The Untried Diaries: Essie Sew Psyched

Happy Thursday! One more day till the weekend! Got any interesting plans? I put in an application yesterday for a new apartment - squee! - and so will be doing my least favorite task this weekend - going through my stuff to figure out what to sell/donate/trash. Maybe even packing some initial boxes. The move is taking place at the end of August, so life is about to get really crazy!

It's green week over at my favorite nail forum, and to celebrate I dug through my untrieds to find my most safe-for-work green and came up with Essie Sew Psyched. To be honest, I'm normally not much of a green person; greens tend to have a lot of yellow in them (duh, yellow + blue = green, right?) and are warmer, meaning they don't look great on my cool-toned skin. However, in my recent obsession with the polish brand Rescue Beauty Lounge, I heard Sew Psyched is a dupe for RBL Diddy Mow. After spending hours looking at swatches on the internet, I agreed, and Sew Psyched quickly made its way into my stash.

Sew Psyched is what I would call a grayed-green with the hint of a light blue shimmer. You can't see the shimmer indoors, but it really picks up outside in direct sunlight. Sew Psyched is the color of seaweed in a clear ocean; a muted, but gorgeous. I've struggled with loving Essie as a brand recently due to watery and streaky formulas, but I am happy to report that Sew Psyched went on easily, no wateriness or streaking, and only needed 2 coats for full opacity. Take a look! (Note: both photos were shot indoors under artificial light)


And here's the closeup:


I am definitely into this color on me! Like I said, it's rare for me to find greens that I absolutely love on myself - this is only the 2nd time it's happened, the first being RBL No More War, which was just epic. Obviously Sew Psyched is a keeper, and my desire to find my own bottle of RBL Diddy Mow is renewed!


What do you think? Are you feeling this murky green? Do you know of any polishes with a similar murky quality? And what is up with the inconsistencies in Essie's formula? Have you figured out the rhyme to their reason?

Chip Prevention Wear Test: The Verdict Is In!

Happy Monday!

If you remember, last Wednesday I started a wear test to determine which treatment is better at preventing chips, a sticky base coat or a chip skip top coat. I managed to wear Rescue Beauty Lounge for a full 5 day wear test - I was itching to change the color by Friday! - and the verdict is in. Read on!

If you remember, I had Nubar Foundation base coat on my middle and pinky fingers, with a generic top coat on top. I wore essie No Chips Ahead top coat on my pointer and ring fingers, with a generic base coat underneath. Take a look at the mani after 5 days:


As you can see, there is normal tipwear on all 4 nails (expected, as I do work at a computer all day) with a little more-than-expected tip wear on the pointer finger and ring fingers, and a huge chip on the pinky finger. The pinky is misleading - up until 3 minutes before I took this photo my pinky looked just like my middle finger. But then I walked into a wall (yes, I have blond moments, too). I naturally have soft nails, and this is less a chip and more just a piece of my nail peeled off from the impact.

The Winner: Nubar Foundation Base Coat

Here's the thing - I actually thought both treatments were pretty fairly equal until the last day, when the essie protected nails started showing excessive wear, compared to the Nubar nails. If you keep your mani's for a long time, as in over 5 days, go with a sticky base coat like Nubar (or Orly Bonder, another fave). If you're like me and change your polishes frequently, though, I would say either one adequately will prevent chips.

All things being equal, then, I had to go with the Nubar as the winner. Essie NCA felt very thin when applied, and didn't bring a lot of shine to the mani. I'd rather stick with a sticky base coat like Nubar which would allow me to use a high glossy top coat, like CND Super Shiney, which really makes a mani sparkle.


What do you think? Were you expecting both to give similar results? Or are you passionate about one versus the other? And am I the only one who finds it painful to wear the same mani for 5 days in a row?!?!

Chip Prevention Wear Test: Part Deux

A few weeks ago I attempted to do my first wear test to determine the best way to extend a manicure and minimize chips - either using a sticky base coat, or a chip preventing top coat. The wear test was interrupted by my office move, and I promised you all I'd re-visit the topic in the future.

The future has arrived.

THE CHALLENGE:

Wear a manicure for 5 days (that alone is a challenge for me!) in order to find the best weapon in my current collection of top coats, base coats, and treatments to prevent chipping and extend the life of the mani.

THE CONTENDERS:

Representing sticky base coats, weighing in at 0.5 fl oz, we have Nubar Foundation Base Coat. I realize that Nubar is a less well-known brand, but I'm hoping to inspire you to go out and find them. Really, they make fantastic colors and have a great formula - every polish lover should have a few in their collection!

Representing chip preventing top coats, from a well-known salon brand, weighing in at 0.5 fl oz, we have Essie No Chips Ahead Top Coat. Essie is an easily accessible brand, available at both salons and major retailers like CVS, Target, and Wal-Mart.

THE MANICURE:

If I have to stare at the same manicure for 5 days, you better believe it is going to be a polish I love. I have hunted online and the streets of LA high and low to snag up a bottle of the sold-out Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine, from the fall 2010 The Real Housewives of the Tudors Dynasty Collection (yea, that's a mouthful). Rescue Beauty Lounge is a small, boutique nail polish brand based out of NYC with a passionate group of followers who call themselves ReBeLs.

Catherine is a dark, smokey, blue-tinted purple with a fuschia and teal sparkle. The polish applied flawlessly in 2 coats, however, RBL polishes are special for their colors, and Catherine is no different. Seriously, RBL gives you the most unique colors that you haven't seen anywhere before, and the uniqueness alone makes the price (retails for $18 for a 0.4 fl oz bottle) worth it. Take a look:


Unfortunately, we're in June gloom season in LA, and I don't have any direct sunlight to show you the fuschia/teal sparkle - so sad! However, I do have some close-up shots to show a hint of the sparkle on the nails and in the bottle. Here's a close-up in natural lighting:


And under artificial lighting (sorry for the blurriness, but look at her sparkle!):


So there you have it! The only rules are that I'm not allowed to touch up the manicure (aah!) except to re-apply top coat for shine. I'll be re-applying regular top coat on the Nubar nails, and the Essie NCA to the nails that already have it.

Let the battle royale begin! Check back Monday morning for results!

What do you think? Do you rely on a sticky base coat or hardening top coat to protect your nails from keyboards, dish soap, and all elements that would do them harm? Have you tried any Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes yet? What are you fave colors? Sound off in the comments!

On Wednesday We Wear Pink: essie Pink Parka

Happy Wednesday!

I'm currently still rocking Zoya Jules for my manicure, so today's Pink Wednesdays is brought to you by my pedicure, essie Pink Parka. How I came to own Pink Parka is kind of an interesting story, so bear with me...

Recently J. Crew had an add which stirred up quite a bit of conversation - check it out below:


Now, everyone had their panties all up in a twist, discussing the appropriateness of what appears to be a mom painting her son's toes a bring neon pink. In some forums it started a whole dialogue on whether polish is appropriate for men, and the one thing I did learn was that there are bold men who actually do wear nail polish colors. More power to them; my (less popular) point of view is that nail polish is one of the few things we women can share and revel in on our own, so while I'll always give props to the guy in the spa chair next to mine getting a nail polish color on his piggies, the odds that I'll ever date him are pretty nil.

Whoa, tangent - on to today's manicure! The pink polish used in the J. Crew add was a limited edition made by essie and only sold at J. Crew stores. Of course that sucker sold out lickety-split, so I took to the interwebz to try and find a dupe. Thanks to other nail bloggers and polish aficionados, I heard that essie Pink Parka may be a dupe, so I picked up a bottle.

Pink Parka is a neon pink ,which means it is a naturally streaky polish and dries with a slight satin finish. essie's normal streaky + neon streaky = this polish was hell to put on my piggies! Even after 3 coats it hadn't completely smoothed out, but since my pedis are more for my own personal enjoyment (I don't wear a lot of open-toes at work), I didn't fret about it. As a favor to you my readers I don't post pics of my feet, so here's a swatch of Pink Parka on my hand:


I thought this was a very fun color for a very conservative company like essie, and it's the only neon in my collection, which makes it a keeper. However, the application was a real PITA, so I won't be reaching for Pink Parka on too regular of a basis - I'll save it for special occasions that require bright pinks, like the upcoming Grease Sing-a-Long at the Hollywood Bowl!


