Twinsie Tuesday - Polish Picked By Someone Else (Essie Avenue Maintain)

Morning! This week we had to let someone else pick our polishes, so I let my BF pick out the one I would be sporting for today's post. In the end, even though it wasn't my choice that day I fell in LOVE. Essie Avenue Maintain is an amazing bright blue creme with an amazing formula. I wore this for about 4-5 days once I had it on my tips. Below is two coats of Avenue Maintain...

Love love love! This is going to make an awesome pedicure color in the summer.

I'm interested to see what everyone else had to wear. 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 Beaulieu Review

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

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

Twinsie Tuesday - Favorite Color (China Glaze Skyscraper)

Good Morning! TGIT....because Tuesday is better than Monday, lol. Our theme for today was our favorite color. I have two favorites, magenta and blue. Since I've done magenta before for a twinsie post (the color of our rooms) I decided to go with blue. I chose China Glaze Skyscraper. I used two coats for the photos below and topped it with Seche Vite. As much as I love glitter polish, they've been getting pushed towards the back of my Helmers more and more. No matter what I do, I have chips within 24-48 hours. Womp womp...

Be sure to check out my Twinsies. I'm excited to see which of us have the same favorite colors...

Check out my Twinsie sisters here:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Beaulieu Review

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

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

Shimmer Polish - Tiffany & Jasmine

Good Morning! Today I have my last two Shimmer Polishes for you. They are Jasmine and Tiffany. Each one I try leaves me just as impressed as the one before. I can definitely say I'm a fan of Shimmer Polish and her creations.

Tiffany is made up of pale pink and pale baby blue glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and opaque in two coats. The glitter also lays flat when applied. When I pulled this out of the package it instantly reminded me of magical unicorns, for whatever reason. I think because it's so soft and girly. This may be my absolute favorite Shimmer Polish.

 

 

Next up is Jasmine. Jasmine is described as aquamarine, light blue and green glitter in a clear base. I also can eye spy some red and gold glitter in there as well. The formula on Jasmine, like Tiffany is easy to work with and opaque in two coats. Another gorgeous Shimmer Polish....

You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

These polishes were provided for my honest review.

Twinsie Tuesday - 1 Year Anniversary Post (Then & Now)

Good Morning, all! Happy Thursday. Besides it being one day closer to Friday, we have a special post for today. One year ago today, we started the Twinsie Tuesday posts. Our first post was an international polish, which we were supposed to be reswatching today. Unfortunately, I purged Kiko # 255 a while back but I found another Kiko for today...

Then....

Now....

Kiko # 301

Along the way we've formed strong friendships beyond just the weekly posts. I'm thankful to be able to call the Twinsie girls my friends. :)

Make sure you check out their special posts 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

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

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

Shimmer Polish - Elsa

Good Morning, all! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm still sick so I laid low this weekend. Today I have another Shimmer Polish, this one is Elsa. Elsa has different size glitters in a mix of red, turquoise and gold. All of the glitter in Elsa ranges from small to absolutely tiny. The base is ever so slightly tinted red. The formula was easy to work with and I found the dry time to be quick. Two coats was almost fully opaque, but I chose to go with three to get everything completely covered. I topped this off with a coat of Seche Vite.

You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

Twinsie Tuesday - New Years Inspired Mani (China Glaze - For Audrey)

Happy New Year to each and every one of you! I hope everyone has a fantastic 2013 filled with nothing but the absolute best (nail polish and cosmetics included). This week's TT theme is a New Years inspired mani. I'm cheating on this one and using a polish I wore a little over a week ago. Shh - don't tell anyone ;)

Pictured below is two coats of the famous For Audrey by China Glaze. The perfect Tiffany blue creme with pretty great formula. Application was easy but I did have quite a few chips within the 24-48 hour mark.

For my actual NYE mani I have on one of the new colors from the Zoya Lovely collection. I haven't finished swatching them all and testing the wear so I didn't want to show that one off just yet.

Make sure to check out what my Twinsies are starting out 2013 with....

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

Jamie at Polish, Please!

