Quick Check-In

As usual, I meant to post more than I did in these last few weeks, but it just didn't happen. Why? Well, this time it was because I spent most of November at my mother-in-law's condo in Illinois, helping Mr. Karen clear it out to be sold now that she's moved to assisted living in Washington. I knew it would be a difficult process, but somehow I thought I'd have the time and energy to blog at least twice a week. Nope. Sorting through stuff and packing boxes and running to Home Depot to buy more boxes (and packing tape—we used sooo much tape) and arrranging for professional movers to come get the furniture and the mountain of boxes we were creating just sucked up my time and mental energy like whoa. Yet somehow, when it came time to pack up my own stuff to return home, I found I'd managed to amass a respectable haul of nail stuff, and I hadn't even gone out on black Friday. Conveniently, there was a Meijer and Sally Beauty and an Ulta near one Home Depot, and an Ulta and Sally and Five Below near the other one (which I had to go to when I bought up all the dish pack kits at the first one). I hope to swatch and write about at least some of this new stuff before too long, but that will have to wait, as after just a few days home, we are heading out again, this time to Washington to deliver the stuff we didn't trust the movers with and make sure the storage unit my sister in law rented is big enough to hold what the movers are bringing (it won't all fit into the assisted living apartment, but my mother-in-law insisted she wanted to sort through some things herself, so storage unit it is).



I posed this haul in the closet of the master bedroom, which I spent days clearing out, even though I'd packed up most of my mother-in-law's clothes on our first trip to get stuff from the condo after she moved out. Most of my father-in-law's wardrobe was still in there, nearly four years after he died (and six or seven or more after he wore most of the stuff), along with random containers of random stuff. Alas, no vintage nail polish to be found.

IEC Haul 2018

A quick search of my archives shows me the last time I did haul post was after last year's Indie Expo Canada; I was a bit more prompt with that one, as I was traveling with my lightbox so could take decent photos and also didn't leave right from the Expo to head back home as I did this year. I'm happy to report that all my new polishes made it back safe and sound and look just as good as if I'd gotten them documented right after I got them.

Onward, and let's start with the VIP bag, specifically the non-nail items, which I pulled out and took a photo of without waiting until I had my lightbox handy because I wanted to put the wax melts in a cool place as soon as I could. There's Relief Daily Cleanser with Pink Clay and Papaya Extract from Terrah Essentials, a scented wax sample from Rogue Lacquer, a wax melt from Under a Hula Moon, a bath snowball from SoGa Artisan Soaperie, and an eyeshadow from Clionadh Cosmetics.



There were two non-polish nail items in the VIP bag: some decals from Inspired Sense (which I failed to notice had a note on the card that said to come to the their booth for a prize, so that makes me sad) and a crystal file from Nail Stuff.



The polish shades for the VIP bags varied for some of the brands. I ended up with a fair few green ones, which I'm perfectly happy about. Left to right: Ever After Seaweed Facials, Girly Bits Very Important Polish, Native War Paints Special Effects VIP That's Me, Bees Knees Jefferson Starships, Fiendish Fancies Kaiju.



There were also a good number of purple polishes in my VIP bag, along with a couple other hues that added variety. Left to right: Paint It Pretty Only @ Expo Eh, Alter Ego Poised Heroine, Fair Maiden Violet Eyes, Colors by Llarowe You Like Eh, Beyond the Nail Cherry Beach, Turtle Tootsies A Rose Is a Rose.



Of course I bought a bunch of polish, too ... nothing like being able to see the pretties in person, and I had that big VIP bag with plenty of room left for purchases. Here we have Turtle Tootsies Indie Expo 2018, Canadian Exclusive, and Canadian State of Mind; Beyond the Nail Butterfly Garden, Royal York, The Junction, and Razzle Dazzle.



