Swatches and Review--Essie Come Here

Essie Come Here is what I would describe as an electric coral red creme. Essie describes it as a 'nearly neon coral'. When I purchased it, CVS was having a weekly special in which they had four or five select Essie shades for 50% off. Irresistible!

*I purchased this product with my own money. I am not compensated by nor affiliated with any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

There was no lighting or camera trick in which I could capture how bright this shade is; it's not neon, but it is definitely electric.

I am quite enamored (BBC is on the television as I'm writing; is it influencing the words I choose?) with Come Here. The color is rich, intense, and happy. I applied two thin coats and one thick coat over a base coat that I can't remember now, and one coat of Seche Vite quick-dry top coat. I believe it would have applied best in two thick coats for some reason. 

If you like bright colors, you might want to check out Essie Come Here. The other shades in Essie's Resort 2013 Collection are quite bright as well. I bought all four of them, and I rarely buy an entire collection. 

*I purchased this product with my own money. I am not compensated by nor affiliated with any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Don't Pay Retail Prices Part 2--$1.95 CVS Haul

In February, I shared several examples of why and how I almost never pay retail prices for my beauty items, in the post Don't Pay Retail Prices. Today's installment is another small example, focused on combining resources for saving such as sales, coupons, and customer loyalty rewards. 
*I paid for these products with my own money. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

I bought Essie Stroke of Brilliance, Neutrogena Pure & Free Sunscreen, and Sally Hansen Tint + Moisture Balm for a total of $1.95 after tax.

My original subtotal before tax at full retail CVS pricing would have been $27.77. The price for the Sally Hansen is the same in other stores, the price for the Essie is about 29 cents cheaper in most places, and the price for the Neutrogena is about $1.50~2.00 cheaper elsewhere. So even if I had been shopping at a less expensive store, my subtotal would still have been about $26.00.

The sunscreen was on sale for $7.99, down from $14.49. I had a CVS coupon for $4.00 off of a $20.00 purchase. I had received two ExtraBucks rewards, which are basically store credit, from the CVS ExtraCare customer loyalty program which gives you 2% back on purchases and $5.00 ExtraBucks when you accumulate 10 filled prescriptions (if you link everything, easy to do online). One was for $1.50 for my regular purchases and one was for $5.00 for my beauty purchases, (which you get once you have cumulatively spent $50.00 on beauty items if you're signed up for their ExtraCare Beauty Club). As you can see below, that brought my subtotal to only $0.77! So although my final total was $1.95, I was paying less for the actual products than for the sales tax.

That's how you make a beauty product purchase that doesn't worry your husband. He gave me a high-five on this one, as a matter of fact.

*I paid for these products with my own money. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Swatches and Review--Essie Under Where?

Argh! I didn't intend to take a break from the blog. No excuses, just life. 
Essie nail polish is how I spend most of my loyalty points (Extra Bucks) at CVS. This lovely polish is called Under Where? and is part of Essie's Resort 2013 collection. 
*I purchased this product with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands or companies mentioned in this post.*

Obviously I'm a fan of the Resort 2013 collection, as this is the third polish from it that I've purchased and blogged about. (See my other two posts, about First Timer and In the Cab-ana.) The only one that I didn't buy is Come Here!, and only because I doubt that it would look good with my skin tone.

Essie's Web site describes Under Where? as a 'wildly flirtatious orchid'. It is very vibrant, as are the other shades in this collection. It was difficult to capture this vibrancy on camera.

This formula seems like a crelly to me, a cross between a creme and a jelly finish. Unfortunately, it was problematic: Streaky, watery, and uneven in application. 

All photos are outdoors in natural light or shade. I'm wearing one coat of Orly Bonder as my base, three coats of Essie Under Where?, and one coat of Poshe quick-dry top coat.

The application mostly evened out by the third coat, but it still needed the smoothing power of the top coat.

Even though Under Where? was terrible for me formula-wise, I will keep it and use it again. I adore the color that much. I will probably try a different base coat next time to see if it works any better. And perhaps the polish will become less watery now that it's had some exposure to air.

