Maybelline Express Finish Glitter Far Out Fuchsia

Maybelline Express Finish! A fantastic brand that I've never spoken about on this blog. I'm lucky enough to own about 45 of these squat little bottles, including the gem I'll be sharing with you today.

Meet Far Out Fuchsia (not to be confused with Far East Fuchsia, another Express Finish I own). It's from the Glitter collection of Express Finish polishes as is evidenced by the inclusion of the word "Glitter", large and surrounded by a sparkle effect, on the front label. Of the three EF Glitter polishes I own (the other two being Red Comet and Twinkle Pink), Far Out Fuchsia is my favorite of the bunch, though all are fantastic.

It's hard to discern, so my description may not be entirely accurate, but Far Out Fuchsia appears to consist of small, round fuchsia and silver glitter with round fuchsia microglitter in a deep fuchsia jelly base. I can confidently say that there is nothing else like it in my collection. Application is a bit of a nightmare, I won't lie, but it's less about the formula and more about the abysmal brush! Anyone who has experience with these Express Finish polishes can tell you about the horrors of this thing – the bristles are way too long to allow for any precision, so you're left to haphazardly slop polish on your nails with a floppy, unstable brush... you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. Actually, the formula is fantastic, especially for a glitter polish of this vintage, as two thin coats provide a near-perfect finish. Slight patchiness may be visible under harsh light, but I feel that this polish looks most enchanting in low light conditions – without light reflecting off of the glitter, you can really see the depth that the jelly finish offers. 

Here's my best attempt at a macro shot. Pathetic, right? I've been considering a digital camera with a proper macro setting for better shots. A 16 or 20-megapixel model can be found on eBay within the $20 to $40 range, making it a very tempting buy. Let's be honest: no one really reads this blog, so photo quality isn't a huge issue. However, I'll be purchasing a cellphone with a notoriously poor camera in the near future, so a decent digital camera would serve me well in other aspects of my life. 

Also, side note: does anyone else struggle with spelling very basic words from time to time? I always want to write "fuchsia" as "fuschia"! I pride myself on my spelling abilities, but every now and again, a very simple word will trip me up. The other ones I tend to flub are "occasional" (I always try "occassional" or "ocassional") and "alcohol" (which, for some reason, I thought was spelt as "alchohol" for a long time, and I sometimes still catch myself writing it that way). If you think I'm a total idiot after reading this, I can't blame you – I like to think I'm a fairly smart individual, but I'm not immune to a little stupidity now and then! 

I totally went off-topic there... but as stated in previous posts, I enjoy a more stream-of-consciousness approach to writing. As already mentioned, it's not like anyone reads this blog – I do this more for me than anyone else – so who cares if I sprinkle in some of my tangentially related thoughts? Ah well... I'll wrap this up so I can go back to staring at this gorgeous polish. 

And until next time... peace out! 

Wild and Crazy: Resurrection

"Wait, didn't you just post about Wild and Crazy?" Why yes, I did! But this time is going to be a little different.

Remember in my last post how I mentioned that alongside their nail polish line, Wild and Crazy produced makeup? Well, I was lucky enough to stumble across a pretty decent selection of it! Today's haul is courtesy of Golden Mart Beauty Supply, which bills itself as "the largest ethnic beauty supply & wig store online". While the majority of the site is dedicated to wigs, extensions, and hair care products, it sports a healthy variety of cosmetics from familiar brands including Kleancolor, Nicka K, Ruby Kisses, and Jordana. They also sell nail polish, including roughly 25 Wild and Crazy shades. I have placed three orders with GMBS over the past couple of years and wholeheartedly recommend them – prices are more than fair and shipping has never taken longer than 4 days. 

Anyway... onto the fun stuff!

Lip Products

I'll start first with the only non-W&C cosmetic item I purchased, which is a lipstick from the brand Maxi called "Purple Silver". My mother used to have an L.A. Colors lipstick by the name of "Ice Storm", which was a metallic frosty grey-purple color. I've been looking all over for it, but no one is selling it at the moment. In the meantime, I've been on the lookout for a dupe, and while there was no photo of this lipstick, I decided to take a chance as the name sounded about right. Well... it looks nothing like how I'd hoped. It's a shimmery dark purple in the tube. I wanted to try it out anyway, but unfortunately, it is so waxy and hardened that it wouldn't deposit any color on my lips. Worse of all, the entire lipstick snapped midway through as I was trying to apply it! Sadly, this one is going straight in the trash. There! I just tossed it in.

