Nails

Chanel Les Jeans de Chanel: At Least These Jeans Always Fit

September 12th, 2011 by Karen 80 Comments

chanel les jeans de chanel

At least…

At least there aren’t any crumbs in my bra.

At least I have my two front teeth.

At least when my husky tabby sits on my bladder at 3 in the morning he only weighs 18 pounds and not 28.

At least I still have my sanity.

At least I can still do the Running Man.

At least I’m not infected with an as-yet unidentified pig/bat hybrid super virus (still freaked out after watching Contagion!).

At least I’m getting four hours of sleep; that’s better than not getting any sleep at all.

At least my muffin top would sustain me for a while if I ever found myself stranded on a desert island without food.

At least I’m not wearing stretchy pants 24/7 (at least, not yet).

At least I don’t have a Comic Sans tattoo.

At least I’ve never been in a hot tub on a reality TV show.

At least I have super agile toes (great for pinching people and for picking up pencils off the floor).

At least I’ve seen a sunset in Spain.

At least I have an inside voice, unlike Fat Man Scoop.

At least I can still drop it like it’s tepid (and sometimes lukewarm).

At least I no longer live with a roommate who absolutely refuses to change the toilet paper.

At least the new limited edition Les Jeans de Chanel Nail Colours ($29 each, available now), unlike the Joe’s Jeans I bought in 2004, will always fit.

chanel les jeans de chanel

chanel blue rebel
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What to Wear with Fall’s Trendy Teals: 5 Mani/Pedi Pairings for Teal Fingers or Toes

September 10th, 2011 by Karen 25 Comments

It seems like everywhere I turn lately, I keep running into teal, like over at the YSL counter a few weeks ago, when I bumped into La Laque Nail Laquer Wintergreen ($20), a deep, dark creamy greenish blue from the new Midnight Garden collection (I snagged the last bottle, yay!).

And last weekend at Sephora, I spotted a bottle of shimmery green Tempted by Teal ($9.50) from about 20 feet away…

Okay, 10 feet, give or take, but I bet I would have also seen it from 20. 🙂

It hails from the new Sephora By OPI Garden of Good & Evil collection.

My latest teal crush comes all the way from outer space (by way of Southern California). It’s this kickin’ little bottle from Urban Decay’s new nail kit called Mars.

Dontcha just love the little flecks of silver glitter? They’re like stars. Mars and stars…

Of course, as much as I like teal, and other colors, for that matter, I’m a die-hard mixed mani/pedi girl at heart. I have trouble committing to any one color on all 10 fingers and toes (it’s one of my many beauty quirks), so I’ve been compiling a list of potential fall colors to pair with teal in my mani/pedi combos.

Colors like…

1. Creamy dark purple

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Urban-Night, $5
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Put on Your Moon Boots! NARS Silver Odyssey Blasts onto Counters Next Week

September 1st, 2011 by Karen 25 Comments

Every single picture I’ve taken so far today has ended up looking more or less like this…

America’s Next Lloyd Christmas Model?

I know, right? (It’s been a rough day.) Tyra and Ms. J would probably slap the ombre highlights off me if they found out I was still posting spacey pictures of myself on the Internet and not smiling with my eyes.

More photographic evidence…

Lost in the Louvre (but having a great brow day!) circa 2005

Speaking of spacey looks, have you seen the new NARS Nail Polish in Space Odyssey ($17) yet? The Hubble Space Telescope took this shot of it on my paw…

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What Are You Wearing on Your Nails?

August 29th, 2011 by Karen 71 Comments

Essie Power Clutch

Fall danced onto my mani/pedi this week, with Essie Power Clutch on my fingers ($8; from the Brand New Bag collection) and YSL La Laque Nail Laquer in 43 Wintergreen on my toes ($20; from Midnight Garden).

What about you? What are you wearing on your nails today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Pet Assistants, It’s in the Bag: The Essie Brand New Bag Collection for Fall 2011

August 16th, 2011 by Karen 49 Comments

If you’re considering a career as an executive pet assistant, learn from my mistakes. Read your employment contract carefully before you sign (and maybe even enlist the help of an attorney); otherwise, you just might find yourself at the mercy of a demanding diva.

