China Glaze Anchors Away Collection

while i bask in the fabulous, cool, layer-friendly weather, i can't help but be reminded that spring is just around the corner, thanks to China Glaze's new spring '11 collection, Anchors Away.

with 12 nautically-inspired colors, these bold and confident brights are reminiscent of a carefree natural getaway, with soft ethereal hues that inspire leisurely thoughts of sand and sea.

colors include:

Life Preserver: highly pigmented and luxurious poppy creme
Hey Sailor: vibrant creme red
Ahoy!: delightfully intense pink that flashes with reflective glass speck
First Mate: sophisticated and rich navy creme
Starboard: hip and playful green creme
Lighthouse: multi-dimensional, bright yellow glass speck
White Cap: whimsical and sparkling multi-dimensional white
Pelican Gray: high shine, cool toned grey creme
Sea Spray: calming pale blue creme
Below Deck: a flirty mix of taupe and violet
Sunset Sail: delightful peachy pink high shine creme
Knotty: micro-particle beige shimmer



the Anchors Away collection will be available in Ulta, Sally Beauty, and select salon supply stores by february, 2011. p.s., if you're a fan of the brand, follow them on Twitter!

from the descriptions and looks of the pics, i'm really curious to see Below Deck, Ahoy!, Pelican Gray, Sea Spray, Sunset Sail and Knotty in person.

tell me: which color(s) are you drawn to?

xo
info and images courtesy of China Glaze

Nails of The Day : GOSH Golden Dragon

Golden Dragon is a deep ocean green with fine yellow shimmer that gives an almost duo-chrome effect. It is incredibly beautiful, and I believe one of the more popular nail polish shades by GOSH. I used three coats here (no topcoat).

Nails of The Day : GOSH Orange Drops

Just a word of warning for those bored with my recent stream of nail polish posts - there's going to be a lot more NOTD over the next couple of weeks as I want to try and post more from my collection whilst it is still reasonably manageable. Today I am wearing Orange Drops by Danish brand GOSH. I love pretty much everything about this nail polish: the colour is a lovely bright orange with golden glass flecked shimmer, the formula is thin, runny, and incredibly easy to apply, and it is fully opaque in three thin coats. Unfortunately Orange Drops looks atrocious against my current skin tone, but the colour is absolutely stunning.

Nails of The Day : Accessorize Illusion Purple Dream

Purple Dream, a glittery purple and blue duo-chrome is one of the nail polishes I picked up from the new Accessorize makeup line. I used three coats here with no top coat (I confess I rarely use topcoats) and it holds up well with no major chips even after a few days of wear. The Accessorize nail polish range is fairly extensive with nearly 50 nail polishes divided into 5 subcategories (Exotic Brights, With Love, Illusion, Je T'aime, and Rock Star). I have never been a huge fan of glitter nail polishes, but the 'Illusion' ones are pretty great for £4, and I will most likely be picking up more.

Nails of The Day : Topshop Lead

The last nail polish I bought from the Topshop Autumn/Winter 2010 Heavy Metal collection is Lead. It is a purple and green duo-chrome which is pretty cool, and although I haven't done a great job in capturing the purple here,it is much more pronounced in indirect light. Lead was the only shade I was initially interested in when I saw previews of the collection, and I think a lot of people will like it, but as to why I personally don't - well, it reminds me of the feathered neck area of feral pigeons (rock doves)... and since I really, really, don't like pigeons, I have serious issues wearing this colour on my nails.

Nails of The Day : Topshop Grunge

The second nail polish I purchased from the Autumn/Winter 2010 'Heavy Duty' collection by Topshop is Grunge: an olive/khaki toned antiqued brass/gold shot through with an almost metallic like shimmer (wonderful colour description right?). The shimmer is almost iridescent and very pretty, but it doesn't really come to life unless it is under bright light or flash photography (see the last picture).

Nails of The Day : Topshop Future

Future, a gorgeous navy blue with fine shimmer, is one of three nail polishes from Topshop's Autumn/Winter 2010 'Heavy Duty' collection. It may not seem like the most original of colour perhaps, but I personally don't have anything similar in my collection and so it is a nice little addition for me. I also bought the other two nail polishes from the collection which I will swatch and post over the weekend followed by a collective review of the three nail polishes.

Color Club's Love 'Em, Leave 'Em at NY Fashion Week

though it was a color from their Wild At Heart collection last fall, Color Club's Love' Em, Leave Em showed up at Rolando Santana's ny fashion week's spring runway show. i have to say, this amazing holographic, brown-gold shade was the perfect compliment to the ensembles in the show.








xo

Nails of The Day : Bourjois Beige Glamour

Beige Glamour is the only shade of Bourjois nail polish I currently own, and it's a great muted dusty pink shade for more conservative environments. The So Laque formula is really very good, and combined with decent durability and a general fuss free application, I don't know why I haven't bought more. Mental note: must rectify.

Comparing Chanel Paradoxal and Barry M Dusky Mauve

Barry M's recent nail polish releases haven't really interested me in any way, but as soon as I saw Dusky Mauve, I knew I had to pick up for its resemblance to Chanel Paradoxal nail polish. A few blogs have pointed out this dupe already, but since I haven't managed to find any comparative swatches yet, I thought I would do some myself to show you guys just how close they are to one another. In the pictures above, I am wearing Chanel's Paradoxal on my index and middle finger, and Barry M's Dusky Mauve on my ring and little finger. I realise the photos are minuscule, but so far they look absolutely identical to one another right?



