China Glaze Collection & Bermuda Breakaway

Oh China Glaze, I love you. 

Someone wanted to see all the ChG polishes I have so here they are in the shape of a heart. Cute right? I have 54 of them currently and it definitely won't stop there. I am already eyeing the holiday collection. 

I have issues. 

But don't blame me! ChG makes great collections in so many fun colors. Any serious collector or nail polish fan needs them in their collection. 

Anyway, here is Bermuda Breakaway that I just recently hauled. 

Such a deep, beautiful blue!

These pictures show the blue to be brighter but in person its darker. More like a dark navy blue. 

I've never been into blue much until recently. I think it was that blue holo polish from Milani that suddenly got me into blue. Weird. 

And I wanted to get someones opinion... Does it drive anyone else crazy when people call creme colors (no sparkle, glitter or shimmer) mattes?   Matte means there is no shiney effect. This confusion drives me nuts. Probably because I LOVE creme finishes but I'm not wild about the majority of matte polishes. So for me, this distinction is important. 

Does anyone else notice this?

Well, I'll end that mini rant. :P 

OPI Miami Beet

I am in a frenzy trying to get back into the swing of school which starts next week (Eck!). So far, its been rough. I believe this may be a case of senioritis. But unlike high school, this is my most important year to be on track, focused and organized. Ugh  I am determined to do everything and more so I'm going to keep the attitude up even if I have to fake it for awhile.

Anyway, here is one of the polishes I found half off at Fred Meyer - OPI in Miami Beet.

I love these berry shades but I know they aren't too exciting or unique. This one isn't anything special but its rich and opaque in color. And for half off? Definitely could use just one more, right? :)

Currently this is on my toes and it looks great! 

Is it just me or is Miami one of those cities that just isn't too appealing to visit? I know the club scene is great and I'm sure the beaches are lovely too. But coming from Hawai'i, I prefer the Pacific. :)  And clubs just aren't my thing. Eh

Since I am (kinda sorta) on the topic, I may be going to Hawai'i sometime this winter break. Really hope it works out because I miss my little rock in the ocean. Its been 4 years since I left and I bet soooo much has changed. Sigh...

Is anyone making holiday plans yet?

Anyway, that's all I have for now. 

Misa in Quirky Smile

Misa in Quirky Smile is apart of their new fall collection that consists of deeper, darker, lit from within colors. They are all truly beautiful in their own right. Quirky Smile, to me, is a blue-leaning teal although in some lighting it can look more green. The shimmer looks amazing in the sun or in strong, bright light. This is definitely not your grandma’s shimmer polish!

I didn’t pick up the entire collection but now I wish I had. No worries tho, I will pick up the rest later! 

The application was smooth but a tad bit on the runny side. With a little cleanup, application looks flawless, don’tcha think?

(I’ve been practicing my cleanup and its starting to reeeally impress me)

Misa, how I love you!'

I picked these up from Head2ToeBeauty.com for $3.75 each and they are so worth the price tag!

Reorganization of my Polish Stash!

So I recently came to a crossroads. In a Tumblr post, I wrote about needing to rethink the organization/storage of my nail polishes because I had run out of space… Officially. I had gotten a bunch of new polish from Golden Rose and they had no home. I left them to sit in the packing envelope that they arrived in but really… That's just not fair.

I listed some options in the Tumblr post. Bascially I was kind of stuck in the short term. I really don't have the funds to do much right now in terms of purchasing racks or what not. So I decided on the next best option… Clear out this shelf I have in my apartment that housed some DVDs and books.

Let's look at the before storage pics….

Yikes! See how crowded it had become? There was no way I could fit anything more in there comfortably. Not to mention  I couldn't even really see my stash. I had to always pull polishes out to find anything. No Bueno!

And here is the after in the shelf…

What do you guys think?

I also posted a video if you're interested. I'll include it at the very bottom.

I keep inventory of my polishes here and as I write this, I have 346 polishes. Isn't that insane?! But honestly, my collection is no where near done! Not by a long shot.

How big is your polish collection? Is there ever a number of polishes that you would reach and decide your collection is full/complete? I'm not sure if I have  magic number. I guess its just when I am satisfied or overwhelmed with my collection. Whichever comes first :P 

Haul: Sally's Beauty Supply + Cute Kitty!

Hey guys!

So I was able to make a pit stop in Sally's for some necessities... But with any visit, I always walk out with more than I originally planned. Oops!

I really just needed some new files and to pick up a bottle of Seche Rebuild (to 'rebuild' your nails) to try out.

But I walked out with these things....

