Barielle Elle's Spell over Essie Midnight Cami

It was a flaky sort of day. Love this combo!

Essie love

Finally went and got a much needed pedicure, and decided to treat myself to a manicure as well!

Toes: Essie Mesmerize, Fingers: Essie Lapis of Luxury.

I love the corresponding blues!

Limited Addiction

I used to rarely wear red polish. Like, next to never. I don't know what is going on with me lately, but I do know that, when faced with Essie's Fall 2010 collection in Face Values last night, I picked Limited Addiction over all the other colors. I'm a red convert, so shoot me!!

This is the kind of gorgeously classic color that almost makes me want to forsake all my other nail polishes and make red nails my signature. Almost.

 

Can you blame me though? Limited Addiction is one of those jelly-cremes, which means that application was flawless and clean up a breeze, especially for a red. You could definitely get away with two coats but I went with three just to make sure they looked perfect. I love this type of blue-based red, it suits my skin tone and doesn't make me want to scream (like Nars Dovima does).

The above two shots are in natural light, and Limited Addiction, like a lot of reds, looks much brighter there than it does under artificial light.

Still love it to bits though!! Absolutely gorgeous. I'm so glad I picked this up rather than going for one of the trendier shades. I'll be wearing this for years and years to come. For me, this is a backup bottle kinda color.

Is there a color that you always gravitate towards? 

Welcome to Cindy of Nail'd & Polish'd!

Wicked

Today's manicure is one of my all time, go to, never fail colors: Essie Wicked.



Here's Wicked in natural light. I know many people aren't fans of the "almost black" look, which this deep, dark burgundy jellyish creme most definitely is. I don't care though, I love this shade. Even though it does look black, it has a depth to it, you see a little of the burgundy peep out around the edges, and in direct sunlight, it shows up a lot more.



In sunlight. Even so, I don't think that this is really a good representation of the color, because unless you're on the beach, you're going to get that black look. I love it, it's super classy and gorgeous.

The only bad thing about this polish is that cleanup is a complete bitch. If you happen to get it on your cuticles, they'll be pink no matter how much you try to clean those edges. I'm actually sort of dreading taking off the whole mani because I know my fingers will be pink and I'll probably need half a bag of cotton.



This girl definitely runs on Dunkin'.

California Coral

I was inspired by yesterday's dupes post and couldn't help but paint my nails with one of my favorites, Essie's California Coral.

And yes, I went for the nubbins. It is a bit sad, as a reformed nail biter that was the longest I had ever grown my nails and I will miss them :(  But it couldn't be avoided. A few of the nails had started peeling badly and chipping that I knew it was time to start fresh. And anyway, I'm eager to start wearing my beloved dark polishes and I like them better on short nails anyway :)

In direct sunlight

In shade

I can't help it, I love this color so much! It's got that squishy almost jelly quality, even though I wouldn't call it a true jelly. The first coat was pretty sheer and I thought I'd need three, but two worked out just fine. There's not much else I can say about this but that it's a beautiful, bright happy color and everyone should get it (or it's less expensive Sinful counterpart)! 

Blood-sucking Sunday

In honor of one of my favorite shows, TrueBlood, I've decided to start Blood-sucking Sundays. Every week I'll show you some dark, vampiric, blood-sucking themed polishes! For the record, I am not a vampire-obsessed, twilight-humping weirdo. TrueBlood is my only vamper love, because Alexander Skarsgaard and all the other men on it are disgustingly, droolingly, mindblowingly hot, and there's lots of dirty sex scenes ;)

This week I thought I'd do a comparison of three colors in my collection that look like perfect dupes.

From left to right: Brucci Black Cherry, Nicole by OPI Deeply in Love, Essie Swing Velvet. In the bottle they look very, very similar; only Essie stands out with what looks like a bit more gold shimmer than the other two.

                               

Same order from pointer to ring. It looks to me like Black Cherry and Deeply in Love are almost exact dupes color wise. They're the same shade of dark burgundy with a hint of magenta shimmer. Application, on the other hand, was completely different. I had a lot of trouble with the Brucci polish - it was thin and had tons of cuticle drag. Worse of all, it was a complete bitch to get off. It stained my fingers pink and wouldn't come off for anything! I was really surprised because the formula of Gianna's "Rockin" Blue, the Brucci I wore all last week, applied really well, I had no problems at all. The Nicole shade was the opposite, but I can't totally blame the formula as the bottle is three-quarters of the way empty and has thickened up a bit.  

Swing Velvet is an old favorite from back when I used to have acrylic nails as a teen. I'm wondering if I got this bottle from a salon, and thats why there's no Essie stamp on it? Seems odd. Anyway, SV is a little richer in color and definitely has lots more gold shimmer. I like this more than BC and DiL, I think the gold gives it a more sophisticated feel. No surprise, the formula is much better too. It went on nice and smooth and was very easy to control. It also looks more blood-like than the others. Care for a taste, Eric Northman?

Stop by tomorrow for a new Marble Monday!

Inaugural Marble Monday!

Hey everyone! This is the my first official "Marble Monday" post. I first saw this technique on Sarah and Jason's blog CrystalPolish, and I've been obsessed ever since! 

This was my second ever attempt at a marble, using Essie Midnight Cami, a deep, deep shimmery blue (which, by the way, is perfection in a bottle - but that's for another day), and OPI Go on Green, a sheer, irridescent blue-green. MC is also on the rest of my nails in these photos. 

The next day I decided to take the plunge and do my whole mani marbled. It's surprisingly not as BAM, OUT THERE as I thought it would be, it's actually sort of subtle. I used the same colors, Midnight Cami and Go on Green, but oddly enough they came out a lot lighter than the first time. Not really sure why? The colors seems like they were spreading more in the water this time, but I couldn't give you a reason for that. I guess as I do these more and more I'll get the hang of the quirks. Both mani's have Seche base and top coat.

A lot of people have asked my how I did this, and I know it's hard to explain with just words. One of these Monday's I'll post picture step-by-step instructions, or maybe even a video! (eek!)

Until next time :)