New York Color's Fall 2011Collection: Backstage Brown

It's pretty clear that I wore New York Color's Backstage Brown for at least 3 days before I ended up taking a photo of it and as with Underground Purple, I'm again not really seeing where they're getting the idea that the colour they are seeing is "brown".  Out of the 3 polishes of the Fall 2011 collection, this one is my favourite but I would call it more of a honey colour than I would call it brown.  I guess if it were called "Backstage Honey" that could conjure up some seedy connotations (or if you just have a dirty mind).  The formula is a bit  streaky  but also provided good coverage in two coats and wore well for 3 days before signs of wear began to show.  I would call this an all year round colour and would definately go back to it during the summer months.  And speaking of years, Happy New Year everyone!  I hope than that the next 366 days (it's a leap year) brings you and those you love, a great many good things and good times!

Time to Shine by Sally Hansen

At first I thought that maybe Time to Shine from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Fall 2011 collection would be too flashy for work. As it turns out, despite the high amount of shine, this was actually a very workable polish colour.  Falling in between a champagne and a light gold, it's just the right tone to make it somewhat more of an everyday polish than if had been a more yellow gold.  Pictured here is two coats of polish but I think that it could use an application of three coats to really bring out the shimmer, especially when you can see some very nice red reflection in there.  A good choice for a small price.

Designer, de Better by OPI

Designer, de Better from OPI's Muppets collection is described as a "light metallic bronze" in their publicity but if this a bronze polish both my eyes and my camera need to be checked.  Looking more like a silver than a bronze colour, its foil finish will need three coats and not just two as I applied to get a more smooth finish.  I don't dispute that there's bronze in the polish, check out a close up and you can clearly see that there are bronze flecks in the formula:

But you can also see that the polish itself is pretty thin.  I do really like this polish as it looks like a neutral with a bit of flash to it but I'm not feeling the name. I suppose that it's a reference to Miss Piggy but I don't particularly have a big love of that character.  I like Fozzie, Gonzo and the two geezers who were always so mean to them...Statler & Waldorf!

The Original Grumpy Old Men

 Up Next...Meep-Meep-Meep

Wocka Wocka! By OPI

Hi Ho Ho Ho!  Xmas is Coming Up!  Yay!!!

I've been checking all over the Internet trying to figure out when the release date for OPI's Muppets  Collection was happening.  As far as I could find, the collection is supposed to be in November, so you can imagine that I was surprised to find the 2011 holiday collection in a beauty store in the North West part of Toronto and on September 30, no less!  Here's what I picked up...

Wocka Wocka!

Meep-Meep-Meep

Designer De Better

Warm & Fozzie

I stayed away from the glitter polishes, glitter is just not my big favourite thing but if you love it, you're sure to find something to your liking.

The first polish up is Wocka Wocka! It's a cherry/berry colour that photographed more like a red rather than the deeper colour it actually is and it's actually a little difficult to make out the shimmer as well.  As least I didn't experience the thin formula that I encountered with the Touring America collection and it applied well.  2 Coats gave the coverage needed so I hope that the recent dip in quality is just a bump in the road.

I don't know if the store I got this from wasn't aware of a release date, ignored the release date or if the date was changed.  It couldn't hurt to call your local retailer and see if they are in stock yet.

Coming Soon...Designer De Better!

Essie's Brand New Bag Collection for Fall 2011: The Minis - Part One

Fall is on its way!  Yay!  Summer is great but Autumn is my favourite season. No more sweating, smog alerts, really smelly garbage, rumbling air conditioners, mosquitoes, open toed shoes, dudes on the bus whose deodorant gave up hours ago, girls in short shorts who should not be wearing short shorts, road construction...Hmmm, now that I come to think of it, I don't like summer all that much after all.  Have any of you noticed how bug repellent completely ruins your mani/pedi by making the polish soften up and take the shine away?  I hate that!

