Monday, September 24, 2012

Recent Nail Art

After spending the weekend moving back into the dorm and getting ready for classes to start again, I haven't really had any time to do much writing, but I have done my nails several times since moving out of my grandma's basement (which had no door, which meant me getting lectured on how bad it smelled and how I needed to own less nail polish, clothing, and cosmetics, if I dared open a bottle down there), so I've decided to share those today.  


This one was my attempt at a half moon manicure, using hole punch reinforcement stickers as guides.  Because of the texture of the Revlon Gold Coin polish I used underneath, the whole thing (Maybelline Wine & Dined on top) turned out lumpy and disappointing.  I took it off after less than a day, but I'll definitely be trying this design again with smoother polish.



This was my first attempt at caviar nails, and I liked them fairly well.  I found the beads in a pack of 8 colors at the dollar store, but unfortunately each bottle only had about enough beads in it to do two nails.  Both the beads and the polish--Jesse's Girl in Midori--perfectly matched a skirt I'd made (the fabric I'm holding in the picture).


My favorite recent design, and first attempt at the recently popular cloud manicure.  I used Super Nova by Sinful Colors as the base, then Not Now from Pure Ice, topped with Metal Icon from Maybelline.  I'm currently wearing this one, and may decide to get Not Now back out and have some fun with a dotting tool.


Sunday, September 16, 2012

I must be a Sith

If only a Sith deals in absolutes, then I must be a Sith.  I can't seem to do anything in moderation.  It's not just that I had an obsessive spending habit, when I decide I'm not going to buy ANYTHING, I've done just fine at that, too.  But when I go into a drugstore to spend $5, I come out having spent $30.  When I go to the Dollar Tree intending to spend a couple dollars, I come out with 10 new nail polishes.

Of course, I've gotten better at what I spend my money on.  Especially at the dollar store.  I think that was probably where my ridiculous buying habits took root.  The first time I went down the makeup aisle there, I eagerly grabbed every shade of every product that looked remotely interesting.  Why not?  They're only a dollar apiece!  How could I pass up such a great deal?  Grand total?  $53.  For some reason this didn't register in my head as having just spent over $50 on makeup.  All I could think of was how giddy I was at having gotten such a huge assortment of products so cheaply.  I hadn't even looked closely at the colors to see what I would and wouldn't wear--this problem compounded by the fact that at the time, I had very little idea what even looked good on me.  Over the course of the next week or so, I went to two other Dollar Tree stores and each time spent about $25.  Sometime during the following few days, I did have the shocking realization that I'd just spent over $100 on makeup, but I told myself that I hadn't ever really bought makeup before (which was true), and that since I was getting into Youtube and making beauty videos, I was just building my collection to have more variety.

So I insatiably snapped up every "good deal" I encountered, still with very little regard to what looked good on me.  Eventually, this evolved into "needing" to buy every shade of every new product that e.l.f. came out with, so that I could help other people be informed and save money.  Of course, I still only purchased during sales.  I waited for the good coupon codes to come along.  But I was going broke saving money.  Like I've said before, I never spent money I didn't have, but I was spending far more than I really had to spare.

Then in the summer of 2011, I met a guy who was absurdly obsessed with being an anti-consumer wherever possible.  He never bought anything if he could help it, and didn't see the point in makeup at all (although, amusingly, he'd tell me my eyes looked nice when I wore neutral makeup, and never made any specific comments when I wasn't wearing makeup).  While I did think it was an admirable idea, I also felt a bit pressured and shamed into not buying anything.  At all.  I remember feeling horribly guilty for spending $7 to get two of the Physician's Formula face primers on sale, since I'd been interested in trying them for a while.  So overall, I did fine at obsessively not buying makeup just like I did at obsessively buying all the cheap makeup I saw.

