Lady in Grey: YSL Gris Deco

My first-ever YSL polish! I have contemplated purchasing this for months. Gris Deco is a soft grey colour with the barest hint of shimmer not only appealed to me somewhere deep in my neutral-loving soul, but is also completely unique in my collection.

This stuff is expensive. Chanel expensive.

However, application was a dream. I was concerned the huge brush would be unwieldy and messy, but it turned out to be perfect. If it were any larger it would have been too big for my pinky, which required only one swipe. I used three thin coats, and the effort was minimal because of how few strokes were needed. Lovely.

The colour is outstanding - a delicate grey with near-invisible shimmer that just manages to give the polish a porcelain-like quality on the nail. I adore this. It's an office-appropriate neutral that isn't a boring sheer (and I LOVE boring sheers), or one of my typical taupes. I also happen to think it pops beautifully against gold rings. The combination of the warm gold and the cool grey is reminiscent of the luxe packaging and just makes my heart sing. (My rings are from Henri Bendel. The harness ring looks to be sold out, but they have other versions available. The midi rings are here and on sale at the moment!)

I cannot comment on wear right now, because I just applied this last night. My fingers are crossed that it doesn't go all chippy the way some more expensive polishes have on me in the past. (Speaking of which, I have an exciting post coming up sharing the top/base coat combo that makes my Chanels chip-proof!) If wear time is solid, you can bet I will be purchasing more YSL polishes.

Have you tried YSL polishes? What are your favourite unique colours in the line?

kittytokaren

Different Dimension: Black Dahlia

I haven't worn that many holos this summer, considering that it's summer. This may have been the only holo I've worn so far, which is odd... I have a good number of them.

There isn't much to say about this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING polish. It's Black Dahlia by Different Dimension. It's a black leaning greyish purple scattered holographic polish with micro iridescent glitters. Hard to capture the glitters on camera but in person this polish was awesome. This is 3 coats on its own.

Love love love. This makes me want to wear more holos. Have you worn any this summer?

Information: Etsy // Facebook // Llarowe

Shopping My Stash - Blue Creme Layering

It's been a while coming, but I finally got organised and painted my collection onto swatch sticks! This made my February No-Buy a bit easier as I fell in love with my cremes again. Here's a gorgeous blue creme I rediscovered - Face of Australia Ocean Villa. It usually has a matte finish, but I layered Nubar Black Polka Dot on top. But then I got stuck with the accent nail.

First I tried Candeo Smores (kindly gifted by Jen of The Nail Polish Project at the Sydney Aussie Nails meetup) over ulta3 Earl Grey, but that didn't look quite right:

Then I tried China Glaze Some Like It Haute over China Glaze Stone Cold. Much better!

Shopping my own stash has been the best strategy for my No Buy so far - with over 400 bottles in my collection, there are a lot of underappreciated polishes in there!

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

I had written off the OPI Spiderman collection. Just Spotted the Lizard was a complete fail for me, and none of the others called my name. Until this one caught my eye in Ulta the other day....

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls...

When I found this in the store, I rolled the bottle over a few times in my hands and thought "Yeah....yeah this is for me..." I'm glad to say that that feeling remained after I put it on my nails. Tons of people have described this before me and done a magnificent job. Suffice to say, it is mainly white with a good helping of grey to it, that helps to keep it from looking too stark and bright on the nail. It reminds me of paper mache and I think it is supremely cool.

Has anything surprised you in person lately? I really didn't think I needed this before I saw it in the store!

kittytokaren

Wintry Mix - Essie Stroke of Brilliance

This polish came out without much fanfare or warning. All of a sudden I got an email from Essie and I hadn't heard a peep about it prior! Way to keep things under wraps, Essie! As soon as I got the email, I bought it. I am a sucker.



Stroke of Brilliance is the latest in Essie's Luxeffects range. It contains the same kind of glitter as A Cut Above and Set in Stones, but is a complex platinum-blue colour. I put it over Essie Over the Top - a deep charcoal - here, and I think they play off one another nicely. This mani just screams "winter" to me - dark and icy!

What mani do you consider to be quintessentially "winter"? I'd love some inspiration!

kittytokaren

China Glaze: Elephant Walk + Hit Polish: Patina

A lot of times I have trouble picking out my next manicure --  a problem, I'm sure, is because I own too many. Either way, I eventually pick a polish or a polish combo and go with it.

