Oldie but Goodie: In the beginning...

Tonight's post is going to be a little bit different as I'm not going to do a review.  Instead, I thought I'd show you guys my transformation as a swatcher, photographer, polisher, and blogger.  These photos are technically part of the Oldie but Goodie series I used to do, but I'm running low on pictures to dedicate a whole post to each polish.  Therefore, I've decided I would just put them all in one post!  Get ready for some heavy picture spam!

Here's a little bit of history to go with these old pictures.  I was always a polish fiend, but I strayed away when I went to law school.  I didn't have time to do them myself, and I certainly didn't have the money to spend on getting manicures.  When I was little, I would go over to my Grannie's house all the time, and every time, we would do our nails.  She had this amazing selection of all different colors mostly from Wet 'n Wild, but including Nina, Sinful, Revlon Street Wear, and some Sally Hansen.  We would always have festive manis (and pedis for me) during each holiday.  Those are times I sincerely cherish since my grandmother has since passed away.  She's who got me started on my road to polish ridiculousness when I was just a young girl.  Even through school, I always had a pretty decently sized stash for a teenager - especially for a teenager during the non-polish mania years.  My nails were horrible, though, and still are to a certain degree, because of all of all of my health issues (Hashimotos thyroid disease, hypoglycemia, and intolerance to several different foods that I didn't know about until recently).  I peeled them.  Not bit them, but peeled them off.  They flaked, they wouldn't grow, and I had ridges.  But I'll be damned if I didn't have paint on them all the time!  Now, I try to have polish on my nails every day.  I typically do a mani every or every other night unless I'm doing a wear test, simply because I went crazy buying last year and am still trying to catch up on wearing them all.  Still nowhere close, though.  Hah!

These photos are from around this time last year when I first started getting back into polish.  Some are before I started the blog and was posting photos on Facebook and another polish forum.  Some are from after I started the blog last summer but before I was very good about moisturizing or using my camera.  At the end, I'll add a photo from a few weeks ago so you can see how I've transformed through this process!  Let's get started!! 

Zoya Minka - hated this polish!  It went on horribly and just wouldn't dry.

Gelish French marble with Tiki Tiki Laranga, Shake it til You Samba,  Stand Out, and Light Elegant.  This photo is taken with the vivid color mode on my camera, but it's pretty close to accurate for the color on my tips.

Playing with my new stamps using regular polishes including NOPI, OPI, and WnW.

More stamping practice pre-cleanup.  I actually attempted a two-tone stamp that came out pretty decently!

Gelish Jet Set.  One of my all time favorite Gelish colors.  Also, one of the few polishes my hubby bought for me.

More stamping.  I'm unsure what the base is (maybe CC Puccilicious?) topped with NOPI Pink Flower Power.  I really like this combo.

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Bedazzleberry White.  The glitters in this one sank, but they were fine in the regular Beddazleberry.

OPI If you Moust you Moust topped with Dandy Nails Wonderwall.  Not a fantastic combo, but I wanted to give it a shot.  Wonderwall is a bit hard to apply, as you can tell, and the glitters didn't spread very well.  I'll bet it would look awesome over a pale blue like Elevation Alphubel.

Dollish Gym Tan Laundry.  I wasn't sure if I'd like this one when I bought it, but I really really love it.  Good impulse buy!

Rainbow Honey Celestia topped with Sonnetarium Snowfall.  I <3 Sonnetarium.  'Nuff said.

My first water marble.  Not exactly a rousing success, lol.

My second water marble attemp; OPI DS Sapphire topped with Dollish It's a me Mario, and Girly Bits Star Spangled.  There are so many things wrong with this picture...

Rainbow Hone Celestia.  I'm looking forward to trying this again once I've thinned it...

Dollish Sweet Dreams are Made of Glitter.  Mint greens aren't my fave.

Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.  Pretty color.  Wore this at Disney World.

Candeo Glacier.  Such a pretty color and the glitters haven't sunk or turned to sludge.  Yay!

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Alice Who?  Pretty close dupe to Absolutely Alice.

Pretty and Polished Cancer Moon.  Discontinued, but not really my kind of polish.

Wet 'n Wild Diamond in the Rough.  Very gritty, even with two coats of topcoat.

Pretty & Polished Peace Camp.  Applied easily without clumping or pooling.

OPI Thanks a Windmillion topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and stamped with Nfu Oh 61.  One of my all time favorite manis despite the ridiculous SV shrinkage.

Now, let's take a look at a more recent shot: Zoya Pixie Dust Nyx.  I'll have a wear test of this beauty sometime in the near future!

So there you have it!  I think I've come a long way, and if I can do it, so can you!  Just keep moisturizing, figure out the best way for you to handle your cuticles (I love my SH Cuticle Remover Gel), and keep your nails at a manageable length, and you'll be good to go!

How did you get into nail polish?  What's your story?

Comparison Thursday: Black and White Glitters

Wow, guys!  You kinda rock my face off!!!  Welcome to my new readers who were guided here by Kyoti's Nails' giveaway!  I'm a lucky gal to have so many followers, and I hope to repay you guys once a month (with the reader of the month giveaway).  Let me hear your beautiful voices and see your shiny talons!  If you haven't already, come and check out my Facebook and Twitter pages.  Thanks for coming along for the journey!

Two quick announcements before we get to the comparisons.  Firstly, my big Halloween giveaway is still going!  It ends at midnight on Friday, October 19th, so if you haven't entered, hop to it!  Second, I wanted to announce that I am participating in Kyoti's Nails' Halloween giveaway as well!  My prize is a brand new bottle of OPI Coral Reef, which is a discontinued orange linear holographic polish, plus some Halloween decals, a file, and tons of candy!

There are several bloggers and polish makers involved with this epic giveaway, so go and check out Kyoti's post with all of the prizes.  Enter below or at Kyoti's blog.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ok, now let's get on to the comparisons!!  Today, I'm showing you the four black and white glitters I own.  I used Nicole by OPI I'm Be-Cider Myself for undies, which is a peachy-orangey-pinky multichrome polish that, I believe, has been discontinued.  I've had this polish since college, which has been a very long time.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to keep it or sell it...  Needless to say, I'm keeping it.  The polishes I'm comparing today are Cover Band's Sticks 'n Stones (a dupe of Lynnderella Connect the Dots), Candeo Sprouse, Pretty & Polished Valentino, and Dollish Polish Putting on the Ritzzz!

Here are macros of the bottles.

Here they are side-by-side on my hand.

Sticks and Stones is a clear based polish with several sizes of black and white glitter, fine holographic glitters, and black and white bars.  It has the best application of the four.  Plenty of glitter came out on the brush, so I didn't feel like I had to gob it on to get enough to cover my nail.  I've had this polish for several months, and so far the bars show no signs of curling.

Candeo Sprouse has extra fine holographic particles which make the base look a little cloudy, plus various sizes of black and white hexes, black and white bars, and gorgeous blue holographic hexes.  It applied well, spreading out easily without having to dab.  Unfortunately, it did pool a bit, but that was user error.  I wasn't really sure how much I needed to put on to get enough glitter, so I went a little overboard.  Because of the pooling, there are a few bubbles, but most of the cloudiness you see is from the holographic particles.

Pretty & Polished Valentino has fine, medium, and large black hexes and medium and large white hexes.  If you don't like bar glitters and want a black and white glitter polish, this is the one for you.  I had to dab this one to get enough glitter on the nail and to place them where I wanted them.  Since it required a bit of work, I have some bubbling.  I have decided not to keep this one, but if I had kept it, I would apply two thin coats next time instead of trying to pile it all on in one.

Dollish Polish Putting on the Ritzzz! was the hardest one of the four to apply.  The glitters were extremely shy and refused to come out of the bottle despite storing it upside down for hours before I painted the just one nail.  There was significant pooling and bubbling because I tried really hard to get as much glitter onto the nail as possible.  PotR is a clear based polish with three sizes of black and white hexes.  Like Valentino, PotR also does not contain any bar glitter, but, after the application hassle, I would recommend Valentino over PotR any day.

So, there you have it!  I'm constantly trying to weed out the dupes/near dupes, so I have decided to only keep Sprouse and Sticks 'n Stones.  I feel that the pop of blue makes Sprouse just different enough from the regular black and whites to warrant keeping both.  I probably could've tossed Dollish Polish Something's Up with Jack in with these guys, but I totally forgot!  Check out my swatches of Something's Up with Jack here.

Here's purchasing information for the indies: Cover Band can be purchased at Ninja Polish, and you can follow Ninja Polish on Facebook here.  Candeo can be purchased at their store and Llarowe, and you can follow them on Facebook here.  Pretty & Polished can be purchased at their Etsy store and on Llarowe, and you can follow Chelsea on Facebook here.  Lastly, Dollish Polish can be purchased at her store, on Llarowe, and on Overall Beauty, and you can follow her Facebook here.

Don't forget to enter both Halloween giveaways!  There are tons of amazing prizes to be had!  Check back tomorrow for part two of the Dollish This is Halloween collection.  Have a great night, all!

Do you have a black and white glitter from another maker?  Which of my black and white polishes would you rather have?