Monthly Archives: September 2010

September 26, 2010 · 2:10 pm

Barielle: Wool You Marry Me? NOTD

Hey guys. I wanted to squeeze in a post today between all of the errands I have to do today. I allowed myself to go buy a few polishes yesterday. I have been saving money recently, which unfortunately means no polish binges multiple times a week. Anyway, I picked up one of the new Barielle shades from the Fall Argyle collection. I didn’t own any Barielle polishes until now, just products. But I will say I love the new bottles that they have! I like all square bottles.

In Overcast

I saw the swatches of this collection and wasn’t super thrilled with it. And even in person all but like, a couple of the colors look the same. I decided to pick up this one though. I obviously LOVE the name of the polish, it’s so cute. And the color is nice. It’s a maroonish brown creme. I like it because it’s more brown that it is red. But you can see that it’s one of those “brick” colors. But it leans a little more brown on me than red. I like it as one of those “weird” neutrals, and the fact that it’s dark makes it great for winter and fall. It just started to get really cool and cold here so I found it perfect to wear for the weekend.  The application on this polish was like a dream. So smooth and opaque. I used two coats and it’s beautiful. I also have high hopes for the wearable, I will let you all know how it goes.

It’s sports Sunday,

Liz

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September 23, 2010 · 6:51 pm

Nars: Purple Rain

Back in June, I picked up Nars Versailles and Purple Rain on a Sephora binge. I blogged about Versailles right away. I used a base coat and Seche Vite top coat and my mani was ruined in under 2 hours, the polish didn’t wear well at all period. I read the packaging and it seemed like Nars polish was supposed to be a one-step deal. I said that the next time I used Nars polish, I wouldn’t do base or top coats. I finally got around to using Purple Rain and here are the results:

In the shade

The application was fine, no issues there. The color is a dark purple with a deep shimmer, pink/purple glitter. This picture was taken the day after I painted. Do you see how DULL the color looks? I don’t think it’s me. I wanted to see the glitter! You can barely tell it’s there. I already have tip wear, which continued to get worse and it got so scratched and dented after a day of wear. One plus is that on day 2, I don’t really have any chips, just tip wear and a dull mani. Still, for what these cost I expect more. I don’t want to look at scratches and dents, I want to enjoy wearing a polish.

Glitter?

You get a better shot of the glitter in this pic. I really wanted this color to be magical. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful color, but every time I look down at my nails, I just see purple, nothing special. I’m going to give this another shot with a top coat that isn’t Seche and see how it goes. I’m really hoping it works out because I can’t see myself dropping any more money on Nars nail polish if they look great in the bottle, but not on my nails and I can’t wear base or top coats with them.

At least it’s almost Friday,

-Lauren

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September 19, 2010 · 10:29 am

OPI: Cuckoo For This Color

Cuckoo For This Color

Earlier we did swatches for the OPI Swiss collection, but this is the first time I’ve worn Cuckoo For This Color since getting it. There may be some bubbles in these pics, but I’ve discovered that the culprit of this is a Sally Hansen Nail Protex top coat and not the polish. It’s hard for me too describe what this color is like. At first, I thought of it as a shimmer version of Ski Teal We Drop, but if you compare the two, this is much greener. However, I can’t say that it’s a green, because it is very blue also. I guess it’s just a different version of a teal, almost kind of a peacock color which is what it reminds me of. No matter what color it is, it’s very pretty!

Shade from the side

The application on this was fine, it goes on kind of sheer, perhaps slightly streaky in the first coat, but it’s all evened out by the second. I expect the wear to be pretty standard, my mani probably won’t look good for long because of this top coat.

I knew I liked this color and wanted it, but nothing stood out until I wore it. There is blue-green and silver microglitter that comes out a lot in the sunlight. After wearing it, I think it’s a very unique color. If you like shimmer and the teal trend for fall, I think Cuckoo For This Color is a good choice.

