Go. Buy. This. Polish.

Here is my manicure of the week. This nail polish was under $3 I believe at Duane Reade and is beyond stunning. It's a pale lilac with holographic microshimmer that I cannot stop staring at. And this is taken with a flash--you should see it in the sunlight! Prevail Nail Lacquer in Concrete Jungle--prettiest polish ever. Click on the image to enlarge and see some of the detail.

Mini Duane Reade Haul

I've said it before--I am not a drugstore girl. I love the feeling of plunking down my Amex at a high end department store and walking out with a tiny, fancy bag of overpriced, gilded treasures. However, I've spent way too much already this week and was having the kind of day that only a purchase could fix (believe me, I tried 2 glasses of wine first) so I headed to Duane Reade, my local drugstore (followed by Tasti D-Lite for a Snickers topped with Butterfinger) and came home with these guys:
NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Plaza Pink, Prevail Nail Lacquer in Concrete Jungle, Brucci Nail Hardener in Johnny's Girl. Grand total: $13.42 (plus $5 for the ice cream. It is NYC after all).
Concrete Jungle is a lavender shimmer with holographic microglitter. Johnny's Girl is the ubiquitous semi-sheer light pink.
I'd read that Plaza Pink is a peachy pink with golden shimmer, but it's definitely a soft baby pink with silver pearl to me. That's the other reason I shy away from drugstore makeup--you can't try before you buy. This seems a bit too cool for me so I'm glad it was only $3.99. Here it is compared to my only other drugstore item, which just so happens to be a NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Big Apple Blush.
Big Apple Blush (left) and Plaza Pink (right):

I'm waiting on several items in the mail. Hopefully this will hold me off until they arrive!

Manicure of the Week

This is Illamasqua Viridian, a gorgeous blackened emerald with multidimensional shimmer. The lasting power is unimpressive, but the color is unique and divine!

What I Bought This Weekend

I went to the Limelight Market in Chelsea to pick up the full sizes of the Om Aroma skincare products I've been using since Black Friday. I had plenty left in all but the toning mist, but the mini sizes I've been using will be perfect for travel and you receive a discount for purchasing the whole set of products. My products came in what must be the old packaging--jars instead of pumps. At first I was disappointed since I prefer pumps for hygienic reason, but there is something a little luxe about dipping your fingers into a a small jar of a precious unguent! The founder of the line was working the store and remembered my from last time. I'm really liking these products!

For those who haven't been, Limelight is an old church that was converted to a small, quaint shopping center. They have amazing food, beauty, accessory and jewelry shops. In addition to OM Aroma, there is also Face Stockholm, Sue Devitt, The Avery Perfumes and more.

I also had my Sephora VIB $20 off a $40 purchase gift card burning a hole in my pocket and despite needing no makeup whatsoever, I picked up a Lancome Artliner in Aubergine (which is limited for the holidays according to the Sephora display) and Sephora Collection Retractable Waterproof Lip Liner in Nude (a light pinky beige). The lip liner was $12 which I think is expensive for the Sephora brand. I really wanted Illamasqua Nail Polish in Viridian but unfortunately they were all sold out!

Manicure Of The Week

I present my super-dry-hands-and-cuticles manicure of the week! This week a resurrected a favorite from last holiday season, Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora. This is a smokey black shade with copper flecks and rainbow shimmer. It's very festive and pretty on short nails without being a typical seasonal metallic red. It's different and pretty and always elicits positive comments.

Manicure of the Week

This is Rimmel London Steel Gray, a shade similar to Sephora by OPI Metro Chic and OPI You Don't Know Jacques. The Rimmel polishes have these amazing flat, wide brushes that allow you to coat the nail in one stroke. I think they're genius!

Manicure of the Week

Now that fall is decidedly in the air, I've switched to darker nail colors. I have a real issue with nail polishes chipping given how often I wash my hands, but I've discovered that layering a glitterly polish over top helps extend the wear time of my manicure. Plus it just looks so gosh darn pretty. This week I'm wearing Sephora by OPI A Little Dangerous (a deep shimmery eggplanty purple) with Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me (clear with chunky and micro gold sparkled suspended inside) over top. I've already gotten a number of compliments and will definitely be repeating this combination.

Manicure of the Week

This week I have a combination of Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer in Stormy Blue topped with Sephora by OPI Just a Fairy-Tail. Unfortunately the Sephora doesn't photograph well--it's a sheerish silvery holographic shimmer. The combination is beautiful in the sun!

Manicure of the Week

I picked up OPI for Sephora's Iris I was Thinner ($9) last week and finally got around to applying it. It's a total Grimace purple shade. Shimmer-free and opaque with two coats, this is adorable for summer on short nails and like most of this brand's polishes, applies easily. This is going on my toes as soon as OPI's My Chihuahua Bites starts to chip!

Manicure of the Week

Actually, this is my second manicure of the week. On Saturday I applied Paul & Joe 04 Provence and was so bored of the shimmery pink-beige-nude that today when I picked up L'Oreal Mango-Get-Em on the way home from the gym I couldn't wait to repolish! I love a bright color on short nails in the warm weather and this shade is summer in a bottle! It's a bright mango melon with no shimmer. The formula is stick and streaky and it has quite possibly one of the worst, most unweildy brushes I've ever used, but it dried fast and I love the shade. It's available for $4.99 on drugstore.com, and that's the same price I just paid at CVS.

Manicure of the Week

This is Priti Firecandle Nail Polish from my Spirit Beauty Lounge order. It's a just-shy-of-bright-neon pink with a subtle opalescent blue shimmer. The camera flash really picks up on the blue making the polish appear a bit more purple than it really is and unfortunately Blogger really washes them out. . This nail polish went on nicely and dried quickly. Hopefully it lasts since I love that the line is non-toxic and big-3 free. $12.50 a bottle makes it a bigger splurge than Essie or OPI but not as great an investment as Rococo Nail Apparel.

No Flash:

Flash:
Close Up:

My Spirit Beauty Lounge Order

I first learned about Spirit Beauty Lounge from some of the wonderful posters on Emakemeup's Grapevine. Spirit Beauty Lounge was offering 15% off over the Memorial Day Weekend and I took advantage and placed an order!

I love organic and natural beauty lines and am so excited to have found this amazing purveyor of chic, organic and natural products! The site carries a range of brands including Vapour Beauty, RMS Beauty, Alima, Intelligent Nutrients, Revolution Organics, Priti, Yarok and more. One of the coolest offerings is the ability to purchase samples of any 9 products, makeup included, for $15. Everything came beautifully wrapped, tied with pretty pink bows, and they included many extra free samples.
Free Samples:

The first item I ordered is Vapour Organic Beauty Aura Radiant Blush in Intrigue, a shimmery peachy pink blush stick shot through with gold shimmer. The ingredients are 70& organic, the other 30% being minerals, pigments, and vitamins not available as certified organic. This is a beautiful product that you can feel good about putting on your skin.

It may sound silly but even the box this comes in is lovely--right down to the hot pink lining. The tube is a shimmery blue plastic. The product itself has a very dewy texture and the blush is not heavily pigmented and blends well. All of the products have a light passion fruit scent but I don't find it overwhelming and it dissipated almost immediately once applied. These are $28 each. I really look forward to trying more from this line.
Here is Intrigue in the stick:
And swatched:
Next up is Priti Nail Polish in Firecandle. Priti polishes ($12.50) are non-toxic and free of toluene, formaldehyde and DPBs. Firecandle is a bright hot pink with shimmer, perfect for summer!
The color up close:
I also ordered a Sweet Beauty Lip Balm in Taste. These all natural skin and body products are infused with real fine chocolate and blended with superfoods and antioxidants. Taste ($5.50) is said to have a hint of color but goes on virtually clear. As you can see in the swatch, there is barely any pigment. It smells absolutely delicious and the good-for-you-ingredients mean you don't have to feel bad if you give in and lick some off of your lips!

Ingredients:
Beeswax, Babassu Seed Oil, Sweet Cherry Oil, Organic Fair Trade Certified Chocolate, Aloe Vera Oil, Avocado Oil, Meadowfoam Oil, Cranberry Seed Oil, Black and Red Raspberry Seed Oil, Pomegranate Seed Oil, Cocoa Absolute, Rosemary Extract, Vitamin E T-50
Swatched:
Alima Pure Luminous Shimmer Eye Shadow in Paris ($9.00) is a super shimmery sandy golden taupe. I need another eye shadow like I need a hole in my head but this one really is beautiful and I think I'll get a lot of use out of it.

I was so excited to order my customized sample kit! Clockwise from top upper left I received:
Vapour Beauty Elixir Lip Gloss in Sultry (now totally on my wishlist. It's gorgeous), RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek in Promise, Vapour Beauty Mesmerize Eye Color in Flash, Organic Apoteke Detox Mask, Vapour Beauty Siren Lipstick in Hint, Vapour Beauty Stratus Instant Skin Perfector, RMS Beauty Living Luminizer and Vapour Beauty Solar Bronzer in Mirage. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you can get a better view of the colors.

Look how adorably they all came packaged:

The final item I ordered is the only one that disappointed. Aromatherapy Personals Anxiety Relief sounded fabulous--a nourishing elixir you roll on pulse points containing essential oils known to help reduce anxiety and promote inner calm, including lavender, chamomile, rosewood and sweet orange. I find that Origins Peace of Mind helps with my migraines and also with work-related stress, and this aromatherapeutic equivalent of Xanax seemed like just the thing to tuck into my purse for those moments when it seems like everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Here's the problem: for the whole aromatherapy thing to work, you have to be able to actually smell the product! This scent fades away almost immediately rendering it totally ineffective. At $17 I was expecting more and can't recommend this. I don't know if I received one from a bad batch or if all of the different blends have this issue. For now I guess I'll just open it up and try to smell it from the bottle in trying times!

Overall I'm super pleased with my Spirit Beauty Lounge experience and totally recommend them. My order was placed over a holiday weekend and shipped right out on Monday. The offer free shipping on orders over $100 and I received a coupon when I signed up to receive their emails.

A Few Quick Corals

Hello, all! I know that I've been somewhat MIA this week. Work has been so stressful that I've just been coming home and basically crashing! I'm hoping that the long weekend will do me a world of good, but you can't start summer without a manicure and pedicure! To me corals just scream summer, and these are the ones I'm really loving lately.

Sephora by OPI How Cute is That- this is a pinkish coral with a pink pearl.

SPARITUAL Miss World looks pink in the bottle but has a definite coral undertone.

Essie Carousel Coral is a gorgeous melon. It makes a great pedicure coral on my pale skin but would definitely offset deeper tones nicely.

OPI My Chihuahua Bites is a hot coral color. It's the perfect shade for those who admire this season's neon nail trned but aren't quite ready to go that bold.

Manicure of the Week

If you've been reading my Manicure of the Week posts since the beginning, this shade might look familiar since it's appeared here previously. Nonetheless, I love it so much it bears repeating! This is Rococo Nail Apparel in Dollar, an opaque, highly metallic silver with shimmer. It goes on easily, lasts decently well, is Big 3 free and a somewhat ridiculous $16.50 (yes, the price has gone up since the line debuted). This shade is in the Molten Lava formula and I think that give s a pretty good indication of how the polish appears in the bottle and on the nails. You can purchase Rococo at SpaceNK in the US and UK. I haven't seen it sold anywhere else and recommend checking it out since the line features many unique shades.

Manicure of the Week

I haven't done one of these in a long time since my nails have not been in the best shape. Even though I had to take the pictures on my iPhone since my new digital camera won't arrive for about a week, I find this color so interesting I couldn't help but share! I normally stick to softer nail shades, but after seeing repeated raves for the color I caved and picked it up!

This is Sephora by OPI Nail Colour in Read My Palm, a light jade green. The first coat was a bit sheer and streaky but the second coat made the polish opaque and uniform. I'm still undecided on whether I really love it or not and it garnered mixed reactions at the office (with my 20-something coworkers being fans and the older set thinking it ridiculous). As I said it's a different look for me, but I was in the mood for a change! I'm a pretty classic, conservative dresser (mostly J.Crew) and this is an easy, subtle way to be a bit rebellious.

What do you think of the color? Fun for a change or a definite don't?

Manicure of the Week

This week I used my brand new OPI for Sephora Nail Polish in Set the Mood, which Sephora describes as "metallic dark pink" but I think is closer to a warm iridescent pinky plum. When I bought it I kept thinking what a pretty and unusual color it is, but after going through my nail polish collection I'm finding it quite similar to Zoya Pru. I also bought a new base and top coat in the hopes of extending my manicures past 48 hours! I opted for Creative Nail Design Sticky Base Coat and Duri Miracote Super Fast Dry Through Top Coat at the recommendation of the salesperson at the beauty supply store. Has anyone tried either of these?

