Sally Hansen -- Ruby Sequin

The recent attempt at cheap nail lacquer left me a bit distraught and frustred, as well as the Junior Classic League competition. This involves being at my school early in the morning, to drive over to a city's school for all day competition, which consists of physical games, exams of our choosing, and "certamen"--which is a game such as Quiz Bowl, with the buzzer and the peson interrogating you on information you don't know all too well. In order to be qualified to compete in this, each level in each school is required a minimum and maximum amount of members. Apparently someone dropped out, so without even consulting me on the subject, I am now to be a part of this competition tomorrow as well. Latin is a strong subject of mine, but this is something I've never done before in my life. Yikes!

I chose a nail polish with a bit of a lighter tone. I was in a hurry, I do think that the camerawork was a bit better, though. I'm a big fan of Sally Hansen, I think it's wonderful. And it did most certainly cheer me up a bit.

Love,
D.B.

Pure Ice - Watermelon Ice

I received a nail polish with the brand of Pure Ice, Watermelon Ice, as a gift along with several other small cheap things from the third wife of my late widower grandfather. I've never seen this brand before, and so I decided to try it out. Now, I assumed that it wasn't a six, seven, or eight dollar bottle of nail polish. I assumed it was maybe a one or two dollar of nail polish, for a cheap brand somewhere in Wal-Mart or Target she'd happened to catch sight of and think, "Perhaps this would be a good colour for my relative." And I'm a thousand percent sure she did. She was right.

The style of this nail polish absolutely made me go "Wow!" I wasn't expecting much, really. This is completely jelly, completely shimmer and sparkly and a really really pretty shade a bit lighter than the one in the photo I managed to take, and that all makes up for the bit of sheerness. It almost looks like a lip gloss. In fact, it feels like one too. I'm a bit rough on my nails, but this I was completely surprised at how awful it held up. It held up about..thirty seconds, dents and all, and to tell you the truth I'm not sure about redoing my hands to get this back. The application was fine. A bit thick (the brush picks up a ton), and a bit hard to handle, but I had assumed that this would be decent. Let's just say that I learned a bit about my camera in the process of making this, and am getting better when it comes to the lighting and clarity of my pictures.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has had any experience with this band of nail polish. Questions, suggestions, comments, always welcome.
Love, D.B.

OPI Glamour Game

It's been more hectic than anyone would like to imagine. The snakes haven't eaten in a while, because all of their meals come from the same packaging and I was waiting for Heimlich to shed--however, the chances are that I will end up feeding them tonight.

As if anyone really cares about that. Anyhow, my camera is completely terrible. I think I've managed to correct the camera's lighting, however the blur is still a slight bit of an issue. This nail polish is very very sheer--this is two coats, although I'm sure I could have used three because the nail line is slightly visible up close. The shade is very neutral, shines at a well "champagne-gold" as described, though it could be easily mistaken for a silver. A bit metallic. The formula was brilliant, as expected, and out of the OPI Holiday in Toyland box collection I got, this had the best application and it's very pretty too. ^^

OPI -- Glamour Game

Once more, sorry for the quality. This is the best I got after an hour of attempts.

Love,

D.B.

OPI Little Red Wagon

I figured I would just post up a NOTD swatch for whenever I managed to actually get something. It's not the best of quality, but I figure I better start posting all the things that I have, one by one, as I manage. I'd prefer not to force myself to do this, and to just do it naturally and take pictures whenever I happen to wear it...so I will. Besides, practice is always quite good now, isn't it?

This is OPI Little Red Wagon, part of their 08 Christmas collection Holiday in Toyland, I believe. The formula was fine. It's very opaque, and takes about one coat, though I used two. I took these pictures while wet, and I did clean up and touch it a little afterwards, but the battery was near dying--lame excuse, I know, I know.. This I received in a gift set containing Brand New Skates, Glamour Game, and also Don't Toy With Me!, so they are all cutesy mini bottles. Despite this, I'm a thousand percent sure that the brush is also smaller, making it a bit more challenging for me to use. I somewhat managed. I also somewhat managed to get the camera to be a bit more accurate. ^^

OPI Little Red Wagon, a pretty dark red.

