I’ve started to notice that most of these polishes are green. Probably at least half. I guess considering that it’s me writing these posts that’s to be expected. Only three more days to go after today! I’m definitely thinking I should try this again sometime soon. I’ve had so much fun fishing out and swatching these rare polishes but I have so many more! Doing this forced me to swatch some new and exciting stuff – definitely something I want to repeat in the future.

31. Hard Candy Candy Man Oedipus – Another Candy Man shade. I think the Candy Man colours are better than a lot of the regular old Hard Candy shades. This blackened emerald green reminds me a lot of Zoya Suvi. The sheer nature of the polish (this is three coats) gives it a lovely inner glow. Out of all the Candy Man shades that I own, think this is probably the least manly.

32. Sally Hansen Magical Amethyst – My Magical Garnet polish was such a big hit with you guys that I’m glad I chose to include the other Magical shade that I own – Magical Amethyst. As I said before, these were Canadian exclusive and I believe them to be dupes of Prisms shades. This one looks a lot like Burgundy Orchid, a highly underrated Prism, yet one of my faves! I’ve added a bottle shot below and a few shots of the colour shift. Amazing!

33. Orly a la mode Enchante – Not sure how old this Orly sub brand is, but this dirty olive green is wonderful, no matter how old. I had a few troubles with the formula (man have I been through some thinner while writing these posts!) but I think the end result came out nicely. I have one other colour from this brand, a forest green simply called Metallic Green. In my vast eBay travels I have not ever seen any other colour from this line. ‘Tis a mystery!

34. Givenchy Dandy Moire – How delicious is this? Honestly, there is just no other word. This colour was released back in 2008 and I paid around $30 for it. Back then I thought that was a lot and it was the most I had ever spent on a polish. How young and naive I was LOL. But it was worth every penny because it was LE and disappeared quickly. What fascinates me about this shade is the green shimmer scattered throughout the navy base, along with blue and a hint of purple. This is truly unique.

35. Sally Hansen Funky Frost – An old fave. I’m really obsessed with this shade of turquoise at the moment so it’s no wonder I picked it out. I have quite a few from the collection that this came out with in the late 90′s, but Funky is a clear highlight. The subtle shimmer brings it to life, and I think it’s just perfect.

I’m a little behind with these posts (due to Pretty Serious happenings) but I have two planned for tomorrow to bring us up to speed. Hopefully we’ll be on track to finish for Friday.

Firstly I just want to thank you all for your wonderful messages regarding the passing of my beloved pet bunny. I didn’t mean for it to overshadow my beautiful Brazilian polishes in my Saturday Swatch Party post, but I just couldn’t not mention him – he was a part of my family and you have warmed my heart with your messages of love and support. The nail community is truly phenomenal.

Enough of the mushy mushy though – time to get to the good stuff once again. We’ve reached day six!

26. Chelsea Psycho Green – Back when NARS Zulu was nothing more than a pipe dream for most of us nail loving gals, Chelsea Psycho Green was often touted as a suitable replacement. Although it is by no means a dupe, back then dark green shades were quite rare and this Chelsea polish was almost enough to let that NARS lemming slide. However, this Chelsea polish is by no means easy to find but those that were lucky enough often found it very cheap. Now I would say that Chelsea Psycho Green is much rarer than NARS Zulu. Isn’t it funny how things work out sometime?

27. Sally Hansen Black Cat – Oh Sally. So close. So close! Black Cat is a Halloween polish from the mid to late nineties from a collection that also included polishes that to this day remain on my wish list such as Vampira and Midnight. I believe Yellow Fever (which I own) is also from this collection. It’s a black creme with scatted colour changing glitter throughout. This would have been perfect if the base was a little more jelly and the glitter a little more dense. But it’s pretty cool (and very rare!) nonetheless.

