Prince inspired stamping

These were my Prince inspired purple rain nails.
I have a gradient using Dance Legend 324 and Essie Lilacism.  Stamped with Mundo de Unas Violet.  Plate is MoYou London princess collection 09.

HPB Presents Smoke Nail Art

Hobby Polish Bloggers (HPB) presents New To You, our theme for January.

My "new to me" is smokey nail art. I saw this done by Chalkboard Nails and thought it would be something possible for me to try. My nail art skills are fairly limited!  You can see the tutorial HERE.

My black base is Formula X Dark Matter and the smoke was made using Essie Absolutely Shore.  This was easy enough to do. I actually wore this as a full mani on both hands. I'm curious to try this using different colours to see if it still has the same effect.
Make sure to check out the rest of the posts below!
*nothing to disclose*

An InLinkz Link-up

Butterfly and Dragonfly stamping with Dollarama plates

Good day to everyone!

Today I have some stamping for you. I was testing out a few plates and polishes, so you're getting an odd looking manicure! My base is  Essie Resort Fling which you can see a review of here.  These plates came from a set I found at my local dollar store. The set was $3.00 ( I think ) and came with 5 plates, a stamper, and scraper. The stamper is garbage, but for the price it doesn't really matter! The few designs that I used all worked great.

The plates used are labelled SE18 SE19 and SE21. I couldn't seem to find an actual brand name anywhere.
 Stamping polishes are Konad Deep Jungle, Mundo de Unas # 14 Violet, and Mentality Sly.
I guess we have all learned not to ignore our dollar stores, you never know what treasures you may find. I'll add the links for where you can find the polishes. Have a great day everyone.

nailpolishcanada | mundodeunas | mentalitynailpolish

*polish and supplies purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Essie Resort Fling Swatch and Review

Resort Fling is a bit of an anomaly to me. It isn't a true jelly, crelly, or creme. To me it is a hybrid of all. I probably am making no sense, but I just don't know what to call it. I used four coats plus top coat in all the photos. This polish is very sheer and thin. I did two thin coats and two medium coats. The first coat was like applying tinted water almost. Happily, it did build. The end result looks great, but getting there seemed like a true challenge of patience.

When I look at it, I kind of think of a creamsicle. I do have a love/hate thing going on with this polish. Love the final look, but wish the formula was better. Typical for Essie, you're never really sure what type of formula you'll be working with.
Thank you for visiting today!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Essie Sparkle On Top vs Shine Of The Times

Doing a side by side of Essie Sparkle On Top and Shine Of The Times. Both are from the Luxeffects line. I decided to compare the two, because in my head I was thinking that the two seemed quite similar. At least that was what I thought. I couldn't have been more wrong!

I'll let the pictures do the talking!

I have one coat of each layered over Essie Chinchilly. If you would like to see Sparkle On Top layered over something different, you can see my review HERE. And so Chinchilly doesn't feel left out, I'll show a couple of that one too!

Essie Parka Perfect and Luxeffects Sparkle On Top swatches

Parka Perfect and Sparkle on Top are both new winter 2013 polishes from Essie.

Parka Perfect is a light, dusty blue with shimmer. I had full coverage in two coats. On longer nails, you may need three. Formula was good for me, and the shimmer isn't lost in application! Average dry time.

Sparkle On Top is a new addition to the Luxeffects line. The is a clear based polish with iridescent flakies and larger shard pieces. The base is thick. For this reason, I only applied one coat. Reminds me a bit of sun shining through crystal. You'll need a thicker top coat to smooth out the larger shard glitters.

I recently purchased these from Nail Polish Canada. Excuse my lack of clean up. I was doing a bunch of swatching and was trying to avoid too much acetone.

Essie interlocking dots manicure

Happy hump day! Today I have my first attempt at an interlocking dot manicure. I originally saw a tutorial at I Feel Polished's blog. You can find that here if you are interested. 

I chose to use Essie Go Overboard and Smokin' Hot. You'll have to excuse the dings you see in the photos. I had been wearing this mani for awhile before I took the photos and forgot to put on more top coat. Oops.

It wasn't perfect, but it turned out okay. It can be a bit time consuming waiting for everything to dry. Have you tried this type of art before? Will you? Thanks for stopping by to have a look and thank you to Heather at I Feel Polished for the tutorial.

Essie For The Twill Of It

For The Twill Of It by Essie is from the new fall collection. Stunning!

