Nailspiration: MAC Taste Temptation Collection

Happy Thanksgiving! At least to those of you in the US. I’m in Birmingham, Alabama celebrating with some family I don’t often get to see. I know we all have turkey to eat and football to watch (and black Friday lists to make…) so this will be a short and sweet post.

When I saw the promo photo of the nail polishes from MAC’s Taste Temptation collection I immediately fell in love with the colors. The polishes are rich and vibrant individually. I never thought to wear the colors together until I saw the promotional photo from this same collection. The model was wearing the purple polish as an accent nail which leads me to believe she was wearing the blue polish on the other nails (though it doesn’t much look like it thanks to the lighting…).

Anyway, I wanted to give the manicure a try with polishes I already had in my collection. For the blue nails I used Orly La Playa and for the purple accent nail I used OPI Pamplona Purple. These are not 2 polishes I would have ever paired together on my own but I absolutely love the end result.

Kind of an unusual manicure for Thanksgiving but I love it so that’s ok! There are more swatches below the jump.

I’d love to know what you’re wearing on your nails for Thanksgiving so make sure to leave a comment with what’s on your nails today!

 

MAC Morange (+ a comparison to the lipstick!)

Way back in May MAC announced they were releasing a new permanent nail line that was going to be available August 2nd (though it is available on the website now and I’ve seen it in some stores…). When I first heard this news it didn’t pique my interest much as MAC is definitely not known for their nail polishes. But then I saw they were releasing a nail polish shade in the same color as my favorite MAC lipstick; Morange. That is when the excitement began and the color definitely did not disappoint!

Morange is a bright orange cream with distinctive red undertones. The color is lovely and quite flattering for an orange. The formula wasn’t great. It was a bit streaky though using three coats did solve that problem.

I was a bit skeptical that MAC would be able to match the nail polish shade exactly to the lipstick. MAC Morange lipstick is an amplified lipstick so it is rather bright. But, I did a comparison of the two (you can see it below the jump) on just white paper and the colors are identical as far as I can tell.

MAC nail polishes are rather pricey at $16. Considering the formula issues I would say pass on these nail polishes unless there is a color you just really want. For a peak at the rest of the new permanent line click here. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this new line plus if you’re just dying to get your hands on a specific color!

Below the jump there is the comparison of Morange lipstick and nail polish along with a slew of other picture 🙂

DIY: Loose Eye Shadow Pigment as Nail Polish!

If you’re anything like me you have a nice stash of loose eye shadow pigments that you just love and would like to get more use out of. The other day when I was applying MAC’s Blue Brown pigment I couldn’t help but think what an awesome nail polish it would be!

I decided to give it a go. It was a learning experience but I did finally come up with a technique that worked. For how I did it check below the jump!

MAC Blue India with Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

I was so excited when I found MAC Blue India at my CCO for just $8.50. I came home and put it on right away. I loved it as much as I thought I would 🙂

I decided I wanted to jazz it up a bit so I added one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Gold (aka one of the best products I have EVER purchased). It really added some interest to this polish. Even my Mom said something about it and she NEVER comments on my nail polish (well, unless she doesn’t like it :)).

If you missed Blue India the first time around definitely check out your closest CCO. You might just get lucky like me!

Alli

Confetti My Favorite Martian over MAC Dry Martini

Confetti My Favorite Martian is a borderline jelly, so I thought it may look good layered. I decided to give it a try over MAC Dry Martini. I actually like the way it turned out. Layering My Favorite Martian over a darker green took a but of the yellow out of MFM, which, for my skintone, helps quite a bit. This is definitely something I will do again.

Sorry for the messy picture! The day I did this manicure the natural light was almost gone and I wanted to get a picture. I didn’t have a chance to clean it up 🙂

Alli

MAC Dry Martini

MAC and I don’t generally get along. I’m  not a fan of most of their products, I find them to be average at best, which means they are overpriced. So to say the least I’ve never jumped all over MAC nail polishes. Katie (and the rest of the Western world) loved Blue India, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay $13 for a MAC nail polish.

But as fate would have it, I decided to check out the outlet mall that’s (somewhat) near me over the Labor Day weekend. Of course I had to check out the Cosmetics Company Outlet (CCO). They had the entire Fall/Winter 2009 MAC nail polish line. For the most part I was not impressed, but Dry Martini caught my eye. First of all, it’s like nothing I own. Secondly, I’m kind of fascinated with ugly yet pretty nail polishes.

Dry Martini falls somewhere in between olive green and army green. It’s quite the ugly color, but for some reason I find it very appealing. And as a bonus, it looks good against my skintone.

The formula was just average. I needed three coats. One big negative about this polish (and I guess all MAC polishes) is the bottle. I HATE the top. It’s too wide and not comfortable to hold (even though it is rubberized). Due to this it makes it difficult to control the wand.

In the end, I’m glad I picked this up. Polishes at the CCO are priced at $8.50 a piece (which, IMO, is what they should cost in the store…the quality isn’t there for a $13 nail polish).

Alli

MAC – Blue India

Today I fell in love. Blue India is AMAZING. It definitely lives up to all the hype. I’d seen some swatches and I liked it but I had no intentions of buying it until I walked passed the MAC store yesterday and I just couldn’t resist. It’s an amazing steel blue-grey creme. I’ve been wanting a color like this for a long time – I love blues, and grays and this is definitely a highlight in my collection. It applied really well, it took two coats for me, though I think it might be better with three – because I can see some streaking especially on one nail in some of the pictures I took, that I didn’t see before. The bottle and packaging is beyond cute and that just added to my overall level of love I’m feeling right now.

Anyway, the color is exactly as it looks in the bottle. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This is pretty much a must have.

This is 2 coats. I’d like to get pictures of it in daylight but it’ was cloudy all day – so those will be coming because I see myself wearing this a lot in the near future.

-Katie.