Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Milani - Totally Color Inaccurate

I ordered this polish a few weeks ago when Milani was having a free shipping promotion. I've seen many pictures of it, all of which looked amazing and full of purple, shimmery, awesomeness. Milani Totally Cool has a violet/cobalt base with LOTS of purple/fuchsia/gold micro-glitter. My camera refused to pick up the colors properly though, especially the base. It's really not quite that cobalt-looking, rather more violet. And in the right light, that glitter really sparkles!


Milani - Totally Cool


It was very sheer for me, also-- this was about five coats, yes, five. I'd like to try it again but layered over another violet or navy.



Now if only I could get my hands on Dot Com...

Saturday, August 27, 2011

My Fruitful Pursuit of Strawberry Fields & How I Learned to Read

I'm really not much of a pink polish person. Give me a muted, cool-toned color any day of the week, but warm brights? No thanks. Then there was Strawberry Fields-- mouth-wateringly bright, yummy pink with gorgeous little gold flecks. So summery, fun; cheerful and girly. From China Glaze's Summer collection, last year? Well, shoot. I didn't expect to find it at my local Sally's or Ulta, but I still skimmed through the colors.



Finally I started looking on Ebay, but darn those shipping costs! So I waited, and pined, and stared at swatches of others wearing it. A couple of weeks ago I checked out another nearby Sally's, and noticed China Glaze polishes were on sale-- score! So I actually went through and read each and every polish name, to see if I was familiar with any of them.



Hang on, what's that? Strawberry Fields? ...Here all along? *Grabs bottle and hangs head in embarrassment.*



So then I learned 1) how a color appears on the nails what the actual bottle looks like can be entirely different from one another and 2) when in doubt, read the names.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

How It All Began... Nail Polish

Although I've enjoyed cosmetics (playing with eyeshadow colors especially) for many years, I had never really "collected" nail polishes until recently. Before I moved from California to Colorado three years ago, I had a tiny basket of colors I'd collected over the past ten or so years-- cheap drugstore polishes, small brands found on boutique counters, and mostly just pinks and sheers. Regrettably, I threw nearly them all away before I left, save my prized Paul & Joe, thinking they must have "expired" by now. Little did I know how easy it is to reconstitute a seemingly unusable polish! I kept all of my MAC eye shadows & lipsticks though, as well as a hodgepodge of others. Eventually I bought a few new polishes: a couple of reds and crimsons, a sheer nail strengthener, but rarely wore them and when I did, wore until the color chipped off.

Then I picked up a magazine; there are a few fashion and design magazines I enjoy, though most of them display items way out of my budget, but are still fun to get ideas from. It was the September issue of Vanity Fair featuring Lady Gaga on the cover. She looked amazing! I loved her greyed out blonde hair, nude lips, and gorgeous nails. What color was on her nails? I began searching everywhere.


I went to all of my local drugstores and found a plethora of this popular greige/taupe. But none of these were the one. I picked up a bottle of Rimmel's Steel Grey, which had a similar tone, and later Revlon's Gray Suede, more of a nude, and loved the look of both. I picked up other colors to compliment my Autumn mood-- dusty lavender, metallic scarlet, deep sparkly plum, and others. But what really brought my experience to a new level was searching online: I discovered the world of makeup bloggers.

Since then I have discovered so many more resources, brands, flakies, and fellow moderately-obsessed lacquer lovers. And I even know what color was on Gaga's nails:

Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas


Right now I really enjoy nail polish as a sort of hobby. There are many days I don't feel up to messing around with eye makeup, especially as a contact lens-wearer where I always seem to get some kind of makeup gunk on my lenses! My nails are much healthier now that I've discovered the amazing benefits of using a top and base coat, and I just love to use my nail color as an "accessory" to match with the tone and colors of what I'm wearing. Now if only I could get the hubby to support this small obsession...

Thanks for reading! ♥

Random Haul & Layering!

Here are a few polishes I've picked up recently:

Left to Right: CND Copper Shimmer, China Glaze White Cap, Nicole Green Up Your Act, Poshe Topcoat, Poshe Nail-Strengthening Basecoat


I've been so excited about all of these! Originally I wanted to use Copper Shimmer to try and recreate one of the colors from Rescue Beauty Lounge's Firebird collection, Piu Mosso, a beautiful royal navy creme that flashes orange & red shimmer. Well I don't have a proper royal navy to test this on yet, but I did really love it over Nicole by OPI's Green Up Your Act, a gorgeous murky teal that leans toward jade green.

Green Up Your Act & Naked nails



Thought I'd show off these nice dings in my polish, too. >.>;;


Pretty amazing together! Next I want to try it over Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray, a nice, dusty blue-grey. I also expect I'll be layering White Cap over just about everything-- it adds an amazing gold sparkle to colors! I absolutely loooved it over Nubar's Indigo Illusion, and will post pictures of that soon. ♥

The Poshe top & base coats are 3-free (no formaldehyde, toluene, or phthalates) and I think it's great that the base is also a strengthener "for dry, brittle, weak, peeling nails". So far I've liked them quite well, no shrinkage or peeling. All in all, a most excellent mini-haul!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Needs More Sparkle!

I decided to sparkle up my lovely Lady Muck by adding a coat of Claire's Glitter Top Coat, a nice glittery holographic.

