Ballz & Thinner

Embarassing to the MAC

2011-03-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well, this is super embarrassing. I know I said I hadn't uploaded pictures from my camera to my computer (I still haven't, I don't know why but I'm extremely lazy). I was going through my pictures and I DID have some that I had uploaded AND watermarked already. One of these is the very pretty (and sadly Limited Edition) Liberty of London for MAC polish, a dark green-blue. And boy, is it pretty.

First, let's talk about the gorgeous packaging. I couldn't throw it away!

The outside is pretty and so's the inside:

It's just so, so, so, so, SO pretty. And I'm not talking about the box anymore. The application was smooth and the formula was opaque enough. Here it is with two coats:

Here is is in a slightly shady version:

You know, I'm not usually a fan of MAC polishes. Their base collection is rather drab...I mean Nightfall and Biker Blue are okay but you can easily find dupes for them. Their limited edition collections though are torturous because they're usually the best colors.

Anyway I apologize for leading you to believe I'm incredibly lazy. I mean, I am lazy but I'm just glad that I had pictures on my computer to share

Essie Officially at Rite Aid

2011-03-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

I know there's been a lot of talk about Essie coming to Rite Aid (it's already available at CVS) and it's definitely opening up a greater market. I mean, some Sally Hanson polishes are practically the same price as an OPI and Essie products, why not expand into more drug stores? Again, I don't understand why Sally Hanson has so many different lines with different bottles and names, just please keep everything uniform! They either have 100 different formulas or just use the same formulas and put them in different bottles in order to drive up some prices. Either way, I don't care. Get your act together, Sally Hanson. I know some people that spring onto the chance of a new Sally Hanson display but honestly, it's just exhausting and overwhelming trying to keep up. @squarrell on Twitter has told me that the UK only has one line of Sally Hanson polish in which case you all are so lucky! I know it's a silly thing to have to rant about but bear with me.

BUT I DIGRESS, sorry. Anyway I received this email just seconds ago and I lovingly used old-fashioned Microsoft Paint to contain my excitement.

It had been expected to come around in March and it looks like it's been official (unless I already missed it? In that case, I fail). Now, I personally like CVS's Extra Care card more than Rite Aid's UP rewards. After an annoying experience with using the UP rewards, I decided that it's just not worth it. I am a loyal Walgreens and CVS girl. But...I will definitely swing by a Rite Aid sometime to look at the display.

Updates to follow. I have so many pics but I've been so lazy in transferring them to my computer.

You can always formspring.me and follow me on Twitter!

Zoya polish featured in Black Swan

2011-01-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

I personally love finding out what kind of nail polish is used in TV shows, movies, and magazine ads. So, I was really pleased to hear that a particular shade of Zoya polish, Bela, made a brief cameo in the movie Black Swan. Bela is a gorgeous pale pink, a perfect shade to complement the strong ballet themes in the movie.

Highlight to read exactly where this Zoya bottle cameo is:
Early on in the film as the lead dancer, Nina (portrayed by Natalie Portman), prepares in her dressing room for a gala where she will be revealed to the masses as the new Swan Queen, a solitary elegant bottle of nail polish briefly takes over the screen. This is where the line between a little girls fantasy and reality blissfully blurs. The bottle shown is Zoya Nail Polish in a delicate shade of pink named Bela.

1.1.11

2011-01-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been really stormy so I haven't had a chance to post pictures of my New Year nails. Not that it would really help, since I only had a 15 minute window to do my nails this year because I was so busy doing family stuff and I also had to get a cortisone shot in my right arm on the 30th! So typing is still a little painful, and since I was in such a rush to do my nails I have beautiful air bubbles all over (isolated ones at least, so I can take some comfort that they don't look terrible from afar).

Anyway, I did white nails for the New Year. Normally I'd go for something sparkly but I'm had quite an awful year...to be honest it was really shitty. So I just want to go into 2011 with a blank slate and the hope that things will get better and change for the better.

As for my New Year's resolution, it will be of course to be blog more and to buy less polish. I think things have picked up a bit on the blog front so I hope to continue that trend into 2011 =) As for the buying less polish part...well...we'll see.

Guest Blog Entry! + Green is Still the New Black

2010-12-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

Recently I was given the chance to do a guest blog entry for the UK site http://www.become.co.uk, a fashion/lifestyle/shopping website. In my (fabulous) blog entry, I discuss winter trends in nail polishes and offer suggestions for the darker winter days. I mention that a very cool look for going out at night or a party in the winter would be an all-black outfit with either snow-white or mint green nails just to give that contrast. And let me tell you, I have found the perfect mint green.

Unfortunately, I also discovered that my beloved topcoat, Out the Door, has a tendency to slightly yellow the colors of light polishes, a problem I've never had before with it. In fact, I learned my lesson once putting on an unnamed other brand of topcoat that it did the same thing so I stuck with it Out the Door...except now Out the Door is doing the same thing. I don't know what's going on but for now, I'm looking for a new topcoat. I'm trying the Sally Beauty's store brand right now, the UV-shielding topcoat and I'll probably try Poshe later too. I'm really sad to be breaking up with Out the Door but sometimes, relationships just end. Maybe the problem is a faulty batch or something but I was really disappointed since the coloring of the polish in the pictures (coupled with poor lighting) don't convey how beautiful this polish is. It's so beautiful that I actually wore it twice in a row, which NEVER happens.

Now, when I think of Revlon, I immediately think of their lipsticks. I was never a fan of their mascaras, I don't really use face makeup such as foundation, bronzer, blush, etc, but their polishes were all sorts of awful. No real variety, and the formulation was terrible. The most exciting thing they did was a couple of years back when they had that Dark Pleasures collection that was such a big hit. However, Revlon's polishes are newly formulated and I can truly say that Revlon is back in the drugstore polish game. Now the only brand that really has to step it up is Cover Girl.

There's a variety of new colors of the new, reformulated line called "Revlon Top Speed," but the one that caught my eye the most was this pretty mint green polish called Jaded. I'm really sad that I had such issues with my topcoat because when applied before my topcoat it looks a lot lighter. It really reminds me of mint, but I had to describe it, I would call it a sort of "ice mint."

Anyway, here are some pictures. The lighting is kind of bad so my skin looks all sorts of ridiculous but the polish is actually lighter in person:

The reason I feel like mint green goes so well with black because it's a fresh color that's not really expected. It's like a breath of fresh air. I have to admit, I've been a bit jaded (excuse the pun) as to green polishes lately. I realize that there are only so many ways a color can be jazzed up but I felt like we were just seeing a lot of the same hue. Here's a slightly better picture that doesn't make me look quite as jaundiced:

But what I really love about this polish is the amazing microshimmer.

When the sun hits the polish, it kind of almost glows. And surprisingly, the more I wore it, the more I noticed that it went really well with all sorts of colors...even yellow, and even purple. I think it's because it's like white but takes a but of the edge off the starkness with a hint of color, much like how a pale pink also complements everything, but this is just something slightly funkier. I know I'm making this polish sound like the second coming of Jesus but this is honestly a color that has broken me out of my nail polish rut and reminded me why I freaking love nail polish. It really is a form of expression and sometimes it really is the ultimate accessory. Of course I couldn't resist one last plug.

Thanks to Ranjit from become.co.uk for allowing me to share my opinions for the site.

Tiffany Blues

2010-12-21T03:52:00.000-08:00

It's the beginning of winter here (though it feels like winter has been going on for at least a month, it's been so cold!) and you know how you always get a little bit blue in winter? Having it be dreary and bleak most days can really be a drag.

Now, memories are a funny thing. The smell of a certain perfume can remind you of an occasion or a certain someone. Seeing a sign can remind you of an inside joke. Places can remind you of good times (or bad). When I'm driving down the I-5, there's an exit called Utica Avenue and I think of The Office episode (S4EP06) where Dwight proclaims "We will burn Utica to the ground!"

I distinctively remember the nail polish I was applying when my dad called to tell me he had cancer again (OPI Cara Mi Crimson), but a nail polish color I associate with happier times is China Glaze For Audrey. It is, of course, Tiffany blue. There's no other way to describe the color because Tiffany & Co. literally has it protected by a color trademark. It's the blue that is synonymous with the high jewelry company Tiffany & Company. So if you can't afford a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's (aka me), you can at least have a bit of luxury in this amazing color on your nails. It really is a very aesthetically pleasing shade of blue. I don't know what it is about it, but it's just really awesome. It might be because it's not quite baby blue and has a bit of sophistication that can't really be categorized as light blue yet. Or something like that. Well, now I'm just typing my thoughts out which I tend to do.

I love, love, love this color and part of it has to do with the fact that in September I traveled to Disney World with my sister (our first real vacation together without our parents) and this is the color I wore. So obviously, this color reminds me of the Happiest Place on Earth. Or rather, the most exhausting place on Earth. Disney World is HUGE. I mean, it's amazing but wow, it's huge. There's so much to do, so much to see, so much to EAT and so much to drink (non-alcoholic and alcoholic of course).

So whenever I'm feeling down this winter, I'm definitely going to be reaching for this color. It reminds me of Disney World and most importantly, getting to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios too. Talk about amazing!! Also, the butterbeer is amazing. Get the frozen kind though because it is pretty sweet and the ice dilutes it.

SP6

2010-12-09T23:53:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to get your 6 free spoons at Zoya.com today with the code SP6! I already know one of the ones I'm going to get for sure is Gaia.

formspring.me

2010-12-07T17:49:00.001-08:00

Don't forget you can ask me anything! http://formspring.me/BATpolish

Zoya Wants to Spoon With You, Do You Accept?

2010-12-06T17:50:00.001-08:00

*UPDATE* You will need a code for the free spoon event. It will be released on Thursday

This Friday only, Zoya will be letting you receive 6 spoons for FREE! Including free shipping! Now I'm a sucker for anything with free shipping, and as a bonus the spoons are really cool in deciding whether or not you want to take the plunge and commit to a color. Because honestly, there's nothing worse than buying a color online only to decide that you hate how it looks outside the bottle. It's a modern day tragedy, really.

This offer is only good on Friday, December 10th, and you will also receive a $3 Color Spoon credit code for use on a future zoya.com purchase, which basically means 6 more free color spoons the next time you buy something from the Zoya website. I personally think it's a great offer, and I've already inputted it into my Blackberry calendar.

Impressions: Johnson's Baby Creamy Oil (Aloe Vera & Vitamin E)

2010-10-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of trying new products. I'm always loyal to my Eucerin Daily Moisturizer but lately my hands have been drier than usual. Maybe it's a sign of aging! I'm only 22 though so it's probably not that.

I've always liked Johnson's baby products. In fact, whenever I'm in China I only use their Johnson's baby products, especially their cooling body wash. While of course as we grow older our skins have different needs, I don't think it hurts to go back to basics sometimes.

Johnson's baby creamy oil with aloe vera and vitamin E is my new obsession. This is what the website promises:
"This creamy oil, enriched with soothing Aloe and Vitamin E, combines rich emollients with JOHNSON'S^® Baby Oil to provide long-lasting moisturization. Our indulgent, non-greasy creamy oil absorbs quickly and leaves nothing but softness behind on the skin. Its sweet yet subtle fragrance will delight your senses."

Effectiveness as a moisturizer: Um, amazing. I was very pleasantly surprised as how easily it absorbed into the skin, and even though it comes out as quite a heavy cream, once you smooth it out it is very light. It is very different from a lotion so less is more effective than you think! It really does leave skin quite soft, especially with continued use.

Good for body?: Absolutely! I use it on my scaly elbows and ankles, I think it actually might replace Lemony Flutter as my go-to lotion for those problem areas. This is definitely not something you can use on your face though.

Good for nails?: It doesn't specifically target nails so I don't think you'll see a radical change. I haven't used it specifically for my nails but I've used it for my hands and I really liked it as a hand moisturizer too. I don't know how effective it is for cuticles compared to Lemony Flutter or other cuticle creams/oils but it is very light, whereas Lemony Flutter is a bit heavier.

Price: It was around $3 at Target for 8oz. I like the packaging a lot. It's easy to use and easy to carry around.

Verdict: This is probably going to have a permanent place in my moisturizer rotation. The scent is really lovely. I'm not a huge fan of scented products but this one does have a very subtle smell that disappears...I don't know how to describe it. It's a bit like a sweeter baby powder but without the effect of your nose being tickled by the powder, if that makes sense.

Fun Fact: Johnson & Johnson is best known for their consumer products (Johnson's Baby products, Neutrogena, Aveeno, Band-Aid) but they also manufacture medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Some Like It Hot

2010-09-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I'm actually on a plane to Orlando, Florida right now but I just needed to keep the posting momentum going =) Which is why I love that Blogger lets you make posts but actually post them in the future.

Now, some people aren't very adventurous with their polish but for those who are, I've got a great yellow polish for you. Even though I'm not wearing yellow for this trip (my nails and toes are China Glaze For Audrey), there's going to be lots of sunshine in Florida! My issue with yellow polish is that it tends to draw out the yellow in my skin and sometimes makes me look jaundiced. But this yellow is bright but also soft at the same time, so my fingers don't look entirely sickly.

L.A. Flare can be found at Forever 21 and Walmart.

Zoya Wonderful Collection

2010-09-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I know these swatches have been a long time coming and I actually don't have the swatches for the Wicked part of the collection yet. But these pics were taken with my new camera and are pretty gorgeous if I do say so myself =)

First of all, my materials for swatching if anyone's interested...cut up pantyliners work better than cotton balls or cotton pads in my opinion. Nail polish remover is a must, as well as paper & pen for taking notes.

Burke is described as a sienna red cream, and I really love this as a basic red. It's super glossy, and this is two coats. It's a good, everyday red.

Stacy is described as a mahogany red cream. This is two coats, and it reminds me a bit of Icing Redwood so I definitely love it....I'm all about the vampy reds

Kelly is described as a paynes gray cream. I'm usually not a huge fan of grays because they can be hit or miss but I love this color. Two coats here.

Kristi is described as a crimson red cream. I found that you only really needed one coat for a fresh pop of color, but two coats (as shown here) evens it out more and just gives more gloss

Cola is described as a desert sand red cream. I actually really like this color, it really reminds me of Coca-Cola (my favorite soda!) but it really draws out the yellow in my skin, ick. So I wouldn't really recommend it for Asians with similar coloring as mine. It's a brownish red and it kind of has a bit of a tricky application. It could definitely benefit from a few drops of thinner. This is still two coats too.

Finally, my favorite for last: Shawn, a myrtle green cream. I thought it was gong to be disappointing because the bottle color is nothing to get excited about. BUT it's darker on the nail than in the bottle and it's the perfect green to try if you've never tried green before. It's a lovely shade, but I did have one problem with it: make sure you have a REALLY good basecoat because it left intense staining upon removal. I wasn't wearing my normal topcoat though.

And I will definitely try to post the Wicked collection soon but I was very impressed by the Wonderful collection. I'm normally all about the shimmer, sparkle, and glitter but these were all gorgeous creams and I really love them all. They're SO glossy without topcoat too, so just imagine the shine magnified with a good topcoat. Here are the spoon samples of both collections though:

I've been playing around with a new watermarking software so my address is a little wonky, sorry! Also, are we liking the new camera? It can be finicky at times but the quality is amazing I think.

Thank You ecoTOOLS!

2010-09-17T02:46:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much to ecoTOOLS for giving me body mists for my first giveaway! I hope everyone had fun and congrats to April, Sharon, and Kiki for winning!

ecoTOOLS Body Mist Giveaway!

2010-09-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love EcoTools...they're actually the only brushes I use to put on makeup. I've talked before about how I love their new skincare stuff and now three lucky readers have a chance to win an EcoTools body mist! I have two of their Blooming Planet and one Passion for Change body mist available to give away.

First, my review of the products:

As I've said before, body mist is a hit or miss for some people. I like it because it tends to not be as strong as regular perfume and the EcoTools body mists have a pretty decent lasting power

Blooming Planet has been reformulated to be more soft, floral, and feminine. EcoTools says that this mist now has notes of organic peony and passion flower...I don't have a very good nose but it definitely smells more earthy and floral than before. Unfortunately, it also smells heavily of honeysuckle, which I'm allergic too. So it's not the best for me but if you love honeysuckle with floral scents, this may be for you!

6 fl. oz/177mL, retails for $5.99 in stores

Passion for Change is more up my alley. EcoTools describes this as a "mixture of organic ginger, sage, and sparkling citrus." I'm a huge fan of citrus scents and the ginger and sage seem to balance the fragrance out so you don't smell too much like citrus. It's a bit citrusy but with a zing, if that makes sense. I'm terrible at describing fragrances but I really liked it.

6 fl. oz/177mL, retails for $5.99 in stores

How to Win:

Follow me on Twitter @ballzandthinner
Retweet me once! To make it easier, please no extra RTs. One entry per person anyway through Twitter
You can also increase your chances of winning if you ask me a question through Formspring.Me and include your Twitter name
I'll pick out names from a hat on Wednesday, September 15th and mail out the prizes on Thursday, September 16th through USPS with a tracking number
I will also pick out who gets which body mist through the hat method =)
I will contact you through DM on Twitter
No international shipping this time =( But maybe I'll do an international giveaway soon =)

I hope everyone has fun and participates in my first giveaway! Much thanks to Rebecca from ecoTOOLS for these products!

Thank You Zoya!

2010-07-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't blogged in a while, Zoya so very generously sent me their Wicked and Wonderful collections for Fall 2010. Of course, I could never receive something and NOT share, right?

Expect pictures tomorrow even though I just did my nails yesterday. The California sun has been very generous, so there should be some great pics!

Toy Story 3 nails

2010-06-28T02:48:00.000-07:00

Someone posted this on LJ and I couldn't help reposting it here! I'm so excited to finally see it next week, it should be amazing

Apparently there's more nail goodness here: http://nailcrazy.tumblr.com/

What are your favorite and least favorite brands of nail polish?

