Essie "Fiji"

Hi everyone!  I hope everyone has been enjoying what is left of their Summers!  I cannot believe how fast time is flying by!  The local schools are getting ready to start back in another week or two and it seems like just yesterday it was May!  So after wearing some super bright nail polish the last couple weeks I decided to go a little lighter and wear Essie's "Fiji."  A lot of people online talk about Essie's "Fiji" and say it is one of the best Essie nail polishes out so I couldn't wait to try it out!

Essie's "Fiji" is this gorgeous pastel pink/ baby pink nail polish!  It is just lovely and I feel very girly when I wear it!  Formula wise it was okay.  It was a tiny bit watery which meant that my coats of polish were thicker than I would have liked.  As well as being thick coats they are very uneven and my nails have a ton of streaking!  Also the thick coats of nail polish took quite some time to dry and even though I used a quick drying topcoat I still ended up with smudges on several of my nails.  In terms of chipping light pastel colors often seem to show chips easily, so I wasn't surprised that after one day I noticed some tip chips.  The chipping did continue to get worse but managed to look okay until the end of day four.

Overall I don't understand all the hype about Essie's "Fiji" because it chipped so quickly and since I couldn't get even coats of polish on my nails so the very pretty pink color didn't come out as much as it should have.  That being said "Fiji" is a very pretty color and I am willing to give this nail polish a try again!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Try out "Fiji" for yourself by snagging it off Amazon (affiliate link)

Sinful Colors "Innocent"

Hi guys!  Happy middle of August!  Since it has rained so much this Summer all the trees and grass are super green, so I went with a matching green nail polish!.  This week I decided to try out a new to me brand of nail polish called Sinful Colors.  Sinful Colors retails for $1.99 (USA) a bottle and throughout the year can be found on sale at many drugstores for 99 cents!  I own a couple of bottles of Sinful Colors and they have been sitting gathering dust for a while and I decided that it was time to change that so I pulled out the brightest one I own "Innocent."

Sinful Colors "Innocent" is this very bright grass green color.  I love the color in the bottle, but I'll admit that after the first coat of nail polish went on I was a bit worried that "Innocent" might be a bit to chartreuse green for me.  However after two coats of color and a topcoat I really like the bright color of Sinful Colors "Innocent."  I found the formula to be fairly good.  It was just the tiniest bit watery, which made it too easy for the brush to soak up a lot of nail polish!  The result was that the brush was a bit hard to maneuver.  But "Innocent" was opaque after two coats and had no streaking, which is always nice!  As for chipping Sinful Colors "Innocent" lasted about three days.  We skipped minor chips and instead the nail polish started coming off in chunks.  I want to say that I am disappointed in how fast "Innocent" chipped but for a relatively inexpensive bottle of polish three days is actually pretty good!  However when I removed the nail polish my nails were stained green for well over a week after, so that was a bit disappointing!

Overall I am neither pleased nor displeased by Sinful Colors "Innocent."  The color is pretty and I did get several nice comments about it.  But the large amounts of chippings after only three days and how much it stained my nails is a bit sad.  I will most likely wear Sinful Colors "Innocent" again because of the fun color!

Thanks for reading my blog!

China Glaze "Grape Pop"

Hi everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying what is left of Summer!  This week I decided to try out China Glaze's "Grape Pop" and just as the name suggests it is a fantastic deep purple color!  I purchased "Grape Pop" as part of China Glaze's four piece ombre set called Grape Expectations.  And I must admit that the fact that the name of the set is a reference to the classic novel Great Expectations is what prompted me to buy the set in the first place!  However I lucked out that all four colors in the set are very pretty!  Here is the unopened box set:

I was very surprised when I opened the box to pull the nail polish out and discovered that included with the Ombre set was 10 small sponges which can be used to create ombre nails!  (I haven't tried ombre nails yet but they are on my nail polish bucket list!)  Here is the open box and the sponges:

Now back to the one bottle I tried this week:  China Glaze's "Grape Pop."  "Grape Pop" has a great formula, which went on easily with no problems and was nearly opaque after one coat.  I used two coats to help even out the nail polish, which had some minor streaks after one coat but had none after the second coat.  As for chipping I'm not sure how long "Grape Pop" lasts before chipping because after babysitting for a couple of hours I looked down to discover that my nail polish had scratches all over it.  In the picture at the beginning of the post, if you look at the pointer finger (far left nail) you can see some of the scratches shinning in the light.  Over half my nails had scratches on them and looked awful so I was forced to remove the nail polish.

Overall I am very pleased with China Glaze's "Grape Pop" because the formula was nice and I adore the grape soda color!  However I am not sure how or why the scratches occurred, but I do plan on trying out "Grape Pop" again to see how the nail polish does.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Grab a full sized bottle of this nail polish for yourself on Amazon (affiliate link)

Deborah Lippmann "Mermaid's Dream"

Hi everyone and happy August!  I cannot believe how fast time is flying by!  Here in North Carolina it is hot as Hades, just like every Summer!  So to help cool me off I decided to pull out Deborah Lippmann's "Mermaid's Dream" which is this fantastic blue-green colored nail polish with glitter!  This nail polish looks like the ocean when the sun hits is!  It just shines and shimmers!

