I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Well, actually, I've already left. I'm sitting in the Seattle airport bored to tears just staring at my Lippmann Across the Universe, which I took off and then put right back on (yeah, I'm just that weird). I'd like to let you all know, I'm going to Japan! I'll be there for three weeks, I do have a computer and occasional wi-fi, so I may post some. Let me know in the comments if you actually want to see some of my vacation pics, or if you'd rather I just posted pictures that relate to nails.

Bootcamp

After looking at my pictures of AtU, I decided that my cuticles were a horrifying mess. The natural course of action, at least for me, was to moisturize the heck out of them. For 24 hours now I've been scrubbing and removing and applying lotion and using oil and, and it's worked! My hands look (and feel) fabulous. So, what exactly did I do?
1. The Body Shop Moringa butter, I applied this every 45 minutes except while I was sleeping. Seriously, keep slathering it on.
2. Carol Daughter scrub. I don't know which one, but I bought it at TJ Maxx for $4 and it leaves my hands so soft.
3. The blue Sally Hansen cuticle remover, I haven't noticed a huge difference while using this but it's probably due to how unobservant I can be.
4. Solar Oil. Every time I did step number one, I applied some oil (okay, a lot of oil) too.
5. No more biting the cuticles. It's bad, it's unhealthy, and it f-ing hurts! It's a bad habit that you (and I) need to break.

All in all, my hands look wonderful. Really, I am so impressed by how quickly they healed up. I may put some pictures up tomorrow. Also, no NOTD pics because I am (bad blogger) still wearing my Pretty from yesterday.

I'm so sorry, I'm liar.

Dorothy Who? is pretty, the Nabi was nice BUT my favorite jelly ever...







I'm begging you, enlarge the pics. Really, do it so you can fully comprehend the amazingness.
It's Lippmann Across the Universe. It's my most expensive polish, clocking it at a respectable $18. I bought it today (which is why this is my first time wearing it). I love this, seriously, this is my new favorite polish ever. It's a navy jelly with green and blue hexagonal glitter as well as some smaller blue glitter. It takes three coats to get opaque, and the glitter that is in the lower layers looks all murky and pretty :). It doesn't look chunky but due to the necessity of positioning the glitter at least a little bit, application can be tricky. I predict this polish is going to become very rare, very fast. If you think you like it, buy it. Really, it's just that pretty.

I lied

This is really the most amazing jelly (sorry Nabi, I still love you but not like this). It is, of course, Dorothy Who? from the ORIGINAL ChG Wizards of Ohz and Ahz collection. I haven't tried the new one, but I found this at a garage sale ages ago (read: last summer) and I've worn it twice. Why only twice? Because it serves as a piece of art and I don't want to use it up! No, really, I love this. Because it's a dark blue jelly with blue glitter and it's opaque in 2 coats and it's super pretty. Pay no attention to the owie on my middle finger.

Water marbling 101

This is for a lovely reader who emailed me to ask how to prevent/get rid of air-bubbles when water marbling. Well, there's no easy one-way-fits-all answer to this, but there are some small habits that I've adopted that work most of the time.
1. Find the right temperature for you water, this is tricky! Play around for a little while, you'll find it. Usually, it's near room temperature, I fill my cup up and leave it out for a little while before starting.
2. Find the perfect polishes. Some don't spread, some create air bubbles, some just aren't pigmented enough. It's not really a brand thing, it's really individual. I've had luck with a lot of Orlys but some SH Xtreme Wears work for me (Mellow Yellow) and some don't (Green With Envy). This is another field that you just really have to play around with.
3. Dip your nail straight in, clear away the residual polish then draw your nail straight out. Angles tend to cause bubbles for me.
4. This is my secret, really what I do to avoid bubbles: I blow on the nail right after taking it out. Please note, this isn't the kind of 'ooh I need this dry quick' blowing, I just give it one sharp breath of air to blow away all of the water sitting on the nail bed. It works for the bigger bubbles.
5. For smaller bubbles on less detailed designs I wait until the nail is 95% dry then I smush the design a little with the pad of my index finger. Once I've done that, I take a little bit of polish the color of the (now flat) bubble and fill it in. This looks very realistic once the top coat has been applied.
6. I breathe in and get over it. This isn't meant to be perfect and nobody but you will notice the smaller bubbles. I promise. It's okay, your design looks awesome! Rock it with confidence.

