Honest Babes

I found a new display of Essies at Target today. It included some older colors, the Luxeffects collection and three new (to me) colors- Play Date (300), a lavender crème with more red than blue; Armed and Ready (708), which struck me as a dark khaki green with maybe a little brown added and bronze shimmer (others have been describing this color differently, so take my evaluation with a grain of salt); and Go Overboard (740), a dark teal crème.

Imagine all of those with a little more green in the base. I had a lot of trouble getting everything in this set to photograph accurately!If you like blues, you'll like clicking here.

I need to get to editing some of my pictures! Until then, here's what I'm wearing right now as an actual manicure- one coat of Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat, one coat of Essie's Sugar Daddy and then two coats of Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven.Click if you don't mind sheer manicures!

Essie's winter collection this year is called Cocktail Bling, but I gotta say- these aren't very blingy. The one color from the collection that I didn't buy is Brooch the Subject (773.) It looked like kind of a tan/camel color, which would not be flattering in the least to my coloring. The five colors that I did get look like crèmes. The two colors I'm going to review right now are Bobbing for Baubles (769) and Size Matters (771.)

Size Matters, School of Hard Rocks, Bangle Jangle (not to be confused with Bungle Jungle), Bobbing for Baubles and Cocktail Bling in the lightbox:Buncha pix inside...

I picked up three of the Halloween nail polish offerings from Fantasy Makers (AKA Wet n Wild) last week or the week before. (Halloween creep is not as bad as Christmas creep, but Halloween paraphernalia still coming earlier than I had expected!) I figured they were cheap enough and worth a try since the colors weren't so bad. I didn't opt for the glow in the dark polish since I have more of those than I'll ever need. The big downsides on these are the potential for slightly wonky, fluffy, stick-y out-y brushes (which I noticed on quite a few bottles) and the tombstone tops that never twist on fully flush to the bottle unless you repeatedly twist the tops on and off until you're satisfied.

Purple Potion (12420) is black with purple microglitter.  The glitter is slightly darker and finer than the glitter in Lippmann's Bad Romance. It only took two coats to get opacity, which surprised me. The glitter is not as blingy on the nail as it is in the bottle, which is kind of a bummer. It also dries to a satin finish, so I'd suggest top coat unless that's the effect you're going for. I put two top coats on and Purple Potion is still not as shiny as I'd like it to be. I had no problem seeing the shimmer under fluorescent lighting, though, so this isn't dark and drab. Yay Halloween!

I jumped at the chance to order a few polishes as soon as the new OPIs were available online.  (Big thank you to Karianne of Neglelakkmani for pointing them out!)  If you didn't want to order online, yesterday was the official release date.  I received an Ulta catalog yesterday with a coupon and a 5x bonus points offer, so if you have an Ulta nearby they're a good choice.  The OPIs are featured on the back of the catalog, but the coloring in the ad is definitely off.  I have heard that some Ultas (and Trade Secrets) already have the collection out, too, instead of waiting until Sunday when their new ad goes into effect as they usually do.  I also bought an Essie, two China Glazes and five Misas to make the order a little more well-rounded.

Here are bottle pics from my order, since some of them are a little similar.  If you're getting deja vu, yes, I did post these on MakeupAlley a few days ago.

This picture is still a tiny bit light, so just imagine everything a smidge darker.  In order, the polishes are Misa Catch A Flick, China Glaze Westside Warrior, Misa Got it Made in the Shade, OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel and Essie Power Clutch (if you don't see the Essie, click on the image and the whole thing will pop up):

This picture doesn't show how Urban-Night is a little more red-toned, but it's pretty decent.  The polishes are China Glaze Urban-Night, OPI Honk If You Love OPI, OPI Color To Diner For, Misa Bop Til You Drop and Misa Pop the Clutch (click on the image to see the entire thing):

Here's a close up of Bop Til You Drop and Pop the Clutch:

And the final picture is of Misa Office Polish-tics, OPI Road House Blues and OPI I Brake for Manicures:

I have some swatches, so I'm going to work on getting those up today.

Revlon's Top Speed fast dry polish in First Class is allegedly a Target-only shade.  While Essie has their own Target-only shades, most (if not all- I'm curious about Red Label) have already been sold before at other retailers.  I wonder if First Class has been sold elsewhere before, but then I wonder why I'm bothering to wonder.  First Class was decently opaque at one coat, but there was a little sheerness that became more evident as the polish dried.  Honestly, I had an easier time with this polish than the Misa and China Glaze polishes I tried out at the same time, both in formula and in brush.  Color me impressed!  I didn't find it to be superbly fast drying, but after a few minutes, I put China Glaze Fast Forward on and my polish was dry (but still dentable) 10-15 min later.  If I exerted enough force, I could dent it the next morning, but I didn't get any dings aside from the ones I gave myself.  I have a little bit of tipwear almost two days later, but I'm pleased with how well this has worn.

