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 Blog Challenge: "E"

We are on the letter E in the Alphabet Challenge.  I picked another Zoya for this one.  This one is Edyta.  It is a really deep green with TONS of gold micro-shimmer.  Unfortunately, I did not have natural light for this one.  I feel that this color is pretty unique and I don't know of another polish that is like it.

Just check out the bottle and the gold shimmery goodness!!

Also, check out what the other ladies picked for the letter E!

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!

ABC Blog Challenge: "B"

Hello friends!  Today I am posting my B polish in the alphabet challenge.  I knew exactly what I wanted to pick for this one.  If you have followed my blog for a bit, you might guess that I really love Essie nail polishes.      I don't know what it is but I'm a sucker for them!  Every once in a while they aren't easy to apply but this one applies like a dream!  This is such a pretty color! It actually has the slightest bit of silvery shimmer in it but I can really only see it if I hold my fingernail right in front of my face.

This is two coats of Bikini So Teeny which is from the Bikini So Teeny Collection Summer 2012.

Check out what other ladies picked as their B polish!

ABC Blog Challenge: "A"

I have decided to jump on this blog challenge some of my fellow bloggers are doing.  We will be doing 4 letters a week and I am already behind!  I guess you may be seeing me post more than usual but I'm hoping this keeps me motivated in addition to picking polishes I may otherwise not normally pick.  You can find out more info about the challenge over at Gosia's blog Life in Color.

For the letter "A" I chose Absolutely Shore by Essie.  I love this color but it is a PITA to apply.  It is an extremely pale sea foam green. In this picture is three coats.  I probably should have done one more.  I wish I would have had a little more time to work with this one to make it look nicer but I wanted to get started so I guess here's to not always having the nicest mani!

See you soon with my letter "B" pick!

Amy

Be sure to check the others doing this challenge! 

Giveaway Alert!!! i Heart Pretty Polish

Check out this giveaway from i Heart Pretty Polish.  If you don't follow her blog, you should.  I adore her swatches!  She always has such a perfect manicure.  She recently reached 100 subscribers is giving away a bottle of your choice from Whimsical Polishes.  I just love the little bows on those polishes!  Such a nice touch!

Try It On Tuesday: Morning Star

Hello there!  For this edition of Try It On Tuesday I have a Sinful Colors nail polish called Morning Star.  I think this was from a collection in spring but I'm really not sure.  I know sometimes SC (Sinful Colors) re-promotes their colors so this could have even been called something else at one point.  Sorry I just don't have the details.  That's what I get for leaving this as an untried I guess!!!  This color sort of reminds me of SC Cinderella but it is more of a periwinkle.  It was a little difficult to photograph to get color accurate.  It does lean more purple than the pictures show.

This is with Spoiled Pet My Peacock on top.  This glitter is hard to apply in my opinion.  It goes on very sparse.  It might work better if it was more "dabbed" on.

Overall I like this color.  I challenge you to put on a polish that you own but have yet to use.  If you do, feel free to share by posting to my Facebook page.  

I hope everyone is staying cool in this heat.  It's supposed to be extremely hot and humid today in Wisconsin!  Thank goodness for central air!

Amy 

Jawbreaker!!

I've been neglecting the blog a little bit due to being busy with kiddos and two jobs.  I really would love to have 3 posts a week but sometimes life gets in the way!  

Today's polish probably doesn't need much of an introduction.  I was able to snag this and Sand Art from Pretty and Polished recently and I am finally having a chance to put it on.  It's a milky white polish with tons of glitter and it really does resemble one of those giant jawbreakers!  This was 3 coats.  It wasn't really hard to work with the glitter in this polish which was nice.  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Amy

O*M*G Black Spotted!!!!

I hope you are ready for this awesome post!  If you don't know what OPI Black Spotted is, it is part of the Amazing Spiderman Collection by OPI.  But.....it is exclusive to France.  I don't really know any details as to why it is exclusive to France as I would think OPI would make a killing if this was more available.  Hopefully in time it will be more available.  I was lucky enough to find someone that was willing to swap through MUA (Makeup Alley).  I was just ecstatic when I opened my mailbox today to see it had arrived!

If you are able to get your hands on this, there are a couple of things I will tell you from working with it once so far.  First off, whatever you are going to layer it over needs to be completely dry.  If it is not, you will have little cracks.  I was not patient enough and I experienced this.  Also, if you want lots of little spots, apply a thin layer.  If you want more sparse spots, a thicker layer will help you achieve this.  I didn't know how thin I should make it but it worked best if I wiped off both sides of the brush and had barely any excess polish on the brush.  The good thing about this is the bottle should last forever this way!  

I decided to layer this over one of my favorite purples which is Color Club Fashion Addict.  This is a light purple holographic polish.  I was out of sun when I took my pictures but in the sun it is even nicer.  

This picture is my right hand.  I got the hang of it more when I got to this hand and it turned out better.  

Here is Fashion Addict by itself.  Lovely!

This is my left hand which I started with.  Not as many spots and had some of that cracking from not letting the base dry completely.

This is a VERY thin layer but I love the way it looks!

Have a great weekend polish friends!

Amy

Try It On Tuesdays! Week 3

I skipped out on this last week during the Rainbow Challenge but I wanted to try for this week.  I was trying to be efficient when choosing my untried today and I know I want to do a Independence Day mani so I decided to go with a Blue.  This one is China Glaze Splish Splash from the Neon 2012 collection.  By the way, my middle finger (bird as I like to call it) is super nubbin.  It's the same nail that recently caused me to file my nails down, and it broke AGAIN!  Curse you bird!  (no pun intended!)

I know this first picture is blurry but this one is true to color.

These next two pictures are with flash and not true to color.

I will have the Try It On Tuesdays tab updated with all the fellow bloggers participating in week 3 when I can.  :)

Rainbow Favorites Challenge: Purple!!

I'm just going to say it, not only is this my favorite purple but this is my favorite polish that I own!  I don't use it often and I think it's because I don't ever want it to run out.  I really wish I would have gotten a backup!  It is unknown if Cult Nails will be able to have more of this.  See HERE for details.  This was originally released as Unicorn Puke as a limited edition polish and had gold lettering.  It was re-released around Thanksgiving 2011.  I sat on my computer ready to get it and I was so happy I did.  I hope they are able to make it again.  If they do, I will definitely be getting a backup!  Clairvoyant is a purple jelly with TONS of flakies of every color that seems to be possible.

I layered this over Zoya Pinta which is a vampy dark purple creme.

Again, check out what the other ladies picked as their favorite purples.

Outdoors in natural light

Indoors with flash 

Bottle shot!  How gorgeous is that?!!

~on beauty stuff and what else's...~
9ml universe
atlcatsmeow 
Captivating Claws
Fancy Phalanges
Fe's Nails
Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Football and Fingernails
Fresh Air & Fashion
Happy Nails
iHeartPrettyPolish
Jolien's Kingdom of Polish
Kelly's Kolors!
Lacquer Dreams
Lacquer or Leave Her! 
Liesl Loves Pretty Things
Light Your Nails!
Manicurity
My Life In Polish
nailpolish is alive(:
Nail Polish Lane
Nail Pron
Nubbin Nails
Of Color n Music
Passion for Polish
Polish and Such
Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish
So You Think You Can Paint
The Rantings of a Nail Polish Hoarder 
To Polish or Not?

Rainbow Favorites Challenge: Blue!!

Ahhh...blue!!!  I love me some blue nail polish!  This one was difficult for me to pick because I love so many blues.  Some of my very favorites other than what I picked are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue, Essie Bikini So Teeny, Essie Bobbing for Baubles.

For this one though, I picked Essie Coat Azure and used OPI Absolutely Alice for an accent finger.  I really love both of these so much!

Check out everyone else's favorite blues with the links below!

~on beauty stuff and what else's...~
9ml universe
atlcatsmeow 
Captivating Claws
Fancy Phalanges
Fe's Nails
Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Football and Fingernails
Fresh Air & Fashion
Happy Nails
iHeartPrettyPolish
Jolien's Kingdom of Polish
Kelly's Kolors!
Lacquer Dreams
Lacquer or Leave Her! 
Liesl Loves Pretty Things
Light Your Nails!
Manicurity
My Life In Polish
nailpolish is alive(:
Nail Polish Lane
Nail Pron
Nubbin Nails
Of Color n Music
Passion for Polish
Polish and Such
Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish
So You Think You Can Paint
The Rantings of a Nail Polish Hoarder 
To Polish or Not?

Rainbow Challenge: Green!!

Today on the rainbow challenge we are on green.  I am crazy about green and blue and this one was tough for me.  I really love Essie Mojito Madness featured HERE but I went through my collection and tried to pull out other greens that I love.  I decided to go with Zoya Gemma.  Whenever someone asks me what Zoya colors I would recommend, I always include this one.  I have never seen a polish like it.  It is a dusty sort of olive green but with a purple/blue shimmer.  It is very unique!

Check out what the other ladies picked for their favorite green!

~on beauty stuff and what else's...~
9ml universe
atlcatsmeow 
Captivating Claws
Fancy Phalanges
Fe's Nails
Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Football and Fingernails
Fresh Air & Fashion
Happy Nails
iHeartPrettyPolish
Jolien's Kingdom of Polish
Kelly's Kolors!
Lacquer Dreams
Lacquer or Leave Her! 
Liesl Loves Pretty Things
Light Your Nails!
Manicurity
My Life In Polish
nailpolish is alive(:
Nail Polish Lane
Nail Pron
Nubbin Nails
Of Color n Music
Passion for Polish
Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish
So You Think You Can Paint
The Rantings of a Nail Polish Hoarder 
To Polish or Not?

Rainbow Challenge: Yellow!

Today we are on yellow for the Rainbow Challenge.  Yellow...ugh!  I like yellow and I think it looks great but finding an easy to work with yellow nail polish is a challenge in itself.  I actually really love the one I picked however, it is a bish to photograph!!!  This is from the same collection as yesterday's orange.  The 2012 China Glaze Neon collection.  This one is Sun-Kissed.  It is a neon yellow with beautiful shimmer in it. It is so impossible to photograph though!!!  

Again, see what yellow the other ladies picked for their favorite!

This first picture is from my regular camera.  It is much brighter than this.

This picture is with my phone and a flash, it just came out....odd.

This is another phone picture and this is probably the most accurate as far as color but you can't see the shimmer.

This one was kind of a fail for me as far as being able to photograph correctly.  But I do love the actual color!

~on beauty stuff and what else's...~
9ml universe
atlcatsmeow 
Captivating Claws
Fancy Phalanges
Fe's Nails
Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Football and Fingernails
Fresh Air & Fashion
Happy Nails
iHeartPrettyPolish
Jolien's Kingdom of Polish
Kelly's Kolors!
Lacquer Dreams
Lacquer or Leave Her! 
Liesl Loves Pretty Things
Light Your Nails!
Manicurity
My Life In Polish
nailpolish is alive(:
Nail Polish Lane
Nail Pron
Nubbin Nails
Of Color n Music Passion for Polish Polish and Such
Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish
So You Think You Can Paint
The Rantings of a Nail Polish Hoarder 
To Polish or Not?