Ü My Other Passion Ü

Sorry for not posting in a week.  I have been needed elsewhere.  

I have always been an animal/dog person/lover.  When I was born, my parents had a dog and I grew up with her (Mandy).  She was always basically the same age as I.  I can't remember a time I was ever without a pet, usually a dog (or several!).  

Below are the faces of dogs I have helped save from euthanasia this week, through sharing their plight, finding donations for their rescue, finding a rescue organization to pull them from the kill shelter and many other ways.  Some dogs are strays.  Most dogs are taken to the shelters by their owners (and I use that term loosely) for any number of reasons: having a baby, moving, dog got old, "too much puppy", landlord said to, etc. etc.  

This, these, are another passion of mine.  I have plans to post a nail mail post tomorrow and hopefully that will happen.  If I am needed to assist with saving a life, or arranging transport of a rescued dog, or sharing dogs on death row, then that is where you'll find me.

Sadly, animal cruelty, neglect, abandonment, death is a part of life every single day.  If only I could win a multi-million dollar lottery........

Who am I trying to save now?  There are tons -- but Bard needs me most right now because he needs donations for his rescue.  There is a rescue group interested in him but he must have funds for his boarding, transport and other needs.  If you'd like to donate to his rescue, you can visit his Chip In.

What other passions do you have?

Sale at Paris Sparkles

I just wanted to share a sale with you guys.  Better hurry, though, because there is only one more day left!  Stay tuned for swatches of Paris Sparkles polishes once I get them.

For every two polishes purchased, you will get one free!  At checkout, just note in the comment section what you'd like for free (don't add it to your cart).  Buy multiples of two and get the appropriate number of bottles free.  For instance, if you buy four bottles you will get two free.

Stacy has said the sale will not be back for a while so order now while you can!

Visit Paris Sparkles on etsy here.

An Epic Manicure Failure, Twice

This post will be short and sweet.  I did this manicure twice.  What a time-consuming waste it was. The glitter polish I used on top was so thick, it caused air bubbles.  I used (or tried to use) thin coats but that didn't remedy the problem.  Removed the polish, added lots of thinner to the glitter polish and tried again.  Below is the result.  See it and weep, or laugh if you so choose.

What do you do when you get a manicure full of air?  I know I didn't use thick coats; I think it is the super goopy, thick polish. 

This is with no clean up and no top coat -- why waste products!?

Models Own -- Boogie Nights

Today I have for you Models Own Boogie Nights over American Apparel L'Esprit.  Whenever I see the name of this polish, I always think of the Mark Wahlberg movie with the same name.  Shame on me!

Boogie Nights (the polish) looks fun but was not necessarily fun to apply.  The smell of the polish was awful.  The glitter didn't apply uniformly and I had to dig in the bottle for glitter and then try to apply it where I wanted it to be on my nails.  Even after two coats of top coat, I still had glitter sticking out past my fingertips.  Hungry glitter that definitely needed Gelous.  I didn't have any when I did this but I have since purchased some.

Boogie Nights is part of the Models Own Mirrorball collection.  This polish was one of the extras I received in a swap and was part of my first post showcasing my epic nail mail day.  Models Own classifies this as a "nail frosting" and a "glide on glitter".  I am not so sure I agree with either of those descriptions.  But, I am not part of Models Own (wouldn't that be awesome?!) and did not have the luxury to try and come up with descriptions.

I used one coat of Seche Clear base coat, two coats of the AA L'Esprit, varying coats of Boogie Nights depending on what nail needed what, two coats of INM Out The Door quick dry top coat.  In the future, when I use glitter polishes such as this, I will add Gelous before my top coat.

Inside using artificial light

Inside using artificial light

Shade

Shade

Shade

Sun

Sun

Sun

Boogie Nights can be purchased directly from the Models Own website and L'Esprit can be purchased directly from the American Apparel website.  I found L'Esprit much easier to apply than Coney Island (as used in my last post).

What do you think about all the different shapes, colors and sizes of glitter in Boogie Nights?  

Would you like to see bottle shots on the blog?  Do you think the pictures are too large?  Do you prefer smaller pictures on the posts and then the ability to click on an image to enlarge it?  Do the watermarks going different directions bother you? (Remember when I said I am a perfectionist with some things!)

Do you have short fingernails, too?  I enjoy seeing blogs where the blogger has fingernails like mine. That way, I know what a polish would look like more so than on really long fingernails.  Again, remember my cuticles are a work in progress :) but I did purchase a curette today so that should help.

TreasuresByTan -- Dolphin's Cove

I hope everyone had a good Monday!  As promised, here is my swatch of Dolphin's Cove from TreasuresByTan.  Tanya told me this is one of her favorites and was her second creation ever. I can't wait to see this over a light blue, a lavender, a white and a black!  

I chose American Apparel Coney Island as the undies.  Due to the AA polish being so streaky and thin, I used three coats on top of Seche Clear base coat and I followed everything with INM Out the Door top coat.  

