Essie Trophy Wife

Hey Everyone!! Today I am so tired I really wish I had a nice large coffee to drink. I might think about going to get one at lunch. We will see. Apparently some cool weather has come into town. I hadn't finished making my fingerless gloves because it is hard to think about gloves when it is 80 degrees out. My hands are cold today and I could use them, doesn't that just figure.

Today I have a great Essie polish for you. 

Essie Trophy Wife. Essie describes it as "a perfect deep teal pearl" It is quite a pretty polish.

I used three coats for this mani. This is one of the older Essie polishes I own. It looks metallic and doesn't show a ton of brush strokes so it is an A in my book. 

I would have done nail art of some sort over this mani but it was so late. I had done a gel mani since my nails are all weak and thin and on the verge of breaking. It took me about 2 hours to do the gel mani. Best part about the 2 hour gel mani is that it looks like all I did was put clear on my nails. I posted a picture on Instagram. I need get a link to it on here at some point. I think I like Instagram.

I bet this polish would be nice stamped. I am going to have to try that.

I really enjoyed the color but I was itching to do some stamping on this polish all day. I never did but boy did I want to.

Since we haven't seen Bruce in awhile I figured I would get a picture of him up. He was being really mean the other day so we put a shirt on him. This is his security shirt. He cracks me up when he sits in the window with his security shirt on. He looks so pleasant.

That's all for now :) 

2% Butterscotch Ripple

Hey Everyone!! I am a bit disappointed at the moment. I just had two of the Moyou image plates in my grasp off a blog sale and they were snatched from my cart before I could checkout. So disappointed. Ah well, I guess it was not meant to be. In the grand scheme of things it is no big deal but I almost had them! I worked out on our new bike today. I shouldn't be disappointed since it was my first workout in a long time but it was a rather sad performance. I feel like I should have been able to go longer than I did. I guess I will have to build up to it. It is just one of those days apparently. I do have a really pretty polish to show you today. I am getting better with the Instagram thing however I need to learn to take pictures with my phone so I can post the pictures to go along with the blog post since I can't seem to figure out a way to post a picture from my computer. One day I will get it all. One day.

Today I have what really is the last Indigo Bananas polish in my collection, for now.

Indigo Bananas 2% Butterscotch Ripple. This one is also Willy Wonka themed and from the Paradise 2013 holiday collection. This post is very picture heavy.

This polish has a plum base. Sometimes it looks brown or gold, sometimes it looks more orange or copper and sometimes it looks plum. 

There is a ton of glitter in this polish. The main glitter is a gold to green shifting glitter. It shifts back and forth quite nicely and quite often.

There is also a mixture of other glitter in there that adds green, gold and a variety of other colors. This polish definitely sparkles!

It is really glitter heavy. I had used a coat of gelous over the polish so I didn't notice how rough it dried. I planned on using the gelous regardless because my nails are so weak I think they need some added strength. The gelous and a coat of Seche Vite made this mani smooth as glass.

I took a ton of pictures at various angles so you can see the sparkle and color shift.

This one was really pretty in the sun light of late afternoon.

The base color is really pretty on this one. 

I know I have said it before but I am really impressed with Indigo Bananas. The polishes I have tried are all pretty unique and awesome.

Some angles are stranger than others.

I could carry on for awhile about this polish. I think this might be my second favorite behind Moonlight.

It is just so sparkly.

After wearing this polish I am very eager to try even more of the Indigo Bananas polishes.

That's all for now :)

I won a giveaway and Parka Perfect.

Hey Everyone!!! Omg what a Monday it has been and it is only 11:05. Apparently my phone did something stupid last night and the alarm didn't go off. T had to come wake me up at 6:42 asking why I hadn't woken him up for school yet. My phone wouldn't turn on and the red light that comes on when it is being charged was lit up. It was non responsive to anything but taking the battery out We have no idea what happened. It may have not been plugged into the wall completely but the phone was in a weird frozen state of not wanting to turn on. I was too tired when I got back from dropping him off so I didn't try out the new exercise bike. I didn't want to get up for work either. It threw everything off not having that shower to wake me up before taking him to school. Then when I was getting ready to leave C couldn't locate his wallet which could have been a major issue. He found it in the laundry. I stopped by CVS to get a drink and that took longer than expected so I was late to work. When I got to work our container arrived and the moron driver parked it so crooked that I can't park in my normal spot. The warehouse guy was trying to convince me I fit but I didn't feel comfortable parking there. Instead of actually telling me I needed to not park at the other space he didn't so when the delivery of stuff just arrived guess who had to go and move her car? Yup I had to squeeze it in between my boss' car and the truck anyway. 

Today I have a mani for you and some pictures from an awesome giveaway I recently won. THANK YOU TAMMY!!! Not too long ago The Canadian Nail Fanatic held a giveaway and I was totally surprised and stoked to find out I won it! I was so excited. If you aren't already a follower go over there and follow, you won't regret it! Tammy does AMAZING stamping manis and is a sweetheart! I always check out her blog for stamping inspiration and if I ever want to see what a plate looks like I check her blog to see if she has used it. Seriously, follow her! I actually pulled her blog up to get the link and realized I wasn't yet following her on Instagram so I had to do that before posting. 