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

Twinsie Tuesday - Chanukah Inspired Mani

Good morning, everyone! Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme is a Chanukah inspired mani. I started with Nails Inc Baker Street as a base, which is a vibrant blue creme polish. I topped it off with OPI Pirouette My Whistle, which is light silver glitter in a clear base. I did two coats of Bakers Street, and one coat of Pirouette My Whistle (which I dabbed on in spots for better coverage). I apologize in advance for the camera phone pictures, Bakers Street is extremely difficult to photograph and my regular camera couldn't capture it accurately.

 

I really liked this combo. I rocked this mani last week, and my co-worker at first said it reminded her of snow and then proceeded to call it a Chanukah mani. Score! Mission accomplished!  ;)

 

Again, Happy Chanukah to all of my Jewish readers!

 

Remember to check out my Twinsies and the Chanukah inspiration they have on their nails:

 

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

 



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!

Essie - Who's The Boss

Hey everyone! Happy October! It's Monday again...ugh. Sorry for disappearing the last week. I've had some bad nail breaks so I've been really uninspired lately. My nails are so bad that I've worn the same nude polish for about a week while I'm waiting for them to grow (and of course they broke more - super nubs right now!) Luckily, I have a bunch of swatches to hold us over :)

I'm really excited to show you this polish today. This is Who's The Boss from Essie's 2012 Wedding collection. Who's The Boss has quickly become one of my favorite Essie polishes of all time. Who's The Boss is a muted pastel blue with a touch of gray.  The formula on this was a bit thick and streaky and took some extra TLC, but it was completely worth the extra effort.  It wasn't impossible to work with, it just wasn't one of the buttery smooth Essies. I used two coats for the photos below and topped it off with Seche Vite.

This polish is the boss! :)

Twinsie Tuesday - A Polish The Same Color As Our Car (Orly Lunar Eclipse)

Good Morning everyone! I've been pretty excited for today's Twinsie Tuesday theme since the day we received the email giving us our weekly themes. Today's theme is a polish that is the same color as our car. While I can be a girly girl, I absolutely love my car and I have absolutely no problem wrecking a mani if I'm scrubbing my wheels or waxing my car. I drive a Volkswagen Jetta in Blue Shadow.

I picked up Orly Lunar Eclipse due to the fact that I fell in love with the color, but it wasn't until I was putting shopping bags in my car that I realized that Lunar Eclipse is the perfect match to my car. Of course, my car doesn't have the glitter that is packed into the Orly but the color is pretty spot on in the sun.

Lunar Eclipse is a gorgeous medium blue with purple-pink and blue microglitter mixed in. The purple-ish pink microglitter is so amazing in the bottle, but much more subtle on the nail. I could barely pick up the pink microglitter in my swatch pic, sorry about that! The formula on this is pretty sheer. I needed three coats for the photo below and I think it could have used a fourth. I also found that this polish takes a little longer to dry. I'll never forget the first time I wore this; I went out right after and had dents everywhere lol. With all of that being said, it's an amazing polish!

Here's the car for reference. You can't really see the color since this was taken about 50' away with my cell camera (I was aiming for storm clouds)

 

I'm curious to see if any of my twinsies drive a blue car. Be sure to 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

OPI Swimsuit Nailed It

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. For today's post I have a polish that I bought, sold, and then bought again. I loved this color but read such horrible reviews about staining during removal, that I decided to purge this during a blog sale without even trying it. Every time I saw a swatch of this polish I regretted my decision. Finally, when I ran back into this face to face I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did.

OPI Swimsuit Nailed It might just be my favorite new blue. It's a very vibrant blue foil that is drop dead gorgeous. I put this on last Tuesday and wore it until Sunday night - which is a record breaker for me. The formula was fantastic and this was completely opaque in two coats. I'm happy to report that with two coats of a base coat (NailTek and Instant Artificials) I had absolutely no staining. This also wore like iron for the entire length that I decided to keep it on.

I also used Swimsuit Nailed It as a base for one of my absolute favorite glitters, but I think I'm going to save that for another post :)

Does anyone else have Swimsuit Nailed It? Has anyone avoided this due to the reviews on staining?

