Coty Response

Dear Skulda:

Thank you for your recent inquiry on Coty products regarding the use of animals in product safety testing.   We at Coty Inc. share your respect for life, and we are committed to maintaining the highest possible standards of human safety while eliminating the need for testing on animals.

Coty Inc. does not conduct animal testing.  This is accomplished by selecting raw materials of the highest quality with well-established safety records and using extensive ingredient databases, in-vitro testing, computer modeling and studies with human volunteers.  In fact, to ensure human safety all our products are clinically tested as needed on humans before they are sold in the marketplace.

Our research and development team has pioneered safety tests and alternative testing methods in order to eliminate the need for animal testing.  However, there may be rare occurrences when a government or regulatory agency may indicate to the Cosmetic Industry that an animal study is necessary, where no validated alternative exists, to ensure consumer protection for a component of our products.  In such cases, the need for testing is carefully examined by our Industry and if the test must be performed, it is strictly controlled.

Coty Inc. has been actively involved in the search for alternative testing methods for many years and we support industry research programs such as those conducted by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, the European Chemical Industry Ecology and Toxicology Centre (ECETOC), the European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association (COLIPA) and the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC).

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.


Amanda Perez
Product Care Specialist
Coty Inc Global Consumer Affairs
1-866-675-3845 (Canada only)
WWW.COTY.COM
Reference Number 010092591A


So basically, we don't, but we do.
There are many companies who don't test on animals at all.  I don't know which governments or agencies would require animal testing, but if there are companies that manage to get along without putting harm to animals, surely they could find a way too?


Regardless of their strictly controlled animal testing, I choose to no longer buy OPI products.  :(
...that doesn't mean I'm throwing out my current ones.  

Bye Bye, OPI

I'm sure most of you have heard that OPI has been purchased by Coty.  Coty is the same company that owns Sally Hansen and Rimmel cosmetics.  They also use products that test on animals.

I have contacted Coty's customer service with an inquiry on their current status on animal cruelty.

OPI is a huge part of my collection and I would hate to have to stop purchasing it like I have for Essie after L'Oreal bought it out.

I will keep you all posted.

Link to Coty's News Page.  Philosophy might be another brand for me to be cautious of. :(

Need Make up Help!! (please?)

Hey guys.  I'm a total noob with make up.  I've only ever used pressed eye shadows from the drug store.  I've never used loose eye shadows or pigments.  I just got my first order from Evil Shades and got so excited that I washed my face in my PJs and started putting it on my eyes.  I read somewhere that you should pat loose shadow.  I kind of patted and dragged and rubbed the brush over my eyelid to  move the colour around.
It was freaking amazing.

Unfortunately I quickly discovers that I got a good amount of that beautiful shadow on my eyeballs.
OUCHIE!
The swelling is going down but my eyeballs are still red.

How do you ladies prevent your shadow from getting in your eyes?  I can't imagine people getting used to that.  I know you have tips!

please help. :(

P.S.  I'll show my Evil Shades goodies this weekend.  I only got a few things but they are super nice! :D

Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs - Embalming Fluid

Here I am!  Sorry about the delay; I've been sick on an off and couldn't stand the smell of polish and remover.  Today I present to you one of the coolest Glow-in-the-Dark polishes ever.

BPAL - Embalming Fluid!

It glows!!

Single coat in Sunlight.

Embalming Fluid over NYC Frightful Fingers - Franken Slime

Embalming Fluid over white.

This combination is my favourite.  I put a couple coats of Embalming Fluid over a white polish and it had the lovely "glowy" look that it has in the bottle.

Embalming Fluid over the other BPAL colours.

Embalming Fluid on it's own, Destroying Angel, Morgause, MME Moriarty, Bordello, Opium Poppy, Croquet.  The picture should be clickable to expand.

When you click on a picture you can see that Embalming Fluid is loaded with blue, green, purple, and orange iridescent glitter.  Not only does this glowing polish glow like the dickens when 'charged' but it has a unique sparkle to it as well.  Charging is just exposing your glow-in-the-dark polish to light before it can glow.

So far my favourite combination for Embalming Fluid is a few coats over white.  I really like the colour of the polish in the bottle and hope to find a base colour to match it one day.  

Have you tried Embalming Fluid?  If so, what is your favourite combination?

You can get Embalming Fluid at http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ or directly here.

