Da Bush and Stranger Tides

Happy Thursday!  =)

So I realize that this color comparison is waaaay late from the release dates, but I honestly just realized it myself.  I've had these two colors sitting my hoard collection and saw them next to each other.  Then I thought, "Hey, that looks exactly the same."  The colors I'm talking about are Essie's Da Bush and OPI's Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, both of which are from last year's summer collections.

Yeah, I know, my bad.

In the first picture I have Essie Da Bush on my index finger and OPI Stranger Tides on my middle finger.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but to my eye they are exactly the same.  There might be a fraction of a shade difference, but that must might be from lighting in the photo.  These are perfect dupes for each other.  They're both a murky gray toned sage greens, and they're both cremes.

The second pic is of the two in the bottle side to side.  I figured Da Bush would be more different because Essie tends to dry darker than what you see in the bottle.  But I was wrong.  Granted these are minis of the shades, so I didn't end up spending a gob of money on two bottles of the same thing, but still.

Formula wise, the OPI is thinner and more watery than the Essie.  In the picture I used two coats of Da Bush and lucked out with two thick coats of Stranger Tides.  Normally I'll choose OPI over Essie, but in this comparison you get more bang for your buck with Essie.  Essie normally has very cute names for the colors, but OPI's are more bitchy and interesting.  So if you're deciding over marketing and presentation between the two, go with OPI.

I have no idea if either of these are still available en mass at, say, Ulta, but OPI Stranger Tides retails for $8.50 US and Essie Da Bush retails for $8 US.

Essie Mademoiselle

Super Sunday Post!!!  Back on schedule.  =)

I am so excited to have a Sunday off.  I only have gotten out of bed to eat, and then got right back into bed where it is warm.  Remember that lovely spring weather I was telling you about the other day?  Well, it's gone.  Since then, it has snow flurried approximately 3 times.  And if you know anything about how GA reacts to snow, you know that most people either get super excited about it or despise it with a firey passion.  I am one of the latter.  I need to move to FL where 75* F is cold.

Onto nail polish.  One day many moons ago while I was waiting at CVS for something I was flipping through a magazine and saw the Essie ad for Mademoiselle (which I can't find a picture of), turned around and marched over to where they had the Essie polishes and snatched one up for myself.  So, Essie, your clever marketing campaign has worked.

Mademoiselle is a sheer polish, although on the Essie  website it isn't categorized as one, and is perfect for French manicures.  It's a delicate pale pink, very pretty and feminine.  Great for any time of the year if you are season-conscious, but more of a spring/summer color to me.  And did I mention it was sheer?

I am not the biggest fan of sheer polishes.  One of my many OCD quirks is that when I put on polishes I would like to be able to see that there is polish on my nails and that it has a distinct shade.  I did two coats at first of Mademoiselle, and couldn't event tell that I had painted them.  I ended up putting four (4) coats on before I was satisfied with the amount of visible pigment on my nails.  Then I didn't touch anything for an hour while I let it cure.

Two nails did decide it would be a good time to break and look like freaks on my hand right before I didn't this manicure too.

Direct sunlight

Shade

This manicure did last me a full week, I have to admit, it has staying power.  I'm not sure if it's because I put 4 coats on or because I didn't end up obsessing over it because it was so light.  Either way, this color is classy.  Also, in person it made my tan look a little darker.

Essie Mademoiselle retails for $8 US.

Orly Wandering Vine

Christmas is almost here!  Yay!  Except I work in retail and the holidays make me kinda miserable.  But 'tis the season.

I did some very simple nail art in honor of Christmas being only 2 days away, even though I wore this manicure at the end of last week.  I used Orly Wandering Vine, which is a very dark pine green cream polish and Essie Size Matters with Nicole by OPI Orna-meant For Each Other for some sparkle.

Wandering Vine had a very watery formula, which I'm not exactly used to.  I used three coats of it just to get full coverage.  From what I had gathered in my own research of reading other blogs and fashion magazines, earthy greens were a very big trend for the fall.  I had gotten this shade with the intention of doing a green fall manicure, but never got around to it.  I thought this one was more of a winter because it reminded me of Christmas trees.

I used Essie Size Matters with a dotting tool to make something that kind of looked like clusters of holly berries on opposite corners of my ring fingers and thumbs and then put Orna-meant for Each Other on top to make it sparkle.  Before I put the glitter polish on the red dots they kind of blended in with the green (if you can imagine that, since they're on opposite sides of the color wheel) because they were both so dark.

