I am long overdue for a nail post. I've discovered that Essie is, so far, my favorite nail brand. I'm not that big on nails, so I haven't tried that many brands and I'm sure you all have your own opinion as to which nail polish brand is the best, but I do love my Essie polishes. I'm going to tell you a little bit about each product I use to prep my nails and why I like it so much. I know I already spoke a bit about that but I don't feel as if I really articulated my thoughts very well so here we go again. Now that I've used them quite a few times I feel that I can give a proper review. I really do prefer Essie to other brands that I've tried, though I am open to suggestion.
I'm sorry if some pics are a bit out of focus, my camera's battery was dying so I was rushing to get all my pictures done and uploaded before it died.
Want to know what my next post is going to be about? Read down til the bottom to find out!
Prep Time
As I've said before, I prep my nails by filing them with Sephora's crystal nail file. Then I use their 4 step nail buffer. Then I apply Essie's Apricot Cuticle Oil to my cuticles and nails. I let them soak for a few minutes and then I take my cuticle pusher and push them down. Sometimes I trim my cuticles, but only if it's really bad. I also make sure to clean any gunk from underneath my nails. I find that their cuticle oil is pretty hydrating and does a good job prepping them. I'm also going to mention that after I remove nail polish from my last manicure, I like to put a ton of hand and nail cream on my nails and just let them soak up and re-hydrate. I use the Body Shop's Almond Hand and Nail Cream. I really like it as both a hand and nail cream. It does a great job keeping my hands and nails moisturized. This is the first cream that actually works on my nails. So now that I've prepped my nails and cuticles, it's Essie time.
Treatment Time
I use their Millionails treatment, which is a strengthener treatment. I find it's the best one I've tried so far. When I first started doing my nails often (and I mean once a week or every 2 weeks as opposed to never), my nails were always incredibly frail after I took the polish off and would break and chip very easily. But since I've started using Millionails, my recently depolished nails are as strong as they were before I started my nail polish binge. And this also helps them to not be so darn yellow! If you do your nails often, you know that the lack of oxygen to your nails is what yellows them. I don't know what this stuff does but my nails barely get yellow anymore. It's amazing.
Base Coat Time
I also use their First Base strengthening base coat. I do like it. I can't tell if it has been strengthening my nails, but only because I started using Millionails the same time as I started using this. But I like to think that combined, they help my nails a lot. It also does a good job of prepping the nail for color. It looks like a very opaque light pink in the bottle, but it goes on clear.
Color Time
Now for the colors I used in today's manicure. I did all my nails (except ring finger) one color and my ring finger another. Cuz I'm cool like that. The main color is Essie's Mint Candy Apple. It's a very light pastel minty color. I find it's almost like a light turquoise color in the sense that it isn't strictly green, but has some blue in it as well. The polish goes on quite nice and it takes me 2 coats to get full opacity. There's something about this shade that I just love. The only thing I don't like is the small brush. It usually takes a few strokes before I get the whole nail, and sometimes it dries fast, causing streaking. The last time I used this, it lasted for over a week without a single chip. I was pretty darn impressed. The color on my ring fingers is Essie's Muchi Muchi. It's a very light pastel pink. It takes 2-3 coats for full opacity depending on how thick they are. I used two for today's. It goes on pretty sheer looking so you definitely have to put on a few coats depending on how you want it to look. It does get a little streaky so I suggest thinner coats and minimum 3 coats for full opacity. It is a very nice color once you've reached full opacity. You might be able to use this as a french manicure color if you use one coat. Even now, if I look closely, I can tell where my nail tips are. Out of the two colors, Mint Candy Apple is definitely my favorite, both color- and quality-wise.
Top Coat Time
To seal in my manicure, I use their Good To Go fast-drying top coat. Out of what I've tried, this is by far my favorite. It dries my nails and hardens them in a couple minutes after application. I do two coats to make sure that I've sealed every inch of my manicure in. Whenever I use this, my nails never smudge. It dries them very thoroughly so you don't need to worry about not touching anything. They also never chip. My manicures usually last between 1-2 weeks before I redo them, and that's only because I get annoyed with the part of the nail that has now grown out.
Products Used:
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| Sephora 4 Step Nail Buffer - 7$CAD |
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| Sephora 4 Step Nail Buffer - 7$CAD |
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| Sephora Mini Crystal Nail File - 10$CAD, and 12$CAD for fullsize |
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| Tweezerman Hot Pink Nail Rescue Kit - 24$CAD |
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| Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil - 10$CAD |
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| Essie Millionails Treatment - 10$CAD |
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| Essie Grow Stronger Base Coat - 10$CAD |
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| Essie Mint Candy Apple - 10$CAD |
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| Essie Muchi Muchi - 10$CAD |
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| Essie Good To Go Top Coat - 10$CAD |
My Nails:
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed today's nail post! Usually I love wearing darker colors on my nails, like black, dark red, dark purples, anything dark really. I also have this random love for the color green. I gravitate to green makeup and nail polish. It's weird. I'm not one to wear pastels, like you wouldn't catch me dead in pastel colored clothes, but there's something cute about this nail color scheme. Mint Candy Apple is such a beautiful color, no wonder it's one of Essie's most popular shades. Her nail polishes go on super smooth and have a nice glossy finish. For my accent nail, I decided to stick with the pastels and do a light pink using Muchi Muchi. The colors complement each other very well. The only other time I've worn pastel nail polish (and I'm not counting when I was kid) was when I did my water marbling tutorial. I mean hello, most of my clothes are black, shades of white, browns, zebra and leopard print. Not typically a color girl, let alone pastel. But like I said, Mint Candy Apple just has something about it that I couldn't resist!!
So what do you think of Essie's Mint Candy Apple and Muchi Muchi nail polishes? What other shade(s) would you pair Mint Candy Apple with? What is your favorite Essie nail polish color? What do you think of her other products that I mentioned (treatment, top coat, etc)?
My next post is going to be my VERY FIRST DRUGSTORE HAUL!!!!
Steph xo.
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