Random Wednesday: I can't swallow

Pills.

You're a dirty bunch.

I actually had a review planned for today but the polish I wanted to use for a base (Cult Nails Time Traveler) bubbled like crazy and I don't know.  The formula was just off.  So instead I'm doing this.

Yes it's true I can't swallow pills.  Now before you start giving me advice know that I have heard it all. "It's easy," "Throw it to the back of your throat then just drink water," "Put water in your mouth first then pop it in.  That way you don't know it's there."  I get it guys.  Let me start by saying it is a head thing.  In theory I know it's not hard to do but I just can't do it.  There  is something that just stops me and that is the hard thing to get over.  I can swallow food and...other things(;P) but for some reason whole idea seems hard for people to understand.

Now you are probably wondering how do I take medicine?

1) Things like Oxycodone or Acetaminophen that aren't coated I put in hot chocolate and let it dissolve completely.  So long as it's not cotaed it's wicked easy to dissolve.  The hot chocolate generally tastes a bit less sweet but it's not bad.

Other drugs I wont mix apart from coated are iron(it made the hot chocolate taste like blood), and antibiotics(It tastes like licking the floor on the deepest darkest pits of hell.)

2) When I had my wisdom teeth out they prescribed antibiotics.  They originally gave me "easy swallow" capsules.  And let's be honest that really wasn't the time to learn and they ended up tasting horrific in hot chocolate.  I eventually got the drug in liquid form.  It tasted pretty good!  So I will get stuff in liquid form.  Loads of drugs come in liquid form you just have to ask.

3) Gummies.  I take my multivitamin in gummy form(they make them for adults).  It's actually the worst because you want to eat them all.

4) Things like ibuprofen generally come coated or in gel.  If you dissolve these they are horrific.  They are generally too harsh and will burn going down.  So when I have aches and pains(like my back the other week) I will sometimes use children's medicine.  I don't actually take a higher dosage because they recommend if possible you dose by weight.  I fall just outside the highest dosage by a couple pounds.  And yes, it does work AND taste like fruit punch.

 

5) I don't mind needles.  It hasn't come to this but I realize that some drugs do come in liquid form but need to be injected.  

I just keep getting weirder and weirder.  Questions?

Vein Nails: I have a semi. A semi fail that is.

Do you ever have one of those ideas?  Really random, weird ideas?  I do.

Well the other day I was thinking of transparent animals, because no one can stop me.  That lead to me thinking of veins that you can see through skin.  And I wondered could I do that on nails?

I knew I was going to have to sandwich blue in between a sheer nutral.  Now I had nothing that matched my skin so I used a random Nailene french mani polish.  As well as Milani Dude Blue(ugh) for the veins.  Finally I added a layer of matte topcoat.

Now there's a few things you should take note of when looking at these photos.  1) The Camera tends to make the Nailene polish look a lot yellower when under light that's not natural.  2) The more light the less visible the veins were in photos.  In real life they look more like the last 2 photos.  Which were taken with a tiny bit of natural light 3) What I'm trying to say is these were IMPOSSIBLE to photograph.  Any lighting I would consider good lighting essentially washes out the veins.

Now this is a semi fail because this actually looks pretty cool in real life.  The "skin" looks a lot more natural and the veins are a bit more visible.  But not too visible.  Enough that they look sort of like veins :P

You guys get any weird nail ideas?  Do you actually go through with them even though they my fail? 

It Don't Matter Nail Wraps by NCLA Part 2: Actually here's a tip about removal that might matter.

I was going to post this yesterday but I was in a rush and I didn't want to post some half assed review.

Let's start out with the second pair of NCLA nail wraps sent to me from Nail Polish Canada, called It Don't Matter a special edition Designed with Melody Ehsani.  It's a black and white assortment of patterns.  I love these because you can easily achieve black and white skittle nails!  Application was exactly like the ones I used last time(You can see those as well as the application process here).  Again I had to cut some in order for them to fit on my nails.  This time when I filed off the tips because some of them had black it looked like I had tip wear.  But I fixed that easily by wrapping the tips with black or white polish.  I didn't do that for my middle finger or thumb because because it wasn't really noticeable when there was a somewhat busy pattern.

