Make Me Brighter

6 Free Zoya Polishes

cleegiants — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

I am a nail polish fanatic and over the past couple years, have built up a a sizable collection. One of my favorite brands is Zoya and have I got a deal for you! The day after Thanksgiving is going to be Zoya's "Green Friday" where you can score 6 FREE polishes with a $20 purchase. Wow! And they are 6 beautiful greens. Tangy, Envy, Midori, Irene, Suvi, and Veruschka. I actually have Envy, Irene, and Suvi so if I got these polishes, I would probably gift those out. I'd be excited to get Tangy, Midori and Veruschka; the last one is one of the new matte polishes. Since each Zoya polish is $7, you can pick up 3 of your favorite shades and wallk away with 9 polishes.

Details: Add three polishes to your cart and enter the code: GREENFRIDAY. The offer is good starting tonight at 5PM (EST) through Friday, November 26th at 5PM (EST). Happy polish picking!

Here are the samples of the six free polishes.
Tangy
Midori
Irene
Suvi
Envy
Veruschka

Chanel goes Green

cleegiants — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0700

Yesterday was a look into some new trends of polish with OPI's suede formula. Today, it's traditional with a twist. While I don't have any acutal swatches, it's a color that I'm pretty sure will sell out for one reason: it's Chanel. As a lover of all things fashion and beauty related, I've come to accept the fact that I will never own any clothing that says Chanel on the label, but at $20-$30 a bottle, I can afford a bottle a polish every now and three. My current collection includes three shades and I think Chanel polishes are lovely, but I'm personally going to skip these two. They're perfectly lovely colors but not unique or special enough for me to bite the bullet. Chanel is generally a more tranditional brand, but this mint green color is Chanel stepping out of the box. From all the swatches I've seen, Jade and Jade Rose have some shimmer in them that is so subtle, you'd only see them in direct, bright sunlight. If you're going to purchase one, I'd suggest Jade.

You'll have to hurry though because the polishes are limited edition and only available at Chanel.com or at Chanel Boutiques.

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Twice the Ink

cleegiants — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0700

The hottest trend in nail polish right now is matte polish. I was initially pretty hesitant to jump on board, but after trying out Sephora by OPI's Metro Chic Matte at the store, I was sold. I haven't purchased it (since I have the original), but it got me over my objections and I decided to make the plunge. Other blogs have done the research for me. The first matte shade I bought was La Paz-itively Hot by OPI, which was the only color I liked from All Lacquered Up's swatches. On a whim, I ended up also buying OPI Ink at the same time and loved it as well. Normally I am not a purple fan, but I had to admit that the dark purple/blue with shimmer was simply stunning. I call it a blurple - or is it burple? This was a couple of months ago and so after enjoying the blurply sparkliness, I read that OPI was coming out with a new formula - SUEDE. It sounds weird, but I guess after applying it and seeing it in person, I understand it. The suede finish is hard to describe; I acutally think if we're using fabric descriptions, crushed velvet or velour might be more accurate.

Okay first up, we have the original Ink. Dark purple with bluish undertones; it photographs much bluer than it is in person. (For all photos, ignore the bad application)

Pretty right? And now OPI Ink Sude. Totally different from the Original.

Compared with the original, you can see the the Suede has a much more matte finish. It has this great frozen shimmer that comes out if you put a top coat on it. Exhibit below:

I can't decide which finish I like the best. Each one is different and stunning in itself. I have to wonder why OPI decided to release this collection of previous released colors when the suede finish colors don't always resemble the originals. I would rather OPI try to come up with new colors. So you can see for yourself, here are the finishes next to each other. From left to right: Ink Sude; Ink Suede with top coat; Ink Original; Ink Original with matte top coat.

For Stacey

cleegiants — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0700

I have a friend Stacey who just loves the color green. This is in her honor- I think she reads the blog, so enjoy this news.

Nubar is a company that makes nail polish and while I have personally never tried these polishes, I am going to hunt these down to find them because they are Ahh-mayyy-zing. Why? Because they are GREEN. 6 unique greens including a shimmer, a creme, a holo, and duochrome. This is such a stunner, reminds me of the set of blues that China Glaze released last winter.

Now none of these pictures are mine, see the sources at the end. I will try to get these polishes though. The information I've seen on other sites indicate that the polishes are about $7.50 each, which puts it on par with OPI or Essie, but more than China Glaze.

source
L to R: Greener, Forest, Earth, Conserve, Reclaim, Wildlife.

Greener is gorgeous - a dark green shimmer. LOVE.
Forest is a creme, dark green - flawless.
Earth is described as a blueish-green and may be more blue in certain lights. Kind of how earth looks from space.
Conserve is suppose to be a teal shimmer.
Reclaim is the holo (holographic) that has this amazing effect. If you've never seen a holo polish, this is unique.
Wildlife - a green and copper duochrome. Duochromes as you can tell are difficult to photograph as a solid color and this looks so cool.

