Studded Roses

Hey y'all! Hope you all are having a great week! My apologies for the lack of posts, I have been so busy getting my kiddo ready for school that I haven't had a lot of extra time. But now that she is gone most of the day, I will be able to play more often!

Today, I have another mani inspired by Marta of Chit Chat Nails. She is a master at skittle manis and I find myself looking to her blog more and more for inspiration. You should really check it out, if you haven't yet!

Used:

Julep - Julianne

Essence - Modern Romance

China Glaze - Mimosa's Before Mani's

O.P.I. - MBSW

Born Pretty Square Studs

Nail art brushes

Dotting tools

I love the vintage feel this has. Normally, I can't wear blues like this, gives me lobster hands. But I do so love the dusty blue/greys so much! The roses give it just enough warmth to even out with my skin. And of course the studs, cause studs make everything better!

 

Hope you all have a great day!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Yellow

Hey all! Super late posting today's 31 Day Challenge. Sorry! Yellow is the theme for this post, and we all know how difficult yellow polish can be. I opted for a simple sponge gradient, mainly because I didn't have the patience to mess around with something a little more complicated.

 

On a side note, apologies for the state of my cuticles. I tried out a new oil a few days ago, and it had the opposite effect! My cuticles became a crazy peely mess! I am trying to get them back into good condition, but it is quite the effort.

 

Used:

 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White Out

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Butter-Fly Stroke

Essence - Fortune Cookie

 

Triangle Make Up Sponge

I found that painting directly onto the sponge worked best, otherwise I had problems with bubbling. Anyway, Thursday's post should be on time, with Green!

Fashion Friday #4

Happy Friday! Hope everyone had a good week! All I did was run errands, it seemed. But I did have a little time to play around and come up with some fun looks to correspond with a couple of the outfits Camille posted on her style blog, Pretty and Punk.

 

 

Inspiration Look

 

Used:

 

China Glaze - Surreal Appeal

China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise

 

Striping Tape

 

Inspired again, by the Prabal Gurung line for Target, this one immediately caught my eye. What can I say, I am a total sucker for bright colors. Also, geometric lines seem to be drawing my attention lately as well. Something about them remind me of my art school days, breaking everything down into it's very basic geometric form. Anyway, A very simple mani to recreate, all you need is a little bit of striping tape!

 

I used China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (love it, so in-your-face bright!) on all fingers except the middle two. On those, I used ChG Surreal Appeal. Once those were dry, I used a couple of pieces of striping tape to make off center diagonal lines going the opposite direction and painted the outer spaces with TuT. I wanted to create a panel effect similar to that of the dress. Definitely an attention grabbing design, when paired with bright colors!

 

 

 

Inspiration Look

 

Used:

 

Essence - My Little Kimono

Essence - Fortune Cookie

Nicole by OPI - One Less Lonely Glitter

 

Zig Zag stickers

 

Now this is an awesome look! I am all about unusual color combinations or colors that shouldn't, but do work well together! I love the dress, I love the loud, rock-n-roll accessories, everything. Two things I realized when I did the mani. One, I need studs, like now. Two, I should have made all the nails yellow like my ring finger. Oh well.

 

Again, a simple look to recreate. I started with my base color, and let it dry. Applied the stickers, and painted the tips. Then, I used a small brush to apply the purple glitter accent across each nail. Top coat everything and done!

 

Next week will surely bring more fun and wild looks!

Essence Cherry Blossom Girl

Hey all! Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I have had things swatched and photographed, but never got around to actually editing the photos. Oops. Today I have polishes from the Essence Cherry Blossom Girl collection released in Europe last fall. I found a display randomly shoved in a corner of my HEB ( a texas grocery store chain) and immediately snatched up all the bottles. I hardly ever find special Essence collections, but when I do, I usually grab the polish if there is any left. 

 

 

 

Essence - Fortune Cookie

 

Fortune Cookie is a sunflower yellow with a yellow hidden shimmer. It's nearly impossible to see, except in sunlight where you will get a little twinkle. I happen to be one of the few people that can wear yellow with out it making me look horrid. This particular shade is a great one for my skin tone & I love it. Formula was pretty much standard for a yellow, streaky and hard to level. I used three coats, waiting (im)patiently between each one, and managed to get everything smooth. It also stained my fingers a bit, so it looked like I had dried mustard around my cuticles for a little while : \

 

 

Essence - My Little Kimono

 

My Little Kimono is a taupe/greige with a silvery shimmer. Usually, this type of color looks horrid on me, lobster hands and all, so I tend to stay away from them. But the hoarder in me couldn't pass it up and leave the collection incomplete! That would being breaking polish covenant! Luckily, it doesn't look too bad, and doesn't give me dreaded lobster hands. This was also the only one I didn't have formula issues with. 2 coats, no streaking, nice dry time.

