Monday, December 28, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Okay.... so i'm being (super) pre-emptive with this post (considering Chinese New Year doesn't even kick in till mid Feb), but seeing as I had NUDDING for you over Christmas (being that my time and energy resources were pushed to the extreme and i was just hanging on by the tips of my manicure (oh yes.. there's always time for that)) - I'm here now and coming STRONG for 2010!!


Apparently, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger (represent!!) and this is what some of my asian cousins are getting into at their nail appointments.


I'm actually feeling this set and although it's never occured to me to use tips bigger than the clients nail plate (umm, or their finger!), I still think this concept works for this particular design.


Well executed (not homemade at all - although I'm not sure they'll survive the washing up...).


Good job!

GET READY


Here we go again! although...

These colours aren't as instantly recognizable as JADE and alot of brands have already been producing and pushing this putty colour for a minute, so PARTICULIERE ('particular') doesn't look so particularly (haw, haw, haw...) ground-breaking.


The pale salmon pink is called TRENDRESSE ('tenderness') and the nude to round out the trio is INATTENDU ('unexpected').


I wasn't really trying to get caught up in the JADE hype, but I'll give it to this new little offering - these are 3 really lovely, wearable colours.


If you up for shelling out the dough, get into them. Apparently, they are readily available for purchase on the CHANEL website and (I'm assuming) they may actually make to the cosmetic counters, in stark contrast to JADE that was only an extremely limited run due to it being a promo colour.


Related articles for PARTICULIERE...




HOMEMADE




I was seriously expecting to be inundated with extremely special christmas-themed polish homejobs this fortnight, but i've been let down...


This is all i got. (...umm, is that Rudolph's nose???)


Christmas is sooooo last week, anyways....
Moving on!!

I TOLD YOU SO...


I'm giving myself daps for this one as this colour just keeps popping up time and time again everytime a new collection or polish product range is released...

You may remember in previous posts a few months back, I put it down for Creative's 'grapeade' and since then (you may also remember) kit cosmetics and m.a.c. both did it up in their own way.


Confirming my heads-up this time, is American Apparel with their version of this colour from their very, very new line of polishes. In the blackbookmag article, they mention actual names for each colour - but on the american apparel website, this colour is just referred to as 'purple'. http://www.americanapparel.com/accessories-beauty.html


image courtesy of blackbookmag.com


TIGHT







the house of pretty is one of my FAVOURITE sites and Aja is seriously onpoint with the content (AND consistency and volume of content...) - motivating me (i.e. kickin my ass....) to get on here and post.
Aja, thank you each week for the inspiration! (I vow and declare I'm not jackin - all praise and credit to you) :)

more beautiful avant-garde stuff that really could make me reconsider my whole take on nail art. it really is all in the execution......

more, more, more divine imagery over at thehouseofpretty.com

SPRUNG


New NARS for s/s '09/'10....
Peep that yummy metalic purple... eff-ing dope next that nude lippie.
Delicious.

image courtesy of thehouseofpretty.com

HONKERS


In keeping with their theme of country/culture inspired colour collections, O.P.I. have launched the Hong Kong range.

Here in Oz, David Jones has stocked O.P.I. for a minute now, so feel free to get into it.



image courtesy of thehouseofpretty.com

EH??




Now this really is a curious thing.... spraytanning has become so truly pervasive on the global grooming scene that even black chicks want one??? (...and we really gotta get into someone else's tan besides Lundzay's - although my money's on Brooke Hogan and Katey Price to duke it out for top billing in the white girl stakes...)

I heard rumours a while ago, that the Queen Be(yonce) got em, but now Alicia and Keri could be giving the game away here with some bad, baaad DHA (dihydroxyacetone, people...the 'ish that makes you brown (or orange - depending on your level of misfortune on spray day...).

Okay - there could be a few things going on here...

