Nail Polish

November 15, 2011

November 2011 Birchbox

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Nail Polish, Subscription boxes

LaROCCA Champagne and Shimmer Acai Sugar Polish
Chuao Chocolatier Chocolate Bars (these are delicious!)
Klorane Soothing Eye Makeup Remover with Cornflower Water
Oscar Blandi Jasmine Protein Mist
Zoya Gems & Jewels Collection

I didn’t manage to review all of the products for the blog this month but wanted to go ahead and post this.

Klorane Soothing eye makeup remover with coneflower

My ingredients differed from those listed in the Cosmetics Database so I ran my own report. The Cosmetics Database gave this a 3 (left image) which was already good but with the ingredients from the bottle I got a 2 (right image.) Click to enlarge either report.

I ended up not trying this ONLY because the flowery smell made my nose itch (I can’t handle some flowery scents hanging around on me all day, allergies.)

LaRocca Champagne and Shimmer Body Scrub:

http://www.laroccaskincare.com/products/body/Champagne_and_Shimmer_Acai_Sugar_Polish.html

Notice the contradicting in marketing there? Fragrance in the ingredients but then just after that they’re trying to market that it’s fragrance free? Meh.

The rest of the ingredients were good so I did try this. I do wonder because it had a wonderful cooling feel after I rinsed if there wasn’t mint or something else that’s not listed in the ingredients. It wasn’t quite the same feel as mint oil but similar in some way.

January 30, 2011

Perfect point shoe pink/peach nail polish?

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Nail Polish

Zoya Lulu has come the closest I’ve seen so far.

Pictured is three coats. I needed to do a small touchup on my thumb so I ended up with a fourth coat on it. The thumb nail with 4 coats is not looking so pretty now and I may need to redo it.

What would be the perfect point show pink / peach in my opinion:

A hair less sheer
a hair lighter (like between the dark and the highlight of the shoe)
and a hair shinier (like Shiloh, no chunky glitter)

This is more a, my nails but better look on me. I like it but I still want that perfect color that looks like these point shoes. Any suggestions on other colors to try?

Also to note: Not all point shoes are the color I’m thinking of. I’m going more for the Gaynor Minden on the right, not the Bloch on the left.

PS – I used to dance, I don’t just randomly buy used point shoes. These still fit. 🙂

January 18, 2011

Zoya – they’re here!

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Nail Polish

Just got my freebies from the facebook promo code in today.

I also purchase the Zoya Renew for a couple of other polishes I currently have that were getting old. Quick review on it is that it did make one sheer less streaky and easier to apply but I didn’t take a photo to share. I’ll probably do a more in depth review at another time.

The first photo is taken in my car in daylight and it’s the truest to actual color of the quick photos I took. Lulu, Shiloh and Loredana.

Please excuse the quick application and dark photo.
Shiloh is a great easy red. It’s very glossy looking. Slightly sheer for a red but not by much. It reminds me of a lollipop or some other red hard candy. Not orangy and not purple-y. I think it’s going to work well on most skin tones. There are little tiny tiny tiny sparkles. Super easy to apply and fast to dry. I’m going to redo my nails in this color tonight for a longer test-run.

Next up is Loredana which is a matte gray. It’s a little surprising going on because at first it looks like a glittery dark gray and then once it dries it looks like this:

I don’t remember ever owning a matte nail polish before. One downside I hear is that they don’t last as long. I will let you know what I find out. I wish the shade were just a hair lighter gray but I do really like this for a fall, winter sort of color.

I did not take a photo of Lulu. It’s a very sheer color and my inside photos were bad enough as it is. You really wouldn’t be able to get a good sense of the color. I will review it at a later date. It did go on well, just more sheer than I expected. I like it but I think it would take a lot of coats to get to the color of the spoon sample I had.

January 4, 2011

Current Obsession – Nail Polish

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Nail Polish

Thanks Zoya for sparking me to become re-obsessed with nail polish – sheesh. 🙂

Part of my problem is I lean towards liking colors I don’t think are exactly … first-meeting-with-a-potential-client appropriate.

I knew I wasn’t going to be having meetings around the holidays though so I am actually wearing this color aqua at the moment. I’ll try and take a picture tomorrow before I remove it. One thing I didn’t like was that even being super careful and allowing for excessive dry time I ended up with some smudges. Nothing so bad I needed to redo it but not as good as the opaque white I wore the week before. Maybe I put it on too fast, I’m not sure. I plan on giving this aqua another go after my Thursday client meeting.

I don’t have a ton of in person meetings but a lot of my clients are fairly conservative and 40+ so they didn’t grow up with strange colors being appropriate on nails.

I remember wearing black nail polish back in 1993 and got crap for it from people I went to school with. I’d almost say that certain shades of black are more … socially acceptable now though?? Anyway – it’s leaning on the safe side that had kept me from using much nail polish in the last five-ten years (seriously.) That and the unnecessary chemicals that many of the polishes are starting to slowly remove due to demand. Plus typing used to mean that two days max and my nails looked like crap.

The teal has been going strong for about 4 days now and the opaque white (I don’t remember the name but it was also a sinful colors polish) died on day 7. Day 7 that one just started peeling off in blobs. I don’t think I’ve ever made it that long before without some tip chipping. I used the base coat, 2 coats, and then the base coat as the top coat simply because I didn’t seem to have a top coat polish here anymore.

Maybe that’s what I messed up on the aqua. I did base coat, 2 coats but no top coat (or base as top coat.)

In upcoming days I’ll be posting my research / wishlist for the sinful colors line and also sharing the massive number of spoons I’ve got from Zoya in the last couple of weeks.

October 5, 2010

Shared Video : ToneItUp.com @ Marie Claire featuring natural beauty products

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Makeup / Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Skin Care

http://www.toneitup.com
http://www.marieclaire.com

Some of the products mentioned in this video:

I disagree with the bit at the end about sunscreen. Many American’s are stuck in an office not getting out in the sun to get enough natural Vitamin D. You don’t want to burn, that’s bad, so there is a time and place for sunscreen. But this obsessive “you must wear it daily” is harming people. I’ll do a separate post next summer about eco-friendly sunscreen for when you want to hit the beach or go for a long hike.

As always, check your choices against: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

Brands mentioned in this video:

John Masters Organics
Living Proof
TRESemme Naturals
Tarte
Stila (not natural or organic)
Urban Decay Vegan
Priti Nail Polish
SumBody
Korres
Lavera
Pacifica
Juice Beauty
It’s a 10

March 14, 2010

Navy nails

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Nail Polish

So I’ve been looking for a nice navy lately. I haven’t painted my nails in years for a combination of reasons (chipping and chemicals primarily) but I really wanted to paint them recently. This is Wet n Wild noctural (238?) I wish it were a little more obviously navy instead of almost black. Yes?No? Suggestions for a better navy?