Linear vs. scattered holo

This was intended to be a post comparing linear holo polishes with scattered holo polishes. I much prefer the former, because the holo effect to me is much more powerful when it is clean and linear as opposed to when it is scattered. I checked my stash, found two holos that look like dupes in the bottle (China Glaze BFF and Nubar Brilliant) and swatched my left hand.

Surprise!

At one coat, there was a huge difference in opacity:


(middle and pinkie are Nubar Brilliant, all the other fingers are China Glaze BFF)

What about two coats?



Four?



It took SIX coats of the Nubar to match the opacity of the China Glaze:



Not only do I like the linear better, it's cheaper and has better coverage! I'm glad I didn't pay $9.50 for Nubar Absolute but instead grabbed a bottle of China Glaze 2nite from 8ty8beauty.com for $2.99!

The trend I just don't get

Because I am job hunting, it is sometimes necessary for me to wear bland colors I would not otherwise bother with. Today it was Desert Haze, a mushroom beige from e.l.f. cosmetics.

I do not understand the whole "edgy neutrals" trend. Frankly, if it's a putty, taupe, beige or similar color, it looks boring to me rather than edgy. Maybe I'm not young enough or hip enough to get the idea, but all these neutrals just put me to sleep. Give me a strong color, or a holo, or glitter or something interesting, but please stop boring me!

That said, I will not be buying anything else from e.l.f. While Desert Haze was semi-sheer, it was fairly easy to work with, and I had minimal VNL after three coats. However, all of their products appear to be made in China, and after the multiple contamination problems, it just seems too risky to be putting something made in China on my face. And since what I mostly bought from e.l.f. with my first and last order was eyeshadow and powder, I probably won't be getting any more polishes from them either. That was my own fault for not reading their website more carefully and checking with customer service if necessary.

Here's Desert Haze on its own:

And then saved from neutralhood with one coat of Nubar Opulent Pearls and one coat of CND Copper Shimmer:

I think I can live with the latter look for a day or two.

Cute polish story

Two weeks ago, I took an assortment of nail polish up to the lake house for my nieces. The weather was so gorgeous that they were not interested in staying inside to have their nails done, but Mom fell in love with Zoya Zara. She did her toenails with it that weekend, and asked me to leave it at the lake so she could re-do them after the MS bike ride.

Mom called me tonight, apologized for sharing my polish without asking, and explained that my aunt admired Mom's pedicure and said she had never had purple toenails.

So tonight in a cozy blue and white cottage on Lake Erie, there are two adorable senior citizens with matching purple toenails. Yay Mom and Auntie!

Skindecent Foaming Milk Bath

Last night, I tested the new Foaming Milk Bath from Skindecent. This is a powder, finer in texture than most bath salts. Mine was in the Silky Underwear fragrance dupe, and the powder was a pretty pale pink. I used about six ounces, and got two inches of bubbles on top of the water, along with a pale rose color and a strong scent. The bubbles lasted for the entire thirty minutes I was in the tub.

Unlike Skindecent's other milk bath products, this had no milky/creamy undernote to affect the scent. The Silky Underwear dupe is very good, and the scent remained consistent throughout my bath. Also unlike the milk bombs and milk bubbles, the Foaming Milk Bath didn't leave a film of oil on my skin. However, unlike most commercial bubble baths, it didn't leave the skin dry and tight, either.

Overall, I think this is a good product for those who want to bathe frequently without drying out, for summer baths when you don't need as much moisture, and for anyone who wants a pretty, bubbly, scented bath!

This product was sent to me for review.

Nubar Mother's Day Sale

nUBAR offers our retail customers 20% off retail orders of $30 or more with code MOM20 through May 6th, with free shipping on orders of $75 or more after the discount is applied.

Our 10th anniversary color, Nubar 2010, and The Night Sky Collection are available today, so visit us at www.bynubar.com to take advantage of this offer! We thank you for your business, and wish you a happy Mother's Day.

NB: Nubar 2010 looks a lot like that HTF Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure everyone is lemming for...

Nubar haul

From their last sale.

Nubar Sparkles Collection, Fire Sparkle, Night Sparkle and Petunia Sparkle.



From the Prisms Collection, Prize and Brilliant:



Duochromes Midnight Glory and Indigo Illusion:



Glitters Gilded Gold, Silver_Spark, Sugar and Opulent Pearl:

Bath Diary: 03 April 2010

Skindecent Head in the Clouds bubbling bath salts in I Dream of Berries,
1/4 Skindecent Butter Bomb in I Dream of Berries,
A nameless salt scrub in Lavender,
Skindecent Dry Oil Spray in I Dream of Berries,
BPAL Chaos Theory Series II in a lavender-berry combo.

