Essie Cashmere Matte - Coat Couture

Sometimes, you see a polish on someone and feel that you must have it, immediately.

That's what happened with today's color. Ashley, from Emerald and Ash posted this color on her blog's facebook page, and I knew I needed to have it. You can click [here] to see her lovely nails.

I definitely wasn't expecting this brand new color by Essie to be in a Walgreens I happened to be in yesterday.  It was a right place, right time situation. 

Here's "Coat Couture" and it's part of the Cashmere Matte collection by Essie.

"Coat Couture is a purple leaning grey that has a lovely aqua shimmer throughout.  It's not super matte. I'd call it more of a satin finish. A major bonus for me is that it dried super fast! I put on two coats over a base coat, bumped one on accident and was pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn't been smudged!

Isn't it lovely? I don't normally go for matte polish, but this one and the others in this collection looked unique to me. I'm glad I was able to find it.

Happy Monday, have a great week!

OPI - Fifty Shades of Grey Collection - Swatches and Review

"Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with me. Perhaps I've spent too long in the company of my literary romantic heroes, and consequently my ideals and expectations are far too high."

-E.L. James Fifty Shades of Grey

Well, the highly anticipated (for some) movie adaptation of the popular book will be hitting theaters soon. With that said, it's no surprise that there are tons of products out there that are marketing themselves around the movie's release.

I was in a Cosmoprof store and saw that they had the new Fifty Shades OPI collection set up. For some reason, I felt like I needed to have them. There are six polishes, and I wasn't really prepared to get six OPI polishes today. That's where the boxed set of mini bottles comes in, for a really great price.

Ready to see?

At first glance, it seems like a pretty unassuming collection. I mean, it's four variations of the color grey (of course) a red and a glitter. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the colors in this group of polishes.

My Silk Tie

"My Silk Tie" is a silver metallic polish. It looks very similar to Push and Shove, from an earlier OPI collection. It's pretty, but metallic silver doesn't knock my socks off. 

In my pictures I have on 3 coats of "My Silk Tie" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Dark Side of the Mood

"Dark Side of the Mood" is a dark grey that leans just a teeeeeeny bit blue and has a very soft silver shimmer that would absolutely not cooperate. This one definitely needs three coats.

I have on three coats of polish and one coat of Seche Vite in my pictures.

Romantically Involved

"Romantically Involved" is, in my opinion a perfectly balanced red. It doesn't lean red violet, and it doesn't lean orange. It's just a tiny little bit too dark to be a primary red. It applied like a dream. I have on two coats of "Romantically Involved" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Embrace the Gray

"Embrace the Gray" is a slightly blue leaning medium gray creme polish. I had a little bit of trouble with application on this one. I am thinking it could be because I was using a mini bottle, but it got a little streaky and didn't level out well on its own. Even after topcoat, I felt like it didn't get totally smooth.

In my pictures I have on three coats of "Embrace the Gray" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Shine for Me

Shine for me is a clear based glitter polish filled with royal blue micro-glitter and lots of silver shimmer. I used it alone, but I think that this color would look great with tons of different colors as a topper. Application was great, I felt like all that tiny glitter spread out very easily.

I have on three coats of "Shine for Me" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Cement the Deal

"Cement the Deal" is a light dove gray creme polish. Okay. This one. This polish was the troublemaker of the group. Like I said earlier, the problem could have been the brush or the mini bottle, but the way this polish applied left something to be desired. It wouldn't level out on its own. I also needed two coats of topcoat to get it to look like it does in my pictures. So, that makes three coats of polish and TWO coats of Seche Vite. Gloopy Gloop. I don't think that this color is redeeming enough to make up for its weird application.

So, what do you think? All in all, the collection is pretty nice. There were a couple that I could take or leave, but I like the rest.  

My favorites? Romantically Involved and Dark Side of the Mood, for sure. 

Will you be jumping on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon too?

Emerald and Ash - 1st Anniversary Polish Collection

Hello again! Today, I have a very special collection by Emerald and Ash. Along with the Photometry Collection, I received 3 additional polishes to celebrate Emerald and Ash's first anniversary, or Primary Circumgyration as they like to call it! 

Also included in my package was a new cuticle oil in Daisy scent which actually closely mimics the Marc Jacobs Daisy fragrance, as a way to nourish your nails between paintings. Also it will be offered in a Deconstructed Daisy Duo that we will be offering for our celebration. The duo will consist of a bottle of the original Deconstructed Daisy and the new Deconstructed Daisy Holo and a bottle of the Daisy nail oil.

All of these polishes will be available at emeraldandash.com Friday, March 14th at 6pm MDT.

Deconstructed Daisy Holo

Deconstructed Daisy Holo is the polish that started it all! It's still the same polish that everyone has grown to love. Full of various sizes of green and white glitter with a speckling of yellow micro glitter. The added bonus is a spattering of holo. Not too much, so that you can see the polish you wear as a base coat, but enough to make it sparkle in the sun.

Here, I have DD shown in one coat over Aurora.

DD holo is LOADED with glitter! I love that yellow glitter in there...it gives it a quirky quality, don't you think?

Ash & Emerald

Ash & Emerald is an ash colored crelly that comes alive with a flash of emerald green shimmer and a spattering of green micro flakes. Full coverage at 2-3 coats, depending on your application.

I love the complexity of this color. It's grey, but it's green...and it's SO sparkly! Pictures in my lightbox just don't do it justice. The flakies really add something special too! 

I used three coats of Ash & Emerald in my pics.

Happy Primary Circumgyration

Happy Primary Circumgyration is a green leaning white crelly stunner that was created especially for their Primary Circumgyration (one year anniversary). It is a pastel beauty that shifts between aqua and green shimmer depending on the light. It also has beautiful micro flakes that shift from aqua to green and a helping of holo that make it come alive! Full coverage at 3 coats, depending on your base color. Can also be worn over a white base color.

This is another favorite of mine. It looks very Extraterrestrial to me. It has a green-white feel to it, but with the shimmer it looks extraordinary! 

In my pictures I used 3 coats of Happy Primary Circumgyration.

Now, I've got some BONUS pics for you. My favorite type of polish is a crelly base with glitter mixed in, particularily light colored or white crellys. I used Deconstructed Daisy Holo and sandwiched it in between Happy Primary Circumgyration.  Here's a yummy, crelly sandwich for you!

I am IN LOVE with these two colors together! 

::DROOL:: Look at all that glitter! I mean, are these not the perfect St Patricks Day nails, or what?

Deconstructed Daisy Holo and Happy Primary Circumgyration are Limited edition colors and will only be available through the month of March. Act fast! You definitely don't want to miss these colors! 

Get thee to emeraldandash.com at 6pm MDT on FRIDAY to get yourself these, and all of the colors of the Photometry collection!

Also, look for Emerald and Ash on Facebook and Instagram. 

ALSO, head over to Polished Pathology and check out her fabulous swatches. (She's doing a fantastic giveaway too!)

Lastly, I'd like to say thank you to Ashley and Nate of Emerald and Ash, for sending me such a massively exciting kit for my blog! I feel so privileged to have been given this opportunity to play with your amazing polish! Happy Primary Circumgyration! 

What's your sign?

I have this thing for Black Cat Lacquer! Their colors are awesome. The names are awesome. They are kinda edgy, and kind of rock and roll. I ordered a couple colors from the "Zodiac" collection, which is a fairly new collection. In this release, there are 12 colors, one for each astrological sign. I got "Cancer", because that's my sign, and "Aquarius" because it looked super awesome. Let's just say I wasn't disappointed.

"Cancer" is a rainbow shimmer base, packed with grey and white glitter of all shapes and sizes. I swatched it on a few different colors and couldn't make up my mind, so I used all the colors!

It went on very smoothly, and evenly for the most part. I did have to fish around a little bit for some of the bigger pieces of glitter, like the moons and stars. Other than that, it's a gorgeous glitter topper that would look great with lots of colors!

Up next is "Aquarius", this is a dark purple jelly with a MAJOR assortment of glitters! Large circles, flakes, stars, diamonds and micro glitter. I've decided I have a love/hate relationship with this one. The color is GORGEOUS, I mean like, major "WOW" factor. The application, however, was a little frustrating for me. This polish felt a little thick for my liking, but my guess is it's because there is so much glitter in there. Once I put my topcoat on, it seemed to be just fine!

It really is a beauty isn't it? The weirdness in the application definitely won't stop me from wearing it! 

So, what's your sign? Go check out the Zodiac collection and see if your color is one that you like!

Had to make my mani a little spookier (Bonus post!)

Good evening! The leopard spots were cool and everything, but I want to try out as many options with my gradient as I can. I was thinking I should be trying to practice my stamping skills, seeing as how I do have a Halloween stamping plate in my stash. Let me tell you, I swore a LOT while trying to stamp this time. A lot.

All that swearing for one stamped finger. Still looks cool though. Right? My cuticles look tore up, I had to use a lot of acetone since I kept screwing up that ONE. DAMN. FINGER. My colors are China Glaze "Sun of a Peach" for the orange, Hard Candy "Black Tie Optional" and Konad black stamping polish.

Time to go practice my stamping skills! 

Snow leopard tutorial!

I was reminded yesterday that I was kinda slackin on the blog posts...so here we are! I'd been wanting to do a sponge gradient for awhile and I thought I would mix it up with some leopard spots too! Both of these techniques are super easy, you just have to have the right tools! 

First, you'll need to choose a color scheme. Second, paint a base that corresponds with the colors you want to use. Use a large dotting tool to make spots of various sizes. At first glance,

 they kinda look like cow spots, don't you think? 

After you have dotted your spots, use a small brush or dotting tool to make "C" shapes on either side of your spot. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect! To fill space, I added some dots too.

After I finished my spots, I did my sponged gradient. 

Ta daaaaa! Here's the finished product! This gradient is giving me some inspiration for some Halloween type nail art! Look for a gradient tutorial in my next post :-)