Anise Tatau

Coils

2010-09-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

These took... forever to do. More on them later, and a decent post- but I've been very busy lately. They are tied up in these pics- they reach to the bottom of my neck, and my hair is past collarbone length stretched.

More Nubars and Orly Space Cadet

2010-09-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Here we go-

Gold Feather is aptly named, but not so pretty, IMO. It looks yellow-gold in the bottle, but it's more of a gold sheer-orange with a green flash that is MUCH stronger than what came out in the above pic. It does look like an iridescent bird feather, to me.

Pardon the crap pic. :/ Here it is layered with 2010, which was pretty fitting. Close up:

Next is Peacock Feathers, which couldn't be more accurate (Well it could, as Peacocks are more green than blue, but whatever). I is blue and duochromes from purple through to green and sometimes a bit of gold. This part is pic-heavy:

Next is Purple Beach, another uncannily named polish. It does have a weird sandy side. It goes from silvery-purple through copper and pink to gold and green. A really -nice- green, too. The base is a deep muted teal/ciel color.

Such a nice color, but here comes its new cousin- ORLY SPACE CADET. This polish is the third out of the Cosmic FX Collection that I wanted. The rest are too plain and dupe-y (really, the whole collection is, save for the finish of the three I have). On to the many many pics!

Crazy awesome finish and stronger duochrome, compared to Purple Beach.. I like them both, though. BTW the Orly Cosmic FXs wear like iron! Ciao!

A nubar and an eye haul

2010-09-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

Purple Rain is so. pretty. For some reason when I looked at pics of it online I didn't realized it was a holo. Now I like my holos solid. I don't like scattered ones like CC Wild at Heart or the Milani ones. But super sparse is nice. I love polishes that have a bit of a 'magic' look to them. This is 3 coats of the dark violet (with lighter purple glitter) jelly.

I ordered some samples from a seller on Etsy, Spectrum, a while back, received them, loved the selection and prices so much that I went back and bought like 25+ of them. $3 for a 3 oz. jar (except the glitters), not bad. Here's what I got!

2nd pic to show glitter

This is Chocolate and Cinnamon, Dirty Girl, Sassy, Custom Matte Grey (I wanted something in the same tone as Nimbus without the shimmer. She is a really great mixtress!), Nimbus, Midnight (the glitter) and Frostbite. C&C is a copper tinged reddish brown (much stronger irl), Dirty Girl is a taupe/mushroom shimmer, Sassy is actually a pale buff, but the blue flash is so strong my skintone overpowers the base color and leaves just it. It actually looks really nice thinner. The other colors pretty much speak for themselves.

Eos 2 and Eos (both the same sort of color as Mac Red Brown. I Eos 2 is like Urban Decay Bruise and Eos is like Orly Galaxy girl. I already have two colors like this, one a dupe and one that's more green than teal, with a base more brown than red, but I want to use them in frankens). Snapdragon, Cordial, Brick, Fatality (a sample she included~), Custom Matte Orange (I told her I wanted a burnt orange/pumpkin and she got it RIGHT on the nail!), Tango, Dubloon and Aztec.

Bottom right, Raven is a duochrome.

This is Key Lime (an included sample), Radioactive by Glittersniffer, not Spectrum*, Custom Matte Green (I asked for army drab/olive. Once again, just what I asked for!), Forrestry (L) and that dumb expensive green from The Balm (R) that isn't as deep OR shiny. >:/, Peacock, Scale, Dragonfly, Ferric and Raven.

Dementia next to Amber by Glittersniffer*, and then a purple by Orglamix (just wanted to see if it was like Dementia. It's so not.), Poe, Iris and Haze. The liner is UD Ecstasy, and Spectrum totally sells a pigment that matches it, called Lenore. I just didn't get it because I pussed out on the brightness.

All in all I am totally and completely pleased. The seller was nice, is clearly good at what she does, shipped fast, the packaging was intact and spill-less, and there is a great..'spectrum' (lol) of colors in her shop, which is here. Do go and take a look around!

_________________________drama, ugh___________________

*Here's the Glittersniffer debaucle from a year or so ago: I bought a bunch of colors from her shop, including a peachy pink color. I don't like pink, but I like matte peachy pinks on my lids. When I got my order, it wasn't there, but there was a barbie pink and a matte hot pink instead. I messaged her and said I figured there must be some mistake, but she said no, she just didn't have the one I ordered, and sent those instead.

Now to this I replied that I wish she had simply told me, since I don't enjoy pinks and would gladly wait for her to make the requested pigment again, or just get a refund. As it stood, I now had TWO colors I didn't want instead of the one I paid for.

She outright refused to make more of the color I wanted, and said she wouldn't refund me since she sent the other two colors. This did not sit well with me. I told you what I wanted, paid for it, you sent me something else. Fix it or give me my money back, right? Well, I told her my opinion in a far more polite but no less firm manner. It went like this (verbatim c&p):

Me: Yeah, I would like you to send the color I selected. It may have seemed a kindness at the time, but I would have preferred to be notified that the color I wanted wasn't available. I would rather have waited than receive two pinks I am totally uninterested in. I do like the new jars, btw.

She basically said that she didn't have Skyla at the moment, and that the two pinks she sent should more than make up for it.

Whatever, I put negative feedback on the order. Not of out spite, but out of honesty, citing that the pigments were great, but the seller did not communicate well, to which she sent, no lie, just... "Huh?!" Because I had put my negative feedback up.

Her: I will not ship you a new Skyla until you fix that negative feedback. That is unfair.

Me: "Huh?!" Nothing. What a cute joke. You are being immature. I will fix the negative feedback when I receive the item. I am not going to put positive feedback on something I don't have, and apparently wasn't going to get until I complained. You need to work on your customer service. If you had simply sent me a note, like you are now, that Skyla wasn't available, this wouldn't happen. As it is, all you need to do at this point is send me what I paid *money* for. At that point the transaction is settled and you will receive better feedback, although at this rate it won't be better than neutral if you don't fix your attitude. Negative feedback means your customer service isn't 100%, you aren't perfect. That's business. Twisting my arm won't get you what you want.

If you went to a restaurant, ordered a salad and then were given pasta with no explanation, you would assume a mistake had been made. Once you told the waiter to bring your salad, what would you say if he said "I'll bring you your salad, but only if you promise never to say anything to anyone, or give me a good tip. THEN I'll bring you your salad" I hope you'd laugh in his face and call the manager, because that's a steaming load.

I'm a nice person but you are handling this very, very poorly. Please send me the eyeshadow I selected and paid you for. Thank you.

The reply I got? ...

Nothing but negative feedback on my 3 purchases, along with this remark: Buyer got free product and still had the nerve to complain. Pretty uncouth in my opinion.

To her merit, she sent me a Kiss and Make Up like a month and more later, but I had moved on and didn't care to accept. The only reason I went through the bother of even posting this was to warn people that she might not be the best seller in the customer service dept. Then I noticed that her makeup shop on etsy is straight up gone, but it does look like she has a new site up. I wish her all the best. Maybe she was just PMSing that day... But you'd be better off buying from Spectrum!

What's new? LOTS. (Pic Heavy)

2010-09-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

So FINALLY I'm posting the end of my Zoya haul! These are the Hot Lips I bought. The colors I -wanted- weren't all listed on the site, so I had to go hunting for them. The good part is I found them on other sites. The bad thing is they are the old formulas, full of parabens, and I don't want to wear them. But I figured I'd swatch them... for science. These balms are thick and can gunk up a little. I can see why they call them balms and not glosses.

Alias, Voodoo, Gypsy and Resolution

Also, Tokidoki's Devil Girl was calling me, because the formula on these is WAY better than the one on the NYXs I have, and the girlie on the top is cute. This gloss is insanely red in the sunlight, inside the tube.

pardon the glitter, it's from the Zoyas.

Also, here is a surprisingly long-wearing polish, the taupe from Hot Topic. I've worn this all week from Saturday- it didn't chip until yesterday, and it hasn't chipped at all, since. God I love that bottle.

Speaking of skulls, here are some shadows I bought (like an idiot, you can get the same thing on Etsy for like 3 bucks... I remembered later) from Sephora. The left is a green I forget the name of from Shady Lady THE BALM or whatever, and the right is the cuuuuute Romeo from Tokidoki. THE BALM's shadow has a great color payoff, it's almost hard to remove easily.

aw, cute, a heart and crossbones.

With a skull shape inside <3<3

Ah, and what else do we have today? NUBARRRR HAUL.

Purple rain, Purple Beach, 2010, Gold Leaf, Peacock Feather, Gold Feather (totally mislabeled below o.0) Iris dust and Moon Shadow.

I. Can't. Wait.

Weekend nail art

2010-08-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just fiddling around. Not really for any reason, although I do realize that I have yet to show you a few of the ChG polishes I have. Here's a 40s-50s ish mani I did with Heirloom Organza as the base color.

I used the holo glitter black from Hot Topic, and then an Art Club holo black brush for a straighter line, and the dots. Today I tried out a black art pen from Sally Hansen. Not tooo bad. It acts a little weird. Watery, I guess. Just some baroque doodles over Sinful Let's Talk.

Let's talk is notoriously hard to photograph. It's a bright ultraviolet shade of purple, and that is faaantastic. Anyway, I'm off to do things. I still need to show you the rest of my zoya haul. I suck e.e. Ciao!

Zoya part 3 and Orly Cosmic FX

2010-08-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

Zoya Raine. I can't for the life of me get my camera to show flashes at full intensity, but the pink flash on this one is pretty strong. It's a dusty lilac pink sheer beneath that, and it looks incredibly soft on your nails irl. Also, I don't know what the heck was up with my cuticles in this pic. Shame shame.

And OMG... Adina... Sorry for all the pics... it's so pretty!

Drooool. Adina is like OPI SOC but more purple and more opaque. And because it's stronger and more opaque, you can see more of the green to copper flash. Love it! I want to konad in black over it so badly, but I don't have a konad and don't plan on getting one. :p Oh well! Now this is the last of my Zoya polishes, but not the last of my Zoya haul... More on that later. Now for Orly stuff! I got It's Not Rocket Science and Galaxy Girl, I'm camping out for Space Cadet, and maybe I'll get Out of This World, but I'm less willing to pay full price for it. It's kinda dupey.

Galaxy Girl is soo nice, a bit darker than I expected on the nail. It's a dark red jelly with teal glitter that goes light red in some lights.

It's Not Rocket Science is a shade of green that I just LOVE. Best believe I'm getting Zombie Zest as soon as I can. And OPI At Your Quebec and Call. But anyway! The weather is ass here, and sometimes by the time I am surprised by a glimpse of sun I've already done something to my mani.. like this tentacular bit of art:

Aaaaanyway, I'm supposed to be getting to the gym, soon. >.>...and I've finished my Orgo 1 class! Hopefully Zoya pt 4 will be soon forthcoming. Ciao!

INTERMISSION! Lots of pics~

2010-08-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm taking a pause from my Zoya haul because A) I'm getting INSANELY backlogged, and B) because Adina is taking a while to get here! I've also been very busy with my Organic Chem class, so forgive the lack of posts. Once I get back on my feet again, I'm going to work up more Health Tips for you all, when I have time to research it.

So. A few weeks ago I spied this new WnW in the store. It *looked* like a dark violet base with blue pigment, much like how Let's Groove and Daddy's Girl are actually purple pigments in blue bases. But it isn't, really. It was blue. Now blue is a color I HATE to wear, save on my eyelids. I don't know why, but that color doesn't vibe with me. ...but...strangely enough, I wore this for days. I enjoyed it. At first, I didn't understand why, but then my color memory kicked in: This deep, saturated blue is the same color as a crayon I used to love, called Ciel Blue. So, here we have Blue Moon:

I can't remember how many coats this was, but I remember it was very opaque, so it's probably 2. It wore surprisingly well.

