Another Random Nail Encounter

I was at Costco yesterday and the cashier -who was gorgeous to begin with- had awesome nails.

Very short but well cared-for rounded natural nails with a flawless and super-shiny dark blue creme polish. It looked a lot like Lippmann Devil In A Blue Dress, but it could have also been Sally Hansen Navy Baby. Beautiful.

This time I actually got up the courage to compliment her. She seemed startled that I noticed her nails! Awwwe.

Also, a couple weeks ago, the cashier at the coffee shop had some fantastic neon orange nails. It made me all giddy. I love seeing people with color on their nails. It's so refreshing to see a lovely girl without the cliche fake french manicure. Color OWNS!!!!!!

..And now I'll get back to the mountain of comments and emails that I should be responding to instead of posting.... Heh. Oops.

Failure

I've been debating whether or not I wanted to post this, but I think I should. So, here goes.

You all know how much I love doing reader requests, right? I do. However, I've gotten a few that I've just totally failed. Pictures didn't turn out right. My photography sucks.

If you've been waiting on a request from me that I haven't fulfilled, I didn't forget about you. I'm just a big freakin' failure! Arghhhh.

Here are a few of the requests I've totally bombed on:

China Glaze OMG collection along with the rest of the Kaleidoscopes: I lost them! I can only find the couple that I use regularly. I have no idea where they could be. I have re-purchased the whole set of both, so I should be able to finish this request soon.

Mood Polishes: I have a bunch of these, and one day I sat down to photograph them all. Problem is, only one of them actually changed colors. I must be doing something wrong. The one that changed colors is up on NailGal (I think it was Toma Green Glitter to Gold Glitter?), but the other pics ended up in the trash. Anyone have any experience with mood polishes? Do they just stop changing after a certain age, do they go bad? I even put my hands in hot water and cold water and nothing.

Dupes for CND AB Positive: This one seemed easy, but I haven't actually been able to find a bottle of AB Positive or even a picture of AB Positive to compare things to! And on top of that, I find it next to impossible to photograph reds properly- they end up all weird and radioactive looking. Does anyone have this polish, and if so, can you take a picture of it for me? Pretty please?

Essie Bridal Collection 2008: I have had this sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be photographed for months. I think it even has dust on it now. I have a hard time photographing sheers like those because they always come out looking white instead of whatever shade of off-white they are in real life. I'll have to try harder on this one.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms / Other Duochromes: These are just really hard to capture and I haven't been happy with any of the pictures I've taken of these. I'm still trying to figure out what type of lighting and angle works best to show the multichromatic properties of these. Right now I've only been able to get one color in a picture, and that's lame.

Neons: These are the hardest things of all to photograph. Orange and green are the most difficult. I have a few great shots of a variety of neons- the Color Clubs, the Misas, the Essies- but I think those were just luck. I've tried quite a few times to get entire hand (not just 'skittles') shots of the China Glaze neons, the New York Summer neons and all the other random neons I have in my collection and they pictures just come out bizarre and warped and freakish looking, like nuclear nails on charred black fingers. I'm still practicing photographing these.

There are a couple more requests that I haven't been able to get just right, but you get the idea.


So... there. I did it. I've admitted failure, but not defeat! I haven't been able to get these pictures right yet, but I'm going to keep trying until they're perfect! Thank you for all your requests and also for your patience. You guys ROCK!!!!!

We cannot change...

[Photo by MKL taken in Kukup, Malaysia, 2008]

Comparing two climates

Sometimes I really consider myself lucky. I saw some pictures coming from Slovenia around this time, showing the huge amounts of snow. Well, at the same time I was looking at that photos, I was in slippers and shorts, sipping beer in the tropical heat of over 30 degrees. What a difference, don't you think?

[My MALAYSIA page][Photos by MKL, 2008]

Kinda-sorta posting...

