Monday, June 7, 2010

The “Beauty” of a Good Cause – World Blood Donor Day, June 14


Forwarded from Orly! Good for them!!

ABOUT THE “GIVE” DONATION INITIATIVE:

Many Americans consider giving blood to be an important act of community service, however, less than 10 percent donate on an annual basis. Incredibly, if just one percent more donated–less than four million Americans–the nation’s blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future. To help close this gap, Nexcare Brand and America’s Blood Centers are partnering on the second annual give program, a nationwide blood donation initiative kicking off on World Blood Donor Day, Monday, June 14th, and extending through Sunday, June 20th.

With the support of hundreds of participating local blood centers, the give program inspires Americans with a message of hope, and helps them to spread the word by distributing limited-edition Nexcare Bandages marked with the word give.

World Blood Donor Day comes at an important time each year. As local blood centers face “summer shortages,” the nation’s blood supply comes under strain due to less donations because of increased vacation schedules and other seasonal distractions that tend to take place in the summer months. World Blood Donor Day reminds Americans to donate and enables them to help make a impact in reducing these shortages.

The 2010 give Bandages are inspired by both the patriotic act of giving blood as well as Flag Day, which will also be recognized on June 14, 2010. This collection of three Nexcare bandages are designed to represent the American flag signify the everyday hero in each American who commits to saving lives by donating blood.

Additionally, there’s a dedicated website, www.nexcaregive.com, where visitors can share their story, get directions to our local blood center and register to receive coupons and a free sampling of bandages.

Did You Know? Facts About Blood Donation
· One pint of blood can save up to three lives
· Every two seconds, someone needs blood
· Most Americans will require a blood transfusion at some point in their lives
· Less than 10% of Americans donate blood on an annual basis
· If one percent more Americans gave blood, all national blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future
· There is no substitute for human blood
· Donors can give whole blood up to six times a year

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

MAC Prêt-à-Papier Nail Lacquers

The MAC Prêt-à-Papier collection features two lacquers, one is a light brown with a teensy amount of shimmer, the other a fairly standard bronzish metallic shimmer. I found this less boring than the other collections lately. For some reason I am really taken with the brown paper bag color of the light brown, called, of course "Brown Bag". Somehow it strikes me as very stylish. So I got it and I like it. It feels very au courant as MAC says. Though frankly even thinking the words au courant makes me feel like such an asshole.

I didn't bother with the bronze lacquer, called Originality, as it isn't. At all. In fact they seem to forget MAC Mercenary, released just last year, is very like it!! Did someone get amnesia? I mean they aren't exact dupes but come on.

MAC Brown Bag. Actually not too wildly different from Essie Uptown Taupe, if you have that. Brown Bag is warmer than Uptown Taupe though, and UT has a silver shimmer not a goldish one. So they are like cold/warm sisters.:
MAC Brown Bag

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

What You Should Wear For Spring

While adding my pictures back to my blog I thought it would be fun to revisit some stuff while I add old pics back and do new swatching.

WHO CAN RESIST CHINA GLAZE FROSTBITE??
China Glaze Frostbite

Monday, May 3, 2010

Sinful Sale at Walgreen's

Buy One Get 50% Off has never impressed me much, but the polishes are only $2 full price, so it's a pretty decent sale. I guess it will last through Saturday.

Sinful Nail Junkie
Sinful Call You Later
Sinful Sugar Sugar

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

BTW - Zoya Pictures and Status of Re-Adding Pics to Blog

If you google Zoya pictures to do the Polish Exchange, you should come upon plenty of my Flickr pics. I am MollyHell on Flickr. Of course. I am in the process of adding the pictures one by one back to my site, but all my pictures are available on Flickr. I only have 250 or so to add back to the blog. GAG.

Anyway enjoy. I should be done in, oh, 2012.

Zoya Brizia

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Hot Summer Days and Cool Denim Inspired Polishes

Got some more denim inspired polishes a while ago. These run the gamut between dark and light, some are better than others. The nice thing about the Maybelline formula for these is it is not only easy to apply, it's one coat.

