Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

(2 coats)

I've worn this as a mani twice now. Once last year and once this year. I've been bored both times. Goodbye MMUtM.

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Vamps for October: Illamasqua Viridian

Okay, so probably not technically vampy, but a) it's dark, b) I was really sick of burgundy and navy and c) I love it! Viridian is one of my favourite polishes. It's amazing in two coats but can be applied in one, it's hardwearing, shiny, and a stunning colour. I feel badass when I wear this polish.

I think Temptalia described this as a dark teal, and that's probably not far off the mark. Except that overall hue is comprised of a subtle blue/green/black duochrome (trichrome?) shift that brings different facets of the polish out in different light. This looks amazing under flash (although I forgot to bring my flashgun when I took the shots. Oops). I really love this polish, it's in my desert island top ten and is one of the first shades I bought that got me really raving about Illamasqua.

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A couple of Owls!

I have a bit of a bird phobia, but these are two owls I can appreciate!

Orly Nite Owl (pointer and middle finger) is a lovely taupe with shimmer - quite similar to Essie Mochachino, but more flattering on me as it seems a little warmer on the nail. Definitely one of those polishes that is appropriate in most situations, but isn't a complete snoozefest. I love having polishes like this in my collection!

L'Oreal Owl's Night (ring and pinky finger) is truly gorgeous . It contains the most beautiful gold shimmer - that is very apparent on the nail - in an olive-y green-brown-grey-something base. It's unique, murky, mysterious, but the gold shimmer is so fantastically vibrant! A winner.

That's all for today - short and sweet! I hope all of you lovely PoP readers are doing well!

kittytokaren

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I got a lovely parcel in the post...

...Thank you, Illamasqua! :)

Well, I've always said good things about their customer service. I once returned a lipstick because I accidentally ordered two of them in one of their 30% off sales. I sent them a cheeky email asking if I could return or preferably exchange it (even though 'being a doofus' isn't one of their grounds for return) thinking they'd maybe grudgingly refund me since it was by then out of sale period, and it's a bit naughty me asking for a product at 30% off when there's no sale on.

But to my surprise, they shipped a replacement colour out via courier at their expense. And sent me an email to ask me which colour I wanted most, and to let me know their stock levels, since I put a random bunch down on the return form. (I felt I was probably taking advantage enough already to start getting picky). They are a really, really nice company.

Which is why it made my day to find that they read Polish or Perish. Hayley, their marketing manager, got in touch to chat about nail polish and take some contact details. And a couple of weeks ago a lovely parcel turned up with two of their new polishes for review, plus a lipgloss in Belladonna. (I mentioned I was really interested in the glosses from the new collection, so I was really touched that they popped one in - it's lovely, by the way!). Yeah, I am a total fangirl.

So these are the two polishes, Kink and Vice:

I wanted to wait a little while before giving a review, because for me the most significant thing about the A/W polishes is their 'rubber' finish, rather than the shades. So I've had Vice on for the last week, and here it is. This colour is lovely, a kind of purplish wine/berry shade, but it's the finish that makes it stand out from other similar polishes. I'd describe it as kind of satin-y. It's not quite as matte as I was expecting, but not fully glossy, either.

I've tended to stay away from matte finish polishes because they chip on me something rotten, so I wore Vice for a full 8 days before writing this (the pictures are from day 3). I have tremendously limited patience so I managed to scracth the finish a little even before it was fully dry (I am spoilt by seche vite). However, that cock up aside, it wore really well. Looking at them a week later, there is one chip (my right middle), a couple of teeny nicks on my thumbs, and a little tip wear. And I've been intentionally bloody hard on my hards this week - I've been washing up, I did gardening, and I've relaid the tiles on my hall floor, all without gloves. My hands feel like catcher's mitts, but the polish still looks very respectable.

(The only odd thing is that black line on my ring finger - I think it's a shed bristle? I've never had one of their brushes shed on me before, so it took me a while to work out what it was!).

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Essie Winter 2011 - Part 2

I showed you the first half of Essie's winter collection, Cocktail Bling, here. I'm excited to show you the rest of the collection today! This is the first time in a looonnnggg time that I've purchased a whole collection - and wanted to keep it all! This will definitely be a workhorse collection for me, not just in winter, but in all seasons.

First up, School of Hard Rocks:

I'm not quite sure how to describe this colour - it's somewhere between a dusty teal and a slate green. Love it. Very wintery and definitely adds a pop of colour, but because of the amount of grey it manages to be a little more subdued and wearable. I think this one will be very popular!

Now, probably my favourite of the collection - Size Matters:

First of all, hilarious name. Love it. It may seem like a boring red, but it is much more than that. I have a hard time with reds. I really do. But this one is more berry than red. (My pics are deceiving on that front...but trust me, it is very berry in real life.) This colour reminds me of Rachel Zoe - on her show she is always wearing a red, burgundy, berry or plum concoction and it always looks great!

Since I loved this one so much, I had to take another pic with my purse...

