Happy New Year!!

I'm so sorry I haven't been actively posting! My job has been taking up a lot of my life, I barely have time to swatch or paint my nails as often as I like. During the week I wear boring work appropriate colors and on the weekends I do paint my nails, but really don't get a chance to snap a picture of it while the sun is still up. I only managed to take pics of two of my holiday manis this month.

First up is Sally Hansen Project Runway. Project Runway unfortunately is a Canadian exclusive, it is such a gorgeous color I wish this was more readily available. It is a green loaded with bits of gold shimmer/mini flecks. Absolutely stunning, perfect in two coats! I feel bad for posting it because many of our visitors won't be able to get it unless you live in Canada or have a friend in Canada.

Sally Hansen Project Runway


close up of Sally Hansen Project Runway

After a couple days of wear, I topped it with Ulta's After Party which is a red, silver, and multi color glitter in a clear base. I put one coat of After Party and then one coat of Nubar Diamont to make it smooth. A perfect glitter top coat for a holiday mani! I haven't tried it by itself, but this is so fun layered of everything. I'm sorry i think the week I wore this it rained all week and could only capture indoor pictures of it, but you get the idea.


Sally Hansen Project Runway topped w/ Ulta After Party flash


Sally Hansen Project Runway topped w/ Ulta After Party without flash under artifical light

My other holiday mani was Essie Jelly Apple topped with Ulta After Party of course. No picture of Jelly Apple though since it's your standard red creme. Although it is my only red creme and I am quite happy with it, that's why it is my only red creme. It's actually a jelly and goes on perfectly in two coats. I couldn't get a picture of this until after a few days of wear so there is some tipwear, but it held up very well! After Party was really hard to capture in the sun for some reason, my camera just didn't want to capture all of its glittery goodness!

Essie Jelly Apple w/ Ulta After Party

These pictures seriously do no justice to how amazing After Party is!! If you have an Ulta nearby, you should def pick this one up if you like glitter and enjoy layering it over polishes!

I hope everyone is having a safe holiday and see you all next year (hopefully with more nail polishes)!! :)

Street Wear Haul-o-rama!

The last day of 2009! I've been feeling under the weather for the past few days but I hope I feel good enough to run four miles at midnight: the NYC Road Runners sponsors a fun run through Central Park every New Year's Eve. This would be my fourth year of ringing in the New Year with a runner's high. ;)

Anyway, like I had mentioned, I made a huge Revlon Street Wear haul from a dusty in midtown Manhattan with shopping_sushi_style on Tuesday. She and I accidentally met last summer at Sephora Times Sq. We were both looking for $OPI 212 when we started talking about our interest in nail polish... which led to a conversation about Nail Board. It was then we realized we knew each other through NB! Small world, huh? Anyway, she took me to this incredible dusty -- the name escapes me at the moment -- where baggies of four random Street Wears (and some Maybellines) are sold for $1 each!! Here are some iPhone photos of what I got:

L to R: Maybelline Bolt of Blue, Red Hot, Mediterranean Coral, Get Strappy, Fairy Pretty, Taupe Tulle, Sheer Ivory, and L'Oreal Lemon Twist


I took a picture of the back of these Maybelline Coloramas because there sale stickers all over their fronts. From L to R: Sonic Sunset, Ruby Rays, Tangerine Tips, Mango Sorbet Tips, Candy Apple, Cherry Tips.


Because the SWs came in fours, I ended up with a lot of extras of several colors. These are all Burnt.


This too is called Burnt even though it looks very different.

I also got a lot of Jelly. One of them is actually missing from this picture.


All of these are Grass Stain... Why one has a black label is beyond me. I think it may have very, very slightly different shimmer?


These are labeled "Ggrass Sstain". Not sure why Revlon used the same names for different polishes.


Taxi! (You know, I almost never purposefully buy dupes. I know I won't finish anything ever really... it feels impossible right now!)


The first two are Gold Mine; the third is Ggold Mmine. It seems to reflect more blue while the other two reflect purple.


Slip, which is prettier in person: a shimmering champagne with holo microglitter.


The first two (again different logo labels!) are Stain. The last two are Sstain.


Ones I have two of, L to R: Gun Metal, Psychedelic, White Out (probably my fave white), and Mmoody. Alas, I couldn't find Moody, which I think is a creme.