Excuse the cuticles ~ they are currently under construction.  I have short fingernails but don't a great many of us?!  I do a lot around the house and can't seem to keep long fingernails.  I think it is a refreshing change to see a nail blog with not so perfect hands, don't you?!

The polish was super easy to apply.  The glitter was easy to work with and move around when I wanted to.  I did thin coats on my index, ring and pinkie fingers; thick coats on my thumb and middle finger.  Therefore, I had to apply another thin coat to the three fingers while the thumb and middle finger remained at one thicker coat.  

Tanya's store describes Dolphin's Cove as being made up of blue and turquoise glitters in varying sizes and shapes.  There are also multi-color shifting glitters (which I tried to show in my pictures). The base is clear....my favorite "color" for a glitter base!  Her polishes are all custom blended using cosmetic grade mica, glitter, stainless steel balls.  They are all made from scratch -- no store bought polishes are used!  Tanya's polishes are also 3 Free (meaning they do not contain any Toluene, Formaldehyde or DBP) and they are cruelty free.

Be sure to check out Tanya's shop on etsy and tell her 10FickleFingers (or 10FF for short!) sent you!

Outside

Inside using artificial lighting

Shade

Sun

Inside using artificial light, blurred

Sun

So, what do you think about Dolphin's Cove?  What do you think about my photos?  Too many? Not enough?  Need more lighting options?  Email me or leave a comment here!

Little of This, Little of That

A little tidbit about me--I am a perfectionist with certain things.  You'll probably notice that during your time on 10 Fickle Fingers.

I got some goodies in the mail today and knew I couldn't take photos outside and expect them to turn out well (snow, no sun).  I knew I'd have to make a lightbox.  I started with a smaller box but opted for a larger one.  Making the lightbox was fairly easy to do using some how to's I found on the internet.  Since I had all the materials on hand that I needed, it was also free!

In the future, I may take pictures of swatches in various lighting.  I think that the shade, the sun and my lightbox would be good sources to get a nice variety of how a nail polish may look on you.  At the moment, I do not have my digital SLR camera here so I had to use what I had available for the following photos.  I think once I get my Olympus back, the pictures will improve greatly!

I will be posting a NOTD (nail of the day) with one of the polishes I won from TreasuresByTan, which I received today.  It was very difficult to choose the two polishes I wanted.  I know I will be purchasing some soon!  There are so many unique polishes in Tanya's shop.  All items are handmade and there is more than just nail polish!

Look at the way Tanya wrapped the treasures!

I won a zebra 14" x 14" pillow cover (so soft, folded in the picture), a lip gloss and lip balm (I got to pick the flavor of that), a necklace, bracelet, earrings and matching stretch ring, two nail polishes (SO tough to narrow it down to two).

I chose Dolphin's Cove and Reindeer Games.  I also added about 20 other polishes from TreasuresByTan to my wishlist!

Love the glittery goodness!

Cotton Candy Twist lip gloss and Orange Cream Vanilla lip balm .. YUM!

Handcrafted necklace and bracelet

Handcrafted stretch ring and matching earrings

TreasuresByTan also offers custom orders.  Be sure to check out Tanya's Facebook page for sneak peeks.  Do you own anything from Tanya?

Do you blog?  Do you use a lightbox or do you prefer using the good ol' sun?  What kind of camera do you use?  Let this new blogger hear from you!

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome!  I hope you enjoy your time on 10 Fickle Fingers.  I created this blog because of my addiction to interest in nail polishes.  There will be other stuff thrown in and I hope the variety will keep you coming back.

Here is my nail mail from yesterday.  A quick cell phone picture.  My husband thought I was silly taking a picture ... but look at the awesome goodness ... (and I didn't intentionally cut off the head of my nail file).  Most of these are from swaps on Facebook.  There are a couple of notables in the bunch:

• The nail file (an extra not even mentioned in the giveaway) and the Illamasqua duo are winnings from Nail FREAK
• The Models Own Boogie Nights and GOSH Gasoline (the latter of which has been on my wishlist forever and thought I'd never get it so took it off) are freebies from a swap
• The York Peppermint Patties had a casualty (I ate one as soon as I opened the package)
• The Essie Lapiz of Luxury is a RAOK (random act of kindness) from a facebook group
• There are three (yes, THREE) polishes from Nail-venturous Lacquers in there!!

I still have some things to add to the blog, like my wishlist and stash list, social networking icons (Facebook, Twitter and so on).  I do wonder, though, should I set up a Twitter and Facebook account solely for this blog or use what I already have set up?  My twitter has just 26 followers so it isn't like it would be a big inconvenience to set up a new twitter account for 10 Fickle Fingers.  I think every blog I have visited and joined has their own Facebook account.  So, needless to say, as I've been typing this, I have come to the conclusion that I need separate accounts for the blog on Twitter and Facebook.

I would love to hear from you.  Send me your tips, feedback, comments, criticisms, helpful suggestions.  Enjoy the blog.  I have lots of ideas and lots more to come!