Embellished Naughty Nautical

Essie's Naughty Nautical has quickly become one of my favorite polishes ever. It's a perfect color with an amazing subtle shimmer that keeps it interesting without being over the top. I've worn it several times in the last few months, so I thought I'd spice it up this time!

I used China Glaze Galactic Gray and Cosmic Dust as well as Zoya's Zuza. Zuza and Naughty Nautical are pretty much exactly the same color but with different finishes.

My husband said he definitely preferred the dots to the strips, and I think I agree with him. More dotty gradients are in my future, I think!

Essie Sole Mate

Sole Mate is one of the very first polishes I ever bought. It's been with me at least since my junior year in college; I don't remember the act of purchasing it, which is crazy for me now! But it predates my nail polish obsession by a fair amount. There's a picture of me floating around somewhere, taken at my parents house, and my nails are super short and bitten with super chipped nail polish -- sole mate! It looks much better now when I wear it.

Two coats, minimal cleanup.

It's a SUPER dark eggplanty purple; it's pretty close to black in most lights. Around the edges you can see the purple, and in the sunlight it's not quite as black. It's also the quintessential Essie formula: slightly jelly, takes a couple coats, super shiny.

These photos are after TEN DAYS. I can't believe I not only didn't change my polish for 10 days, but that they stayed this perfect for that long! Go Essie go!

Essie comparisons

Here's a comparison of some Essie whites: Marshmallow, Waltz, and Allure! I bought them all on separate occasions, because I thought I was getting one level of opacity by looking at the bottle and then it turned out when I got home that I was completely wrong! So if you're in the market for a sheer white polish, hopefully this will help you decide which you want!

One coat

2 coats

Clearly Marshmallow is the one to get if you want something that can be an opaque white. Waltz is sheer but much more opaque than Allure, which is really just a wash of color. They're all fairly streaky; since Marshmallow becomes opaque it wasn't too big a deal, but the other two need fairly thick coats to even themselves out.

Pink Wednesday: Essie Your Hut or Mine

I love Essie. They aren't the most exciting of nail polish brands, but I like their cute little bottles & I like their brush, and I think they have some really beautiful shimmers (see: smooth sailing, mochacino). I got Your Hut or Mine thinking that it's a beautiful pink with a great gold shimmer, and... it halfway delivered.

This picture isn't in focus at all, but I just wanted to say: this is how YHOM wants to photograph. This is so far from accurate it isn't even funny.

This is closer to reality, but it's still not quite that bright. The real color is closer to the next picture, though my skin looks totally dead:

I will definitely be reaching for this color again, because it's a pink that walks the fine line between old-lady-pink and bubblegum-pink. I have had a really hard time finding a pink that doesn't feel too young or too old, and I think this one is exactly were I wanted it to be. But do you see any shimmer in there? Because I don't. It makes me sad. :(

But it's still pretty, and if you're having a hard time finding the right mix between young-old-bright-pale pinks, I highly suggest this one!

Also, don't forget that I'm having a little giveaway with red & blue goodies over here!

NCAA Tournament Nails, take 1!

This past weekend was the beginning of the NCAA tournament! As I've talked about before, I'm a HUGE Kansas fan. My husband and I watched both rounds with his boss, who is a descendent of Phog Allen, and if you know who he is, let's be friends! :) So here are the nails I rocked for the whole weekend.
Yes, that means I didn't do St. Pats nails. Basketball is WAY more important to me!!


I started with 2 coats of Essie Waltz.

Waltz is a really pretty sheer. I also have Allure & Marshmallow. Allure is a super sheer wash of barely-color; Waltz is more opaque; Marshmallow is practically-opaque white. They cover all 3 of the levels of coverage I could want really nicely.

Then I reached for some blue & red glitter! A lot of people weren't super pleased with the Muppets glitter, because they weren't opaque, but that's my favorite kind of glitter. I love to layer & sponge & play with glitter, and the clear-based glitters are really great for that!