Buy 2 Get 1 free nail polish at Sally Beauty Supply

I didn't even know they were doing this until I looked at my receipt and asked the cashier why my FingerPaints Tapestry in Taupe rang up at $0.00. I got Orly Snocone and Orly Gumdrop, and the FingerPaints (for my mother) was free.

The sale is for the entire month of April, so if you have a Sally nearby, it's time for polish-buying!

Bombs Away!

My most recent Skindecent order arrived yesterday, and here's the most photogenic part of the order, the Butter Bombs:



Clementine: A strong, fresh orange scent with no bitterness.

Treefrog Jammies: My invention, a clean lavender scent blended with piney green notes.

The Forbidden Strawberry: A decadent strawberry scent with a hint of musk.

Pink Carnations: A spicy, vivid carnation scent, a gorgeous not-really-a-floral floral.

Raspberry Ginger Ale: I have no idea how Marliss manages to make this smell fizzy, but she does, and combined with the raspberries, it's really wonderful.

Lavender: This one is the perfect dreamtime scent, fresh and relaxing.

I Dream of Berries: An absolutely gorgeous blend of blackberry, raspberry and lavender. It has the calming properties of lavender, but enough zing from the berries that I don't fall asleep as soon as I smell it.

The Butter Bombs are an amazing value, at $7.27 American per pound. I smash 'em up and drop a handful of the bits in, and I get silky smooth skin instead of winter-parched skin. I love hot baths in the winter, and the Butter Bombs let me take a bath every night if I want to and not pay for it with painfully dry, itchy and flaky skin. Plus, with Skindecent's product range and scent menu, I can layer scents, and drift off to bed in a happy cloud!

Accidental preppie-cure!

This was my attempt at a spring color combo that wound up in perfect preppie pink and green:



Zoya Happi and Zoya Midori.

Winter paws

I'm a middle-aged polish lover in frosty NE Ohio. I use glitter polishes, which require acetone remover, rather frequently; forget my gloves; pump my own gas and exercise three to four times a week in a chlorinated pool. So why don't I have the cuticles of a lizard in a drought?

Skindecent.

My holy grail trio of hand products are all from Skindecent, which is nice as I can get them all in matching scents or unscented as I wish.

I start by washing my hands with plain ol' soap. While the water is warm and my hands are warm and wet, I do a quick but thorough scrub with Manicure in a Minute. I pat my hands dry, and then go over my cuticles and joints with Cuticle Balm. I buff my nails, then right before I go to sleep, I massage my hands with the melted wax and oil combo from the Massage Candle.

All three of these look like unassuming little pots of not-much, but they work well and are absolutely worth every penny.

Something new

I finally decided to get off my butt and start a second blog for all of my "girly" stuff. I'm calling it Bubbles and Baubles, and I will be using it for all the things that make me squee in an embarrassing fashion.

Grand Opening

I don't expect that anyone except a few friends will be reading this, but I decided to do it anyway. This is going to be my place for posting all my squeeing over nail polish, bath products, jewelry, perfume and all the other girly stuff I love.* Curmudgeonette will remain my primary blog, but this one will be a good supplement.

With that in mind, here are a few details about me:

My hair is reddish-brown, originally by nature, now by treatment.
My eyes are blue/green/grey, depending on what I'm wearing.
My skin is pinky-fair, very fair and very pink.
I'm middle-aged, with crowsfeet, an oily nose and dry skin everywhere else.
I love baths, but take showers for convenience.

Welcome to Bubbles and Baubles.



















*Disclaimer for Otterboyy:

First of all, "girly" is not a pejorative.

Second, I like girly baths. Men may quite easily enjoy manly baths. Lush has a number of masculine scents that I enjoy.

Newsflash: Skindecent saves woman's sanity

Today sucked. I'm out of my antidepressant and for some reason, my Hyphenated Corp. health insurance is suddenly invalid, today was my first day back at Mom's office and I had to do payroll taxes, and the icing on the cake is when I got home and discovered that one of the dogs chewed up at least one of my rubber duckies.

If it hadn't been for my pre-layoff Skindecent order on my front porch, I probably would have totally lost it. As it is, I'm opening it as I listen to the stupid hold music for A(ssholes)E(at your)T(ime and give you)N(othing in return but want)A(ll your money) insurance's so-called "Customer Care" line.

I'm on the verge of tears, as I have been since I left the pharmacy without my Lexapro, but right now, they are more tears of gratitude for the kindness of Marliss, the genius behind Skindecent. Not only did she send samples of the Lush dupes for Sultana and The Olive Branch, she sent me an entire Girlfriend's Stress Relief Kit. Marliss has always provided amazing products and customer service, but this kind of thoughtful detail is truly amazing.

And now, since the insurance person wants the pharmacist to call and the pharmacist is being snarky about not wanting to call, I'm going to go huff bath products and hope that tomorrow is a VAST improvement over today.