Essie's Brooch the subject & China Glaze Golden enchantment

Hello lacquer lovers,

Quick post today: a nice sparkly nude mani using Essie's Brooch the Subject & China Glaze's Golden Enchantment.

Brooch the Subject is a slightly pink based nude creme polish that applies very nicely and is gives an opaque coverage in 2 thin coats.

I really like nude mani's but like them even more topped with some glitter or a flakie polish, so I decided to spice Brooch the Subject up with Golden Enchantment which is a gold rainbow glitter polish in a clear base. It's the golden equivalent as Fairy Dust that many of you use.

Brooch the Subject (alone).

Brooch the Subject & Golden Enchantment.

All pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

Essie's Sand Tropez

Hello there!

I've heard a lot about the polish I'm showing you today and wasn't sure I liked it in swatches seen on internet, but I finally picked it up and am so glad I did.

I present you: Sand Tropez.

What a silly name. For having been to St Tropez many times, I can assure you the sand's color over there is by far very different than what Essie supposes... It may look like sand on some of the Caribbean beaches, I'm thinking Barbuda, Antigua of Petit St Vincent, but in no means are the sandy beaches of France this color!

Anyway, I really like this polish and will wear it again soon.

Have you tried it?

Thanks for reading!

All pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

Brown and nude polka dots

Hi guys,

I felt inspired to do a polka dot mani the other day, so here it is!

The polishes I used are 2 cheapies I picked up in Budapest. Their quality was so bad I won't even mention their names or the brand.

Left hand:      Nude base with brown polka dots on thumb, middle finger and pinkie.
                      Brown base with nude polka dots on index and ring finger.

Right hand:   Brown base with nude polka dots on thumb, middle finger and pinkie.
                     Nude base with brown polka dots on index and ring finger.

Left hand

Left hand

Left hand

Right hand

Thanks for reading and have a nice Sunday :)

Essie's Case Study + Nfu OH 50

Hello lacquer lovers!

Today I have an Essie polish to show you: Case Study from the Fall 2011 collection.

Case Study is a dark, almost taupe nude. The first time I wore it I wasn't too sure if I liked it. It needed a second chance and now it has all my love!

As it is the case with most Essie polishes, the formula was good. No streaks, bubbles or bald patches in sight. I applied 2 coats in order to get an opaque finish without VNL. 

Here it is alone:

Artificial lighting, no flash.

Artificial lighting, no flash.

Isn't it simply gorgeous?

To spice things up a bit, I added 1 coat of Nfu OH 50 (blue/green flakes in a lilac jelly base) on the second day. 

Wow I really like these flakie polishes! They look so interesting on your nails and offer so many combination possibilities!

Sorry for the numerous pictures: these flakies are hard to capture on camera!

Artificial lighting, no flash.

Artificial lighting, no flash.

Artificial lighting, no flash.

Daylight.

Daylight.

I didn't use my regular Sèche Vite topcoat. Instead, I applied Revlon's Quick Dry Topcoat, which is supposed to dry your polish to a hard finish in 30 seconds. Yeah right! I didn't do what it promised and should not be considered a fast drying topcoat! It took a full hour for my nails to be "sheet mark proof"! Although it doesn't dry very quickly, it at least is very shiny and didn't cause any shrinkage.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Essence's Nude it + Circus confetti

Hello lacquer lovers!

I got a few Essence polishes today and wanted to share my preferred one first: Nude it.

This polish is supposed to match your skin and it pretty much did mine in the bottle, but it seems a bit more gray on my nails... I thought I had found my perfect nude polish match but I'll have to keep searching! Nevertheless Nude it is a very nice polish. The formula was great and fully opaque in 2 thin coats of lacquer.

At fisrt I thought of leaving my mani simple but then decided to add some sparkle with my preferred multicolored and multi-sized glitter topcoat: Circus confetti (also by Essence). To speed up the drying time I applied my usual Sèche Vite topcoat.

I really like the end result but will surely try adding a matte topcoat tomorrow.

What do you think of this mani?

All three pictures were taken in artificial lighting, without flash.

Essie's Topless and barefoot

Hello all you polish lovers out there!

Yay it's Friday! I don't know about you but I had a great day: work, then some roller skating in the park and finally I went to pick my niece up at kidergarten with my boyfriend. I love picking her up from kindergarten, she's just the cutest little girl I've ever seen and is so sweet and funny. She always notices my polish and prefers when I'm wearing one of my many polka dot manis. Let's just hope she doesn't get too interested in makeup yet. I don't know about you but I believe kids shouldn't be wearing any makeup at all. I'm a teacher as you might know and see young girls (8-13 yrs) with lots of makeup on and it just doesn't look or feel right. I'm a firm believer that childhood is sacred and that kids should be kids. They'll have plenty of time to wear makeup when they are a bit older. 

Sorry for the little excursus, let's get back on track here!

For my NOTD I used Essie's Topless and barefoot, an opaque dusty light pink with nude-ish and very subtle lavendar and magenta undertones. I'm sure you guys already know this polish but I love it's color and felt like sharing it with you even though you can find thousands of swatches of it on the web. The color is very similar to OPI's Bare it in Trafalgar Square that I swatched a while ago.

