Essie Haute As Hello

Posted on by Cynthia

Oh dear Lord where do I begin with this nail polish? Is it a neon? Not quite. Is it matte? Not quite. Does it look nice on me? Uh, NO! I think someone with a different skin tone might be able to pull this off. I’m just too dark for this to look ok. Taking pictures of it was like climbing Mt. Everest. It also had a sort of weird formula that dried kind of fast like a neon but it was pretty pigmented. It did pull and create bald spots when I didn’t let it dry enough before applying another coat. In order to even it out, I applied 3 coats.

These first three pictures were taken with flash. It washed out the color somewhat.

Please excuse the cuticle oil. I neglected to massage it in well enough which makes my fingers look like greasy sausages. I took the following pictures with natural light and they just look icky. My skin looks so grey.

I am so not happy with this color. I am going to leave it on my nails because I’d rather have this color on than nothing at all. I was wearing Mysterious Curse on my nail,s but I ruined them when I gave myself a pedicure. Not smart.

The gym was alright last night. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then walked 2 miles on the treadmill. It was ok as my first workout. When I got home, I had a massive headache. I thought I would sleep like a baby, but I didn’t really. I actually had a very difficult time tossing and turning all night. The other night I had a dream that I was in a psych ward and that Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) was my doctor. He was tearing us down patient by patient and when he got to me, I got so mad that I grabbed his cane and started beating him with it. Then someone picked up this big sink looking thing and threw it out the window like The Chief in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. We all stood there staring–I even stopped beating Dr. House.  That’s the last thing I remember.

I doubt I’ll wear this color again; maybe I will just use it for designs and stuff. Essie deception. You looked so pretty in the bottle.

Orly Mysterious Curse

Posted on by Cynthia

This nail polish is like the first born, blonde, blue eyed male child of my nail polish collection right now. Don’t get all judgmental on me; this is something we used to joke about at my previous job: that my department was the red-headed stepchild of the company and that I would make them into the first born, blonde, blue eyed male child if it killed me…which it nearly did. But that’s another story…

I can’t remember the last time I was completely blown away by a nail polish so I am giddy right now. I don’t know what it is about it that just mesmerizes me. It’s purple and blue. It’s dark and shimmery. It’s just so gorgeous I can’t stand it. Of course there was basically no sunlight today so I had to make do with indoor lighting and flash. I really would have liked to photograph this baby in direct sunlight but I didn’t want to wait since it’s been cold and overcast here for the last 3 days.

Don’t tell me that you don’t love it as much as I do because I will have to hunt you down and destroy you.

In other news, I’m going to the gym tonight just as soon as I finish watching The Office. I need to get my ipod out and update it with a few new songs. I was listening to the Gotye  song “Somebody That I Used To Know” and I thought: When did The Police record a new song? Just an FYI…I am the biggest The Police fan. I love them. Can you remember swooning over Sting in “Don’t Stand So Close To Me?” No? Well, you must either be way young or just insane.

Raaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrr! I totally had a major thing for my college American Literature professor and I blame this video. Why does it seem that everything is more intense when you’re 17? I never missed his class even though it was at 8 am.

So what other songs should I download? Are there songs that you enjoy when you hit the gym? And, oh yeah…what do you think about Mysterious Curse?

Polish Moratorium

Posted on by Cynthia

My nail polish boycott begins now. Since I was so close to the end of the month, I just decided to start everything May 1st. I will not buy nail polish for one month. I think that I have enough new polishes to last me a month or more and I want to save up some money for other things. Today I bought a few new polishes and some “interview shoes.”

I had never heard of this brand so when I saw these at one of my nail places, I picked up a couple to try them out. They had about 4 other colors that looked pretty interesting, but I’d rather wait and see what the formula is like before I buy more. The first one is supposed to go from Teal to Turquoise and the second one is supposed to go from Blue to Neon Blue.

I didn’t see too many Essies that I wanted. Neither of my main nail places have the new bridal collection or the poppy razzi collection so I am just going to wait to get a couple of colors after next month. The two colors I picked up are Watermelon and Haute As Hello. I almost got Tarte Deco but I liked Haute As Hello a little better. They look pretty close from the bottles so I didn’t want to get both.

I also got two new Orly polishes from two new collections. Mysterious Curse was the one polish that really drew me in from the Dark Shadows Collection. There was another one that looked cool but I just picked one. I can’t wait to see the movie because who doesn’t like Johnny Depp? The other one I purchased is called Skinny Dip and it is from Orly’s Feel The Vibe Summer 2012 Collection. The whole collection is full of super bright colors and one dark glitter. I loved this one because it’s one of those blues that I adore, and it has some purple microshimmer. I suspect that it’s not going to show up much once it’s on my nails but I’ll probably still like it.

I am really loving Poshé way more than Seche Vite. I never thought I’d say that but I just really like it. I got the professional size and it came with an extra regular size bottle. Best of all, I only paid $11 for it. For those who have used Poshé for a while, does this thicken up the way Seche  Vite does? Do you need to buy thinner for it?

