Orange Creamsicle

A few weeks ago I came across the cutest dress, made of airy peach cotton speckled with white polka dots. Adorable, but I've already used up my dress budget for this season and this particular one is not exactly cheap. And so I resisted, and all this time that sunny, cheerful peach color lurked in the back of my mind.

Last Thursday I stopped by Sephora to peruse the 50% off display of Sephora by OPI and picked up a bottle of $OPI What's Your Sign, a creamy, shimmery peachy orange that reminded me exactly of that dress.

3 coats to opacity. It somehow manages to require that third coat even though it's fairly pigmented, but the formula is so nice it practically applies itself so it wasn't too bad.

Syrup & Succulents

Those of us entrenched in the nail world tend to know where we fall when it comes to nail art: Lovers, Haters, and Lack of Skill to Execute. I am decidedly in the last category; I love nail art, even the delightfully tacky over-the-top Japanese falsies encrusted with pearls and bows (although the functionality of said falsies means that I'll have to hold off until I can afford to hire a full-time maid).

I'm not much for attempting nail art myself, since any artistic talent I may have does not translate at all to nail polish. I bought a dotting tool set once upon a time and used it once. Luckily these "syrup nails" are easy to do, even for a nail art dummy like me.

 "Syrup nails" are basically a type of gradient manicure that uses a sheer jelly. In my humble opinion it works best with a polish that is very sheer--I feel it gives a smoother looking gradient this way. I did mine with ORLY Beverly Hills Plum, which is a beautiful translucent coral. This is 7 coats of Beverly Hills Plum at its darkest, plus 2 coats of Seche Vite and 1 coat of NYC Grand Central Station. One of my favorite things about wearing this manicure is that all the layers of lacquer gave them the super-glossy gel nails look, which I love. A commented that it looked like I had dipped my nails in blood, which the macabre in me also loved.

Unrelated to my nails, I bought four tiny little potted succulents, and I plan on doing the Blogger-y thing and re-pot them into tiny handmade pots. That's for next week :)

Strawberry Milk

So I rarely come across a color that I dislike, so when I do it comes as a surprise. The color in question is Essie Pop Art Pink, and what prompted me to buy it was Scrangie's swatch which made it look like milky pink perfection.

Where to begin...first of all this looked much cooler-toned than I anticipated, which I'm not fond of. Pop Art Pink is a light milky pink jelly. My skin is very warm and cool toned reds and pinks always seem to clash horribly. It's also a very "Barbie-ish" pink, which while pretty is just not my style. I lean more toward the blush and antique-pink hues.

The formula is very sheer and rather streaky. Shown here is 4 thin coats, because it was patchy and uneven at 3 despite my best application skills. I do love the milkiness and slight translucency of it, though. If I don't swap this away I'm considering tinkering with the color a bit to more suit my taste.

Funnily enough, since this bottle is the "retail" version sold at drugstores rather than the "salon" version, the sticker on top of the cap reads "Poppy Art Pink". I've noticed these changes between the retail and salon versions--i.e. "Lapiz of Luxury" rather than "Lapis of Luxury". Why the unnecessary name changes, Essie? Is it supposed to make the names more personable to the barbaric masses who don't know what Pop Art is and sub Z's for their S's? Hahaha.

Bambi

So despite all my moaning about the heat, it's actually cooled off a bit in the past few days, due in no small part to the endless rain we've been getting. I'm dreading it getting warmer again, because as the temperature climbs my productivity level inevitably drops...the past month all I've wanted to do is laze around and catch up on Season 3 of My Little Pony (yup, I am....a Brony *screams internally* O u O ).

Anyway, enough banter. A couple weeks ago I posted this deer-print dress. I adored the look of it, and could only hope that the actuality was just as cute. Items from Chinese Ebay sellers are very hit-or-miss--sometimes they look nothing like their photo.

Pardon the mess, I've just moved to a new apartment!

Rest of the review after the jump!

Centaurea cyanus

Hello hello! It's been so hot recently that even the thought of wearing warm hues like red and yellow have been unbearable. Give me something cool and icy, even if it's just a color!

It's not much-raved about, but I'm actually a pretty big fan of Forever21's Love&Beauty polish line. They have a lot of unique shades and a big range of (metallic) glitters in practically every color you could want, at $2.80 a pop. The only thing that is a bit disappointing is how uncreative and repetitive they are with their naming--I have 2 different L&B polishes both named "Lavender" and another two both named "Turquoise"--but it's a small qualm.

This is Love&Beauty Light Blue, which is a woefully inadequate name for this dainty cornflower blue packed with silver sparkles. It has the kind of unique shimmer that isn't all uniform, which makes it all the prettier. Shown here is 4 coats; it's not the most pigmented of polishes, plus I've noticed that the L&B polishes have a slightly slower drying time than most of the lacquer I buy, but for $2.80 you really can't complain too much. Plus I suspect that a more heavily pigmented base wouldn't have allowed the shimmer to shine so nicely.

Mintcicle

I have a *lot* of polishes (three guesses how many), and inevitably some of them have never been worn. That number is dwindling since I do my nails 2-3 times a week, and often layer two or more polishes at a time. Essie Mint Candy Apple was one of these. What's a little disheartening is I remember how much I LOVED the color of this polish at the time when I bought it, when it first came out in Winter 2009, but it went untried until now.

This is 2 coats of Mint Candy Apple, which applies fairly easily for a pastel. I was actually expecting it to be too thick just by the look of it, but it has a nice consistency and very good opacity for such a light color. Mint Candy Apple, while certainly minty, actually has a slight turquoise tint to it, more like Wintergreen Tic Tacs than actual straight-up mint green. It dries slightly darker than the color in the bottle.

