NOTD: Essie Turquoise and Caicos

One of my favorite colors is the mint/turquoise genre (as you can tell by my blog). So when I saw Essie's Turquoise and Caicos, I knew this would be the perfect color for my nails. This color is more muted than Essie's Mint Candy Apple,which I always found to be too bright for my liking.

This color is much bluer in person!

My pictures made the color look a lot greener than it actually is. Trust me when I say the color is much bluer in real life (think Tiffany Blue or Robin Egg). I also used two coats.

This is one of my go to nail polishes and if you want a more muted minty blue nail polish, I suggest Essie's Turquoise and Caicos.

NOTD: Sally Hansen Triple Shine in "Sparkling Water"

Hey guys! I feel like I have not posted a Nail of the Day in a very long time (then again, I was on a blogging hiatus for some time). I recently received this Sally Hansen Triple Shine polish in "Sparkling Water" as a gift. I never owned a polish from this line before and the bottle made the polish look like this enticing dark aqua blue with a sparkling sheen. It definitely looked like my cup of tea.

I ended up using my Ciaté nail polish in 'yule rules' on my ring finger just to add a subtle extra sparkle. 

I used two coats of "Sparkling Water".

The formula for this polish is quite thick, something I wasn't too used to after religiously using Essie nail polishes. It was still quite easy to work with and I liked the flattened brush. 

The polish thankfully didn't come off as some over the top, tacky, sparkling extravaganza. Although it does give off some reflective sheen, it is quite subtle, which is why I felt an accent nail would be okay. The beauty of this polish is not completely revealed until it is viewed under the sun. The beautiful aqua shimmer of the polish reminds me of some enchanting sea in some far away mystical land. It is stunning. Overall, I'm quite happy with this polish.

I apologize for the mediocre photos but I used my iTouch to take these photos because I was too lazy to take out my camera.

What's your favorite nail polish line?

NOTD: Essie Mint Candy Apple

Summer's here so it's time for me to dig up all my bright nail polishes. A color I've been obsessed with lately is mint. I recently purchased Essie's Mint Candy Apple since I remembered hearing so much about it last summer. 

I adore this color and it's a nice mint blue, very reminiscent of the Tiffany & Co. Blue. It's very close to turquoise. I find this color interesting since it looks so different in different lighting. 

Two coats of 'Mint Candy Apple'

I'm always a little apprehensive with Essie since their formulas are always a hassle to work with, at least to me. This polish was a teensy bit runny, like all Essie polishes but I still recommend this color if you're into mint.

NOTD: Revlon Midnight

I love the Revlon Colorstay nail polish line since one coat is opaque and shiny enough already so I usually stop there.

I painted my nails in the color Midnight (a dark blue) and layered a coat of this blue multi-colored sparkle polish from PacSun (the brand is Black Poppy). Sadly, there was no name anywhere on the bottle.

 Of course, I topped my nails off with Revlon's Quick Dry Top Coat.

Essie Magnetic Polish: Repstyle First Impression

I'm a little late on the magnetic nail polish trend but I came across the Essie Magnetic Polishes at Target and picked one up from this collection for $10. I decided to go for a metallic green/olive polish called Repstyle. 

The instructions were hidden behind this sticker, I had to peel it off.

The instructions say after you paint your second coat, you must immediately hold the magnet over the wet polish as close as you can for five seconds for a snakeskin design. Emphasis on the immediately! 

I ended up having to redo four of my fingers and even one three times! Warning, some nails only showed designs in the middle of the nail most likely because I didn't rotate the polish above the whole nail.

 This polish gave me a LOT of trouble with the somewhat vague instructions. I also kept on putting the magnet too close and occasionally got polish on it. I was really frustrated, especially because I find the design mediocre and slightly creepy at some angles. However, the polish did glide on smoothly and I didn't have to clean-up any extra residue for once.  I made a mistake by not putting the magnet over fast enough and didn't make my second coat very thick. I really do believe you need to hold it longer than 5 seconds, since some came out better than others when I hovered it over my nail longer. 

First coat:

Second coat and after magnet (as you can see, some came out better than others) : 

Wasn't very happy with the results

I'm still not sure whether or not I'll buy another polish from this collection since it seemed too much of a hassle the first time for the end product. Perhaps it was just me being an amateur. Just remember: GO VERY FAST AND ROTATE AROUND NAIL.

Have you ever tried magnetic polishes? If so, how was it?

***UPDATE The longer I wore it, the more I took a liking to the design and I've also received many compliments for the cool design!

NOTD: China Glaze Dress Me Up & Revlon Sparkling

China Glaze's Dress Me Up is from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection. The polish is a nice dusty rose. This polish (China Glaze's polishes in general) is so opaque that one coat will suffice, but I decided to do two coats anyway because I'm OCD like that. I decided to dress it up (no pun intended) a little more by topping it off with Revlon's Sparkling, which is one of my favorite glitter polish of all time. Sparkling is a clear polish with rose gold glitter flecks mixed in. This combo would look absolutely stunning on those with either a very fair skin tone or a dark skin tone.

 These two polishes are definitely one of my go-to nail combos.

NOTD: Orly Rage

Orly's Rage is definitely one of my all time favorite nail polishes. The polish has an amazing metallic sheen with a gorgeous rose gold color. I tried my hardest to take pictures in all different types of lighting but my pictures still don't do the polish justice. The application is very easy and messes are minimal with the smooth, yet not runny, formulation of this product. 

For my top coat, I used Revlon's Quick Dry Top Coat.

This polish fluctuates between $7.50-$8.50 in the US. I purchased mine at Target for around $8. It typically lasts around three days before it shows noticeable chipping, which I say is standard for nail polishes. Orly's Rage is a one of a kind product that manages to deliver ridiculous color payoff with only two coats. The color would also look good on any skin tone. If you ever see this in a store, I recommend picking it up.