Barielle Shades Summer 2009 Collection

Summer is looking good so far! Barielle amazed us all with their exceptionally awesome fall collection and that little beauty by the name of Date Night... Oh yeah, remember that one? Fabulous, right?

Now for summer they've given us some bright, cheerful candy colors, two of which are GREEN!!!

For these pictures (with the exception of Lemon Drops) I've taken both an indoor and outdoor photo because the colors seem to pick up slightly different tones in bright sunlight.




Cotton Candy. Soft, girly pink with a hint of shimmer. I love cotton candy (the food) so I have to love this one at least for the name. It is a pretty pink, both bright and playful, but I just don't really do pink.



Decadence. Oh wow. Isn't this gorgeous? It's a medium blue-green shimmer. Does that make it turquoise or aqua? It takes on much more of a green look indoors, but outside in the sunlight the shimmer really lights up and gives off more of a blue tone. So beautiful, like a sparkling sea.




Grape Escape. Grape candy purple creme! This could be a one-coater. Very pigmented. I love purple cremes so much, I am so happy Barielle created this color! This is slightly more of a blue-purple, and it works great with the Konad (more about that in a minute..).



Lemon Drops. I thought I had taken two pictures of this, but apparently not. LOL. It's a sunny lemon yellow creme. Slightly less streaky than other yellows, but still not 100% foolproof. This color is so happy and bright! Not neon at all, and not really muted. Right in between. Love it. I can never get enough yellow.




Sweet Addiction. YESSSS!!!! What a great color! It's a smooth, dreamy turquoise-green creme. Opaque in one coat. So perfect. It is somewhat similar to Misa Dirty Sexy Money, but Sweet Addiction feels less muted. I will compare them. I love them both.



Swizzle Stix. Baby blue creme. I'm wearing this as a pedi right now! It's one of the prettiest sky-blue shades ever. Normally light blues give me a hard time because they make my hands/feet look red but this one is just about perfect on me. The indoor picture is more accurate- it's not a bright blue. It's a soft, light blue, not neon or anything. It's lighter than some of the similar shades I have- OPI Just Groovy and Zoya Yummy.


I mentioned earlier in this post that these polishes work great with the Konad stamp system. Here's a little demonstration of how nice and opaque they are with Konad:


Grape Escape over Sweet Addiction.


Lemon Drops over Grape Escape.

See how nice and crisp the designs are? This polish is the perfect texture for stamping. My designs are messy and uneven, I know. I just wanted to show you that you can Konad with these.

Overall, I think this is a fantastic collection. Two greenish shades, a purple creme, a yellow creme and a sky blue?? How could I not love it??? It's wonderful! Some of the shades are similar to other shades I own, but they are also colors that aren't released very often.

The formula on these is great. Two are opaque in one coat, the rest are two coaters. They're all on the verge of being opaque in one coat, just too much visible nail line at one coat for me to be comfortable. These are very thick, but that works to your advantage in this case. They are thick but smooth and easy to apply and the thickness allows you to do fewer coats. They do take slightly longer to dry with a coat of Seche Vite than some of my other polishes, but not so much that it's frustrating like CND.

I am so excited that Barielle is releasing such lovely colors, it makes me hopeful that we will see more unique shades in the future! After Date Night (and the rest of the fall collection), I have faith in Barielle. They did not disappoint me for summer either! Now I just can't wait to see what they have planned for fall (Yes, I know it's February...).

Another Carolyn New York sale!

Just got this email and thought it would be helpful:


Buy any of Carolyn New York's Original 20 "Classic CNY Colors" for only $1.25 each. Minimum order of 10 bottles. Valid Feb 14-Feb28th.

Carolyn's Classic shades are:

125th Street History
42th Street
Brooklyn
Castle Hill
Columbus Circle
Fashion Week
Lincoln Center
Mulberry Street
Park Chix
Shopping on 5th
Snowing In The Park
Spanish Harlem
Spring Street
Sutton Place
Taking In A Show
The Bronx
Times Square
Tribeca Spirit
West 4th
Window Shopping

So, any of those shade are $1.25 each, minimum order of ten bottles. Pretty good deal.

Oh, though it's worth pointing out that in the last few emails I've gotten from CNY, they proudly advertise, "Free basecoat and topcoat with every order!" Yeah, that's a lie. You won't get them. And also, their cuticle oil is pretty bad, it's basically scented mineral oil. (Just sharing my experience.)

HOWEVER, the polishes are fantastic, the bottles and brushes and formula are perfect.

I'm pretty sure I only have one or two of those shades listed, but here's a picture of the one I have photographed:


Columbus Circle.