And in case you didn't notice I have an accent nail.  It's H&M Plum and a square stud from the Born Pretty Store.  I really wanted to add a bit of colour.  Also it went with the outfit I was wearing last night!

Now let's get to removal. On the back of the package it says just to peel them off.

Don't.

Unless you want to say goodbye to the top layer of your nail(See my pinky finger below).  I can only imaging how much worse it would have been had I not used base coat.  Nail polish remover worked just fine. I actually used acetone because it was right next to me.  You can remove it like you would with normal polish and just rub it off but I found that lead to it disintegrating in to small annoying pieces(See ring finger).  I would suggest you leave the cotton on for a minute or two like you would for glitter polish.  It should all come off in one clean go.  And your nails will look just as good as you left them.

Overall I really do like these.  Especially if you are going on a trip or something.  These would be perfect!  ETA: And the wear on these are great.  I wore the first set for 4 day before I took them off because.  And they looks exactly like they did when I applied them!  I'm sure I could have gotten a few more days wear out of them!

If you would like some you can head on over to Nail Polish Canada.  Each pack retails for $16.00 CND.  And shipping on these is free!

*Product was sent for honest review.

The Art of Doing Nothing

So as you probably know I sort of like a group called Take That.  Or have I not mentioned that?  Oh yes I have.  If you didn't know this chances are you are new here.  But I'm also a fan of the stuff the members do on their own.  Case and point Mark Owen.

I decided to use some art work from his up coming album The Art of Doing Nothing.  Which is due for release on June 10th of this year.

 

I like how it's one of those manicures.  Where people may not understand what it means so they have to ask.  I like conversation starter manicures.   And it was really easy to do.  Who doesn't like a simple mani?  Horrible, soulless people, that's who.  Elizabeth Bathory would hate this.

Check out his first single Stars off of The Art of Doing Nothing. 



Also...

 

Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of my NCLA Nail Wrap review.

Neon Matte Madness!

Hi friends! I've been sick as balls for the last few days…which has meant Hannibal and nail art! Have you guys been watching that show? It's REALLY good. Mads Mikkelsen, get in my bed. You can bring Hugh Dancy too. *AHEM* Sorry, the cough syrup is getting to me.

For this design, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted something loud. Mission accomplished!

 Started with a yellow base, I then sponged randomly with blue, green and orange. Pink stripes in the remaining yellow patches. Then added black chunks. Then dots. I'm sure I could have kept going but it's probably good that I stopped there.

On my left middle finger, the topcoat caused some drag - which I thought looked really cool! The rest of my fingers had dried quite well, though, so this was only cool smudgey one.

I would normally never show you a picture of my thumb, because my thumb cuticles are always so gross. But this looks so rad.

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Essie Orange It's Obvious, Prevail Roof Top Bar, Personelle Emy, Art Deco Wild Fuchsia and Black, Warpaint Beauty Matte Topcoat.

Top Down, Volume Up Nail Wraps by NCLA (Part 1): First Time Using Nail Wraps!!!

So when I was asked by Nail Polish Canada to review some NCLA nail wraps I was excited.  I've always been intrigued by nail polish wraps but had never made the jump.  No real reason why either.  I got to choose two sets to review, so I chose Top Down, Volume Up and another one which I will show later this week.  I decided to divide this post in two so in this post I can talk more about application and such and in the next tell you how it wears and removal.

I was extra excited when these came in the mail a few days ago.  I hurt my back and shoulder doing who knows what and I just didn't feel like doing nail art.  But with these I could have pretty nails and no back breaking labor!

First I have Top Down, Volume Up,  a colourful abstract design.  Two things I LOVED about this. 1)While there is a lot going on in the design it works perfectly without being obnoxious.  2)In the past I have seen nail wraps with fantastic designs, but were ruined by the fact that it looked like an old printer running out of ink printed them.  These do not :)

Each pack contains 2 sheets with 22 wraps(so 44 in total...MATH!)  You could use these 3 or 4 times as full manis.  Not bad eh?  Each pack also comes with a NCLA nail file.  All the instructions are on the back.  5 simple steps. I followed most of these steps.

