3 Packages, 2 Stores, A Bunch of Polish

I have a few little hauls from the past two weeks or so, along with several polishes that I received through the mail, that I'm going to combine into one big haul post today.

I already posted about Nail-Venurous Floam several day ago, but when I bought it off of Ninja Polish, I also picked up two A-England polishes.  I was pretty much going to order Floam no matter what but I'd rather be able to get several polishes at once then have to pay shipping for just one bottle.  I've been hankering for several colors from A-England so when I saw that Lady of the Lake and Dragon were in stock, I ordered them as well.  I really, REALLY want St. George as well, but that one was out of stock so it'll have to sit on my wish list for a little bit longer.

A-England Lady of the Lake, Nail-Venturous Floam & A-England Dragon

A few days before placing the Ninja Polish order, I took advantage of Zoya's Spring Promotion, which was a buy 3, get 3 free offer.  I actually placed my order literally minutes before the offer was going to expire.  Even though Zoya has a ton of colors to choose from, I couldn't make up my mind!  But I finally settled on 4 colors from last year's Sunshine Collection: Kimmy, Apple, Tanzy and Rica, and 2 colors from the Feel Collection: Kristen (which I just used in my glitter sandwich) and Carey.

Zoya Kimmy, Apple, Tanzy, Rica, Kristen & Carey

Last Wednesday I was off from work and decided to do a little shopping in the afternoon, which of course resulted in some polish shopping as well.  After I picked up some necessities at Target, I ran next door to Sally Beauty and proceeded to buy the rest of the colors I didn't already have from Capitol Colours collection.  Sigh.  I know, I know, I said I wasn't planning to get them.  A week or so ago, I actually stopped in for something else and I picked up Dress Me Up and Foie Gras and I swore that was it!  Even though I kinda wanted Agro, I kept telling myself I had Peace On Earth and that was close enough.  But then there I was, not only buying Agro, but Fast Track, Hook and Line, and Mahogany Magic as well.  Double sigh.

China Glaze Dress Me Up & Foie Gras

China Glaze Fast Track, Hook and Line, Agro & Mahogany Magic

I also picked up a couple Orly's I've been wanting to get.  Nothing special, just a couple of basics that seem to come in handy for nail art: Luxe and Liquid Vinyl.

Orly Luxe & Liquid Vinyl

The OPI's I bought are all older polishes and I got them at CVS, of all places.  I know CVS is not supposed to carry OPI, but apparently some of them do.  I never realized it because my closest CVS does not.  But last Fall, I had gone to a CVS a little farther away from my house looking for some limited edition Wet n Wild polishes that had been released for Halloween, and that was when I discovered that this particular CVS had OPI polishes.  I've looked on some message boards and it seems there are other CVS locations that do this too. Unlike Target, which usually seems to have a set list of colors on hand at any time, this CVS is kind of hit or miss.  It's like shopping at Big Lots, one week they might have a bunch of colors from the Shrek Forever After Collection, then a couple weeks later you might find colors from the Burlesque Collection.  I had seen the Texas Collection there once, in fact it was the only time I saw CVS have an actual OPI cardboard display put out.  At the time I had bought a couple colors like Don't Mess With OPI and San Tan-tonio.  I did not, however, realize what the sorbet/jelly polishes were all about, so I didn't pick up any of those.  But that's also why, when I had considered doing a glitter sandwich for my b-day manicure only to realize I owned maybe 2 jelly polishes, that I decided to head to CVS and see if they still had any of those Texas colors available.  The first night I went, I picked up Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em, Guy Meets Gal-veston and Big Hair...Big Nails.  I ended up going back the next night and, after a bit of searching, found Do You Think I'm Tex-y and Houston We Have A Purple.  They did not have any Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear? though, which is disappointing because I really wanted that one most of all.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get it one day.

OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y, Houston We Have A Purple,
Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em, Big Hair...Big Nails & Guy Meets Gal-veston

While at CVS, I also grabbed A Good Man-darin Is Hard to Find, from OPI's Hong Kong Collection, and DS Coronation.

OPI A Good Man-darin Is Hard to Find & DS Coronation

And then, just when I thought I had this post all ready to publish, I got a package in the mail today with 3 of the new China Glaze Prismatic polishes!  Kari from the MidAtlantic Nail Polish Enthusiasts Group on Facebook had offered to pick up some extra bottles and she was able to get me Prism, Full Spectrum and Ray-diant!  Yay, thanks Kari!  Now I just need to get to Sally Beauty to grab the other three.

China Glaze Prism, Full Spectrum & Ray-diant

Nail-Venturous Floam

In my last post, Sunday night, when I mentioned I had something equally awesome to Lynnderella's Connect The Dots to share, I was referring to Nail-Venturous Floam!

I first saw Floam on The PolishAholic's blog a few weeks ago.  You can read her post about it here.  It's such an odd polish.  A simple polish really, but complex at the same time.  The glitter is not your typical glitter.  It's not shiny or metallic like you would think of when someone mentions glitter.  The polish is made up of very tiny glitter particles that overlap each other in just the right way.  It really looks like actual Floam!  As someone who completely geeked out over the real Floam as a kid, I couldn't resist this polish.  And I just found out they still make Floam too, http://www.floam.com.  Who knew!?!  Almost twenty years later and I still want to buy a tub of that stuff, lol!

I bought my bottle of Floam from Ninja Polish, along with a pair of A England polishes.  I plan to write up a small haul post about them later in the week, along with my new Zoya polishes that I picked up during the recent Zoya Spring promotion sale.  You can also buy Floam straight from the official Nail-Venturous Etsy site, Nail-Venturous Lacquers.  As of this posting, Floam is out of stock on both sites, but they both give you the option to sign up to be notified via email when it's back in stock.

I had almost no problems with the application.  It is a bit on the thick side, but is still extremely easy to apply.  I used three coats of Floam to achieve almost full coverage on my nails.  The only issue I came across was the glitter on the very tips of my nails would get pulled off at the end of each brush stroke, resulting in a few bare spots.  But I would just pat the brush onto my tips and the glitter built back up and surprisingly leveled out.  To top it off, I used a thick coat of Gelous followed by a generous coat of Seche Vite for a smooth finish.

Nail-Venturous has a bunch of other awesome glitter polishes that I hope to one day get my hands on.  Unfortunately, when they do come back in stock, they then sell out within seconds.  She just restocked her store tonight and I think in less than 30 seconds, everything was gone!  I witnessed it and trust me when I say that indy-polish buying can almost qualify as a competitive sport!