OK so a lot of you have been asking me to post more hauls and to post pictures of my stash.  I'll be honest and say I don't really haul polishes much.  I do buy them here and there but when I do it's normally one or two at a time and even that has been few and far between recently.  I'm just not super impressed with the newer collections and most of the time, I find I already have something similar in my collection.  I'm also trying to work through a whole TON of untrieds.  I haven't counted them and really...I'm almost afraid to do it!  But I CAN post stash pics.  I need to clean out my polishes anyway since for a long time I didn't have the time or inclination to organize them properly and as a result there are polishes all over my house and piled all over my nail table in boxes. :/  I doubt that's helping my untried count!! So...we'll go through them together, shall we?  I'm starting with my OPI's because I hardly use them so they're pretty organized as it is...lol...and also because I feel I may have the least amount of them.  And without futher a do....this is my OPI drawer:

OPI is a brand I really don't like to support.  For one thing, they're very back and forth on whether or not they test on animals.  As someone who tries very hard to lead a vegan lifestyle (or at least as cruelty free as I can!) this is a major turnoff.  Aside from that is the formula issues they seem to have.  One bottle of a polish can look completely different by the time the next batch of it hits stores.  I find that my OPI's thicken up long before my other brands and the glitters are really bad about 'banding' around the bottles.  Therefore, most of what I own from OPI is celebrity endorsed colors, cram packed glitters, and shatters.  

We'll start with the shatters:

I can't be certain, but I think the only shatters I'm missing are white, pink and gold.  At any rate I skipped all the ones I already had from China Glaze.  From the top left we have: Shatter the Scales, Black, Navy, and Super Bass.  Bottom row from left is: Red, Blue, Turquoise, and Silver.

Next up we'll do the special polishes.  These are DS polishes and Suede's (I forgot to photograph one suede with this group so it's in with the regulars. Doh.)

Again from the top left we have: DS Sapphire, Temptation, and Passion.  The bottom row from left is OPI Suede Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees, Russian Navy and Zom-body to Love

What's up next? My personal favorites...the glitters....

I'm not going to name these all out individually because it's a lot! The top row is the complete Burlesque collection.  The second row from left is: Absolutely Alice, Divine Swine, Metallic 4 Life, Save Me, Rainbow Connection, and Fresh Frog of Bel Air.  The last row is Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night, Excuse Moi, Gone Gonzo, Servin' Up Sparkle, and Nothin' Mousie About It.

And now we're onto just regular colors:

Again, I'm not going to list out all the names of these because there are just a lot of them! If there are particular colors you're interested in the name of I'm happy to investigate them for you though! A lot of these are Pirates of the Caribbean colors (I have the entire collection), Muppet's Colors (just missing two), Katy Perry (complete), Nikki Minaj (missing two), and Hollands.  There are of course, other things mixed in though! If you look at the bottom row second polish from left (with the suede cap!) you'll see the other suede OPI I have.  It's Ink.  So the only thing I have left to show you now are my OPI for's.  Lol...OPI for Sephora and OPI for your budget...otherwise known as Nicole by OPI. :P  These no longer fit into my OPI drawer so I'll have to relocate them at some point but for now they're chilling in a box on my desk.

These I will name since there aren't that many and nearly all of them are Justin Bieber colors. The top row are my Sephora by OPI colors.  From the left is: Sparkling Personality, Rumba Romance, Leaf Him at the Altar, and My Personal Serpent.  The middle row from left is: Lemon Lime Twist, Give Me the First Dance, Step 2 The Beat of My Heart, Prized Possession Purple, and Me + Blue. The bottom row is OMB!, My Lifesaver and Dandelion. 

So there you have it! My OPI collection.  Excluding OPI for's I count 74 OPI polishes. Geez...more than I thought! :/

These nails are a guest post for my very good friend, Debbie at The Crumpet. This month she's celebrating her 500th blog post and invited some friends to join in the celebration!!  I can't say enough wonderful things about Debbie and her blog.  It has everything you could ask for in a blog: humor, art, swatches, and best of all, a lot of heart.  I'm nowhere near five hundred posts myself so I give kudos to Debbie for sticking with it and making time to post!! We all know it can be hard sometimes!  In honor of Debbie's milestone, I wanted to recreate one of her wonderful mani's!  It took me a LONG time to choose.  Not only are there a lot to choose from, but they're all so interesting and I wanted to choose one that I could really do justice.  Debbie did a series of these crazy cool mosiac mani's in all sorts of colors.  I chose to do the blue ones because I had most of the colors she used in the original!  I think they turned out really well and I was really sad to have to take them off!  Congrats again to Debbie on her 500th post! I can't wait to see the next 500!  :)

PS: you can see Debbie's original blue mosaic mani here: Crumpety Blue Mosaic 

Colors used: China Glaze Sea Spray, butterLONDON Victoriana, A-England Tristam, Barry M Blue Glitter, Barry M Cyan Blue, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle

So since I've had to remove my polish pretty much every other day since I started work I'm experimenting with Gelish here and there. You'll probably see a few Gelish mani's coming up since I'm learning how to do it and practicing doing it at work.  A few things I learned about wearing gel polish:. One: it feels thicker than regular polish. Remember the first time you wore lipstick?  The way it made your lips feel a bit...suffocated?  Not unbearably so but just enough that it was a bit irritating?  Well gel polish is kind of the same way.  Your nails feel a little bit more stifled than with regular polish, but you get used to it very quickly.  Two:  they make your nails stronger but also dry them out more.  My hands are in water ALL day long and I really think that if I had gone polish free they'd have broken by now just from being weak all day.  The gel polish really helped to beef them up and keep them strong while I'm working.  That said you're meant to oil them everyday which I forgot to do and so when I removed the polish my nails were extra dry. :(  Three: they're wicked shiny.  Honestly. People get addicted to the shine and I have to admit I kind of have too.  They're MUCH shinier than any top coat I've used.  These lasted about six days and would have probably lasted longer but my thumbs are in acetone all day and I accidentally filed off my top coat so the tips got a little eaten.  The lack of shine there annoyed me though so off they came!!  I really loved this color because it made my nails look so healthy and it was natural enough that I could polish over it when I felt like.  I have an accent nail here of Sephora by OPI in It's Real.  It's a clear jelly base with flecks of real 18K gold in it.  It's really pretty and subtle but it doesn't shine like normal glitters.  It's a bit more of a shine than a shimmer!  I hope you enjoy!!  Have you ever tried gel polish?

Colors used:

Gelish in Sweet Dreams

OPI for Sephora It's Real

This is the swatch I did of my polish.  It was taken in natural, outdoor light on an overcast day.  It's a pale blue leaning turquoise with a subtle copper shimmer.  The original inspiration for my polish was my kitty, Aoife's, eye color.  She has these GORGEOUS blue/green eyes which glint copper when the sun hits them. If you've been on my other blog then you'll no doubt have seen my lovely kitty but for those of you who haven't, here's a pic!

I think this polish hit the nail pretty squarely on the head.  Similar to Catrice's Am I Blue or Green? Nacozari leans blue and green depending on the light.  I had a difficult time capturing it on my camera because for some reason everytime I get a minute to swatch it's overcast. But the macro shot below shows the copper flecks.

The color on this is off a bit.  It's much less murky but you can really see all the shimmery goodness in this shot.  It's taken in artificial lights indoors.  Because Carrie sent me some amazing swatches of it while we were collaborating, I'm including them below so you can get a better idea of the color and also the way it shifts from blue to green and shimmers in the sunlight!

From the pinky to index we have one coat all the way up to three.  I think two coats is nice but the formula is a bit more jelly than creme so three is ideal for full opacity.  You can see here how it's more of a bright turquoise color.

Two more for good measure!!

I hope you all loved this polish as much as I loved making it!! You can enter the giveaway below to be one of the first to own my collaboration, Nacozari, from Sassy Lacquer! If you miss out you'll also be able to purchase it on Friday at Carrie's storefront, The Sassy Lacquer Store!! Tomorrow you can catch another reveal over at Chalkboard Nails and then on Thursday you can catch the final polish over at My Life in Polish.  And don't forget to enter the giveaway below!!

Under Pressure may have bit a hit song in 1981 but your nails will thank you for abstaining!  Try this: grab your file and put it flat on the back of your hand. Now use your index finger to press down at the center of it, using the pressure you'd normally use to file and drag it across your skin.  Feel that?  Your nails do too.  Excessive or aggressive filing, or even using the wrong grit of file can really damage your free edge and lead to breaks, peels, and more!  Now try the experiment again, but this time don't use your index finger. Just glide the file lightly across your hand using no pressure.  Not too bad, huh?  That's all the pressure you need to file your nails.  Start with a 600 or 400 grit file...that's right everyone, A BUFFER.  Drag it GENTLY using minimal pressure across your free edge.  If you're getting the results you need then you don't have to graduate the grit.  If it's not changing the shape then you can use a higher grit but NEVER use additional pressure.  You'll save your nails a lot of wear and tear this way!!

Pro tip: Always use a grit of 180 or above on a natural nail and never use a file to change the length of a nail!  Use your clippers and THEN file only to shape.

Today's mani was a 'good luck' mani for me! I had a big practical test coming up to see if I would be able to go on commission and get out of training for my new job and I wanted to do something that was sort of business in the front, party in the back!  Lol...this mani combines my favorite neutral, professional color with a SUPER fun crazy neon nail.  Surprisingly, it's a look I've seen kind of trending recently.  I decided to matte them all to make it a little bit more off beat and also because it really made the neutral color seem more natural.  I'm still working on keeping polish on my nails on the job and I found that using this color worked out really well since I can tell when it's coming off but it's not super noticeable to the clientele.  At any rate I used butterLONDON Tea With the Queen for the nuetral nails and China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard for the neon.  :)  Enjoy!!

...there are five basic nail shapes?  

There are lot's of fun, new trends like stiletto nails, lipstick nails, and duck nails but all or most of these fall into the basic five shapes: round, square, oval, pointed, and squoval.  So with all these choices, how do you know which shape is right for you?  Simply use your cuticle as a guide.  Are your cuticles more of an oval shape?  Then an oval shaped nail will be the best fit for you.  Are they wider and less rounded at the edges? Go with a square shape or a squoval.  Balancing the nail with the cuticle will not only be the most aesthetically pleasing choice for your nails, but it will also allow you to get the most strength and longevity out of them!

Pro tip:  When drastically changing the shape of your nails, go slowly!  Transition from square to round by going first with a squoval shape.  Going from round to square? Simply nip the round tip and file.