In any case, I know you’ve all seen it but here’s Color Club Catwalk Queen Collection. Like Femme Fatale, this collection is composed of sheers and solids that can be mixed, matched, and layered. I like this collection but it’s a little depressing looking at these pictures. The photos are from a few months ago, my nails were so long back then. Man, the bar exam takes away everything.
Catwalk Queen, the collection namesake, is a vampy tyrian purple with complex amethyst and subtle blue shimmer. This swatch was 3 coats but this polish is pigmented enough that coverage would be fine with just 2 coats. (This image is a little blurry because I was trying to capture the shimmer – I failed. The shimmer is way more obvious in person.)
Fashion Addict is my favorite from this collection. Lilac holographic? Sign me up. The holo is medium grain like the holos in the Femme Fatale collection. Like Worth the Risque and Revvvolution, the holo has a greenish cast. The polish gets darker with each layer so it’s slightly lighter with 2 coats, this picture is 3 coats.
Here’s a shot of the holo flash. I hope Color Club does a few more holos in the future because these were just superb. Personally, I would love to see a dark green holo.
Front Row Diva is an extremely pale gray that leans towards lavender, it has a pearl finish. It’s chic and work appropriate – which is pretty much all I’m wearing now so I’m stocking up on colors like this and you’ll see plenty of them featured here in the months to come.
Runway Muse is one of those sadly deceptive duochromes. In the bottle, it’s a predominately green duochrome that flashes pink. On the nail, it’s a frosty sheer with pink shimmer that only flashes a subtle green rarely. I so wish that the bottle appearance was comparable to the on nail result, nonetheless, it’s pretty amazing over black. Scrangie has all the sheers from both the Femme Fatale collection and the Catwalk Queen collection over black on her site.
Vintage Couture. Scrangie called this a mod lilac pink baby creme and that’s definitely the best description for this color so I’m going to steal it from her. It’s pinker on the nail than I expected but it’s still pretty stark. The application was finicky. I forgot to write down exactly how many coats I used but if I remember correctly, I believe it took 4 to even everything out.
Ready to Wear is my current NOTD and as you can see my nails are little yellow nubbins right now. *More sobs* Ready to Wear is a frosty opalescent sheer with warm pink shimmer. Usually sheers like this require 4 layers but I actually got good coverage with 2 coats, but since my nails are so yellow, I went ahead and added another layer. Edit: I’ve been wearing this color for a full day now and I want to revise my review. It’s definitely a duochrome, it’s not really noticeable until you see it in sunlight. It flashes a warm light coppery gold tone, almost some what metallic. The mixture of the gold and the pink reminds me of a sunset. I love it when colors present surprises in the sunlight.
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I am a *huge* fan of vampies. To avoid having a top 20 list made up almost entirely of them, I decided to pick only one. Surely, that would have been an insurmountable task but Zoya Casey is so incredible that the choice took only seconds. In my original post concerning this color I wrote:
“Holy &*%^. Zoya Casey is by the far the prettiest vampy I’ve ever seen, ever. It’s a deep deep deep deep jelly-like ultra glossy plum with a red base. The color is an ‘almost black’ which normally would irritate me to no end but there is just something alluring about this color, dramatic and intense. My ultimate test for nail polish is whether a color makes me continuously stare down at my nails. Casey definitely caused some major mani rubbernecking. Despite my nail polish ADD, I didn’t want to remove Casey. This is one for the top 20 list for sure.”
And like I predicted then, it did make it on to the list. Love this color.
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Overall, this collection isn’t for me but I can definitely see why everyone else went ga-ga over it. It’s shimmery goodness, so if you’re into shimmer – this collection is for you.
Zoya Mikka is a deep frosty plum, almost borderline metallic. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.
Zoya Rihanna is aubergine with magenta shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.
Zoya Sloane is dark plum with purple shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.
Zoya Blair is a vivid burgundy with red shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.
Zoya Colbie is brick red with red shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.
And finally, Zoya Jacy which is a reddish medium violet with somewhat subtle purple and magenta shimmer. This is 3 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat. This color is probably my favorite from this collection.
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I *love* Color Club Fast Woman. Normally, I’d classify this color as a straight up vampy but it’s actually a really deep brilliant red. I suppose the distinction is irrelevant because this color is obviously well within the vampy realm. Colors like this can only be described as disgustingly gorgeous, period. For this mani, I used one coat of Color Club Stuck on You, 3 coats of Fast Woman, 1 coat of Seche Vite. It applied well, no complaints. Fast Woman is from the Color Club In the Fast Lane Collection which also includes another great vampy, Color Club Killer Curves. I plan to swatch the entire collection soon, so stay tuned.
