Essie Angora Cardi Swatch

Essie Angora Cardi is one of those shades that instantly make you think of autumn, it's a deep, dusty plum with an hint of brown and looks very flattering on pale skin.
It's a colour thats quite versatile and goes with a lot of different outfits and is suitable for both day and night time.

Angora Cardi is the perfect example of a good Essie polish, the consistency is perfect and I could have got away with one coat, if only they got it spot on with the rest of the range.

What are you favourite autumn polishes?

Essie Spring 2011 French Affair Collection - Swatch & Review

I'm very late with this collection but I love the colours so much I felt the urge to blog about them, it's took me a while to work my way trough all the shades anyways.
I have a love/hate relationship with Essie, love the shade selection but the application can be tricky, the brush isn't quite thick or flat enough to allow for a streak free finish, particularly with the more pastel or lighter shades.

French Affair
Very pretty cool toned pink, almost lavender in undertone,  this is similar to OPI's Mod About You but better as it's not so light and applies easier. I got so many compliment while wearing this shade and for me one of the must have of the collection.

Day Light 

Artificial Light 

Nice Is Nice
A soft pastel lavender with a pink undertone, compared to Essie Lilacism it's a lot warmer toned and more flattering on my skin tone.
Nice but not very unique, I have quite a few similar shades.

Day Light 

Artificial Light

Coat Azure

A muted cornflour blue shade with silver microshimmer, not a colour I've seen elsewere.
I like it and I'm normally not a fan of blue nails, the consistency of this one was quite thick so I managed to make do with two coats.

Day Light

Artificial Light

Topless and Barefoot
My favourite of the whole collection, I love it! I've searched high and low for the perfect nude polish and this is it, I still want to try Ciate Sugared Almonds though.
It's a flesh toned nude but with a peach undertone that stops it looking flat, and one of the few nudes that does not give me the "corpse hands" look.
It is a little streaky so it's best with 3 coats and a little patience.

Day Light

Artificial Light

Sand Tropez
The other nude in the collection, a light grey toned nude almost in the taupe territory but not quite.
I can imagine this would look best on someone with a cool toned skin toned, on me it just doesn't look quite right.

Day Light

Artificial Light

Kisses & Bisses
(not pictured)

Tried it and didn't like it so I never got it, kinda boring on it's own but I guess it would look okay layered on top of other shades.
Think slightly cloudy cream base with a duochrome pink/gold pearl finish.

Did you get anything from the Essie French Affair collection? What are you're favourite summer nail polishes?

Essie FiJi - Swatch and Review

Essie isn't a brand I really go for as I've had a couple of their products in the past and hated them, however I've seen so many people rave about them that I decided to give the brand another go.

Fiji is a lovely milky, pale pink creme that looks gorgeous on both pale and tan skins but it's streaked like mad.

I found it really hard to get a smooth, even finish, what you see is three coats and even then it still looked streaky until I put on top coat.
It dried super fast, much faster than any other brand of polish and I've tried quite a few.

Day Light

Direct Sun Light

Artificial Light

I've found with Essie polishes the texture can be it and miss, some shades paint like a dream others are a thick, streaky mess. Despite the slight application problem I think Fiji is worth it as it's a gorgeous color.

I'm off to a Trade Only show tomorrow and plan on getting a few more shades from Essie so I'm gonna ask you guys what do you recommend? Are they any must have shades I should buy?