Four Month's Worth of Hauls

My nails and cuticles are in no shape to meet anyone so I'm going to share my recent hauls with you while I try to get them back in order. This seems pretty little for four months but that's what happen when work takes over! :(

As always, I'm starting with the indies. Every time I think I've gotten enough, more just seem to spring out and I can never resist them!



Loving the KBShimmer Spring polishes I got! I swatched them here. As for Bank Geek and Bejeweled, they will have to wait!



This next brand is becoming one of my favourite indie brands. I started taking notice of Hare Polish on tumblr quite a while back and I fell in love with the first few olours ever made - A Positive and Bisbee and I am so glad the brand is more accessible now! I'm still eyeing a couple of the older shades like Archipalego and Tropic of Cancer so I'm sitting tight and hoping they get re-released!





Now for the Australian indies...I swear everytime I see new pictures of the new creations made, my heart flutters and my wallet cries.



HOLO HOLO HOLO! Thee new holo shades from Emily de Molly are stunning!



These are the last of my Lynnderella haul (for now). I've got to start saving for my next haul because damn, they're expensive.



Moving on to the more mainstream brands, I got a friend to CP Lady Sings The Blues for me from BeautyAsia and I bought Ray of Light from the lovely Annette of Shoppe Eclecticco when she did some unearthing and found a spare bottle in her stash.



Here are the China Glazes I purchase recently. Ever since the indie craze, I haven't really bought much mainstream brands but these few still managed to capture my attention. I also got the three Zoyas from BeautyAsia.



Yes yes, I hauled the entires China Glaze Hologlam collection. I had to. I am a holo hoarder so this was such a no brainer. Swatches of the collection as well as comparisons can be found here and here.



I also couldn't resist the Color Club Halo Hues 2013. Seeing how amazing the 2012 ones were, I had to get the six new shades to complete the Halo Hues family!



That's it for my haul! I guess working does not have its perks for my wallet! :)

Pahlish Sullen Girl

I ordered some Pahlish a few months ago and Sullen Girl was one of them. I got her on an impulse after seeing swacthes of her on Adventures of a Mad Scientist. Sullen Girl is a clear based polish with charcoal and blue holographic glitters.

This is two coats of Sullen Girl over Zoya Kelly.









Kelly really brings out the bling in Sullen Girl, don't you think?

I was just looking at my older pictures and I realised that my nails are getting so long. It's been about two weeks since I've cut them. They're getting in the way of quite a couple of things, like typing on my phone and writing so I guess I'll be cutting them soon. I'll probably do a couple more swatches before I cut them down. Might as well make full use of my longer "canvas"!

February's Haul

Okay, before I start, I need to justify myself. If it weren't for BeautyAsia, Feb's Haul wouldn't look THIS bad.



I bought so many polishes that I had to grab them from my Helmer and put them into a plastic bag to transport them to my desk for their mugshots.



On the left is my BA haul and on the right is my "regular" haul. I told you my haul wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for BA!



This is my non-BA haul. They're mostly pretty cheap to boot so I don't feel as guilty!

Top row: Two bottles of Essence Nail Art Espress Dry Drops, Essence Hard to Resist, In Style, two bottles of Time for Romance,  a back up of Lime Up!, On Your Gracile Tiptoe and Essie Gold As It Gets
Bottm Row: Three crackle polishes I found at Aries ($4.20 each only!!!!), Tony Moly Milky Way (which is extremely close to Lippmann Glitter in the Air), OPI DS Original (courtesy of Gwen, who sold me her backup bottle), and Sally Hansen Harderning and Resistance Continuous Treatments (they were going for Buy One Get One Free!!)

Opinions:
I love the Essence drip dry drops. Fromt he reviews I read, it's pretty comparable to OPI's and it's only a fraction of its cost ($4.20)! It does leave a slightly oily feeling after it's dry but I like it because I just treat it as a cuticle oila nd rub it into my cuticle area.

I haven't tried On Your Gracile Tiptoes yet but I've been looking for the perfect coral and I haven't found one yet so hopefully this will be it. I like my corals more orange than pink and this one is slightly dusty and not too orange that it's just orange.

