Roses over Revlon "Electric"

This is one of my favorite nail art manicures to do, mainly because it is fairly simple and people are always impressed. This manicure reminds me of the wallpaper that was in the Betsey Johnson store at the Garden State Plaza. Yes, that is a weirdly specific reference.

China Glaze "Instant Chemistry"

One of my first forays into magnetic nail polish. I really do like the effect, but the magnet for the China Glaze polish is terrible. I don't know if my nails are too long, or too curved, but I would wind up with a small patch of the design in the middle of my nails, which looked pretty stupid. I had more luck with the magnet that came with some drugstore magnetic polish.

OPI "Pirouette My Whistle" over OPI "Steady as She Rose" with a matte topcoat

Despite the ridiculous name, "Pirouette My Whistle" is one of my favorite glitters. It looks really delicate, for lack of a better word, and works over a lot of different colors. Making it matte gives it an almost lunar look.

Ninja Polish "Sticks and Stones" over Sally Hansen "Blue-Away"

While I never fully bought into the Lynnderella craze, I really really wanted "Connect the Dots." Alas, it was impossible to get and I wasn't willing to put myself on waiting lists or stay up into the wee hours of the night refreshing and waiting for a restock. Nor was I willing to spend $50 (literally) on eBay. So when Ninja Polish released this dupe, I was more than happy to spend my dollars their way. It's a great polish and it is easy to get a variety of shapes on your brush.

Essie "A Crewed Interest"

Nice peach/coral creme that is perfect for summer. Not much else to say.

China Glaze "Rich and Famous"

Very bright and very pink.

Essie "Pretty Edgy"

Perfect grass green borderline-jelly polish. I love this color.

OPI "Don't Touch My Tutu"

Another attempt to make these milky polishes work for me.

Layla "Flash Black"

Who doesn't love a holographic polish? This is everything I wanted OPI "My Private Jet" to be.

China Glaze "Gothic Lolita"

I don't know why it took me forever to wear this polish. I like that this is a warm toned purple, which for some reason are harder to find. This picture doesn't show the subtle pink and blue shimmer.

Yep, here I am.

Oh hi, I didn't see you there. I suppose I should feel bashful about this vowing to blog more often, posting once or twice, and then going MIA for the better part of a year thing I keep doing. I will blame it on the part of my personality that immediately turns a task into something insurmountably dread-worthy. So what I am going to do is to post 10 swatches every day (or nearly every day) until my back catalog is empty, and then give blogging the old college try.

Easter Manicure - Various polishes This was a favorite of mine. It was surprisingly not-that-difficult to do and my students went nutty for it. I saw a picture on Tumblr that inspired this, but it didn't link to a blog, so I have no idea who to credit.

Essie “Go Overboard” with Pure Ice "Heartbreaker" on top. "Heartbreaker" is a cult favorite topcoat and I bought mine over a year ago but never used it. It did a great job of sprucing up a basic dark teal polish. This looked especially pretty under water, but alas, it is impractical to live life with sinks running on your hands at all times.

Glitter Gal "Light as a Feather" Major, major, major disappointment but I can't really blame the outcome of this manicure entirely on the polish. I did this manicure the night before I left to chaperone my school's Washington, DC field trip. I painted my nails, but in the interest of time I used Seche Vite to top coat them. I have heard that quick dry top coats (or maybe top coats in general) dull the effect of holographic polishes, but I needed to do to bed and my nails needed to be dry for that to happen. The holo effect was average at best and the Seche Vite darkened the polish and made the tips look dingy. I was seriously tempted to stop at some DC drugstore for remover and cotton balls. Does this Seche Vite darkening/dingy thing happen to anyone else? It usually only happens with light colors and it is quite distressing.

Revlon "Calla Lily" A better in theory than in practice. This is a white jelly base with lots of gold shimmer. I always want this kind of polish to work for me, but it always winds up thick and/or streaky.

Cult Nails "Crusin Nude" It was hard to capture the pink sheen in photos. This is a great understated but not old lady color. I had forgotten how much I liked this color until this blog post, so huzzah blogging.

Zoya “Bevin” I am pretty sure I got this in a Birchbox. It is a nice, but standard teal/jade creme. Nothing to write home about.

