butter LONDON - The Black Knight

Hey everybody! :)  If a "black knight" is to a "white knight" what bad is to good, then this polish is most appropriately named.  This is one bad boy...butter LONDON's The Black Knight.  This was part of my very first bL polish purchase, when Ulta was having a buy one get one free sale.  I remember even the girl at the checkout counter said, "Ooooh, that is pretty!"  This polish is a super-glittery mix of blue, silver, and pink (heavy on the pink) suspended in a black jelly base.  Just beautiful.

  

butter LONDON The Black Knight

Glittering and bold...everything a knight should be, right?

The Black Knight seems to be the perfect guy.  He's daring, he's fearless, he's gorgeous!  But he's flawed!  Oh, why do so many beautiful things have a dark side?? 

  Polish Behaving Badly - *SOB*

Wearing The Black Knight is like going out with an incredibly good-looking, yet self-absorbed, guy.  You love looking at him, but you know he'll only bring you heartache in the end.  He greedily eats top coat like you're the one paying the tab.  He is so shallow that the layers of his personality flake off before your eyes.  I have never worn this polish for more than 6 hours before it starts to chip.  And I don't mean little chips...I mean like half of the nail comes off in one sheet.  Happens every single time.  But I'm just a sucker who keeps going back for more...I keep telling myself he'll change...

Could he just be your knight in shining armor?

There is absolutely no denying that The Black Knight is one handsome heart breaker.  So, if you still wish to go into this relationship knowing the risks, then I wish you much happiness.  Maybe he will treat you better than he has treated me.  Maybe he just doesn't like my nails.  Maybe you are the girl of his dreams.  Just don't cry too much if he loves you and leaves you.

Ah...the appeal of the bad boy...

Have a lovely Tuesday, and thanks for stopping by! :)

Julie G Frosted Gumdrops Crushed Candy

Hey everybody!  I was in Rite Aid last weekend (actually looking for another polish) when I found a display of the Julie G Frosted Gumdrops Collection.  This brand is only found in Rite Aid stores, and it's the first Julie G polish I've ever had.  This is one of the many textured polish lines we are seeing this year, and although I'm not terribly crazy about the textured polishes, I really like this one.  This is Crushed Candy, a perfect purple-pink mash-up.

Julie G Crushed Candy

 The only other textured polishes I've purchased so far have been from the OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand line.  The Julie G texture is totally different from Liquid Sand.  It's more like you put a bunch of glitter in a blender and made a paste...and then added more glitter. :)  And it's nearly impossible to make an application error.

Super sparkly - and quite feminine, too!

The darker particles don't look quite so dark in person.

 I am going to attempt to get through tomorrow...well, at least through tomorrow morning...wearing this sans top coat.  But do you remember how it felt when you got your braces off your teeth?  All you wanted to do was run your tongue over your teeth because you hadn't felt them smooth in 2 years, remember?  Well, this has the opposite effect!  All I seem to do is run my fingers together because this feels so rough!  LOL! 

Oh, but I do love a lavender-ish pink!

What do you think of this textured polish?  I didn't mention the best part:  it sells for $3.99 a bottle.  Now we're talking.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely Sunday! :)

My Favorite Teal - Layla Ceramic Effect 62

Hey everybody!  Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that most people who adore polish seem to always gravitate towards either blue, green, or blue/green hues?  I'm absolutely guilty.  I have more of the teal/turquoise variety alone than my entire collection of pinks and reds combined.  I see a new teal and the rest of the world goes all fuzzy for me.  Well, I have lots of 'em, but I can honestly say that today's featured polish is my favorite of them all...Layla Ceramic Effect 62.  Layla polishes have no names on the bottles, but with a bit of Googling prowess, I ascertained that the official name is Bally Sky.  Hmmm.  Okay...

Layla Bally Sky (CE 62)

This is a duochrome polish with a large amount of gold shimmer.  It looks more green in incandescent light and blue in fluorescent light.  Either way, it's just beautiful.  Perhaps the best part about this polish is the application.  Sometimes I have to be very careful when applying a bold color like this, but the formula on Bally Sky is so smooth that it's difficult to mess anything up.  And that gets a BIG gold star from a Klutzimus Maximus like myself.

Mmmmm...so lovely!

 

Shimmery good!!

The perfect teal!

