Using My Maiden Name for nail art

Essie Using My Maiden Name with black and white.

Here is my only good picture of the nail art I did with Essie Using My Maiden Name. I actually broke a nail between finishing the nail art and photographing the manicure, which is why I had a limited number of decent pictures to choose from. :(  Essie Using My Maiden Name is a lovely bright purple with a pink shimmer. In the look I did, I used a black and white topcoat on 2 nails and did some watercolor nail art with the other 2. For the watercolor nails, I used Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris and Sinful Colors Snow Me White and dotted them into vertical lines on my nails. I then used my paintbrush dipped in acetone to soften the look. My pinky and ring finger feature a polish from Icing called Milky Way. It's basically their take on the popular black and white glitter topcoat. One thing I would mention about Milky Way, the glitter is much smaller in this than other glitters of this type, like Sephora Chaotic or China Glaze Glitz n Pieces. I actually am planning to do a more detailed post on it later, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, join me after the jump for more pictures of Essie Using My Maiden Name.

Essie Using My Maiden Name, sun

Essie Bikini So Teeny comparison ombre

Essie Bikini So Teeny on middle finger, with China Glaze Sea Dust on pointer, Secret Periwinkle on ring and Essie Coat Azure on pinky

I enjoyed doing my previous comparison ombre so much that I decided to to another one for another new polish in my stash, Essie Bikini So Teeny. For this look I used the following polishes:

China Glaze Sea Spray-pointer
Essie Bikini So Teeny-middle
China Glaze Secret Periwinkle-ring
Essie Coat Azure-pinky

The two other colors I thought would be close to Bikini So Teeny were still pretty different. China Glaze Sea Spray is lighter and dustier, while China Glaze Secret Perwinkle is also dustier, but a darker shade of blue. I think Bikini So Teeny is the only one of the colors that is a bright, cornflower blue.

Today was a Fairy Tale in a Bikini So Teeny

Essie Bikini So Teeny topped with Deborah Lippmann Today was a Fairytale, sunlight

I was thrilled to find Essie Bikini So Teeny at one of my local nail supply places last week. I ended up having a few problems with application, but the gorgeous color is totally worth it.  The periwinkle blue is quite sheer, but it's not a jelly. When I tried doing a jelly sandwich with it and OPI Pirouette My Whistle, the glitter was just lumpy and not visible underneath a coat of Bikini So Teeny. The crelly took 3 coats to even out, but the color is so beautiful, its worth it. When it came time to do some layering, I added a coat of Deborah Lippmann Today Was a Fairytale.

Essie Bikini So Teeny topped with Deborah Lippmann Today was a Fairytale, sunlight

China Glaze Exotic Encounters comparison ombre

China Glaze Exotic Encounters on middle finger, with Essie Go Overboard on index, Orly Lucky Duck on ring, and OPI Mermaid's Tears on pinky

I've already posted about China Glaze Exotic Encounters and how much I love the color. However, like The Polishaholic, I felt like this color was a little familiar. There were a few colors in my collection that come to mind, so I went ahead and dug them out of my stash to do a comparison. I'm happy to say that Exotic Encounters is definitely unique among the colors I own.

It's different enough that once I got out the other two colors that came to mind, I realized that I should do a ombre manicure with them. I really like the result, and am kicking myself for not having done more ombre style manicures in the past. For my comparison ombre, I used the following colors:

Essie Go Overboard-pointer
China Glaze Exotic Encounters-middle
Orly Lucky Duck-ring
OPI Mermaid's Tears-pinky

To see another picture, plus to find out what other color is NOT a dupe for Exotic Encounters, join me after the jump.

Child's play? Silvery blue watercolor

Watercolor nails on China Glaze Luna

A common insult for modern art is that "it's so simple, a child could do it." Let me tell you, even the simple things like coloring and painting can be quite complicated for autistic children. Teachers and occupational therapists spend a lot of time in the early years of a child's life working on "hand grasp." Having a good hand grasp on pencils, pens and crayons is vital to a child being able to write and function as s/he gets older.

The second night I stayed at with my friend, she mentioned that she hadn't had much luck when she tried watermarbling.  Since I haven't exactly been successful myself, I suggested that we try watercolor nails, instead. This isn't my favorite look, but it's not too bad for a first try. To see more pictures of my mani, AND to find out how Daisy the dog dealt with all the polish, keep reading!

Easter egg (dog) hunt!

Easter egg manicure, dog not included ;)

First of all, I have to explain that I took a short vacation this last weekend to take advantage of my spring break. I was away from the internet and that's why I'm posting my Easter related manis today.

I wanted to do an Easter manicure that still fit into my blue scheme for Autism Awareness, so I chose to include lots of blue leaning pastels for this look. I was staying with a friend over my vacation and used her backyard to shoot my sunlight pictures of the mani. Daisy the dog was there and has graced us with her beauty in several of my pictures. To see more of her, join me after the jump for a pic (and dog) heavy post!

Daisy the dog.

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Zoya Jem

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Zoya Jem, shade

When I first put Zoya Jem on my fingers, I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. It just shimmered beautifully in the sunlight, and I found it hard to stop admiring my fingers.   Then I added China Glaze Luxe and Lush.  It's hard to believe you can make such a great polish even better, but that's truly what happened when I added the shard-like flakie to the mix. Join me to learn how it compares to Essie Shine of the times and for a lot more pictures, after the jump.

My (late) 2011 Top 10-Part 2

Here are the rest of my top 10 choices for the year. It's an ecclectic mix, and I'll explain it more after the jump.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures, I'll be editing them a bit as I get all my pics together. Also, please note that most of these polishes are more opaque on the nail than they are on my clear nail wheel. 

My (late) 2011 Top 10-part 1

So I'm pretty new to the nail polish world, and most of my nail polishes have been acquired in the last year. Despite this, when I saw all the "top 10" lists, it made me sit down and think about what my favorite colors have been that were released in the last year.  I don't have much time or patience to do a manicure for each, so I swatched them all on a nail wheel instead.  Here are the first 6 colors:

From left, Essie Shine of the Times, OPI I Lily Love You and  OPI Rainbow Connection

From left, Wet n Wild Cost is No Issue, OPI Honk If You Love OPI and Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors  

What's my reasoning on these choices? Join me after the jump for an explanation!

My Christmas mani-Essie Borrowed and Blue and China Glaze Glittering Garland

Christmas mani, sunlight

As soon as I saw this on Adventures in Acetone, I knew that it would be my Christmas mani:

It's simple enough that I knew I wouldn't mess up with application, and it looks so cool!(BTW, if you look really carefully you can see that I was removing polish from something before the pics. Though I washed my hands, there are plenty of stray cotton fibers hanging around!) A bit more after the jump.

NOTD-Essie Shine of the Times over Color Club Red-ical Gypsy

In my post about layering Essie Shine of the Times, I told you that one of my favorite looks was layering it over a dark red. Here is proof that it's an awesome combination:

These pictures are in natural light and in the shade.

Here's a link to Polish Amor's post about the same combination, except she used Nubar 2010 and not Essie. It includes a photo of Red-ical Gypsy on its own. It's proof that great minds think alike!

And these are the bottle shots for good measure.  

It's an unique combo for me because I don't usually wear many reds. However, I think the orange flakies in SotT play really well with the dark red color.  What do you think is the best color for layering Shine of the Times?