NOTD: China Glaze - Turned up Turquoise a la Coach

So I took a trip to Sally's over the weekend, finally grabbed the Avant Garden pieces I wanted, and saw the "Ombre" polish set from China Glaze.  Instinctively I am drawn to turquoise/aqua colors, but realized that I have all the colors in the set except for "Turned up Turquoise."  So here is my mani of the day using new to me Turned up Turquoise.  I used 2 coats of TuT and since it dries matte (and pretty quick!) I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Top Coat (red bottle).

But since I can't leave well enough alone....I stamped the Coach logo full nail image from my MJ-IV plate.  I'm sure there are all sorts of copyright issues with this logo being on this plate, but I love it....it's one of the main reasons I bought this plate.  I stamped using Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep that I doctored with a Spectraflare alternative (noticeable in person...not so much in pics).  Turned up Turquoise is such a beautiful bright teal with micro shimmer.  I really have no idea why I hadn't bought this color sooner!

St. Pattys' Day mani's - late

So the end of last week/weekend was busy and needless today I didn't get these posted here over the weekend.  If you follow me on Instagram (@ezzimcgee) then you may have seen these already.

My first mani is a chevron version of the Irish flag with an accent nail.  For this mani I used Kleancolor - Metallic Green, Pure Ice - Hot Tamale, and Sally Hansen - White On.  The accent nail was Kleancolor Gold stamped with Metallic Green.

For my second mani I took inspiration from some other nail art pics I saw online/instagram.

I have not had much success with watermarbling, but I decided to give it another go.  I did a rainbow marble on my ring and pinkie finger - rainbow leading to the pot of gold.  Index and middle finger I used Kleancolor Metallic Green and stamped a pot of gold and shamrocks using my Bunny Nails HD-B plate.

I think these last two St. Patty's mani's came out ok. The one MAJOR downside is that the Kleancolor Metallic Green seriously stained my nails.  I had never used this polish (new to me) so I had no idea this would happen.  I was finally getting rid of some staining from a red Valentine's Day mani and now this!!

Yellow!! They are flippin' yellow! ugh.

Happy St. Patty's Day ....late.



Cartoon Drips

I know this has been done...a lot...but I have not done a drip mani yet so that's what I'm going to show you today.

For this mani I used 2 coats of Color Club's "Over the Moon" (2013 Halo Hue's) and used Sally Hansen "White On" and a dotting tool to make the drips.  For some added cool toned sparkle I used a coat of Confetti "Ice, Ice Baby" on the drips.  The "cartoon" part (the black outline) was done using Sally Hansen's Nail Art Pen in Black. 

Overall I think it came out great!  I think next time I will make thinner drips.  How do you feel about "Drip" mani's?  Yay or Nay?

NOTD: "Lucky Me" Cheetah

First off - Welcome new followers!!  I would like to thank the lovely Gwenn for giving my little corner of the interwebz a shout out. Please go visit and share the love on her blog Sweet Sugar .

Now on to today's post.  I recently grabbed a set of Glow-in-the-Dark neon mini's from PolishMeToGo and wanted to show you one of them called "Lucky Me"

Lucky Me is a bright neon green glow-in-the-dark polish...much more bright and neon in real life.  I used two coats of white "undies" (you can order a white polish made for these GITD polishes on the site or use your own)  and 2 coats of Lucky Me for full coverage.  The polish is a little on the thicker side but still very easy to work with.  It dries pretty quick with a matte finish. 

I wanted to add something to it so it would have a fun pattern for it to glow through...so I stamped the heart cheetah pattern from my Bunny Nails HD2 plate using Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.  I topped the whole thing off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat (red bottle).

Ready for the fun part?

I only "charged" my nails for maybe a minute under my lamps and they glowed so bright in the pitch dark for a while.  It was funny when I got into bed...my hubs was like "what is that...are your hands glowing? (I could hear his eyes roll)" It also kinda freaked out the cat....I was petting her (she perches on my hip at night) and she kept following my fingers like she wasn't sure to attack or let the weird glow things keep petting her.  Ha!

This was my first purchase from PolishMeToGo and I am very pleased.  They came quickly and very securely wrapped.  Definitely head over and check out the store or look her up on instagram @polishmetogo

Hope everyone is adjusting better to the time change than I am...Happy Monday!

Erin Go Bragh

Erin Go Bragh means "Ireland Forever"....just in case you didn't know.

And its my name...makes me happy.

Today I have another St. Patrick's day inspired mani. 

I decided to do an ode to the Irish flag with a vertical gradient mani and some gold shamrock stamping.  I used a coat of Northern Lights, but I wish I hadn't because it just made it look like there are bits of dirt or something.  Note to self...NL doesn't look good on white.

Anywho, I like the way it out.

St. Patty's Day is only a week away!!

Ninja Polish - Divinity

Ninja Polish recently started releasing their own line of polishes and they have really exceeded my expectations. 

Divinity is one of 2 polishes in the Enigma collection and is very close to Maxx Factor Fantasy Fire/Clarins 230.  The major difference is that it can be opaque on its own in only 2 coats!!

Gah!! Just look at that color shift....amazeballs

This is 2 coats of Divinity on its own with a top coat.  It has a thicker consistency than I prefer but is still very easy to work with.  Dry time is surprisingly fast despite the consistency.  It does dry with a semi-matte finish and in my wear test does chip/peel easily so a top coat is a must for shine and protection.  I can't express how beautiful this polish it.  I tried really hard to capture the shift, but my camera just wouldn't have it.  I am throwing in some underwater pics so you can see the color shift spectrum (great photographing technique for shifting polishes FYI).

This beauty shifts from gold, copper, red, green, blue, and purple.  It is simply amazing!  I have seen this layered over blue, purples and blacks and it is even better.  I definitely recommend getting your paws on one or three of these.  Divinity retails for $11 over at NinjaPolish.com

NOTD: Gilded St. George

I finally...finally broke down and bought some A England and I don't regret it.

I must be the last person in the nail blogosphere to buy St. George and Dragon...but I'm ok with that.  I grabbed mine from Llarowe.com if you are interested.

St. George is a gorgeous deep emerald holographic polish that is so pigmented I was able to get full opacity in 1 coat!! I have also heard it stamps well.

Pardon the lighting....I didn't take these pics in my normal set up.  I will do a proper swatch soon.

I decided to stamp using 2 new holiday plates.  The brocade pattern is from my Bunny Nails Holiday plate HD-B and the Claddagh (on my left ring finger) is from my Messy Mansion MM04 that I showed in my last post.  I used Essie Good as Gold to stamp with.  The full nail images on the Bunny Nails plate are huge.  Large enough that I could isolate different parts of the image on each nail so they weren't all the same!

This week is going to be a doozy for me, but I'll be back soon with more lovelies.

NOTD: Celtic Knots

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays...so I have been on the hunt for some good plates to celebrate the holiday.

Today I wanted to show you one I got from Messy Mansion, plate MM04. 

There really isn't anything I don't love about this plate.  These designs are unique to anything I have seen and stamp perfectly! 

I used 2 coats of China Glaze "Cha Cha Cha" for a bright green background and stamped with Wet 'n Wild "Black Creme" (it stamps as well as Konad black but way easier to clean up) using the Celtic Knot full nail design.  The full nail designs on this plate are huge.  As you can see I only got about half of the design on my nail so wide nail bed or long nails wont be a problem.

Look forward to quite a few St. Patty's day themed nails this month!

Erin Go Bragh! (Ireland forever)