Over all, I was very pleased with the results and it lasted for a good 3 days.  This was almost impossible to get off of my nails though.  Took almost an entire jumbo sized cotton ball per nail.  Such a waste.

I got my mini bottle of Orly Wandering Vine for $3.50 US, Nicole by OPI Orna-meant for Each Other for $7 US, and Essie Size Matters full sized bottle for $8 US.

Cocktail Bling

Ok, I totally lied, THIS will be the last of my Essie holiday collection posts.  I completely forgot about Cocktail Bling!

It's the gray in the collection, but it has some very faint blue undertones to it.  Very pretty, almost like light rain clouds type of color.  I have a yellow undertone to my skin, so it would probably look very fetching on someone with a darker skin tone than me.  I loved it either way.

I decided that I wanted to play around with my mani after I did my two coats of Cocktail Bling.  Neutrals with a bright color are fun and it's nice to spice things up every now and then.  I used a dotting tool with Essie Your Hut or Mine.  When I showed the finished product off to people, I got a lot of compliments, but I also got a "It looks like your nails are bleeding," from my mom.  Thanks a lot, Mom. =p

Maybe you will like it.

Both pictures were taken  indoors with flash.

This mani actually lasted me almost a full week.  I only changed it because a couple nails decided to break and look like freaks of nature on my hands.

Full sized bottles of Essie Cocktail Bling and Your Hut or Mine retail for $8 US.  Essie also has cubes available with four colors from each collection (which is where both of those colors came from, except separate cubes) retailing for around $17 US.

Bobbing for Baubles

Hello lovely people!  Today will be the last of my Essie holiday collection posts!  Sad face.  I love Essie so much.

Here is Bobbing for Baubles, a lovely dark teal.  In the bottle it looks distinctly more blue, and to me teal has more green in it.  But I've noticed that Essie colors dry a shade or two darker than what you see in the bottle.  Once it dried, I thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that Sonia Kashuk's Taunting Teal was exactly the same color.  Obviously, there are differences in formula and maybe a hair's difference in actual shad,. but to my eye it looked the same.

Bobbing for Baubles did last a good long while tho.  Nails actually broke and there was no damage to the polish aside from looking a little jagged.  There were no chips or fading, I actually got bored with it before it started to show signs of wear.  I did use a liquid quick dry oil on it and I've noticed that when I use it, there are what appears to be scratches on the surface of the top coat, like when your phone or eye glasses get scratches.  It was very distracting.  So I might refrain from using it unless I'm in a huge hurry.

Indoors

In the shade

In direct sunlight

Full sized bottles of Essie Bobbing for Baubles retail for $8 US

Size Matters

Yes it does.  In all aspects.

Hello everyone!  =)  This is the second week in a row that I haven't done my Sunday posts, but I have today off, so I'll post now.

Essie has a really fabulously smooth formula, there is no way around it.  It goes on like silk and then you just have to admire it on your nails.  At least that's what I do.  Essie's Size Matters from the current 2011 winter collection is the same way, and it's almost a dark brick red.  I wanted to call it poinsettia, but they actually have a color called Poinsettia, which is a slightly brighter red.  But really, I think this is almost a wine red, like Merlot.

Essie Size Matters

Now, I unwittingly found a dupe for this lovely color from Ulta, which Twin provided me with.  Deep Desire is exactly the same color. but the formula isn't as great to work with.  Plus it chipped all to hell after about a day.  

Ulta Deep Desire

Great dupe color wise, but if you're going to quality it's hands down Size Matters.

Essie Size Matters full bottle retails for $8 US, the winter cube retails for $17 (includes Size Matters, Bangle Jangle, Cocktail Bling, and Bobbing for Baubles).
Ulta Deep Desire retails for $6 US.  Ulta also usually has awesome sales for their brand of cosmetics like buy two get one free, buy two for $8, etc.

**Deep Desire was provided to me for review.  I did not purchase this color myself.

Bangle Jangle

Hello hello all!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend, mine is almost here.  Tomorrow is my Friday, since I have Monday and Tuesday off this coming week.

I tried out another of Essie's Winter 2011 collection and this time it was Bangle Jangle, a very pale purple.  It was more periwinkle, in my opinion, and could probably see this in a spring collection a little easier than a winter.  I've noticed a trend this year that the winter lines could almost double as springs, a lot of the colors are very pale pastels most of the time.  Winter to me has more dark reds, pine greens, more jewel tones than anything else.  But a lot of theses colors could be called a frosted look.