Red Glitter

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! I did. I ended up keeping my Nicole I've Got The Power topped with Love Your Life mani from my previous post. I love it so much, I'm still wearing it. This polish wears like iron- I did my mani with no basecoat or topcoat and three days later it barely has visible tipwear and is still smooth and shiny. I'm impressed!

I was thinking about doing a red glitter manicure for Valentine's Day. I am not really a red person, but I love red glitter. There's something about it that's just so pretty and interesting.

One of my favorites is actually a Maybelline polish: Red Comet.




Isn't it pretty? You might need to view it in full size to see the glitter.


Another favorite of mine is Color Club Ruby Slippers:



Not to be confused with another lovely red glitter, Essie Ruby Slipper:




Most red glitter polishes seem to come out around Christmas time, but this one was made for Halloween:



Fright Night Claw Polish Spellbinding Top Coat in Voodoo.

Some of my most favorite red glitter polishes take it to the next level with holographic glitter instead of red glitter in a red base.


Ulta Jingle Bell Rock.



L'Oreal Bijou Crystals B. Daring.


Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Golden Tourmaline. Technically it's a straight holo and has no glitter, but it's sparkly so it counts, right?


These are just a few of the red glitter polishes in my collection. They're just so beautiful, I can't resist them! They look like fire on your nails, or glimmering rubies. They're fascinating. If you're like me and not really into plain red, you might feel differently about red glitter.

Valentine's Day Manicure Ideas from Nicole by OPI

Tomorrow is Valentine's day... Have you decided on your Valentine's Day mani yet?

I haven't! I'll probably do something really cheesy with hearts and cherubs and glitter, but I can't decide!

If you're still looking for ideas, Nicole by OPI released some really cute colors for Valentine's Day.


Have A Heart, Love Your Life, I've Got The Power, Keep It Real


I apologize in advance for the quality of these swatches. It was rainy and dark when I took these pictures, so they're a little dark and blurry. The colors are still accurate to real life.



Keep It Real. A really pretty metallic bright red. The metallic finish on this polish makes it look really glowy!

And, for a little more fun, layer it with Have A Heart!


Have A Heart over Keep It Real. Have A Heart is a clear base with a slight reddish tint, but it's loaded with iridescent pastel glitter and red heart-shaped glitter. This is one coat, but if you want more glitter, you can build the amount with additional coats.


I've Got The Power. A metallic magenta! Super hot, and very similar to the discontinued Urban Decay polish O. I love metallics. This is quite flashy.

Not cool enough? Try layering it with Love Your Life!


Love Your Life over I've Got The Power. A clear base with pink tint packed with iridescent pastel glitter and baby pink heart shaped glitter. Yes, I know this picture is very blurry, but it shows the flash of the glitter better that way! You can see that it changes from orange to blue to light green, purple, pink, whitish... So pretty. The glitter in Love Your Life is a lot more dense than in Have A Heart, so just one coat is necessary for a twinkly, fairy-like glitter look.


Now, there is a trick to applying these. First, apply as many coats of the polish as needed to achieve the glitter look you want. Some of the hearts may transfer onto your nail, but most likely they won't.

Next, take a toothpick and go fishing for hearts. It is much, much easier to pick them out of the bottle with a toothpick or an orange stick than it is to try to paint them on with the brush. Get the heart onto the end of the toothpick and gently press it onto your nail. You can play with placement a little bit, but if your polish is wet I wouldn't try to move it around too much.

Repeat with as many hearts as you want and then seal it with your favorite topcoat.

I think these are super cute and I adore the fun shaped glitters. I wish they would do more of these! How about a green shamrock-shaped glitter for St. Patrick's Day? Maybe little Christmas trees or stars for winter?

Anyway, metallics plus iridescent glitter equals totally eye-catching nails!

Too Excited Not To Swatch: Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring/Summer 2009

For economically challenged Glamazons.

Even though the sun was only out for about six nanoseconds today, I just had to try to swatch these. I even tried to do it with artificial light, but I broke the lightbulb in my lamp! I am just way too excited about this collection to wait for the perfect time to swatch. I am obsessed with these polishes!!

So, keep in mind that these are somewhat rushed.

Also, be sure to check out The Nailphile's swatches of these, as well as All Lacquered Up's coverage of this collection!

Ji Baek describes these polishes much better than I can: "They sparkle like little diamonds."

That's the truth- these are some of the sparkliest glitters I have ever seen. And since they're all jewel-toned, it's just like having gem-encrusted nails!


Here are the bottle pictures again, in case you missed it:




Locavore, Frugalista, Look Rich, Be Cheap



Look Rich, Be Cheap. A mix of gold and purple glitter. In certain lights, the gold is more dominant, like this picture. In other lights, the purple is more dominant. Super cool. I think someone said this reminded them of Mardi Gras, and I'd have to agree!



