SayAnythingBrooke

Brooke's Valentine's Day Manicure Wrapup

2012-02-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I LOVE Valentine's Day. I'm not the girliest mushiest person in the world, and pink and red are NOT my favorite colors (especially not for nail polish!) But, significant other or no significant other, I've always loved the idea of a day dedicated to reminding the people in your life that you love every day that you love them. I've always mailed Valentines to my friends and exchanged small gifts with my family on Valentine's Day. And this Valentine's Day is actually mine and my boyfriend Andrew's 7th together :)

So I just wanted to put all the Valentine's Day nail tutorials I've done in the past few years in one place in case you missed them or are looking for last minute inspiration:

This is definitely my favorite one I've done, its so bright and girly and semi sexual?

Here's a simple 'conversation hearts' free-hand for you non-Konaders:

And here's one for those of you who don't give a shit about Valentine's Day:

Please remind SOMEONE that you love them tomorrow, even if it's your cat!

Zoya Kristen

2012-02-12T00:17:00.000-08:00

Here we have Zoya Kristen, which was the base in my Connect the Dots manicure that several people asked me about :)

I drooled over swatches of this when it came out back in December with the Zoya Feel collection (now permanent, or at least around for a long while!). I knowwww it was described as light grey, supposed to be light grey, but in almost every swatch I saw it appeared the lightest pastel blue to me, and I loved it!

Yepppp it's light grey on me. Don't know if it's my skintone or what, but I was a little sad because I wanted blue haha. SOMETIMES when I looked at it while I was wearing it, I saw blue. But anyways...it is a lovely creme finish, opaque in 2 coats. I have a love-hate relationship with Zoya polishes. They do do cremes AMAZINGLY, but their polishes take longer to dry than I am used to and it drives me crazy. They also do not work well with Seche Vite topcoat. Poshe topcoat does work well on them, and I've mainly switched to using that recently.

Bottom line: I like it, but I don't LOVE it like I thought I would. This is available for $8 at Zoya, Bloom, Ulta, many hair & nail salons, etc :)

Jesse's Girl Mermaid Lagoon

2012-02-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

Today I'm wearing Jesse's Girl's Mermaid Lagoon for the first time, and I can't believe I didn't wear it sooner! This was from the Youtuber Miss JulieG713's collection with Jesse's Girl which I believe was limited edition, but I still see it at Rite Aid all the time! It retails for $3.99, as this obnoxiously placed pricetag tells you.

Mermaid Lagoon is a beautiful rich blue teal color, but what makes it stand out from the billion other teals in my collection is its SHEEN. There is a subtle but visible sheen of shimmer that sometimes looks pink and sometimes looks gold. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it when it looks pink. Pink sheen on a teal polish, mMmmM heaven! In the previous photo, I THINK you can see the pink sheen (on middle and ring fingers). In this next one, you can see the sheen looks more gold:

I used 2 coats for my photos, but it was actually opaque in 1! Dry time was average although it did remain the slightest bit tacky for awhile. I LOVE the brush on Jesse's Girl polishes for some reason. It's narrow but solid/not too long and flimsy and works well on my narrow nails.

Finally I took some inspiration from a photo Kirsten from Glittagloves posted, and layered the hell out of my accent nail using Wet N Wild Cost Is No Issue, Nubar 2010, and Finger Paints Twisted. Mermaid Lagoon? Mermaid TAIL!

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

2012-02-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

Today I bring you the much buzzed about Connect the Dots from Lynnderella!

Connect the Dots can be thought of a crazily unique twist on a glitter topcoat, made for layering over other colors. You wouldn't want to wear it on its own (or maybe you would?) Put it on top of any color to immediately add a mish mash of black and white hexagonal polka dots of all sizes, bar glitter stripes, and a hint of microscopic glitter base. INSTANT NAIL ART. I think that's the main appeal of this polish, it's the ONLY form of 'nail art' I've done that is EASIER than Konad. It's just like applying a topcoat, and BAM, you have this! It's very 80's looking to me, which I know might not be for everyone. It looks like an explosion of confetti. It looks good over EVERY color I've seen anyone put it over. I personally think it best over creme finishes just because they won't distract from the dots and stripes the way a shimmer might. More contrast.

Here is 2 coats of Connect the Dots over 2 coats of Zoya Kristen (a creme finish grey).

As you can see, my first instinct was to wear it over grey, for some sort of metro edgy/concrete effect. I also love it over a light teal/baby blue like China Glaze For Audrey. When I first got it I already had a red on my nails (Hits Ares) so here's what it looked like over that (reminds me of a serial killer movie/crime scene for some reason?):

I REALLY don't want to get into the whole spiel about how hard to find this is and why. The SUMMARY is: Lynnderella is a woman named Lynn who started selling handmade polishes (mostly crazily unique glitter topcoat combos) on Etsy. She got CRAZILY popular. She now sells her polishes on Llarowe only. These polishes are handmade by ONE person. She makes a batch of them, they get posted in the store, and they sell out within minutes. Repeat every few weeks. The best way to know the nitty gritty of how you can be one of the lucky ones that gets a hold of this polish is to follow Llarowe on Facebook, NOT to ask me! lol By looking there, you will know anything that I know, promise!

