Dysfunctional yet Charming » Nails

Loving my new nails!

Shamini — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:40:05 +0000

So, when Monica was here on Thursday she also did my nails! I’ve never had my nails done before, but I really wanted them to look good for our vacation, and I’ve always wanted those clean-looking white tips. Needless to say, I absolutely love them! According to Monica she’s a little rusty, but I adore them. It takes a while to get used to these acrylic nails, since they are a bit thicker than my natural nails, but it doesn’t bother me. They look stunning, even on my tattooed not-so-ladylike hands! Now I feel all glamored up and sophisticated, all ready for Paris next week!

Thank you a million times, Monica!

Photo © Øyvind H. ’10

Shoe Shopping

Shamini — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:55:50 +0000

I wasn’t really planning on going shopping today, but somehow I suddenly found myself at Falkanger Sko AS where I discovered these gorgeous booties. Well, there’s usually no harm in looking, but last fall I was desperately looking for a nice pair of booties, exactly like these ones, so how could I leave them behind? I couldn’t. Epic fail.

But the truth is that I absolutely love them! Trust me, they look a lot better in real life than in the picture. I got them in size 36 (3½ US), and they look so cute on my foot – perfect to wear with just about anything, and without having to endure any pain in the process. Anyone who’s been wearing heels one time or another knows that it can be quite painful, and I can’t say I disagree (even though I don’t actually walk on them). Sneakers are nice, but not always fitting if you’re wearing a nice dress or maybe a cute skirt, and I’m quite picky when it comes to shoes and boots.

Apart from my new booties, Mr. Postman came knocking as well. He brought me a small package from the US containing two nail polishes: Sephora by OPI Iris I Was Thinner (medium iris purple) and essie® Midnight Cami (shimmering deep twilight blue) – two absolutely gorgeous colors! I’m hoping he’ll be back with more packages the following days – I’m still waiting for my two prizes from Sleek MakeUP, and a few other goodies I’ve ordered for myself to celebrate something I’ll tell you about very soon. I’m also expecting Mr. DHL to come by sometime during next week, and I know someone who’ll be extremely happy to receive a few of the treasures he’s bearing – apart from myself of course!

I wonder if maybe a collective M·A·C haul post is coming up?

Photo © Falkanger Sko AS

Pastels for summer!

Shamini — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:22:50 +0000

Mr. Postman apparently decided to brighten up my day a little as he brought me two packages today! I haven’t received any mail for a long time. For normal people the definition of “a long time” might differ a bit from mine, but I’m the one doing the defining here. The first package contained a small eBay haul of nail polishes after a recommendation from Pinchy Peach, and I’m thrilled! I do have to blame one of the polishes on Neglelakkmani, for including it when she swatched three slightly different lilacs for me in the end of March. The polish I’m talking about is OPI A Grape Fit!, and I absolutely love the color. I had OPI Do You Lilac It? from before, and it’s been a favorite ever since I used it the first time. What would life be like without purples?

The rest of the haul mainly consisted of essie® The Resort Collection (Splash of Grenadine, Lapis of Luxury, Turquoise & Caicos, Playa del Platinum), China Glaze Something Sweet and essie® Matte About You (matte top coat), as I mentioned here. I’m a bit disappointed in ChG Something Sweet, because it seems to be one of those completely off pinks which make my skin turn ashy. Who’d wanna look like a zombie? With pink nails? Bah. I’ll have to try it out though, I might be wrong. And if you want to see Theo making a sneaky guest appearance while Øyvind is taking pictures of my haul, feel free to click here.

Moving on to the second package! On May 4th I received a very nice comment from Kari, who wanted to know whether or not I’m pleased with our beloved Nespresso Lattissima and also asking me for my address so she could send me a little something from Nespresso for PR. How cool isn’t that? So today I received some free capsules of Nespresso’s new coffee Fortissio Lungo – purrfect! Thank you so much, Kari.

Imagine that, my blog actually contributed in getting me a cool freebie.

