Chanel Black Pearl...Ho Hum

I swatched the mighty lemming last night at Nordstroms and left it there after comparing it to real black pearls in the jewelry department.  I love black pearls and so I was excited to see if it was worth the hype.

I have to say, for me, it isn't. But then I really wanted it to look like a black pearl on my nails. In my opinion, this color is too green. That would be ok, but there should be some brown duochrome in there to make it work like a real pearl.

I realize that the black pearl comes in many tones, from gray to brown to green and even almost silver, but they all have a duochrome that is, sadly lacking in this polish.

So today, while trying to cram all the new polish in with my existing stash, I rooted through the stash to find comparable shades that might make my fussy ass happy!  I found it in Misa's "It's You!"  It's got the right balance of green/brown duochrome with just a little too much sparkle to completely pull it off but, I can keep my 25 bucks and have the color I want don my nails anytime I want it to. :)

That makes me happy!

Here are a few comparison shots: Thumb is always Chanel Black Pearl. (I realize my cuticles look like hell, just look at the pretty colors!) But first, let's begin with a few pictures of some ACTUAL Black Pearls:

Source

With Gosh Purple Heart (too much like Nubar Peacock Feathers and Borghese Stellar Notte ie: too much purple)

With Nubar Moon Shadow (thought the brown might work, but nope, it shows up very purple too.)

Sally Hansen Prisms Emerald Amethyst is actually very close, just reversed, but I can live with that.

And with Misa "It's You!"  is an almost perfect dupe only better! It shows the duochrome better in the shade, the sunlight brings out the shimmer and it's a bit more sparkly than the Chanel and/or a real Black Pearl. This one actually has the green in the middle with the purple around the edges. It's gorgeous!

I also compared it to the new Estee Lauder Wild Storm, very similar, but WS is more silver...still, I think I see a trend here. :)

And since I swapped my untried Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot, I had to swatch that (I'll replace it with my Apothica gift cert won from Evil Angel) Love this color so much!

This is what my hands looked like after all the swatching. :) And again, please ignore the horrible condition of my cuticles. I've been doing a bunch of house cleaning and it's time for a deep moisture treatment. That week in Las Vegas was hard on my skin!

Why yes, that IS Lippmann Marquee Moon...which shall be mine one day. I love it, it's so different! The sparkles is me comparing Lippmann Happy Birthday with Milani Gems. I know they're not exact, but they're similar enough I can live without HB.

All in All, this Lizard gives Chanel Black Pearl a rating of Chilly. I'd say Tepid, but for the price...it's definitely chilly!

Which color do you like best or do you have an even better "Black Pearl" color? Tell me about it please!

Nubar Sale Starts November 15th

Straight from their website:
November 15th- 30th, nubar offers 30% off retail orders of $30 or more !  The code required to take advantage of this offer will appear here prior to November 15th, so check back soon.


And they're releasing a special collection for the holidays on the same day. Go visit The Hungry Asian for swatches of the "Holiday Jewel Basket" now!!
Or maybe you've had your eyes on the new Finest Silks collection?

Or maybe you've been thinking over the Venetian Glass collection?

(all images taken directly from www.bynubar.com)

My Stash, My Heart, My Passion for Polish!

I know I've told most of you, and it's no big deal (I thought it was when I first got the news but I've adjusted since) but I will be going into the hospital on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 am local time for a procedure in my heart at 8:30 am. It's called Cardiac Ablation. It's not a "surgery" per se but a "procedure" LOL... they'll go up thru my artery (from my groin) to the heart with three skinny wires: one to stimulate the suspect problem and cause the problem reliably...one to see what they're doing, and one to do the freeze burn of the offending cells. Takes a minimum of 1.5 hours, maximum of 2. Then I'll be in the hospital for the rest of the day under observation to make sure they didn't break anything. They say I should be able to return to work the next day and I won't have to take medication for this problem EVER AGAIN!!! I am soooo looking forward to that, the meds make me retain unhealthy amounts of water and I have fat lower legs, ankles and feet. I'll probably lose 20 lbs the first couple weeks just from water retention. :)

No more meds, no more worries about SVT, hiking and biking can resume without worry, (just attention to injury prevention) and that will be a very very good thing.

So that is what I'm focusing on, but once in a while...the scary stuff creeps in and I just remember that there are good people out there thinking happy thoughts for me and it helps calm me down. Odds are in my favor, not fantastic, but not bad. So keep a happy thought for me tomorrow, okay?

After the Nail Polish Party with my co-workers, I had to reorganize my stash. So I dumped it out, sorted it and took some photos. I have not yet taken photos of my organizational choice, I guess I need to get to that next.

I do sort by color family, I find it easiest for me in my super tiny space. I have no need to sort by brand then color, just put the color families together and I know where to go for a purple, red, pink, blue or whatever thank-you-very-much.

