Essie St. Barth's Blue

Well, folks, it's a hat trick for Essie this week!  After Sexy Divide (a vampy) and Vermillionaire (a summery bright), I went in one last direction and grabbed something a little more light and airy - St. Barth's Blue.

St. Barth's is super pale, slightly greyed, pastel blue with fine silvery white shimmer.  It's totally a "secret shimmer," as it's much more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.  Essie sure has a thing for these secret shimmers, but I'm not complaining!  :-)  It gives it soft, delicate look.  This is one of those old black label Essies, so it's jam-packed with chemically goodness.  Chemicals + pastel + Essie = 4 coats and a less than admirable application.  It's a bit streaky and doesn't self-level, even with a thick coat of Seche Vite on top.  That being said, with a little bit of work, I think the end result is stunning.

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Another win!  I love this!  Soft, summery, and doesn't even remotely give me lobster hands (That's saying a lot for a pale blue!).  As soon as I saw the early promos for Chanel Riva, I was dying to have it, but the steep price and application horror stories kept me at bay.  I tried to find a suitable dupe in $OPI Havana Dreams.  The application on that one was a complete nightmare and almost brought me to tears. On top of that it was just a bit too vibrant for me.  St. Barth's Blue fills all the gaps for me.  True, it doesn't have stellar application either, but it's workable, and the color is exactly what I wanted.  Take THAT, Riva!  ;-)

A "pale greyed blue with subtle shimmer" may have you thinking of China Glaze Sea Spray.  I did too, so I did a quick comparison of the two:

(L) Essie St. Barth's Blue, (R) China Glaze Sea Spray

Sea Spray is much more saturated, and St. Barth's Blue almost looks white when compared to it.  They're definitely different enough to own both, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.  :-)

Unfortunately St. Barth's Blue is long gone (HUGE sad!  I'd buy a backup of this!), but you can still find some up for swaps on MUA and probably the occasional eBay listing.  Despite the formula and application problems, I still give it my seal of approval just for being the most completely perfect pastel blue.  ♥ ♥ ♥

Can you tell I'm smitten??  :-D

Essie Vermillionaire

If there's a color I've neglected even worse than pink, it's ORANGE.  I don't know why, but for some reason I've just always passed over orange polishes as "something I wouldn't wear" or something that's "not my style."  Famous last words, right?  ;-)

I was done for as soon as I saw Piff's swatch of Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme on Polish or Perish.  I don't think any polish could look bad on her!  The lemming monster got me, and I was just about to shell out the $16 for it, when she posted a follow-up post identifying Essie Vermillionaire as a pretty darn close dupe.  Close enough!  I ran to my local beauty supply store and brought it home.

Vermillionaire is bright orange creme.  It's not a neon, so don't worry about it being too obnoxious.  It dries a smidge darker than the bottle color, and leans to the red side of orange (Just for funsies:  Vermilion is a red-orange pigment, hence the goofy name).  I'd say the last photo is the most color-accurate.  Application was perfect in two coats, and as expected from Essie, it's got that kind of squishy look to it.  After the fiasco that was Essie Sexy Divide, I was a little worried about the wear on this one.  No worries - I wore this for five days and had only minimal tip wear.  Woo-hoo!

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I'm not usually an orange fan, but holy cow - I LOVE this!  Love love love love LOVE!  It's a perfect summery orange.  Makes me wanna go eat a tangerine or something.  Bright enough for a good pedi (which is how I wore this the first time and was sad to take it off), but muted enough for me to wear it to work and not feel weird.  I wore it over the weekend when the hubby and I went to go see a play this weekend with my parents.  I paired it with this dress, and it was a match made in heaven!

Vermillionaire was released with Essie's Summer 2010 collection, but I'm pretty sure it's made its way to the core lineup.  I highly recommend it (especially if you're even remotely interested in Lara's Theme), even if you're not typically into orange.  I think this one may sway you!  It sure stole my heart!  :-)

Essie Sexy Divide

Don't tell Illamasqua Baptiste (my one true love), but I decided to try out a new shimmery purple.  Essie Sexy Divide had been on my wish list for quite some time, so when I finally brought it home in a swap, I was itching to try it!  Plus, let's be honest - I really like the name.

Sexy Divide is a deep red-leaning purple with fine red and purple shimmer.  The red shimmer seems to be a smidge larger than the purple shimmer and stands out more in the sunlight.  The color is gorgeous, but the shimmer is almost a "secret shimmer," as it gets a little lost on the nail.  It shows up nicely here in the photos, but in most lighting it just looks like a creme.  No complaints on application - just two easy coats!  As with any purple, it was impossible to photograph, so I had to color correct these photos (Hence the orange skin.  Sorry guys, I promise one day I'll figure out how to take more color-accurate photos!!)  I think this is pretty close to actual color.  :-)

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And here it is compared to Baptiste herself (Swoon!).  You can see the difference here.  Sexy Divide's base is almost...cloudier?  Murkier?  Either way, I think it's the reason that gorgeous shimmer doesn't really show through.  Show her how it's done, Baptiste!

(L) Essie Sexy Divide, (R) Illamasqua Baptiste

Sexy Divide is a lovely polish, and even though it's a close cousin to Baptiste, the shimmer doesn't show quite as much, so I was ready to keep this one in my stash as my Perfect Deep Purple Creme...until I saw the wear.

I don't comment much on wear in my posts, because for the most part, I don't have huge issues with chipping from any polishes in particular.  Sure, there's always your standard tip wear, but usually if I get chips, it's because I did something stupid that caused the chip.  Sexy Divide on the other hand, was a complete nightmare in terms of wear.  I applied it Tuesday night.  By Wednesday morning I had some pretty significant tip wear.  I thought it was strange since all I had really been doing was sleeping, but I shrugged it off.  By early Thursday morning, I had four GIANT chips.  Really unusual for me.  I'm not quick to point fingers, but since I used the exact same base coat/top coat combo and wasn't doing anything stupid to cause chips, I gotta blame this one on Sexy Divide.  Sigh.  Baptiste, you really are my one true love!

If you want to give it a whirl, Sexy Divide is part of Essie's core collection, so you can find it at Ulta, Wal-mart, etc.  Due to my less than stellar experience, I can't whole-heartedly recommend it, but the color is nice.  :-)

What do you guys think?  If you've tried Sexy Divide, how was the wear?  Maybe I just got a dud?

OPI Let Me Entertain You

Did somebody say it was time for MOAR PINK?!  :-D

I was totally feeling a sparkly pink for this weekend's manicure, so I grabbed a favorite of mine - OPI Let Me Entertain You.  It's a berry pink jelly (jellay!!!) with super sparkly red-fuschia duochrome shimmer.  The overall effect is really more of a glass-flecked look.  My photos don't pick up on the duochrome very well, but it's totally there.  The shimmer is fuschia pink in direct light, and much more red in indirect light.  The application is amazing!  I used two coats, and it glided on like buttah!

Um.  What the FRACK (Another nerdy reference.  That's one's Battlestar Galactica.)?!  I swear that streaky patchiness was NOT visible AT ALL in real life.  Two coats was complete and utter perfection for me, but these photos make it look like I was drunk while applying it!  I don't know why, but I'll still post the rest of them...lol

Bleh!  I didn't even discover that streaky mess until I loaded the pictures on my computer the next day.  I immediately ran outside to see if sunlight pictures would help.  Voila!

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Ahhh....MUCH better!  Still some slight VNL (it is a jelly after all), but again - this polish is sooooo sparkly that it's not noticeable at all in real life.  I wish I had gotten better pictures.  Let Me Entertain You is one of my favorite polishes EVER!  Makes one fantabulous pedicure too!

Bad news and good news.  Bad news:  Let Me Entertain you was released with OPI's Burlesque collection from this past holiday season, which means it was super limited edition (Although you may find a stray here or there at your local Ulta or the like.)  Good news!  Zoya bails us out yet again with a dupe called Alegra.  I don't have it to compare, but they look dead on to me!  With Zoya's never-ending stock, you can pick up Alegra any time!  (Sometime before July 24th would be a good time, since you get a free 8-oz. Zoya Remove + Big Flipper with any order!)  YAY!

I decided to spice things up with a little Black Shatter after a few days...

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Black Shatter was made for sparkly pinks!  It's the perfect amount of contrast between color and texture.  Love it!  If you don't already have Black Shatter, I totally recommend it!

Hope you guys had a great start to your week!  :-D

And the Winner Is...

Jessica D.!!!!

Jessica is the winner of our OPI Miss Universe Collection Giveaway!  Congrats, Jessica!  All of these beauties are headed your way!!  Enjoy!

Jessie and I were super excited to do this giveaway!  Hopefully there'll be many more to come!  A special thank you to everyone who participated!  We appreciate your love and support, and we hope you continue to enjoy our little blog!  :-)

Love,

Courtney & Jessie

Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H

Fun fact about me:  I'm a complete Anglophile, particularly in the literature and history department.  I might even be a little bit on the obsessed side when it comes to the epic story of King Henry VIII and his six wives.  It's fascinated me since I was a child and continues through my present adventure of finishing the Showtime TV show The Tudors (which is amazing, by the way, if you haven't seen it!).

