Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish in Houses of Parliament

Happy Turkey Day! In between Thanksgiving chowing down sessions, I have finally gotten around to swatching Nails Inc.'s much talked about Magnetic Polish in Houses of Parliament - a vampy purple spun with silver shimmer. The peel off instructions tell you to pop the top cap off that has the magnetic strip (it's just like a Chanel or Illamasqua polish; the cap pops off and another screw-top cap is underneath), apply one coat, wait a few minutes, apply a generous second coat, and then hold the cap with the magnetic strip over your polish (but don't touch it to the polish). Easy, right?

I actually got this wrong the first time around. I thought you were supposed to apply a second coat to all nails (like you normally do in a manicure) and then start with the magnetic process. No. I looked at the instructions again and this time saw the word "immediately" (d'oh!) after the part about applying a generous second coat. So I started all over again and this was the result: 

The trick to getting this right is really being generous on that second coat. They aren't kidding. Don't skimp on it. Then you hold the magnetic part over the wet polish and voila! It's like magic: these stunning waves appear on the polish, right before your eyes. The only downside of this is that it takes forever to dry, but I'm willing to put up with it for the gorgeous effect. I got compliments on it from just about everyone today, even people who aren't wild about different or funky nails looks. $16 well spent!

Laura Mercier Baked Eye Colour Palette Holiday Review & Swatches

As we've come to expect, Laura Mercier has released a baked eyeshadow palette for the holidays. This year, it's a collection of five shades in a mirrored compact that range from milk chocolate to baby pink. Since the shadows are baked, you can use them wet or dry, and a mini double-ended brush is included (one side is the eye colour brush, and the other is the creme eye detail brush) that's actually high quality. Not at all like the crappy, sheds-like-a-German-Shepherd mini brushes MAC tends to dump into their holiday kits.

 
The shades are (from left to right):
Sienna - a milk chocolate with shimmer 
Terracotta - shimmering copper-bronze
Ballet Pink -a frosty champange (not really pink at all) along the lines of NARS All About Eve, Stila Kitten, etc
Pink Petal - an icy, shimmery baby pink
Lilac - a beyond gorgeous shimmering lilac

Yeah, yeah... the box says you can use the shades dry, but it's pretty pointless. While Sienna, Terracotta, and Ballet Pink have good pigmentation dry, Pink Petal and Lilac are an enormous let down. And I think that like me, most people will be purchasing this set mainly for those two shade. However, all of the colors look amazing when you apply them wet, when the shadows take on an almost paint-like consistency.

When I went to photograph these, I swatched them in a row in four different ways: dry on bare skin, wet on bare skin, dry over Urban Decay Primer Potion, and wet over UDPP. as we all know, UDPP (or any primer, for that matter) is an eyeshadow game-changer. It can take pretty much the sheerest, most insipid eyeshadow and make it bloom. I found it interesting, and thought I should note that applying these shadows wet over bare skin and dry over UDPP yielded the same result, but for the truest color it was best to apply wet over UDPP. This was especially true for Pink Petal and Lilac. Lilac, whether wet on bare skin or over UDPP on dry skin, had a hint of pink. But when applied wet over UDPP, its bluer tones came through. Pink Petal appeared whitish when applied wet over bare skin or dry over UDPP; when applied wet over UDPP, it shined in all its icy, pure pink glory. I did swatches on both hands, and although I did the ones on my left hand "backwards", I captioned pics to make it easy for everyone, rather than give readers instructions like, "for Sienna and Ballet Pink, it goes like this... ", lol. I also shot them in different lighting for accuracy.

