An Essie favorite

Hey folks, today is Essie's Bikini so Teeny.

Low lighting

LED lighting

This is a pretty light (sky?) blue, with a lot of teeny weeny silver glass flecks.  They're small.  And here's a fact: you're not gonna notice them on your nails unless you're centimeters away from your eyes.  It's still pretty, but honestly, I don't get the hype over this one.

Formula is fine on this one.  Unfortunately, I can't remember how many coats this is, but I'll bet that it's two.  It's an easy polish.  If you've got something similar, you could always layer a silver glass fleck top coat (Glass Slipper by Sally Hansen, for instance) on and give it a better effect than what this has alone.

Sand Tropez - Essie

My mani was looking a bit worn out, so I knew I needed to change it.  I went through my stash and found this Essie:

I bought this Essie a long time ago, when it first ever appeared. I had been lusting after it, and then I heard it was on clearance. I literally ran out to a CVS and got it 30 minutes after reading that, for half off.  Great buy.
Then...I didn't like it.  I put it away and didn't use it again.

But today is the day I rediscovered it.  And I think this one has a place in my collection.

It's a pretty unusual color, kind of taupy, yellowish and sandy all at once.  It's also concrete like, but really no where near dark enough to be described as that.  This one could be hard to pull off for many (like if your cool, or maybe if you just don't have any olive in your skin).

The formula is ok.  Funny, when I first got it, I hated the formula.  I thought it was way too thick.  The reality was I just wasn't used to using cremes and that must have been why I had a hard time with it.  It's actually almost too thin, but too thin is, imo better than too thick.  Only real problem I have with this formula is it can drag.  Just have to be a little careful with it, but for a creme polish, it's not bad.

This is three coats, which I felt like I absolutely needed.  I probably went too thin on the first coat, but it was horribly patchy after just one.  I think I could have gotten away with two if I did a better job at applying the first coat.  Dry time was pretty quick despite the three coats.  I did use a quick dry top coat.

Sunday Toppings - Episode One

Welcome to my theme day.  I'm calling it Sunday Toppings.  I love ice cream, so this is a great theme for me. This theme day will feature special effect top coats over various polishes.

Today is Essie As Gold As It Gets over Wet n Wild Disturbia.  The Essie is from the Luxe Effects line.  I keep seeing it all over the place, so I think these are permanent.  It is a gold flake top coat.  It isn't real gold, and it looks very different from the real ones.  It's still a great effect, and less guilt inducing.

The flakes vary in size.  None are big flakes.  It is mostly comprised of very teeny ones, with a few medium sized flakes thrown in for good measure.

This top coat really brightens up Disturbia.  It gives it an amazing look, much more depth than Disturbia alone.  I'm so glad I tried this. In my opinion, it makes the polish so much better.

Nothing to disclose.

Not your usual Essie

I bought this pretty with my own monies.

Unfortunately, it's going to be cloudy here all weekend.  No holos until the funky weather is gone. :(  But, I am so in love with this color that it doesn't matter.

Today is Essie's Play Date, a gorgeous bright purple.  It is not pastel, but it is Spring.

It applied with relative ease; I do prefer my formulas to be thinner than thicker, though you might call this one a little too thin.  It did tend to pool easily, but for the most part played nice with me.  I have two coats on but I probably needed three. I was in too much of a rush to do a third, and it doesn't look terrible at two unless in direct light.  For a cream, I can't really complain at the ease of application.

I love this color. I know Essie tends to make a lot of purples in this same family, but I have nothing like it.  I'm very pleased with it, just looking at it will make you feel better about the day.

I was hoping to do a comparison post again soon, but I don't know if I have much in the way of time and those seem to take a little longer to do up.  Either way, I'll have something new up soon.

FYI, JulieG polishes are on sale at Groupon.  I'm waffling over here about weather I need these or not.  They're the drugstore version of Zoya Pixie Dust and OPI Liquid Sands.  I want them but I don't know if I should take the plunge.  I really wanted the LA Girls 3D colors but now that this sale is here...I don't know what to do.  I may have to sleep on it.


Until next time, folks.