Weekend Beauty - Nail Polish: Butter London Favorites

Butter London is a company from...Seattle, which specializes in "non-toxic lacquers and nail treatments". Nostalgic for Britain, I fell for the names of polishes in the collection. Having tried a couple of shades, I came back for more. I have no problems with texture or longevity of the lacquers. My only issue with Butter London are cumbursome caps on their bottles. It is very hard to hold the chuncky rectangle of plastic while trying to apply the polish. I must have been not the only one dispelased with the caps, as now the brand is replacing them. Newer bottles have a "double cap", rectangular cover and the actual, smaller, easier-to-hold cap. As for the shades, here are my favorites, in alphabetical order: Billy No Mates. Butter call it "pale dove grey", but really it is very light sky-blue-grey-whitish color, fit or a Snow Maiden, quite unique: Dolly Bird. Absolutely misleadingly presented on the site in a bottle colored bluish pepto-pink, this is in fact that rare thing, a neon CORAL shade. Bright, summery, pure joy of a color: Fash Pack. Every self-respecting line has to have a 'skanky'-dirty shade; Fash Pack is Butter's. A gray-taupe mushroom of a color. Again, misrepsented by a much grayer swatch on the site. Muggins. Possibly my favorite in the collection, a slightly "dusty" light lavender-lilac. The swatch on the site is too blue; they really need to do something about the misrepresentation. Swinger. Another favorite, a muted, slightly green gold that changes with the light and the angle. Tea with the Queen, a yummy politically correct nude-pink-beige that reminds me of the color of condensed milk. Thames. In my top 3 of Butters and definitely somewhere in the top 5 of favorite teals. Deep, dark, shimmer, a must have for the fans of the shade. Are you familiar with this line? Please, share your impressions and favorites. Available at butterlondon.com, $14.00 a piece.

Weekend Beauty: Makeup Miscellanea - New Discoveries

Discovery 1: Jouer Cosmetics. A new name to me, a line created by "makeup stylist" Christina Zilber. The favorite within the line- Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Wind, a nude beige-pink, a little softer than NARS's Orgasm. Might actually be another "universal" shade that suit "everybody". I apply it over Jouer's Lip Enhancer, "a nourishing and conditioning lip treatment with clinically proven Maxi-Lip™ to naturally increase the fullness of your lips while decreasing fine lines". I don't know if it is actually working, I'll report when the required 29 days have passed, if my cosmetics ADD does not flare up, but usually I wipe things like that off almost involuntary ("what's this grease on my lips?!"), and Jouer's actually does not feel "heavy" at all. I also like Mineral Powder Blush in Rose, a dusty rose shade; the Powder Eyeshadows in Pink Champagne, Amaretto and Chocolate and Cream Eyeshadow in Cashmere. The latter is good for those "I have nothing on, I am just naturally this dewy and sparkly" kinds of makeups. The fun (albeit gimmicky) thing about Jouer packaging is that containers can be attached to one another thus allowing you to create your own "palette" (which, when everything is attached, becomes too bulcky for the handbag, but whatever). Price range: $14.00-$24.00. Available at jouercosmetics.com and Henri Bendel. Discovery 2: an everything-proof eye-liner, Ink Artliner in Indigo Charm by Lancome. And I mean, everything-and-anything-proof. Hysterical "I don't care how I look right now, I will wipe my eyes with my hands if I want to" kind of sobbing, diving, sweating, you name it, it can withstand it. It stays on even when you WANT to wash it off. Yes, one of those "panda-eyes after repeated washing" products, but hey, it is great for a somewhat softer (because it is blue, not black) take on the Babette look that I seem to be drawn to 60% of the time, and it is indispensable in the heat of summer, on a vacation (to those of us who just have to wear at least some makeup on a beach) and for persons prone to chronic tearfulness. The latter wouldn't be me, of course. Available wherever Lancome is sold, $23.50. Discovery 3: Isomers Fast Lift Eye Serum. Also indispensable for the dramatic types, who toss and turn or cry or indeed party all night but want to look in the morning fresher and smoother than Bar Rafaeli. It has the more immediate smoothing effect than my previously beloved Chanel Precision. I don't know (yet) how it would prove itself long-term, and I might not be the best subject for such experiments, because I mostly remember to use it only after I've been, um, dramatic. Which, I suppose, is often enough, actually. Sold at shopnbc.com, for a very reasonable $25.75. Discovery 4: a rather perfect tinted moisturizer, Dr. Denese HydroShield Tinted Moisturizer in Medium. I struggle with moisturizers in general, as everything feels too heavy to me, and with tinted ones in particular, because it is impossible to find a suitable shade. This one is quite perfect (it "self-adjusts", you know), feels light but nourishing and is SPF 15. One irrelevant complain though, and I might be in the minority here, but I don't like seeing "Dr." on my skincare or makeup products. It makes me feel that I must be looking excessively unwell, so much so that only a prescription treatment would do. Dear future deneses, hauschkas, perricones and brandts, when seen on comsetics packaging, those abbreviations do not impress me much. Only on golden plaques next to neurosurgeons' names. HydroShield Tinted Moisturizer is available at drdenese.com, $27.50. What new products did you discover lately? Do share!

