Essie Jazz

Well hello there. I have a super quick post since I am at work!Today I have my favorite nude polish to share with you (that has been featured here a couple of times before) wit a little pizzaz. 

This is Essie's Jazz underneath a L.A. Splash nail lacquer glitter in 'Vegas.' I have used both of these polishes before just never in conjunction with each other. 

I quite like it:)

Essie Marshmallow Bling

My apologies for not posting a nail post in a while. The cold has not been easy on my nails - they are brittle and breaking left and right. This is they best shape they have been in in a couple of weeks and I'm still not happy with them, lol. I am very particular. 

Today I have 3 coats of Essie's Marshmallow. I am not Thrilled with this polish. I know it's not opaque at all but I find it really heard to get an even coverage of this even after 3 coats. I added Revlon's Stunning over it for a little sparkle and like the end result much better!

BLOG SALE

Hi girls! I have added a Blog Sale page above! 

Check it out and e-mail me if you see anything you like.

I will keep adding to the sale so keep checking back. 

I am adding beauty products later on.

Revlon Whimsical

Why I waited so long to get this polish I do not know. Yes I love blue, and yes I love glitter but I never understood the hype around Revlon's Whimsical. I passed it up a few times in the drug store but picked it up on a whim. WOW I love this nail polish.

 I added 2 coats over Essie's Turquoise and Caicos. I love the soft look it gives T&C. Revlon did such a good job with this GitA Dupe!!

I am really hoping Revlon comes out with a Mermaid's Dream dupe - I will stalk the drug stores for that one!

Favorite Nail Polishes from 2011

The New Year is only a few days away so I think it's time I do a Favorites of 2011 post! It has been about a year and a half since I started collecting nail polish and I have gained some lovely gems for my collection this year. I didn't really set any rules for my first favorites post. Many of these were released in 2011 however, I did throw some in that were released prior to 2011 and may have only purchased/swapped this year. When I was going through my Picasa Web Album I just chose and it just so happened I ended up with 11 favorites so here they are..

11. NYC Manhattan is one of my favorite fall/winter polishes.Not really sure when this was released but I am pretty sure it was before 2011. It's a deep Burgundy creme. I didn't have any photos of this on its own -here it's stamped with CC's Fashion Addict

10. Essie Cocktail Bling - I love this grey because it is a very soft color. It looks like it has some very light lilac-y, lavender in it which makes it really feminine.

9. Color Club Holiday Splendor - I love this glittery holo because the base isn't clear but green. So shimmery and pretty!

8. OPI Black Cherry Chutney - I'm not sure when this shade came out but I only received it as a gift this year and it is one of my favorite deep vampy shades. It's a deepened cherry shade with a little bit of shimmer.

7. NYX Gilded Glitter - Gilded Glitter is a gold flakie that can be worn over pretty much anything. It can be built up or one coat is enough for some scattered pretties over your nails.

6. OPI Its My Year - Suuuch a pretty purple shade with beautiful gold shimmers in it. Gold shimmers is actually a theme in my favorites for this year :)

5. China Glaze IDK - a purple holo, enough said! This is one that did not come out in 2011 but I only just got my hands on it thanks to a swap

5. NOPI Sea How Far You Go - This is probably one of the most interesting colors I won. Depending on the light if can reflect some olive, grey, or champagne shades. Its gorgeous!

3. China Glaze Glittering Garland - this is a beyond beautiful forest green with gold and greenglass flecks that really brighten the polish up

2. Sinful Colors Fly Away - This is probably my favorite blue that I own. Its a very bright robins egg blue creme. If you love blues this is a must IMO.

1. China Glaze White Cap - An amazing layering polish! It's a very pale milky white base with beautiful golden shimmer in it.

So there they are! My 2011 favorites. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!

Essie Sexy Divide

I have had this polish in my purse for about a month now and only just got around to using it.

This is my first post Christmas mani! I borrowed it from my friend a while ago because every time we go nail polish shopping I pick it up and look at it and put it back. Why do we do this to ourselves? One day she found it in her NP storage so she lent it to me.

Unfortunately it is a little difficut to capture it's true color. The sun is not out today so I had to make do with indoor lighting :( In these photos the purple is much more apparent due to the flash. It is much deeper in real life.

It took crummy lighting to capture the true color of this beautiful purple polish!

Thanks for looking <3

Essie Cocktail Bling

Hope all of you that celebrated Thanksgiving had a great holiday

and a fun weekend. My Thanksgiving was lots of fun and I loved seeing

my family. Unfortunately, I had to work at midnight for Black Friday until 9AM!

Today I promised myself I wasn't going to paint my nails until I had gotten some homework

done.. Well that didn't happen BUT I have good reasons :)

Today I have Essie's Cocktail

I know I have mentioned on here before how Essie and I do not get along, but I had

good luck with this formula!

This is two coats - went on smooth and easy!