The past few months have been an exercise in moderation for me.  I'm still struggling with the idea that I can go out and buy a couple new makeup products every month and not have to feel guilty about it.  That I can go to Goodwill and buy a skirt that I really like just because I like it, and not have to justify a list of reasons why I need it.  I guess I'm learning how to shop normally.  Before I got obsessively into makeup and thrift store clothing, I hardly bought anything at all.  I'd happily wear guys' cargo pants and hoodies or T shirts all the time.  Then when I got into makeup and fashion, I didn't know how to do it moderately.  After having been at all sorts of extremes, maybe it was just the natural progression of things that I'd eventually stop swinging so wildly between them and settle somewhere in the middle, but I look at so many Youtube "gurus" today whose channel seems to just be a justification for their insane shopping addictions.  Thousands of dollars worth of full price goods that they'll maybe use once.  Hauls the size of my month-long collective hauls every single week.  I'm grateful I never had the resources to make it to that point.  I hope I do end up settling at some healthy medium, but for now, it seems like it's taking a whole lot more effort for me than it should.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

One small step for normal people...

I'm actually returning something.  Something inexpensive, no less.  I posted yesterday about how I wasn't sure I wanted to keep Wizard from Petites, as it was almost identical to Bronze Ablaze by Sally Hansen, which I already almost never wear.  Normally, for $3, I would have decided that they were different enough to justify keeping both.  But I have no desire to keep it, and I want to take it back.  I don't even want to buy anything else after I return it (although we'll see how that goes...), since I'd considered Brit Invasion from the new L'Oreal collection, but decided against it after reading reviews that were mediocre at best.

I realize this sounds like a ridiculous thing for which to be proud of myself.  Doesn't everyone return things?  Well I don't.  I never did, anyway.  I'd buy cheap things that weren't "worth" returning, and convince myself that I liked them enough to keep them.  Then I got better at just not buying anything I didn't really love, but I'd still not return it if I got it home and changed my mind.  Now I feel like I'm finally no longer so attached to the things I buy that I can't easily give them up again if I realize I'm not going to enjoy them.

Monday, September 10, 2012

And I had been doing so well....

I had every intention of going to the fabric store today and picking up some interfacing, plus maybe 2 or 3 remnants, if anything was calling my name.  I succeeded perfectly in that.  I went to JoAnn and got a bolt of interfacing as well as 3 remnants, and didn't even bother to look at much else.

However, on the way there, I remembered that I had $6 of reward money to use at Rite Aid.  So what did I do?  I proceeded to spend about $35 there in addition.  I like most everything that I got.  I'll definitely use it. But I didn't want to spend that much.  I even convinced myself to put back several items that are in their respective brands' permanent lines, because I can always come back for them later.

But this is ridiculous.  Sure, I now do a lot better at controlling my spending than I used to.  Before I wouldn't have thought twice about having gone out and bought all of this, and then I'd do it again later in the week, too.  But I don't want to be like that anymore.  I want to be able to like a bunch of things, and then just pick out a couple things I really like.

Anyway, I do like what I got, and I was really excited to show it, but apparently my camera isn't so great at photographing certain nail polishes.  I already have at least one, if not two, more posts in mind regarding my thoughts on my spending habits, as well as possibly another post about a few other things I've bought, but I'm not sure I want to go back to posting everything I buy (on here or on Youtube) because that seems to give me problems.  So for now, here are pictures!


Bio-Oil on clearance for $2.99, since my local Rite-Aid is currently remodeling.  I've been wanting to try it out for my acne scarring for a while, but it's so expensive normally.


I found the Prestige My Longest Lashes mascara in the clearance bin for $1.87 and decided to give that a try.  After I purchased one of the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream shadows in Barely Beige, I fell in love with it and had to go back and get two more.  They were BOGO 50% off, and $5 back if you spent $15, which was why I bought the next two items....


I've also been wishing I had a more taupey version of Revlon's Gold Coin.  One of the nail polishes from the limited edition collection, Metal Icon, looked nice for that.  The other color I got was Wine & Dined, as a less expensive substitute for Shoot for the Maroon from Nicole by OPI.  I like these colors a lot, but I'm terribly disappointed in the formula.  I'd talked to someone who said that although the colors in the LE collection were nice, they were very sheer, and for some reason I didn't listen to her and got these anyway.  After several coats, they do indeed look very nice, but for being such dark colors, they are much more sheer than I'd like.  The regular price is only $3.99, though, so BOGO, these were $6 for both.