Here begins the spam...bail now if your computer is slow. :) Remember: all of my pictures are clickable for your viewing pleasure. :)



So here's the stash in all it's not so organized glory: I sorted them by brand first but here's the whole shebang!

 Then we have all the China Glaze

 Followed by the lovely Zoya

 The nail polish pile of a price I swore I would never pay for a bottle of polish...and a stray bottle of Poshe?

 My beloved Essie collection.

 The "not found in drugstores but maybe sometimes in other lands" pile

 The Diamond Cosmetics pile...oh so small

 The "what I can get at my local drugstores" pile (lots of Orly in there)

The pathetically small OPI collection. (Told you, I am NOT a fan.)

 My Del Sols. I love these...I live where it's more sunny than anything else...except for the odd 10th year or so. These polishes belong here. It's just too bad that so many of them just turn the same shade of purple.

 Ahhhh, Nubar, my loves

 Sweet Color Clubs, such a great formula, such great pigments, so affordable!

 My favorite treatments, base and top coats (the rest were in the drugstore pile)

Then I sorted thru some of the piles, starting with the "I will never pay that much for nail polish" pile

Here are my Lippmann's, but one of them (the one beside the box) isn't really mine. I just took it out of the box to get a bottle shot. That's "Don't Tell Mama" and it belongs to someone else..yeah, you know who you are! The rest, left to right: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (I had to, I am a HUGE Benatar Fan), Wicked Game, Across the Universe (LOVE), Bad Romance (meh)

 My Rescue Beauties. 3 I won, 1 I got in a swap. I'll have a few more soon! Not many though...just um...6 I think?

 Who doesn't love Nfu Oh?

 Models Own...purchased during the 50% off sale. So far, from the ones I've tried, I like them. I think Peacock Green is my favorite. It's the exact color of that 'eye' of the peacock feather. 

 Assorted others that I only have ONE bottle from the makers. I think it's pretty funny that the one color I did bring home from my trip to Seattle last April out of all the polish I bought up there, I brought home the SH LE dupe. I didn't even know it, just really liked it and hadn't worn it yet. :) 

After I pulled out the Models Own, Miss Marion (you've seen that entire collection already) The 3 Misa's I own, the Gosh and the Finger paints, this is what was left. (I thought I took pics of those too, but apparently not.) Many of these were attained through swaps with some really great new friends. I wish I knew where my H&M Bella's Choice went off to...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

There you have it, my stash. So far. I don't need a Helmer...don't have the space for one. As it is, this is too much for my little home, but I love them and so I let them crowd me a little...for now. But who knows? Maybe there will be an amazing blog sale at some point. I have to say, probably 50% (or more) of these are untried!  Do you see one I should try soon? Which one?

Nubar Sale!

This just in!

Nubar offers our retail customers 20% off retail orders of $30 or more with code AUG2030 August 6 through August 7, with free shipping on orders of $75 or more after the discount is applied. Visit us at www.bynubar.com to take advantage of this offer!

EDIT Gosh Nubar! Metallic Blue Absolute Prism

Yes, it IS Monday and my son's first day at his new, exciting job! I can't wait to hear how it went. My son is a very talented artist, maybe I'll share some of his art here one day. I know I'm his biggest fan, but he really does some awesome work. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to afford to send him to school to persue a degree, but  now he's landed a job working for a graphics company and he'll get to travel and use his art in cool ways. I'm excited for him and think he may just have found the path to his dream. Of course, I reserve some of my excitement for after I hear from him tonight. I'm truly thrilled for him and hope he enjoys what he's doing. Perseverance trumps talent, but when you have both, LOOK OUT!

Ahem, please excuse the proud mother gushing above...on to the polish:

Ok let me explain the title: I give you Gosh Metallic Blue with Nubar Absolute for a funky french.
This is evening fogged out sun with phone flash

Evening shade with phone flash...

And here I finally got some of the Holo to show up:

I've been reluctant to post lately because, since my SD card died I have no macro photo option. All I have is my phone and while it does a decent job, I cannot capture photos I'd like to capture. I'm posting these because I'd rather post something than nothing at all and they aren't bad. (I hope!)

I finally ordered some SD cards for my camera...jeez there are so many TYPES now for faster cameras, slow cameras, average cameras...a girl has to do a TON of research before ordering one little card, (I ordered 2!) So in a week or so, I'll be back to better photos. In the meantime, I do hope these will be useful.

As for the Polishes: Gosh Metallic Blue is a beautiful chrome metallic in the same family as Nubar Absolute (from the Prisms collection) and I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I started the mani, I was trying for a chevron but it's a bit sloppy. The application of Metallic Blue was easy, second coat didn't drag or rumple the first, and it dried super fast. 1 coat was truly sufficient (as is normal with these kinds of nail polish) but I did 2 because some of my lines weren't as clean as I like them. I suppose a ridge filling base coat would have looked nicer, but I haven't found one I like yet.

Nubar Absolute is a gorgeous prismatic blue that I will have to wear on it's own sometime soon to view it in all it's prism-y glory. 2 coats on the tips dried quickly with the help of quick drying top coat.

Both polishes applied nicely, I find it hard to complain about Nubar. The Gosh was a bit runny and took some getting used to, but I got the hang of it!

I used Nubar Foundation Base Coat and Nubar Diamont Top Coat as I'm enjoying that combination and trying it out to see if it helps some of the peeling issues I have with the nails I have some problems with. Seems my right thumb wants to be a shorty most of the time and so far, the only thing that has helped is to coat the free edge with Orly Nail Rescue. I want to find something healthier and nourishing, suggestions welcome!

I do still have the comparisons...just need to find my notebook! They're next!

Nubar Spark - the Office appropriate Prismatic/Holo

Like Ange-Marie (happy early Birthday woman!), I am a holo-whore. So I had to get the entire Nubar Prisms set when I got a killer discount and could afford to order it along with the Nubar Reds (which are also absolutely divine!)

I chose Nubar Spark to wear first because I had a big business event I had to attend and I was the person doing the checking in of all the business women. I thought this was a nice color to use for the event, understated but with some bling in the right light. It wasn't really noticed and that's pretty much what I was going for. Yeah, I saw a few eyes diverting to my nails, but no one said anything. Success!
Here is Nubar Spark in evening sunlight: (you can always click the pics for a bigger view)

In the shade with the flash from my cell phone:

Again in the evening sun/shade...almost my prism mannequin hand?

One more time!

For this mani, I used all Nubar products: 2 coats Foundation Base Coat, 2 coats polish and 1 coat Diamont Top Coat. This manicure wore so well, I was truly impressed. The Nubar products work very well together and gave me a mani that lasted a week and might have gone long had I been able to avoid boredom and need a new color to look at. You can get Nubar nail products at www.bynubar.com

I have to say, this isn't the most prismatic/holo nail polish I own, but it is a holo that is suitable for the office and for that the Lizard give it a rating of Toasty. I'll wear it again for work or when I need that understated bling that Nubar Spark is so good at delivering.

Burgundy Comparison

The clearing of my inventory continues. This week I'll post more of the comparisons I did, and interject those with some other fun stuffs...like pictures and review of RBL Diddy Mow which I put on today and will test the "9 day wear" claim made there.

On to the comparisons.  Here are the bottles:

Left to right, the players are: Nubar Chocolate Raspberry, Borghese no name mini from Christmas set, Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco, Sally Hansen mini from Christmas set and OPI mini All A-bordeau the Sleigh.

Same order, starting with my thumb then to my index finger left to right in the sun.

And indoors, indirect daylight.

Nubar Raspberry Truffle is a brown based creme with burgundy flecks. I love the Nubar formula and the brush is good. Two coats to full coverage, but a third adds depth and is so devine. I love this color, it's yummy and has depth to it so it gets to remain in my collection. Lizard rating: Toasty!

Borghese Unnamed mini has an exceptional brush for a mini polish. I found it very easy to use, pro wide and not super short like some minis. They also have a great formula and the pigment was impressive. This is only two coats. Lizard Rating: Balmy only because it is a mini and I'm over minis. LOL

Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco is a favorite after seeing it on all the other blogs and before this, an untried.  A gorgeous red-brown base with shimmer. Yum! This was as delightful as you've seen out in the blogosphere. The brush is ample, if rather standard. The formula was nice and very well pigmented, also 2 coats to this beautiful finish.

Sally Hansen unnamed mini. This one was also 2 coats of YUM. A rich, dark wine with shine to spare. This brush was also amazing for a mini polish. I loved this color but recently decided that my space won't allow as many bottles as I'd like to own and therefore I'm going to purge Drug Store polishes that I can dupe with a higher end polish. Besides, it's a mini...I'm over 'em. :)  Lizard Rating: Toasty, but no doubt can find a dupe I'll want to keep.

OPI All a-Bordeau the Sleigh was just "meh" for me. Cuticle drag, streaky and the typical issues I have with OPI. I am so not a fan of OPI...has to be a spectacular color that I absolutely cannot get elsewhere before I even consider going there, and usually skip it anyway. This is a not-so-deep red wine. Lizard Rating: Tepid
Maybe a fourth coat would have made this one better but 3 is my limit. Besides, it's a mini...it's gone. :)

I hope you enjoyed my Burgundy Comparison! Next up: Duochrome Purples.