I was lucky enough to order literally within the first 2 minutes of the last time these were posted for sale. It is one of the ONLY polishes I would have spent/did spend $15 on without batting an eyelash. I wanted this badly. I love every manicure I've ever seen done with it. There is NOTHING else like it. Now it is mine and I have no regrets!

I found 2 coats to give the perfect amount of 'stuff'. 1 coat was a bit sparse. 3 would probably be overkill and leave no base color showing. You can "feel" the pieces in this sticking up a bit, so topcoat it with a nice thick one like Seche Vite or Poshe. One tip I have for application with this is to wait until your base color is COMPLETELY dry before applying this. Otherwise it may smudge around the base color making the base color come OVER some of the pieces, and that just looked crummy.

My ONE complaint about this polish is the size of some rogue black hexagons that are in there. There don't seem to be many of them, I only got 2 in my whole manicure, but they're HUGE, to the point of inconvenience to me. They will NOT lie flat to your nail because they're too big, you end up with an edge or 2 sticking up, and this catches on your hair and stuff like that. I found myself picking at those 2 pieces until they came off my nails. DNW them. But, its easy enough to just brush or flick it off your nail when one comes out if you don't want it in your manicure.

^There is one of said hexagons on my ring finger before it drove me absolutely batty and I picked it off.

Finally, here's a closeup bottle pic so you can see exactly what this creature is made of. You can see the slight glitter base on the upper left there, which I NEVER noticed in people's swatches and was pleasantly surprised by when I got the polish in person!

Speciallita Hits Ares

2012-02-01T22:16:00.001-08:00

I've been waiting for this all my polish-collecting life; A TRUE RED HOLO. Not magenta, not scattered holo, RUBY FRIGGING RED LINEAR HOLO.

(Normal person translation: Holo=Holographic=finish where it looks like a pixelated rainbow is flashing across the nail)

This polish is called Ares and it is from the Brazilian brand Speciallita, in a collection called Hits No Olimpo. This is a collection of holos of all colors, named after the Greek gods and goddesses. Probably because this collection is God's gift to the nail polish community after we mourned the loss of the China Glaze OMG collection, all of the best OPI DS shades, etc. When you see how much those discontinued and HTF holos go for on Ebay, you will JUMP to pay $10 each for these new ones!

I got this on Llarrowe's website, which I talked about in my Ozotic 528 review. (It's actually sold out right now but she said they are restocking the collection on Monday Feb 6th.) I love this site because if you want, you can just buy ONE polish, and have the shipping be around $2. There's no flat huge shipping cost that makes you feel like you have to buy 5+ polishes for it to be 'worth it'.

Ok so, brush and formula on this were both weird. I HATED the brush. It reminded me of a fatter version of a child's cheap shapeless watercolor painting brush. It had a couple stray bristles sticking out in weird directions. BUT, this is a red linear holo. I would have applied it with a TOOTHbrush if they wanted me to. The formula was weird, but in a GOOD way. First I noticed, it smelled weird. NOTHING like nail polish. Not BAD, but just a different type of chemical. Application was fine, I used 2 or 3 coats (after 1 coat there were major visible nail lines, very sheer). Now, I don't know if this is just due to the topcoat (Poshe) I used on it reacting in a certain way, BUT, once dry everything dried this felt like I had painted my nails with a thin coat of plastic. It is THE smoothest thing I've ever felt. It will NOT ding, chip, flake, anything. It is GLORIOUS, and odd. It seriously feels noticeably different to the touch than any other polish I've used. I'm on day 5 of wear and it still looks FLAWLESS. I'm sure this manicure has TONS more wear time in it, but I need to move on to another untried polish.

Brush aside, I LOVE this, and want moar. The only other con I can think of is that the bottle is kind of small (very narrow) and only 6ml, so I suppose you're not really getting a lot for $10. But I don't CARE. Can you tell I don't care? The holo, and the weird plastic finish I swear I'm experiencing are FANTASTIC.

If you weren't already feeling enabled enough, here are Scrangie's swatches of the entire collection.

Feel free to get me the rest of these for my birthday in April, kthx.

Finger Paints Twisted

2012-01-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today I have a recent Limited-Edition-RUN-OUT-AND-GET-IT-RIGHT-NOW! ;) But seriously, you'll want this one. Twisted is a multi-colored flakie topcoat from Finger Paints' Special Effects collection that came out about a month ago now. The brand Finger Paints is only sold at Sally's Beauty Supply (as far as I know) and the ones in this collection cost $5.49.

So called 'flakies' have been a trend in the core nail polish addict community for well over a year now, and some more mainstream brands (Zoya, Essie) have finally caught on! I can best describe flakies as medium sized iridescent flakes of...foil-like shimmer, usually in a clear opalescent or a very sheerly tinted base of polish. They are best worn over other colors, like you would wear a glitter topcoat over other colors. Different colored flakes will appear different over different colors of polish, so it's fun to experiment and find the most standout combos you can! (I LOVE Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over a light blue, and I love Twisted over a royal purple).

