Dysfunctional yet Charming
21May/108

Shoe Shopping

Falkanger: model 132I 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? Grin

Photo © Falkanger Sko AS

12May/102

Pastels for summer!

Nail Polish HaulMr. 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. Grin

Photo © Øyvind H. '10

2May/106

essie® The Resort Collection

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.

Essie The Resort Collection

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®

27Jan/100

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic

OPI by Sephora Metro ChicOne 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

10May/091

Gelénegler på onsdag

Sånn egentlig har jeg alltid syntes at manikyr hos negledesigner har vært både unødvendig og dyrt, men jeg har liksom alltid hatt lyst på en skikkelig fancy manikyr likevel. Faktisk helt siden jeg lot meg fascinere av arbeidene mamma gjorde på alle de "fine damene" i bygda jeg kommer fra, og mamma lot meg mase meg til å få en bitteliten stein på pekefingerneglen. Gelénegler var ikke aktuelt, og det var forsåvidt greit for ei relativt lita jente som jeg var - iallfall så lenge jeg fikk litt lakk på dem. Jeg husker godt hvor stolt jeg var over den vesle steinen, og hvor redd jeg var for å miste den.

I ettertid har jeg ikke sett det helt store behovet for falske negler. Neglene mine vokser fort, de er sterke og jeg biter heller ikke. Å fortelle om min store fascinasjon for neglelakk bør vel ikke være unødvendig, selv om jeg aldri kommer så langt at jeg gidder å lakke dem skikkelig. Når jeg da i tillegg er mer enn kritisk til hvordan neglene mine ser ut etterpå, så sier det seg selv at ikke blir noen manikyr på meg. Bodil har mer enn en gang forsøkt seg på akrylnegler, med veldig varierende resultat, og jeg har latt meg friste. Jeg mener dog å huske, langt bak i hukommelsen, at mamma har frarådet meg å få akrylnegler uten at jeg kan huske hvorfor, og jeg bestemte meg derfor for å avvente det hele. Når jeg ser hva Bodil har slitt med, så angrer jeg ikke på at jeg ikke lot meg friste nok til å få min egen manikyr. Det er unektelig kjipt at en etter en ramler av når du har betalt mange hundre kroner for at du skal ha fine negler i mer enn bare noen dager! Nå har Bodil imidlertid fått seg gelénegler, og som en aldri så liten bonus har hun også fikset en time til meg førstkommende onsdag!

Såfremt det ikke skjer noe uforutsett som gjør at timen må avlyses eller utsettes, lover jeg at det blir bilder å finne her sånn ut på kveldinga. På mandag kommer dessuten Tommy eller en av kompisene hans hos DHL på døra med pakke til meg (og cherryblossomdots) - med hilsener fra M·A·C! Jeg koser meg dessuten glugg ihjel med å planlegge hvordan ting skal se ut i den nye leiligheten, og jeg tror det kommer til å bli knall. Gleder meg iallfall som en unge til vi skal begynne å handle inn det nødvendigste, som hvitevarer og denslags. Kan livet bli stort bedre nå? Grin