For more swatches of BPAL polishes check out my review here.

Thank you, Puddin', for letting me try out these gems!

[This product was sent to me by the company for review]

Twisted Panties Test Drive Polishes!

The gals Sarah Rowland and Stephanie Mattis give nail polish a whirl in their product testing article for 24hrs News.  The 24hrs is a free newspaper that they hand out near the Skytrain stations in Metro Vancouver.  Sarah Rowland has been writing 'how-to dating' articles for women for a while now.  Her articles are honest, gutsy, and sometimes offend or attract negative feedback by prudish women and pigheaded males.  I like her, I think she is hilarious.  "Twisted Panties" is basically Sarah and her BFF going out and trying out products and give their opinions.
Check it out!  Tell me what you think of their picks!  (BOOO Essie, animal testing Booo!!)  :P

P.S.  I have never seen Bourjois in Shoppers!  I'll have to keep looking.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs [Pic Heavy]

Hello everyone!  I've been wanting to post these for a while now but so many things got in the way.  Most dismal weather that prevented me from getting any good lighting.  I'm going to break down and buy a light box set soon.

This is the last collection I tried with my "claws".  They unfortunately couldn't last for the entire collection.  I thought it was suiting since this is called Claw Polish! ;)

All photos *should* be clickable.

Bordello - dark pink/silver foil.  ONE COAT!!

I'll say it again.  ONE COAT!!1one

MME Moriarty - blood red jelly!  2 coats.

This looks more translucent in the photos than it did in real life.  Three coats might be required.

Morgause - burgandy with a slight pearl shimmer. 

I have trouble describing this one because it's so different in real life.  The colour is so rich and the pearl shimmer is very faint on the nail but you can tell it's there in the luster.  You can see it in the darker photo in the upper right. You can stick with 2 coats just fine but I did three coats to get the same richness that I see in the bottle.

Destroying Angel - dark chocolate brown creme. 2 coats

So glossy!

Maiden - sheer light pink 2 coats.

I honestly never get sheers right.  I would have loved this if it were a creme. 

Croquet - medium pink creme, 2 coats.

I can't believe I'm going to rave about a pastel pink polish.  This was the perfect consistency.  I have NEVER tried a pink cream in this colour range that wasn't streaky and difficult to manage.  Croquet was a little watery, but completely manageable.  I didn't once flood my cuticles or even fear it happening.  Not at all streaky.  If you like pink, this one is GOLD.

Opium Poppy - hot pink creme.  2 coats

Unfortunately I lost the photos for this one in a sea of pink polish pics that I was clearing out of my polish folder.  If this isn't enough I'll re-swatch this one!  It was as perfect in the application as Croquet.  Unfortunately is was clashing with my skin tone a lot in the photos which is why I might have accidentally deleted them.

Overall these polishes were pretty amazing to me for such an "unknown" brand.  I know BPAL has been surfacing pretty successfully in the nail polish blogging world but otherwise people I've spoken to don't really know about it.  The polish always applied well, dried well, and held up well with wear and tear.  I seriously hope they expand their colour selection because this can easily be one of my favourite brands of polish ever.  That is saying a lot.

The site can be a little tricky to navigate. http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ You want to go to Trading Post, then nail polish.  As you can see they offer quite a bit from their site.

The direct link to their polishes is here.

I will be showing you more of another colour from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs in a post of it's own.

Embalming Fluid. So check back next week!

If you have any questions about this brand or any of these polishes leave a comment!

[These polishes were provided to me by the company for an honest review]

China Glaze Awakening Collection

Happy Freaky-Friday, Darlings!

I'm just going to jump right to it since I cannot contain myself.

Ick-A-Bod-Y - Natural Light

 Ick-A-Bod-Y is an orange glitter polish with an olive green jelly base.  I used 4 coats in these pictures to get as much coverage as possible.  You might need to play with gently pushing the glitter around for even coverage.

Some suggestions for different looks might be to try a creme olive green base under Ick-A-Bod-Y for a more sparse green/orange glitter look.  I will try this closer to Halloween and show you.  I think you have correctly guessed that this is my favourite of the collection.  ;)

 

 Zombie Zest - Natural Light

Flash

As a lot of you may know, Zombie Zest is very similar to a couple other polishes recently released.  It is a delightful dark green jelly base with micro glitter that looks gold or green depending on the light or angle that you hold your hand at.  The only down part of this polish for me is that it is a very sheer formula.  This required 4 coats.  (I find that it is completely worth the trouble)

...the name is awesome too.

