Oldie but Goodie: Old Swatch Roundup

I've got a million swatch photos on my computer ready to be blogged about, but I took most of them in either 2012 or last year.  As such, I don't have a great grasp of how they applied or really anything else about them.  That being said, I'm planning to do a couple posts with these old photos so that I don't feel bad that they're just sitting around unused.  Be aware that these are old photos taken in my old lighting setup and with not so awesome moisturizing since I only just recently discovered which lotions and cuticle treatments work best with my extra-dry skin.  Ok, let's get started!

All polishes were purchased by me.

Dollish Polish Mermaid Scales over Nicole by OPI Poised in Turquoise

Hare Monster

Dollish Polish Toad-ally Awesome over Indigo Bananas Klein Trink Wasser, OPI OPI Red, China Glaze Liquid Leather, OPI DS Sapphire, and sandwiched between OPI Don't Touch my Tutu.

Dollish Polish Hip Hop Hippity Hop

China Glaze Rated Holographic

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer All I'll Ever Need and Darling Diva Wedding Day Jitters

Lynnderella Salad Days over Zoya Mimi topped with NYC Matte Me Crazy matte topcoat.

Illamasqua Phallic topped with Lynnderella Angel Food and Amy's Nail Boutique Ecopolo

OPI Wing It

Dollish Polish The Kupa King over Girly Bits Banana Hammock

I've got tons more, too, so I think I'll do this once a month.  Hope you have a great Monday!

All polishes were purchased by me.

Golden Oldie Thursday: Valentine's Day

Wahoo!  I totally am rocking this challenge, and I'm so stoked!  I can almost never keep up with these, even if they're only once a week, but I'm really loving the fact that it isn't all about nail art.  So, let's take a look at tonight's offering - a pretty pink mani with a bit of stamping!

Here is the schedule of events if you would like to follow along or participate.

Remember the rules:

• The polish you use must be at least a year old.
• If you haven't been a polishaholic for that long, you can use the oldest polishes you have.
• The polish should be previously used, but if you're stuck, you can use a polish from your untrieds stack.
• You can use more than one polish as long as it fits the rules.

All polishes were purchased by me.

Tonight's polishes all fit in the 1 year or older rule, even the polishes I used for stamping! All photos are taken under artificial light with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top and one coat of Alter Ego She Shines to help fix the dull from wearing this mani all day. Here are the polishes I used:

China Glaze LOL, Lynnderella Mon Petit Chou Chou, Essie Pink-a-boo, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, and Nicole by OPI Pink Flower Power.

Pink-a-boo is a dainty as f pink (that's for you Sara) with an assortment of rainbow micro flakies.  I used four thick coats of Pink-a-boo as it is a jelly that takes several coats to get fully opaque.  You could still see my nail line a bit before I stamped, but it wasn't that bad.  Dry time is actually pretty fast despite having to use four layers!

OPI's My Very First Knockwurst is a taupe leaning pink cream, which I've previously reviewed here, but needless to say, my opinion has changed.  This is probably one of the polishes I grab for the most to use as undies.  I've finally figured out the trick to its application, which is thicker coats with sufficient time to dry in between.  I used two coats as undies underneath Mon Petit Chou Chou.

Mon Petit Chou Chou is a very pretty light pink with pink, purple, and silver glitters in hexes, squares, blossoms, butterflies, and hearts.  This is the first Lynn I've ever had an issue with in regards to getting glitter out of the bottle.  It's a super thin base where there is a lot more base than glitter.  It's a super sheer polish as well, which necessitated the use of undies.  While I did have some issues getting the glitters out, I was still able to fill up my nails without overloading my nail with base pooling at the sides and without wasting too much time.

I stamped using China Glaze LOL, NOPI Pink Flower Power, Bundle Monster's Holiday plates and a Red Angel plate on my right hand, which isn't shown.  Pink Flower Power stamped much better than I thought it would, which was a great surprise!  I wasn't sure it would transfer very well, but I think it did well because it's old and a bit thick.  I actually purchased this polish when I was in middle school, which was a long long long time ago.  It was easy to pick up the image from the plate and easy to transfer the image to my nail without having to rush.  Win win in my book!

China Glaze LOL stamped alright.  I was a bit disappointed with the opacity of the image transfer as it's hard to see the word Love on my ring finger.  Also, it required super quick work to apply before it dried.  When I say super quick, I mean you'd better scrape the excess and immediately pick up the image on your stamper and then quickly transfer the image to your nail.  Otherwise, it will dry on the plate...  Yeah...  I wish I'd had Color Club Eternal Beauty for a year because I think that it probably would've transferred better.  Either that or I should've stamped the purple onto Pink-a-boo instead of Mon Petit Chou Chou.

You can purchase NOPI and Essie at drugstores and beauty supply stores.  You can purchase China Glazes and OPIs at beauty supply stores.  Although, note that LOL has been long discontinued, so you'll need to find it at a salon or on a blog sale.  Lastly, you can purchase Lynnderellas at their store here.  So, there you have it!  I'm going to have another special valentine's day challenge post up tomorrow, so definitely check back then!

