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

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)!

Comparison Essie No More Film, Style Cartel & After School Boy Blazer and a Cirque gradient

To stay a bit with my last post and Essie Style Cartel.....I did a comparison between Essie No More Film, Style Cartel and After School Boy Blazer.

Essie After School Boy Blazer, Style Cartel & No More Film

As you can see ASBB is the darkest of the three, this one appears black in most cases. No More Film has more of a grey-purple thing going on, it is still dark but definately more blue than ASBB. And Style Cartel is most blue of the trio and it stays blue in most lights! They are all beautiful and no dupes for sure (I need them all!).

Then I had some tipp wear...
So I did a gradient with Cirque Fascination Street and Ophelia!

Gradient Essie Style Cartel, Cirque Fascination Street & Ophelia

The holo in Fascination Street really lifts up the whole colour, it adds light and sparkle. Ophelia drifts happily along in the holoness of Fascination Street and melts into the colour at times and in some lights it pops up and gives it a nice hydrangea twist!
In hindsight I might have added a microglitter to this gradient, like China Glaze All Wrapped Up or Feeling Twinkly, just to give it a bit more sparkle in low light.

OPI - First Class Desires (Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection 2014) and comparison

There are not a lot of polishes I bought from the holiday collection this year, but First Class Desires was one I had to scoop up. It is a lovely moody eggplant with loads of gold dust and a really easy formula: two coats and you're done!

OPI - First Class Desires

Love it BUT it reminded me of another polish I own: Nicole by OPI Smile For The Glam-era, so I did a comparison.

The idea is pretty much the same: gorgeous base with gold flecks in abundance. The base coat is just a different colour; OPI has that deep purple eggplant and NOPI has a autumny burgundy colour.I can not say I like one better then the other, perhaps the NOPI is more for autumn and the OPI more a winter colour? But burgundy is very wearable around Christmas as well.....sooooo I need both >duh<

OPI - First Class Desires & NOPI - Smile For The Glam-era

One coat.

Against the light, two coats.

Essie - Chills & Thrills (Too Taboo Summer Neons Collection 2014) and comparison

When I applied Chills & Thrills on my nails I had forgotten that this polish is from the neons collection. It is a very intense colour BUT I do not think it is a true neon! One could say there is even a hint of dustiness in this blue! The formula wasn't too bad (after reading all the horrible stories about the polishes in this neon collection), it was very fast drying (as neons tend to do) and I used two thick layers to get this result (and do not fiddle around or otherwise you'll get bald spots!).

Essie Chills & Thrills

There is one obvious blue that was screaming to be compared with Chills & Thrills and that is.......Essie Butler Please >of course<
And the funny thing is that C&T is dustier and a little less blue then BP (it's a bit more purple)! For comparison's sake I also included SinfulShine Most Sinful and this one was way more blue and intense and the formula was better self leveling and dried super shiny (true to it's name).

Color Club - Indulge Me (Seven Deadly Sins Collection, autumn/halloween 2014) and colour comparison

This was the polish I wore at Halloween.

Color Club Indulge Me is a liquid sand type of polish in a brandy/toffee/fallen autumn leaves/pumpkin spice kind of colour. The toffee coloured glitter is spiced up with pink/rose gold and yellow gold and all are the same micro size.
It dries to a nice matte, fine textured finish and is very easy to remove!

Color Club - Indulge Me

I did a little colour comparison with two normal polishes: OPI Pros & Bronze and OPI Warm & Fozzie and with one liquid sand polish: NOPI Cinna-man Of My Dreams.

From left to right: Pros&Bronze, Cinna-man Of My Dreams, Indulge Me, Warm&Fozzie

Colour wise is Indulge Me in between Pros & Bronze and Warm & Fozzie but the mix of colours is along the same lines. Cinna-man Of My Dreams has more of a cranberry base and there are some blue sparkles to be seen in there that Indulge Me does not have.
To be honest I love them all.............!