Overload

On my nails: No More Waity, Katie. And I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I do - a lot - and I see why everybody carries on about it. It's just... different. And cool. (I think I thought it was going to go on paler than it actually did, that's one reason I was unsure about it. I ended up doing three coats and two coats of top coat, too, and it's still a bit bumpy.)

Another thing: I am officially back on no-buy status. Karen's box came and I have so much new stuff that it took TWOthree pictures to get it all, and I have enough new polish to carry me into the fall - and probably into next year - even if I don't buy another thing. I know better than to think that's going to happen but I really gotta quit going out and LOOKING for more nail polish. I still have three Zoyas and a Colors by Llarowe coming in the mail, but after that I have got to stop for a while.

We'll start with the stray one, which is by itself because I accidentally left it out of the next picture. This is my first e.l.f. polish (or my first e.l.f. anything, for that matter), and apparently it is called Fairy Dust, although it doesn't seem to say that on the bottle. But I love flakies so I'm sure I will adore it whenever I get around to trying it.

You may notice that there's an actual lip gloss in this one:

It's unusual for me, but I had a CVS coupon for $3 off a lipstick or lip gloss, I think it was, and so I thought, well, I should use that to try out some brand I've never tried before. So I tried the Almay, because the color looked like the kind of thing I like. But it's actually lip gloss - that is, much too sheer for my taste. (I was hoping for something a little more substantial. But at least now I know.) That said, I imagine I'll use it some.

I also bought Fairy Dust and the NYC matte top coat on the same trip to CVS, I believe. The SH file I found at Target for 70 cents - and I bought a couple, but amazingly, got out the door without any nail polish, so a small victory there. The other two polishes on the top row are the ones I got from Llarowe, Pretty Serious Party by the Pool and Jade Echarpe de Seda (and I hope I'm spelling that right because I'm not stopping to check). The little Christmas box on the right is what the Pretty Serious bottle came in, and I thought it was cute so I put it in the picture. Then I put the Nicole box in the picture, too, even though there's not anything cute about it. The red polish upside-down on the bottom row came in it - it's the Special K promo one that I wrote about some time ago. (I think I remember thinking it would probably be here in July.) I think the color is called Challenge Red-y.

The other thing in the picture above is nail polish earrings, down at the bottom, and they're really adorable. They came from PrismNYC.

Alright, so this is really the main event, here: the swap box. I got a standard size (what I think of as VHS-tape size, although I suppose that's a very old-person name for it, huh?) but really heavy box from Karen of Frazzle and Aniploish - it was heavy because it had eleven polishes in it, as below.

The Julie G's were what started this, of course: all the Gumdrops except the two orange ones. And I knew she was sending something else, but I didn't quite expect this many somethings! The rest of these brands are actually all ones I've never had before, because I've never even bought a Fergie polish, now that I think about it. (It's Cabo Cruise, the Fergie.) Then we have two Rimmel Cocktail colors, on the left (Cutie Colada is the green one, and the blue one is Apple Berry Smoothie). The Layla is CE61, which the internet informs me is also called Ipanema Girl. The Pixi is Evening Emerald; the Finger Paints is Hypnotic, a magnetic, and last is the Sation glitter, which is Holiday Spirit. I am SO looking forward to trying out all this stuff!