Topless and Barefoot's formula wasn't great: a bit thick and streaky even after having added some thinner. I had to apply 3 coats to even out the streaks and bald patches and ended up with the polish looking too thick on my nails... I hope it was just my bottle. Anyways, I really like the color here! Once again it's one of those hard to describe lacquers that looks different on everyone.

To help my polish dry and smooth it's surface even more, I used Sèche Vite and didn't notice any shrinkage.

Have a nice Friday!

Photo 1:   Picture taken outdoors (late PM).

Photo 2:   taken indoors in artificial lighting (no flash).

OPI's Samoan Sand

Hi!

This will be a very quick post as I have a terrible migraine and will be off to bed in the next minutes :(

This isn't my NOTD as I'm still wearing Tickle my France-y that I looooove, but a picture of a mani I wore a few days ago. Actually I'll be showing you pics of two manis I wore recently, both for which I used OPI's Samoan sand, a beautiful nude polish.

Samoan sand's formula was very good, only not opaque enough for my taste. I applied 4 coats!!

Enjoy!

Photo 1:   Samoan sand in natural lighting (mid PM) and with shiny top coat (Sèche Vite)

Photo 2:   Samoan sand in artificial lighting (no flash) and with shiny top coat (Sèche Vite)

Photo 3:   Samoan sand (+ OPI's Hopelessly in love on ring finger) in artificial lighting (no flash) and with matte topcoat (Essies' Matte about you)

I really like the mani shown in the last picture and call it my reverse mani: on my left hand I wore Samoan Sand on all but my ring finger, on which I applied Hopelessly in love, and on my right hand I did the contrary, i.e I wore Hopelessly in love on all fingers but my ring finger, which was sporting Samoan Sand. On day 1 I left this many shiny (no photos, sorry!) and decided to feshen it up on day 2 with a matte topcoat. 

Both polishes look pretty much identical in the pictures, but believe me it was noticeable in real life.

OPI's Tickle my France-Y (# NL F16)

Hello polish lovers!

I hope your week started out well. Mine did :)

For my NOTD I wanted something nude-ish with a bit more color. I looked through my collection and hesitated between a few polishes and finally made up my mind for Tickle my Francey, a soft rosewood pink with mauve and fleshy undertones.

I really like this polish. It has the perfect formula which means it isn't too thin or thick, doesn't streak or make any bubbles and dries quickly to an opaque finish. I used three coats because I really dislike VNL but am sure you could get away with two coats.

For my topcoat I used Sèche Vite and am happy to say that there was absolutely no shrinkage! Yay!

Thanks for reading and have a nice Tuesday!

All three pictures were taken in natural daylight (early PM).

Oldie but goodie: OPI's Bare it in Trafalgar Square (#NL B13)

Hi!

I finally made up my mind on which polish I wanted to wear to Paris: OPI's Bare it in Trafalgar Square.

I'm not sure when this lacquer came out but it's OPI's old formula (before they removed certain chemicals), recognizable by the black writing on a white label and by the skinny brush. The new formula polishes have a white label with green writing. 

I really don't like the skinny brush but the chemicals don't bother me. I teach chemistry and deal with chemicals that are a lot worse than the ones OPI removed. What bothers me the most with the brush is that it doesn't pick up enough product and you have to dip it in the bottle several times to cover each nail. That obviously results in uneven application and streaks. My solution to solve the problem was applying 2 layers of Sèche Vite to smooth the surface out. It worked!

I'm really happy with the color: a muted rosy nude. This polish is similar to Orly's Pure Porcelain, only a bit fleshier and darker. I put 2 coats on but you might be able to away with one thick coat.

Hope you enjoy this!

Photo 1:   Artificial lighting, no flash.

Photo 2:   Artificial lighting, no flash.

Photo 3:   Artificial lighting, no flash.

Photo 4:   Daylight (late PM), no flash.

China Glaze's Sunset sail (#955)

Hi!

For today's NOTD I used China Glaze's Sunset sail (from the 2011 Anchors Away collection), an opaque peachy nude with very discreet silvery white micro shimmer. I tried to capture the shimmer in the photos but it doesn't really show up too well... but believe me it's there!

The formula on this lacquer was rather on the thick side, even after having added a few drops of thinner, but nothing dramatic, I've seen a lot worse! I don't know if it's just my bottle, the hot and sticky weather here or just the formula itself. I will have to swatch this color when it's a bit cooler and I 'll see if it gets any better.

Enjoy!

Photo 1:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Photo 2:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Photo 3:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Photo 4:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Photo 5:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Photo 6:   Daylight, late PM, no flash.

Coats:       3

Topcoat:   Sèche Vite

Orly's Pure Porcelain (#40742)

Hi,

For today's NOTD I used an Orly polish I recently added to my collection but hadn't tried yet: Pure Porcelain.

This lacquer is fantastic! The formula was perfect and opaque in 2 thin coats. No goop, bubbles or streaks. As this often happens with nail polishes, I experienced a couple of bald patches with Pure Porcelain, but they were easily corrected whilst the lacquer was still wet.

And the color, oh the color! I absolutely adore it. 

I'd say it's a very light creamy greyish beige with discreet pink undertones. In other words: a great light nude.

I wish I had met this lacquer earlier, it would have spared me some time on my quest for the perfect light nail polish!

Enjoy!

Lighting:   Artificial

Flash:        No

Coats:       2

Topcoat:   Sèche Vite (1 coat)