Fall/Winter 2012/2013 French Manicure

Remember my last post on the Fall/Winter 2012/2013 nail trends? Well one of the things that was huge on the runway was this French manicure, with a nude base and dark tip:

I decided to try it out for myself to see how good it was in tea life, and I have to say, that this is pretty wearable.


Here, I used Rimmel Beige Style (totally the most underrated nude ever - why this isn't a cult favourite like OPI Tickle My Francey is beyond me), and I used Nails Inc Victoria, the perfect "oxblood" (that's what those runway folks are calling it, not me!) type colour for the season. It's also pretty opaque (one coat gives you full coverage) and so is perfect for these types of nail tips.


I actually freehanded the tips myself, and my key takeaway from this was that I should never attempt to freehand those tips, upon pain of death. I know I keep saying that I shouldn't freehand those tips, and then I keep on doing it, but it's because these things always look so much simpler than they really are! So I'm always thinking "I could do this!" until I actually do it, and then I'm like, "Oh crap."


I like the look, as these are very chic, but I feel like these aren't as practical as they look - once the tips start chipping, it becomes obvious that something is wrong with your manicure. But it does look great though, so maybe it might be worth the trouble for some.

Fall/Winter 2012 Nails: Classic Nude, Brown and Pearls

In my last post, I commented that this season's Fall/Winter 2012 nail trends were kinda boring, especially where colours were concerned, since this season's shades were mostly all dark vampies and fleshtone neutrals. So, I set out to jazz it up with a little bling, while still retaining some element of its classic, timeless feel. And here is the result - classic bling, in the form of pearls!

For inspiration, I actualaly looked at this modified french manicure, with a nude base and a vampy tip. It was making the rounds on the runway as part of the Fall/Winter 2012 trends this year. When I saw the look, I thought to myself, "That's a classic colour scheme, but I wonder if I could do something to it - it looks like it could use a teeny bit of bling."

(Source: Vogue)
So, I did just that! I retained the colour scheme - don't wanna mess with a good thing too much - but added the pearls, and changed the shape of the painted tip.


For the base, I used Rimmel Beige Style, which is seriously one of the most underrated polishes out there. It's cheap, available, and a classic shade that would probably look good on most people. Beige Style is a fleshtone nude creme (I think it's a creme anyway - it has the slightest of shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show up on the nail). For the nail tip, I used Megan Miller Ganache, which is a rich chocolate brown creme. I basically free-handed the curved tip using Ganache. It doesn't have to be THAT neat because the smile line will be covered by the pearls.


Can I digress a little at this point? I love Megan Miller polishes - the two I have are fantastic in terms of colour payoff, texture, and brush shape/size, but man, I really hate the bottles. The cork cap really annoys me to no end, because fluff and dirt and dust get onto the cap really badly. I have to like, do some dust removal every now and then. I think my cork cap is eventually going to get all moldy and gross (I live in a very hot and very humid climate near the equator), and I'm not looking forward to it. But anyway, moving on.


For the pearls, I used three different sizes of pearls and aligned them along the smile line from large to small. For handling of the pearls, I used the ever-helpful wet toothpick tip - basically you dip the tip of a toothpick in water, and the wet toothpick will pick up the pearls due to the surface tension of the water. When the pearl touches the wet nail polish, the pearl will stick to the polish. Much easier than using tweezers!


Anyway, this is my slightly-more-blinged-up-but-still-classic take on this Fall/Winter's French manicure. I'm really liking it, as it's easy to do, and looks great, even if you aren't into crazy nail art. In fact, my non-nail-polishaholic sister commented that she actually liked this look! I think it would be great to try this with other colour schemes too.

Caviar, oops, Fish Egg Manicure, aka Bad PR 101: How NOT to Handle Bloggers

Here is my Caviar, oops, I mean, Fish Egg Manicure! I'm sure by now, you would have heard of how Ciate stupidly unleashed a backlash against its own brand. Well, that's a large part of the reason why I'm writing today's post, too.

It all started so well. One of the more unique trends that was coming up this season for nails was Ciate's Caviar Manicure. This basically a nail surface that is polished, and then covered with beads. It lends a texture and look that resembles caviar, hence the name. (I guess maybe "bubble manicure" didn't sound as good.)