The crackle polishes come in a huge variety of colours and I just picked the ones that I found more interesting, like green, teal and slate blue! They're pretty okay and they do crack so I have no quelms!
The Tony Moly GITA dupe was purchased for me by a friend who went to Korea (shoutout to Annette if you're reading this!) and sadly, I haven't seen it in the Singapore stores yet.The glitter in the tony Moly polish is slightly bigger than the ones in GITA and it's also bluer but unless you paint them side by side, you won't know the difference so it's a good enough dupe for me!

I've been using both the Sally Hansen treatments on my toes. The hardening one for my second to forth toe nails because they always tear and I suspect it's because they're too thin, and the Resistance one for my first (big) and last toe nails because they're already hard so I just want they to be stronger and not crack as easily. My big toe nail was peeling very badly and I've tried a number of treatments (other Sally Hansen treatments and NailTek) which didn't work but after about a month's use of Resistance, it's peeling less! I've also noticed my other toe nails becoming thicker so I'm liking these two SH treatments!



BA Haul, picture one.

Top Row: Zoya Flecks, Skylar, Bevin, Yara, Neeka and Cynthia

Bottm Row: ChG Tronicas; Cyberspace, Digital Dawn, Electric Magenta, High Def and Techno Teal
Opinions: I grabed the Zoyas since they were only going for $7. I actaully regret not getting more! As for the Tronicas, I love them! They're so much more holo than all the swatches I've seen online!!! My only quelm is that Lynn bought a bottle of Digital Dawn on the first day and I got mine on the second, from the same shop, and hers is SIGNIFICANTLY VERY MUCH MORE HOLO than mine. Mine is pathetically scattered while hers is linear! D:



BA Haul, picture two.

Top Row: Nfu Oh #62, Orly Rage and Night Owl and China Glaze White on White

Bottom Row: Misa Indian Tan, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Lubu Heels, Orly Out of This World, Haley's Comet, Misa Green with Envy and DL Glitter in the Air

Opinions: I LOVE THE NFU OH. HOLO TO THE MAX! It chips very easily though so I recommend using the Aqua Base Coat and SV on top. SV will dull the holoness but only minimally and it's worth losing a tiny bit of holoness for longer wear IMO. Don't really have anything much to say about the rest of the polishes.
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Okay, so overall, it's a large haul but I knew I was gonna do some major damage during BeautyAsia so I'm not all that disappointed with myself! March's Haul is set to be quite expensive even though it won't be as much polish. I caved and just ordered the entire Layla Hologram collection because holographic polishes seem to be my archilles heel, my kryptonite, my extreme weakness if you will. And I also purchased OPI DS Diamond during Nailvibe's recent discount special. Not to mention I finally managed to go down to DYON to get the OPI Holland and I want some Essie Sping colours too! As for ChG Hunger Games, I only want Smoke and Ashes and Stone Cold but I haven't had the time to grab them yet. Damn, March's haul will be an epic one too! :(

Zoya Caitlin

Oh, Caitlin was such a pretty colour! It looked so much more purple and much darker than in the swatches I've seen so I was a tiny but surprised.



But it was still really pretty so who cares how it compares to other online swatches! perhaps one reason for the dicrepency is that it dries darker than in the bottle!



Can't believe I took so long to wear this gorgeous colour! (:

Kelly's Smoky Politics

Been lemming for Zoya Kelly for such a long time and I finally got down to getting it! Once I laid my eyes on it, a few potential dupes came to mind so I went to dig aroud my helmer and found Essie Smokin Hot and Misa Office Polish-tics.

From L-R: Essie Smokin Hot, Misa Office Polish-tics and Zoya Kelly



With 1 coat, you can already see their base colours and how different they are. Smokin Hot is purple, Office Polish-tics is blue while Kelly is grey.



Second coat on and they're all opaque!

Kelly is pretty close to Office Polish-tics (God, I LOVE the name, not too pun-y like how some OPI names can be) but they are different. I'm pretty sure my mum will be able to tell the difference and she's really my benchmark for dupes! Kelly's formula was a little thicker while Office Polish-tics had a more runny formula but they're both equally pigmented. All of them were easy to handle and note that I'm actually showing my right hand (which means I used my left hand to paint) so that should mean something!

Best thing? They're all office-friendly colours so you won't have to worry about people whispering about your crazy nail colour! They're all neutral enough for work but with a twist of edge!

(I apologize for not cleaning up my nails. I went ahead to clean these swatches off immediately after taking these photos as I didn't plan on having three different colours on my nails. Hence I didn't bother cleaning them up nicely!)

