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.”

Sounds Like Noise: Bright true orange (Lipstick) (Matte)
Daydreaming: Frosted mid-tone coral (Eyeshadow) (Veluxe Pearl)
Lightscapade: Soft candlelight beige with multi-dimensional shimmer (Mineralize Skinfinish)
Riot Gear: Bright true orange (Nail Lacquer) (Cream)

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.

LIPGLOSSIPING.COM / Charlotte Thompson

Twitter & Instagram: @lipglossiping

Let’s begin with my “fevohreht”, after all, I have been following her blog daily for the past 3 and a half years now.  It was Charlotte’s blog, Lipglossiping.com that helped supply the main vibe of the inspiration you see on my blog today.  We’re in touch personally and have even done a swap.  I discovered her blog about mid 2010 when I was excitedly Googling for more information on the Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette and it turns out she was the British blogger sent a package for the UK’s first look at it that year.  She won the Johnson & Johnson Best Beauty blog award for 2011(?) and is among the top 3 beauty blogs in the UK today.  The pristine photos on her blog absolutely drew me in as well as her proficiently written, thought-filled, snark-y musings on life and beauty.  She also does meal and recipe posts once in awhile to change it up.  I am also in love with the way Charlotte chronicles the growth of her lovely daughter, Leila, seen here wearing toxin and solvent-free kiddie polish.  I’ll never forget the year 2010, it was when the world of online beauty opened up for me and there wasn’t the feel of “too much beauty noise” yet.  Everyone just had a happy not-too-annoyingly-uppity vibe about all their new discoveries.

WORSHIPBLUES.COM / Yasumi Toyoda aka “Fushigi Lady”

The Fushigi Lady (as she calls herself) of Worshipblues.com is a London-based Japanese online curator/oversharer of all things artful, beautiful, and dainty, modern or vintage.  She does a careful cocktail of beauty, skincare, travel, art, stationery musings, accessories, photos of abandoned buildings, local and overlooked boutiques, and once in awhile or increasingly more often, food…shaken not stirred.  She makes trips to and from Japan which makes her blog a delightfully well-written mix of East and West.  She’s very sweet and replied joyfully on Twitter when I said I loved her blog and had one of my own.  Yasumi also owns a well-loved online shop called “Fushigi Shop” for her handpicked/handmade creations.

INTOTHEGLOSS.COM/Emily Weiss and team ITG

Dita Von Teese to ITG

Laura Mercier to ITG

This is like THE Beauty Blog.  Emily Weiss has put up what is now one of the most sought after “IT”  U.S. beauty blogs in the world, which is ITG (IntotheGloss.com).  Emily and her team have got the front row on nearly everything that’s anything in the beauty blogosphere and being expected in big places they get to travel so much as a result.  Her blog is most probably as popular and revered as you wish yours ever could be.  Practically every beauty brand in the biz wants ITG to like and feature them.  Dior (see first photo) had Emily do an eye tutorial for them.  Now a team (so they can be everywhere), ITG has evolved into an online magazine of sorts while still retaining that non-contrived /raw feel which is what makes a blog a blog, but more now a blogazine.  They’re still candid in expressing what they think it’s just that now they’ve got invites to the best sources.  It’s a very thin line between this and something like Vogue Beauty branching out on its own, but the line is still there.  On ITG it’s like you get a backstage pass to major high fashion events and absolutely fresh beauty reviews, the latest (as in almost to the minute) beauty scoop, intimate word-for-word written interviews with celebrity icons, supermodels, beauty and hair professionals, and chats with unique individuals as they spill the brands and tips in their beauty arsenal.  ITG is wanted at nearly every beauty launch that’s at the top.  Emily and her team have only interviewed after all the likes of Essie herself (yes, Essie nail polish), Dita Von Teese sharing her cosmetic approach as a Burlesque beauty, Laura Mercier giving her beautiful back story on becoming who she is (and making up Madonna the 1st time), and more recently Drew Barrymore on her latest undertaking with her own new beauty brand.  ITG also does videos once every few months on their YouTube channel IntoTheGlossMotion.  This is the blog that proves pictures with flash aren’t always uncool…on their end flash evokes reality and popularity.  ITG makes me love reading casually about what these “top” individuals are using and some of these revelations show they’re surprisingly simplistic and minimal in their approach to beauty.

