A-Z challenge - H is for Essie Hip-anema

Today I have for you one of my favourite colour families. Red / orange. I have terribly shrimpy pink toned skin, so many colours just look terrible on my hands. But I do love orange leaning reds, orange and coral. 

I actually spotted this on 'the barrow' a little makeup/nails stand in the Metro Centre. They often have OPI, Essie, Sally Hansen and many other brands at reduced prices. They're generally older collections, but if I like a colour, I really don't mind how old or new it is. This only cost me £2.99.

This is Essie Hip-anema, which I pronounced 'Hip-anenema' to Becca who promptly laughed her head off. It's a beautiful red/orange jelly, with the perfect brightness for summer which had complete coverage at 2 coats. As you can see, there is a slight VNL, but thats not something that bothers me. I was also quite surprised as Essie do not usually wear well for me.. but this wore really well and lasted 4 days before I got any tip wear, and another day before I got the tiniest of chips. 

What colour could you just not live without?

Don't forget to check out everyone else's H Manis at the hub page!

Rach xxx

Untried Friday - #2 Essie - Recessionista

Hey all!

Now I need to ask you first of all - what colour is this? Red or purple? I think its purple - I initially placed this with my reds and pinks as it is much lighter in the bottle. However when I applied it, it went on much darker.

The application on this was wonderful. Defo a one coater for shorter nails - I did have to patch a tiny bit with a thin second coat on my middle nail though. It dries super fast and is uber glossy even though it has a creme formula - I didn't even apply topcoat for these photos - if this is purple, then I've finally found one that I like AND can pull off! (Well, at least I think so!)

What do you think? 

Rachael xxx

Can't beat a bit of blue when you're blue!

Just a cheeky little easy, cheer you up mani today!

Here's my new favourite blue - Essie Butler Please, with a coat of Sinful Colors Hottie.

I haven't had much time for painting nails recently, what with being on holiday and then having the mother of crap weeks back at work.. so I've really tried to catch up with myself and get back to posting. I love painting my nails, I love sharing them, I love finding out what you think. I really don't want my main hobby to be pushed aside because I am always so busy at work. I need some me time, I just need to find room for it!

What do you think? Would you wear it? Do you own either colour?

Rachael xxx

Swatched - 'Mystery' Polish #2

Hey again everyone!

Another mystery Essie today - this one is a frosted forest green. I really love this one - nicely pigmented, applied nicely like most Essies tend to - it only needed 1 coat but I did apply two to see if it would make a difference. It didn't. I love it - beautiful Xmassy colour and you can expect to see it again soon!

What do you think? 

Rachael xxx

Swatched - 'Mystery' Essie #1

Just a quick swatch today - this is of a mystery Essie that I picked up from TK Maxx in a set of 5. It has a strangely smaller lid than other Essie's in the set and has no identifying information other than 23 stamped into the glass bottle. This information has yielded nothing as to what colour or shade this polish might be.

I would describe it as a frosted caramel colour. In the bottle it looks much darker and richer brown with streaks of silver pigment. When you apply it to the nail, it comes out like an antique gold. It covered well in the first coat, but I added a second for good measure. With its frosted appearance, it does show brush strokes so you have to be careful when you apply it to reduce how obvious they are.

What do you think? I'm not sure...

Rachael xxx

Back to School NAC - Day 1 Apples

Hellooooo!

Promised you a post, so here it is! My apples mani for Day 1.

Here I used Deborah Lippmann Modern Love as a base colour, an unnamed red Essie (472) for the apples, Catrice I'm Not a Greenager for the leaves and Mentality - Proper for the stalks and pips. The half apple also uses Ciaté Cookies and Cream for the flesh, and of course any white is my trusty Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Pretty pleased with how these turned out! Don't forget to check out everyone else's nails for this challenge! If you're thinking of joining in - please do! More the merrier! 

Rachael xxx

ER31DC - Day 12 Stripes

Hey all!

Still trying my best to catch up - here is my Day 12 - Stripes. I'm still in love with my Essie Naughty Nautical and Barry M Gold Foil Effects combo, so here it is another way :)

Don't forget to check out everyone else's nails for Stripes day!

Other posts you might like:

ER31DC - Day 11 Polka Dots

Hey all!

Here I am again with the 31 Day Challenge - today is Day 11, Polka Dots.

I decided to try out my new polish as a base - Essie Naughty Nautical. I LOVE IT! My dots are Barry M Gold Foil Effects.

What do you think? Would you wear it? 

Don't forget to check out everyone else's polka dot posts!

Other posts you might like:

Swatched - Essie Mojito

Hi all! 

Today I wanted to show you a swatch of a polish I picked up on the cheap. By now, I'm sure you know I love a polish steal - I picked up this beauty for £1.99 from the 'bargain barrow' near me. 

