Pages

Monday, December 31, 2012

Nail MADNESS - And the Moonbeams... / She Walks in Beauty

Goddamnit, A-England.  Every time you release a new nail polish, I have to buy it.  Don't you understand I've got bills and stuff?  Whyyyy must you do this to me?

The Heavenly Quotes collection is inspired by quotations from famous works, and apparently Adina, the lass behind A-England, is just as much of a lit dork as your humble author.  And the Moonbeams... is inspired by Shelly's poem Love's Philosophy.  It's a really light lemony base with glass-fleck glitter that makes it literally look like a moonbeam on a summery evening.




See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;

No sister flower would be forgiven,

If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Then there's She Walks in Beauty.  Inspired by Byron's poem of the same name, She Walks in Beauty has a gorgeous sheer rose gold base with rose gold glitter of varying sizes.  I can't wait to put this on top of a black or a dark color, but I just went ahead and put it on top of And the Moonbeams... so I could show you guys.






SHE walks in beauty, like the night
  Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that 's best of dark and bright
  Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light         
  Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Toxic Avenger

2012 shall forever be known in history for a lot of things.  In this little corner of the blogosphere (which is the stupidest made up word ever, but I don't know what else to call it), it shall be known as the year I discovered indie polishes.  Indie polishes are the reason I'm such a nail person today, hands down.  

And this is the polish that started it all: "Toxic Avenger" by Dollish Polish.


This is a duochrome, and as such, will look so much prettier in person than in photos.  Sometimes it's a swampy green like its namesake, and sometimes it's gorgeous gold.  Application is a dream - two coats and you're done.  This is after a week of wear, one coat of Orly Bonder as base and a coat of Seche Vite on the top.




Dolilsh Polish is available from her website (which is down at the time of this writing, but hopefully up by the time you read this), as well as at Llarowe and run between eight and ten USD.

What are you going to remember 2012 for?

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Topping Lane

I really like Nails Inc. as a company.  They're pretty reasonably priced, they've got great color payoff, and they're always trying to come out with new looks and stuff that's beyond just creme polishes.  One of the looks they've come out with recently is "Sprinkles", which is their lingo for a glitterbomb inside a creme.  Topping Lane is a pink creme with red, silver, and purple microglitter.

sephora.com

The glitter on these is far more subtle than the usual glitterbombs, partly because of the creme having really decent coverage.



These wear really nicely compared to other glitterbombs I have, I got seven days of wear out of this.  I used Orly's bonder basecoat, two coats of polish, then two coats of Seche Vite to get it smooth.  These are 9.50 USD and are only available at Sephora.com.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Nail MADNESS - My Very First Knockwurst

OPI and I have this jacked up love/hate relationship.  Some of their collections I MUST HAVE ALL OF THEM OH MY GOD BETTER GET BACKUPS and some of them, like their Germany collection, I kinda shrug at and don't get any of.  The only reason I bought MVFK is because I had a job interview at an insurance firm the next day and wanted something really conservative.  No glitter.  No pearl.  No holo.  I wanted a demure creme.  And that's just what I got.





It's a really pretty nude.  I bust it out when I'm too lazy to do much else, or when I want to impress someone who thinks I can't physically do demure.  I CAN SO.  I'M DEMURE OUT THE MOTHERFUCKIN' YING YANG, DO YOU SEE THIS NAIL POLISH?  

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Sticks and Stones Did It On 'Em

I suck at a lot of things: keeping my house clean, math, dating one person at a time, and keeping up with this blog.  I admit that being unemployed sort of made me ridiculously depressed, and it's just harder to blog when you're broke.  Now I've got a job and a goal in mind for my life (working towards going back to grad school is really doing wonders for my motivation), and it's time to start this back up.  Honestly, I'm really excited about it.  I've got loads of stuff I've never even used, and even if it's not new to me, it's new to you.

Today's a nail look (yes, I like nail polish, stfu) that's easier than it looks.  People keep asking me how I did it and when I tell them it's all about the top coat, they look at me like I'm high.  (I'm not anymore, promise!)

I give you: OPI's "Did It On 'Em" from the Nicki Minaj collection layered with Sticks and Stones from Ninja Polish.



