L'Oreal Masked Affair

Sorry for the different locale, but the house is kind of crowded this week; granted, a grocery store parking lot isn't private either, but I'll take what I can get. 

I've intentionally saved Masked Affair for the Holiday Season, because it just has that kind of feel to it. It's a steely grey, lavender-tinged linear holo. Pretty much perfection. Formula was great, but I needed 3 coats for full-coverage-lately when I've been painting I've just done two (hooray for laziness!). I added top coat with misgivings, but I shouldn't have worried. 

The season is starting a little slowly for me. I've been sick as a dog the last couple weeks. It started out as a cold, developed into a wicked sinus infection, and then to top it off, one of the little nuggets that I tutor gave me some kind of viral eye infection. So I'm down, but not out. I'm planning on getting the tree out this weekend, and I may or may not have watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas 3 times already. And I've got a HUGE stash of Holiday polishes to get through. Last year I wore a lot but just never got around to photographing them. Hopefully this year will be different.

Various Polish Hauls of 2014 (Update: Flakie Goodness at the end!)

I really need to keep better track of my hauling. These are only the ones I've remembered to take pictures of:

left to right: China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla, Tail Me Something, Teal the Tide Turns, & Wish on a Starfish.

left to right: Maybelline Coral Heat (Bleached Neons) & An Old Flame (incidentally, am wearing Teal the Tide Turns in photo)

Zoya Earth Day Haul: Stevie, Zara, Maya, Elodie, Rekha, Caitlin, Sooki, Bevin, & London.

Uninvited from the MAC Maleficent Collection (good lord, I wanted it ALL...am debating on whether or not to go back for the beauty powder)

left to right: O.P.I. Chillin' Like a Villain & Don't Touch My Tutu!

left to right: O.P.I. Hey Baby, I Sing in Color, & Love.Angel.Music.Baby.

left to right: A Study in Polish I Do Post-Mortems, L'Oreal In With the Nude, Red-y to Shine?, Essie Blanc (Chinchilly is next to it, and not included are Go Ginza and A Cut Above)

With everything happening in my life right now, these little polish hauls are one of the few things that remind me of that little thing called happy. Not the best way to deal with things, but I'm working with what I have. 

Also I have some super-pretty nails to share later. Or tomorrow. Depends on when it's not overcast anymore. Mind you, not complaining in the slightest; I'd rather have it be overcast and chilly than be dry-roasted alive in my own house.

EDIT: Well my nails were chip city today, so here's a photo I snapped of them last night:

You're looking at 1 coat of O.P.I...Eurso Euro and 1 generous coat of Color Club The Uptown. I had planned on wearing The Uptown over something a little lighter (You're Such a Budapest, for example), but I wasn't quite over wearing something dark on my nails. I'll definitely be sporting that manicure on here in the next couple days though. I don't wear flakies much, and oftentimes I find myself wrinkling my nose at them. But every so often the flakie mood will take me, and my eyes will end up glued to my nails for a few days. 

L'Oreal Too Dimensional?

Sorry for the mini-hiatus, I've had low morale/a color hangover for most of the week. And various nail breaks. And PMS.

Allow me to introduce you to the prettiest of the L'Oreal Gold Dusts. Period. No contest. I don't even know what to do with myself, guys. It's a sparkle-splosion of glittery magic. I want to dive headfirst into it and emerge covered in glittery goo and shoot up into the night sky and spray it everywhere like Smaug. 

Also the name is silly. 

I'm sad it didn't photograph properly, but this was as good as I could get it. Too Dimensional? has a deep, inky blue/purple base and is full of the most intense goldy-lemon shimmer, as well as more sparse green and orange shimmer. To top it off, there are lavender/silver hex glitters peppered throughout. This was the only textured polish I've considered top coating; with all the shimmer and glitter, the base gets a bit lost. But it's gorgeous both wet and dry. Much like a good burrito. 

This was two perfect coats, no clean up. L'Oreal, if you are reading this, MAKE MORE GOLD DUSTS. IN ALL THE COLORS. 

