Red
MAC Nail Trend FW09 by Jin Soon
 BACKSTAGE AND FRONT ROW, NAIL TREND HAS ARRIVED! More than a colour statement, an of-the-moment approach that dazzles with innovation and style.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard the rumors that MAC is releasing a collection of six creme nail lacquers created by renowned nail artist Jin Soon. I met Jin last fall at her UES spa and she hinted at a future brand collaboration but wasn’t able to release details since it was still in the planning stages. Well, all I can say is BRAVO Jin! As a leading nail artist in the fashion and beauty industry, Jin has worked with top fashion designers like Oscar de la Renta, Derek Lam and Doo.Ri, as well as famed photographers Steven Meisel, Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz. She is a master at nail art (see March’s Teen Vogue) and a lover of editorial nail colors. When we met we discussed our mutual love of green and wow did she bring it to this collection. There are two, count them TWO, gorgeous greens in Nail Trend. Check them out! |
The deep green was chosen by the designer to work with the romantic, gothic look that makeup artist Tom Pecheux created using a palette of white, black and gray MAC products. When asked about the inspiration for the colors Jin said, “My husband is an architect, and I am constantly drawing inspiration and colour ideas from his creations. I also have tons of exposure to fashion trends through my work at the fashion shows and on magazine shoots. I wanted to create colours that were not only incredibly fashion-forward and edgy, with an editorial feel to them but also were totally wearable for the everyday women. I love all of the colours but am especially excited about the green hues: Dry Martini and Beyond Jealous. I think come Fall ‘09, green is going to be THE colour.” We are so on the same wavelength because I couldn’t agree more! I had the opportunity to test a few of the colors prior to launch and while some MAC colors give me application issues, the three I tried were fab. I’ve always said that MAC does dark and shimmery shades best and these are no exception. All three are well pigmented and applied with no streaking. Only Dry Martini required three coats. Dry Martini – is a deep olive that leans towards brown, like a dark army camouflage green. It’s edgy and funky and a nice change from the more emerald/forest shades we’ve seen in seasons past. In case you’re wondering, and I’m sure you are, it’s much darker and more browned than last fall’s RBL No More War. The MAC Nail Trend collection by Jin Soon launches on August 27th and the polishes retail for $12/ea. You can buy them online at MACCosmetics.com and at MAC counters nationwide. You know I’ll be first in line to pick up bottles of the rest of these colors. I can’t even think about Beyond Jealous and Cool Reserve not being in my life. Which ones will you be adding to your collection?
Dance All Night‘s brick red hue reminds me of one of my all time fave OPI reds, That’s An “EL” Of A Color, minus the golden shimmer. It’s rich, warm and very fall.
For Fun is just that, a spunky, bright red-grape. It’s a bit more red based looking in person but I just couldn’t capture it dead on.
The entire Nail Trend lineup includes:
Cool Reserve – DIRTY GREY LAVENDER
For Fun – RICH CLEAN PURPLE
Dance All Night – BRICK RED
Dry Martini - KHAKI OLIVE GREEN
Rich, Dark, Delicious – RICH BLACKENED BROWN
Beyond Jealous – BLACKENED BLUE GREEN
Lippmann “Celebrate” 10th Anniversary Collection
 This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Deborah Lippmann‘s eponymous brand and to celebrate, she’s releasing a limited edition set of nail polishes to be sold during Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale. The set, appropriately named Celebrate, includes two brand new colors, Ruby Red Slippers and Funky Chunky, and brings back the sparkly hit from last year’s Holiday Collection, Superstar.I had the pleasure of meeting Deb backstage at New York Fashion Week last February where we discussed her uniquely gorgeous bottle design and excitement over her upcoming shades. Check out what she had to say and get a look at the colors, after the jump! |
One of the standout features of a Lippmann polish, besides the actual lacquer, is the elegant bottle design. It’s a distinctive showpiece. Given the chance to pick Deb’s brain, I of course had to ask her about the bottle’s background.
“We aren’t going to do nail care if it’s not sitting out. It’s something I learned working in fashion. I realized that even in the fashion world where every detail is so important, it was the last thing anybody thought of. It was the first detail to go.”
“I thought women aren’t taking care of their nails because we throw our bottles in a drawer, in a closet. I really wanted, particularly for the treatment bottles that are used more often, I wanted something you would be proud to put next to your fragrance bottles.”
She wanted it to look like a jewel. Something you want to touch and stare at with a very stable base and an easy to hold handle. It was a concept she had in her head that she searched and searched and searched for. With mentors and friends like Martha Stewart and Cher, their product and branding knowledge were invaluable in helping her choose the final bottle design.
