My Stash, My Heart, My Passion for Polish!

I know I've told most of you, and it's no big deal (I thought it was when I first got the news but I've adjusted since) but I will be going into the hospital on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 am local time for a procedure in my heart at 8:30 am. It's called Cardiac Ablation. It's not a "surgery" per se but a "procedure" LOL... they'll go up thru my artery (from my groin) to the heart with three skinny wires: one to stimulate the suspect problem and cause the problem reliably...one to see what they're doing, and one to do the freeze burn of the offending cells. Takes a minimum of 1.5 hours, maximum of 2. Then I'll be in the hospital for the rest of the day under observation to make sure they didn't break anything. They say I should be able to return to work the next day and I won't have to take medication for this problem EVER AGAIN!!! I am soooo looking forward to that, the meds make me retain unhealthy amounts of water and I have fat lower legs, ankles and feet. I'll probably lose 20 lbs the first couple weeks just from water retention. :)

No more meds, no more worries about SVT, hiking and biking can resume without worry, (just attention to injury prevention) and that will be a very very good thing.

So that is what I'm focusing on, but once in a while...the scary stuff creeps in and I just remember that there are good people out there thinking happy thoughts for me and it helps calm me down. Odds are in my favor, not fantastic, but not bad. So keep a happy thought for me tomorrow, okay?

After the Nail Polish Party with my co-workers, I had to reorganize my stash. So I dumped it out, sorted it and took some photos. I have not yet taken photos of my organizational choice, I guess I need to get to that next.

I do sort by color family, I find it easiest for me in my super tiny space. I have no need to sort by brand then color, just put the color families together and I know where to go for a purple, red, pink, blue or whatever thank-you-very-much.

Here begins the spam...bail now if your computer is slow. :) Remember: all of my pictures are clickable for your viewing pleasure. :)



So here's the stash in all it's not so organized glory: I sorted them by brand first but here's the whole shebang!

 Then we have all the China Glaze

 Followed by the lovely Zoya

 The nail polish pile of a price I swore I would never pay for a bottle of polish...and a stray bottle of Poshe?

 My beloved Essie collection.

 The "not found in drugstores but maybe sometimes in other lands" pile

 The Diamond Cosmetics pile...oh so small

 The "what I can get at my local drugstores" pile (lots of Orly in there)

The pathetically small OPI collection. (Told you, I am NOT a fan.)

 My Del Sols. I love these...I live where it's more sunny than anything else...except for the odd 10th year or so. These polishes belong here. It's just too bad that so many of them just turn the same shade of purple.

 Ahhhh, Nubar, my loves

 Sweet Color Clubs, such a great formula, such great pigments, so affordable!

 My favorite treatments, base and top coats (the rest were in the drugstore pile)

Then I sorted thru some of the piles, starting with the "I will never pay that much for nail polish" pile

Here are my Lippmann's, but one of them (the one beside the box) isn't really mine. I just took it out of the box to get a bottle shot. That's "Don't Tell Mama" and it belongs to someone else..yeah, you know who you are! The rest, left to right: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (I had to, I am a HUGE Benatar Fan), Wicked Game, Across the Universe (LOVE), Bad Romance (meh)

 My Rescue Beauties. 3 I won, 1 I got in a swap. I'll have a few more soon! Not many though...just um...6 I think?

 Who doesn't love Nfu Oh?

 Models Own...purchased during the 50% off sale. So far, from the ones I've tried, I like them. I think Peacock Green is my favorite. It's the exact color of that 'eye' of the peacock feather. 

 Assorted others that I only have ONE bottle from the makers. I think it's pretty funny that the one color I did bring home from my trip to Seattle last April out of all the polish I bought up there, I brought home the SH LE dupe. I didn't even know it, just really liked it and hadn't worn it yet. :) 

After I pulled out the Models Own, Miss Marion (you've seen that entire collection already) The 3 Misa's I own, the Gosh and the Finger paints, this is what was left. (I thought I took pics of those too, but apparently not.) Many of these were attained through swaps with some really great new friends. I wish I knew where my H&M Bella's Choice went off to...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

There you have it, my stash. So far. I don't need a Helmer...don't have the space for one. As it is, this is too much for my little home, but I love them and so I let them crowd me a little...for now. But who knows? Maybe there will be an amazing blog sale at some point. I have to say, probably 50% (or more) of these are untried!  Do you see one I should try soon? Which one?

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 

These Companies Agree: Customer Service is Job 1

I've been doing a lot of writing to various companies to ask questions about their products and I am amazed at the level of service I've received from the following: Miss Marion, China Glaze, Color Club and Cheeky Monkey have wowed me with the level of service delivered by their representatives/employees.

I wrote to Miss Marion - the J Pinon Cosmetics company - when I wrote to them about my experience with "Garnet" they not only responded but sent me replacement product with assurance that what I had was not what I thought I had. I have since received the replacement and some fun stuff along with that which I'll be sharing soon. I think the change from old formula to 3free is what has made a difference, but Garnet is still quite a gem and I'll show her to you very soon!

"Carnival" - a bright red jelly

Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics not only responded to my email, but I have had a few more email conversations with the founder to learn more about the product. It's obvious that Andrea cares about her customers as much as she cares about her company and delivering a quality product.

 

Social Climber, Man Chaser, Trailer Trash, Pop My Cherry 

with top coat - I Like it on Top and base coat Wet Dream

This is some high quality product and fast becoming a favorite of mine!

China Glaze not only answered my questions about their products, but went above and beyond to find out information about a sister company for me. Sadly, the answer was not what I was hoping for, but once a product is discontinued, that's all there is to say. Irene was so helpful and I hope to be in contact with her again sometime in the future, it was a pleasure to chat with her.

My Love - China Glaze Atlantis with a stripe of Twenty-Four K

Color Club, what can I say about this company? W O W. I wrote a quick email on their site asking about a product and I didn't get an email at all. At about 6:30 pm this evening I got a phone call from Forsythe Cosmetic Group that led to a wonderful conversation about their products and my recent experience with Color Club. The conversation ended with them being more than willing to correct a problem and make sure I was delighted with the resolution. 

Color Club Wild at Heart with a Matte Funky French tip

This is customer service at it's best. I wish every company in the United States would truly understand this and act upon it like the companies I've mentioned did.  I am impressed and so happy to have found this world of nail care again. From the companies I've dealt with to my fellow bloggers, it's a pretty great place to find myself right now and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.


I have a ton of pictures to share, and I'm on a no-buy til I swatch and swap what I have, keeping only the true keepers. I have a ton of dupes to do comparison swatches and choose the keeper...then I'll give the rest away to make room for new stuff. :)


I don't think I'll be posting much til after April 15 since I'm in the midst of the busiest part of the year at work.  But I've got some stuff to share and will do my best to get them posted for you all very, very soon. Bear with me and thank you so much for being there, reading, commenting and even just perusing my pictures. I don't even have much time to respond to your comments, but I'm reading them and appreciate every single one!