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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Clair

Ah yes, another Bettina is coming your way-but with an indie brand new to me.  I was asked to do a post specifically using Clair, since my last post using it really didn't show it's true prettiness.

I cannot believe it's almost March already!  Where the hell is the time going?  My daffodils are already coming up-isn't it early for them?  I feel like I always do living in Virginia, that I don't get enough cold and snow.  Someday maybe I'll live in a place that knows what winter is all about.

After March comes April-my birthday month.  Last year, I did a huge blowout of a giveaway.  I really haven't thought about whether I'll do that this year or not.  I do know that I'm going to be 45 and that's getting a little too close to 50 for my taste.  Did I tell you that Too Busy Guy is only 11 days older than me?  He's an Aries and I'm a Taurus.  I believe in that stuff and it seems that those two signs are pretty compatible, so I'm happy about that.  My BFF is 8 days older than me.  He's also an Aries-we've been BFFs since we were 7 so I think that tells me that Aries men and Taurus women can get along well for a long time.

Anywho, on to today's Springlike mani.

Here is the silly bottle shot.


This is Contrary Polish Play Me, Bettina Clair and Contrary Polish Ain't No Sunshine.  I have seen this brand before, but it was always sold out and I finally got my hands on some!  Stay tuned for more of this brand!

I started with Clair and an accent of Ain't.  I'm told Ain't is similar, but not quite like Illamasqua Raindrops.  Since I've been lemming Raindrops, but am seriously on a no buy, this works for me.

Here are the starting shots.  Again without the sun.

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Clair is a gorgeous light tan creme, the color of a gorgeous sandy beach.  Since I didn't get to do my yearly Myrtle Beach trip this year, this will have to do.  Ain't is a dusky cornflower blue with white flakies.  I thought the flakies would go well with Clair.

Next I added dots, trying to make flowers, and added a glequin in the center of each flower.  I used all three colors for this step. I also tried a dotted funky, like I saw on Chalkboard Nails the other day.

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The blue dots make up the flowers, am thinking the purple kinds of makes it all a jumble. But I was trying to make my first flower dots.  I see so many people doing such cool designs using dots, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

I finished this off with my funky using Play Me, which is a gorgeous purple with blue green shimmer.  I swear the colors I bought from Contrary Polish seem to have Selkie infused throughout.  You all know how much I love my Selkie!!!

Here are the results.

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Close Up

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How cool is this?  Reminds me of Easter.  I am all sorts of pastel lovin lately aren't I? Need to pull out the Vamp to get back to my roots!!!  If only the sun would come out, I have holos to play with!

Do you believe in horoscopes and astrology?

Until next time people. Any thoughts out there?


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sparkles the Reindeer

Now there's a title that's way past due eh?  It'll all make sense to you.  Patience people.

I'm sitting here listening to Eminem.  Someone I've never listened to before, nor thought I'd ever listen to.  It's not that I don't like rap, it's just a genre I really know nothing about.  When we were driving around, Too Busy Guy had his music playing.  The man has good taste in music!  I know I've told you how important music is to me.  It seems that every guy I've ever dated, turns me on to new music and broadens my collection. He was doing his chair dance, gansta thang while driving and it was a side of him I hadn't seen yet and I liked it. So, now I'm listening to Eminem and kind of liking it. Do you know that he did the Ironman Triathlon? How cool is that?

The past few comments I've gotten never asked about Date #4-are you all tired and bored when there's no funny to be had?  Sorry that I'm finally in a good dating situation and have no more stupid stories of stupid men and their comments.  Trust me, I am aware that those stories are so much better.  The update is, we are both off the online dating site.  He does ask if I've talked about him on my blog-I think he rather likes that.  It's probably best that unless something really good or funny happens, that I take our story out of the public eye.

Ok enough gush for now.  WTF has happened to Fingers?  My hard core bad assness has softened!

Back when I unleashed my new Bettina, I was asked to show a couple from the Christmas Collection.  So today is the day!

Here is the silly bottle shot.


This is Bettina Sparkles and Reindeer.  The sun has been in hiding and I have a TON of new holos to show you!

