Essence - Modern Romance

This is another nude! I've been into neutral shades lately and this is a beauty - a peachy pink with subtle pink to orange shimmer and a nice squishy texture. Wearing 3 coats, but it looks fantastic at 2, where it shows the nail line. It's slightly jellylike, but builds up in 3 coats. I love it!

So far, Essence polishes have been nothing but awesome - great duochromes, awesome price, unique colors - what's not to want? 

I like their other makeup, too (I'm looking at YOU, liquid eyeliner and lipglosses!) but this is a polish blog, so I digress.

I don't think I can ever get enough neutrals... I'm getting close to finding the perfect shade for my skin though. Thoughts on "nude with a flair" polishes?

Nubar Sun Gold tiger time!

Oh now I missed you, tiger/zebra stamp! Presenting Nubar Sun Gold - an orange to red polish that glows like the sun itself. The polish texture was great and it wore very well - the only downside is that I did not see too much color shift, but it was still a wonderfully fiery color.

I wouldn't really call this one a duochrome, maybe an orange metallic with a golden shimmer? At least that's what it looks like to me. It was listed as a duochrome among other Nubars, like Indigo Illusion  but I am not convinced.

See? Even in the bottle it's not really shifting, colors but you can see the golden shimmer inside.

Still a nice polish, just not a true duochrome.

Back to nubs!

New year, new nails! Unfortunately my claws were getting stuck in the keyboard/mouse scroll wheel so I had to chop them off - one day they will grow clawlike again. On the flipside, I can finally stamp my full nail Konad designs again! 

I'm wearing OPI Yoga-ta get this Blue, my very first blue color (and my first 'crazy' polish color!) with mixed flakies on my ring finger as an accent.

Who else started new nails this year?

Sharpie Nail Art

I'm sure many have thought of it before - why not draw on your nails with a Sharpie marker? I have tried and here is what I found out:

• It bleeds and smudges when you put a topcoat over it pretty badly.
• It rubs off almost easily - don't even think about washing your hands without a topcoat!
• Wears off the edges pretty much instantly (I had to do a few touch ups for the photo, even)
• A basecoat is a must, because I'm sure they will stain your nails if touching them directly.

If you can get past this - and I have, Sharpies are pretty fun and easy way to sometimes do precise black lines and drawings on your nails. I really want to try this again, but maybe without making the tips black because the need too much maintenance. The base polish for this mani is Illamasqua Load.

Have you ever tried using Sharpies/other unorthodox materials on your nails?

Illamasqua Serenity

With topcoat

And a few weeks later!

Man, I love Illamasqua polishes more than I probably should so it's no surprise that I was happy as hell when I finally found Noble on the Sephora shelves. It's one of their rubber finish polishes, which are semi-matte when dry. I like to use topcoat to give them shine though.

Creamy formula, basically a 1 coater, dries fast, it evens very nicely, which is a surprise for matte polishes. There's no need to go over with a topcoat, then a matte topcoat since there is no lumps when this polish dries - best matte I have tried in a while.

PS: this is actually as long as my nails got EVER! I had to cut them down after this mani - they started getting stuck in the mouse scroll wheel :( Goodbye, claws