OPI & Dell Team Up

I'm a tech dork, even though half of the time I don't understand what is going on and I'm actually pretty terrible with technology. I just like to look at shiny things.

Still, I was rather surprised when I read this article about OPI and Dell on Engadget. I don't know whether as a woman I should be delighted or offended. It would be really cool on the one hand to immortalize your favorite OPI shade (though not all are available) on your laptop. On the other hand, it's annoying because other than announcing that this option is available, Dell doesn't really provide any details on the computers itself. Which is where I have a problem with it.

I'm not a super-feminist by any means, but I am (and I think other females should) well-aware that as the "lesser" sex, we may always be subject to discrimination. But it's also ok to be a powerful woman and still care about makeup and beauty because these things can make us happy on the inside. Am I making sense? I'm not trying to make this post into a huge political issue, but over the summer I got a bit angry over something like this.

You've all seen the commercials for the 3M Scotch-Brite Nail Saver Sponge, right? Ok, yeah it's kind of sexist but I bought one anyway to try because I had a coupon. Well, it turns out that it's not just a sexist commercial but the sponge is a piece of crap which makes the sponge itself kind of sexist. I understand that there's a whole marketing concept behind it to make this job easier for women but a) women aren't ALWAYS the ones doing the dishes, ok?, b) it's a lot easier to just wear gloves while doing the dishes to avoid the need for a stupid sponge and c) the "sponge," which is nothing more than two flimsy strips of actual sponge and scrubber glued to this awful foam that falls apart within three weeks of use, is just insulting. It's ok to market things to women because we DO have certain needs that are different. But please, don't insult our intelligence by introducing something that supposedly will make our life easier but is really worthless. It's sloppy manufacturing and it's rude and I hated that sponge and everything it represents.


I'm not the biggest Dell fan, but I wish they would release details about the laptops itself that will have the option of adding these pretty tops. Because yeah, it's kinda cool though it would be worthless to pay extra for a laptop that won't really do much. Anyway, here's the top for OPI's I'm Not Really a Waitress. I love the swirled effect because it really looks like nail polish and I'm not going to lie, if this were HP and the laptop had everything I wanted specs-wise I would definitely buy it. Though not in this shade.


PS: It does seem that these new laptop colors are available as an option on pre-existing Dell laptops so it's not like it's a special case. So really my argument only applies if Dell were introducing it as a special line so even though it's an invalid argument, it's a rant so it still stands =)

Happy Year of the Ox

Don't ask why I'm still up at 4:50 AM. I've always been a bit of a night owl and sometimes I just can't sleep well. And sometimes I mess up my sleep cycle. Anyway, I have to be up in 4 hrs so I'll keep this post short and simple.

So I was talking to my sister on the phone today and she was telling me how she's been doing a lot of frenches lately because she discovered this method of doing french tips that's apparently amazing. Since I suck at them, she's going to teach me when I go back home for spring break. I'm excited for it!

However, until then, you guys are stuck looking at my crappy attempts at french tips. I did this one in the beginning of February during Chinese New Year and used those french guide stickers. It kind of worked but the glittery tips took forever to dry so they look kind of bad, sorry! I made the pictures smaller to spare ya'll the agony.

So without further ado, my funky french in honor of the year of the ox (and my aunt is an ox! But in China since ox's aren't that attractive they default to pictures of cuter cows...sorry I'm a bit ADD at the moment). I used NYC Glossies 227 as the red base and OPI Thrills in Beverly Hills for the tips:


Yeah...Thrills in Beverly Hills is a glitter topcoat so I had to use multiple layers and then smudged it. Since it was a busy week...I actually forced myself to have flawed nails for like three days. Oh, the horror =).

Good night/good morning!

Holographic Polish vs. Holographic Glitter

I know some people get confused whenever polishes get referred to as "holo" or have "holo glitter." These are two different things, and it's important to distinguish between the two because sometimes it can get confusing

First, holo polishes are those that have an overall rainbowy, prismatic effect. In direct sunlight, it will have a base color but then a lot of other colors too. Here's an example of a holographic polish, one of my faves, OPI My Private Jet:

By contrast, polishes that have holographic glitter just simply have multicolored glitter but they don't quite create that special prismatic effect that holo polishes do. Take, for example, this red Opera polish
Yep, it a gorgeous red jelly with holo glitter...


