essence – new show your feet polishes

Hi there! You know what the best is about today? Tomorrow. Fridays. Full of hope and expectation what the weekend may bring. (lots of sleep in my case…!)

Anyhow, essence released new “toe nail polish”. I have zero idea what the difference to “finger nail polish” may be, but what shall I say, it is a marketing trick. So I decided to exercise some civil restistance and show them on my fingers, not toes.

The gladiator (they are all named after certain shoe types, cute I think) is a lime green creme, very vivid and a color I really like. I used two coats, the application was ok.

The peeptoe is a very vivid almost neon coral. 2 coats again, application ok.

The pump is a chalky barbie pink. The application was a bit streaky but ok to handle. 2 coats.

The stiletto is a shimmery medium purple, it has a blue shine which is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail. I don’t like this color at all. Application was ok, 2 coats.

The wedge looks like a very vivid medium blue creme, but there is just a hint of shimmer in there, so it looks more glossy. I don’t wear blues like this on my nails, but I like the color itself. 2 coats, it was a bit difficult to control while applying it.

All in all this collection has really nice colors, but nothing breathtaking. I assure you my nails felt fine after wearing this polish, so it’s safe to say it isn’t toe nail polish only!

essence Floral Grunge TE

essence releases TE after TE again, it seems to be a spring-thing. Today I’m showing you the Floral Grunge TE.

It seems more and more that essence focuses on a target group of girls aged 7 to 13. I am not at all interested in the TE’s they put out if I’d only judge by theme. I mean, what’s floral grunge? Dead flowers? The ghost of a rabbit in a flower bed? Grunge music to which hippies dance? A happy emo? The cyber goth movement? I can’t answer any of this, but I am certain that puberty-ridden girls will find something as undefined as this interesting. For a fact I know that I would have, and I am ashamed to admit it. Luckily, growing up is inevitable.

essence Be flowerful. 2 coats. A shiny coral-orange pastel polish. 3 coats. I assume this is part of the “floral”?

essence Black to the roots. Ah, the word joke. So funny. Black (…) polish with silver glitter in there that dries gritty and matte. It has a sticker saying that this is supposed to be textured, but it really isn’t. It looks more like a lab accident (aka the whole jar of silver glitter fell into the matte black nail polish! Oh no! What shall we do! How about we call it texture. No one will notice.). 2 coats.

essence Grunge me Tender (no comment on this name. I mean, really.) is a pale mint shade with some shimmer-adding particles. It dries rather anticlimactic to something between shiny and matte, but definitely not to a suede. It is also amazingly patchy, you can see that even at 3 coats.

essence Lily Bloom, a white polish with a little bit of shine that doesn’t transfer on the nail all too well. Less patchy than the mint, but still not amazing. 3 coats (and no idea what “the pearl” means – a sticker on top of the bottle – this doesn’t look pearly to me).

essence Madly Purpled – now finally, this is a success. Medium dusty purple, dries matte, with shimmer, so it doesn’t look flat. Easy to apply, dries quick, 2 coats. If you pick one from this TE, pick this one.

essence Oz – The Great and Powerful TE

essence is trying its best to be the OPI for the small purse lately. They announced a collaboration with Justin Bieber (…), they released a Snow White TE and now they put out a Wizard of Oz TE. I wonder what will be next?

Let me start off by saying that all these polishes are crackles. We know that crackles aren’t necessarily a new thing, but as they say, good news travels fast, and logically, bad news travels slowly, so no wonder that a year after the crackles were cool, essence releases a whole collection.

good witch is a super new absolutely innovative gold crackle. I layered it over flormar M12. It crackles nicely, and to be honest, gold crackles are the ones I liked the most. So this one gets a pass!

delicate but determined is a navy shimmer crackle. The color in this picture is true to its real color, even though my fingers aren’t. I layered it over flormar M04. I wish this wasn’t a crackle polish, the color itself is beautiful.

winds of change is mainly a song, if you ask me. Taaaaaaake me to the magic of the moment…etc, etc. Great song to sing along falsely and overly loud. The polish though is the opposite: red crackle. Never understood the benefit of red crackle. It looks horrible over pretty much any color. I layered it over flormar M03.

master of illusion can’t fool me. The illusion of it being a nice turquoise/aqua creme shatters just like the polish itself. I layered it over flormar M09.

winged wonder is a peach/coral creme crackle. It crackles the least good of the bunch. I layered it over flormar M10.

