Essie Using My Maiden Name: As Timely As Today's Headlines

Quite a while ago, maybe in April, Rach texted me and asked if I wanted anything from the Essie bridal collection.  Since I'm pretty much perpetually behind on almost anything new, I did a quick Google image search while in German class.  When I saw a periwinkle color with pink microshimmer I texted her back something like I DO WANT THAT ONE YES PLEASE.  Then I saw what it was called and I completely fell for this polish.  

Using My Maiden Name is gorgeous.  If it weren't so purple-leaning I would definitely consider having it be my "something blue" at my wedding.  But as it is, it's definitely more of a purply-periwinkle.  I think it's the tiny pink microshimmer that really makes it look so purple from far away.  I wore this on my fingers and ChG Tart-y For the Party on my toes (which is a straight-up pastel purple), and my friend said to me this weekend, "Your fingers match your toes!"  That's how purple this polish looks.  I had to correct her and be all, ACTUALLY...etc.  The formula on Using My Maiden Name was really nice, if a little thick, and I only did two coats here.  

As for its name, I've been thinking a lot about keeping my own last name after I get married.  Ben doesn't like this idea at all, and my mom thinks I should change it, too.  I've told this story to various people a few times over the past couple months, but here it is again:  my mom, grandma and I were sitting around talking about wedding stuff a while back when I brought this up.  I told them that I was leaning toward keeping my own name, and my grandma very feistily replied, "Well, I think you SHOULD, if that's what you want!"  It was cute.  She was sort of progressive in a lot of ways.  Plus I feel like my last name is a big part of my identity and I don't know how I feel about giving it up.  So when I saw the name of this polish I was all, it must be mine (just in case).  So thanks, Rach!  

I only have a few days left in New York now, and I can honestly say that the past week or so has sort of seemed like I'm on vacation here.  I had a fun last couple days at work with some good lunches and good conversation.  On Friday I went with a friend to see the James Turrell show at The Guggenheim, and I have to share these photos.  

These were taken from directly below the spiral rotunda main galleries while I was on my back looking up.  It's even hard for me to believe that that's what this is looking at the pictures.  The lights on each level would change color periodically and the effect was totally mesmerizing.  We were lying there for probably a good thirty minutes just looking up.  But so was the rest of New York.

This was actually around 10:45, really early in the day, so the viewing space got a lot more crowded.  By the time we left there was hardly room to stand in there.

And of course, a couple of really necessary selfies.  The most important thing for you to notice, aside from  how cool these look, is that I finally got a LOBSTER DRESS.  Yes, friends.  After years of searching I finally found a Modcloth lobster dress on eBay for $25.  I have been obsessed with the idea of getting one ever since I saw Pollock and the actress who played Peggy Guggenheim wore a white dress with a huge lobster on it.  This made me ask the inevitable and extremely important art historical question:  did Peggy Guggenheim actually own a lobster dress?  Absolutely.  And it was this dress:

[source] 

I can tell you that I was SUPER EXCITED to wear my own lobster dress to this particular museum as an homage to Peggy.  Only in my head does this make sense, but that's okay.  This dress at this venue was a pairing YEARS IN THE MAKING, and this outing resulted in ULTIMATE WARDROBE CATHARSIS.  

For real, the amazing Turrell exhibition combined with this dress made me feel like this:

After that we had lunch at Alice's Tea Cup, which I really love.  So that was a great day.  On Saturday my friend Sam was in town so we got to have dinner.  I picked a tapas restaurant in Greenwich Village, and I'm pretty glad I did.  It was kind of amazing.

on our four minute-cab ride to the restaurant

afterward we got crepes.  because duh.

It was really good to see her.  Now that I'm moving away from the east coast for a while I won't get to see her as often as I have been (which is still not often at all).  I'm glad that we got to have a dinner date before I become a midwesterner again.

On Sunday morning I dragged myself back downtown for brunch with another friend.  Although I was reluctant to wake up and get on the subway before 10am on a Sunday, it ended up being completely worth it.  Eggs benedict and BOTTOMLESS BLOODY MARYS made me a really happy girl.  Also I hadn't seen my friend since February-ish, so we had a lot to talk about.  We sat outside in the shade and chatted and boozed for a few hours.  Then we tipsy-walked to Chinatown and shopped for really classy jewelry:

I'm headed back down Village-ward tonight to have dinner and drinks with someone else, so that'll be fun, too.  I've also been intermittently packing, which is less fun.  Hopefully I'll have time to post once more this week.

