Holika Holika Nail Polish - Peach

Holika Holika Nail Polish - Peach

Price : 3000won (~$3)

I am madly in love with the Holika Holika Cream nail polishes. So you can skip my review, and just go order it :D

This color is GORGEOUS. Peach is usually boring and conservative (or salmon and nasty). This color is gorgeous, and bold, and gorgeous!

The texture is beautiful, smooth, creamy, and just the right thickness.
I love love love it....
I have no negatives.... Honestly... Even the price is good!

Conclusion :

The Face shop - Matte Yellow Nail polish

The Face shop - Matte Yellow Nailpolish

Price : 4000won (~$4)

Matte polishes tend to be disastrous.... I like the look (sometimes), but it works out better with a mattifying top coat, then buying seperate matte nail polishes.

So streaky and so Neon!!

This color, kind of sucks. It has the weirdest texture!!! It is thick and CHALKY and flaky. It is actually really horrible to apply.

You have to put a lot on (since it is so thick), and the finish is really bad, unless you apply it perfectly.

Ugh, it's awful.

Indoor light - looks pastel!

On the plus side, It is neon. Really neon. Under florescent lights, it looks like something from the 80's. The color is kind of awesome. This is a color that REALLY changes in different lighting, you can see in the pictures it can look pastel, bright, or Neon. It's weird.

But the polish is terrible...

On the plus side, it didn't stain my nails!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!

Pass or Buy :

Holika Holika Candy Pop Nail Polish

Holika Holika Candy Pop Nail Polish
Price: 2000 won ($2!)
The Candy pop Nail series is all bright 'summery' gel polishes.
Gorgeous!

This color is my least favorite of the Candy Pop series. But I still like it....
It's kind of weird, because every other Candy pop color is clear, and gel like (is that what those kinds of polishes are supposed to be called), but this color is kind of creamy....
It's like half candy pop, half regular Holika line (blue tops are all creamy goodness).
So it's just very out of place, and doesn't do either way that well....

It's a solid 3 coat polish, which is how many I have on in the picture.
The color itself is nice. It's not my favorite, but It's a very wearable color for me, since it's a pinky purple!

Anyway, don't be scared off from the Candy Pop series by this review. The rest of the line is stunning!

Holika Holika Polish in - Orange!

Holika Holika Polish in - Orange!
Price : 2000won

For Halloween, I though I would review a couple of colors of orange nail polish. I bought this color, cause I liked it, not for the Holiday, but hey, it works for Halloween!

This is one of the Many Holika polishes in my collection, because Holika makes GORGEOUS Nail Polish.

This bright, almost pumpkin orange is no exception.
The texture is perfect, it's creamy, with 2 coat coverage, but smooths itself out, eliminating streaks.
 The finish easily looks impeccable.
I really love the creamy polished by Holika, they are such great quality!

The color, I love. Its so truly, unapologetically orange. 
The color also makes my hands look good.  It's not too yellow (makes my skin look dull), or too red (makes my skin look pink). It's just right.
...
So in the end, Iove it!!
Does anybody else think my skin looks blue???? I swear the nail polish is true to life!!

The Face shop - Matte polish in Neon Yellow!

The Face shop - Matte polish in Neon Yellow!

Price : 4000won ($4)

Are you ready to hear something stupid???

I bought another Matte, yellow polish from The Face shop. Does anyone remember my DISASTROUS encounter with a yellow matte polish last year???
If not, go read my post! My nails were YELLOW for 6 months!!!!

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this Neon Yellow.  I bought the Neon green too.

I think it's the fact they are Matte, and Matte are so hard to find! I'm not sure If I even like the look of matte polish....

Do you like Matte Nail polishes?

So the Neon yellow, as you can see, it is bright. Under florescent lighting, it is blindingly bright.

The color is really cool. It is so different. I have never before, and never again since seen a color quite like it.

The polish itself is creamy, and super thick. It's like paste, and goes on like glue.
This is quite possibly the worst Nail polish to apply. No definitively, I have never encountered a worse nail polish.

I bought it when It first came out too, so it's not like it is old and dried out. It started out nasty and thick.
It's really really hard to get a smooth coat.  If you look at a closeup of my nails, they look uneven and streaky, it is just that thick.

It also stained my nails. Even with a base coat. Mind you, it was only a slight yellow tint, like day old highlighter, but what a pain!! Not to mention, it is expensive (for a Korean polish, they are generally 1-2$.)

Verdict, AVOID Face shop's Matte polishes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holika Holika nail polish in Baby blue

Holika Holika nail polish in Baby blue

Price: 2000 won (Less than $2)

There is one word to describe this color - Gorgeous!
I LOVE IT!
You might be thinking it's just another baby blue.
Sure I could see that, baby blue is pretty common.
But this nail polish by Holika Holika is just gorgeous. It is really bright and fresh. So instead of being a boring pastel, the color really pops. It's oddly strong for a pastel. You have to admit the tone is gorgeous, it is super flattering, my hands look younger and brighter in this color.
 It's so good.
(Sorry about the rant :D )

The polish is also a wonderful texture, thick enough for easy 2 coat coverage, but this enough it applies like a dream. The finish is gorgeous, even when my nails are less than perfect.

This whole line by Holika has some of my favorite polishes!

Holika Holika - Nail polish #27

Holika Holika - Nail polish #27
What do you think of the color?

I love it. I think.
I do the love polish though. Holika holika makes beautiful nail polishes. This color is very creamy. I get complete, opaque, coverage in two coats, but it is thin enough to apply very smoothly.
The finish is shiny, and very very even. It's not fool proof, but for such a light colored cream, it gives really nice coverage, and a beautiful finish.

Since the formula is so nice, the only question is do you like the color?

Most Loathed products of 2010

Most Loathed products of 2010

Living in Korea, buying things can be hit and miss. I don’t speak enough Korean to read all of what’s on a label, or to ask many questions about an item. So often I buy things that really don’t work out.  But honestly, I have been far more successful buying skin care and makeup here, in Korea, than I ever was back home.

Honestly, I find Korean Makeup and skin care to be of better quality, more inventfull, and just generally more awesome.  But there were a number of products that didn’t just suck, items that I truly hated.

 Nature republic – Eau de Shine

 What in the world this is? I don’t know. I thought when I bought it, it was a blush. It just looked so pretty.

The four colors are bright, vibrant and interesting!

It’s not a blush. It’s not pigmented enough. It turns almost white on the skin. 

Which made me think it might be a finishing powder. But if it is, it sucks. 2 of the colors are sparkly, very sparkly. So it’s far too sparkly to be a finishing powder, plus it does have some pigment, and looks odd.

Worst of all, the price I paid 16,900 won (almost $17!!!!!!). *SIGH* it was such a depressing waste. Plus, they have now repackaged the same product in a new box. Don’t be fooled! It still sucks!!!!!!!

The second worst nail polish ever!

The face shop - Triple finish 

This nail polish looks gorgeous in the bottle, chunky shimmery flakes at the bottom, a layer of pink, then a layer of clear.

I wasn’t precisely sure what it was. It came in a box, that proclaimed at the top Triple finish.

So I suspected it was a top coat.

I brought it home,  shook it up, and tested it out. It went on very clear, with a hint of shimmering flakes. So I was certain it was indeed a topcoat, there wasn’t enough pigment to be a polish.

I did 3 coats, I really liked the shimmer, and I wanted it to show.

I went to bed, my nails looked lovely in the morning, shimmery with a touch of pink. Then I went off to work the next morning.

It wasn’t until lunch time I noticed something, my finger nails looked funny. All dark and grey.

I went to the bathroom and washed my hands.

It wouldn’t come off. The dirt and grime of working with kindergarten kids had attached to the nail polish. Turning my nails grungy and grey (they looked like lint).
They looked SO Dirty! It was gross. And, worse, it wouldn’t come off!!!!!!!!

The nail polish is so weird. It isn’t smooth or slick at all, so all the dirt attaches to it, then won’t come off.

I removed all the nail polish immediately when I got home.

Yuck.

Skinfood – Carrot Cleansing oil

This is the first product from skinfood I have ever truly disliked.

It’s a cleansing oil, as you might have guessed by its name. It even does an excellent job at cleansing, removing make-up cleanly and thoroughly.

But, it’s terrible none the less. I made the mistake of using it to remove my mascara. I find oil makeup removers usually do a much more thorough job of removing makeup than anything else, and are my preference for removing Majorica Majolica. But the carrot cleansing oil stings, and makes my eyes red for days. Ugh it’s horrible.

But, I admit, my eyes can be sensitive to make up removers. So I continued to use the carrot cleansing oil on my face, just not around the eyes. For the eyes I use the WONDERFUL eggplant eye makeup remover by skinfood. But after a few days, I noticed my skin breaking out! It never does that!

It was the stupid cleansing oil.

And a co-worker, whom I dragged to skinfood because it is so amazing, and we bought the carrot oil together, found the same thing!!!!

The worst Nail Polish EVER!!!!!!!

Let me tell you a harrowing story. One day, excited to try out my new The Face shop polish, I failed to base coat my nails. I have ever so many polishes from the faceshop, and they have always been gentle on my nails, so that day, because I was in a hurry, I failed to base.

I covered them with a thick coat of Matte yellow. So mustardy, so modern. I was thrilled.

The finish was ok, a bit rough, and uneven, but the color was something. Wow.

I went to work, and went about teaching children English. It was lovely, until I noticed my nails chipping. Not a big deal I thought, until I looked closer. And my nails looked yellow, even where the polished had chipped off.

At the end of the day, I rushed home, cleaned off my nails, only to discover, they were bright mustard yellow. I tried everything. The color would not go away.
For months I cleaned and buffed. But in the end, I had to wait, 5 months, 5 long embarrassing months, for the color to finally grow out.

So that marks the end of my most hated items of the year.  There were many more I disliked, or wasted money on, or were just bad. But for some reason, these were the ones that bothered me the most.
I have posted full reviews of all of them.

 And I would Love to hear about your most loathed items!!!

The Face shop Matte polish 매트

The Face shop Matte polish

 YL701매트

Price : 4 or 5 something….

So last summer when Matte nails were just becoming fashionable in Korea, The face shop released a small line of Matte Nail polishes! It even says, right on the little label 매트  (matu). Tee hee!

I was ecstatic! I had so wanted to try Matte, but couldn’t find anything in Korea up until that point. Face shop only had four colors at the time, a green, a yellow, and two others(I can’t remember. Does anyone know?) I picked the yellow. It was just so lovely and mustardy.

I didn’t try it right away, I don’t have many clothing options that coordinate with mustard. But finally one night, I painted my nails and had to use it.

I was in a hurry for some reason, and I didn’t base my nails first. I usually do, but I had never had a problem with Korean Nail polishes.
The finish was… ok. It was very matte, and the color was nice, but the texture of the polish was too thick, and it turned out uneven. Plus, since Face shop didn’t release a Matte top coat, I couldn’t top coat it.

I went to work the next day, my nails chipped and flaked, but that’s understandable when you consider there was no top coat.

But then I noticed something odd, where the polish had chipped of, my nail still was colored. My nails looked yellow.

I went home and stripped off the nail polish. It came off easily, but beneath it, my nails were mustard yellow.

I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to remove the stain. Nothing worked. I scrubbed, and buffed and cleaned. Nothing.
So for the next 4, or 5 months I was stuck with yellow nails. OMG it was awful!
I love nail polish, but I was teaching kindergarten, and polish just isn’t practical. It chips after a hard morning with the munchkins. But the yellow was so noticeable! People commented.

I was ashamed.

Favorite Makeup of 2010 !!!

Favorite Makeup of 2010

Mmmmm Makeup. I think I've bought more Makeup in the past year the the sum of my entire life... Korea has such a wealth of inexpensive, but amazing make up. It felt like every time I left the house I would run into something amazing that I just had to have.

But I had a hard time making this list. My favorite skin care list was Easy. Makeup, is harder. Even though I tried lots of things, and liked many of them, a lot of them weren't things that I would go back and buy again and again.....
But there are certainly a number of amazing things I've found :)

Foundation/ BB

Let me introduce you to the BEST BB cream ever!!! It's the 'Absolute total BB' by Skin79.

It's super expensive at 29900 won($30!!), but on g-market it can be  as cheap as $9 :).

It is light, but with great coverage, super natural, makes my skin feel better after using it, has an SPF of 37 PA +++. It's AMAZING. I am almost done my second tube!


