Thursday, April 30, 2009

Woohoo! My Zoya Exchange Order is Here!

Rock-the-F-on, I am so excited that my Zoyas came. Like, crazy happy. Christmas-seen-through-5-year-old-eyes happy. I realize this is my third post today, but like I mentioned... I'm happy. LOL.

Can I just say that the Zoya folks were super speedy with the turn-around time on this. I sent my polishes to them on Friday, I'm pretty sure, and they were on my porch today. I guess I'm so impressed because they are getting a shitload of exchange orders, so for them not to have a huge backlog is amazing. Go Zoya. Go.

Here's what I got:



From L to R: Erika, Tosca, Evangeline, Roxy, Indigo, and Suvi

I think I am most excited about Roxy and Indigo, with Roxy being the front-runner.

I have not tried any of these yet, as I just pulled them from their box, but here are my first impressions from their bottle color, which is realize can be deceiving. These are my first Zoyas.

Erika: Pretty, soft pink with golden shimmer. Can't speak to the opacity, but Zoya gave it a 3 or 4, can't remember exactly on the sheerness scale, so I bet it wouldn't take more than 2 coats, possibly 3, to be opaque. It's really lovely in the bottle. I hope it's the pale, irridescent pink of my dreams, and not total ass like the others I've tried. Plus, my aunt's name is Erika (spelled that way and everything), just in case I hate it... I'll give it to her.

Tosca: True red with golden shimmer. Imagine if a gorgeous red creme put her sexy makeup on and went out on the town. Kind of reminds me of OPI Oui Bit of Red, in that in certain lights, it may look creamy, but it's really a shimmer, though Tosca looks to have a touch more sparkle to her.

Evangeline: Zoya describes this as a metallic red, but it definitely looks more purpley to me. Maybe magenta-y. I like the color. Don't like the name so much because it reminds me of Evangeline Lily which of course brings up my Kate-hate. LOL. This one has golden shimmer as well. Hm? A theme perhaps?

Roxy: Holy Shit. This is how one does a purple glitter. In the bottle, this is probably the most gorgeous shade I own. It reminds me of a purple version of OPI Don't Toy with Me. Love. Love. Love. Seriously. I want to marry it and have 10,000 of it's glitter babies. Swoon. This little mama is going to be the first one I try.

Indigo: I really hope this one lives up to my expectations. This one, like Suvi below, has gotten some negative reviews on MUA. I'm really hoping it's more of a toned down version of Essie SSN and not just a run of the mill navy. In the bottle, it's so, so pretty. Navy with silver shimmer.

Suvi: Emerald green shimmer. Looks so nice, but again, I'm a bit worried about the mixed reviews. I have nothing like this in my collection, and I hope it doesn't disappoint.

All in all, I'd say this order was a success. I'm a little worried about Indigo and Suvi, but I'm sure they'll be fine. Even if they suck, they are gorgeous to look at in the bottle.

The Zoya Exchange is going on until June 1. So, I may do another order. My mom has tons of polish that she's getting ready to throw away, so I nab it and send it in. Sorry, Mama, but I just can't part with any of my babies... problem children or not.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

My daughter, Amelia, is 3 years and a couple months old and she's already a makeup junkie. Training that one right, I am. Right now, she's got polish on her fingernails and toenails and a big splotch of mascara on her cheek. The fingers and toes were intentional. The mascara was because she snuck in my bathroom, got the tube and started playing "ostrich" with it. Buh? I have no idea. She has a HUGE imagination.

She's enamoured with my polish and makeup collections. Half the time, I have to let her play with my powder or a cheapy Avon blush, just to get her out of the room. Let alone, everytime she sees me doing my nails, I hear "Amia's turn. Pawish". <3>

Usually, her weapon of choice is China Glaze IDK. She loves it. It's purple and holo and she thinks it rocks, but last night, she picked up a red... OPI Thrill of Brazil. Well, that wasn't happening, so we compromised with a fun, girly pink. Now, here's something random that no one ever talks about. What colors from an adult's collection are best for a little one. Well, it's no so much a color question with me, and aside from red and vampy colors, I'm okay with her wearing whatever. It's more a question of application. I find OPIs to be extremely difficult to apply on little nails, especially with the new brush. I liked ChG for her until I unearthed the Duris in my collection and tried one of those on her. It was the perfect sized brush and wand for applying nail polish on a little girl.

She chose Duri Bikini Bubbles. It's a pretty bright pink color with silver running through it. If I'm remembering correctly, it reminds me of Orly Sterling Silver Rose, though I haven't had SSR in years so I can't compare the two. The application was pretty easy (as easy as one can apply nail polish on a twitchy 3 year old). It took me about 10-15 minutes to apply polish on her fingers and toes. I did thin coats and used no top or base coats, so it was dry within just a few minutes. It won't last more than a few days on her, but she's incredibly happy, so that makes it worth it.

Here's another crappy camera phone picture to show off her pretty fingers.



