.Essie Off The Shoulder | Swatch.

 

This is another colour from Essie’s lovely Summer Collection - a bright hot pink called Off The Shoulder*. I like to think of it as a Barbie pink (in a good way) and i think it goes really well with a pale skin tone but could also be a fantastic colour for tanned skin round the pool. I wasn’t a huge fan of bright nail colours until i tried this and Essie’s Fear or Desire* but now i’m hooked and i think i could go even brighter - have you seen Essie’s new Poppy Razzi Collection?! Camera and Action are just Amazing!

The first picture here shows just how smooth these polishes dry, they’re great. With a layer of Seche Vite they look just like a gel manicure, and they last almost as long too. I’ve jazzed it up with a simple pattern from plate 314 in Bundle Monster’s new 2012 plate collection* using Maybelline’s Golden Brown - a great colour for stamping with!

You can pick up this gorgeous bright summer colour along with the rest of Essie’s Summer Collection from John & Ginger HERE!

What do you think of Essie’s Summer brights?

xax
(I always seem to break my middle finger nail first so apologies for this slightly uneven mani…i need to be more careful with my hands!)

.Essie Summer Collection - Bikini So Teeny Swatch.

 

The lovely John & Ginger sent me a mini selection of Essie’s beautiful Summer Collection* last week and with the amazing weather we’ve been having i couldn’t wait to try them out!

This is the first colour i pulled out of the box called ‘Bikini So Teeny’* and it’s a gorgeous pastel blue. It’s almost got a slight lavender tint to it making it different to any pale blues i’ve got in my nail box. It’s on my fingers and my toes at the moment, i’m loving it!

I’ve jazzed up this swatch with a little stamp from Bundle Monster’s New 2012 Plate Collection*  that also fell through my letter box last week! There’s so many wonderful new designs i didn’t know where to start, but i picked out this cute little Hawaiian design over this colour because it reminds me of a Billabong bikini i used to own! I stamped using Konad’s Special Polish in White* and the design is from plate number 318. I’ve got three other gorgeous colours to show you, so keep your eyes peeled for those!

Have you tried any of Essie’s Summer Collection yet?

xax

.Mint Glitter Nails.

Finally got hold of Essie's Mint Candy Apple Green!

I was going to do some kind of Tiffany Box white bow creation (another time) before i remembered the gigantic pile of glitter that Goldleaf sent me so i grabbed a bag of Holographic Glitter* and sprinkled away! This photo honestly doesn’t do the glitter any justice - it’s so sparkly!!! Every time i move my hand it catches my eye and i say a little ‘oooo’ inside. It’s super super fine so you get a real shine with it and it looks really professional, the only problem is it gets everywhere if you’re a bit clumsy like me! May have to invest in a little pot to keep this one in.

Polish: Essie Mint Candy Apple Green & Barry M Silver Foil. The design i used was from Bundle Monster’s 212 plate and of course the beautiful glitter* was from Goldleaf.

You can get your mitts on a 40g bag of this glitter HERE for just over £3 delivered. Just remember to catch the excess glitter in something and a 40g bag will last you forever!

Have you tried Essie’s beautiful Mint Candy Apple Green - do you love it as much as i do? 

xax

.OPI Texas Collection ‘Lil Shooters’ | Review.

First of all i’d like to introduce John & Ginger to those of you who may not have heard of them before. John & Ginger are a family run business who sell a huge range of gorgeous beauty products online from their virtual orange and white shop! Last week they sent me an exciting little package with this Mini OPI Collection* inside and today i finally got round to swatching them.

So inside this iddy box there are four OPI mini polishes which contain 375ml of beautiful polish. There are three colours from OPI’s Texas Collection and a little bottle of their RapiDry Topcoat too - a perfect sample set. The colours inside are:

Austin-tatious Turquoise
Do You Think I’m Tex-y?
I Vant To Be A-lone Star

Now, before this arrived i only owned one OPI polish - Funny Bunny - which is a beautiful soft white colour that i use all the time but i find that to get a solid colour i need to paint around 3-4 coats. I figured that maybe it was because i was using a light colour, but after swatching these i’m starting to think it could just be an OPI thing. Apart from ‘I Vant To Be A-Lone Star’ which only took two, both the other polishes needed four coats to get them to this stage - and even with four ‘Do You Think I’m Tex-y’ still isn’t completely opaque which is a bit of a shame. I’m thinking that this colour will be perfect however used as a ‘jelly’ over some glitter, so leave that one with me!

Coating issues aside, i love every one of these colours especially the silky finish from ‘I Vant To Be A-Lone Star’ - not quite a silver, not quite a pearl - just lovely. And the subtle glitter than shines through from ‘Austin-tatious Turquoise’ is gorgeous. The Rapi-Dry Topcoat is a godsend too, especially if you’re a bit clumsy with your semi-dry manicures like i am!

You can buy all the full size versions of these polishes (and the rest of the Texas collection) from John & Ginger HERE. Make sure you take a look at all the other wonderful products they sell while you’re there…they have so many Essie colours i think i’m in heaven!


Do you own any of the OPI Texas Collection - which is your favourite?

xax