MAC Dry Martini

Oh, Dry Martini...I wanted to love you. So badly. But three streaky coats later (with evident bald spots), and the beautiful olive green tone of the bottle replaced by duck poo brown on the nail...I don't love you. At all. I've seen this colour look amazing on other people but on my skin all the green just flew right out of it.

I also have issues with MAC's formula - this chipped after two days and could really have done with a fourth coat if I wanted it to be totally even. It's a shame, because I LOVE the MAC brush. It fits my nails perfectly. But the polishes usually wind up being a let down for me.

Are there any brands that just don't work for you?

Trying New Things - Orly Pure Porcelain

I've been feeling more adventurous lately - maybe not with colour, but with brands! I recently tried a SpaRitual (long story - you will see it soon!) and loved it. This inspired me to finally break my 'brand rule' and order a polish I have really really wanted for a long time from Orly - Pure Porcelain! (SpaRitual and Orly happen to be sister companies as well, which is neat.)

You're seeing my new, more oval, shape here again! This polish is amazing. It pulls more pink on me than it does on other people, but I just love love love love love love it! The formula is fantastic - not difficult to apply like other pale colours. It's a beautiful combination of white, pink, creme and grey. (Trust me, it looks more dusty when I compare it to my other pale pinks.) One of those perfect "any occasion" polishes and the wear was amazing!! Minimal tip wear and no chips for 5 days! I switched polish after that so no telling how long it would go...

I will *definitely* be trying more from Orly. I'm a huge fan so far! I just wish the bottle was prettier. Oh well, it is very functional.

Any Orly recommendations for me? What are your favourites?

kittytokaren

New Shape, "New" French

Very rarely do I change up my nail shape. I'd venture to say never. They pretty much grow "squoval" (except my index fingers...those little rule breakers) and I've stuck with that.

BUT. I got super inspired after seeing this video of Sophy Robson doing Lisa Eldridge's nails - HERE. (P.S. I totally want to be Lisa Eldridge.)

A couple glasses of wine, and I was left with this:

It's a sketchy night shot, but I liked it because it shows the navy tips off better than my day shots do. I used Essie T-Bills Putty for the nude and Essie Midnight Cami for my tips.

Result? I am looovvviiinnngggg not only this manicure, but this nail shape. I can even see myself doing this French again with different colours - Maybe a more pinky base with grey tips? I probably will not stick with the oval shape forever - it will be hard to keep up because my natural nail shape will be fighting me, but I will enjoy it! (You will see the Return of the Squoval soon here on PoP - I have several swatches that I photographed a little while back still waiting to be shared.)

So - I'm nervous to ask - but what do you think?? Do you prefer the oval or the squoval on me? Do you ever switch up your nail shape? Let me know, I'm curious!!

kittytokaren

H&M Blue My Mind

Oh neon blue, my old nemesis. My favourite colour to wear and my least favourite to photograph. This one's worth the effort, though:

Two coats. I've used a topcoat but the polish (surprisingly for a semi-neon) dries glossy in any case. It pools a little at the cuticles because it's a thick creme but the brush makes it very easy to control, I had barely any clean up. H&M polishes are only £2.99 and while the quality isn't the best I've tried (I tend to get wear after 2-3 days), for the price they're pretty unbeatable.

And the colour? Drooooool. Very very bright mid-blue with a hint of violet. It's really gloriously loud and opaque.

(If any of you are into mosaic, there's a bright blue smalti tile that matches this colour. It was my favourite when I was a kid, I used to use it in every craft project going. So I'm pleased to be able to wear that colour on my nails!)

OPI Fall 2011: Touring America - I got a little crazy.

I initially only ordered a couple of polishes from the OPI Touring America collection - and then I saw them in Ulta and picked up a bunch more. I honestly wish I had restrained myself a little more, but at least I can share them with you now! I really wanted to show you the colours as they appear in real life (not lit up by some super bright lamps) so as a consequence some of these come off really dark - which they do in reality!

Uh Oh, Roll Down the Window

I'm really excited to wear this one this fall! My first ever olive green. Super creamy. I think it's one of those ugly-pretty colours and will look really nice with navy!