Turtle Tootsies had some cute gifts with purchase, too; I got this goofy cute pen stylus with the URL for their website, which I believe is re-opening July 1st:



I succumbed to Bees Knees to the tune of six polishes: Ghoul Got Your Tongue, The Fool, and The Magician (these first three are magnetics); Sparkle on Her Face, The Rise of Dick, Defender of the Rainbow (Proto 2; this was a surprise gift with purchase).



At Paint It Pretty and Ever After, I restrained myself (though after I left, I realized I restrained myself too much and didn't get the Ever After / Rouge duo; eh, stuff happens, and it's not like I didn't get plenty of great polishes). Paint It Pretty Bling Up Your Life at IEC and Blue Me Away at IEC. Ever After Quick Dry Top Coat (I know, I have lots of topcoats, but I got a chance to use this one at the polish making workshop and really liked it), Never Enough, and Raspberry Coolata.



CANVASlacquer ZzZZz Zap and Electric Avenue. Colors by Llarowe The 6ix, She's a Beauty, and Yes I'm Loonie Too.



Fair Maiden Siren-ade, The Illusionist, Wondrous Curiosities, Cinder Hella, Malice in Wonderland.



Alter Ego Gentle Benevolent, Clever Girl, Nice Boy, and She Matters matte top coat. Fiendish Fancies Mrs. French's Cat is Missing.



Native War Paints Special Effects Life in a Glass House, Border Crossing, Road Trip Snacks, and Touring Toronto. Cuter Cuticles Acetone Additive in Rose Petals (my first acetone mix-in).



My Indie Polish Toast of the Town, Queens Quay, and Started from the Bottom. Girly Bits (I bought so much they wouldn't fit in one photo easily) What a Bunch Abalone, Age Your Sage, and North of 42.



Girly Bits stamping plate, Not Common Mules (top row), Sparrow of the Dream, What the Hell Was I Thinking (start of bottom row), Zed, Dark Reflection, unlabelled mystery polish (gift with purchase), Small Batch Prototype 2038.



I also got a lot of colorful tissue paper ... this is just a sampling. :D



I haven't managed to wear, much less swatch, any of these yet. I do hope to get to at least some of them in the coming weeks (as well as the other three polishes from the IEC polish making workshop). Except I also bought a lot of polish on the trip to and from IEC, so I've got my work cut out for me.

IEC Haul

As promised, today I've got the goodies I got at Indie Expo Canada. I am traveling with my lightbox (that's not strange at all, right?), so was able to take proper bottle shots of everything eventually, but first here's a quickie pic of all the VIP goodies on my hotel bed just after I'd unwrapped and sorted everything out. Polish, of course, but also a stamping plate, nail decals, emery board, soap, eyeshadow, a bath cupcake, and skin/hair serum. Well worth the price of the ticket, for sure.



I couldn't wait until after I set up the lightbox to try some of the bath products I got from SoGa, so they didn't get the glamour shot treatment. These bath snowballs looked so pretty; it was hard to pick just a few. I got Northern Lights, Cucumber Melon, and Lemongrass & Sage.



I used Northern Lights first and almost hated to toss it in the bathwater and see those gorgeous colors fizz away. I'm glad I did though, as it smelled great, sort of fruity and floral and woodsy at the same time, not overpowering but strong enough to linger on my skin for a while after I dried off.



I shared my creations from the pre-con polish making workshop in my other IEC post, but here they are again just for the sake of completeness. I love that Pam had special IEC labels for the fronts of our bottles and also made custom name stickers for the bottoms once we'd decided what to call them. Mine are Lost in the Forest, Flair Purple, and Bonus Flakes.



VIP bag polishes, part one—Girly Bits V.I.Polish, Superficially Colorful Lacquer Stealing Your Thunder, Fair Maiden Toronto Sunrise, Colors by Llarowe O Canada, Fiendish Fancies Red Herring, and Tonic Taking on Toronto:



VIP bag polishes, part two—Great Lakes Lacquer Love at Hyatt Regency, Bliss Toronto, Ever After Diamonds Are Forever, Native War Paints Sun Bathing on Lake Ontario, Alter Ego Generous Beauty, Hit the Bottle On the Loose with Chartreuse:



VIP non-polish goodies:



And now on to all the nail stuff I bought—please keep in mind I've been on a very low buy for quite a while now, so these were the first indies I'd gotten in well over a year, so I had some serious pent up demand.

