Vintage China Glaze

Posted on by Cynthia

Because I’ve been feeling like freaking shit I went out to get my mind off things and of course I ended up going to one of my nail places to check out some of the old nail polishes I had seen on another trip. I really feel that at this point, I am a nail polish collector so I get excited when I see old stuff. I was wondering if these nail polishes would even be useable without adding some thinner, but I honestly didn’t care because I just wanted them for the bottles.

Here are the two that I picked up:

  

  

  

I love how weird these bottles look compared to the current China Glaze bottles. I think these collections are around 10 years old and when I opened up the bottles, they kind of smelled like death.

Finger Paints Limited Edition Magnetic Effects Collection

Posted on by Cynthia

Yesterday when I was at Sally’s I saw this apparently new collection of magnetic polishes by Finger Paints. Normally I am not going gaga over magnetic polishes since I have some by Nails Inc. and China Glaze. However, there was a sale going on and these are very reasonably priced. They come in the following 4 colors:

If these look familiar, it is because they are the exact same bottle and magnet as Nails Inc.

So what is the big difference? Nothing but the price. Nails Inc. sells for $16 a bottle while Finger Paints sells for $6.99. With the buy two get one free sale on all polishes at Sally, I ended up paying under $16 for THREE polishes of the same quality and size. If you are new to magnetic polish, this is a very economical way to try them out without spending too much.

Here are some swatches of the three colors I picked up:

Cop An Attitude

Hipnotic

Electro-Midnight

So what do you think? Do these interest you?

Jessica Polishes

Posted on by Cynthia

My introduction to Jessica polishes came by way of the Peacock Queen Collection that was a dupe of Chanel’s Illusions d’Ombres. I really hadn’t heard much about this brand, but I’ve been pretty satisfied with the polishes I tried so far. My main gripe is that I don’t like the brush at all. I find it hard to work with. I am usually really good about following the curve of my cuticles on my nails with the polish, but the brush on Jessica polishes makes me do some jagged and awkward lines. This color is called Midnight Moonlight and it reminds me of OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue.  I don’t think they are dupes but are quite similar.  Midnight Moonlight is a lot brighter, I think.

 

I really feel like I ruined this polish with the stamp. I don’t know what is up with my new Konad white polish because it feels thinner than my other special polish bottles and not as opaque. I really like this design. I got tons of compliments today when I went to the store with these nails. People were asking me where I got them done and they seemed shocked when I told them I did them myself. They thought they were stickers or something. I have a whole little speech about Konad because people are always confused when I say it’s a stamp. It would be funny if I could talk to those people again because I know some of them totally went looking for Konad stuff. I should start giving away little cards with my blog info so they can come and visit later on. lol

So I had started this post earlier in the day before a bomb got dropped in my lap. I am upset, stressed out and really pissed. I’m going to chill for a few minutes with my iced caramel coffee before I even attempt to explain what happened today. Please heed my warning if you decided to read my next personal post because it’s going to be a fucking doozy. If you’re offended by profanity, I apologize in advance.

 

Aquadelic Stars

Posted on by Cynthia

My nail polish guy picked up Aquadelic and asked me: “Why do you want this one? It’s like For Audrey and I know you have that one already.” Pffft! Ok, Mr. Nguyen, you do not know your nail polish as well as I thought you did. Aquadelic is NOT a For Audrey dupe. Aquadelic is definitely greener than For Audrey. Yeah, they’re “close” but are different enough that I gladly purchased it.

Aquadelic is one of the few colors from the Electropop Collection that I didn’t purchase right when the collection came out. At first, I had a hard time finding it in stock and then I just forgot about it. When I saw it today, I knew it had to me mine. Muawhahahahaha! I have to say that I found the formula to be a big pain in my big rear end. It dragged, created bald spots, felt goopy…everything I dread. I’m going to add a couple of drops of thinner and hopefully that will help for the next time I use this polish. I hate having to add thinner to a brand new bottle of polish but whatever; it is what it is.

 

I’ve been into stars a lot lately. Can ya tell?

I Joined A Cult…

Posted on by Cynthia

Cult Nails, that is! Today I made my first Cult Nails purchase because they are having a $5 sale on their polishes. They are normally $10 each so that is a great discount. You are limited to only three polishes which kinda sucks, but I’m happy nonetheless. I ordered  My Kind of Cool Aid, Manipulative and Vicious. I can’t wait to get my new babies in the mail.

