L'Oreal Rosy Macaron

You may have noticed that L'Oreal debuted their midsummer collection a few weeks ago, Made For Me Pinks, pink lipsticks, glosses, and nail polish ranging from pale ballet pink to bright magenta.  This polish line spoke to my classic-loving heart more than the summer jellies but they didn't feel very unique, except for one.  This is Rosy Macaron.

 First off, I have to give L'Oreal props for getting their cookie right this time.  A polish in this spring's Versailles Romance collection was named Macaroon Me Madly, and, as was pointed out here by Pushing Polish, a macaroon and a macaron are decidedly different, and only one is French.

Rosy Macaron is a vibrant ever-so-slightly salmon leaning rosy pink with a silver shimmer laced through it that translates as pearly on the fingertips.  The color is gorgeous and makes me feel to very timelessly chic and-- dare I say it-- French, like I should be sipping coffee and nibbling pastries, wearing sky high heels and all black at some cozy little pâtisserie.  The lovely feeling and imagery this polish conjures up for me truly makes the not so great formula worth the trouble.  I used three coats for full opacity, and, like most L'Oreal polishes, this does need it.  It's a little brushstrokey but it is self-leveling; it's thick and tends to pool.  The brush, which I'm usually very fond of in L'Oreal colors, was oddly cut on the bias.  I don't know if I got lucky and grabbed a wonky one or if this is how they're doing things now... either way, I don't like it.

... but like I said, I adore this color.

The L'Oreal Made For Me Pinks polish collection is available wherever L'Oreal products are sold for $5.99.  I got mine at Fred Meyer.

One more thing, because it made me happy-- when I have early shifts, aka banking hours, I like to go run the bleachers at the local high school when I get off work.  Yesterday, there was some sort of parent meeting on said bleachers so I had to adjust my course a little bit.  There were also a lot of kids around, and at some point, a group of three little girls decided what I was doing looked like a lot of fun, so they ran bleachers with me for a while :) Cool, no?

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! ♥

Butter London Poole

*press sample

Good morning!!  Yesterday I said I could easily live in Butter London's summer collection for the next couple months.  This polish is a large reason why.  This is Poole.

Poole is a pale robin's egg blue creme made special by a touch of dustiness.  It's a shade lighter and less green than your average Tiffany-style blue.  It's a beautiful and tranquil shade, the only creme in this collection, and the perfect complement to the shimmering foils and metallics that make up the rest of the group.  Butter London has the formula for light cremes down pat-- two coats is all I needed here for a streak free, high gloss finish.  Application is as easy as it gets with a creme.

Love!  Poole is indicative of everything that makes BL my favorite brand; totally and always worth the price tag.

Poole is available for purchase on the Butter London website for $15.  Like them on facebook to keep up to date on all sales and specials.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! ☼

*press sample

Butter London Sunbaker

*press sample

I adore this summer's collection from Butter London.  Rather than the bold, bright, and neon colors we're all used to seeing this time of year, these colors are all tropical paradise-- glistening sand, bronzed skin, champagne, and pristine waters-- completely gorgeous.  This is Sunbaker.

Sunbaker is a gleaming and warm burnt orange metallic packed with shimmer and a serious glow.  Remember Shag, the gorgeously glowy burnt copper metallic from Butter London's fall/winter collection from last year?  Sunbaker is its beautiful summer counterpart.  Sunbaker applies with typical Butter ease-- two coats, no unevenness, and NO brushstrokes.  Amazing.  I'm totally in love with this color and could easily live in this collection this summer.

So I have to say that BL got this color spot-on... It's reminiscent of the folks who lay out in the sun for hours on end, and indeed, it reminds me of a gal C and I passed every day on our honeymoon.  It didn't matter what we were headed off to do, what meal we were about to eat, there this gal was, lying poolside and turning this very color.  Wear your sunscreen and big brimmed hats, gals.  Porcelain is coming back in style.  Sunbaker-- pretty on the nails, not on the skin. ♥

Sunbaker is available for purchase on the Butter London website for $15.  Like them on facebook to keep up to date on all sales and specials.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! 

*press sample

Zoya Josie

Good morning!!  Do you ever look at a color in photos, then see it in real life and be a little surprised, not because the photos aren't color accurate, but because your mind was playing tricks on you?  The first swatches of Zoya Josie I saw were pretty much like mine, a light to medium blue-leaning green creme, but my mind wanted to see this, or even this, and despite it being another Steely Dan named color, I wasn't sure how much I needed another green creme in my life.

In the end, I decided it was highly necessary for me to have a polish named Josie in my collection (she's the raw flame, the live wire; she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire... with apologies to Walter Becker and Donald Fagen).

Josie is a beautifully unique green creme.  It's a true jade green, lighter in color and reminiscent of the beautiful carving stone and maybe a little of those cool Fire King glassware pieces that are so expensive right now.

Application was slightly difficult for me.  For some reason, I've always had some trouble with Zoya cremes-- the formula's a little on the thin side, it's a little hard to control, the brush deposits a little too much polish on my nail, even after I wipe the excess.  Still, the color is wonderful and is perfectly streak free in two coats.

