Tattoos Megan Fox: wtf

Showing posts with label wtf. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Apology (and a request)

It has come to my attention that there have been some pretty freaky ads being displayed on my blog. I am really, really sorry if you happened to see that last one. It was a surprise to me, too!

In regards to this, I have a request. If you see any more, uh, interesting or objectionable ads being displayed, could you please email me with the details so I can block them from appearing again? I already try to filter out any of the questionable ones I catch, like all those sites that sell counterfeit MAC and stuff, but I don't see all of the ones that get displayed.

Hopefully my blog will be unexpected-wang free from now on...

Monday, January 24, 2011

Peter Philips and the Chanel robot?

This is not something I'd normally post, but there's a little robot dude made out of eyeshadow compacts and lipstick tubes and I find it amusing.

It's a short clip featuring Peter Philips (global director of beauty for Chanel) talking about his inspiration for doing makeup, but at around 1:00 in you get to see the makeup robot. It's supposed to be part of an animated film to be released tomorrow.

Peter Philips: Beautiful Dreamer on Nowness.com.

Toward the end you get a closer look at it and there's a funny blush/brush creature too. This is Chanel??

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Illamasqua Throb Collection for Valentine's Day 2011

Oh, Illamasqua, you've done it again. Another collection that's making bloggers buzz... I have the nail portion of the collection to show you, but first, feast your eyes on this:

Gaaaah that is so awesome. I love everything about this picture. Illamasqua = artistry.

Let's get this one out of the way first. It's a creamy off-white polish that has more than one thing in common with this album cover:

*ahem* So, here it is...

Load. Yep, it's exactly what you think it is. The color is really unique, though- an off white with a strong yellow undertone. It's not a clean white by any stretch of the imagination, but it is definitely easier to wear than your standard stark white 'white-out' style white polish. I'd like to think that it looks like buttercream frosting made with real butter and regular vanilla extract (not the clear wedding cake kind). Yeah... buttercream frosting... That's it. Keep telling yourself that.

Throb. A perfect Valentine's Day red creme. Cherry red. I love these types of pin-up girl red cremes. Great formula on this, too. Complete coverage in one coat, but I think it looks nicer and bolder with two.

Scorn. Scorn is part of this collection, too, but you may already have it from when the Nail Quills came out. To recap: Matte black creme, leather-rubber semi-matte finish. Great formula.

And just for fun, I wanted to try out that heart mani from the promo pictures:

This is using Load as the base color and Wet n Wild Black as the heart portion. It's a little sloppy and not quite perfect. But hey, it's my first try, almost no one can be expected to get it perfect on their first try. I applied the black making swooping motions with the plain' old polish brush. Next time I'll use a striping polish with a long brush, but I didn't have one handy this time.

The formula is varied. Throb and Scorn are completely flawless in every way. Load is pretty streaky and needs three coats to be completely even. Drying time is good and the polishes dry to a nice glossy finish even without topcoat. Well, except Scorn, obviously.

Red creme and black matte aren't exactly groundbreaking new colors, but Load is definitely an uncommon shade. I do kinda like it for the novelty aspect... but even excluding that, it's still a really interesting color. Reminds me of antique lace. I want to do some lacy looking Konad prints over it.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Awesome gift idea: White Castle Candle.

I've just heard about this and I think it's awesome! I'm a big fan of offbeat gifts and I'm considering handing a few of these out for Christmas....

Do not adjust your screens. You are actually seeing this. It's a White Castle Slider scented candle. Burger and onion. Seriously, can you believe this? This is so awesome, I'm having a bit of a fit over here!

Now, I haven't smelled this, so I don't know how it compares to the real thing, but still... Burger scented candle. Enough said.

I don't believe that there's any sort of continued charitable contribution resulting from the purchase of this, but this week they did donate $500,000 of the profits from the sale to the Autism Speaks organization. That's pretty noble!

Each candle costs $13 and is available for purchase online (WhiteCastle.com) or at any of the 420 White Castle locations Nationwide. (On a sidenote- are there really, actually exactly 420 White Castle locations? Did they do that on purpose?)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Illamasqua Nail Quills?! Now these are cool.

