Maychiri's Thoughts

Essie Fall 2023 Collection Nail Polish [928 - Dance ‘Til Dawn] Review

January 17, 2025

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New Stuff - Part 52

January 17, 2025

Why hello!

The first non-Advent calendar post of 2025! And I prepared something special indeed! Why don't we start 2025 off on the right foot, with some good quality nail polishes from Essie?

So, as you can see, one of the nail polishes is a mini, which you cannot usually buy. That's because BIPA had a special prom going on, where, if you bought any Essie, you'd get a free mini Essie! And out of the three colours they had available in mini format, this was really the only one I would realistically wear. It's also one that I am so hyped about because it has a reputation of being one of the best Essie colours... we'll see. Well, BIPA wasn't the first one to have this promo (I saw it on Pink Panda earlier). but still, it made me want to go check out what Essies they currently have for sale...

The entire Fall 2023 collection
Source: www.essie.com

...And then I found this interesting light greige pinkish nail polish from an older collection that I faintly recall. I only remember the Fall 2023 collection because one of the shades has a Taylor Swift lyric as its name. The Fall 2023 collection featured mostly moody, dark colours, which fits with autumn, but it doesn't fit with me, personally. I generally avoid wearing very dark nail polishes in order to avoid yellowing of my nails. So that's why I didn't pay much attention to this collection - until now! You know, now that I look at it, I don't know why I ignored that pretty greige nail polish, it really looks pretty! Aside from that, it's all very bold, dark colours, albeit with very fun, song-themed names. I would have bought "Meet Me at Midnight", being a Swiftie, but... why is it dark camo green??? "Step Out of Line" and "Meet Me at Midnight" should have swapped colours tbh. This makes me kind of sad because when's the next time they'll have a Taylor Swift themed name... sigh. Well, at least I got to enjoy this collection at a discount, as it is an older one at this point! So, that's another Essie that goes into my ever growing collection - yaay!

I really like this message, it's really inspiring! Don't mind the typo...
Source: www.essie.com

So, without further ado, here are the Essies:

See you soon!

Maja

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Catrice

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Nail Lacquer [C03] Review

January 09, 2025

Hey, wait... oh no... this isn’t plain royal purple like it looked in the back of the calendar. Damn. This is another shimmery nail polish, but it’s very dark red with... purple (?) shimmer? Gosh, why not make it just solid royal purple... I have to say that I am already not feeling this colour at all. Ah well, let’s see what it’s like anyways.

Packaging: square bottle so it looks like a glass cube. It is quite heavy, though. The cap is golden, which goes fantastically with the dark red base of the polish, very eye-catching! The only detail is the Catrice logo, but there is some information in the back. The cap closes extremely tightly, and, since it is not ribbed, it can be frustratingly hard to open. But at least it keeps the nail polish from drying out! I like this bottle design, it is classy and easy to store, even though it is a bit large.

Ingredients: açaí (Euterpe oleracea) fruit oil for nourishment. 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). The scent is like any other nail polish, tbh. The expiration date is 36 months after opening.

Brush: oh, another thin brush, just like with C02... this is something between a flat brush and a round brush, and it is... not too good. Which pains me to say, because Catrice are known for having fantastic nail polish brushes. But this brush felt weird to use; like, it fans out nicely but it returns to an almost round shape after you lift the brush, so nail polish isn’t deposited too evenly. And it is hella messy around the edges, which, granted, is equal parts the watery formula’s fault and this brush’s. However, it does pick up a large amount of pigment, though it still wasn’t quite enough. I had to go back to the bottle to finish painting each nail. Needlessly tricky to use brush when they already perfected the game with the ICONAILS brushes... why, just why change it?

