NOTD Avon Lagoon

Hey Kids!
All I have time for today is my NOTD. Avon Lagoon.

When my avon rep, Chelsea, brought my Bag of Goodies into the restaurant, our plumber, Chris was sitting next to me at the counter. Being the he-man type, he was not into to all the pretty colors being un-boxed until he caught sight of Lagoon, a slightly brushstroke-y almost frost, periwinkle blue with a royal blue flash . He said that in the automotive industry, Lagoon would be considered to be a "flip flop" paint color. Since he was so fascinated by Lagoon, I decided it would be my NOTD.

Being quite thin and runny, I used 3 coats. I think a 4th coat applied with a very light touch would have helped eliminate brushstrokes. I am not crazy about brushstrokes, but this one does not look too bad. Although Lagoon looks better on the color swatch in the Avon book, it has grown on me. Flash polishes always do me in, and this one certainly looks pretty with its glowing blue.
(My apostrophe is screwing up my posts...wth?)
Anyway, as always, pictures are clickable. All these were taken after a days wear, and under halogen lighting in my bathroom...

Avon haul!

Hi Kids!
I dropped a nice chunk o' change on Avon products this week. 14 nail polishes, 2 of which, are back-ordered and 4 eyeliners.
Here's the nailpolish...

FCC 34 EDIT! spooky tattoos as nail art!

Hi Kids!
Before I get to my review of another FCC nail polish, I have to mention that FCC #39, the beautiful, glowing molten red I wore a couple of posts ago, stained my acrylics something fierce. The staining went so deep no amount of buffing would remove it. It's all good though, the staining forced me to do my fill, which I should have done a week ago.
I also want to say that FCC #39 removed quickly...topcoat and color came off with 1 swipe. The silver foil that was left behind came off with with a couple of more swipes...then surprise- red staining!

Anyway, I really wanted to try one of the blue FCCs, however, since I experienced staining with the red, I wasn't taking chances with blues. Since I just did my fill, I opted for a lighter color. Nothing new there...I tend to wear lighter colors on new acrylic, moving my way towards darks the closer I get to my fill.

FCC #34 is a silver champagne foil. It applied like a dream and was opaque in 2 coats. Like the red #39, #34 is a grain-ey type foil. After topcoat, it magically transformed into a smooth brushed metallic. Very pretty! I threw in the word champagne for the lack of a better description. This polish has a warm champagne gold involved in the formulation. I'm not sure if some of the foil particles flash soft gold, or it's in the base. Although not visible looking at the bottle color, the soft champagne gold is subtly noticeable on the nail, making the color a neutral.

Of course I have pictures...
I also photographed a card of spooky body tattoos that I'm going to put on my mani.
EDIT!
Very quickly, cause I have to go to work and this will def get scratched up; Make these bigger...they're wayyyy cool! Body tattoo stickers work on nails. Oh, the possibilities!
Pics are clickable

In non-nail news;
I believe I mentioned/alluded to, in a prior post, the prescribed Valium I'm taking to help with anxiety that's compromising my BP med therapy. It trips me out that I can take 60 to 80mg of pure liquid Morphine for pain management with no effects what-so-ever, and 1 10mg Valium makes me uncontrollably sleepy and drunk like.
Yesterday, while at my PC desk, my head fell forward onto the desk and I fell asleep on a ceramic coaster. My forehead sat on that coaster- for I don't know how long- until my husband came by and woke me up.
The imprint of the coaster stayed on my forehead overnight. Although I don't have a visible bruise, my forehead is freaking sore as heck. I can't even touch it it without experiencing pain like a severe bruise. WTF?
Here's the coaster weapon;

That's one thick, and hard coaster!!!

More news...Remember the waitress who I nicknamed "juicey" on this Blog? The one who caused mega drama? Well, she quit. I had to fight with the owner to NOT beg her to come back. He wanted that psycho to be head waitress. CYBI? My boss is, for some reason, drawn to people with emotional issues...and he invariably turns them into monsters that I have to deal with.
I am 100% sure this was a play for power on her part. Make herself non-expendable and quit so he would call her back and give her a position with power. I know this because she has a big mouth... she subtly broadcasted her intent on Facebook. Funny shit...she's still waiting for one of us to call (also on Facebook) Stupid girl.

Anyway! I'm going to stop this rambling and get to those body tattoos. Crossing my fingers they will not only work, but be visible.

FCC polish haul!

