Soo Nails Foils

I was reorganizing my helmer for the millionth time when I realized I had a surprising number of these metallic-y foils (they're sort of an in between, they're textured like a foil, but not as glittery - they remind me of those yummy chocolate eggs).

Soo Nails is a random brand I've found in a few beauty shops around NYC. I've seen them pump out a couple near dupes (I don't own either to be 100% sure but I swear they have RBL Mismas and ONS near-dupes), I've also found an exact dupe of Zoya Miley. The labels this brand uses are faded and cheap, the names are unreadable on most of my bottles. So I'll just describe them by bottle color.

These are all photos of NOTDs (not swatches).

Turquoise


(2 coats)

Gold


I used the gold Soo in water marble posted a few weeks ago.


Pink

(2 coats)

I think this one might be my favorite.

Blue







(2 coats with a holo top coat)

2 problems, (1) there was no good lighting when I took these pictures, so I made up for it by taking a million photos (sorry!) and (2) there's a holo topcoat on it. So it's not accurate really. Oh well...

Magenta



(1 coat)

This one has the best coverage but I like it the least on me.

(You may have noticed that I'm posting more infrequently. That's because this job is killing me. Literally. In order to keep their lawyers from staging a revolt the firm stuffs us full of free food. They're trying to keep us fat and happy. We're like lethargic cattle. Further, I don't get out as much as I used to. I can feel myself liquefying. Oh well. I knew what I was getting into when I signed up and I'm generally happy more often than I am upset, so that's a win. I like what I do, except for something very evil called "Diligence." Also, I'm in love with this senior associate in my office and I suppose that makes daily life interesting. All in all I suppose I musn't complain. Plus the nail polish expenditures don't hurt nearly as much as they used to.)

read more "Soo Nails Foils"

iNOTD & NOTD - Nfu-Oh Glitter Series 13 & Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away

***OUR BANNER CONTEST ENDS ONLY TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!! WUTCHU WAITIN FO?***

Flint always posts awesome iNOTDs so I thought I would post mine. Today I am wearing Nfu-Oh's Glitter Series 13.

iNOTD - GS 13

(4 coats)

I actually topped GS 13 with my Soo Nails silver glitter (a fine glitter in a clear base that gets opaque at 3 coats). The photos of GS 13 online seemed a lot cooler. (And I'm always lusting after the ultimate gold.) It seemed perfect... a cool gold with fairly chunky, uniform, silver glitter. Unfortunately, it turned out a bit more yellow than I was expecting, which was pretty bad against my skin. On top of the 4 coats of GS 13 (still wasn't opaque at that - I think this is suppose to be a top coat or something), I put a coat of the silver glitter to bring down the yellow factor. I think it looks pretty!

This photo was taken at my office! Things are a bit slow at the moment, so I thought ah what the hell. You'll also notice that this is quite a flashy mani for the office.

Well me and SFW polishes lasted exactly 8 days. Exactly. And then I said "fuck it" and wore what I wanted. One month in and I'm already doing glitters. Although, yesterday I wore some mattefied Inglot and Nfu-Oh flakies over a dark red and I felt SUPER weird. I wont be doing that again. That was several steps too far.

I broke the SFW seal with Diamond Cosmetics' Don't Teal My Heart Away

(1 coat)

This was ONE coat. ONE!!!! Insane, I've had great experiences with other DC polishes so if any of you under a rock dwellers haven't pulled the trigger on a DC order, DO ITTTTTT.

***OUR BANNER CONTEST ENDS ONLY TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!! WUTCHU WAITIN FO?***

read more "iNOTD & NOTD - Nfu-Oh Glitter Series 13 & Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away"

Soo Nails' Gold and Blue Foil and Post-Bar Haul

(FYI - the 3rd polish from the left is wayyyyy more purple in person.)

Soo Nails' is a completely random brand of polish. It's distributed by some people in Brooklyn and I have never seen it anywhere except my very local (around the corner!) beauty supply shop. There is no mention of it on the internet. I'm sure, like most other local polishes, they buy colors from some manufacturer and slap their label on it. No matter. My shop charges 2 bucks a pop for them and they come in some pretty sweet shades.

I was really excited by the two colors on the left. I love foil finish and they looked really foily in the bottle. There was some mild disappointment when they came out much smoother and more metallic-y on the nail. However, that was offset by my giddiness about the gold one. I am forever searching for a gold polish that looks good on me. I love the color but they always end up looking kind of dirty and rank against my skin. This one has quickly risen to the top! It's a few shades lighter than Lippmann's Nefertiti - a color that is no good on me. I'm really mad at myself for getting it, I knew I should have gotten Believe instead but noooo I had to get the one more people mentioned. Ugh whatever, lesson learned.

