HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0 nail polish review

So, I have a confession. Last weekend, I painted my own nails for the first time in over a year. For a blog practically founded on a passion for all things polish, this was not ideal. However, if ever there was a polish that was going to get me out of my lacquer blues, it was going to be HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0!

For those not on-board the indie nail polish train yet – come join us on a trip to wondrous faraway lands of glittery, multi-coloured uniqueness! These mysterious places may occasionally be hard to find, but that just makes reaching them all the more sweet… and such is the case with Bisbee, which I had lusted after for about four years before finally getting a taste of its turquoise-and-golden goodness.

Etude House Mint Choco Chip nail polish review

It seems my love of desserts is starting to spill over into my love of nail polish… nearly every polish I wear these days reminds me of something deliciously edible! So after the blue strawberry slushie of pa AA162, the choc mint milkshake of Deborah Lippmann’s Rockin’ Robin and the cupcake-inspired Nail’s Inc Sprinkles Collection, it’s time for a set of polishes inspired by ice-creams – Etude House’s Sweet Recipe Collection.

Etude House is a Korean cosmetics brand famous for cutesy girlie designs and playful fun packaging – and their adorable ice-cream cone nail polish bottles have got to be some of their best work yet! The first one I have to show you is probably my favourite of the bunch, Mint Choco Chip… and yes, how did you guess, it involves yet another variant on all things turquoise!

Chanel Azure nail polish review

I already wrote about Chanel’s Stylo Eyeshadows from their L’Ete Papillon de Chanel Summer 2013 Collection – but c’mon, do you really think the range could have passed me by without picking up a polish or two?!

First on my nail polish hit list – obviously, it’s turquoise – was Chanel Azure.

Deborah Lippmann Rockin’ Robin nail polish review

I’ve gone dotty!

Well, the ‘gone’ bit might be questionable (some might argue it’s more a case of ‘always has been’) but I’m totally seeing spots at the moment – and of course, it’s all because of nail polish! Hot on the heels of the blue strawberry slushie that was pa AA162, I finally managed to get my mitts on Deborah Lippmann’s Rockin’ Robin to continue my dotty delirium.

pa AA62 nail polish review

Forget about the current nail polish trend for texture (you say texture… I say bed-sheet marks from your polish not drying properly), I’m all about the current craze for dots, spots and all things speckly! Both Illamasqua and Deborah Lippmann have come out with glorious collections of pastel crème polishes speckled with black glitter spots – and so to satisfy my dotty urges before I could get my mitts on either of those, I picked up pa AA62.

I know, catchy name, innit?!  pa is a Japanese cosmetics brand currently wreaking havoc with my MS Word spellcheck as it’s written all in lower-case, and their polishes come in tiny Borrower sized bottles. Which is a shame, as AA62 is definitely a polish that you will want a whole lot more of!

Deborah Lippmann Just Dance nail polish review

Cometh summer, cometh turquoise. I’m actually obsessed with turquoise all of the time anyway (see here for proof), yet as soon as the sun starts shining, my world turns totally aqua – so Deborah Lippmann’s Just Dance, part of her Holiday 2011 Dance Music mini trio set, seemed perfect for my turquoise turn!

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream nail polish review

Over time, you may have learnt a couple of my nail polish weaknesses on this blog. Turquoise. Deborah Lippmann. Glitter. So imagine what would happen if all three got rolled into one… well, it did. Helloooo Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream!

Even from bottle shots, I knew this was going to be one of my favourite polishes ever. Mermaid tail nails has been a long-held obsession of mine and, well, this one even had it in the name. Mermaid in the name and mermaid in the bottle – it was always going to be a winner in my book!

OPI Nicki Minaj Fly nail polish review

Celebrity nail polish collaborations seem to be the next big thing. Forget fragrances, Katy Perry, the Kardashians and even Justin Bieber have been at it recently. The latest celeb lining up to get her mitts on some endorsement money is Nicki Minaj and OPI’s Fly is one of six polishes in her small but perfectly-formed collection.

At least, unlike Bieber, Minaj’s collection is exactly fitting with her image (not sure when you’d expect to see Justin sporting polish with little heart sequins in it). It’s loads of in-your-face brights, vibrant rainbow hues that would totally clash if all worn together – and I’m sure Minaj has probably tried!

Fly is vividly vibrant teal crème. I’ve seen a lot of photos on the Internet (damn you swatches!) that made it look rather more blue-leaning but in reality, I found this was pretty much a straight-up teal in my book.