Colour: okay, so, the way this colour looks in the bottle is not the same as how it looks on nails. This is a relief to me, as I really didn’t like that deep red with very intense bright purple shimmer that is in the bottle. It’s much more purple on the nails, but still with a noticeable red hue to it, but it is definitely ‘purple’ instead of dark wine red. The base is dark wine red, of course, but the shimmer spreads so nicely that it changes the whole hue, and it has a purple shine to it, which makes it look even more purple. I am still not feeling this colour, I don’t feel any ‘connection’ to it, but I do like it way more now that I see how it actually looks like on nails. The base is a very dark and intense red, almost like mulled wine, which is appropriate for this time of the year.

On top of that base sits the shimmer, which is multicoloured but the purple is most present. The purple shimmer is literally neon violet, so bright that it has the power to change the entire colour of the polish, but it wouldn’t be able to do that without the help of the plentiful lighter red and orange shimmer, which adds so much dimensionality. So, in effect, you have a dark red nail polish with purple shimmer. But when you shine a light on it, it becomes much more sparkly and multicoloured. So it’s quite a festive colour after all! Though I still wish it was a classic royal purple...

Oh god, this formula is very watery. It feels quite cheap, and it applies badly as well. It’s so hard to make it even, and it’s runny, which makes it even harder to use. Really awful formula, but I am glad that the shimmery isn’t chunky like with C02. This formula is watery, but it became weirdly goopy all of a sudden when I went to apply a second coat. Needless to say, I had a real mess around my nails after painting my nails...

One coat is horrible. Like, you cannot wear it like this as it is horribly uneven and semi-opaque. Plus, the colour isn’t as vibrant as it should be. It just looks like rubbish with one coat, sorry. Two coats improves the situation dramatically. Now it’s completely opaque and the colour is as vivid as it should be. Now it’s purple! Also, the shimmer becomes much more 3D with two coats. However, don’t apply more than 2 coats; it started to feel goopy with two, so there’s really no need for 3+ coats. I really think that 2 coats is ideal. The texture is glossy, first and foremost, but it’s not just a glossy nail polish – it is also a shimmery nail polish! The shimmer is extremely fine, so it doesn’t feel scratchy, and it gives the polish so much dimensionality, like, it actually looks deeply 3D!

This effect is incredibly difficult to capture on camera; in person it is much more sparkly and magical and so wonderful!

Longevity is, again, like with C02, excellent! Although it is not quite as chip-proof as C02; it stayed free from any chips throughout the 5 days I had it on, but it started to chip when I went to wash my hair. It had a few tiny chips on two nails, which is entirely okay. However, it did seem to get scratched up after a day or two. The fine shimmer inside helps conceal this remarkably well, so it still had a lot of its initial shine despite this. I honestly expected it to chip much more since it isn’t as chunky glittery as C02, so I am satisfied with this longevity.

Eh, removing this nail polish was... a hassle, let’s just say. I used the best remover I have and it still had a lot of trouble removing this nail polish. It took 3-4 passes to finally start breaking through the top coat, and just as many to remove it almost completely. Almost, because there was still some polish remaining even after all that. So I had to go over all my nails again to fully remove it. Luckily, I was able to somehow avoid damaging my nails in the process. And there was no yellow staining as well! I was positive that there would be, since this is a dark red/purple colour and those almost always stain my nails but this one doesn’t! Now, if only it could be easier to remove...

All in all, not a too bad nail polish – if you fancy very dark red or dark purple nail polishes. I generally don’t like such colours on my nails for multiple reasons so I don’t vibe with this colour, sadly. It’s not a bad colour, but the way it is depicted in the back of the calendar is very misleading. Because it is not a plain glossy royal purple nail polish like it seems; it is actually a dark red base with annoyingly bright purple shimmer inside it. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like in the bottle – on the nails, it becomes much more multicoloured thanks to all the colourful shimmer. It’s not just bright violet shimmer, it also has light red shimmer, and the interaction between the two and the dark wine red base makes the nail polish glimmer magically. I rather like this, despite not liking the colour itself. It looks so magical, which is fitting for Christmas time, when there’s Christmas magic on the air! The photos certainly don’t do it justice, it is much more shimmery and 3D in person. However, for how good this is, the formula leaves a lot to be desired. It is noticeably watery and not the easiest to use, and it becomes slightly goopy with the second coat. And the brush is subpar, it is not that wonderful wide flat brush that Catrice usually use. I have no idea why they changed it when it was so good... the brush is far less precise and doesn’t apply the polish as well as the old brush. One other horrible thing is how extremely difficult this polish is to remove. I did not expect it to cause me this much trouble! I needed to go for like 7-8 passes until I was able to remove most of it, and I was using the best remover so what gives?? It’s not like it is chunky glittery... but at least it didn’t make my nails yellow. Silver linings. I will end in a good note, by mentioning how incredibly long-lasting this nail polish is; it isn’t quite as impervious to damage as C02, but it still remained in fantastic condition until the very end, and survived a hair wash without too much chipping. Just some. So yeah, honestly, a surprise! Listen, I still don’t like this colour, but it’s undeniable that it is nice quality. Albeit with quite a few problems.

Rating: 6/10

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Catrice

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Hair Clip Review

January 08, 2025

Huh... yeah, this is by far the most useless product of all in the calendar. It’s not that I don’t like to decorate my hair or make it look pretty with accessories, it’s the fact that my hair is notoriously difficult to style. Individual hairs are quite thin, but there’s so many of them, which results in very heavy hair. Especially with the length I have now! It’s apparent how heavy it is by how low-volume my roots are – they are barely able to hold it all, how is a measly hair clip going to be able to hold anything is anybody’s guess. That’s why i don’t use hair clips, because they always just slide down within 20 minutes. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, maybe this hair clip will be different (I sincerely doubt that)! So let’s see...

Okay, one thing that bothers me is that this hair clip did not come with any sort of protective packaging. It was just placed there inside the calendar, without any protection. This is just unnecessary breakage risk. The only thing the clip had was a small paper tag that showed which country it was made in. Not good.

The hair clip itself is actually pretty darn elegant! It’s a golden hair clip with decorative pearls on top, to make it classier. Of course, not real gold! So be careful where you leave it, it might start to rust/oxidise if it gets wet. The clip is super lightweight, which may not actually be such a good thing after all. Because clips that have some weight to them often hold up hair better. This one definitely seems too lightweight for my heavy head of hair.

The most striking detail is the pearls! There’s large and small pearls, and, I only noticed this recently: they are arranged into small florets! So they aren’t randomly scattered like I thought. The pearls don’t look too cheap or plasticy; I think they nailed that sort of muted reflections that real pearls have. Also, the white/gold contrast is quite something! The white pearls will absolutely stand out on my darker hair!

Quality-wise, it seems to be good. Although, I am just noticing that the smaller pearls aren’t actually glued, so they move a little as you are trying to stick the hair clip into your hair. I have a feeling that this might lead to them falling off, but maybe I am mistaken. I didn’t have anything fall off just yet, so... fingers crossed?

Oh no, I just noticed that this hair clip doesn’t have ‘teeth’. This will be slidy... yup, it’s 100% going to slide all over my silky, unruly hair. That aside, this hair clip has nothing to help you pry it open, and since it is pretty long, this can be very tricky to do. I almost always end up hurting my fingers and cuticles because it’s so damn tricky to keep it open. And you want it to be open, because it pulls so much hair if you try to stick it in closed. So, unnecessarily complicated to use. At least it doesn’t pull hair when I want to remove it. I was afraid that it would break so many hair strands, but it actually is easy to remove... probably precisely because it is completely smooth on the inside. It has no grip.

Let me be honest, I have no idea where exactly I should place this hair clip. The only ideas that I can come up with are to, either, pull back a quarter of my hair from each front side and then join the pieces together and place the clip on top, to conceal the hairband, or to just stick it over one of my ears. But both are problematic, for different reasons. If I try the former hairstyle, no way that the clip will he able to hold all that hair, and if I try the latter, it just looks like I am balding. Because, again, I have very fine hair, it’s just that there’s plenty of it. So when I pull it taut, it looks quite bald. Well, check the pictures and see if I did anything right. I am not a hair girlie, so I have no clue how to make this damn clip work with my hair.