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Essie It’s Genius is a light tyrian purple with complex green to gold shimmer. Essie calls it a ‘violet quartz shimmer’. This color applies pretty sheer, so I used 3 coats for this swatch. I know I will love this one madly when I get over my purple discrimination phase. This image was taken with flash.
Essie Shift Power is a gold frost. It’s not what I would consider a true gold, to me it looks like there is a slight coppery tinge to it. Like It’s Genius, Shift Power also applied pretty sheer so I used 3 coats for this swatch. The name of this color is a little perplexing to me… is it supposed to evoke car imagery? or elicit the idea of a powerful business woman? I don’t get it. I don’t have Chanel Gold Fiction so I wonder how close these two are to one another? (Paging Scrangie.)
Essie Damsel in a Dress is a deep reddish purple (apparently the name for a reddish purple is currant – you learn something new everyday). Vampy lovers will dig this color. I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats on this one, but I used 3. This image was taken with flash.
Essie Sexy Divide is a dark purple with bright violet shimmer. We’ve had several similar colors released this season, all of which haven’t made any significant impression on me – Sexy Divide is different. It’s less flat than the others, definitely brighter. The shimmer gives this shade depth. My image doesn’t do it justice, it was taken with flash.
Essie Rock Star Skinny is a vampy brownish red with very subtle shimmer. I used 3 coats but I probably could have used two and still achieved the same depth of color. A lot of girls are not a fan of the name, but I don’t find it offensive.
Essie Bold and Beautiful is a gorgeous vampy dark red crème with a jelly-like quality. This, too, was a three coater.
This collection hasn’t hit the e-tailers yet but it’s been spotted in brick & mortars all over the U.S.
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Holy &*%^. Zoya Casey is by the far the prettiest vampy I’ve ever seen, ever. It’s a deep deep deep deep jelly-like ultra glossy plum with a red base. The color is an ‘almost black’ which normally would irritate me to no end but there is just something alluring about this color, dramatic and intense. My ultimate test for nail polish is whether a color makes me continuously stare down at my nails. Casey definitely caused some major mani rubbernecking. Despite my nail polish ADD, I didn’t want to remove Casey. This is one for the top 20 list for sure. For this manicure, I used Zoya Anchor for the base, 3 coasts of Casey, and Seche Vite as the top coat.
Casey is a rediscovered color. I’ve had it in my stash forever. The downside to having so much nail polish is that good colors tend to get lost in the mess. So I have a new system. I have all my untried polishes listed in an excel spreadsheet. Then I use this website (http://random.org/integers/) to randomly select a number. I wear whatever color corresponds to the randomly selected number – Casey was the first manicure I selected in that fashion.
]]>With that said, I’m pretty smitten with the new Lippmann Collection Holiday releases. What I particular like about this collection is that there is one color that is absolutely perfect for every major category in nail polish preference. There is a color for dainty lovers, the shimmer reds/pinks lovers, the vampy lovers, and the bling lovers. (Guess where I belong?)
Lippmann Collection Icing on the Cake is the light pink version of Lippmann Collection Rhapsody in White. Unfortunately, it has the same brush stroke issues but it is very pretty and delicate. I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing can be done about the brush stroke issues inherent to frosties. *Sigh*. This swatch is 3 coats.
Lippmann Collection Holiday is a red jelly with red and fuchsia microglitter. The shimmeriness is much more obvious in person than in my image above. It adds depth and glow to the bright base red. Holida is very color-appropriate moniker. Of the four releases in this collection, Holiday is definitely the most traditional Holiday-type color. I foresee this one being pretty popular during the Winter. My swatch is 4 coats because I’m not a fan of VPL. However, the application is *perfect* so if you don’t hate VPL, this color is definitely wearable at 2 coats.
Lippmann Collection Maneater. I’m the idiot that will buy a color just because I like the name. So I really LOVE it when an awesome color meets a badass name. A deep dark vampy brown called Maneater? Ummm…. I’m all over that one. Maneater has a jelly quality too it but it’s such a rich brown that it’s almost black on the nail – still gorgeous though. This swatch is 3 coats.
