Some more Hot Rods and another haul

Another visit from the postman today (I love my postman), with my order from Transdesign:



When I've ordered from Transdesign previously I've always forgotten to select a free gift, which they offer with every order. I remembered this time, and ain't he cute! I've had to keep him within my sight all day, a certain 13 Year Old Daughter has fallen in love with him! Stuffed doggies aside, we have some Creative Solar Oil, Misa Dirty Sexy Money, Essie St Barth's Blue, Essie Shelter Island and Essie Huckle Buckle.

Here's my trust colour wheel showing off the four new colours:


Left to right: St Barth's Blue, Dirty Sexy Money, Shelter Island and Huckle Buckle. I liked the look of St Barth's Blue when I saw it swatched on another blog, but looking at it now I suspect that, much like Sag Harbour (which it seems very similar to) it's probably not going to work for my skin tone.

13 Year Old Daughter asked for Shelter Island on her nails:



Gorgeous colour, a beautiful crisp bright sky blue creme. I have to say though, as much as I love Essie's colours I have had application issues with every single one of their polishes, and this was the worst yet. The formula on Shelter Island is incredibly runny, so much so that there was a lot of clean up required, not just of 13 Year Old Daughter's nails but also her hands and the couch because drips kept sliding off the brush as I was trying to apply it, no matter how much I wiped the brush down. The formula is nicely pigmented but so streaky to apply and it pools at the sides of the nail, adding to the clean up required. With three coats I'd managed to get it looking good, and a top coat of Seche Vite levelled out any ridges remaining. I love the colour and I will definitely be wearing it, but only on days when I have the patience to apply it!

Now for three more of the Hot Rod collection. First Hot Spot:




This was the colour I was most undecided about getting. In the advertising pictures it appeared more tomato red. I am so glad I did go ahead and order it though, it's a stunner. Firey deep orange shimmer with just a hint of red, I love it! Two coats and really nice application - yum!

Unfortunately while I was painting 13 Year Old Daughter's nails I managed to get Shelter Island smudged on one of my nails, so Hot Spot came off and Lowrider went on:



Lowrider is a gorgeous grape metallic that reminds me of grape bubblegum. If grape bubblegum were metallic. I'm totally in love with this colour, it's very distinctive and unusual. Application was good, three coats and much less problems with brush strokes than Nitro Injected (the other metallic).

Now I've switched to Cruisin because I'm watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with the Eccentric English Boyfriend, and sitting in front of the TV for a while calls for polish application:




Ooooh, this gorgeous light orange creme reminds me of orange instant pudding. (Is that a New Zealand thing that I'm going to have to explain to my overseas readers?) Anyway, looking at this makes my mouth water, it's delicious. Much better application than I expected, three coats and a bit of dragging but nothing major.

I have two colours left to try in the Hot Rod collection (Cherry Baby and Little Deuce Coupe) and so far I am utterly in love with it.