To continue the stash series, here's my Carlo Di Roma.
You probably remember that the brand was cleared out at Lawtons and I tried to get all the shades that I think I would wear. I had given some away to friends, so here's what I have left.
First pic is for the shimmers. The shades don't have names, just numbers.
First row: 63, 61, 34 and 27.
Second row: 69, 70 and 71.
Love a good range of colours, from light to dark in the red family. Didn't see any blue/ green/ yellow, etc. Kinda wonder why.
The creams: 24, 21, 22, 33 and 03.
Same thing, red family colour again. I tried one of these creams before and it didn't apply very well. I might have to revisit it, maybe my application skill is better now. If I still have the same issue, then it's the polish, not me, lol.
All in all, I like the bottle shape - easy to store and fun enough. Just wish the brand had a wider range of colours - or if they did, I wish Lawtons could have got them in.
This collection won't grow any further, because there isn't anymore to buy :-) I do have to retake pics of a few brands, cause the stash has been continuously growing since last time I took pictures. Thanks for sticking around with me for this series, more exciting brands to come.
This is the very first Carlo Di Roma polish that I didn't like.
First, it's a cream, not a shimmer, so it'd take me a bit of time to get used to.
I'm a sparkle loving kinda girl, as you already know. I decided to get some cream shades, just to improve my polish stash with different finishes. I have to say I have no complaints with cream, as it applied smoothly, no streaking.
Second, it's a white-ish pink, a little too bright for work (even brighter IRL than in the picture) and I wasn't sure how to tone it down. Maybe a konad with darker polish would help, as this shade by itself wouldn't work for my skin tone at all. Even the bf didn't like it on me. What would you do to make this work?
Note: I'm preparing a tiny blog sale for some items from my MAC kit haul - the last 3 pictures. If there's something you are interested in, email me with your offer - just to save me time putting them up :-) My frequent readers get first pick, it's only fair.
This is what I have on my nails this week.
Gotta be one of my favorites from Carlo Di Roma yet: #27.
It looks like a normal peachy pink in the bottle, applies a bit sheer but I wouldn't complain this time as the colour is too awesome. It's YNBB (your nails but better) kind of shade.
It's the lightest pink that immitates the colour underneath your nails, and the peachy hint was just enough to make it so natural but not boring. It wowed me the moment I applied the third coat. Love!
I'm so glad I got a bunch of these polishes when they were cleared out. They are certainly worth more than the CAD.99 price tag. There are some shades that didn't work as well as this one, of course, but that's the risk I'm willing to take.
Do you have a favorite neutral shade you want to share? I need recommendations for colours to wear to work. Thanks so much!
Note: One more day until the Harajuku Lovers giveaway is closed, please enter if you haven't already, Canadians!
This is the only purple from the .99 haul I did with Carlo Di Roma products. The colours from their nail polish collection are mostly in the pink/red family.
#10 is a frosty light lavender. The flash made it look more purple while IRL it is very light. I put on 3 coats to show more purple, but with 2 coats, it looks very close to #61 (frosty baby pink) - the finish, the colour.
Application was easy but the Sally Hansen base coat somehow left a few bubbles on my middle finger nail. 3 coats of polish and 1 coat of Seche Vite couldn't fix the problem. I can't figure out why.
It is dark and rainy today this end of the country. How's the weather where you live?
We had a realy nice time yesterday going to the beach. Actually it is a lake (about an hour drive from here) but has a nice shallow beach that kids love. Squirt really enjoyed being in the water, the bf jumped in too. I stayed with the picnic blanket :-)
By 5pm, it started to cool down. Nothing opened today (except Shoppers), so we drove straight home. What a shame for such a nice day like that!
I was sad having to remove Morbid from my nails, but I had to put on a light shade for coming back to work. So I have Carlo Di Roma #61 today.
It's a frosty baby pink, reminds me so much of a bridal nail shade. Very cute and "innocent", I think.
I used to avoid light colours, as I didn't think it would show up on my nails, considering my darker skin tone. But since I played around with lighter/ pastel pigments on my lids, the colours grew on me. And this shade didn't fail me, don't you think?
Have a great day, ladies. It's gonna be hard concentrating at work after a long weekend for sure :-)
My first attempt with a Carlo Di Roma polish after the massive .99 hauls I did at Lawton. Among all the shades I got, this colour (#33) - a light peachy pink - appeared to be best for work, so I thought I'd start the week with it.
The colour is pretty, both in the bottle and on my nails. It's creamy and sweet. I don't normally like nude shades, as they make my nails look dull. But this colour has enough pink for exciment while is still nude enough for work days.
The only thing though, it was tricky to apply. I don't know whether it was the square cap that bothered me, or it was the streaky formula. I haven't owned any rectangular bottles like this before, and it took me a while to get a good control of the grip. The brush is of standard size, so it took 3 coats.
I really like this colour, so I'm gonna keep at it to see if I can get better application next time. Also, I'll check other shades to see if the formula has the same issue. Any shade(s) from the haul you want me to do NOTD next?
Guys, I'm so excited. I came home last night with lots of Carlo Di Roma goodies. And the thing is they only cost me .99 a pop!!! Note that they are CAD4.99 regularly.
