Today's nail: Essie Lollipop

Lollipop is the third (and last) polish in the Essie Sweet Time of the Year collection - I've previously reviewed Rock Candy and Mint Candy Apple.

My photos don't even come close to doing justice to how insanely vibrant and glossy Lollipop is:

Lollipop is so bright it could almost qualify as a neon, and even this non-red fan loves it. Absolutely perfect application from the jellyish formula. I used two coats and while there was a little visible nail line in some lights it isn't enough to worry me. If you want a bright bright red, this is your baby!

Today's nail part two: Essie Rock Candy

This is the second of the three polishes in the Essie Sweet Time of the Year Collection - my review of Mint Candy Apple is here.

Rock Candy is a sheer pale pink:

If I was a lover of pinks and sheers I would really like this colour I think. As it is I definitely don't dislike it - if that makes sense. What you see here is four coats and there is still very visible nail line. This would be a lovely colour for french manicures, although it was a little prone to streaking so required careful application. Apart from the streaking the jelly formula was nicely thin and easy to apply.

Today's nail: Essie Mint Candy Apple

You may (or may not) remember that a while ago I won the Essie Sweet Time of the Year collection from the lovely Mary over at Body & Soul.  Well here they are:

Left to right: Mint Candy Apple, Lollipop and Rock Candy.  Oh and the plant in the background is my latest purchase from the garden centre - a Chilean Guava. I love it's delicate wee flowers, which you can probably see better if you click on the picture to enlarge it, and we get to eat what it produces. Presuming it produces - I'd best not let The Eccentric English Boyfriend near it, he's the Grim Reaper for plants!

I was so excited about Mint Candy Apple - I can't get enough of mint coloured polishes - and it didn't disappoint:

Eeeek - nubbins!  I have a confess to reverting to biting and picking at my nails in recent weeks - something I do when I'm stressed.  Anyway, as always with these sorts of colours the polish is greener in real life than the photos would have you believe, and so very pretty.  But application wise, a total nightmare - which is very typical of virtually all the mint greens I've tried. The formula is quite thick, and not in the slightest bit self-levelling even by the last of the three coats it took to cover without streaking, so I had to rely in my trusty Seche Vite to give it a nice smooth finish.  But that's ok, I love it anyway.

Today's nails: LA Girl Turntable and Essie Barbados Blue

I've had quite a bit of luck lately stumbling upon stores selling brands I thought were unavailable in New Zealand. LA Girl for instance in the Life Pharmacy outlet store at DressMart - look!


Left to right: Blueberry, Metallic Purple, Turntable, Vinyl Record, Funkadelic, Deejay, Dance Studio and Bedazzle.

And here's Turntable (plus some cute nail art stickers):



Ok I apologise for my camera - both of today's swatches didn't capture particularly well, this one especially. Turntable is much greener, a delicious plasticky astro turf green that I love! Application was pretty good, two coats to opaque, a little prone to dragging but nothing major.

And here is a slightly fuzzy pic of Essie Barbados Blue, which I got a while ago from Grace's polish purge. (She's just had another one, I'm eagerly awaiting my parcel!)



Quite sheer, it took four coats to be opaque, and was very brush strokey and prone to cuticle drag. The colour's pretty - I know it's not a metallic but I think metallic when I look at it.

SQUEE! And then more squee

I am one very bouncy blogger this morning, as I won a competition. The wonderful Mary over at Body and Soul (go show her some love) ran a giveaway of the new Essie Sweet Time of the Year Collection:



Can you even begin to imagine how excited I am about getting my paws on Mint Candy Apple?

So I've been bouncing around the house this morning attempting to share my excitement with all. The Eccentric English Boyfriend was decidedly underwhelmed. The conversation went like this:

EEB (sarcastically): Yes, very nice dear.
Me: But it's three less polishes that I have to buy.
EEB: Given the breadth of polishes available out there I rather doubt that. You'll just find other polishes you want to buy. In fact I rather suspect this will just feed your addiction.
Me: But I love nail polishes! And I told you I wouldn't buy any more shoes for a while, and I haven't, have I?
EEB: That's because you haven't left the house!
Me: But that wouldn't stop me because I can buy them online ... WAIT! Does that mean that as long as I don't leave the house I can buy shoes?

At this stage EEB went a very funny colour. Bless.

Anyway just when I thought my day couldn't get any more exciting, Mr Courier Man dropped three parcels off. Ok one of them was for EEB - software or something. But the other two were for me.

First up from Mika J, a nail art instruction book, and a pack of 12 nail art pens:



Look at the Fred whiskers at the bottom!