An InLinkz Link-up

Oldie but Goodie: In the beginning...

Tonight's post is going to be a little bit different as I'm not going to do a review.  Instead, I thought I'd show you guys my transformation as a swatcher, photographer, polisher, and blogger.  These photos are technically part of the Oldie but Goodie series I used to do, but I'm running low on pictures to dedicate a whole post to each polish.  Therefore, I've decided I would just put them all in one post!  Get ready for some heavy picture spam!

Here's a little bit of history to go with these old pictures.  I was always a polish fiend, but I strayed away when I went to law school.  I didn't have time to do them myself, and I certainly didn't have the money to spend on getting manicures.  When I was little, I would go over to my Grannie's house all the time, and every time, we would do our nails.  She had this amazing selection of all different colors mostly from Wet 'n Wild, but including Nina, Sinful, Revlon Street Wear, and some Sally Hansen.  We would always have festive manis (and pedis for me) during each holiday.  Those are times I sincerely cherish since my grandmother has since passed away.  She's who got me started on my road to polish ridiculousness when I was just a young girl.  Even through school, I always had a pretty decently sized stash for a teenager - especially for a teenager during the non-polish mania years.  My nails were horrible, though, and still are to a certain degree, because of all of all of my health issues (Hashimotos thyroid disease, hypoglycemia, and intolerance to several different foods that I didn't know about until recently).  I peeled them.  Not bit them, but peeled them off.  They flaked, they wouldn't grow, and I had ridges.  But I'll be damned if I didn't have paint on them all the time!  Now, I try to have polish on my nails every day.  I typically do a mani every or every other night unless I'm doing a wear test, simply because I went crazy buying last year and am still trying to catch up on wearing them all.  Still nowhere close, though.  Hah!

These photos are from around this time last year when I first started getting back into polish.  Some are before I started the blog and was posting photos on Facebook and another polish forum.  Some are from after I started the blog last summer but before I was very good about moisturizing or using my camera.  At the end, I'll add a photo from a few weeks ago so you can see how I've transformed through this process!  Let's get started!! 

Zoya Minka - hated this polish!  It went on horribly and just wouldn't dry.

Gelish French marble with Tiki Tiki Laranga, Shake it til You Samba,  Stand Out, and Light Elegant.  This photo is taken with the vivid color mode on my camera, but it's pretty close to accurate for the color on my tips.

Playing with my new stamps using regular polishes including NOPI, OPI, and WnW.

More stamping practice pre-cleanup.  I actually attempted a two-tone stamp that came out pretty decently!

Gelish Jet Set.  One of my all time favorite Gelish colors.  Also, one of the few polishes my hubby bought for me.

More stamping.  I'm unsure what the base is (maybe CC Puccilicious?) topped with NOPI Pink Flower Power.  I really like this combo.

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Bedazzleberry White.  The glitters in this one sank, but they were fine in the regular Beddazleberry.

OPI If you Moust you Moust topped with Dandy Nails Wonderwall.  Not a fantastic combo, but I wanted to give it a shot.  Wonderwall is a bit hard to apply, as you can tell, and the glitters didn't spread very well.  I'll bet it would look awesome over a pale blue like Elevation Alphubel.

Dollish Gym Tan Laundry.  I wasn't sure if I'd like this one when I bought it, but I really really love it.  Good impulse buy!

Rainbow Honey Celestia topped with Sonnetarium Snowfall.  I <3 Sonnetarium.  'Nuff said.

My first water marble.  Not exactly a rousing success, lol.

My second water marble attemp; OPI DS Sapphire topped with Dollish It's a me Mario, and Girly Bits Star Spangled.  There are so many things wrong with this picture...

Rainbow Hone Celestia.  I'm looking forward to trying this again once I've thinned it...

Dollish Sweet Dreams are Made of Glitter.  Mint greens aren't my fave.

Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.  Pretty color.  Wore this at Disney World.

Candeo Glacier.  Such a pretty color and the glitters haven't sunk or turned to sludge.  Yay!

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Alice Who?  Pretty close dupe to Absolutely Alice.

Pretty and Polished Cancer Moon.  Discontinued, but not really my kind of polish.

Wet 'n Wild Diamond in the Rough.  Very gritty, even with two coats of topcoat.

Pretty & Polished Peace Camp.  Applied easily without clumping or pooling.

OPI Thanks a Windmillion topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and stamped with Nfu Oh 61.  One of my all time favorite manis despite the ridiculous SV shrinkage.

Now, let's take a look at a more recent shot: Zoya Pixie Dust Nyx.  I'll have a wear test of this beauty sometime in the near future!

So there you have it!  I think I've come a long way, and if I can do it, so can you!  Just keep moisturizing, figure out the best way for you to handle your cuticles (I love my SH Cuticle Remover Gel), and keep your nails at a manageable length, and you'll be good to go!

How did you get into nail polish?  What's your story?