Christian Louboutin Loubichrome Collection

The Loubichrome collection from Christian Louboutin came out at the very end of 2016/very beginning of 2017.  Three lacquers in beautiful heavy glass bottles with rainbow colored handles in stiletto shaped points.  These are smaller than normal Christian Louboutin lacquers, at only 0.2 oz while other Christian Louboutin polishes are 0.4 oz.  This also changes the price point, so each of these lacquers are only $30US instead of the regular price point of $50US a bottle.

The second these were available, I bought them from Nordstrom's website.  I got them as soon as possible (with free shipping)...and then immediately set them on top of my desktop to stare at them for a month.  Or five....

These beautiful bottles hold frosty flecked lacquer that is a unique blend of a foil-like finish featuring a frosted, silvery look.  The rainbow-lidded glory of these lacquers may have one thinking that the lacquer inside would also be rainbow-like and feature holographic polish, but that is not the case.  None of these polishes are holographic.  They are neither holographic, duochrome/mulitchrome, nor are they opalescent.  Instead, the frost/foil finish adds an extra dimension to the yellow, red, and purple color of the lacquer.

no base coat, 3 coats of Loubichrome I, no top coat

Above is Lubichrome I.  It is the most sheer polish out of the three lacquers, and needs three or more coats to cover any visible nail line (VNL).  

This yellow is an interesting hue reminiscent of lemon-lime, with a tinge of green that makes this polish unique in any collection.  The frost look in the frost-foil finish of these polishes seems to also be the strongest with this polish, where the visible brush strokes are present on the nail far after the polish has dried.

no base coat, 2 coats of Loubichrome II, no top coat

Second in the collection is the red lacquer, Loubichrome II.  The frost/foil finish makes this red-hued polish look very pink on the nail in certain lighting.  Visible brush strokes were minimal, and the foil-effect is much stronger than any frostiness that this finish may have, making this polish more wearable than Loubichrome I.  The pink-red hue is suspended in a silver, foil base, giving the metallic particles within the polish a high shine through the pink-red base.

no base coat, 2 coats of Loubichrome III, no top coat

The last in the Loubichrome collection is Loubichrome III.  This purple hue is such a nice, vibrant color.  The finish of this polish is very similar to Loubichrome II, where the foil finish shines through to create a metallic purple polish that consists of silver microparticles in a purple base.  The final effect when this polish dries is a sparkling purple lacquer with a high silver shine.

One word of advice I will give with this lacquer is that you definitely need to wear a base coat with it.  When swatching I tend to try out most colors without using a base coat to see how they work by themselves without some type of smoothing base underneath.  After swatching this polish, I wore it for three days straight, and when I took it off my nails were stained yellow-orange wherever the polish had been.  This is why a base coat is vital.  You don't have to buy Christian Louboutin's base coat to use with these polishes, but I do recommend using your own favorite base coat to prevent staining.

As I've found with other Christian Louboutin polishes, these lacquers were very easy to apply, helped on by the long handle of the bottle.  Furthermore, I found these to be the easiest handles to wield because of the smaller handle/bottle size.  This makes me wish that more Christian Louboutin lacquers were available in these 0.2 oz sizes!

As of posting, on 10 June 2017, these polishes are still available to buy on the Saks Fifth Avenue website!  No need to pay scalpers on eBay for exorbitant prices, when these are still available from an official retailer! Yay!

Christian Louboutin Scarabee Collection

The Scarabée collection from Christian Louboutin contains three nail lacquers in duochrome shades.  From 2015, the lacquers - Scarabée I, Scarabée II, and Scarabée III - were designed to be reminiscent of the relics of ancient Egypt, featuring jewel-toned colors and gold-toned lids in heavy-weight glass bottles.

First in the collection is the gold-to-red multichrome.  In most lightings this polish is a duochrome featuring a burnished red-copper color with a strong orange shift.

