Spring Polishes! Essie Nail Lacquer in First Timer, Van D'Go, and Come Here! - Photos, Review, Swatches

I was looking through my Essie drawer and pulled out three random bright and beautiful polishes for spring/summer! Essie is pretty great brand overall, and these lacquers follow the trend. I'm excited to show you these!

L to R: Come Here!, Turquoise and Caicos, Smooth Sailing, First Timer, Van D'Go, First Dance

First Timer, a light seafoam green creme. Lovely color, very beach-y! Doesn't play well with my skin tone, though -

Essie Van D'Go, a pale coral cream. In real life it's more orange, a true coral, rather than the pink lean you see. Very flattering and gorgeous! I'm not great at judging what's an appropriate color, but I think this is still subdued enough to be work-friendly -

Come Here!, a slightly dusty, fiery orange-red. Makes me want to go salsa dancing! Perfect for hot summer nights ;) -

All these are great options for a playful pop of color for these warmer seasons! The formula was good, easily manageable, and I used three thin coats for each of the colors above. Van D'Go is one of my absolute favorite pastels - it's gorgeous and fresh but without that demure attitude of most pastels, you know? I'll have the rest of ones photographed probably next Monday.

Essie is available at Ulta for $8 and at various e-tailers.

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e.l.f. Disney Villains Sets in Maleficent, Evil Queen - Swatches, Photos, Review

I get so very nostalgic whenever I see products referencing Disney! While I haven't seen Snow White or Sleeping Beauty (I was more of an Aladdin and The Little Mermaid girl) I of course recognize the iconic characters featured in these little e.l.f Disney Villains makeup sets. I'm sure these will appeal to the women, like myself, who grew up on a steady diet of Disney cartoons and sparkling princess costume gowns!

e.l.f offers three different makeup sets, all limited edition and currently available at Walgreens stores for $9.99 each: Maleficent Sinister Smoky Eye, Cruella Evil Everyday Eye, and Evil Queen Devious Dramatic Eye. Each set contains eight eyeshadows (four for a 'day' look, four for a 'night' look), two lip/cheek pencils, a pair of false lashes with glue, eye primer, and a liquid liner. The inside packaging also contains instructions for creating a night and day look using the products provided.

Evil Queen:

Top to Bottom, L to R (day to night): One Bite, Vanity, Narcissistic, Potion, Fairest of the Land, Majesty, Peddler's Cloak, Poison Apple

The two lip/cheek pencils:

Maleficent:

Top to Bottom, L to R (day to night): Spindle, Sceptre, Fog of Doom, Fauna, Misfortune, Forest of Thorns, Deep Sleep, Diablo

The two lip/cheek pencils:

Some nice things going on here! Maleficent blew me away - most of the eyeshadows were super soft, decently pigmented (just look at Diablo!), and the only disappointing colors were Fog of Doom and Fauna, the matte purple and green; they were somewhat powdery, patchy, and difficult to apply evenly. However, I can't really bring myself to care as the rest of the palette is so, so disgustingly awesome. Evil Queen's eye shades were a tad lighter and subtler, but not too bad. Quality-wise, I wholeheartedly recommend Maleficent. Evil Queen is okay, but perhaps not worth purchasing if you already have a decent makeup collection unless you are a Disney collector lured by the limited edition-ness of these sets. 

I'll post Cruella soon!

Again, these sets are available from Walgreens in-stores at $9.99 each.

Are you a fan of these Disney-inspired sets? Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! Please follow me if you like the contents of this blog :)

Lush Lacquer Peace Love Polish, Oopsie Daisy - Review, Photos, Swatches

A couple of beautiful and fun indies from Lush Lacquer! These bright, colorful lacquers are a tribute to the passing of summer and the last vestiges of warm, sunny weather. (Boo!) I'm not looking forward to winter, but at least I'll have these to remind me of cozier, sunnier days. Both are swatched with three coats.

Peace Love Polish, a warm pink jelly with multi-colored hex and square glitter -

Oopsie Daisy (cute name!), a shimmery baby blue base with multi-color and holo hex glitter, along with yellow flower pieces!

Peace Love Polish is so... squishy! The base is a perfect vibrant pink, just a stitch from being neon but not quite crossing that line. I had no application issues and the formula was smooth, distributing glitter fairly evenly. Oopsie Daisy is a stunning garden of colorful glitter in a shimmery light blue base. I did have to fish out the yellow flowers, but is wasn't hard. I love both of these.

Lush Lacquers are available on their etsy store here for $8.75 each. Mini sets are also available. Which indie brands do you love?

