Chanel Summer Nail Polish collection swatches

I've been stalking the Norstrom and Neiman Marcus Chanel counters for the newest Chanel polish collection. Tonight, I lucked out!

Mimosa, Morning Rose, Miami Peach

I picked up Mimosa (Yellow with shimmer, apparently THE summer color this year) and Morning Rose ( a light pink with golden shimmer) from Nordstrom's. I also wandered into Neiman Marcus and scooped up Miami Peach (Peach with golden shimmer). Miami Peach is an exclusive color only found at Nieman's.

As usual, I am in love with Chanel polishes, and these are no exception. Many people, including me, are looking for that great, unusual, un-dupable color and sometimes we gloss over a very lovely "typical" color. Obviously Mimosa is different, even though it seems that everyone may be putting out a yellow nail polish this summer, but Morning Rose and Miami Peach are simply well developed and executed wearable summer colors.

First up, Mimosa:

Of the three, this had the most issues with application. Like many yellow polishes, it was a bit streaky. This swatch is three coats with no top or base coat. The third coat was necessary to hide the streaks. I have read (I don't remember where, if you know, please let me know in the comments and I'll update the post) that the best way to apply this polish is to apply a base coat, then a coat of Seche Vite, and then two coats of Mimosa - something about the stickiness of the Seche Vite helps with the application. I found that three coats did the job nicely.

Update: Lucy of Lucy's Beauty Obsessions has informed me that the source for this tip is from British Beauty Blogger. Thanks, Lucy!

The color is very opaque, even with just the two coats. The shimmer is VERY evident in light and shade. I think this will look very nice in the middle of summer once my skin has a little bit of color to it.

Morning Rose was just a very lovely shimmery pink. It looks sheer, but trust me, after two coats it was opaque, just a light color. The shimmer is a bit more subtle in this one, but definitely visible. This is a fantastic color to wear to work. I absolutely love this one.

I think I will be getting a lot of use out of this one.

Last up is the Neiman Marcus exclusive color, Miami Peach:

Again, another winner. Like Morning Rose, this was perfect in two coats. A lovely peach color with a subtle golden shimmer. This was a little less opaque than Morning Rose, but I still liked it in two coats.

This is another perfect summer office color. Just for kicks, I have included a comparison shot between Miami Peach and Morning Rose to show the difference:

Definitely worth getting both. Chanel has hit a homerun with these polishes.

Me + Blue - Justin Bieber collection

Being that there is no 12 year old girl living in this house, I'm not very familiar with Justin Bieber. I know tween girls go nuts over him, and that he actually possesses drumming talent, but other than that - nothing. The spitfire (thankfully) prefers the Ramones thanks to the dearest, so there is no Bieber played in this house. So, when Nicole by OPI came out with the Justin Bieber collection, the first thing I thought was "huh?" then I saw the collection and thought "meh.." But then a little glimmer caught my eye. Was that... a... holographic glimmer?

Why, yes it is! Me + Blue (which I'm guessing is a song of his?) is a bright medium blue with a smattering of holographic glitter in it. I immediately grabbed it. After I got it on my nails, I'm back to "meh".

The formula and application was good, albeit a wee bit chunky, but not annoyingly so. It has the wide brush that I love. But I just wasn't feeling the color.

Then I thought I'd try putting a holographic top coat on top of this color. I grabbed my Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment, which is a clear polish jam packed with silver and holographic glitter, and layered two coats over the two coats of Me + Blue that was already on my nails.

That significantly lightened the color and gave it a glittery, silvery hue, while adding more holographic glitter to it.

Just for a comparison, here's a picture of the color with and without the holographic topcoat.

I wanted to like this color. I really did. But, like Justin Bieber himself, I think I'm just too old for this color.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine Monte Carlo

Yesterday Chanel released their Rouge Coco Shine collection. It is a new sheer, moisturizing lipcolor that comes in 25 new shades. The spokesmodel for this new collection is the very lovely Vanessa Paradis, aka Mrs Johnny Depp. Chanel released Boy - a sheer pink, in a limited release back in February. The whole collection is available now, and retails for $32.

