L’Oreal Rainy Piccadilly w/ Zoya- Fei Fei

The only reason I picked up Rainy Piccadilly was because I had a coupon. That’s how many of my nail polish purchases happen. I can preach how I’m on a no-buy but I see a sale and I just can’t resist. I’m really glad I picked this up though. It’s named after one of my favorite places in London, so it’s extra special. The formula is excellent, opaque in two coats. To add a little bling, I did an accent nail is Zoya Fei Fei (photos below the jump), from their Fall 2012 collection. Expect a full review on that in the future, because it’s awesome!

Rainy Piccadilly is part of the British Invasion collection and can be found at Target, Walgreens, Walmart, and other major drugstores. It can retail between $4.50-$6 depending on where you purchase it. 

L’Oreal – Because You’re Worth It

Basic rundown of why I had to have this color: 1) the name; I’m a hair dye junkie as well as a nail polish addict, so I’ve been using L’Oreal products forever, and having the name in my collection made me ridiculously happy. 2) We’re big fans of L’Oreal polishes here at the Clique, and have been super excited about seeing all the new colors they have been releasing. 3) It was a metallic that I could.not.put.down. Massive rarity for me; Mel’s the metallic girl in this group, I tend to just assume it’s going to be streaky and make me sad, but something about this color made me not even consider that fear. And that was all before I even put the color on my nails!

When I put this polish on this past Monday I had no real intention of giving it a longevity test, but work was crazy exhausting this week, and it was still on by the time Friday night rolled around. I think wearing it for so long is what really sold me on this polish. Yes, it wore amazingly, the claim on the display that it’s a long wear polish (actually claims 10 day, I only rocked it for 5) is no lie. Little tip wear, but not a single chip.  But it was how much the color still caught my eye after that many days that really impressed me. Golds are notoriously hard to match to skin colors; some are too flashy, some too yellow, the list goes on. The muted, almost creamy finish to this gold and the fact that it’s a little more browned made it really flattering. It’s also a really nice work appropriate shade that didn’t make me feel like I had to give up fun in the office. Even at the end of the week I was looking at my nails with a quiet “oh my varnish” in the back of my mind. Only downside, which is a manageable one, is that being a metallic shade, it will show imperfections in your nails. It didn’t streak on me though, so having to buff a few nails didn’t bother me! I used two coats over Orly – Nail Armor and sealed it all with Seche Vite. Over all opinion: I think it’s a quality addition to any polish stash.  Totally lived up to all my reasons for buying it!!

Mel had sent me a nail care package and I had been dying to try out Wet N Wild – 24 Carat, so I did one coat of that on my ring finger as an accent nail. It really matched the color of BYWI well, adding a subtle glitter fix to it. I will admit though, this was one case where I wasn’t always drawn to my accent nail first. It was the whole mani that would catch my attention, speaking volumes to the wonders of BYWI!!

There are a couple more colors in the display that I found this in that were pretty too. The Color Riche line is $2 with Flex card at Duane Reade this week, an even better excuse to grab them! These are all colors from the core collection too, so be on the lookout for the full display!

L’Oreal – Lady Luck

Blog, it’s been a trying two weeks for me. No, not because I moved to NYC and started a new job, that part is pretty fan-freaking-tastic. It’s because, well, I quite literally moved up here in 2 suitcases. On Megabus. Which means… I only brought about 10 polishes with me. I’ll let that sink in for a minute. A girl who owns over 300 polishes and loves it enough to write on a blog about it brought TEN polishes with her to start her new life.

Needless to say, I lasted all of 3 days here before I went into Duane Reade and picked up a rather large handful of polishes, haha. This was one of them. And the one I put immediately on 🙂 It’s my “I just landed in the big apple!!” polish, and it’s perrrrffffeeeccctttt for that occasion!

taken with flash

L’Oreal – Lady Luck is a classic red with an amazing formula. The pic was taken after wearing it two days, so I did a quick “freshen up coat” and you can see it’s nice and glossy all on it’s own. Granted, I’m too impatient to ever wear nail polish without the magic drying powers of Seche Vite, but if it’s your virtue, this polish is completely rockable on it’s own. I sort of feel about Lady Luck how I think Mel feels about Butter London – Saucy Jack. It’s a classic, always looks awesome, go-to red. And I feel like it’s the perfect color for me to explore New York in; it’s sultry, fun, adventurous, classic, and powerful. All traits a good red should have.

(sorry for the blur, but it showed the color most accurately)

If I have to live with a limited supply of nail polish until I can move all my stuff up from Maryland (and Michigan…), I’m very glad to have this baby in my stash. I foresee it getting TONS of use!

L’Oreal – Owl’s Lust (the “learn to love” sibling of Owl’s Night)

I suppose I’ll start where my thoughts on this color started — and that would be “what IS this color??” It’s red, but it’s dusty. Maybe some gray, or probably some burnt orange undertones in it. It’s not your red-hot mama red, that’s for sure, but there is a quiet smoldering to it that sort of drew me in. It at least piqued my interest enough to buy it… and then kept my attention long enough to wear it for a full day instead of just swatching it like I had planned.

The color grew on me while on, and it had some good selling points. For one, it’s a great formula. One of the best in the collection: 2 coater, easy peasy to put on, pretty easy to clean up (it is really pigmented, but on a comparison scale to similar formulas, it’s on the easier scale). Then I wore it with my favorite navy cardi, and WOW did that color combo look fab. I wish I had taken a picture with it up next to my nails. I did decide to spice it up a bit and added L’Oreal – Amazon’s Flash as an accent coat like I talked about yesterday, and loved that too. It’s very fall! And slightly Redskins… but they won yesterday and Mel was up at her cabin, so I suppose someone had to fill those shoes 😛 We’ll blame it on the head cold and sudafed, haha.

I’m still not sure this is an “every woman’s” color, or a must have, but I like that it’s that something a little different in my reds collection. I’ll probably stick to wearing it during the fall (it does compliment the changing leaves well), but since the seasons just begun, maybe I’ll wear it enough to learn to lust over it the rest of the year (see what I did there, haha. I know, forgive me, crawling back in my sick cave now :P)

❤ Jess

L’Oreal – Amazon’s Flash (a gold with possibilities!)

Biggest reason why this polish is a winner: it’s not a metallic. At least, not a legitimate metallic. It’s gold, SUPER gold, but it’s basically a clear formulas jam-packed with gold shimmer. Metallic formulas usually annoy me; the streakiness adds a needed level of patience I just don’t have haha. This polish has none of that issue. It does make for a thinner color because of the clear base, but I really don’t mind doing 4 thin coats when the formula is this easy to work with. Yes, as always, I’d prefer a 2 coater, but in this polish’s case, the thinness also means it could be easily layered. I think it could be pretty over a dark brown or even over a burgundy for one of Mel’s Redskins manis 🙂 Amazon’s Flash would let just enough of the base color show to add dimension, creating lots of possibilities for this polish!

I know people will worry about it being such a yellow gold, but I actually didn’t have an issue with that once it was on. I can only attest to the fact that it looks good on my skin tone, but at least that proves it can look good! It kind of reminds me of a regular polish version my favorite nail art pen Sinful Colors – Flower Girl, so that helped win me over too 🙂

❤ Jess

L’Oreal – Amazon’s Flare

Amazon’s Flare is definitely a statement pink. It’s very bright and eye catching. I actually like it, aside from two things: 1) I wish it was more of a creme – the formula leans more jelly which means VNL and 2) it’s a dead ringer for Essie – Secret Story which is already in my collection (I’ll do a review soon with pic to compare!).

I ended up doing 4 coats in the pictures because I made a clean up error on one nail and decided to just coat it all again and that finally hid my nail line. I did notice this was more of an issue on my longer nails; not sure if our regular readers had picked up on my shift to shorter nails, but I, uh, had a graceful “lemme catch this falling razor” moment in the shower this week and my pinkie nail was a victim. It came in useful for this review though haha, because I think those who like to rock shorter nails could more fully appreciate this color 🙂 It was easy application, and I do love the color it creates, so it’s more of a B- for me than a flop. I’d be more willing to play around with the VNL issue if I didn’t have a dupe, plus I think our resident pink expert Mel might be more qualified to pull a “Make it work!!” job outta this haha.

