Essie Resort 2011

Hi guys, I come to you with Essie Resort 2011 collection. You might have seen them at other blogs already, but I like this collection. I usually like everything Essie does, although I wish they would include a bit of more variety in their collections. There is often two or three shades of red/pink/orange. I guess it’s a color they do well 😉
This is a four piece collection with far muted colors than its sister collection, Braziliant. It really does remind me of a safari theme, I love it.
Formula was great, all opaque within two coats. I also love the names 🙂

From left to right: Fair Game, Your Hut or Mine?, Da Bush, Lion Around.

LET’S START WITH MY FAVORITE:

Fair Game! I looooove this color omg. It’s such a beautiful smoky shimmery silvery grey! Holy adjectives batman.

An excellent closeup. If this had a green flash, I think it could have been a dupe for Chanel’s Black Pearl (which I still covet.. le sigh). This does satisfy my lemming for Black Pearl in a way, but not my lemming to own a real Chanel polish 😀

Your Hut or Mine? It’s a coral, with a shimmer– but this coral leans towards a “dark hot pink” (wow oxymoron much?).

The shimmer is like a pale gold. I’m not sure what but it’s lovely. Very thick formula o.O

Da Bush. This is a sister to OPI’s Stranger Tides, and a lot of people find this more suitable for their skin. Myself I like both, but I should do a personal comparison to see which looks better on me. I’m a severe hoarder though and may just keep both 😀

Lion Around
It’s a pale mauve neutral with a shimmer. It almost mannequin’d my hands but not really. This is also my least favorite, but maybe I need to go revisit it and see what’s the matter with it.

Essie Resort 2011

Hi guys, I come to you with Essie Resort 2011 collection. You might have seen them at other blogs already, but I like this collection. I usually like everything Essie does, although I wish they would include a bit of more variety in their collections. There is often two or three shades of red/pink/orange. I guess it’s a color they do well 😉
This is a four piece collection with far muted colors than its sister collection, Braziliant. It really does remind me of a safari theme, I love it.
Formula was great, all opaque within two coats. I also love the names 🙂

From left to right: Fair Game, Your Hut or Mine?, Da Bush, Lion Around.

LET’S START WITH MY FAVORITE:

Fair Game! I looooove this color omg. It’s such a beautiful smoky shimmery silvery grey! Holy adjectives batman.

An excellent closeup. If this had a green flash, I think it could have been a dupe for Chanel’s Black Pearl (which I still covet.. le sigh). This does satisfy my lemming for Black Pearl in a way, but not my lemming to own a real Chanel polish 😀

Your Hut or Mine? It’s a coral, with a shimmer– but this coral leans towards a “dark hot pink” (wow oxymoron much?).

The shimmer is like a pale gold. I’m not sure what but it’s lovely. Very thick formula o.O

Da Bush. This is a sister to OPI’s Stranger Tides, and a lot of people find this more suitable for their skin. Myself I like both, but I should do a personal comparison to see which looks better on me. I’m a severe hoarder though and may just keep both 😀

Lion Around
It’s a pale mauve neutral with a shimmer. It almost mannequin’d my hands but not really. This is also my least favorite, but maybe I need to go revisit it and see what’s the matter with it.

First Rescue Beauty Lounge polish!

I’ve always drooled over RBL polishes and finally decided to order four. They came wonderfully packaged and I think they are awesome! I’m not swatching them, because they deserve more attention than that (If they’re gonna cost two digits, they better get it!)

The first one I tried was…

Iconoclast!

It’s a black, but it’s “my” little black dress. It’s not just any black. It’s black WITH shimmer. And it looks to have some navy, or blue pigments in it or maybe that’s just the shimmer and my wishful thinking.

Holla.

It keeps giving off a bluish glare anywhere I am. It’s not just because this picture is at my nail spot, which is right next to a window. That’s why I think it’s midnight blue 🙂

See the blue shimmer I’m talking about?

