Essie Ole Caliente

Summer is "here" and the "hottest" months are coming up (*chuckle... not really if you live where I live.) 

Anyway, I haven't been changing up my nail polish that much and for a few weeks I had nothing on my nails because I didn't have a good top coat and base coat. For people who have worn bright or dark color nail polishes without a base coat then you know that staining will happen.

I recently bought Seche Vite's Fast Dry Top Coat and Crystal Clear Base Coat from CVS for $8.99. $4.50 each? Yes, please and thank you! When I got home that very same day I clamored to my bathroom to paint my nails. I was super excited to use a new top coat and base coat because I've had issues with bubbling on my nails (especially with Essie's 2012 Spring Collection). 

Guess what? Absolutely no bubbling! :) LOVE IT! Which means... I can finally post up a picture :). 

In the next few days I'll be posting up a blog about my experiences with different top coats and base coats and a review of the Seche Vite duo. My horrible experiences with bubbling and all that stuff :) But for now I give you a swatch of Essie's Ole Caliente. 

Essie's Ole Caliente is part of the Spring 2012 collection which I absolutely love! On the Essie website, it describes this color as a "red-orange with a pink undertone" creme. I definitely agree with description. Its not a true red, but its not too far off from being that classic red color. I know in this picture its hard to tell if its a red-orange but it really is (the majority of the time). 

I applied 1 coat of Seche Vite Crystal Clear Base Coat and 2 coats of Essie Ole Caliente on my nails, topped with one coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat. Ole Caliente is opaque in one coat but the nail line is still visible. Two coats was a must. 

I really like the formula, but the brush application was something left to be desired. I really dislike the Essie mini polish brushes! They're too stiff which makes it harder to get a nice thin application.

Whenever I see this color I think of bright red candy apples, watermelons, and strawberries. It definitely paints a smile on my face whenever I look down at my nails.

This kind of color reminds me of OPI's Red My Fortune Cookie in certain lights... But Ole Caliente is definitely less orange.

What color nail polish are you sporting on your nails today :)?

I'm Back!

Hey everyone!

I'm back! Sorry its been a really really long time since I last blogged (school, drama, anxiety problems... ugh). But I am back with a picture of a jelly sandwich manicure that I did.

I sandwiched OPI's Getting Miss Piggy With It between Essie's Jelly Apple. 

I love this manicure sooo much! It was tricky to do for the first two nails because I had to make sure that I applied a thin layer of Jelly Apple over the glitter polish. 

What do you think?

Update: nail designs from 2011

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long wait. I have been back in school since the beginning of the month. It's been pretty good this quarter, just a lot of work to do :(. I will try to update as much as possible. 

Rose Nail Design:
Base Coat: Zoya Dove (I love this color!)
Red Petals: China Glaze Atelier Tulle
Pink Petals: China Glaze Second Hand Silk
Green Leaves: OPI Greenwich Village

Penguin and Owl Nails
Base coat: Essie Smooth Sailing
Feathers: Essie Something Borrowed
Beak and Feet: Sally Hansen Electric

Gradient Tips + Flower design
I honestly can't remember which polishes I used :(

Sorry, some of the pictures are flipped weirdly. I don't know why that happens when I upload pictures.

Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top Coat Review (plus, a couple of swatches from December Haul)

Hello everyone! 

This a review of Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top Coat and there are a few swatches of Nails Inc Magnetic Trio in Trafalgar Square (also one nail is painted in White Hall, and another in Parliament). Plus, one nail in Claire's Mood Changing Polish in Hyper/Relaxed and Daring/Ditzy.

I have been using Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top Coat for about 2 weeks now. I bought it at Sephora earlier this month for $7 (because of a coupon I had) along with the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Base Coat and the Nails Inc Magnetic Trio. Usually, I would not buy a top coat that retails for $10, but seeing as my coupon lowered the price by 30% I figured, why not?

Nails Inc claims:

"Kensington caviar 45 second top coat is a super glossy top coat that leaves nails touch dry in 45 seconds. Apply over your nails inc polish for a professional, long lasting finish. This formula has been specially developed for women who demand instant results.The effect on the nails is a super glossy, wet look professional finish so that nails look like they have been professionally manicured. This incredible formula will also help to increase the wear of your nail polish adding chip resistance and sealing in colour."

Okay, now that is a lot of claims... So did it deliver?

