Deborah Lippmann - Mermaid's Kiss

OK, I'm a bad blogger. I've just had the most odd couple of weeks. I do have new puppies on the way, T Minus 2 days and counting! I haven't had puppies in the house in 15 years and I missed most of those because I was in Chicago then. I am very excited. This no dog thing is torture. I've never been through this before. We've always had more than one dog! So we have two coming, not litter mates, but half sisters. I am planning to do a lot of spoiling.

I'm still working through all the swatches I did for you guys, I have a ton. I'm just not motivated to sit and do pictures. If someone would edit the pictures as I like I'd be able to sit and write....but the control freak OCD neurotic in me just wouldn't really do that. I have to do it!

On with the show.

Mermaid's Kiss...This is another of the Mermaid polishes, duh. I just knocked something heavy off my desk. Whatevs.

This is the pink one. My first impressions are that it's really pretty sheer. If you're into that, this can be worn that way, I have some swatches.

Pretty, right? These are mirror glitters, they're very flashy, and the polish itself has a lot of shimmer to it.

This is a much better shot, really. I've been trying to introduce more interest to my swatches, are you feeling it?

You can see the pink, the pink glitters and if you cross your eyes a little you might see some green flash. This definitely has a kind of watery feel.

Interestingly enough, this is only two coats. Odd, huh? I never expected that kind of coverage given the sheer look of just one coat, but here it is. You can also see that it's pretty chunky, but some Gelous will fix that if you don't like it.

Sorry, a little blurry, but very color accurate.

Last and best swatch. Here is what annoyed me about this. Look at the glitter distribution. Really good on pointer and birdie. Not bad on ring. Dismal on pinkie and no matter what I seemed to, short of globbing a bunch of polish on there, I couldn't get more. I don't know why that is. I guess be careful as you apply and don't let this happen to you!

What do you think? Pretty, right? I love the flash, which you can kind of see here, and I love the color, it's good on my skin tone. Miserable to get off, though. Miserable. Most glitters are, I'm afraid. I've taken to soaking in acetone. I know, I hate that but it seems actually less damaging than scrubbing at it. I only put it in a cuticle dish deep enough to submerge the nails and I don't leave them there. I dip and wipe and dip and wipe. It seems to work. Just hit the cuticle oil and hand cream heavily afterward.

Happy Talons!

Illamasqua I'mPerfection - Scarce

Scarce is pink. I'm not a huge fan of pinks, but it's good. It's a pretty kind of pink. I don't usually turn pinks down, but they don't draw my eye at first.

This is another that will do OK as a sheer, if that's the look you're after. You know I hate that so moving right along...

Blurry....see, swatching the collection was a nightmare! Not because of the lacquers it was other things, lighting...focus...it was really difficult for some reason. I don't know. All the same, you can see here that this has that same magical Illamasqua formula that is controlling and distributing the glitters but not eating them alive. You can see that the lower layers do get covered some, how could you prevent it? But there is dept in that look.

Once again, I didn't shift these around at all. Those glitters fall where they fall, so nicely, and sometimes in a cute curl like on the ring finger there! It's sort of like random nail art. This is a fun one. This one also really shows off those little micro glitters in there.

And because of the crappy swatching issues I had, these are all the shots of this I wound up with. Nice, huh? Some days are just like that.

I like this one but it's probably my least favorite of the group. It performs just like the others and while I do like this more saturated shade of pink I think I'd have to be in the mood to wear this. I'm not going to choose it at random.

Happy Talons!

Models Own - Tropical Sun

I think I mentioned yesterday that I have been looking at some different cruelty free brands and this is one. They advertise themselves to be "Furry Friendly" and go on to explain if you click on it, that they do not use animal products or test on animals. Good enough!

I don't honestly know how long this brand has been around but I've seen it on other blogs and there are some rather spectacular colors. This is a British company which means overseas shipping and they do charge for it. Quite a lot. So I didn't screw around. I bought a bunch and made the shipping feel more worth it. Also, as it was my first order I was able to get a free black eye liner which helped with the shipping sting as well. I picked up the Beetlejuice collections, both of them, plus the Hed Kandi collection. Today I decided to try Tropical Sun. It's a peach so it's springy, but it definitely has a hot feel to it.