The nails cleaning went dandy, and I used a coat of base coat.  The sizing is where I hit my one snag.  My fingers are long and narrow so out of the 22 wraps only 4 fit my fingers(ring and middle) without modifications.  The rest I had to trim because they were too big or in one case was too round for the base of my thumb nail.  This was easy to do.  As they aren't custom made for one person, I would rather have them too big than too small.  Next don't worry if your placement is off, these are resilient. You can peel them off and place them again.  I did this to my pinky finger maybe 10 times and it didn't get any less sticky(but it's probably best you do it less then 10 times :P).  Then I squished out all the air using my fingers.  Next I filed off the excess in a downward motion, and made sure the tip was perfectly flat by pressing down again.  Finally I made sure to wrap the tips, and added 2 coats of top coat.  I always add 2 coats when I place something that isn't polish on my nails.

 Light box.  The rest are natural light.

 Only photo of my thumb.

So far I love these.  It's a great way of having fantastic nail art but not have to do any of it.  Also it was super easy to use and really hard to screw up.  I can not wait to use them again!  Stay tuned for my second part to this post later this week!

What are your thoughts on nail wraps?  Have used used these, or any kind of nail wraps?  What did you think?  This is a safe place to speak your mind :)

If you would like some you can head on over to Nail Polish Canada.  Each pack retails for $16.00 CND.  And shipping on these is free!

*Product was sent for honest review.

Everyone sit down please. I'm going to tell you the tale of the most amazing glow in the dark polish your vision spheres have ever seen.

Normally I'm not a fan of glow in the dark polishes.  When I think of glow in the dark polishes I think of colours that have that glow in the dark...look.  Know what I mean?  Generally a neon colour that kind of has a milky look to it.  That look.  I'm not a huge fan of that. Which is was a was drawn to this beauty on the Born Pretty Store website.  Bk Candy Color Fluorescent Neon Luminous Nail Art Polish in #41.

First, it's nothing like any glow in the dark polish I've ever seen.  It's a STUNNING champagne shimmer.  I used 3 thin coats but you can get away with 2.  Wore her in the sunlight and she was sparkling like mad.  Then indoors after placing my hands under light, I turned them off admiring the bright green glow.  It was like my nails were independently dancing.  I really want to try nail art on these.

I should also add this polish smells...sweet.  I looked at the website and I can't find anywhere that says it's scented but I swear it has a perfume smell to it.  Not only in the bottle but my nails smelt the whole time.

I think it's great how most of this collection are actual colours.  They have everything from sky blue to a deep red.  Colours you could wear during the day and no one would ever guess it was glow in the dark.

I LOVE this polish.  It's like a lady leading two lives.  By day she's a classy, put together, elegant woman.  And by night she's pounding back shots of whiskey at the club, and could care less that the knees of her stockings are torn.

If you want 1 or all 41 bottle head over to the BPS and get them before I do.  They retail for 4.99USD.  And don't forget to use our 10% discount code(EAL91)!  And remember free shipping worldwide!!! 

Product was sent for honest review.

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman? Ft. Essence Black is Back

Happy Mothers Day guys!  I hope you all had a splendid day no mater how you spent it!

Before we move on to Batman I want to start by talking a bit about Essence Black is Back.  First of all those of you wondering where black had gone fear not it is back.  Second, I have been in search of a new black for a while as my OPI Onyx is lacking.  So I decided to give this a go.  It was cheap, what the hell.  Formula was...ehhhhh...ok but it started to coagulate.  I used 1 medium coat and 1 thin coat and it bubble quite a bit(which is my biggest complaint) but they were small enough for the top coat to cover it.  Long story short I'm still on the hunt for the perfect black.  Suggestions?

Next up I decided to add a bit of flair.  I took inspiration from a little game on my iPhone I have been playing for the past few days.  Draw Something.  For those of you who don't know what the game is you get 3 words and you need to choose one and draw it for the person you are playing with.  Each word is worth more or less points depending on how hard it is to draw.  Now there are people who play and are unnaturally amazing.

I suck.

But because I suck my pictures turn into magical, hilarious doodles.  I want to frame every one of them. Or draw them on my nails.  This right here is Batman.