Lippmann Collection Superstar is hands down my FAVORITE from this collection. Copper Glitter in jelly brown base, it’s almost like Deborah Lippmann peeked into my dreams. Superstar has fairly chunky glitter in it but I got pretty good smoothness with 2 coats of Seche Vite. This swatch is two coats.
Scrangie has swatches of this collection on her site too. Lippmann Collection is available online or at some Bath & Body Work locations.
]]>Sure, a few of the colors were fairly run of the mill OPI type stuff. I’m not doing back flips for OPI Louvre me Louvre Me Not (ducks to avoid thrown stones, tomatoes, assorted rotting vegetables), but there are several solid gorgeous, unique colors in this collection. There have been a few complaints about colors in the France collection being thick and difficult to apply but I didn’t have any real trouble with them.
As a side note, I really feel like OPI did a good job of designing colors that are representative of French culture and fashion. I say that because I felt like they could have done more with the Indian collection, it’s good to see that they were spot on with France.
*Dies* OPI You Don’t Know Jacques is my absolute favorite color from this collection. Seriously, every once a while an amazing color like this comes out and renews my passion for nail polish. The color is tough to describe, grayish, brownish, dirty, mushroomy? This is my current NOTD, 2 coats, love it. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, love these grayed out mushroomy colors. I just can’t get enough.
OPI Yes… I Can-Can! is a shimmery eggplant type color. The base color seems similar to OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. The shimmer seems multi-colored, I see flashes of green, silver, and violet in the bottle. On the nail, it’s silvery and serves to give Yes… I Can-Can! depth. This swatch is 3 coats but with careful application good coverage is possible at 2 coats.
OPI Tickle My France-y is my second favorite color from this collection. It’s a grayed out subtle nude pink – it is chic and sophisticated perfection. Earlier last week, when I went back into the professional nail color purgatory, Tickle My France-y was the first color I chose for the big switch. This color was so beautiful, so flattering that I didn’t even care about being forced to wear professional colors. This mani was 3 coats.
OPI Parlez-vous OPI?, another stand out color, is a grayed-out (or smokey as OPI puts it) plum. The application was slightly troublesome, my bottle was chalky and thick but it’s workable. This is 2 coats.
OPI Louvre Me Lourve Me Not is my least favorite color from this collection. Sorry guys, I know I’m completely alone, everyone else loves this one. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this color but I have a predisposition to disliking shimmers and I’ve just had my fill of shimmery mid-range purples this fall. You can’t really see it in my image but Louvre Me Lourve Me Not has blurple and violet shimmer. This swatch is 3 coats.
OPI I’m Fondue of You is a reddish light chocolaty brown with reddish brown shimmer. I don’t love this one. It’s pretty but not special. This swatch is 2 coats, I think the color would look better with 3.
OPI Eiffel for this Color is an ‘almost black’. OPI says it’s wine but it looks dark purple with violet shimmer to me. It’s similar to Yes… I Can-Can! but they’re different enough to warrant owning both if one is so inclined to do so. Normally, I would say boo to an almost black but I, surprisingly, like this color. This swatch is 2 coats.
Scrangie called OPI Crepes Suzi-ette a ‘mom’ color… it is – but – it’s hot. I think this one ventures into the realm of work appropriate. I’m actually surprised that I like this color too. I probably wouldn’t have batted an eye at this creamy reddish caramel in a store, but it’s actually very flattering on the nail. I would even dare say that it’s unique. This swatch is 2 coats.
There will always be reds in an OPI collection, shockingly there were only two in the France Collection. One of which, OPI Bastille My Heart, is a deep burgandy with violet shimmer throughout. Pretty, but standard.
OPI Baguette Me Not, a creamy salmon, is another shocker. Totally didn’t expect to like this ‘mom’ (haha) color but I love it. Very chic, very work appropriate. This swatch is 2 coats.
OPI A Oui Bit of Red, the other red in the France Collection, is a mid-range bright red. I love reds and I would have loved this one too, but for the shimmer. The saving grace is that the fuschia shimmer is very subtle, hardly noticeable. This swatch is 2 coats.
Finally, OPI We’ll Always Have Paris. Love. It. This is the color that I wanted the annoyingly almost black OPI Lincoln Park After Dark to be. I love LPAD but I always wanted it to be more noticeably purple and vampy. OPI granted my wish with We’ll Always Have Paris. Strangely, OPI says this color is dark coffee… definitely looks dark reddish purple to me.
Special thanks to OPI.
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Zoya Sam and Zoya Nina look deceptively similar but that’s due to my inadequacy as a photographer. In person, they are noticeably different with Sam being more berry toned and Nina being very visibly brown. This swatch is 3 coats. Zoya Sam gave me some cuticle drag, so a third coat was necessary to even the application out. I think good coverage with 2 coats is possible, I was just being impatient with my swatches. I think Sam will always be slightly darker on the nail than the bottle color because it darkens as it dries.
If you read my blog often, you’ll know that brown is one of my white whales. Even though I passionately love all browns, I have a tough time finding browns that flatter my skin tone. I’m finding that darker browns like Nina and Essie Chocolate Kisses suit my skin tone pretty well. As stated above, Zoya Nina is visibly brown despite it’s darkness in my image. This is two coats – I didn’t have any issues with the application.
Zoya Riley is a magenta based deep vampy red. This is 2 coats.
The difference between Dakota and Riley, for those who are wondering, is that Dakota doesn’t have the magenta undertones. They look very similar in the bottle but they actually are different colors. This swatch is two coats.
I don’t know what it is with this collection but there are 3 pairs of colors that look similar to each other in the bottle but not on the nail. Two pairs I’ve already addressed, the last pair is Zoya Asia and Alix. They look pretty similar in the bottle, but Asia is brighter. Both are true reds. This swatch is 2 coats.
And finally, Zoya Alix, I did have some issues with this one. I had a wonky brush, which was shocking because I love Zoya brushes. I’ve never had a wonky Zoya before. Even when I passionately hated Zoya, I was still a fan of their brushes which are the perfect shape and size for my nails. The brush I got in Alix had a crooked bristle, ultimately it wasn’t a big deal. The wonkiness was easily fixed by just trimming the rogue bristle. The other issue was that Zoya Alix was a little tougher to apply than the other colors in this collection. I didn’t get full coverage at 2 coats and I had a significant amount of cuticle drag. However, a third coat fixed everything to my satisfaction.
Special thanks to Zoya.
]]>Ok no more excuses for the moment, let’s get back to the Fall Blitzkrieg. That’s what I’ve decided to dub the insanity that is about to ensue when all the fall colors hit the shelves. It’s really like all the nail polish companies got together and conspired to empty out some bank accounts.
Here’s Lippmann Collection’s 4 new shades for fall:
Lippmann Collection Rhapsody in White is a frosty white with a tinge of silver. This is two coats in sunlight, (the only sunlight picture I was able to get today.) It’s a great color but I got a lot of noticeable brush strokes. I am not a fan of brush strokes.
Lippmann Stop and Stare is a magenta based bright jelly creme red. Gorgeous. This is 3 coats, but it’s wearable at 2 coats if you don’t mind VPL. This one had great application, not a streak in sight, smooth and perfect. I’m tempted to say that Lippmann Stop and Stare is dupish to Essie Jelly Apple, but I’m hesitant because JA is more a true red, and SaS has a magenta tone to it. I’ll do comparison swatches soon.
To be honest, I was a little surprised to see a true black in Lippmann’s fall collection. Not to hate on Lippmann, but black is black is… black. However, black is supposed to be making a come back this fall so I guess it makes sense. This is a normal, glossy, unadulterated true black creme. The application was excellent, it’s opaque in coat, but I preferred it with two. Now that I think about it, I wonder if every black really is created equal. I’ve never actually done side by side comparisons of my black cremes. My HG go-to black for layering is Milani Black Magic. It’s cheap and gets the job done so I’ve never really questioned the difference between tones, application, and wear in blacks. *light bulb goes on for article*
Lippmann Collection Pump Up the Jam is definitely the stand out color from the new Lippmann fall shades. I’m really loving these shimmery vampies. Judging by the enthusiasm for them on the nail board, I expect that vampy shimmers are going to be big this Fall. Lippmann describes this color as “Boysenberry Bijoux”. Not really sure what that means, but man, I love this color. It’s aubergine shimmer with a blackish base. This image does not do this polish justice, this one is a definite ‘must have’. I’ll definitely revisit this color for you guys when the sun comes back out, darn Florida weather.
Special thanks to Lippmann.
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I got this collection almost 2 weeks ago but with the move and starting a new job, I just haven’t had a minute to post them yet. Finally, this past Sunday, I sit down and get to business. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, swatches are progressing on schedule. The article was nearly complete, ready to be posted that same Sunday. And it really would have been posted since everything was going according to plan, until, for no apparent reason at all because there wasn’t one dark cloud in the sky, we get a deluge. And, of course, this happened right as I was about to take the very last swatch photo for this collection. I was planning on doing a holo mani that day because my new job as the assistant for my school’s trial practice program doesn’t restrict my nail bling. So I say to myself, “Well ok, I’ll just put on a strengthening basecoat and wait to finish these swatches tomorrow.”
