...More like October 2012 Updates, haha!  =P  Honestly I misplaced a few of the things I picked up over the month of October, so rather than my usual big group shot I'm just going to share some of my Instagram pictures and blab about what's been happening...  (I'm fighting a yucky cold, cut me some slack!)

  

   New Jeffrey Campbell Blyke shoes!  I had been wanting a pair of these and snagged them when they went on clearance - yay!  This is the baby pink suede color.  They are really soft to the touch...  And yes, they don't have heels!  They feel like regular heels, though.  Love them.  =)

   A peek into my cell phone...  My husband was kind enough to root my smartphone, and now it is looking very pretty!  Prettier since this capture, in fact.  I've switched to a new live wallpaper that is more delicate, but still black with teal, white & purple!  Time for another screenshot, I guess.

   One other gift from my other half was a new washer and dryer set!  They are white high efficiency models by LG,  No pictures of those but they are wonderful~  ^-^  Finally, no more toting laundry out of the house to get it done.  I did the Happy Housewife dance that day.  =D
 

   New Layla nail polishes from www.FabulouStreet.com!  Must swatch these soon!

   One of the reasons I've been away from the computer is that I've gone on a sewing kick...  Mom let/made me take a bunch of her sewing goodies and fabrics.  My sewing room was in a state of chaos thanks to all the new doo-dads that had to be put away, and I'm sure that is why I'm missing a few things around here!  Still, I got it back in working order and finished a few projects, as well as made this crazy nightcap for my guy.

   How can that not put a smile on your face?  =D  He loves it and now his noggin stays nice and toasty through our chilly autumn nights.  It is made of flannel and love.

   One day I was feeling depressed and had very little motivation, but I got myself to mix up a franken polish that I had dreamped up forever ago.  It helped lift my spirits and after that I was productive again.  This is Stardate, and it is a black jelly packed with holographic glitters!

   I'm wearing it right now but it has been on my hands since last week and is not at all worthy of photographing.  It came out very nicely, though!


   Well, that's all I've got for this quick post.  Once I have the rest of the clutter cleared out of my sewing/crafting/nail polish/shoe stash room maybe I can share some photos!  =)

The amazing strawberry shortcake with ice cream that I shared with my husband last weekend.  Yum!

   Today I'm finally revealing my first ever self-made, or "franken", nail polish!!  So, prepare for lots of pictures because I had a hard time narrowing things down!

   I made this back in January... yes four months ago, and only now got around to trying it because the lack of sunshine made me ignore most of my holographic polishes.  It has a little bit of a story behind it, too!  I made this nail polish for my mother-in-law-to-be, because she really liked my Nfu-Oh holo'd nails.  After its creation I was trying to come up with the right name, and my fianceé, determined that it had to have "hologram" in the name somehow, coined Hologlam.  I had to admit it was pretty clever, so I'm going with his name choice.

   The polish doesn't require and special base coat to use, so it's a stand-alone item.  I bottled it in these adorable star-shape bottles, which I accented with a pink rhinestone.  A fun fact: these bottle shots are from January, and amongst the very first photos I took of my then-brand-new camera!!  (So, I didn't know what I was doing...)

   Lots of sparkle in there!  But how does it look on the nail?  Well...

   More Glix nails to share!  The colors I wore are Mystique and Going Gaga, they are layered over Color Club Blue-topia: any navy blue polish you see peeking out is from Blue-topia.  Both of these Glix polishes have a black base.

   Mystique is the blue glitter polish named for a certain shape-shifting mutant.  It contains larger hex glitter - blue holographic and non reflective clear pieces, as well as small blue and green glitter.  This is gorgeous in the bottle and wonderful on the nails!

   Going Gaga has mostly pink glitter.  I love this one, too!  It's large fuchsia hex glitter reflects a holographic rainbow of colors.  It has pink, green and blue smaller glitters.  Mostly pink but you get a rainbow of purple, blue and green sprinkled through it.

