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Le Métier de Beauté Ken Downing’s Bodacious Bordeaux Lip and Nail Duo

September 11, 2011

This fall Neiman Marcus Senior Vice President and Fashion Director Ken Downing worked with Le Métier de Beauté to create three matching lip and nail sets in rich, bold and romantic shades ($49 each). I was hoping to be able to purchase the nail polishes separately since I rarely wear reds or dark shades on the lips but decided to try something new and picked out the Bordacious Bordeaux/Wine on the Vine duo which has the softest lip color out of all three sets.


Bordacious Bordeaux Nail Lacquer is a deep wine magenta that layers into a deep wine cream. The texture is fairly thin making the color slightly transparent. It required three coats for full coverage. I love that Bordacious Bordeaux is the perfect medium wine shade – not too vampy, not too red, not too brown. The thin texture took a bit of work for me to get an even application. Three coats evens out everything nicely.

Wine on the Vine Moisture Lipstain is a shimmering reddish pink stain. The texture is that of a soft lipstain and molds well to the lips so you can barely feel anything on. On the hands it looks like a soft red without any visible shimmer. On the lips it goes on quite a bit brighter for me. I don’t know that it will look this red on most women, anything with fuschia or bright red shimmer tends to pull very bright on me for some reason. Being a stain formula I find these last longer than the average lipstick. Here it is softly swiped on my lips.

Here they are swatched on the arm side by side.

All three sets are beautiful and classic for fall. Even neutral lovers like myself will find that they are fun and nice for something different. The lips are all darker than I’m used to but the colors are lovely for evenings out or special occasions. Best Things in Beauty has a few other shades swatched and reviewed that I recommend you check out as well. I like these sets but my heart still belongs to their eyeshadows and lipglosses which I feel have some of the most gorgeous complex eye-catching shimmers that are wonderful for layering. The upside of these lip/nail duos is that they require little tweaking. They work well just as they are.
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Chanel Blue Rebel, Coco Blue & Blue Boy Comparisons

September 9, 2011

Here are a few blue comparisons of the new Les Jeans de Chanel shades to other Chanel & Dior blues. Included are Chanel Blue Satin (featured here), Dior Bond Street (here), Chanel Blue Rebel, Chanel Blue Boy, Chanel Coco Blue, Chanel Riva (here) and Chanel Nouvelle Vague (here).

The three Les Jeans de Chanel colors:

Other blues all lined up and swatched on tape (two coats each):

Arm swatches two different views:

Here you can see they have a high gloss finish:

After playing with the blues all day long, I still have the same mixed feelings. While I think there is very little that beats the feeling of having perfect fitting jeans (my favs are Paige and Joe’s Jeans) I don’t associate denim with the words “luxury” or “luxe” or “runway” like I do when I think of the brand Chanel. I thought this was an odd choice of theme for Chanel for Fashion’s Night Out (last year’s Les Khakis, Steel and Strong were much better being both edgy and unique). In addition, the high price tag of $29 per bottle this year is very hard to swallow for colors that aren’t unique or special, even for a limited-edition Chanel piece. Still, I caved and I can rest assured that I won’t have any Chanel regret nor will I have to pay uber high eBay prices to get one when they’ve sold out. To clarify, I do think these are very good high quality blues, but for FNO and for the price, I expected more. Perhaps it is just the recent releases of amazing colors like Black Pearl, Morning Rose, Quartz and Graphite that have overshadowed these basic blues.

Bottom line, nice but not must-haves. Dior Bond Street is more navy and slightly darker than the Les Jeans colors but it still has my heart for blues.

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Les Jeans de Chanel for Fashion’s Night Out

September 9, 2011

The limited edition trio of nail polishes in the Les Jeans de Chanel Nail Color Collection launches today in celebration of Fashion’s Night Out. Each shade was designed by Peter Philips Creative Director of Chanel Makeup and retails for $29 each. The three shades in the collection are Blue Rebel, Coco Blue and Blue Boy. The collection is available at Nordstrom Seattle, Saks San Francisco, select Neiman Marcus locations (see list here) and select Chanel Boutiques (listed here) as well as online at Chanel.com.

Blue Rebel is a rich dark navy denim blue (cream, no shimmer). The texture seems to be a bit thinner than the traditional Chanel nail polish. It requires two thick coats for full coverage.

Per Chanel, “It recalls the inky dye used to create dark-wash jeans — an iconic fashion staple and an essential part of every modern woman’s wardrobe.”

Coco Blue is a soft powdery denim blue with white and blue shimmer particles, the shimmer is very subtle on the nails and barely noticeable from arm’s length. The formula for this one is similar to Riva. It needs three coats for full coverage or else it’s a bit streaky.

Per Chanel, “This muted blue tone can be worn with the same effortlessness as a favorite pair of softly faded jeans.”

Blue Boy reminds me of the traditional denim color. It’s a soft grayed blue cream without shimmer. The texture is also thin so I recommend two thicker coats but it applies very smoothly.

Per Chanel, “Dressed in Blue Boy, fingernails reflect the fashionable and quintessential cool of jeans and heels.”

Initial thoughts: I will be doing a comparisons post shortly but my first thoughts are a bit mixed. They are nice to have but not must haves unless you are a denim/blue fanatic or a die-hard Chanel collector. I like Blue Boy the best out of the three but Coco Blue isn’t super flattering on my skin and Blue Rebel doesn’t seem very original as it appears to be very close to Dior’s Bond Street (which I absolutely adore). I knew there was a good chance Coco Blue wouldn’t suit my skintone (baby blues just don’t look great on my fingers) yet I still caved to have a complete set from this collection.

