Edible high fashion: Reed Krakoff x Laduree

Reed Krakoff has announced a collaboration with Laduree, debuting on February 8th. He has commissioned the team at Laduree to create an all-black matte dark chocolate macaron just in time for Valentines Day, so all the singletons out there finally have a Valentines Day treat that reflects just how dark and moody we all are on the one day of the year designed solely for the purpose of making us feel like crap.

The confection will be presented in a custom limited edition black matte Laduree box. So far, it would appear that the macarons are available exclusively at the New York Laduree store on Madison Avenue.
Doesn't Laduree know that there are single people in Hong Kong, London and Paris as well?

But to be fair, I think the macarons were released to celebrate NYFW, so no appeal process for the rest of us around the world!

Now the only question that remains is... can I get some nice human being who will happen to fly from NYC to HKG in the near future to hand carry some back for me? :D

xxx H

Chanel Facettes D'or Gold Fiction

I was reorganizing my Chanel polishes, having bought some new shelves to tidy up in time for Chinese New Year, when I realised that I hadn't updated for yonks (almost a year? :s), and that I should come back.

First, let me share a picture of my lovely reorganised Chanel polish collection :)

It puts a smile on my face to walk into my room every day to see them all stacked and tidy. When I choose my NOTD, I feel like I'm shopping all over again :D

And speaking of NOTD, I have on Gold Fiction today. 

Gold Fiction was released in Fall 2008 together with Kaleidoscope and Fantastic, and was part of the first collection created by Peter Phillips after he was named global creative director of Chanel Beauty. 

He allegedly took his inspiration from Coco Chanel's apartment on Rue Cambon. Gold Fiction is released as a Facettes D'or nail colour rather than Le Vernis; I'm not aware of any other Facettes D'or nail colours though. 

The polish had a US$30 price tag when first released, and there were cries of outrage over this. Chanel's explanation at the time was that there was a higher cost to the ingredients causing the price increase. We laugh at this now, with normal collections going for USD$27-30; we would gladly shell out US$30 now and get a bottle of liquid gold in return!

Gold Fiction is marketed as a pure molten 24 karat gold colour. It fulfils its promises, and is the truest yellow gold colour I own - Gold Fingers, Gold Lame, Diwali, Delight (yes, yes, ok, the last two aren't meant to be yellow gold, but I group them in the gold category nonetheless :p), - none come close to Gold Fiction. I find that I repeatedly reach for this when I want an "in your face" gold. It comes in an opaque bottle, which is apparently to protect the polish from light damaging the pigments. However, this does mean that you won't know how much remains in the bottle.

The application of this polish is incomparable to any other metallic polish I've tried. As in incomparably amazing. There are close to no brush strokes, no matter how haphazardly or wobbly you paint the polish. Don't you just love that in a metallic?

Having said that though, I think that Gold Fiction makes my skin look quite dark; that might be because yellow has never looked good on me, which means yellow gold doesnt either! But I still go back to Gold Fiction when the mood feels right, such as now, when Chinese New Year is just around the corner!

This was meant to be a quick post, so without further ado, here come the photos - they were taken on my iPhone, when I was at work, so unfortunately, I don't have any bottle shots. The pictures show two coats, and were taken after about 5 days wear, so please excuse my cuticles and tip wear!

Thanks for reading!

xx H

Chanel Marilyn 209

I feel like I've abandoned the blog for quite a long while now, due to super busy real life, but this time, unlike other times that I've tried to blog or write a diary, I've COME BACK! I've surprised even myself :)

This post is going to be my very first review of polish colours that I actually own. Hopefully this will be the  first of many.

The colour I am dedicating this special post to is Chanel Marilyn. It was named and created for Marilyn Monroe (unsurprisingly), and more specifically, as a tribute to Monroe's 1953 fabulous iconic pink dress which she wears when singing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, in the classic movie, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

This is one of my favourite polishes from Chanel. I am not usually a big red polish person, as I know many Chanel fans are, because I tend to find them slightly too loud. Marilyn is actually closer to a pink than a red, despite the colour in the bottle, because it leans raspberry more often than not. The silver shimmer that is seen in the bottle is evident in real life, depending on the angle at which you look at it, although I don't think the pictures truly capture this. I've tried to take pictures from multiple angles and in different lighting in an attempt (which I think failed) to illustrate this!

