ain’t nothin’ wild about this

Well, hello there. Much to my surprise, I haven’t died (yet). I’ve simply had to take life may places in the past few months, such is the case when you family lives across the world from each other.

Aaaaaaanyway, back to regular programming (I think).

Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro – Wild Orchid

Now, we all know by now that purple really isn’t my thang, but good formula’s still good formula. And what’s a girl to do when her favourite drugstore polish line gets discontinued but pick up as many shades as she can despite her colour preferences?

Curse you Rimmel >.>

As I’ve said many times before, the formulation of the Lasting Finish Pro collection is superb, as well as the brush. I have applied two coats out of habit (also OCD), but a thick one coat is perfectly acceptable for those on the go or simply are lazy. However, this particular shade of lavender doesn’t suite my skin tone very well as it has a tendency of bringing out an uncomfortably dirty yellow/brownish tone on my hands. I swear it’s not my camera.

Now that we all know I’m still alive and kicking, I shall go have a nice, long (possibly threatening) talk with the employment deities about that job that I applied for that I really want.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Natural; indoor | Rimmel – Wild Orchid

a rainbow is a rainbow is a rainbow

Let’s see how many dark polishes I can post in a row.
More than you think, I guarantee it.

Color Club – Beyond
Collection: Halo Hues | Spring 2013

Beyond was the Lindsay Lohan of Spring 2013 nail polishes. Sudden ungodly descent causing media frenzy, pursued by a split fanbase, but seriously intriguing nonetheless. Swatch after swatch came on blog after blog. Then came a sea of comparison posts: Beyond vs. Revvvolution, Beyond vs. Layla, Beyond vs. Jade, Beyond vs. Nfu Oh, Beyond vs. Speciallita, Beyond vs. various indie polishes, so on and so forth and so on.

Yep, there be many.

I never really have a strong desire to own polishes I can’t get my hands on in stores. I’m all into instant gratification and all that (see post re: Cyber Monday haul) . When Beyond got on my radar, I was interested, but I was never really all SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! about it. It wasn’t ’til six months after the fact that I got my hands on this particular bottle.

As I got my bottle from eBay, I can’t speak to its authenticity. The seller claims it to be 100% real, but you never know with eBay. In the bottle, Beyond is a charcoal grey with littered with silver holo bits. It’s very difficult to be able to call the base black, as it never looks black neither in the bottle or on the nail. Application was fairly standard; the polish was a tad on the viscous side, but nothing you can’t work with if you apply the right amount of pressure with the brush. All pictures in this post are two coats with no top coat.

Tbh, I have nothing special to say about this cult favourite. I don’t think it’s a particularly spectacular holo polish, nor do I think it’s a polish to hunt for. If you happen upon it, buy it; if not, don’t worry about it. Although despite my ambivalence toward it, a rainbow is a rainbow is a rainbow and rainbows are magical.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | Color Club – Beyond

deviousness-ness

Continuing on theme of no-polish/food-prep Decembericures, backlogged fall colours!

ULTA – Devious
Collection: Salon Formula Nail Lacquer

Ew look, them cuticle lines be uneven.

Now, let’s talk about errythang about this polish. If memory serves me correct, I picked up lady Devious during a $2 ULTA polish sale. Normally, ULTA Salon Formula rings up for $6 each, but there’s pretty much always some sort of BOGO sale on the house brand. (Right now, BOGO free. It’s as if they are proving a point for me.) The Salon Formula is also the least expensive house brand polish range.

Devious serves great as a staple polish. Affordable, smooth, safe but sophisticated. The packaging is nothing remarkable, but the large cylindrical cap was a little awkward to work with. Painting control is crucial to lazy people who don’t practice their clean up routines, i.e., me. Wear time was average with top coat, but I can say that the polish is prone to denting because it is a tad on the thick side.

Now, let’s entertain the notion of new year nails.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | ULTA – Devious

on the hunt: it only took 16 days

Look what finally came in! My Cyber Monday Ulta order. Yipppeeee.
They were 2 for $18. IT WAS NOT WORTH THE WAIT.

