Essie Gel Coutour Collection - Swatches

press sample

Hey, friends! Hope everyone's week is going smoothly and as you all hoped! Today I have a brand I have known and loved for ages, but this is the first time reviewing it - Essie! This is their "new" line, Gel Couture, which is a no-cure gel collection.

Essie claims up to 14 days of wear with these polishes when combined with their top coat and there are 48 polishes available in the line. While I did not wear any of these for 14 days, I did wear Flashed for about 4 days with the top coat and it latest fairly well, though not without chips and pealing. I also found that the top coat took AGES to actually dry which, coming from someone who is used to a quick dry top coat, found this mildly infuriating.

That said, I absolutely love the brush and handles that these new bottles boast, and the application for each of these polishes was beautiful - easy to use on both the dominant and non-dominant hands. I did receive 2 packages of these for review...however, the first arrived with a broken bottle. I decided to still swatch all of them, but you'll notice some of the bottles have polish all over them, and I wasn't actually able to open some of the bottles that had polish on them.

Since all these pretty much applied the same, I'm just sharing the polish number, name, and number of coats needed for each shade. Let's take a look!

February Nail Art Challenge - Day 3: XOXO

I am giving myself a little pat on the back right now because this is the first time that I've actually kept up with one of these challenges as well as stay on time with one of these challenges! This was a more difficult theme for me as it's a fairly simple concept and therefore only so much you can do with it. I know since it's February, everyone always wants to use pinks and reds and purples in their manis (especially when you're doing an "XOXO" theme) but I'm so burnt out on them!...Yes, I know I've only done one mani with those colors :p Maybe I'll make it through the whole month without using overtly Valentine's colors together!?! Err, not likely...anyway! I went with two of my absolute favorite colors together on this one--Turquoise and Caicos and the lovely coral Tart Deco! 

These were super simple and quick, but I think still fun and hopefully unique-ish :)

LAST Christmas mani! YAY!

Although I was gone for ten days and began to dream about getting to paint my nails again, when I got home Christmas eve and started thinking about what my Christmas mani would be, I was incredibly uninspired. I still wanted something festive for Christmas time and did in fact stay with a Christmasy pallet, I think I've come to realize that while I love Christmas time, I'm really burnt out on reds, golds, and silvers. I'm excited for new colors! Yay!

I'm currently at my parent's house so I apologize for the image quality, but here is what I have been sporting the last few days! :)

Sparkles and Glitter and Gold, Oh My!

Polish makes everything better. Adorably cute mini Essie Fall Collection polishes are even better. And  it just so happened that these lovlies appeared on my desk yesterday!  

Snowflakes for December!

I'm going to talk about winter again because, well, it's winter! But also because I'm going to be going to Costa Rica for 10 days starting on the 13th so I will be missing half of my favorite time of year being away! I found this nail art challenge on Instagram for the month of December and thought I would give it a go! 

Essie Beyond Cozy Gradient

It's winter! And after Thanksgiving it finally feels like it! Yay! My favorite! 

Err...well it doesn't snow in my part of California, but a girl can dream, right? I am pretty envious of the those in the cold snowy weather because all I want to do is get bundled up and go play in the snow all day long!

I suppose painting my nails wintery-ish will have to suffice for now, though. So! I present, another gradient look (this time done following proper technique!). I used Ulta's Smoke Screen and Essie's Beyond Cozy for my gradient colors (with a foundation of white).

Happy Polishing.

Let sleeping nails lie? Pfft!

I am incapable of just letting things be. I like to tinker. I will change my phone background every few days because I'm bored with the current one. My blog background, style and layout will no doubt change several times in the coming months. The same happened with my nails tonight. It's a wonder I've been with the same guy for 7 years ;) 

Tonight, I was especially jonesing to paint my nails but I was still completely in love with my mani from last night. So I started browsing patterns online that I could possibly make work with what I already had going on. About 3 pages in and I came upon this one: 

Source: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=all&includes%5B0%5D=tags&search_query=navy+blue+pillows&page=1

I could have gone with a free hand attempt at this, but I wasn't really in the mood for the potential screwup that could occur and the fallout afterwards. So I went with taping instead. Still a pretty terrible idea! 

I ALMOST gave up on this pattern and had to get pretty innovative in order to make it happen, but here is the result. 

I even managed to get both thumbs!

Happy Polishing.

Blue ombre makes my heart happy!

I used to think I was strictly a red/pink polish kind of girl. However, Essie's Butler Please converted me to blues in two seconds flat. Lately whenever I see a blue polish I've been snapping it up and I finally have enough blues to attempt an ombre look.

Most ombre nails I see have the thumb painted white and then the chosen color gets progressively darker as you move toward the pinky. I'm not always a fan of white and in this case I felt like it would have been far too drastic a change to go from white to dark navy blue. Instead, I went with a blue to grey sort of ombre effect and I love it. I get to use Butler Please, as well ast my new Zoya Natty!