I thought, too, since I'm always telling you the mechanics of a manicure that I should show you what these steps look like, but I think I will make that a separate post as it would make this very picture heavy and keep you from looking at something you might really be interested in. So without further ado, here is Models Own - Tropical Sun:

It's a lovely pinky orange sort of thing. It's really very complex.

Here is one coat over everything I'll show you in the next post:

OK...very sheer, and very pink. It's really not this pink going on. It took me awhile but I figured it out. Between the natural sunlight from the window and the flash...pink. But that's OK because there really is quite a bit of pink in it.

A closer one coat shot. Let's see what we have here...a pink sheer with a yellow gold flash. OK...I buy that. I also feel a sort of green in this. Does that make sense? I don't detect green consciously, but it feels very green...and very hot. If this color had a temperature it would be hot. White hot.

Two coats and looking very pink here. It really honestly isn't and I can show you that in a bit. Just hang with me because these pink shots DO help explain the polish some. This is the pink in the peach. In normal every day lighting you will never see this pink but it's in the polish. It's there and it's what gives the color depth.

A two coat shot. I think I was still deciding if three was going to be the way to go. I did three and more, actually, but we'll get there. I'm still using a flash here.

Here is what happens when wonder genius (me) takes the flash off:

Ah. The actual color. But see what is happening? It's like a duochrome effect, with gold flash. THe pink is in there but it's not that noticeable. However...those bubbles are. I barely shook this so what is up with the bubbles? Oh where ohr where is that Twit in the Beret when I need her?

My right hand was better able to be in the sunlight from the window where I was sitting and this shows the color beautifully. You can also see what a rubbish paint job I typically do, but regardless, this is a great representation of the color. There is a lot happening here but it's very wearable. This is three coats. Three coats gave a nice opacity. Two might have been OK, but I like three better.

Less light here, but a nice show of the color in low light. It becomes more tangerine, which is also very pretty. I was wondering what this would do on someone who could generate a tan. I cannot. I will be this ghostly no matter what. Redhead. But it's pretty on me, I think.

A nice bottle shot. Ugh. The bubbles! I will walk you through how I attempted to fix that.

The bottom label shot. Note the pink at the top of the bottle. Fascinating!

Mechanics:

1 coat Models Own 3in1 - It came with the set.
1 coat Nailtiques 2 Plus
2 coats Seche Rebuild
3 coats Models Own Tropical Sun
1 coat Models Own 3in1

The 3in1...hm. Well....it was a nice base coat. We'll see how it wears. As a top coat...it wasn't bad, but it was slow to dry. Not terrible, but remained tacky. I had a dinner to put on and tacky wasn't going to cut it. Plus, I had those bloody bubbles. So. I put on a fourth coat of Tropical Sun and then a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Here are the results of that in natural sunlight:

OK, blurry but neat photo. The camera focused on the barn wall and not my fingers. However, this does show the glow this polish has. It looks like a Tropical Sun. Isn't that great? No hint of the pink we saw before but without it this wouldn't work, I don't think. It's really quite lovely.

Against the black top. A nice glowy peach. You can see here how wearable this is.

Now all we need to do is see how it wears. Now...with the fourth coat of lacquer over the top coat it should wear very well. I find that is a cute little trick to get the most out of your polish. I've already had a casualty, however, where it apparently didn't dry all the way through and got pushed back on one nail and bungled on another. I didn't take pics. We'll see how it does over all. I need to go make a repair attempt on these two and we'll go from there.


Some notes on the packaging. The bottles come individually shrink wrapped. At first I was really not amused by this. What a nuisance! Then I thought of the LCN debacle. They keep emailing me and I keep not ordering from them. I'm not wasting my money on polish that comes open and spilled all over. I suppose the shrink wrap system DOES prevent that. I was grumbling inwardly because I almost always ruin a nail getting that crap off when..what did I spy?

 Check it! It's a little pull handle! I should have known. The company IS purported to be owned by models, which means they have probably applied a layer of lacquer or two in their day which means...they may know my pain! This was painless!