28. Bloody Mary Goth Green – I have had this polish for SO LONG that I can’t even recall where I bought it. I wish I could though because this is exactly the kind of shade that needs a backup. Or five. Dirty greens were few and far between once Streetwear, Urban Decay and Hard Candy made thier exits from the market, so this polish for me was a god send. The fact that it has a blue duochrome is also an amazing bonus. This shot here better displays the shift. It’s kinda similar to the old Nubar Shock Sea Green.

29. L’oreal Wear Extraordinaire Blue Metal – This blue is so damn bright that I think I might need sunglasses to blog about it. I adore this shade and this exact shade of blue is pretty hard to come by. A lot of brands do a metallic royal blue, but few tend to reach the luminosity of thos old L’oreal.

30. China Glaze Wet Velvet – I’m surprised that this colour doesn’t get more love. Everyone loves vintage OPI greens, and China Glaze Wet Velvet looks like OPI Real Teal and OPI Jasper Jade made sweet sweet love and made a sexy nail polish baby. Forgive the streakiness – my bottle does actually need more thinner, but this old China Glaze is most definitely worth the hunt.

I’m a day late with this post, so I’ll be back later this evening with my Day 7 post.

Today’s Saturday Swatch Party is completely made up of Brazilian polishes. I had an amazing swap with a wonderful girl on Flickr and she was so generous that her package took my breath away. This isn’t even half of them! I picked out twelve of them to swatch for you today.

Before we start, I am aware of the fact that Sancion Angel has allegedly decanted OPI polishes and sold them in their own bottles and I think that is really horrible. What I can’t understand though, looking at some of the shades I have below – why on earth would they need to decant boring old OPI? Their own stuff is way more interesting!! Let’s put all that aside though and get to the swatches.

I know this is the part where I normally post something funny, but today I need to do something different. I lost one of my furbabies at 1.15am on Friday morning (that’s why my last few posts have been late – Friday was a rough day). I returned home from a concert at 1.00am Friday morning to find my rabbit Jables hunched up and clearly in distress. I tried everything I could to help him, tried feeding him, getting him to drink but he wasn’t responding. Within fifteen minutes, he had suffered a seizure and passed away. He had been happy and active at half past ten when Ben had fed him before bed so I am at least comforted by the fact that he did not suffer for long.

He was quite sick two months ago and spent three days at the vet, but he seemed to have recovered well. I’m not concerned about the money I spent getting him well, two more months with him was well worth it. I buried him yesterday with a big carrot (his favourite) in the same garden that we buried Boo in.

I loved him so much and I already miss him more than I thought possible. I’d just like to share some photos of him if you will indulge me for just a little while.

Rest in peace my baby boy. I’ll never forget you and I’ll love you forever. Play hard at the Rainbow Bridge with Boo-bunny and I’ll see you again one day.

Day five! Half way! Can you believe this? Lucky I only picked fifty. Can you imagine if I was doing my entire collection? Ugh I get woozy just thinking about it. I think my fingers would be falling off by the end of it!

Now, on to the swatches!

21. L’oreal Laquiresist VIP – As you can probably tell, I’m really drawn to these deep velvety purples, and yes, this is yet another Laquiresist that came from the UK. The shimmer through it is almost silvery as opposed to the more common blue sheen that you see in these range of purples. I adore it – it’s just right.

22. Revlon Mystical – Old Revlon blue purple duochrome! YES. This has to be one of my very favourite old Revlon shades and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. This polish came out in the same collection as Revlon Mesmerized, which is still on my wishlist. One day my pretty, one day. For now, I’ll have to be content with this bottle of gorgeous. Oh however will I survive?! It’s kinda hard to search for this on eBay now as Revlon has reused the name for their Just Tinted line. BLAH. I hate when they do that.

23. Creative Aqua Jet – I was pretty bummed when Creative changed their business direction and discontinued their old shades. I have a lot of old ones and this is one of their best. The aqua shimmer compliments the base colour perfectly and reminds me of this barbie doll that I had as a kid. The only problem with this colour is the fact that it is very sheer. I can’t remember whether this was four or five coats but I know it was up there. But it’s worth it, huh? This colour is also still fairly easy to find on eBay.