Anyway, Bangle Jangle was not my favorite out of the bunch, mainly because the color just didn't look good against my skin tone.  It completely washed me out and I could only wear it for about a day and a half.    I think it only lasted that long because I was very proud of how nice the paint job turned out, haha!  It was completely opaque in two thick coats and there were no bald spots that I could see, and it was a very nice solid cream.  The formula was a dream to work with, I had no complaints.  But that's what I've come to expect from Essie.  =)

I've also noticed that I don't really favor sheer polishes.  If I wanted to be able to see my tips I'd probably use a very pale color to begin with or just do a French manicure.  That was not the problem with this polish.

The bottle of Bangle Jangle I have is a mini that came in a cube.  All of these pictures were taken under artificial light.

Tiny tiny bottle!

The Essie Winter 2011 cube retails for $17 US, and the full sized bottle of Essie Bangle Jangle retails for $8 US.  I found a great deal on Essie polishes at my local CVS Pharmacy for $7 US per bottle.

Broach the Subject

Super Sunday posts!  Hope everyone has been enjoying the long holiday weekend, I know I've enjoyed my day off.

I'm starting off my holiday manicures with a lovely nude by Essie from the winter 2011 line.  This one is Broach the Subject, a wonderful cream nude.  I actually held it up to my work pants and it is a darker khaki color, not a camel like I originally thought.  I got complete coverage with no streaking or bald spots in two coats.  And then just to jazz things up and make it even more holiday-y, I did a white glitter fade on my ring finger as an accent nail.  I used Sally Hansen's Disco Ball.

All but the last picture were taken under artificial light.  The glitter fade was much more noticeable in person, but the whole point of it was to be subtle. Just not as subtle as the pictures made it.

Essie Broach the Subject retails for $8 US plus sales tax.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball retails for $2.50 US plus sales tax.

Carry On

Happy Hump Day!  On this the day before Thanksgiving, it is actually seasonally appropriate weather we are having.  Yesterday it was warm, now I'm running around in jackets.  Thank you, crazy Georgia weather.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, I plan on stuffing myself and sleeping a lot today and tomorrow because I'm working about 20 hours on Black Friday.

So today I have the last of what I have for Essie's fall 2011 line Carry On.  In the bottle it looked like a plum color, so I thought it would be a great addition to my collection.  After two thick coats of it though, I looked like a pretty good dupe for OPI Give Me Moore, which is a blackened purple.  So if you're going to choose between the two, I'd go with Give Me Moore based strictly on formula, and Carry On based on price point.  I will also add that Carry On is only lighter on the nail than Give Me Moore by a fraction of a shade.

I intentionally did thick coats and thin coats on the same hand, just so I could see the difference.  My findings decided that to get complete coverage with no bald spots and to be completely opaque, thick coats are absolutely necessary.  Even two average coats left bald spots, so feel free to pile it on, or just do three average coats.

I got Essie Carry On at Target for $7.50 US plus sales tax.

Multi Post Monday!

The first posting for today will actually be modeled by my dear friend/sister, Herself.  I got very excited by some of the glitters I bought recently and decided to attack her nails while we had lunch and movie day.  On her nails is Rimmel's Black Satin, two coats, and OPI's I Lily Love You glitter on top.  I have no idea why, but the cheaper blacks just work best for me.  I've used OPI's black and it's wonderful.  OPI has amazing formulas for their colors, no one will argue that.  But Rimmel London's Black Satin is my go-to black.  It goes on more like a gel than a creme and is shiny on its own with no pull or bald spots.  And if for some reason it stained my nails it came off with a quick buff.  But here's a picture of what I did to Herself's nails.

First we did one swipe of I Lily Love You and then went back and concentrated on the tips so it was almost like a very faint glitter french mani.  I Lily Love You  is a sheer hot pink in the bottle with lots of different size glitters.  There's hex, triangle of different sizes, small circle, and micro glitter all in one bottle.  Put it over a color and you just get the glitter pieces.  Lots of shine with a topcoat, and it covers up how coarse glitters can be,

Then I got bored with it and did this:

Put Essie's Matte About You on top of it and viola.  The black looks like a chalk board and the glitter looks like a fairy kind of exploded on her hands.  In that light with the matte topcoat the glitter is more rainbow than pink, plus it looks like confetti.  This made me really happy,  I can't wait to do this to my own nails.

Rimmel London Black Satin retails for $3.99 US, OPI I Lily Love You is $8 US, and Essie Matte About You is $10 US, all plus sales tax. 

