Product Review: Lise Watier "Teint Bora Bora"

When I started this blog one of the things I intended to do was product reviews.  Part of my growing disillusionment with magazines is the degree to which the copy is influenced by advertisers, so ultimately the advice is unhelpful.  Anyway, while I have lots of products I love, I just hadn't gotten around to doing write ups yet.  However, I was jolted from this indifference recently when I bought some Lise Watier self-tanning gel the other day.

Anyone who knows me will be familiar with my slightly obsessive dedication to sunbathing.  While I 100% recognize how irresponsible this is (especially given the predominance of cancer in my family) I can never resist the draw of the sun, and I do love to get some colour.  Consequently my skin tone goes through dramatic changes.  For example, just a year ago during a check-up at the doctor's the doctor observed my pale skin and declared I looked anemic, proceeded to do blood tests which came back negative and so concluded I just looked unhealthily pale.  In contrast, during the summer my family introduces nicknames such a "Senorita Brown" and "Brown Town".  But I digress.  The point is, I am currently sitting at the "sickly-pale" end of the colour scale, and am desperately seeking colour despite the cloudy and uncooperative weather.

I have tried tinted moisturizers before, namely the stuff that Aveeno makes.  My experience was that you have to apply it every day, and even then it takes a while to build up some colour, it comes off on your clothes, and it pretty much disappears as soon as you shave or exfoliate.  The colour was alright, but unconvincing, especially in photos.  So, I wound up using it infrequently at best.

Then I saw the Lise Watier stuff on sale at London Drugs and figured I may as well try something new.  I also wanted to see if the more expensive stuff was any better than the cheap product.

Well, I couldn't be happier.  It was absolutely worth paying extra (Aveeno sells for around $15, Lise Watier is approximately $30 after tax)!  I followed the instructions and applied it all over after exfoliating, then repeated the process for the next two days.  Note: with all sunless-tanners you need to be careful about applying the product evenly and blending down your wrists and feet.  Anyway, After the first application I had a nice glow, by the second I had a sun-kissed golden tint, and by the third application I have the kind of golden-honey colouring usually reserved for mid-August.  The tan is 100% believable, doesn't come off on clothes and blends beautifully.  It works equally well on face and body (although I recommend using it extremely sparingly on your face) and it has lasted well.

I am delighted because now I can get the summer glow I so desperately crave without risking sun damage or skin cancer in the outdoors or in tanning beds (gross).  Anyway, I just thought I'd pass along the recommendation, hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

Zebra Strikes Again

One of my favourite friends has been up to visit for the last few days, and today we (her, my sister and I) got together for a good old-fashioned nail painting session.  Serenaded by such musical heroes as Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Shawn Desman (my "Shame" Playlist) we got our paint on.

I have what appears to be an enduring love for zebra print (and many animal prints in general) so today I decided to go for a "Silver" Gosh base with hand-painted black zebra stripes (Sally Hansen nail pen).  For staying power I finished with two coats of Seche Vite.

As promised I said I'd deliver a verdict on the efficacy of Seche Natural, a new base coat I'm trying (instead of my usual Seche Clear).  After having used it for my last few manicures I can say while I haven't noticed any huuuuge changes my nails do seem to be in better condition (less flaking and chipping, less staining).  I would definitely recommend it!

 

 

Manicure: She Sells Seashells by the Sea Shore

So to my great dismay my royal manicure didn't last very long... though neither did the dismay, since it meant I got to give myself a new manicure.

There are few things I love more than a nice neutral palette - I seem to live in them.  A favourite colour combination of mine is a soft pearl gray with a shell pink (hence the title).  Surprisingly this is a pairing I have yet to try on my nails, and admittedly I stumbled upon the idea by accident.  I'm definitely pleased with how things turned out, though I do wish the Icing by Claire's polish's sparkles were rainbow like all the others - I used four different kinds of sparkles: Icing by Claire's in "Sparkle Me Happy", Revlon's "Belle", Sally Hansen's "Disco Ball", and China Glaze's "Fairy Dust".  I layered them over "Silver" by Revlon and "Hopelessly in Love" by OPI.  Hope you like it!

 

Royal Wedding Manicure

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a treat for you today.  You are already aware I majored in History at university, but many of you will not know that I specialized in British history or that the monarchy is one of my favourite parts of history to study (I took an entire course entirely centred on the British monarchy and it was awesome!).  Anyway, as such I have a deep fondness for the institution and a fascination with it, so the upcoming royal nuptials have me very excited!

