Big review! Essie – Seche Vite – Nicole Diary

It was time for a new mani! Why? Because I can! (You know what I’m talking about)
I just got a great deal on some Essie polishes and one of them was a lovely bright blue that went well with this season. Also, I just got myself a new top coat by Seche Vite, you know, the one that can be applied to wet polish, and I was very excited to try it out! Finally, I got a few lovely Nicole Diary stamping plates in the mail and that brand was new to me, so I couldn’t wait to find out if it was any good. I set down and decided to try out all these new products at ones.

Essie – Garden Variety
In the spring of 2015 Essie came out with the Flowerista collection. In this collection was a lovely blue/turquoise polish named Garden Variety and only this week I actually purchased it, together with a few other Essie polishes. Looking at the polish it is a bit of a crelly type polish that applies real smooth. In only two coats this polish was opaque. The color isn’t very special in my opinion, but it’s bright, cheerful and spring-like. It’s a great color to combine with other blues or even different colors. I thought the polish is great, but boring on its own. I’m looking forward to using this in a gradient, because it will stand out that way. One big downside to this polish: it stains like hell! When I removed this polish, my fingers where blue all over.

Seche Vite – dry fast top coat
Pretty much everyone has heard of it and apparently is either loved or hated but not a whole lot in between. Personally, I don’t see how you cannot love this top coat! You can actually apply this over wet polish! I don’t know about you but I hate the waiting part in doing my nails. Yes, I have a little dryer, but it doesn’t do miracles, and Seche Vite does! I let my polish dry for about a minute before applying Seche Vite. I don’t know if it’s necessary but it feels kind of scary to put it on straight away. Almost instantly both top coat and polish dry! The substance is quite thick which some people don’t like, but it smooths out perfectly and gives a great protection for your manicure that will make it last forever. As soon as it dries it’s no longer thick and settles into the polish. Your nails look shiny and feel very smooth and soft. I had my mani on for about 8 days and I could have made it last longer if I wanted (I just really like variation). 

Nicole Diary - ND015
In the mail where 3 stamping plates by Nicole Diary. They come with a lovely cardboard case that has an opening on the back so you can see which plate is in it without getting it out. For this mani I went with ND015 because I liked the mandala feel to it combined with the color of my polish. For the stamping I wanted to try out a sort of gradient with Sally Hansen’s Slicks and Stones and Soothing Sapphire. Sadly the Soothing Sapphire seems not to work as great for stamping as Slicks and Stones and therefor the gradient idea didn’t work out great, but I sort of like the effect. I have a few scrapers but for some reason I prefer an old credit card to the scrapers, so I always use that. Also, I used a clear stamper so I could see where to place the design. The images picked up very well! I actually had a harder time picking up images from Born Pretty plates then from this one. In my last mani from the O.P.I. – Kiss me on my Tulips post I actually used a Nicole Diary plate as well (ND-005) and I had the same great experience! Nicole Diary gets two big thumbs up and is one of my new favorite suppliers for stamping plates!

So, the end result is this Eastern style manicure that will last longer than I need it to!