Maybelline Boot Leg is a dark navy with a lot of purple in it and some larger size metallic shimmer. It's very pretty.
Maybelline Boot Leg

Maybelline Stone Washed is a faded denim frost. Also very nice.
Maybelline Stone Washed

Maybelline Blue Riders is another bran new denim looking shimmer. Looks a lot like brand new Levi's 501s.
Maybelline Blue Riders

Maybelline Hip Huggers is a nice creme, it has a large tinge of lavender to it though.
Maybelline Hip Huggers

Maybelline Five Pocket is my favorite. A more faded denim blue, it has a soft shimmer to it. Almost a frost.
Maybelline Five Pocket

NYC Skin Tight Denim Creme is not a creme. Weirdos. It's a SHIMMER. I think this is more a regular navy than a denim inspired, but it's a nice polish.
NYC Skin Tight Denim Creme

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Time for the Zoya Polish Exchange Again

If you have $3.50 per bottle and some crap you want to get rid of, it's time for the Zoya Polish Exchange!

http://www.artofbeauty.com/content/category/Nail_Polish_Exchange.html

Any bottle of polish (except Zoya Qtica or Nocti) can be sent in, with $3.50 per bottle you want to exchange, and you can pick a bottle of Zoya polish to be sent to you in return. It's not cheap per se, but it's a lot cheaper than their regular prices!! You must send in at least six bottles. It lasts until June 30, so you have a bit of time.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Coupla Ulta Yummers

Snapped these two up on a fast "grab as walk to the cashier". For two bucks who wouldn't? I think the green is a bit too dark, but I like it, and the blue metallic is a dupe for my beloved NDB Midnight I can't find anywhere. They are a whopping $2!! Buy some!!!

Ulta Envy:
Ulta Envy

Ulta Alter Ego:
Ulta Alter Ego

Spa Ritual Contest!!

SpaRitual is running a fun sweepstakes to celebrate its Believe Nail Collection for Spring 2010 and we wanted to see if you’d be interested in entering and/or sharing with your readers?

Through April 21st, SpaRitual is asking fans to unleash their creativity and imagination and answer the evocative question, what do you believe? People can upload a video or record a video response on the SpaRitual Believe YouTube sweepstakes page expressing their unique take on what they believe. There are weekly winners and a grand prize of $500 worth of SpaRitual products!

More info:
http://www.pitchengine.com/free-release.php?id=53514
And contest rules and regulations: http://www.sparitual.com/WhatDoYouBelieve/

Participants go to the SpaRitual YouTube channel to enter and also email their real name, age, mailing address, and YouTube username to: TheSpaRitual@gmail.com


SpaRitual Days of Wine and Roses

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Zoya Flash and Sparkle Collections Summer 2010

Well well well what have we here!? Another double collection from Zoya, which to me seems like bright cremes for summer days and shimmery jellies for summer nights. Hot, just like the season! I like that they went with deeper colors for the season, not light shades or pastels. By making the Flash brights, they keep the summer feeling for the cremes, and by making the Sparkle shimmery they catch a "night out on the town" summery feeling. Hot days, hot nights, hot nails.

Let's start with the cremes - the Flash collection. These remind me of the OPIs of last year which were inspired by those dumb tight pants which make everyone look fat except supermodels and wimpy boys. The Zoya creme formula is nice, maybe a touch thick, thin it with Zoya Renew or another thinner like my favorite, Poshe Polish Reviver, which is like 2 bucks or something for a pretty big bottle.

The sky blue, Zoya Robyn, is very close to OPI No Room for the Blues and Creative Hot Pop Blue (which was my better/cheaper alternative to OPI No Room for the Blues), but it is actually a shade darker.
Zoya Robyn

Zoya Jancyn is a smooth citrus orange, I like it even though I don't, as a rule, like orange. I know OPI had In My Back Pocket - very similar though I believe that was a shade darker than Jancyn.
Zoya Jancyn

Zoya Perrie is a medium purple with some red in it, so it isn't much like Zoya Malia or OPI A Grape Fit. It's like a lighter Creative Studio 54 or MAC For Fun.
Zoya Perrie

Zoya Jolene is a pretty standard candy pink. Very very close to China Glaze summer offering, Sugar High, which is much cheaper. It's a lot like Black Phoenix Croquet also, but hotter pink.
Zoya Jolene

Zoya Maura is your standard hot red. I actually kinda like it, even though it's not my style, and is that kind of red I always shreik at when I see it on people's lips. It's a tad bluer than Zoya America, but not so different I see the point, really.
Zoya Maura

Zoya Dana: fuchsia pink. What's more to say? Cute. It's the same fuchsia pink we see everywhere but it's mercifully free of the omnipresent blurple shimmer, which makes this a kind of relief.
Zoya Dana

Onto Sparkle Collection - the SHIMMERS!!! The size and style of shimmer reminds me very much of OPI's Winter 2009 Collection I loved so much. These are nice, easily applied shimmery jellies (except for Zoya Nidhi, which is a creme). DELUMPCIOUS!!! They loosely follow the color array of the Flash Collection, with a couple replacements, but in a darker shade. Love!

