Essie Power Clutch & Essence Julia

I wanna start off with thanking all of you who have joined me on my polish journey.  When I logged in this morning, I saw that I am up to 299 followers, thanks everyone!

It's also post election day.  I am not gonna get political or anything, but whether your candidate won or lost, glitter is bound to make you smile!

I was able to snag Essence Julia from a blog sale.  It's part of a "twin" set.  But I don't have her twin Romeo, which is a light grey.  I recently got a lovely grey in my Birchbox, Essie Power Clutch.  A full size I might add!  Any who, I immediately thought of my Julia when I opened the box.

I am going to give my opinion of both of these polishes as this is the first time I have used either :)

Essie Power Clutch:  This one is a lovely grey, it's pretty opaque in one coat, but I suggest 2.  It went on really smooth.  I really love the formula of this one

Essence Julia:  She is an awesome holo glitter in a clear base.  There are mico glitters as well as square glitters.  I have to say, I LOVE this glitter polish.  It sparkles no  matter where you  are.  It's constantly showing off it's rainbow glittery awesomeness.  Whether it's a sunny day, gloomy day or you are stuck in doors, this one sparkles everywhere!  One coat is good coverage, at least for me, but you can def do more and get lots more bling :)

Here are the 2 layered together:

Base Coat:  Rejuvacote

Base Color:  Essie Power Clutch

Glitter:  Essence Julia

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

This pic was taken outside in the shade.  You can see how much it sparkles in the bottle and on my nails.  If you love glitter polish as much as I do and you come across some one wanting to get rid of this one, GRAB IT!

Fall into Autumn: Cloudy Days

Sooooo, last night I did the next challenge mani for Fall into Autumn.  I was excited for this one.  I had  a couple designs running through my brain.  A few of the other girls have already shared their mani's and some were very similar to what I wanted to do.  I brain stormed a little more, then went to you tube and did a little looking around.  There were a few cloudy mani's to get inspiration from :)  

Now, when you see the mani, you are only going to see one nail.  I was having a couple issues and then I was having more issues with my kids.  Hubby was working late and I just couldn't hang.  

Here is my lonely finger

Base Coat:  Rejuvacote

Base Color:  Essence Vampire's Love Into The Dark (1 coat)

Stamping Plate:  Mash 37

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special White

Grey: China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Cracked Concrete

Top Coat:  Essie Matte About You

I was very surprised at how well these little clouds stamped.  I think using my plastic Konad scraper is turning out to be much better than my old gift card.  I used the crackle as the grey accent cause I wanted it to be a little different and I wanted to see how much it would crack when using just a tiny bit.  I used a dotting tool to add the grey to the clouds.  Now, I let these dry for at least 15 minutes.  It took that long get my table cleaned up and deal with my little ones.  I chose a matte top coat cause I thought it would be fun and different.  I tested on a nail and liked it.  So I continued.  When I got to my hand I would be photographing, all went to hell :(  My poor little clouds were smearing!  Every finger except my pointer finger was messed up.  That is why you are only seeing one finger today.  I couldn't get a very good shot of my whole hand any way.  Like I said, it was a bad evening.  However, I think this one lonely finger came out great and this is what I hoped my entire mani would have looked like.

How many times have you been trying to do a special mani and everything just goes wrong?

Have you entered my giveaway yet?  You can do that HERE :)

Guest Blogger Friday: Karinea0a

Today's guest blogger for Guest Blogger Friday is Karine from Karinea0a.  I am so glad she joined the series.  We did the Spring Challenge together and are now doing the Lazy Days of Summer.  I enjoy her mani's very much, I am sure you will too :)

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Hello Lovelies!

My name is Karine and I'm very excited, although nervous to talk to you today :), this is my first guest post and I am truly honored that it came from a polish sister. I was introduced to Mandy via a Spring challenge, and let me tell you, I thought a long time about what I wanted to do as this lady got skills! Today, I am showing you a simple striping tape nail art. It's summer and pink never gets boring during this season, so I choose the Essence duo Shopping Trip In Soho and Party All Night Long. On to the pics!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it :)

Guest Blogger Friday: Geeky Owl

Happy Friday!  Today's guest blogger is Kirsten from Geeky Owl.  I am so happy to have her here today.  She has a great blog and I love all her mani's.  I especially love this one she is sharing with you today.  I can't wait to try this one out :)

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Hello all! My name is Kirsten and I have a blog over at Geeky Owl. Mandy asked if anyone would love to do a guest post for and I gladly offered! I've gotten to know Mandy through a few groups that we are in together on facebook! She has even done a guest post for me too! I love the polish community!

