Rose Romance. Fresh Paint Quickie. [Essie]

nails and photo by hollyannaeree

Playing with roses again.

I just couldn't help myself!

What I used: 

What I did:

1. Apply a base coat (I use OPI Nail Envy for Natural Nails)

2. Apply 2 Coats of Essie Mod Square over the entire nail except for the ring finger on each hand. 

3. For the ring fingers apply Essie Sugar Daddy over the entire nail. (base color for the french)

4. Then use Essie Blanc to paint a white tip to the ring fingers. (I do this free hand)

Now for the Nail Art:

5.  Using Essie Mod Square paint 3 squiggly circles. (You want an organic shape! This is going to be your rose.)

6. Taking a small brush (either a nail brush or in my case I used a Sigma E11 eyeliner brush) dip it into Orly Lucky Duck to create the leaves on the side of your roses. (You can either make a leaf shape or just make kind of a dash mark) 

7. Wipe off your brush and then dip it into Orly Gum Drop to highlight the leaves. All you need to do is draw a line or two within the darker green section. 

8. Wipe off your brush one last time and dip it into Revlon Cafe Pink to highlight the inside of the roses. For this I just draw little half circles or C's and swirl the paint around a bit. (Most likely your little glob of Essie Mod Square will still be wet so the polishes will mix together some. This is okay and can sometimes add to the effect as shown below.)

9. Finish off with a fast drying top coat. I use Seche Vite. 

Finished Product:

nails and photo by hollyannaeree

nails and photo by hollyannaeree

Overall I think this was a really fun look! This is my second time doing rose nail art and I really enjoy it. It's a really simple and easy way to add some interest to your manicure. 

Of course you can do this any why you'd like - Here's another example of how I've used the roses before. (This was my first time ever trying the rose design on my nails. LOVED IT!)

nails and photo by hollyannaeree

Be sure and follow me on Instagram to see all my Fresh Paint posts before they are even up on my blog : ) 

(I always post the details like what I used and how I did them here though.)

Products are all linked - just click on their names!

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Thanks so much for reading! I hope you have enjoyed this post! 

Don't forget to check out my latest videos on YouTube as well - TWO new ones this week so far. Hits & Misses as well as a nail polish haul will be up as well. 

Talk to you soon,

Holly 

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Bright and Polka Dotted. Fresh Paint Quickie.

Quick Post on my Current Manicure!

Essie - Where's my Chauffeur? (Here)

Butter London - Cheeky Chops (Here) 

(iPhone photos) 

I wanted to do something bright and summery so I decided to try out a different color combination.

I've actually never tried either of these shades, despite owning them for a while, but I like the way they came out. Not my favorite I've done but I like. ; )

How it was done: 

1. Applied OPI Nail Envy for Natural Nails as a base coat.

2. Followed by 2 Coats of Essie - Where's my Chauffeur? (minus my ring and pinky finger)

3. Painted my ring finger on my left hand & pinky on my right with two coats of 

Butter London - Cheeky Chops. (this did not apply nicely. VERY THICK!)

4. Took a dotting tool and Essie - Blanc to create polka dots on top of the Cheeky Chops

5. Finished off with Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

Hope you enjoyed this look! It's always fun to try something new. 

Makes life more interesting : )

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Have a great Wednesday (as well as rest of the week) and I will see you back here either later today or tomorrow! 

(Don't forget to check out my new video I just posted! It should be at the top of my blog : )

-Holly

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Feeling French. Fresh Paint Quickie.

Essie 'Sugar Daddy' and Essie 'Blanc' - French Manicure and Photo by hollyannaeree

If you follow me on Instagram you are then familiar with my "Fresh Paint" posts. Typically I will snap a quick iPhone pic of the latest polish to make it onto my nails. I thought it would be a fun thing to bring over to my blog as well so we can keep them in a more organized space and also so I can tell you what I used and how much. : )

Truthfully I have been dying to do a red, burgundy or teal polish but I hate how much they can stain my nails! (even with a base coat!) I have actually been getting a lot of requests to do tutorials on the nail art I have been trying so I am attempting to stay away from the more problematic colors to make sure I can have nice, clean nails for the video. (Hence all the light colors lately)

Today I decided to go with a simple french. Probably a throw back for those of you that have been following me for a while. (It use to be the ONLY thing I had on my nails - for years!)