I Brake For Manicures

This was a lot browner on the nail than I expected - it looks more purple-y in the bottle. Part of me wishes this wasn't so dark because that would let the colour really shine.

Get in the Expresso Lane

I'm not usually the biggest fan of brown nail polish. I like it in swatches, but I never seem to feel excited about wearing it. This changes my mind - it's grey-er and greener than typical chocolate browns - and I like it! I think the camouflage-style undertones give brown a much-needed update.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts

A very welcome addition to my grey collection - lighter than the other true greys I own, I think it's really flattering on - it has a bit of warmth that keeps it harmonious with my yellow skin. It reminds me of elephants.

Road House Blues

Believe it or not, I don't have a true navy blue creme in my collection. The closest thing I have is OPI Sapphire in the Snow, which is much more purple. Again, I wish this was lighter so the beautiful creamy navy with a *hint* of purple could really take center stage.

A-Taupe the Space Needle

Last (and definitely least) is the one I really regret picking up. This just looks like poo on me. Poo. Sigh.

What do you think of OPI's fall offering? I was excited by the prospect of a bunch of dingy, dirty cremes, but I'm a little let down by how some of them are "almost black". I think most of us are over "almost black". I know I'm sick of hearing people ask me "What colour is that? Black?" That being said, I think several of these will become staples in my collection! I'm so looking forward to fall...

kittytokaren

Illamasqua force - a 'WTF?' polish

(Ho ho ho, a Star Wars joke, bet you didn't see that coming!)
Since we've had a rare few days of sunshine, and since I now have a car, I took the opportunity to go to some of the National Trust properties nearby. They're basically rural stately homes that are preserved by a charity and they're generally speaking lovely - Packwood House, where we went last week, is a favourite. It's a Tudor manor house, originally erected in 1480, which was much restored in the 1920s and 1930s by a chap called Graham Baron Ash, who was a deeply enthusiastic restorer and spent an enormous amount of money doing up this house and others nearby.

Anyway, I promise I am going somewhere with this tangential history lesson. Aside from the fact that it's an interesting and beautiful place to visit, it also has some lovely interiors and a stunning garden. The colours gave me lots of ideas for manicures I wanted to try (nail varnish being my artistic medium, and all...). This is the first 'NT-inspired' manicure - I wanted to take the colours from the French tiling in the bathroom:


I decided my best bet for a match would probably be Illamasqua Force, a dusky mid blue, with white crackle layered over the top. However, I forgot that Force is an...idiosyncratic polish. Basically, it doesn't behave itself. The Swatchaholic has already commented on how it changes colour with Seche Vite. In my experiments today it behaved even more weirdly. Here it is on its own, with no top coat. This is a very colour accurate shot, IMHO. It has an unusual grey-violet undertone to it that makes it unique amongst my (large) collection of blues.




Fugly pic time! This shot shows what happens when you layer white crackle over the top. You can see a) the bits I didn't clean up (intentionally, to show you - sorry for the fug) where white crackle is not on top of Force, and is white; b) where it went over Force and turned pale blue; and c) how they've both deepened considerably to a royal blue/lavender combo with the addition of top coat (Lumos, since you ask). What a weeeeeeird polish.



Here's some proper pictures:

So that...uh...totally didn't work. The final effect is nothing like the tiles! Just to show that CG white crackle doesn't normally change over blue, here it is over Orly La Playa. (I know, I know, claw-hands and an iphone picture, I'm spoiling you today). Force is...odd.

Pinky Perplexity - Essie Lion Around

Remember how I went on my Hunt for Red (by) October last year? I may have to consider doing the same thing to find my perfect pink - opaque, not too sugary sweet, but not too fleshy either. This came close, but didn't hit the mark...and it's driving me bananas. (B-A-N-A-N-A-S.) I think the winner might have been Chanel Mistral, but I missed out on that one. :(

Essie Lion Around is from this year's Resort collection, and I wasn't planning on picking it up. I was quite happy with my picks - Da Bush and Your Hut or Mine. However, I was in Ulta one night, and through a complicated issue with returns and coupons, it somehow managed to work out such that they paid me to take it out of the store...yeah...I'm still looking over the receipts on this one. It was the one polish that spoke to me in that 15 seconds I had to decide!