There are 5 polishes in this collection, and they all look pretty much the same in the bottle. However, you can see the differences in them when you layer them over other polish colors, especially black. If you are trying to decide which colors to buy, I suggest looking up swatches where people have compared them all over a black base. The one I chose, Twisted, is the one with ALL colors of flakies in it, blue, red, orange, and green, all noticeable. There is one with just blue and green, one with just red and orange, etc. I didn't feel I needed any of the others since I already have Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Inglot 204.

The first way I wore this was 2 coats Twisted over 2 coats Illamasqua Faux Pas (a satin finish purple):

The next way I wore this was my FAVORITE. Same as above, but MATTE-IFIED with Essie's Matte About You topcoat:

Matte-ifying flakies is one of my favorite things to do with nail polish! It's so simple and the effect is CRAZY! The finish/texture becomes so interesting, and the contrast and color of the flakies is instantly AMPED. This reminds me of shattered decorated Easter Eggs, stained glass, or crushed pearly sea shells. I LOVE it.

Here are 2 coats over black, to show you the colors better:

And here I put Essie Matte About You topcoat over my index and ring fingers:

You are not going to find better flakies, for a better price, than in this collection! If you see them, GET THEM. The price point of $5.49 is AMAZING especially when you consider how hard to find Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure has become and the price it goes for on Ebay, Inglot's flakies are $9 for like 3 drops of polish, and even Essies and Zoyas retail for $8.

The effect is outstanding and comparable to any of my more expensive ones, and 2 coats gives you TONS of flakies. Dry time was average, and even though the flakies look like they're big and would stick up out of the polish and be 'feel-able', they aren't, even without a topcoat.

Win win win, all this does is win.

Ozotic 528

2012-01-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Currently on my nails is what has been one of my #1 lemmings for awhile, Ozotic 528! The first time I saw this polish was in jewelry from Ginger Kitty Designs.

Seeing it sparkling and changing from teal to purple in my earrings and ring, I knew I HAD to have it, but I put off getting it FOREVER because of the price. At $17.50 (I ordered during a 20% off sale AND free shipping though...) this is one of my 2 most expensive polishes. I doubt I will buy another from this brand simply because of the price (I am frugal), unless one comes out that calls my name for a year like this one did.

Ozotic 528 is a complete duochrome CHAMELEON and needs multiple pictures, with and without flash. My camera wasn't the BEST at capturing everything, but when I look at everyone's swatches on Google they all look different from one another, so I think the complexity of this polish plays tricks on everyone's cameras and not just mine!

In the dark, it is purple and midnight blue:

In the light, it is teal:

Most of the time, in normal every day life, it looks like this (excuse tip wear, I'm on day 4):

This photo here that appears to have been taken using a camera phone in 2002, caught the duochrome:

My photos, and pretty much all photos you will see of this color, are done over a BLACK base. On it's own this color is basically just purple and teal glitter (VERY finely milled, microscopic, not FEEL-able) in a clear base, combined with some sort of witchcraft to make it duochrome instead of just multi colored glitter. I used 2 coats over black. It was looking pretty great after 1 coat, but I wanted to get the maximum effect. Formula was great, but dry time was SUPER slow. I recommend applying an especially fast drying topcoat on it while it is still wet, I used Poshe.

Ozotic is an Australian brand of nail polish that was pretty hard for us in the US to get a hold of until Llarowe came along with her online store, providing foreign brands of nail polish to the USA so we can save on shipping and get faster/more reliable delivery than from over seas. It is available on Llarowe for $17.50. It is also available from Picture Polish for $14, but I believe their shipping is more expensive unless you're buying several polishes to make it worthwhile. Figure out what pricing works most in your favor, but I can tell you that both of these sites are reliable/secure and have been operating for months now with positive feedback from the public!

If you can look past the price, I promise you this will look like NOTHING else you have in your collection!

China Glaze Snow Globe

2012-01-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

Today we have another Limited Edition but still available, China Glaze Snow Globe. Mine is from a glitter release in 2009, but it was re-released this holiday with their Let It Snow collection. You can check your local Sally's and see if they have any left, probably on clearance, or it's available on Amazon for ~$6 shipped, OR my favorite e-tailer Victoria's Nail Supply as part of a set for $5.95 + shipping.

Not gonna lie, I was kind of under-whelmed with this. It's a glitter topcoat of sorts, with hexagonal shaped pastel-y glitters of varying sizes with sort of an opalescent sheen to them. In my pic is 1 coat of Snow Globe over 2 coats of OCC Pool Boy. I think I liked this better in the bottle than on my nails :/ Maybe I just picked the wrong color to put it over. What did you guys like Snow Globe over? A lot of people seemed to rave about it over the holidays, so I was excited to try it but eh.