So to end this monster-of-a-post I guess I'll ask:  what's your opinion on the whole keeping one's maiden name post-marriage deal?  I'm genuinely interested to know.

Maybelline Baby Lips Electro in Oh! Orange!

Hopefully you guys don't mind another lip product post.  Even though this blog is for nail polish, some of my most read posts are actually about lip stuff, which is interesting.  I think I mentioned that I get kind of crazy over lipsticks and stains in the summer months, so when I heard about the new (much more brightly tinted) Maybelline Baby Lips Electro collection I was all over them.  I have three, but today I'm just going to tell you about my favorite one, which is Oh! Orange!.  These lip balms are billed as being neons, I believe, and I'll tell you that the three I have produce a really lovely color payoff.  

The packaging is different than the original Baby Lips collection.  Each lip balm comes in a black tube, and the plastic cover's lettering matches the color/scent of the product.

In terms of performance, I would probably give these a 4/5.  They're a bit thinner than I generally like my lip balms to be, but they're decently hydrating and they do have an okay staying power unless you're planning on eating or drinking...because these are just balms, so they're not going to last as long as, say, a MAC matte lip color.  Maybelline claims that these will make your lips softer and healthier after repeated use.  After using them pretty much constantly for about ten days I can tell you...that my lips feel exactly the same.

Here are the three balms that I have swatched.  I used two swipes for each color.  From left to right:  Strike a Rose, Oh! Orange!, and Shocking Pink.  As you can see, they are quite pigmented for such a light formula, which I found impressive.  Another nice little tidbit is that each lip balm smells different depending on the color.  Oh! Orange! is actually my least favorite scent of the bunch, but by far my favorite shade.  As expected, it's sort of citrus-y, but it ends up reminding me of a cleaning product.  The other two have really nice scents, but the colors are less unique.

Here's Oh! Orange! on me.  In the tube it looks like it would be a really bright orange.  Even swatched on my arm it looks that way.  But because of the sheer formula, the orange mingles with my natural lip color and morphs into a perfect, sheer, peachy coral that's just amaaaaaaazing on my skin tone and with my blue eyes (I think).  The other colors I got were nice, but just less impressive to me.  I've still been wearing them all, though, because these balms are just great for summertime.  

I've seen these at a bunch of places, from CVS to Rite-Aid to Walgreens/Duane Reade.  I got mine for $3.79.  I'm impressed at the price point, actually!  Lip products that I really love for under $5 at the drug store are a huge win for me.  At Rite-Aid they were on their own special display, but in DR they were mixed in with the other Maybelline products.  So check around if you're interested!

You guys, today is the last day of my fellowship.  I actually can't believe how quickly the time went.  I'm pretty excited to be able to catch up on my sleep some more, because I've been having trouble with it (I'm stressed out about my move...).  But I get to go to the Guggenheim on Friday, and probably on a me-date to MoMA on Saturday.  Next week I definitely have to start getting stuff together for movin' out (a la Billy Joel).  Everything's rollin', guys.  But I do wonder when I'll start to feel less stressed.  I think I might be genetically unable to relax.  Or at least it seems that way.

K, that's all for today.  Thaaaaaanks for stoppin' by, as always.

H&M Khaki Madness

Once again the little trinkets along the H&M checkout line sucked me in.  At first I thought there was nothing that I wanted on the nail polish rack, but as I rounded the corner I found one that struck my fancy.

When I saw Khaki Madness indoors it looked quite a bit darker than it actually is.  In sunlight it's a sparkly olive green with a lot of yellow to it.  It's basically a metallic shimmer, but despite that it wasn't too brushstroke-y.  The formula was very nice and I only needed two coats.  Also, I strangely like the color better in the shade than the sun (the shade picture is the one on the leopard background, which is also one of my miniskirts).  It looks a little more moody that way, and a bit like an old army green jacket that's been washed a few too many times.  It's a very nice color.

I also thought I would mention that in the above picture I'm wearing a Nivea Lip Butter on my lips that gives it a really nice milky pink tint.  The scent is "raspberry rose kiss," and it's very nice.  The container looks like this:

I got mine at CVS about two weeks ago, and so far I really like it.  I don't have an HG lip balm, so I'm always looking for new ones to try out.  This is one I definitely like.

