Seche Rebuild: Before and After

Hello friends!!

I was twittering with Jeanette of The Swatchaholic about how much I LOVE Seche Rebuild. Last year, after reading this post on Vampy Varnish I decided to give it a try, and boy am I glad I did!!! I had/have similar problems as Kelly where I could never grow my nails out because they peeled so much, so I decided to give this a try. AND IT WORKED!

This was my nails before SR, at the approximate length I always had to keep them. I could maybe grow them out a little longer, but that was it:


(Sinful Nail Junkie over Sinful Mint Apple btw pic taken 8/2010)

This is my nails 2 months ago. Soon after this picture was taken I cut all my nails down to nubbins after I broke a nail bad. I like to do that anyway to refresh my nails, but I can let them grow MUCH longer now:


(Orly flirty, totally bomb color amirite!?)

As far as the ingredient go, it does not contain toluene, but it does contain formaldehyde. I have no problem with it but I know others do. Another thing I like is that you can wear it on it's own, and it dries very shiny, cloudy off white, so a couple of coats totally hide stained nails (and doesn't look awful), but you can also use it as a base coat! It's the only base coat I use, and I don't notice any excessive chipping or wear issues whatsoever.

For the past 7 months, I've been working at a job where I sit at a computer all day, and I still have great results! So if you have nails that peel I definitely recommend Seche Rebuild, it's amazing! I never thought I could have longer nails but now I can, I feel so fancy!

love and cupcakes,
Ms Meghan

Better Off Red

Hello friends! I have so many pictures (and even swatches!) waiting to be published, I need to stop being such a bum! But I wanted to throw up a post with some of my fave red lip products, in response to this post on Jezebel. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a lovely lipstick, BUT I cannot wear Revlon lip products. I was reminded of this the hard way a few months ago when I wore Colorburst Lipstick in Candy Pink and Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry together for a few days. I got THE WORST case of blisterlips, aka had an allergic reaction. Not pleasant.

SO. The reds in my collection. For skin tone notes: I am ~NC20ish, fair f2 in smashbox high definition foundation, and I use Urban Decay's Halo tinted moisturizer. I would say I am pasty with beige/golden undertones, and while I have fairly pigmented lips, all the products swatched show up at least a little bit. Note the second: I left out anything I own that was LE and no longer available. In the title picture there's a MUFE gloss in red that doesn't appear to be available anymore, unless the Moulin Rouge Glossy Full Couleur is the same. Now, onto the makeup!


So this is (top to bottom) MAC Brave Red lipstick, Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain in 440, and Nars Shanghai Express. SE was my first RED lipstick but I actually never wear it because it's too dark, muddy and kind of chalky. The Outlast lipstain is hit or miss for me, but Brave Red is my go-to NUMBAH ONE red lipstick. It's cremesheen, so it's smooth, applies nice and opaque (but not heavy) and has a lovely sheen.


T-B: Cover Girl Natureluxe Gloss Balm in Anemone, Tarte Natural Lip Stain Pencil in Lust and Lipfusion gloss in Sexy. I bought the CG balm because I needed an spf lip product (it's only 15 but better than nothing) that wouldn't wash me out. It is a nice, light texture but I'm mostly indifferent to it. Now the Tart and the Lipfusion? LOVE. Tarte really gives your lips a shiny gloss and a "just ate a popsicle tint" and Lipfusion WORKS and is very shiny and the red shimmer makes your lips look cushy and so fine.


Top to bottom: Lipfusion again, Urban Decay 5150 lipstick and Lip Junkie in Red Light.
I wanted the 5150 to rep some red shimmer, it's a pinkish corally red with tons of white/pink microshimmer and is also fairly sheer. It's very pretty, and nice if you want something not so intense. But if intense is your game, you need some Red Light in your life friends. It is a crazy deep pink-toned red (but not too pink, it's supah red!) and oh so shiny and minty. I just love it, and it gets beaucoup compliments.

