hot blooded by L.A. Colors

I bought "Hot blooded" by L.A. Colors Color Craze line at the Dollar Tree last week for, you guessed it, a dollar.  "Hot blooded" is a deep red jelly based polish that REFUSES to photograph as such.  For a more accurate description, think of the last time you were bleeding and how it changes from deep purple, to dark red to bright red (as it oxidizes).  Basically, "Hot blooded" is the middle stage of the color transformation.  Not purple, but not the bright red everyone associates with blood.

Now, you're all going to think I'm nuts because this is bright freakin' ketchup red.  Regardless of sunlight, flash, no flash and shade this color photographs as BRIGHT RED.  And it's not!  Not in the bottle and not on the nails! 

Color sample from the website.

 

 I actually really like how it's not bright red but unfortunately it's nearly impossible for me to capture, so I tried my hand at color correcting it in Photoshop.

This is what I came up with, lol.  It's more accurate than any picture I could take.  But not exactly what it looks like in actuality.  I google image searched the color and all of the swatches I saw looked bright red, too.  C'est la vie!

bourbon street on voodoo

I decided (as I do most of the time) to spice up my NOTD and added a blingy little tip to "voodoo" which was shown a post prior.

Its called "Bourbon St." by Funky fingers and I forgot I had it!  My dad uses some of my polishes to make his fishing lures and when hes tying flies and I found it in his stuff today.  Lightbulb went off and I added this little touch.

Looks like a NYE mani, not a random Sunday in Janurary mani.  I ended up taking it off right away.  Oh well, still cute to me! Thanks for reading (= !!

funky fingers "voodoo"

Ohhh I love it!  I normally don't go for any type of dark colors.  I love bright happy pastels and such, but this one weaseled a way into my heart!

"Voodoo" is a black jelly base with teeny tiny little copper.. glitter?  Is that glitter?  I'm still trying to learn how to identify all elements to a polish but these little shiny pieces seem smaller than normal glitter.  Whatever they are, they're copper.  And pretty (=

This was taken outdoors.  You can see the sparkles better.  Click to enlarge this one for sure because it really is a stunning yet subtle added element to the polish!
 

Anyways,  what exactly is the sparkly element of this polish actually called?  Thanks!!

franken; "jaded"

My sister showed me these eyeshadows at Five Below.  They're basically just pigments in little tiny jars and I thought I'd give them a try with some clear polishes I had lying around.

This is what I came up with!  It was about 3/4 full of NYC Nail Strengthener that actually had a slight pink tint to it, but it didn't affect the outcome.  I added 4 different color pigments and some of Funky Fingers "Mint montauk".  I don't know any of the exact measurements because this was like my 5th franken ever and I wasn't sure what I was dealing with, it was also my first time using pigments rather than mixing existing polishes.

I used a white pigment shimmer powder, gold, blue and teal! 

I think I'll name this one "Jaded", for obvious reasons!  Cute, I will def be wearing this (=  What do you think, would you wear it?

e.l.f "fluorescent pink"

I bought this baby at the Dollar Tree quite a while back but never used it.  I ended up wearing this to my second day of school and loved it!  It is bright but definitely not any form of "fluorescent".  

Much more of a coral shimmer, don't you think?  There are hints of gold silver in here, too.  But they go unnoticed unless in the sun or with flash. This polish really made me feel like a lady when wearing it!  Very feminine. 

Went on surprisingly smooth and opaque.  This was 3 somewhat thin coats.

the tale of two purples

Purple Pamploma is my first ever OPI so I was very excited to add it to my collection.  I had dinner plans with the boy (well.. he’s not a boy.. actually 5 years older than me, but you get the idea) and had to hurry up the process because I still had to wash my hair.

 The culprits!

Learned a few lessons this week.. such as showering 25 minutes after doing your nails equates to the optical illusion (so-to-speak) of 10 days of tipwear, instantly!  Talk about being royally pissed.  I had top-coated and painstakingly removed ALL excess polish during the clean up and did the impression test and they seemed OK.  Yea, not really at all.  Luck for all of us, I took pictures before I destroyed them (=

A purple creme (= perfect! Totally into purples lately!  Purple Pamploma, according to Wikipedia, looks much like "Byzantium" in the bottle, photographs more like "Fandango".  The flash definitely lightens the color as a whole but it isn't far from the true color.  The sunlight has a similar effect.  Very pretty regardless!
 

Sooooooooooooo after my disastrous shower and dinner date, I came home and redid my mani.  Chose another purple, surprise, and I am a little bit surprised how similar they appear in pictures!

Don't get my wrong, L.A Colors "Nuclear Energy" (I believe, according to their site.  The bottles have no labels and I have long since discarded the packaging!) and PP are completely different.  Nuclear energy is a jelly and PP is a creme.  They also have different a different hue and saturation.  They appear remarkably different in the bottle, but not so remarkably different on the nail.

Caution: slight gore ahead!

 This is another shot of Nuclear energy on my right hand.  I am soooo tired of looking at my nubblette index nail on my left!  Anyways after uploading the pictures I realized what a hackjob my hand looks like O.O

Note the numerical labels;
1. ouch.

2. OUCH.  (You better believe acetone was fun!  AAUUUUEEEEGHH!! Stung like a B*$@! - only inflamed the wound)

3.  That dent is not visible to the naked eye.. really, I can't even see it.  Yet "macro" makes it so apparent.  Thanks, technology!

I've NEVER been a nail biter. But I've always been a nail picker.  I'll pick pick pick and not even realize it until I draw blood.  I think I did this on the way home from my boyfriend's house.  I'm not sure.  I don't even realize that I do it. Luckily, I don't pick my nails when I have polish on them, its some kind of subconscious deterent and that's fine, great actually.  They're usually bloody stumps when I am not up-to-date on my blog, which is why I will continue to blog as long as I have it in me.  However, not so lucky for my cuticles and the skin surrounding my cuticles.  I unintentionally tear it to shreds and the anti-bite nail polish serves no purpose here.  I don't have to be nervous, anxious, upset or angry.. I just habitually pick at my nails.

Mentioned as my two nail related new year's resolutions were better cuticle care and perfecting "the gap".  I think I've done a decent job on the gap part.. still more work to do..

Any advice on how to shed this habit?