I've never seen anything like this. I just got this press release, check it out:

Luxury, Handmade Bespoke Nail Quills

Cult British beauty brand Illamasqua pushes their avant-garde, cutting-edge credentials even further with the launch of the Limited Edition Nail Quills...

Unique, extraordinary and extravagant, these tantalising talons are like nothing you've ever seen before.

Two Nail Quills per set, designed to be worn on either thumb, are a perfect matt black with a silver tip. Presented in a beautiful gift box they come complete with nail tabs and glue, these are set to become real collectors items. To complete the look, the Nail Quills work best with matt black Nail Varnish in ‘Scorn.

Designed and hand-crafted exclusively for Illamasqua by one of the hottest names in nails Mike Pocock, who has worked with prestigious fashion titles such as Italian Vogue, British Vogue, W, Harpers Bazaar and Dazed and Confused. He has also complemented the aesthetics of visionaries such as Nick Knight, Steven Miesel and Katy England.

“I was inspired by the contrast between Illamasqua’s new black Nail Varnish in ‘Scorn’ and the bright metallic of the nail wrap I have developed.” Mike Pocock

False nails will never be the same again!

A set of ‘Nail Quills’: £35

Nail Varnish in ‘Scorn’: £13

The Limited Edition Nail Quills are exclusive to illamasqua.com and the Flagship Store at 20 Beak Street, London from the end of November 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

I'm back!

Did you miss me?

While I'm trying to get back into the swing of things- get some pics uploaded and edited, get some reviews finished, check my email- I thought I'd leave you with a picture of a polish I bought only for the name.

CHI Double-Fisted Fuchsia

Friday, July 30, 2010

My Spring It.... for bearded ladies like me.

Recently I was approached by the owner of Beauty By Rachel to see if I wanted to try out the My Spring It facial hair removal device... I'm a hairy beast- I could probably get hired as a body double for Cousin Itt- so of course I said I'd try it out. I'd heard of this type of device before and admittedly I've been curious. I've been using it over the past month and thought I'd share my experience.

What this 'device' is is a spring. A long, skinny, loose but densely coiled spring with a weighty plastic knob handle on either end.

I've included a familiar object alongside it to give you a general idea of how big it is. It's not that big- it's really skinny and about the length of two OPI bottles. Or, for more reference, around the size of a Fender whammy bar.

The one I received is red, but they come in other colors like pink and black. Actually... now that I'm looking it really only comes in red, pink and black. So, you have a choice! I would have preferred a black one but the color really shouldn't matter too much because I won't be using this in front of anyone... heh.

There's an instructional video on the product's website, but I couldn't quite get the hang of their technique. They instruct you to bend the MySpringIt into a U shape and rotate the handles. I couldn't get it to work that way, so I used a different technique.

I bend the spring into a soft curve or up to a deep U bend depending on what feels right. I touch it to my skin while it's curved, get a feel for how much hair it's going to grip and then I straighten the spring and roll it while still against the skin. This technique works better for me.

You can feel it grip every tiny little hair. I am really quite impressed with how well it works. It's extremely goofy looking when you're doing it, but it is effective. It can grip a lot of hairs at once, but you'll need to do it a couple times for complete removal.

I find it to be most effective on the upper lip, but it also worked on the side of my face, the tiny fine blonde hairs below my lower lip (which I probably shouldn't have removed but I was curious) and under the chin.

I normally wax or use an epilator on my upper lip, so I can compare the MySpringIt to those methods-

Pain-wise, it's more painful than waxing but less painful than epilating.

Mess-wise, it's a million times less messy than waxing and slightly less messy than epilating- when I use an epilator the hairs it pulls out can stay on my face and make a mess- the MySpringIt traps the hairs in the spring coil.

Thoroughness is a little more complicated. It grabs tiny fine baby hairs much better than waxing in my experience, but it is less precise than the epilator. It takes a little longer than the epilator to get all of the hairs because of the angle and curve of the spring. I try to cover as much area as possible with the curve of the coil, but it still took 4 or 5 passes to get everything. Still, not much of a time investment.

I tried it first on full growth and again on really short fine regrowth and it worked excellent both times. It's very, very good at grabbing really short hairs. It doesn't leave redness on your face like waxing does and it doesn't leave the little red spots like epilating does.

