OPI I Have A Herring Problem AND Good News

Oh hey.  It's me.  I'm here.  Writin'.  I never thought I'd turn into a semi-sporadic-once-a-week kind of blogger, but I guess that's where I am right now.  But happily I have one of my picks from the OPI spring collection to show you, I Have A Herring Problem.  Warning:  my cuticles are dry and sad.

natural, overcast light

artificial light

artificial light

random iPhone picture; can you tell I'm having problems studying? 

I'm pretty in love with this polish.  It reminds me of overcast spring days, or the way the sky at the beach looks right before a storm.  This one changes for me depending on the light; sometimes it's a light cornflower and sometimes it's a dusty, moody blue-gray that is somewhere in the neighborhood of Orly Pixie Dust, just bluer, cooler.  The shimmer in this is gorgeous, too.  I see gold, pink and silver under artificial light, but mostly just silver in natural light.  The formula was lovely.  The first coat went on sheer, but the second made it look perfect and opaque. You see two coats here.

I love this OPI spring collection if only for the names.  I have so far allowed myself to purchase two polishes from Holland, but I think I need a few more.  They're too cute.  And the colors are too perfect and springy.  OPI is prying open my wallet and I'm not trying to stop it.  Hehe, herring problem.  Sigh. Puns.

What about you guys?  What were your picks from the Holland collection?  Any polishes I should definitely pick up?

Life update:

So you might wonder what I've been doing lately, because I've certainly been neglecting both my cuticles and this blog.  Good question.  Last Friday was the Cleveland Symposium, an event that I co-chaired with a classmate.  We spent a year organizing it and it was actually pretty amazing to see it come together.  I came up with the theme for this year (fragmentation), and it was cool to hear everyone give papers on a topic that I proposed.  The whole thing was really stressful and an all-day event, but it turned out well in the end and I made a few contacts.  

I've also been studying for my MA comprehensive exam (hence the highlighter and notes on Gothic architecture that you may or may not be able to decipher).  That test is April 3 and 4, and as much as I don't want to take it, I'm hoping that this week goes quickly so that I can just get it over with.

And now for good news.  On March 1 I found out that I had been accepted into a doctoral program and I was very happy.  Ecstatic, even.  But no funding decisions were made, so I didn't want to tell anyone. I've been waiting for many weeks for a funding decision from that school, and they still haven't gotten back to me.  But yesterday I got news that I'd been accepted to another school, and I was offered a very generous deal.  I'm still waiting to hear from a couple other schools, and I expect to receive word sometime this week.  Basically what I'm saying is this:

YAY.

To say that I am having trouble accurately expressing my happiness would be an understatement.  Now I could potentially go to school in Manhattan.  You know what's in Manhattan?  The Met.  You know what's at the Met?  Things that make my heart sing.

This.

This.

This.

Ladies, this could be my dream come true.  Someone is going to pay me money to look at paintings and write stuff about them.  I'm almost hesitant to believe it happened.  To have the opportunity to be that close to a huge treasure trove of American painting...swoon.  

What this next week will bring, I don't know.  But we'll see.  For right now, I'm taking a break from studying, lying in bed, and thinking about standing in front of that Thomas Eakins painting instead of just looking at it in a book.  And I feel happier and lighter than I have in months.

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes

Over my winter break I had all these intentions of reading extraordinarily pretentious 19th century novels. Instead, as soon as I turned in my final paper my friend and I took a trip to Barnes and Noble and I bought The Hunger Games.  I started it the next day and couldn't put it down.  I was finished in two hours and I loved every second of it.  I know I was a little late to jump on the bandwagon, but I'm on it nevertheless, and I'm happy to be there.  The other day I HAULED.  I went to Ulta and there were so many polishes that I had to have.  A couple of them were from Capital Colors collection, and I have one to show you today.

It's so hard to photograph this one.  I can't tell if the base is a super dark blue or a black, but I think it's black.  The shimmer in the polish is green and blue, and that might trick the eye into thinking that the base itself is blue.  But I will say that the shimmer is not only difficult to see in pictures, it's kind of difficult to see in reality.  Don't get me wrong; this is a pretty polish.  But I sort of have an inkling that it has a near-dupe in Sinful Colors What's Your Name.  Here's a link to a post about that polish.  Smoke and Ashes was difficult to apply for me because it was really, really thick.  I used two coats.  From what I remember What's Your Name is kind of sheer and needs three coats.  You can find it at any Walgreens that carries Sinful Colors for $1.99, or $.99 if you find them on sale.

See all the blue, green, even purple in the bottle?

There was no question in my mind that I would own this polish because it supposedly represents District 12, home to to our heroes Katniss and Peeta.  BUT if this polish was in a collection that wasn't named after Hunger Games-related stuff, I don't think I would have bought it.  Does that make sense?  To me it's just not so special.  But I do love vampy polishes on short little nails like mine, so I'm happy enough to be wearing it.  

So what do you guys think?  Is this one special enough for you to buy?  Did you get it just for the name, like me?  I'm interested to hear your opinions.

Update

I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  Well, a little.  You know how when you're in one place for a long time you get a little restless?  Work pressure piles up, the people you spend time around day after day begin to annoy you, and you know it's time to get the hell out.  So that's what I did.  I got a ticket to Colorado and I left Cleveland last Friday as soon as I was done teaching my class.  I arrived in Denver Friday night and spent three days with my family.  I left again Tuesday, spent Wednesday doing laundry and readjusting to both eastern time and daylight savings, and here I am today.


As for my Sinful Colors Giveaway, the winner is Lexi P., whose favorite Disney movies are Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid.  Congratulations, Lexi!


But in the meantime, here are a few pictures of my getaway:

some mountains; they have those in Boulder, I guess.

my cousin Katie, aunt Mary and I at the Denver Art Museum

auntie Mary and I in front of a giant Clyfford Still painting at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver

Katie and I at dinner

my cousin Zach and I

I ate an artichoke with my cousins

the sunset out the window of the plane right over Cleveland

I was glad to go.  Zach was much smaller last time I saw him, and I love spending time with my aunt.  As we discussed the other night, she used to watch Winnie the Pooh with me on Saturday mornings.  She even slept with me one night to calm me and ended up with a raging case of the chicken pox.  Anyway, I miss her and my cousins all the time, so it was good to go.  But it was also good to get home.

Posts from me might be sparse in the next few weeks, but know that I'm here and I'm thinking about all of you and this blog often.  I hope spring is coming to all of you, too, because it seems to have officially arrived here in CLE (although I should probably knock on wood).

Sinful Colors Neptune

Have you entered my Sinful Colors Cinderella giveaway?  You probably should.  Click here.


The other day when I was at Walgreens I saw a Sinful Colors collection I had never heard of, which I believe was called Cast Away.  The first time I ran across it I bought two.  Then I couldn't get this other one, Neptune, out of my head.  So I went back for it.

I'm really glad I went back.  I'm not a huge fan of blue nail polish, but this one is amazing.  It's a gorgeous cornflower with glass fleck pearlescent shimmer.  When I was reading about this polish pretty much everybody said it had a great formula.  I am here to say that the formula on the bottle I got suuuuuuucks.  It was really thick and got thicker the longer I had the bottle open.  Nothing a couple drops of thinner won't fix, but it bears mentioning.  I did three coats here.  

My only problem with this polish is its name.  The collection has a Greek theme, with other polishes called things like Greek Isles, Athens and Zeus.  So for the sake of continuity, this polish should not be called Neptune, but Poseidon.  Neptune is the Roman name for the god of the sea, Poseidon is the Greek name.  Anyway, that's my only problem with it.  I don't think it's too nit-picky.  Come on, Sinful Colors.  Do a little research.

So, thoughts on this color?  Anyone pick this one up?

Sinful Colors Cinderella Giveaway!

Sinful Colors Cinderella is a color I've been seeing a lot on blogs lately.  I looked for it last week, couldn't find it, and gave up.  I've heard that it hasn't been popping up everywhere, so I figured I was just destined not to find it.  Until last week when I randomly found it.

artificial light

artificial light

overcast natural light

indoor blur for shimmer

I'm completely in love with this.  I'm so glad I found it.  Cinderella is a pale blue with a drop or two of gray added to it that gives it a soft feel.  It also has tiny gold and pink shimmer, which is just incredible.  I had also heard that it was terribly sheer, but I didn't find it to be too bad.  The formula is a bit sheer, but also thick, which makes it a little difficult to work with.  I did three coats and was satisfied.  And you can definitely tell that Sinful was using Cinderella's beautiful, sparkly blue gown as inspiration.  

[source]

And now for the fun part...if you couldn't find Cinderella, today is your lucky day.  I found two when I went to Walgreens!  You can enter to win a bottle on this post.  So, how do you enter to win?


1.  Be a follower of this blog (see the big button on the righthand side bar that says "Join this site?"  click that and you're eligible to win)
2.  Comment on THIS POST with three pieces of information:

a.)  Your name

b.)  Your favorite Disney movie (and if you hate Disney movies, you can tell me that and I won't hold it against you; I actually inherently have a lot of issues with them myself, but I still can't help but love them!)

c.)  Your e-mail address

3.  Enter by Sunday, March 11, midnight eastern.
4.  Tell someone!  Tell your best friend, e-mail your mom and tell her, or do a post on your own blog.  No extra entries for this, I would just appreciate it.


And that's all.  And just so you guys know, The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie, followed closely by The Lion King, and then Mulan and Pocahontas ;)


Okay guys, please enter!  I can't wait to give this bottle of Cinderella away to someone who wants it!  


Happy Monday :)

Revlon Revlon Red

A perfect red for a perfect Friday.

This is Revlon Revlon Red (I know I typed "Revlon" twice, but the brand is Revlon and the color is Revlon Red so...kind of repetitive;  And redundant).  But yeah, this is a really nice classic red polish.  Unfortunately it only lasted a day on me before I peeled it off in giant sheets.

Up for next week:  new Sinful Colors polishes.  Get.  Excited.