Showing posts with label white. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white. Show all posts

Monday, March 2, 2009

More New Nail Polish Colors from Nicole by OPI

Happy Monday! Here are some more of the new colors from Nicole by OPI. 

Nicole by OPI Light a Candle:



Light a Candle is a silvery color with a lavender twist. It is a chrome and therefore has a much different appearance indoors vs. outdoors, hence the two pictures. It dries relatively brush stroke free which is a huge plus. Opaque coverage in two coats.

Nicole by OPI I've Got the Power:



I've got the power is a magenta/red metallic. I love the smooth and shiny metallic look indoors and then the fabulous shimmer in the sun. I think this shade is particularly flattering for women with pale skin but I am also sure it would look great on darker ladies as well. Opaque coverage in two coats. 

Nicole by OPI Imagine If...:


Imagine If... is a silver holographic glitter suspended in a clear base. This swatch is two coats. As you can see, two is not enough for opaque coverage. I think you would need 4 coats to make this one totally opaque. But I still think it looks great with two coats if you don't mind the sheer look. This would also make a great one coat 'topping' for a dark color. 

Nicole by OPI Positive Energy:



Positive Energy is a true silver chrome. Again, this chrome applied fabulously. When it dried I could hardly notice the brush strokes. This color is more silver than stainless steel but it still reminds me of stainless steel appliances. I love it! Super opaque, only two coats needed.

Nicole by OPI You're a Star:


You're a Star is a clear base that is super packed with fine white/iridescent glitter. It is relatively opaque with three coats. This is a really pretty and sparkly color. 

My favorite thing about these Nicole by OPI colors is that I really enjoy the formula, application and brush. There are some three coaters but they don't bother me. They all apply super smoothly. These new shades are available at select Target and Wal-Mart stores. I wish they were easier to find!




Friday, January 23, 2009

New to me: PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics

Today I am very excited to introduce you to a brand that is new to me and I am guessing it might be new to you too: PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics.

At the grocery store, I am all about everything organic. But when it comes to beauty products, I am not one to seek out organic, natural or vegan products. I don't know why, but I have been operating under the assumption that these products would lack in quality; that there was a trade off for the organic ingredients. These nail polishes from PeaceKeeper, or should I say nail paints as they call them, has really changed my mind about that.

These nail polishes had a beautiful consistency, flowed nicely onto the nail and dried quickly. Absolutely no complaints about the formula of these nail polishes! Here are the colors that I tried:

PeaceKeeper Paint Me Luminous:


Love this one! Frosty white base with iridescent multi-color glitter. This one is serious bling yet subtle at the same time.

PeaceKeeper Paint Me Forgiving:


Pinkish nude with silver shimmer. I love this color because it is really natural looking and chic, yet it has a little something extra. I think this is one of my favorite nude colors to wear right now. My picture really does not do it justice.

PeaceKeeper Paint Me Stunning:


I am not that into pinks but this is one of the prettiest ones in my collection. This color has a very luminous and almost etherial quality about it.

PeaceKeeper Paint Me Patient:


Brownish nude shimmer. Another very chic, gorgeous color.

As I said before, I am super impressed with everything about these nail polishes - beautiful colors, flawless application and relatively quick dry time. The line does not make any crazy colors, but these are nice, wearable, and practical colors for everyday.

PeaceKeeper Nail Paints are made without Toluene, Formaldehyde, Acetone, Phthalates, Parabens, or FD&C/Lake Coloring and PeaceKeeper does absolulely NO ANIMAL TESTING! For more information on the ingredients here is a direct link to the section of PeaceKeeper's website that discusses the ingredients. This is actually very interesting information, I really recommend checking it out.

PeaceKeeper also makes a nail polish remover that is eco-friendly. It is made from sugar beets, rosemary and spearmint. I will be reviewing this product for you very soon.

One more fabulous thing about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics: they are the first cosmetics line to give all of its after-tax distributable profits to women’s health advocacy and urgent human rights issues.

PeaceKeeper Nail Paint retails for $10 and can be purchased online by clicking here. PeaceKeeper offers free shipping on all orders.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

CND Spring/Summer 2009 Nail Polish News and Swatches

Good day, dear readers!

The new year is officially in full swing and so are the 2009 Spring nail polish collections! The first one I have to share with you is from Creative Nail Design aka CND.

CND is currently in the process of a major color relaunch. They have paired down their current nail color offerings to their top 40 polishes and will begin to create seasonal color collections outside of their top 40 colors starting spring 2010. In the meantime, CND will select colors from their core collection that they feel best represent the seasonal trends from Fashion Week.

For Spring/Summer 2009, CND has selected the following shades:

CND Bisou De Lulu:

CND Bisou De Lulu is a sheer white that is build-able to almost opaque. This swatch is three coats, two coats was a little too sheer for me. This is one of the few whites that is not a streaky mess to apply. When my nails were longer I would never wear colors like this because I thought they made my nails look like acrylics. Now with shorter nails, I think a white nail color like this looks very chic and gorgeous for spring. My boyfriend rarely notices or comments on my nail polish, unless it is a green or something else he hates. But he really liked Bisou De Lulu.

CND Moonlight & Roses:

CND Moonlight & Roses is a sheer color that has a white base and tons of pink and violet toned iridescent shimmer. This swatch is two coats. This is a very pretty color, I think I'll try this one on my toes for my next pedicure.

CND Fedora:

CND Fedora is a gorgeous, red toned brown creme. Inside it looks like dark coffee and outdoors in the sun it almost has a bit of a plum tone to it. If your collection is missing a nice dark brown, pick this one up! 

CND Cocoa:

CND's Cocoa was seen on the runway at spring 09 shows for Giambattista Valli, Nina Ricci, Max Azria, Halston, Thakoon, & Peter Som... to list a few. This is a super chic, fleshy nude creme. This was the #1 requested nail color requested at fashion week by designers. 

CND Wildfire:

CND's Wildfire, a red-violet, raged on both tips and toes at Tibi's spring 09 show. Red is one of those nail polish colors that is very difficult to photograph. This picture does not do this gorgeous red justice. This is a super blue toned red, it is SO HOT in person! I do not normally wear reds, but this color is so sexy, I'll definitely wear it as a mani soon. If you are a red lover, Wildfire is a must.

CND Iced Cappuccino:

CND Iced Cappuccino is a light brown metallic. It is a very pretty color but I am not big into metallic polishes. Application was flawless though, no brush stroke issues here.

CND Decadence:

CND Decadence is a dark red that I might also classify as a jelly. Again, another photographic problem child. This red is much deeper in person. 

Application of all of these polishes was flawless, with a capital F! The lacquer flowed onto my nails perfectly. The finish of all of the cremes in this collection was super glossy. These did dry slower than average for me though. At first I used Orly Bonder and Seche Vite when I did a mani with one of these, and it seemed like they would never dry. But then I did another mani with CND's Stickey base coat and CND's Speedey top coat and they dried much faster. So if you don't have luck with your normal base/top coat combo, give CND's a try.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the shades that CND has selected for Spring/Summer 2009. I get tired of seeing the same old boring pinks and pastels. Here we have gorgeous nudes, a vampy brown and two fabulous reds. I think all of these colors are versatile, wearable, and in my opinion, much more chic than easter egg colored polishes (just my opinion!).

CND products are available at Head2Toe Beauty and 8ty8 Beauty - links are under the "where to haul" section of my blog.

That is all for now, dear readers. Stay tuned for more Spring 2009 nail polish swatches coming soon!

xoxo,
Katee

Monday, November 3, 2008

Laura Mercier Nail Polish: Review & Swatches

Good morning readers! I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend. 