Pull the little tab and Voila!:

It comes down the little perforations like a dream. Un-zips in a lovely way and no split nails over it. Nice.

The formula was...runny. Not terrible, not watery like the horrible experience with Spa Ritual but runny enough. Several times I had to stop and re-dab the brush because polish was running down the wand. It wasn't hard to control but you had to pay attention. Which probably explains why I have lacquer all over me. I was trying to root on Tony Kanaan (Maybe next year is your year, baby! You keep driving like you drive! Third is COMPLETELY respectable at the Indy!) and I wasn't fully focusing on my paint. Sorry, but I've been pulling for Tony to get an Indy win for over a decade now. I just love to watch him drive. And no, I've not met him personally but when you root someone on faithfully for 11 years you FEEL like you're on a first name basis. The drivers I met in my youth (and my parents wilder days) are now coaching from the pits. But I always root for Tony.

I suspect if I left the top off this for about an hour it would thicken up nicely and be a breeze. It was kind of annoying but it wasn't unbearable.

So let's see how it wears!

Happy Talons!!

Fun Stuff from Illamasqua for the Holidays

Illamasqua is one of my favorite make-up brands. I live in a pretty small town, we have a Sephora in our JC Penney's. I know, right? It has a nice Urban Decay set up, if you can get around the tweens trying to be grown-up, and tons of perfume. I call it Ulta Lite, because it is not offering me anything my local Ulta does except a Nars display, which I won't use because Nars is owned by Shisheido, Shisheido animal tests...you know the drill. So, unless I want to fight off the tweens, I usually just go to Ulta because it's on my way home and it's in an outdoor mall and I have a friend that works at one of the anchor stores there.

The moral of that long story is, that because I live in BFE, I can't wander down to my local Sephora and browse Illamasqua, which is the only place you can get it in the US. Unlesssss......you have the INTERWEBS! Yay Interwebs! I get little deals and steals and coupons and sales from Illamasqua, which if you read this blog at all regularly, you know I sometimes curse them for because I can't turn down Illamasqua.

This year they did a couple of little lip sets. I picked up one because bright red lips on me are OK, but I don't prefer it and the other set was bright red. Very sexy if you're Scarlett Johansson, not so great on me, especially if it clashes with my red hair. So...I went with the pinky purply thing, which was VERY pretty.

I know I don't normally do a lot of make-up reviews. Next to none, if you want the truth, but I thought these were pretty and maybe you guys get bored only seeing nails all the time.

If you have never ordered from Illamasqua.com, let me show you what you are in for. Like most devoted make-up and nail hounds, I am a sucker for pretty packaging, shipping, etc. It's all a part of the love. Illamasqua, being almost a cult following, but a VERY classy act, does a fun job. First you will get a matte black cardboard box, complete with a Royal Mail label and a customs declaration.
When you open it, you see this:

Everything is covered in black tissue paper. Peel the paper off and you'll see your order, nicely arranged:

These are packed in a nest of black streamers:

It's just fun and true to the spirit of the brand and I love getting them. It's silly, I know, but it adds something.

So I present: Illamsqua Midnight Kisses:

My lipgloss shifted in the shipping. Oh well.

Now you know you have Welt lipstick and Rouse lipgloss. Don't you love the names?

Once you get through all the pretty packaging, you wind up with these two. I've read other blogger's reviews and their not liking the packaging for Illamasqua. I do like it. Everything is in black, which shows off the colors best, and it's all practical and easy to grasp and use. I also really love that you're not paying for silly mini makeup brushes in anything that you won't use. No useless sponge applicators in the eye shadows and no too small for anything brushes in the blush. I think they know that if you're seeking out a brand such as Illamasqua, you're not a casual make-up user, you are serious about it and you want the good stuff. You already have your brushes of choice (mine are a combination of Estee Lauder, Chanel and Urban Decay) and you use them for everything. Well done. The price I pay is all product and I like that.
The lipgloss tubes are some that I like. They're clear, they're soft and you can see exactly what color you have and how much of it is left. This is a beautiful thing. I always end up feeling like Illamasqua is made by people who actually use make-up, not that it's designed to make me buy it. I like that, too.