For me I was expecting a bit more since last year’s Khaki and Soho Collection were such beautiful unique releases. That being said, Chanel has released quite a bit this year and plenty has kept me busy since spring was released (I’m still enamored with the Black Pearl Nail Polish). Still Chanel did an excellent job creating a beautiful trio of rich high quality blues. They are nice to have, just not the most unique or must-haves in my mind.

Will you be getting the Les Jeans de Chanel shades this year?

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Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air

August 21, 2011
I surprised myself by caving on a glitter nail polish: Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air. I’m the type of woman who detests glitter makeup. I think there are so many beautiful products out there that are ruined simply because the designer has added chunky glitter. There are a few exceptions such as some MAC Dazzleglasses, anything from Chanel, a few Urban Decay shadows but for the most part I hate glitter.

It was love at first sight for Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air ($18). The bottle looks like a blue daydream. It’s a pale milky blue base infused with multi-colored glitter in different sizes. It’s just beautiful! Being wary of glitter, I decided to wait and look for reviews to see how it looked on others. The reviews have been mixed but the result is so intriguing and different. I had to give it a try. I kept the reviews from Polish Police, All Lacquered Up and Temptalia in mind when trying this.

My first attempt had a decent glitter payoff, but the finish was uneven. A professional application resulted in 2 glitter spots per nail. After 2 fails, I decided to try it one more time with 4 coats and finally was able to achieve the right glitter to nail ratio I was looking for. I found the tips from Temptalia extremely helpful to dab lightlightly and apply slow and smooth to avoid the glitter from being dragged off the nail. The pale blue is fairly clear so the result on the nail is a pale sheer tinted blue-cream looking color. The formula is set up to disperse the glitter in an uneven manner (which I love).

Overall I like it but I wish it had more glitter in the bottle. It would make the application so much easier. It really is the most high maintenance nail polish I own. To achieve an even application requires quite a bit of work and extra time for drying in between those 4 coats. I really like the result though. It’s fun without being too juvenile.
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Le Métier de Beauté Kontagious Koral & Chanel Coromandel

August 15, 2011

I’ve been craving something red especially after having a lengthy discussion with Jonesy this weekend about finding the perfect red nail polish. She had recently found her holy grail red (she has promised a post on this soon) and had to call me asap because she knew I would understand her excitement =) I, on the other hand, have about a dozen “perfect reds.” My favorite is still Chanel Dragon, but I’m always open to trying something new. After a 9 to 1 vote on Twitter for bright red cremes (versus dark red shimmer), I put on Le Métier de Beauté Ken Downing’s Kontagious Koral  (exclusive to Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman) & Chanel Coromandel #473 (discontinued).

Le Métier de Beauté Kontagious Koral is a limited edition shade created by Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Ken Downing. It’s a hot vibrant warm red coral that I believe is universally flattering. (Proof can be seen on The Ultimate Makeup, Perilously Pale & Pink Sith to name a few.) It’s one of the brightest reds I own but still very wearable. To those who wanted a red version Dior’s Aloha, this will be the answer to your prayers. It applied beautifully with just one coat but I almost always prefer at least two. The finish is smooth, even and rich.

Chanel Coromandel is an old favorite. It’s a warm coral red with a hint of shimmer in the bottle. On the nails the shimmer does not really show up though. Compared to LMdB’s Kontagious Koral, it’s a deeper almost more mature kind of warm red. I believe it’s been discontinued now. This is a classic shade I wish they would bring back.

Here I’ve tried to show the difference (Chanel has a bit of shimmer):

I couldn’t get a good shot showing them on the fingers and toes side by side. The cloudy weather made the colors look the same with my camera. I did try a swatch comparison with a few other colors. No luck here either. For comparison purposes, you can see Dior Trafalgar is more orangey than Le Métier de Beauté Kontagious Koral. I’ve compared it to Chanel Rouge Fatal a deeper red to show the brightness of the other shades.

They are both fairly similar but not exact dupes. Bottom line is that I can’t stop staring at my nails. The Kontagious Koral is listed as limited edition but you can still get it online at Neimanmarcus.com. What are your favorite bright reds?
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Chanel Tendresse 507 Le Vernis

August 13, 2011

Chanel has repromoted Tendresse #507 Le Vernis in their Aquarelles de Chanel collection. Tendresse is a soft sheer pink that was originally released in Spring 2010 (see review and comparisons here). I had this put on last week and for some reason it turned out warmer and sheerer on my nails than I remembered. I haven’t worn this shade in quite some time, I thought perhaps mine had faded slightly, but when I saw new testers at the counter they seemed to be the same as mine is now. It matched my strawberry pink macaron perfectly.

Here it is with two coats. It’s a lovely feminine glossy natural sheer pink. Lasting power is fairly decent (lasted a full week with slight tip-wear). If I were to do this manicure over again, I would have asked for three coats.

I paired it last week with Morning Rose on the toes.

It’s an easily dupeable color, but I love that it applies smoothly without streaks and gives a subtle polished look. No complaints on my end. Most pale pinks tend to look extremely pale and almost cream colored on my fingers. Tendresse is perfect for me.
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