Brown for Fall - Essie Little Brown Dress

A very pretty and shiny classic dark chocolate lacquer...but I'm not sure chocolate brown polish is really my thing.

Essie Little Brown Dress:

What do you think? I think something a little murkier like OPI Get in the Express-o Lane might be more up my alley.

kittytokaren

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So Fall... OPI Warm & Fozzie

Fall is my favourite season - I love burying my nose in a big fluffy scarf, finally getting to wear my plum lipsticks, how the air can smell crisp and like burning firewood at the same time...even the seasonal coffee flavours...but most of all - the fashion. And that includes polish, of course! OPI Warm & Fozzie is the epitome of fall, and honestly, it has become my new favourite. It's like the wintery sister of my all-time-fav - OPI DS Glow! It's somehow sultrier - more dark and bronze, but has the same kind of vibrance that DS Glow has with flashes of warm gold and twinkles of red. Absolutely gorgeous. Pics can't describe it...

I got so many compliments on this polish - even from polish n00bs. I'm even considering purchasing a back-up! Warm & Fozzie was initially going to be my only purchase from the Muppets collection, but because it's so fabulous I picked up Designer...de Better as well - hopefully it will be another special metallic/foil/amazingjdfla;dsjf for me to fall in love with!

What polish reminds you most of fall?

kittytokaren

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Anna Sui 504

Anna Sui 504

I really wanted to love this polish. I hadn't seen anything else like it: dark auburn jelly with a lot of gold glitter and green iridescent flakies. I mean, what a combination: it's so unusual! Well, I loved the color, I love the gold glitter, the brownish jelly, the typical candy-floral Anna Sui scent (and the cute rose-shaped bottle)... but the flakies were less than fab. Stiffest. flakies. ever. The small flakies were okay but the large pieces didn't spread very well and stuck up in weird angles on my nails. I kept on piling on the layers (I think the above shows four or five?), trying to get more flakies but to no avail.

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MAC Dry Martini

Oh, Dry Martini...I wanted to love you. So badly. But three streaky coats later (with evident bald spots), and the beautiful olive green tone of the bottle replaced by duck poo brown on the nail...I don't love you. At all. I've seen this colour look amazing on other people but on my skin all the green just flew right out of it.

I also have issues with MAC's formula - this chipped after two days and could really have done with a fourth coat if I wanted it to be totally even. It's a shame, because I LOVE the MAC brush. It fits my nails perfectly. But the polishes usually wind up being a let down for me.

Are there any brands that just don't work for you?

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Dior Czarina Gold

(2 coats)

This is like China Glaze's Ingrid pumped up (and darker, which works better with mah skin). Love it.

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OPI Fall 2011: Touring America - I got a little crazy.

I initially only ordered a couple of polishes from the OPI Touring America collection - and then I saw them in Ulta and picked up a bunch more. I honestly wish I had restrained myself a little more, but at least I can share them with you now! I really wanted to show you the colours as they appear in real life (not lit up by some super bright lamps) so as a consequence some of these come off really dark - which they do in reality!

Uh Oh, Roll Down the Window

I'm really excited to wear this one this fall! My first ever olive green. Super creamy. I think it's one of those ugly-pretty colours and will look really nice with navy!

I Brake For Manicures

This was a lot browner on the nail than I expected - it looks more purple-y in the bottle. Part of me wishes this wasn't so dark because that would let the colour really shine.

Get in the Expresso Lane

I'm not usually the biggest fan of brown nail polish. I like it in swatches, but I never seem to feel excited about wearing it. This changes my mind - it's grey-er and greener than typical chocolate browns - and I like it! I think the camouflage-style undertones give brown a much-needed update.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts

A very welcome addition to my grey collection - lighter than the other true greys I own, I think it's really flattering on - it has a bit of warmth that keeps it harmonious with my yellow skin. It reminds me of elephants.

Road House Blues

Believe it or not, I don't have a true navy blue creme in my collection. The closest thing I have is OPI Sapphire in the Snow, which is much more purple. Again, I wish this was lighter so the beautiful creamy navy with a *hint* of purple could really take center stage.

A-Taupe the Space Needle

Last (and definitely least) is the one I really regret picking up. This just looks like poo on me. Poo. Sigh.

What do you think of OPI's fall offering? I was excited by the prospect of a bunch of dingy, dirty cremes, but I'm a little let down by how some of them are "almost black". I think most of us are over "almost black". I know I'm sick of hearing people ask me "What colour is that? Black?" That being said, I think several of these will become staples in my collection! I'm so looking forward to fall...

kittytokaren

read more "OPI Fall 2011: Touring America - I got a little crazy."