I actually expected to hate the finish of this polish...and I do. But not as much as I thought I would. It isn't apparent in my photo, but there is subtle pearly shimmer in the polish, giving it a satin appearance on the nail. I don't know why, but somehow the combo of that finish and this particular colour makes me feel queasy - like when I think of pork that is a few days expired. The effect isn't as strong as I anticipated though, so that's good.

What I was genuinely surprised by was the colour - it was much peachier on me than I expected! I'm not sure why I thought it would be cooler-toned. I normally like a little peachiness in my pinks - it keeps them from being overly saccharine - but the orange-y yellow tones in this are a little strong and kind of...blends...with my yellow-toned skin a little too well.

In the end I don't totally hate this polish - I appreciate it not as my perfect pink, just for what it is. I like that it's a pink that isn't 4-year-old-with-a-My-Little-Pony pink. (Although MLP is pretty kickass. I had one when I was a kid. I called it "Balls". I kid you not. How my parents kept a straight face I will never know.) However, I don't think I'll be keeping it. I'm trying not to keep polishes I'm not excited to wear!

Any suggestions for my perfect pink? Would you like to see a pink "Hunt"?

kittytokaren

Holy magenta! Illamasqua obsess

I'm totally going back on my adult aversion to pink, because this is a knock out. It's a good job this polish didn't exist when I was 15 because I had my hair the same colour and would have drained bottle after pricey bottle.



Three coats of opaque, neon blue-pink fabulousness. It's much more purple than barbie pink - more magenta - but it's very bright. I'm guessing it would glow under UV. The neon pigments mean it dries a bit satiny so I have a coat of lumos over the top. Winner in my book.

Addendum - More Essie Fall 2011

Here's the additional polish pics from Essie's fall collection that I promised! I ended up picking up two more from the collection - Glamour Purse and Case Study. Et voila!

Glamour Purse

A couple years too late, but I don't care. THE perfect taupe. PERFECT. Probably super close to Chanel Particuliere - I don't have that anymore, but I have Barry M Mushroom and this has a titch more grey to it. Again, my perfect perfect taupe. I am going to hunt down a back-up. Oh and it wore like a champ!

Case Study

For the last couple of years, taupes and neutrals with a hint of purple (like Glamour Purse...ahh it really was born too late...) were all the rage. But now we are seeing rash of camouflage-style green-tinted neutrals come on the market. I'm liking the trend! And I'm liking this polish - it looks much more flattering on me in person than this picture shows. Many, many, many of you have already pointed out that I was wrong about this being a Milky Way dupe. (So many. All over the internet.) I get it. I was wrong, this is much more green. Remind me never to speculate again...

The only polish I haven't picked up from this collection is Very Structured. If you've tried that one or even seen it, let me know what you think!

kittytokaren

P.S. I ended up parting with Lady Like, for those that were curious!

China Glaze 108 Degrees

You know, I received this from China Glaze in the spring (and wore and photographed it in spring) but it seems much more appropriate to post this in summer, don't you think?

China Glaze 108 Degrees

Hot magenta jelly with either pink or purple shimmer. It is HOT. (The polish, not the weather. At least, not for me.) Still some VNL at three coats, as befits a jelly. :)

Desperately duping graphite

I have a rule against buying Chanel polishes. I lust after them, I render myself completely broke buying them, I apply them with a frantic anticipation, I am disappointed. This is how it always goes. I adore a luxury purchase as much as the next girl, but every Chanel lacquer I've had has ended up in the swap pile. But Graphite...*sigh*. I adore Graphite. Quite apart from the fact that I'm not supposed to be buying polish at all, never mind Chanel polish, this one has my heart. So I went rummaging through my stash to see if I had anything similar that would prevent me from hitting 'purchase!'.

This is what I turned up: 'Mischa' by Andrea Fullerton, a brand available in Superdrug in the UK. The colour is definitely not a dupe, but it's in the same vein, and a very fine colour in its own right. It's a foil with dominant colours of pewter, violet, and gold. From a distance it looks like a dark grey with warm undertones, and it sparkles nicely in the sun. This is three coats, and longevity has been good (I'm on day four of wear today with no issues, although I will be removing it tonight).

