Thoughts on Jessica Palladium, Gel Nails and Japanese Candy Goo

Cosmetic:

So from my last post you can see I went dusty hunting for nail polishes.  One of the polishes I bought was Jessica Custom Nail Color in Palladium.  While this isn't a rare find at all, it was a decent price at $4 (compared to the $7-$8 I see it going for).  The polish application was good.  The brush was thin but maneuverable and the polish was opaque in 2 coats.

It did take a little longer to dry than I'm used to but that's what Seche Vite is for right?

The polish is a metallic but it glitters like crazy.  Imagine TV static but in glittering gold (granted TV static is a thing of the past.....) it's so fluid, it reminds me of the sun reflecting off the currents of a river or pond.

Now the pictures don't do it justice.  It's just so glittery without being a glitter.

So I also mentioned I got a gel manicure last weekend.  It was my first time and I really liked it, but it's not something I would ever get again.

Why?  Well......  although it dries fast and stays shiny and is a great option for those who are trying to grow out their nails, it has some faults with me.

First off, after all the layers are said and done it ends up being way too thick.  Also, for the cost of the gel manicure I could have gotten a full set with all sorts of bells and whistles.  Most importantly, I have a vast nail polish collection and like to switch colors often.  Having such a thick nail put me out of the mood to paint my nails, they also looked odd too.  I also have a tendency to pick at my nails when I'm bored or if I see a chip.  So once I see a weak spot on the gel around my cuticle, I had to pick at it.

In fact I was picking at my nails since the moment I got them.  The gel mani gets extra points for keeping my persistent picking at bay for as long as it did.  But today, I found a major weak spot and peeled the gel off of my nail.  The gel didn't want to come off so it took a few layers of nail with it.

This is why I can not have a gel manicure.  This is also the reason why I don't get acrylics done anymore unless it's for a very special occasion.

I ended up soaking my nails in acetone using the foil method and scraping the gel off my other nails.  This was not fun......

I ended up painting them as seen above, but my nails are so short now..... too short.  I also reshaped my nails back to rounded tips.  Why does every salon here automatically do square tips instead of asking?  It just doesn't look good on all people.

But alas, lesson learned.  That money spent on manicures will go instead to nail polish or candy.

Speaking of candy.....

Confection:

I found this at the Japanese supermarket and the scientist in me had to have it.

 This candy is so cool!  It's called neru-neru-nerune and is described as a soft candy.

So first you fill the little cup that comes with the tray with water and you put it in the bowl portion.  I've found it works best if the little measuring cup is overfilled with water.  An underfilled cup doesn't dissolve all the sugar and stuff so it doesn't expand as much.

Mix packet #1 with the water.

Fold in packet #2 with the #1 mixture. 

You will see it start to foam.  Mix it up really well.

Then you add packet #3 to the other side and dip your newly made goo into the candy pieces before eating.

Each flavor has a different candy that it's dipped in.  I guess it's supposed to complement the goo.  I've seen this candy in 3 flavors: grape, muscat and soda.

Would I get this again?  Probably not.  But I'm glad I tried it.

Dusty Hunting: A great way to get Bourbon and Nail Polish

So This weekend I decided to try my hand at dusty hunting.  You may have heard of this in reference to liquor or more recently nail polish.

What is dusty hunting?

Dusty hunting is when you go to various liquor stores looking for old stocks of alcohol. Alcohol doesn't expire and stock isn't rotated on a regular basis because of this.

It's a good way to find older bottles of liquor or even liquor that isn't made anymore depending on the store.

Best places I've found have been hole in the wall liquor stores or places where the general demographic doesn't stray from the basics: Hennessy, Patron, Smirnoff and others.

Places like these I've been able to find old Jack Daniels (before they lowered the alcohol content) and have seen some other pretty awesome bottles lurking in the back of the shelf collecting dust.

Now.... in regards to nail polish.  Dusty hunting is where you go to various beauty supply stores, nail salons and the like, but instead of delicious alcohol you're looking for discontinued bottles of nail polish.

I've never done this before.  I usually go to my regular places of discount nail shops that are abundant in San Jose.  But I don't travel to too many nail salons or go out of my way to sketchy supply shops on a regular basis.

So this week I went to two beauty supply shop that wholesales to salons but sells to the public and a nail salon.

Since I have severe phone anxiety I decided to go online, check store hours and take my chances.  Nail salons are great places to look for nail color but in regards to dusty hunting they can be a hit or miss.  Many salons mix their own colors or add thinning agents to make the bottle last longer.  Plus, their focus is on the color of the polish, not the brand.  Also, authenticity can't be guaranteed so unless you know your stuff I wouldn't pick these places as a first choice.  

But it wasn't a total loss, I had my first gel manicure and I must say that I am loving it.  Only problem is that the gel is pretty thick (4 coats total) so I've been having the hardest time prying stuff open with my super thick nails.  