Back in the saddle: OPI bronzed to perfection

I've not been very enthusiastic about manicuring lately - coming to the end of my secondment, things have been crazy busy, and I've been focussed on trying to deliver the final paper I owe above anything else. My colleagues are throwing me a leaving party next week, and then it's back to the PhD. It will be so strange to return to solo working after three months in an office, and I'm sorry to say I'll really miss it. Still, it's given me things to think about as options when I finally graduate - I've long been harbouring doubts about my ability to be an academic, and the University jobs market here is completely kaput, so it's reassuring to know that I can work in a different environment (and I now have a line on my CV to prove it).

I'm also in celebration mode after finding out I got the teaching I wanted. Three classes of stats in semester one (please, please, oh timetabling Gods, let them be on the same day!) and nothing in semester two, so I can concentrate on kicking this damn t****s - I can't quite bring myself to type it - into shape. And maybe have time for some research consulting on the side.

Anyway, to celebrate having the time and inclination to do my nails, here's an old favourite my boyfriend picked. It's OPI bronzed to perfection from the South Beach collection from a couple of years back. I know it's probably intended to be worn by tanned lovelies and not Casper-types like myself, but to hell with it, I love this colour. It's a deep bronze-tan with little golden orange shimmer flecks. Applies like buttah. Goes with everything. Easy peasy.

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Zoya Tamsen & Ashley

Sadly swatch pictures (almost universally, including mine) are not accurate on this one. You are better off believing the description on the Zoya site: a "Medium warm brick red with strong orange tones" indeed.





(2 coats)

I bought this instead of Sooki because I was fairly sure Sooki would not look good on me and I am forever in search of a great orange based red.

But this is red, orange and a healthy helping of brown. Sure in bright light it's gorgeous. But really, in most other lights it's just a brick red (I tried to capture it in the last photo but even that is still too red in my view).

If you're still interested well then SLAM it into your checkout cart because the formula is love. Smooth, silky, and you can almost do one thick coat and call it done (instead i did 2 medium coats). No drying issues either (for me).



(3 coats)

I went through my stash and counted. I have 2 berry-red cremes. And this is one of them. And I like it! Very much. (Ladies of Color - if you are having a hard time finding a red that you can pull off, inch over to the berry-reds. They're very flattering.)

But as I purge I have to be strict about formula and 3 coats to get an even finish on what is a standard berry-red creme is....well. I can't go for that, noOOooooo (noo); no can do.

So now I have one berry-red creme in a stash of hundreds. Maybe I'll covet it now, instead of ignoring the poor dear.

read more "Zoya Tamsen & Ashley"

Nfu Oh Jellies

Here are the other three Nfu Oh jellies I bought.

JS 09


(2 coats)

Color me pleased! Imagine my glee, 2 coats and I'm satisfied with the coverage. What is a pretty pink-leaning coral in the bottle really just pulls pink against my skin but I'm still ok. This one's a keeper!

JS 42


(5 coats)

I had to seriously mess with the photoshop in order to get this one even close to the reality. It is a red leaning brown, not a brown leaning red.

Given that I needed 5 coats to get it to acceptable coverage, I am shocked by how well this dried and without bubbles at that!

JS 04



(4 coats)

People on MUA have responded pretty well to swatches of this one but make no mistake, the formula on this one is a hot mess. Verrrrry gluey and does not level at all.

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Hey, want to see the worst NOTD I've had in a long time? (CND Brigitte with Anna Effect, Jason Wu collection)

I was really into the idea of the Jason Wu/CND collaboration. So much so that I actually bought it for full retail price and then some from Cult Beauty (because I was getting the Rococo Gold Leaf polish anyway and if I was going to pay for across-the-pond shipping... etc).

I like interesting textures. I like taupey, underplayed colors. I really like CND's new polishes. (Though I just saw some old glitters from 2008 on the Pretty Random blog and holy effin' crap, I so want. Even though my experience with old CNDs was pretty bad.) So when I heard about a whole collection of sophisticated shroomy types of colors with an Effects polish that promised a "tweedy" texture, I was pretty excited. (No one else was but I was.)

And then I put this on. I mean... I've been having bad mani days (much like bad hair days but worse because I can see my nails at any time and I need a mirror to see my hair) but this took the cake.

Behold, the cake:

CND Brigitte (Colour) and Anna (Effect)

Mauvey, taupey... warm and sort of dull. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is the bubbling. This polish did not enjoy my Gelous bc and/or Diamont tc and reacted very angrily to me when I made them all play together. Also, what happened to the fantastic CND creme formula? Some of the core CND Colour polishes are simply perfection (completely opaque and smooth in two coats) with a dummy-proof brush. This, in comparison, was watery, thick, and needed three coats (which is not desirable in a polish meant to be layered underneath another).

Actually... no, I change my mind. The worst part was the "tweedy" texture, the Anna polish. In the bottle, it looks a lot like a matte topcoat (and indeed, it does mattefy). But when applied, it mostly looks like I stuck a hand with wet nails into the pocket of an old wool coat. The little linty shards coming off the nail... I mean, that just kind of put it over the top.