From the left:

Essie Butler Please

Kleancolor Neon Sapphire

Zoya Natty

Sally Hanse Gray by Gray

OPI I Have a Herring Problem

Electric blue with Butler Please all the way over to a shimmery/glittered out grey with I've got a Herring Problem. I wasn't sure I would like having the glitter mixed with all the cremes, but I think it adds some extra pizazz.

There are many color options for an ombre mani. I'm thinking as Thanksgiving nears I'll go with some oranges and reds for a fall look. 

Happy Polishing.

Boyfriend, boyfriend.

I was struggling a bit with what colors to go with tonight so I asked my lovely (and possibly color blind) boyfriend to choose for me. He took the job very seriously--paused the show he was watching and settled in with my case of polish to find the perfect color. He started with a florescent yellow...um, no. I had to remind him it was fall and that wouldn't fly. He finally settled on two Kleancolor polishes, Red Alert and Fuchsia Glitter. But here's the thing...these colors look pretty swell together...my questionably colorblind boyfriend who often argues with me over the actual color of his shirt...chose some nice polishes...

Source: http://gifguppy.com/movies/jurassicpark/hfsitsadinosaur.html & Jurassic Park 1993

Okay, all joking aside, I decided to slap these colors on and go for it! I decided to add some Essie Matte About You because honestly, who doesn't love a good matte?

Happy Polishing. 

Outfit inspired

Someone challenged me to do a manicure inspired by one of my favorite items of clothing. For me, that happens to be an awesome skirt made by CottonOn, an Australian based clothing store that has amazing deals and excellent quality clothing. Here's a terrible picture of the pattern to give you an idea of my inspiration.

I recently purchased Essie's Butler Please and I'd like to spend a moment just remembering how stunningly amazing this polished looked on. When I put this baby on my poor neglected fingers, I about fainted from how crazy amazing it was.

An electric and "indulgent bright blue" with a creme finish that may be my favorite blue to date. 

I mean, let's be serious. That is so stunning. I may have stared obsessively at it the entire time it was gracing my nails with is presence. Alright, so electric blue isn't exactly understated in its own right, but since I matched the blue with my skirt and fell in love, I decided I couldn't part with it and went with just my thumb for the rest of my design.

I apologize for the overkill of photos, but I just love this these colors. Yes, I want to marry them. 

The Butler Please is 2 coats and Seche Vite on top. The striped thumb is (colors from left to right):

Navy--Kleancolor Neon Sapphire 

White--Milani White on the Spot

Blue--Essie Butler Please

Lavender--Kleancolor Lavenbaby

Orange--Zoya Natalie

Happy Polishing.

SOPI, gummified!

My obsession with matte polishes is I am sure unhealthy, but can you blame me?? It looks so amazing. Like gummies on my fingertips! One of my all time favorite reds is Sephora by OPI, Mr. Right Now and while this polish does not disappoint as a stand alone color, I absolutely LOVED it with a coat of Essie's Matte About You. So amazing and good enough to eat! 

I decided after the fact to add a little extra flair by striping across my ring finger with some Zoya Storm. I left the Zoya as is with no matte finish. 

Happy Polishing. 

Gradient? Err...sort of

I really like the look of gradient nails and had always been curious if I too, could hop on that bandwagon. Well, I sort of did? My attempt isn't the traditional smooth look that so many have been sporting, but I like it nonetheless. 

I used Essie's Turquoise & Caicos as my base color and let it dry for as long as my impatient brain would allow for before beginning the gradient. I suppose I should have researched a bit more into how most people do a gradient, but I had heard that THE thing to use is a makeup sponge. I had several lying around and gave it a shot! (without watching any tutorial on the "proper" method of application...oops!). Anyway, instead of painting both colors on the sponge and rolling it over your nail a few times as is now convention, I painted just my gradient color (Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray) onto the sponge and dabbed away!

While my "gradient" isn't necessarily a smooth transition between the two colors, I am still in love with the look I've created. It's understated but with a little bit of a surprise ;)

They remind me a bit of watermelon or candy or I don't know...magic? Anyway, next time I shall attempt using the proper method, but for now, I am in love. 

Happy Polishing.

I am Matte About YOU

I recently made what I would consider to be the BEST decision of my life. Okay, well my nail polish life? THAT'S A PRETTY BIG DEAL! I purchased Essie's "Matte About You" and I am in love and I don't care who knows it! I've always been a big fan of the flat matte look but until recently I had no idea that anything like this existed. I generally like to go for an understated look with my nails; nothing too flashy, but still something that's got some good energy to it. As shown in my first post, I'm trying the whole taping technique out and thoroughly enjoying it. I have been using basic scotch tape, though I've seen and heard of using masking tape as well (personally, the masking tape ended up bringing up the base polish I was using). I'm starting to get the hang of it and this is what I came up with.

The main polish is OPI "I Brake for Manicures." This color is pretty, but it's definitely hard to figure out exactly WHAT color it is. Depending on the lighting, it changes from a dark brown/grey/burgundy,  to a deep grey blue. I thought I was getting a deep navy when I ordered it, so I suppose be weary of that fact before buying. All in in all, I do like this color and while at first glance it seems black, it feels like a deep coffee brown. Yes, it's all about the feels!

 Happy Polishing!