L'Oreal Blue Marine

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I changed my polish to L'Oreal Blue Marine, the sparkly blue from the L'Oreal Summer Siren Collection, after wearing my Fourth of July manicure for three days.  I'll tell you, the red OPI did not hold up spectacularly well - I had quite a few chips, which is what prompted me to change it.  Anyhow, the need to change it gave me the opportunity to try out Blue Marine, so that's alright...

Blue Marine is really a three-coater for me, after two I could still see through my tips a bit.  The coats were very thin, but the pigment in this polish (the kind that seems like tiny flakes) doesn't seem to appreciate thick coats, so three it is.  I topped it off with some quick dry top coat and went to take pictures in the sun.

L'Oreal Blue Marine Nail Polish, Three Coats

Although I like this one quite a bit, there is some disappointment.  When I showed you a bottle picture of Blue Marine, I'd mentioned that there was a purple duochrome effect in the bottle that wasn't showing up in the picture.  Well, it ain't showing up on my nails, either, not in any light at all.  I applied it in a bright room with morning sun shining in through sheer curtains and could see it on the brush, but not on my nails at all, it clearly doesn't show in the sun, didn't in the shade, and doesn't here in a room with low natural light.  Now, in the post with the bottle picture, I recall at least one comment assuring me the duochrome shows up when the polish is applied, so I think this one might be a little trickier than most to get the purple to show up.  All I can think of that would make it show up for others and not me would be the curve and shape of a person's nail bed.  Mine have an unusually strong C curve (the curve left to right over the nail bed), which usually makes duochromes show up really well, but it's not helping me any here.  Regardless of the cause, my own experience is disappointment that zero purple show for me, but I know that others have had a better outcome.

That's just about all there is to tell you about today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

L'Oreal Coral Starfish

Good morning, Dear Reader!  Today isn't the best day ever, as it's the third anniversary of my mom's death, so this one's going to be kind of short.  It's not the worst day either, but I figure keeping it brief is the best bet to avoid tears this morning.

I picked L'Oreal Starfish Coral to wear today, the orange of the L'Oreal Summer Siren Limited Edition shades.  I tried to do thicker coats this time, but by the third nail quit paying much attention and did my normal thin coats on autopilot for the rest.  That meant that again, I had to use a third coat, but since Coral Starfish applied very well and dries fast, that's not such a big deal.  I finished it off with Diamont, let it dry, and took a picture of it outside even though it's a bit cloudy.

L'Oreal Coral Starfish Nail Polish, Three Coats

This one's also really pretty.  From a normal distance the overall appearance, like that of Pink Shells, is a bit foily, but the gold sparkle breaks it up and keeps it from being too garish.  This is a really good orange.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

L'Oreal Summer 2011 Limited Edition Nail Polish

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'm a bit late with them, but today I have L'Oreal's Limited Edition Summer Siren Collection, their four polish shades for Summer 2011.  I'd seen these a few times before and kept walking, but today I took a look and liked what I saw - they're really spectacularly sparkly and shimmery.

I used Pink Shells, which you could probably guess is the pink one, today.  Two coats could have worked, but mine were very thin and with the clear fake tip I have, I needed a third.  It applied really easily and dried very fast.  Here's L'Oreal Pink Shells.

L'Oreal Pink Shells Nail Polish, Three Coats

I took bottle pictures of the other three for you.  The only picture I'm not thrilled with is of the blue, Blue Marine, which seems to have some purple duochrome going on in indoor lighting, but that got washed away in the sun.  Here's Blue Marine.

L'Oreal Blue Marine Nail Polish Bottle

Yellow Seahorse has the potential to be what I wanted Chanel Mimosa to be, and I'm really hoping its shimmer shows up well.

L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse Nail Polish Bottle

The last one is called Coral Starfish, and it's a blazing orange with gold shimmer.  It's really pretty.

L'Oreal Coral Starfish Nail Polish Bottle

It's my hope that the remaining three shades sparkle the same way that Pink Shells does - it's hard to take my eyes off of it.

That's L'Oreal Summer Siren and the update for today, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

What my nails did while I moved house

Well, I moved.

