Category: Essie

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Nails for Days.

Wow, I’ve been MIA again…. we’ve been house sitting for my parents which means I don’t have all my polishes (or nail art tools) at my disposal. However, I have still been painting my nails the last week so I thought I would share with you the simple manicures I’ve been playing around with. I’ve been testing out the combination of using Essence Gel Look top Coat with Essie’s Good to Go top coat, and I have to say it’s been working for me. Usually I have chips in my polish by the end of day 1 (or sometimes half way through), but most of these manicures I’ve worn for 2+ days with minimal chipping. Considering I’m not gentle on my hands, that is actually kind of amazing.

 

flying dragon3 flying dragon

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • China Glaze Flying Dragon (purple)
  • Essence Petal to the Metal gold topper.
  • Essence Gel Look top coat.
  • Essie Good to Go top coat.

Oh China Glaze Flying Dragon… how I love you. You are now, and will forever be my favorite nail polish color…. I just wish you didn’t chip so damn fast! Thankfully though, adding my top look combo gave me these nails for THREE days with very minimal chipping until day three (when it all went to hell). I do love the combination of the Essence Gold Topper over dark colors though… looks so regal. (Also makes me crave fall a little bit… some one slap me!)

 

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors Be Happy (blue base color)
  • Icing Electric Graffiti (pink shatter)
  • Essence Gel Look Top Coat.
  • Essie Good to Go top coat.

I was feeling some crackle, since I haven’t used it in years. I used to love playing with crackle, and Icing’s Electric Graffiti was definitely my favorite of the ones I owned. That hasn’t changed. So bright, and so awesome.

 

ruffian2 ruffian

Polishes used for the manicure were:

  • Joe Fresh Latte (nude base)
  • Nicole by OPI Oy Oy Oyster (nude shimmer)
  • Essence Dive with me to the Island (teal ruffian)
  • Essence Gel Look Top Coat.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

Oh man, I had such high hopes for the manicure… I had visions of a gorgeous nude and teal ruffian… except the nude color my mother owns (which is dark for her) blends PERFECTLY into my skin… so it just looked like I didn’t paint for enough down on my nail. And the shimmer I added didn’t show up enough. Next time I’ll definitely go with something not so perfectly matched to my skin tone.

 

So as you can see, I’ve still been playing around with polish I just haven’t been as nail art crazy as normal. I’m also still bumming hard about my shorties, but they’ll grown… unfortunately just not over night (I wish!) Next week I’m on vacation from work so it will be A LOT more nail art time. In fact, in honor of my best friend who is getting married next week, I think I’m going to do a whole week of wedding manicures, for both bride and bridesmaids. And then at the end of the week, I can share the manicure my friend is letting me do for her nails for the wedding. =)

 

coffee

Now it’s time to finish my coffee, and get started on a super cool manicure I hope to share with you tomorrow.

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Embracing my new shorties… and pretty half moons.

Oopsie.

Sorry for disappearing for a little while. After I posted my Keira Knightley inspired nails I had a nail tragedy breaking THREE nails super duper short (and, all on the same hand of course) so I was really disappointed. Curse working in retail… it ruins everything. =( But nails grow… so I’m trying my best to embrace my new super nubs while they grow out… which is hopefully quickly!

 

shorties

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • ACO by Ardene Bridezilla
  • Layla Soft Touch Effect Golden Touch.
  • Sinful Colors Hip to be Square.
  • Essence Gel Look Top Coat.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

First off, Hip to be Square might be one of my favorite new polishes. It’s so pretty! It looks fairly sky blue in my pictures, but honestly it’s more of a cornflower blue in person, with a barely noticeable silver shimmer. (I love it so much!) I also think it might be very close to ACO by Ardene’s Sea of Beauty, so I’m going to have to do a comparison between the two.

Can you tell how much I love a half moon manicure. I especially love them with shorties, as I feel like the blocking of colors works to give the illusion of longer nails.

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Also, I think I’ve found the perfect new top coat combination for my nail art. As you might remember, I was less than thrilled with my experiences with Essence Gel Look Top Coat the first go around, but top coating it with Essie’s Good to Go squashes the wait for it to dry. The one thing I was impressed with about Essence’s Top Coat was it’s durability and from the look of this manicure now three days later….

