A pale girl's must-have - OPI Russian Navy

I photographed this on perhaps the worst day! It was really grey, cold, and almost no light. Rare for North Carolina! Despite it being the worst day, I think this is one of the best polishes that I own. So good in fact, that the last time I wore this, I had the following exchange with my cousin. (Who is male. And a scientist.):

Him: "Can I give you a kind of weird compliment?"

Me: "Uhhhh yeah..."

Him: "Your nail polish is *amazing*. Seriously."

Me: "HA! I thought that was going to be much weirder. Thanks!"

With flash, since there was not a photon of real light to be found:

No flash outside...the best I could do:

Lower level flash...see the pretty shimmer?

Thumbnail close-up so you can (hopefully) see the blue, red and purple shimmer.

I often struggle with my super pale skin. To be honest, most colours look better on people with a little something going on in their skintone. For reference see any polish on Piff - everything looks amazing on her! Complete lack of pigment is simply not that attractive to me. (An odd thing to say, as I'm dating someone even paler than I am - yes, it's possible - but there is an exception to every rule I guess!) Navy blue is one of the few colours that I feel really sets off my skin and makes it look elegant instead of sickly. And this particular navy is so rich and deep! It looks velvety on the nails and just glows thanks to the combination of ultra-fine purple, red and blue shimmer in the polish. I highly recommend this to anyone with a ghostly complexion!

Some people buy this thinking it will be a purple, because the nature of the shimmer is so fine that it sticks to the glass in the bottle very well so that in some cases all you see is purple/blurple. These people complain and hate on this colour for being too blue. To these people I say - it has the word navy in the name. As in navy blue. Stop whining, return it, and go buy OPI Ink or something. Hrmph!

What colour do you think really sets of your skintone?

kittytokaren

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American Apparel Mannequin.... eugh.

I usually LOVE American Apparel polishes. I think they've got some of the best, most affordable cremes on the market and their color range is eclectic (even though they only do cremes).

This is one I'd return if I could.

American Apparel Mannequin

A nude shade that looks more pink on me than it does in the bottle. Three coats. Goopy, streaky, aggravating, impossible.

Also: I wasn't allowed to use my Groupon that I bought to American Apparel for the purpose of stocking up their nail polish! Why? Because it is "multibrand": the fact that nail polish is considered "multibrand" on isn't on the coupon at all. It just says that you can't use the coupon on "multibrand" items.

Isn't it funny that no other brand is listed on the actual bottle? I was pretty pissed. If there is no indication that nail polish doesn't qualify for the Groupon -- and no indication on the bottle that any other company makes the nail polish -- then I really don't think I should've been prohibited from using the thing.

That being said... obviously they don't manufacture the nail polish like they may manufacture their clothes. But I wouldn't know that if I didn't spend my life immersed in nail polish.

But now what am I going to do with $50 to American Apparel? Buy $50 worth of leggings?

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Sally Hansen Nail Effects Girl Flower (on Day 1 and Day 3 of wear)

It seems to be the first major trend of this year: Minx-like nail stickers. DIY, cheap and readily available. Cheaper than getting actual Minx, easier to apply by yourself (no heating by UV lamp or hair dryer) and I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted as long. I've used Incoco a bunch of times and it has become one of my preferred travel manicures because I can apply it with no distraction to anyone else anywhere -- I've even applied it planes, much to the amusement of flight attendants who all asked me whether they really worked -- and because they last quite a long time (over a week!) without looking ratty. But the Incoco ones are generally plain... and the new drugstore nail sticker thingies tend to have awesome patterns that are as complex as the Minx ones... if maybe a little less vivid (or metallic) for some designs.

Case in point: some toenail Minx that I bought off of eBay. I loved the pattern so much from when I got pedis with Piff I wanted to have some to try on myself.

I mean, look at the colors and the detail of pattern!

Now compare that to the new SH nail stickers that look like they took their inspiration from the Minx design...

