ABC Challenge: "Z"

Well my polish lovers, we are at the very end of the Alphabet Challenge.  I'd like to send a huge thank you to Gosia over at Life in Color for getting this challenge going!  I have had a lot of fun doing this one and it helped me explore my collection a bit and even gave me a nudge to try to be a little creative at times.  I really loved that with this challenge I also discovered some bloggers I wasn't familiar with.  I will definitely be keeping tabs on what these ladies are up to and who knows, maybe I'll jump into another challenge again soon!

While I am sad that this challenge has come to an end, I am looking forward to being able to show you some of the new polishes I have gotten in the meantime.  Keep your eye's open for that!

For the letter Z, I again only had one polish that started with a Z (unless you count the brand Zoya).  Ironically, the Z I have IS a Zoya and she is Zuza.  This is turquoise with silver shimmer and that sort of finish that Zoya seems to do so well that almost like a foil effect.  I have several polishes from Zoya with this sort of finish.  I honestly think between all my Zoya's there is not a single one with a bad formula!  If you haven't tried them yet, be sure to be a fan of their Facebook page and even start an account with them.  They run promos very often and you can usually get something like a BOGO deal.  Okay, enough rambling....

I hope you all enjoyed seeing the post of this challenge.  I know I really enjoyed it.

ABC Challenge: "Y" You Don't Know Jacques!

Hello my lovelies!  We are getting to the very end here on the Alphabet Challenge and I have really loved doing this!  It has really motivated me to blog and also allowed me to pick polishes that I normally wouldn't have.  I have to say, I was kind of happy there were only two letters this week.  I have just been having all kind of craziness going on!  I am getting my 4 year old ready for 4K and just trying to keep up with things.

I have lots of new polishes that I hope to be posting soon too!

For the letter "Y" this was easy as it was the only polish I had that started with a Y and it is a classic favorite, OPI You Don't Know Jacques.  I love this color and it is perfect for fall!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a good day!

Amy

ABC Challenge: "X"

So this is the letter I was dreading for the Alphabet Challenge.  I don't have any polishes that start with the letter X.  Is there such a thing even?  Then I thought, I'm going to take the easy way out.  I had picked an Xtreme (starts with X) Wear by Sally Hansen polish called Pink Satin.  Then, I thought..well heck...I could get out my striping tape and do an X on one of my nails!!!  For some reason I picked my middle finger to do this "accent" on.  Maybe subconsciously I was thinking...middle finger to you, letter X!!!

I gotta be honest, this is by far my finest work.  The color I put over my X was Essie No Place like Chrome and for whatever reason, it just didn't apply smoothly.  I have yet to try this polish on it's own but I doubt the formula is bad.  I do like the color combo but the actual outcome did not come out how I would have liked.

If I wasn't doing this challenge, I most likely wouldn't even post this.  I have many manicures that I've done that I intend to post but end up not doing so for reasons just like this!  I'm not big on editing my photos.  The most I do is crop and watermark.  So, here is is in all it's glory!

First picture is with flash

Second picture without flash.

Only two more letters left for next week.  Thanks for stopping by!

ABC Challenge: "W"

Hello my friends!  Happy Friday to you!  We are on W today for the Alphabet Challenge.  I picked Revlon Whimsical for this one.  If you don't know, Whimsical is a dupe for a Deborah Lippmann polish called Glitter in the Air.  It is a very delicate sheer blue base with pink and baby blue hexagon glitters.  I have worn this before over Sinful Colors Cinderella and it is pretty that way but today, I wanted to try something different.  I actually layered it over Revlon Peachy.  Not something that you would think to layer it over but I quite like how it turned out.  I only did one coat of Whimsical for fear of that sheer blue base building up too much on the base.  I love how delicate it looks with just one coat.

What do you think of this pair?

ABC Challenge: "V"

We sure are getting to the end of the alphabet here in the Alphabet Challenge!  I'm a little behind this week and I have to try to squeeze two more letters in after this one.  One of those letters is going to be difficult.  I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing but they aren't flowing too good.  I will come up with something though!!

