Today, as I type this in a snow squall, we have swatches of the new spring collection from Essie - Hide and Go Chic. This collection features 6 creamy shades with a focus on pastel blues and pinks. We actually didn't hate a single polish in this collection, but we are particularly enamoured with a few. So, here we go!

First up is Fashion Playground, a pastel green described accurately by Essie as 'pistachio'. This has the tiniest bit of shimmer, but if you're anti-shimmer it shouldn't bother you like past Essie shimmers have with larger silver glitter pieces. This swatch is two coats, and as you can see this polish has great opacity!

Next up is the headline polish of the collection, Hide and Go Chic. For some reason, we find this blue reminiscent of a greek vacation. This is a creme shade, and this swatch is two coats. Although this colour is unique in our collection, we love how original Fashion Playground is comparably. However, if you're missing a medium blue in your collection and feel like you need to fill that void, this is a great option.

This baby pink beauty is Romper Room, and it is literally the perfect pastel pink. We have a butter London pastel pink which was previously our go to - and it has been replaced. The formula on this is literally impeccable and we would recommend this to anyone, even if you already have a pastel pink in your collection. This will definitely get lots of wear this spring!

 

Next up is a nude marketed as 'semi-sheer' by Essie - Spin the Bottle. In three coats (in the swatch below), you get to opacity. Even with two coats however, it still has pretty good coverage for those who want to keep their nail lines private. We thought this worked well with our skin tone, but also think it would work well with a darker skin tone (however, lighter may be a no-go).

Next up is the bright of the collection - Style Hunter. This is a super bright 'crimson' (Essie's words) and the description of 'laser sharp' seems to be right on. This is definitely a statement polish, but we can see it working with spring florals really well! This is two coats, and application was flawless.

Lastly we have Truth or Flare, a 'vintage blue denim' - while we agree this polish has a vintage look to it, we wouldn't say denim. This polish fits well with the collection, but as you can see on the left edge of the pointer finger, coverage can be patchy if you haven't perfected flawless application. This is the one polish we would say to skip in this collection, but that said - in two coats, it does have a really nice shade that matches well with Hide and Go Chic for a potential two-tone mani.

Overall, we're really impressed with this collection from Essie and definitely recommend picking up a few shades. Let us know what you think!

Disclaimer: Some or all of the products mentioned in this post may have been provided by the company/PR for our honest consideration and review.

Butter London Patent-Gel Top and Tails Polish Set (retails for $40 at butterlondon.com)

We recently took a trip to London, and were super excited to try out two different no-cure gel base and top coat sets to see how they fared over 9 days of travel. Since a UV-cured gel manicure lasts around 14 days, we assumed that the no-cure alternative would make it around 9 with no major problems - We were wrong. While we did achieve a plush, gelly look for our mani, as perfectionists we were disappointed with the overall wear time.

Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab Base and Top Coat
48 hours

Butter London Patent-Gel Top and Tails
48 hours

We have used the Deborah Lippmann gel set before with 3-4 days of no-chip wear time, so we used that as a comparison on the left hand - see the picture to the left for this look after 48 hours compared to the butter London gel set after one day on the right. For colour, we used Misa Foggy Breath at 3AM. While the Deborah Lippmann set had more chips after 48 hours - you can still see a small chip on the pointer finger of the right hand.

After 4 days, both hands were too chipped to continuing wearing (especially if you hate chipped nails). Interestingly, the butter London top coat adds most of the thickness, while in the Deborah Lippman set it is the base coat which adds that thick gel look to your mani. Both polishes remained plush and gel like for the entire wear.

Overall, Butter London was the better set for resisting chips, however once it chipped the rest of the nail seemed to chip faster than with Deborah Lippmann. We recommend the Butter London set to anyone looking to perfect their nail look a day in advance of a major event without worry of chipping. It is also worth noting that we didn't avoid washing dishes or showering in the first day of wear, which can increase wear time!

Have you tried either of these sets in search of the gel look?


Dislcaimer: Some of these products may have been provided to us by the company/PR for our honest consideration and review.

This years Resort collection from Essie features four shades ranging from a shimmery nude to a punchy peach! Check out our thoughts on the collection beside each polish below. As usual, each swatch is two coats with no top coat!

Starting off we have a nude shade that is likely suited to a little more of a tan - Cocktails & Coconuts. Although this shade is a bit off from our perfect nude, we can see how this would suit a vacation well. With a touch of shimmer, this polish is totally wearable day to night!

Next up we have one of our favourites, an ultra-light blue called Find Me an Oasis. This is such a unique colour, and it is so close to white but we are totally in love. This would work perfectly with any of the new spring collections featuring pastels. We are definitely including this in our spring must-haves and totally recommend.

Next up is a deep peach jelly polish called Resort Fling, which is surprisingly opaque in two coats. We love this polish for spring, and especially love how it pairs with Find Me an Oasis. We love this, but it is not an essential if you already have corals in your collection!

Finally we have Under the Twilight, which is described as a 'provocative, smoky plum'. This polish leans navy-black for us and we're not really in love as a spring-time shade. This polish would look great under Find Me an Oasis (can you tell how much we love it?) as they are both slightly blue.




Overall, we are not disappointed with Essie quality as usual, and are pretty happy with the shades in this collection. Are there any that you are dying to pick up, or have you tried any of these polishes? Let us know in the comments section!

Disclaimer: Some of these products were provided to us by the company/PR for our honest consideration and review.

Mix-and-match black and white glitter has made it to the drugstore - Revlon's new releases include a Graffiti top coat! Perfect for layering, we used this black and white polish over nude for a fun effect.

Let us know if you've seen these polishes at your local Revlon retailer or if you've picked one up, we'd love to see how you wear it!

Disclaimer: Some of these products were provided to us by the company/PR for our honest consideration and review.

So excited to share with you the Misa Winter collection - Bluesy Blues! We have always seen Misa around (the full collection is available at Trade Secrets in Canada) but never had the chance to try any of their collections, and we are glad we did! The difference between these polishes are subtle in the bottle, but this three piece collection contains all the deep blue shades you could ever need in your collection. Check out the swatches below!

This shade is Foggy Breath at 3AM - it is super rich and easy to paint. We love the depth of this colour, and totally recommend this polish. This swatch is two coats with no top coat, and we love the shine!

The next shade is definitely a purple, but it leans blue. Icy River is another deep, rich hue and we totally will wear this through spring. We are always looking for the perfect deep purple, and this is definitely our new go-to. If you pick up one polish from this collection, this should be the one! Again, this swatch is two coats with no top coat.

Finally, we have Winter Bluesy Blues - a royal blue with tons of shine! We love this blue, however if you have another blue in your collection that leans to this shade, this is not a must have. The application was great, and this swatch is two coats with no top coat.




We're super happy that we got the chance to try this collection from Misa, and definitely recommend the purple if you happen to spot it out and about. Let us know if you have tried any of these polishes or what you think of this collection!

We are so excited to present our latest foray in to the YouTube world of nail tutorials... A tutorial for our favourite and probably most shared nail design!




We used the following polishes: China Glaze For Audrey, Covergirl Non-Stop Stone, OPI Push and Shove, OPI Snowflakes in the Air, and China Glaze White on White. We also used a hex nail jewelry Heart No. 1 charm available here, as well as some bornprettystore.com brushes available here. You can also use the code KNAILART for a 10% discount at www.bornprettystore.com!