ABC Challenge: E is for Essie

Hello lovelies! Happy Wednesday! You know what that means....another ABC Challenge post!

Today's letter is "E", and I have to tell ya, I was excited about this one. I've had this manicure in my head forever, but never had the time between reviews to actually sit down and do it. That's one of the things I love about this challenge - it forces me to do some nail art and take a break from swatching for a day. Not that I don't love swatching and reviewing, quite the contrary! But I think a day off keeps me from burnout, and that's never a bad thing.

For my letter "e" mani, I chose Essie Miss Fancy Pants, a lovely creamy taupe, as my base color. Then I used several different sized dotting tools to add multi-sized dots in Essie Skirting The Issue, Essi Stylenomics and Essie Head Mistress. These are my faves from this collection, and the moment I saw them I knew I wanted to use them for a Dotticure. I really dig this mani too! Something about the way these colors work together, and those pops of color over a neutral base. I'm not much of a neutral girl, but Miss Fancy Pants really won me over. After I bought this I added more nudes and neutrals to my collection.

I also scaled back the number of pictures I'm posting. I LOVE seeing pictures of manicures, but I don't want everyone to scroll through 8 trillion pictures. Do you prefer my with photos with the polish bottle, or without? I never can choose.:)

 
This is my first attempt a neutral based dotticure, and I'm really feeling it. I may have to experiment with this look with more neutral bases, maybe some lighter colors that I'm not prone to wearing. It's always kind of fun to step outside of my comfort zone.

The formula on Miss Fancy Pants was excellent. I love Essie polishes, and more often than not the formula and application are excellent. 2 coats for opacity and no dragging, streaking or bubbling. I did have some little stringies attach themself to my middle nail while I was dotting, but I have a habit of just dotting away rather quickly and not watching the consistency of my polish. Patience is not a virtue with which I was blessed!

What do you think of this neutral based look?

Be sure not to miss all the "E"Manicures the ladies are posting today!






Be sure to stick around! I have White Owl Lacquers, Daring Digits, Laquerlicious and more BG Cosmetics coming up over the next few days!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Bitch Glitz Cosmetics Dark Side of Town Collection: Resident Evil

Hiya Lovelies! It's a little later than anticipated, but here is my second post of the day!

A few weeks ago while browsing Etsy, I stumbled upon a new Indie Brand called Bitch Glitz. Since there is no way you can avoid checking out a brand with a name as awesome as that, I immediately checked out the store and placed an order. Since then I have been lucky enough to befriend Ketlyn, the mastermind behind BG Cosmetics, and have fallen in love with the brand and just adore the person behind it.

Today's polish is from the Dark Side of Town Collection. Resident Evil (man, I love those movies, and the games!) is an awesome mix of Black Bar, Hex, square, and the occasional large Round glitter in a deep, shimmery burgundy red base. Hidden in the mix are some red star glitters as well. I've been dying to wear this baby and finally decided swatch schedule be damned, this is going on my nails!

All photos are 3 coas of Resident Evil topped with Gelous and HK Girl Top Coat (note: even though my pics make this look a but bumpy in places, that's actually some of the star glitter poking through. My camera had a hard time capturing those, but if you look closely, you'll see them):

I really wish that I was able to capture the depth of this polish, but it's all but impossible. IRL the glitters really shine, and the burgundy red base is vibrant and stunning. I am so glad that I took the plunge and bought this collection!

Formula:
As with most Indie polish, Resident Evil is thicker than mainstream polish, but is still smooth and buttery. No thickening during use, no glopping, and no clumpy glitters.

Application:
Resident Evil applied smoothly and evenly. Although it is a bit streaky on the first coat it evens out perfectly with the second. No dragging, balding, or glopping. The glitters placed nicely, although if you want more of the large round glitters you may have to fish a bit. I managed to grab at least 2 for each hand, although I wanted to show those off so I grabbed one for each nail during my last coat. RE will reach opacity with 2 coats, however I added a third since I banged a nail against the table and needed a quick fix.;) Resident Evil doesn't dry all that textured, but I added a coat of Gelous to ensure a smooth finish.

Despite being a very new Indie Brand, Bitch Glitz makes some very impressive polishes. If you aren't familiar with Indie Polishes and their formula, you may find application a bit tricky, but if you go slow and use thin coats then you'll have no problem.

