Toma Mood Changing Plum to Red

Another old photo for you today! I don't really maintain one nail length. Rather, I just let my nails grow until they start to get in my way (or I break one *shudder*) and then I cut them short. One thing I try to take advantage of during a long nail phase is wearing duochromes and what I'm going to show you today.



This is an older nail polish that I've had for at least eight years. Quite likely longer. It's Toma Mood Changing Polish MC-9 Plum to Red. Love, love, love the bottle shape. I remember the store display actually held these little bottles upside down like little colored lightbulbs.



On the nail, if the weather isn't too warm, you get a nice two-tone effect where the nail bed ends. I've found that these mood polishes can be very hit and miss. The different colors work either very well or very poorly. Your personal body chemistry may also have an affect on the polish. I always have warm hands, so when its cold outside or I'm in an airconditioned building, I can see the effect on my nails. A friend of mine who has poor blood circulation and thus usually has cold hands and feet, almost never sees the strong definition of colors that I do. On her nails, this polish leans more to the purple. And of course, longer nail lengths show this polish off better.

I have a few more of these Tomas I'd like to show you, but this one is by far the prettiest.

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

This past Christmas I had a chance to order my first BB Coutures. I ordered five of them and so far none has failed to impress me. Today I'm wearing Moon Over Manhattan. This is three coats, but two would have been just fine. I just wanted to do three. No problems with application. I used a daylight lamp for this picture because its raining today (a good thing, its been too dry since New Year's).



This color is very relaxing to me. I only wish macro pictures didn't show how dry my cuticles are getting from work. I need to moisturize!

OPI Mad As a Hatter

Yesterday I promised pictures of OPI Mad As a Hatter from the Alice in Wonderland collection. This is two coats, again layered over Chelsea Tropic of Cancer. If you want to know why the layering (and why the blue sleeve and the right hand) you can check out yesterday's post. Picture taken outside, morning sunlight.



My camera wouldn't focus properly in the sunlight for some reason. Because of that I tried taking a few more shots inside under an Ottlite.



Deliberate blur on the foreground to show the sparkle here. I can really see this polish being a New Year's Eve or birthday mani. Or maybe a Hey-its-sunny-let's-bling-out mani. =)

OPI Absolutely Alice

Today I have for you OPI's Absolutely Alice, from the Alice in Wonderland collection. A picture is worth a thousand sparkles, so here it is:



First of all, let me say I abso-friggin'-lutely love this color. Enough to go out and buy a backup the same day I bought the first bottle. So much I wore it four whole days. Five if I can't get it off tonight on account of it being glitter-tastic. But I digress. This photo is two coats of Absolutely Alice layered over my previous manicure, Chelsea Tropic of Cancer. I was so excited to finally get my hands on this color, I couldn't be bothered to take off my polish. Unfortunately, I also forgot to take a picture on Day 1. Please forgive me the slight tipwear. *cough* And the blue sleeve; I took this picture standing in my driveway in my pajamas, wrapped in my husband's sweatshirt because it was a cold morning, hehe. I chose the slightly out of focus shot because it shows the sparkle so well.

And a confession: I was so excited to swatch, my right hand bears the other glitter in this collection, Mad As a Hatter. I wore both colors for days and more than once I had patrons at work tell me "I can't decide which one I like more!" Pictures of MAaH will be coming soon!

NYC West Village & Fifth Ave

Sooooo. I love nail polish. I love taking pictures of my nail polish. But what does one do with all those pictures? They're just sitting in folders on my hard drive, taking up space. I thought about wallpapering my bedroom, but on second thought I realized my husband might object. (I checked anyway, and he did.) So then I thought about creating a journal, so to speak. And, well, here I am. I'm not the best photographer. I'm no polish expert. But this makes me happy, and if it makes you happy too, then we can both be happy, right?

This is an old picture, last July to be exact, when I had shortie nails. Two coats of NYC West Village & NYC Fifth Avenue on the tips. Taken outside, late afternoon sun. You can click to see a larger picture, but I'm warning you, it's HUGE.



I love copper and blue together, this reminds me of something but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. Something from childhood...well, if I think of it I'll edit this. Yay for first posts!