Essie Aruba Blue is the kind of blue that I feel anyone can pull off because it’s a jewel tone.

This decadent colour seems to have that lit-from-within feel because the middle of your nails are lighter than the edges.

I imagine that if there was a robot designed by The Smurfs, it would be exactly this colour. Or maybe it could be the colour of blueberries eaten by cyborgs in the year 6000. It’s also the colour I picture an enchanted pool in fairy tales should look like.

What does Essie Aruba Blue remind you of? Smurf tears? A blue moon? The galaxy? A frosty winter’s night? (Haha, I could go on and on and on…)

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If you follow me on Twitter, you may have read my tweet a while ago gushing over the Essie Poppy-Razzi Collection. Anytime I hear about neon polishes being released, I get as excited as a carbonated beverage that’s been shaken vigorously.

Haha, I think that Essie Camera was competing with my camera (well, and my eyes, too), because while it looks coral in the bottle, it became tangerine on my nails!

While this caught me off-guard, thankfully I still ended up liking this colour a lot. (I don’t have too many bright oranges, so it was really fun to wear, especially on sunny days.)

Allow me to tell you more about this quirky lacquer!

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Essie Mesmerize was the first Essie nail polish that really got my attention. Up until they put this out, Essie mainly churned out very traditional hues like reds, pinks, whites, and sheers.

I remember how blown away all us nailphiles were when Essie put out a blue nail polish! It made me so excited and curious to see how they would explore new colour territory.

This is a nice blue, sure, but I mainly bought this because of what it represented – the shift from conservative to modern. As a nail-polish collector/lover, I just had to have it because it was an important piece of lacquer history.

P.S. Every single time I look at this polish, I always have this train of thought: Mesmerize – Hypnotize – Notorious B.I.G…and then I end up singing, “Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can’t you see? Sometimes your words just hypnotize me. And I just love your flashy ways.”

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Who wears short shorts? I do! Err…only in the form of nail polish, as in Essie Short Shorts! 😉

When I was 16, I wore my first (and only) pair of booty shorts. They were black denim, and I thought I was hot stuff.

But then I got a gross and an inappropriate pick-up line from an extremely dirty old man. (I still feel like I need to take a shower when I think about it now.)

Upon returning home, I changed out of my shorts, put them in a drawer, and never wore them again. (Yes, my parents were thrilled!) 😛

Essie Short Shorts from the Summer 2008 Collection is now the only form of booty shorts I’m willing to wear. 😉

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Essie School of Hard Rocks sent me to class to learn a lesson that I already knew: not every polish wants to cooperate with my camera. This Breakfast Club member isn’t afraid of detention.

No matter what lighting I snapped shots of it in, it would not photograph true-to-colour. In all of my photos, it looks like a dusty blue (at least on my monitor), but in reality, it’s this gorgeous slightly-dusty teal that tends to lean more on the green side.

But I don’t think it’s all just a lighting problem. The camera I have is around 5 or so years old. After I save up more money, I really would love to invest in a digital SLR camera and proper lighting. But that’s a long way off.

And like I always say, it’s not about what you can buy. It’s more about what you can do with what you already have that counts!

Despite the colour inaccuracy, I just had to blog about School of Hard Rocks because it’s a fantastic colour! Plus I really like the name. (I’m still waiting for a company to come out with a polish called Knuckle Duster…if they haven’t already. I’d buy it just for the name.)

I’m really hoping that Essie continues to produce more colours like this instead of sheers, whites, reds, and pinks. 🙂

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Hope it doesn’t bother you too much that I was holding this bottle upside down for one photo. I was playing around. 🙂

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet about how Essie polishes are now on sale at two etailers for just $4 USD! Looks like it’s only valid until the end of this month.

Essie nail polish in Canada is pretty pricey. At Shoppers, I’ve seen it for $11.99 CAD! I can never justify that…unless it’s a flakie or holo.

Needless to say, I haven’t purchased a new bottle of Essie for quite some time. But when I happened to stumble across this incredible sale, I finally bought all the colours I had my eye on for the longest time.

Essie has really stepped up their game over the past couple of years! 🙂 I’m impressed!

The new Essie Winter Collection 2011 was available already, so I picked up Essie Bangle Jangle, a moody grayish purple that I’ve been really enjoying!
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