Essie Pretty Edgy and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

There are so few universal truths in life, but one that you can bet on with absolute certainty is that if there is a green nail polish in a ten mile radius, I will buy it. It doesn't matter if I already have one like it, I will still buy it. It is my favorite nail polish color, hands down, and any time I am not quite sure what color to wear, I will reach for green.

This is why when a brand like Essie, who usually create a safe array of neutrals and pinks, makes a fabulous green, I cannot control myself. As soon as I saw previews of their summer collection with this stunner, Pretty Edgy, I knew I would love it. When Essie decides to think outside of their usual comfort zone and make a green, blue, or some other unusual shade, they really do something special.

I was hoping for some more natural light to take these pictures, but the sun in Pittsburgh wasn't cooperating with me, so I had to go with a bit of flash, which is okay because it didn't alter the color of this too much. Pretty Edgy is a nice, fairly bright, green creme. It applied nearly opaque in two coats, but I added a third since I almost compulsively apply polish three coats at a time. It wasn't streaky in the least, and applied like butter.

You may be asking yourself already, "Does this girl ever just wear a creme alone?" The answer is yes, but right now I have a split on a nail on my right hand that requires a patch to keep it from spreading, so I like to use glitters and shimmers to hide the lumpiness of the patch. Once it is grown out, provided I don't get any more splits, you will be more likely to see me with cremes on their own. So, I added a coat of the truly fabulous Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, an iridescent flakey glitter that looks beautiful over almost anything. It is limited edition, so run, don't walk, to your nearest CVS, Walgreens, etc., to buy it, because it is beyond awesome. If you can't get it, Nubar's new 2010 is a good dupe.

I usually don't wear polishes for more than a couple of days, but I wanted to say a word about wear. It is really difficult for one person to give advice on which polishes will wear best on others, not just because of what base and top coat each individual uses, but also because of body chemistry. For instance, Essie and OPI consistently have the best wear for me (and are usually the brands I wear when I go on vacation since I don't always have time to repaint when I am away from home), while brands like China Glaze and Zoya can sometimes chip on me pretty quickly if I am not careful. Other people have bad luck with Essie and OPI and great success with others.

That being said, I was pretty impressed with the wear of this combo given the beating I gave my nails yesterday. I cooked an elaborate dinner for my father for Father's Day which included baking a pecan pie and making braciole (stuffed Italian beef rolls), all of which included the certain abuse of my manicure. Between shopping, cleaning, doing dishes, and even opening the wrapper on a new DVD, I had no chips and nearly no tip wear. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me!

I hope to do some nail art with my new Bundle Monster plates this evening, so pics of that may come later today or tomorrow. Until then, Polish to the People!