Fourth of July Nails

Happy 4th of July everyone!  

I hope everyone is enjoying the day.  Our morning started off with going over to city hall to see the 4th of July parade; followed by a nice brunch out.  We got back home and got all the prep done for the BBQ.  While my hubby is manning the grill, I thought I come by with a quick post.

Dior Venis Electric Blue 606

The boldest and brightest blue nail polish I own.  This is Electric Blue, one of five colors from Dior's limited edition collection, inspired by Anselm Reyle, a German contemporary artist.

Two years ago, I would have shyed away from this color. It was much too bright, and perhaps a little too shocking for me to wear. However, today it's a totally different story. I am quite a bit more daring when it comes to nail color. I don't mind my nails making an entrance before I do.

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Pride

Deciding on what I was going to wear on my nails for Memorial Day was easy.  My newly acquired bottle of Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Pride was the obvious choice.  Plus it was sitting there, on top of my computer desk, just screaming to be worn.

Pride is described "a patriotic mixture of red, white and blue glitters in various shapes and sizes, topped off with a hearty dose of star shaped glitter."  This is one of seven limited edition glitter shades, from the summer collection, Seven Deadly Sins.  I am proud, not ashamed to say, I have acquired six out of the seven in the collection.

Lush Lacquer Party Rockin'

Another newly discovered indie brand I'm just trying for the first time.  I picked up 3 colors from the Lush Lacquer store on Etsy.  Karin and Lexi are the owners of the Lush Lacquer, a mother and daughter "best friend" duo that creates fabulous glitter combination nail polish.  How wonderful is that?!

Party Rockin' immediately caught my eyes as I quickly tore into my package.  I knew it was going to be a winner when I first ordered it, but seeing this in person was beyond amazing.  Just wow!  I could not wait to wear this one.  My mind immediately begin surveying the colors I could pair this with.  So many options and I was at a loss for a color.  But after a couple of days of consideration, I decided to pair it with another newly arrival color.

Dior Vernis Garden Party Collection: Waterlily 504 and Forget-Me-Not 694

From Dior Garden Party, the spring 2012 collection includes two new limited-edition colors:  Waterlily and Forget-Me-Not.  I have to say the colors were very well chosen.  They captured the essence of a spring garden perfectly.  When I look at the colors, my mind immediately conjures up images of a Claude Monet painting.  Beautiful.

Not only are these colors visually appealing, Dior decided to appeal to another one of our senses... smell.  By now, I'm sure you have all heard these are scented.  Again, taking the garden theme to heart, these carry a subtle scent of roses.

I know, I'm a little late to Garden Party.  I originally wrote off the collection, not because I didn't find the colors beautiful, but because I'm not much of a pastel color wearing gal.  As always, something about Dior colors always end up pulling me in...  I gave up fighting and grabbed the colors.  So shall we get started?

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven

Deborah Lippmann released six new colors in her Holiday collection for 2011.  Stairway to Heaven is one of the six colors, and also a limited edition.  It's a mix of square and hexagonal iridescent glitter suspended in a milky white base.  You can see it in the bottle how it flashes a multitude of soft pretty colors.

Chanel Le Vernis Blue Rebel

Since my earlier post of Chanel Blue Boy, I thought I would show the other color I picked up from Les Jeans de Chanel collection.  Although not completely unique, Blue Rebel is my favorite color out of the trio in the collection.   It may be due to my preference for darker colors in general, but I just loved the color in the bottle.

Chanel Le Vernis Blue Boy

For 2011's Fashion Night Out, Chanel released a trio of blue nail colors in a collection called Les Jeans de Chanel.  A limited edition, and sadly for us, retailed at a higher price point at $29 a bottle.  I had to overcome my sticker shock, which didn't take long really, and submitted my order immediately after it was made available on the Chanel website.  Even with all frenzy and excitement of this release, I was able to show some restraint and picked-up only 2 of the colors from the collection; the other being Blue Rebel.  I couldn't justify putting down another $29 for Coco Blue, a color I know will not look good on me.

Blue Boy is the medium blue crème in the set.  It is slightly faded, muted medium tone blue.  I love the touch of grey in it; the dusty blue color really does resemble a pair of broken-in comfy jeans.

The formula was a little thinner than usual, so the first coat was a bit streaky.  A second was very much need to even the color out.  I actually used a third coat here.  I actually found this pretty quick drying for a creme, and I really didn't need a top coat for added shine, so I skipped it.  I don't own many blues in the medium tone, so I know I don't have any dupes.  I absolutely love the dusty quality of this color, and would be wearing it again come spring.

Chanel Le Vernis Graphite 529

This past weekend, I had a intimate company holiday dinner to attend.  I bypassed the glitter since I didn't want anything too flashy.  Then I realized my bottle of Graphite has been sitting in the drawer for months, and it would be the perfect color to wear for my event.

From the Illusion d’Ombres, fall 2011 collection, Graphite, limited edition color, is a metallic mix of silvery-pewter and gold, very foil-like and glittery shimmers.

The formula was really nice.  I usually find foil-like colors to be very watery and sheer, but Graphite seemed to have a better consistency than most I've tried to date.  As nice as the formula is, it's not a one coat polish.  A second coat is needed to even out the color.  Graphite may look a bit gritty to the eye, but it's not; it dried to an absolute smooth finish.

I found the color to be very pretty, even though it's not the most flattering shade on me.  I think it brings out the warm tones in  my skin, though I tend to be more cool-neutral.  However, I will say this is a very elegant and classy color, perfect for a celebration.

Butter London The Black Knight

The Black Knight is one of three colors from the Holiday 2011, limited edition collection.  Not sure what happened to my bottle, but looks like all the purple glitter decided to collect itself in area, but it's still pretty, right?  Even with all it's beauty I know there has been some mixed reviews on this one.  Despite of the less favorable reviews, I still had to run out and get it; and I was also very determined to make it work.

I was very prepared when it came time to try it out, making sure I had what I needed to make this color as beautiful as I hoped it would be.  It's a black base packed with multi-colored glitter, a perfect combination.  I used three coats; and as expected, it dried to a gritty finish, looking a little flat on the nail.  That was easily solved with a nice thick coat of Gelous, and finishing it off with two coats of Poshe Top Coat.  I would admit that this was a high maintenance polish, but really, it's totally worth it!

Just look all the beautiful glitter shimmering throughout the nails!  The multi-color glitter really pops against the black base.  Seriously, my picture is not doing this mani any justice whatsoever. 

I loved the way it looked on my nails.  I couldn't stop staring at it.  It was so magical looking and festive.  It totally reminded me of driving around the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas lights at night.  It's so amazingly beautiful, I can't really explain it.  I really do think this is the PERFECT holiday color.  All the extra layers was so worthwhile when the end result is so beautiful.  I will definitely wear this one again.  Next time, I'm going to try layering it over a base of black.