Honest Babes

Let's get the most boring part of this entry taken care of immediately, shall we?  Essie's Velvet Voyeur (732) is your standard issue vampy color.  It's more purple/berry-toned than some I've seen, which is nice.  But unlike some of my fellow bloggers, I didn't find the formula to be that easy to work with.  I still had some patchy bald spots, though I guess you could blame that on me.  Or my base coat, Barielle Natural Nail Camo.  I can feel a base coat break up ready to occur.   I think I ended up with three to four coats before I was satisfied, but it was way dark then and not as purple as you can see in the bottle.You'll want to click this if you like glitter!

Lippmann's Lady Sings the Blues and Across the Universe debuted during the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, and I'm sure you've seen them on every other blog by now.  What can I say- I got distracted by other colors.  A magpie is me! Wall of text and four pictures of dubious quality...

Sephora has released a new version of their own house brand nail polish. Their previous line of polish was OK, but not very exciting.  (Except for the Essie Starry Starry Night dupe!)  Some of the names, like Myrtille, and name concepts, like jeans, did get carried over from the old line.  But I think this new line has a lot more cool colors.  I'm not sure if they're in store yet, but once I find them, I'll be buying any other colors that catch my eye (especially of the blue and purple variety.)  I've paid more for some drugstore polishes and they haven't been as nice as these.  US$5 a pop for cheerful colors isn't a bad deal, as long as these last a decent amount of time on the nail.

These new polishes are allegedly pigmented in one coat, fast-drying and long-lasting.  "A unique combination of resins and waxes creates a high-shine, high-performance result. The wide, flat brush makes application a snap."  I did like the thick brush, but it may not be ideal for pedicures.  It may be a bit big for tiny toenails.  I used Lippmann's Addicted to Speed top coat, which dries polish pretty quickly, so I don't know how quickly these polishes dry on their own.  I do maybe see a miniscule bit of tip pullback on the Sephora polishes, but not the Essie I used.  I doubt anyone would be able to see it, even if I pointed it out.  I also don't see any chips or wear on the Sephoras yet, and they've been on for over a day now.

I bought three crème greens- Teeny Bikini (L29; mint sherbet), Picnic in the Park (L13; bright jade green), and Prom Night (L32; smoky forest green.)  Bikini is a pigmented, slightly streaky mint green that's more blue than yellow.  Picnic is an awesome green blue.  Prom Night's more noticably green and not as murky as Sephora by OPI's Dark Room.Nail swatches with bottle pics plus a few brush pics...

I bought a fair number of things for the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and some of them arrived today.  I'm still missing some polish, but this was the bulk of the order.Way too many Essie pics, plus two Shu palette pics...

I recently bought Essie's True Love (641) and No Pre-Nup (639) from the 2008 Wedding Collection.  The former is a little more blue, while the latter is a little more red.  Both are pretty similar and I suspect they'll look almost exactly the same on the nail.  Why?  They're both sheer pinks. You can definitely see how sheer True Love is in the pictures below.  In the bottle, where the air bubble is, you can't see any color residue left on the wall of the bottle.  That's one good indication of how sheer or opaque a polish is going to be without having to open it up and try it.

One coat of True Love gave my nail beds a slight blush and lots of shine.  I added a second coat and I could see a little bit of uneven color on some of my nail tips.  Of course, it could always be my technique instead of the polish, but be careful with the second coat of application on this one.  You're always careful, though, aren't you?

I watermarked way more pictures than I needed to. So here they all are.

