L'Oréal Brit Invasion and Brownie Points

L'Oréal's Project Runway Fall collections are the ones that get all of the attention, but they have two early Fall collections out now.  London Fall is six shades of Colour Riche polish and New York Nudes is a larger collection of Colour Riche polishes as well as lip glosses and lipsticks.

Brit Invasion is the only shimmer in the London Fall collection, and the only one I bought.  Nothing against the other shades, I'm just on a budget.

It's a bit confusing.  It looks almost purple in the bottle, but is decidedly taupe on the nail.  It's got yellow gold shimmer that is far from hidden, but really varies with lighting.  The base varies a bit with lighting too.

It was a bit thinner and sheerer than I usually like, but still went on nicely.  I've heard some strong complaints about the L'Oréal Colour Riche formula, but this really wasn't bad.  I'm not sure how I feel about this shade on *me*, but I've loved it on cooler-toned girls.  The very cool taupe and very warm gold just might not be something I can pull off...though it really is lovely on cooler tones.  If I get the chance, I'll happily get Rainy Piccadilly.  I know several girls who have it and love it.  Notting Hill Blues looks nice too!


New York Nudes is that rare nude collection that remembers there's a wide range of skin tones.  The six shades span a very broad range, and they're all warm-toned...which is also rare.  I was VERY excited about this collection.  I thought that just maybe I'd find a flattering nude.  ....I'll come to that part in a moment.

Brownie Points is the darkest of the six New York Nudes shades and I could see it being very flattering on many women with dark, warm complexions.  I hope a lot of them got it and love it.  It's miles from my skin tone, but I picked it up anyway because it's a great warm chocolate brown.

Love it!  I'll absolutely be reaching for this again.  I think it's the best brown I own.  The formula was thin, but not streaky at all.

 ....and now the bad part.  I really got my hopes up when I saw how light the lightest shade in New York Nudes was.  Park Ave Luncheon could be it...it could be the right nude for me!  I'd gotten my hopes up for OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons last month, but it wasn't right.  I held the bottle of Park Ave Luncheon a few times before buying it...but I finally did.  I put it on and...wow.  Not the good kind of wow.  I hate to give a completely negative review on the blog, but nothing about this shade was any good at all.  The color was drastically wrong for me....but the real shock was the formula.  It was watery, streaky, and virtually unworkable.  I was completely dejected by everything about it.  The color wasn't just unflattering, it clashed appallingly with my skin.  I made the polish look like an odd yellow and it gave my fingers a murky, gray-pink, very creepy color.  I won't be posting the photo here.  It's that bad.  If you want to see it, it's on our Facebook page, in the photo section.  It's BAD.  Really, really, crushingly bad.  I think I've given up my search for a nude.  I have suspected Reynaud's disease, so I don't know what made me think I'd find a nude in the first place.  Oh well.  There are over 400 polishes in my collection that look good, great, or outstanding on me....so I really can't complain, right?

I'd absolutely recommend Brownie Points to everyone.  Brit Invasion would be best on cooler tones.  I'd (very sadly) say you should avoid Park Ave Luncheon.  Even if the color works for you, the formula is very bad and almost unworkable.