With all the amazing colors around me, the flowers blooming, the sky so blue, the leaves taking shape for the spring, you would think I would have some bright amazing spring color on. But nope - I am in a neutral nail kind of mood. So I started the week with Color Club Best Dressed List. This is a neutral brown with a pink base. I would have never guessed that the base was pink until it kept coming up in my pictures. But perhaps that is why I think it looks good on me?


But when I came home from work yesterday, an order from Transdesign was waiting for me with some new (to me) Color Clubs. I grabbed a few of their holographic colors. One of them is Love em' Leave em'. The base of this color is almost an exact match to Best Dressed List, just with a lot of holo goodness added to it. 




I wanted to play with my new polishes, but when I walked in the door, the family wanted to go to the beach. So after a long day at the office - we hit the beach. After an evening at the beach,  I didn't really want to play anymore, but I couldn't not play either. So I grabbed Love Em' Leave Em' and layered it over my existing Best Dressed List Mani. (This should be fun to remove!) This color is pretty opaque and probably doesn't need to be layered - but I did anyway.




 The first photo is the color accurate photo. The second photo shows the holo goodness of this color. I am LOVING this mani. I am still neutral and I would totally wear this in a neutral work environment - but it really has it going on! I can't wait to try my other Color Club Holo polishes now! 

It doesn't happen often, but I really just have nothing to say today. Have you ever had those days where you don't feel like talking? Today is kind of one of those days. Maybe because the day is just getting started? Or maybe because it is Friday and I still haven't had my cup of coffee yet and have an entire day of work ahead of me before the weekend begins? Or maybe it's because I can't stop staring at my manicure!


I grabbed this bottle at Charlotte Russe along with two other polishes. Unfortunately they don't name their polishes, but I will call this Bubble Gum Dreams. It is like stars in a pink sky! This is a bubble gum pink with rainbow sparkles throughout! 




I can't wait to show you the other ones I got. I am loving them. 

We spent last night listening to some oldies on the Ipod last night. (By oldies I mean 90's music- ha!) And now I have What's up Doc - Can we Rock? stuck in my head. What makes it worse - We never played this song! So um, WTF?

But here I am in my head singing:


I can't believe I used to like this song? What the heck is he even saying here! No wonder his rap career went down the toilet! But seriously - What's up doc - can we rock? (Is it stuck in your head yet?) Oh you were to cool or smart or young and have no clue what the song is you say?





So is it stuck in your head yet? What's up doc can we rock?


Ok, ok - I will stop now with one of my favorite lame 90's rap song that no one else probably ever even heard of. But you know what - I still like this song.


It isn't my fault - this polish has me Trance! I blame Ginger & Liz. This is Trance:

Now that Juan is back from CO, it is time to get back to working on things in the home. I sectioned off a piece of our bedroom for my "nail station" and it really needs some help. I feel like I need one of those TV design shows to come show me how to create this space. I haven't put the curtains up in the bedroom yet, but I may be changing the bedding out, so until I find new bedding, I don't want to put the curtains up. But there is a big window in the bedroom which I would love to keep my desk near since it let's in the light and I don't have to get up to go outside for swatch pics, because so much sun comes in this window it is like I am outside. I also like the desk because I can have it up against the wall but turn it towards the TV when I want to swatch. 


Here is the nail area in all my swatching madness. Everything comes out. That box on the right is my untrieds, blog idea polishes or comparison polishes. Talk about a lot to get through! The big white square you see in the back in a natural light that mimics the sun, if I am swatching in the evening, then this is my sun. I also use this to get accurate color swatches. 

This is my nail storage area. I can't believe when I bought these I couldn't imagine needing more than two of these cubes! I used two drawers and the bottom was my supplies. Not anymore! All those polishes on top need a home!!! The ULTA bag has future give-away items and some packing materials. Wouldn't you like to see inside that bag!

Once I am done swatching it is time to put everything away. So this is the after - still an eyesore if you ask me!

So I am thinking of looking for a Lingerie chest in a dark brown color. (we might be refinishing our bedroom furniture with a dark stain soon, so this will match). Then I want to get a new desk. Any ideas? I need some help on this one. Do you have a nail area? What does yours look like?




