Essie Yogaga Collection Review

Last month, I received a press release from Essie's PR collection regarding one of their new fall collections, Yogaga, which was a collection of 6 "neutral" cremes with fitness-themed names.  I thought it was such an intriguing collection for fall, and I'm so happy to show it to you today.  

Before I show you swatches, there is one color in the collection, Yogaga, that I did not receive for review, but it is looks like a soft, sandy beige.  You can see the color on Essie's website.  Here are the colors I did receive...

Boxer Shorts - light periwinkle blue.  Boxer Shorts is the reason that I put the word neutral in quotations above, because while it is a calm, serene blue, it's not what I would exactly call neutral.  It is, however, a gorgeous color and it's my favorite of the collection.  This one is definitely on the blue side of periwinkle, but there is a enough purple in the base to make this one a periwinkle rather than a cornflower blue.   Also, of the 5 I swatched, Boxer Shorts had the best formula.  It did take 3 coats to reach opacity, but the coats were thin enough that there was no issue with evenness or leveling.  

Gym Dandy - medium-toned, brown taupe.  Essie calls this one a "greige" and while I definitely see brown and mushroom and taupe, I don't see much grey.  It's certainly in the same vein, but it's more brown than what comes to mind when I see the word greige.  This one is one of the more fall-ish colors in the collection.  I did have a bit of issue with the formula, as it was a tad thick, but going slow and trying to keep a thin amount on the brush helped.  3 coats.

Marathin - slightly spicy, tea rose pink.  Marathin is the one that I have shown you before, and it's a very pretty pink for cooler months.  The more I wore it, I did think it age my hands a bit, but in all honesty, that also could have been from the Julep remover which dried out my hands while I was swatching.  This one is a great pink for those of you that just like to wear neutral colors.  For example, my mom and aunt would LOVE this one.  I did have the same formula issues that I had with Gym Dandy, but they were nothing that couldn't be handled.  2 coats.

Pilates Hottie - light grey-lavender.  Now this is one that I would call a "greige", albeit a very pale one.  It's a really pretty grey/lavender hybrid, but unfortunately, it didn't look all that great on my nails.  Though, I think it would look much better on a darker skintone.  These pale greys and lavenders always have a tendency to give me a case of "dead hands".  Like the other 2 light colors I swatched, this one also had a thicker, slightly temperamental formula.  3 coats.    

Spinning Again - brick red.  In the bottle, I thought this one was going to be more brown, but on the nail, it's a fantastic brick red that just screams "FALL!".   It's also very flattering on my pale skintone. It had one of the better formulas in the collection and is my second favorite behind Boxer Shorts.

I think this is a very wearable fall collection from Essie.  It's funny because while it is a collection of neutrals, my favorites were the least neutral of the bunch.  What does that say about me?  LOL.  

The collection, including Yogaga, is currently available from Essie.com, as well as other outlets (I think I actually saw it at Target last week), and retail for $8 a bottle.

This collection was sent to me for review.  

Lex Cosmetics Seashell

You may remember that around the first of the year, Ji offered a RBL fan submission contest.  My entry was for an "oilslick" polish.  Unfortunately, it wasn't selected (it may have been put in her "impossible" catagory. LOL), so I was more than a little excited with Sarah's Seashell/Oilslick inspiration polish was voted to be in Lex's line up of polishes.

I finally got around to getting this one last week, and while it's a very pretty polish, I have to say, that I'm a tad underwhelmed.  :(  This is a deep charcoal base with tons of subtly holo microshimmer.  Again, it's pretty, but it doesn't quite meet what I had in mind.  I expected it to be a duo/multi-chrome rather than a holo, and the black base really took me out of the "inspired by a seashell" backstory.  It's silly, but in my mind, there is a bit of a disconnect between a deep charcoal polish and a seashell (of course, I fully admit that is probably nitpicking).

Also, when you have a polish like this, it comes with the territory that it's going to be compared to OPI My Private Jet holo.  And when you do that comparison, there is no contest.  My Private Jet will always reign supreme (of course, it's now super rare and $$$, so perhaps this would be a good lemming slayer)  However, Seashell seems very similar to Color Club Revvvolution (which I blog-sold or I would compare) and perhaps Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm (which I never owned).

In terms of application, my bottle leaked quite a bit in transit and I think that made the formula a bit thick.  It wasn't impossible to work with by any means, but I just had to be careful with it.  It was a good formula, though, and it dried fast and is super, super glossy with just 1 coat of TC (which is awesome considering sometimes, these kinds of colors have a tendency to eat up TC and end up looking muddy).  I haven't been able to stop looking at my nails today because the finish is so SHINY!  :)

Even with my issue regarding the color and leakage, I still wouldn't dissuade you from picking this one up, especially if you don't have any of the similar colors, and one of the reasons I'm saying this is because of the company, Lex Cosmetics.  First off, this is the only company, that I can think of, that let's their customers decide on their entire color line, not just a couple here and there.  Also, $1 of each bottle sold goes to the charity of the creator's choice.  In this case, Sarah's requested that $1 go to the fight against sexual assault.

