I love it when i get the chance to try out nail styles on my own nails. Here are a few looks i have been sporting recently ♥
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| Finger Mouse |
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| Polka Dotty |
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| Checks: OPI Sparrow Me The Drama with Congeniality Is My Middle Name |
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| Lacey Nails: OPI Barefoot In Barcelona with Lace overlay |
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| Animal Flash: OPI Come Diner With Me with a MINX Chettah accent |
The OPI Holland Collection will be available to buy at £11 each from February 2012
I had a cheeky little trip to Holland and back this morning. Well actually, Holland came to Claridges (and how absolutely stunning is it in there. #LOVE!), anyway, as i was saying, Holland came to Claridges courtesy of the fabulous OPI, who launched their SS12 collection.
‘Holland Collection‘ is a colourful assortment of shades that very nearly matched the pretty Tulips decorating the Drawing Room. Looking at the collection as a whole, it’s obviously a summer collection, but there are a few cheeky surprises in there. Of course there are the sunny brights, namely pinks and orange, but actually there are a couple of very nice, but much deeper hues too. Shimmering browns, deep purple and mauve’s which you might typically associate with winter collections. Nonetheless i am rather excited about getting my hands on them. Here is a quick first look at the range, i will be swatching a couple of shades later in the week, so look out for those.
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| I HAVE A HEARING PROBLEM |
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| KISS ME ON MY TULIPS |
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| GOUDA GOUDA TWO SHOES |
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| ROLL ON IN THE HAGUE |
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| WOODEN SHOE LIKE TO KNOW |
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| VAMPSTERDAM |
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| DUTCH YA JUST LOVE OPI |
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| PEDAL FASTER SUZI |
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| Sparkle & Fly, Did It On Em, Matalic For Life, Pink Friday, Save Me, Super Bass (purple shatter) |
Stylist to the stars, gorgeous Grace Woodward was presenting the catwalk shows at this year’s London Fashion Weekend.
I popped backstage on Friday to give her a quick manicure before her evening on stage. Grace already has amazingly well kept nails, so i gave them a quick file and buff followed by OPI’s Start to Finish. I then applied two coats of HONK If You Love OPI, a stunning deep, dark grape shade which looks almost black.
Grace wanted to wear a darker shade as the catwalk would feature a lot of Autumn/ Winter wear. I finished the nails with a coat of Start To Finish and then applied some OPI Drip Dry so she could continue getting ready without worrying about smudging her nails.
This shade looked lush on Grace, complimented her skin tone and looked HOT against her orange playsuit. She was also wearing two absolutely amazion rings! I have style envy!
Big heart for Grace.
Nails
We used two different OPI shades to maintain that bright high gloss 70’s image. A fuchsia pink on fingers ‘You’re A Pisa Work’ and a bold lime green on toes – ‘Who The Shrek Are You’. They look like a rather odd pairing, but actually worked perfectly to create a retro look. Everyone loved it. The models were super keen on the fuchsia, Fearne also wore these shades and was pretty chuffed with her nails .
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| OPI You’re A Pisa Work & Who The Shrek Are You |
Hair
The L’Oreal hair team were fab, they added hair pieces to the girls’ natural hair, then tightly plaited them. These were taken out just before the show achieving that BIG, almost Afro effect. It looked gorgeous, i might try it out myself.
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| Fearne also sported big hair and Orange lips. |
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| The gorgeous Whitney Port supported Fearne in the front row |
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| Holly Willoughby |
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| Backstage Whitney with her mentor, ex boss Kelly Cutrone |
This was my favourite show so far. Backstage was frantic. Hair stylists, makeup artists and nail techs were literally pouncing on the twenty-four Marios Schwab models to give them a sculpted Film Noir look with a play on matte and shine. This was an integral part of the collection on show, which was inspired by the contrast of light and dark ‘Chiasroscuro‘.
It was difficult not to get high on the excitement and effort that filled the room, especially when four of the models arrived only 10mins before the start of the show. Right up to the very last moment, as the girls lined up, ready to walk out on to the the runway, the backstage team were on them like flies – fixing hair, powdering faces, touching up nails. It dawned on me at this point, that the audience outside who waited patiently, listening to the show music, chatting, tweeting and blogging from their seats were quite unaware of the frenzy behind those statuesque white catwalk screens.
Hair:
The hair was styled by using Clairol Colourseal Gloss and Frederik Fakkai mousse and set into waves by blow drying over large barrelled brushes and some very hot tongs. I did get whiffs of burning hair now and again as i was crawling under the table looking for toes to paint. Inspired by 40’s fashion, and style icons Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman, the models hair was parted low on one side and curled under.
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| The frenzy continued as up to 5 or 6 people would work on one model to get her ready |
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| last minute touches as the girls walk out |
Makeup:
Makeup artist Val Garland created a look which tied in with the Film Noir style by giving models a feline smoky eye. With liquid liner on the eyelid and MAC Carbon shadow at the bottom, the eyes continued the theme of matte vs shine. Cheeks were super sculpted to give a deep structured finish.
