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.

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...

Today's the day! You can buy one butter LONDON and get one free at Ultas that carry the brand. I've heard that some sales associates say that you can buy two and get two free, while others have said you can only buy one and get one free. I'm not sure what the restrictions are, but if you encounter any, I'd be curious to know what they are.Thirty seven thousand pictures later...

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!

I tried to do some swatches of Nicole Fell From the Tree, Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, OPI's Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede and Revlon's Matte Suede polish in Emerald City.  Can't say these pictures really came out, but maybe they'll help!

Here are the colors themselves - ignore the fact that the Nicole looks aqua.

Observe...

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!

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