3 different files, Seche Rebuild, Seche Vite, and a detail nail art brush. 

Did I mention I also saw some polishes on clearance from a brand I've never really noticed or heard anything about... 

Savvy by Femme Couture in Purple Potion, Knightly Armour, Prince Ala Charm

These turned out to be layering polishes. They lay down this fleck/shimmer that is just AMAZING! I used Knightly Armour in two manicures here and here. Since they were on clearance, they were only $1.99 each. Wowza! If I see another bottle of Knightly Armour on my next visit, I am picking it up without a doubt!

Seche Rebuild

Its too premature to say whether or not this treatment polish works but I do love the light/natural look it gives when you wear it alone. Excuse the crappy iPhone pic. 

And just for fun...

Isn't she adorable? Why do cats like to sit on important stuff? It cute, I will admit. 

Anyways, more haul posts to come! But trust me... No more buying. Wallet is screaming at me!

Haul: Sinful Colors and Milani

One afternoon we made a quick trip to Fred Meyer (I believe that was bought out by Kroger a while back) and I decided to wonder around their beauty isles. They had some collection plastic holders sitting out but they were either empty of damn near empty. Wah!

Some locations seem to have a wide, well stocked variety, but sadly this store was not one of them. I still managed to pick up some cool polishes so I won't complain TOO much.

L to R: Sinful Colors in All About You, Suede Shoes, Shausha, 

Dream On, Rise and Shine, Mint Apple, 

Milani in In A Flash

I have a small collection of Sinful Colors previous to picking these up. As of writing, I've used 3 of these and I love them! I currently have Rise and Shine on my toes right now and its PERFECT! 

Rise and Shine, Suede Shoes, Mint Apple, All About You

I'll get to the glitters in a moment... The two greens are unique. Rise and Shine is definitely not showing up as vivid and bright as it is IRL. So sorry! I can say that I have it on my toes at the moment and its lovely, bright, and great for summer! In the bottle you will see a blue shimmer/sheen but on the nail, it seems to disappear. Honestly, I'm not sure if thats good or bad. Either way, I LOVE it. 

Mint Apple also has obvious silver shimmer visible in the bottle. I have yet to wear it yet but I hope the shimmer is at least somewhat noticeable. But I will say that this isn't the typical mint greens that we've been seeing. It seems to be much less pale/pastel. I like!

Suede Shoes

See the glitter on that one? It looks like I am looking into some galaxy or something. I hope its as interesting on the nail as it is in the bottle!

All About You

This is one of the polishes I was wearing as a layering polish recently. Check it out here. The pics there aren't great, I know! In that post I mentioned that the micro glitter in this polish is more complex than I originally thought. There is a base of micro tacky-yellow-gold glitter but there are also some lightly larger glitter bits that are orange. That bit of orange really lights up this polish!

As for the other two polishes, I could not seem to snap a decent photo of them. I think my camera started acting wonky at the end of the little photo session. Its temperamental and fussy. 

In A Flash

Milani's In A Flash refused to be captured by my camera as well. It isn't the first time I have tried either. The base color seems right but the glass-like-flecks just don't appear quite right. In person, you can see lots of gold flecks! But photos? Fail.  Oh well. 

Anyways... More hauls to come. I've been one haulin fool :P 

Guest Nails with American Apparel

So on Friday I knew it would be a slow shift at work. I just so happened to be ready for work early. Unusual for me, honestly. So I decided I'd bring my things and do a co-workers nails. She said she wanted a nude-purple color. Naturally I pulled a ton of options for her.

After much consideration we decided to use American Apparel in Dynasty on all the nails except the ring finger. We did that nail as the accent nail with American Apparel in Mouse topped with Savvy by Femme Couture in Knightly Armour.

Excuse the crappy iPhone pics but its all I brought with me.

I really like the result. I think those purple/taupe colors look great on just about anyones skin tone. I love em!

Now... Whose nails should I do next?  :)

Metro Chic has my heart + another accent nail

I'm getting back into my blogging groove after a long hiatus. What can I say? 16 credits on top of work and my business fraternity is a big plate as it is. The truth is I never stop painting my nails, I just don't consistently take pictures let alone edit/post them. I'm thinking that if I can set aside Sunday mornings, I might be able to put up a post, maybe even two. I just don't want to fall off the wagon again. I like having a place to record and track my progress and my nails over time, ya know? But with that I will say that I post iPhone pics to my Tumblr quite frequently as they are snapped then uploaded almost immediately. So you can always find me there.

Anyways, onto my current mani!