❤ Jess

L’Oreal – Raven’s Dream

Today is October 1st, which aside from meaning that it is now socially acceptable for my ridiculous love for Halloween to go full force, also means it is Breast Cancer Awareness month. My aunt is currently a 2.25 year survivor and I’ve been living with her for the past year as she bravely goes through treatment. I’ve experienced things first hand with her and I have to say it takes a special kind of strength to fight with so much resiliency. I hope this month not only raises awareness and hope for all those touched by cancer, but also gives us a time to celebrate the strength in those that are fighting ❤

Since pink is the color of the month 🙂 I thought I would review the two pinks in the L’Oreal project runway line today. To start, Raven’s Dreams is the partner to Raven’s Strength (which I posted yesterday) in the “Sultry Raven” look.

I was actually surprised this was a pink! In the photos online that I had seen, I sort of expected it to be a off white color. It’s a soft pink creme and kinda reminds me of a barbie color haha. Formula wise, it is a little thin, I had to use 3 thick coats to get a comfortable level of coverage. But, though sheer, it is easy to work with. My main hassle was being patient enough to let it dry; since I used such thick coats even Seche Vite took a bit to work. You can still see a little VNL, but that’s really just when you’re staring at it. The color itself really won me over though, I just feel wonderfully girlie in it haha. It’s NOT my typical color, so it’s a really nice addition to my collection. If you’re patient enough to make it work, it’s a worthy purchase 🙂

The other pink in the line is Amazon’s Flare from the “Audacious Amazon” look, and I’ll be posting that review this afternoon, so look out for it!

L’Oreal – Raven’s Strength

I am so mad about this polish. It was impossible to truly capture it’s amazingness on my camera haha.  My pictures don’t quite show you and I’m not sure words will express it’s beauty well enough. It’s gorgeous!! I spent a long time trying to decide if it was gunmetal or dark gray with shimmer or black with shimmer and came up with “liquid hematite” as being the closest color description. It has all the power of a black but with stunning dimension. I would wear this just about anywhere, minus the just about! It’s a dress up or dress down kinda polish; seriously, I can picture this mani on me in situations from girls night out to a black tie affair. (I did dress it down with a coat of Jack O’ Varnish – Moonwitch to show Mel the pumpkin polish that is soon to be in her posession 😛 See it below the cut!) And that’s just me raving about the color!! The formula is excellent too; two coats, no issue, and clean up was a breeze. It’s not one of those dark polishes that stain as you clean it up, and the shimmer isn’t like some where you end up with your hands looking like they were ke$ha-fied haha. It’s just a no hassle amazing color!

I have a mini slide show to try and show you a hint of it’s beauty, but since it’s a limited edition color, I suggest you just get it haha. I know Mel picked it up today, a choice I fully supported (yes, I enabled her during her buying black out… but she couldn’t miss out on this color!! She’s our gunmetal girl!!) Owl’s Night has been the out of the gate star of the Project Runway line, but trust me, this color is no less of a show stopper 😀

L’Oreal – Owl’s Night

1 coat Seche Rebuild (base)
2 coats OPI – Honk If You Love OPI
1 coat L’Oreal – Owl’s Night
1 coat Seche Vite (top coat)

I think know I have a thing for birds… I’m a fan of the Baltimore Ravens, Orioles, and my most recent fall polish love, Fowl Play was part of Orly’s Birds of a Feather Collection.  So a polish called Owl’s Night? Count me in!

Owl’s Night is a gorgeous dark olive shimmer packed with specks of foil-y goldish-green colored micro glitter.  I know, but just trust me on this one.   It’s AMAZING.  I actually think I like it better than Fowl Play because it’s the underrated one of the two.  Plus, application/formula for Owl’s Night is perfect where I had to thin out Fowl Play a bit for flawless application.

More under the cut…