Nubar Finest Silks

Nubar Finest Silks is a collection of eight feminine, "work appropriate" shades. Mostly creme finishes with the exception of one shimmer.

Taffata - Brownish pink creme. When I was wearing this it made me think that this would be what it would look like if you mixed chocolate milk and strawberry milk.

Marabout - This is a dark gray-brown creme. Really interesting and stylish. It reminds me of mud which I know doesn't sound stylish but that is the kind of colors I like.

Chiffon - This is just like Marabout but lighter. Lighter mud. Nice, but I wore this right after Marabout and really didn't feel like I changed my polish.

Organza - This is a shimmery, sheer white. Not bad alone, but if you don't like sheers I'd say to layer this. This is three coats.

Moire - Light, soft tan creme with a hint of pink. Delicate and pretty.

Charmeuse - Mauve creme. Not a boring mauve; it's bright and bold. I like this. And the formula! All of these have a nice formula but this one was especially nice.

Pekin - Bright red creme. Nice, bold, smooth and sexy.

Sateen - Dark red, blood creme.

These are beautiful shades and I greatly appreciate colors like this being a working professional for when I can't wear my usual blues, greens and glitters. I really enjoy adding shades like this to my collection because I am so used to unusual shades being my norm, that these feel outrageous! But my gripe with this collection is that I feel like there are too many repeats! I like these shades for their sophistication but I don't want the same ones over and over. For example, Marabout and Chiffon really seemed like the same color to me. But anyway, they are nice and beautiful and have a fantastic formula.

Nubar Finest Silks is available now on bynubar.com and retail for $7.49 per bottle or $49.95 for the entire collection.

What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Rebel Debutante Swatches - Spring 2010

Hello all! I went ahead and got myself the 7-piece set of one of Color Club's newest releases: The Rebel Debutante Collection. I didn't get the blue and neon green though. It's so weird they released a collection of 7 + 2. I know it's been done, but I couldn't resist swatching all of these for you. I can't let a whole collection (sort of) keep from being swatched and posted.

Who Are You Wearing? - I love shades like this! It's a soft, slightly gray, white creme. The only drawback was that I had to do 4 coats of it and it still looks a bit streaky.

High Society - This is a "greige" creme. I like the look of it a lot and it's a great alternative to Deborah Lippmann's Waking Up In Vegas which I compared here. It's on the thin side though and needed three coats.

Best Dressed List - I really liked the look of this tan in the bottle but I don't find it flattering on my nails. :c( Too bad. It reminds me of a baby deer. This is two coats.

Charity Ball - I was so excited to get this shade. I love an odd polish color and this one definitely is. Question was, though, is it going to be ugly-pretty or just plain ugly once I got it on? Well I can say that I love it on me! It's so odd but works. This is three coats.

Uptown Girl - Dusty, grayed purple. Always chic. This is two coats.

She's So Glam - I don't normally go for pinks and definitely not Barbie, bubblegum pinks like this, but I have to admit the truth: I really like my nails in this. This is three coats.

Ms. Socialite - And my favorite! This is a very rich, red sided purple creme and I love it! This swatch is two coats. It has the best application of all these shades too. Very smooth, pigmented and easy to apply.

So overall I can say that this isn't the most exciting collection ever. I wasn't jumping up and down over it's release like some collections, especially Color Club collections, but I do like almost all the shades. I think they make a nice addition to my collection and they are all pretty chic and work safe at the same time. The formula is on the thin side, but manageable.

What do you think?

Black Label OPIs

I'm back with more. Told you I would be!

I got a hold of a few black label OPI nail polishes from a friend. What does "black label" mean? I will tell you:

Nowadays most new nail polishes are free of the 3 big "bad" chemicals: toulene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). You will often polish-heads refer to them as "the big three" and polishes without them as "big three free" or "B3F".

You can quickly spot bottles that have had their chemical formulations changed among some of our favorite brands, such as OPI, Essie and China Glaze by their labels. Newer China Glaze bottles have black labels with white writing, indicating they are B3F, where as older bottles have white labels with black writing, meaning they were made before the formulation change.

The same is true of OPI, but a little different. Newer polishes released by OPI have white labels with green text, and older bottles before the formulation change have white labels with black text, deeming them "black label OPIs".