Today we are featuring the letter V.  I actually had two polishes that started with the letter V and the one I decided to go with was China Glaze Velvet Bow.  I believe this is part of the holiday 2011 collection but I don't think a similar color would be too hard to find.  It is a nice vampy deep red.  I found it a little boring by itself so I spiced it up with Essie Luxeffects Pure Pearlfection.  This top coat adds so much to a manicure and I feel like I never hear about it or see anyone using it!  I love how it can transform a manicure!

Don't be surprised if you see another post from me later today so I can get caught up here.

The combo outdoors, no flash.

Velvet Bow with flash indoors.

The combo indoors, no flash (using light box)

ABC Challenge: "U"

Hello all!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  I had off this weekend (which is rare) but I ended up with some sort of bug and so did my little baby boy.  We are doing much better now which is good!

So for the Alphabet Challenge we are getting to some more difficult letters..at least for my collection.  I do not own a single polish that starts with the letter U.  I really wanted to try to be creative on this one and I thought of one of my favorite family movies, Up.  Now I am not big on nail art as I just am not good at it.  So I was trying to figure out if there was something I could do with that without being too complicated.  I thought of trying to do something that resembles the sky.  I picked out two blue polishes which were Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue-Away and than Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure (CSM) in The Sky's the Limit.  If even has the word Sky in it which we generally look up when we look at the sky.  (Am a reaching a bit here?).  

So, with these two colors, I wanted to try something I had not tried before.  I did a Saran manicure.  You can go to Nailed It for a good tutorial on this.  If anyone would like me to post a tutorial here, let me know and I would be happy to do it.  This is actually very easy!  I really love how it turned out with the exception of my not so stellar clean up.  Plus, I waited to photograph it and actually broke a piece of my pinkie nail off which is why there is a chip.  

Also on a side note, check your clearance bins at Walgreen's!  I found the CSM polish for $3 and it is normally almost $8!

What do you think of this technique?  

ABC Challenge: "R"

Today I bring to you the letter R in the Alphabet Challenge.  I've said this before, but I love this challenge!  I have brought out so many polishes that I would probably never even think about.  And this one is a gorgeous polish!  I picked Revlon Royal Cloak for this one.  It is a purple with some small flakies in it.  Unfortunately this was a limited edition polish so I don't believe you can get it at the drugstore anymore.  But you could probably try Amazon or eBay.

This was tough to get color accurate photos.  It is not as blue as it is showing up. But this is pretty close.  It is an extremely gloomy day here and I could not get good lighting.  But, I have been told that purple is very tricky to photograph.  

ABC Challenge: "Q"

I haven't posted anything for a few days here and I feel a little behind on the challenge.  This week we are doing Q, R, S and T.  I haven't posted anything yet as my little 8-month-old boy had minor surgery on Monday.  I took some time off of work and blogging to make sure he got all of my attention.  It's pretty amazing how fast kids can bounce back from things!

So for the letter Q, I went with what might be my favorite polish of all time!  The reason I say this is this...in the past, I have heard the question, 'if you could only wear one polish the rest of your life, what would it be?'.  This polish would be my choice.  Why you might ask?  Well it's a neutral and I love neutrals!  But it's a neutral with a little something added.  It has this slightly holographic, silver shimmer to it which amps it up a tad.  So in my eyes, it is a polish that is "work appropriate" but also elegant and even has a little edge to it.  Plus, the formula is amazing!

So this is Butter London All Hail the Queen.  Yes, I know it does't technically start with a Q, but it has a Q in it and that Q happens to start the longest word in the title of the polish so I'm going with it!  

ABC Challenge: "P"

Here we are at the letter P.  This is going to be a short post.  I picked Color Club Pucci-licious which is a gorgeous neon purple.  I used two coats with one coat of NYC Grand Central Station.  Application was smooth.  It does dry kind of matte as it is a neon but top coat takes care of that if you don't like that look!  It was sooooooo hard to photograph and get color accurate photos.  The last photo is actually with my iPhone as it actually photographed it pretty close to true color.  Look at how different they look!!!  

Have a good weekend everyone!

