Zoya Wonderful Collection

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.

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

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

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

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.

Your Daily Dose of Hotness

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!

I've Got the Blues

Good morning! Normally I'd be ecstatic that I got out of lab so early (finished within an hour!), but I'm still battling a nasty cold so I'm pretty exhausted, stuffy, germy and woozy. So yes, I'm feeling a bit blue....but that's ok, because blue doesn't have to have negative connotations! I will admit, my post yesterday about frankens was an introduction to one of my creations, Casino Night. It's named after the epic season two finale of The Office (US)...notice a theme with my frankens? Yep, I'm trying to create an Office-themed collection. Here's Casino Night in all it's shimmery, glittery, fun glory:





This franken actually has a pretty easy recipe as well:

Casino Night Recipe:
1/2 Sinful Colors Midnight Blue
1/2 Sinful Colors Hottie
add black to darken (I used WnW Black Creme)

I didn't use too much black because I didn't want it to be too dark of a blue, but just a tad darker than the base color of Midnight Blue. Casino Night has both shimmer and a bit of chunky glitter. Though it looks a bit gritty and rough in some areas, with a good topcoat it can all be smoothed away for a glassy and even finish.

Early Morning Hotness: Essie Neons

I apologize for the delay in getting these pictures to you guys, it's been a very hectic week. I rarely get chips in my polish but I actually did get two while moving on Saturday. I felt like I had crossed an important milestone in my life, hehe. I haven't even caught up with my daily readings of the nail board at MUA and CNN/BBC in the past four days. It's been quite a week.

Anyway, onto the neons! I normally swatch without a base or top coat but since neons dry so matte due to the pigmentation in them, I added a topcoat to truly represent the color. Here they are all together:

L-R: Bermuda Shorts, Shorty Pants, Mini Shorts, Short Shorts

First, although I'm not a purple girl I must say that I really liked Bermuda Shorts. It had one of the best applications of the four, and it made my skin look very pale (always a plus in my look, I hate that I tan so easily). It's a great vibrant neon purple.
Now, I love yellow polish, but it does make my fingers look extremely tan. The contrast is nice but it doesn't photograph well. Anyway, Shorty Pants is a gorgeous neon yellow creme that is a true yellow, it doesn't turn out mustard-y like Icing Smooth Like Butta does. However, I must say that the application on this one wasn't the best. Maybe it was finicky because it wanted to have a name ending in 'shorts' too? It might be a yellow thing (NYX Carnation was also very streaky, NYC Taxi Cab Yellow was too watery/streaky until I let it dry out), but this one does require a lot of patience.

Ahhh it makes my hand look so dark! But honestly the contrast is awesome. I gave a sneak peek of Mini Shorts earlier, but with topcoat it definitely gives it that extra kick of neon. This one also had a good application

And finally, Short Shorts. I didn't think it was very neon until I looked at it on my computer screen (disadvantages of having a crappy digital camera and being colorblind). Just....wow. Definitely a pink that makes a statement. The application on this was ok, not perfect but workable like most other polishes.

Neons are hard to photograph but hopefully I did ok. I had to slap Orly Live Wire over Shorty Pants though to make it even more gorgeous (I love shimmer)...hopefully everyone can see the glorious golden shimmer...if not, click to enlarge.


And yes, I've graduated from tagging my pics with my MUA name to the blog URL. Does it look ok?

My nails are actually bare now, one because it's easier to swatch on whim whenever I please but also because my nails are recovering from using a SH basecoat (more on that later) which completely dried out my nails and stripped them completely of their natural oils and made them peel a bit. Ugh. More on that later, I'll have a complete product review. I've also been really good on not spending too much on polish lately but I did haul quite a bit today. I got my first Nubar polish (Cotton Candy), my second Zoya polish (Akyra), my first SH Salon line polish (You-Gurt Style) and my first Borghese polish (Capri Coral). But those are not the only polishes I got, which is quite terrible!

Anyway, even though I had some application issues, these neons are still really hot and perfect for summer!