Also that week, I picked up some Hot Topic polishes. They have no label, and are really cheap.

It's a red glitter in a jelly base, an extremely dark purple something, a taupe creme, a string holo in a grey jelly base that looks just like GOSH Bright Passion and L.A. Girl Supernova, a black holo glitter polish, and a black silver glitter polish. Here are the swatches:

Huh. Unexpected. The red and the dark purple were matte, but the purple is a jelly!. But that taupe is very nice, no? So is the string, but it's nothing special (aside from saving shipping and money if you want its dupes). Here they are with topcoat:

And the last two blurred for glitter. The silver glitter polish was a jelly<3:

Also, I seem to have China Glazes that I haven't swatched for some reason. WTF. Anyway, here's LOL. I skipped out on buying this when I got OMG because for some reason, I felt that a colored holo was dumb. DUMB? Come on, it's purple!

More stuff coming up! You'd best believe I'm in on those Orlys...>.>

Zoya part 2

2010-08-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

I had been hoping Demi was a bit more muted, but it is still nice nonetheless. Two coats, I think.

Juicy has a complaint list, right? Well it went on fine for me. Much more red-toned than expected, but a lovely jelly nonetheless. 3 coats, and odd shots because it's been raining at odd times here, and it's hard to find sunlight.

It was raining so much that day... anyway, here's the LOVELY Ki, which is a grey-toned duochrome like Stellare Notte. Unlike that one, though, it tends to stay silvery purple in most lights, and has a green flash at certain angles. 2 coats to opacity, but three to even it out. Ciao!

~don't know what to call thissss~

2010-08-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

I put some suave naturals condish and castor oil in my hair, and tied it back with a rawhide string. The makeup is a mineral eyeshadow from TheAllNaturalFace, some Nyx glitter at the corners, Urban Decay Fantasy, and Nyx Fat Eye Marker. The earrings are both from Etsy. Of course, since I'm impatient, you can still see conditioner in the first pic. In the second, I toned down the warmth of my lipgloss with Milani 3-D Glitzy Gloss: Movie Star.

Aannnd hair photoshoot!

2010-07-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

Because the frohawk is my favorite thing ever. Mind you, there is still conditioner and jojoba in my hair in these pics x3 you can see it a little. :p

Zoya Haul part one!

2010-07-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Yep! Finally! I'm catching up with you all xD. Starting off, here's Irene. I *loved* wearing it. Does Zoya make any color that doesn't have a hint of duochrome? This is a shimmer, not a duochrome, yes, but if you tip your hand the right way, the gold/olive green looks less gold because some of the pigment becomes blued.

Next is Dovima. I got this purely for ruffian purposes. It was dark when I did this, so there aren't as many pictures. But Dovima is a matte gunmetal shimmer. It's not at all complicated xD

yayyyy!

Aaaannnd Rihana. I've been lusting after this one for a while, but I'm honestly disappointed. Not in the color, but in the funky application. It was kind of... unspreadable at times, and didn't level out entirely. Odd. Oh well, it's such a nice burgundy shimmer.

That's it for now, gotta pace myself!

Milani glosses

2010-07-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

Meeeehhhh. I was eyeing the 3-D Glitzies for a while on and off. Warning: I can't find ingredients for these ANYWHERE. That being said, I picked up Movie Star from that line. It's okay. Would be a nice topper, but nothing great for the price.

They also have a gloss with much nicer, natural ingredients, called 'Buzz Worthy'. The packaging is cute. The gloss? PFF. Okay, it smells/tastes okay and the ingredients are good. (Beeswax, vitamin E, natural oils, etc), but what looks like the color of the gloss is just a glitter suspended in the actual gloss, and it's not dense at ALL. These went straight into the makeup box after swatching. If you want a little somethin' somethin', sure, pick these up. But really, they are nothing special at. all. This is Bee-utifiul...where's all that nice wine color?

And Buzz-Worthy, which is a nice gold 'topcoat' at best.

Meh, whatevs. On to some other stuff...

Nfu Oh 61 FINALLY

2010-07-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Do I need to say anything? Nope. But I will. A) this polish HATES my Poshe basecoat. Guh, that was hell. B) It's better than OMG in every way. That is all!

Nyx Tube Glosses

2010-07-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I forgot to post these- I bought them forever ago. They're nice thickish glosses that diminish initially after an hour or so, but eh, they're cheap. Paraben-free, application smoothness varies, but there's a nice brush to apply with.

Here's clear:

Cherry

Rose

Hot

Orange

Okay, hot is hard to even out if you wear a lot of it. And I don't know why I bought it because it's pearly/frosty. I just really wanted a candy pink and there weren't a lot at the display, I think. An even bigger mystery is why I bought Orange. It's pearly, too, but with GLITTER. What am I, 12? I must've been on that good crack. Not saying it's not cute if you dig it, but I hate glittery, pearly glosses. Thinking back, though, I got those two free in a sale. That explains it. >.>

Nfu Ohs 553 and 552

2010-07-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, the last two jelly-cremes from my recent additions. 553 is a fuchsia-purple, and I love it maybe even more than 554. I dunno. I love this set. The color changes a lot depending on the light.

And today, I'm wearing 552, it's a deep berry magenta color. Totally jelly. God I love these!

Minimini NYX Haul

2010-07-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

So that FAT Eyemarker? I'm in love with it. I want another one as a backup. It makes just the kind of line that I want and doesn't feather. It also reflects less light than a regular pen, which is important to me because I want black eyeliner to look as black as possible against my dark skin. It cost $10.00 and I bought it at Cherry Culture. Perhaps I should have shown it off with a fancier eye, but eh, I had a paper to write today. P.S. My lashes are super lame and for that reason I don't always tend to even bother with mascara, and therefore there isn't any in this pic.

I also ordered two of the round glosses. These are fun and cheap, and oddly enough, paraben-free! I'm so sad that the NYX display at my Ulta, though huge, does not include the round glosses, only the more opaque square ones. Those aren't really my style, and they're a bit goopy :/. I bought Apricot and Queen of Africa. The formula isn't particularly line-filling and juicy, but the color's not that weak, either. It has decent staying time and color payoff, and isn't that sticky. The applicator is an angled doefoot, which is better than a regular doefoot, at least.

Apricot is the kind of color *I* call a coral, but that's not accurate. It's..well, apricot. An orange-pink color. It's pretty bright in the tube.

Queen of Africa is a dark magenta that looks just like Nfu Oh 116 in the tube! Yayyy. Of course, that blue flash isn't that apparent on the lips, even if you apply heavily (which isn't a good idea with these glosses- they aren't thick enough for that.) I had a hard time getting pics of it- I'm learning!- so just know that in most lights, it's a pretty saturated magenta, not a berry or anything.

Ciao!

WTF Cherry Culture. Again?

2010-07-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Ok I went to CC today to look into ...well I'll tell you guys later, lol. Anyway, remember my last CC post?

What. The. Heck. She looks so bad! And those extensions were purchased in a corner store and pressed till they melted. I don't know what the deal is.

Nfu Ohs 116 and 554

2010-07-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, 116 I've been wanting for FOREVER. It's a blue-flashed magenta/berry/wine/whatever. The formula is nice, thin in a good way, and applies like loveliness. The blue flash is more apparent indoors and like.. in my car, than I could capture it here.

Yeah. Definitely right up my alley. Next, #554. It's a... purple. It's a purple purple. Kinda blue-leaning, so violet. It's in the creme series, and it's like... it wishes really hard it's a jelly. It's very pigmented and glossy and almost ALMOST semi-translucent. I didn't put on any topcoat for this swatch because my Poshe was stupid gloopy and suddenly the thinner isn't sold in stores ANYWHERE around me. :/ It bubbled up like mad after this, and I ended up with sheet marks 6+ hours later :p ....Anyway, I bought new topcoat xD. This is 3 coats, as is the mani above.

...There is SO much more fun stuff coming up, it KILLS me that I don't have more followers to show it to! Try and spread the word, chicas, okay?

Ciao!

SO HAPPY

2010-07-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

Okay so hint hint, a LOT of new, fun stuff is coming my way.

Let's move backwards, though.

Here's Lippmann's Bitches Brew. I have photos of it up already, but they suck, so I did it again.

Pardon the ring finger- I had to redo that one quickly because I spilled clove EO on it and it stripped the finish RIGHT off.

Here are some quick pics of a Let's Talk mani. Ok 2 coats to opacity, but 3 coats to proper depth. A very electric indigo. The formula kind of sucks because it's VERY runny. But come on, these sinfuls are how much, again? xD

w ChG Wireless on top! <3

Annnd here's a sneak peak of what I will be wearing after thisssss!

....Clearly, I have a wicked purple obsession. BTW Nfu Ohs are on sale through the end of Julyyy!

Haul and NOTD

2010-07-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

I went to Sephora and picked up the Tokidoki stuff I wanted, and a couple of things suggested to me for dry hair. Let's start with Tokidoki. I bought three prisma glosses, two lip markers, and an eye pencil. I really had to get out of there before I lurked near the Dior Addict Lipgloss display for too long x.x

The prisma glosses are...fantastic. And they'd better be, for that price. I'm a little ashamed to admit that one of them I bought for packaging alone- since it's not even pigmented. But GOD the package is SO cute! And after wearing them today, I think I'll pick up Devil Girl, too, even though I have NYX cherry which is the exact same color. The formula isn't watery , but it's not heavy or sticky, and it lasts a looong time and is nice and glassy looking, which is my fave. I like my glosses like I like my polish- jelly. The spatula worked fine for me, and it's neat to use. Anyway, I bought Bullets (totally sheer lilac), Adios (sheer purple), and Rocketeer (less-sheer plum)

Ugh, how cute is that?! Rocketeer, Adios, and Bullets. As you can see, I really am a purple-aholic. I didn't take a regular pic of Bullets because it's so sheer, but here it is in a messy-looking comparison. This comparison is Bullets, Rocketeer and Adios, left to right.

Adios

Rocketeer

Next up, the two lip markers. They're bullet shaped, which is adorable, with the character emblazoned on the tube. The felt tip is really stiff, and it's kinda awkward to use. I mostly used the side to apply, and had it pointing down to do my upper lip. You get more pigment this way, too. As with all stains, make sure your lips are evenly exfoliated/not broken or chapped. And they go on matte.

That's the melodia pencil in the middle. Lookit the cute pitchforks!

Nana Star

Peperincino

The eye pencil was the biggest waste of money, though, I think. It goes on smooth, doesn't smudge too much, and the glitter won't scrape you up. But at the end of the day, it's just an eyeliner pencil, and most of the glitter hardly shows >:[ Melodia is gunmetal grey with gold glitter.

lllaaaaame. But I'm too lazy to get my money back, and I like it a'ight.

Moving on... Hair.

I've been having some hair issues and this summer heat is killer. I picked up Carol's Daughter Hair Milk and Black Vanilla Leave-in Spray Conditioner. The latter is not that impressive- I almost feel like Frank Juice would do better. However, I do like that vodka is an ingredient, lol. The Hair Milk is pretty boss, though, my curls were super soft and well-defined. Well, not the crown :/ But it's totally worth the money, and a little goes a loooong way!

I also saw the Ouidad comb there.. and figured I'd get it since I had extra cash. It's HUEG.

I used it in the shower today, and at first I was unimpressed. But the comb is stiff as hell, and that keeps you from having to apply excessive force with your own grip. I also think that because of the laxity in my beloved Denman, my detangling isn't as complete, because you can get the bristles to skip over smaller tangles. I don't have much breakage with the Denman, and I don't shed much, but I do like this comb. I also like that you can rinse all the conditioner from it, and it has nowhere for water to go, inside.

