Essie Winter 2012 Collection Part 1: Sponged Glitter Tips

Happy Friday everyone! Today I have the first part in what will be a short mini-series. At least that's the plan. I received the Essie Winter 2012 collection as a Christmas gift from my parents, and rather than do the usual swatch and review, I thought it would be fun to do a small series of posts on simple nail art using the polishes from the collection. There are two reasons for this: the first is that there are so many great swatches of this collection already, and I don't feel I have anything to add to the discussion. And second, I've been interested in similar posts by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails and Victoria at Manicurator that combine reviews plus nail art. To challenge myself I'll try to only use the six polishes from this collection *nervously tugs shirt collar*.

Sponged Glitter Tips: Essie Where's My Chauffeur? and Beyond Cozy

Today I decided to do something extremely easy, sponged glitter tips. Even if you feel like you can't do any nail art, you can most likely do this. The technique is simple: paint your base colour and then use a makeup sponge to dab some glitter polish on the tips of your nails. I like to dab on a bit, wait a minute for it to dry, and then do some touch ups where I need a bit more. But don't be too fussy, if you dab too much you may find that you're lifting off some of your polish. :/

Sponged Glitter Tips: Essie Where's My Chauffeur? and Beyond Cozy

If you're familiar with the collection, you already know what colours I used! :) For the base I used two coats of Where's My Chauffeur. This is a beautifully saturated robin's egg blue creme. While I love the colour, I'm only lukewarm with regards to the formula. It is on the thin side, and the first coat was rather streaky. I was able to get a perfect even finish with the second coat, however, there were a few nails where the second coat was still streaky and prone to cuticle drag.

For the tips I used Beyond Cozy, a champagne gold micro glitter that can be worn on its own or layered over another polish. I was impressed by the coverage on this one. With one coat you have a nice thin layer that would be perfect over a base colour, and at two coats you have full coverage. This one tends to suck up the top coat, so it's best to add an extra layer.

Sponged Glitter Tips: Essie Where's My Chauffeur? and Beyond Cozy

I love these two polishes and could see myself wearing them together again this winter. As for the sponged glitter tips I find this to be an easy way to refresh an old mani or cover chips/tip wear.

As for future posts in this series, I won't do them all in a row, but I will do two or three each week until I have gone through all the polishes.

Thanks for reading!