All Bitch Glitz Cosmetics poishes are 3-free and made with top quality ingredients, including a dash of diamond dust! Full size bottles retial for $10.00, full collections for $35. Ketlyn is also amazing at custom creations (I'll be showing you 2 that she created for me this week) so if you have a polish in mind, shoot her a note! She'll definitely be able to bring your vision to life.

You can find Bitch Glitz on Etsy (clicky clicky!) and you can also save 15% off your entire order by using the code below! I'll be showing you the Bitch Glitch Valentine's Collection this week, as well as June Pearl and Courageous Heart (Created in honor of my mother and Lung Cancer patients/survivors everywhere) this week.

*Please note that if you search etsy for Bitch Glitz, you will need to search by Bitsch Glitz, due to TOS restrictions and blah blah blah.*

What do you think of Resident Evil? Have you checked out Bitch Glitz's awesome creations yet?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Zoya Jem

I've had this polish sitting in my stash for what seems like forever. The other night, I just could not pick a color (you know how it is, 600+ polishes and nothing to wear! Sheesh!), so I forced my hubby to pick one. At first he picked out a blue (ya know, cause after a month of wearing nothing but blue, I'm just so anxious to wear more), but then he saw this baby and promptly demanded I wear it.  Since I've been leaning toward more reddish polishes lately, this was an acceptable choice!

Zoya Jem is a gorgeous deep wine colored polish with lovely golden flecks. However, those flecks didn't translate as well on the nail. Bit of a bummer, but it's still a pretty polish. I'm rarely disappointed in how a Zoya translates on the nail, so I'm not too bummed over this one. Out of all my Zoyas, one minor miss isn't a big deal at all. It does make me look a bit lobstery, but that's way less obvious IRL. Macro shots are so unforgiving.

So here is Zoya Jem. Taken in my lightbox, since I'm still adjusting to the new camera and didn't have the time to play around with lighting, etc before I managed to drain the battery. I'm hoping that I'll get used to this baby soon, since it really is a great little camera and has potential. Of course, my old as hell GE E1040 still takes the best macro shots of any camera I have ever used, so I may still use that one on occasion. The Nikon is awesome, but it has some issues with picking up reds, and I detest editing color in post. I did not adjust the color on these photos, so you get my lovely lobster hands as an added bonus! Yay!

Lovely, despite the lobster hands, no?

You may have also noticed the extreme lack of tip wrapping here. I'll explain that in another post. There's a reason I have stopped wrapping my tips. It's weird, but it keeps my OCD at bay. :)

Hope you are all having a lovely Wednesday!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Savvy Red Caviar - Sick as a dog post

Hi guys!

I am sick as hell again. I have these clients that seem to get sick every other week, and every time they get sick, either hubs or myself does as well. Looks like my turn this time. I am so stuffed up, congested, and last night my lungs just hurt from coughing and trying to breathe. It's miserable, and I am never going near that house without clorox wipes again! But I decided that I should post something, since I'm still feeling icky and most likely won't get a mani finished today. :(

This is Red Caviar by Savvy, a gorgeous deep wine with hidden microshimmer. I love this color! The formula was a bit streaky and had some drag/balding, so this baby needed 3 good coats and a good coat of SV to even it out. I feel that this color is worth it, though!

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with more Spoiled manis. Keep your fingers crossed that I can shake this plague!!!

Red Caviar, in Lightbox:

Gorgeous, no? I don't wear Reds often at all, but when I do I always wonder why I tend to overlook them.

Obviously these were taken way before my week of broken nails - I actually wore this with a stamped accent nail just before Valentine's Day. Looking at them makes me sad since even after cutting my nails down, I still managed to break my index nail on my left hand, leaving me with a nubbin and forcing me to take my other nails even more. In all I probably lost a good 4mm (at least) and am left with something close, but not quite nubbins. I hate losing my length, but I have to admit that part of the fun is growing my nails out, and seeing how fast and far they grow over a certain time period. Usually I give them about 2 months to get to where I want them, and maybe 2-3 weeks to get to where I start to enjoy them again. Thankfully I love polish too much to wait until my nails get some length back to post! Anyway, watch for my poor little abused nubs tomorrow or Friday!

Hope you're all feeling excellent! I'm going to go nurse this plague.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber