I'm Swatchin' You - Essie Wicked

Today, I get to show you my first Essie!  It's the vampy beauty, Wicked, a red jelly.

I have classified this as a red.  It's a deep, dark black-red.  I was excited to finally try my first Essie.  Sadly, I wasn't too happy with the formula.  There was no leveling, and uneven application.  This took three coats.  However, the third coat should be very light just to fill in the streaks that remain after the first two coats.  The formula was also quite thin.  But how could you not love the color or the name?!?

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - China Glaze Liquid Leather

Goooood morning!  This next polish is the very first China Glaze (ChG) polish I ever bought, because you can never have enough black!  It's a black jelly called Liquid Leather, as I'm sure many of you already know.  Of course, ChG makes great polish, and this one is no different.  Their brushes are pretty good.  However... (isn't there always a however with me?)  It does drag a bit on the first coat with this color.  But once you get a second coat on, it smooths right out.  Great coverage in two coats, and tons of shine...normally.  I decided to mattify it because nothing is hotter than a matte black.  Yum!

On a side note, do NOT try stamping with this black.  How do I know, you may ask?  EPIC. FAILURE.  That's how I know.  Very stressful day...I can't even go back there. *curling into the fetal position and sucking thumb*

SH Double Duty and Essie Matte About You for base and top.

Feature Friday - Relay for Life

Happy Friday!  Tonight, we will be participating in our local Relay for Life.  We are big supporters of this cause.  I am a cancer survivor, as is my husband and mother.  And I lost my grandmother to cancer.  So we always try to support the cause every chance we get.  If you would like to support the cause through a donation, check out my sidebar.  There is a link there that will take you to the donation page.  I appreciate any support you can provide!

To further show my support, I did a simple color-blocking mani using the Relay for Life colors of red, blue, and purple.  And yes, my virtual bandage is back!  What can I say?  I work with my hands a LOT.

I started with my base of SH Double Duty.  Then, I painted a stripe down one edge of my nails with Wet 'n' Wild's 414, which just happens to be my all time favorite red.  Then, I painted the rest of each nail with Essie's Mesmerize.  Finally, I added a little section of purple using Orchid's Good Girl Gone Bad.  Everything was just free-handed. I topped my nails with a coat of SV to finish.
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Are any of you participating in the Relay this year?  Thanks for looking, and hopefully supporting.  Have a great weekend, everyone!  And don't forget to enter my giveaway!  It ends next week!

Feature Friday: National Day of Silence

Happy Friday!  So, Heidi over at DIY Polish and More came up with the idea of doing manis today in support of the National Day of Silence, and I jumped on board.  For those of you who do not know, the National Day of Silence is a day when students take a vow of silence to raise awareness of the silencing effect of bullying and harassment of the LGBT community.  You can learn more about it here. 

Here is the mani I came up with in support of the National Day of Silence.  I used the polishes shown below, which are (from left to right):  ChG Liquid Leather, SH Silver Sweep, WnW 414, OPI A Roll in the Hague, SH Lightening, Essie Pretty Edgy, and ChG Electric Beat.

I painted two coats of Liquid Leather on all of my nails, except for the accent.  I stamped the lips image from BM 02 (shown below) using Silver Sweep.  Then I used tape to create the line with 414.

My accent nail was done with the remaining colors using tape.  Thanks for looking, and I hope you will join in and take a vow of silence.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Update:  Click here to see Heidi's mani!

Feature Friday: Marbled Mani

Hi everyone!  I think I've mentioned before that I get some of my inspiration for manis from artwork I've done and even walls I've painted.  This mani is an idea I've had written in my little mani-spiration notebook for a while now and I got the idea from walls I've painted!  Those walls actually inspired two ideas.  Maybe I'll try the other one for next week's Feature Friday.

Anyway, I've painted walls with a flat white or off-white base and then used cheesecloth to rub on a gray to get the look of stone.  Then, using black paint and a small paintbrush, I painted on veins.  To finish, cover the walls in a clear glossy finish.  So I wondered how this technique would work on nails.  It definitely takes some getting used to using polish as a medium instead of paint.  But I think it's okay for a first attempt!  And the name is not to be confused with marbling nails.  This is not a water marbling.

I started with one coat of SH Double Duty as a base.  Then I painted on two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow and topped it with one coat of Essie's Matte About You.  You will want to wait a while to make sure the polish is dry and won't smudge with some pressure.

Next, I cut a small piece of cheesecloth and painted on some SH Xtreme Wear Wet Cement polish on the tip of the folded cheesecloth.  I very lightly and quickly rubbed it on the nail.  You have to work quickly and try to make it uneven, with more polish is some spots and less in others.  If you rub it around too much, the polish will start to dry and clump up.  You also want to try to get as close as possible to the edges to avoid a white outline.

Then, I used ChG's Liquid Leather to paint on veins.  I diluted the polish to bring down the intensity of the black.  Using a piece of tape as a palette (very high tech, BTW), I put down a drop of polish.  Then I grabbed a very fine paintbrush and loaded it with nail polish thinner.  Then I grabbed a bit of polish and rubbed in around to the load the brush with diluted polish and painted on some veins.  Here is a pic of my very sophisticated palette and the cheesecloth I used.

I did not paint a vein on every nail.  I left one or two plain.  On my left hand (shown) I left my accent nail plain.  Then I topped it with SV.  Not perfect, but not horrible for a first attempt!  I'll try to do my other idea for next weeks Feature Friday.  Thanks for looking!!!

Some Recent Hauls

I have been bad about keeping you up to date on what I have bought recently.  Sorry about that!  So I decided to do some catching up.  Here are some of the pollies I've bought over the past two months or so.

First up, my first swap!!!  I have never swapped before and I was very excited about this!  I didn't specify anything I wanted and just said she could surprise me with picks from my wishlist. She did a fantastic job!  I loved all of the pollies she sent and here they are!

L to R: CQ Golden Green, Petites Utopia, ChG Secret Peri-wink-le, Orly Bubbly Bombshell, OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it, Essie Wicked, Essie Mesmerize

This next photo is my JCPenney Salon mini haul and an Ulta Clearance haul.  My JCP Salon has OPIs for $6 each when you buy two.  Then I headed over to Ulta to check out what they had left (my Ulta's clearance section hasn't changed since the beginning of January).  I picked up all of these ChG colors for $8.

L to R: OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?, OPI Vampsterdam, ChG Champagne Bubbles, ChG Electric Pineapple, ChG Lighthouse, ChG Papaya Punch

As many of you probably already know, Walgreens has Sinful Colors on sale for $0.99.  Too great not to pass up!  I shared the love between my two Wags and got these pretties!

L to R: Bali Mist, Cloud 9, Daddy's Girl, Unicorn, Cinderella, Dancing Nails, Savage, I Miss You, GoGo Girl, Glass Pink

The Cinderella is actually a second.  I already have it and decided to pick up another to set aside for a future giveaway.  I'm thinking that if I can hit a "milestone" in followers (maybe 50?), then I could do a giveaway to celebrate!  I've got a couple of others set aside, too.  So help me spread the word to get more followers so I can start giving you guys some prizes!

And last but not least, I heard a rumor that HEB (Texas grocery store chain) was carrying Color Club.  On my next trip, I checked it out and there they were!

L to R: Hot Like Lava, It's a Hit, Lumin-icecent

I don't usually like big, chunky glitters.  But I found It's a Hit mesmerizing and couldn't take my eyes off of it.  So, I decided to give it a try.  I'm guessing it will be my one and only chunky glitter.  We shall see!  What have you gotten lately?

Chalkboard VDay Math Mani

I'm getting this in just under the wire (unlike my day late Superbowl mani!).  The day before Valentine's Day and here is my mani!  If you've figured it out by now, I am not a pinky flowery type of gal.  So I was trying to figure out how to do a Valentine's Day mani that was more ME.  Then I remembered something my hubberoo always used to say about us...one plue one equals one.  Awww!  The simple math made visions of chalkboards dance in my head (blame the teacher in me - we love chalkboards!).  So here is the mani...

I started with SH Double Duty as a base.  Then I used two coats of CG Liquid Leather topped with one coat of Essie's Matte About You.

Then I used tape (since my freehand sucketh) to do the math using OPI's Alpine Snow.  I finished it off with a teeny tiny pop of color by using CG's For Audrey to make a heart on my thumb.  First time trying dotting...not too shabby.  Sadly, my practice heart came out better than the ones on my thumbs.  Oh, well.  Can't wait to show the hubberoo!

And yes, I forgot to flip two of the photos prior to watermarking and didn't feel like going back to fix it.  Been that kind of day!