Okay, yeah, this is useless for my heavy, dense hair. Maybe, if my hair were shorter, it would be easier for the clip to hold onto stands, but as it is, it’s pretty much unusable for any longer periods of time. It clasps tightly enough to take a few pictures, but it starts to slide down within 5-10 minutes, so any hairstyle that I try to make with it falls apart within the hour. Even just sliding it above my ear, it feels slippy and like it doesn’t actually clasp my hair. Even when I try to shove it right down to the roots, it still doesn’t hold my hair. Well, it holds it for maybe 5 minutes longer, but it still becomes loose way too fast. Just like I thought, my hair is too unruly to actually use this clip. Ah well, I saw this coming from a mile away...

So... I don’t know what to say about this. Like, I am sure it would work better on hair that is denser and/or shorter. My hair is simply too heavy and there is much too many hair strands for the hair clip to properly clasp them. Just like most hair clips on my hair, it begins to slide down after a short while, because my hair is unusually silky and ‘alive’, like, it is actually silly how it bends every which way while I am trying to braid it! So the hair clip had no chance of actually holding my hair, but I am not disappointed, as I expected this. I also have no idea how to wear it properly without looking like an idiot. But I do like its design; it is very classy with the large pearls that are stacked to look almost like florets. Shame that my hair is the wrong type for it...

Addendum: now that I tied to use it some more, I believe I have figured out a way for it to stay put on my hair without sliding down. It isn’t too comfortable, but at least it holds somewhat throughout a day. Although, even the lightest touch will mess it up, so it obviously isn’t clipped strongly. But I like it a bit more now, so I will raise its rating up a bit. It’s actually relatively decent now. And I do actually like how it looks on my hair.

Rating: idk, 5/10 ?

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Brush

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Eyebrow Brush Review

January 06, 2025

Ah, I love eyebrow brushes – they are so versatile! They function the best with eyebrow powders or eyebrow pomade, but I also love to use them to get a smoky eyeliner kind of look with dark eyeshadows. However, for this specifically, I will go back to my trusty eyebrow powder that I haven’t used in a loooong time! I cannot wait to see the results!

Packaging: unlike the previous two brushes, the cardboard for this brush is light in colour. This one is light pink! What a delightful change! I have always loved powder light pink as a colour, and it goes so well with the bright red and black details. Text is black in the back, so that it is easy to read. The details are, of course, art deco style, to match the rest of the calendar.

But, although this packaging looks fancy, it doesn’t really provide much protection for the brush, as there is no brush guard or anything inside it. But I appreciate the effort that has gone into designing it!

The brush is, like the previous two, solid gold. Very luxurious! Ooh, I love these fancy gold brushes! Although, it will become smudged with fingerprints in no time. At least it’s small so those smudges aren’t very noticeable. The only detail is the Catrice logo, in darker gold. The whole body is gold, including the ferrule. As for build quality, it feels like it’s built very well. It certainly doesn’t feel loose anywhere! The brush head is tiny, as befitting an eyebrow brush!

The shape is your standard angled flat brush like any other eyeliner/eyebrow brush, the angle is quite sharp here, though. This will make it easier to fill in your brows naturally, as this shape does imitate the natural angle of eyebrow hairs very nicely. As for the colour, the hairs look very natural; they are this straw-yellow colour with a dark brown band and white tips. The white tips are especially prominent on this brush! I like this colouring, it makes the hairs look so natural!

But guess what? The hairs aren’t natural – they are synthetic! They don’t look too plasticy, though. But, since the hairs are so sleek and completely straight, they are quite shiny. I don’t feel like this makes them look cheaper, all brushes that have such straight hairs have shiny hairs. In fact, the hairs look quite high quality to me! They are cut perfectly evenly - not a single longer or stray hair! This is especially important for eyebrow brushes as they need to be geometrically perfect in order to draw sharp lines. Having stray hairs might lead to smudging, and you don’t want that with an eyebrow brush, so it is excellent that this brush is so perfectly cut! The hairs are wonderfully soft – at least, for an eyebrow brush!

Of course, they aren’t as soft as the Eyeshadow Blender Brush, but eyebrow brushes are never super soft simply because of the way they are built. But as long as I am just drawing lines with the brush, it stays so very soft! It does become prickly when I tap with it, but that’s normal for this kind of brush. What’s important is that it is softer than usual when swiping with it! It will definitely be gentle enough for eyebrows, it’s actually soft enough to be used on the eyes, too! So I will be able to make eyeliners with this – yes! And also, no fraying or fall-out!

So, now that I have found my trusty ol’ eyebrow powder, I can finally test this brush out properly. I could have used it with eyeliners but eyebrow brushes tend to draw thick lines and have difficulties drawing a sharp tip; if you take an eyeliner brush, you’ll notice that, while the general shape is the same, they are less ‘thick’, i.e., they have less hairs. So instead of using it to make eyeliner with eyeshadow, I will use it the way it was meant to be used: with eyebrow products! I don’t currently have an eyebrow pomade at hand, otherwise I would test it out with that, along with the powder. But, let’s see: how does it apply eyebrow powder? Bloody fantastically, that’s how! The brush picks up a pretty large amount of powder, which, for me, was enough to define roughly 2/3 of one eyebrow. It also applies powders so evenly, that it looks professionally applied with literally zero effort! Lining the brows is as easy as can be, as the brush is super precise. And filling in the brows naturally is just as easy as the brush isn’t too large, so you can quickly draw hair-like shapes by flicking your wrist. I was astonished by how incredible my brows looked – and that’s without even using any spoolies! Truly, there is little need to comb through the brows as this wonderful brush takes care of that all by itself! And since it is so precise, it is super easy to precisely add just a tiny bit more powder right where you need it. Wow! What an awesome brush, just... wooow!

Washing this tiny little brush is extremely easy. The hairs are slick, which makes it all that easier to rinse out eyebrow powder, though, if you use pomades instead, you may need to spend a bit more time rinsing it out – pomades are always a bit of a hassle to remove. The brush keeps its shape after a wash and there is precisely zero fall-out or fraying. Nice!

Eyebrow powder applied using this brush - phenomenal results!
Peep the eyeshadow - that's the eyeshadow palette from the Advent Calendar!

In conclusion, oh yeah, this brush is IT! I had my hopes set medium-high for this brush, as I’ve had other similar Catrice brushes and they were all incredible, but, as we’ve seen before, things aren’t the same as usual in this calendar. Not always. But luckily, this little brush is absolutely fantastic! The hairs are cut perfectly evenly and the shape is ideal for filling in brows naturally, using hair-like strokes. The hairs do feel very high quality, and that is evident when you start to use the brush. See, it applies eyebrow powder so perfectly that I did not have any need to use a spoolie to comb through the brows! This means that the powder is both applied evenly and blended out perfectly – all at the same time! Like, I remember this eyebrow powder being amazing, but this brush squeezes out every little ounce of awesomeness out of it, making the brows look even better than before! Huh... now I remember why I loved using powder – just look how natural, yet dense my brows are! Even the tails aren’t stubby and thick! And I was able to blend out two different shades of powder without it all looking muddy or too soft. I didn’t even have to try hard to get this kind of fabulous result! It just... comes naturally with this brush, I guess! Wow, wow, wow... I am blown away by this brush! Oh, and it’s also super soft, which isn’t all that common with these kinds of brushes. So not only does it apply powders so spectacularly well, it is also gentle on the skin – what more could I want? Honestly? Nothing, this brush is perfection!

Rating: 10/10

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