Essie Resort 2017: Strike A Pose-Itano Comparisons

Hi guys!

Today I have swatches and comparisons of the newest mint green to join the Essie family, Strike a Pose-Itano. I always look forward to the Resort collection and this year was no exception. I have to thank my buddy Lauren for sending me the entire collection as a baby shower gift last month. If you are an Essie lover but are not familiar with Lauren's Instagram account or blog I highly recommend you check them out! Not only does she redefine #nailgoals, but she regularly partners with the Essie Canada team and is a great source for swatches and reviews of upcoming collections. And although I plan to feature just one shade from the collection today, I also plan to cover all four polishes in an upcoming review. I just have one more polish left to try before I can do so. But anyway, back to the task at hand!

Essie: Strike A Pose-Itano

Essie Mint Candy Apple vs. Blossom Dandy

If you are familiar with Essie nail polishes you are probably familiar with Mint Candy Apple and Blossom Dandy. Both are mint green cremes in the regular line that are very popular and widely loved. Today I want to discuss the differences between them to help you decide if you really need both and, since you can't discuss MCA without bringing up the infamous blue-toned version of it too, we're gonna throw that into the mix too. So, to kick this off let's begin with comparing Blossom Dandy to Mint Candy Apple, the green-toned formulation.

Essie -- Mint Candy Apple [blue hue]

Can we all just stop for a moment and appreciate the divinity that is Essie's Mint Candy Apple? This picture is from last month, when I still had the blue-hued MCA [which I traded for the green-hued version... see my post on April 25th for more details]. Even though I traded it it's still such a GORGEOUS shade that it's plain to see why it's such a cult favorite. This was two coats, topped with HK Girl by Glisten & Glow. The formula is... okay. MCA gets a bad wrap. It may not be the best formula in the world, but it's definitely not the worst either. The color more than makes up for any application struggles, in my opinion. I'm such a sucker for light blue nail polish! Who am I kidding... I'll probably buy this one again, and then I'll have BOTH shades in my collection. #nailpolishgoals

Tiny Haul (plus a surprise Essie score)

Lately I've been feeling like I've been going a little crazy with the nail polish purchasing. I've decided to [try to force myself] to slow down a little bit and NOT purchase a new nail polish every time I go out [literally]. It's NOT easy, especially when I go to Target and see the $1.99 Sinful Colors rack staring me in the face. So, what I'm trying to do now is to save my money for those specific things that I want, rather than operating on impulse. 

To that end, I think I've only purchased two new nail related items over the past month, which I think is really good. But I must confess, I've started getting more into makeup lately, so I have been buying a few inexpensive E.L.F. brushes and blushes, I started an Ipsy subscription, and I'm also going to order some ColourPop Lippie Stix (I already have the Lumiere lippie and pencil and they're AMAZING). 

But back to my tiny nail haul....