This one is one that occurred to me while staring at polishes laid out on my dresser. I thought it'd go perfectly together and it did, and I loved it while I wore it!

China Glaze Elephant Walk is a smokey darker periwinkle, and paired perfect with Hit Polish Patina, which is a glitter top coat made up of varying sizes of copper glitter along with some light blue and smaller aqua glitters. In the bottle, I thought Elephant Walk would make the lighter blue glitters blend in but it dried darker than evident in the bottle.

Even my roommate, a non-glitter lover, liked this combination :)

A little sultry smoky something - Chanel Vertigo

When I first heard about this Chanel Vertigo, I thought it would be the colour of the season. I can't speak to that, but I can say that it captures my feelings of fall very well. To me it's the nail equivalent of the smoky eye - dark, sultry, and you can't quite place your finger on what the colour is - is it black, brown, purple...? Who knows. And who cares.

There is some of that extra-subtle Chanel shimmer in here, but I'm going to be straight with y'all - you can't see it. I could barely see it under direct light, and only if I angled my fingers a certain way. If you buy this, buy it for the base colour!

You can see the shimmer in the bottle better than on the nail! Honestly though, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Even though it isn't exactly revolutionary, I really love this colour, and I'll be wearing it frequently in fall and winter. However, Chanels do chip quite easily on me...

What top/base coats do you use with Chanel polishes? I could use some recommendations!

kittytokaren

Borghese Stellare Notte

I came across Borghese Stellare Notte one Thursday night at Chemist Warehouse, a discount pharmacy chain. A massively leaky lip gloss had coated all the polishes in the tub with a sickly sweet pink goo reminiscent of the goo in the Matrix human battery farm pods, but I grabbed two bottles of this anyway. Duo/multichrome addict, hello! As per usual with multichromes, I've taken way too many pictures:

Fitting, this polish is actually quite like the colour scheme inside the Matrix - in most lights it shows up as teal-tinted charcoal, with purple-tinted black playing around the edges, if you try you can also see a golden brown at extreme angles. It's a very sophisticated, understated, noir kind of multichrome, the kind of thing that a non-polish fiend (i.e. "civilian") wouldn't pick as a duochrome. It's the kind of colour you'd expect a sexy guitar or secret agent car to be.

Range-of-colour shots:

The boyfriend approves of the un-obvious shimmer, but deemed it too camp for his own nails. One day I'll convince him to let me manicure him!

Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas

This was sent to me by a very kind POP reader who didn't wear it. I always dig these kinds of colours so I was so delighted to be able to try this - Lippmanns are crazy expensive here (about £15) and I am not disappointed, the quality on this is great. I think this was one coat! A real superstar polish for me - this will be tucked in my bag for conferences every time. It also matches one of my favourite suits.

I wore this for luck to a job interview back in June as a part-time lecturer while I finish my PhD. Today is my first day :)

OPI Skull & Glossbones

I know OPI Skull & Glossbones has been swatched to death, especially for what it is (a grey creme... the boringest colour in the boringest finish, essentially!)... but it's just so perfect for so many people (except ilexica, who is apparently a freak).

When I first got this, every second mani for about a month had this in it somewhere. And it still worms its way into a disproportionately large number of my manis these days. It's my go-to for an unassuming, pale colour which doesn't pull attention away from the nail art, but will definitely be flattering. And it pretty much works with any colour scheme, including the chunks of maidenhair fern that I thought might be fun to stick to my nails. What more can a girl ask of her lacquer?

Nail Art: Tape mani

This is entirely inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest. It wasn't executed perfectly, but I like how it came out :) I should have used a different glitter polish, the China Glaze I used was a bit too thick and all the topcoat I had to use caused some bubbling :(

Here are the polishes:

light gray: OPI: French Quarter for Your Thoughts
dark gray: Essie: Power Clutch
black: American Apparel Hassid
Glitter: China Glaze Techno

I used individually cut pieces of tape, which is kind of hard to make uniform when you have huge scissors and a small piece of tape, lol. This manicure did take time and patience because I had to make sure the layer I was putting tape on was totally dry.

Have you done any "Pinterest" manis?

