Honest Babes

Can I just say how underwhelmed I am with Chanel's April, May and June polishes? April (my flawfree birth month) seemed like a washed out cranberry, May a pretty but dupable pink and June a nude peach that needed more peach in my opinion. The Glossimers were pretty, though. Repeat after me: no new lipglosses! Expensive ones at any rate. Loopholes are a wonderful thing...

This is A Sparkle Yule Love (HL C51) from the Deck Your Nails set. The set is an Ulta exclusive, along with the same full-sized polishes, for the holiday season this year. ASYL has a dark pink base with multicolored glitter- red, silver, fuchsia, green, blue... I don't own Excuse Moi! (or any other color) from the Muppet collection and even I could tell that this might be a dupe. EM was one of the few Muppet polishes that I was interested in, so I'm fine with this bizarre decision to rebottle an existing color or only tweak it slightly.

Do people like these cuts? Do they even care? Inquiring minds want to know.

While trying to make my list for the in store and online Sephora Friends and Family sale, I've trawled through more products than I care to count. In case it might be helpful, I'm providing some links and a little commentary here in case you don't feel like going through and looking for all the nail polish items on Sephora. It's very "wall of text," so if you want the highlights right now, here they are: Givenchy has a polish out, some of the nail stickers from Sephora's brand are super cute, and Nails Inc now has flakies for us!Read more »

I love midnight showings and I love good books, so of course I had to attend the last Harry Potter film as soon as it came out.  While the theater's disorganization and disregard for previous policies sucked, I'm still glad we went to see the movie.  Neville and Snape were particularly good in my opinion, and this was my favorite part by far!  We're going to have to see it again since we were so close to the screen the first time.   Did anyone else go see it?

Funky Fingers' Snakeskin (901) is mostly gray with a slight green tinge and gold shimmer.  You can see the green tinge if you're looking for it, but it definitely looks gray at first glance.  The formula is a bit metallic, so you may see slight brushstrokes.  I had no problems with two coats, but the topcoats I used gave me bubbles so my pictures below are with three coats.  I had no complaints about the brush, the formula was easy to work with, and the bottles are so darn cute!  Funky Fingers polishes retail for US$5 for three bottles at Five Below stores, but I'm not sure what the cost is if you only want one bottle.  Since Funky Fingers and Color Club are made by the same company, you can get Color Club Snakeskin if you don't have a Five Below near you.  Scrangie reported that Color Club's Snakeskin has microglitter, so it's possible that this is also microglitter (and not shimmer like I'm seeing) or the formula was tweaked just slightly.  It's a bit of an unusual color, and even though it's a bit too warm for me, I like it.

Bottle picture:

Snakes on a blogpost!

I'm not sure that this qualifies as a moldy oldie, but I did wear this one month ago to the day. Chanel's Black Pearl (513) is supposed to mimic the appearance of a black pearl, go figure.  It retails for US$25 and seems to be part of the core polish collection.  I'm not 100% on the color- just not jazzy enough for me- for the price.  But I got tons of compliments on it, so it isn't a total waste.

A few more pictures...

I checked my local Walmart yesterday and lo and behold, they had the small Essie display.  Which didn't contain Dive Bar.  So I had to check another (crummier) Walmart, which of course had the bigger endcap display.  I picked up Dive Bar (728) and Devil's Advocate (360, not to be confused with Night Cap which is also 360.)  I'm kind of surprised that Fondola Gondola and Pop Art Pink had their names changed, but Devil's Advocate is an A-OK name.

Dive Bar had a blackened blue base with threads of dark teal shimmer.  It's almost brushstroke-y, but not quite.  There's a purple duochrome with the blue shimmer inside the polish bottle, but that doesn't show up on the nail.  I don't mind that, but I do mind the price (US$7.75!) and the consistency.  While Dive Bar seems to be pigmented, it's also runny.  I had to take lots of care to wipe the polish off of the opposite side of the brush, and half the side of the brush that I was going to use.  It may just be my bottle, but be careful when/if you try your bottle.