I started with Sparkles and an accent of Reindeer.  My camera is freaking out with Sparkles and showing it wrong.  It's a much louder, brighter teal IRL.  Reindeer is a gorgeous bronzey shimmer. Oh and you know what? They are one coaters!!!  You know what that means right?

Here are the starting shots.

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Aren't these gorgeous? SWOOOOOOON!  Since these are one coaters (I did two here because I always do) I just had to do my signature opposite stamping.  Using plate DRK-C I stamped using the opposite color.  Here is that step.

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How cool is this???  I've had a few comments from people missing my stamping.  So this is for you!  I simply finished this off with my funky.  Here are the results.

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Close Up

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I so wish I had sun shots for this-I bet that Sparkles would really have lit up nicely!  Ah for another day....

Now you understand my post title right?  You know I always make sense in the end!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Provoque

I'm continuing on with my Bettina-fest.  Last post, I used Provoque as just an accent.  I loved it so much that I wanted to do a full mani with it.  I realized I haven't done a purple fest in a while either, so here's to both!

I got a very nice email yesterday from a polish company asking if I would like to review their polish.  I had heard of this brand before and knew that they only do glitters.  I know a lot of you out there really love this particular brand.  I'm not going to name them, but she was so nice.  Anywho, I asked her if she had any polish that was not a glitter, explaining to her that I'm just not a fan of glitter.  I know all of you out there who actually read my drivel knows that I love my cremes and shimmers.  I felt that if I agreed to this review just to get free stuff that it would be like lying to all my peeps out there.  I just knew I couldn't fairly review a polish when it's essence is something I'm just adverse to.

I wonder if there are people out there who have this dilemma and yet go ahead and do the review just so they get free stuff.  I'm betting there are some out there who are like this.  I also know there are people out there like me, who stand by their beliefs and convictions.  I wrote her back and apologized and bowed out but told her that if she ever made a creme or shimmer to let me know.

Personally, I really don't do reviews. I do them for Tweezerman and Elevation Polish but for me, I don't really want to do them.  I wear polish based on my mood and I feel that if I was sent a bunch of polish that I'd have to do those before what I wanted to wear. Elevation and I both have a serious case of brown polish love-she and I are polish soul mates so it's not a chore to wear her beauties.  Imagine if someone sent me a case of pinks and asked me to review them?

See what I mean????

On to today's fabness. Here is the silly bottle shot.  I swear I need to start doing better ones of these.


This is Bettina Butterfly, Provoque and Believe.  It's a purple extravaganza!  I just know KarenD will love this!!

I started with a full mani of Provoque.  I didn't even want to do an accent nail because I am so in love with this color.  It's a dusky, smoky purple creme.  Here are the starting shots.

Sun

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Is this not gorgeous????  My camera is even playing nice and showing this as purple and not blue.  Nice.

Next I added lines using striping tape and Believe, which is a darker purple creme.  Here is that step.

Sun

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Next I added dots using Butterfly, which is a lighter purple shimmer.  Here is that step.

Sun

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I really contemplated adding holo topcoat to this.  But decided I just wanted to let the cremes shine on their own.  I ended with my funky using Believe again.  Here are the results.

Sun

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Close Up

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I actually really like how this came out.  I caught myself staring at my nails many times while wearing this for three days.

What are your thoughts about reviews and polish?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Friday, February 22, 2013

Neutrality

I know, I know, I promised that I'd let you pick the first Bettina for me to wear, but I just couldn't wait!!! I'm pretty sure the colors I picked for today wouldn't have been your first choices anyhow. Imagine my surprise when you guys actually picked these colors out!  I really expected something else to be chosen.  It was between today's colors and Sparkles, which I will do very soon.

I decided that I needed a palette cleanser.  I just got done cleaning my house, vacuuming and dusting while listening to music through my ipod.  It helps the chore not suck as much. I've been wearing a lot of dark colors, that I love, but felt I needed something different for today.

I also will tally up the new handles for too busy guy and ask for his opinion as well.  I know which one he will pick, but not sure it's G rated for this blog.  HAHAHA!  We will be having Date #4 and I will talk about that on a later post since it hasn't happened yet.

So let's just get on with it, shall we?

Here's the silly bottle shot for today.