I read a few weeks ago on Nouveau Cheap that this brand ended up at Dollar Tree stores in the US, but the stuff was of good quality. I was so sad I couldn't get any that cheap, as I never saw this brand go on sale. Today when I saw the ".99" signs on the Carlo Di Roma shelf, I couldn't believe it. What happened to this brand, I don't really know, but what I know was I ran to grab a basket and just literally threw stuff in, not really looking much. I only had 5-10 minutes to spend before picking up Squirt, but I did well.
EDIT: The staff told me the brand is discontinued, so Lawton wanted to clear the shelf for something else. I also edited the post with other stuff I got when I came back to the store the second time. Thought it'd be easier to put everything from this brand in 1 post :-)
The eye products:
Top row: the Glacons - creamy shadows in very cute packaging - little globe of colour inside a square clear hard plastic case. I love it. From L-R: light burgundy, bronzed brown, green, pearly beige, pinkish purple and purple (no real shade names).
Middle row: the Shiny Powders - roll-on shadows. I like the idea of no-mess application, great for touch-up too. From L-R, top-bottom: blue (#11), light green (#10), bronzy pink (#8), yellow (#3), navy grey (#12), bronze (#5), white (#1) and grey (#13).
Bottom row: the Trio Binaural shadows - 3 combos of complimentary shades (highlight, wash colour and crease colour). From L-R: grey (#11), pink (#15) and green (#5).
Top row: coloured mascaras. I got blue, green, navy and grey. I never had anything other than black mascara for practical reason, but it'd be a fun change once in a while to have a different colour on the lashes for a night out or something. I gotta figure out how to pair the mascara with the eye makeup.
Bottom row: on the left is Definetif Waterproof mascara with red elastomere brush to lenghthen the lashes up to 70%.
On the right are the Eyeliner Spheres. There were supposed to be 7 colours but only the blue was left. I like that these are waterproof, but I'm not a big liner person. I hate to ruin my eye makeup by a mistake in applying liner, so I don't wear it at all on the upper lid.
There were some pencil lipliners on the shelf too, but I wasn't interested. The eyeliners were all gone, I guess they were more popular. One thing I didn't pick up also was the glitter roll-ons. Don't really have meaningful use for them. Squirt would love them though :-)
The lip products:
Top row: Black Label lipsticks - supposed to be long lasting and moisturizing, with a shine. From L-R: purple (#48), bright rosy pink (#35), fuschia (#38), bronzy red (#46), rosy purple (#37), orange (#44), pink (#34) and mauve (#27).
Bottom row: Diamond Lip glosses - talk about shimmer! The shades look really nice in the tubes. "Never a dull moment", I would say. From L-R: red (#10), pearl (#7), bronze (#12), fuschia (#11), pearly pink (8) and pink (#9).
Top row: 3D Magic Lip glosses. These are like the Diamond lipgloss with squirly patterns. The reflective pigments contribute to boost the shiny shine. From L-R: pearly pink (#33), pearly burgundy red (#36), orange (#32), light brown (#31) and red (#35).
I really like the packaging, slick with black top and clear body. There is a bit of a curve near the bottom too, very chic.
Bottom row: Vicious Lip glosses with Real FX Shine. They are meant to provide radiant and sensual colours :-) From L-R: red (#18), pear with multi coloured shimmer (#13), bright pink (#17) and baby pink (#16).
It'd be interesting to test out and compare these 3 different lines of lip glosses. They retail for the same price, and the descriptions didn't really tell the differences either.
The cheek products:
The Terracotta bronzing powders, like most of bronzers, come with cute sun pattern on the surface. They have fine particles of terracotta and nacres to lighten the skin naturally. There are 4 shades: #1 and #4 are shimmer with lighter tone, #2 and #3 look matte, a little darker.
Bottom row: Moulin Rouge blushes, supposed to enhance the cheeks and hide small defects. From L-R: peach (#3), pink (#8) - these 2 are matte, peachy pink (#11) - shimmer. They look very pretty IRL but don't show well in the picture at all.
And lastly, the nail polishes:
There were quite a few neutral/nude shades that I didn't pick up, so these are the ones called out to me the most.
First row, from L-R: an orangy beige (#33), baby pink (#61), dark red with gold sparkles (#70) and rosy pink (#27).
Second row, fuschia (#72), light purple (#10), velvety brown (#69) and blackish fuschia (#71). Finish is either cream or shimmer.
I like the rectangular shape of the bottles, again with black caps. 14ml is a decent/regular size for polish bottles, so it is certainly a steal not having to pay CAD4.99 but CAD0.99 for these. Interestingly, the nail polishes that Recessionista found had a totally different bottle design.
I suck at describing colours, and it doesn't help that Carlo Di Roma didn't name their shades. The colours didn't show up well in the picture because of the glare from the window. I'll do a few NOTDs with these so you can see them better, not al at once though :-)
For the little time I had at the store, I didn't touch the liners, mascaras, or foundations and will have to come back. In the mean time, you can check out Carlo Di Roma catalogue to see the products they carry (the main website hasn't been updated for a while). Quite a few products in the catalogue Lawton didn't carry. Now with the clearance, they would be even harder to find.