NOTD: January 2016

This is Nine Zero January 2016:

Jess came up with a formula she liked in 2016 (scattered holo with holo microglitter) and released it in a different color each month. I didn't buy any while they were still coming out, but I looked at them at the end of the year and decided this one was my favorite, so I got it. (Most of these are still on her website, though; now I'm coveting February.)                                                         

My Immortal, Generally Hazzardous

Here is Pretty Serious My Immortal:

This was an LE that was limited to 300 bottles - it's still showing up on the website and it says there are 25 left. It's a bright blue with green shimmer, so that it ends up reading as sort of a blue-green. I'm not sure whether it's named after the Evanescence song or the famously terrible fanfic. (Come to think of it, the song might even be the inspiration for the fanfic. Blame it on Evanescence.)

The reason I bought two more PS polishes was because I had that $10 off coupon I mentioned before. I couldn't wait to use it.

The second one is Generally Hazzardous - I was never a Dukes of Hazzard fan but I thought the name was funny and I liked the shade of orange. I don't see it on the website any more and I can't find a description online, but I think it's got gold microglitter in it. That's what it looks like, anyway - although it's not terribly noticeable in the swatch:

It's a nice summery, sunny color, in any case.

Topic Tuesday: Polishes I bought for the name

So today's Topic Tuesday is "polishes you bought for the name" and man, I'm pretty sure I have a lot of these. However, I do have to add the caveat that I usually try not to buy things just for the name; if it's a polish I really don't like, a good name shouldn't make any difference. I'm a sucker for movie quotes and such, though.

I have a bunch of Dollish Polishes that were probably the first thing I thought of, but the one that I can think of where I really loved the name and wasn't at all sure I would like the polish was Different Dimension It Rubs The Lotion On Its Skin. It's just so perverse. (I think I waited until it was on sale to buy it, but as it turns out, I loved the polish, too, so bonus!)

One I mentioned last week (as a polish I regret buying,) is something I must have bought primarily for the name: Unicorn Farts. I have a weakness for Unicorn Pee, Fairy Snot, all those kind of goofy names.

As far as the Dollish ones, I wanted the polishes too for a lot of them, but these might be the ones where I wasn't quite convinced and I bought them anyway, largely because of the names (all from Ultimate Fandom part 1):

• Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal
• Honey You Should See Me In A Crown
• Look At The Flowers Lizzie
• Love Me Some Pie
• You Know Nothing Jon Snow

I'm sure I have more but those will do for now. (If I think of more before this goes up I'll add on!)

Intergalactic & Enchanted

This is Starrily Intergalactic (which goes with the Kelli Marissa polishes I bought a couple of months ago):

It's a holo top-coat, which is something I haven't gone looking for in the past. I'm finally getting where I like holos more, after resisting them for a long, long time. I've seen many reviewers say that Starrily's formula is superior for a lot of others because it doesn't gray out whatever you have on under this. I haven't really tested that out for myself yet though.

And then because you get free shipping with two of them, I also bought Enchanted:

It's a multichrome flakie top-coat. Both of these I swatched over black, and both of them look really beautiful. I've got so many new things that I haven't gotten around to wearing these yet, but I'm looking forward to it! (Added: I just put this on over January 2016 and oh my god it's the most beautiful thing ever.)

Ceramidin

I've had this for a couple of months but it occurred to me that I've never showed it:

I got a premium sample of Ceramidin last summer and I really liked it. I've liked all the Dr Jart products I've tried, really. And back in February they had Ceramidin on sale - I just checked, it was $29 for 50ml where the normal price is $48.

I'm intrigued by the little spatula thing but I can't say I've really been using it. But I love the cream. $48 is a little high-priced for me, though,so I'm happy I found it on sale.

Sephora Memorial Day sale

I see something in the Memorial Day Sale at Sephora that I'm tempted by, so I thought I'd share:

This is the Gel Lab Pro top-coat and base-coat set. You can get 2 mini-size bottles for $16.80 or two full-size bottles for 31.50. Many of the polishes are marked down to $14, as well. (Actually it looks like everything Deborah Lippmann is marked down.)

Among non-polish items, the adorable Tarte mermaid-handle brushes are marked down to $29 for the set:

I had really been coveting these, but then I read the reviews, and it looks like these are very soft brushes, which usually are not my thing. Instead I bought a different but sort-of-on-theme set from Sephora Collection (which is not marked down):

These are all fan brushes, which is something I don't already have and would like to. The Tarte ones are a better deal right now, though, if they suit your needs and/or wants.

