Essie ‘Let it Ripple’ Collection – Swatches & Review

October 2, 2020November 29, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Essie is on a new game of releasing 8 billion collections a year, so of course we have another Essie review to talk about! Really keeping my nails and my keyboard busy, aren’t they? And it means we have lots of variety of polish to choose from, so you can pick and choose which shades strike your fancy!

Though they are releasing so many collections a year, I’m here as your friendly neighborhood reviewer to say that you’re not at all obligated to collect them all. Sure, I do just because I enjoy it, and I like reviewing them, but I don’t recommend everyone go crazy like me. And this is a great example of a collection that might not appeal to everyone, and if it’s not your preference, feel free to skip out! In the end it’s up to each individual person to decide what they want to add to their collection, I’m just here to show you how it looks!

ALRIGHT enough chattin, lemme tell you what I’m even talking about here. We’re looking at the Essie ‘Let it Ripple’ collection today! It features 6 shimmery and shifty shades that Essie says are “inspired by the pearls and shimmer from sun glistening off of ocean waves”. They’re all very glittery, but pretty well are opaque in 2-3 coats.

These are all still available on the Polish Pick website! It’s where I grab all of my Essie collections, and if you regularly read my posts, you’ll hear me talk endless praise about it every time.

Loud Lacquer x Junior High LA ‘Back to School’ Fall 2020 – Swatches & Review

September 27, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolished2 Comments

Now I don’t venture too far into indie brands at this point in time – mainly do to budget reasons as I can’t afford them as well as all of the mainstream brands I swatch (and there are so many good indie-only swatches out there). But there are a couple that I have been regularly buying from, and Loud Lacquer has definitely nudged its way in! I picked up their summer release, and just loved the whole branding and concept, and from there have been watching their new releases. (It also helps that they only release 4 at a time, so it’s much easier to grab a full collection).

So let’s look at their fall offering! It’s called ‘Back to School’ and features their traditional 4 polish release. This collection is in partnership with Junior High LA, a non-profit organization out of Los Angeles that helps benefit and showcase marginalized artists! A portion of the profits from this collection will be donated to them! The collection already sold me with the colors, and I’m so glad to support a wonderful cause as well!

I also entirely love spelling out Loud with the bottles too much okay. (Also bottles sold through restocks won’t have the specific letters on them, as it’s easier for them to restock that way. Just an FYI – only the first rounds of new collection drops will have the letters, if that matters at all!)

I grabbed this lil bundle off of Loud Lacquer’s website! (It’s currently out of stock, but they’ll be restocking soon!) Now let’s get into those swatches, shall we?

OPI ‘Muse of Milan’ Fall 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

September 20, 2020December 30, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

I have waxed poetic in many-a blog post over the years about how much I love the fall and that it’s my favorite season. I forever have to live in a place that experiences all 4 seasons because I just need fall in my life. Just pumpkin and apple everything (yes I absolutely love Pumpkin Spice Lattes and I’ll never be ashamed over that), and the weather is cooling down enough for layering but not too cold. Overall it’s just perfect, and honestly it’s too short every year.

One of my favorite parts is always the makeup and nail polish releases. I love some vampy shades on my nails, and fall is the START of those colors and trends, and just gimme all of the deep berries and wines, and oranges.

And OPI delivered! We’ve got a pumpkin orange, a burnt orange, a deep wine cream, a deep teal and blue cream, and some lovely shimmers and interesting finishes. That’s right, today we’re looking at the OPI Fall 2020 collection. This is the Milan collection and OPI says it’s inspired by the vibrant colors, textiles and material trends of Milan’s fashion scenes. They already have my attention.

As always I purchased this whole collection from Polishpick.com, my supplier for all things OPI. They always have the fastest shipping, and the best prices, and you’ve heard me talk about them 19 million times.

We have 12 shades to talk about here, so let’s get into the swatches already.

Sally Hansen Mega Strength ‘Mermaid Vibes’ Shades – Swatches & Review

September 8, 2020November 29, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

I have a sizeable collection of Sally Hansen polishes at this point, and I do love to keep an eye out for any new releases. They’re the main drugstore brand still putting out shades, and they often have some unique finishes and releases. So when I saw posts about these shades, I went on a nice little hunt to scoop them up! Or should I say fish them up? Hook them up? Idk I’m going for the mermaid theme here.

I happened to visit my parents for a week (safely of course), and made my normal trip over to their closest Meijer – Chicago doesn’t have Meijer, nor does it have larger stores that get in newer limited collections, so at this point my parents just know I’ll disappear to go look for nail polish. And I found this collection and snatched up 3 of the shades!

This is the ‘Mermaid Vibes’ release in their Mega Strength line. It features 6 new shades. I only have 3 to show you here. The other 3 shades I didn’t grab were ‘Sea Shells’, a baby pink with gold shimmer; ‘Queen Trident’, a bright purple cream; and ‘Mermaid Parade’, a clear topper of golden glitter and larger pink pieces. I just have colors like the other 3, and I wasn’t as interested in the topper.

They seem to be more permanent shades overall as they’re still available on the Ulta website, and you might be able to find them in drugstores as well! They retail for $3 each.

Let’s get into the swatches of the 3 I grabbed!

Essie Fall 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

September 1, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolished6 Comments

You know, Chicago is currently teasing me right now with the weather. It gave me the most beautiful 60 degree days for a week, and now it’s bouncing around to 80s the next, back down to 60 and back up to 75. Just give me the cozy fall weather already!