Still feeling pretty sick, but I got this email from Carolyn New York I thought I'd share. Basically, it's:

Free shipping on all orders over $20
Free basecoat and topcoat with every order with code FREECOAT
"Discounts on everything" but I can't figure out what's on sale....

I have a few Carolyn New York swatches up on NailGal if you're curious.

My one gripe about this company is that processing/shipping (turnaround time) took a very long time.

Carolyn New York

See you all soon! *passes out*

Essie Winter 2008 Collection

I've finally seen the Essie Winter 2008 collection (does this collection even have a name?) in person, and I'm surprised! A lot of these are much different than they looked in the promo pics from Essie- not a bad thing!


Bold and Beautiful. A deep red jelly-like cream. This is the one polish from the collection I'd probably never wear. It's boring. Unlike some of Essie's other reds, this one has no character, no edge, no 'BAM!'.... It's just... red. Doesn't stand out at all.



Damsel in a Dress. Deep, dark eggplant with very fine silver shimmer. Very pretty. Reminds me of OPI Lincoln Park At Midnight or Laura Mercier Avant Garde. It's very dark but still purple- I think the silver shimmer makes the purple stand out more. Nothing at all like the promo pics suggest- they describe it as "Oh-so-deep currant"- I like the real life version better.


It's Genius. Bright grape-purple with fine gold and silver shimmer. Oooh! This was a pleasant surprise. It looks nothing like this in the promo pictures! In this picture it looks like a full-on metallic like Zoya Rea, but it's really not. It's just so packed full of gorgeous shimmer that it looks metallic.



Rock Star Skinny. Kind of a plum or mulberry shade with fine silver shimmer. Stupid name, really nice color. Again, nothing like the promo pics. It's described as "glamorous crimson red"- huh? Maybe I'm colorblind- I don't get glamorous crimson red from this. Either way, it's really pretty.



Sexy Divide. Bold, saturated purple with multicolored shimmer. My favorite from this collection. My picture makes it look blue, but it's much more purple in real life. The bottle color is closer to the actual color. I was hoping it would be like Viva La Vespa, but it's a different type of purple. It has really interesting shimmer, too- sometimes it looks gold, sometimes red, you can see some blue in there... Really cool. Love it. I only wish it was brighter.


Shifting Power. Sheer metallic gold. This one is kinda 'meh' to me. It's really sheer, definitely a three coater. This picture is three coats and you can still see my nail through it. It's kind of streaky as well. I was hoping for something richer based on the promo images, but this is sort of anemic. It's not a bad color, but it's not anything special. The promo picture made it look like a dense, shimmery cooler gold, but this is very warm, almost orangey, and not very shimmery at all.


Again, I think Essie played it safe, but despite that there are some really great colors in this collection. Two were total disappointments to me, the rest were nice surprises (and no sheer pinks! Hallelujah!). Sexy Divide is, in my opinion, the standout color. It's so un-Essie like! I love it! Keep it up, Essie!

The formula on these was great. It was thick but not runny, like three-free polishes tend to be. The thickness made the colors nice and opaque and the polish was very easy to control. No mess. These also dried extremely quickly. The Essie formula is really nice. There was also no staining after removing the polish, which is also pretty rare for reds and purples.

Overall, pretty solid collection. None of the colors strike me as particularly 'wintery', but I'm not complaining. Nothing too exciting here, but if you're into vampy colors or fine shimmer, you'll probably like these shades.

CHI Holiday Earth Tone Collection

I just got my latest issue of Nails magazine, and there's a full page ad for this GORGEOUS trio of CHI polishes. Razzle Dazzle, a shimmery golden metallic, Out Of Town Brown which appears to be an OPI Music Hall Curtain Call dupe and Last Minute Shopper Copper, which is a shimmery metallic copper that looks a little duochromey.

Again, I'm lamenting my lack of a scanner cause I'd love to post this picture.

My point in posting this: I WANT THESE!!

I have no idea where to get CHI polishes anymore, Ulta seems to have phased them out and I've never seen them anywhere else. Any ideas? Somewhere online??