Essie 'Blanc' and Essie 'Sugar Daddy'

Of course these are my natural nails and I actually just painted the french free hand. (which explains why it's not perfect)

But I am pretty happy with it. French never lasts that long on me so I don't expect to have it on for more than 2-3 days anyway. 

What I used:

1. Applied 1 coat of OPI Nail Envy as a base coat.

2. Applied 2 coats of Essie 'Sugar Daddy' as my base color.

3. Used Essie 'Blanc' for the white tip. I typically just take my brush and start from one side, drag it towards the center then go in from the other side and repeat. 

4. Finished off with Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

Overall I think this took me about 15 mins. start to finish. Not bad. 

I had mentioned that 'Sugar Daddy' was a great color as a base for french manicures and since I actually did one (rare for me) I thought I'd show you. 

Anyway hope you enjoyed the post! You got two today : P

Have a wonderful rest of the day.

-Holly 

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First time making a 'Jelly Sandwich' - Manicure Re-Up

I have always been curious about these types of manicures but this was my first time actually trying it out and I have to say I am liking the results! 

As most of you have hopefully read, the other day I painted my nails with Essie 'Sugar Daddy' nail polish - one of my favorite colors for clean looking nails, design bases and french manicures. Well it's been 3 days and my nails were starting to grow out a bit, overall my polish was fine - no chips, etc. so I really did not want to whip out the polish remover and start from scratch especially since my hands and cuticles get quite dry. (I think I may have found something amazing for them though - I am using it in these photos. I'll blog about it soon!)

I decided to Re-Up my manicure. 

Basically every so often my nails will start to grow out yet my polish is still pretty perfect, still glossy and the like so to extend the wear of my polish a lot of times I will just add to it. Be it another coat of polish or a glitter topcoat, etc. 

This time I was totally inspired by one of the ladies that I follow on Instagram - she also has a blog that I will link HERE - her name is Kimberly and if you're a nail polish lover this is for you. Anyway she actually has her own line of polishes and one picture in particular really caught my eye. She had done something called a "Jelly Sandwich" and listed what she had used. Originally I thought you could only get this look with "jelly polishes" but apparently there are other ways. 

For her manicure she used a layer of her glitter polish and then two coats of Essie "Sugar Daddy" (I'm tellin' you this color is versatile!) - I already had "Sugar Daddy" as well as a glitter polish I thought would work so I was in business!

 (Now I actually didn't bother to take off the polish I already had on since it was the same color I was going to be layering. It is a bit thicker than my normal manicure due to all of the layers but I don't mind. If you are going to try this yourself you can probably skip a base color depending on what glitter polish you are going to use. If I try this again I may just do one coat of 'Sugar Daddy' - glitter polish - then 2-3 coats of 'Sugar Daddy'. (I know it sounds like a lot but thin coats people!))

The glitter polish I used was one I had purchased from Rite Aid a few months ago for $4.99 (which I still hadn't used). It has a creamy base to it but with one coat it doesn't really show up. (I had swatched this before and didn't like the way it looked with more than one layer - it gets kind of dark and muddy looking - so it was PERFECT for a project like this that only required one coat.)

I don't think they would still have these particular polishes because I believe they were a special holiday release(or so I gather since it says Holiday Lights right on the bottle and if you remember my Instagram picture of the display there was a big Rudolph face on it lol.) but there are a lot of other polishes that would work just the same - Try Revlon! They have a bunch of creamy glitters out right now. There's always Deborah Lippmann of course as well.

So I applied one coat of the creamy glitter polish...

Then added a total of 3 coats of Essie 'Sugar Daddy' on top. 

