Dior ALOHA 638 Nail Polish Swatches, Review, and Comparison to Essie Meet Me At Sunset

FINALLY it's mine!  Buwahahhaha!!!  I don't even care that it's out of season, I have been DYING for Dior Aloha Nail Vernis.  I can't even deal right now because I'm so excited.

Backing up, when Aloha came out with Electric Tropics in Summer 2011, based off of  the promo pics and swatches, I wasn't getting a strong lemming.  Of course... I'm at Macy's much later after the release and I painted a nail with it.... must have.  Hands down, needed.  Sold out.   Isn't that what ALWAYS happens?!  Long story short, after much searching I couldn't find it anywhere and I was stuck with a major sad face.

Last week, a friend of mine (Hi, Nat!) needed a CP (custom purchase) of some Le Metier de Beaute items and I saw it... right there on the Nordstrom website.  AloooooHA!  Add to cart.  Order.  Mines.

Aloha is such a beautiful shade for Summer.  A hot, neon orange begging to bask in the hot sun.  I'm a huge fan of Dior polishes because (IME) they are the easiest to coat on and have the BEST brush.  I only used 2 coats for the swatch photo.  In real life there is a hint of visible nail line, but it's nothing that looks bad.  I'm rather pale in the swatch photo, and I still think the shade compliments well.  So you don't HAVE to be tan to pull off this shade!

Aloha is paired up in this collection with the Dior Top Coat.  Though I don't like the brush from the top coat, it went on well and dried fairly fast.  It wasn't thick or sticky, and I actually think I like it better than Seche Vite!

This Dior Catwalk Duo Vernis Fluorescent & Top Coat Glossy retails for $26, and were only sold as a set.  I have no idea if you can still snatch this up, but I would recommend calling your local Nordstrom and having them do a computer search.  They can check every store and the website all in one shot. 

Now... on to the comparison!  Is Essie Meet Me At Sunset a dupe for Dior Aloha?  Hmmmm


Before I could find Aloha, I purchased Essie Meet Me At Sunset, hoping against hope it was a dupe.  It looked close enough to me, and really.. beggars can't be choosers.

First... what do you think?

It's looking close! 

Can you tell the Essie from the Dior?  Let me help you out. 
The pointer and ring finger are the Essie, the pinkie and middle finger are the Dior.  Both shades are 2 coats and each has the Dior Top Coat.
Now what do you think?
In person, the Essie has a BIT more red in it.  It's not at 100% for a dupe, but it's at least 99%.  The Dior is limited edition, as is the Essie, but the Essie's are still available and only $8 as compared to $26 for the Dior duo!

Personally, I prefer the brush of the Dior to the Essie, but the wear is similar and if you have the crazy lemming that I had for Aloha, Meet Me At Sunset should help save you, color wise ;)

I hope this helped those with the lemming for Dior Aloha and either couldn't find it or wanted a cheaper alternative!!!  Let me know if you have any other questions!

Essie FAIR GAME Nail Polish Swatches & Review

Essie Fair Game has actually been in my "to be swatched" stash for quite awhile. The color looked beautiful in the bottle, but other things would arrive or pop up at the store... I see something shiny and I'm completely distracted.

Essie Fair Game is a beautiful shade of gun-metal gray and blue. This polish is frosty, but the streaks of the polish are much more prominent in the photo than on the nail in person. So unless streaky polishes REALLY bother you, you should be ok with this one.

Essie Nail Polish retails for $8.00 but since they've hit drugstores you can find them a BIT less.

Essie Mochacino Nail Lacquer

Oh Essie... one one hand I'm SO happy these are everywhere now, making the brand more available to everyone... but I hate that white printing on the bottles. The sides still have the clear 3D Essie (which I love, it just looks so classy!). I appriciate the mass market... but lets leave the bottle alone, girl!

Onto the pretties!

Essie Mochacino is a shimmery taupe song bird. It called to me from a sea of it's sister polishes and said "Buy Me". It's a pretty greyish taupe with a lovely shimmer. It's hard to capture the shimmer with the pics, but it makes the normally drab shade that much more enjoyable. In the pics it gave Mochacino a foil look, which I thought was pretty cool.

Application was a bit meh... it took me 4 coats to get it to the point where I couldn't see some nail. The staying power is right on par with other Essie polishes.

In this pic I used Orly Top 2 Bottom as a base coat, 4 coats of Essie Mochacino, and a top coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat


The retail on Essie polishes has become a bit varied, but the price point is close enough. At drugstores they seem to start around $7.75, but at places like Trade Secret they're still an even $8.

