Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

A truly swampy yet kind of shimmeringly alive greenish-brown with gold highlights. Above is three coats; it could've used a fourth.

And because I just wanted to try the SOPI Blasted Glitters already... another ugly mani:

Sephora by OPI Blasted Turquoise Glitter over Happy Earth Day to Me 

No, I did not wear this long. The SOPI Blasted series of glitters were just weird. I can see a slight crackle effect but mostly, it looks like unevenly distributed glitter.

Sephora+Pantone Tangerine Tango

Sephora+Pantone Tangerine Tango

Looks more orange in bottle than on the nail: it dries into an orange-y red. Three coats, very smooth application. I think this was last year's...? (Man, grad school has a way of making you lose track of time.)

Butter London The Black Knight

Butter London The Black Knight

I was SO excited for this polish. I don't know what exactly disappointed me about it. It just was somehow less sparkly, less alive than I thought it'd be. Kept on applying coats, trying to make it more awesome. (I think I stopped at four. What? It works with other glitters...) Purple blue and silver glitter in a black base. Slightly gritty. Eats topcoat like a glitter.

Bourjois Tangerine Fatal

Bourjois Tangerine Fatal

It's not quite a tangerine color. More like a peach. And it occupies that space between jelly and creme, where the glossiness makes it looks squishier than usual. Four coats. 

Ciate Power Dressing

Ciate Power Dressing

This color was a bit of a surprise. I applied it inside one evening very low-light conditions and thought it was going to be this lovely dark eggplant-y purple. Then I go outside the next day and realize that it's a rather blue blue. I also realized that four coats wasn't enough to make it opaque. I don't know how many times I have to make this judgment error before I learn to turn on the light when I apply nail polish. Probably before some important job interview when I've accidentally applied a neon yellow thinking it's some mauve color. :P

Bourjois Jaune Trendy

Bourjois Jaune Trendy

Sunshine yellow creme. Bought in a drugstore in Montreal, probably one of the last nail polishes I've bought since last July. Four coats, not out of line for a yellow.

Banging my head against the wall about my dissertation proposal. If I can get this done before this summer, I can be done with the PhD by next summer...

Unnamed Icing Green Glitter over Dior Amazonia

It bothers me when nail polishes don't have names...

Unnamed Icing green glitter over Dior Amazonia 

One of in a set of mini Icing glitters. Green and silver hex and square glitter in a lot of emerald green shimmer. Can't quite tell how many coats it would've taken to become opaque but this was three coats of the Icing on top of a dark green creme.

Dior Amazonia

You know what really sucks? Pneumonia. Pneumonia sucks. And pneumonia is pretty much what took up my entire February. I still haven't gotten my voice back entirely but at least I don't sound like an evil consumptive frog anymore! Now, if the cough calm down, I'd sound like the happiest, healthiest, least evil frog ever. So in celebration of being a happy frog...

Dior Amazonia

Slightly swampy army green creme. A little thin for a darker Dior in my experience (three coats) but can't really complain about that.  Dried quickly as usual. Wore well for days. 

Revlon Sparkle Aplenty

Revlon Sparkle Aplenty

The heck kind of name is "Sparkle Aplenty"? This is also another polish that I've bought during my attempted no-buy. I was waiting for a flu shot in a pharmacy and was right in my line of sight. I had to go home with something besides a sore arm. (I also bought some Good Humor popsicles.) Anyway... the polish. I found this combination of silver hex glitter suspended in black jelly kind of dull. It lacks the panache of the Lippmann glitters, which use similar combinations. The great thing about the polish is that even though it's jelly, it's pretty good to go after two coats; the above is three because I wanted more glitter. :)

Inglot 913... now transformed into an ugly manicure.

Blue Cross Meteorites Shooting Star

I love bar glitter. Or rather, I love the LOOK of bar glitter in the bottle. I mean, look at how festive it is! (Also, I didn't know Blue Cross sold polishes at some point. Yay eBay.) But then I try to apply it and...

