Twinsie Tuesday - Our First Polish (OPI Espresso Your Style)

Good Morning! Today's Twinsie Tuesday post topic was an interesting one, our first nail polish. I know I had a lot of drugstore polishes that I misplaced or threw away (I'm talking about you, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms) so I decided to go with my first OPI. The first OPI I ever purchased was OPI Espresso Your Style from the Deliciously Dark collection (2008, I think?). I picked this up from the JcPenney salon, and with the price tag still attached I can confirm I paid $7.50 for this baby. Espresso Your Style is a dark brown with a bit of a burgundy undertone. The burgundy is very apparent in the first coat, but is much more subtle with the second. There is a small hint of shimmer that appears depending on the lighting. The formula was still great even after all of these years, even without thinner. I used two coats for the photos below...

 

On my nails this reminded me of Hershey Kisses or hot cocoa...

 

Don't forget to check out my Twinsies. I'm interested to see where everyone started their polish obsession:

 

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

The Last Few Weeks....

Hey all! Long time no post. Sorry for falling off the map. The entire month of November has been a mess for me. I lost both of my dogs this month, so I've been less than inspired to post a blog post or even polish my nails.

I lost my dog Milo, to Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia on the 16th. Even though he had a five day emergency animal hospital stay which included blood transfusions and a chemotherapy drug, he wasn't strong enough to pull through. He was only five years old. We lost our second dog Ben, this morning. He had become immobile within a week's time due to arthritis in his back and an x-ray at the vet's office showed a mass in his stomach, which they suspected to be cancerous. They confirmed he was in immense pain and we had to let him go. They stated even if we bought him more time with additional pain medicine, they weren't sure how long he would make it and it wouldn't be fair to him. He was nine years old.

I basically just wanted to say that I'll be back, I just need a little time to get my thoughts and feelings together. I have a post scheduled for this morning, but I don't want to say I will be posting regularly until I know for sure.

Thanks for sticking around.

Milo & Ben

Milo & Ben

Milo & Ben

Essie - Coat Azure

Good Morning ladies. Happy Friday! Super quick post today. Today I have Essie Coat Azure up for talk :)  Coat Azure is a medium blue with subtle shimmer. The shimmer in this one gets a bit lost on the nail but it's still pretty. I've worn this three times in the past two months, so that says something in itself. Shown below are two coats of Coat Azure topped off with a coat of Seche Vite...

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Twinsie Tuesday - Canadian's Choice (Team Anne)

Good Morning! Today's Twinsie Tuesday post is going to split all of us girls into two teams. We let our Canadian girls, Ash and Anne come up with 'secret' themes. I'm team Anne :)  I accidentally dropped my phone in water yesterday and I had a screen shot of the original email saved, so I don't remember the exact name it was given but I know it was nature themed. I Googled pictures of Canada and came across a lot of pine trees so that is the route I picked....because of course, pine trees are the simplest nail art option I could come across lol

I'm super excited to see what the other ladies came up with, and what team Ash was given as a theme. Check them out here:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Hare Polish - Dog Day Dream

Hey all! Sorry for falling off the grid. I lost power last Monday with Hurricane Sandy, but I was one of the very lucky ones and it was back on by Wednesday.  There are some local towns (and of course neighboring states) who have really been devastated by the hurricane, so I'm really lucky where I live. On top of that, we are dealing with a gas shortage. My boyfriend woke me up Saturday morning to let me know one of the local stations had gotten a delivery, so I met him there and while on line his car almost ran out of gas and he had to park it. I waited about 2 hours to fill up my car and a gas canister so that we could put enough in his car so he could get back in line. In total it we waited more than 3 hours on Saturday just for gas. My friend and I had attempted to get gas at 4am on Saturday morning to find that people were camping outside of closed gas stations in hopes that they would be able to fill up in the morning. Do any of you live on the east coast? I hope everyone is ok.

I have some back logged swatches, one of them being Hare Polish Dog Day Dream. Dog Day Dream (love the name) is orange, magenta and purple glitter in a raspberry base. The formula was good and it was opaque in two coats. It does look a little sheer in the direct sunlight photos below, but in person it was more opaque. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

You can get Hare Polish from Nikole's Etsy site when she restocks or from Llarowe. Personally, I would order from the Etsy shop. I had an issue with a bottle of Magic Mist not being color accurate and it took 6 weeks to get a replacement from a Llarowe. I was told that I would receive a replacement, two weeks later she sent me an email to confirm I received it, ignored my follow up emails for three weeks and then finally responded in 3-4 hours when I emailed through Facebook. I was told that the replacement shipments were lost due to staffer error. Even after all of that I never received a follow up email with tracking information for the replacements, they just finally showed up. So lesson learned (for me)....cut out the middle man if you can. I didn't want to rant but I don't want to refer anyone somewhere without disclosing a less than stellar personal experience.

I hope everyone has a good day today :)