Close your eyes, wait (doh)…no open them, a moment of silence, a deep breath…now with me in unison say “Whoaa…”
For awhile there I thought I’d gotten over nail polish until I saw these pretty Zoya Pixie dust polishes up on Ebay.PH, yup lokal gals. Gotta gasp. You can also search the close-up feature on these in the blog All Lacquered Up I’m obviously still on a celadon /sea green kick and this just hits the spot with a satisfied sigh.
Zoya Pixie Dust Vespa is a matte, sparkly yet sandy version of YSL’s Jade Imperial. Give me a matte sparkly sand finish any day. These pixie dust polishes are like Boracay sand mixed with color and sparkle pigment once they dry over the nail. BTW these first photos are a little gray because mom’s office windows had blue tint and it was overcast earlier, here’s a better real life color shot from my cousin’s sun filled apartment earlier in the day.
They’re absolutely gorgeous and you can bet I got a nude shade (I got 3…spoiler). These were posted online for Php550 each by EbayPH seller “stuff.in.style” aka “SIS” who also have lots of other beauty things of interest for sale in addition to more shades of this. Dare I say it…NOOO…ok fine…how about Real Techniques Brushes for only Php20 more (Php600 for single brushes + Php60 shipping) than the actual Boots pharmacy price abroad (£9.99 = Php640)? My purchase, 3 Zoya polishes and 1 Real Techniques Expert Face Brush arrived the day after I deposited my payment. I still had a Euro trip hangover as my friend called it because i was not able to relax and take my time in boutiques since we were on tour. I’m glad that online sellers like stuff.in.style aka SiS randomly fill the gap .
Because of my long kept frustration that YSL’s Jade Imperial shade (ever since I spottedbit on Xiao’s Messy Wands blog) is a beautiful wearable shade of green but is a luxury polish unavailable here, something had to be done. YSL’s Jade Imperial costs about $25.00. I hesitate in buying many luxury nail polishes though I wouldn’t mind landing money on a few more Essie bottles. I perused the aisles of local department stores and spotted Caress’s Sea Green polish (Php23.75) which was about 2-3 shades darker (aptly a “Frankenstenish” hue) but the perfect green tone. I also already had Bobbie premium polish in Pure White (Php33.00++). I knew something could be done I decided to “franken” (custom mix) my own bottle of Jade Imperial using cheaper polishes. Behold the birthchild of my resolve.
YSL’s Jade Imperial is not a mint green if you see it here in Xiao’s post, it’s got more grey or grunge to it. It’s similar to Essie’s Sew Psyched…kind of like a pastel army hue. Because the Caress polish is runny and too dark by bout 3 shades I married about half a teaspoon of Bobbie Pure White into it straight from the bottle and gave it a good strong shake (about 3-4x). You may need to pour out a little afterwards if there is overflow. If ever my mix was a little off it’s only slightly not as cool as Jade Imperial because of the tone of Sea Green, but as a result this matches my less cool skin better. So my total first frankening attempt cost me Php58.00 in total. When my mom first spotted my nails this morning at breakfast with no clue about the YSL polish, frankening, or my plan put together she suddenly said as if on cue “It looks like Jade…”. I beamed with success and said “Exactly…”
Breathe, breathe deeper, exhale…inhale…now shout…shout at the top of your lungs, like she would. MAC is soon putting out a Hayley Williams collection. Now I hear you…
VIA Temptalia.com “The collection will feature an orange lipstick, coral eyeshadow, mineralize skinfinish, and an orange nail lacquer. MAC just confirmed this collection via their Twitter and Facebook.”
Yea, no kidding that’s all I had to say right? If you don’t know who Paramore’s lead singer is…she’s been around FOR AWHILE and has been singing pro since she was about 15 and Hayley Williams is not just another young girl screaming at a microphone. She really sings, as in seriously sings…and her ability to pull off pop-py, alternative grunge cool and keeping pretty without looking too androgynous is what gets her admired in the beauty community. I learned more about Hayley 4 years ago when I watched this interview about her and her development as a singer (playable only on laptops or desktop devices). The collection is a tricky one to get and will launch on April 9, 2013 and will be available exclusively online for a limited time only. Sigh* I’m glad I didn’t get any of the Archie items. I really…really dig what this is looking like. Hayley is just sooo irritatingly cool. If you’ve never heard her sing here’s one of her more popular mellow performances from 5 years ago, Paramore’s Live Acoustic Cover of the Kings of Leon song “Use Somebody” ( this link can be watched on all devices) . Also embedding here for a slightly more recent but still not so new video their acoustic jam for the song “The Only Exception” where Hayley’s rocker chic makeup is just…just perfect to me…it’s just enough and sooo pretty.
Beauty videos, to say the least, are all very engaging but sometimes silence and a wash of beautiful photos over some prose is golden. It’s equally relaxing to have a read through some of the most prolific beauty blogs online. By the way this is part 2 of the Lil’ Black Book of Beauty Pt.1 post I began first containing the channels I watch. I sometimes don’t have the time to download or wait for a full video to stream, so reading these blogs is the quickest way to stay updated. To save even more time I don’t always cart around my 17″ ASUS laptop (which baffles everyone who sees it) to read these. I have most of the blogs booted via RSS on my Android Pulse Reader app (available for Apple, too) which allows me to view all the blogs I choose by row and I can immediately scroll to see if there’s a new post or not because of thumbnails then I can read them via Pulse, too. This way I don’t waste precious time loading up each website /channel only to find some may not have an update. Also once you’ve loaded them you can read the posts offline if you’re on the go, great for traffic on certain days.
I have a Pulse page for blogs, local blogs, and a pulse page for YouTube channels. Many of them are British and reading through a ton of British blogs has actually improved my writing because no one writes English like the English…ahem. I do have a certain bias towards European beauty blogs simply because it’s the dead smack center of carefully developed luxury beauty brands using the freshest and best ingredients and also because they’ve banned over a thousand questionable chemicals for use in cosmetics (the U.S. have reportedly only banned 9?). Okay, enough blabber, click read more to see what are more or less my daily beauty reads.
Last year women abroad pulled Essie’s Mint Candy apple off shelves in droves. There is evidently something mesmeric about pastel, macaron-inspired shades. It’s almost like…given how perfect the shades are, you can almost taste what you see. These women (you included?) all just went mad for either mint or coral pink that season. The thing about Essie’s cool mint shade last year is that it was delightfully sweet looking on fingertips…fair slash pale fingertips that is. One look at Mint Candy Apple and I knew it was too pasty light a mint green for my medium oriental undertone hands to wear with grace…it was also too (groans) what’s the word…green (lol). This similar (but in no way a dupe) shade by Estee Lauder is better on me.
With no voluntary search a better suited, on the nose Tiffany, robin’s egg mint blue shade entered my life when Estee Lauder invited me last time to a nail pampering session. Estee Lauder polishes might be high end and not commonly on your luxe nail brands to try list…but people should try these more because they have an AMAZING chip resist formula. It’s a thick formula but lasts longer than others and whatever shade it might be holds that lovely finish well beneath any light all the time. Lo and behold, Dilettante, this slightly deeper bluish mint came home with me in a random loot bag. This color will be available from Estee Lauder counters beginning April 2013, right smack in the middle of summer. See the sun?
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