Fall(ish) Mani with Julie G, Milani & China Glaze

I'm originally from Ohio where the seasons are typically "hot as blazes with 90% humidity" for about 2-3 months, and then it's "grey dreary and dark" for the rest of the year.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, and to be fair it's been 15 years since I lived there so perhaps I'm just remembering incorrectly.  I love Ohio and I do enjoy getting back there often to see friends and family as often as possible.  But, I married a Marine and we've since lived in many wonderful places...NC (twice), MD, VA, CA and we currently live in FL though not for much longer...next stop DELAWARE!

Anyway, this is my wordy way of saying that living in FL, we don't really get traditional weather seasons.  Which means that I'm often a little conflicted about my polish mood...my FL self says "you still have the A/C running, put on some bright blue/aqua!!" while my OH-raised soul says "it's November, it's time for something dark and earthy and reminiscent of fall".  Don't worry, I'm Gemini, we often have these sorts of internal debates.  :)

Anyway AGAIN, here is a mani where the OH in me won out:

I'm not much for red, orange, yellow tones, so this was a more subtle version of what I'd consider fall colors.  The neutral taupe is Julie G Stiletto, the shimmery brown is Milani Chocolate Sprinkles and the silver foil accent is China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets.  The pattern itself?  I think I was originally going for trees, but my freehand skills aren't the best and I think it came out looking more like ferns...?

More pics after the jump....

Layla Ceramic Effect 39 - Southern Light

So recently Danielle over at Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll. posted about Layla Ceramic Effect 39 and I remembered that I'd recently tried out that color as well, but hadn't gotten a chance to post about it.  What I love about Danielle's photos is that she was able to capture the purple awesomeness of the polish, a feat that I was completely unable to do with my photos.  For me, this polish totally reads dark grey with the occasional flash of purple, most often when out in the sun (not that you can see any purple AT ALL in these photos): 

What's great about Danielle's blog post is that she said she couldn't capture the grey-with-pink-shimmer nature of this polish, so I offered to post my photos and we'll link to each other.  Because again - I could NOT get the purple of the polish to show up at all!  Lol.  Seriously people, do YOU see any purple here?.... now go look at Danielle's pretty purrrrrple pics....

More of my (grey) photos after the jump:

Butter London All Hail The Queen

Okay, so I figure I'd better intersperse posts where I definitely know the polish I used with the (admittedly too) many posts where I say "ummmm, sorry, can't remember what I used".  :-)

Today's photo is all about my newest favorite neutral, Butter London's "All Hail The Queen".  Generally I'm more of a frugal polish hoarder shopper and prefer to keep my purchases at $10 or under.  But I had a little extra cash around my birthday in June and decided to splurge on a Butter London purchase that looked intriguing (this is my second BL purchase, I'll tell you about the first one some other time).  Ohhhhhh myyyyyy, such a beauty once it was on my nails!

I used two coats here, over my usual one coat of Essie Millionails (base coat) and then topped with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.  AHTQ is a gorgeous sand color with a subtle scattered holo and is worth every single penny I spent.  I think it was $15 for the bottle?  Maybe $14, I can't quite remember, but either way, you can't go wrong with this lovely polish.

I love it so much I think I've worn it 4-5 times already since June.  :-)  It's the one I reach for whenever I need a "palate cleanser" from colorful polish.