So my top recs:
Lipfusion gloss in Sexy
Tarte lip stain pencil in Lust
Urban Decay Lip Junkie in Red Light
MAC Brave Red Lipstick

What reds do you love? Do let me know in the comments!

love and cupcakes,
Ms Meghan

Fear and Blinking in the TARDIS: The Weeping Angels

Note the First: I am perfecting opening and closing my eyes one at a time. Even now.

Note the Second: s3e12 "Utopia" is mostly a really lovely antidote to "Blink" (minus the end). It has great little bits of humor and the always charming and fantastic Captain Jack Harkness.

So in honor of a brandy new episode of Dr Who involving the infamously terrifying Weeping Angels, I would like to share some thoughts on timey-wimey stuff, except I'm not a Time Lord. Instead I would like to share some thoughts on fear and why the Angels are so very terrifying.

First though what are the Weeping Angels? They are the "nicest psychopaths in the universe" an alien race of "quantum locked...Lonely Assassins." If you look at them they appear as weeping angel statues because they turn to stone when being viewed by another living thing. However the second you take your eyes off them they not only move, but they send you to another time, and live off of the potential energy of the life you should have live but didn't because they sent you back to 1920. So you can't blink, ever. I hope that's clear enough, and I don't think it's particularly spoilery and furthermore the episode (s3e11) is old enough where I don't feel bad.

So why are the Weeping Angels such a standout boogeyman? Dr. Who is not short on spooks and scares by any stretch of the imagination. But the trick with something scary is that you can close your eyes, you want to close your eyes to make it less scary. and yet the very nature of weeping angels compels you to keep your eyes open and confront the horror, and furthermore, the horror is only made worse when you close your eyes. There is no escape, as you watch the episode you feel the shadows growing longer, the space behind you growing deeper and even if you were in an 8'x8' room, the smallest bit of darkness will feel infinite with the whisper of a terror sneaking up on you that you will never see coming.

And yet you can't look away from the screen not just because of the fear clutching at your chest. You're invested to the end because you want to make sure the monsters are gone, and that you can finally close your eyes.

sneaky new zoya pic!

I shamelessly ganked this pic from Eva Chen's twitpic feed. It's a low-res pic, with some high saturation but .....


NEW ZOYA COLLECTION!!!

And holy monkeys it is looking fiiiiiiiiine.



I really hope these are the final colors, because I'm jonesing for the bright turquoise in the upper left and the four shimmers(maybe some more duochromes?!) on the right. That blue/green one? Might just be my holy grail. Either way these look MAGNIFICENT.

Disclaimer: This pic was not sent to me by any promotional company and I receive no compensation for posting it. But if they want to send me free nail polish ..... HINT HINT. :D

nail polish announcements & my holiday manicure!

Hello internet friends, long time no see!

I wanted to throw out a quick nail polish post with a miscellany of items, some polish news and my holiday manicures. I have a couple of posts planned, including some claire’s polishes and hot topic polishes, don’t judge me, they are always on sale and awesome!

I also plan on actually posting regularly as soon as I get used to my brand new job! In the meantime some polish announcements:

-=- Zoya just announced via Twitter that their gorgeous spring collection Reverie is available for pre-order. The whole set is available as is the individual polishes, you can check out swatches from All Lacquered Up and Scrangie. It looks gorgeous, so I’m probably going to pre-order at least part of the collection, definitely Adina and maybe the 2 pink shades.

-=-Some people really don’t like Sephora by OPI, which I don’t really understand, since it really is a fantastic, incredibly long-wearing formula. I’m wearing Ocean Love Potion as I type this, and it is a gorgeous slightly grey teal cream that went on super smooth. Plus it dried shiny even without a topcoat:

See? It’s so pretty! At any rate, I just recently checked Sephora’s website and the new spring shades for SOPI are listed, though not available for purchase yet:

Cover Me in Petals looks like a pinky coral as opposed to the red-orange of the description. Go With The Flower looks/sounds AWESOME, a super bright pink sparkler, while Leaf Him At The Altar reminds me of an old Wet n’ Wild green shade, at least judging from the other website picture available.
.
It’s almost a camo type green with a gold shift, like Urban Decay Mildew.
And the rest of the polishes are all purples:

I like all of these actually, but the one I’m most excited for is It’s Bouquet With Me because it has HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER! I wonder if it will compare at all to Color Club Wild at Heart? I’m really excited for nearly all of these shades, but Sephora’s online swatches and images are notoriously different from the actual product, so I would like to see them in person first.