Here are the shoes I bought:

I got them in black and beige so I can wear them with anything. They are a little “grandma” but they are a perfect height and I like the cut out on the sides. They are SUPER comfy so I’ll be able to walk around for a long time. I bought two new pantsuits: one in black and one that is light lilac with brown pinstripes. I may not be confident about many things, but one thing I am 100% confident about is job interviews. Maybe it’s because I have hired a lot of people in the past…I just know how to work the interviewer.  And maybe I’m weird, but I really like going to interviews.

And these just for fun:

I love flats, and I love peeptoes even though I hate my feet and really don’t like feet in general. I know I’m not alone on this so at least I don’t sound like a total freak.

I don’t know what to do with my nails today. There is zero sunlight…it’s all overcast and windy. I love this kind of weather but it’s not good for taking pictures of my manicure. I’ll see what I come up with. I can’t believe I haven’t cut my nails yet. I think this is the longest they have ever been, and I haven’t broken one yet. I am using this new Nail-Aid Strengthening/Growth thing so maybe that’s made a difference.

How is your Monday going?

Jessica Show Stopper

Posted on by Cynthia

Here is another polish to add to my Baby Poop Color Chronicles. Granted it’s no China Glaze Trendsetter but it has that weird quality that always makes me think of baby poo as soon as I look at my nails. Yeah, totally not a good image. I got some random stranger compliments on this polish so I guess it looks more interesting than I thought. These pictures make it super obvious that I don’t wrap my tips and this polish really needed it!

The shimmer is very noticeable on my nails and I wasn’t expecting it because the bottle color just looks dark and without shimmer. I also think that the polish did not react well with my topcoat. Once I put Poshé on it, it started to look streaky which was really weird! I do like this polish I don’t see too many of these dirty olive colors, but they are certainly cropping up more often in random collections.

Do you have any similar colors in your collection? What do you think of this color?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you had a great weekend.

SpaRitual Meditate On This

Posted on by Cynthia

I made it through wearing my last manicure for a few days. I was really itching to take it off and try one of my new babies so I picked the SpaRitual shade I recently picked up at Sephora. Now, before I talk about the new nail polish, let me show you the aftermath of OPI Fly.

This was the staining left behind. What.A.Nightmare. This was AFTER I used pure acetone too! I had to break out the baking soda, whitening toothpaste and toothbrush to get rid of all the staining. As much as I love Fly, I am in no hurry to deal with this any time soon.

Back to the new nail polish! I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this nail polish because it looked so amazing in the bottle but lost most of that purple tone on my nails. It’s so hard to see the duochrome effect on my nails, and the duochrome was the main reason why I wanted to get it in the first place. Look at a bottle shot:

This is a pretty sheer polish so I think maybe next time I will wear a dark base. I applied 3 thick coats and still had some VNL.

As you can tell from my pictures, you can’t see any of the purple in direct sunlight. It’s only visible in the following pictures that I took in the shade.

Is this a pretty polish? Absolutely. Was I expecting more? YES! I will be trying other SpaRitual polishes for sure but will make sure to try cremes next. That is my test of an awesome polish brand: if they make an awesome creme, they go on my favorites list.

What do you think of this polish? Have you tried SpaRitual?

Don’t Hate Me! I Have A Sickness.

Posted on by Cynthia

Master enabler Nicole “convinced” me that it was ok to start my no-buy policy this Saturday instead of in the middle of the week.  And when I say that she convinced me, she just agreed with me when I put it out there. I needed no further justification to jump in my car and head over to Little Saigon for polish therapy. I told myself that I wouldn’t spend more than $20 and I stuck to it much to my surprise. It’s a good thing that everything is so cheap there or else I would have been in big trouble.

So, this is what I ended up purchasing today:

Enchantress, Showstopper

 

Jazz, A Crewed Interest, Funny Face and Turquoise & Caicos

Once I had my polish fill, I decided to stop at Sephora. Bad idea. I had gotten a few samples of Korres Wild Rose Moisturizer, and I freaking loved it so I wanted to go check it out. Since I had some store credit, I decided I might as well get something useful like moisturizer. Even though it’s starting to get hot and I have oily skin most of the time, I have noticed that my Clinique gel moisturizer isn’t helping some of the weird dry patches I’ve been getting lately. The Korres moisturizer is really thick but it feels great on my skin and best of all, it doesn’t make me break out. Of course they didn’t have it in store so I have to buy it online. Poo. I started walking around, and of course I ended up at their nail bar. My Sephora is now carrying Julep as well as SpaRitual. I was curious to see if they had Ciaté but it wasn’t available yet.  Then I remembered how much I wanted Illamasqua Nomad. No bueno. I picked it up and also grabbed SpaRitual Meditate On This and ran to the check-out before I could change my mind or grab more things.

These are new brands to me so I can’t wait to try them out. So excited!

Remember how I initially went to Sephora for the Korres moisturizer? Well, at check-out they had the usual 100pt and 500pt perks. Yawn. The perks haven’t been worth squat lately so I barely even glanced at them. The cashier told me I had like 3,000 points. I always kind of hate when they tell me my point balance because it makes me feel self-conscious like I have issues. Well, I do but still… Then I noticed that one of the 100pt perks was a mini tube of the moisturizer I was looking for. Score! I ended up taking 5 of them which is 1.7oz of moisturizer: .3oz more than the amount a full size container carries and retails for $35.00.