Frugalista. Gunmetal shot through with purple glitter. Man, I love this. It's a silvery gunmetal, more silver than grey and a bright flashy purple. Like Look Rich, Be Cheap, the silver or purple will be dominant depending on the lighting.



Locavore. Top photo is sunlight, bottom photo is dim indoor light. A dazzling combination of gold, green, blue and silver glitter. It looks like a treasure chest full of gemstones! A pirate's booty. The emerald green shade is dominant, but the golden glitter takes on an almost celery-green shade next to it! The purple adds mystery and depth and the blue really compliments the green. This is one of the most perfect glitter polishes I own- it's entirely unique! I don't have a single polish like this, even with the hundreds of glitters I own.

This collection is just incredible. It makes my heart skip a beat! I'm a die-hard glitter fan, so I nearly fainted when I saw these polishes!

If I get a chance to take better, sparklier swatches I definitely will. These polishes deserve it.

I still can't calm down about these- this is the most exciting collection I've seen all year! I don't know how anyone's going to top this!

Sneak Peek: Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2009!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


GLITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Locavore, Frugalista, Look Rich, Be Cheap

I'll have a full review of these as soon as the sun comes out (and I stop hyperventilating!!!).... I think I'm going to faint!

Sneak Peek! Barielle Shades Summer 2009

Summer's looking pretty good so far...





Swatches coming soon :)

(Two greens!!!)

BB Couture For Nails

I just got my first BB Couture for nails polishes, and I can't believe I have never tried these until now. They are too cool! I got four of the colors that appealed to me, and I'm already plotting my next BB Couture Purchase...

Here are the ones I ordered:



Dragon's Breath. This is a purple that leans very red and it's studded with multicolored glitter. The glitter in this is very fine, and you can see a lot of different colors in it. When you step outside with this polish on, it practically starts on fire! I mean, not literally of course, but the flash and fire from the glitter is breathtaking. Very cool polish, very cool name.




Frosty Meadow. This is a light, fresh, slightly blue-tinged green with a slight jelly texture and very fine silvery blue glitter. Like Dragon's Breath, the glitter in this polish is very fine but it packs a punch. It's a very spring-like green but unlike other spring shades, this one has personality!



Poison Ivy. A medium green creme. There can never be enough green cremes! This one is kinda strange- it looks at least a shade lighter in the bottle than it does after it dries on the nails. I've seen this happen with a lot of polishes before, but rarely with greens. It's also a little bit dull without a topcoat. I adore the color and I'm dreaming up all sorts of good layering combinations to go with it.


Sea Of Cortez. One of the most beautiful polishes I have ever seen. A bright blue jelly with super fine pale green glitter. Even if you're not into glitter polishes, you still have to be able to admire the beauty of this polish. It's just.... mesmerizing! In fact, after I took this picture I left the polish on and I'm still wearing it! I might need a backup!

Overall, I am really loving BB Couture. For a brand I've never heard of and know absolutely nothing about, they sure shocked the hell out of me with their awesome colors!

Formula-wise, these polishes aren't perfect. They have three-free syndrome, being both thick and runny at the same time. Poison Ivy was particularly difficult to apply, it wasn't the smoothest creme I've ever used. This issue with the formula is easily fixed with a little bit of thinner, so I don't mind. The colors are worth the slight difficulty of application. They do dry very quickly and they seem to wear well- no basecoat or topcoat and I still have no chips or tipwear.

The line seems to be comprised of a lot of boring pinks and reds, but with a few awesome colors like these tossed in there. From what it looks like, each new collection is more and more interesting, so maybe there will be more amazing colors like this in the future. I know I'm definitely going to try more of these polishes. They are awesome, and the fun colors they have are not like any others I own. I admire companies with unique colors, and BB Couture For Nails has definitely earned my love and admiration!

Rimmel Part 1

I thought now would be a great time to post about my love of Rimmel polish. The other day I was out shopping, and noticed that the Rimmel Underground Play Fast polish displays at every store were completely empty! This can only mean one horrible, horrible thing: They're being discontinued.

On the bright side, a few of the colors (Camouflage, Hard Edged are two that I saw) seem to have been repackaged in the 'regular' 60 Second bottles, and they have a new display.

A few of the stores I went to still had a couple lonely Play Fasts on their displays, so if you've been thinking about buying a particular Rimmel color but haven't yet, now would be the time to do so. I've had my eye on a few shades but haven't bought them because I assumed that they were permanent and were never going to be discontinued. Now I might be too late!

Anyway, the intention of this post is not to make you go out and buy Rimmels, but to share may love of this particular polish line. I just thought it would be worth mentioning that these will soon disappear.

