Essie - Fiji

Not much to say today, other than this is Essie Fiji and it is a little difficult to work with. It's a bit chalky which lends itself to being streaky, but 3 coats evens it out.



Lovely baby pastel pink, perfect for spring or fall :)

See you guys next week!

Essie - Blood Curdling

I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was lovely, we went to a brewery (Jester King Brewery to be exact) with some of Craig's coworkers and we had quite a good time, but I was very sleepy on the drive home!



For nail polish I was in a bit of a vampy mood, so I've chosen Essie's Blood Curdling for today. Blood Curdling is a deep red and burgundy color which is very near to being a jelly. It flattens out to a creme with each additional coat; this is shown at 2 coats.



How perfect is this for that whole oxblood color trend for fall!?

Essie - Bone Chilling

I'm feeling a bit poorly today and am finding it difficult to get anything done, although my to-do list is continually growing. And while I would much rather prefer to let myself wallow, that's only going to create more problems for myself.
SO, it's time to pick myself up by my bootstraps and push myself into action today!

Essie's Bone Chilling from the Morticia's Nails Collection. Not so stark white that it looks like white-out on the nail, but not a jelly either. Crisp, cool, and a little unusual. Can you tell I'm loving neutrals lately?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :)

Plastic Wrap Nails

Hey guys! I hope you are all having a great Monday, and to start off the week I have some nail art that I'm really excited to show you!

I got the idea from a tutorial that Anna from Glitter She Wrote posted here. The idea is that you use crumpled plastic wrap to blot wet polish over a contrasting color to create a marbled effect, and I love it! For my attempt, I tried to recreate the look Anna made by layering a navy blue over white. Specifically, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway for the blue and Essie Bone Chilling from the Morticia's Nails collection as the undercoat color.

Now, I  love blue patterned anything. If I could, my entire house would be covered in blue-patterned china, tablecloths, cookware, you name it. So you can understand that when Anna's photos showed up on my Pinterest I had to try it out right then and there. I experimented with one nail last night, and then finished up the rest this morning. 

The tutorial suggests waiting until the bottom coat color has dried completely, but I was able to get away with using a coat of Seche Vite over the white and waiting a few minutes. I was also pretty gentle with the plastic wrap. I found that the design got muddied easily if I went over the color too many times with the plastic, so try to keep to blotting once or twice only. 

What do you think? Is this fantastic or what!? I'm loving it, and I can't stop looking at my nails. I've tried my hand at nail art before and I'm a little clumsy with it, but I found this to be really easy! To follow Anna's tutorial, visit her website and let me know how it goes!

Essie Midnight Tango

There are only 4 weeks left in the semester (not including the week of Thanksgiving) at my University. I think it's fair to say I am freaking out!

This is Essie's Midnight Tango from the "Morticia's Nails" collection released in 2010 (I think) for the Addams Family Musical. It's a very deep navy with blue shimmer, but it's not really apparent until you get into full sunlight. Normally it just looks like a really dark navy.

Isn't this so super gorgeous?! I die.

I'm a big fan of Essie's polish, and Midnight Tango is no exception. This polish is extremely pigmented and smooth. I'm anticipating having smurf fingers once I take this off. I've worn this polish for a exactly 7 days and no chipping! Only minor tipwear, and the combination I used is ULTA's Professional Base Coat and Seche Vite. 

Now, the bottle says Midnight Tango but I am 100% certain this is a rebottled Midnight Cami. Lauren over at Dizzy Nails has a great comparison here, along with a thorough look at the entire collection. I bought the collection as well and didn't have time to do a full post on it, but it's in the works ;)

I don't know if many people heard much about this collection? They only produced about 5,000 sets to benefit The Actors Fund. I'm not sure if every color in the set is a rebottled formula, but I wouldn't doubt it, merely because of the small production.

I'll post the rest of the collection later, once I've swatched the rest of the polishes :) What do you guys think of this one?