What a disappointment! :(

Next up are the Wild and Crazy lipsticks, "Ujjako" and "Kokuma". Unfortunately, these colors are far from exciting – Ujjako is a deep purple creme and Kokuma is a terracotta creme. I couldn't tell you what these smelled like when they were new, but as of now, they have an overwhelming waxy odor. Ujjako is slightly better than Kokuma, but neither are easy to apply on account of the hard, waxy texture. Both deposit a decent amount of color, but this isn't enough to save them. While I'll keep them for collection purposes, I’m confident I won’t ever use them again. 

Kokuma on top. Hey, they look like peanut butter and jelly!

Next up are the lip glosses, "Jee Jee" and "Lilac Song". These are amazing! Surprisingly, they both have an appealing cocoa scent and flavor to them. More specifically, they smell and taste exactly like Fudgesicles, which were one of my favorite frozen treats as a kid! Jee Jee (a vibrant copper) and Lilac Song (a pinky lavender) both have a fantastic metallic/frost finish to them. Color payoff is pretty good – one coat will do for a more subtle look, but two coats will pack quite the punch. They are on the sticky side, but not excessively so. I really like Jee Jee, but Lilac Song is the obvious winner here – what was I just saying about frosty purple? I may need to spring for a backup or two. A much-needed triumph! 

Jee Jee on top

They sorta look like test tubes... I love it!

Eye Products

I chose the retractable lip & eye liner in the shade "Flirt" for how vague of a name it is. If not just descriptive of the color ("Metallic Blue", "Dark Gray"), then most were at least somewhat suggestive of what it could be ("Dusty Wind", "Cinnamon Twist"). What color is "Flirt", though? A medium purple, apparently. This honestly smells like a crayon with how waxy it is, but I can't really fault an old-stock budget eyeliner for that. The color is as expected and glides on with ease. There isn't as much in the tube as you'd hope, but you still get a decent amount for the price. Not much more to be said – it's a very basic eyeliner, but it'll get the job done. 

Now onto the final attraction, the eyeshadows. While there was quite a selection to choose from, I felt that 4 was a good number to stop at. The pots are small, roughly the circumference of a half-dollar, and not particularly deep. Unfortunately, one of the shades I selected was evidently out of stock: "Marquise", which may have been a green shade according to Beautylish, was replaced by "Cotton Candy". The other three I ordered, "Chandelier", "Echo", and "You Rock!!!" all came as expected.

Chandelier is a lilac purple with silver and gold shimmer. Cotton Candy is a pink frost. Echo is a silver frost. You Rock!!! is a brown shimmer.

Chandelier is the worst by far – even with repeated applications, I was unable to build up any significant amount of color. You Rock!!! has decent pigmentation, but suffers from a rather powdery texture. Cotton Candy and Echo are decent for what they are, creamy and smooth with good color payoff. A mixed bag, but as I said above, I can't knock cheap old cosmetics too hard.

Top to bottom: Chandelier, Cotton Candy, Echo, You Rock!!!

 

L-R same as above

Final verdict: while this was a fun glimpse into Wild and Crazy's non-nail polish offerings, I won't be using any of this regularly with the lip glosses being the exception. They are truly outstanding (but especially Lilac Song) and have earned a spot among the small collection of products I regularly use. There are a few other W&C glosses currently up on eBay and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted! When it comes to the rest of it, though, it'll all be safe and snug in my ballerina Hello Kitty children's suitcase full of makeup I never touch. 

And until next time... peace out!

Wild and Crazy: my entire collection!

If you take the time to peruse this blog, you'll quickly find that one of my all-time favorite nail polish brands is Wild and Crazy. For the uninitiated, Wild and Crazy was an offshoot of Mirage Cosmetics, the same company behind Sinful Colors. While I am unsure as to the extent of their range, they did produce makeup in addition to nail polish. To the best of my knowledge, W&C was born sometime in the late '90s/early '00s and saw its end roughly a decade later. The reason for its demise is surprising, but not totally unexpected: Markwins, the parent company of good ol' Wet n Wild, took Mirage to court in July of 2005. A quick search for "mirage cosmetics lawsuit" will yield the juicy details, but the long and short of it is that Markwins felt that the names were too similar, not to mention their competitive price points. While it appears that the case was dropped, this would ultimately spell the end of Wild and Crazy, which would cease production sometime in the late '00s or early '10s. 

