Ah, reviewing colors is not as easy as it used to be. I’ve been away from the nail polish game for so long that my color match recall is not up to par. Greenport is a muted green toned aqua creme. I want to say that it’s similar to Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money but not a dupe, I believe DSM is moodier. I really can’t say for sure though and finding DSM in my once immaculate but now disastrously messy stash will be next to impossible. But I do plan to do swatch comparisons as soon as I can get everything in order once more. (When will I stop making excuses you say? Neeeevaaar!) In any case, the color itself is unique and I’m glad to see variations on aqua because I don’t have many in my stash. This was a 3 coater for me; not the greatest application ever but not excessively streaky either.
Shelter Island is a somewhat muted sky blue in the same vein as Zoya Yummy, OPI Just Groovy, and Misa Right Here Now, No More Later. It might be a dupe but, again, I can’t say for sure. There will be a comparison post of all four in the very near future. This was a three coater for me, but the application wasn’t horrible.
Sag Harbor is the stand out in this collection. The color is a cementish light bluish gray. Yes, I know, cement is not usually associated with attractiveness but it works here. The finish is a light frosty pearlescent shimmer that is barely visible, it casts depth to the color. The consistency was a little thick so I had to use 3 coats to even everything out. This color is a little deceptive. In my photo it’s a bit bluer than it should be, it’s more gray in real life. In the bottle it’s like a lightly blue tinted gray but on the nail (this possibly has something to do with my skin tone) the blue is a lot more obvious. So… looking at the bottle on Sunday night I thought, “hey, I might be able to get away with this at work!” Not quite, it’s waaaaay too noticeably blue. I’d say it’s okay for most office environments save for the markedly conservative offices. But I do love the color so I’m wearing it anyway.
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Misa On the Edge is a very stunning dark royal blue. It’s much darker than Essie Mesmerize, and very similar to OPI Dating a Royal but slightly deeper, darker, and more opaque. My picture is not accurate in terms of the depth and darkness of the blue. It’s definitely a darker blue in person. This is 3 coats, but it looked good with 2 coats.
Misa Dirty Sexy Money is a grayed out aqua… perhaps turquoise? It has the honor of being called my absolute favorite color of the season. I simply do not have the words to describe how much I love this color. Unique, edgy, yet chic. And I think it really suits my skin-tone. It’s perfect in 2 coats. This one is definitely taking a spot in next year’s top 20. (I promise, I will finish this year’s top 20!!)
Misa Push Upon It is a marooned raspberry. It’s a very elegant, sexy shade, with perfect application in two coats. It’s a tad lighter than OPI Miami Beet which I have yet to swatch. Push Upon It is actually pretty similar to Zoya Moxie.
Misa Right Here Now, No More Later is a bright sky blue. Applied well at two coats but this swatch is 3. I haven’t done a side by side swatch but in the bottle, the color is practically identical to Zoya Yummy and OPI Just Groovy. The one difference is that both Yummy and Just Groovy have finicky applications while RHN,NML applied very well.
Misa Speed of Life is a bright tangerine orange. Like all the others it applied well, this is 3 coats. This color was actually pretty surprising. I was expecting a bright but dusty light orange because of the way the color looks in the bottle but it’s actually a very bright orange-y orange… if that makes sense.
Misa Stop Rewinding, Just Fast Forward is a bright mango-y red. Again, great application, this is 3 coats but it looked good at 2 coats. Like Speed of Life, this color looked dusty to me in the bottle but it’s pretty bright on the nail.
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OPI Give Me the Moon was included in the 2007 Summer collection Night Brights. Not a particularly ‘bright’ color per se, but definitely a unique, interesting color. The base shade is like an icey gray but the dense blue iridescent shimmer gives it a bluish over all glow. It’s definitely a sheer-ish color but this swatch is only 3 coats.
