Essie Summer Collection Mini Set

Essie Summer Collection Mini Set

Ek and I went on a really quick Ulta shopping trip the other day. We arrived at the store at 8:40 and they closed at 9, but I still managed to grab $70 worth of stuff in less than 20 minutes LOL. One thing I picked up was the Essie Summer Collection Mini Set. Usually the mini sets kind of stink. They contain one OK color and 3 colors that no one wants. They almost NEVER include the best color in the collection. However, this time, the mini set had all the colors I was interested in! The mini set contains: Demure Vixen, Haute as Hello, Knockout Pout, and Pretty Edgy. The mini polishes are 5 ml each, whereas full-size Essies are 15 ml each. The set of four minis retails for around $17.

Essie Minis: Pretty Edgy, Knockout Pout, Haute as Hello, Demure Vixen

Essie Pretty Edgy, two coats, no flash

Let's start off with my obvious favorite from this collection- Pretty Edgy! It's funny, I was saying to EK when we were in Ulta that I'm kinda overwhelmed with the number of greens I own now and I didn't really even want Pretty Edgy. But that all changed when I put it on!! This is two coats, I did this super fast, so sorry about the mess. This is a unique green, even in my massive green collection. It's not too light, not too dark, just perfect and really bright. The formula on this one was good too, easy application and good drying time.

Essie Pretty Edgy, two coats, no flash

Essie Knockout Pout, three coats, with flash

Next up is a big surprise- Knockout Pout. This looks kind of pale and not exciting in the bottle. When you put it on the nail, it is actually pretty bright and a semi-neon! It's definitely not a true neon, but it dries to this weird plastic-y finish, so it must have some neon pigment in it. Pinks are never my favorite, but this one is very pretty. I did three coats and had a bit of VNL, but I could handle it. Formula was a little streaky, but not horrible, and looked fine with top coat.

Essie Knockout Pout, three coats, with flash

Essie Haute as Hello, three coats, no flash

Haute as Hello is my second favorite of this collection and another surprise. This is like Knockout Pout- boring in the bottle, HOT on the nail! It's another semi-neon that dries to that semi-matte finish. It's actually kind of a cool finish if you wanted to leave it without top coat. This is three coats and again, I had some VNL, but it wasn't hideous. Same formula as Knockout Pout, a little streaky, but fine with top coat. I LOVE this color!! So bright and gorgeous with a tan! (Not that I am ever tan, but I am going spray tanning today LOL). That first picture is probably the most color accurate of the bunch.

Essie Haute as Hello, three coats, no flash

Essie Haute as Hello, three coats, no flash

Essie Demure Vixen, three coats, with flash

Demure Vixen was my least favorite of the bunch. It's a cool concept, it just wasn't working out on my nails. Demure Vixen is a murky mauve jelly, with a kind of duochrome-like shimmer. You can see the shimmer in that first picture, but it's not very obvious the rest of the time. This is three coats, and I felt there was a LOT of VNL. Like an unattractive amount. I'll wear it occasionally, I'm sure, probably more towards the fall. It's not the most summer-y color IMO. But hey, every mini set has to have at least one dud, right? LOL. The formula was OK though, not too streaky.

Essie Demure Vixen, three coats, no flash

Overall, I think this mini set is definitely worth $17. Knockout Pout, Haute as Hello and Pretty Edgy are Must-Haves for any summer bright lover! Demure Vixen, ehhhhhh not so much.

The Essie Summer Collection mini set is available at an Ulta store near you.

Let The Rhythm Take You Over (Orly) Bailamos!

Orly Bailamos, three coats, with flash

In high school, my friends and I LOVED Enrique Iglesias's songs Bailamos and Escape. We even had a little dance we did to Escape. So I really bought Orly Bailamos from Orly's Viva Summer 2010 collection just for the name.

Orly Bailamos, three coats, with flash

Boy, am I glad I did!!! This turquoise shimmer is totally unique in my collection and is really eye-catching. Unfortunately, my pictures make it look too blue. The bit of green is what makes this polish different from a lot of the blue polishes out there. It's definitely what I would call teal or turquoise, not just blue. I took pictures with flash to show the shimmer. I also took one kind of dark and blurry picture to show you that it's not as light as it appears in the flash pictures either. The dark picture is closer to the actual color, although it still looks too blue.

Orly Bailamos, three coats, no flash

This has a not quite duochrome look to it. It's like a secret green/gold flash that you catch a glimpse of every now and then. It's also really bright and electric looking, the perfect summer color. I can already tell I'll be wearing this ALL the time. Orly Bailamos is a MUST HAVE for me this summer.

