Nail MADNESS - Random Dancing!

I had surgery yesterday, and one of the pre-op requirements was that I take off my nail polish.  I don't know if you heard me.  They wanted me to take off my nail polish.  I took it off about ten in the evening the day before as I had to be at the hospital at seven in the morning, and that whole night I looked at my sad, unpainted nails in terror.  It was like my hand belonged to an alien!

So while I lay around in bed today in a post-op Vicodin haze, I decided to do my nails.  I wanted to do something fun and punchy, and I did just that.  I painted my ring and index fingers with Pink Voltage by China Glaze, and the rest of my fingers in Purple Panic (also by China Glaze).  On top of that, I used Random Dancing by Dollish Polish.  I got it a few weeks ago, but had not gotten around to using it.  It's got a boatload of glitter in about every color you can think of - mostly rainbow square glitter and some black microglitter.  It's about the same texture as any super dense glitter polish; at times you'll have to fight with it to get the glitter to distribute, but hell, who cares if it goes on perfectly even - this polish is fun.  Now when I look at my hands, it looks like a Lisa Frank binder, like being a kid - kind of like iCarly in general.  (And shut the hell up, I love that show.  Sam is my hero.)

I haven't cleaned up my cuticles yet - I'm all shaky and Vico-stoned, but you get the idea.  And that idea is FUN.  This would be awesome over a black, too, or really any color that's punchy.  As long as it's in the spirit of random dancing  and fun and joy.  So I leave you with this (and can we just talk about how fucking adorable Michelle Obama is?  I love her so much.)  Be happy, internet!

Nail MADNESS - Electrify

I am the one person in America that hasn't read the Hunger Games trilogy.  (I know you fans out there were wondering who hasn't read it yet - that person is me.)  The thing is, everyone tells me it's a super awesome, super fresh premise, and then I don't have the heart to tell them that it reminds me an awful lot of one of my favorite books, Battle Royale by Koshun Takami.  (If you've seen the movie, this is the book that's based upon.)  Of course, I didn't like Harry Potter after the Chamber of Secrets either, and I read one chapter of Twilight before ranting about how Bella is a wuss and needs to toughen her vagina.  I'm a teen lit killjoy.  It's my thing.  It's what I do. 

However, I also love nail polish and covet and horde it like a weird narcissistic dragon.  So, when I heard China Glaze was doing a series of polishes for the Hunger Games, I said "whatever, are the colors pretty?".  Last year they released pictures of the swatches, and only three colors appealed to me - Agro, Luxe and Lush, and this one, Electrify.  I'm not normally one for glitter bomb polishes; usually when I glitter, I just want a little bit in a color that's strong on its own.  So I was pretty dubious about application of this girl.  But the red and gold microglitter in this polish is so damn dense, it doesn't matter that it's in a clear base.  I only needed two coats to get the blingin' off the hieze (I promise to never do that again, don't worry) nails shown below.

One thing I will say about this polish is you may want to do two coats of top coat; I did one coat of Seche Vite after polishing, and two hours later the annoying sandpaper-like grit of my nails started to bug me.

If you're a completionist or a Hunger Games fan (what are you guys calling yourselves?  Hungry Hungry Fangirls?  Hungies?  Gamehards?), I know finding Luxe and Lush in storefronts has been a pain.  I ordered it from Ulta.com, and it's en route to me now.  They usually have a coupon for 3.50 off of any purchase over 10.00 USD on their main page too, so happy shopping!

Nail MADNESS - Haute Metal Santorum

This is a random manicure that I kind of threw together to see how I'd like Haute Metal (from China Glaze's "Crackle Metals" collection).  I figured I'd better use a darker color, and I really love the hell out of brown and pink together, so I grabbed one of my favorite polishes - Santorum by ManGlaze.  Here's what I got.

Okay, so I don't like Haute Metal as much as I thought I would.  Sure, at first it sounds bomb - shiny pink crackle?  Fucks to the yes!  But then it didn't... really crackle much.  You can barely see the sexiness that is Santorum (and yes, that is the only time you'll see me type/say/express that sentiment).  It's confusing.  So, maybe I'll use Haute Metal less than I expected.  Bleh.  How are you guys feeling about crackle?  Are you over it yet?  Do you care?

Nail MADNESS - Knackered Techno

Man, I like me some nail polish.  It's just such an easy way to cheer yourself up for (usually) under twenty bucks.  Butter London's Spring/Summer collection wasn't really that exciting for me, if only because I don't do a lot of teals or pinks.  But Knackered has loads of microglitter in it, which just makes it shiny and lovely in the bottle, so I couldn't resist.

Curse you, Butter London.  Here's my 14.00 USD, now leave me the hell alone.  ... for now.  ... for now.


Here's how she looks swatched:

Now, I'll interject here quickly - as soon as I got this home, I thought "hold up, she looks a lot like Not Like the Movies by OPI".  Remember that one, from the Katy Perry collection a while ago?

Yes, they do look familiar.  They're both sort of like oil spills - you know when you see oil on pavement and it does this pretty opalescent thing?  These both do that.  But while they're similar, I don't think they're exactly the same at all.

Not Like the Movies ends up being kind of a mossy green where Knackered ends up more of a sky blue.  They both have loads of glitter and shine, but the base color is in and of itself different.  They're not dupes of each other, nope!

Now, Knackered is super pretty on her own, but I tend to get confused when I just wear one color by itself.  So I went ahead and upped the ante and put some glitter on top.  I'd just gotten China Glaze's Techno from their Electropop collection that just came out, and put that on there.

I actually really love how they look together - the microglitter and hex glitter in Techno enhance the glitter that's already in Knackered.  And I even thought to take pictures in natural light!

And here you've got nothin' but shine, shine, shine.  Three coats of Knackered here on top of China Glaze adhesion basecoat, two coats of Techno, then one coat of Seche Vite.  And yes, that was three days after application, leave me alone.  YOU'RE NOT MY MOM.