Essie Lapis of Luxury

Happy 4th of July!
Good gracious I've been gone a long time. My work schedule is weird, I don't work until 12-5pm, so I feel really sluggish when I get home and don't feel like doing anything. This leads to snacking and watching TV, which perpetuates the sluggish cycle.

But I have been painting my nails and have some photos for you :)

Essie Lapis of Luxury. This is a super smooth, really lovely cornflower blue, and I loved it. The night I put it on I was so-so about it, and then when I woke up in the morning I was like, "What was I thinking? This is gorgeous!" It stayed on forever too. My nails were still nice looking way after I was sick of the color.

I'm writing this from the BF's house which is ungodly hot. He's measuring his window for an AC window unit as we speak; I think the heat is getting to him too. We would have gone swimming today if I hadn't forgotten my swimsuit. :(

In other news, my bottle of Seche Vite is dying on me D: It's gotten to the point where I have to tip the bottle to get more top coat on the brush, and it's starting to get super stringy. I think it's time to either buy a new bottle or get the Seche Restore to salvage it.
I've considered trying a new type of top coat, but I've really gotten used to Seche and I think I've figured out how to make it work even when it's a stubborn brat.

So I've completely forgotten to mention fireworks or anything of the sort. Are you guys doing anything special? Me, the BF are going out to watch the fireworks from our friend's deck later tonight. I'm super excited because I don't remember doing anything fun for Independence Day last year.  Have fun guys!

Sag Harbor

I feel like I need to give ample warning and a sincere apology for the state of my cuticles/nails. I did a crummy job this time around on my manicure, and it looks awful. I didn't realize how bad it was until I looked at the photos on my computer, and my first reaction was "EWW". I'm slathering on cuticle cream as I write this in a vain attempt to moisturize.

So, I apologize for the haggard pictures. When I get stressed, I tend to pick at my cuticles, often until they bleed. Which is horrible. And it hurts! I can't figure out how to stop doing it. Any thoughts or advice?

Anyways, may I present Essie's lovely lady, Sag Harbor.

This is the prettiest, dusty powder blue that I have ever seen. There is a very light shimmer that's not entirely noticeable until you get into the sun, but unfortunately the sky was funky today and I didn't get any sun in my apartment at all while I was there. I think it gives me a slight case of lobster hands, but I do not care. Not a little bit. My roommate commented that it reminded her of Easter, but it makes me think of the dusty blue that the sky gets when it starts to mist. Lovely.

It's also the exact shade of one of the BF's t-shirts, which I just noticed today. We were chatting and I looked at my hands, then at his shirt, and put my nails up against his arm and said "My nails match your shirt!! Isn't that cool?! Wow!"

He wasn't as excited about this as I was, haha. He was also confused about the name, but Sag Harbor is a place in New York (here), it doesn't have anything to do with sagging....haha.

Haulage!

This is pretty late coming, so here it is finally!

The lacquer haul from over Christmas break (and some from before Christmas):

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, Sun Worshipper, and For Audrey

Essie Sag Harbor and Lapis of Luxury

Package Irony, Lapis of Luxury was in the big pack,
and Sag Harbor  was in the tiny one. So weird

From OPI's Shrek Forever After Collection,
 Who the Shrek are You?and What's with the Cattitude?

Sally Hansen's  Grey by Grey, which was a consolation
for not being able to buy MAC's Blue India, but I love it
just on its own.

ULTA polishes, from left to right: Grin and Berry It,
 Sweetheart Pink, Vintage Violet, and The Jungle Look

Christmas presents from my wonderful roommate:
Finger Paints Silver Sculpture, Orly Girly,
 and China Glaze Frostbite

I'm pretty stoked about Frostbite, The Jungle Look, and Lapis of Luxury, which I haven't tried yet. I've worn a good number of them, but forgot to take photos, so I will have to swatch them again for you :) I'm going to do a series from this haul, starting yesterday with Who the Shrek are You? so keep posted!

What about you, any of these strike your fancy?