Being a Chanel junkie, I ran to Macy's yesterday to pick one up. After trying a few colors, and having the sales associate color waaaay outside my lipline, I settled on Monte Carlo, a sheer deep pink.

The formula is very moisturizing, and very sheer, just like it claims to. In comparison to the Dior Addict lipcolors, it is just as moisturizing, but Chanel is a bit less pigmented. In order to get a swatch to show up, I had to swipe quite a few times. Although it didn't take as many to show up on my lips.

Depending on how pigmented your lips are, the pigmentation may be a bit underwhelming for this lipcolor. My lips are fairly pigmented on their own, so I chose a bit of a darker color and it showed up nicely.

Just a hint of color. I have a feeling some of the lighter colors, like Boy, may not show up as well on my lips. If you are a bit paler then me (I'm an NC25 in MAC), then the lighter colors will show up better. The nice thing about the counters is if you grab a color, they will give you a sample card with 4 colors on it and a little application brush.

It comes with Adventure, Liberte, Boy and Monte Carlo. Unfortunately, it contains one of the colors I bought, but hey, a sample is a sample, right? On the whole, I do like these lipsticks, and I probably will be purchasing more. Of the two - Dior Addict and Rouge Coco Shine - I think I actually slightly prefer the Dior Addicts.

Enjoy!

Dior Addict Lipstick review and swatches

Dior has recently revamped and relaunched their Addict line of Lipsticks. This newest incarnation is said to have 25% less wax and contain a reflecting gel to make the formula extremely smooth and shiny. Does it live up to these new claims?

The ad campaign features a very lovely Kate Moss sporting some extreme winged eyeliner. Because j'adore Dior (heh) lip products, I knew I would have to try some of these. During a recent Nordstroms visit, I nabbed two of these lovlies.

I picked up 750 - Rock N Roll and 881 - Fashion week. They have the same casing, with a cylindrical shaped product rather than a bullet-shaped one. One issue I do have is with that bulb on the end of the tube. It makes it near impossible to store my Dior lipsticks label side up - because they wobble - but I can deal with this inconvenience.

Top - 881 Fashion Week, Bottom - 750 Rock N Roll

These lipsticks to go on sheer. Some colors are more sheer than others. I was looking for ones that were more on the sheer side, and I succeeded.

Fashion Week is a sheer plum with a subtle shimmer. The first picture shows the product that is more true to color, the second picture is to show the shimmer.

Rock N Roll is a sheer orangey red. I can't pull off red very well, but when it's sheer and with a tinge of orange, I think I can handle that one.

Pigmentation was surprisingly good for lipsticks that are sheer. The texture of the lipstick is exactly what they say it is, soft and creamy. It glides on and shines very nicely. The color does fade quicker than normal lipsticks. I got a little over 2 hours for this, where I get a little over 3 hours for some of the nicer formulas of lipsticks (I tend to rub my lips together a lot, other people get longer wear out of lipsticks).

Dior nailed this one. I have plans to collect more of the line as I think these are great for spring and summer lips - pigmented, but still sheer and shiny. They retail for $28, and are well worth it.

Naked nails, oh my!

For the first time in weeks, my nails are naked. Well, sort of.

After weeks of constant polish, and of course the inevitable picking the nail polish off once it chips, my nails are in terrible shape. Every nail on my right hand broke or peeled, with my pointer finger down to the nub - seriously - no white tip at all. My left hand looks like its in decent shape, at least with nail polish on. But with the polish off you can see the peeling that my nails are so often sporting. Time for growing healthy nails.

Recently, I bought a Sally Hansen gel nail treatment, VitaSurge Strength Gel. I actually thought it was a strengthening topcoat, but it's really a gel treatment.

Naked!

This is a new product from Sally Hansen, and I had a coupon so I thought I'd try it. The bottle says to use daily for 5 days. I'm currently on day 2, so I'll check back in 3 more days to see how my nails are holding up.

Even though the product is not opaque and you can see the applicator from the bottle, I was still a bit surprised at the doe-foot applicator.

Doe-foot applicator

It wasn't something I'd expect to see in a nail-polish shaped bottle. It is a gel treatment with little globules suspended in the blue gel. You simply rub the gel onto each nail with the applicator. When you're finished, you can use your fingers to get the rest of it rubbed in well. The formula has a very strong scent of roses, but very fake smelling roses, almost like Tea Rose perfume. I don't mind the smell, but it is strong and those with delicate olfactory nerves may want to take caution.

Little globules suspended in the blue gel

As it was drying, it left this very tacky, gooey residue on my fingers, and even when it is dry, you can still feel a layer of film on the nails. I'll still use this daily and see if it actually hardens my thin, week nails in 5 days. Somehow I'm doubting it, but I'm willing to try!

Deborah Lippmann Glitter In the Air

I make no bones about my love for Deborah Lippmann polishes. Each one that I have tried, I've loved. So, it would make sense that I would eventually purchase Glitter In the Air. This polish is a mix of tiny square and larger hex glitter in pink and blue suspended in a pale sky blue jelly. I've seen lots of mixed reviews on this polish, but Lippmann does glitter polishes right.

Now, I have to admit, this color alone wasn't that thrilling. It is VERY sheer, and it's a bit of work to get the glitter positioned properly as you'll end up with very thick coats. So, to fix this I used two coats of Hard Candy Sky (pale blue polish with a very subtle blue shimmer - so subtle that you can barely see it on the nail) and then two coats of GITA, very carefully placed on my nail to show off the glitter.

I liked the sparse look of the glitter over the opaque blue. Next time I may try it over a white, however, the Hard Candy Sky was such a pain to get smooth, that I may just save it to use under GITA.  I do like this manicure, and I have to say it lasted very well. I applied this on Saturday morning and today I'm just starting to get the slightest of tipwear. I think if you're looking for a subtle glitter manicure (does a subtle glitter manicure exist??) you can simply use two coats of GITA over a nice base coat and with a good topcoat. Another winner for Deborah Lippmann.

I never really liked the Pink song this is named after, but I do like Pink in general. She's from the Philly area (suburbs, actually) and actually has some fun songs. I just don't care for this one. She did one hell of a performance at the Grammies last year, though.

I do love a deal!

Up until now I've been resisting the Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush. The hearts are cute, but I already have the Stila heart blush compact, so do I really need another one? Of course, the answer is yes. I have my doubts over whether a blush will better your mood, but the hearts are cute to look at. As I was in CVS the other day, I noticed that all Physician's Formula cosmetics were on sale for 40% off. Not only that, but their Happy Booster blushes had a $3.00 off sticker on them, and their bronzers all had a $4.00 off sticker on them. How do I pass that up? Well, actually, I don't.

Two compacts for $10.00, I'm sorry, you can't beat that! The Blush is Rose, and has various shades of pinky pink in it that all come together as a light, bright pink. It looks very cute in the pan. The compact is on the thick side, because the middle section with the pan flips up to reveal a brush and mirror. The brush itself will be good in a pinch, not the best, but it will transfer color if necessary.

I also picked up a bronzer. I currently have NARS Laguna, which I like, but I thought I'd try out another color. This one is Light Bronze, and, like the blush, had a series of bronze shades that will all come together in a nice color. This one also has the flip up pan to reveal a brush and mirror, and it's the same barely useful brush.

 Both look good on the back of my hand, and I really like how the bronzer looks on my face. The Rose blush, on the other hand, is a wee bit frosty, so I will have to use with caution as to not look like a 1980's holdback.

All-in-all, great deal for these items!