For the Celebrate set, Deb wanted to go for all out glam as seen on the spring runways, creating two new sparkling shades to pair with the over-the-top glitz of Superstar. Each shade consists of a dark sheer base packed with glitter, sequins or a combo of both.
Due to the sheerness of the base, three coats were necessary to get them truly opaque and because we’re talking about particles suspended in polish, the dried surface does have texture until you apply a top coat.
Ruby Red Slippers has become popular amongst Deb’s celeb clientele. She applied it to Lady Gaga for a photo shoot last month and Oscar winner Marion Cottilard went crazy for it as well. Metallic red glitter and hexagonal sequins are floating in a sheer black creme giving the look of crushed jewels on the nail.
Funky Chunky is a black, jelly-like creme filled with black sequins. Three coats build up to an opaque, glossy finish and as the polish dries, the layers of sequins start to rise to the surface.
Making a return from last holiday, Superstar is a semi-sheer brown creme loaded with bronze glitter.
As with any glitter polish, removal is a chore. You end up finding random sequins on your hands. And due to the size of the sequins, they don’t apply evenly to the nail so don’t expect a uniform look.
The Lippmann Celebrate 10th Anniversary Set is available for pre-order now on Nordstrom.com for $35 and will launch online at LippmannCollection.com in August.
Zoya Dare Collection Review and Swatches
 Zoya Dare has landed and after much anticipation, I’ve got your first look at them on the nail. As you may remember, the Dare collection of Zoya’s Truth or Dare Fall lineup is a group of chic, dramatic shades with five cremes and one shimmer. Let’s get right to it and check out the colors, shall we? |
With the exception of Ibiza all the Dare collection polishes are cremes. They all glide on smooth and even in spite of the formula’s thickness. The shades are well pigmented requiring only two coats and dry with a high gloss shine.
Demi is a midtone reddish purple, you might call it a mauve. In the bottle it looked a bit Barney-ish but it’s a very pretty on the nail.
Ciara has a sundrenched raspberry look about it. Don’t get me wrong it’s vivid and rich, not at all dusty, those are just the first two words that came to mind when looking at it. 
Vanessa is a berry based cool red. It applies very close to bottle color on the first coat which is always a plus with reds.
Pinta is the definition of burple (bluish purple). It definitely leans way blue but you can see its purple roots in bright light. My issue is that it’s so dark that unless you’re in sunlight, you’re the only person who will know how truly stunning this shade is.
For that reason I decided to take a sunlight shot of it. You see I shy away from direct sunlight swatching because I find it to be SOOOO inaccurate and I don’t want you kids buying a color and being disappointed when it looks NOTHING like what I showed you. So for the purposes of displaying the base color only, I did this sunlight shot for you.
Envy is a mossy deep forest green that has an earthy, camouflage feel to it. What’s funny is that as I applied it, the first coat had a graininess that looks like watercolor which I originally mistook for shimmer. With the second coat it’s pure glossy creme. Though if you want the bottle color and not an “almost black” make sure you apply two thin coats. Three is way too much.
Ibiza is a shimmery deep sapphire blue. The color is so dark and the shimmer is so subtle that you barely notice it outside of direct sunlight. Honestly, I love Indigo, with its multi-colored micro-glitter, so much that Ibiza is just OK for me.
The Zoya Dare Collection polishes retail for $6/each and are available for PRE-ORDER now on Zoya.com with a ship date of July 15th.
So all my DARE girls out there, what do you think?
Zoya Matte Velvet Review and Swatches
 I doubt you can take any more buildup over the new Matte Velvet collection from Zoya so I’m happy to be able to FINALLY share the goods with you. As I’ve previously stated, Matte Velvet is Zoya’s entry in the emerging matte nail polish trend. The lineup includes three shimmering shades in a unique matte finish formula. Check them out after the jump! |
Right off the bat, I was already loving these polishes WAY more than the OPI Mattes (La Paz being the lone exception) due to the shimmer. It keeps the polish from looking like flat wall paint which for me is a good thing. And unlike slapping a layer of matte top coat on a shimmery polish (see below) this polish is truly matte and non-reflective.
We need to discuss for the formula for a sec before jumping into the swatches. Like the OPI Mattes these polish dry SUPER FAST so make haste when applying. They’re also pretty thick and can EASILY go on uneven. In fact, I had to redo a couple nails because I wasn’t quick or accurate enough. Though the bonus of them drying so fast is the lack of wait time. You can be out the door in 5 minutes with these polishes.
