Les Contrastes de Chanel: Paradoxal

Crush Maybe you remember my review on Chanel's previous hit: Nouvelle Vague? I was a bit disappointed to be honest... and then this beauty strolled along. Trust me, I was reluctant. But then the swatches started to haunt me and I knew I just needed to have it. I think I now know what it's like to have a nail polish crush. It won't be out here for a while, but a big sweetheart CP'ed it for me, thank you so much Brittni!!

Secret shimmer

And you know what? I'm happy to have it! This polish belongs to the Les Contrastes de Chanel fall 2010 collection. Paradoxal is a deep purple-y taupe, I really love this color. In brighter or sun light there's this pretty pink/blue-ish shimmer, it's stunning. The shimmer is barely noticeable in normal lighting though, but sometimes the purple sheen will catch your eye. I'm pretty sure I will be wearing this color a lot this fall!

Application

I normally don't use the phrase "it applies like butter", I save it for very very special occasions, and this is one of them. I've used two coats and they just glided on. A lot of people experienced major chip city within a few days, but for me it stayed on for five days with only one chip at my thumb (and that was on the 5th day AFTER I cleaned the house). I used Orly Bonder and Nubar Diamont and it held up really well!

Dupes?

If you're looking for a less expensive alternative you can look into Purple Grey by Models Own, it doesn't have shimmer but the base color is really close!

You can get Chanel Paradoxal online at www.chanel.com for $23.00 or at your local Chanel counter. It probably won't be for sale in The Netherlands until appr. October.

UPDATES!

Sorry ladies, no time for blogging today. I am busy planning and getting cupcakes ready for Ollie's first birthday party and his Mom's birthday party this Sunday.









You've come a long way Ollie.
Happy 1st Birthday :)
XOXOXO


I did want to answer a couple of questions.

Hypnotic Swirls plate - That came from the Chez Delaney plates #H11.

The other thing was the something special in the pictures in my last post was Little photo bombing my nail polish swatch shoots! lol You guys have good eyes, it took me a while to find the picture of my ring showing, lol. So no, I'm not engaged or have a new ring. I usually wear my rings on the other hand, but it has been sort of swollen and they fit better on my left.

I hope you all have a great weekend & keep my Mom in your thoughts and send her good vibes, she is going through a little rough patch right now :)

NOTD - HYPNOTIC SWIRLS

This is my mani for today. I really wanted to try out that black polish from the Betty Boop collection on a konad design. I think it worked out pretty good! I did notice though that it left faint stains on my stamper that won't come off. That black polish is powerfully loaded with pigment people!

Sorry for the oil spill on my hands, I had to do some major clean up and the acetone dried me all out.

***There is something special in one of the pictures. Can you spot it????***

SIMPLE PLEASURES COLLECTION - 2

I have shown you all another collection from this company a while ago. The bottles never have any names, and just like the Betty Boop collection, the brushes are identical. I have found these at Marshalls, Ross & Burlington Coat Factory. The collections are usually pretty cheap and I like the polishes, except for those damn brushes!!

All are shown with 2 coats. Some you will see look streaky and that is due to the brushes wanting to drag the polish off of them. I think letting the coats dry a bit more would help prevent that, but I didn't want to wait, lol.

ZOYA - WICKED WONDERFUL COLLECTION

This is Zoya's Fall Collection.

WICKED consists of 6 stunning foil-glitter metallics. I loved all 6 of these shades! The formula was perfect on each of them. These are so stunning in person, they have so much shimmer to them.






































WONDERFUL consists of 6 stunning elegant cremes. I liked these too, but the formula wasn't a good for these. Most really NEEDED three coats. I only did two and if you look close you can see some thin spots. I normally do 3 coats anyway, so it isn't a deal breaker for me. The formula was bit thin on most of these, which made them a little hard to control. You can see a couple pooled at my cuticles due the thin consistency. Normally I don't comment on a thin or thick polish in a collection unless I notice several of them being that way, which was the case with Wonderful. I know all nail polish companies can have a thick or thin polish here or there. That being said, it wasn't anything drastic, I just need to be more careful when using them, or leave the bottles open for a bit to thicken them up.




































These are available at ZOYA.COM now. They are $7 or $36.00 for each collection (Wicked & Wonderful).