Nail Polish Stash

So it took me a while, but I finally figured out how to add an email subscription box..so there it is..to the right of here. Today I have pictures of my nail polish stash for you. I didn't label them, but if you want them labeled, or just have a question about what a specific polish is, I'd be happy to answer your question. Also, the font I used to label my pictures has changed. If you find this is hard to read, please let me know (I guess it doesn't matter for this post though) The polishes are, for the mst part, sorted by brand and color.
Here they are in their drawer...the China Glaze and Misa boxes are empty..the Zoya boxes have polishes in them: OPIs..I'm missing Russian Navy

Sets of mini polishes...I really like these because I don't use a single color too often

extra minis
China Glaze:

Mini China glazes

ORLYs

Mini ORLYs

Finger Paints

Nfu Oh polishes..these are Korean polishes I got off FabulouStreet.com for $12.50. They're only about $7 in Korea though, so if you have a friend who's in Korea or going to Korea..ask them to get these for you..they're very unique and pretty.

Essie

Zoyas. This is by far my favorite brand of polishes. Right now Zoya is doing a "polish exchange" where you send in your old, unwanted, or empty polishes and they'll send you new Zoya polishes for a Shipping and Handling charge of $3 each...it may seem gimicky, but they'll dispose of your polishes properly for you. The exchange site is http://www.zoya.com/earthday

Color Club and Misa

LA Colors Art Deco and Nabi

MAC and CHANEL. I'm not a huge fan of MAC polishes, but I liked these colors.

Sinful Colors and Claires

Konad and Misc

Misc

Computer Problems and things to come

Eh..so I've been having a mess of computer problems lately. My wireless card on my laptop either broke or my laptop is just wonky altogether and stopped reading it. I can still connect to the internet if I run downstairs and plug an ethernet cable in it, but a few of the keys on this thing are busted as well (which actually ended up voiding my warranty). As I don't have the money to fix it (it was like $200 estimate for the keyboard alone...I don't want to know what adding the cost of the wireless problem would be...either way it's more than it's worth) I'll buy a new computer eventually, but I don't want to do it until the new Windows OS comes out (I heard that they're scrapping Vista altogether because it has too many problems..which is a good thing since I hate it anyways.) Secondly, there aren't any imaging programs on this computer..though I did finally manage to locate my disc with my imaging programs on them, so hopefully they'll work on Windows Vista (it's old school stuff like Paint Shop pro 7..I have Adobe Photoshop CS too, but PSP7 is less complicated for simple stuff like resizing and labeling..which is all I seem to do lately.)
My desktop also finally succumbed to viruses..I was running IE6 and an extremely outdated version of AVG and Adaware...not a very good mix, but up until the last two weeks or so I had been relying wholly on my laptop due to its convenience and wireless. Trying to install Norton antivirus failed miserably, so it just got reformatted...now it's just a matter of reinstalling ALL of the drivers and software (Dell didn't give me any discs for this, so I'm attempting to do this on the worst USB wireless thing ever). Either way, it seems like it was due for a reformatting after years or so, it actually seemed to have fixed my problems with installing USB hardware..so maybe I'll go get another USB card reader...I lost my old one to my house in Irvine..and never bothered looking for it since I couldn't use it. Either way, it will probably take a while to get everything back in working order, but once it is, I should be updating more, but who knows...frustration at my internet speed could very well win out over a working desktop... (it's VERY VERY slow...think dial-up speed) I might also switch out my monitor with my sister's to see if it fixes the color settings on my desktop as well...my desktop has the most screwed up color settings ever..)

Edit: So I said that my desktop got reformatted, but really all that happened was that Windows got reinstalled, but all the partitions on my hard drive could not be wiped properly. As a result still "have" all of the programs installed on my computer, but I can't modify them or uninstall them, so they're sitting there as dead space on my computer...leaving me with only 30 gigs left..which is what I had before I "reformatted" Oddly enough, even though everything in my Documents folder was wiped (or at the very least I can no longer access it) it's still somehow taking up room on my computer...which sucks, sine it takes up at least 20 gigs of the space on my computer...which makes more sense to me than my SO's kind of BS explanation that you "lose space as time goes by due to too many overwrites" (Even if I'd been using my computer for like 5 years, there's no way that my hard drie would have gone to 80 gigs of space to 30 (though realistically, windows takes up like 10..but whatever))

The GOOD news is that it seems that PSP7 is compatible with Vista (it installed at any rate..though I haven't used it yet) so I should be able to update fairly soon..if only my wireless USB thing was also compatible with Vista... as such..I'll be adding a poll to the right of here...

Anyways, here are a few things that are coming up...let me know what order you want these in!

