I’m in England!
I'm actually on my way to bed now, a hotel bed in Finchley just north of London. Imagine that! I'm here with Øyvind, eagerly awaiting the morning when IMATS officially starts for us common people. I figured I'd blog a tiny little bit about our trip so far, as I'm usually doing an awesome job of forgetting all about blogging while away - but fear not, I'll do a more thorough post when I have the time. First of all, the hotel is really nice. Our room is big enough for me and my wheelchair, the bathroom is easy to access and quite large, and most things are within reach. Even the peephole! I'm amazed. The hotel restaurant is an authentic greek restaurant, and right outside our door we found a McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, and three other restaurants serving italian, mexican and french food. Could you ask for more?
We decided to venture out for a bit, and went to Brent Cross. Shopper's heaven? I didn't splurge too much, as I purchased the two new Dior Vernis in "504 Waterlily" and "694 Forget-Me-Not" at John Lewis - before I ventured on to Boots where I picked up two Rimmel Glam'Eyes HD palettes in "001 Black Cab" and "008 True Union Jack" (mostly because of the design), two L'Oreal Infallible in "016 Coconut Shake" and "021 Sahara Treasure", and a limited edition Philosophy Hope in a Jar moisturizer (15 ml as opposed to the regular 60 ml, perfect for testing purposes). Oh, and a rewards card! I have no idea what I'll use it for, as we don't have any Boots close by.. but I do love these neat plastic cards, you know.
Now I'm going to sleep and dream about tomorrow, when I'm going to IMATS to indulge in all kinds of makeup goodness. If you don't hear from me again I probably died from happiness (and superficialness) somewhere between the boots at Alexandra Palace.. Oh well, this is me signing out from Finchley. Good night!
Illamasqua Load
I just received two products from Illamasqua, the nail polish Load being one of them. I was instantly taken by the name (and description) of this polish, gutter-minded as I am, and I decided to try it out immediately.
Back in October I tested another polish from Illamasqua, and I loved it. Unfortunately I didn't love Load as much, simply because I found it to be hard to apply, difficult to work with, and it took quite an amount of effort to look somewhat even on my nails even though I didn't fully succeed.
Load is described as a "rich cream" which is quite accurate. It has a glossy finish. I might go as far as calling it a very subdued yellow against my skin, which might have to do with my yellow undertones. I applied three coats, the last coat being quite thick, and I had to work quickly to avoid streaking.
The Verdict:
I'm kinda sad to award Load with only three brushes, but the difficulty applying it did disappoint me a bit. By all means, I'm no nail polish guru, but I was hoping for another Jan (nice and easy to work with). On the other hand.. it's a light color, and I think lighter colors are harder to apply flawless in general. As I said I love the name and description of this nail polish, and I do like the color as well. I'm also giving it another plus for drying quickly, despite of the third coat being a bit thick. Load receives three brushes from me, but all-in-all it's a strong three!
Picture was taken indoors in artificial lighting.
Photo © Shamini Thevarajah '11
Chanel Le Vernis Black Pearl
Up until today I've been a very good girl, managing to stay away from seriously high end brands like Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and their likes, but on the last Tuesday in December I failed - but while I was failing I happened discovered how easy it was to order from Nordstrom. I'm now the proud owner of my very first Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour, in fact my very first Chanel product ever, and I intend to keep them to an absolute minimum. I hope they are as good as everyone's raving about for the color looks amazing.
Black Pearl is one of three nail polishes from Les Perles de Chanel for spring 2011, the other two being Pearl Drop and Pêche Nacrée. I'm not sure if it's a limited edition or not, but the color is certainly too hot not to own! I just hope I won't spark another flame, kindling an addiction to Chanel polishes. It's said to be a slippery slope.
Wanna see swatches?
Take a look at the ones Karen posted.
Photo © Chanel
Illamasqua Jan
Back in August I received a few gorgeous products from Illamasqua and I apologize for not posting this little review sooner. My health has been varying a lot these past couple months, and I haven't been playing too much with my makeup. I have so many ideas for looks, but absolutely no energy to actually put them to life, I'm sorry.
I have never tried nail polish from Illamasqua, so I was thrilled to finally get the chance when I received "Jan". She's described as a "light dusky pink" with a glossy finish, but somehow it looks more lilac to me. Maybe it's my skin tone? Or maybe it's just me. A gorgeous color nonetheless!
"Jan" was quite easy deal with and applied evenly. I used two coats for my nails - I seriously love all polishes where I can get away with two coats - and it dried fairly quick, which means I managed to take a picture without messing up anything. It's now been five days with this manicure, no base or top coat, and I'm just starting to see the tiniest sign of wear on the tip of my index finger. I'm amazed with the durability of this nail polish!
The Verdict:
If you're looking for a nice, subtle nail polish where you can get away with two coats, then this is absolutely a polish worth looking into. Even though I'm no expert on applying nail polish, I really think I managed to do a decent job with this one. "Jan" is easy to work with, the texture is nice, I experienced no streaking and it dried quickly (two medium thick coats). The durability is excellent, and I know I need to add a few more Illamasqua nail polishes to my collection. Two thumbs up, and full score from me!
Picture was taken indoors in artificial lighting.
Photo © Shamini Thevarajah '10
China Glaze Holiday 2010 Collection
I think I should admit to someone, most importantly myself maybe, that I'm a total sucker for shimmery nail polish. When I saw the new Holiday 2010 collection from China Glaze yesterday I just had to go on a hunt for proper swatches, and Scrangie is one of those fantastic nail bloggers who rarely lets me down. I quickly pegged which ones I wanted, and hurried off to Trans Design to place my order, just as I use to. From earlier experience these special polishes tend to sell out fairly quickly, so I wanted to be sure I'd get mine before they are gone. Unfortunately TD is only offering 12 of the polishes in this collection - why they don't offer "Mommy Kissed Santa", "Jingle Bells", "Frosty" or "Snow" is unknown - so I scampered off to Head2Toe instead. A few minutes later my order had been placed, and now I'm crossing my fingers it'll arrive shortly!
I'm not a very Christmas-y person as we all already know, but these polishes ended up giving me warm, fuzzy feelings inside, reminding me of Christmas when I was a kid and actually liked snow.
"Frosty" is a gorgeous white shimmer, totally reminding me of powdery, magical snow. There are six different reds in the collection, but I was instantly drawn to "Sugar Plums", a plum shimmer with glitter - and "Mommy Kissing Santa", a gorgeous rich cranberry shimmer. "Little Drummer Boy" is an absolutely stunning rich blue shimmer - I love the name, and it's also one of very few Christmas songs I like to listen to. "Midnight Kisses" is a pretty gold shimmer, and "Cheers to You" looks like silver shimmer twin. The wild card of my order is "Party Hearty" which is a glitter top coat-mix of red, green, silver and gold glitter - this is not typically a polish I would order, but it looked quite unique, and I'm sure I'll find a way to layer it.
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The total price for seven nail polishes? $37 included shipping to Norway by USPS First-Class Mail International ($15.70), or about 213,- NOK with today's exchange rate. They cost a little less than amazing 17,- NOK per bottle! Now I'm just a little anxious to see whether or not Head2Toe declare the shipments correctly (value and shipping separate), or if I have to pay taxes and fees upon arrival.
Choose between the 16 colors, or get all of them from Head2Toe.
Photos © Head2Toe Beauty
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Uncurable shopaholic and makeup addict with an unhealthy love for everything colorful. Medium dark brunette with dark brown eyes. Also known as KinoGodt or Psychedelic Wheels.
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