Aaaanyway, here's my NOTD. I was gonna do somethin else, but then I got bored and put some Yasmeen on and I was like WOAH WTF why hadn't I been wearing this? I posted a pic of it already, but they aren't good, so here goes again! I LOVE this color! 2 coats~

I'm noticing that most blue-based (it is, you just can't really tell because of all the pigment) purples have a duochrome to them. Sooo here's a bottle pic. Effect, as you all already know, doesn't show on the nail.

Ciao!

I return!

2010-07-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

And with lots of stuff to show you, to make up for the lack thereof!

Ok, to be fair, two whole weeks between now and my last post have been strictly overcast. So there are a couple of swatches here where I just gave up and settled for the weak a** light outside. :p

First off is a jelly franken I made that's normally a grape-purple, but all the blue pigment sank, and I ended up with this LOVELY burgundy because I didn't shake it! I'll shake it later and swatch that, but for now, here it is:

Then, I finally picked up OPI Purple with a Purpose. Honestly? I'm disappointed. It's too soft a purple- it reminds me of someone's mom or something. However, that pro-wide brush is still the bee's knees, and it was almost a one-coater. The formula is smooth and very easy to work with.

The same day, I picked up the last two Sinful purples that were taunting me: Let's Talk and Fiji. Let's talk is kinda too blue for me most of the time- although I love how loud it was. Fiji is a surprisingly sheer polish, and sorta runny. Four coats are pictured, and that's why it's dented in some of the pics; I couldn't keep from smudging it twice to save my life >:[ Index and Pinkie are PwaP, Middle is Let's Talk, Ring is Fiji.

I picked up Milani Garnet Gems, too. Like other glitter-in-jelly polishes, it isn't as glitter-saturated as it looks. It's a near-black, and just like WnW Night Prowl, I don't know why I like it so much- esPECially because it's like a glitter version of OPI Moscow after Midnight. I hate that polish >:/ But this is a jelly, and it speaks to my not-so-inner goth kid. Three coats for opacity, okay formula. I guess it's worth 3.99? Eh, whatever. I like it!

Now this last one is one of my favorite polishes, and types of polish. Peacock-gunmetal greys. This is Borghese Stellare Notte. Similar polishes are Zoya's Ki, Nubar Peacock Feathers, and that new Orly. And I will own ALL of these, no matter how similar. (Ki is lighter, Peacock Feathers is more colorful, but I think the Orly is a close dupe). IRL, the colors this shows are obvious and awesome, but my camera flaked on me, so one of them is manipulated. The sides of this are steely blue, purple flash (with a weak gold...double duochrome?) and deep forest green. It's this side of the polish that made me consider getting a deep green polish to wear, when that's not normally my thing. The formula is nearly a one-coater, and very nice. Drying time is okay... but can be slow. The brush is godly, and the first time I used it I fell in love. Pity, there is not one. single. other Borghese polish that I want. Not a single one. So this poor bottle has to hang out alone :/ But what a lovely bottle it is! Check out that galactic color change in the pics~

This polish looks just like a Tahitian/Peacock pearl. ....I love pearls so much that I'd trade diamonds for them, no lie. So of course I love this!!

Thanks for looking, Ciao!

Flash!

2010-06-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

I know I've mentioned how much I love blue flashes, and yesterday, I mentioned that I bought ChG Reggae to Riches. Well SMH! It is hot PANK on me! I mean, I knew it pushed the limits of magenta, but eerrgh. It's not that it's not the color it is in the bottle, but that there's a depth that it looses. I like the bottle a lot :/

This is a mani turned swatch, because I decided that I absolutely would not be seen like this. It was nighttime, so these are all indoors, but you get the idea. It has a verrrry runny formula. Very. But this is only two coats, and there was no cuticle drag. It's dented because I disrespected it for bein' ugly. Nah, I dented it getting my camera. It's probably destined for giveaway, along with Essie Revv'd Up and Electronica.

This is what I replaced it with- the polish that soothes my Viva la Vespa lemming, Wet n' Wild Eggplant Shimmer. Once again, the French name is better; 'Aubergine Froste'. You'll notice that the bottle is labelless- all my WnWs are, because I hate that cheap sticker. I just memorize the names.

Indoor, window, shade and two sun pics; overall, you can see how sometimes the blue flash diffuses and the polish looks purple. I loooove this color...but then I remembered the one thing that sucks about it. It's definitely one of the drug-store polishes that truly acts its price. I did this yesterday and it's badly chipped already. I think I'm gonna do a holo ruffian. Cross your fingers!

Blah!

2010-06-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

So today I knew I'd go to the BSS and get some porosity control conditioner for my hair. I figured I'd go to Ulta, and pick up OPI Purple with a Purpose or Essie Demure Vixen while I was there. Well one, the people who work at Ulta never have any idea of what I'm looking for and how to find it, when I go for a specific purpose. Two, I noticed they sold Mizani there (interested in trying that line in the future) and I also noticed the Joico K-Pak in the salon section as well.. Hmmm. Remember my long story about protein overload? Well now constant cowashing as weakened my cuticle, and it can't hold water. ;.; Sooo heartbreaking. So I'm thinking of adding something like the K-pak biweekly or monthly, to start.

Okay Four, they did NOT have Purple with a Purpose- I was so crushed! Grrr. I didn't even check for Merry Midnight, but that's cool, because I don't want to pay full price for it. I did notice Plugged-in Plum, which is on my lemming list (which I keep in my purrrse! Not like I need to xD), but I was kinda let down to notice that in the light from the display next to it, the blue flash left. More on that later. So I saw Essie Summer 2010 display- NO DEMURE VIX-oh wait there's one bottle, here at the bottom, I pick it up and keep it with me. But then I notice, in that same sort of white display light, that it's a weird pink that I don't like :/ I chickened out! I like mauve, but I don't like pink!...Angora Cardi is looking better and better >.> I might franken some shimmer into it. But I don't want to pay full price for that either! Soo..it'll be a while.

Now I realize that I could buy these polishes, swatch them and return them, but all...29 of you? Sorry, I hate running back and forth. Love ya, but I need my gas money.

Anyway, I bought some Mizani reconstructor, went across the street to Sally's immediately found Roux Porosity Control, and took a look at the ChG display. I saw Reggae to Riches in person, and it looks so cute! Snatched it up, and it replaces Plugged in Plum as my loud magenta with blue flash. Cross your fingers for a swatch, because it's been thunderstorming through the days here :/

I leave for vacation on Sunday, yayyy!

Just won't quit!

2010-06-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

So, I think it was... Saturday that I put on Daddy's Girl? Then Tuesday that I added 51. It's Thursday, and there is like...1 chip and a half on this mani, with just some tipwear. And through cowashing! That's unheard of, for me. Anyway, I figured I'd celebrate this suuuper pretty mani with some awesomeugly nail art.

I used CC's ArtWhatever art brush in Black Hologram. One thing I will say about Daddy's Girl+51 is that I can't get my camera to show how dark the base color can be, which is even prettier with the flakes flashing all over the place. Very vampy-glow. Anyway, my text is just... completely ineloquent, so on to the pictures.

Heads up, if I don't post this weekend, I'm going on vacation on Sunday, so I won't see you all until next Friday! Ciao!

Edit: More pics! I don't know whyyyy

Had a bad daaaay agaaaain -Fuel

2010-06-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty stressful day at work, and when I came home, some computer troubles were really getting me riled up. I don't like to get angry, and moreso, I hate being frustrated, because I can only stand it so much before I just wig out and can feel my inner 5th grader having a fit. I don't like it. My mani was in that 'lol i'm about 2 chip' stage, and I was thinking of doing a ruffian for posting's sake. But you know what? No. Nfu Oh to the rescue, because there's nothing more cheerful than those flakies, and the instant gratification of painting my nails is uplifting. Daddy's girl is, to me, the absolute best base for 51 because it is the exact. same. base, so you can get the depth without the jumble of flakes, which I'm not always in the mood for. A darker, solid base pushes the flakes out more, and that's not what I wanted. Anyway, here's a buttload of random, sorta useless pictures for no good reason other than I took them. Enjoy!

Swatch Weekend! Warning: Pic heavy!

2010-06-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here's Color Club Electronica. Like Revv'd up, I'm not sure I want to keep it. In fact, I know for a fact I'm not big on blues. This is an indigo polish (That's right, indigo, not blurple. Calling a color blurple is like calling orange redellow. There is already a color between blue and purple ((violet)), folks) that tends to identify as blue... except in some lights.

Indoor, shade, weak sun. If it stayed as it shows indoors, I'd keep it. As it is, let me know if you want it x.x This is a two coater, and I *think* it wears well, but aside from this swatch I've only worn it once and couldn't stand it for more than 24 hours.

Moving on, here's a fast, messy swatch of Sinful's Social Ladder, a semi-sheer, somewhat iridescent microshimmer off-white. Not much to say, this is three coats- the bald spots are because the application was rushed, not because of the formula.

Indoor, window, shade, sun. And here it is with Milani Rad Purple (wannabe neon) over it, since it was requested, and this color is the closest thing I have to white. 2 coats index and ring, one middle and pinky.

What do you think? Can it call itself a neon now?

Last but not least, I fall back on purples for my current mani. Sinful Daddy's Girl. This is the 'purple-jelly-with-reddish/orange-to-teal-duochrome-pigment' type polish, like Clarin's 230, Nfu Oh 51, Milani Totally Cool, Collistar Viola Glitter, etc. Of course, the duochrome in this one is low-key, and I'm not sure that people even know it's there. I included some bottle pics to show it- an easy way to check for hidden (aka useless) duochrome is to lift your nails up to eye level, at the side of your head... Or maybe that's just me. It's how I caught OPI SoC! Anyway... This one's pic heavy because I love it soooo much. It's a real catch for $1.99.

Two shots of regular indoor lighting, because I couldn't decide, halogen (that cuts right through jellies), shade, sun and the duochrome in the bottle. How the heck did I get lint or whatever on my finger in the sun shot?! I'm cursed, I tell you! Aaanyway, have a nice weekend, and ciao!

VI and Wild card

2010-06-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

I'll start off with Wet n' Wild Wild Card. I keep calling this interlude, because that was the French name on the label, and it sounds better. There is nothing wild about this polish. I thought it would be a sheer, but it's not. I also only reviewed it until now, because the first time I tried it it bubbled up like alka seltzer >:[ I don't know why, because it gave me no problems this time...

indoor

halogen

lol soap opera lighting!

sun

shade

Wild Card is a nice lilac with a bit of interesting depth. The formula was okay, but chips easily. You can see how the base mutes and the shimmer goes a little golden, indoors. Here's a retarded girly ruffian I did after it chipped less than 24 hrs later. The color combo is baaaaad, but I just wanted to see if I could get the brush strokes remotely right.

Anyway, after this, I looked at my uploads list and GEEZ, everything's in the aubergine/purple family! I had to do something else! So here's China Glaze VI. I wanted this color hard, and I don't know why. It looks deeper on lighter skin- on mine the orangeness just POPS which isn't a bad thing, I just don't like it as much. It's a burnt orange with self glass fleck shimmer. And a 2 coater. And doesn't cuticle drag. So yay!

indoor

soap opera window xD

sun

shade

Orange! Not bad. I'm not a brights type of person, but this is still a cute summery color and I won't be getting rid of it. I really wish I'd been able to find SH Hidden Treasure, or bought Nfu Oh 49 (it was out of stock last time), because they'd look GORGEOUS over this. But I'm getting Nubar 2010 when I get my other duochromes from them, because there's no need to pay Nfu price for a flakie, and I can never find Hidden Treasure. It is very Hidden. Anyway, Ciao!

