K2K's Drugstore Binge...it happened.

I have insomnia. I've had it all my life. In the last year or so I've found some drugs that work beautifully, helping me to sleep at night without being habit-forming. However, if I miss the time I need to take them, I just skip it because taking my pills late makes it hard for me to get my booty up for work in the morning - consequently I get no sleep.

Such a sleepless night occurred recently, and I had this itch - nay, urge - to buy polish. I had secretly been lusting after a couple of drug store beauties, but I didn't want to stray from my very strict "brand rule". (Created to limit my spending, and, more importantly, so all the bottles look pretty and uniform in their little box...Yeah.) I broke down - for the first time, really - and drove around the town(s) like a madwoman.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mystic Lilac:

(in normal light)

(washed out, but you can see the green shimmer nicely here)

Murky lavender with a very interesting green shimmer. Pretty, unique, but it might be a little too "My Little Pony" for me? I know its really popular, and I can see why, but I'm not totally feeling it for some reason. I honestly thought this would be my fav of the bunch.


Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Gala:

(two-finger swatch!)

(check out how glittery this is - wow!)

Dense but fine purple and gold glitter in a purple base. Totally not me, but kind of appealing and definitely fun. The fine grain of the glitter makes this one much more wearable, but like ML, it also reminds me of the days of Lisa Frank and I'm not sure if I can pull it off!

Maybelline Express Finish Gray-T Glamour:

(OK I swapped for this one - I went to like 4 drugstores this fateful night trying to find it. I was in a frenzy of rage.)

I've been looking for a good grey, and I had high hopes for this one. While I do like it - and I really like that it has a little secret shimmer - it is probably a little too blue-toned for my taste. (Keep in mind everything turns bluer on me...I was hoping it would look gorgeous like it did on Adrienne here, but no dice.) This will stay in my arsenal until a better grey comes along.

Drugstore binge verdict? Meh. I know I can't judge all drugstore polishes by these 3, but the brushes on both brands annoyed me - not the brushes themselves, but the wands pick up so much product, making it difficult to get the right amount of polish onto your nail. Also, even though I used my normal base coat/top coat combos, my Gray-T Glamour full mani chipped on day 2. Lamesauce.

This kind of feels like the morning after a night out. I drank too much, ate greasy food, and now I've woken up and I'm not sure if I regret the whole thing, even if it was fun. I figured, for a couple bucks each (I think the Xtreme Wears were $3 a pop?), I could try them out, and if I fell in love, fab - if not, then I can just swap them or give them to someone and I'll still have gotten my moneys worth. Still, I'm not sure I'm going to do this ever again...I feel a little full and bloated.

What do you think of my drugstore binge? Do you have a 'brand rule' or any rule you stick to in order to limit your spending?

kittytokaren

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Maybelline Fall

I know these polishes came out last month and I am posting them a bit late (you should know this by now =P) I only picked up two shades from Maybelline's latest release. A dark green creme (of course) and a grey shimmer. First up is Gray-T Glamour, the grey shimmer, in natural lighting and then again in full sunlight. This applied very well and was perfect in two coats. The shimmer just didn't want to photograph, sorry!

Gray-T Glamour

And here is Grand in Green which is a very very dark green that looks almost black. Why do I do this to myself?? :( Don't know why it looks like there is shimmer in this picture, but I guarantee you that there is none and is indeed a creme. This also applied well in two coats.

Grand in Green

The rest of the collection had a few other colors that looked almost black which I passed on. There was also a brick red that was in the same collection as Gray-T Glamour, but I already have a favorite brick red. I like that Maybelline has been coming out with more trendy colors this past year. Definitely gives the drug store shopper more options than usual.

Anyone else catch this recent collection from Maybelline? Which are your favorites?

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Maybelline La La Lime

I have a random drug store nail polish for you today! This color was from a collection I saw at my local drug store about...... 3 months ago? haha I usually end up buying nail polish and then forgetting about it until I'm cleaning!

The application and formula on the last two Maybellines I tried (Minty and Sweety Pie) was AWFUL, I was reluctant to buy one from the collection this was in. Application and formula was not as good as salon brand, but it was definitely better than Minty and Sweety Pie. This was two coats over a base and with top coat. I feel like the bottle color is more accurate than the color on my nail... or are my eyes going bad? Regardless, this is a fun color to have around when I need something green!

