A Day in Chicago

Hello! I've been MIA again. Life can get pretty busy as many of you know. I have some pretty exciting stuff to show you all. On Saturday I headed downtown to check out the Macy's flower show. Which then proceeded in visiting the Walgreens concept store that is next door. I have a photo below of what it looks like from the outside when I was at it a different night.

Check out the dancers from the Joffrey Ballet on floors 3 & 4!

First off this isn't like you local Walgreens. When I walked in it was quite shocking. The first floor is the grocery area. There are a lot of options to pick up some lunch to go. There is also tasting bar. They were sampling tequila at the time we were there. The second floor is where the LOOK Boutique and the other personal care items are.

The LOOK Boutique is pretty neat. I didn't walk around too much as I didn't have a whole lot of time. They have a nice area where you can get your nails done. There is a great selection of nail polishes to buy. They also had the other typical things you would find at Walgreens usually too.

But by far the best find of the day was when I spotted the GOSH cosmetics display. Did you spot it yet in the photo? Here's the close up.

GOSH cosmetics is a Danish company. This brand of cosmetics is mostly only available in select countries of Europe. We didn't have it in Switzerland when I left in September and I'm sure it's still not there. About this time last year it was introduced to a Duane Reade concept store in NYC. Well Walgreens bought out Duane Reade took the idea of the concept store and created one on State Street in Chicago. Where they thankfully brought over GOSH cosmetics!

I only bought nail polish. Two bottles to be exact for $7.50 a piece. Which is a really great price! The make-up looks nice and I will probably pick up a few pieces eventually. It's just priced a little high for what I would usually spend. I wanted look for reviews for some of it first before I buy. The display does get limited edition colors which is also great news! See my review of Ocean here.

Ocean & Groovy Grey

Well Walgreens was the unplanned stop but the real reason was to go to Macy's on State Street for the Flower Show. Which is going on at the flagship stores in NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Fransisco and it ends this weekend.  The theme this year was Brazil. It's not very large but it was a very neat exhibit of rare and beautiful plants, flowers, and trees.

The really neat thing is that Macy's in Chicago used species of plants that the Garfield Park Conservatory really needed. After this weekend they will be donated to Garfield Conservatory so they can try to rebuild their plants they lost after a devastating hail storm last June. You should click on the link and check out the damage to the glass greenhouses.

The Macy's store on State is pretty impressive and was actually the old Marshall Field's. Unfortunately Macy's bought out the company and changed the name of the store. Regardless the place is huge. You could spend your whole day in it if you wanted to roaming through its 10 floors of retail space.

I bought a lacy dress.

Then a stop on Michigan Ave. to check out the Tulips.

A stop at Nordstrom Rack to pick up the Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV for $30

And finally my NOTD Barielle Falling Star.

Valentine's Day Mani

I actually put this on last night and so far so good it's sticking to my nails. I used the Cult Nails Base/Top Coat which had been giving me problems in the past with peeling but lately it's been working great!

So Cult Nails released a new collection this month called Let's Get Nekkid! Unfortunately, this is not the time for me to be buying new nail polish. Huge sad face. :( I especially have my eye on Toxic Seaweed which has flakes in it. So while I was whining about not being able to buy Toxic Seaweed I realized I do still have another flake from Cult Nails.

It's Iconic, a really pretty deep berry with golden shimmer and red flakes. A classic from their inaugural collection back in February 2011.

I should of warned that my nails are pretty short at the moment. I usually have really bad peeling problems in winter. So I have been needing to keep them cut back short. The only blessing I have is long nail beds!

In this photo there is a bit of a surprise color appearance in the bottle! The red flakes shift to a lime green too.

Here is a time when my nails were much longer. I wore this in March of last year. Took it while waiting at an intersection near my apartment in Zurich. I was on my way to the Geneva Car Show. Which btw is overrated and crowded.

And here I am at Lake Geneva...

OPI - Miami Beet & Finger Paints - Twisted

This nail of the day is what I would call a mixture of old and new. Sometimes I think it's fantastic to show off something that is most likely long forgotten now.

Miami Beet from OPI came out way back when in the spring of 2009! Back when I was just leaving for my first trip and long term summer visit to Switzerland.

Here I am wearing it on a weekend getaway to Varazze, Itay in August of 2009...

I used two coats of this lovely magenta color.
 

I really do love this color. Shame I haven't used it since 2009! But I wanted a little something special to top it off. I have the whole set of Finger Paints Flakes, but I've really haven't used them yet. So for my bling I added two coats of Twisted. It has pretty multi-colored iridescent flakes. Mostly blue, yellow, orange, and green.

I think it just looks stunning!

So have you ever rediscovered a nail polish color you used to love but have now mostly forgotten? I challenge you to put that forgotten color back on your nails.

I'm Back with Zoya Julieanne on top of the Üetliberg

Hello fellow nail polish lovers. As you may have noticed I've been on an extended break from blogging. I'm now moved into my little apartment in Chicago. It was a bumpy ride moving back to the USA.