24. Sally Hansen Blue Velvet Frost – Okay, so this isn’t blue at all. Maybe my eyes deceive me, but to me, Blue Velvet Frost is flat out purple. In fact, it’s so purple that it’s almost Cadbury purple. This is one of my oldest Sally Hansen polishes (as you can see here in one of my earliest batches of stash shots) and one of my favourites. I really REALLY miss the matching brush handles. *sigh*

25. Sally Hansen Magical Garnet – This last polish is also a Sally Hansen, but it’s quite different and probably a lot rarer. The Magical Nail Makeup line was another Canadian exclusive, made up of what I believe to be Prisms shades. I have this one, and a purple that looks a lot like Burgundy Orchid. I love the bright orange to deep red colour shift. It looks like fire in a bottle!

Half way! I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for next week. All I’m going to say is it’s going to be a LOT of green.

Gah! Quickly throwing this post together while I sit here with hair dye in my hair. I’m seeing Roxette tonight and I have so much running around to do before my big sister picks me up at one. I apologise if this entry is missing my usual dribble witty repartee.

16. Revlon Color Illusion Steel Magic – This is another of my oldest polishes. There are so many great duochromes in the Color Illusion line, and I’m seriously thinking that this should be my next collection once I have found the last two Zings that I am looking for. Steel Magic shifts from purple through to green – check out this gorgeous bottle shot! Formula is thick and pigmented and almost looks kinda chromish. I have no idea what year this line was released, although I’m thinking late 90′s. The pic below shows a little more of the colour change.

17. Sally Hansen Batik Creme – I picked this one up from an eBay seller in the UK in late 2007 along with a lot of other completely amazing New Lengths colours. This one is subtle, yet striking. The shimmer is just beautiful. It reminds me of a less intense version of YSL Wintergreen (which I have, but haven’t swatched or worn yet!).

18. Lori Anne Heavy Metal – This polish is truly a party in a bottle. While I’d argue that it’s much more glam rock than heavy metal, you still can’t deny that it’s pretty rockin’. This is two coats over Pretty Serious Tux (OMG more shameless self promo). I don’t really know much about Lori Anne polishes – like many of these colours I just took a chance on eBay and it paid off. I have one other multi glitter that’s pretty awesome too.

19. Hard Candy Ghetto Girl – I wondered why I never seemed to get caught up in the hype wave of Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud when it was released, but looking at Hard Candy Ghetto Girl, I think I know why. Perhaps in the back of my mind, I realised that I already owned something far cooler. Ghetto Girl seems more vibrant to me than Opulent Cloud. It’s just that little bit more violet and the gold shimmer is slightly more green. I adore it. Oh Hard Candy, you were indeed glorious.

20. Covergirl Nailslicks Mystic Peacock – Another of my first polish purchases. Mystic Peacock is a beautiful blackened teal green. Nailslicks was a fabulous line and I have a stack of them. But Mystic Peacock would have to be a highlight. It’s quite similar to Color Club Black Widow Green and OPI Jasper Jade and is still available to pick up on eBay for a decent price. I can see two bottles up there as of posting this for under five bucks!

Wheee! I’ve made it to day three! Fifteen polishes in, 35 to go!

11. Gap Horror Flick – I hope you’re all excited because I have started off today’s proceedings with a doozy. I know next to nothing about this polish except for the fact that someone bought it from the Gap, then I bought it for next to nothing on eBay in 2008. It’s been sitting in m drawer since then and this is the first time I have ever swatched it. This is two coats layered over Pretty Serious Forbidden Fruit (EEEEE SHAMELESS SELF PLUG). How unique and awesome is it! The tiny black bar glitter is just amazing.

12. L’oreal Laquiresist 833 Raindance/Vert Aurifere – Be still my beating heart. I am seriously in love with these kinds of dirty greens and this Laquiresist is one of my all time faves. I picked this up on eBay in the UK with the European labelling (833 Vert Aurifere), but you can also snag it under the name Raindance as well. Simply stunning.