Glitter Glitter Everywhere

The longest week ever has finally ended!  Happy early Halloween!  Back to back parties now that I'm at the post-college age is getting really hard.  I require a lot more sleep than I used to.  Then on top of that I just got home from seeing Paranormal Activity 3, which freaked me the hell out.  I made my friend's arm go numb and gave myself a cramp in my own arm I was hanging on so tightly.  Needless to say, I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

So today's featured color is Essie's Fair Game.  It's a really smooth dark gray with a metallic shine.  In certain lights it looks like it has a blue tint to it, and then in others it looks like it might have a green tint to it.  It doesn't have any shimmer to it, but it's a very shiny creme.  Here's what it looked like on me.

This lasted for two days before I got bored of it and did this to it.

Each nail is a different glitter.  I don't remember what even half of these glitters were, except for the left index finger was an OPI color from the Miss America collection, Crown Me Already!  This was all very difficult to get off of my nails afterwards.  

Essie Fair Game retails for $8 US, OPI Crown Me Already! retails for $8.50 US

Lion Around

Happy Friday!  I was going to post on Wednesday, but the power went out in my entire neighborhood, so no interwebs for me until Thursday.  And then I forgot.  So here's a new color.
  This post features Essie's "Lion Around."  When I was telling people who asked me what my nail color was I described it as "Lion, like rawr, Around."  This color was part of the set I bought, so it's another mini, but also available in the full sized bottle.  It applied opaque with two thick coats, but it was still very nice with just one as a pretty sheer.  It dried a little darker than the in the bottle, and I'd describe it as more of a ballet pink.  I'm incredibly familiar with that color since I was a ballet teacher for about 5 years, and a dance student and performer for years before that.  But still, for a light color, which I normally don't wear, it's very pretty.

It could have been the two days I spent at the embroidery machine at my work, but this polish chipped all to hell very quickly. ( The picture was actually taken at the embroidery machine while I was waiting for something to finish, so this is the before picture.)  This was the awesome length that my nails get where they look fabulous and then break.  Light colors and french manicures look best on longer nails, and colors look best on shorter nails, IMHO.  Put a crazy or dark color on really long nails and it looks insane and frightening.  I'm just saying.

Full sized bottle of Essie's Lion Around retails for $7.50 US

4 on 1

I spent way too much money at my local Ulta last week, but now I have oodles of new colors for fall!  (12 new shades, plus a nail art pen.  I realize I might have a problem.  At least I'm not into drugs or trash television.)

So this posting has four different polishes in it.  Surprise surprise, I got bored with my claws.  And my mother's.  Did Mom's nails in a lovely green shade that I will be posting later in the season.  My mother is one of the elderly mad (she owns it, fabulously), and gets strange looks now when she wears flip flops because her nails are always crazy colors thanks to my extensive collection of lacquers.  We live in the South, so it's normal to be wearing sandals well into November.  The old saying for how warm our fall and winter usually is "If you haven't broken into a sweat in your new holiday sweater, it was a cold winter."

Anyway!  Here is today's featured nail art.  This picture was taken with my phone outside on a sunny day while walking through the parking lot on my way into work.

The color for most of my hand was "Date With the Night" by essence. It's a really inexpensive brand (read, $1 kind of cheap) that is really really good.  It applies opaque with one thick coat, but I feel strange with only one coat so I used two to make sure it was completely opaque, and dries in under 2 minutes.  On top of that color is Essie's "Matte About You," one coat.  I've been hearing about matte colors and top coats for over a year and had never gotten around to purchasing one, but I think the top coat has become a great investment.  I've instantly doubled my color inventory.  At first I was weirded out by it, but it's actually a good "day polish" or you could use it to tone down a really bright color if it's seasonally inappropriate.  Love it.
  The accent nail is Essie's "Your Hut or Mine," again with the two coats.  That polish is an opaque shimmer that is almost a coral pink, but just barely.  I was so impressed with that one that I put it on my toe nails (don't worry, I will spare you the sight of my hooves.  Dancer's feet aren't always the nicest things to look at, although my feet are actually kind of pretty IMHO).  Let me preface that I am actually very pale for the beginning of fall as I am a sun worshiper.  This color made my feet look TAN!  Highly recommended.   On top of that is Orly's "VIP" pink glitter.  Glitters always come out grainy, so I loaded up on the top coat.  Having the matte on all of my nails except for the accent nail really made the glitter pop, and I got nice reactions from my female coworkers.

Essie "Your Hut or Mine" actually came in a sample size 4pc set, but that set was $17 US.  Orly "VIP" was $3.50 US, and essence "Date With the Night" was $0.99 US.  Essie "Matte About You" top coat $10 US.