Acetone Files: Sephora Store Haul / Nails Inc Leather Effect Old Compton Street
Acetone Files
Sephora Haul / Nails Inc Leather Effect Old Compton Street
My mall just opened a brand new Sephora store last weekend, and I got to go this weekend to nose through the offerings!
This isn't my photo and I definitely wasn't one of the 176 people standing in line on opening day! But this is my new Sephora store!
This also isn't my photo, but gives you an idea what it looked like inside - pretty damn close, this one. Everything was rather dim and neon-back-lit, but I am digging the black-and-white shiny color scheme! There are lights in just about every shelf, which actually made it a bit harder to see everything ironically - I had to hold up nail polish away from the glowing shelves to tell what color it really was. It was like Glamour to make the polish look more appealing, but fades when you take it away!
Polish I Most Wanted but Can't Afford: Marc Jacobs Petra. The price wasn't even listed. Online it was $18. Whoof! Pretty sure I have a dupe of it, but I cannot get over the amazing ovaloid bottles - so chic!
Apparently Sephora stores are no longer going to be carrying Sephora by OPI - I don't know if that means the brand is going away, or if they're only available online. But all the SOPIs were on sale for 3/$10! That's a steal, considering you usually have to pay $10 plus shipping online! I got six SOPI, two for frankening since they were so cheap (Indigo with the Flow, a dark periwinkle blue hex topcoat, and Only Gold for Me, the same in gold), and four for my first SOPI stash!
My Haul Wheel
I'm way excited to have gotten Metro Chic. Metro Chic has been on my greige want list forever, and I had frankly given up hope since the online asking prices were so high - second hand, as high as $30! I was terrified there'd be none left, but I snagged one of a couple bottles from the SOPI tower. (I say tower because it was rather tall, lit up from the bottom, and I had to stand on tip-toe to see the top rung and crouch down to see the bottom).
I'm really excited about Blasted Opalescent Gold too, which I didn't realize was a crackle til I got it home. I tried it over greige and the effect is awesome - you get the iridescent golden-green quality of the flakies, plus it almost kind of crackles the base color with it, so you get a neat texture underneath.
Caffeine Fix was one of those polishes I simply could not tell what color it was in the bottle - like, at all. It showed up as just black darkness in the store, and the shiny shrink wrap layer made it completely impossible to see. I assumed it was dark brown, because of the coffee name, and I love pretty much any dark polish. When I got it home and swatched it I was pleasantly surprised to see it's a deep oxblood - that's what they call that between-burgundy-and-brown color. The first layer is actually more red and a little sheer, like blood, then the second coat gives it that thick inky brown.
The one I was disappointed about was Ruby Without a Cause. It looks duochromy in the bottle, magenta-red with veins of blue-green silver. But when I swatched it, the silver part pretty much disappeared and all I got was a shimmery burgundy, no real duochrome at all. It's pretty enough, but I'm not much of a red-polish person, and I already have a shimmery dark red. I'll probably be chucking that one in my "sell someday" box.
I also got a teeny little bottle of Sephora nail polish for $1, in greige of course, named Gypsy. It turned out to be the darker shift of greige, and applied pretty well for being a dollar.
Not at Sephora, but while on my trip to the mall, I found Maybelline Carbon Frost, their black crackle, on sale for $2.50 at Target. I was prepared for it to not crackle so well, but it turned out amazing over greige! That was $2.50 well spent!
Now I'm going to show you the most exciting thing I got at Sephora: Nails Inc Leather Effect! I've been lusting after one of these since you could only get the black one with the whole Swarovski-and-skulls kit for $35+. No shipping is definitely a plus with these, since they're $10 a pop! There were at least 6 colors to choose from (I didn't see the burgundy one I've been seeing online and in magazines, though I think it may have sold out) and I opted for the grey - more versatile than black, just as classic.
Old Compton Street is a lovely pale stone grey, very cool and unassuming. The leather effect floored me on the example nail in the store; it felt just like leather! I was prepared for it to not be as perfect at home, but when I put some on the wheel, it felt just as much like leather! Now here's the weird part - on my nail, it felt weirdly rougher and less "smooth" the way real leather feels. I can't figure out why really. Clearly the leather effect is just finer liquid sand, which gives it a smoother feel. It felt more like sandpaper on my actual nails. I like the idea, but it was kind of a mistake to put actual leather on the cap - it just emphasizes how not-soft your nails are in comparison.
In any event, it applied beautifully and dried in a snap, so you get your money's worth with Nails Inc, I'd say! Despite not feeling quite like leather, I am in love with the leather effect - it's perfect for people who hate the way Liquid Sand feels, because it's buffed down a bit, more like superfine sandpaper versus real sand. And frankly I'd much rather evoke leather on my nails than sand! If it had genuinely felt like it did on the swatch on my fingers, I'd have gone back for the black, and by all means, if you like this texture, get them all! Another plus is it's available in a bunch of classy cream shades, not the blinding sparkle-fests that other brands are opting for.
Good news! I found my ring! I've been missing this baby for like 8 months. Turns out Zerda, my build-a-fox, borrowed it without asking. It turned up in her clothing bag yesterday. I have no idea if I put it there on purpose and punked myself, or if it fell off and rolled under my bed and into the clothes bag. Anyway, I had given up on this ring, and I'm psyched to include it in my look today - I wanted some silver studs more than ever for this manicure, and my newfound old ring gave it the metal edge the polish was screaming for.