Orly Frisky nail polish review

Thank God for swatches, right? [That’s photos of beauty products tested in real life, for all you non blog-linguists.] They’ve practically revolutionised the way we make-up mavens shop – the equivalent of try before you buy! This is especially useful for nail polish which, unlike make-up you’re allowed to smear on the back of a hand or let an assistant vandalise your face with, shops generally won’t let you try before you buy anyway!

But what’s worse than not being able to find a single swatch of a make-up product online? Finding dozens of inaccurate ones instead.

And thus is the case with Orly Frisky.

Most blog pictures have made this crème look like a super-bright saturated cyan blue colour. Even Orly’s product photo makes it look like a super-bright saturated cyan blue. So I figured the first few pages of results in Google Images couldn’t be wrong, and bought Frisky believing it to be a super-bright saturated cyan blue. It isn’t.

That’s not to say that Frisky isn’t a fantastic colour. It is super-bright and it is saturated – but it’s more of a turquoise, actually. Luckily, turquoise just happens to be one of my favourite colours so I was still delighted with the results.

It leans more blue than Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos (thus far, my ultimate turquoise) but it’s definitely much more aqua than the green-leaning Turned Up Turquoise from China Glaze. It’s by far the brightest turquoise I own – the closest thing to being fluorescent without actually heading into highlighter pen territory.

It’s a vivid vibrant aquamarine that pops straight off the nails. Brilliant, bright and bouncy, it totally lives up to the name of its mother ship – the Happy-Go-Lucky collection.

It’s a really lush creamy colour but sadly, doesn’t dry to a high-gloss finish. The formula was a little tricky to work with – thick, glue-y and with a finish nowhere near as self-levelling as OPI’s – but the coverage was good and the colour was opaque in just one coat (though I did two anyway). I experienced a little bubbling with thicker coats though, which you can see from my photos, and a longer than average drying time. Orly’s brush is large but thin – sort of a cross between OPI’s in size and Essie’s in thickness – which I found spread the polish nicely, and I love brands that have rubber caps like these for better grip.

Overall, Frisky is an awesome aqua that sits equally nicely amongst spring pastels, summer brights or as a pop of colour against an otherwise neutral outfit. It’s a charismatic crowd-pleaser, bursting with oodles of oomph. It’s just not cyan blue, ok?!

Looks good with: summer brights, spring pastels, as a pop of colour
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 1-2
Chips: +5 days

Orly Frisky, Summer 2011 Happy Go Lucky Collection, $60, Cher2

OPI Mermaid’s Tears nail polish review

I’m usually a bit dubious about the current vogue for nail polish celebrity cash-ins tie-ins, yet OPI’s Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean collection struck gold… or should that be pieces of eight?!

Overall, it was an unusual collection for summer, filled with murky muddied pastels that didn’t exactly scream adventures on the seven seas. Yet for that reason, it was probably one of my favourite OPI collections to date and I snapped up the whole collection quicker than you can say ‘Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum’!

I was instantly drawn to Mermaid’s Tears, a dusty turquoise (and you know how much I love turquoise!). Firstly, what a gorgeous evocative name! OPI are known for their cute-but-cheesy names so I was expecting this to be pun city but they actually managed to keep it classy – classier, in fact, than the film itself!

Unfortunately, I found this polish quite difficult to work with. It was gloopier than most OPIs and the first few coats went on thickly and unevenly – partly my own fault as I spent too much time trying to correct it, forgetting that OPI lacquers are actually amazingly self-levelling on their own. Consequently, drying time was longer than usual and the finish was a bit lumpy up-close.

What I can’t complain about is the colour. Gorgeous! It’s an almost vintage take on turquoise; classy but murky, delicately dusty, but still straight-up beautiful (although a shade darker than the bottle colour). You could well imagine it being the tears of a siren, prettily magical yet refined. There aren’t many turquoises that suggest sophistication, but this is definitely one.

Compared to my other top turquoise creme, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos (on the middle finger), Mermaid’s Tears is noticeably less bright, dustier and perhaps more obviously green-leaning – a pale green tea, or pretty slate green rather than the tropical island turquoise of the Essie. Both, however, are creamily lush and look great on.

Mermaid’s Tears – Lorelei loveliness in a bottle. No pirate puns needed.

Looks good with: other muted pastels, floral tea-dresses, grey
Drying time: 10 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: +7 days

OPI Mermaid’s Tears nail polish, Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2