Fancy fancy lady!

I didn't have time to remove La Paz-itively Hot this morning, so I just decided to go crazy and try to fancy it up a bit. I added Wet n Wild Black Creme tips and Love My Nails Angel Baby over everything. It's really different for me, but I can see myself doing more stuff like this in the future.

The sun was being a jerk, but I did what I could. Photos are clickable!



Would you be interested in seeing more manicures like this in addition to swatches?



I also want to tell you guys about something really exciting. My sister (in law), Colleen, has been bitten by the nail polish bug. She's actually starting her own nail blog, which I will be sure to show you guys once it is up and running. Being the amazing and supportive person that she is, she want out and bought me 66 new polishes. Yes, you read that correctly. I am beyond excited and ridiculously grateful to her for helping me to more than double my stash. She lives in Texas while I'm in Massachusetts, so it will be a little while before I have all of these goodies in hand, but that's alright! Get ready for a lot of new polish on Dancing Phalanges!

OPI- La Paz-itively Hot

I've seen a lot of the matte version of La Paz-itively Hot, but not the original. I've had this polish for a long time. The pictures speak for themselves. Photos are clickable!

Once again, excuse the cuticles. -_-



This is two coats of La Paz in natural light over a thin coat of Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle and no top coat.



Application is a breeze with this one, as I have come to expect from OPI.




I'm not a big fan of pinks (on my nails, though I love it in this layout!), but I know my daughter will be glad that I have this in my stash once she is old enough to raid it. It's very Barbie.

I've been changing up the way I photograph polish for my posts. I'm trying to settle on a more permanent look so that my posts are more cohesive, but I haven't fallen in love with anything yet. Today's photos are the first time you can click and view a larger version. What do you think?

Adventures in Layering!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Dorothy Who? over Wet n Wild Black Creme. I put the Ruby Pumps on before Dorothy Who? and you can't see it very well. Next time I'll pick one or the other. I was just curious to see what it would look like with both! I think I need to pick up some Seche Vite to try over polishes that aren't totally smooth (like this).

What are your favorite combos for layering?

Revlon - Rock

Rock is a beautiful purple creme polish. These photos show two coats with no top or base coats in natural lighting, as usual. It's a little darker on the nail than it appears in the bottle.



Rock applied like a dream (opaque in two coats) and removal was no problem. I couldn't believe how shiny it was when dry. No top coat needed!

Revlon - Silver and Galaxy Top Coat

My husband went to get an oil change (the first one in almost a year...men...) and while he was waiting he went into a random discount store in a nearby strip mall. He gave me a call to let me know how long he'd be there, and of course I asked him to check for polish. They had a bunch of these Revlon polishes with coordinating top coats for $1 each. I told him to grab whatever colors looked interesting, and he came home with Silver, Rcok (which I will be posting about later), and Galaxy.



Silver is a grey creme. It's actually my first grey polish and I'm pretty excited about that. I used two coats and it looked fine in real life, but the photos make it look riddled with bald spots. Silver is definitely a three-coater for photos.



The formula was pretty watery, but workable.



And then there was Galaxy. This top coat looked really nice in the bottle, and reviews I read about it while waiting impatiently for my husband to get home (yeah, I do that) said that it had blue and silver micro glitter and large hexagonal holographic glitter. Galaxy's collection-mate was a plain black polish, but I figured I could throw it on top of Silver and see how it looked.



These two just do not mesh, in my opinion. It looks like I shook pepper over wet polish.





Blue glitter? No. It's black. It's black and nothing about the weird peppery little dots glitters. I'm not sure why they're even there. I'll try Galaxy over a black polish and see if it does anything ~magical~, but over Silver it is definitely not anything special.

Wet n Wild - Gray's Anatomy

I have to be honest. Gray's Anatomy didn't speak to me at first. I saw swatches on a few other blogs and read about how it is a supposed dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Wicked Game. While I really love the look of a lot of Lippmann polishes, Wicked Game never thrilled me and in turn I was quite meh about Gray's Anatomy. Then I saw it in person...



