At KarenD's request

Bottle pics of the retail Essie I picked up.

"Essie" is printed in white on one side of the bottle, with the opposite side being blank. The other two sides have the typical "Essie" embossed on them. There is also now a sticker on the cap with the polish name.

Observe:

Essie Dive Bar and some foreign polishes

So when I was in Smalltown, GA with my husband to do Christmas with his family, we went to Smalltown's Walmart, where I saw the Essie retail display for the first time ever. Let me tell you, the Walmart and the CVS in Smalltown KICK ASS. My theory is that it's because there isn't anywhere else to shop there.

I picked up "Dive Bar" from the Essie retail display. It was the only polish I got, and I bought it because it looked interesting. I am a sucker for these blackened teal/blue colors, because I have TWO other polishes that are similar. This color is a retail-only Essie, so it's new. Which would explain why I'd never seen it before. :)

The quality is just so-so. It wasn't worth the $7.75 I spent on it, but it wasn't BAD, either. The brush was too small and narrow, but I think all Essie brushes are too small and narrow. The formula was a bit runny. The first coat was very sheer, and I feared that this was going to end up being a four-coater. But it all evened out and became opaque on the second coat, so it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.

Anyway, here's Dive Bar:



And my awesome cousin in Houston mailed me several Arezia mini nail polishes that her mom picked up for me in Hong Kong upon hearing of my nail polish obsession. My family rocks. :)
I am going to swatch these just as soon as I have a spare minute. Which isn't now. So here's just a pic of the bottles for now! (And yes, that is the patron saint of bacon hanging out behind the bottles. Don't judge me!)

seen at walmart

Essie is already @ Walmart!

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Essie and Nail Night

I am SO far behind in posting pictures. What I do is I upload everything to Flickr, and then turn around and post the pics to my blog, pretty much in the order in which I took them. The next picture I had in line to post was of Essie Limited Addiction, which I bought in the mini 4-pack when I was in Florida in AUGUST. Yes, it is nearly December. Jeez.

Anyway, here it is. It's a lovely dark red jelly. This was two or three coats.

Now, that said...

I know a group of ladies, and we get together every so often for "nail night." There are two nail polish geeks in this group -- myself and another lady -- and the rest I think just humor us. Also, there is usually booze. Booze and nail polish is a winning combination, always.

Anyway, at one nail night a few months ago, I took a few pictures. Enjoy.

She's wearing Orly Space Cadet... I remember this. LOL.

This is my hand... it was Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow with a Nfu Oh on top. I cannot remember which Nfu Oh. I don't own any Nfu Ohs, so I can't just check the bottle. :/

Konad!

My foot w/OPI Blue Moon Lagoon. :)

More Konading..

Finished result.. Man, check out the lined up Nfu Ohs in this pic. I should've taken a picture of THOSE.

And again!

I ended up mattifying my ring and thumbnails. Eh.

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Lisa Frank Nails!

Sooo... I totally ripped this off from another nail blogger, and I feel I must give credit where credit is due. It's due here:
http://kroniclesofakonader.blogspot.com/2010/08/neon-and-leoparda-match-made-in-heaven.html

SO, what I did was.. I painted my nails with a white base. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White. Then I freehanded the stripes using CHG Towel Boy Toy, CHG Pool Party, Essie Funky Limelights, and CHG Flying Dragon. Then I Konaded on top using the leopard print Konad plate. Someone on either my Twitter or Facebook suggested I add unicorns and glitter to make it a TRUE Lisa Frank experience. Well, since I don't have the mad skilllllz necessary to do unicorns, I topped it off with a couple of coats of Cover Girl City Lights.

And I got...


THIS:


I LOVED IT! I actually wore this for a few days before removing.

Essie Little Brown Dress

Yet another of the Essie fall minis. This is Little Brown Dress, a super dark brown. I like it ok, but it's really too close to black for me! I think I used two coats here, maybe three.

Essie Merino Cool and Comparison

I want to apologize for the bubbles in this mani... I have had more issues with bubbling lately, and I'm not quite sure what's causing it. I suspect it's summer humidity, since I've not changed basecoat or topcoat. Yet another reason I'm ready for fall...

Anyway, this is the purply-taupe shade from Essie's fall collection -- Merino Cool.


It reminds me of other purply taupes I have.
This is Merino Cool on thumb and forefinger.
Sally Hansen Commander in Chic on middle finger.
Confetti Moonstruck on ring finger.
Essie Mink Muffs on pinky (yeah, it's WAY different from the other three, but I threw it in there anyway).




