Tag Archives: nail lacquer

Chanel Graphite nail polish review

It’s been a while since I posted – but this is the perfect polish to break the rut… Chanel Graphite.

Oh, Le Vernis Graphite… j’adore.

After using Graphite, my first Chanel polish, I was completed consumed by the desire to buy as many of their lacquers as possible, without care for cost or availability or anything else similarly level-headed – THAT is how good it was. However effusive I am in the rest of this review, trust me, it isn’t enough!

Graphite is just amazing. I’ve seen lots of posts that make it look like a charcoal silver, which it most definitely isn’t. Instead, it’s a gorgeous glittering green gold, burnished blackened and utterly brilliant. In some lights, it flashes a shimmering silvery khaki but this dirty dazzling delicious fool’s gold is by far the more dominant colour. It’s simply a joy to behold and I make abslutely no apologies for the abundance of photos that follows as a result!

The other amazing aspect of Graphite is its finish. It’s a cross between a foil and a glitter but is obviously neither and yet more than both put together. It looks amazingly textured but is totally smooth to the touch. It’s Extra Special in a way that words that also name an expensive supermarket ready-meal just cannot do justice to. In my collection, it’s also utterly breathtakingly unique.

I was also blown away by the pure quality of it. I felt I didn’t need to do anything. It just flowed perfectly from the bottle to the brush and onto my fingernails in a neat perfect shape. I always hear the term on polish blogs ‘applied like butter’ and have never really had cause to use it – but this stuff really seemed to melt like magic onto my talons.

For those not familiar with Chanel nail polishes, the chunky square cap lifts off to reveal a small round screw cap that allows better grip for application. The brush itself is slightly short but medium-sized in thickness and I encountered no problems with it whatsoever. However, by this stage, I was in such a state of general giddiness that the brush could have been starfish-shaped for all I’d have known – I just could not stop staring at my nails!

If you look up images of graphite itself, it’s amazing to see how Chanel have managed to transform the mineral’s exact qualities and shading to a polish. It also reminded me of another mineral – pyrite, also known as fool’s gold – and the colour is just this wonderful textured mixture of gold, silver, green, charcoal and black, with shadows and shimmers in all the right places. It’s gorgeous from up-close, it’s gorgeous from far away… I imagine it would almost be gorgeous with your eyes shut too!

It’s so glittery, it pretty much glows in the dark but despite it’s glitz factor, it absolutely never feels obtrusive, ostentatious or OTT. It also reminded me of a shimmering sheath of snakeskin – slinky, glitzy, totally divinely luxe.

Wonderful colour, fabulous quality, a sense of sophistication, a luxurious glamour that’s still tasteful… It’s basically everything I ever hoped and expected from Chanel but had been afraid to believe was true. Well, it all was!

Looks good with: black, sophistication, The Look
Drying time: <5 mins
Coats required: 1-2
Chips: 2-3 days

Shimmering in the shade!

Chanel Le Vernis Graphite, Fall 2011 Illusion D’Ombres Collection, $180, Chanel

Essie Your Hut Or Mine nail polish review

Remember my coral craze from a few months back? I covered super-sparkly coral (Zoya Rica), rainbow-holo coral (China Glaze TMI) and stunningly-saturated colour-popping coral (CND Poppyfield, as recently seen at New York Fashion Week – yes, that’s right, I’m a trend-setter, as if you didn’t already know!). Well now it’s time for a hangover post from my coral bingeEssie Your Hut Or Mine.

Your Hut Or Mine is a classic coral. It’s warm, floral and perhaps even a little old-fashioned looking, leaning more towards a dusky rose or honeysuckle than the juicy fruity melon hues of CND’s Poppyfield or Zoya’s Rica. It has Essie’s trademark secret shimmer hidden deep within – often so deep that you don’t really get a chance to peep it! Even so, its occasional glimmers of pink and gold keep it just that winning wink away from being too dull, less like a faded picnic cloth that got left out in the sun too long.

Even though it’s a summery colour, it’s warmth would also play well into autumn; I wore it with OPI Stranger Tides (a cool pale khaki) and I absolutely adored the colour combination, which looked modern, fresh and brought out the best in both shades.