Photo © Øyvind H. ’10

essie® The Resort Collection

Shamini — Sun, 02 May 2010 22:53:15 +0000

It’s been quite some time since I obsessed with nail polish last, but now I’ve found the perfect polish for summer: essie® The Resort Collection. It was love at first sight, and I knew I had to have them. I don’t have much experience with essie®, apart from the one bottle of “Starry Starry Night” that I own, but I’m hoping this will be a nice experience. I’m not a several-layers-girl, and those of you who know me know that every time I find a polish that needs more than two, or preferably one coat, all I want to do is to throw it out the window.

Because of this huge ordeal with Trans Design not shipping internationally anymore, I had to resolve to eBay once again. I had been planning to place another order with Trans Design for quite a while, but I kept postponing it without really knowing why – and suddenly it was too late. Thanks to Pinchy Peach I found a seller who offered all the seven items I was out to get, and that made this transaction very smooth indeed. The three other items in my shipment are ChG Something Sweet from the Up & Away collection, OPI A Grape Fit! and then essie® Matte About You Top Coat. I’m not overly enthusiastic about matte nail polish, but with a matte top coat I’m at least able to choose for myself if I want my manicure to be glossy or matte.

I was trying to sell some of my nail polishes, but I kinda failed. When push came to shove I couldn’t part with them after all, and I ended up keeping them all – I’m such a color junkie! I think I will be giving it another shot by hosting a little “blog sale” soon, where you can get your hands on some China Glaze, Sally Hansen and maybe a few other brands of nail polish. Some of the bottles have never been opened, others have been swatched lightly once.

Photo © essie®

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic

Shamini — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:27:16 +0000

One of the popular nail polish colors nowadays is Sephora by O·P·I “Metro Chic”. As the name implies it’s sold only at Sephora, and therefore not available to a lot of us. Thankfully there are a few other options like eBay, a CP* or even using a redirecting service offering some kind of “personal shopper” like MyUS or other similar companies. I’ve been watching a few YouTube videos where this nail polish has been mentioned several times as a must-have color, but I never thought it would be a color for me. Sephora describes it as a “dark smoke with a hint of purple”, and it’s categorized as a gray color. To me it’s a lot more taupe, with a purplish undertone, and I really like it.

Last week I got a sample bottle of CND “Cinch My Corset” from a very sweet girl on the Wave. She had gotten the sample with an order, tried it and decided that she didn’t want it herself. Her description of the color was that it looked like diarrhea. Not a very flattering description at all, but something made me wonder if a taupe color like that would look good with my complexion, so I asked her if I could have it. Just a couple of days later it arrived in my mailbox, and naturally I had to swatch it immediately. I instantly had to disagree with the somewhat amusing description, because it didn’t look like diarrhea at all! It’s a lot less purplish than “Metro Chic”, and reminds me slightly of milk chocolate.

I had no other choice but to go ahead and add another bottle of nail polish to my collection, the gorgeous CND “Cinch My Corset” in full size. Thank heavens for eBay, I say! I’ll be adding some photos of these two colors shortly, also with a small description of each brand and how they apply.

Photo from Google

Kicks fra China Glaze

Shamini — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:14:09 +0000

� bestille noe fra Trans Design er et eventyr i seg selv, det vet alle som har pr�vd. Det tar nemlig en hel evighet fra ordren er lagt inn til man mottar ordrebekreftelse, og s� tar det ytterligere en liten evighet til man faktisk f�r pakken med det man har bestilt i posten. Riktignok var evigheten noe kortere denne gangen enn sist, men det tok likevel s�pass lang tid at jeg n�rmest hadde glemt hva jeg faktisk ventet p�. Jeg er en skikkelig sucker for farger. Ser jeg sterke klare farger s� er jeg solgt, uansett hva det er snakk om, og det blir p� ingen m�te bedre om det er snakk om neglelakk. Derfor ble jeg ogs� umiddelbart solgt da jeg oppdaget den nye sommerkolleksjonen “Kicks” fra China Glaze! Farger! Jeg blir s� lykkelig. Dessverre var begge de gr�nne og den turkise utsolgt da jeg la inn ordren min, men jeg fikk kloret til meg B-Girlz, Laced Up som er to lekre rosafarger, Style Wars og Breakin’ som er to oransje som av en eller annen merkelig grunn gir meg vann i munnen, Sky High-Top som er bl�, og Fly som er en nydelig lilla – i tillegg til Orange Marmalade og Grape Juice fra “Summer Days”-kolleksjonen. Jeg kan godt innr�mme at jeg aller helst ville kj�pt dem alle, men jeg klarte � begrense meg denne gangen. Entourage som er den lyseste av de to gr�nne i “Kicks”-kolleksjonen f�r heller st� p� lemmingslista til neste gang jeg bestemmer meg for � bestille noe fra Trans Design.