Zoya Gilda is probably Dana's match, and even though it adds that tired blurple back to the fuchsia, it manages, with the jelly and the shimmer grain size, to be fresh and yummy. I guess it could be Jolene's match if Zoya Alegra is Dana's match, but Gilda matches Dana better than Jolene (see below).
Zoya Gilda

Zoya Mimi is a deep royal purple shimmer jelly. Sweet.
Zoya Mimi

Zoya Alegra, Dana's match? Who knows. Anyway this is a magenta with blurple shimmer. I like it.
Zoya Alegra

Zoya Charla is, in my opinion, the masterpiece. It's like looking at tropical waters. It's an absolutely stunning teal my camera could not do justice. I just stared and stared at this, it is so beautiful. It absolutely glows on the nail, with an almost metallic shine. An instant addition to my top 10 polishes of all time.
Zoya Charla

Zoya Ivanka is, thankfully, NOT dark green. I am fucking sick of dark greens. I don't think it's the greatest green ever, but it's nice, shimmery, and I love the jelly!
Zoya Ivanka

Last but not least Zoya Nidhi is a cream with large blue shimmer. I wish the shimmer showed up more because this counterpart to Zoya Maura is an absolute STUNNER because of the blue shimmer in it. It's hot and original and a must have. LOVE.
Zoya Nidhi

Enjoy them, you shouldn't be disappointed with any of them unless you already have a close dupe. But BUY CHARLA!!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Picture Problems? And Facebook!!!

If you cannot see my pictures, email me @ polishmayhem@gmail.com. I recently renewed my Flickr Pro account and I think the links are shut down, if they are not back up within 24 hours, I will talk to Flickr.

Also I am now on Facebook!! Friend PolishMayhem Nailpolish!!! Hope to see you there!

I have a few posts in the pipe, I will hopefully be more active the next two weeks, but after that is finals week, so I'll be down a week or two. Hugs!

Gettin' Warm! China Glaze Poolside Collection for Summer 2010!

They're bright, tight and dy-no-mite! Well, I love neons, so of course I am going to say that. These are probably not colors you don't already have something similar to, though maybe not exact. But they are a great, manageable formula, very bright, and semi- to fully-opaque. These are all three coats, a thin bottom coat, and two relatively thick coats, with, of course, a topcoat, as they dry matte. They dry pretty quickly, so they are easy to apply, and they are inexpensive, one of the reasons (with the fact their colors can't be beat and their whoppingly magnificent glass fleck) they are my favorite brand. I like this collection but I would added a purple to make a full rainbow!

China Glaze Pool Party is the bright hot pink. My favorite of the group. This is actually a bit different than most of the hot pink neons I have. I'm keeping it.
China Glaze Pool Party

China Glaze Sun Worshipper is a great neon orange. A calmer neon orange than some, kinda like a neon clementine fruit. I was surprised to find the only neon orange I had other than this is Orly Orange Punch, and this is nothing like it. It's a true orange, not reddish orange.
China Glaze Sun Worshipper


China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is greener than shown here, but is still too much like China Glaze Celtic Sun in color to be worth it - but - this is far more opaque than Celtic Sun, though it is not fully opaque. It may be worth it to spend the few bucks on this and throw away Celtic Sun.
China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada is a grassy green neon. And while I like it a lot, it is far overshadowed by China Glaze In the Limelight, which is far more opaque. But still what's not to like about this (providing you like neon, and if you don't you have probably already stopped reading)!
China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is that pink with a hint of orange my camera can NEVER capture, so sorry for the picture, but you can get a hint of the color. It's juicy and very bright. At first I thought I had a dupe for this - Essie Punchy Pink, but that is actually darker and pinker, this has a lot of orange in it, and nothing I have is a dupe for it. Claire's Fabulous is the closest I have, and that too is pinker.
China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

China Glaze Towel Boy Toy is a summer sky blue with the lovely blue shimmer that my beloved Color Club Electro Candy neons of last year had. And in fact Color Club Pure Energy is an almost spot on exact dupe, but the Color Club has more shimmer in it.
China Glaze Towel Boy Toy


Are you ready for summer yet? You better start!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

MAC Blue India

I haven't had much good to say about MAC polish since the Style Black Collection. A few collections have come and gone without me mentioning them, because they were frankly boring crap.

But I picked up MAC Blue India from the Give Me Liberty of London Collection and I really like it. It's a great blue/Grey creme, One coat perfect, and I don't have anything like it! A winner! The other polish in this collection is Vestral White, a boring rerelease. If you can't find WHITE CREME cheaper than this, turn in your polish brush, please.

MAC Blue India:
MAC Blue India

Thursday, February 18, 2010

BleachBlack Dick Weed

Got hipped to this by a friend, dude. http://needsupply.com/womens/brands/bleachblack/dick-weed.html

It looks jawdropping in the advertising picture doesn't it???? I thought it would be like wearing the carapace of a beetle or a bluebottle fly.

It's pretty but it's basically shimmer in a smoky jelly base. It needed to be a fully pigmented color and have more metallic to it.