This had a smooth flowing consistency that made it super-easy to apply (like most Essie nail polishes I’ve tried) but I was surprised when air bubbles starting showing up once it had dried. Nothing as hideously bumpy as Orly Frisky but sadly, enough for me to know it was there. Hopefully I just shook the bottle too soon before application, as it’s not a problem I’ve had with Essie before – but it’s still a shame as otherwise, Your Hut Or Mine is a total gold-star performer.

I also stand by my previous comments that Essie’s smaller thinner brushes are far easier to control than the current fat brushes that are in vogue *cough OPI cough*. Those of you with smaller nails or who prefer having less to clean up at the end should enjoy using these skinnies as much as I do!

Bubbling issue aside, Your Hut Or Mine is a hard polish to have a problem with. I’m not entirely sure it suits my skin-tone (seems to bring out the pink in me) and wish the shimmer came out to play a little bit more, but I just love the warm prettiness of the colour. It reminds me of honeysuckle, picnics, barbeques, gingham and summer, which I reckon are all rather lovely associations to stir up.

So it ticks all my classic coral boxes… and judging by the fact it was sold out for quite a while at Cher2, it clearly ticks plenty of others’ – but how about yours? Let me know!

Looks good with: khaki, flowers, barbeques
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

Essie, Your Hut Or Mine, Summer 2011 Fair Game Resort Collection, $60, Cher2

Deborah Lippmann Today Was A Fairytale nail polish review

Here’s a polish to appeal to everyone’s inner magpies – Deborah Lippmann’s Today Was A Fairytale.

Today Was A Fairytale is an absolutely breathtaking silver glitter that leaves all other silver glitters in the dust. Featuring tonnes and tonnes of small silver glitter and larger hexagonal silver glitter suspended in a transparent base, this polish has ‘Virgin Diamond Powder’ amongst its ingredients (how that differs from non-virgin diamond powder, I’m not sure!). I don’t think things could get much sparklier unless this used actual whole diamonds, right?!

One thing’s for sure – Ms Lippmann certainly knows her way around glitter! Across The Universe was nothing short of spectacular and this is every bit as amazing. It’s so beautifully blingy, so sensationally sparkly, that it just looks like you’ve dipped your fingers into a bowl of crystals. It’s just jewel-drippingly gorgeous.

Today Was A Fairytale is also entirely befitting of the name (a Taylor Swift song, since you ask) as it does have an exquisite fairytale charm to it. Even though it’s such a show-stoppingly glamorous polish, it’s still pretty rather than overpowering, ethereal rather than overblown; the perfect polish for princesses, fairies and other magical beings. It’s also not just a silver glitter – from some angles, the silver takes on an enchanted steely blue cast that’s totally bewitching.

What’s great about Today Was A Fairytale is that you get lots of bling for your buck. Unlike many other glitter polishes, the sparkles here are plentiful so you can get opaque coverage pretty easily (and the consistency of the varnish itself is pretty thick), although it could be easily used a layering polish too. The nature of the glitter pieces means that you’re better off with thick coats, so that the glitter sits and swims nicely in the transparent base as opposed to sticking out all over the place.

The difficulties with chunky glitters such as these are always the same however. They’re uneven, rough to the touch and chip and flake off easily without a top coat, which I never use! And they’re absolute hell to remove scrub off – although you will definitely want to keep this stunner on for as long as possible!

Despite this, Today Was A Fairytale did perform better than expected. Many glitter polishes seem to gobble up their base liquid, meaning they look sort of dull and flat without a glossy top coat. But, if you can cope with quick tip-wear and snagging bits of glitter on your tights occasionally, Today Was A Fairytale does look absolutely divine just on its own, which is how it’s shown in all my photos.

Gorgeous enough for ten nail polishes, romantic enough for twenty and dazzling enough for at least fifty, Today Was A Fairytale looks like someone distilled a magic spell into a bottle. Like all the best fairytales, it’s a certain case of love at sight. As for a happy ending? Well, with a polish this beautiful, that was never in doubt!

Blurry for mega-watt sparkliness!