Den egentlige grunnen til at jeg bestilte fra Trans Design denne gangen var at jeg skulle ha et eksemplar av Orly Matte Top. Dette er alts� en matt overlakk, og hvordan den oppf�rer seg kan du se hos neglelakkmani. � ha en overlakk som transformerer en hvilken som helst blank neglelakk om til matt neglelakk er verdt � ha i samlingen sin, sp�r du meg!

N�.. er jeg klar for � la sommeren ta meg med storm.

Foto: © China Glaze

Fauxnad, minst like morsomt som Konad

Shamini — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:10:03 +0000

For en stund siden bestilte jeg 18 slike fauxnad-plater (samme prinsipp som Konad, bare uoriginale) fra eBay, for en slikk og ingenting. Bildet som l� ute p� auksjonen var ekstremt d�rlig, s� det var n�rmest umulig � se hvilke motiver det var p� de forskjellige platene, men jeg valgte likevel � ta en sjanse p� at de var brukbare. Jeg angrer ikke! Fler av motivene ligner p� enkelte du kan finne p� Konad-plater, men prismessig er det jo bare en fordel. Jeg betalte omtrent $9 for alle 18 platene, noe som utgjorde rundt 60,- kroner uten medregnet frakt. Billig, og absolutt verdt pengene!

Jeg har ikke pr�vd dem enda, rett og slett fordi jeg ikke har hatt hverken tiltakslyst eller t�lmodighet til � sette meg ned med neglelakk p� en stund n�, men etter � ha sett det supers�te Hello Kitty-trykket Neglelakkmani skrev om tidligere idag, s� har lysten meldt seg igjen. Kanskje jeg skal fikse neglene mine f�r vi drar hjem til mamma og pappa? Det var langt fra enkleste sak i verden � ta bilder av platene, men jeg har gjort et fors�k likevel – bildene er dog manipulerte for � f� frem motivene best mulig.

Klikk p� bildene for � se dem i st�rre versjon

OPI Valentines UK Exclusive

Shamini — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:16:32 +0000

N� skal jeg innr�mme at jeg ikke er blant Norges st�rste fans n�r det kommer til glitterlakk, men disse kunne jeg rett og slett ikke motst�. Jentegenet mitt stod p� n�dbremsen da jeg hadde min daglige runde innom Neglelakkmani og oppdaget disse supers�te neglelakkene fra OPI i anledning Valentines Day. At denne dagen forlengst hadde passert for denne gang ble fullstendig uviktig, for hvordan motst�r man en neglelakk som inneholder b�de glitter og hjerter? Jeg klarte det ikke, og siden jeg tidligere hadde tenkt tanken p� � lete litt rundt p� eBay etter de to lignende lakkene Maybelline Sure Love og Be Mine, endte det med at disse to herlighetene fra OPI to ble pakket inn i bobleplast, lagt i en konvolutt p�klistret mitt navn.

Den rosa har navnet Be Mine, You’re Fine!, mens den r�de heter Heart to Resist, og jeg syns navnene i seg selv er uimotst�elige. Jeg m� vel kunne si at de begge er relativt transparente, men at den ene da har rosa hjerter hvor den andre har r�de. De er begge supers�te, og jeg er kjempeforn�yd med dem. Bare synd det er s� lenge til nesten gang det er Valentines Day!

Tusen takk til Neglelakkmani for nok et genialt tips.

Oh, the lemmings..

Shamini — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:56:06 +0000

Lemming (from Urban Dictionary)

A lemming refers to a purchase/wished-for-item which results from reading an enthusiastic post about a new fabulous product. Overcome by compulsion, readers follow like lemmings diving off a cliff.

