Lion Around - Essie with Teenage Dream - OPI

For today's post I have a beautiful sparkly pink manicure. I started this look with Essie's Lion Around. Lion Around is a medium toned pink with the slightest pearl finish that is basically lost on your nails. This does not detract from the polish however, the formula is great and the color is such a unique pink even without the shimmer. Next I applied OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry collection. This polish layers amazingly and I love how it looked on top of Lion Around. Teenage Dream is made up of hundreds of super fine pink glitters in a clear base as well as holographic hexagon glitter pieces scattered throughout. It is a dream to apply, so smooth and the glitters arrange themselves nicely with no extra effort from the brush.

I would however like to explain the reason and apologize for having only one picture of this manicure…
So I go outside to take pictures like I do for every swatch and at first everything is going great. But then, as soon as I find the perfect spot with perfect lighting, a bee comes and flies at my shirt. I swat it away and continue to aim the camera trying to get some more shots in this lighting. Right after though, the same bee flies at my face and I swat at it again and it doesn't go away. So I turn to run and while doing that somehow my feet got caught on themselves and I completely wipe out on the pavement. So basically I ended up with a gash on my right side and scraps all on my knees as well has my hands, all thanks to this picture. I'm fine now and at least on got one good picture before I ate it because my nails are all scraped up now thanks to the fall! I hope you enjoy and appreciate the picture more now that you know what went into it! -Gina

Has anything crazy ever happened to you while you were swatching your nails?

Braziliant - Essie

Hey guys! This morning I decided to do a fun manicure to go along with the beautiful weather. I started with Essie's Braziliant and then made little flowers using a dotting tool with OPI's In My Back Pocket. I think the end result was fun and perfect for the summer heat!

Braziliant is a medium toned orange polish with just a hint of fine pink shimmer throughout. The polish applied smoothly andn I used three coats to achieve full coverage. The pink shimmer is not noticeable in every light but it is definitely a nice touch when it peaks out. Overall, Braziliant is a fun and unique polish and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a bright summer color! -Gina

Mint Candy Apple - Essie

Today I have for you one of my favorite designs I have ever done! I wanted to do something fun with my dotting tool that was different than the flowers I have been doing and ended up deciding on clouds. I did not want to do a typical sky blue, so I chose Essie's Mint Candy Apple for the base. This color is beautiful and really set the tone for my overall design. The formula is good, can be a bit thick at times but nothing too terrible. And the color makes up for everything :). Next I took Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Whirlwind White and used my dotting tool to create these clouds. Finally I wanted the clouds to have a bit more personality so I took China Glazes White Cap and dotted it on top of the clouds. As you can see in my close up, White Cap is made up of little foil pieces in a clear base. It transforms any color you put it on top of and I am so happy with how it looked on top of my white clouds! Thanks for reading and have a good day!

Shine of the Times - Essie

Welcome to my first nail post from college! While I was a Target this weekend I saw from across the isle the complete Essie Luxeffects collection. I darted over as fast as I could and picked up Shine of the Times. This is my very first flakie polish and I am definitely hooked! I layered a thick coat over OPI's Mermaids Tears (which you can view here) and immediately fell in love with the gold and orange flakes the polish creates. This is a pretty basic flakie so if you have one like this already you might try to restrict yourself from buying it but I did see a comparison swatch somewhere which showed Shine of the Times was a much denser flakie than other polishes like this one. Take a look at the pictures and see for yourself!

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