China Glaze Afterglow

2010-06-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

I've wanted this color for a long time, but every time I go to Ulta, it's just not there. But last week, there it was. Just sitting there, waiting!

I think I'm addicted to flashes in my polish. I just think this color is sooooo coool. It's a very sheer peach pink nude with a blue flash. I think I like it because it takes something boring and subtle and makes it cool. It's basically a cousin to OPI SOC, but has an even sheerer base. I will say, that the blue flash was like.. impossible to catch in strong light. Everything just reflected white, and like my pics of SOC, the color came out duller. The flash in this is a nice electric powder blue, and on top of the sheer pink it has a nice pearly effect. But wait! There's more! The flash 'duochromes' into a crazier blue, and then to a sharp fuschia/ultraviolet looking color! And THAT, luckily, I did get a picture of.

Indoor, shade, sun, that crazy duochrome and the base color. My nails aren't dirty, just for some reason my quick is really dark through the nail. It doesn't look that way from underneath >:T

Anyway I like this because unlike most colors like this, it's not frosty, you know? Anyway, ciao!

Nfu layering

2010-06-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

So, of course glittery indigos and purples are the perfect base for Nfu Oh 51. But looking at my 2 day old Totally Cool mani, I figured I'd change things up a weeee bit and use 59, instead. Of course, all of the flakies have the same flakes, but the end effect was cool nevertheless.

...I don't know why a bit of lint always gets on me, going from one room to the other. It's like I live in a pillow factory or something. Anyway... ciao!

Milani Totally Cool

2010-06-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

I picked this one up with Rad Purple. It's popular, and so I don't need to say much. It's not particularly original, but hell, it's nice so I'm not complaining. It's got a weak unicorn piss effect with a grittier texture, but comes out looking akin to Sinful Daddy's Girl.

Indoors, weak sun, sun, shade. Nice formula, you can tell because I did such a neat job, and it came out ESPECIALLY well on my right, which is normally a smidge lamer because of my nondominant hand. The bottle duochromes a bit, but it's hard to get it to show on the nail, and this I don't really have pics of that. Sorry! Anyway, jeez, I should change the name of this blog to purple-aholic.

A wonderful mistake: Milani Rad Purple

2010-06-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

The folks at Milani must be smokin' crack.

Rad Purple is part of their current NEON set, and comes in an opaque purple bottle. Annnd here it is.

Indoor, 3 coats

4 coats

More 'natural' light

fancypants

Ok so here's the deal. I was idly going through new uploads on Nailgal and came across a swatch of this and immediately my jaw DROPPED. I love love love love jellies! I knew I had to get this that DAY and I so did. The bad part? Well, there are three bad things going on here. One: I like to buy within brands, and I hate to have random-ass bottles in my stash. So now that I have one Milani, I will have to get a couple more to round things out (I already have Totally Cool and I have designs on that Bella Berry jelly. It's way too dark for my tastes, really, but it IS a jelly and Milani doesn't really have anything else that I think I want.) Two: This color is more purple indoors in real life than the swatches. Actually, the 'natural' light one is accurate, but the others don't catch the blue tinge and the delicious jelly depth it gives. It's more like blackberry juice than raspberry. And Three: THE SUN WILL NOT COME OUT. I will not tell you that I got up on a stool to take pics over that halogen lamp so I could get some natural light pics up in this mofo. That totally didn't happen <.<

Anyway, this is one of my new faves! SO not a neon, though in the right light at the right angle and in a thin coat, I can sorta see what Milani *meant*. In the end, this is a very happy mistake.

Hot Mess

2010-06-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm going through NYX, Zoya and Tokidoki makeup sites to plan out my lipgloss hauls (more on that later, possibly much later), and go to Cherryculture.com, to see how much the Super FAT and super Skinny eye liner markers are. And I see this:

...Really? This girl looks a hot mess, CC. Those digitally enhanced eyes are like.. the least of her problems. She looks like a little girl who got into mommy's makeup!

Color Club Rev'd Up

2010-06-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

HOMG picked up some polishes todayyy. Anyway, here's CC Rev'd Up. This color has an illusive blue flash that I was not able to catch on camera ;.; It's a loud fuchsia with sparse silver shimmer..glitter. Anyway I'm in love with these magenta/aubergine colors with blue flash. I have like three. And I really just love flash colors anyway. More on that later on this week.

Normally my pics are sun, shade indoors and SOMETIMES an extra, but my camera turned my indoors picture into lemonade, and I'm too lazy to work things out. It suffices to say that indoors, this looks a bit like ChG Stella with silver microglitter, or something. This is two coats, and the pinky is layered over a gazillion polishes because I swatched them on that nail when I bought them today. I couldn't help it- I was excited! The formula is just fine and I have no complaints. Very easy to control.

Ta!

Lots of stuff! Very long post xD

2010-05-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, um.. So I was backlogged again. My intentions of swatching my collection by brand, thwarted. My camera had died. UGH. But I got a new, better one! So I have lots of stuff to show you. First off, Color Club Fast Woman. I bought this because I adore dark red jellies, and I wanted something lighter than Revlon Devlish. Blood red, is really my goal. And... it is that color..in SOME artificial lights. However, in sun or some indoor lighting, it's like the light rays penetrate the lacquer and light it up from within- this jelly turns BRIGHT red! This isn't a mere shade/direct light issue; it's actually the type of light it's in. Let me show you.

In my office- it's a nice dark red.

Still dark, same room.

A few feet away, in my bedroom- WOAH!

Full sun- bright, retro red.

Bright red in the shade. It does not change color, as long as it's in a natural type of light. To prove it?

Here it is, in a dark SHADOW in my bedroom. As you can see, it's still a bright red!

At first, I was really unsure. I don't wear bright colors like this- and I'm not big into classic reds. And at my office, if I move anywhere away from my desk or the lobby, it's this bright a** red! But I get SO many compliments on it, that I don't really miss the deep bloody color I bought it for. The formula is lovely, but I can't remember if this swatch is 2 or 3 coats.

Okay, another polish I swatched that day was Color Club Catwalk Queen. Now I do stand by my dislike of very dark can't-see-color-without-a-spotlight-and-a-magnifying-glass colors. But Catwalk Queen is a nice deep eggplant/black basde with a tyrian purple shimmer that does show color in all lights, and I do adore it. That said, I don't have another color like this in my stash, because I don't see the point.

Indoors, outdoors, shade and a bonus pic I thought was pretty. It is a very glossy, shimmery color with nice depth. Once again, the formula is luuurvely. This is 2 coats. Now, that WAS the last of my Color Clubs, ...until I bought Electronica and Rev'd Up. I have worn them both, but didn't take pictures because my camera was dead! Ack.

Lastly, I want to show you my mannequin hands color. There isn't one that I have ever seen, on the market. This is a franken with a base of ChG Heirloom Organza with a couple drops of OPI YDKJ, a few of Ginger Bells, and some yellow-brown mineral foundation pigment from AllNaturalFace. It's sort of jelly-ish, but is opaque at three coats. There wasn't good sun this day- it was late and a bit cloudy. But you can see how well it blends in with my skintone! I really need to remember to wear it matte, but I included a blurry pic.. because that.. sorta gets the idea across? As you can see, my nails are stubby nubblins- there was a bit of an accident and instead of saving the chips, I decided to just chop 'em off. They'll grow back.

Annnd I almost forgot. A bit of a skittles style swatch- Sinful Bali Mist and Let Me Go alone and over black. Let Me Go is a frosty sheer lavender with an overwhelming light teal shimmer that turns into a bright blue flash in the right direction. Bali Mist is a pink-purple with a pink shimmer that turns gold to orange in the right light.

PHEW! OMG I am SO done. But I still have a couple of reviews to do, and I'm gonna start including more eyshadows and lipgloss! I don't have chem for the next two months, so that helps. God help me when I start Orgo, though!

NYX Sale!!

2010-05-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, let me just tell you that before I was a polishaholic, I was a lipglossaholic. However, when I decided to stop putting random carcinogenic chemicals and parabens on my face, I threw all of my glosses away, and instead, replaced them with natural alternatives. More on those later. What you need to know is that I made myself every color I could ever want, and it was cheap, and fun, but the gloss doesn't have the sort of lasting power that I wanted and isn't thick enough. Now if I wanted, I could reformulate it- it's easy enough to do. BUT I DON'T WANT TO. However, this has led me to one very big roadblock when it comes to finding lipgloss:

It is extremely hard to find gloss with no parabens in it, or even brands that care to divulge their ingredients.

And I think it's totally f**ked up that they don't. Ingredients are on my lotion, my food, my conditioner, etc. What makes my face so different? And ladies, why are we using products by companies that want to keep secrets from you? Ugh, don't get me started.

Anyway, in the lipgloss arena, NYX provides. I'm probably going to go to Ulta and haul, or slowly start replenishing my collection with them. I think some of their glosses are a bit oversexualized, but that's all in good fun. They've got pots, tubes,...pocket rockets. And a good selection of colors. I prefer glosses that look like jelly, with no shimmer, although that's not always true.

NYX is also making me consider their Glitterati palette. The first time I saw it I was like "Ugh wtf is THAT'...but you know? The looks you can get with it pack a punch, and I'm in to that on my eyes. HowEVER the palette is cremes, and apparently they haven't figured out how to put the preservative from their lipgloss into that, because it has parabens. I'm not so hot on that.

Anyway, CherryCulture is having a 25% off sale on NYX, an already affordable brand. Do check it out!

I probably won't participate...I dunno, maybe. But they have a huge display in my Ulta.

In other news, we're getting a camera soon! Which is good because I have a few new polishes...

Burt's Bees Soap Bark and Chamomile

2010-05-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

So.. Two weeks since a post? Yeah. Still no camera. We're working on it. In the meantime, I'm just DYING to swatch polish, and shadows and glosses. Ugh! I've accumulated some new Orlys, Sinfuls and Color Clubs- The Bed, Bath and Beyond by me put in a huge display! They have a lot of polish anyway, though. Anyway, it's been two weeks since I said that I wanted to review that Burt's Bees cleanser...

Now, this is not specifically formulated for acne. However, that having been said, it does work. I've seen a reduction in those pesky little sparse grainy pimples I still get. The cleanser is totally smooth and creamy, with the consistency of a benzoyl peroxide cleanser. It is extremely gentle on skin, and doesn't tingle or burn. In fact, if it gets around your eyes, it still won't burn, though it is mentholated so your eyes would water. Cons? I really really hate the way it makes my face feel after I've rinsed it off- Though water its the first ingredient, it really does not act water based at all, and stays creamy as it's being rinsed. So what happens is that my face still feels like...thick and a bit oily after it's gone, so I wipe it off with a towel and don't use moisturizer. Now, believe me, I don't believe oil is bad for my skin; I did oil cleansing for quite a while, and my favorite home made moisturizer is shea butter based. But I dunno. I think because I don't use moisturizer, though, my skin feels a little oily after I wake up. I don't think that's the Burt's Bees fault.

Anyway, it retails for $8-$9 bucks, and in my experience, it does work. I might consider getting their acne stuff, but I'm still on the fence. I actually don't like Burt's Bees as a company, but that's a story for another day...

Last of the Color clubs, and other things~

2010-05-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ok so in my efforts to post pics of all my current polishes, I decided that since I reviewed three other Color Club polishes, I'd finish off what I have of that brand, since it's not too many. Fuh. Easier said than done, because it has begun to rain every afternoon now. How can I take swatches with no sun? Before I start, here's a crap pic (rainin' outside) of CC High Society with 1 and 2 coats of ChG Unplugged Holo Topcoat, respectively.

