Ulta Envy

Ulta, why do you toy with me so with your amazing polishes and fabulous sales?

Ulta Envy

As I am geographically-challenged when it comes to an Ulta, I tend to get a little *ahem* excited when I eventually get the chance to run amongst the lovely cosmetics and hair care products. Although I am able to refrain myself from singing "The Hills are Alive (with the sound of music)" while skipping up and down the aisles and running my hands over all of the bottles, I have been known to get so excited that I dance a little in the parking lot. Ask The Husband.

Anyway, here's a lovely polish from Ulta's main polish line called "Envy." A deep forest green with a lovely shimmer, I can imagine that this will be a great shade for the fall or the holidays. I have to admit, I wasn't really feeling it while I was wearing it, but I think it was because I kind of guilted myself into wearing it after realizing that it had gone untouched for so long.

Have any of you every guilted yourself into a polish? It's so unfortunate. It's not you, Ulta Envy... it's me.

(Imagine Julie Andrews a little chubbier and with curly hair
and replace the mountains with bottles of OPI.)

Happy day, all!

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Island Girl Hawaiian Magic

I love taupe.  There are so many different shades of taupe.  There's purple taupe, grey taupe, dark taupe, light taupe, medium taupe, and more.  Have you ever looked at the spelling of a word so much that it starts to look strange?  That's how taupe is looking to me right now.

Anyway, I think my favorite type of taupe is purple taupe and that's exactly how I'd describe Island Girl Hawaiian Magic.  This polish is in the same family as Sephora by OPI Metro Chic except it's much darker.  When I originally bought this I thought "Hmmm.  That doesn't look so impressive," but I bought it anyway since I could see there was something special to it.

I am so glad I got this since it's such a great color for fall and winter.

I used three coats for this manicure and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the formula.  It was streaky and I had to be really careful to avoid cuticle drag.  The brush was a bit wonky as well so I had a little trouble controlling the polish.  It also isn't very shiny, but I added a coat of Seche Vite to bring out the shine.  You'd think that all that trouble would make this one not worth it, but I think it is.  I am definitely digging this polish big time.

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Barielle Style in Argyle (Fall 2010), Part I of II

Barielle sent me the infamous brown Style in Argyle collection to review. When I saw them all together, my first reaction was, more or less, "HUH?" This from the people who gave us June Bug! When my SO saw it, he was like, "Oh, I really like those!" (My reaction to him was, again, "HUH?")

Since swatching some of them, I have warmed up a bit more to this collection. There are definitely standouts that I really love having (as well as having a color that's sort of dupey to one of the new Chanel Khakis, as I pointed out yesterday). Here's the first half of my swatches; I'll try to get the second half done in the next week. :)

Barielle Tight Knit

This is one of the polishes that I could've done without. Dusky rose creme that leans slightly ever-so-slightly purple. This color is not flattering on me at all. Two coats.

Barielle Unraveled Rust

This one is one of my favorites. Dark chocolate with a reddish tinge. Went on so easily and turns out so glossy. Yum! Two coats.

Barielle Cowl of the Wild

Not sure if this name makes me smile or groan. This is the color that's a very vague dupe to Chanel Khaki Rose (see my post from yesterday). It's a bit too dark to be a great dupe though. On its own, it's a bit on the sheer side (especially when compared to the Chanel -- but who cares when it's about $20 cheaper?) and takes three coats (which is not horrible).

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China Glaze Frostbite

If I had to name a favorite polish, this one would be it.

China Glaze - Frostbite

Hands down, China Glaze Frostbite is a such a homerun polish to me. It's pigmented as heck, applies smooth as butter, it's almost blindingly blue and wears like a champ for me. Did I mention that it's blue? Like really blue? Like jewel-toned, glowing from my fingertips blue? It is. And it is FABULOUS.



When I first got back into polish about a year and a half ago, Frostbite caught my eye at Sally's and it was love at first sight - angels sang, streams of sunlight poured out of the horrid flourescent overheads, I may have even smelled chocolate, I'm not even sure. Whatever happened, it was magical. I have worn this so faithfully ever since that when I heard a rumor a year ago that this might be discontinued, I actually bought a backup. Thankfully, that seems like it was false info; either way, though, it makes me feel good that I have a security blanket of Frostbite-y goodness.


Do any of you obsess over a polish like I love Frostbite? It's like a margarita in a polish bottle to me, and as today is my birthday, I thought this would be a fab one to share. Viva la birthdays!


Happy day, all!

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Chanel Khaki Collection

So when I said I kind of bought into the Chanel hype, I meant... it got me big time. The morning of the Khaki collection release, I called five or six Chanel boutiques in several states... because it wasn't online yet. On an NBer's tip, I ended up calling the Chanel counter in the Bellevue, WA Nordstrom's and gave my order to the friendliest-sounding sales associate ever while walking from a bus stop to my new psychiatrist. (And I love the new psychiatrist. I've had seven of them in the last nine years and I only really liked one out of them before this one. So I feel really lucky.) I figured it was safe crossing a bridge with no people around but with cars zooming by to say my credit card number aloud in public. (I said it quietly.)

This ended up being a LOT of money... and it's not like it's super sold out or anything yet. But I don't particularly regret getting them even if they aren't the most special colors in the world.

Chanel Khaki Brun

This one was an unexpected favorite. It's kind of a muddy green brown creme, kind of in a similar line as Obsessive Compulsive Swamp Thing and MAC Dry Martini. Except this is more brown than either of those (I think). It also has a bit of orange lurking in it. I seriously love this sort of color. And it applied so beautifully well. If I had used a thick coat, it could have been a one coater but as it was, only two thin coats were needed.

Chanel Khaki Vert

This reminds me of the green in a camouflage print that has been washed a couple of times. I love it. It's not as green as I thought it would be but I love how greyed out it is. Unlike Essie Sew Psyched (which is often mentioned in the following context: "I have Essie Sew Psyched and I like it better anyway"), it is a straightforward creme: no shimmer like Sew Psyched. This photo was taken on the third day of wear. No chips, only the slightest bit of tipwear but no shrinkage. I don't really attribute this to Chanel as much as I attribute it to my Gelous/Diamont combo which seems to make all polishes wear like iron. Two coats.

Chanel Khaki Rose

This color is so good at giving me lobster hands. I don't know what to call this color... Russet? I didn't dislike it but I didn't like it either. Still, it applied very well in two coats. Some people on NB asked about whether one of the brown Barielles could be a dupe. Since I have the Barielles (reviewing coming tomorrow or the day after!), I decided to do a quick comp:

Barielle Cowl of the Wild & Chanel Khaki Rose

They're pretty similar looking in the bottle. Cowl of the Wild is a bit darker and more brown. But the difference is more obvious on the nail...

Barielle Cowl of the Wild on the leftmost finger; Chanel Khaki Rose on the rest.

If you added a bit of a cream or slightly pink colored polish to the Barielle, you could probably get a good approximation of Chanel Khaki Rose. But what you won't get is the great application of the Chanel. As with other recent darker-colored Chanel Releases (Paradoxal, Strong), I found the formula for all three Khakis to be wonderful two-coaters: thick, pigmented, easy to control, and they were 80% dried before I finished. The Barielle was harder to control, more sheer and took three coats before it was opaque. Whether it is worth it to pay $20 more for great application vs decent application is up to the individual, obviously. :)

September 18th (15m cardio), September 19th (50m cardio).

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