Nubar Finest Silks Collection Winter 2010

I don't think this is intended to be a winter-themed or holiday-themed collection, it just happens to be being released for winter. More thoughts on this collection after the pictures!





Charmeuse. A soft coral-mauve creme. On the warm side. Looks like dark muted pink with some orangey tones. A little too dated for my tastes but it may look good on someone with a warmer skin tone.



Chiffon. Soft, muddy, mousy grey-taupe. Love these types of colors. Looks more grey in the picture than it does on me in real life- it's more tan toned in real life.



Marabout. Another gorgeous taupe-grey-muddy color. This one is darker than Chiffon, more purple toned (but not purple-looking) and less warm. This one seems to suit my skin tone better but they're both nice.



Moire. This is an odd color! It's a brown-toned medium pink nude... Very difficult to describe. It's fleshy and earthy. It's like coffee with cream mixed with the color of ham. It's breakfast colored!



Organza. Sheer pearly white shimmer. More of a pearl than a frost. Still has the same brushstroke issues as frosts do but it has that shiny, smooth pearl-like reflection on it. I'm sure this is meant to be worn sheer and I think it would actually look better sheer. I bet you could layer it to add shimmer to these colors as well.



Pekin. The lighter of the two reds in the collection. It's a medium bordering on dark red and it seems blue based to me.




Sateen. This is the darker of the two. It's a red wine color with a hint of brown undertone.



Taffeta. Soft warm milky brown with a touch of warm orange or pink in it. Not a pure milk chocolate color, it's more of a pink chocolate. Or perhaps... a brown peach? Skintone shade- most likely intended as a nude color for a deeper, warmer skintone than mine.


The formula on these was just perfect. Dreamy. Flawless, effortless application. Excellent coverage on all shades except Organza (I used three coats to build opacity, it's probably intended to be worh sheer). Drying time is good and I experienced no problems with the texture, application or brushes. The formula was really, really great, I am impressed with it more than I am with the colors....

These are all very soft, conservative, office-appropriate types of colors. Nothing fun or wild or attention-grabbing. I don't believe they were intended to be. Normally I would blast a collection for being this bland and safe, but in this specific instance I'm not going to. The press release states that they were aiming for a collection of timeless colors for every skintone with the benefit of a two-coat coverage formula, and that's exactly what they've created. Seems like Nubar is trying to expand their line lately- adding lots of shades in the same color family but with that lovely new formula. Reds, the greys, the greens, the corals, the purples, the browns....

I do like a couple of the colors- Chiffon and Marabout of course, but I'm also intrigued by Moire. While the collection doesn't suit my personal tastes, I gotta say that the formula was amazing. Their creme formula seems to have been perfected- comparable to Rescue Beauty Lounge's perfect creme formula. So, if you are looking for colors like these I'd recommend based on formula alone.

Though, I must say I was really looking forward to some sort of sparkly, glittery colorful winter/holiday type colors for their winter release.... I am a bit sad that they've done nudes and wines for the winter collection instead. Oh well... Maybe they'll have something more edgy and fun for Spring!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Barielle Holiday Hustle Collection for Winter/Holiday 2010

I was at Costco this week and noticed that they had already taken down the Halloween decoration aisle and put up the Christmas decoration aisle! It's September! I've never seen them do that before. I feel like I'm being rushed! Luckily that is not the case with Holiday polish collections... I'm the opposite with those- I want them in June! Ha!

Here's Barielle's Holiday offering:


Coaldest Day Of The Year. Yes, Coal-dest. I know. *groan* I think it wants to be OPI's Baby It's "Coal" Outside, from the looks of things. This is a black/charcoal with blue-toned silver large particle shimmer. It's not round shimmer, it's more like broken pieces of shimmer. Icy.



Elle's Spell. My favorite of the collection. This is a dark candy apple or light wine red sheer base with red/orange toned opal flakes, a la Nfu Oh. This is rather sheer and not quite as jelly like as I had thought from looking at it in the bottle so it may look better layered if you want a stronger flaky effect.


Get Me To The Party. A deep bronzy gold. Looks sort of duochrome, doesn't it? Has the lighter gold area in the center and the deeper more bronze color on the edges. A little frosty but more metallic than pure frost, but definitely not chrome.



Jess' Champagne Toast. This one is painful. Look how AMAZING it looks in the bottle! It's spectacular! I could barely believe what I was seeing when I held the bottle up in the sunlight. It's a periwinkle leaning toward light lilac frosty metallic base with lots of pink microglitter. Sadly, it doesn't translate on the nail. It looks lumpy and bubbly because the frost base is too, well, frosty? And the glitter is too delicate to be seen through the thick frost. It always makes me wonder when I see a polish like this.... Did they actually wear the color on the nail before they decided to release it? This totally could have been saved with a thinner, more sheer metallic base!


