Why I love NARS nail polishes

See this bad, slightly blurry pic:

It's NARS Night Flight from the NARS Night Series. It's a lovely shimmery blue, yada, yada, yada... Scrangie and Vampy Varnish have reviews on this series. The reason I posted that picture? It's one coat. This polish is so lovely and deep that one coat is perfect, streak-free and opaque.

I also have Night Porter (the green shimmer). I can't wait to try that one, too. NARS is quickly becoming my favorite polish brand for their formula alone.

Le Metier de Beaute Kontagious Koral Nail Lacquer

This season, Nieman Marcus's Fashion Designer, Ken Downing, teamed up with Le Metier de Beaute to create a very lovey coral nail polish/lipstick duo. Le Metier de Beaute has never really been on my radar, until I read Elvira's post at Pink Sith all about this polish. I fully blame her for making me want this polish and subsequently going out specifically to purchase it.

One of the reasons Le Metier de Beaute has never been on my have-to-have-NOW list is because their nail polishes are always so expensive and small. Now, I'm not opposed to dropping bucks on awesome polish, in fact, I may just have a problem, however lMdB are just so TINY. 4ml tiny. However, this one is nearly 3 times that amount, 11.3ml, for only a few dollars more.

None of the colors had appealed to me before this one, either. Kontagious Koral (I'll let Ken slide on the silly K names) it is a beautiful red leaning coral. In some lights it looks dead on red, and in others you can definitely see the orange undertones. I keep staring at my nails.

The real beauty of this polish, aside from the color, is the formula. It was one of the nicest formulas I have ever put on my nails. It was thin, but not watery, applied evenly, but it did need 3 coats to be nice and opaque. And shiny, oh is this shiny. The pictures above are without a topcoat and they're still shiny shiny shiny. One of my nails did bubble a little bit, I have found when I put polish on a bare nail that happens, I have yet to experiment with base/top coats.

I love this polish. Love. I'm actually debating buying a backup, however with the amount of polishes I own, I don't think that would be necessary. My suggestion? Run, don't walk to get this polish. And if you run into Ken Downing on the way, give him a big wet kiss for me.

Flakey Love

I love fun topcoats. Holographic, shimmer, glitter - they just make a plain old creme polish fun. Now I can add flakey polishes to that list. I bought Barielle Elle's Spell recently, and didn't even realize it was flakey polish until I layered it over black. That's all it took. It took me all of three minutes to hop onto fabuloustreet.com (US distributor for Nfu-Oh polishes) and order a pair of them. I ordered Nfu-Oh 38 - red flakies suspended in a clear polish, and Nfu-Oh 39, blue-green flakies suspended in a clear polish. The second they came in I pulled out a blank color wheel and pulled out an assortment of creme colors, and painted two nails in each color. Then, for each creme I added a top coat of Nfu-Oh 38 on one and Nfu-Oh 39 on the other. At that point, just for the heck of it, I painted half of each nail with a matte topcoat.

It was very interesting to see each color change with the different flakey topcoat. Unfortunately, I don't remember the cremes I used. Bad blogger. I do remember the ones in the 7-8 o'clock position are black, and then it's just downhill from there. The matte topcoat is on the outer half of the nail. In general, bluish and greenish colors looked good with the blue-green flakies and reddish colors looked good with the red flakies. Colors like black or purple looked equally good in both the red or blue-green flakies.

While in Target recently, I grabbed the Revlon Top Speed polish in Royal. I've seen the color raved about around the blogs, and I have to agree. It's a bright, shiny jelly royal blue. It's actually a very flattering color. No problems with application, and the dry time was pretty quick. I took my picture not 5 minutes after doing the last nail and had no problems.

Revlon Top Speed in Royal

I knew I wanted to put a flakey topcoat on this. The color just screams for it. And Nfu-Oh 39 is just the right topcoat for the job. I put one layer of Nfu-Oh 39 on top of two coats of Royal.

Nfu-Oh 39 over Revlon Top Speed Royal

I loved this combo. It was so shiny, that I could barely get a picture without seeing my own reflection in my nail:

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There I am - in the lower right hand corner of my nail! This was a great and flashy manicure. I would just stare at my nails randomly during the day. It was so flashy that the MAC sales associates ooohed and aaaahed over my nails when I went into the store later that night. In fact, she called the other SAs over to see. (I've said it before, many people have written how they don't care for the MAC associates in the stand-alone stores, but I LOVE the ones at my local suburban Philadelphia store).