Looking forward tonight. I helped my bff get an awesome job, so she's taking me out to dinner at Maggiano's. I don't frequent Los Angeles much, but when I do, Maggiano's is usually involved. Or Canter's. Or Grand Lux Cafe (amazing beignets).

Basically I'll go there for food. 

L'Oreal Pop the Bubbles

I had a couple bad breaks over the last few days, so I just cut all my nails down. I've had a free edge for so long now that the tip of my index finger (worst break) actually hurts a little. It's a weird sensation. 

I needed a really low-maintenance manicure since I'm too tired to really care about my nails right now. So here's another Gold Dust polish. They've quickly become one of my favorite texture lines.

Pop the Bubbles is a light, bright blue-green with a hint of grey.  It may not look like there's grey in it, but when I set it next to other blue-greens I own, it's more apparent. This comparison from imabeautygeek.com is a good example. Interspersed are pretty silver glitters; very mermaid-y. Makes me want to go to the beach. 

This was two easy coats, no clean up (I know I've said it before, but best brushes evarrrr), no top coat. This is such a lovely polish guys, it's really cheering me up right now. I'm looking for the small victories. A polish I like will do. 

L'Oreal Le Pastille

I haven't seen any of the polishes from this Les Blancs collection anywhere but Bed Bath and Beyond, which is frustrating because I frequent CVS way more often and want a few more. This was the only one I picked up at BB&B, Le Pastille. 

This makes me want an Oreo milkshake. Bad. It's different sizes of shiny black glitter suspended in a soft, sheer off-white/light beige. I layered two coats of Le Pastille over one coat of Orly Decades of Dysfunction. I've also worn it over Nicole by O.P.I. Am I Making Myself Claire? and that gives it a sort of lavender undertone which is very pretty as well. 

Application was great. Seriously, it was no trouble at all. The glitter spread nice and evenly, and I didn't have to do any placing or dabbing. I'm sure it would have been a nightmare if I didn't use undies, but I've learned my lesson; I don't want to spend hours scrubbing black glitter off my nails. 

I was binge-watching Once Upon a Time last night, and was top coating during a particularly suspenseful part and sort of lost track of how many coats I did. I know I did a coat of Gelous...possibly two coats of GCS. Oops. 

On the upside my manicure is perfectly smooth (not that this polish is particularly bumpy-the glitters lie nice and flat) and rock hard. 

L'Oreal The Reign of Studs

Something about February brings out the purple lover in me. And the red lover. And even the pink lover. Yes, it's because of Valentine's Day...I've been programmed.

So this purple. I'm kind of in love with it. I don't know why I passed it over the first (and second) time. But third time is the charm, as they say, and now it is mine. And I loooooove it. Love it, love it, love it. It's a delightful blue-based purple (because of my color blindness, I tend to see blue-based purples more accurately than red-based ones) with matching sequin glitters. While it is still drop-dead gorgeous in ANY light (and sparkly-never a dull moment with these Gold Dusts), when you get this baby into sunlight, WOAH. The purple glittery goodness just explodes. In every direction. 

I must once again state my delight with the Gold Dust collection. Every time I think I've got all the ones I want, I decide I need two or three more. The only ones that I consistently decide against are I Like It Chunky (I like my peanut butter in my mouth, not on my nails) and the black one, I can't remember the name at the moment. I don't seem to wear black much anymore. Anyway, this was two coats with no clean up (the brushes, guys. THE BRUSHES). 

Looking forward to a day of video games. Probably won't be able to concentrate much though, I'm staring too much at my nails. 

O.P.I. In the Cable Car-pool Lane & L'Oreal The Statement Piece

Delusions of grandeur, anyone?

Weather's been patchy, so I took these in a hurry, while there was still sunlight. We finally got a bit of rain a couple nights ago! I hate summer, but I'm dreading this one even more than normal since the dry spell we've had will probably mean water restrictions. 

It's been a rough couple days for me emotionally. Things are getting to me, and I'm finding it harder and harder to want to get out of bed in the morning. I keep thinking that it'll get easier, but it never does. 

So I put on lots of purple. And gold. Because why not? I'd gotten In the Cable Car-pool Lane back when the O.P.I. fall collection came out and just never got a chance to put it on (in my defense, I got very distracted with the Mariah Carey Holiday collection). In the Cable Car-pool Lane is a rich berry-purple creme, shiny and smooth. The first coat is pretty streaky (par for the course with most O.P.I. cremes I own), but levels out nicely with a second coat. I did three, because I always do three. 

The Statement Piece was the other L'Oreal texture I got when I picked up Baby Please Come Home's dupe (derp). I can't get over how wonderful the L'Oreal texture collection is; they're really beautifully made. The Statement Piece is a nice pale gold with a smattering of silver-ish hexes. Quick to dry, sparkly, and no clean up! I think what amazes me most about the L'Oreal textures is the brush. It looks as if it would fan out horribly on the nail, but it's actually nice and firm and easy to control. It's cut on a bit of an angle too, and that really helps...I have no idea how, but it does. I've decided I need The Reign of Studs. Because of purple reasons.  

All together, the manicure sort of shouts, "delusions of grandeur", but I'm okay with that. 

L'Oreal Diamond in the Rough

I mentioned before that O.P.I. Baby Please Come Home is my very favorite texture polish. It was my favorite selection from the Mariah Carey Holiday collection. I would even go so far as to say it is my favorite polish of 2013. During the month or so that I was absent from all this, I wore it almost exclusively. I'll feature it at some point...I was thinking it'd make a nice Valentine's manicure. We'll see. 

Anyway, I was at CVS picking up a slew of prescriptions and decided to peruse while I was waiting for them. I spied the the L'Oreal display and it was actually full (as opposed to picked over like it was at Rite Aid). I had been wanting The Statement Piece (and am now eyeing The Reign of Studs) and next to it I saw Diamond in the Rough. I was irresistibly drawn to it, and though I normally wouldn't have left the store with two L'Oreals (almost 7 bucks a pop, ouch) I just couldn't help myself. What the hell was it about this color? I kept examining it at red lights on the way home and only when I got home and set it next to my O.P.I. (it's got a place of pride on my bedside table) that I realized.

Total dupes. 

Do I mind though? Hell no. Because this color is so gorgeous, so delicate and stylish that I just can't get over it. Is it lavender? Is it silver? Is it grey? It's all three and I'm over the moon about it. It reminds me of my youngest aunt who is an artist/clothing designer. She is tall and willowy and just so incredibly chic without even trying. She can be clad entirely in sweatshirt material and look completely elegant. And that's what this color is. Comfy, elegant sweatshirt material that is toned down and glittery at the same time. 

This was two amazing, glitter-packed coats over my new Barielle base coat, which seems to be doing its job. This polish looks gorgeous under any light and I never, ever want to take it off. 

L'Oreal Sexy in Sequins

Sorry for the short nails; I'm pretty rough on my hands nowadays, and breaks are almost daily occurrence for me. I've doubled my dose of biotin and I moisturize whenever I get a chance, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference yet. 

I wasn't sure about this polish when I saw photos of it online. It just didn't look very special to me. But perusing Rite Aid last week I happened upon it. In the bottle it looked drop-dead gorgeous-a deep, rich base with golden-green shimmer and what looked like very sparse fuchsia shimmer, and sequin glitters. Hubba hubba. I was positive the pretty shimmer wouldn't translate onto the nail, but what the hell, I had a coupon so it only cost me around two bucks. 

The good news is the shimmer does translate onto the nail. Beautifully. The bad news is it is impossible to capture accurately the complexity of this polish. And though it is quite lovely, I doubt I'd reach for it again. At least not for a while, anyway. But I am going to re-wear it once my nails have grown back out to a comfortable length-I'm never wild about any polish when I have super short nails.

Well, off to get some sleep (I'm late posting this, today was packed); I've got a pineapple upside-down cake to make tomorrow for my boyfriend's birthday. Till next time!