   Both of these polishes have a very pigmented black base - I used two coats but I really didn't need to, because it buried a lot of the glitter.  You are essentially seeing 1 coat in these pictures.  I don't think I would even need a base color for these polishes.  Don't Mystique and Going Gaga compliment each other nicely?

   Application was easy and these dried with very little texture.  I added top coat and then they are awesome.  Wear time/durability was also very good.  I have just slight tip wear when I took it off after wearing these colors a few days.

   Disclaimer:  I bought Mystique for myself and Going Gaga was sent along for review.  I have shared my honest opinion about both!  As always you can find Glix polishes (and a whole lot of other neat polish items) in the Glitrix etsy store.  Which one is your favorite?  =)

   One week later... finally getting to show how I wore LA Colors Pink Chiffon and Glitrix/Glix Dianthus together.  Here are my nails with one coat of each.

   Dianthus is packed with glitter, and I love the color of the pink!  It matched with Pink Chiffon really well.  It also contains silver glitter, and sparse color-changing glitter.  I would see some sparks of blue-purple, yellow-green glitter.  Would love for there to be more!  There are star-shape silver glitters in the bottle but none came out.

   Last week my package from Glitrix arrived.  It took about two weeks to get here from Singapore, that it good shipping time in my opinion.  Everything I ordered arrived wrapped securely, safe and sound.  Besides some empty polish bottles, these are what I got:

   I just had to pick up one of her bow bracelets; it is nice and heavy from the jade stone beads.  Comfy to wear and I really like it.  And good news about the polishes!  She now has labels on her bottles.  Not individual name labels, but this is a step in the right direction.  I received 8 polishes - two were sent along as a gift to me for reviewing.  =)

   Pretty, aren't they?  Also, only a few of these have settling issues, so it looks like her formula is improving!  I have individual bottle shots and brief descriptions of their glitter after the jump.

   I have big news!  Glitrix on etsy has teamed up with me for a giveaway!  Because she is a total sweetheart and lives in Singapore she's even helping me make it an International giveaway!  And on top of of this giveaway goodness she is running a special sale for all of you, my lovely readers:

Glix Glitrix etsy Store Coupon:

Use code " 2011GLIX12 " for 10% off!

Offer valid until Dec 25th

   So be sure check out her store!  Now onto the details of the giveaway:

   The polishes up for grabs are the two I reviewed here on my blog, Oceanic and Royal Chic.  I have two brand-new bottles to send out to our US-resident winner, and Glitrix will be sending out the two polishes for our International winner.  That's why we need to know your location to enter the giveaway; it's to be able to tell what group you fall into.  =D

   You may use the above image to advertise the giveaway and thus earn yourself extra giveaway entries.  If you make a blog post you may also you an extra photo from my swatches of these colors; your choice of photo!  If you're adding an image to your sidebar here is a smaller version to use.

   I'm using Rafflecopter to run this giveaway and choose winners.  All entries will be validated and illegitimate entries will be disqualified.  I'm hoping to announce both winners in the first week of January.  If you need any help entering or have questions about the giveaway just post them here!

   I'm enjoying another Glitrix polish today.  The color is called Oceanic, and it is a blue jelly franken with small blue glitter and silver bar glitter.  This is my second time wearing it and I have to say I just love it!  Have a bit of cute bottle picspam!

      I have some nail wheel swatches of this one, as well, as it is really good for layering.  Oceanic dries to a gorgeous glassy shine and the glitter isn't gritty at all.  My photos show it without top coat, but I do like to add one to enhance the smooth shine even more.

   Left to right: 1 coat of Oceanic over China Glaze Caribbean Blue, 2 coats over L.A. Girl Alkaline Blue, 1 coat over L.A. Girl Alkaline Blue, 1 coat alone, 2 coats alone, 3 coats alone.

   Personally I would be wearing this layered - the jelly base stays sheer even though it is streak free at two coats.  When you're putting it over another polish you only need one coat for good glitter coverage, two if you want more glitters or more depth.  Bar glitters are unpredictable in polish and you occasionally have to fish them out of the bottle.  The brushes in the star bottles have clear hairs so it is really easy to see how many you've caught!