Butter London “Disco Biscuit” I like this polish, but I wish it looked more like it did in the bottle. Which is more blue, less pink. It should probably be noted that this dried to a matte and somewhat blah finish. It top coat really makes this.

Cult Nails "Living Water" The base is a bit too dark and overpowers the shimmer. This looks fantastic in the sunlight though.

OPI "Just Spotted the Lizard" One of the many Chanel "Peridot" dupes that have come out over the last year. The formula on this was pretty good and definitely less streaky than I feared. This was also a big hit, which confused me until I remembered that I don't live in a world populated exclusively by nail bloggers and sometimes people are just impressed with an unusual color. A nice realization.

Rescue Beauty Lounge "Chinoise" Classic, true red. As is the case with every RBL polish I own, the application was flawless and was nearly a one-coater.

Nails: February and March 2012

Oh right, blogging about nails and books and life. Manicure #9: China Glaze "Dance Baby"

Not the greatest picture (hi toilet!) but it was the closest I could come in terms of color accuracy. This is a medium, bubble-gum pink creme polish. I loved this polish, and strangely enough, a lot of my male students complimented it as well. Manicure #10: China Glaze "First Mate"

The absolute best navy blue creme, hands down. It is bright enough so that it is clearly blue, but dark enough to be a true navy. Flawless application and little to no staining when I removed it. Manicure #11: Valentine's Day Owl Manicure

I was inspired to do this manicure by Chalkboard Nails. I was looking for some idea for Valentine's Day and came across this idea, deemed it too difficult for me to do, and moved on. I wound up not coming up with anything I liked better and decided to give it a try. The base color was Zoya "Caitlin" which I love for the color and because it is my namesake polish. After a childhood devoid of anything personalized, I will basically buy anything with my name on it. This could have turned out better/neater, but overall I thought it was cute and appropriate for the holiday. Manicure #12: Nerd Lacquer "Entirely Unlike Tea"

This polish has beautiful rainbow micro glitter in it that is very difficult to photograph. The base is a little sheer, so I may try layering this over a similar colored creme polish next time. Manicure #12: China Glaze "Aquadelic"

Not too much to say about this polish. Another A+ creme polish from China Glaze. It is a smidge greener than my picture, but these bright colors always do wonky things to my camera. Disappointing side note: this is one of a handful of polishes that do not play nice with fast dry top coats. By day 2 or 3 the polish had darkened significantly, with the worst of it being near the tips. Ugh, hate that Manicure #13: China Glaze "Sweet Hook"

I completely forgot that I even wore this polish, so it obviously it a very important polish. Again, China Glaze creme, so it was good. It leaned a little warmer than most of my lavender polishes, which is more flattering on my warm-ish skin tone. Manicure #14: Essie "Navigate Her"

My apologies for the awful picture, but it was the only one that semi-accurately showed the color of this polish. It is a brightened pistachio, and probably the closest I've come to finding a green grape hued polish. I really loved this color. Manicure #15: Finger Paints "Grape Gumball"

Glass fleck blurple. Not terribly unique but it called to me at Sally Beauty Supply. Probably because the sales associate let me go into the back room to look at the polishes they hadn't put out yet. Manicure #16: Wet n Wild "Sugar Coat"

I was skeptical about the opacity of this polish, but I read good things online so I took the $3 risk. These super pale pinks (think OPI Bubble Bath) are always a streaky mess for me, so I've stayed away from them. This is three coats and it isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. Manicure #17: Galaxy Nails

Definitely one of my favorite manicures. This is black creme (maybe Wet n Wild?) with a neon purple no name brand polish and a yellow from Revlon sponged on top. I finished the whole thing with "Fairy Dust" by China Glaze. "Fairy Dust" is one of those polishes that instantly spruces up a manicure. I've used this over several imperfect water marbles to mask my mistakes. Manicure #18: Essie "A Crewed Interest"

Not much to say here: standard peach creme. Application was nice, but I often worry these kinds of colors make me look like an old lady. Manicure #19: China Glaze "Agro"