First up is Sienna. I seriously could not believe the difference primer and wet application made in this one:

Right to left: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Right to left: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Terracotta (hehe, I swatched this after Lilac. you can still see a couple of purple sparkles here and there on my hand):

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Ballet Pink (this one seemed to look pretty much the same no matter how I applied it. And it's NOT pink!):

Right to left: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Right to left: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Pink Petal (tilt your head slightly to the left for swatch order):

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDP

And last but not least, my favorite of all, Lilac *oohs and ahhs*. you can really see the difference UDPP makes in bringing out the truer blue tones in the second picture, which was taken without flash. It almost looks like I swatched four different shadows:

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

Left to right: dry over bare skin, wet over bare skin, dry over UDPP, wet over UDPP

 I really like the mix of shades in this palette. You can play with Sienna and Terracotta for a bronzey look; mix Sienna, Ballet Pink and Pink Petal for a pink chocolate look; or just wear Lilac and Pink Petal together for a gorgeous, icy pastel eye that would be perfect for holiday parties (New Year's, anyone? ;)

Nails Inc. Special Effects Overglaze Polish in The Wyndham Collection

"Ooh, it looks like a peacock!" 
"Wow. That is really cool...."
"Looks like lime confetti. That's really, really interesting."

Just a few of the compliments I received for Nails Inc. Special Effects Overglaze polish in The Wyndham Collection. I saw this online and just knew I had to get it. Because A) I love all things teal. Teal is second only to purple for me. Blackened teal? Even better. And B) simply put, the clear flaky special effects topcoat is cool, and I really wanted something different for my nails lately. (I've spent the past week in Misa Fashionista, and I was craving something more daring).

So I'm in Sephora with the boyfriend, and I picked this up to purchase because it really was love at first sight. He glanced at it and said, "Wow... that is really cool." (Yes, he is that well-trained. Can you believe it? ;). Here's how Special Effects works: you get two nail polishes in this set, Teal Black Kensington polish and The Wyndham overglaze top coat. Teal Black Kensington is an opaque, slightly jelly-ish (on the first coat) creme. You apply two coats and follow with The Wyndham, which is a clear topcoat/ glaze with handcut, irregular holographic particles that reflect an iridescent green. The end reult is equal parts dazzling and cool. This is my first time trying Nails Inc. polish, and if all of them are as good as Teal Black, I'm in serious trouble. This formula practically applies itself.

Check out Teal Black all on its own below. *Note: I aplogize in advance for the greasy looking hands in these pics. My hands were pretty dry, and the only thing I had lying around was Kiehl's Creme de Corps.

And... drumroll please... here it is with two coats of Special Effects topcoat, in various lighting:

Gorgeous, right?! The Wyndham can look blue-green in certain lights (mainly low), but its holographic effect is predominantly green. You can get by with only one coat, but two really is twice as nice. Once again, I had zero problems with application. I like this set so much, I'm now lusting after The Old Vic Collection!

Nicole by OPI K********n Kolor in Smile For The Glam-era Swatch

The title here says it all: K********n is a four-letter word in my home. Actually, worse than a four-letter word, because I have no problems writing or saying a swear word. But I have a strong dislike for fake, self-absorbed "reality" television stars and their antics, and that's all I'll say about it. 

A friend of mine bought me three of these as a surprise from CVS. She purchased Smile For The Glam-era, Paparazzi Don't Peach, and Back to Reality... TV; seeing only a few of them left and knowing that I did nails on my blog (she's also well aware that they are shades I would love!). Smile For The Glam-era is a gorgeous, vampy reddish plum with gold (and I think I see some magenta, too) shimmer throughout. I used two coats and they both went on smoothly. It's time for me to thin my Seche Vite top coat; I spy some shrinkage in this photo! This is a really beautiful shade that's right up my alley:

Chanel Le Vernis in Distraction Swatch

I accidentally cut my finger while cooking late last week, so I gave it a couple days to heal up and get my hands back into good shape for photographing. (Is it really smart of me to do a lot of chopping and cooking when I feature my nails on a blog? D'oh!) In the meantime, I finally got my hands on Chanel Distraction. It was a long wait for it to come to my counters, but in the end it was worth it. This an absolutely BEAUTIFUL, very slightly jelly-ish coral pink with hot pink shimmer. I only had to use two coats to get a nice opaque look, but if you want it to look even richer and brighter (and pinker, at least on my skintone), add a third. It's gorgeous, glossy, and classy... typical Chanel. It can be a little hard to find corals that aren't too electric, but this straddles the line perfectly of being bright enough for a pop of summery color, yet demure enough for those who are a bit color shy. LOVE. Distraction is such a sweet shade- happiness in a bottle!

L'Oreal Butterfly Kisses Nail Color Swatch

It's finally sunny out today! Yesterday was so grey and dreary, so I couldn't swatch this beauty. Butterfly Kisses is yet another shade out from L'Oreal, one of many from their new Nail Color line. It's a lovely lilac-pink with microshimmer. Very feminine and perfect for spring without being too much of an "Easter egg" or Barbie-ish shade, lol. Something I love about Butterfly Kisses is that it's quite opaque, which is hard (okay, almost impossible) to find in lavenders and lilacs. I used three coats for the swatch below, although most people can probably use only two (I have insane VNL/ visible nail line). This shade is just so pretty and fresh! And it seems to be very similar to Chanel's Lilac Sky, but unfortunately I have gone through the entire bottle I owned of Lilac Sky, so I can't compare them right now:

L'Oreal Walk on the Beach Nail Color Swatch

Ooh, I love colors like this! Opaque, pale/ off-white cremes. L'Oreal's Walk on the Beach is a pale sand/ stone creme. I thought it would look just like Barielle's Beaches and Dreams polish, but that is much peachier. This shade was a little streaky on the first coat (when aren't pale cremes?), but everything looked just perfect on the second coat. This is a lovely work-appropriate neutral, but it is a trickier shade to wear, as it's less universally flattering than something like Beaches and Dreams. I do think this looks better on tanned/ darker skintones than paler ones (a couple of pale friends of mine commented that it made their hands and nails looks "yucky" or "dirtier"), but you never know how it will look on you until you try it. It's also a bit brighter on darker tones, while it's a soft, pale "greige" on lighter skintones. I do love this shade, but I like Barielle's B&D much more:

L'Oreal Tangerine Crush Nail Color Swatch

Today's swatch is Tangerine Crush from L'Oreal's new Nail Color line. Tangerine Crush is a beautiful coral-orange creme. It is smooth, super glossy, and looks fabulous with a tan (real or faux). I was just saying the other day in a post that I was tired of all the "Sunkist oranges" every spring and summer, but Tangerine Crush has renewed my love for them. Two coats were applied for this picture:

L'Oreal Violet Vixen Nail Color Swatch

Today I've swatched L'Oreal's new Nail Color in Violet Vixen, which is a juicy, vivid magenta purple. As I said yesterday when I swatched Safari Chic, the formula is terrific- very smooth, and only two coats were needed. The first coat had a jelly-ish look to it, but the second gives it an opaque, creme-like finish. I'm really loving this one, since I don't have anything exactly like it- most shades like this tend to lean heavily towards berry or pink, while this one is predominantly purple:

L'Oreal Safari Chic Nail Color Swatch

My local drugstore just received the new lineup of L'Oreal Nail Color. There are tons of shades to choose from; it was seriously hard to make a decision. I stood there for about half an hour thinking, "hmm, this one? Or that one? That one, too?". I bought five of them (Safari Chic, Butterfly Kisses, Tangerine Crush, Walk on the Beach, and Violet Vixen) for starters and will be swatching this week. The formula on these was great- they all required only two coats for full coverage, were very smooth, and I found them to be quite glossy even without topcoat. I also liked the brush, which is somewhat like a slimmer version of OPI's Pro Wide. These are a great buy for $5.99 (the price at my CVS).

Safari Chic is an awesome dusty sage green creme. If you really look up close, you can see faint silvery microshimmer, but it really just looks like a creme on the nails. MANY compliments on this one!

Milani Mint Candy Swatch

I hauled a few polishes at CVS the other day (mainly the new L'Oreal ones), and this new shade from Milani (from the "Color Play" collection) caught my eye. Mint Candy is a stunning aqua turquoise with seafoam green microshimmer. I only had to use two coats to achieve full opacity. This is such a gorgeous color! It's a bit more green-aqua in real life, and reminds me of mermaids:

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know? Swatch

Wooden Shoe Like to Know? is a neutral mushroom brown laced with golden shimmer. It was very watery on the first coat for me (am I the only one who has noticed the newest OPIs are all like this?), but the second coat evened everything out nicely. I thought I would love this shade a lot more than I actually do. Sadly, it makes my hands look somewhat dirty in real life. I'll return to it, though, when I'm more in the mood for a shade like this. It is a very interesting neutral:

OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes Swatch

Gouda Gouda Two shoes is a muted, peached medium rose with soft golden shimmer throughout. I absolutely LOVE shades like this. You're definately wearing nail polish, but it's still work/ office appropriate. Two coats was perfect:

Ever since I was told by some Dutch friends many years ago that the way we pronounce Gouda in English is incorrect (we say 'GOO-da' when it's really 'HOW-da', with a gutteral sound on the G), I've only pronounced it that way. So when I see the name, "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes", I can't help but see it as "Howda Howda Two Shoes",

Charlotte Ronson All Eye Need Eyeshadow Palette Review - Henrietta

Neutral/ basic eyeshadow palettes aren't usually something I'm excited about. I skipped out on the Urban Decay Naked Palette, for crying out loud. I always feel like, "yeah, so what... I've already got so many singles that look like that." So it's odd that I'm so psyched for Charlotte Ronson's All Eye Need eyeshadow palette in Henrietta. Charlotte Ronsons is a relatively new brand at Sephora, and while browsing one of the NYC stores, I saw the CR display along the side of the Make Up for Ever and NARS aisles. The palettes instantly stood out to my eye, especially Henrietta, which was inspired by Charlotte's younger sister. I stared at it... left it... came back... stared at it again... swatched it... left it again... came back again... and this time I picked it up for purchase. I couldn't fight it! Henrietta is just too pretty. She was calling my name in the store. The rich, velvety texture of the shadows, amazing pigmentation, and stunning mix of shades (fleshy peachy pink, frosty pink champagne, shimmering bronzed olive, and black brown with gold shimmer in the squared mirrored compact were telling me, "Stop it with the dark smoky eyes for just once, buy me and put me on, dammit!" 

Nothing else to do in times like these except go with the flow and obey the makeup ;) So here she is... super girly packaging and swatches below.
*NOTE: the pink champagne shade is best captured in the mirror in the picture of the open compact. The flash made the strip of shadow look too light.

 The pink champagne shade is just like Stila Kitten. The bronzed olive is somewhat similar to Urban Decay Smog. The brownish black looks exactly like a shade in a Lancome summer eyeshadow quad I had about a year or two ago (and adored!) but it fell to the floor and is no longer with me. This shade is a wonderful replacement (R.I.P., Lancome Brownish Black With Gold Sparkles Eyeshadow Without A Name). And the fleshy peachy pink? I can't think of a shade that's close enough to it, even after combing through my collection. The closest thing to it that I own is the satin side of NARS All About Eve, and it's still not a dupe. 

After trying this out for an Eye Of The Day, I'm a believer. The shades stayed all day without creasing and blended like a dream. Nothing can be said about the texture except, "it's like buttah!" As for the claims of "Light Filter Technology" (which supposedly adjusts the pigment based on the lighting) and providing "antiaging properties" (I'm sorry, but is anyone really naive enough to believe that an eyeshadow can turn back the clock?).... eh... ok. Sure. If you say so, Sephora :P Personally, I don't want or care about crap gimmicks. Henrietta is a gorgeous palette for a neutral lover or anyone who wants a simple, polished eye with a bit of sparkle. Four shadows, of this quality, for only $22? That's more than good enough for me.

OPI Holland Collection - Vampsterdam Swatch

My local nail salon, which always carries OPI, seriously sucks. Maybe half of the Holland collection came in, and only a few shades were left. I picked up Vampsterdam, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes, and Wooden Shoe Like To Know? I also picked up one of the new China Glaze Magnetix (Instant Chemistry) polishes, so I'll be doing some nail swatches in the next few days.