The top coat definitely dried to the touch in 45 seconds! I was so shocked with how fast it dried. I'm pretty clumsy with my hands, so there have been times where I've accidentally knocked my nail into my nail polish bottle while painting my nail causing me to redo it. However, this time when I knocked my finger into the nail polish bottle, nothing happened! My nail was still in flawless condition! I've also found that if you wait a few minutes after applying the top coat and then run your hand under cold water and let the water air dry it will help your nail polish dry completely (I found this to be true using Nails Inc top coat). As for glossiness, I wouldn't say it makes my nail polish "super glossy". Kensington Caviar Top Coat does add shine or gloss, but not so much as to say "super glossy". Also, the longevity of my manicures lasted about one week until my nail polish would start chipping, so it did extend the life of my nail polish.

The application of the top coat was flawless, the brush was not too stiff. It was able to fan out over my nails. The consistency of the top coat was not too thick, but not too thin - just right.

HOWEVER! And this is a big con... A little over a week and a half my top coat developed little tiny air bubbles in the polish. Over the weekend I decided to change up my manicure from CG's Dorothy Who? To CG's Westside Warrior. A few minutes after applying NIKC top coat, I noticed tiny air bubbles forming on the surface of my nails. At first I thought the bubbles came from CG Westside Warrior because I never had any problems with my top coat. So, I redid my manicure and the same thing happened! Still convinced that I had a faulty bottle of Westside Warrior, I redid my nails again paying special attention to the brush of CG Westside Warrior, making sure that I did not see bubbles on it. I even gave it more drying time, looking over my nails and seeing there were no bubbles before applying my top coat. To my horror, I still saw air bubbles formed on the surface of each nail just minutes after I applied my top coat. I finally looked at the bottle of my top coat only to see little air bubbles on my brush and in the bottle of the nail polish.

Sorry for the bad lighting, it was the only way to take the picture showing the bubbles. The nail color is CG Westside Warrior. However, it doesn't really look like that because of the terrible lighting.

I'm not sure, but I believe its impossible to fix top coats with air bubbles... I've looked up ways to fix air bubbles and the most recommended solution is to add nail polish thinner to the nail polish. However, it is my top coat that has bubbles not my base color polish. Also, my top coat is definitely not thick so I doubt that that is the reason my polish has bubbles. I have never shook the bottle or froze the bottle. I always apply nail polish at room temperature and in rooms that aren't too warm or too cold.

I have looked up if other people had the same problem with their bottles of NIKC Top Coats. During my search, I've found a couple of people here and there have had bubbling issues, but the majority of users did not. So I can only conclude that something happened to my top coat or I got a defective bottle...

Bottom line, this top coat was amazing for the first 1 and a half weeks I used it until the bubbling problem happened. It really does do all that it claims (except the "super" part of "super glossy"). But, there is a chance that the bottle will form air bubbles, so do not throw away the receipt after purchasing it because you may need to exchange the bottle or return it if you aren't lucky. Even though I experienced horrible bubbling, I still love this top coat. It was an amazing top coat, I only wish it did not bubble. And honestly, I have the urge to purchase one more NIKC Top Coat to see if the second one will bubble or not.

These are all pictures of swatches I did about two weeks ago (sorry, the picts are sideways.. not sure why it was uploaded like that). All of the nails are topped with Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top Coat. As you can see none of the nails have bubbling. Also, see my post on China Glaze's For Audrey for picts; For Audrey & Dorothy Who? was my last successful manicure using the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top Coat :(

So, have you ever experienced your top coat bubbling? If so how did you get rid of the bubbles? 

Summer Nail Polishes (very old post that I promised)

Hello! 

I'm super sorry for this really late post considering its WINTER where I am and definitely not summer! I do think the blue could work as a year round color though. During the month of May I went into CVS while I was shopping around and saw they had the new Summer 2011 Braziliant line for Essie on display. Unfortunately, there weren't many colors left so I ended up getting (L-R) Meet Me at Sunset, Braziliant, and Smooth Sailing. I had a picture of Braziliant (the middle bottle) but I have no idea what happened to it and until I go back to school I won't be able to swatch it. 

Braziliant is sort of shimmery and dusty orange at the same time. It definitely as a slight duochrome finish because of the pink shimmers. It was opaque in 1 coat and achieved full opacity (no visible nail line) at 2 coats. After drying there is not much shine on the nails. 