More pictures of Dive Bar...

I keep gawking at Chanel's Spring 2011 collection (holy cow, it's almost 2011! ) because it's just so darn pretty. It's feminine with an edge, to use a cliché. The collection was "inspired by pearls," which can be seen in the finishes of some of the products as well as the colors. I bought Black Pearl nail polish, which I'll be swatching shortly, but I figured I'd swatch the other two polishes I didn't buy, plus a few other things, just for my own amusement. And maybe yours..?

I first tried two polishes from MAC's Cham Pale collection. Soirée ("sparkly light bronze gold") is on my middle finger and two coats of Very Important Platinum ("dirty platinum") is on my ring finger. Soirée is a light peachy beige with lighter, silvery shimmer. I only painted on one coat of Soirée, and it was pretty and opaque enough for me to consider my mini-mani done. VIP is a slightly greened gray with noticeable brushstrokes, but I honestly didn't think that they were all that annoying as far as brushstrokes go. Perhaps amplified across ten fingers, it would annoy me, but I'm not bothered by them when I glance at my hand. I can't really say anything all that bad about both colors, but they also don't scream out with all that much uniqueness, either. They're just nice. Both polishes retail for US$13.

From your left to right: MAC Soirée, MAC Very Important Platinum, Chanel Pearl DropPlus Ombres Perlees and Peche Nacree, oh my!

The first thing I did when I got Riva, swatch-wise, was compare it to some polishes I already own.  I wasn't all that impressed with it at first.  But after doing an almost full hand manicure with it, I think I like it more than I initially did.  Is it worth US$27?  Well, that I'm not sure about just yet.

Riva is like a grayed dark light blue, if that makes sense.  It looks different to me in person versus the promotional pictures and dries darker and less dusty/dingy than the color you see in the bottle.  The electric blue shimmer is much more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail.  I originally wrote that Riva wasn't unique and wasn't worth $27 unless you like the color or collect Chanel polish, but I find myself backing off of those statements now.  Riva goes on jelly-like, which I appreciated more with each nail I painted.  I did have to use four thin coats to get my nails to look even, which I don't mind for the right color.  I did get bubbles both times I had Riva on, but I blame that on my China Glaze Fast Forward top coat and Sally Hansen drying oil.  I am really disliking Fast Forward so far- it bubbles and it doesn't dry very fast at all. How much do you like light blues?

I need to clear my head and close these tabs in Firefox!  Hopefully you'll find a link or two that interests you!

From Lipglossiping: Le Metier de Beaute nail polish that looks a lot like Laura Mercier eyeliner and H&M's Envy Me.  I.  NEED.  THIS!!

Some of these Dashing Diva polishes look awful, as does the application!  Yikes!  Doesn't make me want try DD polish, though I admit that I'm still a little curious about them.

Some links with les Khakis de Chanel: Polish or Perish and the beauty look book, which also has a ton of links itself.  I want to want Khaki Vert, because hey, it's green and Chanel... but I don't.  I feel like I need to take my temperature.

Chanel's Soho polishes: Temptalia and the beauty look book.  So underwhelming.

Tom Ford is going to be releasing nail polish.  Probably gonna be expensive, judging by the price of his lipstick, but also luxe.

Have we gone back in time?!  Sephora is carrying nail products with formaldehyde.  You read that right- formaldehyde, not formaldehyde resin.  The latter is what you can sometimes find in Big Three Free formulations.  If you're curious about formaldehyde, read the Product Q&A for the Pink Gel Coat.  There's a question named "Three Free It's Not" with a very intelligent answer by Bostonkiddy.  I won't be buying anything from Perfect Formula because of the formaldehyde and the absolutely astronomical prices.   And this also makes me think of dibutyl pthalate, which is an ingredient in non-Big Three Free polish. This article really gives me pause, since I was diagnosed with endocrine and insulin issues this year.  But I haven't painted my nails that much!  Or have I..?

I have to admit that I like the promo color of CND's Urban Oasis more than the actual color.  What I really want are these CND colors, but I don't want to have to wait until next year!