So here are four colors to consider, along with a comparison to Essie's Playa del Platinum.  I painted Essie PdP on my thumb.  Two coats of this gray beige crème should be opaque enough if you're careful.  On my index finger is Ulta Professional polish in Truth or Dare.  Two coats gave me good opacity, though the consistency might be a little thinner than the Essie.  I think that ToD is a little darker and more gray than PdP.  I'm not totally fond of either color, but the Essie seems more yellow/warm and the Ulta more blue/cool.  On my middle finger, I have the pretty Ulta Pro In the Mood.  It's a slightly dusty lavender crème that needed three coats.  I also needed three coats for the color on my ring finger, Ulta Pro's Bare It All.  It's a really neat color, kind of a light gray pink crème.  On my pinkie is two coats of a color my mom bought, and I liked it so much I had to get a bottle for myself.  It's Ulta Pro's Always A Bridesmaid.  While the other three colors were part of a neutral color display, this one is not neutral!  It's a magenta with strong green pearled duochrome that's a little brushstroke-y, but not too bad.

So I herd u liek blurry pix (not mudkipz)...

So I left on a trip in the middle of April, but I had some posts already prepared. I got back, had three days at home and then I left again. I was too lazy to blog, even with pictures already taken. Then I came home and got all nest-y and didn't blog... and now I'm headed out to the beach for the day in less than seven hours. But! I have a burning desire to blog! So I'm gonna get it all out now!

So OPI is suing some of the etailers.  Guess those etailers weren't actual OPI distributors.  If you've ever bought a bottle of OPI and there were scratches in an area around the top of the bottle, that means it may have been diverted product.  The place you bought your polish from may not have been an official OPI seller.  If the serial numbers are scratched off, no one can tell where the bottle came from.

Another issue with buying from etailers- distribution.  OPI has different distributor areas throughout the US.  When I buy from an etailer, I bypass the distributor in my area.  That distributor loses income they could have made on my purchase of OPI, whether from them, or from a salon that bought from them and then I buy from the salon.  OPI doesn't think they need people to sell their polish.  It sells itself, which, to be honest, is true.  People on average tend to have brand loyalty.  I'm not going to stop buying OPI because of all of this.  Buying three bottles at a discount is practically the same discount I get when I take advantage of Ulta's "buy two, get one free" sale.  It'll still be possible to get OPI at a good price, but it won't be on demand.

Some of the above is rumor and opinion on my part, so please take it all with a grain of salt.

Essie news from Women's Wear Daily and Lucky via The Cut and Jezebel:

Barely a week after a glowing item in Women's Wear Daily touted Essie cosmetics' flush financials, and mentioned founder Essie Weingarten's coy unwillingness to just sell to any old Tom, Dick or Harry capitalist sniffing around, comes the news that Essie is sold to L'Oréal. Weingarten and her husband and C.E.O., Max Sartino, have both signed multi-year contracts with the new parent company. Plans are to expand the line overseas, and domestically, via L'Oréal's superior distribution networks. We only ask that they never change the names. [WWD]

L’Oréal USA bought Essie Cosmetics, the nail-polish brand based in Astoria founded by Essie Weingarten. A purchase price was not disclosed, but Weingarten said that Essie generates $150 million in annual sales. [WWD]

Essie has teamed up with J.Crew to release two new nail polishes, a dusty pink and an opaque orange-red. The spring shades are available in J.Crew stores starting this week, and sell for $8. [Lucky Right Now/Lucky] (Super opaque Essies?!  Don't faint, ladies! )

And finally, your reward for sitting through all of that:Two pictures! Yay??

This is another post for Kate (and Nathalie! )  Essie's BBF is from the 2010 Wedding collection.  Essie describes it as a "classic creamy mauve," which I don't agree with.  There's not much mauve in here; I'd say it's more like a beigy nude with a bit of rose or pink.  In some lights, I really like this color on myself.  In others, this color looks a little warm for cool-toned me.

I did two coats of BBF over one coat of Essie's Fill the Gap! and then a coat of Nailtek Foundation II.  I did a slightly generous coat of Essie's Walk Down the Aisle on my pointer finger, very thin coats of WDtA on my middle and ring fingers, and a TON of coats on my pinkie finger.  Though I'm sure you could guess that just by browsing the pictures ahead! Pictures ahead!