I love Metro Chic something fierce. I can't explain why I love it so much, I just do! Not to mention that I think it actually works well with my pale skin tone. That doesn't occur too often for me!

I added the Knightly Armour to the ring finger for a kick and it looked beautiful against Metro Chic. My camera does not do this layering polish justice, so sorry! And frankly, I can't even describe it too well. Its definitely not a glitter polish but it lays down these small flaks of silver that completely transforms a creme color. Its amazing and I will probably start using it sparingly because I want it around forever. I picked this up from Sallys Beauty on clearance and if I see this color there again, I am buying 3 or 4 more. The original price seems to be $4 with your Sallys card but I found this and two others on clearance for $2. Score! That reminds me... I need to do a haul post.

And I added the rhinestones a day later because two friends gave me crap for never using them. I just laid them down on a top coat of WnW clear coat and topped it with more clear coat. Its been about 24hours and they seem to be on pretty good.

On Wednesday I am going to a informal event with KPMG (an accounting firm) to a timbers game. Its casual dress but I'm not sure if I should tone down my nails. I mean they usually aren't too crazy as it is but... I don't know. I guess I don't know how my nail polish fetish (for lack of a better word) will fit in with the professional world. Hmmmm

Anyways, I'm off to bed. My uterus hates me right now. :P

Because I love food.

This is going to be a non-polish related post. Sorry to disappoint but I'd like to share other things going on too. :)

Recently I have been eating at these lovely food carts out on 4th Ave across from the engineering building. After being here almost 3 years, I have never actually eaten at one before. Weird.

It wasn't until I was working more shifts with a co-worker did I see all the yummy things they had to offer. I also stumbled upon another blog dedicated to the food carts across Portland. I suddenly became very interested.

To be honest, I've stuck to the 'safe food' rather than trying new things but that's how I roll. I need to warm up to something before I can really delve into it. Give me time. So I may be doing a food cart related post from time to time.

What we have below is "D-Island Burger" from Fernandos. It has a patty, ham, swiss and pineapple with some terriyaki sauce. I believe it was $4.50 for the burger and with the extras was $8 in total. Worth it? Yes. My only little complaint is that the pineapple was canned (which I fully expected). Coming from Hawaii, I'm just used to the fresh stuff so I'm a bit picky in that regard. Otherwise, it was awesome and perfect!

Zoya Envy with Sinful Colors All About You

I decided to re-organize my nail polishes as I had a done a bit of hauling and picked up quite a bit (mostly stuff on clearance or cheap $1 ELF polishes-haul post to come soon!)

I noticed that I had a lot of neglected colors. All pretty and I am happy to have them in my collection but they just weren't colors I gravitated towards when I do my nails. My new mission is to bring these colors back to life and give 'em a little lovin'. :)

One such color is Zoya Envy. It really is a beautiful deep forest green creme polish but, truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of wearing green. So I decided to take her out for a spin!

Zoya Envy applies beautifully! Smooth and opaque in 1-2 coats. My only concern is that this green looks black indoors. Outdoors, with some good sunlight, the green really stands out as a deep green. (Unfortunately, I live in Portland, Oregon where it is often overcast and rainy. )

I also wanted to use one of my new glitter/layering polishes I recently picked up so I picked Sinful Colors All About You. Its a gold micro glitter. And much to my surprise, there are slightly larger specks of glitter that are orange. If you know me, you know I hate orange. The color makes me cringe. But the bits of orange glitter really light up and make this glitter polish unique!

At the time I had to use my iPhone camera but I am determined to snap a picture of the glitter in all its glory very soon! It's just too good to pass up! For $1.99, you need this!

Happy hump day!

A Epic Return! Okay not really (Some new pics!)

Hey guys! 

I know this post has been a loooong time comin but its been hectic. Now that I am on summer break, I will be able to put up posts again but I can't promise what will happen come fall. It seems that winter term was nuts! But spring term was 10X worse... And my fall schedule is near suicide! But.. It will all work out. :) 

Anyways, as a way to say sorry here are a few pics... 

China Glaze in Rich & Famous 

A bright (but not quite neon) pink polish! Not a big fan of pink or uber bright/neon colors but this has something special to it that I can't articulate. Even on my pale skin, I like it on me! Very unusual. This was a polish that was a part of my first China Glaze polish haul from the Sally's beauty sale last spring. Oh, how time flies!

