Cha-cha-changes!

Believe it or not, but this will be a life update post! Well, maybe I'll throw in a nail photo or two at the end, but mostly life update with an abundance of work-related stuff.

So, I had hinted in my last post that things at work were sort of up in the air and I would update when things settled down. Well, things have settled down. The outcome? I am now assistant manager! Long story short, a manager position became open at another store and our manager decided to take the position. Our assistant manager became our manager and then the assistant manager position was open. The other lead and I applied for it and I got the position! I should say, from start to finish, this all took about 1.5 months. It did, however, feel significantly longer than that. It's not fun being down a person and not having a manager around (before she officially became the manager at the other store, she was filling in). Not to mention we leads and (former) assistant manager had no idea how the outcomes would all turn out either (our (now) manager also applied for the manager position at the other store) and it was all rather "who knows?" for a long time. Instability is never fun and it was pretty stressful for a while. I do dearly miss our former manager as I really liked her, but there's not a whole lot I can do about that! I do like our assistant manager turned manager and get along with him so that's good. :)

Now it's mostly me getting used to the idea that I'm now the assistant manager. Not much really changed for me, but we do now have a lead position open that we'll have to fill. That is sort of a whole other can of worms that I can't really discuss, but I'm not too worried about it either. It will be nice to have the 4th keyholder so one of us leads or above can be sick and not have to pull a 12-hour day or pull overtime or something. It'll also be nice to have our missing employee back too. We're fine with the numbers we have (we've gotten used to it), but it will be nice to have another full-time person to help round out the days.

Other than the leadership thing, work is okay. We're currently full-swing into Halloween and are currently drowning in the excess of costumes. A glitch in shipping happened early last week and we received 19 boxes of costumes instead of 4. That is a HUGE difference! We just aren't selling enough to keep up with our 4-boxes a day shindig. We'll likely have to remove some of our normal clothes to fit in more Halloween, but we'll see. I'm sure once the end of Sept hits, it'll be pretty chaotic. Halloween is the Christmas equivalent for Goodwill. It's nuts and they save and stash stuff away ALL year just for Halloween. We won't keep getting new things the entire lead-up to Halloween, but I think we'll get a ton of stuff till early October (maybe even late Sept). I've heard horror stories about Halloween last year, so it'll be really, really interesting!

We've been having an unfortunate amount of sticker-switching lately. It's been an epidemic, it seems. Yesterday seemed like it was the case of the $0.99 stickers. It was like, for a time, everything was coming up to the registers with $0.99 stickers on them and, to be frank, not that many things are $0.99! We all wanted to know where they were finding the stickers! I've also had some rather temperamental customers about discounts the last few days too. I get it that people want to be frugal and I get it that you may be struggling so you want deals, but some of these people just want to be difficult to be difficult for a $1 or $0.50 even!

Examples...

I had this guy want a student discount on Friday. Student discounts (10%) are only on Saturday and Sunday with an ID. This guy wanted to talk to me (after talking to my coworker at the register) because he wanted his student discount and wanted to know if I can do anything for him. I told him, no, we can't give him the discount and it's only on the weekend. (Side note: unbeknownst to him, but if I gave him the discount, it sends up a red flag to our loss prevention (LP) guy and I could be in BIG trouble over giving discounts on a day I'm not supposed to.) He looks at me and says, "When does the week END? Not Saturday, but Friday." I look at him in total disbelief and go, "No, Saturday and Sunday are the week end. Mon-Fri are a week DAY." It was a poor comeback, but, come on! Then he tries arguing back to me and I cut him off and go, "It's on the calendar that the discount is only on Sat-Sun. I can't do anything about it. Come back to tomorrow." So he goes, looks at the calendar, comes back and goes, "But I'm not a student on Sat-Sun and I'm a poor student." Oh.my.gosh. I really wanted to do something bad so I just said, "Sorry, I can't do it" and walked away. I felt bad leaving my co-worker there to finish with him, but I was going to lose it if I stayed there! As is, he couldn't really argue since the calendar said Sat-Sun. As it is, I think he bought less than $5 worth of stuff. Really? Was it worth all that hassle for $0.50 savings? I guess the argument for some is more important than anything else.

