Essie - Double Breasted Jacket (Jiggle Hi Jiggle Low, winter 2014) + comparison

I love this strawberry red creme from Essie! The Jiggle Hi Jiggle Low collection was a bit of a bore, it went from white in a gradient to cherry red, no other colours in sight but the namesake of the collection: a golden silver. I remember I was a bit disapointed by this non variety of colours but Double Breasted Jacket made up for that! It is such a lovely deep strawberry red with a perfect formula that there is just one option: be happy!

Essie - Double Breasted Jacket

I compared Double Breasted Jacket with China Glaze Seas the Day, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan and Essie Silken Cord.
Next to Seas the Day, the Essie is a sliver darker and has a pinch more blue in it.
Next to Ave Secretan, the Elevation Polish is a bit darker and more blue and more pink.
Next to Silken Cord, DBJ is more blue and makes Silken Cord looks like a tomato red.

 China Glaze Seas the Day, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan, Double Breasted Jacket and Essie Silken Cord

Essie Silken Cord, Double Breasted Jacket, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan and China Glaze Seas the Day

Nicole by OPI - Pink-nic in the Parc (with China Glaze Queen B stamping) Something About Spring 2011

Pink-nic in the Parc is a sheer pearly/shimmer pink with a hot pink flash I got for a few bucks in a discount store. With a stamping attempt I tried to distract from the sheerness. China Glaze Queen B is a ocw so it should stamp OK according to my calculations, but the stamping plate was perhaps a bit too subtle or my stamper was too hard (I think I used my konad stamper here) or I just can't stamp (yet)! The colours are nice together but that's about all: I kind of think this mani is a bit of a fail.

Nicole by OPI - Pink-nic in the Parc

China Glaze - Sea Spray (Anchors Away Collection, Spring 2011)

Having a no-buy policy makes me dive into the archives and find all kind of undiscovered gems! That is how I unearthed China Glaze Sea Spray, from the lovely Anchors Away Collection of 2011.
Sea Spray is a grey blue, blue leaning grey, grey leaning blue with a subtle hint of pearly shimmer. The shimmer is apparent in the bottle but on the nail it gives the polish more of a deepening effect preventing it to be a creme. The grey/blue was very light "reactive", in some lights it appears more of a light grey and in some it is more a greyish blue!

This is two layers with base and top coat:

China Glaze - Sea Spray

OPI - Got the Blues for Red & Fashion a Bow & I Sing in Color gradient

Even though it is 14 Celsius over here...I made a effort to get into the holiday spirit and made this red gradient with stardust! Base colour is OPI Fashion a Bow (one of the greatest reds e v e r), the gradient was made with OPI Got the Blues for Red and I Sing in Color and I finished it all of with China Glaze Fairy Dust. It's all kind of Christmassy right?!

OPI - Got the Blues for Red & Fashion a Bow & I Sing in Color gradient

China Glaze - S'more Fun (The Great Outdoors Collection, fall 2015) stamped with Mundo de Uñas

I just needed S'more Fun in my life: it's a dirty greenish yellow and I am a fool for those kind of colours (and I have a perfect yellow obsession...). This time I wanted to do some stamping (still learning though), I used MoYou plate nr 07 from the Mother Nature Collection, I stamped with Mundo de Uñas Pastel Blue and Taupe. I was very happy with the result although I still have not figured out how to get rid of the air bubbles in my stamping.......as I said: it's a learning proces :-)
Sorry for the bad pictures: it was such an awful, rainy and dark day that it dulled the colours considerably.

