Essie First Timer

I have been loving Essie lately. They have come out with some pretty nice collections and I think I bought about 10 of them in the last 2 months alone. This next polish I have debated about getting for a long time. It seemed so different on different people, some I liked and some I didn't like so much.

Eventually, I bit the bullet and ordered Essie First Timer and I'm really glad I did! This is a stunning green cream polish and the formula is really nice. Opaque in 2 coats and, although a little patchy, it does even out nicely on the nail. The dry time was ok, a little on the long side, but my trusty SV makes this a non-issue for me.

First Timer is part of the 2013 Resort Collection, I already showed you In the Cab-Ana from this collection. I absolutely love how this looks with my skintone. It almost becomes a dusty grass green and it looks really pretty. Just look at these swatches!

2 coats First Timer

This polish is the salon version and every time I use one of those I decide never to buy the drugstore kind with the wide brush again! (for more information about the different kinds of Essie polishes, click here)

What's your favorite Essie polish?

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Colors by Llarowe Purple Rain

I've mentioned the awesome website Llarowe more than once on my blog. You can find the best indie polishes on this site and I have spend many a dollar there. When Leanne announced that she would be releasing her own line of nail polish, I was thrilled! With all that experience with indie polishes, these must be absolutly fantastic polishes.

As soon as I saw the first picture of Colors by Llarowe Purple Rain I knew I had to have it! This wonderful deep purple polish had to be mine!

Purple Rain is a dark purple jelly with a ton of blue micro glitter. So gorgeous and unique to my collection. When I painted the first coat, I noticed that the formula was a little weird. Thick and goopy, like trying to paint thick syrup on my nails. I just couldn't get an thin, even coat on my nails. I was wondering if this was the normal consistancy of this polish or did I somehow get a bad one? A friend of mine also has this polish, so I checked with here and her polish is actually perfect! So I added just a few drops of thinner to my bottle and  that fixed it completely.



3 coats Purple Rain, 1 coat SV

It was opaque in 3 coats and it dried really fast. I love the understated beauty of this polish, the glitter/shimmer is very subtle, but in sunlight... oh boy... I just can't get over how gorgeous it is! The blue micro glitter really pops, absolutely stunning!

I love this polish, I really don't mind that I had to add a bit of thinner. This just happens sometimes. The bottle is also a really big plus in my opinion. The cap is rubbery which gives you a nice grip. The brush itself is nice and thin, but fans out enough to distribute the polish evenly. I am a huge fan!

Just look at the blue glitter in this polish!


Picture taken at night, but look at that blue glitter!

Do you own any Colors by Llarowe?

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Philosophy Hands of Hope

I'm always on the hunt for the perfect hand cream, but I haven't found the right one yet. I admit, I have a lot of requirements for a cream. I would like it to be nice and thick, really moisturizing, it has to sinks in my skin really fast and shouldn't leave a greasy residue. Oh, And the smell shouldn't be to overpowering.

Easy enough, right?
Wrong! I have tried many, many creams and they just don't do it for me...

I love Philosophy and decided to give their  hand cream a try. Hands of Hope is a hand and cuticle cream in one. Nice, I always like it when I can skip a step in my routine.

"Hands of hope are the hands that help, heal, protect and comfort. Use our hands to give hope, and you will have hope to hold."

The first thing I noticed when I bought this cream, is that it's a really small tube and it's expensive! I only got 30ml/1 fl. oz. Normally this little tube retails for € 9.70, but when I purchased it, it was on sale with 30% off.

The ingredients:

The cream itself is a nice thick white cream, only lighty scented.

The cream

It's really easy to apply, it spreads out nice and evenly and sinks in to my skin really fast.

 

 

This cream makes my hands feel really soft and hydrated, I absolutely love it! Have I found my perfect cream? Well, if it was cheaper, I would say yes, absolutely! But this itty bitty tube only lasted me the short end of a month and there is no way I'm going to spend € 10 every month on a hand cream!

As for the cuticle cream aspect, it does hydrate my cuticles, but I do need something more for them.

I will definitely repurchase this when it's on sale again, but I'm not paying full price for this. It's a good handcream, but, in my opinion, overpriced.

What's your holy grail hand cream?

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Mani Monday's: favorite Red part 2

I showed my favorite reds yesterday and it's time for me to make that tough decision... Today I will show you the one polish that makes my heart race every time I look at the bottle and have it on my nails. It's simply stunning and takes my breath away! Yes, I feel that strongly about this polish! It took me forever to find it and now that I finally own it, I'm only wearing it on special occasions, as I'm afraid I'll run out.

Did you guess that OPI Smitten with Mittens is my all time favorite red nail  polish? Well, you are right! Not only is this deep, rich red with golden micro glitter my favorite, but it's also my husbands favorite! Every once in a while he will ask me to wear "that polish you know I like so much" and I'll pull out Smitten.

