World Animal Day

Today is the 4th of October, meaning it's World Animal Day. Because I love animals, I decided to make today's post a bit larger than usual.
Since I've posted photos of my two cats Julius and Brutus before, I guess you all know them a bit by now, but what most of you probably don't know is that my house somewhat resembles a zoo. Specifically, the reptile house at the zoo :)
The Man and I keep and breed snakes. Ball pythons, boa constrictors and corn snakes. And because today's post is animal oriented, I decided it might be cool to post some photos of my pretties:

This is Pinkeh, our Albino boa constrictor, he's 6 months old now

This is Spidey, our spider Ball python, he's 2 years old now

Pretty, aren't they? More information about them can be found here, at our snakes' website.

Ofcourse I also did a NOTD today, so this post won't be all off-topic :) I chose China Glaze's Gussied Up Green today, a beautiful forest green colour from the 2008 fall collection Rodeo Diva:

 

I love this colour! This is two coats, photographed in natural light.

Finally, because it's World Animal Day, I'd like to give some attention to my two favourite organisations, who are fighting for animals year-round:

Sea Shepherd

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Give your pets an extra hug today!

NOTD - China Glaze Ick-A-Bod-Y

I'm back! Not entirely feeling great yet, but good enough to do some new posting here :)
For today's NOTD I chose China Glaze's Ick-A-Bod-Y, from the Halloween collection.

While I love the colour of the glitters in this polish, I'm not as much in love with this polish as I am with the other colours from the Awakening collection, especially Zombie Zest, which I adore :)
Anyways, as I said, I do love the colour of the glitter in this polish. It's great for Fall, in my opinion. The green base isn't very visible, except on my little finger, where it shows a little if you look closely.
This is three coats.

What's your opinion on Ick-A-Bod-Y?

NOTD - China Glaze Wagon Trail

Now, let me start by saying that this polish did not want to get photographed today. It's very crappy weather outside, so I couldn't get the lighting right. I tried my best to show you the black/golden goodness that is Wagon Trail though :)

This is two coats, with the Fast Forward Top Coat. Wagon Trail is a blackish base with golden shimmer in it. Beautiful colour, I absolutely love it! It's from the 2008 fall collection Rodeo Diva.
Here's a close-up of my ring finger, where the golden shimmer shows a bit more:

Pretty, isn't it?

NOTD - China Glaze Zombie Zest

I love this colour. Simple as that. This is the colour that made me buy the Awakening collection (ofcourse I also love the other two, but this one is just awesome in my opinion):

It's a moss green, loaded with tiny gold/green glitter, and it applies very smoothly. This is three coats, with the Fast Forward Top Coat, which I still think smells funny, but does the job :)
I definitely need more moss green polishes! I own quite a lot of clothes in that colour, so adding a moss green crème to my nailpolish stash is first on my list, I think.
Here's a close-up of my ring finger:

So, what do you guys think of this colour? Am I the only one who adores it, or do you love it too?

NOTD - China Glaze Mummy May I

Today my latest order from Enchantra came in, the entire Awakening collection from China Glaze.
This is their Limited Edition Halloween 2010 collection, and as soon as I heard Enchantra had it in stock, I just had to order! I love Halloween, even though it isn't really a big thing here in Holland. More and more stores are picking up on Halloween though, so perhaps in the future it will be a proper holiday here. I certainly hope so!
I decided to try Mummy May I on my nails first:

This is blackish purple base with purple glitter in it. It's a bit on the thick side, too, so not the easiest nail polish to apply, at least not compared to some other polishes.
Above pic is rather crap (sorry, my handphotography skills suck today), so here's a close-up of my ring finger:

This is three coats, with the new Fast Forward Top Coat on top. The topcoat smells a bit funny, but it does do what it says so far. It dries quickly and gives Mummy May I a really nice glossy finish.
My pics don't do it justice though. The glitter is far more obvious in person. I don't know whats up with my photography skills this week, I can't seem to get my nail shots right, bah!
They somehow also get less sharp and less colour-intense when I upload them, don't know what's up with that either.

For those interested, I also made a pic of the entire package:

The other colours in the collection are Zombie Zest (green) and Ick-A-Bod-Y (orange).
Don't you just love those names?
And if anyone knows how to solve my pic-problem, please help! :)
Never had these problems on my other sites, could it be a blogger-thing?

NOTD - Catrice Caught on the Red Carpet + CG Matte Magic

I don't know about this. I adore matte black, but this matte bloodred, I dunno.
This is Catrice's Caught on the Red Carpet, with China Glaze Matte Magic as topcoat. To be perfectly honest, I think I like this pretty red colour better when worn with a glossy topcoat.

I've messed it up a bit anyways, because looking at my ring finger, I should have chosen for 3 coats of the Catrice polish instead of 2. Oh well, it's Monday, always the crappiest day of the week ;)
How about you guys, what do you think of this combination, and is Monday your 'blegh'-day as well?

NOTD - China Glaze Branding Iron

This is one of the colours from the 2008 fall collection Rodeo Diva. Sucker for vampy colours as I am, I fell instantly in love with this colour when I bought it last July at Enchantra, a Dutch cosmetics webshop.
I ordered 4 colours from this collection then, and those were my first China Glaze polishes. I now love this brand, as these polishes apply very smoothly, and 2 layers are usually enough. So I'll probably be ordering more very soon!

2 layers, photographed in sunlight, no flash

Branding Iron is a beautiful deep, shimmery burgundy red, and this is exactly what I think of when I think about vampy colours. In some lights this colour reminds me of the red glass used in some stained glass church windows. Beautiful!