Emily de Molly External Links

Hello everybody!

Although the polish I am going to show you was from a while ago, let me tell you about the weekend I just had. I went to visit my brother in New Mexico for a couple of days and oh my goodness, that part of the country is gorgeous! The mesas, the canyons, the views! We went on a couple of hikes and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I will have a post later with the pictures I took because, of course, I have some nail pics from my hikes as well! The polish I wore that day was perfect.

Okay! Today's polish is quite a beauty too! This is Emily de Molly External Links. This is a bright bright blue jelly with iridescent glitters of different sizes. This was one of those polishes that was really hard to photograph well and show the uniqueness of it. A.k.a., pictures don't do this justice. You certainly can see how bright the blue is though. What you can't really see is the myriad colors coming from the glitters.

Down below I have indoor pictures, up above are outdoor pictures from a cloudy day. You can see the jelly base in the last picture. It is more sheer in pictures than in real life. I think I stopped at two coats but I could have worn a third. Unfortunately, as with many jelly polishes for me, it did chip in 3 or 4 days. It was close enough to when I would change polish anyway that it didn't matter much but I do remember thinking I wish it lasted just a day or two longer.

That's it for today! See you guys next time. 

Colors by Llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

The thing I love about the indie polish world is how much more you can get to know the maker of each brand, how interactions with them through emails, Facebook groups and other social media can elevate it from a cold business transaction to something a little more special. Of course, that means you sometimes find something out about a maker that rubs you the wrong way, goes against your beliefs or outright offends you but that comes part and parcel with human interaction, right?  I'm happy to say that Leah Anne from Colors by Llarowe has shown herself to be a wonderful, genuinely nice and generous person. I had started buying her polish long before I really knew what she was like but I'm so happy to know that I have at least half a Helmer drawer full of beautiful polishes that are made by a beautiful person. The polish I'll be showing you today is one of them, called Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

That is an incredibly appropriate name for this polish because it seriously twinkles like the night sky. I think this polish is considered a close dupe to the original Essie Starry Starry Night. I don't have that polish so I can't compare but I know there are comparison posts on other blogs and they do look practically identical.

The base of the polish is a dark blue jelly with silver glitter suspended in it. It's very simple, no holo, no color shifting, but still magical. In keeping with the starry night theme, I stamped an accent with silber polish and a star image from the Bundle Monster plate BM-310. I absolutely loved this look!

That's it for today. Thanks for visiting and see you next time!!

Sinful Color I Love You

From the very beginning of my nail polish obsession, I knew that I loved purples. It's probably the color I have the most and I need very little reason to buy more. Sinful Color I Love You was one of the first purples I bought but it took me forever to actually wear it. It has a purple jelly base with microglitters/microflecks that I believe are duochrome purple/gold. It's super pretty and I just love this color!!

What I didn't love so much about this polish was how sheer it was. It took FOUR coats to get sort of opaque and get rid of the visible nail line. Tip shrinkage was inevitable with Seche Vite. Normally, that would keep me from using it again but then again, really pretty purple!! I'll just find a way to make it work with layering or jelly sandwiches. I love the color way too much!

Meanwhile on the home front, working on looking for good daycare options for the older son while trying to figure what the heck the rash is on my baby son's face. He is seriously cute but this rash is very much not :-(

Do you guys have any polishes that you might have otherwise purged if not for how amazing you think the color is?

The pond mani, with Maybelline Drops of Jade and Love and Beauty Jade

Hi everyone!

Excuse me for being brief but I don't think I'm going to put a lot of words into this post today. I've tossed around the idea of using stamping instead of glitter in a jelly sandwich forever but never got around to doing it. Then I saw this amazing manicure by Reddit user motorcityvicki and I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to try it myself. Then I purchased Maybelline Drops of Jade, looked at my jelly franken of Love and Beauty Jade, and this mani came together.

The thumb, index and pinky fingers are 3 coats of Maybelline Drops of Jade. The middle and ring finger accents are done by using my frankened jelly of Love and Beauty Jade, and sandwiching the rose stamp from the plate PUEEN 14 seen below.

I actually used a couple of different colors for the stamping. I used SH Insta-Dri Whirlwind White and Sinful Colors last chance for the dark green.

Outside pics, more color accurate, I think.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting!!

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge Day 1: Lust

Hi everyone! So, on today's post, I'm super excited to say that I have joined a challenge based on the Seven Deadly Sins! I usually stay away from challenges because I never know if I'll have the time to do all the challenge manis and sometimes the actual challenge topics just don't call for any creativity in me. This particular challenge was created by Alice from One Nail to Rule Them All and Helena from Nail Wish and it's called the Deadly Sins Challenge. 

Illustration by Dahlig (her DeviantArt is http://dahlig.deviantart.com/)

The first week challenge is Lust and we can do both of the challenges or just one. I chose the Day 1 challenge and decided to do something that I've been thinking about for a long, long time. 

I had seen a Tadashi Shoji dress on Pinterest that immediately had me wondering what it would look like as a mani. After having it in the back of my mind for a while, I decided that I needed a black jelly to make it work, so frankened one. Then I sat on it some more. 

Finally, this challenge was what prompted me to get my act together and see if I could capture the lace under black guaze look. 

I think it looks ok in pictures but it falls a little flat in real life. I did enjoy finally getting my butt in gear and trying to get my idea onto my nails. The polishes I used are Sinful Colors Snow me White and WnW Black Creme. The black jelly is created from the Black Creme.

Here's the dress that inspired me:

From: http://www.stylebistro.com/runway/New+York+Fashion+Week+Fall+2012/Tadashi+Shoji/1dHUggmWw-D

Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat

Hello lovelies! For today's post we are back to, guess what? Blue!! And what a blue it is! This is Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat. It's a blue with jelly like consistency. I suppose you could use it in a sandwich but personally I would have to make it more translucent before I did that. It is very reminiscent of Revlon Royal. I have not done a side by side comparison but from what I remember, I probably don't need both. But...look at it!! I could not pass up this glowing beauty at the store.

I know, it looks like there's visible nail line all over the place. Oh my god! It's looks like x-ray vision to my nails underneath. Actually, it wasn't at all visible in real life. My camera always destroys any claims to proper clean up, lack of visible nail line and the amount of purple or pink that actually exists in a particular shade. 

The glow that came from this shade made me happy the entire day. Stay tuned for the next post though. I'll show you what I did with it to make me even happier!