OPI Mad As A Hatter

Happy Friday! I can't believe tomorrow is New Years Eve already. Has everyone picked out a mani? I'm thinking of doing something silver, and of course glitter. I haven't fully decided because I have HITS Zeus on right now and I'm not really ready to remove it haha. Since I have such nubbins, I'm not removing my polish daily like I was, so bare with me while my nails grow back and get healthy. I have some older swatches, but I'm not really in love with them, if you get what I mean.

For today's post I have OPI MAAH aka Mad As A Hatter. Does this need an introduction? I don't think so. It's increasingly hard to find. Also increasing is the price of this polish. I had glitterphobia when this polish originally came out, and soon after realized I made a mistake not buying it. I picked this up on Ebay for around $38 (including shipping). It's the most I've spent on a polish, but I worried if I waited any longer if I would miss out forever.

MAAH is pure amazingness in a bottle. I fell in love with this over, and over, and over again. Each time I looked at my nails I was impressed. The formula was easy to work with and it was completely opaque in 3 coats. The wear on MAAH is where the issue lies. I painted my nails late on a Thursday night, and went out with my bff on Friday night. Somewhere around dinner I noticed I was missing an entire nail, and that I had quite a few large chips. Like some other glitters, when this comes off it comes off in large chunks or in entire sheets.

The photos below show 3 coats of OPI MAAH and a coat of Seche Vite. Photos with and without flash.

Duri Icicle

Happy Wednesday!  Sorry for missing posts. I'm hoping everything will be back to normal asap. I haven't had a moment to really breathe, and I'm typing this up before I head to bed so I can schedule it for tomorrow morning. I worked 7-4:30 today then had to drive 90 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic (in the pouring rain) to pick up my boyfriend from the airport. It's 11:00 and I'm now catching Teen Mom 2. Does anyone else watch this??

Speaking of rain, we've had absolutely no snow in New York so far. The closest thing to snow I've seen is the ice encapsulating my car in the morning hours. I wanted a snow themed mani, so I chose Duri's Icicle to be my 'snow'. Icile is part of Duri's winter collection, based upon the new Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie (which I'm excited to see) but I think it may be a re-release because my beauty supply store already had it in with the rest of their polishes.

Duri Icicle is a milky sheer polish, with gold/silver/iridescent shimmer. The formula of Icicle is extremely easy to work with, and I'm in love with the brush. It's pretty sheer, so I decided to layer it over Essie Marshmallow. Essie Marshmallow is a white jelly polish. It's my second time using it, and I really dislike the formula. I find it to be hard to work with and streaky, and it remains streaky even after 2 coats. It's thick, doesn't dry well, etc.

The photos below show 2 coats of Essie Marshmallow, 2 coats of Duri Icicle and a coat of Seche Vite. This mani was so thick (I blame Essie Marshmallow), that I couldn't wait to pick it off. The photos show two coats without polish.
Luckily, I have quite a few swatch photos left, so I don't have to post my pure nubbins just yet! lol

Holiday Nail Spam

Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate, and Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and had a great time with family and friends. Sorry for falling off the face of the earth the past few days. Between work, my boyfriend leaving the country to visit family, my last minute shopping and family gatherings I haven't had time to hit the computer. I did continue my holiday manis though....so here is a spam post featuring all of the polishes I should have posted over the last few days. I've had some nail breaks, which you will see. I had another break today, so I'm headed back to nubbin-land.

Without further ado.....

China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses (LOOOOVE!)

China Glaze Snow Globe over WnW Ebony Hates Chris

Duri Night Before Christmas (LOVE the amazing formula!)

China Glaze Velvet Bow

China Glaze Twinkle Lights over China Glaze Velvet Bow

OPI DS Radiance and China Glaze Party Hearty (LOVE! My Christmas day mani)

Holiday Nails Day # 5. China Glaze Mrs.Claus

Happy Wednesday! Today is day # 5 of the holiday manis, and today I have China Glaze's Mrs.Claus for you. I'm sure most of you know this polish, and the fact that it is a dupe for OPI DS Bold (but, it was out before and it was the original lol)
Mrs.Claus is what I would consider a washed out red. The color is somewhere between red and pink. The base is a jelly and it's packed with red glitter pieces. Formula was easy to work with, and I only needed two coats to get it opaque. I did find that the wear on this was pretty bad, which is something I normally don't experience with China Glaze. I put this on my nails around 1am, and before I went out the next day I had lost an entire nail. I spent the day at the mall and the night in NYC, and by the time I got home 6 out of 10 fingers were chipped badly. I really thought I would love this polish, but I'm a little disappointed. Someone in the stores commented on my nails, and I actually thought about reaching in my bag, grabbing Mrs.Claus and gifting it to them LOL.