Mmm, holo bar glitter!! L to R: Hologram, Midas and Nightmare.

Cremes, L to R: Drab, Nothing, Matte It... is that a topcoat?


Shimmers with microglitter: Angelic, Halo, Illusion, Incognito, Lighten Up and Shooting Star.


Greys and blues, L to R: Steelo, Sky, Tux, Midnight, Vice.

Beiges and browns, L to R: Whip Cream, Imagination, Chick and Scheming.

And the last four: Jam, Raw, Blood and Ruined.

Whew! This post took awhile to do on my iPhone. I can't wait to get my computer back from repair! Hopefully later today. :)

Adoree sales and other discount/promo codes!

All Adoree is currently going for $3.99 (as opposed to $5.99) at Esther's Nail Center. Great opportunity to try out a wonderful brand!

Take an extra 20% off sale items at CherryCulture and Sephora. For CherryCulture, enter code SALE20 at checkout (expires: December 30th, 2009). For Sephora, enter code EXTRA at checkout (expires: December 31st, 2009).

Some of yesterday's haul...

I haven't gotten around to lining up and photographing my big Revlon Street Wear bonanza (too. many. polishes!) but here's a pic of shopping_sushi_style's hands and some of the SWs we got. It looks like we're playing chess. People in the cafe we were in were giving us funny looks.


Besides SWs, I also went on a high end polish bender. Totally by accident. Sort of. I went back to Henri Bendel to exchange my KO Pool for KO Liberty... and avoided buying anything else in there. I thought these were enough:


I couldn't resist a polish called Calamine that looked so close to Calamine (and to answer a reader's question from yesterday: I don't use a Helmer but I suspect that these are too tall for them). $18 each? Ouch.


Most of the colors at Bendel's seemed pretty standard so I scooped up the three most interesting ones (IMO): Carnaby Street, St John's Wood and The Thames. $14 each, not bad, considering that's how much I had paid for them from the UK via eBay. (They also had some exorbitantly priced polishes with crystal encrusted caps.)

After my second trip to Bendel's, I ducked into Bergdorf's next door. I almost felt too lazy to go downstairs for the beauty department. And that's where I found my second big nail polish bonanza of the day: all three StrangeBeautiful volumes for 30% off. It's still $55 each (super ouch!)... maybe if you divide it by eight, it's not so bad?




They are sooo much prettier in person! I can't believe I bought all three. I just couldn't decide and I knew if I only bought one, I'd regret it. So... All three. I think the photos are in this order (I may be wrong): Volumes 3, 2, and 1.

But was I done at Bergdorf's? Nope. I saw a Paul & Joe counter... which I don't think I've ever seen in any store before. I couldn't resist picking one up. I'm a sucker for more obscure (in the US anyway) brands. It took awhile because they were out of stock of a lot of their polishes, but I eventually walked out with this: #20.


It's a greenish charcoal-like shimmer with what looks like gold microglitter... as well as a foil-y finish. Super pretty and interesting looking in the bottle. I think it was $14. Which seemed cheap at this point of my shopping day (which actually started out with old Street Wears at $1 for a random baggie of 4).

That's a scary point to be at. Probably should've gone home but... Saks was down the street. I totally expected not to come out with anything but I stopped at the Dior counter and lo... they got the Dior Spring 2010 polishes early. So I spent the most I had ever spend on a single polish: $20. With tax. (...I cannot believe how much money I dropped on freakin' nail polish on one day! I'm pretty much resolved not to spend anything else for the remainder of my trip.) Anyway, I really wanted the Dior because they wear amazingly well on me so... now I own Dior Silver Pearl. I think it will be my NYE mani.


It's a silver metallic with a very, very, very slight green undertone. I'm totally returning it if the quality isn't as great as I've had with Silver Purple and Black Sequins.

The Face Shop's PP406, BR804, BL607

I love this brand! It is based out of South Korea and I saw them pop up in a few department stores while I was traveling around.

I picked up 3 in Ho Chi Minh City. They were about 2 bucks each. I wish I had gotten more. The shape of the brush is fantastic: flat but not too wide. The top of the cap is indented which makes it really comfortable to hold and paint.



The application is ultra-smooth. Although, it is not B3F. Not surprising considering wonderful formula + low cost usually = chemical city.