June's Haul

Welcome everyone to my monthly haul segment! I know I shouldn't be proud that I bombed so much on polish (and other related items) again and trust me, I'm not. Actually, this month, it really hit me how much I'm spending on polish so I'll be trying to cut the habit once OPI and China Glaze (fine, and maybe Zoya too) release their fall collections. Then it's cold turkey for me until the Winter collections come out. No more buying old colours. (Oh, and as I'm typing this, I've already bought a few polishes in July but they don't count as they're already a sunk cost.)

Moving on to the lighter side of things, peeeektures! Here's a group shot before I break it down for you!



First up, the polish related items:



Finally received my Bundle Monster plated from Cherub's Lips! Gonna try it out once my internship is over! I have one week between the end of my internship and the reopening of school and I'm jamming that week with mani sessions, nail swatching, jamming with my friend as well as sleeeeeeeeping! Right, I digress but going back, I also also got OPI's nail lacquer thinner. I chose OPI over Seche Restore because OPI's one is Big 3 free while Seche Restore isn't so I can add it to my Big 3 free polishes without ruining them! I also have a thinner from Sylvie (a cheapo brand) that isn't Big 3 free so I'll use that for my less precious polishes!
Next up, the shatters / crackles!



I got the Navy and Red Shatter from Smoochiezz's Expo Flea and China Glaze's Lightning Bolt from Estella! Just swatched Lightning Bolt on one nail and it seems pretty solid! I was a little apprehensive after I ordered it and worried I'd get post-purchase dissonance (HAHA! I can still remember my Marketing concepts, not bad!) but after trying it out, I must say I'm pleased! It isn't as sheer as I had feared it would be (I tried it over Essie In Stitches, which you will see later on in the post) and it cracks pretty okay for me!
Moving on to the dark blues / greys...



L-R: OPI Light My Sapphire, OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees, Zoya Caitlin and Zoya Kelly. I've swatched OPI LMS and SSITP here so I won't elaborate on those two any further. As for the two Zoyas, I have swatched them and they apply like butter. Very smooth, very opaque, very easy to use! Definitely worth their price!

Now for the mauves / red / coral



L-R: Sinful Colors Vacation Time, Essie In Stitches, Milani Fashion Design and OPI Vodka and Caviar
Swatches of Vacation Time and Vodka and Caviar will be coming up soon so keep your eyes peeled for them! As for In Stitches, I just swatched it on one of my nails and it's damn opaque. Nearly a one-coater. It's one of those grandma colours and I love such shade and my mum does too so we share shades like these and she doesn't give me a hard time about buying polishes like these because she uses them! HAHA! I haven't swatched Milani's Fashion Design but I read it's close to Chanel Orange Fizz. I personally don't think it's that close cuz Milani has more pink to it!

And now, presenting the greens...



...we have OPI Stranger Tides (swatched here), Essie Absolutely Shore and Milani Dress Maker (the Chanle Jade dupe!!!)

I love Stranger Tides (and it's Essie sister Da Bush) if you don't already know by now. As for Absolutely Shore, I haven't swatched it yet but from the bottle and other swatches I've seen online, I can;t wait to test it out! Just hope it won't been a streaky mess! Dress Maker, what can I say about it? It's green, it's shimmery, it's damn pretty. Sadly, it does take 4 coats to be opaque but I cheat a little but painting a green polish (try OPI Mermaid Tears or Hey! Get in Lime) and then a layer of Dress Maker on top!

Last but certainly not least, I got myself the OPI Top Coat (also form Smoochiezz's Expo Flea).



I got sick of my Poshe / Seche topcoats chipping in huge chunks so I decided to try out OPI's Top Coat. It does dry rather slowly though. The first time I tried it, I managed to smear the surface of my nail polish despite already having painted my polish on 4 hours earlier. This polish is really not for the chor-lor (clumpsy, rough) people and it does take a little patience to get it to dry fully. Will revisit this top coat again after trying it out to see if it helps keep polish wearing longer!

Yay, I've finally reached the end of this Haul post. Hoepfully I'll be hauling much less in the near future. I think Estella will miss me (I'm such a regular customer she started throwing in freebies for me, like those rubber strips you cut and stick on your nails, OPI pouches and she even gave me an OPI swatch plate today) but she has so much more customers these days anyway! Hopefully you guys have been more succesful at controling your polish lemmings than I have!