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée I, no top coat

In low lighting, this polish really shines.  The strongest multichrome shift out of the three lacquers in this collection, in the shade of midday, the yellow-gold, orange, and red of this polish are all clearly visible.  In the photo below, the only changes that were made to color were to color-correct the white background.  That is the actual multichrome color shift you can see in real life!

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée I, no top coat

While Scarabée III is a multichrome in the bottle, it is very hard to capture the gold-to-blue shift.  Instead, the main gold color is what is seen in most lightings, with a hint of green around the edges.  (The blue is almost visible if you hold your nails at unnatural angles.)  Still a very beautiful polish featuring a true gold color.

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée III, no top coat

The second polish in the collection, Scarabée II, features the weakest color shift of the three lacquers.  This is a teal-blue polish that shifts to darker blue around the edges.  The purple shift that is visible in the bottle is never quite visible on the nails in any lighting or at any angle.  What is nice about this teal-blue color is the bright blue-green shade that sparkles in the sunlight when under direct lighting.  The darker color seems to make the blue-green glow from within.

no base coat, 2 coats Scarabée II, no top coat

There is something about the bottle design that not only makes these lovely lacquers to have in any collection, but the longer handle makes wielding the brush easier, thus making nail polish application easier.  The quality of these polishes is good and tends to be consistent throughout the whole collection.  Scarabée II only needed 2 coats to be opaque, while Scarabée I and III needed 3 coats, but none of the polishes need a dark base color for any of the duochrome/multichrome color shift to be visible.

Unfortunately, these colors are no longer available through regular retailers like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Christian Louboutin stores.  You can still find them on eBay and other online resale avenues, so check there if you're interested!

Rouge Louboutin by Christian Louboutin

Hello!  It's been a while, so let's dive right into a beautiful, classic red polish released by a company known for its iconic fashion line (and now its iconic beauty line):

Rouge Louboutin by Christian Louboutin

The tallest of the nail lacquers available from Christian Louboutin, at 8 inches tall with a unique stiletto handle that speaks to the origins of this nail polish line.  For what is Christian Louboutin most famous for, if not the red sole of their high heels?

base coat, 2 coats Rouge Louboutin, no top coat

 This lacquer is made to be opaque in one coat, and by wearable standards it is exactly that.  Only with a macro camera lens is the nail line/edge visible at 1 coat of polish.

base coat, 2 coats Rouge Louboutin, no top coat

This polish features a high gloss shine, so no top coat is necessary if you'd prefer to forgo one.  Each swatch shown here is without top coat.

base coat, 2 coats Rouge Louboutin, no top coat

 One of the best things about Rouge Louboutin may be the stilleto handle and how easy it is to paint with.  Neither the width nor the length of the handle are unwieldy, and are in fact, easier to polish with than the short handles found on most modern day nail polish bottles.

base coat, 2 coats Rouge Louboutin, no top coat

As packaging goes, this is one of the most beautiful nail polish bottles around.  The hard cardboard box has a significant weight to it, and snugly hugs the bottle.  The top black lid lifts off around the polish bottle's handle, while the red and black bottom slides off the bottom of the bottle.  The glass bottle itself has a fascinating color gradation from clear at the top to black at the bottle's base.  The stiletto handle - "inspired by the tallest heel Christian Louboutin ever created- the Ballerina Ultima" - feels like it's made out of a solid resin/plastic that will retain its sheen and stand up to constant use. 

Overall, even though the price is currently one of the most expensive single polishes available at $50US a bottle, it is well worth it to invest in a classic red that will always make a statement on any dressing table or vanity.

Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (Or, Guardians Of The Galaxy Nail Art)

Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet?  If you haven't, you should go now.  Today.

In fact, if you still have your safe-for-work beige polish on, skip to Step 2 (and then while you're waiting for Step 3 to dry, you can buy your tickets online), and you'll have some awesome nail art to go along with the awesome soundtrack that you'll soon be hearing!

