Konad: Sinful Colors Secret Admirer over OPI You Ottaware Purple

I'm sad my camera can't seem the capture the gorgeousness of Secred Admirer as a Konad color. It creates a beautiful subtle lace-like look. More like a gray glittery accent, barely visible in natural light.

OPI You Ottaware Purple

This beautiful purple was released as part of the Canadian collection for the fall season of 2004, so it's still the old formula. And you can definitely tell. It has the old small brush and the application is quite streaky, I needed 4 coats to make it look even. It also takes longer to dry than the new formula.

Konad: OPI Russian Navy suede over OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees suede

I've ignored the suedes for a long time, thinking they would be pretty much like the mattes, which I did not like at all. After seeing several suede NOTDs I decided to take the plunge and ordered a couple of them. So far I am very impressed. The application was very easy, and it didn't accent every detail of the nail like the mattes do. I am very curious how the wear will be, especially with the konad and no top coat..

Scam update

So today I received an e-mail from PayPal notifying me that a refund is on the way from the non-responsive eBay seller. Now I won't believe it until I actually see the refund in my account, but is a good sign. I still don't agree with the practices of this particular seller, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt.

Last week I tried to order a bottle of DS Glamour from another seller, and this one contacted me saying she ran out of stock, and immediately refunded. So it might be possible this 'scammer' ran out of stock too and didn't know how to handle it. No matter what the actual reasoning is, I can tell you I will be more hesitant to order from eBay in the future..

China Glaze C-C-Courage

You can never go wrong with a purple glitter!

More details about the scam

A lot of you have contacted me for more information regarding the scam, so I figured it would be easier for me to just post it here. Initially I was a bit wary to post the eBay details since the case is still pending, but then again, everybody should be warned.

In short, the eBay seller in question was dherrison (now changed to herrisonhh). This seller had listings for a few hard to find polishes, one of which was OPI DS Glamour which I bid on and paid. Two weeks had passed and I had not received the item, so I contacted the seller asking for a tracking number or some other proof of shipment. No response. Then slowly more and more people started leaving negative feedback at the eBay profile saying they had been scammed. That's when I opened a case with eBay. And a couple of days later the story popped up on MUA.

That's pretty much what has happened to me, and apparently many others too. I hope I answered all of your questions with this post.

A word of warning

As some of you might know, quite a few people have been scammed lately on eBay, buying hard to find polishes from a certain seller. Being one of the scammed people myself, I feel the least I can do is share the findings of a clever fellow MUAer, who found out the scammer's identity:
http://makeupalley.com/m~107186541

Below is a quite of MissHavisham's post on MUA, in case the actual post gets deleted:

"A brilliant detective followed a paypal trail that led us straight to her. It all matches up. The name, the e-mail address. The person who scammed several of us out of lot of money for bottles of Starry Starry Night and DS Glamour also used the same paypal account to collect payments from selling her polish to other nail boarders. That's how we connected the dots. Not only is she a regular poster, but she's also a blogger.

I am disgusted. Absolutely disgusted. How could you ManateeMama? How could you? I'd really like to see you dig yourself out of this hole, because it is deep. I have forwarded e-mails that prove the paypal accounts are one and the same. You need to fix everything and make it right, refund everyone's money. Face your mistake. And I do hope that everyone can see this post before it gets deleted, because I'm sure it will. I want everyone to know what you did to us."

It's sad that it had to come to this.. a big thank you to MissHavisham for sharing. I will end my post now before I start saying things I might regret..

Konad: China Glaze Awaken & Millennium over OPI Meet Me on the Star Ferry

My first try at Konad using separate plate designs. Usually I just use a full plate design, since it is quick and easy. But today I decided to try something different. For the butterflies I used Millennium with plate M1. For the flowers I used Awaken with the plate from the Essence Stampy kit.

OPI Meet Me on the Star Ferry

Another new color from the recently released Hong Kong collection. It's a gorgeous glitter infused plum with a few holo flecks. Depending on the light it varies between burgundy, plum and shades of brown.

Konad: China Glaze 2NITE over ORLY Pixie Dust

I tried Pixie Dust for the first time today, but it was rather disappointing. It looked very boring just by itself, so I decided to holo it up with 2NITE.

ORLY Midnight Star

Another pretty purple <3

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

After a long day like today I really just don't know what to write (and I suck at it anyway, that's why this is a photoblog :p). Anyway, apparently there are different versions of Emerald Sparkle. Can you tell me if I have the "good" one?