Finding an apartment in Chicago in the right neighborhood was difficult! So I spent two days looking at apartment after apartment before finding the one I am in now. I moved in Halloween weekend and so far I've been settling in to my life here. Getting used to living in a big city is the main one. This is nothing like my hometown and nothing like Zürich!

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So on to the nail polish. I'm going to show you some pictures of Zoya Julieanne. It's an old NOTD I had way back in August when my mom was visiting me in Zurich. I used two coats and it covered really well.

As you can see Julieanne is a dark purple. It has a glass flecked finish that's really gorgeous. This photo was actually taken up on top of the Üetliberg mountain in Zurich. It's a 20 minute train ride from Zurich main station. It has really lovely views of the city and I recommend going if you're ever in the area. I'm actually at the top of the lookout tower they built.

Here are some close ups of the glass flecks! The color shifts a bit too.

So here is the tower on the Üetliberg. It's pretty easy to climb and the view is even better up there!

This is the main area of Zurich. By the lake are most of the main tourist attractions. Most of the stuff around it is where the locals are going about their day-to-day business.

Further down the lake there are a lot of cute villages. There are also farms and vineyards mixed in around. It's really pretty and peaceful down the lake in the little villages.

This picture shows how long and vast the lake is. It stretches even further down to the left. I've even taken a train to the end of the lake to the city Rapperswil which is actually in a different Canton so it's pretty far away!

And no trip is complete without meeting a friendly local cat while out. This guy walked down the path from the top to where the train was. He was so affectionate and let me give him some ear scratches. 

Sorry Nail Friends!

Just want to say sorry that I haven't been around!

The 2nd weekend of September I started packing and cleaning my apartment in Zürich. Since then I've been bouncing around houses in Germany and Switzerland. I've had two different types of incoco strips on and I've been too busy to blog. Hope everyone understands!

Tuesday is my big travel day! I leave Zürich at 10:10 am and arrive in NYC around 1pm. Then I have two more flights to reach Milwaukee at 9pm. It's going to be a long day of waiting in lines, sitting on planes, waiting to board, and carrying way too much luggage. I already mailed 4 huge boxes weighing about 25 kgs each. Plus two checked bags and a very heavy carry on luggage.

Once we get back to the US I am staying with my parent's. I imagine things will start to settle down a bit next week and I'll be able to share some polishes. I went a little crazy at Kiko and P2 last week. :)

Thanks for understanding!

Something Different Sunday: Furka Pass/Rhone Glacier, Switzerland

At the beginning of the month when my mom was visiting, we decided to rent a car for the day and do some sightseeing. One of our two stops of the day was to drive up the Furka Pass to check out the Rhone Glacier.

The Furka Pass goes through the Alps and the highest point is 7,992 ft! So you can imagine that it was a very winding drive up to the top. It was very scenic though! A little fact for you... They filmed parts of James Bond Goldfinger here.

Here's a photo of our drive up the valley.

Hardcore bicyclists were biking up to the top of the pass too! It was interesting to see them and I give them tons of credit for biking this!

Of course, no trip to the Swiss countryside can be complete without a cow picture. :) Close your eyes and you can hear their bells ringing too.

Here I am once we reached the top. The view was fantastic!

Look groundhogs! I was so surprised to see them. I've had a hard time finding wildlife, while living in Switzerland. Odd, I know, but I guess I'm oblivious to it.

Here is the Rhone Glacier. Even though it looks pretty massive it used to be a lot bigger. :(

Some other photos.

Thanks for taking a look. Now I'm off to catch up on comment replying. Hopefully my cold will be mostly gone on Monday so I can resume posting. :)

Something Different Sunday: Mount Titlis

My time in Switzerland is starting to come to a close. I will arrive back in Wisconsin on the 27th of September. So I only have a few more opportunities to show you little pieces of my life in Switzerland.

During the first week of August my mom was visiting in Switzerland. It was great to see her and we had a lot of fun. One of the main things I wanted to do with her was taking her to the top of one of the mountains. Just happened to get lucky and got discount codes for the gondola ride up Mount Titlis. We took the train for 45 minutes to Luzern and then switched trains to Engelberg which took another 45 minutes.

Once we got to Engelberg we headed to the cable car station to make our way to Mount Titlis. It involved taking three different cable cars for us to get to the top.

This was the second cable car we took.

At the top you are 10,000 feet up (3020M). The views are just amazing! Let's ignore how squinty my eyes are in all the pictures you will see today. It was so sunny and I managed to get a bit sunburned on my face too.

A lot of the times the views were just so unreal! Some of my pictures looked as if they were paintings. So breathtaking. :)

The last cable car you take. It has a floor that rotates inside so you can see the whole panorama.

Once you are at the top of Mount Titlis you can take another small cable car called the Ice Flyer. They fly you over some of the ice and then at the bottom you can go tubing! Of course I took advantage of this! I can't believe I went sledding in August.

Here are some more shots. Hope you enjoying peaking into my day trip in Switzerland. I hope that I'll get some more polish posts in later this week.

NOTD was Zoya Julieanne with a coat of Barry M white crackle.

First set of cable cars you take.

You can see this lake in the pictures above too.

Cows grazing.

I know this was picture heavy but I wanted to share! I have a few more here on this Flickr album.