Mink Muffs is way more brown than the rest.
Commander in Chic is just a tinge more brown than Merino Cool or Moonstruck.
I think Moonstruck and Merino Cool are dupes, or damn near close to dupes. The formula is better on Merino Cool, but the pricetag is better on Moonstruck ($2 compared to $8).

So there you go!

I'm hoooome!

Wow, I've barely had time to post here for the last couple of weeks. My dad had cancer, and had to have his kidney removed, so I had to drive down to Florida to be with my mom, since we have NO family there and I couldn't have my mama going through this alone, you know? My dad was in the hospital for six days, but he's recovering amazingly, and the doctor thinks that they've got all the cancer. So we're cautiously hopeful right now.

Anywho, I hit up Ulta in a BAD, BAD way while I was down there (I actually hit two Ultas... jeez). Holy cow, I'm glad that we don't have an Ulta in this town. I'd always be broke. I found SO MUCH STUFF I'd seen online and had been lemming and HAD TO HAVE. I got the Essie Fall Collection minis, I got the Urban Decay Naked Palette, I got the one color I wanted from the OPI Swiss collection (Ski Teal We Drop, it's the only one that appealed to me). I picked up two of the Orly Cosmix polishes, which I thought weren't coming out til September, but I walked into Ulta and THERE THEY WERE. Maddening!

But I'm not posting ANY of that today! Instead, I'm going to dump a whole bunch of photos that have been sitting in my Flickr for weeks. I'll get to the new stuff, uh, like when I have real photos and they've been uploaded to my Flickr. :D

Enjoy the photo dump! I am going to nix the commentary, unless something was particularly awesome or particularly terrible.

Zoya Heather:


Zoya Kalmia:


Zoya Barbie:


Zoya Annie (I gave this one away. The formula was fine, but this shade of orange is NOT for me):


OPI Ink (Why have I never purchased this before? I love it! It's FABULOUS!)


Essie Pretty Edgy (Oh look, it's the day I shortened my nails):


China Glaze Sacred Heart (found for $1.99 at Sally, woot):

out of commission

I'm in Florida at my folks' house. my dad just had a kidney removed. I picked up the Essie fall minis. this is "sew psyched," a color I'd been looking forward to. for once I actually love a lemming more than I thought I would. this is almost opaque enough to get away with one coat and is a gorgeous color! I love it! get it now!

apologies for the capitalization and cell phone photo. I'm sort of technologically challenged at the moment!

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Hey you guys!!!

Guess what!
Tomorrow is my birthday, and I'll be 32. Holy CRAP, how did I get to be 32?!


Some other stuff...
I'm trying to do the Dave Ramsey thing, so I suppose that means I should quit buying nail polish. Curses. Or at least not buy it ALL the time, huh? I need to rediscover some old faves, anyway.


And pics! Just some randoms in my Flickr.
Rimmel Play Fast in Street Wear. Pale taupe with shimmer. Pretty, but not as pretty as I'd hoped.


Neon orange! Not really my color, but fun anyway. :)


OPI - Parlez Vous OPI.


China Glaze Orange Marmalade. Another one I didn't like as much as I'd hoped. It just looked so JUICY in the bottle!


Essie Midnight Cami. Holy smurf fingers, batman! This is pretty on, but removal kinda sucks.





ENJOY!


P.S. I should have a shipment waiting on me when I get home. Paradoxal. I hope I love it as much as I love everyone else's pictures of it, not only because it's going to be my birthday mani, but because it may be the last nail polish I buy for a WHILE!

Random Picspam!

So, I'm way, WAY behind on both pictures and untried nail polishes. Good lord, these things (both of them) seem to just multiply... for no reason. My next sentence was going to be "We hit Ulta today, and..." Oops. I guess I just found my reason.

Anywho, most of the pictures I've yet to post can at least loosely be grouped together into semi-coherent posts. Today's post is the random stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, and it's just been sitting in my Flickr for ages and ages, begging to be posted.

Picspam!

Here is Essie Turquoise and Caicos. I know I used this in a comparison post, but I'd never done a full mani of it. You know... I think Essie, as a brand, is growing on me. I don't hate it as much as I once did, anyway. I really, REALLY liked this color. I think I used three coats, since it's a jelly and a little on the sheer side.


This is Borghese Principessa Ivory. I was still on the hunt for the perfect off-white polish. This one was 75% off at CVS, and I figured I'd give it a shot for $2, ya know? It was streaky as hell, and I think this was like four coats. Must have been why it was on clearance.