My sister got this for me last Christmas from Ulta.  If your neighborhood Ulta still has this color, or even the Ceramic Effect polishes period, pick one up!!  I highly recommend them!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a lovely Friday!

An Inaugural Polish Post - Zoya Shivon

Hey everybody!  I thought hard about what my first official polish post would be, so I decided that I absolutely HAD to post something by my favorite brand, Zoya.  Ah, Zoya...your very name just sends a thrill through my entire being.  I love Zoya for so many reasons.  Their small brush is perfect for my tiny nails.  Their foils are practically mistake-proof.  Their sales are fantastic! :)

I decided to show you a polish that, in my opinion, just doesn't get the attention it deserves.  It's Shivon, a gorgeous duochrome polish.  I picked this one up during one of the aforementioned fantastic sales.  Zoya describes it as "a dark rose gold with hints of purple and bronze and strong gold duochrome shimmer."  On me, it changes from peachy rose to purple-pink with an almost copper look at times.  Whatever it is, it's truly unusual and absolutely stunning. 

Zoya Shivon

I am one of those girls who matches her polish with her clothes.  It's really something about which I'm quite adamant. :)  I like to wear this color when I wear peach or light pink.

Duochrome AND shimmer! Drooooooooool...

I am not really a fan of pink polishes, but this one is so different.  It's simultaneously classic and modern.  I think it looks fantastic even with Renaissance jewelry:

Eat your heart out, Lucrezia Borgia!

What do you think of Shivon?  Are you as much in love as I?  I thought so!  

Have a lovely Wednesday! :)

Welcome to my world! :)

Hey everybody!  I'm Melissa, an ordinary non-nail technician type of girl, who after much trepidation and self-doubt has decided to jump into the nail blogging universe and see whether or not it eats me up alive. :P  Over the past year or so, my new burning amour has been for nail polish.  I can't seem to get enough of it.  I confess, that fact somewhat embarrasses me.  I don't know anybody in my personal circle who gets excited about nail polish like I do, so I feel a little strange going to Ulta with my sister and shamelessly salivating over the latest OPI display.  I started reading nail blogs about a year ago, beginning with sweet Essie Rae's iHeartPrettyPolish and I was hooked.  She encouraged me to try my own blog, and I must have been feeling particularly bold, because here I am! (Hey, I guess if she could convince me that I needed Butter London's Wallis, she could talk me into anything.)  I am excited to share my own thoughts and feelings and blah blah blahs about nail polish with the world!  YAY!!

And so a little bit about myself...I live in beautiful Southeast Coastal Georgia, in a shrimping town with no traffic light, and where we have exactly 2 seasons:  warm and hot.  I love family, church, dogs, zoos and aquariums, photography, traveling, music, art, making people laugh, large quantities of chocolate, and Britlit drama.  I have a very blessed life! :)  I've had a lifelong love of cosmetics, and I am extremely pale, which sometimes makes nail polish look really different on me.  (I have to mix goth white foundation with ivory to match my skin.  But no complaints here...it's my best feature!) People refer to me as "fancy."  I hope they don't mean that in a Reba McEntire kind of way.

I became a first-time bride in December 2011, just before I turned 43 years old!
My something blue was Revlon's Not So Blueberry. :)

Aquariums are even more fun when you're wearing My Big Break by OPI...

My beautiful baby Sebastian and me...he passed away on March 12 of this year. :'( 

And now for the ugly truth...I have serious nail issues.  I work with paper at my day job, and my hands and cuticles stay drier than yesterday's toast.  I have tiny little nail beds, and my nails peel like onions.  No matter what polish I use, or base coat, top coat, etc., I always have tip wear within 2 hours.  So I never wear the same polish 2 days in a row.  Even when my nails are in very good condition, I can't wear anything for more than a day.  C'est moi!  I look at all those lovely nails on all those lovely bloggers and sometimes have a hard time relating to them because I have so many issues!  Being eternally clumsy doesn't help either.  Why, just this morning, I lopped off 2 nails with my razor whilst shaving my legs!  Bravo, me! :)  I have to work really, really hard at keeping my hands looking presentable.  I think that's probably the main reason I was so hesitant about starting my own blog!

All that being said, I really love me some nail polish...high-end stuff, drugstore stuff, all manner of stuff.  So...if you're courageous enough to take this journey with me, I would welcome and truly appreciate the company.  It gets lonely salivating all by myself.