Nail of the Week + Stranger Tides swatch!

Wow, I am fail. It takes me two weeks, and all I come back with is a long-overdue swatch and a sort of fail nail art? (I also did not buy any nail polishes. A lot of my money has been going to coffee.)

Anyways! I didn't have enough time last week to do a nail art, I just used some nail treatments on my nails. For a science project that is required for graduation, I'll be testing the effects of Toluene (one of the Big 3 chemicals in nail polish) on insects. What's the purpose of that?

... I do not know. But what could be better than being around nail polish, and poking roly-polys with a stick? Exactly.



My nails for the past week. A bit of tip wear because it was a day or two after I first did the design before I could take the picture.

I followed the tutorial off of this tutorial with a few major differences.

I used a sponge brush to apply Sinful Colors This Is It, then drew the flower design (although my friend remarked that it resembled a cracked egg) with my pink striper brush, and went over that with my black striper.

I didn't add the cheetah print marks because I don't really care for animal patterns. I also didn't put gold glitter in the center of the flowers, partially because I was lazy and also because I forgot. Overall though, I liked the effect :)

Here is my swatch for the week (since I have not bought anything over the weekend, you'll have to live with just a swatch. OPI Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.



I should have warned you that it was a swatch that I hadn't cleaned up my nails yet in. I'm sorry. (I'm also sorry that my watermarks and stuff kind of suck. I edit my pictures with the free picnik on Flickr, and I just pick a random color for the border and fade the Rakuzen.)

I'm working on a new design right now, so I'll post that soon hopefully.

Happy Labor Day + nail haul

Happy Labor Day!

I had the day off, so I went with my family to take my sister back to college and go to the mall.

I was very sad to find out that BeautyFirst had closed. They always had some kind of good sale going on, so yeah.



On the bright side, I went to Trade Secret and bought this. Seche Restore. My Seche Vite topcoat is getting a bit too thick and gooey, and I have a couple of older nail polishes that need to be restored to a thinner consistency so that I can use them. I'm really happy (except I paid $10 for it and then, as I was walking out, noticed one that was marked for cheaper. :\)

This is kind of a beauty post, too. I also bought this Hello Kitty clutch from Sephora. Originally marked $25, it was on sale for $10.



I'd almost had my mom buy it for me online over the summer, but eventually gave up because I couldn't justify spending $25 on a clutch that probably wouldn't get too much use. So I was overjoyed that it went on sale.



And also, I received my fimo nail art in the mail! There's 50 assorted flakes, with flowers, Hello Kitty (can you tell that I'm a freak for HK?), and a lot of random stuff. And 100 slices of bunny. And a new roll of a white butterfly. I'm so geeked; trying to think of a nail design.



I had some nails from last week, but it wasn't anything too fancy and it chipped after a day, so I didn't get any pictures. Just Super Junior written in Korean with white polish over pink nail polish (in retrospect, I ought to have used sapphire blue.)

I didn't pick up any OPI products because I'm still getting a list together for my salon supplier so that it will be cheaper. I love you, OPI, but I don't have the kind of cash to shell out $8.50 for every bottle.

Nail haul from the (last) week

Still haven't found my SD card. So I will just post about my haul for the last week.
Walgreens was having a sale on Sinful Colors, 99 cents per bottle (not including their new collection). I stopped by and picked up three bottles:



Left to Right: Hot Spot 943, Why Not 951, and All About You 921.

I haven't swatched them/tried them on, but I will soon. Yay. Cheap nail polish :)

Nail of the Week + One old manicure

Since my flickr account is filled with pictures of my manicures, most of which have never seen the light of my blog... I'll be doing one manicure of the week (my current nails) and one of my old manicures every week, until they're all posted :)

Also, I love nail polish sales. And so I tend to buy a lot of nail polishes that sit, unused, in my box. In an effort to keep up with posting my collection, I'll be posting my nail polish haul from the week (or day...).

First up, my current manicure:



(Look at that. My picture actually turned out really well, not blurry, and true to color. In two tries. :)

I used China Glaze Recycle on my thumb, drew the design (four lines) with my black striper polish, and added a rhinestone. For my pointer finger, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On nail polish, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear The Real Teal for the dots. For my middle finger, I painted it in SH The Real Teal, then drew the lines with my white striper polish, added a white french to the tip, and drew the bow with my black striper, before placing a rhinestone in the middle of the bow. My ring finger has China Glaze Recycle on it, with simple white and black diagonal stripes and a rhinestone where I messed up (:P). I used White On on my pinky finger, drew an X shape with my black striper, and filled in two of the triangles with The Real Teal.

I really, really like the designs in this batch. Very simple, but they're pretty and I've gotten a lot of compliments on them. Plus, I love using rhinestones.

Now for a picture of an old manicure.



This is a couple of months old, from November. I was trying to do the "fun dots" nail art, but I didn't look at a tutorial, just some pictures of finished products.

Not such a great idea. As you can see, it was basically a fail. But I have since learned how to do it, so I'll try again soon.

Also, some exciting news (for me). I've found someone (a salon owner with a beauty license) who is willing (and happy) to supply me with nail polish-- China Glaze, CND, OPI, Essie, and more-- at cost. Which is a lot cheaper than at most locations (retail value for OPI is $8.50. But the nearest store is two hours away, so it costs more in gas.)

I lost my SD card (well, not lost persay, more like misplaced) that had pictures of my last nail polish haul and some swatches, but as soon as I find it I'll update with those.

Rakuzen's Nail Polish Collection: Part 1

As promised, here is part of my nail polish collection. I'm too busy (lazy) to do it all at once, because...



No, this is not all of it. But this is a good part of it, and when I want to find all of one brand, I have to dig through it. So! The collection will be coming slowly.

Today though is my OPI collection (which isn't a lot, sadly), my Zoya collection (likewise) and the top coats/bottom coats that I use, for whatever reason. First up: OPI.



From left to right is: Jade Is the New Black from the OPI Hong Kong Collection; OPI Absolutely Alice from the Alice in Wonderland collection; OPI Simmer & Shimmer from the Burlesque collection; OPI Do You Lilac It?; OPI Black Shatter; Nicole by OPI No Limits matte; OPI RapiDry top coat;



OPI Kreme de la Kremlin from the Russian Collection; OPI Ink; OPI Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection; OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui from the Hong Kong Collection; OPI Alpine Snow; OPI Illuminate from the Designer Series; OPI Here Today, Aragorn Tomorrow; OPI Pearl of Wisdom from the Hong Kong Collection; and OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, also from the Hong Kong Collection.

There were a couple that didn't turn up for the picture, like OPI Breathe Life and OPI Dim Sum Plum. (Also, can you tell that I love OPI? No? Kay, well, I'm kind of pathetic and didn't have to look at any of the bottles or online for the names/collection.)

My Zoya collection:



From left to right: Zoya Dove; Zoya Lolly (Matte); and Zoya Caitlin plus the Zoya remove +.

(And no, my pictures do not do any justice to the polishes. Please forgive my poor camera skills.)

I just have to say that (and this is my own opinion. I am not sponsored by Zoya.) that the Zoya remove+ is the most amazing nail polish remover I've ever used. It takes off glittery nail polish (even Absolutely Alice, which is killer to remove) in seconds, with half as many cotton balls as it usually takes. And on regular nail polish? Let's just say that I no longer dread having to take off my nail polish. :) But seriously. It's only $10 or so for an 8 fl. oz. bottle. The spout is awesome, because it locks when not in use, otherwise you unlock it and push down (with a cotton ball) and it soaks your cotton ball with just three spritzes. It also preps your nails and doesn't dry them out, and it smells nice too.

My top/base coat collection:



From left to right: OPI RapiDry top coat; Essie Matte About You top coat; Sally Hansen Double Duty Base + Top Coat; Sinful Colors Base Coat; Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat; Essie Matte About You top coat; and Seche Vite base coat.

Why am I so bad at taking pictures? I have no clue. But I promise that it will improve as I start doing more nail art and swatches. Or I'll get a stand. Or someone with not-shaky hands to hold my camera.

July 4th

Happy Independence Day to my American readers! :)

I went out to Beauty First in Ann Arbor today, and got a lovely surprise. Three OPI nail polishes and one Essie polish for the price of $20.



From left to right: Essie Matte About You Top Coat, OPI Stranger Tides from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection, OPI Here Today, Aragorn Tomorrow, and OPI RapidDry Top Coat.

I don't know if the OPI Here Today, Aragorn Tomorrow is the matte version, which is what I was actually looking for (but the salesperson didn't really know what I was talking about. She also probably thought I was a freak for knowing the exact name and release date.), but even if it's not, the non-matte is pretty too. The Essie was on sale for $2 (!!!), regular price $10. Both OPI polishes were regularly priced at $8.50, but with the purchase of two OPI's I got the top coat for free.

Doesn't the beauty of it all make you want to cry? It makes me want to cry xD Coming soon will be swatches of Stranger Tides and Here Today, Aragorn Tomorrow. For work, I'm not allowed to have bright colors, so we'll see what I can do.

Have a good holiday!

Summer Cleaning

Yes, it's been awhile.

*hides*

I would blame school for this, except I've done a lot of nail art, even during school. It just takes so much EFFORT to take pictures (Yes, I am that lazy). But I do have some things for you to see.

I took pictures of my nail polish collection, categorized by brand. But that was about four months ago, and I have acquired several (beautiful) nail polishes since then, and I can't bear to post the pictures until they're all together.

So my first post will be an old picture. My first Frankenpolish. This polish was created by mixing a pea-sized amount of grey eyeshadow from my 120 piece Manly Eyeshadow Palette with fifteen drops of clear nail polish. I really wanted one to match a headband that I had, and this worked out perfectly. I was thinking it was close to Sally Hansen Gunmetal (a color I adore), but it was actually closer to a Maybelline polish... One of the 60 seconds one, that I can't quite remember the name of.



In the process of mixing. It was really easy, almost no thought (Phew) was involved.



The finished product. It was a little bit darker than the picture, but not by much. A gorgeous grey, if I do say so myself, and exactly what I was looking for. My only problem was that I didn't make quite enough, so it was streaky. I'd misplaced my bottle of Gunmetal, and happened upon the Maybelline Express match for this franken when I went to replace it.

In the next few days, I will be revamping my blog. Expect a lot of nails with dots on them, my blog expanding to be more than just a nail blog (I might just make it a beauty blog), pictures of my nail polish collection, and some checkered nails.