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.

My OPI Gel Color Experience

Thursday afternoon I headed to the closest Ulta near to me in Chicago for a OPI Gel Color manicure. I will tell you right away that I did not have a good experience. I have no plans to go back to Ulta for manicure services and frankly will not be going there for hair services either.

Picture when I got home. Click to see full size. I have white fuzz stuck and tip wear.

My appointment was at 3pm and I arrived 10 minutes early. When I go into the check-in desk one of the hair dressers was splayed out in the chair away from the desk smacking her gum and calls over, "what can I do for you?" Talk about a nice first impression. She sends me over to the chairs where I wait for my appointment. Which conveniently is right next to the manicure table. Where the manicurist is just starting a client's nails! She just starts filing her nails... 10 minutes before the appointment starts. If you were following my tweets that day I was basically live tweeting my wait since I was bored. Needless to say my appointment started 20 minutes late.

So now it's 3:20pm and I'm finally in the chair getting my nails started. This is of course the time they finally offer me something to drink. She asks me how I shape my nails and she files them. The main reason I went to get Gel Color was because I've been having trouble with breakage so my nails are really short. So while filing she is really hurting me since she's using a really thick nail file. It's pulling the skin on the tip of my fingers. Not fun... plus I hate anything but a glass or crystal nail file. After that she put on the Bond Aid and started the base coat. Did I mention how she did nothing with my cuticles!? Yeah not impressed.

Since she didn't do my cuticles she didn't get the color close at all. So here it look like I have a week's worth of growth when really it's only a two day old manicure.

Base coat time... this salon had the light placed really awkwardly so you had to cross your arms to get your hand under. Whenever I've had Shellac the light is placed in front of you. Here they had it placed to the side so that you're reaching to get your hand under. She applied the base coat on and I put my hand under. Except that I'm 90% sure now that the light never went on because she never told me till halfway through that it's sensor activated when you put your hand all the way back. Plus, she wasn't paying attention to the light!

Now on to the color... I chose Pink Flamenco. It's a blue based fuchsia pink creme. First coat she bumped my one finger and we had to start over. This is when I start to realize that my base coat was never cured because when I put my hand under the light it burned. It never burned during the base coat so it never went on! Yes, the light hurt the tips of my fingers. It hurt really bad too. I've had Shellac done and the light never hurt like this.

At least I like the color.

Again, during the color part of the process she is never paying attention to the light. She had it set to an automatic 60 secs. Which, if you do any research on OPI Gel Color it's only suppose to be 30 seconds! And for only one cycle. She had me doing two cycles for 60 seconds each plus I accidentally triggered it a third time.

Now to the second coat of color... This is where I'm so close to walking out. She is getting the polish all over my ragged cuticles and on the sides of my nails. She tries to clean up with just an orange stick. Except she is just pushing and pulling really hard around my nail. It really hurt. For the longest time I thought I was a bit rough while fixing up my nails but she was just evil. She also stained my thumb so pink that she had to remove and start over. Two fingers also got black fuzz on them, I have white fuzz stuck to the edge of my one finger,and my index nail has a huge bump on it.

Click to Enlarge: see the bump on my first finger to the right. Plus the white fuzz on the tip of my nail.

Black Fuzz

Then the top coat is put on and she puts some cuticle oil on. The whole process took an hour since she had to keep correcting her mistakes. I ended up paying $25 for this. It is the introductory price and then it's going up to $35. Plus, I tipped... Which in theory I shouldn't, but it's so ingrained in me to tip that I did anyway.

Needless to say I will not be going back. I get that occasionally you're running late, but that was just too much waiting for me. I get that occasionally you make a mistake, but I was having constant mistakes which add up to a disgruntled client. I feel like I did not get the proper protocol for an OPI Gel Color manicure. So if you really want to try out OPI Gel Color make sure you go to a properly trained salon.

Here she flooded the side with polish and didn't clean up before sticking my hand under the light. So it was stuck up and I had to pull part of it off.

 My thumb started lifting up on day two and on day three came off completely.

The reason I will not go back to Ulta for a manicure even with a different person is because the atmosphere sucks. It's bright fluorescent lighting and ugly tile stuck in the back corner of a beauty shop. It's not relaxing and it's not calming. There definitely isn't any soothing design.

I don't think I will be getting the OPI version done again. This type of service I only get done occasionally and I want to get what I payed for. I will probably stick to Shellac since that is what my salon specializes in. Frankly, I'm too scared to try a service out anywhere else, especially near my new home in Chicago. So my closest place to get my nails and hairs done is three hours away.  I'm dedicated to my salon!

If you're from the Chicago area and have a great place to get your nails done I would love to know!

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Edited: To add this since Reality doesn't like my pointing out the my technician was poorly trained on the OPI Gel Color system. I did contact Ulta two days after this. I'm not a total coward... I just don't like confrontation. Who does!? I then contacted them again when I took the product off. Because low and behold the base coat was cured wrong and I had staining on 8 of 10 of my nail beds. Bright pink hard core staining that took lots of work to get off.

See for yourself here.

They replied back that it was forwarded to the Market Trainer in my area. So hopefully all Ulta's in the Chicago with have some restructuring on teaching soon.

I truly write reviews because I want everyone to be aware of what is going on. I could of just posted my pictures and said look at what I got done. But I'm not a liar and want to give an honest review. See you all again sometime soon!

Cult Nails - Let Me Fly

I really did let myself fly over the weekend. By finally cutting off around 7-8 inches of my hair. I've had it really long for about three years now. It was definitely time to say goodbye since I was dealing with terrible tangles and breakage. I was having glob conditioner in my hair and then comb through it with my tangle teezer just to manage it.

I went in with the intent of only cutting it just above my shoulders but next thing I know I'm agreeing to chop it into a short and edgy bob.

Here is the aftermath on the salon floor...

And here is the fantastic aftermath on my hair!

Short and sleek! Now on to my weekend manicure which was Cult Nails - Let Me Fly. A beautiful dark and dusty turquoise shade with flecks of silver shimmer.

My hairdresser and the sales lady at Ulta both complimented the color and asked what it was. Way to go Maria for creating a noticeable nail polish color!

I also gave my parent's next door neighbor girls manicures too, while I was visiting. The oldest girl picked Let Me Fly as her base color and then Cult Nails - Vicious as her polka dots.

The younger one picked Vicious as her base and the Let Me Fly for her polka dots and then on her other fingers, she had Cult Nails - Awakening as the base with a coat of Cult Nails Hypnotize Me.

Thanks for reading. :)

China Glaze - Haunting

Yes, I'm showing you a polish from a Halloween collection in February. :p I picked this up on clearance at Sally's in December for $1.99. It's from the 2011 China Glaze Halloween Collection.

Haunting is a lovely black shade with bits of silver glitter. Totally an acceptable color to wear outside of the month of October too. I needed three coats to get coverage as at two I still had some bald patches. I think 3 coats are a bit much for black since it's usually suppose to be pretty pigmented.

The nice thing about the glitter is that it is fine, so my manicure is not bumpy at all!

The manicured worked well with the task I had to take care of today too. I had to make a trip to the Adler Planetarium for my Astronomy course. I watched a simulated star show in one of the theaters.

 

Have a nice weekend!

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.