Essie Bobbing for Baubles

Hi all! I had Essie Bobbing for Baubles sitting there untried, and I decided before I purchased No More Film that I should try this one. Well, wearing this has me hoping that fall arrives sooner than later so I can break out my autumn/winter colors (I try to keep it seasonal). Fall is my absolute favorite season and I'm just about over summer by now.

Bobbing for Baubles is described by Essie's website as their 'deepest darkest sapphire.' This is a dusty navy blue creme with a touch of gray. It's dark, but you can tell that it's not black without having to stare at it. The formula was fantastic! It was opaque at one coat but even better at two. The photo below shows two coats of Bobbing for Baubles topped with Seche Vite...

Sorry I only have one picture today. I had dust issues, believe it or not. I took this one hours after all of the others so it was spared from looking like a mess lol

Fly-Ceratops by Two Birds One Store

Good Morning and happy Monday. I hope that everyone had a good weekend. I haven't received nail mail in a few weeks, but I placed an order with Sarah from See Sarah Swatch for some franken minis from her Etsy shop, Two Birds One Store. When she premiered swatches of her Matte About Summer collection in one of her blog posts I knew I had to order. I got the package on Saturday and as soon as I opened the package I thought....OH EM GEE!

I ordered Fly-Ceratops and Summertime Girls from her new collection. I had a hard time deciding which to try first, but I closed my eyes and went with Fly-Ceratops. Fly-Ceratops is made up of three different color and size glitter pieces. We've got tiny yellow, larger blue and even larger black glitter in a clear base. It's made up of square glitter, which I really love. I used three coats, which I found easy to apply. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite and walked around with this awesomeness Sunday afternoon....

I'm really loving this. The cashier at Sally's even commented on my nails. I tried to explain it was an indie polish from Etsy and she looked at me like I had 10 heads. Come on Sally girls! lol

You can pick this up from Sarah's Etsy store, Two Birds One Store once she gets back. She's out of town until mid-August but is planning a large restock at that time. You can go to Etsy and sign up to be notified once she returns. I'm already trying to decide which I'm going to order next.

Essie Stroke of Brilliance Swatches

Happy Independence Day to all of my fellow Americans! And a very special thank you to all of the men and women who serve our country. I hope everyone has a safe holiday today.

Today I have swatches of the brand new Stroke of Brilliance polish from Essie's Luxeffects line. In observance of the holiday, my job let us out an hour early yesterday which was just enough time for me to get to the beauty supply store I frequent. I'm on a strict no-buy, but I needed more Seche Vite (which I don't count as polish, but a necessity). At the check out counter this bottle caught my eye from way down at the other end.

Essie's website describes Stroke of Brilliance as 'platinum sparks' and states that it serves as a multi-dimensional top coat. The glitter in Stroke of Brilliance is blue, and I would describe it as a steel blue/dark periwinkle. It's made up of round micro glitter and medium hex glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and I found it to be dense enough where I only needed one coat to achieve the look I wanted.

For the swatches below I used two coats of Essie Smooth Sailing, one coat of Stroke of Brilliance and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite. Smooth Sailing did not photograph color accurate once I added the glitter top coat (aka my camera hates me lol). In person Smooth Sailing looks more blue and less purple.

I'm beyond impressed with Stroke of Brilliance. I also used my swatch sticks to come up with some layering combinations to see how this would work. I wasn't sure about a few of the combos I picked, but I loved each and every one of them in the end. For the swatch sticks I used white (Jordana White), black (Sinful black), a blue with gray undertones (China Glaze Sea Spray), yellow (China Glaze Lemon Fizz) and a pink (China Glaze Shocking Pink).

All swatch sticks show 2 coats of the base color and 1 coat of Stroke of Brilliance (no top coat)

If you are a glitter fan I would say this is a must have. The color is gorgeous and the formula is easy to work with. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the Essie bottle shape and I find their brush to be the perfect size.

Is anyone planning on picking this up??