Early Christmas Haul ... And A Rant on Video Formats

The rant has to come first.  Because I have been SO PISSED OFF for like 3 days.  Partly I can only blame myself, but mainly I'm blaming Canon & Microsoft.

 

SO - I did just enough research, in looking into my new camera, to know that it shot videos in a different format than my old camera, and that Movie Maker does not support that format.  OK, so I'll have to switch to a new program, Live Movie Maker was supposed to support it.  SUPPOSED TO.  So I shoot, not one or even two but three different vids - a tutorial, a haul & a vlog - & I download Live Movie Maker ... and then, THEN I find the ugly truth:  If you can actually get it to work with .mov files, you have serious luck & have won the codec lottery.

 

Everywhere I look online are people having the same problems.  First it imports the video but I get no sound.  I updated my codec pack, and then I get nothing!  No sound OR video.  So I try converting it using my normal video converter - one format was half-crap with the sound unsynced, the other was total crap quality although the sound mostly matched.  WTF.  Canon, why would you do this to me & everyone else who's not running a Mac that will actually accept this format without a fight?

 

Eventually, after digging around online & searching forums, I found a work-around solution.  Turns out ZoomBrowser - which is Canon's software - actually has a feature I never had cause to use before, and can convert .mov's to .avi's.  After my first attempt I wasn't to optimistic but I gave it a try with crossed fingers.  Wonder of wonders it mercifully worked.  However, I thought I'd then be able to use them in trusty old Movie Maker - nope.  Denied.  So I still had to learn Live Movie Maker. 

 

I still hate it so far - it's all icons & no real (apparently now "old-school") drop-down menus, much like Office 2010.  But I managed to fumble my way through editing this haul vid together.  I hope you guys like it because it's made of blood & sweat & tears!  I'm still not 100% happy with how the quality ended up after conversion, and I'm still working on lighting & stuff, but ... here's my first vid with the new camera (I do recommend checking it out actually on YT if you can since the widescreen is a bit more of a smoosh than the 4:3 was):

 

 

 

On to the bottle pics - like last time, I didn't try to keep every shopping trip separate for the pics, I just sorted them out by brand.  First up are these gorgeous Sally Hansen Gem Crush glitters, several of which look like dupes to my eye for colors in the China Glaze Eye Candy collection:

 

Top row:  Showgirl Chic, Cha-Ching, Big Money, Bling-tastic (Best polish name EVAR!  You guys know that's my word LOL)  Bottom row:  Glitz Gal, Lady Luck, Razzle Dazzler, Be-Jeweled.

 

On to the China Glaze - as a side note, I don't remember if I mention in the vid but I only found the Eye Candy collection at one Ulta, so it may be more widely available now, or you may have to search it out:

 

Top row, from the Let it Snow collection:  Glittering Garland, Ring in the Red, Blue Year's Eve, Tinsel Town, Icicle.  Bottom row:  Marry a Millionaire & Some Like it Haute (from the Eye Candy collection) & CG in the City (from the Metro collection).

 

Next OPI:

 

Top row, from the Muppets collection:  Gettin' Miss Piggy With It, Designer ... De Better!, Warm & Fozzie.  Bottom row, from Ulta's selection of colors that are being discontinued:  Ali's Big Break & Gargantuan Green Grape Matte.

 

From the Color Club Scent-suos collection, that I was shocked to find at Sallys:

 

 

Orna-minted, Kiss Me Mistletoe, Sugar Plum Yum.

 

One lonely Orly, from the Holiday Soiree collection:

 

 

Androgynie.

 

L'Oreal, from the Birds of a Feather displays:

 

 

Raven's Strength & Amazon's Flash.

 

Butter London, from the absurd Dressing Table box set ... I tried, I  really did, to resist - I left them behind once but the second time I just gave in to the contrast of dark & light blings:

 

 

The Black Knight & Tart With a Heart.

 

Elf - there was another set of 5 at Big Lots, but the colors were more boring to me than these:

 

 

Blue Mist, Purple Pleaser, Lilac, Fuchsia, Mango Madness.

 

And finally the Revlons:

 

 

Carbonite, Silver (which is not ... it's seriously just grey) & Pink Again.

 

So, I'm all set for a while I think ... until I give in to that urge for more magnetic polish, hmmm... =)

 

As a side note, huge wide screen vids take eons to upload.  I prepped most of this before bed, but the vid took like 3 hours so that's why it's getting posted in the morning before work.  I'm really hoping we're in good enough shape I won't have to do 10 hours today - if I get home at a reasonable hour, I'll be catching up my posts &, if you people would like, posting the tut for the manicure I'm wearing in the haul vid.  Thanks for reading

 

~Colette

 

Old Gift Haul

I recorded this like 2 or 3 weeks ago & never got around to taking bottle pics & editing the vid.  My friend Sam cleaned out her stash, and I got the spoils =D  And out of all these colors, I think I already have only 3 of them, so I was very pleased.

First, a few Finger Paints that I picked up on additional 50% off clearance - so they were only a dollar each:

Finger Paints Artist's Sapphire, Gallery Glam, Whose Hue? & Hue Rang?

Now on to my gift haul, starting with the brands that there was only one bottle of:

Rimmel Wishing on a Star, Delux Beauty Star Daisy, Maybelline Denim Dash, Avon Retro Rose, Essie Hot Commodity & Zoya Diem.

4 colors from Elf:

No Label nude & No label pink with silver shimmer, Sunset & Burgundy.

2 Revlons & 3 Sally Hansen from various lines:

Revlon Always Flaunting & Sparkling Cafe; Sally Hansen Sunrise Sunset, Petal Pusher & Emerald City.

3 Finger Paints:

Meet Me at the Met, Tapestry in Taupe & Art Dealer Teal-er.

2 Hard Candy:

Unfortunately their mini-bottles don't have names =(  But still pretty purple & pink.

5 Pure Ice:

Strip Tease, Cheatin, French Kiss, Busted, Risk Taker.

And finally few super-tiny Sally Hansen minis:

These don't have names either.  Stop being lazy polish companies!  Mini-bottles are people ... errr, polish too!  They deserve names!

Finally the Haul vid, me rambling as usual LOL:

I have my more recent haul to get together now that I have this old one out of the way =)  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

November Hauls

Yes, several hauls ... 'cause, you know, I need more polish.  NEED it =)

 

I never used to go to Ulta ... then I got a coupon from someone else, then I got their card, now I get coupons freaking all the time & they whisper at me to spend them ... and if I don't have a coupon from the mail & need a polish fix, 95% of the time there's one to be printed from their website LOL.

 

China Glaze was buy 2 get 1 I believe for this trip:

 

Left to right:  Jolly Holly & Little Drummer Boy - both from the 'Tis the Season to be Naught & Nice holiday collection.  & then Swing Baby, from the Vintage Vixen collection.

 

Then I went to Target & just couldn't resist the glitter in this Elf 3-pack:

 

 

Left to right:  Twinkle, Golden Goddess & Cranberry.

 

Yesterday I made another stop at Ulta:

 

 

Left to right:  Emerald City, Ruby Ribbon & Perplex - which Revlon is touting as a Paradoxal dupe.  I don't have it to compare, but this color is gorgeous enough that I want a backup bottle =)  It's on my nails as I type & it's making me very happy.

 

...and then today I stopped at a different Ulta.  I've mentioned they've started carrying Barielle - these were the first that tempted me to buy them:

 

 

Top - from the Barielle Holiday Hustle collection, Jess' Champagne Toast, Elle's Spell.  Bottom - from Essie's Winter collection, Smokin' Hot & Going Incognito, and from their Fall collection Sew Psyched.

 

I should be good for a while now ... probably.  Maybe.  We'll see =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette