Busy weeks past, busy weeks ahead

I swear I have some really great comparison swatches to post! Really I do! I took notes and EVERYTHING!!!

I've just been busy with work projects and now physical therapy (not for the knee though, that's just FINE.) and getting ready to go to Seattle to visit my son. Haven't seen him since Feb 17th or so, and therefore, I am VERY excited!  I'm going to see one of my BFF's and her daughter (known this woman for 35 years. OMG 35 YEARS!!! Will reconnect with some cousins up that way and thereby connect my son with some extended family peeps who he can keep in touch with and can lend a hand when mom, (that's me) is too far away to help.

I've been doing a bunch of swap prep and the shipments, I think there are 5 or 6 of them, are just about ready to go so they'll hopefully go out today or tomorrow.

So I will be amazed if I get anything posted before my trip (I leave Saturday and return June 5th) go ahead robbers, show up at my door, you'll find a few surprises waiting for you there. >:-D>

It's going to be rain the whole time, unfortunately, so I'm trying to decide on a mani to start with, then maybe shop the Ulta there, I need NYX Paradise! :)

Hugs all Around!
~The Lizard

Burgundy Comparison

The clearing of my inventory continues. This week I'll post more of the comparisons I did, and interject those with some other fun stuffs...like pictures and review of RBL Diddy Mow which I put on today and will test the "9 day wear" claim made there.

On to the comparisons.  Here are the bottles:

Left to right, the players are: Nubar Chocolate Raspberry, Borghese no name mini from Christmas set, Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco, Sally Hansen mini from Christmas set and OPI mini All A-bordeau the Sleigh.

Same order, starting with my thumb then to my index finger left to right in the sun.

And indoors, indirect daylight.

Nubar Raspberry Truffle is a brown based creme with burgundy flecks. I love the Nubar formula and the brush is good. Two coats to full coverage, but a third adds depth and is so devine. I love this color, it's yummy and has depth to it so it gets to remain in my collection. Lizard rating: Toasty!

Borghese Unnamed mini has an exceptional brush for a mini polish. I found it very easy to use, pro wide and not super short like some minis. They also have a great formula and the pigment was impressive. This is only two coats. Lizard Rating: Balmy only because it is a mini and I'm over minis. LOL

Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco is a favorite after seeing it on all the other blogs and before this, an untried.  A gorgeous red-brown base with shimmer. Yum! This was as delightful as you've seen out in the blogosphere. The brush is ample, if rather standard. The formula was nice and very well pigmented, also 2 coats to this beautiful finish.

Sally Hansen unnamed mini. This one was also 2 coats of YUM. A rich, dark wine with shine to spare. This brush was also amazing for a mini polish. I loved this color but recently decided that my space won't allow as many bottles as I'd like to own and therefore I'm going to purge Drug Store polishes that I can dupe with a higher end polish. Besides, it's a mini...I'm over 'em. :)  Lizard Rating: Toasty, but no doubt can find a dupe I'll want to keep.

OPI All a-Bordeau the Sleigh was just "meh" for me. Cuticle drag, streaky and the typical issues I have with OPI. I am so not a fan of OPI...has to be a spectacular color that I absolutely cannot get elsewhere before I even consider going there, and usually skip it anyway. This is a not-so-deep red wine. Lizard Rating: Tepid
Maybe a fourth coat would have made this one better but 3 is my limit. Besides, it's a mini...it's gone. :)

I hope you enjoyed my Burgundy Comparison! Next up: Duochrome Purples.

Sea and Be Scene

Hi everyone, I had to post this one up now. I love this mani!
I used smART Nails stencils # N003 and N049 for the waves and N030 on my pinkies with just a slathering of holo-ey goodness on the thumbnail tips.

Sun!

Polishes used: Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen, Milani Cyberspace for the waves and thumbtips and China Glaze OMG for the Dolphins and accent on the pinkie nail.
I love this so much that the RBLs that arrived today will have to wait til Monday unless this chips.
Sea and Be Seen is so much like sparkling ocean water on a bright sunny day. I love it. I purged my stash of just about all the drug store brands and decided I'd keep this one.

Shade!

So much cool stuff going into the upcoming contest...put your creative caps on, I'm aces at coming up with a fun challenge!
This manicure is for my niece, Julie. She loves the Dolphins and I hope, one day, she'll come visit so she can see them. Maybe we'll row my raft out and see if they'll come visit. :)
(as always, click the pics for detail)
The Lizard rates this one: Sizzling!

On another note, I have to say, the RBL bottles look so much bigger on the web than they are in person...not disappointed, just thinking you all have itty-bitty hands! I have big mitts with long fingers, so I'm going to learn how to play the piano!
Til Monday, have a wonderful weekend!

New Day, good stuffs

Hi Everyone, thank you so much for all your kind comments. I was pouting publicly and I apologize for that- won't happen again.
I love this community. You all rock so hard and are all so cool...we're all so different but come together for this love of all things nail polish/art/design and it makes my day to get to share that with you all. Thank you for being there for me to share this passion with you all, thank you for your kindness when I needed it (and even when I didn't) Thank you for taking the time to visit this tiny speck on teh intarwebz and for taking the time to read, to comment or not comment. I appreciate every single one of you who drops in to visit.
I don't want this post to be completely photo free so here's a picture of my boss's dog, she's a funny little french bulldog that loves to hang out with me because I kick the ball around for her to chase it. This doggie is one heck of a ball nut! LOLZ, I said it!

Her mom was outta town and I took this picture and sent it with my phone saying she missed her momma. :)

I have a contest coming up with some fun prizes, just trying to get through some spring cleaning and entertaining for the weekend and then I'll get photos up and announce the contest.
I've got all the comparison swatches to post up and hope to start doing those next week.
I purchased some stencils from smART nails (thanks Evil Angel for the posts that inspired the purchase) and I did a little design that I think is cute and have my own review to do of these.
That's up and coming next week. I apologize for blog neglect...see you all next week here, in the meantime, I'll be over there ------> (I'm in ur blogs reedin yer stuffs)

Me and my big mouth...er...fingers?

I did it again. I posted a comment on someone's blog that I should have re-read, reworded to be more all encompassing and less 'finger pointing' as I didn't mean to finger point or cause bad feelings.
I caused bad feelings. I made a mistake. I got blasted for it, rightly or not rightly so...I sincerely apologize. I am human, I make mistakes.

Got the big reaction and blasted for being an asshat.

Somedays, even when I think I can offer another point of view for others reading a blog post...I think I'll move on without posting. This sucked and the blast back was painful. Hope everyone is happy now. This asshat is going to bed.

Thinking about what Beauty means to me...and a Red Comparison (long, but good post!)

While recovering from knee surgery, I took the time to read a ton of books. Some fiction series follow ups that I love and a few books of the "self-help" genre. A friend told me about a book she was reading so I checked out the prologue on Amazon.com and knew I needed to read it. Why? I've been dieting and beating myself up for most of my life and so I could relate to this book. 

I'm sharing this now because I was moved (as many of you were) by Andrea's Post over at Black nail polish and lip gloss and have been wanting to share this book with the world since I got so much out of it. I know that not everyone will, but when I find a gem like this, I usually end up telling everyone I know to CHECK IT OUT CUZ IT'S THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!! Yeah, that's me...and that's ok. :)

It took me the whole week to read the book not because it is a big book, but because I kept having to set it down to think, absorb, cry, thrash, get angry and, finally, accept. I realized that I had, once again, forgotten who I am and gone back to believing what other people's stories told me I am. I also came to realize that I was trying to fill my non-stuff compiling life up with stuff again to counter the difficult financial times the husband and I have been facing. I mean, if I have all this nail polish, then we aren't struggling so bad, right??? RIGHT???

What I learned mostly was to be present again. Be passionate about life and most of all, remember that I am beautiful just as I am right now, and now and now. 

First thing I did was to cancel my Weight Watchers membership. Yep, I've had great success (you'll find this very post over there if you click but there are a couple years of posts and a huge transformation over there if you're interested in learning more about who I am) and some backsliding with that plan but, I learned so much there and because of the time I spent learning their "Tools for Success" I was ready to hear the message in this book.  

I'm done dieting. I'm done telling myself I don't measure up to someone else's idea of what is beautiful. I'm also done eating absently and not enjoying every minute, including the minutes I spend feeding this glorious body I've been blessed with to walk on this beautiful planet I get to call "home."  

And when I hear that little nagging voice, the one that tells me I am not enough, I don't have enough, I'll never BE enough...I will, as soon as I realize I am buying it's bs, tell it to shut the hell up!  It has been a little over a week. ONE WEEK and without counting calories, points, or carbs, without weighing and measuring, without denying myself what my body wants, I'm getting healthier. I've lost 9 pounds. NINE. Just by being present when I eat. I share that because, as the author, Geneen Roth says, "It's not about the weight and yet, it's not NOT about the weight" For some of us, healthier means losing weight, for others, it means gaining or maintaining while nourishing our bodies. For me, it means some weight needs to leave my body...and I will never, EVER diet again. I'm free. I'm back to being me and that is a very cool thing.

What is this book? If you clicked the Amazon link above, you already know, but if you didn't, the book is 

Women, Food and God: An unexpected path to almost everything.  

So the changes to my attitude lead me to look at my stash and decide it was time to do some culling. I don't need all these bottles taking up space in my tiny home and already increased the size of my stash to at least 20 times my initial plan. Part of that is seeing all these gorgeous colors all you ladies are posting. I love so many of the colors, but I don't NEED them. Hence my asking how you'd feel about some used polish giveaways. I don't want to replace them with swaps...I want to reduce my stash and have the colors I love and only those colors. I want to travel light while I'm here. I forgot that about me... That's not to say I don't envy you all your helmers...it's just not something I want as much as I want to travel light. 

I began the culling with comparisons, which I shall share with you, to help me decide which polishes I want to keep and those that, while still quite nice, are so similar to what I'm keeping, I don't need them in my stash.  I know already, from reading other blogs, that all of my comparisons may show my lack of understanding of dupes and all that stuff, but for me, really, how many red nail polishes do I need? Certainly not 40...more like 4.

I give you the contenders and I think these are Jellies, but there may be a creme in here.

Left to right: Cheeky Monkey Pop My Cherry, Zoya Harley, Miss Marion Carnival, Essie Lollipop, tictac unnamed red

On the nails in the Sun: (all are 3 coats, no base, no top)

Beginning with the Thumb they are in the same order: Thumb = Cheeky Monkey, Forefinger = Zoya, Middle = Miss Marion, Ring = Essie and Pinky = tictac.

In the Shade:

Cheeky Monkey Pop My Cherry is a wonderful true red jelly with a formula I had to learn to use and am now quite fond of. I don't have any complaints about the color, the formula or the brush. The brush is average but the formula would work if all you had to paint your entire nail was a toothbrush. :) Lizard rates this one: Sizzling!

Zoya Harley wasn't a true red, a bit more orange and I thought the formula was a bit on the watery side. Lizard rates this one: Balmy, but I have enough reds so it's downgraded to Chilly because of the formula and it just can't compete with CMPMC.

Miss Marion Carnival is one I really liked when I did my Miss Marion review...I still really like it. The formula is great, the brush is really nice and it builds the color really well. This one was the most orange red of the bunch and that, plus my love for this company makes it rather special to me. It's an orange red I can wear and look at that shine. The Lizard rates this one: Toasty.  It stays

Essie Lollipop: This is a bright red jelly with a delightful formula but the brush is scrawny. In fact, I didn't much like the brush in this one at all. It's very similar, maybe even a complete dupe for Cheeky Monkey Pop My Cherry, but I had to choose the Monkey over this because the brush was challenging and I simply love Cheeky Monkey. Still, the Lizard rates this one: Sizzling! (it's Essie after all.)

tictac unnamed red: This one was a bit of a surprise. I won this in a giveaway and I wasn't expecting very much since it's a brand I'd never heard of nor seen until just before the giveaway.  This was the wateriest polish in the bunch. Cuticle flooding and all. That might be because I am getting used to Cheeky Monkey and Essie but still, this was one watery polish!  It dried super shiny though not as shiny as the others. I think with practice and some topcoat, I might be able to make this one shine. Still, it's not a favorite so it goes in the cull pile. Final Lizard rating: Tepid

Bottle picture with Flash:

In the end, I am keeping only Cheeky Monkey Pop My Cherry and Miss Marion Carnival with a wandering eye on Essie Lollipop as it sits in the cull pile along with Zoya Harley and tictac unnamed red.

