I’ve been keeping a couple of packets of the Kracie Petit Moi Nail Color Remover sheets in my purse. You know, for nailmergencies like when your polish is shrinking and there’s 1/4-inch of nail showing between your cuticle and the polish.
I had used this product successfully several months ago. The sheet was soaked with enough remover for both hands and didn’t dry out my nails. So when a nailmergency popped up today, I didn’t hesitate to break open a packet. Continue reading “Nail Fail: Kracie Nail Color Remover Sheets Review”
Dior Nail Glow? More like Dior Nail Whoa, am I right?!
Dior Nail Glow ($25 for 0.33 oz.) is one of those products that I second-guessed myself on all the time in the beginning. $25 for clear nail polish? Psssshh. But pretty soon, I noticed that the bottle was half-full and realized that it had become my go-to polish for lazy days (i.e., most days). It does exactly what it says: the pinks of your nails look pinker and the whites (or yellows as it may be) look whiter.
Let’s be real, no one will think you have a French manicure. But it does make your nails look naturally healthy and shiny. They just look polished in all senses of the word.
The formula is tinted bright, cool pink. You can see the cool bluish tones on the brush in the photos below; the blue counteracts any yellowness in your nails. The polish is as easy to apply and quick to dry as clear nail polish. I also like the wide paddle brush, which is curved on the sides to fit the contours of your nail. I usually apply two coats (no basecoat or topcoat necessary).
The nearest competitor I can think of is Perfect Formula’s Pink Gel Coat. It’s much cheaper at $30 for almost twice the amount of polish and also promises to strengthen and harden nails. In comparison, Dior Nail Glow promises nothing beyond improving the cosmetic appearance. I tried Pink Gel Coat long before Dior Nail Glow came out and ended up returning it because the color was too blue-toned. As in my nails looked like they belonged to an ice zombie with its circulation cut off in certain lights (especially on cloudy days).
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Leave it to Dior to make a polish with just the right amount of blue and which only ever makes my nails look healthy and alive. So I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would totally pay $25 again for clear nail polish.
No polish. Bor-ing!One coat. Now we’re talking . . .Two coats. Awww yeah!
Pros: Really brightens the appearance of nails. Dries quickly. Brush design makes for easy application. Polish hasn’t thickened after over a year.
Cons: Wears out quickly (3-4 days). Can’t counteract extreme yellowness.
The Nails Inc. website says “Perfect Nude polish is the latest innovation for a healthy manicure – like a BB cream for your nails.” Ok bullshit, it’s not a BB cream (which is basically a tinted moisturizer) for your nails. It’s just a really nice nude-color nail polish mmkay? I understand the need to capitalize on the BB cream craze (soooooooo South Korea circa 2010 btw) but BB for hair and nails is just a dumb concept. It’s like saying “I put foundation on my hair.”
Ah, I bought too much in LA. Some are gifts. But let’s be real, most of it is for me.
Haul-la! The full haul+free samples
First, I bought some cotton pads to remove eye makeup. After Costco stopped offering my favorite Denon cotton pads (cheap and didn’t disintegrate or shed lint), I’ve been trying out different drugstore offerings and some Asian ones that I had lying around. They’ve all been meh. Here’s hoping these are better. Continue reading “They See Me Haulin’ Part 2: Haul Revealed”
In LA, I shopped my way across the city for Asian beauty products. All for you! I’m sorry, I meant me. All for me. By no means is this list meant to be extensive. I only listed places that I already knew of or came across. I hope, however, that this is useful to someone interested in shopping for Asian makeup and skincare. My faves: Image, Beauty Tips, and Takashima–all in the San Gabriel Valley. Read on for info about stores there and in Koreatown and West LA. Some things to note:
Testers for makeup and skincare were common.
Prices across stores were basically the same (e.g., $18 for Clio Gelspresso eyeliner), so comparison shopping wasn’t as important as I thought it would be. Now whether those prices beat online prices, I don’t know. Update: I’ve noticed some wildly disparate prices on some skincare items. As in some items being 2x higher at one store versus another. So comparison shopping is important.
Pretty much every store that sold Korean makeup sold Clio Gelspresso eyeliners and the full range of Peripera lip products and It’s Skin Babyface makeup.
SAN GABRIEL VALLEY–ATLANTIC SQUARE
1. Beauty Tips/Tips Beauty (Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese)500 N. Atlantic Blvd., Suite 177, Monterey Park, CA 91754 The entrance is on Atlantic. Although small, it is crammed with products from Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese brands, including brands that I didn’t see anywhere else. Also carries a healthy selection of American/Western brands, some of which are not commonly found in stores (such as Avene, La Roche Posay, Klorane, Eve Lom). Great for: Continue reading “They See Me Haulin’ Part 1: Shopping in LA”
To be on trend with summer, I have been into painting my nails some pretty random bright colors lately. It’s about the only beauty area that I can have wiggle room at work, considering the Japanese investment banking culture.
I have oily nail beds that fail to hold any color for more than a couple of days, even gel nails that have been cured with UV. And that’s another topic for a bitch fest, since gel nails always peel at the edges but impossible to get rid of once it’s a jagged little circle of color in the middle of your damn nail. I have been forced to pick at it til it strips off a micro-millimeter layer of keratin on my nail.
So I just repaint every couple of days. The other day I was at Ricky’s and found the butter LONDON base & top coat set (for goddamn $40!) I forked out the dough anyway. Economics have taught me that in conditions of uncertainty, price signals quality. So I am a sucker for stupid expensive base and top coat that implies it will make any nail polish last like it’s gel.
I had used this product successfully several months ago. The sheet was soaked with enough remover for both hands and didn’t dry out my nails. So when a nailmergency popped up today, I didn’t hesitate to break open a packet. Continue reading “Nail Fail: Kracie Nail Color Remover Sheets Review”
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