China Glaze - S'more Fun

Halloween nails: China Glaze - Cackle If You Want To (Ghouls' Night Out Halloween Collection 2015)

I had the right Halloween spirit this year for my nails!
China Glaze Cackle If You Want To is such a nice glitter topper, how could I not get inspired?!
It is a matte striped (!) purple (4 sizes) and black (3 sizes) glitter mix in a clear base.
It was the only polish I got from the collection, the orange (Lady and The Vamp) and the green one (Drink Up Witches) were sold out.....
For this mani I used China Glaze Cackle If You Want to (glitter topper), DURI Piranha (green), OPI Rumple's Wiggin (pale lilac), OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?, OPI My Vampire Is Buff (light creme), OPI You're So Vain-illa (vanilla creme) and Essie Licorice (black).

Halloween mani 2015

Thumbie The Mummy

p.s. The water marbled mummy thumb on my right hand is better looking than his left handed brother!

China Glaze - Cabin Fever (The Great Outdoors Collection, autumn 2015)

Cabin Fever from the Great Outdoors Collection by China Glaze, is a special colour: it is a duo chrome and shifts from greenish golden to a rusty reddish colour..... But when you take it off there is turquoise on your cotton pad......>weird<.
This is two coats; the formula covers well but is very liquid so you have to be careful not to flood your nails with polish. I had some bald spots in the first layer, but the second layer fixed all that. My camera did not want to pick up the reddish hue, so I had to resort to standing on my head to try and capture it.......

China Glaze - Cabin Fever

Orly - Mirrorball (Sparkle Collection, Holiday 2014) and China Glaze - Party Hearty (2010)

A bit christmassy, but beautiful non the less!
Orly Mirrorball with a lick of Party Hearty in between.

Both polish are a charm to work with, Mirrorball is opaque in three coats and Party Hearty is a topper that gives a nice amount of glitter with just one coat. I love that Mirrorball has a fine silver holo base with some small holo glitter thrown in the mix for extra fun.

Orly - Mirrorball & China Glaze - Party Hearty

Party Hearty is from the China Glaze "Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice Holiday 2010 Collection.
Orly Mirrorball is also from a Holiday Collection and is one of the best Orly polishes they gave out in the last years I think......!

Essie - All Eyes on Nudes (Cashmere Matte Collection, spring 2015)

Wow, it took me quite a while to get to my blog again......
There is a lot going on in my life at the moment and there are just not enough hours in a day to do all the things I would like to do! I need to find a time and place in my schedule to make a blogpost once in a while.

On with the blogging then:
Essie Cashmere Matte Collection was a much anticipated collection for me: I found the matte-shimmer combination very intriguing. Why did I start with All Eyes on Nudes you will ask, which contains no shimmer what so ever; I was in need of a very neutral neutral I guess.
All Eyes on nudes is a camel-hued neutral tone that, according to Essie, reveals nothing but the effortless chic of a classic trench. That trench coat I can see that.....the camel has a hint of khaki in it somewhere that makes the café au lait a bit less soft.

The formula was very hard to handle, it is thick and dries lightning fast so I needed three coats to get it leveled out and even then I was not happy with the result and I added Matte About You to make the surface a bit more smooth (kind of ridiculous to add a matte topcoat to a matte polish).

Essie - All Eyes on Nudes

After a day or two the hazy softness of the matte had worn off and was replaced with a kind of greasy shine (not nice. That is when I decided to slap a layer of shine on it: I choose China Glaze II (X Anniversary, autumn 2007) for the job. I really loved the result. II has a lovely subtle rose gold shimmer and is fairly translucent so it complimented AEON beautifully.

Essie - All Eyes on Nudes & China Glaze - II

I did also a little comparison between Orly Dare to Bare, Essie All Eyes on Nudes, Zoya Avery and China Glaze II. The Orly has a bit more pink in the base, Zoya does not have that hint of khaki (but is very close in colour) and the China Glaze is way more yellow (and has the shimmer and the translucency).

Orly - Dare to Bare, Essie - All Eyes on Nudes, Zoya - Avery & China Glaze - II

All in all I think if you have the Zoya then don't bother with the Essie just put some matte top coat over Avery and you're done (no frustrating formulas and probably a much smoother result)!