Sunday, February 28, 2010

Illamasqua Contest - Design Your Own Polish

Hey guys!

Many of you are probably aware of this already so for you this will just be a reminder. Illamasqua has a great competition open right now for anyone around the globe who has ever wanted to design their own polish.


Yep! To all you frankeners out there who have made a colour you couldn't find anywhere or to those of you who wish your favourite polish was just a tiny bit of something else... this competition is for you!

Details in brief:
  • Describe in 50 words or less your "dream" polish and include a photograph to demonstrate what your colour might look like.
  • Single entry per person.  Entrants can email their submissions or include a link to their blog where they've showcased their polish ideas.
  • Contest closes March 14th 2010.
    The Prize?!

    Your polish will be created by Illamasqua and sold in the UK starting in October.  Plus, winners will receive a bottle of their polish before anyone else.  Awesome, right?

    For full contest details, check out the Illamasqua blog.

    [Edit: Photo credit belongs, obviously, to Illamasqua.] :)
    read more "Illamasqua Contest - Design Your Own Polish"

    E.L.F. swatches

    These polishes cost $1 each. And I'm not sure they are worth that much.

    E.L.F. Plum
    Jelly plummy purple shade, almost brown if I got it opaque. This was three coats and was very sticky. It might've been improved with some thinner but the brush was so cheap that it resembled a broom. A big broom.

    E.L.F. Hot Pink
    Three coats, more of a hot coral jelly than a hot pink. The brush was actually not horrible for this one but the color didn't seem exceptional to me, either in shade or in application.

    E.L.F. Chocolate

    This was a gorgeous, rich chocolate brown polish (and yes, worth $1). Again, brush like a broom. But two coats, perfectly opaque and glossy. For that, I may be willing to brave the broom brush again. :P

    ...so my verdict is that I'm probably never going to buy any E.L.F. polishes again. I'm glad I got to try them out though: who knows what $1 brand will turn out to be fabulous?
    read more "E.L.F. swatches"

    Saturday, February 27, 2010

    Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

    Yeah, I changed my mind: this is a pretty damn cool polish after all and it wore nicely with Dermalect basecoat and ridgefiller and Diamont topcoat.


    Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie









    This took me about four coats but it was a very easy four coats. I still don't know that I would've paid $18 for it but it was definitely worth $9. What can I say about this polish that hasn't already been said? (And btw, I'm kind of proud that I wasn't so terribly off with my attempted Scrangie franken from last year.)

    I feel like I've been MIA from the blog for awhile -- even though it's only been a few days. The past few days have been an absolute avalanche of stuff: besides the coursework and my research, my program just admitted new graduate students and their visiting day was yesterday, which meant hosting people from Thursday to today (after already hosting a prospective last week). I get really nervous when people are staying in my house and end up doing a lot of housework in preparation for it. To say nothing of trying to finish writing the abstract I'm working on. As predicted, my advisor took it, changed it around completely and now I'm attempting to have input on it. It's due Monday so it'll be off my hands soon enough... just in time for me to write final papers for my classes.
    read more "Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie"

    Friday, February 26, 2010

    StrangeBeautiful Volume 2 - The Rest

    ***THE POLISH OR PERISH BANNER CONTEST ENDS IN 2 DAYS! GET YOUR ENTRIES IN!***

    This is the second part of a 2 part post on StrangeBeautiful Volume 2.

    Now that the freaky-deaky browns and repetitive putties are out of the way, the rest of the Volume is oh... so nice.


    Green

    (2 coats)

    This green is my shizz. Application was great in 2 even coats. Dry time was quick. And I love this color so much. This will get worn many times. This is my hands down favorite of both this volume and Volume 1. It is definitely my favorite light green I own.

    However, some of you may struggle w/ the color and your skin tone. I imagine those with lots of red in your skin may not like this one as much.

    Blue

    (2 coats)

    A greyed-out blue. Dry time is OK. There is something so relaxing about this color.

    Red

    (1 coat)

    Just like in Volume 1, the formula on the red one is best. This took 1 coat and it was quite shiny. There's been some confusion regarding ALU's Volume 3 red. This one could be it. Who knows! Dry time was quick like Green's.

    Purple

    (1 coat - I mucked around w/ the color in photoshop to get it a bit more accurate)

    *Shock* - this color was impossible to photograph. As I was applying this one, I started laughing because I knew that my camera wasn't gonna handle it well. The color is purple; it's very close to, or perhaps exactly, eggplant.