Here is a photo taken with flash to exhibit the exquisite shimmer. I’d be interested in comparing this color with the new OPI Breathe Life (which I have yet to obtain, curses!) The base color looks different but Breathe Life seems to have the same shimmer that makes this color so great.
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Even though I spend the GNP of a small country on polish, generally, I can’t bring myself to dish the big bucks for Chanel. I’m lucky though, Chanels seem to find their way to me despite my resistance to buying them. Chanel Cosmique 28 came to me by way of the lovely RaspberryBeetle who was also responsible for the best thing that ever happened to me. Aside from the fact that this polish is another example of RB’s other-worldly kindness, I know absolutely nothing about Cosmique and google was no help. The origin of this polish is a complete mystery to me.
The mysterious Cosmique is a very chic blue, actually, it’s an almost black with a deep blue sheen. It’s very fine blue shimmer in a smokey semi-sheer black base. I don’t have Chanel Blue Satin or Sally Hansen After Midnight for comparison but word on the street is that all these polishes are fairly similar to each other.
The application is a bit streaky but it evens out well by the second and third coat. I love the color but my one major gripe, like with Gold Fiction, is that the bottle is opaque, making it impossible to know how much of the polish remains. Although, I’m starting to feel like that might not be such a bad thing because I become incredibly distressed when I notice a quantity dip in a bottle of polish. The opaqueness hides the sad truth so I can save the craziness for another day.
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BB Couture for Nails Electric Avenue is a ghostly watery blue from the 80’s Collection (in case the name didn’t give it away.) I’m not a fan of the 80s but I do love this polish. It’s so light that I almost want to put it in the off-white category but it’s definitely visibly blue. I know a few of you are probably hoping, so I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Electric Avenue is a lot lighter than Rescue Beauty Lounge Bikini Bottom.
The application was a pain. It was tough to build bottle color. I used 4 coats, which usually wouldn’t bother me but during application it seemed like 4 coats wasn’t going to be enough. If I had had more time, I probably would have done more coats because 4 just didn’t look good. I was really frustrated because I thought the outcome was going to look crappy and I just didn’t have time to do another manicure. But then the strangest thing happened, I honestly have never encountered something like this before. As the polish dried, the color evened itself out. The dried end product is stunning and looks nothing like it’s wet mid-application counterpart. I actually liked it enough that I wore it for 4 days over my mini-vacation last week. It’s practically unheard of for me to wear a polish for more than 2 days. If you decide to get this color, my advice is to not let yourself get discouraged by the difficult and seemingly unattractive application, it strangely works itself out once it dries and the pay off is huge.
You can purchase BB Couture for Nails on Overall Beauty as well as the BB Couture for Nails main page.
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Starry Starry Nights is another hard-to-find polish that has found its way into my heart and onto this list. I really can’t say much more about it other than it’s unspeakably stunning. I really wish Essie would kick back to the old days and create some new colors as gorgeous as the coveted SSN.
Here’s an excerpt from my original post about Essie Starry Starry Nights.
“Now that I can finally wear ‘out of the ordinary’ colors again, I went hunting in my ‘untried’ box and rediscovered Starry Starry Nights. “Wow” is all I can say. Dark blue jelly with small silver glitter makes for an amazing polish. I can definitely see what all the hype was about.
The jelly-ness gives the glitter at different coats varying degrees of visibility, which really makes this polish look the way the sky does in places where there are no lights to drown out the shining light of the stars. One of the girls on MUA said that my nails looked like they came straight out of the Van Gogh paining. Love the reference, and so very true.”
]]>The polish I’m writing about today, Lancome Le Magnetique Bleu Enigma was actually released this past holiday season so it’s not temporally HTF, rather it’s spatially HTF. For some reason, which is a complete and total mystery to me, Lancome decided to release this color only in the UK. Last year Lancome released a brown Le Magnetique in the U.S. called Bordeaux Esmee that sold pretty well and ended up on the HTF black market for upwards of 40 dollars. L’Oreal, of which Lancome is a subsidiary, also released a collection of magnetic polishes in Europe, but not here. It’s becoming more and more frustratingly apparent that nail polish companies are more willing to “take a chance” on a unique color in foreign markets.
(Scary rant starting in 5…4…3…2…)
I’ve been on a veritable RAMPAGE since I found out that OPI released different versions of some Designer Series colors in Japan. Not to mention that last year they released 6 gorgeous glitters in place of the 6 reds we got in the Holiday in Hollywood collection. My rage (and I’m serious when I say – rage - I was ready to go burn Suzi effigies in protest in front of OPI headquarters) caused by this realization only subsided when Jen over at Never too Much Glitter clued me in to the tyranny of Japanese nail polish prices. One OPI color from the Designer Series is going to set you back 32 dollars as opposed to the 7 to 12 dollars it would cost you in the States.
I really hope that nail polish companies wise up. I always defend companies that release reds and pinks season after season, because, at least theoretically, the demand controls the supply but at some point we have to wonder whether that’s actually true. Do people buy reds because they actually like reds, or do they buy reds because it’s the color that is most readily available. I think it’s the latter. I’m the perfect example. In the long long ago when I didn’t have access to purchase worthy nail polish, I had a small stash which was 70% red. Why? Because I used to buy my nail polish mostly at drug stores. And what’s available at drug stores most of the time? Red. If companies release more unique colors the effect will be that people will wear more unique colors. This fallacious belief that Americans will only wear red and pink is rampant. Most big companies are guilty of cool color discrimination, even our prim and proper Essie released Japanese exclusive glitters, as did my beloved Color Club. And Sally Hansen, shame on them, has released 2 AWESOME Canadian exclusive dark greens and a dark blue that will likely never see the inside of American stores.
If the big nail polish companies don’t get it together and let go of this ridiculous notion that the only colors that will sell in the U.S. are reds and pinks, they will have a very rude awakening when they find that a lot of their business has been diverted to companies like Barielle, Nubar, BB Couture for Nails, Misa, Zoya and China Glaze, that are not underestimating the American buyer and are actually releasing unique colors in the United States.
Whew. *catches breath* Ooooookay and now for the review, haha.
Bleu Enigma is a magnetic polish. For those who may not be familiar with this type of nail polish, basically the formula reacts to a maganet and creates a star burst formation on the nail. It’s pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, ever. The image taken from this angle doesn’t show the crispness of the stars because the top coat refracts the light in a weird way.
This images shows the stars at their best. Unfortunately, this image doesn’t reflect the amazing depth of color that this polish exhibits. The base color is a grayed out blue. The magnet pulls out all the darkness so that the embedded star is completely devoid of dark blue. All the dark blue pulls to the areas between the arms of the star. The effect creates a 3-d-like quality. It makes your nail look like a gem, it’s absolutely stunning.
For those of you who own magnetic polishes and have had trouble with the application I found that getting the star to appear crisply requires a strict state of motionlessness. You have to stay perfectly still. I held my nail very close to the magnet for upwards of 30 seconds. I didn’t use a base coat but Tobywoo (star of ALU’s post on this subject) said she wears Barielle Camo under this polish with no ill effect to the formation of the star. The one down side, and it’s a very small downside is that your fingers end up smelling a little like metal.
The Lancome rep said that it’s still possible that this polish will be released in the US but it’s unlikely. If you love this, which I suspect many of you will, email Lancome and let them know.
A very special thanks to my lovely friend from the UK that hunted this color down for me. <3
]]>We have to face it, I don’t think we (I mean ‘we’ as in the people who have a psychotic appreciation for nail color) are the target demographic for most companies. I don’t think anyone would disagree, these are pretty colors but most people who collect nail polish probably feel like they’ve seen it, done it, and done it some more. I’m an exception only because I’m stock-piling work appropriate colors for my legal debut in May and I’ve long accepted that the repetition of red and pink nail polish is just a fact of life (like mosquito bites and chicken pox). But, I can definitely sympathize with everyone’s desire to see Essie step outside of it’s company image.