Any cool blogs you gals are reading that I should add to my reader or blogroll?  Any new, neat and nifty nail news you've come across?  Please feel free to share!

My local Nordstrom had Chanel's fall collection out already, as well as most of the upcoming Lippmanns that are available for preorder for the Anniversary Sale.  Of course I had to swatch what I could find, particularly because I had already ordered the Lippmanns sight unseen.

I believe I had Lippmann's Lady Sings the Blues on my thumb.  (It was in front of the set, not to the side like Bad Romance was.)  LStB has a navy base with regular silver glitter and hexagonal silver glitter.  The base is kind of sheer, so the glitter sometimes looks blue or navy versus silver.  Some Enchanted Evening, on my index finger, has a clear base with bubblegum pink glitter, both regular glitter and hex glitter.  Occasionally I swear I can see a dark pink fleck of glitter.  Razzle Dazzle is on my middle finger, and it has a dark red base with lots of fine sparkly red glitter.  I slipped Chanel's Paradoxal onto my ring finger.  It looks more muddy gray/wet slate on me than it does on Sabrina of The Beauty Look Book, and Karianne has a great picture of the shimmer.  I had trouble getting the microshimmer to show up most of the time, until I slapped on a coat of Seche Vite and stood around some lights.   I did get bubbles with this one, so I suggest thin coats when applying it.  I applied Lippmann's Bad Romance on my pinkie, and it was the color I was most underwhelmed with.  Gaga deserves a wilder polish color.   It is indeed a magenta version of Lippmann's own Ruby Red Slippers, down to the regular and hex glitter in a sheer-ish, smoky black base.  The only difference is the color of the glitter.  All swatches are at two coats, which pleased me.  Yay opacity!  Well, except for Some Enchanted Evening, which has a clear base to begin with. I got tired of editing pictures... hope these'll do...

Are today's taupe and putty shades tomorrow's "grandma" colors?  The "edgy," "sophisticated" and "neutral" combination of gray, beige, brown and purple is really popular right now, but who knows how much longer it'll be fashionable.  My suggestion, if you like these sorts of colors, is to wear the heck out of them until you're sick of 'em.  Fashion be darned!  You could do greiges in the hotter months and darker putties in the cooler months, instead of the regular pastel Spring, neon Summer and vampy Fall/Winter.  But wear what you like, whenever you like.  Whether or not your color becomes a granny color that you can find by the truckloads at your local Dollar Tree.

Here are a couple of suggestions if you haven't gotten into this trend:

Drugstore: Rimmel Steel Grey, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic

Mid level: Essie Jazz, OPI You Don't Know Jacques!, Orly Country Club Khaki, Sephora by OPI Metro Chic, American Apparel Mouse

High end: Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas, Chanel Particulière, MAC Wham Bam Glam, RGB Toast

I thought I was so clever coming up with a list of these polishes, only to find out that Little Music Boxes has done not one, but two posts on similar colors!   Tobywoo also has a comparison of taupes.  Be sure to check those entries out if you can't get enough of taupe-y purple brown grays.  I also added some of the recommendations from InStyle and People StyleWatch.  I don't necessarily agree with all of the recs, but I figured I'd add them anyway.  Some of them are more brown and some are more purple in my opinion. Some colors lean more warm and some more neutral-cool.

Orly's Country Club Khaki is a beige with some brown and gray, while SOPI Metro Chic is darker with a tiny bit more brown plus more purple.  These are two of my favorite shades from this trend.  Pure Ice Taupe Drawer (the crème version, not the shimmer version) isn't really taupe at all.  It's more mauve than anything, so names can be deceiving.  My favorites are CCK and MC, and I'm pretty fair with cool-toned skin.  The one putty color that really makes me want to vomit everywhere is Chanel Particulière.  I absolutely hate it on my nail.  If I'm going to wear a brown Chanel, it's going to be the more chocolate-y Madness.

Also, don't do swatches and then reach into your handbag for your wallet.  It's just not a good idea. Don't even think I'm kidding, for real...