Orly Galaxy Girl and Space Cadet

Life is busy :( Here are the two polishes I picked up from the Orly Cosmix FX collection!

Orly Galaxy Girl




Macro

Orly Space Cadet



Macro

NOTD: Essie Sew Psyched

2100 pages read, barely any of it remembered. I'm studying for another actuarial exam, so free time has been taken up with study time :'(

This week I'm headed to DC for an annual meeting of my company's life consultants. I'm bringing some nail polish because my friends who work in the Chicago office will also be there :D

Week after that, I'm flying to London for a week's vacation with DBF. He's finishing up his summer training (this summer has really flown by!!) so I'm going over for his last week (when he has free time) and we're going to Edinburgh for a few days. I hope to come home with a few new pretties too ;)

Anyhoo, today I picked up Essie Sew Psyched after a trip to the dentist. I found it in a local nail salon (there are a lot of nail salons in NJ!), so I didn't have to drive 20 mins to BB&B or Harmons to get it! Yay!


Essie Sew Psyched


Essie Sew Psyched

I like it even more than I thought I would! :D It is going in my bags for DC :)

Spam while I wait

My parents were supposed to drive down from Canada today and arrive at my place no later than 10. It is now almost 11:30 and I need to go to sleep soon! I've already showered, PJed myself, made up the futon (for myself, obviously!), and changed the sheets on my bed for my folks. But where are they? WHERE ARE THEY!? They haven't called me either, and I generally try not to call my parents (because my Dad gets agitated easily, I don't want to cause him to get into an accident).

Anyways, instead of going to bed early like I wanted to, I'll stay up and post some recent NOTDs.

By the way, in anticipation of my parents staying with me for 5 days, I have hidden 80% of my np stash from my Mom's uncanny ability to find things to nag me about! This is not a signal that I have a problem (no, there are plenty of other signals LOL), it just means I don't like to get nagged!!

Man, I even made my mom some mung bean soup and bought them a frickin' $9 roast chicken from Whole Foods! CMONNN!!

ok I redid my Milani Dress Maker mani sometime ago:


Milani Dress Maker - Bounced Flash


Milani Dress Maker - Direct Flash


Milani Dress Maker - Close up of the secret shimmer :)

I also picked up Milani Bare to Wear:


Milani Bare to Wear - Bounced flash


Milani Bare to Wear - Direct flash

Friday I dropped by Sallys (after a disappointing drugstore run after work: Mall, Target, 2 Walgreens, 2 Riteaids with nothing to show) and picked up China Glaze Ingrid and Emerald Fitzgerald.


China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald - Bounce flash


China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald - Close up


China Glaze Ingrid - Bounce flash


China Glaze Ingrid - Direct flash


A deceptively sexy looking macro with direct flash


The day after, I layered on NARS Arabesque


Again, deceptive direct flash macro :)

Then the other day I dropped into CVS and found this on clearance for $1.12: Maybelline Caliente Coral


Maybelline Caliente Coral - Bounce flash

Day after that I layered on some Hidden Treasure for kicks:


Bounce flash


That's all the spam for now! *looks at the time* Still no parental units!! My dad is the worst at time management, especially when it comes to trips. I'm glad I didn't inherit that from him...

Last week's haul and some NOTDs

I had some friends from back home come and stay with me for a week. This is what resulted from taking them around to various drugstores ^_^;



I cleaned out Marshalls of their Barielle stuff. Got some camo, HRF, mani extender, and hand creme.

Left to right along the top: SH Going Green, SH Blue It, SH LS Spark, WnW Night Prowl, NYC Chinatown, OPI Here Today Aragon Tomorrow, Milani Dressmaker (LOVE THIS!), Brucci Elizabeth's A Natural.


Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green: I like this more than I thought I would! Not-complete-lemming for Essie Pretty Edge killed.


Close-up of SH Going Green: and this has shimmer!

The Milani is so lovely. Although it took 3 coats to be mostly opaque :( Still... secret shimmer is worth it!






