I met up with IR the night before to pick up several gorgeous cheese she brought me back from the Netherlands (when she told me she was visiting and asked what polishes I wanted, I was like "Nothing, JUST CHEESE."). Boy did she deliver.
From the upper left we have a young Manchego which I ate for breakfast on Sunday morning. It was sharp and creamy. Going clockwise is an aged Manchego (haven't tried it yet), two local goats cheeses from her neighborhood (a DREAM), and my favorite cheese in the world La Tur. YAY.
We visited a Duane Reade and several beauty supplies.
We hit up American Apparel, Anna Sui, and Uniqlo, which is a place I usually don't brave on a Saturday.
Rescue Beauty Lounge on Gansevort where I unsuccessfully tried to get them to sell me one of their four used Janes. To be quite honest, I wasn't expecting a win but the guy at the counter was ruder than he had to be (and I wasn't pushy at all - I asked once and that was it). IR was ticked off and decided to not buy a couple of the new colors because the guy was kind of a jag.
We ate terrible blackberries from China Town and Italian foods for lunch: IR and I shared a very large sandwich with bresaole (sp?), provolone and sun-dried tomatoes. MT snacked on some very tasty fresh ricotta. IR and MT had Jamba Juices and I suckled on a passion fruit bubble tea.
This was the state of our nails after our day of NP shopping and swatching:
I, being the preening diva I am, refused to ruin my mani (Zoya Caitlyn - which is LOVE btw, 2 easy coats shown). I made IR try out the testers at AA for me (I settled on Neon Coral, IR picked up 3). And both IR and MT were swatching the testers at Anna Sui, where I was largely uninterested (being a creme/jelly girl and all). They each picked an, admittedly, really cool chunky fuchsia pink glitter with tiny green specks.
When we got back to my apartment, we did a polish exchange. IR brought us countless bottles of ~overseas~ polish. And MT hauled from 8tyeight for IR (and she brought me Sea Spray! YAY!!).
Our collective haul:
Mine is on the left, IR's is in the middle, and MT's is on the right.
One of the polishes IR brought me was this one:
(2 coats)
I was so excited when I saw this. It was a perfect lettuce green with a hidden shimmer (very hidden, thus really it's a creme). But somewhere between application and drying I fell out of love. It was glue-y and didn't level (bubbles everywhere natch) and it dried kind of brighter. So what was more of a softer color in the bottle turned a little too scream-y (lettuce green in the bottle, and melon green on the nail if you will).
She also brought me a gorgeous purple holo from Teeez and this was the state of the brush:
It could not be saved. I tried. It was in knots. I decanted into an empty franken bottle.
MT had to leave to get back to Long Island so IR and I stayed at my house, swatching and ate dinner (vietnamese).
We discovered that Essie's Vermillionaire is very close to Lippmann's Lara's Theme.
Vermillionaire has a touch more white. A touch.
IR showed me her book of swaps and lemmings:
It was a really great day. And I can't believe IR's energy. She was still getting over her jet lag and did a, literally, 12 hour power day.
Hope to do it again soon!
