China Glaze Man Hunt!

Hey again! I hope you all have been having a good week so far! I finished my last class today and am starting finals this weekend, wish me luck! :P Today I revisited a color I featured on my blog before: China Glaze Man Hunt from their On Safari collection. That post was one of my first and is a poor excuse for swatches, so I am going to attempt to re-do some of my very first posts. What do you guys think about that? Anyway, onto the polish!

China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt

Man Hunt is a high-gloss dark blue, almost navy, creme. The application of this polish is wonderful and two coats made it perfectly opaque. Sometimes dark colors can be a pain, but this one gave me no problems at all! Man Hunt has almost a jelly quality to it; extremely shiny and rather jelly-like on the first coat in terms of opacity. I love this color year-round! 

What do you think of Man Hunt?

-Shelby

Essie In the Cab-ana (Resort 2013 collection)!

Happy late Monday (or early Tuesday to some of you)! I have another Essie post in store for you guys today- swatches of In the Cab-ana from their 2013 Resort collection. The line had a lot of lovely shades, but I only picked up 2, one being ItC!

Below is 2 coats of In the Cab-ana without topcoat:

Essie In the Cab-ana 

Essie In the Cab-ana

Essie In the Cab-ana 

In the Cab-ana is such a gorgeous bright aqua creme! This is the epitome of summer; in fact, when I held my nails up next to my pool, they practically were the same color! The formula on this was rather thick, so I may thin the polish out. Due to the thickness, the application was tricky, but wasn't unmanageable. Two coats created perfect opacity.

What do you think of Essie's 2013 Resort collection?

-Shelby

Essie Summer 2013 Picks!

Hello again, surprised I'm back so soon? Well, I just couldn't stay away because I've been eager to try out a different camera for my nail photos and I am loving how great the photos are with the switch! Let me know what you guys think of the photo quality :)

Last time I was at CVS, I came across Essie's summer collection- full of shimmers and brights with nautical names. I couldn't resist and picked up 3. There's either 4 or 5 in the collection, but I passed on a couple of the shades.

Lots of photos in this post! All swatches are without topcoat.

Essie Rock the Boat 

Essie Rock the Boat

Essie Rock the Boat

First up is Rock the Boat, a light cornflower blue with silver shimmer. The shimmer is only noticeable in the sunlight, but I love the shade nonetheless! Its formula was decent; at first it was uneven and streaky, but 3 coats seemed to do the trick to create full, smooth opacity. 

Essie Sunday Funday

Essie Sunday Funday

Essie Sunday Funday

Sunday Funday is a bright coral/pink with the same silver shimmer that the whole collection has. The application was better on this one; it only required 2 coats for opacity. This color was really hard to capture on camera! In person, it's a little more pink-leaning. 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Essie Naughty Nautical 

Naughty Nautical is a sea green/muted teal with the same silver shimmer. This may be my favorite from the collection because it's so unique! The application was similar to Sunday Funday and only required 2 coats. I must say the name drew me to it as well; I can't resist polishes with cute names!

What do you think of Essie's new summer collection?

-Shelby

OPI My Very First Knockwurst and Essie Beyond Cozy

Happy weekend, ladies! :) I am so relieved to be home for the weekend! I'll have some down time to just relax, which also means time to catch up on blog posts! I think I may make a few scheduled posts for the next week or two since I am finishing up my current University year.

Today I have for you a simple mani I did a week or so ago: OPI My Very First Knockwurst with a slight glitter gradient of Essie Beyond Cozy.

OPI My Very First Knockwurst
Essie Beyond Cozy

OPI My Very First Knockwurst
Essie Beyond Cozy

My Very First Knockwurst is probably my favorite pink-nude creme in my collection! Its formula and application is a dream and I love how it looks against my skintone. I added a slight gradient effect to my ring finger with a recent purchase of mine, Beyond Cozy, which is a silver and gold fine glitter. I love this combo together!

What do you think of this pairing?

-Shelby

Essence Let's Get Lost and Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you're all having a good first half of your week; mine has been rather long. I have tests this week and other things going on so the weekend could not come any sooner!! I am SO pumped to show you my mani that I did probably about an hour ago. Usually I photograph and take my sweet time a) uploading my photos to my computer and b) actually making a post about said photos, but I just couldn't wait to show off this beauty of a manicure!!

I recently did a combo nail/wax swap with Dana from Polished Claws Up and she gave me a couple vintage polishes from Sally Hansen. I only have a few vintage polishes myself, one being a Sally Hansen, so you better believe I was excited. Without further ado, I'll get into my mani details!

Below I used 2 coats of Essence Let's Get Lost and 2 coats of Sally Hansen Secrets Frost.

Beware: photo spam. I repeat...major photo spam! :)

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

Essence Let's Get Lost
Sally Hansen Secrets Frost

I cannot get over how flippin' gorgeous this manicure is!! I know I've been doing an excessive amount of manis with accent nails, but this one is extremely special. Let's Get Lost is a bright blue/teal creme that was almost a one-coater. I added 2 coats for good measure and to fill in slight patchy areas (very very slight I might add). I've had odd luck with some of Essence's polishes, but Let's Get Lost gave me zero issues, I'm totally smitten! Now I am in love with Secrets Frost. It is a scattered, finely milled silver holographic glitter. Although you can't see the holo in the photos very well, I promise you that the holo is clearly there in person and twinkles. Secrets Frost had a great application and completely covered my nail in 2 coats. I love the formula of this polish! It probably has tons of nasty chemicals in it, but I can sacrifice for one polish ;) Overall, I can't get enough of this mani!!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

PS: I just realized while writing this post that the names of these two polishes rhyme. Ha!

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le and Sinful Colors Rainstorm

Hello, friends! I've had a long, yet relaxing weekend. I'm back at school for the week and settling into my normal routine. I wanted to share with you a manicure I wore a couple weeks ago. I've been very much into doing different dotticures lately and I especially like this one!

What I used:
2 coats China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le
Sinful Colors Rainstorm (dotting)
medium & large sized dotting tools

Secret Peri-Wink-le is very true to its name; it's a periwinkle cream! I love all shades of periwinkle and this is no exception. I feel like this specific polish started the periwinkle trend since this came out far before others did. The formula on this polish is not my favorite. As you can tell, there are some patchy areas (index finger). I used two coats here, but three coats or two super careful coats would've been better. I then took two sized dotting tools and decorated with Rainstorm, a dark blue creme. I love the pairing of the two colors from the same color family!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Ulta3 Mulberry and Ulta Boogie Nights

Hey there! I have quite a few posts I need to make, I've been stocking up whenever I can on photos of my manis, just in case! I'm hoping my back up photos will help me not take such a long break again :)

Below I used Ulta3 Mulberry and Ulta Boogie Nights!

Ulta3 Mulberry Ulta Boogie Nights

Ulta3 Mulberry
 Ulta Boogie Nights

Ulta3 Mulberry
Ulta Boogie Nights

I never can get enough of glitter gradients! This one is no exception. Mulberry is a wine leaning berry creme. In some lights it takes a purple tint. Unfortunately, the formulation of this polish was pretty bad, but I added some polish thinner to remedy it. It's gotten a bit better, but still not ideal. Although, I really do love the outcome and the polish was nice and smooth :). Boogie Nights is a gold glitter with lots of rainbow medium-sized glitters throughout. This glitter will go with almost any color since it contains all the colors of the rainbow. Also, the formula was easy for a reverse glitter gradient. 

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby