The Hungry Asian

Zoya Fleck Effect Review and Swatches + Video

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:15:00 +0000

Now onto the Fleck Effects! 3 flakie glitters in a lightly tinted base.

Opal, 3 coats. On the bare nail swatches I did a generous 3rd coat to help you see it better. Opal is in a green base with green flakies.

1 coat of Opal over black.

Chloe, 3 coats. I even liked this one on my bare nails because the pink is flattering. I could totally see an interesting french mani with it too!

1 coat of Chloe over black. Here you can see the different flakies, I like that there are multiple colors.

Maisie, 3 coats. I don't mind this one over my bare nails either.

1 coat of Maisie over black. While this is in a blue tinted base, over black this is pretty much identical to Opal with its green flakies.

A short video of me applying these. Here is a direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1_2P2fs4rU

The formula is good, it's thick but not overly thick and goopy. There isn't a need to manipulate the glitter, and I actually like to do a thick coat over black instead of 2 thin coats. My favorite is Chloe. :)

You can get this now at Zoya's website.

Sent to me for review.

Zoya True Collection Review and Swatches

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Zoya's spring collection is called True. It has 6 colors and they are also releasing 3 new flakie topcoats called Fleck Effects! I will do a separate post on the flecks later.

Farah, 2 coats. This is a nice lightly greyed beige creme. The formula was smooth, creamy and opaque.

Cho, 3 coats. A warmer nude color, this was very flattering for my skintone. It has a white shimmer that makes it a little more interesting. This was thin and watery, I needed 3 coats.

I decided after Farah to swatch the rest of the collection with a random Fleck Effect, so this one is paired with Maisie.

Bevin, 3 coats. Dusty green creme. This applied well just needed the 3rd coat for full opacity.

1 coat of Opal on top.

Skylar, 3 coats. Dusty cornflower blue with a white shimmer. It's a little more than a shimmer tho, more like something between a shimmer and glass fleck.

With 1 coat of Maisie.

Tru, 2 coats. A deep, rich purple with multi-color shimmer of gold, pink and green. My photos washed out the richness of the purple but imagine it being darker.

I thought this looked great with Chloe, 1 coat.

Lotus, 2 coats. A dusty lavender with a pink shimmer.

I also paired this with Chloe, 1 coat.

I will have swatches of the Fleck Effects in their own post later so stay tuned.

The formula for this collection was superb, with the exception of Cho which I thought was thin and streaky. The rest applied very well.

This collection including the Fleck Effects go on sale January 13th at Zoya.com.

Sent to me for review.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:38:00 +0000

Hope everyone had a nice holiday, I am on vacation so I'm enjoying my time off. I'll be heading to Las Vegas for the weekend so won't hear much from me for a few days. I will be back to work on the polishes when I get back tho!

I'm wearing a red creme polish by Lancome for the weekend, I put it over a Shellac base/top coat and I hope it lasts chip-free. We shall see, I will let you know the results!

I'll leave you with some random notds and whatever else I could find lol.

Cyber Monday shopping: Cult nails glass file and topcoat.

Testing my new cookies and cream. What do you think? It's lumpy lol.

Fruit tart I found at the grocery that looked so good! well it WAS good lol.

Ross loots.

Hmm I tried my first jelly sandwich with a I Hate Pink prototype and one of those Revlon jellies from the summer. WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

I check my Icing a lot for this and never found it. Then one day I go in and decide to get all crazy and dig at the very back of the shelves, and guess what I found? 1 bottle. It totally looked like someone hid it, hah jokes on you can't hide from meeeeee!

I mean look at this Wii mote, how cool is that? Gold? Check. Tri-force? Check. How many hours lost on the couch? secret.

Why doesn't CC label their Ross bottles? Fuuuuuuu!

Croquettes are yummy.

I made this with Costco food. Well except the avocado. Cell phone pic.

I got $OPI 212 for my birthday last year, a long lemming gone! Thank you Olivia! Oh and Eric.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas! I'm off to spend a quiet day with the family together. I am wearing a franken I'm currently working on, silver holographic glitter with large silver and gold hex glitter.

Have a wonderful holiday and drive safe!

Quick update

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:27:00 +0000

I decided to also give you the option to buy the set without Sneeze Breeze so you can see the updated paypal button at the Shop tab.

