Essie’s Winter 2008 Collection features six stunning shades of rich jewel-toned polishes.  Each polish goes for $8, but you can snag all six as a set for $45.  My favorites were Sexy Divide, a gorgeous, deep dark royal purple; and It’s Genius for its softer, lighter magenta-purple tone.  Essie polishes have always worked well for me, and this set is no different overall.  All of the polishes are pigmented and go on smoothly with the exception of Shifting Power, which I’d probably do three coats of.  Because Shifting Power has a more metallic finish, it’s easier to see the stroke lines, too.

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Borghese Pomino Plum Nail Lacquer ($8.00) is a frostym, shimmery royal purple with purple-fuchsia shimmer. It’s a nice option for transitioning into fall as the temperatures get cooler!  Borghese polish goes on easily with just two coats of polish.  This was the first Borghese polish I’ve tried, but I wasn’t disappointed!

From Dior’s Black Diamond Holiday Collection, this is what Black Sequins looks like! :)  It’s this really intense, dark black with chunky silver glittery bits.  It doesn’t try 100% smooth, because the glitter is thick.  I think it makes a great sophisticated black polish for the wintertime.  It isn’t a creme or matte or just boring black; the glitter updates it and makes it more wearable and just fun.

And Dior’s polish formula? To die for.  I wore this on my nails for a week straight, and I barely even saw tip wear.  Absolutely no chips!

Dior Holiday 2008’s Black Diamond Collection is gorgeous!  Okay, this is just going off of the two products I’ve been able to see so far.  Pictured above is the Twilight Quint ($54.00).  I also got to check out Black Sequins nail lacquer, which I’ve included a product shot of, but I’ll be showing you a swatch another time (I’m such a tease!).

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China Glaze’s Rodeo Diva Collection really caught my eye.  I haven’t gone on a nail polish spending spree in sometime, but I just couldn’t get these out of my head.  There were so many colors that called to me.  In reality, I didn’t fall in love with as many as I wanted to, but I did find several that I can’t wait to do full manis/pedis with! 

Wagon Trail (above) is this insane combination of brown-black with gold shimmer.  It has some of the coolest reflectivity to it.  I also thought Rodeo Fanatic was phenomenal–it is like MAC’s Whirldwind, but bluer and richer and better.  Red Stallion is a bright holiday-perfect red with subtle shimmer, and I imagine I have a few similar reds already.  Golden Spurs is a brownish-tan color with lots of visible golden shimmer, which brightens it from a rather “blah” base to something suitable to wear around the office.  Yee-Haw! has the same texture/look as Golden Spurs, but it’s a subdued coppery-orange-brown base.  Lasso My Heart is such a gorgeous shade of a deep, jewel-toned purple with fuchsia shimmer.  Cowgirl Up is an intense shade of bright jewel-tone fuchsia-purple; it’s just out of this world–I loved it.  Prize Winning Mare is a cooler tan-brown with gold shimmer; it didn’t really do anything for me.  Midnight Ride looks black in the tube, but it has this fuchsia-purple reflection that is lovely (which shows up well in the photo).  Branding Iron is a dark, intense ruby red that’s a little on the vampy side; it’s such a deep shade of red with some shimmer, I love it.  Gussied Up Green is darker than a true emerald green–it has some forest green in it–but the shimmer makes it fun to wear.  Side Saddle is a dark reddish brown color with shimmer that looks multi-colored in some lighting.

My Must-Haves:  Wagon Trail, Rodeo Fanatic, Cowgirl Up, Midnight Ride, & Branding Iron

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Here’s MAC’s Seasonal Peach Nail Lacquer from Cremesheen in a quickie swatch.  This polish definitely needs a base laid down and probably three thinner coats would work better than two thicker coats.  I find it a little pinker than the promo photo, personally, but there is some peachiness in it, I suppose (perhaps, more visible in person than in the photo).

Who else purchased it?  What are your thoughts?

I finally received my nail polish haul from, oh, THREE WEEKS ago! (Sigh!!) I did quickie swatches (let’s face it, if I waited until I had time to do clean, professional, pretty ones… you’d never see them) of everything I got, so expect to see an influx of nail polish posts this coming week :) The one above is from China Glaze’s Ecollection - you know, eco-llection. I was tempted to get Recycle and Shower Together, but another gray caught my eye, and with fall/winter coming, blue just won’t be worn, I know it. So, resist, I must!