Love the color but it was a little on brush stroke-y side. This is a very December color to me, so wearing it in March (and North Carolina March) was causing mental discord. Manicure #20: China Glaze "Dress Me Up" with China Glaze "Medallion"

Oh hey, bathroom at work. Is that, or is that not the epitome of a public school bathroom? Anyway, I loved this manicure so much. The browned pink base of "Dress Me Up" benefited from the jazzing up the polka dots and chunky gold glitter brought. My students loved this one too, which is always the mark of a good manicure. Manicure #21: Butter London "No More Waity, Katie" over Zoya "Caitlin"

I read that this was pretty sheer, so I layered it overly the similarly colored "Caitlin". I kind of wish I hadn't, as I felt it wound up a little too dark and dismal looking. Manicure #22: Essie "Turquoise & Caicos"

This was my first non-untried polish this year. I wore this for the first time last summer and I loved it then. No change this time. It is very similar to "Aquadelic" but definitely less bright. If I had to guess, a non nail polish person probably couldn't tell the difference between the two. And at long last, that is it for February and March. And once again, just in time for April's post. The school year is winding down and I have all kinds of grand plans for how I will spend all those summer hours. I also recently passed the halfway mark for my 30 Books in 2012 goal, and it is well before the halfway mark for the year so I feel pretty optimistic. A book post is forthcoming, for real this time.

Nails: January 2012

Here I am, ready to get the ball rolling on this resolution and talk about nails. I don't know whether these posts are going to be weekly, monthly, per manicure or some combination of those. But seeing as it is the last day of the month, I'll just do a round up of all my January manicures.

Manicure #1: Nerd Lacquer "Don't Blink" This was a surprise Christmas gift from Taylor and I loveloveloved this polish. It's a gorgeous dove grey with small silver and black glitter and larger hexagonal silver glitter. The black glitter really makes this polish and gives it a great speckled effect. Right after I took this picture, I broke half the nails on my right hand while trying to open a stuck sliding door. Ouch.

Manicure #2: Essie "Very Cranberry" with Finger Paints "Twisted" on top

My first manicure on my newly short nails. "Very Cranberry" was another surprise polish from Taylor. I know that red is probably the most common color for nail polish, but it is the color I have the least of. This polish leans a little pink and has a definite sheen to it. I wouldn't say it's a full on shimmer but there is definitely something that keeps it from being a creme. The shimmer is very, very subtle. I purchased "Twisted" the same day this picture was taken, so I had to throw it on top to see how it looked. "Twisted" is a top coat with blue, red, purple, orange and green pieces of iridescent flake glitter in it. I love flake glitter and it didn't disappoint over this mid-tone red. I am looking forward to trying it over some darker shades.

Manicure #3: Nerd Lacquer "Cold and Calculating"

Shock and surprise, another polish from Taylor. A deep purple with silver glitter and larger hex pieces. I don't love this one as much as "Don't Blink" but I still really liked it. For some reason, I had a hard time getting the glitter pieces in this polish to lay completely flat, which made the finish rough even with a top coat.

Manicure #4: Zoya "Yara"

Yep. Taylor polish. I swear, I buy 96% of my own polishes, but I got a bunch for Christmas and felt compelled to wear them one right after another. I wish I had taken more pictures of this polish, because it's much prettier than this photograph would leave you to believe. "Yara" is an olive green that is loaded with gold shimmer. The shimmer really glows when the sun hits it, but unfortunately this picture was taken indoors, near my desk and in a rush.

Manicure #5: MAC "Blue India"

I bought this polish! I picked this up at a CCO in Charlotte over the summer. It was limited edition from MAC's Liberty of London collection and I had admired swatches of it online when it was released. I never purchase MAC polishes at full price because they are kind of expensive and the formula is not that great. This was also a little difficult to capture in a photo. It is a deep greyed blue that tends to photograph too bright or too dark.

Manicure #6: China Glaze "Sunset Sail"

This was a manicure fail. I should probably mention that I am trying to work through all my untried polishes this year as well. As I was looking though my stash, I pulled "Sunset Sail" thinking that I had never used it. Wrong. As soon as I finished my manicure, I realized that I wore this back in September and I hated it. This polish looks fine at first, but the longer I had it on, the more and more I felt like an old lady. The color goes from peach to dirty band-aid in like, 15 minutes. I'm sure this looks lovely on other people, but not me.

