Rows and Rows of Polish

This is only about half of the collection

I had some of my polish out so that I could update the blog, and I needed the names of the colours. Dewey took them out of the tray and was organizing them according to colour. He was so proud of himself that he wanted to take a photo. This is his photo.

The funny thing was, when Dewey was done and moved on to something else, Huey came along and organized them according to his idea of how to put the colours together. 

I found it interesting that both boys were into coordinating my polish. 

After they were done playing around, I realized that I didn't like the way I had my polish organized, so I went ahead and reorganized the whole lot.

Guess it was organization day.

Weight Update 164

I only like to do these updates when I have good news.

I have been consistently under 165 for the past couple of weeks. It's not the best, but I'll take it.

I have cut down considerably on eating out and drinking soda. I have been eating yogurt and oatmeal at work instead of chips, chocolate, and soda. I noticed a change within a week, which motivated me to eat from home instead of the drive-thru more and more. I've been trying to save the money I'm saving from not eating out so that I can have a shopping spree, but things are really tight right now, so I'm letting the money go to groceries and clothes for the children instead.

I haven't been to the gym in months. My schedule is nuts right now and I just don't have the time. I need to take the time, but it will come. I wish I could be more consistent, but my life is not my own right now; I have kids. I convinced DH to start walking Orso, and he and I took the dog out once last week and it was great, but he seemed to want to get all the exercising done in one day, so by the time we got back and I was done with homework, dinner, and reading, it was 9:30pm and time for bed! Something's gotta give though - spending time with DH is important, exercising is important, eating healthy is important, but I find I don't have time for any of it.

I am pleased with the weight loss though. My hairdresser noticed. I love it when it's enough that people can actually notice.

Essie Polish

I don't have nearly as many Essie polishes as O.P.I. I have been using O.P.I. for much longer than Essie. I like Essie because it is made in the U.S., so there is less of a carbon footprint. I love the laquers, but the creams can be goopy and hard to apply.

Essie Limo-scene

This is a creamy ivory. It's a little goopy, and a little sheer, but with the right amount of patience, I can get this colour to look right.

Essie Shine of the Times

This is a holographic glitter top coat. I have it on top of Limo-scene. I usually put this on my toes.

Essie Chinchilly

This is one of my favourites. This application is not the best, but it is a wonderful dove grey. I love to wear this in the spring.

Essie Sew Psyched

I was looking for a sage green and thought I had the right colour with this one. Fail. I still like the color, especially for Autumn, but I don't have much that goes with it. 

Essie Mink Muffs

I was looking for a greige when I bought this one. I also failed with this one. I like the creamy brown, it's lovely neutral, but I don't wear it very often.

Essie Wicked

This is a dark blood red. Looks black or burgundy in most lights. I love this one, but as you can see from my ring finger, it's hard to apply. It's also difficult to remove and stains. I bought this in Canada, so it has a special place in my heart, besides how much I love the color. It's close to O.P.I. Lincoln Park After Dark, but with less purple, so I like it even more. 

This is not all my Essies, I have one more post. Stay tuned!

Nails - The rest of my O.P.I. Polish

Just because I went on a blogging sabbatical, does not mean that I was not trying to go through all my polish. I kind of put myself back a bit, because I bought a bunch of new O.P.I. polish.

 Here are the ones I picked up from this fall's San Francisco collection:

O.P.I. A-Piers to be Tan

I LOVE this color. I have a purse in the same color. It's a great, creamy, caramel colour.

O.P.I. I Knead Sourdough

This one's tough - is it red? Burgundy? Brown? The answer is it's all of those. I love it as it makes me think of fall.

O.P.I. Incognito in Sausalito

This is either a very dark teal, or the perfect navy. I love it either way.

Here are some I picked up from the Europe collection (you will see that I'm going through a blue period)

O.P.I. Can't Find my Czechbook

It's not robin-egg, it's not turquoise, but it's lovely. I will be wearing this a lot more in the Spring.

O.P.I. I Don't give a Rotterdam

I love the icy-ness of this color. It's mostly a grey and has tiny glitter in it. An excellent winter color.

O.P.I. I Have a Herring Problem

Trust Me, this is not the same colour. This one is much more of a steel blue. Beautiful.

That's all there is for O.P.I.! Stay tuned for Essie next!

Manicure Monday - Toe Polish

Do you have polish that is perfect for your toes, but that you would never use on your hands?

Here are some polishes that I deem perfect for toes (some are okay for hands too):

Essie Turquoise & Caicos

This is a lovely not bright Turquoise. I say it's the perfect Turquoise and was exactly what I was looking for when I was looking for it. 

