School work: clipper cut (which I really like), fingerwaves & pin curls (pain in the ass), and one of the many updos I did this week (fishtail braid, chignon, knot).

At the beginning of beauty school, I didn’t have any confidence on my skills of doing hair. Today I did a gradual cut with a razor (the bob that’s stacked in the back & longer in the front and sides). It came out really good. =] Who knows, maybe I’ll want to do hair after I’m done with school. I’ll be the go to girl! Lol. You could get your nails, hair, and makeup done by me. Chang-ching.

I get sick of layouts so fast. ^^ Coming back to this one until I design one or find another one.

I will do a real post soon. Just been busy and tired. *sigh…
Puppy.
School.
Puppy…lol.

I went to Target yesterday to get me some yum-yums [foods] and of course, I couldn’t resist walking down that aisle.
The beauty aisle…
Lol. I just could not resist. The aisles of beauty shines with a glowing aura and voices travel to my ears…
“Vana…come to us. Come and look at the beautiful colors we have to offer.”
The voices get me everytime.

So I went down the aisles looking at all the brands. Pixi, Jemma Kidd, Maybelline, L’Oreal…Sonia Kashuk. Et cetera, et cetera. Then I end up in the nail polish section. I know the shelves so well that I catch on to the “New” products right away. I saw that Sally Hansen has released their new polish collection. I read about it in the magazines. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. A basecoat, nail colour, and topcoat in one. It’s not the first of its kind, but I’m sure it’s a great formula.

I wanted to get this, but there was one thing that stopped me from doing so. The brush. I don’t know what SallyH is thinking when it comes to the brushes for this collection and the Insta-dry collection. The brushes are thick and trimmed to a half square, half round shape. Yeah, I get it…it’s to fit close to the cuticles better. I don’t like it. The Insta-dry brushes are streaky. I don’t know about the new ones. I didn’t try it. I suppose if I love the color enough, I would get it. The color and formula is all that matters anyways.
On a positive note:
I like the handle of the brushes. There’s a black rubber band on every  bottle for better gripage. About time someone’s done that. I like the bottle shape too.
The colors are pretty. Good range so far.
^^

I know I’ve shown most of these colors on my nail tutorials, but I still wanted to share part of my nail polish collection. You would think that I have like hundreds of nail polishes since I did nails for so long, but I don’t. I have about fifty something. When I was doing nails, I didn’t need to buy all the colors because I had access to them at the shop. ^^
These are the favorites that I have. The coloring is a tiny bit off because my camera is a bit color blind. Click the pictures to enlarge and to get a better look. The color also change because of the downsizing.
I haven’t gotten any of the new collections because I’m broke and I’m in beauty school. But I have enough to mix to create a new colors.

My Favorite Nail Polishes: Left to Right.

Orly in Lola
Essie in Wife Goes On

Essie in Whisper & Cute As A Button [love both of these for summer]

Essie in Ballet Slipper [big favorite for my toes] & Adore-A-Ball

Essie in Chastity & Sexy Divide [big favorite]

OPI in Black Cherry Chutney [big favorite]
China Glaze in Stella

Essie in Midnight Cami [big favorite but a pain to get off, it's like pen ink blue]
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Black Diamond [big favorite]

China Glaze in Beauty and the Beach [great color for designs and putting over top of another polish]
Essie in Sheltered Island [big favorite]
China Glaze in Sky High-Top
China Glaze in Bermuda Breakaway [big favorite]

Essie in Solemate
Rimmel London 60 Seconds in Climax

China Glaze in For Audrey
Orly in Green Apple
Essie in Greenport
OPI in Gargantuan Green Grape

Sally Hansen Salon in Shooting Star [great for designs]
Sally Hansen Salon in Glity Pleasure [great for designs]
Orly in Shock
OPI in Banana Bandana

Other favorites not shown..meaning I don’t have….yet. >:]

Essie:
Marshmallow semi-sheer white [favorite for my toes]
Waltz sheer white [my favorite color to wear over a french tip]
Forget Me Nots it’s like Chastity, but deeper
Minimalistic sheer lilac white
Limo-scene sheer pinkish white [great for over the french]
Sugar Daddy sheer pink [other fav to wear with the french tip]
Wicked deep burgundy red [winter favorite]
Fiji opaque whitish pink [popular summer color, also the color my parents made me practice polishing with when I was like 15]

OPI:
Russian Navy deep blue with purple shimmer
Yoga-ta Get this Blue dark blue with blue/teal shimmer [big favorite]
Windy City lilac-ish mauve with pinkie shimmer [big favorite, looks great when you wear greens]
Mod-ern Girl semi-sheer Coral
Sweet Heart it’s like Essie’s Ballet Slipper
Pinking of You semi-sheer pinkie pink
Fiji Weejee Fawn shimmery beige [I started wearing this color obsessively when I was 15. I was too scared to wear color then. Lol. Pretty funny because now I'm all about color. Should younger kids be more adventurous with color? Not me. I'm backwards.]
I’ve Got The Blues For Red deep blue-red
Malaga Wine deep burgundy
Siberian Nights very deep bluish-purple [my absolute favorite purple, it might as well be black..its so dark. But when it hits the light, it's sooo pretty. I don't know why I don't have it. Lol]

Those are pretty much my favorites for now. ^^
The thing I really loved about doing nails was having access to so many colors and seeing the new collections. Our [friends I worked with] faces would light up like a kid in a candy store when our boss bought the new collections for whatever season. I really, really want Essie in Mint Candy Apple. I am jealous of yous that have it! I love that kind of green. My fav. I also want Essie Matte About You topcoat. I love the Matte look.