Looks good with: tiaras, magic wands, princess dresses
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2 (thick)
Chips: 2 days

Deborah Lippmann, Today Was a Fairytale, Holiday 2010 Collection, Joyce Beauty

OPI Stranger Tides nail polish review

OPI’s Summer 2011 Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection has to be one of my favourites of all-time. A cohesive range of dusty pastels, it may not have exactly screamed summer… or indeed pirates… yet it totally floated my boat – or should that be galleon?! And Stranger Tides was no exception!

Stranger Tides is a greyed-out pistachio, a soft pale ghost of khaki, a murky sorbet sea-foam. It’s a dreamy creamy love of a dusky pastel and there’s something about it that feels really breezy and spring-like, yet it can also feel cool and autumnal too. It’s really versatile, neutral enough to work well with other nudes (and be office-friendly) yet also as a refreshing palette-cleanser to bright pops of colours (I wore it with Essie’s Your Hut Or Mine, a bright honeysuckle, and it looked gorgeous). In short, it’s one of those interesting trans-seasonal transitional shades that are always a winner.

Not that this was a view shared by anyone. Whilst I keep studying my glossy creamy talons and screaming AMAZING every few seconds, my boyfriend thought it looked ‘plain’. Admittedly, this is probably because his brain has been addled by my normally wearing polishes like this or this yet he just didn’t get the appeal.

The formula was a dream. After an initially worrying thin and streaky first coat, the second applied like butter, becoming richly opaque and (in what is possibly my favourite aspect of OPI polishes) self-levelled out beautifully. [In that respect, OPI makes application really easy, although as you all know by now, I still find their brushes to fat for my diddly nails.] Smooth, glossy, creamy, gorgeous – it’s no wonder that it’s the third time I’m using most of those words in this review. The finish was as perfect for a crème as you could ever hope for.

What I love most about Stranger Tides – and trust me, it was hard to decide on just one factor! – is how it’s simultaneously modern yet retro. These kind of grungy dusty shades are still edgy in the polish-world and I adored this pastel take on the trend, yet it’s also a colour that probably exists as a Formica table-top in some 50s diner. Which just makes me love it more.

So Stranger Tides makes it for three for three hits in the Pirates Collection so far. It’s super-elegant, super-fresh and super-glossy… just super really!

Looks good with: other dusty shades, neutrals, bright colours (i.e. everything)
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 3 days

OPI, Stranger Tides, Summer 2011 Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2

Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe nail polish review

I’ve kept photos of this sparkling sensation hidden away for far too long… and now she’s just screaming to get out and show you all her stunning self! Yes, it can only be Deborah Lippman’s Across The Universe.

All the rumours you’ve heard about this polish are true. It IS the most awesome thing I’ve ever set eyes on, without there even being a hint of holo magic in sight!

Across The Universe is a truly AMAZING polish – a dark blue jelly base that has tiny specks of blue glitter, plus bigger hexagonal pieces of green, aqua and blue glitter, floating in it.

The results are truly breathtaking and however many pictures you take of it will never be enough; I was receiving compliments about this polish all week long! It’s supremely strikingly sparkly, yet somehow without being too garish or OTT. Layering up the translucent navy base with all those glimmering sparks suspended in it results in a gorgeous glittering depth – so it really does resemble a beautiful night sky, far off in some cosmic star-strewn galaxy… or a glistening magical paradise deep in the depths of some enchanted ocean.

For a polish with such big pieces of glitter in, I found it extremely easy to work with. The glitter didn’t settle in clumps or at the bottom of the bottle – instead, it spread evenly around the nail and there was a nice random assortment of sparkle applied with each sweep. The jelly base is just the right thickness to allow the glitter to shine through wonderfully yet build into that dazzling depth I spoke of earlier. The drying time was fairly quick and the surface didn’t feel bumpy, rough or uneven – instead, the finish was smooth and glossy, another rarity with heavy glitter lacquers. I achieved a really neat nail with barely any need to clean up afterwards, so I guess the Lippmann brush must be pretty good too! It’s basically polish perfection.