So I purchase my Deborah Lippmann polishes from Nordstrom's and they are outrageously priced at $18 (USA) a bottle!  I only own a couple of her nail polishes because of that!  However I purchased "Mermaid's Dream" on Black Friday 2012 and got a fantastic price of $10 (USA)!  (Which I thought was quite a steal!)  Formula wise "Mermaid's Dream" is a bit watery, but since it is a glitter nail polish that actually worked to my advantage!  The slightly watery nail polish actually went on quite nicely and allowed me to be ale to spread the glitter out evenly!  I was worried about the nail polish not being opaque because it is a bit watery, but that wasn't entirely the case.  After my usual two coats, "Mermaid's Dream" was about 80% opaque, but the nail polish was getting too thick on the nail for a third coat.  Before placing my topcoat on I noticed that "Mermaid's Dream" looked kind of textured due to all the glitter and felt similar to OPI's liquid sand.  I would recommend a topcoat be used on Deborah Lippmann's "Mermaid's Dream" to prevent the nail polish from snagging on clothes.  As for chipping well it started within the first hour or two!  My right thumb smudged and got wrinkles in it, which cannot be fixed except by repainting that nail (and that wasn't about to happen!)  As the day passed the chipping got worse.  Mostly it just rubbed itself right off the tips of my nails and even with a topcoat the nail polish still managed to snag on things, which of course caused large chunks of polish to fall off.  I would say "Mermaid's Dream" lasted about four days for me.  As for removing the nail polish that was a nightmare!  I had to scrub and scrub to get the polish off and even then the glitter wanted to stay on like it was done with super glue!  All in all I think it took about 45 minutes to remove Deborah Lippmann's "Mermaid's Dream" from my nails!

Overall while I like the color and the way "Mermaid's Dream" looks on my nails the fact that it was so expensive and still got ruined in less than a day is definitely not okay!  Add that to how long it took to remove the nail polish from my poor nails and I may not wear this nail polish again any time soon!

Thanks for reading my blog!

China Glaze "Riveting"

Hi guys!  I cannot believe that July is almost over!  It seems like it was Christmas just yesterday!  Anyways so during the Summertime I love my brights so this week I decided to wear China Glaze's "Riveting" which is this great orange nail polish!  "Riveting" is part of The Hunger Games collection called the Capitol Colours Collection.  "Riveting" is the color for District 3, which is the Technology district.  (If you aren't a THG fan feel free to ignore the above info and go straight gown for the info on the nail polish itself!)

China Glaze's "Riveting" is this fantastic orange glitter!  It is such a great glitter and it covers so well!  And  "Riveting" sparkles in the sunshine, which I love!  As for formula, it is FANTASTIC!  It went on very well and could be easily be worn as a one coater!  (However I put on two coats because I always do.)  In terms of chipping I saw some very minor tip chips and wear after about three days, but it wasn't until the fifth day that I saw any serious chipping.  However when I got a single chip on my nail during the fifth day it was from the vacuum cleaner.  I honestly think that this nail polish could have been worn a few more days if it had not been from my clumsiness.

Overall I am very impressed by China Glaze's "Riveting."  The orange color with glitter is fantastic and the formula was good as well.  And I love when a nail polish lasts at least five days because then I don't have to worry about having to repaint my nails quite as often!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Essie "Absolutely Shore"

Hi everyone!  I can't believe that July is nearly over!  So since I wore a really bright color last week I decided to tone it down this week and go for a pastel color!  I went digging through my collection and found Essie's "Absolutely Shore" which is a very pale green and with its beachy name is perfect for Summer!

So Essie's "Absolutely Shore" is a pastel so I figured I was in for some streaking, but nothing prepared me for how difficult it really was.  "Absolutely Shore" has a very watery formula and was difficult to control, which caused a ton of streaking on the first coat.  However the second coat, while still difficult to handle because of the watery formula, did even out the nail polish a bit.  My next problem with Absolutely Shore" was that even with a quick drying topcoat (I use Orly "Sec'N'Dry") I could NOT get the nail polish to every really dry.  And while I waited and waited and waited for it to dry many nails got dinged and smudged.  It looked so horrible I barely wore this nail polish for 12 hours before I took it off!  So that was definitely very disappointing!

Overall Essie's "Absolutely Shore" was a major letdown and I wish it had lasted longer and had a better formula!  The color is a really pretty pale green but the streaking made it very difficult to enjoy.  And as for why this nail polish wouldn't dry, I am really not sure what is up with that but it makes me sad because it means I probably won't be able to ever really wear this nail polish!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

If you decide to give this polish a try it is available on Amazon (affiliate link)

OPI "Grand Canyon Sunset"

Hi guys!  I hope everyone is enjoying Summer like I am!  I love warm weather and sunshine and it has caused me to pick out a warm bright orange-red colored nail polish for this week!  So I dug deep down into my nail polish stash and picked out OPI's "Grand Canyon Sunset"!

OPI "Grand Canyon Sunset" is such a gorgeous orange-red color!  It really does look like the walls of the Grand Canyon when the sun shines on it!  "Grand Canyon Sunset" is a great earthy color nail polish and has been a lot of fun to wear!  However in the bottle it looks like there is a slight silver shimmer, but it isn't visible on the nail.  Formula wise I found OPI's "Grand Canyon Sunset" to be very nice and just the right consistency to be able to apply without any difficulty.  "Grand Canyon Sunset" was also very opaque and if you really needed to you could get away with just one coat, though I used two as I always do.  In terms of chipping by the end of day three I saw a fair amount of chips on most of my nails, so that was a bit disappointing.

Overall while it didn't take long for "Grand Canyon Sunset" to chip, the color is so fantastic that I can almost look past the chipping!  Plus the formula was nice so applying the polish was super easy!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)