A little Monday miscellany

This is how I store my lipcolor, which is the only makeup I wear on a daily basis. I've tried keeping drawers or even cases well-organized, but I find that this is the easiest system to decide what I want, grab it, and go...although the truth is that I'm so lazy and absentminded in the morning that I usually set out everything the night before, anyway. I even put the ice for my iced coffee or tea in my water bottle and in the freezer, since I drop more ice than I put in the bottle if I try to do it in the morning. I'm a night owl!

My new Havaianas - Slim Animal in Gray. I really can't stand wearing closed-toed shoes, so I live in Havaianas for 3/4 of the year here in Texas. They're much more supportive and comfortable than other flip flops, even in the same price range. I actually have a bum ankle, but can stand comfortably for hours in my Havaianas. Fortunately, my office is totally laissez-faire about how I dress, allowing for both my Havaianas and my love of flashy nail polish.

 Can you believe she's still alive after just over a month? I should rename her GladOS.

Ninja Polish Glamorous bottle shots

OPI DS Glamorous is a highly desirable blurple (blue/purple) linear holographic polish that's become basically impossible to get. It occasionally pops up on eBay at exorbitant prices---think two or three digits---or, every once in a blue holo moon, someone will find one in an off-trend salon or nail supply store ("dusty"). Ninja Polish has wisely anticipated that a good dupe would sell like hotcakes and released the pretty you see below, named Glamorous, as part of their Spectrum collection.

I'm not sure exactly why I immediately snatched up my own bottle of Glamorous. It could very well be due to the hype surrounding OPI DS Glamour. Fortunately, that's an existential crisis I don't actually have to deal with, as I'm a sucker for blue linear holos anyway. With that in mind, Glamorous is actually a lot more purple than I expected - I would describe it as a deep denim blurple. I haven't actually tried it on yet, but so far I prefer Hits Apolo to fill the (quite important) ocean blue holo niche in my life. Glamorous is US$11 at Ninja Polish, although it's currently out of stock and will probably be hard to get for a while due to the insane popularity of OPI DS Glamour.

Suave Professionals Rosemary + Mint Conditioner

I have great hair naturally. I'm also extremely modest.

Really, though: my hair doesn't need much help to be shampoo-commercial worthy. The trickiest part is dealing with the thickness - if it's moisturizing enough for the dryer outer layers, it tends to exacerbate my already oily scalp. If it gets my scalp clean, it tends to dry out my hair. You get the idea.

Suave Professionals Rosemary + Mint Conditioner has been my hair's favorite thing for a good two years or so now. It's just the right texture (not too thick, not too watery) to easily work through my hair without having to use half the bottle in one sitting. Even if I rinse out every trace, it leaves my hair smooth and nearly effortless to detangle. It never leaves buildup or causes greasiness, never breaks out my scalp or back, even when I use it for several days in a row. It smells like wonderful herbal mint, and gives my scalp a light tingly feeling. It's dirt cheap, about US$3 for the biggest bottle (36 oz, I believe). Even the packaging is my favorite kind, an upside-down squeeze tube.

I have this vague frisson that it's going to be discontinued now.

Here, check out my awesome earbuds. I love anything with radiohazard symbols, especially bright blue ones. Yeah, this pic is from last Christmas - we're kinda redneck, but not that redneck.

Need an Emily de Molly polish?

(Note: This is not an endorsement. I'm not receiving anything in return for this post, unless you count being permitted to fork over my ~$30.00 for one polish that may never actually arrive. I am glad to have the chance, though!)

If you're a U.S.-ian polish lover like myself, you've probably despaired at ever getting your hands on the Emily de Molly polish(es) of your choice. The only current U.S. stockist is Llarowe.com, and EdM restocks there sell out so quickly that actually getting the polish you want isn't too far removed from winning the lottery. I've really been lemming Black Forest (check out Nails and Nom's post on it if you don't mind risking the same fate), and so I've been searching for international stockists willing to ship to the U.S. One, based in Singapore, ran out of Black Forest before I had the chance to nab it. Finally, I took the plunge and e-mailed Sally of Sally Magpies to see if she'd be willing to ship to the U.S.

The answer is yes. However, there's a slight fly in the ointment. Their shipping to the U.S. is a flat £11 - about US$15 as of this morning. That's without tracking. The polish itself is £11.50. In short, you have to really want it. I do, so I bit the bullet. Will you?

No comment.

CocoaPink Black Chocolate and Fluffy Green Tea Linen Sprays

While I mostly stick to MakeupAlley's Nail Board, I do occasionally cheat on my dear NBers with other boards. While trolling (in the Biblical sense, not the Internet sense) the Bath and Body Board, I've seen many raves about indie bath and body e-tailer CocoaPink. Since perfume and scented bath goodies are probably the only beauty product I love more than nail polish, I decided to give her a little business.

