I have some free samples of new products that came in the mail, and I really like both of them, and I have extra of each to give away.
ChapStick has a True Shimmer lip balm in several flavors. I’ve tried a couple of the flavors, and they remind me in flavor a lot of the Bonne Belle Lip things, remember those? Nice flavor and smell, and it goes on incredibly smooth. Not sure if the formula is changed with this since they put shimmer in it, but it glides on and gives just a hint of shimmer to your lips, which is reallly perfect for summer. There’s no color at all, which I like a lot more than lip balms with color. Not drying at all, works great and looks great. I do have one extra of these in Peppermint Rush. If you’d like to be entered to win it, just drop your name in comments.
Other product is Q-tips Vanity Packs. Gone are those blue and white cartons, and now then have brightly colored, pretty flowered containers so you can leave your Q-tips in the box for your counter. The Q-tips are the same, no changes there, they are still as versatile for mopping up your face as ever (does anyone in the world not use Q-tips or some generic version of them?) but the boxes are so darn cute. I have one extra of these as well. If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for one of them., again, just drop your name in comments.
New perfume discovery that’s old? For me, Kenzo Flower. I’d never smelled this, so I tried some recently, and just wow. It’s so easy to wear. I found online a Kenzo Flower Summer, and I’m just perplexed. Kenzo Flower is summery, how do they get it more summery? Yeah, I’m slow, but I eventually do try everything.
Now I need advice. I’m almost paralyzed in picking paint for my kitchen. I was thinking of going with terra cotta, but decided no because I want to do a bronze/red/gold glass tile backsplash, and that would just be overkill on color. Then I was thinking of a dark celery green, which works and would work with the backsplash, but I have a pale green in there now, and I’m just greened out. Ideas? I’ve toyed with orange and decided no, I’m just sure I’ll get tired of it if it’s all over my walls. I’m thinking of a paint color called Cumin. It’s a medium reddish brown, not really dark, but definitely not light. I want my kitchen to be warm and inviting. Any other thoughts on color? And if you have a specific brand/color or links to kitchen photos that are warm, would love to have that. This painting this is so hard, the color picking. I mean, yikes!
Well, everyone has given you such great, serious colors. I’m suggesting my favorite kitchen color: toast crumb-cat hair. It’s what I need to hide in my kitchen.
But to your paint color. If you have a powerful backsplash in red/bronze/gold glass, I wouldn’t blend it in with cumin. I’d make it stand out, draw the eye to it, by a palette opposite. That way, you can add more warm trim and accessories and make the walls highlight them. That color is Benjamin Moore’s neutral grey/green Aloe on this page: http://tinyurl.com/km7zpu
And please do enter me in the drawing.
Throw my vote in for the board, though I used an actual wood plank last time I was painting a house. It’s great to be able to carry it around and you can put as many swatches on it as there is space.
Please include me in the draw for either item!
No need to enter me in the draw, thank you anyway, but I think the terra cotta would be lovely, even with the backsplash.
I love Kenzo Flower! Just fantastic stuff, so fun and fresh and lovely.
Patty, you must check out the Devine color palette
as well as Benjamin Moore’s Affinity palette;
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=fh_aura_hiddenPage&NodeUUID=%2FBEA+Repository%2F518032
They are all gorgeous, and well edited so you don’t get overwhelmed. And, all the colors are made to complement each other.
Yes, that’s the Aura paint from BM — that’s what I have on my walls and it is beautiful stuff. Seriously, the rooms GLOW, and the one that’s called Venetian Marble has somehow managed to mimic both the pink and the gray tones that one would find in the marble itself, without being, um, marbelized. I have no idea how it is possible — it’s actually kind of freaky. Anyway, the guy at the paint store told me that it is better quality that European Fine Paints (which he also sold) and urged me to use the Aura even though it was a lot less money.
The thing about the My Pefect Color site is that it IS Benjamin Moore paint that has been color-matched to exactly replicate paints from a number of different companies. So, for example, if you like a color from Behr, you can find the same color on MPC but it is formulated using BM paints.
Need to resniff Kenzo Flower. Saw my sample just the other day and will go retrieve it later.
Agree w/ Francesca’s idea of using illustration board so that you can move large swatches around to different walls and be sure to check them at different times of day. I’m also a big believer in kitchen accessories bringing a lot of color into kitchens – pots and pans, appliances, towels, decorative tiles, etc. Look forward to hearing what you end up choosing!
Hmm…What a warm toned shade of greenish yellow? More on the yellow side that is…
I am offering my unsolicited views on kitchen combinations here (hope posting the JPG form won’t result in site trouble *knock on wood*)
http://www.designshell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/36e8-kitchen-4.jpg
http://www.ikd-int.co.uk/amalficream-kitchen.jpg
Curiously enough I have a small spot in my heart for the Coca Cola Lip Smacker; a little sickening smell but curiously addictive under the Lancome rosier lipsticks.
how about a new scent idea ?? check out today’s ny times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/fashion/18skin.html?_r=1&hpw
sorry, i’m the wrong person to ask about colour – I have very minimalist tastes in decor (not in perfume!!) and only every chose shades of white (ducking and running from all the colour fans!)
ATTN PEOPLE POSTING LINKS FOR PATTY – y’all are winding up in the spam filter, you porny knaves… paint chips being the new bondage, apparently.
Rumor has it that using http://tinyurl.com/ will prevent this from happening. It shortens your posted URL as well.
Okay, this is theoretically a tinyurl link to a benjamin moore color swatch page:
http://tinyurl.com/ny28zm
Hey, I think it worked!
