I love a good dupe. Nothing pleases me more than finding a lipstick, outfit or nail varnish that could pass for something twice the price. It’s nice to treat yo’ self, especially when it comes to beauty, but when the high street brings out some excellent dupes it’s not always necessary. Read on to see if I found a dupe for ‘mint candy apple’, the cult essie nail varnish.
Today’s manicure was partly inspired by bubbles and partly by confetti. I love it! I used all essie nail varnishes (apart from the Seche Vite topcoat, of course). Keep reading for all the details of this spring bubble nail art.
At the Birchbox event I went to a few weeks ago I met a blogger called Emily and fangirled a bit when I found out that she was one of the creators of The Lacquer Lab. I am always on the look out for independent, UK based nail polish brands and this one had been on my radar for a while. I was lucky enough to be sent their new limited edition festive trio to review and I will apologise now for the photo heavy post: these polishes deserve a lot of pictures!
So here is the trio, L-R: Fred & Ginger, I Want A Pony, and Snow Globe. Don’t you just feel Christmassy looking at them?
I love colours that are hard to describe. I’ve wanted essie Merino Cool for ages and remember trying to find it on a massive essie display in Dubai with Aaron helping me. “It’s kind of…purple-y…brown? Like a more purple taupe-y colour? No, more like a pastel-y plum? Like a mixture of grey and purple? It’s…ummm” *insert picture of Aaron looking confused and horrified*
And now I have it! I found it in TK Maxx in Kilburn for £4.99 (!!) and it has definitely lived up to my expectations. It’s such an unusual and pretty colour. It is somehow soft but also edgy – something that essie always do very well.
Essie polishes have a lovely formula: this needed 3 coats to get rid of any bald spots but Essie polishes are always quick drying so that isn’t a problem. I used to hate essie polish brushes as they were really thin and hard to use but they have made them a bit thicker now so I am now a full on fan girl.
I’m so pleased that this polish is now in my collection. What your favourite Essie polish? You can buy this stunning polish HERE.
Lex
These aren’t my best gradients but in my defence I was going to do something over the top so they didn’t need to be too perfect. However, I ran out of time and patience with them and decided they would be fine as they were! #nailbloggerproblems
These were done with Barry M pastel nail varnishes and are topped with two coats of Essie ‘Good To Go’ (Still not liking it as much as Seche Vite by the way…)
I’ve done a tutorial here for how to do gradients, this is the same principle but with 4 colours instead of 2.
I might actually update these tomorrow and post some pictures as I’m still not too enamoured with them…
Lex