As a topper, I applied 2 coats of OPI Pirouette My Whistle, which is one of my favorite topping glitters, filled with silver microglitter and pearly white hex glitter.

Electric Pineapples

I've gone from apples to pineapples. The weather's blisteringly hot here in NYC, like high 90s, and I'm about ready to die (I can't stand heat!). I donned this bright yellow to contrast with that purple drop-waist dress I got from Urban Outfitters.

Shown here is 3 coats of Revlon Electric topped with 2 coats of Revlon Pineapple Fizz. By itself, Electric is a banana yellow with a fine yellow micro-shimmer, and a dupe to Chanel Mimosa. It has a passable formula for a yellow; it's a bit thick and I had to use 3 coats because it was slightly patchy at 2, but as yellows go it was well-pigmented and not overly watery. I did have some bubbling issues, but I suspect it's a user error (since I have managed to get a bubble-free mani out of this polish before).

Bubbling, unlike popular belief, is not caused by air bubbles in the liquid polish, and the bubbles aren't really air; it is actually caused by the evaporating gases being trapped between layers of polish, which happens if the top surface of a polish dries before the polish beneath has dried sufficiently. I do want to note that this happens in particular with slow-drying polishes, which is ironic since this is supposed to be the "Top Speed" line, but I digress. Next time I plan on thinning this and waiting longer between coats.

To hide the bubbles, I applied 2 coats of Pineapple Fizz on top. Pineapple Fizz is a sheer yellow polish with tiny clear flakies and iridescent shimmers. The tint in the polish made Electric a much brighter yellow color, and also gave my nails a fake but pleasant sugary pineapple scent. You can smell it through topcoat, but it fades after a day or two.

VAILLA

Today I'd like to show a presentation that I made as one of my final projects. We were given the instructions to create our own brand and brand identity, and design 2 looks for a capsule collection. This is my creation.

I hope you enjoyed it! I look forward to showing more of my work here in the future (after all, it is what I originally started this blog for).

Love Always,
Artoo

Jelly Apples

This week my nails have been painted red, red, red, with a classic--Essie Jelly Apple. I'm always tempted to throw some glitter over any mani that crosses my path, but for once I resisted with this one, and I love it. There is just something so glam about a simple red mani, and I'm definitely going to be wearing it a lot more often whenever I feel like letting my inner pinup loose. Jelly Apple in particular is super shiny and juicy looking with a lot of depth, and it looks like candy on my nails.

At first coat, Jelly Apple pulls very blue-toned; in fact I was incredibly disappointed because I was sure it would be too cool for my skin, which is very warm and looks awful with blue-toned reds. But at second coat all my fears were assuaged because as it builds in opacity the overtly cool tint evens itself out to a lovely glassy red that doesn't pull blue at all.

Jelly Apple has a very nice formula that practically applies itself. Here I'm wearing 4 thin coats. You could probably be okay at 3 coats if you don't mind the tiniest bit of visible nail line.

Home is Where My Butt is

For a lot of people, living in New York City means subjecting yourself to moving every year when your lease is up, always in search of that elusive, perfect One--the apartment that doesn't leak, or have rats, cockroaches, or bedbugs, or a crazy neighbor or a landlord that raises the rent by a couple hundred above your budget.

This year I moved in with A, and we found a sunny studio apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We haven't quite got around to setting it in order yet, partially because our moving date was inconveniently right during my finals week, but also because we haven't yet managed to make our long-planned trip to IKEA for new furniture (we're planning on getting a loft bed to make room for a bookshelf and desk for my workspace).

A and I have very different views on interior decorating; A's style is decidedly, er, masculine--before I moved in, everything in his apartment were shades of black and brown, with a whopping great black leather couch and not a spot of color anywhere. On the other hand, I have an inclination for light natural wood and pale colors. Luckily, while I have to restrain myself from adorning the walls with pastel bunting and fairylights, my own little nook and the kitchen are free game to my whimsy.

I've sworn off buying anything for the apartment until we get the furniture sorted out and organized all our stuff, so in the meantime I've settle for making wishlists of the things I've found that sparked my imagination.

COW BUTTER CROCK FROM BOSTON WAREHOUSE | POLKA-DOTTED POTHOLDERS FROM ANTHROPOLOGIE 

HUNGRY CAT CASE FROM TOKYOINSPIRED | PEACH AND GOLD DOT DISH FROM UPINTHEAIRSOMEWHERE 

CHOCOLATE DIGESTIVE CUSHION FROM NIKKI MCWILLIAMS | RÅSKOG CART FROM IKEA

001. I love to spread butter on my toast--my favorite way to eat it is a layer of salted butter topped with a layer of raspberry jam, or, if I'm in the mood for something savory, a thin scraping of Marmite. This cow-head crock is great for keeping my butter fresh and soft at room temperature.

002. This oven mitt and potholder from Anthro are pricey, but the adorable print and decorative topstitching makes this one of the cutest sets I've ever seen.

003. Omnomnom! This cheeky kitty captured my attention immediately, and the soft wool case would be perfect for my stashing my glasses.

004. I couldn't resist the charm of this pretty little earthenware catchall dish finished with gold leaf and pastel glaze. I'm not quite sure what I'd put in it, but it would be pretty just as decoration on my desk.

005. I love the simple, contemporary design of this quaint cushion, cutesy yet totally without frills. Unfortunately adding in shipping from Scotland, this cushion totals out to be quite a sum, so I'm considering DIYing my own version :)

006. The turquoise color of the RÅSKOG cart alone would have compelled me to buy it; the convenience of a portable storage space (to be rolled under my desk when not in use) makes it perfect for my small apartment. In fact between you and me, I actually already have this one--A bought it for me when he made an IKEA trip on his day off.