As for the brand of polish, I bought my 5-6 Duris last year at hello-gorgeous.net for a pretty decent price, about $3 each. This was before I discovered my beloved TD, so thought $3 was a good deal. TD, however, does not carry Duri, so H-G is the best price I've found for that brand, if you are in the market for it specifically. Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of Duri before I tried it on Amelia. I did put Playing Trix over OPI Cajun Shrimp last week and it did make a nice pinky, shimmery coral, but it didn't work well with my skintone, but as far as wearing it alone, the one time I tried, it took forever to apply due to the small brush. It also took awhile to cure and I think I just ended up taking it off altogether.

I need to give the brand another try. I've heard they have a nice, light yellow (yellow scares me, but I want to get my feet wet nonetheless), so I may check that out next time I'm in a buying mood. I think in my collection, I have Jackpot, Red Square (not to be confused with AiRS, but the colors look close in the bottle), To Die For, and Rock Opera, in addition to BB. Oh and I think there's a lavender in there too, but I don't remember the name and I'm too lazy to look. I recently gave Playing Trix to my sis because it did nothing for me. I'm going to put a Duri at the top of my try list just to see if works for me or if little Miss A inherits all my bottles.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

New Strategy and a HTF

I am horrible at updating blogs. Awful. I just forget and then 1 day turns into months and then I sound like a total asshole with my "so sorry I've been remiss" post. So, to remedy this, I figure I'd start a new strategy. I'm starting with reviewing my NOTDs and giving detailed comments. Usually, I do this on the MUA review pages, and I'll continue to do so, but sometimes, especially with a non-OPI polish, the polish in question just isn't in the product listing. Thus, I'm doing my reviews here.

However, they probably won't be NOTDay. More like NOTEveryOtherDay. As I mentioned earlier, I took my acrylics off in early March. They still are only half-nails and generally look like shite, so I'm now using glue-ons. At least until my natural nails are polish-worthy and probably after that. I have some major ridging on my natural nails and I have yet to find a quick-drying, non-glumpy ridge filler. As much as I'd like to change my polish everyday, it's just not feasible considering the glue-ons get weak after a polish change, even w/ non acetone polish remover and I totally have the change my tips.

Also, there may or may not be pictures. My camera charger is MIA and now that I'm thinking about it, my camera is MIA. Hm. All I have is my camera phone, and while I'll use it, depending on the quality of the pics, I may not post them.

Now that all that crap is out of the way, on to the good stuff... the HTF polish. I'd been lemming OPI Double Decker Red for a year. I'd tried to buy it on numerous occasions only to have either the site or the eBay seller tell me "sorry sucker, out of stock". I'd given up on ever owning it. Which was a shame because the more I would read about how it was the perfect, HG red, the more I wanted to own it and hold it and call it my precious. Can you imagine? Over a red creme? Please. But that's what happened.

So color me surprised when I found it on TransDesign. By that time, however, I already had so many red creme OPIs, that it took me 3 TD orders before I finally stuck it in my cart and pressed send. Then I waited 2 days with bated breath (thank God, I'm in TN. LOL). As I took the haul out of the box, I'd almost forgotten that I even ordered it. But there it was... along with some money-wasting Sations, Essie Marshmallow, ChG Sneakerhead, OPI Pompeii Purple and Black Cherry Chutney. Being that it was old formula OPI, I waited a few days to apply it until I had more than an hour for my nails to dry. And.......

Well kids, I'm kind of underwhelmed. Sob. It's a red creme and it's pretty, but it's no Vodka & Caviar (my HG red creme). Most of the reviews I'd read stated that it was a true red, but this that I got was decidedly a blue-based red. It's almost like a lighter Got the Blues for Red.
However, while GtBfR has the sexy,vampy thing going for it, DDR is just kind of "there", though a pretty "there". Last night, I put on 2 coats and it's still kind of sheer in places, so I'm probably going to do a third one tonight.

To be honest, I hated it last night. The application was difficult and the formula was that odd runny/thick/thin thing OPIs can have, of course, it was old formula/old brush. Today, however, it's grown on me. It kind of reminds me of '40s glam. Think spectator pumps, pencil skirts, and hose with lines. It's a nice, wearable red, which because it's blue-based works well with my fair/pink skin. Unlike another red creme in my collection, Thrill of Brazil, it doesn't slap you in the face with it's redness. Once I got over the shock of no choir of angels accompanying my application, I liked it. I'll definitely wear it in the future, especially this summer as I think it's more of a summer red than a fall/winter red (which is weird because it was released for Fall/Winter 2003). If you can find it, you may want to consider picking it up, but it's nothing super special. More than anything, I was just finally happy to be able to squash my lemming (poor little lemming).

Here's a poor picture with my camera phone. Hopefully, I'll be able to take real pics soon.

OPI Double Decker Red

As an aside, if you are trying to find HTF polishes, you may want to check out TD (http://www.transdesign.com/). I've gotten several OPIs, as well as an Essie or two, from them have been discontinued shades. Along w/ Double Decker Red, I've gotten Man of La Mancha, Hey! Get in Lime, Van-Couvered in the Snow, and Essie St. Barth's Blue. Now, granted, they aren't in the same league as OPI La Boheme or Essie Starry, Starry Night (which I would kill for), but it is nice to find something that you know won't be around forever.