Paul and Joe Manicure of the Week

I've been trying to let my nails "breathe" for the last week or so because they're in pretty bad shape--breaking, peeling and brittle. I have no science to back me up but for some reason I really think that's the damage was cause by all of the glitter-laden polishes I've been wearing lately. After a week of bare nails and judicious applications of cuticle oil, I think they're on the mend.

Paul and Joe Nail Enamel 04 (Provence) is a super pretty, very sheer, iridescent shimmery nude pink with a hint of mauve. It has the same perfumey smell as the Lipstick mixed with the characteristic nail polish scent. (Since I've never heard anyone mention the odor of the nail polish or lipstick before, I'm beginning to wonder if the ability to detect the signature Paul and Joe scent is a recessive trait similar to the ability of one to smell the bitter almond of cyanide. But I digress...)

This is 3 coats as the shade is sheer, but builds nicely. It went on smoothly and evenly. At $14 it isn't the most cost-effective polish, but it if wears well I'd definitely consider purchasing additional shades, especially since the bottle is so gosh darn cute! Overall, this is a nice, natural look.

Paul and Joe Mini Haul!

I think I've been reading Lina's amazing blog, The Beauty Look Book, too much because I've never had any interest in Paul and Joe, and yet all of a sudden I was overcome with a desire to buy some! I headed over to Bergdorf Goodman this evening and some goodies came home with me!

I normally just walk up to a display, swatch my usual neutral-to-warm fare and go with those items, but today when the makeup artist asked if I'd like her to select some colors for me I agreed and ended up with some things just a teeny tiny but outside my comfort zone, which is a good thing! I picked up Face Color in 16 Canyon ($24), Nail Enamel in 4 Provence ($14), Lipstick N in 17 Bunch of Grapes ($20) and Eye Liner in 02 Dark Brown ($16).

The Face Color is one of the new shades and when I had a tough time deciding between this one and 15 Re-belle, the makeup artist nudged me towards this one. I'm still not sure which one would be optimal (Re-Belle looked so pretty--a pale peach pared with a mauve shimmer that bled to create a soft, girly frosted nude pink) and the artist applied the product with a very heavy hand. Right now Canyon looks quite bronzey and warm on me but I'm sure it will look different when I put it on myself with a lighter touch. (Just to note, the shades are accurate in the pictures I took yet always appear duller once uploaded to blogger. The shade is deeper and a bit brighter in real life).
The Nail Enamel is an iridescent pinky nude shimmer with mauve tones. I think it will require 3 coats to really show up.
I definitely do not need another eye liner but this one, despite being officially named Dark Brown, is a softer taupey brown. The pencil felt creamy and didn't drag when I swatched it. It's a softer look than the dark brown I wore into the makeover.
I was a little surprised when the makeup artist started pulling plummy tones for lips since I definitely gravitate towards warm nude pinks and peachy pinks, but this sheer nudey plum looked nice with my green eyes! I almost opted for the warmer 20 Milk Chocolate but deferred to the artist in an attempt to try something new! Interestingly, the tester lipstick had no scent, but the one I purchased has a definite perfumey smell. I found this to be the case with my one other Paul and Joe Lipstick (the discontinued 40 Pain D'Epice) but I consistently read reviews stating that these are odorless! I thought Pain D'Epice might have been uniquely scented but either I'm on the makeup version of Candid Camera or these lipsticks are perfumed! If you're particularly sensitive to scented lipsticks I'd avoid these (just in case I'm not crazy!).

The makeup artist also used Eye Color Palette CS Ingenue 001 on me though I did not purchase it since in the store I felt like I could duplicate the shades with items existing in my collection. Now that I'm home I think I might end up ordering it anyway! It's going on my wish list for sure! The trio is $38 and contains a soft pearly ecru, shimmery taupe and shimmery charcoal brown shade that can be used to line. This picture is from Dermstore.com, a site that carries the Paul and Joe line for those without local access. This is also a good time to stock up if you're loyal to the brand's single eye shadows--the makeup artist today informed me that all singles will be discontinued.
So how did I do on my first foray into Paul and Joe? Aside from the palette, what else do I need from the line? I did come across a promo picture for the Spring line from the brand's Facebook page and the cream blushes look interesting...
I have to yet again publicly complain about the lighting at Bergdorf Goodman. The Beauty Level in in the basement and little has been done to light the space well. It's downright dim in there which makes it very difficult to judge colors! I highly recommend taking a hand mirror upstairs to the main level if you're concerned about color matching, especially with foundations or concealers!