Are five photos too many for a red creme? Not when it's this red creme! This is Chanel's Dragon. Fitting name- this lacquer is hard to ignore. I wore this and loved it, especially for a Vaudeville-themed "speakeasy" night I attended a while back. This was probably the longest my nails have ever been, and I trimmed them down shortly after this manicure, but it was really fun to sport long, red nails for a couple days. Very retro and glamourous!
What do you think of Chanel Dragon? Does it catch your eye?
Lately I've been captivated by the "caviar" manicure, and couldn't resist picking up a few coloured microbeads at a craft store to try it out myself.
I decided to use Nicole by OPI It's All About The Glam, a pretty and soft white that has lovely shimmer in it to keep it from looking too stark. Then I added translucent soap-bubble-esque microbeads to my ring finger to make a caviar accent nail. This was the result:
I'm really happy with how my first caviar manicure experience turned out; I think having the beads on all my fingers might have been overkill, at least for my taste, but I'm really happy with this as an accent nail. It also felt surprisingly comfortable to wear! I used a top coat over it, and that helped to keep everything in place.
A friend of mine also came over to experiment with the microbeads, and this was her manicure: Chanel Black Pearl with silver microbeads as an accent.
What do you think of our caviar manicures? Have you tried this look before?
In keeping with the caviar/fishegg manicure theme, we went to see the documentary "Jiro: Dreams of Sushi" that evening. I highly recommend it, especially if you like sushi! I'll leave you with the trailer for the movie:
Today I have a classic for you: Chanel's Rouge Noir, a.k.a. Vamp. This is three coats (with Essie base and top coat).
Rouge Noir is a brown-based dark red. You'll have to overlook the very short pinky nail; I suffered a tragic break, and discovered that taking pictures of my right hand was even more challenging than capturing ones of my left.
Even though this Chanel is a classic, I decided to try layering OPI's Pearl of Wisdom (from the Spring 2010 Hong Kong collection) over top of it. Pearl of Wisdom is a sheer iridescent duochrome that shows a variety of colours, ranging from purple to green. The below picture shows more of the green flash...
More of the purple aspect of Pearl of Wisdom...
And two pictures that show a mixture of colours, with the latter showing the "texture" that Pearl of Wisdom displays when observed up close.
I have to admit, I'm really enjoying the way Pearl of Wisdom looks over Rouge Noir. I'm a sucker for duochromes, and this OPI is a particularly versatile one that is great for layering over other colours. Do you have any favourite duochromes? How do you like to wear them?
I'll leave you with this fantastic clip from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction; it's one of my favourites, and of course it is in this movie that Uma Thurman's character wore Chanel Vamp on her nails, helping to make it a cult classic. Enjoy!