Weekend Beauty - Nail Polish: Mojito and Matte

The lime-mint green was on Chanel Autumn-Winter 2009 runway, and what's good for Chanel is almost always good for me. But- and it is not that I ammuch into seasonality of scents or polishes- I am more drawn to cool greens like that when the weather is hot. So here are the "mojito-green" favorites, with which I have been shocking innocent bystanders this summer: Orly Mojito Green. Goes on smooth, is thick enough in two coats, and as for the notoriously long drying time of Orly polishes, I can't comment on that anymore. Fast dry top coat is my new best friend. OPI Hey, Get in Lime! A cool, ethereal-green perfection of a color. Mermaids should wear this. Impeccable application. OPI Gargantuan Green Grape in matte (pictured on top too). That's right, I jumped on the bandwagon. And I will be happily riding it, with one single complaint: application! It is tricky, toput it mildly, especially in lighter shade like the Grape. It's bad enough with a light-colored cream, now imagine it in matte! I figured out that, to avoid bumps and streaks, the polish needs to be applied thickly and spread super-fast, as it dries almost immediately. But the shade is beautiful, and the nails with matte polish have such an oddly appealing "velvety" look and feel not at all coarse but "powdery-smooth" to the touch. And, although green it is not, here is another matte favorite of mine, as a bonus- OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. Black-purple perfection of a shade. Striking and stylish (perhaps better suited for nails slightly shorter, as it gives the longer ones a witchy look...although...so what, right?). Application of a dark matte polish was much easier, but...and I rarely complain about how long a polish lasts without chipping and peeling off , simply because I change shades so often...LPAD matte was chipping at the tips within hours of application. Still, it is a new vampy favorite. All available at TransDesign.com.

Weekend Beauty - Nail Polish: Summer Report

It's been a while since the last nail polish post, but now we'll get back into the swing of things, because it's not like I haven't been testing and buying. It's just that I haven't been writing. I will start with a nailathon. These are the polishes I loved in the last couple of months (unless otherwise noted, I had no problems with application, texture, etc. with any of these): Watermelon Rind from China Glaze's Summer Days 2009 collection: an amazing, deep teal with a lot of glitter. Lovey Dovey from Essie's Summer 2009 Collection: Essie calls it flamingo pink, I call pinks like that bimbo-pink. Love the lolitaesque barbieosity of the shade. Another -and very cheapo- bimbo-pink polish that got a lot of wear is the appropriately named Polyester Pink Cream from N.Y.C. A little too thick and streaky, but hey, it was $0.99. I don't wear a lot of pink clothes, if any, but I am a Pinkzilla nail-wise, so expect a long separate post on bimbo shades. I have also been in a mood for borderline vulgar fuchsias, like Orly Hawaiian Punch: ...and apricots, like Orly Secret Admirer: ...and reds, like Dashing Diva Park Ave Mistress But I couldn't get through summer with brighties and lighties alone. One needs to vamp it up once in a while. For that I had some Russkie OPIs: Boris and Natasha unexpectedly felt quite at home on a beach Catherine the Grape made a Great manicure for an evening out: I am still in the throws of mad love for lilacs, violets and purples, and Petite Four by Orly, which I for some reason underestimated before, went really well with a lot of things in my wardrobe: But the polish I worn the most? The beloved Isis Purple by Nubar. Which, incidentally, makes an unbelievably long-lasting (I am talking a couple of weeks!) vacation pedicure. So what polishes did you enjoy this summer?