2010-06-17T17:15:00.001-07:00

Oh this is hard! Ummm well in terms of higher-end polishes, I love Misa, Essie, and China Glaze. China Glaze has amazing color variety, great application and staying power. The same goes for Misa. Essie used to really bore me but they've really started to branch out (color-wise) and I think their reformulations without the Big 3 bad chemicals are really great. Not to mention that when it comes to classic and classy colors, Essie really delivers. The application of Essie polishes can be iffy at times but it has great staying power on me.

For drugstore brands, I love Wet N Wild, Sally Hanson, Sinful Colors, and NYC.

As for least favorite...I can't really think of any that I really DISLIKE. I haven't had much luck with Revlon or Creative Nail Design polishes. I really only buy CND if it's on super sale (I only have one, and the drying time drives me insane), and I stopped buying Revlon because it's just not worth it. They would always be streaky and bubbly no matter what and the color selection was never something to get excited over. Not to mention I could get the same results with a Sinful Colors, WnW, or NYC polish that's 2 or 3 dollars cheaper. I did see that Revlon has a mint green coming out (or out right now) that looks really cool though, so I might have to check that out.

Ask me anything

Formspring Me!

2010-04-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

I love the internet because it can make people as accessible as they want to be. So, I've created a Formspring! This obviously won't replace my blog but feel free to ask me ANY questions about nail polish, makeup, clothes, any other products, or just about life =) It's pretty fun and no account is needed to participate, I will take anonymous questions!

http://www.formspring.me/BATpolish
&amp;lt;a href="http://www.formspring.me/BATpolish"&amp;gt;http://www.formspring.me/BATpolish&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

LoL Takeover

2010-03-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of Liberty of London before about a week ago, when news began popping up about their collaboration with Target. Everything I've seen of their Liberty of London for Target collection I've loved though, it really seems like bright colors and florals are staples for the brand, which is great for spring.

Well, Liberty of London has teamed up with MAC for a limited edition collection for spring, and I'm really excited about their polishes:

On the left is Blue India, a dark green blue with pearl, while on the right is Vestral White, a creamy white limited edition color that they are re-releasing. I love, love, love the darling bottles, but I wish they release a fun bright color instead of re-releasing a boring write. I know for sure that I'm going to pick up Blue India already, so I guess it's better for my wallet that there's only one must-have instead of two!

EDIT: I guess it's out already, so I know what I'm going to do after my final tomorrow! Luckily I still have a bit left over on a Macy's gift card

EDIT 2: Thanks to commenter Cali 369 for this info! "Liberty of London is a relatively new accessories brand inspired by Liberty's, the iconic department store in London which has been open since 1875."

Warning

2010-03-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, this news has been making the rounds on MUA and other nail polish blogs so I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter.

A blogger and frequent nail board member on MUA, ManateeMama, has been accused of scamming several nail board members out of a lot of money by having the rare Essie Starry Starry Night polish as a "Buy It Now" option on ebay for $50. The problem is, once the money had been taken, no polish was ever taken out. It's calculated that she has stolen more than $500 which is considered internet fraud.

This is ManateeMama's response:

"After a sleepless, terrified, and torturing night I have gotten to the bottom of this "little" mistake you have all made.

I am seriously PISSED off that nobody even bothered to message me at ALL before posting...because it would have saved me a lot of detective work and heartache.

Since nobody messaged me telling me what "linked" me to all this mess I had to call everyone I know asking around and dig through my entire email box, pm box etc. SO, I am guessing Dina and Don are the people you have used to link me to this CRIME?

These people are my degenerate cousins BY MARRIAGE so don't get confused and think I am actually related to them by blood. I set up Dina's Paypal account for her about a year ago. Dina is a [edited] and owes me A LOT of money. A LOT. They have run similar scams to this before, on ebay and forums, which i DID not know about when i helped her!

So, the reason you witch hunting bandwagoners have incorrectly ruined my reputation FOREVER is because Dina sometimes pays for things for me out of HER pay pal balance because she can't afford to pay me back in cash... SO, I have gotten some things from the NB marketplace with the paypal account [email address removed] before, also ebay etc.

I haven't ever sold anything to any of you as I don't even have my OWN paypal account and I dont have access to Dina's I just CALL HER and tell her the info, who to pay, how much etc.

I dont want them to have my address so I ALWAYS USE MY FIANCES WORK ADDRESS. So that is the reason for that. Otherwise they would be knocking on my door asking me for money all the time.

SO how was I victimized when I dont have a paypal account? well i called my cousin and asked her to buy SSN, she said ok, obviously since she was the seller she didnt buy it and lied and said she did. I called her and told her to open an ebay claim when Things went sour. The End.

I have called and cussed out my cousins who obviously got this idea from me from overhearing me talking about rare polish and how much it sells for on ebay. So that part is my fault. I told them to fix this now. The people they ripped off are people that used to be my friends. I told her she has until this weekend to fix it before I call the cops on her myself! I have her ACTUAL address.

Now, that I have had to get into these very personal family details I really would rather not have shared I advise any of you that have filed FALSE POLICE REPORTS against me to rethink your actions!!!

I am in total shock how fast you all turned on me without even a note of doubt. WOW.

If you think I am a liar fine, what reason you have is a mystery to me but fine"

Obviously, there are two sides to each story and no, I don't know ManateeMama personally or have had any interaction with her even on the nail board. From an objective point of view, there is just something really shady about this. From a personal point of view, I just don't trust this explanation. This is beyond simple scamming, this is fraud. If anyone frequents the nail board on MUA, you will know that the nail board is full of the nicest people around and it's sickening how someone could take advantage of that. Choose what you want to believe, but please be careful when it comes to the internet and in buying anything that is rare and hard-to-find. If you ever run into an issue of scamming or any other internet crime, be sure to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (or IC3), which is a joint venture between the FBI, National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Association.

And for anyone who asks why anyone would ever pay $50 for a nail polish...Essie Starry Starry Night is gorgeous. End of story.

Happy New Year! (and decade)

2010-01-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! I know my blogging has been spotty in 2009, but to be honest it just wasn't a very good year for me. One of my New Years resolutions is to blog more in 2010, and I will try my best to keep my word.

I'm contemplating moving my blog over to tumblr, but I'm not sure if that would be the best idea. I started it out but I gave up hope for now. I'm not a huge fan of their commenting system, and even though Blogger can be more finicky, I don't mind the layout.

In the past couple of months I've had to do a lot of soul-searching. I'm not a huge sharer of emotions, but I've realized that nail polish and blogging really do make me happy. And if I share a little of what's been going on, maybe it can help someone else too.

I'm reaching the point in my life where I'm about to graduate college so it's been stressful figuring out what I have to do. In September, my grandpa in Shanghai died. I flew back there, missed a week's worth of school, and pretty much felt miserable and depressed and pressured all throughout this last quarter. To add to all this, my dad once again had to have surgery for tumors in his lung (he's been battling various forms of cancer since 2006). Mentally, emotionally, I hit rock bottom many times before I finally decided to try therapy. Dragging myself there was a huge accomplishment but slowly I've begun the healing process and getting my life back on track. I never thought of myself as a negative person, but I am the type of person that does tend to absorb blows and keep feelings bottled up. Not healthy, obviously. Anyway, I just wanted to say that you know, sometimes it's ok to ask for help. It doesn't make you a weaker person. We all need help at some point in our lives.

To keep things light though, this is a new year and a new decade. And I am just dying for almost all the shades in the new China Glaze collection, I can't wait for it to come out so I can buy them. My nails are Sally Hanson Salon Line Arabian Night, by the way. In terms of polish, 2009 was the year I started to love purple polish so at least there's a positive!

I leave you now with swatches from ALU of China Glaze's Up and Away collection. I haven't been this excited about polish in a while! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 It's also a lot more exciting than OPI's Alice in Wonderland collection too, but I have been consistently underwhelmed by OPI's overall collections since their Russian collection.

Anyway happy new year, dear readers! Thanks for sticking by me through thick and thin =)

Photo by freedigitalphotos.net

OPI & Dell Team Up

2009-10-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a tech dork, even though half of the time I don't understand what is going on and I'm actually pretty terrible with technology. I just like to look at shiny things.

Still, I was rather surprised when I read this article about OPI and Dell on Engadget. I don't know whether as a woman I should be delighted or offended. It would be really cool on the one hand to immortalize your favorite OPI shade (though not all are available) on your laptop. On the other hand, it's annoying because other than announcing that this option is available, Dell doesn't really provide any details on the computers itself. Which is where I have a problem with it.

I'm not a super-feminist by any means, but I am (and I think other females should) well-aware that as the "lesser" sex, we may always be subject to discrimination. But it's also ok to be a powerful woman and still care about makeup and beauty because these things can make us happy on the inside. Am I making sense? I'm not trying to make this post into a huge political issue, but over the summer I got a bit angry over something like this.

You've all seen the commercials for the 3M Scotch-Brite Nail Saver Sponge, right? Ok, yeah it's kind of sexist but I bought one anyway to try because I had a coupon. Well, it turns out that it's not just a sexist commercial but the sponge is a piece of crap which makes the sponge itself kind of sexist. I understand that there's a whole marketing concept behind it to make this job easier for women but a) women aren't ALWAYS the ones doing the dishes, ok?, b) it's a lot easier to just wear gloves while doing the dishes to avoid the need for a stupid sponge and c) the "sponge," which is nothing more than two flimsy strips of actual sponge and scrubber glued to this awful foam that falls apart within three weeks of use, is just insulting. It's ok to market things to women because we DO have certain needs that are different. But please, don't insult our intelligence by introducing something that supposedly will make our life easier but is really worthless. It's sloppy manufacturing and it's rude and I hated that sponge and everything it represents.

I'm not the biggest Dell fan, but I wish they would release details about the laptops itself that will have the option of adding these pretty tops. Because yeah, it's kinda cool though it would be worthless to pay extra for a laptop that won't really do much. Anyway, here's the top for OPI's I'm Not Really a Waitress. I love the swirled effect because it really looks like nail polish and I'm not going to lie, if this were HP and the laptop had everything I wanted specs-wise I would definitely buy it. Though not in this shade.

PS: It does seem that these new laptop colors are available as an option on pre-existing Dell laptops so it's not like it's a special case. So really my argument only applies if Dell were introducing it as a special line so even though it's an invalid argument, it's a rant so it still stands =)

Fall Trends Links

2009-09-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't been impressed by OPI for a while but Marc Jacobs, whom I adore, seems to think otherwise. He chose some classic, subtle shades to complement his latest collection. See them here.

I'm a huge Essie fan but the colors I'm looking forward to the most is the new Orly collection. The world needs more green! Here is a glimpse at some Orly, Lipmann, and Essie fall colors.

Also, for any UK readers, check out this new drugstore brand called Eyeko. Non-UK readers won't entirely be missing out because they ship free worldwide! I'm already eyeing my order.

I. Die.

2009-09-12T03:21:00.000-07:00

Anyone here watch the Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo? I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I do, but ya'll know how attached I get to shows that don't have much depth. It's why I love it though! So of course one of Rachel's dramatic phrases is "I die" whenever she sees something that she just cannot live without.

This, unfortunately is one of the cases. Chanel, always the quickest to catch onto nail trends (completely sarcasm btws...what it makes up in lack of nail knowledge is amazing fashion at least) is releasing two GORGEOUS polishes in their fall collection. Actually, scratch that, just one. One is pink so we know it's going to be on the boring side but one seems to be the perfect light green! It seems to be very true to its name, which is Jade.

They've been gracious enough to allow pre-orders this time around so you can see pictures of the two colors here. However, the price has upped again since last year I believe, and this time it will set you back $25. Ouch. Just my personal opinion though but Jade may look like it will be worth it. Jade Rose, not so much.

Also, I know my posts have been lacking greatly. I still love nail polish and I still love blogging, I'm just trying to make some important life decisions right now. I loved blogging before my parents knew about it because even though I love my parents and I'm my own person and I make my own decisions, they are not exactly supportive of my polish love. Especially when they think it is interfering with schoolwork (trust me, it's not!). I think it's always hard when you think you have to compromise your beliefs and passions. Oh, and this whole transitioning-into-an-adult thing happening? Not fun at all. But I know people actually read my blog, so I am definitely not going to let this die!

At least I will have Jade to look forward to =)

PS: For a dictionary to all Rachel Zoeisms that will probably be popping up, here's a guide that EW.com compiled

Eco-Fab

2009-09-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

If you're a makeup lover, you must have heard of EcoTools. I mean, I rarely wear makeup but it's true facts in beauty circles that EcoTools brushes are one of the best drugtstore makeup brushes on the market. I'm also a huge fan of companies that try to bring sustainability awareness to the masses. Recently they've expanded out into a beauty line with generously sized portions for the price and cute, kitchy names. I got to try two products, their Sustainable Softness body lotion and their Blooming Planet body mist.

Sustainable Softness body lotion(this is going to be an extremely detailed review because I like details and because I'm merging my regular review questions with my mega moisturizer series criteria)

Quantity: 8 fl oz.m or 236 ml
Price: $7.99
Claims: For those seeking intense moisture, look no further than this body lotion that is 98% from nature. "Sustainable Softness" features nourishing shea butter, which easily absorbs into skin and leaves it feeling silky and smooth. Skin will feel instantly hydrated and sustain your softness!
My Experience: I like to use lotions for about a week before I make up my mind because it's a long enough period to notice any significant changes. My elbows have been super ashy because of the lotion I used while in DC (review on that later), but this lotion cured that in about two days. It does absorb into skin really quickly, and the especially nice thing is that the smell goes away pretty quickly. Well, it's a good thing for me at least, other people like scented lotions.
Good for body?: Absolutely, it doesn't have a super lotiony feel right after as it absorbs fairly quickly into the skin. I also noticed an improvement in my elbows, which is definitely the measurement of a good all-over lotion for my body. I usually only apply lotion once, which is at night after I shower. I'll admit it's mostly because of laziness but it also helps me weed out lotions that really aren't good for the long run.
Good for nails?: Even those the ecoTools new beauty line also has its own separate hand lotion, I found that this doubled just as well for hand hydration as it did for body.
Likes:

packaging- since it's in a bottle with a flip cap it's a good size for traveling, and it's not likely to spill.
the ingredients- I'm not a cosmetic chemist but I am impressed by the number of natural products that I know are good for hydration and moisturizing that are listed. The first three products right off the bat on the ingredient list are Water, Sunflower Seed Oil, and Jojoba Esters (Wikipedia tells me that jojoba esters are derived from jojoba oil, so it's a good thing). Then there's also shea butter, cocoa seed butter, mango butter, aloe extract and algae extract. You'd think with all these butter ingredients the lotion would be heavier but it's actually not
the consistency- as I mentioned above, it's not a very heavy lotion that just sits above the skin and takes a while to sink in (I like Aveeno but it's an example of a heavy lotion for me). It's thick and creamy like a real lotion and doesn't have a watery feeling like others, but it still manages to be quick with absorption

Dislikes:

the smell- since I opened it, my sister and I have been trying to figure out what the smell was. It's not an unpleasant smell, something really familiar though. After three days, I finally figured it out: it smells like fluoride to me. So understandable, I'm glad that the smell fades away after five or so minutes. Thankfully, it's not very overpowering and I'm sure my dentist will appreciate the soothing scents on my next visit but really, I'm just glad I can only apply this once a day.

Conclusion/Verdict: Other than the smell, I really like this lotion. I would probably buy this again for when I'm traveling given its compact size because traveling/vacations really wreck havoc on your skin. While I'm not so sure how accurate their "98% from nature" tagline is, I love all the natural items I can identify on the ingredient list, and they seem to really get the job done.
Fun Facts: According to a green tip on the back of the bottle, if everyone viewed and paid their bills online instead of printing, we could keep over 18.5 million trees growing each year.

Blooming Planet body mist

Quantity: 6fl oz, or 177mL
Price: $7.99
Claims: This body mist instantly transports you to a blooming botanical garden with a bright and fresh floral scent. Refresh your natural wellness with this captivating blend of elegant floral blooms. Smell great and feel great, inside your world and out!
My experience: I'll be honest, I despise body mist. Walking into a Bath & Body Works is like a certain kind of torture, especially when they had their special Honeysuckle line. Not only am I allergic to honeysuckle, I'm also allergic to their popular cucumber melon scent. One whiff of either and I'm hacking and coughing my way into an asthma attack...for some reason both scents seem to permeate themselves into my lungs. Gross. However, Blooming Planet was smelly without being overwhelmingly so. In fact, I actually really liked it. I can't distinguish the individual notes, but the overall fragrance is really good and actually reminds me a bit of Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea perfume.
Likes:

staying power- it's not bad for a body mist
scent- thankfully not too overpowering, and there's not a dramatic change in smell from when you spray it on to when it dries down
size- it's a large bottle!

Dislikes: I try to come up with constructive criticism for each product, but really, it's body mist and you either like it or hate it. It's a lot more straightforward than lotions
Conclusion: I ended up liking something I was expecting to hate, so I love being proved wrong. It just goes to show that there are exceptions.
Fun Fact: All of the products of the EcoTools are part of the 1% For the Planet coalition of business all around the world that have pledged to donate at least 1% of annual sales to environmental organizations.

Other items in the new EcoTools beauty line include a body wash, hand cream, and heel cream. Let me know any of you try these products and what you think! They're available in the U.S. at Walgreens and select Target stores.

I'm Obsessed!

2009-08-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

Ok so I was searching for this random Beyonce song that my roommate has been playing nonstop that's kind of amazing when I stumbled across this. Not only is this genius, the quality of the video is fantastic and it's also SO SIMPLE. It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of high-quality or fancy contraptions to have some pretty rockin' nails. And yes, that is still partly the bitterness of my lack of Konad stamper talking =)

I'm definitely going to try this when I'm reunited with my stash!