PP406

(3 coats)

A purple jelly (in no way blurple) with lots of silver shimmer.

BR804

(2 coats)

This is a great work color. Champagne metallic (frosty perhaps?) with a little bit of silver sparkle throughout. The application of this one was a freaking dream. I can't even.

BL607

(2 coats)

This one was the hardest to photograph. This is a navy base and it has both pink and blue shimmer (the pink would not come through in pics, sadly).


I wish I had gotten a creme so I could really put the brand to the test.

Playing with Konad and Layering

Hello! Guess what? I got 2 more grades the other day and I got....2 As! WOOHOO!!!! Now I'm in the midst of writing my 4th paper for the semester and then I'll be done! Thanks to everyone who offered their support - I really appreciate it. I won't have the 4.0 GPA I wanted but I'll aim for a 3.9.

This is yesterday's Konad of the Day (KOTD). I received all of the Coraline (one of my all-time favorite movies) Konad plates (from kit #1 and #2) for X-mas. Please be kind - I'm still new to Konad and I'm not good at it yet. Anyway, I started out with Orly Wild Wisteria, a dark purple. Then I layered CND Crimson Sparkle on top of it to make it more interesting. Lastly, I used Konad Special Polish in silver for the designs. My ring finger is just Wild Wisteria and I stamped the button/skull French design multiple times.





Thumb:


With flash:


Thumb:


Blurred to show red sparkles:


Orly Wild Wisteria and CND Crimson Sparkle can be purchased from most of the major e-tailers. The Coraline Konad plates can be purchased from OCNailArt.

Have a great New Year's!

Yesterday's TJ Maxx and Ricky's hauls

Quick update with quick pics of my haul from yesterday. (Wait til you see today's: it's a humdinger! A veritable ton of old Street Wears! I hope to have time to post pics of those tomorrow...)


Some Barielle treatments for $3.99 eachincluding Manicure Extender and Camo. Someone else CPed me Camo already but I figured I couldn't go too wrong with a backup.


From Ricky's: some Mattese neons which are really Color Club. These are exactly the ones from the Electro-Candy collex but I'm forgetting the precise names right now. I also got Orly Polo Princess and a mini glass nail file to keep at my mom's. All polishes were on sale for $1.99 at Ricky's.


Some Essies were also on sale for $1.99. I know what you are thinking: "what boring colors!" Here's the thing: my collection has practically no light pinks and sheers. So I made up for that and picked up Naughty n Nice (soft white), Tie the Knot (beige), Luscious Lips (light pink), Flawless (dusty rose), Chubby Cheeks (dark pink peach), and Mini Shorts (neon orange).

Today's haul is the super exciting one though. In addition to a LOT of old Street Wears, I got some Nails Inc and KO Knockout polishes for waaaay more money than a sane person spends on nail polish. (I'm actually on the subway to go back to Henri Bendel's because I grabbed KO Pool instead of KO Liberty! I need my mint green!)

A couple of Snail Slicks: 25 and 40

These have been languishing in my swatch folder for quite awhile (one longer than the other) because the polishes had been unceremoniously tossed into my "keep, but organize later" drawer. Since they were numbered, I definitely had no memory of what they were called so... I delayed ever posting these photos. 'Til now.

You can get Snail Slicks polishes at Supply Source, where you can also get "David", the topcoat king as determined by The Edge of Sanity. (I guess this would also be a good place to discuss my experience with David.) But first, the Snail Slicks.

Snail Slicks 40 over Revlon Street Wear Drab

Before you ask, no #40 doesn't get opaque in three coats (maybe five, but with patience and drying time in between coats). It gets pretty dense but doesn't ever cover up the whole nail. So I used 40 to doll up my Street Wear Drab manicure that David ruined. Well, I ruined it: I ruined it by assuming that 12 hours after doing my mani, I could move my hands around normally and not get big dents in my polish. For several polishes I've tried (Revlon Street Wear, Estee Lauder, Avon), it dries to about "95% dry" but then the last five percent never seems to dry. For other polishes (Adoree and a couple of others I can't immediately recall), it dries quickly and dries completely, almost as quickly. I'm still trying to figure out which polishes work and which do not.

Oh, right, I was supposed to be talking about the Snail Slicks: anyway, #40 is a super pretty mix of green and gold glitter. Dense enough to make a good topcoat but not dense enough to wear on its own.

