On my nails this week: Essie's Mesmerized

Happy Monday friends!

Today's post is a quick one, just to show you what I'm sporting on my nails this week!

Essie's Mesmerized is a gorgeous deep cobalt blue that's perfect for winter. I love how vibrant the color is without attracting too much attention. For you Canadian ladies, I found this polish at Target for a mere $2.50! This picture was taken with one coat of (albeit a little gloopy) polish - I used one thicker coat, but you could use two very thin coats.

Hope you had a great weekend!

New Nail Favorite: Essie's After School Boy Blazer

I love nail polish, and I own a lot of it, but it's been a while since I've found a gem like Essie's After School Boy Blazer.

It's the perfect deep navy color that almost looks black.

The formula was amazing and the color was perfectly opaque in two coats.

The best part? I had no chips and only a little tip wear after a week. That never ever happens!

After having a hard time locating it in my city, I decided to order it from Nail Polish Canada who happened to have free shipping (and still do). It seems like all the good shades from the Holiday collections get picked over pretty fast around here, so I'm sure I'll be back to Nail Polish Canada before the end of the year!

What do you think of navy polish?

The Mani Routine

A few weeks ago, it was my birthday. I turned 26! We were hosting a little gathering that night (we played Card Against Humanity and it was awesome) and I wanted to give myself a good manicure. It was the perfect excuse for picking out a new nail polish and because metallics are kind of a thing right now, I thought I could rock a copper color for my special night. But not just a copper polish, copper polish with a copper glitter accent nail. I was going all out. I ended up choosing Essie's Penny Talk and Sally Hansen's Salon Manicure in Copper Penny.

When I rounded up all my usual mani essentials, it dawned on me I should take a couple pictures and post this on my blog. I don't think I have ever explained my manicure routine before!

Here are the polishes, in all their glory.

And my supplies!

The pile includes:
- My Chosen Ones (the polishes)
- A Sally's (the store, not the nail polish brand) nail file
- CND Base Coat
- Nubar's Diamond Topcoat
- Nail Q-Tips. I think I found these at Wal-Mart in the nail polish section. They are incredibly useful for when you paint over your cuticles.
- Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover
- The Body Shop Almond Hand Cream
- Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil

I usually start every mani by using my Sally Hansen Cuticle Remover. It's a necessity for me to obtain a smooth finish on my nails. I push back my cuticles after the product has worked its magic, then I wash my hands.

Then, it's time to shape my nails. I usually go for a square-ish shape.

I follow up by applying hand cream generously and then wiping off any oil off my nails with nail polish remover and a cotton bud. That way, I know my nails have no excess oils and are ready for my favorite basecoat of all time, the CND Base Coat.

After the base coat is dry, which only takes a few minutes, I apply my polish.

I then clean up any mistakes with a cotton bud. For some reason, my application was pretty difficult with this polish!

It was really runny, and because it was a metallic formula, I had a hard time not making it look streaky.

I added my accent nail on my thumb and ring finger and after a coat of Nubar's Diamond Topcoat, voila!

Birthday mani!

As much as I love the look of a metallic polish, it isn't the easiest to work with! I actually chipped my mani pretty badly after this picture was taken.

Do you have any staples in your manicure routine? Any favorite topcoats and basecoats? As much as I love mine, I'm not opposed to trying something new.

Have a great weekend!

Essie Sunday Funday!

I know we're all tired of seeing summer colors at this point, but when I saw that the entire display of Essie's Summer Collection was on sale at Lawtons for $2.49 each, some of you may have seen on Instagram I went a little wild. It just couldn't be stopped.

Sunday Funday is the perfect summer color. It's a vibrant coral pink color, similar to another summer favorite of mine in the form of Gelish's Brights Have More Fun, which, by the way, is an AMAZING Gelish color and is still available on Nail Polish Canada.

Sunday Funday has a bit of silver shimmer running through it, in fact, all of the colors from the same collection have the same silver shimmer. I don't mind it, but it seems like Essie just recycled their colors from last year and added shimmer. They're so similar!

That said, I do like this color a lot and definitely don't have anything like it in my collection. I have plenty of similar pinks, but nothing with this type of shimmer in them. It lasted quite long on my nail without any chips, and it was opaque in two coats. Not bad I say!

