Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Infamous Nars Zulu & NOTD

Well, I finally have it in my hands.  The infamous shade "Zulu" by a favorite makeup brand of mine, Nars.  I've been reading about this elusive shade for a few months now.  Apparently, Nars discontinued this color a while back, when they were re-formulating their nail polishes.  Once word got around that this dark, forest-y green shade was about to go MIA, a frenzy ensued.


Once the last few bottles were scooped up, the ebay scalping began - and Zulu immediately went from the already-expensive pricetag of $17 at Sephora to upwards of $50, $60 - even over $100 on EvilBay.  A "Give Us Zulu" online petition was created, and Zulu fans from all over began to contact Nars in hopes of convincing them to re-release the now infamous shade.  Finally, Nars did just that...and they also made the formula more environmentally friendly as well.  However, the re-realease was short-lived, and off the market it went once again.  Wow!  When brands take long-standing products off the shelves, this often happens.  The fans go nuts - and begin to stockpile whatever coveted product is about to be gone forever.  I'm a culprit of this behavior as well.  I hate it when a tried-and-true gets axed.  It's not easy to find that perfect whatever it is!


I managed to snag a bottle of this shade - just for the mere fact that there is so much hype surrounding it.  I had to see what all the fuss was about, and I bit the bullet and bought a bottle of it.  Here's my picture:












I have to say............I'm underwhelmed.  It's a dark green jelly-based formula, and it took me 3 shades to reach full opacity.  Maybe it's my skintone, but I really don't see all the excitement in this color.  As with most things, the hype has overshadowed the item.  I don't know, but I just don't see anything special about  this dark green color, not to mention that there are a ton of other dark greens on the market right now that are near dupes of this shade.  An all-around "meh".


And on another note - here is a pic of my current NOTD (nail of the day):








This is Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in "Lavender Cloud" with OPI for Sephora's "I Found a  Pot of Gold!" layered on top.  I love the way the two look against each other.  I'm really liking this line of Sally H. polishes - they all go on really well, have staying power and come with a great brush that makes even my shaky hands create a near-perfectly finished manicure.  All of the creme polishes in this line are pretty pigmented, so I'm not finding myself applying 4-6 coats just to reach opacity.  And if it weren't for the diamond-shaped pieces of confetti in I Found a Pot of Gold, this would be a perfect gold glitter.  You don't see any on my nails above, because I go out of my way to make sure the brush hasn't picked up any of those tacky little buggers.






xoxo and happy manicures,
Viva




PS - I had to take a shot of these Giuseppes I saw the other day - thoughts?  I'd like to see these in a different color combo, perhaps gold + dark purple.  But hot nonetheless.











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