ABC Challenge: "O"

We are on the letter O for the Alphabet Challenge.  I don't have very many polishes that start with the letter O.  I have a few oranges but I just wasn't feeling orange for this one.  I actually picked the non-orange polish I have, put it on, took pictures, edited the pictures...and I just was not happy with it.  Then when I was getting ready to put together the blog post with the mani that I wasn't crazy about, a little light bulb went off in my head....Ombre!  I have done this in the past although not on the blog and I really love it.  I decided to go with blues for this.

Now for an ombre, there is a method where you take one color that is on the darker side and you custom mix each nail using white.  So lets say you took a vampy red.  This would be your darkest color.  Then you'd take some of that vampy red and add a little bit of white to it on some sort of mixing surface.  Then for the next nail do the same with a little more white.  Then you continue making it more pale until you get the desired color for each nail.  This probably makes a more true ombre.

The way I did it was I picked a dark blue and a light blue, and then I picked the rest of the in-between colors that I thought fit in.  Onto the photos!

If you are wondering, the colors I used were Hard Candy Sky, Essie Bikini so Teeny, Sally Girl Epic, Essie Mezmerised, and China Glaze First Mate.

What do you think about this type of manicure?

ABC Challenge: "N"

Well, we are a little bit past the halfway point of the Alphabet Challenge.  I have absolutely loved doing this challenge so far.  It has given me a chance to use polishes in my collection that I otherwise would not have.  I always have been gravitated towards newer polishes to feature in my blog.

For some reason, I don't have many polishes that start with the letter N so this one was really easy for me to pick.  I picked Butter London No More Waity, Katie.  Butter London describes this as a soft lilac glitter.  This polish is gorgeous!  The glitter just makes it almost glow!

In the past, I have layered this.  I think I layered it over Zoya Caitlin but this time I wanted to try it on it's own.  I think I actually prefer it this way.  For the pictures below, this is three coats of No More Waity, Katie with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

This last photo is indoors with flash.  

ABC Challenge: "M"

I am so excited for the letter M today.  I have a very special polish for today.  I had really been wanting this particular polish and I had set out to set up a swap to get it.  I also had posted on my Facebook page, really for conversation reasons, that I had a sudden urge to have this polish in my life.  Someone I have gotten to know through a beauty group I belong to responded.  She had wanted to just surprise me and sent it to me but then she was worried I was going to set up a swap before it could get to me...which very likely could have happened as I was on a mission.  I am so completely grateful and taken aback by this particular person's generosity!  It was so kind!  Well, it is the infamous OPI Mad as a Hatter and I absolutely love it!  I am so happy it has made it's way to my collection.

I had originally thought about layering this but I wanted to show off it's glittery goodness.  This is three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.  It is surprisingly smooth for being three coats of a dense glitter.

ABC Challenge: "L"

Today I have the letter L for the Alphabet Challenge.  I have been waiting to put on this particular polish just for this challenge.  This is Sinful Colors Leap Flog.  I think it is a newer color and may be limited edition.  It was in the Study In Style display.  Leap Flop is a dusty green-blue.  It is definitely more green.  This is my kind of color.  This applied amazing and was two coats.  Sinful, of course has some misses as do many brands, but don't underestimate the price.  They go on sale at Walgreens periodically for 99 cents a bottle!

This last picture is indoors while the first two are outside in the sun.

ABC Challenge: "K"

Today I have for you the letter K in the Alphabet Challenge.  I was excited for this one as I knew exactly which polish I wanted to use.  I had picked up several polishes from the China Glaze On Safari collection.  I had seen several swatches of Kalahari Kiss and knew I needed to have it.  Well....I don't think I like it on me.  I think it leans too yellow for my skin tone.  I'm kind of bummed but I can always swap it to someone who actually wants it.  Due to the fact that I didn't like how it looked on me, I wanted to spice it up somehow.  I decided to add a glitter polish that I have yet to try from Icing called Teal Me I'm Awesome.  This is the second glitter polish I've tried from Icing and I'm quite impressed.  I only needed one coat of top coat and it was smooth.  I actually liked the combo together but I'm just not a fan of Kalahari Kiss by itself on me.  Maybe it's due to me just wearing a more nude polish yesterday and I'm nuded (yes, I'm making up words!) out.  Enough of my whining!

