China Glaze Rated Holographic

(2 coats)

This applied so nicely but alas the color is a little too close to my skin color it just sort of it blah. Chipped really quick, which isn't a surprise I suppose.

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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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Berry Yoghurt - Essie Neo Whimsical

Trying to sneak one last summery polish in before I go full-on fall!

Essie Neo Whimsical - it really reminds me of multi-berry yoghurt - my favourite!

This borders on "not really working for my skin tone" as it makes my hands look a bit dirty, but its such a cute little colour, I can forgive it!

Are you ready for fall or still holding onto summer?

kittytokaren

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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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Essie It's In the Bag - solo this time!

Previously shown with Mademoiselle on top here.

I just love this one - amazing application.

kittytokaren

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Pink Glazed - Essie Mini How High

I've had this polish in my stash for a while, but I've just never reached for it! It's basically the same formula as Essie Mademoiselle - lovely and streak free - but pinker!

Keep in mind though that it is fairly sheer - this was 3 coats. I can see myself wearing this as a base for a delicate sparkly polish. This polish feels sticky sweet and sugary - like pink donut frosting! Mmmm....anyone have a recipe for dairy-free donuts that they are willing to share?

kittytokaren

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Dior Porcelain

(3 coats)

The formula on this sucks. This reminds me of Chanel's Morning Rose in both color-concept (pink with fine glitter/flakey shimmer - Morning Rose is a darker pink with gold, this has silver shimmer) and formula (sticky, unleveling).

Morning Rose is in my purge pile. I'm still debating on this one. I like this so much more on me.

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Trying New Things - Orly Pure Porcelain

I've been feeling more adventurous lately - maybe not with colour, but with brands! I recently tried a SpaRitual (long story - you will see it soon!) and loved it. This inspired me to finally break my 'brand rule' and order a polish I have really really wanted for a long time from Orly - Pure Porcelain! (SpaRitual and Orly happen to be sister companies as well, which is neat.)

You're seeing my new, more oval, shape here again! This polish is amazing. It pulls more pink on me than it does on other people, but I just love love love love love love it! The formula is fantastic - not difficult to apply like other pale colours. It's a beautiful combination of white, pink, creme and grey. (Trust me, it looks more dusty when I compare it to my other pale pinks.) One of those perfect "any occasion" polishes and the wear was amazing!! Minimal tip wear and no chips for 5 days! I switched polish after that so no telling how long it would go...

I will *definitely* be trying more from Orly. I'm a huge fan so far! I just wish the bottle was prettier. Oh well, it is very functional.

Any Orly recommendations for me? What are your favourites?

kittytokaren

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Pinky Perplexity - Essie Lion Around

Remember how I went on my Hunt for Red (by) October last year? I may have to consider doing the same thing to find my perfect pink - opaque, not too sugary sweet, but not too fleshy either. This came close, but didn't hit the mark...and it's driving me bananas. (B-A-N-A-N-A-S.) I think the winner might have been Chanel Mistral, but I missed out on that one. :(

Essie Lion Around is from this year's Resort collection, and I wasn't planning on picking it up. I was quite happy with my picks - Da Bush and Your Hut or Mine. However, I was in Ulta one night, and through a complicated issue with returns and coupons, it somehow managed to work out such that they paid me to take it out of the store...yeah...I'm still looking over the receipts on this one. It was the one polish that spoke to me in that 15 seconds I had to decide!

I actually expected to hate the finish of this polish...and I do. But not as much as I thought I would. It isn't apparent in my photo, but there is subtle pearly shimmer in the polish, giving it a satin appearance on the nail. I don't know why, but somehow the combo of that finish and this particular colour makes me feel queasy - like when I think of pork that is a few days expired. The effect isn't as strong as I anticipated though, so that's good.

What I was genuinely surprised by was the colour - it was much peachier on me than I expected! I'm not sure why I thought it would be cooler-toned. I normally like a little peachiness in my pinks - it keeps them from being overly saccharine - but the orange-y yellow tones in this are a little strong and kind of...blends...with my yellow-toned skin a little too well.

In the end I don't totally hate this polish - I appreciate it not as my perfect pink, just for what it is. I like that it's a pink that isn't 4-year-old-with-a-My-Little-Pony pink. (Although MLP is pretty kickass. I had one when I was a kid. I called it "Balls". I kid you not. How my parents kept a straight face I will never know.) However, I don't think I'll be keeping it. I'm trying not to keep polishes I'm not excited to wear!

Any suggestions for my perfect pink? Would you like to see a pink "Hunt"?

kittytokaren

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Holy magenta! Illamasqua obsess

I'm totally going back on my adult aversion to pink, because this is a knock out. It's a good job this polish didn't exist when I was 15 because I had my hair the same colour and would have drained bottle after pricey bottle.



Three coats of opaque, neon blue-pink fabulousness. It's much more purple than barbie pink - more magenta - but it's very bright. I'm guessing it would glow under UV. The neon pigments mean it dries a bit satiny so I have a coat of lumos over the top. Winner in my book.