Well, no matter what the weather is doing outside, I’m full on into fall and no one can stop me. I’ve grabbed a bounty of pumpkin scented candles from Bath & Body works, pumpkin-shaped Reese’s (the shaped ones always taste so much better than the originals), and I’ve gotten far too many pumpkin-cream cold brews from Starbucks. I’m going full BASIC and I love it.

So let’s continue right along with the fall collections, shall we? We’re still in the middle of the great blog post catch-up, and even though I’m deep into fall, I’ll have some bright summer collections that’ll pop up here and there as I work through my backlog. (It really just matches the weather). (I’m completing this on the 21st, but as with my other posts I’m putting the dates to match when they were posted on Instagram to keep them in order and spaced out!)

But focusing back on fall! Today we’re looking at the Essie fall collection! This is your standard 6 polish release, and it features 4 rich creams, and 2 shimmers. I grabbed these off of polishpick.com (where I grab all of my polishes really, they just have the best prices! If you purchase from there, be sure to put my name in the dropdown! It just helps show where you’re coming from!).

These are some stunning colors, so let’s just get into it already!

Orly Desert Muse Fall 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

August 29, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolished3 Comments

Wow. It’s certainly been QUITE a while since I’ve posted here. I don’t know what it was, but apparently I just needed a break. I needed to just not post and write here – even though I love doing it and nail polish in general. I was still posting on my Instagram, but in this medium, it was just a brief pause. (For reference I’m finishing this on September 19th, but adjusting dates to line up to when the swatches were posted on Instagram, and to space them out a touch in the blog timeline).

I know in the end I’m the only one who ultimately decides for this blog. When I write, how much I write, if and when I ever truly step away from it forever. (Though that won’t be for quite a while, I can already tell, so no worries there). But I did miss it, and I did feel guilty just not posting at all. Who knows if anyone even noticed except me! But if you did, here I am again, and I’m glad to be posting again.

There will be a bunch of reviews posted within the next weeks, as I catch up on a backlog. So you might get a smattering of random summer posts as I continue to post up the new fall reviews. It’ll be just like the weather outside here in Chicago! 60 degrees one day, back up to 80 the next. It’s not only fall weather here, and won’t be on this blog as well, at least for the next couple of weeks. But thank you for reading, and thank you for always sticking around, whether to the end of a little break, or the end of my novel paragraphs.

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We’re starting with the collection that officially kicked off fall reviews over here on the blog and Instagram! This is the Orly Fall 2020 collection, called Desert Muse. It features 6 rich cream shades.

As always, I received as part of my Orly Color Pass. Color Pass is where you pay up front once, and then throughout the year you are automatically shipped 4 Orly collections in each season. And there are always fun extras in each box as well – you’ll see one from this box in action down below.

Color Pass is absolutely great if you’re like me and already planning on purchasing all 4 Orly collections right off the bat, or would like to try out a lot of their polishes for a year. BUT if you’re just looking for individual polishes, you can find them on the Orly website, as well as transdesign.com.

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There’s already been so much waiting, let’s get into the swatches!

Color Club ‘Fresh Picked’ Collection – Swatches & Review

August 25, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Honestly I’ve really gotten in Color Club this past year, and that’s DANGEROUS for my wallet. I’ve realized they’re really underrated, and they’re constantly posting such fun collections and color stories. My collection of their polishes has grown EXPONENTIALLY this year, and I’m not mad about it.

And when they released this one, there was just something about this collection that snagged my attention. Did I need any of these shades? No. But you can say that about any polish and all that matter is that I WANTED them, okay.

This is the Fresh Picked collection, and it features 6 shades with some sort of peachy/orange undertones. I loved the theme and the whole color story with this collection, they went together so well, and I think they nailed it. I hope we get more curated, almost monochromatic collections like this!

I purchased this from the Color Club website. (One thing that helps build up a stash of their polishes is that they’re always doing sales, I got these for half off! So I say always wait for a sale! Follow them on Instagram or sign up for their emails).

Alright let’s get into the swatches!

Zoya ‘Splash’ Summer 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

August 12, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Continuing with our Summer Collection Review Post Catch Up! These shades are all still available, so I still wanted to put up the review post on them all! (I just can’t NOT cross it off my list, that’s a blasphemous idea). And I think quite a few shades could transition into fall and the winter as well!

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We’re looking at Zoya’s Summer 2020 release with the ‘Splash’ collection! This is their traditional release of 12 shades, with 7 creams, 4 shimmers and 1 topper. I snagged this off their website when they were running a 50% off sale (we always love the deals). We have a nice range of colors to look at, so let’s get right into the swatches! (Is this the shortest intro to swatches I’ve ever given? Who could have thought it possible).

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Essie Sunny Business 2020 – Swatches & Review

August 1, 2020September 21, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

As I’m sure you all know by now, I’m in the middle of what I’m calling the Great Blog Post Catch Up of 2020! For some reason I just needed a break from blogging, and as the swatches just kept coming, my backlog built up. It may be cooling down outside, and we’re full on into fall collections by now, but I still want to get these summer reviews posted! So be prepared for some back and forth with “older” collections to new fall releases!

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This post is looking at the Essie Sunny Business collection! Essie seems to be full on into this habit of releasing like 9 collections a year, so we’ve already looked at quite a few polishes from them! The Sunny Business collection is a release of 9 polishes, 7 creams and 2 shimmers that sum up warm weather and beachy feelings. As always I purchased this from polishpick.com. Most of the shades are still available there, and beyondpolish.com has most of the colors there as well, in case any catch your eye.

Obviously this post has been waiting long enough, so let’s get right into the swatches!