Essie Roll With It Collection

I can buy nail polish way faster than I can swatch it, which means bottles get stuck in my swatch boxes and eventually I have too many swatch boxes, so I go through them to move things to the "put on nail wheels" shelves. Sometimes I find things that catch my eye all over again so before they get moved, they get swatched, months and months (somtimes years?) after I bought them. Today's example: Essie's Roll With It Collection, which I believe was released for fall 2020 and which I bought in fall 2021. There are six shades, all shimmers with a scattering of holo microglitter: Sequin Scene, Roll With It, Let's Boogie, Whirl 'n' Twirl, Lace Up & Get Down, and Head Over Wheels.

 

 

These looked like two distinct trios to me, so I swatched them that way, starting with the more neutral hues: Let's Boogie (pewter-leaning silver), Roll With It (pinkish taupe-leaning silver), and Sequin Scene (brown-leaning orange). I did a sponge gradient with them on my index finger, then Let's Boogie on my middle, Roll With It on my ring, and Sequin Scene on my pinky. All of these were three coats for me.

 

The difference between the two silvers on the nails is more subtle than it is in the bottles. Roll With It is a touch cooler-toned and seems to have a slightly less dense shimmer base. I wish instead of one of these, they'd done a deeper grey, not quite charcoal. Or a teal.

 

I topcoated the gradient, and should have topcoated the other nails, as these do have a slightly gritty look without it. Still, the holo microglitter catches the light very nicely, distracting from what might be too much brushstrokey-ness otherwise for some of the shades.

 

Then I took the same approach with the more vibrant shades. A gradient on my index, then Whirl 'n' Twirl (blue) on my middle, Lace Up and Get Down (purple) on my ring, and Head Over Wheels (hot pink) on my pinky. Whirl 'n' Twirl was three coats and the others were two. Again, I added topcoat just to the gradient. I loved how these shades blended.

 

 

Lace Up & Get Down seemed to have the densest shimmer, with fewer holo bits showing color in it that the others, though a few did pop through at some angles.

 

 

The sun came out while I had this last trio on, so I hustled over to the window and was rewarded with this glowy-ness:

 

If I had to choose just one of these (and at some point I might, as I cannot move into assisted living someday with thousands of bottles of nail polish), it'd be the blue, Lace Up & Get Down.

Kokie Green Trio

Sample provided for review

 

Kokie has sent me several more polishes from their Green line, which is plant-based, bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free. (To see the ones they sent previously, see here and here.) Today I have Tan Line, Moonbeam, and Coffee Break.

 

Coffee Break is a light warm milky brown creme. It's not quite rosy enough to be "mannequin hands" on me, but it's a good neutral look for my skintone nonetheless.

 

 

Tan Line is a dark orange shimmer.

 

 

 

Moonbeam is a white cream. I feel a good white cream is essential for any nail polish collection.

 

 

For fun, I added dots of Tan Line and Coffee Break to Moonbeam, then added clear topcoat to smooth everything over.

 

 

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Kokie Green Trio

PR Sample provided for review

 

Kokie has launched their first plant-based nail polish line, Kokie Green. The sixteen colors are all bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free in addition to being plant based. They were kind enough to send me a sampling of shades to try, and I'm sharing three of those today: Just My Type, Cherry Blossom, and Venom.

 

Just My Type is a cornflower blue creme. It applied nicely, needing just two coats for full coverage.

 

 

Cherry Blossom is a light pink creme. I used three coats of this one, though I probably could have stopped at two (with pale colors, I err on the side of one more coat).

 

 

Venom is a spring green creme which covered in two coats.

 

 

For fun, I added dotted flowers to Venom using the other two shades, then smoothed the look with clear topcoat.

 

 

There are some shimmers in the line; I'll have two of those to share next week along with another of the cremes. Kokie Green was scheduled to appear at Meijer stores this fall, though I haven't been able to check on that myself due to lack of access to Meijer stores either at home or during my recent travels. They are available directly from the Kokie website.

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

SinfulColors Saweetie's Xtraterrestrial Effects

With Halloween coming up fast, I thought I'd best get to swatching the SinfulColors I grabbed from the big display at Walmart. The four limited editions for this year are part of the brand's collaboration with Saweetie; these are the Xtraterrestrial Effects. Left to right: Lil Beast, Icy Monstar, Baelien, and Big Mamaz Ship.

 

I started my session with Lil Monster, a spring green, applying two coats without topcoat. The effect in question is bumpy, I guess like the surface of another planet. The base is metallic-leaning shimmer enhanced with bar glitter and texture, but not as much texture as the textured polishes that were on trend for a while in 2014/15.

 

 

We've seen this sort of thing before, with texture/glitter submerged in shimmery and metallic bases. I pulled out a couple bottles from the past to do a quick comparison. Left to right: China Glaze Crinkled Chrome Wrinkling the Sheets (from late 2013/early 2014), SinfulColors Lil Beast, Finger Paints Underwater Enchantress (from summer 2014, see the whole collection swatched here).

