Making a Splash

Since yesterday's nails were so, well...GREY, I thought today I'd make some colorful ones!! I tried a technique of using a crumpled paper towel to apply the colors other than the base color. I I think (if you squint) it looks sort of like the shadow on the bottom of a pool of the ripples on the surface of the water. Perfect for a day like today, which was absolutely gorgeous. (uncharacteristic for a Vegas summer- it never even hit 90°!)

I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos as a base, with Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Bone Chilling White, and Orly Bailamos sponged over it. I also used Orly Bailamos for the 'moon', then edged it with aqua colored crystals. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Tonight was the last night of bowling league *sad face*, but here is a picture of my team- we took 10th place (out of 18). GO TEAM (Our name was 'I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter') Gotta love that not just one, but TWO of my other bowling buddies chose ME to give bunny ears. What kind of crap is that?! :-P

Team 'I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter' (Alicia, Bill, Joanna, and Me)

A few of the new Borghese Swatches

Okay so I am VERY excited to finally start my blog. I have tons of older swatches and mani designs that I would love to share with you in the future, but for now we shall start with the new Borghese polishes I bought this past weekend from Ulta. I only got 3 of them, but I can say, it's all love!

The 1st one I got is Mediterraneo Sea. It's a deep teal base with silver, purple & bright teal glitter.

The 2nd one I have to share is Vigneto Berry. This is an amzing semi dark magenta with bright pink glitter in it.

Last but not least is Ipnotico Gold. This is an AMZING gold polish with gold glitter in it. This polish can look so different in all types of light!

Grey Matters

Recently, I was putting polishes away in my Helmer cabinets, and noticed how many greys I have. I don't know, there is something about greys that I really love, and today, I thought that I'd do a monochromatic nail design utilizing a few of them.

I used butter LONDON Billy No Mates as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white stripe, Orly Mirror, Mirror for the miedium grey stripe, Essence Pointbreak for the darker grey stripe, and American Apparel Hassid for the thin black stripe. I topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I was recently asked if I ever use a base coat, and the answer to that is YES! I always have. I guess I just never list it because it changes between a few. I have used Nubar, Essie, Seche, Seche Ridge-filling, Seche Natural, Barielle, and I think that might be it. Since I don't wear polish long enough to worry about chipping and tip wear, I don't feel right recommending a basecoat that might or might not be good, because I don't fully test their limits. I feel OK with mentioning the Seche Vite top coat because it makes my project possible, if I didn't have it, I would 99% of the time post pictures of lumpy smudged and dented nails. :-D Hope this answers any questions or concerns. :) If not, let me know, I'd be happy to answer you!

And the cross-stitch project I was working on a couple of weeks ago, I finally got back around to finishing the stitching. :) I got the pattern from Skull-a-Day–Day 258, it was designed by Noah Scalin.

Revlon A/W Enamel: Ruby Ribbon

To accompany this Dutch rainy fall-esque weather I've got one of Revlon's shades for fall for you. Revlon is releasing two new shades this fall/winter, called Emerald City and Ruby Ribbon. I'm guessing it's a Dorothy theme? Both shades are intense colored mattes with shimmer. Emerald City is a gorgeous emerald green, unfortunately this one won't be available in the Benelux.

Ruby Ribbon

Ruby Ribbon is a gorgeous ruby red matte with shimmer. It dried a lot darker than I would've guessed by looking at the bottle, but it's absolutely pretty. It's a very classic color, nothing too wild, but it reminds me a lot of the elegance from the 1940s. I would definitely top it off with some pin curls if I knew how to make them!

Application

This is my first Revlon ever and I was quite surprised! Especially mattes can be tough to apply, but not this one. It wasn't too thick or thin, it had the right consistency and it went on without any problems. It did took 3 coats for complete opacity. I can't say much about the wear because I only wore it for two days, but I it survived without getting too much tip wear.
Ruby Ribbon dries more to a satin than a truly matte finish. Personally I enjoy those flat mattes a bit more, but I'm loving this one nonetheless. The drying time isn't as fast as some other mattes I have, but at the same time, this is probably what's making application a piece of cake.

Revlon Autumn/Winter Nail Enamel will be available in September, retail price will be 8,95 EUR. Available at Drogisterij.net.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
- Michèle

The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for review. For more information please read my disclaimer.

Oh, How Fon-dant!

Today was my friend Gelly's baby shower, and somehow, yet again, I managed to get everything done on time. I think that I thrive on last minute pressure, since it seems to be the only time I can really focus on a project and get things done. As I mentioned yesterday, I made the cake for the shower, and also my gift for her, which I finished at 1:07 p.m. today. (I had to be to the party at 3, which was 45 min away, in North Vegas, and I still hadn't gotten ready yet!) The cake was a hit, as was the gift (a hand-crocheted baby afghan in the colors she wanted for her nursery), plus I had fun eating and hanging out with the girls. Plus, as it happens, I am a master of baby shower games, which I find funny, since I know nothing of babies. (They come from the stork, right?) Today's nail design was based on the cake that I did for the shower, incorporating the multi-colored dots of the bottom tier, and the graphic flowers of the top tier.

The inspiration:

The nails:

I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with OPI Parlez Vous OPI? for the purple, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green for the green, and Milani Teddy Bare for the brown. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The afghan that I made as a gift:

Completely off-topic, but I need a new laptop (mine is 7 years old), or at the very least, a new keyboard for mine, as mine is missing the 'f' key, which makes it difficult to type, since there is just the silicone nub that goes under the key for me to press. One day. :-D

I'm off to clean up Hurricane Buttercream/Fondant in my kitchen, and Tropical Storm Yarn in my living room. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get to the sewing table/area.

HOW SWEET IT IS TO HAVE A JOB LIKE ME :)

Chanel Les Khakis Collection Swatches!

Hi everyone! Today my camera arrived and I literally tore the package to shreds to get it out and to start swatching immediately. I was so excited about having the new Chanel collection, I really wanted to have them swatched and up today! I'm not really sure if I like the pictures that my new camera produces yet, but I guess I still have to get to know the settings and everything. Right now the pictures look a little bit washed out - i think they're a smidge darker, please forgive me for that. Anyway! Onto the good stuff!

LES KHAKIS DE CHANEL

For VOGUE’S “ FASHION’S NIGHT OUT ”, the fashion event not to be missed, Peter Philips, Global Creative Director of CHANEL Makeup, is celebrating the occasion with the new collection “ Les khakis de Chanel ”.

A new colour harmony of three nail polish shades that can be worn alone or combined : Khaki Vert, Khaki Rose and Khaki Brun. A bold way of wearing nail polish. An ultra sophisticated, urban chic “ camouflage effect ”, for nails that will be getting all the attention.

A little bit about Khaki

To these days, khaki as color brings to mind a brown, even beige, hue. When khaki was adopted for the military, the shade chosen had a clearly darker and more greenish hue. This color was adopted by all the British Empire Armies and the US expeditionary force of World War I, under the name Olive Drab. During the second half of the WWII, American olive drab became distinctly greener, a major departure from the original idea of khaki.

From the first moment I had heard about this collection I knew I would fall for these. Just recently I discovered my love for neutrals, so imagine my excitement about this collection. Neutrals can look so classic and timeless, effortless chic to the max. Well, let's see how I like these brand new Chanels!

Chanel LE VERNIS 267 Khaki Brun

Now this is a special one, Khaki Brun is a murky brown creme with a lot of green to it. I guess this is what they would call "Olive Drab". This color doesn't work that well with my skintone, but I can imagine someone who's a little less pink would rock the Casbah with this color. Application of this one was awesome, 2 coats is all you need. The layers dry very quickly, leaving you with a fantastic smooth and glossy finish. So you could even skip top coat if you'd want.

Chanel LE VERNIS 257 Khaki Rose

Khaki Rose is a really soft and delicate reddish shade of taupe/medium brown. I don't have anything exactly like it and I think I own over 15 taupes.. I absolutely love this shade, since it's so soft and chic looking. Application of Khaki Rose was just as good as Khaki Brun, 2 coats, quickly drying and glossy.