Formula was GREAT. You’re looking at ONE COATED nails. I usually have Polish OCD that makes me put on two coats, but I want to savor every bit of my RBL polishes so I let it go at one coat 🙂 I also did not apply top coat, they were pretty quick drying-to-the-touch but required a whole day of curing

I ended up destroying this when I was going through more boxes. 😦 I can’t wait to open up the other 3 bottles I ordered, though!

First Rescue Beauty Lounge polish!

I’ve always drooled over RBL polishes and finally decided to order four. They came wonderfully packaged and I think they are awesome! I’m not swatching them, because they deserve more attention than that (If they’re gonna cost two digits, they better get it!)

The first one I tried was…

Iconoclast!

It’s a black, but it’s “my” little black dress. It’s not just any black. It’s black WITH shimmer. And it looks to have some navy, or blue pigments in it or maybe that’s just the shimmer and my wishful thinking.

Holla.

It keeps giving off a bluish glare anywhere I am. It’s not just because this picture is at my nail spot, which is right next to a window. That’s why I think it’s midnight blue 🙂

See the blue shimmer I’m talking about?

Formula was GREAT. You’re looking at ONE COATED nails. I usually have Polish OCD that makes me put on two coats, but I want to savor every bit of my RBL polishes so I let it go at one coat 🙂 I also did not apply top coat, they were pretty quick drying-to-the-touch but required a whole day of curing

I ended up destroying this when I was going through more boxes. 😦 I can’t wait to open up the other 3 bottles I ordered, though!

First Rescue Beauty Lounge polish!

I’ve always drooled over RBL polishes and finally decided to order four. They came wonderfully packaged and I think they are awesome! I’m not swatching them, because they deserve more attention than that (If they’re gonna cost two digits, they better get it!)

The first one I tried was…

Iconoclast!

It’s a black, but it’s “my” little black dress. It’s not just any black. It’s black WITH shimmer. And it looks to have some navy, or blue pigments in it or maybe that’s just the shimmer and my wishful thinking.

Holla.

It keeps giving off a bluish glare anywhere I am. It’s not just because this picture is at my nail spot, which is right next to a window. That’s why I think it’s midnight blue 🙂

See the blue shimmer I’m talking about?

Formula was GREAT. You’re looking at ONE COATED nails. I usually have Polish OCD that makes me put on two coats, but I want to savor every bit of my RBL polishes so I let it go at one coat 🙂 I also did not apply top coat, they were pretty quick drying-to-the-touch but required a whole day of curing

I ended up destroying this when I was going through more boxes. 😦 I can’t wait to open up the other 3 bottles I ordered, though!

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

Revisted: Misa Paradise Shore

Yep we’re looking at this again! Remember when I did the China Glaze Island Escape over white polish? Well, I decided to do the same with the Misa Paradise Shore polishes that I brought back to Texas with me!

These are the polishes that I brought home with me. I didn’t bring Summer Love or Mermaid Dreams along, alas.

When I originally posted the whole collection swatch, a commenter noted that they were a tad too sheer for her, and I agree. I don’t like VNL much, because my nails are kinda stained 😦 I’d have to slap on a fake white tip or use one of those nail crayon thingies.
So I decided to revisit this collection, and layered them all over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On (a decent white, your usual streaky formula for most whites, but a controllable brush).

Only one nail for each color because I’m lazy, and because a hand has five nails 😉 I really liked how Under my Sunbrella and Mega Margarita looked over white!

Check out this close up:

You can see the lemon yellow flakies in Under My Sunbrella! The shimmer in both polishes was brought out a lot more strongly rather being hidden in the formula when it was on my naked nails.

Krystal Waters did not change that much over white. Personally I think it still looks the same, albeit a tone lighter.

Endless Keys, close up. This one looks good in the picture up thar, but that’s just my photo skillz improving 😉 In real life this orange-with-gold-shimmer polish maximized on the streaky base of Sally Hansen White On, and it was a cuticle dragfest. =\ If you can control that, layering this over white is a great idea. It turns a darker, tangerine color.

Look at the index finger. See what I mean?