Besides being an incredible continuation of ceremonies that extend back thousands of years, I also find the upcoming wedding interesting in a more social context.  It's so lovely to see the world (well, maybe just the Commonwealth) get excited about something together.  After so many years of endless headlines on the market crash, its consequent recession, oil spills, wars, and the usual doom and gloom it's so refreshing to finally see people coming together and being happy.  Nothing gets people's spirits up quite like a wedding, and considering royal weddings only happen once every thirty or so years (I wasn't yet alive when Charles and Diana married) it's definitely something remarkable.

So, in keeping with all this my mother, sister and I will all be staying up until one or two in the morning or whenever when things will be starting live in England and we're having a little Royal Wedding Party.  There will be lots of tea and we're all dressing up (my sister and I are going to do our best Kate Middleton impressions).  I have a veil I'm going to bust out while I believe my sister is going to sport a hat with a whole lot of feathers.  Today we picked up replica rings of Kate/Diana's engagement ring, and - the theme of this post - painted our nails Will & Kate Wedding-style.  Anyway, I thought I'd share the photos of the finished result.

My original plan had been to use our nail stamper for the crowns and the bells, but it was being SO UNCOOPERATIVE so I eventually gave up and had to freehand it.  So, it's not quite as tidy as I would have liked but I'm still pretty pleased.

 

"W&K" - the ampersand is a little blurred but ohhhh well.

 

The replica!  Unfortunately it's a size too big, but who's going to be choosey?

At Long Last: Christian Dior Manicure (and extras)

Okay, so I finally got around to doing my Christian Dior-inspired mani today.  And when I say I did it today,  I mean it took pretty much all day to do a satisfactory job.  While I started out using all the colours I bought - both the blues and the mauves - I didn't like how it looked so I wound up taking off the blues and making it all about the mauves, burgundies and blacks.  I used Bahama Mama and Angora Cardi by Essie, and OPI's Black Onyx and Nicole by OPI's Razzle Dazzler Matte.  And, as usual, I used my beloved Seche Vite top coat, though for a base coat I switched up my regular Seche Clear and gave my new Seche Natural a try - I'll keep you posted on how well that does.  For the details on my thumbs and pinkies I had started using one of my Sally Hansen nail pens, but it wasn't showing up clearly enough so I swapped it for one of the nail pens my sister and I picked up at the PNE a couple of years ago.

As for how I feel about the manicure, I do like it but I figure it could be a lot tidier.  While I was able to use tape successfully to do the stripes on my middle finger, it wasn't being cooperative for the matte tips on my index fingers so I had to freehand it which made it less streamlined than I usually like.  Overall it's a pretty awesome mani by my standards, but I feel it's a little too wintry to be wearing with Easter just around the corner, so in all likelihood I'll take it off and do an Easter-themed manicure in the next few days.

As for these next two photos, I was editing some old Facebook photos and found these buried away.  The leopard one speaks for itself (and no, that's not an engagement ring) and the other one was my manicure for Canada Day last summer - FYI maple leaves are HARD to freehand.

Manicure Preview: Inspired by Christian Dior

Ever since going through Christian Dior's Fall 2011 runway show the cogs in my head have been turning over how to incorporate that kind of awesomeness into my own style.  The first thing that occurred to me was a manicure.  Since voicing this plan, however, I've had a lot of questions as to how on earth you turn an entire runway show into a manicure.  My thinking was that Dior focused heavily upon using different textures, patterns and colours in a really phenomenal way.  Similarly, nail polish is available in a variety of textures now (matte, suede, glossy), and patterns are not a problem for me.  So, much like the last manicure I posted, I'm planning on using different base colours for my nails overlaid with different patterns.  But this time I'll be using different textures too!

The reason I haven't already started this mani is because until now I was lacking a few crucial colours.  But yesterday while running errands I had a chance to go to Shoppers and get what I needed!  Below are examples of the patterns, colours and textures I'm planning to work with, as well as the nail polishes I picked up so you can have some idea of what I'm thinking.  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

 

Essie Angora Cardi

 

Essie Bahama Mama

 

Nicole by OPI - No Limits Matte

 

Gosh Metallic Blue 566 (I couldn't find a pic of just the polish)

Marvelous Manicure: Cupcake Confection

Okay, so I have something pretty awesome in the works, but it's taking longer than I thought so I figured I'd post a pic of my newest manicure.  I am head-over-heels in LOVE with this one!  This is the colour breakdown: pinky = 589 Sweet Rose by Gosh; ring finger = Sweetheart by OPI; middle = Van D'Go by Essie; index = Lilac Pastelle by Revlon; thumb = Passion by OPI.  I decided to tie all the colours together by using different patterns with a white nail pen I picked up at the PNE a couple of years ago.  As per usual I finished things off with a top coat of Seche Vite.  Hope you like it!