I'm looking forward to cooler days and fantastic fall foliage to photograph (try saying that ten times fast) and of course, fall clothes and makeup.  I have to concede that my recent loss of forty pounds requires that I buy new clothes but somehow, I'm resistant to spending the money on things that I actually need.  I never need polish but I'll always want it!

Lady Like

First up is Lady Like and that's an apt description for a colour like this.  A pinkish beige creme, it's a subtle colour which, most likely, would go with any item in your wardrobe without giving you that mannequin hand look.  That being said, I love the look of mannequin hands!  The application was pretty good.  This is two coats and it didn't streak, nor are there any bald spots.  If this colour is the kind you like, you wouldn't be wasting your money by picking it up.

Carry On

I need another wine coloured nail polish like I need an additional hole in my head or a third nipple!  But I keep buying them anyway because nothing says "Fall" like a deep wine creme polish.  Carry On makes me think of how, once the sun starts to set early, I switch from fruity white wines to deep Merlots & Shirazes.  I like how it's not extremely dark and somehow has a muted tone to the colour but I wouldn't call it an exceptional colour.  There were also a few bald spots as well.  What was exceptional about this polish was that I wore it for four days without a single chip and stayed glossy as well.  So it's a keeper in terms of durability.

So now I'm off to the 2011 Fan Expo Canada with one of my favourite people in the world...

This Guy!

Essie's Brand New Bag Collection for Fall 2011: The Minis - Part Deux!

Nicole By OPI's Kardashian Kolors Spells Class With a "K"...

...Crap can also start with "K" if one follows that logic.  This post marks the first and last time you will ever see the word "Kardashian" mentioned on this blog as Nicole by OPI's Holiday Collection 2011 is a Kraptastic Kross brand, just in time for "Kristmas" with America's most overrated (and in my opinion...useless) family.  The "Kolors" look acceptable enough, but there's no way I'm giving my money to these people, not even if it was for charity.  The most positive thing I can say about this line is that there doesn't appear to have any "Krackles" in it.   I guess I'm showing my age by saying that in my day, when you said "she spells class with a k", you were delivering a tremendous insult and not a "kompliment".  Frankly, all of this poor spelling reminds me of my favourite stupid joke.."Bad Spellers of the World...Untie!"

Essie Resort Collection Minis: Part 2 - The Others

So now after taking a look at the pinks of the set, we move onto the other two colours in Essie's Resort Collection minis,  Fair Game & Da Bush:

Fair Game is a cool toned, deep blue silver colour with a nice amount of shimmer to it.  I really like this colour quite a bit but I see FG as more of a Fall colour as opposed to the bright sometimes, screechy colours that people like to sport in warmer weather.  But then again, one could look at it as an antidote to all of the inevitable neon colours that get foisted upon potential buyers almost every summer.  The formula was pretty good, I had no real application problems and the polish is pigmented enough that it gave complete coverage in two coats. It's definitely a keeper.

Last but not least is Da Bush.  Just the name alone guaranteed that I would have an affinity to this polish as the name Da Bush is almost the same as my last name (with only one difference in letters).  I felt like this was the closest that I'll ever come to having a namesake polish so that had me pretty jazzed.  And I love the colour!  This grungy light green creme really appeals to me but...there were problems with the formula.  I can't say if it was just my bottle or what but the polish was extremely thick and goopy and that made for some irritating dragging and sloppiness on the nail while I was applying it. The thickness also lead to bubbling after applying the second coat, which is evident on my index finger.  I'll wear it again, I just don't think I'll wear it often.

Well I know that summer has just started but so far in Toronto, it's been a bit of a washout!  Even though I'm not great in hot weather, it's been cloudy and raining for the last few weeks so things are not looking to sunny.  Even now the skies are full of clouds!  I haven't even felt the urge to listen to one of my favourite summer songs: The Lovin' Spoonful's Summer In the City:

Rain, Rain Go Away!

It's the Muppet Show With Our Very Special Guest...OPI?