13. Rimmel Electric Ballroom – Remember when I posted Rimmel Shocking yesterday I mentioned that I had another fave Rimmel to show you? Well this is it! This blue beauty is Electric Ballroom and I was in love from the moment I opened the bottle. The blue is so bright and vibrant and the subtle shimmer adds so much. LOVE! If you see this anywhere, pick it up!

14. Hard Candy Heist – Is it yellow? Is it green? Is it disgusting yet so awesome? YES TO ALL THREE. I have a lot of original Hard Candy shades and I did find it tough to select particular ones to show you in this series of posts, but I just knew I had to throw heist into the mix. It’s one of those ugly colours that you just end up being drawn to and I was suprised to find that it didn’t make my hands look red either. This may be close to OPI Fiercely Fiona and China Glaze Electric Pineapple. Probably somewhere in between the two.

15. Sally Hansen Crushed Velvet – Lastly for today, Sally Hansen Crushed Velvet. Isn’t it dreamy? This was a Canadian exclusive, picked up for me by a lovely friend back in 2008. I love rich colours like this one and the name couldn’t be more fitting. If you’re looking for a more readily available dupe, I have a feeling NARS Purple Rain and China Glaze Let’s Groove might be mighty close.

Okay, that’s all for me for today – see you guys tomorrow when we hit 20! Yay!!

Well here we go again! A few more HTF vintage weird and wonderful swatches direct from my helmers to you. I’m really excited about what I have to show you in the next few days, so let’s get this show on the road!

6. Naturistics Aura Pearl – I’m telling you – this photo does this gorgeous polish absolutely no justice. I have a lot of Naturistics now (matching brush handles! Wheee!) and some of them have to be seen to be believed. A lot of people talk about polishes being lit from within – this one truly is. The reddish purple base looks amazing with the bright blue shimmer cascading through it. I’m pretty sure there are a couple of these on eBay right now quite cheap too! Bonus!

7. Nutra Nail Rappin’ – Weird bottle shape? Check. Brand that no longer makes colour polish? Check. Green? Check. This Nutra Nail polish seems like it was sent from above, brushstrokes and all. It’s probably the brightest green chrome shade I’ve ever seen. The back label is quite worn, so I could be wrong about the name (please let me be wrong about the name). I have never seen another colour from this brand, nor do I have any idea how old it is. And it my book that makes Rappin’ cool. That didn’t come out right…

8. Chanel Palpitant – Did you really think I was going to get through one of the first ten without posting one of my Chanels? Really? The first one that I have picked is Palpitant. Released a long time ago (2001?) with Troublant, this is one wicked multichrome which makes me believe that Chanel have always had a hand in creating insteresting shades. If you’re looking for a dupe, I would suggest Nubar Iris Dust. (Nubar Moon Shadow is a dupe for Troublant too!) Click the thumbnails below for more shots of the colour shift.

9. Kleancolor Sonic Bloom – I own a couple of Kleancolors from before they changed their bottle shape, but this teal jelly would have to be my favourite. It took four coats and even though it’s still not quite opaque I still think it’s lovely. I should have sandwiched a layer of glitter in there somewhere! Sadly, when Kleancolor changed their bottle shape, they also discontinued all of their old shades and I haven’t seen any of these since.

10. Rimmel Shocking – When it comes to old Rimmel shades that get a lot of love, Mania always seems to top the list. Zeitgeist gets a lot of love too, but I would have to say that Shocking is one of my favourite Rimmels. As old as the polish is, the formula is still lovely and the blue violet base with pink shimmer is definitely unique amongst my stash. I have another great Rimmel to show you later this week as well. Exciting!

I hope you’re all enjoying these swatches! Catch you tomorrow with 11 to 15!