Hi Kids!
After my last post, I put on a pair of boots, jumped in my car and drove a mile to the Dollar store that has the FCC polishes. For the Reader who asked...it's called Dollar One. The husband and wife owners are Eastern Indian and are super nice. The husband told me that they had already sold several displays of the FCC polishes and he forgot to order more. I mentioned that I would buy any polish in ornate bottles as long as they're not frosty. I'm sure he can't cherry pick colors for whole displays, however, I did tell him I'd be his best customer for brights and anything on the dark side...purples, greens, teals, oranges and anything glitter.

Anyway, I grabbed 10 more FCC polishes and a black and a blue by another unheard of brand QingYU. Now that I think of it, I should have purchased all the clear FCC polishes...my favorite polishes would look lovely decanted into those bottles, as would my favorite frankens. Dang!

Double dang! I just remembered I purchased a Bingo scratch-off lottery card I have yet to touch!
Here's my Dollar store haul... all $12.36 of it. (My county is in the 3% tax zone)
I set-up my haul display with Halloween in mind.
2 light sources;

The red on the left is a true jelly...whoo hoo!

Oh yeh...I've been meaning to post this question for a month. NJ is in the midst of a Stink Bug plague...they're everywhwere...I can't sleep at night for the helicopter noise they make when all is quiet and they're a flying.
I call them stink bug because when they're crushed, they stink. Little did I know. scientidtd snd entomologists use stinkbugs as they're common name!

Anyone else have a stink bug outbreak?
Here's what the critter looks like;
Ewww...creepy red eyes!

You gotta' see this!

Hey Kids, check this polish out!
If you're a fan of Mary's Blog, Body and Soul, you've seen this brand before here and here. Her sister purchased them last August for a surprising $1(each) at a flea market in South Carolina.

The awesome pictures Mary posted created an instant lemming for me. Honestly, I wasn't much interested in the polishes. What I really wanted were the stunning bottles! My favorite being the one that looks like a filigree cage.

I never thought these polishes/bottles would be mine, so imagine my surprise when I found them by accident at a local dollar store I never go to!
My favorite FCC #39;

The bottle is to die for and so is the color!  It's a 2 coater with a great brush.
I can't stress enough that you just *have* to click each and every one of these pictures to get the full effect of this awesome glowing polish. I feel like I *stole* this cheap-o at $1. Forgive my gushing excitement...I believe the last time I was *this* excited about a polish was when I traded my brand new, unopened teal flashing MPJ for the 3/4 full original holo MPJ at the last nail salon I was using.

Look at how this metallic glows! Now, I don't have MAC Bad Fairy, but from swatches and descriptions I've read, the duochrome properties of BF is soft and only visible under certain light conditions. My FCC #39 has a soft duochrome thing going on under certain lighting. I would not call it a dupe, however, it has totally killed my lemming for BF for sure...it's *that* gorgeous!!! Please enlarge all these pics to get the full effect of this polish.

Color without topcoat looks like a silvered red foil. Upon applying a topcoat it magically transforms into a molten, glowing red metallic with flashes of gold/orange and fuchsia. Just stunning!!! Please click to get a close-up of the difference. Bottom is a fakie without a TC.

Close-up of bottle color. The silver you see disappears after applying a topcoat.                                                                                                                               

 I <3 FCC #39 so much!!! I can't decide which is more beautiful, bottle or polish?
I also grabbed a filigree cages blackened red and the following;

I grabbed the above (FCC #65) thinking it was a glitter with flakies. Upon swatching, I realized that the goldish floaties were iridescent hex glitter- and not flakies. It's still pretty though.
I'm leaving right after posting this to grab some more. The almost empty FCC display had several different bottle types, one of which was kind of bullet shaped similar to a Cover Girl Lashblast mascara tube but smaller. That one was a dusty griege purple and I want!

Here's more FCC #39

Going batty fauxnad

Hi Kids!
Here's my first Halloween inspired fauxnadicure of the season...more than a little late according to my Goth Card. For a while there, I was afraid the men in black coats would revoke my card, however, since my mani is kind'a cool, I'm confident that my card is safe for the time being.

This fauxnadicure was really hard to photograph, so be prepared to be bombarded with more pictures than I should posting. As always, they're clickable for the ginormous size.