History lesson aside, I adore this brand for a number of reasons:

1. Wild and Crazy = Sinful Colors. Mirage did not develop unique colors for the W&C line. All they did was change the names. Seriously. Even the numbers were left intact (for example, W&C w231 Roselyn is Sinful 231 Auriga). While there are occasionally slight formula variations between the brands, the general rule of thumb is that they are the same. Wild and Crazy spans the first 400 of Sinful Colors' shades, and because W&C is in much lower demand than Sinful, it's often a cheaper way to access Sinful shades of yore. However...
2. It's hard to find. Why would this be a good thing? Because I love the hunt! Vintage polish collecting is an extraordinarily patient hobby, and there's nothing more satisfying than scoring something you've been after for months or years. It's not so elusive as to become frustrating, but it's definitely a challenge to locate people with bottles they're looking to part with. My Facebook groups have been a great help!
3. Fun colors! And not the type of multichrome-holo-flakie-crelly-magnetic-thermal fun you'll find on Etsy. There's something very endearing about older polish in wacky colors. Yeah, a blue metallic might be a bit pedestrian by today's standards, but that was enough to stand out back in the day. Maybe even enough to get you in trouble at school or with your parents! You also get to see finishes that have fallen to the wayside in recent times, like frosts!
4. Strange names. Sinful is guilty of this on occasion, too, but the names that they dreamt up for W&C often made no sense. Remember "Popped Out Belly"? Other gems I'll be showing in this post include "Heavenly Handsome", "Chunky Chow", and "Ticklish Toes".
5. Great packaging. As you'll see, the majority of my collection consists of two different bottle shapes, both of which are very unique and quite cute. I also love the logo!

Alright, enough of my rambling... ONTO THE POLISH!!!!!

Just one note: I apologize for the exposure on some of these photos. I had to play around with it quite a bit to achieve the most accurate representation of color.

And without further ado, here is the entirety of my Wild and Crazy collection!

L-R: Whatever, Whatever, Paradise, Egyptian Ruby

Sagittarius, Wild Vision, Costa Rica, Granada

St. Helena, Red Carpet, Vogue, Angelica

Renatka, Shocking Pink (the shock is that it's orange!), Neon Light, Charming Charm

Forte, Roselyn, Kermit, Gypsy Girl

Erie, Vampire, Fancy Dream, Beloved Child

Pinky Promise, Amnesia, Amnesia, UR My Baby

Carnival, Pink Sherbet, U-Rock, Alaskan

Flying Kite, Feliciana, Concia, Tutu

Go Anywhere, Sioux Falls, Bermuda, Ticklish Toes

Sand Turtle, Twinkle Beat, Wasabi

Vivianna, Neon Shower, Pilar

Popped Out Belly, Giggalo, Madriel

Crunch, Charming Charm, Lonesome Road

Super Star, Kilimanjaro, Hard Ball

Hard Ball (slightly different formula), Crush on You, Lazarine

Suzammi, Cyber, Pink Bikini

Beloved Child, Chunky Chow, Jealousy

Summer Neon, Sylva, Heavenly Handsome

NYM, Color Hazard, Rose Petal (um...)

Anchorage, Eleena, Banger

Blueberry, Yenis, Midori Sour

1st generation original bottles – same shape as original Sinful bottles

Ticklish Toes, Heart Bit

And there you have it: all 77 bottles in my Wild and Crazy hoard! A few quick notes:

• Lazarine, Suzammi, and Sylva all share a formula that I've never seen anywhere else. I don't know if I can put it into words... it's buttery smooth but has a tendency to pull if it doesn't dry completely between coats. It dries to this incredible finish... it's somewhere it between a frost, a pearl, and a chrome. It is AMAZING. It reminds me of satin... not satin finish nail polish, but actual satin fabric. I'd kill to have a green or bright blue with this finish!
• There are some major differences between my duplicate bottles of Charming Charm and Ticklish Toes. Evidence suggests that some early Sinful colors went through drastic changes in color and finish throughout their life span. This would explain these differences.
• For the most part, Wild and Crazy polishes need at least three coats. Some of the dark reds are manageable in two, but the majority are on the sheer side and will need more.
• The first two bottle styles are both 0.4 oz. You'd never guess it by looking at them!
• Some of my favorite shades include Renatka, Roselyn, Amnesia, Neon Shower, Hard Ball, Cyber, Chunky Chow, Jealousy, and Sylva... but I love them all!

I had such a fun time taking these pictures and compiling them all for this post! Thanks so much for looking! I'll be back soon with more cool polish to share! 

And until next time... peace out!