Plus, I always get great service from them. They're on top of my issues. I'd love to tell you I'd never had any, but they are still rather small and issues sometimes happen. Last time I even got a personal note and a free lipgloss for the trouble. How do you not love that? Especially since they weren't getting angry emails from me, they were getting "Hey, I still don't have that? Can I get a status?" emails. I wasn't mad and I wasn't threatening to leave the brand. But they made it right anyways, and they did it with class. What's not to love?

Welt is gorgeous. I mean...fuschia-purple. Lovelovelovelovelove!

If you've never used Illamasqua, it's the most perfect layering make-up I've ever found. As strong as this looks in the tube, it will go on sheer and then you just keep applying until you get it as dark as you want it.

This is a couple swips, you can see where it's darker in spots. I did that on purpose so you could see the layering ability of this make-up. Not to mention, it's creamy and light, it feels like nothing more than a good lip balm.

A sheer lip gloss to Illamasqua is exactly that. It's sheer. These can be on the sticky side, but I've never found them goopy or uncomfortable to wear. You will want to touch up the lip gloss, though. I am a lip biter, which is why you will never see these on my lips on a swatch, so if you also tend to the licking biting habit....Minds out of the gutters! Focus! then you will want to reapply often. I don't mind this, personally. It helps keep me from biting.
As you can see, Rouse is quite pretty on it's own, and note...more color where I've layered it up.


Together, these are quite striking:

Pretty! This is pretty pretty princess pretty. Wearable, too. This is easily work OK. With a pretty lighter plum lip liner blended in, you can create the look on the box with no trouble at all.

Definite. Love.

Happy Lipses!!

Deborah Lippmann - Whatever Lola Wants

Lola gets...and little man, little Lola wants YOU....Make up your mind to have no regrets....and how could you have any regrets with this polish. I kinda was putting off getting this one. I confess, I picked it up to pad an order to get free shipping. Erp. Well, the whole Kelly Ripa design thing kinda threw me off, I barely know who she is, just she's this very very skinny person on those appliance commercials, like we're supposed to believe she a. eats actual food that can be cooked, and b. uses her own appliances. I mean, maybe she does, what do I know, but I was like...who is she and why would I want her nail polish?
Well, cause it's gorgeous. It's not really my thing, I generally eschew all sheers but if you put this over an opaque pale pink cream you'd have something. It's pretty on it's own, too. However, as an avid polish wearer, discoloration isn't new to me and sheers don't work with that. It's like you're trying to cover up a 2 pack a day habit and it just doesn't look pretty. Opaques...polish addicts usually go for opaques.

Pale pink. But it looks like icicles! Pale pink icicles. I loved this. It was like brushing on diamond dust, and if you know Lippmanns, you know diamond dust is a real possibility.

This would be a really lovely color for like, a wedding. I don't plan on ever having one of those but you guys might and this would be a good color to keep in mind if you are doing a traditional wedding. Elegant shimmer, won't detract from the flowers, dress or ring.

See how pretty? Dries smooth, too. The microshimmery particles in there probably would not be dulled down with top coat, either, but you might try a nail before you commit. This is VERY sheer, I think this is 2 coats, I don't know what it would take to get to opaque if you even could. I'd be surprised if you pulled that off.

Little blurry to show the sparkly iciness. I really do like this quite a lot. It's mesmerizing.

See that dark spot on the index nail? Just as aside that is a stray piece of Shake Your Groove Thing. Those glitters are beautiful, but GOD are they hard to get off! And the glitter sticks to everything. You, the dog, the carpet, the walls. It's everywhere. Ugh.

So back to Lola...like her? I think she'd like you! This would look good on anyone because it's so pale and so sheer, it's just going to work with whatever color nail beds you have. Mine happen to be pink so it looks more pink but I think if you were of a darker skin tone it would work well with that as well. You can't beat sparkle!

Happy Talons!

Cult Nails Devious Nature

I did do a swatch of Cult Nails Devious Nature. There seemed to be a lot of interest in it according to the sort phrases that are bringing readers to this little blog, so I thought, maybe I should give you all what you're after! It is beautiful, it was hardly a hardship!