There is a hidden shimmer in both Paradoxal and Dusky Mauve that can only be captured in really bright light or flash photography. I hope the above comparison depicts just how similar they are to one another. I really don't think there are any differences between the two to be honest - at least none that my eyes can detect. I used two coats of polish for Paradoxal, and three for Dusky Mauve because I experienced a little cuticle drag on my ring finger.

All in all definitely worth checking out for those still holding out Paradoxal. I also posted about a great dupe to Chanel's Particuliere nail polish a while ago if you missed it (here)!

Nails of The Day : Marks & Spencer Tangerine

Marks & Spencer have quite an impressive selection of nail polish shades in their cheap and cheerful Essential Colours range, but the formula can be wildly inconsistent between the colours, and some are an enormous pain to apply. I only used two coats here (though three would have covered my nail line completely) but some of the other shades that I own need at least four or five coats to be completely opaque.

Comparing Chanel Particulière and Claire's 019

As promised yesterday, here are the comparison pictures of the two polish on my nails. In both photos, Chanel Particulière is on the index and middle finger, and Claire's 019? (they don't seem to have proper names for their polishes here in the UK) on the ring and little finger. I realise the pictures are tiny, but I am sparing you all from the terrible condition my cuticles are in right now. I wore this manicure around for a few days, and nobody could tell the difference - even after I pointed it out to them.


I took a bunch more photos in all sorts of different lighting to best depict their differences because there is one (albeit very subtle). Bearing in mind that it does have a thicker, more opaque formula which applies much more heavily than the Chanel, Claire's is a tad darker and a smidgen more brown. I think this is the most obvious in the photo on the right.

Now the colour comparisons are out of the way, I want to move onto the formula, application, and general durability. Like I mentioned above, Claire's has a much thicker and opaque formula than the Chanel which can leave brush strokes if one is not working quickly (particularly on the second coat). Personally, I prefer the formula of Claire's because I could get away with only one coat whereas I need at least two with Particulière for an even application. However Chanel's thinner formula does make it much easier to work with. As to how they perform on my nails; both starts to show tip wear after a couple of days. I would love to say that Claire's have a terrible formula which chips after half an hour, but it lasts just as well as the Chanel (which isn't saying much IMO).

And lastly, a bottle of Claire's 019 costs £2.25. Chanel's Particulière is somewhere in the region of £16.50.

First look at Chanel Particulière's £2.25 dupe

A heads up for anyone still looking for Chanel's Particulière nail polish that was released earlier this year. Don't pay ridiculous prices on eBay, and head down to Claire's instead. I won't be able to post swatch comparisons until tomorrow as I am super busy today, but trust me when I say that they are virtually identical to one another.

NARS Vintage Nail Polish Collection

happy friday (and october), beauties! look what just became available today-- the NARS Vintage Nail Polish Collection! five delicious shades, resurrected by popular demand, all with NARS' signature longwearing formula.

these polishes have a high gloss luster, are water and detergent resistant, and will only be around for a brief time. don't miss your chance to own these past best-sellers (if you don't already), all with classic cinema as their common theme (original launch for each shade in the parenthesis)...

Mash ('96), is an army green infused with gold. don't remember the movie? it was the comedy about the staff of a korean war field hospital using humor to keep their sanity in the face of war. the film inspired the hit tv series M*A*S*H.

King Kong, also from '96, is a copper brown infused with gold. who hasn't seen the classic about the infamous giant ape who becomes smitten with beauty?

Midnight Express ('96) is a deep navy. the 1970s film was about an inmate's opportunity to escape from prison.

Zulu ('96) is a gorgeous forest green. the 1964 british war movie starred Stanley Baker and Michael Caine.

Full Metal Jacket ('98-- a great year, if i do say so myself) is a gunmetal grey. the epic vietnam war movie was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1987.


since fall is the seasonal height of the fashion year, these Vintage Nail Polishes are a must-have (and you know your nails would love a new shade to wear). as i told you earlier, these are available to purchase now. just visit narscosmetics.com.

happy shopping!

xo
info and image courtesy of NARS

nail color of the week: MAC So Rich So Pretty

when i first saw MAC's So Rich So Pretty nail polish (from the Alice + Olivia Collection), i knew i had to get it. i also knew it wouldn't be at my local MAC counter (which is at Macy's-- our mall doesn't have a Nordstrom, grrr), so i would have to order online.

i'm so thankful i did-- it quickly sold out online. i'm sure that had i driven 30 minutes to Nordie's it would have been for nothing (that's just how things seem to work out for me, LOL!).

in any case, i ordered it (along with the Later pigment, also A+O, which is also sold out online), and now own it-- yay! isn't it gorgeous?


SRSP outdoors

So Rich So Pretty was a bit hard for my camera to capture in direct sunlight-- it seemed to do this weird, blurry, sci-fi-looking thing-- but the pics above are pretty accurate. in person, it's just as described by the brand, a bright purple frost. it's such a fun, fabulous shade that is great for summer. if you can get it, definitely do-- it won't be around forever.


xo
pics taken by me :)