Here's a list of the Things You'll Need for this nail art:

1. ScotchBlue Painter's Tape
2. Beige Nail Polish (that matches the look of aged parchment) - Used here is You're So Vain-illa by OPI
3. Red Nail Polish (or an orangish-red to be more precise) - Race Red by OPI from the new Ford Mustang Collection matches perfectly for this occasion
4. Sharpie fine point Permanent Marker in Navy
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (but an image of said soundtrack will suffice if you have not yet purchased this great collection of music)
6. Groot - You will need to buy a Groot.  No, really, you will need him later…. Ok, not really.  But he is adorable.  So having a Groot handy is fun 
7. (Not pictured) Scissors
8. (Not pictured/optional) Cardstock - to stick the painter's tape on once it has been used
9. (Not pictured/optional) Tweezers - to pull the painter's tape off your nails (see Step 3 below for a better understanding)

"You will need to buy a Groot."

Step 1 comprises of the base color.  Above is pictured 1 coat of base coat + 3 coats of You're So Vain-illa by OPI + 1 coat of quick-drying top coat.  Wait for this to completely dry before moving on to Step 2.

"Step 1 comprises of the base color."

Here is where you will need to have your painter's tape handy.  Start by cutting 3 different sizes of strips of painter's tape.  You will have 3 different "categories" of thickness, where each category should have 10 strips of tape that are all roughly the same thickness.  After all the cutting you will have a total of 30 strips of painter's tape (provided you have 10 fingers which you are painting).

• Category 1:  Will be placed at the bottom/free-edge of the nail.  Also, these strips of tape are the thinnest out of the 3 categories.
• Category 2:  Similarly thin compared to the width of the tape strips in Category 1.  Consider these the "middle strips" as they will go between Categories 1 and 3 on the nail.
• Category 3:  The thickest strips of painter's tape you are cutting.  These pieces of tape will be used to mark the highest point on your nail where the second color will reach.

Now to place the painter's tape:

Start by placing a Category 1 strip of tape at the bottom/free edge of your nail, but far enough up your nail so the bottom stripe of nail polish you will be layering on in Step 3 is thickest at the bottom of your nail than it will be for the other two stripes that will be painted (scroll down to Step 3 for image reference).

Move on to placing the strips of painter's tape from Categories 2 and 3 on your nail.  Category 2 will go above Category 1, and Category 3 will be the top-most strip of tape, being placed a sliver above Category 2.  The end result will be 3 strips of tape for each nail.

The easiest way to make sure the gaps/lines will line up evenly between all of your nails is to go nail by nail, starting at the bottom/free-edge of your nail and working your way up your nail.  Repeat on the next nail, making sure that each strip of tape for each Category lines up with the same Category strip on the other nails.

"...3 strips of tape for each nail."

Step 3 consists of layering on your red polish.

The faster you pull off the strips of tape after painting, the less likely you are to have "strings" of polish, where the polish has become tacky and sticks to both the nail and the tape, and leaves a tiny string of polish in the gap where the the tape once was.  For this reason, only paint one nail at a time.  After painting one nail (up to the bottom edge of the Category 3 strip of painter's tape as mentioned in Step 2), quickly pull off each strip of tape on the nail.

Pull the strip of tape off the nail in the same horizontal direction it is laying on the nail.

Repeat the painting and pulling-off process for each nail until all 10 nails have been painted.

 "...only paint one nail at a time."

Step 4 is the simplest step, but you need to wait the longest amount of time before starting.  You will be painting a top coat on top of your newly-created stripes.  If your stripes are not dry, you will get streaking…and then you'll have to start all over at Step 1 (after taking off your almost-completed nail art creation), so wait a while before painting on the top coat!

"...wait a while before painting on the top coat!"

Adding the text is the last step!