OPI keeps on coming up with the cross-brand continuance. Their Holiday 2011 collection will be called, The Muppets!  Yes, really!  The Muppets!  Obviously in conjunction with the release of the upcoming film called, well, The Muppets!

The collection will feature 12 polishes, 6 of them glitters, and will sport three different displays instead of the typical single display.  The polish names are:

Animal-istic 

 Meep-Meep-Meep 

 Wocka Wocka!

 Pepe’s Purple Paassion 

 Designer…de Better! 

 Warm & Fozzie 

Glitters

 Rainbow Connection

 Excuse Moi! 

 Gone Gonzo!

 Fresh Frog of Bel Air

 Divine Swine

 Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It!

Miss Piggy, everyone's favourite over-confident sow with anger management issues gets her very own display and there's a set of minis for stocking stuffing or the just plain indecisive:

It's hard for me to gauge the colours from these photos, as they aren't the highest of quality but at least there doesn't seem to be a crackle/shatter in the bunch.  For me, that's a plus.  As far as brand recognition goes, this one's a slam dunk.  Jim Henson's Muppets and Sesame Street have been part of North American Pop Culture since 1969 and it just keeps going.  There's a lot of generations whose money OPI can attract since Sesame Street has been on the air for 42 years and is still running and who on earth didn't love The Muppet Show? I'm going to leave you one of the clips from the Muppet Show that for some reason, I never forgot about, even though I hadn't seen it until I looked for it on Youtube.  Here's awesome EGOT winner Rita Moreno singing Fever with backup from Animal!

Spring Colours to Fight Off the Blahs

I have got a serious case of the blahs...I don't know what it is.  Maybe it's the gloomy weather we've been having in T.O. or maybe I'm stressed out about school with a group project and final exam looming on the horizen plus being sick with I don't know what, but I'm just in a funk!  So I thought I'd try to liven things up a little bit with some spring-like colours to try to cheer myself up:

Flamingo

 I think I might have bought Gosh's Flamingo 2 years ago but didn't get around to wearing it until the constant rain and grey skies just wore me out.  I'd call it a candy pink, like strawberry saltwater taffy...mmm, taffy!  It was good in two coats, ended up applying very smoothly and went chip free for 3 days.

One afternoon after being dismissed for the day from jury selection, I stopped by a Toronto institution for salon supplies, Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply, a store that has been in operation since 1937 to check them out since I hadn't shopped there in a few years.  I'm glad I did go back, because even though the only polish lines they carry are OPI, Essie & China Glaze they are priced for a $1 less than other retailers and a lot of polish from their recent lines were discounted too.   I was able to pick up Life Preserver and Lighthouse from China Glaze's Anchors Away Collection for Spring 2011 for $4 CDN.  So if you live in the GTA and haven't visited this store before, I would recommend that you give them a try.

Life Preserver

 Life Preserver is a slightly muted orange creme that I like so much, I was half tempted to chuck out the rest of my orange polishes for being to loud.  Orange is fine but it's actually my least favourite of all colours. But I have a fair amount of cosmetics in orange because it really suits me well and I like how this polish isn't shrieky.  It was good in two coats but there was some rather long lint that was already in the polish which hampered the application.  It's not the first time, I've had lint problems with China Glaze.  It's gotten to the point that I just expect that some straggler is going to be hiding in the bottle just waiting to drag across my nail and muck things up!

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is also from China Glaze's Anchors Away Collection and it's a super shimmery bright yellow that took 3 coats to get it to the opacity that you see in the photo.  Not that it's a complaint from me but it may not suit other peoples tastes.  I find it suits my skin tone well but I also could see that, perhaps if you are more fair skinned, it might make your fingers look a little washed out.  Surprisingly, there was no lint in this polish!

 

I guess one of the things I like about these two polishes is that when I see the two colours together it makes me think of my canaries, Patches & Sherbert:

Awwwww!

Now they brighten a day!