Heimlich, Tangles, and a Swatch

I've been attempting to start taking photographs of my mini, ultra cheap nail polish collection, when I discovered that no matter how perfect my nails might appear to my eyesight, when the picture gets ahold of them they are absolutely dreadful looking. The pictures as well don't necessarily work out so well; the lighting is off and the picture blurry. I'm going to probably apologize fifty thousand times for my lack of skill, mostly being experience--I'm sure I'll get better, but I'm an avid perfectionist and can't handle it being below quality.

To save you the trouble of starting with such dreadfullness I'm going to post up pictures of my other two snakes.

This is Heimlich, my BCI (boa constrictor imperator). I'm guessing he's a he, but to tell the truth I'm not all too sure at all. He's probably about nine or ten months old now, but to tell you the truth I'm not sure about that either. He's fairly large for a baby, I think, being about two and a half feet long perhaps and quite thick and heavy in some areas (most of which is all muscle). When he is full size he will be about 8-10 feet and a good fifty pounds (my mother is very pleased to hear that). He is very gentle and friendly, and although he does burrow, it is not as often as the corns. He spends lots of his time roaming around though, likes exploring, and can be snappy when hungry. (This picture is old)

Tangles is my other corn snake. I received her from Don Soderberg (http://cornsnake.net/), a wonderful and reliable cornsnake breeder with a brilliant selection, and she is a homozygous Butter morph. This means that whenever I get around to breeding her, the F2 generation will present this yellow recessive gene that will be hidden in her children. She is a sweetheart, and named because she likes to tangle.

They are both entirely colourful, in particular Tangles. Right after she sheds, she glows this fantastic bright yellow, that is almost unbelievable for a snake. I hope that her babies are just as beautiful (whenever she's old enough to be bred, of course)!

I've had very little luck with my photography with nails. I dislike my hands, and am terrible at application, but due to hammertoe and a surrealistic foot drop from my CMT, let's just say that attempting toenails would probably be more challenging for me and less attractive to you. I'm not too good at any of this, at all, especially the picture taking. This picture isn't the best, but I find that it is a very accurate representation of the colour itself. Lots of swatches I've seen online are very light, but it takes very special lighting to get close to that and the only lighting I have here is sun.

For Audrey--China Glaze, 2 coats

As I've mentioned, I don't have much experience with nail treatments or anything, I just try to make them look decent. Suggestions, comments, that sort are always welcome--I would be honoured to hear advice from someone with twice as many years on them than myself. I'm also open to any questions, or concerns, or anything like that.

Love,

D.B.

Introductory

I go by D.B. (DryBones), a common nickname taken from the adventures of the Biblical prophet Ezekiel. I'm a fifteeen-year-old freshman in a three or so thousand student high school in southeastern Texas. I play bassoon in the band, but due to Charcot Marie Tooth neuromuscular dystrophy I can't march. I'm in advanced classes, but don't try all too hard, so I make As and often times low Bs. I love to play piano and sing, even though I'm not too good at either. I love jewelry, but due to the CMT my fingers are absolutely terrible and I can't work anything small, including buttons, and those teeny little clasps they insist on putting on earrings and chains. I love cosmetics, in particular eye makeup and nails, though I'm on a cheap budget and don't have all too much experience. It's a hobby I thought maybe I'd want to be sharing with you! I'm going to try to offer good swatches and a variety of colours, which I love, and in addition to makeup, I find my other hobby full of colour! This hobby is, unfortunate to most -close your eyes-, is my snakes. I want to be a snake breeder. I have two corn snakes and a boa constrictor, and they're my best friends in the whole, whole wide world.

I'm completely knew at all of this blogging and formatting business, so I'm terrible with pictures--this is Stevo, my first corn snake. He's about a year and a half old now (yeah we're both super young). Though, he is a gorgeous fellow, and I think--full of plenty of colour. I'll try to get pictures of my other two up here if I get the chance. Stevo is an okeetee (or normal) corn snake. This is the colouration most commonly found in the wild. Corn snakes in general are found in the United States most commonly from Virginia and so and down the southernish area into about Louisiana. As reputation goes, corn snakes are absolute sweethearts. He's way sweeter than my ragdoll kitten.

I'm going to try to make my nails look a little bit presentable and start posting swatches of my pathetic little cheap teenage-girl's collection. I'd love any information from nail care and art to photo-taking, basically anything. I'm going to try to keep this focused on nails, but trust me--I'm going to be slipping in probably more information about my life and snakes than you would like to know. This is a hobby: I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and I'm sure I'll get better over time.

Love you,

D.B.