I got a wild hair

 Update:  Rustic is the WNW up for grabs!

 

Before I tell you about my wild hair, I thought I’d tell you about the October Family Circle I just received.  It’s not even September yet!  Oh well, be that as it may, it came, and so I think it’s safe to say that if this issues isn’t on the rack yet, it will be soon.  Certain people out there, such as Brooke, may wish to look for it.  Why do I say this?  Because there seems to be a high incidence of varnish- and Halloween-lovers out there!  And take a look at the cover!

 

 

But I have to say, that I am less than impressed with it’s editors.  I certainly haven’t sat down to read it carefully yet, but as I flipped through the pages I cam across a photo of polish that, well, somehow caught my eye.  The corresponding text recommends we be on the Fall Fashion Bandwagon by having grey-toned nails.  Their recommendation is Zoya’s Loredana.  Not that I think anyone needs this reminder, but if you can’t remember what this  varnish is, you can see my post on it.  It’s a charcoal matte grey.  Matte.  Okay, everybody got that?  Matte.

 

(Not the best quality, but the only one I could find with the line I wanted.)

 

So I have to wonder why they tell you that you can “de-gloss” this polish by using the Essie Matte About You top coat.  There is nothing to de-gloss here.  It.  Is.  Matte.  Already!

Sigh, there are few things in this world as frustrating as people who have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.  Like those who tell you your lacquer’s life can be extended by thinning it – with remover.  In case you’ve ever wondered, don’t do that.

Okay – snide comments are done now.  On to my wild hair!

When I bought my Wet N Wild polishes, I secretly bought two additional ones for giveaways!  So here we go with my Very First Giveaway!

Up for grabs are Morbid and Rustic.

 

 

The bottom picture, with flash, shows the coppery Rustic true to life, but Morbid is a bit of a tricky mistress.  The shimmer is a bit bluer than the top picture, and while the grain of the shimmer is better in the second picture, it is no where near that blue.  It’s like a deep, blackened teal.

Okay, so this is what I’m doing:  The first polish has already been won by Aquaheart!  As a show of gratitude to those that have supported my fledgling blog, I put all of my Followers into a spreadsheet and then had random.org pick a number.  Lucky number seven gets her choice of Morbid or Rustic! 

Whichever one she doesn’t choose goes to another lucky winner!  Since this is my first contest, please be patient with any growing pains that ensue.  So here goes:

If you are a Follower, you’re already entered!  If you don’t have a blog, send me an email so I have a way to contact you if you win.  Or, if you prefer, you can just check back when it’s announced.

If you are not a Follower, or if you are a Follower and want another chanced to win, leave a comment below including your email.  One comment per person, please.  International  readers are free to enter as well!  The contest will remain open one week, through noon my time (7:00 pm GMT) 09/04.

Good luck to all, and I’ll let you know which polish is left after Aquaheart gets in touch with me!

Amazing

How can such a little box . . .

 

(See?  Barely the size of my phone!)

 

. . . bring so much happiness??

 

Last six, right to left:  Milky White base coat, Sexsea, Sunset Glow, Emerald Sparkle, Platinum Silver, Bon Bon

With flash

 

All those shimmery, pretty ones with silver caps?  Those are China Glaze’s Kaleidoscope collection of 2006. 

 

Outside

 

And where can you still find this entire collection and some of these other (for me) hard-to-finds?  Victoria Nail Supply.

I learned of this company through Mary’s website, and in fact, I believe you still get that Milky White base coat or toe separators for free – check out Body and Soul for more information.

Anyway, onto more Kaleidoscope love:

 

It’s My Turn, Don’t be a Square, Rated Holographic

 

Spin Me Round, Visit Me in Prism, Let’s Do It in 3-D

Tickle My Triangle, How About a Tumble, Octa Gone Wild

Kaleidoscope Him Out, He’s Going in Circles, Sexagon

 

(Sorry that this wasn’t my best photographic work.  But you can see the colors, which is probably the most important part.)

I think I’ve said it before, I know I’ll say it again, but I’m just a sucker for holographic polishes!  They are almost-always my go-tos for when I need a varnish I know will cheer me up!  Some of the names, though, I’m none too fond of.  Octa Gone Wild reminds me too much of a particular franchise I find, frankly, disgusting.  I won’t go into it here, as when I started to, I realized I went a bit too far into an off-topic diatribe. 

