Bloggles

School’s been out for some time and I figured that I needed to keep myself busy somehow. <Enter the idea of cataloging my entire stash on ‘nail popsicles’>. This was inspired by one of the girls on the MUA nail board – Michelyne at Enamel Coated. I hope she doesn’t mind that I did it with my collection as well! The majority of this was done during those two killer weeks of hot weather. I couldn’t help thinking of this little project as a factory churning out popsicles in heaps of  different flavours.

The end result

The raw materials

The assembly line

Intermediate stages of production

Ready for some flavour!

A progress pic

This was a pretty good exercise considering over three quarters of my stash is comprised of polishes that I haven’t gotten around to trying yet. I just can’t wear them in time and this was a good way to try them all.  Not only this but I made a few useful observations along the way:

• Color Club polishes applied very well. They’re an awesome bang for buck lacquer and I could like them just as much as my OPIs.  I just wish my source had more of the colours. I think I mentioned somewhere that the majority of the ones on display tend to be on the safe side. This being said though, I still managed to pick up a bunch of really cool colours… I just want access to more of them!

• Throughout the project I learnt what effect the glass bottle has on a polish. I think I can say that I now have a pretty good idea of  how a colour is going to look like on the nail.

• I also have a feel for each different brush now and I just have to say it… I love the OPI ProWide! What can I say? I’m just a part of the new generation!

• OPI – Here Today… Aragon Tomorrow reminded me of mum’s pandan food colouring. It smelt sooo good, if only the polish smelt that way too! I just loved the way it looked at one coat – all jelly…  and green… Hmm, I think I may be talking Nars Zulu here! But let’s not go there… I have some how managed to resist the lemming of this colour and would prefer to keep it that way considering how elusive it is!

• China Glaze – Flying Dragon dries matte… WTF! Maybe this is old news but it was an interesting learning curve for me! I’ve only ever seen pictures of it with a glossy finish. Welcome, Flying Dragon,  to my collection as my first neon ever.

• I keep my nails short because I like the way they look and generally because they stay out of the way. Not only this, but this exercise has made me realise how much more effort painting longer nails requires – as you can see in the pics, the false nails I used were looooonnnng. There was just so much more to contend with like drag and having to load the brush up with alot more polish. Nubbins for me, for life, YO!

I also got around to doing some comparison wheels:

Blues and Reds. Damn it, I have too many similar dark blues!! … and reds. I have to admit, this exercise was just to reassure myself that the colours are different! “There is justification for owning all of them!”.

… that make me loooove the nail board over at Make Up Alley

Ever go to extreme lengths to avoid smudging/denting a manicure?

“I had to pee very badly all of the sudden today and had to have my mom pull down my pants lol”

Sigh, sally hansen is a hoor. First, I was lemming Opulent Cloud and couldn’t find it anywhere.. ++

“Now, I finally found it (when I did, at Rite Aid, I whispered ’sally you hoor!’ and some man heard me =/ oops!) So I finally apply my new conquest”

Lolllllllllllllll (For those who don’t know, Sally Hansen makes and is a brand of nail polish)

I have to admit, while I had known about this board, its horrendous layout kept me at bay for some time. I eventually got used to it and I’m glad because I can just spend hours reading it. It’s nice to know that there are a plethora of other women who are as interested in nail polish as I am. I am not so crazy after all! The only downside is that I am constantly reminded of all the wonderful lacquer that I do not have access to. You American women are soooo lucky!

This unfortunately, is going to be a lazy post with minimal commentary but don’t worry, I make up with it with a lot of pics. What’s that thing they say, anyway? Something about a picture being worth a thousand words?

China Glaze – Tree Hugger from the ecollection. What a gorgeous colour! I liked it alot but had a few qualms about being able to pull it off. Application was a bit iffy but this might’ve been because I wasn’t used to China Glaze’s brush. I think I may have been spoilt by OPI’s Pro-wide (yes, I am indeed amongst those who actually like it!).

I got bored in between exams so I layered OPI’s “And this Little Piggy…” over it (left). I liked it. It kind of made it look ‘dirtier’ and somewhat more wearable. Not necessarily better than Tree Hugger on its own, just different.

Index comparison. Chinese finger trap, anyone?

And again on the same hand. I did say I had alot of pics.. haha.

China Glaze’s ecollection.
Unplugged, Hybrid and Shower Together.

Tree Hugger, Solar Power and Recycle.
I love this collection as a whole. The colours all look really nice together and I would probably wear most of them if not all. I just have to be feeling a little adventurous to wear Solar Power

So, exams had me out of posting action for a while but never fear, I have here a catch-up post of what I’ve been wearing over the last couple of weeks.

OPI – Chapel of Love

I really liked this colour. That wasn’t much of a surprise, though, because it’s quite similar to Back to the Beach Peach – except with a bit of pink shimmer. It didn’t play that mind game BttBP did with me though and tended to stay the one shade of pinky-coral. Since BttBP is discontinued, I would suggest that this is a good alternative. I’m pretty sure it’s a part of OPI’s Classics Collection now.

In the shade

With flash – you can see the shimmer if you look closely

Illamasqua – Rampage

I was so excited to find that Illamasqua were willing to ship internationally. I picked this up along with MILF and paid more than I usually would for a bottle of polish. Once again, Australians chump out at £12.50 which equates to $22.40 AUD at the moment. These can be had by American polish lovers for just $14USD (around $15AUD) on Sephora – too bad they don’t ship internationally! WHY OH WHYYYY must we endure such injustices???!!  This has me so depressed *sigh* If only I had some connections overseas!! Especially some in the US. I’m still dying to add Muse and Lament to my collection.

This really deserves a post of its own… But I can’t be bothered! Oh well, here goes…

My package, eeee! I was so excited to finally have this in my hot little hands! I was pretty anxious, considering it contained two of the most expensive polishes I have ever bought.

The contents! They included some nice brochures as well. That was nice

The precious cargo! Rampage and MILF (which I am yet to wear). My very first bottles of ‘varnish’ as they call it in the UK, heh-eh!

And finally, the swatches…

This was outside in natural light. I’m holding the bottle weirdly because I was trying to hide the shrinkage that occurred. I think it was the Seche Vite’s fault. Or the way I applied it.. or something.

This is it just after I painted my nails. Messy, I know. I don’t know what happened here, I don’t usually make this much of a mess

And yes! I got it on the sides of my fingers, too! This is a comparison of it without top coat (above) and with Seche Vite (below). As you can see it dries kind of satin-y which was weird – I didn’t expect this since it was sooo lovely and glossy as I applied it. But hey, nothing a lick of SV can’t fix.

OPI – Purple-opolis

I have to admit, this colour didn’t really impress me in the bottle. For something that was purple, it certainly looked pink. It was lovely on, though and much closer to what it’s named with some shimmer. Remember Kinky in Helsinki? Purple-opolis is kind of what it looks like when it isn’t reddish indoors. I suck at colour descriptions so I’ll let it speak for itself in the pictures – they’re pretty spot on.

In the shade

In direct sunlight

15.11.09 – Fashion Weekend

As promised, here is some coverage on the Fashion Weekend that Nghi and I attended on Sunday. It was nice to have something to look forward to, especially after my exam on Friday. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but we caught on pretty quickly. The hall was lined with stalls offering discounted clothes and accessories which would have been great if were in the mood to shop and spend some money but we were just happy to browse. Some stalls (like the Mink Pink one) got a bit crazy – jam packed with women attacking clothes racks from both sides. I’m a very lazy girl and while I love a good bargain, I’m just not prepared to trawl through copious amounts of stuff and to fight off  other fashion-crazed ladies to find them.

But don’t worry, it wasn’t all bad. There were cat walk shows, a wine bar, a ghd style bar and an Essie nail bar where you could get an express mani and bottle of polish for $20. I didn’t leave completely empty-handed because I made sure to swing by the Glitter Gal stall to take them up on that wonderful offer of a free holo polish upon mentioning Nixxy’s Nails. The ladies were all very lovely! I certainly went away with more than I expected (and was saying this to Nghi on our way out) when Kerry offered to have one of the girls paint my toes. I certainly felt pampered! Not only that, but I left with a set of newly shaped ‘brows for $20. Glitter Gal were introducing the technique of eyebrow threading that I have to admit, had never heard of before. (What? You haven’t either? Don’t worry, I’ve included a video on it in this post for you ). I’m not your typical girly-girl and don’t usually take an interest in make-up or beauty treatments (as strange as this sounds because I am so enthusiastic about nail polish!) but I threw caution to the wind and thought “why the hell not?”. It certainly was interesting and I wish I had been a better demonstration of it because my eyes watered as the hairs on my brow were jerked out. I’m such a pansy and probably scared some people away! In any case, it was lovely to meet one of the people behind the nail polish that so many of us adore so much. Kerry was a wonderful lady who was happy to tell me all about her products.

On with ze pictures!

Glitter Gal cosmetics. Oops! I think I caused a bit of a stir when I took this picture But all was well after I promptly went up there to introduce myself and explain that I was just documenting my time at Fashion Weekend for my blog. Kerry explained how competitive the beauty industry can be and told me about a time a rival company sent one of their people over to check out her ideas and products.

Glitter Gal’s range of polishes that you can find at Perfume Connection or online

They also design and manufacture a whole range of Australian make up products including lipgloss, eye shadows and mascara

I’m not the best model for it, but here is Glitter Gal’s red holographic polish on my toe.

Mmm, so much shimmahh!

The free bottle of blue holographic polish that I scored!

Newly shaped eyebrows. Excuse the pimples, I’m in the middle of a terrible break out at the moment. Ick.

And finally, a short Youtube video on eyebrow threading