Napa Valley-Road Trippin' With Bonne Bell

Welcome to my second road trip. Today we are taking in Napa Valley. Last week we were enjoying the beauty of Honolulu.

Today I am showcasing  Bonne Bell’s Napa Valley, which is a dark wine red glossy cream. Napa Valley has a nice consistency and took only two coats to reach opacity.

 

Napa Valley was the polish I wore during all of Christmas week. I also added some large glitter that I will show below. After seeing me with this polish at Christmas, my daughter got herself a bottle. She liked it so much she wanted her own. 

The glitter that I chose for Napa Valley was Red Dog Design's Cold Nose Warm Heart. I did do glitter placement for this one. With glitter this large, it's no problem. I just wanted to make sure each nail had a least one heart on it. 

Macro of Red Dog Design's Cold Nose, Warm Heart

Napa Valley With Some Mentality Stamping

I decided to forgo the hand painting this time and try some stamping. I used Mentality's Prosper (which they don't make anymore) and Konad's Plate M89. I will admit that the stamping is not the best, but you got to start somewhere and Napa Valley looks great with copper or gold used with it. 

Markwins, Please do Right by Bonne Bell
By now most of you know that Bonne Bell sold their makeup and US Lip Smacker distribution to Markwins. Fans are unset and I don’t blame them. Change is always scary and you never know what a big corporation will eventually do to make a buck. 

Markwins also owns Physician’s Formula and Wet N Wild. I don't use Physician's Formula so I don't know if it has changed a great deal since the ownership. Wet N Wild has always been the same, a low end brand that is carried in Drugstores and a brand that is probably 99.9% made in China (but not sold in China).

On a good note, Markwins is on Peta's Cruelty Free list and that is an important point to me. 

There were some questions from fans on Bonne Belle's Facebook page about the China connection. I always knew a lot of my Bonne Bell products were made in China, long before Bonne Bell sold out. Here a few that I have and where they were made.

*All lip products such as Lip Smackers, Lip Lacquers, Lip Lites and Lipd'devotion are made in the US. However, my Lip Play Set is made in China. I could not tell where my Lip Color was made.

*The Eye Shadow Box sets are made in Taiwan.

*Gel Bronze is US made. 

* Blend'n Go and Glimmer Bronze were both made in China.

*The Nail Lacquers are US made. 

*Blushn'Go, which is not longer available, was also made in Chine. 

So you see, it was already a mixed box before the company was sold. 

Formula 10.0.6

The Bell family has retained the formula for 10.0.6 and I guess will distribute it. In fact the full line can be found at Ulta. 

The Bell Family also will distribute Lip Smackers everywhere but the US. That is probably where some of the mix up happened when fans thought they were not ever going to see a Lip Smacker again. 

I think I am going to wrap this up today. It has been one of my longer winded posts. This finishes out the nail portion . After the jump is all about Napa Vally and one of my favorite movies about Napa Vally, Bottle Shock.  

If you want to read a little extra, just click. If you don't, I understand and I will say good by to those here and take care until next time.  
 

A Little Blurb About Napa Valley

Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, United States.  Napa Valley is considered one of the premier wine regions in the world. Records of commercial wine production in the region date back to the nineteenth century, but premium wine production dates back only to the 1960s.

Hitting The Big Time 

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the Judgment of Paris was a wine competition organized in 

Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wine (Bordeaux wines from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California). A California wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win. Well, he was in for a shock.

 

And Now For One Of My Favorite Movies

Bottle Shock is a 2008 American comedy-drama film based on the 1976 wine competition termed the "Judgment of Paris", when California wine defeated French wine in a blind taste test. It stars Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman and is directed by Randall Miller, who wrote the screenplay along with Jody Savin and Ross Schwartz. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Now, this is the real end. If you hung in there with me through this whole thing, thank you. If you have a chance, rent Bottle Shock. Chris Pine plays a real slacker (until the end) and sure doesn't look like the Captain Kirk we all know him as now!

Take care until next time. And next time, we are going to Venice Beach.............Terri