The glitter kind of reminds me of sprinkles, especially in this picture:
I left this picture intentionally blurry because it shows how the glitter is holographic

Also, success! I found a full-size Opera bottle picture for reader Pixie. I didn't fail after all

If you're wondering why these pictures look a lot sharper than normal, it's because I took these with my brand-new Canon camera...before I realized the camera had a dead pixel. I had really bad luck with Canon cameras, I think I mentioned before that I got a brand new shiny Canon for my birthday, but then the button on top was broken. Then I exchanged it but the screen had a dead pixel. So, I'm still chugging along with my Kodak.

Also, I know I've broken my resolution of trying to post every day, but I've been swamped with midterns this past week. Expect a little bit more posting in the next couple of days before I have to study again.

No Really, I'm Not a Waitress!

Please excuse the poor quality of the picture, since I rarely get full sunlight like I used to, I've been tinkering with some indoor lighting. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't think I can get a halogen lamp...

Anyway, for the past couple of days I've been wearing a classic OPI shade, I'm Not Really a Waitress. It's a classic red shade...and there's really not much to say other than that.
It's not to say that this isn't a good color. It's an almost cherry-cranberry shade in real life with just enough red/gold shimmer. I prefer how it looks in dimmer lights or in the shade because it borders on almost a vampy red shade. It is a very pretty color.

Other then that, I think the word "classic" sums it up pretty well. If you're looking for a staple red color and OPI wears well for you, this is definitely a must-have shade. Other then that though, red is red. There's not much that makes it stand out. Every drugstore brand makes a red like this, it's really only a matter of preference. It is one of OPI's most popular shades and a best-seller though.

I recently bought the September issue of Chinese Harper's Bazaar. It's the Fashion Olympics edition, and it's huge! Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is on the cover, and it has some cool nail pictures and ads in it too. I've been noticing that within the past three years, nail polish and in particular nail art has really started to pick up. Anyway, I'll be posting (hopefully) pretty regularly now that one of my friends has fixed my internet. I now have consistent (albeit slow) internet, hooray! It's not too bad as long as it gets the job done =)

So Much Awesome

I watched The Dark Knight yesterday with my roommates and just....wow. Yes, it's as good as everyone's been saying. Batman's always been my favorite superhero but it's also a lot darker than other comics. And wow, Heath Ledger's performance was just spot-on as the Joker, someone who from the cartoons is more sugar-coated (as cartoons tend to be, though obviously for a reason) but here is someone who feeds off of chaos and destruction and finds humor in the fallacies of human nature: greed, power, selfishness, and even in love.

But yeah, even though it is much darker than other adaptations of Batman, it's still full of awesome. Which is really what you can also say about OPI's My Private Jet. MPJ, as it's affectionately abbreviated as, is definitely a unique polish in that it's a vampy holographic polish. By itself, it's kind of sheer and a charcoal grey color, so the first time I wore it I didn't think much of it. But on the advice of the nail board, I tried it over black and just...wow. Now whenever I wear it, I layer it over black because of just how great it looks (much better than it is by itself). I'll let the pictures do the talking though....there were so many pretty pictures that I can't just post one:

Close-up shot of the glittery goodness

I used Wet n Wild's Black Creme under it. Gorgeous, right? It really makes me want to wear it now! It's definitely one of my favorite polishes and while it's still readily available online and in Ulta stores, it's slowly dwindling down which is killing me. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find, otherwise I'll have to buy a couple of backup bottles.

Drugstore Gems: Black Radiance

So a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing Rite Aid for garbage bags when naturally I decided to check out the cosmetics selection. My local Rite Aid had recently remodeled their cosmetics layout, and I noticed that they expanded their line of Black Radiance cosmetics. So yeah, I'm not the target audience but that doesn't and shouldn't stop me from expanding my horizons, right? Anyway, normally their selection is only so-so but I spotted two new polishes (it helped that their stickers said New!) and at $1.99 a piece, I decided to just get them. One was a pretty burgundy shimmer and another was a vampy, dark blue shimmer.

Sadly, my color-blindness let me astray yet again. The burgundy shimmer, though named Crimson Chrome, wasn't crimson at all. It actually was VERY much a brown. Though the application and shimmer was gorgeous, it did not look good on me at all. I know some people can rock the browns but for me, it just looked like shimmery poop. Application was fantastic though:

Next up is the GORGEOUS Blue Nile. I noticed how it looked like OPI Light My Sapphire in the bottle, but sometimes that doesn't always translate the same onto the nail. However, it's pretty similar. Here is it by itself, sorry about the first picture. I prefer to take pictures in direct or indirect sunlight but sometimes the sun can wash a color out.


