Cobalt Coordination: Nails and Handbag

For Wednesday's NOTD (Nails of the Day) I finally wore Essie "Mesmerize," a rich, glossy deep cobalt color. I originally purchased this color at ULTA a few weeks back when I was first buying polish, inaugurating a series of equally exciting ULTA hauls! I was excited when I spotted "Mesmerize" since it seemed an excellent match with my cobalt "Carla" handbag from Ignes Handbags. Starting late in the summer, I've been toting my laptop to work each day using my Carla, and it has worked amazingly well. Thus, it was time to honor good old Carla by coordinating my polish and busting out the Essie Mesmerize.



The colors are close but might be slightly deeper than in these pictures, which were taken in my light-filled office. The light is mostly overhead florescent lighting with a dose of waning daylight coming in through the windows. I find that handbag colors generally wash out a bit in pictures when I'm doing "photoshoots" in my office.

Not currently listed on the Ignes website, the Carla was introduced last fall and was based on the Chiara style. The Chiara features studs and some drawstrings going around the top through loops, while the Carla is the same shape and style but simplified and featuring two zipper pockets on the outside, as shown above. Below, the other side of the Carla is plain. It has double rolled handles and a detachable shoulder strap.

Ignes handbags are made to order, and I chose this leather, which was in stock but not offered in the regular spring/summer leather collection, with a bright yellow fabric lining for maximum contrast. The leather is super-structured and thus ideal for carrying a heavy laptop every day. My Chiara, on the other hand, is a soft, gorgeous puddle of slouch dark chocolate leather---the leathers can make the same Ignes styles completely different from each other.

Below is the interior, showing one of the pockets (more pockets are on the other side, and all Ignes bags include key fobs.)


Below I am showing off my cobalt thumbnail and the Carla's outside zipper pockets!


I love this opaque, glossy cobalt blue polish. I anticipate slapping this on when I am not sure what to do for my nails but will be carrying my Carla and wearing a color that will go with this gorgeous and versatile shade of blue!

Look of the Day!!

Ha! I just got things off my chest with the whole August is still summer, and so is September. And this morning it was so cool outside, and again when I left work this evening. Love it! Okay, it's fall! Well, I know it will go back to boiling hot, but I think this is bearing out my belief that September is the true transition month to full-on fall.

Last Wednesday I switched my new Orange Belen Echandia handbag to my Ignes Petra in soft maize, a wonderful pale yellow, silky soft leather and a soft contrast to the pink I was wearing. Nail noob: lavender nails, using Essie's St. Lucia Lilac---so pretty! Lovely contrast to pale yellow and coordinating with the purple lining. I was in the throes of my "it's summer, not a transition month!" At the time, it felt great, and in retrospect it sounds like an Easter egg look!! The following day, the yellow bag and lilac nails went with chocolate brown.


See more pics of my Ignes Petra in my Purse Forum reveal.

My Barielle nail colors arrived on Thursday, so on Friday: Barielle Polished Princess with a matte topcoat---love!! Um, no NOTD pictures, hmm, I messed up.

Today I had to get back to my new orange love (the BE handbag, in case that's not clear, lol!). But what nails? I had spent the weekend swatching and playing with all my new nail colors, and in the end, I went with a medium gray (Essie's "Chinchilly"), a top with blue and two greys, and the orange bag with an orange wool scarf inside for my overly airconditioned office.

Well, I needed a bit more orange, I thought. But what?? My shawl....and my eyeshadow!! I decided to try out the new matte HIP Duo in Poppy (previously swatched here), but instead of the chocolate brown in the duo, I would use gray!! Ha! How coordinated is that. So, the pale orangey color plus my new "Revolver" from Urban Decay.


Well, I am not terribly happy about posting pics of my face, but hey! You can't really talk about look of the day without showing in addition to the telling. I have an eye shape that is apparently call the "hooded eye." I don't have a clearly defined eyelid. I just learned this a few months back from a Prescriptives makeup person, who told me to apply shadow in the outer crease and not to put it in the crease area at the top of the eye. I've since seen some YouTube videos addressing eye shapes (although not a lot of the YouTube "gurus" have this same eye situation that I do). I don't know if it's age happening or if I have always had this hooded eye.

I applied the orange on my lid, which will only be visible when I close my eyes or lower my lids---soo the impact of this color is minimized. I then used a crease brush to put the gray in the outer corner crease. I lined my eyes with slate gray eye pencil and used black-brown mascara (L'Oreal Telescopic).

So, here I am at the end of a long day. Looking straight ahead, hood and all. You can't really see too much, but my eyes look blue!

My eyes also have a puffy and baggy tendency, especially on Mondays! Here is a view showing more of the shadows. The shadows definitely both had staying power.


How about a nice view of my newbie nails, with the one that broke off this morning!! Eyes closed.


From the pictures, I can tell that I got a little orange above the lid in the inner corner. I like the idea, for my hooded eye shape, of keeping a bright lid color just on the lid so that it's almost a surprise or just a fleeting image. The color is still there, though, to help the blueness pop. Supposedly, anyway! Gray is really my go-to color for highlighting blue eyes, so it's nice insurance if the orange just looks like, say, skin irritation, and doesn't do its job here.