So I had this idea… Now you’ll have to hang in there and stick with me because my ideas are not always great ones, but I think this one is so I’m going for it. I was putting some polishes away in my helmers and I found myself getting distracted by cool stuff I had forgotten that I owned in each drawer (oh the burdens of an enormous stash). About an hour had passed and I still hadn’t packed all my things away. In fact, I probably had more out of the helmers than when I started. That’s when I decided to pick out fifty of my rarest and most unusual polishes to show to you guys.

Now that I’m going to be back to blogging regularly, I decided that for the next two weeks (Mon-Fri) I’m going to pick five polishes to show you from that chosen fifty. Starting with these guys…

1. Hard Candy Candy Man Libido – Why not start out with a bang! As if original Hard Candy polishes weren’t rare enough – Polishes from the Candy Man line are practically non existent. Libido is a metallic green that is brushstrokey as hell, but I kinda think it adds to the charm, giving it a kind of brushed metal look. For a green polish, I can definitely see this working on a guy. I have five of the seven Candy Man shades – Libido (as above), Cowboy (pale gold), Dog (purple duochrome), Oedipus (dark forest green) and Gigolo (blue grey). As far as I am aware I am missing Superman aka Superfly and Testosterone. The polishes were not a big seller (hence their rarity) as this article suggests, naming them one of the worst of 1997. Although innacurate as Sex Pistol was part of the regular line and I’ve never heard of a green called Mildew but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled.

2. Misa Burnished Bronze – Some of the most amazing polishes that I own are vintage Misa. I know very little about the age of these polishes – they have only seemed to turn up at a beauty supply in the UK but the quality is nothing short of amazing. Burnished Bronze was a later pickup for me, but after swatching it I have no idea why I waited so long to pick it up. The gold sparkle in the rich copper metallic is simply amazing. Although there are no more of this shade, the eBay seller I bought it from still has some other shades available.

3. NYX Las Vegas (Original) – Back in the day, NYX had a bit of a bad habit of changing the colour of a polish yet keeping the same name and code. I recall them doing so with a few shades, but the most memorable would have to be Las Vegas’s journey from a deep purple with scattered holo to a green jelly with green glitter. It makes no sense to me at all, but it also makes the original version of Las Vegas super duper rare. I’m not sure which one I prefer to be honest, but how hard would it have been to give it a new name!?

4. L’oreal Laquiresist Luxury – Out of all the polishes that I’m showing you today, I think this is one of the ones that I have had the longest. I’m quite sentimental towards this particular laquiresist shade. Back in the days of my nail newbdom I used to struggle to paint my nails nicely (proof positive that there’s something to be said for practice!), and Luxury is one of the first mani’s that I can clearly recall being very proud of. The colour is exquisite too – it may look like a creme at first glance, but there is a beautiful blue shimmer hidden within. There used to be a LOT of these on eBay all the time, but sadly – no more.

5. Sally Hansen New Lengths Tangy Beet Frost – I’m utterly fascinated by this colour. I don’t know what it is exactly, I just love it. As you probably already know, the New Lengths line (well in this particular incarnation anyway) was discontinued some time ago. There were some really amazing New Lengths shades out at the time – I could spend a whole week just showing you those! But Tangy Beet Frost is one of the highlights. Even if it isn’t a frost at all.

That’s all for today! See you guys tomorrow! Hopefully by then I’ll be all caught up on replying to your comments from the last month!

Is anyone still reading my blog? I know, I have been super slack on the updates again, but I have good reasons I swear. A dog ate my homework. My grandma got sick. I got a computer virus.

Okay, okay. None of those things actually happened. But what did happen was a massive, monster, life changing decision for me – I quit my job. Yep, that’s right. I threw in the towel and decided to be part time housewife, part time business owner on a full time basis. Does that make sense? I swear it sounded snappy and dynamic in my head. You get the deal though. Kaz is now, unemployed. Well, self employed rather. Pretty Serious is moving closer and closer to launch with the items on my to do list for the business becoming fewer and fewer. But more on that later.

