Share With You Sunday: 9/30/12-10/7/12

Posts I'm Loving:
Kelsie's Nail Files shows us her Pac-Man nails.
Nail Narcotics shares with us her mango flowers nails.
Nailed It shows us her card deck inspired manicure.
Nail Stuff...? shares with us her Van Gogh Starry Night nails.

Posts You're Loving:
Patty and Goldie's Day Off shares with us her Beatlemania Blackbird nails.

You can submit your links for posts on Sundays here. 

Reader Manis of the Week:

Name: Nathalie
Location: Canada
Manicure Description: The Koi Pond.  Base- Orly in Holla, Middle coat: Barelements in Orange Orange, topped with Nicole by OPI in Yellow it's Me. Then I stamped with Konad SP in black, Konad plate M-66 and an unknown plate number A-48. I used a dotting tool for the fish scales and various colors. Wow lots of different techniques: jelly sandwich, stamping and dotting.
Favorite Polishes: OPI (all of them) and the Barelements polishes for which I've never paid more than 2.99$!

Name: Jen the Lacquer Ninja
Location: North Carolina
Manicure Description: This is a really neat manicure I did for Halloween last year with the Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers color Creepy Pumpkin and Wet n Wild FastDry Tangled in My Web. I wanted a Black and Orange manicure without a lot of black so the hex glitter in TiMW was the perfect accent to the bright orange of Creepy Pumpkin.
Favorite Polishes: I'm a huge fan of greens like Zoya Shawn and Envy but I also adore a good duo/multichrome shimmer like you can find in Pure Ice's Oh Baby! or Busted. And who can forget the wonderful jewel toned colors from AEngland with their subtle holo, St. George and Dragon are two of my favorites.
Blog: http://www.laquerlover.blogspot.com/

 You can find information on how to submit your manicures for Sunday posts here. 

Happy Sunday!

KBShimmer Lilac Dreams

Do you any of you out there have just crazy nonsensical dreams? I always have had them. My dreams are never sequential. They make absolutely no sense, and have a ton of random elements that do not connect to each other whatsoever. I had this crazy dream the other night where my cat could talk, I was on some game show with Steven Tyler, I got a haircut that looked horrible, I ordered a bunch of hot dogs, and I was some ocean-resort where the ocean was encapsulated in giant glass that looked like one of those pools they use for Shamu at Sea World. This was all one dream that flowed together at one time.  What's so weird is I'm not even a Steven Tyler fan. I don't dislike him or anything. I'm just indifferent. I have no idea why he was in my dream! Seriously, my dreams a wild.

On the subject of dreams..here is a pretty dreamy polish by KBShimmer. I can always find way to bring it back to polish....mostly :P.

Lilac Dreams

Lilac Dreams is a luscious shade that depending on the light, shifts slightly from a medium purple to a lovely shade of pink. Holographic glitter in aqua blue and sliver add sparkle and shine while a scattering of micro black and silver glitter adds depth to the color.

Ok, I totally used KBShimmer's description for this polish. It's really so complex it's hard to describe. It's a beautiful bright foily-metallic lilac that has a slight color shift and flecks of different glitters mixed in. That's the Steph description. It's really beautiful, and has great depth. I've always been a fan of the lavender-lilac color family, and I have nothing like this polish! This does dry on the gritty side, due to the amount of glitter used, but this can be remedied with a thicker top coat like Gelous or two coats of your favorite top coat.

I purchased this polish from the KBShimmer website for $8.50.

Happy Thursday!

National Anti-Bullying Awareness Month

**I am not writing this to garner sympathy or for people to feel bad for me. I am writing this so to make people aware of the severity of bullying and what damage it can cause. I am OK, and I will be whole eventually :). 

I'm sure many of you have already seen this video with La Crosse, WI news anchor Jennifer Livingston. It is a great video. It's worth the watch if you haven't.

What I did not know was that it is National Anti-Bullying Awareness Month. This is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart.

I'm thankful that now bullying is receiving the recognition it deserves. The impact of bullying is far more than a kid getting beat up or a small case of hurt feelings. As we all know now, bullying can be traumatic. We have lost lives to bullying, and we continue to. We also know now that bullying is not just a thing for children, it's in the adult world too. I see it online. I even see it in the nail polish community.