What do you think? Do you have any neon polishes that you love? What other brands of neons have you tried (I've got my eye on the American Apparel collection!)? And am I completely off base with loving my mani/pedis as a girl's experience, and not wanting my guy wearing my little beauties?

NOTD: Smokin' Hot Mani On Fire!

Happy Friday! Are you getting ready for the weekend? Any plans? I only have one - to stay low key! I'm heading up to NorCal next weekend, so am going to try and lay low this weekend, catch-up on reading, chores, laundry, etc. Really, can you believe life in LA is this exciting?!?!

Today's Nail of the Day (NOTD) was a complete surprise to me. Last night I was updating my spreadsheet with recent purchases, and also doing some swatching on a nail wheel just to get an idea about the new colors I'd bought and possible future manis. After an hour or so, as I was heading to bed I got one last idea for a mani - essie Smokin' Hot, which I had been lemming since another blog reviewed it a few months ago, and CND Ice Blue Shimmer, which you just heard me rave about on Wednesday. Not quite sure why I thought the 2 would go together, but decided to give it a try.

Smokin' Hot is a purple-gray creme polish. It applied okay in 2 coats (really, essie should be a 3-coat mani, but I was in a rush to get to work!) with minimal streaking.

(Today's mani was unplanned an in a hurry this morning, so I apologize for the less-than-stellar application and photos.)

Then, I layered on the Ice Blue Shimmer and got this:


This is a less flattering shot of my hands, but shows what the mani looks like in indirect lighting (not quite as electric blue as the previous pic):


AAACK! I don't know why, maybe it's the blue polish lover in me, but this mani is an instant favorite. I love how the blue shimmer catches the light, and takes a winter/cool color and makes it warmer and hip for a a great summer mani. It almost reminds me of dry ice, or the cool air that you can sometimes see rolling off a block of ice when first exposed to warmer air. You know what I mean, right? I will say that Smokin' Hot was kind of a PITA to apply - the more I use essie, the more I know it's not very pigmented, requiring 3 coats always and going on super streaky. Since I didn't have the time this morning to really work with the polish like I normally do, the mani was not my best work.


Smokin' Hot was released as a part of the essie 2010 winter collection and I thought was limited edition - but a new batch has recently showed up at salons and possibly retailers, so you may want to call around and hunt down your own bottle. Ice Blue Shimmer is currently available and can be purchased at salons or online at transdesign.com.


What do you think? Is this mani as great as I think it is, or am I just overly excited by anything shiny? What CND effects do you love (I need to build my wishlist!)?

Last Night's Nails: OPI DS Coronation and An Essie Treat

Drink of the Night: Too many to count, but Sam Adams' Blackberry Witbier was #winning
Nail of the Night: OPI DS Coronation

Here at Polish & Tonic, 'Last Night's Nails' has become my weekly round-up of what I was wearing - and drinking - over the weekend. Notice that this post is coming very late on a Monday night - it was that awesome of a weekend! I hope you all enjoyed the Memorial Day holiday. I had a friend visiting from San Francisco, and my LA crew did it big with several parties and BBQs all weekend. Thank goodness I took tomorrow off to recover!

Since this weekend was more about daytime drinking and fun in the sun, I really wanted a manicure that really shined in bright daylight. I was wearing a dark gray dress for the main party Saturday , and decided to pick a color from the OPI Designer Series - Coronation. DS Coronation is a bright silver polish with crushed glass to give it a 'diamond-dust' glimmer. This particular polish was great at capturing light and reflecting a rainbow of color. This is 3 coats of DS Coronation (no topcoat):


Now, I know I normally do not discuss pedicures here (and would never force you guys to see pics of my feet! ewww), but I tried out a new pedicure this weekend that I absolutely loved and have to share. It's Too Too Hot from the essie Braziliant Summer 2011 collection. Too Too Hot is a bright red-orange creme that screams summer to me. I normally do not like to wear oranges as they tend to have a yellow undertone that does not match well with my coloring, but since TTH has a red undertone to it, I thought it was perfect. No piggies, I promise, so I swatched the polish on my hands for you to see; this is 3 coats of TTH (no topcoat) and apologies for the mangled pointer finger:


I am in LOVE with this color! I am not normally a hoarder - I prefer to have a lot of different colors/options as opposed to stocking up on bottles I love - but this may just be the first polish I for which I need a backup. That's how great I think it is!

essie Too Too Hot is currently available as a part of the essie summer 2011 collection Braziliant. You can find it at large retailers such at Target, CVS, and Walmart. OPI DS Coronation has been discontinued, but there are still a few bottles here and there. Put on you walking shoes and take some time to hunt it out at your local beauty salon or beauty supply store!


