HARE Polish: The First Collection (Reformulated)

Ok... it is no secret that I am a huge HARE polish fan right? Right. :e
And so it should not come as a surprise that I did a mega haul of shame during her last few Etsy restocks, right?

In my defense, my brain was malfunctioning during that period (revision for exams!) and I badly needed some retail therapy... Oh, scrap that. Who am I kidding?? There is no way I could miss HARE polish's restock! :brow

So let's start off with some swatches of the reformulated First Collection, shall we?

A Positive. 2 coats over 2 coats of OPI Houston, We Have A Purple.
A super squishy bright magenta red jelly filled with a mix of silver hexes of three different sizes. The base color was a little sheer so I decided to layer this over HWHAP lest the silver hexes cover up the entire base color if I try to build it up to opacity on its own. I had contemplated skipping this but I'm really glad I didn't. :L If you love jelly glitters, this will be right up your alley too.

Pegasus. 2 coats over China Glaze Light As Air on the first three fingers & 2 coats on its own on the pinkie.
Another silver hex glitter mix but in a soft lilac base this time. The silver hexes are colored white by the base color, giving it an unexpectedly delicate and feminine look. :angel I'm so glad I managed to snag this one after lemming for it for so long!

Bisbee. 3 coats on its own.
And finally, the star of the collection - this little bunny was wiped out within seconds in each of the restocks and I was really lucky to get it before it was gone. It was literally the fastest shopping I had ever done - I was in and checking out in under a minute. The adrenaline was still coursing through my body long after the damage was done.... Oops, I digressed.
Bisbee is a bright green-leaning turquoise filled with a mix of gold hexes of different sizes. I had some problems with the larger glitters clumping and curling a wee bit but nothing a little prodding and manipulating can't solve. In any case, how could I hold it against a pretty polish like Bisbee? You know you want it too. ;)

There is one other polish from the First Collection, Archipelago, but it is not ready to be included in this reformulated collection. :( I am hoping that Nikole will be able to find the right materials to make it once again! It's a stunning beauty and I would hate to miss it.

So, what do you think of HARE polish's First Collection?
Stay tuned for more swatches soon!

xoxo,
mich

Jade Holografico Haul + Swatches

Hello Dear Readers!!

I have an overdue post today showing  you my Jade holographic nail polish haul that I purchased at Ninja Polish. Some swatches below too ;)

From left to right: Hypnose, Verrmelho Surreal, Energy, Fascínio Violeta, Delírio Rosa
There are 10 different colors from this collection, I will take pictures of the others later ;)

I think that at $7.50 a bottle is a pretty affordable holographic nail polish collection. The linear holographic effect is impressive!
Another plus from these nail polishes is the opacity, I only needed 1-2 coats and the brush is very good to apply even coats. I think once I finish one of these bottles I will use it to pour my favorite clear top coat in it ;)

Now to some swatches... No, these are not my nails (My boyfriend agreed to swatch these colors hehe)
Long story short, it was in a day I was feeling down and to cheer me up a little bit, he let me paint his nails. Too bad he immediately removed the nail polish once I took some pictures...

Now here is my swatch of Delírio Rosa, a barbie pink holographic polish.
These are pictures from a month ago. Yes, my nails were crazy long, I cut off some length now.

Now a romantic swatch...? I don't know... I really like his hands, he should do some swatches for my blog from now on!

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

My Huge OPI Haul

Hello dear readers!

On some of my previous posts, you have seen some nail polishes that I have bought from blog sales. Today I would like to show you a huge OPI haul that I have bought from a fellow nail polish lover.

Can you see all these beauties? Below, I will include more pictures and names and the collection each nail polish belongs to.