Most of the time this polish looks very bright and red-based. However, in the shade and occasionally in other lights, it leans more blue. It just leans, it never becomes anything that is not lilac.

Cleanup was easy, and I did not experience any staining on my skin or nails.

Essie nail polish is pretty widely available and typically retails for $8.00 for a full-size bottle. (For example, they are sold at Target, WalMart, and CVS.) I have seen mini bottles, and I even have some through trades on makeuptalk.com, but I have not seen them for sale in a retail store in my area. 

*I purchased this product with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands or companies mentioned in this post.* 

Swatches and Review--Essie Madison Ave-Hue

What a spoiled little brat! No, I'm not talking about a person, but a nail polish. You know how sometimes a kid is a maddening little person who acts up and does whatever they want and drives you crazy, but they are so cute that you love them anyway? That describes my experience with Essie Madison Ave-Hue.
*I purchased this polish with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any brand mentioned in this post.*

Our relationship started out just fine. I was shopping with my brother's girlfriend at CVS, buying boring stuff like deodorant. When I went to pay, my receipt printed out with $5.00 of Extra Bucks (the loyalty/reward program at CVS)! I turned right around to look at the nail polish to see which one was coming home with me for $5.00 cheaper than usual. 

I have been on such an Essie kick lately, further fueled by the giant display that our CVS added to the front of the store, basically in my face the second I walk in. I browsed and finally decided on Madison Ave-Hue, which I had previously picked up and put down on several other occasions in favor of my more beloved greens and blues. 

In the bottle, Madison Ave-Hue appears to be a medium, purple-leaning pink with subtle but dense silver shimmer. Those things are still true when on the nail. However, this little diva wants so badly to be neon purple that she almost makes you believe that she is. 

The formula was thin, but not difficult to apply. It was difficult for me to get even coverage, though, so I ended up with three coats over  Orly Bonder base coat. She seemed like she was going to cover evenly, but no. I'm pretty sure she laughed at me for having new hope on each nail for even coverage. One coat of Poshe was my top coat.

Madison Ave-Hue is very pigmented. Once I had finished my three coats, I was surprised at how much deeper and brighter the polish was on my nails versus the bottle. I thought it was pink, but now started to wonder if it was closer to purple. And almost neon as purples go...strange, but pretty. This observation was under artificial light. I was thinking of how difficult it would be to capture the right color on camera. It ended up being five times more difficult than I anticipated; see how she is turning out to be high maintenance?

The day after application, photo day, I was sitting in natural light indoors. Now the polish looks on my nails like it does in the bottle--what a moody lady! Still so lovely, though...

Outside in the bright sunlight, Madison Ave-Hue mostly looked pink again. But she leaned purple again if I changed the angle at all. How am I supposed to accurately portray this polish on the blog? It's so beautiful that it wouldn't be very nice of me not to share, but it took hours to color-correct all the photos in such a way as to show you what my eyes saw.

So I get completely frustrated applying the polish, taking the photos,and editing the photos, but I can't stop smiling and staring at the pretty polish. This must be how women make men feel.

After all that, she has the nerve to chip on the day after application! I don't ask for a long-wearing polish; I change my polish all the time. Two days should not be too much to ask.

Yes, it's 'just nail polish', so my story is overly dramatic. But here's the bottom line: Is Essie Madison Ave-Hue worth the confusion and the trouble? For me, yes. I loved her different personalities and she's so cute! The dense but subtle shimmer adds something special. I think that Madison Ave-Hue is a good shade both for spring and for summer, if you pay attention to seasonally appropriate things.

*I purchased this polish with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any brand mentioned in this post.*

What do you think? Do you have any beauty products that you have a love/hate relationship with? Seche Vite top coat is another of mine.

Review and Swatches--Essie First Timer

What, another creme nail polish? Yup, that's my spring mood so far, and recent collections in stores have been very accommodating. 
*I purchased this product with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Essie makes some of my favorite creme polishes, so I have been on a little kick with them lately. This beauty is call First Timer and is from their Resort 2013 collection (the same collection as In the Cab-ana).

