Essie Wrapped in Rubies

Hi everyone! Today is another backlogged swatch (last one I promise!), this one of Essie Wrapped in Rubies. This is a much deeper and richer color than I could make my camera show. It is a beautiful blend of brown, red and gold. I think that it is kind of a sultry color, I don't know. It is a gorgeous color that I somehow managed to get a mini of, it is a gorgeous color. It applies well in 2-3 coats and dries in an acceptable amount of time. I think that I will likely sport this one more in the winter, especially on my toes. What do you think of it?

Nail Art: Pink Sky and Gold Stars

Hey everyone! Even though the weather here has been kinda crappy in the past week (snow and rain, even though it should be much warmer), I still want to be able to wear my bright colors and glitter, so I did! I used Essie Forget Me Nots and Art Deco Gold Glitter. This is what I ended up coming up with. I did the stripes on the thumb first and then decided that I wanted to do swoops of glitter on the fingers. It looks a little strange, but I guess like it. I haven't done my nails in well over a month, so I need to get used to doing them again. Maybe it's time to break out the Konading kit, because this is a little sad. I know that I can do better than this, but I need to get back into practice lol! Thank you to everyone who left comments on yesterday's posts, it is great to know that a lot of you are excited that I am back and I am really excited to be back. Have an awesome day everyone!

Essie Ruby Slippers

Hey everyone! Today is a polish that I managed to find a mini of, Essie Ruby Slippers. This is China Glaze Ruby Pump's chunkier sister. The color is great, but the glitter is definitely chunkier than in Ruby Pumps. This is also more of a yellow-based red to the bluer-based red in Ruby Pumps. This applies much like a traditional glitter in that it needs a few coats, but it dried nicely. It does need a thick topcoat if you want a smooth finish though. I love how this color sparkles in the sun, and it is a very pretty color. I get lots of compliments when I wear it. It is a pain to take off (like any other glitter), but it is a lovely color to have on!

Essie Cute As A Button

Hi everyone! Today I bring you a swatch of Essie Cute As A Button, which I believe came out with Essie's Summer 2009 collection. I got it on super clearance at Trade Secret, yay for super clearance! This is a lovely color for summer; I will probably rock it a lot this coming spring and summer. It is a beautiful pinky-coral color that is a little sheer. This took about 3 coats to acheive almost no visible nail line.

I have never really tried Essie pinks before, although I have a couple of other Essies from before I got this one. This wasn't as sheer as I thought it would be, I have heard nightmare stories about some Essie pinks. I really like this color, do you as well?

Essie Rose Bowl

Hey everyone! Today I am bringing you a swatch of a really fun color that I found in a mini! This is Essie's Rose Bowl, and I really like this color a lot. It is a very dark pink; almost red but not quite. It is also very pigmented; I am used to sheers from Essie but it was essentially opaque in one coat, I only did two for good measure. I got a very even application with a decent drying time and I just love this color. I don't know, I can't get over it! To me it just screams summer, which is on my mind since the weather where I am is finally getting really nice. What is your favorite dark pink color?

Pink Skittles!

Hi everyone! I have accumulated so many pinks lately that I thought I would compare them all for you side by side! From thumb to pinky they are Essie Castaway, Coral Colors Shade 4, Essie Forget Me Nots, OPI Fuschia Fling, and Sinful Colors Jamboree. I thought that the OPI and the Sinful would be a lot closer in color as they look like the same color in the bottle, but they are very different on the nail! Do you like the idea of me doing this type of post with more than just pink?

NOTD: Sea Pearls

Hello everyone! (Backlogged post!) Who doesn't love a little subtle sparkle? I was really in a blue mood so I decided to use OPI Sea? I Told You! as the main color. I then topped it with Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor and I used the Essie Matte topcoat to matte the look. I love how it turned out, it looked more sparkly in real life though. What do you think? Do you like to matte bright colors too?

This has nothing to do with nail polish in the least, but I am going to go ahead and pimp out my new blog, Playing With Piercings. I know that it has nothing to do with nail polish in the least, but I figure that some of you are probably into body mods too. When I was researching various piercings and such, I found that there just aren't a lot of personal blogs about it. I am by no means a professional or a hard-core body modifyer, but I want to document my experiences and share what I learn/learned. Check it out if you are interested, I will put up a new post on it here soon! :D

Essie Fearless

Hi everyone, today I am bringing you a great polish, Essie Fearless. I was shocked at how pigmented this polish was when I first put it on, this is not your typical Essie sheer polish! This was 2 coats and it is essentially opaque. This is a vibrant red-orange color that just pops off the nails! It wears well and applied well with a thin-but-not-too-thin formula. Gorgeous color if you can find it!

Dollar Tree Haul and More!

Hi everyone! I twittered last night about my huge cheap haul and now I want to share it with you. I am a big bargain hunter, I love shopping for a good deal. In fact I got all of this polish for about $20! The first stop I made was a Dollar Tree in a part of town that I rarely visit.

If you have followed this blog for awhile then you know I LOVE my Art Decos for nail art. I found tons at the Dollar Tree and I bought one of every color that I did not already own. I also bought an old-school Maybelline, they had several but this color really caught my eye! From left to right they are Art Deco Red Glitter, Art Deco Baby Pink, Art Deco Bright Orange, Art Deco Green Glitter, Art Deco Bright Green, Art Deco Intense Pink, and Maybelline Two-Timer. The next stops I made were TJMaxx and Walgreens.

I found Sinful Colors Green Ocean at Walgreens and at TJMaxx I found 4 Essie minis and Goldie polishes! The Essies are (from left to right) Essie Ruby Slippers, Essie Rose Bowl, Essie Fearless, and Essie Wrapped in Rubies. They are so pretty! The Goldies don't have names, but there was this neutral set and a pink set available as well. I hope you enjoyed my haul! Tomorrow I will post my swatch of Green Ocean's awesome glitter/flakie goodness!

KOTD: Naughty Barbie

Hello everyone! Today is the second and last post in my Barbie series, and I am showing you Naughty Barbie. I used Essie Forget Me Nots, Art Deco Black, and the Konad m57 plate.

When I think of naughty Barbie, I think of the doll that you dress up in fishnets, a black leather miniskirt, and a skimpy tubetop to go to the club in. She drives a sleek car and isn't afraid to drink a little a dance into the early hours of the morning. Then maybe she will go home with a guy who is not Ken (gasp!), who knows? How do you interpret naughty Barbie?

KOTD: Nice Barbie

Hi everyone! Today I am bringing you a very mini-series (there will only be one other post in this mini-series lol) on Barbie! I decided to put my Barbie pinks and Konad kit to good use, and today you get "Nice Barbie"! Oh, and I apologize for the indoor picture!

When I think of Nice Barbie, I think of the super preppy Barbie. Like the Barbie who rides around in the Mercedes around LA who goes to prepartory school, plays tennis and has a big screen TV. That Barbie! I thought that I light Barbie pink and some argyle was in order. I used Essie Castaway as the base color, OPI Alpine Snow as the stamping color, and the m60 plate for the pattern. What is your interpretation of "nice Barbie"?

Essie Forget Me Nots

Hi everyone! Today I am bringing you the last of my Essie haul, Essie Forget Me Nots. This is apparently a fairly popular Essie color, and I really like it. It is like a medium Barbie pink. Why are so many of these Barbie pinks? Anyway, it goes on pretty opaque in 2-3 coats depending on how thick my coats are. This was the most opaque polish of the bunch, and I think that I will be wearing this more often than I thought when I first picked up the bottle.

I have a question for you all today, what is your definition of a "Barbie Pink"? I think that it is any light-medium purple-toned pink, but do any of you think differently? The fact that I now have two Barbie-type pinks gives me a fun idea....

Essie Castaway

Hello everyone! Today I bring you an Essie swatch, Castaway. I *think* that this one is still available on their website. If it isn't it's no matter, it is not a unique color. It is a simple, classic, light Barbie pink. It is a very "sweet" color, it kind of looks like candy to me. This was definetly a sheer pink, this took 4 coats and you can still see a visible nail line if you look closely. It was also a little on the thicker side, but that could have been because it is probably an older bottle as I got it on super clearance. You can see a little lumpiness at the tip of my pointer finger. Overall I like it, it is a beautiful color!

By the way, I plan on doing a giveaway after I hit 300 followers! I think that you all will love the prize, but you won't find out until I hit the big 3-0-0!

Haul Goodies! Woot Woot!

These are the goodies that I have been collecting over the month of January! From left to right they are: Art Deco Red, ELF Pearl, ELF Royal Purple, ELF Dark Navy, Sinful Colors I Miss You, OPI Absolutely Alice, OPI Glove You So Much!, Essie Cute as a Button, Essie Forget Me Nots, and Essie Castaway. I got the Essies for a steal, all three together were $4! And Glove You So Much! was on clearance as well, so this haul didn't cost me too much. Then after I took that picture and scheduled this post I went to Sallys and Walgreens...

