NOTD: HARE Rococo Grandeur

*sidesteps in*

Hello. I just thought I'd post my NOTD. I'm going through some of my polishes that I hadn't gotten around to photographing. HARE Rococo Grandeur was one of them. There's a couple chips on my nail here (sorry) because I'm also testing NPB Glitter A-Peel and seem to have lost a bit on the free edge of my index and middle finger. I have no idea if I'm going to suddenly lose an entire nail's worth of polish at work this week. It's likely, though, isn't it?

Unfortunately this shade is LE from a a year or two ago. I love the light blue base and the glitter mix. It's a pretty thirsty glitter, so I topped it with a gel top coat out of frustration. It's massively pretty though, isn't it?

HARE Rococo Grandeur: 2 coats, topped with gel topcoat (Harmony Gelish Top It Off)

NOTDs: Advent Calendar Nail Challenge - part 2

Here's another set of NOTDs from the Advent Calendar Nail Challenge (Happy Hands/Kristi's Advent Calendar Nail Challenge):


Day 6. White: Essie Marshmallow (2 coats as the base), Lynnderella Love, Lace, and Lilacs (1 coat), OPI Don't Touch My Tutu (1 coat overtop) - I loved this combination :) It's a little hard to wear Lynnderella LLL on its own over a jelly white (it just doesn't look pleasing to my eye), but a single coat of the OPI really tones it down for me!



Day 8. Starry Night: an Essie SSN franken (2 coats) - I know, I'm such a cheat for using this as the 'Starry Night' polish XD



Here's the recipe for the franken, from my friend: "And it is indeed about 3/4 Essie Silver Boullions, then enough WnW Nocturnal to get it the right color, probably 4-5 or so drops of black, and then I finished filling it up with the remaining Silver Boullions (it was SUCH an exact science ) I just added the black a little at a time, until it looked right!"

Day 9. Pine: CrowsToes Jingle Balls (1 coat) over Illamasqua Rampage (3 coats) - I am in- freaking-love with this combination. It is so deep and dark, but bright and shiny! I usually dislike large holo glitters, but I really like them in this polish!! If you missed the swatches of CrowsToes Christmas collection, you can see them here. Sorry it looks a little linty... this is after a couple days of wear :)



I'm probably going to flunk out of the rest of the challenge, though, as I'm absolutely useless at nail art.

And a little preview: some collective nail mail over the last couple of weeks, from Zoya, HSN, blog sales, Etsy, and swaps! I can't wait to get some time to swatch these, but I'm feeling burdened by the amount of holiday baking I have yet to start :S

NOTDs: Advent Calendar Nail Challenge - part 1

I am participating in Happy Hands/Kristi's Advent Calendar Nail Challenge:


I am terrible at nail art, but I will try to participate in as many days as I can :) Here are a few from the first 5 days!

Day 1. Red: Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby over a-england Perceval - two of my favourite reds!



Day 2. Gold: OPI Spark de Triomphe over Orly Luxe - a cooler-toned gold, but the OPI is an old favourite. The polish had evaporated a bit, and even after thinning, it was like applying glitter glue with a brush to my nails O_O



Day 3. Green: ChG Glittering Garland - Absolutely love this green polish! Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is similar, but slightly bluer (I have a comparison here).



Day 4. Silver - I don't own a silver anymore! I didn't like how silver foils looked on my skin tone, so I purged them all. LOL.

Day 5. Blue: Crowstoes Blue Christmas over CND Midnight Sparkle - very glittery and shiny IRL.



Are any of you guys doing this challenge? I have no idea what to do about the more difficult ones towards the end of the month >.>

NOTWeekend: Gift from Noelie (Smitten Polish) over NARS Midnight Express

Hey guys! I got back from Toronto on Monday, but work was quite busy and I wore OPI Barre My Soul all week like a muggle ;)

I just did my nails and they are thick as heck because I'm trying Elmer's Glue as peel off base coat (if you haven't heard of this yet, see Lab Muffin, or Pretty Purple Polish, or Gotham Polish for the deets!). I wonder if there are a bunch of nail-junkie-significant-others thinking we've all gone mad while painting our bare nails with glue. Probably! :D

So Noelie (of Noelie's Nails and Smitten Polish) surprised me the other day with a package containing Hydrangea (swatch to come!) and a bonus polish she mixed up just for me.

I think I've known Noelie as long as I've been into nails, and she knows what I'm like and how ruthless I am when it comes to purging...

