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.

China Glaze Poolside Swatches - Summer 2010

Hello all! I have the China Glaze summer collection for you today: Poolside. The release day is coming up! Just a couple more days! Are you dying for them, or what?!

As I am sure you know, Poolside is a collection of 6 neon shades. And I am sure you also know that neons are next to impossible to capture true to life. I did the best I could, and some come out better than others. So I warn you, these are not terribly accurate, either in shade and/or brightness/neonness, but they will at least help give you an idea. And where I could I did comparison pics. The point is sort of moot if none of the shades being compared are accurate, but at least you can see the differences between two shades.

These are all very awesome and very bright. I had them all sitting out on my polish desk and the BF said "Those are the six greatest nail polishes I've ever seen". LOL! I love when he gets into my polish!

Okay, let's get into it!

Pool Party - This is a neon pink, but it is a very red pink. It's a neon "rink", I guess. I have nothing like it but I did a comparison of Pool Party next to Essie - Flirty Fuchsia from last year's Essie neons so you can see how red it is:

pinky and middle: Pool Party
ring and index: Flirty Fuchsia

Again, neither of these are accurate thanks to the loss of neon in the pic, but at least you can see that Pool Party leans more red than pink.

Flip Flop Fantasy - This is a neon coral. Perfect description. It's not pink, red or orange. It's all of them! And it's neon! This is the stand out shade of this collection in my eyes. I don't think there is a shade like it at all. I don't have a comparison pic to show you for this because it is so unique. This is a must have shade. I adore it. If you don't think it is impressive in my swatch it's because my camera murdered it's magic. Trust me, this is amazing. This is absolutely getting a spot in my Top 20, as soon as I can think of who I want to bump off...

Sun Worshiper - I have been so excited for the release of this collection because of this shade. I just love colors like this. This is a yellow sided, orange neon. The neon glow shows itself much better in this pic than the other neons! *Whew* This is very, very bright. I do own a couple other shades similar:

From left to right: LA Colors - Force, Cosmo - Bus Route #1, Sun Worshiper, Hot Topic - unnamed neon orange
Again, these are far more neon in real life, but at least you can see that Sun Worshiper is the most neon and has the best formula. All are three coats.

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - This is neon yellow. Neon, hi-liter yellow. This picture is awful. This is not remotely close to accurate. I am ashamed to show it. *hides* This is mega bright. This swatch is 4-5 coats. Some have 4, some have 5. Either way, I probably could have done way more than that!

This is how Yellow Polka Dot Bikini stacks up next to one of my fave polishes ever: Essie - Funky Limelight. I do believe Funky Limelight is a smidgen brighter, but YPDB is still so bright, no one would think you could get any brighter!

Kiwi Cool-Ada - This is a neon green. NEON green. This doesn't look neon at all! Trust me, it is. I thought the formula of this one was pretty nice. I believe this swatch is three coats.

This is how it compares to the other neon greens I own. From left to right:
Hot Topic - unnamed neon green, Sinful Colors - Irish Green, Kiwi Cool-Ada, China Glaze - In The Limelight
I found that KCA was very similar to another neon green release from China Glaze: In The Limelight, however ITL has shimmer. KCA is also brighter and more opaque than Irish Green and the Hot Topic one is really all alone because the shade is very different.

Towel Boy Toy - I love this name! So cute. Anyway, this is a neon blue, and I was impressed by the neonness of it! I expected it to be a bright blue but not terribly neon and I guess it is less neon that the others, but it is still neon. This also differs from the other shades in this collection since it has shimmer and the rest do not. This is 3 coats.

This is how it compares to Color Club - Pure Energy, which we took a look at last week. They are practically identical, but the shimmer in Pure Energy is more apparent and it leans green making these not exact dupes.

The formula on these was thin, but surprisingly buildable. China Glaze isn't trying to hide it. The press release I posted a while back even said these will be on the thin side as they are neons. The first coat is scarily thin. But the second makes a huge difference, and by the third you are smooth sailing. I found Kiwi Cool-Ada, Towel Boy Toy, Pool Party and Flip Flop Fantasy were three coaters, but Sun Worshiper needed a 4th coat maybe, and Yellow Polka Dot Bikini needed it for sure, plus maybe a 5th. BUT a great trick for fixing the need for so many coats is layering these (and this goes for any neons) over a white base. Observe:

One coat of OPI - Alpine Snow + one coat of Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. It still looks streaky since my Alpine Snow was streaky. I should have done 2 coats of it, but anyway, the point is that you can cut down the number of coats big time by using a white base, or help hide any VNL at all, since even the 3 coaters can leave a little VNL.

These also dry very matte as neons do. I added a topcoat for my swatches so they were shiny.

