Essie Summer 2013 Picks!

Hello again, surprised I'm back so soon? Well, I just couldn't stay away because I've been eager to try out a different camera for my nail photos and I am loving how great the photos are with the switch! Let me know what you guys think of the photo quality :)

Last time I was at CVS, I came across Essie's summer collection- full of shimmers and brights with nautical names. I couldn't resist and picked up 3. There's either 4 or 5 in the collection, but I passed on a couple of the shades.

Lots of photos in this post! All swatches are without topcoat.

Essie Rock the Boat 

Essie Rock the Boat

Essie Rock the Boat

First up is Rock the Boat, a light cornflower blue with silver shimmer. The shimmer is only noticeable in the sunlight, but I love the shade nonetheless! Its formula was decent; at first it was uneven and streaky, but 3 coats seemed to do the trick to create full, smooth opacity. 

Essie Sunday Funday

Essie Sunday Funday

Essie Sunday Funday

Sunday Funday is a bright coral/pink with the same silver shimmer that the whole collection has. The application was better on this one; it only required 2 coats for opacity. This color was really hard to capture on camera! In person, it's a little more pink-leaning. 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Naughty Nautical is a sea green/muted teal with the same silver shimmer. This may be my favorite from the collection because it's so unique! The application was similar to Sunday Funday and only required 2 coats. I must say the name drew me to it as well; I can't resist polishes with cute names!

What do you think of Essie's new summer collection?

-Shelby

Essence Let's Get Lost and Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you're all having a good first half of your week; mine has been rather long. I have tests this week and other things going on so the weekend could not come any sooner!! I am SO pumped to show you my mani that I did probably about an hour ago. Usually I photograph and take my sweet time a) uploading my photos to my computer and b) actually making a post about said photos, but I just couldn't wait to show off this beauty of a manicure!!

I recently did a combo nail/wax swap with Dana from Polished Claws Up and she gave me a couple vintage polishes from Sally Hansen. I only have a few vintage polishes myself, one being a Sally Hansen, so you better believe I was excited. Without further ado, I'll get into my mani details!

Below I used 2 coats of Essence Let's Get Lost and 2 coats of Sally Hansen Secrets Frost.

Beware: photo spam. I repeat...major photo spam! :)

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

I cannot get over how flippin' gorgeous this manicure is!! I know I've been doing an excessive amount of manis with accent nails, but this one is extremely special. Let's Get Lost is a bright blue/teal creme that was almost a one-coater. I added 2 coats for good measure and to fill in slight patchy areas (very very slight I might add). I've had odd luck with some of Essence's polishes, but Let's Get Lost gave me zero issues, I'm totally smitten! Now I am in love with Secrets Frost. It is a scattered, finely milled silver holographic glitter. Although you can't see the holo in the photos very well, I promise you that the holo is clearly there in person and twinkles. Secrets Frost had a great application and completely covered my nail in 2 coats. I love the formula of this polish! It probably has tons of nasty chemicals in it, but I can sacrifice for one polish ;) Overall, I can't get enough of this mani!!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

PS: I just realized while writing this post that the names of these two polishes rhyme. Ha!

Revlon Fashionista

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well, I've been super busy this week since school just started back up. I've been trying to use some of my untrieds lately and the other day I finally got around to using Revlon Fashionista!

Below I used 2 coats of Fashionista

Revlon Fashionista

Revlon Fashionista

Fashionista is a wonderful teal creme! It had a great formula and application so I was pretty pleased! This reminded me a of OPI Ski Teal We Drop, definitely gonna have to do a comparison!

What do you think of Fashionista?

-Shelby

OPI Ski Teal We Drop and NYX Gilded Glitter

Good evening ladies :) I hope everyone is having a good week so far! I have a chemistry final tomorrow that I'm preparing for. I'm so excited to finish up on Friday and start my holiday break :)

I used a couple untrieds of mine & wanted to share them!

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

OPI Ski Teal We Drop is a gorgeous teal creme from OPI's Swiss collection. Oh my goodness, how did I not use this until now!? This polish is perfection, perfectly opaque in 2 coats and has a wonderful formula. Love love love it!

NYX Gilded Glitter

NYX Gilded Glitter

Today, I decided to add NYX Gilded Glitter, a gold leaf-like glitter, to my manicure. I think this is a great substitution to the actual gold topcoats. At around $2, it's a bargain and a way to try out the trend without shelling out the $30 for OPI's! The pieces are on the small side, but I like it a lot! The formula was great, I got an even spread of glitter, but it did have a longer dry-time.

What do you think of these polishes?

-Shelby

Essie Go Overboard & Jordana Cosmic

Hello ladies! Yesterday I tried out a combo I've been curious about for a while: Essie Go Overboard and Jordana Cosmic!

I hope all of my American readers have a lovely holiday tomorrow; eat lots of turkey! :)

Essie Go Overboard
Jordana Cosmic

Essie Go Overboard
Jordana Cosmic

Essie Go Overboard
Jordana Cosmic

Go Overboard is an extremely opaque teal creme. This color only needed 1 coat to be super opaque! Cosmic contains teal, green, and silver hexes along with micro teal glitter in a clear base! I heard that if Cosmic is paired over a teal, it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe. I would say it's a close enough dupe for the price difference! I like this a lot :)

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

OPI Fly and China Glaze Atlantis

Good morning! Sorry for my lack of posts the last few days; I've been busy, but also some of my nails broke and they are definitely not picture-appropriate. Anyway, I thought I'd share a mani I did last week that I liked quite a bit!