    This was one impressive coat as well! Wowie. Dry time is slower than Red. Also my brush was frayed :(

    Volume 2 finished!

    ***THE POLISH OR PERISH BANNER CONTEST ENDS IN 2 DAYS! GET YOUR ENTRIES IN!***
    read more "StrangeBeautiful Volume 2 - The Rest"

    Thursday, February 25, 2010

    Blue Island Snow...

    A belated tip of the hat to a Canadian winter! :)

    For interest sake, I thought I'd start including polish swatches in their original, unfettered, un-Konaded glory. (Because some of you much prefer that to nail art.)

    Base coat: China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea
    Plate: Konad m69; Delaney A12
    Stamp: China Glaze Calypso Blue; Konad SP in White
    Topcoat: Konad Top Coat
    Modifier: Essie Matte About You



    China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea
     

     
    with Essie's Matte About You
     




    Have a great day!

    -mKat
    read more "Blue Island Snow..."

    StrangeBeautiful Volume 2 - Yellows & Browns

    I, like Flint, went a little SB happy when Bergdorf offered them up on 30% discount. You may recall that my bff gifted me with Volume 1; I rounded out my collection with 2 and 3.

    Like w/ my Volume 1 swatches, I've broken this set up into 2 groups of four each.

    I'm not as happy with the colors in Volume compared to the other 2. It's certainly on the strange side of things (which I like) but there isn't enough variety.

    Yellow

    (2 coats)

    Formula is a wee bit thick on this one. This isn't sunshine, banana, or even egg yolk yellow. This yellow seems to have a touch of orange and brown in it. I'd describe it as the yellow in the center of a daisy.

    Brown

    (2 coats, 1 coat ring)

    Omg, I'm loling forever at the color of this. Whyyyyy. Honestly, who would wear this? I imagine this would look even worse on white people. It's a shame really because this has a formula I really like on it; thin, but controllable. It dries shiny, but unfortunately slowly.


    Putty 1

    (2 coats)

    I was sort of annoyed by the next two. They are just. Soclose. Having swatched it, I quite like this color however.

    Putty 2

    (2 coats)

    The formula on this one was shockingly different. Where 1 was thick (like Yellow), 2 is thin (like Brown). This one takes forever to dry. 2 is certainly more chic than 1, but I actually think I like 1 on me a little better. Am I wrong?

    I've done a comparison swatch of the 2 Putties from Volume 2 and the putty from Volume 3.

    (Index Volume 3 putty, Middle Putty 2, Ring Putty 1)

    Lol I think it looks like I've done a very careful ombre mani.
    read more "StrangeBeautiful Volume 2 - Yellows & Browns"

    Wednesday, February 24, 2010

    A dorktastic survey + old NOTD: Milani Cyberspace

    I've gotten requests for book recommendations on psycholinguistics... which then made me curious about what the other Polish or Perish bloggers might recommend to somebody who was interested in their field:

    What books would you recommend reading if someone wanted to understand what you were studying?

    This is sort of a disingenuous answer because I'm not sure there are a lot of good non-technical book on discourse processing and pragmatics but these selections are definitely related to the larger field of cognitive psychology. (Click on the links to go to the Google Books page.)

    Herbert Clark, Using Language. This is probably the most closely related to what I study: how people use and understand conversation. I've read a ton of papers by Clark... but I have not read this book (shhh, don't tell my advisor). I hear this is actually a sort painful-to-read book... which is bizarre because Clark is a usually a lucid academic writer.

    Steve Pinker, The Language Instinct. I don't trust him on much else (like, to explain most of human behavior) but this is a great introduction on psycholinguistics (and you can totally hop around chapters to read about what you're interested in). Pinker's extremely readable and funny and he explains the basics of the field in a clear and entertaining manner. This is the book that got me into psycholinguistics back in high school.

    Susan Goldin-Meadow, Hearing Gesture. I think this is an awesome book and I think I've mentioned it before here. This book is on how we use and interpret gesture when we talk. This is related to what I do because I essentially study extralinguistic cues (the information we process when we talk that is NOT the talk itself). I've done a little work in gesture and would love to return to it someday.