Holiday Manicure, a story in two parts.

Twas the night before Christmas and my tips were still bare … the horror! I didn’t want to do a red/green manicure as that was a bit too garish for my tastes, however I loved the idea of doing white and green together, and furthermore it gave me a chance to try out my idea for a matte white shimmer.

I used Zoya Get Even as the base and for the white polish used the following:
Color Club Ooooh la la! (bright white shimmer)
OPI Happy Anniversary (sheer silver/white crystal sparkles)
Essie Matte About You
The green is China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. I think this is a gorgeous manicure but the more I looked at it, the more I realized it reminded me of the Boston Celtic’s uniform and NOT holiday cheer. However, my awesome and smart friend Clio suggested that instead I do silver instead of white, giving my manicure both holiday cheer and Slytherin cool. She’s a smart cookie, because it came out pretty awesome:

Instead of the whites, I used Orly Dazzle with Essie Matte About You.

So that’s my blogging (don’t call it a) comeback. I will still be adjusting the next week or so, but then (hopefully) get into a 3 post a week schedule.

Disclosure: Any polish pictured was purchased by me. Any companies mentioned have not given me any incentive to do so, although I would totally be okay with it if they wanted to!! ;)

Urban Decay 24/7 Swatches

So right now, beauty mavens are in a shopping tizzy, thanks to Sephora’s Friends and Family sale: through November 2nd use code FF2009 for 20% off. Which is pretty freaking sweet (unless you have no money), but then Urban Decay dropped this little bombshell on twitter:



UD Friends and Family sale? Oh hell yes sign me up for THAT, especially since traditionally it is 30% off.

To prepare you all for this wondrous occasion, I decided to swatch the hell out of my UD 24/7 liners. I’ve accumulated quite a few of the liners since their launch and they are the bee’s knees. They are creamy and smooooooth upon application, making them perfect for lining. However, since they have such a wide range of shades with incredible color payoff, I have used them to make complete eye looks. Even better, once they set, they stay put even without the inclusion of the cult favorite Primer Potion. Now onto the swatches!

First and foremost the new super-stash gift set is crazy awesome and was the motivation behind this post. It contains nine 24/7 liners, with four shades exclusive to the set: Oil Slick (sparkly black), Corrupt (rich brown shimmer), Binge (navy shimmer), El Dorado (bright gold). It also contains five shades from the current line: Zero (black), Rockstar (deep eggplant shimmer), Stash (dark olive green shimmer), Ransom (bright purple shimmer w/ slight blue flash), Graffiti (bright grass green w/ silver sparkles).



1st row: Ransom, Rockstar, Binge, 2nd row: Corrupt, Zero, Oil Slick, 3rd row: Graffiti, Stash, El Dorado

My two complaints: the pencils are bite-sized, they are two thirds the size of the other gift set liners. I have already fallen in love with Oil Slick and El Dorado, and I expect to love Binge and Corrupt and this set is the only way they are available. This brings me to my second point: UD has given no indication that the exclusive shades will become part of the permanent line. However if the exclusive shades from the Book(s) of Shadows are any indication, they won’t be made permanent and that’s a shame.

With that out of the way, here are the rest of my 24/7 swatches, including comparison swatches of various shades.