Snow Day. This one is more like a chrome. It's a super reflective metallic blue-toned silver. Very blue toned... Maybe it's actually a silvery blue! Ha! But yes, you will need to be careful with brushstrokes. Frosty.


Wrap Me In Ribbon. This does remind me of ribbon. Pretty. It's a mauve metallic frost, again not a plain frost but more of the China Glaze Romantique Chrome reflective type of frost. You can see how reflective it is in the picture but you can also see some brush strokes.

The formula on these was odd. Elle's Spell and Coaldest Day Of The Year were really thick and a little goopy but the rest of the colors were oddly... soft feeling? I can't even describe it. It's like they're oily or too soft or maybe airy? Know what I'm talking about? They feel strange going on. Maybe it's the too-soft brush. I'm really not digging Barielle's brush lately, it doesn't conform to my nail and I can never get a nice application with it. Drying time is long.


I don't know what to say about this collection. I like some of the colors like Elle's Spell and Get Me To The Party. It just seems like Barielle is making so many frosts lately. I miss the Barielle I fell in love with in 2008.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Closer look at the Illamasqua Contest Winners

So, I've now seen them in sunlight and worn them each for a little while and here's what I think.

Eclipse. Let's just get the one out of the way first. This color is nothing like I expected it to be based on the early images. In reality, Eclipse is a dark blue with silver frost. It is slightly purple- it is more obvious in real life, but there are definite purple tones in this. The color is nice but I'm just not really on board with this new Frost Revival thing going on. It's really not a bad polish at all, but my expectations were just super high for this... This was what I hoped it would look like:

Dark purple, blue, green- duochrome looking with glitter or even flakes. Isn't that what it looks like there? It looks incredible. I was so excited about this shade. But now all I can say is this:



Raindrops. Actually... my blurry low-light picture of this was better at showing the cool qualities of this shade. It's a blue-toned light grey jelly-creme (very sheer- this is three thick coats) with lots of random and irregular shaped silver flakes. This one turned out really well, pretty much exactly like the promo shot:



Shrapnel. This isn't as bad as everyone's making it out to be. I rather like it. It's a coppery rose gold metallic- or is it chrome? Yes, it's frosty but it is super shiny and reflective, so it has more of a chrome finish than a true frost. Reminds me of the China Glaze Romantique collection chromes. Very, very shiny. I had expected this to be more of an orangey copper flame type shade with glitter, but it's really quite different! This has a definite 80's dance party look to it. Retro-futuristic. And yes, brushstrokes :( But, I think this might be great for Konad- it is VERY dense and pigmented- this is one coat. But really, nothing like I expected based on this:

Yeah... that's really not the same polish, is it?

But, the formula was great as usual. It's Illamasqua. Their formula is one of the best I've ever used. Thick, opaque, smooth- with the exception of Raindrops which is sheer. Drying time was good. Brushes were nice and even and thick. No problems with the formula or brushes.

You know, this is really sticky territory for me. On one hand, these polishes definitely weren't what I was expecting, but on the other hand I don't want to insult or upset the winners of the contest because I was disappointed. Also, I am a giant Illamasqua fan and this is the first time I have been let down by the colors, that kinda stings... I think Raindrops turned out the best and truest to the original pictures, but I really loved the inspiration behind Eclipse and Shrapnel too. If any of the winners are reading this- how do you feel about the end result? Is it what you imagined it would look like?

And also because I'm really super curious about what the other entries were like- how many of you entered? What was your color going to be like? I'm positively dying to know this. Please comment and tell me all about it if you entered.

I have seen a disturbing amount of frosts this year... I hope this is just a phase.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Preview of the Illamasqua contest winning shades

Please refer to my previous post about these for details, cause I can't remember what they were! XD

These just arrived and I couldn't wait to get them on my nails, so I snapped a few dimly-lit and not so fantastic pictures and figured I'd share :) I will attempt to get 'real' pictures when the sun comes back, but for now I'm really enjoying this rain, even if it means crappy swatches!

(And I apologize in advance for all the smudges and fingerprints on the bottles... this acetone + glycerin swatching remover makes my hands kinda sticky... ew.)


Eclipse. A frosty dark blue with hints of purple. I had really high hopes for this one based on the promo images- it looked like a dark blue/purple duochrome with silver microglitter, but alas, it is not.


Raindrops. This is prettier than I expected! It is sheer- this is three coats- but the sheerness really helps the little silver flakes shine through. And it reminds me of this:



Shrapnel. This one doesn't quite look like I imagined it to look based on early images, but it's really interesting! It's a bright copper or perhaps rose gold metallic, a little frosty but more shiny/chrome/metallic than true frost and it has really tiny silver microglitter. Super opaque, this is one coat. Great coverage. Very flashy.

I want to evaluate these in sunlight to get a better understanding of the colors.... Will come back to these.

(These were sent to me for review.)