Want to see how similar it is to LMS? Here's a comparison, with Blue Nile on the index and middle finger and LMS on the ring and pinky finger:

I think they are pretty much dupes, except LMS is a tad more sparkly. Here's a comparison of Blue Nile, LMS, and NYC Midnight...I messed up the order of LMS and Midnight, sorry. Blue Nile is on the index finger, Midnight is on the middle finger, and LMS is on the ring finger (all 3 coats)

Excuse the blurriness too, but Midnight has more blue shimmer than the other two. Overall, Blue Nile is an effective replacement for OPI Light My Sapphire if you can't find it or don't want to pay the price of a OPI.

I had a really good experience with Black Radiance, and I look forward to trying more colors. Hopefully my Rite Aid or CVS will have more colors, I see some potentially hot ones on their website. They retail for $1.99 and are Toluene, Formaldehyde and Phthalate-free as well. They have a list of where to buy on their website, but some stores may not carry it (another Rite Aid near where I live doesn't have this line) or carry a limited selection (like my local CVS).

OPI Overload

OPI is going all-out this fall! They're launching a fall collection, a Halloween collection and a holiday collection! Geez, do these people ever sleep?

I gotta thank kschmiddy over at MUA for compiling these pictures together in a convenient post! My laptop has been really weird with Adobe Acrobat lately, I don't know why.

First, the fall collection, which will supposedly start appearing in August: La Collection de France. I hope OPI isn't running out of countries! At any rate, the names of these are as punny as ever, even though the colors only look so-so.




As always, click on the pictures to enlarge. Here are the names: Parlez-Vous OPI?, Louvre Me Louvre Me Not, Eiffel for This Color, You Don't Know Jacques!, Tickle My France-y, Baguette Me Not, A Oui Bit of Red, Crepes Suzi-ette, Bastille My Heart, Yes...I Can-Can!, We'll Always Have Paris, I'm Fondue of You

Adorable.

Here's the Halloween collection...personally I liked last year's better because Booberry was very cool, but it's just like every other Halloween collection they've done: black, orange, glow-in-the-dark, and decals. Still cool though!

And finally, their holiday collection

What do you guys think? I'm personally excited for the holiday collection more than the France one, but the France one might be amazing.

Early Morning Hotness: Swatches

I did some swatches of recent acquisitions: OPI Kangarooby, Petites Juke Box, EA Grand Canyon Sunset, and CHI Salsalita y Margarita. I just noticed now though that I mislabeled the pictures! It's not Petites Hot Rod, it's actually Petites Juke Box. My bad! All are with two coats, taken with their respective bottles.



I'm wearing Salsalita y Margarita right now and it's GORGEOUS! Despite the fact that the name is so long, the color is hot! It's a great coral. I'm glad that I got it, initially I was hesitant because the clearance sticker at Ulta said $5.95 but it rang up at the counter for $2.99! I love getting high-ends for the price of drugstore polishes. I also usually love shimmers and sparkles but sometimes cremes are so hot too!




CHI's apply amazingly well, about on par with EA polishes. Next time if I see a color I really want, I may actually be willing to shell out the $8. Despite their small size, they have the same amount of polish as Essie's do. It just looks like they have less because of how unproportional the handle is to the bottle.

Yep, an extra-long, eye-candy worth post this time. It will have to tide ya'll over the weekend, these upcoming two weeks are going to be killer. I uploaded a bunch of pics from my camera and worked on resizing them and marking today, which is the most tedious part. On that note, does anyone know of a good free (or not-so-expensive) watermarking software? I have issues with picmarkr. Thanks!

Early Morning Hotness: OPI Shanghai Shimmer

I bought this polish just for the name, and I think this is going to be the only polish I take with me when I study abroad this fall in Shanghai. Clever eh? I plan on doing a lot of polish shopping in Chines though!

My initial reaction was...what a lovely pink! But upon closer inspection (and consulting some of my non-colorblind friends), there's definitely some mauve tones to it. Even though I'm not a fan of purple polish (blasphemous right? Everyone has their polish quirks though) or purple tones, I will grudgingly admit that this is a beautiful polish. It helps that it definitely pulls more towards pink than mauve. Whew.


A contributing factor to how it looks delicate and pretty without being flat and boring is the abundance of green shimmer. It's definitely unique in that sense. With my Asian skin tone, I'm luckily able to pull off pinks and reds pretty well. Well I guess I could add mauve to that too. In most cases at least.