Snail Slicks 25 over SpaRitual Falling in Love

For some reason, I really like this orange sherbet-colored super glittery topcoat. Photos don't communicate how seriously sparkly this one is. As far as I can tell, it's got a bunch of gold microglitter and holo microglitter and just glitters up a storm. The video shows it reacting to the light much better:

At about $4 each, these are probably a bit overpriced for what they are but I can't say I regret them. I do recall testing a black shimmer out and that wasn't so hot, prompting me to assume that unless I'm ordering more David or empty bottles any time soon, I probably won't be getting more of these. Basically, it's not worth the $25 minimum for just Snail Slicks but if I had other things to get, I probably wouldn't be adverse to picking up a couple more. There are a couple of other glitter ones that look like they'd be awesome. That and I think the name "Snail Slicks" is totally adorable. :)

NYC again!

Red eye flights suck and I'm exhausted! And annoyed. My laptop suffers from not one but three defects: a hard-drive that's on it's way out, a graphics card that is going to fail sooner rather than later and an optical drive that's just plain dead. The nice folks at Tekserve on 23rd are fixing two of three right now but I won't have my laptop back for a few days. Pretty effectively ruins my plan to get research work done while here! Also, my having good nail pics to post for the next few days. :(

On the upside, as I was walking home from Tekserve, I passed by TJ Maxx where I picked up some Barielle treatments and Ricky's where I picked up some $2 Essie, Orly and Mattese polishes. (I hope to get haul pics for y'all tomorrow.)

I also passed by a store that seemed to specialize in wigs on 14th and 6th: it carried NK, Color Club and some other brands. What really surprised me was the rather extensive collection of Color Club minis! (They are the only brand where I don't mind the minis: they are cute, substantial-feeling and the brushes are pretty good.) What was even more surprising to me was the presence of three "Japan exclusive" polishes in mini form: Strawberry Candle, Sakura Glow and Strawberry Sharbet.


(The big CC is just for size comparison.)

Strawberry Candle seems to be named Firelight though. At least, all the polished in the row marked "Strawberry Candle" were polishes that resemble Strawberry Candle but were labeled "Firelight". Well, Firelight... Candle... I guess they are in the same semantic category?



While at this wig shop, I also spied an Essie I don't know much about: Wild Thing. It's a purple-burgundy shimmer with bits of large holo glitter floating around.





Tempting, isn't it? It was $6, which is about $2 more than I really like to spend on Essie...

Tomorrow will be a NB day: I'm meeting up with shopping_sushi_style in the afternoon and with speakeasy1908 (probably better known as the evil genius behind Nails Night Out) in the evening to go dusty hunting. :)

RAOKs are wonderful

IceRozie, one of my favrits on MUA, sent me over the most wonderful package of nail polishes all the way from Amsterdam.

Here are three of them...

Reflecting Pool

(4 coats)

This is OPI's Reflecting Pool. This is an EU exclusive, seemingly. I think the blue and gold foil looks cool in the bottle but it's kinda eh on the nail. Especially since it took 4 freaking coats to get it to full coverage.

Sorry for the crappy swatch pic.


Enchantress Emma

(3 coats)

This is H&M's Enchantress Emma. I like this one more than I thought I would. This is a bright blue (with a small touch of green IMO) with blue shimmer. It's a little streaky tho.


17 elegant

(3 coats)

OMFG I LOVE this one. This may become my go-to light purple. It's from a polish brand I have never heard of: p2 Color Victim nailpolish. Anyone know it? This is a grayed out super light purple BUT it leans more pink than blue. This was my problem with OPI's Done Out in Deco; it was more blue than pink. The non-blurple factor in this polish may be enhanced by the soft pink shimmer in it. Issues? The application suxxxxx. It's quite goopy. Hopefully some thinner will help it.

