China Glaze Midtown Magic

Today I tried out the second polish that I purchased from China Glaze's recent Metro collection: Midtown Magic. I had no desire for this one until I saw it in person, and I knew it was coming home with me. I love polishes like this one: deep browny-plum with greeny-gold (and tiny flecks of red) shimmer. The formula on this one was also excellent. Two coats for perfect coverage. Very vampy and nice for fall, and I bet it would look really nice on shorter nails. The one caveat was that the wear on this one was not great (lots of tipwear very quickly), but it's super pretty.

So, I seem to have a penchant for these types of colors, so I dug the two most similar (in my mind) out of my stash, these being OPI DS Mystery and OPI Tease-y Does It (one of my favorite polishes).

So in this crappy comparison here, we have (from left to right) DS Mystery, Midtown Magic, and Tease-y Does It. Obviously, Tease-y Does It is not a dupe, it's much more plummy, and the shimmer is redder. They are closer in life than they appear in this shot though. As for DS Mystery, it's much closer to Midtown Magic, except (and this is not visible in any picture I could take) the base is *much* cooler and bluer (you can sorta see it in the fleck I got on my finger, whoops!), and the shimmer pieces are larger and lacks the red shimmer apparent in Midtown Magic. The closest of the three are DS Mystery and Midtown Magic, but they're not dupes. But if you have one, you may not really need the other (DS Mystery has better wear on me).

What are your picks from China Glaze Metro collection? Did I miss any good ones?

China Glaze Trendsetter

Trendsetter. I'm not sure if this color will ever catch on, but here it is. This was the only polish from the recently released Metro collection that I felt like I needed, based on pre-release swatches. The glitters don't look that exciting and the cremes, while pretty, weren't calling to me. This color. It's... green, in my mind. But super yellow-brown leaning green. Kinda like spicy brown mustard + pea soup, with shimmer. I love these colors in theory, but in practice... I just don't know! I used to think I was cool-toned but I'm not sure anymore. I wear both gold and silver jewelry. I wear both warm and cool red lipsticks. I think I'm quite neutral, in the end. My heritage is mostly Greek and Italian, but with Irish, German and Dutch hanging in there as well, so I'm very dark-haired, but pale, freckled and light-eyed. In MAC, I buy NW15, but I've used NC15 too. So, in other words here, I can't really help you in deciding if this will fit your skintone. It's a strange color.

This is two coats:

In these pictures, the color is pulling *a lot* more yellow than in real life. Here it reads total mustard, but I assure you, it's not. I wore this one for a few days, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I definitely don't own anything else like it, but I'm also not sure I'll wear it again. What do you think?? Love or hate it?

China Glaze Sea Spray

China Glaze is probably one of the most versatile and customer friendly brands on the market. They're readily available and fairly inexpensive. I buy at least one polish from pretty much every collection they release, and usually more. One thing I sometimes have a problem with, however, is formula. China Glaze polishes don't always like me (or my basecoat/topcoat combination). At any rate, I feel like lately China Glaze has vastly improved their formula (or my body chemistry has changed). Sea Spray is an amazing polish, and the first thing I noticed about it was the formula. A color like this shimmery light blue is usually streaky and awful, requiring three or more coats. This one was good in two, perfectly self-leveling, and I love the color.

Unfortunately, all I got was this crappy picture. It's true to color, but you can't see any of the silver shimmer (even with the flash on, which usually picks up anything). It's pretty subtle in real life anyway, so maybe it's not too much of a surprise. Love this color, it's super summery but also kinda drab at the same time. I know I'm late to the game on this one, but this one is awesome.

Thanks for looking!

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China Glaze White Cap over Essie Marshmallow

A couple posts back I mentioned that I had recently decided I needed a couple polishes from China Glaze Anchor's Away, a collection I had passed on (with the exception of Ahoy!) more times than I can count since it debuted. One of the polishes I decided I needed was White Cap, and here it is.

White Cap is pretty ridiculous, it's this softspun white with crazy golden shimmer that is ever so slightly opalescent. You could probably make it opaque with numerous coats but instead I wore it over my favorite white, Essie Marshmallow. For the record, Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over Essie Marshmallow is one of my favorite manicures of all time. It's like having opals on your nails. Marshmallow is a jelly white, and its formula is kinda bitchy, but I love it anyway. It's the perfect blue toned squishy white.

This is 3 coats Marshmallow, 1 coat White Cap.