Sakset fra Polish Pixie

Lemmingslista mi bare vokser og vokser, iallfall n�r det kommer til neglelakk og det som ellers passer i den kategorien. Jeg kan nesten ikke se meg mett p� alle de sinnssykt flotte bildene folk legger ut i neglebloggene sine, av ulike lakker, fantastiske farger, t�ffe trykk osv. – jeg vil ogs�? Neglelakkmani oppfordrer stadig til � �ve, �ve og �ve mer p� � legge Konad, s� jeg har planer om � sette meg ned og legge en plan for hvordan mine egne negler skal se ut. Per idag har jeg ikke mer enn tre forskjellige Konad-plater, og det holder jo ikke. Derfor har jeg atter en gang v�rt innom eBay, og funnet meg en samlepakke med uoriginale plater. Pakken inneholdt 18 forskjellige plater, med omtrent 8 trykk per plate. Dessverre var bildene tatt p� avstand som gjorde dem utydelige nok til at det var umulig � se motivene godt, derfor kommer jeg til � fikse bilder p� egenh�nd n�r pakken kommer. Om de ikke faller i smak hos meg, s� kommer jeg til � tilby dem her for salg her. Kanskje noen andre kan ha glede av dem?

Ellers �nsker jeg meg Romantique-kolleksjonen fra China Glaze! Selv syns jeg ikke denne kolleksjonen egner seg som lakk alene p� neglene, uten at jeg kan sette fingeren p� hvorfor, men som ton-i-ton trykk er de intet mindre enn fantastiske. Hvis du lurer p� hva jeg mener med ton-i-ton, s� ta en kikk hos Neglelakkmani, hvor hun demonstrerer det hele i fargene gr�nt, gr�tt og lilla. Jeg elsker det!

N� kunne jeg helt sikkert ha fortsatt i det uendelige om neglelakker og annet snacks jeg har lyst p�, men det skal jeg ikke gj�re. Tror nok jeg kommer til � skaffe meg noen lakker fra ZOYA etterhvert, og s� har b�de OPI og China Glaze enkeltfarger jeg kunne tenke meg � ha i mitt eie. F�r jeg handler noen fler, skal jeg derimot �ve meg mer p� � legge lakk p� begge hendene. Jeg har nemlig ingen planer om � starte en ny trend med lakk p� �n h�nd, selv om det tidvis kan virke s�nn. Det er bare veldig, veldig kinkig � v�re h�yrehendt til tider!

NOTD: CG Bahamian Escape

Shamini — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:47:15 +0000

Idag kom omsider den andre pakken jeg bestilte fra 8ty8 Beauty, og jeg tror nok jeg konkluderer med at jeg ikke kommer til � handle derfra igjen. Hvorfor? Vel, for det f�rste f�r man overhodet ingen ordrebekreftelse n�r man bestiller, ingenting som tilsier at man har bestilt noe derfra, og for det andre tar det tid. Lang tid. Denne pakken bestilte jeg den 1. januar, i god tro om at det ville ta et par uker, men der tok jeg kraftig feil. Da Bodil lurte p� om jeg ville bestille noe sammen med henne, da hun skulle legge inn en ordre hos Head2Toe Beauty i slutten av januar, var jeg p� nippet til � legge inn en bestilling p� de samme tingene jeg hadde bestilt fra 8ty8 Beauty. Noe stoppet meg, og heldigvis for det, for dagen etter fikk jeg omsider ordrebekreftelsen – og trackingnummer p� forsendelsen.

Innholdet i pakken var som f�lger:
OPI Pink of Hearts, OPI Pink of Hearts II, OPI Play ‘Til Midnight, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, China Glaze Fairy Dust, Seche Satine, Seche Rose og China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat. Alle lakker som absolutt svarte til forventningene mine, iallfall p� flaske.

NOTD er derfor min noe skjeve langfinger, med noe s� enkelt som ett str�k China Glaze Bahamian Escape, uten hverken underlakk eller overlakk. Tenk det, et enkelt str�k dekker nok til at man ikke trenger � dille med noe mer enn det. Deilig! Lakken var lett � legge, selv om jeg kanskje syns kosten var litt liten? CG Bahamian Escape kategoriseres som en cremelakk, og er en av de seks lakkene som kommer i kolleksjonen “Bahama Blues”. Denne gav meg skikkelig sommerf�lelse, og kommer sikkert til � gj�re seg bra i kombinasjon hvit overdel og jeans, til sommeren.