BleachBlack Dick Weed:
BleachBlack Dick Weed

Looks like a not so shiny Zoya Akyra.
Zoya Akyra

Color Club Emerald Depths is better too. Both are cheaper.
Color Club Emerald Depths

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

ZOYA SALE!!!!!!

Just got this email from Zoya!!

In honor of NYFW(New York Fashion Week) Zoya, The New Color of Fashion,
wants to give a "Fashion Reward" to all our followers and fans.

Place any Zoya or Qtica order of $10 (on http://www.zoya.com, http://www.qtica.com or http://www.artofbeauty.com/) and get any 2 Zoya Nail Polish shades (0.5oz bottles) as our Free gift to you.

Simply add all the items that you want to purchase online to your shopping cart.
Enter the code NYFW in the "code" field and press the "update" button.
A $14 discount will appear in the shopping cart for the value of the 2 Zoya Nail Polishes.

Offer valid from Wednesday, 2/17/2010 until Friday, 2/19/2010, at 5PM ET. Standard shipping charges apply. Offer valid for consumer online orders only. Free ground shipping for orders over $55 in Continental USA only. Not valid with any other coupon code or offer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy!!

Zoya Adina

Monday, February 15, 2010

OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection

Meh. Not much else to say. After the winter's incredible reds, these are lackluster and boring. Winter's glitters were more interesting too. I love glitter, especially microglitter, and these are nice ones but they just don't wallop me over the head. Dunno why. Maybe I am over glitter tossed in clear polish unless it totally covers the nail? Who knows.

The OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection is small, and I bought the mini set.

OPI Thanks so Muchness! is red. It's a nice blue red shade. It's no world shakerOPI Thanks So Muchness!

OPI Absolutely Alice is a neat dark blue that seems somehow to have black in it. It has gold micro glitter mixed in with the blue, for interest and dazzle.
OPI Absolutely Alice

OPI Off With Her Red! is oranger in person than the picture. It reminds me of burnt carrot casserole or something.
OPI Off With Her Red!

OPI Mad As a Hatter is a mainly dark purple microglitter with opalescent/pastel rainbow microglitter. If it had better coverage I'd probably be in love. This is four coats.
OPI Mad as a Hatter

Friday, February 12, 2010

Happy Glitterday!

Here's a few recent glitters I have welcomed into my overloaded drawers.

Sally Hansen In the Spotlight. Well I love strip glitter with a white hot passion, so this find was a source of much shreiking. Which was not appreciated at Walgreen's. I like that this can be used as a glitter topcoat.
Sally Hansen In The Spotlight

China Glaze Doll House is okay. Somehow I don't truly love it, but it certainly grabs attention.
China Glaze Doll House

Nicole Let's Get Star-ted is mini rainbow glitter and little purple rainbow stars! You'll have to dab and place the stars where you want them of course. No one who ever read John Bellairs' trio of stories about Louis Barnavelt (The House With a Clock in its Walls, The Figure in the Shadows, and The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring) can look at this polish without thinking of Mrs. Zimmermann. How she would approve.
Nicole Let's Get Star-ted

And last but not least GOSH Holographic is a strange one, because this truly is a glitter polish. The is a clear base with just simply tons of holographic microglitter in it. It takes several coats (this is four) and can be a bit tricky to apply. Let each coat fully dry before you add the next or you may lift off the prior coat.
GOSH Holographic

Enjoy, mateys! BTW go see the Wolfman!!!! LOVE that Old School action.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Zoya Reverie Spring 2010 Collection

I love pink/green duochrome shimmer. I LOVE it. And every single color in Zoya's Reverie Collection for Spring 2010 has it. Oh sigh. It's so fucking purty.

This is a kind of "Valentine's Day" collection, made up of two pinks, two red/oranges, a purple and a silver all in incredibly thick rainbow microshimmer, so thick it's nearly a frost in application. You might see streaks when you put it on, but let it settle and it goes back to a sleek coat. Just try to be a bit even in your application and you should be okay. It's a good formula, Zoya pretty much always is, so it applies nicely and two coats did me for a nice opaque polish job. This absolutely needs topcoat though, for you non-topcoat wearers, as I found it dried a bit dull, but you should wear topcoat anyway. It brings out the full beauty of a nail polish (except a matte, of course).

You can't always see the duochrome effect in my pics, I think the purple, Adina, shows it well, and I think Reece shows the pink aspect okay. Just know it has it.

Zoya Happi, the light pink:
Zoya Happi

Zoya Reece, the dark pink:
Zoya Reece

Zoya Gwin, the orangier red/orange:
Zoya Gwin

Zoya Lana, the redder red/orange:
Zoya Lana

Zoya Adina, the purple:
Zoya Adina

Zoya Laney, the silver:
Zoya Laney