Friday, December 7, 2012

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch

You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.

Fun Fact #1: 'You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch' was not sung by the amazing James Earl Jones (common misconception by 'younger generations' evidently), but instead was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft who is also the original voice of Tony the Tiger.

Fun Fact #2: The original Grinch from the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which was published in 1957 (same year mah momma was born) was black and white. He 'became green' in the cartoon adaptation in 1966.

Fun Fact #3: His dog Max is listed as 'a mixed breed' and was voiced by Dallas McKennon who lent his vocal talents to movies such as 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp, and Mary Poppins (among others). Perhaps my favorite Dallas McKennon 'vocal performance' is the safety spiel at Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which was out of commission when I last visited the park...GRR)

I LOVED the movie 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' when I was a little kid. I always felt SO awful for him because he hated Christmas so much, and I loved it. Still love it. So when JindieNails released her holiday collections I saw Grinch and had to have it. Here's how Jen describes Grinch:
This is my interpretation of Dr. Seuss's The Grinch Christmas story, in a bottle. I originally had the polish without the red hearts but after a Facebook poll, I have decided to add just a few red hearts to the batch and ONE single black heart in each bottle. The black heart represents the Grinch's evil heart and the red ones represent the heart he eventually grew.
I will fully admit that it was the single black heart that got me. I vaguely remember sitting on the sofa next to my fiance when I read the description and gleefully squealing "AMIGAD IT HAS ONE. BLACK. HEART. THATS SO COOL!" Thankfully Jen took pity on me and sent me a little baggie with a few extra hearts in it so I didn't have to fish around for the one in the bottle for the next 10 years. You rock girlfriend. Srsly.

This is 2 thin coats of JindieNails Grinch over Sinful Colors Innocent. There were no application issues, no finishing necessary, dab it on, smooth it out. I was unable to fish any of the red hearts out, but there are only a few to begin with so no biggie. I added the black hearts with a toothpick and finished with 2 coats of HK Girl Fast Dry Top Coat. Its a bit more green here than it is in the bottle, but I like it :)

As always you can click to make these larger.

You can find JindieNails and all of her gorgeous creations on Facebook, and in her Etsy store (which is in vacation mode at the time of this posting - sign up to be notified when she comes back). Full sized bottles are $8.00. * Disclaimer: None, I bought this polish with my own money :)

TL;DR
- You're a mean one...if you didn't read this post.
- Santy is bringing you coal for skipping to the TEAL DEER FIRST!
- Because I know you're humming it...You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch
- Thanks for all the LOVE this week guys! It's been one hell of a ride :)

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Introducing Too Cute-icle Custom Nail Lacquer

AMIGAD! Awesomeness incoming!

My good friend Jess at Too Cute-icle just launched her very own INDIE LINE! SQUEEEE!! Too Cute-icle Custom Nail Lacquer launched on Sunday 12/2/2012 and has already attracted some big name attention. Her debut line includes a selection of year round pretties with awesome names like Butthurt Banana, Mama's Girl (inspired by her mother) and Pretty Pretty Princess, an Eternal Sonata video game inspired glitterbug called Dolce (which was created by her boyfriend - HI MIKE!), and the ever gorgeous winter-esque dazzlers Aurora Snow, Frosty The Penguin and Frosted Evergreen. I was lucky enough to receive the whole line (minus Mama's Girl), plus a few others that have been reserved for future collections and they are all faaaaareaking AMAZING. I love them. Love. Them. Love them...like this....

Now I realize that my enthusiasm can be taken into question given that Jess and I are close friends, but trust me when I say that I could not in good conscious support her releasing a sub-par product with her name on it. She has done her homework, shes got a great eye for creativity, and shes meticulous (to the point of borderline OCD - teehee) about quality. This girl is going places, and I could not possibly be more proud of her. And when you see these babies there will be no question about their awesomeness. I have tested all of her polishes (though I don't have swatches of most of them ready just yet), and I truly can't pick a favorite but this one is close....Back story...

Pretty Pretty Princess by Too Cute-icle
Last week a cray-mazing (crazy amazing, get it? Yeah I'm lame...) woman named Donna posted a photo of a stamping mani she did with snowflakes and I loved it! So much so that I immediately hit ebay and purchased a Konad plate with snowflakes on it. On Sunday I set about creating my own 'Donna inspired snowflake mani' and thought what better way to champion Jess' new line than to use Pretty Pretty Princess as the base for my snowflakes. Thus the 'matte snowflake mani' was born.

Because I was going to be stamping over the glitter I wanted it to be kind of sparse which I found to be quite difficult (LOL). Pretty Pretty Princess is PACKED with glitter. Please forgive the horrendous cuticles btw. This is one light coat of PPP over black with and without the matte top coat:
 
Because I was planning to stamp, I tried to leave some empty-ish space so that the snowflakes would show up a bit better. I failed. Pretty Pretty Princess was just too pretty to not want it everywhere. I used Konad plates m59 and m20, and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp (no, not water decal....LOL!) the snowflakes on.
And...If you liked it then you shoulda put some bling on it...LOL!
 
Taadaa! Okay I admit, even I am smitten by this combination. Its stunning! I was SO excited by how gorgeous it turned out that I immediately posted a bunch of shots to my Facebook page without any brand/water markings on it...OOPS! It was shared over 30 times from my page alone! I was so over the moon that so many people liked it enough to share! Thank you! Some people even liked it so much that they uploaded it to their page claimed it as their own. But nail world banded together and brought that to an end. Hopefully...


So again, thank you all who sent messages of support and requests for credit to 'Pinkys Nail Bar' in Stirling, Scotland. I'm sorry that you were all banned and blocked from their page because of it, but I think they got the hint. At least I hope they did. Next time perhaps they'll think twice about stealing someones photo and not giving proper credit...its not like its hard to do. At least get the products and method right!  Water decals....Models Own...*hmpfh* I didn't want them to take the photo down, I just wanted credit. I didn't think that was too much to ask.

WHEW! This was a long one. I hope you're still with me LOL! You can find Pretty Pretty Princess (along with all of Too Cute-icles polishes) at her Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TooCuteicle Full sizes are $7, Minis's are $3. Remember, this is her indie debut so if you want a shot at being one of the first to own her creations, check it out ASAP!

For photos and reviews of her polishes, check out these lovely ladies:

TL;DR
- Too Cute-icles indie debut! WOO!
- Did you actually READ the post or did you just skip to the TL;DR...KYOTI!
- Fun Fact #1: At the time of this posting I am one of only 4 people who own Pretty Pretty Princess...IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
- Fun Fact #2: I created her labels!
- Stealing is bad. Lying and stealing is worse.
- Don't steal kthxbai!