HAUL: Nails Nails Nails

So it would be a pretty big understatement to say that I bought a lot of nail stuff this past week. Let me just recap a bit: earlier in the week, Kali (from Kali's Nail Supply) had tweeted that she put more nail polishes in the $2 box. I LOVE the $2 box. The things that go in there are actually still good stuff, it just may be discontinued, or the packaging was done wrong, so they can't sell it at full price anymore. And, in commemoration of their 25th anniversary, they did a 50% off the entire store for their "First Sunday/Monday" sale they do monthly. I HAD to take the opportunity to check it out. So, the big sale was today, and I really wanted to get more stuff, but I really had to limit myself to just essentials. So, I got nail polish remover, a file, LOTS of top coat, and glitters. Here's what I got from all this maddness:

DISCLAIMER: I still haven't gotten the hang of taking these types of pictures, so some of them look a little overexposed, some underexposed, and some are out of focus...SORRY!!

$2 Polishes

Left to right: Breakdown Blue (light blue to pink), Patient Pink (light pink to white), Fearless Fuschia (fuschia to pink), Paranoid Purple (purple to pink)

These Jessica Polishes were kind of a disappointment unfortunately. They're supposed to be color changing , according to their temperature, but they don't work that well. The other thing was that they're really sheer, so it took I think 4 coats to get it nice.

Left to right: Manhattan, OC Codler, South Beach, Bridgit

Left to right: Chily Secret, Times Square

Left to right: Hello Hello, A Lot Of Shekels, Bright Tights

Left to right: Shower Popper, Handle With Flair, Lacy Not Racy

Left to right: Baby Girl Pink, Spring Lining Lavender, Baby Girl Pink, Purple Glitter

I know what you're thinking...they're the same color? I don't have a definite answer, but my guess is that it one of the two was incorrectly produced, and since they had different labeling (on the bottom), I assume one was in the box because it was "old" and the other because the color was wrong. That's purely my guess.

These are the nail art ones. The three on the left have a nail art brush and a pen in the top. I have one of these, and the color got really whack after a while, I think it was because of how I stored it (in sunlight), so I'm hoping for the better in these. The one on the right is a glitter, I think it's a clear base with purple glitter. All are by Nubar.

So, after all that madness, I don't have room in my box anymore. It's totally full, and I still have other stuff to store. I am on the search for more storage!

Here's those essentials that I got from today's sale:

Zoya remove + is one of the best nail polish removers I ever used. As you can see I got that small bottle a while back, and I like that flip top thing, you can push down on it and it will dispense the product. This is way better than placing your nail wipe (or cotton ball) on your bottle opening and flipping it over, risking spillage and dried out skin. It's not just the bottle I like though, it's the product. It removes nail polish without really drying out my skin a lot. I used to use the pure acetone, which is actually not too good for your skin, or your eyes (your cornea to be exact), but it was the fastest way to remove polish and glitter. Now that I found this one, I think I will stick to it because it removes glitter pretty well too, not as great as pure acetone, but it doesn't take years to get the stuff off my nails :) I bought the big bottles because I can just refill, that's no issue, and it's a better value ;)

The BEST top coat EVER! Enough said!! Hah...This really is my favorite. It not only dries quickly, but it's super shiny, and it self levels, so when I use glitters, my nail is left pretty smooth after I apply this top coat :D

Now, I know glitter isn't really an essential, but to me it IS!! I love China Glaze's Nova, and I wanted to try Techno. They're both silver holographic glitters, but Techno has medium and large hexagonal pieces, and Nova just has the medium ones. Also on the far left is Nubar (I WILL GET THE NAME SOON!!). Just figured I'd try it since it was half off ;)

Also, a few weeks ago, Zoya did this massive sale online to its account holders. They were pressuring all their facebook followers to make sure they had accounts because that was the only way you had access to the sale. The deal was buy one get one free for their entire summer collection for this year...PLUS only $2 for shipping. I couldn't believe my eyes, AND to note...they shipped to Hawaii, which is quite spectacular because many companies do not ship nail stuff here. Of course this sale was pretty neat, but unfortunately, I don't have all the money in the world, so I only got these four colors:

Left to right: Apple, Faye, Mira, Areej

Some Nail Pics

I finally have time to upload some pictures that I've been dying to upload :) Unfortunately, I am still not able to upload from my older camera, but I have ordered a new memory card reader, so hopefully...SOON!

Here's two of my most recent nails that I've worn.

On this set of nails (it gets complicated), here's the break down:

• On thumb, middle, ring, and pinky: Sunset Sail (Anchors Away), Knotty (Anchors Away), and Black Mesh (Crackle Glaze). All by China Glaze
• On pointer/index: Sunset Sail (Anchors Away), White Cap (Anchors Away), and Nova. All by China Glaze.

I ended up really liking the more subtle colors from the Anchors Away collection. The other color from that collection I got was Below Deck, which is a mauve-y color. And, for now...I only have Black Mesh from the Crackle Glazes. I have on back order Cracked Concrete and Fault Line...looking forward to those :)

On this set of nails, I'm wearing Catlin (Intimate Collection) and La Pop both by Zoya.

