Deborah Lippmann Preview and Haul

So Monday and Tuesday I got to drive out of town to cities that actually have malls.  I was giddy.  I also did what any self-respecting person who just bought a house does... I bought a lot of makeup and nail polish.


On top of getting the new Urban Decay NAKED palette, and the Kat Von D True Romance palette and one of her discontinued lip glosses, a Sephora lipgloss on sale, Givenchy Pop Gloss Crystal as well as 4 new MAC pigments, I got a TON of nail polish.

• Claire's Mood Polish "Flirty/Shy"
• Claire's Mood Polish "Bored/Excited"
• Claire's Mood Polish "Silly/Awesome"
• Claire's Matte Top Coat
• Claire's Hollywood
• Claire's Starstruck
• Chanel "Paradoxal"
• OPI (Sephora) "Club Scene Queen"
• OPI (Sephora) "Just A Little Dangerous"
• OPI (Sephora) "And Then He Said"
• OPI (Sephora) "Sparkle Me Silver Top Coat"
• 2 bottles of Color Club "Revvvolution" (And I swear one looks more holographic grey and the other looks less holographic black)
• Color Club "Ruby Slippers"
• OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
• OPI Top Coat
• OPI "Ink"
• OPI "My Private Jet" (red/brown flash holo)
• OPI "My Private Jet" (teal flash holo)
• China Glaze "Tease"
• China Glaze "OMG" (back up bottle)
• Sephora la French manicure (all in French, it was on sale)
• Deborah Lippmann "Happy Birthday"
• Deborah Lippman "Bad Romance"
• Deborah Lippman "Across the Universe"
• Deborah Lippman "Ruby Red Slippers"

Now my math isn't exact but I paid about $7 a bottle for each one if I averaged it out.  Obviously my Lippmanns and Chanel were more in the $20 range, but I was still happy overall.


Well, I did have one problem.


This was my first time in a Nordstrom.  It was VERY hot (about 104 degrees) outside and my son was ready for a nap.  I was tired myself as well, so I wanted to get in, buy my stuff, and get out.  First I looked around but then a saleslady (Chelly, in case she's reading) stopped me and asked if I needed help.  Oh yeah, I did.  She took me to an end counter that had the Lippmanns and she was able to spot Happy Birthday right away and had a bottle of Ruby Red Slippers in a drawer.  However, I was out of luck for Bad Romance and Across the Universe, which I wasn't surprised.  What DID surprise me is that she told me that she could order them online and I could come pick them up.  I explained that I lived 150 miles away so she told me "No problem, we can ship them for free."  Like I'm going to say no to that.  So she placed the order for me, I paid, and I was out the door.  This was Tuesday afternoon.


Due to all the real life situations I'm dealing with (PS: Dad got out of the hospital yesterday but now my Mom has torn a muscle in her rotator cup), I haven't had a chance to check anything out that I bought.  Then, this afternoon (Thursday), I received a box from Nordstrom.  Believe it or not, it was my polish.  Okay, let me just rave about this for another moment... I was able to get 2 HTF Lippmanns, shipped to my home in a whole 2 day turn around.  Yeah, I'm in awe and love right now.


However, I wasn't in love when I opened my bottle of "Happy Birthday".  Or at least, I tried to open it.  The top was nearly glued on, and I noticed that some of the product was obviously missing.  Not a ton, but enough for me to say "This is NOT a full bottle."  I didn't notice it when I purchased the bottle, but after it sat upright in its package for 2 days, it settled into the bottle.  I finally pried to bottle open to find that there was lacquer all inside the top of the bottle and caked on the outside of the bottle.  I wasn't too happy.  I called the main Nordstrom line on my receipt and explained the situation to the CS rep who answered.  She then transferred me to Samantha (in case she's reading, HI!) who spent the next 30 minutes making me a happy woman.