I had a pretty nice weekend.  On Saturday I took myself on one long me-date.  I went to see The Heat in the morning (liked it), went to H&M and Sephora, and then I saw the Punk show at The Met.  Which was super crowded, but pretty much worth it.  I had a lot of trouble sleeping on Saturday night and was pretty exhausted Sunday, but I still found the energy to go downtown and sit with a friend while he got tattooed.  We had pizza afterward, so, win.  It was a nice couple of days, but I'm still feeling a little out of sorts, either from a weird sleeping schedule or still having a little cold.  Either way, I need sleep.  I am not happy it's Monday.

That's all for today.  I feel like lately H&M has really upped their game, nail polish-wise.  They have some interesting colors, and I even like the bottles they use...even though they're hard to hold for photographs.

K, hope you all are having fantastic days...despite the whole Monday thing.

China Glaze Ride the Waves

Hi, I'm back!  My trip got a little extended because I got shockingly sick and was unable to travel with a fever.  The medication I was prescribed then made me incredibly nauseous, and I was laid up for about two days at my parents' house and had to change my flight itinerary twice.  Which is both annoying and expensive.  Yesterday was the first day that I felt remotely like myself (and is also when I'm writing this), and when this posts I should be back in NYC and getting ready to go to work (my flight lands at 9:10am, boo--I will be very sleepy).  But my time in the city is pretty short now.  I move out on July 27th and then I have to spend some time in limbo, either at the condo where Ben is living now with roommates or at my parents' house, until Ben and I move into our apartment on August 15th.  We signed a lease on July 1st after looking around for a couple days, and we're really happy with the little community we chose.  So, the life-ball is rolling and I'm ready to close this chapter and start writing a new one.  Adventure, right?  Sure.  So, nail polish.

how's that for a Fourth of July-esque nail picture?

NO makeup.  you see what being a sicky does to me?

China Glaze Ride the Waves came out last summer in the neons collection.  Almost all of the other polishes in the collection were neons with shimmer; this polish is neither of those things.  It's a royal blue jelly.  Very bright, but not neon.  I needed three coats.  It totally reminds me of blue popsicles or slushies.  Perfect for summertime.

I chose this polish for two reasons.  First, I'm desperate for actual summer weather.  Our entire vacation at the lake was almost completely rained out.  Every day it rained.  And not just drizzles.  Huge booming thunderstorms.  Memorial Day was the same.  I'm just longing for a scorchingly hot day to spend floating in the water, riding those tiny waves. Maybe in August.  Second, I watched Coraline with my cousin Mattie last week.  I forgot how completely terrifying that movie is, and I loved it.  Ben watched some of it with us but didn't get to finish it, so when we got home from the lake we bought it (for a whole $4) and watched it together again.  At one point I said, "Wouldn't Coraline be a GREAT Halloween costume?!"  Let me tell you something about me and Halloween:  it's a love affair.  I think at this point Ben just pats my knee, humors me and says, "Yes, that would be nice."  Because this is either the third or fourth costume I've told him that I HAVE TO HAVE since like April (yeah, I start to think about Halloween in April; wanna fight about it?).  Anyway, Coraline's nails look like this:

[source]

Aren't they cute?  Blue to match her blue hair.  So when I was sick at my parents' house, shopping my own stash, and I ran across this China Glaze, I knew that I had to try it out (because previously I had actually only worn it on my toes).  And I think it pretty much fits the bill.  By the way, I think that when I move back to Cleveland I'm going to start a Shopping My Stash series.  It's been years since I've had all of my polish together in one place, and I think that would be fun.  Maybe you guys would like that?  I'm going to organize the whole thing either by brand or by color, so you'll get to see what I've been hiding away all this time.  SURPRISES! 

Anyway, I don't have many pictures of my trip.  Actually I have zero pictures.  Ben has all of them, and he's traveling for work right now and so unable to send them.  Maybe at the end of the summer I'll do a nice seasonal wrap-up post and share them with you guys then.  I will tell you that we played a ton of mini-golf, roasted a lot of marshmallows, and spent a lot of time with family.  So it was a pretty decent trip despite the fact that it somehow turned into monsoon season in central Ohio.

Okay, I'll definitely talk to you guys next week!