This is probably the most well-spent points EVER for me. When’s the last time they had any kind of full-size product even at the 500pt level? Poo to you Sephora. You have to kick it up a notch or else loyal customers, like moi, will start to go elsewhere like *cough* Ulta *cough*

Are you glad it’s Friday? Do you have any plans for the weekend? What do you think of the polish colors I got? Tell me! 🙂

What’s Up With Your Nails?

Posted on by Cynthia

My neighbor asked me this when she saw me taking pictures of my nails this afternoon. She’s about 3 years old and very talkative. I told her that I was taking pictures because I wanted to share how they looked with some friends and she thought that was cool. Invariably, someone always catches me taking pictures of my nails outside, and I always get strange looks. It used to bother me but not anymore…the light is too good.

I was messing around with the OPI drawer in my melmer and I saw Fly. I love Fly because it’s so bright and creamy looking so I decided to use it today. I actually hadn’t used it since I swatched it a while back. I know you like it. Don’t tell me it’s not gorgeous.

 

Since I’ve been trying to lay off the Konad, I played around with another color and my Jessica holo topcoat. OPI Pamplona purple is the other polish I picked for this manicure.

Frankly, this was way too much work for me. I am going to try to leave this on my nails at least 3 days because it’s a waste of time otherwise. How often do you change your nails? What are you wearing right now?

The Office by Essie

Posted on by Cynthia

EDIT 6/25/12: This post has gotten tons of hits lately so. There are some really dedicated fans of The Office out there! I hope you look around my blog and find something interesting. Thank you for visiting my little spot of the the blogosphere.

 

If this is for real, my nail polish year was just made.

Someone please tell me this is not just someone’s wishful thinking because I’m about to crap my pants over here.

Jessica Born 2 Pansy

Posted on by Cynthia

Can someone please explain to me the name of this nail polish? Born 2 Pansy? What am I missing here? Anyway, this polish is from Jessica’s Spring 2012 Collection and it’s a baby soft pink with a hint of lavender and some fine iridescent blue micro glitter. I liked this a lot more in the bottle than I did on my nails. I don’t really see the shimmer too much on my nails in regular light, but it could be that the sun has been MIA for the last week or so. I love how it looks pink, purple and kinda blue sometimes. The formula was ok. It is very sheer but buildable without any major issues. I had to apply 3 thick coats which I don’t like to do so a quick dry top coat like Seche Vite is a must. Ultimately, I do like this color but can’t see myself wearing too often.

 

Because I hadn’t done any konading in a few days, I decided to put a stamp on it. Single ladies, put a stamp on it! Cause if you liked it then you shoulda put a stamp on it. Ok, yeah…I think I’m delirious right now.

 

I liked it better without the konad on it, but it’s too late now.  Oh well, better luck next time.

PS. My nails are growing. Any bets on how much longer I can go without cutting them down to the nub?

Why I Love MUFE Aqua Creams

Posted on by Cynthia

Make Up For Ever is a brand that I think is very consistent when it comes to quality. I have yet to use one of their products that I don’t like which is pretty rare. Aqua creams are very pigmented waterproof creams for the eyes, lips and cheeks. I don’t have any of the formulas that are specifically formulate for the lips and cheeks–I stuck with those that can be used as eye shadows. In my experience, the best way to work with them is to apply them with your fingers. I find that the warmth of your fingers will soften up the consistency and will allow you to blend them beautifully. I have also used a synthetic brush to apply them, but I still much prefer my fingers.

As someone with allergies, eye make up seems to disappear once the watery eyes begin. I always forget that I’m wearing eye make up and rub my eyes. Not good. Much to my surprise, Aqua Creams do not budge. I wore some of these on a trip to Cancun where you could almost cut through the humidity and they wore immaculately…no smudging or wear the whole day.

I mostly tend to use these on their own as a wash of color on my lids, but they also work perfectly as a base for other eye shadows. The trick is that you have to apply the eye shadow while the Aqua Cream is still wet in order for it to lock in the color. Once they are dry, they don’t budge yet they come off easily with any kind of make up remover.

Now, onto the swatches!

 

1 Anthracite – silvery charcoal shimmer

2 Steel – silver gray shimmer

3 Silver – true silver shimmer

4 Snow – white pearl shimmer

 

11 Gold – yellow gold shimmer

12 Golden Copper – soft copper shimmer

13 Warm Beige – champagne shimmer

14 Satin Brown – warm brown shimmer

 

15 Taupe – taupe brown shimmer

16 Pink Beige – pinky beige shimmer

17 Plum – burgundy plum shimmer

18 Purple – light lilac shimmer

 

20 Intense Blue – bright blue sheen

21 Turquoise – vibrant turquoise shimmer

22 Emerald Green – golden green sheen

 

Make Up Forever Aqua Creams can be purchased at many retailers  for $23.00 each. I have had some of these over a year and they have not dried out which is always a big concern with cream products.

Have you tried any MUFE Aqua Creams? Do you have a favorite?