Here's my awful mani of it. I did it in the living room (has terrible lighting) -_-


Also got these bad boys from a blog sale over at The Kitchen, the Closet and the Laboratory.... OPI Green-wich Village (a lemming! It has been fulfilled!), OPI Russian Navy Suede (my first suede, wow, it is amazing!), NARS Arabesque (as a freebie; not sure what to do with it!), Essie St Lucia Lilac (I should do a comparison vs OPI Rumple's Wiggin)

Last weekend I also stopped into CVS to pick up Confetti My Favorite Martian:


I kinda love it:



Finally, my first franken. The mess, first:


I got caught up in the frenzy about Paradoxal, which is bizarre because a) I'm not even that crazy about the colour, and b) I hope I never spend more than $10 on a bottle of nail polish (we'll see how long this lasts).

Anyway, somehow I ended up making this:



I actually like it!


Macro of the shimmer (wrong colour for Paradoxal, but hey, I used what I had)

I used some neglected eyeshadows (the dark shimmery brown from Maybelline Expert Wear quad in Natural Smokes - my first eyeshadow palette!, and a free pigment sample from Coastal Scents in Quartz Mauve), the light pink Barielle from the prior Marshalls haul (which was terribly streaky and blechy!!), some WnW Black Creme and the NYC Chinatown, all thrown together.

I picked up a few more drugstore polishes recently, but I'll save those for next time.

Haul time! :)

After all the dust settled from my move, DB indulged me in a little after-work hauling (using my leftover reward money from passing my last requirement for accreditation!)

We hadn't had much time to explore the area yet, so we took off to a nearby township (I think I'm just starting to get used to North Jersey and their overlapping towns) where I had identified a TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Harmon Discount.

Based on the NB over at MUA, I was crossing my fingers hoping to find some Barielle goodies at TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

TJ Maxx was a complete bust. The section for bath and beauty was tiny and cluttered. Nothing good here :(

Next, we drove over to another strip mall with the Marshalls in it. It also looked small, and I was starting to get a knot in my stomach that I'd have no luck all night. Then, I spotted down the strip mall a Sallys! Hooray! We (read: me) decided to go there after Marshalls.

The bath and beauty section at Marshalls was a bit larger, but there were very few things. DB spotted a 3 pack of Barielle polishes (for french manicures) for $6.


Barielle Shades in Enduring, Top Shield, and Cherish

I was not thrilled at these boring colours, but DB loves sheers and pinks, so I indulged him :p Plus, at $6 you can't really go wrong for 3 bottles, right? Also, I wanted to make sure I didn't come away that night empty-handed!

After digging around some more, DB found more Barielle products, since he knew what the packaging looked like now.


Barielle Manicure Extender and Camo Base Coat

He found the Manicure Extended and Camo Base Coat (both the last bottles there) hidden among some creams and lotions. I snatched these up at $4 each :D Hooray! I was hoping to find the Hydrating Ridge Filler, but no luck. I'll have to come back later and look again :)

Next, we hopped over to Sallys. It was an older store, but the good thing was none of the polishes had those annoying magnetic stickers on them to prevent theft. I suppose this was a low traffic area, since the other 2 Sallys I went to both had the obnoxious stickers over everything, and even the caps taped to the bottle to prevent people from opening them! Can you imagine all the residue on the bottle after you peeled everything off?? Ick!

I didn't see any new collections at Sallys, but spied a little rack of clearance items. At the very bottom, I spied a little box...


ORLY Enchanted Forest and Prisma Gloss Gold

Both for $1.99!!! I had Enchanted Forest on my wishlist, and was thrilled to pick it up for $2.


Close-up of Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

I was indifferent about the topcoat, since it seemed useless to me, but after using it, I quite like it over cremes! The glitter goes on sparsely, but looks a bit holographic. So, BONUS!

Since I didn't see anything else, I was about to check out and then DB, being a tall lanky boy that he is, spied an old China Glaze display at the very top shelf (which I could neither see nor reach) and we found these bad boys:


China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Atlantis

For $1.99 and $3.99 respectively. SCORE! There were some other polishes on clearance for $2-4, but none of them appealed to me.


