Get ready to party with essie’s 2013 Neon Collection! These bold & ultra bright polishes will help you light up the night this party season. The collection is a total burst of electrifying color – with hues of blue, purple, pink and green. My favs include – boom boom room (ultra bright party pink), “bouncer it’s me” (vivid blue velvet), and dj play that song (jam-iest neon plum).

essie.com $8

(Photo courtesy of essie)

I know I’ve been posting a lot of nail polish reviews lately, but I just couldn’t end the week with out sharing my Easter nail art manicure

Deborah Lippmann’s Staccato polish in Rockin’ Robin is a must for Easter this year. The black glitter within the mint nail polish makes your nails look just like robin eggs – I’m really loving this effect!

I had to add a little bling to my ring fingers so I chose Essie Bond Over Whomever, from their Spring 2013 collection, as the base color.  This Essie lacquer is a lovely pastel but yet vibrant lilac color.

Then my manicurist (I’m gonna start calling her my nail artist!) used pink, teal, and yellow nail art polish to make the lines and zigzags. She then sealed it with a layer of Nicole by OPI Inner Sparkle. The result – a gorgeous little glitter egg!

My list of favorite manicures just keeps getting bigger! Happy Easter!!

Here’s another swatch from the new Essie Spring 2013 collection. Essie Avenue Maintain is a bold high-shine blue. It’s inspired by Avenue Montaigne in Paris – which is also where Chanel’s latest boutique is located and the inspiration behind their limited edition eyeshadow palette. 

This shade is slightly darker than Essie Bikini So Teeny – see that swatch here. I also think it would be the perfect something blue pedicure for all those brides walking down the aisle this year!

Inspired by her travels from around the world, Essie’s spring 2013 collection features a combination of soft pastels and lively colors. Madison Ave-Hue s a beautiful bold pink with the slightest shimmer that only you will notice. It reminds me of pink tulips blossoming in the spring.

The colors in collection are also lovely. I can’t wait to swatch Hip-Anema and  Go-Ginza!

I fell in love with the new Marabou nail dress design from Kiss. The colorful gemstones look so refreshing over the leopard print. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the way the strips covered my nails. These strips are kind of thick and the stones don’t help the situation either! The strips on my index finger and middle finger looked ridiculous, so I removed them and decided to use Chanel Le Vernis in Vertigo. I thought the dark color would compliment my outfit and the leopard print. Mini crisis adverted! Have you tried these yet, what do you think?

• Kiss Nail Dress $6.99
• Chanel Le Vernis $27

I went out last weekend and I wanted a sexy manicure to match my LBD. I had recently seen a pic posted by Kim K. on Instagram of a black on black manicure. I liked the idea of back on black matte – but I wasn’t so thrilled about the french tip design.

I picked out China Glaze Black Diamond – a gunmetal black and paired it with a matte effect top coat. My manicurist created designs using black and silver nail art polish. I am in LOVE – I have not stopped looking at my nails. My nails look soo fierce – like a manicure Beyoncé would choose!

Repstyle is Essie’s first magnetic nail polish collection. I like the snakeskin twist Essie went with for this collection. The included magnet leaves a snakeskin pattern on your nails.  I am not particularly a fan of magnetic nail polish – it leaves an awesome effect, but it’s difficult to work with. Here are the shades I tried:

Repstyle – a hypnotic dessert bronze. It’s a beautiful color even without the magnetic effect.

Snake Rattle & Roll – a venomous oxidized silver. It’s that perfect gunmetal hue very biker chic.

Snake it Up – a pewter pavé python. A nice blue shade that compliments the collection.

Side note: I loved the colabo Essie did with BaubleBar so much that I came up with my own bracelet/polish pairing! Essie Repstyle matches perfectly with Lia Sophia’s Captured stretch bracelet. FYI BaubleBar is having a year-end sale and all the items from the BableBar + Essie collection is on sale!

(Photo courtesy of Essie)

As you can already tell by now – I just love holiday themed manicures! A blue snowy Christmas eve night is the inspiration behind this glittery manicure. YSL Bleu Cobalt was used from the dark blue base coat. Two different glitter nail polishes were used in this manicure – Essie Luxeffects Set in Stone and Nicole by OPI Sweet Dreams. Set in Stone is a silver glitter polish and it was only used on my ring finger. These rest of my nails are covered with Sweet Dreams, a silver and teal glitter nail polish. My manicurist free-styled the snowflakes using white and silver nail art polish.

Essie’s latest collection is all about living the good life! With shades of blue, red, and sparkly glitter – it’s royalty at its best. It’s for the woman who enjoys the finer things in life because of her achievements and success, not because she married rich! Look posh this winter with Essie polishes.

Essie She’s Pampered is an indulgent red. Very deep and extremely creamy. A nice bright red to warm up those cold winter nights.

Essie Where’s My Chauffer is a crisp turquoise. It’s an unexpected color in the collection, it’s the wild card that will transition your nails into spring.

Essie Leading Lady is a glittery red. It reminds me of Dorothy’s red slippers. It’s also similar to OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, but with more glitter and a deeper shade of red.

Essie Beyond Cozy is a decadent silvery gold glitter. This kind of polish has been popping up everywhere. It looks a lot like MAC Rich Rich Rich and a little like OPI Goldeneye. It took three coats to get it to this level of sparkle.

Essie Butler Please is a blue-blooded cobalt. This is one of my favorite shades from the collection. It’s a super vibrant royal blue. It’s just so pretty!

Butler Please looks great paired with Beyond Cozy. A little bling on my ring finger – don’t mind if I do!

Essie Snap Happy is a bright orange-red. It’s nice to see that the Tangerine Tango trend has been warmed up a bit to fit in with a winter collection. This will also be a nice color to transition with once the weather starts to warm up.

essie.com $8 ea

Halloween is a great time to go wild and crazy with your nail designs! This gorgeous vamp nail design was created by my nail tech Blanca at M3H Nail Salon. She used Essie Licorice ($8, essie.com) as the base color. It’s a creamy black polish and was the perfect background color for this mani. Next she used red glitter polish. You can make your own with red chunky glitter and clear nail polish. She then used red, black, and white nail art polish to draw the super cute vamp lips! I vote this my best manicure of the year! So in love with my nails, I can’t look away!

Side note – I used my friend’s Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat ($9.99, drugstore.com) and I am officially hooked! I love this stuff! I nails dried sooo fast, I was able to reach into my wallet without smudging my nails. I definitely must get a bottle for my self, I’m too busy to sit around waiting for my nails to dry!

Halloween Nail Designs From the Past

Gypsy Corset Nail Design

First a clear top coat was applied, then China Glaze Twenty-Four K ($7, ulta.com) was applied in a v-shape tip. Black nail art polish was then used to create the laces. They also look like ballerina shoes, right?

Swashbuckler Mani

Essie A List ($8, essie.com) was used as the base color and then black nail art polish was used to create the slashes at the bottom.