OPI New Orleans Collection S/S 2016: Show Us Your Tips

Today I have my lone selection from OPI's large Spring/Summer 2016 collection to share with you: Show Us Your Tips!

First a quick note- for those who hadn't noticed, OPI just had another price hike. We're now at $10 per bottle for the regular formula. It's not a lot, but somehow the double digit price barrier looms large.

Same classic, full-coverage brush as always:

Show Us Your Tips is a gorgeous cornflower/periwinkle shimmer. I found it to be the most unique in the collection. I've got 3 coats on my nails here:

This lasted about 3 days on my nails, and I'm extremely tough on my nails.

I passed on the rest of the collection (see it here) because, aside from the green (which isn't office-friendly), I felt that I probably had a dupe for just about all of the others.

OPI's collections are always a lot of fun- New Orleans is just the latest in a proud tradition of travel-themed hues. I bought mine at Ulta about a month ago- you should be able to find it everywhere.

Cle de Peau Nail Lacquers for Spring 2016

I'm going to be honest with you: Cle de Peau is a brand that I'm scared to start exploring.

Wait, what?

It has to do with price point. While I love my Chanel, Tom Ford, and even Louboutin, Cle de Peau at least seems so much more expensive. A $37-90 lipstick is one thing; a $70 concealer (a product type that I go through like water) seems like the most expensive thing out there.

But yet here we are. I'm dipping my toes into this mostly unexplored brand. (I bought a lip gloss trio a couple of Holiday seasons ago and loathed the plastic applicators but was charmed by the packaging.) For Spring 2016, Cle de Peau has released a quartet of limited edition nail lacquers: 04 Bright Red, 05 Hot Pink, 06 Deep Purple, and 07 Star Sparkle. At $25 each, dare I say it? They're quite reasonable and probably a bargain with price hikes by everyone else. Here's a list of companies whose nail polishes are more expensive that I can also buy at my local Nordstrom: Tom Ford, Chanel, Dior, YSL. For a company whose products are in the upper tier price-wise, this is shocking. But in a good way.

Let me rave for a moment about the formula. It's awesome. I started out with one, immediately doubled my order to qualify for a GWP at Saks, and bought the other 2 the following day after I did a quick mani. I know my nail formulas and this one rocks. It dries quickly and to a nice and hard surface, is self-leveling, and covers in 1-2 coats. Although these aren't the most original colors, the formula more than makes up for it. These also dry perfectly glossy without a top coat. Next, the brush. I find it extremely easy to work with- which in turn minimized cleanup.

Let's start with 04 Bright Red (by the way, the shade names appear nowhere on the box or bottle). This cheerful red required 2 coats for opacity. There are 2 plus topcoat in my mani here:

This is a fantastic summer red- and it's going right into my rotation. I really could've gotten away with one coat. It's that great.

Although I could pull so many reds, here's a few comparisons:

Yeah, it's dupeable but the formula made me fall in love instantly. Two coats makes it look like a gel!

I have only one negative about Bright Red. Like a lot of reds (but not like others in this formula), it's a bear to remove. I had it on my nails for less than 24 hours and it took hours of scrubbing to get 85% of it off of my hands. I wore a base coat, too. That's literally the only negative I can come up with on this color.

Next up, 05 Hot Pink. Why yes, it's the most pedestrian shade name never. But it's anything but ordinary on your nails.

I instinctively reached for this shade for a super quick mani before running to work on a recent weekend. By the end of the mani, I'd fallen in love with the amazingly low-key formula and quick dry time. This is the only shade that wasn't a possible one-coat wonder- there was still VNL after coat #1.

We all know I have a ton of pinks, but I grabbed a few comparisons just so you can get an idea for the color.

Again, very dupeable but the superior formula makes it a must-have.

Next up, what I thought to be the most unique shade- 06 Deep Purple. It's as the name sounds- a dark purple. However, there's a secret blue shimmer in it! Unfortunately it didn't translate to the nail.

Even crazier? It's a one-coater. I'm still shaking my head over the performance. The shade appears lighter here, but there's a more accurate photo coming:

I pulled a few purples- mainly with blue sparkling undertones- for comparison:

It's not necessarily 100% unique, but again- formula makes this worth picking up.

Let's move on to 07 Star Sparkle, the glitter topcoat of the group. Normally I'm leery of glitter polishes, but I love this one! Two coats almost covered my entire nail, which was shocking.

Even more shocking by this adult glitter polish was the removal. It just came off, even on my nail where I had multiple coats. Unreal. Cle de Peau even did glitter perfectly. My mind is blown.

