China Glaze's Manhunt & I'm Not Lion

I got a couple of polishes from China Glaze's On Safari collection the other day! I meant to get the entire collection when I first saw it a couple of months ago, but the colors don't appeal to me anymore. I still think they're gorgeous, but they're not colors I'm into right now. 

I had to get Manhunt because it's my favorite color from the collection, and I'm Not Lion because lions are THE BEST animal in the world.

I'm sorry about the TERRIBLE paint job on my pointer finger. I forgot to wipe the brush on the corner of the bottle and it glooped (such a professional term LOL) around my cuticles :/ I usually wait for my nails to dry, then take a shower so all the excess polish peels off. Didn't do that for this one, obviously.

Manhunt is a dark blue which I thought would be a dupe for China Glaze's First Mate but it isn't really. Manhunt is noticeably brighter. It's opaque in two coats and not streaky at all. Great formula! I'm Not Lion is a glitter polish with flecks of silver, gold and holographic glitter. I put on 3 coats, but that was just to be safe. 2 coats would probably be sufficient! 

I really love doing two accent nails :D

Nail Polish Overview Part 1: Reds & Nudes

A friend who reads this blog suggested that I do an overview of the nail polishes I own. And I thought it was a pretty good idea because 'nail polish collection' post of sorts has been requested on my Tumblr quite a few times, but I didn't know how to go about doing it. Anyway, we decided I could probably group them according to color. So here's part 1!

Reds

First row: Sally Hansen's CSM in Right Said Red, OPI's Big Apple Red, Essie's Very Cranberry

Second row: OPI's Quarter Of A Cent-cherry, Deborah Lippmann's Supermodel

You can find reviews for these polishes (except DL's Supermodel, it's new in my collection) on my old Tumblr (here).

Nudes

First row: China Glaze's Innocent, OPI's Bubble Bath, OPI's Tickle My France-y

Second row: OPI's Barefoot In Barcelona, China Glaze's Dress Me Up, Sally Hansen CSM in So Much Fawn.

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It's such a hassle to take pictures, because I don't have a good camera & I prefer natural sunlight. I don't really have the time to take pictures on weekdays, especially since I only get home at night. Part 2 will probably be pinks/oranges/corals!

New In: Dresses!

I said in a previous post that I don't like the words "shopping haul" & I didn't know what to name posts like these. Lucky for me, Kirsten (check out her blog!), suggested a really good title!

I only ever wear dresses these days, because the weather is insanely hot where I live, so the fewer layers I wear, the better. I thought these dresses were really pretty and summery!

The one on the left is from Rare, a British brand. It has only one shoulder, like a toga, and a fishtail hem. I was really excited when I found this because I've wanted a fishtail dress/skirt since forever. AND, it's more of an evening dress, which I don't have many of!

The one on the right is a striped skater dress from Blonde & Blonde. It's really casual, and I'll probably wear it a lot. The only "downside" to this dress is that the material is VERY thick, but I guess this means that it's well made?

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I'm going to try to spend my weekend cleaning out my closet & my nail polish racks. Now that I've put it out into the universe, I have to do it right?! Anyway I might be doing a nail polish overview on this blog if I get the time to take pictures.

Sally Hansen's Lacey Lilac

When I first saw Lacey Lilac, I thought it'd be a dupe for Essie's Nice is Nice, but it isn't really. It's a lot more... saturated(?) and purple, while Nice is Nice is a true pastel color.

As you can see from the picture, I did a pretty bad job at applying this polish. The formula was okay, slightlyyyyy thick and needed 2 coats for complete opacity. The brush, on the other hand, was SO hard to work with! It was uneven, clumpy and didn't fan out well. It was really hard to paint the polish on evenly.

I have tried a couple other polishes from this line, and I've never had problems with them AT ALL. I think I got a wonky bottle. I do love the color of the polish though!

Oops I shopped again!

I have no idea what to name posts like these. I don't really like the words "shopping haul" because they don't sound very nice to me, I don't know how to explain it. Anyway, I went shoppinggggg!

I bought a Wildfox sweater! I've wanted one for absolute AGES but the price has always put me off. I decided to just go ahead and get one so I would stop thinking about it. These things are pretty weird, I'm not a small girl (short, but not small) and the S is still way too big for me. I guess they're called baggy beach sweaters for a reason. I should have gone for an XS. They're not flattering at all, but they're extremely comfy, so I guess they serve a difference purpose. I probably wouldn't buy another one again, they're really not worth the US$108 (or US$118, can't remember).