I have used this quite a lot for nail art, but never as a full mani. The formula is gorgeous and almost a one coater. I am completely in love with this - the shade, the price, everything! I love the Essie brushes as well - the wide brush is so much better for painting your nails - my smaller nails are literally one stroke!

What do you think? x

Twin Post with Laura from Little Laura Loves

Hey all!

Laura and I decided to do a twin post today! Our theme was Monkey See, Monkey Do - so check out her nails, she always has such cute ideas!

You can also check out my post, plus all her other posts at her blog - Little Laura Loves.

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Hey everyone, I'm Laura from Little Laura Loves.

Today me and Rachael are doing a twin MSMD post. I hope you like my post, if you do please check out my blog.

I spent so long deciding which mani to copy from Rachael's blog. She has so many beautiful idea's but I loved this one, I loved the idea she was inspired by her cat and had posted some super cute photo's of it.

So I decided to share some cute puppy pics as well as copying her mani. I hope you like it, please check out the original post !!

The base I used is Essie - All Tied Up. 

Then the pawprints are Rimmel - Torrid.

and here are my gorgeous puppies!

Thanks again so much Rachael !

xx

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Thank you so much Laura for twin posting with me! 

Different Shades of Blue - Autism Awareness - Ribbons

Hi all,

Been so so busy this last week, really trying to get back into regular posting!

I really want to finish this challenge - I may not make it within April, but they will appear eventually :)

Here are my awareness ribbons. I was really quite pleased with the finished result.

The polishes I used are:

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Utopia's Polish - Ice Princess

OPI - Absolutely Alice

What do you think? x

Everyone else's are already waaaaaaaaay finished, but you can check them out here:

Alicia from Makeup and Nails, Not War

Carmina from Cubbiful

ChiChi from I’m Just Me... ChiChi

Cordia from Seriously Swatched

Dionne from Glittery Fingers & Sparkling Toes

Erin from Paint Those Piggies!

Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous

Jillian from Jilltastic Nail Design

Kelly from Peace Love Lacquer

Laura from Little Laura Loves

Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer

Paulina from Paulina’s Passions

Rachael from Rachos Nail Love

Roxana from Beautylicious

Tammy from Lacquer and Leather

Tes from Tes Did It Nails

Tina from Light of the Moon Nails

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 10 Fighting - Guess Who?

Hello again! It's Pokémon time!

I knew roughly which pokémon I would be choosing from for this week - however, it seems I have boatloads of polish and do not have anything near what I need to do this in full colour, so I decided to go off on a tangent today.

And that tangent is... back to the animé! YAAAAAY :D Does anyone remember the interlude guess who game in the middle? It was one of my favourite parts - I don't think I ever didn't know the answer :D I saw this while looking for nail inspiration, and thought I'd share - I did laugh (easily amused!)

 

 So anyway, here are my nails - can you guess who it is? :D Answers in the comments please haha!

Polishes Used:

Essie - Forever Yummy (we think - unlabelled bottle donated by the lovely Becca :) )

Sally Hansen - The Sky's The Limit

Zoya - Raven and Purity

and LOTS of basecoat - not taking a chance at staining! :p

Decided to include a few swatches of the base colour too - I have two coats on here with no top coat, fine for what I need it for, but I think if worn alone it needs a third coat to hide the VNL.

And here is the finished design :)

 

Don't forget to check everyone else's nails out! x

TGIF! Glitzing up a drab day!

Loved my Essie mani but its very easy wearing - so rather than remove it straight away, what better than a big coat of glitter!

This is one of my favourite glitters. Its surprising because its clear, which i absolutely hate normally! But it has such a gorgeous variety of glitters.

Ice Princess is a clear based glitter polish from Utopia's Polish.

It contains a mix of large and small aqua holographic glitters, large matte white hexes and medium white matte squares. It also has the lightest sprinkling of holographic silver bar glitter.

Application was good - plenty of glitter and no problem getting them from the bottle. Brush is good quality so no issues at all :)

If you love this as much as I do, you can find Utopia's Polish on Facebook and Etsy.

Xxx

Swatch - Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post tonight. I hit gold the other day and came across a stall selling cheap Essie polishes. They had the usual colours that I see again and again - lots of nudes, pink and orange. So imagine my surprise when I spotted this little beauty in the middle.. for £1.99! Bargain!

Bikini So Teeny is a beautiful periwinkle blue creme with an ultra fine shimmer. I've stalked it for a while - its the one polish I pick up over and over again but can't bring myself to part with £8 for it!

This is two coats with Seche Clear base coat and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat. I am just getting used to using Seche Vite as I loved my Rimmel top coat with the wide brush.. but I have to admit I love the fast drying time.

Up close, the colour of Bikini So Teeny is still a little patchy at two coats. The application itself was fine - but like all my Essie colours I think 3 coats is needed. It's definitely my favourite, closely followed by Navigate Her :)

What do you think? Do you have this / any other Essie colours that you love?