 

Do you still like crackles? Or would you just get them because they are a Wizard of Oz TE?

catrice NEONaturals LE

Today I’m showing you a collection from Catrice called NEONaturals. I have absolutely no idea what the thought was behind this collection; it seems random in time of the year and choice of color. Nevertheless, here it is.

be naturally crazy is a sheer white with a hint of blue micro glitter. It really is only a hint of blue in there; it doesn’t transfer on the nail that well. This is 3 coats! (hideous, if you ask me.)

makes me smile is a metallic polish between silver and gold. It covered very well, almost in one coat, and it is very shiny. No brushstroke issue here either – I liked this best. 2 coats.

bright brighter brightest is a creme pink. It’s pretty much the same pink essence and Catrice bring out every other LE, which is an action that would contradict it’s name, as it is the opposite of bright. But hey, we can’t have everything. 2 coats.

for bright guys is a creme egg yolk colored polish. I love yellow, but these warm yellows better stay far away from me! It dries to a somewhat satin finish, and I needed three coats to get this to look acceptable. I assume it’s because eggs are for eating, not to be worn on nails.  3 coats.

Have a good day is a grey creme polish – it has some shimmer in the bottle, but that also stays there. I used two coats, it is a very decent grey, if you don’t have one yet, and this is easily accessible to you, it’s worth the money (but not more than that). I prefer KIKO greys, but you can’t buy KIKO everywhere! 2 coats.

little miss sunshine is a sheer patchy yellow with yellow flakes in there that add some sparkle. It had, as is the tradition with yellows, the worst application. Also, it looks very different in different light. It’s a fun polish, but I’m spoiled by yellows with better formulas, so it’s not really a winner in my books. 3 coats.


mr. brightsight is a coral creme polish, it had the most visible satin finish. I am not fond of corals in combination with my skin tone, but this is a great nail polish for toes in the summer. 2 coats.

it’s partner, mrs. brightsight, is the most neon of the bunch. It is a color somewhere between pink and red, and it is very vivid. Somehow it was a bit more sheer than the other creme polishes, and I ended up using 2 and a half coats. It had the best application though.

on the bright side of life is a vivid aubergine purple. It looks a bit lighter in the bottle than it is on the nail. It is a great color for autumn and winter, I think. 2 coats.

essence TE fantasia

Today I am showing you yet another essence Trend Edition (which is the same as a limited edition). Because of the promotional pictures I thought that this one was going to be boring as hell – but luckily it wasn’t.

Elves like lilac (is this an assumption? I sounds like a fact, in which case I must point out the danger of generalisation…!) is a vivid purple interspersed with teensy tiny silver glitters and just enough blue undertones to hate my camera. The color depends also on the angle from which you look at it. Nevertheless, a purple my friend M. will love, I’m sure. 2 coats.

Queen of my cloud castle is one of those more intensive coral shimmer polishes – I told you, corals scorn my love, so we’re didn’t become friends. Even though it had some hint of shimmer in there. 2 coats. 

Take a ride on Pegasus was my personal favorite. I haven’t seen a color like this before – it’s a mauve polish with intense blue shimmer. I love blue shimmer, so I could forgive the mauve base color. 2 coats (it applied the best of all the polishes!).

Have you seen my unicorn was a bit of a bummer. First, we’ve seen alike colors from essence in every other TE, and second, it’s just so streaky – I used topcoat extensively to make it looks less streaky. Also, it’s a goldish-pinkish metallic combination that is just too painful to wear. 2 coats. 

My coral dilemma

To my humongeous and overwhelming shame I have to admit that I collect butter LONDON polishes, but wear them much to little. After a year of ownership over butter LONDON The Black Knight, I can happily report I’ve worn it twice. That is much too little love for any good polish!

One of the butter LONDON polishes I looked forward to this summer was Trout Pout. I have anti-coral skin, which results in most coral polishes looking absolutely horrifingly stripper-esque on me. My hope was that it’d be different with Trout Pout.

Application was good, two coats, one coat of topcoat. The first coat with butter LONDONs is, in my experience, always very bad. You really have to apply a second and sometimes a third coat to find the magic. Trout Pout works after two coats, it levels out and all, wonderful.

The only problem, again!, was the color. I should maybe just give up on coral, but I still like the color too much. It’s frustrating if something just won’t fit, right?  P.S.: You all know what a trout pout is, right?

Catrice LE Siberian Call

 

There’s a winter themed Catrice LE, how seasonal… This one is called Siberian Call.

Coral -al -al -al is, guess what, a coral creme polish. It covers in two coats, but that’s about all the good things I can say about it. Sky and Snow is a glass fleck topper, white looking in the bottle, but very sheer and pink tinted on the nail, especially over Coral -al -al -al. I used one coat, and I have the feeling we have seen this before…

My personal favorite out of this collection is The Calm Call, which is a black nail polish interspersed with white/silver glass flecks. I used two coats, and it dries extremely glossy. In my books, this is a must-have.

I’m A Graydreamer is a beige creme polish, very standard these days. It’s one of those colors that are neither beige nor gray, but somewhere in-between. It covered in two coats, and applied okay. Unfortunately, this is not LE-Material I think, as it seems a bit been there, done that.

Rest In The Forest is another topper, with a slightly tinted base. It looks like mostly pink and beige glass flecks, so I layered it over I’m A Graydreamer. One coat. Again, I’m slightly reminded of the Million styles LE.

Rest in the Forest (left) and Sky and Snow over The Calm Call. Sky and Snow is blue and purple duochrome over black, while Rest in the forest looks more sober.  If you hadn’t had the chance to pick up a topcoat like Sky and Snow, this one seems like a reasonable alternative to the already existing ones.

 

My three glitters are coming to Taffy Town

Today I have a super simple but awesome combination for you. I started off with one coat of Funky Fingers Taffy Town, which is a coral creme polish that is so intense, it looks as if someone emptied a light bulb in the bottle and now it can’t stop glowing. Naturally, this looks like *** on me, because I am so white and can’t pull off colors like that. Well, bad luck, but I’m wearing it anyhow! Take that, Taffy Town!

By itself, Taffy Town wasn’t enough – I recently received a polish by Sonoma Nail Art in the mail (thank you M.!!!!), which is a black and white glitter, and it is just a tad different than all the other black and white glitters, so you can try to justify buying it. It is called My three glitters and you can buy it through Michelle’s Etsy Store (click on the link above). I didn’t think I would get so hooked on black and white glitters, but they are an easy way to add a little something to any manicure, so I’ve been reaching for them quite frequently. I layered one coat of My three Glitters over  Taffy Town and I looooove this look!
What do you think? Have you fallen in love with black and white glitters too?

Sunday Spam – Pinks, Pinks, Pinks!

Sunday! Day of peace and quiet and the Sunday Spam! Leave me a comment and tell me which polish you like best… I’m nosy, I want to know!

Nicole by OPI You’re an angel is a super gorgeous coral glassfleck, which amazes be because of the golden hue. Unfortunately for me, coral makes my hands look weird, but I couldn’t resist this anyhow. Three coats, it it a bit on the sheer side.

Sephora by OPI Miss Bossy Pants is from the Glee Collection – it’s a mini, so I was a bit reluctanct to wear it – SOPI minis really are mini. I liked wearing it, but it is not unique in my stash – think OPI Pompeii Purple for example. 2 coats.

