My long nail polish hiatus has finally come to an end with OPI's new Brazil Collection for Spring/Summer 2014! It features the colors of tropical rainforests and warm sandy beaches to our nails and toes this season. The palette ranges from bright hues of red, pink, coral, orange, and yellow to earthy tones of taupe, sienna, mocha and jungle green.

In addition to the singles, OPI also has this limited edition mini-set called the Beach Sandies Liquid Sand Lacquers (P745) so you could try out some of the latest colors without going for a full bottle.

The bottles may be small, but the 3.75ml of lacquer inside should be good for about two to three uses. The brush is full-sized so application isn't affected. It's a great deal if you want to play with all the colors, but if you like only one or two, it's better to pony up for the full bottle which is P645 at Rustan's. It's really all up to you!

Here are my swatches of each color!

Yesterday I went to the Art Fair in Makati with friends. I'm working on a new project which I find exciting and meaningful. The concept isn't original, but it's inspiring enough for me and my friends to try to replicate here in Manila. :) I'll definitely announce it here once I have everything in place!

Anyway, it's been ages since I put on nail polish. I've been busy with my ukulele (gosh how hipster does than sound) and sketching, so I have little time for the upkeep. But the problem is I'm a compulsive nail biter. It's something I find hard to control unless I'm wearing nail polish! Yes, so unglamorous and yuck, but it is what it is. First thing today I decided to paint on some polish!

I chose a color from Bobbi Brown's Spring 2014 Nude Glow collection. It's all about the luminosity when it comes to the spring face - Bobbi offers colors and textures that enhance the skin without being obvious about it. Check out these new releases! (You can open the image in a new tab to view a bigger version).

I have the Bobbi Brown Nail Polish in Bronze Shimmer (P900) which is not only perfect for spring, but an excellent color for the summer as well. It's like molten bronze with uber fine shimmers that give it depth. Such a gorgeous shade for the nails as it brightens the skin and really works with my warm undertone.

Happy Monday to you! I'm going to El Nido tomorrow and I have a hundred things to do before I can finally chill out. But maybe not. I will most likely bring my laptop to work in the evenings/early morning - I might not be able to finish everything in time. Best of luck to me!

Anyway, thought I'd do Manicure Mondays today. Buuut I have to apologize first. This nail polish came out last year and is limited edition; it is no longer for sale. I wasn't sure if I should still post it but what the heck! This color is easily in one of my top five favorite nail polishes EVER. I think it deserves the space, albeit posthumously. 

The NARS x Pierre Hardy Collection came out last summer, featuring two blushes and six nail polish duos. I got Sharplines, two colors individually called "Left" and "Right". Haha. Simple enough. The polish I'm wearing here is Sharplines Right. I can not, for the life of me, find the Left but I will post it on Instagram (@lizlanuzo) when I do since it's also a lovely color.

Sharplines Right is a beautiful deep burgundy, slightly wine-y color that looks like duhat. Remember duhat, that grape-slash-cherry-like fruit with a pit inside? My grandparents had a tree in their backyard when I was younger. During the summer, when the fruit is ripe, I'd climb the roof with my cousins and fill our pockets with it. Fun times. I had a really awesome childhood.

I spent the last couple of days reading a book called Beauty by Sherri S. Tepper. Beauty is a book about a girl meant to be Sleeping Beauty, as she travels back and forth in time, protecting a special gift to humanity. She sires fairytale characters like Cinderella, Snow White, and the Frog Prince, but they're nowhere near anything Perrault or the Grimm Brothers led us to believe. 

This book is dark, intense, and in many parts, horrifying. It was written by a pro-abortion, eco-activist feminist. Prepare to be lectured. I didn't mind, since I'm always open to new ideas. :) I like the book and would recommend it those who like fairytales for adults.

So! It's Manicure Mondays once again. Here's dignified mauve polish: the INGLOT Nail Enamel in #368 (P450). It looks muddy in the bottle but it has the subtlest shimmer that makes it look more dimensional, somehow. It doesn't look flimsy or flat as colors like this tend to do. 

#368 is a mauve shade with a sepia undertone. The texture is creamy and smooth, and it's pigmented enough that I needn't apply more than two layers.

Talent is cheap. There's tons of people out there with a natural talent for certain things, but the fact is that unless they spend hours and hours honing that talent, it's just potential. It's like oil under the ground. We have to dig for it, pump it to the surface, and refine it until it's ready to sell and use. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's way too easy to be mediocre. Good, but never good enough. That's how I feel about the things I do, most days.

But on to lighter things! Specifically, a shiny gold glitter polish from Deborah Lippmann called Glitter And Be Gay (P825). This is part of the fall collection but I think it's a perfect holiday nail polish as well!

Glitter And Be Gay has gold, holo, and blue glitters of several sizes suspended in a warm yellow gel base. This is meant to be used as a topper, specifically for its sister, Fake It Till You Make It which I am also wearing here. I love the dimension of this glitter polish, and how it changes color in the light due to the holo glitter. I received a lot of compliments when I had this on!

Welcome to a new series here at Project Vanity - Manicure Mondays! I've been meaning to post weekly nail polish swatches but can't find the right way to do it, so I took inspiration from Jen of Frmheadtotoe.com. I'll be posting NOTDs every Monday if I have something interesting on!

Today I'd like to feature a Holiday 2013 set from OPI called Fit To Be Tied. This set contains two complementing nail polishes plus a bracelet and two hair ties. Cute! It's a great gift for your manicure-loving friends. ^_^ Or, you know, you can keep them to yourself because you're MFEO.

The gift sets come in two other variants (more on that later). What I have here is the Russian Navy & Polka.com. Check out the swatches!

Russian Navy

Beige nail polishes can make our warm-toned fingers look gray and dark. However, like everything else in the makeup world, beige is never really just beige. It comes in lots of variations to suit every skintone! That's what Clinique has set out to show us with its latest collection called 16 Shades of Beige.

This lovely selection is all about the neutral nude 'tude. Clinique introduces 8 limited edition A Different Nail Enamel (P820) polishes that serve as "foundation" for your nails. Choose a shade that's close to the color of your skin for a nude, elongated effect on your manicured tips, or pick a contrasting shade for a pretty, neutral statement. 

The brand also came up with a new All About Shadow Palette in Neutral Territory 2 with eight soft-to-smoldering eyeshadow shades. The palette and nail polishes will be available in Clinique counters by January 2014, so this is an exclusive first look for you guys! ;)

Today, I want to show you one of the nail polishes. It's a dainty, lacey beige called Peek a boo, I see you.

New nail polish from Revlon rained down on my doorstep the other day, so I just had to wear one immediately! I'm a huge fan of Revlon polishes because of the sophisticated color selection, fast-drying time, and nice pigmentation. They chip in a day or two without a top coat, sure, but that's acceptable to me. I would much rather have something that dries in like 20 minutes and looks good in two coats.

The Revlon Brilliant Strength Nail Enamel in Impress (P300+) was the one that immediately called out to me. I am seriously feeling the fall mood right now, with our colder, gloomier weather as it is. Deep red, sepia brown, berry, brilliant gold and cranberry are shades I am currently gravitating towards. ^_^ Hence, this particular nail color!

Hey guys! Hope your long weekend has been great. Thought I'd pop in quickly to show you a gorgeous nail polish from Deborah Lippman's autumn collection - Jewel Heist! Jewel Heist has six new nail polishes, three bases and three glitter top coats. The colors are rich and packed with jewel-like glitter, so much so that your nails would feel a million bucks wearing them!

I have here the Fake It Till You Make It polish (love the name), a textured sandy gold speckled with red, green, and gold glitter. It doesn't look photogenic due to the chunky texture, but it is absolutely beautiful in person. It reminds me of paved jewelry, where dozens or even hundreds of mico jewels are set in the precious metal. The photo above shows a good example!