Urban Decay Cult

Urban Decay Cult

Got this off of eBay UK for less than $10 shipped. It's just such a lovely color: a blue-green-gold shimmer. A bit on the sheer side: I think this might have been three coats and in most lights, I could still see VNL. It applied very well though.

This is why my Sally Hansen Insta Dri topcoat isn't my BFF anymore: a ruined MAC Blue India mani (plus a rare EOTD)

Look at all the dumbass bubbles in my beautiful mani! I took this off immediately after I finished applying it: never have I had so many damn bubbles! This topcoat is now consigned to glitter polishes only (because then bubbles are not as visible over glitter).

MAC Blue India

Surprisingly good application for a MAC polish. Gorgeous dark dusty blue creme with a slight teal tinge. Bought it on a whim, still not sure if I love it or not though -- MAC polishes always seem to be too expensive for its quality. I haven't done a wear test with this yet though. I'll do one sometime and if it doesn't chip off within the first 24 hours, I may just keep it.

Haha, my first ever EOTD using something else from the MAC Liberty of London collection. I was trying to coordinate eyeshadow with nail polish (a plan that fell through when I took off my bubbly fail of an NOTD)...

Inner corner: Urban Decay Honey eyeshadow

Outer corner (upper lid): MAC Birds & Berries eyeshadow

Outer corner (lower lid): MAC Azreal Blue pigment

Imju Fiberwig mascara (and no, I don't curl my lashes because I hate the way curled lashes look on me... and they uncurl in less than an hour and then my mascara crumbles with it and then I'm a raccoon with short, thin lashes. The joys of Asian monolid eyes. My eyes are half closed here; when fully open, I don't have a visible eyelid.)

So, I've been thinking about it and instead of posting less in April, I'm going to not do any formal posting for the next 2.5 weeks -- a mini-sabbatical, if you will. School and research are very overwhelming for me right now and keeping up with blogging is starting to feel like "keeping up" rather than something I do for fun. (I'm going to try to stay away from MakeupAlley too since that also distracts me more than I like it to. For the better anyway, I kinda spent a lot of money in the last month and don't need inspiration to spend more.) From now until approximately April 25th, I will be limiting myself to the occasional iNOTD (which I usually do on the bus to and from campus) but I'll not be posting any "real" swatches or NOTDs. Fortunately, there are six other wonderful Polish or Perish bloggers to entertain you all and between them, I'm sure you'll barely notice that I'm gone. :D

Have a nice April everyone! See you soon. :)

Urban Decay Apocalyptic set swatches, Part II of II

Finally, the last few Urban Decay Apocalyptic set polishes!

Urban Decay Meltdown

A blue-leaning purple shimmer that is actually quite bright because of the shimmer. It also has some holo shimmer in there, though it doesn't really pop in the photos. (You might be able to see it better if you click on the photo for a bigger version.) Probably my favorite of the Apocalyptic set. Pretty great application though the mini brush did make a bit of a challenge out of that. Two coats.

Urban Decay Apocalypse

Vampy jelly maroon. Extremely glossy and very dark (it took awhile to get a photo that showed off the maroon color as opposed to just "dark"). Three coats, uneven in application.

Urban Decay Widow Maker

The reason I bought this collection. For this one light beige-ish grey with silver shimmer. I kind of want a pair of old-fashioned kid gloves in this color. (I don't need kid gloves but this color seems perfect for that.) This one polish almost makes the set worth it: I wish I had a full size of this one! Not fantastic application (it's a bit on the sticky side and doesn't quite level itself out but I still love this color. Not at all chalky because of the shimmer.

Urban Decay Apocalyptic set swatches, Part I of II

So, back to what I had had scheduled for this week before the Nubars showed up at my door... :)

The more I think about it, the more PO'ed I am at myself for getting this set. Luckily, it was during Urban Decay's F&F sale but I keep thinking about all the other polishes I could've gotten for that money.

Urban Decay Grunge

I rather liked this darkened blue shimmer. Navy blue with light blue shimmer that just pops! The brushes are a little hard to work with since these are mini bottles but this one went on without too many hitches, although it is slightly brushstroke-y.

Urban Decay Gunmetal

Reminds me of a slightly frostier version of Barielle Misbehaving Mistress and I have the same complaints about it. It's actually a very interesting sort of concept as a color: a cool dark brown jelly with silver shimmer but turns out too sheer and requires more coats than seems necessary for a dark-colored polish.

Urban Decay and Goldie red creme and red foil swatches

Happy Monday!

The Saturday before last was my first Saturday in over a month where I didn't really have any pressing concerns (work, travel, etc)... and it was sunny enough to get some good swatch photos! So I hunkered down with twenty-something nail polishes, set them up in a good swatch order and started in. I spent most of my time swatching the Urban Decay Apocalyptic mini set and the silver-blue paisley Goldie set that I got at Marshall's in Back Bay.

It quickly became obvious to me that I probably wasted my money on the Urban Decay set but that the Goldie set was probably the best $8 I've spent all year. (This post doesn't show that but the ones coming up this week hopefully do.)