I am bringing back Strawberry and Cookies and Cream in January along with new colors and you can pick choose which ones to buy. I think I may still sell new ones in small sets but at a discount price.

I have about 9 Lucy's Jingle Jangle left. Thanks for all your support! Can't leave a post without a pic:

A glittery french! Have a great day.

OPI Miss Universe Collection Review and Swatches

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:07:00 +0000

Hi guys! I am behind on my swatches, so here is the Miss Universe Collection by OPI. I had quite the nail injury during this time so my nails are painfully short in a couple pictures. I am also trying the larger photos again hopefully it won't make my site take 30 seconds to load.

Congeniality is My Middle Name 3 coats. Berry with red and purple shimmer.

Swimsuit... Nailed It! 2 coats. A shimmery/metallic looking blue. I liked this on my toes too.

It's MY Year 2 coats. The shimmer and golden flecks are very similar to Rally Pretty Pink but the shade itself is more purple.

Crown Me Already! 2 coats. This has small silver glitter with different sized hex glitters. This is extremely opaque and was surprisingly easy to apply.

My favorite was Suimsuit.. Nailed it! I liked the way it reflected light when I looked down at my hands. I liked them all except maybe Congeniality is My Middle Name was a little boring for me.

I'm not sure about local store availability anymore but I know these are still available for purchase online. Thanks so much for reading!

Sent to me for review.

Esty and now a PayPal button!

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:32:00 +0000

I finally set up my paypal button, so now it should be easier to make a purchase.

$34

I wanted to thank everyone who already made an order, and to everyone who sent me such nice messages. I'm so touched.

I had some requests to break up the set. This time, it's in a set sorry. Lucy's Jingle Jangle is limited edition so once the holidays are over it's gone. The others I do plan on bringing back with previous colors I have done and you can pick and choose which ones to buy.

My next project is a collection inspired by each member of my family. They look so cool I can't wait to show you!

Here is my Etsy store listing in case you wanted to check it out!

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions/feedback I would love to hear from you.

Holiday set on sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:19:00 +0000

Something important I completely forgot to mention: these bottles are 12ml in size (.4oz) so they are a tiny bit smaller than the standard. I plan on getting .5oz bottles next time :) So here is the order form, thank you so much and happy shopping!

$34 - shipping Monday Dec 12

Holiday Set Swatches

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:31:00 +0000

This photo was taken after my video swatching. Can't really see the lightly blackened base as much with this flash shot. ;( 3 coats of each.

Click these macro shots to see HUGE GLITTERS!

Sneeze Breeze macro bottle shot

3 coats

1 coat over black. Looking at this I should have done this glitter over white. Sorry!

Lucy's Jingle Jangle bottle macro shot.

3 coats

1 coat over black.

I Hate Pink macro bottle shot.

3 coats

1 coat over black. The red glitter really pops on black here.

Sea Creature macro bottle shot.

3 coats.

I'm missing my over black photo oops!

Sale starts Thursday, December 8th

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:49:00 +0000

I can't believe it's almost time for the sale to start! I am so excited I wish I had more shades available but don't worry I'm just getting started there is tons more to come.

I hope I cover everything, if I forget something please feel free to ask me in a comment or via Twitter.

These 4 shades will be sold in a set. The price is $34.00 and does not include shipping. I am going legit with my shipping so they will ship ground via UPS. I checked various states for 1 set the shipping was around $7.

I can't deal with the legalities for shipping internationally at the moment so I'm sorry but US only. I also can't ship to Alaska or Hawaii, sorry!

Everything is brand new. The bottles, ball bearings, brushes, polish base, and glitter, all brand new. The polish base and any color polish I may include is cruelty-free and big 3 free. All pigments or glitters I use is cosmetics-grade and completely safe to wear.

Why the price increase? Well going large scale with this the amount of labor involved has gone up significantly. I have had many late nights the past couple of weeks. A lot of time and love is spent on making everything perfect :)

I will start taking orders tomorrow (thursday dec 8th) around 1-2 PM pacific (-8gmt). I will have a google form in a new post on my blog tomorrow. So to order you need to fill the form out with your full name, paypal email address and shipping address (for shipping calculation). I really wanted to make PayPal buy now buttons but shipping isn't a set price anymore so I have no way to calculate shipping. Maybe I will figure something out later lol.

I will post again with some swatches. In the meantime please ask me any questions if I didn't answer one you have.