The first project that I decided to undertake (I actually started a few days before leaving my job) was to finally make something for the wonderful girls of the Gumleaf Mafia. Nixxy and I hatched the idea a few years back, then the lovely Violet provided our mascot, affectionately nicknamed Blingy Bill and the idea was born that we could all link to each other in our blogroll. We could be our own little gang. A family.

As the family grew, the idea remained sound, but the logistics became difficult. People would have to contact me in order to join and I would do up a blog post to welcome them after adding to my blogroll. I’m sure you read a lot of these posts! But this idea only worked if everyone else in the GLM saw the post and updated their blogrolls accordingly. And let’s face it. Sometimes we miss things and a lot of new, wonderful blogs were flying under the radar.

Not too long ago, I came up with a solution to the problem. Let’s create a hub! A place that will feed in everyone’s entries. No more updating blogrolls. No more work to be a part of the Gumleaf Mafia – and a lot more increased traffic to people’s blogs! I ran the idea past Nixxy who thought I was a “double bacon genius burger” (direct quote) and thus the new site was born. Now being a part of the GLM is so much more than just a link on someone’s blogroll. Your posts are fed in to the hub site, where people can click directly to your blog. New members are added to the feed (and I gotta say, since launching the site less than a week ago I have had six new applications come through!) and we also have a place to keep track of giveaways and retail bargains!

Now if you want to join the GLM, it is super easy! Just go here and fill in the form!

Now the site is still very much a work in progress and I still have issues with formatting when things come in and I do get the odd error, but I am working to get this all sorted and soon I hope to have the site running smoothly. I have recieved bio information from a lot of the gals, but I still have a good number of you without an entry! It’s not imperative that you be on our Meet the GLM Gals page, but if you want to, send me through your answers to the questions and a shot of yourself, or your nails and I will be thrilled to add you!

So in a nutshell, yes. I’m back. With a lot more time on my hands. I’ll be back soon with some new swatches that I think you’re all REALLY gonna like. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some serious comment replies to catch up on!

Firstly, I gotta get this off my chest. I’ve been using the flickr app for my iPhone for well over a year now. Today, I only JUST realised that you can upload more than one photo at a time. Seriously, sometimes I am the biggest dumbass.

That aside, I’m going to tell you about the good intentions that I had for this weekend. My wonderful boyfriend Ben had made plans to head out for a drive with a friend on Sunday morning, leaving me at home to begin Swatch-o-rama 2012. I had it all planned out. Plenty of cold Vanilla Coke Zero, snacks on hand, a full bottle of acetone, baby wipes and SO MANY COTTON WOOL BALLS. SO MANY.

Unfortunately, the Universe had other plans.

Yep. That’s my swatching hand.

The worst part is, I have no friggin idea what I did to injure it. I can’t bend it at the wrist without horrendous pain, I can’t flex my fingers and I can’t lift heavy stuff. People keep asking me what I did to it and I have to shrug at and smile feebly. After a week, it still hurts like a bitch, so if things don’t improve soon it’s x-ray time.

But guys, you wouldn’t believe how long my nails are right now. I just broke the middle one (too much bird flipping I assume) and it’s STILL LONGER than my nails usually are. They are growing LIKE WEEDS. Right on!

So yes, during Swatch-o-rama 2012, I planned to put a serious dent in my swatch drawers, because quite honestly, this shit is ridiculous.

I don’t even buy that much polish any more and that thing is STILL overflowing. It’s like they are breeding in there or something. I’m pledging now that by the end of June, those drawers will be EMPTY.

I’ve got so much stuff to show you as well, awesome vintage finds, wonderful swaps and gifts – not being able to swatch sucks the big one. Hopefully my wrist will heal soon.

I also need to make mention of the Gumleaf Mafia. I have a couple of new inductees, but I wanted to hold off on my welcome post for another couple of days while I begin organising something super cool. I’m not spilling any beans yet, but very soon, joining the GLM will give you much, much more than just a link on a blogroll.

Anyone else have dogs? I have to share this: