NOTD: Essie Watermelon

We're officially experiencing a heatwave here in Belgium.  It's crazy hot here and with this kind of weather you have to stay hydrated so enter watermelon.  My man and I are real watermelon addicts.  It's just so refreshing an healthy at the same time, what else could one want right?

So when a colleague at work started talking about Watermelon by Essie I thought this was the perfect time to throw this one on the blog.  It's a classic color that screams summer.  On the US website this color is described as "a creamy and refreshing juicy red", on the Belgian website it's described as "a juicy and refreshing watermelon pink".  It really is a bright pink that navigates towards red so the truth is in-between.

Swatches are made with three coats and as you can see the color still isn't totally opaque.  

Where to buy:

Watermelon by Essie is part of their standard collection so it's available at your local Essie retail.  In Belgium you can find Essie at Di and Kruidvat and one polish costs €12,49.

NOTD: & Other Stories Passementerie Blush

Would you believe I've never tried a & Other Stories nail polish?  Even though they've been around the net and they always look great I never tried them.  The reason why is really stupid (and I mean really stupid).  As you can see on the picture on top, there's this sticker that covers the cap and a part of the bottle.  Not only does this assure that the polish you're buying hasn't been tried and tested by random shoppers, I also find it gives the bottle a nice classy look.  Up until now I was under the assumption that by opening the bottle you would ruin the sticker and therefor the whole 'look' of the bottle but of course that's not the case.   The sticker (or label, whatever you prefer) is meant to be pulled off before you open the bottle.  I just felt like slapping myself in the face when I finally figured that one out.  This was one of those moments where I just felt so incredibly dumb ... 

So when I was in Antwerp last Saturday I had no excuse not to buy some & Other Stories polishes.  I bought 4 so I kept it pretty descent in my standards.  The first one I'm showing is called Passementerie Blush, a gorgeous coral.  I gravitated towards this one every time I visited & Other Stories, this color is just so perfect.  Not too pink, not too orange but the right mixture of the two.  

The polish goes on smoothly but it did take me 3 coats and I still didn't achieve a truly full coverage.  I can still see the rims of my nails coming through when I'm standing in bright light. Other than that the formula is great.  It's not streaky and not too watery.

What I really don't like is that the brush is so close to the cap.  The cap has the same size as a Catrice nail polish bottle cap but the bottle itself is much smaller.  The brush is also the same size so it's only normal that the 'handle' of the brush is much shorter.  This makes the application of the polish much harder in my opinion.  

The size of the brush is great though, not too small and not too wide.  

Overall I do like this polish and the color range of & Other Stories polishes is great but the brush thing is annoying.  I have to admit that the aesthetics of the range is one of the main reasons I bought it and probably will be buying more.  They would just look so great in a nail polish display.

Where to buy:

You can buy this nail polish at & Other Stories for €7.  If you're bottle is empty and you return it to the store you get a 10% discount (but really, is there anyone out there that ever totally finishes a nail polish?).