August 15, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Boy this page looks bright and colorful!
When Dior originally came out with their wide brush, I was concerned. Once I tried it, I was relieved. However, recent collections have me rescinding my praises of this brush. I think the quality control has plummeted since these wide brushes were introduced. They no longer have perfectly rounded edges – alot have pointy edges which give you a jagged line at the cuticles. They no longer have a uniform thickness – bristles are concentrated in different areas of the brush. They no longer splay beautifully – this makes the sides of the nail difficult to cover. The Dior Summer Mix is stunning. But it was marred by the horrid application due solely to the brushes.
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August 13, 2012 – 12:00 pm
This is the last of my “ready-to-go-but-never-published” posts that was languising during my sabbatical.
Between sales and a few eye-catching colors, I’ve recently ended up purchasing alot more Revlons than I have in quite a while. I think a good number of these are older colors, despite the “New Shade” skickers on the bottle caps.
Angelic was a light pink irridescent that went on in 3 coats. This contained a nice opacity for this type of color which usually doesn’t.
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August 10, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Yves Saint Laurant (which will be referred to as YSL from this point on because I’m a lazy typist) has recently come out with a plethora of colors for thier La Laque Couture Line. I was pretty excited about this because their last few offerings (here and here) were a departure from the mainstream colors I had come to expect from YSL.
Now, most of the colors offered were creams. Fortunately, I’ve turned a leaf and am not the anti-cream person I have been and was willing to try a few out.
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August 8, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Today I’m showing you a fairly old Asian exclusive and a fairly new re-issue. And as it happens, together, they are perfect harmony.
I had a lively discussion with the Nordstrom’s Dior rep about Saint Tropez when it was recently re-released.
“It’s new,” said she.
“No,” said I, “It’s re-released.”
“No, I just came out,” she insisted.
“Nope, it was introduced with the opening of the Saint Tropez Dior store,” I countered.
“Really?”
“Really.”
If I remember correctly, this color originally came out during the summer time some where in 2011. It only showed up in the Saint Tropez store and for the breifest moment on the Dior site. Then it was gone, except for a few $80 bottle sitings on ebay. I was oooh so tempted to bid, but exercised self control. Then the 2012 spring line, Saint Tropez was re-introduced. Thank goodness I hadn’t spent that $80 on ebay. I would have had to gargle the color in disgust.
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August 6, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Bobbi Brown’s City Twilight was a polish that was introduced with a Nordstrom’s Anniversary set. I don’t know if they are ever going to release it solo – I didn’t really want to risk that they weren’t. Fortunately, I liked the colors of the pallette and figured I could use it in my travel cosmetics bag. And who can’t use an extra mascara and eyeliner?
I haven’t actually used any of the items in this set other than the polish. So I can’t exactly speak to them. But the polish itself is gorgeous. Good thing, otherwise I might have regretted purchasing the set.
City Twilight’s name seems to be in keeping with the Desert Twilight collection that was released recently. But this one does seem a bit more corporate while still maintaining some zip. It’s a light beige foil-like color that flashes pink and gold. Work appropriate but not boring. Shown is two coats.
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August 3, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Icy Dew and Glacier were both part of the Spring 2012 Icy Halos collection that was released in Asia. Of course that meant hunting high and low for these to colors.. which invariably ended up with me making a purchase on eBay.
From what I gather (and I’m certainly not the expert as I usually don’t follow foreign makeup lines with the exception of polishes), Dior came out with a line called Diorsnow, designed to lighten the skin. But enough about the product line, let’s talk about the polishes.
These two polishes are soft delicate colors shown at two coats. Icy Dew is a sheer white, even at three coats. But that definately doesn’t detract from it’s beauty. I think for a sheer, it has the perfect balance of opacity. Glacier is a soft blue and is completely opaque at three coats. The application on both of these were nice – I didn’t experience alot of streaking with them.
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August 1, 2012 – 12:00 pm
When I perusing for new polishes, I only give Shu Uemura a half eye as they are so difficult to get in the US. But when I saw these three, I made a concerted effort to get my hands on them.
These don’t have multi-color shimmer, aren’t holographic, don’t have flecks, flakes or flashes. In fact, they don’t have any fabulous effects at all. But I love them.
Shu Uemura’s Celestial Garden polishes are basic pastels with standard shimmer. But the shades are so absolutely perfect and the shimmer is brilliant.
Aroma Pink is a light pink that leans ever so slightly towards coral. This was probably the most sheer of the three. Ray Green is a light mint green that just screams spring. This one was my favorite. Ciel Blue is a light sky blue. It missed being my favorite by a hair.
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I was very much anticipating the release of these new Dior colors. More so than most collections because I had to pre-order them during Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale and then wait for them to arrive. Nothing like a little delay to whet the appitite! Were they worth the wait? Definately. All three of them are deep rich colors that are perfect for autumn (even though two of them are cremes – which I am oddly becoming more and more attracted to).
However, one of the things I uncovered with these dark colors, is that the Dior brush is not as optimal as I had thought. I don’t know if it was these particular brushes on these particular bottles, but I had a hard time getting nice rounded edges. It may have been because the brushes were more pointy than usual or it could be that with the darker colors, it was more noticable.
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I bought a new camera. It’s been sitting in its box for about 4 months now. I hate getting accustomed to new toys when I have such a groove with the old ones. But it was time. I know that once I figure out the new camera, it’ll probably produce better pics. But there’s a learning curve here and you’ll have to bear with me as I get around it.
I’m not a fan of browns. I’m not a fan of cremes. When I saw these colors from Laura Mercier, I really, really wanted them. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it was because the colors reminded me of creamy chocolate. If you see me surreptitiously licking my fingernails while I’m wearing one of these, you’ll know why. Just don’t ask to share.
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The next four Estee Lauder swatches are a mix from both the Metal Mania and Beyond Black collections. I’m a bit confused about Tempestuous. On the Nordstrom site, it belongs to the Metal Mania collection and on the Estee Lauder site, it doesn’t exist.
It’s also very peculiar that Estee Lauder still doesn’t have their polishes available when Nordstrom does. Macy’s now seems to have both collections available, albiet the mysterious Tempestous is again missing. I’m glad I stumbled upon this one by accident.
Both Tempestuous and Smashed have the same type of finish as the other Metal Mania polishes I showed on Monday. Tempestuous is a slate grey base with purple and teal flecks and Smashed is a dark purple base that almost leans to jelly with pink and blue flecks. The mysterious Tempestuous ended up being my favorite out of all the Metal Mania colors. Both of these are shown at three coats.
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