Black label on left, green label (B3F) on right

I recently explained this to a friend and she was intrigued. While visiting family she snagged a few OPIs from her sister for me to play with since they were black label, meaning they may be pretty old. I suspect some may be extremely old. I have never even heard of any of these shades. Want to see? Sure!

Royal Flush Blush - This is a blush pink metallic. Has some brush strokes but I could live with it. I don't know that I would actually ever wear it though.

Pink-Ing of You - Now this one I have heard of. Unfortunately this one broke on my friend. I really don't trust OPI bottles. She managed to save most of it and put it in a Cover Girl bottle. The application was rather horrible. I needed to do 4 coats and it still isn't even but it may be because of the Cover Girl brush. I don't know.

God Save The Queen's Nails - I love this one for the name. And that is about it. The application was rather uneven and needed three coats. And the color rather bores me. Burgundy shimmer...whatever. Next.

Gala Gold - This I can get on board with. This is a gold shimmer. I did three coats for this swatch. What I love about it is that it is not like any other gold I have seen. It isn't a warm yellow gold, but it isn't a neutral or rose gold either. It is like a peach gold? Does that make sense? Whatever it is I like it a lot.

Japanese Rose Garden - Oooh. Another winner. I know it is pink, but it is a pink I really like! It is a creamy, cool pink with a bit of silver shimmer. This swatch is two coats.

Prince George's Passion - Another great name! This is a dusty brick red creme. I am sure OPI has a million of them but this one is nice. This swatch is two coats for the camera, but I wore it as a mani a couple weekends ago and I was able to do just one coat! And it looked great! I wore it for a few days.

Hawaiian Orchid - Another winner! This is a sheer which I wouldn't normally get excited about, but I want to use it for a french mani real bad. It is super smooth and streak free and it has a bit of a blueish flashy shimmer.

Mother Road Rose - I found this rather similar to God Save The Queen's Nails so another snooze fest really, but the application was better than GSTQN. This was two coats.

So overall I like these a lot. Mostly I was excited to try some older shades I may have had a hard time finding if I really wanted to get a hold of them. I would have loved to get like, Rainforest, or some other highly sought after black label but these are nice too!

What do you think? Are you going to go inspect your bottle labels now?!
:c)
-Elaine

Deborah Lippmann Spring 2010

Hey kids! I have swatches of the spring release from Deborah Lippmann for you today! I tried them out over the weekend and they are fabulous. I feel like they are sort of trendy which I would normally loathe, but I can't hate on pretty polish!

If you look closely at this bottle shot I am sure you noticed the "Lippmann Collection" has now changed to "Deborah Lippmann" but she still stuck with that pretty, elegant bottle. *whew*

I'm Not Innocent - I surprisingly really love this shade. I didn't think it would happen. I thought it would be really thin and sheer but it's not! It needed three coats (shown here) but that is fine for a light color, in my honest opinion. Especially if you love it! This is a true peach creme. PEACH. Not China Glaze - Peachy Keen peach. This is what I think of when I hear "peach". Very soft, not stark, feminine and pretty. I think this is a huge winner.

There may be shades that are close to this, but I don't own them. I found two in my collection that looked close: OPI - Samoan Sand and Color Club - Coastal Creme:

From left to right: Samoan Sand, I'm Not Innocent, Coastal Creme. All are shown with three coats. In the bottle Samoan Sand looked like a dead dupe but once I got it on I was way off. It's far more sheer and Coastal Creme is far more white and stark. Unique shade!

Waking Up In Vegas - This is a "greige" creme. It definitely fits in the greige (gray-beige) category that is popular right now. It dries rather matte though so it will need a top coat if you want it shiny. I wore this one for a full mani and loved it! I had the girls at the hair salon drooling. When I look at it I think of clay and I like that.

