Glitter
Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring/Summer 09 Preview
Prepare for glitter bombing. That’s right, Ji Baek has put her spin on glitter polishes for her Spring/Summer 09 collection. Inspired by the sparkling, heavily embellished looks from the Spring 2009 runway shows, Ji wanted to make that luxe look affordable. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a metallic cocktail dress, you can bling your tips for a fraction of the price.
According to Ji, “I was the one who’d actually call up for those ‘price upon request’ items.” “Now I’m taking the subway, cooking at home, taking more yoga classes – with this economy, we’re all sifting our priorities.”
While the September shows of the Spring/Summer 09 lines preceded the economic meltdown in October 2008, Baek nonetheless was surprised at the excess of embellishment seen in the many collections.
“I’ve never seen so many sequins, embroideries, shimmering metallics and jewels sewn into fabrics. And price points seemed to reach all time highs, with a spangled Balenciaga dress going for $42,000 and jeweled Lanvin sandals for $2,200.”
This need for an affordable way to sparkle led Baek to create three “super-shiny glitter” nail polishes for Spring. “We have brights, bold prints and florals from past seasons. All we need to update our look is a bit of opulence on our fingers and toes.”
The polishes have much more glitter than polishes you’ve seen in the past – they sparkle like diamonds,” adds Baek, “It makes me giddy.”
These beauties make me giddy as well. You know my issue with glitter, the rough, bumpy finish. I did a quick swatch of each polish and while they are not what you’d call smooth, the glitter lays flat so all you feel is a bit of texture. I added a coat of Seche Vite and voila, texture gone.
Frugalista is gunmetal shot through with purple glitter.
In the spirit of our J.Crew to Jimmy Choo-loving First Lady, there’s Look Rich, Be Cheap – a mix of gold and purple glitter.
And for sifting through locally grown produce at the Farmer’s Market, there’s Locavore, a dazzling combination of gold, green, blue and silver glitter.
The RBL Spring/Summer 09 colors go on sale in early March. RBL mailing list subscribers will get first dibs so sign up now at RescueBeauty.com. Of course, full swatches and reviews will be posted after my trip.
Lippmann Holiday Sets Starring "Party Like A Rockstar"
So you’re looking for that perfect gift or stocking stuffer for your BFF or fellow fanatic. Maybe you’re doing an online secret santa through MUA or another forum. Well if your giftee is a nail girl like me, you really can’t go wrong with a present from Lippmann. Deborah Lippmann always comes up with the cutest sets and this year is no different.
When I saw the Party Like A Rockstar ($24) set online, I just had to get my paws on it. Mini LE Lippmann’s in a fun, sparkly bag, I’m sold! Plus it comes with Addicted To Speed top coat which I’ve been dying to try after reading raves on the MUA nail board.
Good Girl Gone Bad should definitely become a permanent shade in the Lippmann lineup. It’s a gorgeous berry sparkler. A heavily pigmented jelly type formula, this baby is packed with gold and red micro-glitter that dries smooth and shiny. I actually wore this for five days with NO top coat and it looked fresh the entire time with minimal tip wear. I honestly can’t praise this one enough. Please Deborah Please! Make This Perm!!
Devil In A Blue Dress is a dark blue-black creme. It’s ultra vampy but unless you’re in direct light, you’d never know it’s a blue. As you’ll notice in the pic, I had some pulling at the cuticle on my ring finger. I did this mani relatively fast and didn’t have time for a retry so it’s probably due to my own impatience. The other nails came out perfect. Does this color thrill me? No but, I have more blues than I could ever need. If your collection needs rounding out, this would be a great fit.
For me, Good Girl Gone Bad, Addicted To Speed and the cute bag (it’s now living in my purse filled with makeup) are reason enough to pick this set up. Addicted to Speed is a great quick drying top coat that, unlike others in its class, isn’t thick. So there’s no application tricks necessary and it wears like a dream. It really is a winning top coat even though the full size price tag is a bit hefty ($20). For now, I’ll just hoard the mini for times I really need to be dry in a flash and have my mani last.
So instead of an everyday pair of slippers, why not give something a little more pampering and luxurious like the Footloose ($29.50) loofah pedi slippers. They have natural loofah insoles that gently exfoliate your feet to ward off dead skin and stimulate soft, healthy skin. Or a pair of Bootylicious ($48) warming spa booties. You just warm the removable lavender sachet in a microwave oven for one minute and place in the booty for a hot aromatherapy treatment. They’re definitely going on my wish list.
If the Party Like a Rockstar colors aren’t quite what you were looking for, Lippmann has a bunch of different gift sets to fit any nail style.
The Pump Up The Jam Trio ($40) comes with Sarah Smile and Hard Rock hydrating nail hardener so you can go pretty and pink for day and dark and vampy at night.
The Superstar Trio ($40) and Holiday Trio ($40) both come with Rehydrating base coat and On A Clear Day top coat. Superstar and Holiday, from the limited edition Holiday color collection, are great choices for that blinged out party look.
Then there’s the Material Girl Essentials Set ($49) which includes Rich Girl hand and cuticle cream, 3 Stripper To Go pads and bottles of Cuticle Oil, Sarah Smile, My Old Flame and Hard Rock all in the plush Material Girl bag. It’s a great way to introduce your friends and family to Lippmann products with great classic nail shades.
For the more subtle nail look lover, pick up the An American In Paris ($21) french manicure set with bottles of Prelude To A Kiss, Amazing Grace and a Top/Base coat combo.
Right now LippmannCollection.com is offering FREE SHIPPING on ALL orders, for a limited time, and any order over $99 receives a set of Heaven In My Hand hand warmers (a $39.50 value). You can buy Lippmann products in person at Bath and Body Works flagship stores and Nordstrom.