Does anyone else have better luck with Maybelline than me? If so, how?!?!?!

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Some drugstore yellows: Maybelline Banana Bamba and L'Oreal Yellow Buzz L'Oreal

Maybelline Banana Bamba

Cool yellow. I love yellow cremes. But not this one. This is four coats and the formula had a weird gritty, bumpy texture that kind of gave me the creeps. I think this was part of the Sun Salsa collection from earlier this spring.

L'Oreal Yellow Buzz

Warm yellow. Eh. The formula was kind of thick and sticky and it took four coats to even out. Also not a favorite.

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8 Polish Survey Giveaway Winner (and a recent NOTD: Maybelline Vanishing Venus)

Congratulations to Lauren K. for winning the survey giveaway!

And a BIG BIG BIG thank you to everyone who participated in my survey! I collected over 200 responses in about a week's time and I will be presenting your data for my second year talk on Wednesday as well as at a professional conference this summer! I am so grateful to each and every one of you!

In the meanwhile, I've been busy as an overworked bee writing the first draft of my second year paper. I'm still hoping to get it out to my advisor and second reader before I go to bed tonight though it's not in any condition to be submitted formally.

And so this isn't just text:

Maybelline Vanishing Venus

One of the best $1 I've ever spent (the rest of the $4 for the $5 5-set of polishes... eh). Thank you, Ross Dress for less! I had lemminged this for awhile but pretty much gave up on ever finding it. Then there it was, staring me in the face... I love when things work out like this! Maroon base with very obvious teal shimmer that just shines beautifully against the dark base. In lower lights, the shimmer is bluer; in direct sunlight, it lightens to a greenish gold. Very cool polish! Three coats.

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Some old Maybelline swatches: Bolt of Blue and Mediterranean Coral

Mmm, dollar store loot!

Maybelline Bolt of Blue

This one I loved in the bottle but not so much on the nail. It's a light blue shimmer that is chock full of blue and silver shimmer. Actually, quite glittery but very gritty in both appearance and texture. (It might be helped by topcoat but this is just a swatch, hence, no topcoat.) Two coats, could've used three.

Maybelline Mediterranean Coral

I actually really love this color in theory: a gorgeous rich coral with gold shimmer. But I don't like it as much on my nail: as much as I enjoy corals and oranges, many of them don't really seem to flatter my skintone. I always feel like my hands look old and grey with these types of colors. Very easy application. Again, two coats, could've used three...

I wish there were all sorts of awesome dollar stores around me that were easily accessible by me (i.e. without a car). I just LOVE finding cheap polishes... and, you know, having store clerks look at me like I'm stupid when I'm trying to buy 16 blue polishes. (Hey, just because they all look the same to you, doesn't mean they are the same!!)

...anyway, I feel awkward about asking but are there any readers in Germany who can buy the new Agnes B striped magnetic polishes for me? (Obviously, I will pay you for it and for related expenses!) I read on Nail Board that it was only available in Germany. :( They just look too cool not to put some effort into finding!

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AAAAAHHHHH!! First Dollar Tree score EVER!!

I've been to a handful of local Dollar Trees, never ever finding anything resembling decent nail polish. But today... today was a great day. Owing to a childhood and young adulthood in cities that were pedestrian cities with great public transportation, I never learned to drive. So I can't do the sort of prolific dusty hunting that some folks are able to do.

Anyway, yesterday, my SO offered to take me around the nearest major city (about 45 minutes away) to go to ANY place I wanted to look for nail polish. Seriously, his idea, not mine. I don't like asking my SO to take me any place, especially if it's just for my shopping purposes. But I decided to take him up on it today.

So we hit a Ross, a random dollar store (where I bought a couple of KleanColor nail polishes), a Sally Beauty (where I got nail whitening stuff and a Nina Ultra Pro Vintage Velvet), a huge-ass mall (where I got OPI Banana Bandana for $3) and a random dusty beauty supply that had a ton of (mostly boring) old OPIs... and Smitten with Mittens! Anyway, after these stops, my SO was looking a bit tired so I was like, "Okay, let's hit ONE Dollar Tree and we'll head home." He asked which one and I told him to just pick one that was on the way home.