Oh yeah people.  Check out these beauties.  From top to bottom is Bettina Stiletto, Trend, Clair and Provoque.  These are all dusky smoky greyed out gorgeousness.  In front is my dotting tool and glequins, I accidentally cropped out my tape.

I started with a full mani with Stiletto.  The stupid sun was hiding for this whole mani. Anywho, here's the starting shots.

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This is the exact color of putty.  Silly putty from back when I was a kid.  Is that still out there?  Used to love that stuff.

Next I added stripes using striping tape.  I used Trend and Provoque.  Here is that step.

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Provoque is the darker stripe and is a dusky greyed out purple.  It's stunning.  The other is Trend and is a greyed out taupe.  I love these colors together.

Next I dotted with Clair, a greyed out light taupey white, and added glequins.  Here is that step.

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As you can see, I haven't quite grasped how much to dot with to hold the glequin and not squish out around it.

I felt this needed a little sparkle, although it's stunning like this.  I added a layer of holo top coat and my funky with Provoque.  I so wish the sun had come out for this.  But here are the results.

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Close Up

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I buried several of the glequins in polish.  You can clearly see this.  I also moved some around with the top coat and lost two soon after this.  Not as successful with the glequins as my last mani.  But there is definitely a learning curve to all of this, just like when I started stamping.  I'll get the hang of it!

I am just in love with these colors together.  My idea of a palette cleanser.

Neutrality.  As the title says.

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?



Wednesday, February 20, 2013

This makes 83!

Holy crap people. I KNEW I should have never started counting.  I just didn't want to know how out of control I have become.

Let me start by saying I hate haul posts.  I never read them, I find they are lazy posts with no thought to them.  For me, I don't care what bunch of polish you bought-I want to see the swatches and the art.  I'm sure this will piss off some people.  But I'm ok with that.

Now watch me eat my words as I present a Bettina haul post!  I have been teasing you with the arrival of my beloved new Bettina.  Well they are here and are spectacular!  I promise you, I normally would never do a haul post.  In the almost two years I have been blogging, this will be the first one.  However, since I spent the day driving the countryside with too busy guy for date #3, I did not have time to do my normal Wednesday nail art.  So this will have to suffice.

I think I will need to come up with a better name for him.........I told him what his handle was and I think now that he's making time, he should have a better handle. Any suggestions out there?

On to the matter at hand.  I just got in 21 bottles of Bettina.  This makes a grand total of 83 Bettina beauties.  I had no idea-I want to go back and be clueless.

Are you ready?

Picnic Collection
This is the Picnic Collection.  It is not even available yet to the USA-but because I am fabulous.......

Here is Kiwi, Butterfly, Fruit Punch, Pond, Mandarin and Watermelon.  What you can't see, is the gorgeous shimmer going on in these babies.  Here is a close up for you.


For those of you who remember, this is similar to their Disco collection that is gone now.  (Yes I have that too!)  It's a sort of glass fleck shimmer and so pretty.

Here is the next collection.

Classics II Collection
This is their Classics II Collection.  I have all of the Classics I as well.  These are soft Spring pastels.  I have been wanting some more lighter colors as base colors for darker stamping.

This is Silk, Provoque, Clair, Euphoria, Vanity and Retro.  These are all cremes, which I love. Here is a close up.



So pretty.  Yes I do see that there are pinks in this collection.  I'm getting soft in my old age.

Next up is their Christmas Collection.

Let's Celebrate Collection
This is called the Let's Celebrate Collection.  A pretty array with cremes and shimmers mixed.

These are Sparkles, Reindeer, Berry Merry, Believe, Be Jolly and Jingle Belle.  Here is a close up.


Check out that gold shimmer in Sparkles.  Swooon.

Lastly, here are the last three I got.  One is included in the Classics II (Trend) and the other two complete my Classics I Collection.


This is Trend, Lingerie and Stiletto.  More pretty soft pastels.

I haven't figured out what to wear first so I thought I'd leave it up to you guys.  The colors with the most votes will be worn first.  Sound cool?

This completes my one and only haul post.  I will definitely do more of these if it means time with too busy guy!  Have to come up with a better name for him.........

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?