A while ago, Etude House had an all-store 30% off!
Since I actually live in Korea and am not in a rush, I always wait for sales and discounts before I buy these street brand cosmetics because most of them always eventually has some sales or promotion (big gifts w/ a certain amount of purchase), especially Missha and Etude.
Beauty Tools + Cosmetics
Etude House (에뛰드)
1. Eyelash #13 Side end Long $2.50
2. Hair Pin Set $0.70
3. Look at My Eyes Sand Gold GD03 $2.50
I super duper love these eyelashes. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet but I saw them in the collection before but they never had them in stock.
They are super dense and long side lashes, great for those dolly eyes.
Will definitely try to use them for a look.
I used the eyeshadow in my Work Outfit #1 look.
Nail Polishes
My unnie who came down to Seoul is the one who got me into nail art. I mentioned this before, but it’s because she showed me some of her nail art pictures that made me realize you can do it at home.
Since I was with her, and we gloated over and discussed all nail related supplies we saw, I think I was feeling really inspired and bought a lot more polishes than I normally would.
It’s so much more fun (and inspiring!) to have a physical nail art buddy! T_T
Etude House $1.50-$2.50
Glitter Polishes
Dear Darling Nails Bling Bling (에뛰드하우스 디어달링 네일즈 블링블링)
1) WH020
Lucid Darling Fantastic Nails (에뛰드하우스 루씨달링 파타스틱 네일스)
2) 05 Dazzling Pink (스팽글 05 대즐링 핑크)
3) 06 Dazzling Purple (스팽글 06 대즐링 핑크)
4) 07 Dazzling Blue (스팽글 07 대즐링 블루)
5) 09 Dazzling Gold (스팽글 09 대즐링 골드)
6) 03 Silver Dia (스팽글 03 실버다이아)
Matte Pastel Polishes
Petit Darling Nails MATTE (쁘띠달링네일즈 MATTE)
7) 08 Mint Cookie (08 민트 쿠키)
8 ) 09 Snow Flower Shaved Ice (09 눈꽃빙수)
9) 11 Berry Bubble (11 베리버블)
10) 10 Strawberry Yogurt (10 딸기요거트)
11) 07 Lemon Cheese (07 레몬치즈)
Royal Manicure (from a general beauty store)
12) 515 Nail Top Shine (손톱빛)
Matte Brown Polishes
Petit Darling Nails MATTE (쁘띠달링네일즈 MATTE)
13) 02 Latte Brown (02 라떼브라운)
14) 03 Milky Way Purple (03 밀키웨이퍼플)
15) 01 Ceylon? Tea (01 실몬티베이지)
16) 06 Orange Muffin (오렌지머핀)
Glitter Polishes (#1-6)
Pros:
- Very shiny, flashy, bright glitters
- Can mix and match glitters to create your own color combo
- Durable and lasts well over a week
Cons:
- Takes at least 5 coats to fully cover nails with glitter
- Difficult to remove (needs a bit of scrapping and scratching)
I actually bought the glitter nails intending to apply them all as one color.
I even applied a coat of each glitter on my nails, went around the store browsing, went back to apply a 2nd coat, and so on until I had all 5 coats on my nails =p
I am seriously a shameless shopper. I had to make sure it looked good before buying, and I really liked it!
I didn’t really realize that BIG glitter nails is the ‘in’ thing nowadays until I got this email from Urban Decay in my inbox and also realized lots of my female students were wearing glitter polishes as well:
I like how it says “Our fave: ZIGGY. Concentrated multi-colored glitter… not a wimpy clear coat,” and it’s totally true!
Most BIG glitter nail polishes give very sparse glitters. However, now that I look at this Urban Decay Ziggy, it seems to be small, not BIG glitters (like #1).
#1 polish (Dear Darling Nails Bling Bling WH020) gives very good dense coat of polish, as expected of a small glitter polish.
However, #2-6, the bigger glitter polishes, is much more sparse.
It’s okay though if you plan to mix and match all the colors anyways, because once you have all 5 coats of different colors on, your nails are fully covered.
It’s a really pretty combination. More interesting than single colored glitter. Highly recommended! I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it ^^
Extra Tip: Use #6 on the bottom and top of the big glitter polish to finish up and fill in any left over gaps or spaces between the big glitters. It gives a nice final gloss.
However, if you want to keep the original strong shine of the big glitters, you can skip this step.
It’s hard to see but I didn’t do it on the index finger of both my hands and the shine is a lot stronger, while the others have a softer gloss.
Matte Pastel Polishes (#7-11)
Pictures go from 1 coat, 2 coats, to 3 coats.
Pros:
- Pretty pastel colors in MATTE (hard to find)
- Cheap
Cons:
- Lighter colors crack after application (it’s not a cracking polish!!)
- Lighter and brighter colors don’t go on as smoothly as darker colors (even with a base)
- Wears off easily (very chipped by 5th day)
Even though the application is terrible, I don’t regret buying these.
They look very pretty all together, and remind me of Barbie fingernails, because Barbie’s nails are usually matte =p
Especially #10, the pastel pink, is SUCH a Barbie color!
Matte Brown + Neutral Polishes (#12-16)
I super love these colors — very unique matte browns. Matte colors are generally harder to find, and it’s not common to see such a range of matte browns.
My unnie said the dark brown (#13 on my pinky) reminded her of chocolate, and I totally agree!
When I was young, I used to have this thing for a yellow pencil crayon that looked super like lemon. It made me want to eat it. This dark brown polish is the same, except it’s like chocolate! It’d be great for drawing chocolate nail art designs. That is SO on my to-do list!
All the pastel and brown matte polishes are from the same line, so the pros and cons are all the same except the browns don’t crack and go on as unevenly. This problem only seems to occur with the lighter colors.
#12 was from a general beauty store. I used to have a friend who wanted to color her nails, but didn’t want anything too noticeable. I honestly couldn’t understand what the heck she was talking about, because I think if you don’t want your nails to stand out, then just don’t do them at all.
When I saw #12, I thought it would be the perfect color for her — a very nude, skin colored polish.
It looked like it would be real nice when I just tried on one coat. However, three coats gives it a kind of murky, dirty nude pink, which I don’t really like.
I think it would be best to wear just one coat of #12 when your nails are short and you don’t need have that awkward look — colored nails with both the nail and nail bed difference still showing.
OPI vs. the Cheap Stuff
Another friend of mine and I were discussing whether OPI polishes are worth it or not.
She said cheap polishes make her nails yellow. I suggested it may actually be her nail polish remover, which can dry and damage nails. It may also be due to the amount of breathing time you allow your nails to have without nail polish over it.
I use a gel type remover from Faceshop which is supposed to be more gentle on the nails. I also usually wait at least 2 weeks in between nail jobs, because I’m usually too lazy to do it often. So, I haven’t had problems with my nails turning yellow.
This may come as a surprise from someone who does quite a bit of nail art, but I don’t own any OPI polishes.
I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on my nail art supplies, but can’t justify it on OPI polishes. I’m always curious and contemplating it, but I can never end up spending $11 on one polish when I can buy 8-9 polishes with the same money.
Unlike in North America, where even drugstore polishes cost $4-5 a bottle, many polishes cost $1-2 (#12 was just 70 cents!), in which case, I prefer having a larger collection of the cheap stuff than just a few OPI polishes.
What do you guys think? Are OPI polishes worth it? Are they really that much better?
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011, 9:56 pm | 
Hauls, Nails | 
RSS feed
| 
Respond | 
Trackback