Julep Diane

I received Diane as part of the Julep Maven Box for November 2011.  Actually, this was a shelf pull I requested called Polish Lover Option.  Normally, I am sent the Classic with a Twist box.  Even though the box of goodies I would have received was pretty, I really didn't need a new lipgloss.  Plus, being such a nail polish lover, how could I resist adding three beautiful new colors to my collection?

The Polish Lover Option had 3 colors: Diane, Michelle, and Trina.  Stepping out of my comfort zone, I decided to try Diane first, a dark forest green:

I have such a difficult time finding a nice looking green for me.  Most of the greens I've worn make my hand look terrible.  Despite my many fail attempts to find the perfect green, I continue my search.  When I first put on Diane, I thought it looked nice enough on me.  But looking at my pictures now, I'm not too convinced this is the right green for me.  However, I still can appreciate the beauty of this one.  It's such a lush looking green; any green lover out there would favor this one.

I found the formula on this particular Julep color to be thinner and a bit runny.  Not that it was a terrible thing, but I had to work really fast, or the polish would drip down and pool on the nail.  Aside from the thin formula, the application was nice and smooth.  Just make sure to get as much as the excess polish off the brush, and work fast!

Chanel Le Vernis Impérial 469

I absolutely love this time of the year!  With the cooler temperature and changing colors of leaves, fall is one of my favorite season, along with winter.  This is a time I feel completely justified in reaching for a beautifully dark and vampy color.  Not that I ever stop wearing them in spring and summer, but there's something delicious about wearing dark nail polish in the cooler months.

I wanted something warm and inviting, and Impérial fit the bill perfectly.  I've had Impérial in my collection for close to a year now, I finally reaching for this beautiful color for the first time:

Impérial is a release from the Rouge Allure Laque, winter 2009, collection.  I would call this a decadent color!  It's a gorgeous brown creme with a touch of plum-red undertones.  I say "decadent" because it makes me think of rich milk chocolate, and what girl on this planet does not love chocolates?  I love the creamy one coat formula, but as usual, I'm a two coat gal by habit.  I'm loving this color on my nails; it's perfect with my cozy warm sweater.

Impérial is a discontinued color.  Some counters may still carry a leftover bottle or two; otherwise, eBay is your best bet.

Lancôme Le Gris L'Wren

Last month, while shopping at a outlet mall, I saw a cosmetic outlet store that sold Lancôme.  Hoping to find some discontinued nail polish colors, I walked in scouring for little glass bottles.  They had nothing.  Just as I was about to walk out the store, I see behind the counter on display, L'Wren Scott Pochette Gift Set for Lancôme Holiday Collection 2010.

L'Wren Scott was a former model, now a fashion designer.  The collection she help design was inspired by "the red lip", which she felt was the most iconic symbol of glamour.  Now this collection was totally calling my name.  I love everything about this collection, especially the smokey eyeshadow quad and the beautiful red gloss.  And of course how can I forget about the nail polish?

Le Gris L'Wren is a shimmering metallic grey with blue... or maybe blue with grey?  Either way, I wasn't sure how this would look on me.  At first glance, in the bottle it reminded me a lot of Essie Fair Game, which was absolutely horrendous on me.  Plus the fact that this is a metallic, with an almost frost-like shimmer, the combination of two was like a red flag for me.

This was the color was used on the runway for L'Wren's Fall 2010 fashion show.  I have to say, I was actually pleasantly surprised that I like it on me.  The grey-blue was cool enough to look nice against my skin tone, but still had a bit of warmth to the color without looking strange on me.  This is the first time I've used a Lancôme nail polish, and I have to say the formula was amazing!  It went on the nail like butter, so smooth and easy; also great coverage. With the right application skill, you may only need one coat.  I know this won't be my last bottle of Lancôme nail polish.

There was another nail color released in this collection.  It's called Le Rouge L'Wren, a dark burgundy jelly shimmer with mirco-glitters of gold, red, blue and purple.  I would love to get my hands on a bottle.  I've seen pictures and it's so beautiful, but also because I have a weakness for the vampy reds.


In case you were interested, the L'Wren Scott Pochette Gift Set for Lancôme Holiday Collection 2010 includes the following:

     ~ Ombre Absolue Palette Quad in Les Grid L'Wren
     ~ Hypnose Drama in Black
     ~ L'Absolu Rouge in Le Rouge L'Wren
     ~ L'Abolu Créme De Brilliance in Rouge L'Wren
     ~ Mini Vernis in Le Gris L'Wren
     ~ L'Wren Scott Large Pochette

Revlon Top Speed Mistletoe & Comparison

A few weeks ago, I came across a new Revlon display at my local CVS.  It's their holiday collection called Spice It Up, and there are 8 colors for the Top Speed line.  Two colors peaked my interest and came home with me.  Mistletoe was definitely the stand out in the bunch, and I couldn't wait to put it on.

It's a deep charcoal base with gold shimmers, the combination makes the polish appear deep olive green.  I think this is beautiful color, and one that I have a difficult time resisting.  I know a lot of people complain about Revlon's formula, but I've never had any problems with it.  This one applied just fine for me, with 2 coats, it covered nicely.

After I put Mistletoe on, I thought it reminded me of another color I own.  I grabbed my Zoya Edyta and did comparison, and I also added L'Oreal Owl's Night when I was asked about it:

Next to Edyta, Mistletoe looks less green.  Owl's Night looks brown based and more golden.  A couple of other similar colors that came to mind, which I don't own, are Rescue Beauty Lounge Anne and Nubar Verde.  I'm glad to see this is not a dupe in my collection, and am very happy to be adding it.