Sephora Pantone Nail Polish in Cradle Pink, Parachute Purple - Swatches, Review, Photos

I was transfixed when I first saw promos for the new Sephora Pantone nail polish. They looked positively gorgeous! And shiny! and duochrome-y! As soon as I could, I ordered two - Cradle Pink and Parachute Purple.

L to R: Parachute Purple, Cradle Pink

And after getting them? I have to admit I'm sort of 'meh'. They're perfectly nice, perfectly pleasant, but I have enough lacquers now that I hate to settle for anything less than mind-blowingly rad and these fall well below that bar. Here's Cradle Pink, a shimmery pink/purple topcoat:

One coat of Cradle Pink is shown over, from pointer to pinky, CND Blackjack (black creme), OPI If You Moust You Moust (medium pink creme; also, most awkward name ever), Zoya Dove (light grey creme), and Nars Koliary (bright medium blue creme).

Cradle Pink adds a pretty veil of shimmer over a base polish, but the effect is quite subtle in natural light and only became noticeable with a heavy dose of flash (and even then it's not overwhelmingly strong). I think my favorite combo is with the grey; Cradle Pink adds a touch of sauciness to an otherwise neutral and subdued manicure, while still skirting the line of being work-appropriate. Nevertheless, if you want a wash of shimmer over an under-polish, I would recommend checking out the CND Effects line over this shade.

Parachute Purple, a violet with green-blue duochrome shimmer:

The formula was ultra-rich, barely requiring two coats. Again, though, the duochrome shimmer is quite subtle. I feel that, with the recent influx of duochrome collections, a better option is out there.

What do you think?

Nail Polish Hodgepodge Vol II - Studio M, RBL, Color Club, Laura Mercier, Wet n Wild, Zoya, NerdLacquer

Sorry to post two nail polish entries in a row (I'm sure it goes against some unspoken beauty-blogger rule!) but I had a RIDICULOUS amount of fun writing my previous Hodgepodge post and rediscovering old (and oftentimes forgotten) lacquers from my collection. So, here is the next set of my random polish swatches!

 This is two coats of Studio M's Bluecicle, a frosty light blue-silver foil. Studio M is a relatively new brand to me; I first spotted it a few months ago during a rare Meijer visit (the closest store is nearly 30 miles away). I guess the company is kind of a big deal, as Meijer had a nearly full-wall display of their beauty tools and polishes. The lacquers are $2.99 each and come in a range of impressively chic shades. Bluecicle is from the current holiday collection. It's a perfectly wintry color, if not very unique. I do have a complaint about the product, however - the brush is reeeeally long, making for less control during application; sort of like reaching across the room with a broomstick to flip a light switch. (If you've never tried that, you haven't LIVED.)

Wet 'n Wild's Caribbean Frost, a soft, jungle green... frost. I believe this was three coats. The color and finish of this polish seem a bit retro, vintage-y. It's all good! I wish the formula wasn't as sheer, but it's a solid product for the price ($1.99).

Here's the gorgeous Delilah from Zoya ($8). It's a beautiful, bright, cool red with amazing sparse gold microglitter. Overall one of my favorite red polishes. This shade makes me so happy :) The formula is fantastically smooth and the consistency is spot-on. Zoya rarely disappoints!

I love finding new indie brands to try, and above you can see Event Horizon from one such brand, NerdLacquer (formerly By StringTheory). I'm so pleased that I ordered a slew of polishes from the company's Etsy store, as they are wonderfully colorful and glittery and joyous! Event Horizon is a deep blue-green/teal jelly base with multicolored glitter, some hexagonal. A two-coat application lends itself to fully opaque coverage. Lovely and space-y.

Oh, Rescue Beauty Lounge's Insouciant ($18) is spectacular. It's a light lavender-gray base with stunning blue-purple microshimmer, and the formula is first class. A great neutral alternative.

I like the shade of the Color Club polish - a warm, slightly dusted chocolate brown - but I disliked the thin consistency of the lacquer. It would drip off the brush, if I wasn't careful! Three coats were required to bring Color Club's Positively Posh up to snuff, though I must say I quite like the end result.

I'll admit Laura Mercier's Twilight was a thoughtless buy, surely to bring an order into discount territory or to qualify for free shipping. And since that impulsive purchase it has been sitting, lonely and neglected, in my makeup drawer. I'm glad I finally took it out for a spin - it's an ultra pretty murky purple with brighter purple/fuchsia shimmer. Very broody and romantic. Perfect for any season, but especially for the cool autumn days. 

We're almostnearlyhalfway-ish to the weekend, kind of.. :D Thanks for reading, as always. If you enjoy this blog, I would love for you to follow me (no pressure, though!).