from left to right: Chanel-Blue Satin, O.P.I-Absolutely Alice, Etude House-BL503, O.P.I-Mad as a Hatter, N.Y.C.-120A
Chanel was a rare treat. Dick and I were drunk and sweaty; Loudly working our way through the Forum shops at the Cesar's Palace. We walked into Chanel and I felt like Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls. For $25 bucks (gulp) I got me some fancy nail paint. I was excited and then terribly disappointed. Although absolutely stunning, the quality is poor. It started chipping right away and that is not something I expected given the hefty price tag. You can't really tell from this picture; or from live and up close for that matter, but there are tiny sparkles in this polish. A very deep velvety blue that would make a sick color for a ranfla.
This polish was a gift from a friend who traveled to Korea. It too has a subtle sparkle but is longer lasting than the Chanel. I cant read Korean, and I failed to ask my friend what the tag underneath read. It's an obvious shade of blue, slight matte and quick drying. I wore it for about a week. It was able to handle daily wear and tear and then some. (I think this would work nicely as a base color for the 'Absolutely Alice')
'Absolutely Alice' (below) is part of a limited edition collection from O.P.I in tribute to the Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. I love shiny shit, and this polish is as shiny as it comes. I remember having a Maybelline color just like this back in my early 20's. Unfortunately, My Maybelline polish was much tougher than its slightly more expensive doppelganger. The very next day the color began to chip off in clumps. :o(
Also part of the Alice in Wonderland collection is this 'Mad as a Hatter'(below). I creamed my jeans when I saw it. Flecks of gold, red, silver and green glitter make up this carnival in a bottle. A brief tid-bit of useless trivia. Did you know that back in the day hatters used mercury to cure the fur used to make the felt for hats? Sitting in poorly ventilated rooms making hats causing all sorts of infirmities. The shakes, irrational anxiety, missing teeth, madness? Crazy right? I learned that from the dude on Pawn Stars (it's on the History
Channel Monday's at 10pm) Shameless plug aside, I learned my lesson from the flaky Alice. I used a base coat with the Mad Hatter. A cheap purple polish that I got at Target a while back did the trick. It's not a name brand expensive polish but I liked it so much I bought two. It also comes in handy during Lakers playoff. Gotta support the team even though Kobe is a scumbag. With two coats of the N.Y.C. and 2 coats of the Mad Hatter I got a long lasting suitable color. I put the polish to the test this weekend when I decided to do some Spring cleaning in the middle of Winter. Some menstrual induced madness no doubt. Boxes filled with old college papers, magazines from early 2000's and lots and lots of dust bunnies were tossed about. These hands saw a lot of action and I sustained only two small chips. Not bad, I expected much more damage.Speaking of damage. The year is young and the collections out already show a great deal of
promise. I have a growing list of must have colors. I may just have to get me a side job at Sally's before I find myself forced to swear off polish for the year by mid-July.