Another example is the senior discount (55 and older). I know a 10% savings is better than no savings, but people hold onto that senior discount like it's a lifesaver or something. Our senior discount days are Mon-Wed. It's not everyday, but it's 3/7 days of the week. That's not too bad. Well, I can't tell you how many times people will say to us, "Oh, I'm only old those days?" Really, people? You're going to complain about that? Aren't we nice enough to even GIVE you a senior discount at all? Do you go to the movies at 5pm and complain that senior early birds are only in the morning and not all day? Well, probably, but still. I think we get more complaints over the senior discount days than when we lowered the discount on clothes from 50% to 25%. So silly.

My least favorite customer dealings are the regulars who, every time they come in, try and barter with you. On one hand, they're regulars so you somewhat know them, but, on the other, I shouldn't have to go around-and-around with you that no, I won't sell this to you for a lower price and no, I can't exchange it for you and, no, I can't do a damage discount. We have this one customer who comes in once or twice a week and CONSTANTLY tries to get you to reduce the price for an item. Today he wanted an item for $2 instead of $2.25. Every time, we stand there and go around-and-around about 3 or 4 times of "No, no discount. It's this price..." before he finally just gives us the money for the item. Did I really just expend that energy for him to buy it at said price? *sigh of disbelief*

So, last (last) Saturday, I went to Del Mar Racetrack! It's the last of the "Big 3" SoCal racetracks I haven't been to. I got in free through a friend who works at the racetrack. Man that track is small. I had no idea it was THAT small. I almost think Hollywood Park is bigger than Del Mar. It's no wonder everyone says that there is no way that Del Mar could host the Breeders' Cup! It was good to go, though. The tracks all have a different piece of history and culture attached to them so it's fun going to see how they look and feel. I find I still love Santa Anita the most. It's a kind of deep seated instant love. It's also the most handicapper/race fan friendly of the tracks. Hollywood Park is slated to be bulldozed and turned into apartments, but the economy has stalled the project. I think they're still trying to save it too, but it's, so far, pretty imminent. Del Mar is probably upkept the best of them all, but it's definitely got the dazzle of money being poured into it to keep it's very Spanish influenced paddock in shape. Santa Anita is, by no means, run down, but it's not as "pretty." It has a simpler taste and luxury to it that stems more around its layout and its many, many bronze statues and fan accessibility. In other words, Santa Anita feels "homey" while Del Mar feels "richy." To be fair, there's nothing wrong with Del Mar, but it just can't compete with my love of Santa Anita.

The racing was good, though, and the people were fairly nice. It has a little bit more of a "fair" feel to it, but I'm not sure if that was because the beerfest was there too. They also have more eateries on the premises than Santa Anita. Santa Anita has a cafeteria-like eatery and maybe a restaurant or two, but Del Mar had all sorts of things other than the food tents. I got to see my first Grade 1 race in person! I have always had to leave or missed it before. So that was exciting! Most of the races at a racetrack are claimers, maidens, etc so when you get a graded stakes race, it's more exciting because the caliber of horses in the field are much better. The handicapping is much more exciting, in my opinion, in those races. They do tend to be a little easier to handicap also. Claiming races and maidens are hard to handicap sometimes because the horses have had such a varied number of races and such. Course, that might also be because I'm used to keeping up with graded races more than the claimers so I find the claimers harder to handicap. Who knows. I usually hypothetically bet each race, but the heat at Del Mar and everything got me lazy after the 3rd race. I will say, I called the 3rd place winner of the first race and the horse was 23-1! 

Anyway, here are some photos of the track I took (along with some other photos of my weekend): Del Mar Racetrack (Mostly)

So, movies...I haven't seen any movies since my last post. Not much out right now and I haven't had time to go see the Bourne movie with Jeremy Renner. Maybe this week I'll get to see it.

Now, nails...

Been a while and I'm still changing about twice a week. Typically one mani lasts around 4-5 days and the other lasts about 2-3. Not too bad! I need to trim my nails desperately, but I always need a good frame of mind to do that since trimming is sort of tedious and I dislike trimming. :P Here's a few backlog of photos, though!

   

The photo on the left is my favorite mani of the past 2 months and it was the one that only last 24 hours! Crushed me! the white base is Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella Donna (now called "Bella) and it's a great off-white color (sort of a beigey white). The glitter on top is Lynnderella Snow Angel. This photo does NOT do this justice at all. It was really pretty in person. It definitely screamed "wedding" mani, but it was just really pretty. It had a class and sophistication to it that I loved.