OPI Strawberry Margerita is one of my oldest and dearly beloved-st pinks. It dries super glossy, is vibrant, happy and easy to apply. 2 coats.

OPI Let me entertain you – 3 coats – is a blue based glassfleck pink. As it is a glassfleck, it looks deep and glossy – sparkly in sunlight – but somehow we didn’t totally click. I had to wear it a couple of times to find out, but eventually, I didn’t want to be entertained.

OPI I’m Indi-a Mood for Love is another one of my “old” pinks – it’s from the India Collection, where from I love all the polishes, and it’s a blue based pink creme, which fits me very well. Two coats, and if you don’t have a standard pink creme, get this one. Period.

OPI Houston we have a Purple isn’t purple. I don’t know why it would be names purple… anyhow, this is a jelly (OPI calls them “sorbets”) in a gorgous deep pink (I’d say it’s a lighter raspberry pink). Three coats and look how glossy it is!!

OPI Be a Dahlia won’t you? is another blue toned glassfleck pink. The blue/silverish hue is more present in this one than in Let me Entertain you. If you search for a picture of a Dahlia, you’ll find that this is just a tad darker than the flower. 2 coats.

Which one is your favourite?

Sunday Spam: Nail Art ‘exercises’

This Sunday I won’t show you a color family or a special brand, no, I’ll show you my stamping and nail art exercises that never made it on the blog as a full post. Some of them are recent, but most of them are long ago so please ignore the variating nail lengths. Hope you’ll enjoy!

[if you want to see more, or stuff more recent, follow me on instagram: @goodlacknail  and/or twitter:.@goodlacknail]

butter LONDON Disco Biscuit (over Dior Lucky) has blue microspecks in the pink jelly base, so I figured, why not point that out and add blue hearts? The Image is from the Red Angel Plate #114, and I have absolutely no clue what I used as a stamping polish. Most probably my beloved sally hansen quick  Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen in blue. 

Urban Decay Miss T (goooorgeous blue toned pink, shimmery, 2 coats), stamped with the golden sally hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen (it really is a mouthfull…!). No idea where the image was from, but I do remember the tragic and sudden death of my middle finger nail that led to those super nubs.

Candy Wrapper Nails! Some coral creme polish, topped with Nfu-Oh 049 (the flakies!), and again stamped with the golden sally hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen and an unknown image from an unknown plate. Very awesome manicure if you ask me.

Not an exact failure but also not a success was the combination of sally hansen be-jewelled and the stamping design. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked black as a stamping color, or I should have picked a more subtle design, but this didn’t last long on me, as I assume you can understand.

In my eyes, p2 Night Out is one of the best dusty dove-colored cremes there are. Hence the crooked gradient with H&M Confetti Kisses, Spoiled Use Protection and Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream looked awesome too and I wore it until it had almost grown out. We both know I’m exaggerating, but we also know that “long” is relative, no?

This was actually my Christmas manicure last year. For more entertaining pics, click here.

Horrible picture but I still love the combination and idea: Girly Bits Razzle Dazzle, 2 coats, stamped with a Red Angel image (don’t know which plate # anymore, sorry) – the image looks as if it was floating atop a ping sea of glitters. I’ll have to re-create this sometimes!

Same as above, I don’t remember which stamping plate this was, but I loved the subtle image over Chanel Peridot.

Chanel Attraction was not loved as much as I think it should have been loved, mainly because it is a frosty pearl white, and, as you can see, dries streaky – maybe I’m weird sometimes, but I love it despite it being streaky and frosty. Somehow this made me want to experiment with dots, so I used ANNY Ocean Blue, sally hansen teal-y fast and Funky Fingers Blue Raspberry Taffy and this is what came out. A dot gradient? Shall we call it that?

Feedback, critics, comments and adoration are very welcome. Leave me a comment! If you want to comment sarcastically, please identify the sarcasm clearly, e.g. like this *sarcasm*. *sarcasm*  Internet and sarcasm seem to be arch enemies!