Girly Bits—on top are Ultra Holochrome Powder and SFX Nail Powder in Alchemy; bottles are Brick House, Stayin' Alive, Le Freak, Refresh! Refresh! Refresh!, Sugar Beach, and Lost in the PATH.



Beyond the Nail—Holo Blue Microglitter, Fiddlesticks!, 416/905 (IEC exclusive), Tee Dot (IEC exclusive), and Space Cadet. This is a new brand for me.



Great Lakes Lacquer (also a new brand for me)—The Jewel of Ontario and Indie-cent Exposure (IEC exclusive); Native War Paints—Picnic in Trinity Bellwoods, Meet Me at Union Station, and Scaling the CN Tower, along with a mini of cuticle oil in Birthday Cake.



Alter Ego (yet another new brand for me)—Olympic Contender, B Informed, Precious Heart (IEC exclusive), Silver Cocktail, and Courtney's Frogspawn Coral (coral as in coral reef, not the color).



Fair Maiden (again, new brand for me)—Twilight, Cruel Summer, Northern Exposure (IEC exclusive), Moonstone.



Pahlish (not new to me, of course) Graffiti Alley (IEC exclusive) and Fiendish Fancies (new to me) I Want My Cake!, Lycanthrope, and I Can Feel Myself Rotting.



Moo Moo's Signatures (yep, new to me)—Cowgirl's Broken Time Machine, Yeti-Moo, The Last Ninja, and Mission Impossible in Toronto (IEC exclusive).



Ever After Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and License to Lacquer, Colors by Llarowe Can We Have Trudeau?, Hit the Bottle Midnight Pumpkin, Electric Indigo, and Peacock Shimmer. Ever After and Hit the Bottle are new brands for me.



Whew. And there were a couple brands I didn't buy from but wanted to. Next time maybe I should try the approach of studying the shopping guides ahead of time and making a list and trying to stick to that. It's not really my style but it might help with the feeling of overwhelm that set in at a certain point.

I couldn't try everthing right away, of course, but did sample a few things. I started with two of the Hit the Bottle stamping polishes, grabbing a Salon Express plate from the box of stamping supplies I brought with me from Idaho (like the lightbox, totally normal thing to take on a road trip).



I stamped over my existing mani (the layered one topped with Bonus Flakes that I shared in my IEC recap post with Hit the Bottle Peacock Shimmer and Midnight Pumpkin. Since I don't (yet) have a clear stamper, my double/shadow stamping leaves a lot to be desired as far as alignment, but it's fun. I still need to practice more. When I'm going to manage that I've no idea. Retirement is busy, y'all. Oh, and see how part of my plate up there is nice and shiny and part is cloudy from acetone? I learned from mrsrexy that a rough-ish dish towel will clean up that cloudiness. (I used yellow towel in the background; it's a sort of waffle weave, while the one mrsrexy had was terrycloth.)



When it came time to start swatching, I chose the brightest of the lot, Fair Maiden Cruel Summer (thank for the earworm, FM). It's an orange-y coral with pink shimmer.



I used three coats on my nail. The shimmer is subtle but gives depth to the color. It's so bright I thought it might dry satin like a neon, but it didn't; my swatch is without topcoat. This is a great summer color for sure.





Next I sampled Fiendish Fancies Red Herring, because I had to know if my instinct that this would look good on me that led to me swapping away the warmer toned Harlot was correct. I think it was. I did three coats of this red shimmer, though a bit more care in application (yes, I was rushing again) would probably have made it fine with two coats.





Finally, I had to swatch some Girly Bits, as without Pam there would have been no IEC. I did two coats of Lost in the PATH, then added one coat of Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! on my ring finger for a subtle accent. Lost in the PATH is a purple shimmer; Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! has blue to green shifting flakies in a transluscent base.