Essie Trophy Wife

Definitely a toes only colour. A wonderful teal.

Essie Meet Me at Sunset

One of my favourites. This is a hot, red-orange that always lifts my spirits. Perfect for hands and toes.

O.P.I. Kiss Me On My Tulips

I just bought this one recently and I love, love, LOVE it. First of all, it's new, second, it has Tulips in the title, third, the formula goes on perfectly. This is less transparent than O.P.I. Strawberry Margarita, so the colour is a lot richer and brighter. I would wear this on my hands too, but only in summer, or when I need my mood lifted.

Left: Essie Over the Edge, Right Essie Licorice

Essie Over the Edge is a dark, charcoal, metallic grey. Essie Licorice is black. I would wear both on my hands too. Essie Licorice is the perfect black. Over the Edge is good under glitter polish.

O.P.I. Espresso your Style

This is a wonderful dark chocolate brown. I wear this on hands too, but only in winter, and this year I'm totally over brown, so it will have to sit out this season, I think.

O.P.I. Lincoln Park After Dark

This is a very dark burgundy/purple. I love this colour when I'm in a bad mood, but the formula is really goopy and tough to get smoothe and even, so many coats are needed, and the more coats, the worse it looks. I have to be really concentrating and paying attention to get this polish to look right. It can be done, but it takes effort and I'm lazy sometimes. 

That's it for toes! Now that the cold weather is here, I'm going to try to go without polish on my toes for a while, to give them a rest. We'll see how that goes.

Yeah, I'm not diggin' Tumblr

I'm going to keep my Tumblr, so if you still want to check me out over there, I will post from time to time, but I've decided to stick with Blogger.

I had a weird experience that totally turned me off. Back in July, as you know I was posting "Fingers and Toes" as I was going through all my colours as a challenge to myself. I was continuing this practice, but just over on Tumblr. Well I gained a couple of followers and of course I checked them out. This one follower had all these photos and GIFs of toe licking. GROSS! EW!! SQUICK!!! I was completely freaked out and wanted to block him/her, but couldn't figure out how to do it. There are some weirdos out there. 

I have this thing about my feet. I hate anyone touching my feet. I'm okay with professionals, but that's it. I'm okay with pedicures, but I won't let any just regular person touch my feet. Not DH, not my boys, not anyone. It just gives me the willies. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Blech, I have to go and wash my eyeballs now. You can see how this would particularly effect me as I have the opposite of a foot fetish.

So yeah, I'm staying over here where I can't tell if the foot freaks are looking at my blog.

Garnier Finishing Paste

When I went to Vancouver last year, I was going to try to carry on my bag, so I didn't bring any of my hair goop with me because I was worried about the liquids rule and I was unsure how my hair wax would go over. I figured I would just buy stuff in Vancouver and just leave it there. Turned out that my rolling bag was too big, so I ended up checking it anyway.

I needed something for my super short hair, so I took a trip with my mum to my old friend London Drugs to get supplies. (I needed more than just hair goop)

Funny thing, in Canada, all labeling is in English and French. Since I studied French in high school and grew up with it on all the packaging all my life, I was used to it, but I've been away from it for so long that I got out of the habit of automatically translating in my head. I couldn't figure out what everything was because all I could see was the French side! (one side is English, the other side is French) I found this funny and sad at the same time.

Anyway, this is a lovely product. It smells awesome, it doesn't dry stiff, doesn't make your hair crusty and leaves it soft. It worked really well with my short hair in that I could put it in to my wet hair and comb it into shape, and it would stay that way all day - even after it dried. I just recently used it when I did my Marilyn hair because I needed something to give me texture to help the curl happen, and it worked really, really well. This is great for short hair and keeping it smooth and in place, and it's excellent for adding texture to longer hair.

It smells great and works awesome. Two thumbs up.

Sexy Hair Soy Renewal

Sexy Hair Soy Renewal with Argan Oil

I've been a big fan of Argan Oil for a long time. Tristann uses it on my hair and it makes it so soft and lovely. She uses Moroccan Oil, not this product.

I received a free sample of this on one of my trips to Ulta and since I liked using Moroccan Oil, I was interested in trying it.