PS: I have a lack/backup of nail pictures to post, but there are definitely going to be more reviews on the way!

Walmart Is Doing Something....Right?

2009-07-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

OK, so as a nail polish lover (or really, a makeup lover), you can't snub Wal-Mart. They have amazing brands of polishes such as LA Flare, CQ, Pure Ice, and Petites that you really can't find anywhere else, and they usually have a pretty good selection of all brands. Not just that, Wal-Mart is REALLY, REALLY affordable.

Cuz here's the thing...most of the time, things that are more expensive are just more expensive. Sure, everyone loves a bit of Chanel nail polish, especially if they're in fabulous blue shades. But I would be broke and starving if my (very extensive) collection was all-Chanel. Not to mention kind of boring.

So yes, I'm going to give Wal-Mart a bit of a shout-out here. I used to feel guilty about shopping there all the time given all the controversy, but here's something that can soothe everyone's conscience: Walmart is not just jumping on the green bandwagon, it's invading, taking over, and controlling it. And not in a bad way, either.

Basically, Wal-Mart has taken steps towards creating a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. And what Wal-Mart wants is what Wal-Mart usually gets. It's revolutionary and a bit scary how great their power is over the retailing world. Luckily, it's not just going to be a Wal-Mart exclusive, as they've invited Target (another fave), Costco (one of the loves of my life), Tesco, and others to join in this partnership. So really, the people who end up benefiting the most are the people. I really think that this wil force companies to look at their practices and maybe change them, even a little bit, to help save the Earth.

Read the full article from the NYT here.

The downside? I'm sure nail polish isn't exactly the best for the environment. In fact, many environmentalists are strongly against it. But, I think as long as you practice living green, you're allowed a few indulgences =)

Read the article from the NYT here

Like a Lemony Dream

2009-07-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

I've talked briefly before about my first encounter with Lush's Lemony Flutter and let's just say that it's all that plus a bag of chips. Or plus a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. Ok, it's just amazing.

Effectiveness as a moisturizer: Great. It has a strong lemon smell but I like it. I could see how it could deter people but it's good. It seems very heavy as a cream but there's no greasy feel after a few minutes.

Good for body? Yes. I suffer from extremely scaly elbows and ankles, and this really helps soften those areas.

Good for nails?: It's originally a cuticle cream, so yes. It is a bit annoying and messy to apply though, but it's great for nails.

Price: I'm not going to lie, it's expensive, with tax it's almost $15. It lasts a while but for some the price may be the selling point, especially when you have so many great drugstore lotions

Verdict: It's best when it's cold and firmer instead of softer and warmer. When it's warmer it gets melty and looks really oily when you put it on. It carries an extremely high price tag, but I personally think it's worth it. It does last a long time if you only use it for nails. I used it as a cuticle cream and for my elbows and ankles and it's lasted me almost a year. So in the long run it's worth the initial high price tag. I will definitely repurchase but in this economy after I finish my tub, I can definitely wait a few months before repurchasing.

Fun Facts: LUSH makes everything by hand and therefore unlike most lotions has a shorter shelf date. Each product is marked with the name of the person who made your product and a "Best if used before" date. They also do not test on animals (for the record, I'm not a fan of animal testing for cosmetics. I can understand it for purposes of medicine, but rest assured I'm not going to bash anyone else's opinion because I can understand both sides).

Impressions: Vaseline

2009-07-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

This post kicks off what I'm going to call my Mega Moisturizer Series. As I like to say, hydration is power (and also the tag of this series). I like trying out lots of products and since that's what the cosmetic industry banks on, here we are.

I'm also filing everything in the MMS under Back to Basics, because I think moisturizer is really important, not just for your nails but for your skin in general. My skin would look so much worse without moisturizer and let me tell you, the skin under my eyes would look so much worse without fancy moisturizers (my mom says that the dark circles under my eyes make me look like a panda. I tell her that that's just the life of a college student). So, expect me to focus on general moisturizers as well as specific cuticle creams....though I think the latter is a waste of money and regular lotions can work just as well. I believe in the power of multitasking

First up, pure Vaseline (also just pure petroleum jelly). Petroleum jelly is a byproduct of good ole fashioned petroleum (aka crude oil) refinement. Indeed, some environmentalists greatly dislike petroleum jelly because of this, but according to Wikipedia, it is possible to create a generic version of petroleum jelly. So that actually is good news for sustainability purposes. I never really grew up using Vaseline, but I know tons of people who are obsessed with it.

Effectiveness as a moisturizer: Ok, here's the thing. Vaseline IS NOT really a moisturizer. Wait, what? Yeah I know it's confusing but Vaseline is actually a sealant and prevents moisture from evaporating. So no it doesn't moisturize and is not absorbed by the skin, but it does protect the skin. This is also why Vaseline is good for cuts and minor scrapes because it prevents bacteria from entering.

Good for body?: I don't really use it as a lotion since it's not a moisturizer, but it's good for feet. I also use it for my lips since I'm running out of Aquaphor.

Good for nails?: Yes! I do use this for my cuticles since they tend to get raggedly and it helps my skin from ripping more. It's also a good cuticle softener .

Price: The nice thing about Vaseline is that a little goes a long way. I bought a 1.75 oz travel one from Target about 4 months ago for 99 cents and using it on and off I've only gone through barely 1/4 of the tub.

Verdict: Given the price, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have around. I would just get a sample size (1.75oz is what I have, and it's a lot) since it's only 99 cents. I only bought it because I was hoping for a cheap eye makeuup remover but that didn't work on me. It works for other people though. But if you're sure you never need it, save your dollar, especially if you have stuff like Neosporin for minor cuts.

Fun Facts: petroleum jelly has a dissolving effect on latex....so that's my safe sex warning. Also, petroleum jelly is less expensive than glycerol, but it results in a greasy feel in lotions as it just sits on your skin. Therefore, more expensive lotions are more likely to have gycerol instead of petroleum jelly. If you buy a $10 lotion that has petroleum jelly but no glycerol, you know you're getting ripped off.

Did You Miss Me?

2009-06-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello! I am now in America's capital and have been for a week! Luckily, I found a very flexible internship which means that yes, I will have time to blog. And just because I brought only 5 polishes with me (gasp with horror, I did too...especially since they are all dull, professional colors. Very Washington, but what can you do?) doesn't mean that this blog will stop.

Today I was at H&M, and I noticed that they have nail polish now! I think it varies by store, since my local H&Ms back in California did not have them (maybe it's just a Galleria thing, since now that I think about it, they were both Galleria @ ____ malls). I'm on a strict no-buy, which is killing me but I thought I should share the love. The one I picked up and put down many times is called My Favorite Jeans and it looks gorgeous, a steely, sparkley blue. That would be my pick. Oh, and a baby blue one called Everlasting Emma or something like that. You know how blue thrills me so.

But please, stay tuned for more posts and pics from DC =)

Love & polish,
N.

Sorry for the inconvenience....

2009-06-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been forever guys! I'm taking the LSAT on Monday and I've got finals that week to so please be patient with me.

L'Oreal Goes Green!

2009-05-03T15:34:00.001-07:00

No, unfortunately it's not a green polish yet (*HINT*HINT* to any execs) but L'Oreal is greening up their factories.

L'Oreal Cosmetics has announced that they are installing a biomass system at their factory in Libramont, Belgium where they produce many of their brands' haircare products.

The plant plant will feature an anaerobic digestion system that will capture methane from waste that comes from nearby cattle farms. When the system's installation is completed at the end of the summer, methane will be used to generate 85% of the plant's power. Even better is that this is just a single step in the cosmetics giant's plan to cut their factory and warehouse emissions in half by 2015 (based on 2005 levels).

Pierre Simoncelli, director for sustainable development at the company, said that the factory was situated in a cattle-farming area that would provide the slurry to power the new technology.

"We plan to start by using a mixture of organic waste and corn, but we should then be able to switch fairly quickly to just using organic waste," he explained, adding that the biomass power system should provide enough energy for 85 per cent of the factories' current requirements.

In order to meet their goal, the company will be installing additional onsite renewable energy systems like solar PV and solar thermaland buying more green power from suppliers.

The company also hopes to cut their water use by 30 to 35 percent in the same time frame by using rainwater capture and steam-cleaning technologies.

L'Oreal is one of the biggest cosmetics conglomerates out there (it's akin to beauty products to what LVMH is to designer fashion), so it's awesome to see them put an emphasis on sustainable development. It makes me feel better as a consumer to know what I'm supporting when I'm buying their products too. Now if they could only continue their green support in polish form....

Sources via BusinessGreen & Ecogeek

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T21:27:00.001-07:00

Personally I think every day should be Earth Day but that's just me...anyway yet again I am doing like a million things at once so I put on an old green color, Misa's Toxic Seduction. Love this color! And it was the perfect green to match my green dress.

I can't think of anything new to add, except hey! Check out my past forays into greeeeeeeeen polish.

And if we're going to be talking about checking things out, there's an amazing new blog out called Polish Our Planet, and I only wish I were creative enough to start it and format it the way it is! Polish Earthgirl (who I have just now nicknamed as PE) weaves in great eco-tips with amazing polish pictures.

Oh, and I just applied for an internship this summer for the NRDC. Here's to hoping I get it!

Finally, if you understandably want to stay in this weekend, check out this Best Movies on "Earth" list that We Are Movie Geeks put together. I would add "Wall-E" to that list for families with little kids that aren't interested by former American VP Al Gore, but definitely give Planet Earth a view. It's just absolutely stunning.

Anyway, in celebration of all things green, here are 76 little things to help fight global warming, brought to you by BeatGlobalWarming.Info

*these really all make a difference!*

Plan car trips efficiently and combine errands.
Turn off lights when you leave the room, and appoint a person to be the “light monitor” at home, school and work. Use natural light instead of electric light whenever possible.
Decline a bag when buying only an item or two.
Plant trees -- as many as you can. Donate trees at http://www.americanforests.org/planttrees/ And to celebrate an occasion, give trees at http://www.arborday.org/join/TICTIM/index.cfm?trackingid=306
Print on both sides of the paper and reuse printed paper for scraps and notes.
Use cloth napkins and towels instead of paper.
Use electronic checking instead of paper checks.
If you have a choice, take the car that gets better gas mileage.
Use the Internet to shop, to reduce global warming both by using less gasoline and by making a contribution with your purchases. Go to: http://www.ourenergy-shopping.com/ and a percentage of all your online purchases from more than 700 participating retailers (including Walmart.com and The Gap), will be contributed for green energy credits automatically every time you shop.
Read newspapers and magazines online.
Insulate your hot water heater and hot water pipes, and turn down the heat on your hot water heater.
Set your furnace 3-4 degrees lower and your air conditioner 3-4 degrees higher.
Run full loads for your washer, dryer and dishwasher.
Replace light bulbs with energy efficient CFL bulbs (compact florescent), and ask businesses that you frequent to change to energy efficient bulbs.
Buy paper products made from recycled paper.
Charge your cell phone in the car. Unplug chargers when not in use.
Activate the energy saving feature on all computers and printers.
Share a ride (car pool).
Work from home; allow employees to work from home once or twice a month.
Return empty printer cartridges to the manufacturer or store -- Staples, Office Depot, etc.
Don’t buy disposable products.
Fix or mend instead of replacing. Reuse as many things as possible -- recycle everything you can! Insist that recycling is offered at your place of work and home if you rent.
Get removed from unwanted mailing lists at www.junkbusters.com
Buy carbon offsets at http://www.nativeenergy.com/services.html
Use a coffee pot instead of individually wrapped packets for groups.
Use glass instead of plastic, paper or Styrofoam cups.
Send an E-Card instead of a paper one.
Buy bulk instead of individually wrapped products.
Buy previously owned books, DVDs, videos etc., and rent a movie instead of buying it.
Give away useful products instead of throwing them out.
Make your next car at least 35% more fuel efficient than your current one.
Take brief showers.
Use light dimmers if you have them.
Use reusable plastic containers instead of zipper-top plastic bags.
Use a lunch box instead of a paper bag.
Use a thermos or cup instead of buying throw-away juices or small plastic bottles.
Walk a few flights of stairs instead of taking an elevator.
Shut doors and air vents in unoccupied rooms.
Drive 5-10 miles per hour slower. (N's note: Ok this is SUPER hard for me living in Southern California but I get amazing mileage out of my car even when I'm going at 65, CA's speed limit...and especially when I'm on cruise control, see below)
Roll to red lights vs. using the gas and braking (it will save your brakes as well), and at any opportunity, use cruise control when driving.
Save a piece of the rainforest at http://www.arborday.org/shopping/donations/orderrfr.cfm
Install a water filter instead of buying bottled water.
Wash clothing in warm instead of hot, and cold instead of warm water.
Buy organically grown food and drink coffee made with organically grown beans.
Shop at farmers markets and buy food grown locally.
Buy reconditioned computers, printers, etc.
Walk instead of drive for short distances.
Keep your car tires properly inflated.
Share this list with everyone you know, by E-mail of course.
Buy music online and download it instead of buying the actual disc.
Make sure your place of worship is green. Help them start or do more.
Keep the lint pipe of your dryer clean.
If you need an appliance, buy an “Energy Star” appliance since they are the most efficient.
Take digital photos and only print the desired pictures.
Send electronic bills instead of paper bills by mail.
If your power company offers a green energy option, take it! Ask them to offer it if they don’t!
Cut and paste an electronic file instead of printing a paper file.
See or read “An Inconvenient Truth;” learn all you can about the climate crisis.
Print only the parts of documents you need, not the entire document.
Turn off heating and air conditioning units when you’re not home; better yet, use a programmable thermostat to do this for you.
Bring your own reusable or recycled bags to the supermarket.
Remove a few light bulbs from lights fixtures or banks of lights.
Volunteer to head an effort to “go green” at your work, school, place of worship or any organization you belong to.
Pray for others to follow your lead. (“When you pray, move your feet” -- African proverb)
Send a Native Energy greeting card ($12) as a donation toward clean energy. http://www.nativeenergy.com/cards.html
Make sure the gas filter and air filter on your car are clean and keep your car tuned up.
Remove any heavy items from your car.
Avoid rush hour driving whenever possible; better yet, take public transportation.
Have your paycheck deposited directly to your account.
Use propane or natural gas for barbeques and camping instead of wood or charcoal.
Install an attic fan to ventilate your attic, and then insulate your attic.
Install ceiling fans to help with both heating and cooling.
Install weather stripping around drafty windows and doors.
Turn off decorative lighting at night and ask stores you frequent to do the same.
Don’t use wooden chopsticks! Either bring your own (plastic or ceramic) or use a fork.
Wrap gifts in newspaper, magazine or other used paper product instead of gift wrap.

Happy Earth Day!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

I usually associate pastel colors or lighter colors with Easter, but I couldn't decide on a good color. Then the other day while in a local Rite Aid, I spotted some Borghese colors on clearance for 1/2 off. It's a pretty good deal for Borghese polishes and one that hardly comes around so I snatched up Peonia Blossom, a pale pink frost.

I gotta say....this was not the easiest application (also sorry for the mess around my middle finger). It was thick and kind of gloppy and streaky. I normally think Borghese brushes are fine, even though they are SUPER thick but...for some reason this was not the best experience for me. It also dried incredibly slow, but that might just be because of the goopiness. It's such a gorgeous color though, very ladylike and prim. It was semi-worth the $4 I paid for it, but definitely not worth the $8 retail.

But anyway, happy Easter! I actually had my own Easter miracle today, I was talking with a friend outside his apartment when a hummingbird dropped from the rafters onto the ground. It looked dead and wasn't moving so we scooped it up on a piece of paper and moved it to a grassy area (I wanted to bury it but my friend shot that idea down cuz we didn't have shovels and we'd also probably get in trouble). But then the bird started to beat its wings and flew up and away. It was awesome! This was after like not moving for 5 minutes. Well, some might think that it hardly counts as a miracle but come on, that's so symbolic! Yes? No? Ok, well I choose to believe so.

I also made this amaaaaaaazing carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for Easter. Since we don't have a mixer I have to mix the cake mix (boxed cakes are genius!) by hand and it was exhausting! I whisked the water and eggs together (I just realized now I forgot the vegetable oil) first, and then whisked in the cake mix spoonful by spoonful slowly so I wouldn't get gross chucks. It's exhausting but worth it....at least until I can afford a KitchenAid.

The Origins of Good

2009-04-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm kind of crazy about saving the world. I actually yelled at my roommate the other day for throwing a candy wrapper out of her car window (well, she was littering!), and it physically hurts me when I see people walking out of grocery stores with a cart full of plastic bags. It also physically hurts me when I don't recycle, and I'm only slightly consoled by the fact that I recently read an article about the book Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets on how many homeless survive and maybe find meaning from finding empty plastic bottles to recycle. But that's a whole other debate and I'll save this from sounding like an after-school special/Lifetime Original Movie (don't deny it, sometimes they really tug at your heartstrings)

But one area I haven't really gone green with is cosmetics. I'm guilty of throwing out empty plastic bottles, containers, even nail polish bottles when I don't need them for frankening. It's terrible, really, but also hard when you don't even know what you're supposed to recycle

Luckily, one company has really stepped it up. Origins now has a great program aptly called "Back to Origins" where you bring in empty cosmetics packaging of any brand to any one of their retail stores or department store counters and it will be sent to a central location where the bottles, tubes, etc. will be either recycled or used for energy recovery. In return, Origins will reward you with a free sample of any skincare item of your choice. It's really a win-win situation.

Here's what Origins has to say: "We believe that the more we collect from consumers, the more we can keep cosmetic packaging out of landfills. And we hope this program will encourage other companies into following our example."

I sincerely hope that this program becomes more widely adopted by other countries and companies as well! Sadly this program is so far only for the United States, as it mentions that it excludes Canada and Puerto Rico (which kind of technically is also US terriroty, but who am I to argue with semantics?). Even sadder, this also excludes Origins counters in the US located in Nordstrom's, which I don't understand....hopefully this will change.

