Essie - Haute Tub (Virgin Snow Collection, winter 2015)

Essie Haute Tub (bizarre name, by the way), has a sort of duochrome shimmer to give it a bit of umph. The base colour is a very dark blackened aubergine (but I swear it is dark green in some lights....). Essie calls it a indulgent jet black with amethyst fire; well...OK, the shimmer gives the jet black an aubergine look I guess and there might be green in de black base (that would explain the hint of green I keep seeing)....but I see no fire. Nothing burning here ;-)
This was two layers (the first a bit streaky and prone to bald spots). The shimmer is there, not in your face but still there... Wear time was not great, but with dark colours I tend to be more iffy: a bit of tip wear on dark colours looks way worse then on light colours!

Essie - Haute Tub

NICOLE by OPI - Blue-Berry Sweet on You (Gumdrops, 2013)

Ahhh, liquid sand....or gumdrops in this case: I still like these gritty polishes!

Today I have Nicole bij OPI Blue-Berry Sweet on You. It is a jeans blue, slightly metallic sand with a hint of purple flash hidden somewhere inside. It is hard to describe but in certain lights it is definitely showing a purple hue!

BBSoY is fairly transparent, so you need two thick layers or three normal ones to have a opaque result on your nails.

Nicole bij OPI - Blue-Berry Sweet on You

Essie - Color Binge (Leggy Legend, fall 2015)

Essie Color Binge is a fruity orange red: it is definitely a red with a large helping of orange.
The formula was OK, but not splendid. It was kind of opaque in two coats, but not very convincingly...
The color is lovely and I really wanted to love the polish but the formula just lets it down too much to make it a favorite.

Essie - Color Binge

OPI - Super Star Status (Holiday Starlight Collection 2015)

After a few days I had some tip wear with my OPI Umpires Come Out At Night so I decided to add some festive tip covering glitter to solve the problem. I used OPI Super Star Status from the Holiday Collection.
To achieve these shapes I used some french nail tip guides from the Born Petty Store.
Super Star Status is a very dense glitter: the base is transparent with tiny silver glitter and there is a liberal helping of bigger pale gold glitters in the mix as well.
This is just one coat: I can totally see this covering the nails completely in two coats, so it is very wearable on it's own!

OPI - Super Star Status

OPI - Umpires Come Out At Night (MLB Collection 2014)

OPI Umpires Come Out At Night is a lovely navy blue that stays navy in almost all lights.
The formula is a but runny but workable and it covers in two coats.
The smell of this one is a bit strange though, although some blue polishes have this problem or so I'm told...
It is very, very shiny!!

OPI - Umpires Come Out At Night

Essence Colour of the Year - My Love Diary #48

As everybody probably knows "marsala" is the Pantone colour of the year. Essence made a nail polish in this theme: My Love Diary. I would have expected a name with a marsala/wine twist or something, but well, what's in a name..? The colour is not spot on marsala, it's more a rose wine type of colour; perhaps even a bit granny-ish but on the good side of grandma that is!
This is two coats, that dried very, very fast, so fast forward is here the motto.
I used the Essence The Gel top and base coat and I had no major issues for at least four days.

Essence - My Love Diary

Chanel Le Vernis- 665 Vibrato (Blue Rhythm Collection 2015)

The Blue Rhythm Collection, which is inspired by the spirit of jazz and celebrates the boldness of blue as Chanel states. 665 Vibrato is indeed a very bold (yet classy) and crisp blue creme: I love it!
This is three buttery coats of Vibrato and that is because I was wearing it for three or four days already (Zoya Anchor and Armor) so there was some slight tip wear.....and I had not taken any pictures of this gorgeous blue yet.....
So I slapped on an extra coat, topped it off with Hema fast drying top coat and there you go: crazy glossy!
Nothing more to say about this one, it's utter perfection <3

Chanel - Vibrato

p.s. In the bottle Chanel Vibrato is very, very close to Cirque NYFW from the Metropolis Collection...but I haven't compared them on the nails yet.