I normally don't really take into consideration the brand of polish that I'm wearing, just so happens that on these two sets of nails I was consistent with brand :)

More Spring 2011 Nail Collections

AAAHHHHHH!!! This is gonna put me in the hole I swear! Anyway, I finally found some blogs with more previews of spring collections. I found the Essie French Affair collection, and the Orly Precious collection on temptalia.com and nailswatches.com respectively. I am real liking the colors from the Essie collection. Not too much from the Orly one.

Ok...speaking of nail collections, I am a little late, but I think the appeal came onto me a little late...anyway: I ended up buying a few of the China Glaze holiday 2010 collection colors. Some I bought at Kali's and the others I got from a nail salon, which I think sparked this "appeal." When the collection first came out, I really liked the Party Hearty topcoat because like Leesha from xsparkage said...it's like Christmas in a bottle! Also the fact that it sold out at Kali's right after it came in, kinda made me want it more. So anyway, when I was getting a pedicure at a nail salon in town, I noticed Christmas-y stuff to my left and I almost jumped in amazement...it was a China Glaze gift set, with Phat Santa (a creme finish red), Jolly Holly (a dark green, with a little micro-shimmer), and yessss: Party Hearty (a clear topcoat that has small gold and green glitters, and big red chunky glitter). It's really a cool topcoat. I grabbed this set, and it was oober cheap because the topcoat was like a free gift, so it was only like $12 (regular price of one China Galze color is like $6.50). I also picked up Little Drummer Boy (a deep blue with blue micro-shimmer), and Naughty and Nice (a creme finish deep maroon, it's actually been described as plum, but I see maroon). Only after swatching the Jolly Holly I realized how pretty of a color it actually is, and I liked Little Drummer Boy from the beginning, it's like a shimmery alternative to Calypso Blue, which I also love. And the Naughty and Nice actually surprised me at how dark it is. It's one of those almost black colors for me, and I love those kinds of colors :) I haven't worn Jolly Holly yet (just swatched it for my display wheels I talked about in the last post), but I think it will be on my nails next :)

So, I also wanted to mention that I picked up a few colors from Anchors Away and Intimate. From Anchors Away I got Below Deck and Knotty. From Intimate I got Jules and Catlin. I like every color I picked up. I wanted to get Sea Spray, but I kinda forgot about that color (I had it written down, but I guess it really didn't impress me much), so maybe later, or not. It kinda reminds me of Catlin anyway.

I actually only wore three of those four. I haven't gotten a chance to wear Jules yet, but a kinda weird thing happened. When I was painting my "Nudes" color wheel, I painted China Glaze Stellar right next to it, and when I was coming around to do the second coat, I accidentally put my second coat of Stellar on Jules! That's what I get for trying to do this at night, when I'm dead tired AND have horrible lighting. But it turned out for the better, it's actually a really nice combo ;) Also, Jules by itself looks really nice.

As a side note: got a notice from MAC talking about the release of a new Viva Glam Gaga color! It's more of a nude, and I think I like it better than the first one, which was too white for me. I like the Viva Glam line because it seems like it's a universal line, so more people will buy it (since it's for charity). So I may be talking about that soon! Which reminds me, I should talk about the Wonder Woman stuff I got...well I actually only picked up one quad because I couldn't see myself spending that much money...

Looks like I have a lot to talk about...glad my period of midterms is gonna be over soon, giving me more time to update this blog!

Nail Color Wheels

So on Tuesday I got my set of 10 color wheels that I ordered on ebay :) I was so happy, now I can swatch my nail polishes, and I don't have to look at each bottle and try to remember what it looks like, how opaque it is, etc.

So I am currently in the process of trying to inventory all the colors I have, and when I finish I will post pictures :) What I am going to do is separate them by color family, and then I will have a wheel for my dark dark colors (that I LOVE to wear on short nails), and one for my glitters. I was a bit amazed at the fact that I came very close to filling up a whole wheel with my glitters...I do love them...a LOT! So what's actually going to happen is that I will have repeating colors throughout the different wheels...some may say that' a waste of a nail, but I think it will help me better decide when I know what mood I am in :)

So...they're actually almost done so pretty soon I will post :)

China Glaze Anchors Away + My Nail Heaven

I posted this on my regular blog right before I started putting beauty things in here, so I'll put a link to that entry. I am really looking forward to this collection, and hope that I can find those colors at Kali's next month!

http://katsuchiika.blogspot.com/2011/01/update-nail-polish-news.html

By the way, for those of you who don't know Kali's Nail Supply, it is thee nail place that I go to for those "high-end" nail polishes, and also for cuticle things too. It's located at 547 Halekauila Street, near Restaurant Row. They have free parking in their lot behind the store. And to also note, they have a monthly sale, on the first Sunday of the month, where you can get 20% off everything you buy...what a DEAL!!! Here's their site: http://www.kalinailsupply.com/ They're really cool people, and easy to talk to. So even licensed professionals get a deal too on these Sunday sales.