My Winter Nail Polish Picks 2012

It's time for another seasonal nail polish pick post, yay! And what better way to start Christmas month than with a nail polish post:)

Essie Berry Hard, Chanel Rouge Noir, Essie Bahama Mama.

My first favourite colour theme to wear in this winter  are plummy-purple-reds. The 3 that I know I will be wearing frequently are Essie Berry Hard, Chanel Rouge Noir and Essie Bahama Mama.

Essie Stylenomics, Revlon Rainforest.

I love greens anytime of year but the 2 above are super pretty for winter. Essie Stylenomics is a very dark, blackened green. Revlon Rainforest is a shimmer forest green.

Revlon Royal, Chanel Blue Satin, Dior Glacier.

Next up is some blues. Revlon Royal is my current favourite blue of that shade. I have a number of bright, rich blues in my collection but this is the current favourite. Chanel Blue satin is the ultimate, deep, nearly liquid navy blue. And of course the blues wouldn't be complete without an icy blue for winter. Dior Glacier is the perfect icy blue.

Chanel Noir Ceramic, Chanel Vendetta.

The final 2 polishes I've chosen are Chanel Noir Ceramic, which is a lightened black with subtle shimmer. Chanel Vendetta is a beautiful deep jewel-toned purple.

What polishes will be adorning your nails this winter?

Some Autumn Favourites

Today's post features some of my favourite products for lips and tips that I've been wearing a lot of during these past autumnal months. The perfume I included is Flower by Kenzo and it is one of my all-time favourite perfumes. It's a heavier floral scent, perfect for this time of year.

Nail polish wise, I have loved wearing these 5 shades - when I'm not trying out new polishes of course! I'll link to previous post swatches if I have them. 

• China Glaze Riveting is the ultimate orange polish.
• OPI Vampsterdam is a great, deep purple.
• Chanel Fantastic is a mauve pink with and intense shimmer undertone.
• Chanel Particulére is my favourite mushroom brown.
• Finally Essie Bahama Mama is a new but instant favourite of mine. A gorgeous plum-pink.

I have three lip colours that I have reached for over and over again these past few months and I can see this trend continuing for the next few! 

If I just want a quick wash of berry colour I've been using the Revlon Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie. Very easy to apply and is my current favourite daytime colour. Unfortunately Berry Smoothie is one of the lip butters unavailable here but I managed to get it for a good price on eBay (Brand new of course!!)

My next favourite is another Revlon lip product, this time one of their Just Bitten Kissable lip stains in the shade Crush. This is a highly pigmented berry colour and is perfect for wearing at night. I really like all of the Just Bitten lip products that I've tried, I'll do a review post soon. Very impressed with so many of their products releases this year.

The final product is a lipgloss by MAC in the shade Dreamy which is a purple/pink colour with slight gold reflects. It's a colour that I never would have gotten myself but my mum picked it up for me when she was away and I love it. It is beautiful layered over the berry shades. Although it does mute the berry shade slightly, the combination that it creates looks fantastic.

What have your favourite products been this Autumn?

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Make-up Collection

As I'm going to see the final Twilight film tonight I thought it would be appropriate to show you the make-up I picked up from the Essence Twilight collection!

Although I enjoyed both the Twilight book series and films, I can't say I'm a 'Twihard'. Nonetheless I was looking forward to the release of the Breaking Dawn Part 2 limited edition make-up collection that Essence launched to coincide with the release of the last film in the franchise.

Being me, it was no surprise that what I was most looking forward to was the nail varnishes. 

Jacob's Protection, Alice Had A Vision - Again and Edward's Love

There were four released with the collection and I got 3 of them. Jacob's Protection is a dark blue shimmer, Alice Had A Vision - Again is a dark purple shimmer and Edward's Love is a black shimmer.  The fourth one in the collection was a gold foil style one.

I've never tried any Essence make-up before but I got four items from this collection - a blush, a highlighter, a lipgloss and a glitter eyeliner.

Bella's Secret and Renesmee Red

Bella's Secret is a beautiful golden-beige highlight powder. The blush Renesmee Red, while pigmented is not quite the shocking red it looks to be. A gentle flush is what the swatches bring.

Renesmee Red and Alice Had A Vision -  Again.

Lastly is the lipgloss and eyeliner. Renesmee Red (They like re-using the names on products!) is a red lipgloss with teeny pieces of gold sparkle. It's not opaque but it does leave a nice, heavily tinted sheen on the lips. I was skeptical of how the formula would be but it surprised me. It's quite a soft and smooth formula and thankfully the gold shimmer pieces were not gritty feeling. It was slightly sticky but not sticky enough for it to be an annoyance. The scent of it is divine.

The purple glitter eyeliner is patchy like nearly all glitter eyeliners. For the price though, it's perfectly fine. I sometimes like to add that hint of sparkle to black eyeliner and this will be perfect for layering over it.

Swatches L-R: Renesmee Red (lipgloss), Alice Had A Vision - Again, Bella's Secret and Renesmee Red (blush).

Did you get anything from this Essence collection?

Chanel Fantastic

Chanel Fantastic is indeed fantastic. It is a gorgeous raspberry/garnet shade and is very fluid looking. It has slight purple undertones as well as some hidden shimmer.

This was a 2 coater and is an absolute gem of a colour. Going to get a lot of wear from this beauty over winter!

Chanel Noir Ceramic

On the day before Halloween I have to show some kind of black polish!

Noir Ceramic is pretty much a black polish. But not quite. It does look very black but it leans heavily towards a dark charcoal grey.

The charcoal is quite obvious to see in the correct type of lighting. I adore the shimmer that pops when it’s caught right. Another polish just crying to be worn in the depths of winter!

Chanel Blue Satin

Ah Blue Satin. What’s this time of year without a deep navy shade? I don’t think navy gets enough love in the polish world. I love it.

Blue Satin is probably one of my favourite Chanel polishes. I’ve never had a problem with the formula of any Chanel polishes but Blue Satin? Well, it practically paints your nail itself. It is a dream to apply, it just glides on effortlessly.

I used two coats here but if you wanted to get the bluer effect, you could certainly leave it at one coat.

I’m so glad I got this polish, it is definitely my ultimate deep, navy blue polish.

Essie Stylenomics

Essie seems to have released a bunch of collections in a very short space of time. One of the ones I noticed was the Stylenomics collection, with the polish Stylenomics.

Stylenomics is an extremely dark green. To be honest I see a hell of a lot more black than green in this polish. From afar it looks black, from up close it looks black. The only times I‘ve noticed the green is when it is in sunlight.

It’s a crème polish, no shimmer but thankfully it doesn’t look flat. Probably due to the green that’s in it despite my initial hesitance to believe there was actual green in it.

Formula was great and the photos are 2 coats out of habit. 1 coat would be perfectly fine.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

Deviantly Daring was released with the Bohemian collection a few months ago. I think this collection was supposed to be all duochromes or 'luster chromes' as China Glaze called them but when they were released, Deviantly Daring was the only colour that stood out to me.

It is absolutely amazing teal blue shade. And get this; it was opaque in one coat. Yep, definitely wasn’t expecting that!

Did you get any polishes from the Bohemian collection?

Chanel Mimosa

Mimosa is sunshine in a bottle. I don’t have too many yellow polishes but when I found out about Mimosa I had to have it. It often saddens me when I find out about polishes that I missed out on because I wasn’t into polish at the time. This is especially true about Chanels, as discontinued polishes often go for extortinate prices on eBay. The worst thing is that when Mimosa was released (Summer 2011) I was into polish! I was still sane though and not interested in paying the price of Chanel polish. Oh how times have changed.

Thankfully I managed to find a brand new Miomsa on a blog sale for retail price. Happy times.

Onto the polish itself. It’s a dark yellow with shimmer throughout. I only used two coats in the photos but I think 3 thin coats would give a better finish overall.

I’m glad I found it for a decent price, as I don’t think it would be worth buying for above retail price on eBay.

Do you wear yellow polish?

Chanel Vendetta

I love a deep, jewel purple and Chanel Vendetta is perfection.

This was 2 coats. It is just the ideal amount of darkness to allow it to hold depth in different lights. I find that some shades, if a tad too dark, will look very flat on the nail. Vendetta, however, retains all of it's beauty.

Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

I got Razzle Dazzle ages ago in a Glossybox.  It’s a pretty cool, fuchsia pink glitter in a blackened base.

When I put on the first coat, the black base was quite evident and I though oh no this is never going to build up properly. Thankfully I was wrong and by coat number 2 it was looking great as you can see from the photos.

Mini bottle not enormous hand.

I think one coat of this would be pretty rocking over a black polish though!

Essie Bikini So Teeny

Bikini So Teeny was released as part of a collection of the same name in Summer 2012.

This polish is the first Essie polish I got from the new diffusion line at Boots. It now has a thicker brush. The thin brushes never bothered me before but the new brush is great I have to say.

I love the colour of this polish. It’s a quiet, semi-dusty polish. It has a subtle amount of shimmer, which lifts it beautifully.

This was two coats. A winner for me!

Barry M Chameleon Polishes

I had about these in the blogging world and picked up 2 on my last trip to Boots. The promise of colour changing polish is intriguing.

First up is Chameleon Pink. The polish applied wonderfully and was opaque in one coat. Always a bonus. It tried super quick as well, which I was surprised about as the formula was relatively thick. Love the finish of it and how it looks.

Now onto the ‘Chameleon’ part. You add a clear topcoat to change the colour. I just put any random blob on my nails to see how it would work. And it turned out ok. The intensity of the colour change varied on all the nails and I don’t really know why.

I think you would want to use a nail art brush for creating any kind of decent design. The Zoya topcoat brush that I was using wasn’t too keen on co-operating!

Chameleon Lilac went the exact same way as Chameleon Pink; expect that it is of course a different colour. Formula etc. was the exact same and worked flawlessly.

Overall the whole ‘Chameleon Changing’ thing is a bit meh to me, I’m not pushed about it. However the actual polishes and shades themselves really impressed me. I would highly recommend them in that regard. 

Chanel Violette

Chanel Violette is a funny sort of polish. It is by all accounts 'an old lady' polish but I strangely like it. The light frosty pink with a smidge of purple somehow draws me in.

This was 2 coats and surprisingly more opaque than I had assumed. 

Ever feel the need to wear 'old lady' polish?

Essie Berry Hard

I’ve really taken to wanting to wear vampy shades all the time lately. They’re just so…1990’s? Hah! Seriously though, it’s like they are the classic winter shade to wear.

Berry Hard is an amazing, proper vampy red. I used two coats as one just looked a little bit too streaky.    

Do you like vampy shades? Any recommendations? I’m planning on getting Chanel’s Rouge Noir next, it seems to be the ultimate vampy shade, Pulp Fiction anyone?!

Chanel Vertigo

Vertigo is a newly released polish from the Chanel A/W collection.  I think a lot of people were disappointed with this polish as it was nothing like the promo polishes that were released. You can see in the bottle the amazing shimmer that seems to be in it but sadly it doesn’t quite transfer the same to the nail.

I, however, still really like it. It has a deep, dark purple base. Kind of muddy looking in a way. In the right light you can still detect some slight shimmer in it.

I used two coats for the photos and found the formula fine to work with it.

Did you get Vertigo? Were you disappointed or did you fall in love with it?

China Glaze Flirty Tankini

Flirty Tankini was the second polish I bought from the Summer Neon collection.

It is deeper, bright neon pink than Pink Plumeria. It was opaque in 2 coats and I absolutely adore it.

It gives such a lift to your entire outfit!

Catrice Virgin Forest

I haven’t bought any Catrice polishes in ages but Virgin Forest jumped out at me when I was passing the stand. It is from the Coolibri collection.

It’s a bright, nearly emerald green. Just slightly more toned down. Leans more yellow than blue, but really mostly green.

Take note, on the bottle it says use a base coat. Use a base coat. When I first tried this, it was during one of my swatching sessions so I was taking it off before it had even properly dried. This means any polishes that I swatch come off very easily. Virgin Forest was on for mere minutes and it still stained. The skin all around my nails was green. Lovely, just what I needed during a swatching session.

It’s still a great colour but do use a base coat and make sure that you possess nail varnish remover that is good at tackling stains!