ettusais #8 (and a few vacation pics)

Hi guys, I'm back!

Before I went on vacation, I slapped on three coats of one of my favourites (OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake) and packed a nail polish remover wipe (the Deborah Lippman one).

By the time I had been through Sydney and New Zealand, my nails were horribly chipped, but it was not bothering me *that* much. However, by the time we got to Tokyo for our last four days of vacation, I knew it was time to remove my chipped mani and seek out a nail polish in Japan! Most of the nail polishes I found were 700-1400 yen a bottle (which, at the current exchange rate is around $9-17 USD) for non-import polishes. OPI, Essie, and even Color Club were very, very expensive! I didn't want to purchase any of the shades at those prices, since they were not unique, so I thought I was going to have to spend my last few days with naked (and stained) nails. Luckily, as I was browsing through the beauty section of LOFT, I came upon a display that read:



How appropriate! These mini-nail polishes in bright, summery colours were 252 yen (~$3 USD) each, which was an easier price for me to swallow. I chose the bright coral colour and went on my merry way. I was not expecting much from this little 2mL bottle (yes, 2mL!), but the brush was great and easy to control, and the formula was not streaky and opaque in two coats! I was very impressed.

ettusais #8 - 2 coats, no clean up required <3

On the nail, I felt it was a dupe to one of my favourites, Essie Vermillionaire, but seeing the side-by-side comparison below makes me glad it's not! They are very close in some lights, though.

Comparisons with Essie Vermillionaire and Illamasqua Collide


As a side bar, the colour definitely seemed too bright for the tips in Tokyo. Most girls were wearing nude polishes or glitter gradients of some kind. Very few bright colours! Oh well, maybe it helped signal that I was not a local, and to please not attempt to speak to me in Japanese! ;)

Sorry it took me so long to post! I got back last weekend, but this whole week I basically came home from work and fell asleep right away. I'm finally back on Eastern time, though! I have some indie nail polish swatches to show you pretty soon, which is exciting! For now, let me leave you with a couple pics from my trip:

Petting an adorable and soft wallaby at the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney:


Beautiful view in New Zealand, close to Queenstown:


Our hotel view in Tokyo, with Duffy and Shellie May (Disney bears from Tokyo Disney Sea):


See you soon! :)