All of my polishes survived intact, but to be honest it's not as if I gave them much chance of coming into harm's way. I transported them by car and now they're safely stowed away in the bathroom closet, eagerly awaiting a Helmer. We're planning a trip to IKEA in the next couple of weeks when we have a better idea of what we really need. It's easy to get out of control in that store, so we're not going without a list, lest we end up spending $100 on INGBORSTs and YOOBLIs and whatnot.

Anyway. Moving was very bad for my nails and cuticles. Before I started the heavy-duty packing I cut my nails very short and painted them a dark vampy color, L'Oreal Boogie, which I showed you in the previous post. As I was running out of my preferred Instant Artificials base coat at the time, I reverted to my original favorite, a combo of Palladio ridge filler and Palladio Fuse bonding base coat.

I don't know if it was the Palladio products or the L'Oreal polish or the the combination of the two, but here is my L'Oreal Boogie manicure after 6 (6!!!) days of packing, taping, wrapping, cleaning, washing, etc.:





IMPRESSIVE.

Because of this little experiment I don't think I'll be replacing my Instant Artificials anytime soon. It's a good product but it seems the Palladio combination works better for me.

Anyway after I took the Boogie manicure off, things got pretty real in terms of the hands-on moving work and I could only be bothered with my nails enough to slap on a sheer, very forgiving polish every couple of days. For this type of manicure I really like OPI Bubble Bath and OPI Moon Over Mumbai. Both are sheer enough to be very easy to apply, they hold up well, disguise any staining and if they chip a little or have some tip wear it's not terribly noticeable.

One day I was so over everything having to do with moving that I went to work with NO POLISH ON MY NAILS...AIEEEEEEEEEE horror show. Holy stains.

So now that moving is behind me (I'd like to say FOREVER but realistically I realize I can't live in a duplex for the rest of my life...unfortunately), I've been able to nurse my destroyed cuticles along to where I am enjoying putting a bit of effort into my nails again. One nice thing is that because I wore so many sheer polishes for so long, my nails are far less stained than they had been. I suspect that this will be undone in fairly short order, but it was nice while it lasted.

In any event, here's what I've been up to, color-wise:


This was a really cute combo that I'm bummed didn't photograph too well. Here's a bottle picture so you can get a better idea of the blue:


I'd had the Ruby Kisses polish for a while but picked up the Savvy not long ago. It's part of a new collection of six (I think?) polishes that, at my quick glance, seem to be intended as sparkly top coats. I liked this combo a lot and received some compliments on it. I'd like to try Glass Slipper over some other colors.


I was very happy to find Orly Rage; I missed it when it first came out and thought it was gone for good. I really love this finish in a polish, and this manicure lasted several days with no visible wear. Would do business with again!


I really cannot say enough about Misa polishes. The formula is crazy nice, and for $3 you really can't beat it. This one was a joy to put on. Misa does have the craziest, most awkward names for their colors...Right Here Now, No More Later? If you say so. I guess it doesn't matter as long as the color payoff is there.

Next up I have an Illamasqua for you, as well as some newer finds. I don't think I'll be buying any new bottles for a while because I'm quite content with the many (many...many many) colors I have for the time being. After moving and coming face to face with how much STUFF a person can accumulate, I'm not feeling very acquisitive of late.

But no worries! I'm sure it's just a phase!

Weekly update

Here are some colors I've worn lately; enjoy!

L'Oreal Passport to Paradise Collection

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have swatches of L'Oreal's Passport to Paradise Collection for you today, and found that they were very familiar.  On April 21, the news broke that L'Oreal was acquiring Essie, and it looks like L'Oreal took Essie for a test drive with this collection.  They're exact dupes for last year's North Fork Collection from Essie.

High Tide is the light blue shimmer...

L'Oreal High Tide Nail Polish from Passport to Paradise

...which is an exact match to Essie's Sag Harbor.  My index and ring fingers are the Essie, the others the L'Oreal.

L'Oreal High Tide and Essie Sag Harbor

Waters Edge (no apostrophe) is the turquoise creme...

L'Oreal Waters Edge Nail Polish from Passport to Paradise

...which matches Essie's Greenport.  Again, index and ring are Essie.