Now, this is my marble. I took one of the CC French collection light pinks (name doesn't really matter, there were like 3 of them), SH Mellow Yellow (which was my base color), and CC Take Me to Your Chateau and marbled them. The pink added just a hint of peach to the nail and the blue looked awesome. I had a bit of bubbling, but I used my own tips and the mani looks great.

This jelly is amazing.

I love this. I knew I would, I mean, it's a murky grey-blue jelly with blue-green glitter. It's unexpected and looks stunning in the bottle, so I knew I'd love it on the nail. The first coat showed nothing. Literally, all I saw was a bit of glitter and maybe (this is stretching it) a bluish tinge. Second coat? Nothing. I put six (I think, it's had to remember) coats on. Six. BUT, that doesn't even dampen my love for this polish. I'd say, buy it and apply thin and even coats, otherwise it'd be all thick and goopy. It dries really fast, so drying time, even with six coats, was only a few minutes. I love this polish, it looks like the ocean, it looks like the sky at that time of night where it's not quite dark but there are a sprinkling of stars. I love this polish so much I may have to run back to the boutique and buy it for my give-away. We'll see. And, you are going to want to enlarge the photos just so you can further bask in this amazing polish.

Things to love...

Nabi glitter. This is Silver Big Ball, I found it for $2 at a little boutique. It was sitting innocently (can a polish really be innocent?) with a rack of Santees (spelling?). I also bought Blue Glitter which may be the most stunning jelly I've ever seen (forgive me Zulu). I'll show off Blue Glitter tomorrow when I find sun. This is Sally Hansen Gunmetal layered with Silver Big Ball. Gunmetal is nice, a bit brush stroke-y but all in all okay. It wore well, these pics are on the *gasp* third day of wear.

Orange

Or pink. Or coral. I'm not really sure what color SH Snappy Sorbet is, it changes with the light. It's a ____ (<- insert color there) with white/silver shimmer. This was horrible. I couldn't apply it, it was goopy but the pigmentation was horrible, the brush gave me problems for the first time (usually I can use the Insta-Dris well enough). It's close enough in color to OPI Hot and Spicy, for the money just buy the latter. In an effort to hide the smudging and balding and horribleness, I covered it with SH Hidden Treasure. There, much better.

Gryffindor Nails

Shout out to my buddies Vanessa and Melissa, they inspired these. Alternating SH Glistening and Zoya Richelle with the alternate color striped on. Super easy but they look great!

Orly Solid Gold + ChG Medallion

Nothing new here, one coat of Medallion over two coats of Solid Gold (which is matte) + a coat of SV.

30,000 HITS!

I'm so happy! That's so many! I know I'm responsible for at least 2,000 of them, but still, exciting! I'm just popping in to say that camp is ending, I have some homework so I *shouldn't* post often, but I bet I will. I don't have nail pictures right now (forgive me?) but I will have four Del Sols for you all later. Toodles :)

What I'm wearing

Zoya sparkle skittles, but y'all have seen those before. I'm going to camp today (it's just a day camp, so I will be posting throughout the week) and I wanted something that the little kids would enjoy.

Here's SH Blue It with konaded Millennium stars. This was (shockingly) not my 4th of July mani. I actually did this months ago XD



And here's Zoya Suvi. I hate this color. It's just icky to me, in the bottle and on the nail. This is my first time wearing it since buying it last year. I want to love it, it's a deep green shimmer, but it's blackened and greyed out and just... Blegh. I don't recommend this one.

Fourth of July

My 4th nails, I think I'll keep these for tomorrow (that'd be SH Blue It, WnW white, Zoya Clobie, ChG Fairy Dust, and Zoya Trixi). See, color! I promised you all color and look! There it is :)

Another Essie

It's boring. Angora Cardi. I'm sorry, I promise some real color soon.

A bunch of odds n' ends

Essie Hot Commodity. I love this, it's a jelly wine red with micro flakies (a term I just invented, similar to micro glitter but with variating size and shape with some iridescence, like a flakie) of silver and pink. To see the micro flakies, enlarge the last picture. Super pretty and I bought it for $4 at TJ Maxx.
The Hungry Asian (who has the best blog name ever, makes me laugh every time I go on there) is having an awesome giveaway. If I were you, I'd go enter! I'm still gathering stuffs for my giveaway.
What do you all think about the new layout? I thought that white would be simpler and more pleasing to the eye, plus it makes the colors of the polishes pop! I don't know if I love it, though, I may change it back.
What is up with you all and commenting? Two posts with NO comments, not one! Now, I read a lot of blogs daily and I don't comment on every entry but there are (supposedly) 208 of you, shouldn't at least one person have something to say?