My Spring 2017 Favorites!

It's time for my Spring Favorites series! This really makes me happy especially since it's snowing outside today. Boo! But really, the warmer weather is just around the corner. So, let's celebrate with talking about spring polish shades.

If you are new to my blog, let me explain what I do in my seasonal polish series. Each season I pick my top 10 polishes and provide a review, live swatch, nail design and nail tutorial for each one. I start by announcing my top 10 and why I choose each one in a YouTube video. And, it's been up for a few days, so go watch it!! (Link below)

My Spring Nail Polish Favorites for 2017

I would love to know what nails you will be rocking this spring. Let me know some of your favorites in the comments below. Have a nice day everyone!

-Go Polished

Essie Fall 2016 Colleciton Comparisons

I am falling more and more in love with this collection you guys! It's such a great balance of lights and darks, the formulas are great, and most of the colors have just the right amount of dustiness to them. Which I love this time of year. Have you picked any up yet?

I have a full review and live swatches of all six polishes on my YouTube channel. If you haven't see it, click on the link below.

Essie Fall 2016 Collection: Live Swatch and Review

Okay, let's get into the comparisons for each one.

Go Go Geisha- a soft, dusty rose nude polish. It really is a pretty neutral shade. I love it!

Here it is compared to similar polishes in my collection. OPI's Don't Boss Nova Me Around is just about the same color tone (maybe a little more tan), but it's a few shades lighter. I'm Gown for Anything is more purple toned and doesn't have the dustiness that Go Go Geisha has. 

A closer look at the three.

Now and Zen- a dusty gray with a touch of warmth.

Doing this comparison made me realize that I need more gray in my life! These are the only similar shades I have. You can see that CG Intelligence, Integrity & Courage is more cool toned, and Petal Pushers has much more blue (while still being gray). I love the warm tone of Now and Zen on my warmer skin tone. It's beautiful!

A closer look at the two closer shades. You can see the warmth when compared to I,I & C.

Udon Know Me- a dusty and soft dreamy blue. This polish also has a touch of warmth to it. One of my favorites :)

At first I thought it would be very similar to Truth or Flare, but as you can see it's softer and warmer. It's very similar to First View. First View does have a slight shimmer to it and is slightly cooler. 

Here's a closer look at FV and UKM. I personally like UKM better because the warmer tone looks better with my skin tone. They are both beautiful though!

Playing Koi- a warm, rusty and dusty orange. Another one of my favorites from the collection:).

I fell in love the OPI's It's A Piazza Cake last year and thought they might be dupes but... they aren't. Comparing the two together made me push IAPC aside for Playing Koi. It's much richer and slightly more red toned. Well done Essie, this one is SO original! I added Yank My Doodle (which is new this fall too) just so you could see how orange the others are. It also let's you see the mauve tones in Yank My Doodle.

Here's a closer look. Wow! I just love PK SO much. Can't wait to actually wear it!

Maki Me Happy- a slightly dusty red with purple undertones.

Maki Me Happy seemed very close to Gala-Vanting, but Gala-Vanting surprisingly has even more purple undertones when applied to the nail. MMH almost identical to the cult favorite OPI Magnala Wine. While they both have great formulas, they are different. I added Bahama Mama so you can see that all these polishes lean purple, but not as much as BM does.

A closer view of these three. 

Kimono Over- a deep dusty purple. Another of my favorites, it's a great color for fall.

Here it is next to Turn 'n Pose and as you can see it's much darker. It is very, very similar to OPI's Grape Affair. So if you have that one, pull it out this fall!

Here's a closer look at KO and AGA. AGA is slightly brighter and not as dusty, but it's very, very close. In regular indoor light they are identical.

What a great collection! I hope you guys found those comparisons helpful! Let me know what shades you will be wearing this fall. I would love to see how you are going polished! :)

-Go Polished

My Spring 2016 Nail Polish Favorites!!

I love this favorites series, and am SO glad it's that time of year again. At the start of each season I pick my top 10 favorite polishes. I like to reveal what the polishes are and then through-out the month I will have a swatch of each polish and a nail design for each one as well as a full length tutorial. 

Showing the polishes first gives you a chance to purchase any of the polishes you think you might like and then you will be able to do any nail designs right along with me! Sound fun?! Here they are:

Polishes listed in no particular order:

Essie Chillato

Essie Off Tropic

OPI I Manicure for Beads

ZOYA Wednesday

China Glaze Boho Blues

China Glaze Let's Chalk About It

Essie Shades On

Defy & Inspire The Hills

OPI Kiss Me on my Tulips

Essie Pool Side Service

For more details about my chosen polishes and links to all of them, please click on the link below for my video!

