Adventures in Matte Land

I was a little skeptical of the whole "matte thing" but being one not to shy away from a challenge, I found a girl willing to swap her Essie Matte About You on MUA.  Here are the results of my findings.

Butter London - Trout Pout with Essie Matte About You (Index finger layered with Essie Flawless then Matte About You.)

I hunted this down at Ulta.  It was the last bottle and looked like it could have been opened but I gave it the benefit of the doubt.  It is an absolutely gorgeous color on it's own but with a matte finish gives it a pretty interesting look.  I plan on experimenting with other brights in the near future.

L'Oreal - Waters Edge with Essie Matte About You

Waters Edge is supposedly an Essie Greenport dupe.  As I don't own the latter, I can only rely on pictures from other blogs and it looks pretty close.  I really like this family of colors (being a Pisces) and it also looked pretty neat as a matte, but I still prefer Trout Pout.  Incidentally, I also ordered ILF from Manglaze who happens to be the purveyor of fine matte polishes.  It's supposed to be a nice teal color so I'll be swatching that as soon as I get it (which I hope is soon!)

Formula wise, MAY is nice, not too goopy like Seche Vite can be and dries quickly, which from what I understand is typical in a matte polish.  I like that this type of topcoat allows you to turn your normally glossy polish matte as opposed to turning your matte polish glossy.  Anyways, its a nice addition to my top coat family and it will probably be one I'll be using frequently to "tone down" a lot of the bright shades in my collection.

My Pretty Priti - #209 Alister Stella Gray Rose

Today's NOTD is exceptional in that, after five minutes I didn't want to take it off.

Priti - #209 Alister Stella Gray Rose

Alister Stella Gray Rose is a nail polish created by Priti NYC An absolutely gorgeous shade, it's one of the first four Priti polishes I ever purchased.  It was also the one I was drooling over the most, partly because it was especially designed for Stella McCarthy's F/W 2011 Paris Fashion Week showing.   It is a soft, work-friendly coral pink that leans more pink on my skintone -- wow, am I that yellow? (J/k)

Anyways, Priti also collaborated with McCarthy to create a shade for Spring/Summer 2012 Paris Fashion Week:

#137  Sweet Pea

And here's her Spring/Summer 2012 Paris Fashion Week show:

I'm not a huge fan of sheers so I'm not sure how sold I am on it yet but I'm definitely a fan of Priti after trying Alister Stella Gray Rose.  Formula was not too thick to be difficult to work with and I reached an acceptable opacity after 3 coats.

The only downside to this polish is that it is on the pricier side, $12.50 USD per bottle but it makes up in a decent formula and gorgeous color payoff.  But for me, this is a polish I would definitely want a backup bottle of.  Not to mention the color online actually matched what I received.  Shipping was fast -- I placed my order on Tuesday and had them on Friday -- and they do have a "clearance" section where bottles are half off.  The color line itself is pretty work-appropriate and I don't regret choosing to buy Priti over Rescue Beauty Lounge this time around.

In addition to this shade, I also ordered #511 - Dusty Miller, #559 - Coffee Bush, and # #593 - Lamb's Ear, with the latter two being part of their new 2012 Pre-Spring collection.  I'll have photos up on the other three as soon as I can bring myself to take off Alister Stella...hopefully sooner, but probably later.

XOXO

A Candy That Won't Give You Cavities...

...except maybe in your pocketbook!

I went to one of the local beauty supply stores near my mom's house a few weeks ago and finally took serious notice of their Orly display.  It's not terribly unique; a lot of the colors are very Mom and Auntie colors -- light pink, nude/creams, bright reds, and pastels -- so I wasn't really that interested but I had been walking around aimlessly looking for China Glaze Trendsetter but they were sold out.  Not wanting to leave the store empty-handed, I searched around and found Rock Candy, an Orly color that was on my short list.  It was about $3 cheaper than the Orlys at Ulta so I snapped it up and took it home. 

It sort of reminds me of the reformulated Sally Hansen polish, Hidden Treasure.  You can see it on ThePolishAholic's website here.  I don't own it so I can't really make comparisons over whether or not they are dupes but considering the Orly polish was waaaayyy cheaper, I won't lose sleep at night not owning it since they seem to share some attributes. 

Originally I layered it over Orly Ancient Jade.  The pictures didn't come out that great so I'm not going to put them up. :P

Today, I put it over Orly Pure Porcelain (sense a pattern with the Orlys?  Yes, they are my new favorite polish in the whole wide world!) -- every single time I try to remember Pure Porcelain, I always think of a local "gentleman's club" called Pure Platinum -- and I think it turned out rather nice.

