ABC Challenge: Letter J - Jade, King of Greens + Illamasqua adventure

Hello Ladies,

We've got a rendez-vous with letter J this week, for which I chose another one of my back-ups: Catrice's jade polish King of Greens. Yes. I have been a lame, lame lawyer. I got lost into the oceans of papers I need to read, review and summarize and when I found myself in front of my stash I just couldn't find anything more interesting than my new Kiko Mirror effect in Lavender. Fitting that in letter J felt too much like cheating, so I raped my archives once more ;)

Another shimmery beauty. Flawless aplication. Yet I confess I am completely out of love, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

Let's move to the obvious and undeniable evidence of my bad luck, "recently" proved by my last purchase to Illamasqua. Yup, remember the sales? Back in January? Right then! I dedided to indulge myself and acquire three Illamasqua beauties that I am still waiting on. It all started when the Queen of England decided (yeah, right. She personally did. *irony*) to pass a new law regarding the exporting of hazardous items from England to other European countries, right in the middle of the post-Christmas sales. Optimum timing, you'll see. Hazardous shit, I was saying. Ya' know, cocaine, dynamite, guns, nail polish. That sort of things we should all work to erradicate from the surface of the earth. But whatever, no one informed Illamasqua and its fellow companies of the passing of such law (bad!) and when the royal mail service detected hazardous parcels it considered more advisable to destroy them than to return them to the sender (very bad!). Illamasqua informed me that my parcel had been destroyed for the first time.

Next up, Illamasqua had to speedily resend all those destroyed parcels, and I am guessing they probably ran out of stock with something I had bought, for they took a good month to ship the package again. I am not blaming them at all, I can just imagine how costly this must have been for the brand. So, at the end of February my package was sent to me again. With a private company, this time, which assured Illamasqua they would send the packages following Her Majesty's new rules. Bullshit. Illamasqua just contacted me yesterday: my package has been destroyed a second time. Made my day.

Illamasqua needs to re-send everything for the third time, at its own expense. Again. They informed all the customers affected by this that they would send everything in "express delivery", and sent us a 20 pounds vaucher. 

Okay, so my bad luck has been scientifically proven by this series of events beyond all reasonable doubt. 

And seriously now; from Illamasqua's perspective, this implies a shitload of negative accounting stuff that I honestly  don't think they should be responsible for, and I am feeling sorry for a brand that I have come to value because it stands out for imperfection and uniqueness in this fake and impersonal world we live in. Thus, I don't think I will let my greed aggravate their situation by using the vaucher I have been sent. I need to think about it. Any thoughts?

Have a nice day!

M.

Check out below what the other ladies have come up with for letter J :)

Berlin Haul

Hello polish lovers!

Here is my Berlin haul + some polishes I got as a present for Christmas. I get a polishgasm just looking at those pictures, true nail porn. Enjoy!

 Ciaté Regatta - Sally Hansen Blue it - NOPI Sky's the Limit - Misslyn Blue Lights

 Misslyn Royal Desire - Misslyn Space Camp - Rival de Loop (?) - Ciaté Halo

 Rituals Mystic Amethyst - Essie Bahama Mama - NOPI Fanatical Fuchsia - Manhattan (?)

 Ciaté Starlet - OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service - BeYu 475 - Kiko crackle green

 Essie Lapiz of Luxury - Catrice After Eight - Ciaté Glametal - OPI Goldeneye

Misslyn Star Dust - Misslyn Over and Over - P2 Passion - Manhattan 46D

Is there any of those lacquers you want to see first?

M.

Catrice Dirty Berry

Well hi there!

How are you all doing? I hope you're all safe, standing on your two feet and under your own roof after Sandy messed it up badly. 

I've had an introspective weekend where I though I'd work on my nails aswell as on myself, but it turns out I am a sucker and totally neglected my nails. Sorry for that. Anyhow, I wanted to buy some nice stuff for Discordia's cage last week (i. e. some plants, nice caves and fancy objects to brighten up her viv; not that she actually bothers, but I do because she lives in my studio after all) and went to a specialized shop at the end of the world for that, only to find the shop was closed on a Saturday afternoon. I made a mental note: most reptile shops SUCK big time, I'll need to focus in on-line shopping. 

What the hell does this have to do with nails? Well, since that shop was closed, I asked The Boyfriend to kindly take me to a nail polish store that wasn't (evil smile). After 6 new polishes, I was happy again, yay! One of my finds was Catrice Dirty Berry:

Those pictures do it partial justice only, because I wasn't able to fully capture the shiny micro-particles that give it that dusty look, which reflect blue, pink, green and silver in the sun. I hope you can see what I am talking about in that last macro-shot.

Have a nice Monday, if that is even possible ;)

M.

Chevron silver tips

Haaai!

How are you all doing? For once, I am going to say "it is Thursday already" with a *sad voice* My holidays are shrinking little by little, I still have three entire days ahead of me and I am starting to freak out. Boy, when I say I am versatile I wonder if I don't mean just dumb. But versatile sounds better. 

I prayed to go back to the Criminal Law Department for the past six months and now I am a little fearful. Just like when you look at a precipice: you want to look down and at the same time you're scared to. I want to work there, but I am not sure to fulfill the expectations of my boss. But hey, I can't fear a battle that hasn't started yet. And a friend of mine says: be a warrior. I will be an amazon.

That is the mani I wore to work on my last week in the Business Law Department. Yeah, just like that. Don't give me much credit though, the big bosses were all on holidays, I could therefore relax a little bit. 

 This is two coats of my beloved Catrice Heavy Metalilac (I can't have enough of that) and some chevrons taped with Gosh Silver. I had to attempt for this mani twice; the first time I ripped off half my base coat (an Essence I'll swatch later) - rather frustrating; I had applied it the day before and went all confident to enhance it. FAIL. It happened again since, and I am starting to wonder if my tape is not super strong or something. Since when in a battle of Polish vs. Tape does the Tape win?! I feel like I have missed something...

Take care.

M.

Heavy Metalilac

Well hey!

I've seen my followers' counter going up quite quick this week, so I would like to welcome all my new followers :) I am also more thankful every day to the people I keep commenting back and forth with. You all feed my blog and my heart. I'll be doing a giveaway whenever I reach 100, if I ever do, so stay tuned for that!

I'm really satisfied with my week so far, I've been working 100% on a project that I have with the Criminal Law Department at my firm: we're working on a new edition of the Criminal Code where each and every article has its own case laws properly systematized. It's a huge work and needs to be ready to be printed from the 1st October. I'll have my name printed at the back of the book and all... I can't wait!

Well, as I am a heavy worker right now, I thought it was a great occasion to show you Catrice's Heavy Metalilac. 

I'll try not to go crazy and all while describing this, but OH MY GOD! And I assure you this pictures don't do the polish any justice, it's much more vibrant and bright in live. As it had already happened before, I found the consistency a little too thick, but a couple of drops of thinner have done a miracle, and now I just feel unbound and unlimited pleasure while thinking of this polish. A true nail polish orgasm, that's what it is. 

It makes me think of Lil Wayne's lyrics: "Got on my knees and asked my lord to keep me clear from the devil 'cuz [feel free to choose an end]" (On Fire).

It's Metalilac. Heavy Metalilac. Remember that name.

M.

Homa Manicure

Ladies,

How was your weekend? Mine has been awesome so far, my BF took me to somewhere special for him, and he wouldn¡t tell me where ^^ so it was a nice ride there, and the place was wonderful! We walked through the mountain until we reached a natural fountain called Cold Fountain in the middle of calmness and vegetation. I was amazed to find such beauty so close to Barcelona.  

Oh, and I also took the opportunity to wear my new helmet, yay!

I initially wanted to give my dotting tools some use, but I was so tired from our walk/ride that my hands were shaking and obtained only a crappy mess. So I changed my mind and settled for a Homa Manicure instead, as seen in Alizarine Claws' blog. It's composed by two colors that you match and mix. Ordered chaos. Sort of.

I used China Glaze Stone Cold and Catrice Pool Party At Night, for I thought it interesting to contrast both the colors and the textures. Anyhow, I don't know if it was due to the fact that I was tired, but I had issues with the application of both polishes. Stone Cold was thick, and dried far too quick so I needed to do a lot more strokes than usual, and then the brush would drag the almost dry polish... Eish. And Pool Party At Night was a nice color, nothing special though, but somehow on the thicker side. So I might have to fix that with some drops of thinner.

I'm not wow'd by the result, but it's nice if you need to do something quick. And I feel like those babies need to be seriously shortened, so I will work on that this afternoon. 

For those who are interested, this is my new astronaut helmet:

Take care!