Essie Mint Chintz

Essie Mint Chintz

Ahh my little dusty find. This one suprised me because it is not as sheer as I thought it was going to be. It's also not a dated looking color. Hm, the formula on older Essie polishes is wonderful. They are smooth and crisp. This is a soft seafoam green with a hint of shimmer. It's not too white so it is not stark but soft and really lovely. Only needed three coats. I did try layering it over other colors but it's not sheer enough and it didn't look very good. This one is meant to be worn alone. I do believe this is a winner!

I don't know when this was released. I just remember seeing a photo once and putting it on my wishlist.







I can't leave well enough alone so I added a coat of Orly Walk Down The Aisle. It's a sheer pale green with shimmer. It didn't change the color but added a little shimmer.

MAC Jade Dragon

MAC Jade Dragon

I caved and picked up a few of the MAC polishes from Nail Trend F/W 2010 collection. I put Jade Dragon on first and it was love. MAC seems to have improved the formula greatly but wow are the bottles tiny! I forgot that they are smaller than the average bottle of polish. You would think the price would reflect that. Hmph!

Jade Dragon is an amazing deep green with shimmer/sparkles. It's dark but never looks black and reminds me of dark spruce trees. It looks like a green you would see in a dark forest. The shimmer is lighter and a blueish/green. Two coats and I could have gotten away with one. I did a few touch ups before taking these photos because I had this on for two days. Yum!

Lots of photos and remember to click for a larger image.

On to the hand.







Now beauty can come with a price at times. The price of this is staining. The staining!! Here are my naked nails (eek!) after removing Jade Dragon. I wore it with two coats of basecoat and before removing slathered my hands in oil. When I removed the polish I scrubbed and scrubbed with acetone. I applied tons of cuticle oil and lotion and scrubbed with sugar and Dawn dish detergent. It was like my fingers had become moldy. Ahh well.

BB Couture Universal Joint

BB Couture Universal Joint

BB Couture does greens really well. I never have a complaint about the formula and I really enjoy the brand. I'm a few short from having all the greens from BB Couture but I will get there! It's nice to have goals.

Universal Joint is an olive green with gold and pink shimmer. The pink shimmer gives it a light duochrome quality in that it flashes pink. It was really hard to photograph the pink flash. Really unique.









Some close ups to show the shimmer. Remember to click for a larger photo.





I get my BB Couture from Overallbeauty.

OPI Designer Series (DS) Magic and Radiance

OPI Designer Series (DS) Magic and Radiance

I picked up the new OPI Designer Series (DS) colors in Magic and Radiance. I like the DS line from OPI. They seem to step out of the box a bit with this line. I have no idea why they don't just release them as regular OPI colors but I think the silver handle lets them charge more. Ha!

Anyway, I'm not really impressed with them. I think if you are selective in the polishes you have you may find these fill a gap. If you have a larger collection you may find these are repeats of other colors. The formula was good and dry time was excellent. I still dislike the pro-wide brush.

DS Radiance is a silver foil. It looks like other silver foils like Zoya Trixie and Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go. I prefer the Finger Paints because it is a one coater for me.



DS Magic is a bright blue with purple/pink shimmer. This one is much like Orly's Lunar Eclipse and Sally Hansen's HD in Laser. You can see swatches of those here.





I picked these up at a local place here but I believe they are available at Transdesign.

China Glaze Awakening - Halloween 2010

China Glaze Awakening - Halloween 2010

I loved the polishes China Glaze put out last year for Halloween. They were pretty awesome. I was excited about this years offerings so the minute they were available for sale I bought them. I'm greedy like that. I can't wait for the holiday polishes!

First, I want to show you the 2009 Halloween glitter polishes.

Spellbound is silver and orange glitter in a clear base. Looks cool on silver.





Fortune Teller is orange glitter in a sheer black base.





Now on to the 2010 glitters

Zombie Zest is like SpaRitual Optical Illusion and Orly It's Not Rocket Science. I personally can't get enough of this color.







Mummy May I is a fuschia/purple glitter in a dark purple base. The base looks black but it is indeed dark purple. This is along the lines of Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance without the hex glitter.







Ick-A-Bod-Y is packed with orange glitter in a sheer green base. The base gets lost because the glitter is dense but it peaks out a bit. So awesome and my pick of the three.