Essie - Naughty Nautical Collection (Summer 2013)

Today I will show you another one of the 2013 collections from Essie. Essie Switzerland sent me five of  six shades of the Naughty Nautical Collection for this summer and since I think this one is not in stores yet, I decided to swatch these next. The shade missing is a dark turquoise called Naughty Nautical and I'm pretty sure it would have been my favorite! First off, I wouldn't have picked up any of these shades in stores, because they do look quite boring. Seeing them on my nails I changed my mind about some of them. They all have some silver shimmer in it, which is visible on the nails, except for The More The Merrier which is a light green cream color. I used two coats with every color and Essence - BTGN Top Sealer as my top coat. Make sure to click on the images to see the shimmer! The formula was alright for every shade, but they were a bit thin sometimes, so you need to be careful with application or use three coats. The Girls Are Out has a normal formula though. My favorite color is Sunday Funday, a coral-pink with a hint of neon which was quite difficult to photograph. 

Essie - The Girls Are Out

Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie - Rock The Boat

Essie - Sunday Funday

Essie - The More The Merrier

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 9: Wrath (Disney Princess Water Decals)

It's Day 9 of the Deadly Sins Challenge and this week the sin is Wrath. Today's theme says: Get mad trying, again, that technique you know it's going to be a fail.

Illustrations by: dahlig

Well, I planned to do Water Marble, because that gets me angry a lot! But I didn't have a lot of time so I did the other thing that sometimes is really annoying to do. I used Water Decals that I had lying around in my stash for quite some time now. I'm almost certain I bought them at Chez Delaney, but I'm not sure they're still available. I applied them on top of a base coat and I was quite successful! I feel like I have figured out a technique that works really good and if you're interested I could do a video next time I'm using decals. I forgot to take pictures, but on my thumb is Snow White! :) 

Essie - Madison Ave-hue Collection 2013 + Watercolor Nails

Essie sent me the complete Madison Ave-hue collection and I will show you two pictures for each shade. I used two coats for each color except for Hip-anema which only needed one coat to be opaque. The formula was alright for all of them, except for Go Ginza which was a bit thicker. But it is a very light color, so I'm used to pastel colors being difficult to work with. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer for each color. I used my favorite colors in this collection to do some watercolor nails and included the pictures at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Essie - Avenue Maintain

Essie - Bond With Whomever

Essie - Go Ginza

Essie - Hip-anema

(1 coat)

Essie - Madison Ave-hue

Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her

Watercolor Nails 

Go Ginza, Avenue Maintain, Bond With Whomever & Maximillian Strasse Her

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 8: Sloth (Essie - Hip-anema + Splatter Nails)

This week I was trying a new shade from Essie called Hip-anema, which I have received from Essie Switzerland. This pretty red is part of the Madison Ave-Hue Collection and I will post about all six shades in Sunday's post. But for today and for Day 8 of the Deadly Sins Challenge, I chose only one of them. Today's theme says: (Only if you want) Create a manicure inspired on your laziness... or whatever... I'm so tired... 

Illustrations by: dahlig

Alright, so I used one coat of Essie - Hip-anema and then added color splatters with a toothbrush and acrylic paint. This is an amazingly easy and fast way of doing splatter nails, which I read about on Globe & Nail. The only thing that you have to pay attention to is, that you do one hand after the other, because otherwise you might ruin your design along the way. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 7: Sloth (Studded Nails - Video Tutorial)

This weeks sin is Sloth and it really comes in handy for me, since the semester is soon to be over and I have a lot of stuff to do besides my nails. This means I shouldn't be painting my nails, but obviously won't stop doing so. :) You guys really liked my studded nails for Day 6, thanks so much for all the lovely comments! I decided to make a super short video tutorial on how I add studs to the nails, because today's theme says: Don't try too hard but explain everyone how to do something really easy... (Tutorial).

Illustrations by: dahlig

And because I'm so lazy, I once more added the studs to an already existing design, my Denim Nails. I used round 1.5mm silver studs which I bought on Ebay. They're also available at Born Pretty Store. 

Denim Nails

A few years ago I tried Denim Nails using acetone to remove the blue polish and reveal the white base underneath. After seeing these denim textured nails by Chelsea, I remembered how much I liked it back then! Chelsea tried a new way of doing Denim Nails though and I decided to give it a go as well. I only repeated the first two steps of her tutorial, since I loved the result so much and I didn't want to detract from it with too many details. Maybe I will add some silver studs later, we'll see. So I used one coat of Catrice - Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans! and then brushed on Ebalay - 001 with an almost dry brush. The trick is to brush from side to side and from top to bottom. I love the effect! On top is one coat of Essence - Soft Touch Top Coat.

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 6: Greed (Studded Nails)

This is the second design for Greed in the Deadly Sins Challenge and today the theme said: Remember, More is More... Don't hold yourself back! 

Illustrations by: dahlig

I thought of Studded Nails right away, because I always wanted to do an almost fully covered studded manicure. The reason I didn't do it up to now is that I was always worried about the studs not covering the whole nail and me being disappointed by the result. Today's theme was perfect because I just decided not to care at all and go for it! I figured the golden studs (both round and square from Born Pretty Store) would match my golden Saran Wrap Nails from Day 5, so I simply added them on top of it. I'm really happy with the result and I'm definitely going to do this again! 

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 5: Greed (Mint & Golden Saran Wrap Nails)

It's Day 5 of the Deadly Sins Challenge and this week we are painting the sin Greed! Today's theme says: Go wild and use your most expensive and precious polish. 

Illustrations by: dahlig

It took me some time figuring out what to do, because all of my more expensive polishes are either red, golden or glittering. This doesn't exactly fit in with the current spring weather, but then I decided to mix it up with a lighter color. I picked Lancôme - 012, a really pretty and really expensive golden nail polish that I bought a few years ago. I wouldn't buy this one again, but back then I was obsessed with golden nail polish, yay. So for this design I used two coats of Essie - Mint Candy Apple. Then I added one coat of Lancôme - 012 and used saran wrap to take the color off again. I wanted to have a matte finish, so I added Essence - Soft Touch Top Coat on top. 

Blue Stripes feat. Essie - In The Cab-Ana & Bourjois - In The Navy

I decided to combine two of my new polishes in one design, using striping tape. I was inspired by Sammy from The Nailasaurus and her infamous striping tape manicures. At first I used two coats of Essie - In The Cab-Ana and then added striping tape and painted over it with Bourjois - In The Navy. This is my first nail polish from Bourjois and I decided to buy one because they were reduced and this blue was still on my wish list. I'm quite happy with it, the brush is disappointing though, considering the price. On top is  one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 4: Gluttony (Water Marble / Drippy Nails)

Skip your diet and paint something that makes your stomach growl! Today is Day 4 of the Deadly Sins Challenge and I painted something yummy on my nails! 

   Illustrations by: dahlig

I wanted to have some strawberry ice cream with chocolate drips on top and this is how I did it: I started with one coat of China Glaze - Something Sweet and then did a Water Marble with Something Sweet and Essence - Shopping Trip In Soho. This time I used the needle to paint a spiral in the water, which was quite difficult to achieve. On top of my marble I used Essie - Chocolate Cakes and a nail art brush to paint tiny drops of chocolate. On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go. I really like the Drippy Nails, this was my first attempt, but I'm sure I will try these again soon!