Packing is not fun

Helmers, polish racks, clear storage boxes... we all have our way to organize our collection.  I love these spinning nail polish racks that I originally found on eBay, but turns out that the eBay user has her own website as well called Queen Nail & Beauty Supply, Inc. [official website]

This is quite an old picture of the rack, but you can see how many China Glaze polishes fit per side.

The wide sides hold 40 bottles and the narrow sides hold 30 bottles, so we're talking 140 bottles of China Glaze per spinning rack.  Considering I have ~218 bottles of China Glaze... well yeah.

So I originally had 2 of these, but I just recently ordered 3 more.  Sadly, they are on back order and I received a phone call the next morning from the company letting me know that it would be 2-4 weeks before they arrived.  I was already getting free UPS Ground shipping because of my total purchase price, so there really wasn't anything that I could do but say "okay" and wait.  I'm now on day 10 since I placed my order... it's going to be awhile.

However, some things can't wait, and currently my flimsy table that I was holding the racks on, isn't going to cut it.  Neither is keeping my nail polish in my entryway to my house (ask my friends, we all bumped into it).  So my spare bedroom which is currently occupied by boxes, will be cleaned out this weekend and a sturdy 8 foot table will be put up and I will be enjoying 5 total spinning racks before long!

I prefer the racks because you can easily see every bottle, every time.  Helmers only allow you to see the top of your bottles and you have to come up with some other kind of way to find THAT color that you wanted to wear.  Clear plastic boxes are kind of the same deal since you can only see the items on the outside of the box.

Yes, this is a very expensive route to go, considering the racks are $70/piece, but to me, it's been totally worth it. The quality of these racks are very heavy duty - and the acrylic has held up really well.  My son accidentally kicked it once and a piece broke off but I was able to super glue it back together and you can't even tell it's chipped.

My current polish count is at 556 bottles but that's not counting base coats/top coats/matte coats...  I figure with bottle size to take in account, I'll be using all 5 of those racks and be looking into a 6th before long.  Also I'm having issues on how to sort my polish.  I had them sorted by collection, then brand, but that got annoying.  Next I went for color then brand.  Now I'm thinking brand and then color.  Even though my spreadsheet is sorted by brand and then code or bar number, that would kill me if I had to move all my polishes every time I buy an "older" color.  Any thoughts?

So back to the title of this post.  I had to empty my racks today and stick all my polish in a box for moving.  I'm freaking out that they are going to break, leak, or both.  I currently also have a handbag full of 50+ polishes including my to be reviewed Zoya Wicked/Wonderful and all 3 of the Naughty Nails collections, as well as over 30 e.l.f. polishes I bought during their HUGE sale (I paid 40 cents a bottle!).

Here's the box of polishes that I had from the racks - you can see how deep the thing is

And a fun look off the top

Back in the day I learned how to fill type with an image but frankly, it didn't look so well with my preferred font or with the above picture... haha.  One day I'll show you my awesome photoshopping skills.

Well I have to get back to packing.  It's after 4 a.m. and I'm still not done...  I'm sneaking in polish swatching when I can - wish me luck!

OPI Catch Me In Your Net vs Zoya Charla

After hearing others say that OPI Catch Me In Your Net and Zoya Charla are very similar, I decided to do a swatch test for myself.  As you can see, the bottles look very similar with the blue base and the blue-green glitter.

Still looking very similar!


I used a base coat of Dermelect Launchpad, 2 coats of each color, and for OPI, I had a top coat of Seche Vite.  For Zoya, I used a top coat of Zoya Armor.


Up first is my sun picture.  I used OPI on my pointer and ring finger & Zoya on my middle and pinkie.

Well, you can see that Catch Me In Your Net is a little lighter than Charla - I don't know if another coat of CMIYN would make it look just like Charla?  I'm not sure.  ^_^

Same with the shade.  So are these exact dupes?  They are sure close!  Do you need both?  I will always say yes.  ^_^  But then again, I'm obsessed!


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

When I originally saw the promo pictures for the OPI 2010 Summer Collection "Summer Flutter", I was the most excited about this color.  I had heard that it looked a lot alike Zoya's Charla, which I absolutely love (after wearing it), so I was excited to see how this matched up.  Catch Me In Your Net is a blue-green glitter in a blue base.


I used a base coat of Dermelect Launchpad, 2 coats of Catch Me In Your Net and a top coat of Seche Vite.  I haven't given up on RapiDry, but it dries slightly slower that Seche, and lately I've been having to take my blogging pictures around 6 or 7 p.m. when the sun is dying, so time is precious.