Apparently, my lawyer and I missed the clause in my contract that grants Tabs final wardrobe, nail color and accessories approval. Honestly, if I’d known all of the bullsh*t baggage that would come with this gig beforehand, I probably would’ve just gone to law school instead…

Today’s dilemma has to do with kitty coats and complementary colors. Specifically, Tabs and his stylist have been planning my wardrobe for the next two weeks, and they’ve chosen a theme based on classic fall shades designed to complement his fur — colors like the ones in the new Essie Brand New Bag Collection. 🙂

Essie Brand New Bag colors from the left: Very Structured, Case Study and Glamour Purse; Not pictured: Carry On (a mulberry merlot), Power Clutch (a dark green) and Lady Like (a demure pink)

Available now at beauty stores, salons, spas and drugstores, the six-piece collection features polishes with creamy finishes in autumnal hues of pink, beige, green, wine and brown — colors that Essies says were inspired by the structured handbags and ladylike glamour of the 1940s and ’50s.

Tabs and his stylist have narrowed down their decision to three of the six colors, claiming that Case Study (a cool beige with a hint of gray), Glamour Purse (a purplish taupe) and Very Structured (a cinnamon stick red) should “sing” beside his gray, brown and rust colored tabby coat, and they insisted that I swatch the three shades immediately.

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There’s Something Fishy About Nails Inc. Kensington Hand Cream, and It’s Not the Scent

August 13th, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

One of these days I’m gonna start a bumper sticker line for beauty addicts. You’ll find it at Sephora in one of those wire kiosk things that twirl, and the stickers will say things like, “I’m lost without Shu,” and “I’m a ho for hand cream.”

Speaking of that, have you tried the new (well, new to us Yanks) Nails Inc. Kensington Conditioning Hand Cream ($18 for a 3.4-oz. tube)? I like it so much that when I switched purses for the eighth time in just as many days, I was sure to move the tube over with my essentials (wallet, keys, lipgloss, iPhone, emergency travel packet of Nutella).

The cream, which recently made the trip out here from London and now lives at Sephora stores, contains caviar extract, which is fancy for “fish egg juice.” 🙂

Ingredients: Aqua, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Alcohol, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa Butter), Triethanolamine, Dimethicone, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Caviar Extract, Soluble Collagen, Parfum, Tocopheryl Acetate, Alcohol Imidazolidinyl Urea, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Hydroxyproline, Lecithin Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sorbitol , Tocopherol, Glyceryl Oleate, Butylparaben Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Methylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Propylparaben Citronellol, Geraniol, Limonene.

I’m not sure what, if anything, the caviar is doing in there (I suspect it’s more of a red herring, haha!) but it sure sounds rich. The non-greasy cream also contains a few other compounds, unfortunately, like various parabens and dimethicone, that I’d just assume not see in the list of ingredients, but the product’s performance is its saving grace. It’s supposed to reduce the appearance of fine lines while firming the skin and boosting collagen production. I can’t attest to any of those claims yet, but I will say this: it’s mad crazy moisturizing!
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Full Coverage from Two Coats of Nails Inc. Polish

August 12th, 2011 by Karen 27 Comments

Have I ever mentioned my collection of refrigerator magnets?

I couldn’t decide what to paint my paws with last night, so I used my indecision as an opportunity to swatch five of the Nails Inc. polishes now on sale at Sephora.

If (and that’s a big if) I decide to look a little less crazy today and pick just one of these to paint all of my fingers with, which one should it be? Do any of them strike your fancy?

From the left that’s St. James, Camden, Fitzroy Square, Elizabeth Street and Hay Market ($9.50 each).

I’m thinking about going with Hay Market for my fingers and Camden atop Fitzroy Square on my toes…

Camden with Fitzroy
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From London to L.A.: Nails Inc. Nail Polishes Launching Today at Sephora

August 11th, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

The British are coming! The British are coming!

YAY! 🙂

And they’ll be staying at Sephora while they’re here. Nails Inc., a cult favorite brand of nail polish colors, treatments and specialty top coats from across the pond, officially goes on sale today at Sephora stores and also online.

The brand’s been around since 1999, with products ranging from $9.50 – $25 each, and colors inspired by catwalks worldwide.

The 42 polishes in their color line are going for $9.50 each at Sephora — some with super glossy cream finishes, glittery finishes, and others with shimmery metallic finishes — and each one is named after an iconic London locale like bright sunflower yellow Carnaby Street, beet red Piccadilly Circus and bright geranium pink Brook Street.

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