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!

Lady Luck swatch and first successful tape mani

     As you may have seen in one of my posts a while back I failed miserably at my first tape mani.  I did try a second time and pretty much the same thing happened.  I decided not to do tape manis anymore until I saw a few blogs talking about how to successfully accomplish a tape mani.  Let me tell you, I can't believe the difference it made.  But I can show you, he he. :-)
     The first two times I did a tape mani all I knew was to make sure the base coat was dry and apply tape.  Well, there are a few more steps to this process.

• MAKE SURE your base coat is COMPLETELY dry.  If you can't wait for the polish to dry use a quick drying top coat like Sesche Vite, OPI Rapidry, or Out the Door.  
• Stick the tape to the back of your hand a few times to make the tape less sticky.  If you don't do this the base color will be pulled up when you take the tape off and you will be very upset.
• Work with one nail at a time.  Apply tape to nail in the desired pattern, apply color, and immediately remove the tape.  If you wait for the polish to dry the tape will get stuck to the nail and again you will be very upset.  

     In my first attempts I applied the tape full sticky strength to all my nails, then applied the polish, then waited for the polish to dry, then attempted to remove the tape.  Click the link in the first sentence if you want to see how your mani will turn out.

     After all that is said, I didn't really like the end result.  I think I would have enjoyed it more with out the dots in the middle.  I did however get a lot of complements on this so at least other people liked it.  :-)

 Lady Luck outside with no flash

 Lady Luck in side with no flash

Lady Luck inside with flash

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

Base color: Lady Luck from Wet N' Wild - 2 coats

Overlay color: Let's Talk from Sinful Colors - 1 coat

Black dots: Acrylic paint applied with a dotting tool

Top Coat: Rapidry from OPI

Have you tried any tape manis?  Have you wanted to scream at the top of your lungs?

I LOVE hearing from my readers, weather it be constructive criticism, complements, ideas, anything, please talk to me in the comments!  I will reply and I read each and every comment.