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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China Glaze Devotion

(2 coats)

I prefer Sci-Fi. Devotion is more purple (a preference) but the brushstrokes are unacceptable.

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China Glaze Agent Lavender

(2 coats - first photo is much more color accurate)

So I figure everyone's posting Halloween manis. How 'bout a palate cleanser? Like a plate of crudité on a buffet table full of pastry and fried snacks, you're surprised at how much you're happy to see it.

A bit chalky but applied fairly smoothly and was good in 2.

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Vamps for October: Ciate Burlesque

I freaking love this polish. It practically applied itself. The brush was perfection and after two coats of thick, flowing opacity I had hardly any clean up to do. With a coat of Seche Vite it is ridiculously shiny and flawless, and it wore like teflon without chipping at all.

Even better, the colour is totally glorious. It is dark, but never black. Like an Eggplant purple but with a touch more blue. I would wear this polish again and again, and I really enjoyed wearing this mani.

Until, that is, I had a go at water marbling, and covered it in what looked like slug trails. I'm too embarrassed to show you all, but trust me, it was BAD.

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Classic vamp - OPI LPAD

A complete and utter classic for winter...OPI Lincoln Park After Dark.

An impossibly dark and rich purple...reminds me of stumbling into a jazz club after too many drinks - everyone is smoking, everything is hazy, but the music wraps around you like a mink stole and makes you just want to purr...

kittytokaren

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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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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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Something a little special - OPI Merry Midnight

With so much hubbub over Orly's release of Fowl Play - a near dupe to OPI Merry Midnight - I thought I'd bust out the original and see how it felt!

This is OPI Merry Midnight over OPI Lincoln Park at Dark - prepare for many pics!

Merry Midnight is a very complex polish full of different colours of glitter and flakies...

...slightly subdued by a dark purple jelly base...

...so you can tell it's special from a distance, but you can really appreciate it up close...

Yikes. And I'll stop after that close-up of my cuticles.

I'm not typically one for glitter + flakies + sparkles + OMG, but I love this. I think that the dark-ish base makes it work for me! I've worn this for several special and fun party occasions, so it has a lot of great memories in it for me as well. I know Merry Midnight is a little hard to find right now, but from what I've seen of Orly Fowl Play it seems like a great substitute. Pick it up if you can!

Do you own either OPI Merry Midnight or Orly Fowl Play? Love/like/hate?

kittytokaren

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Surprise! Essie Winter Sneak Peek!

I have something really exciting to share with you today! I was lucky enough to get my hands on three out of the six polishes from Essie's upcoming winter offering entitled Cocktail Bling!

Without further ado, the polish the collection is named for - Cocktail Bling:

Alone, it seems like your standard grey...but when you put it next to a more true, neutral grey, you can see that it in fact as purple undertones! My photo doesn't demonstrate it perfectly - purple undertones (they look more blue in the pic) being among those most hard to capture, but the colour is really special and interesting and it feels very wintery to me.

Below is Cocktail Bling with Orly Mirror Mirror on the middle finger:

Next up is Bangle Jangle - a lavender colour that I didn't think really fit into a winter collection. BUT, it seems as though someone at Essie reads my thoughts and/or posts... Remember last winter when I was looking for a wintery lavender/purple? I thought OPI Done Out in Deco was the answer...but it wasn't quite what I wanted. Bangle Jangle is *precisely* what I was looking for last year - a saturated lavender purple with enough grey undertones to keep it cold-weather appropriate and not tropical!

I tried to capture the difference between Bangle Jangle and Done Out in Deco, but again my camera was far too temperamental today for purple. The difference is much more obvious in reality - Done Out in Deco has much stronger pink undertones and is brighter.

OPI Done Out in Deco on the middle finger below:

And finally, a surprise winner of the collection for me - Brooch the Subject. This is a lovely opaque nude polish that I just adore on me (if I do say so myself...*preens*) - it is more flattering in reality than the photo indicates. It is only a bit darker than Essie Jazz, but has much warmer undertones akin to Essie Milky Way. Being super yellow, I think that this really suits me.

The formula on these was lovely - but I am a big fan of the Essie formula in general. I found them all to be nicely opaque without getting chalky and the shine is amazing even sans top coat. I feel so lucky to have these in my collection already! I think they are nice for winter, but are also good transitional colours, i.e. for right now between fall and winter, as well as between winter and spring. I plan on picking up the other three colours in this collection as soon as they are released!

Many thanks to the lovely lady who hooked me up with these! You are simply fabulous.

What do you think of this as a winter collection? Which colours are you looking forward to?

kittytokaren

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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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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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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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China Glaze Fault Lines Crackle over Huemorista Hidden Rainbow

I wasn't ready to take off my Hidden Rainbow mani so I put ChG Fault Lines over it.

China Glaze Fault Lines over Huemorista Hidden Rainbow

Errr. This was not pretty. Is there a reason this dried so dull and cracked so sadly? C'mon, it was a purple shimmer crackle! That's practically a formula for gorgeous, no? :( This is one thick coat of Fault Lines.

Fault Lines over Hidden Rainbow

Yeah, doesn't look better in closeup... at all. Yuck.

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Oodles o' purple: Butter London HRH & Nfu.Oh 51

OK, long pic-heavy post - so I'll try and keep it light on the text.

Butter London HRH. Nice standard royal purple, red-toned base. I did two coats but it could probably have done with three since the base is a little jelly-ish. Me being me and compelled to fiddle with things that ought not be fiddled with, I put Nfu.Oh 51 over the top and the result really wasn't pretty:



Urgh. Sooo, that lasted all of twelve hours before I took it off. But I wanted to try 51 over something else because the real draw is the amazing blurple jelly base colour, which was totally lost over HRH. So I swatched it over (L-R) Orly gogo, illamasqua wink, illamasqua force, and OPI dim sum plum. And the result was much prettier:



Orly Gogo is just a total PITA to apply and not worth the 7 coats of polish (4 orly, 3 of the flakies) but 51 looked lovely over any of the other three. Two coats on force and dim sum plum, three on wink. I will definitely give this a full outing soon, because I really like the duochrome pinky colours in the flakies (just not over HRH...dear God not over HRH). Do click to enlarge this one, it's a doozy.



As Borat would say: 'naaaaaaice. Vairry naice.'


Edit - the UK Nfu Oh retail site has now launched. It's at Nfuoh.co.uk. Enjoy!

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Ombre Pedi for Summer!

I did an ombre pedicure for the first time, and I loved it so much/was so proud I actually found colours that seemed to work, that I had to share it with you...

...but of course I'm not going to show it to you on my feet!

Thumb to pinky (aka big toe to little toe):

OPI No Spain No Gain

OPI Dim Sum Plum

Essie Splash of Grenadine

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

OPI Panda-monium Pink

So loving this look on my tootsies! I wish I had enough greys with the same undertones to do a grey ombre on my tips...

Have you ever tried an ombre manicure or pedicure? What colours or colour family did you use?

kittytokaren

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Essie St. Lucia Lilac & Zoya Kelly

(2 coats)

I was expecting absolute shite formula from Essie but it is surprisingly reasonable. I ALMOST got it in 2 coats (see the bald spot on my index). Maybe the secret shimmer is helping it apply nicely.



(2 coats)

Zoya has been stepping up their formula game. I've been almost universally happy with their newer cremes. Really fantastic. And I report no drying issues! This color isn't really unique and doesn't exactly light my fire, but I'm still keeping it.

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