Thank you!

Super fast preview

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:26:00 +0000

I literally have 5 mins to type this blog post, get dressed, powder my face and go out the door! Lets see if I can do it.

L-R: Sneeze Breeze, Lucy's Jingle Jangle, Sea Creature and an unnamed pink.

I need to finalize a price, cut and write out labels and I think I'm good to go. So hopefully I can start the sale tomorrow or Thursday. I will have specifics for you either later tonight or tomorrow.

I stayed up a bit later last night to give you a preview video, I didn't have much time to edit so please excuse the long silence.

Talk to you guys soon! Any questions you have ask me in Twitter I will have my phone with me tonight. @thehungryasian

Almost there...

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:34:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Just wanted to update you guys about my frankens: they are almost ready! It's going to be very simple for now, a 3 or 4 piece holiday collection sold in a set, along with Sneeze Breeze if you wanted to get that as well. If all goes well they will be ready sometime next week. I will show you photos beforehand so stay tuned. I won't have my Etsy store ready for this particular sale because I don't have a name. I'm really stumped.

So anyway just a super quick update as I'm heading out the door right now. Here's an old mani with a CC from their Boho collection.

OPI Pink Shatter

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:48:00 +0000

Happy Halloween everyone! I didn't have time to do a festive manicure so I will share with you something still related to October: pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Below I'm wearing OPI Pink Shatter.

Here it is plain over naked nails. I don't know why but I like these shatters plain sometimes.

I tried it over DS Bold but it was very subtle.

This over $OPI 212. The thicker your coat, the wider the cracks. My middle finger was a very thin coat and my index was thick. I think I like the wide cracks better.

Did a really thick coat on my thumb!

Bonus shot: here is a pink glitter I made. I'm hoping to include this in a set for the holidays if I can get a base soon.

Pink Shatter is like all the shatters I've used so far. They dry quick, 1 coat is all you need and this one is for a good cause. Here is their press release:

Each bottle of Pink Shatter: Pink of Hearts has a special pink-ribbon tag and pink cap wrap to call attention to breast cancer awareness. OPI will also be making its annual donation of $25,000 to Komen for the Cure. Pink Shatter coat contains no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde, and it also features OPI’s exclusive ProWide™ Brush for the ultimate in application.

The limited edition Pink Shatter: Pink of Hearts will be available throughout the months of September and October 2011 at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for $8.50 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Pink Shatter sent to me for review.

Oops!

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:17:00 +0000

I was editing older posts to reduce load times on my site and I accidentally published one of my drafts, so feed readers you get to see my unfinished post of the Miss Universe collection sorry!

I'm soooo ready to go with the frankens just no base. I still have 4 bottles of the Glamor Base from TKB Trading from several months ago I have been using it to make my testers. I wanted to make a Halloweenish franken and this is what I came up with.

I don't think it screams Halloween sadly. I failed to put more orange in lol.

Afternoon Tea

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:06:00 +0000

Finally a use for my small HK teacup! Royal milk tea is sooo yummy.

One of the 5 glitters I will have for sale as soon as I can get my hands on a base. The company I was working with their lab is in NJ so they got hit with the hurricane and everything was delayed. I have no idea when they can ship me anything, in fact I've waited all week to hear back from them about a realistic time frame and no response. I have been waiting now for 2 months and now I'm feeling stressed out because I don't even have a base to work with. I might need to find a new lab to work with asap.

So anyway that's the only update I have for you today. This glitter is gold and silver hex in various sizes. Have a good weekend!

OPI Glam Slam! U.S. review and swatches

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:43:00 +0000

Pros & Bronze 3 coats. This one is very pretty. It's packed with gold, bronze and even pink glitter and it dries very smooth with a metallic looking finish.

Love is a Racket 2 coats. Very bright shimmery red. So bright it was difficult to photograph. It was a nice pink and golden shimmer. This is very similiar to I Love You Cherry Much by Nicole by OPI.

Here is a quick comparison.

To the naked eye, I personally don't think there is any noticeable between the two. There is a tiny difference in the shimmer in ILYCM, it's more glass fleck-y and it is just a tad more deeper red as well. I mean I'm really nitpicking here.

I liked Pros & Bronze even though it wasn't as opaque as I would have liked it for wearing alone. Love is A Racket is a pretty red color but I think I Love You Cherry Much is a better version of it. Both applied very well and dried fast.