Top row: Gunmetal (great for a fast smoky eye), Ransom
Bottom row: Yeyo, 1999 (looks so amazing with brown eyes)


Top row: Lucky (bright, brilliant copper, so perfect!), Covet
Bottom row: Baked, Electric (out of this world bright, the swatch is a little washed out)

Comparisons:


Oil Slick above Zero, Ransom (looking more blue than it actually is) above Lust, Rockstar above 1999


Graffiti above Covet, Corrupt above Bourbon, El Dorado above Baked.
Corrupt has a gold shimmer and is darker, while Bourbon is warmer and has a gold sparkle. Baked is bronze and El Dorado is gold, but I don’t have Honey to make a comparison.

So, there you have a rather exhaustive bit of swatching. I have quite a few UD eyeshadows (including a number of pallets and both Books of Shadows) so I suppose I could do that next if anyone is interested.

Love and cupcakes,
Ms Meghan

An Ode to Liquid Liner Pens

I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but I have a couple of post ideas stewing, and I plan to make more regular appearances around these parts.

Liquid liner is a fairly classic cosmetic item. It is classically striking, giving the wearer a solid line and shape to define and attract attention. It is also classically difficult to work with, requiring a steady hand and endless patience. And yet to me, there's nothing quite as striking as a classic cat eye, and nothing as satisfying as doing it yourself.

Enter liquid liner pens.

This particular cosmetic item can be hard to find, and upon discovery, quite finicky. It doesn't provide the pigmentation of a standard liquid liner, but the fact that it is essentially a felt-tip pen means that it is much easier to use/handle.

And today, mostly by accident I have found the most perfect use for it.


(click for larger)

That's my eye make-up from today, kept it simple in the searing heat. UD Yeyo 24/7 liner smudged around the eyes. I wanted to add a little definition, so I lined right against the upper lash line with the Stila black liner pen, curled my lashes and laid on the L'Oreal Telescopic Clean Definition mascara. Besides the fact that the L'Oreal mascara is amazing, the liner adds just enough definition without being too much for a casual look and manages to extend the lashline. By these powers combined, I look like I'm wearing false lashes, and bigger is better when you are wearing glasses all the time.

There are a few liner pens on the market but my experience is with the following:
Cover Girl Line Exact

I like this pen but it's got super weak pigmentation and it doesn't layer over itself well at all.

Stila Liner Pen

What I currently use. It doesn't have the pigmentation of a liquid liner but sometimes you want something more subtle.

I would like to try this with a pale shimmer on the lid (UD Snow, Sin, or Sellout) and dramatic lips, but it works just as well for a very casual look.

Lorac, Sephora and Kat Von D by Sephora also have liner pens out. I'm hesitant to try anything Sephora brand as I just had a bad reaction to their lip gloss, however the Lorac looks really nice.

Nail Polish, blues and greens

So I've decided to post some polish swatches, everything is 2 coats + base and top coat.


OPI Russian Navy. Deep navy blue shimmer with pink/red sparkle. It's okay, but nothing I would write home about. It's hard not to love a dark blue shimmer though, I think it might be ingrained in my dna.


OPI Blue My Mind. It's a little too primary, I was looking for a dupe of a wet n' wild shade I used to have. It was a bright navy shimmer, and all I need with it is some red lipstick and bangs and BOOM it's 1996 again. I used the opi ridge filler with this and I think that's what caused the bubbling.


OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. Navy shimmer with blue sparkle. Really wonderful blue, better than Russian Navy. I need to re-swatch this because this pic is terrible.


China Glaze Sky-High Tops from the Custom Kicks collection. I really love this color, and I didn't think I would. It's a beautiful shimmery blue. Forgive the chips and tip wear, that was after at least 5 days of wear.


Misa The Grass is Greener on My Side. How fun is that name? So much sass. And the color lives up to the name, it's a gorgeous deep green/teal shimmer. Forgive the visible polish lines it was SO HUMID when I did the mani. Despite giving them drying drops and 20+ minutes to dry, I still smudged my thumb so bad I had to re-do it.