I used Gone Gonzo & Gettin' Miss Piggy With It for this. GG was actually significantly denser than GMPWI, which I found interesting... but I'm not sure if that's true or if I just shook it up a little more vigorously and got the glitters re-suspended better.

This isn't a sponge gradient; with glitter, I find it much easier to just put a large dollop at the tip, spread it across (kind of like a french!) and, after wiping all the excess off the brush, use short strokes to spread it down the nail a bit.

We played on Friday & Sunday, so I wore Waltz by itself on Thursday & with the glitter for 3 days, and when I took it off Monday morning it was still flawless. These nails made it through two games, one of which was a freaking nail biter (though thankfully, not literally! I think I've really truly broken the habit!), AND building a Melmer (pictures of that coming soon!), which I find so impressive. I really really loved how this looked. It was exciting but still very lady-like, and my nails looked incredible.

And here are a couple pictures from my dslr; I tend not to take pictures of my nails with my dslr, as I don't have a macro lens, and my point & shoot is really high quality, but for some reason I actually did take a couple this time!

Are you rooting for a specific team this tourney? And do you do your nails to show your support?

Game Day nails!

Today's the big day: The Final Border War!
I graduated from The University of Kansas last spring. Our rivalry with Missouri goes back to the Civil War. Kansas wanted to be a Free State, but people from Missouri kept coming over the border and voting for Kansas to be a slave state. They burned Lawrence (where KU is located) to the ground on more than one occasion. Quantrell's raid was an ugly thing.  So when we say we hate Missouri, we don't mean in a "Their jerseys are ugly and they're geographically close to us so they're a reasonable team to choose for a rival." We hate them in a, "You wanted to be slave owners, you burned our town, and you raped our women," sort of way.
They're moving to the SEC next year, so this is the end of the Border War. If we win this game, then we are the Big 12 regular season champs, and our dominance over MU is assured for the rest of time.

It's sort of a big game.

So I went way out of my comfort zone and did some red & blue nail art for game day!!

This red is Essie Russian Roulette, & the blue is Essie Mesmerize. They're my go-to primary red & blue. 2 coats of RR, just 1 of Mesmerize!!

The stripes on index & pinky were done using a Kiss nail art striper.

I finally attempted a cloud! I mixed up the finishes: glossy red, matte black (Orly Matte Vinyl), and foil (Zoya Trixie). I think it turned out really nicely!

The middle finger, I painted the entire nail red, then half of it blue. I used the black Kiss striper down the middle & the lines coming out, and the gold lines are a gold Kiss striper that came in the same set.

My thumb is another cloud, blue-black-silver, and my left hand is a perfect mirror.

Over all, I am incredibly proud of hour this turned out! I am pretty awful when it comes to nail art, but I think this looks pretty good!

Now to get ready for the game. Rock Chalk!!

February Nail Mail!

In January, I spent at total of $5 on polish, because I only bought a couple bottles & I used a gift card to do it. This month our budget has had a little more leeway, so I put a bunch of polishes in a cart at Transdesign, stared at them for a couple days, and finally ordered them (because my husband made me). But before they got here, this lovely polish came via the wonderful Kelly!

WHIMSICAL! Ahh! Glitter in the Air was my very first lemming ever, but I refused to ever spend that much money on a polish. When Whimsical started appearing last month, I was dying for it, but no one in my town was carrying it! So Kelly, who is an absolute dear, found an extra one and sent it my way! Now I feel like my life is finally complete.

And then my order from TD came!

 I have always loved Essie polishes, and I'd been lusting after these three for a while. Your Hut or Mine, a pink shimmer that I think is going to be the perfect not-bubblegum and not-old-lady pink; Mochacino, a brown shimmer; & Smooth Sailing, a cornflower blue shimmer from last summer. I was actually into polish when this was on shelves and went searching for it, but every store that was carrying the Braziliant collection was sold out of Smooth Sailing.