Thanks, IceRozie!

~~~

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and that you're gearing up for a great new years eve party!

While I was visiting my mom in Canada, I convinced her to let me paint her nails (she is a pedicure only type of lady).

You Don't Know Jacques (Suede)

(2 coats)

I blame the poor pic quality on my mother's POS camera. I tried!

What's your mani plan for NYE?? My plan was to do Kati Perry's disco ball nails for NYE but I forgot my rhinestones at my apartment in NYC :(

Old N-Art-OTD: icy gradient using BB Couture Electric Avenue, ChG Nova and Claire's Hollywood

I'm flying to New York tonight so I thought I might post a pic of a mani inspired by cold, ice and snow. I've tried a few gradients before but this was the first that turned out presentable. It was so hugely thick by the time I was done with it, it looked like I had fake nails on.

Indoors with flash:

In the lightbox:

Outdoors in the sun:

I used BB Couture Electric Avenue (a icy pale blue jelly that took five coats to even start to resemble opaque), Claire's Hollywood (a mix of fine silver glitter and small holo glitter) and China Glaze Nova (big hex glitter mixed with small holo glitter). I messed up a couple of times so I kept on having to paint new coats of everything on top of what I had already done: by the end, there were at least a dozen coats of polish (including base and top). Took forever to dry and I got bubbles but I loved this look and kept it on for over 36 hours (which is a lot for me these days!) Just long enough to wear to my SO's work's holiday party at least.

I'm back - Lancome's Piha Black and Refined Red

Lol actually I've been back for well over a week now but we have quite a healthy backlog of posts on PoP.

I'm back with tons of new polish (30-ish) and a plan to swatch every one.

There will also be a follow up post featuring my naked nails after weeks w/out daily polish.

I'm lucky because not only did I bring home about 15 or so polishes acquired in Bangkok and Vietnam, but I also came home to swap packages, RAOKs, and B-Day gifts waiting for me.

First up, I swapped away a handful polishes (including Illamasqua's DWS - formula FAIL, color fail IMO) to try some Lancomes.

Piha Black

(1 coat)

This is a great and dark charcoal. It is well pigmented and applies easily. This will definitely get a lot of use. This looks like a black base with a fine silver shimmer.

This one is a lot like that Dior Flinty posted a week ago except the silver sparkle is much finer.

Refined Red

(2 coats)

Lol this is what happens when I take photos without flash. The camera turns my skin blue. Insane. Fortunately, the color of the red is fairly true to life. This dried quite quickly. Like most reds of this nature, there's a jellyish quality to it. It's a nice classic, but I wouldn't pay full price for it.

Christmas Day promo/discount codes!

In the spirit of Christmas (I suppose?) some retailers are having some pretty good deals:

American Apparel is having 20% off your entire order with the code MITZVAH09. Good chance to get some of the new nail polishes! Expires: December 25th, 2009.

Look Fantastic, a UK retailer that carries Nails Inc, OPI (including the UK exclusives), Leighton Denny, butterLONDON and Essie, is offering £2 off orders of any amount (code: SANTA09) and £5 over orders of £50 (code: GIFT50). Expires: December 31st, 2009.

Discount Beauty Center is having $5 off of a purchase of $15. Lots of great nail treatments and a limited line of discounted Barielle's and regularly priced Essie and China Glaze. Code: HOLIDAYGIFT09. Expires: January 1st, 2010.

Not just a Christmas sale, but Missha is having a sale with items up to 50% off. The Style and The Lucid polishes are 40% off but the regular little flower bottle ones are 50%.

Quickie American Apparel swatches!

I've got a bad case of the winter frazzles this week, so apologies for that. Try to concentrate on the pretty creamy colors I'm about to show you. :)

I'm well aware of the reputation that American Apparel has and their voyeuristic soft-core porn-like advertisements. And I've heard tell of some questionable hiring practices. Unfortunately, this is a brand I happen to like for some clothing. (The jersey bandeau dress is my favorite thing to wear in the summer: I love being able to wrap it this way and that way and whatever way I fancy.) And now, I like them for their nail polish.

I snapped up seven of these the day they were available online (incidentally, the day that they put out a press release about their new nail polish line). Like American Apparel itself, these polishes are simple but colorful: a whole line of cremes in interesting shades. Not a speck of shimmer or glitter to be found anywhere (though I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually put out gold and silver polishes).

American Apparel Passport Blue