First, she is sending me out a brand new bottle, but she did have to charge me for it.  This is a little new to me, but because I paid in cash, and in order for me to get my product sooner than later, we went this route.  I'm going to be printing a label from their website and packing up the polish to go back to their warehouse.  I didn't confirm, but I'm sure it's postage paid.  Then when the warehouse receives my damaged polish, they will credit back my debit card for the new polish.  Originally, they wanted to send me a gift card, but I wasn't too happy with that because again, this is only my first time shopping at this store and being so far away, I'm not going to get to go anytime soon.  Plus I'd rather have the cash back now.  Samantha was awesome to get it all worked out so that I'd get my cash back (well, on my debt card) instead of a gift card or having to go through tons of hoops.  Very happy about that.  She also told me I could call any time to place an order with her.  Interestingly enough, Chelly had told me the same thing and given me her business card.  I feel rather happy with that kind of customer service.  I work in the same field (just different product), and it's been nice to have a great experience back.


SO I wanted to get some quick swatching of my Lippmanns that I'm keeping before the sun went down.  I will be swatching in full but here's a down and dirty.
(1) Yes, they are as hard to photograph as everyone has said.
(2) The opacity is not fun.  This was 4 coats of each product.  No base coat, but I did use Seche Vite to top.
(3) The hexagon glitter wouldn't stay for me.  You'll see on Bad Romance that I got ONE PIECE of hexagon glitter.  Grr.


Now for these photographs.  It's Bad Romance, Ruby Red Slippers, Across the Universe

One piece of glitter.  Grr.

Like I said, full swatches to come - and of course "Happy Birthday" when I get it!  ^_^

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

I'm back!  Okay, not really.  My Dad is hopefully being released today but I won't be here.  Of course.  I have my own doctor appointments and then I'm going out of town so I can pick my Mom up from the airport on Tuesday.  I'm going to attempt to write a few more posts before leaving tomorrow, but I'm really loving this manicure!


China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint was apart of the Up & Away Spring 2010 collection, but it's just been sitting in my list of untrieds for, well, months.  Mint was a very popular color this spring/summer... I like it but I was never crazy about it.  Well that's because I've never tried it!


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Re-Fresh Mint and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The formula was a little tricky.  I'm not sure if it's my unsteady hand from not polishing in over a week, or part of my new medicine (a side effect is trembling hands, not kidding), but the first coat was a bit streaky, pooled into my cuticles and the polish was weird.  I'm not very good at wiping polish.  I read one blogger (Temptalia I think?) who wipes the top plastic of the brush on the bottle's edge first so she doesn't get "runny polish" going down the brush.  I believe Scrangie mentioned in her blog that these polishes specifically had a problem of excess polish running down the brush - but either way, that's exactly what happened to me in the first coat.  I had to do extra wiping on the bottle neck in order to make sure not to have SURPRISE! POLISH DRIPS while polishing.  The second coat, I got wiser and was able to smooth out all the streaks, pooling and mistakes.  I still ran my nails with some polish remover using a small eyeliner paint brush to clean up before applying my Seche Vite.


This color is a very pretty mint green creme, almost pastel.  Sun picture, go!

Shade picture, go!

Interesting note, my hands nearly GLOWED in the shade like a neon does.  I first noticed that at church, which is always an appropriate place to stare at your nails, right?  ^_^  


Ooh also, I'm going Tuesday to get some crazy nail shopping out of the way.  I'm talking Lippmanns (for sure!), MAC, and if I'm lucky some awesome China Glaze dusties and some OPIs.  I'm super excited about this trip and just can't wait!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [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.

ManGlaze "Mayonnaise"

Starting today, August 13th, ManGlaze is offering their new matte white nail polish called Mayonnaise.  Also, back in stock is their matte grey Fuggen Ugly which has been slightly revised.  Unfortunately, that's all the information I have, but I read on Twitter that Fuggen Ugly is all the same you love, plus just "more matte."


You can purchase ManGlaze on their website [official website].