What do you think? Have you picked up any polishes from the essie Braziliant collection yet? Do you have any bling-y polishes like DS Coronation? And just how crazy did your Memorial Day weekend get? Sound off in the comments!

Pink Wednesdays! "I had survived my first three way calling attack."

It's Pink Wednesday!

As you know, I'm in the middle of a wear test to find the best way to prevent chips, so I couldn't take off the polish for a new pink mani this Pink Wednesday. However, remember last Sunday I had reviewed the 2011 essie Resort Collection? Well, I just couldn't bring myself to take off Your Hut or Mine - which is a pink - and I ended up wearing this great color for a few days last week so I could try out some new layering ideas. So for this pink Wednesday, we're going back in time and looking at last week's pink manicures.

This was last Monday's mani:


(For the record: what a difference a week makes! My cuticles and nail beds are already so much healthier since these photos. I do love this color, though.)

On Tuesday I decided to layer on OPI Sparkle-licious to add a little glitter to the mani:

(No, I'm not four-fingered, just somehow cut off the pinky in this photo. I'm getting much better at taking photos since this, I promise!)

I'm not really a glitter person for 2 reasons. 1, glitters are an absolute pain to remove, and 2, there's just no going into a corporate office and commanding power when you have glitter on your tips. Not sure what I was thinking, but my boss was out on jury duty last week, so I guess I thought that gave me some freedom to play around with my manis. That being said, I have very few glitters in my collection, but I do really love Sparkle-icious. It's a great all-around glitter; there are flecks of blue, gold, yellow, and pink in this glitter, so it's a great glitter to have on hand as you can use it over a multitude of colors for a great accent nail or glitter-rific mani.

On Wednesday I decided to take my glitter mani and shatter it! I had picked up a cheapie brand of Purple Shatter over the weekend to test out. Here's what happened:


As you can see, by day 3 I had a little tip wear going on with the original Your Hut or Mine manicure. The purple shatter nicely canceled out the glitter mani so I felt a little more powerful at work, but then my nails were purple, and shattered, so it made me look 15 and all that gained power was lost again. I literally sat on my hands in one meeting for fear someone would notice LOL.

Lesson: layering is super fun, especially when you don't know what you're gonna get. However, as I already knew, glitter and purple shatters are not work appropriate, so let's save the fun manis for the weekend, okay?

What do you think? Have you picked up any colors from the essie Resort Collection yet? Are you into the current shatter craze? And just how crazy/conservative do you go with your manicures at work? Sound off in the comments!

Chip Prevention: Basecoat or Topcoat?

Chips. No, not Lay's. I'm talking chips in your manicure. Is there anything more unsightly? I can't stand when I see manicures on others in bright blue or fuschia and they're chipped all to hell. If you're wearing a nude or neutral color, lucky you - your chips are less noticeable to the rest of us, but I'm sure you notice and it drives you crazy.

Most brands have a nail treatment product that claims to help prevent chips, either in a base coat or top coat. Which is better to use? I have no idea. So we're going to do a wear test here at Polish & Tonic.

The Challenge: Wear a manicure for 5 WHOLE DAYS and see which mani chips the least - the mani with a chip preventing base coat, or the mani with the chip-hating top coat. Least chipped mani wins!

The Manicure:

For this manicure, I'm making my maiden voyage with a new brand - Butter London. Butter London is on the line between salon brand and designer brand polish (read: it never goes on sale at Ulta), and from the chatter I see on the interwebz I'm not sure that there really is a difference in quality between designer vs. salon brands. So I picked up my first bottle this weekend to try it out. The color is Butter London Macbeth, a bright pinky coral creme that I loved at first sight. I also borrowed some great advice from another blog, All Lacquered Up, and practiced wrapping my tips for this mani to help delay tip wear.

The Contenders:

On my left hand we have Orly Bonder base coat. Orly Bonder is a rubberized based coat that claims to grip your polish to your nails like a leech and hold on for dear life, giving you extended wear with your manicure.