"Did it On 'Em" is kind of a Shrek-esque green color that my mother shrieked at and flailed and ran away.  My mother's kind of a wuss, and I totally love this color.  But cremes bore me now, so I went ahead and upped the ante with a layer of Sticks And Stones by NinjaPolish.  I love how the green offsets the black and white and they just hang out and enhance each other, making everything pop in tandem and gorgeousness.  Wearing you forever, mani.

Now that I'm back I'm really going to try to stick to a Monday/Friday writing schedule; I need to learn that not every post has to be a 1500 word essay.  It's the English BA talking, not the blogger.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Butter London "Wallis"

Here is Butter London's "Wallis".  I run out of good things to say about Butter London, I really do, but this one is particularly gorgeous.  My roommate says it's mostly gold, I say it's mostly green with gold shimmer, and the camera says we're both stupid and it's kind of greenygoldeytaupey.  It's pretty much impossible to take a photo that captures every aspect of this, but I certainly tried.






As always Orly Bonder basecoat, two layers of polish, Seche Vite topcoat.  This is after four days of wear.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Butter London "All Hail the Queen"

Here are some proper pictures of All Hail the Queen.  It's a really pretty griegey taupey color and absolutely perfect for work.  I wore this to an interview and was totally comfortable with it.  All of these were taken in indoor light with flash.



 This is after five days of wear and they're holding on strong!  I used a coat of Orly Bonder with two ty topacoats of the polish (though it was pretty opaque after one coat, I like to do two because I suck at getting things perfect on one coat) followed by one coat of Seche Vite.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Butter London Haul

I was lucky enough to get in on an amazing deal for the launch of Coterie, a site that's a bit like a Haute Look or Gilt - but just for beauty.  Skin care, makeup, nail care - it's all there.  For the launch, they offered a code that gave people 25.00 off their first order.  I got a pack of three Butter London polishes and a matte top coat for eleven bucks USD.  Considering these polishes sell for 16.00 USD each at my local Ulta, I was stoked.  Here's what I got!

From L t R: All Hail The Queen, West End Wonderland, Wallis, Matte Topcoat










Yes, I'm wearing All Hail The Queen in those pictures, but I'll have a proper review of it up on Monday for you guys.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Nail MADNESS - L'Oreal "Brit Invasion"

I don't know why exactly, but L'Oreal had a weird THE BRITISH ARE COMING! release recently.  I'm operating under the assumption that it's LE, but don't quote me on that.  But either way, there's one standout polish in the whole collection, and that's Brit Invasion.


Taken indoors, with flash.  It's a dark mushroomy grey, but what sets it apart is the gold shimmer.  It's really noticeable, but not WHA-BAM glitter, either.  I wore this to an interview yesterday, and was totally confident that it was Business Pro.

This is two coats on top of Orly Bonder with one coat of Seche Vite on top.  The application was super easy peasy for me, it went on nice and opaque, but I always do two coats because I put on my first coat like I'm Katherine Hepburn.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Sensitive Nose: Chanel "Jersey"

Some people have been saying that Chanel's new fragrance, Jersey, is named after the state.  As someone who has dated someone who lived in the Garden State, I'm going to have to go on record and say that this is not what this perfume smells like.  No, the copy from the Chanel website says that it was named for the fabric because Coco Chanel was one of the first to start using the fabric in women's clothing.


Chanel also states that the main note in this perfume is lavender, followed by vanilla and musk.  To my nose, it does smell like lavender is the top note, but that Chanel No. 5 is the base.  It's got that clean, feminine Chanel smell that I associate with all of their products, but just enough lavender to be considered an "old lady" perfume.  I've been interviewing for jobs, so this is light enough to be smelled but not so strong that I'm going to offend anyone.  It smells clean and fresh and how I'd imagine all of Provence to smell.  Insta love.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Review: Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel (Sensitive)

So, I am now one of America's Unemployed.  You may think this means that I'm having non-stop fun, that I'm vacationing and sleeping in late and having a lot of trysts with other fabulously unemployed singles.  That's completely not the case.  I am living in a constant state of panic like a tiny, twitchy dog. Adding to this stress is the fact that I'm pulling two or three face-to-face interviews per week.  And since I'm in a constant state of AUGH WTF NO, my skin is reacting in kind.  I'm breaking the fuck out.  My skin needs help.