Lost in the PATH is just the sort of polish I associate with Girly Bits; it looks equally good in indirect light (above) as in direct light (below).



I'm happy with what I got at IEC, definitely. I didn't get every exclusive and limited edition I saw, so feel good about having some restraint. Almost all of the ones I bought were shimmers; the era of the glitter topper seems to be over for now.

Blue NOTD and Happy Memories

Includes a sample previously reviewed

Today I'm skipping past my posting queue to share what's on my nails as I type, and what's on my nails is there because I put it on to match the blue (for the Great Lakes) theme of the 2nd Michigan Nail Girls meetup, which was this past Saturday. It more than doubled in size from the one last December. Just look at this mani photo, and this doesn't even have the early leavers or late arrivers in it:



My hand is there in the bottom middle, with the less than elegant hand pose (gotta work on that for next time); going around from there clockwise, (linked to their Instagram names if I know them): jennahleenaildesign, nailsbyerock, jessface90x, nativewarpaints, fashionfooting, Ariel, MyNailPolishIsPoppinLeah, nailsbymercedes, traceyloveslacquer, paintmewithpolish, mini-paintmewithpolish, blairmio43, liquid_afterglow_lacquer, er_in_m, honeybee_nails, and back to me, thekarend.

Here's a sun shot some of us were in earlier, just before pawsandpolish had to leave; that's her in the lower left. (Photo taken my mr. pawsanpolish.)



My original plan for the blue/Great Lakes theme was to do some water marbling. I didn't get started on that early enough in the day, but I tried anyway and proved to myself that I am nowhere near good enough at marbling to do it in a hurry. Thus I turned to my faithful friend glitter, choosing a couple supporting actors as well. Left to right: Bonita Salon Made to Envy, Wet Paint Nails Waterfalling for You, Formula X Crash, Pop-arazzi Perfectly Peacock, China Glaze Can You Sea Me.



My base was Duri Rejuvacote followed by Salon Sciences Instant Artificials. Then all nails got two coats of Bonita Made to Envy. All but my accent nails were then topped with one coat of Wet Paint Nails Waterfalling for You and given a gradient of Formula X Crash. The accent nails got no jelly, just allover glitter in the form of one coat of Pop-arazzi Perfectly Peacock plus one to two of China Glaze Can You Sea Me (depending on how many of the bigger holo hexes I got out on coat one). Two coats of Diamond Dry topcoat completed the look. (It was going to be one layer of topcoat but after that dried I decided it wasn't glassy smooth enough for a nail meetup.)





I shared a ride to the meet with paintmewithpolish and her family so got to extend the fun before and after. During, there was much chatting and laughing and eating and swapping and selling and gifting and just general merriment. Unlike last time, I came home with a bit more polish than I brought (should have left my wallet at home, perhaps) but it's all good stuff, including my first Parrot Polish and Rainbow Honey, a couple things from my wish list, and a whole lotta glitter.



Maybe I should make it a goal to swatch all of these before the next meeetup. On second thought, nope, since I hope we have a meetup long before I'm able to get through these given my normal levels of distractability. If you're a nail polish enthusiast in Michigan (or close enough that you'd be interested in coming to future meetups), request to join our Facebook group, Michigan Nail Girls and Guys, so you can be part of the fun next time!

*****
Note on my Blogiversary Giveaway: Entries are now closed and in the next week or so I will be validating and tabulating and picking and emailing winners.

Minsk Haul the Second

Yep, still catching up. Today I have polishes from my second trip to Belarus last September, the one that I included in my Geographically Diverse Displays post this past fall.

I wanted to buy most of the Catrice colors I saw, but narrowed it down to just four so I could get other brands, too. Left to right: PLUMdogMillionaire, Stardust, Berry Potter & Plumbledore, Kitch Me If You Can.



I got two Eveline miniMAX shades, 413 and 402. I had a few others from the brand in my stash from swaps, but none from this line.



MILV was a new-to-me brand; I got three of them: 27, 36, and 73.



Two LuxVisage colors jumped into my basket: 508 and 138.



Did I say two LuxVisage? I meant six. I also grabbed two from the Flirt line, 306 and 307, and two Defile, 104 and 105.



No, wait, I meant nine LuxVisage, as I also got three from the Sahara textured line, colors I hadn't picked up on my previous trip: 60, 58, and 59.



Okay, really I meant 14 LuxVisage, because I decided I also needed to add to my Hi Tech and Galactic purchases from the earlier visit. Numbers on these are 25, 215, 207, 204, and 208.



I'd gotten two Belor Design polishes on my spring trip, but neither were in the Podium Gel Effect line, so I got two of those, 119 and 120.



I added to my Novelty Cosmetics collection with three more of the Mix Beads & Sticks glitters: 807, 815, and 817.



I also got four more Novelty Cosmetics from I guess the core line, as they had no special labels on the handles: 532, 530, 533, and 156. These and the three above cost the equivalent of US$1.75.



Max Factor Glossfinity isn't a line I've ever seen in the States, so I got two pretty green ones: Vivacious Lime and Aqua Marine.



Another two Dona Mirelle polishes came home with me to join their peers already in my stash: Opti Grow Magnet in MG15 and
Matt Color in M21.



I got two more of what I had been calling the R Crown brand but have since learned is Relouis. Judging by the design on the caps, these are crackle polishes, and heaven knows I have more than enough of those, but I didn't have any from Belarus, and these looked like pretty shimmers if they weren't actually crackles. I had to look at these closely to verify that they really did say "Graffi collection" on them, not "Graffiti".



Essence of course I have plenty of, but the selection I can easily get at home is limited, so I grabbed some ones I hadn't seen before, including this half dozen Colour & Go shades: Hey Nude (which I wore for a full mani last year), Be My Lucky Star, Galactic Glam, Headphones On, Over the Rainbow, and Purple Sugar.



Also got a trio of other Essence: Effect Metal Sugar in Skyfall, Beach Cruisers I Heart Summer Break, and Holo Jewels Bejeweled.



All the polishes above were in open displays, so I could just grab what I liked and go to the checkout. These last couple groups were in the mall kiosks behind glass, which meant getting my hands on them was more complicated. Thank goodness for having charades experience and a digital camera; using both of those things I managed to communicate what I wanted and in which colors. I chose three Golden Rose Carnival shades: 12, 11, and 13.



Five Dance Legends came home with me: Lumos 1019 and 1018, Rio 15, Sahara Crystal 20 and 17.



So far I've only had time to play with a fraction of these. I used the two Podium Gel Effect polishes as a base for the LuxVisage Hi Tech bar glitter (that one was only US$1.59). I'm still not 100% comforatable with bar glitter but it is definitely interesting to look at. It was two coats of the cremes (the darker was nearly a one-coater) plus two of the glitter (some dabbing was required) plus clear topcoat.



I did LuxVisage Defile 105 as a base for Golden Rose Carnival 12, leaving an accent nail un-glittered.



I did two textures next, LuxVisage Sahara in 60 with 58 on an accent nail. I liked 58, the gold, better than the purple, which surprised me.



Adding topcoat made me like the purple more, but the gold got pretty, too, and it was more glittery than the purple.



I forgot about my slight disappointment at the purple texture when I got the Dona Mirelle Matt Color 21 on my nails. I love this.



Much as I wanted to keep admiring the matte blue, I also wanted to try one of the Dance Legends, so I added the Rio glitter on top of the matte. It was flat enough that I didn't need to add topcoat. It totally took that sophisticated blue into the fun zone.



I don't want to say the visit I bought all these polishes on was my last trip to Belarus, though I fear it may have been. I'd love to go back, but it doesn't seem like work will be sending me again, and I'm not sure how or when I'd go about getting there as a tourist. I'll put that on the increasingly long list of things I'll look into after I retire.