I love this product. It. Smells. FANTASTIC! It makes my hair so soft and considering the torture I put it through to get my wonderful baby blonde, it should be the consistency of straw, but it's not. Not only is the colour baby blonde, but it's soft like a baby's too. Did I mention how great it smells? Because it smells incredible. I fear that the smell alone would win me over even if the product was crap - it smells that good, but the product is good. It's not as good as Moroccan Oil, but it works. It's also half the price of Moroccan Oil and doesn't have as much Argan Oil as Moroccan Oil, and I don't have to buy it at the salon. Not that I'm against buying things at the salon, I'm just cheap. Ulta had a buy two get one half off on Sexy Hair products and I needed shampoo and conditioner, so I was able to get this bottle for eleven dollars. That was the main reason I bought this over Moroccan Oil, but I really do love it. It works as a cheaper version of Moroccan oil.

You only need a little - about the size of a quarter. I use about the size of a nickel because I have less hair. I totally recommend this product.

Nails - Do you Lilac it?

O.P.I. Do you Lilac it?

I'm not normally a purple person. I usually stay far, far away from purple, but this is a new favorite!

It is the perfect creamy lilac. It reminds me of the enormous lilac tree in my parent's front yard. I am absolutely in love.

I was cruising around Ulta yesterday and this one just spoke to me, which is weird, because when I went to Ulta last week and was specifically looking at nail polish, nothing spoke to me. I ended up buying two polishes last night and have two more on my mind to go back and buy.

I must have just been in the mood.

Look of the Day - Marilyn Hair

I feel like I looked like Lady Gaga in most of the photos
This is the only one that turned out okay.
I hate taking photos of myself

So I've been wanting a red lipstick for a while, Ulta had a 20% off coupon, so I went for it.

I had been thinking that I could bust out the old hot rollers and see if I could Marilyn it up.

It turned out better than expected.

I am loving my blonde hair even MORE now.

Here's a Photo Booth shot.

What's up?

I have been updating things over at Tumblr, but I don't quite have the hang of things there, so I'm not ready to make the grand announcement that things have moved. I'm still trying to decide if I even want to move.

I'm still blonde, still growing my hair out, and still going through all my nail polish. I have 4 more colors to go and then I'll be through all my O.P.I. and moved on to my Essie polish.

I just bought two NYX eyeshadows and some new eye shadow brushes. I am in LOVE! I bought a perfect matte pink, ballet slipper pink, and a gorgeous gold glitter. The brushes are perfect.

I'm really looking forward to new fall clothes as I am super bored of my summer wardrobe.

That's all.

How are you?

Fingers and Toes 7-1-13

O.P.I. Chicago Champagne Toast

This one is another Mom color. It's very close to Mauving to Manitoba. A frosty neutral.

O.P.I. Going Ape-ricot

Apricot with so much gold glitter I almost consider this a glitter polish. This one is one of my favourites. A perfect colour for summer.

O.P.I. Louvre Me Louvre Me Not

The true colour of this one didn't come out so hot. I've blogged this one before. This is a really red purple.

O.P.I. Yoga-ta Get this Blue

I've blogged about this one too. This went perfect with Going Ape-ricot on my fingers, I loved the combination.

Perfect for removing Glitter Nail polish

I first read about this on the Nailed It blog. She mentioned that she gets hers at Target, but Target is far away from me, so I looked to see if I could find something similar closer to me.

I looked at my local Sally Beauty Supply, but no luck. The beauty section at my local Smith's Marketplace is pretty good and I get a lot of my nail stuff there. That's where I found this lovely thing.

The brush inside is exactly like the little brush you get from the hospital when you come home with your baby for scrubbing their scalp/washing their hair. It works perfectly when you use acetone for your remover. Follow the instructions; soak your nails for about 10 seconds, scrub on the brush, and *poof*, glitter all gone!

I love this. I can't tell you how much I hate removing glitter polish because of how it shreds my cotton balls. The sandpapery feeling I get trying to rub off the polish and the strings of the cotton balls makes me cringe so much. I have tried the technique with the cotton balls and tin foil that's all over pinterest, and that works like a charm, but it's so time consuming. The acetone evaporates quickly, but I just refill the jar when I need to with my giant bottle of acetone from Sally Beauty Supply - easy peasy, lemon squeezy. This little jar is my new best friend - now I can wear glitter more often!

Unfortunately, it doesn't work so hot for toes (for obvious reasons), so I use the tin foil method on my toes.

Look of the day - Black Lace Skirt

Tshirt - ModBod
Skirt - Minka Rose
Shoes - BCBGeneration

*Sigh*.

So I bought this skirt at Costco.

(I actually bought the shirt at Costco too)

I think I have a problem. (not really)

The shoes are my Mother's Day present to myself.

