RIP NYC Glossies

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.

Happy Year of the Ox

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!

Gah!

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.

Happy Fourth of July!

Despite all the political shenanigans that's going on these days, I don't think patriotism is dead in America. Every year, the 4th of July is more than consumerism, it's a way to show pride in celebrating the day America gained independence from England. I really wanted to do like a cool design on my nails to celebrate today, but since I'm still sick I opted for a lazier option. I'd been sporting Lippmann's My Old Flame, so I just put NYC Starry Silver Glitter over it. The result? Very festive nails. It looks a bit like fireworks, doesn't it? Well, if the sky were red.

The Lippmann Collection is a brand of polish that I've never tried before because it's so darn expensive ($15) for colors that just aren't appealing to me. Even the most interesting one Rehab, wasn't beautiful enough to totally win me over. However with the big Bath & Body Works sales going on recently, I found some that were 75% off. I've heard the raves about application and wear so I figured for 75% off, what did I have to lose, right? Well, it's true. The application and pigmentation was amazing. One coat provided amazingly opaque coverage, I only had to do two to achieve perfection. My Old Flame is a true, classic red creme, the only thing that did bother me slightly was that I could see a bit of the brush strokes up close. But overall, I definitely think that if there are any colors in the future that are appealing to me I wouldn't hesitate to pay the full price for it. The above picture was taken after I had been wearing My Old Flame for FIVE days. Here it is fresh and pretty:
It's very much a pretty, classic red. Lippmann polishes retail for $15 and can be found only at Bath & Body Works flagship stores (you can check online here for which stores near you are flagship ones), select Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus stores, or online at the Lippmann Collection store.

Drugstore Gems: Black Radiance

So a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing Rite Aid for garbage bags when naturally I decided to check out the cosmetics selection. My local Rite Aid had recently remodeled their cosmetics layout, and I noticed that they expanded their line of Black Radiance cosmetics. So yeah, I'm not the target audience but that doesn't and shouldn't stop me from expanding my horizons, right? Anyway, normally their selection is only so-so but I spotted two new polishes (it helped that their stickers said New!) and at $1.99 a piece, I decided to just get them. One was a pretty burgundy shimmer and another was a vampy, dark blue shimmer.

Sadly, my color-blindness let me astray yet again. The burgundy shimmer, though named Crimson Chrome, wasn't crimson at all. It actually was VERY much a brown. Though the application and shimmer was gorgeous, it did not look good on me at all. I know some people can rock the browns but for me, it just looked like shimmery poop. Application was fantastic though:

Next up is the GORGEOUS Blue Nile. I noticed how it looked like OPI Light My Sapphire in the bottle, but sometimes that doesn't always translate the same onto the nail. However, it's pretty similar. Here is it by itself, sorry about the first picture. I prefer to take pictures in direct or indirect sunlight but sometimes the sun can wash a color out.


Want to see how similar it is to LMS? Here's a comparison, with Blue Nile on the index and middle finger and LMS on the ring and pinky finger:

I think they are pretty much dupes, except LMS is a tad more sparkly. Here's a comparison of Blue Nile, LMS, and NYC Midnight...I messed up the order of LMS and Midnight, sorry. Blue Nile is on the index finger, Midnight is on the middle finger, and LMS is on the ring finger (all 3 coats)

Excuse the blurriness too, but Midnight has more blue shimmer than the other two. Overall, Blue Nile is an effective replacement for OPI Light My Sapphire if you can't find it or don't want to pay the price of a OPI.

I had a really good experience with Black Radiance, and I look forward to trying more colors. Hopefully my Rite Aid or CVS will have more colors, I see some potentially hot ones on their website. They retail for $1.99 and are Toluene, Formaldehyde and Phthalate-free as well. They have a list of where to buy on their website, but some stores may not carry it (another Rite Aid near where I live doesn't have this line) or carry a limited selection (like my local CVS).

Early Morning Hotness: Hello, Hello...You Say Goodbye, I Say Yellow

I can't believe I'm still pining over Chanel's LA Sunrise when a) it could very possibly be a dupe for Essie Shorty Pants from the current Essie Neon Shorts collection and b) it's freaking $25 for a nail polish! Even though polish lasts for quite a long time, I'm still very reluctant to pay so much for such little product.

But if I ultimately decide to not get LA Sunrise, I can fall back on my two true yellow polishes, NYC Taxi Yellow Creme and NYX Carnation. The NYX is harder to find, but the NYC is not only easier to find, the price of it is as cheap as nail polish gets: 99 cents.

The thing about the NYC one is that it can be difficult to apply. Cheaper polishes do commonly have this flaw of being too fluid and liquidy because they don't have ballzz, thus being a streaky mess to apply. When I mentioned streaky to my roommate earlier today, she sounded perplexed so here's what streaky means- the polish doesn't go on evenly, leaving some areas of your nail well coated and others not coated opaquely at all. Streaky polishes can be either too thick or too liquidy.

I had this issue with the NYC at first, but then after seeing how fluid it was, decided to leave it open next to my open window for 4 hours. This completely took care of the streakiness issue and applied MUCH better:
It's got a gorgeous gold shimmer to it too (despite the fact that it's a 'creme'). I love the way this yellow looks on me.

NYX Carnation is another nice yellow but for some reason photographed horribly:
It definitely draws out the yellow in my skin, but this photo was also taken during sunset so the lighting is a bit off. No matter how it looks on me, I still love the color. Carnation is a bit more yellow than Taxi Yellow Creme, and I should try this swatch again in full sunlight. Sorry about that!

Yellow can be a difficult color to pull off but it's personally my favorite color because it's so happy and fun. I should wear more yellow on my tips while I'm still young though! If I can pull off certain shades.

If you're going to leave a polish out to thicken it, be sure to check it every hour to every one-and-a-half hour, polish doesn't thicken quickly but you still want to have a good balance of consistency. If you have over-thickened though, that's where thinner comes in handy. It's hard to get a polish just right but patiences begets fruition, right?

Nail Polish to the Rescue!

Polish is a lot more than just for beauty, it's very versatile! Check out some ways polish can be of use around the house from ThrifyFun:

1. Secure A Screw: Tighten loose screws on cabinets or pot handles by brushing some clear nail polish on screw threads. Insert the screw and let dry before using again.
2. Stop Tarnish: Keep costume jewelry from turning black with a coat of clear polish.
3. Seal An Envelope: Brush polish on the underside of the flap.
4. Mend A Screen: Stop a small hole from getting any bigger by brushing a little clear nail polish over the spot.
5. Smooth A Hanger: Don't throw out hangers, just brush polish over the rough edges on wooden or plastic hangers.
6. Stop A Pantyhose Run: Put a small run with clear nail polish, this will stop the run until you can replace them.

There are some other uses that I've heard of, such as marking different containers with nail polish for little kids and dabbing some clear polish over the threads of a button so that the button will stay on...I've actually done this on some of my shorts over the weekend!

Most of these practical uses call for clear polish though. Topcoats and basecoats will work fine, but if you can't bear the thought of wasting a precious drop of your favorite topcoat/basecoat on something as trivial as a button, both NYC and Wet n Wild sell clear polishes for 99 cents.