Recently I've been doing a lot of swapping.  I mean...A LOT.  The thing is, all the polishes I have access to I either already have or I don't really care for.  And it seems like companies just keep making the same polishes over and over again.  Lame.  So I've been enlisting the help of some amazing polish pals like Debbie and Claire to get my hands on some UK brands.  One of my favorite UK polish brands is Barry M.  Ever since I got my first three I just need to have them ALL.  And awhile back the amazing Debbie made my Barry M dreams come true when she snagged a bunch of them for a deal and offered them up to her fellow polish addicts!  Over the course of a week or so we ended up throwing a few more polishes on the list and then about a week ago I finally received the box from her.  It was EPIC.  Above is the box when I first opened it.  Already you can see that it's PACKED with polishes.  There were about 10 that we had agreed on her sending...and this is what was in the box:

Eighteen glorious polishes!!  The bottom two rows are the ones I knew were coming.  From left to right top row we have: Barry M Gold Foil, Coral, Cyan Blue, and Essence Chuck and Blair. Bottom row is a Franken Debbie made called TheAdorable Emma (named after fellow blogger Emma!), Barry M Blue Moon, Pink Flamingo, Models Own Aqua Violet, Barry M Dusky Mauve and Green Glitter. The top row was a COMPLETE surprise to me!! And it's all gorgeous.  Left to right we have: Sally Hansen Chrome in Royal Purple, Rimmel Millenium and Pop Idol, A Boots Mini from the Strictly Come Dancing Set called Sparkle, Sally Hansen Color Fast in Magic Frost, Essence African Queens in Zanzibar Fever, and Barry M Once Upon a Time (something I've been lemming like MAD forever!).  Epic swap!  :)  I would have taken more pictures but I was so eager to start playing with these that I pretty much immediately started swatching them one nail at a time!! Thanks so much Debbie!! (More nail mail wins to come from Claire, who sent me the SWEETEST Christmas swap package!!)

Have you ever gotten amazing nail mail? 



PS: Aoife loved the swap package too...she was so excited to get those peanuts out of there!!

I recently did a polish swap with Debbie over at The Crumpet.

 I sent her some of the Milani 3D's and in return I got some of the lovely OPI Muppets polishes.  OPI are not particularly difficult to come by where I live, but it's always more fun to get things in swaps, isn't it?  I've gotten pretty into swapping recently and I've recieved a number of interesting and exciting things in my swap packages.  I'm always curious to see what other people will send because it gives me ideas of what to send others.  But wow.  Debbie really stepped up her game on this swap.  As soon as I opened it I noticed a familiar and lovely aroma.  Tea.  Not just ANY tea either.  Multiple types of tea.  Including my most favorite standard tea...PG Tips.  PG Tips tea puts Lipton tea to shame.  But it's SO hard to find around here.  Although some of my local groceries have started carrying it, it's also fairly expensive.  So you can imagine my surprise and excitement to recieve some in the mail!!  There were also some peppermint tea bags and some spiced apple ones.  It's actually quite amusing to receive tea this week as I've had a sore throat for awhile and I've been drinking more tea than usual.  Tonight I needed to edit about a hundred pictures for my various blogs and I also have a lot of cleaning to do following a busy week.  So I thought I'd sit down with some pretty polish and a nice, hot, cup of Spiced Apple tea.  :) So yummy. 

And because she can never keep out of things...you know who had to poke her fat little nose into my tea.  She particularly enjoyed the peppermint bags. :P