BOY, he did a GOOD job. Sure knows how to pick 'em! And voila, I have just landed home with my very first awesome DT haul.

Baroque Frost, Edgy Creme, Embellish Frost, Make a Mint Frost and Risky Frost

Button Fly, Hip Huggers (yes, another one), Indigo Blues

Diva Gold, Jaded Blues, Marble, Purple Comet, Purple Aluminum

Boot Leg, Five Pocket, Jean Jacket, Stone Washed

...and then I came home to a package containing the BB Couture collection that benefits Haiti (well, 25% of it anyway) and a package from an NBer with TiNS nail polishes. So between yesterday's haul and today's haul... my collection has grown... omg, I'm not going to count. That's a LOT.

Okay, time to get down to actual work. I'd rather than play with my pretties though... heaven knows I have a lot of new ones. Not that I can do much playing with this dumb broken nail; I'm trying my best not to aggravate it. Well, because of this break, I have established that my nails grow at about a millimeter a week. (Damn it, grow faster!!) Anyway, to work! Though maybe I should reorganize my untrieds first...

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Old NOTD (with nail art): Maybelline Hip Huggers

I posted this as an iNOTD but never got around to reposting a real photo of it (which shows its true color much, much better). I had been lemming this bad and a wonderful NBer sent one to me.

Maybelline Hip Huggers

Dusty light blurple creme with very fine hidden shimmer. This is on the second day of wear with rub-on decals from That's It? Nail Art.

Anyway, the real reason I'm posting is that I officially am doing a different project for my second year project! Yay! I had been so depressed about having to do more on my first year project (which I got bored of). After a long talk with my advisor today, we charted out a place to start for my second year project, on something that I'm much more enthusiastic about. Still on conversational interactions, obviously, but I'm not bound to one specific discourse marker anymore. I won't talk that much about it here because I'm going to have my first survey up for you guys to answer by the end of the weekend and it's better if you don't know that much about what I'm looking at yet. (You know, beyond concerns that I might be out-scooped... which I do acknowledge are real but I'm not overly worried about them. Some commenter mentioned that possibility and I never had a chance to answer everyone on that post...)

One of the reasons I think I belong in academia is that I'm a spoiled brat: I am very bad at doing work that I don't personally find compelling. So bad that a former professor of mine once said that she would NEVER hire me as an employee but that she wouldn't hesitate collaborate with me. ...brat, big brat. That's me.

I'm still sick (ugh, go away, stupid cold) but the sort of oppressive pressure that's been on my head for the last four weeks has lifted significantly and I am just feeling so much better about my work now. Now, there's a mad panic to get work DONE in time but at least it's work that I want to do! :D

I am so grateful to my advisor for being so willing to listen to my half-baked ideas and to actually help me try to make something of them, rather than forcing me to do her work and/or shooting my ideas down. I'm so grateful that if I need it, she'll meet with me every single week. I'm so grateful to her enthusiasm for her students and her faith in our abilities. I've heard a lot of nightmare stories on PhD advisors... and my advisor's such a dream. I have been so lucky to have supportive mentors.

Sometimes, I feel like a fraud: if I didn't have such good mentors, I wouldn't be here. And if I couldn't be here on my own steam, maybe I don't deserve to be here. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not. :P But who cares? Because today is officially a Good Day. And it's been a long time since I've had one of those.

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Graduate-level procrastination: RBL Killa Red... and then with Maybelline Colorama Sonic Sunset... and then with ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe

I have been trying to get my head back into my research and it's just not working. I spent today half-reading the papers I need for class tomorrow (discourse markers and whether men and women talk differently -- there's little solid evidence that they actually do, but people hear what they want to hear and if they want to hear women as being less confident and more meandering than men, that's how women will sound to those people). And I've been fishing through the PsycINFO database on working memory and sentence processing (lots of stuff on "non-normal" populations like those with Alzheimer's or kids with ADHD, which is only marginally useful for me since I study "normals"). Also, beating myself over the head for not being done with corpus analysis data that should've been done half a year ago. Not a very productive day. I just couldn't decide what I needed to put my energy on... and couldn't seem to force myself to sit down and whatever task needed to be done. 

It was a similar day for my nails. First, I put on one of my newly acquired RBLs from the RBL sale...