   Glitrix Oceanic is a great color because the glitter pops over any base color.  Over something dark the blue glitter is light enough to pop in a very striking way.  The glitter settles in the bottle and I find the easiest way to mix it is to put it on it's side and keep flipping it over, give it a shake, stand it up and you're good to go.  After painting a few nails shake it again to make sure you're still getting the bar glitters you want.  This polish applies wonderfully and dries pretty quick.  The jelly base color will tint whatever you put it over, in my case of using it over Layla Metallic Sky it brightened the polish to the exact shade of blue I was hoping for!

   I love it over my magnetic polish with line designs like waves.  Doesn't the glitter remind you of little fish swimming through bubbles?  I have to say that if you're planning to place an order for Glitrix polish, which you can buy here on etsy, don't pass this color up!  It is a real gem.  =)  Who can resist something so sparkly?!

   Today I have an extra-special polish to share!  This is a franken polish done by Glitrix on etsy!  I just looove etsy... and I especially love it right now because it helped me connect with the sweet girl in Singapore who is behind these polishes!  She sent me two colors from her shop, and I've already worn both and have been pleased.  First up let's take a look at Royal Chic!

   When the sunshine appeared briefly (literally just long enough to get these two shots) I hurried to get pictures.  This is two coats of the polish, which is a deep purple shimmer base with gold and pink glitter.  Sadly my only shot of nails-with-bottle is before clean-up:

   Your eyes aren't deceiving you - that is a star-shaped bottle!  Glitrix polishes come in adorable mini-sized star bottles that set them apart from the pack.  The brush head is surprisingly full (almost too much for my tiny nails), and the handle is easy to grasp.

   Here is a nail wheel swatch of one coat and then two coats.  You can see the shimmer here and it shows what a rich color Royal Chic has.

   My experience with this polish is as follows!  In the bottle the glitter in this polish settles quite a bit.  There is a metal BB in the bottle to help with shaking the polish up.  Rather than shaking it so much I found it was easiest to simply lay the bottle on it's side and flip it over every couple of minutes while I'm applying base coat.  Then set it right side up after giving it a quick shake, and ta-da, it's good to go.  As you can see there is a lot of glitter in this polish and I didn't have any trouble with coverage!

   In consistency it sort of reminded me of grape jelly - it's a bit thick from all the glitter, and isn't smooth when it dries.  Nothing terrible, though, and could be smoothed out with a thick top coat.  Because it wasn't gritty I didn't mind the texture at all.  This starts to dry very quickly, which is nice but made it next to impossible to wrap the tips of my manicure.  I'd suggest using a similar-colored polish for that step - glitters are generally not a good choice for wrapping the tips of a manicure!

   This isn't extremely glossy on it's own, but has a unique textured shine and the shimmer is very pretty.  Gold is generally not good on me but the glitter in this polish actually works for me!  I think the highly pigmented base helps tone down the color.  I really liked wearing this polish and the color definitely did feel royal!  This isn't a color I would reach for in a full-sized bottle, but getting a mini opened my nails up to new possibilities.

   Royal Chic was nice and durable, I didn't have issues with chipping, just a bit of tip wear because I work with my hands so much.  When it was finally time to take it off the glitters were a little stubborn, but finally let go when they realized I meant business.  =P  Another thing I really liked was how cleanly the deep purple came off.  Ever have a polish smear all over your fingers and stick to/stain your skin?  This one wiped off cleanly.


   In summary Royal Chic is a really neat polish that is worth the extra bit of effort to apply.  I was impressed with the pigmentation, the density of glitter, and how good it looked on me!  ;D  Because Glitrix polishes are mixed from other polishes they may or may not be entirely Big 3 Free, but they've played nicely with my other polishes, so I'm thinking they are.  The mini bottles are affordable and adorable.  I see these as being fun to collect, share... and wear!