A lot of nail bloggers were inspired by the look, and began doing their own DIY versions. Most brands consider it a good thing, even if these bloggers aren't using their own products (Ciate's manicure sets aren't avaialble til June). The reason is simple - more publicity leads to increased sales, or at least, increased general brand awareness. This was a virtuous cycle - bloggers love a product, readers know about it, brand gets good publicity, and sales.

(Source)

So far, so good. Then Ciate began sending Cease and Desist letters to bloggers (an example here), on the grounds that they are infringing on their intellectual property. Ciate claims that because they are in the process of trademarking the terms "caviar manicure" and "caviar nails", all nail bloggers using either terms are liable for IP infringement.

Of course, nail bloggers, being a tight-knit bunch, were unhappy. The outrage culminated in "Fish Egg Friday", where bloggers all did their own DIY caviar manicures (now re-named "Fish Egg manicures") to express solidarity and unhappiness with Ciate regarding the situation. (One of my favourite posts regarding the entire situation is here.)

As it turns out, Ciate didn't even invent the caviar manicure. It was first done by Dashing Diva more than a year before Ciate, for the Cushnie et Ochs show in 2011. And back then, it was called a caviar manicure too, not as a trademarked term, but more as a general description (like shatter polish doesn't specificaly refer to OPI's shatter range). And yet, if you read the Ciate website, it says, "The inspiration behind the Caviar Manicure™ came about when Charlotte, Ciaté’s Creative Director, was looking to create 3-dimensional nails for a front cover magazine shoot and wanted to develop something feminine, indulgent yet delicately extravagant."


(Screen-capped from Ciate website. Snarky text and red circle added by me.)

So in essence, Ciate is claiming that they invented the cavair manicure, which was invented over a year ago by someone else under the same (non-trademarked) name, and now they are going to trademark it so that noone else (including the original creator, Dashing Diva), can use the words "caviar manicure" or "caviar nails". That's just total and utter crap to me.

Ethical issues aside, this has to do with dealing with bloggers. If it was some skeevy Ebay seller selling fake Ciate beads, then by all means, excercise your IP and slap them with a C&D. But for bloggers, who are individuals acting in a non-commercial manner, and who could be your customers, this is overkill. Even if you have the legal right to do so, a savvy company would not use that as the first step. As I wrote in my previous post the last time something like this happened, it's not a good idea, and I quote:

"However, sending a lawyer's letter right off the bat is a very heavy-handed response given that they are just dealing with one individual, and is one that is too harsh, and bound to give the company a bad reputation. Instead, a much better thing to do would have been to get a PR person to send out a more friendly-sounding email clarifying the situation - that would have gotten the same effect, and have avoided the drama. Justified or not, this is still really bad publicity for [Ciate], which could have been avoided. A lawyer's letter should be the last line of resort, not the first thing you think of, especially when dealing with harmless individuals who are your customers!"

Ciate has since then softened its stance against bloggers, but it does seem like too little, too late.

Anyway, I'm sure you had enough of my ranting (well, what is my blog good for if not ranting I guess!). Let's move on to the actual good stuff - more photos of my very own Caviar Fish Egg Manicure! I'm too late to the party to add in my blog for the link list that's been going round since I was at work all week, so this is not for any type of publicity I could get from the outrage, but more to just express solidarity in my own way.



For this Caviar Fish Egg Manicure, I used OPI's Barefoot in Barcelona as the base. It's been sitting around in my untrieds for over a year, and I can't believe it took me all this time to use this baby. It's a gorgeous pinky-brown sandy neutral, and would look good on almost anyone, I think. Heck, I think this would even make a great lip colour too!



For the beads, I used some random beads I got from Born Pretty Store. Mine were only one colour, but you can get a few colours and mix them together, if you're more artsy than me. In order to get the beads onto the nails, I painted two coats of Barefoot in Barcelona, then basically poured beads over my nail while it was still wet. Some areas are harder to reach than others, so if you want you can dip your nails too. Once I was satisfied with how the beads looked, I added some topcoat to seal everything.