I wore it to an interview, and kept it on. So pretty. I may even try it over other colors. I don't know if I've ever publicly proclaimed this on my blog, but I kinda hate layering. I'm not very original about it, I often pass up polishes if they necessitate layering. This may stop I guess, because I find myself gravitating towards them again and again lately.

It's been a long, long time!

I didn't want to abandon my little blog here, but life has just been crazy for the last six months. I moved at the beginning of May to Canada (my hubby's homeland), after finally celebrating our marriage (9 months after the fact). Moving was nuts. So much paperwork and physical work and waiting, oh, and driving 1700 miles. My nails got trashed, and I kept them short. Also, my lack of work has curbed the polish acquiring (a bit!!). I also, unfortunately, ended up leaving about half my stash (over a Helmer's worth) at home in NY. I went through and just weeded out everything that I didn't feel I *had* to bring, boxed it up and stored it in my closet there. It was a lot of drugstore/dollar store impulse purchases and vintage stuff I'm keeping out of sentimentality. but I also left all my backups. I plan to go through it at a later date. So far I haven't found myself missing too much of anything.

Living in Canada is strange for me. It's so like home and yet so... not! Though my lack of a job has curbed my polish buying, another thing has helped: lack of CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens! Oh my drugstores, how I miss thee! Drugstore stuff here is just hella expensive and hard to find exclusives (here's hoping Milani knocks off their awesome collections for a while). Anyway, it helps not being tempted. That said, I have an American Apparel a block away (uh oh, amazing polish), and OPI's are not exorbitant (~$8.95-9.95, though lots of places are 2 for $16). I made the mistake of buying one at a random beauty supply without asking, and it was $12.99 (Spark D'Triomphe backup), and uh no, never again. My husband, Chris and I are going to North Dakota this weekend and I CANNOT WAIT to go to CVS! Haha.

Enough rambling, here are a very few select NOTDs from the past few months:

China Glaze Crushed Candy over American Apparel Manila. Loved this combo.

Essie Mochachino. Didn't love the way this taupe looked on my skintone, but it was so pretty.

These are both OPI I Lily Love You over China Glaze Ahoy. I'm unfortunately not able to take outdoor pictures, and my lighting situation isn't ideal. So the first one is no flash, and you can sort of make out the detail. The second one is more color accurate, but the flash washes out the flakes and glitter. Not sure I love this one. It's pretty but...

These Sally Hansen nail strips are basically amazing. So pretty and fun. The only set I had any trouble with was the Frock Star glitter ones. They were a bitch to put on and stayed "tacky" and didn't seem to set. Oh well.

Orly Here Comes Trouble. I couldn't find Bubbly Bombshell, but this one is awesome. Love the different shapes of glitter and the color! Perfect spring green.

Love & Beauty. Stupidly labeled as "Blue." This polish is ridiculously amazing. It's probably got an LA Girls equivalent but I'm lazy and don't feel like looking it up. But seriously. Beautiful. Shimmer. Perfect application.

Super crappy iPhone4 pic! OPI Your Royal Shine-ness. Gorgeous, underrated. A warm, almost pewter silver foil. Seriously blingy. Love love.

Ohmygod. This is Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal over American Apparel Hassid. So, you'll all want to punch me after I tell you this, but I've had Turquoise Opal for years. I bought it and tons of other Prisms in 2 packs at Dollar Tree probably 3 years ago. Maybe longer. And I've never worn a single. one. WTF was I thinking?? Anyway. I got so many compliments on this. A sweet lady at the dollar store actually grabbed my hand. It wasn't creepy... yeah maybe a little. But seriously, I don't blame her.

And finally, a few crapalicious pics of today's nails... (I've seriously gotta figure out a new lighting situation. Basement apartment=not good.)

Kleancolor Holo Chrome with Chunky Holo Bluebelle on top. I'm also holding Bluebelle. Um, yay Kleancolor for amazing polishes. I don't hate the smell. It smells like chemical awesome. And Beautyjoint.com ships to Canada super reasonably. I'm gonna order more. Anyway, Holo Chrome had kind of a bitchy thick formula. Three coats. I shoulda thinned it. It's so beautiful. What you see above is mostly Holo Chrome. The Bluebelle you can't see in my lighting but in certain lights you can also see the effect in the bottle on my nails. The base color also sorta matches Holo Chrome.

More true to color.