• Stash photos--of both my makeup stash and nail polish stash (this will probably come first)
• Closeup pics of all 21 of my JCs
• swatches of my two new JCs, Turbulent (euro) and Caprice (Euro exclusive)
• my Stila palette swatches (already swatched, needs sorting and labels)
• my BB palette swatches
• comparison of Chanel Vega and Chanel Safari
• comparison of Smashbox Photo Finish eye primer to UDPP and Lumene eye base

Benefit Spring 2009 Creaseless Cream eyeshadows

The second part of my mall swatching experience involved heading into Sephora. The SAs there told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the store, so no product photos. (I'm not sure what the problem is really..it's not like I'm stealing) Either way, I decided to just swatch these today since there were 2 SAs hovering over me while I was in the store, which made me a little uncomfortable. They didn't ask me if I needed help, just kind of sneered at me. As such, I'll probably keep swatching trips to Sephora down to a minimum (though the SAs at this Sephora have always been particularly snarky) I will probably be eventually swatching Josie Maran stuff since it's not readily available in a lot of places (luckily I own about 1/2 the perm colors of e/s already so I can do that at home.) Anyways...here's the 3 limited edition cream shadows Benefit put out this year, applied kind of heavily for swatching, though it didn't come out quite as pigmented as it was rl. Sippin' n dippin' is a peach and gold duochrome. It looks a bit odd in the pot, but it's kind of pretty on. Samba-dy loves me is kind of a weird color to describe for me, maybe a milkyish slightly warm brown?, it mostly just boils down to a nice satiny slightly warm neutral shade. Flyin' down to fits it's description..it's a soft orchid color. The picture was taken in cool lighting and then color adjusted a bit so the temperature of the picture may be a bit off.

Chanel Summer 2009

So Today I decided to go down to the mall for some swatching..and so..here's some Chanel Summer stiff for you guys! I unfortunately didn't swatch any of the lipstuffs, cream shadows, or because I forgot to bring something to write down the names, and because I didn't want to remove my current polish before going to the mall (I'm ready for St. Paddy's day :P)
Picutres of the bottom stuff without the plastic blocking it. The JC is more coral RL...JCs really just don't photograph well

So what I DID swatch was the quad, the two singles, and In Love. The texture on the testers for the quad and the JC had very odd textures when I were swatching them; they had this weird rubbery sort of texture that I had trouble pulling color off of. I'm not really sure what the deal on those was. The quad, Plein Soleil, retails for $56 and is a quad of pink an pink bronzes. It seems like a quad that's difficult for a lot of people to wear. The soft touch singles, Island and Sand, had the regular soft, buttery texture. Island was a shimmery pink champagne color and Sand was a taupey matte tan. Both were very nice, but passable imo as they both seem very dupeable. The JC, In love was a somewhat reddish coral to me. The shimmer didn't really show up on me, but it could have been the strange texture of the tester. (I actually think there was something wrong with it) Either way, my impressions of this blush was that it was very similar to the coral blush in the Stila Blanc palette, but again...I find that it's a bit hard to tell given the wonky tester.

Here's a closeup of the LE stripey bronzer. I'm not sure what the name of this is, and I didn't swatch this because it was kind of light on my skin (it showed up, but it was an overcast day, I didn't know if it would photograph) It seemed like it'd be nice for light skintones, but it leans a bit orangey for me.

That's it for this little update I guess...should I go back and swatch the rest?

Clinique Brush-on Cream Liners

First off, thanks so much to those of you who read my blog. It's a great feeling to log on and see comments on my blog posts. (I really have no idea anyone's reading otherwise) I've been distracted by a new obsession lately (nail polish) and have completely wrecked my sleep schedule (evident from the fact that I'm posting at 5:19 AM I suppose) so I haven't really been swatching anything. Lucky for me I have a bunch of "back swatches" so today I'll be posting about Clinique's awesome cream liners.

Clinique's Cream liners have an excellent texture. They're much softer and fluid-like than Bobbi Brown's Long Wear Gel Liners and MAC's fluidlines. Additionally, they wear without smudging and are waterproof, which is a big must for me when it comes to liners. They retail for $14.50 and come in these itty bitty pots with a small brush that's kinda useless as a lining brush (though you might be able to use it for applying shadow to the lower lid? I have to hear back from cookie1234 about that idea though) I only own two of these babies because I already own BB's Black ink liner (and therefore don't REALLY need another black gel liner) and BB's Bronze Shimmer Ink is identical in color to Clinique's. Additionally, I tend to be a little iffy on brown liners for some reason and Black Honey shows up VERY red on my skin...so here's the two I DO own:

Smoke Grey is kinda a beautiful grey taupe in the pot, but most of the taupeyness just dissapears on me once on the skin. Nevertheless, it's still a beautiful, unique smokey grey that makes me love it so. I'm not really sure why I decided to swatch this on the back of my hand though...it's kind of a bad swatching place?
The second one I own is the much lusted after Egyptian. This liner is gorgeous and a must have for me as it is a very unique and complex color. It's a blackened bronze, possibly with a hint of grey taupe that is just all around gorgeous and I can't live without. I have a backup of this baby and I kind of wish gel liners had a longer shelf life so I could have gotten more. Either way, it's gorgeous and you should get this if you can. I was lucky enough to score this for cheap from CCO.

