Reswatch: Essie Ole Caliente

Essie Ole Caliente was from the Spring 2012 Navigate Her collection. I wore it again as a pedicure recently and thought, eh, it's been over a year since I first blogged this polish, why not reswatch? I'm still not crazy about it as a manicure, but like Where's My Chauffeur, it looks even better with a tan.

Last time I wore this, I noted that four thin coats was the way to go. Ole Caliente has thickened up in that time, and was nearly solid in 1. I should have given it time to dry between coats though, because I wound up needing 3 coats to even it out anyway because of the streaking.

Oh, and just a quick note about the color: Ole Caliente isn't this orange on me IRL. It's more pink, and it's definitely brighter. My camera apparently had trouble with this color, too.

I remember reading last spring that Ole Caliente is either identical or very very similar to OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where? which was released at the same time. And this year's Resort collection brings us another near-dupe, called Come Here. Let's be honest, this isn't a very unique color, lol.

Have you tried Ole Caliente, or any of the countless similar colors? What do you think? Do you like bright pinks and corals on your fingernails, or are you like me and reserve them for pedicures?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Devil's Blood, or Tiger's Candy? A Red Jelly Sandwich

Good morning! Today's manicure is one that I came up with while swatching endless layering combinations of jellies and glitters on my nail wheels. I initially thought that Revlon Devil's Candy would be way too opaque for a jelly sandwich, since it is solid in 2 coats, but turns out it does work alright if you use a thin coat! This is 2 coats of Devil's Candy and 1 coat of Icing Tiger's Blood, topped off with a final coat of Devil's Candy. I did use top coat in these photos.

It doesn't have as much depth as a regular jelly sandwich, but it does vaguely remind me of what I was hoping RBL Poppy would be. I saw the bottle shots and was ooooohing and aaaahing over the shimmer flecks, but it doesn't often translate onto the nail that way...Poppy is no exception.

Here you can see the glitter a bit better. It's definitely different from what I'm used to, but I don't think it was an entirely unsuccessful experiment. Just more bold than I'm used to, haha.

Thoughts? Have you ever tried a jelly sandwich?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Jumping on the Gradient Bandwagon...(and SHXW Sun Kissed)

AKA one of the few instances of nail art you will probably ever see here, lol. I knew going into it that sponging would be difficult, but jeez :| Nail art is just not my thing. Luckily, after 3 or 4 rounds of sponging (and a thick coat of Gelous afterward), I got this result:

I used 1 coat of Essie Ole Caliente for the base, and as you can see, SHXW Sun Kissed is the other color. In retrospect, I should have sponged the orange onto the tips rather than the base, because I can see a few spots around my eponychia where Ole Caliente is still visible...I also had issues with flooding, because I put too much polish on the sponge. Cleanup was a nightmare, but I think that's kind of to be expected. I wound up just picking off the excess polish in the shower.

Despite the difficulties, I can see why gradients are so popular right now! All the flaws you can see in the macro shots aren't visible from a normal distance, so it looks really cool in person. Kinda reminds me of some sort of fruity summery drink.

I've already shown you Ole Caliente, but here's a photo of Sun Kissed that I took a while ago, under artificial light. It's actually a lot more yellow-toned than you'd think based on my photo of the gradient.

The formula is...not good. It's really thin and watery, and needs 4 coats for opacity. It is very bright and fun though, and the drying time wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and enjoy your weekend!

Essie Ole Caliente + Essie Shine of the Times

Essie Ole Caliente is part of Essie's Navigate Her collection for this spring. At first I was thinking "Meh, whatever. Boring." but then I saw the collection in person and realized how pretty it actually is! Most of the colors are terrible for my skintone, but Ole Caliente is gorgeous. I'm debating getting Navigate her too. Light greens are tricky for me, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, here's Ole Caliente.

Essie cremes can be a little tricky and prone to patching (case in point: Pretty Edgy), but I found that Ole Caliente works best in 4 super-thin coats. I let them dry completely just to be on the safe side.

Mind you, this is without top coat! It's that glossy on its own. It dried quickly, and I didn't have any issues with running or pooling.

Coral is pretty far out of my comfort zone, and while I do really like this color, I'm just not used to pink/orange/coral on me, so it looked a little weird. I figured adding flakies would help. This is one thin coat of Shine of the Times over Ole Caliente:

Usually the flakes in Shine of the Times and its assorted dupes are more orange, but they looked yellow most of the time. It's not a bad thing, just unexpected.

I think all the yellow from the flakes made Ole Caliente look more orange overall? They did help though. Coral is a lot less weird on my hands when there's glitter or flakes involved.

I don't usually keep the same polish on for more than 2 days, but I wore this combination for four days, and it wore really well. Very minor tipwear on a few nails, and no chipping whatsoever.

Thanks for looking!

Quirius Sunshine Energy + Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Quirius is a less well-known brand, and one that I don't have much experience with, but turns out they make killer neons! murkyDismal on MUA posted a photo of Sunshine Energy, and despite the fact that I don't like pink too much, I don't wear much orange, and I'm not big on neons, I really really liked the color. Luckily, it was at a nail supply not too far from my house, and it was pretty cheap. $2 or $3 if I recall correctly. It's so insanely bright!

I first showed you Sunshine Energy as a base for Connect the Dots in my Top 20 post, but here it is on its own. You have to be careful with application since it's a neon and neons are pretty prone to streaking, but this one isn't bad at all compared to some others. 3-4 coats.

It photographs more orange than it is in real life, but it's awesome either way. I also like the typical flat, matte neon finish. I think it goes well with a color this loud and vibrant.

I'm not really sure how, but Sunshine Energy made it into my Top 20! I didn't have photos of it on its own when I wrote the post, so I showed it to you as a base for Lynnderella Connect the Dots. This is that combination, with a matte topcoat:

Neon cremes and Connect the Dots are a match made in heaven.

It looks like there are flecks of white dust or something on the surface of my thumbnail, but that's actually the speckled white shimmer in Connect the Dots, and it doesn't actually look like dust in person.

Thanks for looking!