Essie Rock Star Skinny

I'm back!!! Sorry for the long delay between posts -- I actually got back last week, but have been using the extra time to catch up on everything and adjust back to East Coast time :-)

Essie Rock Star Skinny




(outdoors)




I absolutely love this polish! I think it's awesome! After I put it on, I realized that it would have matched my bridesmaid dress really well -- it was a dark wine/burgundy color, and I like the hint of shimmer as well. The formula was consistent with most Essies -- very good, and applied evenly in 2-3 coats. I feel like I have a million other polishes that could very well be dupes for this shade, but for some reason, I still really like this one -- I think it stands out from other similar shades.

Essie Angora Cardi

Hi everyone! I apologize for the lack of posts (again...), but I am in the middle of selling my place and moving, so I haven't had too much time for anything else. That and I've packed away 80% of my polishes, so I don't have many left to try out and swatch :-( I normally wear a polish 1-2 days before switching it, but recently, I've been going 4-5 days because I simply haven't had the time to change it. Le sigh :-( But, I do have a backlog of pics to post, so here we go!

Essie Angora Cardi




(outdoors, natural light)




I have to say that I absolutely LOVE this polish! A good mauve is card to come by, and this one is absolutely perfect. It was opaque in two coats (but I'm wearing three here), and is a perfect pink/purple mauve creme. I absolutely love it!! The wear was also really good -- these pics were taken after two days of wear.

Essie Chocolate Kisses + Konad m35

G'afternoon everyone :-) I have a Konadicure to show off today! First off, here's the base polish:

Essie Chocolate Kisses




This color applied somewhat sheer, so I am wearing three coats here. It is a deep, warm chocolate brown with a hint of dark red in it. I decided that I wanted to spice it up a little more, so I added some flowers from Konad plate m35 using China Glaze's Robotika polish (I *love* this polish for stamping over dark polishes - it's great!).





So what do you guys think? Do you like it? I like the contrast of the dark polish and the light, shimmery flowers.

Essie Bordeaux

Oops, sorry about the lack of posting :-( I've been bombarded with work and other stuff lately. I've been trying to get back into a gym routine. I seem to either go all the time, or not at all. So, I'm trying to balance it out and go 3-4 times a week so that I can stay healthy and active. Of course, whenever I "return" to the gym, I end up overdoing it and when I get home, all I want to do is collapse and fall asleep :-)

Essie Bordeaux




So, before we move onto Designer Series polishes, I have an Essie here. Normally, I love pinks and reds from Essie, because that seems to be their niche. However, I really didn't take to this polish at all. As you can see, my application was incredibly crappy (and my nails are in horrible shape!). I'm wearing two coats here. I could have used another one to make the polish more opaque, but the formula was a tad watery as well as jelly-like, even though I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be a jelly polish. I was a little disappointed in this one :-( No me gusta.

Coming up next, I will have all Designer Series polishes for a while (at least a week or two). So, if you're a DS lover, you'll be in heaven like me :-D

Essie Love, Beverly Hills xx

This was the polish that I recently wore for Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year (they fell on the same day this year). Red is a lucky color in Asian cultures, and I've been waiting for a special occasion to whip out this polish!

Essie Love, Beverly Hills xx





I can't believe this polish retails for $18!! That's insane. It is supposed to be some sort of "special edition" nail polish that has gold in it or something -- I can't remember. Anyway, thankfully I didn't pay that much. I found it in the clearance bin at Ulta and paid about half that price (still kinda pricey for a bottle of nail polish though). Maybe I'm blind, or stupid, but I don't really see the gold. I can *barely* notice a slight golden shimmer, but that's about it. But, I will say that for such an expensive polish, it applied wonderfully. Don't let my crappy, rushed application job be any indication of how well this polish applied. It was practically opaque (but not too thick) in one coat. A second coat finished it off nicely. I like the red, and it was festive and fit the occasion, but I don't foresee myself spending so much for a nail polish ever again.

Essie Midnight Cami

I wore this polish for a specific reason - my boyfriend and I were going to the Patriots vs. Jets game, and I wanted my polish to match my jersey, so I needed a nice shade of navy. I looked through my collection and settled on this beauty!