Highlighter

I'm willing to bet most of you have heard amazing things about Benefit's liquid highlighter (high beam and moon beam). I myself thought it sounded so good, I bought it. It's true, It's lovely. But this, Lime secret shine base by skinfood is SO much better! For one thing, it's huge, 30g compared with High beam at 12g(.45oz)
For another, Skinfood lime shine base costs only $7 less than 1/2 the price of Benefit's($24)!
Plus it has a more liquid consistency (easier to blend), looks more natural, comes in 3 colors, and smells lovely.
I use it every day, I mix a little into my BB foundation, and I get SO many compliments on my skin. I have bought all 3 colors, and doubles of those.... It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Awesome!


Eyeshadow

It's skin Color play trio

I had a lot of trouble picking out a favorite eyeshadow this year. I found lots of nice ones, ones I liked. But some how all of them were less than exceptional. But then I remembered this BEAUTIFUL eyeshadow that I bought at It's skin. This gorgeous baked trio that was so smooth, so fine and blended so beautifully. It broke after I had used it maybe twice, then I couldn't it in stores... :(


Mascara

Holika Holkia -Enamel Magicara

For a long time Majolica Majorica has produced my Favorite mascara's. Their Mascaras are always exceptional. But Majolica is Japanese, and I have been living in Korea.
So when I encountered this mascara by Holika Holika, that looked freakisly similar to my fav from Majolica, I was sold.
And while the brush style is different, the mascara is exceptional. Big full lashes, long lasting, and not quite as hard to take of as Mojolica's.
It's a winner.

Lip tint

Etude House's Fresh Cherry Tint

When I was young, and I first got into make up, I thought lip tints were amazing. But as I got older I began to notice how immature the results were, how patchy, the colors odd, few choices, and a funny taste. 
The Fresh Cherry tint is beautiful, creamy, goes on evenly, has a lovely color (there are 3 options) and generally looks nice!


Nails

Face shop nail polish

Finally, my favorite nail polish.  There isn't just one..... Korean nail polish is cheap, good quality and comes in a million colors. It is an addiction.
Shown is one of my favorites, a subtle gold glitter(who would have thought), that is subtle and work appropriate. It just always looks beautiful!


So, that's it for my favorites of 2010, but coming up next, my MOST HATED products of 2010. Disasters, wastes of money and break outs galore!

Holiday Nails

My holiday Nail look!

I used Holika Holika - white

Konad special polish - red and green

Konad plate - M65

What do you think?

Tony Moly Nail star - Two way Nail art pen and brush

Tony Moly Nail star - Two way Nail art pen and brush
Price: 3000won


The Nail star nail polish is really cool. It's both a tiny pen and long thing brush. perfect for Nail art. Or at least it would be if I was any good at nail art....
It comes in two colors, black and white. I picked up the black. Mostly because tony moly was out of white when I was there.
That's fine. I'm bored of white French tips, and black is way more fun :)

The super thin long brush is designed for doing tips, or long thin lines. Since I'm not very good at doing tips, my results are... Ok. The best I could hope for really.

I like better than the brush, the teeny tiny little metal tip. With it I can do really lovely drops, and even designs. With actual successful results. (yay!) Plus, attached to the bottom of the bottle is a small metal wire for cleaning the tip when it gets clogged (which doesn't happen too often).

The black polish is thicker than regular polish. But it's also really weird. It's kind of like black tar, and I have to be really careful with it. It's incredibly staining. If it get in on my cuticles, or the skin on my fingers, they will remain stained for days.... Even when applied over polish and a base coat this stuff will sink though and stain my nails. It's really intense.  And these stains will not rub off with regular nail polish remover....


I will not be buying this nail art polish again. I really love the bottle, the brush and tip. But I do not like the polish inside!

Konad - Nail art system

Konad - Nail art system

I finally took the plunge and bought into the Konad system. I've been dying to get ever since I caught a glimpse of it on anonther blog. I've never been skilled at doing my nails. I've finally mastered painitng my nails smoothly, without a whole lot of mess. That's a real accomplishemnt in my books.
But the Konad results look SO amazing.
I bought my Konad items on G-market, for awesome prices. The stamper and scrapper were only 4000 won, the plates 3500won each, and the polishes 3000won.  I spent 34000 in total, and got extactly the plates I wanted to start out with an exactly the colors. Since the kits range from 16000 to 20000, for a basic one including the one sided stamper, scraper, two polishes, and two or 3 plates. My haul with 4 colors 4 or 5 plates, the double ended stamper, sponge, and scraper, along with two packs of free rhinestones and a bottle of nail polish remover, was an excellent deal.
Plus since I spent over 30000, shipping was free!

