Essie Klout Perk

I recently received a free Essie nail polish for my Klout score! I haven't had the opportunity to try the polish yet, but I'm so excited. It's my first Essie color polish (I have the top coat and nail healing kits, but no lacquers). This is from their new Mirror Metallic Collection. Since we didn't know which color we were getting, I was hoping for Nothing Else Metals or Blue Rhapsody and Blue Rhapsody is what I received!

If you haven't tried Klout, you should. You have the opportunity to try free products without any obligation simply for doing what you already do.

*Disclaimer: I received this product through Klout as part of being an influential member with the score of 45 with beauty as one of my topics.

Labor Day Weekend Manicure

My nails have been very brittle and splitting a lot lately, so I have been keeping them polish free to help let them breath and grow out. I recently picked up a dotting tool set (one of those filler items to receive free shipping through Amazon) so I thought I would try it out. 

I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear #130 Blew Me Away and Nails Inc#201 Floral Street. I'm in love with this blue polish! I realized in July when I went to do a patriotic look, I didn't own a single blue nail polish. What? Who doesn't own a blue polish and how did I not know this sooner? So naturally I was on a mission. I came across this shade on a trip to WalMart and snatched it up without a second thought. No regrets! It's completely opaque in 1 coat, but I used two for good measure. 

I'm really liking these dotting tools by the way. 

Yay for Gifts That Involve Nail Polish!

My coworker recently gave me these two new Wet n' Wild nail polishes! She said she saw them and immediately thought of me and picked them up because I always do so much to help her. While I reminded her that it's no trouble and I don't mind at all, I still giggled with delight! I love new nail polish, especially in greens and blue! Can't wait to try these out!

Left: #226C SaGreena the Teenage Witch, Right: #227C Teal or No Teal

St. Patrick's Day Themed NOTD

Green is my favorite color, and being an Irish red head I feel compelled to show some spirit for St. Patrick's Day this weekend. To show some pride I decided to do a green manicure! This is what I came up with. 

I used three coats of Wet n' Wild's Speed Zone polish in Zoomin' followed by a light coat of OPI's Fresh Frog of Bel Air from the Muppet's Collection on the tips. I used Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Clear'd for Takeoff as my top coat. 

With flash

Of course I will be wearing loads of green and I'm hoping to go to the local St. Patty's Day parade (if the weather permits). Do you have any plans for this weekend's holiday? Maybe some green beer and corned beef and cabbage?

Christmas Mani Fail

For Christmas I wanted to have a Christmassy manicure. This year I was totally into all things green, red and silver for the season, so I decided to go for this look with my nails as well. On Christmas eve, I went for it and ended up using a dark green, Envy by Ulta, and on my accent nails I used Ulta's Gunmetal covered with a coat of Love Marilyn by China Glaze. I loved it! I thought it looked really good, so did my Boyfriend!

Christmas morning I woke up... and the polish on my right hand accent nail was gone. Just gone! It had completely come off and was no where to be found. This has never happened to me before; I couldn't believe my eyes. At first I thought I was just seeing things, but there on my left hand the polish was fine! I checked my hair, the bed, all over the place to see if it had just come off, but I turned up with zilch. So I take a shower and go to get ready and do my makeup, and the polish on my left hand accent finger is now gone! I couldn't help thinking that maybe there was a bad reaction with the polishes and they just didn't mesh. I didn't have time to redo them before leaving for my parent's house, so I spent all of Christmas with only 4 of my 5 nails on each hand painted. I thought it was really funny and really odd!

I still can't believe it. Has this every happened to any of you? I used a proper base and top coat as well, so I don't think it was that. Just plain weird!


Another thing I noticed about this green polish, when applied on its own, is smooth, but even though I waited until it was no longer tacky in the slightest before applying my NYC top coat, it wrinkled and cracked. I haven't had a problem with this topcoat on any of my of Ulta brand nail polishes. I think you can kind of see it in the photos above. It has this cracked/wavy look beneath the top coat. I've also never encountered this before. Such a weird mani experience!

