Mermaid's Dream

I was strolling through Nordstroms while in the San Francisco Bay Area visiting friends and family. My friend and I were shopping for some new clothes for her and, of course I had to swing by the cosmetics section and gawk at nail polish.

I was drawn to Butter London's Knackered, but there was a woman next to me who loudly sighed when I grabbed the last bottle. So I let her have it and moved on to Deborah Lippmann. See, I've been lemming Candy Shop since it was released in the special pack with Forget You.

This particular Nordys was out of CS but then Mermaid's Dream caught my eye and held it. Rapture, I tell you. Sheer delight.  It left the store with me. So here she is in all her glory:

Remember you can click 'em to make them HUGE. 

As for the Polish - what can I say? It's Sparkly!  It's got an interesting texture going on...sort of similar to a matte polish in consistency yet it's not matte. It's lumpy when dry but not like the average glitter. The only thing I can call it is "Texture" like a mermaid's tail. There are 2 coats of David top coat on it to smooth it out, (maybe that is why it's cracking?), and it IS smooth to touch but it looks like there is dimension to it - little hills and valleys - and I love that about it. Like the sun glistening on the bluest ocean.

Yep, she did it again - a gorgeous glitter as only Deborah Lippmann can deliver. Get it while you can, it's worth it!

You can pick this up at Nordstroms as well as online at www.deborahlippmann.com, www.nordstroms.com and www.hsn.com too! 

As already stated, I purchased this product for myself. Candy shop will be next...I think. (I found it in a Nordys on the way home!)

Sidenote: I'm noticing some cracking in the polish on my middle finger. I cleaned the bathroom yesterday. Wore gloves most of the time, but there was a lot of scrubbing going on. I've been treating my nails with some special oil product that is supposed to put flexibility back into my hard, brittle nails. Maybe this is a sign that the product is working.  More on that later after I've used it as long as I'm supposed to. (Review will happen then.)

Assymetry with Zoya True

Today I have for you, Zoya Cho and Zoya Skylar from the Zoya Spring collection "True."

I'm no fan of neutrals, but I couldn't resist the soft shimmer of Cho when paired with the more obvious, glass-flecked shimmer of Skylar. Besides, don't they look pretty together?

 (click for detail)

I was inspired by April over at Concrete and Nail Polish where she used Bevin and Farah from the same collection. Another lovely, complimentary pair in this pretty collection.

One more look at them.

I used nothing but the brushes in the bottles of Zoya Polish. What do you think? I think it put the fun in funky!

(remember: simplesymmetry.blogspot.com is where you'll find these and other fun posts going forward.)

Moving my posts

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while, hasn't it?  Goodness, so much has happened. I've moved to the Sierra Nevada Mountain foothills far, far from my lovely beaches. I quit my job and am currently looking for the next thing which I am hoping will be a gig at Starbucks...really! My husband and I are reunited after living apart for 6 difficult months and although the reunion has had it's difficulties, I'm much happier here WITH him than I was in beachtown America without him.

Thank you for continuing to follow this little blog 'o mine. I really appreciate seeing all your smiling icons in the Google friend connect widget here. I'm really glad so many of you chose to visit and follow and I'm sorry I let you down. It gets better...

I have gotten back into blogging but I am going to channel most of my energy into my favorite blog: Simple Symmetry because it really does exemplify the values by which I am striving to live my life. Nail polish will be discussed over there as well. Afterall, it's a part of my simple life and always has been.

I hope you'll join me "over there" where we'll talk about more than nail polish. I hope you'll join me in discussing epiphanies and self-discovery as well as how you use, might use or have better ideas for some of the organizational things I've found to simplify the simple life.

I also feature one of my other favorite things: Tiny Homes! I do love them and I love the idea of making a small "footprint" on the earth.  I know it's not for everyone, and I sure can appreciate visiting the homes of those who like to live large. In fact, I really love exploring floor plans and you'll often find me wandering through open houses and model homes just to see how the space is used. You can get some great ideas for living small in some of those spacious spaces.

So, If any of that interests you beyond checking out nail polish art and swatches and comparisons - I promise they WILL happen from time to time - then follow me over there and join in the conversation. I'm even going to make time to respond to comments this go around.

Thank you for sticking around with the Lizard, it's been fun and I really do enjoy following all of your blogs and seeing what you create with your collections. I can't wait to show you what I've done with Zoya Cho and Skylar as inspired by April over at Concrete and Nail Polish.

I'm considering double posting the nail polish related posts over here so that those of you who don't much care about all that other stuff can see only what you wish to see over here...what do you think?

Happy Friday! Have a most excellent weekend.
~Lacquered Lizard

Zoya Introduces "FEEL" - The New Neutrals.

New Zoya Collection preview!

FEEL Beautiful!

Every season the color experts at Zoya create dozens of new color collection options. This
year, one of those “secret collections” just had to be seen now rather than later. FEEL by Zoya
Nail Polish delivers six new, highly pigmented, full coverge neutrals for right now!


Zoya FEEL Collection

• Kristen (ZP591): Full coverage, gull gray cream
• Carey (ZP592): Full coverage, periwinkle gray cream
• Megan (ZP593): Full coverage, taupe gray cream
• Kendal (ZP594): Full coverage, rose quartz beige cream
• Kennedy (ZP595): Full coverage, pale french beige cream
• Avery (ZP596): Full coverage, blonde beige cream

Zoya is the new color of fashion...

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals
like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known
to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya FEEL as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at
www.zoya.com

 

. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we
name them after women.

FEEL by Zoya
Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl.oz. bottle (US)

www.zoya.com

 

Available November 15, 2011. 

These are actually really pretty. I'm really loving Carey and Megan, Kristen and Kendal next and maybe Kennedy...not sure about Avery, but I think I need these! What do you think?

Apologies

Hi everyone,
I sure do miss posting and sharing pictures of all the manicures I'm enjoying...I just haven't had a lot of blog time since the house "blew up."
I keep thinking I'm going to get some posts up of my AMAZING time at CosmoProf LV, but I just haven't had the time...I'll keep working on it. I did have a very, very special time there.
I think though, I shall take a little longer of a "hiatus" and work on some other things that are pressing in life. While at the same time taking time to enjoy some of what life has to offer as well.
For starters: I'm meeting up with Jen of http://www.thepolishaholic.com/  and Jackie of http://candycoatedtips.blogspot.com/  tomorrow for a dusty hunt and then a visit to The Painted Nail!  I can't wait to see Jen again and meet Jackie!
I hope to be back to posting soon...in the meantime, I'll still be checking out your blogs and commenting.
Hugs!
The Lizard

CosmoProf Las Vegas - Blogger Meet-up and Show Day One

By now, I'm sure many of you reading this have seen other blog posts about the amazing gathering of beauty bloggers that converged on the CosmoProf tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nevada.  So much to see, do, touch, feel, and experience there!  This is my take in summary with more to follow in detail as the days pass.

The show was HUGE. The only way to see it all was to go down every row and have a plan. I didn't have a plan when I first arrived at the show and I quickly realized my folly. So, I wandered a little aimlessly that first day and found the Nubar, Zoya, Color Club, China Glaze booths and checked on a few others that looked like fun. Then I bumped into Beauty Judy!

We chatted for a bit and, this being my first show, I asked her how to go about it, she gave me some pointers when I asked for them and she was so nice and helpful and that woman has some gorgeous skin. To me, it looked absolutely flawless. She was heading over to and appointment over by the OPI booth so I tagged along to see what OPI had going on. We parted ways as I approached the OPI booth where I learned lesson #1.  Take business cards for the BLOG too!

This is "Eggplant Mosaic." Please ignore the dry skin. :)

It looks like this before you apply it over silver foil polish:

I was there to learn about the business and the channels for marketing Fashionista Nails, which is how I labeled myself with my badge...this made the booth guardians at OPI nervous and they denied me access. "Manufacturers Only" I was told. When I left, I bumped into Judy again who mentioned two other bloggers had just tweeted that they were inside the booth.  Kind of gave me one more reason to remember that OPI isn't my favorite brand. I like them well enough, just like others more.  Those other bloggers names I shall not mention, but they had a BLAST in there so you'll have to read about that should they tell me I can share. I don't want to share before they do and I'm soooo behind on my blog reading!

After a few hours of the "crazy zig-zag pattern of silliness," I headed back to the hotel, got out the laptop and my notebook and made a plan. (Lesson Learned #2 - use the tools provided to make a plan to see the show.)  I put together a list of the booths I had to visit and then revisited the list and put them in numerical order. This made the next two days sooooo much nicer.

Krystal of Polish Galore took it upon herself to organize some fantastically unbelievable cool things for all of the bloggers to do together.  Monday Morning we met with Deborah Lippman who told us about her upcoming collections - full post to follow shortly.

Monday Night we dined and talked with Katie Cazorla of The Painted Nail and The Nail Files reality television show. She was fun, funny and truly enjoyable. She'd be a delight at any party. I sat way at the other end of the long table so I didn't get to chat much with her, but that's ok. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Melissa, Katherine, Jen, Michelle, Maria and her bestie Ana. Suffice it to say, we were having our own fun at the far end of the table. Katie seemed to enjoy the time with us and I sure hope she did as much we enjoyed having her join us. There were pictures taken, but I don't have any. :( Help!

Tuesday

Kreativ Blogger Award

Thanks to my dear friend over at (im)properly polished, for passing this award on to me. Not sure how I qualify for it, but I am so moved by the sweet things she said about me on her blog. You made my day sweet sister. (hehehee!)

So the award includes having to tell 10 things about myself and then tagging 10 other blogs.

10 things about me:

1. I sing. Like a bird. No really. It took me years to believe in my talent, and now that I'm 50 and it's beginning to be more a challenge to keep the chords tuned up, I know now what I didn't know then. I'm good!
2. I LOVE to ride my bike. I experience true joy pedaling around town.
3. I have a few other blogs. I have been ignoring them all for a while, but it's time to write again - another thing that brings me joy.
4. I raised my son on values and beliefs I wish I had the conviction to truly believe and now he is my greatest teacher in showing me that those tools truly work.
5. I love people. I really enjoy getting to know them, learning what makes them who they are and understanding where they are coming from.
6. I want everyone's deepest dreams to come true. What a wonderful world this would be if that happened. Not those fleeting deep dark dreams - those pass - I'm talking about the dreams that sometimes we keep from ourselves or dare not to dream.
7. I used to only wear light colors when my nails were short, thought I had to have long nails to rock the fun stuff. The blogosphere has shown me the error of my ways and now I rock whatever I'm feeling, regardless of nail length. (Thank you to EVERYONE in my blogroll for that one!)
8. I have recently learned to enjoy good scotch and fine whiskey. I guess that makes me old.
9. On top of the blogs I already have - and will begin to write again - I'm considering adding another...but I could incorporate this next idea into an existing blog too.
10. I'm over saturated with nail polish colors. There, I've said it. I've not seen a color that I don't already have some version of in over a year. I love nail polish, but 15 of the exact same blue I don't need.

Blogs I tag:

Well, I tag back the blog that tagged me even though she's already gotten the award and tagged me. She's amazingly creative and kind and I look forward to every post or email we share. I am so happy we're friends! (im)properly polished

The Daily Nail - and I am so sorry I never posted about our meetup. :( I had so much fun and your nails are even more amazing in person.

Emerald Sparkled - Trincess, I miss our chats, hope to chat again soon. Your nail designs are so inspiring and fun and cool! I mean, check out the Parrots! You are such a sweet person, thanks for letting me call you "friend."

Random Landa - The nails are great, love the blog, and the cookies??? I could never eat them...I'd just want to look at them all the time. So Talented! And the fact that you served our country gets you a very special place in my heart.

Short Wide Nails - I've just enjoyed getting to know you! You do some beautiful Konad designs. Another lady I am glad to call "friend."

And all the ladies I'm excited to meet at CosmoProf LV!!!
~The Lizard