Change Myself

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.

Satisfaction

**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 =)).

Mini Nicole-fest

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!

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)!

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.