There are a lot of other good deals in there, but these are what caught my eye! I already ordered the brush set above; I'm trying to talk myself out of ordering one of the Lippmann sets just to try it out, too.


Added: one more thing that's not on sale, because it's cute polish and the duo name is Flock You, which makes me laugh:

However, it's currently out of stock. Maybe it will get restocked before long. These not my colors, particularly, but I still think they're cute. And these duos are $15, which is normally the price of a single NailsInc polish - and they are full-size. (I do have a couple of different duos from them - this one which I showed just yesterday, and this unicorn-themed one.)

NailsInc Holler-Graphic

This is another one of those NailsInc duos, this one called Holler-Graphic:

These two are called Ghetto Galactic and Rocket Fuel

This is Rocket Fuel...

...and Ghetto Galactic, which I gather is the name of a song?

I don't love that name, really - but hey, it's pretty! Pink sparkly holo. The two formulas seem pretty much identical except for the color.

NOTD: Always Be A Dragon

I bought several things from Lucky 13 that I haven't remembered to take pictures of yet. (That was toward the end of my big March-April binge.) This one is Always Be A Dragon:

It's slightly less bright in real life than it appears on the monitor I'm looking at now. You can maybe see a little of the linear holo; I think it's also got some metallic shifty stuff in it. I have a couple of other holos in "dragon" colors but I like this one the best. (Both of the other two are darker greens, I think that's why.)

This comes from the Always Be Yourself collection, which comes from that meme I've been seeing a lot the last year or so; the version I've seen the most often is: "Always be yourself ...unless you can be a unicorn, then be a unicorn" (or substitute whatever you might prefer: dragon or mermaid or Batman - or Hermione.) (Lucky 13 did not do Hermione, but they did all of the others and maybe a couple more things I've forgotten.)

Target box #1 (incl.Galax-Sea)

I bought two April Target boxes - the last I looked these were both still available but they may well be gone by now. It took me a while to get around to posting all this stuff. As you can see, this one is called "Be You(tiful)". Like (I think) all of Target's boxes, it cost $7 including shipping.This one actually has a nail polish in it, along with a bunch of other stuff.

Here's the list:

1. Sinful Colors Galax-sea (green glitter)
2. Nexxus Keraphix shampoo and conditioner, 3 oz each
3. Olly Beauty Vitamin (1 serving of 2 pieces) flavor Grapefruit Glam (contains biotin, vit amins C, E, & borage oil
4. e.l.f. Gotta Glow lip tint in Perfect Pink (.11 oz)
5. L'Oreal Pure-clay Cleanser
6. Honest Younger Face deep hydration day (.17 oz, 5ml)
7. Simple micellar makeup remover eye pads - 30 pads 

(+ coupons for several of these)

Galax-sea is a mixed-size green glitter. I think all the glitter is the same shade of green. (Added: it sure appears to me, looking at the bottle, like there's gold in the glitter. But you definitely can't see it on the nail in this picture.)

On the whole - I won't use all this stuff but I think I'll use more than I won't, in this case. The polish is not anything exciting, honestly. I ate the vitamins right after I took the picture (it was two of them, with a gummy formula - but of course one dose of vitamins can't possibly do anything noticeable). Shampoo, especially, is something I'll always use - and probably the conditioner too, eventually. I've been messing with the micellar pads, and I've tried the Honest moisturizer and the lip tint. I don't really think I'll use the clay cleanser. On the whole this is a good box, though.

Topic Tuesday: Polishes I regret buying

"Polishes I regret buying" is kind of a standard topic for nail bloggers, on YouTube, especially - I'll put up a couple of links to some below. But it's not something I've talked about before so I decided it's time to do it. The standard "this is just my opinion" disclaimer applies here: especially, don't take this as a slam on your taste if you like some of these. Things that bug me may not bug you, the colors that look awful on me may be great for you, etc!

My least-favorite Zoya of all time is Ali (and bear in mind that I've bought 80+ Zoyas over the years so it's a big pool!):

This is a color thing. I like this picture because you can get a good sense of how bright it is. Basically neons don't work for me because they are warm colors and I am definitely a person who looks good in cool colors. Mostly I have the sense not to buy out-and-out neons, but I guess I didn't realize how neon this one was. Here's an old entry where I tried to get it to work for me, and mostly failed. I haven't worn it since then, I'm pretty sure. (I thought I still had this polish, but I think maybe I finally gave it away to my cousin last year.)

