Essie Hide and Go Chic

There is always a sinking feeling that comes straight after you discover a product is worth the hype, because you know that you're going to need more, many more.

I always resisted Essie because of the price, I always decided I would rather get more polishes from a cheaper brand. The square bottles are embossed with the Essie logo and they look very chic and luxury, but they can't be that good, I thought.

I was wrong.

Hide & Go Chic was part of this years' Spring Collection and the shade I received in British Beauty Bloggers Latest in Beauty box. It is a deep azure blue, almost teal, colour. It is highly pigmented and if needed, one coat could do the job but two coats makes sure it's opaque.

The colour is not what has won me over, it is beautiful and unique, but it is the application that makes me want to go back for more. The formula for a start is great, it's silky smooth, and doesn't streak but the brush also makes the application really easy, is thin, round and shorter than other brands, so it fits on the nail bed just right.

I am on day four of wear with no chips yet, but some slight wear at the tips. I was a bit hasty with my application though, and didn't seal the tips but I think if I had done that they would still be perfect.

It is also worth noting that Essie is a 3-Free brand, which means they don't contain chemicals Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene, if you are concerned about these.

So I will adding Essie polish to my "to buy" list when I visit home in a few weeks. Essie can be found in Boots stores, and other places online, where they usually cost around £7.99 each.

If you have tried Essie polishes let me know which is your favourite and which I need to try next.

Speckled!

I know by now nearly every beauty lover must have seen swatches of ModelsOwn Speckled Eggs collection, but I wanted to share anyway since, even though there have been many collections since, these have held a place as one of my favourite nail effects polishes.

I own two of the five shades, Dove, which is a pastel pink, and Magpie, a mint green. Both are beautiful, but Magpie just edges it as a favourite, it really is a striking colour and showcases the effect so well.

Both polishes need at least two, but I usually apply three, coats for full opaqueness. I like the look of the layered spots and the more layers the greater the look. The good thing is that there is no clumpiness or dragging with additional coats.

The polishes dry to a semi-matte finish, and the drying time was quick, but I'm not sure how much that is down to living in a warm environment as opposed to the formula. You can add a top coat for a glossy finish or a matte top coat for a true Mini Egg look.

Without top coat, the polish lasted about four days before I started to see wear at the tip, a great result if, like me, you don't like changing your polish too often.

Overall, I can't fault these polishes, and at £4.99 a bottle, I think everyone should own at least one!

ModelsOwn can be found in Superdrug stores, as well as individual stands in shopping centres, but I would check them out online, here, as they currently have a six bottles for £20 promotion.

Liz Earle Strengthening Nail Colour

Liz Earle already have a colour range and towards the end of last year added nail polish to their collection.

The collection started with 12 shades, grouped into three sets of four: classic nudes, bold brights and deep darks and I feel I can confidently say there will be at least one colour that you love. The bold brights aren’t particularly bold, especially if you are drawn to neon shades, but all the colours are muted and gentle, perfect for everyday wear.

The formulas are designed to be strengthening and are enriched with avocado and borage oils to  nourish the nail and give a glossy finish.

The formula is on the runny side, but the colour payoff is great and something I haven’t experienced with such a formula before. In a hurry one coat would be enough, but I always prefer to add a second. The finish is streak-free and glossy and the drying time is pretty quick too.

At the event I was matched to the shade Sandstorm at the nude colour that would suit my skin tone best, and it really does. It is such a beautiful everyday colour that will see me through all seasons.

I also chose to try Pink Perpetue from the bold brights collection. As you can tell for a “bold” shade it is pretty muted, but I like that it is what I consider an office and night out suitable shade.

The polish claims to last 12 days, but unfortunately that wasn’t my experience, without a top coat I managed around 2 days, but with a top coat I only started to noticed wear at the tips at day 4 and chipping on day 5. Although it is not 12 days that is still excellent wear in my opinion.

I have to admit, the colour range was something I largely ignored from Liz Earle since I was convinced it was only good for skincare, but I am really looking forward to trying some of the makeup collection now.

I am very impressed with the polish launches and, as I said before, I am sure there will be at least one colour for all. The range has since been extended to include some beautiful spring inspired shades. Each bottle costs £7.50, which for the formula and colour payoff is a price I would be willing to pay.

If you are interested in getting your own Liz Earle Strengthening Nail Colour is available now online and instore. You can also find Liz Earle stands in Boots and John Lewis stores.