I used my hand as a human swatch wheel. There are two coats of Star Sparkle on my index finger, and one coat over each of the three cremes in this photo:

Awesome, right? It's grown-up glitter, and I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to make it work in the office.

I teased you with the human swatch hand; here's my 2-coats-per-nail skittles mani of the entire collection, minus topcoat:

Bottom Line: This is an expertly-curated collection of three cremes and one glitter nail polish. Although these are classic shades, they've been executed so flawlessly that these are must-haves. I just hope that these sell well and Cle de Peau decides to release more. All four are listed as limited edition, so don't wait.

Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo Message, Script, and Roman

I was all over half of Chanel's recently-released collection in my series of posts in which I detailed all of Chanel's new nail releases. What I failed to talk about was the new lip formula- the Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo.Why?

I wanted to really wait and test out a few shades before giving my impressions. I have played with three shades- Message, Script, and Roman.

First, I'll start with Message, the shade I tested at the counter. Here's a photo that I posted at the bottom of one of my nail posts:

This is the shade that is in all of the promo photos. Message is a lovely berry, but I was severely disappointed with the wear-time. That left me determined to try several other shades.

Enter Script.

Script is a rosy brown nude, otherwise known as a color you wouldn't think that I would pick up.

One of the reasons why I picked this shade is because I can always use another wearable nude. It works well on my pigmented lips and calmed down a few crazier makeup days (Example 1: MAC Grain e/s to eye, Tom Ford Crushed Indigo duo (left) inner eye area highlight, MAC Creme de Violet in crease, MAC Tilt on lid (inner 1/3), MAC Silver Ring on lid (outer 2/3), MAC Knight Divine (outer edges, blended as transition).)

What I found is that although it pulled a little warm nude for my tastes, it kept ending up in my makeup bag. And the more that I played with it over the course of several weeks, the more I liked the formula.

Here's Script on my lips:

A pretty nude, right?

Now that we've got that covered, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo as a product and its packaging.

We've seen click lipsticks like this before, right? Oh, that's right. I reviewed a similar product from Dior on the blog about 2 years ago.

Here's a side by side to show the size difference between a Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo, a Chanel Stylo Yeux eyeshadow, and a Dior Serum de Rouge.

One thing that I think that the Rouge Coco Stylo does the best is that the color, its name, number, and a reasonable representation of the lip color are at the bottom of the packaging. It makes it so easy to distinguish between shades if you have more than one. A+ on that.

Now, on to Roman.

Roman is the antithesis to low-key Script, so I had to have it.

Roman is a warm-toned raspberry pink that screams hot juiciness.  I love it. It's the type of color I normally gravitate towards.

I love that this shade fades gracefully, leaving a pleasant stain afterwards. I'm not sure if the wear time really is slightly less than Script, or if it's because Script is closer to a natural lip tone than Roman.

Here's a hand swatch of both together:

Between these two, I have a great range of lip colors covered.

Bottom line: If you're looking for a hydrating, balm-like lipstick with good coverage, check out this new offering from Chanel. I found that using a transparent lipliner helped a lot with such a emollient formula. Chanel has curated a great collection- there's everything from the rosy nude to the hottest raspberry pink. Originally, I was hesitant about the collection. Now, I'm a convert.

Deborah Lippmann Sweets for my Sweet Set

While browsing recently at Nordstrom, I stumbled upon this newly-released set of six pastel Deborah Lippmann minis.  The Sweets for my Sweet nail set retails for $34.

I love that the box screams the Pantone colors of the year. So far this is the best presentation that I've seen.  While not the most creative set in concept, this set delivers in terms of formula and overall performance. I have tried quite a few pastel polishes over time and was blown away by these. Please forgive the rather short reviews, but really... these are colors we've seen before. They're just packaged in a cute set at a fabulous price and come in one of the better formulas I've seen.

Sugar Sugar is the light apricot shade of the group. I'm normally a bit hesitant about these shades against my NW15 skin.

Formula is outstanding. There's only 2 coats on my nails here, and it looks surprisingly awesome. I'll be coming back to this shade as spring actually shows up around here.

Lemon Drop is a cool-leaning yellow creme.  Again, formula is outstanding. If we're talking shades that make me cringe, yellow nails are at the top. With such pronounced pink undertones, I normally cannot do yellow. It makes me look sick.