This is a dark grey based duochrome that flashes from purple to green. I also caught some pink in there too. The green didn't take in the photos, but it is there. Amazing formula. Only two coats needed for full coverage and there are only minimal brush strokes. My photos really don't do this polish justice. It needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate it!

Some say this is very close to the new OPI peace love and opi, but I don't have that to compare. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Essie saran wrap manicure

Today's post is a dabbed saran wrap mani using Essie Turquoise and Caicos and Naughty Nautical. If you haven't tried this technique before, it is very easy with great results.
I used Turquoise and Caicos as the base. Once dry I applied one coat of Naughty Nautical and then dabbed off with the scrunched up saran wrap. I suggest doing one nail at a time so the polish doesn't dry up too much before you can get it off the nail. Once that is done, apply top coat! That's it. Easy peasy.

There you have it. Subtle but pretty! Thanks for stopping in today and I hope to see you back. As always, comments are welcome. Please excuse the dry cuticles. We have been having some dry hot days that have been drying out my hands. Cheers.

The White Post

I was recently watching a discussion about the best white polish. This inspired me to dig out all the whites I could find in my collection. Turns out I have TEN. Oops.

Wasn't sure the best way to go about this, so I've split it into two. Five polishes for each set. Just seemed to be the easiest way and eliminated a VERY pic heavy post.

Each nail has two coats of polish and no top coat. Since most of us use white as a base or for nail art I wanted to show it the way we want to use it. (No one wants to use four coats of white under something and then keep going with their manicure.)

First set:
Thumb - Julep Kate, Index - China Glaze White On White, Middle - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Ring - Cult Nails Tempest, Pinky - OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Yes, opi my boyfriend scales walls is very slightly tinted grey. I thought I would include it because a lot of people use it. And it does look more white then grey. You'll see in the pics.

Second Set:
Thumb - OPI Alpine Snow Matte, Index - Essie Blanc, Middle - Sinful Colors Snow Me, Ring - Barielle Enduring, Pinky - Quo By Orly French White.

Enduring and French White seem to have a bit of a dirty white look to them.

I'm not going to critique all of them. We'd be here all day. I'll just go with my top three!

1. Cult Nails Tempest. It's almost a one coater. Would be if you have shorter nails. It's also a little thicker and great for nail art.
2. Sally Hansen White On. Again very close to a one coater. Cheap too!
3. OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. It's just very versatile.

What are your thoughts on white?  Do you have a favourite that wasn't included?

Thanks for looking and I hope some of you find this helpful!

Using My Maiden Name Essie Wedding 2013

Using My Maiden Name is from the Essie 2013 Wedding Collection. The collection was inspired by spring flowers and blue hydrangea's were the inspiration for this polish. It does lean a little more purple then the actual flower. The polish also has a nice pink shimmer that is a bugger to take photos of! I tried. Formula on this was good. Complete coverage in two coats, which is excellent. Self leveled mostly. Still had a few spots that didn't quite level off all the way. I wish the shimmer was more noticeable. Overall, happy I chose it.

Essie polishes are available at a wide variety of stores and online shops. I purchased this at Nail Polish Canada. Cheers everyone. Thanks for stopping by today!

Essie hip-anema

Bright polish batman! Essie hip-anema, from the spring 2013 line, isn't your typical spring pastel shade. Hip-anema is a bright poppy red creme with orange undertones. I wasn't sure about this polish to start with, but once it was on, I was amazed. Such a fabulous colour. Plus a great formula. I used 2 coats for the photos. No top coat. I did notice out in the sun that I maybe could have used a 3rd coat.

Essie polish is available from a variety of drugstores and online shops.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed even though it was just a quick post. Cheers everyone!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Essie Matte About You vs OPI Matte Top Coat

I picked up a bottle of the new OPI Matte top coat, so I thought I would do a quick comparison with Essie Matte About You. For the longest time Essie was the only matte I could find, and now there are a bunch on the market! This is good news. Every polish fiend needs a matte top coat!

You'll have to excuse my manicure. I've had it on for a few days and it's pretty beaten up, but it did the trick for this post. I am wearing Zoya Mira.

Essie Matte About You is shown on the index and ring finger.  OPI on middle and pinky.
Formula was the exact same to me. OPI smelled a tad bit stronger. Dry time was the same as well. To me they appear to do the same job. I have no reason to recommend one over the other. I like them both and would suggest getting whichever one is more easily found. I myself purchased both from Nail Polish Canada. To be honest, I am not sure the availability of these worldwide. You would have to do your own research on that yourself. You should own a matte top coat though!

Do you have a favourite matte top coat? I would love to hear what it is! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Cheers