Essie Naughty Nauticle Collection Pt. 1

Hey guys and gals! I'm a little late with this post, sorry about that! I have had a bad case of laziness lately and really didn't want to mess with taking pictures, editing, blah blah blah. But I knew I had to share this collection with you, because it is just that awesome! I don't want to overload you all with a ton of pics in one post, so I decided to break the collection up into 3 parts.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

Essie - Naughty Nautical

 

Naughty Nautical is a bright teal/turquoise with a subtle silvery shimmer. It is a touch more green than my swatches, so keep that in mind. The shimmer is subtle, but you can still see it twinkling faintly in most lighting (my camera didn't want to capture it, boo!). It also shows different colors, almost like an iridescent shimmer, super pretty. Formula was fantastic! Almost a one coater, tho I used two for swatching. If you are careful, you could easily get away with one. Application was great, no streaking, dragging, pooling, or any other problems. Nice dry time, and super shiny. I did use a top coat for all the pics, however.

 

 

 

 

Essie - Sunday Funday

 

Not to be confused with China Glaze Sunday Funday, Essie's version is a red toned coral with a silvery shimmer. The shimmer is a bit more noticeable in this, but I think it's because the pigmentation is a bit thinner than Naughty Nautical. This was 2 coats for full coverage, the first showing a bit of VNL (visible nail line). Still a really great formula, no problems at all. Average dry time.

 

Okay, so it is no secret I am all about coral polishes right now, so naturally I love this one. I'm wearing it on my toes and I have this and The Girls Are out in a gradient on my fingers, which is so full of win. I posted a pic on IG yesterday, if you are curious.

 

 

I am so in love with these two, plus the rest of the collection. I have felt a little disappointed by the last few Essie collections, but this particular one has really won me over. It's just so fun and bright!

 

Don't forget, my next challenge post will be up a day late, and it's gonna be a fun one!

 

Essie is available at many retail locations. Polishes are about $8 a piece.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use. Please see my disclaimer for more info.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired By A Song

Hello everyone! Another challenge post for today. This is "Inspired By A Song" and it is a little bit sentimental. In the last post, I mentioned my daughter's name is Marley and she was named so because my husband is a huge Reggae fan. Our "family" song is Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. It is a beautiful song about staying positive even when things seem bad. Something we try to live by, and something we are trying to teach our daughter.

 

 

 

Used:

 

Julep - Dianna

O.P.I. - MBSW

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Butter-Fly Stroke

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Man-Go Team

Revlon - Impulsive

Barielle - Wild Orchid

China Glaze - Sunday Funday

Maybelline Color Show - Green With Envy

Color Club - Coral Cascade

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out

 

Nail art brushes

 

Whew! That's a lot of polish! I used the Noggin' video for visual inspiration and design and I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. My freehand skills have definitely improved since I started this challenge, but I'm still not anywhere near as good as I want to be.

 

 

I should have some swatches posted this weekend, and I will be late posting next week, because my baby is turning 5 on Monday! We will be spending the day having lots of fun family time, going to the movies and of course cake and presents!

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and here's the adorable video for "Three Little Birds." Enjoy!

 

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired By A Color

Hey all, happy (late) Tuesday! My apologies for the late post, my daughter has swimming lessons every day this week, and I haven't had very much time to do fun stuff. We have been so busy since summer started, that it feels like it is going by so fast.

 

Speaking of my daughter, she is the inspiration behind today's post. The theme is "inspired by a color" and I chose Zoya Marley for my color inspiration, because Marley is my daughter's name!

 

Used:

 

Zoya - Marley

Zoya - Stevie

 

Make Up sponge

 

Not only is her name Marley, but her favorite color is purple! And just like her mamma, she loves sparkly things. So naturally I used, Stevie, a pixie dust shade. It was a little tricky doing a gradient with a pixie dust polish and a regular polish, so I ended up just sponging Stevie over a layer of Marley. I really am happy  with the way it turned out in the end, a new way to use pixie dust, yay!

 

 

I tried to get my little miss to do a "Mommy & Me" pose, but she wasn't having it today. To busy playing with her dolls & making play dough cookies for them to care about nail polish!

 

Next up is Inspired By A Song, and I have no idea what to do! Ha! Hopefully it won't be crap!