I love my bright summer polishes, but I cannot WAIT to make the shift to dark vampy colors for fall! What's on your wishlist this fall? I'm DYING over the Deborah Lippmann collection for Fall (swatches from All Lacquered Up here) and the new OPI collection too!

Best of: 5 Pinks Great Pink Nail Polishes You Need

I'm not too big on pink polishes. Don't get me wrong, I like pink polishes, but unless they are absolutely amazing, I usually forget about them, give them away, or they wither in the back of my stash. These 5 polishes however truly some of my favorites. All of these were worn several times (hands & feet alike) and have truly stood the test of time since I've had them all for over a year and are still amazing polishes in my eyes.

From left to right: China Glaze Pink Plumeria (reviewed here), OPI Japanese Rose Garden (reviewed here - apologies for my poor photography skills at the time), Butter London Snog (reviewed here), Essie Eternal Optimist (reviewed here - wow, I guess I didn't understand the concept of "natural light" back then) , Deborah Lippmann Pop Life (reviewed here)

Left to right again: China Glaze Pink Plumeria, OPI Japanese Rose Garden, Butter London Snog, Essie Eternal Optimist, Deborah Lippmann Pop Life

Pink Plumeria is one of those colors I had to have as soon as I saw swatches of it online last summer. It's bright, summery, and quite unique in color. I wore this color a lot last summer and plan on wearing it plenty this summer again. OPI's Japanese Rose Garden is one of those muted pinks for when you want to wear something feminine but subtle. Its formula is excellent and the color is so easy to wear. It's especially great for those of you who don't like bright polish. Butter London's Snog is hands down my favorite pink polish ever. It's bright, cheerful, and wearing it just makes me happy. The brush in my bottle of Snog is wonky, but that doesn't stop me from wearing it over and over (especially on my toes!).  It is very similar to Essie's Watermelon in case you are looking for a slightly a cheaper option. Essie's Eternal Optimist was one of those colors I kept seeing at my local Shoppers Drug Mart, unsure of whether I'd like it or not. When I finally took the plunge, I was really happy I did. Eternal Optimist is a great neutral and is a great option for when you're looking for something a little bit more interesting than a nude nail. I've owned Deborah Lippmann's Pop Life for many years now, and when I think of the most classic pink in my collection, Pop Life is definitely it. Pop Life's pink color is clean and vibrant without being neon. I love it and plan to apply it to my toes in the next couple hours!

Of these, my favorites are Pink Plumeria, Snog and Pop Life - perhaps I'm partial to brights even if I'm not a "pink" girl?

I'd love to know what YOUR favorite pink polishes are? List them below!

Snow themed mani with Essie's Bikini So Teeny

When nailpolishcanada.com first contacted me to participate in their Holiday Nail Art Challenge, I wasn't sure I'd be good enough for it. Me? Nail art? I can't say I know my way around that. But, I'm a pretty creative person, so I decided I'd give it a go anyway - worst that can happen is that I'll have fun with my nail polishes!

This week's theme was snow! So I put myself to the task and came up with this manicure!

I didn't want to create anything complicated (because I'm not that good!) but wanted something sparkly and layered.

For this manicure, I used the following products:

From left to right: Essie Bikini So Teeny, Orly Twilight, China Glaze White on White, Nicole by OPI It's All About the Glam, OPI Pirouette My Whistle, and Seche Vite Top Coat.

I started with two coats of Bikini So Teeny, which in itself is beautiful. Then I used Orly's Twilight just on the tip of my nails. I then dotted China Glaze's White on White as well as Nicole by OPI's It's All About Glam on my nails with a pencil (#klassy) as well as a mechanical pencil (#professional) to get the different sizes of "snowflakes". After this, I added OPI's Pirouette My Whistle on top of everything to create some dimension. A coat of Seche Vite to finish it off and VOILA!

I had so much fun doing this!

The Holiday Nail Art Challenge is live on nailpolishcanada.com and you can vote for your favorite snow manicure here. Of course, I'd really appreciate if you could vote for me!

For my all my American friends - Happy Thanksgiving! Our Canadian one has already passed, but yum, I could totally eat stuffing and sweet potatoes again! That's my kind of comfort food!

Mojito Madness - A wearable green!

I've been wearing Essie's lovely Mojito Madness on my nails since Saturday and have enjoyed every second of it. For a green, it's very wearable, and I'd even say flattering on my skintone. It's bright and cheerful.

In daylight.

In the bright sun.

If you've been afraid of green (like me), I'd say this is a very safe place to start. Mojito might look a bit intimidating in the bottle but trust me, no need to be intimidated! I love this polish and it's safe to say that I'll be re-wearing it - who knew I liked green! Plus, I love saying Mojito - it puts me in a good mood! Mojito mojito mojito!!

Pop-tart mani! When glitter goes rogue...

Since my week was almost entirely taken up by putting on an event for high school girls, I thought it would be a good week to try the "glitter/jelly" mani that's been floating around various nail blogs.

Here's my take on it:

I used 1 coat of Joe Fresh Coral, and 1 coat of Essence A Lovely Secret, then two coats of Milani Gems, then 2 coats of Essie Waltz. Needless to say, this took foreverrrrrrr. And then, because the mani was so thick, it came off in sheets in a couple days. Either way, I thought it was cute! People at work were intrigued by it and thought it looked like pop-tarts, hence the name of this post.

My cuticles are so dry lately! No matter how much I moisturize, I still have cuticle issues. I've been using a Nuxe hand cream lately and it has been working wonders - fingers crossed for decent cuticles!

I hope you enjoyed this post. I'm not big on nail art/nail glitter/fancy and complicated water marbles. Sometimes the need to be creatives kicks in - it's not very often though!

Hope you all are having a good week. Mine was pretty much one of the busiest week of the year at work. But it's alright because it's over for now! I get to relax this weekend, finally! Cheers to that!

Essie is Brazilliant! ... Or not?

Well, the simple version of this polish review is that I didn't like it. The formula was runny, pooled at the sides and was a pain to get even. The polish was still streaky after two coats. Plus, and I may be the only one who hates this, but it dried to a matte finish. Really, it doesn't matter in my routine because I always use a top coat, but the fact that Brazilliant was drying to a matte finish irritated me. Whyyyyyy? Perhaps I'm over dramatic (as I always am). I suppose that the mini-positive of the matte finish was that it dried extremely fast. So fast in fact, that it caused the streaking I was talking about. UGH!

But all this effort in the application department would have been worth it if the polish looked great on me. And friends, it does not. I totally expected this orange to make my hands look a bit more tanned, à la China Glaze Life Preserver, but it did not. In fact, I feel like it makes them look very red.

As you can see in the pictures, I already have a bit of tipwear. The polish was on for day. So, sadly, I cannot consciously recommend this polish.

If you're interested in a summery bright orange, I suggest you pick a different color than Essie's Brazilliant. Unless I got a dud, the formula isn't good enough to be worth the color - there are plenty other orange/corals like it to go around. This color came out for Summer 2011 and there are very similar colors out for this season as well. I suppose it might be a bit difficult to find something EXACTLY like Brazilliant because it does have a purple/fuchsia shimmer running through it. So if you're up for the hassle, go for it! If not, save yourself the trouble!

Have you had any nail polish duds lately? I hasn't happened to me in a while so I'm not too miffed. Do you find that the polishes you think are going to be duds, are actually amazing on your nails?

Essie is Armed and Ready

Weirdly enough, I thought I had posted this polish review already - but I guess I have not!

Armed and Ready is part of Essie's Go Overboard collection for spring. I luckily scored it on Ebay before it was out in Canada. I haven't seen it out yet in my area but it shouldn't be too long.

I saw a swatch of this polish on another nail blog and knew I needed to have it. Why? Because of the beautiful subtle gold shimmer running through the polish. Plus, I was convinced that the army green color of the polish would make me feel tough. Did it?... Not really but I did think it was quite original.

Please forgive the shimmer on my ring finger. I was tempted by CND's Nail Effect in Gold Sparkle on top of this.

The shimmer running through is more subtle on the nail than in the bottle - that's a bit unfortunate. It's still visible in the sun (first picture shows it a bit) and doesn't take away from the beautiful green color. The polish itself was a bit runny but still gave good coverage with two coats.

I also wanted to add this photo of a imperfect fishtail braid I did on myself for work one day. I quite like the look of something that isn't perfect.

 

I've been keeping myself busy with work, cooking, painting and re-decorating my apartment! I've been cleaning the place out quite a bit, giving away clothing and shoes away. I'm excited to de-clutter! I keep re-thinking of ways to organize my things - it has been fun! I'm going to be working on a DYI project on a little shelf I have at home that needs some revamping - perhaps I'll post about it!

Oops, another nude polish? And Shine of the Times!

Yup, I bought another nude polish. Oh woe is me! I'm awful. But in my defense, I was upset that day (don't even remember what about - that's how significant it was) and in my bummed state, I needed a pick me up. So I picked up Essie's Eternal Optimist.

I have had my eye on this polish for a long time. I though, hey, all the nudes of that shade I've got have shimmer. But I was sort of wrong...

Oh, did you notice the sparklersss? In a second attempt at a pick me up, I also got Essie's Shine of the Times. I audibly let out a "OH YEAYYYY!" in the grocery store and totally embarrassed myself.

I didn't want to cover my whole mani with Shine of the Times so I opted for a couple digits instead. I think it's quite subtle over this color of nail polish - I quite like it. I can't wait to try Shine of the Times over other polish... like Essie's Dive Bar, or Smooth Sailing. SO MANY OPTIONS!

From left to right, Essie Eternal Optimist, China Glaze Gelato, OPI Hawaiian Orchid and Essie Lion Around. These all look very much alike - China Glaze Gelato being the closest. Hawaiian Orchid has shimmer running through it and so does Lion Around.

 

Shine of the Time ended up looking like orange/green flakies on top of my polish. Quite a nice look. I recommend it highly if you're the type to jazz up your mani!

Christmas Nails - if you really think about it...

These aren't OBVIOUS Christmas nails, but they're Christmassy enough for me. This is one coat of Essie's Size Matters with CND Effects in Emerald Shimmer on top.

 

Not the *prettiest* thing I've ever worn. But hey, it's in the spirit of Christmas, which, to completely go against the blogging current, I'm totally not into it this year.  I don't even own decorations at the moment. I just don't see the point - I move every few years and lugging them around, in apartment with ZERO storage space, is just not fun. I'm not a Grinch though - just a cynical young woman who needs some time to build herself a Christmas base. Maybe next year I'll decorate or something. 

Cocktail for me?

Just want to share a little experience with water marble nails. I've tried twice now to come up with something decent. Guys, it is the hardest thing ever. I give up. No water marble on here. Nail polish everywhere, colors not spreading, tape all over the place.

Therefore, I just have plain, good ol' regular nail polish love for ya in this post. That is, for Essie, of course.

Essie's Cocktail Bling is a color I've been excited about. Looking at the swatches online, it seemed like a very unique color - it is also that in real life. The very greyed-out lilac/periwinkle color is surprisingly flattering on my skintone. 

It wore quite well during the week. Definitely a recommendation - especially if you're looking for a non-traditional fall color!

A few pictures of my week:

I still haven't built up the guts to cook from this beautiful cookbook.

 

Jewelery! 

Billie hasn't sat still for a picture in ages. I gots to get some good ones soon!  

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Sheer Mani? Let us evaluate.

This is totally not me but I was lusting after Essie's Ballet Slippers at the drug store the other day and though that rather than spending, I'll shop my stash!

I ended up with Essie's Vanity Fairest on my nails.

It did NOT help my Ballet Slippers craving. The sheer polish was three coats, and bubbled in some places. It didn't dry fast at all(I smudged it and took it off promptly) and it looked bad on. Plus, some brush pieces (you'll notice on my pinky nail) embedded itself in my polish. What?!

Anyway, so this mani sucked. I don't mind the sheer nail thing but three NON-DRYING coats isn't worth it. Catch you another time sheer mani!

Oh the other hand (PUN!), I did sport a french manicure all week. I was pretty different for me.

The tips were freestyled (!!) China Glaze's White on White and the top coat was China Glaze's Diva Bride. I quite enjoyed wearing this since it didn't wear out (or didn't appear to) as fast as a regular mani. I'd probably do this again if I know my week is too busy to take care of my nails.

Hmm, what else?

A painting taking shape?

A smug Billie watching over me?

Billie says: have a great week meoow!