The first picture is a maybe little more color accurate as far as I remember, but the second isn't too far off:You know the deal... click if you like blue!

The scuttlebutt on the street is that the new OPI Ulta exclusives are Nicole's Gossip Girl collection polishes from last year.  That's entirely possible, since Nicole and OPI have shared shades before as far as I know.  (OPI's I Pink You're Adorable is similar to Nicole's Starbright Sparkles II, and OPI's Unripened from the Halloween collection last year was close to Nicole's Blues in the Night.)  You be the judge below:Pictures ahoy!

I spotted these at Ulta over a week ago and pounced!  How appropriate is it that I bought them on my wedding anniversary?  My handsome, intelligent, hilarious (and great at blog tech support ) husband has put up with me for seven years- now that's a real feat!

I couldn't find descriptions of the Wedding 2011 polishes with thirty seconds of Googling, so I'll try to describe them.  If you're not interested, you can skip down to the pictures.   They are all crèmes, varying in sheerness.  borrowed & blue (746) is a light baby blue.  It was a little streaky at one thin-ish coat, but a second coat seemed to help even it out.  I did have a little trouble when applying the second coat- the polish seemed to be drying really quickly as I was applying that layer.  You may want to work fast with this one.  better together (747) is a medium dark pink that goes on way more sheer than you see in the bottle.  If your skin leans more pink than yellow, I think this will give your nails a healthy pink tint.  At one coat, it kind of blurs out the moon of the nail and makes the whole nail look clean without screaming "obvious polish over here!"  It does still look like polish, though.  Too perfect and glossy to be just base coat.  At two coats of polish, it become more opaque and more pink like the polish in the bottle.  I can still see the moons of my nails, but only if I look hard for them.  made to honor (749) is a more neutral, slightly more beige-y pink than better together.  At one coat, the nail just looks healthy with the moon being slightly obscured.  It's less pink and more of a natural look versus bt.  At two coats, the moon of my nail is a little more hidden by color and it looks like a more translucent version of what you see in the bottle.  mth is a little less bubble gummy than bt, and you can see that at two coats.  bt stands out more and is clearly pink, while mth is a more natural, clean, polished look.  first dance (748) looks like a typical, ever so slightly brown-toned red in the bottle, but it brightens up to a cherry red on the nail.  At one coat, it's just a little translucent still, but it's a very pretty jelly look.  Very shiny!  I actually like it a little less at two coats, where it seems a little less blue and maybe a little more brown like the bottle.  It's pretty thin and a bit water-y, so exercise caution with this one, too.

coat azure (742) is from the Spring 2011 French Affair collection.  It's a gray blue with heavy shimmer, bordering on pearl.  The shimmer looks silver in the bottle and on the nail, while the base color does dry darker than what you see in the bottle.  Because of the heavy shimmer, this color can yield very faint brushstrokes.  I've heard that this is the free color that Tom's Shoes gave away for their Facebook promotion.

Bottle shot:

Thirty seven thousand more pictures inside...

I checked my local Walmart yesterday and lo and behold, they had the small Essie display.  Which didn't contain Dive Bar.  So I had to check another (crummier) Walmart, which of course had the bigger endcap display.  I picked up Dive Bar (728) and Devil's Advocate (360, not to be confused with Night Cap which is also 360.)  I'm kind of surprised that Fondola Gondola and Pop Art Pink had their names changed, but Devil's Advocate is an A-OK name.

Dive Bar had a blackened blue base with threads of dark teal shimmer.  It's almost brushstroke-y, but not quite.  There's a purple duochrome with the blue shimmer inside the polish bottle, but that doesn't show up on the nail.  I don't mind that, but I do mind the price (US$7.75!) and the consistency.  While Dive Bar seems to be pigmented, it's also runny.  I had to take lots of care to wipe the polish off of the opposite side of the brush, and half the side of the brush that I was going to use.  It may just be my bottle, but be careful when/if you try your bottle.

More pictures of Dive Bar...

I thought I'd heard that a trio of Essie polishes, with an "The Addams Family" theme, were super limited edition and had gone on sale in July.  I figured they had to be sold out by August.  But no, you can still buy the set for US$30!

While it's super cute and for a great cause (read more on Essie's blog), Iam assuming that the three polishes are repromotes.  Midnight Tango = Midnight Cami?  Bone Chilling White = Blanc?  Blood Curdling Red is the most difficult, but I'm going to guess it's Wicked.  What do you guys think? My pictures of the three original Essie colors...