The center photo is Smitten Polish Confection. She created a collection centered around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and this is one of them. It's a really fun polish! I like how it's white, but not a really "bright" and "harsh" white. The glitter is mixed into the white color and it's opaque in 2 coats! Opaque glitters are kind of rare in the indie polish world. Most glitters (3/4?) are clear based glitters (so top coats that need a base). I really like opaque glitters because it cuts my work down on trying to pair them. On the other hand, clear based glitters are nice to mix-and-match too.

The photo on the right is also by Smitten Polish and is called Mint Chip. Can you guess why? This polish had me craving mint chip ice cream so badly! I could almost taste it as I was painting my nails! It's also a great fun and opaque glitter by Smitten. Smitten is pretty much my new favorite indie!

My current mani is pretty plain and is just Rescue Beauty Lounge's Oriental Poppy (now called "Poppy"). The shimmer in it is really hard to see and it's a pretty bright coral-red color. On my long nails, it's kind of stereotypical for long nails. :P I need to stay away from glitters for a few changes, though. The glitter removal is wrecking havoc on my poor nails so I'm banned to shimmers and cremes for a little!

Well, with that, after this loooooooong post...Time to go rewatch Hunger Games and/or read and get ready for my 7th day of work! Yes, that would be my 7th day in a row I'll have worked tomorrow. I get Tues off and then work another 2 days and get Friday off and then I work 6 days in a row and then get 2 days off. After that, I should be back to 5 days and then 2 off. Phew!

So much for regularity...

Not only did I fail in continuing to post nail photos regularly (since the 4th of July, I've had 15 different manis, including my current one -- that's about a little more than a change twice a week), I got behind on movies (I've watched 9), and my work atmosphere is totally up in the air. Work is probably the hardest to deal with right now. It's an 8-hour day of draining energy where I come home and just want to not think or do anything. At any rate, the work story is for another day when things do or do not change.

As for the lack of nail updating, I blame it on the books. I've been in book reading mode (read 18 books since July 1st - about 3 a week). I also had a stint in mid-July where none of my manis were cooperating and I was changing them almost daily for about 4 days. Since then, things have leveled off and I'm changing more like twice a week. I had one of my all time favorite manis during the one-day cycles too, which was rather crushing when it didn't make it through 24 hours. I loved it! My nails or my methods or whatever seemed to have been fixed, though. Either that or I'm just not minding as much when a chip happens! I'll post pictures of some of the better ones at some point.

On to movies...Nothing fantastic and I had a few days where I just felt like I needed to wash my brain or something.

Safe House (Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds) - Apparently it didn't make of an impression on me because I couldn't really remember it and had to look up the plot to even remember! It's your basic spy vs spy type of film where Reynolds is the housekeeper for a safe house and Washington is a CIA agent who everyone is after. Washington is brought to the safe house, Reynolds ends up (after a series of events) having to trek around with him and then you find out that Washington is wrongly accused of his information and it's all because he has information that can expose corrupt agents all over the world. It's not a new script and as good as Reynolds and Washington were in their acting, the script is flat. Grade: C

Flowers of War (Christian Bale) - This movie is about the Nanking Massacre that stars Christian Bale in an otherwise foreign actors and produced film. It's a good film and Bale does an excellent acting job, but it was kind of weird having an American be the star of the film. It wasn't really needed, but I assume it had some to do with trying to get more recognition for the film. It's a mix of English and Chinese subtitles and it got across the impact the massacre had on the survivors and the fear they lived in. It is a movie, though, so it has that cinematic feel and effects to it (a little stylized, I suppose), but it was good. The children actors were excellent and the end really pulls at the heart strings. I think I was in a state of panic, shock, fear, or tears through most of it. It is a little graphic, but war isn't a PG film either. Grade: B

Wanderlust (Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston) - Watched this film right before Flowers of War and both films needed me to wash my brain and memory a little before going to bed for drastically different reasons. This film I do NOT recommend in the least. It might be up there with the worst films of the year I've seen. There is nudity in it that, seriously, I didn't need to see (old men and women running nude? Gahhhh!) and it was just a stupid film all around. Yes, I should have known better given it's an Aniston film, but I was curious! I'm not sure there is anything even really redeeming in it other than Rudd was true to his marriage even though they had agreed to go with Wanderlust's "sharing" attitude and Aniston's character slept with one of the leaders. I will say, there were some funny parts, but not many... Grade: D

Friends with Kids (Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt) - Interesting film that's somewhere along the lines of "Friends with Benefits," but more in line with friends with benefits that have kids? Two good friends decide to have a kid together without the ties of marriage as they've seen their friends who are married have kids and seen what it does to their marriage and personal lives. The female could have an unknown donor, but figures...Why not her best friend who also wants a kid in an abstract sense of just wanting one? One of their set of friends ends up not working out and the other ends up being okay, but, in the end, of course, the two main characters end up together through their trials and difficulties. It's a mostly silly premise, but it is a different sort of rom-com than I've seen before. I don't particularly like Westfeldt, but she works in the role (she also wrote and directed it, I believe) and I liked Scott. Not your best rom-com, though. Grade: C

Lockout (Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace) - All I could think of was, "MIB:3!!." To be fair, this movie came out before MIB:3, but I saw MIB:3 first. Future world where there's a space station that is for realllllllly dangerous criminals. They're put into a sort of cryogenic tube so there is minimal needs from them. The President's daughter decides to visit to check out one of the prisoners and the rumors going around that the sleep-stasis they're put into alters their brain/emotions. Long story short, a man who was going to be sent to the station is, instead, given a chance to redeem himself and save the President's daughter before harm comes of her when things go wrong and all the criminals are released for their stasis. I can't say it's that original, but it was interesting. It reminded me of The Rock a little because it's supposed to be sort of impossible to infiltrate and all that. Grade: C

Wrath of the Titans (Sam Worthington) - Was it better than Clash of the Titans? Erm, I don't know. It's been so long since I've seen Clash of the Titans and I can't find my review (did I review it?). Was it what I expected it to be? Yes. It wasn't fantastic and some of the CG is grating. Also, as much as I like Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades, their portrayals don't really work for me. The film was okay. It's not really memorable, which is what the first one is like. It wasn't totally bad, but nor was it really good either. In all, I'm glad I didn't see it in theaters and I'm also glad I saw it just to see it. Grade: C/C-

The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone) - I know they wanted to do the origin story again because it's a new man playing Spider-Man, but, gosh darn it, I'm TIRED of seeing the origin story! Move on to something else! I did like Garfield as Spider-Man. He sort of aligns to what you think of Spider-Man as being (tall, gangly, nerdy, etc). Emma Stone as Gwen was also good. I did like having Gwen instead of MJ (just to be different). They also changed the origin just a little. With that said, I'll probably see the others, but I'm not sure if I really like it better than the Tobey MacGuire ones. I think I like it just a little more, but it's almost par. Grade: B/B-

Dark Knight Rises (Christian Bale) - It's a good film, but it is FAR too long. There is a lot in it that didn't need to be in it to make it shorter. I kind of call it the King Kong syndrome with Peter Jackson where the studios give the director, pretty much, free reign to do whatever they want and the director makes a long winded film that didn't need to be that long. There were also holes in things and Bane, as good as he was, was sort of stripped of his identity at the end for a twist ending that sort of belittled who Bane was. Tom Hardy did an EXCELLENT job as Bane, though, and he was an amazing villain till the end. That whole end...*sigh* It felt a little bit like a cop-out. Nolan is such a great director and he likes those twists and turns that make you go, "huh?" and this one had a weak attempt at it that just felt a little contrived to me given it was Nolan directing. The one thing I liked at the end was of Joseph Gordon Levitt's ending, which was neat, but whether they'll do anything with it, that remains to be seen. I also liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I thought they handled her portrayal well and it was farrrrr better than Halle Berry's. I liked how they snuck in the whole "ear" aspect without going costume-y and it was subtle. I do think Catwoman was a little bit of an unnecessary role and they sort of threw in her origin story in the movie, but oh well. I also liked how it went full circle back to the first movie. Overall, I liked it and it did feel shorter, albeit it was actually longer, than Spider-Man so I guess that's a plus. I just wish it was executed just a little better. Grade: B

Total Recall (Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel) - Having not seen the original, I can't compare it to it, but I liked this version. Bill Nighy had a REALLY short roll and it reminded me of Liam Neeson's Unknown, even though Total Recall is older than Unknown. Not much to say about it other than I thought it was a good film. Nothing really deep in it or anything, but I enjoyed the special effects and thought the acting was good. Grade: B

With that, my movie count is up to 65. I haven't rented a movie in about 2 weeks now. Not sure when I'll rent again, but the Lorax and What to Expect When You're Expecting come out in Sept and Hunger Games comes out soon. So...we'll see.