Nails:
Keeping the significance of light and texture, OPI created nails that combined a matte and gloss finish. On finger nails we used a combination of either nude lacquer (OPI Passion), or a glossy high shine finish black (OPI Lady In Black). The dark lacquer was applied to acrylic tips and filed into long rounded points. It looked pretty fierce on the runway! Toes were painted black and glossy.
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| Applying acrylics and filing them into long points |
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| Light matte nails |
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| Dark glossy toes |
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| Dark glossy pointy nails |
The Show:
I’ve been lucky enough to work on a few London Fashion Week S/S12 shows. Here is a round up of my first show, Bernard Chandran. His collection was 1950’s inspired, the colours were muted neutrals with the odd splash of green and turquoise. This was completely reflected backstage with makeup and nails. It was a great show to work on, the pace was fast and furious, and the result was slick.
Hair:
Hair by L’Oreal was sleek with lots of extensions.
Makeup:
The look was high gloss skin, airbrushed for a perfect finish with nude lips. The MAC girls created a really high density colour which popped against the model’s dark skin. The eyes were the centrepiece for this look, a geometry style liner in a bold turquoise blue which struck out in to a wing.
Nails:
The brief was to create ‘nice sweet girl’ nails. We used two OPI shades, Tickle My France-Y and DS Glow. The nude Tickle My France-Y covered the entire nail bed while the golden DS Glow kissed the tip at an angle. I will be posting a piece on how to create the look soon.
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| a gold angle on one edge of the nail gave this nude look a little twist |
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| OPI Tickle My France-Y and DS Glow |
The Show
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| The lovely Niki from Lena White getting her hair styled ♥ |
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| My OPI manicure station ♥ |
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| Lauren and Lydia from TOWIE at dinner |
As NYFW SS12 is well under way, the world’s fashionists await trends to adorn the catwalks. However, i am more interested in what the makeup artists have to offer!
From the pics i have seen so far, there is a fair bit of bold lipping going on.
Richard Chai‘s blue and purple lips are striking against smooth nude skin, and almost bare eyes. I have seen a few celebs sporting purple lips lately. One to add to the ‘want’ list?
Jason Wu was bold with red at his show. His retro look models wore bright red, matte lips teamed warm cheeks and defined brows, created by MAC. Wu’s collection was inspired by street artist KAWS and the pop art of the 50’s and 90’s which is reflected in the make up. Makeup artist Diane Kendal, who was leading the MAC team, used a vibrant scarlet red lip colour and covered it over with MAC Neo Orange Powder to achieve the final look.
Those colour mixers at OPI have come up trumps for their Christmas 2011 collection – The Muppets. The range which coincides with the release of the Muppets Movie consists of a mixture of gorgeous deep shades, creamy neutrals and eye-poping glitter.
There are 12 yumptious colours with the cutest names such as ‘Getting’ Miss Piggy With It‘ and ‘Gone Gonzo’. There is also a gold shatter colour which i am really excited about trying.
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| Meep Meep Meep |
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| Designers DeBetter |
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| Warm & Fozzie |
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| Rainbow Connection |
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| Divine Swine |
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| Animal-istic |
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| Excuse Moi |
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| Getting’ Miss Piggy With It |
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| Gone Gonzo |
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| Pepe’s Purple Passion |
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| Wocka Wocka |
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| Fresh & Frog |
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| Gold Shatter |
I was trying to pick a couple of favourites from the collection, but failed. They all look great – hopefully they are just as gorgeous in reality!
OPI are launching a couple of new collections this Autumn.
Touring America is available now.
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| OPI Touring America Collection |
Miss Universe and Serena Williams’ Grand Slam collections are available in September.
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| OPI Miss Universe Collection |
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| OPI Serena’s Grand Slam Collection |
Here are some of my favourites:
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| Touring America: Color To Diner For |
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| Touring America: I Brake For Manicures |
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| Miss Universe: Congeniality Is My Middle Name |
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| Touring America: Honk If You Love OPI |
This dark Taupe shade from OPI’s Touring America Collection may not look too appealing in the bottle, but one applied, its actually rather lush.
To celebrate OPI’s 30th anniversary this year, the nail colour genius’ have compiled one AMAZING collection. Touring America is the Autumn/ Winter OPI launch, and will be available to drool over from the end of August.
The 12 shades range from summery corals and pinks to subtle wintery grays, taupes and dark purples. The colour categories themselves may not be revolutionary, but it is each individual shade, which is crafted with exactly the right elements to create a perfectly toned colour, great consistency and stunning finish which really makes the difference. We have seen the hundreds of coral varnishes out there, but i can guarantee you will fall in love with the coral from this range; ‘I Mainly Eat Lobster’ is beautiful, with a touch of shimmer and a super glossy finish. It IS to die for. I love it. Images are below, so see for yourself.
Here are a few pics i snapped at the fabulously ‘American’ themed launch of the range, as well as swatches of a couple of shades!
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| Are We There Yet |
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| Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window |
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| I Mainly Eat Lobster – A slightly shimmery coral |
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| Road House Blues |
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| I Brake For Manicures |
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| Color To Diner For |
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| A Taupe For The Space Needle |
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| The New Shatter Shades |
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| Swatched: I Mainly Eat Lobster |
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| Swatched: Honk If You Love OPI |
Loladoes 