Essence Choose Me! with Gold Stamping

I had a lot of fun with this mani!  This particular polish, despite being glittery, wears well on me.  I paired it up with some other colors to achieve the final look.

Zoya Frida - Funky Fingers Platinum Record - Essence Choose Me!

Layering goes as follows:

1. Nailtek II Foundation
2. Two coats Choose Me!
3. Stamped: BM 204, FF Platinum Record
4. One coat Zoya Frida
5. One coat OTD

I'm super happy with how this came out! Bonus: the gold gets a bit purposefully "lost" in the manicure, the stamping doesn't need to be perfect. 

I used the floral full nail design right above BM204 for the stamping.

Essence Colour and Go - Grey-T to Be Here

I've been rekindling my love affair with my Essence polishes and I'm ashamed that this one has gone untried for so long!  I love these polishes, they're a great price and totally decent quality with lots of colors that appeal to me.

Shown above is three thin coats of Grey-T to Be Here over Nailtek II Foundation and sealed with OTD.  It's got a light grey creme base with subtle pink shimmers that peek out just a little bit.  The color and formula was slighty sheer so it took three coats but it builds so nicely that it wasn't even an issue.  The pink/grey color combo works so nicely as well, a pleasant surprise!  My lighting setup washed out the shimmers a bit though, they are a bit more noticeable to the naked eye.

And I know it seems to be totally hit and miss and I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I ADORE the brush.  The shape and width of it completely fits my nails and makes application super easy.  I've seen a decent amount of dislike regarding the brush but I'm personally a huge fan of it.  It's a bit on the wide side so I can see why those with smaller nails/hands might not be too keen on it, though.

Essence Colour & Go Oh My Glitter!

I'm totally smitten with this polish.  I had gone to my Ulta when they had the BOGO sale for Butter London and checked out the new Essence polishes and picked two of them.  I've not loved a polish like this in a long time.  I think the fun comes from not looking up swatches beforehand, and not knowing it existed either, haha! I just saw it, it looked pretty, so I bought it.

"Natural" Light

This is three thin coats of Oh My Glitter! over my usually base and sealed with OTD.  Application was lovely! Dried super quick, just perfect.  I've always like Essence's polishes, these are no different.  The bottles are bigger and a dollar more, but worth it because you do get more.

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

Essence "Irreplaceable"

Just a quick post before I head to bed.  My BFF Coryn picked this polish out at Ulta right before she dropped another one on the floor LOL. Oops.  Anyways I love this one. The formula is INCREDIBLE! This is 3 thin coats.

Essence "Irreplaceable"

There isn't a bad thing to say about this polish.  I am having trouble defining its attributes though, anyone want to give it a shot?  Thanks!

essence "Where is the Party?"

Where is the party, you ask? On my nails evidently.  Duochromes remind me of disco balls but not for the obvious reasons, lol.  I think they're both fun to watch.  It's OK, I'm 65% crazy, so either judge or move on xD

3 coats of Essence "Where is the Party?"

I did 3 coats, but 2 was enough.  I started the 3rd coat and realized it didn't need it but finished because, well, just because.  I also smudged my ring finger on my car keys, oops.

It's purple!

And then it's not!

Greeeeeeeeen!

Sunlight shows its rainbow (=

WOW.

Then I ruined it with "silver shatter" and took it off.

With my experiences with Essence, I've never encountered any problems.  Fantastic formula, great cover and application and decent wear. I got this for 99 cents at Ulta and absolutely recommend it for anyone who finds it purty.

yellow rainbow and ladybug mani

LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE yellow.  I was fiddling with my yellows and thought I would show them to you.

Bundle Monster plate 13

 Eek dry skin! Sorry, I took this right after I got out of the shower and removed it before I checked the photos, so this is the best I could do given those circumstances.  The cuteness factor should totally override the dryness factor though.  I used Wet N Wild "Black Creme" and "Red Red" for stamping.  An impatient me evidently applied the topcoat too soon.  There was some streaking which I should have known better to avoid. sadsad.

My yellow skittles (=

3 coats of each.

 I can't decide what I like best.  Warm golden tones like "Sundancer" are always enticing to me, but the brightness of "Lightening" is really summery and fun.  "Unicorn" and "Yellow Kitty" are softer which remind me more of springtime and as mentioned a few posts before, "Cayman Island" is pretty (to me) only under specific lighting.

Anyways, which is your favorite yellow swatched here?  What about your all time favorite yellow?

HAPPY HAPPY YELLOW

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?! I knew taking two English courses at once would be tough but I'm crazy enough to have to do it again and again.  As an English minor I need a total of 39 credits in English courses and I'm not even sure how many I have now, but nowhere near enough is a safe answer for the moment.  Its paper after paper after paper AFTER FKING PAPER.  Its mostly tedious.  That's the worst part; when it starts to feel super redundant.

I haven't been blogging hardly and I've barely had the energy to change my polish.  I'm actually taking a break right now because I just wrote about 5 pages (of my paper) and have another 5 or so to go. twitch.