I absolutely love the thought that has gone into Across The Universe. The cool blue, aqua, cyan and green shades of glitter are absolutely gorgeous in their own right yet fit oh-so-perfectly with each other… and entirely complement the whole package, right down to the polish’s entirely fitting name! I also love the swirl of different sizes and colours of sparkle you get with each stroke, which just builds in awesomeness with each coat. It looks great as an accent to black, to jazz up a casual outfit or to just totally up your glitz factor yet it’s dark and somehow subtle enough not to totally take over a look. Ugh, seriously, I wish I could cover everything in life with a coat or two Across The Universe – it would be a much more beautiful place!

What’s more, I didn’t even find it that difficult to clean off either! [I think the smooth jelly base helps a little with removal.] I know varnish aficionados will recoil in horror but with chunky glitters like this, I always wait and chip off as much as possible – the strength of my Nail Tek II base coat means, for me at least, that chipping is a less painful process for my nails than rubbing acetone for ages on dry fingers.

Incidentally, this was my first Deborah Lippmann. It was very expensive and there’s no way I’d pay that sort of money for one of her crème polishes, but Across The Universe is unique enough, beautiful enough and performs brilliantly enough all-round to make it worth the purchase. The chunky bevelled bottle totally adds to the overall deluxe feeling.

You might think I’ve gone a bit over the top for a nail polish (in which case, have you read this blog?! What are you doing still here?!) but Across The Universe really is a show-stopper. It’s almost poetic in its perfection. The best nail polish I own. And that is all there is to it.

Looks good with: awesomeness
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 3
Chips: 2-3 days

Deborah Lippmann, Across The Universe, Fall 2010 Collection, Joyce Beauty

Orly Frisky nail polish review

Thank God for swatches, right? [That’s photos of beauty products tested in real life, for all you non blog-linguists.] They’ve practically revolutionised the way we make-up mavens shop – the equivalent of try before you buy! This is especially useful for nail polish which, unlike make-up you’re allowed to smear on the back of a hand or let an assistant vandalise your face with, shops generally won’t let you try before you buy anyway!

But what’s worse than not being able to find a single swatch of a make-up product online? Finding dozens of inaccurate ones instead.

And thus is the case with Orly Frisky.

Most blog pictures have made this crème look like a super-bright saturated cyan blue colour. Even Orly’s product photo makes it look like a super-bright saturated cyan blue. So I figured the first few pages of results in Google Images couldn’t be wrong, and bought Frisky believing it to be a super-bright saturated cyan blue. It isn’t.

That’s not to say that Frisky isn’t a fantastic colour. It is super-bright and it is saturated – but it’s more of a turquoise, actually. Luckily, turquoise just happens to be one of my favourite colours so I was still delighted with the results.

It leans more blue than Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos (thus far, my ultimate turquoise) but it’s definitely much more aqua than the green-leaning Turned Up Turquoise from China Glaze. It’s by far the brightest turquoise I own – the closest thing to being fluorescent without actually heading into highlighter pen territory.

It’s a vivid vibrant aquamarine that pops straight off the nails. Brilliant, bright and bouncy, it totally lives up to the name of its mother ship – the Happy-Go-Lucky collection.

It’s a really lush creamy colour but sadly, doesn’t dry to a high-gloss finish. The formula was a little tricky to work with – thick, glue-y and with a finish nowhere near as self-levelling as OPI’s – but the coverage was good and the colour was opaque in just one coat (though I did two anyway). I experienced a little bubbling with thicker coats though, which you can see from my photos, and a longer than average drying time. Orly’s brush is large but thin – sort of a cross between OPI’s in size and Essie’s in thickness – which I found spread the polish nicely, and I love brands that have rubber caps like these for better grip.

Overall, Frisky is an awesome aqua that sits equally nicely amongst spring pastels, summer brights or as a pop of colour against an otherwise neutral outfit. It’s a charismatic crowd-pleaser, bursting with oodles of oomph. It’s just not cyan blue, ok?!

Looks good with: summer brights, spring pastels, as a pop of colour
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 1-2
Chips: +5 days

Orly Frisky, Summer 2011 Happy Go Lucky Collection, $60, Cher2

Estessimo Tins Alluring Aquamarine nail polish review

The holo hunt continues – and next on the list is Estessimo Tins Alluring Aquamarine!