A couple of months ago in my Conscious Box I got a sample of Juice Beauty's Green Apple Peel in the sensitive formulation.  It's not a peel-off mask; instead, it's a smooth, slightly sticky formulation that you smear on your face and leave on for twenty to thirty minutes.  The "peel" isn't what you do, it's what the mask does for you.  It exfoliates, it tightens, it brightens.  At least that's what it says it does.

from juicebeauty.com

This stuff works for me, so well.  I love this stuff.  I smear it on when my skin gets to Crisis Levels, and it always makes me look as dewy and glowy as I did when I was fourteen and the world was shiny and new.  It really does luminize.  I think buying a full price bottle of this would be worth it for me when I eventually get the money; since it's a once or twice per week item, the small amount per jar would be all right.  I love this mask, and it loves me.  I hope my interviewers love me tomorrow too.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Loot! - The Face Shop

I love finding out about other cultures.  I love eating other cultures' foods and watching their movies.  I adore reading their books and listening to their music.  Since I'm a Culture Sponge (it seriously is a thing - I'm listening to French kids' music right now while I'm typing this, and the book next to me is a gender studies textbook about Japanese hostessing clubs and I'm eating some random peanuts that I couldn't tell you what they are because I don't speak Spanish), I also love - and might love the most - sampling other cultures' beauty products.

I work in a part of Houston they call the International District; there's a lot of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Mexican places all within a few miles of each other.  I love it; where else can I get good butter chicken and pho without having to drive too far from each other?  I also just like signage that's not in English or romanized lettering.  It just makes me happy for some reason.  But now I have another reason to love it here: FACE SHOP STORE FIVE MINUTES FROM WORK ERRRMAHGEERD.  I'm not even kidding, I nearly skipped into the joint on my lunch today at work (and very nearly stole one of the posters of the gorgeous Kim Hyun-joong they have plastered all over).  Here's what I got (which isn't nearly half of what I want, but at some point I think I might need food again).


TREASURES.



I got this BB cream for 14.00 USD.  I've been looking for something to replace my beloved SKIN79 hot pink, and this feels (on my hand at least, I used the sample) much lighter.  I'll review it later!  It's kind of a smallish bottle, so I'm not sure if it's the same bang for the buck as hot pink.  I'll keep you posted.



Herb Day cleansing wipes for 8.00 USD.  I use wipes to take off my makeup at night, and also when I'm lazy.  Since the voyage from the car to the store and then back again in 107 F heat left me feeling not so fresh, I tried one of these at my work desk.  It left me feeling clean, left no weird residue behind, and tingled.  Mama likey, and that's pretty cheap for 70 wipes.


Nature Garden Cleansing Bar in sebum controlling.  I got this for 5.00 USD.  I'll use it and let you guys know how it does on controlling my sebum.  Sebum sucks.


Speaking of sebum, I love me these sheet masks.  They're a teeny bit expensive (3.00 USD each, and they're one use each), but they work so well I try to get them once a month.  Now I don't have to pay for international shipping when I do that.  Kermit arms, y'all.



And y'all know I couldn't leave without some nail polish.  The top one ran me just 2.00 USD (I know, right?)  That color is GR501 (I know, unfortunately no cute names here).  The bottom one was 5.00 USD and is BR801.

After work tonight, I'm going to go home, shower, fight some sebum, and do my nails.  ... and try not to think about next week when I get paid and probably go back to spend/waste more money.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Nail MADNESS - Random Fly Super Bass Dancing

So, I know I've shown you Fly from the Nicki Minaj collection before, and I know I've shown you Dollish Polish's Random Dancing - but I didn't show them to you together.  I did an 'organized chaos' mani with those two on some nails and Fly and Super Bass shatter on the others.  All of these are in natural light.





Okay, so I know I jacked up that middle nail, but dude, I don't even care.  How pretty is that?  I prefer OPI's shatters to China Glaze's, as they crackle a bit more.  What pairings are you rocking?

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Nail MADNESS: Julep "Kyllie" and A-England "Princess Tears"

I suck at those 30 day challenges - I painted my nails.  I couldn't help it.  They were so bare and boring and after a week or so of constant cuticle care, they were looking a lot better.  So I figured - hell, nobody cares but me, so why not?





The dark purple is the magnetic polish Julep offered a few months ago, Kylie.  The shimmery lilac holo  is A-England's Princess Tears.  I like how they look together, and I was kind of sick of summer colors.

And because she insisted on butting her nose and fur into the picture, have a picture of my own little princess, my youngest kitty Isolde.