Polish Galore

CND Daily Nail 2.13.12 Thinking Pink at Theory

2.22.2012

Just a few more releases from NYFW - I've been watching BeautyJudy recreate some of them... now I want to! Please enjoy the following release from CND!

The CND Daily Nail 2.13.12

Thinking Pink at Theory

February 13, 2012 - During Day 5 of The CND Daily Nail, the catwalk showcased sophisticated and clean pink tones, and inky blue pigmented gem tones:

At Theory, Jin Soon Choi for CND designed clean and sophisticated pink nails with CND Colour in Marshmallow Rose. The designer preferred for both makeup and nails to provide a hint of color - and this subtle hint of pink shared blue undertones with the sheer lilac lip. The nail blended seamlessly with woven metallic and neutral fabrics, leather skirts and modern silhouettes.

CND's Wanda Ruiz designed "Deep Sea" digits at Karen Walker with inky CND Colour in Midnight Sapphire topped with Super Shiney Top Coat. This nail rocked the runway when paired with a coral lip and a "Sea Monsters"-inspired collection of mod jackets, high water trousers and pops of navy, fiery red and bold yellows.

Stay tuned for The CND Daily Nail during Fashion Week for show-by-show reports from:

• Alexandre Herchcovitch
• Milly
• Naeem Khan
• The Blonds

To read Jan Arnold's daily backstage blog, please visit cnd.com. Track @CNDWorld during Fashion Week, on Facebook, Pinterest and on YouTube.

Glitter Gal Light As A Feather

2.21.2012

After Christmas, I decided to finally put in a purchase of Glitter Gal Light As A Feather (3D/holo) - a white linear (rainbow looking) holographic polish. This is the old bottle design at 0.3 fl oz, right before Glitter Gal went through a redesign (and renaming) of their bottles & polishes. You can still find this bottle available at Overall Beauty, where I purchased mine. I was really excited to try this polish because it just looked amazing - a white (not silver) holo? I used a base of Duri Rejuvacote and 4 coats of polish. I did not use a top coat. Sadly, on top of needing 4 coats, I found this polish to be on the watery side.

Here in the sun, you can see an amazing holo in the bottle, but not nearly as much on the nails. You can also tell that the white is a bit milky - not opaque as I'd like it. I need to try this over a white polish to see if that helps.

YAY for blue skies! BOO to not a strong holo.

As always, shade pictures completely hide and dim any holographic properties of a polish.

Finally indoors with the flash can you see that this is a holographic polish.

Frankly, for $14, I felt let down by this polish.

Glitter Gal [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] may be purchased directly from their website but be prepared for a steep shipping cost if you're located outside of Australia. For other e-tailers, there is Llarowe who has the 0.3 fl oz/9 ml (above size) selling for $14, and the new 15 ml bottles (a China Glaze bottle is 14 ml) are being sold for $20; and Overall Beauty who has the 0.3 fl oz/9 ml (above size) selling for $14, and the new 15 ml bottles (a China Glaze bottle is 14 ml) are being sold for $20. As for shipping, both US e-tailers offer free US shipping for purchases over $50.

OPI does its last New York Fashion Week show, Herve Leger on Saturday

Please enjoy the following press release from OPI from NYFW. All images are courtesy of OPI.

OPI was used on nails for the Herve Leger by Max Azria fall/winter show at Lincoln Center on Saturday! Passion was painted on models’ nails for a clean, barely-there nude look that complimented the show’s black and neutral-colored dresses with leather strap detailing.

Celeb attendees included: actress Kristin Chenowith, actress Poppy Montgomery, model Camila Alves, model Beverly Johnson, actress Kate Mara (Rooney Mara’s sister) and DJ/socialite Harley Viera-Newton.

High Voltage Lacquer Mad Max

2.20.2012

After many days of nasty rains & clouds, I finally had a breakthrough of sun, so I really wanted to get some pictures taken! High Voltage Lacquer is the new nail polish line from tattoo artist & reality tv show star, Kat Von D. I will admit that I've watched Miami Ink, LA Ink and yes, even NY Ink, and while Kat wasn't my main reason for watching, I did love watching her style change and evolve. I own almost all her palettes and a couple of her pigments as well but her dabbling into nail polish had me excited.

These bottles remind me a lot of the old Craze Wet n Wild bottles where the cap is almost the size of the bottle. These are smaller at 0.25 oz but pricey at $12.50. (To compare, China Glaze is $6 for 0.50 oz - or twice the size.) This is Mad Max, a "glittering bright sapphire" that had a duochrome purple look online, and is apart of her "My Vida Loca" collection which was all about the bright, bold spirited heritage of the 80s neon. This polish is supposed to be intensely pigmented (straight from the website) and big 3 free.

I used a base of Duri Rejuvacote and sadly, 4 coats of polish to get it opaque. For top coat, I used one coat of CND Air Dry.

So oddly, you can see a purple cast on my hand near my thumb, but huh, no purple on the nail. This is a shimmery microglitter like blue - almost in the same vein of The Painted Nail "Electric Blue". While I haven't tried it personally, Scrangie had, and Katie from the Painted Nail immediately recognized it.

Anywho.

In the shade, you can see this color did apply smoothly - just took way too many coats.

Also, the duochrome is completely lost on the nail. You can see it again here on the right side of the bottle, but on the nail? Nada.

Finally, indoors with the flash, and you can see I had some opaque issues and almost looks like application issues but that's just the light hitting the microglitter. Be sure to scrub your hands well after removing as you'll have little blue glitter all over. Thankfully, this polish did not stain my hands, but you can never be too careful with blues!

High Voltage Lacquer is available on Sephora.com for $12.50 a bottle. There are only 4 colors currently, but she may be planning more. Kat's Twitter was all abuzz the past few months with pictures of new products that she's going to be launching soon (mostly makeup, but I have high hopes).