Rescue Beauty Lounge Killa Red

A tad darker IRL. Red jelly, visible nail line at three coats. Diamont was being a bitch and left tons of bubbles on a couple of nails. One of the easier red jellies in terms of application but hardly the one-coat wonder that people attribute to RBLs. So far, I've liked a lot of the RBLs I've tried... but very few feel like they're worth it to me at $18 and shipping. Which is why I'll leave my RBL hauling for the big sales. Anyway, the bubbling bugged me big time -- that and I don't really like plain red nails -- so I decided I needed to layer something over it...

Maybelline Colorama Sonic Sunset layered over RBL Killa Red 

This is one of the Colorama nail polishes I got at the same dusty as I got the Street Wears. 20¢, totally worth every single penny and then some. Flakies always enliven a polish of contrasting color. I had a super hard time showing the green-gold duochrome side of the polish so I took some photos from non-conventional angles (for me):

I love how changeable it is. Red and orange, then green and gold. So pretty. 

Close-up of Sonic Sunset over Killa Red

But then... I got bored of this combination too. So, I decided to mattefy it with my new mattefying topcoat:

Maybelline Colorama Sonic Sunset layered over RBL Killa Red, with ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe topcoat

I just love mattefied flakies! I think they look so cool. This is a great matte topcoat and offers a really nice, truly matte finish. A little overpriced, imo, considering you can get Essie Matte About You for nearly half that price: $13.13 and shipping. It's a good alternative if you like to support small boutique brands though. 

...back to work. I should at least finish my readings for tomorrow's class before my SO gets home. I like to spend time with him in the evenings though I think it might behoove me to keep working after he goes to bed... it's much better for my productivity but less fabulous on my mental health. (Sometimes I wonder how different grad school would be if I were still single. It's much easier to live a selfish, self-centered life. And I'm not saying that in a horrible judgmental way: I think there's nothing wrong with being single and if I hadn't met my SO, I would have been perfectly happy to stay single.) 

This is what I'll do. I'll go through the articles I need for class tomorrow and then I'll sit down and decide exactly which memory tests I want to use. That sounds like a good goal. Should've been done with it three hours ago but no use crying over spilt time. :P 

ETA: LOL! I had to share one of the more ridiculous "layman's terms" comparisons I've read in awhile: 

"According to an analogy proposed by Kahneman (1973) in explaining his capacity theory of attention, a person with a larger memory capacity for language may be able to draw on a larger supply of resources, like a homeowner who can draw on more amperes of current than a neighbor and can thus generate more units of heating or cooling." 

from Just & Carpenter (1992) 

...more amperes of current and can thus generate more units of heating or cooling? There was no other more accessible comparison of having more resources and thus being able to do more because one has more? Sometimes I think cognitive psychology really suffers from an inferiority complex: it wants to be a science, it IS a science, but it has the word "psychology" in it so people have to try to liken it to the natural sciences to give it validity. (Yeah, yeah, I'm going back to work now...)

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Blue polishes with silver glitter comparisons

Sooo a while ago, someone commented on the right side bar that they wanted some Essie Starry Starry Nights dupes. Well I've finally gotten around to it! Essie Starry Starry Nights is a much sought after nail polish, and has been discontinued by Essie since I don't know? If someone does know, feel free to let us know! :) I've gathered polishes from my stash that might be possible dupes to Essie SSN. I'll try to be as accurate as possible with my descriptions of each polish. Here are the photos that I took. Try and guess which ones are which! To find their identities and to make them bigger, click on the photos! :)

Indirect light


Direct sunlight

I got my bottle of SSN on a trip to the nail salon to get my eyebrows and mustache waxed. I quickly glanced at their wall of polishes, and there amongst them all I spotted it and brought it home with me :) Sadly, there is only half a bottle left and I had to put some thinner in it. Also, the similar polishes that I have used in this comparison are almost as hard to find as Essie SSN itself, so sorry!!


In order of most similar to least similar:

Essie Starry Starry Nights This has round silver glitter in a blue jelly base. It took me two coats to reach opacity. What sets this apart from the others is its beautiful blue jelly base that allows to the silver glitter to shine through, even when it's covered by the blue jelly base. A true stunner and I can see why everyone loves it!