My first Misas! I have actually worn both of these already -- swatches soon! -- and I am now officially in LOVE with Misa. Oh my gosh. They are the most perfect creams I have ever experienced. Office Polishtics and Gray Matter.

Of course, we all recognize Orly Fowl Play. I have been lusting after this one forever, too, and again couldn't find it here -- for a university town, we apparently have really crappy polish selection! -- and then just still hadn't quite convinced myself to pull the trigger online. I LOVE it.
Also pictured here is Orly Pure Porcelain. This is the interesting part: I didn't order this polish!! I ordered China Glaze Traffic Jam and got this instead! I emailed Trans the next day, and they refunded me the cost of ChG, no questions asked. So yay, they have good customer service!

View this one large: you can see some of the green flash of the flakes on the edges of the bottle!!

All of my lovelies all lined up!

Now you know what you have to look forward to in the near future!

Two manis with Essie Mesmerize

I've been feeling under the weather the last few days, so I'm still rocking my NYE mani. And because I haven't been doing much of anything, it's still flawless! But in the meantime, here is an older mani for your viewing pleasure!

Here is Essie Mesmerize. I am a total sucker for a blue polish. This is what I was wearing at the beginning of our honeymoon. There's actually kind of a funny story about it... We went on a cruise, and on the first day of a cruise everyone has to participate in "muster," where you figure out where you're supposed to go in case of disaster. They fit way too many people in not nearly enough room, so you end up standing really close to total strangers. The lady standing next to me noticed my nails and said, "Oh, I just love that blue! I wish I could wear blue, but my husband only lets me wear reds and pinks."
After muster, I turned to my husband and said, "Thank you for letting me wear whatever color I want on my nails." What fun would nail polish be if we were stuck with just reds and pinks? I can't imagine!

And here's another mani I did a couple months later with Mesmerize. For this, I sponged Zoya - Charla onto the tips. If you click to enlarge this, you can see how interesting Charla is. I love her so dang much.

Why do you think "normal people" (ie, people not obsessed with polish like we are!) are so scared of "unusual" polish colors?

First!

After 9 months of obsessively following nail blogs and finally taking care of my nails (after 10 years of biting & chewing & peeling & picking), my husband is encouraging me to take my own nails onto the internet. So here I am! A short introduction is in order...

I'm Laura! I graduated from the University of Kansas with a piano performance degree in 2011. Now I'm teaching piano to elementary-middle-high school students, accompanying at the university, and starting a photography business!
I bit my nails from the time middle school until the last year or two. I got engaged, which meant lots of pictures of me and my fingers, & I got really self conscious about it. As a pianist, I had to keep my nails short, but I made a real effort to stop. It got better, but I didn't really succeed until after graduation when I stopped playing all the time. My nails are slowly regaining strength, but they're still very prone to breaking. It seems like they always break all the way down at the quick, too, and negate all of the hard work I've put in. But it's a battle I am slowly winning.

Photo courtesy of http://www.glowimagery.com

This is me and my husband on our wedding day, about 10 minutes after saying we do! We have been together for 5 1/2 years, and we finally committed ourselves to each other on July 31, 2011. Yes, 7/31 is Harry Potter's birthday. Yes, that was part of why we chose that date. We are pretty awesome. He was also a music student in college, but he is waayyy too into computers (in fact, he just recently got certified as an Apple technician), so I tolerate his tech obsession and he tolerates my polish obsession. I just don't let him count how many bottles I have...

Here is the very first polish I took pictures of! This is after a few weeks of working my butt off to try and get my fingers into a semi-respectable state, and my application was awful... This is Essie Turquoise & Caicos.

This is a much more recent manicure! My nails need a little shaping here, but it's a long way from that first picture up there. This is a layering nightmare... it's Orly Mirror Mirror, then China Glaze Frosty, then Essie Waltz. A couple days later, I added OPI Crown Me Already!, and it was pretty much pure awesome.

And here we go!