Sephora by OPI Under My Trench Coat

Remember how I said I'd be back to my regular posting on Monday? Well, I lied. I've been having kind of an interesting few days and the rest of this week is likely to remain interesting. I'm going to our annual family reunion on Thursday night and I won't be back until Sunday evening, when I have to work (yes, I'm working on the Fourth of July...and I don't get time and a half; that's kind of weird). The place where I'm going is called Apple Valley, Ohio and I will have no phone service or internet. The worst part of that is the no phone thing; my phone is practically an extension of me, so it's weird when I can't use it for texting or e-mail-checking. Ah well. Hopefully I'll survive. I felt bad not posting Sunday or Monday, so I'm here at Coffee Inc. using the internet before my shift starts. This'll be short and sweet.

Here is $OPI Under My Trench Coat. It came out in the fall of 2009 in a film noir themed collection. I love, love, love this polish. I've been wearing it for three days and I'm still not sick of it. It's a nice taupe-y grayish brown with really beautiful gold shimmer. The application was very, very easy, even with the non-pro-wide skinny $OPI brush that I usually despise. The formula was great. It stayed where I put it, not too thick or too thin, and it dried quickly. Win! I've worn this color a few times since I've gotten it and it never disappoints. I love the name, too. Very cute.

The other night my mom and I ended up doing our nails together and she was very excited about the prospect of being featured on my blog. Here's the color I chose for her, Essie Splash of Grenadine. She loves it. She has been raving about it since she put it on. I need to buy her her own bottle because...I love it too. As we all know.

And here are our mother-daughter handsies. My fingers look inordinately long. Aren't we just the cutest?

God, I am so tired. I got home last night at like 4:30 in the morning. I also had this conversation last night with a buddy:

Me: You think about me?

Him: Yeah, I think about you.

Me: Well, like what? What do you think about me?

Him: I don't know. Just, oh, this is funny. Steff would like this. Or, I wish Steff could see this. Or, I wonder if Steff is buying makeup right now.

Har har har. I do have a problem. I keep buying all this lipstick and eye stuff. It doesn't help that the new Urban Decay fall neutral palettes just came out. My credit card, it cries. Yesterday at Sephora the saleschick asked me for my Beauty Insider information and proceeded to say, "I don't know why I don't have your birthday memorized yet. You're in here all the time." This is a sign that I need to stop, right? Sigh.

Alright, time to go to the Urban Decay website and drool over the new palettes before I have to start work. I hope everyone's having a great week so far :)

Maybelline Purple Comet

Sorry for my sporadic absence. Usually I like to post every weekday, but this week turned out to be weird, work schedule-wise. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled posting come Monday, no worries. Yesterday when I got to work in the morning I read my horoscope (Sagittarius): five-star day! I was excited. I had a great time at work and then at noon my friend Amber picked me up so we could head to the outlet mall about an hour away. After some navigational errors we got there. And it was awesome. I ended up with three MAC lipsticks (Electro, Exhibitionist, Red Full-Stop) and I wanted to buy a new wallet. But I didn't. When I got home I had a package waiting for me from Kelsea of kelsealaurel. A generous package. I didn't photograph the entire thing because as soon as I opened it I compulsively put polishes into Helmer. They're all sorted now, but over the next few days I'll show you what she sent me :) Here's the first polish I chose to wear from Kelsea's package.

This is Maybelline Purple Comet. I was immediately attracted to it. I really love the base color. It reminds me a bit of Wet n Wild Rain Check, one of the new Wild Shines. If you look closely it's a bit brushstroke-y, but that doesn't bother me. There are big chunks of silver glitter in this little guy, so it looks really interesting in the sunlight. Sparkly! Purple Comet was pretty sheer; I used three coats. It's an old formula Maybelline, obviously, so it smelled interesting and it's probably giving me cancer or something as I wear it. Ah well. c'est la vie. Beauty is pain, or so they say.

Also in the package was a ring that Kelsea made for me. It makes my hand look like Salvador Dali. And I love it.

What do you think? Surrealist? Does my hand look more dignified with its mustache? I feel like my hand needs a jacket with elbow-patches and a pipe to smoke.