Hmm, look at that. Deborah Lippmann may have found my perfect pastel yellow! I'm not sure if I'd try this for the office, but it'd be a cute weekend mani- or part of nail art. A shocking success, and 3 coats on my nails in this photo. You may have noticed that cleanup was more than a little problematic though....

Sweet Pea is the light green shade in the set. It's got more yellow in it than most of the mints that we've seen as of yet, but it's not as yellow as something like Essie My Prerogative. Deborah Lippmann does greens well- see Flowers in Her Hair (which is far more blue and darker).

Like the others, it's a great formula. There are 3 thin coats on my nails here, and I love the result.

My Boy Lollipop is the light blue that's close to the Pantone Color of the Year. One of my favorite light blues is Deborah Lippmann Let's Hear it for the Boy, so I had high expectations. Luckily, My Boy Lollipop delivered.

Two coats here on my nails- wow!  This one performed like a dream and also had the same great formula. So far, we're 4/4 in this set. At this point, I'd call it a winner.

All Day Sucker is the shade that I wanted to put on my nails first. You all know that I'm a true sucker (pun intended) for purple nail polishes, preferably of the pastel variety. I have at least 3 other Deborah Lippmann pastel purples/lilacs/violets, so I had a high bar set for All Day Sucker.

I have mixed feelings. I love the color, the formula was awesome, and there are three thin coats on my nails here. You'd think I'd be in heaven, right?  Tell me if I'm crazy, but I'm not thrilled with how it clashes with my skintone. Am I seeing things?

Candy Girl is the light pink of the group. Even though I hadn't had any problems with formula until now, I was holding my breath since light pinks tend to be problematic. Turns out, I was crazy.

Three coats of an awesome formula on my nails here. Deborah Lippmann nailed the COTY here.


Bottom Line: This is an awesome mini nail polish set. I really recommend this for yourself or as a springtime gift. It's not often that you can get 6 seasonal shades of high-performing nail polishes for $34. Just do it, you won't regret it.

Dior Vernis Cruise 676 for Spring 2016

Oops, they did it again.

Dior is once again re-formulating and re-launching their Dior Addict glosses for Spring 2016. And as a part of the re-launch, they're releasing a mini collection of nail polishes that correspond to some of the star glosses of the collection.

Stop me if you've heard this before.

No really... what was it, Spring 2013, when they re-did the Dior Addict glosses this past time?

There are three nail polishes with this mini collection: Cosmic, a coral with subdued glitter (aka I'm not sure how much it would translate to the nail), Ultradior (which almost looked like a milky coral jelly), and Cruise.I found them at the local Nordstrom, although testers weren't available.

Sorry about the somewhat crushed box.

Cruise is a glittery, incredibly girly light pink. It reminds me of something. Oh, wait- I remember. Dior Princess. Don't worry, I'll be comparing them later in this post. Instead of jumping to the comparison, I'd like to spend a few moments talking about this color.

I would've loved to have brought you the matching gloss, which was available (although lurking in the display, no special collection display for the glosses for some reason). There's only one heartbreaking reason why I won't be reviewing it- or any other Dior gloss ever again.  Dior has reformulated all of their Addict glosses to be plumping. If you have sensitive lips that can't handle plumping products, no more Dior Addict glosses for you, some of the best on the market.  I pray that they reconsider this idiotic decision. The woman at the counter said that they were told at training "Everyone will be thrilled that these are plumping!.

NO, DIOR, NOT EVERYONE WANTS OR CAN PHYSICALLY USE PLUMPING GLOSSES.

So, back to Cruise now that I'm done ranting. It's Princess's cousin. Although it's cooler and brighter, it somehow seems daintier on my hands?

Just look at Cruise on the nail- lovely!

I don't have a wear report for you since I'm honestly in the middle of swatching a basket full of polishes. It's your standard Dior Gel Vernis- normal wear times for that formula will apply.


Here's comparison #1: To Dior Princess.

I decided to actually use my fingers as a live swatch wheel to pull out the undertone differences. I've got Princess on my pointer and ring fingers (otherwise known as the shorter 2 nails) and Cruise on my middle and pinky fingers (with the longer nails).

Pretty clear now, right?

Comparison #2: Here's a fun nail wheel with some girly light pinks. I can' t find a dupe outside of Princess for the glitter that Cruise has.

I purchased Cruise at my local Nordstrom, but had to ask about the new shades since there wasn't a special display for the reformulated glosses available. It's available online via Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.

Bottom Line: if you're as much of a sucker for a light, glittery, super girly pink as I am, Cruise is your shade out of the new Dior trio released with the new glosses.