Marvelous Manicure

Yesterday the local Shoppers Drug Mart had a nail polish sale on, so of course my sister and I swung by to see what there was to be had.  I wound up getting three new polishes: 555 Silver by Gosh, Nicole's Nickel by Nicole, and Iceberg Lotus, also by Nicole.  I was going to wait until closer to my event next week to do a manicure, but the temptation was too much, especially after seeing this manicure by Chloe's Nails.  So, voila!  I used two coats of Nicole's Nickel, which though patchy is sparkle-packed, and then did the tips using Black Onyx by OPI.  Then I finished things off with two coats of Seche Vite.

Stealth Zebra

Not too long ago my sister sent me this link to this inexpressibly cool manicure, and when I saw it I knew that there was no way I wasn't going to try it out.  The only thing that delayed me was that until today I did not have a black matte nail polish.  For those of you who don't speak nail polish, "matte" refers to a nail polish without any shine.  Anyway, today I headed out to Shoppers Drug Mart and got myself Razzle Dazzler Matte from Nicole by OPI, which is very close to what the blogger used (Matte is Murder by ManGlaze).  Now in her version she used a Konad stamp plate with zebra pattern and some topcoat.  My sister has the right Konad plate, but unfortunately has lost part of her kit so stamping wasn't an option.  Instead I hunted down an itty bitty paintbrush and quite literally hand painted on my zebra stripes using my all-time favourite Seche Vite topcoat.  I am totally jazzed on my results!  Not only am I now sold on matte nail polish, but this manicure is just tooooo coooooool.  It's very subtle, which is a nice break from some of the more elaborate stuff I wear sometimes.  Plus I'm loving the way the topcoat picks up light at certain angles.  Anyway, if you have a stamp plate or have the patience to paint on your stripes I would say this is definitely a manicure to try!

This is the original from http://www.graziadaily.co.uk/GraziaDailyNails/archive/2010/09/06/opposites-attract.htm

And this is how my manicure turned out.  This isn't the best photo of it, but quite honestly I'm in a bit of a rush and don't have time to take another pic.  You get the idea.  Happy hunting!

Purple Rain

So I did only do my manicure yesterday, but shortly after the lacquer dried I had a new idea.  I became mildly obsessed with a deep plum purple polish with flecks of gold and purple in it.  So I went hunting, but came up empty handed.  Luckily, my sister is as much of a polish addict as I am and happened to have the perfect colour.  It's Rimmel's Night Before, which I did two coats of and then added purple sparkles to the base of the nail.  I'm not sure how old this polish is, but I found it came out rather clumpy.  In its defense it did even out after a moment or two of settling.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with the result.  For all of my manicures I use Seche Clear's basecoat and Seche Vite's topcoat, which has an unparalleled finish.  Honestly, it dries SO FAST and has great wear.

The Elephant in the Room

So along with all my other interests, I have a passionate relationship with nail polish and nail art.  As such, I'm going to try and regularly post my manicures for those of you looking for some inspiration.  This week's manicure was actually inspired by an elephant bracelet my aunt bought me when traveling in Costa Rica.  I used a white nail pen for the details, and the base is Particulière by Chanel, which I sorely need to wear more often to justify spending like thirty dollars on it last spring*cringe*.

 

Update:

I went digging around on my Blackberry and found some old-ish manicures which I think qualify as cool enough to post.  First up we have my Christmas manicure, inspired by Starbucks' holiday cups.  I used OPI's Malaga Wine, sprinkled ruby red sparkles over it, then used my white nail pen to do the snowflakes and gave them silver sparkle centers.

Up next is a version of a manicure I saw on Emerald Sparkled.  She titled hers Whimsical (I'm too lazy to hunt her version down, but if you do a search on her site you'll find it.  Hers was an interpretation of a manicure she saw on someone else's blog, but I like hers best.  I used Sweet Rose by Gosh, Essie's Van D'Go, Essie's Innocent, and Sparkle Me Happy from Icing by Claire's nail polish line.  The stripes and the bow I did using my white nail pen.

This next manicure was a bit of a convenient mistake.  I wanted to go for a sparkly zebra print, but instead it wound up looking like a view of the galaxy.  I used Lunar and Star by Revlon, then used a stamp to add a silver zebra print.