Having sporadically fallen victim of being captured by the lens with a tangerine mug myself, I've become somewhat sympathetic to the insane level of criticism celebrities endure in response to their tanning adventures. Case in point - from one week to the next, I wore the same tan, same makeup, but was under different lighting and photos were taken with a different exposure on a different camera (and i was standing next to fluorescent people...relativity - it can make ALL the difference...) the ensuing result was RIDICULOUS - not to mention embarrassing. I'm sure I'm not the first person in history to notice a remarkable contrast in the colour of something in a photograph to how it looks in real life. So with that in mind, let us proceed...

My professional opinion here with these particular girls is this - it really doesn't look like fake tan mishap to me with Keri - just an off-match with her foundation. Which ain't her fault - her particular makeup artist was having a bad day that day, or ran out of Keri's colour or the lighting in the makeup room was booty... OR the lighting and photo exposure when the shots were taken
weren't balanced. I'm going with bad match with the foundation, as the blogger who first posted this pic pointed out the (slightest) colour disparity between hand and face. BUT...AS IF she's the first girl to ever have mismatched makeup! It's almost the (unintentionally) done thing with ANYONE that wears foundation - in fact, it's so epidemic, it's 98% of all cosmetic companies' shtick for luring eternally hopeful consumers to their particular products - the promise of correctly-matched makeup.
I'm giving her a pass on this one - AND spraytans for that matter.

As for Alicia?? Is she gettin into her Italian heritage, channelling some "Jersey Shore" malarky right here?
These are pap photos taken outside on what looks like a bright sunny day (overexposure should help bleach colour out, if anything...) and this looks to me like a grubby tan layered up with the wrong foundation - and the disparity between her hand and face?? Wow.
Alicia, stay away from it....half Italian, half BLACK - you really (really) don't need it.
Leave it to us sick (but epidermically responsible!) whiteys that ache for any kind of colour (even orange sometimes... *resigned sigh*).

images courtesy of crunk&disorderly http://www.crunktastical.net/

Monday, December 21, 2009

FRESH




Yep, new from American Apparel - the masters of cool casual basics and essentials.
Add these colours to your list of must-haves.
Love them. Need them.

Check out the rest of the colour range (prices in u.s. dollars) http://www.americanapparel.com/accessories-beauty.html
image courtesy of americanapparel.com




Sunday, December 20, 2009

HOME MADE


As we are all anxiously (psychotically??...) awaiting Christmas, I for one, am chompin to see the PLETHORA of holiday-themed homejobs that will be choking my google alerts before I can say, 'tra-la-la la-la-la la-la-lahhh'.


While we are counting the ticktocks, here's some specialness to tide you over (not sure the international holiday that inspired this one...)
...Special dedication to my divine sister who used to have a serious crush on Raphael. (oh yes...)
Peace, niko! ;) xx


Friday, December 18, 2009

OOOPS!!


A mishap with some tanning solution???


Nope. Just a shot from Heidi Klum's coffee table book 'Heidilicious'.


You cannot front on this woman - 4 kids and wants to have her photo taken naked from the back, just for somethin else to do...


Ah-mahzing....
More cheeky (haw,haw,haw..) shots of superwoman over at the house of pretty http://www.thehouseofpretty.com/



Image courtesy of thehouseofpretty.com

LOOKS LIKE GELATO...


Look, it's summer and I'm obsessed with anything sugary at this point in time.
China Glaze is hard to get a hold of here - current collections anyway - but this is gonna inspire me to start enquiring.
Want them all.
Image courtesy of thehouseofpretty.com

EH??

....it was really only a matter of time before someone tried to piggyback off the concept of the startlingly popular thesatorialist.com - but i did not see this one coming.

James Read (or Reid, depending on who's reporting it), UK 'celebrity' tan technician, has apparently just launched a website, called thetanalist, where he pictorially cronicles random people on the street, based on their......tans.


In the UK.
Where they have 4 days of sunshine annually (ripe land for spraytans in one sense, I realise - but not for skin-baring. A contradiction perhaps, I also realise - but I'm trying to grasp this concept by looking at one of the publicity shots for the website, and all you can see on the faux polaroid is the girl's face, because SHE'S COVERED FROM NECK TO ASSUMED TOE in fall/winter garb). http://www.elleuk.com/news/Beauty-News/james-read-launches-tanning-website/(gid)/447194

What?

Ummmm.... okay.

I'm from Queenzland, Oztrahlia, where, for close to 9 months of the year, swimwear is almost considered formal wear - and while I (TOTALLY) understand tanorexia, I'm still trying to get my head around paying lots of pounds for a spraytan, so i can just show my face....take a look for yourself. http://www.thetantalist.com/ (accompanying music is special...)


Could be interesting to see how this goes down. Maybe...


Keep you updated.

SWEET SUMMER


This is my pick for Zoya at the moment....and as a precursor, i'd like to advise that i've been off the sugar this week (savin up for Christmas blowout), which is making for an interesting theme.
Read on....


The orange is called 'lianne' and it looks just like Fanta. Can't get more aussie summer than that...


The acid yellow is called 'bekka' and it looks like lemon/lime Splice (mmmm, Splice...) aannnd I think it's my fav because it looks just sooo ah-mahzing on some good tanned skin.


The bronze? Well, it's called 'austine' and it looks like what fairy floss would look like if it was spun straight from brown sugar...it's beautiful and something alittle different (...but, let's face it, still kinda safe...) - as summery as 'lianne' and just as dope near a tan as 'bekka'.
Get some - while i tuck into some dry Ryvitas....


Sunday, December 6, 2009

OFFICIAL



Vogue Paris - Dec/Jan 2010

more AMAZING stuff here - http://www.thehouseofpretty.com/

image courtesy of thehouseofpretty.com

Saturday, December 5, 2009

THE SAGA CONTINUES


I have since been informed that the infamous CHANEL JADE was actually only ever meant to be a promo, was never intended to be released to be sold and it was only due to much insistence by key 'influential' behind-the-scenes style-sayers that it even made it out of Chanel HQ's.


Hence the limited numbers, hence the ensuing frenzy.


(Truly) 'nuff said. (by me... i know! i'm shutting up....)


Case closed.

PUT THE SOLUTION DOWN


She's at it again. Right in the middle of some b.s....

Apparently, Lundz is being sued for STEALING (!!) the formula for some tanning solution and slappin her own label on it - SEVIN NYNE

....Reckon she could steal a dictionary?? (..says me that couldn't find the 'e' in bronzd...)
image courtesy of thesuperfical.com

TOKYO HEARTS NAILS


The 2009 Tokyo Nail Expo took place this week and from the link below, you can see for yourself the extent these ridiculously focused and talented people go to to channel their creativity.


True, stylistically, it ain't for everyone - but if you've ever tried to paint your own nails (both hands!) with a couple of coats of your fav polish - I think we can all find some appreciation for the meticulous nature of the practise of nail art. These girls and guys are bosses.


I do this (well, not this exactly...) for a living (15 years..) and i can tell you, seeing this level of dedication to the art of 'doing' nails is inspiring.


Don't front.




image courtesy of Getty images

ANSWERS.YAHOO...sort of


So I'm trolling through my overwhelming pile of alerts, due-ing the diligence (haw,haw,haw..) and I come across this question about spraytanning and, in particular how many exactly the enquirer feels she/he should (??) be having...(by when? starting when? to what end?) to which they offer the specific number of 4858439208 (not lying).


Now, let's do some math. That particular number, I believe is 4 billion, 858 million, 439 thousand, 2 hundred and 8. EVEN IF you lived to be 95 years old - you'd have to have one spraytan everyDAY from the minute you are born for approximately..... 140 lifetimes. yessir.


I'd like to pose a new question to answers.yahoo - 'Should there be a standardized level of intelligence to access a computer and the internet? i.e. at least a couple of regularly oxygenated braincells?'.


Wow.
(p.s. peace out to j. simpson - we all know she likes to ask special questions, although she can't take credit for that particular one....)