Happy Sunday,

-Lauren

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September 18, 2010 · 4:07 pm

Zoya: Julieanne

In Shadey

Julieanne is from the Zoya 2010 fall sparkle collection. This was one of the colors I had to have immediately. It looked so awesome. It’s dark purple base with glitter that is green and yellow in different lights, as you can see in the bottle in the photo. I think there also might be some purple glitter in there too. I used two coats, and application was fine. Except the wear wasn’t great I had chips fairly quickly. Also, I’m used to the glitter in the sparkles in Charla and Ivanka where it’s so BAM in your face amazing. This polish…isn’t like that really. I sort of wish the glitter was better or if there was more of it. It just doesn’t sparkle how I wanted it to, or how it should for a Zoya sparkle. It’s a really cool polish in theory, it seems almost Halloweenish to me, but it doesn’t come out that way. It’s slightly disappointing. I still have Edyta to try from the Wicked sparkles, which looks more sparkley in the bottle and a really interesting color too. I’m looking forward to wearing that one soon.

Having a rainy Saturday,

Liz

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September 17, 2010 · 5:26 pm

Orly: It’s Not Rocket Science

Ooh, Aah

“Next stop, rocket science!” I’m a big fan of Twin Peaks, so when I saw the name of this polish, it immediately reminded me of that quote from Jerry Horne and I had to have it. I admit, I was excited about the entire Orly Cosmic FX collection. I knew that this and Space Cadet were polishes I HAD to have. It’s Not Rocket Science is a yellowy swamp green with heavy sparkle (like the rest of the collection) and the color ranges from dark green to bright golden yellow depending on the light. I don’t have any other color like this. Before I bought it, I thought it was going to be kind of an “ugly pretty” color, but you wouldn’t believe how many compliments I got on this mani.

This polish does go on very sheer at first, so to completely eliminate VNL, I used 3 coats (and I wanted the extra shimmer). I painted my nails on Tuesday evening and my polish looks virtually perfect now on Friday afternoon. If I didn’t plan on taking this off today, I am very certain that I could wear it tomorrow as well. I wanted to post about this color much sooner, but I’m glad I can tell you about how long I’ve worn it! I don’t know if this speaks for the entire collection, but I was very impressed with the wear on this. I don’t even have tip wear today. Having your nail polish look that good for that long has definitely been a treat for me so I highly recommend this polish. I love the color, the application was easy-peasy, and the wear has been great.

Happy weekend!

-Lauren

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September 15, 2010 · 12:16 pm

Zoya: Shawn NOTD

In Overcast Sunlight

Shawn is from the Zoya Fall Wonderful collection that was released in July. When I first saw this color, I knew I had to have it. I like that it isn’t a super bright green, like Pretty Egdy. I wouldn’t have been interested in that.  This color reminds me of  a lush, wet forest. Or like, Seattle or Portland or something. It’s very saturated and full of depth. Indoors it appears darker than it actually is out in natural light. But when you see it outdoors, it’s so pretty.

It’s a really nice, earth colored polish. I really am loving it. And I think the name is great because it reminds me of fawn which makes me think of the outdoors and forests more. The application on this polish seemed a little more OPI creme rather than Zoya creme. It was a tab bit thick for me. Not unmanageable, but just not as good as I am used to Zoya cremes being. But the opaqueness was great.

Feeling worn out,

Liz

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September 13, 2010 · 1:25 pm

Orly: Space Cadet

Shadey

Um, OMG. Space Cadet is blowing my mind! I knew this polish was going to be amazing via the blogging I have seen going on about it. And even from the bottle. But literally, when you apply it, gets even MORE amazing. To get this out of the way, the application and formula on this polish was great. I used three coats and it dried really fast which was awesome. When you are first looking at this polish, the colors that come out most are brown and purple.  Mostly purple.

But as you can see in the bottle, there’s like gold in there too, and many of you that have read about Space Cadet know that there is also green in there. The green and yellow/goldish come out more in the sunlight and outdoor lighting. But it’s totally noticeable indoors too, just not the predominate colors that come out. I had read about possible dupes for many of the other polishes from the Cosmic FX’s, but I don’t think there was one for this polish. Which means it’s the most unique one of the group and totally worth the $10 price tag, to me at least. It’s a great “party polish”. I understand it might be too flashy for some people, or inappropriate for office wear, but for the weekend, this polish is great.