The photos below show 2 coats of Mrs.Claus and a coat of Seche Vite. This was a little difficult to photograph, as my camera wanted to show it more red than it was IRL. I couldn't get a lot of accurate pics, which explains the lack of multiple angles :0/

The missing polish. This is how clean it came off. Don't mind the tear with Glittering Garland stuck in it.
I'm going to have a nubbin soon  :***(

Holiday Nails Day # 4. China Glaze Glittering Garland

Good morning! Today is day # 4 of my holiday manis, and I'm actually having a lot of fun doing this. I think I may do a 30 days of untrieds sometime soon. Today I have China Glaze's Glittering Garland from their Let It Snow collection that came out recently.

Glittering Garland looked a little boring to me in the bottle, to be honest. I could see the shimmer of the lighter green, but was thinking it wouldn't translate to the nail correctly. I assumed that this would look dark and lifeless. I was so wrong. Glittering Garland is really gorgeous on the nail. The dark green jelly base really helps the lighter green and olive microglitter stand out. The finish gives off a glass fleck look. Formula was fantastic and it was completely opaque in two easy coats. I didn't buy the entire Let It Snow collection, but I'm thinking I will have to pick up the remainder of the collection after the holidays.

The photos below show 2 coats of Glittering Garland and a coat of Seche Vite. Photos are with and without flash.

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Holiday Nails Day # 3. China Glaze Luna makes me feel like an Ice Queen!

Happy Monday! Only a day until Hannukah begins and only a few days until Christmas. Where did December go?!?! Anyway, I'm still on my holiday mani kick but I wanted something to break up the green and reds for you guys, so I turned to a blue. Don't worry, I'll be back with a green tomorrow lol. When I think Christmas, I think snow. While we haven't had any up here in New York yet, it's awfully cold! (Just 17 degrees last night)

I chose to wear China Glaze's Luna and I instantly felt like the Queen of Ice. I had been thinking about selling this untried, but I'm sure glad I didn't because it's absolutely gorgeous. Luna has an icy blue/silver base mixed with multi-colored glitter pieces, as well as some silver micro-glitter mixed in. The base on this polish isn't 100% frosted or 100% metallic, it's somewhere in the middle. The formula was really easy to work with, and this was opaque in two coats. Under the lighting in my office, the glitter pieces seemed to dance. It would have been ideal to take a photo there, but I don't think anyone would have understood and I rather avoid the awkward moment that would occur if someone caught me in action lol.

The photos below are indoors. I'm pretty sure all of these are with no flash. It's 2 coats of Luna and a coat of Seche Vite.

This polish makes me want to sing the chorus of Cold as Ice by Foreigner lol

Some girls are just born with glitter in their veins.....

I came online the other night and found that Amanda over at Amandalandish had nominated me for the following award....

I was so touched. The best part about this award is that Amanda created it, and I've been seeing it pop up on blogs since. Go Amanda! LOL. Everything has to start somewhere right? It's just fantastic to see something like this on other blogs and know where it began ;)

I was then browsing Sarah's blog over at See Sarah Swatch and she also nominated me! Another honor, because Sarah blows me away with her frankens each time she posts.

I just want to apologize to both ladies, in regards to how long it took me to post this. I've been stuck super late at work lately, and I come on blogger to post some swatches and get right off. I browse everyone's blog during the day at work (haha!) but it takes so long to comment on posts through my phone.

Here are the rules:

-Acknowledge the award/badge.

-Post your favorite glitter.

-Nominate 4 more "Glitterati"

I'm skipping the post your favorite glitter part, because sadly, I don't have any photos of my favorite glitter. I've already gone through a bottle of China Glaze Atlantis but never snapped a single photo. I plan on taking care of that as soon as I'm done with my holiday manis.

So on to my Glitterati choices:

1. Amanda @ Amandalandish (It's exciting to see this self proclaimed glitter hater wearing glitters recently! Just got back a few weeks, and you'll see her saying how she doesn't like glitter. Welcome to Glitterholics lol)
2. Sarah @ See Sarah Swatch (If you haven't already checked out her blog, do it! Her frankens and layering combos are pretty damn amazing. I'm waiting for her to open up a shop so I can hoard some lol)
3. I Drink Nail Polish (who has the most amazing, artistic photos of any blog I have come across)
4. Alexandra RC (another girl with amazingggg layering combos)

Thanks again Amanda and Sarah! I'm honored that you lovely ladies chose me for this!! :)
xoxo
Katherine

Holiday Nails Day # 2: China Glaze Ring in the Red

Hey all! Today is day # 2 of my holiday nail days. I have a confession about my holiday swatches. When I was going through my helmer and taking out my Christmas polishes, I was dreading all of the reds. I'm not a huge red fan, I feel it's not flattering and I can't pull it off. That was until I met China Glaze Ring in the Red. Seriously.

Ring in the Red is mind blowing.  I liked it in the bottle, but since I'm not a red fan my plan was to wear this early on and get it over and done with. Now, I'm thinking I may wear this for Christmas day. This is definitely somewhere in my top polishes. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. Ring in the Red is red microglitter and smaller red glitter in a sheer red base. The glitter is tiny, but both seem to be round in shape. The red is bright, but at times it looks like it has a hint of tomato red in it.

The formula was easy to work with, and I only needed 2 coats for it to be opaque. In my photos, you can see some some areas where it looks like I may need another coat, but I think it was the flash. This polish was pretty hard to photograph.

Does anyone else own this? Thoughts?

Let's start the holiday swatches! Zoya Holly

Happy Friday! I've been in the 'bah humbug' mood since early December now, and the holidays are right around the corner. Since I can't seem to get into it, I decided to start some holiday swatches. I found about 15+ Christmas related polishes that have gone untried, so I've got more than enough to chose from. From this post forward (till Christmas, maybe a day or so after) will be holiday related colors.

First up is Zoya Holly from their recent Gems and Jewels collection. From the first swatches I saw of this, I knew I had to have it. I only had 3 Zoya until their promos last week. Zoya has really caught my eye with their new collections lately, so I jumped on two promos last week.

Zoya Holly may be the best green I own. It's an emerald green, but it's bright and gives off that lit from within feeling. It has a metallic finish but there seems to be some shimmer mixed in there. I liked it in the bottle, and completely fell in love once it was on my nails. Formula was opaque and easy to work with.

The photos below show two coats of Zoya Holly and a coat of Seche Vite. Photos are indoors with and without flash. The more color accurate of the photos are the photos with flash. I need to figure out a lighting situation for my room (or, someone needs to build me a polish room stat! lol)

Please excuse the random dog hair stuck to my pinky.....I have a pomeranian, I hope that explains things (hair everrrrrywhere lol)

Ozotic Elytra 529

Happy Wednesday ladies! So far this week is dragging. It's absolutely freezing in NY, so now in addition to day dreaming about polish I'm day dreaming about moving somewhere warm lol. I can't believe how close the holidays are. Has anyone finished their shopping? I've done a lot of shopping because of the sales, but I bought everything for myself haha.

Today I have Ozotic Elytra 529 for you. I've had this in my untrieds for quite a while now, and I've wanted to buy the new Ozotic Mish Mash polishes but I felt I paid for this so I need to try it first. Ozotic Elytra 529 is glitter in a clear base. The glitter shifts blue, purple and orange. Most of the time the glitter looks mainly blue. Outdoors is where you get the most orange flashing. While I really like this, I don't love it as much as Elytra 528. Outdoors it really pops, but indoors it just doesn't look that unique. It could have also been the mood I was in, so I'll definitely be trying this again.

I layered two coats of Elytra 529 over a coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite. I have indoor and outdoor photos today (yay for some sun!) The first two photos are indoors, the remainder are outdoors :)

FYI - I purchased this from Llarowe for $17.50. 

Some Not So Fabulous Customer Service From A Polish Etailer...

Before I begin, I just want to say that I'm not one to complain. I hardly ever complain about services received because I've worked in the customer service industry, and I know what it's like to be on the other side. I work for a company, where we provide services for large retailers and the whole aspect of my job is to get it done right and to provide good customer service. I normally wouldn't go out and rant about a company, but I had an experience with a nail polish etailer and I'm pretty disappointed in regards to how impossible it was to get in touch with them.

I do A LOT of online shopping, especially for nail polish. On Sunday 11/27 I placed an order for some NFU Oh polishes through Fabuloustreet.com. I had ordered from them in the past without any issues. I ordered two polishes, for a total of $25.o0. I chose to check out with Paypal, and upon check out I made the mistake of choosing the incorrect shipping. The website states that for orders $25.00+ you receive free shipping, but the website automatically defaults to USPS Express shipping. I missed this and submitted my payment through Paypal. When I got the receipt from Paypal stating that I had been charged $56.60 I called Fabuloustreet right away.

I left a very detailed message on Sunday night 11/27 (of course, I know they were closed) but I was hoping to reach someone before the package was processed. I emailed as well.

I called three times on Monday 11/28, each time it automatically went to voicemail. I left another detailed message. I sent another email. No response.

I called four times on Tuesday 11/29, left another message and tried to reach out to them through Twitter! No response, no matter how much I practically stalked them, even though they posted on Twitter later that day.

On Wednesday 11/30, I called again, and of course my outcome was the same. I left another message and sent another email.  No response.

Each email was sent through their "contact us" link on the website itself. I decided to fill out the information differently, instead of using my personal email address with the information on my order form, I used my blog email address and left off my last name. Within two hours I received a reply. (I also received my package earlier that afternoon)

Here is what I received on Wednesday:

From: FabulouStreet.com <sales@FabulouStreet.com>
To: 'Katherine' <HaulOfFameNail@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 6:26 PM
Subject: RE: Message from FabulouStreet.com

Hello Katherine

How are you doing?
Regarding your order, we have got your message after the package was sent
out.
Our office was closed from 11/23/11 until 11/27/11. The packaging
department processed your order on 11/28/11 but we were not aware of your
message until after package was shipped. We have tried to go to USPS to
retrieve the package back but with no success.

The Shopping cart should have 3 options for you. First class / priority /
express mail.

We are very sorry, but the package was processed until express mail by
following the order instruction.

Best Regards,
Jeffwww.FabulouStreet.com
email: sales@fabuloustreet.com


I was so upset, that I let it go. After a few days and talking to a few different people, I got the courage to write them back. I was charged $31.60 for the shipping (the box was labeled 1lb). I checked the USPS website, and the express shipping for a package of this weight is only $18.40 at the post office. I also highly doubt they went to the post office to try and retrieve my package, they couldn't even bother to call or email me back to begin with.

My response:

From: Katherine  <hauloffamenail@yahoo.com>
To: "sales@FabulouStreet.com" <sales@FabulouStreet.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2011 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: RE: Message from FabulouStreet.com

Hi Jeff, Thanks for getting back to me. While I understand choosing the wrong shipping option was entirely my own fault, I find it hard to believe that nobody received my messages. The package was clearly dated by the PO that it was picked up 11/29 at 3pm. By noon (est) on 11/29 I had left three messages, two emails and even tried to reach someone through Twitter. I never heard back from them. I understand that I never changed the shipping option, that's my own fault, but I know I can't be the only one who has made this error, since it automatically chooses the Express shipping. I feel this is an extra way to make a few bucks on those who aren't paying attention. If they had called me and let me know they couldn't undo the mistake, I would have added more polish to my order, this way I wasn't paying $31.60 in shipping for only $25.00 worth of goods. Even if they charged me only the $18.40 in shipping I would have appreciated it. I ship polishes all the time, and I know 2 polishes are NOT 1lb. I was an existing customer, and this was not my first order. On top of it, the website states that my order was processed on 11/29 (not 11/28 like the email suggests) and by that time they had 2 full business days to listen to my messages or read my emails. No matter how much I love my NFU Oh polishes, I don't think I will be ordering from them again any time soon. I understand it was my mistake, but I also feel like their customer service department is either shady, or lacking adequate staff. If I took 3 business days to write my customer back at work, I would be fired without question. Has anyone else ever made this mistake, or not been able to get in touch with them? What does everyone think, am I wrong for feeling that they intentionally didn't get back to me? Even if you think I am a complete idiot, I'm hoping this post will save someone $31.60 in the future. On a positive note, ImageBeauty left out one of my polishes during a recent order. I received my package on Saturday, emailed them that same day and got a response on SATURDAY!!! They apologized and credited my credit card for the missing polish right away. Now, that's customer service! Account info from Fabuloustreet.com showing the process date: Status History & Comments Date Order Status Comments 11/27/2011 Processing 11/27/2011 Processing Transaction ID: 58T55062D1841D Payment Type: PayPal Express Checkout (instant) Timestamp: 2011-11-28T04:07:51Z Payment Status: Completed Amount: 56.60 USD 11/29/2011 Dispatched Thank you very much for your order. Your order has been dispatched to USPS.com

Haul Of Fame's Happy Holidays Giveaway winner!

Again, thank you to everyone who participated. I've waited all day to come home and pick the winner....and without further ado, the winner of the holiday giveaway is....

Shopping Addict / Andrea T

Congratulations!!!! I'll be emailing you shortly!
This was so much fun, I'm already thinking about what to include in the next giveaway!