Final Verdict: I think Sun Worshiper and Flip Flop Fantasy are the standouts. Pool Party is unique in my collection and great if you like pinks. Towel Boy Toy and Yellow Polka Dot Bikini are good buys if you don't already have Pure Energy or Funky Limelight (also maybe China Glaze - Celtic Sun. I don't know since I don't have it) and Kiwi Cool-Ada will be dependent on if you like green and if you don't have another stand out neon green shade. It may be skippable, but that is a personal choice that I can't make!

Poolside officially launches in just a few days! APRIL 1st!!!
What are you going to get?
: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.

Lacquer Laine Readers Get Discounts!

Remember when I reviewed Shielding Lotion for Skin MD Natural? Well if you don't here it is.

Skin MD Natural has partnered with Lacquer Laine to get my readers 20% off orders from www.skinmdnatural.com from now until April 28th, 2010!

To get the discount please use code "LACQUER" at www.skinmdnatural.com

Thanks for reading and thank you Skin MD!

-Elaine
:c)

Dropping In!

Hi all!

I just wanted to say "hi" and let you know that I am working on new posts for you but Blogger is having uploading issues so I can't get my new pictures to you. I have China Glaze - Poolside swatches and the spring Deborah Lippmann shades. Also some Nailene goodies! But I can't show you any of them! So sorry. I am watching the situation closely so I can swoop in ASAP and get some swatches to you!

Have a wonderful Monday!
:c)
-Elaine

Nail News

Hey all! Happy Friday! There are a couple things nail related I would love to bring to your attention:

1)

Urban Decay has dropped the price of their Apocalyptic Nail Kit from $26 to $18! You can check out my swatches of this set here. My favorites are White Widow and Grunge.

2)

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie

Rescue Beauty Lounge - No More War

Did you know that Rescue Beauty Lounge Shades No More War, Scrangie and Opaque Nude were sold out and discontinued? Well did you know that they are all being brought back?! You can see it here for yourself. How frikkin awesome is Ji Baek?! Seriously incredible lady. I don't know for sure, but I bet the Scrangie on ebay being scalped to high heavens pissed her off and didn't want that for us. I took a look at the auction and saw it was up to $61 when I saw it. Ew.
3) Models Own It is offering customers a 30% off coupon for their next purchase just by filling out a survey! I dd it and it was very painless and then got an email with the 30% attached! AND for doing the survey you are automatically entered Model's Own sweepstakes where one winner will receive their 12 most wanted nail colors! See here.

4)

Sparitual has a video contest going on through the 21st of April. The rules are simple: record and upload a video response on the SpaRitual Believe YouTube sweepstakes page letting them know what you believe in. What inspires you? The Grand Prize winner will receive $500 worth of Sparitual products including their 2010 Spring Believe Collection. See full rules here.

Have a great Friday!

-Elaine

Flashback: Color Club - Electro Candy

Hi all! Summer collections are upon us and one of my faves for summer is neons! Therefore today I am bringing you swatches of the Color Club Electro Candy collection, a set of six neon polishes. These are not a new release. They were Color Club's summer collection last year. I'm posting them because I recently acquired all of them and I thought it would be nice to swatch them. After how hard in love I fell for Tangerine Scream I had to get them all. And with summer right around the corner, it is a fine time to be showing these off. If you don't like neons on your fingers, then you should definitely consider them for your toes in your summer sandals!

What a Shock! - First off, can I just say: I love when nail polish names have punctuation in them. It's super cute. I sometimes put punctuation on peoples' names in my cell phone. So when my BF is calling me it doesn't say "Tommy", it says "Tommy!". It makes his call seem more exciting. Back to the polish: This is a super bright, neon green with blue-green shimmer. This is way brighter and way greener than the swatch depicts. My camera doesn't like greens and of course, neons are difficult to capture. This is much more glowy and bright in real life.

Volt of Light - This is a neon yellow with blue-green shimmer. The shimmer leans more on the green side against the neon yellow. This is much brighter and more neon in real life. This is pretty difficult formula wise. It took me 4 coats to look decent and I probably could have done a 5th, but I think it is worth it. I am a sucker for neon yellow and this one is so pretty thanks to that shimmer.

Ultra Violet - Ah! This is so cool. This is a neon purple leaning on the red-fuchsia side and it has that blue-green shimmer but it lean more blue against this purple. Super bold and super pretty. Way better in real life.

Tangerine Scream - This is a pretty good depiction of the neon-ness of this polish but the shimmer gets a bit lost. The shimmer is much more pronounced in real life and is more on the green side. This is one of my fave polishes ever. I love this! It's in the Top 20. If you need more persuading: this is the best shade in this collection formula-wise.

Pure Energy - Super bright blue with super flashy blue shimmer. This really almost hits it for a true neon blue although I still wish for a release of a REALLY NEON, neon blue. I am looking forward to seeing how this stacks up against the new release from China Glaze; Towel Boy Toy.

Electro Candy - Very bright, neon pink with blue-green shimmer. Totally 80s! Again, this pic kind of spoils the shimmer but the color depiction is good. The shimmer does actually looks pretty blue.

Being that these are neons they are on the thin side and require an extra coat or two. Tangerine Scream is the thickest and only needs two coats but the rest were all 3 coats with the exception of Volt of Light at four. But that is the price you have to pay for awesome, bright, neon-ness. These do dry shinier than most neons. They aren't as flat as you would expect. I always put a topcoat on all my manis anyway so it doesn't really matter, but it's worth mentioning.

These were last year's summer release from Color Club but they are still available on all our fave e-tailers.
What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)

New Konad Plate M79 Swatches

Hello! how is everyone today? I had yet another dentist appointment for more fillings but this was it! I got through it!

This is finally my last plate of the new Konad plates I got. If you need refreshing of the other posts I did plate M77 here and plate M78 here.

Clockwise from far left: ruffles, hatch pattern made up of dots, polka dot stamp, clouds, line print with rose and dots

This plate gave me the most trouble for a couple reasons. Lets get into it with some swatches:

This is the ruffle pattern stamped over MAC - Blue India. I was unsure about this stamp at the start because I didn't know if I should rock it at the base (shown here) or as the tip or if I should go against what seemed natural and do it the long way. Well this is what I ended up with and it worked out! This was not difficult to align and it didn't give me any issues picking up. I did mis-align one on the other hand, but you don't have to see that!

Hatch pattern. This one isn't awful, but since it is made up of such small details you have to work quickly or the polish will dry before you pick it up or it will dry on the stamper and not transfer to your nail. I had better luck using these chrome colors than a creme I tried first. Just clean the plate before every stamp and move fast.

The polka dot stamp is just genius. Do you love the look of polka dots on your nails but hate doing them? Me too! This is just the solution! No need to worry about misalignment of dots or having dots of various sizes. This is the fix. And doesn't it look just darling on toes?

The clouds were the most exciting thing on this plate, I thought. This is white creme stamped over Orly - Snowcone (this pic is only one coat of Snowcone, by the way. Amazing) I love, love, love this mani! I couldn't get enough of this one! It is way too cute and way too fun! This was very easy to stamp with also.

And lastly, the weird line/dots/flower stamp. I don't know what this thing's problem is. I could never get it right. I tried to stamp this in black over a pinkish nude and it would have looked awesome but I kept messing it up. I don't really think it was the stamps fault, I think it was mine. But anyway. This is a different combo that worked a bit better. The pinky sucked so I left it off but overall its fine.

What do you think?!
-Elaine
:c)

LA Splash Nail Splash Swatches

Happy Monday all! I was naughty and went shopping over the weekend. Check out what I found at Ulta:

LA Splash - Golden Seahorse, Sparkling Oceanspray

I love these bottles! I would never expect these to be nail polish. They look like lip-gloss, or liquid eyeshadow, or liquid liner, or mascara... anything but nail polish. Love it.


Golden Seahorse - This is a sea foam green base with soft, warm gold glitter and a few brassier colored glitter pieces. HOW FRICKIN PRETTY IS THIS?! Doesn't the closeup make you think of treasure sunken at the bottom of the ocean? Gold coins and gold nuggets sitting in the sand in the bottom of the Caribbean? It's amazing! It reminds me a lot of the incredible, un-findable, un-dupeable, green/gold glitter I received from the lovely Tuli that I showed you guys back here and here and if I totally created a unquenchable lemming from showing it to you, you can hopefully satisfy your need with this. This is fabulous! This swatch is 3 coats.

Sparkling Oceanspray - This is a medium to large grain teal glitter in a clear base. What I love about this is how shiny and glittery the particles are. It reflects a ton of light. I love the teal shade of the glitter. But I dislike that it is not full coverage. This is 4 coats and it obviously leaves plenty open spaces. I was considering adding a bit of Wet n Wild - Nocturnal to the base to make it blue. I think that would be so pretty but I haven't gotten the courage to do it yet.

I found these at Ulta and they retail for $3.99.
What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)

Nails and Toes of the Day

Hello all!

I redid my nails AND toes last night and I am loving them both so much I thought I would share.

This my mani for today. All day yesterday I was planning on either painting with a green franken I made a while ago, or MAC's newest release, Blue India. Well I had a package waiting for me in the mail and it screamed, "Put me on now!!" This is OPI - DS Glamour and it is the prettiest damn thing I have ever seen! This is a medium to dark indigo holo. Oh so pretty! In low light it looks like denim but it the sun, watch out! This is on fire!