Sparkle!

In the last few months, I have also grabbed the Serena Wimbeldon & French duos, hauled KleanColor's like crazy mad, got 2 Dare2Wear collections, all the OPI shatters, a couple Nice Stems, and got 3/4 of the Miss Universe collection. Also some Essies. My only leftover lemmings (until Christmas, fall isn't really doing it for me... maybe a couple China Glazes) are Chanel Graphite and Peridot, but I doubt my budget will be accommodating, at least to both. Maybe though :-)

What have you all been hauling/loving/doing lately? How's summer?

Also!! If any of you are on Pinterest, follow me! I post NOTD's and other things too.

http://pinterest.com/sarahrobo/ I'd love to follow you back :-)

More Pic Spam from the last couple months!

I really have no excuse for being MIA this time, except that I think I sort of have the winter blues. I also think that, upon going through my stash and updating my spreadsheet, that I feel that I'm reaching my nail polish saturation point. Creeping closer to being in the 4-digits--scary!! But fun. I know it's a harmless hobby, but yeah. Somehow when I realized how much I had acquired made me a bit crazy!

Plus, I have to decide what I'm going to do about it. I'm moving to Winnipeg in May, around 1700 miles away. I'm having my stuff shipped in a pod, but there's *no way* I'm packing that many polishes, and I won't have room for my polish in my car. My solution, so far, has been to decide on a core number to bring with me, pack them securely in one of my Helmers, and ship that, and store the rest of my collection at my mom's house in NY. Our move to Winnipeg is supposed to be somewhat-temporary (a few years, until I'm a dual citizen), and then we intend to return to the States. What would you do? Could you live without part of your stash? I'm certain I could, plus I could always grab stuff when I visit home, or have my mom mail it. Any suggestions from you other nail mavens?

Anyway, enough babble and on to some NOTD's from December to present, in some sort of general chronological order, with running commentary, as usual:

Milani Purple Gleam. Umm stunner! So awesome it needed two pictures. I bought all of these new glitters the released. When I'm in Canada, I will seriously, seriously miss these LE Milanis (do ya'll get these? I feel like I read you don't). I bought all the colors and the Jewel FX's, even the Silver one that I ordered especially from Cherry Culture. I have glitter sickness!

OPI My Private Jet. I won't lie, I own two bottles of this beauty. I only break it out for special occasions. In this case, I wore it to my graduation for my Master's Degree.

China Glaze Peace on Earth. I like this polish a lot but it was a bit hard to control the brushstrokes, as you can see. It was pretty much a one-coater, though.

China Glaze Sexy in the City. Liked this one more in the bottle than in practice here. This is also a terrible shot of it. It's just not as blue as I wanted. In the bottle, it sort of reminds me of the Cerulean Crayola Crayon. In reality, not so much :-(

Milani Silver Dazzle. LOVE.

China Glaze Little Drummer Boy with China Glaze Fairy Dust on top, Konad Plate M59. Got a lot of compliments on this one, I wore it for a while.

China Glaze Frosty with China Glaze Party Hearty. Love both of these polishes. Frosty is like snow, so gorgeous.

OPI Teenage Dream. This is awesome. I bought all 4 Katy Perry polishes, even though I have zero opinion of her one way or the other (I'm a rock'n'roll kinda gal, I have zero knowledge of pop music), but this is a lot of fun, and very pretty.

This is a hot mess of a picture but here's OPI Black Shatter (no topcoat). Just playing around, and here my camera starts to do an annoying streaky glare thing that it will continue to do for a few more shots to come. Once I get my hands on the black China Glaze Crackle, I'd like to do a comparison, as I also have the Cover Girl and the Isa Dora black crackles.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Cut It Out. This was amazing. Any "wear" you see in this shot was actually user-error, I broke a few off wrong and had what looked like chips, but they weren't. Anyway, these wore crazy well for me, no tipwear, chipping, lifting, anything. I didn't want to take 'em off. I got a few more packs to try too, but I think I'm saving them for when I know I won't have much time to change my polish, as they're a bit pricey.

RBL Coral with OPI Dress to Empress on top. I felt like I needed RBL Coral in the last sale and I'm not sure why. It is pretty, but I don't really do coral. I got Dress to Empress at a salon on clearance, I hadn't heard of it before. It looked kinda sheer, so I layered it here. In real life, this sort of resembled OPI Wing It, and even though it was 2 coats of the RBL and two coats of the OPI, it was still kinda-not-totally-opaque. Lame!

Zoya Edyta. OK so sue me here. This picture sucks, and I have to say that I recognize and respect that this polish is gorgeous but I hated it on me? It was so boring and one dimensional on the nail. Yuck. Oh well... it wore great. I got this with my sale order, I also got Crystal (love), Cheryl (love), Valerie (untried), Tiffany (untried), and SARAH!! (my name!!!), which is serious, serious, serious love. It's wicked gorgeous, thank you Zoya! I didn't take pics though, sorry :-/

Essie Dive Bar with China Glaze Millenium & Konad M61. I'm trying to use my Konad more lately, it's kinda gone by the way-side. I'm bummed that the gorgeous purple duo in this polish doesn't show really on the nail except at some very random, incapturable moments. This is part of the new Essie retail line. Also grabbed Mochachino, and I reallllly want Coat Azure from the new spring line. *saves CVS coupons*

Milani HD. I can't tell you how many times I've passed this in the store. In CVS lighting, it looks dreary and un-holo. Actually, all the gorgeous Milani holos look dreadful in this light. I heard they're dc-ing these, so I wanted to grab the few I still didn't have. I still want the blue and pink ones. Anyway, this is WAY more holo than this picture shows, it's so pretty, I'm in love. This is tonight's manicure and it looks like it'll be my Valentine's Day one, too. Maybe I'll add a Konad heart, even though I don't celebrate (husband is far away, so boo).

I've gotta stop doing this in giant chunks and blog a little more regularly. I have fun ideas for posts, but then I get lazy! Ugh! Winter! All I do is read and work and try to stay warm and watch movies! I'm just itching for spring.

One last question to my lovely readers: Anything from China Glaze Anchor's Away that I need? I can't decide. Ugh. I've gotta go get a better look at 'em.

The return & 16 manicures!

Hello readers, if there are any of you still out there!

I disappeared for a few months here, and with good reason: I was writing my Master's thesis. I thought I might be able to keep up with my blogging, but with two jobs and various life-craziness-health-related things going on, it just wasn't possible. But: on Friday, I turned in my thesis, and now I'm trying to remember how to resume a normal life! I just turned 25 in October, and finishing my Master's degree is a big deal for me. I finished my Bachelor's in 3 years (I was already a year ahead in high school, too), and after that I sort of lost my way. I turned down a full scholarship to do grad work at Emory University (after driving all the way down there with my stuff, no less). I took some time off and went back to the University where I got my Bachelor's. I did 3 semesters of grad coursework and then... never wrote my thesis. The university gave me a lot of trouble, they kept "forgetting" to notify me about course sign up and advisement.... and I inadvertently took a (calender) year off. This made it harder to get the project going, as to do your thesis it's good to have a current relationship with a professor, so they can serve as your advisor. I seriously considered abandoning my grad work. I was 23, burnt out on school, and feeling drunk on freedom. But... in the end, I opted to go back and finish, and I'm so glad that I did. It was a huge accomplishment, and I graduate on December 5th (finally!). I've considered going back to do Ph.d work, but that will be for another time in my life, I think. My Master's is in English, my focus being American literature, specifically Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Over the months, I did manage to take a few pictures... My nails have been of varying length over this time, tending towards the nubbin side of things... they're still kind of finicky. I hauled a lot too: Burlesque, NARS vintage, RBL sale, ChG holiday, and lots of Old OPI's that I've been acquiring... But anyway... what I have to show you isn't representative of everything, to say the least, but it's something.

Random spam for the last few months:

OPI Wing It!

Barielle June Bug (wore this for 4th of July... that's how old this is!!)

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Sephora OPI Midnight Mambo

China Glaze Foxy

OPI Diva of Geneva

China Glaze Midnight Mission

China Glaze GR8

Streetwear FX Flash (green) (awful pic, sorry... hard to capture)

Borghese Nero Magico (seriously gorgeous... underrated)

MAC Bad Fairy

OPI Show Bring on the Bling

NARS Midnight Express (I think this was day 2 or 3, looking a bit worn)

Color Club Pucci-licious

Orly Galaxy Girl

My Current Nails: China Glaze Zombie Zest (a bit late, I missed Halloween!)

The varying lengths are kind of amusing. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things here! Not sure I'm up to posting every day or anything, but I'd like to keep it up :-)

Thanks for looking!!