Grab your Sharpie (in Navy, because the regular Blue hue comes across a bit too vibrant for the aged parchment look).  As "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" is the name of the album/mixtape/soundtrack (and a very important part of the movie) split the title across all of your nails to get your art spread out along a larger canvas!

Don't add top coat after writing!  Yes, this makes the overall manicure more temporary, but unless you are sure your top coat will not cause streaking of the lettering, skip the top coat and wear this art tonight!

"Don't add top coat...!"

There you have it!  You're ready to go see Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy!  Or watch it again!  And again!

Extra picture of Nail Art + Groot!

Woot, woot!  Groot, Groot!  Dancy, dancy!

Can you guess what's written on my right hand?  If you've seen the movie you should have some idea.

Have you created nail art for a movie recently?

Making Piet Mondrian Patriotic

Maybe you don't know of Piet Mondrian by name, but the artwork below will likely look familiar.  Mondrian's "Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow" is a well loved artwork and has been reproduced as patterns in fabric, handbags, and yes, nail art.

 image from wikiart.org

For this national holiday, I decided replacing the yellow with blue in recreations of Mondrian's most famous works would turn the designs into red, white, and blue compositions perfect for the patriotic feel of the 4th of July.

Nail lacquers used for this design (from left to right as shown above) are Coca-Cola Red by OPI, Regal by Illamasqua, Pacific Blue by Sally Hansen, While On by Sally Hansen, and Raven by Zoya.  You will also need painter's tape, scissors, tweezers, a black permanent marker, and a piece of card stock or scrap paper.

Begin by layering a smooth white polish on your nails.  I chose While On by Sally Hansen, but any white will do.  Finish with a quick drying top coat because you will be using painter's tape on top of the polish and need it to be completely dry in a short time to move on to Step 2.  (I waited a whopping two hours before moving on.  Just to be sure.)

Whip out the Scotch blue painter's tape for Step 2!

Remember that there will be black lines that "box off" each square of color in the final nail art, so for Step 2 the blue painter's tape will work in place of where those black lines will be.

Cut slim strips of blue painter's tape and begin by sectioning off each nail into geometric patterns with different sizes of rectangles that will be filled in with different colors.  Since the goal for this nail art is to make it look like a work by Piet Mondrian while keeping with the patriotic color scheme, each nail should have both red and blue on it.

Regal by Illamasqua dried quicker than the OPI and Sally Hansen colors, so I painted that on last.  Since three different lacquers are being used at one time per each nail, you must work quickly to fill in the squares before the nail polish gets too tacky and attaches to the painter's tape, then coming off when you pull off the painter's tape.

When moving on to Step 3, you can either choose to put a top coat on, or forgo top coat keeping in mind that you cannot add top coat after Step 3 (you'll see why in a minute).

For Step 3, you will still need the painter's tape, but now you will also need the permanent marker, tweezers, and card stock.  Rather than waiting for the nail polish you used in Step 2 to dry completely, you will be cutting the blue painter's tape into strips that are as wide or as narrow as needed to use as the black lines for the Mondrian nail art compositions you are creating.

After cutting a strip of blue painter's tape, place it on the piece of card stock leaving one edge of the tape free so you can easily peel off the tape later.  Color the tape in with your black permanent marker so that the strip of painter's tape is completely covered in black ink.  (While you may want to try painting the painter's tape with black nail polish - and that would work - remember that you will have to place the strips of tape on your nails and if you are waiting for the black nail polish to dry, it may smudge during placement, thus the reason for using a quick-drying permanent ink.)

For each black line you will be adding to your nail by way of the colored painter's tape, match one free edge of the painter's tape to the end/beginning on your nail of where that line will be.  Then you can easily see how long of a piece of painter's tape you will need, and you can cut off any excess colored painter's tape with your scissors.

Use your tweezers to pick up the small strips of painter's tape and place them on your nail.  You can also used the tweezers to push down on the colored strips of painter's tape so that it adheres securely to your nails.

