This is my favorite summer color this year, Essie Chubby Cheeks:
Full sun
It’s a creamy jelly or a jelly-ish cream. You can see plenty of VNL at two coats here, but I still love it. Different lighting will shift the color toward pink, but it always looks yummy. <3
I’ve been lemming this Essie ever since kittytokaren’s hunt for the perfect red. On to the photo:
indoors
My photo is nothing compared to hers, please go click that link. This is a brown-toned jelly red that glows. Can something glow darkly? I think this does. It’s extremely glossy and a pain to apply, but so so worth it. I like this one so much that I’m having a hard time putting on anything else.
On the other hand, jellies seem to have to shortest wear time on me. Wear time is like this: Good glitters>Cremes>chippy glitters>jellies. Anyone else?
Need a break from glitter? Step into the serene embrace of Essie’s Lapis of Luxury:
lamp light
I had to take these in the dark so they are funky. Blue/purple is hard to photograph true to color anyway. This one is my perfect periwinkle. It’s soft and dusty, but I can’t decide whether it’s purple or blue. Perfect.
white balance!
Here’s another view with a different white balance. On my screen, this shot makes it look totally blue, but it’s definitely periwinkle. This is a 3-coater, but the coats dry glossy and smooth. This is one of those Essies that has a translucent finish, not see-through, but deep-looking? It has to be seen to be believed, and it’s my favorite thing about Essie.
I thought I’d try something new for me… a funky french!
Funkity
This is my very first attempt at freehanding tips. It came out okay… perhaps it’s worth trying again! By the way, this color is part of Essie’s retail line, so you should be able to find it at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, Target, etc. I love it when they are easy to get. :D
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t smelled a non-3Free polish in a long time. When I cracked open my new Essie Mini How High, a familiar odor seared my sinuses. I was inspired by kittytokaren’s awesome post comparing the color to donut frosting…
full sun
I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I like this color on me. We won’t talk about how many coats this is. I lost count. Thankfully it dried down beautifully despite looking thick as I piled on the coats. It wore like iron for the time I could stand wearing it. I think what I don’t like about it is the yellowed-pink color of my free edge. I have kind of resigned myself that my nails are always going to be a little stained but c’mon…
So I did a layering experiment. Here I have at least four coats over Essie Sand Tropez (index and ring) and Sinful Colors Snow Me White (middle and pinkie.)
indoor light
I left Mini How High alone on my thumb so you can compare. I don’t like the Sand Tropez result, although I *would* wear that color. I just don’t want to layer to get it. (And I apologize for the topcoat smear on the index.)
Over white I can’t decide. I think it loses something. I can’t chop off all the white part of my nail without having stubby round fingertips protruding past my nail. Maybe I’ll just admire kittytokaren’s beautiful results. Any thoughts?
Turns out having a full time job makes it tough to blog! Whodathunk.
Okay, I’ve wanted to show you Essie Sew Psyched for a while now, but the first two times I put it on, I *had* to take it off immediately. It was so lumpy, so streaky… UGH. I was getting a sneaking suspicion that my Seche Base was to blame since nearly every polish has a terrible first coat on it. And I tried it with the old Sally Hansen Insta-Grip and voila:
natural light
Two coats of lovely application. I am not sad at all that I’ve been wearing this pretty much all week. I’m pretty sure it will go well with lots of skin tones, so if you’re into the “military” green color trend, go for it! Here it is with flash to try to show off the secret silver shimmer:
indoors with flash
I don’t know why the flash made it seem rubbery rather than shiny, and believe me, this polish gets a medal for only having tipwear after the extreme paperwork situations it’s been through. This one is going to be a favorite of mine for quite a while, I can tell!
I love this dark, shimmery color.
artificial light
Essie Over the Edge, 3 coats. I feel like if you like hematite, you will love this polish. I think it also looks like black pearls. You know how they can have a pink or green cast to them? Indoor light seems to bring this out.
closeup
I don’t know if it shows up in this photo or not, but I tried! I do love these dark colors with a bit of shimmer to go on short nails. By the way, this one was called Over the Top before the retail release. It appears to be the exact same color, though.
My nails were still peeling a bit so I decided to go shorter. I guess I went a little too far this time! What looks good on short nails?
I like vampy colors, of course, but also jellies when I don’t have a lot of free edge to show contrast through the polish.
indoors
I know I’ve shown Essie Clambake before, but it’s the first thing I reached for to cover my nubs. What do you like to wear on short nails?
Remember how I promised to update you on an animal-themed piece of clothing sort of similar to the ones Stephanie at Short ‘n Chic likes?
I found it on sale for $8:
Photo from Urban Outfitters
But they only had medium. And, to understate it, the top didn’t fit. With a little bit of amateur hour at the sewing machine, voila!
the dog likes cameras
To do something similar for yourself, fold, pin, iron, cut, then sew. It won’t be even but mostly only you will know.
I decided I needed Essie Clambake, a gorgeous orangey-red jelly:
oo jelly
It has great formula, but like most jellies, you’re going to have VNL unless you put a creme underneath. This is one rather thick coat of Sand Tropez (allowed to dry for a long time) and three coats of Clambake. I love this color! It also goes pretty perfectly with Sephora’s lipstick in It Girl. Sephora’s Rouge Cream lipsticks are okay, especially for $12, but they have a weird shape and a pretty strong smell. Here’s my It Girl smirk:
heehee, matching
Try not to laugh. Now to celebrate with a frosty soft drink that happens to match:
spicy!
It was a good day.
Can you tell I like Essie? It’s the little bottles. They’re so cute! I am a huge sucker for packaging.
Three coats of Turquoise & Caicos, I promise to get better at photos:
late afternoon sun
I spent a few weeks drooling over pictures of people wearing this one before tracking it down in the store. When I found it, I kind of hated it in the bottle. Surprise! It dries darker. I even freaked out a little on the first coat because it looked really yellow-green. Three coats (I still had VNL at two coats) and I’m in love. <3 <3 <3
shade
Here it is compared to Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sea Breeze:
While this one still falls into my turquoise category, it’s much darker. This Insta-Dri is thick – opaque in one coat showing brush texture – but the brush is kind of awesome. Wide and beveled. I feel like it’s quick to chip, though. Even with top and base coat, huge chunks of it come off after a day. Another thing? This color will stain, beware!
Is anyone a fan of Insta-Dri?