Essie Midnight Cami




(outdoors, direct sunlight)




I apologize for the sloppy application. Generally, I don't do well with mini bottles, and for some reason, this polish happened to be sheer and goopy at the same time, so that wasn't helpful either! But, I have no complaints about the shade. It is a gorgeous navy shimmer -- but, not so dark that it looks black. It is so discernably navy blue, and of course, it matched my Patriots jersey *perfectly* :-) Oh, and the Patriots went on to kick some major Jets ass! This game was a few weeks ago, and since then, they haven't looked so hot, so I am hoping they kick it up a notch for their last few games and sail into the playoffs. Well, a girl can hope, right? ;-)

Essie Showstopper

As always, Essie seems to be my go-to brand when it comes to pinks and reds. Here's another one that doesn't disappoint!

Essie Showstopper




This one actually reminds me a lot of OPI's Berried in Gifts, but it leans more toward pink than red. You can see how the gold shimmer comes through in the bottle. It's not as pronounced on the nail, but it is still noticeable enough to give your nails a nice frosty sheen when it's on. The application and formula on this polish was astoundingly smooth and easy.

My favorite show of all time is Friends. I must have seen each episode at least 10 times. It is on syndication here late at night, so I usually end up watching it before I go to bed. It's difficult for me to pick out a favorite episode, but if I had to, I think it would be the one with the prom video. It's the one where Ross and Rachel realize they are each other's "lobster" after watching a video of them from high school, and they see how Ross valiantly stepped in to be Rachel's prom date after she thought her original prom date stood her up. It is sickening how well I know all the episodes and can recite lines ver batim from them. Anyway, the reason I brought this up is because they tend to show the episodes in some sort of chronological order while in syndication, and tonight, they showed the series finale (the one where Rachel gets off the plane and reunites with Ross). So, that means that tomorrow night, they will show the series pilot and the cycle will start all over again :-)

Oh, and before I forget, another one of my favorite episodes is the Thanksgiving episode where Brad Pitt has a cameo as a former HS classmate of Rachel and Monica's. HIGH-larious! :-D

Essie Steel-ing The Scene

This color is certainly different -- I don't think I have anything else in my collection that comes close to it. Sometimes, change is refreshing :-)

Essie Steel-ing The Scene




This polish was pretty sheer -- I had to put on three coats to get it to be opaque. It is a frosty/shimmery gold/silver metallic color. I like it, but not as much as I thought I would. I think I am just starting to get picky in my old age LOL.

Essie Mink Muffs

I have another gray Essie to show off today. YAY!

Essie Mink Muffs
(indoors, with flash)




Mink Muffs is part of Essie's newest Fall 2009 collection. I got a set of 4 mini polishes, so my application wasn't stellar, because those little bottles and brushes are kind of a pain to work with! I have two coats on here, but I probably should have used three to avoid the visible bald spots. Each coat was kind of sheer, so I definitely recommend three coats with this polish. I usually end up doing my nails late at night, because that's the only time I have "me" time. As a result, I'm always rushing to finish my nails and dry them so I can go to bed haha.

I really love this color -- it is a gorgeous mushroom-y creme. Most of the shades in this collection are gorgeous. I'm not too crazy about the bright pink and orange in the collection, but the pink came with my mini-set, so I guess I will be trying it out soon!

Essie Over the Top

I have a bonafide love affair with the color gray. I never used to like it very much, but now I absolutely LOVE it!! Not just on my nails, but clothing, shoes, handbags -- everything!

Essie Over the Top
(indoors, with flash)




(outdoors, direct sunlight)




This is a super beautiful gray. It reminds me a lot of OPI's Baby It's Coal Outside. This one went on a little sheer, so I am wearing three coats + top coat. It is a gorgeous dark charcoal gray with the slightest hint of shimmer. Totes loves!!! Essie needs to break away from the pinks and reds and make more colors like this one <3

Essie Urban Express

I can't believe I've posted so many polishes without having done an Essie yet! So, without further ado, here is my first Essie!

Essie Urban Express
(indoors, with flash)




(outside, direct sunlight)




I love this color -- it was perfect in every way. The formula was excellent and opaque in two coats. Urban Express is a gorgeous bordeaux/wine color with a gold shimmer in it. You can see the gold shimmer pretty well in the bottle. Essie is my go-to polish for reds and pinks because they have a HUGE variety of those colors and they always seem to get it right. I think out of all the Essies I have, only 2 of them aren't some shade of red or pink.