China Glaze Ginger!

Well, I'm still remembering the nails of November. This post should be about Ginger Bells from OPI, actually. I was determined to wear Ginger Bells on Thanksgiving because it was the perfect gingery, pumpkin-y color. Then, perhaps on that Friday, I would slip into some China Glaze Ginger, with its super sparkliness.

But. I couldn't wait. I went for the China Glaze Ginger the day BEFORE Thanksgiving and that was all she wrote! (That's right, T'giving was all about the glitter!! Sorry, Ginger Bells, maybe next year).




Even without the glitter, this polish would gleam with a super shiny, coppery metallic base. The surface has what I think of as a "baked pretzel effect," with the multi-colored glitter reminding me of the salt baked onto pretzels.

Now for a bit of bottle porn! So pretty, so glittery....the colors! I can't stop staring at the pretty colors of the glitter.

I mean, look at it!!



Yep. Thanksgiving was a time to give thanks, and I was very thankful for fall's bountiful harvest of wonderful polish, with its cornucopia of GLITTER to sate the appetite of enthusiastic nail polish fiends everywhere!!

Chanel Jade in Geneva, Oct. 2009!

I was saddened to hear last fall that Chanel Jade nail polish would not be available in Europe. Poor European nail polish/Chanel fans! Sure enough, when browsing the Chanel selections at Sephora in Barcelona in October (2009), Jade and Jade Rose were not there.

A few days later I was walking through Geneva after an overnight train and prior to my evening train to Zermatt. Very nice city!


I was enjoying a little window shopping, like so:


Geneva seemed to be one large Swiss watch and designer boutique! Suddenly I came across the Chanel window and this:

Do you see what I see? I immediately noticed the mannequin was wearing a weird shade of green nail polish!! But wait, Chanel Jade was not available in Europe, wth?! But wait again, that green didn't look the way I remembered it, exactly.


But wait yet again, maybe Jade was available in Geneva, in which case I would need to spread the word amongst bereft Europeans with whom I am acquainted....

Without hesitating further, I marched into the Chanel boutique to find out. A very nice and courteous sales woman glided forward to wait on me, and I asked her about the polish. She explained it was a special edition polish. I asked: "Chanel Jade? But I thought that was not available in Europe." She smiled upon realizing that I was in the know about Chanel Jade---no tiresome explanations needed for this weird American tourist lady. She responded that, sadly, it was not available there but it could be had in London. I determined that the green on the mannequin was a different polish. Ha ha! Chanel making with the fake Chanel jade!

And yes, when I was passing through the huge duty free, conveniently in the path to my gate at Heathrow, I did notice Chanel Jade and Chanel Jade Rose. I purchased my Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche and maybe a lipstick or three and was on my way.

OH EM GEE, it's OMG Skittles!

After getting a comment on this blog recommending the China Glaze OMG collection of holographic polishes, I ordered six of them to try out. I wore the dark turquoise "DV8" around Thanksgiving, and was excited to try on the other five one evening in December. A bit later that evening, I was about to remove everything and select a nail color for the following day, but...wow! Those five soft and pretty colors looked really nice together!! Laughing, I promptly painted my other hand in the same colors, matching thumbs, index fingers, pinkies, etc.

I did not bother with topcoat or basecoat; this mani was a one-day only affair---just for fun!

Throughout the day at work, I kept admiring how pretty the colors were together, and how awesome the holo effect was. The OMG polishes go on metallic then a second or two later, they start displaying the coolest colorful holograph effects.

My pictures weren't very good, but I chose the ones that I thought were the best in order to document this fun moment in personal polish history. LOL! Omg. Well, TTYL!

Pinky: LOL
Ring: BFF
Middle: FYI
Index: IDK
Thumb: 2NITE

Rescue Beauty Binge #3: Orbis Non Sufficit

When I first saw the announcement of the Rescue Beauty blogger colors, I was really impressed. How cool is that, to accomplish so much with your blog that a top company lets you create your own polish?!?

One of the colors I purchased during the recent 50% off RBL sale was "Orbis Non Sufficit," created by the blogger behind "The Polish Addict." I am not sure what the name means...er, the "world doesn't suffice??" But it is a very interesting and beguiling color. It looked like another dark green, kind of like Recycle. The descriptions said the color was "greyed out," and now I know what that means. The color is kind of close to a teal but not quite. I think it is kind of like the darkest green in a jungle camouflage: a dark jungly green with gray mixed into it to dull it down. If I were designing the camo, that is!

My pictures were taken in December partially overcast afternoon light.







Oh, and I can't be remiss in doing my research: "Orbis Non Sufficit" means "The world is not enough." I had to look that up, and I now remember reading that in the Polish Addict's post about her creation.

At any rate, the color is a lovely rich green in spite of being washed with grey. I don't think it's a must-have like "Recycle," but if you like rich, intriguing dark creme greens with a bit of a twist, "Orbis Non Sufficit" is worth incorporating into the greens in your collection!

