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.

**CAUTION: NERD(LACQUER) ALERT** I am going to be geeking out for the Trek-esque polishes because they bring back such good memories. A great color of polish is wonderful, but it's even better when it evokes a feeling or memory. That's what I think at any rate.

My first choice of NerdLacquer to swatch was Warrior Ethos because I must admit that I prefer the Klingons over the Vulcans (Purely Logical) and the Romulans (Cold & Calculating.) Three coats by itself was perfect opacity. If I hold my finger up to the light, I can see my nail tip, but otherwise it looks opaque. I love the different colors and sizes of glitter in Warrior Ethos- everything just works for me. I think this is a great unconventional holiday red and I've been surprised by how well it's worn for me.

A lot of pictures... for serious!

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.

I wrote this on August 21st, intending to post it before Halloween. I tend to put together blog entries and then forget all about them.  But the tone of this one matches my mood. It's cloudy, kind of cold, rainy and just plain gloomy. The entire side of one of my clogs has pulled away from the bottom of the shoe. And did I mention I inadvertantly punched myself in the face today (this was truly spectacular), doing something to the nosepads on my glasses so the bridge is on my nose? I hate that. Now I have to go get them fixed. Boo humbug.

I loved the look of OPI's Halloween 2011 polish Zom-body to Love. Such a pretty shade of green, and actually glow in the dark to boot! I resisted buying it, even after seeing swatches, but as soon as I saw it in person at Ulta... score!Only regular light pics here... no GitD!

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.

Today's the day! You can buy one butter LONDON and get one free at Ultas that carry the brand. I've heard that some sales associates say that you can buy two and get two free, while others have said you can only buy one and get one free. I'm not sure what the restrictions are, but if you encounter any, I'd be curious to know what they are.Thirty seven thousand pictures later...

I hemmed and hawed about paying full price for what amounts to a bunch of silver glitter in an OPI bottle. Crown Me Already! (NL U02) is from the Miss Universe collection and is pretty much several different sizes of silver glitter (from microglitter up to large hex glitter) in a clear base. Since I've been seeing a lot of neat glitter sandwiches, I figured I'd do a simple one color glitter sandwich with CMA. I used Red-y For The Cure since it's so nicely sheer. RftC turned the silver glitter into red and magenta glitter, which was pretty cool. I have about five billion picures of this, so proceed with caution. Sparing those who don't care for glitter... if you do, click!

I went to Ulta yesterday, assuming I'd find nothing. But I actually scored one of the OPI ♥ DKMS collection polishes!  I passed on the shimmery white because I knew I wouldn't wear it much, but the "ruby red"/"cherry red" polish did come home with me.  Red-y For The Cure (SR CM9) is a gorgeous red crème that is a bit sheer. I didn't have problems with streaking, even at one coat, but I did three to see how opaque it would get. If I look really hard, I can see the moons of my nails, but otherwise, I just see glossy perfection. RftC is very shiny when it dries, but I put top coat on for my pictures to pump up the shine even more. I really loved putting this polish on- the formula is excellent and the brush is, of course, awesome.

I love the little tag! It includes the URL for the DKMS site, where you can read about the charity and becoming a potential bone marrow donor. All you have to do in the beginning is register, receive a kit in the mail, swab your cheek and then send it to a lab! DKMS is reliant on donations and every registration is free for those who sign up. You can read more about DKMS at their site, and Vanity Fair also has a great article that I suggest you read if you're interested in the organization and/or the polishes.

You are going to want to click this, for real!

I did both of these manis for OPI's Shatter Day in July, and then... never posted them.  So if you're not yet sick of Shatter (or Crackle or Blasted or Texture or whatever else they're calling it these days) swatches, read on!

One thing that really helps a frosty, metallic or brushstroke-y pearl polish is... covering it up.  I took out Sedona Seduction (NL P01) from the spring of 1998 Painted Desert collection.  I would call it a pearled, rather light blue that will give you brushstrokes.  The formula itself is thin and I did get some pooling when applying three coats of it.  It kind of looks like brushed metal, which is neat.  Since this one is long gone (I got my bottle from a friend), you try tracking down the darker blue Sahara Sapphire or the lighter, whiter Kyoto Pearl for a slightly similar look.  The latter is a core OPI color and the former was an older color that was rereleased in 2009. You kind of know what you're getting when you click this...

After seeing Makeup Magpie's post on YSL's fall collection, I had to go see the polishes in person.  The display and tester bottles did not list the numbers or names of the polishes, but my ever faithful SA found them after opening several boxes and checking them against the testers.  Wintergreen is #43 and Moonlight Blue is #44.  If you're a fan of greens, I highly suggest checking Wintergreen out!You should definitely check Wintergreen out, green lovers!