Essie Gradient Glitter Sunday

Well, this weekend is over...back to the daily grind tomorrow. That's ok...I have a vacation coming up in 2 weeks! Yay. My first paid vacation in almost 3 years! Well, I will  make this short and sweet. I always do my nails for work on Monday. I'm waiting to get my stud nail art from Cult Nails tomorrow, so I wasn't planning on doing anything but just one color, but I couldn't help myself. I have been looking on tumblr and the web this weekend and have seen so many cool ideas I had to try something simple but with a lil sompin-sompin...

This is what I used:

Essie Splash of Grenadine, NOPI Fabulous is My Middle Name, and Nina Pro Glamrock. This Essie color is one of my favortist colors and I've used probably half the bottle. I used the NOPI glitter because it's thinner and has rectangle strips mixed in with smaller different colors of glitter. I've had the Glamrock for a while and used it on Addie. It's a thick black and silver glitter. You only need one good coat of this sucker to get a full application.

 It started to rain just as I went outside to take my pictures, so I ended up getting stuck under our shed with not much light. Well, I used Seche Clear basecoat, 2 coats of Essie, then I used a thin coat of the NOPI almost up to the tip. I then used a thin coat of Glamrock and right after used another thin coat of NOPI to sprad the glitter around and kind of mix it together. I really like the strips of glitter and was my fav part of this mani. I then decided to top it off with a rhinestone and 2 thick coats of Seche Vite...voile!

Well, I wish everyone a wonderful fantabulous week! As promised, I will leave you all with a lil somthing:

Red Re-Vamp with Essie

Good day ladies!! What a wonderful, normal, drab Wednesday. At least the weather is nice:) I wanted to try to spice today up with a little color! Last night I was sitting there looking at my polishes trying to decide what to do.  I am always doing different colors and realized I kind of miss the classic manicure- red. But, I'm trying to experiment with different looks, so I thought I would try to re-vamp this common but always stylish mani.

clambake, really red, fishnet stockings

With this in mind I picked my favorite reds and went to work.  I didin't do it on purpose, but the 3 reds I used are all Essie. I started off with CC Stuck on You basecoat then I applied a small half moon with one coat of Essie clambake, which is more of a dark orange. This color is a little sheer, which I liked, so I left it that way and didn't want to go any darker since I was doing a gradient. The trick complete one nail at a time before each polish has time to dry. So, next I used from half-way up (a little before where I stopped with clambake) and applied one coat of Essie really red, which is just what it's called, just a classic red. I kind of used my brush to mix the 2 layers of colors together to give it that gradient look. I used Essie fishnet stockings on as the top layer. I used the same tecnique by kind of using my brush to mix the 2 colors together then applied a small second layer to the very top to give me a more gradient look and blend the colors. As soon as I finished one hand I used a clear top coat to blend the colors even more. I let all that dry for about 15-20 minutes then used one coat of old Seche Vite (which is thick now and I love it!)

Hello Spring...I've Missed You! Fun with Revlon Pink Lingerie

This weather is awful! We were in a tornado warning for a while this afternoon and it's at 100% rain all day today and tomorrow. Boo. Well, Happy Tuesday to all! I had a great weekend shopping for some decor for my house and new addition to our hamster cage so she can have more room to play. I'll be getting a puppy in a couple of weeks! I'm so excited!!!

I think I have finally began to fix my lighting or lack thereof issue I've been talking about.  I have bought 2 of those cheap student bendable lamps and put them side by side then change the setting on my DSLR that makes my pictures look much better. I still have some more playing around until I can finally have an actual light box, but until then, I will continue to play around with different kinds of light. These were taken inside, at night, with both lamps and a flash.

SO...onto the polish. I went shopping for some polish this past weekend and found quite a stash of spring beauties. I was really looking for CG Hunger Games Collection- which I found! (after 3 Sally's stores) But I wanted a spring, pastel look.  Well, I was checking out the Nailasaurus blog and saw this AWESOME look she created that you can see here.  So, giving credit where credit is due, I did just what she did to create this simple yet stylish look.

I started out with my Stuck On You basecoat by CC, then I used 2 coats of Revlon Pink Lingerie. I'm not a pink wearer, but this color is awesome. It's bright but still considered a pastel, so it's both spring and summer. It goes great with darker skin tones. 

 Then I used NOPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie on my tips and kind of did a gradient thing and used 2 coats on the very tip. Lastly I used 2 coats of Seche Vite. I got a lot of compliments on this look and would love to use some other colors with this same idea. Then I want to reverse it and have a half moon look with a solid color and glitter at the bottom.

China Glaze/Essie Gradient

Good afternoon polish lovers! So, this week has been crazzzzy! I started my new job- well I started training for my new job:) I will be a "relationship banker" or formerly known as a CSR. I was a teller long years ago (like 7 yrs ago lol), and want to move up...so I am. I am super excited and really enjoyed this week! The weather hasn't been very nice to us though, plus I haven't had any time to swatch.  So, when I woke up today and it was soooo sunny and beautiful outside, well, I knew what I had to do!

I have been watching tutorials on YouTube, and saw this really cool one on gradient nails, so I thought I would give it a try! I wanted something kinda spring-y that would stand out. I thought I'd go with some blues. I really like the results I got!

First I started out by painting the tips of my nails with China Glaze For Audrey, which I LOVE! I love Tiffany's color blue and this is almost a perfect match to it! I kinda waited for that to dry and added a little extra to the very tips. Then, I used Essie Absolutely Shore, which is a light minty color.  I went down half way with one coat then went down a little further and lighter with a second coat. Then, one nail at a time right after Essie I used China Glaze White Cap, which I used last week.  It's an sheer, iridescent white and gold glittery...and one of my fav colors. I went almost all the way down to my cuticle with one coat and kinda swished with two colors together creating a more even gradient look. I topped it off with Seche Vite Top Coat and THAT'S IT! It was a lot easier than I thought, but know I can still do better.

Here's what I used in order from L to R: China Glaze For Audrey,
Essie Absolutely Shore, and CG White Cap

I took like a million pictures of this! I had so much fun playing with my camera in the sun lol. I was trying to get as far away but still use my macro, so I could get a good view of my whole look. This was so much fun and I can't wait to do another gradient! Please let me know what you think!!