I also got a few nail polishes! I meant to purchase the entire China Glaze On Safari collection, but I'm really into brights & pastels now so the colors didn't appeal to me. Don't get me wrong, they're gorgeous, but they're not colors I'd wear now, so I didn't buy them all. 

I ended up only getting two of the polishes from the OS collection, Man Hunt and I'm Not Lion. I wanted I Herd That too, but that was sold out :( The bright neon color is Surfin' For Boys from the Summer Neons collection. The lilac polish on the far right is Sally Hansen's Lacey Lilac, just the kind of color I'm into right now.

Honestly, the only reason I purchased I'm Not Lion is because of it's name! How many silver glitter polishes does a girl need, really? I had to buy this because lions are my absolute favorite animal!

Deborah Lippmann's Shape Of My Heart & Some Enchanted Evening

I just purchased Deborah Lippmann's Shape Of My Heart and another polish that will make an appearance in a separate post. I know I'm on a nail polish ban but some of the DL polishes were on sale and I couldn't resist!

Shape Of My Heart was created as a collaboration with Shape magazine to support the fight against breast cancer. It's a very sheer pastel pink creme polish which I think was meant as a french manicure shade. This is definitely not one of my best paint jobs because I put on 4 coats to get this opacity, but I really love this color!

I was looking for a way to wear Some Enchanted Evening so I decided to sponge it onto the tips to get a glitter gradient! I hate removing glitter polishes so I figured I could wait for my nails to grow out then cut the tips off so I wouldn't have to remove the glitter.

Pastel Parade ♥

• Essie Wedding Collection 2012 (here)
• Dolce and Gabbana Spring Collection (here)

June Bellabox!

My June Bellabox came early this month! They're usually meant to arrive on the 15th or so, but I guess the Bellabox just decided to mail them out early this month! 

I haven't been too thrilled about the past few boxes (because I never got the boxes I wanted) and I have been thinking about terminating my subscription. I'm really impressed with this month's box though, so I think I'll give it another couple of months before I decide!

There are supposed to be 5 deluxe beauty samples each month, but as this month, there were 8 high-samples! I've been meaning to try out the Shu Uemura makeup remover and Biotherm BB cream too, so this is perfect.

This month's box consists of:

top row: Kiehl's Calendula Herbal Extract Toner & Midnight Recovery Concentrate

bottom row: Shu Uemura White Efficient Gentle Cleansing Oil, Lancome Blanc Expert Derm-crystal & Genifique Youth Activator, Biotherm White D-tox BB Cream & Lait Corporel Body Moisturiser

Deborah Lippmann's On The Beach & Mermaid's Dream

I adore Deborah Lippmann. I have tried all but one (Some Enchanted Evening) of the Deborah Lippmann polishes I purchased, and I've been impressed with every one. 

Right now, I'm wearing On The Beach on my thumb, pointer and pinkie and Mermaid's Dream on my middle & ring fingers as accents. I love how these colors look together!

A Little Bit of Shopping ♥

I ordered a few things (excluding the Shu Uemura eyelash curler) from Ulta the other day, and they finally arrived! 

• Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24 Hour Shadow in Bad to the Bronze & Bold Gold
• L'oreal Voluminous Million Lashes in Blackest Black
• Maybelline Volume Express The Falsies Mascara
• Maybelline Volume Express One by One Mascara

I usually get stock up on mascaras when I place an order because I have to throw them out so frequently anyway. Also very excited about the Maybelline cream shadows because I really love the MAC paint pots and I hope they'll be of the same quality. I really want Pomegranate Punk and Tough As Taupe too.

Had to get a new eyelash curler because I misplaced my old one. I intended on getting the Chanel one but I decided not to after I realised it was THAT expensive. The Chanel and Shu Uemura one are supposed to be equally good anyway, or so I've read.

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It annoys me how my post looks centralized on my editing page but it isn't on my main page >:( Does anyone know how to centralize everything?

OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard

This is from the OPI Spiderman collection, and it's an almost exact dupe for Chanel's Peridot.

It's a green/gold metallic duochrome polish and it's GORGEOUS. This needed 2 coats to be opaque and you can see the slightest brush strokes, but it's not a major deal & not that noticeable.

I didn't wear a base or top coat over this, and I've worn it for three days (photo taken on 3rd day). There has been very minimal chipping, save for my broken nail, which doesn't count!