Seashell is available at www.lexcosmetics.com, and the cost is $10 per bottle.

this was purchased by me

Nicole By OPI Something About Color Target Exclusive collection Review (Fall Colors)

Back in March, I showed you the Nicole by OPI Spring Target exclusives.  Well, they have come out with 4 additions to this collection for Fall 2011. 

FYI, I got a new camera, a Canon SD1400IS, and I am still trying to work out some growing pains, so I'm sorry if these pictures are sub-par.

Cherry Much In Love - bright cherry red, glass flecked shimmer.  This one is beautiful.  The base was a little jelly-ish, so the glass flecks kind of suspended in the base.  I had no issues with application and the formula, was great, though a little thin.  Three coats

Green Up Your Act - dusty, greyed olive creme.  I struggled with this one.  I swear, I swatched it twice and took a gazillion pictures and I still wasn't satisfied.  The color is definitely unique.  It's not a traditional camo green, or an olive green for that matter, it seemed to have a lot of blue/grey in the base.  It also had a dustiness to it.  I struggled with the formula, as it seemed a bit goopy to me.  Picture is 3 coats, and I had an issue with drag, so it looks lumpy in places.

It's Not Me, It's Blue - Grey/blue metallic shimmer base with purple microshimmer.  This one is amazing.  I saw it at my local Target, and I immediately fell in love.  I promply came home and put it on my nails.  It's very similar to Sounds Grape to Me, it terms of formula and finish, and it feels almost like a foil.  It also has a beautiful purple shimmer that will pop when you turn your hand (there is also some golden shimmer, as well).  The formula was thin, so I did have to use 3 coats, but they dried quickly, so no issues.  Also, this picture was taken with my old camera, so that's why it seems a bit different.

Sounds Grape to Me - Deep purple/burgundy shimmer base with golden shimmer particles.  This one was very reminiscent of OPI Tease-y Does It or Zoya Valerie, but unlike Tease-y Does It, this one didn't seem muddy.  I think this one is my favorite of the 4.  The color is practically mesmerizing.  Formula was good and it reached opacity at 2 coats.

All in all, I like this little addition to Nicole by OPI's Target collection.  Green Up Your Act does seem to be the odd duck, but those of you that like dusty, ugly-pretty colors, will love it.  Also, and this may just be because my were press samples, but only Green Up Your Act had Nicole's new brush, and that's perfectly fine with me.  However, if you are a fan of their new brush, be sure to check your bottles at Target to see if they have them.

These are at Target now and retail for around $7 each.

these were sent to me for review

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

This is one of those polishes that I purchased earlier this year and just never got around to posting it.  My Kind of Cool Aid was Cult Nails' very first color.  I ordered it as soon as Maria said it was for sale on her website and then I got it and it quickly got lost in my collection.

Then yesterday, Maria tweeted that Cult Nails had given 600 bottles of My Kind of Cool Aid to the HollyRod Foundation in support of their Design Care 2011 event.  As a mom of an autistic child, I thought, "that's awesome!" and then, I thought "I have that".  So, today, I dug it out of my (still) disorganized polishes.

And now I'm kinda sad that I left it unworn so long.  LOL.

My Kind of Cool Aid is a "greige" shimmer, but it also leans a bit lavender.  Kind of like Wild Orchid from Color Club's fall 2010 collection, though they aren't dupes.  The shimmer in this one is micro-shimmer in shades of pale blue and pink, but you have to look close.  When I first looked it it, the shimmer just looked silver.  The formula was good.  I did have a bit of an issue with drag, but that's easily solved by waiting a couple minutes between coats.  Pic is 3 coats, though it you are careful you could probably get away with 2.

This makes me really want to try more Cult Nails polishes, and I'm still kicking myself for not picking up Captivated before it sold out.  :(  :P
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Cult Nails polishes are available on their website.  They are $10.  Also, I noticed that during the month of August, Cult Nails will donate a portion of its sales to the HollyRod Foundation.

this polish was purchased by me

Orly Iron Butterfly

When Orly introduced their Metal Chic collection, there was one color that I wanted and that was Iron Butterfly.  So, when they offered to send me one from the collection to try and review, I was so happy that they sent me Iron Butterfly.  I may have even giggled when I opened the package.  Though, I am a little over the whole matte thing, I do like this polish, and I may even like it more w/ a top coat (see below). 

It's a deep charcoal grey matte with silver shimmer.  Because it's matte, the shimmer looks like a rubbed silver, more than a bright shiny silver.  This was 2 coats, and I had no problems with application.  The formulation was more like OPI's Suede collection rather than a traditional matte. 

It's awesome with a top coat, too.

If you are interested in viewing the entire collection, Scrangie has a drool-inducing post featuring Iron Butterfly as well as the other 2 in the collection.  Her posts makes me want to pick up the other 2 polishes, even though they would look like crap with my skin (of course, all of Scrangie's posts do that.  LOL). 

This was sent to me for review