Honest Babes

This is the culmination of things I've found interesting over the last few days. Sorry, no pictures! The ones I wanted to add kinda stink, so I need to retake them. 

I've been waiting on Ulta to get the OPI Muppets collection, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. At this point, I may forgo the Muppets and save for the Holland collection instead. Thanks a Windmillion is killing me softly. And speaking of pale greens (I'm surprised this trend is still going, to be honest), I am DYING to get my hands on the Spring 2012 Dior green called Waterlily. Here it is on the nail.

And speaking of Ulta, apparently OPI is discontinuing 14 colors: Calendar Girl, Sit Under the Apple Tree, Give Me A Coral Sometime, Peach-a-boo!, Red Hot Ayers Rock, Chapel of Love, Bullish on OPI, Take the Stage, My Big Break, Paint My Moji-toes Red, Bronzed to Perfection, Clubbing til Sunrise, Bling Dynasty and Chopsticking to My Story. From what I understand, they may all be on sale, two for US$10, but I didn't receive that Ulta ad so I don't have the exact details. (Thankfully this was reported on Ulta's Facebook page.) To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that a majority of those colors are still around.

Is it me or do these Inglot flakies look like the Nails Inc Gossip Girl flakies?

Did Karl Lagerfeld actually have anything to do with the cosmetics and nail polish for a Sephora line? If only WWD was free to read online! Not that I'm a fan of his or anything...

Does anyone else randomly check magazine giveaway pages? I'm not really digging Glamour's stuff this month, but People StyleWatch has the Kardashian Kolors from Nicole and Lucky has Zoya. I really want the Guerlain set from StyleWatch. And speaking of the Kardashians, I support this.

No joke, I have about a hundred different comments about this report from Cleveland on CND's Shellac. Yes, you do have to do research into any beauty treatment you're thinking about getting... unless you're making a snap decision on the spot. You can only do so much in that case. And sure, looking at bottles is probably a good idea, but that isn't the first thing I think of when I'm getting a pro manicure. (The last time I got my tips done with regular polish, the manicurist used clear polish as a base coat, then base coat as top coat before sticking me under a lamp. Whaaaat?) I'm not surprised that some people had wear issues since it seems that not everyone applying Shellac knows what they're doing. But I think it's cool that this news team looked into something nail-related!

If none of that was even remotely interesting, maybe this video will be worth your time. I laugh every time I watch it.

CND's Family Secret (#337) is a mushroom-y brown with loads of shimmer.  Depending on the light, the shimmer appears to be gold, bronze or red.  It's an unusual color, like some of the legendary old CNDs.  Also, like some (or all) of the old CNDs, it does take a while to get Family Secret to dry.

Actual nail pics inside...

This was on butter LONDON's Facebook page: "Receive a complimentary full size bottle of British Racing Green lacquer with any purchase of $25.00 or more NOW through March 22nd on butterLONDON.com. Simply enter StPaddyDay11 upon check out. Happy St. Paddy’s day bezzie mates! (US only)" It's a darn good deal... if it works.  I've heard reports that some people aren't able to get the code to go through.  Boo!   I say... keep trying!  Email customer service if you have to.

British Racing Green is a jewel-toned dark green with great shimmer.  The green is softer than a black in lower light.  The shimmer really pops in the sun.  On the nail versus the bottle, BRG is darker with more subtle shimmer; in the bottle versus the nail, the green is lighter and the shimmer is more pronounced.  (Which is weird, since that's slightly different from what I thought a few months ago.)  The shimmer and pigment are pretty evident in the bottle- you can see a bit of yellow pigment settling at the bottom of the bottle.  My bottle is nicely aged. If you love greens, click here!

CND's "The Look. Night Factory. Fall/Winter 2010" collection contains Urban Oasis (#567/Cool/Opaque) and Teal Sparkle (#568/Cool/Sheer.)  Urban Oasis is a one coat blue green, while Teal Sparkle reflects green and sometimes gold at some angles. I swear I once saw blue, too.  Teal Sparkle is really packed with large shimmer, so subtle it's not.  I don't really like Teal Sparkle over Urban Oasis; I think I'd prefer Teal Sparkle over a green or black/almost black polish.

Here's Urban Oasis by itself in different lighting situations:

Way too many pictures, no joke.

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?

To celebrate, here are two pics of... CND's Silver & Gold Sparkling Effects set.   I'm too exhausted to coherently form a lot of opinions, so no OPI stuff at the moment.  I bought this CND set from Transdesign, wondering if the gold was like Gold Sparkle, but I don't think it is.  For one thing, Gold Sparkling, well... it's holo.  The image online did not show that!  I had higher hopes for Silver Sparkling, which turns out to be a blah, run of the mill silver from what I can see. Two images, one blurry, one not...

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!

I pretty much covered my description of Obscurity here, but I do want to say that Obscurity's wear does depend on the quality of your base.  I must've used CND's Stickey (my non-Big 3 Free bottle, no less ) or Ridge Out (possibly more likely ) as a base coat this time, and the wear has greatly improved.  I wouldn't bank on this color lasting forever- I have the very, very tiniest bit of tipwear after a few days- but the lasting quality is not as poor as I had once believed.

In these images, the base coat on long nails is NailTek Foundation II.  On the short nails, it's one of the CND base coats I mentioned above.

Can you guess what book that is?

Orly's Plastix is a limited edition collection of four colors with a really interesting finish.  Despite how airbrushed or Photoshopped the polishes look on my nail, you only need look at my poor, starved for moisture cuticles to see that the picture hasn't been altered.  (OK, I may have used the blur tool on some of the more heinous cuticle parts, but not on the nails or colors themselves! )  The bottles say, "unique texture effect nail lacquer" and I gotta admit- the texture is pretty darn cool.

On my thumb is Retro Red (40738), which seemed to be the hot seller at my Ulta.  Two coats didn't seem to be enough, so I did three, but that could be my fault, not application issues. With the extra coat, the drying time did seem to be affected; I did get some subtle lines in the polish as it was drying.  I must have hit my shirt with my nail while it was drying.   The color is more of an orange red, though there may be a smidge of pink in there, too.  It's more vibrant than what you see in the bottle (also pictured), but then, the bottle is frosted.  I liked the name of Old School Orange, which is a straight up orange, but it's not a color I wear often.  I left it for someone else to enjoy.  On my index finger is Purple Pleather (40740), and it's pretty much purple.  It's darker on than it looks in the bottle.  Two coats was good for it and the color on my middle finger.  Viridian Vinyl (40741) is blue green, though it may lean a bit more teal than green.  It's more vibrant and darker than the bottle.

To compare, I added two coats of Wet n Wild Black Crème covered in CND's Super Matte topcoat (ring finger) and two coats of Orly Iron Butterfly (40255) on my pinkie.  The Plastix formula is in between the still slightly shiny finish of Super Matte and the matte finish of Iron Butterfly.Full sun pictures!

I found five of the six Essie Wedding 2010 polishes today, as well as a promotional flier regarding CND's Spring/Summer 2010 limited edition Color and Effect.  Pillow Talk (714) is the only Essie I'm missing from the Wedding collex, but I doubt I'm really missing all that much, if you get my drift...You know what to do if you're interested...