Chanel Dragon

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Well, after days and days (weeks?) of glitter, Konad, all kinds of things to entertain me, today I decided to use a nail polish from my birthday Chanel order that is simplicity itself, one that even I would not "enhance." It's Chanel Dragon, a spectacular red creme, and it's more than I had hoped for.

This is another where I did a bit of waffling when I placed the order, and had it not been birthday (bonus) money I was using, I probably wouldn't have sprung for it. I'm glad I did. The waffling was about the question "Is it just a red?" Well, the answer is yes and no. The yes part is that it's a red creme. The no is that all reds are not created equal, in my experience, and the "just" does not apply to Dragon. What I do not like about most OPI reds is that I can apply three coats and still see through the free edge of my nail. This one, I applied one coat and it was totally opaque, I could not see through my nail. I applied the second out of habit. It's also an amazing classic shade of red, slightly warmer than my beloved Dior Poppy, and Poppy just had to scoot over on her throne to share it with Dragon. Another thing I noticed about Dragon is the shine - it's like I have a sheet of red vinyl over my nails. So yes, it is a red, but no, it's not "just" a red.

This is two coats of polish with a base and top coat in indirect morning sun. There were streaks of direct sunlight outside, but on my neighbors' lawns. I figured I look odd enough taking pictures of my hand and a bottle of nail polish - if I wander off to a neighbor's lawn to do it, the men in little white coats might cart me away, so we have indirect light today! Even in the lower light, check out the reflection of the camera and the background in my nails - how's that for a shine?

Chanel Dragon Nail Polish, Two Coats in Indirect Morning Sunlight

How is that for a classic? I'm sure you can see right away why I don't have the heart to put a big ol' Konad stamp or a bunch of glitter on it. It's so simple, clean, basic, and shiny that I fell in love with it right away. As regular readers know, I'll Konad the heck out of some reds, but never Poppy, and since this one is now sharing the Queen of Reds throne with Poppy, never this one. Some things are just too good for me to interfere with!

That's my happy discovery of the morning. To be honest with you, I've been a bit reluctant to try Dragon lest I discover that I wasted the money on a plain old red where three coats later, I could see the sun set through my tips, so the fact that it this brilliantly good tickles me to no end. I have more China Glaze glitters to swatch for you yet, but the likelihood that I will remove this lovely polish to do so is very slim - I think that will have to wait for another day!

Until next time, dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

China Glaze Glitters (Yes, More!)

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I didn't have more on the agenda for you today, but I was feeling a little like doing some swatches, so I did. The sun isn't great, so I went to my sparkling*nails order that I told you about, the one that's primarily China Glaze glitters, and grabbed a few. Since bright artificial light washed out glitter last time, I thought maybe weaker natural light would be a good compromise, and it turned out to be just right.

The first one isn't really a glitter, it's just a super-shimmery pink, called Trophy Wife. Of course, it took three coats (trophy wives are high maintenance, I understand...).

China Glaze Trophy Wife Nail Polish, Three Coats

The rest are all really glitters. Blue Hawaiian is a really, really cool ocean blue jelly with multi colored glitter. This is two coats.

China Glaze Blue Hawaiian Nail Polish, Two Coats

Luna is a light silvery blue shimmer loaded up with fine glitter and holo hex glitter. This is two coats.

China Glaze Luna Nail Polish, Two Coats

Sour Apple is not as vivid on the nail as in the bottle. It's a bright green jelly with lots of multi colored glitter, almost neon in the bottle, but it reminds me of a Green Apple Jolly Rancher on the nail.

China Glaze Sour Apple Nail Polish, Two Coats

The last one, Sour Apple, is a full manicure with a top coat. I laugh in the face of Fall! Ha!

Those are the swatches I have for you this afternoon, Dear Reader. I hope they help you pick what you like and what you don't. There are even more to come! I'm just going to have to keep tacking remarks on after "China Glaze Glitters" in order to give each post a different name, I guess!

