I can't stop giggling when I watch this.

I know it's silly, but it KILLS me. Watch and see if you don't click replay a couple times.

Giveaways happening now...so many, probably will be another post with more.

A Tropical Mind is having a Red Hot Reds giveaway, there will be two winners, this is first place price. Click the picture for more information and to enter! Closed May 3, so get over there now!

Over at Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss we have a cool new nail product on display and offered for giveaway. Click the picture to learn more about smART nails and to enter. Closes April 30th, so hurry!

Painted Lady fingers is at it again with a full collection of Hard Candy nail polish. Yep, everything you see here! Click the picture for more information and to enter. Closes May 3rd..you know what to do.

Sawan is offering up all you see here with your choice of gloveables. You'll have to click the pic to see the other option of gloveables. Closes May 30 I think...go on, click!

Imperfectly Painted Nails is celebrating 50 followers with this prize package open to all over the age of 18. Clickety click to head on over. Closes May 8th.

The Lacquerista is having her very first giveaway and look at all the fun stuffs you can win. Closes May 10th so head on over by clicking the picture. This girl has some purdy nails in purdy polish!

Next up: How Doth the Little Crocodile is having her first giveaway too! Closes May 5th, so head on over for more information.

R3 Daily is having RBL week and how fun will this be??? click the pick for more information and watch all week for featured RBL and an interview with Ji Baek!

Keep your eyes open for more, I'll be celebrating 200 followers in a really BIG way!

All is well, I'm still a bit "out of it"

Just wanted to update you all, you're all a bunch of AWESOME. It warmed my heart to read all the well wishes so I just want to say THANK YOU for that. It meant so much to me that are kind people in the world. I love that about this crazy hobby we all share. :)
I'm high on Darvocet for the pain so I won't be posting much, Doc said when he was in the knee, "there was a lot more than just the miniscus going on in there" which I suspect means I had some torn up cartilage. More about that on Thursday, but that would explain the pain I was having prior to the BIG pain that put me on crutches. :)  All the nurses were asking me what nail polish I had on and when they revealed my tootsies and saw Zoya Charla there, they had to know what it was and where to find it!
In my stupor yesterday, somehow I broke my right middle fingernail down to a nubbin. I haven't had a nubbin for 2 years. I tried to save it with Orly Nail rescue, but I was a bit out of it and something went wrong. I dunno what, but I'll never try to save a nail while under the influence again. So, I cut them all shorter a couple weeks back, I'll just keep them shorter til this one catches up. Poor little guy.
I'm going to try to get all my giveaway entries posted up and then it's nap time again, Jeez I am sleeping a lot! Hopefully I'll have myself back in a day or two. Nope, naptime first it seems.
I just wanted you all to know I'm doing well and I can't wait to get back on my bicycle!
NOTW has been NARS Purple Rain, it's so pretty!
I have photos of toes, but not of fingers....mani is holding up so I will take them soon.
Nighty-night!

I'm Going Under

Under the knife that is...to get the knee fixed. Yay and eek!

Thursday afternoon, 1pm Pacific Daylight Time...think of me and wish me well and a good recuperation from anesthesia (I hate that part!) and I'll be laid up for a few days so I'll have plenty of time to catch up on posts.

In the meantime, enjoy this:

Posts coming

Hey everyone, sorry for no posting, been busy at work, hubby got really sick, I had a few days off and just went crazy with taking some "me time" and shopping some...had a mani-pedi done by a co-worker who is a licensed nail tech at a super clean salon, OMG that was really cool. Pics to come.
Have an appointment this coming Tuesday with the Orthopedic Surgeon to schedule knee surgery and I'm happy to finally be on the road to being able to ride my bike again and walk the 10 min hike to the beach from my front door! Summer's coming and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here like a lump because it hurts too much to do the things I love to do. SO...I'm happy, and will keep you posted. :)

I have lots of pictures and posts to share, just took the needed time off after crunch time at work to relax and recharge. I thought I'd get to some posts today, but I spent the day catching up with all the blogs I follow! I am sorry if I didn't post a comment, it was all I could do to read them all! I love the creativity and hearing how everyone is doing, so please forgive me for not commenting this week. It's been CRAZY!!

Have a fantastic week!
~The Lizard

Tag - Sunshine Award

Arie at "Catch the Beauty with Arie" and Karin of "Romikas Nails" passed this lovely award on to me. Thank you ladies, we seem to be members of a "mutual admiration society" since I love your blogs too!

These are the rules:

1. Post the logo within your blog or post.
2. Pass the award on to several other bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person whom you have received this award from.


I pass this on to all the wonderful blogs I look at on a daily basis but I'll choose just a few. I am guessing the Nail Blogs are saturated, and I've seen this one floating around so the blogs I follow and would pass it to have gotten one...let me see where else should it go...


Witoxity
R3 Daily
Pretty Random
You've Got Nail
Emerald Sparkled
Nails Beautiqued
Wizards of Bling
and some non-nail related blogs that I get a little sunshine from:
Tropical Mind
Nouveau Cheap

Claire's Mood Polish in Wild/Calm

Just a few words. I need all of these. That is all.

and see them in action, notice the index finger got warmer...

Need them all. Today please.

Where to get Miss Marion Nail Polish

Contact the company here: customerservice@missmarion.com  and ask them where you might find it in your area. If it is unavailable there, you will get information on how to purchase direct. Enjoy!
~The Lizard

Miss Marion GARNET

Here it is, the one you've been waiting for and I apologize that it's taken this long. I love this polish just as much now as I did way back in the day. I can't stop looking at my nails. The formula is amazingly easy to apply once you get used to it. It's a little thinner then some, but the consistency is such that it stays where you put it, so you just have to get used to how much you need on the brush for best application. This is another one that doesn't like being brushed over, and seems to level itself out. The brush is a little thin, but I had no problems with it during application.
Garnet is labeled as a frost, but it's truly a shimmer. Here she is without topcoat:

sorry for the sheet wrinkles, she's not a quick dry polish, though I did give her plenty of time to dry.

I put the polish on yesterday and let it get good and dry so the transformation would be obvious. Unfortunately, there wasn't any sun today, but this is in overcast natural light and I actually think it's best for show you all what this polish does. I love this part! I put a coat of Seche Vite over the top because I needed to head to work right after I took the photos, but ANY top coat creates this transformation. 

With topcoat, the blue-red of Garnet becomes this awesome Candy Apple Red with depth and that "lit from within" appearance. This is the color every pinup girl needs to have in her arsenal. Observe:

G E O R G E O U S!

And to reiterate the transformation, here is left and right, can you tell which one has topcoat and which is nekkid?

come closer

and closer til it's a bit blurry...

Do I need to tell you that you have to get this polish? Just remember to get it directly from J Pinon and stay away from Peachtree World. They are not authorized dealers and you may not get what you pay for.

I still cannot stop staring at my nails. I've missed this color so much. GAH! Garnet, I love you.

That is all

~ The Lizard

OPI Blushingham Palace

That is the color I wore for my wedding day. (you can see it in this pic, click it for larger size=HUGE)
This lovely lady with me is my mother-in-law and I adore her. She's the best mother-in-law in the world. I'm an orphan (since my early 30's) so she's the one I turn to for "motherly advice."  Nope, she's not MY mom, I'll never replace that special woman, but I'm so happy to have this one in my life. My mother would approve!

EDIT Attention: California Southern/Central Coast Nail Polish Lovers

Would any one in the above demographic be interested in a get together involving some swapping, shopping and swatching over beverages of choice this summer somewhere centrally located? I would love to meet some of you and share my passion for polish with those who don't think I am nutz...or at least share the insanity!

Post a comment and let me know if you'd be up for it and your general location (county is enough for this purpose) so I can figure out if it makes sense to set it up and also where the most "central" location would be for us all. Perhaps a long weekend or just an overnighter?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Sorry Southern ladies, I mean no disrespect...could be a heckuvalotta fun to do a states wide weekend...perhaps in the future. For now, California is what I had in mind.

Mexican Sage "Santa Barbara" Franken

A while back I suggested Illamasqua make a color like the Mexican sage plant with it's silver green leaves and purple flowers. A sage green polish with purple/pink shimmer, like this:

Then I asked the experts on MUA if they'd seen anything like it, and got one answer saying no, but I should franken it. I lost sleep over the idea (and my husbands extreme snoring last night - poor guy got the cootie I had) and woke up this morning knowing what I'd try...You let me know how I did.

I give you "Santa Barbara":

I used Zoya Harley, a little Essie Huckle Buckle and a few drops of Orly Enchanted Forest. I need to find some sage around here to hold to see how it looks with the real deal. I think it could use just a little more green, but I could be wrong!
Til next time!
~The Lizard

Stellar Notte has been added to the core line for Borghese Nail Polish

I visited Walgreens, CVS AND Rite-Aid today and all the Borghese core line racks now have a slot (with at least ONE bottle in it - one of the racks had 2) for Stellar Notte. So if you wanted it and didn't get it, don't fret, just go check out the core line rack. It's there!
You can see my comparison of Stellar Notte vs Nubar Peacock Feathers HERE.

And a Picture, because that is the best part of a blog post...sometimes!