Sally Hansen Nail Effects Girl Flower

Admittedly, this lightbox photo washes the colors out a little bit BUT this set of SH Nail Effects still literally pales in comparison to Minx. However, they're pretty easy to apply. Again, I've had some practice with Incoco so it went pretty quickly (took me about 20 minutes to do both hands). They're about $9 at Walgreens but I got them B1G1 50% off. The great thing is that if you keep your nails relatively short, you can cut them in half before you apply them and have enough for two full manicures. (They include 16 nail stickers of different sizes. None of which fit me perfectly but nothing a pair of scissors can't solve.) I have no idea if they'll last more than a few days though it's done well so far.

Closeup of Girl Flower

So pale and pixelated. Sigh. The other designs I chose look a lot better and more Minx-like however.

Here's a photo of the mani (on Day 3) in sunlight, where the colors show up as more saturated.

Sally Hansen Girl Flower (3rd day of wear)

Let's see... in the last three days, I've done a good bit of cleaning, washed my hair twice and have done the dishes twice. And the Nail Effects stickers seem to be sticking... for the most part. You can see two small chips on the tips of my index and ring fingernails (left side of the photo). The "gaps" at the cuticles are still intact though and because this is such a varied pattern with pinkish, whitish details throughout, the chips are actually quite hard to see until you get really close (like with a macro setting on a camera -- I didn't even realize I had chips until I saw the pics!).

I'm on my fourth day of wear today and I'm definitely getting itchy to change my mani. I think, though, I'll see what I can do to spruce this baby up: I'm thinking some glitter polish to fill in some of petals, nail art gems for the center of the flowers... this could get elaborate. (Dude, it was $8... it feels like such a waste of money NOT to wear it for longer...)

Speaking of new nail polish thingamajigs... have people seen the most recent nail polish printer presented at this year's CES?

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Mail call! Long day at school, always nice to come home to goodies.

I seem to be accumulating polish at an alarming rate this January. These came in the mail today from several sources...

Shopping. It's how I cope with stress. Unfortunately, I don't actually have a ton of time to play with my new toys. I'm swimming (drowning) in data. Which is better than having no data. But I've been (non) jokingly referring to my current grind as "one null result a day". I left a lot of data analysis for this week... and none of the experiments are turning out significant results. I'm literally disappointed by a different experiment every day.

I know science isn't about finding significant results. But academic research is.

But enough depressive yapping. On to the stuff.


Essie Going Incognito and Smokin' Hot from eBay; Zoya Kelly, Tiffany and Crystal from Zoya.com during their last promotion. (I've got the entire Intimacy collex coming. Man, those free spoon trays that come with some orders are seductive...)

These came pretty quickly, considering they print them on-demand. (They had a 50% off sale when I ordered. I'm such a sucker.) They look like they're of fabulous quality too.


Bunch of nail stickers from Inque: Blue Plaid, Peacock, Argyles Can Party!, Party Balls, All American Girl. (Apparently, all-American girls wear paisley?)

But the best pretty present (that I, uh, bought for myself) came from the UPS guy:

China Glaze's Anchors Away!

My task for the weekend -- besides finding more null results and watching my nascent academic career fail before even starting: swatching Anchors Away! I've been looking forward to this collex for a long time. :)

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An Odd Case of Matching - Essie Merino Cool

Memo: This most certainly looks more purple on me than on other people, I'm sure. My whack-a-doodle skin tone is at it again!

Either way, I love Essie Merino Cool - its sleek and chic while still being warm and cozy. I love these colours so much...

In fact, I love purpletaupegreiges so much, Merino Cool is even the same colour as my Laura Mercier eyeshadow in Twilight Grey - one of my favourites for putting in my crease for an everyday look! Neat right?? Application was gorgeous - two quick and easy coats. *sigh* I have so many polishes in this colour family now, but I never get sick of them. I really hope this trend is here to stay!

Do you have a polish that oddly matches something in your wardrobe, make-up drawer, living room, etc.?? I saw a lady with an Essie Sew Psyched purse the other day and I wanted to talk to her so badly!

kittytokaren

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