Here is Pure Porcelain (3 coats) in the buff:

I got this on "clearance" from Ulta for $5.49.  I guess I should count myself lucky for having options in terms of where I can buy Orly because Ulta would NOT be my first choice unless the price was right.  =/

Here is Pure Porcelain with 1 coat of Rock Candy on top:

Because the lighting is so crappy in the new apartment, it's hard to capture the iridescent quality of RC but it really helps lighter shades along, I think.

I haven't tried wearing Rock Candy on it's own because I hate sheer polish but it makes a great layering polish.  I'm still obsessed with creating a "mermaid"-inspired mani so maybe I can include RC in the mix.  In the meantime, this is definitely a polish I would buy a backup of and its definitely one I want to shout about on the mountain top.  The formula is wonderful to work with and using it just to layer means I'll be able to use it for quite a while.  :)

Nails Inc Porchester Square or, My Latest Ebay Haul

I have recently discovered the joys [and evils] of Ebay.  You can find obscure and/or discontinued nail polishes, lipsticks, and all sorts of wonderful things and avoid generally paying an arm and a leg.  In my case, the key is, if my total bid after shipping costs as much as walking into the store and buying it myself then I won't buy it. 

Anyways, this haul included a polish I've been absolutely drooling over and is what sent me into a nudes tailspin.  Made by Nails Inc in the UK, Porchester Square looked absolutely brilliant when I saw it first on ThePolishAholic's blog.  She had purchased a bottle of Porchester Square and also Primrose Hill but swatched only the former.  Anyways, I loved the shade of greige and swore I would either get a hold of a dupe or save up all my pennies and buy it from Sephora.

Luckily, as I was browsing Ebay as I often do, I came across an auction that included Porchester Square, Fouberts Place, and Elizabeth Street.  Not only that, but for all three, I could potentially spend less than $20!  Of course I placed my bid and waited.

This is what came in the mail today:

and

I had also bought some NYX lipsticks because I had read they were great little lipsticks and came in a variety of colors well-suited for Asian skin.  :)  A pink lipstick that doesn't make me look strange is always a good thing.

So I went to swatching the Nails Inc polishes.  I started with Elizabeth Street because it was such a pretty shade of pink but it ended up being a pretty sheer polish.  I'm one of those girls that likes my color to be pretty opaque but even at four coats, Elizabeth Street was unmanageable to me.  So much so that, even though I completely swatched both hands, I refused to take photographs of my -- em, lack of handiwork.  Elizabeth Street may be getting swapped/sold.  =/

!I moved on to the piece de resistance.  In ThePolishAholic's pictures, Porchester Square was a lovely grey-beige shade and was nothing like what I had.

This is what Porchester Square looked like on me:

Excuse my cuticles!

It didn't look horrible but it didn't look as nice as I thought it would.  Maybe because I keep insisting on wearing cool tones when I am clearly warm?  I'm not quite sure but it actually looked a little pink on me compared to the other  nudes/greys I have.

Index - Nude 4 (Urban Outfitters | Middle - Glamour Purse (Essie)
Ring - Porchester Square (Nails Inc) | Pinkie - French Quarter For Your Thoughts (OPI)

So it's definitely not a color I have (although, really in the grand scheme of things I don't actually have that many polishes yet) but it is one of those colors that had to really grow on me before I was convinced once I saw it on my hands.  I'm not sorry I bought it; I think it fills a void between Glamour Purse and Skulls & Glossbones that I didn't have before.  I'd also stil really recommend it as a polish to have if you're into nude/grey shades like I am.  It was a thick application but I still needed 2-1/2 to 3 good coats for opacity.  

All in all a great, first polish from Nails Inc.  This is definitely NOT the only bunch of bottles I buy (my new obsession is with Charlotte Mews) which means I'll probably be visiting my local Sephora store really soon.

It's Giveaway Time!

I felt like doing a Giveaway (finally, right!) to help spread the word about Muse Minerals!  I'll be giving away one of my pressed palettes:

LOVE, ACTUALLY pressed palette.  Available now: http://museminerals.etsy.com

Called BESTIES FOREVER, it include four of my most popular shades - Halo, Pumpkin, Hot to Trot, and Envy Me -- all in a convenient little pressed palette.

Rules are simple:

* GIVEAWAY IS OPEN TO US & INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTS of all ages (woohoo!)

* The Winner has 24 hours to respond to my email.  If there is no response, a new winner will be chosen.

* Giveaway end at 12:01AM EST on January 20th, 2012.

* Enter using the RAFFLECOPTER form below.  Any entries left in the comments section of this post or on Facebook unless specified in the giveaway form WILL NOT BE COUNTED.

* If you have any questions about the rules or about the form, please email me at museminerals@hotmail.com or alyssa@museminerals.com