Review: Lovely ME:EX Nail Polish Remover (01 Pink)

On Monday, my best friend, Sabrina of The Petite Style, and I hung out in the San Jose area. After a long day of shopping our butts off at the Great Mall, we stopped by The Face Shop, which has been on my yelp "to try" list since August 2010. There were a ton of cool Korean products, but unfortunately, most things were just out of my price range.

Lovely ME:EX Nail Polish Remover 100ml, $3

I picked up two face masks and this nail polish remover. Initially, I was drawn to it because of the color and the smell. It doesn't smell like just alcohol, it has a bit of a fruity scent to it. I thought it was lovely at the time.

T H E . G O O D
I removed my Muppets mani from a few days ago since it was chipping. It took off Warm & Fozzie alright but left bits of glitter all over my hand, which may be because of the cotton balls I'm using. I found that it took off Excuse Moi! a bit easier than regular nail polishes, but I don't know if the glitter is less stubborn in this formula or if the nail polish remover actually removes chunky glitter better.

T H E . B A D
I don't really like the packaging. It's cute, but I don't find it functional. It has a medicine type of cap which is supposed to make it harder for children to open it, but it just kind of annoying. It took me a few tries to open it because I didn't realize it was a medicine cap. And even after realizing it, I would forget and try to open it again without pushing down.

Also, the opening for the product is tiny! I'm so used to large openings. I find that if you stick a cotton ball or pad in the normal bottles and do a quick upside down swish, it has enough product to remove a few nail's worth. But this one just slowly drips and because of the light pink color (which is nice) I can't tell how much product is dispensing.

The smell also started to be a turn off. I liked it in the beginning, but the longer I'm exposed to it, I can smell more of the acetone. Then it just smells like bad medicine with this weird fake smell.

I also found the product to be kind of expensive for what you get. It's a tiny bottle. For $3, you don't get much.

I don't think I would buy it again. Disappointed, to be honest. Hopefully, the masks will turn out well because I read some good reviews on it.

Loving Rimmel's Lasting Finish Pro in Steel Gray.

Short entry, but I painted my nails recently in a gray color. I don't usually do neutrals on my nails because I'm such a big fan of color, but considering how much color I've worn on my nails, I thought it would be nice to switch it up and go with a more muted color. I picked up Rimmel's Lasting Finish Pro in Steel Gray at CVS the other day. I actually saw this color a few weeks back but I didn't pick it up because I didn't know if I could pull off that look. But it kept weighing on my mind so I finally cracked and went back a month later to pick it up. Thank god I did. It was the last bottle and I hate that "I totally regret not getting it and it's gone feeling", don't you?

Anyways, I tried it on and I've been wearing it for a week now and I still love it. I didn't put my Seche Vite over it because my bottle got kind of goopy and my order for the thinner didn't come in yet. Surprisingly, it didn't chip all that much. I have a few chips here and there, but the color was able to stay on pretty well considering that I do a lot of work with my hands at work. The color is really nice. It's like a gray, but I feel like it has a slight mauve tint to it. It always seems warm instead of a cool gray which is weird considering the name.

I'll have to repaint my nails and take a pic sometime. :)

As a note, I wear my nails pretty short. Since I have excema, I can't keep them long or else I'm tempted to scratch at my skin whenever a flair up comes. Thus I tend to keep my nails really simple.

I'M SO BAD AT PAINTING NAILS.

Painting your nails is an easy simple way to achieve a pop of color or spark an interesting conversation, or even just to polish off your look. With that said, I'm horrible at it. I don't know why, but I could never get the right consistency on my nail and it ends up being super lumpy or marked. I think I put on coats that are too thick, but painting my nails usually takes like an hour, mayhaps more. Argh, it's quite frustrating. Maybe I should look online for some techniques, but it seems like such a simple task, that it would be silly to look it up. Hahaha

Also, I think I need a new base coat. I know that no one reads this blog as of now (since I've never told anyone about it yet) but if you are backtracking, I would love suggestions. I'm using the Seche Vite ridge filler one, but as much as I love the Seche Vite topcoat, I don't quite like the base coat. It doesn't really smooth out the surface of my nail. Or maybe I'm putting that on wrong too.

As for colors, I'm currently in love with bright poppy colors. One of my friends went down to San Jose to pick up some nail polishes for cheap, so I might wanna go check that out. I wanna expand on my nail collection. ^___^

Right now, I have a Sally Hansen's The Real Teal on. I like it a lot, but I feel like the first time I used it, it looked better. Probably cause the first time didn't look lumpy. Sigh, so sad.

In any case, I guess I'll look for tutorials (lol, so silly) so I can get this technique down. I feel like a little girl for not knowing how to paint my nails properly. :3 Hopefully, the next time I do them, it won't take me nearly as long.