MESSYWANDS.COM/Xiao

Xiao’s blog, MessyWands.com is so neat and clean and yet there’s enough rawness in the photos that makes the blog more sincere.  Her skin up close isn’t photoshopped to the nines and she’s got a light but skillful hand with color.  Her taste in cosmetics, more often than not is luxurious and the blog feels minimal but not at all lacking in content.  She really has put the blinders on and focused primarily on high-street to luxury makeup.  I do think once in awhile she does a skincare mention but what makes Xiao’s blog exceedingly lovely to visit are her spot on pretty FOTDs (face of the day features) where she combines colors from a lot of the products she is sent or stuff she has bought by luxury brands.  To flaunt her reputation, let me make mention of brands like Clinique and Europe’s Rouge Bunny Rouge who usually send her their latest releases.

BRITISHBEAUTYBLOGGER.COM/ Jane Cunningham

On BritishBeautyBlogger.com you’ll find the latest and greatest when it comes to mostly stuff from Europe.  UK’s Jane Cunningham is really a beauty editor/insider by day which explains her access to and hands-on reviews for so many brands.  Jane gets early previews of stuff sometimes way before other bloggers do.  She’s also got a lot of moxie and doesn’t shy away from openly disclosing if a brand’s PR person misread her or communicated weakly (sometimes she’ll take it as far as quoting them openly w/o mentioning who they are) which is partly why a lot of brands trust her honest opinion.  She’s not afraid of what others think, on her site her opinion is all that matters.  She also has quite a lot of posts tackling blogger, PR, and media issues in the industry that are all very well written.

BEAUTYBETS.COM / Elizabeth Dehn

Elizabeth Dehn is BeautyBets.com and she’s now made it a team.  She is as her site says “an editor, lifestyle writer, and beauty enthusiast who worked for Aveda, Kiehl’s, Target and several magazines before launching the blog in 2009. When not schmearing on face masks or battling her new body wave, she covers the beauty and wellness beats for Mpls.St. Paul Magazine, Marie Claire, Divine Caroline, and Twin Cities Live television. Her work has also appeared in Minnesota Monthly, the Star Tribune, Sotheby’s Artful Living magazine, Fashion Weekly, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Rue Magazine and Glamour.”  The articles on BeautyBets.com are light, not that long and well edited.

THECHERRYBLOSSOMGIRL.COM/ Alix Bancourt

Her site, TheCherryBlossomGirl.com is primarily about fashion since Alix is a French (yes, not Japanese) fashion graduate from a few years back, but hers was one of the first style sites I visited that once in awhile had beauty features intertwined (here she is with a bottle of Chloe perfume. The photos are nothing short of exquisite (with a lot of drama though, a bit too much sometimes I think) and with her porcelain skin and dark hair she kind of looks as if she could pass as Dita Von Teese’s daughter.  What’s amazing is she shoots almost all of her own editorials…it’s a bit flabbergasting because they’re so awesome.

FASHIONTOAST.COM / Rumi Neely

For more laid back, not overly ethereal (unlike the Cherry Blossom Girl) Cali girl street style I always, always refer to Rumi of FashionToast.com.  She throws things on and they just look.. correct.  That’s pretty much it…anything she proclaims to love or posts on her blog sells like wildfire throughout the U.S. (and parts of Japan since she is half-Japanese) and she really tries to be unpretentiously healthy.  You probably have seen her prancing around online with our very own Bryan Boy who happens to be somewhat of a declared soulmate of hers…they are undoubtedly BFFs, but I am very much more interested in hermusings.  She, like Alix, once in awhile weaves in beauty items into her posts and I like how Rumi keeps it not too wordy, everything on her blog is what she thinks basically stripped down.  Rumi is forever circling the globe to sit in the front rows of the latest runway shows and whatever she chooses to bring with her often become industry highlights.

You must be wondering why I said most of the blogs I read are British…I already mentioned them in the Part 1 post of this series.  The written blogs of the channels I watch comprise the rest of the foreign blog list I go through and all their site links are here at the Lil’ Black Book of Beauty Pt.1 post.

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?