This stunner has to be one of my favourite holographic polishes yet, if not one of my favourite polishes full stop! Alluring Aquamarine is a bright tropical blue with oodles of rainbow-reflecting glitter that shimmers its way to the surface.

The vibrancy of this polish is what makes it so special; many holos have a slightly pale or muted quality to them but this one bursts out the bottle with all guns blazing and rainbows set to beam. In that respect, it’s similar to another of my favourite vivid holos, China Glaze DV8 – but that one’s more of a teal (plus with the non-sparkly holographic effect) whereas Alluring Aquamarine is a pure and simple bright blue, the colour you thought the sky or sea should be when you were five!

The formula, as with Estessimo Tins Seductive Amethyst, is great (although the rainbow effect isn’t quite as strong) – a quick and easy two coats, neither too thick nor too thin, and with no strange streaking or bald patches either. It dries to a super-smooth shiny finish, crystal-clear in its clarity and cleanness. Unfortunately, it did chip quite quickly (the same thin easy peeling I noted before with holos) but it’s nothing a quick touch-up can’t fix – and trust me, you’ll want to keep Alluring Aquamarine on for as long as possible!

Under artificial light, to show the rainbow holo effect more!

Alluring Aquamarine is one of those polishes that just makes you happy. It’s a bubbly brilliant blue scattered with sunbursts and rainbows – and how can that not be anything but utterly delightful?!

Alluring? Definitely! But awesome, adorable, amazing and astounding would also do just as nicely.

Looks good with: summer brights, sunshine, smiles
Drying time: 5 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 2 days

Estessimo Tins Alluring Aquamarine, Winter 2006 More Jewellist Collection

Estessimo Tins Seductive Amethyst nail polish review

Regular readers may be aware of my quest to find every single holographic nail polish in Hong Kong. I just can’t enough of my rainbows in a bottle – it’s such a magical concept that taps into my inner holographic-sticker loving child. The latest on my hit list to show you: Estessimo Tins Seductive Amethyst.

I’ve already told you a bit about Estessimo Tins (known to my boyfriend as Snils and who knows, he may be correct!), a Japanese brand that specialise in creating glitter bombs for the nails. Most of their polishes are the old-fashioned type with pieces of actual glitter sparkling away inside them – like The Neptune and The Splash Blue which I have previously showed you – but they do have a few holos hiding in the wings too.

Seductive Amethyst is one such specimen and it is GORGEOUS. It’s a medium purple colour, slightly pink-leaning, that on its own is the exact colour I picture amethysts being in the first place. Tip in those holo rainbows and it becomes an even more magical prospect.

Unlike the famous China Glaze OMG holographic polishes, which produce a strong rainbow effect that sort of radiates round the nail in ripples (nail geeks call these ‘linear holos’), Seductive Amethyst produces a ‘scattered’ holo effect – little bursts of rainbow scattered all over the shop.

Holographic polishes are different from the old glitter polishes because, through some nail polish magic, they don’t actually feature glitter pieces submerged in the lacquer – even though the scattered ones, like these, really look like they should! Instead, the rainbow glitter seems to just exist as part of the polish itself, meaning you get a smooth (and easy to remove) finish but with a just as beautiful bling to your buck. It really is totally reminiscent of those kaleidoscopic rainbows I saw in stickers in my childhood; substitute Pokedex cards or Pogs or whatever was your childhood magpie equivalent!

I find Estessimo Tins’ longer handle easy to control and its brush is nicely-sized – somewhat equivalent to China Glaze’s but a little bit thiner – and spreads nicely. Seductive Amethyst was super-easy to apply in two quick-drying coats and delivered a flawless holographic finish. It’s a rainbow-dusted amethyst purple that looks like it belongs in fairytales.

But where this beauty really comes alive, when all the rainbows come out to play, is in super-bright sunlight… and thankfully, that’s one thing Hong Kong does well! It’s like rainbows are dancing off your nails! It’s searingly, blindingly, mind-blowingly brilliant. I could not stop staring in awe at my claws.