(As always, swatches are done with two coats of the polish.)

Check out Secret Peri-wink-le from Operation: Colour, too! Continue reading »

I love Essie polishes! They never disappoint me, because they apply smoothly, and the colors are incredibly rich and pigmented. You really don’t need two coats with this stuff (though I still go for it). I’ve never had problems with this brand chipping, and I manage to get my manicure to last through a week without anything more than tip wear. For fall, they have six colors: 

• Swept Off My Feet:  darker watermelony pink
• Big Spender:  raspberry-purple
• No Boundaries:  vampy berry-red
• Forever Young:  clean, deep red
• Tomboy No More:  dark scarlet red
• Lacy Not Racy:  vampy dark red

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Red by Kiss Perfect Pair ($5.99) is a tweezer and nail clipper set. Prior to trying these delightfully pink tweezers, I have been Tweezerman-snob. I think I have about three pairs of Tweezermans around my house, in various pockets of the apartment. However, Tweezerman tweezers don’t come cheap (I think all of mine were $10 or more). These tweezers look and feel a lot like my more expensive Tweezerman ones, surprisingly enough. I’ve found myself using these for the past few weeks regularly (they’re sitting on my desk, beside my 10x magnifying mirror, ha!), and I haven’t felt the urge to go locate my Tweezerman tweezers either. The nail clipper is kind of cool, because it’ll trap your nail clippings in it, so it creates less of a mess. I felt that the clippers felt a bit flimsy compared to the tweezers, which were sturdy. I’d probably opt just for the tweezers over these particular clippers.

Who do you trust when it comes to your tweezers?

ZOYA has launched their summer collections, Chit Chat (pictured above) and Gossip (pictured below).   Chit Chat includes six shades of fun colors that are perfect for summer.  My favorite shade is probably Elke, which is a hot rose metallic (pictured on my thumb).  My pointer finger is donned with Annie a bold berry metallic, while my middle finger has Lianne (an ultra tangerine metallic).  My ring finger has Bekka, which is a cool chartreuse metallic (and surprisingly not as neon as you would think), with my pinky colored with Erika, a soft pink metallic (sheerest of the bunch).  My other thumb (not pictured here, but you can see it in the secondary pictures) is Gaia, a white metallic. 

I would say Gaia is my least favorite, just because it seems rather unoriginal compared to the other colors, and I personally wouldn’t wear all-white nails, and I never have time to get a manicure for French nails, either.  I like the orange in Lianne because it isn’t so “in-your-face,” and Annie has an awesome duochrome shimmer to it.

Gossip was inspired by the girls of The Hills, and I know we have some fans of the show around these parts.   I actually LOVED every single one of these polishes because the pigmentation was insane.  Seriously, I could have used just one coat and been on my way.  As creams, all of these have such a beautiful finish with no shimmer, but they don’t look flat or dull.  I do, personally, use the Zoya Color Lock System as my preference for base/top/dry coats, but these nails are pictured without any base or top coat.  You really do get what you see in the bottle!  On the left most thumb pictured, I used Audrina, which is a red-purple cream that is gorgeous and reminds me of lazy days on the beach; while my right thumb has Whitney, a hot fuchsia cream, which is just magnetic.  Pair it with your Heatherette goodies!  My pointer finger has LO, an electric cerise cream, my middle finger has Elodie, a bold poppy cream, my ring finger has Heidi, a hi-beam orange cream, and my pinky has LC, a summer red cream. 

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My favorites were… well… all of them really!  I don’t normally wear bright reds or oranges, but I do love LC for its wearable shade of bright red (if that makes any sense!).  Both Audrina and Whitney are super fun colors, and Audrina isn’t too bright in the least (while Whitney may be a touch more “hey, check out my nails”).  Elodie is also quite pretty as a brighter coral, and I suspect I will be rockin’ this one a few times on beach-going days.

Zoya polishes are free of Toluene, Formaldehyde, and DPB (the “big three”), and I own numerous bottles and have not been disappointed in their application, color, or quality.  They last a full week on me when used with a base and top coat with no chipping and minimal tip wear.  Get yours at www.zoya.com.

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