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China Glaze 108 Degrees

You know, I received this from China Glaze in the spring (and wore and photographed it in spring) but it seems much more appropriate to post this in summer, don't you think?

China Glaze 108 Degrees

Hot magenta jelly with either pink or purple shimmer. It is HOT. (The polish, not the weather. At least, not for me.) Still some VNL at three coats, as befits a jelly. :)

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Many, many pictures of OPI Rally Pretty Pink

I spent most of the three days I wore this staring at my nails. Staring at them indoors, staring at the outdoors, staring at them during the day, staring at them during the night... and taking photos of most of that process.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink (outdoors in direct sunlight)

(outdoors in indirect sunlight)

(indoors in lightbox)

(indoors, indoor lighting, no flash)

I never thought I'd ever go so nutty over a pink shimmer! But it's so much more than just a pink

shimmer. It's a ton of gold foil (and green shimmer, perhaps?... though that might just be a trick of the light) suspended with a pink-purple jelly that can look like a slightly dusty magenta or a really rich red-leaning purple, depending on light and angle. Three coats -- could've used a fourth because it's jelly and the more you put on, the more shimmer you get! But three coats was sufficient. There was no color that it looked like "most of the time" (hence the many photos in different types of lighting situations). So changeable, so lovely. It sparkles so hard, it burns.

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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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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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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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Two poorly applied pinks

1. Illamasqua Lament




Excuse the shocking iNOTD phone picture. Bought this thinking it was coral, but on me it reads very pink. This turned into a horrible mani because a) I mixed up the lumos base and top coat (WHY are the bottles the same?!), so this chipped within twelve hours, and b) I gave in to my mothers demands to help me apply it. She was trying to help. She'd had two glasses of wine. I had a conference* to go to the next day and no remover to tidy it up. (This, fortunately, is the hand I managed to wrest control of the brush for). Bit of a nightmare, although no fault of the polish! That aside, this is two coats (but a bit bald with two, could have done with three) and a nice juicy watermelon colour. I must try this again.

*The conference went well, although one of the biggest names in my field turned up to watch my paper, which was a terrible cut-and-shut job put together in an afternoon. After spending half an hour sitting through the other papers wondering if I could hold my breath long enough to simulate a blackout and thus miss the questions, it went fine, and Prof Awesome was really nice.






2. China Glaze Diva Bride

A manicure applied for the purposes of protecting my nails while I repainted my hall. Two coats, a little streaky but not too bad. Very sheer, and didn't cover a teabag patch I have protecting my index, so stuck a badly photoshopped picture of my cat over the top to shield your eyes. You're welcome.

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Dior Beige Lotus

Total impulse buy from a Duty Free shop at the Taipei airport. Twas my conference mani.

Dior Beige Lotus

I actually really like it. It's a good neutral with a bit of sparkle. Two coats, a typically great Dior experience. (Why are they sooo expensive though??)

Conference went well though it was absolutely exhausting. I almost forgot my poster in France, which wouldn't have been bad because I don't really have any more use for it. Still, it cost $120 to print so keeping it is a matter of principle.

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OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte and au revoir for the week! :)

I'm off to France today. Love conferences in cool places. I also love that the NSF came through with $1500 funding to cover travel and lodging (which is JUST enough, given the really high prices of plane tickets to Europe from the US lately). Let's hope that they'll allow me to carry on my poster tube because I do NOT want to lose this thing.

OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte

It's flat on the nail at a distance but it's gorgeous up close. The multicolored shimmer is lovely. Applied really nicely for a matte; the above is two coats. One coat is ideal because with more than one, you run the risk of clumping. This was taken on day 3; it's pretty tenacious!

La Paz-itively Hot Matte closeup

No, I am not wearing this to the conference...

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Trying pink victory! Butter London Fairy Lights

While I'm not usually a pink kinda girl, this one ticks all the boxes. I am obsessed with it. Not a surprise given that the merest hint of a metallic polish is guaranteed to drive me batshit...and this is a rich, pink chrome. Sorry in advance for picture overload. And any lemmings created.



It's fully opaque in two coats. You could even get away with one, but since chromes show imperfections, I use two with a coat of seche vite layered inbetween and lumos on top, which totally hides the fact that I have a couple of teabag patches right now. (You can tell my nails are bad if I'm willing to butcher my precious Whittard teabags to fix it). But rather than waffle on, I'm just going to show you pictures. Which are no-where near as pretty as the polish, so you'll have to use your imagination.


It's slightly blue but is so super shiny that it shifts colours in different lights. Right now indoors it looks baby pink. Outdoors it's darker and cool-toned. In the sunshine it glows white. Being a chrome it's also a whizz to apply and dries really quick.


I have bought a back up since this is limited edition and I tend to wear my chromes a lot. That doesn't count towards the no-buy, right?! (OK, so maybe the other three BLs I bought to make up the shipping do...) /guilt. Looks nice under red shatter, too:

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