Essie - The Girls Are Out

This is a new release from Essie's nautical themed summer collection, and whilst it's not a colour I tend to gravitate towards (those mid-toned purple/pinks), I really enjoyed this one. The shimmer (or flecks?) really added dimension to the polish, and the application was smooth and opaque in 2 coats like usual with Essie.

2 coats, 1 coat Essie GTG.

shade

direct sunlight

shade

Essie - Under Where? + mini comparison

Wednesday's NOTD was Essie's Under Where? from this year's resort collection. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice I wear a lot of purples (particularly pastel). This was no disappointment! Not quite pale enough to be classed pastel, this medium-light purple can be bright in certain lights, and be duller in others. As you'll see in my last photo, it's very similar to other colours I own, but I love it anyway! Winter has well and truly set in this week, so please look past my dry and damaged cuticles!
2 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

artificial light

artificial light

artificial light

Now, I'm still working on painting my nail sticks, and I've still got the majority of my collection to go (OPI, China Glaze, Revlon, etc) but here is a small comparison between the shades I have swatched so far. Also, I'd love some feedback on my swatch sticks. Should I topcoat it? They're getting a tad battered as you can see in the close ups, but I'm not sure how much that bothers people.
As I've said before, I'm still trying to set up artificial lighting and a background for them, so this is a work in progress. I've tried to photograph it as accurately as possible but I'm still new at this, and I have no idea how to edit/use photoshop ;)

Left to Right: Essie Go Ginza! / Essie Bond With Whomever / Butter London Molly-Coddled / Essie Under Where? / Color Club Sweetpea / Essie Splash of Grenadine / Essie Play Date. All 2 coats.

As you can see Molly-coddled (3rd) is the closest in colour, but it's a touch brighter and Under Where? is a touch more red based (warmer). Bond With Whomever (2nd) is also close, but much more cool toned.

What do you think of these comparison posts? Hopefully they'll be much more in depth when I've got all my polishes swatched!

May Nail Polish Haul

After suffering through tonsillitis for the first time this last week, I am finally back with a monthly haul. I was supposed to have more photos this month, but long story short I lost them somehow :( Anyway, this month I binged in nail polish more then I should have, and by the end of the month I was feeling quite terrible/guilty over how many polishes I owned. A few days later I was back to admiring all the pretty colours, but don't you hate it when you feel guilty about something you love?

OPI L-R: Done Out In Deco / Do You Lilac It? / A Grape Fit!

Essie - No Baggage Please

Mondays are so rough, aren't they? So glad it's over! Today's NOTD is Essie's No Baggage Please from the newest wedding collection. Like Meet Me at the Alter, it has shimmer in the bottle that is pretty hidden on the nail. Instead, it sort of just adds a silvery shine in the sun. This had an ok formula, but I did need three coats to get rid of any baldness on the nails. Overall, a pretty colour but not very unique.
3 coats, no top coat.

shade

direct sunlight

shade

direct sunlight

Essie - Meet Me at the Alter

Meet Me at the Alter is from the newest wedding collection from Essie, and I was surprisingly excited for them to arrive at my door. I mean, it's a pastel pinky-purple, don't I have enough of those already? When you look at this one in the bottle, it has a really pretty silvery shimmer running throughout it which reminded me of To Buy or Not to Buy from a (spring?) collection last year. Similarly, like To Buy or Not to Buy, the shimmer really doesn't show up on the nail. I don't mind though, because I really love this type of colour!
3 coats, 1 coat gel coat. All photos in cloudy daylight.

   

Essie - First Timer

This is one coat of First Timer. ONE coat! I'm sure everyone has heard/seen this colour now that it's been making it's rounds on youtube and blogs, but it was such a pretty colour that I couldn't hold off 'til warmer weather to wear it. Now, I do recommend painting two coats just to cover up any ridges you might have in your nails (if you're like me and don't buff). If you haven't picked this up and love the colour, I definitely recommend it :)
1 coat, no top coat.

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Shade

Shade

Essie - Go Ginza

For the past couple of months I've really been gravitating towards pastel purples, so it was no surprise (to me) that Go Ginza was quickly a favourite. It had a good formula - a little thicker than usual Essie polishes, but still easy to work with - and was opaque within 2 coats. It's definitely not a unique colour, but I love it all the same :)

artificial daylight (shaded)

artificial daylight

daylight

artificial daylight

April Nail Polish Haul

April felt like the month that never ended. I was slugging my way through everyday absolutely exhausted, so I haven't even been thinking about blogging. But May is a new month, and I really miss blogging, so I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things. I did buy some new light bulbs in the hope that I could find a really cheap alternative to the sun, but alas I'm still working on it so please excuse some of these photos! I've also been working on trying to get my blog back to what I wanted it to be - a comparison blog. So once I've done all my nail stick swatching (this weekend fingers crossed!) I want to accompany every NOTD post with a comparison of similar shades :) Anyway, enough rambling, onto the haul!

