Nails

What Are You Wearing on Your Nails?

April 30th, 2010 by Karen 93 Comments

Rise and shine, morning glory. 🙂 TGIF! After feeling like I caught up on sleep last night, I felt like wearing something bright on my nails today and picked Milani’s Neon Nail Lacquer in Awesome Orange ($5), one of the eight colors in their Neon Nail Lacquer collection that came out a couple months ago.

LOVE the texture… It’s so thin and easy to apply but still produces an even pigmentation. That’s me wearing three coats in the picture up there (I kinda rushed through ’em). Nice solid opacity.

How about you? What are you sporting on your fingers and/or toes?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Before you jet, beauty lover, check out the home page for more makeup reviews. 🙂

NARS Versailles Nail Polish: Summer’s Pearly Lemon Gold

April 20th, 2010 by Karen 41 Comments

The only thing that came close to getting Glee off my mind today was the lovely NARS Versailles nail polish ($16) from Francois’ collection for summer 2010.

NARS made this pearly lemon gold so easy peasy to work with that I can’t believe it’s not butter. It dries quickly, doesn’t streak and has a nice glossy shine I won’t soon forget.

That’s two coats in the swatch up top…

Methinks Versailles is a much cooler color (as in color temp) than the other golden polish that made a big splash with me this summer, Chanel’s Gold LamÃ© (with its warmer, almost peachy orange undertones).

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Next Stop: Essie Resort 2010 and Nail Polish Paradise

April 8th, 2010 by Karen 62 Comments

Wowee, wow, WOW! Not only did Essie’s new Resort 2010 collection knock my socks off, but then it picked them up and ran away. 🙂 I mean, I usually like the things Essie comes out with, but I haven’t been this stoked about one of their releases since Neon 2008 (I still le sigh when I see Bermuda Shorts).

Splash of Grenadine

OOH! The four-piece Resort collection takes me and my nails down to the spa with colors that remind me of tropical vacations, but not in the way that tropical-themed nail polish collections usually do. These shades aren’t your average beachy corals and hot pinks. Essie Founder and President Essie Weingarten went with these creamy bad boys, drawing inspiration from the chic vacationers who stay at Ritz Carltons and tan on private beaches in luxe island style.

Turquoise & Caicos

Not only did Essie hit the right color notes, but she rocked a flawless formula, too. I think all four of these shades are super easy to use.
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I’m Sweet on Illamasqua Pastel Nails

March 24th, 2010 by Karen 31 Comments

I was SUCH an Easter morning candy kid. 🙂 My little brother and I always looked forward to Easter because our parents would fill our baskets to the brim with sweets!

Jelly beans, Peeps, chocolate bunnies, Cadbury Mini Eggs, yum…

Which reminds me — eff you Cadbury Mini Eggs for making your candies so hard to resist!

Every Easter morning, after tearing through the house on the hunt for hidden eggs, we’d gorge ourselves on candy until our tummies hurt.

Memories of Easter mornings flooded back today when I swatched two of the four colors from Illamasqua’s Pastel Nails collection for spring.

The colors have been available through illamasqua.com for a while, but they arrive at US Sephora stores this May ($14 each).

From left: Caress, Wink, Blow, Nudge

Nudge (the creamy greenish blue) and Blow (the creamy yellow) look good enough to eat! — which would not be a good idea BTW (don’t do it!!).

Nudge

Blow
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What Are You Wearing on Your Nails Today?

March 13th, 2010 by Karen 55 Comments

The sun finally came out (we’ll see how long it lasts, hmm), and the blue skies inspired me to paint my paws with MAC’s Blue India ($12; on counters now).

I like the color, but from certain angles it kinda reminds me of my friend’s hoopty Buick back in high school.

Still deciding on what to do with my toes…

What nail polish are you rocking today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What Are You Wearing on Your Nails Today?

March 3rd, 2010 by Karen 65 Comments

I lurve nail polish, but sometimes I get a little crazy with it. Most of the time I’m wearing 2-3 different colors at the same time, or I’ll only paint one hand (or maybe just a thumb). I don’t know why… I think it’s just more fun that way. 🙂

Lately I’ve been wearing a lot of crazy colors, but this morning I was in the mood to tone it down, so I chose Sephora by OPI’s Let’s Do Lunch ($9), a warm peachy pink with golden shimmer (I did ALL of my fingers this time).

Do you ever wear different colors on different fingers/toes, and what are you wearing on your nails today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day!

Rough Cuticles Don’t Stand a Chance Against Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle and Nail Moisture Treatment Pen

February 21st, 2010 by Karen 21 Comments

I’m so glad I picked up the Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle and Nail Moisture Treatment Pen ($6) on a run to Target a couple weeks ago. It basically does the same thing as the Sephora Cuticle Pen I’ve been using (and liking) but for half the price.

Like the Sephora doohickey, it’s a clicker pen filled with an oil for softening and moisturizing cuticles, and it totally works.

How about making nails grow faster?
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What Are You Wearing on Your Nails Today?

February 19th, 2010 by Karen 49 Comments

TGIF, rockstars! Congrats on making it to the weekend, *raises teacup.* Just a quick polish check in — I’m wearing China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy ($6.50) on my fingers and toes, ’cause I want to pretend it’s summer. How about you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Speaking of nail polish, Illamasqua’s hosting a contest to create their next hot Nail Varnish colors.

Submit an image, photograph and/or swatch of your dream color along with a description of it in 50 words or less. Tell ’em what inspired you and why the shade should be one of Illamasqua’s next polishes (one entry per person, please).

From February 21 through March 14, send your entry via e-mail to competition@illamasqua.com; bloggers who post an entry on their sites can send their link to competition@illamasqua.com. Snail mail more your thang? Send your entry to Competition c/o Illamasqua, 6-8 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UQ.

On May 5, two winners will be selected to see their dream colors created and sold exclusively online at Illamasqua.com and at select Selfridges department stores in England. They’ll also get a bottle of their winning colors before anyone else. Kinda cool, yah?