I usually gravitate to shimmery, glittery nail polishes while passing over the cremes, these topcoats have now opened a whole new type of nail polishes that make me take a second look.

Happy polishing!

My favorite things for 2010

Ahhh, 2010. This year has had its ups and downs. In respect to this blog, this was the year I rediscovered makeup. I had worn make up here and there since I was a young teenager. As a young adult, I wore mainly Clinique cosmetics. When I got pregnant at 29, my face could no longer handle Clinique. I broke out like a 13 year old. I switched to Bare Escentuals and that worked for awhile, but then my skin just looked too oily. I never used moisturizer, never cared about wrinkles and basically wore some mattefying powder and maybe blush. I never wore eyeshadow as it would crease within an hour. Then, late last year I read about Urban Decay Primer Potion and everything changed. Many months later I did a search for mascara reviews and stumbled across Temptalia and Musings of a Muse and I was hooked for good. I now have tons of beauty blogs on my reader and finally took the plunge last month into blogging for myself.

So, my half a dozen readers, I bring you my favorite purchases of 2010. (beware, image heavy post following!)

I'll being with my biggest obsession - nail polishes. These are my favorites this year:

Chanel Paradoxal

Ahh, Chanel. Paradoxal was my first step into the world of luxury polish. I went to no less then 4 different stores to find it. I finally grabbed the last one at Neiman Marcus. (This was before they released more). It was love at first sight.

Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance (left) and Waking Up in Vegas (right)

Deborah Lippmann. These were my first two purchases. They went on so well and were such great colors, that I went on to buy all of the women in my family a different color for Christmas. I love how all the shades are inspired by song titles.

Dior Timeless Gold

Dior Timeless Gold and Czarina Gold. The brush, the formula, the colors, I loved everything about these polishes. The spring 2011 colors didn't strike my fancy, but I'll be keeping my eye out for the newest colors.

Orly Cosmic FX collection

The Orly Cosmic FX collection. The coolest, lovliest duochrome effect was just mesmerizing from the first time I saw them. I bought each color available at Ulta right then and there. I love these.

Butter London All Hail McQueen

Butter London. I scooped up 5 of these when I saw them at one of the Ultas I go to. I was surprised to see them stateside. Of the 5 that I bought, this was my favorite color.

Nfu-Oh holographic polishes and flakie polishes

Nfu-Oh holographics and flakies. I love the holos. Love, love, love them. Buying these was the first time I have bought nail polish online sight unseen - just from reading beauty blogs. I don't regret it.

China Glaze OMG collection

China Glaze OMG collection. Yes, I know these didn't come out this year, but after being exposed to holographic polishes, I had to have them. I found this group reasonably priced on eBay (I didn't love them enough to pay outlandish prices) and grabbed them. I am a sucker for holos.

Now we move into the cosmetics.

MAC Venomous Villians, L-R - Resort Life lipgelee, Bad Fairy nail lacquer, Darkly My Dear Blush, Wicked Ways lipglass

Venomous Villains collection from MAC. After frequenting the MAC store for a few weeks, my favorite sales associate (I think she's the manager) handed me an invite to the Venomous Villains launch and wouldn't take no for an answer. I went to the jam-packed store and hovered over the displays. I toyed with the idea of putting on the Evil Queen's cape and taking a picture, but just settled for buying some pieces instead. I still love this collection.

Boots Shine Control Lotion

I never moisturized my face. I always thought it was already oily, I didn't need to add any more. It took me nearly 35 years to discover that if I moisturize, my face won't produce as much oil. Hot diggety. Wandering through Target one day, I bought this Boots moisturizing lotion on a whim. I got lucky. I love it. It's light, non-greasy and actually works really well.

MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder

I always used pressed powder on my face, but it always looked so cakey. The SA at the MAC store recommended the translucent Prep + Prime powder, and I've been hooked. 

Maybelline The Falsies Volum'Express mascara in Very Black

After using DiorShow for a few months and having it streak down my face. I tried Maybelline's The Falsies Volum'Express, and now I will never pay more than $10 for mascara again. It works. Well.

Chanel Mat Lumiere foundation in Ivory

Oh, Chanel. The love affair is torrid. I love you, my skin loves you, my wallet hates you. The wallet loses.