The formula wasn't great either. It was VERY thick and gloopy, and I know this isn't just because my bottle is a couple years old, other bloggers said the same thing about their brand new Snow Globes. I did only need 1 coat to get as much glitter as I wanted, but it was like I was brushing around a big glob of glitter on my nail. It dried very unevenly, with larger glitter pieces sticking up out of the polish, and it needed a thick topcoat (Seche Vite) to be smoothed out and even.

I realize my review makes it sound AWFUL, but it's OK and maybe I will fall in love with it over a different color. I'm not impressed now though, and I'd say skip it unless it were $4 or less maybe? Just my opinion!

China Glaze Fireside Glow

2012-01-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

NOTD Post #1! I'm taking you guys' advice from my Youtube comments and will try to post Limited Edition colors ASAP as I wear them, so it's more likely you'll still be able to find them :)

Sooo here is China Glaze Fireside Glow from the Ulta Exclusive 2011 Holiday collection. This was available at Ulta ONLY, for $5.99, and a lot of people have reported recently finding them on clearance for $1.99 now that the holidays are over.

(Images can be clicked for a better view)

The second photo is slightly more color accurate overall (it is not as 'dark' as it appears in the first photo). However the first photo shows the LIME GREEN SPARKLES best so I wanted to include it. These sparkles are VERY apparent in person, and are part of what makes this color AWESOME and unique. It is a bit reminiscent of China Glaze's Kaleidoscope collection...not a true holo by any means, but definitely some holographic glitter in there.

Fireside Glow is one of my favorite nail polishes I've tried in AWHILE. It is BREATHTAKING on. Because the sparkles are relatively small/fine, it appears even MORE sparkly than normal. I couldn't stop looking at this when I wore it, and I think it would be a really good summer/beach color... like sparkling sand.

It needed 3 coats for complete opacity and maximum sparkle, but the coats dried VERY quickly so it wasn't a big deal. It is a 'topcoat hungry' (dry and scratchy finishing) glitter, so I used my magic topcoat combo: a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite to make it smooth like glass to the touch. Despite being a 100% glitter polish it was not AS hard to remove as glitters traditionally are. I think this is because the glitter is so fine. I used pure acetone, and a bit of rubbing with a cotton ball to remove.

How did I do for my first NOTD post? I'm long-winded, but is it at all helpful?

Top 11 Nail Polishes of 2011!

2012-01-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

Chosen from my swatch video of every polish I wore in 2011, here (in no real order) are my top 11 favorites of '11!
(Not all were RELEASED in 2011, they are just things I happened to wear for the first time in 2011, hope that's ok!) And yes, I LOVE blue/aqua/teal cremes. Sorry, but this is my honest list haha

* Odd color choice, but THIS is my #1 polish released in 2011. The DEPTH in this polish is crazy. There are layers of black and green and glitter and jelly, achieved with just 2 coats. And it sparkles like CRAZY.
* Released in 2011
* Technically LE as part of China Glaze's Halloween collection, but most of the E-tailers still have it, and for only $3 to boot! I recommend: www.victoriasnailsupply.com (look under 'Holiday')

* Most opaque and unique $2 polish I've ever used. I'd go so far as to say one of the most unique in my whole collection. I probably have about 100 blues and this looks nothing like ANY of them. It's a true COBALT blue, and nothing I have is even close to this special shade of blue.
* Available for $2-$3 at CVS, Walgreens, etc in Sally Hansen's core line of Xtreme Wears.

* Photos do not do this polish justice AT ALL. Not mine, and not even the pro nail polish bloggers' who have 8950495 billion mega pixel cameras that capture EVERYTHING! They can't capture this. I wasn't impressed with it in photos, wasn't impressed with it in the bottle, and then when I put it on my nails my jaw hit the floor. THIS was my most surprising/unexpected nail polish love of 2011. HOLY HELL. You literally can't appreciate this until it's ON YOUR NAILS, and when it is you can't stop looking at it. It's got DEPTH. Blue and black jelly layers with teal/green/blue sparkles lying over and under all of it. Take my word on this one and just BUY it. You'll thank me later.
* Released in 2011
* Available for $10 on www.cultnails.com (a new but very reliable and increasingly popular indie nail polish brand this year)

* LOOK AT THIS. Might I call it the best bright blue creme EVER? And for $1.99?! And in that bottle! I'm in heaven. It's beyond robin's egg blue, it's almost neon. SUCH a me color, could you tell? You want a topcoat on this though (as I have in the photo) because it dries with that dull, unfinished looking finish that is characteristic of neons.
* Like Frosty the Snowman, he comes back every Christmas. At Rite Aid and Meijer's for $1.99. If you can't wait another 11 months, search 'snowman polish' on Ebay, and there's always a few random shades for sale. Keep your eyes peeled for this one!