On my right hand we have essie No Chips Ahead top coat. essie No Chips Ahead doesn't promise to adhere to stick to you like white on rice, but instead puts an armor around your fresh manicure and protect it from those things that would do your pretty nails harm - mainly dish detergent, keyboards, and cleaning supplies.

You didn't actually think there would be a visible difference to the naked eye, did you? Doh!

So who will win this battle? Stay tuned! I did this manicure Monday afternoon, so check back in over the weekend to see which coat is last nail standing. (Or Friday, in case I go crazy and can't handle looking at the same nail color for so long!)

Do you have a preference between basecoat and topcoat to prevent chips? Sound off in the comments!

Last Night's Nails: Orly Space Cadet - Matte-ified!

Drink of the Night: Ketel One Vodka & Soda
Nail of the Night: Orly Space Cadet & Essie Matte About You

Last night's plan was to stay in, relax, and catch up on TV season finales (a bittersweet entertainment, for certain). However, around 11pm I decided - coincidentally, around the time I ran out of wine - that I didn't want to stay in for the night, and so decided to head on over to my local watering hole. My nails were naked, though, so I needed to throw some polish on. Enter Orly Space Cadet!

I had seen swatches over the interwebz of Space Cadet, and was intrigued by the duochrome nature. For those who don't know, I would describe duochromes as polishes with 2 distinctive complementary colors. Based on lighting and angle, one color or the other will shine through. There really kinda cool, and FYI, when you're at a bar, make you look 'special' when you keep looking at your nails with a wide-eyed look. Space Cadet is a duochrome with contrasting green and purple colors, and also shimmery to boot. However, I also received in the mail yesterday my essie Matte About You, a top coat that instantly gives any polish, no matter how shiny, a matte (muted) finish. So I wondered - if I put Space Cadet and Matte About You together, what kinda manicure would I get?

Here's the answer:

Indoor lighting, no flash

Indoor lighting, with flash

This was not my favorite manicure; let's breakdown why. First, Space Cadet was a slight pain to apply - I guess I just have the fattest nail beds ever, because other than OPI, I feel like every manufacturer - Orly included - makes the smallest friggin' brushes and it takes me several strokes to get full coverage on one nail. For Space Cadet I applied 3 coats and still had VNL (visible nail line). You can especially see it in the first pic, where my nail tips show the blue/green color. I'm not sure if I'd ever wear Space Cadet a) in bright daylight or b) on a regular basis because VNL seriously bothers me.

However, the parts I did like about this manicure mainly had to do with Matte About You. Matte top coat is not forgiving and so you can see some streaking on my nails and that mangled middle finger because I was in a rush to apply the polish and get to the bar before closing time. I love matte finishes, and expect to go through this bottle of Matte About You quickly. I'll give Space Cadet a second chance to make a first impression in the future, but after this initial mani, it's definitely got some 'splaining to do.

What do you think? Did you pick up any of the duochromes from Orly's Cosmic FX Collection? Do you prefer your finishes matte or shiny? And just what were you drinking last night? Sound off in the comments below!

The Untried Diaries: Essie Sand Tropez

I love nail polish, but ask anyone who knows me personally, and they'll tell you I love one thing more - a good deal. I am the ultimate deal shopper. I'm not like those ladies on Extreme Couponing who stock up on years and years of supplies for $0.50 that they may never use (unless nail polish counts!), but I definitely stopped paying retail for anything a few years ago, and it's rare for me to buy anything online or in person unless it's discounted or I have a coupon. Money is tight, yo, and this is how I maintain my standard of living in a tighter economy.

So in my recent nail polish shopping, I've been finding so many good deals that yesterday I took count and realized I now own more nail polish that I haven't worn than those I do. That's kinda sad. So here is the first entry in The Untried Diaries, my attempt to wear all the great (or maybe not so great?) polishes I've bought to figure out what really should stay in my personal collection, and what maybe should go.

The first entry in The Untried Diaries is essie Sand Tropez. Can you tell I have been loving me some essie recently? I can't believe I've never worn their polish before last week - I am so in love with their colors! essie gets a bad rep as only being sheers/nudes/pinks (read: conservative) but I've found so many vibrant colors in their line, normally in their limited edition collections. Sand Tropez, however, is a conservative safe-for-work nude, one that I wasn't sure how it would look on me. The color is a very pale and buttery tan. It applied very streaky, but after 3 coats had smoothed out nicely.