To check out the whole program details and more abut Origins and the environment, click here.

Happy Recycling!

Early Morning Hotness: Shades by Barielle

2009-04-02T01:03:00.000-07:00

Note: I had meant to post this last night/early morning, at around 1AM but my internet died =(

Barielle, the fab salon line that people (myself included) go gaga over their basecoats for, recently released a drugstore line. And I use the term "recently" loosely because I've been MIA lately (I might take it easy this quarter and only take 16 units instead of 20/21 units per quarter like I have been for the past year...understandably, I was a bit burnt out). All Lacquered Up already released the shades for their upcoming collection, but make sure you head over to a CVS and snatch up any of the older ones before they're gone!

Luckily, I was able to snag Date Night and Sneak-A-Peek. They are, without a doubt, the standouts:

Sneak-A-Peek is a gorgeous light dove grey with subtle silver shimmer. I don't have a lot of greys but I will admit this looked really nice against my tanner skin.

Date Night is just....amazing. I know green and blue are colors that people are really hesitant to try, but I'll be the first to encourage anyone to get this shade. It's the perfect dark green to compliment any skin color, with gorgeous olive shimmer to really make it stand out. I was afraid that the color wouldn't work for me because olive tones draw out the yellow in my skin (I really look terrible in olive green) but luckily on the nail it's different than how it looks in the bottle. It works a bit like camouflage... sometimes it looks darker, sometimes it looks lighter. The picture here, luckily, is the best representation of how it looks most of the time.

I've already gotten ansty with my purple nails. It's time to change them to silver and sleep =)

This is No April Fool's Joke!

2009-04-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yup....I'm wearing purple polish. For the first time EVER other than swatches...and even those are limited. It's very strange since I don't really have purple clothes. Normally I don't really match my clothes with my polish but I have been wearing black and white the past two days to make my purple neon polish stand out. I think I might...actually....like purple polish now.

Ignore the weird reflections too, I was scrambling to get this pic in full sun so I had to do some funky angles.

I actually have a one hour gap between classes and dashed home just to post this, but stay tuned...today will be a polish-productive day.

Dejavuuu

2009-03-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ugh Twitter makes me so stabby sometimes....I was gonna post this on Twitter but it exceeded the character limit. So annoying.

Anyway, you know those corny Disney commercials on TV that are like "Oh, get ____ before it goes back into the Disney vault...forever!" or "For the first time, released from the Disney vault..." Ok I mean I like Disney (my friends can vouch that I will valiantly break out into song if Mulan's "I'll Make a Man Out of You" comes on), but WTF is this "elusive" Disney vault? Actually since Disney controls the world they probably do have a literal giant vault guarded by lasers and everything.

Well, it looks like Chanel is taking a cue from Disney because they recently (aka today) sent out an e-mail about their "Dejavu Collection" that is launching on their website. Pretty much, it's a lot of their discontinued items that they're "rereleasing" (probably residual overstocks). Here's the link:

Dejavu Collection

The cool thing is that it's constantly being updated. Currently for polish they only have Rouge Noir priced at $23, but they say to check back often, as more Chanel favorites become available.

New Link: Nail Juice

2009-03-20T03:37:00.000-07:00

So I think I've mentioned how slow I've been lately in terms of everything polish...I have like a gazillion pictures and reviews backed up on my camera and computer, I'm behind on like every single amaaaaaazing nail blog out there in the universe but I'm slowly catching up. Spring break is going to be heavenly for me...6 days of bliss with my new Kindle, blogging, polishing, and generally not having a care in the world before I have to get back to school =/.

I have two finals left but guys, seriously check out Nail Juice. It's a love-at-first site (hah! pun! get it?) Not only is it tech-savvy and available in other languages!! But also, Steph has an amazing and handy finishes description bar on the right hand side, something that I've always wanted to get around to but have obviously been too lazy to actually do. So thank you Steph, because now everyone can just use that as a reference! It's wonderful.

Ok, study break is over. Two more finals to go!

Funky at Indian Wells

2009-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Ok so you guys probably remember that I LOVE tennis. So it kills me that every year, the Indian Wells Classic is during my winter quarter finals week. Every year without fail! Gah. Indian Wells is only a little over an hour of my way so it's really a tragedy that I've been unable to go for the past three years.

Anyway, here's a picture of Gwen Stefani at Indian Wells watching Roger Federer play (she's a fan) with her baby Zuma =) You can't see Zuma's cute face in this one but you can see Gwen's AWESOME funky french nails- red with silver tips. Loveee.

I'm also so excited that Federer and his girlfriend (pictured above sitting next to Gwen) are having a baby! For sure in like 17 years that kid is gonna be a serious tennis competitor...I hope!

For Funsies

2009-03-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not a super-makeupy girl by any means. Nail polish is probably the only consistent cosmetic item I use. The most I do is eyeliner & mascara. But, I am a huge mascara junkie. My bff gave me Diorshow Iconic or Christmas and can I just tell everyone....it's freaking amazing! It gives my lashes length, definition and volume AND holds up decently through a nice cry (I'm a total crybaby and I hate waterproof mascara). The only downside is that for me, it's kind of hard to take off.

Anyway, I was at CVS the other day and Loreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes macsara (I know, ridiculously long name) was on sale. The whole "tubing mascara" thing has really intrigued me so I decided to buy it. I was excited so I tried it as soon as I got out of the store in my car. The mascara part was all dried and cloggy and it didn't even coat the brush. I was puzzled but I walked back in and exchanged it for a new one. I didn't test the new one til I got home but lo and behold! It had the same problem. Since it was the weekend I e-mailed Loreal to see if it was just a bad batch. Their Customer Service was pretty quick in replying on Monday and asked if I still had the product and if I did, they'd send me a pre-paid mailing envelope to return it. I unfortunately already returned it to CVS, and told them as such. Here was their response:

Thank you for visiting L'Oréal Paris on the Web and for responding to our e-mail.
Our company makes every effort to provide the highest quality products for our consumers, and we want to know whenever a product is not completely satisfactory. If ever you are less than satisfied with one of our products, please save the items because we are eager to investigate any possible problems.
Thank you for making us aware of this problem. We hope you will continue to use our products with complete confidence and satisfaction.

So, really just another reaon to love Loreal: good CS. Anyway, since the mascara had a base/primer part before the mascara part, I figured why not, one eyelash is coated in white primer anyway so I put Dior Iconic over it and...well, I'll just let the results do the talking:

Please ignore my panda-eyes and frizzy hair

So....welcome to my first real off-topic post lol. I will try to not do too many of these stand-alone OT posts.

RIP NYC Glossies

2009-03-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

Oh the cruelties of the cosmetics world: discontinuation. I adored the NYC Glossies...they weren't perfect but they were comparatively better than the NYC regular line. And for $2, they were a pretty good deal.

But alas, they have been discontinued and replaced by NYC: In A New York Color Minute which is way too long and so I'm shorthanding it to NYC Minute. It's drastically smaller than the Glossies were but I will say that a) the cap is easier to handle and b) the coverage on the two I bought were amazing!

Also, NYC Minute has a color called Chinatown, which remarkably looks similar to an old NYC Glossies fave....oh and I'm sorry, I got my NYC Minute blues mixed up. The color in the next three photos are of NYC Minute Chinatown, NOT West Village (this is what happens when you don't get any sleep)
Yup, the bottle is much smaller....3.4 mL less which is quite a significant amount considering the price has stayed the same.

Here is Chinatown and Midnight on my nail....can you tell which is which?

NYC Glossies Midnight is on my index & middle finger, NYC Minute Chinatown is on my ring and pinky finger

Here's the REAL West Village, the other blue. Where Chinatown/Midnight was a darkened navy, West Village is a true dark blue. Love it!

I was actually really impressed with the pigmentation. It only required one coat to be opaque, but they are shown here with two coats each and are at their best. Even though I will shed a small tear for the Glossies, I will admit that the Minute line in terms of application and stuff is a definite UPGRADE.

I've been super busy with school, LSAT classes and looking for an internship. Finals are next week too, so expect posts to be trickling in haha.

Early Morning Hotness: Black Radiance Barely Pinnk

2009-02-26T07:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm not a sheer girl. I think my nails look weird, not to mention I always have those stupid white dots because I'm forever clumsy. So sheers look weird.

But, sometimes sheers can translate well into opaque polishes. Such is the case for Black Radiance's Barely Pink

It's a shimmery, GLOSSY (no top coat in this picture!) soft pink color with shimmer. 1-2 coats make for a gorgeous sheer, 3-4 coats make it opaque and oh-so-pretty. I love Black Radiance, don't forget that it's an unbelievable steal at $1.99 at some Rite Aid stores!

Dahlia Darling

2009-02-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

I do not like Sally Hansen's bajillion different nail polish lines. It makes life incredibly difficult sometimes. It would be so brilliant they were just condensed into just one line. Then again, maybe we wouldn't have like 80,000 variations of pink or red available for us.

Even though I give SH a lot of flack, it's easily one of the best and usually affordable drugstore nail polishes. That's because while I adore cheapo brands, Sally Hansen usually has a lot of variety, especially of late. But really, sometimes pink is just pink. And I say that as a polish whore with about 50 different shades of the same pink or red. But then again, I easily every color in the rainbow, even the colors I can't see.

Anyway, I LOVE Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Dahlia. It's one of the most multifaceted, "sophisticated" (read: not crazy BLING BLING IN YO FACE) glitter topcoats around. It's multicolored, fine shimmer with tiny gold flakes. I tried it over, what else, a pink Sally Hansen color, and fell in love. It was cloudy that week so I don't have fabulous pictures but you can see the results:

Oh, and True Tulip is a straight creme, so all this beauty is all Dahlia

See what I mean about the sophistication? It's so subtle, but wonderful.

As with all good things though, there is a downside. Dahlia is not a clear glitter topcoat, so it will slightly alter the base color to be a bit lighter. So, it works best with lighter colors and black. You can layer anything over black.

Here it is over a darker color, LA Flare Green (a beautiful green creme PS)

As you can see, the glitter also shows up a bit differently over LAF green. It's not unpleasant, but it does make a difference in color. That's really the only downside to this. But then I think about how great it goes over black and over lighter colors and I'm won over again. I'll have to play around some more but I'm definitely loving Dahlia.

Daily Circuit

2009-02-22T05:12:00.000-08:00

So I just got caught up with two month's worth of posts from Nessasary Makeup when I realized that I haven't really been keeping up with my beauty blogs....I'm a little out of the loop with the new nail collections too (though I've seen pics of China Glaze's new collection via Jen who got them like months ago and they are quite amazing). It's like culture shock all over again!

Anyway, I decided to share my "daily circuit," aka the websites I visit as soon as Firefox opens.

1. Gmail/iGoogle- I'm obsessive about e-mails...my best friend, my sister and I are email junkies, so I usually have a Gmail tab open 24/7 on Firefox (oh, and I save every email cuz I treasure your feedback!). I recently discovered the usefulness of having an iGoogle page too.

2. Celeb Gossip- I think I've mentioned how celebrity gossip is my guilty pleasure. I hit up three sites: Dlisted, JustJared, and OhNoTheyDidnt. I love Michael K, he's amazing. Jared is probably the nicest celeb blogger out there (although Trent from Pink Is the New Blog is so nice too!) ONTD usually takes a LONG time to scroll through but the best part are the comments, which range from hilarious and catty to ...uh did she/he really say that?

3. Real News- after getting caught up in the latest antics of celeb shenanigans, I have to remind myself that sometimes the real world sucks. I love the news and being caught up on the latest world events and stuff, but sometimes it's really depressing. I like to go to BBC to get caught up on all world events, and then CNN for more U.S.-oriented news. Then, just because I get homesick sometimes and I'm one of those that loves their hometown, I peruse Sacbee.

4. Nerdy Stuff- EcoGeek & Engadget...I love all the scienfic talk about the environment and even though I don't understand like half of the stuff that's said on Engadget, it's super cool. Because even though I would never have the need for a G-Pen F-509 digital tablet, it doesn't mean I can't appreciate it.

That's a lot of interneting. Though I love beauty blogs, they're a bit of an afterthought. Sometimes I get distracted by Wikipedia (btw, my school was the featured article yesterday! It was amazing...and damn I should have screencapped it) and my whole daily circuit gets fragmented. But usually, these are the sites I frequent the most and are usually on the top of my Internet to-do list.

So, what are the sites you HAVE to visit every day?

Happy Year of the Ox

2009-02-22T04:50:00.000-08:00

Don't ask why I'm still up at 4:50 AM. I've always been a bit of a night owl and sometimes I just can't sleep well. And sometimes I mess up my sleep cycle. Anyway, I have to be up in 4 hrs so I'll keep this post short and simple.

So I was talking to my sister on the phone today and she was telling me how she's been doing a lot of frenches lately because she discovered this method of doing french tips that's apparently amazing. Since I suck at them, she's going to teach me when I go back home for spring break. I'm excited for it!

However, until then, you guys are stuck looking at my crappy attempts at french tips. I did this one in the beginning of February during Chinese New Year and used those french guide stickers. It kind of worked but the glittery tips took forever to dry so they look kind of bad, sorry! I made the pictures smaller to spare ya'll the agony.

So without further ado, my funky french in honor of the year of the ox (and my aunt is an ox! But in China since ox's aren't that attractive they default to pictures of cuter cows...sorry I'm a bit ADD at the moment). I used NYC Glossies 227 as the red base and OPI Thrills in Beverly Hills for the tips:

Yeah...Thrills in Beverly Hills is a glitter topcoat so I had to use multiple layers and then smudged it. Since it was a busy week...I actually forced myself to have flawed nails for like three days. Oh, the horror =).

Good night/good morning!

Fickle, Fickle Avon

2009-02-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

It's weird. I've been disappointed with Avon before, but their other products aren't that bad and they have fantastic sales. Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, as I posted yesterday, I decided to finally try these dry polish strips. Avon first came out with them about two years ago I believe, and it's been popularized by Incoco (you can find them at Walgreens) and Sephora.

So, I've been carrying around these strips for a good half a year because I was a little hesitant to try them. Even though they were on sale ($3.99!), the Asian in me hates one-time use products. I want to get the most of my money! But I was optimistic about these.

(Sidebar: I'll keep these picture small. Firstly, my camera kind of sucks as you guys are well aware. Secondly, my nails are stained and horrendous up close)

It started out with so much promise......
Yes, that's Novak Djokovic as my laptop background. My favorite tennis player, as he's practically the same age as me but far more accomplished. Also, ignore my missing bracket key.

Here it is out of the package against the instructions (which btw were so confusing!)

Basically for the french ones, you peel off the polish sticker to the perforated edge and apply the white tip first. I did not understand that until my second nail. But, applying it carefully can be a pain so you get a LOT of bumps. Also, it's hard applying the french tip close to the edge so I ended up with the super-tacky THICK WHITE TIP

My patience was running out by this point, and I also discovered that the "topcoat" was really hard to apply quickly and there were lots of bumps. Color me unpleased. Can you see the bad application on my middle finger? It didn't even adhere to my nail!

My ring and pinky finger ended up looking ok, but I gave up on the "topcoat" at this point and just stuck to sticking the white tips on. I was determined to see this project through

Sooooo unattractive. Can you imagine if I had gone to the interview like this? Eek!

I love taking pictures at this angle. It's deceiving, because it's universally flattering. Kind of like the "myspace angle" of nail pictures

But close-up reality is ugly:

The only good finger to come out of this hot mess is my pinky, which ironically I screwed up wrong because I didn't know how to apply it because the directions were CONFUSING

Maybe, if you squint really hard....nope still looks pretty bad. Even the miracles of Orly tinted polish couldn't save this

And this is everything I threw away....so wasteful

Ok, well I did kind of like the tip part of the stick-on polish. I think it's incredibly handy for someone like me who seriously can't freehand french tips if their life depended on it. Not to mention super handy for those that want to do a dark base/white tips funky french. But, I don't think I would ever pay full-price (they retail for like $7-8!) for ANY stick-on polish. I have a feeling the full-color ones are a lot easier to apply so I might try these again when they're on sale and I have more patience. There were times where I ripped the excess stick-on part off too agressively and it would tear a part of the tip off and it would just agitate me more. I now know that it's not like regular polish and I can be done and out the door in 20 minutes....lesson learned.

Biggest Waste of $3.99 + 7.75% Tax Ever

2009-02-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow (ok, in like 7.5 hrs) I have an interview for this internship program I really want to get into for interning in DC this summer! I'm so nervous and I thought, well, I'm going to look my best so why not try Avon's Dry Nail Enamel strips?

Well, that was a hot mess. And entirely not in the good sense. Detailed pictures in real-time up tomorrow, promise!

PS: I'm wearing NYC Glossies 221 tomorrow, a mauvey color that will hopefully kind-of match my purple sweater vest (yeah, sweater-vest. Oy, business casual.)

Madness, Sheer Madness!

2009-02-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Well, I still have a backup of pictures on my camera, unfortunately. Next week is going to be super hectic for me so I'll try to get them uploaded and edited ASAP. I've been feeling guilty about not posting though so I decided to dig around in my very unorganized Photobucket account and see what pretties I had to share. Luckily, I have a LOT of older pictures.

I think you guys know my love of drugstore polishes- especially NYC and Wet n Wild. It doesn't get much better than polishes for under $3! I received this color from a friend towards the end of my freshman year of college, right when I was getting into nail polish. I really love it, and it has such a nice memory for me too.