My story with bullying is not a pleasant one. I was severely bullied throughout my childhood. My own grandmother even bullied me. She would tell me how fat I was, how unworthy I was, and how terrible my life would be. Visits to grandma's were not about cookies and warm memories for me needless to say

My worst case of bullying happened to me 8th grade American History class 4th period for an entire semester. These two boys who sat behind me absolutely tormented to me. I was reminded on a daily basis how fat and disgusting I was. I was told I was completely revolting and how no one would ever love me or want to be around me. I had things throw in my hair. These boys poked me, took their pencils and messed with my hair "checking for lice". Apparently, since I was so disgusting I must be covered in lice too. I was told never to have children because they would be as ugly as me. I was made to feel more disgusting than an insect. I believed it all. I tried to pay these boys off with gum. I even stole money from my parents to give to them to get them to stop. It never worked. I never told a soul. My parents did not even know. I hid it very well from them. I was too humiliated. I started to develop panic attacks in that class on a daily basis. I never ate my lunch. I never wanted anyone to see me eat at school and give them any reason to call me fat and gross anymore. That didn't work either.

8th grade passed, and thankfully I was not bullied as severely since. What I did not realize is how much that bulling event traumatized me and affected me. Everything they said to me I held on to. I felt inferior. I felt unworthy, disgusting, worthless, and unlovable. I carried that with me. That is what I began to put out into the world as far as body language. My negative self view rubbed off on everyone else. I was lonely, insecure, and sensitive teenager. I lived my life that way too. I never took risks. I never reached out. I preferred to stay invisible where it was safe. If you keep to yourself and hide from the world, there is not much chance for people to belittle and reject you.

I never realized the impact bullying had on me until I was in a therapist office at the age of 23. I have always experienced some level of anxiety and depression in my life, but it was at an all time high then. The therapist asked me if I had experienced any trauma in life. I told her no, and she brought up bullying. When I told her my story with bullying her first response was "that is trauma". I never recognized bullying for what it was until then. I had just assumed all kids were bullied. You move on. The end. That was not the case. Bullying had completely robbed me of my self worth and of a the fun childhood I deserved.

I have worked through many issues in regards to my past bullying. My social anxiety is so much better than it was before. This blog has helped me a lot too. It's through this blog I realized that not everyone out there is judging me, and that people actually like me! I still have a lot to work on though. I hate having my picture taken. I feel very insecure about that. My physical appearance is very touchy subject for me. I have some skewed view of people. I'll see what I view as "pretty people", and I automatically feel beneath them. I do not want to disturb them, get in their way, or talk to them. I know that sounds crazy, but all I can attribute that too is a lot of those negative messages from the past still sticking around. I still am in fear of people judging me harshly. These are things I am working on, and it may take me a long time to get to a better place with this. I have renewed self confidence, and while somethings are still difficult, I will get there.

That is my story with bullying, and I know my story is far from the worst. There are kids killing themselves over things like this. There are adults suffering in the workplace because of this. I think it is worse now with the internet. I'm sure many people get tired of the word "bullying". Please don't get tired of it. It needs to be acknowledged, recognized, and it needs to be prevented. All I ask from you is to not take part in bullying. You take part in bullying even if you witness it and chose to do nothing. Being a stander-by to bullying does not make you innocent. Stand up to these people, and stand up for someone else in need.

These are websites/people I admire on the anti-bullying front:
Rachel Simmons
Rosalind Wiseman
Jess Weiner
ABC Anti-Bullying Coalition

Since the color blue has been used to represent anti-bullying awareness this is one of my favorite blue polishes YSL Bleu Majorelle

If you made it this far thank you for reading. I appreciate it.

Happy Wednesday

Talk It Out Tuesday: My Blogging Experience

This not the first time I've posted on my blogging experience, but some recent conversations with people brought up some things for me.

I know all of us as bloggers and even as people have been in a position where we compare ourselves to others. I have had my challenges with this as a blogger, but this is getting easier as I am becoming more aware of the purpose of my blog and what it means to me.