Close-up of China Glaze Atlantis

When I got home and looked closer at this bottle, there seemed to be quite a bit of polish missing. I wonder if this was a return? Or does all that glitter "absorb" the polish? Who knows!


China Glaze Atlantis over OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

I'm not usually fond of glitters, but I threw it on for fun later that weekend.


China Glaze Atlantis close-up

I've been won over!! Look at that O_O!!!


Close-up of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

Can't wait to wear this! I'm going to put it on my toes this weekend.

We left Sallys (me, reluctantly; DB, happily) and headed to the Final Destination: Harmon Discount Beauty Supply. I never heard of this store until I moved to NJ, and it seems to be owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond. I was glad to find there was one here, because the other one I had been seeing was on the highway (and on the "inconvenient" side) which I wasn't dying to go to.

I had a 20% off entire purchase coupon that came in my moving package of coupons from the postal office, after I changed addresses. I think usually you only get coupons at BBB for 20% off a single item, so I'm happy :)

I was fully prepared to make a big haul here, to maximize my savings, but I didn't think I'd get so many polishes...


Essie Van D'Go, Mink Muffs, Marabou

We looked at Essie polishes first. None of them made it into my basket, because DB was being difficult and only wanting sheers and pinks, etc.

Then, it turns out there was a larger display of Essie at the other end of the store. This is where their permanent line was showcased, and DB was in awe. He said, "I think I like this brand". I told him to pick out whatever boring pink he wanted, and I'd get it, and he picked up Mademoiselle. LOL. I told him I already bought it! Then I showed him how to identify sheers from opaques, and he proceeded to pick up every bottle. He had a hard time doing this, so I told him to discreetly open the polish and see how it dripped off the brush.

He picked out Marabou and Van D'Go and couldn't decide, so I took both :p

At this point, he was smitten with Essie and said all Essie's were "safe" and "cute". I ran back to the other Essie display and grabbed Mink Muffs. Woohoo! I got a "poopy" colour, according to him.

Part of the nail polish deal is that DB would get to choose my mani and pedi. He chose that awful sheer Barielle pink at first, but I protested (my nails are still stained from Charla), and he picked both Essie Marabou and Van D'Go.


Essie Van D'Go with Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

Van D'Go dried a lot more bright/orange on my nails than it looks in the bottle. I do like it, though. I still have Marabou on my toesies. It's so.. safe!

I layered the Orly Prisma Gold Gloss on top to see what it was like, and was pleasantly surprised!

Next up was Color Club! According to DB, I got all "ugly" colours.


Color Club Fashion Addict and Revvvolution

I was a little wary about getting holos, but I decided to trust in the widsom of the NB.


Color Club Fashion Addict

Guys, I love this!!!


Color Club Love 'Em Leave 'Em and Emerald Depths

Originally, Love 'Em Leave 'Em didn't make it into my basket, but at the cash register they had another display of CCs, and it "accidently" made its way into my obscenely large checkout pile.


Color Club Love 'em Leave 'em

I like how this is a blingy take on a "safe" colour.

Finally, they had some OPI for $7.50, so I decided to pick up a couple colours I had been thinking about.


OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui and Samoan Sand

Usually blue is too "ugly" for DB, but when I told him this was from the Hong Kong collection, he was all over it. Man, this boy does not make sense!!

Loving Samoan Sand! What a great neutral. I was a little worried about it on my skin tone, but I quite like it :)


OPI SSFS and Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

Here's SSFS with the Orly top coat on it :)

Anyways, all in, I managed to go $22 over my allocated "reward" money. Oh well. At least everything I got was on sale, right? :)

My next haul is contingent on catching up on a month's worth of studying. It'll be a 10 bottle minimum, plus I'm allowing myself a bonus 1 bottle for every time I get my lazy butt to the gym. I was going to go yesterday, but got home late from work, so I'll try again tonight!!!