What are your thoughts?  Do you think it looks better layered?

ABC Challenge: "J" (Plus Comparison)

We are at the letter "J" for the Alphabet Challenge.  I also have a comparison within this post.  I chose Essie Jazz for this post and when looking at my other Essie polishes, I noticed that Sand Tropez is very similar.  I decided I would also do a comparison post on these two.  They are both really nice nudes.  Sand Tropez is is one of my go-to nudes.

When it comes to dupes, I am pretty particular and I think something should only be deemed as a dupe if it is exactly the same in quality and character.  That being said, I do not believe the Jazz and Sand Tropez are dupes.  That would be kind of silly for the same company to have two identical polishes with two different names anyway, although I'm sure it's been done.  I do think if you have one, you don't really need the other.  But me being an Essie lover and on top of it a nude lover, I am happy I have both.

For the actually manicure with Jazz, I decided to "jazz it up" a little (go ahead and roll your eyes, I don't mind!) with Essie As Gold as it Gets.

Jazz is just a tad darker.

Do you need both based on this picture?  Probably not!

This is just Jazz

Jazz with As Gold as it Gets layered.

ABC Challenge: "I"

Hello friends!!  I feel like I've been in hiding for a few days.  I spent some time out of town with the men in my life this weekend (my hubby and our two little boys).  The place we stayed had no phone service so I felt very disconnected from the world but kind of in a good way.

This week on the alphabet challenge we are on I, J, K, and L.  Today I have "I" for the blog.  I picked an untried polish which is Spoiled I'm Ba-roque.  It kind of reminds me of a bronze version of Orly Rage.  I've said it in previous blog posts but the brush on the Spoiled polishes is a MOP!!!  I just really took my time as the brush just holds so much polish.  This is three coats.  You can see a brush comparison of the Spoiled versus a Julep brush here.

Onto the photos!

ABC Blog Challenge: "G" and "H"

Today for the Alphabet Challenge I decided to combine letters.  I used Zoya Harley for my "H" which is a shimmery gray that almost leans the slightest bit of purple.  Zoya describes it as a "light concrete gray base with subtle flecks of silver, gold and copper shimmer."  I don't really see any copper but I also am not the best when it comes to describing colors.  I did a glitter accent nail with Icing's Glitteratti which is my "G".  This is a a polish that is just packed with glitter.  It has larger pink hex glitter and has smaller pink, gold, green and blue glitter in it.  I used two coats of this on my ring finger in the photos below.  I was pleasantly surprised that this glitter actually laid on the nail pretty nicely.

ABC Blog Challenge: "F"

Today in the alphabet challenge we are on the letter F.  This one was pretty easy for me.  I absolutely love this polish.  It is Orly Fowl Play.  This was originally a limited edition polish but Orly recently added it to their core line.  This is also said to be a dupe of OPI Merry Midnight which is a very hard to find (HTF) limited edition polish.  I believe this was from a winter collection a few years back.  I am always happy to find a dupe of something.  I also happen to have a love for purple and flakies and this has both!!

Just check out the flakies in the bottle above!! ^^

This is again one I wish I would have had sunlight for but it was a very gloomy day here.  

ABC Challenge: "D"

For the last letter of the week we have "D".  This first week has been a blast!  It is helping me pick out polishes I wouldn't normally wear and I love that!  For this one, I decided to go with OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI on this one. It is a purple polish with lovely red shimmer in it.  This is two coats and it just looks amazing in the sun.

This is indoors with flash.

This is outdoors in natural light.  See that pretty red shimmer!!!

Check out the others picks below for the letter 'D"

(I'm starting to feel a little like Sesame Street!! Today's blog post brought to you by the letter "D"!!!)

ABC Blog Challenge: "C"

Today in the alphabet blog challenge we are at the letter C.  I chose one of my very first Zoya polishes for this one and it is one of my favorites.  It is Caitlin.  It is a lovely dusty purple.  I own several Zoya polishes and they all apply beautifully.  This one is no exception!  I'm still waiting for Zoya to come out with an Amy.

Again, check out what the other fabulous ladies have picked for their letter 'C' polish!