* This periwinkle creme perfection is going in to my top 10 favorite polishes EVER. The formula, application, opacity, color, dry time, and EVERYTHING about this sums up why I love China Glaze as a brand. It's honestly the perfect QUALITY polish.
* Available for $5.99 as part of the core China Glaze line at Sally's Beauty
* Side note, wearing it with China Glaze Black Mesh was one of my favorite manicures this year as well:

* This is the only polish on my list here that could be considered HTF. I'm sorry but I HAD to include it. This was an unexpected love of 2011. Who would have thought my favorite holo I wore all year would be a LIGHT PINK holo? I don't even like pink nail polish. The dainty shade and the holo-twinkle of this made me want to spin around singing 'I feel prettttttty'. This was the daintiest most girly thing I've ever enjoyed wearing!
* It is discontinued and a bit HTF, but I checked and it IS on both Amazon and Ebay for $15-$20. Worth it, in my opinion.

* Every time OCC had a sale this year, I told you to get this polish. DID YOU DO IT? This polish ended my dislike of jelly finishes. I always thought 'why would you want a see through polish?'. Until I wore this one. Now I think colored but see through is cool. Also the shade of blue that is this is CRAZY. Between the unique color and the unique finish, I ALWAYS got comments in real life when I wore this polish. It's an eye catcher
* Available for $8 at www.occmakeup.com

* Mac's nail polishes in general are very mediocre (especially for the INSANE price) but when they have a hit, it's a BIG hit. This was a big hit. Formula/application/dry time/opacity was stand out with this one, it practically applied itself. Andddd needless to say I LOVED the shade. It's a darker more green sort of blue/aqua creme than all the others that made this list. If the price point kills you, and understandably so, the closest dupe is Sally Hansen Insta Dry in 'Mint Sprint', but I didn't wear that THIS year. If I had, it MIGHT have replaced this on the list, but I can't recall if the formula on that was as awesome as this. Just food for thought.
* Released in 2011
* This was LE in their Surf Baby collection for $15, but you can probably find it on Ebay or in a blog sale, it didn't get super HTF or anything

* It was SO hard to pick among the blue and aqua cremes. Believe it or not I DID weed some out while making this list, and Pool Boy was one of the winners for sure! I ADORE OCC for my beloved creme polishes, and this one was a big hit. It's like a brighter, almost neon-ized (in comparison) version of OPI What's With the Cattitude.
* Released in 2011
* Available for $8 at www.occmakeup.com

* The color of this is probably my favorite color (in general) in the whole world! Perfect sea green aqua. The application on this was beautiful if I remember correctly, and it's SO summery to me. Makes me happy.
* Available for $8 anywhere Essie is sold (CVS now, salons, etc)
* Side note, it was my FAVORITE polish to put Silver Shatter over:

* This is my favorite grey ever made. I could wear this color every day for the rest of my life (if I didn't have so many un-trieds to get through!) It leans a bit purple, as you can tell, and I feel sophisticated and the tiniest bit edgy when wearing it. Like 'o0o0o look at me, metro chic fashionista'. LOVE.
* Came out in 2011
* Available for $8 on www.zoya.com or wherever Zoya is sold (usually high end beauty supply stores/salons)

What was your favorite polish of 2011?

Crest 3D Whitestrips Advanced Vivid Day 3!

2011-12-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

So this isn't the nicest thing in the world to look at, but after day 3 you can already tell which teeth have been whitened by the strips and which haven't!

The bottom strip only covers from the front teeth out to your eye (pointy) teeth, so the farther back bottom teeth do not get whitened. However, those teeth don't show in anyone's smile, and I had to pry my lips back to even take this pic. It's good proof that they're working!

I recommend getting them on Amazon for probably the cheapest, or at CVS or Walgreens IF they're on sale AND you have one of those manufacturer's coupons for $7 or $10 off.

Will do a complete in depth before/after review of these when the 14 days are up, but I'm already excited so wanted to share this!

Quick Blogsale!

2011-01-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

Doing a MAJOR overhaul clean of my room, and came across some things that are barely used and I'm ready to sell for cheap.

I take Paypal, prices include shipping to the US but ask if you're International, I will go first-come first-serve by comments on this post (please leave your email address for invoicing or further contact if you have questions!)
Feedback on MUA (546+) and Ebay(243+) both under the name SayAnythingBrooke

Jodi Picoult Books 2/$10 shipped (retail $14 each)
Plain Truth
Salem Falls
The Tenth Circle
Nineteen Minutes

Law and Order SVU Season 1 Six DVD set $18 shipped. Watched once, great condition, etc.

The Simple Life Season 4 $6 shipped watched once, perfect condition.

Tea Bag Nail Repair Tutorial!

2010-09-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

Since I actually have followers on here now from commenting on other ladies' nail blogs, I guess it's worthwhile to post this here!

I did a Youtube tutorial on how to fix a broken nail using the infamous 'Teabag' method. Best thing I ever learned!

Please do share/repost it if you like it, I'm hoping it will be a useful vid to add to the basics for the nail community!

Swatches Im LOVING!