That’s all I have to say right now. Happy joy, joy!

Flaky Love

Posted on by Cynthia

Last week I purchased a Nails Inc. set at Sephora, and I finally got around to trying it out. I really like Nails Inc. as a brand but find  them a little too pricey at at $9.50 for .33oz. When I saw that the Special Effects set was on sale for $10 AND I had my 15% off coupon, I jumped right on it. The set comes with two polishes: Kensington, a black teal, and a Special Effects Overglaze Flaky Top Coat named The Wyndham. I generally like dark colors and this was no exception. It really is a saturated and glossy color that almost looks black until you see it in the sunlight and you catch the teal base. Oooohhh so pretty! The formula was great like all of the Nails Inc. polishes that I own. I was especially impressed with this one because it’s a one coater if you apply carefully.

 

The flaky top coat makes this look almost electric. The green flakes look so much more vibrant in person!

So what do you think? This is still on sale at Sephora and Sephora.com so pick one up if you’re interested in trying out Nails Inc.

I’m Blue!

Posted on by Cynthia

How many of you remember Blue? This is the first song that pops into my mind when I think of Euro dance tracks. I was reminded of this song when I decided to do a blue comparison after Vienna from Nail Polish Required asked me how Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto compared to OPI Dating A Royal. If you’re a glitter lover, you have to check out her blog!

I decided to compare three colors: Essie Mesmerize, OPI Dating A Royal and Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto.

As you can see, there are very slight differences between these polishes. Essie Mesmerize is the lightest one of the three and also has the best formula since you can get away with one coat. OPI Dating A Royal is a tiny bit darker than Mesmerize and it also has the sheerest formula out of the three. It needs 3 coats and it can be kind of watery. Sephora By OPI Blue Grotto is the darkest and smokiest color of the three. It has a pretty good formula but I still find it kind of streaky like most SOPI polishes. I won’t even say how annoying I find the brush. Do you really need all three? Probably not but will you want all three if you are blue lover like me? Duh!

Essie Sure Shot Resort Collection 2012

Posted on by Cynthia

I had Essie on the brain when I woke up today so I went to look the Resort Collection. Since my usual nail place hiked up their prices on Essie products, I ventured out to a couple of new stores. It paid off because I got these for $3.50 each. Score! I don’t know if it’s just me, but these colors don’t look like a cohesive collection. The colors seem to be all over the place, but I still like them individually.

Pink-a-boo is the one color I was not that excited about. However, I really like it! Essie is known for all their soft pastel shades so they really know how to do them right. I had read that this was a nightmare to apply, but I did not have any major problems with it. It’s soft and milky pink with some iridescent glitter. You can see the pink and lavender tinge of the glitter in the bottle, but it doesn’t show up much on the nail. Because it is so light and sheer, I needed 3 coats.  This color just seems classy to me.

Sure Shot is such a juicy color, j-j-j-juicy!

How awesome would it be if this song played whenever you entered a room wearing Sure Shot on your nails? Hahaha! Am I a weirdo? This hot like magma fuschia is absolutely gorgeous. It has fine shimmer throughout which makes it look even…juicier! I didn’t have any problems with application and 2 coats were all I needed.

She’s Picture Perfect was such a weird looking color when I first saw the bottle. It’s grayish lavender/lilac and kinda blue all at once. Then it has that hot pink shimmer that doesn’t seem to fit. This one was an absolute nightmare to apply. I don’t know if it was just my bottle but it was just so difficult to work with.  I actually applied it and removed it twice before I took pictures of it. It was so streaky and gross. Ugh! I hate it when I get a dud like this. I still think it’s a unique color so I am not giving up on it. I will just have to mentally prepare myself for frustration when I decide to wear it.

No More Film is a creme. I love cremes. I don’t know if I love this one. It has some purple in it so I should love it, but I just don’t know. I definitely love how saturated the formula is. I could have applied just one coat–that’s how thick and pigmented it is–but I applied 2 thin coats out of habit. I had to work super carefully with this because I did not want to get any on my cuticles. Can you imagine what the clean up would be like for a formula this dark and pigmented? AAAARRGGHHHH! I am not sure of how many similar colors I may have so I’m glad I picked it up. Now that I think of it, I don’t think I really have something close to this indigo creme.

Overall, it’s an interesting collection but nothing I am totally in love with. What do you think about these colors? Do you have a favorite?

I Got Tag Teamed!

