Donuts and Monster Cookie (oh, I know with these names, right?) is a favourite of seemingly everyone but me.  I find it overwhelmingly cereal-y.  So I added a couple of Mini Melters in Berry Creme Brulee, a super strong, rich, warm, berry bubblegum kind of scent, and just about overflowed the melter.  But oh, it would have been a dee-licious-smelling calamity – the two went together really quite well, the butteriness of the berry brulee sweetly smothering the crunchy Boo (that was like some weird, Dada-esque poetry.)

Bottom right: Are You Cereal? blended with Raspberry Sauce.  I could pair Rosegirls’ sweet-tart Raspberry Sauce with just about anything.  And I often do, such as here alongside Are You Cereal?, a blend of lemony Froot Loops and Crunch Berries.  The wax pool here is so cool, and the Raspberry Sauce really punched up the mild lemon of the Loops.

Ha, Batman crouched protectively over the slice of Strawberry Frankenberry – seems he’s a fan!

But on that note, with regards to the header photo, MY childhood Saturday morning cartoon ritual never included The Simpsons, Hello Kitty OR any Arkham-oriented version of the Dark Knight, but kids these days, amirite?!  Also, I didn’t have my Care Bears figurines or big box o’ My Little Ponys immediately at hand, although they were definitely more my particular cartoon speed (and yet I, a woman of a certain age, DO have a can of Buzz Cola, a plush Hello Kitty and an Arkham Batman figurine right in my apartment, go figure.)

Remembrance Day

Poppies for remembrance.

Lost Boy

Praise the nail gods, it has been FOUND – a gold-tinged green holo that won’t dye your nails an indelible pea green for the next three to four months!  May the bells ring out across the land, the LOST BOY HAS BEEN FOUND!

Not to go all dramatic on you or anything, but this is sort of a big deal.  Green polishes – particularly those of the holographic variety – stain like an absolute beast, with golden greens, like this one, Enchanted Polish’s Lost Boy, faring the worst.  Last year I ran afoul of a gorgeous emerald green holo that stained my nails pea (or pee) green for the next four months.  It pained me to bin such a beautiful polish, but it was unwearable, even with two layers of base coat.

Lost Boy makes a more than acceptable substitute for that rich, vibrant polish – all the colour, none of the staining.  Still, I wouldn’t wear this without base coat (and indeed, I’m not – two coats here.)  But I learned my lesson on that one the hard way, and if you’re willing to throw caution to the wind, who am I to judge?  All the same, I’d base coat.  It is MOST unpleasant to run around with wee-hued nails for a quarter of the year, you know?

Formula-wise, Lost Boy is like all Enchanted Polishes – not too thin, not too thick, and a total one-coater if you polish carefully.  And the colour is just stupendous, a gold-dusted grass green holo that flashes an intense turquoise blue in the sun.

Although hiding in these particular photos, Lost Boy also maintains its bonkers holo effect in the shade, where the fine gold glitter is drawn out, giving an almost fuzzy sort of look to this super cool polish.

Enchanted used to be one of the more difficult brands to get your polished paws on, but in recent months the total insanity of unannounced flash sales and whatnot has died off, and now you can find a nice assortment of polishes in stock pretty well all the time.  I like the change very much.

Fall Fun Series: Colours of Fall

Those colours coming from Fall leaves, of course, which – wonder of natural wonders that I’d probably have to be a scientist to understand – are still clinging to the trees in my part of the global woods, weeks (and one nasty little snowstorm) beyond when they should have long skipped town. This is probably some evil portend of impending environmental doom, but I’ll take it when the view, both on my nails and off the balcony, is this spectacular.

Still, it’s hard to deny that winter is indeed on its way, especially when you compare today’s view across the Ottawa River with one from two weeks ago (cue The Byrd’s Turn! Turn! Turn!)

 

Bomb of Misrule: A Mini Lush Review

With a matching manicure, of course, because that’s just what we do around here. 🙂

Today we have another Lush product to take a wee peek at, this time a Lord of Misrule bath bomb.  I’ve no idea what the inspiration is behind this bath bomb, although with its colour palette, little molded crown and name, I’d say Mardi Gras.  That doesn’t explain why it’s part of Lush’s recently-released winter holiday collection, though, unless Lush is just waaaayyy ahead of their springtime game (ETA: WAY ahead of their springtime game; a glance at the website tells me that this bath bomb is inspired by the pagan Feast of Fools!)

The scent of this bath bomb is quintessential Lush – its patchouli, vanilla and black pepper fragrance is the one I most closely associate with the purveyors of fresh rainbow bath stuffs.  For what it’s worth (what with scent preference being such a personal AND chemical thing) I smell none of those things, simply a zippy kind of herbal scent that I really feel neither here nor there about.  My husband said it was tolerable – that’s high praise for a Lush product!

But as with all Lush bath bombs, I’m here more for the big bath show than the scent (thank goodness; I have an appallingly poor track record finding Lush fragrances I like) and the Lord of Misrule bath bomb does not disappoint – it was so cool!  And it really did put on a big, impressive show, dissolving down into a gorgeous mess of hot pink and grass green bubbles that reminded me of Christmas ribbon candy.

So pretty!  It was kind of a shame to stick my bod in it.

But stick my bod in it I did, and it made for a lovely bath time treat – softly scented skin, tons of moisturization (I know this, because there’s not a bath I take with a bath bomb that doesn’t end with me crawling out of the super slick tub on my hands and knees) and sparkly, wine-hued water.  The limited edition Lord of Misrule bath bomb (and its accompanying shower cream) are available online right now as part of Lush’s Christmas collection.  It retails for $7.45 Canadian a piece.

And finally, we have my nails!  Keen readers will note that this is a water marble manicure, a technique I begrudgingly attempt but once a year during the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. That’s because it’s a messy pain in the arse that works maybe a quarter of the time.  So why the heck did I choose to do one here for my two middle nails?  Because the ribbon candy-like effect of the bubbles seemed to lend itself really well to the technique, and I thought I could use the practice (ALWAYS.)  Amazingly enough, they turned out so well, thanks in large part to the two holographic polishes I used here, Enchanted Polish’s hot orchid pink, Dope Jam, and goldy-green Lost Boy – great colours, and they water marbled super well.

 

A Sprinkling of Freckles

So titled after the very sprinkle-like neon glitter topper I used here, Polish Me Silly’s Freckles, over a simple purple-on-cream gradient.  It’s super overcast and gloomy here today, and I wanted a cheerful manicure that reminds me of food – I think this definitely qualifies!