Friday, October 31, 2008

FROSTBITTEN AND GRIM!!!

Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe, have fun, and eat a crapload of candy!





Pumpkins grin in their despair on All Hallow's Eve...


Thursday, October 30, 2008

Another Eye Of The Day

I've been wearing a lot of glitter lately. There's just something about glitter that makes me feel.... sparkly? And I've found my favorite of all time, hands-down holy grail status glitter liner: Too Faced Starry Eyed Glitter Liner. I have tried them all, and the Too Faced liner beats them all. The glitter is dense, it doesn't crack like MAC glitter liner, you don't have to spend an hour layering it like you do with Urban Decay's glitter liner and the glitter colors in the Too Faced line are just really freakin' cool. Some even have a little HOLO glitter thrown in. HOLO, people, HOLO!!!

Anyway, here's a couple looks I did using the Too Faced Starry Eyed liner.





I can't remember everything I used, but I know that I used MAC Magenta Madness, Urban Decay Peace and Too Faced liner in Ooh & Aah.





This one was pretty similar, I used MAC Acid Orange and Electric Coral, Urban Decay Peace and Too Faced liner in Super Freak over MAC Blacktrack.

Hot pink holographic glitter eyeliner. It doesn't get much better than that.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Zoya Winter 2008 Flourish Collection

The sun decided to come out today just long enough for me to get my swatches done. Yay!



Cyma. This is one of those in-between colors that I have a hard time describing. Is it pinkish red? Magenta? Light red or dark pink? Whichever it is, it's a reddish color with shimmer. Applies like butter. Very pretty, just not my type.



Kalista. Oh, Kalista. So beautiful. It's one of those lit-from-within vampy colors that I love so much, but this time it's brown! Rich, shimmery, lovely brown. Perfect for fall and winter!


Mieko. A rich pink loaded with golden shimmer. Not glitter, but very visible shimmer. When the light hits this, it just comes alive. It sparkles like crazy. It almost seems like a pink/gold duochrome because of the shimmer.


Richelle. Gorgeous metallic gold. In my opinion, this is the best gold that's been released by any company in a long time. It is reminiscent of Dior Golden Nugget. It's smooth but super-sparkly. This is not a subtle gold, this is FIERCE!


Shivon. Another amazing fall/winter shade. It's sort of a duochrome where the second color is visible all the time. It's burgundy and gold and it's fantastic. It even has this fascinating micro-sparkle texture when you look at it under bright sunlight. Very unique. It reminds me of an old discontinued Urban Decay polish that I can't recall the name of at the moment...



Zara. Wow!! An amazing lavender purple chock-full of intense golden shimmer. This is so cool!! I can't stop looking at it. Normally you would need to layer polishes to achieve this sort of look, but this one is born with it. I really like how purple and gold look together. This color makes me think "sugar plum fairy" when I look at it... Random, eh?


Overall, this is one gorgeous collection. I love the Zoya shimmer- it's not really chunky, but it's this sort of visible particle that looks like crushed shells or maybe that edible glitter made of gelatin... Hard to describe, but the polishes that have it are all mesmerizing. In this case, it's golden shimmer and it looks really fantastic in sunlight.

These all applied very well, very smooth and no application problems at all. I only used two coats of polish for these pictures, but Mieko and Zara would probably look better with three. None of these stained my fingers after removal, and none left shimmer behind. I have no complaints!

I have a feeling that Kalista is going to become a cult favorite. It's my second favorite of the collection (Richelle is my number one pick!) and it's a color I can see myself wearing all the time.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Crappy Swatches: Zoya Flourish Collection

Thank you all for your kind words, I'm feeling better already! You guys are the best. :)

So, Zoya Flourish! Wow! I don't even know what to say. These are super cool.

The sun had already set long before these beauties showed up on my doorstep, but I just couldn't wait, I HAD to play with them!

I know these swatches are terrible. Really, I think they're some of the worst I've ever done (my Nfu Oh ones are pretty embarrassingly bad too....), however, I plan to get good swatches as soon as there's adequate light. I just couldn't wait to try these all on, and thought snapping a quick photo of them wouldn't hurt.

I'll save my review for when I get better pictures of these. They're so nice, they deserve better pictures and a proper review. On to the blurry, dark, wobbly, wacky swatches!


EDIT: These are all two coats of polish. I always forget to add that!


Cyma


Kalista



Mieko


Richelle (omghawt!!!!!!)


Shivon



Zara.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Konad Of The Day

I have been feeling a little under the weather lately, and you've probably noticed that I've been neglecting my poor blog! I'm sort of taking a mini-break, I'm not spending much time online but I am checking my email periodically throughout the day. I'm still alive!

Anyway, I went to the doctor today, so I decided to do a really interesting manicure to cheer myself up. I wasn't able to get a good shot of it, but I did manage to get three crappy pictures of it to make up for that.


