It's no secret that dark nails are all the rage this FW season. Who hasn't asked the Chanel beauty counters, or at least heard about the out-of-stock Chanel Black Satin nail polish? (And if you haven't heard about the craze, please go brush up your fashion current knowledge!) Dark nails look so cool with this season's clothes. When I say 'dark', it basically refers to shades such as brown, black and dark purplish-maroon. Personally, I favour black. Dark nails are good for casual and formal outfits:
Mischa Barton wearing semi-casual, lux, halfway-gothic/punkish clothes.
Lindsay Lohan shows that dark nails are great for formal occasions too. Of course, that lovely huge ring of hers helps too.One very important thing to remember about this season's dark nails is that your nails must be cut short, and preferably a neat, professional-looking shape. And it's always a good idea to add on a transparent layer on top just to get that extra shine, (very much like this season's patent leather accessories!) If dark colours just isn't your thing, red is the other pretty and fashionable choice.
As a little New Years treat, my friend and I went to get manicures. I was so excited I finally got to get my nails black (-yes, I get excited over very little things.) The nails were seriously cool and went with all my outfits. Plus it have me a much-needed polished-edgy feel. Even though Chanel's nail polish was the one in spotlight this season, BG tells me that OPI (which was used in my manicure,) makes better nail polishes than Chanel. Who knows? I guess just buy nail polish from the brand you like or which is at the price range you feel is right. Has anyone else been having fun with dark nails?
In the past week, I've had family and friends, who usually are not so on top of entertainment news, call/ email me to confirm that the OC really is over. (It really is amazing how many people knew about this so quickly.) Yes, sadly, the OC really is over.
The OC was such an amazing, fascinating show in its first season. Season 1 was fresh, beautiful, glamorous and oh-so-addictive. Sadly, Season 2 and Season 3 kind of went downhill. One of the main reasons why I continued to watch was for those to-die-for clothes worn by Marissa and Summer. 
Now that Marissa is gone and Taylor is the other young female star of the show, Season 4 started off rocky. But for some reason, I really feel that The OC has started going uphill again in the last four or five episodes. Sure, there is no more effortless chic (a la Marissa), nor the fabulously spirited (a la Summer pre-environmentally-friendly days.) 
But Taylor, who is always so direct, practical and motivated, has slowly grown on me. Summer is thankfully growing out of her save-the-earth-with-not-so-stunning-clothes phase. And there are the usual: Julie is up to something sneaky, Kirsten Cohen is clueless, Sandy Cohen is saving people with his legal power, Ryan has finished brooding and is back with the Cohens, and Seth is well... doing nothing as usual. Oh, and of course there is Kaitlin Cooper, who Willa Holland is quite great as -you can totally see her related to Marissa. Why oh why does Fox have to cancel the show when it is just getting better again?
Alas, Fox has confirmed that the final episode will air on 22 Feb 2007. Well, I suppose now the producers never have to figure out how the OC kids have to seperate to different colleges. What do you feel about the OC really ending? I for one will really miss it.
Speaking of brushes, my sister was just saying how she would love a set of brushes -another essential to one's beauty collection.
Moving onto other girly things, as inspired by BG's list of essential bags, the LV Speedy 25 is a popular and very practical bag for a girl to own.
Another cool bag is the Chloe Paddington clutch -good for day and night, and effortlessly chic.
I love classic jewelry, and the first that comes into mind is Tiffany & Co's basic silver collection. These Elsa Peretti earrings are so classic and versatile. Hmm... maybe I should get them for myself.
The MacBook is SO small and cute, although I don't quite like it's keyboard and function inside. For more a more impressive laptop, get the MacBook Pro -much sleeker and impressive. I stood in the Apple store playing with these Macs for two hours a few weekends ago when my old laptop died, but ended up opting for a regular laptop instead.
Sony cybershot DSC-N2 -it's got 10.1 mega-pixels and a huge 3.0 LCD touch screen. And very importantly, it's cute!
Get your friend a DVD set of your favourite TV show that your friend hasn't watched before. I totally recommend Veronica Mars -it's one of the coolest and most underated show on TV.
Lastly, with more than 20mil viewers in the States each new episode, you can't go wrong with a Grey's Anatomy calender, (unless you know your friend hates the show.) A new year of staring at the entertaining cast of GA and Mc Hotties!
Rochas had chimney sweepers as the inspiration of the collection, including the super smoky eyes which looks like a lot of shades of matte black and charcoal grey.
Alessandro Dell'Acqua -Sparkling and fluid-like black. The whole eyelid looks literally all black.
Marc by Marc Jacobs and Valentino -Marc's (left) eye makeup is soo funky -it looks like the makeup artist used a black eyeliner and drew random lines all over the model's eyelids (which I'm sure were well-planned)! On the other hand, Valentino has got the very sophisticated look, with mainly dark eyeliner at the bottom, complete with red lipstick. A bit too mature for me, but maybe some of you would like to try it.
Nars eyeshadow -Pile on the sparkling black, artistically of course. For those who want a bit of colour, dark purple is great for most skin tones.
Nars liquid eyeliner -Lots and lots (and hope that it doesn't run off throughout the night!) If you want the smudged eyeliner effect, then opt for pencil eyeliner instead. I usually recommend MAC's black eyeliner to my friends.
And lastly, mascara! From experience, Diorshow gives the most dramatic effect, although it did smudge a bit on long nights.
If you think all this black is waay too dramtic and dark for you, then you can try dark brown. See how Rachel Bilson looks mega-gorgeous in dark brown smoky eyes? (But then again, she looks gorgeous in most looks.)
I love the beautiful and intricate design of the rose buckle. It is feminine yet cool. Matched with the perfect width belt, they will be just the thing to spice up and pull together an outfit. I’ve been looking for something like this for the longest time.
Although I might just end up with something even simpler this season. A black patent leather belt with a simple buckle and the perfect width, not too wide or too thin- like this one here from Shop Intuition. I saw something very similar the other day at Lafayette and I really wanted it because it would just match with everything, but alas they were 65euros. I’m not sure something so simple is worth that much. Thoughts? 
The other bag I'd brought to Paris was a black Prada sparkly evening shoulder bag (which I'd "borrowed" from my mom's collection)that can barely fit anything. While these evening bags are nice, sometimes I just wished I'd brought something more casual that is not limited to nice evenings out. (above: LV (left) and Rodo (right)).