I must say that Marilyn's formula is excellent, the best I've encountered in a Chanel polish yet! It is a one-coat wonder with fabulous colour payoff.
Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, this polish has been discontinued for some time, and I don't know whether its still possible to get it anywhere except off eBay, which is where I snagged mine. They do pop up every now and then though, so if you're patient, it is possible to acquire it for a bargain!

Hope this has helped some out there, and please leave comments if you think there are any areas in which I can improve! I would greatly appreciate it :)

Thanks for reading guys! xx

Chanel Spring 2012 Nail Polishes

Lo and behold the polishes we will be shelling out for in January.

They apparently appear to be softer in person than in this picture. May and June definitely captivate me. I'm holding out judgement on April, but there's no way I can leave with just May and June. Spring would not be complete without getting April as well, although I must say the colour looks less than impressive.

This should be what May looks like on the nail. it seems a lovely bubblegum pink with a pearlescent sheen. Lovely!

Swatches of all three shades on nails at the runway show, courtesy of stylesight.com. April looks really bright here. If it applies like this, I'm definitely snapping up all three, doubts all gone!

         

Style.com has also stated that this pearly white opalescent shade spotted on the runway may or may not be going into production. 

stylesight.com, on the other hand, has managed to tell us more, namely that this shade is called Attraction, and is set to launch in January in the US.

However, la chanelphile says that this shade was specially created for the show only.

I guess we won't know til we know. Personally, I say the more chanel polishes the better, so even if it won't be released as part of the Spring collection, I really hope they release it eventually as a single release or otherwise!

I must say June is exciting me much more than Mimosa ever did, which makes my yellow toned skin look like a dead colour. Orange, on the other hand, is just fantastic! :D Which of the four new polishes are you guys most looking forward to?

Of course, between now and January, we still have the holiday collection to look forward to, which will be available at counters in Hong Kong on October 14. Mark the day down in your diaries ladies. I especially can't wait to get my hands on the velvet matte top coat and the rouge allure matte lipsticks!

In the meantime, I'm just going to salivate a bit more looking at the pics from the runway show :D

Models Own Beetlejuice Collection

Models Own has come up with what looks like a fabulous new collection release!
I have been stuck in what I call a duochrome polish frenzy since Chanel's Peridot was released, snapping them up whenever I could, and it looks like the rest of the world is falling for it too. Chanel has always been known as the trend setter, and nothing illustrates that better.

I have had less than pleasant experiences with Models Own polishes in the past. I find that they fade, to the extent that they change colour, when in my nails in less than a week. To me, that is the ultimate peeve, even worse than chips! Nonetheless, for the look of this collection, I'm willing to give it one last chance.

This collection will be released in November in the UK. It will be made up of 5 shades: Golden Green, Pinky Brown, Purple Blue, Aqua Violet and Emerald Black. You can bet that I'm going to be trying to get my hands on it from Hong Kong!

Post Numero Uno

I've never been a good diary keeping kind of person, and so this new endeavour might prove too taxing for me. But recently, I've had an urge to start a blog because of the many obsessions that I have, the hours I spend researching them, and I want to share them with anyone who is interested!

I have decided that the premise of this blog will be anything that has caught my fancy recently, or any sales that may or may not be happening. By virtue of this, I predict that this blog will center mostly around nail polish, designer bags and shoes.

Five things readers should know about me:

1. I am obsessed with Chanel nail polish
2. I am obsessed with designer bags, especially Balenciagas
3. I am obsessed with shoes of all kinds
4. I am obsessed with ebay browsing
5. I need an outlet for all these obsessions.

So, be prepared for a lot of posts on numbers 1-4!

I hope that this is a good start, and that slowly, I will gain followers and readers, who love the things I love, as much as I do :)

Heather