Weekend Beauty: Feeling the love for Ulta

By Donna I happen to live fairly near one of the brick-and-mortar Ulta Beauty stores. I had never even heard of it until a couple of years ago when I began to receive their promotional mailings when the store first opened. I had been wishing for a Sephora store in my city for a long time, and when we finally did get one I was a bit disappointed. I had read about the way Sephora used to be, a veritable palace of perfume, so although I enjoyed the variety of cosmetics, the fragrance selection seemed to be not much better than one would find at a large department store. I expected Ulta to be about the same, but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. The Ulta store was brightly lit and cheerful, in contrast to the dark and poorly lit Sephora I had visited. (I had wondered how they expected to sell cosmetics that way.) The store had pretty much the same range of prestige makeup and skin care brands as Sephora– Stila, Smashbox, Murad, etc. and a user-friendly display of fragrances that was in alphabetical order. Okay, that was all up in the front; what was in the back? Amazingly, it seemed as though two more entire stores were back there – a complete range of drugstore brand makeup and personal care items, priced below retail, and a truly stunning array of top hair care products, including more hair dryers than I had ever seen in one place before. Frederic Fekkai, Paul Mitchell, John Frieda, Redken, Matrix were all there, and quite a few I knew nothing about. A full service salon is attached to the store as well. To top it all off, a massive island in the center of the store contained Ulta’s store brand color cosmetics, and the selection was huge. Now this, I thought, is what I call a superstore. The staff was friendly and not at all pushy, which at first I attributed to the store being newly opened, but it’s that way every time I go there. I always look forward to it, whether I am stocking up on goodies or just pop in for a drugstore item or two while I am out shopping for something else. (Not too long ago, my old hair dryer quit, and I got in on a door-buster special at Ulta for a Wigo pro quality tourmaline hair dryer – I paid $30, it normally sells for about $80. Have I mentioned how much I love Ulta?) My favorite thing about Ulta is the fabulous deals you can get on their store brand cosmetics. I am a fan of their lipsticks, especially the Sheers, and they have frequent specials on all their color cosmetics. The lippies start at $8 and they are department store quality; I try to stock when they have a BOGO special, which is often. To illustrate the kind of value you can get by going for the store brands, I recently decided to change primers for summer. I really liked the Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy Luminizing Face Primer I had been using, but in summer I am always too shiny, so I wanted to try something that would give my skin a more matte appearance for hot weather. Ulta was running a special on their store brand Professional Foundation Primer, which normally goes for $18. The special deal was buy two get two free, so I paid $36 for the lot. I had never tried it before, but I figured I would spend that amount for just one tube of Smashbox Photo Finish in the same one-ounce size. As it turned out, it seems to be my Holy Grail primer, as it has mattifying powders in it to cut shine, and it works equally well with mineral powder, tinted moisturizer or regular foundation. It’s not overly slick either, so if you need to put some concealer on after you apply makeup it blends in beautifully. With four pump bottles in my stash I should be good for the rest of the year at least. If you don’t have a store nearby, they have a great Web site, free shipping with orders over $50 (with frequent $25 free shipping promos), and four free samples with every order. It really is one-stop shopping for everything except fragrance; like Sephora they have mainly mainstream scents, but a very nice range of them, and they do get the new releases right away so you can try what’s current. If you do live near one of the stores, I hope you are already shopping there – if not, I recommend it very highly. There are a lot more of them now than when I first walked into a store, so check the site’s Store Locator page to see what might be close to you. Image source: Ulta Glam & Go 52-piece color set – if you can’t find a shade you like in here, you’re just not trying. From Ulta.com.