As a color, I preferred it with only one coat. It looked like the polish came that way- a grey with a holo shimmer. As a toy and distraction, obviously 2 coats were better. So speaking of holos, after I took this off, I decided to put on Color Club Revvvolution. This was a polish that I knew I HAD to have when I saw it. Gunmetal grey, AND holo? Be still my beating heart. But hell if it didn't rain all day? Sunshowers and whatnot. I literally had to run out with my camera when the clouds parted for 3 minutes to get these pics- twice. I failed once.

I type entirely too much .That is 9 hours worth of tipwear on the middle and ring fingers, there. Also I am apparently a bit dehydrated. Shame shame. The formula is great- you can tell because I could get it super close to my cuticles. This is 3 coats. 2 is normally fine for me- holo particles block *most* VNL.

aaaaand.. this was supposed to be a multi-swatch post, but my camera decided to die. Don'tchya just hate planned obsolescence? Hopefully we can get this fixed, soon, because LOOKIE HERE!

Wet n' Wild Wild Card, Sinful Bali Mist, Daddy's Girl (OMG WEARING IT RIGHT NOW), Social Ladder, and Let Me Go.

As an aside, a friend of mine said that Burt's Bees facial cleansers worked really well for her acne. I had a week of junkfood binging, and broke out, so I bought some Burt's Bees Soapbark and Chamomile cleanser (not specifically for acne).

I've used it for about a week- I'll do a review after two. See ya!

Kinky Curly Review

2010-05-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

So, I don't have that many natural curly hair followers. If I do, then this is for you. It's also kinda for googlers.

On the top, we have Kinky Curly (heretofore referred to as KC) Conditioner (top) and gel (bottom). The conditioner, Knot Today is really great, all natural, and super easy to work with. Like I mentioned in this post about their charity contributions, I find that the conditioner works just as well considerably watered down. This is good to know because it is SO hard to get a hold of, here in Winter Park. Only my nearby Whole Foods carries it, but it flies off of the shelves whenever they get it in. Come on, ladies, SAVE SOME FOR ME. Also, paying shipping on conditioners is crippling, and this retails for around $11. I use it solely as a leave-in; it would be too expensive to use all of my nice conditioners as cowash materials. Just... rinsing that money down the drain....

Last summer, when I first tried out KCKT, I declined on buying the gel. I had a twa and really wasn't into attempting shingling or anything on it- seeing how poor my results were with conditioner. I decided to have a go at it again, now that my hair's around six inches. Now online, at Curlmart.com , you can find the Custard in 8 and 16 oz sizes, for $17.00 and $30.00. But at Whole Foods, they ONLY sell the large size. All in all, this makes sense. But it kinda hurt, springing for $29.99 hair gel. : /

So. After watching a couple of videos, and DCing my hair, I cowashed with my big ol' bottle of Aussie Moist, rinsed that alll the way out, and ran some Knot Today through my hair, after twist-drying it with an old t-shirt. I pulled out my Denman D3, but didn't really use it for curl definition. I don't know if it's because of my type, but this never helps me more than just conditioner would. So. Anyway. Starting at the nape I raked a VERY SMALL amount of gel from roots to ends. By small I mean barely pressed my hands into the gel until I came up with a slick layer on my fingers, not a gob. My hair hung and curled up very well, though by the time I got to my crown I felt like I needed a bit more to get the same effect. Here's what I ended up with- I clipped the roots in the front to help it not revert so much. Here's my hair fresh from a shower- it's super fluffy because I haven't put the KCKT in it yet.

And here we have my hair with the gel fully applied. It's not that white- just shiny.

Ignore that frizzy looking ness over on my left side. It's not really frizzy. The curls were well defined, shrunk up a little, and cute. On the bad side, my hair felt crunchy, even though I used so little. That's really unnerving to me because I just got over protein overload, or hair crunchyitis. The curls lasted for the whole week, though I was dying to wash them out- the crunchiness was killing me. Although, after a lot of 'hands in hair' action, they softened up- bit when I grabbed a handful of hair and squeezed, there was still some crunch, and that made me antsy.

day 3 or 4

Each day I'd spray it with some conditioner and water, and that was all it really needed. I might try it again, rinsing it through in the shower. I was worried the first morning after, because it was sleep-smushed and I didn't know if I could fluff it without messing up the curl- but not to worry, it sprang up just fine. My hair curls up pretty okay otherwise, and honestly I'd rather have frizz than crunchy hair. But I still think it's worth it, because the jar is so. big. It will be particularly useful when my hair is longer. But if you can't abide by crunchy hair, don't waste your money. Otherwise, I would totally suggest it.

Color Club Rebel Debutante III: High Society

2010-05-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hey there, is everyone having a nice weekend? I know I am- I went to the beach yesterday! Since Sunday is for relaxing, I had time to show you the last polish I have from this collection; High Society. High Society is a putty grey, or Geige as someone started calling it. It's lighter and browner than Essie Chinchilly, if my thinking is correct, but don't worry, I'll do a comparison on my next post. In artificial light, it takes on a lilac cast. Well I think so, anyway. In a way, it almost seems like a jelly on the first coat, but it's definitely not. Like the rest, the formula was ATROCIOUS. I mean, I suppose it could have been worse, but to me, it was the worst of the three. By now though I've figured that the only way to get it looking decent is to apply the coats as thin as you can get them. This is three, but strangely there is still some VNL. That normally wouldn't bother me, but in a creme? Come on.

it's more beige-lavender indoors

Now I think this mani did come out cute in the end, but lest you think it's flawless, here's a closeup of the streaky-chunkiness. This is WITH two fat Poshe coats, mind you:

imagine this without topcoat...

As with the other two I purchased, I'm really pleased with the color. It's a very feminine French grey and I adore it. Absolute shame, too, because I might even like it a bit more than Chinchilly if the formula didn't give me so much grief. As I mentioned, I applied the coats veeeeerrrry thinly, and oh. my. god. you should have seen how slooowwwllly I did it. I really tried my hardest. I shouldn't have to work that hard to paint my nails.

....But damn if it ain't pretty.

See you next time!

Color Club Rebel Debutante II: Uptown Girl (and some layering)

2010-04-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here's my second polish from Rebel Debunante: Uptown Girl. It's a feminine lilac that I really liked. At first, I considered it 'light', but it's really a medium color, not pastel or anything by any means. The formula didn't really level out completely, sorta disappointing, but not as bad as it's counterparts, and my left hand came out almost entirely smooth.

Refer to the bottle in this pic- the shade from the trees is making it deeper than it ever is.

I didn't do cleanup on this mani because I was feeling REBELLIOUS. And maybe lazy. As much as I loved it, I knew I didn't love it enough, so I layered it. Left hand got layered with Sinful 'Let me Go' from the Purple Passion collection. I will definitely swatch this alone later!

Right hand got Significant Other. I... managed to fail and catch it between shades. It's pretty sacrilegious. It looks magical in like.. every other angle. :/ But I'm too lazy to shoot it again. You should have this polish already! Loving the dinged nail? Me, too. I wanted to cover it up with a rhinestone like whoa. ...But I don't have any.

Tootles!

Color Club Rebel Debutante I: Ms Socialite

2010-04-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

So after much deliberation, I did get a few of the polishes in the Rebel Debutante collection. None of them are outstandingly unique, but a few of them were right up my alley, and so eventually I conceded that for $2.99 or whatever, I'd get them. I'll be test-driving them this week. I honestly feel that that collection was great for spring. I'm not really into BRIGHTS and the brights it did have seemed... springy, not loud. Even the neon green. It just seems very appropriate to me for some reason. Here's the lineup, as if you haven't seen it everywhere else. I know this is old news.

Here's Ms. Socialite, which I wore over the weekend:

pay no attention to the dog biscuit crumbs

I got bored and took my ChG Ink brush to it. I don't think this qualifies as nail art- more like the polish equivalent of doodling while you're on the phone.

Ok so review: The formula SUCKED. It was all bald-spotty and cuticle draggy and what was worse, it hardly leveled out AT. ALL. You can't see it in the pics, but IRL there are ripples and divots and sh** that not even Poshe could smooth over. Ugh. It dried in an okay amount of time and this is the second day of my many, and there are two tiny chips. This is three coats. As for the color? I really like it. It's a plummy berry color through and through, and really feels 'springy' to me. Well, springy for a person that doesn't wear many colors at all. Ugh but that formula....

Anyway, a last word on Nfu Ohs, before I get some more. I was feeling pretty secure in my wishlist for them because I have been all up and through their blog, http://nfuohproduct.blogspot.com/ . But the other day, when I was on fabuloustreet.com, I noticed that they had posted this link for their swatches. I found it because I noticed that there were polishes with numbers higher than I had ever seen, and I knew I was missing something. Oh. No. Consider yourselves warned!

Nfu Oh 59: the Helll mani

2010-04-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ok here is the swatch of 59 and the mani I wore over the weekend. My favorite thing ever nail art wise is gradient manicures, so like I did with 49, I did a gradient beneath this jelly, and it turned out more apparent this time. Yay! So the first pictures are kinda bad because once again, I didn't notice that I'd dinged a wet nail (I promise to stop doing that!). But index and middle are 59 alone, and ring and pinky are over one coat of Revlon Devilish (which I will swatch once I forget how much I hate removing reds >:[ ).

As with the other flakies, they show best over a dark background. You'll see more of the golden orange and greens if you layer it. I liked the way it looked over a coat of devilish, so when I went to do a mani, I thought, hm, maybe over something even darker? And I started off using a polish I absolutely hate (to give it purpose, you know?) OPI Midnight in Moscow. I won't tell you why I hate it yet, because I do plan on swatching my entire collection. All you need to know is that that was way too dark, SO, I did one coat of Devilish, then another coat halfway down the nail, and did the thiiiiinnnnest tip of MiM. It pretty much rained all weekend, but I tell you, this mani was just too much for me! At 3 coats, there was a lot of flakiness in the 59 I layered on top, and it looked like flaming embers floating into darkness. Very evil, you know? Anyway it was definitly glitzy, very sequined-red-dress loud. Not entirely my thing. Pictures!

I have no idea why it's playing shy here, but you can see the dark tips.

and a little blurry to show the fiyah!

Once again, I enjoyed the formula on this. It leveled itself out very well, and refused to chip, despite how many layers of polish there were going on. Be careful though, the layers get kinda thick because of the formula and the flakes, so give it a moment before putting on a fast dry topcoat to avoid it rippling up on top and being wet in the middle layer. Because it sucks when that happens.

Nfu Ohs! PIC HEAVY

2010-04-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

:D!

59 and 51! I also marbled my nails for Earth Day for the first time- it's WnW Caribbean sea, Jade and SH Grass Slipper (it looks all unorganized on purpose- I wanted an organic look)

Maan I've wanted these for a while. To be fair, I hadn't considered 59 until recently, and got it instead of 49 this time because it was out of stock ;.; I expect 51 to be out really, but I recently have a better idea of why 49 was gone- I'll get to that when I buy/swatch it. Today, let's take a look at the famous 51! These 'Luxury Opal' flakies are THE BEST.

full sun, these two

shade. I dinged my ring finger and hadn't noticed!

Indoors, givin the full rainbow! Sooo pretty.

Where do I start? Yes, the bottle is adorable. The cap is super easy to hold, and oddly enough, says "enfu-Oh" Why did they drop the 'e'? Onto the formula. This is the jelliest jelly to ever be. I mean it spreads like warm jelly, and though that sounds like a bad thing in regards to polish, i assure you it isn't! It was freakishly smooth despite all the flakes! You can stroke over it again and again and it just..keeps coating! I can't even really say how many coats this is. 3 ish? I did a gradient of Zoya yasmeen from tips fading to middle, and then CC Catwalk Queen for the very tips. I notice that the best duochrome shows towards the tips, so yes I do recommend putting it over a purple base. The base color of this jelly is a violet-ish purple, but you rarely ever see that for all the shimmer and flakes! It dries very smooth, but this is with topcoat. It also didn't take that long to dry, but I was outside, soo....

Anyway this polish is the tits! You'll be looking at your nails off and on all day- totally distracting. For what it's worth, a funny fact is that within the jelly is not only flakes but shimmer of the same duochrome. If they wanted to, Nfu Oh could take the flakes from the formula and have a more opaque Clarins 230 on their hands! WE SHOULD TELL THEM. >:D

Swatchesss

2010-04-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Ok so... here I have a Sally Hansen and a Wet n' Wild.

I had looked at Sally Hansen Grass Slipper for like 5 minutes when I bought my other drugstore polishes, unsure if I was into it. I don't ever wear brights or super non-traditonal colors; it's just generally not my thing. But it was spring, and one of my favorite colors of the season is that fresh yellow-green of new oak leaves. So eventually, I came back for the overpriced green (there's a non 'complete SALON' SH that's nearly the same color, but it was a bit too pastel/chalky to me).

In the end. I don't like it. But here it is, the way I first saw it on the nail, in my bedroom.

As you can see, as I moved through the house, it changed quite a bit. To be fair, when I got it, I opened it in the car at a stoplight and swatched it on my pinky, and I thought it looked so cool! When I did a full mani, however, I was totally deflated. It also goes to say that I don't swatch really, I take pictures of my NOTD/Ws (although I did a real swatch today, Nfu Ohs coming up tomorrow!). So I put all this work into something I totally hated. Ok so flaw one: the brush is weird. I don't want to say it's bad; it's wide which I generally like, but too long for how wide it is? And the tip is rounded, I guess to help you get that perfect nail shape. To me that's just superfluous and it got in the way. It goes on kinda uneven but levels itself out very well by the second coat, and if you did one thick coat and have petit nail beds, you would probably only need one. EDIT: The biggest flaw on the brush, I can't believe I forgot this. The post that attaches the brush to the cap is FLAT. This seems harmless, but think: you know how you drag the post along the inside of the bottle to remove excess polish that lingers to run down and pool onto your nail when you least expect it? You can't DO that with this brush, it's a square peg round hole type issue. If you drag the side of a flat thing along the inside of a circle, there's still a half circle of space where there's all this runny goop :/ Flaw two: overpriced. You ain't all that Sally Hansen. I felt mad at it, kinda. I'm just too lazy to take it back. Or I wanted it to grow on me? I'm still debating on whether or not to buy a cheap yellow to franken it with. In some lights it looks almost neon green which couldn't be any LESS my thing. Then sometimes it looks chalky.... the last pic in fading sun is what I wanted it to be. It's not, really :/ Oh well. UGH and on a related note- why is it so damn hard to find Hidden Treasures in a store ANYWHERE!? Buh...

Here's one that is WAY prettier IRL than I could capture, but I knew it wouldn't come out right. This is Wet n' Wild Night Prowl, and for some reason it reminds me of club advertising from the 90s. Hard to describe why.... anyway, it's a black jelly with dispersed fuschia-y purple glitter in it. So it's not solid glitter throughout, which kinda suits me because despite owning Supernova, I'm really not that into glitter. Like. At all. I also don't tend to like colors this dark, like the 'blackened' vampies or colors that are a pigment/glitter suspended in black so you can only see the color when bright light hits it. I hate that because it just looks like I'm wearing black. Friggin' useless. BUT. I thought this was really cute and looked at it fondly like a bajillion times when I wore it. If you like purples, goth colors, glitters, whathaveyou, you should get this because it's 99 cents! Come on! The formula was just fine for that price- it can give you cuticle drag and the brush is way longer and skinnier than I like- but now I'm super used to it, so it's cool.

Anyway I've got some great stuff to show you tomorrow- I might crumple under the excitement and show you later tonight- who knows!?

My Hair Story: BC to now and PROTEIN OVERLOAD

2010-04-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

As I stated yesterday, April 7th 2009 was the last time I had a relaxer. I ultimately decided I would transition for a year, snipping off inches of hair as it grew, so I'd maintain shoulder-length hair. DUMB IDEA. Especially since an inch of natural hair is totally not equal to the length of one inch of relaxed hair. I did braid-outs and twists, and DC'd, and baggied and pre-shampooed and co-washed. I wore donut buns, and boy were they BIG. I loved them! (I'm hoping by winter this year my hair will be long enough to use them again and hide my ends from the cold). I wore cute updos and flowers in my hair and felt more fabulous about myself than I had in a long time. My boyfriend noted that he'd never seen me do so much with my hair. ...But I only made it to August.
I had mentioned cutting my hair off to my boyfriend before, or shown him pictures of other girls' twas, and his normal reply would be along the lines of 'it's so short' or 'but you wanted to wait longer.' It had been a month at my new job, and must've been a Saturday. He left for work. I felt a feeling of absolution. I went into the bathroom, tied my hair into a ponytail, and chopped it off. Then bit by bit, I cut off the relaxed ends. It took around five hours, because just as I finished, my BF came home. ...He didn't notice immediately. Then. "Oh my god!" and he gave me a BIIIG hug and told me I looked cute! I said I felt like a supermodel, and it was true. My hair was suuuupershort! It was so easy to care for! I tried shingling as the months went on, but between you and I, don't bother at that stage. No me gusta. Moving into winter, I cut glycerin from my regimen, but my hair was still so dry! To be fair, I didn't tend to put it up in twists... this is where the trouble started...
It kept feeling so dry. I'd DC and put leave-ins in it, and it would soften up again, but as time went on, every time it dried out, it was drier and wirier. I thought it was the cold, and kept on with the conditioner. By the end of winter, my hair was a miserable, uncooperative brillopad. And it was getting worse. Like, to the point that if I pulled on a curl, it just stayed stuck out and didn't bounce back. My hair felt like finespun wire. It grossed me out and depressed me. There was very little curl definition. And though I DCd faithfully with butters, oils, extracts, salt, etc, nothing worked. When the cold snap broke and spring came, I expected my hair to soften up. It didn't. It was getting worse, despite all the conditioners I was trying out on it.

And that's when I noticed.

My Giovanni conditioner had proteins in it. So I switched to Organix Coconut Milk.... and that had protein in it. Then I switched to a coconut oil condish.. only to find out that coconut oil aids in protein retention! I had been digging myself into a protein-y grave! Stupidly, I ditched those conditioners and then DCd with a mixture containing an EGG yolk, thinking that the cholesterol content would trump the protein content! I must've been desperate because that's super dumb. I left that mixture in for 40 hours and ... no bueno. The next week, I gave in and clarified, because after deep conditioning with another heavy mixture and baggying for 2 weeks straight, I wasn't seeing any but the tiniest improvement. My hair felt like softer wire, and lasted a whole 3 hours damp. I had heard that clarifying is no good but listen here! If you have a bad protein overload, clarify and use Nexxus Humectress conditioner. I clarified one weekend, DCd, then clarified the next, slapped half a bottle of Humectress on my head and wrapped it up for 40+ hours. When I was done I could see and feel the difference! My hair was 80% better! I went back to using Oyin Frank Juice for moisture, and now, 4 days later, it's COMPLETELY back to normal!

It's super late here and I still haven't posted pictures- also the sun refuses to let me take pics of my polish. Oh well! I just wanted to write this down somewhere.

My hair story: Part one.

2010-04-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Alright first off, let me apologize for not having pics to show you. When I BC'd I didn't have a camera save for my phone, and I don't have the usb cord for it :( they are still there and one day I can show you all.

In the beginning....

As a young girl growing up in Texas, I had very long, pressed hair. I remember my mother braiding it a lot, and when it needed to be done up, she hotcombed it (remember that, y'all? TERRIBLE) and or put it on rollers. I don't remember when I got my first relaxer, really. In the summers, as I grew older, my mother would have my Nana or someone put braids in my hair. I always wanted long skinny ones, but that's not always what I got. At one point, when I was 7 or 8, I wanted a bob cut SO bad, and ended up getting something similar to what Michael Jackson had in the 'You are not alone' video. I liked it! It grew out, sometimes I had bangs, sometimes I didn't. My mother tended to do my hair herself, and I didn't go to salons much. As a teenager, my hair was always long. Never shorter than shoulder length, except for a brief period where I had that other bob that was in style- short in the back and longer in the front, with two long pieces on either side. That looked a HOT mess when it was frizzy! Because my mom was no salon stylist, my hair was badly damaged, was dry a lot, and tangled like mad. I never shampooed it because I would never have been able to work through the knots. It would just grow until there was so much new growth my mother would slap some relaxer on for an hour or so, YES AN HOUR OR SO, and on we went. One year, I fell in love with bantu knots. I don't know why, because I would never wear them now. Just not into it. But I had them, and LOVED them. When I took them down, I had cute, curly hair, and I liked that, too. ...and then a day later, for no reason, my mother took me to her friend's salon and told him to cut off all of my hair. All of it. I had Halle Berry's pixie cut. ...I was devastated. Thinking back, this would have been the perfect time to go natural! I had less than half an inch of relaxed hair left, on the top only. But I know my home life then would not have been conducive to the support and the right ingredients to take care of natural hair. That mess grew out UGLY because it was limp and half relaxed all the time, the ends were poofy and damaged, and I always loaded it up with Suave conditioner so it would hang. Ugh. By the end of Highschool, I was back to shoulder length again.
Well, for reasons I will not put here (long story short my parents were very abusive), I ran away just before my 18th birthday. A couple months before I left, I had asked my mother to let me relax my own hair. What she didn't know was that I knew good and well I'd be doing it on my own. So, I did, from there on out. But my hair was just a hot mess. I would relax it, and there would always be burns and undertreated parts, and I flatironed it alot. A. Lot. I used Pantene Relaxed and Natural conditioner, and SoftSheenCarson relaxer (African Pride, too, but man that mess turns my hair to straw!). As I moved up in the world, going from a fresh high-school graduate working at a barbecue place, to a receptionist in a medical office, I began to go back to salons, desperate to find someone to relax my hair. I tried lots of places. Ok so what's up with the sign that says 'walk-ins welcome' but when I come in you all stare at me like I have two heads? Rude. I found a place down the street from my job eventually, and the stylist was..nice enough and did a great job on my hair. But god she was SO expensive- she charged separately for everything! $75 for relaxer, $10 for style, $15 for deep condition, etc. Then I found a place in Sanford here, and ...well they were nice. Bumpkins, but nice. I eventually had a moral fall out with the stylist, though, and ditched her racist a**. I found an even nicer, nicely priced, respectful lady close to my home, and stayed with her for a while. Now my now, my hair is past my shoulders, but I can't seem to get to bra-strap length, or how I measure it, boob-length xD. And this made no sense to me. I knew my hair grew. I knew I ate well, wasn't anemic, and my hair was healthy. Or so I thought. But every time I combed it little pieces of the ends would fall off, even though it got regularly trimmed. And every time the stylist blew my hair out after the relaxer, I would look in the mirror and smile, because I loved the big mane look. Last year, I began looking into natural relaxers. Well there really isn't one, but there are options. And I began cruising hair care boards. Longhaircareforum.com, I'm looking at you. I first decided that I would stretch my relaxers. Then that I would use these non-chemical methods. Then that I would switch to all natural products.. and then I lost the idea of relaxing entirely. I began to cowash, and prepoo, and deep conditon. For the first time in my life, I could comb through new growth and the relaxed parts like it was NOTHING! My boyfriend stood in the bathroom door one day. "I've never seen you be able to comb your hair out like that." So true. In the seven years I'd been with him, I'd never been able to do it.