There were no planned purchases for Black Friday or Cyber Monday this year, but accidents tend to happen when you are bumming around the internet at 2 in the morning. This particular one involved the purchasing of nail polish and pants.

butter LONDON for the price of OPI, why not? ‘Twas the season after all.

Two hours after placing the order (read: 4 am), I realized the giant ass mistake the purchase was. Ulta isn’t known for their logistical capabilities, and given that it was the kick start of the beginning of insane mail season, I began to dread the wait. And dread I did.

To be fair, the shipping part was quite reasonable. UPS experienced the standard delays due to weather, but SurePOST took the standard 5 business days to get the box to my mailbox. The giant gripe I have is the fact that Ulta took 8 days to process the order. I also did not appreciate the apologetic email they sent halfway through the waiting which I took as an explanation for the delay. I’m fairly sure the time it took to generate that campaign would’ve been better spent actually processing orders. If canceling the order isn’t such a hassle, I would’ve done so immediately after that email landed in my inbox.

Anyway, on the polishes.

Gobsmacked – charcoal grey base with silver glitter; rumoured to finish textured
Brown Sugar – warm metallic copper with gold glitter in various diameters

I’m quite nervous that Brown Sugar might finish more rosy than I would prefer, but you can only trust swatches as much as the color calibration on your screen (read: not much).

Both polishes are of the permanent collection, but I have found Brown Sugar to be somewhat elusive in stores.

Watch for a dupe comparison on Gobsmacked coming up.
I’m off on my continued journey of figuring out what to make for Christmas dessert.

koi was chinese first

I tend to do spend exponentially more time in the kitchen around the holidays.
Hence I don’t wear nail polish as often as I do the rest of the year.
Because, food prep and nail polish are not best friends.

China Glaze – Japanese Koi
Collection: INK | Summer 2008

Everybody loves neon, but there’s a time and place for it. The time being ALL THE TIME, and the place being EVERY FUCKING WHERE. I’ve been carrying a highlighter yellow/green purse for the past 6 months and don’t plan to part with it as my daily any time soon.

And also, the orange in koi really isn’t this bright and the koi is really more of a Chinese thing than a Japanese thing (like most things Asian). But you know that’s a debate for another time. Although, I’m looking forward to the day tattoo ink graduates to this degree of blindingness.

Japanese Koi combines two of my favourite things: orange and neon-ness. That’s all you really need to know about the polish.

As standard for neon polishes, JK finishes to a semi-matte sheen, suede if you will. Two thin coats will suffice in most situations, and a generous coat of anything clear and shiny will always aid in the mission of wearing blindingly bright nails. The wear time is diminished as expected with the softer finish, but as I rather like feel of the suede finish, I don’t tend to slap on a top coat ’til a few days into the wear time.

I realize this is a horrible picture, but you know neon/white balance/direct sun/laziness/psoriasis flair up. Yeah, you know. It is, however, colour accurate, the polish at least.

Time to go freeze my hands so I can make me some short crust. Weeee.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | China Glaze – Japanese Koi

keyboard tuesday: she dat black widow?

This is fancier than expected.
I’m also currently composing an ode to bras. Don’t ask.

Wet n Wild – Venomous Vixen
Collection: Pick Your Poison

CoverGirl Outlast Glosstinis – Scalding Emerald
Collection: Capitol Collection – Catching Fire | Fall 2013

China Glaze – Fairy Dust

Really, this happened because I’d gotten Fairy Dust for free and have no idea how I’m ever gonna use it. So random shit got thrown together and one of these happened.

Let’s breakdown:

Base: Venomous Vixen is that gunmetal grey colour that looks good on everybody Name’s blah, also a tad thick. Nothing major.
Accent: It’s that other colour I picked up with Rouge Red. Haven’t posted on its own yet because it simply doesn’t look good on its own.
Sparkle: Still have no idea what I’m gonna do with it.