Note: because you are not using black nail polish for the strips, you cannot add top coat after putting the colored strips of tape on your nails without the colored ink from the strips bleeding onto your nails. (Believe me on this - I tried it out just to check.  You'll end up with a gray mess.)

And now you have your final look!  Because we've used black tape instead of black nail polish, this nail art look is only temporary and will start to peel off a few hours later, but the adhesive from the tape does help this look last through dinner and a fireworks show!


So, what do you think of this look?  Have you tried coloring in tape that was not originally meant as nail art tape before?  Would you be willing to try using painter's tape for this purpose, or would you rather just buy nail striping tape?

Hope everyone in the States had a good 4th of July and that those of you that are international readers are enjoying your weekend!  (And don't forget - red, white, and blue are common flag colors - this look could work for many different national holidays across the globe!)

Nails Inc. Floral Collection Swatches

The Floral collection by Nails Inc. is one of the new Nails Inc. collections that just released this Spring.  There are 4 polishes in this collection that each consist of flower shaped glitter in various color combinations.  At the time of typing this post, these polishes are now available in store and online at Sephora.  If you are not in the United States, the Nails Inc. website has these polishes listed, although it says they are currently unavailable.

base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Daisy Lane, no top coat

This is Daisy Lane.   An adorable name for an adorable polish!  Featuring white, pink, and red flower glitter with small white glitter, and light pink micro glitter in a clear base.

base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Daisy Lane, no top coat

Below is Floral Street Mews.  The clear base holds a multitude of glitters.  Besides the white and blue flower shaped glitter particles, there are 5 different sizes of glitter pieces.  There are orange and white micro glitter pieces, followed by slightly larger white and light pink glitter glitter pieces (that I will refer to as "small" glitter pieces).  Next up from the small glitter is the medium sized hexagonal glitter in light pink and white.  Following that in size are larger glitter pieces that are hexagonal in shape that only appear to come in white.  The largest size of hexagonal glitter pieces (that I would consider the "extra large" pieces of glitter in comparison to all the other sizes) come in white and the same blue hue as the flowers.  

 base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Floral Street Mews, no top coat

Because Floral Street Mews has so many different sizes of glitter and in differing color combinations, this one looks a bit more "exciting" to the eyes, when painted on top of a bland black or white (or gray, as done below), even though all the glitter within this polish is pastel in tone.

 base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Floral Street Mews, no top coat

Below is the last polish I picked up from this collection: Richmond Gardens.  Upon first inspection, the glitter colors in this polish appear to be a turquoise-blue, a light green, and a white, but that isn't completely correct.

 base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Richmond Gardens, no top coat

The smallest glitter (the "micro" glitter) is yellow/chartreuse in color (it looks very much like a green-leaning yellow).  The larger sized glitter (which I will again refer to as "small" to differentiate from the other sizes of glitter), is either a turquoise-blue or light pink.  The hexagonal medium sized glitter comes in a plethora of colors, including that same yellow/chartreuse color seen with the micro glitter, light green, turquoise-blue, and light pink.  The medium sized glitter is the largest glitter in this polish besides the flower glitter (which is giant by comparison).  There is, in fact, no white glitter in this polish (the photos make the pink glitter look white).

base coat, 2 coats My Turn by Sinful Colors, 1 coat Richmond Gardens, no top coat

I would consider the glitter in all of these polishes to be matte glitter, even though it almost has a pearlized finish (as seen especially in Daisy Lane with the white glitter particles), but I attribute that to the clear, shiny base that the glitter sits in.