So today I thought I would push my comfort zone and go a bit beyond what I normally do. Tape manis. Now, I've done at least one before and wasn't all that impressed. But I saw this Nude Zigzag on Nailside and thought, hey I can do that! Hopefully! >_<

Here is how it turned out:

And can I just saw....that I am a smitten kitten! I love how it turned out! I surprised even myself! hahahaha! :) Now, Nailside doesn't use a base polish on her mani. But I wanted to try and hide the little nail bruise/white thing I had going on on my ring finger and to blend some of the staining.

So I used OPI Bubble Bath as my base polish (with OPI Nail Envy as my base coat). As you can see this is the perfect polish to wear when you don't want to look like you are wearing any and to use for a french mani. But it didn't do much for the bruise/white spot thingy (and the one on the index is actually just a light glare). But it did help to lessen some of the staining! :) This polish applied wonderfully!

So if I couldn't hide it with OPI Bubble bath then by golly I could make the zigzag cover it! Success! (for the most part). I used Essence Romeo from Essence's Nail Art Twins, one of my go to greys. It is a perfect one coater that is brilliant for manis like this! Love it! So the trick to this mani is to use two pieces of tape shaped like triangles and to remove slowly. And what I learned after doing this hand and doing my right hand, it is better to remove them one piece at a time, not both together. Oh well, I still like it! :)

But I couldn't just leave it all pretty and grey right? Nope! Must add glitter! So I added Essence Julia, Romeo's Twin from Essence's Nail Art Twins. I don't often use the twins that go together, together! But I knew Julia would be the best for this mani! I love how it turned out! This is before a top coat. I took this photo then applied a top coat, waited about 5 minutes (I use Seche Vite), went downstairs and made lunch only to smack my middle finger nail on a shelf in the fridge and crumpled a bit of the mani! Waaaaaa! It was still a bit pliable so I smooshed (technical term, I promise!) back and it's better (but a little worse for wear!).

I hope you enjoyed my guest post! And thank you Mandy for letting me take some space on your wonderful blog! :)

Essence: Glamorous Life

Today is just a simple and cute mani.  I have for you Essence Glamorous Life.  I got this pretty from a swap I did with a friend in the Netherlands.  I love this pink!  I don't usually go for pinks, but I had to have this one.  I used this as my base for my Mother's Day Leopard Mani, you can see it HERE.  I have to cherish these little ones, the bottles are only .16floz.  I will continue to hunt these little cuties down!

This is 2 coats with a top coat of Seche Vite.  What do you think?

Have you noticed that the pictures here have changed a bit?  I found a new editing site called PicMonkey.  I am having so much fun making these fun and cute collages.  Expect to see more :)

Lazy Days of Summer: Beach Theme

The April Showers Bring May Flowers challenge has morphed into a summer challenge called Lazy Days of Summer.  Here are the challenges

This is going to be interesting.  I have no idea what to do for most of these!  I did my beach themed mani.  Although it isn't like there is a beach on my nails, I love how this turned out.  I wanted to do some thing from the beach.  I wish mermaids were at the beach, so that is what I decided to do.  I got the idea from a fish mani is saw from Soguesswhat11.  I love her stuff!!  I didint' have a light blue, so I went with turquoise and dubbed this a mermaid mani.  What do you think?

Click to enlarge
Base Coat:  Rejuvacote

Base Color:  Essence Choose Me

Glitter Tips:  OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air

Stamping Plate:  Mash 39

Stamping Polish:  SH Insta Dri Silver Sweep

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Check out Some of the other gals doing the challenge

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Essence: Blue Addicted

Happy Saturday everyone.  I hope you are looking at your computers today, I have an awesome polish to share with you.  I did a swap a while ago with a gal from the Netherlands.  I sent her stuff, she sent me stuff.....in my package was this little blue bottle with blue and green glitters.  SO PRETTY!  I have been wanting Deborah Lippman's Across the Universe and this is a dupe :)  At a much better price I might add.  I put this baby on as soon as I got it!!  I love this, I am going to have to get 1 or 2 more bottles, they are pretty small and I don't see myself ever not liking this one.

Base Coat:  Seche REBUILD

Base Color:  Essence Blue Addicted

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Mother's Day Leopard Mani

Happy Mother's Day!!  I hope if you are a mom you are being spoiled today and if you are not, you are spoiling your mom.  I hope to be spolied and spoil my mom today :)  I wanted a cute fun out there mani.  I haven't tried out the Leopard image on my Konad M57 plate yet, so I thought today was a good day to give it a try.  Besides, I haven't gotten out my plates in a while.  I was having withdrawals LOL  I am quit happy with my Mother's Day Mani.....What do you think?

I decided to have a little fun with the roses in my front yard :)

Base Coat:  Seche REBUILD

Base Color:  Essence Glamorous Life

Stamping Plate:  Konad M57

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special Black

Silver Accent Polish:  Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!  ENJOY :)