Essie Red Noveau
I found an online beauty store in Sweden that carries Essie polishes (actually several do, but this was the first I saw that did and, besides, it’s one of my favourite online stores anyway — I’m a sucker for freebies and they always include a bunch of samples of different things with your orders).
Wise from the Black Knight debacle, I actually looked up all the shades I was interested in before adding any of them to my cart. I ended up with Red Noveau and Pop Art Pink, both from The Art of Spring 2010 collection.
Red Noveau is the first one I tried on. The formula is very nice and you can get away with anything from one to multiple coats, in my opinion, depending on how strong of a colour you want. I went with three or four coats (I can’t quite remember) and then a coat of Seche Vite on top of that.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is quite the red shade for me. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t seem to work entirely with my skin tone. A pity, because other than that, it really is a lovely polish.
In other news, I think I’m going to try to find OPI’s quick-dry top coat in the shops today, because I am getting increasingly annoyed with the shrinking properties of Seche Vite. I love its shine and the way it dries in a heart beat, but good god, am I tired of the white tips I end up with.