My hand aspires to be this incredible. Anyway, thank you Kelsea. Everything was so sweet of you. It's really overwhelming when someone goes to the trouble to make something for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

That's all for right now. My parents and I went out to dinner for their birthdays last night (my dad's is tomorrow and my mom's was the 23rd) so I didn't end up going out with my buddies. It turned out to be a good thing since I passed out at around midnight. I think I'm still catching up on sleep. I still feel groggy. Ugh. I hope everyone has a beyond fantastic weekend and I'll see you all on Monday!

Hello Helmer

Hey guys. I'm slacking in the blog department. I'm sorry. My sleeping is completely screwed up, especially after last night when I decided around midnight that I'd stay up to get a new iPhone. Then around 4:30 I decided not to and passed out. Heh. Anyway. I'm showing you chipped nails because I never took a picture yesterday when they were un-chipped. I'm sorry.

Oh God, obscene chipped nails. I'm sorry. This is what my nails look like after a shift at Coffee Inc. I'm so rough on my hands. This is Milani In A Flash, which I think is new. I misplaced the bottle because I'm still sorting through my drug store polishes. Sorry about that. I picked this one up at CVS a couple days ago and it was on a new display. You never know with Milani, though. This could be new or this could be from last fall. It's a mystery. In A Flash had this amazing duochrome effect happening in the bottle. On the nail, not so much. I'm not a huge fan of this color. Pink and I just don't work together. Meh.

And now...for little Helmer. I tried my very best to put him together myself. I got about halfway there. I decided to hedge my bets and ask three men to put him together for me: my dad, my friend C, and my friend T. In the end one of them came through. I was sitting at Chipotle yesterday surfing MUA reviews when I got a text message from T: "Did you get Helmer put together yet?" I was ecstatic.

Helmer before help

That drawer is almost overflowing with drug store polish. And that shoebox on the right. It's the drug store pile that truly scares me.

And here is the man putting together things for me.

I kind of thought I was stupid because I couldn't figure out how to put together the damn thing, but T did yell, "What's wrong with you, Helmer?!" at least once, so I felt less stupid. I did completely mess up part of it that he had to take apart and fix. I might as well just not touch anything ever, right?

Here he is, all put together. With my kiwi collection on top. I love kiwi birds.

Drawer 1: Rescue Beauty Lounge, Chanel, Illamasqua, MAC (lipstick and a single polish), Nubar, special Steffie franken from Ange and lipstick. Too much lipstick.

Drawer 2: OPI

Drawer 3: Essie, Orly and Zoya

Drawer 4: China Glaze. This isn't all my China Glaze. My others are box sets (collections) and I like to keep them together. They'll be stored elsewhere, probably on top of Helmer.

I have two more drawers to fill with epic amounts of drug store polish. I don't know if everything will fit. I'm kind of scared. I'm scared that I'll need another Helmer, guys.

Alright, I'm out. Work soon. Tomorrow I'm going to the CCO with my friend Amber. I literally feel as though every shopping trip I've taken up to this point has been preparing me for tomorrow. CCO is apparently where discontinued makeup goes to die. And...I need it. NEED IT.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Purple Pizzazz

Morning all. It was supposed to rain all day today but it's sunny right now. I'm glad :) I could use a cafe au lait. I think it might be time for a Starbucks run after this post...so you know what that means. That's right! A short post.

Good lord, it took me foreeeeeeeeeever to wear this little guy. I got Purple Pizzazz when the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears came out, and that was definitely in the December 2009/January 2010 timeframe. When these got released Purple Pizzazz was all over the blogosphere. And y'know why? Because it really is awesome. It's a really gorgeous blue-leaning purple JELLY with irregularly shaped gold and maybe pink glitter. Holy shitballs, this polish is gorgeous. I know that in my photos my nail line is very, very visible, but in real life it's not like that. In reality I can see my nail line a tiny bit, but only if I look really closely. I used three coats here and application was surprisingly easy. I feel like the Xtreme Wears tend to become thicker the longer you have the bottle open. I didn't have that issue with Purple Pizzazz. I do notice a similar scent with all of the Xtreme Wears; kind of a burning plastic smell. It's weird. Less noticeable with this polish, though. Some of the new cremes from that line just stink. Literally.

