Spring Essie Polishes (Cont'd)! First Dance, Turquoise and Caicos, Smooth Sailing - Photos, Review, Swatches

Today I have three more Essie polishes that I believe are fitting for the Spring/Summer season! 

First Dance, a bright true red that was part of the wedding collection a few years back. What a cheeky color for a wedding day! There are many red polishes out there in the big bad world, and I have a good-sized collection of my own, but this red particularly struck me as appropriate for the season; it's sassy and sexy and all the other adjective normally associated with this hue, but light and vibrant enough to still be playful and fun for the beach. Applied like a dream as well. 

Turquoise and Caicos, a pretty true light turquoise. At first this struck me as similar to China Glaze's For Audrey, but I think T&C is more green and the tiniest bit dustier. Quite gorgeous.

Smooth Sailing, a beautiful medium periwinkle blue with large shimmer. I've never been on a private yacht but if I were, I imagine this would be the perfect color to complement a wide-brimmed floppy hat and striped nautical sweater B) Lovely.

Anyway, as is my experience with Essie, the formula on these was pretty spectacular. Essie may be bought for $8 each at Ulta and various e-tailers.

Well, another work/school week gone and the next about to begin. Can't say I'm too excited to say farewell to the weekend, but I suppose it can't be helped.

Thanks for reading! :)

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.

Thanks for reading! Please follow if you enjoy this blog :)

Attack of the BB Couture Nail Polishes! - Dragon's Breath, Enraged, Envy, Napa Valley Red, Santa's Sak Photos, Review, Swatches

Today I've got a post brimming with BB Couture! This is a fairly new brand to me but is quickly becoming one of my favorites for its reliability, quality, and color selection. Here is a portion of my relatively small (...for now...) BB collection; I'm heavy-handed on the dark, brooding shades, as that is what the recent turn of cold weather has left me in the mood for. 

First is Dragon's Breath, a gorgeous reddened purple jelly with silver glitter -

Enraged. With flash it's a cool navy blue shimmer but in natural light it is more of a smoky slate, flashing green in some angles. The shimmer is multi-sized and flaky! I'm smitten with this lacquer - beautiful AND flattering!

Envy, a brown/taupe/forest green shimmer -

Napa Valley Red is a vampy ruby-wine jelly. The best part, though? The glowing glitters deep in the polish's base which catch the light like a dim, dying, embers. I can't imagine any woman disliking this color; it is a sexy variation on a classic.

Santa's Sak (...yeah). Despite the rather unfortunate moniker, this shade is fun, seasonal, and fairly unique to my stash. It is a candy apple red jelly with quite sparse silver round and bar glitter particles.

I found that the 'jelly' bases (Dragon's Breath, Napa Valley Red, Santa's Sak) were fairly watery and took three thin coats to yield full opacity; that's perfectly reasonable, though the shimmers needed just two coats. In general, the formulas on the BB Couture polishes I have tried are on the thin side and a bit more drippy than I would like, but that's mostly a matter of preference and something easily overcome simply by being careful. Longevity, at about six days with no chipping and minimal wear, is average for me. What keeps me coming back to BB, however, is the interesting shade selection, mostly off the beaten path for larger nail brands. I truly love every polish I have purchased from this company. You can find them on the BB Couture site for $9.95 each.

Have you tried BB Couture? How do you like it?

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!).