Shooting Star over Inglot 913

Talk about a hot mess, eh? I could have picked a better polish to put under Shooting Star. Three coats of unevenly dispersed gold bar glitter. Some people can really pull off this type of glitter. And they have some magical way of applying it beautifully. I am not one of those people. 

Kat Von D Sparklehorse

Kat Von D Sparklehorse

What IS it with me and nail polishes that take an absurd number of coats? That cheerful, glittery, warm-yellow-gold was six coats and still not opaque. Maybe it was supposed to be sheer but I'm not a fan of having my nails look sparkly and jaundiced. Nevertheless, Sparklehorse was marvelously eye-catching... even though I had terrible cuticle drag, immediate shrinkage and a very long application time, followed by an even longer dry time. At least it didn't chip quickly or anything. :P

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

I miss my perfect nail polish swatching balcony. Sunlight for as long as there is sunlight. Private, so I don't have to feel sheepish in an apartment building. But alas, I moved and the balcony did not move with me. So now if I want to take a photo without running outside, I only have a couple of hours a day where I'll get good direct sunlight. As a result, some of my NOTDs are going to look more ragged... because they're being taken on the third or fourth... or in the case of this photo, fifth day. (Besides a bit of tipwear, it wore very well. I think I rode this NOTD out for over a week.) This very pale blue creme -- bordering on greyish -- was a bit thinner than I thought it'd be (four coats) but applied pretty easily. So, no big complaints from me!

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

I'm in utter denial that it's not summer anymore. Hence, a greenish neonish yellow. (It's just slightly greener in real life than in the photo.) Unfortunately, this polish was thin (I think we're looking at 4 or 5 coats up there), prone to cuticle drag, and then chipped in just a few days. Boo. Still, it was a nice little early fall pick-me-up.

SALE! 2 Mystery Grab-Boxes

...or, as I like to call them, Insta-Stash. Or maybe Stash-in-a-Box?

Either way, they are medium USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes filled with at least 50 nail polishes each. The polishes are from a variety of brands, finishes, and shades. For instance, neither box has all the high-end polishes or all the glitters! The polishes cost me between $0.50 to $14, with a mean price of about $4.00 per polish. Almost all of them have only been used once or twice; a couple may have been used more or have undergone evaporation (since some of them were from old, old beauty supply places).

I'm selling each box for $75 (which already includes the $11.35 for shipping). Those who are interested, please fill out our blog's Contact Us form and select "flinty". First come, first served. :)

Some pics of the polishes that went into the boxes...

Some of the brands represented are:

Barry M
BB Couture
Bug Me Not
Cetuem
China Glaze
Claire's
Confetti
Cover Girl
Diamond
Duri
ELF
Elianto
Elizabeth Arden
Essie
Eyeko
Hot Topic
Huemorista
Integrate
KleanColor
L'Oreal
LA Colors
La Femme
LA Girl
Misa
Missha
Nicole
NYX
OCC
OPI
Orly
Oscar
Pa
Palladium
Pop Beauty
RBL
Rimmel
Risk
Sally Hansen
The Face Shop
Wet n Wild
Zoya

(The boxes were packed earlier this summer before I moved so I really have NO idea which boxes contain what polishes...)

I prefer to sell in lots like this because I just don't have the time to sell 100 polishes piecemeal anymore. :( Boo. I remember when I was a selling, swapping fiend. Those were the good old days. 

CND Sapphire Sparkle over OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear?

CND Sapphire Sparkle over OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear? 

I'm super lazy of late so I generally apply a creme, jelly or a very, very subtle shimmer, wear that for a few days, and then layer something on top of that and wear it for a few more days. CND Sapphire Sparkle was maybe not the most intuitive choice to put over Y'All Come Back but I rather liked the combination. It didn't really show off how pretty Sapphire Sparkle could be (as when put over a dark polish) but it gave the orange a slightly unusual look. This was applied on day four of Y'All Come Back and I think I wore this particular combination without chippage for another few days after that.

OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear?

Where on earth did summer go? This has been sort of one hell of a year so far, and I think I'll leave it at that and post a pic of polish. :)

OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear?

That is one long nail polish name. I actually loved the look of this polish: squishy orange jelly! This was a gift from my ex's mother... that she gave to me, umm, years ago and I just got around to wearing it. Application was four coats, as expected for a jelly. But it applied really smoothly, so it was a very easy-going and quick four coats. Unfortunately, I had really noticeable shrinking at the tips almost immediately (with Gelous and Poshe) and the tipwear became noticeable very quickly. This was taken on the second day of wear, but I wore this for a good four days without issue.

THEME WEEK - My Favorite Holo!

Nfu.Oh 066

It's so strange to see photos of my nails this long when I've had shorties for the past year or two... but anyway, here is Nfu.Oh 066. Holy holo!! :D Give me a good linear holo any day... although, admittedly, it's been awhile since I've worn a really good holo like this one. 

THEME WEEK - My favorite nude!

Misa Whimsical Wish

I'm not one for nudes (kind of like how I'm not one for reds), but I really loved this one. Light, fairly neutral but with some beautiful shimmer. Go figure that my idea of a neutral nude includes shimmer. I have one of the RGB HIPP polishes but haven't found the opportunity to wear that one yet: I'm holding out hopes that it's the MNBB that I've always dreamed of (except not really, because I don't really wear nudes). But I loved this one.

Just moved earlier this week. Moving = urgh. Nails look like crap. :(

THEME WEEK - My Favorite Glitter

Revlon StreetWear FX Flash (Green Version) over a dark creme (I forget which)

Whoa, my nails were long. I've gotten a couple of requests in the last few months about where I get all my StreetWear polishes. It was a place in Midtown Manhattan but the last three times I checked, there were no SWs to be found. Or anything else of much worth. :(

Either way, this is one of my absolute favorite glitters: I'm not a fan of it needing a dark base but otherwise, I just love the green-gold duochrome-y glitteriness of it.

I'm maid of honor in my best friend's wedding today. I don't like Zoya because it doesn't last on me, but I accompanied her to an organic salon (in another state!) for her to get her hair done and all they had was Zoya. So I got Zoya Tru on tips and Zoya Barbie on toes. Both looked prettier in the bottle. If I have time today, I'll post a photo from my iPhone of my tips and toes (in really sparkly silver shoes!!).

A lot of big "meh": some LA Girl Glitter Addict swatches

I really love LA Girl polishes. They are generally inexpensive (especially if you catch a good Cherry Culture deal) and awesome (even if a little slow to dry sometimes). So I was ecstatic when I heard about the Glitter Addict collection. Ordered the whole thing on impulse before I saw many swatches. And I'm kind of annoyed at myself because now I just have a lot of new layering polishes (and I don't really like layering polishes). Without exception, all the glitters are suspended in clear jelly.

LA Girl Synergy over Orly Frisky

Gold hex glitter shows up as kind of holo in the bottle but is very sparse. And the holo doesn't really seem to show up unless in direct sunlight. Two layers. 

LA Girl Celebrate

Celebrate... what exactly? Sparse multicolored small and large hex glitter. The above is... I think it was five layers? At least it was interesting to look at and might be cute over a black or white polish. 

 Closeup of Celebrate

 LA Girl Euphoria over Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud

Lavender glitter with lavender and holo hex glitter. This one looked fabulous in the bottle: the combination of lavender and holo was stunning. On the nail, not so much. Four layers. 

LA Girl Flamboyant over Orly Fresh

I actually liked this one a lot. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it looked like an ordinary orange glitter/orange hex glitter combo in the bottle and maybe because by this time, I had my expectations dialed down to zero. So when this came out looking as expected (two sizes of sparse orange glitter), I wasn't disappointed. Four layers.