I discovered Nire's Desire Polish last week while looking on Etsy for indie nail polishes. The two that caught my eye reminded me a little of the elusive and very hard to get Emily De Molly polishes from Australia: Cosmic Forces & Oceanic Forces. The polishes I ordered from Nire's Desire are called Bubble's Berries & Cosmos-tology.


They aren't exactly dupes, just similar in that they have those gorgeous large holographic circle glitter's. Though I do think Bubble's Berries is quite similar in color to Cosmic Forces. Cosmos-tology is more blue than Oceanic Forces which is more green. (See swatches of Cosmic Forces & Oceanic Forces on: The Mercurial Magpie.) There's more glitter in Nire's Desire Polish which I like. They are both stunning, and have definitely taken away my hankering for trying to obtain the Emily De Molly versions. (I'm surely not paying $44 for Cosmic Forces on eBay!)

 

For my birthday my parents ordered me the Sterilite 3-Drawer Medium Cart's from Walmart, they come in a set of 2 for just $21. We picked site to store shipping which usually only takes one week... but due to shipping delays it took three weeks to arrive at our Walmart. My husband picked them up this week.

The drawers are 24 inches high, just a half inch taller than our night tables. They are made of sturdy plastic & have wheels. I only needed one of them at the moment for my nail polish, so we are using the other one to store dvds, etc in the living room. I also stopped at Dollar Tree and picked up 6 small storage trays to organize the inside of the drawers better. Now all of my polishes are stored upright instead of laying down. :-)



 

The inspiration for these nails, actually comes from one of my favorite pieces of furniture.


I ordered two of these Arista accent chairs from Walmart back in 2011. When I saw Messy Mansions 'In The Garden Plate' MM20, the pattern on it immediately reminded me of my chairs.


I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri in white and Konad Black stamping polish. I also used a topcoat of Seche Vite for the 1st two photos, then I tried a matte coat. (1st 3 photos were taken in my DIY lightbox, the last one is a flash photo.)

The day after Templeton passed away I woke up feeling like I needed to check the Petco we bought Teddy & Templeton at back in February 2012. My husband & I took a drive up there. Petco sometimes hosts animals from shelters in the area for adoption, besides the pets they have for purchase. One of the Petco associates wanted me to check out the rats for adoption first...

And... that is how we ended up going home with our little Himalayan guy & beige capped with a blaze boy!




As soon as I saw T.J., I said "Baby Templeton!" He looks so much like Templeton in the face. ♥ Their markings aren't quite exact, but they are very similar. Templeton was beige variegated with a blaze and T.J. is beige capped with a blaze. T.J. stands for "Templeton Jr". Even though we'll call him T.J. And right now his nickname is "Bitty Boy".


 Here is Templeton when he was little, you can see how T.J. resembles him:

I ordered myself a photo bangle bracelet from Paper-Moments.com with my Templeton on it, I can't wait until it arrives. ♥


 

Yesterday I posted about my DIY lightbox & I Love Nail Polish, Birefringence. Today I have swatches of the other polish I ordered, Cygnus Loop.

Birefringence and Cygnus Loop look very similar in the bottle. Birefringence is more blue/purple with more multi colors at different angles. Cygnus loop is more purple/pink and even though the colors shift at certain angles, I still think there's more color shifting with Birefringence. They are both really stunning polishes. I only needed two coats and 1 topcoat of Seche Vite.

It looks like I got a new camera, huh? Nope! These photos were taken in my new DIY Lightbox! (More on that in a moment).


For my birthday I pre-ordered two of I Love Nail Polish Ultra Chromes. Birefringence and Cygnus Loop! They arrived the other day, but with everything going on, I didn't get a chance to play with them.

I decided to try out Birefringence first. I love these Ultra Chromes... they remind me of mood rings! The polish formula was really nice, not runny at all and I only needed two coats and 1 coat of Seche Vite topcoat. (I will post Cygnus Loop soon.)


It's been a little while since I posted about nail polish. With everything going on with my pets, I've been stressed out and was picking at my cuticles on both hands. So they weren't in the best shape to be photographed.

Also... the angle of the sun seems to be lower now since we're heading into fall. I didn't start photographing my nails using the sun until earlier this year when the sun was higher. Waiting for the sun to be just right has become very frustrating. I did an internet search last weekend looking for how to make a light box. I came across The Daily Varnish blog with a great post about making a DIY light box!

I followed her instructions exactly, (except I didn't have the black poster board... I have to get some). I bought the same light bulbs. (These are the $6 clamp lamps and the light bulbs I ordered from Lowe's). I used a ruler & a pencil to make straight lines before I used the box cutter. I taped my tissue paper down with clear packing tape, instead of gluing it. And my 12x12 box was the one my Lowe's order came in.