Dear Essie Nail Polish...

Dear Essie Nail Polish,

I want to like you. Really. I do. I love your color selection, your cute little bottles, how easily available you've become... and yet. Every Essie polish I've tried has been lacking. It usually takes at least 3 coats to get opacity, and even then it's streaky and uneven. I don't get great wear out of the formula, and I'm always disappointed. I pretty much only own colors that are unique to the Essie line or are colors I was in desperate need of when I was in college and 45 minutes away from the nearest OPI vendor. I don't know why I decided to pick it up, but as I was perusing the aisles of Walmart my eyes fell on Bikini So Teeny. I had recently heard several Vloggers mention it, and it is definitely a color I didn't own. I figured it would be yet another Essie polish I'd struggle with because I liked the color so much.

Essie, I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.

This stuff is such a different formulation than every other Essie polish I own. It's thick enough to give coverage in two coats without being streaky, gloppy, goopy, or any other word I can come up with to describe crappy nail polish. When I looked at in the bottle, I assumed it was a light blue cream. But it has the most subtle silver micro-shimmer I've ever seen, which makes the color just that much more beautiful. It just adds this hint of a twinkle to your nails when you move them in the light. It's like they took Cinderella's dress and turned it into a polish. I'm impressed Essie. Really. I didn't think this was possible.

Maybe it's because I've been using Revlon's base coat. Maybe it's because I got a good bottle. Maybe I've just had bad luck in the past. But I feel like I've struck gold with this polish. I rarely paint my nails the same color twice in a row, but last night when I took off my chipping polish I just wanted that pretty blue back on my nails. So on it went again. And that's when I knew I had to share this with you guys.

On a completely unrelated note, I've also discovered this candle:

B&BW 3 Wick Market Peach Candle

I'm normally not one for sweet scents, but this just smells like straight up peach. And peach is delicious. I've seriously burned through almost half of this candle in two days. I feel a tad silly burning such a lovely spring candle when it's freezing outside... but I simply couldn't wait. This is dangerous stuff here.

Let me know what polishes, candles, parkas, space heaters, and snow boots you've been loving for spring. Also let me know what colors (if any) you have success with in the Essie line!

XOXO Samantha