Monday, not one ray of sunlight all day long. At that point, I thought… crap, if I don’t get my nails painted soon, I foresee a break in my future. I could have just done a Misa Dying Love mani and taken the image the next day but I really don’t like wearing very dark or extravangant colors when my nails are so long, so I decided against it. Instead I opted to wait and added another coat of clear polish. Monday afternoon, as I was driving to the post office to drop off some swaps, to my unspeakable horror, I look down at the steering wheel only to see that my right hand index nail broke. ‘Broke’ is not really the right word, it’s like the nail breakage gnomes took a mini sledge hammer to my nail. It split-peeled in half, horizontally. Yes, imagine that break for a second. Oh, the horror.
There was no saving this one, I had to cut them all off. I’m not bitter about the break this time, it gave me an excuse to rock Misa Dying Love, which I actually got compliments on – believe it or not that is a rare occurrence for me. People really seem to love dark colors on short nails.
Ok enough nail breakage ranting, let’s get down to today’s order of business:
First let me say, that I love the concept behind this collection – Poisoned Passion, um, awesome. Not to mention that I love the names of the actual polishes – A Sin Worth Committing – wow, I would have bought that one for the name alone. Misa gets 5 points for naming creativity.
I thought all the polishes applied well, I do wish the formulas were a little thinner. However, they weren’t so thick as to cause serious application issues. I just prefer to apply very thin coats and it was nearly impossible to do that with these. I needed 3 (as thin as I could get) coats for all of these colors except for Dying Love which was perfect in 2.
Without further delay, here they are:
As a lot of you know I’m not really into shimmer, but man, this color is pretty. Misa Masa says that this shade looks really similar to OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. I don’t own that one, shocking, I know, but now I’m glad I never took the plunge because I can’t imagine that it will look or apply any better than A Sin Worth Committing. Plus, the name cannot be beat.
Not sure if this one is called Fatal Attraction or Fatal Affair. It’s a very deep purple with blue microshimmer. This image does not do the color justice. It’s very, dark, like sexy macabre dark.
Misa Forbidden Lust is rumored to be fairly similar to Zoya Yasmeen (Here are Scrangie’s and Misa Masa’s comparisons). This color really isn’t me, but I can appreciate a color that I know other polish addicts will go go nuts over and I suspect that to be the case with Forbidden Lust.
Misa Love Bite didn’t get as great a reception as the other colors from this collection, but I really like it. That might have a little something to do with the fact that it is a vampy jellyish creme, to which I am partial. Unlike Misa Masa, I didn’t have any trouble with the application. Vampies tend to be streaky, but I didn’t have issues with this one. I also like the name to color relationship: Love Bite – Dark Dried Blood Color – Vampires – Vampy! Get it? Get it? Ha.
Misa Toxic Seduction is, hands down, my favorite from this collection. Shimmery green with a dark gray base, it’s calling my name. L.o.v.e.i.t.
And finally – Misa Dying Love, my mourning color.
Misa Dying Love, my current NOTD, is closer to black than to charcoal, the shimmer is grayish in tone. You really can only see the shimmer in the sunlight, so indoors this shade is like a muted black creme. Surprisingly, I got compliments on this one today. That’s surprising only because I never get compliments and very few people (who aren’t into nail polish as a hobby) can appreciate a good almost black shimmery polish. I really like this one. I think I might make it, and colors similar to it, my official broken nail mourning color. For this mani, I used Misa BACKbone Natural Nail Base Coat and BREAKneck Fast Drying Non-Yellowing Top Coat for the first time. I’ll let you guys know how these worked out for me.
Special Thanks to Misa.
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Essie – Big Spender is a sophisticated purple-y pink. It’s not a neon shade, but it reminds me a lot of the neon colors that were so popular this summer. For that reason, I think it would be good transitional color to wear from the switch between Summer to Fall. Even if you don’t have those sorts of seasonal concerns, it’s still a sexy color.
LOOOOOVE this red. Essie Forever Young, a tomato red, is gorgeous, plain and simple. I used top coat for this swatch because of the matte drying. I’ve noted where I’ve taken the images with top coat, notice the contrast?