After putting and taking off of polish for this post, I ended up with this one.
Essie in Au Natural.
On the toes: Essie in Whisper.

I think I’m taking a tiny break from color on my fingernails. I blued and purpled myself out. Lol.

I cannot tell you how much I love makeup. I think I spend more money on makeup than I did with clothes, shoes, and accessories. To me, there’s no such thing as too many lipglosses or too many mascaras. Those words put together do not exist in my brain & heart.

So where do I go to buy my makeup? I like to shop at Sephora, Ulta, MAC, and Target.

Did you know that Estee Lauder owns big brands like Clinique, Presciptives, Aveda, Bobbi Brown, MAC Cosmetics, La Mer, Lab Series, and Bumble & Bumble? Pretty cool, huh?

L’Oreal owns brands like Lancome, Shu Uemura, Maybelline New York, Dermablend, Giorgio Armani fragrances & cosmetics, L’Oreal Paris, Keratase, Matrix, and Pureology.

Makes you wonder…is Maybelline’s quality pretty much L’Oreal Paris’s quality? Is Lancome’s quality pretty much L’Oreal Paris’s quality only better packaging and higher prices? I think there is a difference. The big difference is the price and packaging, but I’m sure the quality is different too. The companies probably just spend more time on making the perfect product with the higher priced brands than they do with the cheaper brands [especially skincare products]. They make the cheaper brand because more people can afford it. The cheaper one still being a great and effective product, but maybe not as great and effective as the more expensive one. Maybe the expiration date between the two are different?
Like buying a purse from Payless versus buying a purse from Coach [I just chose these two brands for the heck of it] . Both work just the same way…carrying your stuff. But the Coach bag will outlast the Payless bag because the quality of the materials and stitching put into it. So you end up buying Payless purse after Payless purse because it doesn’t last as long. Next thing you know, you just paid as much as you did for the Payless purseS as for one Coach bag. Should you have bought the Coach bag in the first place? Maybe. Maybe not.
Another example: Volkswagen owns Audi. Are Audi cars just the same as VWs because Vw owns them, or is Audi a more luxury brand within a brand?

Guess it all depends on how you would look at it.
For me? As long as the color and formula works fine, I’m happy.
__________

My CURRENT Favorites:

Foundation »
Bare Escentuals bareMineral Foundation SPF15 in Medium Tan

Concealer »
benefit ERASE paste in Medium
Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer in Medium Beige

Pencil Eyeliner »
L’Oreal Paris HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in Black Shock
Rimmel London Soft Kajal Eyeliner Pencil in Pure White
MakeUpForEver Aqua Eyes in Purple 11L & Gold 9L
benefit Eye Bright [used more like a concealer, but I like it as an eyeliner too]

Liquid/Cream/Gel Eyeliner »
Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen in Blackest Black
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

Blush »
MAC Powder Blush in Mocha
Jemma Kidd Stain, Flush, Blush Concentrate in Masquerade

Mascara »
Maybelline New York Pulse Perfection Waterproof in Black [lasting curl]
CoverGirl lashBlast Waterproof in Very Black [great volume and lasting curl
benefit BADgal Lash in Rich Black [great volume]
benefit BADgal Blue [great volume & great for brightening the eye]
I have very Asian lashes…fine & naturally lies straight, facing towards the ground. The two waterproof mascaras kept my lashes the way that I curled them all day. I curl ‘em with Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler.

Eyebrow Filler »
Anastasia Brow Ex-press in Brunette

Eyeshadow »
bareMinerals Liner Shadow in Humor
all eight shadows from the Too Faced Glamour To Go 2 palette
Urban Decay Eyeshadow in YDK, Twice Baked, Half Baked, Grifter, and Oil Slick

Lipliner »
Rimmel London, 1000 Kisses Lipliner in Natural.

Lipgloss »
stila lipglaze in Cranberry, Starfruit, Kitten, Raspberry, and Plum Fairy
Lancome JuicyTubes in Dreamsicle
NYX Lipgloss in Beige, Natural, La La, and Perfect
DiorKiss Luscious Lip-Plumping Gloss in Berry Smoothie

Lipstick »
Maybelline New York Color Sensation Lipcolor in Mauve-ulous
Maybelline New York Moisture Extreme Lipcolor in Roseberry & Nude Blush

Brushes »
MAC 209, 275, and 217
Artistry Eyeliner/brow [angled brush]
Sephora Professionnel Platinum #12, 17, and 11
Sephora Professionnel #21

I would list my favorite nail polishes, but I think it deserves its own post. ^^ Too many too name.
Along with being a makeup junkie, I am also a nail polish junkie.