Sent to me for review.

Color Club Nomadic in Nude

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:22:00 +0000

I'm wearing 3 coats and this is on the second day of wear. I'm still wearing it and today is day 3. This is a nice light nude color it looks very nice on my skintone. I went to Ross a couple weeks ago and snagged the 7-piece Boho set. They had the foils too but I wasn't feeling them for some reason.

I have decided on what frankens go for sale next round so I will show you very soon!

Nubar Jeans Promo Image

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:47:00 +0000

This is going to retail for $19.99 and no release date yet. Have a great weekend!

OPI Touring America Collection Review and Swatches

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:08:00 +0000

One of OPI's fall/winter offerings is Touring America, it is a 12-shade collection with mostly dark neutrals and 4 shimmers.

Honk If You Love OPI 2 coats. A pretty plum creme.

My Address is "Hollywood" 3 coats. Pink with a golden/pink shimmer. The shimmer is subtle but gives your nails a little sparkle.

Color to Diner For 3 coats. Cranberry red with the same golden/pink shimmer.

I Eat Mainely Lobster 3 coats. Coral with golden/pink shimmer.

Are We There Yet? 3 coats. Peachy orange with golden/pink shimmer. This is my favorite shimmer, really flattering on me.

I Brake For Manicures 3 coats. A purple-tinged taupe creme.

Suzi Takes The Wheel 3 coats. I saw in my eyes this grey to be a little olive-y, I'm not sure if the darker color swirling around in the bottle affected my swatch or not.

French Quarter for Your Thoughts 3 coats. A light grey creme.

A-taupe the Space Needle 2 coats. Light brown taupe creme.

Road House Blues 2 coats. A blue-purple (blurple) creme.

Get in the Expresso Lane 2 coats. A dark chocolate brown creme.

Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window 3 coats. Olive green creme. The name of this does invoke an image of a noxious gas cloud in my mind lol.

I found the formula to be a little bit on the thinner side. I needed 3 coats for most of the shades, I think if I didn't have a couple of severe ridges on my nails I could've gotten away with 2 coats on some. Otherwise application was nice and smooth. I love their names and the colors remind me of fall and cooler weather.

Sent to me for review.

Incocco Nail Polish Applique Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 21:57:00 +0000

This design is called All That Glitters, it's a pink glitter with a black print design on top. Incoco says that their nail strips are made with real nail polish, and each strip contains base coat, nail color and a topcoat.

To apply you find a piece that fits your nail then peel it off like a sticker then you remove the clear plastic on the top as well. Then you just place it on your nail and smooth it down and make sure the applique is adhering to your nail. Then file off the excess from the tip.

Filing off the excess wasn't as easy as it looked, since it had a glitter base it was a bit thick so I was filing and took off more than I wanted to. Later this proves to be a problem.

I did much better on my right hand.

Next time I am going to file it at an angle away so that I don't file off too much off my free edge.

This is 3 days of wear. My tips shrank a bit after the first 24 hours and the corners kept snagging onto my clothing or towels after washing my hands. So what you see on my middle and index fingers is not that it isn't sticking on my nails it's just the snagging kept pulling it up.

Just seeing that much of my nails poking out of the tips drove me crazy so right after this photo I removed this manicure.

The design is very cool, it wasn't very difficult to apply. I found that they fit my small nails just fine, each strip has 2 ends that are different sizes. Shrinking from the free edge is ultimately what I disliked about these nail strips. I have another set I need to try and perhaps redeem my first poor application. Even if you don't apply them nicely I think these are great for a night out and such, they have a lot of really neat designs. These nail strips are very popular right now, you can get these at drugstores like Walgreens, CVS, etc or even online directly from Incoco or Amazon for $5-9.

Sent to me for review.

Quick Clarification

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:10:00 +0000

First thank you everyone for your nice comments and emails! I am super excited and cannot wait to share my creations with you.

I just wanted to quickly clarify about my frankens in my last post. They are not for sale (yet!), they are sample batches to test corrosion, wear, etc. I want everything to be perfect when I open my Etsy store. In the meantime I will definitely try to keep you guys updated and share any cool creations that pass.

Have a wonderful day! I guess I can't leave this post without a picture...

I got this from Sephora during Labor Day weekend, haven't tried it yet but I do know the bottle is to die for cute!

