I went by Sephora to check out their new SOPI nail polish colors, particularly the forest-green Dark Room I was lusting after, and … meh. Don´t bother. It´s streaky in application, oddly dull on the nail and, unfortunately, pretty much a fade to black with the necessary two coats. Total fail. I know there are a bunch of new greens either out or coming out, I’ll have to get that list from my pal Louise who knows about my dark-green fetish…
In the Shadows is also much darker in person than this online swatch – your standard dried-blood vampy, nice finish, looks good but nothing you need if you already own five shades just like it. If you’re a vampy fan, you’re probably already covered. An aside: I can’t own too many blues, greens, reds, grays or random fugly colors, but give me three or five vampies and I seem to lose interest in any more.
To me the standout was Under My Trench Coat, which they describe as “light grey khaki with gold shimmer” and again their photo´s off – it´s a much more subdued micro-shimmer on the nail, I’d say a semi-matte — on the nail you have to stare to see the shimmer. This falls squarely in the jolie laide camp (subcategory: mushroom) for those of you who share my passion for quirky colors. Darker than Run With It!, less purple than Metro Chic, and lighter (and warmer) than Jacques, this is a dove-grey khaki neutral with a gorgeous two-coat finish. A winner.
Finally, I´ve just started playing in their dirty pinks, gray-salmons and mauves, all jolie laide shades that are a decidedly acquired taste and IMO some of the trickiest colors to wear. Here´s a link to their color swatches, scroll down and check out the section of swatches starting with Nonfat Soy Half Caff on down to It´s Somewhere In My Purse if you´re not clear what I´m talking about. The key with these colors is they have to be just funky enough not to be mistaken for the lame-o Revlon Dusty Desert Rose I wore with my nylon taffeta bridesmaid dress and crimped hair in 1986. I ended up falling for the bruise-like pink-purple On Stage (shown above), which I put on because it looked ugly in the bottle (huh, and you wonder how I end up picking my fragrances out). I thought it would be a total bust, but somehow the deep slightly pink-y gray purple looked interesting instead of heedious. Call Your Mother is an attractive, slightly pinker alternative to Metro Chic. All these colors made me look forward to fall.
Anything new on the horizon you’re looking forward to? Oh, also — np fanatics, which I assume you are if you read this far — did you see All Lacquered Up’s polish collaboration with Barielle? Yummmm!! Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2. If you scroll down you can see them on the nail. I’ve been very pleased with my Barielles in the past, and I can’t wait to try at least half of these. I thought it was fascinating to see which colors a polish junkie would come up with in a collaboration like this.
I’ve been lemming and plotting a Barielle buy. (I have you to blame..lol)..Are you getting any from the ALU collection?..Which ones do you love/like? I love a lot of the creams, but blackened bleu and lava rock are also very interesting (Talking nailpolish to fellow perfume lovers is such fun..:))
i meant a smile not a laugh..:)
Um….. Louise and I went into a double purchase? And bought several each. But I haven’t gotten them yet. I really like the formula of the other Barielles I have.
sounds good! I am lemming slate of affairs, u-concrete me, and get mauve-ing..but get mauve-ing looks a lot like SOPI call your mother- so not sure..
Lavanya — I had to go look at what I ordered: Concrete Me, Lava Rock, Slate of Affairs, Make it a Latte and Putty on Me. As you can see I can’t have too many jolie laide colors!
I’m think I’m in love with joli laide colors too..:) Your order looks super!!- right now I have u- concrete me, slate of affairs and lava rock in my cart!! Btw, did you see the new Zoya MatteVelvets and OPI Suedes?? More lemmings!! Maybe I should just save all the $$ and spend it in the Perfumed Court..lol
I hit the Sephora OPI display on Saturday and also walked away with a bottle of Under My Trench Coat. Of the “Noir” line, it was the one that I didn’t think I already had something basically just like it and that also looked very pretty and unique on. I’ll second the recommendation for this one.
Diana, thanks for the second. I’m kicking myself because I somehow missed the teal they swatch online, wonder if it wasn’t there? I don’t have anywhere near the np collection some of these gals have but if a color reminds me of something else I already own I’m not so interested. Trench Coat was different.
And on the topic of Mattes…the Nubar collection is great, and allows for use of basecoat (unlike several other brands’ mattes), so no staining. They also look nice with a topcoat, but heck, what’s the point of buying a matte, then topcoating?