Orly Bailamos is avaiable online at Transdesign.

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, three coats, with flash

OPI Who The Shrek Are You? comes from the OPI Brights release for the year- The OPI Shrek Forever After collection. If you're a big fan of the Shrek movies, this collection is for you! The collection features six cremes, all inspired by the Shrek movies. The polishes are (these descriptions are mine, by the way, not OPI's):

Rumple's Wiggin'- a pale lilac-y creme
What's With the Cattitude?- a pale sky blue creme
Fiercely Fiona- a light yellow-green creme
Funky Dunkey- a medium purple creme
Ogre-The-Top-Blue- a medium blue creme
Who The Shrek Are You?- a bright yellow green creme

Out of these six colors, I only picked up Who The Shrek Are You?. The others seemed very dupe-able, although they looked like nice colors. Also, I'm so sick of cremes, it's not even funny. If I designed this collection, Who The Shrek Are You? would have been a yellow-green glitter, ala Alice. I would have purchased multiple bottles of that. And maybe Funky Dunkey as a duochrome... and Fiercely Fiona as a Suede. That would have been a HOT collection. But I guess the OPI Brights collection is always cremes, isn't it?

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, three coats, no flash

(note about the pictures- I put cream on my hands, and I guess it didn't absorb all the way, so it looks like the skin around my fingers is all weird, but it's just the cream. It looked fine to my eye, but the macro setting picks up everything!)

Moving on to the one polish I actually did get. I think the picture with flash really shows how bright Who The Shrek Are You? is. This is a great color, even though it is a creme. It's definitely unusual and not for the average sheer pink polish wearing woman. The formula was great. I thought it would go on very sheer and still have VNL after three coats, but it surprised me. It was opaque in three coats and applied with the ease we have come to expect from OPI. This is definitely my kind of color. I can see that it's not for everyone, but I love it. And, it was actually pretty flattering on my pale skin. I wear this color eyeshadow a lot too LOL. My favorite MAC eyeshadow is Rated "R", a weird acid yellow-green that's a bit darker than this polish.

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, three coats, no flash

Anyway, if you're a Shrek fan, or you're somehow still looking to purchase some more creme polishes, check out this collection. Otherwise, save your cash for something more glittery LOL.

OPI Shrek Forever After Collection is available at an Ulta near you.

Fun With Drugstore Polish Part One!!!

The other day I went in search of the elusive Sally Hansen by Tracy Reese polishes (especially Hidden Treasure). I went to Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS, and also wandered into Target, even though I knew Target wouldn't have them. I didn't find ANY SH by Tracy Reese gems, but I did find myself six other spring/summer treats to show you! This is going to be a two-part post, just for lack of time today. This week has been crazy, more on that later.

Let's start out with my two favorites, both from the Revlon Summer collection. The Revlon summer polishes are scented when dry, although the scent lessens when you apply topcoat and seems to fade away completely after a few hours. Let me just preface these two polishes by saying that I have NEVER met a Revlon polish that I didn't like. They have a fantastic selection of on-trend colors and the formula is always fantastic, as good or better than some China Glazes and OPIs. Revlon has had duochromes and such for years, and they do a great job with offering interesting edgy colors along with more traditional colors. Oh, and we're finally starting to have some good weather, so these pictures are taken in sunlight or shade, no flash involved! They come out so much more accurate this way!

Revlon Ocean Breeze, two coats, sunlight

Revlon Ocean Breeze, two coats, sunlight

Revlon Ocean Breeze is GORGEOUS!!! I have been wearing it since I did these pictures. It is opaque and even in two coats and the application was a dream. Revlon polishes are a little thin, but I actually prefer thin polishes. That way they don't goop all over your nail like The Blob. Ocean Breeze is a beautiful blue-green shimmer (not quite a metallic) with a slight duochrome effect. I couldn't get the duochrome to show up in pictures, as it is very slight. But it's really pretty when you catch that gold-green flash! Ocean Breeze is a Must Have!!!

Revlon Ocean Breeze, two coats, shade

Revlon Orange Pop, three coats, sunlight

Next up is Revlon Orange Pop. This is another shimmer, yet not quite metallic, winner with a slight gold-pink duochrome (again not so visible in pictures). This is a really unique orange color. It's orange, but it definitely has a strong dose of red. Sometimes you see a lot of pink, so that it looks almost coral, other times the red stands out more. I would have named this "Fire" or something like that LOL. The formula is like Ocean Breeze- flawless application, a little thin, but easy to work with! I did three coats with this one, but you can definitely get by with two. Three looked better on camera though. I own many orange polishes, but none of them are like this beauty. This is definitely another Must Have!

