Got to keep on keepin' on!

Hello, Fireflies!

Welcome to November! Time to put all the Halloween stuff away, and prepare for Turkeys.  Or, if you're influenced by all the stores, time to get ready for Christmas-y stuff.

This time of year can be tough.  For me, and many teachers, it's the last push to get through the semester before Thanksgiving break that is the hardest! So, that's one reason why I chose to put on Different Dimension Just Keep Swimming.

Not to mention, it's freaking *gorgeous*.  Supposedly, it's a close match for Enchanted Polish Marge's Blue Beehive, but I don't have that one - and it's likely I never will, given its rarity.  Don't need it, now.  Trust me, Just Keep Swimming is spectacular.

When it was time to change my mani, I thought I'd play around with some v-gap nail art.  Guess they're more like hearts, less like Vs.  First, Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

I love blue and grey together, so I thought it might be nice to use Not Too Polished Camellia, a soft, dove grey scattered holo.  It's a little translucent, so I had to use a few thick coats to get it opaque.

If I was starting this mani from scratch, I might switch the grey and blue around, so Camellia doesn't have to be so thick to cover the black. 

Bottle shot:  Different Dimension Just Keep Swimming, Finger Paints Black Expressionism, and Not Too Polished Camellia.

Do you like to play with your polish before you take it off?  Do you try stamping, or nail art?

Leftovers are better the next day...

For some reason, these swatches didn't make it into earlier posts...  so now you get a swatchfest!

I had such lemmings for this color, and eventually found a buy one get one 50% off sale at a salon, so it was MINE MINE MINE.  This is OPI Thanks a Windmillion, a dusty light green from the Holland collection. Like most OPI colors, it applied nicely, was opaque in 2 coats, and look at that shine.  No topcoat here.  My hands do look a little red.. hmm.. maybe I was clutching the bottle too tightly? ;)

I picked up this Revlon in a swap at the CFL Beauty Bloggers' meeting.  I have slowly been collecting more yellows.  I used it as a base for nail art, so I used 2 coats, but it could have used three.. or maybe 4.  Like most yellows, it is a little streaky, but I love the shimmer that gives it it's name:  Sunshine Sparkle.

This is Barielle Falling Star.  I'd never seen a blue with copper glitter in it before!  It's beautiful, and I just couldn't cover it with nail art, so I wore it by itself.  Barielle makes great polishes.

This is CQ Twinkle, a lovely silver shimmer (It doesn't appear to be a foil or metallic), with Chameleon Cyclone over it on the accent nails.  Chameleon is an iridescent polish, very very sheer on its own, but is great as a layering polish to change the color of whatever you put it over.  Can't wait to try it over black!

Next up is China Glaze Rainstorm.  This is a jelly blue with shimmer.  It's very, very sheer - I think this was 2 and a half coats and you can still see VNL.  I was using it as a base for nail art, so I wasn't worried about it being sheer, but if you were going to use it alone, you'd need at least 3 coats.

I picked up a few polishes from indie polish Not Too Polished.  This is Peach Blossom, with an accent of Color Club Turn the Other Chic, an orange layering glitter.  I wasn't too excited about Peach Blossom on the nail - it was a little goopy and hard to work with.  I am still looking for the elusive perfect creamsicle color...

Can you hear the beat?  The Electric Beat, from China Glaze.  This is one of my fave blues/periwinkle colors.  It's more blue than Secret Peri-wink-le.  I love this color!

Hope you enjoyed this totally random collection of colors!