I went to a beauty supply shop a few blocks from where I stay in San Francisco.  I never knew such a place existed (plus I wasn't paying attention).  They had a great variety of polishes but there weren't too many sought after and discontinued colors.  I definitely found dusty polishes and they had two big boxes of random color changing polishes that I ultimately passed on.  I got 3 polishes here that I think are very pretty, although not necessarily rare.

Today I went to another beauty supply shop a few blocks down from where I stay in San Jose.  They cater to salons as well as the public but aren't opened on Saturdays (is this a common thing in San Jose?).

I went in expecting to find a couple of old polishes that might or might not be dusty gold.  I had a look around and was pretty amazed at all the nail decorations they had.  The store in San Francisco had some nail art stuff too like opal bits, glitter and colored acrylics but this was even better.  They had metal leafing in gold and silver (super tempted to go back and get this), acrylic powders in all colors, glitter, shapes, flakies, pearls, stencils, nail tips galore and almost everything I could want in nail art.

The polishes were kind of a mess but they were organized enough where they weren't all on the ground and they were mixed up enough to make for a good hunt.  They also had old nail polish sets from China Glaze.  So if you wanted the One Love or Sexy Sport mini polish sets then this is your place.

I ended up buying 6 different polishes, a basecoat and purple flakies.

Jessica polish in Palladium, OPI in Simply Smashing, Color Club  in Wild at Heart and Alter Ego and LaRosa Crackle in Seaweed.

CND Sticky basecoat, China Glaze Chiaroscuro (old formula), Color Club in Shimma, Bella Nail Lacquer in Coconut Grove and OPI DS Sapphire.

Close up of purple flakies.

Oh yeah purple flakies.

If you're wondering what that silver capped OPI polish is, it is indeed DS Sapphire.  Holy lemming Batman!  I got myself DS Sapphire and for cheaper than Ebay prices too!

High off my find and feeling very proud of myself, I get myself a sandwich at Subway and go home to relax on this beautiful Sunday evening.  After all, I think I deserve it.    

Pa polishes and Nabi glitter

So I'm totally enamored with Pa polishes.  These polishes are from Dear Laura Inc. and although they are tiny they are super cute...... like all things Japanese I suppose.

You can find the site here.  They have a bunch of information and if you only thought they made cute nail polishes think again.  This company is an entire cosmetics line from  nail polish to eyelid glue.  Nail art may be fairly new here but I remember 8 years ago I had a friend in Japan studying nail art.  I had no clue how big it would become.

But onto polishes.....  I only have 4 pa polishes but I do think that I will be getting more in the future.  In the U.S. (or at least in the Bay Area) basic polishes cost the least, but are still around $3-$4 depending on where you go.  The Grande Lame series is about $4-$5 and the newest polishes they have out (I'm so intrigued) are $6 online.

These polishes are tiny and given the price, I can see why many aren't willing to try it.  But even with the tiny size, this brand has many good things going for them.  The formula is great, it dries fairly quickly and the nail polish colors are very pretty and many have additional effects such as shimmer, iridescence or glitter.

These are really great polishes and I'm glad I finally broke down and got them.

So onto pictures.... if you hang around the nail care section on TPF you might have already seen these....

pa A26 is a pretty port/wine shade with golden shimmer.

pa AA32 is a layering polish that is full of tiny glitter and large hex shaped glitter.  Both glitters are a silver holographic color.

 pa AA36 is a light black jelly based polish with tiny silver glitter and large pink hex glitter.  This would look so cool over black polish.

pa A24 is a pretty purple with a gold shimmer.  In the sun the shimmer reflects bits of green and red as well.  It's funny, because with flash the purple appears more blue based.  But without the flash, the purple appears more red based.

In my humble opinion, the color is best represented in the picture without flash.

So onto the Nabi.....

I got this at a $0.99 store down the block.  Don't overlook your local dollar stores.

The formula is not the best with these glitters.  The base polish is watery yet thick....  The glitter is hard to place on the nail and for whatever reason the polish refuses to dry even after 20 minutes.  After all that, I must say for $0.99 this is still an okay deal.

One note though.... in order for the polish to dry I had to apply Seche Vite over it.  Also, try to use an orange wood stick to place the glitter or else you will soon become frustrated.

This is 2 coats.  It's not that glitter dense.

 I absolutely love the variety of glitter that is in this polish.  There's red, blue and gold and all shapes from tiny glitter to super big hex glitter.  The base is a pinkish tint that you really can't see when on the nail.  The smell is a bit more offensive than most polishes in the market but it's no worse of a smell than Kleancolor.

Do you have an pa polishes?  What outrageous glitter polishes do you own?