I wanted to throw in a picture of this polish not against my brown deck to show you guys some contrast. And I sort of think the green brings out the yellow and green in the polish too. This was the only Cosmic FX I have bought, but Laur has It’s Not Rocket Science, and is going to be blogging about that one this week. So we can see how that one is too. But I am totally in love with this polish, and think Orly did an amazing job with this line. And I LOVE the new black handles!

- Liz

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September 12, 2010 · 6:43 pm

Zoya: Blair

Deep red Blair!

Hello all! Today I have Zoya Blair for you. Please excuse the tipwear, I painted with this yesterday in honor of the True Blood season finale tonight. I didn’t get the chance to take a picture yesterday. Blair is a deep blackened red. I noticed when I put it on that it is also a very purpley red, which I didn’t expect and didn’t see in other photos. I’ll be honest, I love this color, it was love at first sight once I got it on my nails and it’s been wearing very well so far.

Shine

I fell in love with this color right away, but not the application. This was surprising for me because I’ve always had a great time applying with Zoya. This went on very thick and rather unevenly. The Barielle Ridge Filler basecoat is also a suspect to this unsavory application, that is rather thick itself, but I used it the other day and polish went over it just fine. I was able to manage pretty well, this is 2 coats and it looks fine, but it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable manicure to apply. Hopefully this will last me through tomorrow and then we’ll have some new Orly Cosmic FX polishes coming for you!

Almost True Blood time, Truebies!

-Lauren

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September 10, 2010 · 6:17 pm

Essie: Sew Psyched NOTD

Cutest polish name, right? This is the only Essie from the new fall 2010 collection I have purchased, so far. I bet that might change. I’m like that. At first I will say that none of the colors from a collection really do it for me, or I love them all and will literally die without them. This polish is a cool color. I think it’s very on point with the military fashion trend that is happening. I also think it’s a nice, modern fall color.  I feel crazy recently because I have been writing about how shimmer hasn’t been showing up in my manicures, but I will say the same for this one. I saw others swatches of this color, and also the microshimmer was very slight, I could see it even in the photos. But it might be because I was only outside today to swatch these photos, and not in the sun. I think the microshimmer adds enough femininity to this masculine color that it has a nice balance.

The application on this was okay. I did find myself shaking up the bottle multiple times during my two coat application though. And that I needed to make sure I had a lot of polish on the small Essie brush to make sure it went on smooth and even. I didn’t have much a problem when I did that.

Is anyone else feeling the military polish trend? Like the Chanels? Yum.

It’s Friday,

Liz

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September 9, 2010 · 5:47 pm

New Orleans Saints manicure

Who Dat nation

Hey everyone! So today is the kick off of the 2010 NFL season starting with Superbowl Champion Saints vs. Vikings. I had to be festive for the occasion so I did a Saints-inspired manicure for the game. Please excuse the chips in the polish, I don’t know what’s going on there. I am really enjoying wearing this, it’s really fun. I tried to get some fleur de lis decals, but am glad I got to experiment with my own combos in a Blackberry mani-inspired way with the flashy thumb.

Here’s what I used:

Thumb: 3 coats of Orly Luxe. I love this super sparkly gold foil. This color is from the Orly Foil FX collection from earlier this year. This polish is perfectly fine in 2 coats, but I wanted to be balanced with the rest of my nails so I did 3. The only downside about this polish is that it’s a pain to get off, but totally worth it anyway at least in my book.

Fingers: 2 coats of any black, mine is OPI Black Onyx, which applies like a dream, and 1 coat of Borghese Cristallo Shimmer, which is a sheer polish made of mostly gold shimmer.

Hope you enjoy! I’m looking forward to many more sports manicures in the near future!

Happy football season,

-Lauren

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