Chanel LE VERNIS 247 Khaki Vert

I think Khaki Vert may be my personal favorite of this collection, it's a bit more cool toned than the other two and cool colors usually look better against my skin. It's a very pretty greyish shade of green, probably one of the few dusty colors I actually like! Just like the other two colors, it almost applied itself.

Conclusion

I love them all. Even if some colors are a bit too warm for my skintone, I still love them. And I'm usually not that big on cremes. I don't know of any exact dupes yet, but time will tell.
My first experience with Chanel nail polish wasn't that great (Nouvelle Vague), but the superb application of Paradoxal showed me Chanel does make awesome nail polish. The texture of these three new polishes reminded me a lot of Paradoxal, they're quite similar if you look at their application, thickness, drying time and gloss. All three are extremely opaque, being nearly one coaters. No cuticle drag, no streaks, just smooth as glass. I can't tell much about the wear yet, since I just got them, but I'll gladly report back. Will you be getting any of these?

Exclusively available in CHANEL Fashion Boutiques starting September 8th 2010, I think the price will be 25 EUR for 13 ml.

The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for review. For more information please read my disclaimer

Surfer Stripe

Today has been craaaaaazy. I've spent the entire day trying to finish my gift for my friend Gelly's baby shower tomorrow. (I've been working on the darn thing for 2 weeks), I'll post the picture tomorrow just in case she reads this post, I don't want to ruin the surprise! I've also been baking the cake for the shower tomorrow, and after I post this, I'm off to make some buttercream, and get the decoration party started. :-D I'm SO exhausted, I was up 'til 5 am working on the gift last night, and I've been goin' all day! lol I need a nap! Anyway, to the nails. A while back, I told you all about a brand called Island Girl, and did a post with their color changing polishes. Well, today I decided to use some of their regular polishes to make a design.

I used Essence The World's Coolest from the Surferama collection as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud on the tip end. Over Essence The World's Coolest, I used Island Girl Island Volcano (a glitter polish with iridescent glitter, and iridescent mylar flakes suspended in a sheer aqua base), and then I used Island Girl Hawaiian Magic to paint the stripes. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

OPI - Russian Navy Suede

R.I.P. dear camera

Hi guys! It has been a while! This week was filled with all kinds of stuff, leaving no room for the blog, yikes. On top of that my camera died, so I couldn't swatch either.. I still had these pics, thankfully! My new camera should be arriving tomorrow, *fingers crossed*!

OPI Russian Navy

The OPI suedes are nothing new, but they still hold that special place in my heart. These suedes are really my go-to polishes when I don't have much time to do my nails. And Russian Navy is my favorite of the bunch.

Application

This pretty blue shimmery matte polish is practically a one coater, if you apply it carefully. The original version of Russian Navy has a bit of red shimmer as well, too bad the suede hasn't, I would have loved that.
It dries incredibly fast, but not too fast, Russian Navy doesn't get streaky or lumpy.

The wear of these suedes isn't that awesome though. OPI put "don't wear a base coat" on the label but I'd like to advice against that. If you choose the right base coat (like the Nfu Oh Aqua Base of Gosh Fix Base Coat and who knows what other base coats have similar qualities) you definitely can get some extra days of wear out of it, definitely something worth trying!

Glossy Tips

At days with a little bit more time I like to add some glossy elements to make it more interesting. For this manicure I used my current top coat Nubar Diamont.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Michèle

Concentric Centric

Today's nail design is simpler than the last two days of designs, but I still really like it. The other day, I used my ULTA rewards to get Essie Sew Psyched and Essie Little Brown Dress, and I really wanted to use them. I also picked up Essence The World's Coolest from the Surfer Babe collection, and wanted to use THAT too, and thought it was an interesting combination with the sage and the brown, so I went with it.

I used Essie Sew Psyched as a base for all fingers except the ring finger, where I used essence The World's Coolest. For the design, I used Essie Little Brown Dress, then topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.