Essence Cotton Candy and French Glam

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! As you probably know by now, I am obsessed with Essence cosmetics. I own so many of their polishes (nearly an entire drawer in my melmer) and a ton of their makeup. I just love them. So is it really a surprise that today's manicure is all Essence?

A rare peek of my right hand. :) Essence Cotton Candy is a sheer very light pink creme. This is three coats. It has a delicate feel to it, and would be perfect for french manicures. I added French Glam Nail Stickers from Essence to glam this polish up a bit. The stickers are black (some with clear stones) on clear.

Breast Cancer Awareness Manicure

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! I know its not quite October yet, but Ulta started their Donate with a Kiss yesterday. And I needed a manicure for the occasion. 

I used OPI Strawberry Margarita, Color Club Blushing Rose, and stamping plate BM-321. The plate makes it easy to create awareness manicures in every color.

Mint Manis for Talia Joy (featuring Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint)

Tuesday July 16, 2013 the beauty blogging realm (and ultimately the world) lost a very talented young woman. Talia Joy Castellano was only 13 years old and battled two forms of cancer over half of her lifetime. She accomplished so much and inspired so many people in her short life. Its always sad when anyone is taken too soon, but especially at her age.

Her last Instagram manicure was a mint polish, thus Mint Manis for Talia was born. Today many of the people she reached are wearing mint manicures in her honor, including myself.

For my mint mani, I chose Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint, a mint green creme filled with subtle gold shimmer. Mint with a little something extra (just like Talia).

She will be dearly missed. In her life she accomplished so much. Her family and friends plan to see all of her dreams fulfilled.

Talia's Youtube Channel and Instagram can be found here.

F4 Mint Chocolate Chip

I'm still here! A week behind, but I swear I'm still here. I've been a busy little bee. Work (aka insanity lately), family, and my new budding relationship. Yep, dating. :) I've had a lot on my mind blog wise, which I'll cover at the end.

Today I have F4 Mint Chocolate Chip to share with you. I'm a sucker for anything mint chocolate. Its my favorite flavor ice cream. So when I saw this polish, I had to have it! It looks as good as mint chocolate chip ice cream tastes. That's really saying something! Mint Chocolate Chip is a mint green creme filled with brown micro glitter. The creme is just sheer enough to see the glitter of the coat beneath, giving it amazing depth. The application was great.

F4 polishes are sold in their Etsy store and retail for $8 (15ml).

Edit: What blogger forgot the stuff she was going to cover at the end? This one. I've had so many ideas circling around in my head. Should I do weekly stuff? Like Nail Art Wednesday or something like that. A couple of weekly installments. Also, should I attempt vlogging? The thought of being on camera scares me. But it could be fun. Maybe I'll post a test video and see how it goes.

I really want to do things other than nail polish too. But right now, I'm leaving my blog nail related. I'm going to post all other stuff on my Instagram. Makeup, jewelry, and such. Hopefully I can get better at makeup shots. So far, mine suck. So please tell me what you want to see! Tell me here, or on one of my many social sites. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus there's Youtube and Pinterest (but I suppose those aren't great places to tell me something, just wanted to throw them in.) And as always, there's email.

Bright Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Most of the pictures you will see over the next week or so are old-ish. This particular manicure is from February. Poor thing is happy to see the light of day. Or at least the light of the blogosphere.

These bright skittles were fun and easy to do. From thumb to pinky: Cosmetic Arts Limelight, Zoya Pippa, Color Club Poptastic, Ulta Blue Streak, and Julep Anne. Each is two coats. The little design on my ring finger is an Essence French Glam Nail Stickers. Each sheet has several designs.

Barielle Brilliant Colors Collection

I have an awesome Summer collection to share with you today! Normally, I swatch each color separately; however, when I saw this one, I knew I had to do them all together. They just screamed skittles.

The Barielle Brilliant Colors Collections consists of five creme shades perfect for all the Summer days to come.

Barielle Smarty Pants Pink is a bubblegum pink creme. Literally the perfect bubblegum pink. Not too bright, not too pastel. The formula is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Straight A Coral is a red toned coral creme. I love corals for Spring and Summer! The formula on this one was just as great as the last.

Barielle High Marks Purple is a grape purple creme. Describing the formula will get redundant. I can tell you right now, they were all amazing. High Marks Purple looks a little uneven on my nail, but that is my fault.

Barielle Magna Cum Laude Turquoise is a bright aqua creme. Puts me in the mood for a fun day of playing in the water.

Last, but definitely not least, we have Barielle Head of the Class Green, a seafoam green creme. I cannot say enough how much I love this collection. I wore it for days on my fingers. So many people randomly questioned what polish I had on my nails. It was a big hit!

This collection retails for $8 individually, $25 for the whole set at Barielle.

Disclosure: The products in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Barielle Summer Brights Collection & Swatches

I'm back! :) I hope you enjoying the beginning of your week. I am currently under the weather, but trying to persevere through. Today I have Barielle's gorgeous new summer collection to share with you. Summer Brights consists of five fun cremes for the coming warm months.

Barielle Cosmic Kiss is a bright classic pink creme. Basically the perfect Barbie pink. Perfect formula and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Pink Flip-Flops is a soft pink creme. Not quite pastel. It does have a bright punch to it. As with Cosmic Kiss, the formula was perfect and opaque in two easy coats.

Barielle Lemondrops is a bright yellow creme. Who doesn't need a bright yellow in their life for Summer? The formula was great; a little patchy at first, but most yellows are. It evened out nicely and was opaque in two coats.

Barielle Sweet Addiction is a teal creme, leaning much more toward green than blue. It is a great addition to a collection of bright Summer colors. Its bright without being hot or neon. The formula was good and opaque in two coats.

Finally, we have Barielle Blue Capri, a bright blue creme. The formula was great. I did two coats here, which is enough for in person. However, up close in macro, I could have used another coat.

Overall, I am loving the Barielle Summer Brights Collection. Gorgeous cremes, with staple colors that every polish loving person should own. Ranging between good and perfection formulas, opaque in two coats.

This collection officially releases May 1st. It retails for $8 individually, $25 for the whole set at Barielle.

Disclosure: The products in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Ulta Devious with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter Accent

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I have yet another Ulta brand polish to share with you today.

Ulta Devious is a dark eggplant purple creme. It goes on smooth and creamy like butter, opaque in two coats. I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter as an accent over Devious. Pinky Glitter is a light pink jelly filled with holo glitter and shimmer. The glitter really pops over a dark shade.

Ulta polishes retail for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They frequently go on sale for as inexpensive as $2. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, and various other stores (a complete list on their website.)

Barielle Sweet Treats Collection Swatches & Review

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I am very excited to share the new Barielle Sweet Treats Collection with you. It is their Spring collection, consisting of four cremes and one shimmer.

Barielle Green Apple Chew is a bright chartreuse green creme. The name is perfect. The color reminds me of green apple flavored Laffy Taffy. The consistency is a tad thick, but nothing a little thinner cannot fix. The application is good and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Banana Drop is a pastel yellow creme. I swear someone at Barielle has a thing for Laffy Taffy because this one is reminiscent of the banana flavor. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Lilac Jelly Bean is a gray toned lilac creme. Its pastel with a twist; lilac with a splash of dove gray. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Blue Cotton Candy is a peacock teal with micro shimmer. My favorite of the collection. The application is wonderful and opaque in just one coat. The last picture is topped with the new Barille Matte-inée. Its a matte base coat that doubles as a satin finish top coat. I will have a review on it soon.

Barielle Orange Parfait is a salmon orange creme. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

The entire collection is wonderful. No complaints, other than a thick formula on one, easily fixed with thinner. Lovely pastels and nice Spring colors with a fun twist. I love them all. But for the sake of picking favorites for those who do not buy whole collections, Blue Cotton Candy and Lilac Jelly Bean are my two favorites.

The Sweet Treats Collection will be available starting March 1st. Individual bottles retail for $8, and the entire collection retails in a pack for $25 on Barielle's website.

What do you think of the new collection?

Disclosure: The product in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, and I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I am single on this particular Valentine's Day, and while I usually playfully do anti-Valentine designs, I decided to dive into the hearts.

My backdrop for the stamping is a watercolor marble. I have seen it everywhere, but never attempted it until now. Rebecca Likes Nails has a great tutorial. I started off with one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. My watercolors are Barielle Grape Escape, Pink Quartz, and Life of the Party. Finally I stamped on hearts and love with Essence Stamp Me! Black, stamping plate BM02, BM-317, and Essence stamping plate. All plates are listed for designs index to pinky. The Essence plate has no number or label (it was used for the last two designs).

I love the look of the watercolor. And I think the black really pops off the soft color background. What do you think? And did you do anything special for Valentine's Day? 

Barielle Myrza's Meadow

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!

Barielle Myrza's Meadow is a chartreuse green jelly like creme with small scattered holographic glitter. This polish is perfection. Definitely one of my favorite Barielle Shades. The application is perfection and opaque in three coats. The glitter catches the light nicely and adds a delicate sparkle to this lovely spring green.

Barielle retails for $8 on their website.

Ulta Vintage Violet

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

Ulta Vintage Violet is dusty pastel lavender creme with pink undertones. The color is fantastic and makes me anxious for Spring. The application is perfection. It goes on smooth and glossy, opaque in two coats.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

OPI Mermaid Tears

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! We are three weeks into my new-ish weekly posts, which are voted on by you. Every Wednesday I add new polishes to vote for, and on Friday I post the polish you all voted for. I'm a day behind this week. Next week's poll is already up and consists of nail art.

OPI Mermaid Tears is a dusty turquoise sea foam green creme. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats. I cannot believe it took me this long to wear this beauty. I purchased it back when the Pirates collection was still in stores. I obsessed over getting it then never wore it. I kept staring at my nails, in love with the color.

Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter Over Black

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I recently saw a gorgeous manicure on Pinterest and I had to know what glitter was used. To my surprise, it was something I already owned. They had simply layered it over black.

This is one coat of Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter over a black creme. Pink Speckled Glitter is a sheer pink jelly with iridescent flakies, micro, and small round glitter. All of the glitter is iridescent, not quite holo, but close. I loved it over a pink base, which you can see here, but I am just head over heels seeing it with black.

Ulta Glitter Gradient

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have a colorful gradient to share with you using Ulta polishes. 

Ulta Eye Popping Poppy is a red poppy jelly like creme. This is three coats to reach opacity. Pinata-Yada-Yada is a clear base filled with multicolored and multi-size hex glitter. Can you tell I love my multicolored glitters?

Essence Colour 3 Boys Are Back in Town & It's Just a Little Crush

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! Its almost the end of the year. Can you believe 2013 is almost here?!

Ulta is having a huge clearance event (it started Wednesday). The majority of the Christmas stock is on clearance along with other goodies. I grabbed several Essence polishes that were shipped to Ulta specifically for the event. They are all from collections seen earlier this year, even late last year. To give you an idea of what there is (if you have an Essence obsession like me): Colour 3, Special Effects Top Coats, Colour & Go  (original discontinued small sizes), Magnetics, nail art stickers, and press on nails. Selection may vary by store. I scooped up several goodies and backups for almost all of them.

Essence Colour 3 polishes are a duo sticks. The name Colour 3 comes from the notion that you can have three polishes from this one stick. The two polishes, plus a third shade if you layer them. Boys Are Back in Town is a very dusty grayed purple creme. The application is perfection. Almost opaque in one coat; I used two for good measure. It's Just a Little Crush is the layering polish. A clear slightly milky base filled with purple and blue-toned violet shimmer micro glitter. As you can see, just one coat makes it seem like a different polish. I love this duo stick! I cannot wait to try out the other two I found.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! And that you had a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Otherwise, Happy Tuesday! I wanted to do nail art for Christmas, but I have been utterly exhausted lately, so I settled for Christmas colored polishes.

Ignore the tip wear and band-aid. I usually take photos within an hour or so of doing my nails. However, I did not remember I needed pictures until the next day after work. By then, I had tip wear and a bandage from a cash register related injury.

For my green, I used Barielle Date Night, a jewel toned emerald shimmer. My accent nail consisted of Essie Head Mistress and As Gold As It Gets. I love this combination! So simple, yet very appropriate for the holiday.

Color Club Gingerbread Man & Holly

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I recently got a new camera. I have been playing around with it and trying to see if it is what I want. Obviously, macro shots (close up photography) is a large part of my camera use. I have not perfected taking manicure shots with this camera yet, but decided I needed to start posting them. If anything, seeing them on my blog will hopefully help me figure out tricks to make the pictures better. I purchased a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. The camera is amazing. I am just having trouble getting macro shots in my light box without casting a shadow with the long lens. Also, getting my skin to turn out the right color. If you have any advice, please let me know, whether by comment or email.

Enough of my camera rambling, onto the pictures!

Color Club Gingerbread Man is a light gold foil. The application is perfection and opaque in one coat. It may appear like your basic gold foil, but it does have something special about it. Its scented! It smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie. The scent is very light. Nothing overpowering.

I wanted to make this manicure into something even more Christmas like than gingerbread, so added hollies. Three berries and three leaves. I used stamping plate BM14 and Ulta The Jungle Look. I attempted to stamp red and green on my thumb, but the delicate design dried too much before I could stamp it. So I decided to do green and add the red afterward. I went back with a small dotting tool and Love My Nails New Love to make the holly berries red. I personally love this. Its simple and very easy.