This is the pedi I did on myself. Cute, right? I think this is the first time I have put rhinestones on my toes! It's not too bad! This is a new shade from Diamond cosmetics I showed you here, Tranquility. I then stamped the flowers with Konad plate M21 and Konad special polish in white and green. Lastly I added the little green rhinestone to the center and added topcoat. So fun!

Have a wonderful day!
-Elaine
:c)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ah, my favorite day of the year. This is seriously my favorite holiday. I'm not even Irish. I just love it!

Check out the mani I did for you guys today:

I started with a coat of Ilalmasqua - Whack, my favorite orange creme. Then I used re-enforcer stickers to hide the lower portion of my nail and painted the rest with Rescue Beauty Lounge - Underwear to get the half-moon mani.

Next, I used Konad plate M22 and Konad special polish in green to stamp the clovers. I did this before my tips because I figured it would be easier for me to make a mistake on the clovers than on the french tip and would hate to do more work than I had to if I made a mistake and had to start over.

Lastly I painted the tips with Illamasqua - Elope and topped it all off with Seche Vite.


Erin Go Bragh!

Claire's Mood Polish Swatches

Hello again! I have the coolest s*** to show you today! I have had so much fun with these new polishes that since Saturday, I have already worn all of them. I can't get enough. They are mood changing polishes from Claire's which are essentially just polishes that change with temperature. They have a "hot" color and a "cold" color.

Claire's Mood - Daring/Innocent, Happy/Earthy, Calm/Wild

Daring/Innocent - This is gray when cool and turns to a yellowish, beige cream when warm. I can imagine the hot color would be difficult to pull off and isn't necessarily "pretty" but I do still like it!

Happy/Earthy - This is a bright, grass green when cool and super bright, nearly neon, slightly green-yellow when hot. The times it was green were strange sometimes. In some lights it looked like a dusty green, like RBL - Diddy Mow. It wasn't like it looked darker in some lights because there wasn't the same amount of light; it was seriously like it was a completely different color all together. Weird. I don't think I have experienced anything like that before. I got these in the mail and when I opened them up in regular incandescent lighting I thought it was a dusty, gray green. Until I put it on and saw it in good light! Then it was like, "BAM! IN YO FACE!

Calm/Wild - This is a medium purple with silver shimmer when cold and bright pink with silver shimmer when hot. Very pretty either way! This baby is packed with shimmer!

The formula on these was very good. I did 2 coats with Daring/Innocent and Calm/Wild but had to pull out three for Happy/Earthy.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: these do not dry shiny. They dry rather flat/matte. All of my swatches have topcoat.

Before I tried these I was under the assumption that they would always look two-toned where the nail bed would be the warm color and the tips would be the cold color but I was wrong. They did look like that a lot, but they also just stayed the cold color a lot, probably because I generally have cold hands. And the weather is still on the cool side. I'm sure in the summer when it's sweltering, I will see the hot color more often. They change very easily regardless. It's a lot of fun. You're sitting on the couch will some wine all cuddled up with the dog and your man so they are warm. Then you go to the fridge to get a snack and then they are cold. You reach into the oven to get your chicken nuggets, they get warm. Then you wash a dish, they go to cold. Then you wash another dish now that the water warmed up, they are warm. You let the dog out, they are cold. You take a shower, they are warm. You run around doing your post shower activities, they get cold. You blow dry your hair, they get warm (you intentionally shoot the dryer at your nails for fun and let your man do it too!) There is no end with these things!! They are sooooo fun!

I like these so much better than the solar changers. The solar changers are fun too, don't get me wrong, but they're only fun if you have sun. You don't need sun to play with these and there are so many changes from moment to moment. I especially like washing my hands in public and then using the hand dryers and seeing people doing double takes of my nails. "Wait! They were just a different color...weren't they?" So much fun.

I must say that I don't think the wear on this is too impressive. I only wore Daring/Innocent for about half a day before I wanted to try out the next one so I didn't notice any wear with that one but I wore Happy/Earthy from Saturday night to last night (Monday) so that was about 48 hours, but I started to see some major chippage by the middle of the day yesterday. Not all the chips actually even chipped. Some spots were just lifting and getting ready to chip. But regardless, it should be said because I don't usually find any polish chippy, ever. It did make it over 24 hours though and I am currently wearing Calm/Wild and did it last night and it's flawless. We shall see. I don't really care because it is worth it!!

At one point I was gawking at them to the BF and I said "I wish all polish did this". Can you imagine it? Even he found them amusing. We were sitting on the couch together and I was holding a mug of tea. He looked at my hand and was like "Look at your nails! Now look at the level in your cup!" The mug was filled about half way and the fingers on the lower half of the mug where there was still hot tea were the warm color and the fingers higher up were the cool color. Everyone loves these!

What do you think? Have them? Want them? Love them? Hate them?
:c)

PS - These are available at Claire's stores now!