Dior 'Prune Smoking'

I can't imagine a prune smoking, surely that would reduce it's health benefits.

Sorry, I'm totally sad, I know.

Anyway, this beautiful colour was a birthday gift from my lovely O. With my birthday being back in September it is quite shameful that I'm only posting it now, but to be fair I'd only used it on my toes so far and I would not ever, EVER inflict my feet on the internet. So once I got it on my fingers I got snap happy.

Dior - Prune Smoking

This is so chic. Undeniably so. It just oozes laid-back sophistication and implies that you do your weekly shop at Prada.

 This is essentially a blackened burgundy. It's got quite a strong brown-black base to it which keeps it original. This is a straight cream with no shimmer, my favourite kind of finish. Two coats plus top coat.

So yes, this is the colour Dior call 'Prune Smoking'.... and sniggers aside about the name,  I like it very much indeed.

NOTD - Barry M Cappucino with 'graped tips'

I don't actually think the term 'graped tips' exists (although try saying it over and over again as fast as you can, it's worth 30 seconds of braindead amusement.... ) but what I mean is a deep wine/grape coloured French tip.

I picked up Barry M Cappucino last week, alongside a goddess green shade called Racing Green.
2 for £5 at Superdrug, people. Go grab 'em.

Barry M Cappucino with Honk if you love OPI on the tips

Just so you all know, I'm fully aware that 'cappuccino' has TWO c's, but clearly Barry doesn't. Besides, it's not even cappuccino coloured so I don't know what he was thinking. It's more of a mauve-grey-taupe hybrid. And very, very beautiful. So Barry, I will forgive your misspelling and misnaming of this little bottle of goodness, because I think you have just topped Mushroom (which in fact wasn't even mushroom coloured anyway) with this.

French Cappuccino?

The formula is great, two smooth coats give effortlessly lady-like, but edgy, chic. And the lasting power is amazing. It's been on now for four days and because it was only looking a little sorry at the tips (absolutely no chipping, miracle), I decided it was a shame to remove it and vamped it up a notch with a deep purple tip, using Honk If You Love OPI (see here for swatches of it on it's glorious ownsome).

 Did you know that doing a French tip is really hard? Or at least it is if you are as cack-handed as moi. But I managed just about and I'm quite pleased with the effect. I think the colours complement each other and I'm feeling delightedly rock chick sporting my 'graped tips'....

What do you think? Do you like a bit of grape with your cappuccino?

Estee Lauder Black Turquoise - NOTD

Believe it or not, after a summer drought post-wise, I now have a posting schedule complete with back-up photos.

This was not scheduled. In fact, I ignored the schedule to blog about this immediately, because people, you NEED to know about this.

In case Mr P is reading this (sometimes, when he's bored, he finds his way to my blog and then laughs at how I can get excited by lip balm and perfume. etc etc...) I 'bought' this with my Boots points. In other words, it was FREE.

I would have bought it even if I didn't have enough points. It, and all it's brothers and sisters, are most definitely worth the £14.50/$20/€19.50 price tag.

Estee Lauder Black Turquoise

I'm so over summer brights. And by the looks of it recently, summer is over too. Not that I'm longing to wrap myself in woollies and freeze my butt off, but I do love a bit of autumn fashion and the glorious new colours it brings. This season it's all about shades of black; blackened reds, blues, greens etc. And metallics are going to be big again I hear.

I'd been totally bowled over by the new Estee Lauder nail polish display when I first saw it last week. I have to admit by being a bit jaded by nail polish now that I have so much. As always, however, there are gaps in my collection and the ENTIRE Estee Lauder collection would fill that gap quite nicely thank you.

Estee Lauder Black Turquoise

Estee Lauder Black Turquoise

But let's start with one. I decided I wanted a black-green shade but failing that, a very black-blue would do. When the sales assistant showed me the bottle of Black Turquoise I at first thought it to be too light. Too blue and not black enough. Then I tried it and fell head over heels. Tom Pecheux (the creative director of Estee Lauder, don't you know) has really nailed it. How do you do a blackened turquoise? How does that even work? Surely it's a contradiction in terms? Turquoise, is by it's nature, a bright. Tom has turned beach-babe turquoise into a dark mistress of the night, and I LOVE her.

Black Turquoise, blurred, I know, but I included it because it shows more or less the true colour under bright light

Formula is incredible, it goes on like a dream and it's self-leveling, which means that even if it's too thick or thin in places, it will even itself out.