Vampsterdam is a deep purple with a slightly silvery pearl finish. It was sheer and watery on the first coat (and also quite reddish), deeper and more opaque on the second, and the third was perfect! Vampy, purple lusciousness. I've always wanted to visit Amsterdam, and adding "vamp" to the name for such a stunning purple...HELLO! Hotness. Such a shame I've had to keep my nails shorter recently (they just keep breaking, sadly). I really miss my old claws. But they'll be back:

Lorac Unzipped Palette Swatches

After debating in my head for a bit, I finally splurged on Lorac's new "Unzipped" palette after seeing on Sephora.com. Let's not waste any time here - this baby is GORGEOUS! It's like the Urban Decay Naked palette, but the shades in that were mostly warm and bronzey. This leans more purplish overall. You get ten eyeshadows in a beige mirrored palette (with a design on the front that looks like it's being unzipped) and one mini eye shadow primer. Pretty palette pic:

The top row of shades are:
Undercover - matte nude
Unbelievable - copper shimmer
Unattainable - bronze shimmer
Unconditional - matte fawn *this is actually quite mauve
Unbridled - matte merlot

And here they are swatched, from left to right, in the same order:

The bottom row of shades are:
Undiscovered - gold shimmer
Unreal - champagne shimmer *pink champagne actually
Uncensored - chocolate shimmer
Unspoken - matte sable
Untamed - bordeaux shimmer

And here they are swatched. Again, left to right, in the same order as listed:

The pigmentation is wonderful. Excellent color payoff. And almost all of the shades have a very smooth texture. I found that Unreal was just a little chunky at first, but it was fine after I used it a few times more. The dark matte shades (Unconditional, Unbridled, and Unspoken) all had the same texture that Bobbi Brown's dark "liner" eyeshadow shades do, i.e. kind of chalky. While they're not the best for an all over wash on the eyes if you're looking for something really dark and smoky, I've found that they do make pretty good outer corner shades. The primer is very nice, but I don't love it as much as my Urban Decay Primer Potion. This is my first Lorac palette purchase, and I LOVE IT.

Review: Chanel Pêche Nacrée Nail Colour Spring 2011

 Pêche Nacrée is one of two nail polishes I purchased from Chanel's Spring 2011 collection (Black Pearl was unfortunately sold out). It's a soft, work appropriate peachy pink with a very soft pearl. The application was nice and smooth, and I only had to use two coats for full coverage:

I always love colors like this since they are feminine and work nicely with my skintone, but Pêche Nacrée left me underwhelmed. It looks quite "Tinkerbell" on my skin, and it seems entirely too dupeable to be worth the price of $23.

I have a couple of peachy/ pinks in my stash, and the two closest dupes that came to mind were Zoya Willow and OPI My Daddy's The King!. Willow is a much more orangey (true) peach with silver shimmer, while My Daddy's The King! is a bit paler (with less of a pink tone), but quite close (and prettier, if I do say so myself) on the nail. MAC Coconut Ice (d/c) from the MAC in Lillyland collection seemed to be a similar peachy pink, but it ended up being too bright and coral pink, and it lacked the pearliness in Pêche Nacrée. OPI Dancing the Isles is a peach pink, but it's deeper, way too Barbie, and has a ton of frost.

My Daddy's The King! is clearly closer to being a dupe than the Willow, and even though it is not one, I think it's a much better bet since Pêche Nacrée overall isn't all that special (and MDTK! actually looks more expensive). Sure, she's nice to look at, but in the end she just isn't worth it ;)

Bobbi Brown Rose Gold Shimmer Brick Review and Swatch

Bobbi Brown's Spring 2012 Collection is so, so pretty. It's the "Rose Gold" Collection, and it's classic Bobbi: flushed cheeks, gently lined eyes, and lush lips, in shades of golden pinks and rose. I am a huge fan of all things rose gold, and since I've been wanting more highlighters lately, I ordered the Rose Gold Shimmerbrick. It's your typical shimmerbrick highlighter, only this time the shades are pale pink, beige champagne, a warm lilac-ish pink, pale bronze, and rose gold. (I think this was the most impossible item to photograph accurately, since it's so reflective. It's because of the high shimmer. It took me days to get a decent one! Seriously.)

                   They blend together to make a frosty, light pink highlighter:

I found that when the strips of colors were used individually, they really weren't all that different, at least on my skin. It was all just varying shades of pink frostiness.... sadly, a lot of rose, and not enough gold for me. The quality is wonderful, as always with Bobbi's Shimmer Bricks. However, after playing around with it, I realize that I could have just saved my money and continued to use the MSFs I have from MAC's Brunette, Blonde, Redhead collection. Ack... I think I was just too tempted by the beautiful shade name of "Rose Gold"!