The giveaway was back in November and it was for 3 Dashica plates of your choice and two Sally Hansen Nail Prisms. I was super stoked at the prospect of getting the plates alone but the Nail Prisms were unicorns I never attempted to hunt down because I thought it would be impossible to find. I was crazy excited to win. This is what actually came in the package, Tammy snuck some extra goodies in there as well as the plates and polishes.

Some cute nail decals and a plastic scraper. I have been wanting to try out a plastic scraper so that is way cool. Those decals are super cute too. I love hearts.

Not only did she send the nail prisms but also a cute W7 glitter too!

I had picked Dash55 because of the cat images. I need to do cat manis! It is a need!

I loved the rain clouds and that star pattern on Dash54. I love rain.

Dash8 has that heart pattern that I could not resist. I think the flowers are super cute too but those hearts won me over.

There was also some tea, chocolate and that cute little gingerbread man. Super awesome prize package! Thank you so much Tammy!!! I love your blog and I loved this prize so much!

I of course had to use the plates asap. I had picked up Essie Parka Perfect from their 2013 Winter collection when I had some extrabucks at CVS. I figured it would be perfect to use with the rain on Dash54. When I pulled out the plates I was struck by the swirly pattern on Dash55 and used it instead.

I used three coats of Parka Perfect and three coats of Essie Chinchilly on my ring finger. Parka Perfect has a really pretty shimmer to it in the bottle but it is pretty hidden on the nail. That was slightly disappointing but the color is so pretty it makes up for it. I am not a huge fan of Essie because most of the polish I find streaky and thin and difficult to apply. Chinchilly was fine but Parka Perfect started out with that same thin and streaky consistency I am not fond of. It ended up being ok but I did need the three coats to make sure it was even. 

When I started stamping I was a little concerned that neither polish would stamp well enough to be seen on the other color. I was really surprised and thrilled with how well the stamping came out.

Chinchilly I thought would stamp decently because it is a little thicker and darker. It worked very nicely. Parka Perfect actually stamped really well and shows up very nicely over Chinchilly. I am still surprised this worked out so well. I am loving the Dash plate as well. The image is crisp and clear and so pretty. I can't wait to try the other designs out.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of this mani unfortunately. It was really very pretty. I was kind of reminded of drapes or a very pretty couch. I love these colors together.

I want to say another big thank you to Tammy over at Canadian Nail Fanatic! Also if you want to go check out the Dash plates you can see the website here. There is a new line of Infinity plates that they just released recently too. Now that I have tried these babies I am going to have to get more. They are great little plates with super cute designs.

That's all for now :)

Medusa Transducer

Hey Everyone!! I am going to try and get through this post without getting called away to work. I have to do shipping duties today and my boss keeps popping in and out since he is filling the orders. I am hoping I can get it done before I have to go out there and before I have to leave today. 

I have a cute picture of Bruce for you today. He looks thrilled doesn't he. This is from a few days ago. This morning I tried to take a picture of him and he kept running away from me when I pointed the camera at him. He is silly. I finally caved and joined the dark side of Instagram! I have no idea what I am doing so we will see how that goes.

Today was supposed to be the last installment of my Indigo Bananas polishes. Well, I had found a blog sale that happened to have an Indigo Bananas polish for a decent price and I jumped on it. That one just arrived last night, which reminds me I need to let the seller know it arrived, so I will show you that one next week. I am loving their polishes.

This little baby is called Medusa Transducer. This polish was from their 2013 Halloween/Fall collection.

Medusa Transducer is a charcoal jelly based packed with iridescent glitter that shifts from orange to gold to green. It looks copper a lot of the time and is absolutely stunning. It also a mix of microshimmers to give it even more gorgeousness. On top of all that awesomeness this baby glows in the dark. I found that out when I got into bed and my glowing nails startled me. I had totally forgotten that it glows in the dark. It was startling then very very cool.

I wanted to do a little stamping as an accent nail so I used the weird swirly pattern on Mash plate Mash-49. I used Essie Good as Gold from their Mirror Metallics collection. I love that collection for stamping.

So this time I wanted to use a base color on most of the nails. I really didn't want to use too much of Medusa Transducer since it is a mini bottle. I also wanted to see what it looked like with a dark color under it. I used Orly Le Chateau from their Holiday Soiree collection for the base.

I used two coats of Le Chateau then one coat of Medusa on my index and pinky fingers and two coats on my middle finger. On my ring finger I used three coats of Medusa Transducer on my bare nail.

I love the color shift of those iridescent glitter. They shift quite often and quite nicely. I should have stamped with a copper color but when I decided to use Good as Gold the glitter was flashing more of a gold color. It still works so I wasn't too upset.

The glowing power on this polish is really strong. I didn't notice it at first but then when I did and got over the initial scare and confusion as to what was glowing I saw how nicely it glows. I had this on one of the nights I couldn't sleep this week and it glowed strongly pretty much the entire time I was awake. I am impressed with the glow power. 

To get a stronger glow the site says to use at least two coats. I will say that the nails with two and three coats did glow stronger than the other nails but the nails with one coat glowed nicely as well.

I really enjoyed this polish and like it best with no base color. I will probably try it over a black jelly polish next time so I can conserve the pretty but still have the same look. It is a great Halloween polish.

That's all for now :)