Colores de Carol Double Trouble

TW: cancer, death

A year hiatus and I come back with this. I deeply apologize.

What an awful year. As if a global pandemic isn't bad enough. Not only is it around the second anniversary of my aunt's death, but my father has also been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. If my family is fortunate we have 18 more months maximum with him. TS Eliot was right- April truly is the cruelest month.

I barely purchased any polish this year. It's not that I'm not interested in polish anymore. I still very much enjoy nail paint. Between trying to cut down on debt, focusing on weight loss (2019 was the year of the road to gastric bypass), and now my father's illness, my nails were very much on the backburner. I went bare for days before finding enough energy and motivation to resume my routine. My plan was to only buy nail polish if I really wanted it and could afford it or as a non food reward. Upon my father's diagnosis I permitted myself a small amount of retail therapy as well. As a bariatric patient, a few dollars on new toys is preferable to binge eating when stressed (a major trigger of mine).

Today's polish was one of my retail therapies.

Natural Light

Essie Valentines Day 2019 collection swatches and reviews

I was recently looking in the holiday section of my local Target when I noticed this Essie display. They had the cutest shrink wrap designs on the bottles! I grabbed all six immediately.

This limited edition collection is a mix of finishes. Half of the collection is glitter and most are toppers, however. The brushes are the new wider Essie brushes that were previously only found in Europe. I much prefer this brush to the older forms. I think the thinner brushes made the polishes streakier to me. Consequently I rarely bought Essie polishes.

All swatches include glossy top coat and matte top coated accent nails. All glitters are also over black and white to see how they look that way.

Topic Tuesdays: Favorite Christmas Polishes (+ Bonus Question)

Topic Tuesdays asked polish fans two questions on Instagram this week. I'm going to answer both.

The first question is of our favorite Christmas polishes. I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to colors. Here are mine by color, both old and new. I'll do two for each color.

Starlight Polish Peppermints in the Parlor

Better late than never. I intended to post this mani all this weekend but life got in the way. I've been excited to wear this in December since I got it in a destash a few months ago. Perfect for Christmas, am I right?

Femme Friday: Strings of Light

I'm posting this later than I'd like. At least it's still Friday? This is one of my most festive Femme Fatales in my collection.

Femme Friday: Caliby

Thank goodness November is finally ending. It felt like it lasted forever. For my final mani this month, I went with an older Femme Fatale store exclusive- the feline inspired Caliby.

Femme Friday: Graveborn

This Femme Friday will be a quick one. Capping off this spoopy Femme Friday month is an old anniversary polish, Graveborn.

Femme Friday: Seeing Your Soul

Happy Friday! It's time for me to spotlight another Femme Fatale polish again! Since I profiled one of my absolute favorites from the brand a couple weeks ago, I figured that I focus on one of my least favorites this time. This rare dud is known as Seeing Your Soul.