Picture Polish - Majesty (Created By Sahrish Adeel)

Hey lovelies! Happy weekend! Despite the heat, I'm glad it's summer. I love going to Lake Travis or Barton Springs, where we will be spending the day at tomorrow!

 

Today, I have a super special polish to share. Picture Polish Majesty is one my more recent lemmings and I am so glad I finally got a chance to get it. Acquiring lemmings is really fun! It is one of the collaboration polishes Picture Polish does with beauty bloggers from time to time. This one created by Sahrish Adeel as the perfect nail polish; suitable for any skin tone and any occasion.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use.

 

 

 

Picture Polish - Majesty

 

Majesty is a shell pink foil/glass fleck with pale golden undertones. But it is also so much more. It has a subtle scattered holographic sparkle, that  comes out to play in different lighting. It also has a subtle multi chromatic color shift ranging from gold to pink to purple, blue and teal. It is amazing. I never see the same thing twice. It is also incredible hard to capture the true beauty on camera! Formula was blissful. 2 coats, buttery smooth formula. Dry time was slightly longer than average, but nothing a nice quick dry top coat can't fix. I used butter London PD Quick for the swatches.

 

Macro

 

Look at all the shinny rainbows! Ugh, I DIE. This is truly a stunning polish and worthy of the name Majesty. It may not be every one's cup of tea, but the beauty and uniqueness are worthy of a place in your stash!

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclosure.

Picture Polish is available on line for Australian customers, and Llarowe, Harlow & Co, and Ninja Polish for International customers. Polish ranges from $12 - $15 depending on retailer.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Water Marble

Hey y'all! Today's challenge prompt is water marble. I was so super nervous about doing one, because I have read about so many failed attempts and all the difficulties associated with it. I literally watched dozens of you tube videos, read all the tutorials I could find, and finally went for it!

 

 

Used:

 

(Marble)

Essie - Naughty Nautical

O.P.I - MBSW

Essie - The Girls Are Out

 

I used The Girls Are Out for all of my nails, except the middle and ring, where I did the marbling.  For the middle and ring fingers, I painted a layer of MBSW to marble over. Being my first go, I wanted to stick with just a couple of nails. I might do a whole hand one day.

 

 

Marbling is not that difficult. But there are a lot of ways that it can become troublesome. My first go turned out perfectly, but for some odd reason, I re dunked my hand in the water and I got a filmy residue all over the pretty nails. (IDK what's wrong with me) So I had to start over. I never got the polish to spread right, even with clean water, after that. And I fiddled with the design too much. But these are things that I know not to do in the future.

 

So if you ever plan to try water marbling, don't be scared! You can create some really amazing designs and a beautiful manicure! But remember these three things: 1. Use clean water ( I used room temp. distilled), 2. Work fast, 3. Don't over work your design. These were the biggest problems I ran in too.

 

If you are drooling over the Essie's I used, never fear! I will be swatching the entire collection over the next week, or so. In between challenge posts, of course. But be sure to check back this weekend, because I have knocked a lemming off my list & will have it for you guys!!!!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Galaxy Nails!

Helllooooo! How are you all doing? I feel like I have done nothing but the busy mom/wife thing for the last few days. I finally got a few moments to sit down and play with polish today, and put together a little mani for the 31 day challenge prompt - galaxy nails! I have never done galaxy nails before, and I was super nervous, but it is so dang easy! Seriously, it took 30 min to do one hand. When I did the tribal nails, I spent about an hour and a half on just five fingers. Big difference.

 

Oh, and if you follow me on InstaGram (you totally should, btw), you may have seen a pretty bad nail break that happened last week, and the resulting nubbinization of my nails. It is hard doing nail art on shorties, so bare with me.

 

 

Used:

 

Revlon - Urban (base)

Essie - Play Date

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Butter-Fly Stroke

O.P.I. - MBSW

China Glaze - Glistening Snow (thinned with a clear base)

 

Dotting Tool

 

I followed the directions from Sarah of Chalkboard Nails (who is beyond awesome) to do these, and yes they are fairly simple to do. So don't feel overwhelmed, if you want to try them! I think my problem was being a little heavy handed with the sponging. Regardless, I am really pleased with the result! Yay, galaxy nails!

