It occurred to me that some of you may be waiting on tenterhooks for news about the Selena Gomez winners! I usually announce them but this time I just reached out to the winners themselves. Didn't mean to leave you hangin'!
Congrats to:
The rest of y'all, stay tuned because I have a few more giveaways up my sleeve. I'm thinking... a The New Black / Digital Underground Kit. That sounds like fun, doesn't it?
xxo, Francesca
My gals at Jezebel posted one of their favorite nail polish colors for Spring, and I couldn't agree more.
Here's a great swatch of Essie Go Ginza. I really encourage you to check out Beauty Junkies Unite; they've got swatches of the entire Essie Spring 2013 collection. I'm loving Bond With Whomever, too...
Oh, Essie. I have a soft spot for Essie mainly because:
But despite these legitimate and heartwarming reasons, I hate painting with Essie. Love the colors, love the logo, love the name... hate the brush. I absolutely hate it. So tiny, barely spreads... It's enough of a disappointment to steer me in the direction of a dupe whenever I can.
So if there are any readers who also hate the Essie brush, may I suggest OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender? You'll get a very similar color (albeit not exactly a dupe) that will go on much more smoothly.
xxo, Francesca
Back in January, I stumbled upon the Ciaté "Very Colourfoil Manicure™" kit on Sephora.com. And I was fascinated. At the time, nobody had swatched them, so I was left to my own musings. Until now.
What can I say... I splurged! May I present the photo evidence of my first foray into foil manicures. Allison, this one's for you!
Although the kit was an indulgence at $19, I've decided it's actually a great deal. You get a full bottle of Ciaté "Paint Pots" polish, which retails for $15. You get the bottle of Foil Fix. And then you get tons of foils. Again, I have to stress how generous this kit is with the foil.
Overall, I loved the Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure™ Kit, but I'll admit it's a bit of a mixed bag. The DIY feel of the kit was awesome — doing my nails totally felt like an art project! I really enjoyed getting a feel for working with the foil. It's an imperfect exercise, so there's that element of the unexpected when you rip the foil off. You hope for the best and just try again if you didn't get what you wanted the first time.
The downside is that the foil doesn't last very long. You can count on this looking for for about 2 days, and after that the foil just begins to wear away. Another issue I encountered was an area of Foil Fix that never had foil properly adhere to it. The nature of Foil Fix is that a top coat won't really stick to it. Meaning, if you've got a patch of Foil Fix on your nail that doesn't get covered with foil, it will stay gummy. Gross.
Any questions on the Very Colourfoil™ Mani? Hit me up in the comments! And if you've liked what you've seen, then may I suggest you act soon? I've only seen the kit at Sephora and the website days it's limited edition!
foiledagain, Francesca
Bonjour! Word of a new limited-edition collection from les artistes at CHANEL arrived in my inbox today. This time it's très chinoiserie.
Chinoiserie, a French term, signifying "Chinese-esque,” refers to a recurring theme in European artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflect Chinese artistic influences.
It is characterized by the use of fanciful imagery of an imaginary China, by asymmetry in format and whimsical contrasts of scale, and by the attempts to imitate Chinese porcelain and the use of lacquer-like materials and decoration.
This is a toughie. The creamy white, Eastern Light, is pretty basic. Since these bottles are running for $30 each (quelle horror!) I don't think you guys should feel tempted to drop that kind of cash on something so vanilla. Literally.
But Western Lights shows great promise. It's easy to pass over first; the shot of the complete collection did little to pique my interest. But when I went to the product page to get a closer look at the bottle, I read the description and got a better look at the shade's unique shimmer. I'd love to see this live! That said, a bit of an odd choice for springtime, eh? Could have been a great fall / winter release.
To check out swatches and a fantastic post on this new CHANEL duo, head over to fellow nail blogger Ommorphia Beauty Bar's site. She's got some great dupe suggestions and really beautiful shots.
yearofthesssssnake, Francesca
P.S. Click here to read more about 2013, the Year of the Water Snake, aka Junior Dragon. My Chinese Zodiac sign is a Rat. ;_; Wish I'd been a Tiger or a Dragon. Any other Rats up in here?
An opportunist with an eye for a bargain, Rats tend to collect and hoard, but are unwilling to pay too much for anything.
Hahahahaha. Collecting? Hoarding? You don't say.
Look at these two beauties!
I was particularly excited to try out Stars at Night, a silver holographic bar glitter in a clear base. My friend Laura (who's guest posted here before) once painted a similar glitter by Sally Hansen over bare nails. The bar glitter would flash out in little bursts of holo, but the overall effect was far from bling-in-a-bad-way. It was more of an effortless sparkle. I loved it and was dying to recreate it. I used a cream-colored polish from a Digital Underground / The New Black set I had on hand and applied one coat of Stars at Night.
I rarely ever make this comment about glitter but... Stars at Night had way too much glitter and not enough base for me. Usually it's the other way around! The coverage was more complete than I expected. The next time I use this, I think I'll choose a light gray or metallic silver base so that the bars of glitter are less obvious.
The second polish I had to try ASAP was Heavenly Angel. It's a clear base filled with iridescent chunks; not flakies. Do not confuse these with flakies. These are thicker, coarser, very sparkly chunks. I realize "chunks" is not the most flattering descriptor, but let's call it like it is! Chunks!
I put this on over a gorgeous deep emerald cream by Illamasqua called Kink. It was a gift from my friend Alison, so it made this manicure even more fun to wear. (Thanks, AliCat!) I wanted to make sure that the chunks would stand out, so I chose a dark base color for contrast; it looked awesome. No complaints on this one, I'd just caution you guys to be careful with the chunks, because sometimes one will get wayward and stick up, or even hang off of your nail. You'll want to watch out for rascally ones like that before you apply a top coat.
I know this has already been an action-packed post, but I have one more thing to say, and that is: I'm giving away three pairs of Selena Gomez polishes!
Entering for your chance to win is easy — just leave a comment on this post! No duplicate entries, please.
The cutoff for entries is 11:59pm Pacific time on Thursday, March 7th. The three winners will be randomly selected through Random.org and announced on Friday, March 8th. For this giveaway, only winners with U.S. shipping addresses are eligible. (Sorry for the inconvenience, worldwide readers!) For the nitty gritty details, click here.
letthegamesbegin, Francesca