Now, I really am done for the day! Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Hush & Konad M73

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have a Fall manicure to show to you today which really pleases me. With Konad, I've spent the last year doing dramatic and wacky, so now I'm making a conscious effort to work on more subtle, and I like it. I still like the others as well, it's just that the more muted combinations are something new for me, so they're fun.

For this one, I started with the base color. Initially, I was going to go with SpaRitual Regal, the elegant plum from this Fall's Forbidden Collection, but since I just wore a purple the other day, I chose Hush from the same collection, which is a milk chocolate brown creme. It's a three coater, and just so you don't have to go hunting for pictures of it, I took new ones for you. Here it is with a top coat, dry, right before I stamped it. SpaRitual cremes have a beautiful shiny finish to them.

SpaRitual Hush Nail Polish from the Fall 2009 Forbidden Collection, Three Coats

On my last Konad order, I went heavy on the Special and Princess polishes, so I was able to select one that complimented this one well. It's not subtle in the sense of totally blending in, but in the sense of not jumping out at you. The down side to Konad polishes is that they are not labelled with names in any way, the up side is that the pictures of them on WowSoCool are exceptionally color accurate. In adding text to my pictures, I just went there to find out the name of the polish I used and had no trouble picking it out. Nice! I like having a broad variety of Konad polishes - it allows for creativity with incredibly crisp Konad designs. With the 30% off, they're $4.90 (Special) - $5.60 (Princess), and last a really long time (the only one I've ever used up in over a year is black). Per milliliter, the Princess polishes cost less even though they're more per bottle.

Back to the mani... So out of this collection of Konad polishes, having selected SpaRitual Hush, I chose Gold Brown Konad Special Nail Polish for the stamping, which is a light brown with a gold shimmer, then went through my plates and picked out plate M73 for the pattern. I used what I think of as the "shattered tile" pattern from that plate, but used it differently this time. I usually use it with the densest part of the pattern at the cuticle, today I put the densest part at the tip of my nails. I had a little accident with my pinky nail that this manicure accentuates - I'm kind of an aggressive sleeper, and somehow broke my pinky nail in my sleep the night before last! I woke up with a minor break and reshaped it yesterday. It wasn't sufficiently bad to warrant shaving them all down. Here's the finished manicure.

SpaRitual Hush Nail Polish & Konad Plate M73 using Gold Brown Konad Special Nail Polish

As far as availability of the SpaRitual Fall Collection, it's not great. I've found it online once at an etailer, but with the price hiked to SpaRitual's new retail price of $10, which is a bit much (I got mine as preview samples from SpaRitual). I think the best place to get them is the only other place I've seen them, which is from sparkling*nails on ebay, who sells them for a buck less at $8.99.

The reason I'm so loyal to her is her CS. I don't know if I've told you this story - if so, it's been a long time. I've bought from her outside of ebay for a good year and a half to two years (I email her a list, she invoices me, store prices). The one and only "issue" I've ever had with an order from her was in early July 2008 (pre-blog). I remember it because it was right after my mom's funeral. I'd worn Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to my mom's wake, and shortly after coming home, placed an outside-ebay order and got a back up (so I can wear it in her honor in 10 years...). I got the order, and the Lucy in the Sky had leaked, about 1/4 the bottle. I attribute loose lids to manufacturers, not sellers, but know some people don't, so I emailed her just with an FYI that she might want to check the lids before shipping because mine leaked a bit. Know what her response was? To replace the leaky bottle and offer me one item of my choice from her store as a gesture of apology for the hassle. I said, naw, that's okay, and she absolutely insisted, so I folded and she sent me the two replacement items. This is a transaction where I could not leave feedback and I had no blog, so she wasn't sucking up - she's just good. That's why I trust her so much. Anyhow, the distribution on these SpaRitual seasonal colors seems to be comically bad, so if you want 'em, go get 'em...

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader. I don't think I have anything else on the agenda for you today, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!