I usually leave reds til the end of my swatching cycle: they always seem to be the hardest to wipe off and leave my fingers looking like lobster claws. So after about two hours of swatching, I looked up and saw that I had these polishes left in the two collections:

Two red foils and two red cremes that looked similar enough next to each other. Since I don't really love reds (or red foils), I really didn't want to do four hands worth of colors I wasn't looking forward to. My shortcut: do comparison swatches! (for comparisons that no one will ever ask for).

Well. Turns out, these were four pretty different polishes. Oops.

Urban Decay Big Bang and Goldie red foil

The Urban Decay is the pinker one; the Goldie is the redder one. I actually really liked UD Big Bang. Easy to apply, was practically dry by the time I was done (two coats) and was very very shiny. The Goldie was a bit watery and hard to control and required three coats.

Urban Decay F Bomb and Goldie red creme

Three coats for both polishes. Both were actually very easy to manage polishes and both were nice examples of basic red cremes. The Goldie (lighter red) was glossier while the UD (darker red) dried a bit more matte.

This coming week, my posts will probably be split between these Goldie and UD sets. Still got five more UDs and six more Goldies to show off.

Now and Then

Let's explore the changes in my nails over the last year...

June 2008 - OPI Russian Navy


August 2008 - OPI My Private Jet


September 2008 - Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes


August 2009 - Urban Decay AC/DC


August 2009 - The Icing Roger That


This post demonstrates how applicable the phrase "practice makes perfect" is to nail polish. As you can see, only just a year ago my nails looked like hell after application!! My cuticles were dry and cut and hurt! So here are some of my tips about nail application that may help those of you just getting into nails:

- Apply your nail polish s-l-o-w-l-y. I am the least patient person on earth and it took me awhile to get the hang of a slow application. Applying slowly ensures less mistakes and therefore less cleanup!
- When I do make mistakes, I usually clean up either in the shower the next morning or I apply cuticle oil all over my cuticles and then clean up with a cuticles stick.
- Creative Nail Design Cuticle Eraser (most beauty supply stores) and California Mango Mend (Sally Beauty Supply) are my HG (holy grail) cuticle products. I also use cuticle oil most mornings.
- I use Nubar Nu Nails as my basecoat, which has proven to be very effective for my nails. Remember, however, that everyone is different - just because one basecoat works for me doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for you. Keep trying!

Thanks for reading!

HTF Week - NOTD Urban Decay AC/DC

Today I have some questions for fellow graduate students...

I am in graduate school on a fast-track program that allows me to graduate in 1 year with my Master's Degree. I am taking 4 classes per semester and it is understood that I will write my Master's Thesis in the summer, due in August.

Now, am I being insane here? Apparently I am the only one in the Masters program at my school doing the program in this way. Everyone else is taking only 2-3 classes and I was met with lots of wide-eyed stares of shock when I explained that I am taking 4 classes.

I plan to work part-time, only 8 hours per week (2 days a week) and I always took 4-5 classes per semester in undergrad. That being said, am I overloading myself here? So far I feel ok and I'm actually a little ahead in my reading but lots of the "wide-eyed stares" I received have succeeded in sufficiently freaking me out, especially since the add/drop deadline has passed.

I'd appreciate any stories, advice, etc. from fellow graduate students!!!

On to the nails! Today's post is in honor of Hard to Find (HTF) Week on the MUA Nailboard. I found this little gem in my Ulta this past March (of 2009!) even though Urban Decay nail polishes were discontinued long before then. Apparently my Ulta was getting rid of back stock. Anyway, here she is!

This is 2 coats with Diamont topcoat and it was a dream to apply!

Under indoor lighting:



With flash:


And luckily for us, Urban Decay nail polishes are coming back! AC/DC is not yet listed as coming back but we can hope, right?

Thanks for looking and thanks for any comments and advice you have for me!!! :)

Two recent NOTDs: Urban Decay Metropolitan + Rescue Beauty Lounge Medium White (+ Nubar Opulent Pearl)

Urban Decay Metropolitan

Easy application, rich color, the glitter glows magenta in the sunlight. I'm still not sure how much I like this one though. Can't wait to see what UD has in store as I hear they are bringing back some nail polishes!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Medium White

Four coats, but the formula's pretty thin so it didn't get glumpy... that's not a word, but it sums up how thicker nail polish gets when you need more than three coats. It's not a unique color but it's a very pleasant jelly semi-sheer. It did apply that well but I'm glad I didn't get it at full price -- $18 is a lot for a polish in my book! I've bought some $12 Nfu.oh's (totally worth it), $14 Illamasquas (still waiting for that package to come in) but the extra $4 for an RBL seems a leeeeetle much to me. Grad student. It's not like I'm rolling in dough. Though I'm not as interested in quantity over quality, I'd rather get half a dozen Quirius than one RBL at the moment. RBL has superior formula but it's not 6 times better!

RBL Medium White with Nubar Opulent Pearl on top

Who knew Nubar had flakies? I got really excited, ordered this, and was sort of disappointed. I had hoped for bigger, smoother flakes.