Yes, Another Falling Leaves Mani

I'm not sure if it's because of my aforementioned depression or another reason, but I've been feel wholly uninspired as of late. All of my manis have been disappointing in one way or another, so for my current mani, I turned to a design that I knew worked.

I know I've posted 2 previous falling leaves manis and I'm sure you guys are sick of them, but as fall is coming to an end in a little over a month, I figured I'd better get to cracking if I was going to do another. Plus, I just really love them.

For this one, I used a base of OPI All A-Bordeaux the Sled. For the leaves, I used plate m20 and ChG Joy, Delight, and Magical.




All A-Bordeaux the Sled is from OPI's new holiday 2009 Holiday Wishes collection. It's a deep brown/wine vampy creme. It reminds me of those chocolates that have wine in them. On the nail, it's definitely more brown that wine, but there's a nice wine-y undertone that keeps it from being muddy, a problem I find with vampy cremes. I know some reviews said it was nothing special, but I really like this color. If fills a gap for me, as I don't have many vampy cremes, especially not many that aren't purple based, but if you do, it may be a pass.

As for application, it took 2 coats to be opaque. The formula was pretty easy to handle on this one. Not too thin, not too thick. OPI seems to be getting better and better w/ their B3F formula.

The ChGs, of course, are from the Romantiques collection. I swear, I can't help myself from konadding with these. They are perfect every time. I chose Joy (a warm purple), Magical (a rose gold) and Delight (a copper) because I thought they worked well with AA-BtS, but any color from the warm Romatiques collection (and probably a couple from the cool collection) would have been awesome.

I got AA-BtS at TD for $4.99. They also have the Romantiques for $2.60.

Also, I've been using a new top coat, Beauty Secrets Top Coat. It's available at Sally's for ~$3 with a Sally's card. I really like it. It dries nails super fast. Unfortunately, I got some shimmer in my bottle, so if it looks like there's shimmer on AA-BtS, there's not... it's just my bottle of TC.

Lastly, I used Kiss Curved Tips as my nails for this mani. I have been using Nailenes pretty much exclusively, but I wanted something longer for a change. I really like using the Kiss tips, as it's easier to handle them than the full nails, because they are longer. I just cut them down to my desired length.

I hope you guys like this mani, and I should be back with more in the next few days. :)

Okay, scratch that...

I'd had a bad day. My kids were being little hell-beasts. They were 2 steps ahead of me all day, so when I finally put them in their rooms to nap, I figured I'd get some work done. They were both quiet, so I ran outside for 10-15 minutes to mow the front yard. Yes, 15 minutes. Front yard is way tiny. So when I get back in, not only where they not asleep in their beds, but Blake had gotten up on the piano, reached in through the pass-through to the kitchen, turned the faucet around and water was pouring out all over my piano. Nice. Don't know how long that'd been going on. Piano seems, okay, but it's more a piece of furniture than an instrument. Anyway, before I ramble myself into 2 paragraphs, the moral of this story is that when I get pissed, I buy nail polish.

I'M WEAK!!!

I ordered:
ChG Turned Up Turquise
Orly Sol Cabana
Orly Midnight Star
OPI Catherine the Grape
OPI You Ottaware Purple
OPI Kinky in Helsinki

Hmmm... you think I like purple? LOL. I got TuT and SC because they look so pretty and summery and I think both of them will be great for Konadding. I got Orly MS because I'm hugely, muchly lemming OPI PPP and I'm not one for dusty hunting and there's never one on eBay. Well, there have been 2 on eBay that I've seen. One was $30 and the other one is on there now, but it's in England and shipping alone is almost $10 (seller quoted me 6 GBP), and no telling how high the auction would go. Plus, it's used and I've got weird issues about used things. Anyway, I've seen pics of MS and PPP side-by-side and they are almost EXACT dupes. So, as much as I've disliked Orly's formula in the past, I figured I'd give it a try. I got all the above polishes for $30+ shipped. Not too shabby. Now, I really need to hold out til fall to place another big order (planning on Zoya Truth, Zoya Dovima, and 4-5 colors from OPI Spain.

Also, I'm going to be in Charlotte, NC this weekend and my sis and I are planning on checking out this huge mall that has many stores we don't have here in Knox Vegas. I may have to take a little peek at Sephora (we do have one here, but it's on the other side of town), BB&W for Lippmanns (same deal as Sephora... flagship on other side of town), and possibly Nordies for Chanel. Shhhh. I'm excited. Husband and CC are not. LOL. I know, I know... I just posted about being more frugal, but I have been budgetting this trip. I have a little saved up for this weekend. I'm a SAHM who doesn't go anywhere but the grocery store. I'm having a little fun at the mall. Dangit. :P

Lastly, I did my nails tonight and put on OPI Rose to the Ovation. I'll have pics soon, but I wanted to give a quick review first. Holy smokes! Gorg.e.ous. Like I think this is the most beautiful polish I own, gorgeous. It's definitely in the INRAW, Soho Nice to Meet You, Bogota Blackberry family (and others, I'm sure... these are just what I have), but it takes it to another level. There is this fine shimmer in it that makes it just come to life. It looks very similar to the 3 I mentioned above in the bottle, but once it's on, it has so much more depth. Swoon. I got it on eBay (and when I post my pics, I'll give the seller a shout out), for $8 + shipping. I snatched it up like nobody's bidnez when I saw pics on nailgal. Other sellers have it for $25 and I can see why someone would pay that for this color. I wouldn't b/c I'm a cheap-ass and the $15 I forked out for Star-ring the Rockettes was bad enough. If you see it cheap (or at a price you feel comfortable with), get it. You won't be sorry.