Deborah Lippmann Footloose

To celebrate the remake of the 1980's movie Footloose, Deborah Lippmann created a collection of nail colors inspired by the movie.  The Footloose Collection was made exclusively for HSN, and was launched in conjunction with the movie premier.  There are a total of 4 colors, offered in 2 sets:

Almost Paradise (a playful pistachio hue) & Footloose  (a rebellious red hue); Let's Hear It For the Boy (a baby blue hue) & Dancing in the Sheets (a shimmering midnight purple hue).

As tempted as I was, I did not order any of the sets.  I wanted only wanted two colors, which happens to be only one from each of the sets.  I wasn't willing to buy both set, just for 2 colors.  But then, a lovely lady surprised me with a package and gifted me with the red from the collection.

Footloose is a vibrant red, describe as a "sheer crème".  It's definitely not sheer like a jelly, but more sheer than the average crème.  The polish applied beautifully; this was three coats because I don't really like visible nail lines.  Deborah Lippman the inspiration behind this color were the red cowboy boots Ariel wore in the movie.  I have a thing for red nail polish, so this one will fit right in with my collection.

Now about the movie remake...  Being that I grew up in the 80's, I have mixed feelings about all the recent remakes of the movies I grew up with.  My teenage years were spent watching these "classic" 80's movies, so a lot of my teenage memories are tied to them.  I like to remember my movies as is, so I'm not running out to see the updated version of Footloose.  I will eventually watch it once it's available on DVD.

Hey Hollywood... please, please, please, leave The Breakfast Club alone!

OPI Road House Blues

OPI Road House Blues is from the fall 2011 Touring America collection.  A dark blue crème, with some indigo in the base.  The indigo really shows up in certain lighting.  I found that to be especially true, when it came to time to photograph this color.  It took several attempts before I found the right lighting, as to capture what looked to me to be the same color I saw before me.

The formula was great, which is what I would expect from OPI.  Smooth application, with full coverage in 2 coats.  I think this is a fantastic color for the fall/winter season.  I don't have a lot of blues in my collection, but definitely more than your average person, or maybe even the average nail salon.  I was not able to find a dupe.  Some people may think this looks similar to OPI Sapphire in the Snow from Holiday Wishes, the winter/holiday 2009 collection.  Sapphire in the Snow is definitely more purple than Road House Blues, enough to say it worth having both colors.  I will do a comparison in the near future for reference.

Orly Fowl Play

Do you know how long I've lusted after OPI Merry Midnight?  A long time.  It came out before I got crazy addicted to nail polish.  Once I saw it in a nail blog, it made it to my wish list pretty quickly.  I would stalk eBay, but never willing to pay the insane prices.  So you bet I was ecstatic to hear Orly was coming out with what looks to be a very similar color in their Birds of a Feather collection for fall 2011.  Of course getting my hands on a bottle wasn't very easy.  Multiple failed trips to the nearest Ulta, but then I got lucky and found the display stocked.  I grabbed both bottles (gifted one) and left the store smiling from ear to ear.

Look at that deep purple jelly base, packed full with micro-glitter and beautiful flakies.  Depending at the angle of the light, the flakies will flash red, purple and blue, which I see the most; and sometimes gold and green, which you can see in along the side edge of the bottle in my pictures.  From reading different nail blogs, it seems that Fowl Play has a tab bit deeper base than Merry Midnight, so they are not exact dupes.  I'm not complaining because I still find her to be perfectly beautiful.

I am very happy with this color, and I happily cross off OPI Merry Midnight off my wish list.  But let's be honest here, if I ever do happen to stumble upon a bottle of it while dusty shopping, I still will not hesitate to bring it home.  After all, that's what a collector does. 

Nfu Oh 51 over Zoya Sloane

When I first started getting into nail polish, I was strictly a creme formula girl. I wasn't interested in all the different glitter, shimmer, metallic, duo-chrome and foil finishes. They were all too much for me. And holographic you say? What are you talking about? I dubbed myself as being too old for those. I will leave those to the teenagers and the 20 something young women that can wear and get away with just about anything. So nice to be young. But then I saw a picture a gorgeous posted on a nail forum and I just about died! I couldn't wait and had to get myself a bottle of this beauty.

I waited months before I was able to get her; it was always out-of-stock. But when I finally did get my hands on a bottle, I tucked it away for safe-keeping. Well, I had this beauty sitting in my drawer for well over 6 months now, and I finally took her out last week.

This is Nfu Oh 51 layered over Zoya Sloane:

Zoya Sloane is very pretty on her own, but with Nfu Oh 51 layered over it? It absolutely transforms Sloane into something even more stunning. Look at those flakies, duo-chrome flakies to be exact, suspended in blue-purple jelly base. It's too beautiful words, and I have a hard time not staring at it. I call Nfu Oh 51, a magical polish. This is the polish that got me branching out and doing all sorts of crazy nail things.

Jumping Right In

My latest obsession: nail polish.  Well, not quite "latest"... it has been well over a year now.

Since that time, I have acquired so many little beautiful bottles that it has become a little crazy.  Even I have to admit that.  In order defend my collection, I needed to find a purpose for them.  They should be shared in some fashion...  Hey, why not blog about it?  Great idea!  I know, just another nail polish blog, like there needed to be one more (please feel free to insert the eye roll here if necessary).

Here's to my new blog...  Dedicated to working through that little mountain of "untrieds" tucked away somewhere no one can find.  Well, the husband that is.