I will say that the application of this at first seemed watery but with semi-careful application, it came out damn near perfect! This polish could probably contend to be one of my best pinks. But I most certainly can't ever just pick ONE favorite... :)

China Glaze in Rich & Famous with a LA Girls (under the Forever 21 label) glitter polish

I like the glitter polish but on one nail got a lot more glitter than the other... I tried evening them out and it didn't work so well. A bit annoying, I will admit. But very pretty. If I had more patience (and if i wasn't planning on taking it off in 5 minutes) I would have added an extra layer or two of glitter. Oh well

American Apparel in Peacok

A gorgeous dark teal that I am madly in love with! I asked a guy what color I should put on next and he picked this... A good sport and similar tastes? :)
Anyways! This applies quite well but the brush makes it a little tough to create smooth edges. And because it is so dark and creamy, cleanup is tricky too. But I still love this polish to pieces! I believe this is one coat of polish! Oh, its love! 

That's all that I have today!

I plan to be back with more probably this weekend. 

See ya! 

Current Top 20 Polishes

Hey guys!

This post is gonna be about my current Top 20 polishes at the moment.

I have a good sized collection but there is a lot that I haven't worn/swatched. For that reason, I didn't include those for consideration.

For this reason, my Top 20 will change periodically with new purchases and swatchings.

L to R: SOPI metro chic, Misa high waist hue, OPI merry midnight, OPI sapphire in the snow, NFU-oh 51

L to R: Wet n Wild Crazee in Shield, Essie in Chinchilly, ELF in Blush, ELF in Champagne, ELF in Mod Mauve

L to R: Maybelline in Brown Aluminium, China Glaze in Ruby Pumps, China Glaze in Cords, China Glaze in VII, American Apparel in Dynasty

L to R: Zoya in Jacy, LA Girl in  Addict, La Girl in Indigo (F21 name), LA Girl in Double Platinum, Diamond Cosmetics in Chainmail Charm

I wanted to show you the awesome effect of these two Holos. They are so awesome! Double Platinum is holo glitter and Chainmail Charm is a holo polish.

One word to describe holos? BRILLIANT!

Let's see if my upcoming Transdesign order full of pastels (i hardly have any!), holos, glitter, and new Misa polishes will make the cut for the next Top 20.

Do you have any of these? Would they make your Top 20?

NOTD: Diamond Cosmetics in Decadence

Finally, one of the Diamond Cosmetics polishes!

This is Decadence - a beautiful medium brown with high sparkle effect - almost a foil!

These pictures are pretty accurate and I am SO happy for my new camera. My pics just come out great!

This was one of the Diamond Cosmetics polishes that really stood out to me. The picture on their website just does not do it justice! I believe this was 2 coats and it applied just fine with minimal clean up necessary.
I will say that the brush is a typical cheapy brush that gets the job done but isn't special or anything.

This is definitely a wearable brown even for my light skintone. Typically, I have to be very careful with browns but on the nails, it looks great!

Diamond Cosmetics knows how to do high sparkle almost foil like finishes. I am blown away with how cool they look.

I will say that I hate the label. It just makes the polish look cheap when really, its not (quality wise).
Price wise? These babies are only $2.25 each. (was $2 when I ordered)

You can find these on the Diamond Cosmetics site only.
Shipping was $5.90 for 10 or less items bringing my total just under $26  for these amazing polishes.

I will say that shipping is a bit frustrating.

Once you place your order, you have to wait 2-4  business days for a shipping receipt. For only 10 polishes, this seemed a bit long. And they also ship FedEx Smartpost which I find annoying (First Fedex brings the package to your area, then USPS delivers it) with trying to track it.

But for the price and quality, I will definitely be ordering again very soon! Probably next month! :)

Haul: Christmas Nail Gifts

Hey guys! So I received a lot of amazing gifts this year for Christmas. I am truly grateful and appreciative.

My boyfriend and his parents didn't feel too comfortable picking out makeup/nail stuff but they did their best and supplemented it with a gift card to Ulta (that will be a different post). Let me show you my goodies!

I got a set from Colorworks which i don't think is a regular line of polish just one that makes box sets for the holidays but i could be wrong. Anyway, this came with a lot of different things that i didn't have.

I immediately took it all out of the box and threw that away. So I also took pics individually too.

These are all the color polishes in the set. A few of the colors look different IRL. Theres no labels or names so I'm not sure how to enter them into my list of polishes. Maybe I could make up my own names and attache little labels? hmmmm...

Just by playing with them, they seem to be pretty decent pigmented polishes. Cheap polishes can be big surprises!

These are the French manicure polishes and French tip guides as well. I needed more of these! These polishes are bigger than the colored ones.

Yup thats right! A nail dryer! This thing was funky because the included instructions said it needed two C batteries but when we popped open the back the slots were way too small. AA's fit perfectly. Weird.

You turn it on by placing your hand under the flap (pic below) and pressing down.

I don't like having to press it down because without dry fast top coats, it can take forever and I'd probably forgot to apply pressure. But its still cool... in a not-so-useful way!

By the way, it emits cool air. Probably just a fan inside.

These are a bunch of the tools they included.

The round cylinder thing at the top left is a set of 4 nail tools. Next to it is a foot lotion (but i suppose it could be used for hands too).

The tub is a nail buffing cream with the nail buffer on top. Not sure if this cream is just for buffing or just a typical hand lotion. Either way, i've used it all over my hands.

The 3 items under the nail tools is a cuticle remover cream, nail whitening pencil, and a corrector pen.

And the last two items are pretty obvious-nail brush (2 sides! really useful) and toe separators. Honestly, i hate toe separators... I don't like my toes pulled apart!

I also got this case! I decided its nail related because I plan to use it for nail stuff (and maybe some makeup too) when I travel. Most often, when I stay over with the BF and I want to bring my supplies.

Included with it are those dividers (which i put up randomly) and different foam padding! Perfect for protecting my polish while allowing them to stand up-right.

I took a shot with a ton of stuff in it! Pretty much more than you would really 'need' for a manicure or two but polish lovers will understand... We need all that stuff "just in case" we will need it. Haha

When I went home after Christmas, I took my polish home in this and everything seemed safe. Very happy with it.

I also received a smaller, less cool version of this case, i just forgot to take pics.

I received much more non-nail/beauty related items such as a new desk and desk chair from Ikea, tea set from Ikea, a HP mini netbook, my new nikon digital camera (notice the awesome pics above?), penguins galore including more penguin pajama pants (love!), bed set, penguin flannel sheets, and even a crystal penguin! Yeah, I was really spoiled. :)

Anyways, I'll start posting new material very, very soon! I promise!

Bye for now!

Christmas Mani and Misc. Pictures

Okay for some reason I did not post this... Argh, I hate when I do that!

I took a little break from posting, not on purpose. Suddenly it was new years then BAM school started on the 4th. It all hit me too fast. And before I knew it, 2 weeks had gone before my eyes.

Trouble is that I live a pretty full life. I am interested and passionate about many things and I try to cram it all in there. Between all my classes, homework, work, business group ongoings, econ paper writing, nail polish, my friend's new business, the boyfriend, not to mention chores (that are often neglected), it gets to be so much that i don't have time to sleep.

I'm slowly, but surely, getting better about juggling it all but it seems that when I slack off for just ONE day, I'm so behind. When things get to be too much, don't be surprised if I don't post. I just think my mental sanity means more.

I love polish and its so awesome reading so many blogs! I'm always here, just not as active as I wish I could. But I do have a bunch of material to post including new AA polishes (that I LOVE), my first Nfu-Oh, Hard candy, and a upcoming Transdesign order. Yup, its been polish heaven this month!

Anyways... onto this 2 week old post. :)

Immediately after getting Emerald Sparkle and Ruby Pumps I HAD to use them and I couldn't pick one.. So i used both!
I also used a konad plate m65 for the diagonal designs. Oh i just love it! Although my right hand came out much better than my left.

Left Hand

I just couldn't seem to clean this up very well without my pointed Q-tips. I ran our and surprisingly, they are kind of hard to find! Argh  And the diagonal lines come out funky on this hand.

The right hand is much better even with my cuticles in horrible shape.

I couldn't find anything to wrap my hands around for a proper pic so I justed used my new battery charger for my new Nikon Coolpix camera I received as a gift for Christmas. Can you tell how much better these pics are compared to my iPhone?! I sure can!

Anyway, I thought I would add some fun pictures now.

For some reason Paprika decided to jump on top of the cage while I was working on moving some furniture around. She's so feisty!

Decided to go with the mango passion fruit. It sounds like it would be fruity and flavorful but it wasn't. Oh well, it was on sale 2/$4. Green and White tea fusion should be a easy winner.

By the way, thats part of my new tea set the boyfriend and his mother picked out for me for Christmas. I also have the matching teapot. Its so cute! I love that the cup is so wide. I believe its from Ikea is you're interested. :)

This is after 1.5 hours of snow coming down. I was at work and suddenly snow was just being dumped from the sky! It was so sudden and unexpected. Not to mention, it came down fast and hard (Thats what she said) that it took everyone by surprise. Luckily, the BF was downtown and took me home. I was barely wearing any warm clothing and cheap flats. Walking home would been a disaster.  I had an old pair of snow boots on... Just in case.

Anyway, there's more to come soon!