Excuses Explosion!

Well hello there strangers! 

Let's skip the small talk and get right into my list of lame excuse for not blogging in over a month! 

 

• I got DIAL UP! I tolerated posting with it for about 4 weeks before it honestly turned uploading pictures into an hour long chore per post and I couldn't stand it ANYMORE.
•  I ran out of batteries for my camera and have been too lazy to buy more! Seriously. (until today that is!)
•  My "natural light" lamp that I use for photos exploded and I busted 3 new VERY expensive 6500k bulbs trying to use it before I realized it was toast. 
• After my photo lamp exploded I felt like my picture quality and color accuracy wasn't up to my standards and refused to settle.
•  I started to feel like I was not "enjoying" my polishes but instead only slapping them on for 30 seconds at a time to snap pics then tossing them aside. 
• I realized I had not left the house with all 10 fingers painted the same color in over 3 months. 
• I started feeling like I wasn't funny anymore and I was scared the quality of writing on my blog would suffer and decided it was best to keep my mouth SHUT until I felt funny again.
• I got a hangnail.
• My fiance's baby mama said my step chitlins could not read my blog anymore unless I stopped cussing which seemed like an impossible feat to achieve! (just kidding Misty).
• After a few days of 10 finger manis and really enjoying my polishes I kinda got addicted and swatching seemed annoying. 
• My dog ate my laptop?

Anyhoo, I REALLY appreciate all the awesome, amazingly sweet emails and comments I have gotten these last few weeks asking me to come back! It feels so great to know people miss me! But it also feels crappy knowing people are waiting to read about my crazies and each day find nothing new on my blog. Sorry about that guys!

My plan as of now is to just slowly ease back into blogging to try to keep myself from flaking out again. I'm going to be starting cosmetology school soon and I really want to be back into the swing of blogging before that starts so I can add some more "lessons from the looney bin" I learn at school! 

I think the best way to kick off my new start of adventures in blogging is with a few mouth watering holos, wouldn't you agree? 

Nfu-oh holos really are the prime specimens of the holo world. They are truly in a league of their own. Nail polish companies should all have the Nfu-oh holo line on a shelf somewhere in their testing departments with a big RED, FLASHING sign that says "NOTHING LESS WILL BE TOLERATED!" I just wish they offered them in darker colors. 

 BA-ZINGA! This is my favorite of the nfu-oh holos! It has just enough blue in it for me and I feel like the rainbow effect is even more concentrated in this one than it is in 61. But it could just be that I am incredibly partial to blue.

It's nice to be back. I have been hauling just as much as always so I have all kinds of goodies just hangin' out waiting to get swatched. Also, feel free to email me with requests and such if you feel like it. 

Love, MM

PS- How did everyone that bought vintage vixen feel about the polishes once you had 'em in your hands/on your nails? I myself feel almost sheepish over how overly excited I was about them pre-release.

Speechless

There are no words...

This photo was taken indoors, in a semi well lit room. No sun. I'm afraid to take it in the sun. I think it might jump off my nails and steel my car or something crazy.

Love, MM

The Nfu-Oh pro is...

Katie!

Katie swooped in at the last second and with total confidence guessed all 3 polishes correctly on her first try!  She truly is an nfu-oh pro! 

Congrats Katie! Email me @ manateemama@live.com to claim your prize!

Love, MM

Nfu-pro

Contest time!

To win you need to name all three Nfu-Oh polishes pictured.  

I will be adding photos as needed or as I feel like it to help out or as hints.  But let's start with just one photo to make it SOMEWHAT of a challenge.

Ok, here is the next pictcha.

HINT #1- None of the polishes shown are swatched on my blog.


Next pictcha-

Can you name this hot magenta jelly that just screams 80's.  One might even call this a dark pink bordering on purple.  It was a solid 3 coats and dried moderately fast.

Here are the last 2 pics people-

A gorgeous medium blue creme. A 2 coater that dried almost instantly.

Vibrant green creme, almost a true green if it weren't for the slightest blue tint. 

HINT #2- All three polishes are in the 500's.

The FIRST person to name all three polishes wins a brand spankin' new bottle of Nfu-Oh 51.

Yeah, just one bottle!  I am not MADE of Nfu-Ohs people. 

Contest ends when someone wins, or I get sick of giving hints and award it to the closest person. heh.  This contest is kind of silly I admit because most likely if you can guess all three of these nfu-ohs then you probably already own 51. So if you already OWN 51 maybe you should make the decision not to guess.  I'm just sayin'.  

Love, MM

My new love affair.

Is it appropriate to break up via blog post?  Surely not, but here I am doing it anyway. You guys, I am officially a cheater.  Yes, I am confessing.  I am cheating, and it feels spectacular!   

I am a new woman!  I feel liberated, empowered and a whole new sense of beauty!  I am even rediscovering all my old polishes, all of a sudden I love all of them even more!  I feel so lightweight and airy, almost like I'm floating through my day with no worries and no fears.  

2 coats over Misa Fashionista.

2 coats over Ulta3 Royal.

2 coats over black.

So, to my old Elvira-ish, witch nails that are reading this from the trash can and no doubt feeling the painful stab of adultery, I don't love you anymore!  You look icky, and gross and you piss me off  when I  look at old photos of you.  I am actually embarrassed I let it go on for so long!  My new nubbins understand me, they look great in everything, and they don't severely cramp my style like YOU did.  They may not be here to stay, but for now I couldn't be happier.

Love, MM

The color of the water.

 Specifically the water passing under my dads bass boat skimming along the lily pads on Orange Lake.

 That color, the brightest of blue greens in the water. Streaks of bright emerald algae, swirled by the wind. 

This is it.

This is one coat of Nfu-oh 567 with 2 coats of 56.

Love, MM

Outta Gas

I better head on over to the Chevron Station.  I think they have spam and I'm gonna get me some while I'm in there.  I wonder if Octaveous is working today. 


Octaveous is a really, REALLY, large black man that worked at Chevron when my BFF and I were in high school.  Say it with me guys, Oct-a-v-ous.  Anyway, one time sitting in the car in the Chevron parking lot my BFF called him Oct-a-v-i and I was like, "Dude, his name is Octaveous." And she was like, "No it's not, it's Oct-a-v-i because he's so fat, he's plural."  She busted out this little gem BEFORE we went inside to buy things.  Of course he was working that day and I have never had to try so hard not to laugh in my entire life.


They DO have spam? Awesome.

China Glaze For Audrey with Orly Wild Wisteria.

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau with Orly Dazzle.

China Glaze It's 5'clock Somewhere with Orly Witches Blue.

China Glaze LOL and DV8.

China Glaze Flyin' High with For Audrey.

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau with China Glaze Salsa.

Essie Mint Candy Apple with Sinful Color black on black and Art deco nail art in white.

Nfu-oh 560 with Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

2 coats Essie ridge filler, one coat Rimmel stronger and Art deco nail art in black.

China glaze white on white, China Glaze Seduce me and Salsa and Art deco nail art in pink.

Nubar forest and Nfu-oh 568 with Art deco nail art in white.

Essie African Violet with Lippmann Maneater.

China Glaze Ravishing Dahling with Orly Matte Vinyl. 


Love, MM

560

I just want to SNUGGLE with this polish!  I want to hug it and pet it.  Love it and squeeze it and name it George.

This is 2 coats outdoors in dappled sunlight.

Good Morning to you

Yep. 

 So, we went away this weekend and my lovely fiance did THE cutest thing EVER ya'll.  I mean, it like stomped all the other cute things he has ever done to death, TO DEATH you guys. You'll see what I mean here in a minute. 

 We have been fishing a lot lately and luckily the fishing has resulted in quite a bit of catching, which is awesome and always fun and delicious.  We happened to take a short fishing adventure the day before we left for our aforementioned 3 day trip.  Here is the CUTE part.  So the night before we left for the weekend my fiance filleted a bunch of fish. He boned them and rinsed and bagged up the fillets like he likes to do so I wont have to, awwwwww. THEN he threw all the carcasses in my kitchen garbage can and went on his merry way. 

HE WENT ON HIS MERRY WAY.

 Upon our wondrous return home the smell hit us as we walked onto our front PORCH! There really was no need for me to go inside the house at that point. Some of the other things that required nothing of me were unpacking the truck, carrying ANYTHING, cleaning ANYTHING, or generally doing ANYTHING.  I spent the time it took to return the house back to it's normal state sitting in the jeep with my head between my knees trying not to loose lunch and complaining.  I did however wake up to a seriously gorgeous manicure.

