Hi, I'm Elle

I am a single mother of one, makeup loving, J. Crew wearing, graphic designer, writer, sister, daughter, Southern California native, and owner of one occasionally destructive giant Pomeranian. And I'm an Aquarius too. Welcome to my blog and of all of my life's caprice.

Search the Site

Keep in Touch 

   

 


       

The Cloud

Where I Shop

 FragranceNet.com Coupon Code SAVEPETS 5% Donation to Japan Pet Relief - 5% OFF Site Wide

    Entries in nail polish (11)

    Saturday
    Jan282012

    Dior Spring 2012 Nail Polishes: Review

    P1243161

    Almost immediately after I posted my initial reactions to Dior’s Waterlily and Forget-me-not, I decided to paint my nails. I put Waterlily on my left hand, and did an accent nail on the right,

    P1243158

    then the reverse with Forget-me-not.

    P1243159

    Out of the two, Waterlily is my favorite, which is a surprise because I almost passed on it.

    The rose scent creeps in once the polish begins to dry. So while it’s drying, there’s an odd mixture of rose and nail polish…

    But once completely dry, the scent if faint, and for me dissipated after the second day. Unless my hands were near my face, I didn’t really notice it. I reminded me of my favorite body butter from the Body Shop/

    P1243162

    This polish didn’t wear like my other Dior polishes wear. I’m not sure how this particular formula differs from the ones that I already own, but the texture is thicker and for me, neither color wore like my Dior’s typically do. I only have a few to compare them with, but the ones I have all wear a good week before any major chipping, and I can go 10 days with it still looking good.

    Below are my nails on day 4 of wear. Please excuse my wintertime cuticles, I did a full manicure right after.

    IMG_0153

    I needed 3 coats of Waterlily to reach full opacity, and 2 coats of Forget-me-not, although it probably would have benefited from another coat.

    IMG_0154

    Of the 2, Waterlily wore the best for me, it took about 3 days for me to begin seeing white tips. However, my thumb chipped with Forget-me-not on day 2, and by day 3, the color had really started to fade.

    I guess by normal nail polish standards, that’s about the average, especially considering they were worn with no base or top coat. Overall, I think they’re ok. Not great…but not bad.

    EH….that’s all for now, talk to you in the next one!

    Tuesday
    Jan242012

    Dior WaterLily 504 and Forget-me-not 694

    Other than the nail polishes, there wasn’t anything that interested me in Dior’s Spring 2012 Garden Party collection…I’m not a fan of pastel makeup on my skin tone…so needless to say, that’s all I bought. Both colors are limited edition.

    I was especially interested because they’re supposed to be rose scented. I wasn’t quite sure what that would mean, but it sounded odd enough to break my no buy and bring them home with me to find out.

    Waterlily 504 is a gorgeous light green shimmer. I don’t have anything like it. The closest thing I could find was Milf by Illamasqua.

    But they aren’t similar at all. At least from the colors shown here. Milf is lighter, more yellow, and a cream.

    Forget-Me-Not 694 is a medium toned, greyed purple cream. I’ve seen a few people describe this as lilac, but when I think of lilac,

    (source)

    I think of the flower, and the color that comes to mind for me is a lot more blue toned. Anyway, it is a very pretty color, and again, I don’t have anything identical.

    Left to Right:

    Top: Poco a Poco – RBL, Forget-Me-Not – Dior, Purple Haze – RBL

    Bottom: Drama – D&G, Domestic Goddess – Sephora by OPI, Velocity – Illamsqua

    The closest color I have is Domestic Goddess, but they aren’t similar. Domestic Goddess is a lot brighter.

    I haven’t tried them out on the nail, so a review and my thoughts on the scent are still to come. So far, I have had very good luck with Dior polishes. They last forever. Only issue I have is with occasional staining. And for anyone who’s curious, I’m wearing Addison by Zoya on my nails. That’s what it looks like after 7 days of wear, without any base or top coat…yup.

    Talk to you in the next one!

    Thursday
    Jan192012

    Beauty No Buy: An Update

    My beauty no buy has, for the most part been a success. Well, no. It was a failure because I bought a few things…but then again, I only bought 6 new things (and picked up a bunch of samples which technically doesn’t count, but still defeats the purpose of not adding to what I have)…so I’m going to call it a selective beauty buying restriction, and see how that works out for me. I have another month to go, and I'm thinking about extending it until the end of March…but I am optimistic. For now anyway.

    I’ve been keeping a list of things that I want, and I have abandoned shopping carts all over the web, but so far, I’ve managed to resist the urges to do any major hauling. I was visiting California last week, which is why I got what I got…I dare you to go to Los Angeles and not buy anything. And I was tempted to get more than I did, but I managed to be good.

    Here’s what I picked up:

    Dior spring 2012 scented polishes

    Dior Exquis and Merveille

    And the samples I’m most excited about…I’m still trying out foundations, but my favorite so far is my DiorSkin Nude. Not too long ago Dior released a new foundation that I was curious about and passed on during the Sephora sales because I wasn't sure about the colors, so I picked up samples in 2 different shades. I haven’t used them yet.

    I don’t think I did so bad though. I only bought the perfume because I forgot to pack any, and the nail polishes…well I got the last ones of Merveille and Exquis and then, who could pass up scented nail polish?

    That’s all for now. Talk to you in the next one!