On a more festive note, I’ve been wearing my santa hat since I really have no idea where any of my other hats are.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | Wet n Wild – Venomous Vixen

you got any gum, man?

Here’s a confession, this holiday season has proven to be grossly uninspiring thus far.
Things just aren’t happenin’. Also Mr. Walker’s death has pretty much killed any kind of festivitiness in my soul. #TeamPW

Orly – Gumdrop
Collection: Sweet | Spring 2010

I dug out Gumdrop simply because it’s been a polish that hasn’t seen any action in a long time. The separation in the bottle was screaming for attention. Gumdrop is a staple polish, it’s that mint-ish blueish colour brought out by the Mint Explosion of ’10-’11 and maybe even ’12. (It went kaboom, everything’s pastel green. ‘Twas sickening tbh.) And then everything decided to stick around for eternity.

That being said, you should seriously own one of these.

Gumdrop is a gorgeously performing crème. A thick application can deem it a one coater, but I always prefer the two thinner coats. The formula can get a tad thick with time, but it’s nothing a bit of shaking, hot hands, and polish thinner can’t fix. The colour is extremely universal, and it wears beautifully.

The gripe? Orly’s hideous new packaging. Again. Everytime. All the time.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | Orly – Gumdrop

revlon parfumerie sniff test: more like lavender

The last one! I’m sick of writing this stuff.

Revlon Parfumerie – Wild Violets
Collection: Parfumerie | Fall 2013

The hype on the Parfumerie line has pretty much blown over. It was…..nice….while it lasted. Gimmicks will be gimmicks.

Wild Violets was a filler buy for me. I needed it to fill the requirements of a coupon, and since none of the other colours interested me in my attempt to branch out of my comfort zone I reached out for the dark purple-y one. In the bottle, WV is a deep purple with blue and purple micro flecks. On the nail, it’s just a really dark purple colour.

Out of the four Parfumerie polishes I have, this is the scent I can tolerate the most. It really is a floral scent, as opposed to the unfortunate misguidedness of China Flower. The scent itself is more like lavender than violets, but really who’s gonna make a big fuss about that? The sniff test proved it to be a fairly clean scent, albeit the hard to ignore polish stench, but there is no spice or musk to it. 

There really is nothing remarkable about this particular polish. But this did happen……

Yep, that thing where the cap and brush gets a divorce happened. It wasn’t because there was dried polish around the rim weighing the brush down, or the bottle was stored upside down. I just unscrewed the cap and plop it happened. I tried to click the topper back into the cap, but after discovering that there was a sizing difference, I just ended up painting my nails without the cap. A dab of super glue and some very messy fingers later, I reassembled the thing.

Sheesh.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | Revlon Parfumerie – Wild Violets

shouldn’t malibu be more blue?

Oh boy, you have no idea how long this one’s been sitting in my drafts box.
Also, white balancing green polish is a bitch.

American Apparel – Malibu Green
Collection: Summer 2010

This is actually my third attempt at writing about Malibu Green. Didn’t have trouble with the words, but the pictures never turn out right. Like I said, white balancing green polish is a bitch. Just the polish and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

In person, Malibu green is a bright yellow-based turquoise. It’s really really green but not really green at the same time.

These two pictures above are taken under fluorescent light. It’s the only way to photograph it so it’ll actually turn out green. She’s like that lady who requires her personal spotlight everywhere she goes. When in Malibu, I guess. Also, you can see the weird green settling/oxidizing happening near the foot of the bottle. Happens with all AA polishes, haven’t figured out why. I think it has something to do with the beads they use.

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; artificial | American Apparel – Malibu Green

In a more natural setting, the polish looks more of an ocean green — somewhere in between blue and green. Not quite so teal, but too cool to be called true green. Application is fair for an AA polish. The bristles were too short and stem too long, but it got the job done without too much of a mess.

Can you tell I’m seriously uninspired right now? #foodcoma = #firstwordproblems

Camera: Olympus E-PL1 | Lighting: Indoor; natural | American Apparel – Malibu Green