Holidays=Glitter

Hi everyone, one day closer to Friday!  So last night I gave eggs a try.  I went all out and ate a three egg and cheese omelet.  I didn't really like eggs before I was allergic to them, then when I couldn't eat them I wanted them all the time :)  It seemed to go really well.  I tried eggs maybe two months ago and was sick for days, this time no hives and I don't feel sick at all so I think that's a good sign.

So I found this e-card on pinterest the other night, and that is exactly how I'm feeling right now.  I think people either fall into one of two categories 1.) They wish people would stop with Christmas and just focus on Thanksgiving or 2.) They want all things Christmas right now.  I am category 2 :)  I'm ready for the music, I've got tons of present shopping done, and most of all I'm ready to decorate and wrap (which I haven't for the record).  I had never really been that into Thanksgiving but then with food allergies it turned the one food-centric holiday into one that I dreaded.  Last year my family and husband went to Florida and spent Thanksgiving on the beach and it was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had.  I'd love to know if you're a "1" or a "2" and why, no judgements here...my blog name has Piggies in the title after all ;)

Link

 

 

 

So now that Halloween has come and gone, boo, I feel like we are officially into the holiday season.  To me, holidays mean glitter, not only in the decorations but also on the nails.  It seems like every mani I do lately just begs to have glitter added to it and this combo below was one I especially liked.

I had never worn OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid as a full mani and boy was that a bad choice.  It's so dang pretty!  To me it's like a vibrant spearmint color and I'm now obsessed with it.  I wore it on its own for a day and then made it a little bit extra special with an accent nail of OPI Wonderous Star, which is a mix of metallic black and gold microglitter from last year's holiday collection.  I just loved this together!

I can't wait to show you guys my next glitter combo, the one I'm wearing today, but it's a secret.  Thanks for putting up with my food and holiday shenanigans! 

New Video: Sally Beauty Manicure Basics Haul!

Happy Hump Day folks!  We are in full freezing weather here!  I am not a fan.  I also feel like we are in full holiday swing though, that I am a fan :)  I will get back to swatching soon, it's just been a hectic last few weekends.  Clearly right now it's either blogposts or videos, I haven't gotten into doing both at the same time again, but I will :)

Twinsie Tuesday-Your Least Favorite Polish

Hi there everyone, welcome to Tuesday.  I hope the week is going well for everyone.  If you skipped my post yesterday, I have some exciting news.  This weekend I tried dairy (a little experiment since I had my gallbladder removed) and I had no allergic reactions.  Before if my husband drank milk and kissed me or cheese even touched my food I would break out in hives and be sick for days.  Last night I ate chips with cheese and salsa and then we ordered gluten free Domino's with light cheese and I had four slices.  Not healthy, no, but cheese is my favorite food and I haven't had it in two years!  I am SO happy right now.  I didn't even really work yesterday, I just sat excited at my desk thinking about food :)  I do plan on trying my other allergens, but I'm trying to go slowly so I don't overwhelm my system.  

See, told you I was excited!  Today's TT prompt was an interesting one.  A few months ago I put together a blog sale and most of the polishes I didn't care for went into there.  Might as well have other people love them!  I can't part with my OPIs however, and you know I can't really love all those colors.  I went with the first polish that popped into my head as the one that I really can't stand wearing as a full manicure, OPI San Tan-Tonio.

Now, there's nothing wrong with this polish per-say, I just can't get into it.  I've worn it several times trying to make it work, but I end up taking it off right away.  These caramel/butterscotch type of warm light browns just look horrible on my skin tone and completely clash.  There's also one from the new Nordic collection, Going My Way Or Norway? that I feel exactly the same way about.  That was the runner up for this post actually.

If you do like this color, the formula is really good, I used two easy coats with topcoat for my swatches.  I think this polish would look nice on someone with neutral to warm-toned skin, olive skin, or anything darker than my ghost complexion.  I do use it for nail art though.

Sorry, I had to...look....I ate this.  Clearly I will never be a food blogger.  I also didn't realize that I didn't wait to take a bite of one of the pieces before I took a picture haha!

Have a great day everyone!  Leave me a comment with a polish you hate, let's compare :)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace  

Anna at Going to the Showing  

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

New Video-October 2014 Empties! (+An Exciting Allergen Update)

Hi everyone, welcome to Monday.  Today I have a new video up, which is hopefully one of many to be coming soon!  I had a crazy busy weekend, even though the in-laws cancelled last minute Friday night.  Friday my mom came down and we went to a craft fair and then out to dinner out Outback.  Saturday the hubs and I drove to this very rustic home decor store an hour away to buy Christmas decor and then came back and saw Interstellar in Imax.  Then yesterday we did shopping in the am and spent several hours at our friends house playing Mario Kart on their new Wii U, which was awesome!  

One of the most exciting things however, is that I ate ALLERGEN FOODS!  It's funny because everyone I talked to after surgery, including several doctors, said that my gallbladder could have been causing my food allergies.  I just didn't really believe it and then something compelled me to take a bite of a gingerbread twix at the craft fair on Friday (I never cheat by the way) and I didn't get sick, didn't get a rash.  Later that night I ate a little bit of cheese at Outback!  So far I've tried a bite of twix, the outback cheese, mozarella cheese, eaten a whole bag of m & ms, half a mcdonald's hash brown, and then had cheddar cheese twice yesterday.  So far I only had a few stabs from the mozarella but everything else has been fine.  Before, if cheese even touched something I ate I would break out in hives on my face, legs, and hands, likely throw up, be sick for days, and look like I had two black eyes.  Obviously I'm over the moon :)  

I'm just hoping that all of this sticks because it would be amazing to eat like a regular person again.  People don't realize how much food plays into daily life until they can't participate anymore.  Now before I sound too crazy, I actually know an acquaintance that had food allergies before his gallbladder was removed and is now fine.  Apparently my husband told me right after surgery but I had no recollection haha!  

If you came here for the video...my apologies!  Here it is below!

OPI DS Titanium

Hi there everyone, welcome to Friday!  I'm not at work today because I've got to get my house ready for the in-laws tomorrow.  I basically have to do stuff then rest, do stuff then rest.  My mom is also headed down this afternoon because we are going to a big craft fair in town that happens every November.  I'm excited :)

Today I have a relatively new polish, one of two new DS polishes released this year.  I just haven't been feeling swatching the other one because pink doesn't seem Fall appropriate to me.  I figured I'd show this one because it's a really interesting polish and I do like it for Fall.

DS Titanium is a jelly-based polish that is a smokey grey.  This medium to darker smoky grey is filled with tons of small glitter pieces including iridescent flakies, holographic glitters, and other bits of micro glitter.  This polish is slightly sheer but I did only use two coats for my swatches.  These polishes are meant to dry slightly textured but I preferred to add topcoat to make them shiny.

Overall I was really pleased with this polish and I think it's a unique addition to the DS line.  I really like all the glitter and the flakies in this polish, making it super sparkly.  What do you think of this polish, will you be picking it up?

China Glaze Choo-Choo Choose You

Hi there everyone, welcome to Thursday.  Yesterday was an interesting day haha!  So I'm not sure if I've mentioned that my in-laws are coming down on Saturday.  So I've been panicking because a.) I need to clean my entire house and I've been exhausted and b.) I have zero ideas for what we can do as a group.  So yesterday I took a half day and slept three and a half hours until my husband got home from work.  I was able to do some cleaning around the house.  It seemed like a great idea until bed time last night when I laid awake the entire night.....oops!  

Thankfully today is my last day of work this week.  I'm taking the day off tomorrow to get the house ready and then my mom is coming down for a craft fair in the afternoon.  Something bizarre that happened though is that yesterday I went to get in my car and I see this pretty black cat sitting in our yard by the pear trees.  We have lots of neighborhood cats so that's normal for us.  I yell hi to it and then leave for work.  This morning I went to leave for work and glance over....there's an orange cat in the exact same spot as the black cat from yesterday.  It was one of the strangest things.  I'll just take it as good luck ;)

Without writing a book this morning I'd better get onto the polish!  Today I have a polish from the China Glaze All Aboard Collection which was one of the collections released this Fall along with The Giver collection.  I do have a few other polishes from this collection but I just haven't gotten around to swatching them.  I did want to show off this polish as it is a really unique one.

Choo-Choo Choose You is a really interesting polish, almost one that's hard to describe.  At it's base it's almost a medium blue-purple color but as you can see it is loaded with shimmer.  The shimmer in this polish has a multi-dimensional effect, which to me mostly looks gold and red and sometimes even olivy green.  

This polish was a little bit on the sheer side with its application so I would recommend three thin coats.  I do also think two thicker coats will work but dry time will be extended if you do it that way.  My swatches show three thin coats with topcoat.  I definitely think the color is worth it.

Props to China Glaze for creating a really awesome and unique color.  I haven't tried the other colors I bought from this collection, but this color is definitely a unique one in my collection!  Did you pick up any polishes from the All Aboard Collection, leave me a comment down below!

NYC Polish Queen's Jewel's Collection-My Picks!

*Press Samples

Hi there everyone, happy Hump Day!  The week continues on!  It's been a little rough getting back into working full time, not really the work itself, just the fact that I'm so dang exhausted.  I've gotten home each night and am just a worthless lump under my heated blanket.  Not so good when the in-laws are coming on Saturday!  

Today I have two really interesting polishes to share with you!  NYC is a drugstore brand that I've never tried before but I got to pick out some polishes to try.  I was really pleasantly surprised.  The Queen's Jewel's Collection is a new collection released for Fall made up of six Crystal Couture topcoats and three cremes.  At the time I picked these out I was in full blown gallbladder sickness so I picked out my two favorites to share with you so as not to get overwhelmed :)  Let's take a look below...

Rule the City-silver gunmetal metallic with red metallic glitter

This polish is such a cool polish, especially for something found at the drugstore.  I've never seen a combination like this and it's a great color for Fall.  The silver base didn't drown out the red which was really nice and the formula was really great.  This polish was really opaque.  I used two coats but it could easily be a one-coater.  Definitely a standout polish!

NY Princess-deep dark purple/black jelly base with purple and blue glitters

My second choice was a sparkly one of course :)  This polish is a pretty combo of a lighter metallic purple glitter and an aqua colored microglitter in a deep dark jelly base.  Like the first polish, I was really impressed that the glitters weren't swallowed by the base polish.  I chose to layer this polish over black, just because that's how I would personally chose to wear it so I figured that's how I would swatch it.  I used one easy coat over black with no formula problems at all.

Overall I really enjoyed both polishes.  I will admit I usually don't give drugstore polishes enough credit but both of these were really unique and had really great formulas!  

*Polishes in this post were sent for review in exchange for my honest opinion.