Revlon Orange Pop, three coats, shade

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lime Twist, three coats, sunlight

The display at Target said that Nicole by OPI Lemon Lime Twist is a Target exclusive, but I feel like I've seen it elsewhere too. With my love of weird yellow-green colors, I snapped this up right away! Lemon Lime Twist is a yellow shimmer with a hint of green. This is three coats, and there was a little bit of VNL, not too much though. There's not a whole lot of lime going on in this polish, in most lights it looks more like a yellow shimmer. I definitely like this polish and I'll wear it a bunch, but I'm not going to call it a Must Have. If you like colors like this, it's a pretty good formula with no real problems, and I don't have any dupes for it.

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lime Twist, three coats, sunlight

Stay tuned for Part Two of Fun with Drugstore Polish coming tomorrow! Part Two will feature a gorgeous SinfulColors glitter bomb!!!

Revlon polishes can be purchased at your local Walgreens. Nicole by OPI can be purchased at your local Target.

Interesting Nail News

I stumbled across this news the other day- L'Oreal has purchased Essie. You can read the full article here on Style List. It's pretty interesting, they're talking about having a line of Essie cosmetics, like lip glosses, etc. I kind of always liked that Essie was a smallish company run by Essie herself. How do you feel about this news? Do you want to see Essie expand as a brand? Do you think L'Oreal is going to ruin the brand's classy feel?

When you're done reading that article, click "get the latest tips here" for more interesting nail news. Sonia Kashuk is doing a line of polish for Target (including at HOT looking silver) and Nicole by OPI is going to have some exclusive polishes at Walmart. I think I'm going to look for that Sonia Kashuk silver today!

China Glaze Poolside Collection

Finally I have all the pictures and my thoughts on the China Glaze Poolside collection. Overall, my impression of this collection is a lot more positive than it was in the beginning. However, all of these polishes have some degree of VNL. I'm showing these with 4 coats, except for Pool Party, which is 3 coats. I was pretty disappointed in the lack of opacity. And yea, yea, I know about layering them with white polish, I get what you're saying. I just don't think I should HAVE to layer them. I own other neon polishes that do not require another polish underneath them, that's all I'm saying.

The COLORS in this collection, on the other hand, are FANTASTIC!!!! Super bright!! My pictures do not come close to depicting how bright and neon they are! We'll start out with my favorites I think.

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, no flash

Flip Flop Fantasy is definitely my favorite in this collection, and sadly, it's picture came out the least accurate. This polish is exactly the right mix of pink and orange-y coral. It is also so bright, it probably could light your way in a dark room. I can't wait to wear this on my toes, it's going to be ahhhhhhmazing!!!! This is 4 coats, and it has a bit of VNL but not as bad as others in the collection.

China Glaze Pool Party, three coats, no flash

Pool Party is my second favorite, and you can read my complete thoughts about it here. Definitely a Must-Have. This amuses me because usually my least favorite polishes are pinks!

China Glaze Towel Boy Toy, no flash

Third place is probably Towel Boy Toy, although Kiwi Coolada is very close. What puts Towel Boy Toy ahead is the shimmer in this pool blue polish. I don't own any neons with shimmer and I love it! It's a really cool look and perfect for this color polish, as it looks like shimmering pool water. I think this one should have been named Pool Party instead LOL. I would call this a Must-Have and it gets originality points for the shimmer. This is four coats.

Towel Boy Toy, no flash

China Glaze Kiwi Coolada, no flash

Kiwi Coolada... I sometimes think I love this. It's neon, it's a lovely bright highlighter/grass green, what could be bad about it? But I think the amount of VNL is just throwing me off here. With pink polish, it's not so bad. But once you get into green territory, I really don't think it looks good. I'd like to wear this one a lot, but in reality, if I have to layer white under it, I probably will only wear it once or twice this summer. Too bad, because it is a lovely color! This is four coats.

China Glaze Kiwi Coolada, no flash

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, no flash

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is a little bit along the same lines as Kiwi Coolada. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this color. It's like a highlighter! My pictures make it look a little more golden than it is, but just think of a yellow highlighter. My problem again is the VNL. It just looks tacky with a color this bright. I think when my nails are shorter maybe I won't mind as much. This polish is also a tad streaky, as is the case with most yellows. A nice thick layer of Seche Vite helped with that problem though. I think this is four coats, but it could actually be five. I may have stopped counting at this point.