Urban Decay Naked Palette

The most sought after palette this year. A few months back, my mom got pink eye. She was most distraught about throwing out all of her eye makeup. However, after a costly trip to Sephora, she showed me this palette. I knew I had to have it, but by that time, it was already sold out and being sold for big bucks on eBay. At the time my shadow collection was already pretty large, so I didn't sweat it much. Then one day in November, I walked into the Ulta that is right across the street from my office (dangerous, indeed) and lo and behold - there was one Naked Palette right there on the shelf. I grabbed it. Then a woman came up to me with a sad face asking me where I got it because she's been searching for months for it. Thinking I didn't NEED it, I gave it to her. She thanked me profusely. The next week I walked into the same Ulta and there was ANOTHER one on the shelf! I grabbed it, put it into my shopping bag and knew it had to be fate. It was mine. And you know what? This is the best palette. There isn't a dud color in the bunch. I've only had it a month and it is well used.

Smashbox O-Gloss Gold

I admit it, I got sucked into the whole "color change to your perfect peach shade!!" hype. It actually works, and it is a flattering gloss! I would buy it again!

MAC Viva Glam V

Very universally flattering lipcolor. And, as a bonus, all $14.50 of the purchase price goes towards charities dealing with HIV/AIDS. Looking good and helping out a good cause, could you ask for anything more?

Clarisonic Cleansing System

Ok, I didn't actually purchase this. It was a gift from my mom. It is great. It cleans my skin like no other. Very happy with this.

If you're still with me, wow, you have some patience! Thank you for reading and I hope 2011 treats all of you very, very well.

Tom Ford Black Orchid

My mother and I are both beauty snobs. While we do venture into the cosmetics aisle at CVS and, quite often, buy and use what we find there, we love perusing the cosmetics counters at Nordstrom's, Neiman's, Macy's and Bloomies, not to mention Sephora. Now and again, we'll see something we know the other will like and purchase it. When I bought a Chanel Rouge Allure Laque (after reading the rave reviews by Christine of Temptalia), I knew my mom would love it, too, so I bought her one.

In return she bought me a Dior pink lipstick she knew I'd love. I volleyed back with a bottle of Chanel Paradoxal. Game, Set and Match came with this little bottle of Tom Ford nail polish she gave me last week.

This was part of the Black Orchid set, which includes a lip color, a nail color and solid perfume. My mother purchased the set at Neiman Marcus. She really loved the lipstick and perfume and she knew that with the depths of my nail polish addiction that I would love this. She was right.

Because this is part of a set, the polish looks like a mini. The polishes aren't released on their own just yet, so I'm not real sure what size they will be. This one is .24 fluid oz/7ml. However, this has to be one of the most luxurious nail lacquers I have ever had on my nails. As much as I have raved about Dior's polish, this one is even better. It was practically perfect in one smooth single coat, although I did use two for the swatch. The color is a very deep, vampy browned burgundy creme that dries very shiny, even without a topcoat. This one will definitely be gracing my nails often.

I have a feeling these polishes will be putting a large dent into my wallet when they are finally released. I will definitely be scooping up a few.

Christmas Dior mani

Only recently have I discovered luxury lacquer lines (say that three times fast). Oh, don't get me wrong, I knew Chanel and Dior made nail polishes, but I never really gave them a second thought. I distinctly remember the Chanel Vamp phenomenon in the mid-90's. I recall reading in Cosmo or Glamour how Vamp was THE it color that season and thinking "who in their right mind would pay THAT much for nail polish??". Ahh, the naivete of youth.

Nowadays I gladly shell out $21, $23, $25 for some kick-ass lacquers (Oh Paradoxal, my introduction into Chanel lacquer, I will always fondly remember you as my first). Case in point: Dior's two holiday 2010 colors - Tzarina Gold and Timeless Gold. Timeless Gold was easy enough to find, but I had to hit 3 stores before finding Tzarina Gold. And am I glad I did. I wore that lovely on Thanksgiving. Christmas gets Timeless Gold

This is one beautiful polish. Normally I eschew gold polishes, they just don't look right on my skin. This gold, however, is actually a cool gold, with a shimmer of silver in its foil-like finish. The formula is great, nearly opaque in one coat and not a bit of drag anywhere. And the brush, I adore the flat, rounded brush. My pinky fingernail needed one swipe for a near-perfect application. I will gladly spend $21 for this again and again.

Shiny!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and if you don't celebrate - have a fantastic Saturday! I will be braving the mall on Sunday to push my way into the MAC store for Cham-Pale. Happy Hauling.