I will do another two or three parts to this post when I'm done photographing my Rimmel collection. So, you may consider this part one :)


Rimmel Underground Play Fasts:


Hard Edged. One of the most beautiful polishes ever to see a drugstore shelf. It's a vampy brown shimmer with pretty strong duochrome. As you can see in the left hand side of the photo, there's some green/gold iridescence visible in the bottle. This is visible on the nail, but it's very subtle. Hard Edged seems to change from brown to purple in some lights. This picture doesn't capture the true beauty of this polish at all. It has a lot of tonal similarities to OPI Black Tie Optional.


Camouflage. A gorgeous, gorgeous quick-drying golden green shimmer. What I like the most about this shade is that it's more green than gold. A lot of drugstore greens in the past have been too light, too gold, and not green enough for my liking (Maybelline Go Go Green, L'Oreal Bijou Gems B. Strong.) but Rimmel Camouflage is nice and rich. It's a St. Patrick's Day green.
Perfect in every way.


Night Life. An edgy mushroomy taupe-brown with golden bordering on copper shimmer. Rimmel may have been ahead of its time with this color! This was released years ago, and just this past year mousy taupe-browns and purples started to become extremely popular. This is a very unique shade, I can think of only one similar shade- CND Family Secret. While they're not exact matches, the taupe/brown/grey with reddish shimmer makes them cousins.



Street Wear. Another edgy, sexy muted shade. This time it's a grey putty with subtle gold shimmer. Extremely hot. It reminds me of mushrooms. I think this picture makes it appear a little more warm-toned than it actually is, but it shows the shimmer well.

About half of the shades in the Rimmel Underground Play Fast line are these fabulous sheer, flaky shimmer colors that are really amazing.


Out Of Control. This is a really old picture! I haven't taken a new picture because this one is just about perfect. Out of Control is a pinkish-red color, more of a coral really, that has outrageous gold shimmer. It truly is out of control! The polish is made of little flakes, so it takes three coats to reach bottle color.


Pop Quiz. Light, peachy orange flakes mixed in with silvery white flakes. Another very unique shade from Rimmel. I'd be hard pressed to find a match for this polish. The different colored pearly flakes all combine to make this pretty light orange color. It's very sparkly, and I have a feeling that it would be great layered on top of one of the other more opaque Play Fast shades like Mouthy.



Scene Stealer. Mesmerizing gold/taupe/bronze/grey shimmer flakes with a slight duochrome effect. This is a very beautiful polish, I've never seen anything like it. It is very sheer but still packs a punch! This picture is three coats and you can still see through it a bit, I'm sure four coats would make it 100% opaque, but I like the sheer look of this. It sparkles and changes in the sun, and even looks good in dark indoor lighting. Another polish with layering potential, would probably go well with Night Life.


And a couple "regular" Rimmels...


Green With Envy. Not exactly what I would ever consider green, but pretty anyway. A bright metallic blue/aqua type of color. You may notice that the bottle is absent from this picture. That it because somehow I accidentally threw it across my kitchen and it shattered all over my ceramic tile floor. Swatching is dangerous... >.<
Torrid. This color has been repackaged, so this is the 'old' version. The new version appears to be exactly the same, but I won't know until I apply them both. Sometimes companies do that. No idea why. Anyway, Torrid is a rich plum-brown shimmer. I can't decide if it's more reddish or brownish. I guess it doesn't matter if it's as beautiful as this!



Dazzle. A very unusual drugstore find! A festive light gold metallic packed with fine medium-gold glitter! As much as I adore this color, this one is a victim of "good idea, bad execution". When you mix light-colored and light-textured metallics with glitter, instead of looking like a nail covered in delicate, sparkling glitter, you get a nail with weird speckles and lumps. Glitter and thin-formula metallics rarely work. Another example of a metallic with glitter that doesn't work: L'Oreal Bijou Crystals B. Shocking. Instead of a nice glitter look, you get chunks. But, for every few failures, there is one success... One of the best light metallics with glitter is the ancient OPI Mystic Moonshine. So, it can work, but it rarely does.


I really love Rimmel polishes. The formula on them is always perfect, they dry quicker than any non-holographic or neon polish I can think of, and they have a variety of incredible unique shades. I have seen UK-only shaded that are even more spectacular than the ones they sell here!

I wish people would start to love drugstore polishes instead of shunning them because they're 'low-end.' You all know I love my OPI, my Rescue Beauty Lounge, Dior, Lippmann Collection, Essie, all of the more expensive and popular brands. Drugstore polishes can be just as good! If I put a Rimmel in a Chanel bottle and told you to use it, you'd probably think that Chanel had improved their formula. I encourage you to look past the name and packaging and love the polish inside.

The odd thing about drugstore polishes is that they're not always inexpensive. I almost bought a Revlon the other day that would have cost me $7.50! I'll talk more about this in another post, but the idea that drugstore polish is cheaper is quickly becoming inaccurate.