Manicure #7: China Glaze "VII"

"VII" is a pretty straightforward raisin colored creme. It was nothing spectacular, but It applied nicely and I probably could have gotten away with one coat. I always feel like an actual grown up when I wear colors like this, which is simultaneously nice and no fun.

Manicure #7: Essie "Fair Game"

I wasn't a huge fan of this polish, but I liked it more than I thought I would. Does that make sense? I was talked into buying this polish nearly a year ago, although I wasn't totally sold on it. I pulled it out for a manicure and then looked at a dozen streaky, frosty swatches of it online. Fortunately, it had enough shimmer to keep it from looking like a complete 1980's frost nightmare. I think it would probably look better on shorter nails, so I don't know how often I'll be reaching for this one.

Manicure #8: Orly "Androgynie"

This polish was somewhat of a letdown, though I still like how it looks. The bottle looks amazing, but that amazingness doesn't translate to the nail quite as well as I would have hoped. The main issue is that the black base is sheer enough to require several coats, but opaque enough to completely cover the glitter in previous coats. Next time, I'll use this over a black base to maximize the glitter. Okay folks, there you have it. All my manicures for the month of January, including the one I am currently wearing. Hopefully I can get it together and make an collective January book post sometime this week.

Polish Post: OPI Banana Bandanna + Weekend Plans

Despite the fact that the weather is calling for thunderstorms for the next 2-3 days, I wanted my nails to be cheery and bright. I wound up choosing Banana Bandanna (which it turns out IS the correct spelling of that word. The more you know.) by OPI for my fingers and Ahoy! by China Glaze for my toes. While I'm fairly certain that no more than 3 people read this blog and they all have very healthy attitudes toward feet, I'm hesitant to post a picture of my toes on the internet, because, well, you know. The internet has probably led to an amazing boost in the quality of life for those who are a little too into feet. Anyway, here are my nails.


There are several indicators that this was an early polish purchase for me. First, it is an OPI polish. Because OPI polishes run $8-9 per bottle and are almost always lacking in the quality I would expect for that price (China Glaze is about $5 and is invariably much better quality), I tend to pass on OPIs unless the color is outstanding. Second, I have gotten much better at knowing which polishes will or won't be sheer just by looking at the bottle, and I avoid sheer polishes. Still, I chose this polish over the similarly colored China Glaze Lemon Fizz for two reasons:

1. Lemon Fizz reacts in a weird way with my top coat of choice. After a few days, the tips of my nails darken to a pale orange giving an undesired, though not altogether unappealing, ombré effect. Side note, why does spell check refuse to believe ombré is a real word?
2. I'm trying to work through all of my unworn polishes and I'm fairly certain I haven't done a full manicure with this.

I like that this shade is a little warmer than Lemon Fizz but the formula is horrible. It's runny, streaky and takes at least 4 coats to reach opacity. Three coats is pretty much my limit. Overall, I like the color for spring but I don't know how often I'll reach for this polish.

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In other news, the weekend is upon us and Steven and I have exciting plans. The River Run Film Festival is in town for the next week and tonight is the big kick off. Rather than attending that, Steven and I will likely go to Barnes and Noble for Tina Fey's new book and maybe stop at the grocery store. But! We are going to see two things on Saturday. First is a compilation of animated shorts and then later that evening we're seeing Meek's Cutoff. Look at me, immersing myself in local cultural activities.

Our other big plan for the weekend is making pickles. Do you like pickles? I sure do. It's hard not to like a tart, vinegar-y incarnation of one of my favorite vegetables. Steven and I made two jars of pickles last week and we have eaten all of them already. The brine is ridiculously simple to make and discounting the fresh cucumbers, you likely have all the necessary ingredients in your kitchen. The hardest part of the whole thing is the 2 day waiting period in which you are forced to look at your pickles every time you open the refrigerator, knowing you can't eat them yet. Here's how to make approximately 2 jars of pickles:

You will need:
3 cups water
8 tablespoons vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Garlic
Dill
Coriander seeds
Pickling cucumbers (I imagine you can also use regular cucumbers, but they will probably need to be cut in half)

