I Love You Not

This was probably one of the most difficult colors (of the now 6 I have) that I could get to work with me. Sinful Colors I love You is a purple glitter in a clear base. I tried it by itself. I tried it over my Avon Grey. I tried it over my favorite blue, and nothing looked right. Most looked pretty messy and juvenile. I finally, though, found a solution. Thanks to Black Friday and The Cincinnati BearCats game.

In the midst of buying toys at Meijer for the millions of little relatives (ok- three) that I need to buy for this year, I made my brother make a detour to the nail polish, where I found Rimmel LycraWear on Clearance. I picked up a black satin that I could quickly use to make my nails black for UC spirit. (the all black nails worked well, but I don't like the Lycra Wear as much as I used to.) Then, this morning, frustrated with crappy manis for the last four days, I decided to try I Love You again, this time over the black. And it actually worked.




What do you think?

Camera update: ( I got the new one, but I am still missing a memory card, because I thought it would take the same as I have now because it is just a newer version of the same camera... So, in short, pictures will be better soon.)

A Very Beauty Bounty

So I am still loving the blue nails, but I promise to swap out later tonight and show you No.5 aka I Love You from Sinful Colors. I am thinking of doing it over a *gasp* Avon color I already had on hand.

In the meantime, I thought I would share the results from my beauty hauls that I got my two best friends for the holidays this year. Maybe you could get some good gift ideas from it, who knows?

First of all, I picked up these adorable Chinese takeout gift boxes at Target for $1 each. Inside, they are jam packed with some of the coolest new and old products I have become fascinated with as I have started this journey.




There are 12 products in each gift box. So maybe I went a little overboard, but I thought they'd get a kick out of it. It will be like having a dress up party for grown ups.

1. Glazewear Lip Shine from Avon in diamonds, a nice sparkly clear coat for on top of their favorite lip colors.

2. Zoya's new Hot Lips lip balm in Starlet and Babydoll. For myself, I got Purr. This is a really nice formula, and I got them all for free during a promotion last week. Now, they are $6, but very worth it, especially if you plan on stocking up on polish already this Friday.

3. Stila Lip Glaze. Sephora has a three-piece set for $8 if you are a beauty insider, and I split it up with one for each girl + my own. The formula is very nice, though a little sticky, but the flavor literally makes me want to eat my lips. Each color smells exactly like its namesake, so it is definitely worth a try.

4. Benefit Lust Dusters, also on sale right now at Sephora for three colors for $10. I got both sets of three, gave one color from each set to the girls, and kept one for myself. These little pots are filled with glitter that give a nice highlight around the eyes, cheeks and face. They make you like like a fairy, and I love it.

5. Also from Avon, I bought Glimmersticks Eyeliner in green and blue, giving one girl blue and the other green. I fail majorly at eyeliner, so I cannot vouch, but they were affordable for the kits and offered a fun splash of color.

6. Forever 21 introduced a new beauty line this month called Love and Beauty, and I was quick to pick up the only mascara in the box, a colored mascara I bought in Jade and Blue, both were around $3.80 and made a good match for the glimmersticks eyeliner I bought them each from Avon.

7. Also from the Love and Beauty Line, the next two products in the pic are eyeshadow duos from the collection. For less than $3 each, they are worth a try, though I did not pick up any for myself, so I cannot give my stamp of approval yet.

8. At the top of the pic is a product I picked up from a quick trip to Sephora before a movie last weekend as a splurge. The beauty store has these nail patches on clearance right now for $5 each. There are 14 pieces, which is only enough for one application, though they supposedly last for 11 days. I picked up this dark red, a baby pink and a sparkly black for myself. Unfortunately, I took a hot shower not too long after application, and a few came off. The ones that stayed on though looked really nice, about the equivelant of four layers and a top coat of polish.

They are easy and fun to put on, but not worth $5 for a mani, but they will make a fun addition to the kits.

9. My absolute favorite item in the kit was also the most expensive. Urban Decay's pocket rocket lip gloss. It retails for $19, but I got it from urbandecay.com with a coupon that brought it to $13. They come in colors named after men, have a holographic pic of a male (clothed and in underwear ... front and back views) and a strip of pheramones to rub to "attract the opposite sex." There is a lot of product in the tubes, and the colors come out very nice on the lips. But most of all, I think the smiles on my friends' faces will make this splurge worth it.

10. The last product in the kit is Change Artist Nail Polish from Avon, on clearance for less than $3. The colored polish is on one end. It's not the best formula, and does not wear well on its own, but when you add the polish on the other end, it changes colors, and then a top coat finishes it off niceley. I got my friends lavender and teal, and I kept a steel grey for myself.

Amazing Zoya News for Black Friday!

Or should I say Green Friday? If you haven't seen the link to the right, Zoya is offering 6 free green polishes this Friday with the purchase of $20 or more.

Needless to say I have never had a Zoya polish, but have been following swatches for a while. I ordered the company's Hot Lips, glossy lip balm, when they had 3 for free for my best friends' makeup gift bags (blog post on those treats later).

I am super excited about the prospect of adding at least six more greens to my collection, but I am wondering if you all have favorites in other shade I should pick up through the order. Let me know, and follow back to see me journey through the shades you suggest + 6 greens.

Nail Junkie swatch over Pixel Pretty= easy Monday

Nail Polish No. 4 was Sinful Colors Nail Junkie. I picked it up at Walgreens this weekend during the store's buy-one-get-one sale, making it only $1. I chose it because I though it would make an easy mod to the Pixel Pretty mani posted yesterday.

The formula was surprisingly not terrible for an inexpensive bottle, and there were plenty of sparkles per spread. The only complaint I have is that the layers of Nail Junkie took away from that awesome LCD color in Sally Hansen HD- I am starting to forget what that even looked like.

Still, as I sit here typing and looking forward to 5 p.m. I can honestly say the day went smoothly and these sparkley ocean blue-green nails tip-tapping on the keyboard have made me smile more than once!

Welcome to all the new readers, and thanks to Brooke for the shout out!

The shade of inspiration

To preface this post, I am getting a new camera in T-minus five days, but I did not want to put of my decision to get happy any longer. So, I wanted to share with you the shade that made me decide to make this journey public. I could have gotten happy all on my own, but when I saw this shade on nail, I couldn't help but think "Hey, I might not be as good as my nail idols, VV and Brooke, but from what I've read of them, I think they would encourage me to give it a shot." It is their blogs, after all that helped me to reach my life-changing epiphany.

The shade is Pixel Pretty, by Sally Hansen in her HD polish line and it lights up the room. It signifies everything I wanted to gain from this journey, and what shades I wanted to take along with me. After a perfectly horrendous week at work, I decided one polish would be the beginning, bringing my grand total up to 3 polishes I own, and this was lucky No. 3.

Pixel Pretty is a delightful blue-green that has an alien quality about it, leading me to feel like a fun person again. It's shiny and went on smoothly, and the BF said it was unique, which is what I'm going for.

This took three coats, but it would have been fine with two. I had a dog smudge from a small Shih-Tzu, which was the only reason I did three.

It was a little loose in its formulation from what I was used to using a decade ago, but that could be me just getting loose to the game again. It did, however, go on smoothly and immediately shiny-- no top coat needed!

What's the deal?

To introduce myself: I am Mary Beth. I am a struggling reporter, jaded by the industry, unhappy with my writing and generally worried and anxious. About a week ago, I decided to get happy. It's not necessarily that easy, but I took a journey through my memories to a time when I was happy with my hobbies. When I was 14, I started making my own web sites. I was addicted to the Internet, and I loved to create. Also when I was 14, I collected amazing nail polish colors, designed my own mixes and created looks that told the world I was unique!

Now, I've seen the nail polish blogs, and I love the work they do-- clean lines, beautiful nails and wonderful work. I'll be straight up with you-- I am not that good. I don't have a steady hand, and I could never have been a surgeon. In fact, despite my high IQ, and genius-level test scores, the aptitude tests told me I would best be suited as a Christmas Tree farmer. I guess in the real world that translates to reporter, so here I am.

What I do know is that nail polish makes me happy. Nail polish is one-size-fits-all. With a swipe of a color you can tell the world, you're not one of the everyday folks. I enjoy color, and I enjoy sparkle, and deal with it because that's who I am.

After years in the corporate reporting world, without *gasp* any color to show for it, I decided to say screw the suits, the plain nails, the no makeup, the ponytails and plain face. I decided to emerge from the shadows and say take it or leave it to the male reporters, editors and publishers who control the specific type of reporting I do.

The trick is now to do it. I've decided to be happy, and from a recent episode of Monk, I realized happiness is a choice. (Thank you Lt. Disher). I just don't necessarily have the skills to do it. So on this blog you will see my journey into happiness, and I am happy to share. Chances are you'll see nails that are a little messy, lips gloss that's not perfectly refined, and eyeshadow that -- well, you probably have some tips to share with me about, but I am committed to making it happen and sharing it with you, whoever you are along the way.

I've asked all my friends, family and trusted co-workers to help. As it's near the holidays, I've asked for nail polish and beauty essentials from everyone so I can rebuild the collection I threw away when I decided to be stiff. As I pull in my hauls, I invite you to join me in my journey into happiness.