One advantage I find it has over my epilator is that it doesn't make noise (or look as naughty). The epilator I use for my face is a crazy pink battery-operated thing that looks and sounds way more suggestive than it actually is, but the MySpringIt comes in a sleek black velvet pouch that says "Beauty By Rachel" on the front. Very unassuming, doesn't require any power to use and makes no noise. Albeit, the pouch is rather poor quality... the Velcro came off the second time I opened it, but at least it comes in one and it's discreet. Carry it around in your purse and no one will look twice. Looks like a makeup brush or something.

Cleaning is really easy too since there's no mechanical or electrical parts. I just stretched the spring over the sink and blew the hairs out and then wiped it down with alcohol.

A disadvantage to this method is that it requires both hands to use. I know it's supposed to be a facial hair removal device, but I was hoping I could use it for other areas too. I couldn't get it to work on my legs or arms or knuckles... Only on my face. An epilator will work anywhere and doesn't require both hands.

The price is reasonable compared to what I'd pay for a salon wax or to buy an epilator- they're $16 each, 2 for $27 or Buy 3 get one free. Shipping is 99 cents domestic. After having used it for a while and faced with the choice of whether or not I'd buy one- yeah, I'd totally buy one. I had good results with it. I really like this thing. It's small, it's clean, it makes no noise, it's portable and doesn't need any heat, batteries, cords, strips or electricity to use. Very convenient. Makes my eyes tear up when I use it, but still, it does a good job!

Mine was sent to me for review, but they're sold via the MySpringIt website. I have not seen these things in stores but I can see them being stocked in salons or beauty supply places...

Friday, July 23, 2010

Ode to Black Eyeliner

I ♥ you, Urban Decay Zero 24/7 eyeliner.

(Was cleaning out my vanity a couple weeks ago and found these!)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Grossest Polish Ever

I recently swatched what has got to be the grossest polish I have swatched to date.

I bought it last winter because it looked so pretty, but then I forgot all about it and never wore it.

The color is really beautiful in the bottle- a pale icy blue with a smattering of opalescent glitter. A snowy, sparkly, perfect winter color adorably housed inside a snowman's head.

Unfortunately, it just does not work on the nails. It dries to a chalky matte finish with huge lumps and chunks because the glitter is covered in polish and can't shine through the chalky base. It looks like cottage cheese. If I walked into the hospital wearing this I'm sure they'd write me a prescription.

I mean... this is so gross and chunky that you can still see the chunks even with two coats of topcoat. The funny thing is, this polish looks better in the picture than it does in real life. Usually it's the complete opposite- polish looks better in real life than in the pictures. My pictures usually tend to show me flaws that I don't notice in real life as well, but in this case it seems to hide the flaws that are glaringly obvious in real life. Must be all the topcoat.

It makes me wonder how a polish that looks so incredible in the bottle ends up being so gross on the nail. It's like they didn't even test this before they mass produced it. It doesn't even have a name! It's a crying shame cause the color in the bottle is positively magical.

I normally love the Snowman polishes that come out every year. My absolute favorite is that red and green fine glitter Snowman. And you know.... they used to have cute little top hats for lids but now all they have is a weird black pole coming out of their head.

So far that's the only dud snowman in my collection. All the other ones are amazing. Fingers crossed this year's set...

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Absolutely not nail related...

But....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLLI!!!!

I made a collage in honor of Oliver's birthday. It's my new background.

(See, Karen? I did it! XD)

I could make some wisecrack about Olli being welcome to komm in mein Boot or something like that, but I think I'll just leave it at the fangirl-esque collage. Heh...

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Weird rambling mush and a buncha random Orly swatches

First off, I want to thank you all for all the kind words. I really do feel sad or like I'm letting people down when I can't post frequently or answer emails in a timely manner. I've gotten so much positive feedback over the years of blogging from messages telling me how much people like my pictures or how much my pictures help them with their polish choices, and it's been surreal and awesome to meet so many other people who love makeup and polish like I do.