See:



He was checking to make sure I hadn't bought any shoes.

Here's the other six colours in the nail art set:



Then a box from asos. Because they were having a sale AND they sent me a £10.00 off voucher for my birthday. So, you know, it would have been rude not to buy something!

So I got the cute tshirt that I blogged about:



They didn't have it in my size, so I bought one for 14 Year Old Daughter.

Then some Too Faced Shadow Insurance, which I've been reading rave reviews about:



I'm interested to see how this goes, because a lot of primers and eye creams make my eyes water. Not a good look.

Then this gorgeous dress, which I had to put on straight away:



It's purple! And it disguises the wobbly bits! Also - LAWKS my mirror needs a clean.

And finally these little cuties by Rocket Dog:



Aren't they adorable ... oh ... yeah ... they're shoes. But no, it's totally ok because I'm pretty sure I ordered them before the no-shoe-buy promise. Pretty sure. And anyway, sale AND £10.00 off birthday voucher. Totally justified. Totally.

Hauls, lots of hauls. And an apology in advance

I've been a bad, bad girl my pretties! Remember when I said that I wasn't buying any more polishes in the lead-up to my Melbourne trip? Yeah, about that ...

First up, here's my haul from the BB Couture sale. Which you already knew about, so it's all good:

Left to right: Top Rock Top Coat, Green Goblin and Laguna Lagoon.

Left to right: Midnight Malibu, Spellbound, Midnight Desire, Maleficent Magenta

Left to right: Moon Over Manhattan, Sea of Cortez, Zuma Wave Rider

I'm not sure I actually realised how many purples I was ordering. It's a good thing I like purple.

Anwyay I was absolutely determined that was going to be it for a while. Determined. But then I stumbled upon the polish purge sale that Grace over at The Kitchen, The Closet and the Laboratory was having, and got a few polishes. Just a few. And hey, it's supporting a fellow blogger so totally justified, yeah? Yeah?

Left to right: O.P.I. Glamour Game, BB Couture Electric Avenue, Essie Barbados Blue

Left to right: China Glaze Watermelon Rind, China Glaze Coconut Kiss

Left to right: Orly Country Club Khaki, Orly Enchanted Forest

Left to right: NailTek Quicken fast dry top coat, NailTek Foundation II ridge-filling nail strengthener

Left to right: Zoya Raven, Zoya Irene, Zoya Midori

My first Zoyas! And there's a whole heap of colours in there I've been coveting for some time, so yay for Grace!

And last - because you just knew there would be more - I was out with 10 Year Old Son today helping him choose a present for 13 Year Old Daughter's upcoming birthday, and accidentally bought these when we were buying her present:



A set of neon minis by mwah!. The colours don't have names, but the set was only NZ$12.00. They're more for 13 Year Old Daughter than me, and I was going to hold off giving them to her until her birthday but couldn't wait. I have no information about mwah! polishes, they tend to be stocked in clothing stores like Jay Jays. I already have a couple of their colours and they're not bad.

Blog posts might be a little thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks. As well as my upcoming Melbourne weekend to prepare for (only a week and a half away - YAY), 13 Year Old Daughter becomes 14 Year Old Daughter this Thursday. How this happened I don't know, it seems like only a couple of years ago she was this little:



I am going to be SO unpopular for posting that! Look at her little Buddha Belly!

So as I was saying, 14th birthday coming up, and a gaggle of teenage girls (actually it should be a giggle of teenage girls) are coming over in the weekend for the Sleepover Party Extraodinaire! Which means lots of organising for me, and apparently lots of painting of nails. So in between running around like the proverbial headless chook over the next couple of weeks I will try to keep up with the posting, but I apologise in advance if I'm absent. I will make up for it when I come back from Melbourne, with lots of "look at the cool stuff I bought" posts, I promise.

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.

My latest haul

Look what arrived today!


Apologies for the photo, my camera's not the best. Left to right: OPI Over the Taupe, Essie Greenport, Essie Sag Harbour, China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le, OPI No Room for the Blues, OPI A Grape Fit.

Essie Greenport is the one I'm most looking forward to trying, it seems to be the closest in shade to China Glaze's For Audrey, which I have been coveting for ages and cannot find anywhere. I'll be interested to see what the Essie polishes are like, it will be my first time trying them. Watch this space for reviews.

This is the third order I've had from Transdesign, and they are fabulous. The postage from USA isn't cheap, but their products are so well priced and my orders always arrive so quickly that they're my go-to supplier.

The six polishes came packaged in a little partitioned cardboard box that I thought might come in handy for holding polishes when I go away on holiday. Fred, however, had other ideas: