Eight hours til the end of the Inque nail design contest! And some KleanColor bottle pics. :)

The Inque Nail Design contest ends in eight hours (at 11:59PM PST). Plenty of time to flex your creative muscles still. :D

And because I don't want this to just be the bad type of spam... some bottle pics of my most recent haul from KleanColor! (mmm... glitter. click for larger pics!)

Aurora, Mix Signal, Sugar Coat, Take a Hint

Afternoon Picnic, Holo Green, Midnight Seduction

My Valentine, Party Fever, Firework, Shooting Star, City Never Sleeps

KleanColor Holo Chrome

A warning for all those who want to find this beauty and make it theirs: IT STINKS TO THE HIGH HEAVENS.

I don't know why but the smell of this polish was so strong, I started coughing while applying it. I have a pretty high tolerance for nail polish scents -- I actually kind of find them soothing and sniffing nail polish in a store while I'm in a different city calms me and makes me feel at home... I may have problems -- but this one was nearly unbearable. But the prettiness made me keep going! What's a couple of hundred brain cells when a holo is this pretty?

KleanColor Holo Chrome

Lots of pics at different levels of blurriness to show off the holo. It actually photographs pretty easily for a holo too. It is slightly more purple than this. It went on really easily but took awhile to dry with Diamont tc. It's hard to tell but there are several dents in this mani because of its long dry time. Unsurprisingly, it dries pretty bumpy because of ALL THE GLITTERS but nothing a couple layers of topcoat won't cure. This is three, stinky coats. Wore it for three days with nary a chip.

Closeup of Holo Chrome

Video of Holo Chrome

Wanna hear something funny? After I got this camera and used it the first few times to do HD videos, I forgot that it had a macro mode... which is why all my videos have been blurry (until today)! Man, I am such a spaz. How I managed to remember enough to graduate from middle school is beyond me.

September 21st (15m cardio), September 22nd (40m cardio), September 23rd (60m cardio + weights).

Some cheap creme thrills: Jordana Rich Green, ELF Smoky Brown, and KleanColor Brown

This morning will be dedicated to proof-reading a manuscript that my advisor has co-authored with another (former) graduate student. I'm always so flattered when she wants me to do things writing-related for her because she thinks I write well. Thank goodness I'm good for something. :)

I was less than "thrilled" with these but they were still pretty good for being $3 and under.

Jordana Rich Green

Grass green creme. Three coats. Awesome color but I didn't like the formula much.

ELF Smoky Brown

Dark taupe. Or somewhere between greyed-out purple and greyed-out brown. Brush wasn't a broom, surprisingly. These polishes separate like crazy and you gotta shake them up real good before using. Three coats.

KleanColor Brown

Two coats. In which universe is this considered "brown"? The photo does make it a touch brighter orange than it appears in real life BUT it's just a duller orange in person. Pretty nice polish though: two coats. But this was just a swatch and according to Piff, these polishes never dry...

I'm doing a new incentive program to get my ass in shape again. My weight has been a bitch for most of my life -- on again, off again, on again, off again -- and being in an on-again stage is a serious drag on my life right now. It wasn't a drag the last time but it is this time. So this is my plan: for every day that I exercise in one month, I get to haul one polish in the next month. But the value of the polish dependent on the amount of time I spend exercising:

• 90 minutes or over = a polish that costs over $14
• 60-89 minutes = a polish that costs up to $14
• 45-59 minutes = a polish that costs up to $8
• 30-44 minutes = a polish that costs up to $4
• Under 30 minutes = a polish that costs up to $2

And no roll-over polishes: if I don't buy one month, I can't save it up for a big haul next month.

So far this month: Aug 1st (60m bike ride), 2nd (45m cardio+strength), 3rd (60m cardio+strength), 4th (45m yoga), 5th (15m run). In September, I'm going to reward myself with two fall Essies, two holiday Orlys and maybe a Confetti polish. ;)

The funny thing is that when I'm in "work out mode" I work out nearly every single day -- a regimen I kept up for almost 3 years at one point. (Which is why I put price limits on the polishes I'd buy! Otherwise, I will definitely be broke.) About one workout a week goes over an hour. Two workouts hit at about an hour. The other four days usually oscillate between 15-45 minutes, depending on how tired/busy I am. Some weeks, all four days are 20-25 minute cardio sessions; some weeks, half of those days are 45m cardio+strength. I rarely have a week where I push my body further: it's not productive to not have some recovery. Many people suggest that you take a day off a week to recover: I personally think it's just as restorative to be on a recumbent bike playing Scrabble or Carcassonne on my iPad for 20 minutes once or twice a week.

I used to reward myself with massages: "if I work out for 21 days straight, I get a massage" type of deal. But my yoga place has a deal where for $65 a month, you get as many professional hour-long massages as you can schedule in (which comes out to 2-3 massages a month). So nail polishes it is.

Yes, I'm crazy. Why do you ask?