These two were just about as hard to photograph as all the others.  I'm attracted to anything glittery, so I picked up the bottle of In a Flurry from the Sally Hansen Insta Dry line.  Unfortunately, it was love at first sight, and I paid the regular price of $4.95 for it.  Same with the Sinful Colors Sinfully Magnetic (presumably a new line.  First time I've seen it, anyway) in Polar Opposites.  I've shied away from buying magnetic polishes recently, as I've purchased two colors each from two separate brands and been disappointed with the results for the price.  However, for $4.99, I figured even if this one was a flop on the magnetic part, it was still a very interesting polish.  Metallic silver with iridescent blue-green glitter in it.


Finally, two colors that I'm somewhat disappointed in, one of which I may return (more on that below), Petites Color Fever in Zodiac and Wizard.


Swatches of the nail colors.  From left to right, on the bottom row, Zodiac, Wizard, Metal Icon, Wine & Dined, In A Flurry, and Polar Opposites.  Zodiac was disappointing because of how sheer it went on.  It took 3 coats to get it anywhere near opaque, but it's a very nice color, and unlike anything I have.  Wizard may be going back, because it looked like a purple with gold-green shimmer in the bottle, yet went on almost exactly the color of Bronze Ablaze from Sally Hansen (pictured above it), just slightly more glittery.  In A flurry looks like the Autumn and Winter cousin of my all time favorite happy nail polish, Kendall on the Katwalk, from the Kardashian collection (Nicole by OPI, pictured above it).  Rather than the green, blue, and purple glitter in a bright blue jelly base, they're in a navy blue-black base, which gives an entirely different effect.  Polar Opposites was a happy surprise.  Not only did the magnetic effect work well, it also was very opaque and easy to apply.  We'll see how it does on the nails, but I liked it while swatching, and hope it will live up to this first impression.


Finally, here are my fabric remnants.  I buy a lot of neutrals and solids to pair with brights and patterns I've already got for making bags.  I may at some point decide to try selling these bags again, but for now I'm just experimenting with new designs and seeing where that goes.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

I don't know.

Today's post is just copy pasta from something I wrote to someone, but I've been trying to come up with a post for the past two weeks and failing, so I figured at the very least I could explain my feelings.  I want to be excited about makeup and fashion, but I'm still struggling to find the acceptable middle ground between where I used to be and where I am now.

I feel like I should be proud of myself for ~*how far I've come*~ in the past year or whatever, but I feel like the fact that I don't like most of the stuff I used to just makes it that much more of a waste. I went from having 2 shelves with several large sets or organizer drawers each, filled with makeup, to having one very small set of 3 drawers mostly full of makeup, and just now, I sorted out what I actually use, and put maybe 1/3 of it in an even smaller organizer for next year. I no longer spend $100+ every month on makeup I'm going to use once, if at all. Same with clothes. I no longer go to the thrift store once a week and come home $25+ poorer with an enormous bag of clothes, most of which I'll never even wear. I'm disgusted by how much I used to buy, even if most of it was on clearance or secondhand. The fact that it was so hard for me to narrow down my makeup collection for college, only to use an even smaller fraction of what I thought was nowhere near enough just makes me feel horribly depressed, like it was completely idiotic for me to have bought all of it, because the enjoyment came from buying it and owning it more than even using it. I liked to be able to say I got a shirt for $.60 at the thrift store, and it took so long for it to get into my head that unless I was going to ever wear it, that was $.60 that I didn't have to spend. I recently got rid of a bunch of clothes, too, and there were I think 45-50 items of clothes, shoes, and purses. If I even spent an average of $3 on each of those things, that's $150 that I didn't have to spend, again, of the extremely narrowed-down selection of things I brought to college. I still feel like I have too much. Maybe I just don't know how to do anything in moderation. Maybe the amount of clothing and makeup I have now is just fine. Maybe I just get obsessed with one extreme or the other, and since I'm done obsessively buying things, I now feel like I need to obsessively purge things from my life. But I feel like I still own too much for any normal person to own, even though I don't want to get rid of any of the stuff I have left. While logically I think he took it to an unhealthy extreme, I wish I could be like John and fit everything I own into the back of a pickup truck with room to spare. I wish I didn't hate myself for everything.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...