Hmm.. A deep gold color sounds like the right thing to me. So the cumin-y color would be a good start. I second, third, etc. the painting a swatch — I’ve made some doozy mistakes that I caught on the first coat. Luckily, I was planning a second coat so I could use a different, but related color to fix it up.. talk about a $%(*& moment!
No need to enter me in the draw — I’m not a shimmery lips kinda gal. 😉
Hey Patty! I was just looking at paint colors last week and there was one that caught my eye (and sounds like it might compliment the backsplash)- called Extra Virgin Olive Oil (think it was Behr)…
And what the heck- enter me in the draw 😉
i second my perfect color dot com. you can color match and then make lighter or darker, for example cumin: http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Match-of-Porter-Paints-6767-2-Cumin-p/mpc0023276.htm
Don’t need to be entered in the drawing since I just recently just won a frag sample.
If you like the Benjamin Moore brand, many paint stores will sell you an entire color deck for about $10-$15. There are 2 separate decks and each one also contains all of the Pottery Barn colors offered in the mini-decks. Not indicated as such on my decks, but you can look up a Pottery Barn color by name in the index and find it that way.
Decks allow you to see the color families. For instance, if choosing a gold you can see if it leans to the green side. Helpful to have not just for paint, but also when shopping for fabric, etc.
I’m with everyone on the sample squares (the board! such a great idea) although of course I’ve never once followed my own advice…
I’m rather fond of white/modern spaces myself, so perhaps I’m not the one to be giving colour advice. A “warm” off-white (with orange mixed in, I suppose) would work for me in the situation you describe.
I *would* love to be entered in the drawing, though!
Another vote for Benjamin Moore; as someone said, they have sample size pots, so you can try out colors. My kitchen is currently dark green, and I’m with you on being greened out. From your description of your colors, I’m thinking of a sandy color for the walls…
Hi,
I’d love to be entered in the drawing please.
I don’t have any color recommendations, but I definitely recommend getting the sample cans. I now have squares of paint on my living room walls, and I don’t like any of them! I was so sure about using a green in this room, and it turned out all wrong. Good luck!
What I found helpful in picking paint colors was to get some white illustration board, and paint those with your paint samples. Then you can move them around to every wall. I knew I wanted gray in my living room, but I had to be sure it wouldn’t kill any of the artwork that hangs there. With a board you can move it around, hold it in a sunny spot, in a not-sunny spot, etc. I also knew I wanted a dark blue-green in my bedroom and one was fine, but another just killed a celadon-colored lamp. Etc with all the colors I picked. The boards give you more flexibility than painting swatches on your walls, and you don’t have to look at them if it turns out they’re horrible.
I second this. I painted pieces of white poster board with a variety of colors (I bought the little sample sizes) and then you can see a larger amount of the color, with the room’s lighting scheme.
I heard somewhere that the reason that the interior of McDonalds’ are red and yellow is because the colors make people want to eat and run, not settle in. Something to think about. Regardless, I still painted kitchen yellow and it has red accents.
Sherwin williams has beautiful warm goldish yellow called Restrained Gold. I have used it in 3 houses now and it never fails that someone new in the house will ask me what it is. It doesn’t compete it just sort of warms up a space. Good luck, painting is hard but when you get it right, it’s fantastic! I will tell you though, take advantage of their sample pots and paint at least 3-4 splotches on the wall and then choose. You never know till you get it on the wall where it’s gonna be. Good luck and have fun! And hey, you’ve heard of the fragrant mix ins right? Vanilla or jasmine smelling walls??? It’s availible!!
Second on the Benjamin Moore. It’s supposed to be the best. Seems like it’s always the paint featured in the shelter porn mags too.
Whatever you choose, just make sure you try it on the walls — a patch of color, maybe 6″ x 6″, on each one — the light is different on every wall — and look at them as the light changes during the day. Pigments, especially the earth-based tones you’re describing, have varying reflective qualities, and what looks like a beautiful smooth terra cotta in afternoon light can turn into Seventies Burnt Orange at noon the next day. (I learned this the hard way.)
Good luck!
Another color choosing tool offered by Benjamin Moore is an online template that lets you see different color combinations of main, trim and accent colors imposed on photographs of different rooms. The kitchen photos aren’t great, but at least you can get some idea of how the colors work together.
Once you settle on the color families you want, I second Carter’s suggestion of trying out swatches of color on your walls at least a couple feet square. It never fails to amaze me how different the exact same color can look under different light conditions. The ideal color you see on someone else’s walls can look quite different on yours. And sometimes something that looks blah on a chip looks great on a wall.
Good luck in all this!! And please enter me in your draw. Chapstick and Q-Tips are beauty products I can understand!
Hmmm…wouldn’t let me post the link. my perfect color dot com.
If you go to the site, look at Hulsâ„¢ 5122T Bronze Cherry. Is that something that might work?
I heart my perfect color. Love that Bronze Cherry. I like the feature that allows you to color match, and then make the color lighter or darker. Good stuff.
I have a fantastic color on my bedroom walls by Benjamin Moore called Venetian Marble. It glows, exactly like, well, Venetian marble and somehow manages to be cool and warm at the same time. It’s no doubt too delicate a shade for your kitchen and your back splash, but if you could find a stronger hue in the same family I bet it would be really nice. But yeah, I’m with the other two up there, can you post a pic?
This is a fun and pretty useful resource for finding the right color — you can order small sample pots of everything and even increase the intensity of the shades up to 75%, all from the comfort of your chaise longue 😉
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/
Seconding Mindy. But I like the idea of cumin, or a warm pinkish brick colour…
Would it be possible for you to post a pic of your kitchen? I can’t picture a color until I see the amount of space it will be on. Thanks for the opportunity to win free stuff!