Shanghai Shimmer is luckily part of OPI's core line so it shouldn't be hard to find at all. It applies well with the ProWide brush and I only needed two coats to accomplish the look above. It's going to be perfect for China because it's one of those go-to polishes when you need a quick change of nail color. That means I don't have to worry so much about my nails so I can focus more on exploring the city and working hard in school....until I get new colors to play with!

Early Morning Hotness: OPI DS Fantasy

Right now, I'm rocking what might be one of my favorite dark blues, DS Fantasy. It has a dark, almost navy but not quite blue base with a lot of multicolored shimmer. While it's not a holographic polish to the extent of the other polishes in OPI's DS line, it does have a nice subtle holo. As ridiculous as the price is for the polishes in the DS line, I will admit that it's worth it for this one polish. The best part about this polish is that it applies like butter on a baked potato. I know many gripe and complain about OPI's ProWide brush and I'll admit that the ProWide brush sometimes makes for a WORSE application, but for this polish, the application was amazing. Fantasy was opaque in one coat, so I only needed two coats (I usually do three), which I was very happy about.

Unfortunately, the sun wasn't out today so I wasn't able to get pictures of my nails today, but here are some older pictures. However, they were taken during winter so they aren't exactly the best pictures to show the slight holo of the polish. The base color is a pretty accurate depiction though. The first picture gives you a better idea of the shimmer, the second color is a good representation of the base color and a bit of the holo.


Isn't it a gorgeous polish? I'm so glad it only needs two coats, that means I get through the entire bottle a lot slower! Sadly, there is a downside to this gorgeous polish: it leaves notoriously horrible stains, even with the best base coats around. Just be forewarned....but well, we all have to make a sacrifice for beauty, right? I know for sure that once I take this off I'm going to have to whip out my buffer and my Bubble White in an effort to get my nails out of the Cheeto Dust phase. It's so worth it though!

....I'm kind of craving a baked potato now. And Cheetos.

Polish Talk

This upcoming week is another busy one for me, there is no rest during a quarter system! But, let's talk OPI, shall we? The much-anticipated Mod About Brights collection was released a few days ago:

I haven't had time to go to Ulta yet, but I'm definitely interested in Dating a Royal, Green-wich Village, and Mod-ern Girl. I love that OPI has added a cheery yellow polish to this bunch though. I really hope that eventually there will be a nice opaque sparkly yellow, I'm forever on a search for one. NYC has a gorgeous yellow one with subtle shimmer called Taxi Yellow Creme but it was a little too streaky on me.

Er, where was I? Oh yes, the Mod About Brights. The lovely Polish Addict has posted some swatches of half of the collection, and her post links to another site where you can see all of the colors. This collection is all cremes and from what I gathered, semi-sheer as well (needing 3 coats to achieve the best look). I'm fond of all things shiny and sparkly so you'd think that this collection doesn't appeal to be but I do adore the brights trend because it's very reminiscent of summer. Also, sometimes cremes just look amazingly polished and refined. Which means that in typical work settings, they could still be appropriate (but of course, it all depends on each individual work environment).

Overall, I think this is OPI's best collection of the year so far. The India collection was a bit disappointing, as many felt that the colors didn't accurately depict the vividness of Indian fashion and culture. And I think anyone who has seen a Bollywood production could agree with that consensus, not to mention India is among the the most biodiverse countries in the world. The mountains and the scenery could have been source of so much inspiration! After the India collection was the quietly-released and barely-buzzed about Beyond Chic collection, consisting of soft shades. It was nice and different, but the colors were hardly anything to get excited about. Light shades don't necessarily have to translate to every-color-looking-the-same. It was a nice effort for OPI, soft colors are always a staple, and I'll probably want some from this collection, but there's just something about this collection that fell a little flat. Maybe OPI should have take a page from Essie's book and loaded those babies with some mega subtle shimmer? Who knows, but I do still love OPI.

To judge the Beyond Chic collection for yourselves, check out MUA paprheart's post of them here.

I am however really excited for the new LE Chanel polishes coming out! Whoever coined the phrase 'limited edition' is a genius! There's something so enticing about that phrase, mostly because we've all suffered at one point or another from not getting something that was LE and have regretted it to this day (MAC Whirlwind and Lancome Le Magnetique, I'm talking about you two! Ugh). Anyway, to celebrate the Chanel store opening on Robertson Blvd in LA in May (I haven't been able to Google up the exact opening date), Chanel is offering these four great shades:

L-R: Melrose, Rodeo Drive, L.A. Sunrise, L.A. Sunset
Source

I really hope that LA Sunrise will be shimmery/sparkly! Fear not, even if you are nowhere near L.A., you can still purchase the polishes online at Chanel.com in June. The downside? These LE suckers will set you back $25 each (I don't think Chanel has raised their normal polish prices, I think this is just for the LE ones). Which means if you want all four, you have to shell out 1/20th the cost of an average Chanel purse. Which....isn't that bad if you look at it like that.

