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OK, makeup conspiracy theory time! 🙂
Here goes: I think there’s something going on with the bottles of Chanel Le Vernis nail polish in the Travel Diary collection, because they look so completely different in the bottles than they look on my nails.
I dunno… The first shade I tried, Horizon Line, and now this second one that I’m wearing right meow, New Dawn, look dull and uninspiring in their bottles, but it’s a whole different story on your paws.
I was born in the Philippines, but I’ve been a Cali girl since I was a wee lass of year one year old. In that time, I’ve traveled all across this state from top to bottom, from the mountains to the valleys and up and down the coast (This is starting to sound a little like a folk song, isn’t it?).
Anyway, when you spend a lot of time in a place, certain colors start to remind you of it, which is what Chanel Horizon Line Le Vernis does for me. My, gosh! It’s the exact same grayish green you see all over the beaches from the central coast/Big Sur up to the Oregon border.
I see it in the green algae- and seaweed-covered rocks, in the water, in the plants (especially the succulents that cover, like, every other sand dune). It’s everywhere! And it’s spot on.
Horizon Line is from the Chanel Travel Diary Fall Collection, which is out right meow, and my friends at Chanel HQ tell me that it was inspired by a road trip that Chanel Creative Director Lucia Pica took from Los Angeles to Big Sur. Like a mermaid from the ocean, Horizon Line emerged from that trip.
And I’m glad it did, because I’ve got a thing for greenish grays, man! (Hello, Essie Beauty Nap and Smith & Cult Bitter Buddhist.)
How long will it last? THAT’S the question. Let’s find out! 🙂 Paint Chips is a series where I paint my paws with two coats of polish, a base coast and a top coat, and see how long it lasts.
Even if you aren’t a hardcore makeup collector — even if you’re just a part-time product enthusiast — you probably remember at least one product that turned a casual interest into a full-blown brand obsession. For me, one such product was Smith & Cult Exit the Void.
I’d worn a couple of shades from Smith & Cult before, but oh, my goodness… When I discovered this creamy periwinkle blue (came out with their spring 2017 collection), it took my eyeballs by surprise!
It looks like a perfect spring sky — that dreamy, rich blue that rocks your world after so many months of dreary, wintry gray. It brings a smile to my face whenever I see it on my nails. 🙂
What makes me REALLY happy, though, is how pigmented it is (one coat is like three coats of any other brand) and how freaking long it lasts.
And dude, I beat the crap out of my nails. I’m serious, these poor hands. I put them through a lot. Lots of typing, baby handling, kitty handling, chores, and even some weightlifting and burpies (which are the devil’s work). My nail polish, to paraphrase Rihanna, needs to work, work, work, work, work, work.
Exit the Void, when I wore it with a Sally Hansen Green Tea + Bamboo base coat and OPI Top Coat (they’re my current faves), looked perfect for five days. Then, about halfway through the fifth day, the first chips started to appear.
But that’s great for me! I left it on to see how long it could go before it passed the absolute point of no return.
Sometimes you need to put on makeup to buy garlic bread at Costco…
I’m wearing a bunch of new faves and some oldies today in this warm-toned look, which I’ll be wearing in a few minutes when I go to Costco and brave the loooong afternoon lines.
The newest fave here is NARS Loaded Eyeshadow Palette, which has been giving me neutral inspiration for days.
I love the smell of two coats of Frida Kahlo Nail Polish in the morning (not really tho). It smells like…victory!!
Yeah, I found ’em. 🙂 Last night. They were in these random bins on the outer edge of the beauty section near the registers, of all places, at the Novato CVS!
It wasn’t a big display. It was actually semi-hidden among tiny bottles of hand sanitizer and travel-sized tins of Bag Balm (which is udder-ly fantastic, bah-dumdum!).
Thank you, girls, for helping me track these down. Your suggestion to check the availability feature on the CVS website worked like a charm. 😉 That’s definitely a tip to file away for future reference.
The store didn’t have all the colors — only four of the nail polishes and five of the lippies — and they were $8.49 each instead of $7.99 like it says on the website, but I grabbed the blue, the hot pink and the coral nail polishes and a few of the lipsticks. And because I have #noselfcontrol as it pertains to these things, I painted my fingers with two coats of the blue shade as quickly as humanly possible (although I did make it home first).
I blazed through my mani with these in my living room last night, and the room was kinda dark, so I couldn’t really see what I was doing. I also only gave my nails about 15 minutes to dry before I started doing things, so I expected my polish to look significantly worse for wear when I got up this morning, but noooo! It still looked smoother than a tabby’s tum and opaque — like a pro did them at a salon, instead of me, in my dark living room. Sweet!