Conserve, Earth, Forest

Greener, Reclaim, Wildlife

Above two pictures are from Scrangie - check out the post to see actual swatches of the polishes. Bet you can't resist them - oh man, I'm loving them all.

You're looking flat

cleegiants — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0700

Nail polish is going dull this fall. Okay, so it's not exactly what you think. Dull in this case is not boring - it's just matte! Zoya is releasing a collection of three polishes with a matte finish. Now I normally like my nail polish to have a lot of shimmer in them, so it'll be interesting to see what it looks like in person.

The three polishes are:
Loredana: gunmetal gray matte
Dovima: black matte
Posh: wine matte
(Zoya has the word shimmer after their description, but I think that must be a mistake because the collection is MATTE)

Designed to appeal to a multitude of matte color trend lovers; including every metro mod, vintage stylista, retro pin-up, goth beauty, glam rocker, street chic fashionista and color junkie out there, ZOYA MATTEVELVET* shades deliver the new color of fashion. Get all of the color, none of shine with MATTEVELVET*, Zoya’s exclusive blend of matte base and subtle shimmer resulting in utterly wearable and truly stylish nail polish.

*MATTEVELVET nail color by ZOYA is not intended to be worn with a base coat, top coat or speed dryer of any kind. Due to the unique matte formulation, color is not as long-wearing as traditional nail color. A completely clean, dry nail surface yields the best results for matte nail color wear. For best results make sure to always prepare nail with ZOYA Remove + (3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail plate cleaner and new color prep.) prior to applying color.

The MatteVelvet collection for Fall should start to make its appearance in stores in July. What do you think, will you be jumping on board the matte train?

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Living in the Fast Lane

cleegiants — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:30:00 -0700

Repeat after me: I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.

Okay, so repeating that 3 more times still makes me want these polishes, but really, I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.

And exactly what is demanding me to practice such restraint? It's this summer collection of nail polish from Misa. It's called Life in the Fast Lane and from what I've seen from other bloggers, I love the colors. I'm borrowing these pictures from Scrangie...please go check out her blog for some great polish posts.

My favorite of the bunch is called Dirty Sexy Money and is this lovely turquoise.

Speed of Life: A beautiful Orange. It speaks to me as a Giants fan.

On the Edge. It's a dark blue that really looks blue, not blue/black.

Okay, those are my 3 favorites. Here are the bottles of the other 3 that are still nice in their own right.
Right Here Now, No More Later
Push Upon It

Stop Rewinding, Just Fast Forward

All the polish bottles from Head2Toe Beauty, where you can purchase the polishes. Okay C...continue the mantra.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look.
I do not need any more nail polish no matter how lovely these colors look......

Summer Days

cleegiants — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0700

I love this picture from China Glaze's summer collection. Are those strawberries or raspberries? I think their size indicates raspberries. Okay, enough of my inability discern fruit. On to the actual polish colors. Sally Beauty Supply was having a Buy 2, Get 1 Free Special this week, and lucky for me, I was able to pick up 3 of the colors. Do I wish I could pick up the other 3? If the 3 I do have are any indication, then absolutely!

The 6 colors in the collection are: Orange Marmalade, Cherry Pie, Raspberry Festival, Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, and Watermelon Rind. I picked up Orange Marmalade, Raspberry Festival, and Watermelon Rind and love them all. I didn't have a problem with application for any of them, although Watermelon Rind was more sheer than I was expecting from a green.

Watermelon Rind. It's not quite the color of a ripe watermelon shell, but still yummy looking. It reminds me of a slightly lighter, not quite as sparkly Emerald Sparkle from the holiday collection. I think it has a touch of blue in the mostly green color. The color will really work for any season.

Raspberry Festival. Oh how this color is beautiful. It's a jelly-like finish, red (with a hint of pink?), and sparkly. It's a great color and does remind of raspberries. Love.

Orange Marmalade. I. LOVE. THIS. COLOR. I'm a big fan of orange and this orange does not disappoint. A true orange with this beautiful shimmer, it's a perfect summer color. Have I mentioned I love it?

For the other 3 colors (Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, Cherry Pie), head to All Lacquered Up for swatches since I don't think I'll be buying them.

Chanel Lumieres Celestes

cleegiants — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0700

Oui Oui! Are you feeling French? I do when I hear Chanel Lumieres Celestes. What is it? It's actually a collection of 8 lipglosses (the Aqualumieres) and 4 (2 old, 2 new) nail polishes. I admit that I have no firsthand knowledge of the collection, I've gathered this from some other sites.
source

The 8 glossimers retail for $27 each. Love the colors, just not the price tag. I've only sampled them at the store and while I like the overall colors, I think the price is a little high.

