Honest Babes

I need to get to editing some of my pictures! Until then, here's what I'm wearing right now as an actual manicure- one coat of Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat, one coat of Essie's Sugar Daddy and then two coats of Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven.Click if you don't mind sheer manicures!

I'm kind of all over the place for this post. Some news, some pictures, some ~fabulosity~. Some reconsidering the use of the word "fabulosity." I'm going to use a few images that aren't mine, but I am going to make it very clear when those are used. It's also after 2AM, so I'm a little more conversational tonight. Enjoy it? Hate it? Think I need to remove myself from the internet before further embarrassing myself? Let me know!If you like glitter, you're going to need to click here. Mmm hmm.

I picked up three of the Halloween nail polish offerings from Fantasy Makers (AKA Wet n Wild) last week or the week before. (Halloween creep is not as bad as Christmas creep, but Halloween paraphernalia still coming earlier than I had expected!) I figured they were cheap enough and worth a try since the colors weren't so bad. I didn't opt for the glow in the dark polish since I have more of those than I'll ever need. The big downsides on these are the potential for slightly wonky, fluffy, stick-y out-y brushes (which I noticed on quite a few bottles) and the tombstone tops that never twist on fully flush to the bottle unless you repeatedly twist the tops on and off until you're satisfied.

Purple Potion (12420) is black with purple microglitter.  The glitter is slightly darker and finer than the glitter in Lippmann's Bad Romance. It only took two coats to get opacity, which surprised me. The glitter is not as blingy on the nail as it is in the bottle, which is kind of a bummer. It also dries to a satin finish, so I'd suggest top coat unless that's the effect you're going for. I put two top coats on and Purple Potion is still not as shiny as I'd like it to be. I had no problem seeing the shimmer under fluorescent lighting, though, so this isn't dark and drab. Yay Halloween!

Were he alive, August 29th would have been Michael Jackson's birthday.  I hadn't even realized it until I noticed a radio station playing a mix of some of his biggest hits that day.  I can't say I recognized all of the songs.  But I did hear "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" and decided to put the matching polish on that day.

Hey tenderoni...

The scuttlebutt on the street is that the new OPI Ulta exclusives are Nicole's Gossip Girl collection polishes from last year.  That's entirely possible, since Nicole and OPI have shared shades before as far as I know.  (OPI's I Pink You're Adorable is similar to Nicole's Starbright Sparkles II, and OPI's Unripened from the Halloween collection last year was close to Nicole's Blues in the Night.)  You be the judge below:Pictures ahoy!

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!

Lippmann's Lady Sings the Blues and Across the Universe debuted during the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, and I'm sure you've seen them on every other blog by now.  What can I say- I got distracted by other colors.  A magpie is me! Wall of text and four pictures of dubious quality...

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...

I really can't help myself.  Every time I see a new Lippmann color, I have to try it on.  There are two new summer colors that came our recently, and they are both superb.  Between the Sheets is described as "tantalizing fuchsia (creme)" and Supermodel as "modern sheer-ish red orange (sheer)".  Supermodel was created with Dree Hemingway, a model and also a great grandaughter of the writer Ernest Hemingway.  I could have sworn that I wrote down some descriptions, but who knows where they went!  I'd agree with Lippmann's descriptions, though.  I only did one coat of Supermodel, and it was so beautiful and non-streaky to work with.  A perfect colorful sheer.  Two coats of Between the Sheets got me compliments and, "What color is that?" questions the entire time I wore it.  I am considering purchasing both.

I also reswatched three colors I've previously swatched before.  Shape of My Heart, created with Shape magazine "to help fight breast cancer", needed three coats on my thumb.  It ended up being a bit uneven in finish.  I didn't have issues using it on my pinkie previously, so maybe I'm just not so good at applying some colors on larger canvases.  Or maybe I was just having an off day.   If you notice a speck on my thumb, that was from the bottle of Ruby Red Slippers.  Some old, crusted up polish was caked around the threads of the bottle, and of course one of the bits had to land in my freshly painted manicure.  Ruby Red Slippers is awesome and may end up in my collection sometime as well.  It is sheer, so either be prepared to do three coats or layer it over a black polish to conserve the bottle of RRS.  (If you'd like a black polish from Lippmann, check out Fade to Black.  It was originally part of her Vinyl collection, found only at Bath & Body Works.)  I also had to reswatch Superstar.  I was told that one of the polishes in the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale collection (or set) will be a purple version of Superstar or Ruby Red Slippers.  I already want it!

More pictures than you actually need... indulge me.

A month ago, I swatched some of the newer Lippmanns at Nordstrom, so if you're interested, check 'em out!  I did two coats on my nails, though three would have been more appropriate on the sheers.  And I'd suggest ridgefiller with the sheers as well.  If you aggressively push your cuticles back, you'll end up with horizontal ridges like I have in my ring and pinkie nails. *facepalm*Pictures, descriptions, etc.