Mall haul!!

Went shopping this past weekend for my birthday! Finally got up to Sephora and Nordstrom...and I found some happy surprises!

Butter London Macbeth. My very first BL! Saw this at Nordstrom and because of the name, I HAD to have it...I love Macbeth. The color's good too, haha...it's a nice coral. The flash really distorts the color. It's a lot less pink in real life. Ah well. Very excited to try this out.

Nordstrom also had a shitload of new Lippmanns. I guess I can't complain about that, lol. One of the new collections I found was the metallic/prism/whatever they're called polishes...I really like Private Dancer, but that one was all sold out. Swagga Like Us looks pretty much exactly like Chanel Peridot, so skip. That leaves Sugar Daddy, which I was kinda unsure about, but since I read Scrangie's rave about it, I figured it must be pretty good. So of course, I picked this one up! And it is really pretty. Again, can't wait to try this one!

Mermaid's Dream. Oh lord. I put this on my nails a few days ago and I still haven't stopped drooling over it. Freaking perfect. I swear, even though I usually get bored with a polish after 2 or 3 days...I think I could wear this for the rest of the summer and be perfectly content. I don't think I've ever seen a polish this unique and gorgeous.

Another new collection I spotted was the dance-themed glitters...well, I found Flash Dance and Just Dance, but my Nordstrom didn't have Dancing in the Dark, which is one I was looking forward to. Ah well, this is Flash Dance, and it's stunning. Gorgeous mix of pink and purple glitter. Super excited to put this on my nails. I love glitter.

And an awesome surprise...my Sephora has COMPLETELY revamped their nail section, and started carrying tons of new brands. Julep, SpaRitual, Dior...Illamasqua. YES. This is Illamasqua Phallic. This is my second Illamasqua, Baptiste being my first, and I was sooo impressed with that one. So happy that I can now find this brand in store instead of only being able to get it online.

And of course, I can't leave Sephora without a little bit of Urban Decay. The Stash liner that I got in my 15th Anniversary set a long, long time ago (like, a year and half!) was defective, so I only got a few uses out of it before giving it to my sister (haha). I had a mini sample size of it which had run out, so I figured I needed a full size of it. I've never tried Graffiti before, though, so I figured I needed that one too, lol...I didn't have a bright green like it. I wanted to get Deviant also, but I have soo many UD liners already. I'm totally getting that one someday though, ha.

And of course, no trip to Sephora is complete without some Philosophy. Usually I'm good with one set, but I totally needed both of these sets this time. Top pic is the Cabana Girl set, bottom pic is the Italian Soda Shop set. One word: YUM. Not a weak link in either set. Every summer, I ALWAYS have to snag Philosophy's newest coconut set...last year it was Aloha Girl, which was vanilla coconut and was pretty good, but this year Cabana Girl is guava coconut and it's AMAZING. Smells sooo delish. Philsophy's 3-in-1s are good as always, lotion is top-notch like usual, and lip gloss is delicious and perfect amount of color. Pretty sheer, which I like, and nice formula. Not too sticky or anything.

The Italian Soda Shop set...damn, these smell good. I can't pick a favorite. The limoncello is the perfect mix of tart and sweet. To me, it smells exactly like a lemon Pez candy tastes. The strawberry is also really good. And black cherry...I know I had some other Philosophy black cherry scent back a couple years ago and this smells pretty much like that. I love the scent of black cherry. Yum.

Anyways, I guess I'd say my shopping was pretty successful! Now I'll have a couple new polishes to tide me over for a few weeks at least...lol. I'm going on vacation to Cali again this summer (soo excited!) and we're leaving in just a couple weeks, so I'll most likely be picking up some more polishes then. Woo!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Into the Night w/ Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

My second Spiderman polish...I thought this one needed a little something extra, so of course glitter was the answer ;)

2 coats of OPI Into the Night, 1 coat (I think...maybe 2? No, I think 1) of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I'm so glad I thought to use this glitter over Into the Night, because I think it looks amaaazing.

Into the Night is an interesting polish...personally when I was wearing it, I thought it looked purple most of the time, except for in certain lighting. In pictures though, it looks really blue...I like that though. Keeps you guessing! It's a pretty color though...I guess I'd consider it a metallic blurple. I like that it's not too dark, though. It's so bright and...shiny. I like it a lot. It reminds me a little of China Glaze Tempest (one of my absolute favorite polishes!). I think Tempest is more purple though, with a brighter blue flash. I wonder if I've posted that before? I don't think so...I'll have to. I wore it as a pedi for a month and half once. It's just wonderful. Anyways.

Formula was really good. I got a teensy bit of drag towards the cuticles, but that's probably my bad...I have a pretty heavy hand in application. And Some Enchanted Evening is good as ever. I love that glitter. Oh, Deborah. You can never do wrong.

