Lush Lacquer Neon Blast and Pink Panther

I decided to do some layering with the Essence polishes I showed you yesterday! 

Here I have Lush Lacquer Neon Blast layered over Essence Walk on the Wild Side:

Neon Blast is a mixture of shiny blue, purple, pink, and green glitters in a wide range of sizes and shapes.

The next one is Lush Lacquer Pink Panther layered overtop of Essence Grey-t to be Here; I'm really thrilled with this combination! I think this grey provides the perfect background for Pink Panther which is a mixture of pink, white, and black glitters.

What do you think of these glitters from Lush Lacquer? Do you think they make good complements to the Essence polishes?

New Essence Shades! Walk On The Wild Side and Grey-t To Be Here

Today I have two of of the new Essence colours to show you: Walk on the Wild Side and Grey-t to be Here. 

First up, I have Walk On The Wild Side, a smokey evergreen shade with green shimmer. This is a really nice one- good application, and the shimmer is noticeable in both shade and sunlight. It's pretty unique; I don't have anything like it in my stash. 

The second shade I have to share with you is Grey-T To Be Here, a gorgeous light grey packed with red shimmer. It's a bit hard to see in the photographs, but the red shimmer is surprisingly apparent on the nail. Sometimes when you see lovely shimmer in the bottle it may not translate on the nail, but this one does and it's gorgeous. This one is also unique in my collection, and I'm very glad I picked it up!

Overall, I can't praise these two colours enough. For the price point, they're excellent. I'm also loving the new bottle shape! So much better than the old Essence bottles. These ones are also a bit bigger, and just generally have a nicer, smoother shape. The caps are really great, too- they have a little "notch" where you tighten them and you know they're fully closed (without having to tighten them so much that you can't get them open next time around!).

Have you tried any of the new Essence lacquers? If not, I highly recommend checking them out! In Canada they're available at Shopper's, and cost a mere $1.89.

Essence - Glamorous Life

I have a quick post for today- a swatch of the polish I'm currently wearing as a pedicure colour, Essence Glamorous Life. Glamorous Life is a new-ish lacquer from Essence (it came out earlier this spring, but may still be around). It's a bright, raspberry colour with tonnes of gorgeous pink/purple glass fleck shimmer in a jelly finish. It's opaque in two coats, and applied beautifully for a polish that only costs $1.49.

It's also worth mentioning that I love the brush on Essence polishes. Usually smaller bottles have annoying little brushes that are hard to paint with, but these have nice long ones that are very flexible... I find them very comfortable to use, and can't actually think of another brand that uses the same brush. Does anyone else have an opinion to share on the Essence brushes?

I don't know how similar this would be to Butter London Disco Biscuit, but it has kind of killed my lemming for that lacquer (which is a good thing, because it costs a heck of lot more than this Essence polish). While it's probably a lot more raspberry coloured than the hot pink of Disco Biscuit, it still has a gorgeous glass fleck which I adore.

What do you think of Essence Glamorous Life? Have you tried Essence polishes? What do you think of them?

Purple Comparisons!

I've been meaning to post this comparison forever (at least a month or two), but I'm only just getting around to it now! This is a comparison of pastel purples; as it happens, this is perhaps my favourite "easy-to-wear" shade for my nails. It always looks great!

This is the line-up! Left to Right: Essence A Lovely Secret, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Done Out In Deco, Essie Bangle Jangle, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac.

This is how they look on the nail; I'm pretty sure this was two coats of each:

Thumb to pinky, this is Essence A Lovely Secret, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Done Out in Deco, Essie Bangle Jangle, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac.

Essence A Lovely Secret is far more blue-toned than the other lavenders here, but is rather interesting in its own right. It has a very subtle shimmer running through it, and on the nail it appears more speckled than anything. Quite unusual! Enlarging the pictures should give you a better idea of what it looks like.

OPI Planks A Lot is clearly the deepest purple here, but it still has the same dusty quality to it that OPI Done Out In Deco has. The Essie is far more grey, and Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac is much brighter and cleaner than the others.

Overall, I love OPI Done Out In Deco for the lovely faded quality it has, but I really adore Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac. It's the perfect bright pastel lilac colour, and for the price point you can't go wrong. Do you have a go-to lavender you'd like to recommend?

Oh and by the way...

This post is Purple-Domo approved!

Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? Comparison

Today I have a quick comparison post to share with you, featuring two similar and very awesome duochrome polishes. Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? are both lacquers with a shimmery deep blackened purple base, and flash green and steely grey.

Top to Bottom: Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?, Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?

It's not very evident here, but in reality Zoya Ki was a bit more blackened looking, a touch darker than the  Essence polish. Other than that, these are very similar colours. They're also both extremely interesting lacquers! I never get tired of the duochrome effect, and these polishes both do it well. If you don't have either of these, I'd recommend Essence Where Is The Party? because it's more accessible and only cost $1.49. A very worthwhile purchase, I'd say!

What do you think of these lacquers? Do you own one or the other? Would you like to?

Essence Walk of Fame + Dollish Polish Walk Like An Egyptian

Today I wanted to show you another Dollish Polish Valley of the King lacquer: Walk Like An Egyptian. I've layered it over Essence Walk of Fame. This is Walk of Fame by itself (two coats):

This is a pretty standard mushroom-y taupe colour. There are a lot of other lacquers like this, but at $1.49 you can't really go wrong. The application was easy, and I actually really like the brush in the Essence polishes. 

After a day I decided to add Dollish Polish Walk Like An Egyptian to my manicure to freshen it up. I find  adding a top coat of some kind to a day-old manicure is a great way to extend the life of my lacquer, particularly when I don't have a lot of time to completely re-do it. 

This is two coats of Walk Like An Egyptian over Walk of Fame. Hey, these both have "Walk" in the title. I honestly just noticed that now as I was typing it out. Hah. 

Walk Like An Egyptian is chock full of different sizes of bronze glitter in what I believe is a tinted base. You can see how it changes the base colour to a slightly darker, more brown colour. It's also worth mentioning that this wore like iron. Normally polishes chip like crazy on me, but all of the Dollish Polish glitters have been pretty exceptional in terms of wear time. 

What do you think of these two lacquers? Do you think they make good partners?

Essence comes to Canada!

I had to share my joy with my fellow Canadians- Essence is now available in Canada! It is currently showing up at Shopper's Drug Mart. I'm pretty thrilled at the opportunity to try a new brand, and an extremely affordable one at that. The polishes, while small (.16 fl oz), are only $1.49. I think that's pretty cool. Here are the ones I picked up:

Aren't the tiny bottles cute? I love how the bottle cap matches the polish. Left to right this is "A Lovely Secret", "Walk of Fame", and "Where is the Party?".

Have you purchased Essence polishes before? What do you think of them? Are they a good lacquer for the price point?