Right! But I do like using a base coat for the very reason you mention, and the Zoyas just don’t work at all if you do. Gonna check those babies out. Thanks 🙂
Shopping update… 😉
Sephora’s OPIs include a stunning Blue Grotto (now in my possession), as well as a cousin to On Stage (love this one)-a nice, lighter but still dusty mauvey called And Then He Said.
Bring ’em on!
Ugh… I had such high hopes for Here Today… Aragon Tomorrow after reading about the disappointment of the Sephora dark green. I’m glad to see other recs, so I’ll have to check out the Enchanted forest.
I lightened up for the summer, which means China Glaze Tree Hugger on my toes and OPI Peru-B-Ruby on my hands. I can’t lighten up too much on my hands – I tried to go with a bright fuschia at the beginning of the summer and it was too much of a shock after all the blood red, navy, and charcoal of the winter and spring. I’ll be glad to be able to get back into my autumn colors in the next month.
Blood Red, Navy and Charcoal. Girl after my own heart.
Do you like creme or shimmer? Did you search for that Nubar Forest? Really gorgeous.
I generally like the shimmers, all though I’ve been known to rock the creme finish on occasion – I’ve even done matte before, but discovered that I really prefer my nails to be shiny.
I definitely check out Nubar’s Forest – I looked up the Orly and it might be a little to “Christmas” for me.
Now that I’ve looked up all those lovely dark shades, I might have to pull out the Black Cherry Chutney for my next manicure – mid-August is late enough for my fall colors, right?
I’ve been thinking about this. Honestly, don’t you feel like Black Cherry Chutney would look *incredibly* fresh right now? After a summer of red or neons or what have you? So unexpected. I’m wearing a metallic gunmetal gray this second with a summer frock, and it doesn’t look peculiar. In my opinion. 🙂
Gotta throw out a holla for Lizzie of Liz Zorn fame. I really like her perfume approach – and I like her perfumes – a LOT!
I’m with Carter, though in reverse – because my fingernails peel with astonishing ease and rapidity, I stick with clear/pale pink, always. I have actually WATCHED my nail color pop off, as my nails peel – and sometimes it’s less than an hour later, pro mani or not. This summer I bowed to La Belle Enabler and slapped a bright fuschia on the toes – I wanted to go with the Nars Schiap but it was too blue, so I found the perfect alt. in a Sally Hansen. And Lordy but it wears like iron. Come autumn I’ll have to switch to red. Pink in autumn just feels odd. If I’m not rocking a fuschia then I go with my favorite standby, OPI’s Hopelessly in Love. That is my finger and toe HG. They always look clean and groomed with that color and most days, that’s the best I can hope for!
no mani or pedi this weekend, though. It’s in the 90s, with 90% humidity. They wouldn’t dry until September!
xo >-)
Chanel Ballerina is a really wonderful neutral pink, too. I also love Precious, but it’s long discontinued and not worth the effort and expense of tracking it down.
Hey, peanut!
How are you feeling? Better, I hope? Did you get my little package? I should beat you over that Turtle Vetiver – it’s so jolie laide – ooks me right out – but I cannot stop sniffing it!!!! Like a drug – so weird. So compelling.
Did they pull that stuff out of turtles or what?
xoxoxo >-)
Not yet — something to look forward to this week! And I am def on the mend, thank you for asking 🙂
The Turtle Vet is no doubt an acquired taste, but I just love the upfront blast and then the fabulous loooong drydown and lovely, lovely finish it has. Denyse has the perfect review of it IMHO, which also explains the turtle connection, which is a total plus to an already great scent.
BTW, the Zoya Matte Velvets dry very quickly, almost immediately, but you get a flawless application and they have a beautiful muted shimmer to them. You can do two coats your nails in 15 minutes flat, even in the humdiddy. The wine one is gorge on toes, haven’t tried it out yet as a mani.
Well….there’s a pastability that I have acquired that Turtle Vet yen. I have applied it 3x and, like Windsong, it stays on my mind.
Turtle. Who’dathunkit.
ps. you guys slay me with the base/top coat discussion – I am such a piker. I used to love Nail Magic before they took the formaldehyde out – now it’s not very useful for my fragile nails – so I just use that Hard as Nails stuff that doesn’t really work (gotta tell you, formadehyde, while scary in certain apps, is GREAT for nails. Just great…..anyhoo, I am so careless about my nails beyond wanting them neat and tidy…..I am so ashamed…
xo >-)
glad you’re feeling better! carry on!
Have you tried Nail Envy?