With all that said, look at the magic that happens when Essie does decide to take a stroll on the wild side and throw collection caution to the wind:
Holy &%$#! Essie Mesmerize, in all her glory, is a medium blue cream. (I think it’s Super Man blue but my roommates told me I have no idea what I’m talking about.) The color accuracy of the image is a bit off, Mesmerize is a slightly darker blue in real life. Oh man, this is one gorgeous, unique color. Seriously, can we get a slow clap going for this color? Mesmerize is so out of the ordinary for Essie that it almost looks kind of weird in the Essie bottle, like it doesn’t belong. The application was good but a little thicker than the other colors in this collection. It could have worked with 2 coats, but I preferred 3. I got a mega ton of compliments while wearing this polish, a testament to its awesomeness. This is definitely my favorite color of the season so far. I consider it a ‘must own’. But, beware, I suggest wearing a good base coat with this color or you will end up with smurf fingers.
Eternal Optimist is a pink toned nude. This is a great ‘work appropriate’ color. It’s a lighter, less pink version of Rescue Beauty Lounge Om. Eternal Optimist is definitely not a dead on dupe but certainly the closest I’ve seen so far and a good enough substitute. This swatch is 3 coats of color.
Flawless is a muted Barbie pink. Pretty and delicate, but probably not appropriate for ultra conservative work places – A-Okay for every where else. This is 3 coats.
Status Symbol is a mid-toned pink with a semi-jelly consistency. I wore this with Maybelline Clearly in Love layered over it as my pre-Valentine’s Day manicure (I haven’t gotten a chance to post about this manicure yet but I promise I will, even though, I guess it’s a little late now. haha.) This swatch is 3 coats but I feel like it would have looked better with 4th.
One of a Kind is a red/orange/coral cream, similar to my beloved Color Club Sexsea. One of a Kind is slightly less extravagant, more toned down. It applied well in 2 coats, but I used 3 for this photo.
Lacquered Up is a bright, bright, bright true red creme. It exudes sexiness. I wore Lacquered Up to a party and it quickly became a topic of conversation. The application was exceptional, perfect in two coats.
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In any case, on to the polish talk. Zoya’s newest collection Twist is delicate but edgy Spring installation. Zoya played it a little safe here. Most of these colors are what I consider traditional spring colors but I really love a few polishes from Twist. I had no application issues with any of these colors. All these images are 3 coat of color, 1 coat of base coat and top coat.
Cassi, a pinkish coral with glitzy multi-dimensional irridescent shimmer, is delicate with a twist. Zoya calls it peach, I disagree. This is the type of color I think of when I think of Spring.
Harley is a shimmery light gray. I’m a little bit at a loss as to how to describe the shimmer… it reminds me of concrete, course dark silver shimmer. I love it; Harley is definitely my favorite from this collection. It seems as though nail polish companies are finally jumping on the gray band wagon. Although I wish it had happened a little sooner, I do continue to love these shades.
Malia is a gorgeous lilac creme. This is my second favorite from this collection. Malia is a shade darker than OPI Do You Lilac It? and a few shades lighter than China Glaze Spontaneous (both of which can be seen here.)
Moxie, a vibrant deep raspberry, is another favorite from this collection. It reminded me a lot of the coveted OPI My Throne For a Cranberry Scone, but MTFaCS is actually darker than Moxie. Moxie is an excellent choice for anyone who hasn’t been able to get their hands on MTFaCS. The other potential dupe was China Glaze Designer Satin but it’s, surprisingly, brighter than Moxie.
Barbie is a good name for this color. It’s a Barbie pink with subtle pink shimmer (which didn’t show in my photograph at all). The shimmer is very similar to the shimmer found in China Glaze Pink Underground but the base color of Pink Underground is deeper than Barbie’s base color.
Finally, Jo is a periwinkle blue with silvery blue shimmer. This picture is a little more blue than the actual color which is lighter (I apologize, photographing blues and purples is still extremely difficult even with my new camera and lighting set up.) The base color is similar to China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le but Jo has a depth to it that comes from the shimmer.
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Number 13 is China Glaze For Audrey. I wore For Audrey last Halloween. I was dressed as Marie Antoinette and the costume was a similar shade of blue. This color was released in 2007 as a Limited Edition polish in honor of Audrey Hepburn. Fittingly, For Audrey is a nearly true Tiffany Blue. A true match is unlikely because, apparently, Tiffany & Co. holds a color trademark on their famous blue.
The minute I saw the promotion for this color I simply had to have it. Now… I’m going to impart some information that many of you may find shocking. I don’t particularly care for Audrey Hepburn. I’ve only seen portions of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and didn’t really care for the film either. And… I really, really dislike Tiffany & Co. jewelry. My point is that I love this unique color for the actual color and not for anything that China Glaze intended for it to represent. There is just something extraordinary about For Audrey. It will always have a special place in my collection (even though it does absolutely nothing for my skin tone).
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CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As promised, here are some nail art images from other nail polish loving Obama supporters. First up, Luckypenny’s Hope symbol mani. I stole the idea for my own Obama mani from her. I really like the combination of colors she used. China Glaze Blue Sparrow and China Glaze Ruby Pumps look really great together.
Next is Soaper1. She used China Glaze For Audrey and custom printed Hope symbol decals. I’ve been hearing so much about these custom printed inkjet decals in the comments section and I keep seeing consistently great results using the clear inkjet waterslide decal paper, so I’m definitely going to give this a shot. (Thank you Kayce for alerting me to this.)
If you have your own Obama nail art, send it to me. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. I’m planning to update periodically throughout election day with new Democratic-themed nail art.1
- If you’re doing a McCain/Republican mani, send it to me too. I might be willing to put aside partisanship and reach across the aisle for nail art. Maybe. lol. ↩
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Nail art is a silly way to support a Presidential candidate, I know, but seeing as how some ***shat turd-wad stole my Obama sign 1 I figured I might as well sport my endorsement on my nails, since presumably some McCain supporter can’t abscond with them. I’m not the only one, check out Eve’s custom Obama print. Only in my wildest dreams could I do anything that elaborate so I decided to copy Luckypenny (a fellow nber) and do a Obama hope symbol manicure.
I used China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway as a basic democratic blue. For the hope symbol I used OPI Vodka & Caviar and China Glaze Caribbean Blue. The stripes were done with Art Club by Color Club White.
I used notebook paper reinforcements to get the shapes right – sort of a pain, but definitely worth it. If you are planning to do an Obama or Democratic Party inspired manicure for election day, please send me your images. I would love to show our support for the Party by posting all that democratic creativity on Election day. And, I hope this goes without saying, GET OUT AND VOTE!