Worst application issues: Terrybly Moving Mauve, which I bought heavily marked down, but it wasn't even worth the $7 I paid for it (much less the $30!!! it retailed for).

I don't seem to much like multicolor glitters: Funky Fingers Unicorn Farts and WnW Party of Five Glitters are two that come to mind for the regret list. (Recently I wore Daphne's Birthday Party, which is better but I'm still not in love with it.)

Here's one I didn't actually buy: Shake Your Money Maker

I didn't buy this, but if I had it would definitely belong here. I gave my sister a list and this was on it, so that sort of counts, to my mind - if I hadn't asked for it I could presumably have gotten something I'd like better, at least in theory. It looks awesome in the bottle, but I've just never been able to make it live up to that on the nail. (I'm guessing it's a good thing that I didn't ask for Lippmann Happy Birthday.)

(It's not that I hate every multicolor glitter - if I did I would have given up on them sooner. I had a big flirtation with holiday-themed glitters, although I think I'm sort of over it now. On the whole I like small glitters better than big ones.)

I thought about putting Hard Candy Sky on this list because it just doesn't look good on me, but really, it's a famous and famously-HTF polish, and I'm not sorry I bought it just because it is what it is. I don't have many things like that! (But I've tried several times to wear it and it never works on me, so it's just a collector's item, as far as I'm concerned.)

I could probably come up with some more, but I'll stop. Here are some YouTube people's opinions. I don't think I own any of the polishes they talk about.

April Boxy Charm box

I had never heard of Boxy Charm until lately - it's a box that costs twice as much as most boxes like Ipsy and Sephora Play (i.e., $20 instead of $10 or so), but it gives you full-size products instead of large samples. I believe they say that the products always have a retail value of at least $100 - although that doesn't always impress me too much because if it's not something I want then I figure it doesn't have much actual value to me. Still, I looked at what was included in some of the boxes and I decided to try it.

(I say that about the value but actually I have lots of female relatives who get grab-bags of my leftover items from various boxes as gifts, and who usually act like it's the most awesome thing in the world. So there is a value to people who I give gifts to even if it's not something I'll use myself!)

1. Colourpop You Had Me At Hello palette - 12 shades, mostly neutrals (MSRP $18)
2. Tarteist Pro Glow (liquid highlighter) in Sparkler - sort of a golden-tan color (.56 oz, MSRP $29)
3. Dr Brandt Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner (pore refining mask) (1 oz, MSRP $47)
4. Adresse Hi-Definition Liquid Lipstick - don't see a color name, it's sort of a clay/tan color (.23 oz, MSRP $24)
5. The BrowGal Instatint tinted eyebrow gel - brown hair 02 (I've mislaid the card but I did a search and places seem to be selling it for $20-22 so I'm guessing the MSRP is probably $22)

                                       
These are lovely products and definitely a good value if you look at the MSRPs (total of about $140), but I don't really think I'll end up using much of this, so this will become future gifts, I'm sure. I did not actually cancel this yet, though - I'll have the May box coming later. (Added: I decided over the weekend that I was keeping the palette after all - I originally looked at it and went, "too neutral" but later looked at it again and decided the colors were more interesting than I thought!)

Here's Kathleen Lights talking about her April box, which seems to have been about the same as mine, except she got a different palette:

Purple Monkey Dishwasher

This is Purple Monkey Dishwasher, from Pretty Serious:

I almost bought this several years ago because I thought the name was funny, and I ended up buying Poltergeist Puddle instead, which I adore so I definitely don't regret that. But I finally got around to buying this and it's pretty cool, too. Other than being purple they're not really that much alike. This one is blue-leaning purple microglitter.

From PS's website (it's still there, although it seems to be sold out now):
"Purple Monkey Dishwasher does not contain any actual monkeys (hey, we're vegan and cruelty free!), and it won't actually wash your dishes for you, but it is 100% purple! Sparkly purple!"

(Apparently the name is a nonsense phrase popularized by The Simpsons but predating it - at least that's what somebody on Urban Dictionary says. Somebody further down in the entry says it's sometimes used for microphone checks because nothing else sounds very much like it - which makes sense to me as a reason why it would previously have existed.)