My last relaxer was April 7th. It's been over a year.

In this time, I have always been thrilled to share the things I've found out in my studies. Overall, I love sucking up information on natural health, and spreading it into the minds of anyone that will listen. That's why I'm majoring in Alternative Medicine now. I created this blog to help girls compare swatches, and give people little tidbits on health. But very importantly, these three things: People need to know about products and foods that may harm them, and their healthy alternatives, naturals need a supportive community, and I wanted to spread information, and more brown bloggers should swatch cosmetics, because we want to know what that stuff looks like on us! haha. So listen, my dear sweet followers. Please let other ladies (and guys, too- no discrimination), know about this blog!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my BC and my harrowing encounter with Protein Overload. And if the sun is out I can show you the pretty purple polish I'm wearing!

Sooo backlogged! OPI S.O. Color

2010-04-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I still have a lot to show you T.T I know I suck. Sorry!

Anyway I want to get this off of my HD, I am so through with it ! It's OPI's Significant Other Color. It's impossible to take pictures of!!

This is such a pretty color! My camera can't get how vivid the green shimmer is, though. And there are bubbles because my Poshe was as thick as glue when I applied it. <.< Don't worry, I got a new bottle. Anyway, here's another picture of how it normally looks, I didn't include a bottle pic because I suck and forgot to do it. :p

Yellow artificial light, in my office.

Base color. It's a pinkish lilac. Sheeer.

These are pics of the illusive copper duochrome. Now, it's not hard to see it IRL. It's hard as heck to get it on camera! I think it's a point of view issue, because it can be anywhere from light and peachy to a saturated ponk-orange. While the green flash is pretty strong, it's not truly affected by the direction of light, but the presence of it, so I consider it a flash not a duochrome. The copper is the one you have to hit the right way to see. This polish is sheer and good for layering, but I've worn it twice now on it's own, at 3-4 coats. Can I just say I ADORE the pro-wide brushes? Love it. I am not a fan of pinks at all but I definitely love this color. Significant indeed.

Hair and nail stuff....sorta

2010-04-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so...I have a lot of polish I really need to show you. My mini haul has all been worn and had it's picture taken, apart from that blue. I fell out of love with it, but will swatch it anyway, for you guys. I also received some other bits and pieces in the mail! 3 colors from the Rebel Debutante collection (yeah I know I'm late) and 2 China Glazes. So yeah, lot's of swatching to be done! I'm currently wearing Sally Hansen's Grass Slipper, and ... well I'll tell you more about it when I do the full review! I also need to show you guys how I make my lip gloss and hair oils, so stay tuned!

I'm mostly popping in to talk about this:

click for full size-two products are cut off!

I received word of it in my NaturallyCurly.com Curly Mail. If you haven't signed up for this, do so! It's a great way to get the word on sales and find out information in general. This line of curly products is a budget-friendly spin-off of the CURLS Professional line. Founder Mahisha Dellinger says: “In today’s economy with everyone trying to save money where they can, I wanted to be able to offer an affordable alternative to CURLS™ Professional. CURLS Exclusively for Target maintains the integrity of the CURLS™ Professional brand at a lower price point. You shouldn’t have to choose between paying your rent and having great looking hair!” Hear, hear. While I do maintain what I said about Kinky Curly products, I would be interested in trying out this line. I'm not much of a PJ, but I do get curious. Unfortunately, the target close to me doesn't carry it; only the one down on Colonial, the worst road in Central Florida. That's my only choice? WTF? There are TWO in Pensacola and one here? Central Florida? I mean come ON, who lives in Pensacola?!?! (J/k I used to live there. I miss that crawfish festival for serious.) Find out if your Target carries this line here , and have a good day!

Kinky Curly Charity!

2010-04-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

So in a lull at work today I came across this post on the Newly Natural blog, and was pleasantly surprised! I had no idea that this was going on. Basically, for every purchase you make from Kinky Curly, a portion of that money goes to 'Charity:Water'. This is definitely something I can get behind, because I feel it's a tragedy that we waste water everyday; letting it drip from our faucets, making useless plastic bottles with it, watering our lawns so the neighbors don't look down on you, lounging in an hour long shower every day... it's a shame, because in other countries, people can't even bathe, drink or cook with it really- there just isn't enough, and often what they do have is contaminated.

As far as the products themselves go, I have used Knot Today and really loved it. It left my hair soft, and not crunchy, and had suuuuper slip. I have used it to set and as a leave-in. It is kinda pricey for that little bottle, but hint hint: it works just as well with some water in it, so you can cut it 50/50 to dilute it, if you want. That's how *I* felt, anyway, maybe it'll work for you. As I slowly.. slowly... creep away from my protein overdose (IT'S SO BAD), I'm considering getting something from Miss Jessie's or Qhemet Biologics for braid outs, but I'm definitely going to get a pomade or custard from KC instead, because I'm feelin that charity. If you want to know more about the whole shebang, look here at their campaign page!

Polish remover trick! And HT: Protein and diets

2010-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Ok so I had planned on showing y'all my lip glosses (home made, of course), but my camera is dead and I'm too lazy today to fix the battery situation. On the upside I got a fat raise!

Anyway, today we're gonna talk about nail polish removers. I haven't tried the apparent holy grail of Zoya Remove, and I will one day. I used to use this Nearly Natural Nail Polish Remover I got from Whole Foods; it smelled like poisonous vanilla and took FOREVER to remove anything, but it was like 90% natural. I've seen an all natural corn based remover, but for serious that bottle is way too small for it's big pricetag. No thanks. I have, however, tried Essie's Clean Polish Remover. It is gentle, but it has acetone in it, so it removes quite well. It won't dry your cuticles or nails out, and that is great. It's a small bottle for the $6 or $7 I paid for it at Ulta (a store I totally despise for their price gouging. Poshe for $8? That mess is like $4.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond!), and that isn't very recessionista. So, being my do it yourself-self, I looked at the ingredients. While there are some chemicals in the formula I can't get my hands on and replace, I could tell good and well that as far as the fact that this is a gentler, non-drying remover, the Aloe and Glycerin in the mixture were the culprits. So what do I do? I pick up a $1.99 big ol bottle of 'Polish Off' professional (yeah, whatever), and throw some glycerin and aloe gel into it. I'm a bit of a mixtress hair wise, so these things were already in my house. I tried it out and wouldn't you know? It no longer dried my cuticles out.

If you don't already have some, glycerin and pure aloe gel can be picked up at most health food stores- I got mine from Chamberlin's. They are both pretty cheap, I have a juice-bottle size bottle of aloe gel for $4.99 and an 8oz bottle of glycerin for like $2. Factor in the fact that all it takes is a spoonful of both to turn a cheap, drying acetone remover into something moisturizing and gentle, and you've saved yourself a BUNCH of money. Now for the tip~

PROTEIN DIETS: So we all hear that most celebs use high-protein diets to lose weight, and this method is often used by weightloss clinics as well. Here's the deal: This isn't downright harmful. Most high protein elements are low in cholesterol and saturated fats, and that WILL help you lose weight, definitely! Thing is, a lot of these diet places are telling people to lay off of fruits and veggies. What the what?! Now, not to say that these things won't ever make you fat- anything when overeaten will make you pack on pounds. But my people, fruits and veggies aren't making you chunky, and you cannot healthily maintain a diet that restricts plant foods. Not. At. All. That isn't good for you! Your body needs those phytochemicals, fibers, nutrients, vitamins and even sugars. Also, watch out for replacing meal bulk with meat: Commercially raised animals are higher in saturated fats and Omega-6 fatty acids, with little Omega-3 to compensate. Also, exorbitant amounts of protein are difficult for your body to digest, stress your kidneys, and can even cause loss of calcium in your bones. The more you know!

Drugstore polishes :) HT: Parabens

2010-04-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

I don't discriminate by brand with my polishes, I discriminate by color. Once I want a color, I want that one and not something 'close'... most of the time- it depends how bad I want it. I still don't think I'll ever be able to settle for Catherine the Grape, knowing that you can still get your hands on Peel Me a Gobi Grape if you try hard and want to spend the dough.

The same day I went and got Miconazole Nitrate and the Aussie Moist conditioner, I picked these up.

That's from left to right, Wet n' Wilds Night Prowl, Caribbean Frost and 234 Jade, and Borghese STELLARE NOTTE. I.. whooo! Good god I love duochromes and ANYTHING that looks like a black pearl. I'm excited to wear this one, but I'm gonna make myself wait, because I'm a masochist. I have worn Night Prowl- it's a purple glitter, but that doesn't come out too well in this pic. That's Samus' leg in the background. I'll post swatches pretty soon!

Health Tip: Parabens

I once read, in a comment somewhere related to beauty products, a girl gleefully explain that she loved parabens. "I don't want no moldy lotion!" ...Sad. I'm sure you've heard some of the hype about parabens, and personally, yes, I know that they serve a purpose. But just like so many other chemicals, they are the cheapest way companies tend to deal with the problem, and they are harmful. Parabens act like estrogens in the body. Sure, we all have estrogen. But we shouldn't have extra. On top of everything else, not all estrogens are the same, and because these are alien estrogens, they don't behave the same way in our bodies. They are abundant in beauty and body products, which is really a shame. By the time a woman gets ready in the morning, she has exposed herself to hundreds of harmful chemicals already. High concentrations of estrogens have been found in breast cancer tumors, highlighting estrogen's negative impacts on the disease. Parabens have been found to, in a way, feminize men's reproductive organs enough to leave them with low sperm counts; they have also been found to be a culprit in the early development of young girls- breast development, periods before the poor things are even 10, acne, weight (the hormones in milk are also a big part of this issue).

As far as the 'mold' issue goes.... I have used natural, paraben free lotions and conditioners for years, and they have never gone bad. Never smelled sour. Never been moldy. There are other germ-fighting ingredients companies can use, they are just too cheap and unconcerned with the health of the public to use them. One thing worth noting: if you tend to read labels and are watching out for parabens, they show up with the following prefixes: Methyl, Ethyl, Propyl, Butyl, Isobutyl and Benzyl. However, do not be fooled by companies trying to go undercover! 'Paraben' is synonymous with Hydroxybenzoate. It's a trap!

OMFGWTFBBQ

2010-04-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

I was so excited! Ok let me just explain: This is also a hair blog. That helps to know, because it's why I went to the drugstore today for some miconazole nitrate. I'm going to mix it with my scalp oil and see how things grow. More on that later. But I saw this!

THIS IS A HUGE A** BOTTLE! But that's not what excites me. It's the pump! I like Aussie just fine as a cheapie cowash conditioner, but I HATE HATE HATE that hard to open and shut flip cap! It's the absolute worst! It's so hard to deal with, and you know how often you open and shut a conditioner bottle in the shower or whenever. I have to turn it upside down and bang it on the counter! And in opening the thing, I've broken a nail before, and that's just intolerable. SO! No more of that! It was $5.99 at Publix, but I think it was on sale for cheaper when I stopped in at Walgreen's. Go check it out! Also I promise to post more about hair, I'm just in a slump. Protein overload is no joke.

Essie: Chinchilly and Rockstar Skinny

2010-04-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

These are two of my favorite Essies. In fact, I only own 4 Essies, and of them 3 are among my favorite overall colors. Why? Because these two are grey and burgundy, my two FAVORITE colors, and the other is a coral I will swatch later, and coral is one of my primary colors for cosmetics, after berries and peaches. On to the pics!

