Zoya Caitlin and Essie Kisses and Bises swatch

 

 

It took me 3 coats to get Zoya Caitlin completely opaque, and that took me totally by surprise, because I remember it being nicely pigmented. It's still a lovely color! A murky purple/blue/grey/periwinkle, it's still a sweet spring spin on on the perennial autumn greige trend, good for cooler spring days or the warmer fall ones. A certain friend of mine once proclaimed that it was much prettier than "that ugly color Kelly". Harsh!

Essie Kisses and Bises is the perfect topper, and I pretty much always use it when I wear Caitlin. Weirdly I've never used it over the French collection polishes it came out with.

Essie Topless and Barefoot swatch

Lord almighty, I took these photos so long ago I don't even remember how I "experienced" the color. That's 100% my bad.

I yearned for Essie Topless and Barefoot for some time before I finally bought it, and then I didn't wear it until many, many months later. And what would make me finally put on a nude? Of course, a job interview. T&B is perfect for an interview because it's extremely inoffensive. A fleshy beige with a little bit of pink, I believe it leaned kind of tan on me like in the second photo. I took it off sooner than I "needed" to out of boredom and a need for color. I don't remember if it's 2 or 3 coats, but the formula is VERY easy.

So far with nudes, I prefer the slighty edginess of Zoya Kennedy and the... porelain-ness of Orly Pure Porcelain, but I think Topless and Barefoot probably has an easier application.

Using this reminded me of the Essie French collection and made me feel a need to rent '50s/'60s French movies. And listen to Brigitte Bardot songs. And start using the French program on Duolingo. Sidenote: French is really confusing to pronounce.

Zoya Tracie swatch

Back when it came out, Zoya Tracie looked very similar to the pistachio creme Essie Navigate Her, but I think it has a lot less of that yellow tinge that makes Navigate Her so funky and cool. Besides the silver pearl shimmer, Tracie is more of a spring green, making fellow spring green China Glaze Treehugger look like an apple green in comparison. It'd be a cute pedicure.

When I first wore Tracie, it was an easy 2-coater, but I think it thickened up a little or something and gave me some weirdness this time in application.

China Glaze Lemon Fizz and Happy Hands Motherboy swatch

These are seriously the best photos I could take at the time, blurry with indoor nighttime lighting!

China Glaze Lemon Fizz is a very light pastel yellow creme that gets easier to apply each time I've used it. Back when I got it like 5 years ago, a 3 coat yellow was a lot more intimidating, but Lemon Fizz is a piece of cake compared to China Glaze Solar Power, the most pain-in-the-butt yellow I own. Speaking of yellow, I saw yellow manicures a few times after the OPI Brazil collection came out, leading me to suspect the yellow in that collection was popular and would spark a springtime trend. I haven't seen it recently, though.

Happy Hands Motherboy is a multi-color glitter with pastel green, blue, and lilac, with comparatively bright pink. I don't think I had any application problems with it. I bought this during the very final Happy Hands sale before she closed shop. Alas! Her "Stuffed" Thanksgiving glitter was my first indie.

This was my Easter manicure, but I had to take it off like 2 days before Easter because of chipping.