At first I thought the color would be too orange-y on me, but it's a perfect coral shade (more hinting towards orange in this picture though). Wet n Wild Crystallic retails for $1.99 at most drugstores, although I think this color has been discontinued. At any rate, it was kind of sheer (three coats here) but wore really well. I do love my sparkles

Everybody Loves Free Shipping

2009-02-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

So this has been a terrible week. On Monday I went to see an asthma & allergy specialist (I have both, lucky me!) where I found out that I'm allergic to ash trees (random), cockroaches & dust mites (these only affect my asthma) and shellfish. The last one was surprising because dude, I'm 20 and I've definitely had shellfish before. I mean it's not my favorite food but I love shrimp, lobster...and crab...ESPECIALLY crab, omg. I never overate though, which is why I guess I just didn't notice it before. Anyway the doctor advised me to limit my consumption otherwise I'll break out into hives. Lovely.

Wow, major digression sorry. Anyway it takes a lot of effort to write this because I've been super sick the last few days to the point where I cant eat, sleep or type. Or do anything except watch tv shows on my laptop. But when I saw this email, I knew I had to share.

Today is the LAST DAY to get free shipping from the Chanel website with any Fragrance and Beauty order. This includes nail polish, specifically their latest Les Noirs de Chanel (which my best friend would love because she lives for vampy colors).

Link to the advertisement

Now you rare hear the words Chanel and free in the same sentence so if you've just been too busy to pick up some Chanel stuff or if you're too far away from a Chanel counter, this is perfect. Or if you're on your deathbed (slight exaggeration) like me and you can't really move. Unfortunately for Hawaiian and Alaskan residents, Chanel hates states that aren't a part of the continental US so this offer doesn't apply to you guys but I still love you!

It's time for more water, more pills, and more sleep. This took way too much effort.

Help!

2009-01-31T00:19:00.000-08:00

Occasionally you stumble on a gorgeous polish but it's either unnamed (ahem, Opera polishes), or they stuck the wrong label on it. It makes for very confusing times.

So, I got this Sinful polish and the label said Coco Diamond, but it's definitely not Coco Diamond...

Sorry it's not a great picture but it's a sort of green-teal (more on the green side) with gorgeous glassy flecks of aqua blue in it. This is a terrible picture but the sun came out only like five days after I wore it, so there's quite a bit of tipwear in the picture. Again, apologies.

I did wear this while I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA because it was a very appropriate nail color...it looks like the ocean! And I know I'm biased because I still think the Monterey Bay Aquarium is like the best thing in the world (mostly because it is!), but the Aquarium of the Pacific satisfied my craving for aquatic life.

Anyway yeah if anyone knows what the name of this color is, please let me know! I've never seen this Sinful color before.

Holographic Polish vs. Holographic Glitter

2009-01-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

I know some people get confused whenever polishes get referred to as "holo" or have "holo glitter." These are two different things, and it's important to distinguish between the two because sometimes it can get confusing

First, holo polishes are those that have an overall rainbowy, prismatic effect. In direct sunlight, it will have a base color but then a lot of other colors too. Here's an example of a holographic polish, one of my faves, OPI My Private Jet:

By contrast, polishes that have holographic glitter just simply have multicolored glitter but they don't quite create that special prismatic effect that holo polishes do. Take, for example, this red Opera polish
Yep, it a gorgeous red jelly with holo glitter...

The glitter kind of reminds me of sprinkles, especially in this picture:
I left this picture intentionally blurry because it shows how the glitter is holographic

Also, success! I found a full-size Opera bottle picture for reader Pixie. I didn't fail after all

If you're wondering why these pictures look a lot sharper than normal, it's because I took these with my brand-new Canon camera...before I realized the camera had a dead pixel. I had really bad luck with Canon cameras, I think I mentioned before that I got a brand new shiny Canon for my birthday, but then the button on top was broken. Then I exchanged it but the screen had a dead pixel. So, I'm still chugging along with my Kodak.

Also, I know I've broken my resolution of trying to post every day, but I've been swamped with midterns this past week. Expect a little bit more posting in the next couple of days before I have to study again.

New Link: Vampy Varnish

2009-01-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, this link is way overdue. I actually was going to add this link way back when I was in China, but the Great Firewall blocked it. Anyway, I really enjoy this blog because it's way more meticulous and chic than BAT...I mean there is definitely a lot of work that goes into her posts and I think that's definitely something her readers (myself included) appreciate. It also gives me a little kick in the butt to get my blog on too!

You can also get VampyVarnish Twitter updates here.

(Sorry it took so long Kelly!)

Garg!

2009-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

I was taking pictures just now and I was trying to find my Opera polishes to try and take a full-bottle picture for reader Pixie in comparison to a regular bottle. Unfortunately, I left it back home. I'll try to search through pictures of the bottle by itself, but I can't do a comparison. I would say that the polish is like half the size of an OPI bottle, but I'm not sure. Sorry Pixie!

Yes, I joined Twitter

2009-01-19T02:10:00.001-08:00

Try not to judge me! I know a lot of people find Twitter kind of annoying. In fact, I'm one of them (so yes this does make me a hypocrite). Whenever my friends bring up Twitter I'm just like uh, don't flatter yourself. Which is actually my response to like everything. I'm terrible sometimes.

Also, I'm not a fan of the 140 character limit on Twitter. I naturally talk a lot. And this translates into typing a lot. And sometimes I ramble, which I can't do on Twitter. But maybe that's a good thing for the people that have to listen to me.

Anyway, the reason I made a Twitter is because I'm always running into sales at stores. I mean, I don't go shopping every day (it's environmentally unfriendly...and actually it's more environmentally friendly to do online shopping. True story). But when I do I usually run into good clearanced items or sales related to nail polish and I just forget to post them here. It's sad. Anyway, hopefully with this Twitter I will be able to notify anyone who cares about any makeup sales in general or just random ramblings. I will definitely try and keep my BAT Twitter polish-related because really, my life isn't that interesting.

But, I will have to say, Slumdog Millionaire was FANTASTIC. Some people might be turned off by the R rating but it's absolutely fantastic. It deserves any accolades and awards it gets

Get the Bubbly Ready!

2009-01-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Speaking of awards season, I wonder how many bottles of champagne are opened after all those awards shows?

I can't think of any other clever thing so I hope that was a decent enough segue to this NYX polish, Champagne. I'm not going to lie, I really didn't like this color in the bottle...but then I put it on.

It's a duochrome, but more noticeable in person...it fluctuated from a true gold to kind of a darker bronze. Anyone else disagree? It's what my eyes told me anyway haha. Here is is with three coats. I really like NYX polishes, so far they seem to be really good (although I have an awkward huge flakey topcoat polish called Peach Ave.). The application is always pretty good, and they have good wear. If you can't find any stores near you that sell NYX, you should try online at Cherry Culture.

The only gripe I do have about NYX polishes though are that the labels on the bottom of the bottle seem to come off really easily. If I don't fix them with tape right away, I tend to forget the name of the polish if I lose the label. Opps!

Titanic 2.0

2009-01-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

Kate Winslet is so fierce, I love her. Naturally, she was fantastic in Titanic but also, if you've ever seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind...well that movie was just amazing.

Not only is she a great actress, she has a rocking accent to boot. And also at last night's Golden Globes, she was rocking silver polish. It provided a nice contrast to her classy black dress and looked great next to her TWO Golden Globes (for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress).

Cincy over at ALU identified the polish as Lippmann Rhapsody In White. The polish is gorgeous! Apparently it's from the fall collection...I'm so very tempted now.

I Felt Like a Donut Hole

2009-01-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

I was gonna most a more recent NOTD since all I have in my computer are older swatches and stuff. Though actually, I haven't bought a single new nail polish this month. Surprised? Haha so am I. It's not that I'm trying to cut back that much, it's just because with a new apartment and a new school quarter starting, I'm spending my money on more practical stuff like textbooks, food, a new haircut (that I desperately needed), a bed, and a vacuum (sidebar: my favorite chore is vacuuming, and my dream is to own a Dyson).

Alas, my OPI Kangarooby chipped after one day due to laziness on my behalf, I didn't file correctly. That's been fixed but I had a limited amount of time to paint a new color so I chose an old one, Essie Funships

But, check out these hilarious nails on SNL last night. I LOVE Neil Patrick Harris (aka NPH) and Taylor Swift so I had to watch last night's episode! In this skit, called Fran and Freba, NPH and Kristen Wiig (who has grown on me) play chatty air traffic controllers. It's funny....not hilarious....but whoa! Those nails! I love long nails but this was just taking it to the extreme and it was hilarious watching them maneuver around in those. Check it out:

Confessions of a Polishaholic

2009-01-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

I have a thing for redheads. It's the combination of the hair color and the fair skin that's so classically beautiful. It's why I love Nicola Roberts, Amy Adams (even though she's a natural blonde, homegirl rocks the red!), and Isla Fisher.

Isla has a new movie coming out, Confessions of a Shopaholic, so she's starting the press stuff. Here she is on the cover of UK's InStyle magazine:

It's a little hard to tell but she's rocking a fab muted pink that actually kind of matches the shade of the pink flowers on the dress (except the polish is a little lighter). It's a simple color, but magazine covers usually don't feature dramatic nails or dramatic colors.

Suggestions: China Glaze IV, Essie Sweetie Pie, OPI Fair Dinkum Pinkum

Also, if you guys are excited about this movie, Facebook has an application for it:
http://apps.facebook.com/shopa holicmagazine/

Hey, if it has more of the stunning Isla, I'm down.

Epitome of Tack

2009-01-08T00:35:00.000-08:00

Now, I really despise this so-called "celebrity." Maybe she's really a nice girl in person, but she's kind of famous for doing nothing and seems to be everywhere. Now, sometimes she does make good nail polish choices, I'll give her that- she's only one of the handful of "celebrities" that wears straight white nail polish.

But this....is kind of tacky.

Now, I'm a sucker for logos as much as the next person....there's no denying that they're a strong part of our society. And I have nothing against Chanel. But seriously, what is this??????

It's a little...TOO logo-y (it would be acceptable if it were only on a couple of fingers but it's on EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.). And also looks kinda cheap. And it's a little too desperate to flaunt it. Here's a hideous close-up:

Picture Source: JustJared

I don't know whether to laugh because it's so tacky or cry that someone at the Chanel store actually did this for her. Because Chanel is supposed to be like the epitome of class! And this is....so not.

What do you guys think?

Phantom of the OPERA

2009-01-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

This makeup brand is a bit obscure, really. I've tried finding a website for it but I've gotten nowhere. I saw this brand a couple of times around Shanghai (literally only twice), and even though they raised their prices, it's something about their polishes that make me want more. Opera is a cosmetics brand maybe based in Japan that has these really cool colors in chic, but very small, bottles.

Here was my first Opera polish, which was 29 RMB at the time (they have since raised their prices to 39 RMB, or about a bit more than $5 USD):

Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of sheers, I am a huge fan of this polish. The brush is really great, kind of short but a little poofy so there's not a lot of streakage. If you also notice, though it's a sheer peachy/orangey color, it also packs a lot of gold shimmer to make this color really pop out.

PS: I just absolutely adore Phantom of the Opera, and it's a dream to see this musical in person!

Special Thanks

2009-01-03T01:30:00.000-08:00

These past two days have been super hectic, and in my haste in last night's post I forgot to mention something so I'll just slip it in quick because I'm driving back down (7 hours....) to Southern California tomorrow. OK, so.

MEGA thanks to the active ladies on MUA for a situation that happened earlier last month. Apparently this girl on UK Ebay stole one of my pictures to use for her auction. While it's flattering that someone would go through all the trouble to steal my crappy photos, it's also kind of upsetting. I used to not think it was such a big deal, and I can understand why others don't either. But, when you start to put effort into taking the pictures and editing and posting them up, you can understand why it sucks to have other people take credit for your work.

So, here's my policy on photo theft: It's totally fine to post my pictures elsewhere as long as they are unedited (try not to hotlink though, even though I accidentally still do sometimes and people do get on my case about it). If it's an auction site, please add a link to this blog. But if you crop my pictures and take credit for them, I'll bring on the claws and I have an army of the coolest chicks around backing me. It's just petty and sad...I can't believe the amount of people who go around stealing other people's pictures and passing them off as their own. One of my biggest fears is identity theft and it's kind of a type of identity theft. And I like my identity. Also, it kind of just proves how some people have no lives.

Anyway, I'm always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, maybe they just don't realize what they're doing. So normally, I try not to get too upset in these situations and just ask them to add a link back to here. Still, I'm glad to have my np board girls on my side- they really are fantastic.

Definite additional thanks to ocelot1 and denise2648 for messaging me and letting me know of the situation!

I probably won't post again until Sunday night, depending on when I can get internet. Have a great weekend guys!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-02T03:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I know there has been a SEVERE lack of posts lately so if you're still going to stick with me, thank you! I promise to give you guys a good reason for that since one of my resolutions is to post something at least once a day. Studying abroad was one of the greatest experiences of my life, but it was hard finding a balance between school, family, work, and fun (I had a better balance of it here in the States, but I also had faster internet and a bigger collection to work with). I've also had a great deal of heartbreak to deal with while I was in China because of family stuff. But, it is a new year!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve! It's hard to believe that yet another year has passed. I spent the night with my best friend watching Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve countdown (no alcohol for me since I'm 20) before driving home and watching Chuck on Hulu. I've really missed Hulu, which isn't available outside the U.S.

I'm actually wearing Misa Love Bites, but here's an older mani I did while I was in China that is very appropriate for New Years:

I usually don't buy cheap street polishes, and for good reason....they take forever to dry! And who knows what gross chemicals are in there. I couldn't resist the blue though, and I couldn't resist the sparkly clear topcoat. The tips are a holographic Maybelline polish. As you guys can probably guess, this was my first doing a funky french and I decided to freestyle it. It was hard and as you guys can tell from the pictures, not very symmetrical or even, but I might be getting the hang of it.

Lastly, my other polish-related resolution is to buy less nail polish. I showed a great deal of restraint yesterday while shopping as I walked into Ulta and walked out with NOTHING. OPI's Toyland polishes are on sale though for $4.99. I also cruised by a MAC counter and the latest colors didn't really seem up my alley.

But well, let's face it. That resolution can't last very long =) I love nail polish way. too. much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

Well it's not quite Thanksgiving in the States yet but it's the fourth Thursday in China, so it's Thanksgiving for us! Honestly, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because there's no gift-giving. As much as I love Christmas, sometimes the gift-giving takes away from the true meaning of Christmas. There's something to be said about a holiday that makes people reflect about what they're thankful for in life. It's a very philosophical holiday, which I love.

Well, I've been saving this picture for forever, because this polish just screams Thanksgiving to me, Piggy Polish's Harvest Moon. To be honest, I know it's the name of a video game but I've never played it. But there's just something about this orangey brownish weird color that makes me want to dig into a pumpkin pie.

So what am I thankful of? The usual: family, friends, my health (though sometimes my lungs like to turn against me). I'm also thankful though for YOU, my readers, who have even decided to stick with me through my four month polish dry spell, lol. I will be even more thankful when I return back home to California and reunite with my massive nail polish collection.

Also, reader Brooke asked me about how to apply chunky glitters, like the NYC one I used for my 4h of July mani. The way I usually do it is by tilting the bottle slightly and then swirling the brush around before lifting the brush out of the bottle. Usually I'm able to get more of the chunky glitters. Hope this helps!

I will be having Chinese food this year probably instead of turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, so eat lots for me!

Since I also know I have a few international readers too, I have to note that this whole Mumbai situation is distressing and sad. My sincerest condolences to anyone who has been affected by this.

Obamaramamania!

2008-11-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, look at all the press coverage for Obama!

Being overseas during election year has been tough...I'm not going to say who I supported or anything because that's not really the point of this blog! I will say though that it's been really cool seeing history being made as the American presidency crosses an important milestone. In China they were playing the election results and stuff even on the public buses, so that was cool.

To celebrate my home country, I did allow myself to buy another polish. Pics will be coming on that, but it's very patriotic. Speaking of which, I do miss my large polish collection but I know that if I had that with me, this is exactly the mani I would do:

Readers might remember this pic from my Fourth of July post, but this is one layering combo that I never tire of. It kind of just screams America =)

Vamping It Up

2008-11-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Do you ever find yourself in "color moods"? It happens to me all the time, where I get into the habit of wearing pink five times in a row, and then switch to navy blue, and then I get a craving for some other color. Sometimes I get into seasonal moods too, where I wear brighter colors in summer and I wear more darks in the winter.

Dark colors can always look classy though. Take a cue from newlywed Scarlett Johansson, who was at last night's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's" benefit for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Photo Source: JustJared

Scarlett did a great job contrasting her nail color with what she was wearing Pairing short, polished black nails not only makes her nails stand out, but also draws attention to what she's wearing too because of the color contrast.

Usually I'm not a fan of being too matchy when it comes to polish but she did it really well here. I think the peep-toe helped, as you don't see too much of it.

For more information on the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is the largest private funder in the U.S. for Parkinson's disease, you can visit visit www.michaeljfox.org

Re: Minx Nails

2008-11-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Memory jog: this is in reference to this post

Hey guys, I e-mailed Minx about pricing, and it turns out that it's not a set price. Here's what their great PR person said:

We do not have recommended prices for the salons to charge for Minx, and it varies tremendously across the country. Some salons may offer simply Minx application with no accompanying manicure, while other salons may put together an hour "Minx-a-cure" involving reflexology massage, cuticle trimming, lotions, etc. together with the application. Also, you can imagine that salons in smaller cities charge less than those in expensive areas like Los Angeles or Manhattan. Because it varies so much, you may want to call two or three salons in your area and just find the average.

If you go online to www.minxnails.com, they have a Salons & Spas button where you can look up the nearest place to you that offers a Minx manicure. If anyone gets one, please share the experience!

More about Minx

2008-10-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

This is the first time this week that I've had some extra time, so I decided to follow-up on my post about Minx nails

RIP, some nail pictures

2008-10-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'm so sad! I got a new camera for my birthday, a Canon SD790. But, it turned out that it came broken so I now have to wait a bit longer to get it. I really like it so far, obviously one of the most important factors for me is the camera's macro mode, since that's what I use to take nail pictures. Zoom is also important to me too, and it seems to have decent zoom and macro modes, so we'll see!