Again, we’re faced with the no base coat rule which I really don’t understand. As you remember from my experiment with the OPI Mattes the only decent wear was while using a base coat. If anyone with chemistry knowledge can riddle me why this is the recommendation, I know we’d ALL appreciate it. (CHECK UPDATE BELOW)
Posh is a deep burgundy shimmer. It looks very berry-ish when wet but dries more red wine.
Loredana is a chalky charcoal shimmer matte (sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it?) that reminds me of cement. It was the thickest and most difficult to apply of the three and also my least fave. Not like a thumbs down least favorite but more like non-essential to my life.
When I first slapped it on last Friday I was all, “Rut-roh! Me thinks I see a Man Glaze dupe. Drama!!” but it’s clearly not. Fuggen Ugly is more gray with a subtle satin sheen while Loredana has a cooler, blue undertone that is completely flat. If I’m being honest, even though I hate the brand name (Man Glaze, really? Double entendre much?), I prefer the formula.
Dovima is a black shimmer that reminds me of honed black granite. It’s another shade that leans a little cool instead of being a true black. I imagine due to the silver shimmer.
To give you an idea of how these compare to a traditional polish with a matte top coat, I paired Dovima with CND Hyde In The Dark topped with Nubar V for Men Matte Finish Nail Protector (that’s a mouthful!). The matte top coat not only lightened the look of Hyde but it also left a satin finish instead of a true matte.
In regards to the wear, I threw on Loredana last Friday and after taking a shower on Saturday it was so badly chipped I had to take it off before being seen in public. It wasn’t like cool chipping (not that I really think that exists). It was more like you’re-too-lazy-go-home-and-make-love-to-your-polish-remover chipping! Since I could give two figs about going to work with a broke down mani, I’ll be testing the formula with & without base coat this week and reporting the results on Saturday.
EDITED TO UPDATE – Answer regarding base coat usage courtesy of Zoya’s Leo Reyzis:
The film properties of matte formulas are not consistent with the properties of regular polish therefore when one gets applied over the other there is a different rate of drying which causes distortions in the surface tensions of both films, best seen as ridges and valleys that will form on the polish surface (as well infinitely endless drying time). If a basecoat is still desired you must wait for base to dry completely for matte formulas to be applied on top. This may help extend wear however the surface must be completely dry and residue free prior to applying matte formula.
That totally makes sense since I did report poor OPI Matte application when using a basecoat. Thanks for the answer Leo!
The Matte Velvet nail polishes retail for $6/ea and can be pre-ordered now on Zoya.com with a July 1st ship date.
So all you matte haters? What do you say now? Matte lovers… are you like totally dying or what?
The ALU Archives – CND Wildfire
 The ALU Archives focuses on older, beloved shades from the All Lacquered Up stash.
Mr. ALU is as much a fan of red as I am of green. Together we make the perfect holiday-themed team. In the 10 years we’ve been dating, he has owned two red Grand Ams, flocks towards red clothing every time I can actually get him to shop and continually compliments me anytime I don a red manicure. So this week’s Archives selection is all for him. It’s a shade that when I put it on, he not only noticed but said “Wow, I like that color.” As I’m sure you ladies know, that’s major in man-speak.
So read on to check out my flaming red mani in CND Wildfire. |
What really impresses me is how CND has perfectly combined pigmentation and smoothness of formula. Wildfire is practically a one coat red yet its viscosity is so thin you’d think it a sheer. Every time I put on one of their polishes I hope for new colors to release because the formula is just that damn fabulous! The color itself is a cherry red with a hint a berry in its base. You can’t really see that as you apply it but as the lacquer floats down the bottle neck and thins out, it’s there. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the only complaint that comes with the CND formula is dry time. I’ve seen so many MUA nail board girls bitch about getting sheet marks and dents even after waiting up to an hour for the polish to dry. Drying tip: Use CND products with the polish. Product lines are formulated to work best with the accompanying products. Look at the Zoya Color Lock System for example. When I use Ridge Out base, Super Shiney top and SolarSpeedy Spray I can touch, even press my fingers on the polish, after only 20 minutes without leaving a mark. What do you think fanatics? Feeling the fiery red?
Wildfire has been all over the runways the past two seasons at shows like Tibi, for spring, and on Retro Barbie for fall. A classic red like this transcends trends in its timelessness.
CND Wildfire is available at salons and spas across the country and of course, our favorite e-tailers have it too.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