Yves Saint Laurent Manicure Couture Colour Nail Polish Duo - Edition 7

I saw these cool new nail polish duos by Yves Saint Laurent the other day at Bloomingdale's. You get two mini nail polishes that are a pretty good size for $30; they aren't as small as OPI or Sephora by OPI minis. And there are two duos to choose from: Edition 7 (mint green and chocolate brown), and Edition 8 (bubble gum pink and tangerine orange). Honestly, I am SO sick of the stereotypical flamingo pinks and Sunkist oranges we're dished out every spring and summer (it's just so predictable, and at this point I'm always wondering, "haven't I seen this exact color a million times by now?" when I lay my eyes on them). Going home with Edition 7 was a no-brainer.

The mint green is a vibrant medium mint with lime green microshimmer, and I think it definately has the look of a Chanel nail polish (it's all in the subtle shimmer). If you love greens, you will probably buy this duo just for this shade:

The chocolate brown is a neutral-cool chocolately creme. It almost appears to have a tinge of purple from time to time, depending on the lighting, but mostly it just looks like hot fudge sauce (YUM):

I found the formula on these to be a bit streaky, but it wasn't too bad. I did three coats for both pictures, although you could get away with two (however, the green looks even better with three ;). I really didn't like the brush, and I think the streakiness I experienced was due to that rather than the formula. It's a shorter brush with a sharp diagonal cut, and I found that even though it did spread out evenly when you applied pressure, the shape of it goes against the natural shape of the cuticle:

It's a bit of an uphill battle. I found this to be especially true with the brown shade, which not only had a sharper angle than the brush in the mint green bottle, but the bristles were uneven (....um....hello, quality control!). If you look closely, you can see in the pictures that the green shade is so nice and smooth around the cuticle, while the brown shade looks a bit messier. All in all, however, this is a very nice (and more importantly, unexpected!) item for spring 2012.

Givenchy Vernis Please! Nail Lacquer in 175 Acid Orange

I've never tried Givenchy nail polish before this shade. But I'm a sucker for oranges and new products, so lo and behold it ended up in my stash. With the name "Acid Orange", I was certain this would be a neon. Or at least verge on neon territory. It's not (which is not necessarily a bad thing!). Instead it's a glossy, creamy bright orange that's more yellow-orange than red, with a smooth formula that was opaque but not thick at all. I'm impressed (and of course, looking forward to trying more colors)!:

 I love this so much more than Chanel's Mimosa ;)

Fresh-Squeezed Brights Spam :)

Just some pics of happy, juicy bright shades for summer.

Sally Hansen Kook-a-Mango. Yummy corally goodness- and just two coats:

  
Essie Meet Me At Sunset: Orangey-red creme. Finally! I have been looking for this shade of orangey red forever! Almost all reds turn cooler on my skin than in the bottle, and orangey red corals tend to go pinkish or reddish. Not here :) Again, two coats:

The previously posted Givenchy Acid Orange:

Chanel Mimosa. Yellow happiness (hehe...if it works for you better than it did me ;) Although this has grown on me. Or maybe I've just been really forceful about getting others to like it :p

Illamasqua Radium. This shade makes me want to drink Sprite...or a mojito. Released awhile ago and already shown by pretty much every blogger on the 'net, but here's my pic. This is two coats, and it looks really glowy on my skin indoors- a very slight glow-in-the-dark look. I'm not sure if it's the particular shade of lime or the shimmer, or both. Either way, it's cool :)

Chanel Nail Colour in April - Swatch

I'm really late to the party in swatching this beauty, but I wanted to put up the pic anyway since April is so gorgeous. April is part of the spring 2012 collection, and it's a permanent addition to Chanel's Le Vernis lineup. The color is a sort of hybrid of red and purple; in my opinion, the color can be best described as a neutral reddish berry creme with a bit of a muted/ dusky quality. The formula is very smooth and not too thick; application was a breeze and I used two coats for the picture below. A third is completely unnecessary. I got SO many compliments on this, it's insane! And it looks just stunning against golden skintones. My new favorite color!: