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.

OPI + Sinful Colors

I'm super sorry it's been awhile! But exams (and school) are finally over. Also, on Tuesday I pulled a muscle (maybe?) in my knee, and I've been stuck at home. It was scary; I turned from helping a customer at work, and just fell. There was a loud crunch in my knee, and it hurt so bad. Afterwards I felt extremely dizzy and my vision was so blurred;; I was still at work though, and apparently I looked so out of it that a customer thought I would pass out. So I spent two hours at the hospital, only to discover I had no broken bones.

Moving on to the point of this blog!

So my sister came home this past weekend, and brought me a present-- two colors from the OPI Hong Kong collection that I had been eying! "Lucky Lucky Lavender" and "Jade Is the New Black." I've only looked at Lucky in the bottle, but I couldn't resist and swatched Jade Is the New Black on a fake nail just to see the design possibilities. It's a gorgeous green, and I can't wait to wear it.

Plus, I made a post on Soomp! about how I wanted some out-of-stock OPI, and this super sweet Soompier messaged me, offering to see if they had the colors near her house. She snatched up Absolutely Alice, Jade Is the New Black, and Dim Sum Plum. I mailed her the cost (a ton cheaper than what I pay in Michigan) and a service fee because she was ultra sweet to do this. So I'll have two Jades, and the two colors I desperately wanted! :D So happy.

Finally, to the pictures.



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This is OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I'm really disappointed that I couldn't capture the correct color. It looks really bright, but it's actually not. It's a gorgeous dusty blue. A must-have for my current color obsession. The design is supposed to be a butterfly, but it can definitely be seen as a flower. I used my rhinestones for the first time! Only one of them was able to last five days until I removed it today.

And I bought Sinful Colors Soulmate a few weeks ago, when I bought their Mint Apple. I am so disappointed with Sinful Colors right now, and this is coming from someone who has promoted them so much. The formula was thick and goopy, and it dried slowly. Ten minutes after I had put the first thin coat on, it still made marks and was wet to touch. The color was kind of pretty, but it was disgusting on my nails, so I took it off. I was literally able to scrape it off with my nails-- it wasn't even like peeling nail polish (which is bad for your nails...), but more like scraping toothpaste or something off your skin. Gross.



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That is seriously the closest picture I could get to the true picture. I don't even know if you can see the finger marks on it. (Please ignore my sheep pajamas). I am so disappointed right now. D: I took it off and applied base coat to my nails, but I already made the bathroom smell awful like nail polish and remover, so I'll have to apply polish tomorrow. I'm thinking Jade Is the New Black.

Essie & OPI

YAY! Happy Memorial Day!

I went out of town today, and picked up a wheel of rhinestones from Michaels to use in nail art. It's not very big, which is good since I'm just using it as a test, and I got it for around $2 ?



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Also...
I bought my first OPI nail polish! My sister referred me to the only place in the mall that sold OPI, so I went to check it out. I was hoping to get Absolutely Alice from OPI's Alice in Wonderland collection, because pictures make it look gorgeous, but they only had Off With Her Red. Right now I'm more into dark colors, so I didn't get it.

Then I saw they had part of the Hong Kong collection! I had just looked at swatches of that online (Thank goodness). They didn't have two of the colors I wanted the most-- Dim Sum Plum and Jade Is the New Black. Just "A Good Man-Darin Is Hard to Find," "Pearl of Wisdom," "Chopsticking to my story," and "Hot and Spicy."

Which was disappointing, because those were all the colors that I didn't want D: Ah, well. They had "Suzi Says Feng Shui," so I bought it. $8.50! But I hear the price is worth it, in OPI's case.



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Sorry it's so blurry-- I'm super amateur at picture taking, and it's late. Plus, this was the photo that stayed closest to the bottle's color.

Moving on, I also bought my first Essie from the same store! My only prior experience with Essie was from my older sister. She bought me a "MegaMini Jewels" gift set with four colors-- red, two pinks, and a white. I touched it once or twice, but the color was too light for my tastes, so she ended up taking it back for herself. But I also heard Essie was a good brand, so I splurged and spent $8 on it (the highest I've ever paid for nail polish is $4 for Sally Hansen).

I didn't really look at many swatches for Essie, so I didn't want to buy a color and end up hating it and wasting my money. So I bought "Mint Candy Apple." The bottle was surprisingly big, so I'm excited to use it.



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Once again, sorry for the bad quality. And the posters in the background xD Last year I went through a HUGE Jonas Brothers fangirl phase. I grew out of it though, but I'm too lazy to take down all the posters, so I have their old pictures everywhere in my room.

And finally, my nails for the week.



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I followed this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX_STg1ZsjQ

It didn't come out flawless because I didn't have the right tools, but it's pretty close to the model picture.

I used Sinful Colors Mint Apple, which is a beautiful color. I really like it though! And a petites' black polish that I don't remember the name of.

This week is exam week, so I'll be (trying) studying all week. Then I'm off for summer! What kinds of colors do you recommend for summer?

Nail polish

I got some e-mails from readers asking what kinds of nail polish and what nail brands I like to use.

I recently discovered (a few months ago) Sinful Colors nail polish at Walgreens. They have a beautiful line of colors with cute names, and it's $1.99 per bottle. My only problem with it is that it's a bit sheer, so you need a few coats if you like it dark.

I don't live in a big town, so I have no access to OPI, Essie (although I have a gift set that I received for Christmas), or China Glaze, but I heard they were very good brands and worth the money.

Here's a picture of part of my nail collection from sometime last month (It has expanded since then)



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Thanks for reading :D I'll be (attempting) giving up nail painting for Lent, so this blog will be taking a short hiatus~

Pilot

Hello! This is a blog that I am setting up to keep all of my nail art pictures. I first got into nail art about a year ago. I'm definitely not professional or anything, so a lot of my pictures and designs will be amateur-ish, but I hope you'll all grow along with me.

Now, here's a few samples of my work:



(Sorry for the blurry image) This was done for my high school's homecoming week last winter. As you can see, it's not extraordinarily done (I was rushed). I go to a private school, so I attempted to follow my school plaid onto my nails. :D



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These were my nails for the homecoming dance. I used Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl, and Sinful Colors Bali Mist, because my dress was a light purple and white. :D



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My first ever nail art. Simple white with black polka dots. I used a bobby pin for the dots. :] Some of the 'compliments' I got were comparing it to a cow, and a dalmation.

Tata for now~