Where Has January Gone?!?!

Sorry to have been MIA, but over the holidays we moved, got the kids settled in a new school, and did I mention we moved?  I hate moving!!  

Anyway, I've not had very much time to play with polish lately, but here are the mani's I managed to eek out.  Please don't mind that these are all cell phone pics...I seem to have mis-placed my camera's charger among the dozen or so boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Chirality's holo skittles for the New Year! 

Zoya Feifei & Lael 

This is my current mani!  KB Shimmer "Toucan Touch This" with Zoya for flower accents.  This gorgeously bright polish has been calling to me for a couple of weeks now...probably because of all the grey skies and rain we've been having here lately...this Cali girl needs her sun!! 

We're more settled in, and my awesome hubby made me a little polishing nook area in our huge master bedroom, so I'm planning on getting my polish on a lot more often!  Thanks for sticking around!

KB Shimmer "Elle"

I have neglected my polish-posting this week, so I am ALMOST behind on my Alphabet Challenge with Lustrous Lacquer.  We're on the letter "E" this week, and today is the last day of the week, so I'm barely making it!

I looked through my "untrieds" and actually saw a few "E" polishes.  But "Elle" from KB Shimmer has been languishing long enough, and today is her day:

 With flash:

Very pretty and subtle...well, as subtle as a glitter bomb can be!  This is 3 coats topped with Seche Vite.  Each coat applied smoothly and was super-packed with glitter, as per usual KB Shimmer perfection.

Elle is part of the "Circus Collection" and is inspired by performing elephants.  You can order it HERE.  I think it's very elephant-y!

"Band Geek" - Reppin' It!!

I am proud to say I was a Band Nerd in high school 20 years ago.  I played all 4 years, and I was in field marching AND parade band, with concert season thrown in for good measure.  All band, all the time.

My Freshman & Sophomore years I played clarinet & bass clarinet.  But then I realized that, no matter how hard you wail on that woodwind out on the field during a half-time show, you still can't hear it.  So for my Junior & Senior years, I switched to brass instruments:  baritone and euphonium, baby!!

I was part of the Blue Star Regiment, and my biggest claim to fame during that time was that we performed in the Fiesta Bowl, and I was on TV during the parade, since I was on the end of the row. :-)  I LOVED being in the band, and I made some very good friends during that time, and I was very proud of what we did.  We worked hard and tirelessly, were in Open Class and kicked ass, and we build a camaraderie that I have not experienced since.  I was a Band Geek, and I'm super-proud!!

So, for today's mani which is for Jilltastic Design's "Try It On Tuesday" and for the letter "B" in Lustrous Lacquer's Alphabet Challenge, I chose KB Shimmer's "Band Geek".  This is a beautiful black polish with the gold, silver and brass of the shiny band instruments thrown in.  How perfect is that?

This polish is absolutely gorgeous!!  And my treble clef from a Shany plate over Pure Ice "Jaguar" is the perfect accent, although I couldn't believe that out of my 5 sets of stamping plates, not a single one had music notes!  

I must admit, "Band Geed" is now one of my favorite polishes!  Visit KB Shimmer's website HERE and her Etsy shop HERE...you won't be sorry, but your wallet might be! ;-)

Recruits!

So my 7-year old son likes to "help" me with my polish.  He picks colors, drips polish into the water for marbling, and reviews new nail art designs on You-Tube with me.  He's expressed several times about how unfair it is that boys cannot wear nail polish.  I made some non-committal response, and he would continue to help without further comment.

Well, he finally broke down and asked if I would paint his nails too.  Sure, why not?  He picked the colors & the design.  When he saw that I held a polish bottle for my pics, he wanted to also...I love my little guy!

And my friend Deanna came over, so of course I had to show her my polish stuff, and she just had to try out my nail stamping...

Before she left, she placed an online order for a basic Konad set :-)

Anyway, I decided to try the sponging technique and was going for a peacock-y theme.  Whaddaya think?

I need lots of practice with the sponging.  In real life, it's more purple, and it has flakies in it, so it's purtier.  I'm not excited about it, though, so I predict this mani will not last long on the nails.

And finally, here's some nail mail I got yesterday:

I got my Essie "Barefoot in Blue" from TOMS in honor of their One Day Without Shoes campaign!  It's a gorgeous pale purpley blue.  It reminded me quite a bit of one of my favorite China Glaze shades, "Secret Peri-Wink-le", so I got it out for a little side-by-side comparison.  Hmmmm. 

Lovely glitter polishes from KB Shimmer.  I found yet another awesome Etsy indie seller!  And I got super-smelly (in a good way!) handmade soap from her too!  Check it out: KB Shimmer's Etsy Shop

And this is my China Glaze haul from Sally's online $3 sale.

That's it for now!