Wednesday 24 July 2013

Essie No Place Like Chrome Swatch and Review (Bonus: Pre-Claw of Cthulhu Nail Pic Lulz)

Hey guys so I am waiting for my car to get all fixed up at the shop and since there's nothing better to do (OK I am sure I could actually do some work but enh), I'm here. Right now. At a Starbucks with a hibiscus berry green coffee refresher and an egg white and turkey bacon breakfast sandwich. Stealing wi-fi. Mwahaha. Anyway.

Today I've got a polish from Essie from the Mirror Metallics collection released in 2012. This is Essie No Place Like Chrome, which is a slick metallic foil silver. I know many of us want the shiniest glossiest "mirror" shine but it doesn't seem like there's any polish that actually mimics that. The closest you can get to that kind of effect is to use nail wraps. Application and formula wise, this one can be tricky if you're not careful. It will pull on application with multiple brush strokes, however it will also self level to an extent. Despite the weird application, it does cover quite nicely and finishes beautifully. With that said, beware: this polish will reveal all of your nail's flaws. Do you have a ridge? It will show. Did you not remove all the polish and any cotton residue? It will show. Did you apply this polish with multiple brush strokes, creating issues do the polish can't level? Don't worry, that will show too. Anyway, here's my swatch in two coats without any top coat:

Essie No Place Like Chrome Swatch

Essie No Place Like Chrome Swatch

Essie No Place Like Chrome Swatch

I honestly thought my nails were reasonably healthy looking but see how this polish exposes the explicit shape and all flaws on my nail? I'm not too hot on that part.

You might also recognize this polish from when I was highlighting Fandom Cosmetics. If you missed out, here's one coat of Fandom Cosmetics Rumbelle over Essie No Place Like Chrome. As you can see, the glitter kind of hides all the flaws, but I also find the nature of this strong foil to really overpower the glitter. I've seen this already so I don't know why I keep trying. You'll see -

Fandom Cosmetics Rumbelle (over Essie No Place like Chrome)

Fandom Cosmetics Rumbelle (over Essie No Place like Chrome)

Anyway what I mean by I've seen this before is when I used Essie No Place Like Chrome underneath Rainbow Honey The Worst Possible Thing. It again, was overpowered by the strong silver foil. Also, this is hilarious because these photos are before I started Claw of Cthulhu. I don't know if they're better or worse - hopefully they're worse - but I kind of miss the white background sometimes. Anyway I also decided to add some black half moons, but in hindsight, I should have gone for the Louboutin look instead. Here's some photos of Essie No Place Like Chrome with Rainbow Honey The Worst Possible Thing before this nail blog mess all happened:

Essie No Place Like Chrome Swatch (with Rainbow Honey The Worst Possible Thing)

Overall, I like No Place Like Chrome for what it is. I think every polish needs a polish like this - it's really opaque as well and makes a great stamping polish if you work fast enough. What do you think of this foil effect? Will your nails survive the flaw revealing polish? Do you have any embarrassing pre-blog photos that you'd share?

8 comments:

  1. I don't blog, but my IG account will feature a TBT one of these days. I stay away from metallic for that reason: all the brush strokes are visible *smh*. I had a silver foil from Avon while in high school (circa 2000). It applied like butter, coverage was great, and it was VERY forgiving. I might still have the bottle in my stash some where with 3 drops of polish left.

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    1. Do I follow you on IG? I hope so! Let me know your IG name so I can make sure I'm following along. :) I usually hate frosty and metallic finishes - so rare it comes out the way I want them too - but this is definitely OK for what it is. OK.

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  2. I like metallics but as you're saying they are a little bit difficult. For stamping they are great though.
    I did post a pre-blog pic on my Instagram account for about two months ago :D Those first pre-blog photos are really something :D

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    1. What's your IG name? I wanna make sure I am following you! (And I want to see your pre-blog photos lol, cuz I am such a fan of yours.)

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  3. You actually made me google this one a while back, and I have to say... It is quite awesome. It's probably better in real life too, where people don't stare at ridges and gaps and whatnot. It's funny really, as soon as you start blogging/reading a few/million nailblogs, the tiniest imperfections on your own nails bug you SO much!

    And I have a whole folder of pre-blogging hand/nailphotos, going back as far as 2006... Don't think I'll be sharing those anytime soon LOL

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    1. I actually do touch up some of my photos. If there is a hang nail that should not be there, I just clean it up. I never modify the actual colour of the polish, nor any polish application imperfections. Just trying to make it as accurate as possible without embarrassing my hands too much, ha.

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  4. I don't have this polish, but I have a similar one from Joe Fresh that I have yet to try. It's beautiful, but I can see what you mean by highlighting every little bump and such, and I'm sure my nails would be full of them!

    I think your earlier pictures look great!

    I'll be sharing some early nail pics once I reswatch the polishes I had done before my blog, and before knowing how to take care of my nails - to show my progress. :)

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  5. My go-to silver foil polish is running low so I may have to see if I can find this puppy somewhere. I also love the old pic, and Rarity obvs.

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