 

Water marble is next (lord have mercy on my soul!) and I hope, hope, hope my little nubbies are up to that challenge!

Fashion Friday #9

Hey y'all! Today is another edition of the fashion inspired collab between Camille from Pretty and Punk, and myself. This week features a structured dress with some great accent pieces!

 

 

 

Inspiration Look

 

Used:

 

Essie - Brooch The Subject

Julep - Ingrid

 

Born Pretty Nail Studs

 

I love the tailored simplicity of the look, as well as the pop of color from the belt. The resulting mani, is probably one of my favorites that I have done so far. Maybe it's the studs. Either way, I think it's totally on trend and very wearable.

 

Hope you guys have a great weekend! I will be working on my galaxy nails for next week! Yippee!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Half Moons

Hello everyone! Today is #18 on the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, and that means Half Moons!

 

Please Note: Post contains affiliated links.

 

 

Used:

 

Zoya - Ziv

Color Club - Wild Catcus

 

Nail Stickers

Born Pretty Studs (link)

 

Half moons aren't really my thing, but I still wanted to do something pretty. My original color combination didn't work out, so I chose green and gold. Honestly, I'm not really feeling it. I do like the studs, cause anything with studs are that much more awesome. These are from one of the Born Pretty stud wheel, and I love them.

 

So what do you think of studs? Love 'em or hate 'em? My husband thinks they are super gaudy!

 

Fashion Friday is back tomorrow, and then Galaxy Nails!!! Excuse me while I faint.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinons are my own. This post contains an affiliated link. If you click the Born Pretty link and purchase a stud wheel, I will get a portion of the sales allowing me to buy more polish! For more information, please see my disclaimer.



Julep June Box - BoHo Glam

Hey everyone! I have my June box from Julep to share with you all, today! I have skipped the last couple of months, but couldn't pass up on this on. For June, it was all about nautical preppy & bright classic colors. The bonus was Julep's version of the newest trend in make up; BB Cream. Or as Julep dubbed it, DD (dynamic do-all) Cream. I stuck with my BoHo Glam box picks for this month.

 

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

 

Julep June Box - BoHo Glam (DD Cream in Light, Dianna & Lexi)

 

 

 

Julep - Dianna

 

Dianna is described as a mint green cream polish. I would say it is more blue the green, but none the less gorgeous! I really love colors like this, especially for summer. Formula was good, pleasantly thick, flowed nicely onto the nail, no dragging or streaking. Average dry time, which I am seeing a big improvement from Julep. The quality/consistency has been great in the last few boxes, compared to the first few I received.

 

 

 

Julep - Lexi

 

Lexi is a bright sunny yellow crelly (cream/jelly hybrid). For a yellow, this is pretty dang awesome. The color is crazy bright and so happy! Total love. Formula was a huge surprise, and I think it is because the polish is a crelly. The first coat was a tad streaky, but leveled really nicely. Second coat smoothed it all out. A bit thicker than Dianna, but not problematic at all. Overall it was super easy to work with for a yellow.



 

 

 

Julep DD Cream - Light

 

This is where the excitement for my box ends. I was so looking forward to the DD Cream. To preface, I am not a make up blogger, so forgive the pictures. I ordered the lightest option, being "Light" because I am super pale. Most of the time, I am pretty on base with light foundations, but this one was waaaaay off. Look how dark it is! It totally gave me orange face. So disappointing. Other than the horrid color, the cream itself is really good. It covers well, blends well, is buildable, and feels so nice on my skin. No oily residue, just a lovely soft glow. If they make a "Fair" shade, I will probably get it. But, c'mon. There is no way I can pull this color off.

 Oh well, can't win 'em all I suppose. More 31 day challenge tomorrow!

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinions are my own.

If you are interested in signing up for your own Maven box, click here. Don't forget to use the code "PENNY" to get your first box for one cent.

 

Polish Days: To Boldly Go

Hey y'all! It's time for another addition of Polish Days. This month's theme is "To Boldly Go" and anything that might entail. There are a lot of different ways to interpret this, but I immediately thought of constellations!
 