    Mark Lieberman & Geoffrey Pullum, Far From the Madding Gerund. What linguists do: they describe language... and they don't go around telling you what not to say! Common misconception of what I do as a researcher: I don't give a flyin' flip about proper speech. I give a flyin' flip about how people actually talk (and I'm tellin' you now, pretty much no one speaks properly when they are speaking naturally). I enjoy this group of researchers and am a longtime follower of their blog, The Language Log. This book is a compilation of their greatest hits... probably a much better value to just read Language Log though.

    George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By. This is not really my little section of the field but for those interested in language, this is a really interesting book on common metaphors and how they shape our understanding of the world.

    Ulric Neisser, Memory Observed. This is not really about language at all but I rather liked this one. As the title says, it's about memory, which is a huge part of cognition (I actually think it's the most important part of cognition). This book takes a different tack though: it's about remembering in natural contexts... which seems revolutionary to researchers and completely stupid to the lay audience. (A lot of psych research on memory takes place in a lab, under controlled conditions. This is about what happens in memory "in the wild".)

    Virginia Valian, Why So Slow? I thought this was a particularly cogent examination of the reasons why girls lag behind boys in math and science (and thus have less representation at the upper levels of academia). I always thought of her as a psycholinguist but her more recent work has focused on gender differences in schooling. This is not really what I study either but I am very much interested in the role of gender (and the effects of emphasizing gender as important) in society.

    I feel like I should add in an NOTD photo or something to keep this post "on topic" so here are non-ideal photos of Milani Cyberspace that I didn't originally want to post because they aren't shots of it in natural light (and therefore, do not show off the holo as well).

    Milani Cyberspace (lightbox)

    Milani Cyberspace (indoors with flash)
    I'm working on getting a full Milani 3D review up and will talk about this one more at a later date. I just really felt the need to add it in so people don't feel cheated. ;)
    read more "A dorktastic survey + old NOTD: Milani Cyberspace"

    Tuesday, February 23, 2010

    Grooming My (French) Poodle.

    Parlez-Vous OPI? Mais OUI!!

    I have no poodle to groom Cake, so I groom my nails.

    This is a polish from the OPI France Collection, which in my mind, is the 2nd best OPI collex of *all time*. It makes me feel fabulously French in that avant-garde fashion-editorial kind of way. Like I'm the kind of woman who would wear a Catharine Malandrino shift straight off the runway, and, looking like I belonged in a Vogue spread with my Lanvin bag gracefully dangling from the crook of my arm, trot down cobblestone streets to the nearest Patisserie, where I would eat a croissant, never get fat, and my lipstick would never smear.

    And my nails would be the perfect shade of dusty purple that is both elegant and classy, edgy and unique, at the same time.




    This is a polish I've had for a while, but haven't broken out in forever. I actually got it in lab!

    Sidebar: My PI will only buy OPI polish for the lab (we use it for sealing microscope slides and he seems to care about both quality and prettiness....) and this colour popped up in the stock! I looked for it everywhere and it was sold out all the time! I finally decided to just take it home with me! (Don't worry I'm not a stealer - I substituted it with a different OPI polish in a manly shade for the guys in lab.)

    I haven't worn it in a long time and had completely forgotten how awesome it is on the nail. I love shades that are kind of dusted-out because I think they look super-chic and more neutral than their brighter counterparts, and this is no exception. Purple is kind of my signature colour as well so that adds to the love! I had also forgotten how amazing the formula was - this was *almost* a one coater but needed two to be perfect. No pulling or bald spots like sometimes happen with paler cremes either. I guess this isn't super pale, but medium? (Go Medium!) Either way, it applied like non-dairy vegetable spread.

    Nothing like shopping in your own stash to (re-)discover a great colour! Ooh la la!

    Have you ever gone shopping in your own collection?? Do you think the dusty-colours trend is "over"??

    kittytokaren
    read more "Grooming My (French) Poodle."

    Diamond Cosmetic's Cherry Tobacco

    This is the SFW nail polish I chose for day 4.

