The Crazy Nail Polish Lady

Yepp that's me. I guess I got a little bit nail polish crazy and I ordered three mini collection sets from BeautyBay.com. I wonder if the fact that they are minis is a good excuse for buying a total of 12 bottles of nail polish. I say yes it is.


All three sets are summer collections and I was looking for some good pinks to add to my collection. The Summer Collection set from Essie was my venture into more brighter colors and a little bonus.
I was a little bit surprised at how small the O.P.I bottles were. I new that they were 3.75 ml each but I didn't realize that way were as small as they are, true minis I would say.
An other thing that I didn't like with the O.P.I minis was that the bottles aren't labeled with the name of the polish. Instead the name is written on the box that they came in forcing you to keep the boxes and be careful not to mix up the bottles. I didn't realize this at first so I pulled out all of the bottles from the Nice Stems collection out of the box just to realize that they weren't labeled.
The Essie mini collection contained larger bottles, 5 ml each and the bottles were also labeled. The Essie Mini collection was also cheaper than the O.P.I sets and did cost £10.75 were as the O.P.I sets cost £12.75 making the Essie Mini Set a better deal.
I apologize for the horrible state of my nails and hands in the pictures below. I have worked a lot with my hands lately and it has definitely taken its toll on my hands and nails.
The Nice Stems Collection by O.P.I
This collection contains three shimmer pink nail polishes and one glitter polish. I applied two coats of polish on every nail.

From Left to Right: Play the Peonies (thumb), Come To Poppy,
Be a Dal-ia Won't You, I Lily Love You and
I Lily Love You On Top Of Play the Peonies.

Play the Peonies is a very light almost white shimmery pink. I liked this because it is so light that it almost looks white but the pink tones in the polish makes it more wearable than a white polish.
Come To Poppy is a pink that leans towards Coral. It has the same shimmer quality as Play the Peonies. This is my favorite out of this set as it applies very well and I don't own any colors that look like this.
Be a Dahl-ia Won't You is a fushia pink with a more glittery effect to it. It looks like a foil to me. This is quite sheer so you may need to apply three coats of this to make it more opaque. I like this color but it doesn't feel very unique to me.
I Lily Love You is a glitter/flake polish in a transparent pink base. This works best when it is layered. I layered it over Play the Peonies in the picture but I think it would work better over Come to Poppy or Be a Dahl-ia Won't You since I think that the glitter disappeared a little on the light base.
Femme De Cirque by O.P.I
This collections consists of very soft nudes and pinks and one shimmery top coat. These colors are very sheer and I needed three coats to make them show up on the nail. Step Right Up! is more opaque than the other but also a little difficult to apply.

From Left to Right: So Many Clowns... So Little Time,
In The Spot-Light Pink, Step Right Up! and I Juggle...Men

So Many Clowns... So Little Time is a creamy nude and also my favorite in this set. When I applied the first coat I couldn't make out the color at all but this polish is build-able and after three coats it became a nice milky nude color.

In the Spot-Light Pink is the sheerest out of the three colors and it is difficult to make out even after three coats but the effect is very nice, it makes your nails look more polished and nice.

Step Right Up! is the problem child in this set. It is more opaque than the others but I had difficulties making it even on the nail. There is also something with this color that makes it a little bit odd. I think it should be even more opaque than it is. Even after three coats the nail line is still visible and it looks like I haven't put on enough coats.

I Juggle...Men is a glitter top coat with iridescent sparkles. It looks amazing in the bottle as it has a beautiful blue iridescence to it. But when you apply it to the nail the shimmer is barely noticeable. I used two coats on the nail and you can detect some sparkles in the close up picture below. I think I have to play with this some more before I make up my mind about it.

From Left To Right Step Right Up! and I Juggle...Men

The Essie Summer Collection 2011

This is the brighter collection that I added as a little bonus to myself when I made the order. There were two colors that I was interested in trying and that was Braziliant and Smooth Sailing. I applied two coats on every nail except for Super Bossa Nova that only needed one coat.

From Left to Right: Smooth Sailing, Meet Me At Sunset
and Super Bossa Nova.

Smooth Sailing is one of my favorites in this set. It is a periwinkle/lavender blue with silver sparkles in it. It looks amazing on the nail and the shimmer really stands out. This was very easy to apply and after two coats it looked perfect.

Meet Me At Sunset is a bright glossy orange creme that leans towards read. This was a little bit sheer but after two coats it looked okay. It isn't my favorite color in the set but I can see myself wearing this in late spring and during the summer.

Braziliant was one of the colors that I was most looking forward to. This is a orange color as well but with pink shimmer in it. I don't know why Essie decided to put two orange colors in this set but there is a difference between the two orange colors. The pink shimmer makes this color more coral and also it is a little bit lighter. This polish was very hard to work with and it was difficult to apply this evenly on the nail.

Super Bossa Nova is the star in this collection and I recommend this to everyone who is reading this blog. This is a dark shimmery fushia and it is very opaque. I only needed one coat. Color-wise it resembles Be a Dahl-ia Won't You from the Nice Stems collection but the formula is very different. This isn't as shimmery and it looks almost like a creme on the nails. I am thinking of layering Be a Dahl-ia Won't You on top of this one to make it more sparkly.