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Number One Nemesis

First Spiderman polish I tried! Gorgeousss!! This is OPI Number One Nemesis.

2 coats with one of Seche Vite. Super good application, great formula and brush as always. It has that nice kind of foil-y look to it. It's like a green/grey shimmer with tons of little different-colored speckly shimmer particles. Weird description, I know, but that's what it looks like...lol. To me, it's like the perfect combination of silver, gold, and green. I think it's just stunning.

Apparently this is super similar to Chanel Graphite which (thankfully) I didn't splurge for. I'm still a little mad that they put a dupe of Peridot in this collection...whatever. I love my Chanel. And I love this polish, too!

On an unrelated note, I had my last day of classes yesterday! So I'll probably be posting a lot more now, lol. I guess that's all for now...

Sincerely, Cat

Tiny weekend haul!

Just a few polishes I picked up this weekend! From left, Icing After Party, OPI Number One Nemesis, and OPI Into the Night.

I saw After Party at Icing and I knew I couldn't leave without it. Look at that glitter! I don't own any other glitters like it. It's a mix of mostly pink, orange, blue, and gold shattered-looking glitter...it's full of different sized shards of glitter. It is so, so, cool. I've worn it once and I wish I had it in a million other colors, because I know I'm gonna be using it a lot.

My Trade Secret also just got the OPI Spiderman collec in...these were the only 2 that really stood out to me. I thought about getting the orange one, but it didn't look unique...like, at all. It had a cute name, but it looked super familiar. Pass.

Anyways, just a short little post! I'll hopefully have swatches of these up soon!

Sincerely, Cat

Franken -- Odair

Franken of the day: Odair, one I made almost two years ago...hadn't gotten around to wearing it! Glad I decided to...it's pretty. I really like it.
Started off as plain black from an old OPI Halloween mini set or something...I added a little bit of all of the holos I own and some other random glitter and stuff. And I got this! I love it. It's dark and shiny but not too over-the-top with the glitter.
Used 2 coats and 1 of Seche Vite. Probably could've used another coat of SV, but whatever. It worked out fine. Application was fine, even with the mini brush.
And yes, the name of this came from the Hunger Games. I made this right around the time Mockingjay came out, so...yeah.
I really, really, love the square nails on myself. Depressingly, my nails kept chipping and breaking, so I cut my nails really short and they're rounded again...boo. I'm definitely growing them out again, though. I just wish my nails were stronger...pretty sure I just don't take care of them good enough. Ugh. I'll try harder, I guess.

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Simmer and Shimmer

Wow, this post is really really old...been sitting unposted forever! This is OPI Simmer and Shimmer, an untried glitter that I still had from the Burlesque collection. I have all the glitters from this collection actually, but I've only used like 2 of them now...and I used them for layering. This is the only one I've tried on its own.

2 coats, I think...truthfully, it doesn't look that good. Really does need either more coats or a polish underneath it. Despite that, though, it actually looks better in real life than it did in these pics. It's actually a really pretty glitter...mostly blue with pretty much every other color thrown in, from pink to gold to red to green. A really pretty mix.

The formula wasn't too bad though, somewhat rough and bumpy when it dried but 1 coat of Seche Vite worked fine for me. Next time I'll probably wear it over another color...I think it'd look reallllly good over Sephora by OPI Naughty Is the New Nice. Ooh, I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Also, removal on this wasn't too much of a hassle for me...because I peeled it off, like I always do with glitter! Ah, I'm so bad...

Sincerely, Cat

China Glaze Agro (w/ comparison to ChG Peace on Earth)

My only China Glaze Hunger Games polish...this is 2 coats of Agro. Gorgeous color, great formula...applied like butter. Nice and shiny, too. Not too much else to say about it, lol. The first thing I thought when I saw it though was, "that looks a lot like Peace on Earth from their Holiday collection a year or two ago." A polish that I happen to love, and my bottle also happens to be almost gone. So I had to compare...

Agro on left, Peace on right.

Index and ring are Peace on Earth, middle and pinky are Agro.

Same 

Same

Same, with Chanel Peridot on thumb.

So, there's some obvious differences...Peace is lighter and more yellow/gold, whereas Agro is more of a dark, forest-y color. I'd say they're in the same family, but definitely not close to dupes. They are both really shiny though, and have the same type of shimmer in them. I also felt the need to throw Peridot in there just to see how it compared...not really close at all, besides the fact that it's also a green/gold type shade.

So, it's definitely not a bad thing to have both Agro and Peace...they're both absolutely gorgeous, unique colors! But if you have one of them, I'd say it's ok to skip the other. I love both, but I do have to say I think I like Agro a little better...only because it's a little darker and more green instead of gold. I just can't pull off gold, unfortunately!

Sincerely, Cat