So imagine my face when I pulled this out of the bubble mailer:


LOL. The polish is a mix of "disco" glitters and blue shimmer in a sheer base.

Flash really does not do disco glitter justice... but here is a flash picture of 2 coats BYDPT over NARS Midnight Express, followed by Barielle ME and Seche Vite. It is like instant Galaxy Nails.


Here's a macro I took with no flash. This is how it looks in real life. AWESOME!


Thanks for the thoughtful gift, Noelie <3 I will not purge this. Probably. XD Edited to add: I peeled them off and I'm sold on this ~Elmer's Glue as Base Coat~ idea! Here are the pieces I peeled off with no damage to my nails (as far as I can tell)

NOTD: Lynnderella Boy-Girl Party over CND Midnight Sapphire (and Blog Sale update)

I updated mah blog sale with polish and makeup! Check it out here if you're interested.

---

It's been a while since I posted a simple NOTD, so I thought I would share with you my NOT-Weekend! I knew I wanted to wear Lynnderella BGP (probably my favourite Lynnderella).

If you're a bit out of the loop, you can only get Lynnderellas via llarowe's wishlist system. See here for more information.

2 "coats" Lynnderella Boy-Girl Party over 1 coat CND Midnight Sapphire - Barielle ME, Seche Vite, and then another coat of Barielle ME for the topcoat. Boy these glitters are thirsty!




Hope you have a nice weekend!

NOTD: Speciallita HITS Apolo

I broke down and made a Hits (or is it Speciallita?) order from Llarowe before I left for Christmas, and came back to a super sexy package including this guy!

Just a quick NOTD pic. My cuticles are looking ragged from being in Canada for just four days (*eats Coffee Crisp*). I'll take better swatch pictures of this and the others I ordered when my cutes are back to normal!

Speciallita Hits Apolo over CND Midnight Sapphire (1 coat each)

Christmas NOTD: ChG Party Hearty over ChG Glittering Garland

Sorry for the sporadic posts lately. Busy at work + busy at home = tired as heck. The four days off I get over the holidays cannot come soon enough. I have a whole bunch of polishes that need to be swatched and compared, and purging to do! I just want to relax with my stash, but instead there's holiday shopping, holiday baking, and last-minute work to do! Arghhh!

Here's a quick pic I took of my holiday NOTD, which I have been wearing for four days now. I have a tiny chip on one thumb and a litte tip wear, but otherwise it has held up pretty well. The surface is getting a bit roughed up, so I may throw on a coat of Barielle Manicure Extender tonight.

ChG Party Hearty (1 coat) over ChG Glittering Garland (2 coats). I love both these polishes! So happy it's Xmas time and I can bust out the Party Hearty... even at work! :)


Back to the craziness! Hope you guys are stayin' sane!!

Illamasqua Fern

*staggers in* These last two weeks have been super busy for me! Trying to get as much work as possible done before we leave for our vacation this weekend, and we had to attend a wedding in Nevada last weekend!

First, I'll show you a polish, then I will bore you with details of the wedding trip.

Illamasqua Fern - 2 coats. I ordered this from the 5GBP Illamasqua sale. I love this much more than expected! I think it's what I wished Essie Coat Azure would be - they are completely different though. Sorry I did not do any comparisons yet :( Any suggestions? I don't have a lot of blues like this!



Here's a pic With a snack I had a couple weekends ago. Mmmm.


Ok, boring details from my weekend: flying out of EWR was a huge hassle, since "Hurricane" Irene was about to blow through the tri-state area. As far as I can tell, there was no immediate damage from the storm, but now a lot of NJ is flooded! Thankfully, my area is okay, but I know a lot of people at work who are not so lucky. Anyway, our flight out of EWR was delayed for around 2 hours, causing us to miss our connection. We got to our hotel 7 hours later than initially planned, and had to drive through a mountain pass area in the dark. Yay! Our flight back was also delayed, since there were 150 people on standby to get back to NYC. Insane.

My huge annoyance of the trip was that prior to returning our rental car to the airport, we filled up the tank, but it turns out there were still 2 gallons unfilled when we pulled into the return area. The gas nozzle definitely 'clicked' though, so I don't know what happened. We should have double checked before returning the car (we filled up at the airport gas station, about 10 seconds from the return area), but we were both really tired and forgot. Hertz charged us about $10 per GALLON as a fuel surcharge! Can you believe it?! Man, I was livid. Has this ever happened to you?

