Essie Cantaloupe

I've wanted this one for a loooong while and one of my very kind, generous friends found it at a TJ Maxx recently and gifted it to me.  I wish there was a rhyme or reason to why certain polishes showed up at that store, but there really isn't. At least not one I could figure out.

"Natural" Light

Cantaloupe is a jelly-like creme that is sort of a weird orangey, salmony, pinkish mauve sorta color. It's a bit of a chameleon and changes colors depending on the lighting. I also hate, hate! to show pictures of wear and tear like these but I didn't want to add a refresher coat because it would distort the facts in regards to the amount of coats and its opacity.  These pictures were taken after a nine hour shift of daycare work.

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

The formula on this one was kinda, it kind of sucked to be honest.  Some Essie polishes are so hit and miss in terms of opacity and streakiness, this isn't the first one I've owned that has behaved this way.  It was really runny and pooled into my cuticles a few times before I even had a chance to prevent it.  It didn't build as nicely as I hoped - this is three coats. Two thin coats and the final coat was a thick one to even it out.  This is over Orly Bonder and sealed with Pro-FX top coat, which actually bubbled pretty heinously on my thumb.

Flash

I am biased towards this polish, though.  Even though the formula left a lot to be desired, I've wanted it for so long that I can forgive that.  I love the color, and the formula doesn't affect that, fortunately.