Closeup of Brigitte and Anna

A bubbly, hairy manicure. Couldn't wait to take this one off and I kind of didn't want to post it... except... it's a bubbly, hairy manicure and that's kind of funny in itself.

read more "Hey, want to see the worst NOTD I've had in a long time? (CND Brigitte with Anna Effect, Jason Wu collection)"

My so-called "dud" - OPI My Private Jet

This is the newest version of My Private Jet - the one no one really likes...but I do! It has mild scattered holo glitter with an amber flash...

This is perfect for when I'm in the mood for something a little special and sparkly! Still neutral enough for me to be completely comfortable as well.

I know that by saying this some sort of polish-fan-god is going to come down and smite me, but....you know...I really think that if OPI had released this as a different polish with different name (NOT My Private Jet) that people would really like it! Instead now it's just viewed as a 'dud'. And I think that's just a crying shame.

Do you have a 'dud' that you think is a hidden gem?

kittytokaren

read more "My so-called "dud" - OPI My Private Jet"

J. Crew FTW - Essie Milky Way

I am such an Essie fanatic - I will go wherever, whenever I have to for new Essies! And a neutral creme?! I'm there. I caught wind of Essie Milky Way in some strange corner of the internet that I can't quite recall - a blog post, a tweet, a random image? Either way, I knew I had to have it!

So off to J. Crew I went - because this puppy is a J. Crew exclusive! J. Crew has sold Essie polishes for a while now, but they've always been pre-existing colours. The lovely people at J. Crew would pick a few to coordinate with their current collection - they even had mini packs of their 4 picks! But now the collaboration seems to have gone ever further, and J. Crew has two exclusive colours out for the first time ever - Peepshow (a bright coral - reminds me of One of a Kind or Cute as a Button maybe?) and Milky Way (my new favourite). See them on their site here.

Milky Way...

A quick shot from the lab...

And I thought you might be interested in the label!

I've completely fallen for this gorgeous camel colour. I wasn't sure about it initially, but it totally grew on me and now I'm head-over-heels. I wore it for 5 days and it wore just as well as my HG polish for wear, Essie Mink Muffs. Like non-stick coating on a pan! I really can't tell you how much I loved wearing this. I was sad to take it off after 5 days! It felt so chic. It reminded me of toffee and my mother's camel coat and went beautifully with everything I wore. Needless to say, I highly recommend you check it out!

It reminds me of OPI San Tan-tonio, but I don't have that to compare. The OPI seems a bit yellower?

Will you be checking out the J Crew exclusives? I'm going to have my eyes peeled for their next seasons offerings!

kittytokaren

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*Insert "getting shellacked" joke here*

I did it! I finally broke down and returned back to the nail salon, which is exactly what the fine people of CND wanted when the created the miracle Shellac, isn't it?

I'm going to be honest - I am not a nail salon kind of girl. With a passion for polish like mine you'd think that I would love those havens of hand massages and racks of color, but alas, no. Instead of being a treat, I tend to associate those places with strangely shaped nails and gooey polish and I rely on my own at-home manicures which I think are very nice, thankyouverymuch. Also, I like to humor myself and think that I am saving myself money by staying out of the salon, which then means I can buy more polish. It's a viscous cycle.

So anyway, enter the CND Shellac. I couldn't do it myself, so I found myself in a shwanky salon with incredibly comfortable chairs and lovely workers that kept offering me water. You know how it works, so I'll just show you the fairly awful photo that I took a few days after my manicure. Here's my CND Fedora manicure -


I know, bad photo, right? Right after I received my manicure, I left for an artist residency and proceeded to beat the hell out of it for a week and only stopped to take a photo after several days of work, so I apologize for the crapola image. Here are my thoughts on the Shellac in no particular order:

• I got a hell of an awesome manicure, I have to admit. I don't know if it was because the manicurist had to be trained to a certain degree in order to be able to do my mani or what, but it was killer. Nice job, Mandy!
• The color selection was totally limited - I know, old news. Here's the thing, though - CND is all about claiming that you can layer colors to make bold and bright versions, right? Yeah, not so much. When I popped this idea on Mandy, she made me a little sample of the colors I wanted (Fedora with a coat of Tutti Frutti in order to get a shocking blue) and what came out was a color that looked like brown with a coat of pink on it. I ended up just opting for Fedora.
  
• The wear was pretty darn good, because I was not being coy when I said I beat the hell out of it. We're talking hands-in-water-for-hours followed by lots of picking at stickers and occasional power tools. HELL.
  
• shiny, shiny shiny! This polish retained its shiny quality until the moment I took it off.

I enjoyed the Shellac, I really did, but I was a little disappointed in the wear of it. I really expected to have to chip this crap off, but it started coming off on its own after a week, and I have to tell you, I DID NOT have to do that with *gasp* the Sally Hansen Salon Effects stickers that I put through a similar hell a few weeks prior.

