Essence You Belong To Me Swatches and Sunday Stamping

     Good morning every body.  I hope that you are all having workless, sunny, and fun relaxing weekends.  I worked yesterday but did get to do one of my favorite things last night.  Go to the Cigar Bar at McMenamins, sit around a fire pit, sip a beer, smoke a cigar cigarette, and hang out with good friends.  To me, this is one of the most relaxing, care free things to do.
     One of my girlfriends mentioned that she had seen a blue and brown combination of something the other day and how pretty it actually was.  This has made me want to do a blue and brown stamping combination for like the entire week!  While I was at the book signing for Jen Lancaster on Wednesday I also came across a Konad kiosk and was so excited.  I was finally able to buy my first Konad plate.  I have wanted m65 for a very long time and yay, it would go great with the brown and blue combination!  I almost pissed my pants when she told me it was 7 dollars though!  That seems a bit extreme to me but what do I know, I had never bought one before.  It was also perfect because when I checked what the design was for my Adventures In Stamping Group on Facebook it was to do a design with a plate ending in 5.  The starts were aligning for me!
     The starts aligned until I went to find a nice deep dark chocolate brown yesterday and I COULDN'T FIND
ONE!  I was very distraught over this.  My entire week of do a cute brown and blue mani down the drain.  Sure I probably could have gone to an actual beauty supply store instead of Fred Meyer, but I only had 5 dollars.  I settled for a new blue and figured I could use my Nude It! from Essence for the brown, which is more of a taupe color but they looked really cute together.
     Fail!  I couldn't get the Nude It! to stamp.  It dried way to fast on to the stamp and wouldn't transfer.  Frustration level became very high.  I decided to try the Venus from Avon that I picked up while at the book signing and while I wasn't 100% pleased, I still am enjoying in.

 Outside in direct sunlight

 Inside with no flash

 Inside with flash

     One last thing.  I love the name of the blue I used, You Belong To Me, because it made me think of Taylor Swift, because that is one of the titles to her songs, and then reminded me of a blue dress that she wore in one of her very first music videos.  I'm almost 100% sure this is how they came up with the name for the polish. ;-)

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI and Nail Envy from OPI
Base color: You Belong To Me - 2 coats from Essence
Stamping color: Venus from Avon
Top coat: Out the door

Wet N' Wild Blazed Swatches with Essie Shine of the Times

     I was in the mood for a summery color so I grabbed Blazed out of my untried pile.  I really liked the out come of it.  It did take 3 coats for full opacity but Wet N' Wild is a quicker drying polish.  I picked up Essies Shine of the Times in the same haul and I have been dying to try it.  It reminds me of the Finger Paints flakie collection.  In the bottle it has SO many colors.  Green, blue, purple, orange, and red.  I LOVE it.  I wish I could have seen more of the blue, purple, and green over the Blazed, unfortunately the red and orange were the only ones that really showed.  At certain angles I did get some of the green, that is why there are so many pictures.  I am trying to show all the wonder that is this mani.  Some of the pictures are larger than I normally post because I really wanted you to see the different color with the Shine of the Times but my camera did not do this mani ANY justice.

This swatch was taken outside with no flash

This was taken inside with no flash

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI 

Base color: Blazed by Wet N' Wild - 3 layers

Fleck: Shine of the Times by Essie - 1 coat

Top coat: Out The Door

I wish this combo could be seen in all the glory that it really was.

Jen Lancaster Inspired Nails

     In just over an hour I will be leaving on a 3 hour road trip with my amazing friend Megan, kid free, might I add, to go to a book signing with author Jen Lancaster!  We are SO stinking excited.  We both love her and are both just as much as a smart ass as she is.  I can't get in to to many details about who she is because, well, she has written 5 memoirs, so I will just tell you to go check out her blog.  Her blog is what got her noticed.  (Are all of your fingers crossed right now!!)  She was very successful in the dot com era and when it all crashed, like many, she lost her job.  After becoming so bored of temp jobs and re wall papering her bathroom she started her blog, and now she is doing amazing.  If you like what you see, READ THE BOOKS.  If no, do not read the books.  You will probably hate her.  And I can't have Jen Lancaster haters around here ;-)
     For this mani I decided to paint each of her memoir cover designs on my nails.  I am pretty proud of how these turned out, especially since I finished these at 11:30 at night.

And here are the book covers so you can see where the images came from.

One thing I am really disappointed with is the quality of these swatched images.  It was late at night so I couldn't go outside and get a natural image and neither of these really show the true color of Jazz.  This one is inside with the camera flash.

 And this is without the flash.  This picture makes it look way to dark.  I would say the real color is more closer looking to what you see in the above image.

I really hope you like these!

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI and Nail Envy from OPI

Base color: Jazz - 2 coats from Essie

Top Coat: Out the door

All art EXCEPT the purple lingerie is acrylic, the purple was On A Trip from Wet N Wild

Sally Hanson Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet Swatches and Stamping

     I picked up Mint Sorbet the other day and I must say, I love this color.  It is just so yummy looking.  Not to mention I got a lot of compliments on this mani.  I picked up some new Essence plates as well and was so excited to try them out.  Back when I first discovered the nail polish blogging community I used to read people posts and they would say they couldn't remember how many coats they did and I thought it was funny that they couldn't remember.  Ha.  Guess what, I can't remember if  I did two or three coats of this.  :-(  I am going to start writing these things down so that  I don't ever have to write this again.

Finished product inside with no flash

Outside with no flash

Inside with flash

Inside without flash

 Outside without flash

My new plates.  The stamp that I used was on the right plate on the bottom in the center.

Base coat: Chip Skip by OPI and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: Mint Sorbet from Sally Hanson - 2 coats...I think

Stamping color: Why Not from Sinful Colors.  It did not stain when I used it as a stamping color like it did when I used it for my entire nail.

Top Coat: Out the Door

I am really liking stamping.  What about you guys?

N.Y.C. Charming Rose Creme Swatches and Tape Mani

     There are several things I love about this mani.  The glitter combination that I am showing in this post has been my favorite combination for years.  I have a back up bottle of Sparked and have gone through one bottle of the Charming Rose Cream and Sparked before.  These are the only bottle of polishes I have ever completely gone through.  Separately these colors don't do much for me but together these are great.  I even wore this color on my wedding day as the tips on a french tip manicure.
     The Charming Rose Cream is kinda streaky with just two coats.  I have never tried it with three because I always layer the glitter over it and don't want it to be to think.  Sparkled has AMAZING coverage.  This is only one coat of it and look at it!
     One of the nail pages I follow on facebook was hosting a glitter mani contest and I knew I had to use this combo but do something more to it.  If you need tips on how to do a tape mani you can look at this post.  I got a lot of compliments on this mani so I really hope that you like it.  :-)

 Before I added the Black Cream

 Inside without flash

 Outside with no flash

 Inside without flash

 Inside with flash

Base coat: OPI Chip Skip and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: Charming Rose Creme from N.Y.C. - 2 coats

Glitter: Sparked from Wet N Wild - 1 coat

Black: Black Cream from Wet N Wild - 1 coat

Top coat: Rapidry from OPI

Let me just say that I am obsessed with Chip Skip.  You apply it to your nail before you apply your base coat and it works great.  I work in food service and I have to wash my hands a hundred times a day.  Maybe not that much but it is a lot.  With my hands in and out of soap and water the polish retains water and peels like a sunburned person.  My manis are usually off my fingers by the time I get off but this barely chipped.  Only one of my nails had chips in it!