Subtle Jelly Sandwich with OPI My Pointe Exactly

Today I felt like something sheer with a little sparkle that wasn't the stereotypical pink, and this is what I came up with! OPI My Pointe Exactly, the most fantastic sheer grey - interesting, unique, but reserved - sandwiched around one coat of Essie Golden Nuggets, a very fine gold glitter in a clear base.

I love the way this catches the light and the contrast between the cool grey jelly and the warm gold glitter! Soft and delicate, but still special.

What do you put on your jelly sandwich?

kittytokaren

Matte charcoal, yes please! China Glaze Stone Cold

China Glaze Stone Cold was part of the Hunger Games collection - I haven't watched the movie or read the book, but this is the most beautiful matte charcoal polish with silvery shimmer particles. It looks like dark lead pencil, and dries super quick. I wasn't expecting to love it so much, but I do!

Annoyingly, the black matte base rubs off over a few days, and by the third day my nails were noticeably more silvery than I would've liked (if you look closely near the cuticles, you can see where cleanup has gotten rid of the darker base and left the silver shimmer behind). But a quick 10 minute touchup fixed that and it was back to gorgeous graphite glory. Definitely my favourite matte polish so far!

What's your favourite matte polish?

OPI and Rainbow Honey layering: grey and pink

I must say, this has been my most favorite recent manicure. Of course, my favorites change often, but recently, this one. THIS ONE. It was beautiful and full of depth and glitter.

While I personally love jellies in theory, a lot of the time I don't like it on myself. But the hype of the OPI Ballet collection got to me and I got the full set and I love them! My first full manicure with the sheers is OPI: My Pointe Exactly + OPI: Pirouette My Whistle.

I think this is about 4 layers of My Pointe Exactly and 2 of Pirouette My Whistle. The glitter is so delicate and sparkles lightly, if that makes sense. I kept this manicure for about 3 days before messing with it, haha.

Rainbow Honey is another indie that makes amazing glitters. When she offered a pre-order a while ago I jumped on it and got four. I layered one of them, Hanami, on top of this mani, and it was instant love! I feel grey and pink are one of those pretty color combinations, too :)

I did two layers of Hanami and a whole bunch of top coat -- it was a hungry glitter! But so worth it. Pink hexes along with more translucent shards, translucent hex glitters and iridescent smaller glitters jam packed in a pink shimmery base. There's so much in this polish! It garnered a lot of compliments, too :D

You could still tell it was layered of a sheer/jelly base, and it all worked beautifully together.

FoA Party at the Gap and, um, pet glittaaaaahhhhhh

Face of Australia Party at the Gap is a sparkly (tiny glass specks maybe?) grey polish. I picked it up at a crazy Big W sale where it was reduced to about $1.50 - bargain! It's part of the Barbados collection, which was developed with the help of some Melbourne beauty bloggers.

The glass fleck-like chunky shimmer sets it apart from other greys, but it makes it look kind of cheap - it reminds me of the silvery plastic on my Dyson vacuum cleaner. I can't not love it though, grey is my kryptonite, and it flows on like butter. Buttaaahhhhh.

I scored Color Paws Starry Night in Kaz's blog sale. It's apparently a line for painting your pet's tootsies, though given the relatively slow drying time, I'm not sure how you'd get your dog to sit still long enough. Maybe you could paint them while it's sleeping, penis-on-forehead-of-passed-out-guy style?

Anyway, I have no idea why pet claws need a different kind of polish, and I doubt a dog or cat would properly appreciate the awesome glitters in Starry Night. It's so pretty! Big blue and silver hex glitters,with little silver and darker blue square glitter. It's lovely as a topcoat.

Nail Art: freehand chevrons :)

I don't wear cremes by themselves that often because they don't keep my attention like glitter does. I love cremes on other people but I need a bit more "pizzazz" for my own nails... but I was going through my polishes that I had received recently and saw a few Zoyas that looked so good next to each other and I wanted to incorporate them somehow. Dots? A gradient? Or some kind of line nail art?