I started out with 2 but the glitter was still pretty vibrant underneath and I wanted a milkier, softer look. 

Lastly I followed up with my favorite fast dry top coat, Seche Vite (pictured below) and I was done!

I am really enjoying the results and it's also a great way to utilize some of my glitter polishes that I'm not crazy about, on their own or as a top coat. Gives me some options! 

I love how layering the sheer color on top really tones down the harshness of the glitter polish. It makes this one look a lot more feminine and a lot less kiddish. (I feel like on it's own this looks like crazy birthday confetti going nuts on my nails lol. I know a lot of expensive brands have polishes that are similar - I guess I am not a fan but like this its doable.)

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So I hope you all enjoyed this post! I was pretty excited and pleased with my results so I couldn't wait to share! Have a wonderful Monday and I will see you back here tomorrow!

Thank you all for reading and a big THANK YOU to everyone who has started following. 

-Holly

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Fresh Paint: Essie Sugar Daddy - Underrated (And meeting Josh Holloway? Yes.)

Painted my nails yesterday with one of my all time FAVORITE polishes, Essie Sugar Daddy,  and decided to do a little post about it. Mainly because I feel like this shade is pretty underrated and I wanted to give it the credit I think it deserves!

If you've never tried this polish I can't say that I blame you. 

(To be fair, had I not seen a picture of this on Instagram I probably would have never tried it either.) It is very sheer (like typical old school Essie polishes) and the color is not very unique but those are some of the reasons I love it. 

Classic. 

Clean looking.

Great base for french manicures or any type of tip design.

Applies evenly & smoothly.

2-3 Coats = Perfection.

Glossy. 

(Forgot to take a picture of it in regular light with the top coat but there wasn't too much of a difference, just glossier.)

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See Pic Posted Below: 

 This was taken at night inside a restaurant but I was really impressed with how glossy my nails looked.

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Everything I used for my manicure start to finish -

If you would like to see what I do for my nails - CLICK HERE to watch the video

I always use OPI Nail Envy for my base coat. I really think it helps to keep my nails from breaking. (For those of you that didn't know - my nails are natural) I have gone through at least 3 bottles of this. 

And then of course you have to top it off with the Seche Vite - best top coat I have ever used! Dries fast, smoothes over mistakes if you have any. It also keeps my polish on a lot longer.

Overall I think Essie 'Sugar Daddy' just gives such a clean look to my nails. The color is great for my skin tone and it gives me that acrylic look (I think at least), which I actually really like. Also this is one of the only sheer pink polishes I've tried that applies so evenly without any additional effort.

 The only other polish I would say compares is, OPI 'You callin me a Lyre?' (Limited Edition) - another amazing, clean looking polish. 

As far as I'm concerned those two are the best. 

(If I paint my nails that color soon I will post pics to compare)

For reference:
 I hate Essie Ballet Slippers (so hard to apply evenly and too white for my liking)
I use to like OPI Coney Island Cotton Candy but I find that it just doesn't apply as easily for me, plus I like the way these cooler toned pinks (vs. peachy pinks) look on my nails. They look cleaner and brighter. 

Essie 'Sugar Daddy' Nail Polish

OPI Nail Envy for Natural Nails

Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

Anyway....sorry this blog post was late I was busy meeting this guy last night...

Haha. Any LOST fans? 

Josh Holloway.

Last night we went to Sony for a screening of the new movie Steve is in, Battle of the Year, coming out this September. 

Afterwards we all went to get food and what not, that's where this picture was taken. SUCH a nice guy! Very down to earth. (I love his dimples.)

But yeahhhh that's why the post is up late. I actually haven't slept yet. I'm trying to pull an all nighter to fix my sleep schedule so we shall see how that goes. O_O Wish me luck! 

Hope you enjoyed this post! You'll have to excuse if it's a bit off. I feel like my brain is frazzled being up for so long. 

Thank you for reading! Talk to you tomorrow. 

-Holly

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