I furthermore took the B&B Board's advice on using her linen sprays as a way to try scents - a generous 2.5 oz is only US$4.50. While they're called linen sprays, the bottle says you can use them as a hair and body mist, which is what I intended to do all along - they don't dry out the skin or hair, and there's no burning or stinging when applied. They're quite powerfully scented - I can still smell my scent of choice in my hair after 24 hours, and I only need one or two spritzes to smell myself clearly. Therefore, these linen sprays are actually stronger than your average body mist!

As you can see, they're very cutely packaged in amber plastic spray bottles, which protect the scent from degradation somewhat, although I still wouldn't store them in direct sunlight. The labels are really cute and well-made, to boot. They don't seem waterproof, but apparently they really are.

As to the scents themselves, I'm most pleased with Fluffy Green Tea. The Web site describes it as "green tea...blended with marshmallows." The green tea is a true matcha (powdered green tea, as used in Japan) scent. Matcha is something you either love or hate; it's evocative of lawn clippings and soap, but like licorice and other acquired tastes, it's oddly addictive. While I don't get a marshmallow note per se, I do think Fluffy Green Tea smells just like the green tea Pocky or filled marshmallows one finds in Japan (or in my case, receives in care packages from BFFs living in Japan). It's not too sweet, though. I think it's perfect for summer because it reminds me of one of my favorite treats, a Starbucks green tea Frappuccino (to which I add java chips).

Black Chocolate turned out to be a bit more complicated for me to review. It's described thus: "Dark complex Belgian chocolate laced with two types of rich amber resin. Our chocolate does not morph on the skin, but remains a lovely true scent." There are a lot of gross fake chocolate scents out there, and this definitely isn't one of them; at first spray, it really smells like dark chocolate, complete with the slight floral undertone found in fine chocolate. As to it not morphing on the skin, that wasn't true for me. However, that likely has more to do with me than the scent itself. I have wonky body chemistry that renders many popular scents unwearable and typically unwearable scents divine, so I knew the odds of Black Chocolate working for me were 50/50 at best. While wearing it, I sometimes get a whiff of yeasty or mildew notes, which isn't something I want to smell like. Yet when I stick my nose close to my skin, there's a wonderful clean earthiness. Only my hair actually smells like chocolate. I actually bought this to layer with Fluffy Green Tea, but it totally overpowers it, even at two sprays of Fluffy Green Tea to one Black Chocolate. I'm not sure whether I'll keep wearing Black Chocolate as a personal fragrance, but I'll definitely keep it to use as a linen/room spray.

Finally, I have to rave about CocoaPink's customer service. The Web site said that turnaround time on orders was 5-10 days, but she got my package out in 2-3. She also refunded my shipping, which was unnecessary but greatly appreciated nevertheless. My order was beautifully and carefully packed in various colors of tissue paper, and included a few generously-sized samples. I would definitely recommend Fluffy Green Tea to anyone looking for a true, long-lasting matcha scent, but the affordability of the linen sprays means you can try any scent that sounds good at minimal risk!

The Most Interesting Cleanser in the World

I have sensitive combination skin. It's about as difficult to placate as that description makes it sound. Most cleansers either give me pseudo-rosacea, break me out, or cause the skin to peel off my face. Literally peel off my face. Whatever do I cleanse with, then?

Neutrogena Rapid Clear Oil-Control Foaming Cleanser.

Now mind you, I said in Texas. If I visit/move someplace dryer or windier (like Toronto, where I lived for a rather long time), it's too drying. Not coincidentally, then, I notice that most of the low-star reviews on MakeupAlley say it strips the skin. However, if you're oily/combination and live in a warm and humid climate, it's a must-try.

Elevation Polish Haba Xueshan

So, yeah, there's a reason you only see my thumb here. I took off my whole mani and tried China Glaze Stone Cold again, this time with (matte) topcoat; it chipped just as quickly and as badly as before. This polish is so not worth it, especially since I don't care about The Hunger Games. Frankly, I think Zoya Freja, which is my favorite dark gray polish so far, would look just as good, or better, mattefied than the naturally matte Stone Cold - maybe I'll remove Stone Cold and try Freja instead. My Elevation Polish Haba Xueshan accent isn't going anywhere till it chips, though:

The base color on my thumb is Sinful Colors Cinderella. The glitter topcoat is, of course, Elevation Polish Haba Xueshan. Now, the black and white matte "confetti" glitter polish thing has been going for a couple of years now. I can name at least three of them off the top of my head, all close dupes. However, out of all of this category, Haba Xueshan is the only one that's ever made me want to snatch it up.Though its charms are subtle, you can see why I love it if you look closely - the few pale blue (described on the Elevation Polish Web site as "glacier") circle glitters. I'm crazy for the combo of blue and black, especially pale blue, so Haba Xueshan is the perfect marriage of "trendy" and "Merissa." What you see here is one thick coat, about half a brush-load.

The tricky part seems to be finding just the right polish to wear it over. Steel gray was too dark and hid the black glitter; the light blue you see here pretty much hid the glacier glitter. A bright polish to really show off all the colors, such as a neon pink or coral, would detract from the icy theme. Perhaps next time I'll try a silver.