Some of these were review samples, some were giveaway winnings...I honestly didn't purchase a single one. Still, it is harder to let them go than I thought it would be.  How will I do it?  A few different ways actually. I'll be having another nail polishing party with my co-workers and friends and I'll take an assortment there for them to choose a few to take home, some will be in various giveaways and if I can make enough room, I may swap and do the Zoya exchange for truly unique to my collection colors. 

I hope you enjoyed my comparison and review of the red jellies I have! Next up: The Darker Reds

Til then, be present, be loving, be true to who you are!

~The Lizard

Claire's Mood Polish in Happy/Earthy

As soon as I saw what Claire's Mood Polish in Calm/Wild would do on my nails I ran out to find the rest. Never found them so I asked a dear friend, (you've seen her toes on my blog) to head over to her local Claire's to see f she could find them. Find them she did! So I have the whole set and an extra set for my upcoming Contest/giveaway.

I put them all nicely away in my stash and promptly forgot about them as I was urgently accumulating more nail polish to add to the stash.

So, Tuesday night I decided to wear another. Slowly took each color out and viewed it...until I chose one.

Let me just say this: The labels on the caps, you know, the ones that show the color change colors? Who made those? They are so inaccurate!  Really! Here's the sticker on the cap.

Soooooo incorrect. Look:

I really love these! Mainly because I get a funky French mani with very little effort and also because the colors are so fun! This is pretty much how it looks on me all the time...there were a couple of overly air-conditioned moments at work when my nails were completely dark green, but only a couple.

The formula is easy to work with and the brushes are quite nice. Even more so when you consider the bottles are a bit smaller than the average bottle. I think the most fun about applying these is watching them change color as I'm applying them. Very cool!

The only con for me (and many of you will disagree) is that it is GREEN and when it's sporting both colors it's SCREAMIN' Green. As in, people notice but they don't say anything. I could see their eyes tracking my hands...but no one said anything...until today when they were coral. Still, this one is novel and therefore, I will wear it again!

The Lizard gives Happy/Earthy a rating of Balmy only because of the green. I'm fairly sure it will be my least favorite of the collection.

China Glaze Thataway

I received this polish from China Glaze - and two others which are up and coming - to review. Last night I was looking through all of my stash and feeling uninspired when I remembered I'd received these. (I am sorry this took so long!)

I opened up the box which has Thataway, Exceptionally Gifted and Watermelon Rind (saving that one for last - it's my "in the bottle favorite.") and found my inspiration in this frosty shimmering coral.

Full Sun

I thought it was kind of "meh" on the first coat but really liked the formula and the way it applied so neatly. The China Glaze brush is a little skinny but it's workable and I could cover my nail in three strokes. I really got into a zone applying this polish it was so easy to apply! 

Shade

I often find myself drawn to orange polish just because I love the color orange, (I know, I'm weird!) but I just think it's such a happy color. I guess orange is to me what yellow is to many of the people I know. I usually do 3 coats of polish but I'm trying to do a good job on application and see if a polish satisfies my perfection streak with only two coats. This one was really close, so close, I went with two and sealed them with a coat of Seche Vite. 

The above pictures are after a full 24 hours of wear, full mani: 2 coats Borghese Hydrati base coat, 2 coats China Glaze Thataway and 1 coat of Seche Vite. 

As I kept looking at my nails today and enjoying their appearance, it occurred to me why I like this polish so much. It is one of those colors that you might consider an "Old Lady color" but China Glaze has put their signature spin on it to create a frost which isn't too frosty with just the right amount of shimmer. It's a wee bit brush-stroke-y but when applied with care, it appears soft and smooshy with a pretty shimmer. Bonus! It looks great with Olive skin tones like mine!

The Lizard rates this color - Toasty! 

New Rating System For My Blog

I love the rating system over at Wizards of Bling and so I've come up with a rating system only a Lizard could love, but it fits the blog and my personality so I'm going with it!

Ratings will be listed at the end of reviews going forward, so here is the key:

(Based on the Temperature of the my favorite basking rock)

Chilly - Lizards don't move well when they're cold, this one is NOT a keeper
Tepid - Some warmth is better than none, we'll hang on to this one to see if it warms up
Balmy - Now the lizard can move around a bit, this one might get worn again
Toasty - Ahh, finally the Lizard can get something DONE, this one is a keeper!
Sizzling! - Once in a while, you need a little extra heat to get movin'! A favorite! Buy a back up bottle!

Hope you find it helpful. It's labeled in case you need check back here for the key to my new rating system.

ManGlaze Sale!

If anyone has been lemming some ManGlaze but wanted to wait for a good sale, now is the time! Matte is Murder and Fuggen Ugly are $6.66 per bottle right now. Don't know how long the sale will last but that's a great price! The Franken Juggs are also on sale at $3.33 for 3

Click HERE to head on over.

Man, healing takes a while and my back is stupid

Sorry I have no pictures or interesting posts at the moment. I'm sad not to deliver, especially when I have so much to share! But alas, my knee is really sore today (no I didn't do too much, just regular stuff) and my back is threatening to go OUT so I am going to lay myself down and read and go to sleep.
I'll see the chirocracker tomorrow, he'll fix me up and I'll be back to post tomorrow.
The saddest thing of ALL? I haven't done anything but clear polish for the past 2 days!!!!
Will post tomorrow, promise!

Charla Pedi and Painting a Friend's Nails

A couple weeks ago (the weekend before knee surgery) I did a little shopping, a little visiting, treated myself to a mani-pedi done by someone I know at a very clean, high end salon, shipped out a bunch of packages (finally got my giveaway packages shipped as well as the box to Trincess and a friend in Canada who swapped me some ChG for some Gosh. Yep, Gosh is available in Canada. (Swatches of the Gosh' coming soon)

I know I mentioned Charla for my pedi so here she is and she is <3 <3 <3 to me, right up there with Atlantis. I need multiple backups of this lovely lady, she's amazing.  This is the color the people at the surgery center were wowed with when they saw my feet. Hehehe, after the surgery, one of the assistants stopped by when I was recovering and said, "I took a look at your toes while you were out, and you were right, those are  pretty!" he was funny.  Here are my tootsies, fair warning!

Why yes, those ARE my King Neptune Deep Sea Diving Flippers! :)

Love my new Sandals and I Love this gorgeous color!

After that, we had lunch, then I went and grabbed a few Zoya's to add to Trincess' box so she didn't have to wait for the next box and then we went to Macy's so that my friend could pick up Estee Lauder's Ultra Violet. She loves purple and we'd swatched it the night before, then Sunday we added Zoya Mimi and NARS Purple Rain to her fingers so she could choose one. She picked the most expensive one, but it truly is a gorgeous color. She offered to let me do my laundry at her house so I went home, picked that up along with nail polishing supplies, and then it was off to her house where we had some wine, I painted her nails and we had some fun.

My friend has the cutest Beagles. I call 'em Bagels just because it's fun. Maggie is the gorgeous older gal and Jack is the handsome young pup.

This is Magg-pie. :) She's 12 or 13 or something like that.

This Jack, isn't he purdy?

Jack up close and personal. :)

And I usually take my doggy over there, as they all get along well together and Ally has spent sometime at my friend's house while I travel to faraway places. 

Ally Keeping a sharp eye on the door to make sure I don't leave her there. 

We had some wine and I got to painting and this "Ultra Violet" is so pretty, I'm going to have to borrow it sometime.

Ok, I suck at painting OTHER people's nails. But she learned a lot about nail care and she LOVED the color so I was happy for her. 

I know you've all see this one, but I like showing my friends nails with color because it shows how the color might look on a different skin tone from where you've seen it before, and I like to share the fun I have sharing my passion for polish with my friends. Do you share yours with your friends that don't share your penchant for polish? Look at me, I'm being witty!

Have a great night, more to come...

Lacquered Lizard

Playing with Makeup at Macy's - Picture Heavy

Saturday before Surgery (we'll call it SaBS heheee) I went out with my friend for some shopping and drinks and a makeover at Sephora or wherever we could get one for free. :) We stopped at Sephora, The MAC store, and hit the Nordstroms cosmetics area and got no offers. Though I did swatch NARS Purple Rain at Nordstroms, they were out of it so I ran back to Sephora to grab the last bottle. It's so pretty! (I did swatch it, but we've seen it a bazillion times, do you really want to see it again?)

We had given up and were winding down when we stopped in at Macy's to look at shoes and clothing since there was a sale happening. On the way out of the store, these two lovely young women offered to do our make up for us. Of course we happily accepted though now it was late and we were just going to go home and wash it off, but I love to see what I'll learn from someone else doing my makeup and also, I might discover something I really like. Which, in this case, I did.

My friend went over to the Clarins counter for her makeover and I sat at the Lancome counter for mine.

I had so much fun with Erika! She and I laughed and talked and I basically let her do what she wanted..."Just this short of drag queen." I said, holding my fingers a sliver apart. She got excited and went to work. My friend and I were hollering across the makeup floor back and forth (it was a slow night there.) and then we got our picture taken. Here we are in our gory...er glory.

Flash

And yes! My hair IS purple. :) I'm a purple haired old lady and I LOVE it. 

No Flash

I wasn't crazy about the foundation at the time, but it looks pretty good in the pictures.

These are the lovely young women who made us feel special that night, with no pressure to buy anything, though I did find something...It's coming, I promise!

Here is Danika and Erica (I hope I spelled their names correctly!)

Janika on the left, Erica on the right. Pretty girls aren't they? There were so much fun. I hope they'll come visit and see that I did finally get to posting them up here!

What did I buy? I purchased an eyeshadow. THE eyeshadow Erica used on my makeover. It's Lancome "Luring" and it's this amazing purple shadow with green shimmer or is it green shadow with purple shimmer. In the container, it looks like this:

As you can see, it's a different color depending on how the light hits it. This is shadow that pretty much does the highlighting and contouring for you. Look:

and

and

Lancome Luring eyeshadow. Check it out! That is ALL I have one here. Nothing else. I love this and I know some of my readers make colors that do this but I haven't a clue which ones they are, but this simplifies the morning routine so much I want more...so if you make shadows that do this, please drop me an email with link(s) and shadow names so that I can check them out. Thanks in advance, I really love how this looks AND saves me so much time in the morning. I like doing all the shading myself too, but for mornings that I don't leave myself enough time, this is perfect and I want more of them.

Whew! that's (finally) all for the Makeover post, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if picture heavy posts are an issue and I'll make adjustments. All my photos should be clickable to view larger too.

Have great Day or Night wherever you are!

Lacquered Lizard

Haul!

I always forget to post up my hauls, but I did take a picture of my winnings from the giveaway that I won from Nail Addicts Anonymous

How fun is that?? Some lemmings fulfilled right here folks: Shower Together and Tree Hugger are now mine, Jade is the New Black, oh yeah. Sno Cone? You betcha! The Essies are all so pretty, I wouldn't have picked them myself, but now that I have them, wow...so pretty! And Awaken? Sweet! Lemon Fizz? Almost a complete set of Up and Away. Mint Mojito is pretty too as are the other two blues from ChG who's names escape as I type this.

I have already swatched a couple of the Essies, so you'll see those in a few posts.

I love Giveaways and I'm currently putting together a rather large one in honor of my 200 follower mark.
I have a question: Any one have an issue with a combined winnings package including new and never used polish as well as one time swatched? (usually just on one nail...I've been swatching and culling to reduce my overgrown stash and my polishes need a happy home.

Let me know your thoughts PLEASE!