And lastly, Bobbing for Baubles:

Completely on trend with blues for winter (thanks to the Jeans de Chanel - one of which I will show you very soon!), this has something a little different when compared with other navys in my collection - it's dusty! Yay! I love dirgy grey colours and this is the navy take on that. I think dark blue is one of the most elegant colours on the nails, so expect me to wear this a lot this year.

So that's Essie Winter 2011 - Cocktail Bling! Which ones will you be picking up?

kittytokaren

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China Glaze Starboard

So, it only took me six months to wear this one. Actually I probably like this more for Autumn than Spring anyway; it has a slightly dusty, warm quality to it that I usually associate with leaves. In the picture it looks a little like Illamasqua Elope and while they're in the same family, this is much more muted and subtle. And only two coats, which is a bonus.

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Chanel Peridot

My new academic year's resolution -- besides to finish my qualifying exams at the end of the Winter 2012 quarter -- is to be more consistent about posting here!

Chanel Peridot

Got lots of compliments on this one. It felt more like a foil to me than a duochrome and oddly enough, the duochrome is more pronounced in the photos than in real life. Still, it was sparkly and bright. A little streaky on the application and you can see some evidence of brushstrokes. Three coats, thinner than I expected though. The photo was taken on the fourth day of wear and, as you can see, it was still chip-free!

Close-up on Peridot

So bright, it burns. :)

I've been up to quite a bit lately. Attended a wedding in Seattle. Saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time (all of whom seem to be in wedding planning mode... so there was a lot of conversation about cakes and caterers, dresses and... more dresses). There are a lot of pregnant women in my life so I'm making quilts, burp cloths and other basic, easy-to-sew baby items. I have also started making quilts for Quilts for Kids, an organization that provides handmade quilts for children in hospitals. I don't get that much time for hobbies and volunteer work, so it's gratifying to be able to kill two birds with one stone on that one. Attempting to make a dress from a 1952 pattern... I suck at sewing darts but now I'm super picky about buying clothes because I'm so aware of how they're made and how they fit. I tried to herd my RAs and got a bit of participant running done in the last two weeks of the summer quarter. I'm doing a little bit of freelance editing for an academic in another country who needs a little help with English and English-language publishing. My own paper just got slung back to me for a second revise/resubmit and I'm writing this post while trying to force myself to read all the comments VERY VERY CAREFULLY so I can see exactly how dumb I am. (Seriously, I can't type numbers. It's a very bad thing to be bad at as a researcher!) I went to the dentist for the first time in three years: I needed two appointments to properly clean my teeth (ugh) and I found out that my previous dentist did a crappy job applying two of my crowns, and thus they need to be replaced (double ugh). Lots of dentist visits. Though I like this dentist and his office a lot: they're the most cheerful bunch of people and all patients get a flower at the end of their appointments. I'm getting LASIK in about a month, so there's been a lot of back and forth to ophthalmologists (and one day I'll spell that correctly on the first try -- I forgot the first 'l' again... at least I got all the 'h's this time). I can't wear glasses because all the glasses I've ever had have given me a splitting headache and my eyes seem to have developed an allergic reaction to all sorts of contact lenses in the past year. It's a sh*tload of money but I'm hopeful that it'll be a good investment. And I'm slogging through a huge backlog of NOTD photos and trying to get some of the summer and fall collections swatched. So I've been busy... and spending more money on fabric than polish lately. A history of cosmetics obsession translates really well to sewing and fabric choices.

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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

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Dior Nirvana

Dior Nirvana

Nirvana indeed! A wonderful teal polish that has a very subtle but very real blue shimmer. I'm so glad Dior has started releasing more interesting shades because for awhile there, I was afraid I would have to start to enjoy reds, pinks and beiges in order to ever get a Dior Vernis fix. :P Two coats. Looked great for all four days I wore it.

Closeup of Nirvana

I took maybe two dozen photos with the express goal of trying to capture the shimmer. You can kind of see it in this closeup photo. I didn't even notice the shimmer when I applied it. I only realized it was a shimmer polish when I got out in the sun. (It was a great moment because my first thought was, "Aw, man, did I accidentally get some shimmer polish mixed up with my Diamont again??" (No, I didn't.)

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Illamasqua Radium

I love this polish. Love love love.

Love love love love.

Illamasqua Radium

I wore this for four or so days? I believe this was taken on Day 3: just a bit of tipwear in evidence. It's such a great green polish: it's between lime and grass and is full of yellow and light green shimmer. This was three coats.

Closeup of Radium

So bright, so green! So up my alley. I wore this in May -- yes, it's a very long backlog of NOTDs I've got -- and it was such a great pick-me-up spring color. :)

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Essie Fall 2011 - Retail Release

I always eagerly await fall collections, and Essie collections more than is normal! (Gahhh I am such an Essie fangirl!) I stalked my drugstores for the early release of the fall collection, Carry On. Drugstores only get 4 out of the 6 polishes of particular collections (however, they seemed to get all of Brazilliant...) , and they seem to be getting them early, like we witnessed with French Affair. This new Essie distribution system post-L'Oreal takeover is...complicated.