I have to tell you that I actually spewed tea (and scared the beejeezus out of the cat sleeping on my lap) at your “lame-o Revlon Dusty Desert Rose” comment. I’m still chuckling.
I love these random Sunday blogs and slowly but surely you’re creating another addiction for me! Thanks to an earlier Random Sunday, I gave my mother a bunch of the Nubar colors on Mother’s Day (with accompanying products for manis) and she LOVED them!
On the subject of indie perfumers – Laurie at Sonoma Scent Studio is one of the nicest, most accessible people I’ve ever meant. I’m in the middle of sampling a bunch of her scents, and have bought a FB of her Champagne de Bois. Love it!!
Can you picture me? I looked right out of Pretty in Pink… sigh. I had a dusty rose chiffon dealie I could easily have worn to an Ugly Bridesmaid Dress contest. Those were the days.
The humorous part of getting into np for ME (I blame Louise) was compared to perfume they’re so cheap!
That was the cause of the spewing – I actually COULD picture you! LOL!
And on the np, besides being very reasonable ($9 vs. $200 something for Epic – no contest!), I’m normally very conservative, but it’s the wild blues and greens and weird dark colors that seem to call my name. My inner wild flower child seems to be experiencing a re-birth of sorts!
I think I *didn’t* wear polish for years in years in part because of having little kids, but in part because I felt like I couldn’t pull off the fun colors. Now that I have teen girls, I feel like (bless them) their outlook encouraged me to try more interesting colors. I know I wrote something like this before, but if Chanel makes black and navy blue, it’s no longer an edgy trend, you know? I actually find some of the jolie laide colors incredibly chic.
I wear Chanel for that reason — because if they do it, it’s not a trend and I’m just too old for trends. Hell, I was ALWAYS too old for trends…
Oh, and that business about the relative affordability of NP is eggsaktly how I justify spending Chanel prices to my husband, and to myself 😉 Plus, I just like ’em.
BTW, I think Dazzling would look fab on you, March, and IS an edgy color — a medium slightly brown red, which is edgy without being trendy IMHO.
I love call your mother(In fact I have it on today!)..that and metro chic are among the few nps that I own(and I lovesss them)..I am loving any slightly dusty/dirty purple/mauve these days
Thanks for the link to the polish collaboration swatches..I really like most of the part 1s- epecially everything from slate of affairs to Putt- E on me..U-Concrete me is calling my name!!
I love scrangie’s swatches too. As for something new I am waiting for- a few nps from the Zoya twitter promo.
What are your favorite base coats and top coats (preferable big 3 free)? I got the Poshe top coat yesterday from Sallys (as a result of my recently acquired np addiction- mostly the fault of Marina’s weekend beauty/your posts and the MUA nail board/nailpolish blogs, I have a Sallys beauty card now). It is a fun ‘hobby’, especially considering that nps are considerably cheaper than perfume.
Ooh, something I can contribute to! Poshe all the way for a topcoat because it doesn’t shrink as much as some of the others. I use Bonder as a base, but am thinking about trying Creative Sticky. Anyone have anything to share on that?
Hi carter! yes, I’d heard that Poshe doesn’t shrink like Seche Vite does- plus it doesn’t have some of the nasties- so I thought why not..:) I’ve heard Orly Bonder causes yellowing- does it? I wanted to try Creative Stickey but my Sallys didn’t seem to have it. So for now I’m just using the Sally Hansen that I bought a while ago
I haven’t noticed any yellowing, and I find that it’s very good at preventing staining from all of these reds I wear. Others I’ve tried, not so much. The only problem with Poshe is that it can get thick on you fairly quickly, but I found that to be equally true of Seche.
Thanks Carter! I’ve heard that a few drops of a thinner usually takes care of the goopy thickness..I’ve never tried that though.
I’m enjoying this conversation. I use Seche as a topcoat because I like the ufb shine, but it thickens and also the brush is stupid, it doesn’t reach anywhere near the bottom of the bottle. Orly Top2Bottom wasn’t very good, and their ridge-filling one didn’t. 🙂
good to know about the Orly Top2bottom- I bought it yesterday and returned it almost immediately..And then wondered if I did the right thing..lol
I’ll ask Louise. I think she’s tried them all…
Thank you!..:)
I want to give a shout-out to Essie’s Good To Go. It dries just as quickly as Poshe, but IMO has a better, longer lasting shine. I don’t have problems with it shrinking either (although that was also rare with Poshe). I had to thin the heck out of it when I first got it (old bottle maybe?) but from then on, it was smooth sailing. Now I’m half way through the bottle and I thin it after every few uses and it’s good as new. I haven’t tried Seche, but the Essie brush is like all their other brushes (i.e., normal and not stupid). Orly’s In a Sec is the thinnest & easiest to apply of the ones I’ve tried, but it’s not the most durable.
