EmpressStephanie is me and xkeinmitleidx is Scrangie. : )

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EmpressStephanie: Soooorry
EmpressStephanie: lol
xkeinmitleidx: Hehehe :D
EmpressStephanie: I went to the mall to pick up some hot topics for Colorsgalore
xkeinmitleidx: I just ordered a crapload of Hot Topic polishes, I had 20% off code
EmpressStephanie: they’re pretty awesome
xkeinmitleidx: I recently got the Kelly Green, Iridescent Purple and yellow/green neon, I’m impressed
xkeinmitleidx: I had to get 2 backups of iridescent purple >.>
EmpressStephanie: when you say iridescent purple – is that the glittery purple?
xkeinmitleidx: Yep, it’s glittery purple with sort of… duochromeyness
EmpressStephanie: that one is GORGEOUS
EmpressStephanie: okay I need to pull out my sterilites
EmpressStephanie: I’m going to be updating the spreadsheet too
EmpressStephanie: do you keep you?
xkeinmitleidx: Sweet.
xkeinmitleidx: I don’t have a spreadsheet but I keep a text list
xkeinmitleidx: haven’t updated it since… march?  lol
EmpressStephanie: lol
EmpressStephanie: so then you have like a million to add to it then
xkeinmitleidx: Yeah, it’s gonna take me a while =/  And I only had Essie, OPI and China Glaze on it lol
EmpressStephanie: I have about 100 to add to mine
EmpressStephanie: I’ve been getting carried away
EmpressStephanie: the nailboard market place was the worst thing that ever happened to me : P
xkeinmitleidx: Yeah, I went a little crazy this week…
xkeinmitleidx: Ooh, I haven’t been there…. Afraid to look!
EmpressStephanie: sometimes you can get really good deals
EmpressStephanie: I got Wyatt Earple Purple for 4 bucks
xkeinmitleidx: Nice!
EmpressStephanie: yea I’ve been lemming that one forever
xkeinmitleidx: I’m going through my Orlys right now…. I think I’m missing a few!
EmpressStephanie: :O which ones?
xkeinmitleidx: The two dark purples I just bought and one of the sparkly ones that came with the little rhinestones… Turquoise Charm?
EmpressStephanie: ah from the new collex?
xkeinmitleidx: Nah, old ones I think.  I’m pretty sure Turquoise Charm is discontinued
xkeinmitleidx: Haven’t seen it anywhere in a loooooong time

More after the cut!

(more…)

As you all can see The Polish Addict has a new layout and domain complete with syringes and all. The concept and design are the brain children of my very good friend Nina. I *really* love it and hope you all do too.

The new domain is www.polishaddict.com, please update your links. The old site will redirect to this one for a while but eventually it won’t anymore. Now that I’m on my own domain I have a lot more flexibility with the content and structure of the site so if you have some blog feature or whatever that you would like to see implemented on the Polish Addict drop me a comment about it.

And finally, Scrangie and I are planning to live blog on both our sites while we reorganize our stashes this Saturday starting at around 1pm EST. Join us to participate in the shenanigans, get to know us better, and peak at our collections (hers is waaaaay more impressive than mine!). We’ll also be taking requests and answering questions. : )

8ty8beauty has *finally* put the fall Color Clubs up for sale. Follow these links to see my swatches of the Glitter Vixen Collection and the Musique Collection.

My girl Hillary from MUA is starting up a new nail blog, The Crystal Files. There’s so much out there in terms of nail polish so it’s really great that the nail polish blogging community is growing. Hill is an especially excellent addition because her taste in nail polish is the anti-thesis of mine & Scrangie’s – so if you love pink, red, and shimmah, she’s the perfect blogger for you. She already has an excellent post on the continuation of last year’s navy trend, complete with color suggestions. <3

Image from Cute Overload.

Scrangie swatches one of my hugest lemmings Dior Liquorice.

Misa Masa has great news for those of us who are not fortunate enough to own the coveted OPI Hollywood and Wine.

Nail Juice gives us some details about the OPI France Collection.

I’ve converted Sminkan into an Adoree fan…. I think… I wish I could read Swedish instead of just admire her pretty swatches. (Sminkan also found an overseas website that carries these polishes for those of you who can’t order from the U.S.)

Steph’s Closet reports on OPI’s upcoming 90210 Collection.

Scrangie swatches one of my hugest lemmings Dior Liquorice.

Misa Masa has great news for those of us who are not fortunate enough to own the coveted OPI Hollywood and Wine.

Nail Juice gives us some details about the OPI France Collection.

I’ve converted Sminkan into an Adoree fan…. I think… I wish I could read Swedish instead of just admire her pretty swatches. (Sminkan also found an overseas website that carries these polishes for those of you who can’t order from the U.S.)

Steph’s Closet reports on OPI’s upcoming 90210 Collection.

Scrangie, who’s been kicking my butt in the swatching department lately : P, shows us the brand spanking new Essie Fall 2008 collection. *sees wallet shriveling up and dying…*

Steph’s Closet compares swatches of recent yellows (China Glaze Solar Power, Rescue Beauty Lounge Yellow Fever, and Mac Phosphor) and reviews Sally Hansen’s recent metallic collection.

Blogdorf Goodman takes the plunge into nail art (watermelon… mmm cuteness) and discusses top coats and base coats.

Casual Lavish uses konad to create a really great independence day mani and gives us an easy to do nail art water-coloring tutorial.

This message is, of course, not targeted to my loyal readers. But in the past week, I’ve had my images used on ebay twice. In response to these recent events I’ve put up a Licensing Agreement that governs the content of the Polish Addict as well as a page for my Contact Information.

And to my loyal readers, you guys have been really great about alerting me to content and image theft. I want to give you guys my sincerest thanks for that. Please continue keep an eye out for me. I really appreciate the effort on my behalf.

(Apparently the other blog’s use of my image without my permission was accidental and a misunderstanding. I should have found out all the facts before getting so angry and aggressive towards another blogger. I apologize. Everything is all worked out now and I want to thank Vania of Comme il Faut for being so considerate of my wishes and linking back to me. And again, other bloggers have permission to use my work as long as I get credited for it via a link.)

Well first, there’s no point in linking to a specific article, just read Scrangie’s entire blog.

15 Minute Beauty Fanatic gives us some tips on how to do a perfect post-mani clean up and swatches of the Essie Neon Shorts collection.

Necessary Makeup reviews Incoco Dry Nail Applique Strips.

Nails of the Day shows us the difference between the seemingly similar OPI She’s Golden and OPI Oh So Glam!

See the waaaay to expensive Chanel Robertson Blvd. Collection on Ballz and Thinner.

And finally the new Dior Golden Nugget on Steph’s Closet.

Yup, you read that right, check it out at allure.com

This is serious. 44 bottles of Rescue Beauty Lounge is pretty much all I’ve ever wanted out of life. I’m thinking I might have to resort to some of the ol’ folk magic from the mother country so as to increase my chances of winning this giveaway. My mom told me something once about breaking a double yolked egg over an upside down straw broom… or something. Ok maybe not, but Animal sacrifice would help for sure, right? Geez, I can’t hurt animals… a giant can of chicken breast from Costco that my mom bought for me when I first left home 6 years ago and has been sitting in my cupboard since then… would that be ok? Maybe sacrifice goat cheese instead of a whole living goat? Ugh, where’s a first-born when you need one.

Ok – I know what I have to do.

Hand Turkey.

You have served me well throughout elementary school as my Thanksgiving Day art project. Yes, indeed, many gold stars have resulted from your efforts on my behalf. Remember that year when I drew you and your entire turkey family? Hours of staring down at my hands to create that masterpiece, perhaps, was the genesis of my current love, nail polish. But now, it is time for you to fulfill a greater destiny. You will be sacrificed to the nail polish gods so that the evil Ji Baek, arbiter of expensive polishes, may bestow upon me a most amazing bounty. Hand turkey, you will be missed.

Hand Turkey

RIP

1990 – 2008

Some nail polish brands like OPI have consistently excellent marketing and advertisements. OPI ads always have one classy very beautiful model with very well manicured visible nails – simple and chic.

Then… some… brands… well I just don’t know.

Polish Addict’s Exhibit 1: CND Plexi Pop Collection.

I don’t get this advertisement. Actually, I don’t get this entire collection. What exactly is a plexi? Do they mean plexi as in ‘plexi glass’? Is it called plexi pop because it’s like colored glass? If that’s the concept… then what’s up with the Jetsons styled model? Does plexi glass relate in some way to bad futuristic make up and hair? This promotional image doesn’t make me want to buy nail polish. It makes me bitter that it’s 2008 and we still don’t have flying cars.

Exhibit 2: Orly Love Collection

Plexi pop is a failed marketing concept but it was a good try. The ad for the Orly Love Collection, on the other hand, is an example of how some people are just plain bad at their jobs. I’m not a make-up girl, so I’m not really qualified to pass judgment, but really, this model looks hideous. Did it really not occur to anyone at any step in the creation of this abomination that this make-up is ugly? I mean… first the make up artist, the photographer, the lighting person, the set designer, the person who edited the image… the execs who agreed that this image was THE ONE for this ad – is it really possible that, no one, n-o o-n-e along the way was like, “hey Bob, you know, maybe… maybe we shouldn’t use this ad. This girl… she doesn’t really look like she’s in love, unless being in love makes you look like you’re dying of hypothermia.” Take my criticism with a grain of salt because, like I said, make up isn’t my beat. I do know nails though, and I don’t like the nails in this ad either. They just look bad. The color looks fine but the shape and curvature of the nail bed is unattractive and weird. Get. A. Hand. Model. Orly, c’mon, you can do better.