As usual, this is two coats with Essie Good to Go topcoat.

A word of warning. Dark blues and greens have a tendency to stain the nails more than most colours so you MUST absolutely use a base coat. As a precaution I used two coats of Nailtiques Formula 2 before I applied the polish. 

Considering that Chanel limited edition polishes are about a fiver more expensive with an inferior formula and far less imaginative colours, I don't understand why the blogging world hasn't gone just as crazy for Estee Lauder. Are they all mad???

Will you be going back to black next season?


(Black Turquoise is, as far as I know, limited edition )

NOTD - Chanel Morning Rose

How long has it been since a NOTD? Too long I think.

It's not that I've not been wearing polish, but strangely, I've been reverting to ones I've worn (and photographed) before and so it's not very interesting to re-post the same shades is it?

I bought Morning Rose last year along with the much coveted Mimosa, but strangely enough, I never photographed her. So here she is.

A strange one, this. In the bottle she screams to be loved, worshipped and never forgotten. In a way she captured my heart more than Mimosa in the bottle.

Chanel Morning Rose

But her salmon-pink loveliness seems to fade into 'just pretty' on the fingers. The formula doesn't help. It goes on a bit unevenly and even with two coats it seems patchy. The golden micro glitter doesn't come through as strongly most of the time, only in sunlight. In fact, Morning Rose was born to be in the sun. Normal daylight just doesn't do her any justice, in fact, she's could be considered a little boring. But let her shimmer in the sun and you realise why she was created, to evoke the dew glistening on a perfect rose first thing in the morning light. Poetic, huh?

Chanel Morning Rose, glistening gold flecks in the bottle

Also, I think that one carefully applied coat looks more refined than two. And it's very rare that that happens. Ms R was the first to point it out to me, being unashamedly a one-coat girl anyway. But she's right in this case. I wish I'd stopped, and photographed, one coat. It's an almost nude look with a salmon pink blush. Very, very elegant.

All the photos show two coats with Essie Good to Go topcoat. And they were taken on my iPod, which oddly enough picks up the colour a bit more accurately than my Fujicam.

Does Morning Rose charm you or bore you?

NOTD - Essie 'Splash of Grenadine'

Essie Splash of Grenadine

I've had no time to paint my nails in the last couple of weeks so I was determined to splash some colour on them now that spring has officially arrived. 

 I pulled out this little Essie number which I'd picked up a few months back but hadn't yet tried.

Splash of Grenadine is a warm, juicy lilac pink, very pretty and totally perfect for spring.
The formula was great, easy to apply and not too thick and gloopy. This is two coats with Essie Good to Go topcoat. You could get away with one decent coat though.

Splash of Grenadine

Not many colours are elegant, fun, bright and work appropriate, but this one definitely ticks all those boxes. I can see this being one of my favourites.

Would you be partial to a splash of grenadine?

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips - 360 Laced Up

I picked these up when I was in the USA last summer and I still hadn't been bold enough to wear them. Saturday night gave me the perfect excuse so out they came.

I had doubts about if they would work or not, if they would just look like cheap stickers stuck onto my nails, or even if they didn't fit my nails at all.

I needn't have worried, and I've been cursing myself for taking so long to try them.

Look at these beauties.... aren't they just stunning? I'm in love with my own nails!

Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips - 360 Laced Up

I admit, it took me a good 10 minutes to get into the swing of applying them, and then I was away. The left hand took my much longer than the right surprisingly, and there are a few creases but thankfully the pattern makes it almost impossible to see them. The nails on my right hand are much smoother thanks to the fact that I'd finally got the hang of smoothing the strip onto the nail properly. The trickiest part was lining up the strip to the cuticle so that both sides were even and the strip wasn't wonky.

In the box you get 16 real nail polish strips of 8 different sizes so you can best match your own nail shape. You know that these are pure nail polish from the classic lacquer smell which wafts out of the box when you open it. It really is amazing how they've managed to make these...

You also get a mini file and an orange stick to help with the application.

You simply buff the clean nail, match the correct strip size to your nail, peel off the backing and smooth on, stretching the strip slightly to eliminate creases (this I only learned to do by the time I got to the right hand)!

