Sinful Colors subtle gradient

I have nothing to disclose.

 My last manicure I posted inspired today's manicure post. I decided to use Sinful Colors Nail Junkie to do another french manicure style gradient. Only I would think to use three polishes of roughly the same color: Sinful Colors Nail Junkie, Gorgeous and Kissy. Needless to say, this didn't turn out quite as I expected it to in my head so I covered the whole thing up with a second coat of Nail Junkie over the works but I left the accent alone so you could see how it turned out.

This was pretty, just not what I wanted exactly.. but these polishes do all work well together :)

So I really don't know what I was thinking, but hey.. it looked pretty and I got to play with some of my polishes. I had forgotten how quickly Nail Junkie dries, and how pretty it is.

Unfortunately, I have something equally obnoxious for one of my next reviews, coming up later this week :)

My job interview manicure

Nothing to disclose.

 OK, so I didn't get the job I applied for but here's what I wore to the interview. I started with a coat of Sation Trench coat, a pale pink iridescent polish with silver glitters. I love this polish because the iridescent shine is so lovely and the glitters are just such a lovely little extra touch.

Please pardon the touch of blue staining on my nails.. Chrome Girl Bed Head Blue stained horribly :P

So next I used Shany nail art polishes 06 and 13 to paint on a simple gradient.

I was so so so happy with how this turned out! I think it looked super cute :) I was actually so happy with this manicure that I tried doing something similar with some other polishes last week. It didn't turn out quite as expected, but you'll see that later.

(I also cleaned my camera this week.. so hopefully no more blurry pictures :P )

Please let me know what you think of this manicure in the comments & thanks for reading :)

edit: oh, I learn something every day! apparently Sation is the line name, the brand is Miss Professional Nail. Oops!

The Great Polish Giveaway 2014

If you haven't seen it yet,Nail Polish Canada is having an insanely awesome giveaway.

One winner will take home up to 200 nail polish from over 10 different brands! The prize started at zero, then bloggers can each pick a favorite shade to be added to the prize.


 
You can enter here. You can also enter once on each blog that adds a shade to the prize, so you can enter my giveaway below.

I nominated Color Club Beyond, because everyone needs a gorgeous black holo! I've used this polish a couple of times now for different manicures. First, when playing with an old Sally Hanson Nail Prism.

 
Then again, I used it with some layering in my fox rhinestone manicure.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Good luck to everyone and thanks to the amazing sponsors, Cirque Colors, NCLA and Picture Polish, and of course thanks to Nail Polish Canada and all of the other bloggers who are helping promote this and adding to the winnings!

L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Volume 30 Review

I was provided with this product in exchange for an honest review.

 Calling all science fiction and fantasy lovers! I have a wonderful collection of short stories to share with you today. For 30 years, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future have been introducing readers to new upcoming writers such as Stephen Baxter, one of the previous winners I am most familiar with.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this collection of stories, but after reading Another Rage of Mountains by Megan E. O'Keefe, I was hooked. The majority of the stories I did enjoy, with just two or three not really interesting me. Here's a taste of what this book contains:

"A mail-order bride can bring nothing with her between the stars—except all kinds of heartache and a secret hope. . . ."

"When a Supreme Court judge prepares to die, the most valuable thing that he has to bequeath are his memories. . . ."

"All kinds of people want to take a trip to the End of the World, but what do they hope to gain?"

"As a shifter, Fat Reggie can be whoever he wants to be—but identity comes with a price. . . ."  (source: http://www.writersofthefuture.com/l-ron-hubbard-presents-writers-of-the-future-vol-30/)

A few stories stuck out in my mind, and have left me hoping to see further stories from these authors in the future. Namely: Paul Eckheart, C. Stuart Hardwick, Leena Likitalo (I hope your book does get published!) and Amanda Forrest. In addition to new writers, the Writers of the Future includes stories by established authors such as Orson Scott Card, whose stories I enjoy. It also includes a few articles from within the organization, Robert Silverberg, for example. These I mostly just skimmed as I didn't find these entirely interesting. I was very impressed with L. Ron Hubbard's own piece, Artistic Presentation.

I feel this is a fantastic collection and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction and fantasy. The themes of these stories are varied, and the collection contains a little bit of interest for everyone. Just to give you an idea, some of the stories include space travellers, shape shifters, robots.. aka the usual, but in new and very different ideas. Even the stories I didn't enjoy I had to admit were well written. One of my favorite stories came from a Finnish author, whom I never would have guessed English to not be her native tongue. It was very refreshing to read so many new and creative stories in one book.

This book isn't just about the stories, however. It's also about the illustrations. Each story contains a black and white illustration by a new artist, with full color illustrations at the back of the book. I just want to comment on this for a second: I found the layout to be confusing and I'm not really certain why they did it in this manner, especially because not all of the illustrations were in alphabetical order. I found this to be very confusing when looking for the artwork matching the stories. It would make more sense to me to organize the artwork in the order in which the stories appear in the book. Anyway... there are a few artists I was very impressed with their work:
Michael Talbot, I just loved this illustration and it did the job: it made me want to read Shifter. Perfect.
Trevor Smith, I was really drawn to this piece.
Kirbi Fagan, captured the feel of the storing exceedingly well.
Vincent-Michael Coviello, The Shaadi Exile, all I can say is perfect.
One of my favorite pieces comes from Bernardo Mota, who was in his last year of high school when he did his piece. I was very impressed.

I sincerely hope to see more artwork from these artists, and to read more stories from the authors in the future. I would consider purchasing other volumes of Writers of the Future. Volume 30 is about 400 pages and only $11.77 on Amazon, an excellent value!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Nail art spun sugar graffiti

I have nothing to disclose.

 So I'm like really really behind on my posts, what with both of us looking for jobs and whatnot. I have a couple of book reviews coming up this week but first here's what I wore for the 4th of July. I didn't feel like doing anything special so I just wore Chrome Girl Midnight Madness.

Sorry about the blurriness, not sure what's the deal with my camera lately.. may need to clean the lens again!

I love this color, it's just so pretty and absolutely me. So the next day I had watched +Narmai Nan's spun sugar video and I decided to try that technique out once again. AKA I decided to make a mess on my nails :P

I used: Chrome Girl Bed Head Blue, Shany nail art polishes 07 and 09, Kleancolor Neon Green and Jior Couture Raspberry Lemon Slush.

Yup, I accidentally made an almost Christmas themed spun sugar mani while also making a big mess. Oh well, that's me.

What I wore to the car show... and meet Winslow!

I have nothing to disclose.

 About 2 weeks ago we went to a car show so I decided to do my nails of course. I picked out something super bright, Chrome Girl Bed Head Blue. I decided it was a good chance to be out in the sun and try out my Jior Couture Pineapple Cooler once again.

This was a gorgeous combination but it was just too bright for me, too solid. So of course I had to mix it up. Here's one last look at this pretty combo. This is two coats of Bed Head Blue, and I do want to mention that it stained horribly :P

To nuke the brightness, I applied OPI Black Spotted. I was pretty happy with the effect. But of course that meant that I killed the Pineapple Cooler effect so I had to top it again. Can't say I really noticed my nails turning color in the sun :(

 I did one more thing with this manicure but I think I'm going to save that for another post...

I also wanted to introduce you guys to our new cat, Winslow! He's a seal point something or other :P He obviously has some Siamese in him. I think he might be Balinese, which is basically a long haired Siamese. Or he might just be some kind of mix, we're not certain. Anyway, he's very sweet, very affectionate.

 He's a little fluffball, as you can see :) He's the oddest cat because we got him and he walked right in and acted like he was home. He needed absolutely no adjustment time to get used to us. He spent most of the first day sitting on my lap. He needs a lot of attention and actually wakes us up throughout the night for midnight petting. He bites gently when he wants petted, and likes licking faces (and Mike's eyeball - haha! - and Mike just came in and told me he thinks Winslow bites because he's trying to nurse off of us. could be! goofy cat.) He's scared of fireworks but likes thunderstorms, which is just weird to me. I can't imagine why he likes the sound of one but not the other. He's a goofy cat, but Siamese tend to be smarter than your average cat so I suppose he knows the difference.

 I guess that's it for today - but guess what!! I have an interview tomorrow so wish me luck :) I'm still trying to figure out what to put on my nails :P