The downside to that is that when I can't post as often as I want to, I feel like I'm not helping anymore, you know what I mean? I feel like when I'm just posting about random crap I like that it isn't helping anyone, like posting pictures of some old polish from 1997 that I love but no one can buy it anymore. I'm just trying to find balance, I think. One, to manage my time more responsibly (cause as much as I love it, this is a huuuuuge time vampire and I spend countless hours taking pictures of my own hands... productive, right?) and two, to not feel bad about posting random stuff I like on my own blog even though I know I'll get a bajillion emails saying "Where can I buy this??? Why do you post discontinued colors, you're a tease!!"

I really do love writing my blog, I love taking pictures of polish and recording my thoughts about it. And I really love the idea that somehow my blog helps someone halfway across the world find a new favorite polish. That's really cool. So, thank you for the support and all the good times. I'm not going anywhere!

So, yeah, I don't mean to get all weird and mushy and stuff... And now I feel all awkward and don't know how to transition into the rest of the post.... ummm.... uhh....

Look what my brother did to my Venus Flytrap! I don't think it really likes Caramel Apple flavored candy corn.

And now polish swatches!

You probably remember me talking about swatching my Orly collection a few months back. I made a lot of progress in spite of the complete lack of sunlight. I have a pretty big Orly collection that I have a love-hate relationship with. I love them cause they used to have tons of cool colors but I hate them because they take seventy-two years to dry.

Amethyst Decadence. Really cool looking polish. Sheer purple with silver flecks. I forget how many coats this was but I think it was four.

Buried Treasure. Frosty bronzy-brownish metallic. Kind of an old-fashioned 80's-90's color.

Fantasea. Quite honestly one of the best colors Orly has ever done. It has that 230-like red-pink-purple-gold iridescence that I love to see in polish. A little bit like OPI... Merryberry Mauve? One of those. Super awesome.

Ginger Lily. Truthfully, I only bought this for the name. Why for the name? You'd have to know me personally to know that :)

Cut The Cake. Blurry picture, cool polish. I don't normally go for the 'bridal collection' type polishes but this one is super pretty. It's sheer but it's made of little white-iridescent flecks of shimmer and they subtly change color with the angle.

Dazzle. I think this might be the third picture I've posted of this and I still can't get a good shot of it. It's your standard silver foil, but seems to have a little extra silver microglitter kick to it.

Flagstone Rush. Autumn! Changing leaves! The 90's! Brown lipstick!

Glam. A girl on the nail board made me fall in love with this. It's so hard to photograph. It's a deep wine red with silver glitter. Unique and hot. I always think of that girl when I wear this! Same with Essie Cloud 9.

Gogo. Pain in the ass to apply but a super hot color. Pure soft white with little bits of shimmer and silver glitter. You probably can't see the silver glitter in this picture, but it is in there. Very appropriate name, too, it makes me think of Go-Go boots.

Goth. Have I posted this before? I don't remember. Black with irregular silver glitter. One of my favorite black/silver combinations cause the glitter is all different sizes.

Hot House Flower. One of my most worn Orlys. Neon orange/coral with pink/violet iridescence. Picture doesn't do it justice.

Jungle Love. Ooh, old one, bonus! Why don't they make them like this anymore? This reminds me of an old Nat Robbins cream-to-powder eyeshadow I used to wear in high school. It's exactly the same color. I accidentally left it at Jill's house at a sleepover so I had to go everywhere looking for a new one. It creased like mad, it was horrible, but I wore the hell out of that shadow.

La Vida Loca. Another of my most-worn Orlys. Neon fuchsia with blue/violet iridescence.

Livewire. Super hot but one of the worst staining polishes EVER. I had neon yellow nails for a week after I wore this. It's barely-neon yellow with golden iridescent shimmer. Takes 3-4 coats and never dries but I love it so much.

I'll post more of my Orly collection sometime. That was fun.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Misa Fall 2009 I'm Only Human Collection

The long-awaited fall collection from Misa is finally here! You may remember the interesting promo picture for this collection from this post... The colors that go along with it are quite unexpected!

Pictures first, opinions second.

Can't Nobody Take Me Down. Brown creme. This has a lot of red in it, almost appearing purple in certain lights. It's not quite a chocolate brown... It's too red/purple to be pure chocolate.

Forgive, Forget, For Me I Will. Dark orange creme. This looks more red in the picture than it does in real life. It's a very deep burnt orange creme. Very appropriate for fall!