***This post contains an affiliate link. For more information please see my disclosure policy.

Essie Hot Coco Nail Polish Review & Swatches

Ever since I feasted my eyes on swatches of Essie Hot Coco (from Winter 2010, described as tawny sepia) I thought it resembled one of my biggest polish lemmings: Chanel Khaki Rose. I do not have the Chanel polish to compare to, but based off of swatches I'd say they have to be pretty close... maybe the polish gals that follow can give me a confirm on that?

This is Essie Hot Coco with 2 coats. I thought it looked ok but then I did the pics and it's spotty, so I did my other hand with 3 coats and it looked much better. I'll probably put some sort of crackle over it tomorrow to test out one of the other shades ;)


and in this shot if you click to enlarge you can check out the patchiness lol


The pink tinge in this makes it totally wearable for me, I seriously have a hard time finding taupes I like!

Essie retails for $8 USD and is available online at transdesign.com or at Ulta (where I picked up this one).

Essie Sew Psyched NOTD & Swatches

Happy Morning to you everyone! Ugh MONDAY! Actually, this one hasn't been too bad for me. It seems like it's going FAST. Been doing lots of dishes, laundry... PHONE calls to the internet peoples whom I can't understand. =\ I know you've been there.

Anyway, I got a bit more sleep last night than usual (5 hours as opposed to my usual 2 or 3) and I decided to paint the nails. I always feel so much prettier when my nails are painted. Like my class level sky rockets or something lol

I've had Essie Sew Psyched (Fall Into Fashion 2010) sitting on my desk for a week. I got it in the mail the same day as China Glaze Classic Camel. Yes, that's how lazy I've been.

These pictures were taken with 2 coats of the Essie, Zoya Anchor Base Coat, and Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat. I was a little worried when I did the first coat. It seemed like it was going to be thin and streaky... no bueno. I put on the second coat a little thicker and now it looks DIVINE! I'm not a huge green fan, but this polish has just the right amount of gray mixed in... like a dusty, dusky green. With a subtle shimmer... Mama likes! Two polished thumbies up!





This color is part of that whole Military look for Fall deal. I'm not so into that look, myself, but the color is super pretty. It's worth having and much cheaper than the Chanels ;)

Essie retails for $8 and can be found at Trade Secrets... however, if yours is like mine and never gets the new stuff when other places do, you'll have to do what I did and order from transdesign.com, where it is ALSO $8. Shipping is a little high there, but if you order a bit more it'll even out since they have China Glaze discounts.

Essie Angora Cardi Nail Polish Swatches

(pics are clickable)

Today is a SPECIAL day! It's my 100th post! I had wanted to blog something special, but all creativity escapes me. For some reason, even though I've been getting a decent amount of sleep, I'm just exhausted. So, it's a nail swatch.... that turned into a NOTD because it was so beautiful.

Essie Angora Cardi has been sitting in my untrieds for AT LEAST a year. I think it was from Fall of 2009 =\

For some reason when I look at the color.. I think Boysenberry lol Plummy purple! It's really so pretty, I'm totally ashamed I've had it so long and never gave it a go. it's my favorite out of the purple family.

I hear a lot of complaints about Essie polishes application wise... that they're streaky, you need a million coats... but this one was just glorious. I only needed TWO coats and it covered like a dream. I also used Orly Top2Bottom as a base and, of course, Seche Vite as my fast dry top coat. The first pic has flash, the second pic has no flash (I hit some good light!)




And here's some random bottle pics because I am loving this polish and it needs lotsa love ;)





Essie retails for $8.00 a bottle, and you can purchase at online retailers, Trade Secret, and I believe Ulta. And, as I've found, at random Nail Salons lol.

Classy one day... Chic the next!

Yesterday I decided to give my poor nails a break from the dark polishes and try out my one and only Essie polish - Secret Affair. I must say... It's definately in my top 10 polishes. It is the perfect nail color for anything. I felt very classy as I wore it. My only complaint is, this morning it was pretty chipped up at the tips. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to konad on it today. Even so, there are definately more Essie's on my wishlist!


Yesterday I also started Poshe Cuticle Care. It smells divine and I can already see a difference! I'll keep you posted!

Today I have on China Glaze Lubu Heels. I LOVE this one too! Very Chic. I feel like I need the shoes to match lol I see this one being used by me quite a bit in the colder months!


I just noticed I did an angel/devil - naughty/nice thing these past 2 days lol Must be in honor of my children. When Owen is the angel, Lydia is the devil... and vice versa. Neither will nap today. That means it's not a good day =\ but at least the nails look pretty!