Golden Toes!

It's that time again...to show you what's on my feet! (Without showing you my feet...)

They look kind of crazy on my hands (read: yellow and icky) but on my toes they are golden and glorious!

Index & middle: Orly Glitz & Glamour

Ring & pinky: SpaRitual Reflection

Gold is by far my favourite colour for my toes (closely followed by navy). In winter especially, I love removing my socks and boots to find sparkly gold tootsies! It's a little surprise for me at the end of the day.

What is your favourite colour for toes?

kittytokaren

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"You Love It!" - Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

Recently I had the pleasure of staying with the lovely Piff in NYC! It was an amazing time, and she is a kickass friend. Seriously. BUT...

...she did make me wear some polishes I would...*ahem*...not normally wear. You will see the worst of those atrocities from her soon - she really enjoyed seeing me suffer - but she made me promise to wear one polish as my NOTD. Out of the choices she went pretty easy on me, I have to say! This is Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe...

Way less obnoxious on the nail than I thought it would be for such a chunky glitter. I was skeptical (very) but after I put it on, Piff kept informing me "You love it. I see it in your face. You love it." Maybe she got to me? I did feel a little foolish prancing around JFK and going into work the next day with my glitter mani, but I have to say - in the quiet moments when I was alone and not in public, I really liked looking at it. What I like about it is the depth of the base colour so the glitter isn't all -BAM!- at the surface. It's a little more mysterious than that....it reminds me of a mermaid.

Has anyone pushed you out of your polish comfort zone? Did you love/like/hate it?

kittytokaren

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Lynnderella Snow Angel

(3 coats)

Unlike the others I've tried, this one does not do well at all without a base color. It just looks straight up ugly and weird. This one is also a huge top coat eater. I think this has 4 coats of TC?

Will not be wearing this one again without a base white underneath.

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Dior Ebony with Confetti Tazmanian Devil

Today I am a very sad panda. I've had to cancel my flight back home to New York because I am sick as a dog. It's going to be a lonely Thanksgiving for me... :(

Confetti Tazmanian Devil over Dior Ebony

Trying out my brand new iPhone 4S camera. Not bad in non-well-lit scenarios (and while lying in bed, too dizzy to move)! Super cheerful manicure (three coats of Tasmanian Devil over two coats of Dior Ebony). What is it about glitter that makes life just a tiny bit better?

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Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains

This one is my hands down fav except I haven't yet tried Mercurial.



(3 coats)

This is exactly what I wanted Lippmann's Glitter in the Air to be: a little more opaque, a little more glitter.

The greater variety of actual glitter is a major bonus too. Love this. Perfect polish for my birthday (28-booooo)!

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Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby

Siggghhhhhhh

I tried to ignore Lynn's polishes. I TRIED. But I saw one too many photos of Mercurial and broke down.

I'll be posting up photos of each as I try them.





(4 coats)

I think for now, all the swatch photos you will see of the Lynnderellas will be without a base color. That is typically how I wear my polish (I don't layer, I'm just too lazy) and I think it's a better way to know exactly what a polish looks like.

However, for RRR I will be wearing it over a warm red. The jelly base is quite a cool red/pink and is not flattering on me. Which is why I went 4 coats, I was trying to get the warmer glitter to give me as much coverage as possible. Love the hex/square glitter of this!

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Smoky & Sultry Blue - OPI Midnight Blue Glitter

Usually I'm not one for glitter polishes, but this one isn't exactly the glitterbomb that its name promises. Instead it's a sexy, understated, but very special polish that my pictures fail to capture.

OPI Midnight Blue Glitter...

Here I've layered it over Essie Midnight Cami, as on it's own its rather sheer. Even has I hold the bottle in my hand, the colour is very difficult to describe. It seems to be fine round blue glitter (or is it shimmer? ah yes...shitter) as well as even smaller silver glitter in a dark grey-blue jelly base.

Smoky, sultry, and gorgeous. Makes me want to find a reason to break out my long navy blue evening gown...

kittytokaren

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China Glaze Ruby Pumps

(3 coats)

I needed three coats to get it totally even, which meant the mani didn't dry as quickly as I was used to (hence the dents).

I always said this one didn't look good on my complexion. I could use a darker, warmer red, but frankly it doesn't look bad at all. Glad I finally wore this as a mani.

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Vamps for October: China Glaze Meteor Shower glitter

I wanted this polish for the longest time. Glitter, navy blue jelly, and holo goodness was just far too much for me to resist.

But I kind of wish I had. It went on nicely with two coats, but it is SO bumpy. Ridiculously bumpy, even after two coats of seche vite. The holo doesn't come through enough to make it worth the effort, either.

Pretty, but I really wasn't sorry to remove it!

Edit - thanks to the readers who spotted my, er, deliberate error in getting the wrong name!

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OPI Spark de Triomphe

***Update - my Blog Sale has been updated with Fire Sale pricing***

Everything everyone has said about this is true.




(3 coats)


Glorious.

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China Glaze Ginger

Things I am a sucker for:

1) Spice colours,

2) Holo glitter.

This is a two in one! I love the colour - it's subtle but striking. There are flecks of silver microglitter that give the polish a bit of dimensionality in sunlight, and the scattered holo really pops in low light. It's pretty sheer so 3-4 coats are needed for opacity, but this lasted through me stripping wallpaper and repainting*, so I'm impressed with the wear.

*I've finally accepted that my 'study' is a total mess. It is, or rather was, basically the least appropriate room to do work in. I tried to de-decorate the room when we moved in by getting shot of the four different kinds of textured wallpaper, but somehow the job never got finished (and nor did the skanky carpet get replaced, or the broken radiator, or the window with the half-inch gaps outside the frame...). So I finally ripped the last of it off, repainted, made curtains, yadda yadda. The best part is that doing all this allowed me to buy a new bookshelf and filing cabinet. So part two of Operation Study involved sorting through six years of non-existent filing, which was three days of hell. But I am DONE, the room is no longer freezing, and I can find my journal print-offs. Result, and totally worth the three broken nails.

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OPI Funkey Dunkey and Mad as a Hatter

After my last go at glitter tips, I decided to buy some of those PVC stencil things (off ebay) and try doing it properly. This is the result! The base is funkey dunkey (two coats) with two coats of mad as a hatter and two coats of lumos, to try and smooth out the gritty tide mark where the glitter met the creme. The Alice glitters are my absolute favourites - Burlesque really didn't tickle my pickle in comparison - and I'm terrified of using them up, so I like the fact that I can wear them as tips and not waste them quite so much (since both seem to chip on me when worn as full manis, meaning I usually only get two or three days' wear).













Funkey dunkey is a great 'Cadbury' purple. I just love mad as a hatter - the glitter is so bright and cheerful. Interestingly, I see the purple most in the bottle (it lives with my purple polishes) but wearing it over purple seems to bring the silver out more. I had a hell of a time doing this mani, though. I left the base for a couple of hours before stenciling. I don't know if the base wasn't thoroughly dry, or if the stencils are just vicious, because removing them pulled huge chunks of purple off on about 50% of the nails. Fortunately it's a thick cream so I touched up the bare patches in two coats and was able to cover the join marks with top coat, but it was a total PITA. So next time I will sleep on the base coat and be careful not to stick the stencils too hard.

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Glitter french: Butter London Rosie Lee

This is my first go at a french manicure using something other than freehand. Since Rosie Lee takes three coats to opacity, I felt freehanding it would be a bit ambitious, so I used masking tape. Not ideal, since it gave me straight tips, but it did the job OK. I made a few screw ups when taking off the tape so please excuse the dings, but for a first try I'm pleased! Also, the eagle eyed amongst you may spot that righty makes an appearance in a few of these pictures since I got my technique down by the second hand. Man, it's hard using a DSLR left handed!

This is base coat, one of China Glaze Diva Bride, three of Rosie Lee and topcoat. I think this is a pretty twist on a regular french and I'll be doing it again. The CG is nothing to write home about (it's just a boring my-nails-but-better colour with average ease of application) but the glitter is lovely. I currently have it on my toes and it's very sparkly, very opaque, and a slightly unusual pink in that is has a rosy, champagne quality to it in the sunlight.

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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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Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! (one of the dumber polish names, imo) is multicolored (blue, gold) and multisized glitter (some hex, some micro) suspended in a turquoise jelly. The polish alone is pretty sheer so I layered it over Dior Nirvana, whose color is pretty much a perfect match for the Nicole jelly. It was less sparkly than I expected it to be, leading me to suspect that it might actually be a better layering polish over a contrasting color. Still, it was a nice way to extend my Nirvana manicure for another day before I got bored of it. :)

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Lippmann Funky Chunky

(2 coats)


So... I don't hate this. It reminds me of an 80s purse in black patent faux-snakeskin (with a chain armstrap!). I've never hated this. I've worn it a few times, in fact.

This is a trick to apply and to dry: The glitter sinks so you have to shake it like a polaroid picture in between coats and then you have to sit and let it dry because a top coat would ruin the finish. The whole situation is not ideal. But it's so weird, different, and hated that I have to like it...like an underdog.

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My Top 5 Summer Pedicures (2011 edition)

I started a tradition last year of sharing with you my favourite pedicure colours of the summer...without showing you my feet of course! (See Piff's picks from last summer here as well!) In observation of this tradition, here are the top 5 pedicure colours that I've been loving and wearing this summer!

Thumb to pinky:

OPI Gift of Gold

Last winter, I almost always had a gold glitter pedi on my feet. Something about taking my socks and boots over and seeing gold glimmering back at me made me happy. I decided to try it out in summer and well, and my fav gold glitter for the warmer months has been Gift of Gold - for two major reasons. (1) It has fine, fine glitter, which I think looks really great and makes for easier removal, and (2) the tone of the overall polish is much warmer than the other golds I own, which I find very summery.

OPI Cajun Shrimp

A classic OPI, sent to me by the very sweet and amazing ilexica! This is just a punch of colour for the toes that I can't get enough of...and it seems to go with everything.

