[Chanel] Coco Blue

Coco Blue is the light blue varnish from Les Jeans de Chanel, which were released at this year’s Fashion’s Night Out. I’m into blue polishes these days, and Coco Blue has a slight pearly shimmer finish.

Application went well, three coats.

Now for some random stuff! I was looking for a varnish matching my favourite pair of high heels and considered (left-right) Coco Blue, Nouvelle Vague and Riva. Riva comes very close, although it’s still a tad lighter than the shoes. But probably only a minority of people would notice it. 😉

This is a picture of Les Jeans de Chanel taken by a friend of mine with his iPhone, and I got his permission to publish it (thanks again!). I didn’t know that they come with such a good camera! (Of course I knew that they contain a built-in camera. ) Nicely captured!

I use my mobile phone quite rarely and mainly for making phonecalls or sending texts; it’s switched off most of the time and I always forget switching it back on, which I must do, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to remember my PIN one day…

Another event: It’s Filmfest Hamburg currently, so I’m a bit busy again.

It actually started yesterday, but we were at a friend’s birthday party (thus I couldn’t go to the movies – but the party was sweet, I met nice people and had yummy things to eat, including a variety of starters/antipasti, as well as tiramisu), and when we went past the movie theatre, in which the opening event took place, there were loads of people surrounding the Red Carpet. I’m not into all that celebrity stuff but many interesting films will be screened, and I love particularly smaller, independent productions.

[Chanel] Clair-Obscur

This is a vanish from the Les Vernis Facettes collection, which must be an older one, since it has been discontinued for a long time. All shades of Les Vernis Facettes are iridescent if not even duochrome; Clair-Obscur shifts between lilac and yellow/gold (although the yellow part is quite hidden). Notice the mattified appearance of the outer square cap as well as of the bottle.

Three coats; Clair-Obscur also has a pearl finish. It’s a lovely shade and quite extraordinary.

[SpaRitual] Love Your Mother

SpaRitual polishes are completely vegan, but I particularly like their bottle shape and the cute names of some of their varnishes. This is Love Your Mother (probably alluding to Mother Earth), a dusty pink.

Unfortunately, the formula of Love Your Mother is pretty runny. It took me three coats to achieve opacity. But the result is beautiful; this makes a nice autumn colour as well.

Love Your Mother is similar to Chanel’s Rose Confidentiel; both share the same colour family. The left pop-up stick shows Rose Confidentiel, while Love Your Mother is on the right.

[Dior] Nuit d’étoiles/Sparkling Blueberry

This is one of my favourite Dior polishes, sadly a discontinued one, as you’ll notice from the old bottle. Sparkling Blueberry, or, Nuit d’étoiles, is simply stunning with its silver glitter in a blueberry jelly base.

The glitter is quite dense.

Two coats, a starry night on the nails. Moreover, it dries quickly and is easy to apply.

Unfortunately, it seems to be very hard to find. 😦

[Dior] Aloha

Ha ha, I’m quite late with this, especially because this is another older swatch from July. But currently my cuticles are in a terrible condition; they are quite dry. Anyway, I’ve got loads of ‘older’ swatches to show. – Aloha was part of this year’s summer collection, a bright creamy orange.

Two coats. Probably this might be nice for Halloween, too. (Although it’s definitely a summer-themed varnish.)

I am glad that I actually like semolina and rice pudding – it’s true! – because for the last three days, I couldn’t eat anything else – but my toothache as well as the post surgery pain are gone. 🙂 For Saturday, we’ve been invited to join friends for dinner and I hope I will be fine by then.

[Essie] Ruby Slippers

Today I’ve had a wisdom tooth extracted, rather unexpectedly. I was actually consulting the dentist because I was suffering from terrible toothache since Saturday, and he decided to pull put the tooth, which at first gave me a little shock. I think the last time when I had a tooth extracted was when I was about 12, so it’s been ages ago. But he’s a great dentist and thus I didn’t feel anything, no pain at all; I’m still a bit dizzy from anaesthesia but overall fine.

Moreover, my Les Jeans de Chanel have finally arrived so that later in the day, I’ll pick them up. 🙂

Here is Ruby Slippers by Essie, already a classic. Red and copper glitter in a red jelly base.

The glitter is quite dense. Two coats.

ManGlaze Royal Matterimoaning, Mayonnaise and OPI Red Shatter

This turned out to be a Union Jack mani (or Stars & Stripes). 😉 It’s an older pic from about July when my nails were still shorter.

Initially, I wanted to try Red Shatter over Mayonnaise, since I thought it might be another sick idea for Halloween, like blood stains over… a shroud or whatever cloth. (I definitely watch too many horror movies!) But then I remembered Royal Matterimoaning and combined all three. Nevertheless, Red Shatter and Mayonnaise look great together.

By the way, ManGlaze have launched their new FAIL collection, six shades to die for; check out their Facebook page. Wish they would resume international shipping again because I need them all!

[Dior] Tuxedo (+ Updates)

Finally, Tuxedo is mine! It’s a dark ink blue with shimmer.

I’ve been craving for this for ages; it is still not available at my favourite and usual Dior counter until today and I have no idea why. ❓ They had the tester a couple weeks ago in the display but the actual polish had not been delivered… I was so close!

As for this one, I got it rather unexpectedly when we went to a different part of the city yesterday, approximately a 20 minutes metro ride away; we never go there, but my little one got a sinusitis and thus we went to see the ENT doctor. Almost next door is a shopping centre with a small Karstadt department store, which still held the entire Blue Tie Collection.

Tuxedo is pretty opaque with just one coat (however, I used two for the pictures and, yes, I bumped the ring finger…).

Blue Denim, the second blue varnish of the Blue Tie collection, is here.

Update: Nail pop up swatches with Blue Satin on the left and Tuxedo on the right. Seems that Blue Satin is a tad darker (containing a hint of black, at least when compared to Tuxedo); moreover, the shimmer particles in Tuxedo are bigger too, they almost look a bit like microglitter, but they aren’t.

Another update… New swatches from March 2012. 🙂 Two coats.

Artificial light.

Natural light, but cloudy.

Sunlight.

[Chanel] Riva

Everyone knows Riva, which came out last year. It’s a pale baby blue with a slight shimmer.

Unfortunately, application was’t very easy, since Riva is pretty sheer. I used four thin coats to achieve opaqueness and until I liked the result. Nevertheless, Riva is beautiful and worth the struggle.

Sparkles! 🙂 (Direct sunlight.)

Close-up.

Inside – only a subtle shimmer.

Something different.

9/11 anniversary is approaching and I’m not sure whether I should post a swatch (my current mani is Chanel Riva). Ten years already! On 11 September 2001, I was… on a plane back to Birmingham (UK), a second-year Business Studies & CompSci undergrad. It sounds so weird. I didn’t know what had happened and thus everything seemed quite normal around me. I cannot remember whether I took the metro or got a taxi to my flat but I guess that I went by metro because any taxi driver might have told me about the attacks. At home, I had a cup of tea, unpacked my things, put a CD on and finally switched on the computer to check my emails when I saw the news on my Freemail account’s webpage. I immediately switched on the radio (I didn’t have a TV at that time) – and called my parents, who had learnt about the attacks while I was still on my way to Birmingham.

That was how I experienced 9/11/2001. Even weirder, I did the same trip on 9/11/2002 again (coincidence).