In the bottle, I thought this might have a fuschia kind of flash to it, but it doesn't translate to the nail at all. Instead, I think it gives the polish a richness of color. This is a bright and flashy Barbie pink. It has hints of blue in it that in some lights gives it a lavender kind of feel but it's definitely pink.

Please don't mind the nail line there, that isn't this polish. I had swatched about 9 before this, most of them dark. I also somehow managed to pick up the non-acetone remover...better for your nails? Certainly. As good at removing lacquer? Not a chance. So I had some build up there...if it wasn't for that, this would have no VNL.

Isn't that pretty? It went on so nicely, it's a really creamy formula, one that I enjoyed working with. See how nice my cuticles look? That's not my skill, that's the result of a really easy to manipulate lacquer.

Here's another shot of it:

See what I mean about the blue? However, you couldn't call this anything but pink. It's really pretty. It's a very wearable color. It's not in your face but it's vibrant and alive. I suspect that just about any skintone could carry this off well and it can take you from work to an interview to dinner and not be out of place at any one. Very nice.

Here's one more pic to show the nice saturation of color:

This is two coats. You can do a third but I can't say I think the color would be intensified. Did I mention how creamy this is? It shows!

I look forward to actually wearing a Cult Nails polish to see what the wear is like. As this is a swatch, all I have here are two coats of color nothing else. That shine is all the lacquer's doing. Nice, huh?

Happy Talons!

Rescue Beauty Lounge L'Oiseau de Feu - Poco a Poco

The next color in the Rescue Beauty Lounge L'Oiseau de Feu collection is Poco a Poco. It's a dusty rose pink with an amazing dark pink flash on it. It's stunning. It was also really hard to photograph!

Here you can see the base color. It's really pretty but when you catch the flash on top, it's amazing. You can see a touch of it on the pinky there.

You can see here how it has changed from the initial picture. This one is a bit of a chameleon. It's really pretty. I am not sure it's the best color ON me...but I love it.


I tried to get a bottle shot that showed the flash, I think this one does...

You can see that in there...is that red? I think it's just a really vibrant pink. It does translate nicely on the nail but I could not get it to show. I have a blurry one that if you look hard and cross your eyes you can maybe see a hint:

I think you can see some traces...

This is a lovely color. If you like this look at all, it's well worth checking out. This would be a two coater, maybe three, depending.

Happy Talons!

A-England Iseult - It FINALLY chipped!

A-England Iseult is a Rock of Gibraltar lacquer, apparently. It's this very pretty pearly delicate pink. It's so pink that it's almost EFF YOU! I'm PINK! See for yourself:

ETA: Something ate this picture, it's just gone. :(

You can see a little weirdness on the tip of the middle finger...please ignore that. I had trouble with that nail. It just wouldn't dry. I think it was something funky with how I applied that nail because the others were just fine. I don't know really, what happened there.
The pink is actually a lot more intense than it looks here. The color is much more saturated than this. Iseult was an elusive color to photograph, she just wouldn't really cooperate. This was fresh last Sunday.

By Wednesday I was going...what is the deal with this stuff, it's awesome!

See any tip wear there? Yeah. me neither. This was Day Three at work. I think my Seche is getting old, you can see some lift there on the index finger...hm. Well, this picture looks a tad too dark, actually. The real shade is somewhere between these two.

Today it finally chipped. It's Saturday. This manicure is 7 days old, my chicas.

No wear at all. Nothing visible. I guess I should have included the thumb as well, but it shoes no real wear, either.

Here's the right:

You can see I got a mouse bite out of my pinky nail. I missed my regular manicure this week so this is pretty normal for me when they start to get this long. You can see the polish is weakening on the middle finger but it hasn't peeled and you would never notice this if it wasn't such an extreme close up. Unfortunately, I got a shadow on this swatch but it really shows what's happening so well. I have another of this hand with a flash...

This is an OK representation of the color. Unfortunately the lens chose to focus on my hand and not my nails, but you can see what you need to see from this.

So yeah. SEVEN days. Can you believe that? I am starting to get really sick of it, honestly! :p The next color won't be pink...Pale and delicate Iseult wearing like titanium. Pretty awesome.
This is really very pretty. You can see in some of these swatches the tiny particles that make it pearly and soft. Every single one of these shows a different aspect of Iseult's personality, I guess. This is all the same manicure, I promise you.

