Monday, August 16, 2010

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 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

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!

Friday, August 13, 2010

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 

Monday, August 9, 2010

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?  :)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

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

Thursday, August 5, 2010

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!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

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!