These are my nails.

Nailed it.

What Time Is It?

TIME FOR OUR 300TH POST!

I have something really fun for you today! I'm sure many of you are great fans of Adventure Time. Recently, Kas tipped me off that Hot Topic was selling Adventure Time nail polish sets and I had to get my hands on them! Unfortunately, I only found the Finn and Jake set…the Bubblegum/Lumpy Space Princess set had sold out! These originally retailed for $14.50, but they were half off by the time I got there.

Finn is a true blue cream that looked great in 2 coats. Jake is green-leaning yellow crelly, 3 coats mostly eliminated VNL. They dried quite fast. No topcoat here.

I added Cover Bands Sticks and Stones to my index and middle fingers. Mathematical!

You can find these online and in Hot Topic stores. Looks like they won't be there much longer!

ETA: I forgot to show you the bottles, so here's a quick picture before I run off to school:

And the winner is... *drum roll*

First of all thank you all for entering!  It's nice to see so many people who love reading! So long story short we got over 50 entries(amazing guys) and we(George, Kas and Robyn) read them all and cut it down to 9 for Amy to read.  Then she choose a winner and runners up(just in case something happened and we needed a new winner).  So who is the winner you ask?

Onemused - Jackaroo polish!!!

 

 Onemused(aka Olivia) will have 24 hours to respond!

And then for runners up

Jen - Hobbit polish based on Smaug
Thea Adam - Tiffany Aching polish

And now a message from Amy:

Honestly I would love to make all three of these! The rest of the ideas were awesome too, it was truly difficult to choose.

I ultimately chose Onemused as the winner because I love the book, Jackaroo by Cynthia Voight, and the polish sounds like the most interesting challenge to me, a gold/green duochrome holo. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for the last few days, actually, and I already bought Jackaroo for my Kindle to re-read it.

Thank you to everyone for your beautiful, creative ideas!

Amy

Note: Sorry I meant to post this yesterday but I got home late and could barely keep my eyes open. - Kas

Ps.  In case you were curious these were the top 9(in alphabetical order):

Behappyandbuypolish
Caro Dee
Iroshi Windwalker
Jen
Jen Sky Walker
noxy minogue
Onemused
Rainbowify Me
Thea Adam

Congrats to all of you and everyone else who entered! Hope to see you for our next giveaway!

These were going to be my Valentine's Day nails. Nails the boy will like (Somewhat mature content...don't worry no n0odz)

When it comes down to it I do my nails for me.  If people notice them that's great.  But in the end if they make me feel great that's perfect.

These nails were half for me and half for someone else.  The words on my nails(if you seek amy) are from a Britney Song by the same name.  It's also a double entendre(you see now why the nails aren't just for me?).

I actually wanted to do these around Valentines Day because I'm a class act.  And let be honest no one is really surprised I would do this?  Something fun and a bit cheeky :P

More about the actual nails now.  I started with a white base and the sponged on pink, blue and yellow.  Which when sponged over each other can create orange, purple and green.  Then I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I wrote the lyrics with a roller ball pen.  I know people have tried using sharpies(which I haven) and said they smear but I have yet to have this problem with roller ball pens.

Winner for our giveaway should be announced tomorrow!

Gone. But at least I have my very first piCture pOlish!

So sadly everything was in fact erased from my laptop.  They have no clue what went wrong with it but no one could seem to get in.  So all my writing is gone from the past 5 years and all my boy band photos.  *cries*.  Everyone should go back their stuff up right now!

While it was shitty(I only cried once).  I did get something that made me feel a tad better the next day!  My first piCture pOlish! I actually got this from the boy because he didn't go to one of my shows. 

piCture pOlish Cosmos is part of their Collaboration collection and was created in collaboration with Camille of Pshiiit.  Cosmos is rich dark blue jelly filled with shimmery scattered holo flecks.  It went on easy as ever in 2 coats!  It is STUNNING in real life.  Pictures do NOT do it justice!  It's what the night sky looks like it movies that have a really huge budget!

I NEED more of these polishes.  NEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDD.

 

Ps.  Giveaway winner will probably be announced Monday!  Stay tuned!