Meet Me at Sunset is a dark tangerine orange color. It has a cream/jelly finish to it. Just like Braziliant it achieved full opacity in 2 coats. Meet Me at Sunset dries super glossy! 

Smooth Sailing is a periwinkle blue with silver microshimmer in it. It is probably my favorite from the three I bought. One not too thick not too thin coat was used in the photograph. I do feel like this color is wearable throughout the year (of course it wouldn't be following "trends") but no one would look at you strange for wearing it during winter. It also dries glossy, but not as glossy as Meet Me at Sunset. 

Like most Essie nail polishes that I've tried these were easy to apply. The only thing I dislike about Essie polish is the brush which can be slightly stiff sometimes.

For Audrey & Dorothy Who? Swatches

Hello and Merry X-mas to you all,

Today I have China Glaze For Audrey Swatches to show you from my December Haul collection. China Glaze's For Audrey is a Tiffany Blue nail polish. Like many experiences I've had with China Glaze, the nail polish applied like a dream. Just make sure you do not apply too much pressure when painting your nails otherwise you will end up with bald spots. For Audrey was opaque in 2 coats of polish, which made me a very happy camper :). After I applied FA I fell in love! I was very hesitant to change up my manicure because I loved the color that much. Usually I'm not a big fan of light blue nail polishes (like Essie Something Borrowed... I feel like light blue polishes make my hands seem unusually tanner than the rest of my body) but FA is the perfect light blue, not too light but not so dark that it can't be considered light. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this polish. Love the smoothness, the shine, the color, everything!

I also layered CG Dorothy Who? Over For Audrey after a little more than half a week because I was going to attend a birthday party and I wanted something more festive and party-esque. Dorothy Who? is a beautiful medium blue jelly nail polish with loads of blue and silver glitter. I had to use 2 coats of polish to get the glitter to cover the whole surface of my nail. Even though the polish had glitter in it, it tried pretty smooth, just one layer of top coat was needed to achieve full smoothness. I loved the way it seemed like there were different depths to the nail polish because the glitters were suspended in a jelly base. 

An enlarged photo.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT - Essie No Chips Ahead Review

Hello everyone!

I consider myself an Essie nail polish lover; over time I've collected about 15 bottles of Essie nail polish, its probably one of my favorite nail polish brands. I have always had a good experience with Essie. With that being said, on my birthday I decided to splurge a little and buy a few nail products. I've been out of Essie Good to Go (my favorite top coat) for awhile now and wanted to replace it. However, when I got to the store they were out of my preferred top coat but had one box of Essie No Chips Ahead. I figured that Essie No Chips Ahead would be up to par with my expectations of a top coat. I knew that NCA is not a fast drying top coat, but a few years ago I used Essie 3-way Glaze which is not a quick dry top coat/base coat and I liked it so again I figured it would be fine. Boy was I wrong...

Essie claims NCA will provide a chip free top coat. Also, it will extend the manicure for up to 10 days and protects against chipping. 

I layered Essie NCA over my Sally Hansen Real Effects Nail Polish strips in a candy cane pattern to make it nice and shiny. My initial thoughts on the polish when I first opened the packaging and applied the top coat to my nails were, cute packaging and silver cap, nice consistency. NCA has a nice thin consistency unlike most top coats which are thicker, therefore it spread over my nails nicely. NCA applied nicely on my nails. I waited about 10 minutes lightly touching my nails to see if it tried and it didn't! An hour past and I thought it would be fine to take a nap, but it wasn't! I woke up to see my newly finished nails ruined. Since the top coat smeared while I was sleeping, small holes were made into the nail strips, therefore I couldn't hide the holes. I did one more layer of top coat to get rid of the bumpiness caused by the holes and this time waited a few hours for it to dry completely. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of my manicure post "hole-y" experience. Just a picture of it when the top coat was drying. Also, about 5 days later I noticed MAJOR chipping.

Bottom line is, no, it did not protect my manicure for up to 10 days. The drying time sucked more than normal for a regular top coat. I did like that the top coat had a thin consistency which made it easy to apply, which made me think that it would dry within reasonable time, but it did not!

I would rate this top coat a 1.5 - 2 out of 5 stars.

This experience has not hindered my love for Essie polishes. I've always had pleasant experiences with the nail polish colors. I've used Essie G2G (haha GTG makes it seem like it is Essie Got to Go) and Essie 3-Way Glaze and again had pleasant experiences with them, but this just was not the case. Hopefully this will be my one and only horrible Essie experience.