Beautiful.  I did a little color correction to get back to the true color, as my camera was freaking out on the color and on the focus.  All that glitter, all that loveliness... this sun picture really shows off the glitter in this polish.

In the shade, you still see so much of the true color - it's not like some of my polishes where it looks COMPLETELY different in the light versus the shade.  Removal was indicative of a glitter - takes a bit to remove so I just leave my Zoya Remove+ cotton pad a little longer on the nail that usual.


Very nice color!  I did go ahead and try it again Zoya's Charla, but that's another post.  ^_^


OPI is available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and Ulta, for $8.50 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer. Please visit their website for details [official website].  

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

OPI Wing It!

Do I even have to say it?  Look at this bottle!  See how the orange red is radiating on the sides of the bottle, and the pink red is in the center?  Love it.  OPI's Wing It! from the Summer Flutter collection is this amazing red with purple and pink microglitter.  The light shift is amazing.


I used a base coat of Dermelect Launchpad, 2 coats of Wing It! and topped it with Seche Vite.  The formula was very nice - not too thin, not thick.  I did have a slight glitter issue with removal - it's a glitter so I needed to wait a little longer with my remover on my cotton pad, because I had to scrub to get it off at first.  It's not like Mad As A Hatter scrub, but just a normal glitter scrubbing.  (I have yet to try the foil method where you wrap your finger in a remover soaked pad, then wrap the nail in aluminum foil... I'll probably write a small tutorial in the future).

Check it out!  The purple miccroglitter really pops against the red base.  It was so pretty to look at!

Check out that bottle - all that purple and pink... absolutely beautiful.  I think this is my favorite of this collection - I can see myself wearing it a lot.


OPI is available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and Ulta, for $8.50 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer. Please visit their website for details [official website].  

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Dermelect Launchpad Nail Strengthener

Ever since my nail staining in July 2009 when I used China Glaze Paper Chasing (a green with yellow undertones) and did not use a base coat, I have used a base coat every single time.


I started with Seche Clear Crystal Clear Base Coat which simply states "will not yellow".  I had pretty awesome results but then Seche tweeted about Seche Natural which contains wheat protein, calcium and polyurethane to strengthen weak nails.  Okay, yes, I just said polyurethane, but after doing a bit of research, I found that some organic polish companies use it too, so it's not as bad as it sounds.


Well now I'm trying out something new.  Dermelect Cosmeceuticals is a line of beauty products formulated jointly by medical professionals and licensed estheticians.  They have their website [official website], Facebook Fan Page [Facebook] and Twitter page [Twitter].  Just as of note, you can follow Dermelect on Twitter and Facebook for the chance to win a Nail Recovery System (value $70).  I'm not sure if the giveaway is on one platform, the other, or both, but regardless, we're talking free product here!  The giveaway ended last week.


I am reviewing their anti-aging base coat, Launchpad Nail Strengthener which is available on their website for $18.  Here's the skinny:

LAUNCHPAD NAIL STRENGTHENER

• Hydrates and strengthens nails using the protein peptide, ProSina.
• Resists chipping and splitting, while providing a great basecoat for your favorite nail polish.
• Increases the integrity and cohesion to the nail plate resulting in natural flexibility and increased moisture.
• ProSina’s anti-oxidant behavior allows it to actively remove harmful free radicals most commonly associated with nail damage. 

It's also big 3 free, which they call their "Green Formula"... free of DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde.

Now I don't have a hard time getting my nails to grow.  From super nubbins to nice and long takes about 4 weeks. Now, will this help my nails grow faster?  I'm not sure - that's my test, as well as the other items it offers... resists splitting (which I've done twice this month already) and chipping, and just the strengthening and hydrating properties.  I'm going to use Launchpad exclusively for one month and see how it does.  Even if I'm not wearing nail polish, I'm going to wear Launchpad.  It has a fast-drying formula that provides a soft shine, and is not blue like the bottle. 

Now I did find that it dries a little slower that Seche Natural, but Seche Natural also dries to a matte finish, so that's another thing.  Launchpad recommends 1-2 coats as your base, but I'm only using one.

The bottle looks just like Rescue Beauty Lounge, and the brush is a little short but not unmanageable.  So here we go!  I'll check back in a month or any time that is relevant.

Dermelect Cosmeceuticals products are available on their website [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.