Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Changing to Autumn - Chanel Peridot

Here's the haiku I wrote for this wonderfully mysterious duochrome:

The changing of leaves
Beautiful change to autumn
Chanel Peridot

I present to you Chanel Peridot (ETA: found camera, took new pics! This beaute is soooo photogenic). This color is a chameleon, gold with green around the edges , then green with gold edges, then lean it closer to the light source and it turns into a wonderful teal duochrome. I must admit I'm not as much of a duochrome lover as I am a holo or flakies lover because I generally wear cremes more often than shimmery/brushstrokey colors, and this falls under the "slightly brushstrokey" category.

I changed my mani on Wednesday because I Graphite dulled a bit and had some tipwear that I just couldn't stand looking at anymore. So I picked the next Chanel baby I ordered and voila! Insta magical duochrome. I saw a bush that resembed it, burnt goldish yellow down the middle and green on the sides, and it instantly reminded me of this color. It's a really beautiful color with flashes of pink sometimes as well, but the wear time is the only thing bugging me! Chanels generally get good wear time for me, especially if it's a color like Mimosa/Morning Rose/Mistral, those colors that take 3-4 coats to become completely opaque. Those lasts for 1 week + for me, no chipping. After a few days Graphite chipped off a little, but not to the point that required me to completely redo my mani.

Now...onto the PIC SPAM!!!!



















There are a few little chips in my Peridot mani and some tipwear, but that's pretty good for a duochrome that feels like an Nfu-Oh holo (the original formula, thin and prone to chipping). All in all, it's a pretty darn good duochrome and a pretty cool color. I wish the sun had been out whe I snapped the pics. This is what summer in July looks like in the Bay Area

Oh, the dreariness of it all. It's not right to wear winter clothes in summertime!


Saturday, July 9, 2011

Chanel Mesmerizing Me - Chanel Graphite

Ok, I LOVE Chanel. I ordered all three of the Fall 2011 Chanel colors because I'm weak. The makeup theme of minerals is really hitting it big now, with MAC Semi-Precious and Chanel, and I'm not immune! When I first opened Chanel Graphite, I was astounded. Of course I'd seen Polish Police's to die for swatches, and Temptalia's, and then late night shopping on nordstroms.com made me frantic about getting them, and the anticipation built. And then I opened the polish. And then I gasped aloud, because I was not expecting something so special since I had already seen pictures of it.













I held the bottle in different lights. I thought, it looks so much like Chanel Kaleidoscope! But wait! It's not silver, it's gold! Nope, there's green too! Silver and gold and a tinge of green! It's a chameleon polish, with a foily finish, but not really, because the foil particles aren't as refined as Kaleidoscope's. It's "grainy", as if the foil had been condensed into smaller particles that feel like glitter almost but isn't as hard to take off. I've had a few other polishes that have a similar finish, but their names elude me as I'm staring hard into my lovely Chanel manicure. It makes me forget about reality for a moment as I'm blinded by the beauty of it.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Lagging on my NOTDs! Nail Polish Spam!!!

I've been so busy the last few months I neglected my blog! Here are some pretty pictures of my past NOTDs:




Asos Nail Rock Lace Print Designer Nail Wraps in Lace White. I loved the look of this but the not the application or the wear. It lasted about a night (I wore this to prom!) because they kept coming off. I think this is a personal problem for me though, because my nails are so long and curved it was hard to put on the wraps without cutting the sides of them. I know I burned the tips of my fingers a few times using a hair dryer to put them on correctly. Then anything I did would peel, off part of the sticker on the tip and it just became really fickle and annoying. If you have curved nails, STAY AWAY. It's really hard to keep them on unless your nails are pretty flat. The Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish strips work for me because I don't need to use a blow dryer, but these are pretty fickle for me to use. I'll stick with real n/p rather than shell out $14 on asos.com for these again. Curved nails and Nail Rock are are NOT friends. These really aren't made to last for more than a night on most people!




This was my birthday mani! Estee Lauder Ultra Violet with Lippmann Happy Birthday on the thumb. I wanted something purple for my b-day but also the traditional HB without the glitter removal, so I compromised with a blackberry manicure. Ultra Violet is so gorgeous! It's a microshimmer/glass fleck dark purple, with red-based undertones. Normally I stay away from red-toned purples but this one is to die for and works for most skintones!


Nicole by OPI Yellow It's Me (holding Mac Entremauve pigment). I love the contrast that they give! I couldn't get the iridescent orange glass fleck to show up in my pictures :( It's one of my favorite yellow polishes! Per usual, the application wasn't the best, but after about 3-4 coats, it evened out and was very pretty.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Midsummer Night's Dream - my blue franken! Pic heavy!

Essie Starry Starry Night, say hello to A Midsummer Night's Dream! I made my franken because I decanted OPI Text Me, Text You after I dropped and broke the bottle. I know I'll never use it to layer over other n/p (layering just isn't my thing), so I decided to make a franken with it by using Wet 'N' Wild Nocturnal. The glitter was too subtle and it was wayyyyy too sheer, so I kept adding drops of Nocturnal, then added some silver glitter and gold glitter n/p (forgot the names, but they were China Glazes with clear bases), and ChG Golden Enchantment and Fairy Dust. It turned out into an AWESOME SSN-ish franken. It looks like the night sky during summer (hence the Shakespearean name :). It has so much depth, it's absolutely beautiful. The application was a bit horrendous, sheer-ish jelly streakiness, but it was worth the effort! The pics:

























Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick's Day Patchwork Mani!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The obligatory greeting and asking your friends after inspecting their clothing and accessories before pinching them is NOT something I do - I'm just to tired for that! I did, however, did an awesome patchwork mani with a green scheme, three different greens, Finger Paints Lucky in Love Lime for the Shrek-ish green part, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle for the deep dark but still glittery green, and Nubar Lime Green Glitter for the sparkly lime part (Hard Candy Sweet P is a dupe of it). I initially used Zoya Ivanka, but since I was doing my mani at night, it was hard for me to tell Ivanka and Emerald Sparkle apart (I couldn't make the lines straight if I can barely tell them apart in the dark). I'll stop talking about the festive patchwork and let the pictures speak for themselves!















Ugh! My stupid time stamps never line up :(

This is so much green goodness, I feel like I've overloaded...on green. I never thought that would be possible!