Essie Mochacino

On the way to CVS today to pick up some languishing prescription refills I contemplated the recently gussied up Essie displays I would be walking past on my way to the pharmacy. There is an aisle header display featuring the recent resort collection and a selection of popular colors plus a nicely stocked wall display that holds what I guess to be core colors. I rarely buy polishes at CVS since I know I can get them for less online, but I told myself that if they had restocked Mochacino in the wall display that I would get it and guess what? One lone bottle. Mine!

Essie's Mochacino is a beautiful sleek medium taupe or beaver brown dusted with a flotilla of iridescent silver shimmers that have a have a soft tremulous pale blue-violet dimensionality to them and throw out tiny blue, pink and pale green sparks in the sun. It's a sophisticated, modern looking color with a chic, dressy quality that reminds me of a pair of well-tailored trousers. I don't have anything else like this fetching all-occasion neutral in my collection and I'm totally smitten with it.

Application was lovely. The consistency is very fluid, almost but not quite to the point where I'd call it runny. I did experience some pooling at the tips of my free edge but chalk that up to user error as I had too much polish on my brush for the second coat. The first coat was a little sheer, and I overcompensated on the next round, is what. No matter, Mochacino is by and large a well-behaved polish that lays down in creamy even coats. This polish dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Mochacino over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl to ensure that heavy second coat dried properly. My apologies for the excess cuticle oil.

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino, with bonus topcoat bubbles!

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Essie Mochacino

Such a delicious, eat it with a spoon color! And yet it has a business-like elegance to it as well. I'd love to have a winter wool or trench coat in this color. Not normally something I'd think of as emblematic of spring but it feels perfectly lovely for a fine day in March like today. I can see myself having hefty cravings to wear this polish in the future.

In unfortunate nail news, my right middle finger nail has developed a tear down below the quick. It's holding at about 2mm in length at the moment and seems to be stable as long as I've got polish on but sooner or later I'll have to loose this length I've been enjoying for such a nice long time. I wish I knew how to do a patch properly. Maybe I'll look it up on My Simple Little Pleasures -- Colette is an expert on patches and I love her videos.

xo,
Liz