My blog is very personal to me. I'm not saying other blogs are not, but I feel like my connection to my blog goes beyond just nail polish. This blog has been very therapeutic to me. It has given me a platform where I feel comfortable being genuinely myself with others. I have a freedom in this blog that I do not feel in another areas of my life outside of my close family and my boyfriend. I also feel most confident with my blog, especially when I do these "Talk It Out Tuesday" posts. I feel good about posting my feelings on issues, challenges, insecurities with myself and others. I feel like I have a voice on my blog, a voice that gets drowned out in a crowd often, but here it's heard. It's appreciated and welcomed here. That is an amazing feeling. A lot of my posts seeking support or talking about insecurities have been so helpful to me, and it has been immensely rewarding to find out they are helpful to others too.

I've been an outcast most of my life. I've never felt like I fit in really anywhere. I still don't! I don't mean that in bad way either, I'm coming to terms with my uniqueness! I'm finding out I don't really need to fit in anywhere in particular. Growing up this was hard though. I felt very invisible at many times in life.I'm introverted and complex person. I'm not the easiest person to get to know, and I internalize a lot. I have a whirlwind of thoughts, opinions, and ideas at any given moment. I'm an idealist who likes to try and fix things, find the opportunity in things, and make everyone happy. I like to see people succeed. I like to make people feel welcome and appreciated. 

Outwardly, no one would probably know these things about me, but with this blog I get to share this side of me. I'm not really a great speaker or conversationalist, but through writing I can say it all. I can share it all. That's why I wanted this blog not just be for me but for my readers as well. This is why I have the "Share With You Sunday" posts. I want to feature other people regardless of their skill, talent, blogger/non blogger, and etc. I know how much it means to me when people take time to recognize and appreciate me. It feels good, and I want to make my readers feel special. You are special to me, and I never want anyone to feel invisible here or unappreciated. I'm know I'm not the best at replying to comments all the time, but if you email me I will always write back to you! 

I think what I'm trying to say is while I love nail polish, this blog is so much less about nail polish than it is an personal journey of expressing myself to others, allowing others to share in my experience, and connecting with people. I could do the same thing if I was into gummy worms, telescopes, or pumpkin carving. Nail polish is just what I love, and it gave me the platform to open myself up to people. I hope this makes sense. I'll never stray away from nail polish in case your wondering. I love it too much, and I'll always blog about it! It's too fun not to. 

I think this is why a lot of other blogs and other bloggers goals have always made me feel so insecure. I think my blog and the purpose of my blog is very different from others. I don't have any professional goals with my blog as far the beauty industry goes. I don't want to big reviewer for PR companies. I'm not a guru. I don't want try and figure out how to make my blog appeal to x,y, and z. I don't care how many page views it gets. This blog is way too personal to me for me to change or improve upon unless it's under my terms. I'll never go around and ask what people think about my blog, changes, improvements etc? My space. I like it the way it is! 

My biggest break is that you all like this too. I did not have to do anything fancy, special, over the top, or out of my way for you all to enjoy what I share with you. I am so thankful for all of you who read this blog. It means so much to me. It's is so amazing that this blog has given me the voice and confidence I never could of ever imagined I could have had as a child and teenager. It feels so good to be heard and appreciated, and I only hope I provide the same for you all as well. So, many many genuine thanks to you all for your kindness and support. 

Happy Tuesday! 

Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt & Comparison

I'm going to declare that my favorite color is cobalt blue. I think I've almost purchased every cobalt blue nail polish out there. I cannot get enough of this color. I think what draws me to that color is how it is both rich and bright at the same time. It just makes me happy. Since it's Monday, and Mondays are rather blah, I will share a cobalt blue I picked up recently. Cobalt=happy. I am implanting that in your minds. Whenever your see cobalt blue you will feel happy. I'm so weird.

Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt

Cobalt is well... a cobalt blue jelly!

Yeah, this is a amazing. 

The end.

Just kidding! As you can see Nina Ultra Pro has changed their bottles, this includes the brushes. You know the brushes in the new Wet n' Wild Megalast bottles? They have the same brushes in these. They are really wide. Personally, I have trouble with these brushes, but some people like them. I was willing to compromise for this amazing color. After the fact, I figured I'd get some questions about how this compares to other blue jellies, so I did a comparison swatches on nail wheel below using Revlon Royal, Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt, and China Glaze Ride the Waves. (click to enlarge)

No dupes here!

This color is beautiful. It is bright and rich. The formula I thought was great too. Awesome blue. I have no complaints, other than the brush isn't my cup of tea. I got this at Sally Beauty Supply. It's in the core line!

Happy Monday!