Espionage Cosmetics Nailed It! Kickstarter

press release

Please feel free to join me in contributing!

Geeky nail wraps?  Yes please, especially since they include tentacles and the backdrop for Mira Grant's Newsflesh series!

Shelter dog nails!

purchased by me/press samples

Thanks to the lovely and talented Erika of Icy Nails, I now know that October is Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog month!  Of my four dogs, two have been rescues, one is a foster dog, and one is a shelter dog.  Inspired by Little Miss Piggie Pie, aka Smoky, I've done a manicure intended to give the impression of her fur.  She's mostly black, with orangy-tan eyebrows and a tan belly and lots of scattered white hairs which inevitably show up on my black pants!

I started with a base of Zoya Raven, then added sloppy small moons of e.l.f. Desert Haze, then a coat of Sally Hansen Tweedy, followed by a coat of Ulta Salon Formula matte topcoat for a satin matte finish.

So how'd I do? :-)

New Grassy Nail by Zoya!

Introducing Grassy Nail By Zoya...  

Take the textured nail trend to new heights! 

Emphasize the beauty of your natural nail with the latest product innovation by Zoya - Grassy Nail! The all natural formula* gives you a luscious textured finish that's easy to achieve. The introductory four piece set includes everything you need to get growing, but hurry - this Limited Available set is only available WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

PRE-ORDER NOW

Shipping April 1, 2013
Just $99.95 (US)

Visit the Grassy Nail Page (HERE) for textured nail look ideas and to learn 
more about the simple six-step process for long, luscious Grassy Nails!

*Grassy Nail by Zoya products are all natural, free of pesticides and vegan-friendly!

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION! 
www.zoya.com

Dino Palmieri grand opening

Monday was quite horrible at work.  It's always bad when the boss is out of town, but it was really bad on Monday.  When I got home and sat down at my computer to check my e-mail, my mood went to the stratosphere immediately, because of an invitation from the lovely Erin at Zoya.  On Tuesday night, Zoya and  One were sponsoring a grand opening of a new Dino Palmieri salon at Eton Square in Woodmere, Ohio.

After work on Tuesday, which was thankfully less awful than Monday, I ran home, fed the dogs and headed out to Woodmere.  I laughed when I downloaded the directions, because Google Maps optimistically assured me that it took only 24 minutes to get from my house to Eton Square, travelling on Route 8 N and 271 N.  Hahahahaha.  Both are main arteries that fill up in both directions, and rush hour basically lasts from about 4 to about 7.  I allowed about 50 minutes, and got there about five minutes late.  When I arrived, I was greeted by Jayne from One, and then introduced to a woman from the salon whose name I forgot (I'm so sorry!) and then introduced to Jamie, who took my coat, got me a bottle of water (my choice, there was a full bar on offer) and then took me back to the blow-dry bar.

I hadn't heard of a blow-dry bar and had no idea that experiencing one was on the menu, but I loved, loved, loved it!  Dino Palmieri has massaging chairs at the shampoo bowls, and Jamie was charming and very good at his work.  I had a lovely shampoo and conditioning sitting in the massaging chair, and then Jamie and I talked the whole time he did my blowout.  We chatted about tech toys (he just got his first tablet) and hair products (I got in a plug for Skindecent's conditioner) and he praised my haircut, so I told him the story of how Amber and I met when I asked her to chop off 15 inches of my hair.

During:

After:

(that's Michelle of All Lacquered Up taking the pic)

Afterwards, there was a goodie bag so heavy I felt as if I was leaning to the left, a lovely spread of nibbles including little kabobs that were basically caprese salad on a stick, which I will have to do myself and a chance to meet other area bloggers and lots of wonderful Zoya folks.  I had the chance to tell Erin how she improved my Monday; got to meet Sarah, who is in charge of Zoya's Facebook presence; Rebecca, who comes up with the phenomenal Zoya colors; Michael; Leo and Zoya herself.  I was so excited by the chance to talk to all of these amazing folks that I totally forgot until I got home that Valerie Mayen from Season 8 of Project Runway was there somewhere and that there was a drawing for a huge goodie bag worth $1,500!  Absolutely worth it, though, to meet everyone and have such a wonderful experience.  My only down moment came when I had to leave early to come home and give Mouse his arthritis pill, but doggie health takes precedence over feeling like a princess.

If you'd like to see all of the pictures taken by the pro photographer, they are here: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/26652222_jh6hsV#!i=2229353155&k=7wzTVxV

Thank you again to One, Dino Palmieri and Zoya for an amazing evening!

More pictures after the jump!

Guest nails!

My nieces are in town and we've been busy all week, so they let me use them as hand models. :D

Here is Revlon Watermelon Fizz topped with Blue Cross glow-in-the-dark glitter topcoat on Princess Mathscience:

And here is Color Club Raspberry Rushtopped with Blue Cross glow-in-the-dark glitter topcoat on Tinkerbell:

A big thank-you to my wonderful hand models!

Something new

I finally decided to get off my butt and start a second blog for all of my "girly" stuff. I'm calling it Bubbles and Baubles, and I will be using it for all the things that make me squee in an embarrassing fashion.

Enabling we will go, enabling we will go,

Hi-ho the derry-o, enabling we will go!

This morning, I got an e-mail from a friend, asking for help finding good quality bath products. Said friend, who shall remain nameless, has been using drugstore bubble bath (oh, teh howwow!) and wants something better. I had a very fun hour looking up scent notes and compiling an e-mail full of Lush, Skindecent and Fantasy Bath suggestions.

LOL! Guess who just called from the Lush store in Anaheim? My crazy friend, who has picked out some bubble bars and promised me a report.

Last week I also got to enable a friend to the Morganville vampire series by Rachel Caine. She was my giftee in a BPAL swap, and since she loves to laugh at Twihlight, I got her a necklace from Stardust on Etsy, a Jinx t-shirt, and a vampire book I hope won't make her fall over laughing. I loved reading about her reactions to all of her gifts.

Ahhh, enabling. It's evil, but I love it so...

Late Lunch with Lioness

Very much on the spur of the moment, Fiery Lioness arranged a mini meet & sniff as she was returning to Michigan from Columbus. We met at the Rte. 18 exit from 71N, and headed for Miss Molly's Tearoom in Medina. We got lost on the square with its silly one-way streets and had to call Kogi, who got us the actual address, directions and the phone number.

We made it to the tearoom just as they were closing down the kitchen, so we quickly ordered lunch. Then we could open presents. FL got me an adorable otter and made me a very professional-looking book of otter pictures from her recent zoo visit (Imp, she reminded me of you--she went to a zoo on her honeymoon).



I got her assorted bath products and a very creepy BPAL version of Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, Glass, Apples." As a side note, that's got to be the perviest version of Snow White I've run across, and not the good kind of pervy, either.

There was much perfoom on the table, and much sniffing was done as we talked.





I found out that Sea of Tranquility, a discontinued scent, is FL's Holy Grail and she doesn't have a bottle. Happily, I remembered that Tangoing Owls has a bottle for sale at a very reasonable price. I felt like a BPAL matchmaker, and was sorry I hadn't worn black with a head scarf. *grin*

As we were finishing our sandwiches, a group of women filed past us to line up for picture-taking in front of the fireplace. We offered to take pictures so that they could all be in them, and it was easy to see that FL has recently experienced a wedding photographer, as she herded the ladies into just the right position for me to take 2 pictures with each camera.

After that, all that remained was for us to pack up the precious and have our picture taken. As usual, I photograph like a troll, but we were having so much fun I'm thrilled to have the picture as a reminder.