nubar Noir

When I first met Noubar Abrahamian, founder of nubar, while at Cosmoprof 2011, my first words were "Hi, I'm Krystal and I've actually never tried your polish before."  Facepalm.  Not the best introduction I've ever done.  I had Katie Cazorla standing next to me and she looked at me and cracked up.  Mr. Abrahamian is a very firm but soft-spoken man and he just turned and started filling a bag up with his polishes and smiled at me.  I think my face was about 10 shades of red.


One of the colors he put in my back was Noir, "one of our basics".  Noir is a basic black that dries to a bit of a rubbery finish.  I'm calling it "plastic" because it looked a lot like the ORLY Plastix collection to me.


For a simple black manicure, I used a base coat of Zoya Get Even and 2 coats of polish.  When I'm layering something on top of Noir, I just use one coat.

Unfortunately, I have nothing but clouds right now.  I'm not sure if you can fully see the plastic type finish (or rubbery) but it's not as shiny as when you'd add a top coat.

I should have held a different bottle to show where my nails end, but as you can see this is a very opaque color.  It's a great black for me since I ran out of my CND Blackjack and haven't made a purchase yet.  I use it for pretty much every layering I do.


nubar can be purchased on their website for about $7.50 a bottle in the US.  They do have international retailers in Russia, Sweden and the UK.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter although their Twitter has been a bit bare lately.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

CND High Voltage Hands

More Spring 2012 coming your way!  Please enjoy the following press release from CND!

High Voltage Hands

CND Rings in 15 Years of Fashion with Spring 2012 Runway Nail Trends

15 years ago, CND pioneered the concept of manicures as runway accessories at New York Fashion Week. This season, CND worked with 21 designers including 3.1 Phillip Lim, Monique Lhuillier and Altuzarra.

"For Spring 2012, manicures are no holds barred - take your nails to the edge with rock star psychedelic designs, sci-fi illuminated finishes, and retro mod brights," says CND founder, Jan Arnold.

NEW ROCK N' ROLL

From the opening power-chord to the throb of the bass, sport outlaw glamour and pure adrenaline-blasted nails. Glam rock mani attitude bursts with sharp shapes, color, expression and creativity! Rihanna meets Grace Jones with manicures in hyper-sensory brights and dazzling sparkle to match hi-tech fabrics in spandex, polyurethane, stretch canvas and metal organza. Get the "Mic Check Mani," as seen at Nicole Miller, with a checkered pattern of CND Colours in Raspberry Parfait and Inkwell. Slick Ice Blue Shimmer Effect over the entire nail for an iridescent finish. Rock a poisonously bright ombré, like the"Lethal Love" nails from Jen Kao, by using CND Colours in Inkwell and Anchor Blue. To achieve the fierce medium to long almond shaped nails seen at many shows on the runway, try CND Liquid & Powder or Brisa™ Gel enhancements.

ORGANI-TECH

Like the sci-fi classic, "The Twilight Zone," this season's manicure is more than immediately meets the eye. Paired with metallic weaves, opalescent chiffon, pleated muslin and paper-light poplin fabrics, seemingly natural nails are infused with radioactive texture in wrinkled cellophane, lattice airbrushing, holograms or transparent glass shards. This other worldly dichotomy takes a neutral or nude backdrop and illuminates with embellishment, like the "Lucite Lace" manicure from Joy Cioci, which was created by air brushing white lattice designs on a clear tip. At Wayne, white nails were feathered with bold CND Colour in Blackjack brushstrokes to shape "Birds of Prey" inspired manicures.

MOD SQUAD   

The swingin' sixties are back! Grab your plaid cropped jacket, tweed pencil skirt and a potent daytime martini to go with retro bright nails in offbeat orange, yellow and persimmon. Recreate the bold and daring "Orange Crush Mani" from Milly with saturated CND Colour in Electric Orange, or opt for a "Murky Mustard" look from Karen Walker by mixing CND Colour in Bicycle Yellow with seven drops of Blackjack. For true power nails, try fiery coral CND Colour in Poppyfield, as seen at Wes Gordon.

CND Colour retails for $9.00 per bottle, Effects retail for $11.00 per bottle, and Base and Top Coats retail for $8.50 each. For CND Colour & Effects e-tailers or regional salon and spa availability, please visit cnd.com.

To read Jan Arnold's daily backstage blog, visit  http://cndfashionweek.com/Spring2012 and check out CND's Fashion Week Tumblr at  http://cndfashion.tumblr.com/ .  

