Haul: Etude House August 2016

This is a prime example of why samples are awesome, both for consumers and businesses. In my last haul post I mentioned receiving a freebie of the Toning White C skincare set. I loved it so much I went back and bought full sizes in the skincare set. Thus, this haul!

The price breakdown of each product will be a little different. I will share the price in USD found on the international Etude House storefront, the price I pay here in Korea in both Won and USD, as well as the sale pricing I paid on the particular day I went to the store. That's a lot of numbers and I don't blame you if you think it's too much information, but I think it's good to include all of this information, both for other people and for my own records. This blog doubles as a personal diary, after all. ;)

Another side note, the English translations of each products' purpose might not flow very well. I still included it so you could get an idea of each products' purpose.

Let's move on to what I got... even though you can see it all right here. Shh, we all know you're just here for the pictures. :P

Orly - Cupcakes and Unicorns over Etude - #21

Direct sunlight.

 I can't take a dark cream and not layer something shimmery, glittery, and/or sparkly over it! That's just not my style.

Orly Cupcakes and Unicorns is a clear based layering polish with tiny duochrome flakes that range between gold, pink, magenta, and orange. Mixed in are some red bar glitters as well.

Indirect sunlight.

It's hard to quantify how many layers this is. While I applied to each nail only once, I had to pat the glitters on in thick layers to get all of the bar glitter to come off of my brush. Anyone who messes with big glitters knows what I'm talking about. Taking the application style into consideration, this was nothing out of the ordinary. I did not put a top coat over this, and it dried surprisingly smooth with some nice shine to it. I'm used to glitters like this needing a top coat.

Etude House - #21

Direct sunlight.

This lovely color from Etude is probably my favorite out of the colors I picked up in my haul. Not only is the formula great, the color makes my heart bleed. I think it's because this is a vampy shade and that seems to be big in the Fall.

Indirect sunlight.

This polish could almost be called a jelly, if you're able to apply a layer thinly and evenly enough. I wouldn't call it that, however, as I'm not quite able to get that first layer to apply evenly.

These pictures have two coats and no top coat. As you can see, it levels out nicely and has a beautiful shine to it.

Etude House - #50

Direct sunlight

This nail polish was an absolute nightmare to photograph, but oh honey was it worth it. 40 photos and this is the only one that shows the polish's true potential.

Etude House's #50 is a navy blue based nail polish with tiny duochrome flecks that range between magenta, purple, and blue. In the picture I used three coats and no top coat, so this polish is slightly less opaque than Etude's other nail polish offerings. The layers even out beautifully, however, and does not leave the nail feeling thick. The formula was great, with no pooling, gloppyness, or weird bubbles and clumps. This gets an A+ in my book!

Etude House - #83

Indirect sunlight.

Etude House's #83 is a bright blue with a world of application issues.

In the shade.

 Pictured is two coats with no top coat. I had issues with the layers not leveling out properly and the polish looked gloppy in some areas. To its credit, the polish is incredibly pigmented, but I think that lends itself to the polish's inability to level out. I have yet to try this with a topcoat as I don't actually have a topcoat that I like at the moment, but I'm hoping that once I do the issues with the formula won't be as noticeable on the nail.

Still a gorgeous color, though!

Etude House - #25

Indirect sunlight.

 The first of my Etude polishes, this is an interesting color. I picked it up thinking it was purple, but now that I've worn it and photographed it I've noticed it's very nudish. Maybe mauve? You tell me. LOL

Direct sunlight.

In the shade.

This is one polish I love, but the formula can be a bit tricky to work with. It levels out nicely, but is prone to bubbles as you can probably tell in the pictures. There is a small window to apply the next layer of polish. Apply too soon and the polish will be streaky and uneven. Apply too late and the polish gets gloppy. If you let the first layer dry beyond that glop timeframe it'll be fine, but it takes a few minutes. If you apply nail polish as fast as I do, it can become inconvenient when the polish doesn't dry to the right consistency on your timeline. It's a relatively minor problem but I'm picky, dangit! All of the pictures above feature two coats and no top coat, so you can see that the polish is incredibly shiny.

I would say this is a repurchase, but the logical part of my brain knows how long it'll take me to go through this bottle of polish and I have yet to repurchase a nail polish in the 6 years I've been consistently following nail polish/nail art.

Haul: Etude House July 2016

Oh, girl. Have I got a basket of complaints for you! Not about these products. Just about life and hot-as-balls-temperatures and photography woes. How am I supposed to take pictures when it is constantly overcast/raining? How am I supposed to write out a blog post when just thinking about sitting in the office makes me sweat in all the wrong places? My temporary solution has turned into bringing out the laptop. Which involved stealing it from M's work bag LOL. He is not a happy camper today. Anyways, that rant is for another post and another time.

Today I'm going to talk to you guys about my lovely haul from Etude House! This was the same store I had the lovely experience I talked about in this Stop & Chat post. Just thinking about it gives me (and my face) a warm glow.

Anyways, let's move on to what I got!