Anyways, after spastically running around town, I managed to grab the following at my Walgreens:

Power Clutch

Already my favourite polish of the fall. No joke. An amazing slightly dusty grey-green that comes out darker and more green on the nail than it looks in the bottle. This to me is the green version of Smokin' Hot - where SH was purple, PC is green. It reminds me of the slate stone my parents have in their house. It's flattering on my pale yellow skin, looks chic and elegant, while remaining modern and a bit edgy. To me, this is perfect. Brava, Essie! (Oh and the formula was TDF!)

Lady Like

In the bottle this reminded me of OPI Steady As She Rose, but once I got it on the nail, the differences were evident. Lady Like is more mauve than SASR - still pink with purple thrown in, but darker and warmer. Cool-toned ladies beware! I'm super yellow-toned, but I still think this polish would work better on someone with darker skin. You know what this is? It's Demure Vixen sans shimmer - almost identical base colour. It kind of makes my hands/fingers look dirty...I'm not sure about this one. I'm going to have to drag it around a while to mull it over.

Carry On

At first I thought this was dumb. Lame. Another dark vampy purple. I was kind of right. This is *extremely* close to last year's OPI William Tell Me About OPI. The OPI is just ever-so-slightly browner and darker. The difference is extremely hard to detect, even with flash photography on a dark background. I like that this polish has some dustiness to it, which makes it difference from my beloved Essie Sole Mate! (Oh, and application was amazing again!) Of the two, I'm keeping the Essie.

L: Essie Carry On; R: OPI William Tell Me About OPI

Without flash:

With flash to see the undertone:

Case Study

Now...I didn't pick this up. Only because I believe I already have it. I haven't been able to directly compare, but I believe that this is just the J. Crew "exclusive" - Milky Way - renamed. And I *love* Milky Way. If I didn't have it, I would have picked this up. Even though I'm pretty sure they are nearly identical, I was tempted to grab it off the shelf just to see.

There will be an addendum to this post at a later date, because I still plan on picking up Glamour Purse (one of the two polishes along with Very Structured - a burnt sienna - that is not being released in the drugstore micro-collection). It looks to be in the delicious taupe-y vein, but lighter than past offerings. In other words, it looks back-up worthy, even from badly Photoshop'd company visuals! Let's hope it lives up to expectations...

Are you hyped for fall yet or still feeling the summer heat?

kittytokaren

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Thumb accent mani: OP JITNB and CG Atlantis

Inspired by kitty2karen I decided to give a thumb accent mani a go. This is OPI Jade is the new black plus China Glaze Atlantis for the thumb accent. I like it, but I don't love it. I was kind of hoping more of the sea green jelly in Atlantis would come through, because this mostly just looks like silver holo glitter on green, and pretty though that is it's not subtle. JITNB looks a lot like Orly Wandering Vine to me (I planned to do comparison swatches before I took the mani off, but this chipped badly within two days so I didn't get a chance). I do like the glitter thumb idea, though, especially since removing only two nails makes me a little less suicidal than doing ten.

Any suggestions for colour schemes?

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Illamasqua Elope

Illamasqua Elope, one of my favourite greens. I did four coats but three would have been absolutely fine to eliminate VNL if I hadn't been trying to do other things (like make tea) while polishing...needless to say coat four was mostly to cover up the mess that I made of coat three. Like most of these bright polishes it dries to a satin finish (it's not a proper matte, so I think it's kind of half way between a neon and a jelly in formulation) and the coats are quite liquidy, but dry fast. I love these kind of slightly squishy polishes.



Man, photographing polish with neon pigments in is such a PITA. It's impossible to capture the fact that this is simultaneously *bright*! and rich. If you imagine an emerald green amped up to the max, this is it. Kind of the green version of (blue) Nfu.Oh 497. I also award this points because I frankened a really awesome palm green from a 50:50 mix of this and rampage - I was trying to match Bunny's polish in the Big Lebowski and that franken was spot on. It's just a really fantastic polish, and always draws compliments. It was responsible for me getting a free doughnut in Krispy Kreme the last time I wore it, so a definite winner in my book.



TL/DR: this polish is responsible for doughnuts and geeky film frankens. Buy it.




Looks good under Barry M black crackle too. Anyone else thinking of teenage mutant ninja turtles?

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Nubar Baby Sprout and Essie Kisses and Bises

Despite its imperfections (umm, I don't know why my Poshe has developed black lint... wtf??) I loved both of these NOTDs.

Nubar Baby Sprout

A little bit on the stark side, Baby Sprout is a light pastel green with very fine pearly shimmer. It does appear creme in lower lights but as soon as the sun hits it, the pearly finish comes out. This was three coats (on the second day of wear, I believe).

Nubar Baby Sprout and Essie Kisses and Bises

And I was just OBSESSED with this manicure. I had read that Kisses and Bises was really a very neat layering polish but I didn't think that this pink/purple shimmer in a mostly clear base would wow me as much as it did. It added such depth and interest to Baby Sprout! It's subtle and playful at the same time. Love it. I used one coat of Baby Sprout.

Closeup of Baby Sprout and Kisses and Bises

See! The fabulous! shimmer. :) Ignore the freakin' lint. :(

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