And finally, Exhibit #3.

I lol every time I see the We Adorn You ad. I don’t want to give China Glaze a hard time because usually they have excellent promotional images. This ad is definitely an aberration, but wow, when advertising goes wrong, it really goes wrong. I get the concept here. “We Adorn You”, so we need an image of pampered, well-groomed women in China Glaze nail polish – ok, solid up to that point. The wrong turn occurred when China Glaze decided it would be a good idea to hire a porn industry hair and make-up artist for this shoot. I mean no offense to these three models, they’re beautiful, but this ad looks like it could be interchangeable with a softcore porn video cover or something else equally cheesy. I actually have a sneaking suspicion that China Glaze might have recycled a harlequin romance novel cover for use in this ad. The story was about 3 concubines that ran away together from an evil King’s harem. This is the cropped version of the image. The full image includes Fabio, ripped shirt, hair blowing in the wind.

The second dumbest nail polish related article I’ve ever read in my entire life was published on New York Times Online recently. (the first dumbest was the article about how you should get rid of your nail polish to clear clutter… uh? yea… I’m not even going to bother to address that article because that’s just plain ridiculous.)

I meant to write about this the day the article was published but life gets in the way of blogging. So here it is, albeit a bit late, my rant on the lameness of this article:

At first, the article was so ridiculous to me that I thought it might have been satirical or tongue-in-cheek, but sadly, I think the article is actually serious. It’s not the actual chipping that bothers me, it’s the attitude of the self important people quoted and discussed in the article. One of my nail polish philosophies is that you should wear polish however the hell you want, whenever the hell you want. So if you don’t mind having chipped polish, cool. If you follow trends, cool. If you only wear pink and red, freaking cool – as long as *you* like it, more power to you. This article attempted to explain that in modern America liberated women can choose to care about nails or not care at all, either way garnering acceptance. Great message, but the article managed to miss that boat completely and instead captured a snap shot of everything that is wrong with our society. (Sorry, NY Times but Lindsay Lohan and company will never be good feminist role models regardless of how liberating their chipped nail polish may be.)

Apparently, ultra-wealthy people/chic people are too cool or too busy to have nice nails (you know cause shopping, partying, and other types of grooming are really time consuming), so their chipped gross nail polish, plus $5,000 bag and shoes, stand symbolically of how much better than you these people happen to be. All the people interviewed in the article say things like, “oh well ugh I just don’t care.” The article treated “not caring” as being synonymous with being, like, totally super cool and, like, totally awesome. I ask, if you really don’t care then why even wear nail polish. More importantly, if you REALLY “don’t care” about your appearance, why spend thousands on expensive clothing, accessories, and grooming sans nail care? The girls on the nail board echoed my view as well, they summarized the article as basically standing for the proposition that “if you’re rich, young, and pretty, you can do whatever you want and it’s going to be interpreted as ‘cool’.” Like I’ve said, you can do whatever you want with your nails as far as I’m concerned, but I’m definitely not going to follow a trend I don’t like just because some celebutant is doing it. Sorry, but I think most socialites/celebutants are undeserving worthless dead weight, drains on culture and society, and I’m not giving them any brownie points for not “wanting to be perfect” or being too busy/too cool/too important to care about their nails. I hope no one was unduly influenced by that article.

Final note: The most annoying thing about this article is that the author got the likes of Ji Baek and Deborah Lippmann to weigh in on the trend. The owners of two of my favorite polish lines on Earth think it’s okay for socialites to have chipped nail polish? Kill. me. now. please.

Well this is actually two weeks worth of great links… oops.

15 Minute Beauty Fanatic and Makeup and Beauty Blog both review Essie’s new summer collection.

Scrangie reviews OPI’s newest summer collection Retro Fun in the Sun and OPI’s previous summer collections.

Urban Outfitters is launching a new line of nail polish Models Own.

Steph’s Closet compares Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle and Yellow Fever to China Glaze Tree Hugger and Solar Power.

All Lacquered Up sneak peeks Chanel’s Robertson Boulevard Collection.

JCPenny’s is having a BOGO 50% off on all OPIs (limited to 3 per purchase).

$4 Dollars off any $20 Dollar Beauty Purchase at CVS courtesy of the Bargainist.

A Free Mani/Pedi from Herbal Essences on All Lacquered Up.

Butter London’s (somewhat controversial) Turn in Your Toxins for free Butter London nail polish continues.

Two sets of mini Lippmanns on clearance at Victoria’s Secret.

Any 2 Avon Nail Expert Products for $5.99.

If you come across any other great nail polish deals or sales, drop me a comment or email me. : )

Sorry guys, I know I promised tons of swatches. I am *swamped* with finals. I’ll have all the promised swatches (Man Glaze, Color Club Neons, Orly Love Collection and the new OPI Mod about Brights) up for you guys next week. Stick with me! : )