Essie Retro Collection Swatches.

Hi there Everyone!
I decided to see what all the fuss was about with the re release of some Essie polishes. The Essie Retro collection comprised of many different Essie polishes that were popular over the past few years. The biggest talk was of them re releasing Starry Starry Night.
 This was a big deal!!!!! Ever since they deleted it many years ago, people have been trying to buy this polish, It has even sold for several hundred $$$ on ebay!!!!
There has been a few dupes over the years, but who would not want a essie version!!!!
So lets check them out shall we??!!

Aussie Nails Monday- halloween

Hi there everyone! how are you?

Today is the Halloween themed week and so I decided to kill 2 birds this week and combine the Femme Fatalce Cosmetics and Aussie nails monday challenges into one!!

So As it was a halloween challenge what better way than to do jack o lanterns.

I used Essie meet me at sunset as my base then I used 2 coats of Femme Fatale Cosmetics Gossamer Dust. I love this polish It is a awesome thermal polish that changes from yellow when hot to orange when cold.Then I cut some jack o lantern faces in vinyl and adhered them to my nails

I love it! and the jack o lanterns change colour which is awesome too!

Until next time........

Matte Top coat Showdown.

Hi there everyone!!!! today I am doing a Matte Top coat showdown. I have today 8 different Matte Top coats to share with you and see how they stack up to each other.

First up lets check out the Matte Top coats......

ESSIE MATTE ABOUT YOU RRP $17.95

OPI MATTE TOP COAT RRP $19.95

SALLY HANSEN BIG MATTE TOP COAT RRP $9.95

PICTURE POLISH G'DAY MATTE RRP $10.00

CULT NAILS WAX THAT RRP $12.00

MODE MATTE TOP COAT RRP $2.75

CELESTIAL COSMETICS MATTE TOP COAT RRP $7.50

DIY MATTE TOP COAT (1/4 t cornflour in 8ml polish base) RRP$0.00

 All the swatches I did in this post are over 2 coats of Ulta3 Black satin.

Ok so lets get down to the matte top coats. Each matte TC I popped on 2 coats over the black nail. I have photographed them in sun and shade so you can get a good look at the effect each polish created.

SUN

SUN

SHADE

SHADE

Without a doubt from all these swatches OPI Matte Top Coat and Essie Matte About You are the best appearance wise. I would sway a little to the OPI as the formula was thinner than Essie and the brush was better quality. A close second to theses two was Picture Polish G'day matte. tho the formula of my one was a bit wishy washy and really I could have used 3 coats for overall effect. The next 2 which were very close was Sally Hansen big matte and Mode matte. the biggest difference was price. For $2.75 the Mode was great value for money but really thick formula and it did separate, but if your happy to give a bit of a shake that would be just fine. Saying that, the Sally Hansen big matte dried really quickly properly the quickest out of all the matte polishes I tried today, so If it was speed you are after Sally Hansen is the way to go.

Lastly the least matte polishes. The DIY matte was crap. I made it up as per the internet instruction, and although it did create a "matte"effect it was nothing like the other polishes. Cult nails and Celestial cosmetics were very similar. more of a wax effect which is quite nice ,but not nearly as matte as the OPI. That said I think you will find this with most indie matte top coats as i'm pretty sure most australian indies get their base from the same supplier. 

Its funny the Celestial cosmetic Matte top coat I thought was quite matte as well as the cult nails,but when you compare them with other brands they look totally different. I like the subtly of the wax look but for a pure matte effect my money is on the OPI or Essie.

I hope to acquire more matte top coats including the new Gel matte top coat by gelicious. so stay tuned for more comparisons.  

If you can think of anything you would like comparing feel free to drop me a line via email or on the comments and I will see what I can do :)

for reference if you would like to purchase any of these matte top coats you can get them at the following places - 

OPI- MYER and David Jones

Essie - Priceline

Sally Hansen- Priceline or Target

Picture polish - Picture polish

Cult Nails - Cult Nails

Mode - local chemists

Celestial cosmetics - Celestial Cosmetics

Until next time......

OPI peace and love and OPI swatch and review and comparison with Essie for the Twill of it.

Hey there everyone!

I wanted to show you this polish ever since i got it from color 4 nails a few weeks ago.

OPI peace and love and OPI from the san francisco collection.

pic taken in the sun.

When i first saw this polish i was super excited! i mean i am a total duochrome whore! and anything thats is shiny and changes colour in light i just have to buy!!!

But at the same time as this wonderful polish came out, Essie brought a Duochrome out as well! In their Fall 2013 collection they had a polish called- for the twill of it. now as i said before....duo whore! so i ordered this as well!

Now here is the amazing thing...for 2 companies to bring out new collections at the same time and have similar colours?? i can totally understand this...... but to bring out a collection at the same time and have the EXACT same polish??!!! fluke??? i dont know???   but here is a bottle shot of the 2 polishes together.

in the shade.

Pretty similar huh??

So i did some swatches before deciding on which polish to share with you. and between the 2 polishes i prefer the OPI formula, brush and general way this polish goes on.

I found that the essies brushes are quite thin and the formula with the essies was thin as well. it took 3 coats to do the swatches compared to 2 coats with the OPI.

Here are some swatches side by side.

In the sun.

In the shade.

As you can see about these are pretty much exact dupes of each other! Personally if you want to buy one id go for the OPI even if it is more expensive where you live. the formula is heaps better than the essie.

Now for proper swatches! i decided on the OPI to swatch on my nails so here are some pics for you :)

In the shade

in the sun

in the sun

These were all 2 coats of OPI peace and love and OPI over my black gel nails. you could build up and have no undies but i wanted the duo to pop and it does so much more with a black base coat.

So what do you think??? which would you buy??

You can pick up both the OPI and Essie at color for nails or if they are not listed on Sisi's website contact her via her facebook page and PM what you are after.The owner Sisi has very competitive rates for polish and a great deal with shipping as well. and she ships WORLDWIDE!!!!! so us aussies don't miss out!!!!!

Stay tuned as this month i will be sharing with you all a bunch more dupe and similar polishes that are out there and which ones i think are the best to buy!!!