My Spring 2016 Nail Polish Favorites

-Go Polished

Essie 2016 Spring Collection Comparsions!!

The recent releases of spring collections definitely has me dreaming of warmer weather! I was really impressed with this Essie collection. The formulas were fantastic and several are one coaters! Have you seen my live swatch video? If you haven't, click on the link below:

Essie Spring 2016 Collection-live swatch video

And, here is a link to the collection on Amazon: Essie Spring 2016

I pulled out several polishes from my collection that are in the same color family to see if there are any dupes from previous collections, or recent collections. I like to compare all brands because I figure if you have one that is the same color in any brand, you would want to know. Right? Okay, lets get into the review and comps now. 

High Class Affair- is a light and soft peachy nude polish. The formula is smooth and creamy and it has great coverage in two coats.

I think if Essie Back in The Limo and Essie Topless and Barefoot had a baby it would be High Class Affair :). It really is just the perfect marriage between the two. So...no dupe here (at least in my collection).

Lounge Lover- is a light peachy pink/coral polish. The formula is fantastic and it is opaque in two coats. I ended up getting the coats a little too thick in this swatch. (I had problems with the paint running down the handle of the brush and pooling on the nail. A problem I seem to have with Essie polishes sometimes. But, you just need to clean off the handle on the side of the bottle before application.) Anywho, I love this polish it's beautiful!

This polish is pretty much the exact same as OPI's Got Myself Into A Jam-balaya which was just released in OPI's New Orleans collection. It's also the same as a new polish 'The Hills' from Defy and Inspire (the new target line-review coming soon). If I had to choose between all three I would go for Lounge Lover or The Hills. Both have fantastic formulas and both are opaque in two coats. CFAC takes three coats to be opaque.

 I also wanted you to see Cute As a Button (a cult fave) next to Lounge Lover and as you can see Lounge Lover is a much lighter and peachier coral.

Off Tropic- is a cool toned rich forest green. The formula once again is fantastic and oh so smooth. Opaque in ONE coat, but as you know I always do two. I am always happy to wear green and I think it's the perfect color for leaves when I get into the spring floral nail designs. :)

Here it is compared to Stylenomics, which is a much darker green (almost black). Zoya Hunter is a more yellow toned hunter green, and Off Tropic is a more blue toned hunter green. I love them all!

Pool Side Service- is my favorite of the bunch! It is a perfect mix of green and blue. I love colors that make you question, and this one does just that. Formula is fantastic and it is opaque in ONE easy coat. The swatch below is two coats.

Essie's The Perfect Cover Up is a much darker and more blue polish. One of my all time favorite polishes is Vested Interest and I thought it would be almost the same, but I was happy to find that even though they both share that same dusty quality, VI leans more green than PSS. No dupes here. Yay!

Shades On- is a mid-tone dusty purple. It has fantastic crelly formula as well and is opaque in ONE easy coat.

I fell in love with Lost My Bikini In Molokini last year and thought it would be the same, while it does have that similar dustiness, it is a few shades darker than Shades On. Essie's Suite Retreat is a more blue toned purple. I think I will keep them all. :)

Sunshine State Of Mind- is a dark and slightly dusty coral orange cream polish. It is a stunner!! I had a hard time getting a true picture of this beauty. It is showing up much brighter in the photo. The formula once again is fantastic and smooth.

I don't have anything like this in my collection. Although it's a little hard to tell in the photo, OPI AGMIHTF and Color Binge are much brighter. Sunshine State of Mind is dusty and creamier. Love it!!

I hope you found this helpful. I don't think you would be disappointed if you picked up any polishes from the collection. I would love to know which are your favorites. Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

-Go Polished

Transitional Nail Polishes (Winter to Spring)

This time of year can just drag sometimes! Don't you agree? It's that time of year when you just want Winter to take a hike and Spring to move in! I don't know about you, but polish is the perfect pick me up for those blues :).

I put together a YouTube video where I have some nail polish suggestions for this transitional phase from Winter to Spring. It's my first time uploading a video where I am actually in front of the camera so everyone be nice to me! Ha! I really wanted to try out this type of video, mostly because these types of videos are really what got me loving polish again. Let me know if you want more videos like this in the future :).

Above are a few of the polishes I mention in the video. I mostly love to wear "dusty" colors this time and year and reserve the spring colors for when it's actually spring. I have several suggestions of color types as well as specific ones. I hope it's helpful and it can pick up your spirits and help you to go polished too!