2010-05-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

I use this once in a lifetime when I have good swatches and doing a video with them doesn't make sense...
Mac 'Malibu Peach' Nail Polish (2 coats)
I WANT TO WEAR THIS ALL SUMMER LONG!! SO glad I splurged on it.Mehron Precious Gem Powder in 'Sapphire'
(left is wet, right is dry)Can you say AMAZING??
Blurry shows all the undertone colors betterOPI 'Jade is the New Black' (3 coats, it gets 'tealer' with each coat!)
Konadicure I copied from Siobhan at www.thenailphile.com

Finally, don't hate me for posting this, but I recently did a swap with someone and got the Rainbow Stacker from Calypso Minerals. Damn I wish she hadn't been a scammer/gone out of business. This stuff is AWESOME :(

Playtime in Makeup Land

2009-11-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight around 1AM I started putting on makeup and trying to come up with a look to do a tutorial on tomorrow. Redid each eye about 4 times, tried on 3 pairs of lashes before one looked right, and now my eyes are watering to beat the band. Ah, the life of a guru. *eyeroll* Well anyways here's some of the creations...

This is what I decided to do a tutorial on. Also it is SO much more vibrant in real life, camera didn't pick it all up. Do we like?

This next one was my first attempt at something tutorial worthy. Big fail, although I liked the purple lid with teal glitter

Finally, did a 2 second recreation of xSparkage's Northern Lights/Aurora look (didnt bother with mascara or anything, just playing with shadow!) I LOVE this, will be wearing it soon :)

Oh and since a few people asked, here's the makeup I was wearing in my 'contest winners' video from yesterday. Im not really feeling it, so probably no tutorial.

Nail Swatches!

2009-09-05T21:57:00.002-07:00

Here's a bunch of nail swatches from the past month or so, enjoy!

China Glaze 'Purple Panic'

China Glaze 'Secret Peri-Winkle'

Sally Hansen 'Aquamarine Chrome'

Zoya 'Yasmeen'

Konad 'Neon Pink'

ORLY 'Prepster'

ORLY 'Enchanted Forest'

Makeup, Movies, Music, Books!

2009-08-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Things to look forward to in the last 1/3 (yes, I said it) of 2009:

-August 28- Rob Zombie's Halloween II AND The Final Destination in 3D
-September 1 (or sometime in September)- OPI Holiday Collection, yes its early but I'm not complaining!
-September 10- Mac in HD collection
-September 15- Dan Brown's new book
-September 17- Mac Fall/Winter Trends collection
-September 17- New season of The Office
-September 18- Mine and Andrew's 4 year anniversary :)
-September 23- New season of SVU!
-September 24- Mac Style Black and Dazzleglass Creme
-September 26- Another NYC meetup with friends!
-October 2-12- Topsfield Fair
-October 12- Mac D Squared Collection
-October 13- Say Anything's new album
-October 15- Mac Holiday
-October 17- Meeting Sid Haig AKA CAPTAIN SPAULDING at the horror convention!
-October 23- SAW VI! CANNOT WAITTTTTT
-October 30- Andrew's birthday
-October 31- Oh hi its Halloween
-November 21- IMATS TORONTO ahhhh!
-November 27- Black Friday, the true meaning of Thanksgiving
-December 24- Oh hi its my favorite day of the year
-December 29- VC Andrews new series 'Heavenstone Secrets'

*NEW ROCKET SUMMER ALBUM falls in there somewhere, which is the thing I am MOST excited about after Saw! Rocket Summer music makes me alive and its been so long since new material:) There will be a tour to look forward to also

*ALSO LUSH HOLIDAY SALE starting probably in November! Buy 1 item get 2 of the same TYPE of item FREE. Including gift boxes. Limited edition holiday products. AHHH!

Did I miss anything? Do you love any of the same stuff I do?

Mac Photorealism Quad Swatches+Review

2009-08-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have really cut back on my Mac spending this year, and while the huge Makeup Art Cosmetics collection that came out today was enormous, I managed to only walk away with one thing and I'm pretty pleased with my choice! Mac Photorealism Eyeshadow Quad:

The quad costs $36 and the colors are:
Photorealism (gold shimmer with gold pearl)
Fresh Approach (cool mint green)
Image Maker (dirty grey green)
Grey Range (deep blue green)

Here are straight up swatches, done on top of Beigeing Shadestick:

Grey Range, Image Maker, Fresh Approach, Photorealism

Now for some comparisons so we can see which colors are really unique!

Cloudbound eyeshadow
Aquavert eyeshadow
Deep Blue Green pigment
The STAR indicates that nothing I own dupes that color! (Image Maker)

Photorealism Quad is on the top,
Bottom is: Deep Blue Green pigment, Satin Taupe e/s, Aquavert e/s, Cloudbound e/s

Colors enhanced so you can see the differences more clearly!

Closest dupes:

Grey Range+Deep Blue Green Pigment. Grey Range is a lot greener than Deep Blue Green, making it a lot prettier in my oppinion! Deep Blue Green has more of a sheen coming off of it because it is a pigment.

Photorealism+Cloudbound. Photorealism is A LOT more yellow/gold than the other similar colors you may be thinking of, such as Cloudbound and Solar White. Those are white highlight colors that flash gold, but Photorealism is more of an actual gold highlight color!