Sigh. I want so much to be in on this conversation but, as with lipstick, I am pretty much a one-note-janey. I wear red nail polish, always. I wear nothing but red on my fingernails, and on my toes I wear, um, red. In the summer I will expand my repertoire slightly and do bright (never light) pinks and plums on my toes, but on the hands it’s gotta be red. If I do painted toes, I do a sheer neutral white or pink (but very sheer) on my hands, and viskie-verskie. For a minute there I was contemplating matte slate gray for a fall manicure, but it ain’t gonna happen. Matte red, sure will — thank you Zoya Matte Velvets.
I will just walk over sit in the corner now and listen, silently applauding all of you who find it easy being green.
Carter, how did I miss you? Sorry. Well, we all have our comfort zone, and it sounds like you have established a look that works beautifully for you. I think for me, np is a way to play with funky looks in a way I’m comfortable with. I’d blame Louise again but I’m pretty sure she’s getting sick of it. 😉
Whip me, baby 🙂
Aww come on, Carter, it’s fun being green.
The best green, besides the Nubar greens, is Rampage by Illamasqua, which has just come to America by way of Sephora. Their other colors are great, too.
Oh, cool! I didn’t know they’d made it stateside–thanks for the info!
http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P241720&shouldPaginate=true&categoryId=5955
oh my GOD!!!!! How did I miss these? Phoning Sephora.
Ohhing and ahhing at those colors, because I need something new and green (and maybe blue).
Marsha, follow-up — I just tried Rampage and their teal today. Gorgeous.
March – I understand that in Europe they call Rampage *the Jesus*.
I just want to say that I Heart Scrangie! She’s so smart and straightforward. I loved The Polish Addict gal, too, before she got too busy with her new law career (!!) to post swatches. (She swears she’s back now, though, which just endlessly cracks me up. I love to think about her filing briefs and talking to judges all day and then going home to take pictures of her nails.) All Lacquered Up has gotten so strangely commercial, and I have trouble with the new format. But I do find that Barielle collaboration very interesting–and you know Rescue Beauty Lounge did one too, with all three of them. Mostly, I’m just totally fascinated with the way the make-up blogs seem to get embraced and wooed by the industry–and in the case of the nailpolish ladies, really seem to have a working relationship with their peeps. How is it that the perfume industry doesn’t notice this stuff? Why are they such separate cultures, when they are often owned by the same corporate mommas? So interesting…
I could probably do a regular blog post on the last part of your comment. Offhand: I have a vision of some of the indie nail polish outfits (there’s a concept!) reaching out to the np blogs… now, in MY world, just my experience: small/niche/indie perfumers, like, say, Neil Morris and Ineke. Someone where you can identify a single person? They do reach out to the blogs. If I wanted, I could probably email Ineke or Vero Kern or whoever and ask for a sample of something, and mostly I don’t because … wth, I should buy my own product, right? OTOH, I do get sent things, early. Things to preview. I have no problem with this, and if they send it and I like it, it tends to wind up on the blog. I do wonder sometimes whether I should make all that more explicit, or whether anyone in readerville cares about those relationships. Finally, though, you’re right — look at LT/TS’s stories about how hard it was to get samples of some stuff. A lot of perfume houses seem to view the blogs as (unwanted potential) critics instead of free publicity.
Oh I totally agree with you about the indie perfumers (and I love them, and love the accessibility of that world). But even Rescue Beauty Lounge is enormous compared to the distribution of the folks you’ve mentioned. And I believe it was Chanel who actually flew a group of beauty bloggers to Paris for a junket. Can you imagine?
In fact, it almost seems more likely that, say, Estee Lauder would invite y’all to a special preview for Sensuous, than that Guerlain would let you into the vaults. Maybe it has something to do with the disposability of beauty products, as opposed to perfume. It is so clearly about The New and The Next Thing, whereas with perfume its more about finding a Treasured Object.
And there is something going on, too, about authority vs. play–wanting to have control of women’s tastes and choices (because let’s face it, it’s all about women when it comes to the money) vs. encouraging them to take a chance, get in there and play with it themselves, which the makeup people seem better at, though they still have a high quotient of Expertism.
