Nail Polish - Essie - Using My Maiden Name & Pansy

Hey There!

Spring has sprung! That means I need to change up my polish. I try to go a bit springy and use fewer dark colors when warmer weather hits. While it's pretty easy to do that on my toes (cause I can rock almost ANY color on them), I have to be a bit more careful on my fingers. This time I went with Essie polishes all the way.

My finger nails got draped in Using My Maiden Name. It's a cute name for a polish for sure. It's from the 2013 Bridal Collection. I did not purchase it for $8.50 in 2013. I paid $3.99 this year. It's a pretty color but I had to use three very careful coats. Each coat was thin and very strategically placed. The end result was good and I must admit, it's been a very long time since I have colored inside the lines. I'm glad that I bought it.

My toes have been having fun! I picked up Pansy a few weeks ago and knew that it was going on my feet. I'm not sure which collection Pansy was in originally but it has been around for at least 4 years because in my research, that was the first blog post I found on it. I can't tell you the ease of it cause the lady at the pedicure place put it on my toes for me. But, they look good.

Side bar - you forget how great your toes look when the lady at the pedicure place cuts your toe nails for you! I won't go back for a month or six weeks (cause I can paint my own) but the nail cut is perfecto. I'm gonna milk it!

So those are my first color pops of spring. I'm so glad to be able to use all the pastels that I purchased on sale during the winter months. Just wait and see what I have on rotation!!

Breaking Into Spring Nail Polish

Hey There!

The weather is being iffy. It's time for the April showers. I'm not mad though because the pollen count has been manageable because of all the rain. Because the weather has been iffy, I decided I needed to transition to the spring nail polish color.

Before I transitioned, I used my final 2 winter/fall polishes. The first one that I used was Milani Nail Lacquer in Heather. I have owned this color for a while. It was the first Milani polish that I ever purchased and I absolutely love it. The color comes off brown on camera but really it's a cream grape color. It's rich and pretty and is so easy to work with. It behaves better than some of my higher end nail polishes. I love it.

My last winter/fall polish was Zoya nail polish in Areej. Areej is the perfect berry color. You could totally get away with this year round but it's not quite as bright as you see in the picture. It's a creme polish and I love creme polishes better than all the rest. They are so rich and warm and Zoya does a great job with cremes.

About a month ago I lucked up on some Essie polishes at Marshalls. I love buying polish from Marshalls. Essie normally goes for $8.50 (I have no idea while the bottle says compare at $6.00) and I got these for $3.99. I picked up Sunday Funday (how aptly named!), Pansy and Spaghetti Strap.

I have Sunday Funday on my toes and I love it. It's a pretty coral shade and that was the perfect ice breaker (literally in some parts of the country). As a first polish of spring, I give it a high 5.

Pansy is this week's toe color. It's a bright, fun pink. A great weather transition color.

Now, Spaghetti Strap is going to be a problem. I only used 2 coats of the other 2 polishes but I used 3 coats of this one. It's super sheer. I don't normally go quite this sheer but I'll give it a try and see.

My only Essie complaint is that all 3 are hard to work with. They are a bit runny and you have to do that thin coat with a "pat pat pat" of another coat, trick. Maybe with some age they will perform better. I know that sometimes helps.

But other than that, these polishes are all nice colors that I will wear again (except, maybe Spaghetti Strap). The Essies will see a lot of play this summer!

What do you have on nail polish rotation now that it's getting warmer? Did you buy anything new? Did you know Marshals had discounted polish?