 

 

Used:

 

Revlon - Royal

China Glaze - Glistening Snow

O.P.I. - My Boyfriend Scales Walls

 

Dotting Tool

 

Just a quick clarification before I get into the details of the mani. Glistening Snow doesn't look like this straight out of the bottle. It is a full coverage holo glitter, but I mixed it with a clear polish I had to thin it down.

 

Anyway, I tried to recreate some more well known constellations, Cygnus the swan on my index finger, little dipper on my middle, cancer the crab (my birth month constellation) on my ring finger, and Orion's belt on my pinkie. Love, love, love how it turned out! It may be hard to take this one off.

 



 

 

Be sure to check out all the other participants! For more info and the sign up link, click here to go to the Polish Days main page.

 

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Glitter

Hey y'all! I got a new memory card so all is right in the world! Continuing right along with the 31 day challenge, I have Glitter nails for you today!

 

 

 

Used:

 

Julep - Dianna

Essie - Beyond Cozy

 

Striping tape

 

This is probably the most "me" design I have done so far in the challenge. Pretty straight forward and super simple to accomplish. Some basic knowledge of how to use striping tape, and a bit of patience is all that is needed! Aside from an awesome glitter polish. Beyond Cozy is one of my absolute fav glitters, and I knew I was going to use it for this post. Dianna is from the June Julep box and I will have a full review tomorrow.

 

 

 Half moons are next on the list, and I have something fun planned. Hint: it involves studs! Oh, and check back later this afternoon for another Polish Days post!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Tribal

Hey everyone! Today is all about Tribal nails! This is one of the challenge posts that I was most looking forward to when I started. I looooove tribal nail art, but it has always seemed really intimidating. The designs are always so intricate and complicated and beautiful. I honestly wasn't sure I could pull it off. It took me forever to decide on a design, and then I finally managed to create my first free hand tribal mani!

 

 

Used:

 

O.P.I. - MBSW

Maybelline Color Show - Green With Envy

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Butter-Fly Stroke

Color Club - Coral Cascade

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out

 

Nail art brush

 

Only one picture today. My memory card cracked while I was taking pics. Boo. At least I got a usable shot, because it took me soooo long to do! But hot damn, I love it. Perfect, definitely not. My lines are not the smoothest or most even, but I am in love with the design and colors! And I am super proud of myself for being able to do it! Yay!

 

I'm about half way through the challenge, this was number 16 on the list. It has been awesome up to this point, but I know the last few ones are going to be really hard. Hope you are as excited as I am!

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Delicate

Hey guys and gals! Happy dance for getting the post up on time! I am honestly not sure how people do it daily. Talk about nerve wracking. Anyway, the prompt for today's post is "delicate." I'll be straight with you guys for a minute. I am anything but delicate. Inspiration-wise, this was the hardest day yet. Much harder than the horrid animal print post a few days back. Luckily, it turned out much better than that.

 

Used:

 

O.P.I. - Don't Touch My Tutu

I Love Nail Polish - Forever And A Day

 

I love a good jelly sandwich, but I've never done a glitter gradient and a jelly sandwich. I love the look, and I think it turned out to be a good representation of delicate. Of course it is all thanks to a super pretty glitter!

Next up is Tribal! I am super excited and nervous for that one. Lots of free hand!

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat - Razzle Berry

Hey y'all! Happy June, hope everyone had a great weekend! Today I have one of the new Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polishes swatched for you guys. Since textured polish is all trendy right now, almost every brand is coming out with a variation of it.
 

Please Note: Products were purchased by me for my own personal use.

 

 

 

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat - Razzle Berry

 

Razzle Berry is a vivid cobalt blue matte textured polish. Of course I am a sucker for blue, so this is the one that I picked up. The texture is really prominent, more so than the Zoyas. However, the formula was a tad tricky. The first coat was fairly smooth, but the second was hard to paint evenly over the texture particles. Nothing a thicker coat didn't fix. Average dry time, as well.

 

I like it, but I'm not blown away. But that is a matter of taste, I prefer a little sparkle in my mani. There is a mint green and a pastel violet color that look really pretty and I may eventually pick those up too. If you are looking to give the texture trend a try, these are a good option. Cheap, about $6, with a great color selection.

So do you prefer matte or sparkle textured?