Specializing in nail varnishes - rare, unusual, and obscure

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Buck Stops Here

Today I'm presenting two greens. One is high end and the other one is drugstore. Illamasqua Viridian is a sparkling blue-toned green shimmer from Illamasqua's Autumn/Winter 2010 Art of Darkness collection. I purchased it at Sephora in South Coast Plaza. You can't purchase these LE Illamasqua shades online, but brick and mortar Sephoras do get them in stock. (UPDATE NOTE: This has recently changed - both varnishes from the Art of Darkness Collection and two polishes from the Body Electrics collection are now available at Sephora.com)
They retail for $14 here, and $20 something if you order them from overseas because of the unfavorable conversion rate between USD and GBP.
The other is a blackened olive/golden green shimmer from Brucci called Black Emerald. Interestingly, under a microscope this polish has sparse orange and red shimmer mixed in with the dominant green. Indoors it's virtually imperceptible, but the polish flashes a fall leaves-color in direct sunlight (making this polish a gorgeous duochrome. Brucci is based in New York, and I believe on the east coast it is more readily available in drugstores than on the West Coast. I bought this in an independant beauty supply for $3. It is also available on eBay if you can't find it in a store near you. Both of these manis are two coats of polish over one coat Nubar Nu Nails and topped with one coat Seche Vite. These photos were taken indoors using an artificial light source.





6 comments:

  1. everytime I see Viridian it want it more and more. I'm gonna have to driev to Atlanta for this one

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  2. ohmygosh, viridian is just TOO pretty. I don't know what to think about the Brucci one, though...

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  3. Scandalous - After I wrote this post, Sephora.com put Scarab and Viridian up on the site, and the 20% off friends and family sale started today. Here's the discount code: FF2010.
    http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P241720&categoryId=B70
    HTH!

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  4. Nice post!
    I love the Brucci, I got mine through Body and Soul blog b/c out here there are no Bruccis and eBay wants $14 plus shipping.

    I like the Brucci better than the Viridian, too. I, too, love olive greens!

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  5. Both are gorgeous. I'm leaning towards the Brucci. I adore olive green in anything!

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