Review: Essie Mademoiselle

Every woman should have a lovely nude-for-you nail polish on hand. For my pale self, that perfect muted nail polish is Essie Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle is incredibly sheer (I use four coats!), but it elevates my nails from yellow and stained to a beautiful, natural-looking pink and polished. I prefer this look to my natural nails for situations where a first impression is paramount, like job interviews.

I literally can't make a single complaint about Mademoiselle. Although Mademoiselle is perfect for me, it took quite a bit of experimenting to find the perfect shade and formula for my skin tone. For example, the much-raved-about Essie Ballet Slippers is a streaky mess on my nails. 

NOTD: Snow

Well, we didn't have a white Christmas this year, but today I created a snowy manicure with Whitehall from the London collection of indie polish maker charme.

NOTD: Christmas Trees

Merry Christmas!

Today, I did a fun jelly sandwich with essie Waltz and a no name red glitter polish, topped with Christmas tree glitter I received with an order from Etsy indie polish maker Super Nails.

NOTD: Snowman Manicure

Today, I have a fun snowman manicure! I got some great Christmas glitter with a recent purchase from Super Nails on Etsy. I separated out the snowmen and mixed them with white hex and red dot glitter for a fun Christmas glitter. The base coat is an unnamed frosty green OOAK that I got from Leesha's Lacquer, also on Etsy.

PSA: Zoya PixieDust BOGO

So, apparently Zoya is discontinuing their PixieDust line. This makes me really sad! These textured beauties have better staying power than regular nail polishes for me. In any case, now's the time to stock up, as they are having a BOGO sale.

Review: Seche Vite

 

Seche Vite is my current go-to top coat. It is closer to perfect than Orly Bonder, but it still is not perfect.

Seche Vite is a dry fast top coat, and I would agree that it is pretty speedy. My nails are dry to the touch within minutes and seem to be totally dry within an hour. I wish there was a magical top coat that enabled me to paint my nails and then immediately move on with my life, but I haven't found that product just yet.

One nice thing about Seche Vite is its great shine. It really seems to add something to my manicure, which is especially great if you are using glitter.

I still get chips and tip wear with Seche Vite. I have to blame that on my body chemistry.

Review: Orly Bonder

As I've written before, I am in search of the perfect base coat that will hold onto my nail polish for dear life, despite my apparently weird body chemistry. I haven't found it yet. Today, I'm reviewing Orly Bonder, which is my usual go-to base coat. However, Orly Bonder is far from perfect.


Orly Bonder is a rubberized base coat, which is supposed to help the polish adhere to the nail. I can't attest to the science behind it, but polish adheres relatively well. Some nail bloggers rave about Orly Bonder, but my polish always chips within a day. I can't ding Orly Bonder too much for that, since my experience with Orly Bonder is no different than my experience with other base coats. In fact, on this count, Orly Bonder works a little better than other base coats I've tried.

I also like the bottle and brush for Orly Bonder. The bottle has a big rubberized cap that is easy to hold onto for even a nail polish novice like me. The bottle is large and made of pretty frosted glass. I'm looking forward to using this bottle for a frankenpolish when it's empty. Orly Bonder is orange in the bottle but applies clear on the nail. I also liked the self-leveling that I got from Orly Bonder.