 

 

Essence - Cherry Cherry Girl

 

Cherry Cherry Girl is a bright orangey red crelly (cream/jelly) finish. I wasn't expecting to like it, but it is so bright and the crelly is really nice and squishy looking! The formula was more like a jelly, thick with a longer dry time. Patient and careful application is required, otherwise expect a bubble fest!

 

Essence - It's Peach, Not Cherry

 

It's Peach, Not Cherry is a peach/coral crelly with the same formula as Cherry Cherry Girl. I LOVE this color! I have been obsessed with corals and peaches lately. I literally cannot get enough. This is the third one I have posted since January, and I actually just bought another one yesterday! Again, careful application is needed with it because of the formula.

 

 

 

And just because I had nothing better to do, I did a quick little dotted flower mani! Ignore the gloopy mistake on my index finger, k? ; )

Essence Color & Go Part 2

Hey guys & gals! I've got a few more polishes from the new Essence Color & Go polish line. I ran across a full stocked display, last week, at my grocery store that had some of the colors I wanted.

 

Essence Color & GO - Modern Romance

 

Modern Romance is a warm pink with a very hidden shimmer, so hidden it's not visible on the nail at all. I got this because it reminded me of Nars Trouville (a huge lemming of mine). Sadly, the formula was completely horrid & I am pretty sure, I won't be wearing it again.  This is 4 thick goopy coats that refused to level and generally frustrated the hell out of me. Ugh.

 

 

Essence Color & GO - All That Glitters

 

All That Glitters is a bright lavender purple with pink and purple shimmer. I originally got this one for my small person, purple being her favorite color and all, but I ended up liking it myself. Formula was the exact opposite of Modern Romance. 2 coats, nice consistency, a tad streaky on the first, but the second coat smoothed everything out.

 

 

Essence Color & Go - Space Queen over All That Glitters

 

Space Queen is an iridescent glitter in a clear base. Every time I went to Ulta, I looked for this one & every time they were always out, but yay! I finally found it! Space Queen is a simple polish, but still pretty & great for adding a little sparkle. 1 coat, smooth application, no clumping or dragging with the glitter.

 

One thing that really bums me out, is there are so many colors in this line, & I have seen only 10-12. I wish Essence would bring their entire product range over to the States. I definitely think there is a market for it. The polishes, at least, are decent for a small price tag.

Essence Color & Go Swatches

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a few bottles of the new re-designed Essence Colour & Go polish line at Ulta. I've played around with some of the Essence make up, but never the polish. For $1.99 a bottle, I figured, it was worth giving a go.

 

The bottles for Colour and Go are a new design that features a clicking cap that is the same color as the nail polish. Quite a neat little feature!

 

 

 

Essence Colour & Go - Grey-T to be Here

Grey-T to be Here is a little purple toned grey cream with a hidden pink shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle, and sadly, much more present in the bottle than on the nail. It does peak out at the right angle, or with enough light, but I wish it was just a bit more prevalent. Pink and grey is such a great color combo. The formula was iffy. Streaky on the first two coats, and finally leveled at three. Despite that, the dry time was very good. The brush was really problematic, fluffy and uneven.

 

 

 

 

Essence Colour & Go - I Love Bad Boys

I Love Bad Boys is a bright turquoise cream with a bright turquoise shimmer. Unlike Grey-T, this shimmer is very noticeable and very sparkly! Formula is the same, however, streaky and needs 3 coats to even everything out.

 

 

 

 

Essence Colour & Go - Chic Reloaded

Chic Reloaded is a black/purple/blue/green duo chrome with a tiny bit of shimmer. The color shift is ridiculously hard to capture, but very noticeable in person. This one had a great formula, no streaking, 2 coats for full coverage. Surprisingly, I really liked this one. Like I've said in the past, I'm not a huge fan of dark colors (though I seem to be picking up more lately), but the range of colors in this polish is just too pretty to pass up.

I'm glad I gave these little polish a chance, despite the tricky formula (kinda expect that with cheaper brands) I really like them.

Essence Colour & Go is available at Ulta, online and in stores. (FWI, my Ulta had more colors available than on line.)