Instructions on how to apply (or how to not have to fish the flower shaped glitter pieces out with an orange stick or tweezers):
1) After you apply your requisite base color (or no color if that may be the case), have a piece of scrap paper near you.
2) When you first open the polish bottle, dip the brush into the center of the opening (without brushing it against the sides of the bottle, taking off excess glitter), and begin brushing the glitter on the brush onto the scrap paper.  It is likely that all of this glitter will be of the micro, small, medium, large, or extra large variety, and will not be a flower.  The flower pieces are heavier and so they tend to sink just a bit in the clear base.
3) Repeat the process in step 2, continuing to dip the brush into the center of the opening, working to not scrape off the excess glitter that would just cling to your brush the next time you put it back into the bottle.
4) After repeating step 2 (and 3) a few times, you should eventually get a flower glitter piece to appear. Warning: once you have had one flower-shaped glitter piece cling to your brush, your are likely to have a bunch of flowers cling to the brush at the same time.  This is when you can dab those flowers from the brush on multiple fingernails, without having to reinsert the brush into the bottle to get more flowers.
5) If you have come to the part where each time you pull out the brush you get multiple flowers, now you just have to work at getting the right amount of other glitter pieces you want on to your nails!

And there you have it!

If you think the flower shaped glitter looks familiar, you may be thinking of the newly released Formula X for Sephora Cherry Blossom Top Coat.  I am almost certain that the flower glitter in the Cherry Blossom Top Coat is the same shape as the flower glitter in these Nails Inc. polishes.  The only differences I see between the two are the price (the Nails Inc. are $11US and the Formula X is $12.50US), and the color variations that are available in the Nails Inc. polishes (that are not available in the Formula X, which is only pink in color).

So, what do you think of these polishes?

Nails Inc Pop Art Collection for Spring 2014

New for Spring 2014!  Nails Inc. has released a matte glitter collection at Sephora.  I picked up these two polishes in a stand-alone Sephora store and have yet to see them on the Sephora website.

no base coat, 2 coats Knightsbridge Place, no top coat

The all matte glitter polish in this collection: Nails Inc. Knightsbridge Place.  Made up of all the same sized hexagonal glitter in matte red, light pink, and light blue in a clear base.  As you can see in the photos above and below, these polishes don't work so well as full-coverage polishes because even with the dabbling method where you dab on a blob of polish and push the glitter around on the nail to get the nail fully covered, as I did here, with two thick coats, there are still large un-covered spots on the nails, and there are areas that the glitter is starting to build-up and become bumpy.  

no base coat, 2 coats Knightsbridge Place, no top coat 

Nails Inc. Upper Street, the second polish in this collection, is made up of four colors of hexagonal glitter in a clear base.  Three are matte glitter: the white, light pink, and light blue.  The fourth color of glitter is a shiny gold, which adds a different dimension from Knightsbridge Place.

 no base coat, 2 coats Upper Street, no top coat

Like Knightsbridge Place, Upper Street does not work very well as a full coverage polish because of how chunky the glitter is, creating the same problems of balding and bumpiness that Knightsbridge Place has.

 no base coat, 2 coats Upper Street, no top coat

Where Knightsbridge Place and Upper Street really shine are as glitter toppers.  Both Knightsbridge Place and Upper Street are layered over Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Thinking of Blue.

First let's see Knightsbridge Place as a topper.

 base coat, 1 coat Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue, 1 coat Knightsbridge Place, no top coat

 base coat, 1 coat Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue, 1 coat Knightsbridge Place, no top coat

  base coat, 1 coat Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue, 1 coat Upper Street, no top coat

base coat, 1 coat Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue, 1 coat Upper Street, no top coat

If you think you've seen these polishes before, you may have.  A few blogs have shared photos of these glitters in double ended bottles.  There appear to be three double ended polish duos where on one side of the duo, there is a creme polish, and the other end has one of the pop art glitters.  The third glitter topper, Cavendish Place, has turquoise, black, silver, and white glitter in it.  This was not at Sephora.  I'm not sure if this means that Cavendish Place will not be showing up at Sephora, or whether it was just not in stock at the particular Sephora store I frequent.  Please let me know if you see it around!

So what do you think of these polishes?  Which is your favorite?  Have you seen or tried any polishes from the Nails Inc. Pop Art collection?