It looks so sad and not rainbowy in the Seche bottle.  And it doesn't have the nice wide brush that OPI's have.  I didn't even get to paint ONE stinkin nail with it before this.  So seriously lame.  Although most of the polish was saveable, this still gives me a wicked case of the sads.  I'm one of those people who still has the original boxes for EVERYTHING.  Having an OPI in a Seche Vite bottle is KILLING me right now.  KILLING.  And I can't even  put it next to my other OPI's because the shape makes it too bulky.  The shame.  But there is a bright side to all this!!  And that's the customer service at AveYou.com.  This is the first time I've ever ordered or received a damaged polish and let me tell you, I receive TONS of polish mail both from companies and from people.  I was a little worried about what the response would be when I wrote them about it and I took A TON of pictures just in case they asked. Pictures of the polish. Pictures of the mess. Pictures of the bubble wrap with glitter flecked all inside of it.  I wrote them and explained that it had cracked open when I touched it.  I told them my other two were fine.  I told them that most of the bottle was saveable.  And I told them I had pictures if they needed them.  (I've heard a lot of companies ask. Understandably.)  I kid you not.  FIVE minutes after I sent the email I had a response. And not one of those, We-got-your-email-you're-very-important-we'll-get-back-to-you-later auto-responses.  Nope.  A real email.  Which said they were terribly sorry, will resend the polish immediately and will look into what might have happened to my glorious Rainbow Connection after the evil postmen got their hands on it.  (Ok I might have embellished a little bit on that last part :P) So the moral of the story is: AveYou.com ROCKS. Tons. And I'll definitely order from them again (at some point!).  And you should too if you want great customer service. :)  Update: The moral of the story is that this is apparently a recurring problem, and while they were very nice about it...they screwed up my replacement order too. :( They sent me another Warm & Fozzie instead of Rainbow Connection.  Another girl in my Facebook group also recieved two broken polishes. Sad times. :( While I still appriciate the excellent customer service (they shipped my replacement for the replacement within hours of my letting them know they messed up) it will only take them so far.  I may or may not order from them again in the future. I'll need some time to see how they do with other people! And still no Rainbow Connection :(


Oh and as a total side note:  Warm and Fozzie is my new OPI love. I would marry it.  Gone Gonzo...not so much.  :P

Apparently yesterday was Columbus Day. Not to sound completely ungrateful to Columbus for 'discovering' America...but no mail days suck. I even went to the post office to mail a swap package only to find that it was closed :( Lucky they have self-serve postage units so I was at least able to drop my swap package off. Since there was no mail today, and I live in a township (yay no taxes!) I have to wait until some ridiculous hour of the day to get my nail mail today. :( In the meantime, I found this ABC quiz at All The Pretty Polish and I thought I'd kill some time with it. More nail pics to come soon I promise!! :)

A – Age: 28 (and yet I still feel 21!)

B – Bed size: Queen

C – Chore you hate: There aren't any chores I hate...I love to clean (I know I'm crazy) but I always make my husband do the trash.  Who wants to walk the the dumpster with a bag full of gross?

D – Dog’s name: No doggies.  Two lovely (and sometimes sweet) kitties, Aoife and Eoghan

E– Essential start your day item: Coffee with vanilla almond milk

F – Favorite color: Green at the moment. I'm also really digging orange.

G – Gold or Silver: Silver

H – Height: 5'4

I – Instruments you play: I play a little piano and a tiny amount of guitar. Used to play the flute many years ago but doubt I could do anything with it now.

J – Job title: Whatever. Lol...I don't really have a job title.

K – Kid(s): None at the moment

L – Living arrangements: With my awesome husband and my two kitties.

M – Mom’s name: Rose

N – Nicknames: Ricky, Bee, Britney

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Vitamin overdose when I was two.

P – Pet Peeve: Poor grammar tops my list. But I have many.

Q – Quote from a movie: "If you want to know who a man really is take a good look at how he treats his inferiors; not his equals." Sirius Black

R – Right or left handed: Right handed technically speaking but I can do most things with both

S – Siblings: One of each.

T – Time you wake up: Usually around 6:45AM. Unless Eoghan has other plans. :P

U- Underwear: is a necessity.

V – Vegetable you dislike: I like most veggies but I'm kind of over eggplant at the moment.  I ate way too much of it for awhile. 

W – Ways/Reasons you run late: I do not run late. Ever.

X – X-rays you’ve had: Teeth at the dentist and then my neck/head/back when I was in a car accident in high school.

Y – Yummy food you make: Lots of things!! You can see some of them here!

Z – Zoo favorite:  Elephants and Clouded Leopards although many zoo's don't have them.:(