Ikea Trip and a tiny sneak peek

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:41:00 +0000

I went to Ikea for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago with my mother-in-law, the place is humongous! I went there to get the tall Alex unit. I didn't want to carry around my bulky DSLR so most of these were taken on my cell phone and a few from a point and shoot.

We went to the one in Sacramento, we thought this street name was funny.

Finally made it!

Meatballs from their food court. The food was not that great but it's very cheap.

Some salad.

Crab in a tube seemed funny!

After spending a good hour browsing and putting other items in our carts and having lunch we get to the warehouse side to put the Alex in our cart, and IT WAS SOLD OUT! Aaaaah I couldn't believe it, it was a 2.5 hour drive and I wasn't going to go home empty-handed. I mean out of all the isles in here the alex seemed like the only thing sold out, it was crazy.

I settled for the smaller Alex unit, it's wider with 5 drawers. What is in there?

My new bottles!

I personally love square bottles so of course I chose them for my new frankens.

The brush is a wide brush, which I like so far. I am still in the testing phase for my new glitters and so far so good! I have almost all of my materials purchased and ready to go, I am so excited!

One of the things I'm playing with.

That's all for today, thanks for reading!

Nicole by OPI Black and White Texture Coats

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Hi guys! This is a bit of an older post I forgot to publish. I had a bit of a nail bed injury a couple weeks ago but I'm back!

Black Texture Coat over Barielle Euphoric.

The odd thing I noticed is that the brushes were inconsistent. This black has the usual Nicole by OPI thin brush that I'm used to, but the white had a very short and stiff wide brush.

White Texture over a black creme.

The brush here had short hard bristles that made it more difficult to apply.

My only gripe is the short brush, otherwise these crack nicely. The texture coats have the same formula as the OPI shatters so if you have one you can skip the other. A good alternative to some of the Shatters if you don't want to get the duo sets.

Sent to me for review.

Poll results and other random life things

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me by taking my poll, I appreciate all your feedback. It was basically 2 to 1 for Etsy. So I will give that a shot for my next sale. I haven't decided if I will do international shipping for the next sale but I will keep you up to date as soon I figure it out.

I got a bunch of new Art Glitter glitters (underneath the pink box lol) and I like them so far.

I got a huge package of fine tip Sharpies for only $10 at Office Depot last week, yay for non purple labels!

I got a haircut! I donated my hair to Locks Of Love they are a non-profit who help children that cannot afford wigs and such that have long term illness that can cause hair loss. Here is my before shot.

After! I think I cut off about 16 inches but the ponytail I donated was about 14 inches.

My hair before I packaged it up! Yikes I look goofy. I'm wearing OPI Are We There Yet? from the Touring America collection.

Other random pictures:

My new favorite headband my sister in law made me, I love it! I need to make a real order for more! You can see for yourself the stunning things she makes at her Etsy Store HERE.

I have had these glasses for years and years and I never used them. Well now I'm glad I have them lol.

I bought a Little Twin Stars pouch from Yumeko she has a really great blog and she also makes the cutest things! You have to be fast because whenever she sells anything its sold out really quick. Her blog link HERE.

Caramel Kit Kats ooh it was yummy.

My pouch is super cute and well made. I haven't put anything in it yet but I'm thinking some makeup essentials!

Haven't been eating out much so no food pictures sorry!

Nicole by OPI Target Exclusives

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Green Up Your Act! 3 coats.

It's Not Me, It's Blue 3 coats. This blue has a touch of violet and a foil-like shimmer.

I Love You Cherry Much 2 coats. This one pops with color and has a glass fleck shimmer.

Sounds Grape To Me 2 coats. I guess I don't see the grape part of this shade, in my mind I imagine like a concord grape shade for some reason. Either way, this has a really pretty shimmer that flashes gold and pink.

These had a nice formula and I love You Cherry Much and Sounds Grape To Me were very opaque (and my favorties!).

Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquers and Nail Treatments contain no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde. Nicole by OPI formulas are long-lasting, fast-drying, and salon-quality, with products featuring the Perfect Stroke brush for streak-free, even coverage. The new Something About Color Nail Lacquers will be available August 2011 for $7.04 each at select Target locations nationwide and Target.com.

For more information, visit nicolebyopi.com. Follow Nicole by OPI on Twitter @NicoleByOPI and become a Facebook fan!

Sent to me for review.