I have a Fall manicure to show to you today which really pleases me. With Konad, I've spent the last year doing dramatic and wacky, so now I'm making a conscious effort to work on more subtle, and I like it. I still like the others as well, it's just that the more muted combinations are something new for me, so they're fun.
For this one, I started with the base color. Initially, I was going to go with SpaRitual Regal, the elegant plum from this Fall's Forbidden Collection, but since I just wore a purple the other day, I chose Hush from the same collection, which is a milk chocolate brown creme. It's a three coater, and just so you don't have to go hunting for pictures of it, I took new ones for you. Here it is with a top coat, dry, right before I stamped it. SpaRitual cremes have a beautiful shiny finish to them.
SpaRitual Hush Nail Polish from the Fall 2009 Forbidden Collection, Three Coats
On my last Konad order, I went heavy on the Special and Princess polishes, so I was able to select one that complimented this one well. It's not subtle in the sense of totally blending in, but in the sense of not jumping out at you. The down side to Konad polishes is that they are not labelled with names in any way, the up side is that the pictures of them on WowSoCool are exceptionally color accurate. In adding text to my pictures, I just went there to find out the name of the polish I used and had no trouble picking it out. Nice! I like having a broad variety of Konad polishes - it allows for creativity with incredibly crisp Konad designs. With the 30% off, they're $4.90 (Special) - $5.60 (Princess), and last a really long time (the only one I've ever used up in over a year is black). Per milliliter, the Princess polishes cost less even though they're more per bottle.
Back to the mani... So out of this collection of Konad polishes, having selected SpaRitual Hush, I chose Gold Brown Konad Special Nail Polish for the stamping, which is a light brown with a gold shimmer, then went through my plates and picked out plate M73 for the pattern. I used what I think of as the "shattered tile" pattern from that plate, but used it differently this time. I usually use it with the densest part of the pattern at the cuticle, today I put the densest part at the tip of my nails. I had a little accident with my pinky nail that this manicure accentuates - I'm kind of an aggressive sleeper, and somehow broke my pinky nail in my sleep the night before last! I woke up with a minor break and reshaped it yesterday. It wasn't sufficiently bad to warrant shaving them all down. Here's the finished manicure.
SpaRitual Hush Nail Polish & Konad Plate M73 using Gold Brown Konad Special Nail Polish
As far as availability of the SpaRitual Fall Collection, it's not great. I've found it online once at an etailer, but with the price hiked to SpaRitual's new retail price of $10, which is a bit much (I got mine as preview samples from SpaRitual). I think the best place to get them is the only other place I've seen them, which is from sparkling*nails on ebay, who sells them for a buck less at $8.99.
The reason I'm so loyal to her is her CS. I don't know if I've told you this story - if so, it's been a long time. I've bought from her outside of ebay for a good year and a half to two years (I email her a list, she invoices me, store prices). The one and only "issue" I've ever had with an order from her was in early July 2008 (pre-blog). I remember it because it was right after my mom's funeral. I'd worn Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to my mom's wake, and shortly after coming home, placed an outside-ebay order and got a back up (so I can wear it in her honor in 10 years...). I got the order, and the Lucy in the Sky had leaked, about 1/4 the bottle. I attribute loose lids to manufacturers, not sellers, but know some people don't, so I emailed her just with an FYI that she might want to check the lids before shipping because mine leaked a bit. Know what her response was? To replace the leaky bottle and offer me one item of my choice from her store as a gesture of apology for the hassle. I said, naw, that's okay, and she absolutely insisted, so I folded and she sent me the two replacement items. This is a transaction where I could not leave feedback and I had no blog, so she wasn't sucking up - she's just good. That's why I trust her so much. Anyhow, the distribution on these SpaRitual seasonal colors seems to be comically bad, so if you want 'em, go get 'em...
That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader. I don't think I have anything else on the agenda for you today, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you! 
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