Models Own Promotion

I have been lemming Models Own for awhile now - they are a company across the pond and so that means I have to figure out Euros again but also shipping costs.  Well, right now they are on a quest to get 10,000 "Likes" on Facebook before the end of August.  You can read more here.  When then get to 10,000, they will send all of the Facebook fans an exclusive voucher which will give you to 50% off your order when you spend £20 or more!*


Now, Facebook and blogging has been a tricky thing, I've noticed.  I work for a game/application on Facebook, so I literally am friends with every one I work with, my producer, my supervisor, my boss, my CEO even.  My CEO has talked to me on Twitter.  My whole social networking scene has all been public for awhile.  I've lost friends from it, I've gained friends from it.  It's been interesting.  But I've also noticed that some people are very reluctant to "Like" something on Facebook because it shows their full name on the page and then it shows up on their Facebook feed.  Facebook does allow some privacy measures still, but unless you work there (or for a company that works with Facebook like me), it can be hard to find everything.  Facebook is also changing how applications get to access some of your profile space starting August 23rd, but that's way off topic now.


The point is, I want Models Own stuff - haha, so please do go to their Facebook Fan Page and click "Like" - it won't hurt you!  They are more than halfway there, but they need your help!


*Terms and Conditions

1. The 50% discount voucher will only be available if the Models Own Facebook page reaches 10,000 likes by August 31, 2010
2. The voucher entitles UK customers to 50% off any order of £20 or more
3. The voucher entitles International customers to 50% off any order of £30 or more after the discount has been applied
4. Discount voucher cannot be used with any other vouchers or offers
5. Standard delivery minimums and rates apply for all orders
6. If we feel your order contains an unusual amount of items, we reserve the right to charge you more postage. We will contact you by email first to ensure you accept the extra charges. If not, we will promptly issue you with a refund

Polish Organizing (and stuff)

So I finally opened my polish racks today (that came in August 2nd) and one was smashed on 2 shelves.  :(  I'm working with UPS and the seller to fix this because at $70 a piece, this is no bueno.  I may be able to use super glue?  But I'd much rather not.  I've already been talking to my Dad (who is still in the hospital) about building a table for my polish racks but he wants to make a whole elaborate piece of furniture on wheels... oh geez.  So for now, they are all sitting on my dining room table.

Oy.  I'm also still in painting, so that's why my "white" wall is actually two toned (paint and primer).


I think I'm going to organize by brand and then by color.  I really like having them all by color because then I can look at dupes but I like having them by brand because the bottle sizes all line up.  I'm weird, I know it.


Here's the current list of my polishes (also available on my sidebar) - listed are how many bottles of that brand and then the brand.  I don't have my base/top/matte coats listed except for ManGlaze, but eventually I'm going to do those too.

Number/Brand

2       10

2       A Beautiful Life

3       American Apparel

6       Barielle

6       Bon Bons

1       Borghese

1       Chanel

41     Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics

225   China Glaze

7       Claire's

8       CND

6       Color Club

2       Confetti

2       Cover Girl

4       Dusty Round

1       Dusty Square

37     e.l.f.

5       Essie

2       FingerPaints

2       Hot Topic

1       Illamasqua

5       Jolly Rancher

2       Loreal Paris

1       Love My Nails

2       M.A.C.

4       ManGlaze

3       Milani

1       N.Y.C.

1       Natural Glow

18     Naughty Nailz

1       Nfu-Oh

22     OPI

3       OPI (Nicole)

8       OPI (Sephora)

3       Orly

1       Piggy Paint

6       Piggy Polish

4       Pure Ice

1       Rescue Beauty Lounge

1       Sally Girl

23     Sally Hansen

4       Savvy

5       Sinful Colors

2       Spa Ritual

2       Sula

14     Urban Decay

12     Wet n Wild

51     Zoya

And with China Glaze coming out with a whole 12 piece set for Christmas and then 12 pieces in the Spring with Anchors Away, well - let's say I'm going polish nuts.  I'm also really wanting to get some Nubars and Nfu-Ohs but my wallet is begging me to wait.  I'm supposed to close on my house tomorrow (it was supposed to be today), but things have been crazy.  Thanks for reading and I'm looking to get some swatches done now that I have my polish out again!