Beauty Obsessed

I had big plans for the blog last night – I’m planning on implementing a couple new things that should be helpful to my readers – but luck was NOT with me, as my internet was down all evening.  What a waste of my time!!!  Grrr.  I definitely went to bed cranky, that’s for sure.  Anyway, I seem to be back up and running today!

I’m still struggling through a handful of untrieds/unswatched (only 10 left to go!), but finally we can cross this one off the list: MAC’s Ming Blue from last Fall’s Jin Soon collection.  There were so many gorgeous colors in that collex, but this is the one that came home with me.  I was all over this last year, but haven’t worn it at all since.  I think it’s another color in which I waited too long and forgot how gorgeous it was…
This is one of the few shades of blue I have (and I have many) that looks straight up blue – not teal or aqua, faded, or near black, but blue.  Its sort of like a less-blackened version of MAC’s Biker Blue, which came out earlier this year (which collection? Hell, I dunno, I can’t keep up!).  I prefer this shade, as it’s just so rich – the base shade isn’t as dark, and the beautiful bright blue micro-shimmer isn’t at such a contrast, which kind of tricks the eye.  There is some major intrigue going on in this polish – the shimmer is so fine you don’t notice it at first, but it catches the light (and not just sunlight!) so well that you have to take a second look.
MAC polishes aren’t my favorite formulations generally, though I can’t really say too much because this is only the second one I own (lol).  Both tend to be a bit thicker than I’d like, although Ming Blue in particular doesn’t cause any issues, per se, just a preference for a thinner formulation.  This is two coats, though if you’re in a rush you could get away with one thicker coat which would almost be fully opaque.  The brush is slightly wonky (a touch splayed), but it didn’t cause any problems either.  The polish went on smoothly without a hitch.
There are two complaints I have with this polish (uh, well, I guess I had a few others above eh?  So…yeah.  Ok, I have a couple more ): One is that it chips fairly quickly.  I had forgotten that until I noticed a small nick in my thumb an hour after I had applied it.  Arghhhh.  Though I’ve gone all day today without any other incidents, so it could just have been the old base coat I used last year.

The other problem with this polish is that it STAINS.LIKE.A.BITCH. (I recognize that phrase doesn’t really make sense).  I can wear this for one day and when I remove it, my nails are left with inky leftovers – blech.  I can’t imagine the effect after wearing it for longer!  It’s annoying, but since I continuously wear nail polish, it’s not a huge deal to me (though I know some people who really hate it).  I’m going to be changing my polish tomorrow to prepare for our one year anniversary Friday (Yay!!), so that was partially the reason I finally got around to wearing this polish – I knew it wouldn’t be on too long!  Edit: Just removed the polish, and YAY! – no staining!  And the reason? My butter London Nail Foundation base coat.  I LOVE when I find a solution to a problem!!

Despite it’s shortcomings, I still adore this polish.  I kept glancing at my nails today, admiring how pretty the blue is.  Of course, it’s jerky of me to show polishes that are since discontinued, but you can dream, hey? ~evil laugh~

How do you feel about staining?  Are you willing to deal with it and/or other polish issues, if the color is right?