 

Left to right below: Lil Beast, Underwater Enchantress, Lil Beast, Wrinkling the Sheets (all two coats, no topcoat). It was easier to get the bar glitter in Wrinkling the Sheets onto my nail; for Lil Beast I had to make sure I didn't let it settle too long between shaking it and applying (though why I would worry about bubbles with that one I don't know). Underwater Enchantress is a different take on the "lumpy but not quite a proper textured polish" idea. I do like how it coordinates with the color of Lil Beast.

 

 

I was not enchanted by the effect, so combined the remaining three Xtraterrestrial Effects into one look. My index finger has a rough sponged not quite gradient with the trio. Middle finger is Balien, a warm light brown. Ring is Big Mamaz Ship, a medium pink, and litle finger is Icy Monstar, a dusty deep blue.

 

 

 

These do catch the eye for sure. I don't see myself wearing them much, same as I can't recall ever having done a full mani with the Crinkled Chrome shades or those lumpy shimmer from Finger Paints (though I didn't hate that one as much now as I did when it was new, maybe I'm mellowing). I think Halloween is a perfect time for them, though, as that's when we break out of the everyday and dress up based on our imaginations.

Kokie Seasonal Trio

PR Sample provided for review

 

It's still technically summer for another week, so I'm squeaking in here with three shades that Kokie sent me to celebrate summer: Sparkler Send Off, Cayenne, and Café Olé. I'd wear these year round, myself, because I'm flexible that way.

 

Being me, I started with the glitter, Sparkler Send Off, which has gold and pink metallic hexes in a sheer gold shimmer base. Here's how it looks worn alone at two coats:

 

 

For a similar look with no visible nail line, I layered one coat of Sparkler Send Off over Café Olé, a rosy tan creme. You can see Café Olé swatched on its own in this post I did last December.

 

 

To see Sparkler Send Off topping a light pink shimmer, see this post I did in 2019, before I started swatching for the brand. Cayenne is a red-leaning orange creme. It covered nicely in two coats. This shade is definitely perfect for summer, and also works for fall (some of the leaves are turning just this color right now).

 

I added one coat of Sparkler Send Off to Cayenne and really liked the combination. I thought the pink glitter on the orange might not be great, but the gold is so prominent it works just fine. Sparkler Send Off lays flat enough on its own that I didn't even add top coat for this swatch.

 

I did one more look with these polishes, using Cayenne and Café Olé to do a freehand clouds/stairstep sort of design. This I did add topcoat to in order to smooth the borders between the colors.

 

 

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Kokie Spring Trio

PR sample provided for review

 

Today I've got three polishes from Kokie to celebrate the arrival of spring. Up here on the mountain where I live, the weather is still wavering between winter and spring, with plenty of snow still piled up (about three feet of it outside my back windows, for instance) but also some warmer days when it's comfortable to go out without multiple layers under my outerwear. Before too long, it'll be mud season, when the rains come and things get dreary for a few weeks. Then I'll really need pretty polishes like these. Left to right: Mystic Mauve, Celestial, and Blossom. (Yes, when the caps are tightened down, the elephant doesn't always like to be front and center; that I can look at this photo and not strongly want to reshoot is a sign I've made a lot of progress with letting go of my perfectionism over the years. Which has nothing to do with this post but my mind, it wanders where it will.)

 

I started with Blossom, a pale peachy pink crelly. Two coats gave my nails a slightly better than natural look, a nice palate cleanser. This is on the sheer side of crelly, but is buildable and self-levels nicely.

 

 

Of course I had to experiment with layering Blossom. I painted my tips with Kokie Iced Out, one of the polishes the brand sent me this past winter, and topped with two coats of Blossom for a bit of a twist on a classic French mani. This approach nicely took care of hiding the slight yellow cast my natural nails seem to have regardless of how careful I am to use base coat under polish.

 

 

Celestial has a clear base densely packed with small metallic glitter accented with a sprinkling of small holo glitter. I used three coats for full coverage, though two coats probably would have worked if I'd made them a touch thinner. I did add clear topcoat, too, though this wasn't especially bumpy. This color is a bit of a chameleon, sometimes looking more silver, sometimes more platinum or even light bronze, but it always looked nice and sparkly yet somehow also subtle (though my idea of subtle may be skewed by having used so much bright color and big glitters over the years).

 

 

Here's Celestial showing off its colors in regular room light:

 

Mystic Mauve is a warm purple creme, opaque in two coats.

 

 

You know I had to try layering Celestial over Mystic Mauve. I added one coat of Celestial plus clear topcoat. One could argue that Celestial is too glitter-filled to be a good topper, but I liked the combination.

 

 

Before I put these polishes away, I tried combining all three into one dotted pond mani, starting with two coats of Blossom, dots of Mystic Mauve themselves dotted with Celestial, then two more coats of Blossom. I think instead of "pond" I got "petri dish" but decided to share it anyway because experiments are good even when they don't quite turn out as hoped.

 

These shades (along with dozens of others) are available at Sally Beauty stores for $4.99 per 16ml bottle. They're also online on the Sally Beauty and Kokie websites.

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.