That’s probably enough for now on this topic! Sorry to bend your ear (blog?)…
Though I should add that Sylvaine Delcourt did just let Denyse and Ocatavian into the vaults. So that’s a bad example. Or maybe change is afoot?
Delacourte. Her, too. Yep. (So um, do you think they’d talk to me if I remembered their names properly?)
Eh, I never spell anything right, so don’t sweat it.
I don’t know … I wonder if I’d feel “beholden” to Guerlain if they actually tried to construct a relationship with me? On the other hand, telling blogs to take photos down, like they did to Octavian, is just stupid.
For whatever it’s worth, I would be fascinated to read such a post. The difference between your relationships with perfume houses and the cosmetic bloggers’ relationships with their brands, the freebies issue… I love all that behind-the-scenes sausage-making stuff.
2nd this!!
third!
Squared!
Ruh roh. Now I’m worried I should have kept my mouth shut.
That’s my motto.
Hi March-
I wanted to respond to thank you for your post. My business partner and friend David and I cherish our relationship with the blogs and couldn’t be more appreciative for what you all have done for us-Perfume Posse in particular. I am glad that you pointed out the efforts made by us niche/indie perfumers because it truly is about the one on one relationship with each of our fragrance friends. A company our size does not have the resources of “the big boys” and we couldn’t have developed the world wide following that we are fortunate to have without the efforts of the bloggers like you and the folks who read and respond to them.  Â
I just wanted to give you the kudos that you deserve as well.
Fragrant Dreams,
Neil Morris
Neil, hi!
Jumping in here, elbowing March aside (sorry, hon!). Just wanted to say it’s a two-way street. You are always so charming and informative and accommodating and it is lovely to engage with people who truly love and understand perfume and the folks who love it so.
xox >-)
okay, March: back to our regularly scheduled programming…:-D
Thanks, Musette! Just to keep you all in the loop, I have 3 new scents I’m working on that I’m excited about! Luscious, Attraction and Memories Of You. Here are the Notes for Luscious, just to whet your appetite:
TOP: Pink Grapefruit, Tangerine, Red Berry, Papaya, Aldehydes
HEART: Poppy, Heather Green Tea, Honeysuckle, Ylang Ylang, Magnolia
BASE: Ambroxan, Clean Musk, Dark Vanilla, Maltol, Sea Amber
I hope all our friends @ PerfumePosse are Happy & Well!
Neil
Hi Neil-just chiming in with a “Yum!” for Luscious-and a hearty roun of applause for Vapor, my new pet aldehydic girl-wonder 😉
Neil, you would be “Exhibit A” in any discussion of a smaller perfumer reaching out to the blogosphere. Not only do you put in the time at events like Sniffa, but you’ve worked on relationships with a lot of individual perfume fans, not just the bloggers. I had no idea going into this how incredibly nice some of the individual perfumers are. Thanks for your openness and your perfumes, and we’re looking forward to your new scents.
Ooooh, np!
I agree Dark Room is a big let down, as is Suzi Skis the Pyrenees, a failed attempt at a dark blue-green in OPIs latest Spain collection. Ditto Aragon, a green-gone-black.
However, I think you’ll love Orly’s Enchanted Forest…..a lovely slightly cool tone cream, and maybe you’d like Nubar Greener as well-a darkish green shimma-not as blue as the CG Emerald Sparkle, which screams Xmas to me…
I’m trying to decide whether I *need* Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Blackboard (darkish green) and Uber (in the mushroom/taupe Fugly category. The brand’s name alone calls me.
I’m stalking the Barielle website for those new releases. Share some shipping, doll?
Happy Sunday, all! It’s tax-free weekend in Virginia, time to check out fall fashions 🙂
Just searched these on Scrangie — woo hoo Enchanted Forest! She says it doesn’t fade to black… I am tempted.
Really, though — I have to have Nubar FOREST!!! omg look at that green creme!!!! It’s light but not light! Like Scrangie says it looks sorta like that BB I don’t have either … dang, I need to order this. Can’t decide about Greener, it looks sorta like Date Night which I think I have (and she swatched.) Wait .. maybe. Greener is bluer, isn’t it? I love Wildlife but it would look like crap with my skin tone.
PS Louise – I am rocking my H&M Favorite Jeans right now, it’s a great gunmetal blue! Just starting to chip at the edges. Fun, unexpected color for August.