An Uzi From Daddy

This is Pretty Serious An Uzi From Daddy, from the Post Apocalyptic Princess collection:

This is scattered blue hex glitter in a bright red-violet (jellyish?) base. I really like this, it's different - but I don't have a lot to say about it other than that. This is a great name, but if it's a movie reference I have no idea what it is.

Cybernetic, Boop!

This is Pretty Serious Boop!

and Cybernetic:

I'm putting these two together because they seem to have almost the same formula. Boop! has a red-violet base and Cybernetic has a blue base, but they appear to have the same purple microglitter in them - almost like a texture. But I really like them both a lot.

I always love Kaz's little "descriptions" that she does for the more sci-fi-related polishes:

for Cybernetic:
"Sent back from the future to assimilate your nails, prepare for a manicure fit for Judgement Day."

and...
"Everything can be hacked... and everyone! Boop!"

I have on Boop! right now. It does feel like a texture, although I don't really think it's intended to be worn that way. I put a coat of Gelous on top and then a coat of matte polish - PS's own Matte All The Things, as it happens - and it's still not perfectly smooth. (That might take two coats of Gelous.) Here is the best picture I got of it:

I don't know that this especially does it justice at all, but I can tell you that I do really like it.

Metallica, Rain Check

Here is Wild Shine Metallica:

It's a pretty silver metallic, which is why it's still current, I guess (although not in this bottle, unless you find it at Dollar Tree like my husband did).

This is Wild Shine Rain Check (which is a discontinued polish):

Rain Check seems to be basically the same formula as Metallica, except with blue added to it. It's kind of a steel blue or gunmetal color.

Clinique gift

See, I told you I had a lot of new stuff, right? There's a lot of nail polish and some stuff that's skincare etc., and this is one of the non-polish days. This is a Clinique gift from back in March - I got it from Dillard's, but I saw the same bag available at another department store later. I heard a radio ad for it, I think, and I had been thinking I needed some good Clinique samples, because I carry moisturizer around in my bag* and the ones in the tubes are easier to carry around than the ones in little pots. (I had a Ren Calming Lotion sample that I've been using for ages and I was sad that it was almost gone.)

* I saw one of those articles on the Zoe Report or somewhere that was like "Skin Advice for Every Age" and for your 50s, the advice was "Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize," and I thought, oh honey, I've got that one down - which, frankly, is not usually what I am thinking when I read articles like that. But I'm pretty much obsessive about my moisturizing.

And anyway, then I heard the words "Marimekko bag" and I was, like, oh heck, I have to have that. I love Marimekko. It was the last weekend of the promotion at Dillards so I knew I couldn't just wait and go to the mall, so I went home and got on Dillards website and ordered it. And the bag is really adorable, and there is a mirror, too, with the same pattern:

Then (and I know this is slightly backwards) I had to figure out what to buy to get the gift-with-purchase. They were out of Turnaround Cream, which was my first thought, but I remembered that I've been wanting to try the pigment drops, so that's what I got:

I haven't gotten around to messing with this yet but if I have anything to say when I do, I'll get back to y'all on that subject. And here is the rest of the gift part next to it:

1. 7th day scrub cream (rinse-off formula) - 1 oz
2. dramatically different moisturizing lotion+ - 1 oz
3. superprimer - universal face primer - 0.5 oz
4. pop lip colour + primer - Plum Pop - 0.13 oz
5. even better glow light reflecting makeup SPF 15 - Ivory - 0.41 fl oz

The lipstick is a pretty good color for me. I still haven't tried the primer or the foundation - or the scrub cream, which I'm looking forward to because that used to be something I'd buy pretty regularly but I haven't used in several years. I'm guessing the formula has been tinkered with since then, so it'll be interesting to see if I still like it like I used to.

KL Polish (+ gift)

I've ordered a lot of stuff lately - you may have noticed - but the cool part is that I've gotten a lot of bonus stuff for my money - mostly expected but even some unexpected ones! The main surprise ones were the little box of hand-care stuff from Zoya and a Colourpop lippie from KL Polish.

The bottle labels are below, but in case you can't read those, this is Charmed, Mindy, Casino Night, and Alyssa is the liquid lipstick, which is the Colourpop Satin formula (which is my favorite). This is not the color I would've picked, but y'know, you can't have everything. If I don't seem to be using it, I'll give it away. And it was free, so how can you complain much?

