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Archive for January, 2008

Weekly Beauty Read 2/1/08

By on January 31, 2008
in Weekly Beauty Read with 2 Comments

Here you go my lovelies, the best reads of the week from my pals at the Beauty Blog Network

15 Minute Beauty Fanatic shares a great tip for fast, perfect skin!

All Lacquered Up reviews Essie’s spring collection – In The Mood.

For moisturizing and silky smooth lipstick, Beauty Anonymous loves Guerlain KissKiss Lipstick – Pretty in Pink.

Beauty and Personal Grooming writes about her skin and hair care routine in winter

Canadian Beauty weighs in on Benefit’s Thrrrob Blush.

Girl Gloss found a lip plumper that actually works!

Glossypink pays homage to her favorite beauty icon and has a simple way to recreate her signature look!

Karen from Makeup and Beauty Blog gives you pictures and swatches of Shu Uemura’s spring eyeshadow collection .

Pursebuzz.com goes on the street to meet up with John Stapleton for a Tokyo Hardcore inspired Makeover.

Savvy Skin tells you her opinions about the super popular Proactiv Solution for Acne.

Spoiled Pretty found a genie in a bottle that grants three eye makeup wishes. Find out what they are!

As SugarShock grapples with a change of skin type in winter, she discovers a superhero for dry skin: Liz Earle’s Superskin Moisturiser.

Temptalia shows you how to look flawless and natural with ease!

A Touch of Blusher reviews Chanel Irreelle Eyeshadow Duos.

Fashion Forward with CND

The ribbon cutting to signify the official start of New York Fashion Week is less than 24 hours away. The backstage madness is about to begin for all the models, makeup artists, hair stylists and nail techs. And this season yours truly will be joining them to report the upcoming nail trends straight from the tents, as they’re happening. That’s right, I’ll be at Fashion Week!

So to get an idea of the kind of preparation and backstage frenzy that surrounds Fashion Week, I had a nice little chat with Roxanne Valinoti, CND’s Backstage Nail Team Manager. An accomplished nail artist who has worked with countless celebrities, Roxanne is an International Educator for CND who has been part of the Fashion Week team from the very beginning. During our talk, we not only discussed Fashion Week but also CND’s Spring trend forecast and manicure techniques.

Fashion Week
Last September, CND ascended on New York Fashion Week with a team of 20 artists to tend to more than 37,000 fingers and toes at 62 shows in only 10 days. Now that’s a lot of polish!

So what goes into the planning and preparation for taking on such a venture? Two months prior to show time the CND team starts working with the fashion designers to plan the right nail look to showcase their collection. And at the two week mark, a team of three artists get to work in CND’s production suite creating pre-made tips.

The creative process is a collaborative one between the designers and CND Co-founder and Style Director Jan Arnold. Even though each designer has a specific look they want to convey, Jan is always at the ready with ideas for different nail styles, designs and colors. When needed, colors will be custom blended to match a pantone or fabric swatch. Last season there were custom blended shades making their way down the runways at 3.1 Phillip Lim, Akiko Ogawa, Benjamin Cho, Costello Tagliapietra, Karen Walker, Malandrino, Ports 1961, Three as Four and Twinkle.

Then there are the designers that really take it to another level with custom designed nail tips. For example, when Kimora Lee Simmons announced the Russian theme for her Fall 2007 Baby Phat show, Jan showed her handmade badges she brought back from Russia. Kimora wanted them on every nail of the models hands but production for that would have taken months. In all 40 badges were made from a mix of liquid and powder that were then painted and embellished before being attached to each model’s thumbnail. Last season, L.A.M.B. had reverse french tips, Renee Larc requested a pink and white moon manicure and the Snoopy For Fashion charity show featured Peanuts characters. They were all created in advance and applied with a nail shield that peels off to prevent damaging the nailbed.

Trends
When it comes to nail trends, CND doesn’t follow them, they set them. And this is what they see for Spring 2008.

Healthy, clear pastel tints, like lip gloss for the nails
CND’s spring collection, Plexi Pop is filled with sheer, glossy shades, resembling lucite. They were shown on the models at BCBG, Behnaz Sarafpour, Chaiken, Chris Han, Douglas Hannant, Luca Luca, Peter Som and Rachel Roy just to name a few.

Bright pops of hot pink
Brights including pink popped on the runways at DKNY (Hot Pop Pink and Hot Pop Orange), Lyn Devon (Passsionfruit Poppy) and Pegah Anvarian (Studio 54, Burn and Orange-a-Peel).

Dark nails are the new classic for dressed up events
Chic dark tips and toes graced the scene at Badgley Mischka (Fedora topped with Decadence), Marchesa (Nail Noir), Max Azria (Limited Edition) and Proenza Schouler (Moroccan Ruby).

Techniques
Working in such a fast paced environment takes poise, patience, skill and the right products. Roxanne shared with me some of her favorite products and techniques for surviving the backstage insanity.

  • 5-6 designers requested a matte finish. To achieve the look wait for you top coat to dry and hit it with the gray side of the girlfriend buffer.
  • When it comes to mixing polishes, be careful. Roxanne suggests you stay within the same brand to avoid any dangerous chemical reactions.
  • CND Air Dry is the preferred top coat for its shine and drying time even though Speedy is faster.
  • CND Serenity is the backstage basic nude and all around go to color for a clean polished look.

