FASHION Magazine

It’s best to ease your way out of the holidays. After a week of eating nothing but comfort food, being hustled between endless family gatherings and feeling very squeezed in at Boxing Week sales, we could all use a mini-vacation before heading back to work. However, considering most of us are already back at our desks, it’s time to find relaxation in other ways, such as lavender. As a plant, lavender is known for its calming, restorative properties. So why not transfer a little bit of that relaxation onto your nails with a soothing lavender ombré manicure?

Relax with two ombré lavender manicures »

Some girls have the ability to ignore the fact that their nail polish is chipped, but I do not! Once it starts to go, I pick at it until my mani is completely gone and there’s a huge mess at my desk. How can I break this terrible habit?
It’s tough to decide which habit is worse: walking around with a half-done manicure or picking it off until there’s nothing left. Both options are less-than-desirable, but you’re in luck—they’re also completely avoidable!

Happy New Year! There’s a definite sparkly obsession happing in the halls of FASHION this week—and what better way to ring in 2012 than with a glitter-packed manicure? From frosty-blue glitters to a multi-dimensional Texas-inspired mani, these sparkling designs will keep the focus on your fingers even after the ball drops. The countdown to midnight is on—and it’s time to start painting! Show (or tell) us all about your New Year’s manicures on Facebook or Twitter.

See all our New Year’s Eve manicures! »

See all 12 of The Hunger Games nail polishes! »
Listen to the Taylor Swift Hunger Games song Safe and Sound! »

Last week, Lionsgate Films announced that The Hunger Games nail polish collection with China Glaze was officially back on. And now, fans get a first look at the Capitol Colours collaboration with a poster featuring Effie Trinket (played by Elizabeth Banks) as the official face of the collection. There will be 12 polishes in all, each inspired by a different district in Paneem. At first look, our top picks are on the flaky glitter “Luxe and Lush” and the mauve-greige “Foie Gras.”

Things are getting a little festive in the FASHION offices this week! From candy stripes to a sparkling Christmas tree, there are countless ways to paint your nails in a merry manner—and we have a number of holiday-inspired manicures wrapped up and ready to gift to you.

See all our holiday-inspired manis! »

Today, we’re taking a look back at the year that was by counting down the top 10 beauty moments, developments, trends, and more. From Topshop to Tom Ford, they’re all inside!

View our top 10 »

This polish is loaded with snowflake-size glitter. It’s perfect for the holidays and just the right price. ($9, store.americanapparel.ca)

The post Daily steal: Glitter polish, $9 appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Eccentric and perfectly over-embellished, the bold style of Iris Apfel is coming to M.A.C Cosmetics just a few days into the New Year. Full of bright and warm shades, the 20-piece collection includes vibrant nail polishes, lipsticks, and eyeshadows, as well as a beauty powder. The products take inspiration from Apfel’s standing as a “rare bird”—with names like “Robin’s Egg” (a matte teal eyeshadow), “Party Parrot” (bright-pink lipstick), and “Oriel Orange” (a Pantone-worthy orange nail polish) appearing throughout. Click through for a preview of all the pieces before they hit counters on January 5, 2012.

View the entire Iris Apfel for M.A.C collection! »

Daphne Guinness’ collection with M.A.C Cosmetics launches next week, but before you choose which pieces to add to your collection, she has a few tips about experimenting with makeup. Via an interview with Stylelist: “Yesterday I was using nail polish as lipstick. It’s just experiment after experiment.”

The post Quotable: Guess which fashion icon paints her lips with nail polish? appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

While many people apply polish to avoid biting their nails, I’m the other way around: my biggest motivation to stop picking, biting, and fidgeting was the dream of perfectly shaped long nails. The type that Mad Men’s Betty Draper wears, nail expert Sophy Robson obsesses over, and that designers, such as Emanuel Ungaro, have brought to the runway: oval- or almond-shaped and long! However, the conundrum with longer nails is that they really stand out when painted in bright or dark colours. Sure, taupes and beiges are on trend, but sometimes a girl just needs a pop of colour. Enter this week’s Nail Corner: two versions of the crescent moon manicure. Made popular by Ruffian in Fall 2010, this is an easy twist on the ever-popular moon manicure—it leaves the base of your nail bare and looks more like a reverse French tip than a half-moon.

See the manicures! »

I got a pretty inexpensive “express” manicure over the weekend and, though my expectations weren’t too high, the outcome is fairly sub-par. Do I need to start over? Nah, there’s no need to. You’re probably half way to a good manicure—a few simple at home tweaks will surely take it the rest of the way. […]

The post Afternoon beauty fix: How to keep your cuticles happy and hydrated between manicures appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

It’s time to tango! »

Pantone has announced the colour of the year for 2012 and our future is looking bright. Tangerine Tango (that’s Pantone number 7625C for the designers out there) is a punchy mix of orange, coral, and red—making it an extremely versatile shade for all skin tones. And, considering that Sephora and Pantone are rumoured to be working on a Tangerine Tango–inspired makeup collection for March 2012, it’s a good thing this chosen colour is so multifaceted.