Today I am sharing with you three Laura Mercier Nail Polishes that I just added to my collection: Champagne Wishes, Avant Garde and Caviar Dreams. Do you think that someone at Laura Mercier was watching "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" when they named these colors? I can hear Robin Leach right now saying "Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams"! LOL

First, Champagne Wishes, a pretty and shimmery white frost. Frost finish nail polishes are known to have application issues with brush stroke marks and cuticle drag and this one was no different for me. This nail color requires a very steady hand to apply perfectly. But that does not change that this is a very pretty and very wearable color. Light colors like this are not usually my thing but I will definitely reach for this color on occasions when a lighter polish color is more appropriate than a dark and vampy one. These swatches are two coats of polish and without a top coat. Just click the pictures to see them bigger if you like.

Laura Mercier Champagne Wishes Swatch (indoor artificial light):

Laura Mercier Champagne Wishes
Laura Mercier Champagne Wishes Swatch (outside sun):

Laura Mercier Champagne Wishes

Next, Avant Garde, a gorgeous and shimmery eggplant. I was surprised by the application on this one because it was also a bit uneven on me and this did not look like the kind of color that would be. It evened out for me perfectly though at three coats. I am not particularly bothered by this because I am a habitual three coater anyways when it comes to doing my own manicures. Something else that surprised me about this nail color is that Avant Garde is almost an exact dupe for OPI Lincoln Park at Midnight! Comparison swatches are also part of this review. The following swatches are three coats of Avant Garde and without a top coat.

Laura Mercier Avant Garde Swatch (indoor artificial light):

Laura Mercier Avant Garde

Laura Mercier Avant Garde Swatch (outside sun):


Another Avant Garde Swatch (outside sun):



Finally, I saved the best for last: Caviar Dreams, a charcoal based, green and purple shimmery duochrome. This nail color is an absolute stunner! The purple properties of this color are more visible indoors and the green properties of this color are more noticeable outside in the sun. It is so unique, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it before. Every fashionista should pick up this color, it is super trendy and it is fabulous for the fall and winter. I had no application issues with this nail color. The swatches are two coats of polish and without a top coat.

Laura Mercier Caviar Dreams Swatch (indoor artificial light):

Laura Mercier Caviar Dreams

Another indoor swatch:


Laura Mercier Caviar Dreams Swatch (outdoors sun):


Now that you have seen the swatches, just a pesky little issue I have with these polishes: the brush handle. Typically when you see a big, chunky handle like this, it comes off to reveal a smaller and more user friendly handle underneath (like Chanel). Well not this one; and it was not particularly easy for me to figure out how to hold it correctly. Of course I figured it out though. I will also say that I do like the Laura Mercier brush. It worked well for the size and shape of my nail beds.

Laura Mercier nail polish is available online at Laura Mercier and Sephora. They are .35 oz (smaller than OPI at .5 oz) and retail for $15 each (a little pricey for the size if you ask me). If Caviar Dreams is out of stock, do not despair, it WILL come back in stock! Do not go to eBay and pay the highway robbery, marked up prices!!

Comparison swatches of AG and LPAM:

When I said that LPAM was almost an exact dupe for AG I said 'almost' because indoors under artificial light you can see (barely) that the shimmer in AG is more silver toned than that of LPAM. You can see really see this when holding the two nail polish bottles together and it is also (barely) noticeable on the nail.


LPAM is on my index finger (screen left) and AG is on my middle finger (screen right). 

Indoors:


I can see in these first two swatches that the shimmer in Avant Garde is a little more on the silver side than that of Lincoln Park at Midnight.

Outside:


So what do you think, can you tell the difference between Avant Garde and Lincoln Park at Midnight?

Well that is all for today. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you back here tomorrow on ELECTION DAY!! No matter which candidate you support, it is so important to vote. I look at voting as both a right, but also a privilege. So like I said, not matter which candidate you support, GET OUT THERE AND VOTE TOMORROW!!

TTFN