China Glaze's The Hunger Games Nail Polish Collection

I'm not sure how many of you have heard, but China Glaze has reached an agreement with Lionsgate and are officially teaming up for create a collection based on The Hunger Games! Apparently there is some backlash from fans about this, but I think it's awesome! I am a huge fan of the books and couldn't be more excited that they're creating colors inspired by the books and upcoming film. I'm going to try my best to get my hands on this set! It's set to release on March 1, 2012, just before the release of the movie. What do you think? Are any of you as excited as I am?

Source

The names have changed since the original announcement, I'm not sure if this has to do with the lawsuit that American International Industries (AII - China Glaze's parent company) had with Lionsgate for ending the licensing deal they originally had, but from what I can tell, the colors are still the same. I'm glad they're back on and headed my way!

Source

NYC Starry Silver Glitter NOTW

Last week I sported a black and purple glitter look, to which my boss commented that I should wear something more festive for the holidays and specifically "not black". So when I sat down to paint my nails on Sunday, I automatically reached for red which I knew would be considered "festive", but I just wasn't feeling it. Looking through my collection I picked out my E.L.F. white polish, OPI's Fresh Frog of Bel Air, NYC's Starry Silver Glitter, and Sinful Color's Frenzy. At first I couldn't decide what I should do with them, but knew I couldn't put them all together. It would have looked like glitter threw-up all over me, so I decided on white as a base and Starry Silver Glitter to top it off, going for a snowy, wintry look. The glitter polish has tiny flakes of silver glitter and holographic, with  larger hexa-shaped glitter in blue and light purple. What do you think? My boss has given her approval!

NOTW - OPI & Ulta

I decided to try something a little different for my manicure last week. I've never really used black polish before, but I thought it would be fun to try out. I had also recently picked up Rainbow Connection from OPI's Muppets Collection and decided to throw that in there as well.

OPI's Rainbow Connection & Ulta's Little Black Dress. Little Black Dress took only 1 coat to be completely opaque, but I used two just to be safe. Rainbow Connection is awesome! It has such a variety of colors in the glitter that it look great against the black polish. I'm excited to try different looks with these polishes!

Candy Corn Nails

Last night I decided to paint my nails and couldn't decide between an orange or light brown color for fall. I asked my boyfriend to help me decide and he picked a bright orange. When I was done, I thought it would be fun to put a pumpkin type pattern on one or two, but I'm not that steady with a toothpick and don't have any nail pens (yet) so I pulled out my yellow and white polishes and viola! Candy Corn nails!

I've gotten quite a few compliments at work today for them so I wanted to share :)

Orange: Wet 'n Wild Mega Last Nail Color in Club Havana

Yellow: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow

White: ELF Essential Nail Polish in White

NOTW - Sinful Colors Open Sea

Green is my favorite color and although the majority of my nail polish collection has been shades of green for a very long time, I'm very happy that it's supposed to be the new "It" shade in fashion. So in honor of my favorite color, I sported the Sinful Colors #5164 Open Seas this week. I really love this color, it's more of a sea foam green, hence the name, but it's very light and a great color for the transition to fall. It only took 2 coats for full opacity.

My NOTW

So, inspired by Beauty By Krystal, I decided to try a solid color paired with a glitter polish to see what would turn out. What I ended up with is this bright purple, glittery manicure that i really like! I keep getting compliments on it, so I'm hoping others like it as well :)

Products used: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Virtual Violet and Sinful Colors in Frenzy

OPI's Muppets Collection

I don't normally go crazy over nail polish. Don't get me wrong, I really like to paint my nails and I have A LOT of lacquer at home, but I don't normally see a collection, or even just a color, and think "I have to have that". Until today. OPI announced their Muppet's collection today and I really like all of these colors (except maybe 'Excuse Moi' - as I've said before, I'm not a pink person - but I'd probably get it to complete the collection). Check out the collection below. What do you think?

Description from OPI's facebook page: "Loaded with glitters and shimmers, this collection is packed with punch! (Left to right): Animal-istic, Meep-Meep-Meep, Wocka Wocka, Pepes Purple Passion, Designers De Better, Warm and Fozzie, Rainbow Connection, Excuse Moi, Gone Gonzo, Fresh Frog of Bel Air, Divine Swine and Gettin' Miss Piggy With it."