Penny Talk on Mauve

This week has been decent. The weather has been nice and I was able to walk to work a couple of days. I spent an evening with my mom for her birthday.  I was able to Skype my sister last night so we got caught up on events some. My belly dance troupe is performing tomorrow evening and I am excited about that.

This week I was lacking inspiration so I went to pinterest to find something to do.  I decided to replicate this look. I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Mauve.  It is a greyish purple and the formula is decent. Then I painted on the tips using Essie Penny Talk.  This one is a thicker formula and it tends to dry quickly. Consequently, it is more difficult to work with. After it all dried, I topped it off with China Glaze matte top coat.

I forgot how much I like the look of matte polish, especially over a metallic polish.

What do you think?  Do you like the matte polish?

Until later,
Chess

The Skinny on Fashion Playground

I wasn't able to make time last week to be able to write all this out for you all.  I worked a lot of overtime at work.  I had a lot of rehearsal for my belly dance performances.

Then this weekend I went to territory days for a while with my steampunk friends.  My father-in-law was admitted to the hospital and we spent a fair amount of time there.  We spent some of Memorial Day with my parents.

This week I was inspired by an email I received from Sally Hansen.  I don't have a picture to provide, however.  I started with three coats of Essie Fashion Playground. The polish was very thin and required the third coat.  Then I placed a coat of Ulta The Skinny on the tips of my nails except the ring finger.  That one I used a circular price sticker to cover the half moon at the base of the nail and painted on The Skinny.

I really liked the two colors together.  I love the contrast.  What do you think?

Until later,

Chess

Smokin' Hot

Last week I mentioned having a rough time with my mani.  I felt little creativity and was having a hard time with the stamping.  Sometimes things work, and sometimes they just don't.  This week was better.  I still didn't have much of a creative idea when I set out to do my mani this week, but it came together better.

I started off knowing what color I wanted to use, but wasn't very sure what image or color for the image.  I just kept going through my plates and looking at all the images until I felt comfortable with the idea I formulated

I started off using three coats of Essie Smokin' Hot.  It was uneven in some places, so I used the third coat.  Otherwise, maybe two would have sufficed.  It is a purple tinted grey or grey tinted purple, depending on the light.

After all that dried, I stamped on the different images using Konad plate m51 and the Konad special polish in black.  I find the Konad special polish works better than the Mash special polish.  There are three images on the plate, though I forgot to take a picture of my thumb so you could see the third, largest image.  The flower and the leaves are separate, but I put them together to make a slightly different image on my middle and ring fingers.

I love the way this one turned out.  What do you think?

Until later,

Chess

Merry Christmas 2013

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, wherever you are.  We will be heading to his parent's house, then my grandparents' house, and finally to my parents' house, so we will be rather busy.  I wanted to get this posted early today so that I don't forget with everything else that is going on today.

I went for a non-traditional manicure this week.  I didn't want to do the typical red and green.  I have also been eyeing a very special polish from the Essie winter collection.  I received a coupon for Ulta, so I used that to get that special polish at a slightly better price.

Without further ado....

I started off with three coats of Sinful Colors Hot Spot on all my nails except my ring finger.  This is a nice metallic royal blue, that doesn't leave brush strokes.  On my ring finger, I used Essie On A Silver Platter.  This one is a gold glitter with a couple different kinds of blue holographic glitter in it. I used the Essie polish on the tips of the rest of my nails.

After it all dried, I used Diamond Dry on top of everything. This helped cover the glitter on my ring finger so it didn't feel so jagged, and helped to smooth out the rest of the nails some.  I had to layer on the glitter polish more on the tips so it would show better.

I hope you all love this one as much as I do, and you have a wonderful day today!

Until later,

Chess

Peach and Pastel Purple

This week I found some inspiration on pinterest for my mani.  You can see the original here.  The original was done with two pinks, based on the description, but the lighter one looks more purple to me.  So I decided to raid my stash and see if there were a couple of colors that would work well together.  I think my picks worked very well.

I started off with three coats of Essie To Buy Or Not To Buy.  I forgot how thin this polish is.  Once that dried, I sponged on the Essie color with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Peachy Breeze.  Over the top of that, I used China Glaze Fairy Dust.  It is getting a little old and goopy, so I used Diamond Dry on top of that to smooth it all out.

I absolutely love this combination and how it turned out.

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do this coming week.

What do you think?  Do you like this one?

Until later,

Chess

Merino Cool

Once again I felt no real urge to do much with my nails.  I had some good news at work, so hopefully things will begin to return to normal.  For so long I have been terribly stressed out, and I haven't felt normal.  I am ready for a change.

This week I wanted to try out a new color I picked up by Essie.  So this mani is two coats of Essie Merino Cool.  It is a fabulous color, a mix between grey and purple.  Absolutely perfect for fall or winter.

Until later,

Chess