Butter London - Lady Muck with Claire's Glitter Top Coat


Did I mention how very glittery it is? Oh, yes.


I prefer layering this over lighter colors so it blends in with the color instead of looking like bright little chunks of rainbow, but I'm more into the "subtle" holographics... (Right.)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Zoya Yara

From their Fall 2011 Mirrors collection, here is Zoya's Yara: a beautiful murky olive with fine gold micro-glitter.


Though it was rather darker than I was expecting, and the gold shimmer isn't always so noticeable, Yara is a really lovely and flattering shade of green.

(With flash)



I've enjoyed wearing this shade with my vintage-y printed sun dresses and tanks, but since I'm still mainly wearing bright, summery clothes I'm finding it difficult to get "in the mood" for these Fall colors. However I am really looking forward to pairing this with my greys, aubergines, and dark teals!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Mini Zoya Haul & More!

During one of Zoya's most recent promotions where they offered a free 8 oz. bottle of Remove+ with purchase, I picked up a few polishes I'd been ogling: Neeka and Yara from their newest Fall collection, as well as Jules from the Spring colors.

Zoya Neeka, Yara, Jules, and Remove+


I've also been trying to expand my pinks as I have very few, and found a couple cute polishes at Claire's as well.

Sinful Colors Cream Pink, Claire's Mood Color Changing Nail Polish in Lonely/Loved, & Claire's Glitter Top Coat


The first of my new Zoyas that I tried was Jules, which is a gorgeous shimmery, dusty taupe/gold; a color I've been rather obsessed with since the purchase of my newest and most beloved purse. Yes, I wanted my nail polish to match my beautiful bag. Silly? Maybe. Awesome? I think so!



Pretty stunning, right? The formula was excellent and easy to apply, and the color is so unique and entrancing. And the purse! I bought at a Coach Factory Outlet store, so it was an amazing deal. *Love!* Yara and Neeka certainly did not disappoint either, I never imagined I'd like an olive green like Yara, but Zoya knows the way to my heart. And Neeka-- dark, greyed, gold-glittered violet? Uh, yeah. I'll have swatches up of those soon, too, as well as the Claire's & (if I woman up to it) Sinful's shimmery neon pink!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Maybelline Sunlight

I picked this up a few weeks ago at Walgreens, it was part of Maybelline's Springs 2011 Sweet Thing Collection. This particular shade is called "Sunlight," and it's a kind of dusty, shimmery white gold. Honestly, I looked at the bottle and thought, "Please look just like Moxie." (à la Rescue Beauty Lounge) which is currently sold out but will be returning soon, along with a few others, in the "Bring It Back" event.

Here is Moxie:


(clipped to polyvore.com)


And here is Maybelline's Sunlight:


I really love the pale, dusty gold color, although the formula is quite sheer, and I believe this was four coats. From what I can tell, the shade is similar to Moxie. However Moxie's formula is supposed to be excellent where this one took more coats than I'd like to achieve opacity, and still had visible nail line.


Scrangie has a gorgeous swatch of the real Moxie here, and you can see the formula looks more opaque and the color more luminous. But hey, for five bucks it was worth trying anyhow!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Physicians Formula Baked Bronzer in Baked Tan

This is the first bronzer I've tried actually, and so far I've been quite pleased with it. I'm rather fair-skinned and didn't think I'd find a bronzer that would suit my complexion. Lately I've been really into mineral powders (and "baked" blushes and such) for my face; I like the subtle, dewy glow they give, especially for the summer. This can be used wet or dry, and blends very nicely, with a nice little shimmer in it to give a touch more summer glow.



I'm still learning what the best application is, but I like to lightly sweep it across my cheeks to give them a bit more depth. It's suggested to apply it where the sun would naturally give your face more color.

Blended, Unblended


I picked this up at WalMart for ~$10, and I believe I saw it at Target as well. They also carry a slightly darker shade called Baked Bronze.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Zoya Zara

One of my favorite Zoya polishes, which combines my love of purple and gold shimmer. Zara goes on a little sheer but looks lovely after three coats.



I think it has a very "Spring" feel to it, but I'll definitely being wearing her all year round. The gold and purple compliment each other so nicely. I've been a bit obsessed with gold shimmer recently, in my polishes, lipsticks, and even blushes. I love the warmth and sparkle it adds in the Summertime.


I also made my first attempt at striping with tape, but I don't think the color I chose (Nubar's Indigo Illusion) contrasted enough with the orchid-plum purple. And as you can see I didn't clean up around my nail much either! There are some pretty cool designs you can create with just tape, although I'd really like to try nail stamping, too.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Skittle Mani?

The other week my indecisiveness led me to try a "skittle" mani with a spring-inspired palette and lots of flakey goodness. I just can't get enough of Nubar 2010 and am always surprised and very pleased with how it looks over different colors.

From thumb to pinky I have Nubar 2010 layered over Nubar Wildlife, Zoya Pru, Nubar Indigo Illusion, OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It, and Zoya Dannii.



I still need to learn and perfect a good nail clean-up method. I've tried using both a cotton swab and also a paintbrush dipped in acetone to clean around the edges. Maybe I have the wrong type of brush because that was painfully difficult and took forever! For now I am in the bad habit of simply waiting until it is dried, washing my hands and trying to peel off the excess. >.>;;