If you're so In Style, tell us something we don't know

I love reading fashion/beauty magazines! I usually get lots of my fashion inspiration and tips from these magazines. I finally got one of my free InStyle magazines from Ulta, and I'm already thrilled because Carrie Underwood is on the cover.....but imagine my utter excitement when right there on the cover it screams BEAUTY NOW! Cool nail colors, luscious lips and foolproof-self-tanners. So honestly, which of the three am I going crazy over? The cool nail colors part, of course!

Well, it's a bit of a letdown. The Cool Nail Colors bit can be found on pg. 343 for those who have a copy and it's pretty much a bunch of colorful, photoshopped (as to not show the labels, even though they are listed in the back) polish together in a net with this little bit:


Net Gains- Turn on the brights with Technicolor nail polish
Cobalt-blue nails? Perhaps you just want to stick your toe in. And that's OK. But trust us: Bold shades have mad the leap from tacky to trendy this summer. When it comes to matching, forget the rules. Nowadays it's just as cool to clash (picture red nails with a pink dress) as it is to match (we love a yellow nail with a yellow-and-black painterly print).
Polish pictured: OPI The "It" Color, OPI Dating a Royal, OPI Brights Power, OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock; Essie Bermuda Shorts, Essie Shorty Pants; Sally Hanson Lacquer Shine in Glow and Flash, Sally Hanson No Chip 10 Day Nail Color in Resilient Red; Jessica Great Sphinx, Jessica King Tut's Gem, and Zoya Yummy.

Well ok, maybe for the no-so-obsessed people who are only casual partakers in nail polish this is good advice. I think that bold colors in general have been on the rise for summer though. After all, summer is the time for playing and fun, so you'd want colors to match that right?

But, I'm more than a little disappointed on how slow InStyle is in picking up on the grey trend, as evidenced by their little blurb on pg. 343:

Grey Nails

So long, pale pink, Now that women are embracing bold nail colors, even neutrals are getting funky. The current rage? Dove grey. Rescue Beauty Lounge's Concrete Jungle has already sold out three times since it launched last fall. "It's a great neutral complement to all the safari clothes this spring," says the line's creator, Ji Baek.

Grey (or gray, whatever spelling you prefer) has been on the rise since OPI's India Collection launched with Moon Over Mumbai. Around the same time, Essie also launched a collection with TWO grey polishes, Body Language and Great Expectations (Body Language has a touch of pink while Great Expectations is more of a true soft grey).



As you can see above, grey is not a color that I can pull off very well, but I do like the paler greys. If you have the coloring for greys, definitely check out Stephanie's Gray Comparison Swatches too! Or any of the other greys I talked about above, they should still be relatively easy to find. The Toma, by the way, is pretty hard to find, I found it at a local beauty supply but it's pretty old.

Anyway, I think that sometimes fashion or beauty magazines can be slow to pick up on some trends, but then again they're probably not as crazy about nail polish as some of us can be! I wish that they could be faster on picking up nail trends, but at least they still feature amazing styles and clothes.

OPI Light My Sapphire

Black polish has been around for a while but it was always tabooed by mainstream America. In the last couple of years however, the powers that be (fashion industry, media, the general consumer) have decided that vampy colors are chic and "in." Now colors that normally would be reserved for emo, punk, or gothic social groups (I hate branding, but what can ya do?) are no longer looked down upon.

If you're like me though, I was a little hesitant to make the jump from all pinks to straight black. There's where OPI Light My Sapphire comes in. Affectionately abbreviated as LMS, this polish will always have a place in my heart as my first OPI and first vampy shade. I think it's a very versatile shade, great for all skin tones because of its abundance of very fine microshimmer. This shade is a very blackened blue. Indoors, it looks black unless you look closely. Outside, in the sun, you can see that it looks like a very dark navy.

See how gorgeous it is? In reality the very fine shimmer is what makes it so special, it keeps the polish from looking flat and uninteresting

As you can see from my pinky, it looks different in the shade compared to in the sun. It's quite a gorgeous color though, don't you think?

Light My Sapphire is a pretty easy-to-find color. It's available at online etailers, Ulta stores, and most local beauty supplies that carry OPI.