Anyway, I popped in my 2GB SD card from my Kodak into the Canon to take some pictures before I realized the Canon was broken. Unfortunately, the Canon did an override or something and erased all the pictures on my SD card before the 25th. I feel stupid because I didn't realize that shuffling SD cards from one camera to another would cause such issues.

I downloaded the trial version of Card Recovery and it turns out that my pictures CAN be recovered. Of course, they tell me that I can only save my recovered pictures if I buy the full version, which is stupid and heartbreaking. Seriously, you're going to give me all this hope but then take that away from me unless I pay $35.00? No thanks...I'm not going to spend that much money on a program that I will only use once. I'm not that desperate.

I did have a decent amount of nail pictures on the card, but I will still try to find a way to recover it. Just know that there's been a setback for recent nail pictures.

Since it was my birthday though, I splurged and got two more nail polishes, a teal one and a green one =)

Blue Laguna Beach

2008-10-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally turning cold here in Shanghai, which makes me happy. One thing that I've missed the most about Norcal is AUTUMN. It's my favorite season because I love seeing the leaves change colors and falling. It's so gorgeous.

Anyway, summer is long gone but this is perfect polish season, as all the limited edition summer colors are being discounted. One color to look out for is L'Oreal's Blue Laguna, which was a limited edition color over the summer for L'Oreal. It's a pretty blue color with some purple tones. Normally I don't like frosty polishes either but this was a gorgeous bright color without being too overwhelming. Here it is in the shade and in sunlight:

It really reminds me of the beach, which I also miss a lot! This picture was taken in Californian sun too...there's really nothing like it. Anyway, this picture shows Blue Laguna in three coats, although it was opaque in two. As with most frosts, you can see some brush strokes up close, but they were pretty minimal.

100th Post!

2008-10-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

I was catching up on some beauty blog reads (still no access to ALU, Scrangie, Polish Addict, etc.), and found two quizzes on BellaSugar about nail polish history. Put your knowledge to the test!

Nail Polish History Quiz Pt. 1
(I got 6/10 on this one)

Nail Polish History Quiz Pt. 2
(I got 4/6 on this one)

Both quizzes were interesting, I knew some and guessed on a lot but it was quite informative! Well, it's been, oh my, about half a year and 100 posts....I'm looking forward to what the next 100 will bring =)

Change Myself

2008-10-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got a once-in a lifetime opportunity to go see one of my favorite Chinese singers, 王力宏, or Lee Hom as he's known in English. The title of the post is the English translation of his last album title. He's super talented and super cute, and I paid a little less than $60 USD for tickets. My dad seemed to think that that was expensive, except he probably forgot how much I paid for Christina Aguilera and Spice Girls tickets...and the seats weren't too bad, all about the same. I wish the screens were bigger, but the acoustics were good. And Shanghai Stadium is HUGE! My camera never takes good pictures at night but here's a fairly ok one of the concert:
I just need to see my favorite band, Keane, performing sometime and then my life, concert-wise, will be complete.

Anyway, I've been getting lazy about my nails since I've been sick on-and-off ever since I got back from my National Week holiday to Beijing and Dalian. But, the good news is that I do indeed have new pictures of a polish I got here in Shanghai called Rose Sheer. Not really the color you'd expect though....

Sorry for the extreme cloudiness in these pictures, I thought I fixed that with Picasa but it's just the angling of my camera and the smoggy sun

I did nail decals for the first time ever!

I didn't do so well on the nail decals this time but my ones right now aren't too bad. Anyway, yes the name really is Rose Sheer, I double-checked the label and the box. It's actually black with mostly a great olive-green shimmer but also has some blue shimmer. It's subtle but I like it. The application wasn't too bad at all, but the thing that disappointed me the most was the richness of the color. It's not exactly the most opaque of blacks, and definitely not as rich as Red Earth's polish. We'll see though.

Seventh Sense retails for 68 RMB (about $10USD) and can be found at Sasa stores in Shanghai.

Minx Nails

2008-10-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

As you guys know, one of my weaknesses is the shallow world of entertainment- I frequent celebrity gossip sites every day (then try to justify it by spending lots of time on BBC.com, ecogeek.org, and newsweek.com). Anyway, I was reading an blurb on JustJared.com about Minx Nails, which recently did Beyonce's nails for the music video for her new single, "Single Ladies. " You can read the post here. I was interested about Minx Nails based on what Jared posted, so I decided to contact them directly.

Their PR person, Janice Miller, couldn't have been nicer, and I got to find out a lot about Minx Nails. Basically, it's going to change the face of fake nails forever (in a good way). Unlike a traditional nail polish, Minx is applied in polymer strips that are heated and them applied with pressure onto the nail, where it then cools as a type of shrink wrap. The benefits of there not being an actual "polish" is that because it's a polymer, there is no chipping or smudging, and no drying time is needed. Plus, there are no fumes.

Something else that really stands out about Minx is that it doesn't require nail polish remover to remove, nor does it require prying the strips from your nails. Or soaking in any type of crazy solution. The simple way to remove Minx? Heat. Here's what their official website (MinxNails.com) advises:

Removing Your Minx Although Minx can last a awhile, you will eventually have to remove it as your nails will start to grow out. Do NOT use nail polish remover! We are proud that Minx is a green product and does not require chemicals to apply or to remove. We want to do our part in keeping mother earth healthy and happy. When you want to remove your Minx (so that you can put on a new set, of course), place your nails under a heat source (a hair dryer will do) and work loose an edge of Minx near a lateral nail fold. Slowly peel Minx off the nail plate going from side to side (not top to bottom). Apply a nail moisturizer when you are done, and have a back rub and a cocktail while you are at it.

The application process is similar to those stick-on nail strips that Avon and Incoco sell, but Minx is offered in lots of different colors, even metallics (which is a huge selling point for celebs). Or, they can be custom-made, as Janice told me that currently Beyonce and her sister Solange are sporting "OBAMA" Minx nails of black with silver letters. (To be politically equal because I try to be fair, I suppose you could customize them for McCain as well, with the Mc part on the thumb. If one really wanted to.)

Of course with such a high-tech and cool product, I admit I was a bit afraid to ask for the price. But, I am curious so I'll probably save up to try it sometime when I get back to the States. I love my polish, but it's interesting to try different products. Not to mention if Minx really does live up to it's claim of being chip-free, it would be the perfect solution for chipped nails on short vacations or especially business trips. I can sense this being a powerful asset for corporate women who are always on the go but want to keep a polished image.

Here's a picture of what "Golden Lightning' looks like (the same color Beyonce wore in her music video):

Photo credit: Michael Marker
Source: Janice Miller, Minx Nails

What do you guys think? It's a neat concept for sure though. I know it can't replace nail polish entirely (nor would I want it to, otherwise I'd have to find something else to blog about!), but I think as a once-in-a-while splurge, this could be a good short-term investment. It's definitely the most gentle alternative to acrylics or other fake nails, as there's no drilling and no industrial-strength glue. Alternatively, if anyone's tried it, I'd love to hear your experience.

Ok and as a sidenote, anyone who has a Nintendo DS and a R4 card, download Taiko No Tatsujin. It's such a fun game, and I've been obsessed with it. I love rhythm games, because my hand-eye coordination has only improved from playing video games lol.

Update

2008-10-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I know news has been slow here but I just came back from like back-to-back vacations, as well as having to deal with school and a family death. I've been really preoccupied but I've really missed blogging and I've done some stuff to maximize efficiency for me so that I can get back to blogging on a regular schedule:

I got a SD card reader, which will make uploading pictures onto my computer faster
I got a new SD card exclusively for taking nail pictures, which will help me so that when I do upload my pictures I don't have tosearch through thousands of my other pictures...also so that when my friends look through my camera they don't have to see like 15 pictures of my nails
I downloaded Picasa, which will help me upload pictures faster to the web and will hopefully cut down on the editing time.

Granted I can't go crazy with taking pictures like I used to with my huge stash back home. But, I will get to share pictures of some polishes I've gotten in China, as well as some older pictures I have on my computer that I haven't shared yet. Hopefully with more efficiency, I will be able to post more. I've already got some interesting news to share with you guys about Minx Nails, a type of manicure you can get at salons that honestly sounds amazing. So please, stay tuned!

Minx Nails

2008-10-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

Satisfaction

2008-10-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

**Blogger's Note** Ok, so I started this post the day before I left for Beijing but I totally fell asleep in the middle of posting, sorry! I'm in Dalian right now enjoying my vacation but I had to pop into an internet cafe to post this

Right now I'm packing for a vacation, I'm going with some friends and my cousin to Beijing for China's National Day (Oct. 1), except we pretty much get the whole week off. It's a big celebration, and even though the capital is going to be PACKED, I'm excited to see all the celebrations that will be happening.

I'm a bit worn out from school and running around trying to find stuff for the trip though, so this will be a short post. It's ok to just stare at this polish though, it's really amazing. Red Earth is an Australian cosmetics brand that is super popular in China (most famously, actress Zhang Ziyi used to be a spokesperson for Red Earth) and has been along longer than mainstream American brands have been in China. So even though the products are a bit pricier, the quality of Red Earth is always top-notch.

It's evident in their polish #73. I was craving a darker color so I caved when I saw #73. In the bottle, it looks like maybe a blue/purple dark grey...

But on the nails, it looks a bit like OPI Light My Sapphire!

It's pretty, but not quite as sparkley as Light My Sapphire. This was my first Red Earth polish but I will have to save up to buy a few more. The polish was very rich and opaque in one coat, so it's definitely good stuff. It definitely satisfied my craving for a vampy color.

Red Earth polishes retail for 78RMB in China and can pretty much be found anywhere. They have stands in malls, independent stores, and can also be bought at Sephora (which is where I got mine =)).

Happy Birthday!

2008-09-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a birthday shout-out to EmpressStephanie, who runs Polish Addict. Words cannot express the tragedy that is my life since I cannot view her blog nor Scrangie's blog.

Anyway, happy birthday Stephanie! I hope you have a terrific and polish-filled day & year.

...and it's also my mom's birthday, so I have to give much love for my momma =) Happy birthday mommy! I love you.

Gah!

2008-09-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

This is a hard season of nail polish for me to be away. True, I get cool Asian polishes but I can't get too many because it makes it difficult for me to carry back and to get through customs. Instead I've spent an hour looking at my friend Jen's pics because she has China Glaze Bahama Blues and the OPI Holiday Collection pics up. I LOVE China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea, and I can't wait to get it! It reminds of me a pretty Sony Cybershot I saw yesterday at the Sony store, which looks like this:

Sony Cybershot DSCW55 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Blue) via Amazon.com

I also really like OPI Don't Toy With Me, which I am definitely also going to get. A girl can never have too many reds! I'm actually really excited because it's been a REALLY long time since a new OPI polish has struck my fancy, and it can only go up from here right?

And let's not get started on the hotness that is ChG Emerald Sparkle, ok? Misa Toxic Seduction and ChG Emerald Sparkle are definitely the IT green colors of this year. The world could always use more green!

So I really do love Jen, not only is she my age and super cool, she got me NYC Molten Metal because I'm in China. It's a limited edition NYC, the same as NYC Midnight and Cognac Sparkle (the latter of which I missed out on). I feel like this is like an upgraded version of Chanel Kaleidascope, which I was not a fan of.
It's blingtastic and fantastic. I can't wait to try it! I've always really liked NYC polishes just for the cheap factor, but their limited editions that come out each year with their fall line is definitely something that keeps people interested. Although, I have to say that the polish is a bit more expensive than regular NYC Glossies, either $2.99 or $3.99 if I recall correctly. Don't be discouraged if you can't find it right away, they will still be around by winter. Or possibly later. But, me being me, I wanted to get it secured ASAP. I mean, look at this color! Luckily Jen and I have the same skin tone, so hopefully it will look as good on me as it does on her.

No Really, I'm Not a Waitress!

2008-09-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the poor quality of the picture, since I rarely get full sunlight like I used to, I've been tinkering with some indoor lighting. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't think I can get a halogen lamp...

Anyway, for the past couple of days I've been wearing a classic OPI shade, I'm Not Really a Waitress. It's a classic red shade...and there's really not much to say other than that.
It's not to say that this isn't a good color. It's an almost cherry-cranberry shade in real life with just enough red/gold shimmer. I prefer how it looks in dimmer lights or in the shade because it borders on almost a vampy red shade. It is a very pretty color.

Other then that, I think the word "classic" sums it up pretty well. If you're looking for a staple red color and OPI wears well for you, this is definitely a must-have shade. Other then that though, red is red. There's not much that makes it stand out. Every drugstore brand makes a red like this, it's really only a matter of preference. It is one of OPI's most popular shades and a best-seller though.

I recently bought the September issue of Chinese Harper's Bazaar. It's the Fashion Olympics edition, and it's huge! Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is on the cover, and it has some cool nail pictures and ads in it too. I've been noticing that within the past three years, nail polish and in particular nail art has really started to pick up. Anyway, I'll be posting (hopefully) pretty regularly now that one of my friends has fixed my internet. I now have consistent (albeit slow) internet, hooray! It's not too bad as long as it gets the job done =)

Impressions: Studio Tools Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover Pads

2008-09-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

I know I'm constantly apologizing for the lack of updates, I actually caught a cold though in the past couple of days so I really haven't been in the mood to do anything but sleep and rest. I have actually gotten a couple of new polishes while I've been here in China, so I'm eager to share those as soon as possible with you guys....even though there's not much sunlight to take pictures.

So, I decided not to bring a big huge bottle of nail polish remover with me here just because of the hassle and because nail polish wasn't an immediate priority. But, to tide me over until I could buy some remover, I picked up Studio Tolls Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover Pads at Target. I used them last summer as well since they are cheap (I believe $1.99 for the box). They also come in an Acetone version, which I haven't tried yet.

L-R: Box, Individual Package, Pad

Quantity: 6 individual pads

Claims: Extra-thick felt nail polish remover pads are ideal for easy and convenient nail polish removal. Each pad contains a special formula to help soften cuticles, and add strength and resiliency for more beautiful nails. One pad cleans all ten nails.

My experience: The felt inside the packets is thick and supersaturated with remover. The scent is strong and a bit unusual, not like any remover I have smelled before. Not pleasant but not entirely unpleasant (it's bearable, for lack of better words) and quite strong. Also, one pad doesn't clean all ten nails, it can clean up to five since all the remover dries up by then.

Likes:

convenient for traveling, no worries about spills
price isn't too bad

Dislikes:

the way the remover feels against bare skin, because the pad is so saturated with remover, it can make your fingers feel pruny
the remover also feels very sticky after, which added onto the pruny fingers makes it feel very uncomfortable
kind of drying
the remover dries so quickly that by the fourth and fifth nail it becomes a struggle to remove the polish- I actually found out that this can be avoided by keeping the pad folded as shown in the picture above, but the trade-off is that your fingers get prunier.

Conclusion: They kind of suck but they are good for short-term vacations when you don't have anything else, since they are so convenient. That being said, I need to find some real remover ASAP.

Also, I'm sad because there are some beauty blogs that I can't access, like ALU, Scrangie, Nail Addict. It's very weird. Luckily I am able to see my own blog, but that means I can't always keep track the latest nail trends in the States for four months =(

Mini Nicole-fest

2008-09-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! I actually AM alive! I've just been having issues with internet and I've also been having a blast in Shanghai. No matter how many times I've been to this city, I'm constantly rediscovering more stuff to do and my friends and I have been having lots of fun just wandering around.

So, a bit of belated business to tend to...the Canadian Nicoles! First of all, Canada was awesome and I just love Niagara Falls...

The American Falls & Horseshoe Falls from the Rainbow Bridge

American Falls at night

Isn't it so beautiful? I could just sit and take pictures forever. Obviously with the sightseeing and soaking in all Canada could offer in the four days I was there, I didn't get to see much nail polish UNTIL the very last day I was in Canada. We stopped by the Shopper's Drug Mart inside the Eaton Shopping Centre in Toronto, and I got some Nicole's on sale! They were priced at $7 instead of the $13 CAD they usually are. Pricey, especially with the sadly weaker dollar, but it's a unique souvenir for me. Now, these aren't any regular Nicole's...these are two Nicole's that actually can only be bought in Canada! They are exclusive to only Canada, so I'm really glad to have gotten my hands on them.

I adore vampy, or darker, colors even though my parents hate them and always give me weird looks whenever I wear darker shades. But, I feel like polish is very expressive so I love wearing dark shades when I'm feeling fun or down. Also, they just look cool sometimes. The first shade is Drama in the Dark, a black base with slight green and blue sparkles.
It's actually a bit of a plain color, but I'm always really weird about wearing just straight black...most of the time, I just can't pull of straight black creme polish...I'm always tempted to layer something over it. It's a pretty color, but not much of a standout. I did get good, opaque coverage in one coat, this is it with two coats.

However, since I am a fan of green polishes, Nicole Drama in the Dark was what really grabbed my attention. The base is a dark green and it has green shimmer sparkles as well.

Shade picture:

I love it! It's shown here with two coats although in hindsight I should have put three. I'm so glad that many polish companies have started to make more green polish. It may seem a bit "out-there" for some people...I will admit that it took a lot of courage for me to wear green polish because I always thought it would look weird. But, I kind of thought that with red too and now I love red polish. Green is actually a lot more flattering than other people think. I do know though that for some people, it can be a giant step out of the comfort zone. However, you never know unless you try!

I really wanted to find the Canadian version of Respect the World because it's apparently darker...here's the American version, a pretty teal color that's a bit frosty.

In shade:

It would be prettier darker, but I do like how the American version looks too. I miss my polish collection!!!