But since, despite what Essie might think, I don’t buy colors for their names, I won’t belittle a lacquer for that reason, either.  They’re pretty, and I’m pretty darned glad to have them!

I poked a little bit of fun at Essie there, but that’s because it reminds me of a survey I was sent a link to today.  (I’m sure any of you that are on their email newsletter got the same one.)  As I filled it out, I chuckled more and more, and found more and more things that I wanted to share with you.

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I don’t think that lacquerheads like us are their target audience.  If we are, they’re a little off the mark. 

For example, one question posed was “How many bottles of polish do you have?”  You know what the largest number was?  Twenty.  Twenty!  I don’t know about you, but most of my groupings (work-related, glitters, green, OPI, etc.) include more than twenty, leave alone my entire collection!  We’re going to have to multiply that number by a bit to even get it close to a true representation for how many I have!

Here’s another question:  “How often do you change your polish?“ Your choices are once a week, once a month, or every two weeks.  I know that I am already rather unusual when I say I’ll leave a color on for up to five days, and here again even I can’t give a true representation!  Once a month?  Anyone I can think of from this particular community would rather eat the same meal daily for an entire month than leave one color on their nails for that long!

How about, “Where do you purchase polishes?”  You know how many online-related answers there were?  One.  Essie.com.  No other e-tailers listed, by name or by category.  So I had to resort to “other” and spell out my answer.

They then gave you a list of about seven polishes or so, and you were supposed to select your favorite from among that group.  As there was only one color I would ever pick, I didn’t pay too much attention to the list.  Again I had to select “Other” and type in Starry Starry Night.  I’m sure that I’m not alone in wanting them to re-release that color, but it wasn’t even mentioned.  Grr!

Here’s classic Essie thinking for you, too.  When they ask what colors you consider sexy, you can choose from red, neutral, or pink.  Doesn’t that just about sum up 98.2% of Essie’s line?

And finally, and the question I was referring to up above, there’s “Why do you purchase Essie lacquers?”  You could choose from: durability, color names, variety of colors, or bottle design.

I don’t know about anyone else out there, but it’s extremely, extremely rare that I will buy a color based on the name.  In fact, though I can easily imagine times where that might happen, it hasn’t actually happened to me yet.  And though Essie is branching out, I don’t really find that they do, in fact, have much of a “variety of colors.”  But that’s just one woman’s opinion.

Anyway, anyone who is not on their mailing list can find their survey here.  They say that as a reward, you get to see a preview of their fall colors.  All that happens is that they tell you what the link is at the end.  I’ll help ya out, if you don’t want to take the survey; it’s essie.com/seasonal.  You also get a free gift – a sensitivity base coat (though they don’t tell you that will be your gift at the get-go) – but it’s from a code you have to enter with a purchase.  (I’ll give you that, too; it’s freegift09, to be used at essieshop.com.)

It’s not a bad idea to take the survey, though.  Maybe if all of us that missed the SSN bandwagon when it first rolled out include that as our favorite color, we can convince them to release it again.  The survey took me maybe five minutes, if that, though I’m sure it was considerably shortened since I said that I didn’t have professional manicures done; my progress bar made a huge jump after that page.

And for what it’s worth, though I seem to be razzing Essie a bit up there, it’s not as though I have a problem with the polishes.  I have, I think, six (two I got for free), and I’m still trying to get my hands on Greenport.  But I haven’t actually worn any of them yet, so I can neither condemn nor commend their formula.

And, in closing, I have one more thing to share with you!  (See what happens when two days go by when I can’t publish?  But I felt the names were a perfect lead-in to the survey, and this next bit of news is both short and timely, so I’m tacking it on here.)

My Walgreens finally got the Wet N Wild Craze polishes in!  And they did it at the most opportune time; they’re buy one, get one free – that’s a dollar a piece!

“Hey Larry!”

“Yes, Balki?”

“Now we are so happy, let us do the dance of joy!”

 

 

 

Not all of them looked that appealing to me, either in person or in any of the online swatches (such as Nicole’s, whose I found very helpful), so four came home with me:

 

I’m sorry these are so blurry; I couldn’t get a focused picture, whatever I did.

 

Left to right, we have Inferno, Shield, Rustic, and what seems to be the standout, Morbid.  I didn’t really realize what tiny bottles these were – .34 fluid ounces – so I put them next to a Zoya, at .50 fl. oz., for comparison.

The BOGO sale runs through this Saturday, so Carpe Diem if there are any WNWs on your wish list!

And that’s all, folks!