My dear hubby had a devil of a time trying to get pictures of my Essie bridal collection mani- two coats of Petal Pink as the base color with two coats of Walk Down the Aisle on top as the nail tip.  I was distracted while doing this mani, so you can blame a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" marathon for the terrible tip job I did.

Walk Down the Aisle goes on softer than it looks in the bottle.  It can be a nice "your nail tip but better" color choice if you prefer American manicures. It does look a little unnatural at two coats over the base color, but it still looks more soft and clean than stark and in your face white.  (If you're looking for a clean but not stark Essie white, I'd suggest checking out Waltz.  If you're looking for a stark white, I'd suggest looking at Blanc.)  I usually apply my nail tip under the base color to make the tip color look a little more natural.  However, since I have had Petal Pink streak on me before, I decided to apply WDtA after PP so that there would be no pink color atop WDtA.  I think the ridgefillers I used before Petal Pink helped avoid some potential streakiness.  Using thin coats of polish also helps, of course.  I found that two coats of PP were natural-looking on my cool-toned self.  I have to closely examine my fingers to see any streaks (which are possibly my doing, not the polish.)  If you were looking at my hands from a few feet away, the only things that would give my nails away as being "done" are the whiter than normal nail tips and Seche Vite shine.

I used Essie's Fill the Gap! ridgefiller, then a coat of Nailtek Foundation II, for base coats.  I think I used Lippmann's Addicted to Speed as a top coat after my mani, and then refreshed the manicure two days later with a coat of Seche Vite right before these pictures were taken.  I have actually had really good wear out of this combination.  (Your mileage may vary, of course!)  Four days without chips, shrinkage or tipwear.  Bravo, Essie!

I do feel like these pictures came out a little more bubble gum pink than pink with a slight hint of beige.  (Possibly due to my natural nail color underneath the polish.)  I can see a tiny bit more chalky beige in the pink under fluorescent lights, but it's still a pink polish.  It's a bit lighter than in these bottle photos and more pinky beige than these swatches.  OK, I just looked at my nails under GE Reveal bulbs, and they look pretty darn bubblegum pink.  Fluorescent light is de debil! A couple of soft focus pics...

Kate asked me if there were any dupes to two colors from Essie's Wedding 2010 collection.  I sifted through my stash and came up with some polishes that I thought might be close to Petal Pink and BBF Best Boyfriend.Added some pictures...

I did a review of the colors here, and after attempting to redo my swatches, I still agree with my previous descriptions.  So this will mainly be a pictures only post.And away we go!

I found five of the six Essie Wedding 2010 polishes today, as well as a promotional flier regarding CND's Spring/Summer 2010 limited edition Color and Effect.  Pillow Talk (714) is the only Essie I'm missing from the Wedding collex, but I doubt I'm really missing all that much, if you get my drift...You know what to do if you're interested...

Essie's Spring collection is... hold onto your hats, folks... filled with pastels, a pink, and a red!  Well, perhaps you didn't need to be a mind reader to guess that.  Essie knows how to do light colors, especially pinks and sheers, and has quite a nice collection of reds as well.  I guess this is one of the many collections that plays to Essie's strengths.Dying to know more, or simply just curious?

Hey babes! I didn't realize that there had been a long gap in my posting, but I have some upcoming posts that I hope you'll like.  This post will focus on Essie's Winter 2009 collection called "Sweet Time of the Year."  I thought this collection was coming out in early November, but it is for sale on Essie's website already.

There are only three colors in the collection, all crèmes- Lollipop, Rock Candy, and the clear unique winner (in my humble opinion) Mint Candy Apple.  Of course, my favorite color is light minty green, so this is a must have color for me!  I love how Essie is branching out into more daring, less traditional colors like neons and blues!  I love blues!More on the three colors...

Is there any way to avoid paying US$18 for Lancôme's hot Fall 2009 polish color, Indigo Paris?  Yes and no.  Let me explain...My Blue Heaven