Essie - Lots of Lux: Forbidden Love.

So I will be honest.  I'm not a huge fan of Essie.  I only have a few of them, but in order for me to buy an Essie I have to REALLY love it... or get it for free.  Currently I have 5 Essies.  One I loved until I wore it because it stained like craze. Two of them I bought because I did in fact like the colours, and to this day I still like them.  Then I have one that I got for free, which I like because it was free.  Finally there is this polish, Lots of Lux.  I am IN love with it.  It is by far on of my favourite polishes I own.

Now buying it was a magical experience.  When I see a polish I'm thinking of buying the first thing I do is look up swatches.  Even if I'm in the store and the bottle is in my hand.  I always want to see how it looks as a full manicure.  Here's the problem with this colour.  In photos and when looking at it in the bottle the colour looks AMAZING.  But in photos the polish always looks kind of grainy, and sand like.  For me a nice textured polish should not look like sand thrown into polish or stucco(textured polish that does not have shimmer in it tends to look like this)  So I was torn, a grainy polish, but a stunning colour. I decided I just needed to have it.  It was too pretty to pass up... and it was on sale :P

When I got home I applied 2 easy coats of this polish, and I was blown away.  This rich, bold blue, that was filled with what looked like gold, green, and purple glitter was even prettier on the nail than in the bottle.  I think the problem with photos is the fine glitter does not photograph well, and because the texture is so fine up close it does look a bit grainy.  Long story short this polish does not photograph well, and you all need to buy it NOW!

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Hopefully you can still find it because I THINK it was limited edition.

Does anyone else here shop for polish with their phone out?  Checking reviews in the store.

Sinful Coloor New Wave + I think I'm telepatic

So I have some polish AND art for you guys today!

First up I have Sinful Colors New Wave.  I bought this at a warehouse sale with George.  The weather was something like -30 and it was WINDY.  And yet you could not keep us away from those polishes.  It was totally worth it.  I would honestly say this colour is the closest I have to a Nine/Ten TARDIS blue.  It's a deep navy blue, but it's a bit dusty in real life.  The formula was excellent, I almost didn't need a second coat.

 

Then I decided I need to add some art to it, and for the first time ever I got out a piece of paper and started to draw some designs on it.  One of them involved tape, but I didn't really like it.  After doing this for a while I was out of ideas.  So I decided to lurk the interwebs for inspiration.  That's when I came across this manicure by Nailside after searching 'Gold nail art'.  It was actually the same design I had drawn, but it looked much better off of paper.  I have seem post from her before, but had never seen that specific manicure.  So that is how I telepathically took her idea.  Or would could have just both come up with the same design, but that answer is too easy.  To achieve this look I cut out triangles out of scotch tape.  Then I used a piece of striping tape on either side of it.  Then for the Gold I used Milani Gold Glitz.

 The ring finger had a bit of a bubbling incident :/

I don't love you?

So generally I don't post my fails, or things I just don't like.   Now just to clarify fails to me are things I look at and say "That's really not pleasant to look at".  Things i don't like are more along the lines of "You look ok, but I'm not feeling you".  This manicure originally from January, fell in to the I don't like it category.   I thought it looked just ok on the nail, and I just hated it when I photographed it.  But this morning I was going through photos I had that I never posted when I came across this the photos again.  And I can honestly say I didn't not like it nearly as much as I did before.  I can't say I love it but I'm pretty sure I like it now :P

Oh and I used OPI's Dating a Royal and Glow Up Already!

Do you share things you just feel meh about?

St. Paddy's Day Nails!

Argh!  For the past few days my shoulder and neck have been killing me.  I have no clue why :/  I want to say because of how I sleep, but the pain is at its least painful when I get up and it get's worse throughout the day.  If it was due to how I sleep shouldn't it be most painful when I wake up?  Even though it's neck and shoulder pain, I refuse to google it.  That will just make me worry.  It will tell me I'm dying, or I'm pregnant.  Shoulder pregnancy!

What?

Annnnyyyyywwwwaaayyys, this is the manicure I have been wearing this weekend.  I decided to do green(Sinful Colors Hey, You!) AND blue(Sinful Colors Endless Blue) because blue is actually the colour St. Patrick wore!  At first I wasn't sure what design I wanted to do on my nails I just knew I didn't want to do clovers or rainbows.  So I decided with these simple gold foil tips and a foil cross.