Nail polish strip application

As you can see there is quite a bit of excess when the strip is applied. Simply fold it over the end of the nail and file it off. Simples. I thought I should cut off the excess but this really isn't necessary, the file does all the work for you. I suppose if you were really really careful you could use the other half of the strip too, but it's hard not to ruin it when you remove the excess.

No base or top coat is required, but I have a feeling that a top coat might have prolonged my manicure.

It's supposed to last up to 10 days, but sadly mine began to chip on the second day, probably due to the fact that I'm not a lady of leisure and am always active in the kitchen chopping something or washing veggies.... still I had hoped that it would have lasted a little longer.

Even with the chipping this was still wearable up until today, so that's about 4 days really. The pattern means that small chips aren't that noticeable. If this were a block colour it would have looked pretty horrendous by now.

Despite it's poor staying power, I just love the intricate black lace look you get from these, it looks like I've spent hours painting my nails with a micro-fine brush. The shine is gorgeous and you don't need a top coat, except perhaps for longevity as I said before.

These strips are a bit hard to come by in Europe and the UK. I found them online at Amazon here, but I don't see this particular design.

In the USA of course they are pretty much in every drugstore. I can't remember how much I paid for them, but it something in the region of $8, so much more reasonable than the £9.29 on Amazon. It may seem a lot for just one use, but you can pay up to three times that for a salon manicure which may only last a few days, and I think these are something just a bit more special.

So I guess what I want to say is that I do in fact think they are worth it, well, the ones with the intricate designs that is, I would forgo the plain colours myself. 

What do you think of these? Yay or nay?

NOTD - Maybelline Red Seduction

It's been a long time since I painted my nails red but for some reason I haven't felt in the mood for a while. I was about to paint my nails in Mushroom (Barry M) when this old red Maybelline bottle caught my eye and without a second thought I used that instead.

Maybelline Express Finish - Red Seduction

Sometimes its about more than colour, and this bottle I've had since early 2007. I remember when I bought it, in Superdrug in Greenwich, and on the same day I bought some fishnet tights and a gorgeous grey tweed pencil skirt which hugged in all the right places. That night I painted my nails with the deep red polish and the next day I strutted my stuff in the fishnets and the pencil skirt, decked out like a 40's bombshell.

I remember so vividly how wonderful it felt to embrace such glamour and the red nails were the icing on the cake. Aptly named Red Seduction, it proved to deliver it's promise....

 This old bottle is probably my most used polish, although the last time I picked it up was about 4 years ago. It's thickened somewhat but is still usable. The formula was one of those quick-dry ones and it never failed me when I was in a hurry.

Seeing this on my nails again reminds me exactly why I always loved it, but more importantly, it takes me back to the time when I felt at my most glamourous and makes me want to reinstate that feeling once more.

Somehow my blue cupboard seems to show off my manicure better than a standard white background!

Maybelline Express Finish in Red Seduction is still available online at prices ranging from £1.49. I'm not entirely certain if it's been discontinued in the UK but I'm assuming that it has been, hence the number of discount cosmetics websites selling it off cheaply. However Red Seduction is still available here in Belgium, I saw it in Di the other day :)

NOTD - L'Oreal Color Riche in French Riviera (601)

Now, I was worried about this one. It's baby blue and shimmery, and although pretty in the bottle I was sceptical about how it would translate on the nails.

Not being a teen anymore, and firmly out of my 'baby blue' phase which reached it's peak in the late 90's (literally everything I bought was baby blue...), I wondered whether I could re-kindle this previous affection and bring it up to date with a more 'mature' (eugh, hate that word) finesse.

Still, I didn't have a colour like this in my ever-increasing polish stash so I thought it would be good to both test the new L'Oreal formula and push the experimentation boat out a bit more...

L'Oreal Colour Riche polish in French Riviera (601)

 ...and I'm so glad I did.

This is sooo pretty. The shimmer is very subtle and only visible when you look very closely. Artificial light brings it out beautifully and I think I've managed to capture it reasonably well in the photos (which you can expand to see it more clearly).

L'Oreal French Riviera (601)

 There is also a nice colour shift depending on what light you are under. The blue is paler and slightly greyer in these photos due to the brighter light, but in darker settings it takes on more of a true baby blue hue but still with that grey undertone which keeps it from being too cutesy.

I'm so pleasantly surprised with this and I know that I will wear it more than once. It's quite a flattering and wearable pale blue, don't you think?

