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Another Lemming is Born... Blue Dahlia by Tom Pecheux for Estee Lauder (YES! Estee Lauder)

A few months ago, for the first time in my entire life, I bought a product from Estee Lauder. The grand brand, which owns more makeup lines than you can count, is reinventing itself. Reaching out for younger and trendier consumers, EL recently hired Tom Pecheux, and his upcoming collection has led me to believe I will be buying more at my local Estee Lauder counter.

(click on either of the images for the original trade article)


images from moodiereport.com

My previous purchase was the sold out Ultra Violet polish, which I wore back in March, pictured below.

From polish insomniac

I have very very high hopes for both the eyeshadows and the nail polish from this collection. It is slated for a "fall" release, which means we will likely see it in July!!! The great thing about EL is that the limited edition products are much much easier to track down than other companies, for example MAC or Chanel. When I bought this polish, it was sold out at Nordstroms, but a local (lower end) department store had plenty in stock.

So what do YOU think? Do you own any EL cosmetics? Will you be picking up any from this line?

Today I Craved Pink!

I do not reach for pink very often. Out of my 400ish polishes, i bet I only have 15-20 pinks! And most of them were to complete a "collection." You know what I mean, when you buy a polish because you HAVE to have it... but have no actual intention of actually wearing it. (BTW, this is when you turn from an addict to a "collector.")

From polish insomniac

So imagine my surprise when I actually wanted to wear a pink today! I blame it all on my outfit, a black t-shirt with a pink design. I certainly could not wear the green DH picked out! I reached into my pile of polishes from Roze and picked Essence Think Pink from the Crazy About Color collection.

ONE COAT! Should I say it again? ONE COAT! But naturally I didn't trust it so I did two out of habit. It was the easiest polish to apply!!! And super crazy shiny. I love it!


I know I have been going on and on about Essence lately, so for you US girls who are craving some Essence, you can click here to see what is available at Ulta!

Nail Mail!

Remember yesterday when I was whining about Essence? And I said awesome friends that helped me get all my European (and Australian!) lemmings? I wasn't lying, the proof is in the pudding!!! This package came to me from a lovely lady named Roze, who lives in the Netherlands. She is my secret wife. Oops! Don't tell DH. I help her find stuff here in the US, and she sends me fabulous packages like this!!!

From Polish Insomniac

Essence Into the Jungle, Lilac Forever, Think Pink, Crazy Me, Underwater

From Polish Insomniac

Catrice London's Weather Forecast, Lucky in Lilac, I Sea You, From Dusk to Dawn, Sold Out Forever (the Jade dupe! Which actually is sold out!!!)

From Polish Insomniac

Ozotic Pro 621, 504, 624 (504 was a SUPER lemming! These are from Australia)

From Polish Insomniac

Hema 75 (neon), 81, 82 (Like a lot of foreign brands, these have no names)

From Polish Insomniac

GOSH Holographic (SUPER lemming fulfilled!)

From Polish Insomniac

L'Oreal Star Magnet - Red (Never, never in my life did I think I would own one of these)

ESSENCE.... why do you taunt me?

I am obsessed with Essence. Seriously. I am. I am lucky I have friends in Europe that help me track down "Limited Editon" colors. But lately Essence has been bringing out new collections like every two weeks (ok maybe once a month but it feels like every two weeks)!

I thought I had all the ones I wanted on their way to me....

and then I found out about the Surfer Babe Collection.

AHHHH! I die.



01 surferama, 02 pointbreak, 03 loose and 04 the world’s coolest.

I already have quite a few of the Color Crazy and Nail Art Twins on the way, but now I am seriously lemming these. Maybe I should find a way to block all Essence from showing up on my computer so I don't get new lemmings!

My favorite Greiges, Part 2

So here is part two of my Greiges! I broke these up into two categories, the more brown-beige and the more grey-beige. I pulled a lot from my stash to supplement the newer colors, so some of the Maybellines were from DT, and the Essie were on clearance at Trade Secret.




From thumb to pinky: Maybelline Cocoa Bean, Chanel Particular, Rimmel Steel Grey, Color Club High Society, Maybelline Touch of Taupe

I am sure you have all read reviews or seen tons of swatches the newer ones, but I was pleasantly surprised by the DT Maybellines. They applied wonderfully ( i was afraid they would be streaky like some of the old SH are) and after a few drops of Seche Restore they looked brand new! These are all two coats. I had zero problems with any of these polishes. I would wear all but Cocoa Bean as a full mani, it is just too brown for me.

I still think it is hilarious that the Rimmel is called Steel Grey! Only when compared to Particular do I see any "grey" in it. For those of you craving more greiges but are on a budget, I would definitely recommend hitting up your local Dollar Tree in search of Touch of Taupe. If Maybelline named it today I am sure it would be called Touch of Grey. Oh, that sounds like a Just For Men color!!!



From thumb to pinky: Revlon Grey Suede, Essie Playa del Platinum, Essie Great Expectations, Essie Body Language, Color Club Who Are You Wearing?

I know most of these are super light, but I wanted to find colors in between Playa del Platinum and Who Are You Wearing. WAYW looks super light, almost pink in this picture. It was a royal PITA to apply. It may end up in the swap box. I would reach for Body Language if I was going for a nude-on trend but not mushroom-color. Great Expectations surprised me, I thought it would be super streaky but settled down after only 2 coats. ALL were two coats, except the pesky CC.

