All posts filed under: Beauty

i want: Dickensian Volume by strangebeautiful

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Every season there are nail polish releases that make me go crazy. This season it’s the Dickensian Volume from American company, strangebeautiful. STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Stunningly Provocative and Richly Perverse but wearable colors developed by Jane Schub, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, blends the best elements of beauty, formulation and design. STRANGEBEAUTIFUL colors are deliberately nameless as designer Jane Schub finds it thought provoking and stimulating to remember and refer to each color by its reference or inspiration. STRANGEBEAUTIFUL is super saturated and heavily pigmented with color.(40% – 60%) Therefore the more pigment in the color the better the coverage and the heavier the polish is, as a result each bottle contains bottle with 5-6 steel mixing balls to ensure the color will always be evenly dispersed throughout. As a result STRANGEBEAUTIFUL is extremely long wearing. I have to admit that I’m a bit of a nail polish snob so I was salvating after reading the above description of the company. Jane Schub has drawn inspiration from the dark side of Dickensian times. …

New Year, New Nails

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This is the first Nails post of 2012, yay! Shall we take a look at what I’ve been up to recently. After two great Shellac applications, I decided to try Gelish. They had different colours to CND and I was willing to give them a shot. My nails are on the bottom and have the tie dye effect. I loved the way they looked and the Gelish lasted a very long time. Removal was a huge bitch and my nail were splitting pretty badly. So much so that I don’t’ recommend Gelish at all. I purchased some nail polish from American brand Rescue Beauty Lounge. This yellow polish called Mellow Yellow went on very well. I can’t remember what polish I used for this but I think the thumb is YSL Midnight Blue and the digits are NARS I’m incorporating the glitter polish at lot to. I like putting it on the tips only.  I believe the thumb is YSL Midnight Blue and the digits are Butter London Blagger.  The glitter is Deborah Lippmann Boom …

i got: Fall Winter 2011 – 2012 Nail Binge: NARS, Dior, Chanel

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I’ve had some fun buying some of the Fall Winter 2011 – 2012 nail polish options. NARS NARS is one of my go to nail polish brands.  It has a beautiful, slick finish and with a nice brush.  The polish wears well for me too.    I got the entire Night Series collection (Night Rider, Night Porter, Night Flight, Night Breed) because I couldn’t choose. The Night Series collection is based on the iconic NARS Night Series Eyeshadows.  I also had to have the Fall 2011 colour, Galion. Chanel I got The Oracle to pick me up the Les Jeans de Chanel colours that were limited edition for Fashion Night Out 2011.  I had Melissa from Tips Nail Bar to incorporate them into a great blue gradient manicure because I couldn’t choose just one to wear.   I love Chanel nail polish it wears very well and has staying power. Dior I saw Apparat, the new limited edition Dior Nail Lacquer for Holiday 2011 on my new favourite beauty site Temptalia.  The photos on Temptalia looked …

Gareth Pugh x MAC

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MAC has teamed up with Gareth Pugh for their next makeup collaboration. It’s pretty damn cool looking. To think Gareth Pugh is to think beautifully distorted, sculptural, otherworldly proportions… avant-garde mash ups of materials (from PVC and Perspex, latex to leather, mink to metal, Gareth reworks them all into breathtakingly original clothes)…an extreme attitude… In short, no one could accuse Gareth of being conventional. Or predictable. Cue heavyweight geometric packaging encasing some seriously chic standouts: a duo-chromatic nail polish that flashes from emerald to amethyst. A compact Beauty Powder that turns all skin-tones a sophisticated matte. Lipglasses that go from super-subtle (worn alone) to statement-making when layered over Lipstick. Lashes that redefine the shape of what a fake lash could, or should, be… “They’re about contradiction and the struggle between lightness and darkness,” says Gareth of how he creates his inspired collections. So too his debut approach to makeup. Every piece is unique, experimental, precious and intriguing (just like Gareth’s designs)…and ready to be played to your lighter (more ethereally natural) or darker (sinisterly sophisticated) …