I love this!

Originally I had been torn between this and ChG Recycle, but after much digging, I found enough word of mouth that Recycle is cooler, and Chinchilly is more of a putty. I need that because I am a very yellow-toned brown, and something cool bluish grey would probably look TERRIBLE on me.

Note the silver flash. It reminds me of satin.

in the shade bein' glossy

As you can see, there can be some cuticle drag if you're not careful. It's the drag that keeps this from being a consistent two coater, but it can be. It's a burgundy, or plum if you like, with a silver flash- not so much a shimmer. Both of these have the same, agreeable formula. And I have loved them both since spying the bottles. They wear pretty well, Chinchilly for longer than Rockstar Skinny, but maybe that's just me. There's some tipwear on the RS pics, but that's because I type 16 hours a day or more, and it was the 3rd day. Not bad!

China Glaze OMG

2010-04-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

I totally love it. That said, silver holos is the one area where I will have dupes on purpose- I hear that Nfu Oh 61 is even better, but I have never seen them compared. This compels me, and I also want a few others, so there would be a group. But anyway, pics:

It is very easy to apply and dries matte. There's some VNL here after 3 coats but I don't really care, because it's so pigmented, otherwise. It wears pretty well, I think, and is easy as hell to patch up. This is w/o a topcoat. Only problem is I tend to wear this on weekends, and that's when I do my hair. Having my nails in water and conditioner soaked fro is not conducive to keeping polish on :/

Here's another weekened polish: L.A. Girl Supernova. I tried to give a review of this last week, but total fale. I said then that I really didn't want to do 4 coats of it to get it to the right opacity and then have to deal with taking it off, just to wear it on the weekend, and that is so true. The bar glitter rips felt up like whoa.

One coat. You can barely see the grey base tint.

3...or 4 coats? 4 I think.

wee!

Unfortunately what you can't see in the pics is how it moves. The glitter, though random, refracts light in a regular pattern like OMG, just.. more spaced. This dries rough and you'll need to file down any bars that stick over the nail edge. I topped it with a gloopy Poshe coat. This is garish and ugly and I love it. Oh, and how did I keep from having to remove it? Hair+conditionerrr. I knew the mani would get damaged because I hopped in the shower to detangle within a couple hours of doing it. And in the shower the WHOLE thing began to peel! Score- they came off in solid pieces. That was fun. Tootles!

Zoya Yasmeen and ChG Let's Groove

2010-04-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so when I went on my first buying binge I really wish that more people had compared these two. One person took a photo that managed to make them look completely different, and one person swatched Let's Groove when it came out, describing it as Yasmeen-esque.

They're pretty much the same color.

Unfortunately I didn't know that until after I bought Yasmeen. Oh well. It was wasted money, but on the other hand I like to have polishes in groups, and so it would have been hard to decide which one to get when I have multiple ChGs and will eventually have multiple Zoyas. Anyway, pics.

Ok so let me describe what's going on here. Index-ring is Yasmeen, pinky is Let's Groove. They are the same color with the same flash BUT Let's Groove looks a bit cooler because the pinkish pigment flash particles are less diffuse when compared to Yasmeen. It gives it more of an electric look, which is pretty apparent in the bottom pic. In the top, you can see that while the same amount of light reflection is there, Yasmeen is glowing more all over. Yasmeen's bottle also has a tiny amount of gold duochrome, but don't get excited- you never see that on the nail. For what it's worth there's a Zoya that also looks just like Stella (a polish I love). For some of you out there, these differences may justify buying both. Don't. No one can tell the difference but you. Spend your few dollars on something else :p

Now for the HEALTH TIP: Splenda

Splenda is made from Sucralose, a derivative of Sucrose, so it is 'made from sugar' just like they say it is. They use a whole lot of chlorine to give it that texture and amp up the sweetness. It is marketed as a low calorie alternative to sugar and therefore great for dieters and diabetics. Here's the skinny: Sucralose is something like 600 times (no lie) sweeter than sugar. The problem is that while Splenda doesn't need to be used in as large amounts as sugar, people tend to like it so much that they use the same amount anyway. Even if you don't, it doesn't matter. Due to it's sweetness, your body assumes you've just had 600 times as much sugar, and prepares and releases Insulin enough to deal with that sugar.... but that sugar isn't there. So now there's all this excess insulin in your system. This exacerbates diabetic conditions and triggers weight retention. How cute is that, eh? A diet friendly sugar alternative that ultimately makes you fatter? A tsp of sugar is 11 calories. 11 calories. 11 calories won't harm you. It's almost always better (diet-wise) to just have the sugar instead..

So. Let's get into form.

2010-03-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a loooong time since my last post, but a lot has happened!

I started going to school (kinda rushed, actually, last minute change of plans), my partner has been convinced to start the whole FTM SRS process (more info on that here <3), and everything has just been a flurry! As an aside, I never did get those Cetuem samples I so drooled for. WTF.

Anyway, I figured I'd post the polishes I was wearing today. The one I removed, and what I replaced it with. DISASTROUS! But I love it. Let me explain:

The usual suspects.

First off, I tend to wear my few crazier polishes on the weekend, and sometimes that starts on a Friday workday, and carries over into Monday or Tuesday. This weekend it was L.A. Girl Rockstar Supernova. I really like this polish. Like, for some reason when I originally saw it (posted by Scrangie, who else?) I just.. I don't know! I wanted it so bad and I don't even like glitter! But holo does it for me. However, when I bought it, I realized something important: The charcoal grey color of the jelly base is incredibly sheer! There's enough bar holo for me at two coats, but the grey is like invisible. Well that sucks for me because the charcoal jelly is why I bought it! It left me wondering if GOSH Bright Passion was darker, and therefore better than this one, or a dupe. Googling it again, it might just be a dupe, and I'm too lazy to do 4 coats and deal with removing it 4 days later :p Either way, I made a grey jelly for this purpose and used it underneath. So, here we have 2 coats of the jelly, and 2 coats of Supernova....

!!!!!

WTF CAMERA. These are the blurriest pictures of a polish in the history of ever! It ate the shimmer and the gloss and made it look like a tiny laser war on my fingernails! I'm going to save my gushing review of this and all my pretty descriptions for when I redo it this weekend. >:p

Now, here we have Bitches Brew from the Lippmann Collection. I'm all for finding dupes, because paying more doesn't necessarily mean getting better. But I couldn't find a red like this. Everything close was too dark, too magenta, too shimmery... nothing fit. So I coughed up the big bucks for this. You can get one coat coverage if you're finesse-fingered and heavy on filling up the brush. I got it the first times, but subsequently I've become so careful that my first coat is too thin. This polish will give cuticle drag, in that case. It's not runny or too thick, but one odd thing is that the lovely 'glow' it has dies when dry, somewhat. Not a big deal, really, because for $16.00 you'll be using a topcoat anyway. According to these pictures, my Poshe is finally too thick to use. Sigh. Guess it's time for some thinner. It gunked up my mani for sure.

I don't tend to gap or do cleanup, but I should've. OH WELL.

uggggg

This shot shows the color very well, but not the flash, like above. It's very wine-y. Maybe even .8% purpler than it is here.

Anyway, that's all for today, but there should be plenty coming up this week, unless my new Chemistry class depresses me THAT much. Now for the health tip of the day.

Transfat (Hydrogenated oils): Food companies use Trans fats, or hydrogenated oils because they have reduced risk for rancidity, are very stable and have a long shelf life. They create a consistency that consumers view as palatable. However, here's the deal: The oils are created by moving the position of hydrogen, creating an unnatural chain formulation. Your body doesn't know how to properly deal with this fake fat. Fats are necessary for human function, and lipids make up your very cell walls. The fats you eat become the fats you are, so if your diet is high in saturated and trans fats, look out. They integrate into your cells and can disrupt nutrient absorption in the membranes and disrupt neurological signals transferred down your spinal cord, interfering with the way your body maintains it's systems, tissues and organs. Don't believe packaging that says 0 TRANS FAT! There is a law that states that .5% or lower counts a zero. It's not. So read the label, and if you see Hydrogenated anything oil, skip it.

Inner peace and work life.

2010-02-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

It seems to be an accepted fact that work is a necessary evil, and you aren't really going to enjoy it unless you're one of the 'lucky ones'. Our culture depicts work through movies and such as being hilariously miserable. Protagonists are overworked, underappreciated, and made the victims of underhanded corporate cheating. Hand in hand with this worklife struggle comes the 'fact' that you'll deal with headaches, malaise, ulcers, what have you.

This doesn't have to be true.

I think the problem is that because we are willing to suffer, employers and cooworkers can just suck at will, because it's just dealt with. It's simple supply and demand. This may seem trite or unattainable, but you have to realize that it's not healthy to hate your job, and you need to make steps toward change. I'm not saying to up and quit, but heck, if you really need to leave, then start looking for another job! The job market is still gimpy but if you have skills and confidence and really try, you can find something. I myself am in that positon, things have gotten miserable and hairy at my place and I'm looking to leave. My life is changig anyway, what with me starting school soon, so I need something that suits me. I don't think that it's worth it to be miserable getting up every weekday morning. Studies have proven that negativity can take years off of your life. A study done last year I believe basically stated that any form of negative thinking, i.e. worry, stress, anxiety, depression, pessimism...you get the idea, caused negative effects on the heart and brain. It's hard to find that specific one, but a similar study is here.

While it's really easy to be cynical about this sort of thing, I think it's very worthwhile to find yourself a position that you don't absolutely hate, at least. Nothing in your life is more important than you. Your family, your loved ones, your friends, they can't have you if you don't take care of yourself. It's never too late to start. Aaaand here's a puppy because everyone likes them. It's my dog Ramm when he was wee!

Starting off.

2010-02-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

Ok firstly this blog is gonna be mad weak for a while, especially on swatches, my new dog, and my hair because I need a new camera. But this post is not about that...

Ever since my boss told me about her non-chipping successes with OPI and Essie, I decided to revisit wearing nailpolish, and ended up with a full-blown obsession enabled by Scrangie and the Nailgal photosite. I like the regulars; OPI, Essie, China Glaze. There's like ONE Orly, one Lippmann....(eventually I will take photos of my stash) blah blah, and I want some Nfu. Ohs. But everyone who loves polish knows about those brands. A new brand I recently came across on PolishorPerish was Cetuem. HOLY. SHIT. Here's the site:http://www.cetuem.com/nail_enamels.htm and here's the crippling color chart.

Yeah, lots of colors

They have a huge line and the bottle pics are high quality, BUT they are kinda small, even on the website. Not like Nfu Oh's or Nicoles. So I contacted them and asked them about supplying some nail wheels, and they agreed. So that's in the works! Here's the list so far:

Reds

30, 42, 43, 45, 101, 102, 136, 151, 226, 230

Sheer shimmers

62, 75, 177, 219, 220, 221, 236

Glitters

168, 203, 209, 231

Duochromes

163, 165, 166, 167, 194, 214, 215, 216, 224

The line is big on...EVERYTHING. I have never seen so many duochromes I wanted, not even from Nubar! They've totally quashed my Zeitgeist lemming! I don't know if I can give up on Nubar Moonshadow and Iris Dust- only swatches will tell. Sadly, I totally built this list at work. Comprehensive use of the color chart and a sticky note :p There appear to be lots of jellies, glitters, cremes, 'tinsels' and so much more. Only a handful of the colors listed up there are for my sake, the others are basically so I can eventually upload the wheels to Nailgal.com. Hopefully one day I'll have the whole collection up, because I couldn't find swatches anywhere! There are some here, though. I'll keep you posted, and let me know if there are any colors you gals and guys might like to see.