I wanted a black skirt with a batten burg lace overlay, and I happened to be in Costco picking up milk, and there they were. I went back the next day, and there were only a few left, so it's good I didn't wait around and think about it, or they would have been gone.

This skirt is so comfortable. I am in LOVE. It's the perfect lady-like length, and I think it looks great. The right side of the skirt looks weird in this photo, but I think it's just the way I'm standing.

I did a Polyvore set of this outfit over a year ago, that's how long I've been wanting a skirt like this.

I'm so glad I bought it.

Look how long my hair is getting!

Weight 166.

Fingers and Toes 6-24-13

O.P.I. Chocolate Shakespeare

This is a great nude, but with sparkle. It used to be my go-to nude, I even have the matching lipstick, but I've grown away from frosted colors. This is a really old color; I've had it for a long time.

O.P.I. Jade is the New Black

I've blogged about this one before. It's a great color. Especially on the toes when you go to yoga and spend a lot of time looking at your toes.

O.P.I. Rosy Future

This is a gorgeous, sheer, iridescent pink. I love this colour because while it's light and delicate, it has a funky edge in that it's iridescent.

O.P.I. Bright Lights Big Color

This is a perfect summer color. It's bright, coral/pink with gold glitter. I like it much better on toes, as I feel it's too pink for me. 

O.P.I. Smokin' in Havana

I forgot that I like this color. It's a bronzy, coppery reddish color. I was hoping for something a little closer to coral when I bought it, so I was disappointed, however, looking at it now I like it so much more. This is one of my older colours too, and I have hardly ever worn it, but I think I'm going to add it into rotation more frequently.

Fingers and Toes 6-16-13

O.P.I. Innie Minnie Mighty Bow

I love Minnie Mouse like no other. From her red and white polka dots to her yellow shoes. When O.P.I. came out with a Minnie line, I had to get the red. It's the perfect Minnie red. O.P.I. nailed the colour on this one.

O.P.I. Mauving to Manitoba

This colour reminds me of my mum. 1) She always wears light frosty champagne type pinks. 2) She grew up in Manitoba. This is probably too much colour for my mum, but it reminds me of her.

Essie The More the Merrier

Saw this one cruising at the grocery store. It's the perfect lime green. I tried it on my fingers, but it didn't work so hot. Perfect for toes though. Especially with nude peep toe platforms

O.P.I. Tutti Fruitti Tonga

Another "Mum" color. She would love this one, it's her signature color. This one's perfect in summer when one is more tan than usual.

78 Bottles on the Wall

O.P.I, Essie and Julep, O.P.I.

I had mentioned how DH thought I had too much nail polish and I scoffed, so I counted and I have 78 bottles. Some of those are mini bottles, but I didn't count my old stash of archives, so I'm sticking with 78.

That is definitely more than one colour for hands and one colour for toes for one month. I have decided I'm not going to necessarily change my polish daily, but I will go through every colour and not repeat until I've used every bottle. This is my challenge for the summer.

As you can see, the bulk of my collection is O.P.I. The rest of my collection is either Essie or Julep. I have a few random bottles, but I'm pretty brand loyal, and O.P.I. has never steered me wrong.

I saw an organizational video on Pinterest for using bins under your bathroom cabinet that I found very helpful. I have a whole cabinet dedicated to nails (mostly - ignore the hot rollers) in my guest bathroom. This is where I store all my toys.

Storage in the cabinet

Look of the Day - Lipstick Red Shoes

Sweater Target
Skirt Ellen Tracy
Shoes Pleaser

The white balance on my phone is acting nutty, so no more selfies from the phone until I can figure it out.

Sorry for the poor quality photo.

I am bringing to you the colours of my teenage bedroom: Grey, White and Red. I wasn't allowed to have black because it was too dark and too depressing, so I went with grey. I love this colour combination.

The shoes are the best, no? They aren't the most comfortable because my feet stick to the inside and they're really tight. I have discovered that not all shoes are sized the same and sometimes I'm not a nine.

I'm going to try baby powder next, because I really love these shoes and I never wear them because they're so hard to wear.

They're a little CFM, but I like that in a shoe sometimes

Barbie Pink

O.P.I. Strawberry Margarita

I'm not a big into pink person, but sometimes you just need a hot pink pick-me-up. This is the only colour that I have like this.

What’s been going on

Weight: 168

I gained a bit due to a caffeine binge, went off caffeine, went through withdrawals, lost a little, and feel better now. I’m trying to stay off the Dr. Pepper until Labour Day, and am hoping to stop drinking soda all together by the end of the summer.