Franken Time! Plus Yummy Mint Chocolate Cookies

I just wanted to say first that this blog has been really fun and I never realized how much of a beneficial outlet this could be.  I get lazy to blog (like I assume a lot of people do) but after every post I feel better.  I feel like a weight is lifted or as if I accomplished something.  Trivial as it is, I found blogging to be great therapy.

Cosmetic:

So as noted in my last post I will be starting a small Etsy with a trial run of 10 polishes (5  colors).  I will be adding the items in before the week is over and, truth be told, I'm eager to buy more supplies and play around.

But today I have for you a franken requested from a friend of mine over the weekend.  We went to Nordstrom and went all crazy for the nail polish.  Truth be told it was one of the more crowded areas.  She tried on Butter London's Branwen's Feather and deemed it too dark.  She then layered a coat of Deborah Lippmann's Some Enchanted Evening and loved the look.  However, being broke we can't afford $18 on polish.  

So she asked me to make her a pink glitter polish.  I accepted but I didn't really know what I had ahead of me.  I knew I didn't have the exact color of pink but I had something similar.  That night I used the rest of my nail polish base and got this.....

without flash

with flash

The glitter....  I might have overdone it.  It's a bit tricky to work with and application was uneven but I was able to maneuver okay.  But I knew that even with a nail tech for a mom, my friend would have difficulty with this.  From pinkie to index finger the polish is seen at 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats and 2 coats over black.

So searching through my vast collection of polishes I ran across OPI DS Reserve.  I hate how this polish looks on me so I banished it to the frankening box.  Turns out this was just the kick I needed to make the polish more user friendly.

without flash

with flash

Much better handling and coverage looks a lot more even.  Again, from pinkie to index finger the polish is seen at 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats and 2 coats over black.  You can barely see the black polish under 2 coats and the major bonus is that the glitter is still pretty and sparkly, not too much dulling from the addition of a colored polish.  It looks more put together and less like a child's art project.  I definitely think this is a success and I can't wait to try to make this again once I order more supplies.  But for now, this lonely bottle of polish awaits it's new home to be either loved or neglected.

I call this polish Pink Bonnie.

Confection:

So I've been lazy in the confection department but this is going to make up for it.  I present to you, Mint Chocolate Whoopie Pie!

I got the recipe from Bakerella's site.  You can find the recipe here along with a bunch of other easy and delicious goodies.  

The filling is a mint ganache that I have perfected over the years, yet never bothered to write down the recipe.

Oh yeah!  They're awesome when just made.

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

How Awesome are Dollar Stores? And Rock & Republic: headed to a Kohl's near you

The answer is that they are pretty damn awesome!

I mainly speak of this when I go to Dollar Tree.  I love that place and it loves me.  Now being a savvy dollar store shopper is not something that happens overnight.  The low prices confuse you and you go into a buying frenzy.  In the end you spend way more that you normally would have because everything is "just a dollar".

But be mindful and comparison shop.  Also it helps to bring a calculator along to help breakdown what a real value is and what a phony value is.

When first getting acquainted with dollar stores, shop around.  Different stores have different deals and different inventory, even if they're the same franchise.  Do not overlook small family-owned stores either.  They can be a treasure chest of goodies.

Also do not neglect your discounts stores like Ross and TJ Maxx.  They still have great deals if you look hard enough.  This goes for drug stores as well.  Most of the time you can find items sale priced for cheap.

Also, bring cash if you can.  It makes it easier to control spending and is guaranteed to be accepted anywhere.

So now then.... onto Rock & Republic.  While I think paying over $150 for jeans is stupid, I do admit to buying them for the equally stupid amount of $80+.  About a year ago I went to a sale for Rock & Republic.  I ended up buying 4 pairs of jeans and have yet to wear one to this day (yeah it's a sickness).  Now I am wise enough to know that when a brand offers heavy discounts that they usually aren't doing so well and are trying to liquidate.  This happened with Goldenbleu and now it's happened to Rock & Republic.  The brand was sold by the owner and they are now in the works of setting up a clothing line at Kohl's.  Now I give Kohl's props because they have a great selection of designers including Vera Wang.  

But what do all of us suckers do with our overpriced denim?  Can we really feel good about rocking them when soon there will be an affordable option available?

Will the value plummet further down or will they become collector items?

They also have a cosmetics line that was stupid expensive as well for a non-established brand in cosmetics.  Would I pay over $200 for bronzer?  Rock & Republic though people would.  And although the packaging is very pretty indeed, could anyone really justify that?

These are also being sold off at steep discounts on their site and on flash sale sites such as Hautelook.com if anyone is interested.  Not too shabby at all.  I got a lip gloss and 3 eye shadows for less than $30 after shipping and tax.  Still a bit high for some, but reasonable for me.

Folks, get whatever liquidated stuff you can get your hands on (if you're interested) before the whole empire collapses.