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: Blue Glitters (aka Absolutely Alice!!)

So yeah...  Pretty much everyone is in love with OPI's discontinued and hard to find Absolutely Alice.  It's a gorgeous blue and gold glitter bomb that just shines like a multi-faceted jewel on your nails.  It is, in a word, breathtaking.  Honestly, I didn't really get the hype when I first saw swatches of it.  I had no idea why these bottles of polish were going for over $20 on eBay.  I just didn't get it.  Then, I found 2 bottles on a dusty hunt and purchased them.  One was brand new and the other was about half gone.  I added a little thinner to the half gone bottle to use for myself and did my mani.  The results were amazing.  Sadly, I didn't get a chance to take a legit pic, but I guess that just means I get to wear it again soon, right?!  So now that I'm a believer in the hype, I decided to turn to my stash to see if I had any similar polishes, and if yes, how would they compare to AA.  I came up with the following lineup: OPI The Flowers are Blue-ming!, Nails by Laura Alice Who?, OPI Absolutely Alice, China Glaze Dorothy Who?, and Zoya Twila.

These are all of my blue glitters.  Aren't they lovely?

Here's a nice shot of the back without labels in the way.

And here they all are on the nail.

I knew that Twila would be the outlier because it's made with bar glitters and not fine hexes.  I put it on next to the rest just for fun.  I also had a feeling that FaBM would be different as well because it has a blue base with holo glitters instead of being a straight up glitter bomb.  That leaves Absolutely Alice, Alice Who?, and Dorothy Who? to seriously compare.

Check out this blurry shot to see how each polish shines.  You can see the holo-ness of FaBM.  You can also clearly see the gold shining through in AA that isn't quite as prevalent in the crisp shot.  You can't see the gold as well in AW.  Also, you can see that DW is really just blue and silver without a trace of gold.

Here's a close-up of each polish (other than Twila).

From top left going clockwise: FaBM, AA, DW, AW

Absolutely Alice is a blue and gold glitter that applies evenly without much coaxing.  Make sure to let the coats dry a little after each layer so you don't end up dragging any wet glitter around.  Alice Who comes the closest to AA but it has fewer gold glitters.  It also applies very easily and is one of the few indies I own that didn't require thinning at the get go.  Dorothy Who is blue and silver, so it's not quite right even though it's still gorgeous.  It applies well but stains like crazy.  I mean, look at my cuticles!  That stuff didn't want to budge.

I think if you can't get your hands on Absolutely Alice, you should really go for Alice Who from Nails by Laura.  You can purchase Alice Who here at her etsy store.  Right now, it appears that she only has minis available.  You can also follow Laura on her Facebook page.  I sold my AW already, though, because I have so many similar polishes already in my stash.  I do have Twila for sell in my blog sale, plus I'm auctioning off a brand new Absolutely Alice!  If you're interested in bidding, the auction runs until 9/23, so send me an email at jldbjunkmail@gmail.com.  (Silly email, huh?  I like to give it to people at retail stores when they sign me up for memberships.  It makes them smile, lol.)  The current bid is up to $18.  As an aside, I'm also auctioning a brand new Elevation Marble Caves, same ending date, but the bid is up to $25.  Please email me if you would like to bid on either.

Which is your favorite?  What's the highest you've paid for a single bottle of polish?