CND Fall Winter 2011 – 2012 LookBook and Video

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The CND Fall Winter 2011 – 2012 LookBook was a neat little take away from my Shellac manicure experience. It talks about CND trends on the runways, designer partners and even step by step instructions to recreate a few styles. I’ve included a few pages of the lookbook here but you can download the full thing on the CND website.   Jen Kao’s nails (1st photo and below) are amazing.  So much work and layers of polish were needed.   Our cover concept plunges into the moody, trippy twilight-world of Jen Kao, embellished underwater-Avatar fantasy swirls and dominatrix swagger.  Our team created cloisonné-like, decidedly decadent nails edged in golden dagger-tips. The designer’s new collection spins a psychedelic head-rush of peacock tones in silhouettes cut for strutting: cinched, fringed corsets and the pure funk of purple satin platform boots. Flyness overload! Ziggy Stardust era references, like sharp-shouldered jackets in acid-bright prints and lurex leggings, call for nails that can’t wait to boogie down the dance floor. (source Lookbook) CND also created a video for the fall winter …

geekiviews: CND Shellac Manicure Part 1

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I decided to put aside my fears of gel manicures as a TIFF experiment. High View Communications and CND invited me to Shellac SpaManicure Day where guests would be treated to a Shellac manicure and meet CND president and founder, Jan Arnold. The event was just in time for TIFF and I liked the idea of CND reps doing my nails. There are a couple of things that make me wary of these types of manicures. I like to change my nail polish up a lot. I worry about being bored with the one colour. The colour palettes aren’t as extensive as regular polish I’m pretty good at doing my nails myself. I don’t get a lot of manicures during the year I have a large amount of nail polish colours Hmm, I need to return to the salon to remove this stuff. UV lamps, pure acetone and protective masks Nail recovery horror stories The CND team setup their manicure pop-up in the Hazelton Hotel. I browsed the CND lookbooks while waiting for my nail …

If I Had Hair, I’d Want This Cut

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I usually delete all hair related emails that come to me. I don’t have hair and because of that I never cover hair products on I want – I got. Emails that provide me offers of free haircuts and styling services often receive a snide remark on twitter. Sassoon Salon has been on the receiving end of one of my twitter rants but the press release I received about the MINIMUM collection got my attention. The MINIMUM collection’s latest colouring techniques, developed exclusively for Sassoon Salon by European Colour Director Peter Dawson, precise placement of ‘accents’ of colours add tone and contrast, working in tandem with the shape and cut of the hair to create sweeping accent lines that bring the look to life. I love the colour and shape of this haircut. It has a very futuristic mod feel and I love hunter green. If there was some way to transport this blonde woman’s hair to my head I might consider returning to team hair. Until then I’m a loyal member of team bald. …

Illusions d’ombres de Chanel

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Illusions d’ombres is name of the new Fall Winter 2011 – 2012 makeup collection from Chanel. I only really concern myself with the nail polish but I loved the imagery that went a long with the product shots. There are 3 polishes for fall, Peridot, Quartz and Graphite. They will be available at Chanel counters beginning August 22, 2011. I’ve placed a lot of my metallic nail polishes on the back burner recently because their bright counterparts are more fun and a bit obnxious.  However, Chanel’s metallics are making me rethink that decision. Peridot is a green and gold combination. Graphic sounds really interesting with silver, gold and platinum combined together. Finally, Quartz is a bronze and pink mixture. images: courtesy of Chanel Canada

More Nail Fun at I want – I got

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Here is another installment of my not so regular Nail fun column. This is what I’m wearing these days. MAC Venomous Villians Mean and Green NARS Kismet Deborah Lippmann Lara’s Theme – I decided to copy the nail bloggers typical pose with the bottle.  I love nail polish that matches my ToyWatch.  This is my favourite orange nail polish at the moment. Butter London Artful Dodger – I just love this shade of blue. Deborah Lippmann It’s Delovely – This isn’t the best photo but this is a vibrant coral colour. For my birthday I got a mani and pedi at ElmSpa. A great feature of the service at Elm Spa is that you get to take the colour you choose home with you. Lancome Le Vernis Nail Polish Rouge Saint Honore – This polish is from the new Fall 2011 collection coming out in September 2011. I got a sneak peek at the collection thanks to L’Oreal Canada. I’ve never worn the traditional red nail before and now I’m hooked. I didn’t think it would look …

i want: NARS Summer 2011 Nail Polish

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NARS has two new nail polish colours for Summer 2011 that I’m liking. NARS makes great, long lasting nail polish and I really enjoy my Spring 2011 colour, Desperado. Kismet is described as “Fate, destiny, a predetermined course of events. This metallic sunflower nail polish was simply meant to be.” Ecume is described as “An opaque white nail enamel that is at once vintage-inspired and avant-garde in sensibility.” The entire Summer 2011 NARS collection is quite pretty too. There is lots of bold colour. images: courtesy of NARS.