Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Nail Polish: Not Just for Nails Anymore

A few weeks back, Cara from workshop760 asked if I'd like to review one of the pendants she makes. I've turned down a request from a jewelry company before since I didn't think it had much to do with the subject matter I try to focus on here, but this was different—Cara's jewelry is made with nail polish, so I said yes, of course! She asked me about my favorite color of polish and what size pendant I prefer, and a just little while after that a package arrived from her.

I had said "purple (followed by blue ...)" for my favorite color, and the round pendant made with Color Club Total Mystery that Cara sent fits the bill perfectly, as it's several shades of purple and blue all together. This round pendant came on a black beaded necklace (Cara makes those, too!) with what Googling tells me is a toggle clasp.





I unfortunately didn't manage to get any photos of me wearing this pendant, partly because I haven't developed good jewelry photo skills but mostly because I was very distracted by the suprise in Cara's package: a second pendant, this one made with the famous Clarins 230! Even in the indirect indoor light of the room where I first set eyes on it, this one glowed with a whole range of colors, from blue through green to orange.



This necklace has a lobster claw clasp and a length of chain at the other end so it can be worn shorter or longer. And I have worn it a lot in the short time I've had it; it actually came with me on both my recent trips so it's been seen almost coast to coast. Here is it in Idaho:





And here it is in Maryland:





Sometimes I had to take it off just so I could enjoy looking at it change colors in the sunshine:







In one of these taking it off to play incidents, I discovered that the black part on the back of the pendant didn't get along with my sunscreen. It felt a little gummy, like the chemicals in the sunscreen were reacting with the resin in the pendant, so I washed it with mild soap and rinsed and dried it and it's fine now. I used a different sunscreen after that when I wore these pendants and haven't had the problem again.

These pendants are my first nail polish jewelry but won't be my last. I've got my eye on a few things in Cara's shop, actually. Looking at her stock on hand right now, the pieces are priced from $18 to $55 depending on the size and polish used; she has a lot of shapes to choose from and takes requests for custom items, too.

The products in this entry were provided to me free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and the products are mine to keep.

28 comments:

  1. KarenD showing the cleavage! I love these! I have seen some others showing these polish jewelry things but that clarins 230 is really cool! I wish I had a bottle of that polish just to wear myself! I wonder how they make that stuff!

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  2. Zomgoodness....the 230 necklace is amazers! So many different colours and facets to the necklace. Thx for sharing!

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  3. These are gorgeous, especially the second one. Thank you for the review!

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  4. Wow!!! These are so gorgeous!!!
    Thanks a bunch for the review. I need to get some asap!


    xoxo

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  5. Uh oh...it's so pretty. I was thinking about buying one or two for some time now....thanks for the review. I think I finally made up my mind

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  6. How yummy! I can see you taking it off to admire it. :) Who could resist? Both are gorgeous.

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  7. I have seen these popping up around the bloggingworld and they are so amazing looking! These are both so beautiful, the colours in both are just amazing!

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  8. They're both so gorgeous! I really love that second one! :)

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  9. Lovely!! A clarins pendant might be the closest to it I ever get! lol

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  10. What a gorgeous jewlery!!! And what a great post!
    I love both pendants!

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  11. Soooo pretty!! I like the blue, but of course I'm totally drooling over the 230.

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  12. oooh pretty!!! They are both very nice! The Clarins 230 goes very nice with the cleavage! lol

    I feel like an odd duck, I am not really crazy over the clarins 230 as a polish but my goodness does it look gorgeous as a necklace!

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  13. The necklaces are so pretty <3

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  14. wow, these pieces are so gorgeous, really eye catching. x

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  15. I have a Clarins 230 ring, and i absolutely love it! I don't wear much jewelry, but it was my compromise instead of buying a bottle of 230 for $60.

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  16. Both are so amazing!!
    Great pieces of jewelry!!

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  17. They look amazing :) i love nail polish on jeverly . i made myself a ring with black base and CG Techno on top . its my favorite combo and i love it not only on my nails :)

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  18. Love these necklaces! The 230 is stunning!

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  19. That's so very cool, and the Clarins pendant is beautiful! How weird that it reacted with your sunscreen, though @_@

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  20. i love both of these they are amazing! xx

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  21. I love her pendants, and I was wearing one yesterday! Great post!

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  22. Very unique ! I would so wear a ring like that! =)

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  23. This just blew my mind. Absolutely in love with those pendants, total stunners!

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  24. That looks awesome! I actually bought some ring backings to try my hand at some nail polish rings, so we'll see how I do... eventually, haha!

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.