These photos show two coats (no base/top coat) in natural light. It really could have benefited from one or two more coats, but I kind of liked it a bit sheer. I plan on trying Gray's Anatomy as a layering polish at some point.



Sometimes this polish is a silvery grey, sometimes it's green, sometimes purple, and sometimes all three. And the way it looks in the bottle really makes me want to try a few more coats and see what full opacity will bring to the table.



Gorgeous.

Green franken

Bubbly? Thick? Streaky? Yep. Do I care? Not really. I think the shade is kind of nice. This has about 6 different polishes in it and half of them are so old the label has worn off. If I could find a way to fix the bubbles and thickness issues, this might be an alright franken.



In the end it will probably end up in a priority mail box to Texas like the rest of my frankens, since I really don't want to keep any polishes that I can live without. My sister in law is slowly getting into polish (I like to think I have something to do with that) and I'm planning to send a few down to her. She told me that she has picked up a bunch of new polishes for me recently, so I'll be posting about those once I have them in hand. Hooray for polish mail, and hooray for Colleen!

Wet n Wild - Saved by the Blue

Saved by the Blue is another win from the new Wet n Wild Fast Dry line. What you see here is one coat (no base or top coat) in natural light.



There is some streakiness but I'm not sure if that is because of the polish or because I was a bit careless with application. I think my baby may be teething and she finally decided to nap, so I wasn't sure how long I had. Even if the streaks are because of the polish itself (though I'm 90% sure it was mostly operator error), it's not even remotely bad enough to outweigh the awesome color and amazing drying time.

Tipped nubbins? Why not!

This was my first time attempting colored tips. I know these sort of manis are usually done on longer nails, but I think it came out pretty cute so I thought I'd share it. Since it has been dark for hours now and my light box is shut in a room with a sleeping baby, the lighting for these pictures isn't the best. Sorry!





What do you think? Are colored tips best left for longer nails?

Wet n Wild - Buffy the Violet Slayer

Last night I had a mild heart attack after my entire blog layout was lost. I took the opportunity to do a total overhaul, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'd appreciate any feedback you guys might have on the new look.

And now for some polish!



I have never had such a hard time getting a polish color to show up correctly in photographs. The above picture (natural light) of Buffy the Violet Slayer is way more blue than it actually is. I tried to take some photos using a full spectrum incandescent and got a little closer to the actual color, but not really close enough for my liking. The color on the nail in real life is the color you see in the bottle in the next two photos.



Buffy is a really beautiful color, and it only took one coat for full opacity. This one actually did dry very quickly, unlike the last polish I reviewed from Wet n Wild's new Fast Dry line. It does dry a little gritty, so a good topcoat would definitely help it to look it's best. I didn't use a base or top coat for these photos.



I wish my camera would cooperate with this polish. I'm sure more reviews will be popping up for it all the time, and I'm hoping some of them will have more accurate photos so that you can all see how beautiful this shade actually is.

China Glaze - Blue Island Iced Tea

I had the hardest time photographing this polish. It kept showing up either way darker or way lighter than it actually is. The way to polish looks in the bottle is how it looks in real life. It's a super sparkley light blue that needs three coats for opacity. I've heard bad things about the formula for the entire line that Blue Island Iced Tea belongs to, but I didn't have any trouble.



The sparkle really shows in sunlight, but it's still pretty inside. I'm really into blue lately. I don't know if it's the cold weather or the fact that I've been a little depressed as of late.

What color are you into right now?

Wet n Wild - SaGreena the Teenage Witch

The names of these polishes kill me. I didn't even notice them until I got home with the four I chose, and I ended up picking polishes with names of shows I watched. Yey? Anyway, SaGreena the Teenage Witch was a little streaky, but nothing that can't be lived with.



The polish did not dry any faster than a regular polish, despite the fast dry claim. The brush was no doubt THE WORST brush I have ever used. I've swatched other colors from the new Wet n Wild fast dry polishes and this was the only one with this terrible brush. It was incredibly stiff and probably had a lot to do with the streakiness.



Even though the brush was a hot mess and I had to use three coats to cover the nastiness the brush caused, I really like the color. It looks good in bright and low light (as I hope my above pictures show) and if you can find one with a better brush I'd definitely recomend it. I'm very excited to have another good green in my collection.

I feel like I apologize for my cuticles in every post, but they're seriously getting crazy. My husband has the next two days off, so I should be able to do some serious work on them. Stay tuned for less disgusting fingers!

Revlon - Opulent Pink

I bought Revlon Opulent Pink in May of 2009 to use on my toes for my wedding (I didn't end up using it, though.) I totally forgot about it because it was wrapped in a bunch of paper towels in a sandwich bag under my sink. I never unpacked the makeup bag from the wedding, apparently. That just shows you how often I get done up.



I'm not a pink person. I have no idea why I ended up picking this shade. I'm sure there were plenty of colors in whatever store I bought this from that were more "me". The formula is good (2 coats for opacity) and there is nothing really bad about Opulent Pink, the color just doesn't speak to me.

Are there any colors that just don't work for you?

Stylish Blogger Award!

Annie from Polish This tagged me today for the Stylish Blogger Award. I've been tagged for this multiple times and I've lost track of some of the girls who tagged me first. I'm sorry! Let me know in the comments if you tagged me and I'll mention it. Being a relatively new blog I really appreciate all of you for thinking of me. I'm still suprised that anyone reads this thing at all, let alone want to know 7 random facts about me. Thank you!

1. I didn't learn to drive until I was 19, and I think it was a good decision on my part. I really was not prepared for the responsibilities that come with driving at 16 and I would be glad if my daughter decided to put it off until she's really ready like I did.

2. I left school my junior year and started community college instead of finishing high school. I had a chemistry teacher who overheard me telling a friend how much I hated school, so he said "Then leave!". I went to the office, called my mom, and never went back.

3. Every job I've ever had was centered around children. I have been a nanny, a children's photographer, and now a stay at home mom. Yes, being a stay at home parent is a job!

4. "Penny" is a nickname. My real name is Tailea (rhymes with Haley). :)

5. Speaking of tv, I will never get over the way they ended Veronica Mars.

6. I got my nose pierced in 2007 and really loved it, but I had to take it out for my daughter's MRI in December and have no idea how to put it back in. It's probably closed by now. Oh, well!

7. Laundry is my favorite chore. Can you tell I'm really reaching for facts now?


I'm supposed to tag 15 new blogs, but that is straight up ridiculous. I don't even know of 15 new blogs. I do know of one brand spanking new one, however! Amy from No Nails Today, consider yourself tagged. If anyone else reading this has a new blog and would like to do this, I'm tagging you, too!

a-england - New brand with a new twist!

a-england is a new brand with a really interesting concept. I've spoken with it's creater, Adina, and her enthusiasm for her product makes me even more excited for the first collection!

The Mythicals

a-england's first collection, inspired by the legendary Arthurian myth, sets the tone for the brand with its subtle link to the fascinating spirit of legend.



King Arthur - tungsten, steel gray with subtle diamond shimmer.



Excalibur - majestic silver platinum



Merlin - spectacular scintillating silver



Morgan Le Fey - luminescent white silver



Iseult - delicate romantic pink with opalescent pearly reflection



Guinevere - beautiful elegant antique pale mauve



Elaine - smoky violet amethyst



Lady of the Lake - dusky purple with rainbow glimmer and glow



Tristam - night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow



Lancelot - intriguing mysterious black red garnet



Camelot - black onyx glaze with unique luster



Avalon - incandescent regal and royal purple



Perceval - splendid and resplendent red



Galahad - mystic vibrant blue green



Holy Grail - glorious gold



The Knight - the perfect base protect natural nails from staining and act as bond to the varnish



The Shield - the hardest topcoat for brilliant clear gloss finish


a-england polishes retail for £9.50 (about $15.00) and are available internationally on their website.



I'm really excited about this new brand! Which colors in this collection interest you the most?