Anyways, we had a couple hours before the wedding to walk around the area. Here's a little lake we went to (near Lake Tahoe, but not actually Lake Tahoe).



The wedding was for our friend from college (actually, DBF's classmate) who we lived with for a semester. He is the most easy going guy I know! I found a stray cat in our neighbourhood that semester we lived together, and he offered to drive me to the local vet to see if it was microchipped, and then later drove me to the Humane Society about 40 minutes away! He met his wife after we graduated, so it was the first time I met her... she seems very nice :) DBF and I were disappointed in his other friends from college... we were the only two (other than the groom's 2 friends from school who were in the wedding party) that flew out for his wedding! And he invited around 20 people from our college... I mean, what the heck?? I hope people come to my wedding :/!!

This is my NOTWedding: Illamasqua Raindrops



Ok, we fly out on Saturday! Supposedly, there is some kind of storm going over Japan right now... which is kind of bad timing... but hopefully it will have passed by the time we land. We're going to Tokyo, Kyoto, Miyajima Island (near Hiroshima), Nikko (outside of Tokyo), then Seoul. Hopefully I can post a bit while I'm gone! They will be haul posts, though, since I am actually going NAKED ON MY TIPS!!! :D

Hope you guys have a great long weekend (Labour Day)!

NOTD: OPI Samoan Sand, mattified!

I wore Illamasqua Fern and Essie Vermillionaire over the weekend (separate days!) and I was feeling the need for a palate cleanser to start the work week. I decided on one of my old "go-to" nudes, OPI Samoan Sand.

I am Chinese and my skin has a lot of yellow undertones, so most nudes are too pink for me (don't get me started on OPI Tickle My France-y!!!) I'm happy to report that Samoan Sand is one of the best nudes I've found (so far) for my skintone. Although it has a strong yellow base, it doesn't look unnatural because it is not totally opaque.

Here is the swatch that I think I've posted before: 3 coats, pretty good formula, imo.



And here is actually how I'm wearing it today: mattified



I saw a picture on NB of a matte nude and wanted to try it. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it. I think it looks different, but kind of weird. It is growing on me, though. Of course, I got some black lint in two of the nails (HOW DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN?!) so I am eyeing the remover already. LOL.

So, tell me what you think and what your go-to nude is. I need to keep searching for my perfect mannequin shade!

Essie North Fork Collection

Since I only got into nail polish last year, I missed out on the Essie North Fork collection from summer 2009. After seeing swatches of the three polishes, I was sorely disappointed that I missed out! Luckily, from a combination of swapping, gifting, and shopping, I managed to attain this collection!

Essie Shelter Island - This took 3 coats, which is not my favourite number of coats to do, but the colour is just so pretty *swoon*


I did a couple comparisons with other blues I had (I don't really have anything that close)

Comparison: Essie Shelter Island, Essie Coat Azure, Zoya Robyn


Comparison: Essie Shelter Island and Zoya Yummy - I already sold my bottle of Zoya Yummy, so all I have left is a swatch stick of it. I read that these two were supposed to be dupes, but I didn't believe it. Totally not dupes, imo.


Essie Sag Harbor - Shimmery grey with a bit of blue. This is 3 coats and you can see a few bald spots, but I think it was due to my rushed application. I would normally use a ridge filler and wait a bit longer between coats.



When the ChG Anchors Away collection came out, people said Sea Spray was a very close dupe for Sag Harbor.

Comparison: Essie Sag Harbor and ChG Sea Spray - Those people were right, they are really close, but not exact dupes. The Essie is almost a little aqua next to the ChG, has a bit more shimmer and is sheerer. I was going to purge the ChG, but the (thinned) formula applies in two coats, so I'm a little hesitant. I think I will delay this purge decision for another time.



Essie Greenport - Finally, this sexy beast! It's 3 coats and the colour is just lovely, isn't it?!


Comparison: Essie Greenport and Essie Turquoise & Caicos - They are different. Kay? Misa Dirty Sexy money is also in this colour family, but my comparison picture of that was totally wacky.


Here's a NOTD of Essie Greenport with CND Jade Sparkle. So pretty!


I feel oddly serene to have this collection, haha! I didn't even drive myself crazy; everything just sort of fell into place over a period of 2 weeks!

Anyway, I hope you guys had a great weekend! My crab manicure kept me in good spirits; here's a pic I snapped at Costco using DBF's Android:


P.S. We didn't buy the crab, because the ones at costco are already cooked and frozen = not that yummy.