Love, the always helpful and understanding MM

IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME.

Here are some pics of my current mani that I am head over heels in love with. I am like a cheerleader on prom night, waiting for my date to arrive, butterflies in my stomach, in love with this.

Who cares that I didn't go to prom because I was WAY too hardcore, loathed cheerleaders and have no idea what it was like to wait for your prom date?  I can imagine OK.

It was probably really stupid, and no where even close to what I am going for in order to describe my feelings about this manicure.  No, I'm sure it was way too stupid to be an accurate metaphor for my love of this polish.  So, just ignore that prom crap and I'll go with Christmas morning.

 

2 coats Nfu-oh 568, 1 coat 52 and seche TC.

Oooh la la

I swear it's like every single time I apply an Nfu-oh polish it becomes my new "favorite" of the color group it's in.  I just found my new favorite red last night.

 This polish shocked, attacked, then physically abused me.  It slapped me in the face, HARD, then it grabbed me by the eye balls and glued itself to them refusing to loosen it's grip. Not that I really minded, I wasn't driving or anything.  GAH!  This is the hottest red EVER!   Seriously it's like sex in a bottle.  It's not like the sex you are actually having in a bottle.  It's like the sex you WISH you were having, in a bottle.  This was a fabulous, smooth, fast drying, 2 coat application. But, I really could not care less if this polish took 5 coats, it is that gorgeous.

GORGEOUS.

Gorgeous.

In the bottle this polish looked kinda blah. Wow is it gorgeous on the nail.

531 is a super smooth one coat creme that dries really fast.  This polish is like a mint green crossed with an army green.  It's so unique, and a great alternative to people who don't love mint green.  (me)  I love this though.  This is the only light green in my collection I can picture myself wearing longer than just to photograph it.

Lessons From the Looney Bin- Lesson Five.

Lesson five: Partner Polishes.

Flaky polishes are GORGEOUS and great for layering but they look totally different layered over another polish than they do in the bottle.  Mind you, they still look beautiful layered over other polishes whether they look different than the bottle color or not. 

The problem for me is, I LOVE how they look in the bottle!  I buy it for how it looks in the bottle.  So I WANT it to LOOK like it looks in the BOTTLE!  They are just way too sheer to layer coat after coat and build them up to the bottle color, not to mention way too expensive to do 5-6 coats a mani, so that option is OUT. 

My solution was to layer them over other jelly polishes that match the base color of the flaky as CLOSE as possible.  I used Nfu-oh flakies but any flaky will work.  My goal was to achieve the look of the Nfu-oh flakies actual bottle color by using other polishes as base coats.

I tried this out for Nfu-oh polish #50 for my first go round.  I think it turned out pretty well.

 I started out with a nude base coat, then 2 coats of what I decided was nfu-oh 50's partner polish- Zoya Juicy.  This needed to be a TAD lighter but I think after layering it is PERFECT.


To find a partner polish, you want to thinly swatch your flaky on some white paper and look for the base color.  Or, you can hold up your flaky bottle to your stash and find a polish that matches the base color of the flaky.  Ignore the color of the flakes or glitter!  Keep in mind that 2 coats of the flaky will slightly lighten the partner polish.

Then I layered 2 coats of Nfu-oh 50 over Juicy.  This photo is outdoors in the shade.  I think it's pretty close to the bottle color don't you?

Closer.

Here it is outdoors in direct sunlight.  This is what I'm talkin 'bout!  I got this polish because I loved the POLISH, and now I can wear, THE POLISH! Score!

Here is the same method used on Nfu-oh #59.

 I started with 2 coats of Orly Naughty. I thought this was the best partner polish for nfu-oh 59.

Then I added 2 coats of Nfu-oh #59.  Damn this is DEAD ON dudes. This is in direct sunlight.

Shade.

Indirect sunlight.


Obviously this trick is not just for Nfu-oh polishes. It can work for ANY polish that you love but simply can not build it up to the bottle color by layering.  Partner polishes save TIME and money by saving on coats of your precious flakies or glitters or whatever.  Of course it is also nice to layer these over everything under the sun and make your own looks, but being able to wear them exactly how they look in the bottle is a nice option to have.

Love, MM

Herrow Gorgeous.

China Glaze Watermelon Rind with 2 thin coats of Nfu-Oh #50. Direct sunlight.