I bet you are thinking this isn't a totally unique shade and could find a dupe for it. Well I thought you might, so I went ahead and did some comparisons:

Sally Hansen - Wet Cement, Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas, Essie - Chinchilly, Color Club - High Society

Well I threw in Wet Cement so you could see how WUIV compares to a true gray creme. I think Chinchilly and High Society are leaning more on the beige/brown side of this and are a bit darker. If you think they are close enough you're probably right. I am here to help you save some dough, not spend it! I know it's hard to swallow the $16 price tag for Lippmann. BUT.... and I am sorry... I found the application of Waking Up In Vegas a dream. It was so smooth and creamy and flawless in two coats and Chinchilly and High Society definitely need three as they are very thin. :c(

Final verdict: I love these shades :cO Do you need them? If you can swallow the price tag, sure but if not I would save my pennies for the summer/fall glitters that I have been hearing rumors about! I am very badly anticipating those!

These are available now and retail for $16 each.

What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)


Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

NOTD - Work Appropriate... Yet Mesmerizing!

TGIF!!

Today I had a meeting at work with an outside member of our team so I decided to change my green/purple duochrome to something more neutral. I decided on Sinful Colors - Wicket Mind (I still firmly believe this is a typo, but whatever) as it is a subtle, rosy mauve. I have shown it to you before here, but I decided it needed another look.


It turns out I like this even more than I thought I would! I felt strange buying it even though I was oddly drawn to it. It is unlike me to pick a regular 'ol pink color. This just isn't some bland plain Jane color I guess. It is rich and pretty, and although the texture is of a thick opaque creme, it has some shimmer too. I can't stop looking at it! I really like this on my nails.

What about you? Do you like neutral colors? Or do you do all bold all the time?

Nails of the Day for Work

I, long ago, (not that long... say the last year) started thinking about work appropriate nails as I became a "working professional" in January. I figured that I could only wear mauves, pale pinks, off-whites, beige... and so on. That really kept me from looking forward to starting my career! My mind changed a bit about work colors in the fall when I was watching a new episode of The Office when they had Holly as a character and I saw that she had vampy nails. Observe:

That made me think. "I can wear vampy colors to work". Of course I realize this is just a fictional show, however... it made me think. But recently I realized that I don't really have contact with the outside world at work, and as long as I don't have really wild nail art, my bosses don't really seem to care what I do or wear on my nails. They are just nails. Not that they have said anything about it or that I shouldn't have wild nail art, just that I am trying to draw a line myself.

Here are a couple of the manis I wore to work in the past few weeks. What do you think?

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Squarepants over OPI- Alpine Snow

Sally Hansen - Rockstar Pink. I think I have expressed my love for this enough before. That is why it just had to be worn to work.

Sally Hansen - Forsythia

Forsythia with a little Konad.

This one I did for the Konad contest in May. Hence the prop and all. It's KO-Karen (matte finish) stamped with Konad polish in red and using plate M2.

Del Sol - Pretty in Pink with Konad and holo glitter.

Currently I am wearing Del Sol - Heartbreaker, so that will be what I wear at the office Monday morning.

What about you guys? What do you consider work appropriate? If you work with the public or in customer service? If you work in a closed office setting? Do you have a nail dress code at your job?

I have a friend who I like to lend my polishes to and she has to wear neutral colors (boo) but I think it's a bit ridiculous for her position because she serves and bartends on a ship that goes out on the lake and serves lunch and dinner and it's kind of a relaxed party boat. I have been on it... I did the electric slide. So.... ya know.

NOTD: NYX - Elaine

Hello! Today I chose a work appropriate color since we are having a meeting today with people from outside our office and I try to look professional for such sintuations!

I am sporting NYX-Elaine, and I am not going to lie, I only bought this polish because it was my name!!! It's a nude metallic. I think it's okay for what it is. I wouldn't have bought it though if it was named anything else!

I wish I had found an "Elaine" polish that was really wild. I don't think a nude polish reflects myself at all. I am COLORFUL!! I wish it was like a hot pink holo!! I found a "what nail polish are you?" quiz at http://mysimplelittlepleasures.blogspot.com/ and It turns out I'm magenta! That sounds better!


If you could choose a polish to represent you and be named after you, what would it be?

Your Nail Polish Color is Magenta

How you're unique: You're confident - and you show everyone the true you Why your style rocks: You have the attitude to carry the most outrageous outfits off What this color says about you: "Look at me. I know you want to!"

What Color Nail Polish Best Fits You?