Recycle! Rescue Beauty Binge Installment #2

Oops, I need to keep up the momentum on my Rescue Beauty Binge! I've shown No More War, which was my number one lemming from RBL. Now it's time for "Recycle," the first polish that I tried when my haul arrived.

Recycle is gorgeous. A major thing I noticed among many of the top nail polish bloggers is a major obsession with the color green. "Recycle" is often cited as the polish which sets the bar for green polishes. So, I had to get it. I do love me some lush, dark green and consider it a neutral, along with dark purple. Dark green is essential.

The color of Recycle is indeed a dark green---not the almost-black of so many forest greens, nor a bright kelly green. It's dark but still retains its essential greenness. I do not regretting this color!

I tried it on at night, and the pictures I took are not all that great, so I am offering up a bunch of almost-passable ones that I think hint at Recycle's glorious-ness. I'll have to wear Recycle for real soon and try to get some sunlight pics.

Above is a shot with one of my great-grandfather's walking sticks.






Below I am clutching one of the catnip toys my vet gives my cats after they have boarded....this is an apple, I think!




Hmm, I just now realized that I might know where this name comes from. It's GREEN, the greenest of the green polishes, so perhaps the color representing eco-friendliness should indeed be called "Recycle."

Dark Chocolate, Yum! Handbag and NOTD

I FINALLY switched handbags. I'd been carrying my Rebecca Minkoff Nikki in dark crinkled patent since early October, with the exception of maybe one day. Whenever it occurred to me to use one of the other myriad purses on hand, I realized it was going to rain and better to just stick with the patent leather.

Much as the Nikki is working great for me---it's my favorite hobo and now I'm thinking it might be my all-time favorite handbag style overall---I need to snap out of the rut and embrace my other beloved bags. So, I switched to one of my favorites, my tinted chocolate Chiara from Ignes.

The tinted chocolate leather is an Ignes classic. It is textured on the surface yet totally smooth, in a dark luscious brown. And, best of all, it is smooshy soft! My handbag literally smooshes into a soft, smooth pile of chocolaty goodness.

And all this goodness deserves an excellent matching nail polish. Voila! MAC "Rich Dark Delicious" from the 2009 Fall Nail Trends fit the bill perfectly.


Unfortunately, I had some issues applying "Rich Dark Delicious" although with the second coat it started looking a lot better. I did notice some weird bald places...you know, when you have plenty of polish on the nail surface but the color somehow is missing from a spot. And, by the end of the day, I did have some chipping starting on the tip of the nail and accelerating once it got going.

I didn't have issues with the other colors in this collection, so I was bummed. On the other hand, the combination with my Chiara handbag is so awesome, I will try it out again. I wonder if maybe I had some residue on the nail surface, or some other blooper!

Time to Remember the Nails of November....

Then follow! Follow! Er, that song was in my head as I started thinking about the NOTDs of November I haven't posted yet. "Try to remember the kind of September..." My nails of November include a couple of very lovely OPI Designers Series polishes. In this post I remember the first OPI DS I have worn: OPI DS "Illuminate," or as I call it "Caramel" since I can't keep the OPI DS names straight.

I had purchased a few OPIs at ULTA in early November. When trying all my new lacquers on different nails, I was positively blown away by two particular polishes: They were....3D!! They literally looked like the shimmer particles were glowing ABOVE the surface of the nail. As I moved the nails in the light (indoor overhead light), the shimmer particles glowed in a different color altogether. Delightful!

The most fab one was OPI DS Extravagance, a berry-purple, while the other was DS Caramel, I mean Illuminate, a caramel-tan.

I was eager to wear these! With a meeting scheduled the following day, I wanted to stay with a conservative, fall theme on my nails but couldn't resist the idea of a touch of holographic effect. Not as in one's face as out and out glitter, the tan caramel DS Illuminate, I thought, would provide a little bit of colorful shimmer to an otherwise conservative nail!

Well, I was a bit disappointed. Throughout the day, the nails did not shimmer, much less show the 3D color-changing effect. The little particles showed as specks. Specks, unless they are glimmering and shimmering, are not interesting.

Above, you can see the speckles; I think this picture captures the basic speckledy-ness! Toward the end of the day, I did start seeing some of that shimmer but never the 3D glowing effect. I think it is all in the lighting. Indoor lighting, no fluorescent or natural light...hmm, maybe this is an evening polish that doesn't work as well for work.

My pictures seemed to have picked up some of the glow of the "speckles."

It's a pretty polish, and did go well with my brown patterned top (mock croc!) and woven pants. Maybe going out to eat at night in a dimly lit restaurant, complete with flickering candlelight, will bring out the glow.

The shimmer in the polish is purportedly diamond dust. Doing a little research, I found this copy: "its breakthrough state-of-the-art formula combines precious dazzling diamond dust with pigments so saturated with color that they glow." Well, in the right light, the formula does glow, so maybe OPI is onto something with this diamond dust technology! I'd like to wear this polish some time where I can observe more of it.