    Cherry Tobacco

    (1 coat)

    Application and color of this polish are simply amazing. I am in love. Seriously, is there a skin tone this wouldn't look amazing on? My sole complaint is that it is a little chippy.
    read more "Diamond Cosmetic's Cherry Tobacco"

    Monday, February 22, 2010

    Color Club Rebel Debutante, Part II of III

    I wasn't going to update today but I've been bent over an abstract for the annual meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse for the past four hours and need to do something else for a couple of minutes. I recently decided that the way I had originally framed my research question was leading me into a dead and boring end. But after a long evening of combing the PsycINFO database, I discovered a whole other literature that has let me reframe my research into something that I actually want to write about. So now I'm taking all the work that I've done and am attempting to repackage it, both for publication and for the T&D conference this August. This is tough for me because I don't really know the literature that I'm now trying to fit my work into so I'm doubly insecure about every sentence I'm writing. So I write half a sentence, worry that I've gotten something wrong, quickly flip to the 20-something research articles I've got open on my computer, re-read parts of articles to make sure I know what I'm talking about, realize "no, I don't know what I'm talking about" and then flip back to the half-sentence... and erase it and rewrite it. And then start worrying if I've gotten it wrong again. Rinse, repeat. Over and over. And over. And over.

    So I need a bit of a break from that. And I figured since I swatched two more Rebel Deb polishes over the weekend, it would be a good opportunity to post them.

    Color Club Gossip Column

    Dark, saturated cerulean creme. Really gorgeous striking color, even though it Smurfinated my fingertips when I took it off. Either way, it went on very easily in two coats and was perfectly glossy even before topcoat. I feel like I have really similar colors to this one but without a direct comparison, it's hard for me to determine if I have something that's very dupe-y. All things considered, Color Club is a very affordable brand and all my potential dupes that I'm thinking of are probably all more expensive than Gossip Column.

    Color Club Rebel Debutante


    This almost doesn't fit into the rest of the collection of the same name... which makes sense (it is a Rebel, after all). I am actually not sure I like this color that much. It's a bright spring green creme that almost could be a neon (and actually dries matte-ish like a neon). It's a very pigmented formula which makes it full coverage in two coats but in this case, also makes it hard to apply thin even coats; it's almost a bit gloopy.

    I think I have three more polishes from this collection to go... hopefully, it'll be done before March but no guarantees because this weekend is Visiting Weekend for the new prospective graduate students (including for my SO). I'll be housing two of them and that generally involves getting rid of all evidence of nail polish obsession. My SO takes the stance that, "It's your hobby and if they judge you negatively for it, screw them" -- and I largely agree with him. But whereas his intelligence won't be questioned if people knew he can play video games from dawn to dusk, I know my intelligence will be questioned if I was so obvious in my interest in makeup. If I was feeling more competent in my studies and research lately, I wouldn't hesitate to talk about cosmetics... but I'm not. I have no sense of internally-determined security about my competency lately; I'm not going to jeopardize externally-determined security right now. I miss feeling competent: it really does affect the way I live my life.

    ...and now I will return to my regularly scheduled programming of being super insecure about every single sentence I write.
    read more "Color Club Rebel Debutante, Part II of III"

    "Breaking" up is hard to do...!

    Just look at the pics if you'd like!

    Every so often, the inevitable happens: one of my nails (after growing on its merry little way for ages) just snaps off. I'd like to say that it snaps off on its own volition, but the fact of the matter is, nine times out of ten it's as a result of my own (blatant) stupidity.  Case in point, as I mentioned in the comments to Flinty's Emergency Nubbinization post, I recently broke the nail on my index finger just two short breaths before I asked my bf to help me open a canister.  You'd think I'd learn to be a lady instead of a werewolf and stop attacking things with my claws but no... No such luck.  (Shortly thereafter I proceeded to catch my other index nail under a knife. LOL When it rains, it pours, I guess.)

    A couple of months back (just before Christmas/winter/non-denominational holiday break, actually) one of my nails broke and I was incredibly saddened by this fact. Normally I'd just do what I assume most of you do: chop my nails and not-so-patiently wait until the day when all was right again. Given that I was about to embark on a holiday, I resorted to drastic measures, which included the purchase of the following:  Nailene adhesive nails.



    I must admit that after I bought this I started to worry that perhaps the adhesive wouldn't hold up or that something would go terribly wrong and that, at very least I'd end up with mismatched nails over my holiday. With that fear in mind I ended up not using them at all and so they sat in one of my drawers until last week when, as I said, the inevitable happened.  This time, I was a little braver.

    I am sure that wearing adhesive nails is a bit of a faux pas with nail aficionados but I was really interested in how well these held up.  As of Saturday (Feb 13th), the date of this writing, I've been wearing them on both of my index fingers for about a week.  In that time, I've cleaned my condo from top to bottom, typed assignments, graded assignments, cooked a turducken and a full spread of fixings for ten people and worked out (among other things).  Surprisingly, the adhesive has held up really, really well with no "gapping" or lifting.  On top of that, unlike acrylics, they're thin (plastic) so they look *relatively* natural.

    Included in this kit are 36 nails of various sizes, a small buffer (emery board type thing) and nail adhesive. I am NOT a fan of nails that are buffed rough (as is so often the case when natural nails are dremelled all to hell when one gets a set of acrylics) so I did not buff my nails prior to adding adhesive. I simply followed the instructions which stated to add adhesive to my nail as well as the back of the falsie and then press firmly. That was it. And actually, when I was done I almost wanted to add them to all of my nails as they looked pretty good.

    First Impressions:
    All in all, I think this is a decent quick fix solution. It's relatively inexpensive (I paid approximately $14 CAN at one of the more expensive Canadian drug stores) and works well enough if you're simply hoping to keep a manicure intact.  My biggest frustration thus far has been the fact that most of the nails supplied were quite wide (relative to the shape of my nail bed) or they were far too slender, which has meant a nail that looks slightly "off" relative to the rest of my nails.  If I were to attempt this again I'd probably select a wider falsie but file it down prior to application.

    [Edit] Removal and Second Application:
    I initially planned a follow-up post to this entry but since I removed and replaced my  nails and polish I figured now was as good a time as any to discuss removal.  I was pretty reluctant to use these nails because I figured (given my luck) the glue would warp my nail beds or I'd end up with a pretty wicked nail fungus.  Don't ask my why I thought this - I just did.  I also thought I'd have a heck of a time removing them especially since I'd now worn them for just under two weeks and they still hadn't shown any sign of coming unglued.

    So today (the 17th) I sat down with some cotton balls and some pure acetone. In about 20 minutes I managed to dissolve about 7 layers of polish (I was wearing the Bad Kitty manicure and we all know how fun glitter can be) and with slightly more effort, I dissolved the false nails and glue.  That was it.  No scraping, peeling, prying, nothing. Nails beneath it looked fine and the only side effects were dry hands from the acetone.

    Now, if you've stayed this long to read all of this, here are a couple of pictures of my nails.  The first is my short(er) index finger on my left hand. In the first pic all I've done is wash my hands and buff my nails shiny, including the one I plan to cover.  In the second pic I've reapplied a new nail to my index finger. It's similar enough to my natural nails though if I were wearing these nails bare I'd whiten my own tips.

                                                                                        

     

    All in all I think these provide a decent, quick-fix solution if you've only got one or two nails to grow out. These nails also take polish really well.  The only problem is that the design tends to warp once you remove polish (which means subsequent polish applications will be flawed.)

    [Edit] I feel it necessary to point out that there is no info re: animal testing for this company and neither Nailene nor its parent company Pacific World Corporation are signers of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. This is an admitted detour from my usual animal testing policies.

    QOTD: Are there certain polish colours that go better with long nails and others that go better with short or do you wear whatever, whenever?

    My personal preference tends to lean toward lighter colours when my nails are long and bright or rich, vampy colours when my nails are short.

    -mKat
    read more ""Breaking" up is hard to do...!"

    Sunday, February 21, 2010

    Essie's Vanity Fairest

    ***ONE WEEK LEFT TO ENTER OUR BANNER CONTEST! IF YOU MISS IT, YOU WILL BE SAD. :(***

    The Sunday before I started my job I painted my nails for my first day. First, I attempted OPI's Bubble Bath but I almost cried from the sheer dullness of it. That, plus it took me three coats to get it even.

    So I tossed that and slapped on this Essie. My nail polish qi must have been off because I kept on smudging fingers. Probably my body reacting to the prospect of boring colors at least five days a week. I wiped it all off, walked away, and came back in the evening to try again.


    Vanity Fairest

    (2 coats)

    Applies pretty evenly for a sheer. I like this one. The shimmer makes it sweet.

    ***ONE WEEK LEFT TO ENTER OUR BANNER CONTEST! IF YOU MISS IT, YOU WILL BE SAD. :(***
    read more "Essie's Vanity Fairest"

    Saturday, February 20, 2010

    Tardy for the Party

    So last night I was watching the Olympics when Essie Mint Candy Apple arrived at my door (from a swap)! I felt compelled to try it out, so I applied it on the couch in the dark (so please excuse the application). I know I'm a little tardy for the party on this one - it's from Essie's Winter Collection and was a huge hit last season! I just saw it as more of a spring colour and didn't really think about it much until I started to think spring pastels...

    This is my first-ever mint green, and probably my last - this just doesn't seem very 'me'. I do love the Mid-Century Modern vibe that this colour is giving - its a blue mint-green, but on my nails....ehhh.....




    As far as application goes, I was seriously impressed!! Usually these pastels are a pill to apply and I've heard a lot of people complain about the formula, but I had no problems (especially seeing as I applied it on my couch, in the dark, balancing my hand on my knee with the bottle clamped in between my splayed fingers....). It had good coverage in one coat, flowed nicely but didn't come even close to cuticle-flooding. In two it was perfect and even. I think I like it better in the bottle than on me - it dried more than a smidge darker on my nail than in the bottle.

    On another note - I think Essie bottles are just so cute! I'm great at whittling down the OPIs and other brands in my collection, but I have a hard time getting rid of Essie's - they just fit so nicely together in their little bin...how can I take them away from their brothers and sisters?!

    See, look! Adorable:


    Mint Candy Apple (R) is posing with Put a Ripka Ring On It (M) and St. Lucia Lilac (L).


    What do you guys think of this colour? Have you hopped on the mint-green bandwagon yet?

    kittytokaren
    read more "Tardy for the Party"

    Old NOTD: Estissimo TiNS The Foxy Lady

    And yes, this is one foxy lady...

    TiNS The Foxy Lady





    These photos don't even BEGIN to show the amazing holo glittery goodness that is The Foxy Lady. I mean, WOW. It's awesome in the sunlight because it is so chock full of holo, it's like a some sort of psychedelic party on your nails. It's great indoors too because even though the holo mostly disappears, it's still this enormously blingy polish. From a distance, it's this lovely bright silver glitter in a rose jelly. Up close, you can still see the holo effect. It's made up of a bunch of different glitters: square holo glitter, holo microglitter, silver microglitter, silver glitter. Just terribly cheerful and festive. It took four coats to get bottle color but it would make a nice topcoat at just one or two coats.

    Close-up of The Foxy Lady

    Video of The Foxy Lady
    This is definitely a video you have to check out: the holo is just so shy when it comes to still photos. :)

    Re: the brand. I have absolutely no idea whether I should be referring to it as Estissimo, TiNS or, oddly, SNiL... the "TiNS" part looks like it could be "SNiL". But since I've seen it referred to as "TiNS" on several websites, I'm going to go with that. I happened to get this one off of an NBer off of nbmarketplace at an absolute steal but it's been impossible trying to track it down otherwise. It's a Japanese brand and I can't find anyone in the US who carries it, except for maybe one place that sells it for $20 a pop (plus shipping). I've since been able to locate a website (blog?) that carries them for $15 each... with very expensive shipping. Ridiculously expensive shipping. ...I'll just track 'em down slowly, I guess.

    I'm in a mood to do a really huge purge of my collection. Probably because I have a lot of work to do and I want to do something else to distract my attention... but seriously, the weight of my collection has been a bit overwhelming lately. Untrieds everywhere. Scores of polishes worn once and filed away neatly... probably never to see the light of day again. Why am I such a packrat?? There are so many polishes that I like enough to keep... but do I like them enough to wear again? China Glaze For Audrey is a good example of this: I didn't really like the color on me, I didn't really like the formula of it either... I don't really want it. But I feel compelled to keep it because it's For Audrey and because I love the name of it. Yet every time I start a purge, it's always one of the first ones I think to toss on the swap/sell pile. That and the original holo OPI My Private Jet. It's too sheer for my taste. But who knows if I'll ever find it again. But who cares if I'll ever find it again if I doubt I'll ever want to wear it?? Maybe I'll decant a mini bottles of the polishes that I want to have around but don't really want to wear, just to ease my mind that if one day, I wanted to wear FA or MPJ, I could. (Realistically, I won't.) It'll be worth less in terms of selling on nbmarketplace or swapping on MUA but if this is the only way it'll be out of my collection, then I think that's a good idea for me.

    (I always feel really guilty for not just giving away my polish when I talk of purging and stuff but I do spend a lot of money on polish; I need a bit of money cycling in once in awhile. And for those cynics out there -- I'd be one of you, too -- no, I don't sell the polishes I get free from companies; I do not intend to generate profit from those.)
    read more "Old NOTD: Estissimo TiNS The Foxy Lady"

    Friday, February 19, 2010

    Some skincare promo/discount codes!