- Actually, funny story – I saw someone walking past my window with an Obama sign, then I looked out to see that my own Obama sign was missing. I immediately thought, “Holy ****, that guy took my Obama sign!” So I ran out the door like in insane woman, my hair all disheveled, my nails all different colors (I was swatching at the time), in an over-sized pink pajama top and fluffy pink slippers with a crazy blood lust gleam in my eye. I couldn’t chase him on foot so I actually got in my car to chase him down. I lost him a few blocks away from where I live but I didn’t give up the search. I drove around aimlessly asking people if they had seen a man with an Obama sign. My boyfriend turned to me and said, “You realize, you look crazy right now?” At that point I thought it better to just give up and drive back home. Only then did I realize that Joe Biden held a rally here at the University today and that poor man who almost faced a violent end by my hands was probably a poor Obama supporter walking home from the rally. My sign probably met its end on Halloween night and I just hadn’t noticed its absence until today. ↩
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Nubar is quickly becoming my go-to brand for duo/multi-chrome polishes. Nubar Peacock Feathers is a particularly popular multi-chrome among polish addicts, with good reason. It’s a pretty impressive shade. A lot of duo-chromes are duds, very flashy in the bottle but they lack the same intensity and variation of color on the nail. Peacock Feathers is the exact opposite of a dud. I actually got flashes of frosty purple, blue, and green, constantly. It’s purple in most lighting. When it’s not purple, it’s green – the blue comes out mostly in-doors but it is there. Sometimes between the blue and purple flash I got a very pretty greenish, gray ashy shade. My picture doesn’t do this color justice but you can see some of the variation of color reflected in the bottle. The only downside is that I’m currently going through an evil weird “ugh purple” phase that just came out of no where. Purples are the roots of my addiction. I *love* purple but lately I just can’t stand the sight of the color. I hope I get back to my purple loving self soon because it seriously comprises 35% of my collection. As an aside, my bottle of Seche is reaching the dead zone, the stage at which even an ocean thinner cannot revive it – that’s why the gap area looks so weird.
(And since I know girls are going to ask… Nubar is available from www.bynubar.com.)
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OPI You’re A Doll is a sheer muted pink with silverish frost-shimmer finish. The unique aspect of this color is the multi-sized reddish copper flecks that run throughout. This color is fairly sheer, I used 3 coats to get full coverage and bottle color. This is what I would like to refer to as a ’sneaky professional color’, like Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge. It’s definitely professional and work appropriate but you can have the personal satisfaction of knowing you’re operating outside the status quo with your little coppery flecks. That might be something that only amuses me though, I know, I’m weird.
OPI Baby, It’s “Coal” Outside is probably my favorite from this collection. It’s slightly more gray than a pure black and it’s infused with silvery glitter. The glitter is potentially multi-sized. It’s hard to tell because the glitter is so small. This is 2 coats. The image above is without flash, below is with flash.
OPI Brand New Skates is silvery charcoal with irridescent glitter that flashes green and copper tones. This shade applies sheer but is buildable. This is 3 coats.
OPI Glamour Game, my second favorite from this set, is a gorgeous, chic… um… that’s where my powers of description end. It’s a very light champagne gold sheer with a finish that is both shimmery and frosty. Glamour Game has green to copper toned flecks of glitter similar to the ones found in Brand New Skates. This swatch is 3 coats. The image above was taken in indoor lighting, the image below was taken in direct sunlight.
OPI Play ‘Til Midnight is a deep blurple (more purple than blue, my picture is inaccurate as always) with blue and purple shimmer throughout. I used 3 coats because I tend apply very thin coats of polish – I think most people can get away with 2 coats. The ‘me’ of yesteryear would have loved the daylights out of this color but I think my collection has reached critical mass when it comes to purples. I can’t believe my fingers just typed those words.
OPI “Sheer” Your Toys! is another sheer, simultaneously frosty and shimmery subtly pinkish gray with multi-sized reddish copper flecks. This is 3 coats as well. I like the creative thematic design scheme present in this collection, the repeated use of green to copper toned glitter, combine frost and shimmer finish, and reddish-coppery flecks gives this collection that extra… oomph of uniqueness. I really love this set of colors.
This collection is up for sale now on transdesign.com.
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For those of you who want Clarins 209 but don’t have access to it you can try L.A. Girl Flare Bedazzle which is still readily available online.
It’s not an exact dupe but definitely good enough. 209 is darker and more pigmented. In fact, I’d say that 209 is borderline too thick especially when compared to Bedazzle that needed 3 coats to reach opacity and bottle color. Bedazzle can also potentially cause a good bit of cuticle drag so it’s going to require a longer wait period between coats. Finally, 209 dries glossy and Bedazzle dries matte like a neon. Of course, I think it’s worth it to own both. ; )
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