HERE'S SOME SUNSHINE TO CHEER US ALL UP (=

Essences "Sundancer"

3 coats + TC

I LOVE this color. It really doesn't look all too pretty on my pasty skin but I LOVEEEEE yellow and this particular shade is just so happy.  It reminds me EXACTLY of Crayola's Goldenrod crayon. AMIRITE? My friend Coryn said that same thing too - so obviously it must be true.

essence "Choose Me!"

WOW where did this week go?!  My head was buried in the books as the post-spring break panic is here.  Professors all of a sudden realize that since we had a week off - now its double time.  Yawn, I'm bored of writing paper after paper after paper.  LOL @ me for choosing english as a minor.  It was between math, chemistry, history and english.. options were limited ya know?

Anyways this'll cheer me up.

Essence "Choose Me!"

Please click to enlarge these, this is really a beautiful color and finish.  Since we know I'm *amazing* at describing polishes, here we go: a bluish green micro-glittery foil looking delight.  I tried.

GORGE.

This polish tricks your eyes I swear!  Indoors and without flash it is very very green.  But it's also very blue.  Couldn't capture what I see, exactly, but this is pretty close.

99. cents at Ulta

Two pretty pinks!

Thought I would change up the tone a bit, instead of complaining I have some raving to do!  I've previously stated how pleased I am with the Essence Colour and Go polishes.  I went to Ulta this weekend and they had restocked them so I picked up two.  Today I am showing you "Ultimate Pink" along with my first Ulta polish (which left me pleasantly surprised!)

A beautiful magenta creme!

Two coats with TC

This was a creme-y jelly kind of polish, leaning more towards a creme.  It looks kind of squishy, too.  It jumps off my nails, I love it!

This polish is called "Encore Pink" and it straight up reminds me of ballerinas, lol.  It's very pretty.  This is 3 (maybe 4??) coats?  I can't remember but I usually habitually put on an extra coat than necessary just to round things off nicely.  This could be wore with 3 OR 4 and still you could achieve opacity.

Flash

Flash

So I put both of these pictures, even though they make the polish look like two different shades, because it does vary in the light setting you're in.  Just by turning my back to the light when taking the photo makes it look a lot darker.  But it isn't a flat color, it plays nicely with the light and sort of chameleons to the lighting.

All of this being said, in reference to my last post - that beautiful magenta cost me 1.06$ while this pastel pink was somewhere in the 2$ range (Ulta has 2 for 4$ sale going on until beginning of April I believe - knowing the quality of the polishes now, that's a nice deal! Especially since they're 5$ a piece normally!)

Price does not equate quality. Lesson learned (again and again)

im convinced its springtime

This mani reminds me of some kind of really trippy retro wallpaper.  Therefore, I love it.

BM 12

This polish, Essence "What Do You Think?" is one of those mind%#$ colors that doesn't look anything like it photographs.  Its a salmon-y PINK in the bottle, and on the nails.  Yet comes out PUMPKIN FRICKIN' ORANGE.  I don't like orange.

3 coats, a pink but unfortunately orange creme.

Cleaned up my edges last night so nails don't look so rough!

Color Club Art Club in White for the stamping.

My mani is the third bottle in from the left.  You know, the PINK one.  I swear on all that is good and glittery that it is the same color on my nails.  Wanted pink, got orange. Sadface but it looks cute with the flowers at least (=

mod dots baby yeah!

Look what I did!

Dots!

This design is over 3 coats of Essence "Movie Star".  For the dots I used Essence "No More Drama", "Sundancer" and "What Do You Think?" as well as China Glaze "For Audrey".  I used the back end of my dotting tool.

essence "movie star"

Today was a long ass day.  Cold and boring and long.  That was today.  I'm still cold, relatively bored and since its officially Wednesday now, I can't complain about it being long.  Ok, enough rambling.

Essence "Movie Star"

Alright this is my wonky hand.  My index finger is FINALLY, after over a month of fighting with me, growing back normally and healthily.  My middle finger split on the free edge so I had to file it down.  My ring finger has been victim to my constant picking.  Pinky is fine, thumbs a little dry but what else is new; I can't possibly lotion anymore than I do sometimes.  I'll do better next time (= I owe it to my readers to not put up hackjob photos and I am trying! 

3 coats of this delightful dark grey creme!

 See this is my other hand, much more aesthetically pleasing!  (Text is backwards because I had to rotate the photo.)  Look how different the color shows up in the bottle compared to the nails.  It's closer to the color in the bottle.  I just love a little novelty so I wanted to share.

OK normally I feel like a sales rep for Funky Fingers but now I'm jumping ship.  Onto the Essence boat of luxury.  I cannot comprehend how for 99. cents these polishes are so freakin' fabulous.  Excellent dry time, affordable, fun colors and most important a shiny, perfect formula.  Remember, I bought these at ULTA.  You should get some, for reals.

Look how fun.  Cuter than the Gosselin kids I tell ya!

Size comparison next to ChG "For Audrey"

OK, that's it.  Go buy some of these.