Of Life and Lacquer

What a freaking lazy Saturday. Last night I just couldn’t fall asleep, and it was around 3 am when I finally passed out while watching a dumb movie. For whatever reason, my allergies have been acting up really badly so I’ve been feeling kind of  miserable despite taking some allergy meds. Oh well. It’s been ridiculously hot here which is typical since we are heading into Fall. Oh you silly California, when will you ever get the temperatures right?

Now that my nails have grown and I am back on the swatching train, I swatched a crapton of polishes last night so I will have plenty of new content for you lovely people. The polish I have for you today is one that I was very, VERY excited to finally try: Marc Jacobs Blue Velvet. I don’t know about you, but I kind of really love Marc Jacobs…maybe a little more than Tom Ford because TF seems like such a smug bastard in the most delicious way possible, of course. When I first read that Marc Jacobs was launching a line of beauty products at Sephora, I nearly expired. When I finally got a chance to see the products, I think I felt a little let down. Before I rattle on and on, let me show you one of the polishes I picked up from his line.

Marc Jacobs Blue Velvet is a highly pigmented blue shimmer polish with the slightest duochrome. In the bottle, you can see some slight pink/purple flashes, but that doesn’t really translate to the nail. Considering that these polishes are supposed to be “Hi-Shine” I was very surprised with how dull-looking it dried. This isn’t really a problem for me since I always use Seche Vite and that makes every polish crazy shiny. The formula is decent: it’s highly pigmented and has a good consistency which gave me great control. I did notice that it was very easy to create bald spots so I do recommend giving this polish a little extra time in between coats. As far as the packaging is concerned, I think the bottles are just weird. I am a sucker for beautiful packaging, but I can’t say that I really like this bottle shape because it just looks awkward. The cap does come off so you don’t have to worry about dealing with the huge cap. My friend Lesley commented previously that if the bottle was a little taller, it would look like deodorant. Hahahahaha! So true!

And this is what happened when I removed Blue Velvet. Arrrrrghhhhh! This polish really stains but on the Cynthia Stainer Scale it’s nowhere near thermo nuclear stainer rating–that is reserved for OPI Fly. I recommend doubling up on base coat so you don’t have to deal with this when you remove your polish.

Overall, I would have to say that I am glad I picked up a couple of polishes from this line, but I am not sure that I will be getting more. I have to admit that I like the allure of luxury polish because you can still experience a little bit of the haute couture magic without spending thousands of dollars. At $18 for a .43oz bottle, these aren’t cheap but they are also more reasonably priced than other luxury polishes. I found the choice of colors painfully dull–not as dull as the colors from Michael Kors’ polish line, but definitely not unique or exciting. Have you picked up any polishes from the Marc Jacobs line at Sephora? Let me know what you think!