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.

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.

Born Pretty Glitter Nail Art Polish Sticker Review

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have a little bit of a mixed review to share with you today.

The picture really starts my review off. You can see that while the stickers are super cute, there are some issues. The designs are adorable and the colors are rich. They are thin, which I liked. I cannot stand the overly thick ones. They usually peel up. However... they chipped at the tip and tore at the cuticle. They did not even last twenty-four hours.

I've never had an issue with Born Pretty Store products, so I was surprised. I looked up other reviews, and people raved about these. Either I got a bad batch, or they just do not agree with me. It happens.

Each sheet comes with twelve wraps in six different sizes. They are sealed tight, and the stickers dry out if not used once opened.

The stickers come in several different designs. They (Item ID: 5270) retail for $5.37 on Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of other fun nail art related items as well. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

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

Ghoulie Girl

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I have some lovely news for anyone who likes OPI. Ulta has some polishes from the Muppets Collection along with a few others. Twelve in total priced at 2 for $12.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Ghoulie Girl are an adorable ghost design. Orange and white ghosts against a black background. I've worn this brand of strips before and I always love them. Easy to apply and they wear like real polish. They claim to last up to ten days. I have never worn them that long. Simply because I cannot go ten days without changing my polish. The longest I've worn them is four days. No tip wear, no chipping. I like to add top coat (and did here), but you can wear them without top coat. I have before.

Butterfly Tattoo

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I have attempted to use regular temporary tattoos as part of a manicure twice. The first time was a bit of mess. I tried cutting down a large tattoo to fit across all of my fingers. I had trouble lining it up well. It just did not work. I'm happy to say that the second attempt went much better. I used a smaller design and only did an accent finger.

I cut a blue butterfly temporary tattoo in half, one piece for each ring fingernail. I applied it exactly as you would to skin. Press the paper on, tattoo side down. Wet with water and hold for several seconds. It transferred very well. Top coat did not smudge or drag it at all. Removal was also very easy.

I love the look of it. Little bits of sparkle show through the blue. A temporary tattoo makes for a very easy design. Quick and simple.

Ulta Envy with Holo Stars

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Today, I have a manicure to show you that I did last week.

I love this combination! Ulta Envy is a dark emerald green shimmer. The application is great and opaque in two coats. To top this color off, I placed on Essence Nail Art Tattoos in All About Me. The set comes with holo stars and butterflies. They are super easy to apply and lay completely flat. The holo gives them a 3D effect.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. 

Wild Kitty Cat

Once again it is Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is National Pet Week. I have always had pets. Cats, dogs, fish, turtles, rats, lizards, bunnies, guinea pigs... its been a zoo. Our house has a few cats and dogs currently. I do not own a chihuahua stamp or else my nails would be covered it cute little dog outlines. Instead, I chose a cat.

I could not part with my zebra print yet, so I did cat accent fingers. Given the wild print, the title was born. :) For my accent, I used one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my base. Then I stamped on a cat using Sinful Colors Black on Black and Born Pretty plate m71. The rest of my fingers are Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Wild Child.

Born Pretty plates retail for $3. This particular one can be gotten for free if you follow the instructions on the their website. Sally Hansen Salon Effects retail for $8.50-10 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Wild Child

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have part of my Spring VoxBox to show you today.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects are strips made of real nail polish, except no dry time. I will have a full review of these up (along with more of my VoxBox) Monday. Wild Child is a fun black and white zebra print. In person, the strips appear solid. Those white bits are only visible because my photos were taken on the macro setting.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects retail for $8.50-10 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta.

Butterflies!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday! I have a pretty butterfly design to show you, using nail water decals.

I recently received a set of butterfly nail water decals. I decided on a yellow background for the butterflies. I selected NYC Taxi Yellow. Its a beautiful shimmering yellow that is opaque in two coats. The water decals were super easy to use. You can see my review of them here, along with step by step instructions.

I love everything about this mani. Shimmering Taxi Yellow and the delicate little butterflies.

NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel retails for $1 at Walmart, Riteaid, and Family Dollar. KKCenterHK Nail Water Decals retail for $2.64 on their website. These particular decals that I'm wearing are item number WDBLE1395.

Maggie from KKCenterHK was nice enough to give me a unique coupon code for all of you. Just enter coupon code followtheyellowpolishroad to get 10% off through January 31, 2013.

KKCenterKH Nail Water Decals Review

Awhile back Maggie from KKCenterHK approached about doing a review of their products, offering nail water decals. I happily agreed after looking at their selection of decals. There are hundreds of pretty ones to choose from. I decided on these beautiful butterfly decals.

They are even more beautiful in person! I have never used water decals, but the steps are easy to follow.

*Cut out each piece you want to use.

*Place them in a bowl of water for roughly 10 minutes.

*With tweezers, carefully remove each piece from the water.

*Slide each decal off and place on desired nail.

Everyone works a little differently, so I would do what works best for you. I placed each piece in water before starting to take off my old polish. By the time I was done painting my nails a base of yellow, the decals were ready to use. Make sure you place these in the water decal side up. I learned that the hard way. Do not worry though. If the piece goes upside down and sinks to the bottom, you can still pick the image off the bottom of the bowl without damaging it. I did not use tweezers. I got the decal on my finger and gently placed it on my nail. As long as the decal is wet, it will not stick to your finger and you will be able to reposition if necessary once on the nail.

Once you have the decal where you want and it is dry, you can place on your favorite top coat to seal it in. The whole process is very easy, even if you are applying them for the first time like me.

This is the finished look. They look painted on. You see no visible outline, unlike most decals. And they lay completely flat. I absolutely love these and plan to purchase several designs. You can find all of the water decals here. They are split into categories to make browsing easy.

Nail water decals designs retail for $2.64 a sheet on KKCenterKH. They also carry full nail water decals for $8 and DIY nail water decals (that can be cut to fit your nails) for $2.64. These particular decals that I'm wearing are item number WDBLE1395.

Maggie was nice enough to give me a unique coupon code for all of you. Just enter coupon code followtheyellowpolishroad to get 10% off through January 31, 2013.

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

Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge Day 3 - Delicate and Elegant

I hope everyone is having a good Tuesday! Today I have another design for the Girly Girl Nail Challenge for you.

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 Three is Delicate and Elegant: Adorn yourself with a lovely pattern, color, or technique.

I used two coats of Color Club Antiquated then placed on some nail art stickers. I was at a loss until yesterday as to what I was going to do for today's challenge. This post done by Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind was my inspiration. I love the look of black over Antiquated. 

Antiquated is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. 

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

Nightmare Before Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday! I have a Nightmare Before Christmas inspired manicure to show you today. If you haven't seen the movie, its a must. How can anyone turn down an animated movie from the mind of Tim Burton?

I painted all of my fingers (except for my ring finger) with two coats of Disney Jack Skellington Red. Its a pretty red shimmer in the cutest bottle, shaped like Jack Skellington's head. I got it in a set of three from Claire's. On my thumbs and pinkys, I layered on one coat of Fabulous Nails Midnight Black Crackle. On my index fingers, I did polka dots with Sinful Colors Black on Black and a dotting tool. Finally on my ring fingers, I used nail art stickers I got in a set from Claire's. On my left hand, I have Sally, and on the right, I have Jack and Sally.

Jack Skellington Red (the set did not come with names, but its Jack's head and red) applied very well. I was honestly surprised with how pretty it is. The nail art stickers, however, were a pain. They seemed to stay on well for a few minutes before they became to curl up near my cuticle. Maybe its just me. I know adhesives react differently to everyone. I do plan on trying them again before I make up my mind on them.

Both the Jack Skellington polish set and the Nightmare Before Christmas nail art stickers are on clearance at Claire's. If they are still available, they retail for $1-4. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Fabulous Nails retail for $15 on their website.

Breast Cancer Awareness & New Polish

I have so much to talk about! First of all, its Monday. Which means PAA's Monday Nail Art Challenge. This week was Breast Cancer Awareness. I'm already big into raising awareness so the theme was perfect, and gave me a chance to use my new pink ribbon nail tattoos.

On all of my fingers except for my ring finger, I used two coats of No6 Pretty Young Thing. I love this polish and color so much, but I do not think you can find them anymore. I've searched high and low. If you find any, definitely pick it up; its worth owning. On my ring fingers, I used two coats of Love My Nails Innocent Pink then placed on one pink ribbon tattoo per nail. The ribbons were a little difficult to get on, they wanted to stick to the plastic covering instead of the paper, but I managed. 

I also still have my toes pink for breast cancer awareness. As I did before, I promise not to torture you with my toes. I have a swatch on my nail wheel of the polishes my toes have. A coat of a Bon Bons pink with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on top.

I cannot seem to stop buying polish lately, so I have some new ones to show (that do not include the collection coming by mail).

Top from left to right: Salon Perfect Cracked Silver, Sally Hansen Plum Power, Revlon Blue Mosaic, and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Bottom from left to right: Pure Ice Iced Merlot, Sally Hansen Cherry Smash, and Pure Ice Cheatin.

The pictures are very color accurate for all except for the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears. Plum Power is a deeper purple and very much plum. Pacific Blue reminds of the Cornflower blue crayon from Crayola.

I know everyone has probably seen Blue Mosaic a million times along with its two glitter companions from this Fall's Revlon collection. But its so pretty, its worth another look. I snagged a Facets of Fuchsia awhile back, but this polish was no where to be found until today. I just love the green glitter thrown in the blue. Makes it a unique polish.

When I saw the Salon Perfect Cracked Silver, I was a little hesitant. I had never heard of Salon Perfect before, but I could not pass up a three dollar crackle. Once I got home, I googled them and realized I had heard of SP, but did not make the connection because they mainly sell false eyelashes. I could not find a thing online about their crackles. But I was optimistic. So I got out my nail wheel and swatched. I layered it over Sinful Colors Black on Black and No6 Party Punch. It looks so much better over dark colors, in my opinion. Even limiting it to wear over darker shades, its still a steal for only three dollars. If anyone is interested, I found mine at Walmart. They had several colors of crackles, along with the silver.

Two more bits of news, then I promise my long post is over. :) I reached 50 followers today. YAY! To thank you all for reading, commenting, and following, I will be putting together a giveaway this weekend. I hope it'll be something everyone can enjoy!

My last bit of news is that I wanted to share my happiness over winning part of Shadow Nail Art's 1 Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway. I'm very excited. I love giveaways, even when I don't win. Its so nice to see how giving this community of bloggers is. To host giveaways for their follows.