So here are the items

The scraper

The Double ended stamper. 
The long size makes it way better the regular. Plus the short side is perfect for touch ups, or multiple stamp patterns.

As you can see the stamper and the scraper have the Konad logo, and little butterfly. The finger indentations on the scraper are a ncie addition, though not entirely necessary.

The red side is significantly larger than the green. The red being bigger than the quarter, and the green smaller than a nickel. For some reason, the images don't stick to the green side as well, so I generally use the red side, unless I need to be extra exact.

The Plates

Plate #56 - celtic designs

                               

Plate #66 - Cherry Blossoms, Lotus flowers, and bamboo (My favorite!)

                              

Plate #S9 - Flowers, and Japanese designs

Plate #73 - Whole nail patterns (music, squares, etc.)

Plate #79 - Whole nail patterns (Super cute clouds, and others :) 

                               

The Nail Polish

I purchased four colors, Pink, Purple, Black and white. However the seller sent me black pearl, and white pearl! Not what I ordered or wanted at all....
I ordered regular white again from the same seller, but got pearl again. So i ended up ordering it from a different seller....

Also interestingly enough the polishes came in two different packages, even though they were from the same seller. Two came in packages with Korean, and two in English. Mind you the packaging does not make a difference, it's just curious.

I got a few free gifts also, A sponge, for doing shaded nails

Also two packs of rhinestones, in pink and white. The are sooooo tiny!

The Review
Though I've never been big on painting my nails, unwilling to do anything than slick a quick coat of paint on them. I think this is partly due to my lack of skills, and my desire for simplicty.
After living in Japan, with the ridiculous fake, over decorate nails, I tend to like simple designs.
The Konad system gives me really pretty nails, and it's only up to me whether I want something simple and classy, or wild and crazy.
Using the system is simple, a little frustrating, but simple. You paint you nails a solid color. Then you aply the special nail polish to the plate, you swipe of the excess polish with the scraper, and press down with the stamper.
You then press the stamper onto the nail, rolling from one side to the other (for small designs just pressing down is usually fine). Then cover it all with a quick coat of top coat.

The special nail polish is super tiny. They are only 5ml, Nail polishes are usually at least double that. Plus considering these tiny Nail polishes are ~3000won ($3) each. In Korea Full sized Nail polishes cost 1000 or 2000won($1-2). Thats really expensive for something so tiny.
I thought when I was buying the system, that the size wouldn't matter. I mean it only takes a tiny little bit of polish to do each design. But that's only half true. It does only take a tiny bit of polish to do the super thin layer needed for each layer. To make that thin layer requires a gob of polish. I've tried spreading only a thin layer, but sometimes parts will dry out before it can be stamped. The thiner I spread the polish on the plate, the worse the results.
That means a lot of wasted polish for each application. Then theres the fact that half of the time you stamp a design, something goes wrong. Sometimes it only picks up some, some stick to the plate (meaning you were to slow or the plate wasn't clean enough), or the design blurs (meaning there is too much polish on the plate, or you jiggled the stamper too much), or something else goes wrong....
*sigh* the result is you have to do at least twice as many stamps than you would think should be required. It's ridiculous.

Because of the cost, the size and the limited color selection available, I've done a few attempts with regular Nail polish. The Konad special polish is really different than regular polish. It's super thick and sticky. Its like liquid rubber.

Regular nail polish is a thin liquid. So the results with other polishes are a bit hit or miss. Nail art polishes work pretty well since they tend to be thicker. Just normal nail polish also works for big designs, without intricate detail.
The problem with using any other Nail polish is it makes the whole process even more frustrating. Instead of having some bad stamps, lots are bad, and they ten stamp tends to blur a lot easier. You end up using so much nail polish, that you're not saving anyone money.  It's really just a lot easier and quicker to use the Konad special polishes. Unless I'm looking for a particular color, I don't bother.

The images last as long as regular nail polish, but look soooo cool!
It's way easier than airbrushing (obviously) and even stickers.
Once I got the hang of it, I was doing all kinds of super cool things.
Plus, since you can get all the parts on G-Market for way cheaper than it is to buy a kit, you can get exactly what you want, without paying a ton :)

I recommend this system to everyone. It is just that cool, that easy, and that affordable :)