Below I used 2 coats of OPI Fly and 1 coat of China Glaze Atlantis on my ring finger

OPI Fly
 China Glaze Atlantis

Fly is a gorgeous "San Jose Sharks" teal creme! The application is awesome and dry time is good :) I thought Atlantis was a great accent; the glitter distributed evenly and smoothly. I like China Glaze glitters! I don't know what's going on with my pinkie, my topcoat sometimes messes up my hard work!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

31 Day Challenge, Day 20: Water Marble

Hello! Today's challenge is the notorious water marble. I've only tried water marbling once before today, so I was a little hesitant, but determined not to miss another challenge day!

What I used:
Sation Ring Around the Horsie (base & marble)
China Glaze Exotic Encounters (marble)

Sation Ring Around the Horsie
China Glaze Exotic Encounters

Sation Ring Around the Horsie
China Glaze Exotic Encounters

Both colors were pretty easy to marble with. Exotic Encounters spread super easily, so I was happy about that! I like this color combo, kinda unexpected, but not too risky. I'm still wondering how not to get the water/air bubbles on the surface of my nail when I marble. It's quite frustrating!

What do you think?

-Shelby

Check out the other lovely ladies:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

31 Day Challenge, Day 17: Glitter

Good afternoon ladies! I'm so excited for today's challenge because I am obsessed with glitter :D

I had a hard time choosing one, so I decided to go with an untried!

Sephora by OPI I'm So Sari!

Sephora by OPI I'm So Sari!

I'm So Sari! is a gorgeous predominantly teal glitter with some larger silver glitter throughout! This is from the SOPI Indian Summer Collection, which I thought was a great collection of colors :). The names of the polishes are so cute, especially this one! The formula was great! 2 coats worked pretty well, but I added a little extra polish to the tips so there was no vnl! 

What do you think of this?

-Shelby

Check out the other lovely ladies:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

31 Day Challenge, Day 11: Polka Dots

Good afternoon! Today's challenge theme is polka dots, which I adore, but I feel like I've done polka dots quite a few times; I decided to do an untraditional polka dot manicure with one of my jumbo cheeky plates!

Below I used 3 coats of Color Club Super Saturday Teal (part of a duo for ovarian cancer awareness) and China Glaze Awaken (part of the Romantique collection) with Cheeky jumbo plate "B"!

Color Club Super Saturday Teal

Even though Super Saturday Teal required 3 coats, it gave me no problems and had a wonderful consistency! I've heard great things about China Glaze Romantique collection in conjunction with stamping, all of which I feel are true due to Awaken! Awaken was awesome for stamping and I adore how this looks! These don't look like traditional polka dots, but I'm okay with that :)

I've also decided to go on a no-buy for quite a while! I'm starting my college classes next week and a college student needs to budget! For now I'm going to focus my funds on school-related things. Also my birthday is next month, so if I get any b-day money or something, that could be my treat to buy nail polish :). 

What do you think of this polka dot mani?

-Shelby

Check out the other participants:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

Funky French: China Glaze Exotic Encounters & Sally Hansen Black Out

Good afternoon! Today I decided to attempt Nailside's lightning bolt french manicure! I don't think I quite have it down like she does, but I like the outcome even if it's a little different than the original :P.

I used 1 coat of China Glaze Exotic Encounters as a base and Sally Hansen Black Out for the tips!

China Glaze Exotic Encounters
Sally Hansen Black Out

China Glaze Exotic Encounters
Sally Hansen Black Out 

Exotic Encounters is an opaque, teal creme! It was a great base for this mani since it only required 1 coat! I never wear black for a full mani, so I like the black detail on the tips. Adds just the right amount of edge :). Black Out was a little thick for my taste, but I guess I just need to experiment with black polishes!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Kleancolor Glitter Swatches

Good evening ladies! I've been really into indie glitters lately, but I have a bunch of Kleancolor glitters that I had yet to try, so I thought I'd give them a chance and see if they added up to my indies!

Beware, this post is picture heavy; I swatched 7 Kleancolor polishes!

Kleancolor Shooting Star
Sally Hansen Sun Kissed

Kleancolor Shooting Star
Sally Hansen Sun Kissed

 Shooting Star is a sheer orange base with silver micro glitter and orange, yellow and teal small hex glitters. I really like this glitter! It may be my favorite of the bunch. I put 1 coat over Sally Hansen Sun Kissed & the outcome looked great! I didn't have a hard time getting enough glitter on each nail.

Kleancolor Disco Ball
China Glaze Flyin' High

 Disco Ball is a clear base with purple and teal small glitters. I used 1 coat over 2 coats of China Glaze Flyin' High. I like the mixture of purple and teal; it's untraditional and I like it! I also didn't have an issue getting the glitter to go on evenly with this one.

Kleancolor Dolly Girl
Wet n' Wild On a Trip

 Dolly Girl is a clear base with purple glitters. This is just like Disco Ball, but without the teal! I used Wet n' Wild On a Trip underneath and I think the purples go perfectly together! I had no issues getting even glitter with this polish either!

Kleancolor Silver Lining
China Glaze Icicle

 Silver Lining is a silver shimmer with scattered purple glitters. I used China Glaze Icicle underneath because the silver in Silver Lining barely showed up! I was disappointed with the lack of color pay off; if I wanted a purple glitter, I would have gotten one. Oh well, you live and you learn!

Kleancolor Silver Star
Ulta Blue Streak

Silver Star is a clear base with some silver glitter and silver stars. I used it over Ulta Blue Streak. I like the combo of royal blue and silver, but I'm not sure this polish is for me. The formula was rather thick and the glitter and stars were difficult to get onto the nail.

Kleancolor Aurora
Color Club Blushing Rose

Kleancolor Aurora
Color Club Blushing Rose

Aurora (who doesn't like a cute Disney reference?!) is iridescent pink/purple glitters and purple stars in a pinky clear base. I used one coat over Color Club Blushing Rose. I like the idea of this color, but the stars were rather hard to get onto each nail. It also is a little juvenile for my taste.

Kleancolor Holo Blue
Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue

Kleancolor Holo Blue
Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue

 Holo Blue is a subtle blue holo, as the name states! This could possibly be opaque in 3 coats, but I did 2 coats over Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue! It's hard to tell in the photo, but it has a subtle holo effect in the sun, which I definitely like! The formula of this was good going on!

Overall, I think Kleancolor glitters are okay. They just don't hit the mark compared to my Indie beauties, unfortunately. There are a few I like and will use, but indie polishes have so much more dimension and uniqueness to them. Also, I've noticed that Kleancolor takes a looong time to dry, even with a fast-dry topcoat. Bummer. I like them, but I'm glad I didn't have to pay much for them!

I think I'm going to post 3 of them in an upcoming blogsale of mine!

What do you think of this brand? Of these colors?

-Shelby

Pretty & Polished Spam!

Good afternoon! I hope you all are having a lovely Tuesday :). I spent the evening with my boyfriend last night after not seeing him for almost ten days, so that put me in a good mood for today!

A few weeks ago, Pretty & Polished restocked their inventory on Etsy. Right when they released their inventory, I snatched 4 polishes up: Sand Art, Party on my Yacht, Tart, and PHAT Camp!

Beware, this post is picture heavy...I'm going to show pics of the base colors I used before I added the Pretty & Polished glitters to the manis!

Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

 Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! is a perfect bright blue creme! It's vibrant, but not too "in your face". The application was awesome; fully opaque in 2 coats! I thought it was a great base for Sand Art!

Pretty & Polished Sand Art

Pretty & Polished Sand Art

 Sand Art is a lime green, purple, blue and pink glitters in a clear base. This was a truly unique color! The glitters seemed somewhat matte and almost spherical, rather than flat. I used 1 coat over Blue Me Away! and really liked the outcome!

Pretty & Polished Party on my Yacht

Pretty & Polished Party on my Yacht

Pretty & Polished Party on my Yacht

Party on my Yacht is gold, purple, green glitters with hidden blue bar glitters in a white, milky base. This color didn't require a base color, but took 3 coats to reach full opacity. I like this color, but I feel like it'll look especially good around Christmas or Easter since it seems somewhat festive to me. The application was pretty good and I didn't have any problems with it :).

OPI Rumple's Wiggin'

OPI Rumple's Wiggin' is a nice lavender creme from the OPI Shrek Collection. This is a classic lavender, possibly my first ever lavender polish! It's a little sheer and streaky, but totally worth it! I used 2 coats semi-thick coats to reach opacity.

Pretty & Polished Tart

Pretty & Polished Tart

 Tart is micro purple, small gold, pink, magenta, blue hexes, and large white/lavender hexes in a milky lilac base. I probably could've reached opacity with this polish in around 3 coats, but I decided to put 1 coat over Rumple's Wiggin' instead! I had no issues with this polish; the application was good and I didn't have a hard time getting glitter onto my nails!

Sinful Colors Ocean Side

 Sinful Colors Ocean Side is a teal creme with a bit of gray in it! I like this color a lot!! I got it on sale for 99 cents at Walgreens and am really impressed with the formula. When I swatched it on a nail wheel, it was a little sheer, but when applied to the nails, it was perfect! No complaints about this gorgeous, ocean-like teal :).

Pretty & Polished PHAT Camp

Pretty & Polished PHAT Camp

PHAT Camp is teal and purple large glitters and pink/purple small glitters in a clear base. This color was really hard to capture in the sun; the teal glitters were kind of invisible in the teal polish! I had no issues with the application, but I'd say this is my least favorite of the bunch, which is funny since I thought I'd like it the most! I still like this combo though :)

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with Pretty & Polished! I didn't have a problem getting the glitter to go onto my nails evenly, which was nice for a change! I would buy from them again :)

What do you think of Pretty & Polished?

Until next time,

-Shelby