Konad: China Glaze Awaken over OPI DS Exclusive

Sometimes I just get this sudden urge to change my mani, so tonight I decided to go for a little Konad. Until now I've been playing it safe since I just started my new job, wearing just cremes and sheers. But tomorrow I'm going in for the first time wearing a Konad (and holo for that matter). See, I don't change my mani every day, I don't have time for that. I usually swatch a bunch during the weekends so that I can still update my blog every day. There, the secret is out! ;)

OPI DS Original

Another pretty polish from the Designer Series <3

ORLY Velvet Rope

This pretty little beauty was lurking in the back of the dusty ORLY shelf at my local beauty supply. I haven't seen this one before, and it's old formula, but since I'm a sucker for purple I had to grab it. It's a very vibrant blue based purple with scattered silver glitter mixed in. Google tells me this was part of the Hot Stuff collection, but I have no clue when this was released..

OPI DS Exclusive

I absolutely love the DS polishes. Flawless application and gorgeous colors! Like DS Exclusive, a yum berry colored holo.

Konad: NARS Purple Rain over OPI Louvre Me Louvre Me Not

Today I tried to spice up my mani by adding NARS Purple Rain over OPI Louvre Me Louvre Me Not, which looks kind of boring by itself, especially after a day of house cleaning (excuse the tip wear, scrubbing does not agree with my nails). Anyway, I decided to try Purple Rain for this since it's a very opaque polish and adds a nice shimmer. As you can see it works pretty well, even with more detailed stamp patterns :)

China Glaze 2NITE

Another really pretty China Glaze holo, I just love this collection! I really need to get them all before they become HTF :(

Anyway, I want to apologize for not commenting on your posts or blogs lately, with so much happening lately and my new job I've been so behind on everything it will take me a while to catch up. Thank you all for your support, already 55 followers in just one month! :)

China Glaze Sci-Fi

Normally I wouldn't wear a color like this, but it actually doesn't look too bad. I mainly got this color to Konad with, but I promised myself I would at least try a full mani with every nail polish I own (that's 184 right now, so still a long way to go). Anyway this seems to be the more metallic little sister of Zoya Freja, a color I really love but can't get to apply nicely (like most Zoyas *sigh*). Application was pretty easy, only two coats needed.

OPI Sea? I Told You

This one reminds me a lot of China Glaze's Sexy in the City, only Sea? I Told You is a bit more shimmery and a bit more green based.

China Glaze OMG

In just a few minutes I'll be on my way to the first day at my new job, and the perfect way to celebrate is a festive mani! I love OMG as it's a nice work appropriate color, yet still has a kick to it.

Comparison: Essence Stampy vs Konad

Recently, Essence has crossed the pond into the US. Originally from Germany, it is a very popular and affordable brand in Europe. As it seems, they revamped their product assortment and added a Konad clone: the Essence Nail Art Stampy kit, which retails for $2.99 at Ulta. Included in the kit is a stamper, scraper and one image plate (shown on the right side of the image). At a fraction of the Konad starter kit price of $15.99, is it worth buying? I decided to do a comparison test.

THE STAMPERS

The stampers seem about equal in quality. The Konad stamper has a longer stem, and the stamper surface is a little bit smaller, which allows for easier stamping. The Stampy stamper (doesn't that sound awful?) has a shorter but thicker stem, which seems a bit more comfortable to hold.

THE SCRAPERS

The scrapers show a significant difference in quality. The Essence scraper seems a bit more flimsy, and has tapered edges, which makes it more difficult to scrape polish off the image plate. As a result you have to apply more pressure, which scratches the image plate more.
Also shown is my personal weapon of choice: the plastic card. It is bendy and has a larger surface, which in my opinion makes it a lot easier to scrape with.

THE IMAGE PLATES

The Essence image plate (on the right) has some really cute designs, not bad for a starter kit plate. The image designs show a little less detail than the Konad plate does, which makes it a bit easier to work with since the polish doesn't dry and settle into the image plate easily. It comes covered with a protective plastic layer, however once removed the plate looks pretty dirty. For the comparison I chose to use Konad plate m2, one of the default starter kit plates.

THE COMPARISON TEST

For the comparison I decided to test with three different brands of polish: Wet 'n Wild, Essence and OPI. After every time stamped all the equipment was cleaned with acetone and rubbed dry.

As you can see in the chart below (click for larger), the combination that gathers the best results is the Konad stamper in combination with the plastic card method. With these designs the Essence image plate seems to do a bit better, but in my opinion some designs are just harder to work with, and I feel it is mostly the stamper and scraper used that determines the success rate.


CONCLUSION

At $2.99, the Essence Stampy kit is a bargain if you want to try nail art stamping. However, the Stampy scraper is hard to work with and scratches image plates easily, so I would advise to use a plastic card instead. Happy stamping!

ORLY Fantasea

I an usually not very impressed by ORLY's colors, but when I saw Fantasea at CVS I had to get it (I'm a sucker for duochromes). Fantasea is a beautiful red based purple shimmer that flashes gold. Definitely one of ORLY's more complex colors.