Happy 4th of July!

A little early, but none-the-less, happy 4th of July! Not sure what movies I'll be watching this week, but I get 3 days off this week! Not in a row because that's how it worked out for me, but I still get 3 days off, so that's not too bad. :) I also left work two hours early today (took some safety hours, basically extra time off we get for having a good safety record (i.e., no accidents)) because it was slow, I was tired, and I was totally dragging. Staying as long as I did was painful. Staying the extra 2 hours made me want to (dramatically) kill myself. So, I left early. Came home and slept for 4 hours and, all I gotta say, those 2 extra hours make a huge difference.

Anyway, last night I redid my nails for a 4th of July theme. I have a few red, white, and blue glitters, but none of them managed to make it on this mani. Perhaps I'll throw some on for a post 4th of July or something. I have a feeling, to say the least, I'll have new nails by the time Thursday rolls around. My last mani lasted a good 4 (not 5, right?) days and this one wasn't nearly as difficult as the last one, so I seem to have gotten out of my "change everyday" rut.

(Please pardon the dry cuticles/hands, they were in my pocket...)

This mani was a labor of love that involved various techniques. The base navy blue color is Rescue Beauty Lounge (RBL) Dead Calm. It's a lovely blue creme and one of my favorites. It's gorgeous, applies beautifully, and is a rich navy blue that is blue and not black. One of the pains with dark blues is sometimes they can come off as black in most lighting. The glitter on all my fingers except the ring finger is Girly Bits Star Spangled. It's a blue tinted base with blue and red fine glitter and micro red bars/tinsels/long glitter (whatever you want to call it, I tend to call them bar glitter since they're long like a bar). I like the red bars, but since they're so small, it's hard to see; however, they remind me of fireworks (probably her intent given the name). The blue isn't opaque on its own, so that's why I layered it (also to conserve it) over Dead Calm. The ring finger is a BundleMonster plate 20 (the stars) stamped in Konad white SP over Dead Calm. I sealed it with top coat and then did a partial tape/hand nail art. Used tape to make the diagonal (to give it a clean line - think of using tape around a door frame and other places when you paint your house), painted the bottom half white with OPI. Used a Nubar nail art brush/pen in red to hand paint on the red stripes. I could have used tape to make the lines straight, but I didn't want to wait for the white to dry completely, which the tape requires. So it was a little labor intensive, but not that bad. I like how it looks and I like how the accent nail allows me to be festive and/or clever without having to spend the time to do it on ALL my nails, which would have been really labor intensive.

I'm thinking of perhaps doing a gradient (first ever) and then using OPI Black Spotted (just arrived from Holland from a friend!) that I have. I've seen the gradients underneath OPI Spotted and it's pretty fantastic looking. I've got the sponges, finally, to do a gradient, so perhaps it's time!

Best Picture

So, I finally got to watch The Artist and that means, several months after the Oscars, I have finally seen every single Best Picture film.

First, let's review...

The Artist (Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo) - It's an interesting film that's well acted. It's especially good since there are no words in it so the music, body language, and facial expressions are really important to convey what is going on. I also enjoyed the story progression through movie history (silent films, "talkies," and then the progression to dancing in movies like Gene Kelly). The story was interesting seeing the two main characters and how one goes up, one goes down, and how they connect at the end. It's a little slow for me and you have to pay close attention to it or you won't know what's going on, but it was good. It's an interesting throwback to movies and is definitely a love letter to cinema. Grade: B

A Thousand Words (Eddie Murphy) - If there is one thing that Murphy does well, it's conveying the frustration of not being able to talk. It's like your vocal cords or something tense up from seeing the movie and how he just can't talk even though he REALLY wants to. It's pretty silly for about half the movie and then turns "soft" towards the end when he turns his life around. Murphy's character is a big editor, goes out to get a book deal, his home life has issues, the tree suddenly appears, and his assistant is stupid/annoying as all get out. The tree not only loses leaves for every word he utters, but whatever happens to the tree also affects him. So when he tries to cut it down, he ends up cutting himself. Gardeners water the tree, and he starts dripping in water. The main point of the movie is that words aren't always enough and that actions can mean far more than words. In other words, watch what you say (mean what you say, speak from your heart, and be careful what you say) and words (written or spoken - writing words counts towards leaves lost) are not always needed to convey what you feel (especially in showing love and gratitude). So I guess it's an overall good message, but it's not fantastic. Grade: C+

So best pictures...Do I think The Artist should have won Best Picture? Not really. I find many of the other films much more compelling, but I feel like The Artist is sort of a love letter to movies and is more along the lines of what The Academy tends to like to pick.