The consistency was thin, but fortunately it didn't make the coverage poor or streaky. All photos show two coats Essie First Timer and one coat Poshe top coat. 

Inside the house under natural light, First Timer pulled a lot more blue. Most of the time, it was the vibrant green that you see in my sunny photos. 

I was very happy with this polish. I am a big fan of green and kept looking at my nails while wearing it. It chipped sooner than I would have liked, which isn't a big deal for me since I change my polish so often, but maybe something to keep in mind if you want your manicure to be long-lasting. 

Essie nail polish usually retails for $8.00 and can be purchased at stores like WalMart, CVS, and Target as well as on their Web site. 

*I purchased this product with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Manicures with Friends Part 2: Tot's Dots

The most recent hand model for Rouge Required is my friend Tatiana. We call her Tot or Tater Tot as nicknames, thus Tot's Dot's. She wanted something that she wouldn't do for herself, and we were having trouble deciding which polishes to use, so we used several of the top choices for this 'dotticure'. 
*Products shown below were either purchased by me or received in a trade with one of the other members on makeuptalk.com. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

 

I first painted Tot's nails with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then two coats of Essie Play Date. I applied Poshe quick-dry top coat before creating the dots.

The dots were created with my Martha Stewart dotting tools that I bought at Michael's. These photos are before I applied a final coat of Poshe over the dots, indoors under artificial light. If you choose to do a similar manicure, I recommend waiting longer than you think you need to before applying the last top coat. The dots are thicker than a normal coat of polish, so they tend to smear if you top coat them too soon.

The polishes used for the dots:

Blue--Essie In the Cab-ana

Green--Essie First Timer

Lavender--Julep Renee

Purple glitter--Zoya Aurora

*Products shown above were either purchased by me or received in a trade with one of the other members on makeuptalk.com. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Photos--Essie In the Cab-ana

Essie In the Cab-ana is a fabulous polish. However, it did not photograph well for me in artificial light. I will try to photograph it for you another day in sunlight, and then I'll give you a real review. The photo of Miss Blu's (my four-year-old cousin, my beloved one) hands is the most color accurate of these. I dislike these photos, but I was really happy with my nails that day...sigh.

Essie Lady Like Swatches

Essie's Web site describes Lady Like as "an elegant soft mauve". My search for Essie Lady Like began quite a while ago when my best friend found a photo on Pinterest of a pinkish nude that she liked. I eventually found the source of the photo and blog post that told me what shade it was: http://mixedmama.blogspot.com/2012/01/valentines-day-mani-youre-only-on-for.html.
*I purchased Essie Lady Like with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands, stores, or Web sites mentioned in this post.*

I bought Lady Like for my best friend, but once I saw it I knew that I needed it, too. I purchased one of the bottles at my local CVS, and I had some CVS Extra Bucks (their rewards program; you can learn about it here: https://www.cvs.com/extracare/landing.jsp?t=Howitworks) and a coupon that I used, so I paid only a few dollars. The second bottle was purchased from http://www.dermstore.com/, and I had a coupon for $25 off of a $50 purchase, so the price balanced out on that one to be very low as well. If it weren't for coupons and sales, my nail polish collection would be pretty small. It's the only way that I shop for beauty products.

For the photos I'm wearing three thin coats of Essie Lady Like and one coat of top coat (I believe I used Seche Vite). All of these photos are under artificial light of differing levels.

I believe that this mauve polish would lean toward a nude on many skin tones, but on me it definitely appeared more colorful, showed up more of the grayish rose and lilac.

As you may have noticed on my blog, I am all for green, blue, purple and glittery goodness. But sometimes I just want something classy and pretty. Essie Lady Like fit the bill for that purpose. I told my husband that I loved this polish because "Lady Like is just so...ladylike!" If your workplace is conservative regarding nail polish, I think this is a very work-appropriate shade.  

I didn't have any issues to report with the polish formula or application. 

Essie nail polish typically retails for $8.00. Lady Like is not available from Essie's Web site, but it is still in stores such as CVS, Target, and WalMart.

*I purchased Essie Lady Like with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands, stores, or Web sites mentioned in this post.*