And then chevrons came to mind :)

The colors:
light green: Zoya Tracie
gray: Zoya Carey
orange: Zoya Arizona
teal: Essence Bella

The only color I had a little trouble with (because it wasn't as opaque) was Zoya Arizona but a couple of coats fixed that. I love how the colors work out together and happy how steady it came out for a freehand attempt! It really is easy :) I'm going to have to do something like this for all my cremes, haha. I actually ordered some striping tape from ebay, so expect some manicures using that coming up :D

Have you tried a chevron manicure? If not, try it freehand, it's really easy! My tips are to have your hand on a surface and just move the polish across the nail, and to use opaque polishes. Also be patient between layers! Good luck!

Magnetic Trend - Nails Inc Trafalgar Square

I'm not usually the first to jump on trend bandwagons, and the magnetic trend was no exception. But better late than never! My coworker (slash super-awesome-nail-polish-and-makeup-wearing-goth-friend) showed up to lab one day with this nail polish on - and it looked incredible! Really suited her style too. I liked it so much I had to stop by Sephora and use the remainder of a gift card to give Nails Inc Trafalgar Square a go!

Aaannnnnddd I kinda love it! It's super cool looking in person - like polished hematite or some other semi-precious stone. The colour is subtle and neutral enough that the finish is the only thing on display, and I quite like that. The magnet makes a very simple stripe pattern, so the effect is stark and eye-catching. The polish itself isn't especially glittery, like some other magnetic options, which I think I prefer as it makes the surface appear extra smooth.

This is one trend I will dip more than one toe into - expect to see a couple more variations from me soon!

Have you tried magnetic polishes? Into it or not?

kittytokaren

THEME WEEK - My Favourite Glitter

I don't own many glitters. Too much bling on my fingers makes me feel awkwardly overdressed and teenagery, I feel self-consciously like I have strobe lights on my fingertips - as much as I love how glitter looks in swatches, I can't wait to get it off!

That's why China Glaze Some Like It Haute is such a great glitter for me - it's sparkly, with round holo glitters, but the charcoal microglitter tones it down. The holo glitters are also always obediently weather appropriate, looking muted on cloudy days and blindingly bright in the sun.

This is two coats over one coat of ulta3 Metal, a gorgeous charcoal shimmer that looks like lead pencil, one of my top ten ulta3s. I can't stand how Some Like It Haute is translucent when backlit (e.g. when using my phone), and for some unknown reason it looked weirdly gritty in my photos of it on its own, so Metal is the perfect opaque underwear!

Can anyone recommend some other slightly-toned-down glitters?

A bit of ballet - OPI NYC Ballet - My Pointe Exactly & Care to Danse?

Despite my love of neutrals (and yes, even sheers) I'm never really interested in OPI's Soft Shades offerings each year. This year proved to be the exception and I picked up a couple from the OPI New York City Ballet Collection - and both are gorgeous! Yes, they are definitely sheer but can be built up. The following swatches are three coats.

First up is My Pointe Exactly...

A grey sheer!! The idea is honestly revolting, but the reality is truly lovely. I'm impressed that OPI were able to offer something that I feel is fairly unique in a Soft Shades collection! This will see heavy rotation in my collection.

Next up is Care to Danse?...

A lavender sheer. More pink on the nail than in the bottle, but still gorgeous. It's kind of like Tickets to Paradise if it were less white and more sheer. Again, this will probably be something I wear quite often!

So kudos to you, OPI. A non-boring Soft Shades collection!

Are you picking up any OPI New York City Ballet shades?

kittytokaren

GOSH Groovy Grey and some stash pictures

A lovely warm mushroomy grey. This is very opaque and totally good in two coats - it would probably be OK in one, but it has that annoying thick but runny formula that makes it really hard to control. I think this is probably pretty close to Lippmann's waking up in vegas, but not owning it (her polishes are a bit beyond my means sadly) I can't really say. I'm such a sucker for this kind of colour - they work really well on my skintone (except when it's -3 out and I look like a chapped lobster...I think my swatches are going to look like this for a while).

I wore this to one of the interviews I went with last month. I made reserve for the fellowship, which is pretty cool given there were almost 250 applicants. I've spent the last couple of days filling in the application for the University itself, which was 15 pages of probably unnecessary hell, but at least it's done now. Something for the CV!

That aside, I got asked on a message board recently what my stash looked like. So I thought I'd take some pics. To spare you the huge post, though, they're under the jump. I like to think it's a very moderate amount, but my mother would probably disagree.