Where is this blog going? Ulta's Pin-yada yada and Alter Ego

Happy New Year!  2012!

I thought I would take this opportunity to address where this blog is going for 2012.   Considering I don't have much of an audience, I probably should work on building one.  How am I going to do that?  I'm not sure, yet, but so far I have noticed the posts that get the most traffic are the Lippmann ones....  so I'll post the ones that I have and see where that goes. 

When I started this blog I wanted to share my nail polish interest with other like minded individuals because most people are not deeply interested in nail polish and don't want to listen to me babble about it.  In addition, I'm a reformed nail biter, and would like to keep from ever biting my nails again.  I was introduced to China Glaze's Ruby Pumps (CG RP) three years ago and that's the color that turned me on.  When I first saw CG RP, I thought, "WOW, that's nail polish!?" It was a breakthrough. 

Over the last two to three years the nail polish industry has grown and we have seen much innovation. Glitter galore, holographics, duo-chromes, blue and greys, grey-beiges.... What's next?  I don't know.  I am excited to see what industry leaders have in store for us polish enthusiasts in the up coming year.   At the same time I also think some core colors get a little neglected so you will see me post some core line colors.  Core colors are easily available and I get a little frustrated sometimes when I see a nail color featured on line and I have to hunt it down, especially when there are so many beautiful core colors right under my nose, but I don't know what they really look like.

Over time I have noticed I really enjoy blogs with a little bit of meat in them.  Although I like to see a ton of swatches, I really don't want to get into swatching large volumes of colors, color after color, brand after brand, for me, I can't deliver that, and there are a ton of blogs that serve the purpose of a color catalog/reference, so I think I need to do something different.  Something with a little bit more thought and insight. 

I am passionate about conserving/cleaning up our environment, promoting animal rights, and reducing our use of carcinogenic chemicals.  You can see that I only post cruelty free, big 3 free polishes and I will continue to do that.  I don't wear makeup, but I am aging.  I may post some reviews on anti aging skin and hair care from a preventive approach.  In summary for 2012 you will see future posts on these topics, hand and nail care, and other beauty product reviews.  

Well with all that said, here my New Year's eve mani.  It's Ulta's Alter Ego and Pin-yada yada.  

Switched bottles to reduce glare.

This mani was tough to photograph!  Lots of blinding glare, sharp shadows and the macro mode on my camera uses a large aperture (around f 2!) so the depth of focus is short, so some nails are not sharp as in the first photo.

I did take some photography and darkroom classes in college, so I may venture out and do some photography posts too.  I studied with a Nikon N60 SLR film camera, on unforgiving slide film 15 years ago, so I can appreciate a good technical photo when I see one.  I'm not a professional photographer and I certainly am not perfect so maybe we can share some tips and tricks.  Or I can just stick strictly to nail polish....

Well, I think that covers it.  More to come in 2012!
Thanks for stopping by!