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Whoa! Color me impressed! This is my nail art on day three… with no major chips and just minimal tip wear on my index finger. Considering I worked all weekend, that’s a feat. Usually my nails look like this after day one.. and by day two major chips will start so even if I love a manicure I have to change it! I’ll have to test out this top coat combination a little bit more with a few more manicures, but I have a good feeling about it.

So how do you deal with big nail breaks? Any tips on helping my nails grow out without any more tragedy? I’m going to be doing a post later on my own little routine, but I was just wondering what everyone else does… unless I’m the only one who has this kind of awful luck? In which case, tell me how you avoid big breaks because obviously, I need some advice!

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Inspired by… Keira Knightley!

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So… confession time. I have a HUGE girl crush on Keira Knightley. It’s a little dorky actually. She has an impeccable fashion sense that I can’t help but envy. The other night I was trying to come up with nail art ideas and remembered this Valentino dress she wore to the premiere of a movie a couple years ago. Since I knew I had a color very similar to the background of that dress (NOPI My Jay or the Highway) I thought… why not give it a try! After all, the worst that would happen would be that I’d have to redo them with something else!

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The (many) polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Nicole by OPI My Jay or the Highway.
  • ACO by Ardene Flower Girl.
  • Bourjois Paris in 1938 Mais Oui
  • Bourjois Paris  in 1995 Grains de beauté
  • Boujois Paris in 2002 Effect 3D Lip Gloss
  • ACO by Ardene Misty Love.
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin.
  • Sinful Colors Strapped.
  • ACO by Ardene Green Peace.
  • Sinful Colors Easy Going.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

kk3

I love these. I love these SO much! When I first started I wasn’t sure what to do to capture that dress on my nails, but they turned out just how I hoped they would. Maybe my nail inspiration is little dorky, but the end result makes me smile. I don’t even want to take these off!

 

 

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Inspired by Wonder Woman!

Because I have a huge love affair with all things DC superheroes, I really wanted to do another Superhero inspired manicure. I’ve only done a couple to date: A Flash manicure last summer, and my Spiderman nails. Now most people who know me would figure I would do Batman nails since he’s my all time favorite (I even have a Batman tattoo). Instead, I decided to go with my second favorite: Wonder Woman.

ww7 ww8

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene Golden Luxury.
  • ACO by Ardene Strawberry Blush.
  • Revlon Spidey Sense.
  • Maybelline Sapphire Siren.
  • Revlon Superpowered.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black
  • Essie Good to Go top coat.

ww6 ww5

This manicure was pretty simple to do. I painted my nails all the gold color, and waited for them to dry over night. Then, I taped off the L shapes, and painted on first my creme blue and red, followed by my Revlon polishes. I peeled that off carefully, then outlined with my black and applied top coat. And tada! My nails are super powered!

ww3 ww2 ww

The only thing I wish was that I had little star glitters that I could have added to my blue to make it really look like her costume. Next time! These would go perfectly with my Wonder Woman costume (which I wore for Halloween a couple of years ago.) I might even have to come up with some more Superhero inspired manicures–Batman, for sure, but all my other favorites as well. I remember seeing an awesome Star Sapphire manicure on pinterest a while ago that I feel absolutely in love with.

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Purple Ombre.

When I first started getting into nail art, Ombre nails were all the trend. Even though they aren’t as popular as they once were, I still think they’re a great look. I hadn’t done ombre nails in a while so I decided to give them another try. I was feeling a purple manicure, so I grabbed five purple polishes as close to each other in tone and created a quick ombre.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Essence Beauty Beats Baby Ooh Ooh — thumb.
  • Essence Color and Go Break Through — pointer.
  • China Glaze What a Pansy — middle.
  • ACO by Ardene Purple Rain — ring finger.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You — pinky.
  • OPI I Snow You Love Me — glitter placement.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

OMBRE2 OMBRE

Plus side of owning a TON of polish–makes it easy to match a few up to create  a quick ombre which still looks like the colors are supposed to go together. I also added some glitter to create a rhinestone look, just for an extra little something-something. It just pulls the whole look together for me.

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So what do you think of these ombre nails? Like I said, I still really love the ombre manicure so I could see myself doing this with all sorts of different colors. Also I’m really digging I Snow You Love Me for all the glitter placement possibilities. Plus from a distance it looks like rhinestones on the nails (but without the worry that I would knock them off in about 2 seconds at work.)

Also I’m seriously addicted to the Skinny Caramel Macchiatos at Starbucks. I go through waves of being addicted to certain drinks, and they’re my drug of choice right now. So delicious.