But, I'm not convinced by the brand. The bottles are teeny - 5.5ml - and are priced at £5.50 each. At £1 a ml, these are more expensive than my Illamasquas (£13.50 for 15ml, although I nearly always purchase in a sale, making them more like £10 each). They're not even far off Chanel, which is £17.50 for 13ml. I bought four of these when I first started my internship, and the colours are really gorgeous and unique (I'll swatch some of the others in the coming weeks) but they are expensive given the small quantity you get. Not sure why I'm complaining, given that I rarely dent my big 15ml bottles, but the size of these does feel a bit stingy.

Are you ever put off polish purchases by the quantity you get in a bottle?

So Super Good and Yummy! - OPI Hot & Spicy

Confession: I LOVE Cartman's Jennifer Lopez hand puppet character from South Park. I know all the lines and songs and I think I've seen the episodes starring the lovely Ms. Lopez 20 times. Mildly offensive, yes. I just try to take it out of that context and enjoy it for what it is - a hand puppet wearing a fur coat. This polish reminds me of her.

For those of you who have no idea what the above statement was about, please just ignore and look at the pretty polish!

OPI Hot & Spicy was from the Hong Kong collection, but I only recently acquired it. I've been kind of loving orange polish this summer. (Helloooo Essie Geranium and Meet Me At Sunset!) This is a softer orange though. Not nearly as soft as Essie Cantaloupe, but less deep and red than the others I mentioned.

On my ultra pale skin, this still comes across a little strong, but I quite like it - it's summer after all! I think where this would really be a standout is on someone with more colour to their skin. Like the lovely Piff. (Do you have this one Piffy?) The formula was also excellent, like all of the other Hong Kong polishes I own, so I expected nothing less.

I know orange is trendy right now and I'm in no way original, but have you been wearing orange this summer as well? If not, what would you say is your signature summer colour?

kittytokaren

Many, many pictures of OPI Rally Pretty Pink

I spent most of the three days I wore this staring at my nails. Staring at them indoors, staring at the outdoors, staring at them during the day, staring at them during the night... and taking photos of most of that process.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink (outdoors in direct sunlight)

(outdoors in indirect sunlight)

(indoors in lightbox)

(indoors, indoor lighting, no flash)

I never thought I'd ever go so nutty over a pink shimmer! But it's so much more than just a pink

shimmer. It's a ton of gold foil (and green shimmer, perhaps?... though that might just be a trick of the light) suspended with a pink-purple jelly that can look like a slightly dusty magenta or a really rich red-leaning purple, depending on light and angle. Three coats -- could've used a fourth because it's jelly and the more you put on, the more shimmer you get! But three coats was sufficient. There was no color that it looked like "most of the time" (hence the many photos in different types of lighting situations). So changeable, so lovely. It sparkles so hard, it burns.

My lame nail art.

For some reason, I had the urge to engage in some nail art recently. Little nail art. Nail art is usually way, way, way out of my comfort zone, but I felt a burst of creativity! My mani at the time was Essie Geranium (which is actually much more orange-toned that this pic would suggest). I added three little dots of Essie Turquoise & Caicos on each thumb using a bobby pin.

Essie Geranium + Turquoise & Caicos

I thought the result was fairly cute and went well with my turquoise jewelry!

And yes, I took this picture in my car...I wasn't going to share it at first but then I felt like snapping a pic at the wheel. However, I was parked in a parking lot! Don't ogle your nails and drive ladies!

Please don't judge too harshly - nail art is not my thing! Have you tried any nail art lately?

kittytokaren

Dior Nirvana

Dior Nirvana

Nirvana indeed! A wonderful teal polish that has a very subtle but very real blue shimmer. I'm so glad Dior has started releasing more interesting shades because for awhile there, I was afraid I would have to start to enjoy reds, pinks and beiges in order to ever get a Dior Vernis fix. :P Two coats. Looked great for all four days I wore it.

Closeup of Nirvana

I took maybe two dozen photos with the express goal of trying to capture the shimmer. You can kind of see it in this closeup photo. I didn't even notice the shimmer when I applied it. I only realized it was a shimmer polish when I got out in the sun. (It was a great moment because my first thought was, "Aw, man, did I accidentally get some shimmer polish mixed up with my Diamont again??" (No, I didn't.)