Charmed is from the new spring collection (Ethereal Garden) and the other two polishes are from the winter one (which is Winter Glamourland). Charmed has a shifty "flip" thing going on - everything else in the collection was pretty much pastel, which has never been my thing. I did already have Cassiopeia from the winter collection, and there were some cremes which I wasn't very interested in (red, green, and gray, specifically). I pick and choose my polishes all the time, but Kathleen seems to have been building up a core collection with a lot of cremes, and I just don't buy a whole lot of those. So Mindy and Casino Night are the two that were left that I was interested in, and unless I get a sudden itch to have a super-dark green creme or something (which seems unlikely since I already have things like that and rarely wear them) this is probably all I'll buy from that collection.

I did want Mindy, though, which is a berry/wine color. And then Casino Night is a gold glitter, and while I don't need it, because I already have a lot of metallic golds, I was tempted and I gave in on that. It's sort of similar to Das Esspensive XXV, which I have - the first one, from last year - but that is more champagne and this one is gold and I think has more holo glitter. I'm going to have to get them next to each other and check on that. (Maybe when I put up my swatch on this.)


I think that everybody who was on KL Polish's mailing list got a 10% off coupon. They've recently raised their prices and Kathleen said in a video that the idea was that 10% off would get the price down to the old price, more or less. (They were $8.50 and now they're $9.50. So 10% off would be 95 cents... so it went up a nickel, as long as you have a code. - And see below for a place to get one if you don't!)

Here's that video:

She also talks about what x-free (5-free, 7-free, whatever) means, and various other questions. Also note that they have a list of KL Polish "ambassadors" there in the description box, and those people will have permanent 10% off codes, as I understand it. So if you don't have one already, that's where to get one.

Ulta goodies

I've already showed most of these polishes, but here's all of the ones that I bought in my big Ulta order:

L-R: Hands Up (Sinful Colors Vanessa H collection), Space Glam (Essence Out of Space Stories), Grape Shifter (Insta-Dri), Purplexed (Miracle Gel)

I've told parts of this story in the last couple of weeks, already, but I started out looking at Ulta's website because I wanted Space Glam, in particular. Then I started thinking, well, I was already intending to buy my husband cologne as an anniversary present, I can just buy it from Ulta. I knew he liked this one because I had bought him the smaller size from Sephora once before. (I think that smaller one is cologne and the larger one that I bought this time is eau de toilette, but I didn't think he would care, particularly, and I seem to have been right.) Because of Mother's Day, there was a free tote bag with a qualifying fragrance purchase, and it apparently didn't matter if it was a men's cologne or women's as far as the gift is concerned. I ended up with a nice big sturdy denim bag that looks like it'll hold up for a while. And then there was another gift with a $75 purchase, which was a cosmetic bag and 22 samples, most of which were premium size. After the cologne and the one polish, I was practically to $75, anyway, so I - guess what - used the excuse to add another couple of polishes. I probably got a little carried away, as usual. (Purplexed, in particular, is awfully similar to things I already had, so I think I could have done without that one.)

For the record, this is John Varvatos Artisan Acqua eau de toilette, above - I had never heard of this brand until a year or so ago, and we only found it because of a Sephora sample.

The pink thing is the cosmetic bag - I think there was another choice, but I don't really remember what it looked like other than that I thought this one was cuter. And that's some of the samples you can see in that bag, but nere's another picture where you can see a little more of the contents.

I'm too lazy to lay all that out for a picture, but I did actually make a list (but see below, I found Ulta's flat lay instead):

1. Black Opium sample
2. Tory Burch Bel Azur sample
3. DK Cashmere Mist sample
4. Your Facial mini scrubber
5. Skyn iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels
6. UD Hi-fi Shine in Naked 
7. Too Faced Hangover Rx Primer
8. Porefessional primer (Benefit)
9. Lancome Monsieur Big mascara
10. Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream in 18 (dark pink)
11. B&B Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer (1 oz)
12. Tarte Ready Set Radiant skin mist
13. Ulta Beauty Cream Eye Shadow & Liner in Naked Truth (nude)
14. Real Chemistry peel
15. MAC Strobe Cream
16. Pureology Hydrate shampoo, 1.7 oz
17. Pureology Hydrate conditioner, 1.7 oz
18. Peter Thomas Roth Irish Moor Mud (cleansing oil)
19. Shishedo Essential Energy Moisturizing Cream, .35 oz
20. Kenra Platinum Luxe One leave-in, 1 oz
21. Vita Liberata Self tanning gradual lotion
22. Bed head Mini Masterpiece hairspray, 2.4 oz