I went on a nail polish buying fast for May and bought no new nail polish. As a reward, I bought 4 new colours – one Essie and three O.P.I. I bought the O.P.I. at my favourite place, ULTA, where I am a ‘member’. Turns out there was a buy two get one free deal going on, so I got 3 colours for $20.00! That made me very, very happy. I'm back on the fast and hope to continue through the summer.

I got a free sample of Sexy Hair’s Argan Oil with my purchase at ULTA. It smells incredible and I love it. It works great. I’ve been a Moroccan oil follower for years, so I’m wondering what the difference is. I’m getting my hair done tonight, so I’m going to ask Tristann. (She used to be a Big Sexy rep, and she is the one that turned me on to Moroccan oil, so she will know)

The centre where ULTA is located just had an H&M open up and are building a Gap and Old Navy. I am saving up my pennies over the summer and will reward myself with a shopping day if I’m a good girl.

I jumped on the BB Cream bandwagon, and after a few internet searches and magazine articles I have gained more of an understanding of how to use the product. I must say, I am very pleased.

I haven’t been to Yoga since the middle of April. Life keeps getting in the way and this is making me sad.

I got my craft room cleaned up and organized so I have room to create. I am so excited and hope to be able to work on some awesome projects over the summer.

DH was upset at me for spending $28.00 on nail polish exclaiming that I had more nail polish than I could use in a month. I haven’t counted, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have more than 60 bottles of nail polish. (60 equals one colour for toes, one for hands for 30 days in the month.) My response, however, was “challenge accepted. I will change my nail polish every day for a month and go through every colour I have.”  After we had this argument, life happened, and I went without colour for 3 days, so I haven’t started the challenge yet. We’ll see if I can put my money where my mouth is. I should be able to considering what a big mouth (literally and figuratively) I have.

I have been blonde for more than six months and I still love it. Six months is usually my limit when it comes to hair. I think the fact that I’m growing it out is helping with my tolerance level since even though I am keeping the colour, the style keeps changing.

That’s all for me. What’s going on with you?

Look of the Day

Shirt Chadwicks
Tshirt ModBod
Pants Chadwicks
Shoes Via Spiga (a million years old)
Earrings Claire's
Necklace Puca shell gift from friend who
came back from Hawaii when I was in
High school

I absolutely hate everything I'm wearing today.

I had to wear closed toe shoes because my toes were naked.

I had to wear pants because my legs needed a shave and all my other pants were in the laundry so I chose these navy ones.

The shirt is too short and boxy and needs some reconstruction, so I just wore it like this.

Even though I hated this outfit, I strutted around like I owned it.

171 lbs

White Manicure

O.P.I. Alpine Snow

I'm still trying to perfect the white manicure. It still looks like Liquid Paper. I read a technique in Glamour magazine about using a matte topcoat in the middle of the coats, but it still looked streaky and not smooth. I haven't given up the fight!

Look of the day

Necklace - gift from Peru
Shirt - Dickies
Sweater - Costco
Belt - Ross
Pinstripe pants - Chadwicks
Shoes - Pleaser

"Mom, you're supposed to wear your belt in your belt loops to keep your pants up."

I love living with boys.

Adding a pop of color with the red necklace.

169 lbs.

Mother's Day Manicure

O.P.I. Alpine Snow, White Glitter Born Pretty Store

I was able to take time and actually do my nails on Mother's Day. That was a nice pressie from my boys! This looked a lot better in person on the first day, but as it wore off, not so much. Also, even though I used topcoat, my nails felt like they were covered in sandpaper. I got rid of this mani long before it chipped, which is not common for me.

Look of the day

Cardigan Chadwicks
Shirt Dickies
Skirt Ellen tracy
Tights Chadwicks
Shoes Fluevog

It's the end of May, but it's been rainy and cold lately. I thought that I was done with wearing tights, but I got to haul them out this week!

Yay! I love tights!

I can't wear these Fluevogs without hose, so it was nice to haul these beauties out of the closet too.

In other news, look how long and shaggy my hair is getting. I'm at the point where I have to use product, a round brush, blow dryer, and flat iron in order to have it behave properly. My 'doin' my 'do' time hast gone from zero to twenty minutes.

I'm sad about this, but it was my choice to grow my hair out, so I guess I get to live with my choice.

Weight: 168.

Oahu Toes

Cookies, Milk, Netbook on the lanai with a view of the Ala Wai Canal

Here is my pedicure while I was in Oahu with my brother. This is also a view of what I did every night while there. It was most lovely, and my niece and nephew are adorable!

Essie Licorice, nail decals, Waikiki beach, flip flop blisters