Names from left to right:
Van-Couvered in Snow (Canadian Collection)
Suzi Says Feng Shui (Hong Kong Collection)
Who Are You Wearing? (Hollywood Collection)
Up the Amazon Without a Paddle (South American Collection)
Teenage Dream (Katy Perry Collection)

Valen-Time For Love (Valen-Time For Love Collection)
Venus Di Violet (Italian Collection)
Wine Me & Dine Me (Holiday In Hollywood Collection)
SRO (Standing Room Only) Silver (Holiday on Broadway Collection)
Thanks So Muchness! (Alice in Wonderland Collection)

Wine Not Party? (Holiday 2001 Collection)
Stars in My Eyes (Holiday in Hollywood Collection)
Vould U Like a Lick-tenstein? (European Collection)
St. Petersburgundy (Russian Collection)
The "It" Color (Brights Collection)

The Trill of Brazil (South American Collection)
Yes... I Can-Can (La Collection de France)
Sugar Plum Yum (Victorian Holiday Collection)
Take the Stage (Burlesque Collection)
Stranger Tides (Pirates of the Caribbean Collection)

Sweet as Annie-thing! (90210 Collection)
Tease-y Does it (Burlesque Collection)
Up Front & Personal (Brights Collection)
Yankee Pankee Plum (New England Collection)
What's Dune (It's Summer For Shore Collection)
Wyatt Earple Purple(Wild West Collection)

These are other nail polishes from the same seller:
Nicole by OPI - Chrome-A-Zoned, Sensational Scarlet
Sephora by OPI - Worth my Weight
A England - Dragon
OPI - You're a Pisa Work (Decant from OPI talian Collection)

I really don't know much about old OPI collections and I thought it would be interesting to research a little about it.
Thank you so much Alma for selling me your beloved nail polishes, as I told you before, I will treasure each one of these OPIs ;)

Ladies,  do you own any nail polish from any of the collections I listed above?

Thank you so much for reading♥♥♥

Of Nail Mails and Hauls...

It's Swatching Sunday!!

Well, it was supposed to be... until Mother Nature decided it should be Storm Sunday instead - and the thunder rumbled in agreement just as I finished typing that. Freaky. :~

Since it is way too dark for me to get decent pictures on my camera, I've decided to do a haul update and show you the nail mails that I've received since the last haul post in.... May (can't believe it was so long ago)!

So, here we gooooo~

L-R: Brummingbird holo top coat, Essence Choose Me, Fingerpaints Easel-y Entertained, Spoiled Plastic Flamingo

These are the awesome polishes that I've won from @brummingbird's nail art contest on Instagram! You can see the design I did here.
The bottle with the adorable label is a spectraflair topcoat made by Laura herself. I've tried it on one nail and it was... *wow* intense! :o :rainbow She also makes some pretty cool polishes. You can find her etsy shop here.

L-R:  Lynnderella Nosegay, Glitter Gal Lizard Belly and Kiko #255

I also met up with my friend sometime in June to collect these pretties! I feel a little embarrassed that I have left them with her for so long! :$ She was also really nice to help me get the Kiko on her Euro holiday trip! Thank you, babe! :k
You can see my swatches of Nosegay here.

L-R: Essence Midnight Date / City that Never Sleeps, Michelle M33, A38, 55

Jayo, Cherily and I had another stayover at our friend's house towards the end of June and I collected these from Cherily! She was in town a few days before that and kindly helped me grab some of the local Michelle polishes to try. I've worn each of them as a full mani at least twice now. That's really saying something considering that I still have quite a few untrieds in my stash. :i

In July, I...
actually survived a whole month without a single new polish! woohoo~ :mj
That must be a personal record for me ever since I've started this little hobby of mine. I'm actually pretty impressed with myself! xD

Anyway, the cold turkey didn't last long and here's what my mail lady brought for me in August:

L-R: Gosh Rainbow, Gosh Holographic, MaxFactor Fantasy Fire

Now, I hardly need to introduce these, do I? I was lucky enough to be the winner of The Nailasaurus' giveaway - and even luckier to win the set of HTFs! I've heard so much about these polishes but never had hopes of owning them myself. As you can imagine, I literally jumped for joy when I saw the email she sent! I may or may not have shrieked as I jumped. Heh. :r

