October Haul!

Recently I was gifted a few things that I decided to give them a try, because, why the hell not? They were free. They are hair products and I like hair products.

Especially if i don't pay for them.

So, I got my grubby little hands on the following:

• The "Wet" Brush (I don't know who thought that was a good name. More on this tomorrow.
• Moroccan Oil (the treatment)
• Vinylux Polishes 
• Blondeshell toning shampoo and conditioner.  <-- This one I've had for a while but I forgot about them, just found them and tried them out today. 

I'd go into more details but it is 1 am and I'm entertaining the cats with string. 

Vinylux Results!

At first, I thought it was a total bust. I had two major chips today when I ran my hands through my hair. I had a tiny little incidental inbetween the swirls as well... I came home, fixed the chip and redid both nails. I just now logged onto the blog to complain about this, saw the date and had to do a double take.

I posted back on 10/09. Today is 10/15. That's 6 days. Though I can't confirm right now (LHC is being dumb and laggy for me. I think it may be my internet connection) but I may have put on the polish evening of the 8th.

Well, if that's the case, this polish lasted almost the full 7 days it promised it would. I'm sure it would have been fine if a) I had done a proper manicure (i.e. clean the cuticles and nail bed) b) waited on adding cuticle oil until AFTER I put on the polish. I did it first... then I remembered I bought polish and slapped it onto an oiled nail bed. Woops.

Anyhow, I'm glad I went back to the salon and bought two more colors. I've noticed I'm very into metallics this season. Interesting.

Anyhow, so what I thought was a bust, really was a must and for that, I am glad

Score : 9 out of 10.

Would be a ten if I had done proper application.

Damn.. I should've just put on a new color today...

I should blog

But I have been too busy doing this sort of thing lately. I have so much to write but I got this leech that sucks up all my attention.

I blame the heat. He holds all the heat and I adore my calenton con tripas.

:: curls up to the hubbyness :: 

I love the cold months; he can't push me away anymore as I'm finally cool enough for him to cuddle up with. HAHAHA.. I win! :D

Vinylux!!

How I adore thee. It has only been a few hours but you've already exceeded my expectations.

I knew I should have when Work Wife managed to last it six days. SIX... until she ruined the mani with fabric paint and a corner of it lifted. Her incessant need to pick beat the polish, but six days? That's crazy.. this is the same girl which regular polish lasts her a day, maybe two... and shellac about four days.

This is Gilded Pleasure by Vinylux polish from CnD. It has no base coat and I've been too lazy to put on the top coat. So far, it has survived cat hair, itching, (it dried faster than regular polish!), dings, a pedi and a round of dishes. No chips.

I have no dings.

Well, I did get a ding early on and I had to remove it. Suffice to say removal of this stuff is a lot easier than shellac or any other gel polish. Regular acetone on a cotton round did the trick, just like regular polish. Love this stuff! I mean, I have the feeling that I'll get the same--if not better-- than my diy uv-less gel mani I've been doing lately.  a) I don't have to wait as long for the damned thing to dry. b) I have even less chips than that mani for the same amount of work.

Update:

I figured I should make my nails less 3CPO and bling it out a bit.

It took some very, very slow work on my part to come up with some decent swirls on my right hand, and I am proud of myself. I may be ambidextrious but I'm not that great with a brush. I guess slow and steady does it. 

Robin Moses should be proud. ^.^ I took some of her tricks to make the swirls. (Ironically, my left-handed swirls are loopier than the right handed ones. LOL) 

Monday Mani Tip!

This entry is a bit of an after thought. I completely forgot to take pictures and the cam's out of batteries.

Anyhow, I was reminded of a tip I learned from Robin Moses the moment I smudged my nail with the elastic of my sleep braid.

The nail was almost dry and I wound up with a smudged divot. NEVER FEAR, H2O is here!!

I just dipped a fingertip in water and smudged the polish back in place. Unfortunately I forgot about this tip and tried to fix it in place without water and made a bigger mess... so when I DID add the water it wasn't such a seamless fix. That's okay. I get to change my mani come Friday, my true mani day. :P

Other uses for Shampoo

Well, so far, I've only found one. I don't go through shampoo very much (I do stock up on conditioner, six bottles at a time) and there are a LOT of shampoos who have magnificent scents that I just can't use very well.  -- Scalp itch and all that.

So what do I do when I'm absolutely dying for a new scent of yesteryear. (Yes, I do get nostalgic for things I once used... like Suave's Ocean Breeze or Strawberry shampoo.) I use them to wash my delicates.


And boy, do they do such a fantastic job of it too! Proof positive that there are just a ton of surfectants that irritate my scalp.

So far, the one that gets my delicate whites the whitest is Herbal Essence's -- I got it in the Rose Hip scent. Every time I put on my boulder holder the scent wafts up to my nostrils and I'm reminded of my good days of youth. Y'know, before the depression got the best of me and I went down my self-destructive, emolicious goth path where I spent most of my free time being a hikkikomori and living life through a computer. Perhaps this is why I never snatched the guy of my dreams--- I was too busy being a melancholic teen. (With due reason, by I digress.)

Then again, it turns out the guy of my dreams really only existed in my dreams... and this realization, along with my uploaded life, allowed me to meet the man who WOULD be all that I ever asked for and more.

I get to tease him with the delicious smell of my teenage years when I give him hugs. And to me, that is much better than perfume-- which I'm also prone to develop headaches with.

I've also used Suave's Ocean Breeze and VO5's clarifying kiwi shampoo to cleanse my delicate whites but they're not as effective. They work, just.. lets just say, Herbal Essences is the Tide of shampoos. I don't know if that's entirely a good thing for my scalp, but it sure is for my lingerie!

(Believe me, I need all the help I can keep those suckers clean without destroying them in the wash. At about $60 a pop, I need to conserve!!)

Heat = Lethargy

We had a huuuge heat wave last week. I believe we got to like, 95 degrees with 54% humidity. All I did was lay in front of a bunch of fans in an attempt to cool off. In the end, I only felt like a piece overly salted chicken in a convection oven. It. Did. Nothing.

Even night time sucked. I think I slept about twenty hours Maybe a little bit more. With the majority of it done this past weekend.

So I got lazy in terms of hair care and style.  It was just too hot to do anything OTHER than wash my hair.

Believe me, I was thrilled to wash my hair an extra day in an effort to cool off. Nothing feels nicer on a hot day like a bare back covered in cold, sopping wet hair. Sadly, my hair -- which can take about six to eight hours to dry on average in this lovely part of the world -- dried in two. It sucked. Mucho cool-j. I mean, seriously, the PCs shut down from it being so hot.

I think at one point I did a super high lazy bun on top of my head and stuck two pieces of ice in it. That worked for.. like.. half an hour.

I was so lazy, I haven't even given myself a mani OR a pedi. I always have at a pedicure done. ALWAYS. Not last week. Not today even. Maybe I'll go do that once I'm finished with this blog. I want to wear sandals, its so flippin' caliente!

Despite the humidity and the heat and the overall lazyness that has taken over this household, we've managed to do some very deep cleaning despite everything.

And yes, I do know how to use an ironing board. I may not press the perfect seams but I think I do pretty damn well. Besides, I don't know how many of my friends at my age can say they know how to iron. Let alone do it in on a super hot day. (Mom, if you're reading this -- and I doubt you are, but IF you happen to find my blog -- I am in sheer awe at the amount of work  you did for our family. In absolute awe. I don't know how you did it, but I love you and thank you for it.)

Bonus: Awesome hair day. I don't know how I achieved this. I do not know how to replicate it, but by the heavens, I sure am documenting it!

PS: Hey, Mom? I know I was in the pain in the ass teenager. I know I threw unreasonable shit fits (sorry about the language) about doing chores, or waking up at a certain hour in the friggin day, but I want you to know that despite my grumbling or dragging my feet about it, I learned something. If my washing machine crashes, I wash by hand. If Jouji's shirt is missing a button, I know how to put one back on. If either one of us has an interview and we need something ironed : I KNOW HOW TO DO IT. And by god, if all I have is flour, chicken bullion, a few potatoes, a carrot and meat -- I figure out how to get two complete different meals out of it. I mean, seriously, I've no idea how you managed to get this tomboy to achieve such domesticity.

PPS: I still hate waking up in the morning though. I am nocturnal... and I begrudgingly join the land of the living.