Here's what I ranked each movie:

The Artist - B
The Descendants - B+
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - B
Hugo - B
Midnight in Paris - B+
The Help - B+/A-
Moneyball - B/B+
War Horse - B+
The Tree of Life - B

They're all fairly close, but, by my rankings, I'd say The Help should have won Best Picture. To be honest, I'd have been happy with either The Help or War Horse; however, I honestly can't say I'm really bummed that The Artist won either. It really is a good movie and there were several clever things in it I liked (one would be how he suddenly was hearing "sounds" during a dream sequence and how the movie plays sometimes like a movie within a movie), but sometimes I wish The Academy was a little more mainstream. The Help and War Horse were genuinely excellent films in their own right too. Okay, all the Best Pictures were, but those 2 stood out to me over The Artist.

Recently saw the Taken 2 international trailer. Looks good! Haven't seen the newest Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 trailer (saw the old one), but I've read up on it. I'll have read just about the first 10, maybe 20 minutes of the movie and after that...I never read that part of the book! I know what happens, but I never finished Breaking Dawn. The Hobbit trailer still gives me goosebumps every time I see it! I do have to stop myself from saying, "Watson!" every time I see Martin Freeman, though. Spider-Man and the new Ice Age look interesting, but it's doubtful I'll see them in theater. The Les Miserable trailer is interesting too. I'm curious to see what the reviews are and a full length trailer too. The current one is of Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream" with some montage. It's an excellent cast (Hathaway as Fantine, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Sacha Baron Cohen as Thenardier, Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier, Russell Crowe as Javert, etc), but we'll see. (I can totally imagine Carter singing "Master of the House"!)

Brave & Abiquiu

Not much in the way of life updates, so...We'll get down to movies and polish!

Saw Brave yesterday. In ways of Pixar films, it's not their strongest film. I really enjoyed the Cars movies, but they are the least popular of Pixar films. When looking at the ratings, Brave ranks just above the Cars movies (from my recollection), but below all the rest. Is this a fair assessment? Perhaps. At any rate, it's not the strongest Pixar film. It's highly predictable, not exactly original, and it's a really "short" movie (1:40 hours - when did 1:40 hours become "short"?!). The characters are a little flat too. On the upside, I enjoyed the soundtrack, I thought the accent of Merida was charming (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), it had a nice mother-daughter story, and the animation was (as usual) top notch. It just doesn't have the same draw or charm as the others, though. The characters are less developed or something. It's particularly obvious when you compare Brave to movies like UP, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, etc. The movie is dedicated to Steve Jobs too. I enjoyed the short film in front of it and I also enjoyed seeing the Monster University trailer. Would I recommend seeing it in theaters? Probably not. If there's nothing else you want to see in theaters, I'd recommend seeing it. Grade: B

Hoping to nab The Artist this week to rent to see what all the fuss was about this past Oscars. Might get the Eddie Murphy one too about him talking too much and the tree has leaves and if the leaves all fall off, the tree dies, and Murphy's character does too? Something like that. I'm curious about it.

In the world of polish, I managed to almost go a week with the same mani! I haven't done that in a while, but when you get a polish that wears well and you like it, they tend to stick around longer. However, I did have some "issues" with this mani so I pretty much made up for all the days of not changing. Not to mention I did some quick swatching of 15 polishes. So...yeah. I guess I just delayed the inevitable smell of polish and polish remover on my dry hands! :)

Moving on...Here's Rescue Beauty Lounge's Abiquiu! This polish is part of the Georgia On My Mind Collection (Georgia O'Keefe that is) that I received last week from my pre-order. I love this polish. RBL is one of my all-time favorite brands. This polish is not super bright. It really is more of a light cactus green color (or a slightly darker green apple) with a silver shimmer in it. I really like it. The stamp is from BundleMonster (BM) plate 214 stamped in Konad special polish (SP). The stamp is what I was having issues with. It's been almost 2 months since I stamped and I am realllllly rusty on single stamps. I kept stamping it on super crooked, severely off-centered, etc. This attempt, at least, is just a little crooked. The others were a disaster!

 

The picture on the right is more accurate of the color than the left. The left is a little brighter, but showed the great silver shimmer. I tried stamping a full nail design and was going to do it on each nail, but the polish was too pretty to cover up! Not only that, but I trimmed my nails even shorter than my last mani, so I didn't really feel like all the design on shorter nails. These are the shortest nails I've had in at least half a year, if not longer. At least I got rid of the break, though!

Holo Polish

I think this is the longest I've gone with switching my nails everyday. It's not uncommon for me to switch my mani the next day maybe once a week or every 2 weeks, but going 4 days in a row with a change IS unusual. Admittedly, this one and yesterday's were changed purely because I wanted to try out a new polish I received. Then again, the Lady Bug mani died today. I had a finger nail chip and it wasn't salvageable because the nail peeled. Would have maybe touched it up, but I got a new polish today I wanted to try. So, I'm rockin' simplistic nails today, which is a change after the last 5+ were chunky glitters.

This polish is by Picture Polish (Australian brand) and is called "Monroe" (as in Marilyn Monroe). It's a pretty opaque jelly-ish base with a shattered holo in it (holos are hard to photo even if I wasn't using my phone!). I trimmed my nails tonight. My right hand index is starting to split, so to help it not totally split off, I've trimmed all my nails till my nails grow out enough and I can cut it off. Have to rebuild the callouses on the tip of my fingers again...

For those that don't know, "holo" stands for "hologram" and flashes the color of the rainbow. You can have a "shattered holo," which means each particle seemingly flashes the rainbow independently and you can have a "linear holo," which means the particles seem to "work together" and show the rainbow spectrum all at once. As for finishes go, a "jelly" is typically rather sheer and has a "jelly" (as in the preservatives you can put on toast) texture/look to it when you apply it and when it dries.

Here are some examples of various "holos."

  

The polish on the left is Make Up Store Greta with a stamp over it (BM plate 203in  Konad SP). This is a holographic polish so it's made to be specifically holographic. It's not the clearest picture, but it showed the best holo. You can see on the thumb how linear the holo is. The fingers are a little less holo-y, but the light angles weren't great for them at this angle.

The polish on the right is NerdLacquer Holy Grail (it has big pieces of glitter in it, hence the "bumpy look"). This is also a linear holo, but I'd say it's a weaker holo. This type of holo is more common because it's easier to add into polish and is also more forgiving and less picky. Holos like the MUS Greta usually needs a special application to it or doesn't look as good. The holo in NL Holy Grail is more forgiving and you can have some where the linear holo is super strong and others where it's weak. I'd say this is about medium-to-weak for a linear holo. Again, light angles help a lot too. This holo is created by adding the holo particles to a polish base rather than creating the polish out of the holo particles (like Greta).

Lady Bug Nails

Well, here goes the first attempt at posting nail photos...I'm on a one-day rotation right now (3 days, 3 manicures). Wouldn't have changed from last night, but I got this new glitter nail polish and I really wanted to try it. I'm into indie (short for independent) brands right now (i.e., they're not "mainstream" and usually home/hand mixed and produced) and, in particular, unusual glitters. I've got several glitters with hearts in them (black, red, or white); several with flowers, some with stars, some with moons, and I even have one with butterflies in it. However, recently round glitters have been popping up and I bought two a few weeks ago (they just arrived) with round glitters.

This one is called "Lady Bug" and it's by Darling Diva Polish. It's a red sheer base with black hexagons (small and medium size) and black circles. I really like the circles, even if they are a little big for my nail bed (meaning, they stick up on the sides just a little). Of course, it being called Lady Bug, I had to do nail art with a lady bug! Because the polish is sheer, it's painted over Rescue Beauty Lounge Chinoise, which is a lovely red creme to make it opaque (and not be able to see my nail line (also referred to as visible nail line (VNL)).

Base: Rescue Beauty Lounge Chinoise (2 coats)

 
Darling Diva Polish Lady Bug over RBL Chinoise and then my accent lady bug nail art. :)

You can click the photos to make them bigger. Lady Bug has such a sheer base, it's practically just a tinted base so it barely affects the color of Chinoise. The glitter took a little bit of fishing/placing because there wasn't a whole lot and the circles sunk really quickly, but it wasn't too bad. I've dealt with far worse before.