Essence - You Rock! Collection

Yesterday I posted old Essence spam. And today? More!
I found another bunch of swatches hidden away in the depths of my computer. Even though this collection is no longer current, I can't just delete them without posting them.

Aren't these bottles cute? The lovely Caroline from Good Lack Nail sent me these probably 2 years ago when I was a total swapaholic. But don't ask me why I swatched them right away and then didn't post them.

Essence - Cut off the Beige 
Really interesting beige/taupe shade with shimmer. 

Essence - King of Mints
Blue-turquoise with shimmer.

Essence - Let Me In Pink
Standard pink creme. I can see in the photo that I don't think the formula was very good. It is showing off all the imperfections in my nails at the time. (What was I doing to them?! They look so damaged!)

Essence - Speed of Light Blue
Light blue, shimmer visible in the bottle but not really on the nail. Nice fresh and clean shade.

Essence - Love Peace and Purple
The star of the collection! A dupe (or very close to) Chanel's famous Paradoxal.Very strong purple shimmer in the purplish gray base. Lovely!

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Again, no idea why these ended up on the "cutting room floor" or maybe "swatching room floor" for so long. They are really nice polishes! 
I think I might go put on that last one.
But after I watch the finale of How I Met Your Mother and bawl for an hour.

Essence Swatch Spam

I hope you're in the mood for swatch spam...
I just stumbled upon a folder that was totally stocked with swatches of some of the old-style Essence Color&Go polishes. I think I took them two years ago! Obvi the pics aren't my current standard but they are pretty decent! Good enough to post for sure.

Essence - High Spirits 
Dusty army green with silver shimmer. Really like this one which is why I put it first.

Essence - Gleam In Blue
Light metallic blue, kinda frosty.

Essence - Black is Back
No description needed. I like to use this black because it doesn't stain the way my old go-to black did.

Essence - Glamorous Life
Ooooh, pretty glass-fleck pink.

Essence - In Style
Tealish blue shimmer. Lil' bit frosty.

Essence - Luxury Secret
Gunmetal gray metallic shimmer. Kinda frosty too but that is more hidden with the metallic finish.

Essence - Modern Romance
Semi-sheer peach with pinky shimmer. 

Essence - Make It Golden
Gold glitter and shimmer topcoat. Very lovely.

Essence - Nude It!
A nice neutral nude.

Essence - Time for Romance
Pink glitter and holo glitter in a sheer dark pink base. In this picture it's layered over a metallic pink I think.

Essence - Ultimate Pink
Standard pink creme.

Essence - Wake Up!
Bright orange creme.

Essence - Wanna Be Your Sunshine
Yellow creme with some subtle shimmer. 

Essence - Walk on Air
Royal blue creme, a biiiit jelly.

Essence - Walk of Fame
Nice neutral taupe creme.

Bonus swatch:

Essence Nail Art Topper - Hello Holo
Some nice holo glitter in a clear base! Not as small as the glitter in, say, CG Fairy Dust, so this gives a different and more obvious glitter effect. I'm a fan!

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Phew! That was a lot of swatches. I just remembered I did a spam of these before as well - see that here.

I miss the bottle and brush of these old little Essence polishes. I have so many. At one point I had a list of them all and I was going to try to get all of them... But then they changed the bottle and I said "f'get about it."

31DC2013 - day 5

Hello! Today in the 31 Day Challenge we are feeling Blue.
And I was definitely blue because I had to go to school. Haha!
I didn't feel like doing anything complicated so I went for some pretty layering.

I broke out three Essence polishes! A creme base and two shimmery glittery flakie topcoats.

First coat: Essence - Let's Get Lost
Second coat: Essence - Pool Party
Third coat: Essence - Glisten Up!

Three blue babies!

This mani was a nice vibrant one to start off my last semester. Woohoo!

new nail goodies @ Shoppers & Walmart!

Hey all! Quick post today to let my Canadian ladies know about some new nail goodies I found at Shoppers Drugmart and at Walmart.

Shoppers first:

I may be way behind with this news because I am sort of out-of-the-loop right now, but I was excited to find new things from Essence! 
They were in the permanent Essence display, below the polish.
The stampy set is "01 Be Creative!" and it was $3.99, and the decorations are "01 Fantastic Metallics" and "02 Amazing Bling Bling", $3.49 each.

I'm really excited for the plate!

A bow! And a really cute heart! Can't wait to use it.

There was more new stuff too that I didn't pick up. They are now carrying some of the Nude Glam polishes - I think there were 5 (but we all know I don't need another nude), a double-ended dotting tool, and a gel-like topcoat.

I also recently saw a new limited edition display, Vintage District.

However I totally displayed restraint and didn't buy anything! But I kinda wish I had bought the nail art decoration kit now so it could join its friends that came home with me today. Haha!

My store also had a ton of Gosh on sale for $3.50 so be sure to check out the clearance section too.

And at Walmart...

The new Hard Candy polishes!!!!! Multiple exclamation marks!!!!!!
Canadian Walmarts never carried their polish before so I basically did a happy dance in the aisle when I found them. And by "basically did a happy dance" I mean "actually did a happy dance" and my mom judged me.

I showed IMMENSE RESTRAINT by not buying all of them. And I picked up seven.

Good thing my mom was there judging me, or else I would have probably gotten a lot more.
They were $3.97 each or .96 or something. 

So, Canadian ladies, are you running to your stores right now?! You should be! Get your goodies!

ultra random swatch spam

I thought this vacation series might be a good time to look back through swatches that I've never posted and see what is decent enough to post.

I've found twelve (yes, twelve!) totally random swatches that I feel are post-worthy! Some of them are even quite lovely.