When I found out last fall that Ji from Rescue Beauty Lounge had created an entire collection devoted to Henry's wives (though for whatever reason, it was only a four-polish collection), I needed every single one!  Unfortunately, I was unemployed at the time, and just couldn't justify spending $72 on nail polish.  I was devastated, and have since had to start piecing together my collection through various methods.  I picked up my first Tudor lady (and first RBL polish!) through one of those freak accidents when Ji clears out people's online shopping carts.  Catherine H was sold out for at least a day, and then magically popped up in stock.  I grabbed my credit card as fast as humanly possible, and thus my first Queen came home!  Jessie has since helped my bring home Catherine in a swap, and Anne will eventually be mine when the Bring it Back 2 polishes are finally available!  Watch out Jane!  You're on my list!!  ;-)

Catherine H is described as a "Wedgewood blue."  I'll be honest, I had to look up exactly what that meant, but yeah, I could agree with that.  It's kind of a deep, dusty blue with fuschia pink and aqua blue shimmer.  I wish SO badly that the unbelievable shimmer in the bottle (see my 3rd picture) was as apparent on the nail.  Sadly, it's just not.  It's definitely there, but there's some kind of strange cloudiness to the base color that seems to be blocking the shimmer from really showing off.  I actually thought there was a problem with my top coat, so I threw another coat of color on and tried another top coat.  No difference.  The base color is stunning though, and the application is as perfect as you would expect from an RBL.  This is two coats, but a more steady-handed gal could probably get away with just one!

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If you've watched The Tudors, Catherine Howard is probably the wife you most wanted to punch in the face.  She was young and beautiful, but just not yet mature.  She left something to be desired, and I feel kind of similar about her namesake nail polish.  Look at that shimmer in the bottle!  Y U NO SHOW UP ON NAIL?!  It acts more as a texture, rather than a sparkly shimmer.  Overall, it's very pretty, but I'm a bit disappointed.  I really thought the shimmer would stand out more.  Sigh.

Unfortunately, Catherine H has been sold out for a few months now, but always stay tuned for RBL's Bring it Back Votes.  She could yet return!  If you can't wait or are looking for a cheaper alternative, BB Couture Impact Driver is very close, or Essie Smooth Sailing may give you a similar feel.  :-)

On another note, don't forget to enter our Miss Universe Collection Giveaway, if you haven't already!  There's only one day left!!  Good luck!!!

OPI Hey! Get in Lime!

So I've kind of got bad news.  In the next 2-3 weeks, the posts from me are going to be few in far between.  I have WAY too much going on right now and it's killing me that I don't have time to paint my nails.  Painting my nails is almost therapeutic for me, and boy do I need a stress release.  In the next 2 weeks, I have to play in 2 volleyball playoff tournaments, study and take a midterm, take an overnight trip, pack up my life, move, unpack my life, finish a leasing agreement, get my new renters to sign it, schedule a carpet installation, get quotes on getting my basement professionally cleaned, take the dog to the vet, go to a concert, find a new vet for the cat, and WORK.  Ummmmmm, I kinda freaking out!!!  So I'm bringing you a nice calming pale green to help me try to reach some kind of internal zen.  While it's not really helping, I really love OPI's Hey! Get in Lime!

Hey! Get in Lime! was part of the OPI Brights collection released back in 2006, which means this polish is the old chemical filled formula with the non-prowide brush.  I did need 3 coats to get this beautiful creamy mint green, but I think it was worth it.  I picked this up after I swapped Courtney my Damone Roberts 1968 when I didn't like it on my skin tone.  I figured this guy would fill my need for a mint green polish and it did.  Note that this is after 2 days of wear for me, so in the second picture you can see a chip on my middle finger. I would have love to have brought you this sooner, but alas.  I also had some wrinkling on my index finger, which is totally my fault.  I did this in a rush and didn't waiting long enough between coats, before adding topcoat, or before going to bed.

OPI Hey! Get in Lime!
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OPI Hey! Get in Lime!
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Hey! Get in Lime! is discontinued, but I easily found this guy at a beauty salon.  There are also a ton on Ebay if you must have it.  But since it's hard to find, you might be shelling out a bit more than $8.50 for it!

So what to expect from me in the next 2 weeks - one more post with my overnight trip mani and then posts about my Shellac manicure, which I get Tuesday.  It seems like a nail breaks everyday for me with all this volleyball and packing, and I've got a Groupon for Shellac, so I figured why the heck not.  I've done it before with mixed results, so I figured I can document my progress for you all.  I know they won't be the most exciting posts, but unfortunately life wins over blogging for a bit!