Naturistics Crystal Blue Pearl This also has round silver glitter in it, but what makes this one different is that it is in a blurple jelly base. When on the nail you can see that it is darker than Essie SSN. Other than the difference in base, it has all the other same qualities as SSN. I don't even know where this polish is from, but I got mine on eBay.

Orly Silent Night This polish is significantly darker than SSN and its silver glitter is much smaller than in both SSN and Crystal Blue Pearl. It was also a lot more sheer and took me four coats to get opaque. But once I finished my mani with it, and the light hit it, the finer glitter just kept twinkling! No idea how long gone this has been either, I got mine from a lovely MUAer. It's an older style Orly in the larger bottles, which makes me happy :)

And lastly,

Maybelline Matte Sapphire I know, this is a matte polish, but I put topcoat on it so that it wasn't matte. I could've gotten away with one coat of polish, but I was careless so I had to do two. This is a dark blue nail polish with silver glitter in it. It doesn't have as much glitter in it as the other three do so it isn't as twinkling as the others. And it definitely isn't a jelly. I got my bottle from a Dollar Tree, but I think this is from the 90s when Maybelline had all those other mattes too?

Honorable mentions that I don't have, but have seen photos of online: Maybelline Twinkle Twinkle, Maybelline Zip Fly, Sephora Blue Sapphire, Chanel Ciel de Nuit.

So even though I did a comparison, i'm sure it didn't help because I didn't compare anything similar that could be easily accessible to everyone. I'm sorry :( But if you can find Essie Starry Starry nights or a polish similar to and find that you love it, please share your thoughts with us because I'm sure there are others who would love to know as well!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week :)

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I love Polish Swapping

There are two reasons I love MUA.

1. The Nail Board - Countless swatches aka "spam", tips and tricks, support, and the occasional hilarious character
2. The Swapping Community

On MUA you can swap your unwanted or ignored polish with others. It's a great way to try different polishes w/out the guilt.

Sometimes, I acquire a long sought after polish like Claire's Magic. (Which I put on my "wish list".)



(So nice I posted it twice. 2 coats.)

Or Sinful Colors' Daddy's Girl

(No Flash. Comparison w/ Milani's Totally Cool. DG = Middle and Pink, TC = Ring and Index. DG = 4 coats, TC = 3 coats.)


(Flash. Comparison w/ Milani's Totally Cool. DG = Middle and Pink, TC = Ring and Index. DG = 4 coats, TC = 3 coats.)

Or recent must-have China Glaze's Atlantis

(2 coats.)

Other times generous swappers include "extras" not discussed in the original swap agreement, like Maybelline Express Finish's Crimson Cramoisi

(2 coats.)

Or Fasville U.S.A. Vitamin Hardener's (lmao) Rose Wine

(2 coats. I think this is such a pretty color.)

Once every blue moon you can even get your hands on the occasional HTF like OPI's *holo* My Private Jet
...


...
(OK - sorry, too lazy to swatch this one. Plus you've seen it a million times!)

I'm still working on building up my swapping cred (w/ positive tokens) so other swappers will trust me more. Flinty, on the other hand, is a veteran swapper and actually the very first person I ever swapped with! Zoya's Nina is only one of the polishes I got from dearest Flint.

(3 Coats. This color makes me excited for work to start!)

SWAP SPAM!

Maybelline Express Finish's Purple Passion

(2 coats. Frankly I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. Back into the swap drawer?)

OPI DS Fantasy

(1 coat bitches.)

Orly's Star of Bombay

(3 coats.)


All my MUA swappers hola at me!

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Old NOTD: Maybelline Banana Puddin'

Found this on eBay one night for a reasonable price (including shipping from the UK)! I'm not usually one to care for HTFs but in my everlasting quest to find awesome yellows, I felt I needed to add this one to the collex!

Maybelline Banana Puddin'

First off... BUBBLE CITY. I never had huge problems with bubbles and then all of a sudden, all the accumulated bubbles from manis past came to plague this mani! Could have something to do with the fact that it took six coats to get this completely opaque. It applies very smoothly and evenly but it's so sheer! Luckily, the formula's super easy to work with so six coats was relatively easy, though longer than I usually spend on manis. I love this color though: a great pastel that doesn't look chalky.

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