Not I liked how they came out, but like last time the top coat killed some of the holo effect.  That being said I also tried the put clear polish on it first before the top coat, and that killed the holo completely.  At this point I'm in a love hate relationship with foils.  I love how they look till the top coat.  And it started to come off after I took a shower :(

Yay! More nail wraps!!! + Well that's inappropriate.

So I've been super busy the past 2 weeks doing shows.  I finally managed to get all our wishlist giveaway winners prizes(and a little something extra), but I have not had any time to mail them because of rehearsals intertwined with shows.  Anyways yesterday I watched a bit of a sketch comedy troupe perform.  I came in midway through their final sketch I have no idea what it was about but, they made a black face joke and I remember thinking "Please don't actually come out in blackface".  Apparently that would have been asking for too much.  They finished the sketch with a guy coming out with blackface on and covered in photos of gorilla...bits...  Now I realize that art is subjective but...no.

Now this is a manicure I wore last week it's OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in Geometric Sparkles. It looks exactly like it sounds :P I'm a big fan of nail wraps as a whole, and this is the first OPI one I have tried.  As you can see from the name these are made from real polish.  They are simple to put on.  Just select the appliqué that fits your nail, and if there's none just find the closest fit ans trim it so it fits properly.  Then peel off the clear covering and gently peel the appliqué of the white back.  Position it on a clean nail, press it down and be careful not to wrinkle it.  File or melt off the tip with acetone, then finish with topcoat!

Now the package says that it comes with base and topcoat, but I stall added both.  It just made everything look a bit neater.  One thing I noticed with these were compared to the other nail polish apps I have tried(Incoco) these are much more delicate, once they touch your nail they had better be in the right place.

Overall I really liked these, but I did get them on sale.  I'm not sure it would be something I shelled out full price for.  But they were still relatively easy to apply, and I can never say no to easy nail art.

What's that saying again? Ah yes! 5th times the charm...

So last Friday I left my phone at the boys place and have yet to pick it up.  Only now do I realize how often I check my emails, as I keep reaching for it.  And yes I know I can check my laptop, but that means changing accounts which is a (vary minor, but still very real) pain in the ass.  I also miss my Candy Crush.  I have been on Level 500 for over a month now, and I fear my cousin will have over taken me when I get back.  I feel we have some sort of unspoken Candy Crush war going on.  I am ok with that.

Today I have some nail art foil from KKcenterHk.  Now I have tried nail foils before but it has never been successful.  Turns out you need a special glue!  Which I am pleased to say KKcenterHk was kind enough to send me.  But despite this it still took a bit of trial an error.

Attempt 1: I didn't want to use up any of my new insane holo foil, so I decided to experiment with the KKcenterHk glue,  and some older foil that I had received from elsewhere.  Left the glue on till it was no longer white, and it worked like a charm.

Attempt 2: Tried to do some cool claw looking reverse french with the KKcenterHk foil.  Epic fail.  I did it the same way I had the previous time but it would NOT stick.

Attempt 3:  I thought maybe it was a drying time thing.  I read that leaving the glue on for a least 5 minutes was good.  So I tried that and used my older foil and the KKCenter Hk foil.  Old foil, perfect.  KKcenterHK, Nadda.

Attempt 4:  I'm getting frustrated by now.  I leave it on for just over 5 minutes this time, and the one big change was I ripped it off like a band aid.  Success!  Add SH quickdry topcoat.  I get's all weird and sticky and the finish get's messed up.

Attempt 5(which is what you are going to see):  I left the glue on for 5 minutes in this cool claw like pattern, placed the foil on top, rubbed it on with a cotton ball and my finger, and ripped it odd quickly.  Tried SV as a topcoat this time.  SUCCESS!  *5 minutes later*  "Where did the holo go?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Left hand, with Seche Vite :(

Right hand, no topcoat :)

So as I learnt, different foils may act differently.  My older foil easily came off when rubbed on the nail, and carefully removed.  Where as this one needed to be taken off quickly for it to stick.  Also I now know that top coat does not always play nice with foils :(  Anyone know of topcoat that plays well with foils?

Over all I really like this and am much more pleased with this mani then I was the first time I tried foils.  The top coat issue stinks, but hopefully I can find something that works well with foils.  Because one I got the hand of applying foils, it's pretty easy and fun!  If you would like this you can head on over to KKcenterHk.  If you want just the foil it's $6.92, the foil and a small glue $8.86, and for the foil and a regular size glue $10.80 (All in USD).