L-R: Bikini / Spring Ball / Princess / Delice / Diablotine 

March Nail Polish Haul

For the last half of march, I've been so sick I just couldn't be bothered with anything internet related. I'm still sick, which is why there haven't been any posts from me in a while, but I've been assured that I really only have the flu, not something worse (so here's to crossing my fingers that I'll be better soon!). So there is only a small nail haul for March, but don't worry, I spent an absurd amount of money on ebay this month so everything should be arriving soon for April's nail haul!

L-R: Essie Madison Ave-Hue, Essie Maximillian Strasse Her, China Glaze Mimosa's Before Mani's, China Glaze Fancy Pants

Essie - Madison Ave-Hue

Today's notd is Madison Ave-Hue, another from Essie's newest collection. I'm afraid the sun isn't going  to show today, so these are all cloudy/shaded pictures. When I saw this on eBay, I really didn't think it'd be anything special - just another pink for my collection. But I really do like this one. Unique? Not exactly, but it has a bright but subdued colour and the shimmer is actually noticable once on the nail!! This was a really nice formulated polish as well because it wasn't too thick, wasn't too thin. Covered completely in 2 coats, and I popped Essie's top coat on top.

cloudy

shade

cloudy

shade

Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her

This is possibly the hardest to spell polish name I own, I've stuffed it up so many times! This was monday's notd because I didn't have time to turn my computer on this week at all! This is from Essie's new spring 2013 collection and it's the only colour I was really looking forward to (I did also purchase the pink one with silver sparkle but I'm still debating on whether to get the other colours). This is a pretty grey-green and I don't have anything exactly like it in my stash (might do a comparisons post if I find time this weekend).  People seem to have issues with Essie's streakiness, and whilst the first coat was a bit streaky the second was fine. I personally don't care much about the streakiness of a first coat, but if that bothers you, then this maybe isn't for you.
I really do like this one and can see myself wearing it almost year-round. 2 coats, 1 coat top coat.

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

shade

shade

Nail Polish Collection: Essie [January 2013]

Essie is my favourite brand. I love a lot of brands, but in those tags where it says if you could only own one brand, which would you choose? I always pick Essie. I think it's equal parts the bottle and the colour selection. The bottle is elegant, fits nicely in storage because it's square, and has a white cap - all of which I love. The colour selection has definitely gotten better in recent years, and they have so many cremes and shimmers to choose from! They are a little sparse on glitter, but I don't really wear glitter all that often. Plus, that's what China Glaze is for!

NOTE: I have to mention that I took all my photos in a crudely made lightbox. Well, I don't think you could call it a lightbox...it's two planks of white painted wood and a lamp with a daylight globe! So whilst I tried to get these as colour accurate as I could, some colours may be just a tad off. I'll try to let you know when that happens, otherwise just google image the colour you were looking at. Also, I took these photos freehand so I'm sorry that some are a little crooked..I hope it doesn't bother you as much as it bothered me!

MINIS:

L-R: Rock Candy/ Lion Around/ Your Hut Or Mine/ Knockout Pout/ Haute As Hello

Essie - Cascade Cool

Sorry about the lack of posts lately but as some of you may have heard, Australia is burning. My state has been particularly hard hit, but my heart and prayers go out to all those within Australia who have lost loved ones, property and/or their livelihood (esp. the farms).

 Onto today's nail - Essie's Cascade Cool which came out in the summer 2012 collection. This was nice, nothing groundbreaking or unique but a really nice colour nonetheless. 2 coats, no top coat.

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

shade

Essie - Fear or Desire

Today summer is finally kicking in, so a bright orange seemed extremely fitting. Not much to say about this polish except that it's a bright orange, it painted on smoothly and opaquely in 2 coats, and it's super shiny (there's no top coat on here). Did it need 4 photos? nope, it's just a creme. But it's just so pretty I couldn't help it ;)

direct sun

direct sun

direct sun

shade

Essie - Ole Caliente

I was so set on ringing in the new year with something silver, black and sparkly. Yet here we are: a bright orange-red. Ole Caliente (the amount of times I've spelt this wrong is astounding!) is one of my favourite polishes because it's just so bright and happy. It applied easily in two smooth coats, and I popped a coat of Good to Go! over the top.

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

shade

Essie - Cocktail Bling

I was basically in awe of this colour ever since it got released in last year's winter collection, because it was so different from anything I already had. Funnily, I only just got round to wearing it for the first time since today was pretty overcast and I have to admit I'm underwhelmed. I don't know if it's the season or the colour, but something just wasn't wow-ing me. But the formula was nice and smooth, and painted on opaquely in 2 coats, with 1 coat top coat.

shade

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

Essie - Fiji

Today I'm wearing Fiji, one of the most talked about Essie polishes on both blogs and youtube. I do see the appeal, especially since it definitely suits all skin colours. It's also really opaque and paints on reasonably smoothly. The only application issue I had (and it was totally my fault) is that on the second coat, I didn't quite paint over the entire first coat so that near the cuticles you can see where the first coat starts and the second coat starts, if you know what I mean (if you enlarge the images you'll see a bumpiness at the cuticle where I tried to clean it up until it was even but missed a smidge). Anyway, what I'm really trying to say is that if you're looking for an opaque white-pink, this is a nice one.

cloudy

cloudy

direct sunlight