    I do try harder to keep up with the nail polish promos (and I figured you had all heard about the Zoya promo by now) but once in awhile, I thought it might be nice to put up some skincare promos as well. I'm a nut for lotions, creams, soaps, shower gels; it's almost as bad as my nail polish addiction. And I figured those who are into their hands and cuticles might be interested too:

    AVON is doing free shipping for orders over $20. Code: AVON2010. Expires: February 25th, 2010.

    The Soap Box Co is having a moving sale, 20% off all orders. This is such a great website for handmade soaps. (Actually, most of the B&B I buy these days is handmade.) Code: BOXUPSALE. Expires: February 21st, 2010.

    Jojoelle is having 30% off sitewide. No code. Expires: February 25th, 2010.

    Cleanse Your Soul, a longtime etailer favorite of mine, is having a sale in honor of her birthday. I have her hand sanitizers and lotions all over my house and office. (Also, she makes a good sugar scrub.) No code necessary. Expires: today.

    SkinStore actually also carries nail polish. 20% coupon (and doesn't include sale items, drat). Code: GOLD20. Expiry unknown.

    Cake Beauty is offering a $20 body wash free with purchases over $50. Not sure if you need a code or when it expires.

    A Zaftig Woman is offering 15% off everything. I haven't bought any bath/body stuff from her but a lot of people like her on MUA's B&B board. Code: 15. Expires: February 22nd, 2010.

    Crater Lake Company is having one of those tiered coupon thingies goin' on: 15% off orders of $20 with code LOVE, 20% off of orders of $30 with code HEART, 25% off of orders of $40 with code KISS. Expires February 28th, 2010.

    Magic Hands Workshop which makes some of the most GORGEOUS soaps is having 10% off sitewide, no code required. Expires: February 28th, 2010.

    Southern Vermont Soaps on Etsy has 15% off always. Code: CARD15. No expiration.
    read more "Some skincare promo/discount codes!"

    Jazz in my pants.

    Essie Jazz is my go-to polish when I'm not sure what to wear. Sometimes I get in a rut and this happens - I just stare at all of my pretties and I can't pick one! This is one that always works no matter what - but doesn't bore my out of my skull. (Love my Essie sheers, but sometimes I am in no mood to tolerate their sweet lacy femininity!) Jazz is another one of those 'neutrals with an edge' that I just love! It's a coffee-with-too-much-cream nude that isn't too warm for me because it has a drop of grey and an even smaller drop of lavender in it. Luckily, no pink undertones...(you'll see why later)....

    Behold, the gorgeousness:




    This is what I was hoping OPI's Tickle My France-Y would look like on me, but I was sorely disappointed! It looks so pretty on other people and I loved it in the bottle, but ugh it looked terrible on me! Truly vomit-inducing. I think it is because it has a small pink undertone that comes out in certain lights. Pink undertones + me = no go. (I am really embarassed to show you a pic of TMF on me...I tried it three times just to make sure it was *that* bad - because so many people love the colour!) So here is a bottle comparison - in most lights they look virtually identical, but if you get them in the right light, you can see the slight pinkiness in TMF:




    Not too terribly pink, right? Looks super pretty in the bottle, but the mauve tone takes over on my hands. Honestly, I think it takes on this character because I am fiercely cool-toned, so any warm tones in a polish become extremely exaggerated. ...but trust me on my nails in certain lights it just takes on this....OK fine, I'll show you the picture...

    Behold, the ugly:



    *runs and hides in embarrassment*

    Luckily, I found Essie Jazz. Jazz is basically TMF will all of those pink undertones ripped out of it. *Much* sexier on me. Want another pic of Essie Jazz to refresh your aesthetic palette? Here ya go:




    Whew! Nothing like (three coats of) smooth Jazz to sooth your soul...

    I love this because while its a nude, its not boring because its got a bit of that dirtied-up, just got-out-of-an-underground-concert-at-4am, gritty grey-ness to it. I feel like this is Essie's answer to RBL Grunge. (I would show you a comparison, but I don't own Grunge - yet.) I find that whenever I wear this, I keep wanting to stare at my hands! It's simple, but perfect. (To me at least.)

    Did OPI Tickle My France-Y work for you? Have you ever tried Essie Jazz? Do you have RBL Grunge? How do they compare?? (Sorry for all the questions! I just find that the people who read and comment on my posts are super knowledgeable and helpful with comparisons!)

    kittytokaren
    read more "Jazz in my pants."