I have ~12+ nail polishes to swatch that I haven't even worn yet, let alone what I own that I haven't swatched. And the 8 bottles of Zoya polish on their way (including the MatteVelvets!!!). And I'm eyeing a few more bottles of CG, Color Club and Misa. It's a terrible addiction.

Things I am into Lately

Version 2.22.09

Nail Polish
Currently:

Sephora by OPI in Skinny Jeans.

I unabashedly paint my nails every week. I consider it therapeutic and a worthwhile endeavor. I might start documenting it for posterity. For the record I went out thursday night and my nails perfectly matched my drink. I just wished the drink was as good as it looked.

Music:
CELLOS

Zoe Keating, read the Coilhouse post here which introduced me to her awesomeness and NPR's unusual lack of awesomeness.

Purchase here or just do what I did and go to itunes. I heard one of the Bach suites in a trailer for The Soloist and remembered that I loved them.

The Amelie soundtrack is more accordian than cello but it is equally delightful for any fan of the movie.

Food cravings:
Tacos (even though I just had them [as leftovers] for lunch)
Sweet Cupcakes. Best cuppies ever.
A fresh, ripe, summer peach.
Bootlegger Iced Tea: Skyy Citrus Vodka, Iced Tea, Lemon, Sugared Rim. It's a little sweet, a little tart, a little boozy but super refreshing, even in February. Swilled at Rick's Roadhouse. I'm not a total lush though, really I'm just craving lemon iced tea and the kind of weather where I can really enjoy it.

Books:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Young adult fantasy novel, but I have been totally sucked in ... recommended if you enjoy Holly Black's YA books and OH SNAP there's a blink and you'll miss it cameo with 2 of her characters.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. A fascinating historical/through the ages look at something I probably overuse.

100 Cupboards by ND Wilson. An overprotected boy named Henry goes to live with his aunt and uncle when his travel writer parents are kidnapped. He finds cupboards in the wall of his attic bedroom. RIYL: Coraline.

When I Grow Up: A Memoir by Juliana Hatfield. I was really excited to read this book, and I thought it was a thoughtful, insightful examination of her life as a musician, woman, person growing up, etc. Also I am a huge nerd for 90's music. Recommended if you enjoy dancing around your bedroom to Blake Babies, Veruca Salt and Letters to Cleo.

I just thought I would share since clearly I'm not so good with the whole blogging thing.

Resolutions, and salad ...

So many people make resolutions for the new year. Quit smoking. Quit sugar (the horror!), lose weight ...

I’m not alone in those resolutions. I hate that word though, I prefer to think about improving my life, and trust me, there are a lot of improvements to be made. But to discuss that would surely bore you.

One thing I am trying to do is be more mindful of how/what I eat. I don’t like “diets” as some drastic, strict forced way of looking at food. Eating should be a joy first and foremost. But in addition to eating more mindfully I am also trying to eat more vegetables, because I simply don’t eat enough. How embarrassing!

So, I buy salad fixins (as I refer to them on my shopping list) and make a big batch of salad, keeping it on hand for munching. The mix is always the same, baby greens, sliced English cucumber, yellow and orange pepper and scallions. It is my favorite salad, and it doubles as sandwich/wrap filler as well.



But, I am very finicky about dressing and will rarely purchase dressing from the store. It’s too expensive and I can surely make something just as good if not better at home. So I did.



Shallot Thyme Vinaigrette.
Sherry Vinegar: Olive Oil in whatever your preferred ratio is, whether it’s 1:2 or 1:3.
Chopped fresh thyme (dried thyme is too poky for me)
1-2 minced small shallots
Dijon mustard (for emulsifying)
Salt and pepper.

This is definitely a “to taste” recipe, as I didn’t measure a thing. But it made a lot of salad dressing and it was/is really good. Also I had way more shallots when I made it then I thought so I ended up making A LOT. But it’s all good, since it means I’ll be eating a lot of salad. :)

I should also add that I'm resolving to post in here more, rather than allowing it to rot away in the dark corners of the internet. We'll see how successful that is.