My hubby and I got married Sept 20, 2008 and we're about to celebrate our 10th anniversary of first meeting so I thought I show you some wedding pics. I finally had a chance to eat and the photographer wanted a pic so...I had to. :)

Please ignore the back fat bulging out the back of my dress. NOTICE how I wore something "blue" :)

Mr. and Mrs. Jef and Elizabeth. :) Yay, it's party time!

Our Ally-girl was there for the reception. :) She's so pretty.

Our cake, because we don't believe flowers (the real ones) belong on a Cake. Isn't it gorgeous???

hehehehe, goofin' off...and since I know you're here for the nail polish, these were the best shots I could find to show you my NOTD. :)

and:

Remember, you can click the pics to view them larger. I've gained weight since this, and will be back to weight watchers as soon as this knee issue is fixed and I can exercise again.
Hope you enjoyed this post.
Til next time!
~The Lizard

Purple Holo Comparison

I did this comparison back when I did the Silver holo comparison, but it took me a while to learn more about The Gimp so I could get these pictures together for you. It's been a fun time (really) learning how to use this open source program!

On to the polish. I wanted to compare Milani Hi-Res, China Glaze IDK and LOL (both from the OMG collection), and Color Club's Wild at Heart.

I started with Hi-Res on my pinkie:

IDK went on the Ring Finger (I have no idea what that wrinkle on the tip is about):

Wild at Heart on the Middle Finger (with matte top coat on the tip = Fail)

LOL on the Index Finger (again with Matte tip = less fail but still fail):

And then I did the layering of IDK with Hi-Res over the top:

When you look at the Thumb next to the pinkie - Just like the Silver Holo comparison, the rainbow is more pronounced in the layering and the sparkle of Hi-Res adds interest.:

And again I applied matte topcoat to half the thumb and it basically lost all it's holo-y goodness, but I had to try. Since I did this at the same time as the Silver holos, I hadn't learned NOT to matte a Holo. Here's the full line up:

Wild at Heart and LOL are very much the same color with Wild at Heart having a chunkier look, not quite as chunky as Hi-Res, but chunkier than the smoothness of LOL and IDK. Wild at Heart seems to have a bit more purple to it, but they are very similar. All of these colors, like holos do, dried in record time so I had to work quickly to apply them smoothly. 

I love them all and I'm glad I have every single one!

Til next time!

~The Lizard 

Nailstah's first reader appreciation giveaway!

Lot's of great stuff here, including the Hello Kitty egg with stickers! :) :)  Ends April 12th, better click that picture now to enter!

Wizards of Bling 150+ follower giveaway

Flying Pug Monkeys were caught and their spoils are a giveaway. If the blog reaches 250 followers during the giveaway, more polish will be added! There are more photos of the haul on the blog. Giveaway ends on my favorite day of the year: the end of US Tax Season and the day before my 3 day weekend: April 15th. Click the picture to head on over and enter!

Magic-Maid Giveaway, good stuffs!

Another great giveaway from one of my favorite blogs. Magic Maid has a most excellent assortment of drug store lemmings and a surprise OPI and ChG
You'll WANT to enter this one! It ends April 25th so click the picture to head on over! Good Luck!

Crystaliciousss Spring Giveaway!

Get in on this one, ends tomorrow, so hurry! Click the picture to head on over!

Miss Marion - The Frosts

Here we have the collection of Frosts I received from J. Pinon Cosmetics, the makers of Miss Marion Nail Polish.

The players from left to right front row first we have - Red Volcano, Confetti, Malva Rose, Garnet, Platinum Champagne and Brown Sugar.
I left Garnet and Platinum untried as I only have 5 fingers and you know I have to review Garnet by herself. :)

Here we have Red Volcano, a frosty red orange and very vibrant!

followed by Malva Rose a frost rosy pink

next up Confetti a super silvered rosy pink. Note: the tone of Malva Rose and Confetti is the same, the frost is much more intense in Confetti and lightens it up, makes it almost chrome-like.

and skipped Garnet to save her for a future post and went to the back row and chose Champagne. I imagine a platinum blonde rocking this color with a black gown. It's very frosty.

and for the thumb I used Brown Sugar, a gorgeous glimmering brown frost.

I know a lot of you are not fans of the frost, but I would urge you to give Miss Marion Frosts a chance. Some of them are brush stroke-y but many of them are just beautiful. Look at that brown! They appear a lot more like the best chrome polishes out there, just shiny metallic goodness adding to the pretty color.
I've always loved the Miss Marion Frosted polishes, they just know how to do a frost the right way....simply gorgeous.
What do you think?
Til next time!
~The Lizard