*Base was an old Maybelline Express Finish, Fiji Plum, 3 coats. This polish doesn't look plum at all, it's really a dusty, berry red with red flashing to gold glitter.
*Moon is Nfu-Oh #61 applied using a reinforcer on middle nail
*One coat layer of Ruby Kisses in Fuzzy Navel...a sheer, orange jelly.
*While the layer was still wet, I brushed on and swirled a dark franken in random places. I was going for the illusion of dark clouds in a red night sky.
*Since the night sky is always brighter around the Moon, I ringed it with China Glaze Orange Knockout and also added it between the clouds, concentrating most of the intensity on the middle nail and lightly radiating it out to the inside edges of my index and ring nails. Thumb and pinky are the furthest from the Moon, so I left them darker.
Bat images applied using a Color Club mini in black.
*Plates; T13, H17, BM13.
*Stamped (the solid) witch riding her broom on my thumbs

Staining Nina Ultra Pro Love Struck, LOL a peenshroom!

Hey Kids...I meant to post this last week, after removing my cherries fauxnad.
Look at the staining I got with NUP Love Struck;

The staining this polish left was so opaque, I barely had vnl. Since I was originally going to wear a blue, I used a base coat, and just look at what happened! Staining was so deep, I had to grind away 1/3 of my acrylic. I'm not sure if Nina Ultra Pro Love Struck will do the same on natural nails. At any rate, I'd recommend doubling up on a good base coat before applying this one.
Although the staining was horrendous, it doesn't change the fact that Nina Ultra Pro Love Struck is my #1 favorite red.

For the heck of it, I'm closing this post with a bit of funny.
Last week while my dh and I were on a leiserly walk through the woods, I came upon this;

Giant peen mushroom! I wish I had taken these pics from the angle that showcased the "helmet" better, but I was laughing so hard I could barely keep my camera still. It didn't help that dh asked if I felt the need to take the giant peenshroom home.
Since dh is such a fungi, (yes, I crack myself up...at 49, I'm allowed to be corny), I'm going to back and grab this thing and put it on my nightstand.

SH Garnet Lapis Prism, worthy of a weeks wear

Hi Kids! Long time no post...10 days to be exact- with good reason(s). I'll get into that after nail polish stuff.
My NOTW has been 2 coats of Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis Prism over 1 coat Pure Ice All Night Long.
Prepare yourself for lots of pictures...Garnet Lapis is a gorgeous, multi-chrome chameleon.
There is so much more I want to say about this polish, but am unable to because Valium is making my normally inarticulate mind even more confounded where words are concerned. Not even sure if that last sentence makes any sense.
I can, however, post my pictures without fear of sounding stupid....
Garnet Lapis has many facets. You can check it closer by clicking the pictures to make em bigger...
Most pictures taken after a week of wear;

So, that's it- Garnet Lapis, a great polish to wear and be mesmerized by while sitting in the dentists chair for 7 out of 10 days.
It's also been a great "pick-me-up" after my chest X-ray confirmed my suspicion that I have Emphysema...one of my rewards from smoking...Which, by the way- for those of you who smoke- IS NOT REVERSIBLE.
I'm not writing this for pity- I knew what the risks were.  That said, please do not comment with "I'm sorry"-that will offend me greatly. 

Cherries fauxnad**edit**

Hi Kids!
I am tickled pink at how nice my fauxnadicure turned out!
9 pictures, 3 different light sources.
Pictures are clickable...
Sun

Incandescent light...

Fluorescent light... Overall, most color accurate

With the exception of black, all the stamping polishes are my newest frankens, and were created specifically to give my faunadicures more dimension.
All the traditional stamping polishes I've used tend to be one dimensional and just sit there on top of the nail.  Not a good look if you're into multiple colors and layering.
With that in mind, I used a mixture of-  polishes and pigments that have a flash, shimmers, frosts, metallics, and in the 2 greens used today, holos. I really love how my frankens turned out...they seem to sit deep within the mani.  It's very similar to the difference between a pattern woven into a silk scarf opposed to a pattern printed on a silk scarf. The woven pattern is more dimensional and richer.

I'm having so much fun messing with these frankens...there is always the element of surprise. ?  I don't know what finish within the stamping polish will dominate until I apply a top coat. (Base color also changes what the stamping polish will do.) The franken I used for the cherries is actually a light coral, but after applying Seche, it looks like a hot, glowing, cherry red over Nina Ultra Pro Love Struck!

Oooops! For got to give plate numbers...
Cherries- essence rectangular plate (from a swap with the lovely Tiana) and partials from BM21
Leaves- BM05
branch thingies- fauxnad A07

I also forgot to post this...
Does this happen to anyone else?
Mani is FULLY cured, but without top coat. It is NOT dentable.
Granted, I sleep on my hands as well as have them under my pillow. As per my dh, the area doesn't go over body temp- 98.6.

Odd that a temp of 98.6 softens polish enough to do this.