L-R: NailTek Foundation II, China Glaze I'm Not Lion, Exotic Encounter, I Herd That, Cast A Spell, Immortal, OPI Alpine Snow

So, the giveaway prizes didn't exactly count towards my no-buy, right? But these China Glazes definitely do! After going cold turkey for a month, I broke my no-buy in a huge way by hauling more than 5 polishes at one go from a local etailer! Apparently, all it needed was a 10% discount for all hell to break loose. So much for a polish-free July! :||

L-R: a-england Elaine, Galahad, Guinevere

Our mail lady also delivered our a-england purchases from their recent July promo - the 5-day Mythical Fair! You know me. I'm a relatively huge a-england fan. It would not have been humanely possible for me to miss this chance to grab some of the shades I'd been eyeing. And so, I caved in. Yet again. :||

And that's not all!
I am expecting at least 2 other polishes this month - Butter London All Hail the Queen and Cult Nails Time Traveller. I've also splurged on another gigantic order but that will only be coming 3 weeks later. >.<
On top of that, I have also spent some money on a few polish-related orders. (If all goes well, I hope it will be in time for our blog-anniversary in October! ;) )

The moral of the story?
Going cold turkey is not a viable long-term solution at all. :ice

So what have you hauled recently? :brow

xoxo,
mich

Forever 21 Nail Polish Mini Haul + swatches

I want to show you some nail polishes that I bought from Forever 21 online store.

I've noticed that this store is selling very cool glitter nail polishes recently and couldn't resist to buy these beauties:

(All pictures can be enlarged)

Names from left to right: Crystal Pink, Tinsel Town, Crystal Confetti, Confetti Crush and Pink Speckled

Crystal Pink: pink shredded glitter
Tinsel Town: multicolor bar glitter
Crystal Confetti: Chunky multicolor hexagonal glitter
Confetti Crush: Multicolor shredded glitter
Pink Speckled: Flakies and small glitter in fuchsia jelly base (some say is a dupe to OPI - Lily I Love You)

Swatches from left to right:
Crystal Confetti, Confetti Crush, Crystal Pink, Tinsel Town and Pink Speckled

I love the variety of glitters that F21 has released. I can see myself frankening with some of these. The price for these nail polishes is only $2.80 + tax, very affordable considering that I've seen very similar glitter polishes for triple the price.
What I don't like is that the names of the polishes are only in the online store, not in the bottles. For example, the multicolor glitters are called "Crystal/Multi" in the bottle label. Please stick nice names on the nail polish bottles, F21.

Do you like chunky glitter nail polishes?

♥Thank you for reading♥

Blog Sale Nail Polish Haul

Hello dears!

I have been into shopping for nail polish from blog sales recently because I have not had time to go out shopping.

What I like about blog sales is that I can find brand name nail polishes at very affordable prices. Some nail polishes are brand new, swatches or used for a manicure or two but I don't really care as long as the condition is described accordingly. I'm very happy with these purchases, the blogger I bought from were very nice and some including extra gifts.

Here is what I have bought from different sellers during these past weeks:

 

From left to right: Color Club- Tru Passion, Untamed Luxury and Worth the Risque. China Glaze - Custom Kicks, It's Poppin', Tinsel and Zombie Zest.

Zoya - Astra, Kristen, Gigi and Luna. Orly - Pixie Dust, Prince Charming, Mirror Mirror and Rage.

Icing - Golden Rule, Cosmetic Arts - unnamed bottle, Funky Fingers - unnamed bottle, SH Nail Prisms - Blush Diamond (x2), Ruby Diamond. OPI Nic's Sticks - Silverella (x2)

Milani - Enchantment, Garnet Gems, Fairy tale, OPI - You Don't Know Jacques, Wet n' Wild - Gray's Anatomy, Sally Hansen - Rockstar Pink, Maybelline - Pie in the Sky, Savvy - Prince Ala Charm.