Zoya Josie is part of this summer's Stunning collection of cremes and is available on Zoya's website or your local Ulta.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! ♥

Zoya Rikki

Hi again, you get an LLPT twofer today ;)  

I've been stalking my local Ulta since Mother's Day for the Zoya summer collections, Irresistible and Stunning.  They finally got them in this Sunday, like I think maybe they *just* unboxed them when I swooped right on in, lol.

A few of the polishes in these collections have musical names and aside from being gorgeous colors, the two greens are reminiscent of songs from one of my very favorite groups, Steely Dan.  This one is Rikki (as in, Rikki Don't Lose That Number), from the Irresistible collection.

Rikki is a cool, medium moss green foil.  It's a hard color to accurately describe.  There's a bit of yellow in here (which keeps it from giving me lobster hands, always a good thing) and enough blue to take it to the hunter green side of the spectrum.  It's a lighter blue, so the effect is a gorgeous and perfectly summer wearable and unique green.  It's got green, yellow, and a small smattering of copper shimmers.

If some of the foils from the last few collections have been a bit thick, Zoya's returned to perfect form with this one.  Rikki's got a formula of perfectly workable consistency and is beautiful in two coats.

Wearing a Zoya foil is such a treat, to me.  They look so magical going on, are so easy to apply, and have such an amazing finish.

I can safely say now that Zoya Rikki is available at your local Ulta for $8.  It's also available on Zoya's website.  Ulta is having a B2G1 sale this week, so I picked up a small bottle of Zoya Remove to try.  I've been a pure acetone devotee since I started painting my nails but if there's something that removes polishes like this with the same ease and with less dehydration, I'm all for it.  I'll report back with my thoughts, but I know a lot of you gals love it and I'd love to hear why.

Thanks for reading and may the day be gentle with you ♥

NARS Euphrate Eyeshadow

I don't read many of the really big blogs but I do like Pink Sith for lots of reasons.  She introduced me to my holy grail eyeshadow of all time, NARS Lhasa, and now she's done it again here, with NARS' summer 2013 single shadow, the gorgeous Euphrate.

Euphrate is a shimmery, silvery mint shadow.  I'm not extremely well-versed in eyeshadows, so this light non-neutral was a little outside the box for me.  NARS's formula is so temptingly silky though, and the color so lovely, that I had to take a chance on this.

Euphrate has what I'm learning is typical NARS good quality formula with minimal fallout, even as I used it to line my lower lashline.

It's a light, subtle color and a nice introduction to non-neutrals without being too far outside those parameters.  Having said that, because Euphrate is shimmery it will be the highlight of any look you create.  I initially tried it with one of my red lippies I've been loving so and that was too much.  There's a video of that look that will never see the light of day... you're just going to have to trust me on this... bright red lips plus frosty mint shadow is no bueno.  This eye is best done with matte and sheer peaches everywhere else.

 Top to bottom: NARS Euphrate eyeshadow, Revlon Matte Powder Blush in Perfectly Peach, and Estee Lauder All Day Lipstick in Mocha Pink

Here's a shot of the colors in action.  A pal in one of my facebook groups described it as ethereal and I like that description.  I love how light and pretty these look together.  While Euphrate isn't as versatile as my beloved Lhasa, it's a beautiful and summery alternative and a good way for a novice to play with different colors and textures.

Euphrate retails for $24 and is available on the NARS website and at Sephora.

One more thing.  I have a new blogging partner in crime who hangs out while I paint my nails and while I type out my posts.  She doesn't have a name yet so if something comes to mind, feel free to make a suggestion, lol.  For the time being she's my new velociraptor.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend, free from the wrath of hungry dinosaurs ♥

Essie Naughty Nautical

So I have a funny story about this one.  (Okay, it's not that funny.  Or interesting.  Feel free to skip ahead to the photos.)   

Yun at The Polish Hideout has been posting about the Essie Resort 2013 collection all week and I've been commenting on how pretty it is and how I need to quit tarrying and just get In The Cab-ana already.  I picked up the one I've been lemming most on my way home from work yesterday, and as I was drafting this post in my head last night, I had my intro all planned out.  It did not occur to me that I didn't have what I thought I had until I went to link back to Yun and found I was in the wrong collection entirely.

SO FUNNY!!! RIGHT?!?!

Anyhoo.  Essie Naughty Nautical is what I wanted, and what I got.  It's from the summer 2013 collection of the same name.

Naughty Nautical is a gorgeous medium-bright green leaning teal with a subtle shimmer.  I feel like it's the standout of this collection and I've got nothing like it in my growing stash of turquoise/teals.  I'm totally digging it on my fingers right now but I think it'll be the most awesome summer pedi color, too.

Everything I read about Essie says they have a notorious formula, and this one was... okay.  I used two coats.  The first was streaky and patchy, but the second evened out nicely.  The formula's on the thin side but applies thick.  The brush is very thin and is nice for my little nails.  I must say also that it looks like it might be a big time stainer, so I used a precautionary two layers of basecoat.

Doesn't it look so perfectly coastal town vacation home summery? :)  So pretty.  As I was applying this last night, I thought to myself, Self, you should create a scale measuring application difficulty depending on how adroit you are at painting your nails.  So, on the newly conceived LLPT Polish Application scale, lol, Naughty Nautical gets an intermediate.  This stuff does not apply itself and will likely require some cleanup.

Essie Naughty Nautical retails for $8 at Ulta and Fred Meyer (Kroger).

Thanks for reading and have a terrific day! ♥