I'm trying to think of something else I can say to amuse you guys but I'm coming up short. Y'know what's exciting, though? Yesterday I went to Sephora and I was interested in buying an eyeshadow from Make Up For Ever in an obscenely bright pink. They were out of the shadow, though, so I asked one of the employees if they had another one in the back. She said no, and then she just GAVE ME hot pink loose pigment from Make Up For Ever. She said it was discontinued so they aren't supposed to sell it. It's a pretty sizable jar and the color is just ridiculous. I looooooove it. And it was freeeee! I lined my eyes with it last night. I'm excited to try more with it.

Errand-running time! What do you guys think of Purple Pizzazz? Worth $1.99?

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

It's Monday again. Happy Monday, everyone! I had a weekend full of making coffee for other people. It was fun, though. I love coffee. I love giving people coffee. It's like I'm the bringer of happiness and addiction and heart palpitations. It's sunny here today; completely beautiful. I love summer. Today is the first day that I've felt like wearing a neon in quite a while. The last ones I wore were China Glaze Sun Worshipper and China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

Here's China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, a polish I'm sure you've all seen a million times. This was the one polish from Poolside that I desperately wanted. Why? Because it's coral. I am completely obsessed with coral! Of course if you read Short n Chic with any regularity at all you already know this. Coral is my jam. I like wearing coral. I like coral on my nails. I especially like coral on my lips lately. We got to choose new summer t-shirts to wear occasionally at work and I chose a crazy bright coral one. It's a coral that leans red, but it's still coral.

Yay! I almost got a green one because when I wear green it makes my eyes look green. But...nah. I came to my senses and ran off with the coral one. Anyway, Flip Flop Fantasy is absolutely beautiful and super, super bright. Obviously its brightness doesn't translate on camera; you'd have to see it for yourself. The formula wasn't great. It was kind of runny but very thick and difficult to get even at the same time. Not fun. I used four coats for opacity. I could have put it over white first, but I think I would have ended up with four coats anyway (two coats white, two coats neon). May as well just use four coats of the neon, yes? Unless you've got a good one-coat white. Okay, now I'm babbling. I love this color and I love how bright it is. I think it would look great on toes for summer, but as I've said before I'm really into neutrals for my footsies lately. Still sporting Essie Marshmallow.

I've got a couple pictures from the event at Coffee Inc. on Friday night. I mentioned I had my face painted a bit. The girl doing it was in high school and she was so cute. She painted Ariel from The Little Mermaid on my friend's face.

Please notice the coral flower in my hair. Also, please disregard my apron. I was on barista duty, after all.

Glee. Glee eternal. All night people kept saying, "Oh, did you get your face painted?" and I loved replying, "No...why? Have I got something on my face?"

I cut my darling buddy out of this picture because I wasn't sure if she'd want to randomly displayed on my blog that she doesn't know exists. Anyway, we had a grand ol' time.

In other news, my parents went out of town this past weekend to Detroit. My mom's best friend lives there and whenever they go they make a pilgrimage to Ikea. I mentioned to my mom that there is a storage unit there that's perfect for nail polish and she jumped at the idea. Apparently my shoebox storage system has been bugging her. Who knew? Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of a little Helmer. I have to put it together, though. I can't even put together a coffee carrier and I'm trying to put together this complicated-looking metal thing. Here's what I have to contend with.

Yes, those are the instructions that little Alejandro is sitting on. She wouldn't move. She looks a bit irate here because I had just tried to pick her up and place her elsewhere. She wasn't having it. She bit me. I did get some of it put together, but I gave up halfway through, went out for frozen custard, and asked my friend Chris to finish the rest. I'm planning on luring him over here with food. He can deal with Godzilla Cat. Hopefully I'll have Helmer pictures for you soon!

So that's all. I hope everyone had a great weekend...and have a happy Monday! I'm planning on heading to Target for...no reason at all. I just love Target.

Essie Retro Red

Mornin', all. It turns out that I didn't have to work as late as I thought I did last night. The whole thing turned out to be pretty fun. There was a girl there doing face-painting and she painted me to look like a kitty. Heh. Yay! Anyway, quick post today. I didn't do any clean-up and I was a bit messy. Sorry about that.

This is Essie Retro Red. It's probably difficult to find anymore because it was an Ulta exclusive from 2008. It was included in a three-piece collection with two purples. Retro Red is nothing special. I purchased it for two reasons: 1.) the name, and 2.) it was ninety-nine cents at Ulta. It's a medium-toned jelly red, not too orange and not too blue. Also, not too interesting. Pretty, though.

So I added a coat of Hidden Treasure to it. Now it looks like fire or something. I really like this combination. It reminds me of the Fire Gang from Labyrinth. Man, now I really want to watch Labyrinth.

Alright, that's all for today. I told you this would be short. I have work in thirty minutes and I have to scrounge up some food before then. I CANNOT WAIT until I can drink many, many shots of fresh, delicious espresso. Thirty minutes and counting...

New Sally Hansen HD: Wavelength

Good morning, everyone. It's finally an absolutely gorgeous day here in Pleasantville. Not a cloud in the sky, 72 degrees, slightly breezy. Looooovely. Unfortunately I'm dreading this evening. There is this big event thing happening at Coffee Inc. and we're expecting a ton of people. I have to work until midnight. Who will be drinking coffee at midnight, I just don't know. Me, probably. Anyway, my nails...

Here is Wavelength. This polish has a lot of personality but it's definitely difficult to capture on camera. It's has a lot going on; a shimmery, glittery pink with a slight amber/orange duochrome. You can kind of see the amber duochrome in the last photograph. Very pretty, isn't it? Here's a macro so you can see the glitter.

Actually, the glitter in this polish looks a little larger and more irregular than normal glitter. Semi-flaky glitter? Yeah, maybe that's what it is. Anyway, I don't normally like pinks, as we all know. This one, though, spoke to me. I only have two of these HDs (this one and DVD) but now I think I might be interested in having more. They are all much more interesting than the original HD line that's now apparently a part of the permanent collection. I don't have any of the originals. Wavelength applied pretty well. I was expecting it to be sheer like DVD ended up being, but it was decently pigmented. I used three coats anyway; somewhere along the line I turned into a habitual three-coater. Isn't it weird how that happens? I used to be so against doing three coats of anything and now I do three of everything.

Anyway, nothing else to report today. I have no idea what I'll do before I have to drag my ass to work to rock out and make mochas. Oh! Some semi-exciting news. My mom is making a pilgrimage to Ikea and she's looking for a Helmer for me. My shoebox nail polish storage system just isn't cutting it lately. Does anyone know how much they are? I am poor.

K, that's all. How are you guys feeling about Wavelength? Have you been inspired to pick it up?

OPI My Private Jet

Dammit, I'm so irritated! I checked the weather yesterday before I decided to do this post and it was supposed to be sunny all day. I woke up and it's overcast. The forecast still says it's supposed to be sunny all day. Lies. Lies! Anyway, yesterday my buddy Ange-Marie did a nice post on her blog Scandalously Polished about the different versions of OPI My Private Jet. I knew there were different versions, but I didn't know there were four of them. I thought there were only two! Anyway, her post was great and it completely inspired me to pull out my bottle of My Private Jet. I did my best to capture this polish. I used natural light, which wasn't too helpful, and also flash, which was a bit more helpful.

Ugh, I just wish the stupid forecast hadn't LIED TO ME ABOUT THE SUN. So here's my version of My Private Jet. I've apparently got the holo version. Where did I stumble across this evidently rare gem? Ulta. Yes, that's right. One day I went into Ulta when they were restocking the nail polish so there were boxes everywhere. I, of course, started to dig through them. I found a little box full of four My Private Jets. I took them all to the window to check and see if any of them were holographic. One of them was, and you're lookin' at it. I was surprised to find it, but I snatched it up.

Its provenance...let's see...I think it was part of the 2007 Night Brights collection. The other polish that was really popular from Night Brights was Ink, which is now part of the permanent collection. Maybe I should bust that one out too, because it's really, really stunning. I believe that the holographic version, the one I'm wearing on my nails above, is the original version. There are apparently three other versions floating around out there (see Ange's post). They all look nice, but I would of course choose the holo over the other three...because it's a god damn holo, and holos are awesome. Right?

