Cookies and Creme

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Today I am revisiting a polish layering combination I did a little over a year ago. I was inspired by my favorite candy bar to do a Cookies & Creme mani. I simply layered black glitter over a milky white base, as seen in the post I did for it. This time I got a tad more creative.

I did alternating layers of Essie Marshmallow and Love & Beauty Black Knight for five layers total. Jelly, glitter, jelly, glitter, and jelly. I think it gives more depth and reminds me more of candy. 

Blue Dusted Marshmallow

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have a little experimentation with pigment to show you. I finally bought Essie Marshmallow about a month ago and wanted to do something fun with it. Initially I thought about a glitter sandwich, but wanted something different. By now most of you have probably seen this tutorial floating around Pinterest where you place pigment at the cuticle, blow, and have gradient nails. Epic fail for my attempt. Perhaps a different pigment. But I loved the color combination, so I sprinkled the pigment on top then blew off the excess. To me, it's delicate and wintery. 

I started off with one coat of Essie Marshmallow. I added the second coat one nail at a time then sprinkled the blue pigment (after the gradient failed). The pigment is an ancient long discontinued shimmer powder from ICING by Claire's. It was part of their Attitudes line. I've literally had the powder for a decade. I have seen many pigments that look very close, a light slightly turquoise blue.

Autumn Leopard

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Thanksgiving is almost here! For those who celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful day. Hopefully it will involve the people that you love and yummy food.

Today I have a fun nail art design to share with you. Leopard print!

I have honestly never been a big fan of leopard print. But I kept seeing so many pretty nail designs involving the print, so I finally decided to give it a try. This design could not have been easier to create. So simple! I'm still on the fence as to whether I love it yet or not, but it is growing on me.

Since we are well into Autumn, I decided to use colors fitting the season. Essie Head Mistress, Finger Paints Figure of Art, and Love My Nails Black Rage. I'm rather found of the colors; I just wish red didn't turn my skin pink during cleanup.

Head Mistress is part of the Essie Stylenomics Collection and retails for $8. Finger Paints retail for $5.29 at Sally Beauty Supply. Love My Nails retails for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

Essie Stylenomics and As Gold As It Gets

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Or enjoyed it considering its almost over. Today I have a pretty Essie combination to show you.

Essie Stylenomics is a very dark green creme. Depending on the lighting, it looks black, it is that dark. The formula is smooth and glossy. Opaque in one coat. No top coat in the pictures.

Essie As Gold As It Gets has gold flakes in a clear base. The flakes vary in size. Some of the flakes flash red, green, and bronze depending on light and angle. The application is perfection. The flakes lay completely flat to the nail. One coat gave the coverage you see in my photos.

Essie retails for $8 at Rite-aid, Walgreens, CVS, Target, and Ulta. Stylenomics is part of the Stylenomics Collection (still available in store). As Gold As It Gets is part of the Luxeffects Collection, most of which (including this one) have been made part of the core line.

Essie Blood Curdling

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday!

Essie Blood Curdling is the perfect blood red creme. It is almost a jelly, which adds to the blood look. The application is great and opaque in two coats. I absolutely love it!

It is part of the Essie Morticia's Nails limited edition trio set which can be found on HSN.

Owls

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Today, I have my first design using the new Bundle Monster set. You have no idea how much I have been wanting a stamping plate with owls. If I can get my hands on a cute penguin plate, my life will be complete.

How cute is this?! For my base, I used three thin coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos. Then I stamped on my owls with China Glaze Mahogany Magic and plate BM-309. Both owl designs are on there. You can clearly see the single owl. The full nail design is two different owls and flowers. The full designs are large. Big enough to cover my thumb and more.

BM stamping plates are part of a 25 piece set (the 2012 one) that retails for $22 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Turquoise & Caicos is part of the Essie Resort Collection and retails for $8 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, Ulta, and several other stores. Mahogany Magic is part of the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection and retails for $5-7 at various stores and websites (including Sally's Beauty Supply, Ulta, Head2Toe Beauty, and Amazon. It is (or should be) on clearance at most stores.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have a polish to show you that has been sitting as an untried for way too long. I've had it since October.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos is a pale turquoise creme, a perfect blend of green and blue. The application is great. It goes on smooth. It is a tad sheer, so I used three thin coats for opacity. Gorgeous; it screams tropics  and summer. I've been wearing it as my pedi color for about a week. 

Stay tuned for a stamping post tomorrow featuring this polish and a design from the new Bundle Monster stamping plates. I received them in the mail today. :)

Turquoise & Caicos is part of the Essie Resort Collection and retails for $8 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, Ulta, and several other stores.

Essie Barefoot in Blue - TOMS One Day Without Shoes

TOMS Shoes and Essie collaborated to spread the word about One Day Without Shoes (April 10, 2012). They held a giveaway in March, with the prize being a bottle of Essie's limited edition shade Barefoot in Blue. 15,000 bottles were given away.

One Day Without Shoes is to spread awareness of the impact a pair of shoes can have a child's life. Millions of children across the globe live without shoes, submitting them to disease and injury. For one day, people are going without shoes to not only see what it is like for those children, but also to raise awareness.

For every pair of TOMS Shoes sold, a new pair will be given to a child in need. For more information about today and the effects of not having shoes, please visit One Day Without Shoes.

I was lucky enough to win a bottle of Essie Barefoot in Blue. I have it on my fingers and toes. Since the giveaway is about shoes, I included a small shot of my toes.

I used two coats of Barefoot in Blue. It is a gorgeous creme. Reminds me of hydrangeas in a way.

It is a limited edition shade. If you did not win a bottle during the TOMS/Essie giveaway, Glamour is giving away 100 bottles until midnight tonight (EST).

Mermaid Mani

Its Stamping Sunday! And April Fools! Since its April Fools Day, the theme is non-stamping. I did a flakie bomb, that ended up reminding me of a mermaid's tail.

Two coats of L.A. Colors Sea Siren then five different flakie polishes, one coat each. Finger Paints Motley, Essie Shine of the Times, Finger Paints Asylum, Flecked, and Twisted. All layered in that order. The application on all of these is amazing.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. Shine of the Times is part of the Essie Luxeffects Collection and retails for $8 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, Ulta, and several other stores. Motley, Asylum, Flecked and Twisted are part of the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection and retail for $5 exclusive at Sally Beauty Supply. Most stores are sold out though some sites online will have them.

Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge Day 5 - Gotta Love Chick Flicks!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! I have another design for the Girly Girl Nail Challenge for you today. This challenge lasts a month and includes eight different days of nail art. Instead of trying to keep up with a new nail design each day, we have two each week. Day Five is Gotta Love Chick Flicks: We just can't resist! Wear a mani inspired by your favorite chick flick.

My favorite chick flick is without a doubt The Notebook. Its an amazing love story. If you have not seen the movie, I will not spoil it for you by telling you about my mani, I promise. Noah writes Allie a letter everyday for a year. 365 letters.

I painted all of my nails with three thin coats of Essie Bone Chilling. For my ring finger, I used a L.A. Color Art Deco Black Striper then painted a heart with a dotting tool and Julep Cameron. For the rest of my fingers, I wrote out words with the tip of a calligraphy pen. I could not get the letters small enough with polish. And calligraphy pens will not bleed or run. 

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amanda of Nox Nails
Amanda of Berry Polished
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles

Bethany of  A Plethora of Nails
ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi
CR of Color Me Silly

Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll
Elly of Polishable

Emily of TheLacquerologist

Eugenia of Talon-ted

Jess of LuvMyLacquer

Jodi of CaptivatingClaws

Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind

Kate of This Charming Kate

Kelly of Devilish Polish

Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady

Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Stephanie of A Little Polish
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

Nautical

Its Stamping Sunday! Over at Adventures in Stamping, this week's theme is 'Three Colors'. You can only use three colors including base coat and stamping polishes, no more, no less.

I decided on a nautical design of red, white, and blue. On my ring fingers, I did two coats of Essie Midnight Tango then stamped on an anchor using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and plate BM08. On the rest of my fingers, I did three thin coats of Snow Me White then stamped on stripes using Love My Nails New Love and plate BM20.

The lines are not perfect. Despite my nail beds being relatively small, the whole nail designs do not cover my entire nail. So I had to use a nail art brush to fill in the gaps. I still like this design though. In person, the stripes look fine. Macro pictures show every detail and flaw.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Essie Midnight Tango is from the Mortia's Nails Collection and only seems to be available on HSN.com in a set of three marked down to $7. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

Cookies & Cream

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been away from my blog for the past few days. December is a hectic holiday month and I've gotten myself swept up in the craziness.

Today I have a simple cute mani to show you all, inspired by my favorite candy bar. This weeks Monday Nail Art Challenge on PAA is Candy Coma. The holiday season usually comes with tons of candy. I already did a candy cane design this month, so I wanted to do something different. Cookies & Cream candy bars came to mind.

I used two coats of Essie Bone Chilling. Its the perfect off white for white chocolate. The application was good, above average for a white polish. For the cookie chunks, I wanted small and large black glitter. Love & Beauty Black Knight has both, but the small glitter is too dense. So I lightly brushed on Black Knight to get the amount of small glitter I wanted. Then I layered one coat of Wet n Wild Tangled in my Web on top. 

I did this manicure yesterday and used Seche Rebuild for the first time. My nails have been peeling and breaking more than normal. My work is hard on my nails; it dries them out. So does the winter weather. I've seen rave reviews about Rebuild so I decided to give it a try. I will let you all know how it goes in case anyone is thinking of trying it out.