Speaking of taking it off, I'll be honest - I peeled it off. And I enjoyed it. My nails may not have enjoyed it, but I did.

In conclusion - good manicure, shiny, expensive, didn't wear as long as I would have liked it to. I'll pass on the Shellac for now and opt for stickers until I desperately need a manicure AND they come out with more colors. The end.

Happy day, all!

read more "*Insert "getting shellacked" joke here*"

A Russian Substitute, Part 1 - OPI Tease-y Does It!

*sigh* Could. Not. Photograph. This.

It's gorgeous and I couldn't capture it in one (or even two) photograph(s). So how about a ton of crappy ones!? Yaaaayyy!!

With flash:

No flash/shade:

See the depth of the sparkle? Awesome. (This is probably the best/most accurate picture. Sad, I know.)

In bright light:

In the shade:

Sparkly!

See how it flashes gold sometimes?

It's hard to describe this polish. Suffice to say that it is quite special. The base is deep and smoky and rich, but not black - not purple, not anything. The not-quite-glitter-not-quite-shimmer sparkle is pink, then every once in a while it's gold.

I saw on a post on ALU here, that this was fairly close to Chanel's Feu de Russie. This really tickled me because I had always wanted to own the Paris-Moscou Collection! (In fact, I think I like this even better than Feu de Russie!)

This just shows me that good (and sometimes better) things come to those who wait! Stay tuned for another Russian Substitute...

kittytokaren

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The last of the fall manis... (China Glaze Naughty and Nice)

Naughty and Nice is, rather appropriately, a featured polish in China Glaze's "new" holiday 2010 collection. It's been talked about everywhere on a number of blogs so I need not belabour its application or wearability but I will mention a few small things. In my limited polish experience it's a lovely dark creme that requires three coats to bring it to opacity. Lazily, I applied only two (thick, to avoid streaking) which gave this polish a glassy, jelly-like quality. In the right light, this polish is a deep (very deep) wine colour. In dim light, it appears almost black, but I think this is a sophisticated, albeit standard, look for fall. They didn't reinvent the wheel with this one but a rich, wine creme suits me just fine come October/November. Not sure it'll stick around in time for Christmas, though. I'm sure by then I'll want something sparkly!

For today's Konadicure I've paired it with a mix of China Glaze's Passion (Romantique) and Peace on Earth (Holiday 2010). Both show up remarkably well but the complexity of Peace on Earth doesn't really come through here. It looks almost as gold as Passion. Alternatively, Naughty and Nice would pair really well with China Glaze's Poetic (Romantique) which runs slightly more pink.

Hope you guys enjoy!

This is Classy Bear. I've had my Christmas decorations up since the beginning of November and somewhere along the way Classy Bear was given a bow tie, a scarf and a new top hat. (He was also given a name.) :P Classy Bear was kind enough to be the background for these photos and tips his (at the moment, invisible) hat to you!

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Creamy & Delicious - Essie Hot Coco

Reminder: Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY featuring Essie Smokin' Hot and a Pradman labradorite ring!! Click here to see the original GIVEAWAY post, or just enter using the widget in the sidebar!

By now you've probably realized that I have a debilitating weakness for taupes. I was going to resist Essie's latest taupe-y offering this Winter because I already have so many, and it seemed too pink-toned in the initial bottle shots for lil' yellow-toned me. (It's the pink tones in OPI Tickle My France-y that make it barf-o-rific on me. Scroll down through this post to see it on me...if you have a strong stomach.)

Alas, I was wrong - I *needed* Hot Coco. Needed.

Essie Hot Coco is the creamiest, dreamiest hot chocolate colour with a dash of grey to make it just taupe enough. The application was a dream, and the finish is flawless. As gorgeous as this baby is, she has a sister, and I'm not sure if I need them both in my stash, but I'm having a hard time letting go of either of them....

That sister is Essie Mink Muffs! I think that with Mink Muffs being so popular last year, Essie wanted a similar colour in their Winter collection this year. Can you guess which is which?

Hot Coco is on the left, and Mink Muffs is on the right! Hot Coco is a smidge paler and more pink-toned, whereas Mink Muffs is a tad darker and more yellow-toned. I wouldn't call them dupes, but I tried them both on the nail, but then I forgot which one was which! Yes, there are subtle differences, but if you have Mink Muffs already - I'd say you can give Hot Coco a pass without regret. And if you missed out on Mink Muffs last year, Hot Coco will fulfill your craving!

Between Hot Coco and Smokin' Hot, I'm calling this Essie Winter collection a complete win. I've been so enamoured with the collection that Going Incognito (the green) is also on its way to me!

Have you tried any of Essie Winter yet? Thoughts?

kittytokaren

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