Lippmann Collection for the Holidays
Deborah Lippmann was definitely in the party mood when she created her Holiday polish collection. For this holiday season, she’s got all your special occasion needs covered. Elegant and vampy, check! Blinged out, yep! Red and sparkly, got it! Light and frosty, done!
Following the Lippmann tradition of naming her nail polish creations after songs, she certainly made some interesting choices this go round. Though I’m not quite sure which version of “Maneater” she’s referencing: Nelly Furtado or Hall & Oates (did I totally date myself?).
Superstar consists of a milk chocolate brown creme packed with copper glitter. Very unique. It’s opaque with two coats but unfortunately, when you apply it, the glitter rests on top making the surface really rough. Two coats of Seche Vite made it smooth, which looks Ah-mazingly fun but, that’s a lot of bother unless you are a glitter fanatic.
Icing On The Cake is a frosty, light pink; a perfect compliment for the icy winter. It’s not something I’d wear but it’s a great evening option for women who normally wear neutrals and pinks. Now because this is a frost, application is tricky. You have to be real careful with your brush strokes.
Maneater is a deep dark chocolate creme. It’s definitely what you would call an “almost black.” My issue was that it required three coats. It was just too streaky to get it even in two. It could just be my application but due to that, it’s a pass for me.
Holiday is my hands down winner of the four. Though I’m not usually into reds, I do get drawn to them around holiday time. It’s all red and green for me and the glitzier, the better. So this color is right up my alley. The base has a jelly quality, similar to I Want Candy from last fall, only more pigmented. Add to that a boatload of magenta micro-glitter and you have a hit on your hands deserving of the Madonna song it’s named after.
Speaking of “Holiday”… I can’t hear that song without thinking about Truth Or Dare. I’m kind of a harmony geek when it comes to music. I can’t sing to save my life but I love hearing people harmonize. It’s the one talent I wish I possessed. And I loved watching the backstage moments when Madonna and her backup singers would practice the harmonies from “Holiday” before going on. There’s a brief moment of it in the clip below.
The Lippmann Holiday collection is on sale now. It’s currently out of stock on the Lippmann Website but you can also find the brand online at Beauty.com and in stores at Bath & Body Works flagship locations, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus and Nordstroms.
China Glaze Sleigh Ride for Holiday 2008
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling, too
Come on, it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
-”Sleigh Ride” lyrics by Mitchell Parish
The holidays are coming early kids. Have you made out your wish list? Because I did. Back in January I wished for an emerald green version of China Glaze Ruby Pumps named Emerald City and now it’s been fulfilled. It may not be called Emerald City but you won’t hear me complaining.
I showed you a sneak peak of the polish back in July when I talked about my visit with the women of China Glaze but now you can finally get a bottle of your very own. The Sleigh Ride collection is all you need for a truly blingtastic holiday manicure. Included in the set is the ultimate green dazzler, Emerald Sparkle, a glitzy silver, Tinsel, and core collection best seller, Ruby Pumps. All three are well pigmented, packed with micro-glitter and include that amazing China Glaze jelly finish. The glitter will cause the polishes to dry slightly matte and bumpy but a coat of Seche Vite brings out their brilliance and fire.
Emerald Sparkle! That so deserves an exclamation point. There aren’t enough words for how truly stunning this polish is. I couldn’t dream up a better green shimmer if I tried. Bravo China Glaze! You have just made my year. Not only have you created the perfect green but you made it PIGMENTED. Like seriously pigmented. What you see below is two coats and there’s no sign of nail beneath.
Tinsel will be your go-to color for New Year’s Eve bling. Better yet, can you imagine this icing your Emerald Sparkle tips? Totally over the top and not for everyday but come on, it’s the holidays. Live a little! Now Tinsel is not as pigmented as the other two polishes. What you see is two coats and there is still a bit of tip showing but with three coats, you’re solid.
Ruby Pumps is a classic, jazzy red, glitter bomb. For the past two years, this has been my holiday pedi choice. Originally introduced with the Wizard of Ohh Ahz collection Ruby Rumps is the lone survivor that made the China Glaze core lineup. A brilliant twinkling red, this is a great shade for conservative gals that aren’t ready for green but still want to up the ante on special occasions.
The China Glaze Sleigh Ride collection is on sale now at 8ty8beauty.com and will be arriving soon at Head2ToeBeauty.com. China Glaze is also carried at ULTA and Sally Beauty Supply. Call for seasonal collection availability.
Color Club Glitter Vixen for Fall 2008
Glitter me timbers! Color Club is going glam rock blingtastic for Fall. One of the two new collections from Color Club, Glitter Vixen’s glitz factor is no joke. Consisting of seven clear nail polishes packed to the hilt with glitter, these lacquers are not for the faint of heart.
Now you kids know I loves me some outrageous and sparkly nail colors but these are a bit much. Don’t get me wrong, they’re totally fun and for a special occasion I’ll be rocking the green (that’s a no brainer), blue and holo but the formula is what’s putting me off.
We all know that glitter polishes are a pain. They dry bumpy and are a b*tch to remove but these ones take the cake for me. Usually in a glitter polish, the base is pigmented so it doesn’t have to be as glitter packed but these are allllllll glittah! It took two coats of Seche Vite to get the surface smooth and removing the green was such a PITA (even using felt instead of cotton rounds) that I used a nail wheel for the rest of the swatches. The scratching was just too hard on my nails, sorry girls. So I’m showing the collection in both sunlight and artificial light on fake tips. All swatches use three coats of polish (two on my nails) and no top coat. Enjoy!
The Color Club Glitter Vixen collection retails for $1.99 each and is on sale now at 8ty8Beauty.com and coming soon to Head2ToeBeauty.com.
So what do you think gals? Too blingy or is there no such thing? What has you drooling?
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