L'Oreal Waters Edge and Essie Greenport

Ocean Breeze is the blue creme...

L'Oreal Ocean Breeze Nail Polish from Passport to Paradise

...which corresponds to Essie's Shelter Island.

L'Oreal Ocean Breeze and Essie Shelter Island

Sorry I got a little sloppy on the last coat of Shelter Island.

So we see these are all dead-on dupes.  I prefer both the brush and the price tag of L'Oreal, so if I had to choose which to keep, it would be the L'Oreals.

If you want a fill review of the colors, you can just look back at the North Fork review - they're the same colors, so no point in making you endure a full review just to show you they're dupes.

That's what I have for you this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Question of the week/Review of the week

The issue at hand today: Why are mass market brand mineral makeup dispensers so incredibly jank?

A bit of background: I switched to mineral makeup several years ago because liquid foundation is the devil. No, sorry, that's not totally accurate. It's just that liquid foundation was a terrible, terrible thing for me. How many did I try over the years? A dozen? Probably more. And they were all terrible, they would just sit there on my skin and slide around all day, and then they would give me zits. To be perfectly frank, I find liquid foundation disgusting. But I understand this puts me in a minority. I switched to powder foundation and tried both NARS and MAC (WTF, CAPS LOCK LOL), both terrible and NARS being the worst. Eventually I realized that I don't like or need that much maquillage slathered over my face and I tried Jane Iredale makeup at the recommendation of a salon owner. Later I switched to Bare Escentuals on the advice of a friend.

Not long ago I ran out of Bare Escentuals foundation and Mineral Veil. (Let's not even talk about Mineral Veil...there is literally no replacement for it and I miss it so much I could cry. Really, don't talk about it.) To replace the two of these things costs $44, American, plus tax. Due to I am unemployed, this is not feasible. And seeing as how you can practically buy mineral makeup at the corner gas station anymore, I decided to give cheaper brands a try.

Now I understand "cheaper" is relative. No one has to pay $44 for makeup, but I like to, and I used to have a job that afforded me that pleasure. The two mass market brand mineral foundations I tried cost $11.99 and $12.49, which is also not really "cheap," depending on your perspective, your budget, and the importance of makeup to you personally. But for the purposes of this post let's consider it cheap enough.

The first one I tried was Revlon ColorStay Mineral Foundation, which I purchased at Target for $11.99. It comes in eight shades and has an SPF factor of 10 (Bare Escentuals is SPF 15). It is also sold in the worst dispenser in the world. I won't try to tell you that the Bare Escentuals sifter is foolproof, because I've dropped plenty of them and also they are terrifically inconvenient for travel. But I can fit a makeup brush in there, which is more than I can say for Revlon's crappy dispenser.

Where to begin? The shape of the sifter is odd, practically ensuring you'll leave a third of the product unused because you can't get at it; the brush is stubby and painfully scratchy; the powder reservoir is too narrow to get a real brush into; the brush apparatus is clumsy and droppable. The makeup itself? Fine, if not spectacular. The coverage was decent, although it didn't seem to last as long as Bare Escentuals. (That may just be the Mineral Veil difference...but then again we're not talking about you-know-what.)

I hated the Revlon container so much that I decided to try L'Oreal Bare Naturale Mineral Foundation for my next purchase. I picked up a coupon circular in my apartment building mailroom and, sure enough, there was a coupon for L'Oreal cosmetics, making it only $10.49 at Target. The L'Oreal mineral foundation comes in 10 shades with an SPF of 19.

To be honest, it's a much nicer mass market mineral foundation. The L'Oreal shade works better for me and seems to provide better coverage for a longer time. Also, the container is less stupid, but only slightly. You have to pop the brush out of its dumb little bell jar, leaving you with a clumsy "handle" that's covered with powder, since the bottom of the brush is the lid of the powder reservoir. At least the bottom of the jar resembles a traditional sifter, although somewhat dinkier in size. Though L'Oreal's brush is softer than Revlon's (by a lot), I am still using a regular old Sephora brush with this. It's just not worth it to fool around with the too-cute-by-half arrangement that L'Oreal has chosen.

Anyone use mineral makeup? Have you found anything you like at mass market prices?