PdP is still super unique and I love it. Somehow the new Resort Essies have become HTF, which is a problem for me because I promised my wife-across-the-seas I would send her some no matter what! I got mine at Ulta on buy 2 get 1 free, but the sale was soooooooo good that there are non left. And we all know the story with the e-tailers. Hmmm..........

My First Blog Tag!

I was awarded this blog tag by DragonRhia of Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes, my first ever blog tag! Thanks so much sweetie, I am lucky I have you and several other warm and welcoming ladies to show me the way!

The rules are as follows:

Make a post about the award including the picture and mention the person who gave it to you.

Put the award on your blog.

Let your nominated 10 know you've awarded them by leaving a comment.

I tag:

Imperfectly Painted

For the Love of Nails

A Day in the Life

Nails Beautiqued

My Lucid Bubble

"Of Faces and Fingers"

Little Music Boxes

R3 Daily

LACQUERIZED

Le Vernis Chocolat

and #11, which is breaking the rules, but sometimes you gotta f* the rules!!!

Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss

Dollar Tree Find: Maybelline Taupe Tulle

I love finding polishes at Dollar Tree! You never know what you will find. I have this thing where I buy every single shimmery nude polish I find. Some are great, some not so much. Some make your nails look long and elegant, some make your nails disappear into "mannequin hands," and some just look plain old bad!



I love how long my nails look in the above picture!



I went thru 5 shimmery nude polishes this morning. This is the only one that survived the purge, but the rest will be used for frankens! With my DT glitter that genalewis from MUA clued me into!!! If you ever have trouble with glitter in your frankens sinking to the bottom, use a base that's not clear, it will help suspend the glitter! Here is what I mean...



What do you use for your frankens?

Mini VNS Haul!

ChG Pink Rox-E, No Name Yet, Towel Boy Toy, Blue Hawaii, Calypso Blue, Meteor Shower, Color Club Take Me to Your Chateau, 0-60 TC

My Current Favorite Greiges Part 1

I actually put this up on the NB a week or so ago, but I wanted to do it again, only better. I thought if I put this up today, it would make me actually work on Part 2 tomorrow!



thumb - Revlon Grey Suede... not grey at all! pretty shimmer
index - Essie Playa de Platinum... still unique!
middle - Petites - Vintage Gray.. still not grey! very close to...
ring - CC High Society... yes! one that doesn't claim to be grey! griege that has a teeny tiny bit of purple... slightly darker than Vintage Gray
pinky - Rimmel Steel Grey... i finally caved and bought it, love it!

for reference my face is NC20, and all are 2 coats

My first BB Coutures...

I can't stop staring at my left hand. I swatches two polishes i received, one yesterday and one today, both BB Couture... and I don't want to take them off! I don't think it would look horrible as a mani, do you?



Index and Ring - Man Bug
Middle and Pinkie - Frosty Meadow

I can't decide which of them I like better. My very first BB Couture's, and they are both green! When I got into nail polish a few months ago, if you asked me what my favorite polish color was I would have said blue. Months later, I come to find out I was wrong. My true favorites seem to be green!!!



Can you believe how good this looks? I took this picture at 7:00pm on a grey and cloudy day and they both look incredible. Now I know why everyone is crazy over BB Couture. This is 3 coats, well worth every single one. I love the jelly/micro glitter combo, it is fantastic.

So what BB Couture should I look for next? Here is my wish list!
Award Medal ***
Coal Miner***
Dragon's Breath
Golf Pro
Impact Driver
Incognito
Little Deuce Coupe
Midnight Malibu
Moon over Manhattan***
Napa Valley
Night Ops
Sea of Cortez
Opposites Attract
Venice Party
Pipe Bender
Stud Finder

I know, I know... I have a long wishlist!

Hidden Treasure gets me in the end...

I admit it. I was one of the people "turned off" by Hidden Treasure. I was so SICK of hearing about it I avoided the NB like the plague!

And then,

NanRx offered to send me her extra bottle. Um, yes please?!?

I am embarrassed to say when the package came, I did a little happy dance!!!

So here is is, in all its glory! I paired it with OPI Funky Dunkey (why is this not Funky Donkey?) because I thought it would be awesome over purple!!!



I actually own GOSH Rainbow, but I find this easier to work with. The huge SH brush that I usually find hard to control was awesome for applying flakies, only 1 stroke covered the whole nail. It dried quickly too, which is great. Have you noticed the NYX flakies NEVER DRY? Purple Ave is cool but it turns all the dry polish beneath it into mush. Yuck.

Back to the pretties!!!







That's it for now, what is your favorite color to layer Hidden Treasure over?

Pink Flamingo is not Coral...

Last night on Twitter I asked my good friends for help. I was in a polish rut, after a week of wearing dusty colors (specifically RBL Diddy Mow and 360), @EvilAngel6 and @C_is_for_Cathy recommended I do a coral. Wonderful, I thought to myself. I love when other people make up my mind for me. So I rounded up what I thought were all my coral polishes. In the dark, I thought I had found five corals. In the daylight, not so much...