Image Maker doesn't have ANY dupes that I own or can think of. Temptalia was RIGHT ON when she said it's like Club eyeshadow without the reddish brown. Think of how Club is a duochrome of reddish brown/grey/green, and take out the reddish brown. What's left is awesome and unique, can't wait to use it!

Fresh Approach is the only unimpressive color here. Much like Aquavert, it is so light and lacking actual green, that it REALLY needs to go over a green base to look like anything besides a kind of silver.

Sooo I tried the whole quad (other than the highlight) over Lucky Jade shadestick, to make it green enough for my liking:

These all look a LOT better and a lot GREENER in real life, try them over a green base, because at first glance the 'green quad' isn't all that green.

I will be doing a look next week with this quad and doing a tutorial. As far as the other two quads in the collection, the purple one was TERRIBLE, the colors were mattes and satins, were VERY chalky, and had virtually no payoff, even when scraped with your finger. The warm colored quad was pretty, but all the colors are things we've seen before, probably in the permanent Mac collection.

Swatches!

2009-07-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

Here's some random swatches from the past month!

(ALL MAC)
Top: Maroon Pigment
Middle: Fig 1 e/s, Deep Damson e/s, 100 Strokes e/s
Bottom: Smoke Signals Pigment

CALYPSO MINERALS:

China Glaze 'Branding Iron':

Nails: I'm On An Island

2009-06-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

It's been raining all month, so I'm pretending I'm elsewhere:

With flash:

Nail Polish Is China Glaze 'It's My Turn':

^Would you be interested in seeing more nail polish swatches like this one or no?

Nail Art Reviews and Comparisons: 4 Brands!

2009-06-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the at-a-glance comparison info from my 2-part video reviewing 4 different brands of nail art pens and stripers! I spent a lot of time on all this and I really hope it is helpful to you :)

Prices (cheapest to most expensive):
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: $1.88
NYX Ink Nail Art: $2.50
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: $6.99
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: $6.99 or $7.99 depending on store

Amount of Product (most to least):
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: 10 ml
NYX Ink Nail Art: .28 oz
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: .2 oz/7 ml
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: .067 oz/2 ml

# Colors Offered (most to least):
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: 51
NYX Ink Nail Art: 24
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: 8
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: 3

Where To Buy:
www.mscuppycakes.com for NYX
www.wowsocool.com for Konad
www.8ty8beauty.com for Color Club Art Club
Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, etc for Sally Hansen

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens:

Art Club Color Club From 8ty8beauty:

NYX Ink Nail Art:

Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen:

Tip Comparison:

Brush Comparison:

Konad

Art Club Color Club

NYX Ink Nail Art

On a light colored base:

On a dark colored base:

Konad smudged when topcoat was applied:

Sally Hansen faded off when I washed my hands:

Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal RESULTS/Review

2009-06-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Teeth BEFORE Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal:

After 14 days/1 box of Advanced Seal:

After 18 days/strips:

Entire Video Review:

Sneak Peek: The Body Shop HOT BRIGHTS Summer Makeup

2009-05-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

I recently got to preview the unreleased summer collection from The Body Shop, called Hot Brights. Here are some swatches for you, look for this collection launching next Monday May 11th!

(These don't have names unfortunately)

Eyeshadow Duo 02

Bronzer/Highlighter Duo 02

Blush/Highlighter Duo 01

Eyeshadow Duo 01

Lipgloss/Cheek Stain Duo 02

Eyeliner Duo 01

Eyeliner Duo 02

Swatches: Eyeshadows, Eyeliners, Bronzer and Blush

Lipglass 01, Lipglass 02

Cheek/Lip Stain 01, Cheek/Lip Stain 02

Here are the prices:

Blush/Cheek Color 01 - $24

Blush/Cheek Color 02 - $24

Eyeshadow 01 - $18

Eyeshadow 02 - $13

Eyeliner 01 - $18

Eyeliner 02 - $17

Lip/Cheek stain 01 - $17

Lip/Cheek stain 02 - $13

I don't know why some of the items have different prices, this is just the information told to me by the company!

My favorites are:

-Both eyeshadow duos, they are sooo buttery smooth and easy to work with and the colors have an awesome sheen that is frosty but not too over the top!

-The pink blush duo

Lipsticks Swatched- My Whole Collection :)

2009-04-08T19:35:00.001-07:00

Here are all my lipsticks swatched, 14 Mac and 2 NYX. I know that's a smalllll lipstick collection for a makeup addict like myself,but I honestly don't wear them that much :x This is sadly wayyy more than I need at all!

I will add in the finishes of them later! Hope this helps someone :)

Mac Brush Craftstore Dupes!

2009-03-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

So I decided I needed a second Mac 266 brush since I am trying harder with my brows now, and I would like one for fluidline and one for brow filling. Instead of spending another $19.50 I decided to bring my 266 into Micheal's with me and see if there was anything comparable for cheaper. OF COURSE THERE WAS!