CND Vinylux Weekly Polish

Call me lazy, but gone are the days when I could be bothered to paint my nails regularly.

Cue CND Vinylux Weekly Polish. With the look and application of a normal polish, Vinylux promises to last up to seven days and it doesn't need a lamp or any other expensive equipment to do this.

London Calling by Color Club

London Calling is one of those shades that I would never have picked up out of choice but as I watch myself type I can’t help but stare at the colour and be slightly memorised.

GOSH spring/summer nail collection

GOSH aren’t a brand that I would normally consider when it comes to nail polish but after trying out polishes from the Spring/Summer collection my mind has been changed. 

The collection has a total of 6 shades, including two glitters. Only two of the shades stand out as summery to me but they are all very wearable none-the-less and I’ve had trouble picking a favourite. 

The teal shade Venus was the colour I was drawn to first of the collection. It seems very on trend and it is a colour that works in the summer and would suit the autumn/winter seasons too. 

I’m not usually a fan of glitter, mostly because of the difficulty in removing, but Girls on Film has very pretty pale pink glitter in large and small sizes, which I think looks great on its own but would also look lovely layered with other polishes. 

I had high hopes for the nude shade High School Flirt, which looks less of a yellow toned nude in the bottle. I think it is a little pale for my skin tone to work.

Tilted Blue is the least spring/summer shade in the selection. However, it is a beautiful navy and I’m sure I will be favourite when autumn rolls round.

As I said before I'm not usually a fan of glitter polishes but I've had so many complements, even from a man, on the gold glitter polish, Greed, that it has changed my mind. I think the sunshine definitely helped with how striking the gold looks. I would suggest that if you want an even more gold to place the glitter on top of a gold nail polish.

The orange shade, Tropicana, surprised me the most. Again it is the perfect sunshine colour and I have been wearing this on my toes, which is unusual for me since I usually stick with pink.

Each of the polishes apply smoothly and two coats is enough for an opaque finish, but the glitter can be layered as many times as you like depending on the look you are going for. I managed to get 3 days wear before chipping, that was using a top coat, so not great but not awful either. 

The polishes cost £4.99 each and can be found in Superdrug. 

p.s These were sent to me for review, but the views are my own....with some of my sisters and mums thrown in too.

Nails of the Week: Color Club Mod in Manhatten

I’m in the depths of revision at the moment but I had to take some time out to sort out my nails, after all a break helps with productivity right?

Mod in Manhattan is one of the Color Club Wanderlust shades that I received in this month’s Birchbox.

I said in my post that neither of the colours I received are ones I would purchase myself. But this week I wanted something bright but clean — something that wouldn’t distract me too much in exams — and Mod in Manhattan is just that.

It is described as "a brilliant off-white that represents the glow of the mega-watt city at night.” But in my eyes colour is more of a cream, and in some lights borders on looking peachy.

The shade is chic and a nice twist on nude, it works well with any outfit and it is a colour I can see myself turning to a lot this summer.

The polish also doubles up as a base coat for the brighter polishes in the collection and I expect that it would work as a base to bring any bright colour to life.

To application needed two coats to be fully opaque in two coats and it has a sheen finish. It is one of those polishes that needs you to be very good at applying with one or two swipes as it starts to dry quickly and can smear. But I have been wearing it for 3 days so far and it has remained chip free.

Overall I am very impressed with Color Club and the shade, and I may even try the OPI colour I received in the May box in the hope that will be a pleasant surprise too. After the exams I’ll do something crazy and test out that London Calling green!

Color Club The Wanderlust Collection is £10 and exclusive to Birchbox.

Let me know, good or bad, what nail polish shade have you been surprised by?

Nails of the week: Barry M Lychee and Striplac

Shockingly this is my first nail post of the year and for that you get me talking about two quite different polishes in one post as compensation.

 The first is one that I *borrowed* from my little sister, Barry M’s Hi Shine gell effect polish in the shade Lychee.

Lychee is a light nude shade and although I think this would be better suited for someone with a lighter skin tone than mine, it still works as an every day, subtle colour. The application is slightly tricky, you need two thin coats for the polish to be opaque and there is the potential for streaks because it begins to dry almost immediately.

At this point I've been wearing it for 4 days and I'm still chip free — Barry M are usually good for their wear time anyway but this is particularly impressive.