I found 3 bottles of China Glaze Matte Magic on clearance for .99 cents each, and I got a China Glaze Flying Dragon, Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud and a Seche Vite Topcoat. Flying Dragon was free with the Seche Vite, awesome! I have been wanting to try Seche Vite for awhile, but I refuse to use it until I use up my other two topcoats! I will be strong! I have it hiding in a shoebox so that I am not tempted. I also got a Sally's Card, my Sally's finally got some more! They had been out of cards for awhile and got shipped some a few weeks ago. I am going to save SO much money!

NOTD: Minty Silver Tips

Hi everyone! Lately I have been noticing the trend of makeing french tips a bit skinnier, so I thought that I would try it out too! I like how this mani is noticable, but it isn't uber flashy and still very wintery with out being Christmassy. I like it! I used Essie Mint Candy Apple and China Glaze Devotion for the tips.

I feel like the thin tips aren't thin enough, and make my nails seem shorter than they actually are. Next time I will do super skinny tips and see if it helps to make my nails look longer. Sorry about the mess and the really crappy looking cuticles; I haven't been taking care of my hands like I should be. The air has been super dry and I have been forgetting to apply hand cream and my Solar balm. I also apologize about the rambling, have a great day!

Mattified Essie and Mecca!

Hey everyone! Today I bring you mattified polish! I matted these with Essie's Matte About You Topcoat. At the bottom is the picture of them glossy for comparison; enjoy!

Essie Mint Candy Apple - I think that I like this one shiny better, I don't know, candy should just be shiny! I would be wary of matte candy...

Essie Forever Young - I love this one matte! It looks so retro and fun matte! It seems very 50's/ burlesque/ pin-up awesome!

Mecca Cosmetica Celia - I love this one matte too, although its shiny counterpart tickles my fancy as well! I don't know if I will ever use it in nail art matte; but I do like it!

Stay tuned, later today I am posting my awesome fun time with kelliegonzo!!!! You need to see it!

Essie Forever Young

Hey everyone! Today I bring you Essie's Forever Young. I picked this up in the clearance section at Ulta. It is a jelly bright red. This was about 3 coats, but there is still some visible nail line. I love how vibrant this polish is, and it is so darn shiny! I think that this is OPI Big Apple Red in jelly form, but I would have to swatch them together to truly compare. What do you think?

Nail Art: Madison Avenue

Hi everyone! Some have inquired as to what I did/used for the mani in my profile picture. I actually did this one special to match the color scheme of my blog. The background I chose is called Madison Avenue, so that is what I call this mani.

I used Essie Forever Young, OPI Black Onyx, Art Deco Black, and OPI Alpine Snow. I used the Art Deco to line out the tips, Black Onyx to fill the tips in, and a dotting tool with Alpine Snow for the dots. I love this mani a lot, do you love it too?

Holiday Nails: Candy Canes

Hello everyone! Happy Christmas Eve to those of you who celebrate Christmas! Today is the last installment of holiday nails this week, and I brought you candy cane themed nails! Are you all enjoying the holidays?

One of my favorite candies during this season are candy canes, I love spending hours eating these sweet candies! I wish that I had gotten the white stripes a little thicker, but overall I think that it looks ok. There were definetly better candy cane manicures out there in the nail blogosphere than this one. I used Essie Forever Young and Art Deco White. Do you like it? I know that it is not nearly as good as other blogger's versions!

What are your favorite holiday foods/sweets? Is there something around the holidays that you crave because you only eat it around this time of the year?

Nail Art: World AIDS Day

Hello everyone! Today's mani uses OPI Alpine Snow and Essie Forever Young.

Today I want to bring to your attention that today is World AIDS Day 2009. Many people around the world suffer from HIV/AIDS or have a loved one who does. 2 million people died in 2007 as a result of this disease, and 33 million people live with it today.

There is no cure, but there is prevention. Do not reuse syringes for any reason. Remember to always practice safe sex and to be open about everything to your sexual partner. It is better to be safe than sorry. Be practical and don't believe myths that exist around the disease. It can only be contracted by contact with an infected person's bodily fluids with one's own.

Do not judge those who have the disease. They need your help and support to lead a happy and healthy life. People with HIV/AIDS can live a normal and healthy life with the help of medications, and deserve to do so without stereotypes and being judged. Have a great day everyone!