Formula wise this was a breeze to apply. The consistency was just right, not too thick or too watery and the unique brush helped the colour glide on my nails with ease. I like that it's curved which means that you don't end up making a mess around the cuticles.

L'Oreal Colour Riche polish brush

By the way in all these photos you see two coats with Essie Good to Go top coat. One coat is possible but ever so slightly uneven and is obviously a much sheerer version of what you see here.

I wanted to take a photo showing my rose pink cardigan with the nails, I just love a pink and blue combo, because I'm a softy!

What do you think of this blue? Would you wear it?

Next up, will be the other L'Oreal colour I picked up, So Chic Pink. It's coral time once more, folks!

Springtime Spree (including L'Oreal Rouge Caresse)

I didn't mean to, honestly, but the colours were so purrrrrrrrty......

I was lured into temptation by the new L'Oreal window display in Di and I ventured inside to have a nosey about. Now, I'm sure I've said this before, but I really don't like L'Oreal that much. The adverts annoy me, and I find the products expensive for what they are and somehow a bit cheap looking. There are one or two goodies, that's for sure, but in general the brand is so EVERYWHERE that it has no lustre for me whatsoever.

L'Oreal Color Riche nail polishes in 208 So Chic Pink and 601 French Riviera

But it looks like they've given some of their products a mini make-over and I like it! The nail polishes are particularly dinky, housed in 5ml bottles and every single colour cried out to me like a lamb bleating for it's mother...

I picked up a coral (surprise surprise) and a baby blue with a touch of shimmer. I haven't swatched them yet, but I tried the blue on my pinky nail and the first thing that struck me was the unusual brush. It's fan-shaped, wide and flat. I would say I have medium sized nail beds and one stroke with this brush would definitely cover my whole nail. If you have tiny nails this might not be the best brush for you.

Color Riche polish brush

(Incidently when I got home I compared my new coral to all my other corals only to find that I'd bought yet another identical coral.....  What is wrong with me????)


 I also saw the brand new Rouge Caresse lipsticks, which I'm pretty sure are L'Oreal's answer to Revlon's mega popular lip butters, as yet unavailable in Europe. They are basically a hybrid between a lip balm and a lipstick, giving a sheer wash of colour and a shiny finish.

All the colours looked gorgeous, I mean, really really gorgeous. I plumped for 06 Aphrodite Scarlet (amazing name!) which incidently is what the model is wearing in the Rouge Caresse campaign:

Rouge Caresse - Aphrodite Scarlet (L'Oreal advert)

Here is Aphrodite Scarlet on me.

Bare Lips

With Aphrodite Scarlet

It pulls more cherry-red on my very pigmented red, but I like that. It also feels very light and comfortable on the lips and has a good 'slip'. I had a sniff in the shop and I thought that these were mildly fruit scented, but my one at least doesn't have a scent. I kind of wish it was lightly fragranced with a touch of grapefruit or something, because all I can sense is a slightly waxy taste. This won't stop me from using it though as the colour is really gorgeous and it really gives me a 'lift'.

Rouge Caresse Aphrodite Scarlet, swatch

On my way out I also grabbed a Bourjois shadow I've been hankering after for a whole year but which is always sold out. It's so pretty, and I LOVE it. A matt peach pink with silver glitter particles. I'm wearing it today and I feel like a ballerina (or as Mr P would say, a hippo in a tutu a la Fantasia....).

I'm so annoyed at how the lovely packaging is ruined already! They have this stupid practice of wrapping cheap sellotape around the whole product to prevent skanks from swatching the non-testers and it's almost impossible to remove it without wrecking your nails and the packaging. I can't seem to remove the tape residue so it's all manky now :(

Bourjois Intense eyeshadow in 03

There also appears to be a new Maybelline range which I haven't seen in the UK but which has been in Brussels for a few weeks now. It's called Fit Me and it encompasses a range of new foundations, concealers and powders. I tried the Fit Me concealer and liked the smooth, light texture, so I thought I'd give that a go seeing as my Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection is running low.
 

Swatch of Maybelline Fit Me concealer, shade 25, thick (L), blended out slightly (R)

This info will only be of interest to those residing in Belgium, but Di is also running a few offers at the moment, 25% off L'Oreal, Bourjois & Rimmel, plus there is the opportunity to claim your money back on a L'Oreal product, make sure you take a form before you leave the store.


Have you seen this stuff in drugstores where you live?