For you American citizens out there, this is a pretty damn descriptive name: it's the color of the US passport. Just a shade darker perhaps. It looks black indoors but in sunlight, it is definitely the dusty blue that ought to be recognized by immigration and customs officials. It was so pigmented, it was practically opaque in one coat. Smooth application and dried pretty quickly: it was still tacky when I put on Diamont but after twenty minutes with Diamont, it was pretty much dry. I wore this as an NOTD.

American Apparel Manila

It took me awhile to figure this one out. A Filipino NBer (I think) commented that she'd love to have a polish called Manila (the capital of the Philippines). I didn't think much of it until I was swatching this polish and my eyes fell upon some yellow interdepartmental envelopes sitting on my desk: manila envelopes. So called because they were originally produced using a fiber found in a plant indigenous to the Philippines. Anyway, this was a pretty great yellow: streaktastic in the first coat but pretty much evened itself out for the second coat. As good as most yellows get, in my experience! Someone on NB also asked about whether this resembled The It Color. Originally, I had thought The It Color to be more tangerine-leaning, but I think the real difference is more in the finish: The It Color is more jelly (and takes about four coats to get opaque) while Manila is more creme.

American Apparel Palm Springs

This was the first polish I swatched and you can tell I'm still getting used to the formula. Whenever I use a new brand of polish, it always takes awhile to "calibrate" my application technique to suit the viscosity of the polish and the amount of polish the brush can hold. AA ones tend to be on the runnier side and the brush, which is rather long, retains a lot of polish. So when I was applying this for the first time, I kept on overloading the brush and then having to clean up my flooded cuticles. Palm Springs is a peachy beige, surprisingly pigmented for a pastel: two coats (though those coats were somewhat thick). It does not suit my skin at all but is a lovely color.

American Apparel Hunter

Dark forest green that is feinting in the direction of teal. Two coats, very smooth application. This may resemble Orly Enchanted Forest but I'd have to do a direct side-by-side comparison to be sure about that. I wish it didn't have that blue in it; I really wanted this to be a very dark forest green like NARS Zulu.

American Apparel Office

A cool, blue-leaning green. This is the one I wanted the most and this was probably one of the bigger disappointments for me. I have a ton of minty greens now and as with any pastel, it's a little streaky going on but I didn't expect to have to put on three coats of it to get a smoothish surface... that would have been improved with a fourth coat. Is this the color the AA offices are painted? I always associated this color with mental institutions. You know, soothing.

American Apparel Coney Island

Light carnation pink, kinda like cotton candy (as the name suggests). Totally streaky for the first two coats and still kind of uneven (but passable) at the third coat. This is a very stark, bright pastel on me. I still like it a lot though!

American Apparel Peacock

I wish I had Illamasqua Muse because this looks like it would be similar. From pictures I've seen, I think Peacock is probably darker and more blue but it definitely has a teal slant to it. The easiest application out of all the polishes for me: went on perfectly and smoothly with no clean-up. One coat would have been okay but this is two coats. And it's perfect at two coats. I love this polish, even though I don't like this color as much as I do some of the others.

The 0.5fl oz bottles are $6 each on AmericanApparel.net. I LOVE the shape of the bottles: I really enjoy the tall rectangular bottles, even though I'm always paranoid about knocking them over. They feel great to hold and look so elegant and neat when stored. The brushes are a bit long with the typical brush bristle shape (i.e. not some flatter brush like OPI Pro-Wide or the new CND brushes). I really want to go pick up more of these cremes but I think I'll wait until my local AA gets them in.

LA Girl Matte "Navy" and L'Oreal Paint the Town

Can someone answer me why Forever 21 likes to sell unnamed LA Girl polishes but rename them something that may or may not resemble the name that LA Girl gave to the polish? This is LA Girl Matte "Navy" (according to Forever 21) and I'm not sure what it is called everywhere else. Any insight, anyone?

LA Girl Matte "Navy"

Two coats, satin-type matte finish. Looks very plasticky on nails (not an unpleasant thing). Dark sapphire blue. Goes on kind of thickly but evens out by itself.

LA Girl Matte "Navy" with L'Oreal Paint the Town on top

Okay, now it's a party! L'Oreal Paint the Town is a sheer red-green-gold duochrome flakey. Would look a horror on its own (on my stained nails at least) but it totally sweetens the navy into this almost blurple color and its glossiness makes the entire thing look slightly jelly. Two coats of Paint the Town. You can see it going kind of green-gold at the sides of my nails. There are definitely better flakies than this but I've never been one to turn down any flakey. (Except the bad NYX ones but I hear they've improved the formula on those...)