Hi!

Hey all,

Sorry again for the MIA-ness. I haven't posted because 1. my camera's been in my car, and I can't seem to remember to take it out and 2. this job hunt is really taking the wind out of my sails. Not only do I feel like I'm under a microscope all the time, but I'm about sick of interview-safe colors. How many times can one wear Tickle My Francey and not scream? :/

Anyway, we had a good time at the beach, though the trips there and back were nightmares. On the way down, we had a flat. We knew we were just borrowing time with our then-current tires, but we hit a bit of uneven road getting off an exit, and that coupled with the hot and thin tire, let to a disaster. We managed to call AAA and have them come put on the donut and we were thankfully just about 20 minutes away from the Sam's in Spartanburg, SC. It could have been much worse, but we didn't get to Myrtle Beach until 11p. :S And on the way back, we had to meander through the mountains of NC, as there was a huge rock slide on I-40.

Once I get my camera out of the car, I'll show you all some cute pics of my kiddies at the beach. Even though it's not NP related, I just want to show off my spawn. :D

As for the job hunt... Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so over this shit. I interviewed at a place yesterday, where I'd love to work. It's a small law firm, and I think I'd fit right in. But, I don't feel confident about it. My interview was rushed because they were so busy, and they didn't even ask me a lot of questions. I know when I was called to scheduled to interview, I was told I was the first resume out of a 100 that they pulled out, but who knows. Oh well. I should know something soon, one way or another.

I think it this one doesn't pan out, I'm taking a few weeks off from the job hunt. I feel my self esteem slowly being picked away.

KOTD: OPI Holiday Glow w/ ChG Delight and Emotion

I don't think I ever told you girls what my wonderful husband did last week...

As he's been unemployed, he's used this time to do a few things that he wasn't able to get to when he had a job. One of those things was cleaning out all his old geek junk from my IL's attic. We're talking a crap ton of Magic cards, RPG books, anime books/videos... you name it. And since we have no room in our house to store his geeky past, he took the stuff to sell at a used bookstore. He made $60, and then he said I could use it to buy nail polish, as he knew I wanted some more appropriate colors to wear to interviews.

So last week, I placed a TD order. Mostly with OPI Suedes, Holidays, and work safe colors. One of those I ordered was OPI Holiday Glow. I put it on last night. Here's a pic...

As you can tell, I did a konad, but more on that in a minute... As for Holiday Glow. There's a reason the initials are HG. LOL. I don't know what exactly this would be Holy Grail for, but whatever it is... this fits the bill. It's a hard color to describe, but I'll do my best. It's a deep burgundy/brown base with tons of gold, pink, and burgundy shimmer. It looks like glitter, but it's not at all bumpy. This is 2 coats, as the first one is a little thin. It also took 2 coats of TC to bring out the shine.

HG is from OPI's Holiday 2009 Wishes collection. I got 2 other colors from this collection, Merry Midnight and All A-bordeaux the Sled. Both of these look amazing as well. But at first glance, it looks like HG may be my favorite. I got mine from TD, but 8ty8 has them as well.

As for the konad, my plate collection is lacking in anything fall related. As I didn't want to do another falling leaves mani, I just chose flowers and butterflies. Zzzzzzzzzzzz, I know, but I think the colors look great over HG. I used Delight and Emotion to play up the pink and gold in the sparkle.

If you haven't tried any of the Romantiques yet, get a couple... I promise you won't be disappointed, especially if you use them for konadding. You can get them at just about every etailer and on eBay.

That's all for now. We are planning to go the beach this weekend, so you may see nothing from me until Monday. Have a good weekend. :)

KOTD: Maybelline Majestic Mauve w/ ChG Passion

In my organizer, I keep my OPIs and Misas in the first drawer, my ChGs, Zoyas, and CCs in the second drawer, and everything else is on the bottom. As that drawer is on the floor, it's never properly organized, but more that that... I never use the polishes in that drawer, and that's where I keep my Essies, Maybellines, Orlys, Duris, Lippmanns, etc... . There's some good stuff in that drawer, but I always end up stopping at the OPI or ChG drawer in my search for a polish.

So, last night, I made a concerted effort to use a polish from my forgotten drawer. I decided to use Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds in Majestic Mauve. I topped it w/ a konad in ChG Passion. Plate is m64 (again... yes, I know I use the heck out of that plate, but this is my first time using the abstract lines design). Here's a pic:



First of all, it needs to be mentioned that Majestic Mauve is definitely NOT mauve. The majestic part, I get, but someone at Maybelline was smoking crack to call this mauve. It's more in the wine/burgundy/merlot family. It's loaded with tons of gold and burgundy shimmer. I know it's been compared to the much-sought-after OPI La Boheme. Though, I'm pretty sure La Boheme is a duochrome and there's no duochromeyness at all in MM. But, the color itself is very similar. If you are interested, here's a post on the NB by ohgracie comparing La Boheme to MM.

I think this is a gorgeous fall color. However, it was a bit of a problem child. I had more dings with this polish than I have with almost any other polish, Zoyas excluded. This was 2 coats, though some nails needed another thin coat to be opaque, so more like 2-ish coats. I finally got an even finish with the help of Orly Smudge Fixer, but it was a battle all evening.

This color is kind of rare if you are interested. There is one on eBay right now for around $9 shipped, which I think is a little overpriced for this color. I got mine at the Dollar Tree earlier this year. If you are trying to find this in an effort to squash a La Boheme lemming, my advice is to just go ahead and pick up La Boheme. It looks far more interesting, and it's going for about $15-20 on eBay. Personally, I don't own La Boheme, and it's not a huge lemming of mine, so I'll stick with MM, as it was dirt cheap. Though, now that I've looked at pics of La Boheme on NailGal, maybe I do want it. LOL. :P

As for the konad, you all know how I feel about the Romantiques collection in general, and Passion is no exception. I rarely have mishaps with these polishes. They are just great for the konad. They are like peanut butter and chocolate. Perfect together. I did have some issues with the polish leaving "shadows" on the stamper (and you can see them on my nails), but that was user error, rather than a problem with the polish.

And as I was sitting here typing this, I decided to slap on a coat of Orly Matte Top.

In general, I love Matte Top. I know Essie MAY and ChG's matte TC (can't remember the name right now), get tons of press/reviews, but I love Matte Top. It's great for the money and it's a ginormous bottle. It was $4.50 for .60 oz on VNS. However, I'm not sure if I love it over this color. I had the same issues with it being soft and dentable after I put on the matte top coat, as I did when I initially applied it. And it's still dentable a few hours later. Boo. I prefer it shiny. LOL.