Click on the link below to view the video:

Transitional Nail Polishes (Winter to Spring)

-Go Polished

Fall Pumpkin Nail Tutorial

My 6 year old daughter came to me the other day with a green polish, a blue polish and an orange polish. She knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted grass, sky and pumpkins on her nails. I love that she thinks about these things :). So we sat down and came up with this-

She also said she wanted me to be a twinner with her. Is that even a word? Anyway, I came up with the manicure below. I love being twins with my daughter at times-even if it means I have to wear pumpkins on my nails. Not usually my thing being that I am, ahem, a little bit older ;), but I really like this design for you younger folks. :)

Here are the supplies you will need for this nail design. Base Coat (not pictured), cream, brown, orange, blue, green and red polishes. Acetone, a dotting tool and a small craft brush, and a fast dry top coat.

You can use any polish brand you would like but, I have to say there is something about these OPI colors! The formula on these allow them blend together seamlessly, and they have such a nice glow from within. Can't quite explain it, but they just work!

The specific supply list (with links for each product) is listed in the description bar of my tutorial. You can find the full tutorial below.

Fall Pumpkin Nail Tutorial

-Go Polished

My #7 Favorite Fall Polish for 2015...

Essie Bahama Mama!

Bahama Mama has been a favorite of mine for a LONG time! It has been a favorite for many people for a long time. It was released in a collection in 2007 and is now part of Essie's permanent line. Yay! Essie describes Bahama Mama as a warm, rich, creamy deep purple. The formula of this polish is my favorite nail polish formula- crelly (the perfect mix of cream and jelly). 

Crelly formulas apply SO smoothly and leave the greatest shine! See that shine?! Wow! This swatch is two generous coats. LOVE!

I put Essie Raspberry in there to show you how much more pink and bright it is compared to Bahama Mama. Purr-fect Plum has a more creamy  formula and opaque but,  I have to admit even though you have to do two to three coats with Bahama Mama, I like the crelly formula better. Just a preference of mine. Essie Carry on and We'll Always Have Paris are deeper plum polishes. Here is a close up of these polishes :).

I knew a gradient nail design using Bahama Mama and Licorice (black) would be perfect for fall! I love how rich and vampy it turned out! It's been warm here the last few weeks and this mani had me craving that true fall weather!

Here's the link to my YouTube channel for the full tutorial. Give it a try, it's really pretty simple-you can go polished too! :)

Vampy Gradient Nail turtorial (Plum and Black)

-Go Polished

My #5 Favorite Fall Polish for 2015...

OPI How Great Is Your Dane?!

This rich chocolate brown polish is from the OPI Nordic Collection from fall 2014. It's formula is perfection. In fact all the polishes I have tried from this collection have fantastic formula.

It is rich, but is also slightly greyed out. So, so beautiful! Dark brown polish is perfect for this time of year!

Comparisons: As you can see You Don't Know Jacques (a cult favorite) has just about the same color tone (with maybe a touch of purple) as How Great is Your Dane but, HGIYD is darker. Both are awesome:)! Essie Mochacino is more of a gray brown and Zoya Chanelle is more of a yellow brown.

I ordered some stencils from What's Up Nails that I was dying to try out. I went with the leaves stencil for this manicure design using How Great Is Your Dane. Love the gold with the brown! What do you think?!

Click on the link for the turtorial :)...

Fall Leaves Nail Tutorial (brown and gold)

Do you think you might give this a try?

-Go Polished

My #4 Fall Favorite Polish for 2015...

Essie Vested Interest!

My most favorite out of all my fall picks. I always love a good green polish though. Ha! This polish is from the Essie 2013 Fall Collection. It is a very greyed out green with a little splash of blue. The creamy formula is very easy to work with and it has the perfect thickness. LOVE!

This swatch is two thick coats. So beautiful and perfect for fall, ya'll!

As you can see in this photo, it does really have a bit of blue in it, especially compared to Sew Psyched, which is more of an army green. And, it is much darker than Maximillian Strasse-her. (Just so you know I could have put all these greens in my favorites :), but I had to limit myself to one green.)

If you picked up Essie Fall In Line from Essie's 2014 Fall Collection, then you definitely don't need Essie VI because they are pretty much dupes. I don't own that polish-for obvious reasons so I couldn't picture it here. VI is such a unique color, in my researching I found only one easy to find polish that comes pretty close to VI, and that is China Glaze Take a Hike from their 2015 Fall Collection.

I decided to go with a Fall Flower nail design with negative space. I love the way it turned out!

If you would like to see the tutorial, head on over to my YouTube channel by clicking on the link below...

Fall Flowers with negative space tutorial

Do you love this color as much as I do?!

-Go Polished