They both went on really smoothly, were two coaters (or one thick coat), and they dried on their own crazy fast. I did a proper mani w/ these so I can't wait to see what the wear is like.

Things I did yesterday, my first day as a woman free of bar study:

1. Wake up after 10. The first time all summer. Glorious.

2. Wait for FreshDirect. If you ever move to the NYC area, bookmark that website. I love it. NYC grocery shopping is a bleak, bleak place unless you live close to a WholeFoods and I don't.

3. Get a pedicure. I hadn't had one in a month and a half. My feet looked like hell and I was sick to death of Zoya's Charisma on my toes (a color I do love). I had them do Milani's Disco Lights. (I'll spare you a pick of my feet.) I adore getting a uniform colored glitter on my toes. It wears like f*cking iron and it's nice and glittery without looking childish. NYC is home to a lot of airbrushed nails and toes - a look that isn't my favorite. I feel like I have as much fun looking at my toes as the airbrushed ladies do but I wouldn't feel weird breaking them out in a nice sandal at an event where I have to look reasonably adult and professional.

4. Go nail hauling. This was a very good time until I went to my last stop: My friend's apartment. He has a doorman so I had a bunch of polish shipped to him (so I wouldn't have to deal w/ a UPS nightmare). Picking up 6 nice polishes and another 6 cheapy polishes as a reward for a long ass summer was lots of fun. Collecting another couple dozen made me feel kind of bad about myself. I suspect I wont be buying any polish for a long while.

4a. First stop - my local beauty shop where I picked up 6 fun colors (4 shown above).

4b. Next stop - RBL near Chinatown. Yikes. It's located on a really quaint street that looks like rent would be reallllly pricey. But idk, inside the ~lounge~ didn't feel nearly as luxurious as I was expecting. High standards I guess for a place that charges, what, $50 for a base pedicure? Plus while the colors are even more gorgeous in person, the display bottles looked REALLY sad and old. They were separating and gunky and just... yikes. If I wasn't fiending for the SpongeBob collection like no other I wouldn't have picked up a thing.



4b. Next stop - Anna Sui in Soho. I didn't get anything. The polish offerings from Anna were kind of a creme lover's nightmare. I like sparkle and glitteriness well enough. But, I keep my fancy polish buying to cremes only. Idky.

4c. Next stop Sephora. Mehhhhhhhh. Other than the SSN knock off, I didn't buy a thing. And Sephora by OPI's Dark Room looked totally blah in person.

4d. Ricky's. I love this shop! They carry a bunch of different brands and even orly minis. I'm always happy in that store. The Ricky's in Soho was working extra hard for customers yesterday because they had a very wet looking and chubby gentleman stomping in high heels on a treadmill. (Googled pic but not from yesterday, he isn't nearly wet nor thrilled enough.) I was really impressed w/ his enthusiasm and energy. Whatever they were paying him, it wasn't enough b/c the A/C was severely lacking inside. No buys.

That was it for me in Soho. I couldn't have gotten out any quicker. I really effing hate that place.

4e. Next to Inglot. If Anna Sui is a creme lover's nightmare, Inglot is a sparkle lover's hell. Obviously it was my kind of place, rows and rows of beautiful cremes. I picked up 3 colors. 2 of which were matte. They took FOREVER to dry on the lady who was hard-selling me and I was happily obliging (I came in to buy). But I didn't CARRRREEEEE I loved the colors.



This morning, I'm much less thrilled. Mainly because the bottle on the right looked like a beautiful dark purple in the store. I pointed at and practically yelled, "THAT ONE!" as soon as my eyes landed on it. It still looks kind of purple in the bottle. But the pic makes it look more blue. And so I thought, eh I'll paint some paper to show ya'll that it is purple. Nope. Blue. My only hope is that after 2-3 layers it becomes more purple. It was unequivocally blue on the page.


(I'm rolling my eyes so hard at this polish.)

4f. Last stop - I went to my friend's apartment where I picked up an order from VNS and another site I completely forget the name of (who was out of stock on CG's Blue Island Iced Tea and glue resin and gave me a refund check for $6.50 in the order - crushing but I'm dealing).



5. Korean bbq w/ my bff, a fierce and hot public defender. Love hah.



FYI - Today is starting off equally good. I'm eating a burger and fries and having my favorite drink - a mint lemonade slushy.

read more "Soo Nails' Gold and Blue Foil and Post-Bar Haul"