The fomula is perfect, it flows on the nail with ease and is opaque in just 2 thin coats and dries really fast. Smitten is part of the 2009 OPI Holiday wishes collection and unfortunately it's hard to find these days. (Merry Midnight was also part of this collection and I really want that one too, but it's even harder to find...).

2 coats Smitten, 1 coat SV

Just look at this beauty, no wonder it's my favorite! In the bottle the golden glitter is a little more noticeable than on the nail, but when the sunlight hits this polish, the golden sparkle comes out to play. Unfortunately, it's grey outside and raining, so I wasn't able to capture the full beauty of this polish, but even without a nice ray of sunlight, this polish is stunning!

What's your favorite color polish to wear?

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Mani Monday's: Favorite Red part 1

Today's Mani Monday theme is Favorite Red!
Well, red happens to be my favorite nail polish color and I have a lot of them. In my book, red is a color that fits every occasion, you just can't go wrong with a red nail. Classic red, vampy red, red with shimmer, micro glitter, large glitter, bright red... there's a red for every one!

So you can imagine my dilemma with just choosing one favorite red polish. I felt it wouldn't do the magnificence of red nail polish justice, so I decided to do Mani Monday's a little different this time.

I did pick my all time favorite red nail polish and I will definitely show you this polish, including swatches. But not untill tomorrow. This also has to do with my more than busy weekend, which lead to me not being able to paint my nails. I'm still rocking the B&W mani...

Today I have my favorite reds for you. Yes, Reds, plural. I think all these polishes are awesome in there own way and deserve a little bit of time in the spotlight. I devided them up in to categories, so let's get started!

Red with golden micro glitter/shimmer

Misa Girl Friday, OPI Smitten with Mittens, OPI The spy who loved me

This is one of my favorite types of red! I love the combination of a red polish with a hint of gold. It's just so classy and gives extra depth to the polish.

Girl Friday has a perfect formula, glides on the nail, opaque in 2 thin coats, dries really fast and looks stunning. Misa is one of my favorite brands, every single polish I own has this perfect formula. I just wish they would make more colors.

Smitten with Mittens is a deep red with golden micro glitter. Just perfect! Opaque in 2 thin coats, dries really fast and just makes me happy when I look at it. Unfortunatelly it was a limited edition holiday 2009 polish. It is still available on eBay, but it's not cheap...

The spy who loved me is part of the 2012 James Bond collection. This polish is an orange based red with golden micro glitter. Stunning and really gorgeous paired with OPI Goldeneye.

Red creams, crelly's and jelly's

OPI Girls just want to play, OPI Wocka Wocka, OPI An affair in Red Square

Essie Limited Addiction, Essie Skirting the issue, China Glaze Vermillion, China Glaze Phat Santa

You can never go wrong with a red cream, jelly or crelly. Fits every occasion and every outfit. Red is flattering on just about every skintone and with the jelly's you can make all kinds of different jelly sandwiches.

Girls is a raspberry red crelly. It is an older polish and I love this formula. Opaque in 2 coats, dries really fast and the finish is incredibly shiny. My perfect summer red.

Wocka Wocka is part of the 2011 Muppets collection and a hidden treasure in my book. Everybody was talking about the gorgeous glitters in that collection and although I do like those, I love me some Wocka Wocka!

An affair in Red Square is part of the 2007 Russian collection and has a slight shimmer. It looks similar to Wocka Wocka, but there is a slight difference in tone.

Ok, just typing Russian Collection and realized I totally forgot to include Vodka & Caviar! Don't know how that happened, because I hunted that polish down like a mad woman and I absolutely love it!

Limited Addiction is nice midtoned red cream. Just gorgeous.

Skirting the issue is an oxblood red jelly. Perfect for jelly sandwiches.

Vermillion is a blue toned red cream. I looked for a blue toned red cream polish for so long and was dissapointed so many times. Not with Vermillion! It's stunning on the nail.

Phat Santa, I love that name! And this midtone red polish is just awesome.

Red Glitter

Orly Devil may care, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Girly Bits Rogue, Colors by Llarowe Billy Jean

Red glitter polish... do I need to say more?

Devil may care is red and gold gitter in a clear base. This polish basically screames Christmas to me. Pefect layered over any red base.

Ruby pumps is red glitter in a red base. Opaque on its own in just 2 coats and beautiful, but even better layered over a vampy color like China Glaze Lubu Heels. It makes it extra chic.

Girly Bits Rogue, my favorite red indie. For a full review, click here.

And last, but certainly not least, the newest edition to my stash: Colors by Llarowe Billy Jean. Vampy, stunning and a dream to work with. LOVE it!

What's your favorite Red? And what do you think my all time favorite red polish is?
For the answer, check out my blog tomorrow for swatches :D

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