All in all, this was a really easy manicure to do. I mean, pouring stuff over your nail - doesn't get much simpler than that! The downside though, is that some of the the beads came loose, and I felt like my manicure was going to drop off eventually, bead by bead. I suppose it's great for a night out, but I don't expect these to last more than a couple of days. Besides, I also have this really horrible habit of picking at my nails, and a rough and bumpy texture like that of the Caviar Fish Eggs manicure would really tempt me to pick at them soo much.



The bottom line? I'd probably wear this for a glamorous night out, but not for everyday. And although it's easy to do, you'd have to be quite patient to work with tiny little beads that may be prone to spilling and rolling all over the floor. But otherwise, I think it doesn't look that bad - it's really a hate or love kinda thing, but I am actually starting to get to like it. I just don't think I'll be getting Ciate's version of the beads.

Ciate Sharp Tailoring and Velvet Tuxedo Lace Manicure Fail

So now that Winter's almost over, I'm finally wearing my Winter collection nail polishes. Go figure. Anyway, good polish is timeless! The perfect edgy neutral is always timeless and oh-so-chic all year round! And the two Ciate colours I happened to buy when they were on sale at ASOS are pretty neutral and chic. I bought Sharp Tailoring and Velvet Tuxedo.

First of all, bottle pics of both of them! I'm really digging these two.

Sharp Tailoring is a very edgy neutral greige (you know, a cross between a grey and a beige), and is one of those colours that I LOVE to death. This one isn't like the rest of them - it doesn't have any pink in it (unlike the other greige-y colours), and that's what makes it stand out. It also has gold shimmer that really amps up the colour.



Velvet Tuxedo is a blackened-grey, or is it a black? that has beautiful multidimensional shimmer:



I love those two colours, and I decided to do a KOTD with them, in attempt to replicate the "Lace Manicure" look that's been so popular lately. The KOTD itself turned out to be a massive fail due to my inability to stamp and align properly, but here you go anyway. I believe the plate is M57.

As you can see, in natural sunlight, Sharp Tailoring is a lot more grey, and a lot less beige.



In indoor lighting, you can really see it's beige-y-ness, and it's gold shimmer (which my @#$@% camera can't seem to capture. I think my camera has issues with shimmer). I do think it stands out best indoors, as opposed to outdoors:



Application-wise, both of them were a little mixed. Velvet Tuxedo gave me no problem whatsoever - it was opaque in one coat, and good enough to konad with. Sharp tailoring was a little sheer and streaky, but two coats took care of everything, so it's not a big deal. However, I do wonder if it was the polish or my lack of skillz that made this a little tricky to work with. But anyway, I've yet to see a dupe of this pretty little colour, so if anyone knows of a dupe with less application issues, let me know!

Mannequin Hands Nail Polish Shade: I Unwittingly Haz!

One of the latest trends in nail polish (other than the is-it-over-already annoying jade green trend which looked awful on me) is the Mannequin Hands trend. That's one of my favourite trends. I think it's super cool, especially when paired with the Lace Manicure, or with painting one of your fingers on each hand a different colour from all the other hands (two of the trends I've been seeing too). I'm not a fan of jade or mint green (although I do love that ASOS Paint by Ciate, and I'll be posting an NOTD with it soon), but I do love lace, and I am ALL for painting mroe than one colour at a time!

Anyway, unlike so many people, I don't actually have any problem finding a more-or-less mannequin hands shade. (I don't believe there'll actually be a nail polish the exact shade of my skin, so I'll settle.) And, what's more, I already did an NOTD with it HERE. In fact, in another of my old posts I wrote about the different nude nail polishes I owned, RIGHT HERE. Of course, you know, that's all because I'm such a fashion forward, edgy chick...Hah. Who am I kidding. It was pure coincidence.

Anyway, what's this marvelous perfect nude polish I love so much I just have to blog about not once, but twice? Well, I raved about it then, and just for kicks, (and because not many people will have seen my previous posts as those were made when my blog had a total of like 0 followers), here is the closest I'll ever get to a Mannequin Hands Manicure:



I know! Isn't she a beauty?! That's Nails Inc Basil Street for you. :) Perfect nude beige creme with almost no pink, perfectly opaque in two coats, and so smooth that it nearly applied itself. I didn't even need to clean up on that one! That's how perfect it is. Love it to bits! Anyway, for anyone who is still searching around for their Mannequin Hands shade and find most of the popular nudes too pink, I strongly urge you to try this one.