So long, poorly written post short, go buy yourself some Clinique cream liners. They are probably my favorite gel liners I've tried and are worth the money if you want to try a gel liner.

Cheap thrills- Sleek Gel Liners

My favorite type of eyeliner is the gel eyeliner, which is why I jumped at the chance when a sweet MUAer offered to CP me these Sleek gel eyeliners from the UK (it's a drugstore brand there) These babies retailed at less than £4 each (about $5) and come in 10 Shades:
- Dominatrix (black)
- Espresso (dark brown)
- Pumpkin (gold)
- Zest (yellow)
- Stone Cold (blue-gray)
- Purple Rain (purple)
- Glacier (white)
- Smitten (light pink)
- Denin (dark blue)
- Wave (light aqua/green)
I chose Stone cold, Denim and Wave to test out. These gel liners are waterproof and are on the drier side, though I adjusted the consistency with some eye drops (see my reviving gel liner tutorial) so that they were wetter and easier to work with. Unlike most gel liners, these have a somewhat unique texture to them.. they're still smudgy when dry..which makes them behave somewhat like a pencil liner for me. (They were like this before the eye drops as well..so the eye drops weren't responsible for this behavior)

Swatches under warm indoor lighting. Stone Cold is more blue on the lids and is a greyish blue...very unique and pretty.

Denim is a shimmery navy blue

Wave is a bright green, and is very pretty on.

Coastal Scents/ Generic palettes from Hong Kong

So I got both of my Coastal Scents/ generic ebay palettes about a week and a half ago (ordered off ebay of course) I got both palettes for a total of about $35 USD. Both palettes retail for $21.95 on Coastal Scents before any applicable taxes and high shipping cost. Bought from what I believe is the source, both palettes only cost about $6 USD each..but since I can't read simplified Chinese, I opted for ebay. It took a week and a half for the palettes to be delivered, and to be honest, I wasn't super impressed with them. Both palettes were encased in super flimsy plastic (it BENDS when you hold it), which kind of turned me off to it.
The 28 piece neutral palette is basically 28 shades that are base shades/nudes and warm browns, with the last shadow being an almost black shade. There isn't a single taupe shade in this palette (shocker!), though there are a couple shades that come close. A lot of the shades are chalky to the touch, although they aplly and blend just fine on the lid. The few shimmer shades in the palettes are softer. The payoff is also quite nice, but if I'd gotten a chance to test it in person before buying it, it's likely that I would have passed on this palette and instead bought something that I would have loved instead of felt somewhat indifferent to. Since I have the palette, I'll probably keep and use it, but it isn't something that would have appealed to me in person. It's one of those things that I feel is worth buying per se (I'd skip it if you already have a large stash), but if you already have it, it's worh keeping..and if you have a small stash and want some neutrals to play with..it's worth considering. Swatches were done in warm indoor lighting, though the colors aren't off by much (my skin is a different story)

The 26 shadow blush combo has less chalky shades than the 28 neutral palette, but more of the shades have shimmer in them. It has a lot of shades that are considerably warmer than the 28 neutral palette, but it also contains a few taupes. Oddly enough, there isn't a whole lot of overlap in the shades between these two palettes, even though they both seemed fairly neutral from their product images (you can probably see the difference in that first pic where I have them lined up next to each other) I prefer the 28 neutral palette to this one since there are more shades in this palette that I would not wear. Swatches of this palette were done under more neutral lighting.

Out of the 5 blushes in this palette, I really would only wear 2. To my fingers, these also felt a bit chalky, though they apply on my skin just fine. The first blush is far too light and doesn't show up on my skin. It's matte, so it doesn't even pass as a highlighter. The second blush is a matte warm dark peach shade. The third blush is a matte rose shade that leans cool. The last two blushes are very similar to two of the eyeshadows in the 3rd row of eyeshadows. The 4th blush is a shimmery red orange, that makes me look orangey sunburned. The plummy blush shade is wearable, but not particularly flattering on me.

I guess overall I'd say these palettes were mediocre. The quality isn't the best, but it's not the worst either. They're both wearable palettes, but to me, the price to quality ratio is precariously balanced. If the palettes were any more expensive than they were, I would not buy them. I was initially interested in these palettes since there were a few people that said that the quality of these palettes was comparable to MAC. It's not. (that or they haven't stuck their fingers in these suckers...though MAC does have a fair amount of duds and chalky shades..so I guess it depends on how you look at it..I'd say that overall MAC is better quality)