So now that we’ve seen what Spring has to offer, I look foward to bringing you with me as I go backstage to see what Fall 2008 will be all about. Stay tuned!

Spring 2008 Couture Nail Watch – Christian Dior

By on January 29, 2008
in Paris Couture S/S 08 with 7 Comments

Talk about a rainbow of decadence. The Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring 2008 show was a visual overload of rich, vibrant color. The gowns, shoes, makeup and nails were coordinated in shades of wine, red, lemon, gold, lime, blue and purple. Dramatic and unforgettable.
images: Style.com

Essie Spring 2008 – In The Mood

By on January 28, 2008
in Creme, Essie, Gray, Lilac, Nude, Pink, Sheer, Shimmer, Spring 2008 with 25 Comments

In the mood for all his kissin’
In the mood his crazy lovin’
In the mood what I was missin’
It didn’t take me long to say
I’m in the mood now

When I hear Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood I can’t help but picture the scene from Cannery Row in which Debra Winger and Nick Nolte swing dance with competitive ferocity. The same image came to mind when I first saw Essie’s Spring 2008 collection, In The Mood, with it’s cheeky names and sweet girly shades.

For the most part all the polishes applied smoothly with no streaking. Looking For Love being the exception. It was just too difficult to get a fluid sheer look. Even after the three coats I applied it was still semi-sheer and splotchy (see below).

Body Language - Is a pinkish gray nude. A very neutral and wearable creme. I honestly didn’t expect to like this one at all, this is so not a part of my normal color range. But once I had it on, I loved the clean chic look.Great Expectations – An opalescent gray, the shimmer is extremely subtle to add depth. I see light to medium grays becoming more and more popular. In fact this color would have fit right in with the silvery/pearly whites that were seen on the red carpet at the SAG Awards.Hard To Get – A bubblegum pink creme with a hint of lavender in it’s base. It didn’t really mesh with my skin tone but I think it would be a fun pedi shade. With it’s high gloss shine, Hard To Get is the slight deeper sister of one of my favorite patent finish polishes, China Glaze Go Go Pink.Hi Maintenance – You know sheers and I aren’t friends so even though this milky pink makes a great french manicure base, it’s not for me.Looking for Love – This one was the big disappointment for me. Lilac and lavender shades make my hands look alien-esque so even though I love wearing purples, the lighter ones are a no go. Though regardless of the color the formula bit it, big time. Major application issues makes me give Looking for Love a double “thumbs down”.Secret Affair – Is my other favorite from the collection. The shade is hard to describe which is why I find it so intriguing. Is it nude, pink, taupe or a combination of all three? With this one, it really depends on the light which makes a Secret Affair a winner in my book. The In The Mood collection is available for sale now online and is slated to be in stores and salons on February 1st.

Who’s buying what? How many of you are going to clutch your dark polishes, run and hide in a cave vampire-style until all this pale sheer madness goes away? And who is starting to venture towards the light? As much as it pains me to say, I’m kind of loving the freshness of these light colors. Shh, don’t tell! My green and blue polishes may revolt and run away.

Celebrity Nail Watch – SAG Award Nail Winners

I’ve been so starved for an awards show red carpet, I can’t even stand it. Between the lack of new episodes of my favorite shows and non-existent televised red carpet, my Tivo and I have had small shaking fits. The DTs are rough. So THANK YOU Screen Actors Guild for fulfilling the craving.

With the SAG Awards being the only big red carpet night for the television ladies until fall, they rocked it out of the park. Icy silver metallic and a full range of blue gowns were the standout trends of the night and there were equally hot nails to match. The old standard red and the tail end of the fall vampy trend made an appearance as well.

Red – Mindy Kaling from The Office looked classic with her red tips, even though I think the makeup is a bit heavy. Oh and if you’ve never read her blog, Things I’ve Bought That I Love, you are missing out.
Vampy – Missy Pyle is one of my favorite comedic character actresses; such a scene stealer. And her dark wine tips add the right amount of drama to her smokey eye and nude lip.Even though her character on Samantha Who? has such a sweet, grown up Shirley Temple look, Christina Applegate turned it out with glamour gal style.Blue – OK so Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s dress isn’t the most flattering thing she’s ever worn but I’m diggin’ it’s dark blue-green shade next to her navy tips.I love getting to see Jenna Fischer all glammed up and she did Pam proud accenting that gorgeous frock with silver accessories and deep blue nails.Pearly White/Silver – Eva Longoria Parker’s look isn’t groundbreaking; don’t get me wrong, she always looks stunning but, has a very signature look. What I did love… the shimmery opalescent nail shade. How adorable is Brittany Snow? Was anyone else a fan of American Dreams? Her dress may be all woman but her face is still very “girl next door.” House‘s Olivia Wilde such has come a long way since her days playing Marissa Cooper’s love interest on The O.C. Amanda Bynes is one tall drink of water and she always looks beautiful. This look is classic, elegant but still fun.Ah Jan, you scorned vixen. How I love you, you big ball of crazy. Melora Hardin was built for red carpet gowns and even though I’ve praised her love of vampy nails in the past, I think the light shimmery shade she’s wearing is perfectly subtle.Now I am generally a french manicure hater because I feel they look fake and tacky but take notes girls because Andrea Bowen has shown us all how a french can look classy and natural.
photos: Getty Images

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