This is Sally Hansen HD in Byte. It was okay. Didn't hate it, didn't love it. Pretty sure this was three coats, since it was pretty sheer.


I liked this one! It's a Finger Paints color - Art Appreciation Apricot. I got it on clearance at Sally. It really was a nice orange-y shade (I never used to wear oranges or corals, but they're growing on me). I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of the polish by itself before slapping some Hidden Treasure on top, but I didn't. Anyway, I call these... nails... OF FIYAH!

Funky French

Ok, so I don't usually do french manicures of ANY kind. I can never seem to get the tips straight, so I just don't do it.

I caved and did this one a couple of weeks ago. I really liked it! I used Orly Liquid Vinyl for the tips, Essie Blushing Bride for the nailbeds, and covered it all up with some Seche Vite and Cover Girl City Lights topcoat.



We also finally got our wedding rings last week. Yes, we've been married for nearly two months, but we waited til the last damn minute to order our rings from http://www.etsy.com/shop/fabuluster. Like, seriously, we ordered them the week before our wedding. So we got married with the cheapest bands we could find and ordered these to replace them. I LOVE THEM! Mine has J's fingerprint on it and his has my fingerprint on it. :)

More comparisons

You know you have a problem when you keep seeing dupish colors in your collection and yet you keep buying more nail polish. I'm hoarding for beauty armageddon.

Here are some taupes (and one brown).

From L to R:
Zoya Dea, Essie Mink Muffs, Orly Prince Charming, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, and Maybelline Touch of Taupe.

They are in the same order on my hand, from thumb to pinky.


Dea is OBVIOUSLY way different from the rest. (One of these things is not like the others!) So here's a shot of just the four fingers.


As you can see, Mink Muffs and Prince Charming are similar, with Mink Muffs being just a titch darker. Commander in Chic is less brown and more grey. And Touch of Taupe is completely different, and I actually love this color for that reason. It's taupe without being just like every other taupe. And I got it for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. :)


Then I was looking at another mini from that Essie set, and thought that Angora Cardi looked a LOT like Butter London's Teddy Boy. They are quite similar in the bottle.


I just alternated fingers -- Angora Cardi is on my thumb, middle, and pinky, while Teddy Boy is on my ring and pointer fingers.


And in more direct lighting:


They are similar, but not exactly the same. Angora Cardi is more purple and a little deeper. I have no idea what to call this color. Mauve? I dunno. I do like it, even if it is a little boring.

So there you have it. I have one more post planned re: the asian beauty supply, but I probably won't post it til tomorrow or Saturday!

Recent Fauxnadicures

Wow, Fauxnadicures totally gets the red squiggle underliney thing.

So, I've been having a ton of fun stamping lately since I ordered the Bundle Monster plates. I really prefer the full-nail stamps. I do hate that the Bundle Monster full nail stamps are so narrow. I have fairly narrow nails, but they don't cover my entire nail width. I bet these things would be really horrible for the ladies with wider nail beds than mine. STILL, I've been stamping away. Here are some of my recent looks. I'd tell you what plate the images came from, but I'm way too lazy to go look. However, all of the stamps came from the Bundle Monster plates, and not my Konad or other Fauxnad plates.

Here is Essie Splash of Grenadine with Konad Violet Pearl on top.


China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy with Konad Special Polish in Black. This one got me a LOT of comments. The neon-y-ness of Flip Flop Fantasy is really hard to capture in photos, but this was BRIGHT.


This was OPI Who The Shrek are You with Konad Violet Pearl for the checkerboard tip pattern. This was my first attempt ever at stamping tips, and let me say... it is NOT easy to get it straight. My right hand was pretty crooked, but I wore it anyway. My pointer finger was a casualty of my job.


This is Essie Lapis of Luxury with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White for the stamp. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy the special Konad white polish because I cannot find a white that stamps decently to save my life.


I didn't have adequate sunlight to capture this one, and it was very, very subtle, but I liked it. It reminded me of, say, curtains in a funeral home. LOL. The base is Rimmel Hard Edged stamped with Nina Ultra Pro in Viva La Velvet.


This is what I'm wearing today and I LOVE IT. It may be my favorite one yet. Then again, I love the color combination of aqua and dark brown. This is a base of Orly Gumdrop stamped with Kleancolor in Dark Brown. OH... Kleancolor. I had no idea where to get this stuff, but I went to an asian beauty supply store close to my house, and they had a TON of it for $1 apiece. This is some GOOD STUFF. I actually have another post planned about my trip to the asian beauty supply. :)