What do you think? 🙂 I have an another question for you readers (I also asked this on my Facebook and Twitter pages, but I’d like your opinion if you don’t follow these social sites). What do you think of polish names on pictures? Kind of like what I have been doing lately. Personally, I like them and I think they help me quickly identify the polish color name for googling. But do they help you? Do you like them? Or do they get in the way? 🙂 Chime in with your opinion!

Revisted: Misa Paradise Shore

Yep we’re looking at this again! Remember when I did the China Glaze Island Escape over white polish? Well, I decided to do the same with the Misa Paradise Shore polishes that I brought back to Texas with me!

These are the polishes that I brought home with me. I didn’t bring Summer Love or Mermaid Dreams along, alas.

When I originally posted the whole collection swatch, a commenter noted that they were a tad too sheer for her, and I agree. I don’t like VNL much, because my nails are kinda stained 😦 I’d have to slap on a fake white tip or use one of those nail crayon thingies.
So I decided to revisit this collection, and layered them all over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On (a decent white, your usual streaky formula for most whites, but a controllable brush).

Only one nail for each color because I’m lazy, and because a hand has five nails 😉 I really liked how Under my Sunbrella and Mega Margarita looked over white!

Check out this close up:

You can see the lemon yellow flakies in Under My Sunbrella! The shimmer in both polishes was brought out a lot more strongly rather being hidden in the formula when it was on my naked nails.

Krystal Waters did not change that much over white. Personally I think it still looks the same, albeit a tone lighter.

Endless Keys, close up. This one looks good in the picture up thar, but that’s just my photo skillz improving 😉 In real life this orange-with-gold-shimmer polish maximized on the streaky base of Sally Hansen White On, and it was a cuticle dragfest. =\ If you can control that, layering this over white is a great idea. It turns a darker, tangerine color.

Look at the index finger. See what I mean?

What do you think? 🙂 I have an another question for you readers (I also asked this on my Facebook and Twitter pages, but I’d like your opinion if you don’t follow these social sites). What do you think of polish names on pictures? Kind of like what I have been doing lately. Personally, I like them and I think they help me quickly identify the polish color name for googling. But do they help you? Do you like them? Or do they get in the way? 🙂 Chime in with your opinion!

Revisted: Misa Paradise Shore

Yep we’re looking at this again! Remember when I did the China Glaze Island Escape over white polish? Well, I decided to do the same with the Misa Paradise Shore polishes that I brought back to Texas with me!

These are the polishes that I brought home with me. I didn’t bring Summer Love or Mermaid Dreams along, alas.

When I originally posted the whole collection swatch, a commenter noted that they were a tad too sheer for her, and I agree. I don’t like VNL much, because my nails are kinda stained 😦 I’d have to slap on a fake white tip or use one of those nail crayon thingies.
So I decided to revisit this collection, and layered them all over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On (a decent white, your usual streaky formula for most whites, but a controllable brush).

Only one nail for each color because I’m lazy, and because a hand has five nails 😉 I really liked how Under my Sunbrella and Mega Margarita looked over white!

Check out this close up:

You can see the lemon yellow flakies in Under My Sunbrella! The shimmer in both polishes was brought out a lot more strongly rather being hidden in the formula when it was on my naked nails.

Krystal Waters did not change that much over white. Personally I think it still looks the same, albeit a tone lighter.

Endless Keys, close up. This one looks good in the picture up thar, but that’s just my photo skillz improving 😉 In real life this orange-with-gold-shimmer polish maximized on the streaky base of Sally Hansen White On, and it was a cuticle dragfest. =\ If you can control that, layering this over white is a great idea. It turns a darker, tangerine color.

Look at the index finger. See what I mean?

What do you think? 🙂 I have an another question for you readers (I also asked this on my Facebook and Twitter pages, but I’d like your opinion if you don’t follow these social sites). What do you think of polish names on pictures? Kind of like what I have been doing lately. Personally, I like them and I think they help me quickly identify the polish color name for googling. But do they help you? Do you like them? Or do they get in the way? 🙂 Chime in with your opinion!