Nebula Rosewood
Meteore Deep coral
Mica White
Mirage Brown
Venus Fuchsia
Silex Coral
Cosmos Bronze
Jupiter Red

Le Vernis Nail Colour:
Allegoria (repromote)
Dazzling (repromote)
Cosmic Violene (new)
Mica Rose (new)

I absolutely cannot claim these pictures to be mine - this is the fabulous Michelle from All Lacquered Up. She somehow manages to get all the polishes I'd love to have...and takes beautiful pictures. First up is Cosmic Violene, followed by Mica Rose.

Rainbow Polish

cleegiants — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0700

If anybody happened to glance down at my nails last week, they likely would have done a double take at the colorful array I was presenting. I was at a local Nordstrom's that had an array of Chanel polishes, so I decided to test a few out. At first, I just wanted to try out the two summer shades, Golden Sand and Orange Fizz, but decided to try some other colors as well. You'll have to excuse the paint job on some of the nails - I tried to do it quickly, plus it may have smeared since I wasn't trying to be super careful.

So here they are from left to right, thumb to pinky.

Golden Sand. I didn't expect to love this color as much as I do. It's described as a peachy bronze, The brush strokes are a little obvious with this shimmering metallic; I managed to do two coats, but they were definitely done quickly.

You can see the rest of the polish colors on my left hand here, but it's actually the best shot of the index finger's and middle finger's colors, Vamp and Shanghai Red.. On the index finger, Vamp was one of those shades that I'd heard of a long time ago; its availability seems to have evened out and has generally been in stock every time I see the Chanel polishes. It's a deep, dark red that applies well. The only thing that surprised me about it was its sheerness; I would try for a third coat under normal circumstances.
Shanghai Red is a typical bright red creme. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but red is such an ubiquitous color, you don't need to spend $23 for a bottle of it.

Okay, the above picture isn't the greatest, but along with the picture above that, you get an idea of Vendetta's dark purple shimmer. I'm not a fan of purple, never have been, but this one is kinda cool. It's really dark, almost black, but it's purple-ness shines in the sunlight. Because of its darkness, 2 coats of polish will do.

One of my favorites, especially for summer is this bubblegum pink, Organdy. Again, it's one that I would use 3 coats on, but 2 is pretty good. A bright, fun pink, although one friend said it might not be the most 'professional'. I say, depends on your work environment!

Orange Fizz is a pinky coral color, much pinker in real life than my camera shows. I was thinking of a tangerine or creamsicle color when I heard the name; this is much more pink or coral. Now don't get me wrong, I love the color, but I don't quite get the name.

Sorry for the blurriness of this picture; it's the best I could get. The color is Lotus Rouge, which I call the child of Vamp and Shanghai Red. A little lighter than Vamp, with more red. Still a red though, so probably failry easy to find a dupe for less.

Application problems and some careless placement of my hands make this a difficult polish to picture, but you get the idea. This is Madness, a rich chocolate brown. It's a creme and has no shimmer unlike the holiday release of Haute Chocolate. I prefer some shimmer in my polish, but it's a smooth, opaque brown.

Lilac Sky is a pale lavender, slightly pink polish with some shimmer. Like I said earlier, I'm not a fan of purple, espcially the light ones, so this is not my cup of tea. Probably a good color for spring and summer.

And finally, on the pinky, is Black Satin. It's exactly as its name suggests, a shiny black. It essentially looks like patent leather (not quite as shiny) on your fingers. Gorgeous, but I think other brands have similar colors at a lower price. Zoya's Raven and China Glaze Black Diamond are 2 that I can think of quickly. Chanel's was an instant classic, probably since it came out at a time when funky colors were not yet mainstream. I've also heard that there are two versions, the 'real' one is made in the USA and should have a slight silver shimmer.

All polishes are available at Chanel.com, but check local counters for older shades, as availability changes frequently.

So there's a brief introduction to some of the Chanel polishes. Honestly, I don't think I would buy any of these at full price; $23/bottle is just not palatable to me right now.

Essie's North Fork

cleegiants — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0700

How gorgeous are these three polishes from Essie? These are available now and I am going to try my best to get these because I love the colors. Essie describes the colors as such: Sag Harbor: Cool silver-blue. Shelter Island: Sky-blue radiance. Greenport: Dreamy aquamarine pardise. I have a ton of nail polish already, but I'm going to make room for these if I can find them. I'm balking at paying the typical $8 price, but I'm wondering if there are other polishes I'm craving so I can order from here, can save on shipping. Decisons, decisions!