The gelly polishes cost £3.99, the same price as the regular range and can be found at Boots, Superdrug and online.

On my accent nail there is something different all together. If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen that last week I tweeted an image of Allesandro striplac.

Striplac is similar to Shellac, with two major differences. It is a home system and the polish can be peeled off.

At the event we all had the chance to apply the polish to one nail ourselves. The application was simple, a UV base and top coat was applied in between two layers of polish, curing the polish with a UV light in between each layer.

The polish lasts for up to 10 days at which point the polish is meant to peel at the edges and you can strip it off. I was told that because the polish is coming away from the nails there is no chance of doing damage but that if you tried to peel it off before this point then you could.

I have been wearing the polish for 9 days now and it has just started to come away at the edges.

Striplac comes as a kit including a UV-LED lamp, a red peel off polish, a UV/LED base and top coat, cleansing pads, 4-step file, cuticle pusher and instructions and costs £129. Additional shades of polish cost £15.99.

If you are someone who regularly gets Shellac or any other type of salon nails done you would very quickly get your moneys worth out of this system. It wouldn't be the best option for me but I would definitely choose this over regular Shellac when I next go away purely for how convenient it would be to peel the polish off rather than go back to the salon to remove it.

What's your view on peel off polish? Or will you be sticking to good old Barry M?

Bad Apple nail polish

Another review of products I received from the #bbloggersXmas goody bag. Bad Apple Cosmetics are a new polish brand on the scene, which prides itself on having a collection of unique shades of nail varnish. First off, how great is the bottle design? 

I received the shade Arkanasas, which is a duochrome green shade and is one of the exclusive and limited edition shades from the brand, and a light green shade that I cannot find a name for. 

I decided to go for an accent nail look to contrast the two shades. Both polishes apply well and are opaque in two coats. The polish start to dry immediately and I did experience a bit of bubbling with both. The light green shade has a creme finish, whereas Arkanasas is a frost, which I am not a fan of because of the obvious brush strokes that happen but in a way this compliments the shade. 

Bad Apple nail varnishes claim to be no drip, no chip and high gloss. Unfortunately after only a day I had a lot of wear at the tips and some chipping of the shade Arkanasas but the light green shade held up a day longer before chipping. They are, however, high gloss and as a bonus the polishes do not contain formaldehyde, toluene, DBP or parabens. 

The polishes cost £9.95 for 14ml and can be found here.

Ciate mani month day 24 (Enchanted Rose)

Day 24

It’s hard to believe that the last 24 days have passed so quickly and that I have reached the final day of my blog challenge! 

Today revealed the final Ciate mini mani month exclusive shade, Enchanted Rose, which is a glitter in a festive red shade.

I decided to apply the glitter on its own and also on top of Dangerous Affair. The glitter seems to be finer and more dense compared to the other two included in the calendar, which meant that two coats on its own was enough. However, I prefer the look of the glitter applied on top of the red polish, the colour underneath makes the glitter stand out much more even with one coat and I can’t think of a shade more suitable to wear on Christmas day!

If you have missed any days of the Ciate mini mani month, the links can be found below. Which one has been your favourite shade?

Day 1 — Cupcake Queen

Day 2 — Dangerous Affair 

Day 3 — Halo 

Day 4 — Prom Queen

Day 5 — Cabaret

Day 6 — Angel wings

Day 7 — Cutie Pie

Day 8 — Vintage

Day 9 — Mistress

 Day 10 — Ladylike luxe

Day 11 — Bumble Bee

Day 12 — Twilight

Day 13 — Glass Slipper

Day 14 — Speed Dial

Day 15 — Headliner

Day 16 — Big Yellow Taxi

Day 17 —  Power Dressing

Day 18 — Candyshop

Day 19 — Cookies and Cream

Day 20 — Magic Carpet

Day 21 — Fade to Greige

Day 22 — Sundance

Day 23 — Mojito

Ciate mani month day 23 (Mojito)

Day 23

The penultimate advent shade of the Ciate mini mani month can only be described as a Kermit the frog green.

The shade is called Mojito and was one of the shades I was least looking forward to opening. I’m not a fan of green nail polish in general but, that being said, having worn it for the day I have grown to like this a little — I imagine that in the summer sunshine it will look much better. Like many of the polishes, it took three coats to look opaque and the polish dried quickly.  