Well I'm practically falling asleep as I write this, but I promise you that I will find a balance here soon so that I will get back to posting pics soon. I have a bunch of pics that I saved up just so I wouldn't run out of things to post about during my four-month time here. So, stay tuned!

Oh, before I forget though, according to reader Danielle, for all those in the Niagara Falls area, they are building a Sally's Beauty Supply in St. Catherine's!

China!

2008-08-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just a quick update. I'm sorry I haven't really had a choice to post, and from the looks of it I might not get the chance to post pictures for a while. I'm using my cousin's computer to write this, but I don't know when I'll be able to get internet for my computer, which is where all my pictures and stuff are. Hopefully I will have internet by the 28th, which is when I move into my student apartments.

By the way, I'm in China! I'm so excited to be here, despite the fact that it took a total of 13 hours of flying yesterday to get here. Canada was amazing as well, special thanks to readers Danielle and Jackie who live in the Niagara Falls area and tried to offer some ideas where I could get some good nail polish. Unfortunately, I was too busy sight-seeing and stuff to be able to get anything from Niagara Falls except for this really cool t-shirt. It's so beautiful there though, I wish I had more time to stay! Both the American side and the Canadian side have great places to just sit and be alone with your thoughts, and just take in all the beauty. It's really great. I did, however, get two Nicole Canadian Exclusives while in Toronto, so those pics will be coming soon.

So, I won't be able to post for a while. However, if you guys have any questions or comments, feel free to email me directly at ballzandthinner@gmail.com .

A Blue Bird

2008-08-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

I am so pleased that my favorite tennis player, Serbia's Novak Djokovic has advanced into the quarterfinals of the Olympics! Unfortunately tennis matches last way too long for NBC to show it in prime time but hopefully they will show the final, which will most likely be another fantastic Nadal-Federer showdown. I'm still rooting for Djokovic to push through though! The last three nights of Olympic coverage has really focused on gymnastics, and the stuff those gymnasts can do is really incredible. I could never play a sport where you can practice so hard and do a routine so perfectly over and over and then mess up in a competition....KNOWING that you can do it is just way too heartbreaking.

Speaking of heartbreaks, let's talk polish! China Glaze's Blue Sparrow, from their recent Ink Collection, is one that kind of breaks my heart. It's sooo beautiful in the bottle, and also when you first apply it. It's a neon blue with just a cornucopia of light blue glitter. It's pretty, yes. Here it is with two coats

As with all neons, it dries matte because of the amount of pigment they have to put in it. However, the downfall of Blue Sparrow is what makes it beautiful: the extraordinary amount of glitter in the polish not only makes it dry matte, but also gives it a gritty finish. Now, I've mentioned before that my favorite topcoat, INM Out the Door is super thin. Needless to say, in order to make the finish of Blue Sparrow smooth, you will need a thicker topcoat, such as Seche Vite, Poshe, or Oh So Wet. I used THREE coats of Out the Door and the finish still wasn't smooth. I will have to try this polish some other time with another topcoat combination, because the only reason I had patience to put on three coats of freaking topcoat is because the Olympics were on.

Blue Sparrow was a pretty polish, but I was kind of unsatisfied with it. The grittiness and the overabundance of the glitter distracted from the pretty base color. Maybe with a glassier finish, it would be a lot prettier and the glitter would sparkle more. On the upside though, with three coats of topcoat the color wore like iron.

I could say a lot more about BS (bad acronym for the polish name!), but I have to get up in oh I dunno, three hours? for my flight =/. I had to get this post out though because a) blogging is quite a stress reliever and b) I will have internet in Canada but I'm not sure if I will have time to edit some swatch pics I've taken.

Pink is Power

2008-08-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm trying to get everything sorted out with my upcoming vacation to Niagara Falls and my studying abroad to China! There's also the matter of the Olympics, did anyone catch the amazing opening ceremony? Truly memorable. I'm usually more of a fan of the winter Olympics, but these summer games have been really exciting, especially American Jason Lezak's extraordinary comeback in yesterday's 4x100 medley for swimming. Crazy!

Anyway, another reason why I've been busy is because I attended two weddings in the past week! For both weddings, I sported light pink nails. I really love pink polish because I feel like it's a pretty neutral color to wear on nails and I love these two polishes.

For the first wedding, this was my dress, a silvery pinkish dress that has a paisley print.

To match, I wore Essie Pink is Powerful, a milky off-white color with the tiniest hint of pale pink. A gorgeous sheer, though naturally since I'm not a sheer fan, I used four coats to get to opaqueness. Of course, I mentioned before that some Essies have this gorgeous microshimmer and this is no exception.

For the second wedding, I wore a cute green/teal/brown dress which I LOVE. So adorable.

On nails, it was Chanel Rose Tourbillon. I had forgotten how pretty this color was even though it wasn't too long ago that I got it. I know I showed pictures before, but here are some others, including one with flash that shows the yummy silver shimmer

Also, a reader pointed out that for my last post, Zoya Trixie might be a possible dupe for MAC's $$$$$ Yes. After looking at Scrangie's silver pictures (love this girl and her crazy awesome swatch skills), it's clear that they are not very similar; Trixie's shimmer is a bit larger and seems grittier while $$$$$ Yes has more of a foily finish. If anything, Scrangie's picture of Sally Hansen Sterling, three pictures up from her picture of Trixie, is more similar....Misa Got to be Reel seems to be a close contender as well.

Early Morning Hotness: $$$$$ Yes & Firehouse

2008-08-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

So today while with my sister at Macy's, I was wandering around when the sales associate at the Dior counter literally bombarded me with all the new Dior stuff. She was showing me their new perfume (which did NOT smell good actually), their fall collection polish (a deep berry red with subtle red shimmer, pretty but nothing special), lipglosses, etc. Then she told me that if I bought the new red polish and Gold Nugget she would give me a gift. And then she showed me the adorable white/teal bag.

Well, luckily I came to my senses and while I was VERY tempted by her offer, Gold Nugget alone was not enough to sell me. Which is why I ran over to the MAC counter and got two MAC polishes for almost the price of one Dior polish. It's called being efficient =)

The polishes I got were a part of MAC's new Lustre Twins collection, and I got 2/3 polishes. I passed on the purple one because it just wasn't very stunning. I 'll stick to my purples from Misa's Fall/Winter collection, thank you very much.

I wasn't really sold on $$$$$ Yes, the metallicy silver one, but I took the plunge because it just looked so beautiful on the ad picture. Here's the ad picture:
Gorgeous, right? Well, it's kind of that gorgeous in real life, with the right lighting. It does dry fast and is kind of streaky, but the end result is just beautiful. It looks like liquid aluminum foil on your nails! I used three coats and yes there are brush marks. The only downfall of this polish, really. It looks a bit dull without topcoat, but these are inside pics and not really a good representation. I just couldn't wait to share these pics with everyone, haha.

Here is $$$$$ Yes in normal light, with flash, and far away with flash respectively.

As you can see, it looks a bit dull in the first pic but the flash really captures the shimmer well. I was surprised how well it looked with my darker skin tone, I'm going to have to do a proper mani with the color and see how it looks in full sunlight. I've heard that Zoya Trixie is similar, if not a complete dupe of this color.

Firehouse is gorgeous though! It's a red with some orange undertones, but ultimately pulls to a true bright red. It was opaque in one coat, here shown with two coats:

Kind of looks like two colors completely huh? The second is definitely more accurate, though in real life it's a bit like a mix of the two. I don't know if it's because the most Project Runway episode was on or what (the challenge was to design an outfit for a USA athlete that could be worn for the opening ceremony of the Olympics), but this red reminded me of a very true red, a very patriotic red too. Despite it being frosty and showing brush marks too, I still really like it. I promise I will take more accurate pictures in sunlight soon.

I'm glad my first experience with MAC polishes has gone over so well. I was really iffy after buying it because I occasionally suffer from CSS (chronic [credit card] swiping syndrome) and then regret it after, but I'm really happy that I reluctantly took the plunge and a color out of my comfort zone, not to mention a fun red that's not much like my other reds.

MAC polishes retail for $11 and can be found at Macy's, Nordstrom, and indepedent MAC stores as well as online at http://www.maccosmetics.com.

Picture source: MAC Lustre Twins

PS: So excited about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics tonight! Yay China!

Cheap + Good = Satisfying

2008-08-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

Petites polishes are the cheapest at Walmart ($1.24), and they are oh-so-satisfying. For a tiny bottle, .25oz (half the size of a full-sized Essie polish), it sure delivers and there is quite a bit of product to go around. Another reason I love Petites? Some of their polishes have gorgeous flaky glitter that is unique and fun, but flat so it still looks professional and very "together" from far away. I'm a big fan of bringing out the inner childish delight in everyone, can't you tell?

I've showed a preview of Juke Box before, but here is a proper mani of it. The base is a pinky-rose color and once enlarged, you can see the flaky glitter. This is three coats, and naturally my application turns out well when I'm not really paying attention to it. Such a pretty color.

Unfortunately, I revisited Walmart and it seems as if Petites have remodeled and reformulated a bit. The Petites label is no longer sideways, the font is right-side up and it seems as if all the flaky glitters are gone =(. Peach Orchid used to have gorgeous flaky glitter in a milky pinky-peachy base and now it has regular gold shimmer.

Today I saw the OPI France collection in real life at Ulta and was pretty disappointed. Nothing really called out to me and I realized to my horror that I haven't gotten anything from the Russian, Hollywood, India, Softshades, or France collections....making it FIVE collections in a row that have underwhelmed me. Ahhhhhh! Luckily, China Glaze's Rodeo Diva collection includes some yummy numbers, don't forget to check out Scrangie's amazing swatches on her website. I'm definitely gonna add more ChGs to my collection in the future.

Tomorrow I will do a bit of swatching, and I'll have to swatch some cool flaky glitters for everyone! They are super cool and fun. I still have to decide what polishes I'm going to take to China other than OPI Shanghai Shimmer, not to mention what polish I'm gonna use for a family trip to Niagara Falls from the 14th to the 17th. I'm getting so excited for all my traveling this summer!!!! It's going to be hard to part with my polishes for four months when I study abroad though....

Sometimes Hype is Justified

2008-08-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day in San Francisco. While there, I quickly ducked into the Lush store in Union Square to try some of their Lemony Flutter, which is a cult fave over at the MUA nail board. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Here's the description from their website:

Softens stubbornly scaly skin wherever it may hide If you have dry skin that would make an elephant shudder, then pick up a pot of lovely Lemony Flutter! This rich butter isn't just for fingers, it's for anywhere that dry skin lingers. Elbows, knees and heels feel royal when you butter them with mango, avocado and flaxseed oil. Wonder why you lived your life in the rough, when with Lemony Flutter you can strut your silky stuff.

I applied some to my left elbow, because I have super dry elbows and ankles....well ok, dry skin in general. I was exhausted by the end of the day yesterday night so I forgot about it, but this morning I woke up with a super soft left elbow (my right elbow, sad to say, is still kind of dry and icky) and was reminded of my little experiment yesterday. Needless to say, I was really impressed. Despite the fact that it's kind of pricey, $13.25 for 1.5 oz, a little goes a long way and I was impressed by how it really, really worked on my elbows (something my beloved Eucerin wasn't even able to accomplish). I think that if I don't go back to SF anytime soon, I'll have to place an order for this. Lush may be expensive, but for now I'm totally buying into the hype of their Lemony Flutter. Not to mention their cosmetics are cruelty-free, handmade and as organic and natural as possible. Jen raves about their bath bombs too, which I will maybe try....I'm not much of a bath person though. But I think I should relax more.

Now, a bit of a confession....I normally would have gotten the Lemony Flutter regardless of the steep $13.25, just so I could try it about report about it here. But...I kind of made a big purchase prior to that, a uber-cute bikini from BCBG. I got it for a good price (and come on! 70% off at BCBG, how could I resist?) though, but it was still pricey enough on a student's budget for me to not spend money for the rest of the trip, except for food because that's important. I am going to get around to getting it though, because wow, this could finally solve my dry elbows and dry cuticles problem once and for all!

I do have to say though that this cream has a very strong lemon scent. If you're not a citrus person, it may be too strong for you, though they say the scent gets better once you rub it in a bit. I love citrus scents and citrus in general so it's not an issue for me, but for those that have an aversion to strong citrus scents, it may be a bit too much.

I leave you now with a picture of a sea lion posing like the awesome diva he is. Very fierce.

Click on the picture of the Lemony Flutter above to be taken to the site to buy it. Or, find it and browse other products at the Lush website.

SH Salon Navy Baby & Comparisons

2008-08-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was browsing Ulta and saw a special display for Sally Hansen Salon line polishes. Imagine my surprise when it was a display specifically for Navy Baby, a navy blue that I've heard about but never seen in person (and wasn't expecting to, all the stores around me at school are very slow when it comes to new polish displays). Take a look at this beaut:

In sunlight:

In shade:

After swatching them, I realized it looked a bit like Nina Out of the Blue, which reminded me of Chanel Blue Satin. So here they are together...please ignore a) the messy application and b) the weird positioning of everything because this was the best picture I got.

Here's Blue Satin up close:

A close-up of Out of the Blue...

And a close-up of Navy Baby

As you guys can see, they are all very similar. I will have to say though that the Chanel has a more vibrant/noticeable shimmer up close and in real life that didn't translate to the pictures. Here are Out of the Blue and Blue Satin by themselves:

All in all, if you're not crazy like me and don't need all three, I would pick the Nina one to own. Not only is it the cheapest option here (I think around $3 at Sallys? Compared to $6 for the SH and $19 for the Chanel), it's also easiest to find and once thinned the application and wear is pretty great. But, I will say that there is just something about the Chanel, a unknown WOW factor that just makes me love it. If it weren't so expensive I would buy more backups of the Chanel for sure. Good thing there are dupes!

PS: Has anyone been watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel? I love it!

Early Morning Hotness: Misa, Misa, Misa!!!!!!

2008-07-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

These pictures are LONG overdue and I apologize. I'm actually still pretty exhausted since I drove 7 hrs back home yesterday! California is a HUGE state. I know Steph and Scrangie have swatched them already, but here are pics from Misa's Poisoned Passion Collection for Fall/Winter 08. Actually, it would be a good idea to revisit their posts because Misa accidentally sent me two Dying Love's so I didn't get A Sin Worth Committing (the blue). Good thing Dying Love is a charcoal grey that actually looks good on me! Summer's not over yet, but these colors are perfect for fall and winter, the time of darker polishes. And it's so making me crave for those times too.

With this collection, Misa has really gone above and beyond. Each polish only needed two coats, no streaking problems at all, and everything is just rich and luscious. Photos are taken in direct full bright sunlight because I swatched outside today, which was fun. But, sunlight pics can be a double-edged sword because it can sometimes wash a color out (and my skin looks super washed out) so I took a picture of it in shade too...and everyone can see the high-gloss finish of each polish too. Like I said, Misa really went above and beyond with this collections.

First up, #175, Love Bite. GORGEOUS vampy burgundy creme. I love this color especially because it reminds me of Icing Redwood, except maybe a pinch darker. I love vampy reds, there's just something so sexy about them.

#176, Dying Love, is one hot charcoal grey shimmer. Ok yeah it's been done before, and dark greys don't really look good on me (and I always get confused because dark greys look so green to me sometimes)...but I will say that this polish is very, very nice. I also think that it works with my skin and the shimmer is just soo pretty.

I think I like it most how it looks here in shade, because that's how it looks most in real life

#178, Forbidden Lust, is a pretty, shimmery purple. Definitely a staple for purple-lovers. I love how it has a glowy look in sunlight.

#179, Toxic Seduction is by far my favorite. A gorgeous green with a touch of teal and is full of gold & multicolored microglitter. It's so beautiful that I'm glad all of these colors are good w/two coats, because then I don't waste as much when I wear this color over and over again. I'm really glad Misa added a green to this collection, it's definitely something that stands out about this collection specifically and also gives it a bit of an edge.

Finally, #180, Fatal Affair, is a very vampy purple with unique blurple shimmer. And try to contain your shock folks, because I actually really love this color too. Me. Loving a purple. Global warming is doing some funky stuff with my head ya'll, because I think I'm suffering from a heatstroke. But I think the pics can speak for themselves

So pretty much I had no issues with any polish in this collection. I especially love how I only need two coats for every single polish here, andI can definitely see where they drew inspiration from the Milan fashion shows. Everything here was so rich and (pardon the pun), polished. I know Misa polishes can be hard to find but they are definitely worth it.

But wait, there's more!

Misa also sent me some other polishes to swatch: Camellia Destiny, Heaven White, I Will Survive and Red Hot Mamma. The colors are pretty straightforward so these were taken in direct sunlight as well.

Camellia Destiny is a milky pink sheer. It was kind of streaky with the first coat but evened out a bit by the 2nd coat. Since I'm not a huge sheer fan, these is three coats here but you can still see that there's a bit of nail showing through. It's very lady-like but the streakiness bothered me a bit

Heaven White is a pure white, the same kind that Pure Ice Super Star! was but only needed two coats. Like with Camellia Destiny, it was streaky with the first coat but evened out with the second one.
I Will Survive is a GREAT song. I love Gloria Gaynor, she's so sassy and fun. This polish is also very sassy, a straight up glossy black polish. It's pretty much as if NYC Black Lace Creme and WnW Black Creme had a baby. It's got the mega-gloss factor of the NYC and the opaqueness and application of the WnW. Here it is in two coats. Plain but pratical.
Finally, Red Hot Mamma is just...well, it's a hot red for sure! It has a pretty hint of shimmer too that makes it a very glowy color.

I'm just about falling asleep at my laptop here so enjoy the beautiful pictures! Good night (or more accurately good morning)!

Early Morning Hotness: WnW Blazed

2008-07-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

Apologizes for the lack of updates and news lately, I've been busy studying since my final was yesterday, and then today I went with my friends to the beach. It's been an exhausting day, but it was really nice to just chill with my friends since I won't see them until next year! Anyway, the real news (besides OMG! Exclusive OPIs to mark the start of 90210 version 2.0 and the fall NYC collection polish) is that I'm finally going home on Monday! I'm going to be more than dead on Monday, but I promise hopefully Tuesday or at the latest Wednesday, I will have some amazing picspam for you guys. That's because I have a HUGE pile of Misa, and I think Essie and China Glaze as well polishes to swatch and review. It's going to be a lot of fun.

It's going to be busy for the next couple of days so I'll just talk about the most G-rated way to get blazed. I'm talking of course of Wet n Wild's Blazed, a fun but demure light orange that has some coral undertones.
This picture makes it look more coral than it is, although it straddles that coral-orange line, it ultimately is more orange.

And well, here's the thing. I'm totally a shimmer girl, but lately I've really been digging creme polishes. Blazed is super shiny on its own (it's two coats here), but add a topcoat and it was still shiny on day 4 as it was on day 1. And I love shine too. For 99 cents the quality is just outstanding....I think I may have to pick up more WnW polishes. I mean I love NYC but WnW is really winning me over. Now if only they could create a non-streaky yellow polish that's as pretty as NYC Taxi Yellow. Actually, if any company could make a non-streaky yellow, that would be perfect.

So Much Awesome

2008-07-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

I watched The Dark Knight yesterday with my roommates and just....wow. Yes, it's as good as everyone's been saying. Batman's always been my favorite superhero but it's also a lot darker than other comics. And wow, Heath Ledger's performance was just spot-on as the Joker, someone who from the cartoons is more sugar-coated (as cartoons tend to be, though obviously for a reason) but here is someone who feeds off of chaos and destruction and finds humor in the fallacies of human nature: greed, power, selfishness, and even in love.

But yeah, even though it is much darker than other adaptations of Batman, it's still full of awesome. Which is really what you can also say about OPI's My Private Jet. MPJ, as it's affectionately abbreviated as, is definitely a unique polish in that it's a vampy holographic polish. By itself, it's kind of sheer and a charcoal grey color, so the first time I wore it I didn't think much of it. But on the advice of the nail board, I tried it over black and just...wow. Now whenever I wear it, I layer it over black because of just how great it looks (much better than it is by itself). I'll let the pictures do the talking though....there were so many pretty pictures that I can't just post one:

Close-up shot of the glittery goodness

I used Wet n Wild's Black Creme under it. Gorgeous, right? It really makes me want to wear it now! It's definitely one of my favorite polishes and while it's still readily available online and in Ulta stores, it's slowly dwindling down which is killing me. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find, otherwise I'll have to buy a couple of backup bottles.

Sunny Side Down with Extra Whites

2008-07-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Recently, I'm all about the bright, fun colors. I'm having a lapse right now by wearing a vampy shade (Nina Out of the Blue, see previous post) but last week I was all about the unconventional light colors.

I started last week by wearing Pure Ice Super Star! Yup, there is naturally an exclamation point in the name. With a name so exciting, the color must be great too, right? Well, I love it. Super Star! is a stark white creme polish that happens to be opaque in one coat. I used three because the second coat was a little streaky but topcoat evened everything out for me. Here it is in shade and sun:

I think white and yellow polishes make my skin look a lot tanner, which for me is annoying because for a Chinese girl I have super dark skin and when I go to China no one believes I'm Chinese. But at the same time, I love the contrast of the white against my skin. My fascination with white polish began last year when the girl that sat next to me in calculus class wore white polish once. Her skin was a lot lighter than mine but it still looked amazing, which is why I think more people can pull off solid white polish than they think. Is it a little too white-out looking though? Maybe I'm a bit biased but I think it looks waaaaay better than just painting your nails with white-out. It's a lot smoother (or at least it looks like it would be). Don't forget that you can only find Pure Ice polishes at Wal-Mart too. As you can maybe kind of tell with the shade picture, it's very glossy with a topcoat, as cremes tend to be, which adds onto the whole not-looking-like-white-out thing.

I then ended last week with Rimmel Sunny Side. Jen's been egging me to get this shade for forever because it's just gorgeous, a light orange/slightly coral color that has fine, but not micro-sized, gold glitter. I went through a lot finding it because it looks as if Rimmel is revamping some of their bottles and stuff. I even had a terrible moment where I got the last one at Walmart, but then someone stole my cart. It was a crushing moment for a polish addict. However, I eventually got it.

Application was pretty bad, there's just something about the 60 Sec. Vinyl Shine polishes that are very difficult to apply because it's as if the polish is drying mid-air so there's a bit of drag. I was also a bit disappointed because even with topcoat, the color wasn't as shiny as I hoped it would be (I LOVE gloss and shine). I normally use INM Out the Door topcoat, which is pretty glossy but it did nothing for this polish. I think Jen had more luck with Seche Vite topcoat in creating a shiny finish. She loves this polish but I think my favorite Rimmel so far is probably still Pop Apricot. Sunny Side isn't a bad color, but I was just expecting a better finish.

Hello Pretties, Goodbye Money

2008-07-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned I would, I got Chanel Rose Tourbillon today, the Nordstrom exclusive Chanel polish for their annual anniversary sale. It actually had been an Asia-exclusive earlier, which is why and how ebay scalpers have been able to get their hands on it. I can hardly blame them though, this color is absolutely amazing. It's delicate and a must-have to pink lovers, I think. I really can't think of a dupe for this color off the top of my head. It's sheer with the first coat, but buildable and opaque at 2 coats. I did 3 coats just to bring out the color more. It's a light pink with incredible light shimmer that is really cool. I have to say even though I was unimpressed with Gold Fiction, Fantastic, and Kaleidascope, Rose Tourbillon was really worth every penny (I ended up not getting anything from the Robertson collection. I wanted LA Sunrise and Sunset but budget-wise at this time it's just not feasible and I didn't want them that badly. Ok, kind of but I have to be realistic with my money).

Here it is in the bottle, it actually looks pretty plain:

On the nail it's just so pretty though!

I'm not going to lie, I really love this polish and I'm happy with the money I spent. Maybe for some people they will think it's too conservative and blah, but I think it's very versatile. It's work appropriate but sparkles like no other close-up. It's also one of those perfect pinks that can go with any outfit because it's a very light pink. I'll be attending a wedding in August so you better believe that I'm going to be wearing this!

After enduring the madness that was the Nordstrom anniversary sale, I dropped by a nearby Sally's Beauty to see if I could find either China Glaze For Audrey or Turned Up Turquoise. The one I went to didn't have many ChGs, though I think they added some more Orly polishes. I ended up getting ChG Rainbow and Fairy Dust, as well as Nina Pro Out of the Blue.

Rainbow is really pretty in the bottle, a light pink with a blue flash. But translated onto nails? Ehhhh...I don't like how I can see the brush strokes.
You can see the bit of duo-chromeness happening, as my pinky is pretty pink while the rest have that blue flash. I like the color, but I'm iffy on whether to give it another chance. I was really rushing with this swatch so maybe I should be more patient? Anyone else have this color? Thoughts?

I was much happier with Nina's Out of the Blue, which is an inky blue with blue microshimmer. It actually reminds me a lot of Chanel Blue Satin, except maybe a bit more lighter since Blue Satin is pretty dark. And has more shimmer. But this is a pretty good, and much cheaper alternative:

These pics are with two coats, though the application was a bit gloopy. I've added some thinner because I plan on using it tonight.

Yesterday, I went to Ontario-Mills and Victoria Gardens (both in Rancho Cucamonga, CA) which I must recommend for anyone in the area who wants to do serious damage with their credit card. Ontario-Mills is HUGE and has some great stores, though after the first couple of times the excitement wears off. Victoria Gardens is really chill and kind of a romantic place to shop actually, because it's all outdoors and very quaint, despite the huge crowds of people. Victoria Gardens has both a Sephora and an Ulta actually...but I was good yesterday and resisted the pull of Ulta because of the Chanel price tag.

Anyway, I ducked into the Hot Topic at Ontario-Mills yesterday to get their Kelly Green polish after seeing pictures of it from my amazing friend Jen. It looks so....blah in the bottle. Look like an average green right?

I think the lovely Stephanie (aka Polish Addict) will LOVE this one, it's a gorgeous dark green creme

Soooooo opaque, this is two coats! It's so rich...so dark....so GREEN

It really is a beaut. I'm sure Stephanie can tweak this into a NARS Zulu dupe since it's pretty close to the base color I think. I do have a bit of a gripe with this polish though: the formula is super gloopy/thick, and the brush is a bit more difficult to deal with. Some polish ended up dropping onto the palm of my hand from the brush "stem'. Really, I think the easiest way to deal with these problems is to add some thinner and pour it into an empty bottle. Otherwise, you really have to be careful while putting it on because luckily the polish globbed on my hand instead of the carpet or my friend's wooden desk! Ahhh! I had to dip the brush against the sides a LOT to prevent more polish from free-falling everywhere. Also, the name 'Kelly Green' comes from the website, the bottles are NOT labeled with names.

And, because I'm a Nintendo geek, look what followed me back from Victoria Gardens:
It's 1-up mushroom candy tin! It has mushroom-shaped sour candies inside, which is so cool.

Oh, I also saw China Glaze Naked in Sally's today, for anyone looking for it. Have a great night everyone!

Lacquerice

2008-07-20T00:59:00.000-07:00

I've planned my day out so that tomorrow I will get Chanel Rose Tourbillon as soon as my local mall opens! I've had a rough week, so I think that will cheer me up considerably. So look forward to pictures of that tomorrow.

For now at least, enjoy some pictures from the fabulous mzprec1ouz of another Nordstrom exclusive, Dior Liquorice, a dark plum with gold sparkles:

Misa Fall/Winter '08 Preview

2008-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I finally got around to watching Batman Begins as preparation for The Dark Knight that came out today. This morning I decided to randomly Wikipedia-surf through the Batman universe and was reading up quite heavily on Harvey Dent, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy. The last page I visited was Poison Ivy's page, so it's really fitting that I got an e-mail right after on Misa's fall/winter collection called Poisoned Passion. Sound enticing? Just wait until you see these promo pictures!

Look! Gunmetal grey! Hopefully it's a gunmetal grey that looks good on me.

Oh this looks like a perfect preview/complement to the China Glaze Bahama collection! I'm excited because you can never have too much blue

I hope my eyes aren't deceiving me and this is really going to be a green...or at the very least, a pretty tealish color. But this is definitely the polish I'm looking forward to the most!

Gorgeous colors right? They were actually created especially for the designers the Misa team worked with for the Milan fashion show.

Also, select Sally Hansen polishes (10 Day No-Chip, Salon, Diamond Strength, and Maximum Growth) are on sale at Rite Aid now for $3.49, which is a fantastic deal.

Make sure you head over to Polish Addict and ALU to see the pictures of the new Color Club collections and a preview of a green ChG coming out later this year!

Pinktastic!

2008-07-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

I know I've mentioned a couple of times that I used to not be adventurous with my nails at all...I used to ONLY wear pink nail polish. But, well, given this batch of swatches can ya blame me? Pink is pretty hot!

Sinful Forget Now is a bit more on the fuchsia side, but it's still a gorgeous color with sparkles:

Sally Hansen 10 Day in Forever Mango is a pinkish mango color:

If you want a lighter pink, Sally Hansen Salon in You-Gurt Style is perfect, though it was a bit streaky. It's a great milky pink though, just requires a bit of patience:

L'Oreal Trust Fund Baby is a great slightly pearly pink, not super frosty but adds a bit of extra shine, a very classy pink:

Boots Rendezvous is a dark rose-pink with a punchful of gold shimmer:

Naturally, I saved the best for last. Rimmel Pop Apricot is a truly juicy pink color with a bit of pretty gold glitter:

I hope you enjoyed this mini picspam of delicious pinks. This post is dedicated to the very kind and very sweet duffimac over at MUA, who used to not like pinks at all! Hopefully this post will inspire her to give pinks a chance =)

Drugstore Gems: Wet N Wild

2008-07-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I like my salon brands like OPI and Essie but well, nail polish obsession doesn't have to be an expensive habit. There are plenty of great drugstore brands out there. Previously, I mentioned Black Radiance and Sinful Colors, but Wet n Wild has great color selections and their cheapest polish is 99 cents! It's really a great deal. Not only that, their polish is definitely the best cheap polish you can get (sorry NYC, I'll point out your minor flaws a bit later). WnW Black Creme is my resident favorite pure black polish because it's opaque in one coat and so cheap, which makes it great for frankens too.

Dreamy Poppy is another standout, a bright pink color that's fun and great for summer. I used to not like straight cremes but they've really grown on me

Talk about getting your bang for a buck!

I think this is the fastest that I've ever edited pictures and gotten a post up lol (within 20 minutes). It usually takes me a while because I'm very easily distracted. I had to get up early today to take one of my roommates to school because he's going to be carless for a while, and I'm sitting with my chem book open while listening to another roommate play on a PS2. But the main reason I wanted to post fast is because I have another midterm this Thursday, which means I really only have today to justify a bunch of posts. Anything past today is a bit shameful because I'm obviously procrastinating! I do have a ton of swatch pics still to edit so today might be super megapost day

Getting Creative With Drying

2008-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

It's been super overcast and weird here lately in the Inland Empire (it's like the immense smog blocks out the sunlight), so I haven't been able to get many good sunlight pictures. There's also the matter of my camera deceiving me, it usually displays a yellow hand on my camera if it's crystal clear but it hasn't worked out so well in the last four pictures.

Anyway, the super sweet ilikechickens12 sent me a hard to find (HTF) polish the other day! Thank you so much Liz! It's soooo beautiful:
I will get a better picture of it someday. However, as with all Creative Nail Design (CND) polishes, it did NOT want to dry. I used my usual quick-dry top coat, INM Out the Door, and after an hour and a half it still was not dry. Then, I soaked my nails in ice-cold water for 20 minutes....nothing So I sprayed some canola oil on my nails and that still didn't work. And I was hungry, so my nails got messed up when I ate chips and salsa. Oh well. My friend Jen told me that she never had a problem w/Creative drying, but she used their base and top coat. So until I get a hold of both to try that, I will have to hold off on the beautiful Blue Blood.

Anyone else have tips on how they get CND polishes to dry without using the CND base and top coat? Please let me know, I'd love some more CND polishes!

Your Daily Dose of Hotness

2008-07-13T01:59:00.000-07:00

So yesterday all my roommates from last year met up to do some typically Asian-y stuff in Rowland Heights, CA. We're all best friends so they understand my weirdness as much as I understand theirs. Anyway, there's this place called Life Plaza and we went there to get dessert. It's split up into a store side and a restaurant side. Somehow, I honed in on the store side and noticed they put in a new display with pa polishes! It's like I have a polish radar, lol.

Anyway so pa is a Japanese brand with lots of excellent colors and they are good quality. The gorgeous and fabulous greyeyez on the nail board discovered it first, and they can be ordered through Orange Lighthouse. The downside is that the polishes sold on the site are very small. However, after my friends and I said our goodbyes left to go to our separate cars, I ducked back into Life (and if they ever found out, I would be teased so much!), and snagged two full size versions! They don't have names, only numbers, but I'm not sure they're available through Orange Lighthouse, since the full-size and smaller bottles were different colors. They were also a bit pricey, $7.90 each but not too bad for an imported polish. Especially since they're pretty rare in the US.

Here are the two I snagged, Q12 & Q21:

Q12 is a shimmery sheerish white, it's pretty but the silver shimmer is a bit gritty without topcoat:

Q21 is really a standout, it looks like a mermaid's tail....well what I imagine a mermaid's tail would look like at least. The base is a jelly green, and it has the same kind of chunky glitter in some of the newer Sinfuls:

I apologize for the quality of these pictures, I swear my camera is very deceiving sometimes. But it truly is gorgeous. Can you see all the different colors that flash in the bottle? For more information on pa polishes, you can visit Orange Lighthouse or Dear-Laura.com

Also, it's been a while since I've done an Early Morning Hotness post...those are usually when I should be sleeping but am blogging instead, hehe. But it feels nice to get back into a bit of a routine!

Zoya Extravaganza!

2008-07-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

Feeling the hot summer days already? Well the people at Zoya have decided to make the summer even hotter for us nail polish lovers. Now with every order on Zoya.com, you can enter a promo code for a set of three free polishes! These code were designed specifically for 6 bloggers and 1 dedicated to the style team in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The promo ends Friday, July 18th. Here are the codes & colors you get:

Polish Addict: Miley, Rea, and Stephanie. Promo Code.

The Beauty of Life: Indigo, Nikki, Tobi. Promo Code.

Blogdorf Goodman: Indigo, Audrina, Annie. Promo Code.

Cleveland Plain Dealer Style Team: Lo, Audrina, Elodie. Promo Code.

Scrangie: Trixie, Ki, Yasmeen. Promo Code

Temptalia: Tart, Suzanne, Sunny. Promo Code.

All Lacquered Up: Tart, Fergie, Lianne. Promo Code.

...I'm not going to lie that took me a while to compile all those together. You can only use one code per order, no stacking codes! Seeing all these colors is really making me itch for some more Zoya polishes...I can't say that there is one promo that I would choose over the rest but I'm really lemming Elodie, Gaia, Rea, Lianne, Tart, and Annie.

Here's another hot Zoya though...Akyra is a metallicy forest green/dark teal. It's gorgeous and definitely one of my favorite greens. And we all know how there is a dearth of good green polishes in the world.
The lighting is a bit weird but this is definitely the most representative of the color. Being curious of the origin of the name, I googled 'akyra' and 'akira' and found some interesting things. I don't know if Zoya intented to name it after the 1988 movie Akira but it sounds like a very powerful movie that I now want to watch.

Today is a lazy Saturday so I did some swatches of two AWESOME polishes I got yesterday and am planning on uploading some more pics. So look forward to lots of posts and pictures coming up!