Combine the water, vinegar, and salt in a pitcher or bowl, making sure to mix everything well. Slice the cucumbers according to preference. Spears, halves, chips. Do you, baby. Place the cucumbers in the jars with a good amount of garlic, dill and coriander seeds. No specific amount. That's why I like this recipe, it's so free form! Pour some brine into each jar until it is full. Put the lid on the jars (duh) and shake to combine everything. Refrigerate for 2 days before eating. Steven made sure to turn the jars from time to time to compensate for the seasoning falling to the bottom. This may or may not be necessary.

Voila! You have pickles that are tastier than the ones at the grocery store, and they only contain ingredients that you can pronounce.

Party of two

When "The Office" came back from winter hiatus, Pam tried to foster a happy office environment by starting a New Year's Resolutions chart. Andy, who is routinely spurning by romantic interests, resolves to master cooking for one. After my mental chuckles subsided, I thought to myself, "Damn, too true." The world (at least the world of groceries) seems designed for families of four, and cooking for one or, in my case, two is a challenge.

Last week I made Pineapple Salsa Chicken for dinner (should that be capitalized, as it is the title of a recipe? Who knows) and I had to cut the recipe down from 6 servings to 2. There were problems from the get go, as I didn't have the requisite slow cooker, but I felt confident after googling some conversion times. I wound up using 2 chicken breasts, figuring that there were 2 of us so a breast a piece sounded fair (har har har). Not so. We ate no fewer than 3 separate meals from those 2 pineapple-d salsa-ed chicken breasts, and it could have been more had we not been desperate to finish it off in the third sitting.*

That said, I'm working on it. On Friday we ate our first meal in which nothing needed to be put in Rubbermaids and stuck in the refrigerator. Oddly enough, it was meatloaf. I have a bit of a thing with meatloaf. As a child, I ate it happily, devouring meaty slices on a bi or tri-weekly basis. Then recently I became seriously grossed out about it, and the fact that it was literally a loaf of meat. Just a ball of ground up beef. I am grimacing as I type this, by the way. Anyway, I saw this Nigella recipe online and it came highly reviewed, so I thought I would take a chance.

• 1 lb sausage meat (I went with sweet Italian)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 C quick-cooking oats, not instant oatmeal
• 1/3 C A.1. steak sauce (or store brand, you know, whatever)
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 t Worcestershire sauce
• 1 t kosher salt or 1/2 t table salt

Preheat the oven to 400. Combine all of the above in a bowl, mixing really well with your hands or a fork. Divide the mixture into 12 balls, then shape them into mini loaves. Set the mini meat loaves on a foil-lined baking sheet with a little space between them. Cook for 30 minutes.

I cut the recipe in half, and wound up making four mini meatloaves.

While those were in the oven, I made some roasted corn and a brown rice medley from Trader Joe's to go with it. And, voila! A perfectly portioned meal for two.

The mini loaves were flavorful, moist, and supremely tasty. Steven said that, for whatever reason, there is something much more appealing about eating a mini (heart shaped) loaf than a slice, and I think I agree.

In non food related news, I went to Sally Beauty Supply yesterday. I had run out of base coat and the polishes that I have been wearing lately started to peel after maybe 2 days of wear. Unacceptable. So I purchased Orly Bonder, which is a rather unappealing shade of orange in the bottle but I can assure you it applies clear. My bottle of Seche Vite had also gotten rather thick (such are the perils of using an ultra fast drying top coat) and I noticed a coupon entitling the purchaser of a bottle of Seche Vite to a free China Glaze nail polish. Score. I scanned the racks before narrowing it down to "Secret Peri-winkle," which looks just like you might think, or "Unplugged," a bronzy, rosy, brown shade. Here is what I chose:

It's brighter than it looks in the picture, and I really love it. I have picked up this color dozens of times but always put it back because I felt like I owned something similar. Wrong. I have nothing that sits right in the middle of blue and purple. The ultimate blurple polish. All in all, a very successful trip to the store.

* All complaining aside, the chicken was very delicious and the leftovers made excellent quesadillas.