Cult Nails Unicorn Puke

Cult Nails set up a polish frenzy with Unicorn Puke, a purple blue based multi-colored flakie.  I first got to see this at Cosmoprof when I met with Maria, owner of Cult Nails, but now it's finally mine.  Maria had a pre-sale of 250 bottles of Unicorn Puke, maximum of 2 bottles per customer, so I bought my two.


Please don't go searching for this on eBay unless you want to pay for the Unicorn Puke sticker on the bottom and gold writing on the bottle.  This color has been renamed "Clairvoyant" and will be available in the 2011 Winter "Super Powers" collection which was available for pre-sale last week.  If you'd like to read about the eBay situation, please visit Maria's blog posting here.


Back to this baby.  I decided to layer it 2 coats of it over nubar Noir and top it with Seche Vite.  Before I show you that, here is what it looks like on my nail stick.

On the left is several coats of Unicorn Puke by itself.  As you can see, it has a purple blue base.  On the right is 2 coats over the nubar noir.

LOOK AT THE FLAKIES.  I finally realized what flakies remind me of... fish food!  I love it.  Look at the colors - red and gold and green and purple and blue.  Unicorn Puke!


If you're wondering about the name, it's a bit of a play on Unicorn Pee, also known as Clarins 230.  It's a multi-colored polish that normally sells for around $70 on eBay.  Here is Chloe's Nails' blog posting on the pee itself.  (That was a fun sentence to write.)  Maria originally wanted to make something similar to Clarins 230 but with flakies instead of shimmer, so this is how it came about!

This beautiful girl doesn't like to photograph.  I wore this for several days and this is after day 3, so sorry for the tipwear.

My shade picture is one of the few where you can really see what's going on.  Lots of color, lots of fun.  Almost reminds me a bit of a graffiti wall as well!

Indoors with the flash doesn't do it much justice either.  Again if you missed out on the Unicorn Puke sale, please note that this same formula, color and everything is being renamed Clairvoyant and will be available this winter!


Cult Nails is available in their shop for $12 a bottle.  You can like Cult Nails on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  Once they reach 5,000 Likes on Facebook, Maria will be offering all polishes for only $5!

NOTD: 14 November 2011

Okay, so I actually wore this for Homecoming back on October 22nd, but I'm just a bit behind in my personal queue of postings.  I'm attempting to catch up with at least 2 posts a day and (hopefully) no more than 1 press release per day.  I know it takes me a lot longer to review collections since I only post one color per blog posting, but this way I appreciate and review each color individually.  My organizational brain won't let me do it any other way.


So I am a graduate of Texas A&M University - Kingsville, a sister school of the big Texas A&M University in College Station.  Our colors are blue and gold and I've tried to find the right combination to wear for football games but always seem to fall short.


Imagine my excitement when I realized that the CND 2011 The Look had the perfect blue and gold for my own manicure!

On the left is CND colour in Midnight Sapphire and on the right is CND effects in 24 K Sparkle.  I used a base coat of CND Stickey, 1 coat of Midnight Sapphire, 2 coats of 24 K Sparkle and a top of CND Air Dry.

The sun picture doesn't really convince me that this manicure was the best because the sun hits the effect too strongly.

In the shade however, I'm automatically in love.

Another shade, this time holding CND effects in 24 K Sparkle.  Lovely color!

Indoors with the flash and you can see again that big bling of the effects, but it's really a beautiful combination. I can't wait to wear it all next year for the football games (I'm from a football family), and other campus events that I may attend in the future.


CND is available for $9 per colour, and $11 per effect and you can find locations to buy here.


TransDesign and Head2ToeBeauty has the colours for $4.50 and effects for $5.50.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

FingerPaints Comet's Collar

The next in the FingerPaints Merry & Bright collection is Comet's Collar, a yellow green shimmer.  I was really worried about staining with this color, as it reminded me of China Glaze Paper Chasing - my first experience of staining on my nails.


I used a base coat of Zoya Get Even, 2 coats of polish and a top of Seche Vite.  The formula was nice and smooth.

Here in the sun, you can see a bit that this color isn't fully opaque.  You can see a bit of VNL on each one of the nails.

The shade is a bit better but again, I have some VNL especially on the middle finger.  I also feel like this color gives me a bit of lobster hands (where your hands look a bit red), but overall, not too bad.

Finally indoors with the flash and the yellow of this color really shines through.


I'm super happy to report that there was zero staining on my nails after taking the polish off after several hours.  That was my one concern and I didn't experience it.


FingerPaints can be found in Sally's Beauty Supplies stores and online for $4.99 USD each.  They are a Sally's Beauty Supply exclusive brand, so you can follow Sally's on Twitter and like them on Facebook as well as follow their blog.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.