OPI Done Out in Deco

Before I broke up with RBL, Purple Haze was one of my favourite pedi colours. While DOiD is definitely not a Purple Haze dupe, the idea remains the same. A pastel-ish, but saturated purple on the toes looks great with metallic sandals, but remains feminine and summery without being in-your-face. I might like this better on toes than on tips!

Essie Watermelon

Exactly the colour you think of when you think of watermelon. Such a fun summer colour for tips or toes! It's a perfect hot pink that leans red instead of blue (like Bachelorette Bash), and it's just...cute!

Essie Midnight Cami

One of my all-time favourite pedi shades, and it is actually my current pedicure. Yes, dark is maybe not the way many ladies want to go in summer, but I think it's a really elegant counterpoint to the lighter fabrics and colours women are wearing. It seems to coordinate well with many other polish colours for tips, and the shine is amazing. I adore this.

What are your fav pedi shades for this summer?

kittytokaren

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Color Club Wink Wink Twinkle (Starry Temptress, Spring 2011)

I remember reading somewhere that they had a great experience with these polishes and that they were smooth and easy to apply... and it's entirely possible that they are just better at nail polish than I am but... umm... this wasn't cool. (I mean, neither are my cuticles here but my cuticles didn't make application hard nor made it dry extremely bumpy.)

Either way, not really pleased I bought the entire collection on faith. I should stop doing that.

Color Club Wink Wink Twinkle

As I already mentioned: bumpy, goopy, hard to apply. I'm okay with the dull, non-sparkly glitter. The color is pretty cool, a neon-ish red-leaning purple. But.... yeah, nothing special and I could've skipped it and had no regrets.

Closeup of Wink Wink Twinkle

Cute story about the SO and his trying to engage in the activities I enjoy:

We were in the mall and I had a Groupon to a beauty supply store that I wanted to spend. This store carried most of the Deb Lippmann collection and I was trying to decide between Don't Tell Mama and Wicked Game. Having nothing better to do at the moment, he started pointing to each of the polishes and proclaiming whether he thought they were good or not.

He went down the row and when he got the the fabulous Lippmann glitters, he was like, "Wow, I would put any of these on my toes. Even the pink one [Some Enchanted Evening]. I hate pink but I would wear that pink one on my toes."

And then he got to Bad Romance and was like, "I would wear this on my fingers! Can you get ALL of these?" (He pointed to all the glitters.)

"Uh, honey? I HAVE all of these."

Anyhoo, he's currently walkin' around with Across the Universe on his toes.

He has the most uncanny way of enjoying the MOST EXPENSIVE things. When Bath and Body Works still regularly had their non-holidays Temptations 3-in-1s, he routinely preferred the twice-as-expensive Philosophy 3-in-1s. He likes the LUSH solid shampoos ($10 each) but vastly prefers BIG or Curly Wurly ($22 each). Whenever I give him a few nail polishes to choose from, he picks the most expensive. (I mean, the boy likes his Chanel and Dior. But never Color Club or Milani! Or even OPI! WTF, dude.) And he doesn't know the prices of any of these things.

Lately, he's been using my Dermalogica Microfoliant because he had a ton of peeling skin from sunburn/windburn while going whale watching for four hours without any sunblock. While we were at the beauty supply spending my Groupon, he saw a Dermalogica display and asked, "Hey, is this the stuff I've been using? I like it. Maybe you should get more."

"Did you use it up ALREADY??" I've had it for years and was thinking that if he had used it all up unnecessarily, he was going to foot the bill for the next one.

"No, but maybe you should stock up." So, I went over to the display, picked up a Microfoliant box and showed him the price ($50). He just sort of stared in shock at the pricetag.

My response: "Maybe you'll be more careful about not spilling two teaspoons of it all over the counter next time."

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Huemorista Hidden Rainbow

Some enterprising nail polish aficionado is selling her own homemade nail polish on etsy! Check out her store, Huemorista. I bought six of her nail polishes (which come in those cute mini bottles) awhile back and have only had a chance to wear one of them so far.

Huemorista Hidden Rainbow

If it were slightly more blue, it would be what I wanted Lippmann Glitter in the Air to be. But as it is, it's a grey-tinged off-white with a lot of glitter of different colors and shapes within. It's just translucent enough that glitter in other layers will show through but not so translucent that the glitter is bright. It's a nice subtle, playful look and I enjoyed it. This was four coats... not because it wasn't opaque but because I wanted more glitter on the nail. :) Alas, it got chippy on me fast. Be sure to shake it up a LOT before using; the tons of glitter settles on the bottom of the bottom.

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Lippmann's Glitter in the Air

(4 coats)

I thought this would be totally up my alley. Glitter in soft colors suspended in a milky-sheer base?? YUS.

But it's total meh. There are the usual problems that come with a polish that requires 4 coats (bubbles, drying etc) and there's really not much of a glitter pay-off. Why isn't this dense like most of Lippmann's other hex glitters? Would make it so much more awesome.

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