Left: Mac 266 (mine is from a holiday set so it may look different from yours) $19.50

Right: Loew Cornell 7400 Angular 1/4" $6.79

You can see the width is the same, my Mac one is just frayed from use

There were manyyyy other nearly IDENTICAL dupes, here's some I took pictures of for you:

Mac 239 (with Aquavert e/s on it!) $24.50
Loew Cornell 3/8" Maxine's Mop $3.79
A larger version of the Loew Cornell brush, a bit smaller than the Mac 227

Left: Loew Cornell 3600 Oval Wash 1/2"
Right: Sonia Kashuk Small Concealer Brush (I use this in place of the Mac 242 which costs $23) Its GREAT for paintpots and concealer!

There was one more that I didn't get a picture of because there was an employee nearby at this point and I didn't want to look sketchy!

Mac 129 Powder/Blush Brush $34
Loew Cornell Large Round $8.79

Here is a link to all Loew Cornell brushes, so you can find your own dupes:
http://www.loew-cornell.com/products/index/2/index.html

Sadly there are no prices listed, and the Michael's site doesn't list all the brushes at all. BUT most of the brushes can be found at both Michael's and A.C. Moore, and the prices range from about $3-$9, with most of them being $3.79! BIG difference from the Mac prices!

I use these brushes and can assure you that they are HIGH quality, soft, and virtually the same as the Mac ones, and I know many of the other gurus use them as well.

Speaking of soft things, my boyfriend's cat's kitten:

Mac Hello Kitty Soft Vanity Case Tour/Review!

2009-03-03T16:58:00.001-08:00

My Mac Hello Kitty soft vanity case came in the mail today, THANK GOD FOR RE-STOCK last week, this is one of my best purchases EVER!

Start out by showing you the size, which I thought was SO small until I started filling it with stuff...

Here's the inside of the 'lid', with its GENIUS brush holder!!
It holds ALL the brushes I use for daily application (full size and SE), plus pencils, plus the outer elastic things can fit a kabuki brush and Prep+Prime (or a spritz bottle of blush cleaner, or foundation)

Put the plastic flap down so the brushes don't get dirty, or get their dirtiness on other things

Here's what the fantastic removable dividers can hold: 7 lipsticks or a MSF/face compact in the 2 open parts, shadesticks lipsticks lipglasses lip gelees mascaras and kabuki brush in the compartmentalized parts!

OH HAY look what fits on top!

Our Urban Decay palette fits over yonder

Divider things can come OUT, they velcro in... if you take them both out you could fill this thing up with like 10 15 palettes

What the divider looks like out

Lots of she-bang, and room for more IRL! A side compartment fits 6 powder products, or SIXTEEN pigment jars

So YEAH, Im IN LOVE with this. The comparments and storage options are AMAZING, does Mac have any other cases divided how this one is?? I originally thought this was overpriced ($55) and that I'd feel guilty about buying it. NOPE, worth its weight in gold.

If I can get away with just taking this on Spring Break with me instead of my ginormous traincase that is like an extra suitcase that everyone makes fun of, I will be a happy camper. Oh, for spring break I am going to the tropical state of Maine, I hear its lovely in March. (This is my final spring break, and it will be the first one I haven't spent in my tropical bed, so Maine is good).

The only thing I have to get over is how much I REALLY hate the Mac for HK design (not a big KH fan to begin with). This thing itself is SO fugly I want to cover up the outside hahah:

This was an online exclusive and is currently sold out, but you can cross your fingers for another restock, it worked for me! Or you can try your luck on Ebay...

Manicure: Mac Varicose Violet idea :)

2009-02-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Used my Mac 'Varicose Violet' nail polish from the Dame Edna collection for the first time. I think I wasn't too excited to use it because it's pretty sheer...so I thought that since its sheer and a duochrome it would be more fun painted over black. I was right!

It's darker and more purple in real life, with tiny blue and pink sheen reflecting! So yeah, try your Varicose Violet over any matte black polish, mine was just a Wet N Wild.

As soon as I'm healed (hopefully after the weekend) the next video I want to do is a 'Things I'm Loving'. I feel like I have a variety of new things from different brands that I am excited about lately, so dying to share! Here's a sneak peek:

Lush 'Honey I Washed the Kids' soap

Talk to you soon!

Mac Sugarsweet Collection Shadesticks!

2009-02-17T16:12:00.000-08:00

I got these unreleased Mac Shadesticks in the mail today from a swapper on MUA who got items early somehow! They are from the upcoming Sugarsweet collection that will be out March 19th in the US...

Red Velvet and Butternutty

New packaging for this collection, the color of the Shadestick tube matches the color of the product :)

I do like these, I LOVE Shadesticks, however these look a bit like some of our old favorites:

The formula does seem to be a bit creamier than the old formula, so thats good! If you have the old colors, maybe it's not justifiable to get these too, as they're pretty darn close. But I really do like the Butternutty one, in real life it has some pink opulance to it, its gorgeous! Almost like Pink Opal pigment in a shadestick form :)

I sure am a sucker for that new packaging though, so sleek and shiney!

Other products that are being repromoted with the Sugarsweet collection:
More Sugarsweet info can be found here on specktra.net