Indoor, natural lighting, with flash

The longer I look at this color on me, the more I love it! I think this is a perfect everyday nude color. I'll definitely be keeping this one nearby for frequent use. essie Sand Tropez was released as a part of the essie Spring 2011 collection (A French Affair), and is still available at salons and retailers (Target, CVS, Walmart, etc.). I found this with a 50% off sticker at CVS, so you may want to check there first!

What do you think? Will you be picking up a bottle of Sand Tropez? What's your favorite nude polish? And just how big is your collection of untrieds? Sound off in the comments!

My Collection, or, This Obsession Is As Bad As I Think It Is

I love looking at pictures of other polish lover's collections! It's so comforting to know that I am not alone in my obsession. After going crazy this past weekend with my essie haul, I thought this is probably a good time to take pause and look at my collection to-date. So, here we go!

My OPI lovelies:




I'd like to say I love all of my children equally, but as any actual parent will tell you, that's so just a lie - this OPI collection gets my blood pumping more so than the others. None the less, there are still some jewels in here - essie, China Glaze, and Orly:




So many polishes, so little time! Either way, I'm putting myself on a diet - going to try to avoid buying any more polishes until June. Shouldn't be too hard, as I have plenty to keep myself busy!

Essie 2011 Resort Collection - Swatches & Review

Happy Sunday! Anyone do anything interesting this weekend? I had a great weekend of nail polish shopping. Since I decided to start blogging a few weeks ago, I realized that I love love love OPI nail polish, but haven't really tried out any other salon brands. Earlier this week I posted about my first experience with China Glaze (if blogger ever restores it!), and Friday at work I decided I also need to give essie a try. essie is wonderful for sheers, pastel, and nude colors - which I never wear - so I did a lot of googling and came up with a list of bright colors released by essie that I want to give a try. 4 hours and 8 stores later, here's a shot of my haul:



Nice haul, right? I'm so excited and couldn't wait to try out my first Essie polishes, so for today I decided to review the essie 2011 Resort Collection. The collection is out this month at salons(it's not available at retail locations, i.e. Target), and there were definitely some surprises for me. The formulas on these are great, and I had full opacity with just 2 coats. I reviewed these in order of least to most favorite. Read on!

Da Bush - This is a light sage green creme. It reminds me a lot of Stranger Tides from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Which I didn't buy. Because these murky/pastel colors are not the most flattering on me, and I feel they look washed out and ashy. It's not the most horrible color ever on me, but I'm not sure how many occasions I will have to sport it:



Up next is Fair Game. Fair Game is a beautiful blue-gray color with a frosted finish. It's a really unique color, or at least nothing I have in my collection, but I couldn't decide if I loved it. I don't typically like the frosting/iced finish on me, but I think if I wasn't prejudiced against the finish, I could learn to love this color. I liked it on me way more than I did in the bottle:



The surprise favorite for me was Lion Around. This is a really soft pink that I thought was like every other pink creme essie ever released. Oh, how I was surprised! On me this is a great neutral that's safe for work and flattering:




As a part of my weekend haul, I happened across a bottle of essie Carnival, which is a rainbow glitter hologram that I instantly fell in love with. I tried it on top of Lion Around, and loved the two together even more! The pic doesn't capture the holo well on my nails, but you can see it in the bottle and get an idea of how this looks in person:




The last - and my personal fave - is Your Hut Or Mine. YHOM is a bright pink with a strong coral undertone and a beautiful gold shimmer. When I saw it in the bottle, I thought it was just a bright pink; it was only after I had it on that I really saw the coral undertones, and the gold shimmer is just priceless:




In the end, I think Fair Game is the truly unique standout color from this collection - even though I didn't love it on myself. Lion Around and Your Hut Or Mine are also great additions to any collection if you don't already have these colors, and sadly, Da Bush is a pass for me. Can't win 'em all!

What do you think? Which colors are you itching to grab up for your collection? Are you as crazy for Carnival as I am? And am I being overly harsh on murky colors a la Da Bush?? Sound off in the comments!