Chanel Peridot

I tried REALLY hard to resist.  I promise you I did.  I even asked Jessie to talk me out of it, and you don't even want to know how good of a job she did.  I totally was NOT going to buy it.  Then I was hypnotized by the magical gold and blue-green swirls...the photos popping up on MUA...

...allow me to introduce you to my very first Chanel nail polish - Peridot!

Peridot is a warm gold metallic polish with a green-and-sometimes-almost-blue duochrome.  I've heard some horror stories about recent Chanel formulas (I'm looking at YOU, Mimosa and Riva!), but this one was incredibly smooth and easy to work with.  I've told you guys before how heavy-handed my application can be, but the formula was so great, I was able to get paper thin layers - and only two of them!  It is a metallic, so there are some brushstrokes to deal with, but they're not super noticeable.  As with any duochrome, the effect is much stronger in the bottle (hence the magical swirls).  Although Peridot does show its golden face most of the time, I can attest that the green (and sometimes blue!) is still easily noticeable on the nail.  The difference is in the lighting, so I supplied you with about 800 photos to show it off as best I could!  :-)

The next four photos were taken under my Ott-Lite:

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The next three were taken in indirect sunlight by a window:

(Ok, I'm actually blocking the light in this one, but same location):

Aaaand finally, the last three were taken in warm artificial lighting...in my bathroom.  :-)

Usually this kind of polish is not my cup of tea.  I passed on China Glaze Peace on Earth and swapped away OPI At Your Quebec and Call (both of these are much more green and have no duochrome).  Peridot, on the other hand - I LOVE!  There's something just so completely fierce about it.  My pictures don't even begin to do it justice!  It paired really well with an olive green tank top I wore over the weekend, and I can see it carrying into the fall with an awesome military style jacket.  (I'm totally going to be on the hunt for an olive green military jacket now.  D'oh!)

Peridot and her fabulous sister Graphite (Quartz is the red-headed stepchild of the bunch.) were recently released as part of Chanel's Fall 2011 lineup.  The steep $25 price tag makes me immediately look to dupes before dumping the cash.  Graphite, from what I've seen, is stunning, but thankfully Revlon has bailed us out yet again with a near-dupe named Carbonite.  Yes, I'm going to buy it at least 30% because of the name (Star Wars nerd here!).  Peridot has some close competitors, but unfortunately for U.S. girls, they all seem to be foreign brands that may be hard to track down here in the States.  It was tough for me to finally give in, but I looked at it as a treat for myself, and a treat it was, INDEED!

Peridot is super limited edition, and as any Chanel does, has the potential to go "cult classic."  It's still available, so even if you're on the fence about it - grab it while you still can!  My theory was that even if the color didn't suit me, the bottle would be pretty enough just to look at!  :-D

OPI Miss Universe Collection

As you know Courtney and I are giving away one entire set of OPI's Miss Universe Collection Nail Polishes to one lucky winner.  If you haven't already you can go here to enter (you must be a public follower through Google Friend Connect).  Now that I've had time to sit down and swatch my set of the polishes, I'm happy to report that these four beauties are a MUST get.  I'm absolutely smitten with them and so happy we are giving a brand new set away.  OPI created these polishes in conjunction with the Miss Universe Organization to celebrate the 2011 pageant, held September 12, 2011 in Brazil.  These four shades are limited edition and aren't schedule for official release until August and feature super cute pageant themed names:

• Swimsuit...Nailed It! An itsy bitsy teenie weenie vibrant shiny-blue bikini.
• It's MY Year It’s about time for this champagne-rose to shine!
• Crown Me Already! A sassy silver sparkle that knows what it’s worth.
• Congeniality is My Middle Name And berry-wine shimmer is what I do best!

Swimsuit...Nailed It!,  It's MY Year, Crown Me Already!, and Congeniality is My Middle Name

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First up is Swimsuit...Nailed It!, which is a GORGEOUS bright blue foil.  My face immediately lit up when I put the first swipe across my nail.  Since I was swatching I couldn't leave it on, but I did decide to do a pedicure with it immediately (click here to see my pedi of this in the sunshine!).  This may easily be my favorite blue nail polish ever released by OPI.  The color dries pretty true to the bottle color, but the bottle doesn't really show you the finish on this that just makes the blue jump to life.  This is a MUST for any blue lover.  I used 2 coats here, but if you were carefully you could easily get away with one.  The first two colors show the  blue a bit more true, but the lighting of my skin is off, so I included the third to show you how it looks against my true skin tone.

Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Next up is It's My Year, which surprisingly is my favorite of the collection.  I think it's because I have nothing like it.  I've heard a few people call this the purple version of OPI Rally Pretty Pink or Zoya Faye, but I don't have either.  I actually expected not to like this.  The purple color in this is really beautiful, soft and feminine.  Then OPI packed it full of gold micro-glitter, that just really takes this polish to another level.  I'm not a gold person at all, and I usually think it look pretty horrible against my skin, but this polish was just perfect.  I've got my standard swatch shots for you, and then a few outside in the sunshine/indirect sunlight as I am wearing this now as a full mani.  The gold is a bit more prominent on the nail than my swatch pictures depict.  I used 3 thin coats for the perfect finish.  The texture of this polish reminds me of OPI's Wing It, so I'm kind of expecting it to wear like iron.  I'll report back and let you know how it held up!

OPI It's MY Year
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OPI It's MY Year
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OPI It's MY Year in indirect sunlight
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OPI It's MY Year in direct sunlight
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Now it's time for Crown Me Already!, which is a silver glitter bomb.  Last time Courtney and I got together for a nail polish day, she was wearing OPI's Spark De Triomphe and I think Crown Me Already! is pretty much the silver version of this polish.  It's a clear base packed with small round silver glitter and large hexagon silver glitter.  It took me three coats to reach opacity and it was dying for a coating of Seche Vite to smooth out the bumps.  By the end of it my nails were THICK, so next time I wear this beauty I'll do it over a silver foil with 1 coat of Crown Me Already!  Out of the 4, this is probably the one I could bear to part with, but since I love the rest of the collection I'm going to hold onto it anyway.  I'm thinking about doing a comparison of this with Deborah Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale.  Let me know in the comments if you would like to see that.

Crown Me Already!
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Crown Me Already!
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Last but certainly not least is Congeniality is My Middle Name, a beautiful berry polish that has an almost jelly like texture full of pink micro-glitter.  The first coat was a little sheer, but I reached full opacity with two coats.    This bottle definitely fooled me.  It doesn't look like anything special in the bottle, but on the nails its really beautiful.  I think it dries lighter and more vibrant that the bottle shows, so don't be fulled.  It also dried SUPER shiny.

Congeniality is My Middle Name
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Congeniality is My Middle Name
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So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a huge fan of this collection and if you are even considering it at this point, take the plunge and get at least your favorite one.  These OPI polishes retail for around $8.50 a piece and are typically available at Ulta, beauty salons, and beauty supply stores.  I picked mine up early from Nailsupplies.us.  You should see them officially in store in August, but if you can't wait snag them online now while you still can.

Also, while I don't have many polishes that are similar to these puppies, between my collection and Courtney's we should be able to provide you comparison swatches.  Let me know what you'd like to see in the comments below!

Zoya Dove (and China Glaze White Cap)

After a flashy 4th of July manicure,  I was in desperate need for a palette cleanser!  Something simple, easy, and elegant.  :-)  You've seen Zoya Dove before when I used it for my tips on my "French Twist", but I wanted to do a full manicure with this one.  It was just what I needed!

Dove is (surprise!) a dove grey creme.  It falls on the lighter side of grey, and it's pretty neutral in color.  If anything, I'd say it might be a bit cool-toned, but I think it's a grey that can work with most skin tones. It's well-pigmented, and only needs two coats for opacity.  No complaints on application (I rarely have complaints on Zoya's formulas anyway.)!

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Nothing fancy here.  Dove isn't going to blow you away, especially if you own a plethora of grey cremes (I plead the Fifth!), but it's just nice.  It's kind of like the polish equivalent of comfort food.  It's warm and cozy and elegant in its own simplistic way.  Do you need it?  No, probably not.  But if you don't have a good grey in your collection, Dove is a great place to start!

You've also seen this comparison before, but I thought it fit nicely here again.  This is Dove (right) compared to OPI Skull and Glossbones (left).  You can see how cool-toned Dove looks here.  I don't own it to compare, but I'm thinking Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement is probably a closer match for Dove.

(L) OPI Skull and Glossbones, (R) Zoya Dove

A few days later, palette cleansed, you know I couldn't resist putting my favorite effect polish on top for a mid week pick-me-up!  I can't help it - I'm addicted!  Here's one coat of China Glaze White Cap over Dove:

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Sparklyyyyyy....

Even hubby loved this combo!  I can't argue with him - these two work really well together!  I really wish China Glaze would make this one permanent.  But I'm not holding my breath.  :-(  You may still be able to find this one (and maybe even on clearance!) at your local Ulta, or otherwise it's definitely still in stock at www.nailsupplies.us.  You need White Cap!  *enables all the readers*...*evil snicker*

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Want a teaser for my next post???

Oh yeah, baby!!  :-D