I also wanted to share some crappy cell phone pictures of the manatees in the canal by my house. Our old place was right on the river. If you looked out the kids bedroom windows you could see the ocean, if you were in our bedroom you were on the river. We are still on the barrier island, but in a bigger expanse of land. We are less than 1/2 a mile from the river and the ocean now and we can't see it when we go outside. That is really the only downside to where we live now. Anyway a lot of homes in the area are built on canals. The manatees come to give birth in the canals because the water stays warmer during cold winter months and their newborns are more protected. Because this has been a colder than normal winter, there had to be at least 50 manatee there when I went on a walk with the girls the other day and I took these pictures. Look at them all!

Here is a close up of one. It is so cool to see this! They are huge, so it is so much more impressive in person.


Here is a close up of a manatee that came right up to us in the water last year. These mammals are not afraid of people. They are ugly yet cute. They can be between 10 - 15 feet long and over 1500 pounds, so it is a bit scary when you see this massive black shadow coming at you slowly in the water - but really they are harmless. 


OK - let's get back on the nail track with a manicure. Since the sun is shining bright, how about a bright polish for the day. Today's manicure is Essence Sundancer. This is almost the same yellow of a school bus - but I am loving it! It feels so bright and cheery! Things are definitely looking up!

Not to long ago I was researching what makes a nail polish both vegan friendly and environmentally friendly. I try to be environmentally conscious, so it was just a matter of time before I started thinking of whether nail polish could be environmentally friendly. I know there are a lot of polish lines that are Vegan friendly, but I wanted more information. I contacted Dazzle Dry for some information.  They sent me some information on the company and some product for review.


According to the documents they sent me, their polish is not just 3 free, but also nitrocellulose free and an added UV protective screening. They claim their top coat drying time is 75% faster than their competitors. This I had to see. I can't imagine something faster than Seche Vite or Nubar Diamont. I couldn't wait to try this one out!


Dazzle Dry sent me This three piece nail system which retails for $28.00. 

Here is what you find inside the box. Nail Prep, which prepares your nail bed for perfect polish adhesion. As an added bonus, it strengthens your natural nails with calcium, vitamin B5 & hydrolyzed protein, The next item in the kit is the base coat. This is formulated specifically for natural nails so that your polish lasts longer. The last item in the kit is the Top Coat. Dazzle Dry claims that this top coat is non yellowing, will stay so shiny you will not need touch ups and will dry so fast that they dare you to dig into your purse 5 minutes after applying the polish. Really? You'll have to read below to see if it worked! (you know I had to try!)


Dazzle Dry also sent me three polishes from their new Spring line. These colors are all neutrals. These polishes retail for $9 per bottle.
From Left to Right: Misty Moon, Touch of Love & Fascination.


Now on to the manicures....


First up I tried Misty Moon. This is a white with just a touch of color. It looks like perhaps there is a little brown in it to give it that misty look. I have been looking for a white that won't look like white out on my fingers, I think I may have found it! I have to say I tried the Dazzle Dry polishes without the prep & base coat and because it dries so fast, application was a bit difficult. I then tried again with the whole system and it was much easier to apply. But even with the learning curve in using this polish, it was completely opaque in 2 coats. Another amazing thing I found was that this polish seemed to level itself out. It had almost a rubber look & texture to it.  These shots are pre-cleanup and without a top coat. I love, love, love Misty Moon. This is a white I think I can pull off! My kids love this white too, two of them have already grabbed this system and used this color with it.



Here it is with the top coat. Beautiful!

Before removing this color I ran my hand pretty hard across my daughters shirt nail side down. (Hey I didn't want to risk ruining my own shirt!) It was about 3 minutes after putting on the top coat. These pictures are AFTER I did that! Of course I immediately grabbed my purse and rummaged through it and again these pictures are AFTER I did that. Dazzle Dry truly is the fastest drying top coat I have ever used in my life! This stuff in unbelievable!

Well unfortunately I forgot to take pictures 5 days later when I changed my polish - but it wore perfectly. It looked like I had just applied it!