Ombre Manicure

I am not one for intricate nail art, however, I have been a bit more adventurous with minor nail art. I've delved into the accent nail, and now, I've tried an ombre manicure.

Ombre manicures consist of 5 different shades of the same color group, one on each finger. Honestly, even with my fairly large collection, it's difficult for me to pick out a set of similar colors. This time I just let myself go. I picked shades of black and gray. With the exception of one gilttery polish, I picked cremes.

On my thumb I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White on. It's awful. I don't know why I have it. It's a thick and gloopy, but at the same time streaky white-out type of polish. On my pointer finger I used Zoya Dove. Middle finger is Nails, inc. The Thames. Ring finger is Orly Rock Solid and pinky finger is Orly Liquid Vinyl.

I've had this manicure on for three days now, which is normally my limit for nail-polish boredom, so it's probably going to come off soon. I actually received a lot of comments (many confused) on it, but I actually kinda like it.

Next I have to start looking for a good green polish for St. Paddy's Day even though I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me.

Chanel Black Pearl

Yes, I know, Chanel Black Pearl has been reviewed within an inch of its life. Every blogger has gone over it, so now I'll add my 2 cents. I bought this right around Christmas, but I didn't want to use it right away as my nails were short, peeling and uneven and my cuticles were so ragged. Chanel deserved better than that. So, I've been taking my B vitamins, taking care of my nails, applying cuticle oil religiously and my hands are looking better. It's Chanel time.

Black Pearl is one of the slew of grays that are hitting the stores for the Spring 2011 collections. This one stands out in that it is not just grey. Suspended in the gunmetal grey base is a very dense green microshimmer. The green makes the whole nail color look a murky green, but not in an ugly way, but in more of a "Oh, let me look at that again" kind of way.

There was some minor brushstroke action going on, but you have to really look closely to see it. It's a very lovely color. So far it's had some lasting power. I'm on the end of day 2 and the manicure still looks nice.

I think this one can go into heavy rotation.

Happy polishing!

It's going to be a grey spring..

Very grey (gray? I never know which one is correct). Not in terms of weather or specific dreariness, but in polish colors.

I had some errands to run, so I of course made a bit of a side trip to Nordstrom's. I was really wanting Chanel's Black Pearl polish. At first I didn't, but I kept seeing blog posts and was eventually convinced I needed it. When I was going through my stash last night, I realized I had a dark grey polish that had a duochrome green and purple shimmer in it, and I wondered if it was close to Black Pearl. So I painted one nail and headed out to the store.

Right off I noticed that the color that I had in my stash (Borghese Stellare Notte, by the way) was not at all like Black Pearl. I also noticed that the spring lines were filled with grey nail polishes. Dior is releasing Gris Montaigne for Spring 2011 and Estee Lauder is releasing Wild Storm.  Gris Montaigne is a plain grey creme with the same great brush and fantastic formula. Wild Storm is a shimmery grey, also with a very nice formula. Unfortunately, neither one struck my fancy.

I'm very happy I bought Black Pearl, though.