I guess there has been a big to-do because OPI has denied the existence of different versions of this polish. That's just rubbish. Not only are there two different versions, there are four. Why a company would actively deny this, I do not know. It just seems silly. Do you have My Private Jet? Which version? I'd be interested to see how many people have the "original" holo...

Also, I'm feeling completely lackluster today. I was up until 5:30 and then my body wouldn't allow me to sleep past 11. Don't you hate it when that happens? :(

OPI Kreme de la Kremlin

Hi everyone. It's that time again: morning. The time when I feel like I need to mainline coffee in order to begin to live. Unfortunately I woke up late enough for the coffee my dad made this morning to be cold (cold!) so I'm nursing a Diet Dr. Pepper instead. We'll see how irritable I get without the coffee. It's like a fun game!

Here is OPI Kreme de la Kremlin. It's from the Russian collection, which I believe came out in 2007. This is a very, very nice color. I'd call it terra cotta; kind of an earthy nude with a lot of pink thrown in. It's work appropriate, definitely, and I think it would look nice on several different skin tones. The formula was okay. It was a bit runny and it pooled in my cuticles on a few nails, but it wasn't that bad. I used three coats here. I may have been okay at two, but I did three just in case there were weird bald patches when I stuck my hand in sun. Success. No bald patches.

I am pretty sure Kreme de la Kremlin is discontinued. It's probably hard to find because of that. I don't know where I got mine. I seem to have a lot of discontinued OPIs that I don't remember buying. I'm sure you could find a bottle of this floating around in a salon somewhere. It's a nice color; if you like neutrals I'd hunt it down.

News, news...oh, I think I am getting a new iPhone. One of my regular customers at work offered to give me $300 for my 3GS. A new iPhone 4 will cost me $199 plus an $18 upgrade fee. I will actually make a profit from this transaction. It seems too good to be true...we'll see how it turns out. Is anyone else planning on getting one of the new iPhones? They're basically supposed to be the Jesus of cell phones. It like, walks on water. And feeds the hungry. And heals the lepers. It's apparently one hell of a phone.

To end, Alley being adorable.

Being a cat is so hard, isn't it? YAWN. Anyway, who has Kreme de la Kremlin? What's your favorite "work appropriate" polish? Mine's OPI Tickle My France-y. Sound off, ladies!

Sally Hansen HD DVD

Good morning, all. Ugh, I am definitely off to a slow start today. When I woke up I still felt groggy and weird so I tried to sleep a bit longer. That was a mistake. Now I feel groggier and weirder. I've got a gorgeous polish for you today that just does not translate well on camera, especially when it's not sunny (ie today). I was planning on waiting until there was sunshine to wear any of my new Sally Hansen HDs but it just didn't work out that way.

This is one of the new Sally Hansen HDs, DVD. A camera can literally not do this polish any justice. It's a duochrome, looking purple at some angles, turquoise at some angles and blue at most angles. It's basically made up of little glitter particles. It applied quite sheerly; it required three coats and in the right light you can probably still see VNL. Most of the time I can't. It just glows in low light. It's...beautiful. You can find these HDs at most drug stores right now and they go for something like $6.29. If you're a fan of blue or purple, get this one. You won't regret it. I think it would also look great over black.

A couple other things. My friend used her huge discount to get me a little ring from Chico's. She knows how much I love animal rings so she thought I might need a new little friend. I totally needed a new little friend.

So here he is. I kind of love him. Also, in that last picture you can see the polish glowing. Isn't it gorgeous? Do you guys like my tiny octopus friend? :) He's so pleasant and happy-looking on my hand.

One last thing. New sunglasses.

Aztec print wayfarers, Urban Outfitters, $14. Holy crap, these sunglasses are ridiculously amazing. I'll try to get a better picture of them someday. Also, that's MAC Lady Danger on my lips.

Sigh. My mom has been sick. She was home yesterday and she's home today. She's not in the best of moods so I have to cut this post short so that I can get dressed and get her soup. I lead...an exciting life. Who has some of these new Sally Hansens? What are your favorites?