I think part of the reason I like doing swatch spam and posting swatches it because it gives me a chance to write down anything special about the polish - like if it was a gift, or if it came from somewhere cool, etc! It's fun for me to be able to read back and see why each polish is special to me.
Let's get to it!

China Glaze - Drawn to You
This is one of those polishes that looks better in pictures than it does in person. The magnetic effect works well, but I'm just not a big fan of the actual color. 2 coats.

Icing - No Name Blue Magnetic
2 coats. This was the first magnetic polish I bought and still the only one I really like! The colors are awesome, the magnet effect really pulls out this purpley shimmer and the squiggle magnet it comes with is my favorite.

H&M - Bella's Choice
My dear pal Line in Denmark sent this beauty to me. A perfect turquoise creme! 2 coater. Definitely could be called "Rebecca's Choice" because I love it!

Cosmetic Arts - All The Trimmings 
This is one weird polish. I picked this up at Winners, just because of how different looking it is. The blue shimmer you see in the photo is not very prominent in person, and it actually has a pink flash. It's thin, 3 coats, and still kinda sheer. Not really attractive... But it was just so weird, I had to have it. 

Pure Ice - Ruffled Sheets
Ew, sorry for this yucky-colored photo. This is one of the newer matte/suede/velvet/whatever polishes from Pure Ice. The wonderful Lori picked this up for me! I've got 6 of 'em. They're nice. You almost can't tell this one is matte because it is so reflective!

Color Club - Feelin' Groovy
Super neon green! Three coats. Dries semi-matte. I think I bought this one in Toronto last year!

Essence - Hello Holo!
This is a Nail Art Special Effects Topper from Essence. Essentially just super blingy silver holo glitter in a clear base. Shown here over Sephora by OPI - Son of a Gun from the Betsey Johnson collection. 
This found its way to me from Caroline at Good Lack Nail!

Essie - Play Date
Hello, right hand! This is a lovely purple creme with a great formula. 2 coater.  

Nabi Magnetic - 05 Purple
A nice purple magnetic! 2 coats. Very vibrant. I got this polish from the wonderful Laurie @ Dressed Up Digits!

China Glaze - Riveting 
This was probably the most well-liked polish from the Hunger Games collection from China Glaze, but me, I hate it. Ha! I just do not like orange. Yuck. But if you do like orange then this is a must have, apparently. 

BB Couture - Junk In The Trunk
I have no idea why I have never posted about this polish or the one to follow. I believe they are the first polishes that I bought online, after seeing such beautiful swatches on blogs. I remember I felt a little crazy for spending $10 plus shipping on polishes but I knew I had to have these.
And then I swatched them, didn't even wear them, and didn't love the photos, and never even posted them! Shame on me, seriously. I'm going to actually wear these polishes ASAP because they deserve it.
Junk In The Trunk is a beautiful shimmery blue, and as far as I can remember, the formula is great! Isn't it purdy? The next one is even better...

BB Couture - Man Bug
So pretty. Probably one of the prettiest polishes I own, actually. It's so me! Turquoise with glittery shimmer. I have no idea why I don't wear this all the time.
It's a bit sheer, needs three coats. And as you can see I applied it a little thick back in the day when I did this swatch... Haha. I will wear this again and take even more beautiful photos!

I'll be home tomorrow! :)

connect the polka dots

Good evening ladies and gentlemen!

My right hand wants some more attention so today's post is showing off a cute manicure I wore on my right hand only. Can't remember what my left hand was doing at the time... Probably something I felt was too complicated to duplicate on my right hand. Ha!

Tada! Looks a bit crazy but I really like it.

The base color is one of my favorite pinks, China Glaze - Dance Baby.
I added dots in three colors, China Glaze - Gothic Lolita, China Glaze - Bahamian Escape, and Essence - Viva La Green.
On top, as I'm sure you can see, I added Lynnderella - Connect the Dots.

I love pastels and adding the black and white glitter on top is really eye-catching.
I should do this again as a full manicure... Haha!

Before I go... I want to tell you something extraordinary.
It is more than halfway through December... And I have only bought 4 polishes!!!!!!
GO ME.

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection

Confession. I am a fan of the Twilight movies. Nerd alert.

I was planning to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 with a friend and I said "Hey, why not wear my new Breaking Dawn polishes to the movie just to make this extra nerdy!"

I did my nails the day before I was supposed to go to the movie.
I couldn't pick which one I wanted to wear so I decided to wear all four. Hooray for skittle manis!

But then something annoying happened. They all started chipping and wearing away after just 4 hours of wear!
I can't believe how crappy the weartime was on these. Essence polishes are usually so great and I always get great wear from them, but whatever they did with these ones is not good.

All of my nails were crap after just a few hours and I ended up changing the manicure before I went to the movie. Bummer.

It's too bad they sucked for me. The colors are nice. I want to like them. But I can't.

I was going to do full swatches of these but they made me too mad so here are some one-finger swatches.

Essence - Alice Had A Vision - Again
This one is my favorite color of the bunch, I love the deep shade with all the purple glittery flakes.
Two coats and it covers well!

Essence - Jacob's Protection
This is the blue version of the first polish. Again, covers in two coats which is great for such a dark polish.

Essence - Edward's Love
This one is really pretty, black with silvery flake glitter. Hard to capture. Again, 2 coats.

Essence - A Piece of Forever
This is a warm yellow gold that is sadly a bit streaky. This shade of gold is not my favorite, not something I'd usually reach for.
This one did seem to last the best of the four so if you like it, it might be decent!

I don't usually have any issues with polishes not lasting so this sucks.
Booooooooo.
I'll try one again sometime to see if my results are any different.