Posted on by Cynthia

Yeah, get your mind out of the gutter. I was tagged by Amanda and Nicole to complete this set of questions. I think it’s a cool way to get to know the people behind blogs that I frequent! So here I go.

11 Things About MOI

1) I am the oldest of my siblings and have two brothers. I have never really wanted a sister. When my youngest brother was born, I was 10 years old and I can still remember the second my dad called us to tell us that he had been born. It was 5:45 pm and my brother and I were watching Mr. Belvedere. Once my dad told us it was a boy (my parents wanted to wait to find out the sex of the baby), we both jumped around from couch to couch with joy.

2) I think all babies are ugly. Well, 99% of them are ugly. I think they start looking cute at around 6 months.

3) I spent my junior year of college in Paris. It was interesting.

4) One time I went to a movie by myself while I was in Paris. I thought it was some kind of artsy film, but it ended up being some kind of weird scatological porn. I only realized this after like 30 minutes into the movie and after I realized I was the only girl in the theater with 6 other weird guys. Yeah, it was scary.

5) I once went to North Africa by myself…on a whim. I spent a week in Tunisia and just looked around, went to museums and went shopping. It was awesome but kinda scary too.

6) On my second trip to North Africa, my friend and I went to Morocco. She wanted to get a picture with a monkey and a guy was walking around with one. The monkey got kinda crazy and started attacking her while she screamed at me to take the picture. I was laughing and screaming too hard to even take the picture. I went over to try to help her and I think the monkey scratched me. I had a scratch on my arm that took FOREVER to go away and at one point it looked kinda black. I thought I had Ebola or something.

7) I speak English, Spanish, passable French, can read Italian and speak tourist Italian. I’d really like to learn how to speak Arabic.

8) I love cheese. If I could eat cheese all day long, I probably would. My mouth waters to think of blocks of camembert, gruyere, cotija, sharp cheddar, parmesan, romano, gouda…ahhhhhhhhhh!

9) I hate, hate, hate driving. I wish I lived in a city where I could get around without owning a car. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen any time soon in Southern California.

10) The best gift I ever received was from my best friend. (Don’t let your head get too big when you read this, freak!) He picked items that had so much meaning: a cute little wallet to make up for the wallet that someone stole from me on our trip to Italy; a cute pillow to remind me of falling asleep on the train; some savon de marseille to remind me that our final destination was Marseille. It was totally sweet and meant the world to me.

11) I used to have a lot of episodes of sleep paralysis which made me feel like I was going crazy. If you’ve never heard of sleep paralysis, here is scientific explanation: Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking. Sleep paralysis may accompany other sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is an overpowering need to sleep caused by a problem with the brain’s ability to regulate sleep. I had hallucinations where I thought I felt something climb on top of me and try to choke me. Has this ever happened to you?

Ok, so now that you all think I’m a total weirdo, here are the 11 questions from Nicole over at Polish Me, Please!

  1. When did you start your blog? I started blogging November 2011.
  2. What is your go-to nail look? Anything purple, actually. Purple makes me happy.One time I was working out with my trainer and he asked me what made me happy, and I said the color purple. He responded that he had never seen the movie. LOL
  3. Would you rather: Have your nails cut down to the nail bed for the rest of your life OR never wear makeup again? I would rather have my nails cut down to the nail bed since I hate long nails. I don’t wear make up every single day but I still use it fairly regularly.
  4. What is one thing you wish you would have known as a teen than you know now? I wish I had known how much my parents love me so I wouldn’t have acted like such a turd.
  5. If you could only have 3 nail products/polishes for the rest of your life, what would they be? China Glaze Grape Pop, OPI Ski Teal We Drop, Sally Hansen Cuticle Remover
  6. What is one album you could listen to on repeat and never get sick of? Alanis Morissette’s MTV Unplugged
  7. What is one of your pet peeves? People who say “lie-berry” for “library”
  8. What would be your perfect day? My perfect day would involve spending quality time with people I love.
  9. Do your family and friends know about your blog? Only a handful of friends/family know about my blog and they have been sworn to secrecy due to some of the very personal stuff I sometimes write.
  10. What is the last song you listened to OR the song currently stuck in your head? That I Would Be Good from the aforementioned Alanis album.
  11. Share your personal mantra or a good quote.  I don’t think I really have one but the closest thing would be “Respice Finem” which means “regard the end”

Well, that was fun! I am not going to tag anyone because all the ladies I would tag have already been tagged for the most part. 🙂