 Mummy May I - Natural (overcast) Light  Ahhhh nubbins!!

 With Flash

Mummy May I is a dark purple base with purple chunky glitter.  It is probably my least favourite of the collection, but still an excellent Halloween polish.

Did my nubbins frighten you?  Good.  This is a Halloween collection, you know.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o!!

Thank you China Glaze for another lovely collection!  

[This collection was provided to me by the PR company for an honest review... my opinions are always honest.  kkthxbai]

Justin Beiber collection from Nicole by OPI.

I'm probably going to lose some fans here, but I have to vent.
I just read the comments on Scrangie's post about Justin Beiber's polish collection and just about vomited in my mouth.

How you HATE a little boy who has done nothing negative.  He hasn't harmed anyone.  His music might annoy you, but you can easily ignore it.  I'm not a JB fan but I find the pure hatred towards this kid disgusting!  IT'S A NAIL POLISH COLLECTION FOR HIS FANS... OH NO!!  HE IS HURTING THE WORLD OF NAIL POLISH.  /sarcasm

Another example:


WTF?  Who throws a solid object at a person's head?  This guy isn't preaching hatred to the masses... he isn't having unprotected sex with your daughters...  He is singing age appropriate music for young girls.

I think the worse part of all this is that harming someone you don't know is considered hilarious to people.  They get off on hurting and insulting others.  Look at the comedy on Fox TV, most of the funny parts are based on insulting and hurting someone.  I wish people realised how much this sort of attitude is hurting society.  People are afraid of each other and what people think and look what it is doing to us a society.  Just look at the news.

/hops off her soapbox and has a Friday doughnut

Fight like a Woman Collection

Today I'm showing you the Fight Like a Woman collection from China Glaze.  (And yes, I'm late.)

Encouragment - Natural Light, Two Coats

A baby pink how *I* image a baby pink would be.  Nice and pale.  Encouragment has a very pretty shimmer to it but I cannot nail down if it is a glass fleck or just a pale pink micro glitter.  Regardless it is very pretty.

Did anyone else get a bottle that was spelled wrong? Isn't it spelled Encouragement?  Oh well.

 

 Empowerment - Natural Light, Three Coats

Pastel pink creme.

 Endurance - Natural Light. One Coat

Medium-dark pink with glass fleck shimmer.

So here it is.  My first review for a while!  These polishes were of good consistency that I have come to expect from China Glaze.  I'm a little stunned that I got a one-coater out of these!  I have never had a once coater from China Glaze before.  Bravo!  The pastel was pretty typical of pastels, slightly streaky but I managed.   You might have noticed a slight bubbling in Encouragment and Empowerment, well, that was my fault.  I didn't realise it until I was editing these photos and I know why it bubbled too.  I was helping my friends move that day so my blood was pumping a little harder and it heated my otherwise corpse-like cold hands.  So FYI, the bubbles are not from China Glaze, they are from *gasp* exercise!

I've gotta talk about the names now.  You've noticed the theme.  Was I the only person who thought that calling the Pepto-pink "Empowerment" was totally weird?  Personally I would have swapped the names for Empowerment and Endurance.  It just seems like a better fit to me.

And now I come to the part where I talk about how breast cancer has touched my life.  Fortunately breast cancer doesn't run in my family.  Cysts and lumps in the breasts yes, breast cancer, no.  My Grandpa's second wife, "Grandma Jean" was hit by breast cancer pretty hard.  She had a double mastectomy when I was younger.  It had either spread to both breasts or she was high risk for getting it in the second breast so they removed them both in one go.  My Grandma was so brave.  I remember her joking about getting a Dolly Parton mastectomy bra for when she went out for parties.  She wanted "variety".  :P
I had my own little scare with breast cancer, thankfully it was just a big benign cyst and I had it removed because it felt like the size of a walnut on the upper side of my right breast.  I don't care about the visible scar at all, but now I'm feeling scar tissue develop on the inside of my breast and it makes me paranoid because I can't tell if there is a real lump there.  (I'm a bit paranoid)

ANYWAYS...  heres to the woman and men who who continue to fight for their lives against breast cancer.

Wassail!

[The collection was sent to me for an honest review by the PR company]

HAI!! (Update)

Hello everyone.  I'm dropping in to let you know that I'm still alive.
I have a few collections to show you from China Glaze, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs, and possibly more!
And guess what? I chopped my claws off.  It was a mutual break up.  I was tired of not being able to use my finger tips and was always paranoid I'd bend a nail and rip my fingers off, and my nails just started ripping little hooks into my nail bed!  YAY!  It was a long run, but I have faith that I can grow them back.

I'm fighting a chest cold and the weather has been horrid.  It's been so cloudy and rainy that I can't seem to get any good photos so I hope I can finish up my pictures and start posting them ASAP!!

xoxo
Skulda

WTF SPOONS?!

I know your feeds are all clogged up with Zoya Spoons... but I see nothing but landfills full of garbage. : /
These spoons are a fantastic idea.  The perfect way to find your colours!  BUT WTF... what a waste of materials and plastic!!  I bet most of these chicks getting spoons that don't keep them for reference are going to throw them in the trash!

image from letsgetgreen.files.wordpress.com

What do I want to see?  Spoon recycling plan.  50cents off your next order?  Fuck that.  You get your 50 cents back when you mail them back to Zoya for other customers to use.

WHAT SAY YOU??

Spread the word if you are at all concerned about this.

I'm sorry... imagining all that waste is depressing the Hel out of me.

Real posts to commence soon.

UPDATE:  After I pretty much spammed Zoya's Facebook with my concern about a recycling program they responded with a hint of something positive to come in the future regarding spoons!  *glee*  Being annoying pays off.

Happy 101 Tag

I received this blog award from BoonDY. Thank you!


The Rules:
1. Post who gave you this award
2. State 10 things you like
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

10 things I like(random):
1.  My husband
2.  My cats
3.  My friends
4.  World of Warcraft
5.  Nail polish/art
6.  Nature
7.  Being away from the city
8.  Comfortable clothing
9.  Music (metal, folk metal, classical, medieval)
10.  Reading


I'm breaking the rules like a bad girl and not tagging anyone! (I always feel weird about tagging people).  If this looks like something you want to do, pretend I tagged you.  ;)

RIP Sophie

http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/ 

Note...

Note to Self:
Only apply nail polish in the evening during a heat wave.  Mushy, cracking and pulling polish is not the desired effect.

Orly Bloom Collection Review

Hello Ladies!
Writing this blog Sunday night so you can see it tomorrow morning.  (good morning!)
I wanted to try this collection out last weekend, but it was raining and overcast with clouds.
Anyways, this collection was released in the Spring 2010 so chances are you may have already seen it. :P

 

I started out with pink because I am rarely a fan of the colour.  Reminds me of Pepto and Barbie dolls. Unfortunately this pink wasn't doing me any favours.  Sorry pink lovers!

This is Blushing Bud.  It's a hot-pink creme with decent application.  This was 3 coats.

Pure Petunia is a pinky-purple creme.  The application was good, I still needed three coats though.  But It's not unusual for me to use three coats on a manicure.

 

Now this is an interesting colour.  In the bottle it looks like rust with a pink shimmer, and the only shimmer in this collection.  Strange, no?   On the nail Ginger Lily's pink shimmer isn't as obvious and the rich colour of the rusty red comes to life.  This is very unique.  Three coats.

 

I wore Thorned Rose for 5 days straight during the workweek.  In the bottle it looked like a dark berry colour, but on my skin it looked more like a dark red.  Only in some lights did it take on it's berry self.  I love this one.  Orly describes it as a Red Wine Creme, I agree... somewhat.  I thought this one was more like a jelly.  It didn't apply or even look like creme on the brush, and it took 3 coats.  The fact that I wore this colour for 5 days straight with minimal tip-wear is pretty amazing.

 

Oh, well hello there, green polish. Don't you look charming! Wandering Vine looked more subdued in the bottle, but on my nails it became a rich forest green. Two coats!!

 

Wild Wisteria is so wild it made my camera go bonkers.  It's not a navy, rather it is a royal purple creme. This applied like butter and required only two coats.  Below is a block of what I consider the "true" colour for reference since my photos didn't work out too well.

So what are your favourite colours in this collection?  Mine are Thorned Rose, Wandering Vine, and Wild Wisteria.