I'm Going To Love Myself. Bright purple/pink creme. Looks like everyone's doing brights for fall! Flattering cool bright pink, in the same vein as OPI Ate Berries In The Canaries / OPI I'm India Mood For Love. Love these pinks on my skintone.

Sorry, Just Can't Help It. Medium red-purple creme. This, as always, look more blue in the picture than it does in real life. I'm a sucker for purple cremes... Sorry, just can't help it. Hahaha, okay, bad joke. But really, I just can't help but love this color!

That's My Little Secret. Berry creme. Cool-toned version of Today is My Birthday!

Today Is My Birthday! Berry creme. Red/warm-toned version of That's My Little Secret.

The shades are slightly truer to life in the bottle picture at the top of the page.

The formula on these is very, very thick. I had a little difficulty applying these because they didn't want to smooth out nicely due to the thickness. Nothing that can't be fixed with a little polish thinner, though. Misas in general are on the thick side so that's normal, but these are thicker than previous Misa polishes I've used. Opacity is very good, you could probably get away with one coat on these but I did two to cover up bald spots. Drying time is long, but they do dry to a shiny finish even without topcoat. One of my brushes was defective, so be sure to check for stray hairs before applying- a quick trim with very sharp scissors should do the trick.

Okay, deep breath. I hate to criticize a polish collection from a company whose collections usually make me jump for joy, but here goes....

I'm not completely in love with it! I really wanted to be. I'm a big Misa fan and I've been dying to see what kind of fun, fascinating and unique colors they had in store for us this year, and, truthfully, I feel a little bit let down....

There's nothing wrong with the colors at all. They're great colors, beautiful colors, colors I like. It's just that... they're not unique. We've seen these already in everyone else's fall collections. Misa usually does such unique and awesome colors, I wasn't expecting these to be so common. For one, they're all cremes, which is okay because I love cremes, but I would have loved to see a little more variety. And second: Berry cremes. Two out of six are berry cremes. I know a lot of people love them, but I personally think I might scream if I see one more berry creme. All of this year's collections have had multiple berry cremes and they're all near-duplicates of each other. Again, I would have loved to see more variety.

I love brown, I love orange, I love purple and I love Misa polish... But I'm just not feeling head-over-heels for this collection like I usually do with Misa. Remember last year's fall collection from Misa? It's still one of the best collections EVER, even a year after its release.... I suppose I was hoping for another one of those.

Also.... I feel the need to address this gem:

I'm not easily offended and I can't say this image actually *offends* me, but it does make me giggle like a twelve-year-old.

Here are the points I'd like to make on this. I'll keep it a clean and mature as possible.

First, it's shockingly raunchy and suggestive for a nail polish ad. I don't think the target audience for nail polish advertisements would really appreciate this type of image. Normally I'm giving China Glaze a hard time about their pseudo-pornographic promotional images, but I'm shocked to see this from Misa! Does this image really appeal to women? Does it really make women want to buy nail polish? I'm not a marketing expert by any means but this really surprises me. "Hey, does that woman have balls in her mouth?" "Yeah, let's go buy nail polish!!"

I understand that this image is supposed to portray Eve's sin (and that's something to celebrate??) and I'm just glad it didn't include the serpent as well.

Second, the theme of this collection is supposed to be a female-empowerment "You go girl!" type of theme. However, the model in the advertisement seems to be simulating a sexual act that is pretty much the opposite of female empowerment. Pardon my language, but there is nothing 'empowering' about being tea-bagged. This image seems to be very contrary to the 'feminist' embrace-your-flaws theme that was intended.

I really hope I'm not being too harsh! I know that I'm entitled to my own opinion, and hey, this is my blog so it's all about my opinion... I have to be honest, and I know you all come to read my honest opinion on things... But Misa never usually lets me down! Hopefully my criticism comes across as constructive, because that's how it's intended.

So... what do YOU all think? I'd love to hear your opinions!

Friday, July 17, 2009

More picture thieves :(

Check this crap out:

Do those nails look familiar to you?

Seriously... is it so hard to just credit me for my own photographs? It's disturbing to see my body parts plastered all over someone else's website with someone else's name on them. Do I have to use a more obnoxious watermark or what?

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.