Beautiful, bountiful, bouncing rainbows at my very fingertips and in my fave shade, purple – seriously, what more could I ask for? Seductive Amethyst didn’t even need to bother with a chat-up line, it had me at hello… or should that be holo!

Looks good with: bright sunlight, not minding if you bump into stuff because you’re staring at your nails
Drying time: 5 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 2 days

Estessimo Tins Seductive Amethyst, Winter 2006 More Jewellist Collection

OPI Planks-A-Lot nail polish review

It’s been a while since a nail polish review right? Well, let’s get back on the Pirates Of The Caribbean galleon with OPI’s Planks-A-Lot.

Firstly, what a name! Fun and tongue-in-cheek enough not to feel like you got dumped with a huge side order of cheese.

Planks-A-Lot is probably the brightest colour in the Pirates Collection, which mostly specialised in muted muddied pastels that weren’t at all what you’d associate with the gypsies of the seven seas. It’s a medium perfect purple, veering slightly to the lavender side yet still bright enough to not quite sit at home amongst pastels. It does have a touch of dustiness to it too and is noticeably darker than the pale lilac of the bottle, but nothing near as greyed-out as the grurple explosion (best exemplified by all-time favourite, Parlez-Vous OPI). And obviously, I love it.

You know this. I love all purples. Grey purples. Matte purples. Flakie purples. Holo purples. Glittery purples. Rock star purples. Purple, purple, purple (thought I’d just say it a few more times to make sure). So it’s no surprise that I now love Planks-A-Lot, a fairly straightforward lavender purple crème, too.

What I didn’t love was the formula. I had similar problems with OPI’s Mermaid’s Tears and Planks-A-Lot was even worse. Thick, gloopy, uneven first coat… and once again, I tried to over-compensate, forgetting about OPI’s self-levelling properties, meaning I didn’t get quite the lovely smooth finish I hoped for. But even then, Planks-A-Lot is still super-glossy, lushly creamy and just a gorgeous dreamboat of a colour through and through.

So I know I’m not surprisingly anyone by declaring my outright love for Planks-A-Lot, but she really is a beauty. Yo ho ho and all that too.

Looks good with: muted crèmes, florals, grey
Drying time: 10 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: +7 days

OPI Planks A Lot nail polish, Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2

OPI Mermaid’s Tears nail polish review

I’m usually a bit dubious about the current vogue for nail polish celebrity cash-ins tie-ins, yet OPI’s Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean collection struck gold… or should that be pieces of eight?!

Overall, it was an unusual collection for summer, filled with murky muddied pastels that didn’t exactly scream adventures on the seven seas. Yet for that reason, it was probably one of my favourite OPI collections to date and I snapped up the whole collection quicker than you can say ‘Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum’!

I was instantly drawn to Mermaid’s Tears, a dusty turquoise (and you know how much I love turquoise!). Firstly, what a gorgeous evocative name! OPI are known for their cute-but-cheesy names so I was expecting this to be pun city but they actually managed to keep it classy – classier, in fact, than the film itself!

Unfortunately, I found this polish quite difficult to work with. It was gloopier than most OPIs and the first few coats went on thickly and unevenly – partly my own fault as I spent too much time trying to correct it, forgetting that OPI lacquers are actually amazingly self-levelling on their own. Consequently, drying time was longer than usual and the finish was a bit lumpy up-close.

What I can’t complain about is the colour. Gorgeous! It’s an almost vintage take on turquoise; classy but murky, delicately dusty, but still straight-up beautiful (although a shade darker than the bottle colour). You could well imagine it being the tears of a siren, prettily magical yet refined. There aren’t many turquoises that suggest sophistication, but this is definitely one.

Compared to my other top turquoise creme, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos (on the middle finger), Mermaid’s Tears is noticeably less bright, dustier and perhaps more obviously green-leaning – a pale green tea, or pretty slate green rather than the tropical island turquoise of the Essie. Both, however, are creamily lush and look great on.

Mermaid’s Tears – Lorelei loveliness in a bottle. No pirate puns needed.

Looks good with: other muted pastels, floral tea-dresses, grey
Drying time: 10 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: +7 days

OPI Mermaid’s Tears nail polish, Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2