Essie Turquoise and Caicos

Oh Essie, how you torment me so! You give me the most beautiful color, a milky turquoise that looks more blue or green depending on the light. Essie describes it as "frolic in the sublime waters of this flirty polish. Vibrant, tropical aqua nail color refreshes mind, body and fashion wardrobe."It is the most gorgeous color. Ever. Seriously, I would wear this forever. You really shouldn't judge this color by the bottle, it is so vibrant in real life! 

The chip-resistance can't be beat .... but the application! Oh, the application.

It takes 3 coats to be opaque, and hours to dry in between each coat.

Ain't nobody got time for that. (Sorry for the terrible swatch shot below, check out this website for a more true-to-life picture!)

Even when I thought it had dried, FINALLY, I was wrong. Even with a quick-dry top coat. This stuff smudges and smears for almost half a day before finally hardening. Once it does, this stuff is like concrete. It doesn't chip, even after a week at my job, where I am quite hard on my hands. I am almost afraid to see how much work it will take to get it off... but the color is so incredible, I'm holding out as long as possible. I've been reading through some other swatch blogs, and it seems that a lot of people have had trouble with this formula. If y'all have any tips or tricks to make polish dry faster, I'd LOVE to hear them!

After searching the internet for possible duplicates (the colors is THAT good and the formula THAT bad - I would totally spring for another polish), I found a site that compared it to China Glaze - For Audrey and Essie - Greenport and Barry M - Mint Green. Close, but no cigar. Maybe it is worth dealing with this formula for this color.

I've been to Turks and Caicos before, on a vacation by myself. I'd just finished a particularly grueling year at work, and had a week of vacation. My SO couldn't get the time off, so I rewarded myself with a week in paradise, catching up on my reading, getting a tan, walking the entire 7 miles of the gorgeous Grace Bay daily. Just hearing the name of this polish instantly transports me back to the most delicate white sand beaches, calm clear turquoise waters, perfect temperatures, and absolute relaxation.

You should really go, dear readers. And polish your fingers with this delightful color before you do (you'll have hours to let it dry on the plane ride!)   ;)

Here are two photos I took while there, just to give you an idea... The one on the left is taken at sunset, the one below in the early morning. Grace Bay is the most incredible place on the planet. Definitely a worthy namesake for this color!