Chanel L.A. Sunrise & Step One

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

This morning I was thinking of what color I'd like to use, and decided I should pull out a summery favorite that's been neglected for a while to unofficially start this summer. Since I ended last summer with Chanel's Robertson Collection, I thought I'd start Summer 2009 with one of them as well. It's tough for me to call a favorite from that collection since I really love them all, but since I wear yellows infrequently, I went with Chanel L.A. Sunrise. Want to hear the really good news about this Limited Edition Nail Polish? It's still available on Chanel's site, along with L.A. Sunset. Rodeo Drive and Melrose are gone, but the other two are still there.

Even though I truly love L.A. Sunrise, it's not the easiest yellow for application. Yellows are, for me, the most temperamental color for application, and this one took four coats to be even and opaque (as many do). Here she is in the sun.

I live the subtle glowy shimmer of this one, as you can tell by the dent I've put in this bottle of nail polish (it's all the way down to the 287!). That's makes the first half of the title.

The second half is Step One: My name is Siobhan, and I am a Konaddict. Yes, I did. I Konaded a Chanel LE! There was just so much plain space there, I had to do it. Perhaps once I am willing to admit that I am powerless over Konad and my life has become unmanageable, I'll be able to stop myself! Not in this twenty-four hours though...

So I let my four coats dry, then pulled out Konad plate M68, Konad Princess Nail Polishes is Cool Red and Apple Green, and had at it. Indi500fan, don't look!

This is one I liked better without the Konad, but I thought I'd start working Step Twelve by carrying the message to other Konaddicts and sharing my experience, letting you know that you are not alone. If I can stop just one active Konaddict from over-Konading as I have, particularly on a high end limited edition nail polish, my failure of a Konadicure will have been worth it.

That's all for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Cosme DeCorte Prism Illusion

Good morning, Dear Reader!

It seems that I'm just constitutionally incapable of leaving a creme nail polish alone. Yesterday after swatching, I added two coats of Cosme DeCorte Prism Illusion to my Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away manicure. It had to be done!

The Cosme nail polish is from Japan, so I can't read the ingredients to find out what's in it, nor am I familiar with the restrictions on chemicals in cosmetics in Japan. However, I can tell you that it stinks to high heaven. It looks fantastic, I think, but the smell for an hour after I applied it - whew!

That's what I have for you this morning, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Diamond Cosmetics Summer 2009 Collection

EDIT

These are now available on Diamond's site!

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I have a new brand (for me) to show to you today, and it really surprised and pleased me. I'll tell you the little story of why: last week, I got an email from someone at Diamond Cosmetics offering me samples of their Summer 2009 Collection to swatch. Since I like to try and to show you lesser-known brands, I figured what the heck, and said sure. Then I went to their site, www.diamondcosmetics.com, and saw that these polishes are $2 each retail. At that price, I was thinking there was no way they'd be that good, but they proved me wrong, wrong, wrong. I really like them.

They're free of toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP (yay!!!), and apply about like Barielle Shades - a thick, somewhat gluey, well-pigmented Big 3 Free polish. That's not a criticism at all, just the easiest and most accurate way to describe the application. Since I've been sticking to 3-Free, I've gotten used to applying them, and thought they went on really well and were very surprisingly well pigmented.

I swatched the six colors in this collection over one coat of Nubar Foundation Base Coat, which is like CND Stickey, but without the staining. The reason I always use a base when swatching is twofold: to protect my nice clean new growth from staining, and also to give the polish I'm swatching a fair representation. Since it will be worn over a base that grips it, it seems only reasonable to swatch over a base that grips it. Five of the six swatches are two coats, with one being three, all photographed under a good halogen light while wet, no top coat except for the one which is my NOTD.

I just checked www.diamondcosmetics.com and saw that they list the colors online by number rather than name, so I'll give you the number for each. I can't find this collection online yet, but I'm going to email the contact there and tell her so - maybe they'll put them up this week. In order to end strong, I'll show them to you in numerical order (the last three are great!).

First, #323 is Passion Pink, a deep, intense pink creme that stops shy of being hot pink.

Second in line is the three-coater, Fiery Coral, #324. It's a strong coral with a hot pink shimmer. The shimmer in the bottle is pretty strong, but much more subtle on the nail.

Next is is Cotton Candy, #325, which is a basic modern pink with a very, very slight shimmer. In the bottle, the shimmer shows up, but no so much on the nail.

Don't Teal My Heart Away, #326, is my NOTD with a coat of Diamont over it, and one coat of this teal creme was almost sufficient for opacity. This one is particularly noteworthy because $0.25 of the sale of each (12.5% of the total price) goes to ovarian cancer research.

#327, Hot Summer Pink, is a really fantastic glittery hot pink. It has a subtle pink flash and lots of silver microglitter in a HOT pink base. I ♥ this one!

We end on a strong note with Oh Tiff!, #328, which is presumably Tiffany & Company inspired. I find the shade slightly more grey than a true Tiffany blue, but that's not a bad thing at all. I really love this color! In the bottle, there's a subtle shimmer than doesn't really show on the nail.

That, Dear Reader, is Diamond Cosmetics' Summer 2009 Collection. I'm really impressed, especially for $2 a pop. You'll likely see more of these from me!

Until next time, love and nail polish to you!