Sephora Haul / Nails Inc Leather Effect Old Compton Street
My mall just opened a brand new Sephora store last weekend, and I got to go this weekend to nose through the offerings!
This isn't my photo and I definitely wasn't one of the 176 people standing in line on opening day! But this is my new Sephora store!
This also isn't my photo, but gives you an idea what it looked like inside - pretty damn close, this one. Everything was rather dim and neon-back-lit, but I am digging the black-and-white shiny color scheme! There are lights in just about every shelf, which actually made it a bit harder to see everything ironically - I had to hold up nail polish away from the glowing shelves to tell what color it really was. It was like Glamour to make the polish look more appealing, but fades when you take it away!
Polish I Most Wanted but Can't Afford: Marc Jacobs Petra. The price wasn't even listed. Online it was $18. Whoof! Pretty sure I have a dupe of it, but I cannot get over the amazing ovaloid bottles - so chic!
Apparently Sephora stores are no longer going to be carrying Sephora by OPI - I don't know if that means the brand is going away, or if they're only available online. But all the SOPIs were on sale for 3/$10! That's a steal, considering you usually have to pay $10 plus shipping online! I got six SOPI, two for frankening since they were so cheap (Indigo with the Flow, a dark periwinkle blue hex topcoat, and Only Gold for Me, the same in gold), and four for my first SOPI stash!
My Haul Wheel
I'm way excited to have gotten Metro Chic. Metro Chic has been on my greige want list forever, and I had frankly given up hope since the online asking prices were so high - second hand, as high as $30! I was terrified there'd be none left, but I snagged one of a couple bottles from the SOPI tower. (I say tower because it was rather tall, lit up from the bottom, and I had to stand on tip-toe to see the top rung and crouch down to see the bottom).
I'm really excited about Blasted Opalescent Gold too, which I didn't realize was a crackle til I got it home. I tried it over greige and the effect is awesome - you get the iridescent golden-green quality of the flakies, plus it almost kind of crackles the base color with it, so you get a neat texture underneath.
Caffeine Fix was one of those polishes I simply could not tell what color it was in the bottle - like, at all. It showed up as just black darkness in the store, and the shiny shrink wrap layer made it completely impossible to see. I assumed it was dark brown, because of the coffee name, and I love pretty much any dark polish. When I got it home and swatched it I was pleasantly surprised to see it's a deep oxblood - that's what they call that between-burgundy-and-brown color. The first layer is actually more red and a little sheer, like blood, then the second coat gives it that thick inky brown.
The one I was disappointed about was Ruby Without a Cause. It looks duochromy in the bottle, magenta-red with veins of blue-green silver. But when I swatched it, the silver part pretty much disappeared and all I got was a shimmery burgundy, no real duochrome at all. It's pretty enough, but I'm not much of a red-polish person, and I already have a shimmery dark red. I'll probably be chucking that one in my "sell someday" box.
I also got a teeny little bottle of Sephora nail polish for $1, in greige of course, named Gypsy. It turned out to be the darker shift of greige, and applied pretty well for being a dollar.
Not at Sephora, but while on my trip to the mall, I found Maybelline Carbon Frost, their black crackle, on sale for $2.50 at Target. I was prepared for it to not crackle so well, but it turned out amazing over greige! That was $2.50 well spent!
Now I'm going to show you the most exciting thing I got at Sephora: Nails Inc Leather Effect! I've been lusting after one of these since you could only get the black one with the whole Swarovski-and-skulls kit for $35+. No shipping is definitely a plus with these, since they're $10 a pop! There were at least 6 colors to choose from (I didn't see the burgundy one I've been seeing online and in magazines, though I think it may have sold out) and I opted for the grey - more versatile than black, just as classic.
Old Compton Street is a lovely pale stone grey, very cool and unassuming. The leather effect floored me on the example nail in the store; it felt just like leather! I was prepared for it to not be as perfect at home, but when I put some on the wheel, it felt just as much like leather! Now here's the weird part - on my nail, it felt weirdly rougher and less "smooth" the way real leather feels. I can't figure out why really. Clearly the leather effect is just finer liquid sand, which gives it a smoother feel. It felt more like sandpaper on my actual nails. I like the idea, but it was kind of a mistake to put actual leather on the cap - it just emphasizes how not-soft your nails are in comparison.
In any event, it applied beautifully and dried in a snap, so you get your money's worth with Nails Inc, I'd say! Despite not feeling quite like leather, I am in love with the leather effect - it's perfect for people who hate the way Liquid Sand feels, because it's buffed down a bit, more like superfine sandpaper versus real sand. And frankly I'd much rather evoke leather on my nails than sand! If it had genuinely felt like it did on the swatch on my fingers, I'd have gone back for the black, and by all means, if you like this texture, get them all! Another plus is it's available in a bunch of classy cream shades, not the blinding sparkle-fests that other brands are opting for.
Good news! I found my ring! I've been missing this baby for like 8 months. Turns out Zerda, my build-a-fox, borrowed it without asking. It turned up in her clothing bag yesterday. I have no idea if I put it there on purpose and punked myself, or if it fell off and rolled under my bed and into the clothes bag. Anyway, I had given up on this ring, and I'm psyched to include it in my look today - I wanted some silver studs more than ever for this manicure, and my newfound old ring gave it the metal edge the polish was screaming for.