Tomorrow will be the last day of my mani month challenge and will be the third exclusive shade of the advent calendar, I have my fingers crossed that it isn’t another glitter, but I suspect it will be.

I’d love to know, have you enjoyed my advent challenge?

Ciate mani month day 22 (Sundance)

Day 22 

Only two days of advent to go! Today revealed the final caviar pearls shade in the Ciate mini mani month, Sundance.

Sundance is a mixture of gold and pale blue pearls with gold and bronze hexagonal sequins. I paired the colour with day 10’s shade, Ladylike Luxe, which picks up the colour of the gold pearls well.

In my experience with the caviar pearls, to make them last as long as possible you need to apply a top coat but this does fade the colour of the pearls. I’m not sure if this is just my top coat but it does ruin the look, and again, I’m not a fan of those sequins!

If you have missed any of the last 21 days the links can be found below!

Day 1 — Cupcake Queen

Day 2 — Dangerous Affair 

Day 3 — Halo 

Day 4 — Prom Queen

Day 5 — Cabaret

Day 6 — Angel wings

Day 7 — Cutie Pie

Day 8 — Vintage

Day 9 — Mistress

 Day 10 — Ladylike luxe

Day 11 — Bumble Bee

Day 12 — Twilight

Day 13 — Glass Slipper

Day 14 — Speed Dial

Day 15 — Headliner

Day 16 — Big Yellow Taxi

Day 17 —  Power Dressing

Day 18 — Candyshop

Day 19 — Cookies and Cream

Day 20 — Magic Carpet

Day 21 — Fade to Greige

Ciate mani month day 21 (Fade to Greige)

Day 20

Fade to griege featured behind door 20. I always think of griege as a grey based colour but this shade appears more of a brown/mauve and a bit like Vintage, looks different depending on the background!

The first coat was sheer and streaky but in three coats it was opaque, and like always took little time to dry.

It is a great winter shade and I like that it can appear so different depending on lighting and up against other colours. Another win in my opinion.

Ciate mani month day 20 (Magic Carpet)

Day 20

The second of the surprise colours featured behind the door today, and as a suspected it's another glitter.

Magic Carpet is a pink based purple glitter. Like Glass Slipper, the glitter is suspended in a clear polish. Again I would have preferred that the base polish was coloured. I don't think that this shade works well by itself and I don't have the patience to applying enough coats to get a good finish. I applied three coats, but as I mentioned before I think it would look much better layered over a coloured polish.

What do you think about glitter in general?

Ciate mani month day 19 (Cookies and Cream)

Day 19

Cookies and Cream featured behind door number 19. Although it is a beautiful nude shade, my immediate expectation was that it would streak.

However, I'm pleased to say it applied well, with no streaks! It was sheer on the first cost but opaque in three. I didn't expect to like this shade, but this may well be on my favourites list at the end of the month. It is one of those shades that is suitable for all seasons and will suit most skin tones.

Ciate mani month day 18 (Candyshop)

Day 18

The penultimate caviar pearls shade, Candyshop, featured behind door number 18. The beads are slightly different sizes with smaller and larger pearls making up the mix of green/blue, pink and orange.

The pearls look slightly metallic compared to the previous two bottles. From my experience so far with the pearls, a top coat is definitely needed to help them to stay in place for as long as possible.

Now as for the fact behind the door today, that sounds like a beauty bloggers challenge to me. Don’t you agree?

Ciate mani month day 17 (Power Dressing)

Day 17

A very random quote behind the door today, I'm not sure exactly what 'zest’ is?! However, today's polish is a dark, winter appropriate colour.

Power Dressing is a deep navy blue, which looks almost black in certain lights. The polish applies well, and is opaque with two coats. It is slightly streaky on application but this is more obvious in the photographs than with the naked eye.

If you have missed any other days of the Ciate advent the links can be found below. Let me know what your favourite is so far.

Day 1 — Cupcake Queen

Day 2 — Dangerous Affair 

Day 3 — Halo 

Day 4 — Prom Queen

Day 5 — Cabaret

Day 6 — Angel wings

Day 7 — Cutie Pie

Day 8 — Vintage

Day 9 — Mistress

 Day 10 — Ladylike luxe

Day 11 — Bumble Bee

Day 12 — Twilight

Day 13 — Glass Slipper

Day 14 — Speed Dial

Day 15 — Headliner

Day 16 — Big Yellow Taxi