NYC Empire State Blue

Today I have for you New York Color Empire State Blue. It's a bright blue with gold shimmer, and while the wear is not that great, it's a gorgeous color. At first, I was afraid it would be too sheer, but it's perfectly opaque in three coats. Click on the pictures to enlarge - it's a lot easier to see the beautiful gold shimmer!

 outside, clouds

inside, artificial light

See that chip? Yeah...I applied this Friday night, took these pictures this morning, and that chip already has several friends. Wear isn't a huge deal for me since I change my polish often, but it would be nice if I could go two full days without chipping. I'm starting to think maybe it's my top coat, though. I've been using up the last dregs of my bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, and I've had to add quite a bit of thinner to keep it from being super-gloopy. Does thinner ever affect the lasting power of top coat? It doesn't seem like it would, but my last several manis have not had good wear.

I only have two NYC polishes, one of which I've had for about four years now, but Empire State Blue is making me wonder why that is. NYC products in general are cheap, and while I've never used anything but their polish, both of those have been good quality, and they seem to have some nice colors...I have a feeling this will not be my last NYC polish. :) Have a great (short) rest of the weekend!