In my swatches, Essie Lacy Not Racy looks deceptively similar to Essie Tomboy No More pictured below. Both are ridiculous sexy colors, but they’re very different. Lacy Not Racy is more of a true red, while Tomboy No More is a deeper more vampy red. This swatch was taken with top coat, if you look at the swatch of Tomboy No More in contrast to this swatch, the matte drying is really apparent.
I just can’t get enough of these reds. Essie Tomboy No More would be perfect to use for the half moon mani, well actually all three reds would be. Love it.
This color is just one huge mystery. Scrangie and I, apparently, have different colors both named No Boundaries. My bottle was a hot pink as you can see above, but hers was a vampy plum. I like my version of No Boundaries but I really like Scrangie’s, so boooooo. I’m a little confused as to what happened, I’ll let you guys know when I figure it out.
People haven’t been very excited over Essie Swept Off My Feet but it’s my absolute favorite from this collection. It’s a muted pink, Scrangie describes it as dusty – I completely agree. I love these muted dusty colors that been released as of late. There’s just something about them, to me they seem edgy but classic. I love it.
Special thanks to Essie.
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I apologize for the sloppy application – this was the first mani I did after the tragic nail breaking incident of 2008 – I’m still adjusting my application style to my new length. Length actually makes a difference in these things. I became used to using a larger amount of polish on the brush, now that my nails are shorter, the extra polish is pooling at my cuticles. Also, some of you may notice that this image looks different from my other images. I live in Florida, summer for us means constant thunderstorms in the afternoon. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to take sunlight images, so from time to time, I’ll have to make do with these indoor shots. I prefer sunlight images because they tend to give more accurate depictions of color and shade but the sun never comes out anymore. I’ll try my hardest to catch it when I can.
*Sigh* I was inspired to purchase Essie Chocolate Kisses after I saw it on Fivezero (one of my nail polish idols, that unfortunately pulled an Amelia Earhart). Essie Chocolate Kisses is a brownish slightly red vampy. This mani is 3 coats. The application was excellent aside from the difficulties I had due to my own application shortcomings. Even though this is an indoor shot, this image is an accurate depiction of the color and shade of Essie Chocolate Kisses. This one is a definite keeper, it’s pretty much the first brown that has not looked horrible on me. Yeay!
]]>At first I was all woe-is-me-wah but now I’ve accepted my new short nails and have decided to embrace them. I’m in the nail polish school of thought that reserves darker colors for shorter nails, not per se, but just as general rule it’s my personal preference. However, I loved my long nails so much I didn’t want to cut them in order to break out my vampies. My unexpected break gave me an excuse to not only break out my vampies but also to put aside my anti-strengthener rhetoric and give some of my dusty strengtheners a try. Nailtek is 25% off right now at my local CVS and I have a brand new untried Color Club Vitabase. Might as well give it a shot, not like my nails can get any shorter than they are now so I have nothing to lose.
Without any further delay I present you the first image of my new shorties in vampies.
Although Color Club Killer Curves and Essie Wicked look dissimilar in the image, they look almost exactly the same in person. They also share deep red as a base color. They both have good albeit similar application so I don’t prefer one over the other. Essie Clutch Me if You Can looks dupish to the others in the bottle but it’s visibly a dark berry red on the nail where as the others border on being almost-blacks. I had to use 4 coats to get Essie Clutch Me if You Can’s depth of color to even out. Which is strange because I wouldn’t classify the polish as streaky. It applied well but for whatever reason it took 4 coats to get the color to even out to be the same shade throughout the nail. The big disappointment here is Essie Material Girl. I had HORRIBLE cuticle drag with it even though I waited ages between coats. To get it to look normal I had to battle the application to an unheard of 6 coats. That’s right, 6 coats.
Now, my Essie Material Girl isn’t a full size bottle, it’s a mini. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about mini bottles (particularly OPI minis) being of a lower quality than their full size counterparts. I’ve personally never had that problem with any mini I’ve tried. I’m hestitant to blame my application troubles on the fact that this was a mini Essie. Especially since Essie is notorious for its streakiness and difficulty of application anyway. The simple fact is that I think minis are the best thing that ever happened to nail polish (with the exception of Seche Vite.)
To be honest, I just don’t know what the issue was with Essie Material Girl. I plan to eventually give it a shot using a good base coat like Barielle Camo. Do any of you guys own Material Girl? Have you had similar results? Do you feel like minis are defunct in comparison to full size bottles? Anyone had bad luck with a particular brand’s minis?
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