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, no flash

China Glaze Sun Worshipper, no flash

Last, and definitely least in my book is Sun Worshipper. This is the Poolside Fail polish. It still has some black specks lurking around in the polish, it's streaky, and again with the VNL looking tacky. I do enjoy the extremely bright, eye-burning orange-yellow color, however. My pictures of this one are too yellow, it's more orange than this (the real color is closest to the color of the first and second nail from the left in the second picture). Like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! I think I'll be wearing this on my toes a lot. I'll try it with white underneath, but I feel like it will be super streaky. The second time I tried this polish, I did thicker coats than on the Fail day. I think it worked out a bit better, though it took longer to dry.

China Glaze Sun Worshipper

Overall, I love Pool Party, Flip Flop Fantasy and Towel Boy Toy. I love the colors of Kiwi Coolada, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and Sun Worshipper, but the formula left me a little disappointed. I think my real problem is that I expect a lot from China Glaze and lately I don't think they've been meeting my expectations.

The China Glaze Poolside Collection is available online at 8ty8 Beauty.

China Glaze Pool Party

China Glaze Pool Party, three coats, no flash

I wanted to share these two pictures with you because they're the only two pictures of China Glaze Poolside that even vaguely resemble the polish LOL.
Neons are very hard to capture on camera, so I think I'm going to have my boyfriend take these pictures. This will cause a bit of a delay in my post, but I'd rather do it right than do it quickly. So the whole CG poolside review should be coming around Wednesday I hope.

China Glaze Pool Party, three coats, no flash

But for now, I have this picture of Pool Party, a super bright medium pink neon. It doesn't look super bright in this picture, but the tone of the color is pretty accurate. So just imagine that this is brighter and more neon looking!

Pool Party is definitely a Win, not a Fail. While there is still a little bit of VNL after 3 coats, it's not too bad. For such a pretty color, I can live with it. I also imagine it would be less noticeable if my nails were shorter. My nails right now are long-ish for me. If you've noticed, I really prefer very short nails. I do too many things with my hands to deal with long nails. I get very uncomfortable when they reach a certain length.

So enough about my nail length, Pool Party is HOT. I can't wait to wear it on my toes. I hope to have better pictures of it and the rest of China Glaze Poolside in a few days.

In other news, apparently Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again is available for purchase now. Now that I just placed a massive Sephora order two days ago. Awesome. But if you are a Beauty Insider, you can get 15% off your entire order with the code "madness", so that's good news!

SEPHORA by OPI Teal We Meet Again Promo Pic!

Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again

Just got this promo picture in for Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again from the Summer 2010 Havana Nights collection. I'm working on finding out when these will be available for purchase! Teal We Meet Again looks like The Hotness. I think I'm going to love it!!!

Also, coming later tonight, I have some gorgeous pictures of OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte with a shiny topcoat!
Tomorrow, I'll have pictures and comments on Shine and Rage from Orly's Foil FX collection.
Also, I am anxiously waiting for my China Glaze Poolside collection to arrive on my doorstep, so stay tuned for that as well!

See the SOPI Havana Nights Collection Online!!

The Sephora by OPI Havana Nights collection is on Sephora.com already! It's weird because it's not on the main page for Sephora by OPI, and the title says "Sephora by OPI Modern Flowers Collection". But you can check out the colors! I will definitely be ordering some of these soon! EDIT: The collection is not available for purchase yet. But you can still check out the colors and plan your order!

I like Teal We Meet Again (shimmering deep blue green), Carribean Cocktail (Ocean blue with silver shimmer), Read My Palm (light jade green) and maybe Rumba Romance (bronze shimmer) as well!!!

SEPHORA by OPI Summer 2010 Havana Nights Collection!!

OMG just got an email with this info-

"Show your nails some summer love with a line-up inspired by the passionate glamour of Havana, the Sephora by OPI Havana Nights collection. Capturing the vibrancy, passion, and romance of this iconic city, these colors reflect the tropical shades of the surrounding sea, the lush vegetation and pulsating rhythms from salsa bars and cabarets. The Sephora by OPI summer 2010 Havana Nights collection will be available in May 2010."

Tropical shades of the surrounding sea= blue/turquoise??!!! The lush vegetation= green???!! This sounds like a HOT collection to me. I hope they have some nice finishes in there, like Leaf Him At The Altar's shimmery goodness.

What do you think about this collection just from the press blurb? Are you as pumped as I am?

EDIT- Apparently this is one of the shades???

Chanel goes BRIGHT for Summer!

There is a TURQUOISE Chanel polish coming this summer!!!! YESSSS! Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog has a quick promo image of it (along with a hot pink polish). Go check it out NOW- Beauty blog, makeup blog, makeup tips, makeup reviews: Makeup and Beauty Blog: Makeup Reviews, Beauty Tips and Drugstore Beauty Finds. Makeup and Beauty Blog is my favorite beauty blog, btw. Karen is hilarious!

This is much better than those boring Chanel Spring nude colors. What do you think??

China Glaze Spring Preview: Rainbow of Hope

I have some new charity collection news for you today. China Glaze will be re-releasing some of their very popular polishes in a new collection called Rainbow of Hope. China Glaze will donate 18% of sales of Rainbow of Hope to cancer research organizations hand-picked by China Glaze employees. Rainbow of Hope will be shipping in May 2010.

The colors for the Rainbow of Hope collection are:

Sexy Lady- pink
Liquid Leather- black
Recycle- gray
White on White- white
Outtabounds- emerald
Four Leaf Clover- kelly green
Custom Kicks- teal
Platinum Pearl- pearl
Unplugged- brown
Long Kiss- burgundy
Coconut Kiss- purple
Spontaneous- orchid/violet
Bahamian Escape- light blue
Secret Peri-wink-le- periwinkle blue
Rainstorm- blue
Frostbite- royal blue
Happy Go Lucky- yellow
Peachy Keen- peach
Breakin’- orange
Paint the Town Red- red

I have 8 of these colors to show you today- Recycle, Four Leaf Clover, Unplugged, Bahamian Escape, Secret Peri-wink-le, Frostbite, Happy Go Lucky, and Peachy Keen. Some of these colors (Bahamian Escape and Frostbite) are in my top ten favorite polishes ever!!! The polishes I have reviewed before, I’m just going to provide a link to my previous review. I don’t want to bore you with the details if you've already read them!!

Bahamian Escape, two coats, no flash

First up, one of my personal favorites, Bahamian Escape. Bahamian Escape is a gorgeous sky blue. Like the sky in super photo-shopped pictures, LOL. This mani just needs some puffy clouds and we’re set. This is a masterful formula, just perfect. This is two coats and it’s totally streak-free. This is what I had hoped for in the Up and Away collection. Perfection. By the way, that air bubble you see came from my Seche Vite, not Bahamian Escape. I am running low on Seche, so the application is getting to be less than perfect.

China Glaze Frostbite, three coats, with flash

Next up, one you've seen, Frostbite.

From Up and Away, Four Leaf Clover, Peachy Keen, Happy Go Lucky.

Four Leaf Clover, two coats, with flash

Peachy Keen, three coats, no flash

Happy Go Lucky, three coats, with flash

Recycle, two coats, with flash

Recycle is another really great color. It’s a medium gray crème with a bit of a blue-ish tint. In low lights, I would call this “slate” gray. This is two coats, no streaks, great formula again. See a comparison of this and Essie Chinchilly here.

Secret Peri-wink-le, three coats, no flash

Secret Per-wink-le was very hard to photograph (hence the weird angled pic and blurriness). However, it is a gorgeous color in person! It's a beautiful purple-y blue color, maybe more purple than you would imagine periwinkle would be. The color on the blurriest nails in the picture (the two on the right) is more accurate. See how it's more purple? This is three coats. It was even and opaque in two, but on camera I thought it might look better with three. This is a great color for spring and it's less streaky than some other spring polishes I've seen.

Unplugged, two coats, no flash

Finally we have Unplugged. Unplugged is a dark brown-red shimmer. In low lights, this kind of looks like mud. I wore it on my toes once, and you really couldn't see the shimmer, so it was very murky-looking. On the nails though, it’s rather pretty, as long as you know that it is very dark and the shimmer doesn't show up much in low lights. This is two coats. I took one picture with flash so you could see the shimmer.

Unplugged, two coats, with flash

Now, I know some people are not fans of the whole nail polish for charity thing. 18% of sales is not really a big contribution when you could just go donate to cancer research yourself. However, I have had a bunch of these polishes on my list for awhile now (Outtabounds, Custom Kicks, Coconut Kiss, Rainstorm, and Breakin’). So, if I was going to buy them anyway, I think it’s great that now I can buy them and some of my money goes to a good cause! I will definitely be purchasing those five polishes (and maybe more!) when Rainbow of Hope is released in May!

Also on the way from China Glaze is the Summer 2010 collection, Poolside. Poolside is a collection of six new neon polishes. EK and I are flipping out over these and you can bet we will have pictures of all of them as soon as we can get our glittery little paws on them!!!