I also bought a big bottle of Solar Oil to pamper my nails.

I hope you had a nice weekend!

SF Japan Town Trip and Haul

Hello again!
Very strange for me to make posts two days in a row, but couldn't wait to share this with you.

Last Sunday, the day of the Super Bowl, I took advantage of the fact that so many people stay at home to watch the game and spend time with friends/family. I knew this day would not be as crowded, so, my boyfriend and I went to my favorite place... Japan Town in San Francisco! I love to go there and shop lots of things from Japan as well as eat delicious Japanese food.

I know I'm not good at holding the chopsticks ^ ^; but eating Japanese food without them would not be the same.

Mmm... Yakisoba... I eat it every time I go to Japan Town's Mifune Don restaurant. Sometimes I eat okonomiyaki as well but on this occasion I had less appetite. This is delicious, I really recommend it :)

Inside one of the malls located in Japan Town, you will find Japanese decoration and objects with cultural significance such as these Mikoshi (portable shrines)...

Or this Bunraku theater puppet. I think it looks beautiful.

One of my favorite stores to shop at is Daiso Japan which is the Japanese equivalent of dollar stores in the U.S. but way better. It is filled with all kinds of goods from Japan at only $1.50 each item.

(Not my picture, I forgot to take one. Source here.)

Now, to the haul...

I bought all kinds of beauty and healthcare items: A huge box of woven cotton pads (perfect for removing nail polish, leaves no lint), eyelash curler refills, face massager, peel-off charcoal mask, nail & hand lotions, packs of 250+ oil blotting paper sheets, mimikaki (for cleaning ears), and a little bottle of nail polish.

(Pictures can be enlarged)

I love Japanese packaging of products, very kawaii (cute). This is a bag of 10 packs of tissue paper.

Here you can see: deco tapes, colorful staples, two very cute mugs, and trading card albums (I will use them to store my nail stamp plates).

I also bought very cute notebooks. Though I'm a univ. student, I can use any notebook for taking notes and I wanted to use kawaii ones. I love having cute stuff around me, makes everyday life sweeter ^ ^

I wanted you to know a little bit more about me besides nail polishing. I hope you enjoyed this post!

Super Nail Polish Haul

Hi! Today I will post about the nail polish haul that I got yesterday at the flea market. I called it a super nail polish haul because it is the first time I bought this many nail polishes at once. Since I got them at a very good price, I don't feel bad about it :)

The nail polish brands I bought from were Kleancolor, Nabi and Prestige...

First, take a look at this picture (from my crappy cellphone camera) I took of one of the stands I bought some nail polish from. Ever since I started my nail polish addiction, I love going to flea markets in search of pretty and affordable nail polish. Every time I find stands like these, I look like a child in a candy store ; ) So many colors and glitters...

I got 12 crackle nail polishes from Nabi, these are just some of the colors, they carry 40+ colors of crackle. I must say I'm impressed by the range of colors and the quality of these crackles. I try will to post swatches later. (Names from left to right: Sky blue, sand, new lilac, pastel blue, angel lavender, rose, mocha, white, black, yellow, silver, bright purple)

I also bought a bunch of Kleancolor glitter nail polishes. (Names from left to right: Gold caviar, go bunny!, black out, starry night, grand finale, firework)

More glitter kleancolors... (Names from left to right: Red hot, golden nirvana, green with envy, starry blue, chunky copper, tiara gold)

I finally found Chunky holo black from kleancolor. Why so many bottles? Well, because I will include these as prizes for my upcoming giveaway! My camera did not do justice to chunky holo -_-' I assure you these look gorgeous in person ;)

Last but not least, some cream polishes from Prestige and Kleancolor. This are very opaque and some of these can double as stamping nail polishes.

(Names from left to right: 8, 12, mauve, bumble bee, neon white, black)

I hope you enjoyed this post!