The mechanics of it were:

1 Coat Seche Base coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
3 coats A-England Iseult, though 2 would have done. I did 3 to intensify the color and I think it looks a bit better, but 2 would do it.
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

This is all with the exception of the left index finger which will be growing out its repair for some time. That one I did 2 coats Orly nail armor instead of everything up to the color, then 3 coats of color, etc.

The application was nice. This is a thicker polish, there wasn't anything tricksy about it, but I find that A-Englands tend to have some "heft" to them, so to speak. They're highly pigmented, they cover well and they go on thick. I don't mind that in a polish, I find it a lot easier to control than watery, that's for sure.

I have not been a good nail mommy, I haven't reapplied top coat, I haven't done anything. It just wore really really well. Impressively, in fact. I'm pleased I picked up this line.

I hope you like it! Happy Talons!

Deborah Lippmann Get This Party Started!!

I managed to score this set on the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. It was exclusive at that time, but it probably will not stay that way. It's pretty awesome if you don't already have Happy Birthday, which I don't. Didn't...I do now. Obviously. K, I'm clearly hitting the dork level of tired.

Check it out!

The Lippmann collections come in these fun boxes, this one with music on it. They are, from left to right: Happy Birthday, Candy Shop and Forget you. The concept is the Happy Birthday glitter arrangement in different bases.

Happy Birthday is a freaking icon of the polish world, it's all different colors, shapes and sizes of glitter in a clear base. The glitter is mucho dense in this but it makes a fun top coat for most everything. I did not already have this as I don't often wear glitters. As a part of a set and for a discount I was willing to take the plunge.

Candy Shop is in a Candy Pink base. I haven't played with these but that looks pretty opaque to me...hmmm. I wonder how that will play out on the nail. It doesn't look like it buries the glitter.

Forget you, which I just love the concept of, is the same glitter but in a black jelly base. How just perfect is that? The whole thing lays out a story for you. Girl loses guy and paints her nails in Forget You, a black jelly that matches her mood and compliments her somewhat dangerous outlook but is littered with multi-colored sparkly goodness saying "I'm having fun without YOU, bud." Good for you, girl! It just screams I don't need you!! and who among us hasn't felt like making that statement at least once? If you can say you haven't then you're twelve. Or a nun.

It's kismet, lads. The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated just came on!!! ROFLMAO!!!! I love the Ramones.

Here's another shot:

Aren't those great? See all the great glitter in there, the different sizes and shapes? Deborah Lippmann does fantastic glitters and the new additions here are no exceptions. However, in this closer pic, you can see that Candy Shop isn't displaying the glitter as aggressively as the other two...interesting. I want to see this on the nail but not right now because it's too late to go fixing my whole manicure. Maybe this weekend or when this mani gives out.

I think I gotta go with Forget You as the fave here....I'd love to see that over a grey or a white....Interesting!  Mmm, possibly the Fall Lippmann Stormy Weather? Maybe that would be too dark....Hmmmm. I feel a polish play session coming on!

Thoughts?

Happy Polishing!

butterLONDON Mehbeth with Rosie Lee

K, you know I wasn't overwhelmed with love for Macbeth...it's pretty...it looks good on me...meh.

Well, after ruining it cleaning up the LCN mess (see the post after this) I tried one nail with some glitz:

Ah. Maybe that's what I wanted it to do. This is butterLondon Rosie Lee, which is a lovely clear pink with dense pink glitter. I only did this one nail because it's the only one that wasn't trashed from the acetone but I think it's kind of fun. I don't know that I'd actually wear them like this....I might do.

Here's another pic:

The glitter in Rose Lee is kind of chunky and has a lot of color, as you can see here. It looks almost gunmetal, doesn't it? It gives Macbeth a little glamour!
I feel bad. There really is nothing at all wrong with Macbeth. It's very appropriate and will get you through any occasion. It just doesn't make me do the happy talon dance.

Here's one last shot:

Hmm.


Any thoughts?

Happy Talons!