I don't own many grey's so when I saw this in the store I had to pick it up!

I added some bling of my own with a glitter polish from Savvy that I picked up at Sally's one day.

Essie Turquoise and Caicos & Tinsel and Feather Extensions

The other day I battled another Essie formula: Turquoise and Caisos. I was hoping this would be a lot like Watermelon, but it was the exact opposite. It was runny and balded on me like crazy. I did 3 coats to get it the way I wanted to look

Normally I would NEVER post photobooth photos unless it was an emergency and I did have a small one that day.

I broke a nail. I was feeling self conscience about it so here it is from my photobooth :)

You can also see the tinsel and some of the feathers I got put in my hair that day!

Later on I added some tape designs to the mani.

I love how it came out.

More tinsel and feathers

Recent NOTD Swatches

Final grades are in & now I can finally relax! I ended up with a 3.7 GPA for my first semester of grad school which isn't too shabby after being out of school for 8 months, and having to cope with my father being in and out of the hospital for a majority for the semester.

I had a good kick off to the summer last night @ my cousins graduation party. Her family is always a good time :)

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Ok, on to the swatches..This post is going to be quiet picture heavy since I have been a little backed up on my NOTD

Last Friday I attended a Gala for the non-profit organization my Advanced Public Relations class was working with.

I wore a simple black cocktail dress from J-Crew and decided to do a neutral nail, but I wanted to add a little pizazz!

I wore Essie's Jazz (my favorite nude) and added some China Glaze White Cap.

I still believe that White Cap can make any shade look amazing.

My friend is also a nail polish collector and we occasionally borrow a few shades from each other every now & then.

One of the shades I borrowed was OPI Rumple's Wiggin. I am obsessed with this shade and am considering

going to get one of my own. The Skrek Collection has probably been my favorite collection OPI has released.

When then Sinful .99 cent sale was going on MUA kept suggesting getting Mint Apple. It is a gorgeous mint green shade with hints of shimmer. I need to re-do my nails this color again - the first SC polish I painted my nails was shrunk by SV. So when I painted my nails this color I used a SH Acrylic Top coat. huge mistake. it was terrible and make the polish crinkle?? Weird.

So this beauty is definitely now apart of my top 10 favorite nail polishes. This is Sinful Color's Fly Away. Its a gorgeous bright medium blue cream. I. Am. Obsessed. This was the first Sinful I tried and I am really impressed. It was opaque and the wear would have been wonderful if SV didn't shrink it :(

Finally, here is Essie's Haute as Hello. I wanted this so bad last summer and it was such a disappointment for me.

Me and Essie's Neon's just do not play well together. I wasn't a fan of the formula and it ended up being more orange than I had hoped.

Essie Watermelon

I was browsing through my friends stash the other day and stumbled upon Essie's Watermelon, a gorgeous bright red-pink shade. I have not had much luck with Essie's in the past. The first one I bought was Jazz which I loved.

I then went on to try Tart Deco which I got because I thought it was a dupe for Haute as Hello (a shade I couldn't hunt down at the time). Tart Deco was a disaster for me. I disliked the application and it ended up drying a, not so attractive orange shade.

This shade gives me hope for Essie!! The application was smooth and easy and the opacity

could not have been better.

This could be the perfect everyday shade for me in the summer!

A day or two later I added some crack to it :)

So help me out guys. If I love this Essie, what other shades by Essie will I love!?

NOTzd: Essie Coat Azure

I went through my untrieds today and picked Essie's coat Azure.

Blue is my favorite color to wear, a majority of posts on my blog so far

have been blue. I need to incorporate more variety but I just can't help it lol.

I thought this was a good choice too since it is still Autism Awareness month!

Coat Azure is a really pretty light to medium blue with pretty shimmers!

For some reason me and Essie don't get along! The brush is way too small for

my liking and I found this formula a little thick. Actually, if your in a rush this could probably

be a really nice one coater!

I was unsure about picking this up. I had seen a lot of swatches on blogs and MUA and each time I saw it, it looked different. Im glad I got it though - It's gorgeous!

I added a BM later on

Plate: BM16

Stamped w* SH Insta Dri in Blue Away

Dots: Zoya Pippa

Pink Fauxnad Fun

The past couple of days I have been browsing tumblrs dedicated

to nail art.

There is such amazing creativity on tumblr its unbelievable

Needless to say, I was totally inspired & replicated a fauxnad

mani:

On my pinky I used one of the new Sally Hansen Insta-Dries in Rose Rush. I stamped it with BM19. On my ring finger I used OPI's Show It and Glow It (borrowed from a darling friend). I painted my middle finger Flawless by Essie and stamped it with BM17

On my index finger I used OPI's I Think in Pink and stamped it with BM02 using Konad white and Sally Hansen Rose Rush. I used American Apparel's Dynasty on my thumb and 2 images from BM17.