Weekend Beauty- Nail Polish: Strangebeautiful Library No 2

Strangebeautiful™ offers "libraries" of nail polishes, which change every season. Each library consists of 8 polishes, which can only be bought as a set. Strangebeautiful's intent is to develop a new creative approach to nail color and position themselves more as an accessory rather than just a nail color line. The polishes are 3 Free. So far there has been two libraries, I had a chance to try on the second one, released for Spring 2009. The bottles, rather irritatingly, have no names on them (and to me, the names of polishes are half the fun!), so I am going by the descriptions on Luckyscent with some and will make up the names for the others: "The dull red color of a lobster shell" or one might call it brick-red. I like these kinds of muted, rusty reds. The polish was thick enough to be suffcient in two coats and applied smoothly: "The dark dense saturated black purple inspired by the venerable J. Herbin ink company founded in 1670." More of a purple-indigo, perhaps. Again, great consistency, a 2-coater. "The slate blue color of a uniform in an 1846 Currier print," my second favorite in the library. Somewhat reminiscent of Rescue Beauty Launge Stromy, only darker and bluer. Perfect application. Then there were two "mustards" (term mine): "The Brown Mustard" is ...inexplicable color-wise. I am sorry but it looks like...no, never mind. Perhaps, it just really, really clashed with my skin tone. No problems with application though. "The Yellow Mustard"- a wonderfully original, muted yet bright (that's right) color, which did not flatter my skin tone, but which I loved nevertheless "The Taupes" were easy for me to like. I only have about a dozen of these sorts of shades in my collection. "The Grayer Taupe" had the mushroomy quality that I love: "The Warmer Taupe" reminded me pleasantly of the color of baked milk: But the best, to me, was "The Olive Green" polish. It had the muted, earthy quality, a slight gray undertone, it was like nothing else I own or have often seen in other lines. Overall, I thought that the Library No 2 offered fairly unique, earthy and edgy shades. The polishes applied well, had great coverage, dried fast. Would it be worth it for me to splurge on a $79.00 set for just the olive, the slate and the two taupes...I am thinking about it. Available at Luckyscent.

Weekend Beauty: At last, truly matte eye shadows from Revlon, and Lancôme’s Spring 2009 color winners

By Donna Shopping for just the right eye shadow can be frustrating if you can’t try it first. So many of them appear different in the pan than how they actually look on your lids. For me, the biggest problem is finding colors are both age-appropriate and flattering, as well as being fun to wear. I love color, but if it’s too pastel or too bright it looks odd on me, as much as I might like it in theory. The other problem is shine – so often I find what I think will be a good one but it has too much glitter for daytime wear, or in my case too much glitter period – my eyelids are starting to get a little middle-aged like the rest of me so a lot of sparkle just does not work. Recently I had the pleasure of having a makeup application from the Lancôme national team at my local Macy’s. They were running a promotion for the spring color line and the goody bag offer was even better than their usual GWP so I made an appointment. I asked the makeup artist to try out some new eye colors on me, since I was in the market for change. She obliged with a fabulous smoky eye look in a blend of burgundy and brown shades that made my hazel mossy green/brown eyes look really green. So I bought the Le Stylo Waterproof Long Lasting Eyeliner ($23.50) in Prune from that session; it is an automatic pencil style liner that has a smudging sponge on the other end and the color is fabulous. (Now I want it in all the other colors!) The GWP had a Color Design quad shadow and two of the colors are Waif, a silky-smooth pinky-taupe and Latte, a pretty cream color, both matte shadows that are really flattering. These shades are part of the Color Design ($16.50 for the singles) range in the spring 2009 lineup and I recommend them highly. However, I also wanted to re-create the smoky eye look in a budget-friendly way, so I went looking for a shadow color to go with my new liner and the Latte/Waif shades. Who knew how hard it would be to find just the right one! So many colors and formulas, and so few in the right color range to complement the Prune eyeliner, a brownish purple. Even more annoying is how many that came close were too violet or blue and/or had too much shine for my taste. I finally found exactly what I was looking for, at a very friendly drugstore price: the new Revlon Matte eye shadows. The color range is limited but some new ones were added recently, one of which was precisely what I was looking for, Aubergine. It is a perfect companion to my new eyeliner and it goes on smoothly and blends very easily. As a bonus, the Peach Sorbet shade makes a great shadow base for any other colors or a highlight shade on its own, and it is rare to find a truly matte formula in this pretty icy peach color. It really “wakes up” your look. Best of all, they are only $4.99 each and the size is very generous. I am pondering getting a couple more, since it’s really hard to find a good teal or dark blue with no sparkle. Watch for specials and coupons from Walgreen’s, Rite Aid, and Target etc. on these winning products. Image credits: Revlon Matte shadows in Peach Sorbet and Aubergine from walgreens.com. Lancome quad with Latte, Waif, Mannequin and The New Black, eBay.com. (This was my GWP quad – Waif and Latte are on top. Mannequin is also very pretty, though slightly shimmery)