Flash, to show the holo.


More flash, not as washed out, but also not very clear. You can still see the holo!


Very dim natural light, but a clear picture. Can you believe it's snowing already?!

This is one coat of Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Black Pearl with China Glaze OMG and Konad plate M63. It looks kinda marbled, doesn't it? I really love this! I think I'll use my Konad more, I feel bad for neglecting it.

So, that was my manicure of the day. See you soon!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Swatches: New OPI Designer Series shades!

They're finally here!! The nine new OPI Designer Series polishes are here at last and it's instant love. I'm a sucker for holographic polishes, and while these are different from your average holo, they're still beautiful and mesmerizing.

On to the swatches! As always, I leave these huge to show you the detail, so please click the images to enlarge them.


Classic. A warm gold holographic polish. As you can see, it's more of a 'scattered' type holo, as opposed to other holographic finishes like the China Glaze Kaleidoscope and OMG collections or previous OPI Designer Series polishes.


Coronation. A bright silver prismatic holo. It's similar to polishes like China Glaze Sexagon and OPI Paris Couture For Sure, but as you can see it's that scattered type of shimmer.



Extravagance. This one was so pretty it needed two pictures. One outside, one inside under fluorescent light A rich purple with incredible shimmer. Stunning, and a must-have for purple lovers like me!



Illuminate. A fascinating holographic brown with green duochrome! Holo and duochrome? I'm not sure if I can handle the awesomeness!


Limited. A warm coppery-pink sort of shade with holographic shimmer. These aren't glitter, for all of you who are wondering. They're perfectly smooth, silky, sparkly shimmer polishes and they're not the least bit gritty or chunky.



Opulence. Very flattering mauve-pink with holographic shimmer to keep it from being plain. It's a pink I would wear!


Reflection. Wow!! I'm not sure how to describe this color.... Hot pink coral with gold duochrome and holo? It's extremely eye-catching and just one hell of an excellent shade. This one was even opaque in one coat, but I did two anyway.


Reserve. Another pretty holographic pink- very feminine and flattering but not the least bit boring!


Tapestry. For some reason I want to call this shade 'russet' and I have no idea why. It's sort of a pink-red, more on the red side than the pink side. Loaded with holographic shimmer. Reminds me a little bit of OPI Crim-sun but not as holo.


These are so gorgeous. Maybe I'm biased, because anything holographic is a winner in my book, but still... They're HOT! And on top of the amazing colors, the formula is top notch. Perfect application, no three-free goo texture, dried *super* fast and smooth and shiny to boot. I have no complaints here other than they're not holographic enough. Okay, maybe one or two complaints. The names are stupid and impossible to remember and they cost twice as much as a regular OPI polish, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. I love a polish that will make me want to stare at my hands all day.

In case you missed it, I swatched the rest of my Designer Series collection (not 100% complete, but close!) back in May. You can check out the posts here:

Designer Series Part 1


Designer Series Part 2


And if that's not enough OPI holographic goodness for you, I also swatched the It's Summer For Shore collection here:

OPI It's Summer For Shore Collection


Enjoy, and embrace the holo.

Zoya Code - Free Cuticle Balm!

I just got this email! Two of my favorite things :) Here's the email:



Grow nails and fix your cuticles this winter. Receive a 0.25oz Qtica Intense Cuticle Repair Balm as our gift with the purchase of a 0.5oz bottle of Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator.
This special is available only through www.zoya.com , www.qtica.com and www.artofbeauty.com.

Just enter "FIX" in the code box during checkout. Not valid with any other coupons or offers. One per order.

Offer expires on 10/24/2008/

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A few pinks for October

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and besides wearing a little pink ribbon to show your support, you can do a pink manicure as well!

I rarely, if ever, wear pinks, but what better time to wear them than now? Here are a few of the pinks in my collection.


Chanel Rose Tourbillon


Chanel Melrose


China Glaze 100 Proof Pink



China Glaze Mom's Chiffon


China Glaze Pink-Rox-E


China Glaze Pink Underground


China Glaze Rosita



China Glaze Sexy Lady


China Glaze Sprinkles



China Glaze Verano



Essie Short Shorts


Essie Surfer Dude


Lippmann Collection Shut Up And Drive


Lippmann Collection Makin' Whoopee



OPI Love Me Tender


Misa Camellia Destiny


Misa Candy Girl


Misa Hot People Like You



Nubar Pink Flame



Nubar Sugar


OPI Designer Series Chiffon


OPI Designer Series Sensation


OPI Elephantastic Pink


OPI Kinky In Helsinki


OPI I Pink You're Adorable



OPI Make Love...


OPI Mod About You


OPI That's Hot! Pink


OPI Passion For NY Fashion


OPI Pink Ulta-Matum



Zoya Erika


Zoya Whitney


Zoya Kiki


Zoya Lindsay


Zoya Sweet



Enough pinks for now?